Understanding Israel's Destruction of Hamas' "Metro" - Seth J. Frantzman

 

​ by Seth J. Frantzman

Destruction of the Metro was a strategic defeat for Hamas, setting it back many years.

^{Originally published under the title "How Israel Targeted Hamas Underground (And What It Could Do Next)."}

Hamas built more than 100 km of tunnels underneath the Gaza strip, enabling it to move rockets around underground and coordinate mass barrages through centralized command and control. [IDF]

In eleven days of fighting in mid-May, Israel used precision airstrikes to try to damage Hamas infrastructure in Gaza and handed the militant group a blow that it will take years to recover from.

The goal was not to target large numbers of Hamas low-level fighters, but rather its strategic underground tunnels and infrastructure that enable it to move around masses of rockets that it has used to target Israel. More than 4,300 rockets were fired at Israel and Israel's advanced Iron Dome air defense system intercepted most of the rocket threats to Israel's cities.

In an interview with the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) southern command underground department, which played a key role in the recent conflict, the IDF sketched out how it went about targeting Hamas. This was a unique operation against what Israel calls the "Metro" in Gaza, a series of underground tunnels that link more than 100 kilometers beneath the Gaza Strip. It should be noted the Gaza Strip is only 41km long and between 6 and 12km wide which means that the underground tunnel system was not only extensive but crisscrossed areas underneath the civilian buildings that make up a large swath of the Gaza Strip. The area is festooned with low-rise buildings and towns and villages, making it one of the more crowded areas in the world.

While militaries in the past have faced underground tunnel networks and obstacles, from the Maginot Line to the Vietcong tunnel systems, Israel's challenge was made more complex by the presence of so many civilians. Over the years Israel has created a method for overcoming this concern, knowing that there is intense international pressure to avoid civilian casualties. These casualties occur in similar war, such as the U.S.-led Coalition bombing of the Al Jadeeda neighborhood in Mosul in March 2017 that led to more than 100 deaths.

Israel has confronted this challenge in the past and in 2009 and 2014 there are large numbers of civilian casualties, as well as large numbers of casualties among Hamas fighters. Both those wars involved a ground incursion. Israel changed tactics after 2014 and there have been fewer conflicts with Hamas. However, there were flare-ups in 2018 and 2019 that saw hundreds of rockets fired at Israel in multi-day clashes. Israel's tactic of precision airstrikes and warnings to occupied buildings reduced the casualties in those clashes to near-zero. That is also the method Israel used in airstrikes in Syria, of which there have been thousands against Iranian targets since 2015. There have been few civilian or military casualties in those extreme precision strikes. In Gaza, Israel used its JDAM munitions, acquired from the United States, as well as its extensive surveillance network of aircraft and other systems. Israel doesn't specify which aircraft or UAVs it may have used during the conflict.

"The way the Metro was built is they have logistics and through that they build the whole Metro, you can see it from visuals and every aircraft that goes into the air that takes footage you can learn a little bit about where they build," said the IDF officer whose name cannot be used for security reasons. Hamas constructed shafts into the ground with concrete to be used during the fighting. The shafts frequently are built underneath houses and Israel says that it attempted to strike the underground system usually by hitting areas that were along streets or other open areas, so as not to destroy civilian homes. Israel weighed the relative gain by hitting the buildings compared to the harm it would do to civilian infrastructure.

The underground system, according to the officer, links various villages and towns and Gaza city. "It is all connected underground," he says. "[What] we strike are the main places we know they have more military use out of it and that is the places we preferred to focus on." The Metro system enabled Hamas to launch barrages of long-range rockets, sometimes more than one hundred at a time. According to Iranian media during the recent conflict, Hamas had tried to overwhelm Israel's air defenses with these saturation rocket launches. The IDF says that after it embarked on its campaign against the Metro Hamas was less effective in targeting Israel's cities such as Tel Aviv.

The major campaign against the Metro began on Friday, May 14, with some 160 aircraft hunting down 150 targets in a night-long air campaign. As recently as February 2021, the IDF had drilled to strike up to 3,000 targets in a twenty-four-hour period. This means the campaign in Gaza was only a small example of the firepower the IDF could unleash using advanced fifth-generation jets like the F-35 stealth fighter. This comes in the context of growing tensions between Israel and Iran and Iranian proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah.

When it comes to Hamas, the decision to strike at the Metro tunnel system builds on past campaigns that confronted other Hamas threats. For instance, in 2014 Israel targeted Hamas tunnels that stretched from Gaza into Israel. Israel then constructed a unique sensory barrier underground and above ground to prevent Hamas tunneling under the border. Israel has also struck Hamas frogmen and various naval units, including an unmanned submarine in this recent war. The IDF has had to contend with Hamas ATGM units as well as cyber warfare units and now drones. The Iron Dome system downed Hamas drones for the first time in this conflict.

The importance of demolishing the Metro system was to prevent Hamas from being able to easily move rockets around underground and set up the mass barrages that can be coordinated and linked to centralized command and control. In the past, Hamas often fired several rockets at a time from less sophisticated trucks and other methods. However, Iran has perfected the use of new precision missiles and also the hiding of rockets, such as the 107mm and 122mm used by militias in Iraq, so that they can be timed and fired at a location. Hamas rockets are now much larger, including some that can reach 250km.

Destruction of the Metro was a strategic defeat for Hamas, setting it back many years.

"This [Metro] is a system they have been building for about ten years. In the 2014 war we didn't focus on this system. It wasn't as effective and they didn't have as much back then," says the IDF officer. Israel considers the system a Hamas strategy and as such demolishing it is a strategic defeat, not just a tactical one for Hamas. It sets the organization back many years.

Striking a system like this that runs throughout Gaza is possible without hitting a lot of civilian homes because if you strike to ends of a tunnel, the militants can end up being stuck inside. In addition, the strikes on the Metro appear to have specifically harmed a Hamas system. The other group in Gaza that has numerous rockets is Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israel conducted a multi-day campaign against that group in 2019, also reducing its capabilities. It appears the groups do not share the same underground tunnels.

Israel attacked the system several days into the recent conflict. This apparently occurred when it became clear that Hamas would not stop the long-range rocket fire and Israel's political leadership took a decision to increase the pressure on Hamas. "I think we learned that Hamas counted on these tunnels and once you take it away it changes the whole fighting ground. It changed the face of these two weeks and the way Hamas uses the tools they have to fight Israel."

Hamas says that it has many more kilometers of tunnels under Gaza and Iranian media says Hamas is rebuilding its rocket arsenal already. It had some 15,000 rockets and has to replenish them. According to the IDF officer, Hamas can rebuild the system but it will take time. Hamas may have been set back ten years. "We know there are places we didn't initially strike because it is under houses and we decided it doesn't benefit us because of the damage it will cost, we know where it is and how to put it out of use in different ways," the IDF officer says.

Israel also targeted the sites Hamas uses to make the concrete for the tunnel system. "If they want to rebuild they will have harder time doing that. There are specific Hamas concrete plants they use to build the tunnels, and we struck those concrete plants in order to make them have a harder time rebuilding the tunnels if they choose to do that."

Seth J. Frantzman is a Ginsburg-Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and senior Middle East correspondent at The Jerusalem Post.

 

Seth J. Frantzman

Source: https://www.meforum.org/62414/israel-destruction-of-hamas-metro-set-it-back

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Biden and the Ayatollah's Game Plan - Amir Taheri

 

​ by Amir Taheri

Fear of an illusory war may lead to a deal which would allow a real war to continue behind the façade of an illusory peace.

• [I]n dealing with the mullahs it is appeasement that encourages war.

• [N]o sooner had Biden's appeasement squad been deployed than Ayatollah Ali Khamenei... revive[d] the embers of several conflicts into blazing flames.

• The revised budget... includes a 62 percent raise in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' share. The Quds (Jerusalem) Force, which is in charge of exporting revolution and keeping the pot boiling in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, sees its budget increased by almost 40 percent. Some estimates put the total increase of Iran's military budget since 2019 at around 150 percent

• [Khamenei's] kind of war is labelled in many different ways: proxy, asymmetric, low-intensity, low-cost, cottage industry war.... he pursues it through surrogates and mercenaries recruited in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen.

• According to best estimates the Islamic Republic has spent around $20 billion in its various low-cost wars since 2000, a relatively modest sum compared to the huge cost of a full-scale war.... the regime needs a minimum of $60 billion a year to cover its basic costs and survive while continuing its decades-long campaign to de-stabilize the Middle East in the hope of what Kayhan, a mouthpiece for Khamenei, describes as "the inevitable tsunami of Islamic revolution"....

• Blinken talks of his hopes for a "breakthrough"... Khamenei, too, wants a breakthrough based in a promise to enrich the uranium he does not want or need at a lower grade in exchange for the cash flow he does need to reactivate his momentarily interrupted special kind of war against the US and its regional allies, indeed against what is often known as " the world order".

• Fear of an illusory war may lead to a deal which would allow a real war to continue behind the façade of an illusory peace.

No sooner had President Biden's appeasement squad been deployed than Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the cleric heading Iran's regime, ended almost four years of relative self-restraint by trying to revive the embers of several conflicts into blazing flames. Pictured: Iran's "Supreme Guide," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Image source: khameni.ir/Wikimedia Commons)

Last February, when the new Biden administration launched its promised bid for a revival of the Obama "nuclear deal" with the Islamic Republic, apologists described it as an attempt at preventing another Middle Eastern war. This echoed the old mantra that in dealing with the Khomeinist regime, the choice is between appeasement and full-scale war.

Adepts of that mantra have failed to understand that in dealing with the mullahs it is appeasement that encourages war.

Thus, no sooner had President Biden's appeasement squad been deployed than Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the cleric heading the Khomeinist regime, ended almost four years of relative self-restraint by trying to revive the embers of several conflicts into blazing flames.

He started with Yemen, where he had withdrawn his embassy, military mission and religious propagandists, transferring them to Oman on a "temporary basis", by sending one of his generals as the new ambassador with the mission to upgrade the Houthis' ramshackle war machine. The next move was to speed up the supply of new rockets and missiles to his Hezbollah units in Lebanon. That was followed by a massive cash handout to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza in exchange for launching a new round of missile and rockets attacks on Israel. In between he also ordered a military build upon Iran's borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia, to signal the end of the low profile he had been forced to adopt during the Trump administration.

But that was not all. Believing that the new US administration may help him solve his cash flow problem, the ayatollah re-wrote the official national budget, prepared by outgoing President Hassan Rouhani, to dramatically increase his military's share. The revised budget, rushed through the ersatz parliament like a knife in butter, includes a 62 percent raise in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' share. The Quds (Jerusalem) Force, which is in charge of exporting revolution and keeping the pot boiling in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, sees its budget increased by almost 40 percent. Some estimates put the total increase of Iran's military budget since 2019 at around 150 percent.

The message going to surrogates in the region and beyond is that Tehran expects to be able to end the budget cuts it had been forced to introduce during the Trump tenure as the US, with a wink and a nod, allows some allies, notably South Korea and Japan, to release part of the money they owe for oil imports.

In theological terms, Khamenei and his associates see the expected deal with Biden as "relief after constraint" which is promised to believers who go through a period of suffering without losing faith.

The ayatollah seems determined to use this "window of opportunity" for changing gears in domestic politics also. The seven-man list of "approved candidates" he has launched for the forthcoming presidential election shows that he intends to install a war cabinet of radicals totally loyal to his person.

Does all that mean that the "Supreme Guide" is preparing for war?

Not all, if by war we mean a full-scale classical clash of military forces on land, in air and at sea. Khamenei knows that his disorganized military, divided into countless corps and commands with conflicting cultures and interests and often saddled with antiquarian materiel, is in no position to fight a classical war against a serious enemy. None of his 13 highest ranking generals, all at retirement age and deeply involved in their own business activities, has the profile of a putative conqueror.

Khamenei implicitly admits that by repeating his "neither compromise, nor war" slogan.

As far as diplomacy is concerned, he will play the game that Tehran started almost 30 years ago, negotiating accords on the "nuclear issue". The new US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, says the aim is to persuade Tehran to reduce its nuclear activities so that it is always no less than a year away from building a bomb. Khamenei, who has no intention of building a bomb at this time, is ready to offer the Americans the candy that they crave.

Last month he said: If we decide to build the bomb, neither they (the Biden team) nor those greater than them could stop us!

Using the "nuclear deal", a non-sequitur worthy of the Man of the Mancha, as a diversion the ayatollah hopes to get the sanctions lifted so that he can pursue his kind of war with greater vigor.

His kind of war is labelled in many different ways: proxy, asymmetric, low-intensity, low-cost, cottage industry war. Aware that few Iranians are prepared to fight his kind of war, he pursues it through surrogates and mercenaries recruited in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen. The use of mercenaries in such wars has a long history. The Abbasid Caliphs used the Turkish Mameluke slaves and the Ottomans had the Bashi-Bazouks while the Safavids used the Qizil-Bash and the Kurdish Peshmerga. The British in India employed the Nepalese Gurkha (Tomb-seekers) and the French did their dirty work through Alawite recruits known as "auxiliaires" or " helpers".

According to best estimates, the Islamic Republic has spent around $20 billion in its various low-cost wars since 2000, a relatively modest sum compared to the huge cost of a full-scale war. According to Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif, the regime needs a minimum of $60 billion a year to cover its basic costs and survive while continuing its decades-long campaign to destabilize the Middle East in the hope of what Kayhan, a mouthpiece for Khamenei, describes as "the inevitable tsunami of Islamic revolution" that would establish a new base for the eventual conquest of the world by "faith and justice" by the Iranian-led Resistance Front.

Blinken talks of his hopes for a "breakthrough" in the currently stalled "nuclear" talks. Khamenei, too, wants a breakthrough based in a promise to enrich the uranium he does not want or need at a lower grade in exchange for the cash flow he does need to reactivate his momentarily interrupted special kind of war against the US and its regional allies, indeed against what is often known as " the world order".

Fear of an illusory war may lead to a deal which would allow a real war to continue behind the façade of an illusory peace.

Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.

This article was originally published by Asharq al-Awsat and is reprinted by kind permission of the author.

 

Amir Taheri

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17434/biden-and-the-ayatollah-game-plan

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Senior Revolutionary Guards adviser killed in Syria - Shahar Klaiman

 

​ by Shahar Klaiman

Prominent IRGC adviser Hassan Abdullah Zadeh killed in Islamic State ambush in eastern Syria, Arab media outlets report. Around 25 Iranian militia members reportedly killed in attack.

A military adviser in Iran's Revolutionary Guards was killed in an Islamic State ambush over the weekend, according to Arab media reports.

Hassan Abdullah Zadeh had close ties to the late Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani prior to the latter's death in a US airstrike in 2020.

Zadeh was considered one of the most prominent Iranian officers in Syria's civil war, in particular in the battles for Aleppo and the Damascus suburbs. He was a security officer for the area of Sayyidah Zaynab, south of the Syrian capital, and was later active at an IRGC base near the Syrian-Iraqi border town of Al Bukamal.

Iranian media outlets published photos of Zadeh with Soleimani following the attack.

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that another IRGC member, Mohsen Abbasi, was also killed in the ambush.

According to Syrian opposition sources, the Islamic State group attacked a motorcade of Iranian militias making its way from Deir ez-Zor to Palmyra in eastern Syria. They said around 25 operatives, including a senior IRGC commander, were killed in the attack.

According to Arab media reports, Nizar Abbas Al-Fahud, a Syrian army commander, was also killed in the attack.

 

Shahar Klaiman

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/06/senior-revolutionary-guards-adviser-killed-in-syria/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Watchdog: Syria has likely used chemical weapons 17 times - AP and ILH Staff

 

​ by AP and ILH Staff

"The Assad regime, supported by Russia, continues to ignore calls from the international community to fully disclose and verifiably destroy its chemical weapons program," says US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Richard Mills.

Fernando Arias, Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons | Photo: AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko

The head of the international chemical weapons watchdog told the UN Security Council that its experts have investigated 77 allegations against Syria, and concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were likely or definitely used.

Fernando Arias called it "a disturbing reality" that eight years after Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the production or use of such weapons, many questions remain about its initial declaration of its weapons, stockpiles and precursors and its ongoing program.

He said Thursday that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will be taking up a new issue at its next consultations with Syria – "the presence of a new chemical weapons agent found in samples collected in large storage containers in September 2020."

Arias said he sent a letter informing the Syrian government that he intended to send an OPCW team to look into this issue from May 18 to June 1, and requested visas but never got a response. He said he informed Damascus he was postponing the arrival to May 28.

With no reply from Syria by May 26, he said, "I decided to postpone the mission until further notice."

Syria was pressed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention in September 2013 by its close ally Russia after a deadly chemical weapons attack that the West blamed on Damascus. By August 2014, Syrian President Bashar Assad's government declared that the destruction of its chemical weapons was completed. But Syria's initial declaration to the OPCW has remained in dispute.

In April 2020, OPCW investigators blamed three chemical attacks in 2017 on the Syrian government. The OPCW Executive Council responded by demanding that Syria provide details.

When it didn't, France submitted a draft measure on behalf of 46 countries in November to suspend Syria's "rights and privileges" in the global watchdog. In an unprecedented vote on April 21, the OPCW suspended Syria's rights until all outstanding issues are resolved.

Russia has sharply criticized the OPCW and its investigators, accusing them of factual and technical errors and acting under pressure from Western nations.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia kept up the attack on Thursday, accusing the chemical weapons watchdog of using information "from biased sources opposed to the Syrian government," of collecting evidence remotely and relying on "pseudo witnesses."

He said the purpose of the council meeting was not to "interrogate" Arias by asking "uncomfortable" questions, as some council members said, but "to work collectively to improve the deplorable situation that has evolved in the OPCW."

"We need to talk frankly with the OPCW leadership in order to preclude further erosion of its authority and prevent recurrence of the miserable situation that happened in April," when it voted "to incapacitate ... a sovereign state that faithfully complies" with the Chemical Weapons Convention, Nebenzia said. "We are concerned over increasing politicization of its work, initiated by our Western colleagues."

The Russian ambassador said he was surprised that Arias expressed surprise that Syria was not cooperating with the OPCW investigation team charged with determining responsibility for chemical attacks.

"It is not surprising that Syria never recognized the legitimacy of the group, neither did we," Nebenzia said. "The group was established illegitimately. You cannot expect that Syria will be cooperating with it."

Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward countered that "the facts of this case are clear."

"There are 20 unresolved issues in Syria's initial chemical weapons declaration, which is deeply concerning," she said. "The UN and the OPCW have attributed eight chemical weapons attacks to the Syrian regime. It's clear that the regime retains a chemical weapons capability and the willingness to use it."

Woodward said the Security Council will continue to insist on Syria's full cooperation with the OPCW, "and the full and verifiable destruction of Syria's chemical program."

US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills said, "No amount of disinformation – espoused by Syria and its very small number of supporters – can negate or diminish the credibility of the evidence that has been presented to us by the OPCW."

"The Assad regime – supported by Russia – continues to ignore calls from the international community to fully disclose and verifiably destroy its chemical weapons program," Mills said. "Without accountability for the atrocities committed against the Syrian people, lasting peace in Syria will remain out of reach. The United States, once again, calls for justice and accountability as critical components to help move Syria towards a political resolution to the conflict."

 

AP and ILH Staff 

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/06/watchdog-syria-has-likely-used-chemical-weapons-17-times/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Hamas threatens to 'protect' Jerusalem against planned flag march - Neta Bar , Shahar Klaiman and ILH Staff

 

​ by Neta Bar , Shahar Klaiman and ILH Staff

The terrorist group calls on Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to protest at the Temple Mount if the controversial "flag march" by nationalist and religious Israelis takes place as planned on Thursday, June 10.

A previous Jerusalem Day flag march outside the Old City | File photo: Dudi Vaaknin

A new storm is brewing, threatening to ignite the capital: The Hamas terrorist group on Saturday morning issued a call to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to protest at the Temple Mount if the controversial "flag march" by nationalist and religious Israelis takes place as planned on Thursday, June 10.

Muhammad Hamadeh, Hamas' spokesman in east Jerusalem wrote in a statement to the press that the organization was "warning Israel against using Jerusalem as a tool to evade its internal crisis and its failure to resolve its political problems." Hamadeh called on the residents of east Jerusalem and Arab Israelis to go to the Temple Mount and its environs to "protect the al-Aqsa mosque from the malice of the Zionists and their schemes."

The march, originally scheduled to take place on Jerusalem Day on May 10, was canceled by police as Hamas launched rockets towards the city.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Saturday night he would not support holding the march if it necessitated any special security effort. His comments sparked an outcry from right-wing leaders, who accused him of kowtowing to Hamas threats.

Minister of Regional Cooperation Ofir Akunis (Likud) said, "The security forces need to provide security to the marchers. If we give up Jerusalem, we will have given up everything."

Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich posted an angry Twitter statement in which he lambasted Gantz. "We didn't wait 2,000 years for an independent and sovereign Jewish state for a cowardly defense minister to publicly surrender to Hamas' threats of terror (and essentially inviting more threats and terror) and seeks to prevent Jews from marching with the flags of Israel in Jerusalem – the holy and "united" capital city. I expect Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and Public Security Minister [Amir Ohana] to make it clear that the march will be held."

The annual event, which celebrates Israel conquering east Jerusalem and gaining control over the Old City's religious sites, is often contentious – especially the section of the march which passes through the Muslim Quarter in the Old City.

The route of the march, however, still has not been approved by the police. In the coming days, police officials will convene assessment briefings and toward the middle of the week will be expected to inform the organizers whether the route, which is supposed to pass through Damascus Gate in the Old City, approved or not. The final say on the matter, meanwhile, will likely belong to the political echelon, which could decide, contrary to the position of the police, to alter the router or cancel the march altogether in an attempt to avoid escalating tensions.

Indeed, concerns exist that it could ignite sectarian tensions in the capital and torpedo the so-called "pro-change government" – which for the time being appears to have secured the necessary 61 seats to form an administration.

Heightened tensions between Jews and Muslims could pressure the Jewish nationalist Yamina party and Islamist Ra'am faction to withdraw from the so-called "pro-change government."

Both parties halted coalition talks when violence between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza began last month, before returning to discussions and agreeing to join a coalition with the Yesh Atid party.

Meretz MK Esawi Frej said he asked Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai to cancel the march, saying on Twitter that it was "a provocation that looks like an attempt to reignite the violence in our region, perhaps in the desire that it will serve some political interest or another."

Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben-Barak suggested on Saturday that rescheduling the march to June 10 was an attempt to disrupt the country's incoming government.

"We are at the beginning of difficult days in which a lot of pressure and attempts will be made to thwart the [pro-change government], but in the end, a new era will begin here. The will to form a government that will unite the division in Israeli society will overcome all attempts to thwart it," Ben-Barak tweeted.

March organizers said in a statement: "We will demand the unification of Jerusalem for eternity. We will return to marching in the streets of Jerusalem with heads held high and the Israeli flag. We will sing and dance for the Land of Zion and Jerusalem. Come one and come all to raise the flag and celebrate in the joy of Jerusalem."

 

Neta Bar , Shahar Klaiman and ILH Staff 

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/06/hamas-threatens-to-protect-jerusalem-against-planned-flag-march/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Trump lashes out at Biden for 'criticizing' Israel during Gaza fighting - Damian Pachter , AP and ILH Staff

 

​ by Damian Pachter , AP and ILH Staff

US President Joe Biden "actually criticized Israel while the Jewish homeland was under attack by thousands and thousands of rockets and missiles," Trump says in a speech at the North Carolina Republican Convention. "It was a betrayal when you look at what happened in Congress," he says in first speech in months.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the North Carolina Republican Convention Saturday, June 5, 2021, in Greenville, NC | Photo: AP/Chris Seward

Former US President Donald Trump returned to the spotlight Saturday for his first speech in months, hitting out at his successor Joe Biden over the recent conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, accusing the current president of having "criticized" the Jewish state during the hostilities.

"He actually criticized Israel while the Jewish homeland was under attack by thousands and thousands of rockets and missiles launched," Trump said in a speech to the North Carolina Republican Convention.

"It was a betrayal when you look at what happened in Congress," he said. "It used to be… everybody was with Israel. Today, I guess it's just not in vogue. But you look at some of these radicals they have in the House of Representatives; you have to deal with them all the time."

"Israel is really almost out, it's almost out. It's a very, very terrible thing," the former president said.

In his remarks, Trump blamed Iran – which backs the Gaza-based Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups – of orchestrating the rocket attacks on Israel. "It was launched by Iran," he said.

Out of office for more than four months and banned from his preferred social media accounts, the former president hopes to use such events to elevate his diminished voice ahead of another potential presidential run.

Trump lapped up applause from Republican supporters as he focused his early remarks on Biden and his administration, which he called "the most radical left-wing administration in history."

"As we gather tonight our country is being destroyed before our very eyes," he said.

He framed next year's midterm elections as a battle for the "survival of America," but kept followers guessing on his own plans for 2024.

"The survival of America depends upon our ability to elect Republicans at every level, starting with the midterms next year," Trump said. "We have to get it done. We have no choice actually. We're going to defend our freedoms."

Trump described 2024, the year of the next presidential election, as "a year that I look very much forward to" – drawing loud cheers from the audience in Greenville.

Verbal attacks against his favorite targets, including Biden's border policy, China, "radical left Democrats," and "critical race theory" all triggered wild cheers.

In contrast, the crowd fell largely silent during his claims of successfully tackling Covid-19 and of developing the vaccines that have helped quell the pandemic.

 

Damian Pachter , AP and ILH Staff 

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/06/trump-lashes-out-at-biden-for-criticizing-israel-during-gaza-fighting/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Huge rally in Michigan for the most unexpected cause - Bill Weckesser

 

​ by Bill Weckesser

Whatever his future, President Trump has come to personify powerful revolt to the entire liberal project.

What if "the narrative" is completely wrong?  The question hit me in April as I read an AT post by Thomas Lifson that democrat pollsters "admit 'major errors' as they struggle to survive evidence that polls are now worthless."

For me, evidence that "the narrative" isn't accurate came Saturday afternoon in the beautiful sunshine of Northern Michigan off the Lake Michigan coast as thousands of Michigan deplorables braved 90-degree temperatures and assembled to support an audit of Michigan's November election.  The event was pure "Trumpicana" as even the inflatable Trump seemed to dance to "YMCA" in the background.

Whatever his future, President Trump has come to personify powerful revolt to the entire liberal project.  He's the unquestioned actual and spiritual leader of a movement.  There's a rare emotional attachment to him.  Make no mistake: every Washington politician craves the loyalty Trump enjoys.

Methinks the giant has been roused.  These are the folks who make the country run — from business owners to workers to retirees, men, women, a vast cross-section of Americans who've never before been active in politics.  No wonder the leadership of both parties is scared.  Who could have imagined such a rally?  What political leader would dare invite thousands to pay $20 per person to meet outdoors on a hot June Saturday, at an out-of-the-way location, hundreds of miles from a major city to rally for an audit of an election?

And yet they came.

They are angry.  They know that their sacred right to vote has been stolen from them.  They're well beyond a deep skepticism of the establishment.  Hundreds of signatures were collected demanding that the Michigan Senate move forward with an Arizona-style forensic audit.  They know that Wayne Country elections have always been fraudulent, but this time it cost them their president, and they are angry, and they're turning their anger into involvement.

These folks have largely been invisible to the pollsters.

Not anymore.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.

 

Bill Weckesser

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/huge_rally_in_michigan_for_the_most_unexpected_cause.html

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Shock GOP victory as border city McAllen, TX flips mayor’s office - Thomas Lifson

 

​ by Thomas Lifson

The election continues and amplifies the trend of heavily Hispanic border communities converting from solid support for Democrats to supporting Republican candidates.

Democrat dreams of flipping Texas blue took a body blow yesterday in a runoff election for mayor in the bluest part of the red state. McAllen, Texas, a border city whose population of over 143,000 is 85.3% Hispanic, handed victory to the Republican candidate, Javier Villalobos.

Yesterday, as the Progress Times reports:

City Commissioner Javier Villalobos won 51% of the vote during the mayoral runoff election — and defeated City Commissioner Veronica Vela Whitacre by just 206 votes, according to results announced by the City Secretary’s Office on Saturday night.

“It was a tight one, so I congratulate my opponent,” Villalobos said. “It was a very well run campaign. But we’re very glad and fortunate that we prevailed.”

KRGV-TV screengrab (cropped)

The results won’t be certified until the city canvasses the votes on June 14, so there is always then possibility of shenanigans, I suppose.  Republican Villalobos was defeated in 2015 when he first ran for City Commission (or city council, as it is called other places), but in 2018 won a special election when the incumbent resigned to run for judge. Now, the entire city has backed him as its chief executive, the first Republican, at least in the current era, to hold the office.

The election continues and amplifies the trend of heavily Hispanic border communities converting from solid support for Democrats to supporting Republican candidates. In 2016, surrounding Hidalgo County voters gave Hillary Clinton 68.12% of their votes, and of those who voted for a straight party ticket, 73.45% supported Democrats, but in 2020, Joe Biden got 58.04% of the vote.

Border residents of all ethnicities are suffering from the overwhelming of social services, schools, and public facilities and from the crime brought by the wave of illegal immigrants. Democrats have always presumed that ethnic identity alone would cause Hispanic voters to support their open border policies. That racist thinking is incorrect, and McAllen voters have once again reminded them that floods of illegal immigrants are damaging to everyone.

 

Thomas Lifson

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/shock_gop_victory_as_border_city_mcallen_tx_flips_mayors_office.html

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Israel's Wix pulls Hong Kong democracy website on police orders - News Agencies and ILH Staff

 

​ by News Agencies and ILH Staff

By going after a foreign company hosting a website abroad, the Hong Kong police request underlines fears about the lengths to which Chinese authorities are going to squelch dissent with the national security law.

 

Wix's offices in Tel Aviv | File photo: Reuters/Baz Ratner

Israel-based web host Wix pulled a Hong Kong democracy website from its servers following a takedown request by the Chinese financial hub's police, a decision the company said Friday was "a mistake."

The firm later reversed the decision and reinstated the site. However, the removal is the first known case of Hong Kong police using a sweeping new national security law to demand overseas websites censor content.

Nathan Law, a Hong Kong opposition leader based in the U.K., tweeted Thursday that the hosting company, Wix.com, received a request from the Hong Kong police department to disable the 2021 Hong Kong Charter website.

He posted screenshots of the police notice telling the hosting company the site contained messages "likely to constitute offenses endangering national security" and that it would be prosecuted if it didn't comply.

Hong Kong Police requested the Israeli company @Wix to disable our website, otherwise prosecuting the company. Wix complied.
It shows that our freedom of speech is not protected even we are not in Hong Kong and China.
Here is our statement. pic.twitter.com/A0xlNGy9Ul

— Nathan Law 羅冠聰 (@nathanlawkc) June 3, 2021

Wix, headquartered in Tel Aviv, said the website was removed by mistake and has been reinstated.

"We have reviewed our initial screening and have realized that the website never should have been removed and we would like to apologize," the company said by email. "We are also reviewing our screening process in order to improve and make sure that mistakes such as this do not repeat in the future."

Law said the site was down for three days. The Hong Kong police department said it wouldn't comment on individual cases.

By going after a foreign company hosting a website abroad, the Hong Kong police request underlines fears about the lengths to which Chinese authorities are going to squelch dissent with the national security law. The law sparked waves of massive street protests in the former British colony before it was imposed last year and Hong Kong officials used it to justify freezing the assets of a pro-democracy publisher last month.

"It is outrageous that a website advocating democracy, even though it is located outside of China, might be blocked just because China considers it subversive," Law said in a statement posted on Twitter. "It raises the possibility that other websites and online remarks critical of China will be the next targets of Beijing's internet censorship."

The 2021 Hong Kong Charter website was started by activists promoting their fight among overseas Chinese against Beijing's sweeping crackdown on the semi-autonomous Chinese city and changes to its electoral system.

 

News Agencies and ILH Staff 

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/06/israels-wix-pulls-hong-kong-democracy-website-on-police-orders/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

'If leftist government is formed, God forbid, we will topple it very quickly' - Yehuda Shlezinger

 

​ by Yehuda Shlezinger

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells Likud lawmakers that the emerging coalition aimed at toppling him with the help of right-wing parties is the "biggest election deceit in Israeli history," vowing to fight the "government of surrender."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that a "dangerous left-wing" government was in the making | Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Pool via AP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Knesset lawmakers from all parties to "vote their conscience against the radical Left" if the so-called changed coalition presents a new government to the Knesset this week.

Netanyahu, who spoke at the Likud faction meeting, said that the right-wing parties Yamina and New Hope were essentially disenfranchising voters by partnering with the opposition parties on the Left in an effort to end his term through what they have called a "unity government." Netanyahu said in his speech on Sunday that it would be a "government of deceit and surrender."

"We are witnessing an election deceit the likes of which has never happened," he warned. "People feel – justifiably so – that they have been conned," he said, referring to Yamina leader Naftali Bennett agreeing to a rotating premiership with left-wing leader Yair Lapid as part of the prospective government that was declared last week and could be sworn in within days.

"When we talk about a dangerous left-wing government, we are speaking about a government that would forfeit the Negev and won't be able to resist an American demand for a settlement moratorium," Netanyahu warned. He added that the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet in the new government would rely on "terror sympathizers and would not be able to fight in Gaza or defend Israel in the International Criminal Court." He then called on potential renegades within Yamina and other parties to stay true to their values. "It is still not too late," he said.

Netanyahu said that the steps taken by some social media networks to ban posts and freeze accounts of various right-wing activists that had been lashing out against the emerging coalition were an attempt to muzzle free speech.

"We condemn any form of incitement and violence, even when the incitement against us gets out of control," Netanyahu said. "Incitement is a call for violence. That is the difference between criticism and incitement. There were some people who have called for my assassination, as well as my wife's, but no one spoke out against this in public. Incitement to violence should always be off-limits," he continued, vowing that "no one will silence us, because when a massive constituency feels that it has been conned it has a right and duty to protest using any democratic means at its disposal."

In conclusion, he added that even if the Likud loses power because of the Lapid-Bennett deal, the fight will continue. "If, God forbid, the government is formed, we will make sure to topple it very quickly," he said.

 

Yehuda Shlezinger 

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/06/if-govt-is-formed-we-will-topple-it-very-quickly/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter