30-Apr-12: Rocket crashes into southern Israel again tonight

Around 9:30 this evening (Monday), the citizens of Sderot - the closest Israeli city to the vipers' nest that is the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip - were subjected yet again to the dreaded sound of the Color Red (Tzeva Adom) incoming-rocket warning. It's the signal to drop everything and run for shelter. A single short-range rocket from Gaza then crashed into open fields not far from Sderot. There are no reports of injury or property damage.

29-Apr-12: Just in from Sinai

Sinai: "Situation? Excellent"

This being the factually-creative Middle East, there are competing versions of what is going on in the Egyptian-controlled Sinai desert peninsula.

We noted on the eve of the Passover festival a few weeks ago (see "5-Apr-12: The terrorists send us their Passover greetings" that when a missile crashed into Israel's holiday capital Eilat in the deep south of our small state, causing consternation among citizens and hotel-keepers alike, Egypt's director of security for the Sinai sector, Mahamoud El-Hefnawy, asserted about as confidently as a man can, that the rocket fire did not emanate from Sinai. In fact

"The situation in the southern sector is excellent. There are regular patrols and stakeouts across all roads"

he said. And he should know (we noted), though we wondered how this squares with the numerous attacks on the gas line between Egypt and Israel that managed to get past the ever-alert Egyptian security forces and put the pipeline out of action more than a dozen times in the past year.

What a difference three-and-a-half-weeks make. Egypt cancelled its contract to supply gas to Israel six days ago, substantially reducing the pressure on Egyptian security forces who presumably will no longer have to contend with further acts of sabotage on the pipeline.

But to remind us that not everything is as rosy as Mahamoud El-Hefnawy's optimistic words, there's this in today's Egypt Independent (hat tip to Challah Hu Akbar):

Security services in Sinai arrested Sunday two members of the Ezz Eddin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military arm, according to the Interior Ministry. Bassam Mahmoud Baraka, 34, and Haytham Ibrahim Shehata, 37, both from Ramallah, were ambushed by security staff while riding in a taxi, a security source from the ministry said. The suspects admitted entering Sinai through border tunnels in Rafah, the source said. They were referred to the military prosecution for questioning. Around 1,000 underground tunnels are thought to have been dug in recent years along the 13-km border between Egypt and Gaza, providing a lifeline for the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza after Israel imposed a blockade on the territory after Hamas took power in 2007. The tunnels are usually 25 meters deep and more than 600 meters long, according to press reports. They link open areas inside Gaza with farms and houses on the Egyptian side. Israel has frequently accused Hamas of using them to smuggle weapons.

Too early to understand the full context of this report. But it does create an expectation that Egypt, heading towards its first Moslem Brotherhood government, and the Hamas regime in Gaza may be about to have what diplomats like to call a full and frank exchange of views.

This might be a good time to refer our readers to "11-Dec-11: Hamas shifts some of its terrorist infrastructure into Egyptian territory".

29-Apr-12: So many foreign "activists" here. Why?

Sushi place on Jerusalem's Emek Refaim: As conflict zones go,
not quite a hardship posting

It's no secret that Israel's side of this ongoing war is told in ways that frequently suffer from excessive political spin and agenda-advancement. We have met hundreds of foreign journalists who have been based here for days or months over the last few years, and while many of them seem to be completely innocent of any historical background, it is striking to see how many have an actively hostile standpoint that comes through in the reports they publish.

There's something similar that can be said for the hordes of political 'activists' from Europe (and elsewhere, but in our experience it's mainly Europeans) who frequently get on-camera when there's a protest event against this or another aspect of Israeli policy. What brings them here?

An unassuming brief memoir penned by Tal Dror, a second-year student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who has been financing his way by working in a bar, throws some intriguing light on how and why we see so many European 'activists' and reporters in Israel. The article from which the following is excerpted was published on the Ynet site a few days ago.

How can a 20 year old Danish boy wake up one morning and tell his parents he's flying to the Middle East? A foreign reporter from Spain, who loves Israeli red wine, told me once how every foreign correspondent dreams of being stationed in Israel. "This is a foreign correspondent's paradise!" she said. "Where else can you go to restaurant in a city such as Tel Aviv, grab a drink, or go dancing on Dizengoff Street, and sleep at a fancy hotel, when the only thing that separates you from your authentic 'battle field' report is a 45 minute drive into Jerusalem or Bil'in and Naalin? ...I asked them once this one clichéd question that always comes to mind – "So why Israel of all places? Why not Syria? Egypt? Russia or China?" One of them put on a serious face. "Are you insane?" he asked me. "These are all extremely dangerous places!" ..."So wait," I asked in all seriousness. "You wouldn't have come here if you thought you could get badly hurt?" My Swedish friend grinned. "I don't think so," he said. "I may be a radical, but I'm also a spoiled one!" And they both burst out laughing. That's when I realized that for many of those foreign peace activists, this is all just a game. And in this game we, the Israelis and Palestinians, are the pieces. They come from all corners of the world to a faraway country they have never been to before. They confront soldiers and policemen, blocking roads and holding signs. Moreover – as long as they have their cold beer by the end of the evening, as long as they lay their heads in a comfy and friendly hostel – they will continue to arrive. They take advantage of what we're most proud of: Our freedom, democracy and the tolerance that we're so afraid to lose. They take advantage of the strange system we have developed, the one that lets us disconnect ourselves from reality and continue with our lives even when real fighting takes place so close to us. 

No earth-shattering revelations here it would surprise us to know that Tal Dror's experiences ["The spoiled leftist radical: Op-ed: Provocative foreign activists exploit Israel’s tolerance and comfortable lifestyle"] are  widely known or understood.

28-Apr-12: Security barrier proves yet again to be a life-saver

Hawara [Image Source]

We have more than enough reason to write here about the plain dishonesty that seems to characterize much of the criticism of Israel's security checkpoints strategy. We wrote about this last Saturday night when armed terrorists were stopped at a security crossing en route to carrying out an attack on Israeli civilians - see "21-Apr-12: Stopped two more armed jihadists". 

That was only the latest in a terribly long line of occasions when the existence of the part-built barrier, plus the network of manned crossing points through which Palestinian Arabs are frequently required to pass, plus the alertness of service personnel, and especially Israel's Border Guard, all came together to prevent another terrorist outrage. 

Tonight (Saturday) there's another.

IDF troops intercepted a Palestinian Arab at the Hawara crossing a couple of hours ago. Hawara is just south of Nablus or Shechem as it has been known for several thousand years in Jewish literature. Ynet reports that the Arab was found to be carrying two explosive devices. These were later blown up by sappers in a controlled detonation and the suspected terrorist was taken in for interrogation by security authorities.

Security personnel standing guard at Hawara have been attacked with guns, knives, bombs, troubled children and acid. They have intercepted all of the above, along with numerous other kinds of weapons of destruction. [Have a look at our comments on a previous Hawara incident: "3-Oct-11: So do those security checkpoints serve their purpose or not?"] 

In 2004, they stopped a 14 year-old, somewhat learning-disabled Palestinian Arab boy called Hussam Muhammad Bilal Abdu. In an interview, the child said that after years of bullying by classmates, he wanted to reach the paradise he had learned about in Islamic teachings. So Hussam was induced by people in his community to place an 8 kilogram explosive belt on his body under his coat and to carry it through Hawara and onward into those parts of Israel where large numbers of Jewish women and children can be found. He was in a literal sense turned into a walking bomb, like so many who have been stopped since then by Israeli forces.

We wrote this at the time:

The great gift made to this child by the Palestinian Arab education system was, by his own admission, to impregnate his mind with a vision of sex with heavenly virgins. That, and a daily regimen of Fatah-inspired hate training, was what it took to turn a child into a bomb. (Fatah is headed by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. Fatah claimed responsibility for the Hussam Abdu outrage, and freely acknowledged equipping him and sending him.)

Tragically, it's all just as true today. If you have a free moment, please take a look at what we wrote some three and a half years ago about the same security checkpoint: 5-Oct-08: Learning the lessons of the checkpoints.

Israel's still-incomplete security barrier and its multiple checkpoints (as we wrote here a week ago) constitute one of this country's most effective counter-terrorism measures. The numbers put this beyond doubt. We live here and for us, this matters very much.

26-Apr-12: What better way to mark Israel's independence?

The terrorists from Hamas-occupied Gaza sent their wishes to the people of Israel this morning. This was no surprise gift, since they have been delivering them on a daily basis for years even while most people in most places look the other way.

We refer, of course, to yet another explosive-laden rocket, fired entirely indiscriminately around 12:30 this morning in the general direction of where the Jews live. Reports of the attack says the missile landed somewhere (details are deliberately sketchy, always - if you have to ask why, you should not know) in the Hof Ashkelon region of southern Israel in the early hours of this morning, Thursday. As far as we know, there were no injuries to people, no damage to property.

To convey something of the reality behind the anonymous reporting,  Hof Ashkelon encompasses some 19 communities, including five kibbutzim, eleven moshavim, two communal settlements and a youth village. The kibbutzim are Gevaram, Karmia, Nitzanim, Yad Mordechai and Zikim. The moshavim are Beit Shikma, Berekhya, Ge'a, Heletz, Hodia, Kokhav Michael, Mashen, Mavki'im, Nir Yisrael, Netiv HaAsara and Talmei Yafeh. The communal settlements are Bat Hadar and Nitzan, and the one youth village is called Kfar Silver .

Though this event will - sadly - make no impression outside the immediate vicinity, the terrorists' gift was important: a reminder to us as we celebrate with our families and our communities on this beautiful spring day, Israel's 64th birthday as a modern nation-state: they really hate us over there (you can point in any direction from here in Jerusalem and you will be right).

And they are ready, willing, able, anxious and thoroughly equipped to express that hatred in tangible, lethal ways.

That there is not greater loss is entirely due to the mercy of the Above, and the diligence and determination of the servicemen and servicewomen who guard our borders and homes.

Happy birthday, Israel, and may our country continue to go from strength to strength to strength to strength. Now, excuse us as we head off for our family's Independence Day picnic.

24-Apr-12: Remembering a loved child on the first Memorial Day after her murderer’s release

The article below, by Frimet Roth, appears in the Times of Israel today, the eve of Israel's Memorial Day, Yom Hazikaron.


Remembering Malki on the first Memorial Day after her murderer’s release
Twenty three years ago, soon after immigrating to Israel, my husband and I took our children to the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Our youngest and only daughter at the time, Malki, was three and a half. At one point, engrossed in the miniature replicas of synagogues from around the world, my husband let her hand slip out of his. By the time he realized it, Malki was nowhere in sight.  We searched  the entire museum building, questioned the guard who said he hadn’t seen her, and then, along with security men, scoured the grounds.

Malki 1985-2001

An anxious mother at the best of times, I crumbled. Through sobs and tears, I cried “How will I live without my Malki?” 

Half an hour later, we found her at the far end of the campus, sitting in the entrance booth with a guard, munching on a sandwich he had given her.  She had stoically marched across the vast lawns without betraying her panic. Apparently she looked so confident that nobody approached her.  Having lost sight of us in the museum, she had set out to find us.

For many years, we would relate this tale to all and sundry.  We framed the happy family photo taken at the museum after Malki’s return and displayed it in our living room.

The photo still stands on our piano - alongside the many other photos of Malki that are arrayed there to remind everyone of her. But we no longer tell the story of her disappearance because my darkest fear of that day has been realized. I am indeed living without my Malki.

Ten years ago she was the target of a terror bombing. Along with fourteen other Jewish men, women and children, she died while having lunch at Jerusalem’s Sbarro restaurant.  

The horrific carnage of that attack traumatized a nation that had already suffered scores of losses since the start of the Second Intifada in October 2000. 

But today, on the tenth Remembrance Day since then, it’s safe to say that the nation’s memories of that period have faded, if not entirely disappeared.  

Six months ago, with no compunction and perfunctory apologies but much self-congratulation, our Prime Minister set Malki’s murderer free in the Shalit swap.

We were devastated. Our repeated warnings against this resolution of Gilad Shalit’s capitivity had been in vain. Eighty percent of Israelis supported the release of convicted, confessed murderers.

Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who murdered Malki and  fourteen others, the woman who smiled with joy when she learned that among the dead were eight children and not three as she had thought - that same woman is now a TV talk show host.

That woman now flies wherever she pleases, whenever the whim strikes her. She has already been to Lebanon and Tunisia to address adulatory throngs.

A while ago, I heard about a father who took a gun on a visit to his son’s grave and shot himself over the tombstone. It was seventeen years after his son’s death in a battle in Lebanon.  I used to wonder why he decided to suicide then, after surviving the grief for so long.

But now it is no puzzle. While the pain remains raw, society expects you – even demands of you – to “heal”, “move on”, “focus on the positive”, and other inane cliches.  

Grieving for children grows lonelier and harder with time.

Our own sense of isolation has intensified since October 2011. The public’s push for the Shalit swap sent terror victims a clear message: the sacrifices we have made just don’t count anymore.

Today, Remembrance Day, when, despite the national inclination to forget them, those who were killed in battle and on the home front are honored, I would like to mention my Malki’s virtues.

The resolve she demonstrated that day in the museum, manifested later on in myriad ways. Her reaching out to children with disabilities in every context, school, youth group, community.  Her application to, and mastery of, the flute.  Her strong religious and national convictions.  Her dedication to her youth group, Ezra. Her love and devotion to her parents and siblings.

She also left behind a treasure: a diary from the last year of her life. The daily entries afford a detailed glimpse of her activities and thoughts.  

Here is what she wrote on the last Yom Hashoah she knew:

“Early in the morning we had the ceremony of the eleventh grade… It was very hard for me. The ceremony was conducted by the girls who returned from Poland. They simply spoke and cried. I couldn’t stop crying.  I sobbed during [the singing of] “Ani Maamin”. I just could not sing, could not stop crying and I’ve never had it so hard before. Afterwards Shira [a friend] and I hugged and cried. The teacher (Golda) came over to calm us.  Afterwards she [the teacher] told me that perhaps it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to travel to Poland [with the class, the following year] because I am so sensitive. It was very upsetting  because, naturally, I would cry there. How could I not?! But it is very important to go. It was very difficult for me to study afterwards. In sport, Leah [a classmate] and I asked the teacher not to have practice because it wasn’t appropriate. So she played us classical music on the piano...”

Malki was murdered two months before her class visited Poland.

23-Apr-12: Another Gazan rocket explodes in the open fields of southern Israel but that was not the intention

We have just seen a report of another Qassam rocket that was fired by the terrorists of the Gaza Strip into Israel, seeking any Jewish target: a person, a schoolhouse, a bus, a car. This one exploded in open fields in the Shaar Hanegev region, the same place as the one fired yesterday and basically unreported by any of the mainstream news media. Thankfully there are no reports at this stage of injuries or property damage but the thugs who fire these devices and place their lives at risk - given the technologically-advanced state of Israel's defensive systems - do so because they hope for a 'better' outcome. Their religious leadership fills their vacuous minds with visions of Jewish dead and Jewish damage. That's what their culture encourages to aspire towards. No strategic goals. No military attainments. No rules of law or any other kinds of rules other than the rules of the jungle. This is why they are rightly called, and must be treated as, terrorists.

23-Apr-12: Does a people really get the leadership it deserves? Ask the Palestinian ruling class as they make their way to Israeli medical centers

Dr Sababa, medical clown extraordinaire,
at Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center

Khaled Abu Toameh, the pre-eminent Israeli Arab journalist, has a record of fearless exposure of the hypocrisy and cynical abuse of Arab political leadership against their fellow citizens. A year ago, in "Where Is the Outcry Against Arab Apartheid?" he wrote with passion about

an 11-year-old Palestinian boy [who] died this week at the entrance to a Lebanese hospital after doctors refused to help him because his family could not afford to pay for medical treatment. The tragic case of Taha highlights the plight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live in impoverished refugee camps in Lebanon and who are the victims of an Apartheid system that denies them access to work, education and medical care... Can anyone imagine what would have happened if an Israeli hospital had abandoned a boy to die in its parking lot because his father did not have $1,500 to pay for his treatment? The UN Security Council would hold an emergency session and Israel would be strongly condemned and held responsible for the death of the boy. All this is happening at a time when tens of thousands of Palestinian patients continue to benefit from treatments in Israeli hospitals."

As a family who, for various understandable reasons, spend much more than most people in Israel's pediatric hospital wards, we can testify [see "4-Mar-12: Dealing (or not) with the problems of a sick society", for instance] to the truth of this reality. It's astonishing to us that so little journalistic attention is paid to the experience of Arab families who turn for medical treatment to Israeli hospitals. Read the online journal Arabs Today to learn about israel's leading role in the professionalization of medical clowning. Ask why the wonderful Dr Sababa, who practices at Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center, speaks a reasonable Arabic, as do most if not all of his Shaare Zedek clown colleagues. A pity the hordes of political journalists who cover this region consistently fail to pick up on this story, or the story behind the story (why do Israeli medical clowns find it so important to learn to speak Arabic?)

Today, writing for the Gatestone Institute, Abu Toameh returns to his theme and asks:

"If the Palestinian leaders do not want their citizens to seek medical aid in Israel, why don't they and their family members also boycott Israeli hospitals? Why do Palestinian leaders keep knocking on Israel's door for help in various fields?"

He characterizes what this 'leadership' is actually doing as "radicalizing Palestinians and eventually dragging them toward another confrontation with Israel".

On the same day that two Palestinian officials met in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Palestinian Authority issued an order banning Palestinians from making direct contact with Israeli authorities in the West Bank... The ban, which was issued by the Palestinian governor of Bethlehem, prohibits Palestinians from directly seeking the services of the Israeli District Coordination Committee [DCO]. Established under the terms of the Oslo Accords, the DCO's main mission is to provide various services to Palestinians, especially those who seek to enter Israel for medical treatment and work. Over the past two decades, tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought the services of the DCO also to facilitate travel arrangements and overcome bureaucratic hurdles. But now the Palestinian Authority government has decided to put an end to this phenomenon. Palestinians have warned that anyone who violates the latest ban would be punished...  If the Palestinian government does not want Palestinians to work in the settlements, why hasn't it provided them with alternative jobs or financial compensation?"

His analysis is here.

UPDATE Monday 5 pm: The Palestinian president is a leader in the efforts to break off communications and other dealings with the Israelis. But it appears he's also a leader in breaking off communications with his own prime minister. The idea that politics are advanced by refusing to speak with the party with whom you have a difference of views fits kindergarten squabbles (are you listening, Emma Thompson?) a good deal better than it does the world of grown-up disagreements on political or religious grounds. But what would we know?

22-Apr-12: Gazan rocket crashes into southern Israel

A Qassam rocket is reported to have crashed into an open area of the Sha'ar Hanegev region in southern Israel around 5 pm this afternoon (Sunday). The area, midway between the cities of Beersheba and Ashkelon is home to some 6,000 Israeli civilians. No injuries or damage as far as can be ascertained.

22-Apr-12: Pictures at an exhibition: Will France learn what Hamas really is?

Image Source

We wrote here on Thursday about how the cold-blooded murder of four innocent Jews in France, three of them young children, has become an inspiration, a treasure – literally - for European jihadists and their supporters whose literature is describing the cold-blooded murders as an “operation”, a “raid”, even a “battle”.  (See "19-Apr-12: How the murder of three French children has become the launch of a new chapter in the conquest of Europe by the terrorists")

We didn't have to wait long for evidence of how this translates into France's civic life.

The French city of Angoulême has finished (this evening) hosting a photo exhibit, explicitly sympathetic to the Gaza-based terrorist organization Hamas, as its contribution to Palestinian Fortnight, organized by the Charente Palestine Solidarity Association. [See an online version of the photo exhibition here on the photographer's website.]

Angoulême municipal officials proudly provided the organizers with the use of an exhibition hall in the city's Hotel Saint-Simon. The Jerusalem Post said the controversial exhibition of pictures by a French photographer, Frédéric Soutereau, has previously been exhibited and awarded a gold medal at a photojournalism event in the southern French city of Perpignan in 2010. Representatives of France's Jewish community, still reeling from the Toulouse killings (see "3-Apr-12: After Toulouse"), protested vociferously over yet another French exercise in public glorification of the Hamas terrorists, but their voices were ignored. The French public should be given the opportunity to "understand better what Hamas really is” said one of the Hamas promoters, quoted by in a leading French newspaper. He explained that the exhibition shows the daily activities of Hamas and its “active and positive role” in the social, economic and cultural life of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

The French are pre-occupied with presidential elections this week. Still, perhaps someone should translate a Washington Post article from this week into French so that the “active and positive role” of Hamas can gain a context. It's a powerful piece, entitled "In Gaza, Hamas rule has not turned out as many expected" [online here]; a tale of rapidly escalating corruption, cronyism and spiraling failure. Two brief extracts:

"The Hamas that won control of this Mediterranean strip, isolated by an economic siege and hobbled by 30 percent unemployment, no longer looks the same to many Gazans. It secured once-lawless streets, as promised. But hopes of Islam-guided fairness and an end to the graft that had tainted the tenure of the secular Fatah party have turned to widespread griping about Hamas corruption and patronage. Hamas has hired more than 40,000 civil servants, and analysts say the top tiers are filled by loyalists. Members of the Hamas elite are widely thought to have enriched themselves through investment in the dusty labyrinth of smuggling tunnels beneath the border with Egypt and taxes on the imported goods. That money has been channeled into flashy cars and Hamas-owned businesses that only stalwarts get a stake in, critics say. Street-level umbrage has risen in recent months alongside tax increases and a crippling power crisis that has caused 18-hour blackouts and gas station lines that snake around corners."

And this:

"Despite public discontent, Hamas officials seem unruffled. The movement’s grip inside Gaza remains near-total, in part because a unity deal with Fatah, which could lead to elections, is on ice. That leaves Abu Khaled, an unemployed former shopkeeper, to seethe in his 11th-floor apartment in Gaza City. Khaled, 55, said he voted for Hamas because it promised change and justice, which he figured meant there would be jobs. But only those who “pray in a Hamas mosque” get work, he said, adding that the movement’s leaders look as though they have gotten comfortable with their mini-state and have forgotten about fighting for Palestinian independence. “We used to take taxis, now we walk. We were eating, now we are not. We must admit, things changed — but for the worse,” Khaled said wryly, speaking through coils of cigarette smoke. “Hamas is controlling us. They are responsible for us.”

We wonder if those section of French society that are open to getting a better, deeper, more wholistic sense of who the terrorists really are have the stomach for a photo exhibit illustrating the reality of Hamas-ruled Gaza as opposed to the ideological fairy tales peddled till now.

21-Apr-12: Stopped two more armed jihadists

The Palestinian Arab youths apprehended today packed
pipe bombs, and were carrying a pistol
and a knife. The Border Guard provided this photo today.

The alertness of Mishmar Hagvul (translation: Border Guard) service personnel manning one of those despised security checkpoints averted more harm to Israeli civilians today. A pair of Palestinian Arab youths, seventeen years old, arrived at Tapu'ach Junction, just south of Nablus/Sh'chem this afternoon (Saturday) by taxi. It's an important regional cross-roads, with many public buses stopping there round the clock. Sgt Ihab Khatib, a Druze serving in the IDF, was stabbed to death there by terrorists two years ago.

Their nervous behaviour aroused suspicion, according to Ynet's report. The Border Guards and police stationed at the crossing called on them to stop and undergo a search. The suspects attempted to run from the scene. After a chase and a struggle, they were apprehended but not before dropping a pistol and a knife. They were bodily searched and were found to be carrying five pipe bombs as well as munitions. They are being interrogated this evening. Their bombs were safely disposed of by IDF sappers from the bomb squad. One of the young servicemen is quoted saying: "When it was all over and we realized what they had in their bags, I thought about the fact that we helped save people's lives. It's a great sense of satisfaction."

We have noted numerous times in the past the plain dishonesty that seems to characterize much of the criticism of Israel's security checkpoints strategy. Some examples from many: 

• 5-Oct-08: Learning the lessons of the checkpoints
• 25-Oct-08: So who needs security checkpoints? 
• 3-Oct-11: So do those security checkpoints serve their purpose or not?, 
• 9-Jan-12: Another day, another attempted murder-by-knifing

Though we have written it here in the past, it bears repeating: Israel's still-incomplete security barrier and its multiple checkpoints constitute one of this country's most effective counter-terrorism measures. The numbers put this beyond doubt. We live here and for us, it matters.

20-Apr-12: Whose dispute am I?

IAF jet patrolling the skies, protecting its nation's claim
to the occupied territories

Some clues:

• This is happening in the Middle East where, as most people know, disputes tend to fester and blow up among infantile locals whenever the grown ups are out of the room. 
• The British ruled this particular territory for decades. Then they pulled out.
• Two neighbouring countries asserted conflicting claims once the British left the scene. 
• The one with the much stronger military took control  as soon as the British were out of the picture. Since then, it refuses to let go.
• Its forces remain there, in charge, as they have for more than forty years. This is one of the reasons, among others, that such a high proportion of the country's production goes to fund its bloated military.
• Keep in mind the territory in question has tremendous strategic significance. It lies at one of the world’s most significant crossroads locations.
• The militarily-stronger party to the dispute over the occupied territory is widely believed to have nuclear weapons already or is close to getting them. 
• Yes, it signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But repeated disclosures by impeccable third-party sources show it has only the slightest of commitments to what it signed. Being a nuclear power is central to its overall regional strategy.
• That party says it is going to turn the occupied territory into what it terms a “showcase” for its cultural ties to the land.
• Indeed, it asserts that it has a historical right stretching all the way back to antiquity.
• In the course of its occupation, it has shut down schools, conducting a cruel policy of expelling the indigenous population. Some observers see this as ethnic cleansing.
• When people describe the prime minister of that militarily mighty side, some of the words they use are "arrogant" and  "condescending". He is widely despised outside his own land, but he does have his fans. His public statements are said to cause embarrassment to large numbers of his countrymen. 
• But his firm grip on the media and most of the organs of the state has the suppressive effect that one would expect on criticism of his actions by his countrymen. He frightens people.
• Very recently, this prime minister made a very public visit to the occupied territories. It's a visit that caused puzzlement to international observers because its sole effect appears to be to turn a “back-burner” dispute into a diplomatic tempest for no good reason other than the need to make some kind of pompous public statement.
• The dispossessed side - who happen to be Arabs - are (naturally) “furious”, “outraged”.  They demand that this matter be brought before the International Court of Justice.
• Few think they have the power to do much about the status quo. The might of the dominant side is largely unquestioned. 
• A US State Department spokesman is quoted saying earlier this week that the Obama administration hopes for a "peaceful resolution" through international mediation. 
• At the same time, the prime minister's jaunt can "only complicate efforts to settle the issue", according to State. 
• Making matters annoyingly worse, the prime minister has a tendency to refer to historical documents that, as he puts it, confirm the authenticity of his side's claim and even the name it applies to the area in question which is, of course, quite different from the name the Arabs give it. 
• The world should adopt his side's choice of name "to acknowledge [as he puts it] the greatness and capability of the country they are addressing". 
• The more powerful of the sides has cemented its grip on the territories by placing military garrisons there. Its missiles (and it is a major developer of missiles) point ominously at the Arab side.
• The Arab side declares it is “determined to regain its legitimate rights”.

Hint: The Zionist entity? No so much.

Background:

• http://www.theestimate.com/public/072401.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musa
• http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/01/04/the-abu-musa-violation.html
• http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iq6TaBChDbYUnjrzQzLkwG42Cazg?docId=d84e764d57a94580a75b97c12d627032 [today]

19-Apr-12: How the murder of three French children has become the launch of a new chapter in the conquest of Europe by the terrorists

London

The murders of three French servicemen followed shortly afterwards by the killing of a four innocent Jews – a young schoolteacher and two of his small children and then a third little girl – are receding into the background. Not for the families, not for the friends. Perhaps not entirely for Toulouse and Montauban. But probably for France. Certainly for Europe and the rest of us. The tragedy becomes an event, and the event turns into a small bump in a long road. So it goes.

But there are people out there who understand its significance and will not allow it to blend into the background. They are the jihadists. For them, the cold-blooded murder of four innocent Jews in France has become an inspiration, a treasure – literally. Astonishingly, they are terming it an “operation”, a “raid”, even a “battle”. 


A brief analysis, "Jihadis' New Toulouse Inspiration", published this week on the website of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), looks at how the killings are being celebrated by means of a widely circulated (and translated) essay called "Lessons and Treasures from the Battle of Toulouse". To remind us, the killer was Mohamed Merah, 24, a French citizen of Algerian origin, who boasted [The Guardian, March 22, 2012 ] to police negotiators that he had brought France to its knees and that his one regret was not having been able to carry out plans for more killings.

Madrid

The Merah killings are being represented as a turning point for Moslems born in Europe and other parts of the non-Arab world. The murders are

"particularly unique and noteworthy... Unlike other successful operations carried out by immigrants, Western-born Muslims are rejecting local governmental attempts to promote non-violent forms of Islam. The operation has also reminded jihadis about the importance of attacking France, which has been spared the successful mass attacks experienced in the United States and elsewhere in Europe. Ultimately, the goal of this raid and others like it, is to produce an al-Qaida "in Western dress with blue eyes" and with a "totally Western appearance."

The source of this terrorist self-worship is an online al-Qaida forum [click to view it]. It describes the murderer as being one of the "fighting men of a special class". The killings of the children are a "practical lesson in bravery". The essay was first released in late March and documented in early April by Middle East Media Research Institute. MEMRI is one of the few - and certainly among the most important - agencies making Arabic source materials available to non-Arabic readers.

IPT refers to other key points in the jihadist manifest:

• The al-Qaida essay targets the large class of unemployed and frustrated Muslim youth in Europe, touching on the frustration of young Europe-born Moslems with life in the West. It says their anger makes them "the best soldiers in al-Qaida's ranks". 
• "The hero of the battle of Toulouse will be an example and a role model for whoever is behind him among the Muslim youth in the West, especially those who have not joined up with Mujahid groups."
• The murders are "a realization of al-Qaida's call... the route to jihad is open and available". This is a way to join the "heroes for Islam". The murders embody "the rejection of the West's anti-extremism campaigns by a Western Muslim."
• "The hardest strike against the Crusader West" is that Western Muslim youth are still joining al-Qaida.
• These young European Moslems "have no social value, no jobs to mention, and no weight or consideration." As long as they believe in Islam's "divine law," they will be "marginalized and allegations would be made against them of being terrorists and radicals". If they get past those "allegations", they will find that Taliban, al-Qaida and Islamic law are the keys to their "honor" being restored. 
• The "wide margins of liberty" in the West, which the al-Qaida writer demonizes throughout his essay, prevent them from becoming downtrodden like the Arabs living under tyrannical rule in their home countries.



Toulouse

• "The economic and social drain on the West is just as much a success as the damage of the raids."
• Euromoslems are becoming "a special and distinguished type of hidden soldiers who are not known or cared about by many people and who are not easy for the enemy to spot, through whatever methods and ways are available to the enemy."
• The London and Madrid "operations" are role models of what can be achieved. 
• "In London and Madrid, local terrorists used explosives to kill dozens using buses and subways. In Mumbai, gunman targeted popular Western hangouts as well as a Jewish center. These "Mujahideen have broken the fear barrier and took the [Muslim] nation to a stage of challenge, by staging quick and unique attacks that target the enemy's economic, political, and military positions in their own homes".

Do we need to expand on why we call it This Ongoing War?

18-Apr-12: Real rocks, real terror, real extremism, real deaths

We wrote about these rocks in February 2012

In "The Rocks in Tom Friedman's Head", a pungent media critique that appears on the Accuracy in Media website today, Michael Widlanski takes aim at one of Thomas L. Friedman's recent New York Times sermons directed at us Israelis.

Writing what he calls "A Middle East Twofer" (he explains the cleverness of the title in his op ed), Friedman describes the latest iteration of his moral vision for peace and brotherhood:

"I can certainly see the efficacy of nonviolent resistance by Palestinians to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank — on one condition: They accompany any boycotts, sit-ins or hunger strikes with a detailed map of the final two-state settlement they are seeking. Just calling for “an end to occupation” won’t cut it... Palestinians need to accompany every boycott, hunger strike or rock they throw at Israel with a map delineating how, for peace, they would accept getting back 95 percent of the West Bank... By Palestinians engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience in the West Bank with one hand and carrying a map of a reasonable two-state settlement in the other, they will be adopting the only strategy that will end the Israeli occupation: Making Israelis feel morally insecure but strategically secure." 

Widlansky's biographical footprints covers considerable territory: reporter, writer, correspondent and editor for The New York Times, the Cox Newspapers and the Jerusalem Post; and strategic advisor for Israel's Ministry of Public Security. Here's an extract:

"When Friedman rarely and gingerly alludes to Saudi faults or to Arab terrorists, he only does so by first equating them with Israelis, usually Israeli settlers, comparing “the Muslim Wahhabi extremists who are choking Saudi Arabia’s future and the Jewish Wahhabi settlers who are doing the same to Israel.” Comparing all “settlers”—mostly law-abiding people in the suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—to Wahhabi fanatics or terrorists is a mockery of analysis. It is like calling rocks a path to peace or treating a mass murderer as a peacemaker. Such rhetoric by Friedman and his ilk blocks our ability to see the real role of real terror and real extremism in today’s Middle East."

Widlansky's essay is short and worth the minute or two it will take you to read it right through.

The alleged killers of Asher Palmer and his son Yonatan [see 25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead] were in front of a military court again this morning. [We went there to give some badly-needed moral support to the Palmers. The process of getting into the courtroom was challenging and after an hour of standing around frustrated and hot, we left. When we hear how today's proceedings, now underway, went, we will report.] Even if you're not a New York Times reporter, sometimes you actually need to see and meet and speak with the family of the victims of Thomas Friedman's rocks.

And if that's too challenging (which for many people it legitimately is), then at least you need to get to a functional, pragmatic understanding of the role of rocks and what they can do to a person's head, life, children and future.

To be frank, we don't think the problem is the rocks in Journalist Friedman's head. Rather it's the rocks and boulders and cement blocks hurled at vehicles driven by Jews that cause otherwise intelligent and well-informed people like our friends and neighbors in North America, Australia, Europe and elsewhere to imagine they are seeing non-violence manifest.

Widlanski gets it right: those rocks and the rhetoric they engender block our ability to see the real role of real terror and real extremism in today’s Middle East. While getting this wrong may have some effect, perhaps minor, perhaps not, on the domestic readers of the New York Times, they are literally a matter of life and death for those of us living at close quarters with the rock-throwers and their apologists. For us, it's essential to understand the message of the rocks and draw life-affirming conclusions.

17-Apr-12: Turns out the terrorists freed for Shalit are still doing terrorism. Who would have thought it?

Freed from Israeli prison: 1,027 committed terrorists

The release of the young kidnapped Israeli Gilad Shalit in October 2011 was expensive in ways that, we are convinced, most people still do not understand.

One aspect of the price, related to the fact that 1,027 terrorists went free, is that no meaningful sanctions were put into the transaction against the possibility that one or two of these murderers and thugs might, against every expectation, continue their terrorist career path.

Naturally, there is now abundant evidence that Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the numerous other terror groups have absorbed the newly-freed men and woman and put them back to work, doing what they know best: destroying the lives of civilians - both on the Israeli side and on their own.

The Israeli security service (the Shin Bet) announced today that it had arrested two more Palestinian Arab terrorists from among those who walked free in the Shalit transaction. The freshly incarcerated men are said to have been engaging in terrorist activities.

• Daud Isa Daud Halu (Ynet calls him Dawd Chilu; the Israel Prison Service listed him last year as דאוד חלו עיסא דאוד), now 21, was convicted in an Israeli military court last month of attempting to trade in military equipment, starting a month after his release in the second of the two Shalit tranches. Having previously been sentenced to 40 months of penal servitude, he has now been sentenced to go back to prison for 44 months. 
• Omar Abu Snina (that's what Haaretz calls him today but in the October prisoner list he appears as Umar Hamdan Taha Abu Asnina, prisoner number 316) from Hebron. He was deported to the Gaza Strip when he was set loose in October and promptly began recruiting people in the West Bank's Palestinian Arab settlements. The goal was to kidnap Israelis and get some benefit: trade them for more imprisoned terrorists, perhaps, or just hold them or kill them. The media reports do not provide much detail. Our records show (and for some reason, the newspapers are failing to say this) that Abu Snina (aka Abu Asnina) earned those two life sentences for murder and attempted murder plus assorted weapons offences. Once out, he updated himself technologically and took to using computer flash memory devices to record, and then distribute via his family, detailed instructions on how to carry out kidnappings, a sort of Dummy's Guide for Abduction-Minded Terrorists. Ynet says the Shin Bet somehow got the card and revealed some of the guidelines: Hostages are to be visited once a week at least, and given food and water; They are to be "hidden in a house, a farm or a work place; weapons and explosives need to be obtained one way or another "in a careful manner".

Haaretz counts eight Shalit-round terrorists (so far) who have so far been apprehended this year for their renewed terrorism. We also know, from a report yesterday, that Hamas is devoting serious money to finance the lifestyles and - it stands to reason - the renewed careers of the recycled terrorist thugs. It is a certainty that many more are doing and planning terror.

There are probably those who still believe the mass release of terrorists will bring peace closer, sooner, faster. Or that the ends (the release of Gilad) somehow justify the means. For us, we've stopped trying to argue with them. The Shalit transaction, as we have said widely, publicly and repeatedly, was a disaster and will surely lead to more terrorist actions, more tragic deaths and much, much less peace.

15-Apr-12: [UPDATED] Gazan rockets crash into southern Israel

First report in the last few minutes of a Qassam rocket that crashed into the Shaar Hanegev region. Not yet confirmed by the IDF, and no reports of injuries or damage.
And around 10:45 pm, Israel time, another Gazan rocket (according to the IDF) crashed into open land just north of Kerem Shalom, a Kibbutz community of about a dozen families. No reports of injuries or damage for now.

12-Apr-12: Additional peaceful serenity from the Sinai and its overlords

A previous gasline blast in Sinai, this one near
the town of El-Arish [AFP]

A week ago, as Passover was about to start, we wrote ["5-Apr-12: The Egyptians, Passover and the wanderings in Sinai"] about three rockets fired on Israeli's major holiday resort, Eilat, filled with visitors preparing to enjoy the Pesach celebrations. We paraphrased Egypt's chief of security who had made two couldn't-be-clearer statements in the wake of those incoming rockets.

"One - they didn't come from Egyptian territory. And two - in case anyone might have thought that there were security issues in the Sinai, well - there aren't."

We noted there that the safety of the Sinai looks very different from where we are sitting. The gas pipeline running from Egypt to Israel, as one for-instance, has been bombed at least thirteen times in the last year. Despite this, Egypt's military supremo Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi said in May 2011 [see "Egypt: Sinai is 100% secure"] responding to US concern, said "The security situation in Sinai is 100% safe."

Spokespeople for the new post-Mubarak Egypt government said in November 2011 that they would "tighten security along the pipeline by installing alarms and recruiting security patrols from Bedouin tribesmen in the area". But there is no clear evidence that they have, and certainly no significant uptick in the security situation there. In reality, and in the simplest of terms, the story of Egyptian Sinai is

Lawlessness... home to an intricate set of historic, political, social and economic conditions that have transformed it into a frontier where the state has ceased to exist.

That's what the editor of the Egypt Independent called it four days ago. That was right after the gas pipeline was blown up for the fourteenth time. This Associated Press report, evidently not paying that much attention to what Egypt's chief of security asserted, says

"Islamist militants... have stepped up activity in Sinai, taking advantage of a security vacuum caused by a thin police presence in the post-Mubarak era."

Israel's defensive measures and policies along our southern border and in this ongoing war in general are, fortunately, not driven by the insights of Egypt's government security experts.

UPDATE Thursday 6:00 pm: Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz today says

"Cairo has reinforced troop levels in the [Sinai] peninsula, but they are few and far between, and smuggling continues apace... Despite the military operation and the reinforcements, which according to Israeli sources add up to seven battalions beyond the deployment levels specified in the Camp David treaties, the Egyptian army does not dare position isolated soldiers along the main road of northern Sinai out of fears of Bedouin attacks... At first sight, the military operation looks impressive, as more soldiers and APCs move in from their bases in western Sinai, near the Suez Canal... But it is obvious very quickly that the reinforcements are just sitting in place. The new battalions were placed only along the main road. They do not conduct patrols along it, do not leave the road to search in El-Arish or Rafah and certainly do not come anywhere near the Bedouin camps near the mountainous regions south of the coastal plain."

12-Apr-12: Evidently that cursed good-for-nothing security barrier is good for only one thing...

We snapped this from our picnic table at Mitzpe Ofir on Tuesday.
You can see, if you look very closely, some of the tens of thousands
of picnickers and campers below on the shores of Lake Kinneret,
aka the Sea of Galilee.

Traveling this beautiful country, as hundreds of thousands of Israelis (our family among them) and tourists are during this Passover holiday week, you are struck by the compactness of the land.

We set out from Jerusalem in the south of Israel before seven one morning this week, and managed to get all the way up to the northern end of the Jordan Valley and into the Beit She'an Valley for a delightful breakfast beside a pool fed by the natural spring at Ein Moda before 8. We lunched at the stunning Mitzpe Ofir and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with friends a lovely spot on the Golan Heights as well as traveling the circumference of the Sea of Galilee. We were back home in Jerusalem around midnight.

The distances are much shorter than people unfamiliar with this land often comprehend. It's a tiny and vibrant land with a minor length and virtually no breadth.

We were reminded yesterday of what the close proximity of extremely hostile neighbours can mean in an environment like this. Thankfully this was just a reminder because no serious harm was done... though it could easily have ended in a far, far worse outcome.

Alert Border Police manning one of the security checkpoints through which we drove without interruption at Bekaot in the northern Jordan Valley yesterday stopped a Palestinian Arab of 19. Something about the young man, a resident of the Nablus area as it turns out, aroused their suspicions; there have been previous incidents at the same crossing point in the last ninety days so you can expect a degree of alertness. Ynet ("Palestinian nabbed on way to Passover terror attack") says a metal detector alarm was activated indicating the presence of "suspicious objects". These turned out to be multiple (a Jerusalem Post report says seven) explosive devices that were promptly neutralized by police sappers brought to the scene, plus several knives and dozens of bullets. The assumption behind the investigation now underway is that he was planning to celebrate Passover in a manner favored by his terrorist colleagues. We wrote about that depravity a week ago - see "5-Apr-12: The terrorists send us their Passover greetings".

There are active civil rights organizations in this country that are furious at Israel's resort to security barriers and checkpoints, arguing that these cause, rather than prevent, acts of terror directed at ordinary Israelis and our visitors. We have not noted any response from them today; perhaps it will still come. Needless to say, we absolutely disagree with the logic of such political activism.

We're grateful for the vigilance of the service personnel who man those barriers and crossings 24 x 7, and for the benign policies that by and large allow peaceable folk to go about their lives while separating out the malevolent barbarians with dead children and mayhem on their minds.

A happy Passover holiday to all.

8-Apr-12: Sderot under fire again tonight from the Gazan terror gangs

There are reports in the past half hour (it's now 10 pm, Israel time) that a terrorist Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open area near the southern Israeli city of Sderot this evening. Ynet says there are no reports of injuries or damage. This of course is the opposite of the outcome desired by the religiously-inspired fanatics who do the firing. Their approach is absolutely indiscriminate - so long as what they shoot hits something (anything) Jewish, their mission is accomplished.

Fortunately, again, they failed this time. But the terror they sow in the hearts of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis, many of them children, living in the communities where the 'incoming rocket' sirens are sounded is their compensation.

8-Apr-12: Rockets strike near Netivot this morning

Netivot three weeks ago: A parking lot in the heart of the city
was hit by a Qassam rocket round fired by the Gazan terror thugs
[Image Source]

There are initial reports in the last few minutes (Sunday 7:00 am in Israel) that two rockets fired from Gaza by Palestinian Arab terrorists  landed near the southern Israeli city of Netivot (population: 27,000). Ynet says there are no reports of injuries at this stage. The Hebrew Maariv site says two GRAD-type rockets crashed into open land near the community of Ofakim (population: 25,000). It appears the two reports refer to the same attack.

8-Apr-12: A Syrian lesson about relying on others

Syrian protestors who know the nature of the al-Assad regime
better than most foreign observers express (in February 2012)
the central truth of the impotence that characterizes
foreign intervention in their country. [Image Source]

We have just been reading a report that quotes Washington's man in Damascus (now back in Washington) doing what we described in the post we uploaded earlier tonight: wringing his hands. To be clear: we have no doubt he speaks from genuine anguish. We certainly don't envy the man or his job or his recent posting in the nerve centre of the appalling, ongoing Syrian bloodbath.

The bottom line is he is unable, as far as we can tell, to save the life of even one Syrian child. The same is true of special UN envoy Kofi Anan, who yesterday warned of "alarming" casualties, as if more than 9,000 already-dead Syrians was somehow less than alarming. His boss Ban Ki-Moon has "condemned" the al-Assad regime for the massacres, but they don't stop. The noisy Arab League got Syira's permission (!) in late December 2011 to send observers

"to monitor Syria's progress in removing troops from protest areas, free political prisoners and negotiate with dissidents."

They got there a week later, and within four weeks, the Saudi Arabians and then the Arab Gulf states announced they were withdrawing from the mission. Two weeks later, after various contradictory reports about the mission being extended, it was "indefinitely suspended" on January 28 and everyone went home. In fact, every other international figure or body that has tried to step in has failed. In February 2012, all of the fifteen members of the UN Security Council, called for the Syrian president to step down. But the resolution was vetoed by Russia and China and so it failed. We noted last year ["14-Jun-11: Arab spring, Syrian fall?"] that this would happen. Quoting an Haaretz commentator, we said al-Assad's regime

has the full backing - and the threat of their veto of any anti-Syrian resolution - of China and Russia. Their support enables Assad to continue to characterize his violent suppression of demonstrations and shooting of protesters as an "internal Syrian matter". 

And that is exactly what is happening. Simply put, there are limits to what can be achieved when you are dealing with people - and there are many, many such people - like the Butcher of Damascus, Basher al-Assad.

Here's what Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria, said Friday [source: MSNBC] while publishing satellite images that show Syria has artillery poised to hit residential areas and has moved forces from one town to another in the face of calls for a withdrawal that it has pretended to honor:

"Ford said Syrian forces had indeed withdrawn from some areas [but] cited media reports that they had fired artillery at residential areas in several towns over the last two days and had carried out "arrest sweeps" in Damascus suburbs. "This is not the reduction in offensive Syrian government security operations that all agree must be the first step for the Annan initiative to succeed... The regime and the Syrian people should know that we are watching. The regime cannot hide the truth. We strongly urge the Assad regime to allow the U.N. compliance team, an effective and independent means of verification, to have full and unfettered access throughout Syria to investigate the regime’s compliance..." 

Such calm language. Such noble hopes. And day after day, for a year already, tens of people have been killed by the armed forces of Al-Assad's army.

As Israelis have learned, the hard way, when it comes to the lives of your loved ones, relying on the goodwill and high hopes of people from outside your own borders can be a life-threatening experience.