Israel, and its neighbors

[G M]

Iran getting nukes isn't a failure, if your name is Barack Hussein Obama.

[objectivist1]

Again, GM is precisely correct.  What far too many still fail to understand after 7 years of Barack Obama is that HE IS ACHIEVING HIS GOALS.  He is not incompetent.  He is achieving exactly what he set out to do - knock the United States of America down on the world stage.  The truth is that Barack Obama would love to see Iran wipe Israel off the map.  He would consider this a service to the world, and with the added benefit of not having to use the U.S. military.  This is the ugly truth.  That millions of American Jews don't understand this is a tragedy.

[Crafty_Dog]

The facts do not contradict your thesis. 

[objectivist1]

This is REALLY rich.  Predictably, the establishment media is outraged.  How dare the Israelis kill these Palestinian terrorists!?

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/260762/israeli-soldiers-disguised-muslims-raid-hospital-daniel-greenfield

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/New-fundraising-campaign-Buy-a-weapon-to-kill-a-Jew-in-Israel-434271?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.facebook.com/WZOisrael/photos/a.336505146413873.77754.112210295510027/732431726821211/?type=3

[Crafty_Dog]

second post

 Palestinians Sharpen Their Knives
Geopolitical Diary
November 20, 2015 | 01:55 GMT Text Size
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(Stratfor)

Two separate attacks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Thursday add to the long list of stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks racked up by Palestinian lone wolf militants over the past couple of months. A knife-wielding Palestinian from the West Bank who had a permit to work in Israel entered a store being used informally as a synagogue in Tel Aviv near the restaurant where he worked and stabbed three Israeli men, committing the third attack in the city this year. Shortly thereafter, a Palestinian man conducted a drive-by shooting targeting vehicles stopped in traffic in the Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank. Five people were killed in the two attacks.

Two days before the assaults, the Israeli government banned the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a long-standing Islamist group that split with the more moderate southern branch of the Islamic Movement in the 1990s over whether to support the Oslo I Accord and whether to run for the Knesset. (The northern branch was opposed to both, while the southern branch supported the Oslo agreement and is now part of the Knesset's third-largest political bloc, which is made of up Arab parties.) Israel has banned the northern faction on grounds of its alleged financial and institutional links to Hamas and its role in busing in and encouraging Palestinian supporters to defend and Arabize the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

What is a Geopolitical Diary?

The Israeli Cabinet apparently had decided to ban the group two weeks earlier but did not make the decision public until Tuesday. Israel's security service reportedly expressed concerns that announcing the decision would incite attacks. Moreover, Israel likely anticipated that the West would criticize it for curbing political freedoms. The political climate following the attacks in Paris, however, may have been more conducive to announcing the decision. Nonetheless, banning the northern faction of the Islamic Movement may incite attacks like the ones on Thursday. Israel made a notable move in trying to maintain a balance with the Palestinians by signing an agreement with the Palestinian Authority on Thursday to bring 3G high-speed cellular services to the West Bank, resolving a long-standing grievance by the Palestinians. But improved cellphone service is by no means the antidote to these frequent violent outbursts.

Banning a group like the northern faction of the Islamic Movement may fall into the category of countering "soft terrorism" by going after the groups inciting the "hard terrorism." But such a strategy risks exacerbating the problem. The northern Islamic Movement likely will go underground with its charity and social activities, and its supporters will be all the more emboldened to resist efforts to silence the group. Moreover, the more moderate voices that the Israeli government counts on to drown out the more radical elements will have a stronger impetus to speak out in defense of their radical counterparts for the sake of their own credibility. Unsophisticated attacks such as the ones seen thus far, by definition, do not require significant training or operational security. As the past couple of months have shown, enough anger and frustration can mobilize a fair amount of Palestinians willing to charge into a crowd with a knife or in a car.

Nor will government measures close Palestinian ears to radical rhetoric. In a collection of Palestinian media excerpts compiled by the Middle East Media Research Institute during the height of the knife attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem, officials, clerics and even children are shown glorifying the knife as a symbol of the Al-Aqsa resistance. In one instructional video, a man wearing a black ski mask wordlessly demonstrates how to sharpen a knife and stab an Israeli in three different ways. Another shows a mother of one of the knife attackers unexpectedly pulling a knife from her bosom in the middle of a news interview, and another shows a young couple holding the birth certificate of their newborn baby bearing the name "Knife of Jerusalem."

In such a climate, it can be difficult to draw a clear line between isolated attacks and a full-blown intifada. Most agree that the spike of violence since late September is a collection of spontaneous outbursts with no clear goal or leadership, whereas an intifada exhibits a clear aim, designated leadership and organizational coherence. But the knife culture developing in the West Bank and Jerusalem suggests this could be more than just a fad. And the sheer spontaneity of these attacks confounds Israeli counterterrorism efforts. There is no one group or leader who can be held accountable, no finite number of cells that need to be broken up.

Fatah leaders have been careful to temper their praise of the attacks by still referring to them as "habbeh," or outbursts, to preserve the delicate political understanding that Fatah has with Israel. Hamas, on the other hand, says the sustainability of the violence makes it an intifada. This does not necessarily mean Hamas will try to steal the show and create another front from its base in Gaza. Hamas is still trying to build up sustainable operations in the West Bank, and the group is still recovering from its last military engagement with the Israelis in Gaza. From what we can discern, Hamas has not replenished its rocket arsenal enough to get involved in the fray beyond encouraging lone wolf attacks.

That said, Hamas' reaction to growing competition from the Islamic State bears close watching. To capitalize on the recent Palestinian attacks over Al-Aqsa, the Islamic State has put out an extensive media campaign titled "Slaughter the Jews," which includes video clips of militants threatening Israel in Hebrew. The Islamic State's fledgling presence in Gaza and significant activity in Sinai already has Hamas on guard, and the last thing Hamas (or Israel) wants is the outbreak of a conflict that would risk weakening Hamas and creating more space for the Islamic State to operate.

But the Islamic State is certainly testing Hamas' patience. In its recent media campaign, the Islamic State criticized Hamas for standing in the way of jihad with Israel, for selling out by participating in elections instead of following Sharia, and for "shamelessly" embracing a relationship with Iran. For now, it appears Hamas is resisting being prodded into action by local Islamic State affiliates, and it is continuing crackdowns on the Islamic State in Gaza. The success or failure of Hamas' containment strategy against the Islamic State will be a major determinant of whether the ongoing habbeh becomes a new and more defined phase of conflict for Israel.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.facebook.com/theisraelproject/videos/10154534156057316/

[objectivist1]

THE AMERICAN WAR AGAINST THE JEWS

Anti-Semitic forces on campus have only gotten worse -- and don't plan on backing down.

December 2, 2015  Caroline Glick

Originally published by the Jerusalem Post.

The foundations of American Jewish life are under assault today in ways that were unimaginable a generation ago. Academia is ground zero of the onslaught. The protest movements on campuses are first and foremost anti-Jewish movements.

For the past decade or so, Jewish communal leaders and activists have focused on just one aspect of this anti-Jewish campaign. Jewish leaders have devoted themselves to helping Jewish students combat the direct anti-Semitism inherent to the anti-Israel student movements.

Despite the substantial funds that have been devoted to fighting anti-Israel forces on campuses, they have not been diminished. To the contrary, with each passing year they have grown more powerful and menacing.

Consider a sampling of the anti-Jewish incidents that took place over the past two weeks.

Two weeks ago, Daniel Bernstein, a Jewish student at University of California Santa Cruz and a member of the university’s student government was ordered not to vote on a resolution calling for the university to divest from four companies which do business with Israel.

Bernstein represents UCSC’s Stevenson College at the university student government. He is also vice president of his college’s Jewish Student Union. Ahead of the anti-Israel vote, Bernstein received a message from a member of his college’s student council ordering him to abstain from the vote on Israel divestment.

The student council, Bernstein was informed, had determined that he was motivated by “a Jewish agenda,” and therefore couldn’t be trusted to view the resolution fairly.

In the same message, Bernstein’s correspondent gave him a friendly “heads up” that his fellow students are considering removing him from office because he is a Jew supported by the Jewish community.

To his credit, Bernstein ignored his orders. He voted to oppose the anti-Israel resolution.

Following the incident Bernstein published a statement decrying the anti-Jewish discrimination and hatred now rampant on his campus.

Among other things, he wrote, “I wish that [my] being subjected to anti-Semitism was a shocking new occurrence. But the truth is that I’m not shocked. I’m not shocked because this hatred and ignorance has followed me everywhere. I’m not shocked because Jewish students have been targeted with this vile racism all over the [University of California] UC system for years, and especially since BDS became a major issue of discussion. Anti-Semitism ... has ... become an inseparable part of campus politics right here at UC Santa Cruz and across the UC system.”

Then there is the growing movement of professional associations that boycott Israel.

Last week the National Women’s Studies Association passed a resolution to join the BDS movement. The resolution, written in turgid, incomprehensible prose, proclaimed that the only state in the Middle East that provides full and equal rights to women is so evil that it must be singled out and boycotted, sanctioned and divested from.

Whereas Bernstein was personally targeted, and the NWSA criminalizes Israel, at CUNY, on November 12, a group of protesters targeted the Jewish community as a whole.

That day, as part of a national “million student march,” where students demanded free tuition, anti-Jewish students at CUNY rallied at Hunter college and introduced a new demand: the expulsion of all Israel supporters from campus.

Congregating in the center of the campus, some 50 students chanted in unison, “Zionists out of CUNY!”

Aside from an anodyne statement in favor of “freedom of expression,” CUNY administrators had nothing to say about the affair.

For their part, Hunter’s administrators issued a statement “condemning the anti-Semitic comments,” made by the rally participants.

But no disciplinary measures were taken against any of them.

Speaking to the Algemeiner, StandWithUs’s northeast regional director Shahar Azani said that the Hunter incident “is another example of the hijacking of various social causes by the anti-Israel movement.”

In making this claim, Azani was merely repeating the position taken by Jewish communal leaders and activists involved in the fight to defend Jews and Israel on university campuses. Unfortunately, this position is incorrect.

According to the prevailing wisdom guiding Jewish communal responses to the onslaught against Jewish students on campuses, the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish movements are distinct from the wider anti-liberal forces now disrupting campus life throughout the US. As Jewish leaders see things, there is no inherent connection between the protesters embracing victimhood and demanding constraints on freedom of expression, inquiry and assembly (and free tuition), and those who seek to drive Jews out of the public sphere on college campuses.

In other words, they believe that Zionists can be crybullies too.

But they can’t.

The crybully movement, which demands that universities constrain freedom to cater to victim groups, is necessarily hostile to Jews. This is the reason that at the same time that “victims” from blacks to transgenders are coddled and caressed, Jews have emerged as the only group that is not protected. Indeed, the BDS movement requires universities to discriminate against Jewish students.

The inherent conflict between the tenets of the “progressive” movement and Jewish rights is exposed in a guide to racial “microaggressions” published earlier this year by the University of California. Students and faculty must avoid committing these “microagressions” if they want to stay on the right side of campus authorities and the law.

The UC defines “microagressions” as, “brief, subtle verbal or non-verbal exchanges that send denigrating messages to the recipient because of his or her group membership (such as race, gender, age or socio-economic status).”

Transgressors can expect to be accused of engendering a “hostile learning environment,” an act that can get you expelled, fired and subjected to criminal probes.

As law professor Eugene Voloch reported in The Washington Post last June, among other things, the list of offenses includes embracing merit as a means of advancing in society. A statement along the lines of “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” can destroy a person’s academic career.

So too, statements rejecting race as a significant factor in judging a person’s competence are now deemed racist. For instance statements to the effect of, “There is only one race, the human race,” “America is a melting pot” or “I don’t believe in race” can land a student or instructor in hot water.

In a column last week, Dennis Prager noted that the list castigates as racism all the pillars of liberal society in America. The list, he wrote, shows that “the American university is now closer to fascism than to traditional liberty.”

Prager is right, of course. But the fascist takeover of American academia will not affect all Americans equally.

Jews are the greatest victims of this state of affairs.

For the better part of the past hundred years, the upward mobility of American Jewry has been directly correlated with America’s embrace of meritocratic values. The more Americans have looked past race and ethnicity and judged people by their talents, characters and professional competence, the higher Jews have risen. Conversely, where qualities other than competence, talent and professionalism have determined social and professional status, Jews have suffered. They have faced discrimination and their opportunities to advance have been limited.

Academia is but a small component of American society. But to earn a place in America’s middle, upper-middle and upper classes, you need at least an undergraduate degree. Moreover, university graduates go on to populate and head the state and federal governing bureaucracies, the business world, the entertainment sector and every other major area of human endeavor in American society.

Academia’s simultaneous rejection of core liberal principles and legitimization of anti-Semitic forces is not a coincidence. Jews are a constant reminder that human agency – rather than race and other group identities – has everything to do with a person’s ability to excel in academics and beyond. For fascist principles to hold, Jews must be demonized and hated.The intrinsic link between anti-Semitism and fascism and their simultaneous embrace by a key American institution means that the equal rights and freedoms of Jews are far more threatened in America today than most Jewish leaders and activists have realized. The Jewish community’s failure to date to successfully defeat the anti-Semitic forces on campuses owes at least in part to its failure to recognize or contend with the dual nature of the problem.

[G M]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-honors-us-gi-who-told-the-nazis-we-are-all-jews/

[Crafty_Dog]

 A Third Intifada in the Making?
Analysis
December 3, 2015 | 09:16 GMT Print
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Rescue teams and police gather at the site of an alleged Palestinian attack against an Israeli security guard on Nov. 10. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images)
Summary

Over the past few months, a wave of violence has enflamed tensions between Israelis and Palestinians once again. This time, though, it has taken on a new character, and rumors of a third intifada — the "intifada of knives" — abound.

It is hard to know at what point a string of attacks constitutes an intifada, the Arabic word for an awakening or uprising, just as it is difficult to predict just how long the latest surge in violence will last. But what is clear is that an opportunity has emerged for Palestinian leaders looking to shore up their legitimacy and make progress on certain political goals. However, both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority will face several constraints in taking advantage of the events unfolding before them.

Analysis

True to traditional intifada form, the latest spate of attacks was provoked by Israel's perceived encroachment on the Temple Mount, one of the most religiously significant and politically charged sites in the world. Rumors that the Israeli government plans to change the status quo that bans non-Muslim prayer at the Temple Mount set off the stabbings in September. The Second Intifada began much the same way in 2000, when former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the holy complex — a move Palestinians considered highly provocative. Tensions surrounding the Temple Mount also exacerbated the First Intifada: In October 1990, the Temple Mount Faithful, a Jewish extremist group that wanted to rebuild King Solomon's temple where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands, decided to lay a cornerstone at the compound, sparking the violent Temple Mount riots. The complex stands as a powerful symbol of the deeply entrenched divide between Israelis and Palestinians, and of their decadeslong struggle for control of a finite but priceless piece of land. It is no surprise, then, that it also stands at the center of their conflict today.

Yet the recent flare-up in violence is different from its predecessors in terms of its structure and political ramifications. The First Intifada began when violence erupted among the Palestinian population that Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) then co-opted and led. Seven years later, Palestinian leaders once again lent cohesion and direction to widespread unrest, this time playing an even greater organizational role in directing the suicide bombings that came to characterize the Second Intifada. In this way, both intifadas had political goals that came from leaders who could negotiate and plan exit strategies.

The same is not true of the "intifada of knives," which is occurring organically and outside of the Palestinian leaders' control. In fact, Israel is having difficulty identifying any links between the numerous lone wolf attackers and Hamas or the PLO. The attacks are also difficult for Israeli security forces to detect and prevent, since lone-wolf assailants wielding edged weapons typically leave little to no communication and logistics trail to track. While the attacks have been mostly concentrated in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a recent stabbing in Tel Aviv could reflect the widening of Palestinian attackers' target sets in the future. And as security threats mount, leaders on both sides will be weighing their options on how to respond.

The Palestinian Perspective

In the West Bank, the embattled Palestinian Authority is primarily concerned with securing its own stability, longevity and territorial control. The group is already struggling to protect its share of power from Hamas, its main rival for the Palestinians' support, and for the most part it is only able to do so with the collaboration and help of the Israeli government. However, by benefiting from Israel's political, economic and security assistance, the Palestinian Authority is now open to attacks against its legitimacy among Palestinians, feeding into the Hamas narrative that the more moderate group refuses to stand up to perceived Israeli tyranny. As a result, the Palestinian Authority's popularity has dropped in the West Bank as support for Hamas has risen. In September 2014, just after Israel's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza concluded, The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 61 percent of Palestinians would vote for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh if he ran for the Palestinian presidency. A year later, the same organization found that two-thirds of Palestinians wanted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resign. And student council elections in April, which are seen as predictive of Palestinians' political leanings, yielded an unexpectedly large victory for Hamas in the West Bank.

Given the Palestinian Authority's waning support, it might make sense for the group to try to spearhead a third intifada to regain its legitimacy among Palestinians and take back its political market share from Hamas. But then again, such a move would also hasten the demise of the Palestinian Authority's relationship with Israel — the very ties that have kept it afloat so far.

Hamas, by comparison, has more experience fighting against Israel, particularly in the recent past. However, it does not mean the group is better suited to wage an intifada. The security barriers walling Israel off from Gaza and the West Bank limit Hamas' ability to funnel weapons and support to attackers on the ground, making it difficult to directly harness and coordinate grassroots attacks inside Israel. Consequently, the group would be largely restricted to providing rhetorical support from afar and supplementing the intifada with rocket launches. And yet even there its capabilities would be limited. Hamas has the ability to resume short-distance rocket launches, but it has been unable to restock its collection of long-range rockets such as the Iranian-made Fajr-5 or the Syrian-made Khaibar-1, which can reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Dimona, since Operation Protective Edge ended. The lack of long-range rockets is due in part to increased Egyptian security at the Gaza-Sinai border, in part to Sudan's shift away from allowing militants' weapons to transit its borders, and in part to Israel's heightened monitoring of maritime weapons smuggling routes.

And Hamas, like the Palestinian Authority, has its own competition for power to worry about in Gaza. The Islamic State, along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other smaller groups, is challenging Hamas' authority in the territory, capitalizing on the perception among a sizable Palestinian minority that Hamas' strategy against Israel is not extreme enough to enact change. The struggle for legitimacy could persuade Hamas to take charge of a third intifada. In October, senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said it was necessary to turn the attacks against Israelis into a full-fledged intifada by using guns and explosives. Along the same lines, Haniyeh urged Palestinians to ramp up the intifada through armed resistance. Still, if Hamas were to assume a leadership role in escalating the violence against Israelis, the group could expect Israel to strike at its positions in Gaza — something Hamas is presently ill equipped to recover from.

Israel's Strategy

For its part, Israel has adopted the strategy of holding Palestinian leaders accountable for things that happen in the territories under their control. The Israeli government rarely distinguishes rockets launched by Hamas from those launched by the Islamic State in Gaza, and it frequently holds the Palestinian Authority responsible for any acts of violence perpetrated by Palestinians from the West Bank. Its methods of doing so often affect the Palestinian population as a whole, including conducting mass arrests, ramping up settlement building and curbing Palestinians' ability to enter Israeli territory for work. By doing so, though, the Israeli government creates somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy by antagonizing more moderate Palestinians.

However, Israel's defense establishment has recommended the adoption of several conciliatory measures if the violence subsides as well. These include releasing prisoners, giving additional weapons to the PNA and increasing the number of work permits granted to Palestinian laborers. In fact, many Israeli officials are pushing for more serious steps toward reconciliation with the Palestinian Authority to stave off any further official encouragement of a third intifada. Palestinian leaders could well use their position to quell the violence in exchange for significant concessions, thus boosting their image among their constituents. Still, cooperating with Israel often undermines leaders' legitimacy among Palestinians, and the Palestinian Authority probably would not be able to pull it off successfully. Therefore, it is far more likely that spontaneous violence and mounting tension between Israeli and Palestinian leaders will continue.

Officially, Abbas has not endorsed the string of stabbing attacks that have left 23 Israelis dead since September. But ever mindful of his need to demonstrate strength to his Palestinian constituents and rivals, Abbas has stopped short of condemning the attacks outright. Israelis have perceived his lackluster response as an intentional provocation of further attacks. Consequently, the Israeli government will likely continue to hold Abbas accountable for any further violence, using his purported responsibility as a pretext to avoid making political concessions. This could accelerate the deterioration of the relationship between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, potentially even bringing Abbas' presidency to an end.

In a reflection of the dismal state of Israeli-Palestinian relations, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made no mention of reviving peace talks during his latest trip to the region in late November. Palestinians are increasingly becoming more frustrated and desperate, and many believe the status quo cannot be changed without dramatic action. According to a 2015 Gallup poll, Palestinians are more supportive of an armed struggle against Israel than they have been for at least a decade, and more than two-thirds of the population believes that frictions between Israelis and Palestinians are worsening. The growing frustration that has fed into the latest "intifada of knives" is an opportunity for Palestinian leaders to change the status quo in Israel, but it is unclear whether they will be able to overcome the obstacles in the way of their success.

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/middle-east/israel-and-the-middle-east/jordanian-opposition-leader-wishes-israelis-a-happy-hanukkah-17636

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9H_0g8-84I

[Crafty_Dog]

By Dion Nissenbaum
Updated Dec. 18, 2015 10:43 a.m. ET
10 COMMENTS

ISTANBUL—Israel and Turkey are poised to re-establish diplomatic ties after years of tense relations, officials from both countries said Friday, a move that could renew close cooperation between two of America’s strongest allies in the region.

Top Israeli and Turkish officials met for secret talks this week in Switzerland, where they worked to complete a deal to restore relations that collapsed in 2010 after 10 Turks were killed when Israeli commandos raided a ship carrying activists trying to break Israel’s economic blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Officials from both countries cautioned Friday that details of the agreement were still being worked out and the deal could still collapse—the two sides came close but failed to secure a similar deal in February 2014. But they said the talks offered the most promising sign that Turkey and Israel were ready to put the politically charged incident behind them.

The talks came as the international fight against the extremist group Islamic State injects news strains and transforms long-standing alliances in the region.

Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war has altered the battlefield and led to new efforts by Turkey, the U.S. and their allies to end the conflict and combat Islamic State.

Ankara’s close ties with Moscow unraveled last month when a Turkish jet shot down a Russian bomber carrying out airstrikes in Syria near Turkey’s border. Russia has imposed modest economic sanctions on Turkey and demanded an apology from Turkish leaders who have sought to contain the diplomatic and financial damage to their country.

With Turkey’s relations with Russia deteriorating, Ankara has sought to mend ties with Israel and stepped up talks with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Wednesday, Israel’s national security adviser, Yossi Cohen, and Joseph Ciechanover, Mr. Netanyahu’s special envoy to Turkey, met for secret talks in Switzerland with Feridun Sinirlioglu, undersecretary at Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, according to a senior Israeli official.

At the meeting, the official said, negotiators agreed that Israel would establish a special fund to compensate families of the victims killed in the 2010 raid on the MV Mavi Marmara. Turkey would ensure that Israeli officials are shielded from prosecution over the incident, according to details released by Israeli officials.

Ankara also would bar a top Hamas militant from entering the country to deter him from planning attacks against Israel from Turkish soil. In addition, the two sides would launch talks over a natural gas pipeline between the two countries and resume normal diplomatic relations by sending ambassadors back to their respective capitals.

The May 31, 2010, Israeli raid on six civilian ships in international waters sparked an international furor. The attack on the Mavi Marmara was captured by dramatic video that showed Israeli commandos rappelling down to the deck from helicopters as some activists tried to fight back. Nine activists were killed and a 10th died later. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel and later expelled Israel’s ambassador to Turkey.

In 2013, at the urging of President Barack Obama, Mr. Netanyahu called Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister of Turkey, to apologize. But the gesture failed to jump-start talks on restoring relations.

Earlier this week, Mr. Erdogan, now Turkey’s president, hinted at warming Israeli-Turkish relations, saying an agreement could be good for the region.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.facebook.com/alan.silver.372/videos/10153198136143225/

[Crafty_Dog]

Debunking the Palestinian Lie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ByJb7QQ9U 

Military requirements of Isreali self-defense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2hZ6SlSqq0

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-first-jordanian-phd-wants-to-bring-peace-through-water/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/world/middleeast/all-bedouin-tech-company-hints-at-shift-in-israel.html?emc=edit_th_20160110&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=49641193&_r=0

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/196516/jewish-isis-in-the-west-bank?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=fc79a90599-Sunday_January_17_20161_15_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-fc79a90599-207194629

[Crafty_Dog]

second post

http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-most-revealing-video-about-how-israel-treats-palestinians/?omhide=true&utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Mother-of-six+Dafna+Meir+stabbed+to+death+in+front+of+her+children&utm_campaign=20160117_m129319627_1%2F17+Breaking+Israel+Video%3A+Mother-of-six+Dafna+Meir+stabbed+to+death+in+front+of+her+children&utm_term=The+Most+Revealing+Video+About+How+Israel+Treats+_27Palestinians_27

[Crafty_Dog]

Third post

http://www.israellycool.com/2016/01/05/zoom-out-2/

[Crafty_Dog]

Where Does All That Aid for Palestinians Go?
An outsize share of per capita international aid, even as the Palestinian Authority funds terrorists.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Jan. 6. ENLARGE
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Jan. 6. Photo: ABED AL HASHLAMOUN/European Pressphoto Agency
By Tzipi Hotovely
Jan. 24, 2016 4:10 p.m. ET
104 COMMENTS

One often-cited key to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is economic development. To that end, there seems to be broad agreement about the importance of extending development aid to help the Palestinians build the physical and social infrastructure that will enable the emergence of a sustainable, prosperous society. But few have seriously questioned how much money is sent and how it is used.

Such assistance will only promote peace if it is spent to foster tolerance and coexistence. If it is used to strengthen intransigence it does more harm than good—and the more aid that comes in, the worse the outcome. This is exactly what has been transpiring over the past few decades. Large amounts of foreign aid to the Palestinians are spent to support terrorists and deepen hostility.

For years the most senior figures in the Palestinian Authority have supported, condoned and glorified terror. “Every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem,” President Mahmoud Abbas said last September on Palestinian television, “is holy blood as long as it was for Allah.” Countless Palestinian officials and state-run television have repeatedly hailed the murder of Jews.

This support for terrorism doesn’t end with hate speech. The Palestinian regime in Ramallah pays monthly stipends of between $400 and $3,500 to terrorists and their families, the latter of which is more than five times the average monthly salary of a Palestinian worker.

According to data from its budgetary reports, compiled in June 2014 by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PA’s annual budget for supporting Palestinian terrorists was then roughly $75 million. That amounted to some 16% of the foreign donations the PA received annually. Overall in 2012 foreign aid made up about a quarter of the PA’s $3.1 billion budget. More recent figures are inaccessible since the Palestinian Authority is no longer transparent about the stipend transfers.

Embarrassed by public revelations of the misuse of the foreign aid, in August 2014 the Palestinian Authority passed the task of paying stipends to terrorists and their families to a fund managed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, also led by Mr. Abbas. Lest there be any doubt as to the purely cosmetic nature of the change, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah made assurances as recently as September 2015 that the PA will provide the “necessary assistance” to ensure these terror stipends.

This procedural ruse apparently calmed the consciences of donor governments that continue to transfer aid. It is difficult to think of another case in which such a forgiving attitude would be taken regarding foreign aid to an entity that sponsors terror.

This situation is particularly disturbing given the disproportionate share of development assistance the Palestinians receive, which comes at the expense of needy populations elsewhere. According to a report last year by Global Humanitarian Assistance, in 2013 the Palestinians received $793 million in international aid, second only to Syria. This amounts to $176 for each Palestinian, by far the highest per capita assistance in the world. Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed and 6.5 million refugees displaced since 2011, received only $106 per capita.

A closer look at the remaining eight countries in the top 10—Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo—is even more alarming. CIA Factbook data show that these countries have a combined population of 284 million and an average per capita GDP of $2,376. Yet they received an average of $15.30 per capita in development assistance in 2013. The Palestinians, by comparison, with a population of 4.5 million, have a per capita GDP of $4,900.

In other words, though the Palestinians are more than twice as wealthy on average than these eight countries, they receive more than 11 times as much foreign aid per person. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a case in point: Its 79 million people have a per capita GDP of $700, yet they receive only $5.70 in aid per person.

Between 1993 (when the Oslo Process began) and 2013, the Palestinians received $21.7 billion in development assistance, according to the World Bank. The Palestinian leadership has had ample opportunity to use these funds for economic and social development. Tragically, as seen in Hamas-run Gaza, it prefers to use the funds on its terrorist infrastructure and weaponry, such as cross-border attack tunnels and the thousands of missiles that have rained down in recent years on Israel.

In Judea and Samaria, the “West Bank,” the situation is equally disturbing. Aside from funding terrorists and investing in hate speech, the PA stubbornly refuses to remove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from “refugee” rosters, deliberately keeping them in a state of dependence and underdevelopment for no purpose other than to stoke animosity toward Israel.

It is difficult to come away from these facts without realizing the deep connection between the huge amounts of foreign aid being spent, the bizarre international tolerance for patently unacceptable conduct by the Palestinians and the lack of progress toward peace on the ground.

Donors to the Palestinians who support peace would do well to rethink the way they extend assistance. Money should go to economic and civic empowerment, not to perpetuate a false sense of victimhood and unconditional entitlement. It should foster values of tolerance and nonviolence, not the glorification and financing of terrorism.

Ms. Hotovely is the deputy foreign minister of Israel.

[Crafty_Dog]

IDF Preparing for Arrival of ISIS on Syrian Border
by Yaakov Lappin
Special to IPT News
January 29, 2016
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5143/idf-preparing-for-arrival-of-isis-on-syrian-border

 
 As conflict and mayhem continue to rage across Syria, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is preparing to encounter the threat of ISIS and al-Qaida forces right on its borders, and could encounter such threats in the coming months.

The preparations come as the Syrian civil war shows no sign of letting up. This is a conflict that has led to the violent deaths of 300,000 Syrians, and the displacement of more than 10 million others, 4.5 million of whom have fled the country.

Today, the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate views Syria as a former state that has broken apart into multiple 'Syrias.' The Assad regime controls barely 30 percent of Syria and is fully reliant on the foreign assistance of Russia, Hizballah, and Iran. Sunnis and Shi'ites wage daily war on one another.

It is worth examining the wider recent events in the multifaceted Syrian conflict, and place the IDF's preparations in their broader regional perspective.
In Syria's murderous kill-or-be-killed environment, Salafi-jihadist doctrines flourish, in the form of ISIS, which views Shi'ites (including the Assad regime and Hizballah) as infidels who must be destroyed.

ISIS cells have operated recently in Lebanon too, targeting Shi'ite Hizballah's home turf of Dahiya in southern Beirut with two large bombings in November that claimed over 40 lives, while ISIS in Iraq continues to target Shi'ites.

Today, ISIS has between 30,000-50,000 members who are dedicated to expanding their caliphate and killing all those who disagree with their doctrine, including even fellow Sunni jihadi members of al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front, which has 8,000-12,000 members.

ISIS continues to use its territory in Syria and Iraq to plot major, mass-casualty terrorist attacks in Western cities. At the same time, its budgetary future looks uncertain, as oil funds have decreased significantly following allied air strikes on oil facilities. In the past year, 45 percent of ISIS's $1.3 billion budget came from oil, far less than the oil revenue in 2014.

Unlike ISIS, al-Qaida believes in following a phased, slower plan in setting up a caliphate, and the two jihadist organizations have been at war with each other for more than two years in Syria.

Shi'ites led by Iran are fighting to stop the Salafi-jihadis' spread. Under the command of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Quds Force unit commander, Qassem Suleimani, Iranian fighting forces and advisers moved into Syria. Iran has sustained more than 300 casualties there thus far.
Hizballah, too, is heavily involved in Syria's battles, losing an estimated 1,300 fighters and sustaining 10,000 injuries – meaning more than half of its conscripted fighting force has been killed or wounded. Iran and its proxies are using the mayhem to try to spread their own influence in Syria.
Near Israel's border with Syria, the Al-Yarmouk Martyrs Battalions, which is affiliated with ISIS, has set up many posts.

An estimated 600 members of the group control a population of around 40,000 Syrians. Al-Yarmouk is at war with al-Qaida's Jabhat Al-Nusra, which maintains a few thousand members in the Syrian Golan near Israel.

Jabhat Al-Nusra's membership is mostly derived of local Syrians, who tend to be more hesitant to start a war with Israel that would result in their areas, and relatives, being badly affected. Yet 10 to 15 percent of its membership comes from abroad, and have no commitment to the area. These foreign fighters have no qualms about precipitating attacks on Israel. At the moment, however, Jabhat Al-Nusra is bogged down by its fight with Al-Yarmouk.
ISIS has officially put Israel in its sights, and its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, declared his intention at the end of December to attack Israel.

The IDF is taking the threat seriously and is preparing for a range of possible attacks, including strategic terror attacks, cross-border raids, the sending of bomb-laden armored vehicles into Israel, and rocket, missile, small-arms, and mortar fire on the Israeli Golan Heights.

One possibility is that the heavily armed Al-Yarmouk group, which is facing the southern Golan Heights, might follow an Islamic State directive to attack Israel.
In 2014, Al-Yarmouk became an ISIS representative, swearing allegiance to it, though it is not fully subordinate to it.

Al-Yarmouk's late leader, known as Al Khal ("the uncle"), was killed in November in an attack by Jabhat Al-Nusra. Before his violent end, Al Khal only partially committed himself to ISIS, and turned down ISIS requests to send fighters to Iraq.

Al-Yarmouk's response to Jabhat Al-Nusra's attacks came in December, when it assassinated a Jabhat Al-Nusra commander in his armored vehicle, just 400 meters from the Israeli border.  Al-Yarmouk subscribes to the Salafi jihadist ideology and has shoulder-held missiles, tanks, and other weapons looted during raids on the Assad regime military bases.

But Israel is also preparing for the possibility of encountering ISIS itself, not just an affiliate group.

ISIS proper is currently situated 40 kilometers from the Israeli border in southern Syria. One possibility is that Russian airstrikes will cause ISIS forces to ricochet southwards, towards Israel.

The IDF is gathering intelligence on all armed groups near its border, exhausting many resources to assess their capabilities, and intentions.

Israel watched as Shi'ite Hizballah came from Lebanon to block Sunni jihadist advances towards Lebanon in recent months, and as Russian airstrikes blocked the advance of the rebels northwards, to Damascus.

The IDF remains in a heightened state of alert along the Syrian border, though it is also working to avoid the creation of easy targets for the array of predatory forces on the other side.   As part of its preparations, the IDF's Northern Command has given more autonomy to regional field commanders to enable faster responses to surprise attacks by reducing the initial chain of command during emergencies.  Inter-branch cooperation between intelligence, ground forces, and the air force has also been tightened.

Additionally, the IDF has fortified its border fence with Syria, adding electronic sensors to better be able to detect and respond to a potential attack in time.
The underlying assumption within military circles is that, sooner or later, ISIS will turn its guns on Israel, and the IDF does not intend to be caught off guard when that happens. 

Yaakov Lappin is the Jerusalem Post's military and national security affairs correspondent, and author of The Virtual Caliphate (Potomac Books), which proposes that jihadis on the internet have established a virtual Islamist state.

[G M]

http://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2016/01/No-Rape-in-Israel.jpg



Choose to not be a victim.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.facebook.com/ILuvFreedom/videos/1655979804653081/

[Crafty_Dog]

Hamas Dances With the Devil
by Paul Alster
Special to IPT News
February 19, 2016
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5163/hamas-dances-with-the-devil
 
 The Gaza-based Hamas terror organization has more than its fair share of problems at the moment. Quite likely against its better judgment, it is becoming increasingly reliant on a controversial and dangerous relationship with Sinai Province, the vicious ISIS affiliate in Sinai.

Most of Hamas' problems are related to cash flow. Funds from sympathetic donor states such as Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are sporadic and insufficient, while relations with another benefactor, Iran, have come under great strain due to Hamas' support for Syrian rebel factions opposing the Assad regime that fights alongside Iranian-backed Hizballah. The wages of public sector workers often go unpaid for months at a time, and according to a 2015 World Bank report, Gaza's unemployment rate is the highest in the world at 43 percent.

Add into the mix the failure of Arab nations to deliver on pledges to rebuild parts of Gaza damaged during the 2014 summer war with Israel, and Egypt's refusal – apart from a brief respite earlier this week – to open the crucial Rafah crossing, and things look bleak for Hamas. The only goods legally entering Gaza are the many hundreds of truckloads arriving daily from Israel via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has cracked down severely on the Sinai smuggling tunnels in and out of Gaza that flourished during the time of his Muslim Brotherhood predecessor Mohammed Morsi.

In a search of a friend, or at least a partner with whom it can have a mutually beneficial relationship, Hamas cut a deal with Sinai Province despite having cracked down violently on ISIS supporters in Gaza in order to keep a grip on power in the overcrowded coastal enclave. This collaboration risks legitimizing the ISIS affiliate in Hamas' own backyard, undermining its brutal dominance in Gaza, and providing the jihadists' supporters with an argument that it is Sinai Province and not Hamas that is keeping the show on the road.

Formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, Sinai Province was previously affiliated with al-Qaida. That changed in late-2014 when the Bedouin terror group switched allegiance to Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Its extreme, ultra-violent ideology has long been viewed even by Hamas as fanatical, so getting into bed with such an organization clearly carries inherent risks.

Sinai Province is believed to have been behind last October's bombing of a Russian airliner from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a shocking mass murder that dealt a huge blow to Egypt's already ailing tourist industry.

"This [partnership] is not so much because of a shared vision or shared ideology but because, at this point in time, anybody is doing business with anybody within Sinai," regional terror expert Benedetta Berti said earlier this month in an interview with the British Israel Communications & Research Centre (BICOM). "This creates a clash between what Hamas wants for Gaza, which is not a proliferation of pro-ISIS cells, and some of the deals part of the group is doing in Sinai."

"Salafist groups are not a challenge in the sense that they are going to overthrow Hamas, but they are definitely a political challenge," Berti added, "especially if we look at public opinion polls – we see that more and more people are losing faith in the Hamas government."

Senior Israel military officials claim that injured Sinai Province fighters continue to be ferried through the tunnels into Gaza for medical treatment. They believe this has been ongoing since last summer. Hamas denies treating the jihadis, but is believed to have paid Sinai Province to help keep supply lines open for weapons, including help in clandestinely transferring the lethal Russian-made Kornet anti-tank guided missiles into Gaza. In return, Sinai Province gets to keep a share of the weaponry.

It also has been an open secret for some time that Abdullah Kishta, the notorious Gaza-based weapons expert, is helping train Sinai Province to use the Kornet and other weapons such as MANPAD surface-to-air-missile systems in attacks against Egyptian forces.

Kishta's training has paid rich dividends with a devastating series of large-scale assaults by Sinai Province on Egyptian forces, including major attacks that have inflicted heavy losses. The group has an estimated 500 to 1,000 members, well trained and well organized local Bedouins. There is no evidence thus far of foreign fighters joining their cause, unlike in ISIS conflict zones in Syria and Iraq.

Israel watches closely from the other side of the border. Privately, many Israeli officials acknowledge that with Palestinian rivals Fatah unlikely to assert any real pressure on Hamas in Gaza, they prefer that Hamas stays in power. The alternative – any one of a number of ISIS-affiliated or other Salafist groups – could prove far more problematic for the Jewish State.

"For Israel, the desire to avoid escalation prevents it from confronting Hamas's [weapons] buildup openly and dictates a policy of imposed passivity, heightened by the difficulty in ensuring that provisions brought to the Gaza Strip, especially construction materials, are not used for military buildup – though it is highly probable that this is precisely the case," Maj. Gen (ret.) Amos Yadlin, executive director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), wrote Wednesday.

Israeli supplies – some humanitarian food aid and some intended for reconstruction – continue to enter Gaza. If they didn't, and people starved, that could potentially spark an uprising against Hamas, further destabilizing Gaza and opening the door for Hamas' opponents, including Islamic State, to attempt an uprising.

Israel also is wary that Sinai Province could mount a cross-border attack into its territory, launching missiles toward Eilat, or copying Hamas in attempting to tunnel from Sinai into southern Israel to kidnap or murder Israelis.  Hamas, though, remains under severe pressure. Only time will tell if its marriage of convenience with the Islamic State affiliate is a shrewd move to ensure survival, or a calamitous error of judgment.

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. Follow him on Twitter @paul_alster and visit his website: www.paulalster.com.

[Crafty_Dog]

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/22/israel-eats-its-own-palestine-violence-intifada-netanyahu-livni-herzog-lapid/?wp_login_redirect=0

[Crafty_Dog]

IDF Racing to Restructure Itself for New Middle East Warfare
by Yaakov Lappin
Special to IPT News
February 23, 2016
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5169/idf-racing-to-restructure-itself-for-new-middle

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is in a race against time, and it is a race that is relevant to how other Western powers will also deal with the rise of radical, armed, Islamic groups proliferating across the Middle East.  As the IDF's commanders look around the region, they see heavily armed, hybrid, Islamic sub-state foes that are replacing states. The traditional threat of hierarchical armies is fading quickly away, into obscurity.

The Sunni and Shi'ite jihadist entities on Israel's borders – Hamas, Hizballah, ISIS-affiliated groups in Syria, Jabhat Al-Nusra, as well as elements of Iran's IRGC forces – are all building their power and preparing for a future unknown point in time when they will clash with Israel.

The IDF is preparing, too, but it is not only counting how many soldiers, tanks, fighter planes, and artillery cannons it can call up in the next round. The IDF is in a race to adapt to 21st century Middle Eastern warfare, which bears no resemblance to how wars were fought in the 20th century.

In this new type of conflict, enemies appear and vanish quickly, use their own civilians as cover, bombard Israeli cities with projectiles, seek out the weakest link in Israel's chain, and send killing squads through tunnels to attack Israeli border villages.  In this type of clash, the enemy looks for a 'winning picture' at the start of any escalation. This means landing a surprise blow that will knock Israeli society off balance, at least for a short while.  To be clear, all of the hostile sub-state actors currently are deterred by Israel's considerable firepower and are unlikely to initiate a direct, all-out attack right now.  The price they would pay for such action is deemed too high, for now.

Yet, opportunities and circumstances can suddenly arise that would alter these calculations, and put these terrorist organizations on a direct collision course with the IDF.  Israel has fought four conflicts against Hamas and Hizballah in the past 10 years, and emerged with the conclusion that the era of state military versus state military warfare is over. 

Acknowledging this development is one thing; the organizational transformation that must follow is quite another. Israel did not want to enter any of the past four conflicts that were forced upon it, but since they occurred, they have aided in the IDF's adaptation process, which has been as complex as it has been painful, and is far from over.

"What you have to do against an enemy like this, and it is a great difficulty for militaries, including the IDF, is to operate in a combined, cross-branch [air force, ground forces, navy] manner, and to keep it [operations] focused. Focus the ground maneuver and firepower, on the basis of the intelligence you get," a senior IDF source said earlier this month in Tel Aviv, while addressing the challenges of adaptation.

Taking southern Lebanon, the home base of Hizballah, as an example, the area has well over 100 Shi'ite villages that have been converted into mass rocket launching zones.  With one out of every 10 Lebanese homes doubling up as a Hizballah rocket launching site (complete with roofs that open and close to allow the rocket to launch), Hizballah has amassed over 120,000 projectiles – some of them GPS guided – with Iran's help. This arsenal, pointed at Israel, forms one of the largest surface to surface rocket arsenals on Earth.

Would sending several military divisions into such an area be sufficient for Israel in stopping the rocket attacks? Without focused intelligence, the military source argued, the answer is a resounding no. Israel's reliance on intelligence has never been more paramount in the age of sub-state, radical enemies.
"The urban areas swallow up our forces. If we can't focus the maneuver, no amount of forces will be sufficient in dealing with this issue. It must be focused, and the information that must direct this focus is real-time intelligence," the source said.

The IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate has the mammoth task of building up a battle picture and a database of targets ahead of any conflict. After a conflict erupts, it must start the process all over again within a few days, when the entire map of threats changes in the modern dynamic battlefield.
This is a far cry from the old intelligence work that looked at enemy tank divisions and infantry formation.

IDF planners believe that any future conflict with a hybrid, terror-guerrilla military force will consist of five stages. An "opening picture" – that surprise blow intended to shock Israelis – will mark the start of hostilities, in which Israel must deny the adversary its "winning picture." This will be followed by an exchange of firepower. After a few days, Israel would need to call up reserves, and then launch a ground offensive. Throughout this period, the Israeli home front would absorb heavy rocket fire, while the Israel Air Force would pound enemy targets. The IAF could fire thousands of precision-guided munitions every 24 hours, if it deploys its firepower to the maximum, as it would in an all-out clash with Hizballah.

Israeli air defense systems like Iron Dome could soften the blow to the home front significantly, but this is truer with respect to Gazan rockets than against the downpour of Hizballah rockets and missiles, which would overwhelm air defenses.  The ground offensive must destroy "70 to 75 percent of [enemy] capabilities," the source said. "If there are 100 missiles and two operatives on the other side, and you kill the operatives, than the missiles become irrelevant."
The last phase is the end stage, and it is unlikely that an entity like Hamas or Hizballah would wave a white flag when hostilities conclude, even if most of their capabilities have been destroyed.

The era of clear-cut military victories, like Israel experienced in the 1967 Six Day War, is gone, the source said.

With this reality in view, the IDF's steps to adapt itself to modern threats include the ability to gather huge quantities of intelligence and deliver them, in real-time, to the forces that need them most in the battlefield, right down to the level of a battalion commander.  This requirement includes establishing an "operational Internet," an internal IDF network that allows battalion commanders to access Military Intelligence target data in their area, and direct their units accordingly.  It would also allow field commanders to communicate directly with a fighter jet pilot or drone operator, or even a missile ship commander, for the type of cross-forces cooperation the IDF thinks will be most effective in shutting down threats.

As a result, the IDF's C4i Branch has spent recent years overcoming many hurdles and objections and integrating the command and control networks of the air force, navy, and ground forces. It then directly linked them up to Military Intelligence.

By the end of this year, the first IDF division will have a "military Internet" network, complete with applications and browsers, up and running.

"I don't want a squad commander walking around with a screen in his hand. He has to be aware of his soldiers. [But] the battalion commander should certainly have this," the source said.

In 2014, the IDF did not do a good enough job in detecting, in real-time, the location of Hamas rocket launches in Gaza. It got away with this failure because of the effectiveness of the Iron Dome anti-rocket batteries. But against Hizballah's much larger arsenal, no amount of air defenses will be sufficient, and the IDF therefore is working on improving its rocket detection and accurate return fire abilities.

"In the next stage [of our development], if you detect the rocket launch areas and the centers of activity of the enemy, and transmit them [to your own forces], you can learn the enemy's patterns better," the officer said.

Knowing the enemy has never been more important for Israel's ability to defend itself against the jihadist entities that are replacing states in the Middle East. As these radical Islamist organizations prepare for the day of battle, Israel does the same, through updating its old 20th century battle doctrines and bringing them up to speed with its rapidly changing and chaotic environment.

Yaakov Lappin is the Jerusalem Post's military and national security affairs correspondent, and author of The Virtual Caliphate (Potomac Books), which proposes that jihadis on the internet have established a virtual Islamist state.

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.investigativeproject.org/5179/hizballah-leader-brags-about-capabilities-that

[Crafty_Dog]

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-israel-is-giving-me-the-voice-of-an-arab-doctor/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Crafty_Dog]

http://pamelageller.com/2016/03/lebanon-no-more-hezbollahs-iranian-colony.html/

[ccp]

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=301139019511

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-twitter-blitz-dubai-security-chief-opposes-palestinian-state-urges-coalition-with-israel/

[DougMacG]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-twitter-blitz-dubai-security-chief-opposes-palestinian-state-urges-coalition-with-israel/

A breath of fresh air.  This has been more than two decades in coming.  Saddam Hussein attacked four of his neighbors, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi and Israel, but Israel doesn't count because everyone wants to attack them. 

ISIS is enemy to both Sunni and Shia states plus Israel (and the US, Russia and Europe, etc.).  Israel is probably the strongest power in the region other than what's left of Obama's America and The Soviet Putin.  How long can you ignore your strongest potential ally while your existence is threatened?

Meanwhile, Israel is threatening no one other than those who are actively attacking them.

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4706/gazan-hamas-war-crimes

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.facebook.com/ISRAEL.TRUTH/videos/881192381893513/

[Crafty_Dog]

The Gaza Time Bomb
by Yaakov Lappin
Special to IPT News
March 30, 2016
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5238/the-gaza-time-bomb
 
 On the surface, the Gaza Strip looks relatively calm, with few security incidents occurring since the end of the protracted 2014 summer conflict between Hamas and Israel. Behind the scenes, pressure within the Islamist-run enclave is gradually building again, just as it did prior to the 2014 war. Gaza's civilian population is hostage to Hamas's dramatically failed economic policies, and its insistence on confrontation with Israel, rather than recognition of Israel and investment in Gaza's economic future.  Ultimately, the civilian-economic pressure cooker in Gaza looks likely to explode, leading Hamas to seek new hostilities with Israel, for which it is preparing in earnest.

Right now, Hamas remains deterred by Israel's firepower, and is enforcing its part of the truce. Hamas security forces patrol the Strip's borders to prevent Gazans from rioting, to stop them from trying to escape Gaza into Israel, and to stop ISIS-affiliated radicals who fire rockets at Israel.  Hamas is using the current quiet to replenish its rocket arsenal, dig its combat tunnel network, and build up sea-based attack capabilities. It is investing many resources in cooking up new ways to surprise Israel in any future clash. These efforts have not gone unnoticed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Hamas has not fired a single rocket into Israel since August 2014, but it encourages violence in the West Bank as part of a strategy to destabilize its Palestinian rival, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. Hamas in Gaza also works remotely to set up and orchestrate terrorism cells in the West Bank, while plotting way to overthrow Fatah from power. The Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, has successfully foiled nearly all of these efforts thus far, saving many Israeli lives, and the PA's rule, too.

A deeper look at processes under way in Gaza reveals why the status quo seems untenable in the long run. Thirty percent (910,000) of Gaza's population of 1.85 million are aged 15 to 29, and out of these, 65 percent are unemployed. This represents one of the highest unemployment rates for young people in the world. Many are university educated and deeply frustrated. The overall unemployment rate in Gaza is 38.4 percent, and rising steadily. Eighteen thousand Gazan university students graduate every year. Most of them have nothing to do with their degrees, and return home to a life of idle unemployment. Many Gazans dream of leaving. The suicide rate is growing. Under Hamas's rule, these young people see no change on the horizon.
Out of the total population of Gaza, 1.3 million receive assistance from United Nations aid workers, without which, a humanitarian crisis would likely ensue.
Those who dare complain, such as Gazan bloggers, find themselves whisked away into Hamas police custody, where they receive firm warnings to remain silent, or else.

Meanwhile, the Gazan population is growing at an unsustainable rate. Since Israel pulled out all of its soldiers and civilians in 2005, 600,000 Gazans have been born. This is a generation that has never been to Israel (unlike the older Gazans), and its only experience of Israel is through air force missiles fired at Hamas targets following clashes sparked by the jihadist regime's military wing.

Many of these young people are exposed to the propaganda of Hamas's media outlets, like the Al-Aksa television station, which is a major source of incitement. Some are also exposed to the wider world through the Internet, and are aware that life can be different for them.  By 2020, Gaza's population will hit 2.3 million people. It could run out of drinking water. This might prompt a civilian revolt, which could push Hamas into starting a new war with Israel to distract attention.

To try to relieve the pressure, Hamas leaders make promises that they cannot keep, such as the setting up of a sea port, and the opening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which the anti-Hamas Egyptian government opened just 18 times in 2015 for fear of allowing jihadists in Gaza to pour into the restive Sinai Strip.

A Hamas delegation traveled to Egypt earlier this month to try to mend relations with the Cairo government. The effort resulted in failure, after Egyptian officials accused Hamas of failing to acknowledge its collaboration with the ISIS-affiliated Sinai Province insurgents.

Changes are underway within Hamas itself, which are causing the Izzadin Al-Qassam Brigades military wing to gain power at the expense of the political wing, which is led by Ismael Haniyeh.

Yiyhe Sinwar is a senior Hamas member with growing power, operating in the gray zone between both wings. He is close to military wing chief Muhammed Def, and to Haniyeh. Sinwar's power represents the rise of military wing's influence, where many members are finding their way into political elite positions in Gaza.

Marwan Isa is another senior Hamas member, influential to both wings. While the political wing has, behind closed doors, been hesitant to support the military wing's disastrous adventures against Israel, its ability to veto future attacks may vanish.

Additionally, Hamas is running out allies as it did before the 2014 war.

Iran continues to fund its military wing, as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Yet Tehran's ability to traffic weapons into Gaza has been ruined by Egypt's tunnel demolition drive.  Iran's overall influence on Gaza, therefore, is limited.

The Muslim Brotherhood-friendly Qatar has also stepped back from Hamas, limiting its funding projects in Gaza to civilian reconstruction only, building a modern highway in Gaza and a fancy new neighborhood in Khan Younis. However, no Qatari funds go to Hamas's military build-up. Turkey's assistance to Hamas is limited, too. It paid for a new Gaza hospital and 11 mosques, but beyond that, its support is mostly rhetorical.

The Arab world is indifferent to Gaza, meaning that Hamas is in strategic distress.

ISIS-inspired ideology is penetrating Gaza, and a few thousand former Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad members have defected to small Salafist-jihadist groups there. These groups have been responsible for all rocket fire into Israel since the summer of 2014.

In fact, the only state that makes major efforts to care for Gaza's civilians is Israel. Israel provides 60 percent of Gaza's electricity (30 percent is locally produced and Egypt provides the remaining 10 percent).

In 2015, Israel allowed 104,000 Gazans through the Erez border crossings to assist traders and humanitarian journeys. At the Kerem Shalom vehicle crossing, 900 trucks pass each day from Israel into Gaza, carrying all manner of goods, from fuel, to construction materials and commercial goods.
For Gaza civilians, the only ray of light seems to shine from the reconstruction mechanism, which Israel quietly set in motion after Hamas cynically used Gazan civilian areas as rocket launching zones and urban combat bases.

Israel set up a computerized reconstruction system that closely monitors and enables the rebuilding, while preventing the use of concrete and dual use items from falling into Hamas's hands. Gaza contractors who cannot account for their materials on the computerized systems are immediately removed from their positions, a heavy price to pay in the unemployment-rife Gaza Strip.

Funded by international donors and the Palestinian private sector, the mechanism, which Israel pushed to set up, has repaired 80,000 of the 130,000 housing units damaged during the conflict. Another 20,000 are currently being repaired.

Of the 18,000 homes completely destroyed in 2014, nearly 11,000 have already been rebuilt, and material for nearly 2,000 more homes has been bought and paid for.  The reconstruction program is providing jobs and a little hope for Gazans. But it is unlikely to be sufficient to stave off an economic collapse. Again, the rebuilding effort is funded almost entirely by outside sources while Hamas invests tremendous resources into terrorism-guerilla capabilities and denies the Gazan people the opportunity of economic development by refusing to recognize Israel.

Until Gaza is run by people with different priorities, its residents have little hope their lives will improve.

Yaakov Lappin is the Jerusalem Post's military and national security affairs correspondent, and author of The Virtual Caliphate (Potomac Books), which proposes that jihadis on the internet have established a virtual Islamist state.

[ccp]

"Since Israel pulled out all of its soldiers and civilians in 2005, 600,000 Gazans have been born"

Out of 1.85 million?  Just in the last 11 yrs?   This is part of the military strategy.

Israel should be airdropping BCP and condoms.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.facebook.com/1780124725544063/videos/1781626642060538/

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/world/middleeast/israel-expands-palestinian-fishing-zone-off-gazas-coast.html?emc=edit_th_20160404&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=49641193

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.facebook.com/americanbikers/videos/983786451710525/?pnref=story

[ccp]

link "not available".

[Crafty_Dog]

Working for me.

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.711115

[ccp]

http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2016/04/16/danny-devito-bernie-really-stood-palestinians/

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/caroline-glick-shut-down-the-debate-with-this-bombshell-speec

http://www.lastampa.it/2016/04/11/vaticaninsider/eng/world-news/king-abdullah-ii-of-jordan-funds-holy-sepulchre-restoration-work-NalrFqTHDnrSKv62cJWIsM/pagina.html

http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/alan-dershowitz-went-off-on-this-anti-israel-student-and-it-was-epic/

http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/idf-uncovers-hamas-tunnel-stretching-from-gaza-into-israel/?omhide=true&utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=IDF+uncovers+Hamas+tunnel+stretching+from+Gaza+into+Israel&utm_campaign=20160419_m130921010_04%2F19+Breaking+Israel+Video%3A+IDF+uncovers+Hamas+tunnel+stretching+from+Gaza+into+Israel&utm_term=Hamas+Terror+Tunnel+Uncovered+in+Southern+Israel

[Crafty_Dog]

Make or Break Moment for Palestinian Violence
by Yaakov Lappin
Special to IPT News
April 21, 2016
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5315/make-or-break-moment-for-palestinian-violence
 
 The coming Passover holiday represents a make-or-break moment that could decide whether Palestinian violence and terrorism fizzles out, or escalates into a new and more dangerous phase.

Israel's defense establishment is on alert to the possibility that tensions surrounding Jerusalem's Temple Mount (known to Palestinians as the Al-Aqsa holy site) could resurface and trigger a new outburst of terrorism, just as a seven-month wave of largely unorganized terrorist attacks begins to draw down.
The tensions could well appear again during Passover, when the number of visits by religious Jews to the Temple Mount rises. There is no shortage of elements in the Palestinian arena – from Hamas media outlets to social media users – who will eagerly present such visits as part of an imagined Israeli conspiracy to take over the site.

As a result, Israel's defense establishment has advised the government to prohibit any politicians, from any political party, to further inflame tensions by visiting the site.

Against this background, the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency has quietly thwarted a steady flow of mass-casualty, organized terror plots, planned and orchestrated by Hamas. Any one of these plots could have changed the strategic picture and led to an escalation on multiple fronts had they materialized.
Hamas has been deeply disappointed by the recent decrease in terrorism and by its failure to bypass Shin Bet's intelligence networks.

On April 18, a Palestinian bomb blew up on board a bus in Jerusalem and injured 21 civilians, including, possibly, the bomber himself. A media ban is in place that prevents publication of further details on the investigation.

Israelis watched TV news broadcasts of scenes of a bus in flames and emergency vehicles attending the site with much concern. They had hoped such bombings, which tore through Israeli cities in the dark days of the second Palestinian Intifada 15 years ago, were long behind them.  Unlike 15 years ago, Israel's security forces operate all across the West Bank on a nightly basis to thwart attacks. Yet it only takes one plot to slip through the cracks for the terrorists to achieve their goal.

The bus bombing goes to show the inherently unstable nature of the security situation. On one hand, the number of terror stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks – all part of the unorganized violence – have plummeted in the past two months. On the other, such incidents could soon resurge and be joined by organized, more lethal events.

Fatah's official Facebook account praised the bus attack, but this is only part of the real picture.

Away from the rhetoric, on the ground, the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority has actually improved its security coordination with Israel, and has stopped 20 percent of organized terrorism plots brewing in the West Bank, according to figures cited recently by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon.
A senior Israeli military source said in April that "tensions in Jerusalem, particularly in the context of Al-Aqsa, are there. It characterizes the holiday period. We are going with the working assumption that we will encounter this."

The source described seeing "a lot of orchestrated terror attempts by [the large Palestinian] organizations. We can see many attempts being made on a continuous basis." In West Bank raids, security forces discovered ready-made explosive devices and high-quality assault rifles, like M-16s and Kalashnikovs in the possession of would-be terror cells.

"The numbers [of such attempts] are high," the source said. "But we are very effective. "The Shin Bet is a very significant aspect of this. Although there are attempts, and there is very high motivation [to carry out attacks], we succeed in thwarting them, and they have not been able to reach a situation in which they can really launch a quality attack."

Ten would-be kidnapping terror plots were thwarted since October, the source added.

Israel's defense establishment also is improving in an area that it has, until now, really struggled to deliver results – the ability to pick up warning signs of a lone-wolf attack and stop it in time.

Improved social media analysis, using new big data algorithms, are part of this improvement, defense sources say.

Meanwhile, to the south, the IDF announced this week the detection of a new Hamas cross-border attack tunnel, stretching from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.   It is the first tunnel discovered since the cessation of hostilities in August 2014 between Hamas and Israel and represents the renewed effort by Hamas's military wing to prepare attack options for when war breaks out again.

Hamas views the current ceasefire as a tactical regrouping break. It has no intention of stopping its multi-generational jihad against Israel's very existence, and it views Gaza as its base of operations for this "holy war."

The Hamas military wing, the Izzadin Al-Qassam Brigades, is readying itself for future conflict. It is manufacturing rockets, mortar shells, and digging tunnels for Hamas's elite Nuhba force of 5,000 heavily armed guerilla-terrorists who make up one quarter of all of Hamas's armed members.

The plan was to inject these murder and kidnap squads into southern Israel through tunnels. But Hamas's tunnel tactics are now in trouble. Israel used new technological and intelligence capabilities to detect the new tunnel, and has invested hundreds of millions of shekels in the research and development of new detection systems.  If the IDF's Southern Command can begin to systematically detect tunnels as Hamas digs them, and destroy them, Hamas would find itself wasting treasure and blood (many workers die in tunnel collapses during the construction stage) for very little return. Hamas would lose one of its main investments in its future offensive capabilities.

That frustration could spur Hamas to try even harder to set up cells remotely that sow death and destruction in Israeli cities. Israel's intelligence personnel will continue to work around the clock, away from the headlines and spotlights, to prevent that from happening.

Yaakov Lappin is the Jerusalem Post's military and national security affairs correspondent, and author of The Virtual Caliphate (Potomac Books), which proposes that jihadis on the internet have established a virtual Islamist state.

[Crafty_Dog]

http://www.jpost.com/printarticle.aspx?id=451975

[G M]

http://www.jpost.com/printarticle.aspx?id=451975

Europe isn't, and will not be Israel's friend.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgp2AxpLOok&feature=youtu.be

[Crafty_Dog]

Hamas Caught Smuggling Rocket Material as Israel Considers Re-Opening Gaza Border
by IPT News  •  May 3, 2016 at 11:51 am
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5338/hamas-caught-smuggling-rocket-material-as-israel

 
Israel's Tax Authority says it intercepted roughly four tons of ammonium chloride – enough to produce hundreds of rockets – that were being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.

The chemical was hidden in salt shipments to Gaza early last month which were transported through the Nitzana crossing between Egypt and Israel.
"Ammonium chloride is defined as a dual-use substance and its passage into the Gaza Strip requires a permit since it is liable to be used by Gaza-based terrorist organizations – such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad – in the production of long-range rockets," a Tax Authority statement said.

The Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, believes the salt importer has "ties to the Hamas military wing" and "sought to bring the material into the Strip for use in Hamas's production facilities."

Israeli authorities have thwarted dozens of attempts to smuggle prohibited material into Gaza. This latest interdiction reinforces the fact that Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza continue trying to smuggle material intended for terrorist activities cloaked as goods meant for Gaza's civilians.
Despite deeply concerning smuggling activities, Israel plans to reopen the Erez crossing into Gaza following eight years of closure.

"It is in our interests that a significant amount of truckloads of food continues to go to Gaza...It is our interest that Gazans live in dignity. Both from a humanitarian point of view and because this is a way to protect the peace, in addition to existing security deterrents," a spokesperson for Israel's defense minister Moshe Ya'alon said in a statement.

The Defense Ministry revealed that 513 trucks of humanitarian and commercial goods entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday alone.
Many in the international community demands that Israel open all border crossings and end the blockade of Gaza. Unfortunately, many of the individuals and states pressuring Israel overlook the fact that Gaza's rulers exploit existing border entry points to enhance their terrorist infrastructure at the expense of local reconstruction efforts.

Until Hamas' ceases to prioritize its jihad against Israel over the well-being of its citizens, Palestinians in Gaza will continue to suffer. In the meantime, the overwhelming evidence confirms that Israel is going above and beyond to balance its legitimate security considerations with humanitarian concerns in Gaza.