US, Turkey Announce $4 Billion Arms Deal

(US, Turkey Announce $4 Billion Arms Deal)
(By: Meir Halevi Siegel, JP)
(Published: July 31st, 2014)
(Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh and Erdogan. Haniyeh is the terrorist on the left.)

It’s been a great month for US arms manufacturers: Just two weeks after the United States and Qatar – “the world’s largest funder of terror”, according to former President Shimon Peres – signed an $11 billion arms deal, the Israel Defense website said Thursday that Washington has inked another multi-billion dollar deal for American firms, this time to provide Turkey with an advanced air defense system.

The deal comes at a time when Turkey appears to have re-defined its identity as a Muslim-majority democracy, as well as its role in the Middle East and the Islamic world. Although the Turkish republic, founded by Kamel Attaturk in 1923, has existed as a democracy for 90 years (with three military coups to restore democracy when the country teetered, in 1960, 1971 and 1980), Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has directed the country towards an Islamist path since coming to power in 2002.

The evidence of Erdogan’s effort to Islamize the Attaturk Republic has been clear for years: After being banned from Turkish politics for five years in the late 1990s and early 2000s for promoting anti-Israel-democratic ideas, he has used his elections to redefine Turkish politics and international relations.

He has purged both the judiciary and the military, giving many Turks and international observers the clear feeling that he is looking to solidify a one-party, one-leader system. More journalists are in Turkish jails today than any other country on earth – not because it is formally illegal to criticise Erdogan or the government in the local press, but rather because journalists and editors have learned to self-censor if they want to survive. Under Erdogan’s leadership the country has moved steadily away from the democratic republic envisioned by Attaturk and steadily towards the dark Islamic republic envisioned by enlightened groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Internationally, too, Erdogan has redefined Turkey’s interests. Under Erdogan’s leadership, Turkey has completely abandoned a thriving relationship with Israel in favor of relationships with some of the darkest regimes on the planet: Iran, Hamas, Syria, Libya. Even Turkey’s relationship with the United States has not been immune: In mid-July he said he “no longer speaks” to President Barack Obama, in protest of the latter’s supposed lack of support for Palestinians in Gaza.

The $4 billion missile defense deal is significant not only in light of Erdogan’s Islamist leanings, but also because of Turkey’s wider geo-political stance. The deal, which has been delayed four times over the past year, mainly due to Erdogan’s domestic political needs as he completes his term as prime minister and runs for president, is also relevant because American and European companies have been competing for the air defense contracts against competitors from Russia and China – the geo-political equivalent of a slap in the face to Washington and Brussels.

In that sense, then, the deal stands to re-cement Ankara’s standing in the West, and also to reassure President Obama and European leaders that Turkey has not ‘changed sides’ – at least, not completely.

Finally, the deal is critical as the United States heads to mid-term elections amidst signs of economic slowdown. Last month, Raytheon-Lockheed announced layoffs in Rhode Island and Massachussetts. Furthermore, many large weapons-producing states, such as Alabama, are not naturally Democratic support bases. Taken together, inking the Turkey deal was a clear economic interest for the United States, and a political interest for President Obama and the Democratic Party.

All of which suggests, however, that the choice of short-term financial gain over longer-term political interests is unstable at best. For Prime Minister Erdogan, Turkey’s path is clear. Nothing illustrates this better than Erdogan’s outrageous comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany and Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked to Hitler. Especially in light of the current deal, the silence from the administration on growing state anti-Semitism in Turkey is deafening.

But President Obama’s silence on Turkish anti-Semitism cannot change the fact that the administration recognises both the possibility that Turkey could bolt the NATO stable, and also that that move would be a political earthquake. In that light, the current move is a desperate attempt to curry favor with an shaky ally on the way out, at the expense of a solid one that is firmly in the American orbit.

Female Palestinian cartoonist threatened after critique of Islamic Jihad, Hamas

(CatFur) The cartoon above was drawn by a woman named Majedah Shaheen. Some of you might figure out that the man in the cartoon is Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas (admittedly it does like very slightly like Mohammed Morsy of Egypt). Unless you read Arabic, you probably don't realize that the dog is meant to be Islamic Jihad's al-Quds brigades. Haniyeh is trying to get al-Quds under control. Neither side was amused and Shaheen has been threatened with death by those nice men with the masks over their heads. The cartoon by Majedah Shaheen depicts Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh asking his dog to “calm down.” The dog represents the Al-Quds Battalions. Following strong condemnations and threats, Shaheen published an apology on her Facebook account. “I wish to apologize for the cartoon I published about Hamas and the Al-Quds Battalions,” she wrote. “My intention was to relay a message in a clear and firm manner. But there are many who prefer to deal with the issue in an artificial manner instead of making an attempt to understand the idea behind it.” The apology has failed to calm many Palestinians, who posted abusive comments against her on Facebook, denouncing her has a “Zionist agent,” “traitor” and “prostitute.”

Mashaal: Tomorrow Ramallah, then Jerusalem

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal and Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh

Reuters

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, on his first visit to Gaza on Friday, told crowds he hoped his next visit would be to “Jerusalem, Ramallah and a liberated Palestine,” the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reports.
After passing through the Egyptian border crossing, Mashaal knelt on the ground to offer a prayer of thanks and was then greeted by dozens of officials from an array of competing factions, the report said.
Mashaal praised the people of Gaza and was welcomed by Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
He said his visit to Gaza was his "third birth", referring to an assassination attempt by Israeli Mossad agents in 1997 as his previous "re-birth."
"I pray to God that my fourth birth will come the day we liberate Palestine," Mashaal said, according to Ma’an. "Today is Gaza. Tomorrow will be Ramallah and after that Jerusalem then Haifa and Jaffa.”
Haniyeh welcomed Mashaal's arrival as a historic moment. Hamas denied seeking guarantees via Egyptian contacts with Israel that Mashaal would not be targeted for assassination in Gaza, reported Ma’an.
There was massive security for his arrival, with gun-toting, black-masked guards from Hamas patrolling the streets in open-topped trucks and motorbikes, the report said.
On Thursday it was reported that the leader of the Islamic Jihad terror organization, Ramadan Shalah, cancelled his visit to Gaza after Israel threatened to assassinate him.
Mashaal will visit the home of the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004, and the homes of Ahmad al-Jaabari, Hamas’s “chief of staff” and his bodyguard Mohammad al-Hams, who Israel killed on November 14 at the start of Operation Pillar of Defense.
Mashaal will stay for a little more than 48 hours in Gaza, which Hamas has ruled since taking over the region in a bloody 2007 war with rival Fatah. Hamas politburo members Mousa Abu Marzouq, Izzat al-Rishq, and Saleh al-Arouri accompanied him, reported Ma’an.
Hamas plans an open-air rally on Saturday to promote what it claims was last month's victory over Israel and at the same time commemorate the 25th anniversary of the terror group's founding.
In an interview he gave to CNN several weeks ago, Mashaal claimed that Hamas would accept a Palestinian state along the indefensible pre-1967 borders but would refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

via israelnationalnews.com

Hamas leader's kin gets Israeli medical aid even as terror group blasts Jewish state

(FOXNEWS)HAIFA, Israel – Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has no problem calling for the destruction of Israel and blaming it for attacks linked to his own party, but when his relative needs life-saving heart surgery, only Israeli doctors will do.
The stunning hypocrisy comes to light after five Hamas-backed terrorists allegedly killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula that borders Gaza. Although evidence points to a Hamas-backed terror operation, Haniyeh inexplicably blamed it on Israel. The suspects were later killed by Israeli Defense Forces when they tried to cross the Kerem Shalom border.

“A person from the inner circle of the Hamas leadership did receive treatment at Beilinson Hospital."

- Israeli government source

"Israel is responsible, one way or another, for this attack to embarrass Egypt's leadership and create new problems at the border, in order to ruin efforts to end the [Israeli] siege of the Gaza Strip,” Haniyeh claimed during in an interviews with the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television.
Yet only a few months ago, the revelation that Ismail Haniyeh’s brother-in-law received a special permit from the Israeli government to travel into the Jewish State to receive life-saving heart surgery has come as something of a surprise.
Haniyeh’s sister Suhila’s husband suffered undisclosed heart problems four months ago that doctors in Gaza were unable to treat, according to Ynetnews.com. The stricken man and his wife were whisked to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva in central Israel, where he was treated, and some days later, the couple returned to Gaza.
“A person from the inner circle of the Hamas leadership did receive treatment at Beilinson Hospital," an Israeli government source confirmed to FoxNews.com. "Although there are no diplomatic relations between Israel and Hamas, there are many occasions when requests for help based on purely medical decisions taken in Gaza are granted by Israel for humanitarian reasons.”
No one from Hamas was available for comment on the case.
Guy Inbar, spokesman for Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories told FoxNews.com that Israel routinely renders such humanitarian aid to Palestinians - when it is requested. “Approximately 115,000 Palestinian patients from the West Bank were treated in Israeli hospitals during 2011. Additionally, some 9500 permits were issued for Palestinians from Gaza to receive treatment”, he said.
The Palestinian Authority, which has received an average of $600 million in annual aid from the U.S., foots the bill for all medical treatment of Palestinians in Israeli hospitals.
But Haniyeh's rhetoric against Israel may be coming at the expense of ailing Palestinians without ties to the leadership. In recent weeks there has been a notable decrease in the number of permits being requested by Gazans for medical treatment in Israel, prompting some regional observers to wonder if Haniyeh - who has repeatedly vowed not to rest until “Israel is wiped off the face of the map”- is now denying his own people the opportunity to benefit from Israeli medical help.
Ronen Bergman, an expert on Israeli intelligence affairs, told Fox News that he feels the permission granted to Haniyeh’s brother-in-law for treatment in Israel could however be part of a bigger picture.
"Hamas is well aware that Israel will give high quality treatment to Palestinians without taking into consideration their organizational membership," he said. "Furthermore, this case could be interpreted as a signal to Hamas ... that the channels of negotiation that brought about the release last year of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit ... might potentially be used to develop better relations between the two sides.”
Paul Alster is an Israel-based broadcast journalist and can be followed on Twitter at @paulalster

More Hamas/Fatah Marriage woes

(Hamas ditches Assad, backs Syrian revolt | Fair Weather Friends Back the Winning Horse) Hezbollah loses Syria, gains Iraq, Obama and his Muslim Brotherhood get Syria... and the Jews get five rockets. @IDFSpokesperson: During the night a total of 5 rockets were launched from Gaza at southern Israel

(EOZ)From AFP:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his rival Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Thursday postponed talks on forming a unified government, a Fatah official said, in a further delay to ending an almost five-year rift.
The official with the Abbas-led party said the talks were postponed “because Hamas continues to prevent the election committee from registering voters in Gaza,” the Islamist-ruled Palestinian territory.
He added that Hamas, which has been split internally on agreeing the unity government with the secular Fatah, has “not yet informed Abbas of its formal approval to end internal disputes on forming the government.”

Reuters reports it this way:

Hamas has set new terms for implementing a reconciliation deal with President Mahmoud Abbas's rival Fatah group, an official said on Thursday.
Abbas and Khalid Mashaal, Hamas's political chief in exile, agreed in Qatar earlier this month to form a unity government led by the Western-backed president.
But in a rift with the Islamist group's leadership outside the Gaza Strip, officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave swiftly criticized the accord, particularly its call for Abbas to serve as prime minister as well as president.
At an internal meeting chaired by Mashaal in Cairo on Wednesday, Hamas officials united behind new demands, said a Palestinian official involved in the talks. The terms seemed certain to be rejected by Abbas.
"Hamas demanded to keep the key ministries in the new government, including the ministry of interior," said the official. "It also demanded no change in the structure of security services in the Gaza Strip."
The interior ministry oversees the Hamas-run security services, and Palestinian political analyst Samir Awad said the new terms proved the group "was not prepared to abandon control of Gaza", territory it seized from Fatah in fighting in 2007.
Abbas has been seeking a unity government staffed by independents and technocrats to ensure it would not be boycotted by the West, which donates essential funds to his Palestinian Authority and refuses to deal with Hamas.
Other demands that emerged from the Cairo meeting included naming a Gaza-based deputy to Abbas and making his appointment as prime minister conditional on a vote of confidence in the Palestinian parliament.

Meanwhile, Hamas is again accusing Fatah of arresting its members in the West Bank - the one basic issue that was supposed to be resolved since May.
They are also squabbling over the Gaza power plant issue, as Hamas has bypassed the PA in order to try to secure a deal with Egypt to get a supply of cheap diesel, with Haniyeh effectively acting as if he is the head of government - after supposedly agreeing to Abbas being prime minister.
They agree on one thing, though: stopping any chance of a "Palestinian spring" against their respective leaders. They'll plan meeting after meeting and photo-ops galore for the next decade to try to fool their people that they actually care about them rather than their own hold on power, which is what prompted this whole "unity" farce to begin with.

Hamas ditches Assad, backs Syrian revolt | Fair Weather Friends Back the Winning Horse

(Reuters)

Shi'ite Hezbollah still supports the Assad family, from the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, which has maintained authoritarian rule over Syria's Sunni majority for four decades but now may have its back to the wall.

Leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas turned publicly against their long-time ally President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Friday, endorsing the revolt aimed at overthrowing his dynastic rule.
The policy shift deprives Assad of one of his few remaining Sunni Muslim supporters in the Arab world and deepens his international isolation. It was announced in Hamas speeches at Friday prayers in Cairo and a rally in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas went public after nearly a year of equivocating as Assad's army, largely led by fellow members of the president's Alawite sect, has crushed mainly Sunni protesters and rebels.
In a Middle East split along sectarian lines between Shi'ite and Sunni Islam, the public abandonment of Assad casts immediate questions over Hamas's future ties with its principal backer Iran, which has stuck by its ally Assad, as well as with Iran's fellow Shi'ite allies in Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.
"I salute all the nations of the Arab Spring and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, visiting Egypt from the Gaza Strip, told thousands of Friday worshippers at Cairo's al-Azhar mosque. more

This is what the Arabs did during WWII with the Nazis. Most of them were allied with Hitler till it became clear he was a loser. Our CIA then covered all those Nazi henchmen up and gave them states.

@Jewess Report: Egypt, Hamas agree to link electricity grids

(@Jewess)(JPOST) Egypt and Hamas reached an energy agreement Thursday that will ultimately connect Gaza's electricity grid to Egypt's as part of a plan to end the energy crisis in Gaza, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported.
According to Ma'an, Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh struck a deal with Egyptian officials and the Islamic development bank after "intensive negotiations."
The final deal, to be implemented in three stages, begins with Egyptian companies pumping fuel into Gaza under contracts signed with individual companies.(image source)

Turn out the lights... the parties over!

Maan News Agency: Haniyeh meets renowned Egypt sheikh in Qatar

(Maan) GAZA CITY  – Influential Egyptian Muslim theologian Yususf al-Qaradawi on Friday stressed the necessity that the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip should be open completely.
During a meeting with the premier of the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar, al-Qaradawi said, “It is unusual that closure of the Rafah crossing continues barring movement of people and goods.”
He added that the Gaza Strip expected support from the Arab and Islamic nations. Al-Qaradaqwi applauded the emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, for his support to Palestine and to Gaza.
“In light of what the triumphant revolutions in the Arab world achieved, I can assert that Palestine will achieve victory because Palestine is rightness and rightness always wins, while occupation is falseness and falseness will eventually vanish.”
For his part, Haniyeh applauded Qatar and Sheikh Al Thani for the support to Palestine and the Palestinian cause. He highlighted that the emir of Qatar responded positively to calls for reconstructing the war-torn Gaza Strip.

...denied correlative: the repressive and brutal totalitarian crackdown on the people of Qatar

Haniyeh: Our goal remains the destruction of Israel

It's just so frustrating. The idea that Fatah is for peace is a joke... but since we accepted that (even though Oslo has long since been voided)... now the opposition to the Jews is pushing the idea that Hamas is our peace partner too.

(CARL)'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen is running around telling anyone who will listen that Hamas 'Prime Minister' Ismail Haniyeh is willing to make peace with Israel. But at a rally earlier this month marking the 24th anniversary of the founding of Hamas, Haniyeh told a much different story.

At a ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of the founding of Hamas, Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh said that Hamas may work for the "interim objective of liberation of Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem," but that this "interim objective" and "reconciliation" with Fatah will not change Hamas' long-term "strategic" goal of eliminating all of Israel:
...
In his speech, Haniyeh also promised that Hamas will "lead Intifada after Intifada until we liberate Palestine - all of Palestine, Allah willing. Allah Akbar and praise Allah."

Let's go to the videotape.

They're just so flexible, aren't they?
But even Fatah has not yet given up on its 'phased plan' to get rid of Israel. And it probably never will.
Let's go to the videotape.

Read the whole thing.

the Hitlery Clinton sharks are swimming in the water

Maan News Agency: #Haniyeh to visit #Qatar // Syria isn't nice this time of year?

(maannews.net) Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh (MaanImages/Wesam Saleh, File)

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday announced that he will visit Qatar, after speaking with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani earlier in the day.
Haniyeh applauded Qatar's support for the Palestinian people in a telephone conversation and congratulated the country on its success. Qatar has the world's highest GDP per capita.
Both officials discussed ways to develop Gaza, with the crown prince promising to visit the coastal enclave in the future.
The Gulf state hosted Hamas' exiled political chief Khalid Mashaal in August.
The Wall Street Journal reported in early December that Hamas will establish new bases in Qatar and Egypt after moving personnel from its Syria headquarters under pressure from the Gulf state and Turkey.
Hamas denies it plans to move its Damascus operations amid the ongoing crackdown against opposition to President Bashar Assad.

I sense complete desperation here

Ismail Haniyeh Vs. Salam Fayyad

Fatah has nominated the Palestinian Authority’s current Prime Minister Salam Fayyad - whose appointment has been vehemently opposed by Hamas - and for good reason.

Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh was nominated as prime minister on 16 February 2006 following the Hamas victory in the elections held on 25 January 2006. He was formally presented to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on 20 February 2006 and was sworn in 29 March 2006.
On 14 June 2007, Abbas dismissed Haniyeh and appointed Fayyad in his place. This followed a bitter internecine struggle between Hamas and Fatah that resulted in Hamas gaining control of Gaza culminating in the ICRC estimating that 118 Gazans had been killed and 550 wounded in just the previous week’s struggle for control of Gaza.

The appointment of Fayyad to replace Haniyeh has been challenged as illegal, because under the Palestinian Basic Law, the President of the Palestinian Authority may dismiss a sitting prime minister, but may not appoint a replacement without the approval of the Palestinian Legislative Council. According to the law, until a new prime minister is thus appointed, the outgoing prime minister heads a caretaker government. Fayyad's appointment was never placed before, or approved, by the Legislative Council.
For this reason, Haniyeh has continued to operate in Gaza, and been recognised by a large number of Palestinians as the legitimate acting prime minister.
Anis al-Qasem - the Palestinian constitutional lawyer who drafted the Basic Law, is among those who has publicly declared the appointment of Fayyad to be illegal.

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com
and image via maannews.net

Al-Zawahiri thanks Ismail Haniya

Ayman al-Zawahiri, nephew of a Nazi collaborator and grandson of the man who helped produce the genocidal antisemitic doctrine in Islamism, now seems to be head of al-Qaida.
In what appears to be his inaugural speech as al-Qaida leader, al-Zawahiri thanked Ismail Haniya, leader of Hamas, for his praising Usama bin Ladin after his death.

via rubinreports.blogspot.com

29 US senators to Obama: Stop all aid to PA if Hamas joins government

The Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal

He's not going to go for it.

(Ynet) Twenty-nine United States senators demanded President Barack Obama stop aid to the Palestinian government if it joins with Hamas.
"The decision of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to form a unity government with Hamas - a designated terrorist group - threatens to derail the Middle East peace effort for the foreseeable future and to undermine the Palestinian Authority's relationship with the United States," they wrote to Obama in a letter.

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

Next Week I'm sure Obama will press President Preres to negotiate PIECE with Hamas. Here we go again.

Hamas condemns killing of Osama Bin laden

Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza on Monday...
that although Hamas had its differences with al-Qaida,
his group condemns the assassination of......
"a Muslim and Arabic warrior"
...and prays that bin Laden's "soul rests in peace."

...So much for Hamas being a party that strives for peace...

Bin Laden Loved American Products,
Especially Pepsi & Coke

(Gaza) The leader of the Palestinian militant Hamas government in Gaza has condemned the United States for killing al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh says the operation is "the continuation of the American oppression and shedding of blood of Muslims and Arabs."

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com
Seal Team 6 image via businessinsider.com

Will bin Laden killing pave way for similar moves by Israel?

Former top IDF intel official talks to Haaretz about a gradual change in the rules of confrontation in the framework of the global war on terror.

At the height of the second intifada, until the middle of the last decade, Israel developed and enhanced a system of assassinations of terrorists which was euphemistically referred to as "pinpointed assassinations." Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi (Farkash ) headed the IDF General Staff intelligence branch at that time. While the American assault force's operation against al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was an operation on a much bigger scale than the Israeli actions and took place far from the borders of the United States, to a large extent it employed a similar format to that used previously by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service.Aharon Ze'evi (Farkash ), Will the assassination of bin Laden at the hands of the United States pave the way for similar moves by Israel in the future, against [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah or even [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad?
We must not forget that we are not a power. Not everything that is permitted to the Americans is permitted to us as well. But nevertheless, there is a gradual change in the rules of confrontation in the framework of the war on terror. A wider maneuvering space has been opened. Nassrallah understands that too. It is no coincidence that he so seldom leaves his bunker in recent years.
Is there greater legitimacy today, for Israel also, to make moves against heads of terrorist organizations that refuse to hold any kind of negotiations?
In the past, the countries of the West were opposed to the Israeli claim that no distinction should be made between the so-called political echelon and the "military" echelon in the terrorist organizations. There is an important message in the Americans' decision to do away with bin Laden. It is not possible to distinguish between the leader and the operational echelon subordinate to him. The decision-makers have to be dealt a blow. Seven years ago, when we killed the senior Hamas officials such as Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, our approach was not accepted by the international community.
In retrospect, did the Israeli policy of assassinations prove itself at all? Did it not merely provide encouragement for revenge attacks and the continuation of the cycle of bloodshed?
Since Israel unfortunately suffered more terrorist attacks, it became a kind of experimental laboratory for the front line in this struggle. The assassinations were an important tool. It can't be helped. These leaders don't like committing suicide. It's different than sending other people to carry out suicide missions for them. When they are being chased, they are less effective. The pinpointed assassinations are still a very important deterrent tool against senior leaders of the terrorist organizations. It is true that every terrorist leader can be replaced. Bin laden will also have a replacement. What is important is the continuum of assassinations that is directed at the heads of the organization and indicates to them that they too have something to lose.

The immediate question that a lot of Israelis asked themselves, following the reports of the American success, was: Why do we not succeed in locating Gilad Shalit who is not hidden at the other end of the world but just a few kilometers from our border?
Organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah have successfully learned our strengths and weak points. They understand what precautions must be taken in order to safeguard an asset like an abducted Israeli. I think that Israel shares the same determination to bring Gilad back home that the Americans demonstrated in striking bin Laden.
Here too we must find the right combination of circumstances - precise intelligence information, the ability to organize an operation within a few hours while the target is "hot," a reasonable ratio between the chances of success and the risk that there will be losses - we still remember the failed attempt to rescue [kidnapped soldier] Nahshon Waxman - and the possibility of avoiding excessive collateral damage. To my regret, this is a combination that occurs very rarely.
I don't agree with the claim that the Shalit affair is a resounding failure on the part of intelligence. If you had asked me about the American efforts to hit at bin Laden a month ago, what would we have said? We would certainly have described them as terrible schlemiels. I can safely say that tremendous efforts are being made and that it is possible that the right timing will enable such an operation to be carried it out in the future. Israel has excellent intelligence capability but things have to fall together. One cannot carry out a rescue operation at any price. If they had told President Obama that there was a great risk that the entire American force would be harmed, he would not have sent the troops to kill bin Laden this week.
Everyone is praising the Americans for their intelligence work in this operation. What does it actually mean?
We must give credit to the American intelligence agencies for their sustained effort. I know the significance of chasing a terrorist for years. The people who head the agencies change every few years. One needs a great deal of determination, perseverance, and a high level of organization in order to continue running an operation like this until it succeeds. In this era, there must be a combination of exact information, cooperation between the various intelligence arms and sometimes also with foreign services, and a very sharp capability on the part of the force that carries out the operation. Consider the ability shown here by the American forces: tremendous firing power, accuracy, self-confidence, the ability to hit those you have come to kill and to leave without a scratch. Zero casualties is not a result that is achieved by chance.
TV programs like "24" actually present these kinds of operations in a fairly realistic way. They are not science fiction. There is a never-ending puzzle of information that has to be collected and collated. Without a fusion of this information, the operation won't work. Even what appears to be the most minute bits of information have tremendous importance. We saw that in the media reports: The fact that the compound in which bin Laden was living did not have Internet activity increased the Americans' suspicions. Various kinds of intelligence gathering are in operation here: human intelligence, visual information gathering, and wiretapping and other signal intelligence. In the end, this combination of intelligence enables a warning to be issued to the fighter heading the force: "Don't go into the yard now, there is suspicious movement there."
By the way, I was somewhat surprised to see the presence of President Obama in the war room in real time, with the ability to watch on the screens what appeared to be the force in the field. As the head of the intelligence division, I didn't want leaders and senior officers to enter the war room of the unit that was instructing the advance guard. I also tried not to go there. The commanders don't need too many kibitzers giving them advice while the business is still going on. That could influence the effectiveness of the fighting force.

Amos Harel  - Haaretz 05 May '11 via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Is there a link between Bin Laden’s killing and the Arab Revolt?

U.S. President Barack Obama (2nd L) and Vice President Joe Biden (L), along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Also pictured are Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd R) and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (R). Please note: A classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured at source. Picture taken May 1, 2011. (REUTERS/White House/Pete Souza/Handout)

Is there a link between Bin Laden’s killing and the Arab Revolt?

A DebkaFile report:

The photos released of the fortified villa in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden died on Sunday night, May 2, show a satellite dish as well as cables and wires snaking along the outer and inner walls. Smashed computers appear in shots of the interior rooms. Far from dispensing with electronic devices and Internet connections as widely reported, the fortress that was the al Qaeda leader’s last haven proves to have been equipped with both.
All this up-to-date electronic technology would have opened the six-year old building wide to outside intelligence penetration and surveillance. Bin Laden additionally suffered from a kidney disease and was dependent on dialysis treatment and outside medical care — another porthole into the Bin Laden’s establishment.
There was no need therefore to follow the trail of the couriers described as leading the CIA to the hideout of the most wanted terrorist in the world. He occupied a large three-storey building which stuck out on the skyline of the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, 120 kilometers from Islamabad, and towered over neighboring buildings. Pakistani intelligence must have been curious, to say the least, about this sizeable compound when it was built in 2005 just 100 meters from a military academy in a small town housing a military base and generals’ residences.
Therefore, the repeated statements by US officials that the Navy Seals’ special operation took place without Pakistani knowledge sounds like a hollow attempt to absolve Islamabad of involvement in the killing of the arch terrorist in the eyes of the Muslim world.

This frame grab from video obtained exclusively by ABC News, on Monday, May 2, 2011, shows a section of a bloodstained room, bed and passports in the interior of the compound where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (AP/ABC News)

US President Barack Obama said he received his first lead to bin Laden’s whereabouts last August. Why then did it take nine months for him to order the targeted operation? And why did the US intelligence and military need all that time to prepare it?
They are only two of the puzzling questions surrounding the episode. Might the answers lie in its juxtaposition with the Arab Revolt, or Arab Spring, which flared first in Tunisia in December 2010, then spread to Egypt and played out in February 2011 and flared in Syria in April 2011?
Was al Qaeda’s spirit and mastermind eliminated before his networks could move in on the national and Islamic struggles which are still unfolding in Tunis, Cairo, Tripoli and Damascus?
The linkage was drawn by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her first statement on the master-terrorist’s death Monday:

“…history would record that bin Laden’s death had come at a time when peoples in the Middle East and North Africa were rejecting the extremist narrative and were standing up for freedom and democracy.”

Obama’s adviser on terror John Brennan said later:

“I would hope that the people of the Middle East will understand that the time for terror is over.”

That of course will depend on how those peoples view the US targeted operation to kill the head of al Qaeda. The reaction in some places was of disbelief in the American claim to have killed him and demands for proof of his identity. The statement by “an American intelligence official” to Reuter was not helpful. He said “US Special forces set out to kill Osama bin Laden and dump his body in the sea to make it harder for the al Qaeda founder to become a martyr.”
The head of the Al-Azhar Supreme Sunni Council of Egypt reacted by condemning the dumping of bin Laden’s body in the sea as violating the tenets of Islam and human norms.
It was noted in Arab capitals, that he was killed in the second US targeted operation against an Arab leader in three days — NATO failed in its attempt to kill Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi Saturday night, April 30.

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (R) leaves a mosque after Friday prayer in Gaza City April 29, 2011. Haniyeh condemned the United States on Monday for killing al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, saying the operation marked 'the continuation of the American oppression and shedding of blood of Muslims and Arabs.' (REUTERS/Suhaib Salem)

At his news briefing Monday night, John Brennan tried to soften the hard edges of resentment building up in Arab and Muslim opinion. To settle questions about identity, he reported that a DNA test had showed a 99.9 percent match against his relatives, but declined to say if and when photos of his body would be released.
Obama’s adviser on terror went on to insist that Bin Laden had been given a religious Muslim funeral before being buried at sea. He also explained that the al Qaeda leader would have been taken alive had there been the opportunity.
Brennan disclosed that a large quantity of documents had been seized in the Abbottabad villa and was being checked. He added that it was inconceivable that the dead terrorist did not have a support system.

Mon, May 02, 2011 | DebkaFile via crethiplethi.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Haniyeh calls on PLO to withdraw Israel recognition

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Friday called on the Palestinian Liberation Organization to withdraw its recognition of Israel.
...Speaking after the Friday prayer in Gaza City, Haniyeh said that the PLO should not only demand that Israel chose between settlements and peace, but should also withdraw its recognition of the state.

Maan News via challahhuakbar.blogspot.com

so this peace partner we thought we had... um... oh fuck it. you won't listen anyway.

The Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal

Haniyeh urges to take Israeli hostages

Hamas lawmaker Ahmad Bahar on Sunday urged Palestinian factions to form militant groups with the aim of capturing Israeli soldiers.

The deputized Palestinian Legislative Council speaker said kidnapping soldiers would pressure Israeli authorities to release Palestinian political prisoners. He made the remarks in a speech commemorating Palestinian Prisoners' Day in Gaza City.

via Maan News h/t challahhuakbar.blogspot.com
Haniyeh urges Palestinians to back Schalit swap deal
Speaking in Gaza, Hamas PM says group will not disappoint prisoners' families, says exchange deal would be victory for Palestinians.Speaking in Gaza, Hamas PM says group will not disappoint prisoners' families, says exchange deal would be victory for Palestinians.Hamas sources on Wednesday said they are "positively considering releasing a new tape of Gilad Schalit, but Israel will have to pay a price for it," reported Army Radio.Hamas sources on Wednesday said they are "positively considering releasing a new tape of Gilad Schalit, but Israel will have to pay a price for it," reported Army Radio. via jpost.com
play the game... and make sure those released from Israeli jails never get out of Gaza... alive

Sarah Leah Whitson pushes the race button

Sarah Leah Whitson, the Human Rights Watch official who raised funds for her organization by blasting Israel in uber-racist, slavery-tolerating Saudi Arabia, has made one of the most odious analogies possible. She writes,

Israeli President Shimon Peres visited Washington earlier this month, hot on the heels of an announcement that Israeli authorities had approved yet more housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank. In a week when the U.S. paused to recall the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, President Peres might have considered King’s message — an end to segregation — and why such a system of racial inequality remains in place in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.



Back in 1968, when Dr. King was murdered, the debate about discrimination was live and real. Most governments have long since stopped trying to justify separating people based on race or national origin, whether for ostensible security concerns, like the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, or plain old bigotry, like the Jim Crow laws of the American south.


Yet in the areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territories where Israel has moved almost half a million Jewish “settlers,” not only do Israeli laws and policies strictly segregate Jews from Palestinians, they deliberately deprive Palestinians of the most basic needs, in many cases forcing them out of their communities.

Human Rights Watch and the selling of Gaddafi

If Whitson is suggesting that the ‘Palestinian cause’ is anything like the civil rights movement in America — clearly she is — she is living in an alternate universe.
Civil rights workers did not fire antitank missiles at school buses, nor did they slit the throats of babies and children. American blacks did not blow themselves up at holiday celebrations, and Mexican and Canadian ones did not launch rockets into American towns and cities.
In fact, try as I might, the only way that Dr. M. L. King and Ismail Haniyya are alike is that they both say they are struggling for their people’s rights. Of course, Dr. King actually was, whereas Haniyya is a racist, genocidal antisemite who wants to wipe out the Jews in Israel and take their country. King indeed represented an oppressed racial minority that was discriminated against in law and custom, while Haniyya is supported by the considerable resources of the Arab world and Iran in his murderous cause. If the analogy makes sense at all, Jewish Israelis are the ones discriminated against in the Middle East and in the broader international community.
But Whitson isn’t interested in reality — as she wasn’t interested in the very real human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia — she is interested in pushing buttons.
So she claims that Israel maintains a system of ‘racial inequality’, when the concept of race has nothing to do with relations between Jews and Arabs, who are genetically closer to each other than to non-Jewish Europeans. Of course she doesn’t have to use the word ‘race’, she could claim that there was a system of cultural or linguistic discrimination. But that wouldn’t push the button.
Whitson refers numerous times to the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’. What are these territories? They are part of the lands that were set aside by the League of Nations for a “Jewish National Home” after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI. Various Arab states were also created at the same time, but this was the only area specifically designated for Jewish settlement. These territories were never ‘Palestinian’, and they were only ‘Arab’ insofar as they were illegally occupied by Jordan and Egypt for 19 years. They are not ‘occupied’, since there was no sovereign authority there since the end of the Mandate — they are at most ‘disputed’, and an argument can be made that if any party ought to control them, it’s Israel, the representative of the Jewish people.

She continues,

With little regard for the blatant racial inequality of its policies, the Israeli government provides Jewish settlements with water, electricity, housing, schools, hospitals and roads, while it severely restricts access to these necessities to Palestinian communities under its control.

HRW appoints PFLP terrorist
named Jabarin as an advisor

Race doesn’t have anything to do with it. The territories are not part of Israel. Israel doesn’t have to ‘provide’ anything — there is a Palestinian Authority (PA) which gets enormous sums of money from the West and which governs the areas of Judea and Samaria (Areas A and B) which contain more than 90% of the Arab population. Arabs connected with the corrupt PA have well-paying positions or lucrative business concessions. They live in large villas, much more elaborate than the housing found in Israeli settlements.
Whitson, by the way, refers to the “the 60 percent of the West Bank known as ‘Area C’ where Israel has complete control without mentioning that Area C contains only 4% of the Arab population! The rest is mostly uninhabited desert and mountainous areas, along with the Israeli settlements of course.
In 1967, only 20% of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria was connected to a water system — now 90% are connected to Israel’s national water grid. Even Gaza, ruled by the bellicose Hamas, receives most of its water and electricity from Israel. This leads to ironic situations, such as the time Hamas snipers shot and wounded an Israel Electric Company worker who was climbing a tower near the border. And it is upsetting to know that the factories that make the Qassam rockets fired at Israel are powered by Israeli electricity.
A particularly pernicious accusation is that Israel has built ‘apartheid roads’ on which Arabs are not permitted to drive. What is actually the case is that Jewish residents were subjected to frequent deadly drive-by shooting attacks on certain roads — in August of last year four people were killed in a single incident — and so the Israeli authorities chose to close the off-ramps to the Arab villages in the area. Arabs, both Israeli Arabs and residents of the territories do drive on the roads — again, there is nothing racist involved, unless it is the racist murderers who shoot at vehicles containing Jews.
Israeli hospitals routinely treat patients from the territories and Eastern Jerusalem. During the Gaza war, the Palestinian Authority stopped paying for its patients on the grounds that the Jews were ‘making propaganda’ by treating them. There is no separation between Jewish and Arab patients, and in fact even wounded terrorists are treated.
Whitson goes on:

Israel’s security justifications fall far short of the strict and narrow limits on differential treatment permitted under international law between people of different ethnicities or national origins. A state should never apply such measures categorically against an entire group and must limit them to specific individuals who pose a threat.

One of the security measures that Whitson and others find to be unacceptable profiling are the checkpoints, which do present an inconvenience for the entire Palestinian Arab population. But almost every day, potential terrorists are stopped at the checkpoints with weapons or explosives. How would it be possible to do this without everyone passing through the checkpoint? Should security personnel only check “specific individuals who pose a threat?” How would they know who the are?

The fact is that Israel is at war, and many of those fighting against it are embedded in the Palestinian Arab population. You cannot understand the relationship of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs outside the context of this war, and you cannot understand the Israeli-Palestinian part of it outside the context of the broader war — whose goal is the elimination of Israel — that has been prosecuted by the Arab world (and now Iran) since the beginning of the state.
.
Pretending that this is a question of civil rights, that there is ‘racial discrimination’, completely falsifies and distorts this reality.
But it’s great for pushing buttons.

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com from Fresnozionism.org 17 April '11

EXPOSED:
Sarah Leah Whitson, the head of 'Human Rights Watch

NGO Monitor has called on Sarah Leah Whitson, the head of 'Human Rights Watch's Mideast and North Africa division, to resign, on the grounds that she misled the public regarding the nature of the Gadhafi regime in Libya and the intentions of Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam.

Robert Bernstein's new baby

Robert Bernstein attacked Human Rights Watch - an organization that he founded - for going off course in the Middle East.  A lot of people thought that was the end of Bernstein and that he'd never be heard from again. But at 88, Bernstein has the energy of a much younger man. He's starting a new human rights organization that will do it his way.

Soros giving Human Rights Watch $100 million - the Jewish Gold fillings during the Holocaust wasn't enough

Uber-Leftist philanthropist George Soros is donating $100 million to 'Human Rights Watch' so that they can stop embarrassing themselves trying to raise money in Saudi Arabia and get on with the business of undermining the existence of the Jewish State.

Daniel Viflic, teenage boy injured in Hamas missile attack, dies. Hamas Proud of killing

The 16-year-old boy who was critically injured by an anti-tank missile fired by Hamas last has died. Daniel Viflic –whose full Hebrew name was Raphael Daniel Ariel ben Tamar - had been in critical condition at Beersheba’s Soroka Hospital since the school bus he was riding in two weeks ago was hit.  He died of his injuries, which included severe shrapnel wounds to his brain, on Sunday evening. via cifwatch.com

Hamas' Al Qassam Martyrs Brigades website reports about the death of Daniel Viflic, the 16-year old schoolboy who was killed because Hamas shot a laser-guided anti-tank missile at a school bus.

The Hamas article doesn't acknowledge that Daniel was a minor. Instead, it says that Daniel was a "Zionist soldier" and even has the gall to pretend that it is quoting Ha'aretz to that effect!

The Haaretz newspaper reported that the slain Zionist was killed weeks east of Gaza City after the targeting of a bus he was traveling in by the Qassam Brigades.

The newspaper said that the dead man was a Zionist soldier who stayed in intensive care at Soroka Hospital in BeerSheva in the territories after a significant deterioration in his health.

The website then gleefully shows photos from the funeral as well as from the bus. And the commenters are uniform in their praise of this "heroic operation."

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

empathy for Daniel and his family who are not victims... merely enemy to the world