That’s the truth, the European Union actually condemned Hamas and Islamic Jihad for launching mortars and rockets at Israel unprovoked. But wait, it does not stop there. The European Union said nothing about the Israel strikes on Hamas and Islamic Jihad bases, weapons stores and rocket manufacturing factories. Could it be that the Europeans are awakening to reality? Well, we will hold out hope but realize it is best to wait and observe their actions in the future. Europe has been a bit of an enigma when it comes to Israel. There are some nations which can be counted on to support every United Nations’ and its agencies’ condemnations of Israel and setting up presumed neutral investigatory bodies to make sure the Jews are not protecting themselves too well. But this time, thus far, over eighty mortars and rockets were fired into Israel largely targeting civilian structures starting with a kindergarten and working their way around the areas close to Gaza. The results were a number of shaken people requiring administrating of counselling and other stress relieving therapies and three soldiers were injured in one strike with one remaining hospitalized as of this writing. The kindergarten was but five minutes before the children arrived for the day. Had the mortar shell been launched just a few moments later, the casualties would have been horrific. Still, this shell did injure one person who was tending the kindergarten. Hamas launched over eighty rockets and mortars in total and we will need to see what happens today. That brings us to the central question, how will Israel respond if Hamas and Islamic Jihad escalate or even simply continue shelling the Israeli southern regions. You simply know that the world is simply holding their breath hoping Israel simply allows the terrorists free firing line into Israel and not respond with force.
This is the question on much of the world’s lips which they dare not utter as doing so just might be all it takes to give Israel the go-ahead to respond with the full force with which she is capable. Perhaps the European Union condemned Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the hope that their rebuke would be sufficient to force them to reconsider escalating the situation. That would be a foolish concept as whether Hamas and Islamic Jihad escalate the situation forcing the hands of Israel has already been determined; the only question is how much provocation will be required to force the hand of the Israelis who make these choices. There is one way they can force the situation making things beyond any level of acceptability for Israel. Such a threshold is launching rockets into and striking Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya, Peta Tikva, Jerusalem or anywhere in this central region of Israel. Show an intent to strike Israel in the areas where the majority of everyone and everything is located and reap the consequences. This is not to claim that the areas bordering Gaza are of lesser importance as Israel values every life as sacred. Should Hamas or Islamic Jihad strike with such ferocity as to endanger the areas bordering Gaza, the most vulnerable areas to such attacks due to their close proximity to the launch sites, then Israel would have little alternative than to take out the launch sites and vehicles. Israel Defense Force (IDF) have the technology to locate such locations and vehicles even should they be underground or camouflaged or otherwise hidden and still strike them and put them out of action, just ask Syria or the Iranian forces operating from Syria. But is simply striking at the launchers and storage areas an actual deterrence or just a minor aggravation requiring some additional assistance from Iran? There is where the problem arises, how to strike Hamas and Islamic Jihad and make such strikes an actual deterrence.
Past experience has shown that striking the launch sites and vehicles often results in damaging civilian structures, more often than not, apartments and places where working people and the less well off reside. These apartment blocks are seldom if ever rebuilt and the people struggle to find decent shelter or a new permanent residence. Even should they procure a new apartment, they know that sooner or later Hamas or Islamic Jihad will place a rocket launcher on the roof of their new apartment building and that will be the end of that building. Hamas does not rebuild these apartment because as long as they are partially destroyed, they make a great place for hiding launchers plus the Europeans and United Nations will insist Israel allow sufficient cement and building materials to be passed into Gaza to rebuild them. These supplies are then used to construct underground bunkers for Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership to hide and be safe while the population is left above ground and vulnerable. This is planned so as to maximize the numbers of Gazans injured or killed so they can be shown to the media. These building materials are also used to build tunnels with which to infiltrate Israel. Then, with each war with Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad can use the same destroyed buildings as proof that Israel is acting in a monstrous manner when the reality is many of the buildings were destroyed in previous wars. Leaving everything as rubble and partially destroyed, then Israel is claimed to have destroyed them again and again every time such is required to make the world angry with Israel and back Hamas and their fellow terrorists.
The Two Gazas with One Pristine and the Other Ravaged
We have a different idea on how to get the attention, the full attention, of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israel could simply bomb their homes instead of the unfortunate Gazans homes. Strike the launchers and weapons storage areas with the least amount of explosive needed and use large and devastating bombs and rockets to destroy the leadership of the terrorists’ homes. Should that prove insufficient, then destroy their nice malls and shopping areas, destroy their movie theaters, their fine hotels, their fancy restaurants, everything the rich and terrorist allied actually use and desire and then see if they are ready to stop. Should such as this prove insufficient, then send in a single commando unit with one target, the supreme command bunker located under the Al-Shifa Hospital. Decapitate the terrorist command and if this proves to be insufficient, repeat as needed. Taking out all that makes the leaderships’ lives pleasant and comfortable should get the massage across. Should such as these steps prove insufficient, then there is but one other option; completely cleanse the entirety of Gaza of every known terrorist and terror sympathizer.
Even if doing so reduces the population of Gaza by eighty or more percent, just do that which is required and allow the world to scream. The remaining population would be placed on a trial basis for ruling themselves while under general Israeli law. Anyone found with any connection with a act of terrorism will know that they and their entire family will be deported into the Sinai Peninsula. Any Gazan wishing to live in the Sinai Peninsula rather than under Israeli rule will be welcomed to do so. It might even be that Israel will provide a financial incentive to leave and resettle elsewhere. Gaza would be reincorporated into Israel and Jews wishing to reside in the area would be welcome as there will be many homes likely to become available providing not all were destroyed. The world will scream but Israel should simply ignore the random noise and pretend that they simply have a bad connection and the noise will die out with time. Perhaps a similar action should be carried out in the Shomron if it proves effective for making Gaza into a pleasant and quiet place to live after the troublesome terrorists are weeded out. This might even work to incorporate all of Israel into a single entity with only the people who wish to reside under Israeli law remaining even if the remainder, after the terrorists have been rooted out, take a severance payment to cover their properties and a bonus to assist them in their new location. Once all is said and done, such a plan would benefit all who remained and those who took payments are likely to also find their happiness, but the world will howl for at least a year. Imagine not being able to shop in Paris for a whole year, could the rich and famous stand it.
Very few would argue that Israel has friends to spare or even that other nations are publically lining up to declare good and open supportive relations with Israel and if anything, exactly the opposite is the situation. Despite such a guarded prospective being openly displayed, underneath the radar and far from sight there are many nations who willingly cooperate and even work towards similar goals with Israel. Some act simply to protect Israel from those who stand poised to destroy Israel by small steps, by a million cuts or by a single stroke of the sword beheading her as one would a raging monster. There are claims that Israel has designs on ruling the Middle East from the position of a ‘Greater Israel’ which would extend from the Mediterranean Sea to the two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They quote the liberation of Judea and Samaria as the initial step where after Jordan joined the war to annihilate Israel in June of 1967 believing the Egyptian and Syria broadcasts of their easy and unstoppable successes and their imminent approach on Tel Aviv from both the northeast and from the south, Israel was forced to divert troops heading to reinforce the efforts in the Sinai Peninsula against Egypt to address the newly opened from Jordan in the east. That diversion made steady advances pausing to pray upon the liberated Western Wall and Temple Mount which brought forth an emotional attachment renewed that overwhelmed these Israelis with the gift of being the ones who liberated the most holy of grounds to all Jews. They subsequently liberated the rest of Judea along with Samaria reforming the proper and legal border with Jordan as the Jordan River. The liberation of Judea and Samaria was not an attempted conquest and was a response to an attack and reclaiming the lands stolen by Jordan during the wars to destroy Israel immediately after her founding in 1948 through early 1949. Even this small patch of land which by treaties and promises are lands which legally are an important and vital part of Israel being once again attempted to subvert and steal through the invention of a nation which claims to have been attacked and overrun by Israel though nobody can find the war or military operations which produced such a result. This is a crucial test of whether the United Nations, European Union, and all the world’s nations and their international agencies, alliances and partnerships will respect their promises to the Jewish Zionists to permit and support their return and rebuilding of their ancestral homelands on a tiny strip of land nestled at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea which measures merely a size about equal to the State of New Jersey, smaller than El Salvador, Belize, Djibouti and even Macedonia. The map shown below depicts the proportional insignificance of the land claimed for the Jewish homelands compared to the lands of nations claiming a Muslim heritage of which a significant number claim to be Islamic States observing Islamic Sharia which specifically defines Muslim Code of Law and concerning all practices, rituals, interactions and obligations for all Muslims to surrender in their devotions to Allah and defining the place of their nation, of Islam and their interactions between them and other nations all included and codified in Sharia.
Display of the Muslim Nations of the World in the Middle East, Asia and Northern Africa in Green with Israel depicted in Red
This past week Israel was presented with two reports of which only one can be valid as they are diametric opposites. The one which the media has obsessed over was issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council deliberating over the commission of potential war crimes, crimes against humanity, criminal acts under the Geneva Conventions and any actions the committee found to be of particular interest of which disproportional use of force appeared to be their major area of emphasis with a subcategory viewing what can only be described as seeking reasons for the disparity in injured, murdered, rendered homeless and other material damages and the other was a review of the and the steps taken to prevent inflicting or receiving injury of death of civilians and efforts to minimize collateral damage as well as any efforts to use protected structures, numbers of individual noncombatants in attempts to protect military hardware and positioning military sites of importance within civilian structures and targeting parameters. This military review was conducted independently of the United Nations and included eleven high-ranking military officials who visited Israel back in May as part of this High Level International Military Group on a fact-finding mission for reviewing Operation Protective Edge. As reported in an article in Arutz Sheva their conclusions included:
“We examined the circumstances that led to the tragic conflict last summer and are in no doubt that this was not a war that Israel wanted,” the report states. “Israel sought to avoid the conflict and exercised great restraint over a period of months before the war when its citizens were targeted by sporadic rocket attacks from Gaza.”
“Once the war had begun, Israel made repeated efforts to terminate the fighting,” it continued. “The war that Israel was eventually compelled to fight against Hamas and other Gaza extremists was a legitimate war, necessary to defend its citizens and its territory against sustained attack from beyond its borders.”
The officials then note that Hamas “deliberately and indiscriminately targeted Israeli civilian population centers” through rocket attacks and digging terror tunnels – both of which they conclude are unequivocally considered as “war crimes.” The officials then note that Hamas “deliberately and indiscriminately targeted Israeli civilian population centers” through rocket attacks and digging terror tunnels – both of which they conclude are unequivocally considered as “war crimes.”
The report then contrasts Hamas’s use of human shields with Israel’s attempts to save lives.
“Hamas launched attacks against Israel from the heart of its own civilian communities in Gaza and positioned its munitions and military forces there also, including in schools, hospitals and mosques,” it says. “As well as carefully documented IDF evidence of this, we have viewed international media footage confirming several cases and are aware of senior Hamas officials’ own claims to have used human shields.”
“A recent report by the UN Secretary General confirmed that in some cases Hamas even used UN facilities for storing munitions and launching attacks.”
“Each of our own armies is of course committed to protecting civilian life during combat,” it continued. “But none of us is aware of any army that takes such extensive measures as did the IDF last summer to protect the lives of the civilian population in such circumstances.”
“Our overall findings are that during Operation Protective Edge last summer, in the air, on the ground and at sea, Israel not only met a reasonable international standard of observance of the laws of armed conflict, but in many cases significantly exceeded that standard,” the report concludes. “We saw clear evidence of this from the upper to the lower levels of command.”
“A measure of the seriousness with which Israel took its moral duties and its responsibilities under the laws of armed conflict is that in some cases Israel’s scrupulous adherence to the laws of war cost Israeli soldiers’ and civilians’ lives.”
The report also affirmed the Israeli investigated finding that the ratio of Civilian-to-Military casualty ratio was 1:1, well above the world average of 3:1 and far higher than the ratio set as acceptable targeting. The fact that Israel was able to attain such a low ratio was all the more remarkable when one considers that it was the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist fighters intent carried through with deliberate actions to place rocket launchers, command and control centers, mortar positions, stores of rockets and ammunitions and other war equipment and manned positions in, on or near to civilian centers, private residences, hospitals, schools, health clinics, refugee centers and other protected structures. There was an actual in use UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) health clinic which had been evacuated as the fighting inched closer and when a squad of IDF soldiers entered the building it was detonated. Further inspection of the structure and the manner in which it exploded revealed a number of items of concern. First was that the clinic was also concealing multiple entrances to tunnels in its floors and the second and most condemning find was the placement of the explosives which by all measure were found to have been built into the structure as it was erected in anticipation that it could be detonated at some future point during an operation such as Operation Protective Edge. That trap killed three IDF soldiers and injured others. At this point we would like to request you visit the article titled Gaza, Hamas, Corrected Falsehoods, Frightening Realities written on September 15, 2014 which contains additional information and links plus the original use of the video shown below of a Hamas rocket launcher site being set up directly outside the window of a reporter from India who filmed and documented the entire procedure, something for which he would very likely have had an accident had this come to light while he was still reporting from within Gaza. I do not know for sure if he remained in Gaza, but either way, the man had great integrity, nerves of steel, a steadfast standing for truth and a great heart full of love of life. Below is his video and further reporting at link above.
One Israeli method to clear a rooftop or building which was being used as a launch site on its roof or from numerous balconies or out of windows of which Israeli drones had detected such fire operations they would first, a few minutes before the actual strike, drop small, very loud, fragment-free, low explosive charges which operate as a large flashbang grenade, called knockers as they were the knock on the ‘proverbial door’ before kicking that ‘door’ in, in order to cause the people to flee the structure before it was struck, something unheard of by these reviewing military officers, something considered completely inconsistent with attempts to maximize even the casualties of the combatants as well an civilians. Such a tactic as well as the radio broadcasts, phone calls, leaflet drops, SMS messages to individual phones and other undisclosed methods for warning the civilian population to leave the area and despite it also gave the combatants to flee still allowing for the destruction of the launchers and depriving them of a preferred and planned firing location. Firing locations which have been preplanned have a tactical advantage in that they are in a set point and the operators have a set of dialable targets where the precise settings for the strike are known while taking up a random or alternate location often either forces the operator to make their best computation (often referred to as best guess) and may also place numerous targets beyond reach, blocked due to locations of larger structures or other obstacles. This is the reason such locations need to be eliminated as otherwise enemy combatants can return and continue to utilize their advantageous locations and the firing data. Also included in this report were the three Israeli teens kidnapped and murdered by Hamas operative in Judea and the ramping up of numbers and increased ranging of rockets which inevitably led to the Israeli response. Also noted was the fact that much of the destruction was restricted to within two miles of the Gaza-Israeli border as this was also the location of the majority of the ground fighting which is far more intense and thus the destructive force increases exponentially to the level of opposition and follows the front lines as each side attempts to clear an area in order to advance in comparative safety.
The United Nations report from the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) omitted mention of the three Israeli teens kidnapped and murdered and made only minor mention of increased rocket fire both in numbers and ranges and instead concentrated on a few limited points which can be defined by one simple phrase, disproportional force and results. There was little mention of the protective shield that the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted well over ninety percent of the rockets fired into Israel in determining by the systems’ computers and radar tracking information where the rocket, mortar or artillery would strike and even higher percentage shoot down of those projectiles computed to be heading to strike within populated areas. This prevented literally tens of thousands of Israeli casualties a majority of which would likely have been fatalities as the Iron Dome did work to almost one-hundred percent of projectiles heading for central Tel Aviv and its skyscraper towers. The Iron Dome system is the perfect example of the price Israel places on individual lives as each anti-missile-missile costs tens of thousands of Shekels and were used to intercept rockets which at most cost hundreds of dollars to make. The main point made repeatedly by the UNHRC report referred to the casualty numbers and basically posed the identical question which many reporters posed during Operation Defensive Edge, where were the Israeli casualties, the Jewish casualties (one reporter was caught asking the exact question of why were there no Jewish deaths while so many in Gaza were killed). The preoccupation with Israeli casualties has reached ghoulish levels and casts the pale of anti-Semitic origins for such a line of reasoning. The answer was easy to see, Iron Dome and the fact that Israel was not only willing but gladly invested the millions of Shekels and thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands of hours and prototypes, testing, writing software code and rewriting when necessary and simply editing (as if editing code is ever simple) and finaly perfecting a system that provided the protection desired, nearly perfect protections and the rest we depended upon the hand of Hashem. The absolute proof was made evident by a multiple miss by an Iron Dome system tasked with protecting Tel Aviv and was tracking a missile headed directly to downtown central Tel Aviv and three intercepts missed before what was insufficient a breeze resulted in the missile being swept aside and out into the Mediterranean Sea where it exploded harmlessly. We covered this report in our article How to Fight Terrorist Fanatics Unless You’re Israel which was published with links on September 26, 2014. Somehow this miraculous incident did not appear in the UNHRC report and also omitted was the purported report that when being asked by a senior Gaza government official (read Hamas commander) how come his rockets were not striking in Israel and killing the Israelis the officer replied, “They keep shooting them down and even when they miss their G0d simply swipes them away harmlessly.”
The point driven home by the scant accusations in the document against Hamas are dwarfed to the point of near absence compared to the claims and vile and putrid twisting of the facts in order to convict Israel in the court of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist with potential to classify it as anti-Semitic venomous bile coming from the most base hatreds imaginable. The fact that the initial person selected to be the chair of this investigation was forced to resign because of a proven record of anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist positions and that he was employed by the PLO to render favorable interpretations and provide defense and Jurist William Shabas was replaced with Judge Mary McGowan Davis who was a member of a panel appointed to follow-up on the Goldstone Committee which investigated presumed Israeli infractions in a previous war with Hamas. That report was later revealed for its biases and inaccuracies by the man who sat as the chairman, Judge Richard Goldstone, and who refuted his own report in an article for the Washington Post. One has to believe at some point that the UNHRC has some problems when it comes to all things Israel. One last bit to end on hopefully a slightly brighter note, there was a rumor which I sincerely pray was meant as a joke and not an actual fact that the UNHRC was required by its own bylaws to open every session with a motion denouncing Israel and the discussion would simply be to include the particulars for that denunciation. The only problem such a joke would face is that it might be taken as fact and not one bit of humor be found within.
Two IDF soldiers were killed when each of the vehicles they were patrolling the border road with Lebanon were struck each by an anti-tank rocket. Six other soldiers were injured and have been transported to Ziv Hospital in Tzfat. No information was relayed initially after they were evacuated to Rambam Hospital for treatment. Information released through journalist Rassan Ben Jiddo shortly after 1:00 PM issued the claims the Hezballah took credit for these attacks. There was also news reports claiming mortar fire had erupted along the border. The two IDF soldiers killed were Major Yochai Kalangel and Sgt. Dor Nini pictured below.
IDF Soldiers Major Yochai Kalangel and Sgt. Dor Nini killed by Hezballah anti-tank rockets hit in unarmored vehicles on border road
After calm returned to the border region, Hezballah made calls for calm after firing at the least six anti-tank rockets at light vehicles which is against the Geneva Conventions though it is doubtful that such violations will be reported by many in the mainstream media as the violations were against Israelis and not perpetrated by Israelis. Hezballah terrorists attacked an IDF post along the border earlier in the day yesterday without reports of injuries or other casualties. During these exchanges of fire a Spanish United Nations peacekeeper was killed. Israeli Channel 2 reported that Hezballah had requested for UNIFIL to inform the Israelis that they had made a request for calm as they were finished firing and now desired to call an end to hostilities before there was any serious response from the Israeli Defense Forces to their instigations.
Prime Minister Netanyahu responded to the reports of these attacks upon IDF forces while touring the Sderot which is situated appropriately on the border with Gaza where the Prime Minister related to the damages inflicted by the IDF upon Hamas forces and their infrastructure during this past summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas in response to their constant cross-border rocket launches and the resultant destruction of the Hamas tunnel systems and other infrastructure disabled or destroyed during the fifty days of fighting noting, “Anyone who tries to challenge us in the north should look at what happened to Hamas, not far from here, which was recently dealt the hardest blow it has received since its creation.”
These attacks from Hezballah emanating from the Sheba Farms region, within Syria near the Golan Heights and across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon will eventually lead to another exchange should Hezballah continue their recent escalations. Their claims that today’s attacks were revenge for the air attack by the IAF which struck their positions in southwestern Syria which resulted in six fatalities including claiming the lives of a senior Hezballah commander as well as an Iranian IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) General, the special military arm from Iran responsible for terror and other attacks throughout the world and the very group which was implicated in the Buenos Aires, Argentina 1994 bombing of the AMIA, Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) about which Alberto Nisman was the prosecutor recently discovered murdered in his apartment as we reported here and here. The Israeli strike was made to interdict to prevent a serious rocket attack from within southwestern Syria which was being assembled by the Hezballah and IRGC forces at two locations late last week. Hezballah protested the strike referring to it as an unjustified and unprovoked attack on troops which posed no danger to Israel and were simply operating within Syria in defense of the Syrian government of Bashir al-Assad. Iran has also threatened to attack Israel with a thunderous assault like lightening unlike anything Israel has ever seen and that Israel will be completely unable to defend against the attack due to its swiftness and devastating results. The setting up rocket launching positions which were obviously aimed to target Israel and not being targeting any positions within Syria was only prevented from potentially causing serious damages to IDF positions along the Golan Heights or even worse, striking inside Israel in the Galilee where the potential for civilian casualties would be significant thus the immediate and swift response by Israeli jet fighters taking out the launchers and personnel before they were able to launch their rockets. That was what Hezballah and Iran referred to as an unprovoked attack on their personnel who were simply carrying out exercises which were of no threat to Israel.
On another front on these fatal attacks on IDF vehicles and personnel, it has been rumored and is being investigated by the IDF that the vehicles struck in yesterday’s attacks were unarmored vehicles which are not for use on the border. There are claims that by mistake unarmored Isuzu dMax jeeps were the issued vehicles and are not outfitted with sufficient armor for border duties. As the vehicles were struck with anti-tank missiles the type of vehicle may not have necessarily saved these soldiers’ lives as even armored vehicles are insufficiently up-armored to resist anti-tank missiles which are designed to penetrate at least a dozen inches of armor plate and some even twice that much armor and lighter vehicles and APCs are usually armored with a maximum of six inches of armor plate equivalent. The difference would be if the vehicles were supposed to be outfitted with the Trophy Active Protection System developed by RAFAEL Armament Development Authority, that would have made a difference. Had the vehicles of any thickness of armor also been a vehicle protected by the Trophy System then whether the vehicle was armored would have been inconsequential as no anti-tank missile would have been able to even reach the vehicle still capable of exploding or doing any serious damage. Prime Minister Netanyahu commented later in the day after being briefed on the extents and numbers of IDF soldiers and young Israelis which the fact that all of these soldiers are also young men who have families and represent the future for Israel and each one lost is a loss felt by the whole nation as the majority of Israelis feel as if we are all family and not merely countrymen. It is because much of the nation as a whole mourns the loss of each and every soldier and many take the loss of each young man or woman in the defense of our small nation so precariously perched at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea at its eastern edge with nothing but enemies desiring to kill every last Israeli as their holy mission. It was speaking for the nation which has been deeply wounded that Prime Minister Netanyahu stated to the media and the nation filled with mourners this day stating, “Those who committed these acts will pay the full price for their actions. For a long time Iran has been using Hezbollah to establish a terror front against us on the Golan. We are aggressively acting to prevent this. The government of Lebanon and the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria are responsible for attacks on Israel that emerge from their territory. Our single goal is to defend Israel and Israelis. We have acted this way in the past, and will continue to do so.”
Beyond the Cusp 