Chanuka Comes to Life

Moshe Feiglin [center] led a prayer group on the Temple Mount, the same place the Maccabees liberated from the Syrian-Greeks in the Chanuka story.  Few know that Jews have not been allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, bowing to Muslim sensibilities.

Feiglin Prays on Temple Mount -Yori Yanover

Moshe Feiglin, who made the number 14 spot on the Likud Knesset list, managed to surprise many yet again when he showed up on Temple Mount with a minyan and conducted a prayer service.

For years, Israeli governments, police and, naturally, the Arab Waqf, have been preventing Jews visiting Temple Mount, warning that such an attempt on the part of Jews...would surely start never-before-seen riots.

[D]espite those apocalyptic warnings, there are no actual laws on the books explicitly prohibiting prayer – because that would be a blatant violation of several Geneva conventions and UN human rights declarations. And so the prohibitions against Jews praying at the site hide behind ordinances against disorderly conduct, with the cops on the spot empowered to interpret the rules as they see fit.
[The Jewish Press]
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Egypt's President Flees Protestors

An Egyptian protestor at the Presidential Palace, from which Morsi fled

Egypt's President Returns to Cairo Palace after Mass Protest

An Egyptian official says President Mohammed Morsi has returned to his Cairo palace, a day after he left it through a back gate as tens of thousands of angry protesters besieged the complex demanding he rescind decrees giving him sweeping powers.

About 300 opposition supporters are camped out in front of the palace's main gate. The president's Nov. 22 decrees and the adoption by his allies of a controversial draft constitution have plunged Egypt into its worst political crisis since president Hosni Mubarak's overthrow.
(AP-Washington Post)
[Photo Hat Tip: Pamela G]
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Nir Barkat on Jerusalem Building

Jerusalem Mayor: "I Don't Know of Any City in the World Whose Regulator Is the U.S. President"
-Yori Yalon & Hezi Sternlicht

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat [pictured] expressed support for the government's plan to build 3,000 additional housing units in the E1 section between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim. "We need to connect the E1 area to Jerusalem without any reservations at all, even with the world pressuring us not to do so....I don't know of any city in the world whose regulator is the U.S. president."

"When the world talks about a freeze in Jerusalem, I ask, a freeze on what? On the billions we invest in east Jerusalem? Should we stop construction for Arabs, Christians or Jews? Or does someone mean that when an entrepreneur approaches me, I should, heaven forbid, ask him what religion he subscribes to so he can receive a permit to build in Jerusalem? That would be horrendous and it negates even U.S. law."
(Israel Hayom)


Much Ado about Little: The E-1 Controversy -Elliott Abrams

The Netanyahu government has been criticized for planning to build housing in the area known as E-1 - the space between Jerusalem and the city of Ma'ale Adumim (pop. 40,000).

The Israeli security argument is simple: it is impossible to have Ma'ale Adumim connected to Jerusalem only by one road because that road can all too easily be blocked and communication between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim (and beyond to the Jordan Valley and border) cut off. This argument has persuaded all Israeli prime ministers who have faced the question, starting with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.

Construction in the major blocs and in Jerusalem is hardly a surprise, and does not differ from the policy of Israel's previous government under Prime Minister Olmert. The deal reached between the Bush Administration and the government of Prime Minister Sharon in 2004 was to permit construction of additional housing units inside the major blocs. The current decision fits easily within those terms.
(Council on Foreign Relations)
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Hillary Strikes Out

Hillary Clinton at Saban

Driving in Neutral: Hillary Clinton Explains the Israel-Palestinian Conflict
-Barry Rubin, PhD

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s said some very interesting and revealing things in her appearance at the Saban Center’s gala dinner, November 30. They are, however, being quoted out of context. Let’s look at what she actually said in some detail for a sense of how the Obama Administration's highest-ranking foreign policy official and a future presidential candidate thinks about this issue.

[She stated:]

“Now, would it have been a perfectly acceptable outcome for every Israeli and every Palestinian? No. No compromise ever is. But there were moments of opportunity. And I will also say this. When Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to a 10-month settlement freeze I flew to Jerusalem. We’d been working on this. George Mitchell had been taking the lead on it. And when Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to a 10-month settlement freeze, it wasn’t perfect. It didn’t cover East Jerusalem, but it covered much of the contested area in the West Bank.”

There’s something important in this passage that no one has noticed. For the first time ever, Clinton publicly and explicitly acknowledged that the freeze did not cover East Jerusalem. Why, then, did Vice-President Joe Biden throw a temper tantrum when an Israeli zoning board cleared some future construction there? At the time, the U.S. government repeatedly implied that Israel violated the agreement, which it didn’t. Now Clinton admits that.

 

Incidentally, the Obama Administration did nothing when the Palestinian Authority refused to negotiate seriously despite the freeze on construction.

 

[She continued:]
“I’m not making excuses for the missed opportunities of the Israelis, or the lack of generosity, the lack of empathy that I think goes hand-in-hand with the suspicion. So, yes, there is more that the Israelis need to do to really demonstrate that they do understand the pain of an oppressed people in their minds, and they want to figure out, within the bounds of security and a Jewish democratic state, what can be accomplished.”

 

She [made] four points [in the above statement]:
 

1. Israelis have missed opportunities. Really, like what? If she’s aware of real ones Clinton can provide examples but while it is easy to list two dozen Palestinian missed opportunities—i.e., Israel was ready for real peace and they weren’t—the effort to provide some opposite example always turns out to be illusory.

2. Lack of generosity: This is shameful. First of all, since when is generosity an international diplomatic norm? Against what other country or people would she dare make such a statement?

But in fact Israel has been generous. It has freed large numbers of Palestinian prisoners to get back kidnapped Israelis; it let around 200,000 Palestinians come to the territories after 1993; it has used much less force than it might have; it has largely ignored continuous incitement against itself and not responded in kind. The list is a long one...

 

3. Lack of empathy: This is really low on Clinton’s part. In schools, Israeli kids learn about Palestinian grievances. Israel television showed a multi-part history documentary that showed the Palestinian viewpoint. In Israeli newspapers, and every other medium Palestinians are interviewed and an honest attempt is made to portray their standpoint.

Every Israeli leader, except those on the right-wing fringe, is perfectly aware of the Palestinian case and complaints. To cite only one example, Ehud Barak once said that if had been a Palestinians he would have been a fighter in Fatah. No country in modern history has shown more empathy to its enemies. Can anyone cite a single example—a speech, an article—on the Palestinian side that has shown any shred of empathy?

 

4. Finally, “oppressed people” and this is the most important point. If the Palestinians are an oppressed people who is oppressing them? Here we see how the Obama Administration has, at best, accepted the European version of the anti-Israel narrative. If the Palestinians keep turning down peace offers how is Israel responsible for their “oppression”?

If they are oppressed it is by their own leaders. And once you have “the pain of an oppressed people” it is a short step toward believing that terrorism and intransigence is just an expression of that pain, rather than the cause of it.

 

What is objectionable is not that she criticizes Israel—but the criticisms she makes. They all fall into the current dominant Western view that the world’s problems are caused by greedy, aggressive, unempathetic white people who oppress everyone else. Implied here is that the only solution is that such people take risks, make unilateral concessions, pay money, and continually apologize for their sins. And that’s a formula for disaster.

[Rubin Reports]

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VideoBite: Cartoon Summary of MidEast Conflict

The Middle East conflict explained through school bullying

Radical Islam's Achilles' Heel

Christian Persecution Is Islam's Achilles' Heel -Raymond Ibrahim

Which of the following three headlines is most difficult for the media—including the usual array of liberal pundits, apologists, academics, and politicians—to whitewash or rationalize away? Which most exposes Islam's inherent intolerance?

A) "Allahu Akbar" screaming Muslims fire rockets into Israel
B) "Allahu Akbar" screaming Muslims riot and commit acts of violence in Europe
C) "Allahu Akbar" screaming Muslims torch a Christian church in a Muslim country

The answer is C—Christian persecution.

Why?

Because in both scenarios A and B, Muslims will always be portrayed and seen as the "underdogs"—and hence always exonerated for their behavior. No matter how violent or ugly, no matter how many Islamic slogans are shrieked—thus placing their behavior in a purely Islamic context—Muslim violence against the West and Israel will always be dismissed as a product of the weak and outnumbered status of Muslims—their status as underdogs, which the West tends to romanticize. And so they will always get a free pass, without further ado.

[But] Christian persecution is one of, if not the clearest reflections of Islamic supremacism. Vastly outnumbered and politically marginalized Christians simply wish to worship in peace, and yet still are they hounded and attacked, their churches burned and destroyed, their women and children enslaved and raped (see monthly "Muslim Persecution of Christians" reports for an example).

These Christians are often identical to their Muslim co-citizens, in race, ethnicity, national identity, culture, and language; there is no political dispute, no land dispute. The only problem is that they are Christian—they are the other—and so must be subjugated, according to Sharia's position for all "others," for all infidels—including Israel and the West.

Such is the true nature of Muslim rage throughout the world: it is a byproduct of doctrinal intolerance if not downright hatred for the other, who must always be kept in a state of subjugation and humiliation, according to the letter of the Quran.
[Front Page Magazine]
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Stevie Wonder Caves to Israel Boycott

Pop star stands on the “wrong side” of history -Rabbi Shraga Simmons

R&B sensation Stevie Wonder backed out of his commitment to perform at this week’s gala in Los Angeles to benefit the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.

Friends of the IDF is an independent, non-political, non-profit organization that provides assistance to wounded Israeli soldiers, scholarships for those from poor families, and summer camps for widows and orphans of those killed in the line of duty. Sounds like a wonderful humanitarian cause, right? Enter the BDS movement, whose sole purpose is to pressure entertainers and business people from having anything to do with the State of Israel.

In the case of Stevie Wonder, the pressure came in the form of an online petition that appealed on the basis of “humanitarian” grounds: Since Wonder opposed South African Apartheid, he must now oppose the IDF which, according to the petition, "promotes, enables, and protects Israel's Apartheid regime." It took only 3,600 signatures for Wonder to cancel his appearance, on the thin pretext that it somehow conflicted with his ceremonial role as a U.N. "Messenger of Peace.”

If Wonder was a true ambassador of peace, he would have stood firm in support of an organization dedicated to assisting injured personnel and bereaved families.

Though Friends of the IDF has no connection to military activities, the media once again got the story wrong, posting headlines such as “Stevie Wonder Cancels Gig for Israeli Military” (The Times of London) and the widely circulated Associated Press report declaring that Wonder called off a concert “for a group that raises money for the Israeli military.”
[Aish HaTorah]
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Smokescreen

Israeli settlements continue to act as a convenient smokescreen to hide Palestinian intransigence

After UN Vote, Israel Approves New Housing -Itamar Eichner

In response to the Palestinian move at the UN, Israel decided to approve the construction of an additional 3,000 housing units in Jerusalem and the West Bank. In addition, planning will be furthered for the E1 project connecting Ma'ale Adumim with Jerusalem.
(Ynet News)


Israel to Use Tax Funds to Pay PA's Electricity Bill -Omri Efraim

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz stated that the tax payments collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority this month would be used to offset the Palestinian debt to the Israel Electric Corporation.

Steinitz added that the decision to further construction on the E1 segment was made "because it's time to connect Ma'ale Adumim with Jerusalem. It should have happened a long time ago. We made it clear to the Americans that if the Palestinians go to the UN, this will be our response."
(Ynet News)


The Palestine Mirage: UN Gesture Violates Oslo Accords -Editorial

In effect, the General Assembly voted to violate the 1993 Oslo Accords, which are the legal basis for Abbas' Palestinian Authority and require negotiations with Israel to create a state. Somebody needs to send Abbas the message that there's a price to be paid for flouting his agreements with Israel and ignoring the pleas of the Administration.

The tragedy of Thursday's vote is that it will only encourage Palestinians to remain in their make-believe world.
(Wall Street Journal)


Government Okayed Planning, Not Building -Herb Keinon

The Israeli government gave a green light to zoning and planning in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, but not to actual construction there,
Prime Minister Netanyahu clarified Sunday.
    
Netanyahu seemed to signal to the Palestinians that if they go further with the type of unilateral actions they took at the UN, Israel would indeed build in E1.
    
Netanyahu also said the 3,000 housing units authorized would be built in communities in the large settlement blocs, as well as in post-1967 neighborhoods in the capital, Jerusalem.
(Jerusalem Post)


Ma'ale Adumim Mayor Hopeful -Tovah Lazaroff

Ma'ale Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel was hopeful that after 18 years the Israeli government might be finally ready to authorize construction in an area of his West Bank city known as E1.
    
Former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin first promised Kashriel that he could build there in 1994, Kashriel said. E1 is located on state land and there are no Palestinian homes on it.

Kashriel added that it would become part of Israel in any final status agreement with the Palestinians.
(Jerusalem Post)


The Logic of E1 -Editorial
   
Despite claims to the contrary, building in E1 would not necessarily undermine the contiguity of a future Palestinian state. An access road could easily allow Palestinian traffic from the south and north to pass east of Ma'ale Adumim.
(Jerusalem Post)


Legal Implications of UN Resolution -Alan M. Dershowitz

The General Assembly vote declaring that Palestine, within the pre-1967 borders, is a "state" would have nasty legal implications if it were ever to be taken seriously by the international community. It would mean that Israel is illegally occupying the Western Wall (Judaism's holiest site), the Jewish Quarter of old Jerusalem (where Jews have lived for thousands of years), the access road to the Hebrew University and other areas necessary to the security of its citizens.
    
It would also mean that Security Council Resolution 242, whose purpose was to allow Israel to hold onto some of the territories captured during its defensive 1967 war, would be overruled by a General Assembly vote - something the UN Charter explicitly forbids. It would be the first time in history that a nation was required to return all land lawfully captured in a defensive war. 
(Gatestone Institute)
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UPDATES:

Israel Refuses to Rescind Settlement Decision -Herb Keinon

One government official slammed what he said was Europe's disproportionate response. The official asked where the EU's outrage was when PA President Mahmoud Abbas praised Hamas' launching of rockets on Israeli civilian targets, or when he accused Israel of tunneling under the Temple Mount to destroy the Aksa Mosque or when he denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem. The source described Israel's move as a "proportionate and measured" response to Abbas' support of Hamas rockets on Israel, the UN move, and his hate-filled speech in the UN.
(Jerusalem Post)
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Sources: U.S. Behind European Protest Measures -Attila Somfalvi

The U.S. was behind the summoning of Israeli ambassadors by several European nations over settlement construction, Israeli sources said Monday. "The European move is essentially an American move," one official said. "The Brits asked the Americans how to act."
(Ynet News)
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Israeli Settlements' Legal Basis -Alan Baker

The oft-used term "occupied Palestinian territories" has no basis whatsoever in law or fact. The territories are neither occupied nor are they Palestinian. No legal determination has ever been made as to their sovereignty, and by agreement between Israel and the PLO, they are no more than "disputed" pending a negotiated solution, with both sides claiming rights to the territory. Israel has nevertheless committed itself to negotiate the fate of the area with the Palestinians.

As long as settlements do not violate local Palestinian private property rights, and as long as the issue of the fate of the areas remains a negotiating issue, there is no legal basis for preventing continued settlement, pending the outcome of the final status negotiations.
The writer, legal adviser to the Israeli Foreign Ministry from 1996 to 2004, participated in the negotiation and drafting of agreements and peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinians.
(USA Today)
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Arafat: The Symbol of What?

Exhuming Yasser Arafat -Jonathan Kay 

The body of PA leader Yasser Arafat was exhumed as part of a dubious campaign to determine his cause of death.
    
By the time he died in 2004, many Israelis simply didn't care that much about Arafat - who had become haggard, agitated, and increasingly irrelevant to Palestinian politics.
    
He had gambled and lost in the second intifada, and it is doubtful that Israel would have risked international censure and humiliation by killing this aging terrorist.
    
The sight of Arafat's exhumation provides an apt symbol of the backward-looking obsessions that define the Palestinian condition. The Palestinian people he once led remain prisoners of their hatred of the Jewish state.  
(National Post-Canada)


UN Votes to Recognize Palestine -C. Lynch & Joel Greenberg

The UN General Assembly voted 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions, to recognize Palestine as a "non-member observer state," a status that falls well short of independence.
(Washington Post)


The "Palestine" Vote at the UN -Elliott Abrams

Moves in the International Criminal Court will gain Abbas one day's notice, but two can play the same game: Israel can ask why "Palestine" is committing acts of aggression against it week after week with rockets out of Gaza, which the PA claims as part of its sovereign territory.
(Council on Foreign Relations)


How Not to Create Palestine -Yossi Klein Halevi

No stateless people has rejected offers of statehood as often as the Palestinians. And no other national movement seeks to empower its people on the ruins of another people's state. Instead of forcing Palestinian leaders to face reality and negotiate with Israel in good faith, the international community encourages Palestinian fantasies, such as Abbas' latest initiative at the UN.
(Globe and Mail-Canada)


Falling for Hamas' Media Manipulation -Michael Oren

Media also emphasize the disparity between the number of Palestinian and Israeli deaths, as though Israel should be penalized for investing billions of dollars in civil-defense and early-warning systems and Hamas exonerated for investing in bombs rather than bomb shelters.
    
The imbalance is also of language. "Hamas health officials said 45 had been killed and 385 wounded," the New York Times' front page reported."Three Israeli civilians have died and 63 have been injured."

The subtext is clear: Israel targets Palestinians, and Israelis merely die.
The writer is Israel's ambassador to the U.S. 
(Washington Post)
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Cartoon To "Celebrate" the UN Vote on "Palestine"

A cartoon worth a thousand words

Abbas' UN Gambit Will Not Bring Peace -Gilead Sher & Amos Yadlin

On November 29, the PLO under PA President Mahmoud Abbas is likely to request a UN vote on international recognition of Palestine as a "non-member state," and is expected to win a majority.
(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
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UPDATES:


Today Could Have Been Palestine's 65th Birthday -Irwin Cotler

Nov. 29 marks the 65th anniversary of the UN Partition Resolution of 1947 - the first-ever blueprint for an Israeli-Palestinian "two states for two peoples" solution.
    
While Jewish leaders accepted the resolution, Arab and Palestinian leaders did not, launching a war of aggression against the nascent Jewish state.
    
Had the UN Partition Resolution been accepted, there would have been no 1948 Arab- Israeli war, no refugees, and none of the pain and suffering of these past 65 years.
    
Indeed, today's date could have been a day commemorating the 65th anniversary of the establishment of both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine.
The writer is the former Minister of Justice of Canada.
(Ha'aretz)

UN Palestine Vote Is "Diplomatic Theater"  -Isabel Kershner

"Ultimately, what we will see at the United Nations is diplomatic theater," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli government. 
(New York Times)


What Will Palestinians Do After the UN Vote? -Editorial

Progress will require Palestinian leaders who are willing to do more than lob rockets at Israel - or submit pointless petitions to the UN.
(Washington Post)


Palestine's Muddled Statehood Strategy -Robert M. Danin

President Obama has urged the Palestinians for over a year not to push a vote at the UN. Abbas clearly and inauspiciously rebuffed him in a gesture that will no doubt figure into Obama's calculations for his upcoming Middle East policies.
(Council on Foreign Relations)


Accomplices in a Campaign to Annihilate a UN Member -Shlomo Slonim

Once a Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders - including part of Jerusalem - is endorsed by international bodies dominated by automatic majorities, Israel's presence in the territories is further delegitimized and its self-defensive measures can be discredited. Israel could then be charged with occupying the territory of a foreign state.

Abbas' goal is not to create a Palestinian state living peacefully side by side with Israel, but to replace Israel.
(Jerusalem Post)
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Woman Saves Her Family from Terrorist

Woman Singlehandedly Drives Terrorist Away -Ilana Curiel

Yael Re-em-Matzpun [pictured above with scars], 39, a resident of Sde Avraham in southern Israel, managed to chase out a Palestinian who broke into her home and threatened her with a knife and an iron rod.

She struggled with him inside the house at 4 a.m., singlehandedly protecting her four children.

Yael's father, Danny Matzpun, told Ynet: "She pushed him into the bathroom and blocked the door using one of the kids' beds. She hurt herself during the struggle; he leaned against her and stabbed her in the face and the shoulder."

The assailant then climbed out a window and ran away, before he was caught [and killed] by security forces two km. from the scene.
(Ynet News)
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Pastrami & The Gaza War

Pastrami -Etgar Keret

The air-raid siren catches us on the highway. My wife, Shira, pulls over to the side of the road and we get out of the car. Lev holds my hand; he's seven. Following Home Front Command instructions, Shira lies down on the side of the road. I tell Lev that he has to lie down, too. But he keeps standing there.
   
"Lie down already," Shira says, raising her voice to be heard over the blaring siren. "How'd you like to play a game of Pastrami Sandwich?" I ask Lev. "What's that?" he asks, not letting go of my hand. "Mommy and I are slices of bread," I explain, "and you're a slice of pastrami, and we have to make a pastrami sandwich as fast as we can." 
The author is a well-known Israeli writer.
(New Yorker)


Why was there war in Gaza? -Charles Krauthammer

Seven years ago, in front of the world, Israel pulled out of Gaza. It dismantled every settlement, withdrew every soldier, evacuated every Jew, leaving nothing and no one behind. Except for the greenhouses in which the settlers had grown fruit and flowers for export. These were left intact to help Gaza’s economy — only to be trashed when the Palestinians took over.
 
Israel then declared its border with Gaza to be an international frontier, meaning that it renounced any claim to the territory and considered it an independent entity.

In effect, Israel had created the first Palestinian state ever, something never granted by fellow Muslims — neither the Ottoman Turks nor the Egyptians who brutally occupied Gaza for two decades before being driven out by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

It gave the land. It got no peace.

Israel has once again succeeded in defending itself. But, yet again, only until the next round, which, as the night follows the day, will come. Hamas will see to that.
[The Washington Post]


Iran Escalates Executions and Amputations -Hugh Tomlinson   

Iran has increased the number of public executions and amputations it carries out, taking advantage of the international focus on Gaza to reduce prison overcrowding.
   
At least 81 people have been hanged in the past ten days. "Every time the international community's attention is elsewhere we see a spike in executions across Iran," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam from Iran Human Rights.       
(Times-UK)


For Israel, Gaza Conflict Is Test for an Iran Confrontation -David E. Sanger & Thom Shanker

Michael B. Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and a military historian, noted: "In the Cuban missile crisis, the U.S. was not confronting Cuba, but rather the Soviet Union." In the Gaza operation, "Israel was not confronting Gaza, but Iran."
(New York Times)


Israel's Iron Dome Shield

Israel's five Iron Dome batteries shot down 421 rockets launched from Gaza. The military put Iron Dome's success rate at 90%. To lower costs, the system engages only rockets that threaten populated areas. Israel says it needs 13 batteries for satisfactory nationwide defense. 
(Reuters-NBC News)


Israel Arrests Hamas, Islamic Jihad Cell Behind Tel Aviv Bus Bomb -Gili Cohen

Israeli security forces apprehended the perpetrators of a bombing attack on a Tel Aviv bus that wounded at least 30 people. Operatives linked to Hamas and Islamic Jihad admitted in their interrogation to preparing the bomb used in the attack, as well as purchasing the cell phone used to remotely detonate the device.
(Ha'aretz)


Will Israel Take the PA to the International Criminal Court? -Herb Keinon

 [D]uring the height of the Gaza crisis, Netanyahu, during numerous talks he held with various world leaders, asked his interlocutors why they were not calling on Abbas to stop the rockets from Gaza. "They would tell him to 'get serious,' and that Abbas has no control, to which Netanyahu would reply, 'So what is all the talk about statehood recognition at the UN,'" one government source said. The idea was to demonstrate how divorced from reality the whole UN proposal was.

The source asked, "If the Palestinians go to the UN and get recognition, next time there is a rocket attack from Gaza, why can't we attack Ramallah, and why can't we take them to the International Criminal Court and accuse them of war crimes?"
(Jerusalem Post)


Hamas' Gaza Victory -Editorial

Regarding America's war in Vietnam, Henry Kissinger once noted that "the guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win." Regarding Israel's latest war against Hamas in Gaza, the same considerations apply.
    
The leaders of Hamas understand that they have emerged politically intact and strategically stronger after eight days of inconclusive fighting. The terrorist group fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel - forcing millions of Israelis into bunkers and bomb shelters - but suffered no decisive military defeat.

Israel lives in a bad neighborhood that has become more dangerous since the Arab Spring. Israel has at least degraded Hamas' ability to attack if there is a war with Iran next year.
(Wall Street Journal)


Is Israel's Gaza Campaign Laying the Groundwork for an Attack on Iran?
-Moran Stern

In October a mysterious blast occurred at the Yarmouk military base on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Yarmouk was a base camp to receive arms shipments from Iran that were smuggled to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Satellite images indicate that the bombing of Yarmouk was executed from the air. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) is the only one in the region with the capabilities to execute such a strike.

The operation in Sudan sent two clear messages to Tehran: First, that Israeli intelligence follows Iran's whereabouts in the region. Second, if the IAF can safely reach and destroy a target some 1,120 miles from Israel, it can make the 1,000-mile journey to Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel's Gaza operation was not aimed at destroying the Hamas regime in Gaza, but rather at paralyzing it militarily. Aside from the immediate respite it would provide Israel from rocket fire, this would also ensure that Hamas and Islamic Jihad stay out of the conflict in case Israel strikes Iran.

Furthermore, the heavy exchange of fire with Gaza is an excellent opportunity for the Israeli authorities to examine the preparedness of its home front, emergency infrastructure, and defensive military capabilities. A responsive public, who closely follows the instructions of the home front authorities, is an important element in minimizing the number of potential victims in case of an Iranian strike. While it is difficult to imagine that Israel launched its current offensive primarily to gauge these factors, it certainly provides important ancillary benefits toward that end.

Israel's actions also send a strong message: it is ready to act against its enemies and to bear the consequences.
(Atlantic)
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UPDATES:

Lessons from Gaza -Jackson Diehl

[T]his Gaza episode may finally finish off the stubbornly persistent notion that Israel should negotiate a peace settlement with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority without Hamas' involvement.
(Washington Post)


More at Stake than You Think in Gaza -Daniel Taub 

• If the negotiations do restart and the international community urges Israelis to make significant territorial withdrawals from the West Bank as part of a peace package, it should be aware that Israelis will naturally think back to the last time they were urged to pull out of land for peace, and the value of the reassurances they were given at that time.
• When Israelis face rocket and missiles onslaught from territory they were urged to leave, the international community needs to stand by its assurance that Israel would be entitled to respond with the force and for the time necessary to protect its civilians.
  
  The writer is Israel's Ambassador to Britain.

(Telegraph-UK)
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The Aftermath

 



Specter of Iran Looms Over Gaza Crisis -Gerald F. Seib 

Looming over the crisis in Gaza is another significant power: Iran.
Iran, most analysts believe, provided the longer-range rockets that have given Hamas, for the first time, the ability to reach at least the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
    
Israeli officials don't rule out the possibility that Iran's leaders may have helped prompt Hamas to step up its firing of rockets into Israel in recent weeks as a way to distract and tie down Israeli forces on the country's western border to reduce the chances Israel would direct its military attention eastward, toward Iran's nuclear facilities.    
(Wall Street Journal)


Hamas Can Replenish Arsenal - If Egypt Lets It -Ulrike Putz 

As long as fresh supplies of rockets keep coming through Egypt, the power of Hamas will be unbroken.
    
There is no doubt that the military capabilities of Hamas have been severely curtailed. But the attacks haven't broken the organization's power.
    
As long as the supply route Iran-Sudan-Egypt remains intact, the Islamists' arsenals will soon be replenished.
(Der Spiegel-Germany)
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UPDATES:


Ceasefire in Israel-Hamas War -Barry Rubin, PhD

Apparently, Hamas did not consult with Egypt before escalating attacks against Israel, the factor that set off large-scale Israeli retaliation. In turn, Egypt, along with Qatar, the Hamas regime's main Arab funder, pressured the regime to stop the fighting.

While people can come up with ideal solutions in their heads the problem is that Israel does not want to return to rule the Gaza Strip (which would involve armed battles almost daily) and does not have international support for overthrowing Hamas.

In a reasonable world, the international community would support, even join, in bringing down the current regime and replacing it with the Palestinian Authority. Instead, however, the international community is determined to protect the survival of the Hamas regime and the Palestinian Authority would not take back rule over the Gaza Strip, either by its own efforts to overthrow Hamas or at the hands of a victorious Israeli army.

Of course, everyone knows that this ceasefire won't last.
[The Rubin Report]


An Initial Accounting of the Gaza Operation -Dan Margalit 
   
Hamas has taken a body blow. Senior operatives have been killed, rocket arsenals have been pulverized, terrorist infrastructure has been destroyed, and the Iron Dome has been largely successful in protecting the Israeli home front.
    
For the first time in many years, Israel has struck a heavy blow against terrorists in Gaza without losing the support of the world's enlightened nations. Those who remember the criticism after Israel's Gaza operation in 2009 understand the significance of this achievement.
(Israel Hayom)


Israeli Attacks Serve as a Warning to Iran -Nicole Gaouette
   
Israel is fighting a "war within a war," said David Wurmser, a former Middle East adviser to then-vice president Dick Cheney.

Israel is simultaneously tackling Hamas rocket fire, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new "Iron Dome" missile defense system, and degrading the Islamist group's ability to retaliate for an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
(Bloomberg)


PA Wanted Hamas Defeated -Barak Ravid

A Palestinian ambassador told an Israeli ambassador earlier this week that if Israel expanded the operation in Gaza, it must work to overthrow Hamas, instead of stopping in the middle, as it did in 2009.

The Palestinian official was quoted as saying: "The Hamas offices that were destroyed are not important. The real offices are the mosques, which are connected to a widespread network of tunnels. Everything happens underground."
(Ha'aretz)


U.S. to Intensify Efforts to Halt Weapons Smuggling

"The president said that the U.S. would use the opportunity offered by a ceasefire to intensify efforts to help Israel address its security needs, especially the issue of the smuggling of weapons and explosives into Gaza. 
(White House)


Who Won This Round? -Amos Harel & Avi Issacharoff

In Gaza, they began preparing the victory rallies. But the celebrations will not hide the serious blow Hamas suffered in the military arena by the killing of Ahmed Jabari, the destruction of its long-range Fajr missiles and the attacks on its commanders and camps.
(Ha'aretz)

Israel's Gaza Operation Achieved Its Goals -Aluf Benn

Netanyahu showed it was possible to bomb Gaza and kill Hamas' chief of staff without harming the peace with Cairo. In the new strategic environment generated by the "Arab Spring," this is no mean feat.
(Ha'aretz)


Israel Dominates the New Middle East -Fareed Zakaria

We were warned that the battle between Israel and the Palestinians might spread because we are in a new and much more dangerous Middle East where Islamists are in power. In fact, there is a very low likelihood of a broader regional conflict. It's true that we're in a new Middle East, but it's one in which Israel has become the region's superpower.

This is why Egypt, despite being under a new Islamist government, is not going to risk war with Israel. Nor are the other Arab states. They will make fiery speeches and offer humanitarian assistance. But they will not fight alongside the Palestinians in Gaza.
(Washington Post)
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Savage Display by Hamas

 

 

 

Six 'spies' executed before mob in Gaza City -David Williams

Six men accused of being 'Israeli spies' were dragged through the streets of Gaza City and executed in front of a chanting mob today.

Witnesses said the six were taken to an intersection in the north of the city where they were summarily shot for providing intelligence that helped Israel pinpoint key figures in Hamas and the Islamic Jihad targeted by their warplanes.

Gunmen chained the body of one of the alleged collaborators to a motorcycle and dragged it throughout the main streets of Gaza City in a warning to others who 'betrayed'
[Daily Mail]
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Hamas Aims To Set Off Air Raid Sirens Deep in Israel

Israeli children watch the Iron Dome system which has shot down some of Hamas' rocketry

Gaza Rockets Stripped of Explosives to Fly Further -Dan Williams

Some of the Palestinian rockets fired far into Israel lacked warheads because they were stripped down to increase range and spread alarm over a wider population, Israeli security sources said.

"They're pipes, basically," said an Israeli official.

"Our assessment is that the prestige of setting off alarms deep in Israel, and being perceived as fighting on, is as important to them now as spilling our blood."
(Reuters)


The Truth about Gaza -Bret Stephens

In 2004 as editor of the Jerusalem Post, and in 2006 in a Wall Street Journal column, I made the case that Israel was smart to withdraw its soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip. I was wrong. If Israel had maintained a military presence in the Strip, it would not now be living under this massive barrage.

The diplomatic and public-relations benefit Israel derives from being able to defend itself from across a "border" and without having to get into an argument about settlements isn't worth the price Israelis have had to pay in lives and terror.

Put simply, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza yielded less security, greater diplomatic isolation, and a Palestinian regime even more radical and emboldened than it had been before.
(Wall Street Journal)


Arabs in Jerusalem and the West Bank Celebrate Rocket Fire -Khaled Abu Toameh

There is nothing more nauseating than watching people celebrate as rockets are being fired toward Israel from Gaza. As soon as the sirens went off, many Palestinians in Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods and in the West Bank took to the streets and rooftops to cheer Hamas. Some launched fireworks and chanted, "We are all Hamas!" and, "O Jews, the army of Mohammed is coming after you!"

Never mind that the rockets could have fallen on their heads. As far as these Palestinians are concerned, there is no problem if a number of Arabs are killed on the way to destroying Israel.

One wonders whether a majority of Palestinians would ever agree to any form of compromise with Israel. In today's world of the Palestinians, anyone who talks about peace with Israel is a traitor and a collaborator; but anyone who calls for the destruction of Israel is a hero.
(Gatestone Institute)
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Hamas Will Never Achieve a Palestinian State  -Gerard Henderson

In 2010 some condemned Israel's interdiction of the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara, where there was loss of life among those attempting to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.

It is now clear what Israel was on about. Namely stopping the importation of larger and more effective rockets to such terrorist entities as Hamas and Islamist Jihad for use against Israeli cities - including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
(Sydney Morning Herald-Australia)
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Hamas Goal: Hit Tel Aviv

A chilling Hamas video, revealing their desire to hit Tel Aviv

America, Israel, Gaza, the World -Walter Russell Mead

• For some, Zionism itself is an illegitimate idea and a state that has no right to exist has no right to defend itself. Anything it does to defend itself is a crime. This is how Hamas and many others think and it is why people in this camp are able to work themselves up into such a froth of indignation and rage when Israel responds to their fire.
• Certainly if a terrorist organization were to set up missile factories across the frontier in Canada and Mexico and start attacking targets in the U.S., the American people would demand that their President use all necessary force without stint or limit until the resistance had been completely, utterly and pitilessly crushed. Americans might feel sorrow at the loss of innocent children and non-combatants killed when overwhelming American power was used to take the terrorists out, but they would feel no moral guilt. The guilt would be on the shoulders of those who started the whole thing by launching the missiles.
• [T]hey admire Israel's strength and its resolve for dealing with the appalling blood lust of the unhinged loons who start a war they can't win, and then cower behind the corpses of the children their foolishness has killed.
• The whole situation strengthens the widespread American belief that Palestinian hate rather than Israeli intransigence is the fundamental reason for the Middle East impasse, and the television pictures that drive much of the world away from Israel often have the effect of strengthening the bonds between Americans and the Jewish state.
• Far from seeing Israel's use of overwhelming force against limited provocation as harsh or immoral, many Americans see it as courageous and wise. It strengthens the sense that in a wacky world where a lot of foreigners are hard to understand, the Israelis are honest, competent and reliable friends - good people to have on your side in a tight spot.

(American Interest)


Gaza Boy Killed by Palestinian Rocket -Phoebe Greenwood

The highly publicized death of four-year-old Mohammed Sadallah appeared to have been the result of a misfiring home-made rocket, not a bomb dropped by Israel.
(Telegraph-UK)

98 Hamas Rockets Have Landed Inside Gaza

One source of civilian injuries in Gaza is the many Palestinian rockets that have fallen short and landed inside the Strip. These 98 rockets (so far) have most certainly caused casualties.
(Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)


Syrian Massacre Photos Recycled as Gaza Tragedy -Anav Silverman   

The Arab news site Alarab Net released a photo on Nov. 18 which depicts three bloodied children and their mother lying on a floor, who were allegedly "massacred" in Gaza.
     
Tazpit News Agency found that the photo originally had been published on the Dubai-based Moheet news site on Oct. 19 with a story about Syria.
    
Last week, Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades uploaded a photo of a dead child in his weeping father's arms, which was alleged to be the result of an IDF strike in Gaza. The American news site Breitbart found that the photo had originally appeared in a slideshow about the Syrian conflict in October in the UK Guardian.   
(Algemeiner)


Israel Demands 15-Year Lull, Morsi Guarantee
-Elior Levy

According to reports in Cairo, Israel's conditions for a ceasefire include:

1. A lull for a period of more than 15 years.
2. An immediate cessation of arms smuggling and the transfer of weapons to Gaza.
3. Cessation of rocket fire on the part of all armed Palestinian factions and an end to attacks on soldiers near the Gaza border.
4. Israel has the right to hunt down terrorists in the event of an attack or if it obtains information on an imminent attack.
5. The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain open, but the crossings on the Gaza-Israel border will remain closed.
6. Egypt's politicians, headed by President Mohammed Morsi, will be the guarantors of any ceasefire agreement; meaning, the agreement will be backed by Egypt's political echelon rather than by its security establishment.
(Ynet News)


Hamas Weighing Israel's Ceasefire Terms -Elior Levy

Hamas deputy politburo chief Mousa Abu Marzook said that the group rejected Israel's terms for a ceasefire, while Hamas spokesman Razi Hamed told Al-Jazeera that Israel and Hamas had agreed on 90% of an outline for a truce. Abu Marzook told Al-Arabiya that Israel has presented two preconditions that were not acceptable to Hamas: a demilitarized zone near the border and a cessation of weapons smuggling via tunnels.
(Ynet News)


Gaza Rocket Hits School in Ashkelon -Yaakov Lappin & Ben Hartman

A rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza hit a school parking lot in Ashkelon. No injuries were reported as all Israeli schools are closed within a 40-km. radius of Gaza.  
(Jerusalem Post)


Can Terrorists Be Deterred? -Moshe Arens

If the terrorists cannot be deterred, and the population in the southern half of Israel is not to face recurrent rocket attacks, each time increasing in intensity, the terrorists have to be disarmed, their rockets destroyed and rocket supply lines blocked. That has to be the ultimate aim of a military operation or diplomatic initiative.

Preventing the recurrence of rocket attacks on Israel in the coming months requires the cooperation of the Egyptian government. It must reestablish control over Sinai and block all attempts to supply weapons to Hamas and its affiliates in Gaza from Sinai. [O]nly American diplomacy can bring this about.
The writer served as Israel's minister of defense three times, as minister of foreign affairs, and as Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
(Ha'aretz)
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