Support when it is needed most and connecting with the “millenials”.

Published: Monday, July 28, 2014 10:58 PM

WHAT FOLLOWS IS AN EXCERPT FROM A MAJOR ARTICLE BY YNET’S NACHUM BARNEA.

[..] This is the real story of Operation Protective Edge. There was no plot by Hamas, or an Israeli conspiracy. The deterioration was gradual, and, just as a snowball rolls downhill, it was propelled by its own momentum and the force of gravity.

Were there warnings when the Cabinet agreed to an Egyptian ceasefire in the middle of last week that Gaza was infested with tunnels, dozens of which led into Israel? The answer is yes.

Read more…

DEBKA July 28, 2014, 11:55 PM (IDT)

In the past 48 hours, Israel was pressured to accept its fifth “humanitarian” ceasefire in Gaza by President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came close to folding, whereas Hamas saw the truce as applying only to Israel and therefore used it as a call to arms.

The slogan Israel broadcast: Quiet will be met with quiet and fire with fire, was seen by Hamas as a sign of Israel weakening.

This impression was confirmed on Sunday when the order went out to Israel troops to exercise restraint in the face of sporadic Hamas rocket fire, so as to give the truce a chance.

The Palestinian Islamists used it as a welcome respite for getting organized for the next stage of their onslaught. Read more…

 Columnist Calls for Peace With Israel

This was published prior to yesterday’s events
Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Israel, faced with withdrawal or conquest, has lost control over the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a report said.

The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Affairs has asserted that Israel lost the initiative in its conflict with Hamas. A former leading adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas was demonstrating unprecedented capabilities amid Israeli government indecision.

“The feeling that Israel is not in control of the situation, but rather is being dragged along, is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the past few weeks,” the report, titled “The War With Hamas; Decision Time Approaching,” said. “It is hard to stomach the fact that a terror organization, which is one of Israel’s weakest remaining enemies in terms of firepower, has been able to challenge the strongest nation in the Middle East for days and is showing no signs of fatigue.”

Read more…

I think this is a turning point.

PM Netanyahu to address the nation at 8:00 pm.

This means war.

JPOST

July 28, 2014
Joseph Klien, FPM

What this means is that Obama wants to leverage the pressure from Hamas to force Israel to accept ’67 borders. Similarly he supported the unification agreement. Israel must find the resolve to  say no. So what if the UNSC orders a ceasefire? Perhaps Russia will veto it. Hang tough Israel.  Ted Belman

Hamas fires a single rocket at Ashkelon Monday morning, after a quiet night. The IDF fires back. Cabinet is in session.

By Gil Ronen, INN
7/28/2014, 9:56 AM

By Joshua Levitt, ALGEMEINER July 27/14

Data released by Qatar-based Al Jazeera continues to show that most of the dead in Gaza have been young, combatant-aged men, rather than women, children or seniors, and in contrast to Hamas’s own reports from the front to media, accusing the Israel Defense Forces of indiscriminate killing.

On Sunday, blogger Elder of Ziyon posted new charts, updating the data released by Al Jazeera last week and the week before, and confirming the same trend.

The first chart shows the male-female split and then graphed by age group, with most of the men being 20 to 24 or 25 to 29. The second chart compares the results to Gaza’s actual age distribution, casting further doubt on Hamas’s claims, as the majority of the dead fit the profiles of fighters, men in their 20s, rather than the broader population. Read more…

A few more days are needed in order to blow up the remaining tunnels between Israel and Gaza.

By Kobi Finkler, Gil Ronen, INN
First Publish: 7/28/2014, 7:50 AM

By Elad Benari, INN

MK Danny Danon (Likud) blasted the United States and President Barack Obama on Sunday night, after Obama demanded that Israel agree to an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.

“We need a break from the fire that is coming from the Obama administration in Washington,” he said, adding, “Just as the United States fought resolutely against the Taliban, so must we continue to strike Hamas and destroy its tunnel infrastructure.”
Read more…

DEBKA suggests Obama is doing this to save his detente policy with Iran. I think it may have to do with his general embrace of the MB and other Islamists in the ME. I suggested that if Israel were to destroy Hamas it would sound the end of this embrace.  As for Obama’s threats, not yet made public, I would imagine that he threatened to send in the marines to Gaza as an humanitarian intervention.  Has Obama resupplied Israel with munitions for Iron Dome and other munitio0ns? I think not.   Ted Belman

DEBKA

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu entangled himself Saturday and Sunday, July 26-27,  in the net he had cast to blur the effect of the unanimous decision by the security-political cabinet of Friday to turn down the ceasefire proposals proposed by US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The two diplomats and their partners, a brace of European ministers and Qatar and Turkey, who met in Paris to concoct a peace framework for Gaza, were privately dubbed by wags in Jerusalem the “Save Hamas Squad.”

Netanyahu tried to present the flat cabinet “no” to the ceasefire as a “no, maybe.”

Read more…

MICHAEL WILNER, JPOST

Obama told Netanyahu he wants a ceasefire “that both allows Palestinians in Gaza to lead normal lives and addresses Gaza’s long-term development and economic needs.”

Ted Belman

Spokes persons for Israel are adhering to their talking points. “We deplore the deaths but the responsibility rests with Hamas. They are committing a double war crime, namely hiding among civilians and shooting at civilians.”

Having said that it is hard to complete with pictures of dead and bloodied children even when some of the pictures have been recycled from the Syrian war.

But even if we make the case with an ever increasing number of people, we are left with a major problem that we don’t answer. Even if Hamas is guilty, what about the rights of the Palestinians. Why don’t we give them back their lands? Why do we keep building illegal settlements and so on. Bibi’s only response is that we won’t jeopardize our security. In the battle between their rights and our security, Israel is not doing well.

Bibi must embrace the Levy Report and state unequivocally, the land is legally ours and the settlements are not illegal. Then the battle will be their rights v our rights. That’s a better battlefield for Israel.

I was just advised by a military man.

Let me add one critical factor to the discussion. Iran is currently transferring to to Hamas more capable missile guidance. Future Hamas rockets will be guided by GPS and have the ability for evasive trajectories. Thus, the hypothetical Israeli casualties that were avoided by Israel’s employment of Iron Dome will become actual Israeli casualties in the future engagement. This is why Hamas looks forward to an eventual truce during which they will reorganize.

in other words, our technological advantage will disappear.

THAT’S THE DEAL, THE ONLY DEAL. Israel has not yet started phase III. It still moping up phase II. But it could and should do both.