By Ted Belman
I received the following email tonight. I knew it was coming but didn’t want Olmert to get credit for it because then there will be little to stop the give away that he is planning. I wanted his government to fall first. Now our boys have to give their lives so that the territory can be handed over to someone else.
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The Cabinet has agreed to go into Gaza for a decisive decapitation of Hamas. Preparations are in full swing, with operational plans and orders in place. What is delaying the retaking of Gaza, is arranging the exit strategy….Barak has returned from Turkey and Olmert was speaking with German Chancellor Merkell. The plan is to go into Gaza, neutralize Hamas, stabalize the territory and hand it over to an international coalition who will govern until a ‘Palestinian’ State can be delivered. Arranging for the exit phase is what is being finalized now. The logistics of providing for the human needs of the Arabs who live in Gaza, while minimizing collateral damage (good luck with the human shields, such as schools and women and children as we saw with the recent breech of the Philadelphi border with Egypt.
The Saudis, Jordanians and Egyptians want something done about Hamas, as Hamas is inspiring radical elements within their respective countries. It is ashame that Israel has to pay the price with its blood and treasure just to hand off the beachfront property to an international force and then in turn to the so called ‘Palestinians’. On the other hand, Hamas is not firing rockets and mortars against Saudi Arabia or Egypt!
I get most of the above information from a biweekly Israel update conducted by Gil Elan, here in Dallas. He is president of the American Jewish Congress of the Southwest and is a IDF Lt. Col. (ret.) From what I can gather he was an information officer within the IDF assigned the responsibility of overseeing briefings to the Israeli and international press on Israel’s military operations in Judea and Samaria. We just had an update last night, so the above two paragraphs are hot off the press!!
The fall of the govt. in Israel will not be precipitated even if Shas leaves. Even if the govt fell, new elections would not be held until November at the earliest. On the other hand if Olmert called for new elections they would happen in 90 days. Nevertheless it is painful to watch Israel, surrounded by enemies, behave in a confused manner, almost like a vassel state of the US, EU, UN rather than as a sovereign nation who has an obligation to defend its borders and people.
This is confirmed in this YNET story.
Hopefully Abbas and Olmert can’t agree on the core issues. Then again, Rice will make sure they agree. Not happy
Israeli Military up in Arms over Bush-Olmert Plan for Major Operation in Gaza on Behalf of… Palestinian Authority
DEBKAfile ExclusiveExclusive ReportReport
February 16, 2008, 2:54 PM (GMT+02:00)
President George W. Bush gave Israel the nod for its long-delayed military operation against Hamas in the Gaza before he ended his 50-hour visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah on Friday, Jan. 11 – except that his provisos stop the Israeli military short of its objectives, namely stamping out the Palestinian missile campaign, halting smuggling and eradicating Hamas military stockpiles, as reported here by DEBKAfile’s military sources:
1. Israeli forces must limit their invasion to two or three strips abutting the Gaza-Israeli border of the 365 sq. km square Hamas-ruled territory on Israel’s southwestern border. Those sources identify those strips as the northern pocket of BeitBeit HanounHanoun, BeitBeit LahiyaLahiya and the fringes of the Jebalya camp; the southern areas east of KhanKhan YounesYounes up to the Sufa and KeremKerem ShalomShalom crossings; and sections of the Philadelphi border strip with Egypt, up to and excluding the Mediterranean coast.
Operationally, this means the Israeli army may push back the Qassam missile launching sites from the border and distance this harassment from the Israeli population, but may not destroy terrorist arms and missile caches and their means of production.
Israel is also enabled to deal only partially with the smuggling system for the weapons, explosives, fighters and cash, which nourish the Gaza Strip’s Palestinian terrorist groups through Sinai.
2. The IDFIDF must operate only in sparsely-populated areas and desist from actions that may cause extensive Palestinian civilian casualties.
3. The IDFIDF will not capture the main cities, e.g. GazaGaza CityCity, Rafah and KhanKhan YounesYounes.
4. After clearing captured areas of Hamas, JihadJihad IslamiIslami and other Palestinian terrorists, the Israeli army must pull out and hand the cleansed territory to the forces of the Palestinian Authority chairman MahmoudMahmoud AbbasAbbas.
Israel must enable the passage of those forces from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip and allow them to establish military bases for launching their offensives to recapture the entire Gaza Strip, thereby reversing Hamas’ success in forcing their retreat six months ago.
Point 4 was tagged onto the list during the US president’s talks with Abbas in Ramallah Thursday, Jan. 10.
The Palestinian leader proposed that Bush’s assent to an Israel counter-terror operation in the Gaza Strip be exploited for the IDFIDF to prepare the ground for his Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority to regain its control of the lost territory.
It was agreed between Bush, Abbas and Olmert, that the details of this plan be worked out after the US president returns home at the end of his Middle East tour.
The Bush-Olmert understanding entrusted defense minister EhudEhud BarakBarak with leading and charting the Gaza operation, determining its timeline and being responsible to Washington for the IDFIDF not stepping out of the above preset boundaries.
It will also be up to Barak to decide whether to pursue the objective in phased offensives.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Olmert government’s acceptance of this plan has stirred outrage in the IDFIDF high command, general staff, southern command and the security establishment.
For the first time in its 60 years of independence, Israel’s national army is being pressed into service to capture a territory on behalf of a foreign entity. They ask by what authority did the prime minister and defense minister sign off on a plan which is an immoral distortion of the IDFIDF’s longstanding mission.
The notion that members of Israel’s people’s army, which is duty bound to defend the state, may be ordered to fight and lay down their lives in the service of the Palestinian Authority, presents every serviceman with an irreconcilable dilemma.
It might be easier if they were permitted to eradicate the Palestinian missile threat and war machine, stock, lock and barrel. But this is ruled out by Bush.
The IDFIDF found it difficult enough to recover its equilibrium from the political task to forcibly evict Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip foisted on it by the Sharon-Olmert-Livni government in 2005. Today, Israeli policy-makers, the United States and the Palestinian Authority are contemplating saddling the soldiers with another political undertaking: to turn around the Fatah’s defeat in its internecine war with Hamas.
Israeli generals and security chiefs caution the government against accepting this perilous and self-destructive adventure and point to its glaring flaws.
Its very conception has distorted the peace process so that the burden of its success rests on the IDFIDF’s shoulders. If a military campaign succeeds in gaining control of parts of Gaza on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, peace talks will resume with Abbas’ standing much enhanced. But if the results are mixed, like in the 2006 LebanonLebanon WarWar under Olmert’s direction, the Palestinian leader will drop Israel and the United States like hot coals, turn coat and seek an understanding with Hamas for a re-united front against Israel.
Already, since the plan was floated, Israel-Palestinian talks have petered out and become irrelevant, while negotiations for the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier GileadGilead ShalitShalit have been put on ice. Hamas will on no account discuss terms for his release with a large-scale Israeli offensive hanging over Gaza.
Another of the plan’s fundamental flaws is that the Palestinian Authority is in effect leaderless, rudderless and is bereft of the professional security strength for following up on the deal.
The Bush-Olmert-Abbas plan would have the Israeli military pull their irons out of the fire when it is common knowledge that once inside Gaza, PA security forces will quickly disintegrate and be swallowed up by the far more resolute Hamas. It was therefore proposed in Bush’s talks in Ramallah and Jerusalem that the Israeli Air Force and artillery provide support for the Palestinian takeover of the Gaza Strip, a tactic the US army employs for local forces in Iraq.
For the Israeli Defense Forces, this proposal is totally unacceptable.
For one thing, the Palestinian Authority’s security services are riddled with wanted terrorists.
Furthermore, Abbas and his elite officials are not considered representative by the bulk of the Palestinian people (who in Jan. 2006 voted Hamas into office). Neither are they trusted to execute complicated strategies.
Finally, the Bush-Olmert policy of placing all their bets for a Middle East breakthrough on the inept MahmoudMahmoud AbbasAbbas condemns their plan to failure.
At the dinner Olmert hosted in honor of the US president Thursday night, several ministers pointed out these hard facts to Bush and told him bluntly that he is gambling all his hopes for peace on a non-existent entity called the Palestinian Authority.
IT IS DIFFICYLT FOR ME TO BELIEVE THAT THIS EMBICILE IS REALLY CALLING THE SHOTS!
Felix we already have the ultimate revolutionary Jewish and world examples to follow much better and time proven than your theoretical positions that as far as you can show have been proven failures in the docket of world history. We have from Moses, Joshua, Samson,, Gideon,Yiftach,Judah Maccabi,Alex Yanni,King David, Bar kochba any many many others throughout our long History. Even when they lost as in the case with Bar kochba he inflicted such losses upon Rome that from that point Rome never recovered. From the Last Jewish war onward Rome ceased to expand and started her march backward and inward until she ceased to be Rome . We outlived her and we will out live all the rest including America.
The commies had trheir chances and lost and will be histories dust as is Trotsky and any other modern hero. OK you are a real true believer and If trotsky is your thing go for it but for the rest of us , what can I say?
In Hebrew, rasha means profane, ungodly, and hamas refers to violence and destruction.
The peace process must put even die-hard atheists to shame. Nothing short of a miracle explains that every time Israel is ready to cede Judea and Jerusalem, Palestinians preclude the Jewish defeat. Arafat turned off Barak’s offer which included just everything the “moderate” Palestinians demanded. Now Hamas undermines Fatah’s efforts at chipping the Palestinian state out of Israel. Unless the wildest conspiracy theories are true and Israel’s security services manipulate the Palestinians away from statehood, there is no other explanation: God doesn’t want Jews to give the Promised Land away.
This chance is our last. The Almighty created the situation where the options are crystal-clear and Jews need no crystal ball to see them. The entire Jewry outside of Israel is annihilated: European Jews perished in Holocaust, American Jews are lost to assimilation, and Arab Jews were uprooted and resettled into Israel. God tells us in the most straightforward manner that now we must decide: would the Jews live or die out. Zechariah’s prophecy is fulfilled: the two-thirds are lost, and it’s up to the Jews whether the last third would be refined as silver or burn out.
Jews, of course, have free will and can rebel against the divine injunction. Israel received every sign she could hold on to the Sinai: four wars with Egypt won, and the Yom Kippur war even extended Israel’s foothold. Jews, nevertheless, abandoned the Sinai; now we’re tourists there, Egyptians – the owners. Similarly, Jews can transfer Judea to Arabs rather than Arabs out of Judea. Such act, however, would be equal to conversion. There is no practical difference between Jews’ converting to Christianity and consciously rejecting the commandments. Once the commandments are rejected, Jews can become anything.
Jews don’t live in the Land of Israel because of some stupid historical rights. If Jews can return after 1,900 years, all the more Arabs can return after sixty years. Jews were sovereign on this land for perhaps four centuries; the rest was a protectorate. Muslims governed this land for much longer. Jewish national right to statehood? What nonsense! Ask Chechens, Basques, Uighurs, or Bretons, and listen carefully to their reply: there is no such right. There is a single basis for Jews to conquer and settle this land: God has told us so.
Cleansing the land God gave us is a major commandment. It is arguably the major political commandment. Jews must drive away the inhabitants of the land. There can be no coexistence. Amalekites, Canaanites, or Palestinians would never be loyal citizens of Jewish state. Cleanse first, build later. Building a Jewish state in the land populated by Arabs is impossible.
A third of Jews was exterminated in WWII. Another third dies out in the American assimilation oven. The remaining third was gathered in Israel from all corners of earth. Israel drained all Jewish communities. The preconditions look messianic: two thirds of Jews annihilated, the remaining third’s condition is hopelessly bad. Israel’s only purpose is to preserve some Jews from the universal assimilation. When Jews are no longer religious, Israel can at least provide them with national identity. Even if the Israeli experiment fails, the Jews who stream out of the country would still preserve a post-shock sense of identity perhaps sufficient to guard them against assimilation until the religious identity is acceptably redefine
Gaza was part of the Biblical promised Land no less than Jerusalem, it is a matter of cherry picking to say Gaza no, Bet El yes, which would be akin to saying that I will accept certain commandments of the Torah but others do not fit my life style. A Jew who contentiously rejects commandments of the Torah is as if he /she is an idol worshiper and the Torah penalty is death, without a place in the world to come.
Israel announced last November to all the Arab countries that there will Gaza operation after Annapolis conference to retake the Philadelphi corridor. Here it is. They didn’t wake up yesterday and thought “What a good idea!”. There is a long-term strategy on the part of the UN, US, EU, the GOI, etc. about what to do with Jews. Barring unexpected strong resistance or a miracle on the scale of biblical Exodus, we are pretty much finished. Meanwhile let us sooth ourselves with thinking up “solutions”. Of course, the remnant will always remain…
I’m bothered that Israel seeks permission from world governments to defend herself. Just do what must be done and stop begging for the world’s approval.
A leading Israeli scholar and author wrote as follows
It is absolute nonsense as time will tell. Aside from everything else, NATO and Europe don’t want to send troops to Gaza. Guess why? Be careful about believing such crap..
I certainly hope so.
I have looked again at the comments above.I find it wrong at this late hour for comments such as from Bill to say only what Israel should do. It is also incumbent on the person making the comment to say not only what Israel should do, but what concrete steps must be taken.
Can we have a discussion on soem of these points.
1. What is the role of the US Government in all of this. What is in particular the role of Brzezinski who has been on a visit to Syria, in conversation and in collaboration with the reactionary antisemite and Stalinist Baathist regime there.
2. Considering that Brzezinski was also heavily involved in all of the crimes which the US committed in Yugoslavia, and in particular the alliance of the US and EU with the Islamofascist forces of Izetbegovic in Bosnia, the result of which there were many brutal murders of Serbs, clear evidence of which has been carried widely on the Net.
3. That heavily implicated with Brzezinski was McCain who Bill Levinson has supported as future President of the US on this very site.
4. That there is not revolutionary nationalist or revolutionary socialist leadership ready to step up and to challenge Olmert
5. That the Israeli people are ready to fight which is shown in the action of young religious Jewish girls who were put in prison by Olmert’s regime about 4 weeks ago, and whose parents were attacked on this very site, without any protest except from myself.
6. That in this same vein of the Israeli people being prepared to fight why did Israpundit totally ignore the Sderot people demonstrating in Jerusalem last weekend.
What then should we advise Jews to do.
I( think that concretely Eltad and Netanyahu, and others like that, must hold a special conference to which all who oppose Olmert are present and that a major campaign to force this government from power must begin.
Sites like my own and that of Israpundit must publish fully when Jewish people in Israel come forward to challenge this corrupt Israeli ruling class regime.
Is there nobody to write to Netanyahu, and Eltad, and many others to get a response.
I am actually quite disgusted with the politics of Bill Levinson on this site. He can find the time to promote this enemy of the Serbs McCain, can find also the time to attack homosexuals, and can do all of these things at such a critical time for Israel, when every minute counts.
It seems to me that many, many Jewish people have their heads in the clouds and are only concerned with advancing their own petty programmes and have not the interests of the Jews really at heart.
So will anybody write to these people and ask for such a conference to be held with great urgency6 within days? Anybody at all?
Bill Levinson is absolutely right. Absolutely revolutionary methods must be used against these Fascists.
I also believe that the worries of Ted are correct. I am very worried at the methods of warfare that Olmert and Livni will use, looking over their shoulder at world opinion.
The lesson of Lebanon in 2006 is that these political leaders are incapable of waging a revolutionary war.
The first step in waging this war is to force Olmert, Livni and Barak from power and for the election of a government which will wage a war in order to cause the most damage to the Fascist enemy, and the least damage to the Israeli forces.
I am no expert on warfare but that is the revolutionary principle which must be followed.
The demonstration of the people from Sderot who travelled to Jerusalem laying seige to Olmert must be built upon. That is essentially the way forward. The Jewish people of Israel certainly will fight, I am certain of that, but they require a new and a revolutionary leadership with clear aims and goals.
The first goal is this. Leon Trotsky in the late 30s as the Nazis closed in on the Jews of Europe said that the Jews must get out and making their way to Palestine must set up a Jewish state which would be made free from antisemitism.
The latter is what the Israeli labourist stalinist ruling class did not do.
Starting with their coup d’etat in the Atalena Affair the Israeli rulers invited the Arab antisemites into their state. This was the exact opposite of what Trotsky counselled.
Nor is it an historical discussion point. That exact same issue exists in unpostponable form today.
To wage any war the antisemites within Israel must be expelled. This will include the Haaretz newspaper, people like Hass, people like Pappe in the Universities, and all Arabs as well as these Jews who are antisemitic.
You cannot wage a war with these antisemites operating inside Israel.