Doc's Talk: Hamas Invites Foreign Correspondents to the Egyptian Border to Prove Some Smuggling Tunnels Still Operating

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Hamas Invites Foreign Correspondents to the Egyptian Border to Prove Some Smuggling Tunnels Still Operating

1. During Operation Cast Lead the Israeli Air Force attacked the smuggling tunnel system in the Rafah region hundreds of times, striking the tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. Despite the many attacks, some of the tunnels were not damaged and were used both during and after the fighting. 1 Now that the operation is over, Hamas is working energetically to renew the tunnels' activity and has stated that fact publicly in the Arab and Western media.

1. During Operation Cast Lead the Israeli Air Force attacked the smuggling tunnel system in the Rafah region hundreds of times, striking the tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. Despite the many attacks, some of the tunnels were not damaged and were used both during and after the fighting. 1 Now that the operation is over, Hamas is working energetically to renew the tunnels' activity and has stated that fact publicly in the Arab and Western media.

2. As part of producing the “victory narrative” for Operation Cast Lead, Hamas invited foreign correspondents, mainly from the West, to the Gaza-Rafah border. The objective was to let them see for themselves that the tunnels continued operating as usual and that Israel had not achieved one of the main goals of Operation Cast Lead: to stop weapons from entering the Gaza Strip through the tunnels . 2

3. According to the reports of the correspondents who visited the region, during Operation Cast Lead only half of the tunnels were destroyed by the Israeli Air Force. The tunnel operators told the correspondents that some of them functioned during the days of the fighting itself. According to the reports, the Egyptian police are aware of the existence of the tunnels on the Egyptian side but do not prevent them from operating (Der Spiegel, January 20, 2009 ).

4. Beyond Hamas's propaganda gains, it is also clearly a defiant act taken against Israel (which is trying to get the international community to agree to a way of dealing with the smuggling), Egypt (which signaled its intentions of dealing with the tunnels more effectively), the United States and the international community , which expressed willingness to support an effort to stop the smuggling.

Appendix

Hamas's smuggling tunnels

5. Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations exploited the lull arrangement to develop and institutionalize the extensive tunnel network in the Rafah region used for smuggling . In our assessment, there were several hundred tunnels in existence before Operation Cast Lead, 3 many of which were used to smuggle weapons and military equipment into the Gaza Strip. According to the IDF's initial assessment, a large number of those tunnels were destroyed or damaged during Operation Cast Lead.

6. The tunnel network was constructed to facilitate the orderly, uninterrupted flow of weapons, terrorist operatives and funds into the Gaza Strip, and at the same time to provide a supply of food, manufactured goods and fuel, thus providing a partial response to the difficulties created when Israel and Egypt closed the crossings. Hamas makes no particular effort to hide the smuggling activities, 4 which increased and became institutionalized during the lull arrangement , until they became not only a major factor in the military buildup of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations, but also an integral part of the Gaza Strip's economy.

7. The tunnel industry is based on the needs of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations to smuggle weapons, food and fuel into the Gaza Strip from Egypt . It is a partial response to the closing of the crossings, including the Rafah crossing. The lull arrangement, during which the IDF ceased its activities in the Gaza Strip, led to the tunnel industry's flourishing, which could thus be carried out without interference from Israel . Before Operation Cast Lead, the Egypt security forces did in fact carry out increased activity against the smugglers, and from time to time exposed tunnels, detained smugglers and confiscated the merchandise. However, their activities were not sufficiently effective and did not put an end to the smuggling or even limit its dimensions .

8. During the lull arrangement the tunnel network was institutionalized by the Hamas administration and came under its jurisdiction (to the point at which there were calls for it to be nationalized). Hamas oversaw the incoming merchandise, collected taxes and improved safety in the tunnels. The activity was led by the interior ministry of Ismail Haniya's administration to increase Hamas supervision of the tunnel industry, increase profits and ensure greater worker safety (after there had been frequent deaths and injuries resulting from tunnel collapses and other mishaps). 5Hamas thus improved its ability to provide for its military needs while also providing a partial solution for the shortages of goods and fuel which plagued the civilian population.

9. It is estimated that before Operation Cast Lead, thousands of workers and terrorist organization activists were involved in digging the tunnels and using them for smuggling. According to British Guardian and Independent articles (October 22 and October 25, 2008 , respectively), there are about 6,000 workers in the tunnel industry in Rafah. Estimates for digging range from $60,000 to $70,000 per tunnel, half the sum paid to the owner of the house under whose floor the tunnel is dug, while the other half goes for the excavating equipment, and the salaries paid to the tunnel engineer and the workers. Profits per tunnel are estimated at from $30,000 to $50,000 a month. According to the Independent, an active tunnel is sold for about $150,000.

10. In our assessment, Hamas will work as fast as it can to restore the tunnels damaged or destroyed during Operation Cast Lead, demonstrating a certain amount of self confidence toward Israel and Egypt . The tunnels play an extremely important role in the restoration of Hamas military infrastructure, since they make it possible for large quantities of weapons to flow regularly into the Gaza Strip.

1 According to a newspaper report, even a delegation of foreign doctors reached the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead through one of the tunnels (Haaretz, January 22, 2009 ).

2 The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center Hebrew Bulletin dealing with Hamas's effort to produce a “victory narrative” will shortly be available in English on this website.

3 British journalists estimated their number and between 400 and 600 (Guardian, October 22, 2008 , Independent, October 25, 2008 ).

4 Even before Operation Cast Lead, Hamas was open about the smuggling an allowed British correspondents to interview activists involved in it. However, Hamas propaganda falsely represented the smuggling as relating only to various types of merchandise needed to ease the so-called siege, never referring to the weapons, terrorist operatives or money.

5 The tunnel industry often claimed victims during both digging and day-to-day operation. The deaths of Palestinians working in the tunnels worried the Hamas administration and it tried to reduce the number. The interior ministry was reported to have required tunnel owners to compensate the families of those killed in an effort to induce them to maintain a higher level of worker safety (Paltoday website, October 5, 2008 ).

No comments:

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