Doc's Talk: "It's War!"

Sunday, December 28, 2008

"It's War!"

"Sof sof!" That's "finally!" in Hebrew. Finally, a strong military response to Hamas with the promise of more to come. A sigh of relief follows this. Whether the "more" will be all that is needed remains to be seen. But today was a most auspicious beginning for the operation. In fact it's being called the most serious offensive in Gaza in over 40 years. So far there have been at least 170 sorties utilizing war planes and helicopters, and some 60 targets have been hit. These include (according to the IDF): Hamas headquarters in Tel Zatar; the tower in Gaza City that was used as an operations center; the Hamas police academy -- which was bombed during a graduation ceremony, killing some 70; Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's office; and headquarters of the Izzadin Kassam Brigades (military wing of Hamas). Various other command posts, warehouses, training centers, security compounds, rocket manufacturing facilities and underground launching sites were hit.

Reports are that over 220 people in Gaza have been killed and many others wounded. According to Taher Noono, a spokesman for Hamas, most of those killed were members of the Hamas security forces, including police chief Tawfiq Jaber and the head of the organization’s Security and Protection Service, Ismail al-Jabary. (See http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aw5WKSxUSqHU&refer=home)

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What this does, at last, is change the game, putting us in control and Hamas on the defense. This is not a "proportional" response to a particular rocket attack. We're aiming for infrastructure now.

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And we managed to come in for our first blows with a huge element of surprise: Word is that our opening of crossings yesterday led Hamas leaders to assume we were softening and had no intention of hitting them; nor were they expecting an attack on Shabbat. Additionally, they had factored in the coming election here and assumed that if we were going to hit at all it wouldn't be until after that.

What is more, our attacks were incredibly accurate: We'd been honing our intelligence for a full year in order to be able to do this.

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Prime Minister Olmert delivered a live TV address today, with Foreign Minister Livni and Defense Minister Barak joining him. We tried peace, he said, but Hamas has shown it is hostile and not interested in peace. He said the operation may take weeks and the south of the nation, bordering on Gaza, must be prepared for an escalation in the number of rockets launched -- some reaching further than any have until now. It is estimated that as many as 150-200 a day could be launched.

Olmert also made it clear that we do not consider the people of Gaza our enemies and that we will do everything possible to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

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We have tanks and infantry moving towards the border with Gaza now, as we prepare to go in as necessary. Barak is in consultation with Chief of Staff Ashkenazi on the next steps to be taken. In a press conference, Barak said the operation would deepen and widen as necessary. The IDF had prepared for months for this operation. "It won't be easy and it won't be quick."

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Tzipi Livni put out this statement: "...today there is no other option than a military operation. We need to protect our citizens from attack through a military response against the terror infrastructure in Gaza. This is the expression of our basic right to self-defense."

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The question remains of precisely what the goals of this operation are.

Olmert said: "The operation is intended to radically improve the security situation of the residents of southern Israel."

A statement released by his office put it this way: "...the IDF [has been] ordered to act to bring about a cessation of rocket fire for a length of time,"

That's considerably vague and more than a bit simplistic. While the goal here is not to topple Hamas, this clearly is no longer a matter of simply getting Hamas to agree to another "lull" while they retain the option to hit us again at will.

In a statement I find astonishing (for him), Barak said today in a Fox News interview that, "For us to be asked to have a ceasefire with Hamas is like asking you to have a ceasefire with al-Qaeda. It's something we cannot really accept."

But precisely at what point will it be considered that we've done enough to "radically improve security"? And how long a cessation of rocket fire is "a length of time"? This is not sufficiently clear or straightforward.

The Post, citing "defense officials," was more specific: Israel's goals, they say, are to "end Hamas rocket fire, end smuggling of arms into Gaza and severely disrupt any Hamas military activity."

That's a major step in the right direction and implies a significant operation. We'll have to see how they expect to end smuggling.

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How far we go and how much we achieve will be determined in part by our strength in the face of the international outcry. Such an outcry is inevitable and has already begun.

That the Arabs say they're "furious" comes as no surprise -- whatever they may think privately about our taking on an Iranian proxy, this is the line they'll take publicly. Abbas has condemned the attack, as has Egypt.

But already France, as well, has protested our "disproportionate response." At least President Sarkozy also condemned the Hamas attacks.

For then we have (with acknowledgement to Lenny Ben David for calling this to my attention) the libelous charge by the Telegraph in the UK, stating that, "The attack on the Gaza strip is proof that Israel is addicted to violence. Slaughtering 155 civilians, many of whom are women and children, cannot be justified."

See above for a Hamas spokesman's accounting of who was killed. Most of those killed, reports the IDF, were in uniform. I cannot emphasize enough the fact that this was a razor sharp operation because of the preparatory intelligence work done. We didn't go in and drop some bombs -- we knew precisely where they were being dropped. The IDF spokesman's office has released pictures of targets taken before the bombs were dropped. And please, keep this in mind as you encounter the negative press.

The UN and the EU have both called for a cessation of hostilities. So has Condoleezza Rice, who, while condemning Hamas attacks, expressed concern about "escalating violence" and called for the ceasefire to be restored immediately and fully respected.

This is where the international diplomatic preparation that Livni has been doing should kick in, if she's done the job right.

But even so, we will have to monitor carefully and expose the outright Arab lies and distortions -- which you may remember well from the Lebanon War.

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The Hamas rocket response to our operation began by early this afternoon and soon took a toll. When 10 rockets were launched toward Netivot, one directly hit a private home, killing 58-year-old Beber Vaaknin and wounding three others. Another rocket that hit a synagogue in Eshkol Regional Council seriously wounded a man.

By 9 PM tonight over 60 rockets had been fired.

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The Hamas verbal response was as bellicose as might be predicted.

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see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk