Group hasn’t abandoned its ideology but swapped armed resistance against retaining control over Gaza,

bY BY RAPHAEL AHREN, TIMES OF ISRAEL
August 5, 2014, 5:59 pm 4

Fallen IDF soldiers in Operation Protective EdgeSecurity guard stabbed near Ma’ale AdumimDefeat for Hamas, devastation for GazaAs fighting halts, IDF chief promises help to rehabilitate GazaGaza minister: War caused $5 billion worth of damageThe tipping pointFear of Gaza tunnels empties kibbutz of childrenAs truce holds, Israelis set to negotiate long-term solution
By agreeing to the Egyptian ceasefire proposal, Hamas has temporarily renounced a part of its “terrorist identity” and relinquished its ability to carry out attacks against Israel, a senior Israeli official said Tuesday.

The group hasn’t abandoned its radical and violent anti-Israel ideology, but for practical reasons decided to swap armed resistance for retaining control over the Gaza Strip, said Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Yossi Kuperwasser, the director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry.
Read more…

TIMES OF ISRAEL

Some 900 operatives from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terror groups were killed in the Gaza Strip in the four weeks of fighting, since Operation Protective Edge was launched by the IDF on July 8, a senior Israeli military source said Tuesday.

The source added that the Israel Air Force hit a total of 4,800 targets in the Palestinian enclave.

Health officials in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip say that close to 1,900 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting began, most of them civilians and many of them children. Palestinian rights groups have claimed that 84 percent of those killed in the conflict were civilians; Israel disputes those claims. Israel has blamed Hamas for the deth and destruction in Gaza, since it emplaced its rockets, rocket launchers, cross-border tunnel openings and other military infrastructure in homes, schools and mosques, and thus used Gazans as human shields.
Read more…

August 03, 2014  http://t.co/BSPEvGgiXI
Elders of Zion

I have described how Hamas is violating at least 19 principles of international law in the current fighting.

Now, is Israel?

The criticism most often given of Israel’s actions is that it is violating the “principle of distinction.” The Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol 1, article 52, states it this way:

1. Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects which are not military objectives as defined in paragraph 2.

2. Attacks shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.
3.  In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used.

Read more…

By Terrence McCoy August 4    Washington Post  

It’s a pattern of territorial expansion that has now become familiar. After the Islamic State captured Sinjar on Sunday, came the executions. Then arrived the orders to convert or die, the flash of the movement’s black flag, the fleeing of thousands — and, finally, the jubilant and chilling images on social media.

One showed a destroyed Shiite shrine, which had long sat in the ancient city of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq. Another depicted the executions of several blindfolded men. There was an image of two masked men who had climbed a tall building, enshrouded its edifice in a black Islamic State flag, and blasted a pistol into the air. Then there was a picture showing a masked jihadist hoisting a gun at the desk of the town’s mayor — a portrait of a famed Kurdish guerrilla leader looming behind.
Read more…

The NYT has so many blind spots that they fail to understand or acknowledge, what America has done wrong in trying to force Israel to the ’67 lines, stop settlements, release murderers, apologize to Erdogan and to prevent Israel from attacking Iran. How could they be so stupid? Furthermore, by now everyone knows that Israel didn’t bomb the school, everyone that is, other than the NYT. They fail to understand that stopping the violence in Gaza is effectively wanting Israel not to victorious. That to create a parallel ceasefire process with Qatar and Turkey to the one with Egypt that Israel prefers, is to knife Israel in the back. Not to mention rejecting demilitarization until a peace agreement is worked out. That to support all of the demands of Hamas up front is not a further cause for alienation. They complain about our tough talk about Kerry and the US proposals, but not a word of all the tough talk from the US which amounted to threats should we defy them. How could they be so stupid? Ted Belman

NEW YORK TIMES AUG 4/14

WASHINGTON — When the State Department condemned Israel’s strike on a United Nations school in Gaza on Sunday, saying it was “appalled” by this “disgraceful” act, it gave full vent to what has been weeks of mounting American anger toward the Israeli government.

The blunt, unsparing language — among the toughest diplomats recall ever being aimed at Israel — lays bare a frustrating reality for the Obama administration: the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has largely dismissed diplomatic efforts by the United States to end the violence in Gaza, leaving American officials to seethe on the sidelines about what they regard as disrespectful treatment.
Read more…

Al Arabiya News
Monday, 4 August 2014

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered Monday air support for Kurdish Peshmerga troops who are planning a counter-offensive against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters in northern Iraq after being routed in battles on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.

A Kurdish official was quoted by AP saying the Kurds had been overstretched in the region but were now calling in a large number of fighters to hit back against the Sunni extremist group.

Thousands displaced by ISIS insurgency
Read more…

idfblog.com on Aug 4 2014

IDF forces in the Gaza Strip found a Hamas manual on “Urban Warfare,” which belonged to the Shuja’iya Brigade of Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. The manual explains how the civilian population can be used against IDF forces and reveals that Hamas knows the IDF is committed to minimizing harm to civilians.

Throughout Operation Protective Edge, Hamas has continuously used the civilian population of Gaza as human shields. The discovery of a Hamas “urban warfare” manual by IDF forces reveals that Hamas’ callous use of the Gazan population was intentional and preplanned.
Read more…

This is similar to what I recommended namely, arrange for emigration of Arabs and annex Gaza. Whereas I wanted to get the international community to take it upon themselves to provide destinations for the emigrants to go to and to pay for same, Moshe Feiglin simply wants Israel to give financial inducements to Arabs to leave.  But they still need welcoming destinations.  Secondly I did not offer Blue cards to them.  The Arabs in Jerusalem still have the option to apply for citizenship. I prefer to offer them no alternative to emigration.  I presume, when he offers certain areas adjacent to the Sinai and the sea he means within Gaza.  Works for me. Ted Belman

By Moshe Feiglin To Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

The failures of Operation Protective Edge were inherent from the outset, because:

A.  It has no proper and clear goal and;

B.  There is no appropriate moral framework to support our soldiers.

Read more…

Many nations want Hamas to be disarmed, but the Israel Defense Forces will doubtless be left to do the dirty work. It is a task of paramount importance.

By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ | Aug. 4, 2014 | 1:32 AM |

There is a long list of countries that would like to see Hamas in Gaza disarmed. To rid this terrorist organization and its terrorist ally, Islamic Jihad, of the labyrinth of tunnels they have dug under the Gaza Strip, housing its command and control centers, its supply depots, and which serve as launching points for attacks against Israeli cities, towns and villages. To rid it of the thousands of rockets still in its possession, after having launched more than 3,000 rockets against Israeli civilians during the past four weeks, and of the manufacturing facilities for these rockets.

This list is obviously headed by Israel, which has had to deal with this arsenal of weapons in the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and will have to contend with it in the future unless Gaza is demilitarized.
Read more…

Op-ed: Fighting an enemy state with one hand while supplying food and energy to its residents with the other hand is absurd.

Giora Eiland, YNET NEWS

Regardless of how Protective Edge ends, this operation appears to have one clear lesson, which doesn’t have to do with the tunnel issue but with a more strategic question. Israel is repeatedly falling into the asymmetry trap.

The story we are telling in this conflict is similar to the one we told in Lebanon in 2006. In this story we are fighting a terror organization, and only a terror organization, while the population the organization is operating from is not the enemy. Moreover, during the fighting we even feel obligated to supply Gaza’s residents with food, fuel and electricity.
Read more…

I certainly don’t want to conquer Gaza for the benefit of Abbas. I don’t believe Israel should be an occupier of Gaza long term. Nor do I want to give anything in return for a ceasefire. Hamas shouldn’t be rewarded for inflicting this war on us. It remains to be seen who has the staying powers under the new rules.  And what kind of pressure will the Obama administration put Israel under in order to open the borders. Israel should insist on demilitarization including unlimited inspection and access as the precondition for opening borders. In the meantime we should try to sell the idea of the world taking in about 900,000 refugees in
Gaza and leave it to Israel to annex the land and rebuild it at its own expense.  Until such time such an option is available, I see no value in occupying Gaza. Sooner or later we will have to end the occupation. The present choice is much better for israel.  Ted Belman.

By Sarah Honig

Posted on August 4, 2014

This is no wholesale retreat – all options remain open after Hamas was dealt grievous blowsThe rule of thumb in gauging any public’s mood is that the higher the expectations, the deeper the let-down. Put differently, it may be argued that the more unrealistic the expectations, the more groundless the grumbles.

By Mort Klein and Daniel Mandel,  ALGEMEINER

Has President Barack Obama ‘got Israel’s back’? When policy is compared to rhetoric, the answer is no. Thus, when Hamas, a terrorist organization which calls in its Charter for the worldwide murder of Jews, launched a new round of rocket assaults on Israel, Obama declared, “We support [Israel’s] military efforts … No nation should accept rockets being fired into its borders or terrorists tunneling into its territory.”

But Obama’s policy is entirely different –– imposing what he calls “an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire that ends hostilities now.” Moreover, Secretary of State John Kerry informed Hamas via Qatar that Hamas’ demands for weakening the Israeli blockade would be met. In attempting to reach this cease-fire, Obama has bypassed the Palestinian Authority and Egypt –– Hamas antagonists–– and worked closely with Qatar and Turkey –– both munificent Hamas supporters. Read more…

– Amos Yadlin (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)

• Israel chose an alternative that, at least in the short term, places Hamas in a difficult strategic position. Israel regained international legitimacy for its actions; Hamas was again cast as a terrorist organization lacking all credibility that for the sixth time violated a cease-fire that Egypt and the international community initiated and Israel accepted.
• Israel decided to deny Hamas veto power over cease-fires and took the initiative back into its own hands, clarifying that it was not negotiating with Hamas and not granting it any achievement, neither in terms of a cease-fire nor in terms of an agreement.
• By its action, Israel establishes four premises that present Hamas with a new strategic situation:

Read more…

El Medio-Spanish

A letter by the former presidents of Peru (Alejandro Toledo), Uruguay (Luis Alberto Lacalle), and former government officials in Europe opposes the actions of Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil in recalling their ambassadors to Israel, saying “the manipulation of information in Latin America regarding the current conflict in Gaza…intoxicates the citizens” and “inspires wrong and reprehensible policies.”

“Israel didn’t start this war. The Jewish State is responding to the constant barrage of rockets and mortars from Gaza falling in Israel.” “Hamas is…a terrorist organization designated as such by the U.S. State Department and the European Union and Hamas’ foundational charter…calls for the annihilation of the State of Israel and the death of all Jews.”
Read more…

By Stephen Brown, FPM

The violent, anti-Semitic nightmare Europe thought it would never see again after the Nazi Holocaust is raising its ugly head once more, this time on French soil.

Jew-hatred, mostly among France’s six and a half million Muslims, is reaching such threatening proportions that an increasing number of the country’s 500,000 Jews feel forced to leave their native land to ensure their safety. At one Jewish agency that assists French Jews to emigrate to Israel the telephone, it was reported, “does not stop ringing.

“For 2014, one will have to register a record number of departures of French Jews for Israel since its creation in 1948,” the agency’s director told the French newspaper Le Figaro. “It will safely exceed 5,000 people. In 2013, there were already 3,300, an increase of 73 percent compared with 2012.”
Read more…

Pamela Geller

Hamas Tunnels Used To Target and Blow Up Israel’s Kindergartens, “An Israeli 9/11? Planned with Tens of Thousands of Casualities

Multiple media outlets report that Hamas’s offensive tunnel network – now known to have been composed of over forty attack tunnels dug underneath Israel’s border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip – was set to be activated during the Jewish High Holidays (September 24^th) as a mass terror attack.

The attack was meant to generate as many as ten thousand casualties, men, women and particularly children and hundreds of captives.  Explosives were particularly placed underneath kindergartens to make certain that these “institutions” would be the first struck, even before any thing else.
Read more…

After earlier effort alarmed both Israel and PA, new plan may undermine Egyptian initiative

BY AVI ISSACHAROFF, TOI

Palestinian sources in Cairo revealed on Monday that the United States and Qatar have again renewed their attempts to reach an understanding on a ceasefire in Gaza, even as Palestinian factions meet Egyptian officials in Cairo to forge their own proposal.

Representatives of the US administration are in Cairo at the same time as a Palestinian delegation that includes senior officials from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah.

The Palestinian sources suggested that the US-Qatari initiative slows and undermines the Egyptian efforts. Read more…

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST

08/04/2014 03:32

It would take a week to take Gaza, and up to two years to destroy terrorist infrastructure,” the source said.

Had the IDF been ordered to, it could have seized the whole of the Gaza Strip in a week, and spent up to two years taking apart Hamas’s guerrilla army, but this has not been the goal of the operation thus far, a senior military source said Sunday.

“Had we been ordered to defeat Hamas, we would have done it. We would have drafted four divisions, evacuated the Gazan population from battlegrounds, conquered the area and scanned it thoroughly.

It would take a week to take Gaza, and up to two years to destroy terrorist infrastructure,” the source said. Read more…