Archive of the blogs published during the Gaza Carnage crisis, started in December 2008
August 22, 2011
EDITOR: Who is in control?
Over the last few weeks, most people in Israel and the Occupied Territories would have been certain to witness the fast decline in Israel’s options, even when the government seems immune to such understanding, and continues to operate like a damaged automaton.
The days since the attacks on buses and cars en route to Eilat, have brought about the usual knee-jerk bombing of Gaza, but this time Israel is unable to stop the rockets – larger and more accurate than in the past – despite its futuristic armaments and its panopticon of electronic Surveillance devices and aerial means of destruction. It just does not work. From left and right, the usual suspects are challenge for bloodshed and a territorial attacks by ground forces, and the media seems to be even more berserk than some politicians, and term they use is Cast Lead 2.0. Well, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.
Typically, the old dog does not know how to apologise for its brutal bites – neither to Turkey on the Mavi Marmara murders, or to Egypt on its five killed soldiers this week, or to the Israeli population on its socio-economic policy. All they know are the old tricks, and when these fail, they are looking rather lost.
Interestingly, Netanyahu has decided last night, in a special cabinet meeting called for 3.00 AM at short notice, not to start a ground attack on Gaza. The reasons are rather exciting – he and others now see the Hamas as an ally against the activists who have carried out the attacks, belonging to a more radical coalition of small groups. Netanyahu also knows that a ground attack now will achieve exactly nothing, or even worse than nothing – a further isolation of the Israel in the international community, especially before the planned September vote on the Palestinian State at the UN. In the circumstances, and despite the many frenetics in his own party and in the opposition, all calling for such an attack, he has decided to go to a cease-fire with Hamas, and to see if it can be kept. The fear of losing the peace with Egypt must be high on his mind, as Egyptians are in Tahrir again, now against Israel.
While the leopard will not change his spots, especially this leopard, he obviously realises that he has run out of options, especially military ones, unless he wants to actively worsen Israel’s position further in the international arena. This is a new development, which has been prepared by the BDS campaign abroad, and the by the growing realisation in many countries that to support Israel now is just off the scale. Now, this realisation has strted limiting Israel’s options for military massacres substantially.
This is not to say that they can’t or won’t go for another round of mass murder in Gaza; it only means that they do not immediately run for it as the obvious and easy option – it is no longer easy, or safe. What it also means is that the international pressure must be upped and increased, to further guarantee that the options of mass murder become all but impossible. This we all must do!
It is in Israel’s interest not to make the current spasm of violence more extreme, but to act in a proportionate manner while working to find points of consensus that will break the automatic cycle of violence.
The escalation in the south contains all the components that allow a prime minister to do what he pleases without significant opposition. Continued rocket fire on Israel’s cities, a criminal act that should be unequivocably denounced, comes at a heavy cost to the residents of the south, in lives and property. It disrupts normal life in the country and increases pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rain down destruction on Gaza that will restore “deterrence” and “change the equation.”
The pressure comes not only from the right, which traditionally prefers aggressive solutions, or from the inner cabinet or forum of eight senior ministers, whose members mostly represent aggressive worldviews. Even the main opposition party, Kadima, which is supposed to act as a brake and barrier between the government and decisions that might turn out to be Pyrrhic victories, is urging Netanyahu to take advantage of Israel’s military superiority over Hamas and the other organizations that have claimed responsibility for the rockets.
The chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Kadima lawmaker Shaul Mofaz, said yesterday morning: “The state must expand its actions vis-a-vis Hamas and bring down infrastructures,” while Kadima’s deputy chairman, MK Yohanan Plesner, pledged that “the committee will back any move the government makes to restore deterrence vis-a-vis Hamas and the terror organizations.”
For her part, Kadima chairwoman MK Tzipi Livni went even further. She announced on Friday that she would back the Netanyahu government if it undertook a major operation. “Terror must be fought with force,” she said.
The fact that no significant political entity stands between Netanyahu and a reenactment of the violent military operation of 2008, Operation Cast Lead, shows that Kadima, which should be leading the opposition, is not being true to its function. But more importantly, it exposes a political vacuum that lays all responsibility at the doorstep of one person.
Precisely because all options are open to him, and despite his tendency to buckle under to political pressure, the prime minister must use maximum good judgment and restraint.
It is in Israel’s interest not to make the current spasm of violence more extreme, but to act in a proportionate manner while working to find points of consensus that will break the automatic cycle of violence.
IDF soldiers are also protesting… by Carlos Latuff
Hamas reportedly agreed to enforce truce on smaller militant groups in Gaza; cease-fire supposed to have already started.
Israel and the Hamas-rulers of the Gaza Strip have agreed to a cease-fire after five days of cross-border violence, officials said on Monday, after a previously reported truce was not implemented Sunday night.
One official who was involved in mediating talks between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza said the groups had “reached an understanding on a truce and that the truce has started”.
A Palestinian official said Hamas had agreed to enforce the cease-fire on smaller militant groups which were responsible for most of the rockets fired at Israel in the recent surge in violence.
The understandings were reached via Egyptian mediation, Ghazi Hamad, Deputy Foreign Minister for the Hamas administration in the Strip, said.
The radical Popular Resistance Committees, which often act independently of the other Gaza militias, also announced a temporary halt to its rocket fire.
A Hamas official said Sunday that the Gaza-rulers planned on enforcing a cease-fire on Sunday evening at 9 P.M., however 12 rockets have been fired from Gaza toward Israel since then.
Israeli diplomatic sources said earlier Monday that Israel has no desire for an escalation on its southern border, and that the Hamas decision to undertake a cease-fire is a unilateral step which Israel is examining its implementation.
Meanwhile, President Shimon Peres visited the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Monday and said that Israel must respond to the rocket attacks from Gaza, but not in an overly violent manner.
“The situation in Gaza is not simple and we must examine all options,” said Peres. “We were not the ones who opened fire first. Whoever started the escalation must stop it, not us.”
Hamas official quoted as saying a truce had been endorsed by all militant groups, but no official announcement has been made
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, talks to soldiers in Ashkelon. Photograph: Tsafrir Abayov/AP
Efforts to end the cycle of attack and counter-attack between Israel and Gaza have intensified as Egyptian brokers, backed by the United Nations, sought to persuade militant groups to agree to a ceasefire.
A Hamas official was quoted in the Israeli media as saying a truce had been endorsed by all militant groups in the Gaza Strip and would be effective by the end of the day.
But no official announcement was made, and the Popular Resistance Committees – blamed by some Israeli officials for last week’s audacious attack on the Israel-Egypt border – said it would not abide by a ceasefire.
The UN was “actively engaged and supporting Egypt’s important efforts” to restore calm, according to a statement from the office of the UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, who was in Cairo.
Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed the military to continue air strikes in Gaza for as long as rockets were being fired from the territory.
Netanyahu gave orders for the air strikes to be as surgical as possible, telling military chiefs that the militants responsible for the rocket fire were the target, not civilians, his spokesman said.
Despite the claim of precision airstrikes, a 12-year-old boy was seriously injured when an Israeli missile struck a group of children in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Three children have been among the 15 Palestinians killed by the military since Thursday’s bloodshed on the Israel-Egypt border triggered the crisis.
In Ofakim, an Israeli town close to the border with Gaza, a funeral was held for a 38-year-old man killed in nearby Be’er Sheva by a Grad rocket. About 100 rockets have been fired from Gaza since Thursday, most of which have landed on open ground.
Some Israeli politicians called for a more sustained assault on the Gaza Strip. Shaul Mofaz, the chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs and defence committee, said: “Israel must decide: will we continue with this intolerable reality of a war of attrition or will we strive for an unequivocal decision with regards to Hamas, including targeting its leaders and infrastructure with the aim of toppling its reign in Gaza?”
Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, a military spokesman, said Israel had not finished its operations in Gaza and would not hesitate to widen them if necessary.
Israeli officials were also reported to be in Cairo, presumably attempting to ease tensions with Egypt, one of its few allies in the region. Egypt rejected as insufficient a statement of regret from Israel over the deaths of five Egyptian police officers during a battle between Israeli forces and militants along the border last Thursday.
Protesters continued to demonstrate outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo shouting “Death to Israel” and waving Palestinian flags.
The Israeli government sought to link the cross-border attack on Thursday, in which eight Israelis were killed and which it blamed on Gaza militants, to the Palestinians’ bid for statehood at the United Nations next month, which it opposes.
“The Palestinian leadership’s failure to condemn Thursday’s bloody attack raised serious questions as to their readiness for statehood and their commitment to fighting terrorism,” said Mark Regev, the prime minister’s spokesman.
19 AUGUST 2011
Someone in the wild Sinai peninsula took a decision and sent a big, well equipped squad to infiltrate across the border into the Israeli Negev, attack buses and cars and engage in running battles with soldiers and shoot and kill and kill indiscriminately. And presto, in one minute the agenda changed and the public mood changed into a state of emergency and war at the gate and in all communications media there was no more talk of social protests, nothing but terrorism and army and security issues.
It had been a difficult month for Prime Minister Netanyahu – truly, a very hard month. A Prime Minister under siege, caught in a bind. Tent encampments and more tent encampments sprouting up all over the country, demonstrations and protests and more demonstrations. The demands for affordable housing and for Social Justice and for a Welfare State occupy the center stage, and the Free Market economics which Netanyahu had worked so hard to foster since he was Finance Minister are suddenly cast into doubt. What did he not try? He used sticks and he used carrots, he tried to entice the protesters with committees and benefits and rabbits drawn from the hat and he tried to castigate them as Leftists and pampered sushi-eaters, and they went on to protest and demonstrate and extend ever further the tent encampments and get their rallies to the peak of three hundred thousands in Tel Aviv. Just yesterday morning, the protesters arrived at the home of Eyal Gabbai, Nethanyahu’s Chef de Bureau, and he spoke forthrightly and made it clear to them that the Free Market system will not change, and there will be no taxation on the rich and there will be no Welfare State in Israel. And these cheeky youths did not accept these clear clarifications from their government, and just announced that they will increase ever more their protests and demonstrations.
How, how to change the focus and move the public agenda in a different direction? Perhaps finally September will come and the Palestinians will go to the UN and demand to have their state and thus help to distract public opinion in Israel? But the big show at the UN is only due on September 20, how to get through another month until then? Besides, would even that change the tendency of public opinion? What if the Palestinians hold mass demonstrations in late September, without any violence, and demand to have some Social Justice, to be free in their country and no longer live under occupation – would this be enough to change the agenda? It might even get a bit of sympathy among Israelis.
But not all is lost, and relief for the harassed Netanyahu came from the usual quarter, out of the deserts of Sinai came the dramatic initiative to change the Israeli public agenda. And it so happened that Israel’s fine security services had long since prepared a plan to liquidate Gazan leaders which just needed to be put into operation, and now put into operation it was forthwith, and all at once Israel’s Air Force took off for Rafah and made the hit, an instant and huge success, and immediately afterwards could the Prime Minister make a full-blooded patriotic Address to the Nation people over all channels and offer congratulations to the brave soldiers and the valiant pilots and the diligent security operatives and deliver a stern warning to the Palestinians and offer condolences to the bereaved and wish the injured a speedy recovery and how great it felt at last to make a long speech without a single word about social problems, just like in the good old days. And of course, as soon as Gaza was hit, Israelis all over the South knew that the time has come to seek shelter and expect the worst, and indeed the Qassam and Grad rockets were not slow in coming, naturally prompting the Air Force to counter-attack on more Gaza targets and bring on more missiles on Israel the escalation is mutually escalating – and who would now dare demand a cut the in the defense budget in order to promote social causes?
But what the social protest activists do now in their tent encampments? Would they quietly yield to the changed agenda and meekly disappear from the scene? If that’s what Netanyahu is counting on, he should think again.
When the neighbors’ actions are motivated by honor, rather than by their interests, with Israeli arrogance, we call this ‘Arab honor.’
By Akiva Eldar
One can only hope that the prime minister will not ask his deputy, Moshe Ya’alon, to settle the dispute with Egypt in the wake of the incident in the south. According to Ya’alon’s doctrine of international relations, under which “honor is a national asset,” Cairo should be consigned to hell. Just as in the matter of the refusal to apologize to the Turks, standing tall and marching in the direction of lowering the level of diplomatic relations with the largest Arab country will without a doubt raise Israel’s prestige in Washington and in Paris, and will deter Damascus and Tehran. When the neighbors’ actions are motivated by honor, rather than by their interests, with Israeli arrogance, we call this “Arab honor.”
The encounter between the Egyptians’ prestige and the Israeli leadership’s arrogance ignited the big blaze in October 1973. Egypt’s honor required erasing the insult of the loss of the Sinai Peninsula, and then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s arrogance shut her ears to the peace signals from the late Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat. The thousands of victims exacted by that war did not succeed in curing the Israelis of the curse of arrogance. It sticks its nose up so high that it blocks the view around the corner – until the next violent clash.
The protest by the hundreds of Egyptians who are surrounding the Israeli Embassy in Cairo was not born during this past week. For decades, they have been watching Jewish settlers stealing lands that belong to Arabs, with the permission and the blessing of the government of Israel. All these years, the Arab commentators have been reminding the newspaper readers in the Arab countries that the Israelis deceived the Egyptians at Camp David in ignoring the Palestinian chapter in the agreement. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is threatening to revoke the Oslo agreement. It is a wonder he is not threatening to revoke the peace agreement with Egypt.
Two weeks ago, viewers of Al Jazeera watched Deputy Knesset Speaker Danny Danon, of the ruling party in Israel, declare the Jewish people’s right to all of the land of Israel, and to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank ) in particular. Danon, who was introduced by his title of World Likud Chairman, asserted that the idea of two states to the west of the Jordan River was utter nonsense.
On the weekend, the Arabs learned that Danon, Lieberman and company are not alone. With a wave of arrogance, MK Shelly Yachimovich, who is vying for the Labor Party crown, granted a social-democratic certificate of kashrut to the settlements and their products. The young colleagues among the social revolutionaries of Rothschild Square, who are demanding social justice, are not evincing interest in the appalling lack of justice towards the Palestinian neighbors.
And this is not all. On Wednesday Israeli public figures will participate in a demonstration of support for Israel, moderated by Glenn Beck, the American preacher-broadcaster who recently declared that Jordan is Palestine. The event, of course, will take place with a mass audience and with television crews in East Jerusalem at the foot of the Temple Mount / Al Aqsa Mosque.
Cabinet ministers, among them Deputy Prime Minister Ya’alon, and Knesset members, among them MK Anat Wilf of Atzmaut, until lately of the Labor Party, alongside Kahanist MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union ) have stood in line to have their pictures taken in the company of the extremist broadcaster who is one of the biggest haters of U.S. President Barack Obama.
They have from whom to learn. Just a short time ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a display from the podium of the House of Representatives of arrogance towards the (short-term, in his opinion ) tenant of the White House. The encounter between Israeli arrogance (and its sister, euphoria ) and ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s duplicitous policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict facilitated maintaining relations with Egypt, as though there were no occupation in the territories, and maintaining the occupation as though there were no Camp David agreement.
The channel between Cairo and Jerusalem remained open even after Netanyahu, in his arrogance, appointed as his foreign minister a politician who holds the patent on the proposal to bomb the Aswan Dam. The new Egyptian government’s fear of the reaction by the United State has kept the Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv – for now.
This time, the Israeli arrogance is encountering the honor of an Arab street that is undermining the old order. When they see on television Israeli soldiers fighting Arab children on the day after the declaration of a Palestinian state in the UN, the dissidents in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria and Libya will not be cracking sunflower seeds in front of the television. I hope I will be proven wrong.
It is likely, some say, that Egyptian-Israeli relations will not be upturned by the killing of five Egyptian soldiers last week, but the reaction of the public shows Tel Aviv that there is a new Egypt after Mubarak
Dina Ezzat , Sunday 21 Aug 2011
Hundreds of Egyptians protested against the deaths of Egyptian security forces killed in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants on Thursday in the Sinai. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
A senior Israeli general arrived to Cairo today for talks with Egyptian officials, including senior members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). in an attempt to contain the crisis that erupted over the killing of five Egyptian soldiers on the border with Israel Thursday, while Israeli forces were pursuing alleged militants, according to official Egyptian sources.
“He arrived following telephone calls between Cairo and Tel Aviv yesterday with a message from the Israeli ministry of defense and the office of the prime minister,” said one official. Another official said that the “purpose of the visit is to contain the crisis”. He added that Israel was not expecting such widespread anger on the part of Egyptians.
The killing of the Egyptian soldiers Thursday is not an incident without precedent. During the past five years there were a number similar incidents reported and others that went unreported. However, according to Egyptian officials who followed such matters during that time, there was a clear state directive to immediately contain any incident and not report it in the press.
This is the first such incident after the 25 January Revolution, according to one Egyptian official. “The Israelis might not have expected the same reaction as they used to have during the years of (ousted president Hosni) Mubarak, but they certainly did not expect masses of angry Egyptians to surround their embassy in Cairo and to take down the Israeli flag,” he said.
A source at the Office of the Prime Minister in Tel Aviv said that Israel is acting to accommodate an Egyptian demand to publicly express regret for the attack and to conduct a prompt investigation. According to this source, Cairo suspended a decision to summon its ambassador in Tel Aviv for consultations scheduled today following a statement from the Israeli ministry of defense expressing “sorrow” over the killing of Egyptian soldiers. He added that Cairo is still expecting a more elaborate position with regards to the investigation.
There are many accounts of what really happened Thursday night on the border between Egypt and Israel, according to different sources. Some suggest that Israel deliberately violated the border to target the soldiers in a sign of anger over what Tel Aviv says is unsatisfactory management of border security on the Egyptian side. Another account suggests the killings were due to an error by Israeli forces during its attack on Gaza. A third account suggests that the killings occurred while Israeli soldiers were pursuing suspected militants into Egyptian territories.
Egypt today is putting emphasis on a joint investigation. It is also demanding a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister in Israel to the effect of commiting to better regulate Israeli operations near the border in the future. “If we get an adequate reaction that we find satisfactory we might reconsider summoning our ambassador. At this point the decision is pending and not cancelled,” the same source said.
The US, Egyptian sources say, was influential in trying to contain the crisis. On the one hand, Washington in so many words put onus on Egypt for failing to control the smuggling of weapons and infiltration of individuals from Egyptian territories into Gaza in a way that the US perceives as threatening to Israeli security. This satisfied Tel Aviv. On the other hand, Washington pressed Israel to issue the ministry of defense statement as a kind of accommodation to Cairo.
Meanwhile, potential presidential candidates have all but agreed on the need for a firm position from SCAF towards Israel. Presidential hopefuls Amr Moussa, Hadmine Sabahi and Hesham Bastawissy have called on SCAF to recall the Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv. “Whatever happens he has to be recalled, and he needs to go back to Tel Aviv with a clear message that the practices of the past are no longer tolerated by Egypt; it is a matter of dignity,” Moussa said in press statements made Friday.
A source at the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv said Saturday evening that the ambassador knows he might have to go back to Cairo for consultations, but that no flight booking has been made. Yasser Reda, Egypt’s ambassador in Tel Aviv, has not been reachable on his mobile phone, despite several attempts by Ahram Online to contact him.
“At the end of the day the matter will be contained and Egyptian-Israeli relations will resume their regular course in a few weeks. But the events of the past few days will give Israel a clear message that things are changing in Cairo,” said a retired Egyptian diplomat who served in Israel.
He added that during the last few years the political choices of Cairo made Tel Aviv think that Egypt is to be taken for granted. “Now they know that this is no longer the case, despite the continued commitment to the peace treaty that I think would never be shaken, no matter who rules Egypt.”
The last time Egypt recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv was during an Israeli attack on Gaza in 2000. “At the time it required Amr Moussa (then the foreign minister) to press very strongly to convince the (ousted) president (Mubarak) to agree to this move,” said a former assistant to the foreign minister at the time. He added that Mubarak was always opposed “in principal” to the idea of summoning Egypt’s ambassador for consultations. “He believed it rocked the boat and he hated rocking the boat, but now Israel needs to know that if it rocks the boat, Egypt will react with no hesitation; and if this incident goes with a mild reaction from Cairo then you should expect more Israeli violations”.
Netanyahu calls special security cabinet meeting to discuss IDF response to rocket fire, Hamas implementation of truce; Israel to try to refrain from escalating situation in the south.
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip continued to fire rockets at southern Israel overnight Sunday and into Monday morning, despite the Hamas rulers’ declaration of a cease-fire the prior evening.
The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two of rockets fired toward Ashkelon. A Qassam rocket and volley of mortar shells were fired toward the Eshkol Regional Council near the Gaza border; one of the one mortars struck a building and caued minor damage. No one was hurt in the rocket fire overnight Sunday.
A total of 12 rockets were fired toward Israel after Hamas’ declared cease-fire went into effect at 9 P.M. on Sunday evening.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a special meeting of Israel’s security cabinet until 3 A.M. on Sunday to discuss the situation in Gaza. During the hour-long session, the ministers discussed the possibilities of an Israeli response to the rocket fire from Gaza, as well as Hamas’ declaration of a cease-fire.
Despite the continued rocket fire, it seems that the Israel Defense Forces will refrain from escalating the situation in the south, and Israel will continue examining Hamas’ implementation of the cease-fire.
MAD ISRAELIS
From the Horse’s Mouth: Genuine voices of Israeli loonies
Well, if you wondered why the trouble in the Middle East flared up again, all you need is to read on…
Lithuanian Orthodox rabbis link summer vacation in yeshivot to terror offensive on Egypt border, rocket attacks in southern Israel
Senior Lithuanian Orthodox rabbis have responded to the recent escalation in southern Israel, calling on the public to engage in Torah studies.
Under Attack
Miracle in synagogue: Grad fails to explode / Ynet reporters
Yeshiva students say prayer saved their lives as Ashdod shul attacked
Full story
The religious leaders share the same opinion on the reason for the events: The drop in Torah studies during the “Bein Hazmanim” period – the summer vacation in Orthodox yeshivot which began on Tisha B’Av.
After hearing about the terror offensive near Eilat, the ongoing rocket attacks on southern Israel and the death of nine Israelis since Thursday, Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, said that “we are being struck by these disasters because of our sins. We lack the privilege of the Torah, which defends and saves us.”
‘Torah studies to bring calmer period’
A synagogue in a haredi neighborhood in Ashdod was hit by a rocket Friday. Rabbi Edelstein called on his yeshiva students to increase their Torah studies and pray for the people of Israel.
“The lack of Torah studies among yeshiva students is especially felt on these days, the period of ‘Bein Hazmanim’. We, the children of the Torah, who do not pick the tools of war, are each committed to increase our Torah studies, and will be protected by God as a result.”
Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, one of the most prominent Lithuanian Orthodox leaders, said in response to the recent events that “the ‘Bein Hazmanim’ days are a dangerous period as people don’t study Torah. Torah studies will lead to a calmer situation.”
According to the rabbi’s associates, before “Bein Hazmanim” Shteinman said that “we must pray that no disasters take place during ‘Bein Hazmanim,'” adding that he feared “dangers may come” due to the lack of Torah studies throughout this period.
