Ahmad Al-Ja'bari – From Fatah To The 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades

by MEMRI



Ahmad Al-Ja'bari was born in 1960 in the Al-Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza, to a Palestinian family from Hebron. As a young man he was a member of Fatah, and in 1982-1995 he served a 13-year prison sentence for his activity in this organization. After meeting Hamas leaders in prison, he underwent an ideological reversal and joined Hamas. Following his release he was active in the movement's department for prisoner affairs, and later he assumed a prominent position in the Hamas-founded political party Al-Khalas Al-Islami. 

Arrested by the PA authorities in 1998 for involvement in military activity, he again spent two years in prison, where he formed close ties with Hamas explosives expert 'Adnan Al-Ghoul. After Saleh Shehade, the founder of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas's military wing), was eliminated by Israel in 2002, and the Brigades' commander, Muhammad Deif, was severely injured in an Israeli targeted attack in 2003, Al-Ja'bari became the acting commander of this force, though officially he was its deputy commander.


Ahmad Al-Ja'bari[1]

Building The Hamas Military Infrastructure

Al-Ja'bari's main contribution to Hamas was in developing its military wing  into a well-equipped regular army. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "He developed the Al-Qassam Brigades and laid down a real infrastructure [of this force] in the West Bank before the PA eliminated the resistance there."[2] In the last interview he gave before his death, he told an Egyptian TV channel: "I am now assured regarding Hamas. I have established a powerful army, and Allah granted me [the privilege of] concluding the Wafa Al-Ahrar deal [i.e., the Shalit deal]."[3]

Role In The Hamas Political Leadership

Though he was mainly active in the organization's military wing, Al-Ja'bari gradually gained prominence in its political leadership as well. Considered a Gaza strong man, he was close to Hamas political bureau head Khaled Mash'al, and maintained direct contact with him over the heads of the movement's political leadership in Gaza. In the recent internal Hamas elections, he was elected to the movement's political bureau in Gaza, along with several other Al-Qassam operatives and prisoners released in the Shalit deal, which reflects his popularity and influence in the Hamas movement.

Al-Ja'bari Following The Shalit Deal: We Will Continue Kidnapping Soldiers

Al-Ja'bari made few public statements and appearances, and is known mainly for his involvement in the abduction and holding of Gilad Shalit and for conducting the indirect negotiations with Israel for his release. He appeared briefly on television as he escorted Shalit to the Rafah crossing.


 
Al-Ja'bari escorting Shalit to the Rafah crossing[4] 

The deal, in which the kidnapped Israeli soldier was exchanged for 1027 prisoners, made him well-known throughout the world. Later he said that the day of the deal's implementation had been the happiest in his life, and promised: "The abductions of Israeli soldiers and officers will continue as long as there are Palestinian prisoners in the jails of the occupation."[5] 

Praise For Jihad And Resistance; Palestine From The River To The Sea

In a 2005 interview with Reuters Al-Ja'bari said: "Jihad and resistance are the only way to liberate the homeland, not negotiations or bargaining... Ultimately Allah will grant us victory."[6] In a letter published at the end of Ramadan 2010, Al-Ja'bari wrote that "the occupation army [had been] banished from Gaza forever thanks to the power of faith, the martyrs, the weapons, the rockets, and the tunnels." He condemned "negotiations with the Zionist enemy" and stressed "the commitment of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades to Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, and to its capital, Jerusalem, all of which is Islamic land."[7]

Expected To Die As A Martyr

It is unclear why Ahmad Al-Ja'bari chose to travel by car, which enabled the targeted killing, since he was known to take strict precautions. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said: "Al-Ja'bari dedicated his life to resistance against the occupation, which he endorsed as [the only] option [for achieving] liberation. He was very cautious in his movements and made sure to not appear at [public] events."[8] His aide, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "[Al-Ja'bari] talked of martyrdom often, but he felt the Israelis were waiting for him to complete the [Gilad] Shalit deal."[9]

From The MEMRI TV Archives: "Hamas 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades - Training and Ideology," Including Interview With Al-Ja'bari

On July 4, 2006 Al-Jazeera TV broadcast a lengthy report about Hamas's 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, which included an interview with Ahmad Al-Ja'bari. To view MEMRI TV's translation of this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1191.htm.

---

[1] Al-Quds (Jerusalem), November 15, 2012.

[2] Elaph.com, November 14, 2012.

[3] Elwattannews.com, November 14, 2012.

[4] Alwatanvoice.com, October 29, 2011.

[5] Amad.ps, October 22, 2012.

[6] Al-Quds (Jerusalem), November 15, 2012.

[7] Alqassam.ps, September 14, 2010.

[8] Elaph.com, November 14, 2012.

[9] Al-Quds (Jerusalem), November 15, 2012.

MEMRI

Source:memri@memri.org

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

Muslim Brotherhood Mobilizes for Hamas

by Ryan Mauro


 

Israel has finally struck back against the terrorist enclave of Gaza after having 120 rockets fired at it since Saturday and over 700 this year alone. For now, the Obama administration is rhetorically supporting Israel, but the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt is doubling down on its support for Hamas, Gaza’s ruling terrorist organization, and has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel. U.S.-based Islamists and their non-Muslim allies can be counted on in the ensuing days to pressure the administration to throw Israel under the bus in favor of the Islamist rulers of Egypt. If Egypt takes action, the administration will have to choose between its relationship with Israel or its relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. There is no middle ground to straddle.

The Israeli Defense Forces struck 100 terrorist targets, and the Iron Dome missile defense system took out 28 rockets before they landed in Israel. The campaign began with a precision strike on a car carrying Hamas military chief Ahmad Jabari, the mastermind of the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Video of the strike shows it was designed to minimize civilian casualties. The IDF tweeted, “We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leader, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.” Israel is also threatening a ground operation into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas says the initial strike “opened the gates of hell” and it will fight back. With about 35,000 fighters, that’s no idle threat. Senior Hamas leaders say they are considering firing long-range rockets at Rishon LeZion, a city 7 miles from Tel Aviv. They are also contemplating carrying out suicide bombings and assassinations and are in talks with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and other Gaza-based terrorists like the Popular Resistance Committees and Palestinian Islamic Jihad about their response. The involvement of the latter is significant because its alliance with Iran remains solid. The relationship between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran has been strained because they are on opposite sides in Syria.

Egypt has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood warns that Israel will not go unchallenged like it did during Operation Cast Lead in 2009. It promises “swift Arab and international action to stop the massacres”—massacres that never happened. The Brotherhood said the situation is different now because of the Arab Spring and Egypt “will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression, as in the past.”

Egyptian President Morsi will be under increasing pressure to take action and its political benefits will be tempting. The Brotherhood’s popularity in Egypt is declining but a new poll shows that 77% of the public favor dissolving the peace treaty with Israel, up from under 25% about three years ago.

Opponents of Israel will accuse it of destroying the non-existent peace process. On the contrary, the Israeli strikes, especially the one on Jabari, are necessary for progress towards peace to happen. Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and in September 2010, Jabari threatened to torpedo peace talks by increasing attacks. The Hamas charter even says, “The time will not come until the Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!”

The political pressure on President Obama to demand a ceasefire will grow quickly. Anti-Israel forces on the left will make their voices heard. Muslim-Americans were a part of the coalition that won him re-election with over 85% voting for him, according to a survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  Anti-Israel advisors to the administration, especially those with Islamist ties, will argue that the fighting is counter-productive. 

Already, Mohamed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Committee, is tweeting that Israel’s military tactics don’t work and it must “elect a peacemaker like Sadat.”

The Islamist networks in the U.S. will use their massive organizational capabilities to demand U.S. pressure on Israel, and they’ll make good use of their interfaith allies.

American Muslims for Palestine, an Islamist group that meets with State Department officials, quickly condemned Israel and demanded that the U.S. cut off aid. Its statement did not even mention the hundreds of rockets fired into Israel. It accused Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu of waging war for political gain ahead of his country’s January 22 election. The theme echoed the Brotherhood, which lashed out  at “The Zionist war that is operating under electoral calculations for personal gain…”

The U.S.-based Islamists will undoubtedly use the American Muslims for Palestine conference on November 22-25 in Oak Brook Hills, Illinois to mobilize supporters against the Obama administration’s stance. A  second blockbuster Islamist event is being held on December 21-25 in Chicago, the 11^th annual Muslim American Society-Islamic Circle of North America convention. The power of these groups, especially when they coordinate, cannot be discounted.

The situation will dramatically escalate if the Palestinian Authority asks the United Nations to recognize it as a nonmember observer state. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has written a draft proposal to recognize a provisional Palestinian state with temporary borders if it abandons this course. If it does not, a Foreign Minister position paper argues for toppling Palestinian President Abbas and dismantling the Palestinian Authority.

The Islamists in the U.S. and their anti-Israel allies are about to move full force. President Obama said in March that the U.S. will “always have Israel’s back.” To honor that commitment, he will have to stand up to the Islamist network and international community. If Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood do indeed take action, he will have to abandon his faulty hope of an accommodation with them.

We’ve been told to ignore the fiery rhetoric of the Muslim Brotherhood because they are a “moderate” force. We’ve been told that the administration is a stalwart friend of Israel. Those two reassurances are about to be tested.

Ryan Mauro

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/muslim-brotherhood-mobilizes-for-hamas/

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

NGO Monitor's Press Release on the Gaza Action

by NGO Monitor


Contact:
Ariella Kimmel
NGO Monitor
+972-53-522-3966
ariella.kimmel@ngo-monitor.org

NGO Statements on Gaza Again Reflect Political Bias, Lack of Expertise
European governments enable exploitation of human rights, int'l law with
their funding

JERUSALEM - The biased responses of human rights organizations to the recent
events in Gaza stand in sharp contrast to their prolonged silence in the
face of continuous terror attacks against Israelis civilians, said NGO
Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research organization.

"When it comes to deadly attacks against Israelis, the silence of these NGOs
is deafening, while their readiness to condemn Israel without any reliable
fact-finding is indicative of a deep anti-Israel agenda," said Professor
Gerald Steinberg, President of NGO Monitor. "Within six hours of Jabari's
death, and in the face of massive rocket attacks from Gaza, Amnesty
International blamed Israel alone for putting 'civilians in Gaza and
southern Israel at grave risk by re-igniting the armed conflict there,' and
also claimed to have 'gathered evidence that suggests' that previous Israeli
strikes 'were indiscriminate and, therefore, in violation of international
humanitarian law.' Yet, Amnesty produced no such evidence, nor does it
possess the expertise or knowledge to make these claims."

Similarly, NGO Monitor notes that an Oxfam International statement implied
that Israel was not abiding by "obligations under international law,"
asserting an immoral equivalence between deliberate terrorist attacks
launched from civilian areas and directly targeting civilians, with
necessary Israeli self-defense. Oxfam called on Israel to halt military
operations in Gaza, while offering no alternatives to protect Israel's
population.

Many other members of the NGO network have displayed the same moral failure.
For the past week, terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza intensified rocket
attacks on southern Israeli towns and cities. However, human rights NGOs,
including groups such as Gisha, funded by the New Israel Fund and European
governments, frequently condemn Israel's Gaza policies, remained silent
about these indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians, constituting
massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law. For these political
groups, Israelis do not have human rights.

"The immediate accusations regarding alleged violations of international law
by Israel from Amnesty International, Oxfam and others, without any evidence
whatsoever, are part of the 'Durban strategy' of demonizing and isolating
Israel," continued Prof. Gerald Steinberg. "As in Jenin, Lebanon, and
previous fighting in Gaza, political advocacy NGOs distort legitimate
Israeli self-defense measures in order to advance false claims of 'war
crimes' and 'violations of human rights.'"

The European Union, as well as member governments share responsibility
through their funding of these biased NGOs. For example, the Alternative
Information Center (AIC), funded via the EU, and the governments of Sweden
and Spain, accused Israel of exploiting the violence in the south to justify
the targeting of Jabari.

Added Steinberg: "By funding these NGOs, the European governments have
become enablers of the NGOs' radical and one-sided agenda.  If European
governments are truly interested in playing a role in the peace process,
funding the Durban strategy that demonizes Israel, and cynically exploits
human rights is not the way."

Within the past year, Palestinian groups fired over 800 rockets targeting
civilian populations, leaving millions of Israelis living in fear,
suspending their lives.

"Each one of these rockets constitutes a war crime," said Anne Herzberg,
legal advisor for NGO Monitor. "In the lead up to yesterday's IDF operation
in Gaza, NGOs were silent, and only after Israel responded to these
indiscriminate attacks against civilians, do they find their voice."

Added Herzberg: "The statements coming from these NGOs exhibit severe bias
and double standards and reflect a severe lack of expertise in international
law. While focusing overwhelmingly on condemning Israel, they ignore or pay
little attention to Israeli human rights and casualties. Under the façade of
morality and universality, they exploit international legal terminology. We
call on the NGOs to recall how the Goldstone report severely damaged the
credibility of these organizations, when many of their claims contained in
the report were found to be inaccurate and in some cases, complete
fabrications."

Click here for a list and analysis of NGO statements

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001SCw4ayCFn6fGNIPox2VreLzyYfycMibU_YfZN1Pp__5Ti2upQ4WLf9RCK1_gsFFu92NvzdibDXPWg3dVLjAzSmhR8L39KeXHYbEnZyFry6lZekB3LVSvhXB-vYlQIe0x3VRRQgC2L70Z4kR6oxvIEIjSO_BPjhyBlqPLnJkJjsQ=


###
NGO Monitor (www.ngo-monitor.org), based in Jerusalem, was founded to
promote critical debate and accountability regarding the political
activities of non-governmental organizations claiming a human rights agenda
that are active in the Arab-Israel conflict. NGO Monitor's independent
research reports and analysis are quoted frequently in the press, academic
publications, by NGO officials and donors, and in governmental and
parliamentary discussions.

# # #

mail@ngo-monitor.org
www.ngo-monitor.org

NGO Monitor


Source: www.ngo-monitor.org


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

Three Israelis Killed by Hamas Rockets as IDF Hits Dozens of Gaza Targets

by Rick Moran


The potential for this operation by the IDF to lose containment and involve the Egyptians and their Islamist government in hostilities cannot be ruled out. But so far, President Morsi is restricting his response to angry denunciations and calls for an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
Washington Post:

Israeli jets and drones hit dozens of targets overnight in an intense air campaign against militant targets in the Gaza Strip the day after a missile strike killed the Hamas military chief in an operation that raised the specter of an all-out conflict.
Israeli officials said Wednesday's attacks were aimed at crippling the military capabilities of Gaza-based militants who fire rockets into southern Israel and warned that it could evolve into a ground operation.
ut the barrage of rockets fired from Gaza continued unabated. Three Israelis were killed early Thursday when a rocket struck an apartment building in Kiryat Malakhi in southern Israel, Israeli police said.
A spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qedra, said eight Palestinians had been killed, including two children and four other civilians.
Residents in Gaza said militants have begun firing rockets at Israeli targets from inside teeming Gaza city, making direct Israeli strikes on the populous city likely.
"We are at the start of the event and not at its end," said Defense Minister Ehud Barak, pledging to do "whatever is necessary to restore quiet to the south."
Representatives of Hamas, which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organization, said they also have no intention of backing down. The assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari, the Hamas military commander, "is a serious crime, and they crossed the red line," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman. "It's time to declare war."
Egypt's Islamist-led government also condemned Jabari's assassination, and announced the withdrawal of its ambassador to Israel.
[...]
Israeli jets and drones hit dozens of targets throughout the Mediterranean enclave early Thursday, including munitions warehouses and residential buildings that the military said operated as warehouses. The military said it targeted more than 100 long- and medium- range rocket launching sites and several launch squads overnight, doing "significant" damage to stockpiles that include Iran-supplied Fajr-5 missiles.
If drawn out, the Israeli campaign could paralyze the crowded Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, trigger barrages of retaliatory attacks from the organization and its regional allies, and upend already cool relations between Israel and Egypt.

Tensions are already high between Israel and Iran, and it wouldn't be outside the realm of the possible for Tehran's proxy terrorist group Hezb'allah to launch some rockets of their own. But both Iran and Egypt have massive problems of their own to deal with and a war with Israel would only exacerbate their economic weakness.

An IDF spokesman has indicated that this is only the beginning of the operation. A ground assault into Gaza is possible, but apparently not imminent. We shall see what the next 48 hours brings.

Rick Moran

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/11/three_israelis_killed_by_hamas_rockets_as_idf_hits_dozens_of_gaza_targets.html

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

Suspicious Vote Count in Allen West Race

by Thomas Lifson

The Allen West re-election campaign is raising questions about the very odd behavior of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections, Gertrude Walker. Rep. West carried the other two counties in his district, but "lost" St. Lucie County. The campaign's official website writes:

West for Congress released this statement regarding the growing inconsistencies and continued obfuscation coming from St. Lucie County Board of Supervisors, Gertrude Walker, regarding the election results.

"Last night during a press conference, the Supervisor announced her office had determined that approximately 3,650 ballots were double-counted on election night, and approximately 1,950 ballots were not counted at all, with all ballots coming from the last three days of early voting - which is what was retabulated on Sunday. However, if this information is accurate, the total vote in the county should have decreased by 1,700 votes after the Sunday retabulation. Instead the total votes cast declined by 799. It simply does not add up.

In addition, according to news reports, the Supervisor of Elections announced her office re-ran some 26,000 ballots from early voting. This would account for the first 6 days of the 8 days of early voting. However, on election night, the campaign staff was told there was a problem with the first 3 days of voting, which would involve approximately 13,000 ballots based on information uploaded to the Division of Elections. What is the truth?

Finally, during the same press conference, the Supervisor announced there were some "blank" memory cards involved. If these "blank" memory cards were in reference to the election night decision to retabulate 26,000 ballots, then the cards processed on the first 5 days of early voting have been processed twice, the ballots on day 6 have been processed three times, and of the ballots on the last two days, some have been processed twice and some only once. Whether this resulted through mechanical malfunction, negligence or willful action, the voters of St. Lucie County deserve to know their votes have been fairly counted.

Towards that end, we are pleased Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner has decided to send auditors to St. Lucie County to examine the returns and the ballot-counting process, and we have detailed our concerns to him in a letter today.

The West campaign is simply seeking the truth, and an accurate count of votes. Given the inconsistencies emanating from the Supervisor's office, we have no confidence in any of the information regarding the votes counted or the election results overall."

Read the full text of the letter here

Readers who wish to contribute to the effort to achieve an honest count can find information here.

Thomas Lifson

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/11/suspicious_vote_count_in_allen_west_race.html

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

Who Is Really Besieging Gaza?

by Mudar Zahran

Apart from the presumed public relations gains to be amassed by "sticking it to Israel," according to a 2011 report Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Hamas reaps over half a billion dollars a year from tariffs on the Egypt-Gaza tunnel trade. It is therefore in Hamas's best interest to keep the blockade idea alive, in order to secure larger revenues for its Gaza government, all the while demonizing Israel and causing Gaza's residents to suffer, thereby making them even more dependent on Hamas.

A photo of the "Prime Minister" of Hamas's government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, buying Israeli grapes in Gaza, with a boy standing next to him enjoying a bag of Israeli chips has been circulating online among Palestinians.

The photo is an example of the hypocrisy of the senior Hamas leader, as his group and its sympathizers in the West and in Muslim countries have been advocating a universal boycott of Israeli products. The photo of Haniyeh buying Israeli grapes also ridicules those across the world claiming that people in Gaza are starving to death under a "terrifying" Israeli siege. An Israeli siege, in fact, might be exactly what Hamas's leaders want to bring about, both to try to hurt Israel economically and at the same time to gain global political and financial support for themselves while Gazans are suffering under Hamas's rule.

Before Haniyeh's picture became an internet sensation -- distributed by Palestinians over social websites such as Facebook -- just this past August, former PA security chief Muhammad Dahlan said that Gaza was "not under siege," and that its residents were "not lacking anything." Dahlan was expelled from Fatah in 2011 following a dispute with PA president Mahmoud Abbas, a circumstance which possibly gives him more freedom to speak his mind.

Dahlan is not alone in his assessment. In July 2010, Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl wrote in Al-Ahram (Egypt's most prominent newspaper) that "in actual terms" Gaza is not under siege. He further noted that stores were "flowing with goods" at "low prices." Abu Al-Houl went as far as detailing the thriving entertainment and amusement parks industry in Gaza.

Still, in the global media, the notion of Gaza being under an "inhumane" Israeli siege is alive and well. Weeks after Dahlan's statement, the United Nations released a report stating that "[t]he situation in the Palestinian enclave has reached a critical point. If no action is taken, by 2020, Gaza will become uninhabitable" -- noting that Israel is to blame for the conditions in Gaza.

Ironically, throughout all of the alleged Israeli siege on Gaza, Israel has consistently been providing Gazans water and power supplies, which Israel threatened to cut in 2011 if Palestinian Authority pursued reunification with Hamas -- a threat which Israel never carried out.

Moreover, numbers speak for themselves: in March 2012, the same month when 300 Hamas rockets were fired from Gaza at Israeli towns, 3,653 truckloads of goods were delivered from Israel to Gaza and 1,375 Gazan patients and companions entered or passed through Israel for medical treatments, followed by another 1,364 in April, 2012.

In August 2012, the Hamas prime minister's brother in law was allowed to enter Israel for treatment in an Israeli hospital.

This is the same Haniyeh who visited Tunis in 2011 by invitation from its Islamist-dominated parliament and told the welcoming crowd, "We shall not relinquish Palestine," to which the crowd chanted: "Killing Jews is A Duty".

So, if Israel has never stopped humanitarian supplies to Gaza and does not enforce the alleged blockade of humanitarian supplies on Gaza, why does Hamas insist on promoting the blockade's myth and even provoking Israel whenever possible by rocket attacks such as the most recent ones?

To understand Hamas's motives, apart from the presumed public relations gains to be amassed by "sticking it to Israel," it might help to know that the Washington Institute for Near East Policy released a report in 2011 stating that the estimated tunnel trade between Gaza and Egypt had "likely peaked at around $600-850 million per year," and noted that Hamas takes a hefty cut from the Egyptian tunnel trade, "imposing high 'customs' duties and a daily fee on local tunnel contractors." According to the report, the tunnel trade had been dramatically reduced since June 2010, when Israel quadrupled the number of trucks permitted to bring goods to Gaza through legal terminals. It is therefore in Hamas's best interest to keep the blockade alive to secure larger revenues for its Gaza government, all the while demonizing Israel and causing Gaza's residents to suffer, thereby making them even more dependent on Hamas.

At the same time, Hamas manages to get the world's sympathy in the name of the blockade, as well as the world's cash: Qatar, for example, recently allocated $400 million as aid money for Gaza. Of course, how decent Hamas will be at handling those funds is anyone's guess.

It is Hamas, not Israel, which is besieging Gaza. Those who claim to be concerned about the Palestinians in Gaza would actually do more good for these fine people if they stopped attacking Israel and instead switched their focus to addressing the true source of the Gazans' poverty, suffering and oppression: Hamas.

Mudar Zahran

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3453/besieging-gaza

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

How "Moderate" Palestinians Succumb to Threats

by Khaled Abu Toameh

This radicalization — to a point where they are not ready to hear about any concessions to Israel — is the direct result of decades of anti-Israel incitement and indoctrination, spearheaded, ironically, by the "moderate" Palestinian Authority leadership that is publicly talking about making peace with Israel.

Today there is almost no room for moderates among the Palestinians.

Any Palestinian who dares to talk about compromise and peace with Israel, or even meet with Israelis, is immediately denounced as a "traitor" and "defeatist."

Take, for example, the most recent case of Munib al-Masri, a wealthy Palestinian businessman from Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank.

Known as the "Palestinian Rothschild," al-Masri has drawn strong condemnations from many Palestinians for hosting Israeli businessman Rami Levy at his home.

Even Palestinian journalists have joined the campaign against al-Masri. Some 70 journalists signed a petition calling on the Palestinian media to stop calling calling al-Masri's palace by its name "The House of Palestine."

Inspired by Andrea Palladio, the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture, The "House of Palestine" is the most expensive palace in the West Bank.

It was in this palace that al-Masri met with Levy and Palestinian, Arab, Islamic, UN and EU representatives to find ways to "break the stalemate" in the Middle East peace process.

The main purpose of the gathering was to "create an Arab-Islamic-Jewish alliance to impact decision-makers by launching an initiative to break the stalemate," according to a statement issued by al-Masri.

Palestinians representing various political groups have since condemned al-Masri for promoting "normalization" with Israel by inviting an Israeli businessman to the meeting in his palace.

The widespread condemnations forced al-Masri to issue a "clarification" in which he reassured Palestinians that he was "totally opposed to any economic relations with Israeli businessmen as long as Israel continued to occupy the 1967 territories."

The "clarification" is yet another sign of how moderate Palestinians succumb to threats and calls for boycott.

A few days later, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas underwent the same experience.

In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV station, Abbas stated that he did not want to return to his birthplace of Safed [in northern Israel], triggering an unprecedented wave of denunciations from many Palestinians who accused him of relinquishing the Palestinian refugees' "right of return" to their former villages inside Israel.

Like al-Masri, Abbas later reassured Palestinians that he remained "committed to the right of return" and that he would never compromise on the rights of the refugees.

Obviously, the Palestinians have been radicalized to a point where they are not ready to hear about any concessions to Israel or tolerate the presence of an Israeli businessman in a Palestinian city. This radicalization is the direct result of decades of anti-Israel incitement and indoctrination in the Palestinian territories -- a campaign that has been spearheaded, ironically, by the "moderate" Palestinian Authority leadership that is publicly talking about making peace with Israel.

Khaled Abu Toameh

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3451/moderate-palestinians-threats

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

Combating Terrorism from Gaza

by Eli E. Hertz

United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and International treaties define crimes against humanity as the "participation in, and knowledge of, a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, and the multiple commissions of [such] acts ... against any civilian population."

These international binding instruments go-on to impose uniform mandatory counter-terrorist obligations on all states to "bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers, and sponsors of terrorist attacks and stresses that those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these acts will be held accountable.

 There is no escape clause - UNSC repeats "its unequivocal condemnation of all acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, in all their forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomever committed." Terrorist organizations such as Hamas that kidnap Israelis, blow up and destroy public buses, murder young people at cafés and discos, and school outings, alongside indiscriminate around-the-clock shelling of hundreds of Katyusha, Qassam, and Grad rockets targeting civilian populations in Israel, are clearly committing Crimes Against Humanity - acts of terrorism for which the UNSC under Chapter VII of the UN Charter directs everyone to fight terrorism by all means.

International law leaves no room to question Israel's right to defend its citizens against systematic and sustained terrorist attacks launched from Gaza, by Hamas. Israel's reaction to aggression is nothing more than a measured, fair response designed “to effectively terminate the attack [s]” upon it by terrorists supported by Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, in order to “prevent its recurrence.” Israel is far from using all means in fighting terrorism, as required by UNSC.

Eli E. Hertz

Source: www.mythsandfacts.org

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

Exposed: Pallywood Returns to Gaza

by Simon Plosker


What happens when the cameras turn up at the scene of an airstrike in Gaza and there simply aren’t enough Palestinian dead and injured to produce dramatic footage that can be used against Israel in the international media? We’ve seen it before. Palestinians who appear to be injured or even dead for the benefit of the TV cameras turn out to be nothing of the sort once they are no longer the focus.

This is all the more so in Gaza, where Palestinian stringers are often filming in the absence of international news crews.

The example below is taken from a BBC interview on the targeted killing of Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari. During the interview (full version here), footage from Gaza is shown. At 2:11 mins in, a Palestinian in a beige jacket and black T-shirt, presumably injured in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike, is picked up and taken away. Yet at 2:44 mins, the same Palestinian has staged a remarkable recovery.

We’ve taken the relevant footage so that you can see for yourself.

Welcome to Pallywood!

Simon Plosker

Source: http://honestreporting.com/exposed-pallywood-returns-to-gaza/

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Israel Defends Itself Against Hundreds of Rocket Attacks. Tut-tut!

by Melanie Phillips

So here we go again. In the four days from Saturday until yesterday, Islamic terrorists under the Hamas umbrella fired more than 120 rockets from Gaza at Israeli civilians, along with a number of mortar shells. Some hit civilian homes and factories; some civilians were lightly wounded and others treated for shock.  Some million or so inhabitants of southern Israel have been under siege from such attacks for years, with air raid sirens giving people just a few seconds to find shelter. If there weren’t so many shelters, there would be more casualties.

None of this has caused the slightest concern in Britain or the west. The rocket attacks have barely been reported. But today, Israel finally took action. In a targeted drone strike on Gaza it killed Ahmed Jabari, the leader of Hamas’s military wing and second-in-command of the Iranian proxy al-Qassam Brigades, a man who was  linked to hundreds of terror operations and human bomb attacks over several decades, and his second-in-command, Raed Al Attar.

If you look at the video footage of the strike, you can see the care the Israelis took to avoid other casualties, waiting until the terror commanders’ car had passed other traffic before striking it.

Rocket attacks on Israelis are not news; Israeli military action to defend Israel against such attacks is. Suddenly, media indifference has been transformed into media hyperactivity. And in the eyes of the British media and foreign office Israel is at fault; astoundingly, it is apparently Israel which is responsible for inflaming the situation, not the Palestinians. Never mind the 120 rockets in four days or the 50 further rockets this evening, including 17 Grads fired at the city of Beersheva; or that since the beginning of 2011, 1,100 rocket have been fired on Israeli targets, 797since the beginning of this year; or that a staggering 5274 rockets have been fired from Gaza at southern  Israel since 2006 (what’s that – you had absolutely no idea about the scale of these attacks? Of course not – the British media haven’t bothered to report them. Didn’t you know? Israeli victims don’t count – especially when not enough of them actually die to meet the British definition of ‘proportionality’). 

Never mind the fact that this current round of violence started when an Israeli Defence Force jeep was attacked by an anti-tank missile, wounding four IDF soldiers. Never mind that Hamas have hidden rocket launchers under civilian homes in Gaza, thus once again turning the Palestinian population into human shields. 

As The Commentator notes, the Foreign Office tweeted:

‘We continue to call on all sides to exercise restraint to prevent a dangerous escalation that would be in no one’s interests. #Gaza’

while

‘the Guardian glowingly quoted the BBC's Wyre Davies as calling the Israeli attack “a massive escalation of the situation around Gaza”’.

So let’s get this clear: in the mindset of the BBC and Foreign Office, 120-plus rockets in four days is not an escalation of violence or attempted mass murder; but a targeted strike to kill two individuals who have been organising such attacks, in order to prevent them from organising any more, is an escalation. What kind of hideously warped perspective is this?

Israeli forces are also targeting terrorist weapons stockpiles in Gaza; it has been reported that the Israeli Air Force struck a suspected stockpile of advanced Fajr 5 missiles smuggled into Gaza from Iran. Doubtless the BBC and Foreign Office think that Iran’s involvement in smuggling in such missiles aimed at murdering civilians is not an escalation of hostilities -- but destroying these missiles and thus protecting innocent people from being murdered is.

There are occasional oases of decency in this desert of moral bankruptcy: here is the BBC, for example, giving Jonathan Sacerdoti, Director of the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy, the opportunity to put the situation into its proper context -- and to make a splendid job of it. 

But in general it’s the same old story, I’m afraid: as far as much of the British media and wretched Foreign Office are concerned, Israel is the only country on earth which is not entitled to defend its people against attack. Does anyone think that if Britain had sustained a rocket barrage of 120 rockets in four days, let alone nearly 800 in a year or more than 5000 in six years, it would not have been at war long ago? But in the British establishment mind, Israel can never be a victim, only an aggressor. In the British official mind, Jews cannot be allowed to kill their attackers in order to defend their own people; the proper ‘proportionate’ response, it would appear, is for lots of Jews to die.

Tonight Israeli sons, husbands and fathers are being called up from the reserves to defend their country once again. They are being summoned from their dread-stricken families to place themselves in harm’s way because a mob of genocidal Jew-hating fanatics has been allowed by an indifferent world to amass lethal force to realise their infernal aim of destroying Israel and the Jewish people. Meanwhile, so-called civilised Britain totally ignores not just the rocket attacks but the deranged Judeophobia and the terrible echoes from history -- and instead looks down its nose at the putative victims, and tut-tuts that they are ‘escalating’ the situation by daring to defend themselves. 

It is a shameful, shocking and disgusting response, and I’m afraid it is going to get worse.

Melanie Phillips

Source: http://www.melaniephillips.com/israel-defends-itself-against-hundreds-of-rocket-attacks.-tut-tut

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