Egypt’s Venom Toward Israel

by Rick Moran

The fallout from the terrorist attack near the border town of Eliat this past Thursday that killed eight Israelis, and the subsequent pursuit of the murderers by Israeli security forces into Egypt that resulted in a confrontation with Egyptian police, killing as many as five, continues to be felt across the region.

Hamas launched a deadly barrage of rockets that killed one civilian and wounded twenty over the weekend, while Israel launched a series of air strikes that Hamas claims killed fourteen Palestinians. As Israeli politicians call for stronger action against the terrorists, the UN and Egypt are working to broker a cease-fire with Hamas. The terrorists agreed late Sunday to restoring the peace, but, according to the Associated Press, more rocket fire targeting Israeli towns was launched after the cease-fire deadline, and Israeli planes continued their strikes deep into Gaza. Apparently, not all Hamas factions have accepted the cease-fire and the violence continues.

The incident has sparked the most serious diplomatic row between Israel and Egypt since Hosni Mubarak​ was forced out last February. It has also further isolated Israel at a time when the Palestinian Authority is preparing to ask the United Nations General Assembly to grant it statehood.

Further complicating matters is the growing insecurity along the Egyptian border as Palestinian infiltration into Gaza is now augmented by concerns about the Sinai crossing. The terrorists made their way from Gaza into the Negev Desert and then crossed into Israel. Also, there are concerns about the ability of the Egyptian army to keep weapons and explosives from making their way into Gaza since the Rafah border crossing was opened by the new Egyptian government. And there are concerns about how committed the Egyptian army is to securing the border as it seeks to respond to popular opinion that is rabidly anti-Israel.

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni​ said on Friday, “The border with Egypt is no longer a peaceful border and we need to change the way we treat it.” Egypt denies claims that the terrorists infiltrated into Israel from the Sinai, and also scoffs at the notion that the border security has weakened in the region since the fall of Mubarak. Israel thinks that the Egyptian army doesn’t see guarding the border with Israel as a top priority anymore. Indeed, attacks on the gas pipeline that supplies Israel and Jordan proves the Israeli’s point. No doubt, the government will be forced to address this additional threat to Israel by beefing up security along the 250 mile-long border.

The deaths of the Egyptian policemen who engaged Israeli forces in hot pursuit of the terrorists has angered the Egyptian people and government. The Egyptian government threatened to recall its ambassador to Israel if the Israelis didn’t apologize for the killings. Late Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a formal statement saying, “Israel is sorry for the deaths of Egyptian policemen during the attack along the Egyptian-Israeli border,” while a foreign ministry spokesman said in another statement that “Israel expresses deep regret” over the incident. Barak also called for a joint investigation of the incident with the Egyptian military.

The Egyptian cabinet refused to accept the apologies because it was “not in keeping with the magnitude of the incident and the state of Egyptian anger toward Israeli actions.” But even though it appears Israel’s statements of regret was rejected, there are conflicting reports whether or not the Egyptian ambassador has been recalled. The Israelis claim they have received no information from the Egyptian government that any kind of rupture was imminent.

A statement issued after a second cabinet meeting on Saturday was much more provocative, saying in part, “Egyptian blood is not cheap and the government will not accept that Egyptian blood gets shed for nothing.”

The incident provided a ready pretext for venomous street demonstrations, as thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Israeli embassy. In an incident illustrative of the Egyptian military’s changed attitude toward Israel since the fall of Mubarak, a young man climbed to the roof of the Israeli embassy, tore down the Star of David flag and hoisted an Egyptian standard. The act electrified the crowd of demonstrators and, soon thereafter, the entire Arab world, as the news was spread via Twitter and other social media. The incident occurred despite hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police watching the demonstrators and supposedly guarding the embassy.

As the crowd cheered the act and fireworks went off, the symbolism could not be ignored; the Egyptian people, having thrown off the despotic yoke of the Mubarak regime, felt free to give full voice to their anti-Semitic sentiments without fear of repercussions. The burning of Israeli flags, the protesting in front of the embassy, and outward shows of animosity to the Jewish state, were unheard of in Mubarak’s time. And the military government, cognizant of deep-seated Egyptian Jew-hatred and what was seen as the weakness of the Mubarak regime in not being more hostile to Israel or the United States, feels obliged to allow the outward manifestations of this sentiment.

At the moment, it does not mean that the Egyptian government supports abrogating the Camp David Accords. But there was a clear warning in the words of the Egyptian Information Minister Osama Heikel who told state TV, “The assurance that Egypt is committed to the peace treaty with Israel … should be reciprocated by an equivalent commitment and an adjustment of Israeli statements and behavior regarding various issues between both countries.” Such statements should not give Israeli diplomats confidence that the peace treaty will survive if a government headed by the Muslim Brotherhood​ takes power after the elections later this year. One notable presidential candidate, former Arab League secretary Amr Moussa, tweeted, “Israel must be aware that the days when it kills our children without getting a strong, appropriate response are gone for ever.” Coming from a serious contender for the presidency, the statement borders on being a threat.

Indeed, the trouble with Egypt has isolated Israel more than ever. Statements of condemnation regarding the confrontation with Egyptian police were heard from the usual sources, including the Arab League and Iran. But strong statements condemning the incident also came from Jordan and Morocco — two countries who could usually be counted on to temper their expressions of disapproval when criticizing Israel. The increased isolation does Israel no good as it is expected that what is being called a “diplomatic intifada” will take place at the UN next month when the Palestinians ask the UN to recognize them as an independent state. While the US is expected to veto any resolution that makes it to the Security Council, it is expected that the non-binding vote in the General Assembly will be overwhelmingly in favor of the Palestinian motion.

The diplomatic row with Egypt reveals that both substance and atmospherics are changing in the Middle East, and especially the most important component of stability in the region: the peace between Israel and Egypt. While the treaty paper may still exist, much of what Israel took for granted when Hosni Mubarak​ was in power (the predictability and commitment of the Mubarak regime to peace), is quickly losing its footing. With the ground appearing to shift beneath their feet, the Israelis are coming to the realization that more than ever, they must depend on their own resources and people to achieve an elusive security that is continuously threatened by those who seek to exterminate them.

Rick Moran

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/22/egypt-israel-relations-grow-colder/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Tough Decisions on Terror

by Isi Leibler

The latest terrorist attack in southern Israel was no random outburst.

The Hamas leadership is unquestionably responsible, and at least authorized the attack. It was a highly sophisticated, well-planned military operation involving at least 20 highly skilled terrorists using advanced armaments.

It may easily have resulted in a far greater number of casualties, but the ongoing barrage of missiles threatens to broaden into a much wider conflict.

Emboldened by the overthrow of Mubarak and empowered by the flow of arms across the Egyptian borders, the jihadists are testing our mettle. Hamas also succeeded in intensifying hostility between us and the new Egyptian regime.

In the days and weeks ahead, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be facing some difficult decisions. While his initial response to the attacks - the deadliest since he assumed office - cannot be faulted, his boast that terrorism would always be contained under his watch will now be put to the test.

Israel's will to react firmly to this provocation will signal whether we retain the ability to deter Hamas from future attacks.

The Sinai Peninsula is rapidly becoming a scorpion's den for radical Islamists, including Al Qaida-inspired factions. The border with Egypt, which had been relatively stable, is now clearly porous, and represents a new entry point for terrorists who now move freely from Gaza to Sinai. The extent of the disastrous decision of the Sharon government to cede control of the Philadelphi Corridor can only now be understood. The IDF is therefore investing major additional resources to beef up the IDF presence and construct a 200-km security fence on the Egyptian border.

If we exercise genuine deterrence, we will undoubtedly face additional global pressure. After receiving ritualistic condolences, we are already being urged to display restraint. When Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon (a rotating member of the UN Security Council) prevented a condemnation of the most recent terrorist attacks, the UN Security Council even dispensed with condemning the outrage.

More significantly, we are also likely to find ourselves at total loggerheads with the Obama Administration. The enormous - but fortunately unsuccessful - efforts exerted by the Americans to force us to make a groveling apology to Turkey over the flotilla reflects the extent the current Administration is willing to humiliate its closest allies to appease the Islamists. Now we may soon encounter threats to withhold the US veto on Palestinian statehood at the UN unless we display "restraint" - a code word for not exercising genuine deterrence.

But even if most of the world, including the hypocritical and sanctimonious Europeans, condemn us for responding in a "disproportionate" manner, the security of our citizens must remain our priority.

DEFENSE MINISTER Ehud Barak, with his consistent record of making empty threats in the wake of terrorist incidents, will undoubtedly seek to persuade the Prime Minister to act with "restraint." Our delusionary Left will also urge us not to "force Hamas into a corner."

Should Prime Minister Netanyahu succumb to these pressures, we will undoubtedly again undergo a cycle of lethal attacks met by hollow threats, which would inevitably be followed by increased terror, until our lives become unbearable, and we are once more obliged to launch a war to defend our citizens.

Tough and immediate military responses are thus required to deter future attacks.

Hamas leaders must be made aware that for failing to rein in the terror, their own political/military leaders will be targeted for assassination.

We must do more than weep for our victims. Israel should have no inhibitions in depicting our murderous enemies as barbarians, and drawing attention to the spontaneous public celebrations in areas under PA and Hamas jurisdiction every time there's news of an Israeli being murdered. And when spokesmen for our "peace partner," like senior PA official Nabil Shaath, issue press releases condemning us for committing "war crimes" by responding to the murders, Israel should demand that the US condemn such statements and extract an apology.

We must make the American people and Congress understand that deterrence is defense, not revenge, and that irrespective of the negative political repercussions, our government must protect its citizens. This should also be an opportune time to draw the attention of the American people to the implications for Israel of the "Arab Spring," and the consequences if we give in to President Obama's pressure, accept the 1949 armistice lines with swaps, and subsequently find ourselves surrounded by Hamastan and jihadists.

INDEED, WITH the impending Egyptian elections in which the genocidal Muslim Brotherhood - creators of Hamas - will emerge as a highly influential force, prospects for border stability will become even shakier. Israel's fraying relationship with Egypt, and the explosive atmosphere over the terrorist attack reflect the rising influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian army will of course seek to maintain the immense subsidies it receives from the US. But unless the Administration threatens to suspend payments, the Egyptian army is likely to simply stand aside and give the Jihadists a free hand, as long as they concentrate their attacks on Israel. Regrettably, the Obama Administration hardly has a positive track record of acting appropriately in this climate. But Congress could assume an important role.

There is a genuine risk that tough responses by us may lead to greater regional turbulence. But the alternative - not exercising deterrence - will most certainly erode our security if the Jihadists are able to continue their terror attacks and launch missiles against our citizens with impunity. Our lives would become unbearable and we would once again be forced into a full-blown conflict.

This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post

Isi Leibler ileibler@netvision.net.il

Source: http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=3073

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The Coming Crisis In The Middle East

by Barry Rubin

The gap between dominant Western perceptions of the Middle East and the region’s reality is dangerously wide. While the “Arab Spring” is celebrated as an advance for moderation and democracy, in fact the advance is going to revolutionary Islamists. Developments in Turkey and Egypt especially threaten to plunge the Middle East back into an era of conflict, instability, and the worst threats to Western interests in decades.

There are several things very much predictable about the future of the Middle East area during the next year. First, on June 12, 2011, Turkey will have an election. That election will probably be won by the government, whether or not it gets a two-thirds majority. The current rulers will interpret this as a signal to take a much tougher line toward Israel and the United States. It is possible that the extent of the increase of Turkey’s enmity toward Israel after that election will astonish the world.

If the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) wins a two-thirds majority, this means it will have control of rewriting the Turkish constitution. They will try to create a presidential regime, Erdogan will run for president, and Turkey will move into an increasingly visible alliance with Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah. This is not alarmism, it is a cold analysis based on facts.

Second, the Palestinian effort at the UN to gain unilateral recognition for a Palestinian state will fail. The United States will veto this, but it will to be a mess, a mess created by the incompetence of the Obama administration, which could have prevented it.

Third, regarding Egypt, there is no doubt that the Egyptian revolution is just as significant and just as bad as Iran’s 1979 Islamist revolution. That development so destabilized the region and promoted revolutionary Islamism that it helped lead to six wars (Iran-Iraq; Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait; U.S.-led invasion of Iraq; U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan; Hizballah-Israel war; Hamas-Israel war) and September 11 as well as to various Islamist upheavals, terrorism, and civil wars elsewhere (including in Algeria and Egypt).

Egypt will hold parliamentary elections in September 2011. As of now, the moderate democrats have not organized any serious party. The only serious parties organized are Islamist parties, not only the Muslim Brotherhood but others, and left-wing parties or radical nationalist ones.

Barry Rubin

Source: http://www.gloria-center.org/meria/2011/03/the-coming-crisis-in-the-middle-east-3/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Israel and Egypt Seek to Defuse Crisis

by Rick Moran

Hamas terrorists have been firing rockets into Israel for the past two days despite the IDF's attempts to seek them out and destroy them.

One such raid slipped into Egyptian territory where 5 Egyptian soldiers were killed in a confrontation. Egypt recalled its ambassador and big demonstrations are going on in Cairo protesting the Israeli action.

Now both sides are going to meet and try and walk back from the escalating situation:

However, there were signs that Egypt and Israel were both trying to ease the gravest crisis in their relations since longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in February.

The spat has highlighted the dilemma faced by the generals now ruling Egypt, caught between pressure to preserve the 1979 peace treaty with Israel and popular hostility to the Jewish state, perceived as trampling on national dignity.

Egypt said on Saturday it would recall its ambassador from Israel after the killings that it said breached the peace treaty. The Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli charge d'affaires to protest and demand a joint investigation.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel regretted the deaths and he told the army to conduct the investigation with Egypt, which responded with cautious approval.

A delegation led by an unidentified high-ranking Israeli envoy arrived in Cairo on a private plane from Tel Aviv on Sunday to a low-key reception, airport sources said. Four cars drove onto the tarmac to whisk the delegation away.

Officials from Egypt's defense ministry and the ruling army council were due to meet on Sunday morning, according to a cabinet official who asked not to be named.

Papering over what happened will not be good enough in the long run. With the Muslim Brotherhood set to win power in elections later this year, the survival of the peace treaty remains an open question.

Rick Moran

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/08/israel_and_egypt_seek_to_diffuse_crisis.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Syria and Obama’s ‘Lead from Behind’ Doctrine

by Rick Moran

In a move coordinated with our European allies and the United Nations, the Obama administration issued a statement on Thursday demanding that Syrian President Bashar Assad step down “for the good of the Syrian people.”

The US also slapped additional sanctions on the Assad regime, including freezing all Syrian assets under US jurisdiction, a ban on oil sales, and a bar to Americans having any business dealings with the regime. The “Big Three” of the European Union — France, Germany, and Great Britain — also issued a statement urging Assad “to step aside in the best interests of Syria and the unity of its people.”

The Syrian opposition hailed the international call for Assad’s resignation. Omar Idlibi, spokesman for the opposition network of Local Coordination Committees (LCCs) told the Global Post, “Now we can say the international community started to take responsibility for the crimes committed by the regime. They have lost confidence in the man they gambled on for five months.” The LCCs, made up mostly of young men, have been dodging Assad’s secret police for months, using social media tools to document the atrocities in Syria and relay images, video, and written reports to Western reporters.

Meanwhile, the United Nations was gearing up to increase the pressure on Assad by considering additional sanctions as well as referring Syria to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. A meticulously documented report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights details atrocities committed by Assad’s security forces, including several grisly massacres, systematic torture, and a list of more than 4,500 Syrians who are “missing.”

The announcement came as GOP presidential candidates criticized the president for poor leadership, believing the administration waited far too long to call for the Syrian dictator to step aside.

Why did it take so long? When the protests started in March, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton​ was quoted as saying, “There’s a different leader in Syria now. Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.” The administration believed at the time that the protests would put pressure on the Syrian dictator to initiate changes in Syrian political society, forcing him to open a dialogue with the opposition.

This attitude turned out to be a product of wishful thinking rather than reasoned analysis. No sooner had Clinton made that curious statement did Assad begin his butchery. It wasn’t until late April that the administration issued its first set of sanctions against the Syrian regime. The second set, targeting Assad and his cronies, came two weeks later. It was shortly after that, on May 19, that Obama delivered his speech on the so-called Arab Spring, saying, “President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition, or get out of the way.”

Still short of calling for the Syrian strongman’s ouster, it wasn’t until July that Hillary Clinton claimed that Assad had “lost legitimacy.” This milquetoast statement by the administration stood until the beginning of this month — after 1,500 Syrians had already been massacred — when the US finally began to gather international support for Assad’s resignation.

Much has been made of the statement by an Obama national security staffer in a New Yorker article that the president was “leading from behind” on the Libya issue. The statement encompasses the worldview of the president and most of his advisers, who believe that the status of the United States as the only superpower in the world is detrimental to international relations and that we should be “first among equals” when it comes to building coalitions and consensus on world issues.

Clearly, our actions relating to Syria is another example of that policy. Rather than getting out in front of events and trying to influence them, the administration hung back, watching to see if other nations would take the lead in advocating what is clearly the moral course of action: putting pressure on Assad to leave. That it took five torturous months with Syrian tanks blasting their way into dozens of cities and towns killing thousands does not speak well of the “lead from behind” policy nor the president who oversees it. Obama’s statement roused analyst Michael Ledeen to write, “After months of slaughter, as jaws dropped all over what used to be called The Western World at the spectacle of an American leader who danced all around one of the clearest moral and strategic imperatives EVER, we finally get this [statement].”

In response to the statement by the US and European nations, the Syrian foreign ministry accused the US of waging “diplomatic war” by imposing sanctions and calling for Assad’s ouster. The ministry said that the administration’s statement sends “the wrong message to the terrorist armed groups that they are under American and Western protection.” Syria contends that Israel and the West are behind the uprising, aided by al-Qaeda fighters.

Be that as it may, the UN appears finally ready to spring into action following some brazen lies President Assad told to General Secretary Ban Ki-moon. In response to the UN chief’s demand to halt the slaughter, Assad informed Ban that his army and police assaults had “stopped.” Meanwhile, his gunboats proceeded to fire on demonstrators in the coastal city of Latakia, and Syrian tanks opened up on protesters in Hama. Human rights activists on the scene said that at least 20 protesters were killed as Assad was claiming to Ban that he had halted military assaults.

The Security Council met late Thursday to determine sanctions against Syria, although there is still opposition from Brazil, China, Russia, India, and South Africa, who inexplicably believe that Assad should be given more time to “reform.” Whether the statements from the US, the EU, and some Arab states calling on Assad to step down will have any effect on this opposition remains to be seen.

The Security Council is also going to meet sometime next week to consider a report from the UN Human Rights Council that accuses the Assad regime of crimes against humanity committed during the crackdown. An emergency meeting of the rights council is scheduled for Monday where it is expected to recommend that the Security Council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.

The document is striking in its detail. The 22-page report listed the names of 1,900 Syrian civilians killed by security forces, including 353 civilians who were summarily executed.

The Washington Post blog, Checkpoint Washington, reports:

The report documents a chilling catalogue of alleged state crimes as Syrian security forces, joined by ethnic Alawite militia, known as the Shabbiha, laid siege to restive town after town, shelling civilians with tank, artillery and helicopter fire, and picking off unarmed civilians, including children, with sniper fire as they left their homes in search of food. Syrian soldiers who refused order to kill civilians were themselves executed, according to the accounts.

Survivors told of their harrowing ordeals that included “physical torture, unlawful arrest, deprivation of basic services, including water and medicine, and ‘routine humiliation.’” It was also “widely reported that forces conducted regular raids in hospitals to search for and kill injured demonstrators.” Snipers also targeted people “providing medical assistance to victims.”

One massacre occurred in the coastal town of Latakia when 26 detainees were marched to a sports stadium, blindfolded, and summarily executed.

The report concluded: “The mission found a pattern of human rights violations that constitutes widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, which may amount to crimes against humanity.”

The Human Rights Council report highlights the moral shortcomings of the president’s “lead from behind” foreign policy. While the West dithered and delayed looking for leadership in the crisis, Bashar Assad​ brutalized his own people, carrying out a virtual war against civilians who dared defy him. The massacres that took place were not a secret. The Local Coordination Councils in Syria carefully documented the slaughter and gave their evidence to the world via social media and other outlets. Human rights observers also documented the atrocities while pleading with Western governments to take action to stop them.

The reaction to events in Syria by the United States has not been in keeping with our values, or our historic role as a moral leader in the world. If anything, it demonstrates the utter bankruptcy of a foreign policy more concerned with not getting the rest of the world upset at us for standing up for what we believe, rather than showing the world its moral duty in confronting evil.

Rick Moran

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/19/syria-and-the-lead-from-behind-policy/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Islamists’ New Terror Front in Egypt

by Stephen Brown

At least eight people died and dozens were left wounded after a terrorist attack in Israel on Thursday. Israeli officials claim the deadly strike was staged from Egyptian territory.

The sophisticated, three-stage assault, involving as many as 20 Islamist terrorists, took place near Eilat on Route 12, which runs close to Egypt’s Sinai border for “several dozen kilometres.” Eilat is a southern Israeli port city on the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba.

The Israelis identified “terror cells affiliated with the Palestinian Resistance Committees” in Gaza as the ones responsible for the carnage and staged a retaliatory air strike the same day that killed the cells’ leaders. Significantly and ominously for the Israelis, though, the attack showed terrorists were able to freely cross the border from Gaza into Egypt and launch their strike from Egyptian soil. This represents the opening of a new front against the Jewish state.

“It is clear that the terrorists came from Gaza and it is clear that they move freely from Gaza to the Sinai,” said an Israeli defense official.

According to an Israeli newspaper report, the terrorists first fired at a bus, injuring several people; but they only claimed their first victim when a terrorist exploded his suicide vest, killing the driver of a second bus that, fortunately, was empty. The next vehicle attacked was a car, in which four passengers were killed, while bombs were detonated near an Israeli patrol.

The well-armed attackers also fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Israeli military helicopter and an anti-tank missile at another vehicle. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) responded with its usual rapidity and killed seven terrorists, while the Egyptian army reported shooting two more on their side of the border.

“The attacks demonstrate the weakening of Egypt’s control over the Sinai Peninsula and the expansion of terrorist activity there,” said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Before Thursday’s attack, Israel was under no illusion about the deteriorating security situation in the Sinai Peninsula after the uprising in Egypt last January that led to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. An Israeli commander for the southern region said his forces had been “on high alert for terrorist attacks coming from Sinai to Israel.”

The Israelis have also been constructing a security fence along the 200-kilometre Egyptian-Israel border that is due to be finished at the end of 2012. Israel has so far managed to complete 45 kilometres of the fence at a rate of 700 metres a day. The original completion date was 2013, but it was moved up, which, as Thursday’s terrorist attack indicates, was a good decision. Following Thursday’s strike, Israeli security officials were reported to be looking for more workers in order to shorten the completion date even further.

The fact that Islamic terrorists can move freely between the Sinai and the Gaza Strip is not surprising. Although the interim Egyptian government opened the Rafah crossing to Gaza last May to great fanfare, it allows only 550 people to cross daily. And that is just the problem. Only people are allowed to cross and no commercial goods. This lack of a suitable route for commerce has left the transportation of merchandise between Egypt and Gaza in the hands of smugglers, mostly Bedouin, who control the tunnels running under the border.

“The crossing is for travelers only, not for goods,” said one tunnel owner. “Opening or closing it doesn’t affect the tunnels.”

The three contraband items smuggled most, the tunnel owner says, are cars stolen in Egypt and Libya, construction materials and people. So if whole cars can be smuggled through tunnels linking Gaza and Egypt, then it would not be difficult for a heavily-armed terrorist team of twenty to get into Egypt. Especially when, according to an Egyptian newspaper report, there are “1,000-1,500 tunnel operations” along the 12.6 kilometre Egyptian-Palestinian border.

And there is no police to stop them, although they previously had never made much of an effort to do so. After the January 25 uprising, the Egyptian police were chased by the Bedouin population out of North Sinai towns like Rafah becasue of their corruption and brutality. The economically marginalized Bedouins, who compose most of the Sinai Peninsula’s population, are discriminated against by the central government and have often clashed violently with police. Last year “thousands of demonstrators” attacked government buildings in North Sinai, while in November, 2008, “Bedouins besieged police stations along the border with Israel,” taking officers hostage to protest police killings of Bedouins.

This sense of grievance against Cairo has also led some Bedouins in Sinai to engage in anti-state terrorism as members of an Islamist group. From 2004 to 2006, terrorist attacks on tourist resorts in the Sinai Peninsula that involved suicide bombers caused the deaths of more than 100 people. A Sinai-based group calling itself “Unification and Holy War,” headed by a man of Palestinian origin who grew up in Sinai, was believed responsible. The group had the same name as that of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terrorist organization in Iraq in 2004 before he joined bin Laden. After that, it was known as “al-Qaeda in Iraq.”

Besides contributing to the breakdown in security, the January 25 uprising in Egypt gave a boost to the Islamist cause in Sinai and Gaza in another important way. Thousands of radical Muslim prisoners of the Mubarak regime escaped, were freed when their prisons were attacked by comrades or simply walked away when the guards fled.

The security vacuum that now exists in Sinai is also exhibited by the five terrorist attacks since February on the natural gas pipeline that supplies Israel with 40 per cent of its natural gas, causing halts in exports. Islamists in Egypt have always been against giving Israel any of its natural resources, while others resent the fact the Jewish state is paying below market price for the gas.

The last attack against the pipeline in late July also coincided with an attack by several dozen men, reportedly Palestinians carrying green flags bearing Islamic slogans, against a North Sinai police station, in which six people died. A group calling itself “the al-Qaeda Network in Sinai Peninsula” took responsibility for both attacks and is demanding Sinai be turned into an Islamic state and the Egyptian army break the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. This group may also have been responsible for damaging a statue in a Sinai town of Anwar Sadat​, the signer of the hated treaty.

For its part, the Egyptian government is denying the terrorists who carried out Thursday’s strike in Israel launched their attack from Egyptian soil. They claim the attackers infiltrated Israeli territory prior to launching their assault. The South Sinai governor, Khaled Fouda, said “there was no gunfire from the Egyptian side,” while the North Sinai governor, probably not wishing to be outdone, demanded proof.

“How does Israel know they came from Sinai? What is Israel’s evidence?” he said, sounding like Pakistanis officials who always claimed they needed evidence that Osama bin Laden was on their territory before they could take action.

Ironically, the Egypt army was in the middle of a big security operation in Sinai to restore a semblance of law and order when Thursday’s attack occurred. The army intends to reinstall the police in towns where they had been chased out and hunt down Islamist groups including those in the “safe haven” of central Sinai’s rugged mountains. The Egyptians had received prior permission from Israel to increase its troop strength for the operation, since the number of Egyptian soldiers in Sinai is restricted by the 1979 treaty that returned the peninsula to Egypt.

While Islamist terrorist groups are always looking for a way to attack Israel directly, one possible reason for Thursday’s terrorist attack has to do with the arrival of high-ranking Hamas members in Egypt. One of the things they are expected to discuss in Cairo is the exchange of Palestinian-held Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in 2006, for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. On an Israeli radio show, an Israeli minister reportedly said there was “a grain of truth” to this. The fact the Israelis believe the likely purpose of Thursday’s attack was to capture an Israeli and transport the prisoner to Gaza indicates there may be a connection with what is transpiring in Cairo.

The Israelis are already demonstrating with the construction of a security wall they know how to prevent any more terrorist attacks from Egypt. The barrier Israel built in the West Bank has proved its value in lives saved many times over. And with this September’s elections in Egypt, the security situation is bound to get worse as the Islamists will make a strong showing if not win outright. So time is of the essence and the sooner – and higher – Israel builds its newest fence, the better.

Stephen Brown

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/19/deadly-terrorist-strike-rocks-israel/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Creating Peace Through Strength

by Charles Bybelezer

The current paradigm governing Israel’s strategic relations is flawed. Perhaps it is due to millennia of suffering that Jews, and by extension the Jewish state, are compelled to adopt a position of weakness vis-à-vis the external world; however, the fact remains: Israel is strong.

The Palestinians, on the other hand, are weak. Nonetheless, they have had ample opportunity to see the creation of “Palestine,” yet time and again they rejected generous offers tabled to them by Israeli leaders, notably by Ehud Barack in 2000 and subsequently by Ehud Olmert in 2008.

The question arises: at what point is enough actually enough?

The answer is now.

The “peace process” is a political charade, the effects of which are deadly: Israel continues to pay a steep price in the blood of its innocents, as evidenced by the recent murderous attacks along Israel’s border, which began when terrorists opened fire at an Egged bus traveling near Eilat, and ended with at least 5 dead and 25 wounded. Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life, the result of Israel’s continued acquiescence to the irrational demands of the “international community” is that a country that is superior to its adversary in virtually every way is made to reduce itself to the level of dysfunctional entities, in particular the Palestinian Authority.

In other words, Israel is made weak. The irony—and tragedy—is that a feeble Israel cannot make peace; peace can only be made in strength.

In their autobiography of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, “From Freedom Fighter to Statesman,” authors Gertrude Hirschler and Lester S. Eckman confirm this truth by describing the events leading up to the signing of the historic 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel:

On Wednesday, November 9, 1977, Egypt’s president Anwar el-Sadat made an announcement to his parliament, the People’s Assembly, which was received by…the rest of the world first with disbelief and then amazement.… [Sadat] told his people that he was ready ‘to go to the ends of the world’ in search of peace. “Israel will be astonished when it hears me saying…that I am ready to go to their house, to the Knesset itself, and to talk to them.”

To accentuate the enormity of Sadat’s statement, the authors then remind us that only “four years earlier, [in the prelude to the 1973 Yom Kippur War], Sadat told his nation that he was willing to commit a million Egyptian lives to war against Israel.”

That bloody war, initiated and led by Egypt, took the lives of more than 2500 courageous Israelis. Furthermore, Egypt also was at the forefront of the Arab wars to eliminate the Jewish state in 1948, 1956 and 1967. Accordingly, one could not be faulted for thinking that Begin would bend over backwards to encourage Sadat to come to Jerusalem.

This was not the case.

In fact, “the day after Sadat’s speech,” Hirschler and Eckman continue,

Begin issued a public statement to make sure that Sadat was not coming to Israel under the illusion that Israel would be ready to capitulate to the Arab political and territorial demands for the sake of peace. [Begin asserted that] “Israel categorically and absolutely rejects conditions named by President Sadat; i.e., total withdrawal to the June, 1967 lines[.]”

Despite Begin’s sternness—his “sticking to his guns,” as Margaret Thatcher​ once admired of Begin—on Monday, November 14, Sadat told American journalist Walter Cronkite​ that he was prepared to go to Israel, provided he received a “proper” invitation. “The next day…Begin addressed an official invitation to ‘His Excellency, Mr. Anwar el-Sadat, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Cairo.’”

True, Begin ended up making far-ranging concessions to Sadat—relinquishing the entire mineral-rich Sinai peninsula, a territory three times the size of Israel proper, can and should be considered far-reaching—however, Begin steadfastly refused to cross what is universally considered as Israel’s ‘red line,’ namely a retreat to the ‘Auschwitz borders.’ For Begin, “Everything was negotiable except the survival of the state of Israel.”

That peace between Egypt and Israel was only possible because Begin adhered to his convictions is reinforced by Hirschler and Eckman with an additional, invaluable anecdote. They recount a monumental occurrence in the lead-up to Sadat’s historic speech to the People’s Assembly, in which the Egyptian President visited Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu. During their meeting, which followed Begin’s visit to Romania a few weeks earlier, Sadat and Ceausescu discussed the Israeli Prime Minister, and the prospects of a comprehensive Egypt-Israeli peace initiative.

In an interview with Time magazine [later that year], Sadat was to recall having asked Ceasescu whether he considered Begin a sufficiently strong leader to be able to make peace in the Middle East. Both president’s agreed that Begin’s predecessor, [Yitzhak] Rabin, had been “weak.” But then, said Sadat, “Ceasescu told me what he had discussed with Begin, and we reached the conclusion that [this] man is strong.”

To reiterate: “Begin is strong.” And the result was peace.

For peace is made in strength.

Charles Bybelezer

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/19/creating-peace-through-strength/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Op-Ed: The Anti-Israel Distortions Industry

by Yochanan Visser

A shocking tale about the endless cognitive war against Israel. To accompany the endless terror war against her citizens.

There is no shortage of claims about alleged Israeli human rights violations in Judea and Samaria, the so called 'West Bank'.

Most of these claims originate from Palestinian sources and NGO’s and are part of a disinformation campaign that aims to delegitimize Israel.

This campaign of distortions, bias and, sometimes, outright lies is well documented by a host of bloggers and organizations – such as Honest Reporting and Camera.

Here’s a look at how that campaign works.

'Dutch orchestra attacked'

At the end of July the Palestinian News Network published an article about a Dutch orchestra that was supposedly attacked by the IDF during a performance in the Palestinian village Kfar Qadum.

The PNN article was widely distributed among international media outlets.

However, a member of the orchestra wrote a detailed account about the actual events.

The orchestra was not playing, but participating in the weekly, often-violent demonstrations against an IDF checkpoint in the vicinity of the village, he said.

According to another account on the Palsolidarity website, a group of Arabs had approached the soldiers threateningly, who responded by firing teargas grenades.

The IDF, in response to our request for more information, said that the main missing piece in the accounts was that the Arabs started throwing stones at the soldiers, precipitating the whole incident.

So there was no performance and no peaceful demonstration.

'Olive trees destroyed'

Another claim that originated from a Palestinian source, involved the alleged destruction of 200 olive trees in the village Al Walaja near Bethlehem.

JAI, the Joint Advocacy Initiative, published a report about Na’el Khalid, a Palestinian farmer who claimed that 200 olive trees were destroyed when Israeli authorities started building the security fence on part of his land.

JAI also reported that Khalid would lose his land to Givat Ya’el - a planned Jewish community adjacent to Al Walaja.

We asked the IDF to comment on this report and received the following answer:

“In accordance with Israeli Supreme Court rulings regarding the rerouting of Israel's security fence, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) transplanted trees from Mr. Na'el Khalil's property to an adjacent plot, ensuring that he was able to continue working his land.

The Israeli court authorities have previously denied several petitions seeking ownership of the land adjacent to the Palestinian village Al-Walajah by the Givat Ya'el community, a private building project in Judea”.

A field investigation in Al Walaja where we visited Na’el Whalid’s lands, proved the IDF right.

The photo accompanying this article was taken on August 9th and shows some of the Dutch funded olive trees on a plot adjacent to the fence which is still under construction.

Al Ahram and The Economist Bemoan Fate of Stone Throwers

Then there was an Economist article that was apparently based on a B’Tselem report and an article on the 972 website.

According to The Economist, Israel routinely arrests Palestinian minors at night, some as young as eleven, and shows no mercy when they stand trial.

The Economist also 'quoted' Israeli Eran Segal from Halamish, allegedly saying that “Israeli soldiers don’t maim enough Palestinians”.

Asked to comment, Segal denied he ever said a thing like that. In fact he had told The Economist:

“If the IDF would have taken the incidents more seriously and had acted in a different way the stone throwing would have been a thing of the past”.

The Egyptian paper Al Ahram outdid The Economist when it charged ‘Israel’s most aggressively racist government ever’ with ‘prosecuting and imprisoning Palestinian children at will on bogus charges such as throwing stones’.

In response, the Israeli Military Prosecutor’s Office stated that stone throwing is a criminal offense in Israel. Throwing stones can cause severe injuries and even - as has happened in the past - death.

Israeli law calls for the punishment of stone throwers, even if they are minors and regardless of their nationality or religio

However, contrary to what was written in The Economist’s article, there are almost no cases where Palestinian minors under the age of 14 have been convicted for stone throwing.

The Military Prosecutor’s Office also stressed that a special court for minors has been established (Military Juvenile Court) which is meant to take care of the defense of the rights of minors.

In addition, almost all suspects in the Juvenile Court are represented by counsel, which is contrary to the state of affairs in Israeli civil courts. Most of the trials take place within a rather short amount of time and minors, whose case has not been heard in a reasonable amount of time, are often released.

The IDF tries to arrest the suspect as soon as possible after an incident has taken place. If this proves impossible the military, for security reasons only, carries out arrests during night time. Minors are held in special wings of three prisons and their needs are met on an individual, case by case, basis.

So there is no prosecution and Imprisoning without due process but, rather, a legal procedure that takes in account the age of the suspect.

UNWRA also has an opinion

UNWRA spokesman Chris Gunnes spoke during an interview with Ma’an News Agency.

"Many displacements are taking place where settlements are expanding and with it we are seeing an upturn in vicious attacks by Jewish settlers. Palestinians are being thrown off their ancestral lands to make way for settlers", Gunness told Ma'an.

This seems to suggest two things. First, that settlements are still expanding outside the municipal boundaries and second that Jews are replacing local Arabs.

However, since 2005 settlement expansion has only taken place within the existing zoning lines of municipal boundaries. No local Arabs have been thrown off lands and they are not ancestral lands to begin with, as a search of records will show in the cases where there is legal documentation of land ownership.

In fact Gunness may have meant Bedouins who are illegally camping. A COGAT official told us that the Bedouin increasingly tend to camp in the vicinity of settlements and are often paid to do so by pro-Palestinian NGO’s.

In the same Ma’an interview Gunness said:

"There is growing evidence that it (demolitions in Area C of Judea and Samaria) is destroying the very fabric of these communities and ultimately contributing to a demographic shift which is changing the ethnic make-up of the West Bank."

However, only 3% of the Palestinian population lives in Area C – most of them Bedouins, who live mostly in tents and move from place to place.

UNWRA’s own census from 2007 shows an average population growth of the Arab population Judea and Samaria of 2,5 % per year.

But there is more. In an e-mail to Missing Peace, Gunnes wrote the following:

“127 people expelled in maale nikhmas - displaced for settlement in the last few weeks. Is that enough?

The 127 Palestinians expelled from Maaleh Michmas ‘displaced for settlement’ were in fact Bedouins who decided to leave, as UNWRA's own press release states.

There is no evidence that Ma’aleh Michmas residents took their place.

However, according to a report by the pro-Palestinian organization International Solidarity Movement, 16 Bedouin were evicted in the Maaleh Michnas area at the end of July after they illegally camped within a closed military zone and after they had received eviction orders two years previously

UNWRA's mandate is defined by the UN:

UNRWA’s contemporary mandate is to provide relief, human development and protection services to Palestine refugees and persons displaced by the 1967 hostilities in its fields of operation: Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, West Bank and the Gaza Strip. UNRWA’s mandate has been repeatedly renewed by the UN General Assembly. The current mandate runs till 30 June 2014.

What do the West Bank building issues and conflicts between Jews and Arabs have to do with providing humanitarian services to displaced persons?

Gunnes told us that UNWRA has a team of 12 investigators conducting research on settlement and building issues on a daily base, so a UN organization designed to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees is going after Israel’s building policies on the West Bank.

They might spend the time better by focusing more on the plight of the refugees and their descendants in, for example, Lebanon, where the Palestinians living in refugee camps still are without basic human rights. Pressuring the governments there might yield results.

It may be too late for Israel to repair the damage caused by the global disinformation campaign. That's too bad because this is where many other campaigns like BDS and delegitimization start.

The Israeli government does not seem to grasp the severity of the situation and still doesn’t respond decisively to the endless flurry of distortions and outright false claims. ( Arutz Sheva tries to do just that with its limited resources and staff, ed.)

That's too bad because this is where many other campaigns like BDS, and delegitimization start. Recently Arutz Sheva reported that the Yesha council has organized a course to train residents in making photo and video footage of incidents taking place in Judea and Samaria.

That's nice, but to win this cognitive war against the Jewish state, the government of Israel should finally help establish a professional rapid response fact finding team that investigates claims like the ones discussed in this article.

Yochanan Visser is director of Missing Peace Information an Israeli public diplomacy organization operating in The Netherlands and Belgium.

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/10516#.TlCeyF3Smdc

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

IDF Officer: Terrorists Planned an Abduction Attack

by Yaakov Katz

The terrorists who infiltrated Israel on Thursday and carried out the attacks near Eilat were heavily armed, wore suicide bomb belts and came with handcuffs, an indication they planned to abduct a soldier, deputy commander of the Sagi along the Egyptian border said on Saturday.

“We prevented a major abduction attack,” Lt.-Col. Liran Hajbi, deputy commander of the Edom Division’s Sagi Brigade, which is responsible for the Egyptian border, said on Saturday. “They came heavily armed, with suicide bomb belts, grenades, and handcuffs.”

According to Hajbi, the terrorists were split into a number of cells, mostly deployed along the border and still inside Egypt.

Three terrorists who crossed into Israel were killed by soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance battalion and another five were killed in subsequent gunfights with the police’s Yamam Counterterrorism Unit.

“We were well-prepared,” he said. “While the beginning was bad with the murder of the civilians, the way the soldiers operated when they arrived on the scene prevented a more difficult outcome.”

Maj. Ro’i Yonatan, commander of the Golani Brigade’s Orev company, which was the first to arrive at the scene, said his soldiers acted courageously when driving straight into the line of fire and running over one of the terrorists.

“The soldiers then drove to the other end of the road, blocked it so Israeli cars would not approach and returned to draw the fire away from civilians,” Yonatan said.

He said St.-Sgt. Moshe Naftali – the soldier who was killed on Thursday, was shot when he and additional soldiers exited the jeep to begin engaging the terrorists deployed along the border.

“They were coming under fire from three different directions and they saw one of the terrorists throw a grenade at them,” Yonatan said. “They stopped the jeep, got out and Moshe got hit.”

Yaakov Katz

Source: http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=234677

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Palestinian Authority TV: Western Wall Area to be Turned into Arab Housing Neighborhood

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Official Palestinian Authority TV broadcast a documentary which stated that the PA plans to build an Arab residential area in place of the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem, "when they [Israelis] disappear from the picture, like a forgotten chapter in the pages of our city's history."

The Western Wall, a remnant of the Temple Mount, is Judaism's holiest and most important prayer site.

The PA TV documentary further rejected the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, referring to Jewish history as "their false history," while the Jews' praying at the Western Wall was called "sin and filth."




The following is the transcript of the excerpt of the PA TV documentary:

"They [Israelis] know for certain that our [Palestinian] roots are deeper than their false history. We, from the balcony of our home, look out over [Islamic] holiness and on sin and filth (Jews' praying at Western Wall) in an area that used to have [Arab] people and homes. We are drawing our new maps. When they [Israelis] disappear from the picture, like a forgotten chapter in the pages of our city's history, we will build it anew (residential area). The Mughrabi Quarter will be built here (on the Western Wall Plaza)."

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Source: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=5490

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.