The NYT, LA Times, Guardian and the BBC are all guilty of the same thing. Ted Belman

To the Editor:The Washington Post
From Judge (retired) Herbert Grossman

Re Headline, “Israeli aircraft pound Gaza”

Can you really believe that, after plastering your front page with a maudlin picture of a dead Palestinian baby, three headlines about Israeli offensive actions, and text devoted solely to those actions and Palestinian actions as mere responses to them (“Israeli aircraft pound Gaza” Nov. 15), you have set the record straight by burying on page 14 the facts that the Palestinians began the round of fighting by destroying an Israeli jeep full of soldiers with an anti-tank missile and, after Israel fired back at the attackers, then fired about 130 rockets and mortar rounds at population centers in southern Israel – all of this BEFORE Israel even targeted the Hamas military chief, which your front page suggests began the round of fighting?
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By MARTIN SHERMAN, JPOST

Despite the deadly display of hi-tech pyro-technics by the IDF, the depressing sense of déjà vu conveyed by the events unfolding in Gaza comprise a devastating indictment of Israel’s past and present political leadership.

Aargh: A word that proclaims sorrow, annoyance, anger, depression, hopelessness – The Urban Dictionary.

Watching the morning newscasts and the spectacle of Israelis scuttling to shelter from incoming projectiles, launched by implacable enemies, from areas voluntarily ceded them by a democratically elected government, which reneged on an election pledge not to do so, it was difficult not to succumb to the urge to yell: Aargh!!! For the sorrow, anger and hopelessness was almost overwhelming.

But worse – much worse – was to come.

As I was writing these very lines, news came in of three Israelis killed by a rocket strike on Kiryat Malachi – in Hebrew, “The City of Angels,” founded in 1951 to replace a tent city housing (Jewish) refugees from Arab countries, and named in honor of the Los Angeles Jewish community, which helped to establish and develop it.

Predictable and predicted
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Egypt recalls envoy over IAF air strikes.

DEBKAfile Special Report November 14, 2012, 10:24 PM

The Palestinians fired 50 rockets from Gaza Wednesday night, Nov. 14, after an Israeli air assault killed the Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari and destroyed a long list of missile sites. Iron Dome intercepted 17 of the incoming rockets against Beersheba (three salvoes), Ashdod and Eshkol. None caused casualties. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, after some hesitation, decided not to issue a statement on the Israeli operation. Instead, he recalled his ambassador from Tel Aviv and decided to call a UN Security Council session to stop “Israeli aggression.” The Israeli ambassador was summoned to hear Egypt’s foreign ministry. So far, Cairo has not acted to sever relations.
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Israel May Declare Oslo Dead and Buried

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, INN

The Foreign Ministry has told its ambassadors to explain that the Palestinian Authority’s plan to ask for United Nations recognition is a violation of the Oslo Accords and may cause Israel to officially announce that it is “canceling them partially or completely.” The agreement commits the PA to negotiate with Israel for the establishment of an independent PA entity.

“You are asked immediately at the beginning of the work week to contact the foreign ministry, prime minister’s office, national security adviser or president’s office and request to do all possible to halt the Palestinian initiative because of its far-reaching consequences,” the ambassadors were instructed in a cable from Aharon Leshno-Yaar, director of the Foreign Ministry’s department for international organizations. Haaretz published the cable’s contents Wednesday morning.
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According to this FM Paper “Israel should negotiate a Palestinian state on provisional borders with the PA until the Arab world stabilizes and Palestinian elections are held.” I don’t understand the rational for this at all. The two provisoes are irrelevant.If the instability of the Arab world is a consideration, and it should be, why negotiate at all. And who decides if it is stable. Secondly why not have negotiations after election rather than negotiate with corrupt Abbas before he gets a new mandate. Furthermore there is no way that Abbas will make a deal acceptable with Israel. Surely, the FM can’t be serious about this idea.

I am disappointed that Israel’s response to such recognition is that she “would consider it as the crossing of a red line which merits a tough response.” Israel is obviously not prepared to articulate what that response would be. She prefers to keep her options open. Ted Belman

By Itamar Eichner, YNET

A Foreign Ministry draft position paper states that should the Palestinian Authority receive the status of a non-member state at the United Nations, the only viable option would be “to overthrow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.”

The paper, drafted ahead of the Palestinians’ November 29 UN bid, said that “a soft response would be tantamount to an Israeli admission that it cannot handle the challenge.”
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By Rachel Hirshfeld, INN

Israel has become an American economic interest, “beyond the basis of cooperation of common values and democracy”, Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren told Globes news.

After keeping a low media profile for months, in order to keep out of the U.S. presidential elections campaign, Oren affirmed that the close strategic relations between the two countries was one of the few issues on which Democrats and Republicans agreed in both Houses of Congress.

“The US-Israeli alliance has always been based on values, democracy, and common strategic interests,” Oren told Globes. “But now there is another foundation: the economic and commercial ties between the two countries, which are growing at a dizzying pace. In the past 20 years, bilateral trade has increased 350%. Almost every large US high-tech company has activity in Israel.”
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By YAAKOV LAPPIN

In any IDF response, Israel would have to take into account the threat of long-range rocket attacks on greater Tel Aviv from Gaza.

The IDF probably has a broad range of options to choose from if it wishes to escalate its response to ongoing Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel.

As of now, the military has limited its response to air strikes on rocket-launching cells after they have been identified on the ground and are preparing to fire projectiles, or after they have fired the rockets and given their positions away.

Air strikes could target figures higher up in the chain of command within Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and other terror groups. Rather than wait for rockets to be fired, targeted assassinations of these commanders could be employed. This would place the commanders of the terror factions under pressure, and would result in them investing energy in seeking cover for themselves, leaving them little or no time to fire rockets at Israel.

Additionally, the air force could strike figures even higher up, such as Hamas’s military commander, Ahmed Jabari, and his counterpart in Islamic Jihad.
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Officials say more Sudanese, Eritrean infiltrators leaving Israel due to fear of incarceration, trouble finding work

Itamar Eichner, YNET

More than 1,000 Sudanese and Eritrean migrants have voluntarily left Israel over the past two months, according to data released by the Population, Immigration and Borders Authority.

A source who is familiar with the issue told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the trend is likely to grow.

Some 36,000 Eritreans and about 15,000 north Sudanese migrants have infiltrated Israel over the past few years. International treaties forbid Israel to deport them because their lives would be at risk in their home countries. They do not fall under the definition of refugees, so they have been living in Israel under the “collective protection” that has been afforded them.
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