Headlines June 13: Condolences to Orlando Victims, Attacks in Jerusalem, Incitement by Temple Mount Preacher

PM Netanyahu extended Israel’s deepest condolences to the American people following the horrific attack on the LGBT community in Orlando.
[Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

 

A Jewish woman and child were attacked by an Arab male in Jerusalem on Shavuot.
[The Jewish Press]

 

The Palestinians’ conflict with Israel, including the occupation in the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza, is the primary cause for Palestinian “humanitarian vulnerabilities,” according to a UN report published Monday.
[Times of Israel]

 

The nephew of Hamas de facto prime minister Ismail Haniyeh was hospitalized over the weekend at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.
[The Jewish Press]

 

Two Israeli teens were injured and several others in shock late Sunday in a rock-throwing attack on a bus in East Jerusalem.
[Times of Israel]

 

Watch: Temple Mount preacher calls to ‘annihilate the Jews’

Headlines June 9: Terrorists Kill 4 in Tel Aviv, Arabs Praise Attacks, Hamas Threatens More

Four people were killed and six others were wounded in a shooting attack at a food and shopping center in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, after two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on passersby. Netanyahu called a security briefing in Tel Aviv.
[Haaretz]

Hamas blames Tel Aviv attack on ‘Al-Aqsa violations,’ threatens more
[Times of Israel]

 

Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem took to the streets to celebrate the deadly terrorist shooting in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night that left four people dead and several others wounded. Upon hearing the reports of the shooting, dozens of Palestinians gathered at Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, singing out loud and cheering the gunmen. In the West Bank city of Tulkarm, many young men took to the streets and distributed candies to the local drivers, while in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem dozens of Palestinians participated in a march praising the terror attack.
[The Jerusalem Post]

 

Israel’s Defense Ministry said it was freezing tens of thousands of permits given to Palestinians to travel to Israel during the Muslim Ramadan holy month Thursday along with other punitive measures, in the wake of a terror attack in central Tel Aviv.
[Times of Israel]

 

Wednesday night’s terrorist cousins not first in the family to murder Jews. Uncle of Sarona terrorists murdered four in 2002.
[Arutz Sheva]

Headlines June 6: Netanyahu Visits Moscow, NY Governor Attacks BDS, Hamas Rejects Peace

Arab Terrorists Shoot at School Bus, Stone Second Bus
[The Jewish Press]

 

In a joint ISA, IDF and Israel Police operation, a 17-year-old resident of the Gaza Strip, who is active in the Hamas military wing, was arrested after crossing the perimeter fence from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
[Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

 

Hamas official criticizes Egyptian President’s call for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

PM Netanyahu heads to Moscow for an official visit marking 25 years of restored diplomatic relations with Russia.
[The Jewish Press]

 

NY Governor turns tables on BDS Boycott Israel movement with executive order. Anyone boycotting Israel will find themselves boycotted by the great state of New York.
[Times of Israel]

Terrorism By Other Means

(Originally Published on Israel Hayom)

While it may not always seem that way, in the cognitive wars being fought against Israel, most notably the hysterically high-pitched calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions by the BDS movement, Israel’s opponents are losing.

Naturally, the BDS movement claims it is winning. Omar Barghouti, its founder, asserts that his crusade “is working far better and spreading into the mainstream much faster than we had anticipated.” Obviously, a movement whose primary weapons involve all the mendaciousness it can possibly muster from its members will not be truthful about its results any more than it will be honest about its true goals.

While the BDS movement claims that it is about “peace and justice” and “encouraging international economic and political pressure against Israel,” the movement’s real and indisputable aim is to destroy Israel and replace it with “Palestine.” The founder of the BDS has said so himself: In Barghouti’s own words, “a Jewish state in Palestine in any shape or form cannot but contravene the basic rights of the indigenous Palestinian population and perpetuate a system of racial discrimination that ought to be opposed categorically. … Most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The chairman of the U.S. Congress House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, Ted Poe, has described the BDS movement as “a threat, which seeks [Israel’s] ultimate destruction.”

While this is clearly what BDS wants, it is failing impressively. Not only has the Israeli economy not been affected in the nearly 11 years since the BDS movement’s founding, foreign investment in Israeli assets has actually nearly tripled, the financial news network Bloomberg recently reported. In fact, according to Bloomberg, in 2015, foreign investments in Israel hit a record $285.12 billion.

What’s more, Israel’s economy is growing faster than those of the United States and European countries, with expectations of 2.8% growth this year compared to 1.8% growth in the U.S. and EU, according to Bloomberg. In addition, Israel’s unemployment reached a record low in April, when it fell to 4.9%.

In comparison, France, to name one country that is obsessed with Israel and meddles disproportionately in its affairs, has an unemployment rate over twice as high, at 10.2%, youth unemployment of almost 25% and a stagnating economy, which grew only 0.5% in the first quarter of 2016. One would assume that France has more pressing matters at home than the status of Judea and Samaria, but then again, obsessive-compulsive disorder is not an easy condition to cure.

While these hard and incontrovertible facts regarding Israel’s thriving economy are likely to leave BDS activists apoplectic — presuming, of course, that they ever acquaint themselves with actual facts — Israel should not draw the wrong conclusions. In other words, this is no time to lean back and relax.

On U.S. campuses, BDS campaigns are orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas, through associations such as the Muslim Students’ Association and Students for Justice in Palestine. The rallying cry of BDS activists, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is the rallying cry of Hamas. It is no secret that the Muslim Students’ Association is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood itself states so in its operational plan, which was recovered by the FBI when it raided Hamas charity Holy Land Foundation in 2001. According to Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the sponsor of SJP is an organization with seven key employees that used to work for, among others, the Holy Land Foundation. SJP is among the most active BDS organizations on U.S. campuses.

Given the fact that Hamas is designated a terror organization in the U.S., it is rather unfortunate that so many campuses allow the unhindered activities of these likely Hamas-linked organizations to continue on campus without even blinking an eye. The more logical course would be to thoroughly investigate these activities and possibly prosecute related actions as terrorism, instead of viewing their activities through the prism of diversity, justice and other cheap slogans that are too transparent to cover the real issues for anyone but the willfully blind. BDS is the continuation of terrorism by other means. For that reason, it must be defeated.

Headlines: PA Rejects Peace Talks, Female Terrorist Killed, Lebanon Watchtowers

The Palestinians on Monday rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to hold direct talks in Paris under the auspices of the French government.
[The Jerusalem Post]

 

Female Terrorist Killed in Stabbing Attack North of Jerusalem
[The Jewish Press]

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with French Prime Minister Valls
[Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

 

Northern Israeli residents are worried about new observation posts built by the Lebanese Army which have sprung up along the border.
[The Jewish Press]

 

The “Chevron shooter,” IDF soldier Elor Azaria, pleaded innocent on Monday to the charge of manslaughter in the shooting of a Palestinian disarmed terrorist, Abdel Fatal al-Sharif, on March 24, immediately following an attack on security forces.
[Hamodia]

 

Hamas says it will execute 13 men convicted of murder — in public — in a manner similar to that of Da’esh (ISIS).
[The Jewish Press]

Why Has Israel Waited So Long to Crush The Palestinian War?

With this morning’s attack at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, the current Intifada continues to creep from knives to guns. In the last few attacks in Jerusalem and now back in Kiryat Arba, Palestinian Arabs have used serious weapons to attack.

These attacks have flipped what appeared to be “random acts of violence” to an armed uprising.  The question isn’t where we are, which has become clear to most people in Israel, but how are we going to deal with it?  

Incitement and Geopolitical Considerations have Slowed Israel’s Reaction

In order to answer that question, it is important to understand that most of what we are witnessing could have been avoided. The government has gone out of its way to try to politicize the attacks instead of crushing them from the beginning.  We can see this most clearly in the ongoing finger pointing at the Palestinian Authority’s use of religious and racial incitement against the Jewish  people.  Yet one has to wonder where the government has been up until this year.  We all know both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, headed up by lifetime President Abbas, utilize children’s TV and radio to brainwash their populace.  In fact this has been going on for sometime. Another thing the government has been aware of is the Palestinian illegal arms build up in much of Judea and Samaria.  

By allowing this Intifada to simmer behind the point of a knife, the government has fed the notion to the Leaders of Fatah and Hamas that guns and bombs could in fact be used.  If the government had crushed the knife attacks in the beginning by going after the leaders’ livelihood and in fact their lives, the Arab street in Judea and Samaria would have gotten it. However, that would have required Bibi Netanyahu and Bogie Yaalon to treat this as a war.  They have not been ready to do that yet.  Understandably, their hands are tied into a larger geopolitical maneuver and declaring war on the Palestinian Authority would derail in their minds from dealing with Iran, while fending off a hostile White House and State Department.

Given the balance that needs to be struck between geopolitics and a homegrown war within Israel by Arabs who migrated to the Land within the last 150 years, a new approach must be undertaken to withstand the growing violence in Israel.

Implosion of the Palestinian Authority will Bring About a Paradigm Shift

Hints to a new course of action and trajectory by the government has been bubbling up into the media over the last few months. It is no secret that the PA is in the midst of an internal crisis.  Most Arabs and others dwelling within the Palestinian Authority areas have grown to hate the leadership as both ineffectual as well as corrupt.  Violent Palestinian Authority cops and officials use their power to steal public funds and shake down opponents.  With the above facts, the Israeli government seems to be inching towards allowing the Palestinian Authority to collapse on its own in a staged manner.  After the collapse local forces from within the various clans that make up the multi faceted Palestinian society can rebuild their relationship with Israel in the proper way.

In that approach, Israel will increasingly move towards a one state solution in a phased manner, all the while ensuring violent elements are removed and reinforcing local leaders.  

Crushing the Terror Groups Should Begin Now

Considering the fact that the PA is ineffectual as well as in a free fall, the Israeli government should make it clear that there is no longer any tolerance for any sort of attack.  By beginning now it can set the stage for lessening a chance  for a complete explosion when the Palestinian Authority’s collapse enters its final phase.

Geopolitics aside, the government in Israel must not only prepare for the day after a Palestinian Authority collapse by speaking about it, but it must be proactive ensuring the violence we have witnessed not only does not increase towards anarchy, but firmly puts it back in its place.

The Knife War that has Turned Into Something More

“When there’s a 13-year-old girl holding scissors or a knife and there is some distance between her and the soldiers, I don’t want to see a soldier open fire and empty his magazine at a girl like that, even if she is committing a very serious act. Rather he should use the force necessary to fulfill the objective.”

The above statement from Gabi Eisenkot, Israel’s top general essentially sums up the disconnect that Israel’s security heads have from the current round of violence. By treating actions like stabbing innocent civilians as criminal acts the heads of Israel’s security forces are working with a different set of assumptions than the Arab leaders of Israel are.

Knifings, stone throwings, and shootings are not happening because of some sort of criminal offense, but because the Arab leadership insists on fighting a war this way. In war, the fastest way to win is to use maximum force.  This does two things.  Firstly it saves lives of both warring parties and second it ensures victory. The longer a war goes on more civilians on both sides run the risk of death and victory becomes less certain.

The current violence has been carefully orchestrated to rise in severity as to constantly keep the security forces guessing.  The knives have now been replaced by guns and if Hamas can be believed, the guns will be replaced by bombs.  In fact Hamas has recently issued a music video hinting it is about to return to suicide bombs.

“Oh Martyrdom-seeker, make them cry. Make the fire engulf them. Turn them into body parts, roast them, bringing joy to the hearts of the steadfast [Palestinian] people.”

It may seem cruel to shoot a 13 year old girl waving a knife and attempting to hurt innocents, but by using maximum force against her, the enemy will learn that it is better to stop than use anything stronger.

Israel’s security agencies, despite their many successes still function in accordance with a false perception of what it means to deal with an unrepentant enemy.  This is an enemy who has taught its children to hate blindly.  In war, an enemy like that should not be spared and can only be stopped when it realizes it cannot win…ever.

IDF to Hamas: Please Stop Hating Us

The war of words continues today between Hamas and Israel.  Of course it should be assumed that Hamas who has never heeded any warning from the IDF will keep their tradition of running straight into a wall. In the tradition of the IDF’s war of stern warnings Major General Yoav Mordechai Poli threatened Hamas saying that unless they cease coercion and incitement of those who cross over into Israel, Israel will have no choice but to close the crossings.

2000px-Gaza_Strip_map2.svg[1]
Gaza Strip – Crossings
This is analogous to Jews pleading with Hitler to stop murdering us. Hamas doesn’t care about land crossings or the residents of the strip. Any closure will feed into their propaganda.  That being said, if we don’t want violent enemies entering Israel then don’t let them in, but don’t pretend to use it as a weapon against an enemy force steeped in the ideology of global Jihad.

Preparing for War Means Be Prepared

If Hamas is truly preparing for another round of fighting then the IDF needs to be prepared as well.  No slogan or warnings will do. Making sure the enemy is severely destroyed is the only real solution to the conflict.  This requires killing Hamas leaders and the eventual reconquering of the strip in order to finally flush out the Jihadist vipers that are busy readying themselves for Israel’s destruction.

Gaza, Maybe the Best Solution to Israel’s Prison Shortage

Ofra Klinger, head of Israel’s prison services has stated that they have no new room for security prisoners.  This is do to the fact that despite the increased violence from the Arab sector in the Land of Israel, the IPS is hampered by Israeli law which prohibits the use of soldiers in prisons without the express approval of the cabinet.

The IDF spokeswoman issued the following statement: “According to a standing order issued on December 31st, 2015, it is prohibited to send soldiers to work in prisons or as part of the Israeli police. During the cabinet meeting which was held on December 28th, the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu directed that the Department of National Security set up a task force to determine how many soldiers will serve in the internal security organizations, such as the IPS and the police, according to the current needs and the renewal of the interim directive. According to the information that we have, these instructions will be issued in the coming days.”

Gaza as the Real Solution

Given the fact that there seems to be no end in site to the current Arab uprising, the Israeli government would do well to use Gaza as a potential destination for all security related prisoners. After all, they themselves would be lavished in praise and well taken care of in the Hamas run territory.

Although if they are card carrying Fatah members, Hamas may be inclined to institute their own form of capital punishment. Either way it would be a huge space saver for Israel, the IDF, and the IPS.

 

Israel Behind the News [Dec 23, 2015]

Breaking News: Israel Uncovers Hamas Suicide Cell in Jerusalem

Hamas was planning large scale suicide bombing attacks in Jerusalem.  At least 25 Arabs were arrested planning these attacks. Where?  In Abu Dis University.  It is good to know that the University is teaching live training.

Facebook Photo Makes Waves in the Arab World

Arabs from around the Middle East agree: Israel is not our enemy.  Over 100 thousand likes support an image showing the difference between the suffering of an Arab prisoner of a Syrian jail and Samir Kuntar in an Israeli prison. The difference is clear, the Syrian prisoner looks starved and frail, while Kuntar is plump.  Arabs are finally waking up to the realization that Israel is not their enemy. Let’s see if the trend continues.

Turkey is Playing Games with Rapprochement

Well the fabled rapprochement seems to be stuck in neutral.  Turkey is wiggling for room, but cannot have it both ways.  More likely than not this won’t go anywhere, especially since Russia and Israel are collaborating on far deeper level than originally thought.

Dermer Gives Obama Some Unexpected Holiday Gifts

Ron Dermer, the Israelis Ambassador to the USA, gave the White House presents for the holidays.  There is only one thing, they were all gifts produced in Judea, Samaria, and the Golan.