31-Oct-07: Got another intended murderer

Israel's self-defence measures come in for mindless, but highly persistent, criticism from outsiders whose knowledge of the situation is pitifully deficient. The day that the terrorists start wearing stickers on their foreheads announcing their malevolent intentions is the day Israel can afford to dismantle its roadblocks, checkpoints and security patrols.

Meanwhile, here's a current story, somewhat typical in its details and in the fact that it's not likely to appear in any non-Israeli media.

An 18-year-old Palestinian was arrested near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron today after he was found to be carrying an improvised pistol, two knives and a suicide note. For our slower-witted readers, the Jerusalem Post helpfully reports that the Arab was "intending to carry out an attack in the area". He's now been invited to take part in "further interrogation".

An anonymous reader of This Ongoing War sent the following question to us earlier today (we no longer publish anonymous comments): "Does our media report every attack in Iraq that does not cause casualties? No. Why should it do so for Israel?" (Refer to the previous blog entry to understand what is being asked.) The answer is - because it's impossible to make sense of Israel's extraordinary self-defence measures without knowing about the extraordinary security situation that all Israelis face.

Routinely, systematically, deliberately - reports of terror attacks on Israelis, both actual and thwarted, are buried by editors at media channels throughout the world. One of the reasons we started this blog was to be an outlet for the information buried by others. Israel is in the midst of an ongoing war. To believe differently is to take unconscionable risks and foolish steps.

31-Oct-07: Far from media attention, ongoing barrages into Israel

Two more Qassam rockets were fired into Israel last night (Tuesday) from positions in Gaza.

In addition, some 10 mortars were fired yesterday into the Israeli town of Netiv Ha'asarah located perilously close to Gaza. The Islamic Jihad terror organization proudly claimed credit. One of the mortars struck a residence, causing it to catch fire and causing structural damage. A number of shock victims, including a grandmother and her granddaughter, were treated by emergency medical teams.

Did the media in your area report this?

In a military response, an Israel air force attack fired a missile into a Palestinian police station in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis late last night. The Palestinians said four Hamas men were killed. The IDF has now confirmed the Palestinian report of an air strike against Hamas.

25-Oct-07: Surgery

One of this blog's two authors took part in an international conference this week in Washington DC on the critically important theme "Overcoming Extremism". The urgency of the subject unfortunately did not prevent a constant stream of ill-informed, reflexive criticism of the actions of Israel in what, for us Israelis, is not only a conference subject but an existential challenge in the most literal sense of that expression.

Israel's critics rarely, if ever, give credit for the extreme measures it takes to avoid unnecessary losses and harm in its ongoing war against the terrorists. Hence the importance of publicizing such events as effective as the one that occurred this morning.

As Haaretz reports, "the Israel Defense Forces killed two militants of Hamas' armed wing before dawn this morning (Thursday) east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The source of the report is Hamas officials. "Palestinian paramedics said residents in the village of Abbassan called an ambulance to pick up the bodies of two members of the al-Qassam Brigades. The group said in a leaflet sent to reporters that an IDF elite unit penetrated an area east of the village and shot dead two stationed Hamas militants near the borders with Israel. The IDF confirmed it had fired on militants close to the Gaza security fence. On Wednesday two Palestinians were killed during an IDF strike in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said. The IDF said ground forces hit militants who had launched three rockets from the Gaza town of Beit Hanun. Security officials from Hamas confirmed the target was a militant rocket squad. The militants [the word needs to be 'terrorists' and the distinction is an important one] killed in the strike were 18-year-old Mohammed Kalub and 20-year-old Abda Abu Ascar, both members of the militant group Islamic Jihad. The IDF strike comes one day after a senior Hamas government official and deputy commander of the Popular Resistance Committees was killed as the Israel Air Force targeted a car carrying a rocket launching crew in the Gaza Strip. The IDF often targets Palestinians trying to fire rockets from northern Gaza or planting explosives along the Gaza-Israel border."

Surgical precision. The absence of so-called collateral damage. Several more terrorists permanently disarmed. Global response: a yawn, while the ideologues and the politicians get on with excoriating the one country actually at risk on a daily basis in the ongoing terror war being waged against it, and that's doing something effective in response.

24-Oct-07: Drive-by shooting... again

They used to be a regular feature of Israeli roads but for the past couple of years they've been a rarity. Today it's happened again: an Israeli is moderately to seriously wounded this morning after coming under fire from a passing Palestinian car at Ariel Junction. The JPost says the Palestinian vehicle - a blue Savannah van - was seen speeding off eastward towards Tapuah Junction after firing shots at a hitchhiking post from a distance of 100-150 meters. One person among the several who were waiting for rides at the hitchhiking post, a 20-year-old youth, was reported to have been shot in the stomach. A helicopter was scrambled to the scene to evacuate the youth to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. A Magen David Adom paramedic present at the scene told Israel Radio that the victim had been hit multiple times in his lower body and was in serious condition. A second person was also wounded after sustaining a shot to the leg. He managed to walk to the Ariel police station. As the car fled, the shooter or shooters reportedly opened fire at oncoming traffic.

24-Oct-07: Appropriate responses to 15 bombs in 24 hours?

15 Qassam rockets were fired by Palestinian Arab terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza into Israel in the 24 hours between Monday morning and Tuesday morning, says the IDF.

Recall that the Israeli cabinet decided on 19-Sep-07 to declare the Gaza Strip "hostile territory". Israel said it would harm civilian infrastructure if the rocket-fire did not stop. It mentioned such steps as limiting electricity and fuel supplies but not water.

Those non-lethal, non-military steps to stop the rocket attacks immediately provoked widespread condemnation by the "international community" and human rights organizations. Speeches were made in various non-Israeli cities declaring that such measures amounted to breaches of international law and of the Geneva Convention.

But no practical step of any kind was announced or executed by any government or NGO against the Hamas regime - a regime that stands squarely behind the ongoing and escalating lethal attacks on Israelis. And those rockets keep being fired.

So in the wake of the steady toll of attacks that no other government on earth would tolerate against its people, Israel now says it plans to start implementing its threat in the coming days.

Expect to see electricity cut-offs from Israel to the Gaza Strip, according to Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai, speaking today. Electricity would be cut for several hours a day in the course of several weeks to the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun and nearby areas from where the majority of rockets were being launched at Israel, he said. But hospitals and other "humanitarian" facilities would not be cut off, he said, expressing a sensitivity that is entirely absent in the deliberate actions of the terrorists and their regime.

23-Oct-07: Ongoing lethal "militantism"

Far from the pencils of reporters and from the cameras of the photojournalists, six Qassam rockets crashed into Israel on Monday. They originated in the Hamas-controled Gaza Strip. Fortunately no injuries were reported, but this was not the intention of the terrorists - sorry, 'militants'.

YNet reports that "the al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad's military wing, claimed responsibility for the attacks. "The barrage was part of our decision to point our weapons only toward Israel," the group said in a statement... Two rockets landed near the Erez Crossing, another hit the Yad-Mordechai Junction area, while a fourth landed in close proximity to a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. Two fires broke out as a result of the rocket fire – one near an avocado grove and another near Nativ Ha'asarah.

17-Oct-07: Voting with their mortars and with their feet

Three mortars were fired by Palestinian Arab forces in Gaza this morning into Israel's western Negev area. There were no injuries or damage, fortunately. But that was not the intention of those doing the firing.

Mortars -- small, deadly and relatively easy to fire -- are one of the weapons systems of choice for terrorists.

Israeli forces carrying out security sweeps in Nablus, a town controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, arrested two wanted Pal-Arab terror suspects last night. The two were on a "wanted for questioning" list in relation to acts of terror against Israeli civilians, and on inspection were found to be in possession of a quantity of mortars and large amounts of ammunition.

Only the Israeli news media reported on these happenings. Numerous papers around the world yesterday and today reported on Israel carrying out raids in places like Nablus in the past few days, complete with photos. But devoid of context, these reports do little more than perpetuate the dishonest picture of Israelis having nothing better to do than oppress their neighbours.
Context is everything. The reports of mortars and arms caches often go hand-in-hand with assertions that the Pal-Arabs are desperate people. That nothing is more important for them than shaking off Israeli domination, occupation and colonialization. The price hardly matters because, being desperate, there are no reasonable options for such people.

For those whose view of the Israel/Arab conflict follows this grossly-simplified and entirely dishonest narrative, we have some questions:

What if you came across a Pal-Arab who said "If there was a referendum here, no one would vote to join the Palestinian Authority"? How would you respond? And if the man were the mayor of an Arab community...?

How would you characterize the 'desperation' of a Palestinian-Arab who said to a journalist that he'd be happy to one day live in a properly independent Palestinian state, but not one that looks anything like the corruption-racked and violence-prone areas that are split between the warring Hamas and Fatah factions.

What if he added this?: "I don't believe in these factions [the competing Fatah and Hamas terror groups]. I only believe in putting bread on the table for my children. I fight only for them. At least in Israel, there's law."

What if a Pal-Arab local politician told you that in the past five years, 5,000 Pal-Arabs had moved into the Israeli-controlled part of East Jerusalem from other parts of the West Bank?

And that one of the major causes of this was a fear that they would lose their Israeli identification cards if they didn't move?

And how would you interpret an Arab leader predicting that there will be a mass exodus into other parts of Israel if Pal-Arabs get the feeling they are about to be cut loose by Israel? Tens of thousands of them, maybe hundreds of thousands, begging to be brought under Israeli rule?

These views and others like them can be found widely if you seek them out. Start with the article entitled "In East Jerusalem, residents say they would fight a handover to Abbas regime".

We're not advocating for or against the viewpoints above. Simply making the point that all the talk of desperation, so beloved by Palestinian apologists and the soft-minded reporters who uncritically parrot their propaganda, is meaningless when you pay close attention to what's actually going on in the Palestinian Arab world. Above all, we and they need to stop the terrorists. Then we can start figuring out future scenarios - not before.

11-Oct-07: Kuta beach, five years on

It's been five years since jihadist terrorists carried out a ghastly bombing attack on entertainment spots on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack was the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia, killing 202 people. 164 were foreign nationals, 38 were Indonesian citizens. 209 people were injured.

The Melbourne Age has published an especially evocative slide show (here) today to honor the anniversary. Back in 2003, the same paper published an excellent overview ("The night terror touched our lives") of those terrible events.

When the Kuta Beach massacre happened on 12th October 2002, the Melbourne Herald-Sun newspaper contacted Arnold Roth, one of this blog's authors. They asked for a first-person response, an open letter to the families of the victims. Like most of the victims of Bali massacre, our daughter Malki was also an Australian-born victim of vicious terrorists acting in the name of Islam. She had been murdered one year earlier. Arnold's article was duly submitted, but for some reason was never published in the pages of that Melbourne newspaper. The paper's editor at the time never responded to our several emails asking for an explanation. It's reprinted below.

A letter to the families of the Kuta Beach victims
By Arnold Roth, Jerusalem

I never felt more like a father than when taking the hand of my little daughter Malki and crossing the street with her. There is something so right and solid about being your child's protector.

I never felt more wretched, frightened and alone than on the night the call came saying her body had been identified. My daughter was murdered by a deliberate act of explosive horror. I was not there to protect her.

Grieving for your murdered loved one will be the most intensely lonely and personal thing you ever do. No one else can feel the depth of pain inside you. Friends and family will want to share the burden, to wrap their love and support around you, to lighten the load by their sincere care and concern. But the ache remains, along with the feelings of guilt. The cold truth will never change: an innocent life was deliberately and violently erased - and the monsters that did it are delighted with their work of their hands.

I wish I could pass along some wisdom that might help you through this awful time. I can't. The best I can do is share some thoughts. The massacre at Kuta Beach is too raw, too huge, for anyone to fully comprehend. Time will help you to put it into a context, but you should not expect the answers to come easily... or ever.

Time plays a key role in Jewish mourning observances. Some practices are specific to the first seven days. Others are designated for the first thirty days. And in the specific case of the death of a parent, Judaism prescribes a full year of mourning. This seems strange. A parent's passing, no matter what the circumstances, is always hard. Isn't the death of a life-partner or a child harder? But that's the point: a year after a parent dies, you can expect that life starts getting back to normal. But there's no normal life after burying a child or a spouse.

It's a certainty you are thinking about the people who did this. You may be imagining them getting out of bed that day, praying to their god, storing their equipment and driving the lethal load to a site of pleasure and enjoyment - their minds focused on a lust for the destruction and death of others. Like me, you may feel this was barbarism: cold-blooded, primal, bestial - an act of pure hatred.

But get ready for the cold, clinical analysis of others. For them, the terrorists are "militants". The hatred is "desperation". The pointless destruction of life is "strategic". An Australian journalist requested an interview with me in Jerusalem days after Malki was murdered last year. When I agreed, he told me it would make sense for his audience only if he could combine it with an interview of the suicide-murderer's father. He said there were two sides to the story and the opinions of the bomber's family were a "counterpoint". I was dumbfounded. His professional standards demanded, he said, that the interview could not take place under any other conditions. So it never took place.

Some people see life as if through a TV screen. For them, your private loss can only be understood as part of a political drama. Point and counterpoint. But no one should tell you how to mourn, how to grieve. There is no standard - no over-mourning, no under-mourning. No one can tell you how it feels or how it ought to feel.

If you're asking what can be done, I want to offer this. When a young life ends, a huge empty space is left behind. How do you fill it? With hatred, thoughts of revenge, evening up the score? After our daughter's death, we sat down as a family and asked ourselves how her life and actions should be remembered. We decided to raise money and give practical help to families raising a child with disabilities. Malki, a very practical teenager, did this herself and believed in it. It would have made her smile.

Perhaps it's not politically correct to say this, but I believe evil does exist in the world - a great deal of it.

How do you answer evil? For us, the right response has been to do things which we hope will increase the stock of good in the world. We know this will have no impact on the barbarians who killed our children and loved ones. But we're absolutely determined that they won't be impacting us any more than they already have.

They and their values are irrelevant to our lives.

11-Oct-07: Reacting to 7 more frustrated mass-murders

Israel's security fence is said by the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be illegal. It imposes movement and access restrictions on the Palestinian Arabs. And as the bishops of Exeter, Winchester and Coventry helpfully pointed out very recently, it's "a segregation barrier" whose effect is to "cut Palestinians off from farmland and water supplies". Furthermore Israel's army checkpoints degrade, delay and demoralize the Palestinian Arabs who pass through them.

Whether the criticisms are justified or not, the real problem with Israel's security barrier and with Israel's anti-terror measures is that by and large they are effective.

The security forces thwarted seven suicide bombings in Israel in the last month-and-a-half, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet Sunday. Diskin said that the ongoing efforts of the IDF, the Shin Bet and the police were behind the apparent calm in the country recently.

Were these seven frustrated bombings reported in your local media? Did your politicians hear about them? Did your media analysts or reporters know about them? Did you see any news pictures or video of the seven individuals, or of the hundreds of helpers and planners who keep those acts of terror coming? If you knew those terrorists were on their way to your school or shopping centre, what would you do? What would you demand of the authorities in your community?

The constant, escalating terror attacks on our lives and yours are the reason we gave the name to our blog that we did.

9-Oct-07: Selective outrage and its practitioners

Abbas blasts Israeli strikes, but remains silent over Palestinian casualties in Lebanon
Selective Palestinian outrage
Frimet Roth | 10.09.07, 07:10
(Frimet is one of this blog's two authors.)

Originally published 9th October 2007 on YNet, the website of Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot

Soldiers patrol the scorched and blackened landscape. From atop military trucks and armored personnel carriers, they flash V for victory at stunned journalists.

Destruction and death pervade this Palestinian refugee camp. It took three months of intense fighting between army troops and the Fatah Islam terrorists before the group was defeated. Nearly a month after the battle ended, the media finally reported on the toll: 164 soldiers and dozens of militants died, while 47 Palestinian civilians were killed. An additional 310 were injured.

In the aftermath, the United Nations issued a scathing condemnation. The European Union called for restraint in confronting the terrorists. And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to break off all diplomatic contact.

All of the above is true - except for the previous paragraph. In reality, no indignant voices have been raised either in the West or in the Middle East over the civilian lives lost in the fighting.

Surprising? It should not be. Nahr al-Bared, the refugee camp where the terrorists were dug in, happens to be located in Lebanon. The army which, in the words of the New York Times, "ringed the camp (to) pound it with artillery and tank shells in prolonged bombardments" was Lebanese. Israel played no role in the confrontation. And that's why the media coverage is so muted.

The lesson to be learned from this and previous such events is that there is an obvious double standard that applies in the region. Abbas did not utter a peep over the loss of 47 innocent compatriots in Nahr al-Bared. Yet on September 27, he loudly and angrily called on the UN's Security Council and General Assembly to intervene urgently to stop Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. The cause of his apoplexy was the deaths of 12 confirmed Hamas terrorists eliminated in Gaza by Israeli troops.

The effect of his message is clear. When the victims of terrorism are Jews, then responding to the perpetrators is unjustified. When the victims are Lebanese, as they were in terror attacks carried out by Fatah Islam, then it is no-holds-barred. As Abbas' Fatah envoy Abbas Zaki explained: "Nahr al-Bared camp didn't fall. What fell was terrorism."

But somehow Israel's leaders still don't get it. Prime Minister Olmert's stubborn public insistence that Mahmoud Abbas is a moderate is increasingly intolerable. Just recently, as evidence of his unwavering faith in this myth, Olmert presented yet another gift to the PA: 87 convicted Palestinian terrorists who botched up their previous murder attempts were given a chance to try again, by being released from Israeli prisons.

Soon Olmert will likely meet Abbas once again as they hurtle recklessly towards that much-trumped November international summit and a "final settlement". None of the factors above will be allowed to interfere with the Olmert steamroller.

With such a pliable partner, Abbas has no need for subterfuges. He can brazenly support Hamas and terrorism, as he did in his plea to the United Nations. He can unabashedly apply a double standard to terrorism, as he did during Lebanon's demolition of Fatah Islam. And none of this will faze Olmert.

If only life were as generous to all of us as it is to Abbas.

Frimet Roth, one of this blog's two authors, is a freelance writer in Jerusalem. She and her husband founded the Malki Foundation in their daughter's memory. Malki Roth was murdered in the Sbarro restaurant massacre in 2001. The foundation in her name provides concrete support for Israeli families of all faiths who care at home for a special-needs child.

7-Oct-07: When you elect a jihadist government...

When you elect a jihadist regime into political office, you can expect certain sorts of extreme behaviour.

Palestinian Christian activist stabbed to death in Gaza
7th october 2007
By The Associated Press

A Palestinian Christian activist who had received repeated death threats was found stabbed to death in a street in Gaza City early Sunday. Rami Khader Ayyad, 32, was director of the Teacher's Bookshop, Gaza's only Christian bookstore, which is run by the Bible Society of Gaza Baptist church.

Health Ministry officials confirmed his death. Ayyad had been missing since Saturday evening. Over the years he had received repeated death threats from unidentified people displeased with his missionary work. The Interior Ministry run by Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers condemned the killing and said it launched an investigation.

"This grave crime will not pass without punishment," the ministry said in a statement.

About 3,200 Christians live in Gaza, most of them Greek Orthodox. Relations with Gaza's Muslims are generally good, and have not deteriorated since Hamas wrested control of the strip in mid-June. But there have been occasional acts of violence, and in April, a bomb severely damaged the Palestinian Bible Society building in Gaza, which has been operating since 1999.

Barely two weeks ago, Khaled Abu Toameh reported from Gaza about an attack there on an 80 year old Christian woman and the steadily-worsening situation facing Christians wherever Hamas exercises control. His article was entitled: Gaza: Christian-Muslim tensions heat up. True to form, his politically-not-so-correct insights were read by the readers of the Jerusalem Post and almost no one else.

Meanwhile for those interested in a more optimistic viewpoint, there's a July 2007 article "Yes, You Can Work With Hamas", authored by Prof. Augustus Richard Norton of Boston University, and Harvard University Middle Eastern Studies scholar Sara Roy, and carried in the Christian Science Monitor. Our $0.02 worth: working with Hamas is a fine idea, provided you're comfortable with the misery, the hatred and the terror engendered, encouraged, initiated and implemented by the jihadists on their neighbours across the fence and to a depressing extent to their neighbours down the street.

That may be a niche market. But sadly it's not a small one.

7-Oct-07: After the holidays begins today

In the Israeli idiom, "after the holidays" is a sort of alibi. I'll get to it "aharei hahagim" is another way of saying: Don't bother me right now because it won't do you any good. I'll do it [prepare the report, find you an appointment time, fix your washing machine, find that missing receipt etc] after the holidays.

Today is the start of "after the holidays". The feast of Tabernacles ended on Thursday night, then came Friday and the Sabbath, and this bright sunny Sunday morning Israel's roads are filled with traffic, school starts again after a break of nearly two weeks, and the country is on the move.

Reason enough for the terrorists to re-energize their deadly campaign of flinging bombs anywhere they can make them land, so long as it's on Israeli land and preferably on Israelis heads, no matter who or where. The media will largely ignore these attacks, which is why we try to record as many of them as we can find time to report.

So... so far today (and it's now 8:40 in the morning) there are already reports of eight mortars having been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel (one struck a home but no reports of injuries), and what are described as "several" Qassam explosive-rocket landings.

Keep in mind that Israel provides most of the electricity to the area from which the explosives are being despatched. Also, that there are multiple police forces at work on behalf of the local authority (the PA) in a compact area frequently, though inaccurately, described as one of the most densely populated places on earth, making the Hamas regime perfectly capable of stopping the attacks if they want.

Question: would you tolerate this sort of ongoing, daily Russian roulette with the lives of your family if you had the power to stop the perpetrators and/or to make their lives quite uncomfortable? We Israelis, anxious to see both our neighbors on the other side and ourselves living better, safer lives, ask ourselves this every day. So far, the reward seems to be pictures of terrorists released by the score in "confidence-building" "goodwill" gestures like those we saw a week ago.

Hard not to view today's under-reported attacks as post-holiday reciprocation for those expressions of goodwill.

UPDATE Sunday 5:30pm: This morning's missile turns out to have been a Grad-type Katyusha, that struck near the Israeli town of Netivot. The Palestinian terror group called Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility during the day. Haaretz says: "The Russian-invented Katyusha has a longer range than the more makeshift Qassam rocket that has been fired by the thousands at Negev towns and villages. Most Katyushas fired in the region are fired by the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah organization. But Palestinians fired a Katyusha at the southern Israel city of Ashkelon a year ago. Israeli security officials have expressed concerned that Gaza militants could fire large quantities of Katyushas into Israel. Army Radio cited Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin as telling the cabinet that Israel viewed with gravity and concern the militants' ability to strike deeper inside Israel. While Sunday's attack was not the first Katyusha to be fired out of Gaza, such attacks are extremely rare. The Islamic Jihad militant group claims to have fired about a dozen Russian-made rockets at Israel since March 2006, and to have many in their possession."

5-Oct-07: On dialoguing with terrorists

Asymmetry.

It's a word that appears often in the ongoing dialogue on the subject of terror and how to keep civilized societies safe from its practitioners.

Most commonly, asymmetry is the way observers describe the relative positions of the terrorists and the counter-terrorists. The terrorists are characterized as lacking aircraft, lacking infrastructure, lacking resources and ultimately lacking power. The counter-terrorists - generally meaning governments - have all of the above. So there's an imbalance, and it's therefore to be expected that the "desperate" oppressed should turn to "militantism" to protect and assert their rights.

The shallowness of this justification for barbaric acts of terror may be chokingly, frustratingly, unbearably obvious - but it's out there nevertheless. And it's routinely promoted by brand-name media channels and front-line politicians, most of whom not only ought to know better but almost certainly do.

Here in Israel, we're seeing another manifestation of asymmetry lately - of a different sort. Our politicians are charged with protecting the civilian population from the demonic attacks of dozens of jihadist terror groups arrayed against Israeli societies on our northern and southern borders and within our cities and towns. The police, the Border Police, the army and various intelligence agencies are fully engaged in the national effort. They work tirelessly and with almost no fanfare. It's a tough, thankless job. Mostly they're effective, though not always. The terrorists are very far from defeated, and anyone who asserts otherwise is doing it out of hubris and not on the basis of facts. Israeli society is overwhelmingly in favour of energetic and focused efforts on neutralizing the terrorists, and see the battle as being beyond politics, separate from politics, an absolute imperative.

It would be satisfying to be able to say that the political leadership on the other side of the barricades have the same goal. This is what's sometimes implied or said in fringe elements of the media, but it's nonsense.

Just how nonsensical, and how asymmetric the two positions, is out there for all to see today.

Ashraf al-Ajrami who reports to the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian Authority's minister for prisoners affairs (as well as for youth and sport, which in their world are all tragically inter-related) is in today's media staking out his government's position in the war on terror. Speaking to Israel's Army Radio, the man leaves little doubt on the subject:

• "...All Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails [must] be freed in the coming months".
• He told Israel's Public Security Minister Avi Dichter this when they met this week.
• "We want the release of all the prisoners within a few months", he quotes himself saying to Dichter.
  
• And the PA demand explicitly includes the convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti, an appalling individual and an enormously popular political figure in Pal-Arab society. Barghouti was convicted in a highly-publicized wide-open trial and is now serving five life sentences for the murder of four Israeli Jews and the murder of Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, 34, a Greek Orthodox monk from St. George's Monastery in Wadi Kelt near Jericho. The unfortunate bearded cleric was shot dead (some say because he was mistaken for a Jew) in a drive-by shooting by Barghouti's gunmen in 2001.

Haaretz quotes Dichter, who it says met with al-Ajrami this week, denying that they discussed the subject of freedom for the Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons. But this morning, says the paper, he softened his denial and now says only that he was unwilling to discuss the contents of the meeting. The Jerusalem Post however says Dichter denies even meeting with al-Ajrami. Whatever.

As we've said before in many places, protecting society -- any society, every society -- from the terrorists is existential in the rare, literal sense of the word. It demands determination, clarity of purpose and real political resolve. This is not politics in the conventional sense because this is not about ideology but rather about hatred and barbarism and the battle to protect our lives from them.

We don't claim to know what's really going on in the dialogue between Israeli politicians and Palestinian Arab politicians. Nor do we presume to enter into the diplomatic and peace-making dimensions of those talks, if they exist (and like almost all Israelis, we sincerely hope they do). But we do claim that when one side calls for a wall-to-wall amnesty for terrorists, there can only be one response. It need not be shouted or even whispered; on this subject we cannot afford to even conduct a dialogue with the other side. They have their position; we have ours. Compromise is immoral and impossible.

Asymmetrical it may be, but that's the price of maintaining a democratic, life-affirming presence in the midst of a sea of primitivism.

3-Oct-07: Getting a bit warmer here

With an international "peace" conference around the corner, we're seeing escalated levels of activity in the neighborhood, not all of it so easy to comprehend from the media reports.

Holy Moles: This morning, Hamas issued a text message to the effect that one of its operatives, a man called Hamed al-Rehel, was killed in a "holy mission" near the Israeli border. Turns out they meant the tunnel he was digging in northern Gaza, more or less in the vicinity of the Erez Crossing, caved in on him. Hamas said two other tunnel diggers were hurt; this afternoon it's reported that one of the two injured has also gone to his 72 virgins.

Gaza Bombing Last Night: Around sunset on Tuesday, four people were killed when something exploded near the Hamas marine police headquarters in Gaza City. One version says it was a car that blew up, while another version, quoting Hamas, speaks of a missile attack by an Israeli naval vessel. First reports said the dead men were the property of Hamas. Names were eventually named, and two of the 'martyrs', Youssef Hammada and Hodeibi Khader, both around 20, turn out to have been registered in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, i.e. following Abbas's orders. Eventually it transpired the dead were from Fatah, the killers were from Hamas, and the Israelis weren't involved at all; simply yet another round of brother-slashes-brother, Gaza style. A few observations:

• Like us, you might not have realized Hamas has a marine police. Turns out it was announced back in August. It claims to be engaged in preventing drug smuggling and providing protection for swimmers and fishermen. But since it evidently has no ships or boats, their daily work is almost certainly just another expression of Hamas' endless preoccupation with acts of terrorism against Jewish Israelis and against Pal-Arabs who don't buy into radical jihadism.
• This Israeli source, providing background we're unlikely to see elsewhere, says some 20 or more relatives of the three dead Fatah men were arrested by Hamas security forces near Gaza City early this morning. Ahab Ghussen, speaking for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, is quoted gravely announcing that "We are not going to allow anyone to gamble and play with the security of our people." A very serious man indeed.
  

Qassam for Sukkot: Abbas is meeting today with Israeli leader Ehud Olmert in the prime ministerial sukkah (see picture above) for pre-conference discussions. To enhance the frivolity of the occasion, Arab terrorists fired several mortar shells today from northern Gaza into Israel. Separately, they fired a Qassam rocket into Sderot this morning. Fortunately, no reports of injury or damage. In fact almost no reports period. (No blood, no stories. Sadly, that's the media's calculus.)

Back-channels: Just to be sure not too many people start thinking that Abbas turning up in Olmert's sukkah actually means something, it's reported today from London that Fatah and Hamas have agreed in principle to launch a secret dialogue in Cairo. The source is the UK-based Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat quoting the head of Egyptian Intelligence, Omar Suleiman. This helps us see how incredibly moderate Abbas really is. Gets along with simply everyone.

2-Oct-07: Releasing terrorists - the track record so far

Israel's release of imprisoned terrorists today and yesterday can be understood against the decades-long historical background. This was not the first such confidence-building prisoner release. It might not be the last. But ignoring the past outcomes... that's not smart.

A few instances to mull. (And more here.)

Marwan Barghouti
Arrested first in 1976; released and became a leader in the first Arafat War ("intifada"). Arrested and expelled to Jordan; then allowed to return in 1994. Became head of the Tanzim terrorists in 2000, supervising multiple terror attacks, and the deaths by murder of 35 Israelis. Arrested again in 2002, sentenced after a highly-public and full criminal trial to five life sentences. Current status: PA is demanding his release. The Israeli security service (Shabak) objects, but numerous Israeli politicians believe nothing good will come from the dialogue with the Palestinians until Barghouti is released and takes his place as their leader. Many Israelis believe this is hopelessly misguided. Meanwhile he's in prison.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
First arrested in 1983. Released a year later as part of the Ahmed Jibril exchange. Became a founder of Hamas in 1987. Then arrested for ordering the kidnapping and killing of two soldiers and sentenced to life in prison. Israeli government decided to release him in 1997 as part of the apologies that followed an unsuccessful assassination of Khaled Mashaal, an arch Hamas terrorist. Yassin continued to organize terrorist attacks until he was killed by an Israeli pin-point rocket attack in 2004.

Saleh Shehade
Released from prison in 2000. Went on to head the Hamas military wing from where he oversaw multiple terror attacks, including the infiltration into an IDF outpost in which four soldiers were killed, and the terror attack on Atzmona where five young students were killed. Was quoted in May 2002 on the Islamic Online Web site saying: "One should prepare children carefully before carrying out attacks and recruit them into a special military section of [Hamas] in order to teach them the culture of jihad". His career ended in an IDF air attack on his home in 2002.

Abdullah Kawasme
First arrested in 1988 and then exiled by Israel to southern Lebanon in 1992. Upon his return to Israel he was imprisoned, and when released in 1994, he returned to his home in Hebron. Although arrested by the Palestinian Authority, he was released and allowed to return to his Hamas operations at the start of the Intifada. Kawasme became commander of Hamas's Izz-a-din al-Kassam military wing in March 2003. Supervised many terror attacks and more than 40 Israeli deaths: nicknamed "Father of the Ticking Time Bombs. Killed in an Israeli operation while trying to escape arrest in June 2003.

Karim Ratab Yunis Awis
Sentenced to life in prison in 1991 for intentionally causing the deaths of several Palestinian Arabs regarded by his circle as 'collaborators'. Released in another "confidence-building' gesture by the government of Israel. Subsequently in November 2001, he despatched two terrorists to fire on Afula's central bus station: 2 killed, 84 wounded. In March 2003, he despatched a human-bomb to Jerusalem's King George street where he murdered three and wounded 81 others. Re-arrested, and at his trial the court observed that his release led to the murder of additional innocent people. "The level of danger the accused poses was clear after he was found guilty the first time. The need to remove him from human society forever was obvious. After his release, the accused proved that this gesture was not justified, and a very high price was paid by many Israeli families". Now serving multiple life-sentences in an Israeli prison. Until...?

Nasser Abu Hameid
Spent 13 years in Israeli prisons after being sentenced to several life sentences for murder. Released by Israel in September 1999 in the Sharm-a-Sheikh 'understanding'. Subsequently was personally involved in the lynch mob that murdered two Israeli servicemen in 2000, personally murdered several other Israelis in 2000 and then in 2002 seupervised a series of terror attacks that cost the lives of several more. Sentenced in Jerusalem's District Court in December 2002 to seven life sentences and 50 years imprisonment after confessing to the murder of 7 Israelis and convicted on 12 counts of attempted murder and other crimes. Still in prison for now.

Abbas Mahmoud Al-Said
Imprisoned for his role in riots in Tul Karem in 1993. Released in 1996 and then convicted in 2003 of supervising the Passover massacre at Netanya's Park Hotel (30 killed, 144 injured) and other attacks. Still in prison for now.

The full list is a good deal longer.

2-Oct-07: Serious question: who's winning the war on terror?

Israeli effort to build trust

Israel on Monday released 57 Palestinians, all of them convicted of terror-related crimes, "in an effort to build trust between the sides ahead of a U.S.-sponsored peace summit in November." (Source: Haaretz). Today (Tuesday) 29 additional Palestinian prisoners were released into the Gaza Strip. According to Yediot Aharonot, the chief of staff and senior officials in the security establishment approved the release of Palestinian prisoners after deciding such a move would not pose a threat to Israel’s security. President Shimon Peres held up the release for some hours over the Palestinian refusal to release an Israeli hostage. (Since the IDF left the Gaza Strip in 2005, the president's authorization has been required for the early release of Gazans from Israeli jails.) But after a short delay the release went ahead.
The pictures above/below show some of the celebrations that greeted the return of the terrorists. Most of the people in these pictures are themselves freshly-freed practitioners of terror - though, in the highly technical Israeli use of the term, they do not personally have blood on their hands at this stage.

Trust-building reciprocated (Gaza edition)

Two more Qassam rockets were fired by Palestinians from Gaza into Israel this morning. (Source: JPost)

Trust-building reciprocated (Diplomacy edition)

The Palestinians announced they will participate in next month's US-sponsored "peace" conference only if general agreement is first reached with Israel on all the fundamental issues. Palestinian Authority officials said Monday that those issues include the status of Jerusalem, the borders of the future Palestinian state, what to do about the "refugees", and agreement on water, security and settlements. (Source: Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem Post). Leaving what issues for the conference? The breakfast menu?

Trust-building: A different view

Israel's Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who opposed the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners in the cabinet discussions, and who is a former chief of staff and defence minister, said that "[Israel] is working against terror, paying the price for terror, and nevertheless making a gesture towards the Palestinians." The step "showed weakness." Israel "didn't get anything for releasing 256 prisoners [in July], and we won't get anything this time," he said.

Trust-building: Still another view

In a letter written by the IDF's Chief of General Staff's office "the release [of 86 Palestinian security prisoners] is unethical while [kidnapped IDF Cpl.] Gilad Schalit is still being held in the Gaza Strip". (Source: JPost)

Trust-building reciprocated (Egypt edition)

Egypt caused immeasurable harm yesterday to Israel's security interests by allowing at least 80 Hamas militants to cross into Gaza a day earlier (Sunday). Some of the Islamic group members have recently undergone extensive military training in Iran and Syria, security sources said. (Source: Haaretz)
An Israeli spokesman said Egypt appeared to want to play down its level of coordination with Hamas, telling the Israelis that those who crossed on Sunday had "broken through the border fence".
Note that despite the widespread claims of Israel "imprisoning" the Gazans, the fact is that since reaching agreement with Egypt on the crossing points to and from Gaza in 2005, Israel lost effective control over who enters the territory from Egypt. Then after the Hamas takeover in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the work of the European Union observers controlling the crossing points between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula stopped. Israeli influence on the activities at the crossing today is zero. Haaretz says that in the past four months, the Egyptians had prevented the group of Hamas members from entering the Gaza Strip, in part due to Israeli pressure. They were stranded near El-Arish, in northern Sinai. Earlier this week, Cairo altered its position and allowed them to reenter the Gaza Strip. Among those entering the enclave are Hamas legislators Mushir al-Masri, a high-profile spokesman for the movement and Farej al-Rul. Taleb al-Kawasme, former Interior Minister was also in the group, as were were members of Iz al-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, who had undergone training in camps in Iran and Syria.
"Israeli security sources expressed concern that these "experts" were allowed into the Strip because of their ability to bolster terrorist organizations in specialties such as rocket and mortar attacks, sophisticated explosive devices, sniping, and commando raids.
"These are definitely people we would prefer not to see in the Gaza Strip. They did not sneak into the Gaza Strip, but entered through the main gate, with permission and coordination with the Egyptians," an Israeli source said.
While the crossing was the result of an apparent agreement between Hamas and Egypt, the exact circumstances were left vague by those involved, presumably because of the political sensitivities that have been raised.
However, the independent Palestinian news agency Maan reported Monday that Egypt had agreed to the crossing of the Hamas members following a deal that had been struck between Egyptian intelligence and the group. According to the report, an Al-Qaida militant who had fled to the Gaza Strip from Asyut, a city in southern Egypt, had been handed over to Egyptian authorities by Hamas. In return Egypt allowed the entry of dozens of Hamas members into the Strip. According to other sources in the Strip, during the weekend an Egyptian intelligence official, Ahmed Abd al-Halk, met with representatives of the Hamas military wing and of the Popular Resistance Committees. Following the meeting, the Egyptians allowed as many as 87 militants to cross, including members of Islamic Jihad."
The terrorists had been brought to the border area at dawn on buses and crossed Rafah into the Gaza Strip, several kilometers north of the normal crossing point at Rafah. Sources in the defense establishment said Monday that the entry of well-trained extremists into Gaza is just another chapter in Hamas' growing strength with Egypt's active connivance.
Haaretz says: "According to the sources, dozens of experts in paramilitary activities and terrorism have crossed into the Gaza Strip during the past year and have passed on to members of Hamas and other, smaller terrorist organizations the lessons Iran and Hezbollah have learned from the fighting in southern Lebanon during last summer's war... An Israeli spokesman said that Israel has already allowed about 6,000 Gazans who were stranded in Egypt after the Hamas takeover to return to their homes via Israel."

The picture above is from Gaza this afternoon. The man in the blood-red wrap was an imprisoned terrorist until freed this morning.

Trust-building: What we've learned about how it works
A petition presented to Israel's High Court last week, but rejected, sought to prevent the wholesale release of prisoners because of the history of past "trust-building" releases. The petitioner was the Almagor organization, one of several which say they speak in the name of terror victims. Here's their summary of what the past can teach us if we care to take note:

• Between 1993 and 1999, 6,912 terrorists were freed.
  
• As of August 2003, 854 of them (12.4%) had been re-arrested for murderous activity.
  
• Another two-thirds of them returned to terrorist activity - in command, training or actual perpetration of attacks.
• Among the attacks perpetrated by freed terrorists were: the lynching of two soldiers in Ramallah (Oct. 2000); the shooting deaths of Binyamin and Talia Kahane (Dec. 2000); the suicide explosions in Netanya, 8 dead (March and May, 2001); the Sea Food Market suicide blast in Tel-Aviv, 3 dead (March 2002); the shooting in the Atzmona yeshiva that left 5 young men dead (March 2002); the Park Hotel bombing during the Passover Seder, 30 dead (March 2002); the bus blasts at Megiddo, Karkur and Jerusalem, 55 dead (June 2002 - June 2003); the double bombing attacks in Be'er Sheva, 16 dead (August 2004).
• We'll name names in our next posting.

We've quoted George Santayana before, but it bears repeating: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." And as George Bernard Shaw added: "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history".

1-Oct-07: About carrots and sticks

Innumerable international organizations and NGO's one way or another sit in judgment on Israel. It's exceptionally rare for any of them to admit to shortcomings. Such a pigs-do-fly moment came this week via the current chairperson of the UN Human Rights Council, Doru Costea.

His council has failed to handle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a balanced fashion, he said in the French daily Le Temps. It concentrates too much on abuses by Israel and he's dissatisfied. "The council has failed... The council must remain simple, and concentrate on the human rights dimension, but it must look at the stance of all sides, not only one country." The fact that a majority of the Council's 47 seats are held by Asian and African countries "gives a certain power, but that does not mean that this power is always used wisely" said the man who ought to know, with straight-faced understatement.

Candor of this sort is not so common. How have other NGO's been dealing with the extremely hostile stands of some of their office-holders, constituents and members in relation to Israel and the Jews? It's a bleak picture. Look at how Israel's decision this past Wednesday to impose further economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip was treated.

The Israeli government's security cabinet sat down last week to formulate a response to the steadily increasing scale of acts of terror directed at Israel from Gaza. Its well-publicized decision raised for the first time the explicit possibility of cutting off electricity to Gaza's inhabitants. The decision defines Gaza as "hostile territory"and says that if more Qassam rockets are launched from Hamas-controlled territory, there will be possible fuel and power cut-offs down the road.

A word of background. In 2005, Israel under prime minister Ariel Sharon unilaterally pulled its forces out of Gaza and uprooted all the thriving Israeli towns that had been created in the area. The entire Gaza Strip was now in Palestinian hands. (The entry and exits remain under Israeli and Egyptian control.) The stated expectation was that this would end terrorism from the area. The result of course was the opposite: a violent, jihadist Hamas regime took over, and rocket attacks on Israel have consistently increased.

The decision last week is a carrot and stick strategy where the ass is the Hamas regime which until now has shown zero responsiveness to logic, political good sense or humane behaviour. In practice, nothing has changed yet while Israel sits and waits to see whether - against all the odds - some rare good sense prevails in Gaza's halls of power. But as the authoritative NGO Watch points out, the practical and legal ramifications of Israel's new stand are unclear. No action has yet been taken. This is about future cut-offs of Israel-originating electricity; future cut-offs of Israel-originating fuel; future firings of Gaza-originating Qassams.

But even though Israel has done nothing so far to give effect to the threat of sanctions, let's pay a moment's attention to the mature and sober judgments of the international community.

Oxfam: Jeremy Hobbs, executive director - Israel's actions are "immoral and contrary to the Geneva Conventions."

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) calls for one-sided international action to "prevent the starvation siege Israel plans to impose on Gaza." Note: ICAHD is funded by the EU under its “partnership for peace” budget.

Human Rights Watch (which NGO Monitor observes has a history of instant condemnations before the facts are known) says "Israel’s threat to impose additional sanctions on the Gaza Strip would constitute unlawful collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population... Israel has the responsibility to protect its citizens, but not by collectively punishing the people of Gaza, which seriously violates the laws of war."

Israeli NGO B'Tselem: "Cutting off electricity to a civilian population is collective punishment and a violation of international law… It doesn't really make a difference whether it's cutting off the supply from Israel or bombing the power station."

The list goes on.

NGO Monitor observes that all of these statements ignore the context of terrorism and downplay Israel's legitimate right to self-defense. The orgs and their spokespeople have little apparent interest in the rocket attacks and in the waves of terrorism emanating from Gaza. Instead they focus narrowly on Israel’s efforts to find a means of deterring these attacks, and that's the problem.

The reaction of Hamas is no surprise. Israel's threat is “a declaration of war against the Palestinian people, an attempt to target resistance forces and to undermine Hamas politically”. Hamas asserts that Israel "must supply humanitarian needs" and the security cabinet's decision “shows that Israel is not ready for political compromise with the Palestinians” in peace talks.

Putting this in some context, Gaza needs about 200 megawatts of electricity. It gets 80 Mw from Egypt, and almost all the rest (except for some minor supply from a Gazan plant) from Israel. A full shutdown of the Israeli supply would leave Gaza with adequate energy for its hospitals, government offices and other vital services. Its 1.5 million inhabitants would inevitably suffer periodic blackouts; these would be more severe if a fuel cut-off were also implemented. Life would be uncomfortable but not threatened.

Israel, which has always had the power to do so, says it will implement this plan if Palestinian terrorists continue to fire rockets into Israel. The overwhelming sentiment among Israelis is: why hasn't such a step been threatened before? Where else, other than in Chelm, would a government provide its enemy with enough power to allow business as usual?

And where else, other than in the context of the well-orchestrated, relentless Arab-driven campaign of delegitimization of Israel and its actions, would so many otherwise sober organizations make such jackasses of themselves?