Israel Watching World Reaction to Terror War

 

The first thing which must be understood, should Israel wish to conclusively end Hamas and Islamic Jihad, not just their rocket launches, shooting, sniping, launching balloons and kites to spread incendiaries, but end all of it and their ability to even throw a rock at Israel, could be ended. Israel could decide to target the commanders from unit commanders up to Yahya Sinwar and be done with this within a week. Decapitate both terror armies leaving them with absolutely no leadership, political or military, it makes no difference, they just dress up differently so that the Europeans can claim they are dealing with civilized people. None are civilized as their methods prove beyond any doubt. But they know that Israel would never resort to such tactics as it would verily upset the Europeans and the United Nations. They might even be tempted to remove Israel from the United Nations claiming that Israel was no longer welcome at their table. They could ban the Israeli Ambassador from the Cafeteria or take away his executive washroom key or find some other means of showing Israel they were displeased. But it is not their citizens sleeping in bomb shelters nor are they hearing sirens even when they are not sounding because their citizens have nerves on a rough edge. Their societies do not have to adapt each month to the latest forms of terrorist attacks. What will it be this month, rocks the size of cantaloupes thrown through car windshields, Molotov cocktails at busses thrown in groups of twenty to fifty engulfing the bus with fire, cars or trucks speeding through crowds or bus stops or down sidewalks, drive-by shootings, knifings or possibly a mass assault on the Western Wall? Their citizens are not facing such a wide range of attacks, but be assured that if it works in Israel, then it will be spread around the world over time. These tactics will never just end with Israel unless the world allows Israel to put down such terrorists. Such a world would provide the sign necessary to bring terrorism worldwide to an abrupt end. It would be that simply, allow Israel to prove terror cannot work and will bring only death and not allow the massing of money as the terror leaders now do living on the backs of their people and living it large.

 

Were the world to be serious about ending terrorism, then we would see such in their reactions to the attacks on Israel. If you are going to fight terrorism, then it starts in Jerusalem and Gaza and the Shomron and in Israel where its deepest roots are planted. The world cannot hope to end terrorism and to continue to allow huge amounts of aid monies to go to the terror masters in Gaza and the Shomron, beyond the Golan and the Blue Line, and from here to the world backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Islamic State in Nigeria, across the Africa Transition Zone and in the Sinai Peninsula. The same terror that strikes Sri Lanka, Melbourne in Australia, Coptic Christian monastery in Egypt, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the Jordanian town of Fuheis, and we could go through the entirety of this list and bore every reader to tears, so instead that link. Terrorism is a disease on society and the tool of evil. Terrorism makes no difference between military and civilian and when the terrorist does differentiate between military and civilian, they will more often target civilian over military. Should the world allow terrorism to defeat Israel or make Israel uninhabitable, then the forebearers of terror will set out to do the same to the rest of the world. Each time that terrorists attack, the world is dealt a test of their fortitude and resolve. Will they simply turn their heads away and pretend that nothing of questionable origins actually happened? That is the reaction which we witness more often than actually addressing the situation and admitting that the world has a problem. The world leadership at least is consistent, they demand that Israel not take actions against terror and they ignore terrorism in their own backyards. This head-in-the-sand reaction to terrorism will simply empower the terror masters and postpone taking the required steps potentially making the eventual task of ridding the world of terrorism being put-off until it will have become a far greater effort. The world is critical of Israel reacting to a terror attack by neutralizing the perpetrator claiming that such should never be the reaction and that the terrorists should be negotiated with or allowed to escape rather than use force. Force has become taboo as a modern world need not resort to the use of violence, the death penalty or anything which causes a loss of life, well, except terrorism which apparently is permitted provided the chosen target is considered acceptable.

 

Rockets fired into Israel and one anti-missile interceptor launched

 

Terrorism against Israel is not only acceptable but financially rewarded by aid money coming from the United Nations, European Union, European countries, many Arab nations, Iran, numerous terror sponsors and other sources. Nations and both national and international organizations which reward terrorists with financial support are some of the most reprehensible sources of terrorism. The beginning of every terror attack begins with a source of funds. The planners, the political backing, the propaganda, the publicity and political cover all have their required cost. Those who are behind terrorist attacks may be true believers but they still require being financially rewarded. Even the most fanatical cannot survive purely on their hatred, they require food, shelter and financial rewards otherwise they might have to actually work. Getting a real job would take away from their terror organizing time, not to mention that nations involved with the spread of terror tend to have very poor economic conditions and their inattention to the economy breeds terrorists as there is nothing else which pays rewards of a similar nature. This leads to societies where hatred breeds more hatred and violence breeds more violence and there is no end to the spiral. While the people at the bottom end up giving up their lives for a cause which is thrust upon the society by people who not only would never die for that cause, but are becoming wealthy having other people die for their cause. But if the world were to be serious about ending terrorism, they would start by backing Israel doing whatever it takes to end the terrorist forces surrounding her. Such would start with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLO (Palestinian Authority) and Hezballah in Lebanon and allowing Israel to do that which is considered necessary to assure her survival. That is where the problem begins and eventually goes full circle and ends at the same place, the powers that be in the European Union and the United Nations do not desire allowing Israel the right to survive. If the fight to end terrorism starts in Israel, then these people refuse to allow such to start. They claim they will fight terror once Israel has been erased. That is their most grievous mistake as Israel is not going to die which means that they will refuse to fight terrorism and it will be their society which will cease to exist.

 

Israel is where this fight must begin and the rest of the world need take steps to follow in suit to what Israel does to end terror. But if the world continues to handcuff Israel with threats and other demands warning her not to react to her people under attack, or if the world continues to ignore these rockets pouring down in Israel. How is it that over three-hundred rockets were launched into Israel in a single day and it did not make a single American news network? We are willing to bet had Israel sent a three-man team into Gaza to hunt down and destroy rocket launching positions that would have been reported as Israeli forces invade Gaza on missions of destruction. But the world has no difficulty completely ignoring three-hundred rockets launched into Israel. This is the reality which will lead to the destruction of their societies as they will be paralyzed against any terrorist attacks because they refuse to recognize the existence of terrorism as that would also require their recognition that Israel has been subjected to terror and that would allow the Israelis to fight their terror. These political leaders are willing to have their society torn asunder rather than recognize that Israel should be permitted to fight their terrorist problems. This is a sickness and one of the effects of anti-Semitism being behind decisions made at the highest levels. How many people have read about the rocket barrage thrown at Israel over the last two days? If your news sources did not report these events, then you need a better source for news. There can be no worse ignorance than one caused in order to support the destruction of another society. This is the sickness which prevented the News from reporting that Israel faced a terrorist rocket bombardment as these same news sources would jump all over any Israel strong response beyond striking the same targets in Gaza yet again. Israelis are becoming sick and tired of this game and are soon going to demand an end to these attacks, a real end to these attacks. Then it will be interesting to see the response in Europe and the New York Times whose coverage will undoubtedly be Israel destroys Gaza Moon launch facilities and they will expect people to believe them.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Hamas Irks Egyptian Peace Delegation

 

There are ways to pursue peace which are well understood and there are ways to completely ruin any hope for peace which are equally well understood. From the recent series of events, one can only assume that Hamas and friends are about as interested in making peace, even with using Egyptian go-betweens, as they are in living peacefully with Israel and developing their economy and assist the Gazan population lead normative lives. There are reasons why Hamas and friends divert, plunder, misappropriate, loot and steal over three-fourths of all aid, monies, building materials and almost everything else using total disregard for the betterment of their society or the comfort of its people to have decent, if any, housing using these ill-gotten-gains to supply their terror and war production, build infiltration tunnels, construct military infrastructure and to advance their own financial gain. The friends of Hamas include Islamic Jihad, Islamic State and numerous other terrorist or criminal groups. They share two main commonalities, hatred of Israel and the Jews and a disregard for the well-being of the residents of Gaza. This was made excessively evident within the past week. The events unfolded around Hamas and their scheduled meeting with an Egyptian mediating team working to find some middle-ground within which Hamas and friends could live for a hoped extended time with Israel in peace and quiet, especially the quiet as the weekly rioting along the border has continued into just short of one year. We will use the words of an Egyptian mediator as reported to us here.

“At the beginning of the meeting, the atmosphere was very relaxed,” the Egyptian official told Israel Hayom’s Daniel Sirioti. “We had just returned from Israel with answers, we estimated that Hamas would accept them and allow us to begin a stable, long-term peace. A few minutes later, one of the Egyptian delegation’s aides entered the room looking worried, and gave the delegation leaders his cellular phone.”
“The smiles immediately turned into frowns, and senior delegates turned to Hamas leader Yahyah Sinwar and yelled at him: ‘Where do you think you’ll end up with your double play? We’re sitting here to finalize a peace agreement with Israel, and behind our backs you allow your people to fire missiles at Tel Aviv??’
“‘If Israel decides to start a wide-scale operation in Gaza, this time we’re not going to do anything to stop the Israeli attacks. Even if Israel decides to bring down your rule in Gaza by assassinating every single one of you, while they reconquer Gaza. Egypt and its regional allies will not lift a finger to stop the Israeli response.’”

 

You definitely read that correctly, somewhere within the military command of the terror forces in Gaza from Hamas and friends decided that perhaps it would assist with the peace efforts if they fired a couple of rockets in the direction of Tel Aviv. The only controls over where these projectiles might strike are the functionality of each rocket as quality control has been an issue at times, the range of the rocket itself, and whether or not the Iron Dome intercepts them, at which point they fall relatively harmlessly to the ground. The IDF reported that one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome system with the remains falling in northern Tel Aviv and that there was an explosion reported in the city of Or Yehudah near Tel Aviv. Fortunately, no injuries or damage were reported. Islamic Jihad terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the rocket launches which bares full acknowledgement. Islamic Jihad is allied with Hamas and the two terror groups often work together and just as often work independently. Islamic Jihad is also tightly aligned with Iran, while Hamas is more loosely aligned with Iran. Hamas is more independent of Iran than Islamic Jihad and Islamic Jihad takes orders directly from Tehran as well as any IRGC command officer. Whether this launching on Tel Aviv was ordered by Iran or was a means used by Hamas to sabotage the peace negotiations while retaining sufficient deniability blaming Islamic Jihad as acting independently without coordinating with Hamas. This could also be the leading edge of Hamas and friends testing the waters to see how far they can go attacking Israel with everything from rockets to incendiary balloons, from explosive kites to rolling burning tires at the border fence or from sniper fire to even infiltration with the intent to kidnap and murder Israeli civilians. This has been a standard means of getting away with murder used by the Palestinian Authority as well; it is called attacking during peace talks and claiming that the attacks were rogue elements and not ordered by their leadership who claim complete ignorance as to the attack. This ploy is so overused that it should not surprise the Egyptians and definitely not surprise the Israelis.

 

Attacking while pretending to negotiate in hopes of reaching an agreement which would permit a period of peace, this has proven in the past to work in the favor of the Palestinian Arabs. They attack during peace talks and the world warns Israel not to retaliate or take any punitive measures because it may upset the chances for peace to be negotiated. The Arab Palestinian terror leaders know they are not really interested in peace. The Europeans, United Nations and United States State Department are all aware that the Arab Palestinian terror leaders are not interested in peace. There is another item that all these parties are aware of, that the one common denominator is the destruction of Israel and an end to the remaining Jews left on the planet. Of course, such talk is never stated loudly, it is more of a shared secret which is not all that secret. It became known after the Second Intifada that the explosion of suicide bombers and other terror attacks had nothing to do with the stated excuse that Ariel Sharon had dared to walk upon the Temple Mount. When the IDF was required to enter the Palestinian Arab areas and bring the violence to an end, they also took control of the Palestinian Authority’s main offices in Eastern Jerusalem. There was a treasure trove of papers detailing the planned attacks which were already ready to go while Yasser Arafat was playing President Clinton and Ehud Barak at Camp David and then Paris and beyond all the while knowing that the terror war was planned with bomb-belts readied and the suicide bombers all lined up and ready to go the limit. The Second Intifada cost over a thousand Israelis their lives and thousands more with horrible and often debilitating injuries as in these attacks they had impregnated the belts with nuts, screws, nails, shards of glass and soaked these materials in rat poison to make for more horrendous injuries.

 

So, this may have been a ploy by Hamas to throw a wrench into the peace talks being carried out through Egyptian mediators, or it could be Islamic Jihad attempting to blow up the peace talks, or it could be Islamic Jihad ordered by Iran to toss rockets on Tel Aviv into the mix to harm the peace talks, the one item which is consistent is that such actions, as noted by the Egyptian mediator, is not helpful and only makes reaching a settlement that much more difficult. We see this also as a test of where exactly the Israeli resolve to respond to such attacks three weeks ahead of the elections. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has an unenviable task choosing precisely the right response which inoculates him from being called too soft from political groups to his right, actually more Zionist or nationalist would be more accurate as there is no definitive right and left in Israeli politics. There is a left, a far left, actual communists, the Arab list, Zionists, Religious, Haredi (an entire host of groups included within), Religious Zionist and Secular Nationalist. The media are the ones along with some of the political class attempting to dumb down the many parties, as it is simpler to use generic terms such as left and right than to actually define terms and explain the subtle differences. Still, Prime Minister Netanyahu also has to avoid too harsh a response which might cause world condemnation which could cloud the election picture as well. Finally, the one thing Bibi can be assured of having happen is that Gantz and Lapid will insist that he was far too soft and they would have been more assertive and would have gone in and cleaned out Gaza.

 

Two Rockets Fired at Tel Aviv from Gaza

 

The Blue-White Party of Gantz, his fellow generals, and Lapid main aim in the lead-up to election day is they want to draw as many voters as they can from the nationalist camps, both secular (Likud, New Right, Yisrael Beiteinu) and religious (Jewish Home, National Union, Zehut, Tkuma, Otzma Yehudit) by making all the sounds and noise one would expect the farthest nationalistic party might utilize. What gives them away is their wording is often somewhat clumsy as often occurs when somebody is pretending to be something they are not. But attacks such as the one on Tel Aviv provide these charlatans with the perfect soapbox to stand upon and crow about how they will be tougher on terrorists than Bibi. What is a real shame is that General Gantz when approved to be Chief of Staff by, of all people, Bibi Netanyahu, he proved to be an embarrassment often appearing to be asleep at the switch or ill prepared at best. The IDF also suffered under his tutelage which took nearly five years of intensive training and cleaning out the mess Gantz left behind with Headquarters Company in complete disarray and no operational plans ready for contingencies, something the Chief of Staff is wholly responsible for overseeing and monitoring as those are the plans which one pulls out when faced with a situation requiring a military response. Time and again, these were lacking while Gantz served as Chief of Staff. This should not be the person we want in the catbird seat should a war come to our doorstep, at least one other than Syria and more targeted at Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

What Hamas Really Desires

 

Hamas has been playing a very costly game of cat and mouse with ceasefires. Hamas fired between one-hundred-twenty to two-hundred rockets and or mortars into Israel leading up to their declaration of accepting the Egyptian offer for a ceasefire with Israel. As per their usual modus-operandi, Hamas instituted a dangerous assault of projectiles immediately before grabbing at a third party offered ceasefire. This has been what they have done before but this time they went a step further. The next day they informed Israel through whatever channels they use that it might take them as long as two weeks before they would be capable of calming the kite and balloon incendiary device launching protesters from continuing to launch these murderous and damaging devices. Thusfar these devices have caused over two-million dollars in crop losses as well as destruction of forests and wildlife preserves. There have even been cases of using birds to carry devices attached to their limbs including one unfortunate falcon found incinerated hanging from a tree limb (see images below). This was not the only bird found murdered in this horrid manner. But Hamas and their minions believe that all is fair as it might damage Israel or murder Jews. That is another item people often miss, Hamas does not just desire Israel gone, they call for the murder of every Jew on Earth and lionize Hitler as proof that the Jews need killing.

 

Dead Falcon Found in Tree with Twine and Incendiary Device Attached

 

Hamas allowed the ceasefire to last almost two hours before having snipers open fire on IDF troops patrolling the border for damages to the border fence severely injuring one soldier who later succumbed to his wounds. After this event they re-announced their call for a ceasefire claiming that some of their people had not been advised and all were now prepared to observe the ceasefire. This is the Hamas means of conducting their war; they slowly increase the level until Israel begins to reciprocate. They then make a more intense and massive attack and run to Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, any third party willing to allow them to call for a ceasefire. Then they break the ceasefire and then call for it to start after that attack. They will then wait almost a day or two and make another small attack and wait to see if Israel responds. After measuring the Israeli response, the less response the greater the chance that Hamas will slowly escalate until Israel responds. They then make another larger attack and scream for a ceasefire. They continue to do this until Israel does not accept one of their calls for a ceasefire and instead retaliates and then they scream to the world media that Israel broke the ceasefire and started the attacks because Hamas had called for a ceasefire and Israel attacked during that ceasefire. Needless to say, as history has born this out, the media repeats the Hamas view and Israel is condemned across the world in the media, the European Union condemns the Israel disproportional attacks, the United Nations demands an investigation, a transparent investigation, not any investigation by Israel, the Human Rights Council condemns the Israeli initiating of violence and on and on.

 

After the soldier died of his wounds and in response to the Hamas attack, the Israeli Air Force struck Gaza destroying several Hamas command and control centers, a main headquarters, training areas and numerous weapons stores (see images below). Israeli forces have stood down from attacks but remain in an alert status and have been told to be aware that Hamas will likely strike at any targets of opportunity, thus they are not to present any such targets for Hamas. Simple English, keep your heads down and no strolling out in the open near the Gaza border. Hamas will likely strike again probably by the time this article is posted and then claim it was accidental and that they hope Israel will continue to observe the ceasefire. We are always tempted at this point to simply add, rinse-repeat, but Word does not recognize those two words as a complete sentence. Hamas will continue cat and mouse games until Israel attacks in force across the border and then in the end, Hamas plan is enacted where they provide regions which they know the IDF will desire entering and destroying the stores of rockets and tunnel entrances. They set up ambushes and wait. But there is more to the perfidy they will enact.

 

IDF Strikes in Gaza

 

Hamas knows that before Israel enters an area where there will probably be resistance, the IDF will send out phone messages, drop leaflets and make announcements on radio and any other means available warning the civilians to leave the area of operations. This gives Hamas all the warning they need to ready their ambushes, and still Israel risks her troops rather than have civilians in the line of fire. The problem is Hamas will often leave civilians in the area, often booby-trapped so they can kill the IDF soldiers when they try to remove the civilians. Does this trap kill the civilians in question? Of course they die, but their deaths are blamed on the IDF because if the Jews would all just die, then there would be no problem thus the Jews are the reason everything happens. There is another item one needs to know; all media in Gaza is required to clear their reports through Hamas minders before they are permitted to be filed and often the reporters in Gaza are Hamas operatives working as approved stringers for the major media outlets whose reporters are comfortable in Tel Aviv sitting in the café bars along the beach. The reporters with the Israeli soldiers, the few as they actually have to work, they can report whatever they witness and they do which is where many of the Israeli newspapers get their reports as they are not exactly permitted inside Gaza. There was one very important television report filed by a reporter out of India for NDTV. The video was recorded by his crew from his hotel room showing out his sliding door to his room’s balcony where just a short distance away Hamas was setting up a rocket launcher. We covered this with the video which is still on our site in our article, UNHRC Report on Israel Uses Disproportionate Accusations from all the way back on June 25, 2015. Our bet is after they smuggled this report or otherwise transmitted it out of Gaza, this station was very likely no longer permitted access inside Gaza without very close minding. The video is enlightening as well as very interesting and the reporter is almost amusing.

 

Let us return back to the current situation. Needless to add at this point, but much of what the mainstream media will end up presenting if a full-blown confrontation is inevitable, then they are going to point out endlessly how Israel is so mean because so many on the Hamas side are being killed and so few Israelis are being killed. Sometimes you can swear you can hear them asking, where are the dead Jews or Israelis. The answer is actually easily stated in the use of resources. Iron Dome interceptors cost fifty-thousand dollars each so every time you hear about Israel intercepting a Hamas rocket, Israel just invested fifty-thousand dollars to intercept a fifty-dollar rocket simply to preserve life. Israel has just invested a thousand dollars to every dollar Hamas spent such that no Israeli is killed. Israel requires every new residence and all business structures to provide bomb shelters within to protect the people. Hamas does not build apartments because they use 90% of the building supplies sent by the United Nations, European Union and endless procession of bleeding-heart-liberals for the construction of infiltration tunnels in order to kidnap and murder Israelis. Israel invested millions of dollars to invent the technology to uncover these tunnels which the IDF then summarily destroys. There has not been a new hospital built in Gaza since the 2007 takeover by Hamas. There has been an extensive tunnel and bunker system built to protect Hamas operatives and leaders and their rocket launchers. They do not permit the citizens into these bunkers because they want them to die as collateral damage so they can use their pictures in the media to condemn Israel. Israel spends unbelievable amounts to protect their citizens while Hamas does all they can to get their citizens killed including using them as booby-traps to kill IDF soldiers along with their citizens. Hamas had built an entire clinic with explosives in the walls just to blow it up and when they did, they killed three IDF soldiers who were investigating a tunnel entrance built within the clinic. This brings us to our suggestion on how to end this repeating scenario of wars with Hamas.

 

The IDF is very good at striking Hamas bases, training areas, weapons stores, rocket stores and manufacturers, command and control and all other sorts of Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions all without killing anybody. The most recent series of attacks were rumored to have potentially killed as many as four Hamas operatives when striking sixty positions and destroying almost an equal number of Hamas positions. We understand the desire of the IDF and the Israeli government in their care not to kill anybody, as we are the ones who cherish life; they are the ones who claim to cherish death. In cooperation with this operational directive, we have a suggestion for a whole new targeting system. This will require the same operational time frame of in the early morning around two to three o’clock. What this will not target are easily replaced Hamas weapons sheds. No, we think that perhaps we need to target the soft and easy life the multi-billionaire Hamas leaders live. Strike their fancy five-star restaurants, the water park, the new three-story mall and all the nightspots where they go for entertainment. Strike the areas where they shop and force them to live like the less fortunate in Gaza whose homes these leaders steal the material so they are unable to rebuild their lives. Take away the easy life that the Hamas leadership and their cronies enjoy and leave the regular Gazan alone for a while. If that does not force a change, then target their homes, when nobody is thought to be home, and see if they use any of their tunneling provisions, you know, the provisions with which they are supposed to be rebuilding apartment buildings and building schools and hospitals, clinics and repairing the damages caused in the destruction of their rocket launchers placed next to those apartment buildings. The leadership of Hamas has not been made to pay a price and until they are paying a price, what do they care about those others people, the little people. There is even the possibility when the people of Gaza see that their leaders care more about the new three-story mall than their apartment and care more over the restaurants and water parks than the schools and hospitals they might realize who are the ones really responsible for their crashed economy and near 50% unemployment and the radicalizing of their youth. Remember, while tens of thousands were rioting at the Gaza border with Hamas, many paid three-hundred dollars to participate, there were one and three-quarter million Gazans who were not rioting, demonstrating or having anything to do with the violence against Israel. Those are the Gazans the news seldom speaks about, as they are not serving the cause to destroy Israel. We can only pray that we do not end up with the necessity of another war to bring these Hamas assaults to an end.

 

Beyond the Cusp