Tragic death of Assaf Ramon, son of Astronaut Ilan Ramon in IAF Crash

Astronaut Ilan Ramon's son dies in IAF crash
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Tags: Ilan Ramon

Tragedy struck the family of late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon again Sunday, when his son Capt. Asaf Ramon was killed in a crash while flying an Israel Air Force F16-A.

Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut was one of seven crew members killed when the U.S. space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry on February 1, 2003.

Asaf Ramon's aircraft crashed near the settlement of Bnei Haver, in the rugged terrain of the Hebron Hills. The Israel Defense Forces carried out an aerial and terrestrial search of the area for some 90 minutes before locating the crash site.

IAF Blackhawk ("Yanshuf") helicopters carrying soldiers from 669, the Air Force's elite search and rescue unit, were the first to locate the plane, and they retrieved the pilot's body.

Asaf excelled in the IAF's grueling training course for pilots. In June he received a presidential honor and was given his pilot's wings by President Shimon Peres. He then joined the squadron in which the course's advanced training program is carried out.

The young pilot escaped another plane crash only half a year ago during a routine training flight.

The Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, called an official inquiry and halted training in Israel's F-16 squadrons until further notice, the military said in a statement.

Ilan Ramon himself was a fighter pilot in the IAF, and the youngest to take part in Israel's 1981 air strike on Iraq's unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor. He was also the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors.

People in Israel had tracked Ramon's journey into space as a welcome distraction from the violence of the second intifada; they responded to his death with shock and grief.

Asaf Ramon was 15 when his father died; shortly afterward, he promised on a number of occasions that he would follow in his father's footsteps and serve as a pilot and possibly even as an astronaut in the future. he is survived by his mother, and his two brothers and sister.

Shortly before receiving his wings, Ramon told the IAF journal that, "It was important to me to mention my father and tell his stories, because I am proud of him and proud to be his son. But I also want people to know me as Asaf and not just as the son of the astronaut Ilan Ramon."

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Swedes stand by blood libel, insist on investigation, condemn envoy apology

The Swedish government retracted its ambassadors condemnation of an an anti-Semitic canard published in AftonBladet, Sweden's largest newspaper, that claimed that the IDF kills Palestinians in order to harvest their organs for transplants. After Sweden's ambassador to Israel, Borsiin Bonnier, apologized for the article, opposition Green Party spokesman Per Gahrton said Bonnier should be recalled and taught the basics of Swedish freedom of speech. YNET reported:

Sweden's Foreign Ministry on Thursday said a response by the Swedish Embassy in Israel to a report by the Aftonbladet news saying IDF soldiers killed Palestinians in order to harvest their organs does not represent the government's stance.


The embassy had stated that the report was "appalling". But the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman said, "The embassy in Tel Aviv responded in accordance to Israeli public opinion, however the Swedish government is committed to freedom of the press."

She added that Israel had not issued an official complaint on the report.

Another Swedish government spokesperson, Anders Jorle said, "The Foreign Ministry would not have acted in the same way" as the ambassador.

The editor of Aftonbladet, Jan Helin, said, "It's deeply unpleasant and sad to see such a strong propaganda machine using centuries-old anti-Semitic images in an apparent attempt to get an obviously topical issue off the table." Helin called it an opinion piece raising questions of Israel in the context of a suspected link to Israel in that U.S. case. He denied any suggestion of anti-Semitism from his paper.

There was nothing in the presentation of the article to indicate that it was supposed to be an opinion piece rather than a factual article. The dodge of disseminating lies as facts and then claiming it is "opinion" is a common one, though some journalistic standards officially forbid such behavior. Helin now has the best of both worlds, since he can defend the libel as just "opinion" while at the same time insisting that it is a "topical issue" that should be discussed, implying that it is true or has some basis in fact. It seems the blood libel is always "topical."

If a person publishes an opinion piece stating that a Martian is impersonating the President of the United States, is it just nonsense or a topical issue that should be discussed? If I write that Holocaust survivors remember Jan Helin's father as a volunteer SS Einsatzgruppenfuhrer who participated in the Babi Yar massacre, I am after all just quoting a source, right? It doesn't have to be true. Is it an opinion piece or a topical issue? How about if I quote witnesses who insist they saw a homosexual orgy with the participation of Donald Bostrom, author of the article, and editor Helin, both dressed as Gestapo officers? How can the public be protected from random inventions of racists and sensationalists if every such claim can hide behind the defense of "opinion piece" and get the protection of "freedom of the press?"

Ami Isseroff

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Sweden revives blood libel against Israel

"Legitimate criticism" of Israel reached new lows of depravity in Sweden when Sweden's leading daily newspaper revived the medieval blood libel accusation against the IDF. in a sensational article titled ""Our sons plundered for their organs"(Swedish article is here: aftonbladet.se/kultur/article5652583.ab). Based on this accusation, "Anti-Zionist" Web sites and e-mail lists are hurrying to circulate the "news" that the IDF kills Palestinian Arabs in order to extract their organs for transplants.

The reporter, one Donald Bostrom, assembled a farrago of unrelated stories about illegal organ trafficking from Israel, including a story about the arrest of a New York Jew engaged in selling kidneys contrary to Israeli law. He used hearsay and rumor from Palestinians about the fate of relatives killed during the Intifada:

I was in the area and worked on a book when I several times was contacted by UN staff who were concerned about the development. Those who contacted me felt that body theft actually took place, but that they were unable to act. On behalf of a television company, I then went around and spoke to a large number of Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza....

"'Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,' relatives of Khaled from Nablus said to me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin as well as the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who all had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and autopsied. - Why did they keep the bodies up to five days before we can bury them? What happened to the bodies in the meantime? And why is the autopsy when the cause of death is obvious, and in all cases against our will? And why are the bodies returned at night?".

Evidently, the rumors spread due to ignorance of forensic autopsy procedures and Jew hate, encouraged by UN personnel. Bostrom described in detail the case of one Bilal Achmed Ghanian, 19, whose body was returned after autopsy after he was killed in 1992. It is probable, but unclear, that the victims were dead when they were evacuated. Of course, organs cannot be harvested from cadavers. Bostrom quoted an IDF denial and explanation that the autopsies were routine, but Bostrom implied that the denial is false:

The routine autopsy of killed Palestinians, as told by the army spokesman is not true in reality in the Occupied Territories. .

The use of rumor and hearsay, and more especially the unrelated material about illegal organ traffic, make it clear that Bostrom set out to intentionally libel Israel and the Jewish people. The Israeli ambassador lodged a strong protest, but this can hardly be a deterrent to people like Bostrom. If a similar report about Muslims had been published in a Scandinavian journal, wouldn't there be violent world wide demonstrations as there were after the Danish Muhammad cartoons?

Swedish Jews claim Bostrom is a known anti-Semite and AftonBladet has published similar articles. The Swedish Embassy in Israel has apologized, but a culture editor of Aftonbladet told Haaretz that the publication stands by the story and insists on an "international investigation" of the alleged nefarious Jewish activities.

The libel of organ stealing is not new and may have originated with Yasser Arafat himself. According to a 2002 Honest Reporting article:

the Islamic Association for Palestine reported that Yasser Arafat "has accused the Israeli apartheid regime of murdering Palestinian children and youths and extricating their vital organs for organ transplants."

It is one thing when racist Palestinian leaders make accusations of Jewish blood libel, but quite another phenomenon and much more ominous when they appear in a respected northern European "Nordic" country journal. It seems that there are no longer any real limits to what may be published under the guise of supposedly "legitimate criticism of Israel." A competing Swedish newspaper has published a horrified editorial.The liberal Sydsvenskan - southern Sweden's major daily ran an opinion piece of Mats Skogkär called "Antisemitbladet" (a play on the name Aftonbladet):

"We have heard the story before, in one form or the other. It follows the traditional pattern of conspiracy theory: a great number of loose threads that the theorist tempts the reader to tie into a neat knot without having been provided with any proven connection whatsoever..."

"Whispers in the dark. Anonymous sources. Rumors. That is all it takes. After all we all know what they [the Jews] are like, don't we: inhuman, hardened. Capable of anything," the opinion piece says. "Now all that remains is the defense, equally predictable: 'Anti-Semitism' No, no, just criticism of Israel."

The tale is not told in a cultural vacuum of course. The stories of Bilal Achmed Ghanian and the others are backed by a rich European tradition of "legitimate criticism" of Jews. They have joined the European pantheon of fraudulent blood libel martys, which includes numerous "saints" revered by the Catholic church for many years, such as Saint Andreas of Rinn , Saint Simon of Trent, and Saint Hugh of Lincoln. Aftonbladet has carried on in a more modern tradition of Nordic journalism, illustrated by the following twentieth century cartoon from the Westdeutchen Beobachter, also considered "legitimate criticism" by its defenders:

Ami Isseroff

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Guardian's Gaza war crimes goof

When ludicrousness stops being funny, the Guardian Gaza report

I thought there is little more to add on the Guardian videos accusing the IDF of war crimes during the Gaza operation, given what has already been written in ZioNation, in the Jerusalem Post by the indispensable Melanie Philips and more, and more. And more as these lines are been written, but apparently, there is more to add.

In the first video I was struck by the Guardian reporter's decision to go to the Israeli website 'Shavuz' for technical information about Israel's unmanned drones capabilities. Shavuz is Hebrew slang for 'worn-out' or over worked. The site serves primarily as a service for soldiers before enlisting and before rejoining civilian lives. It gives advices on jobs, and academic courses along with social interactions in forums, exchange of war stories, and other army life experiences. IT IS NOT a supplier of professional information on Israel's technological capabilities; there are plenty of other sites and publication for that, many of them in English. Using 'Shavuz' for information on technology is the equivalent of using the 'London Employment Help Center' for information on the electronics of the London Tube. It is simply ludicrous; unfortunately there is nothing here to laugh at.

This link from 'Shavuz' would have given the Guardian part of the answer to their repeated question as to why so many civilians were hurt. In it Israeli pilots recall how Hamas operatives were dressed as women so the Israeli forces won't fire on them. More: When ludicrousness stops being funny, the Guardian Gaza report

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IDF Investigation Refutes the Testimonies About Gaza Killings.

IDF Investigation Refutes the Testimonies About Gaza Killings.

Maariv in (Hebrew)

22.3.09

[Complete translation by Israel News ]

Today, Sunday, an IDF officer whose troops fought in Gaza will present the conclusions of his personal investigation in the wake of testimony of soldiers in his brigade about incidents of killing of Palestinian civilians during Operation Cast Lead. The investigation reveals that in at least two of the incidents mentioned in the testimony, which raised a storm of public controversy, no Palestinian women were killed as had been claimed.

Two central incidents that were brought to light in the testimony, which Danny Zamir, the head of the Rabin pre-military academy presented to Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi, focus on one infantry brigade. Today the brigade's commander will present the findings of his personal investigation about the matter which he undertook in the last few day to Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Gaza division,, and after approval, he will present his findings to the head of the Southern Command, Major General Yoav Gallant.

Light Finger on the trigger

Regarding the incident in which it was claimed that a sniper fired at a Palestinian woman and her two daughters, the brigade commander's investigation cites the sniper: "I saw the woman and her daughters and I shot warning shots. The section commander came up to the roof and shouted at me, ?Why did you shoot at them.' I explained that I did not shoot at them, but I fired warning shots."

Officers from the brigade suspect that fighters who remained in the lower story of the Palestinian house thought that he hit the the women, and from there the rumor that a sniper killed a mother and her two daughters spread.

Regarding the second incident, in which it was claimed that soldiers went up to the roof to entertain themselves with firing and killed an elderly Palestinian woman, the brigade commander investigation found that there was no such incident.

According to one of the officers, "The number of terrorists killed and the extent of arrests in "Operation Cast Lead" varied from brigade to brigade because the troops fought in different areas, and as part of the tradition there is always competition to show that your brigade is more combat ready. Nonetheless, the official evaluation has not yet begun and among field commanders there is a fear that troops will bring to light additional incidents that took place during the fighting.

An officer of an elite unit that fought deep in Palestinian territory in Operation Cast Lead told NRG Maariv, "There was a light trigger finger during operation Cast Lead without a doubt, and non-combatant ("uninvolved") civilians were killed without doubt. But there was no deliberate harm done to innocent civilians. I am fully convinced that there was no soldier who shot for no reason out of a desire for revenge. I don't know of any such cases.

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Purity of arms - Counterclaims about 'war crimes'

Purity of arms

Mar. 22, 2009
, THE JERUSALEM POST

Had the car containing 40 kilograms of explosives detonated shortly after 9:20 p.m. Saturday at the outdoor car park adjacent to Haifa's Lev Hamifratz mall, the death toll would have been shockingly high - the equivalent, the bomb squad said, of seven or eight suicide bombers. Fortunately, the device malfunctioned and was discovered before Palestinian terrorists could turn a night at the mall into a murder-filled nightmare.

The incident reminds us Israelis of what we are up against: an enemy whose main modus operandi is anti-civilian warfare, necessitating that we guard everything from schools and supermarkets to cinemas and hospitals.

Many observers are fascinated by how a largely tolerant Western society, the epicenter of Jewish civilization, manages to function in an environment of relentless belligerency. When those outsiders combine empathy with insight, they tend to judge Israel as a work-in-progress worthy of encouragement despite its multitude of imperfections.

But starry-eyed idealists - at home and abroad - hold Israel to a different standard: Do we conduct ourselves 24/7 as paragons of virtue unhindered by the character flaws that burden ordinary mortals? And when - surprise, surprise - we fall short of this yardstick, they denigrate us as being no better than our enemies.

HOW ELSE to evaluate the so-called testimonies of troops who served in Gaza, solicited and disseminated by Dani Zamir, founder of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic College outside Haifa? They allege that due to "loose rules of engagement" several Palestinian civilians were needlessly killed during Operation Cast Lead.

In one of the two most egregious cases, an IDF sharpshooter mistakenly shot a Palestinian mother and her two children. A soldier in Zamir's discussion group, however, felt the sharpshooter hadn't felt "too bad about it." In the second case, a Palestinian woman described as "elderly" was shot at 100 meters as she approached an IDF position (Was she suspected of being a suicide bomber? Zamir's testimonies don't say).

These "revelations" received three consecutive days of page 1 coverage in Haaretz, and were also featured in Friday's Ma'ariv, even though Zamir was disinclined to reveal the identities of his "witnesses." And whether the men who took part in his discussion session were aware their remarks would be publish as "testimony" is unclear.

Zamir's secular young people appeared perturbed by the presence of IDF chaplains in the field, and by the esprit de corps of the religiously observant soldiers.

While the BBC gave scant coverage to the attempted attack in Haifa, it played up Zamir's claims: "Israel troops admit Gaza abuses... including cold-blooded murder."

The International Herald Tribune led its Friday paper with "Grim testimony on Israeli assault: Soldiers report killing of unarmed civilians in Gaza." And London's matchless Independent splashed its entire front page with "Israel's dirty secrets in Gaza."

AS Post diplomatic reporter Herb Keinon noted in the Friday paper - alongside our own coverage of the allegations - Zamir is a man with an agenda. He was sentenced to 28 days in a military lock-up for refusing to protect West Bank settlers. Should the Kibbutz Movement deem him a worthy exemplar to prepare its youngsters for induction into the IDF?

Zamir's "witnesses" see themselves as virtuous upholders of liberal values, and the comrades-in-arms they criticize as religious fanatics, bloodthirsty and fascist.

More "revelations" are coming to light. Channel 10 unearthed a company commander who instructed his men as they were about to go into battle: "I want aggressiveness - if there's someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we'll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we'll take it down…If it is us or them, it will be them."

Gosh! How would Zamir have reacted to Gen. George S. Patton's famous line: "Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his…."

Zamir's uncorroborated claims help blur the distinction between "us and them." But we don't set out to kill innocents - and if we do, our society feels anguish. They set out to kill civilians - and when they fail, they're disappointed.

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Hamas: Big surprises waiting for the occupation .. The resistance has used only 40% of capacity

Hamas Big surprises waiting for the occupation .. The resistance has used only 40% of capacity
2009-01-10 2009-01-10
Qassam agencies:

Source: alqassam.ps/arabic/news1.php?id=7456 (translated)

Palestinian sources familiar with the capabilities of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza stated: "The land battle has not started yet and the Palestinian resistance has used only 40% of its capacity in the battle on the edge of the Gaza Strip."

The sources said that "the Zionist tanks are still stationed in the open and agricultural areas and did not enter the Palestinian cities in the Gaza Strip", indicating that the tanks were in open areas in Rafah or Khan Younis camps, or central and northern Gaza.

The sources noted that the units of snipers and suicide bombers and booby-trapped houses and cars and thousands of fighters from the field units equipped with improvised explosive devices and rocket-launching persons and teams are not yet participating in the battle on the edge of the sector.

The sources pointed out that the artillery units assigned to the firing of mortar shells and rockets will operate out of thousands of cells of the resistance and deploy in the field and take their places in the streets and alleys, waiting for the battle between the alleys of refugee camps and neighborhoods.

The sources confirmed the fact that the war is expected to peak with the resistance meeting face to face with Israeli soldiers, noting that it was possible to increase the number of martyrs to more than ten thousand dead and thousands injured in the risk of heavy losses on the enemy. "

They revealed the existence of Palestinian resistance cells of about 40 people each, equipped with automatic weapons of various types, each equipped with ammunition and bombs.

The sources expected that all the combatants will join the people of the Gaza Strip in the battle against the Palestinian people, indicating that "a small number of fighters were involved in the battle on the edge of the sector now."

It stressed that "in the battle between the alleys of the camp, a proficient Palestinian fighter knows the streets and alleys of the camp and exits and entrances of homes in the Gaza Strip," they said, adding that the army of occupation in the Gaza Strip did not expect more than nominal resistance, and that Hamas benefited from the experience of battle in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002 and well as the experience of the July War on Lebanon in 2006.

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"Hamas:" Land battle with the enemy did not start .. The resistance is fully prepared

alqassam.ps/arabic/news1.php?id=7448
"Hamas:" Land battle with the enemy did not start .. The resistance is fully prepared
2009-01-10 2009-01-10
Qassam agencies:

According to the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas", the majority of the targets that had been shelled by Israel in the last days of the aggression are civilian targets, and did not deprive the resistance of its components. That was however, the easy part, and they were prepared for the ground battle ground that has  not yet begun.

The leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas", Mushir al-Masri, told reporters that the resistance has only lost a few fightes, and the targeting of civilians by the entity is only evidence of military and political failure. He said: "We stress that the resistance has only lost a few now in its battle with the Zionist occupation, We emphasize that more than 1000 casuality goal of the Zionist enemy is achieved by hitting civilian targets from universities, schools, hospitals, mosques and homes, and targeting of civilians is proof of the failure and bankruptcy by the enemy who did not face resistance on the ground so far. "

Al-Masri pointed out that the land battle "has not yet begun, and that the Zionist forces are still in the frontier areas and in the open", and said: "The land battle has not started yet, the enemy is still on the edge of the regions, and preparations for resistance is great, and the dozens of people killed among the Zionists is evidence of the strength of the resistance; we are at the back of this enemy, we will not enable the invasion of Gaza and the resistance will cause them losses, and launch dozens of rockets on a daily basis towards the Zionist settlements, "as he put it.

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Senior Jihad man, 14 others die in IDF strikes

Senior Jihad man, 14 others die in IDF strikes

 

Ziad Abu Tir, fourteen people killed in strikes on northern Gaza; terror organizations prepare for ground incursion, vow to send out 'hundreds of car bombs and suicide bombers'. Over 60 rockets fired at Israel

 

Ali Waked
Latest Update:  12.29.08, 17:56 / Israel News

 

Gaza under fire: Palestinian source in the strip reported Monday evening of several IAF strikes across the strip.

 

Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck two targets in northern Gaza, both near the home of one of Hamas'  senior military wing operatives. News agencies reported that at least 20 people were killed and dozens were injured.

 

 Another strike in the Northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya hit the home of a senior member of the group's recruiting branch; and a third took out a truck carrying Grad rockets in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Jabalya. According to the IDF, the truck was either headed towards a hiding place or to launching pads.

According to the Palestinian, none of the Hamas operatives were in their homes during the strikes.

Eelier Monday, Ziad Abu-Tir (35) a senior member of the Islamic Jihad's military wing was among five people killed in an IAF strike in the Khan Younis area. His brother, nephew and two other people died in the attack as well. Five people were injured and the area sustained heavy damage.

A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad's military wing said that "this is another massacre and crime" and that Israel must wait for the organization's response.

A source in one of the organizations warned that gunmen in Gaza were well prepared for a ground offensive. "We'll kidnap soldiers, and it will equal all of this destruction," he told Ynet.

 

Meanwhile, the rocket fire continued Monday, with more than 60 rockets landing in southern Israel since the morning hours and one person killed in a construction site in the city of Ashkelon.

One of the rockets hit a house in Sderot, which was fortunately empty. Neighbors reported of complete devastation, as security forces evacuated the area fearing a gas leak. Several people suffered shock and were treated by Magen David Adom emergency services' paramedics.

 

'We still have ace up our sleeve'

 

The armed Palestinian organizations reported that they were completing their preparations for Israel's expected ground offensive. A Palestinian source told Ynet that "the Israeli side must wait for a united Strip under the ground and for hundreds of car bombs and hundreds of suicide bombers."

 

Another senior source in the groups said that all of the organizations were preparing to abduct soldiers. "If the kidnapping plan proves successful it will compare to all the destruction Israel had caused."

 

A Hamas source rejected the reports suggesting that the rocket fire at Ashdod, as well as the reports of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was hurt, are evident of the organization's distress. "We have sent messages that we can fire to longer distances that the Israelis are used to and that the Israeli soldier is held in the Strip," he said.

 

The source refused to elaborate on Shalit's condition.

 

According to Hamas, the rockets on Ashdod was fired from deep within the Strip and any launchings from its northern part would surely hit targets northerly in Israel, perhaps bringing them closer to central Israel.

 

"We have other aces up our sleeves and we will use them when the time and place are right," said the source; adding that while the number of Palestinian casualties' numbers in the hundreds, no more than 10 Hamas operatives have been killed.

 

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Israeli FM Livni: Gaza Operation - December 29

Address by Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni
at the Knesset on the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip
29 December 2008 Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Address by Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni at the Knesset on the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip

Since this past Saturday morning, Israel has been fighting the terrorist rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip in order to change the security situation in Israel - the situation in which the citizens of the western Negev and the entire State of Israel have been exposed to incessant bombing out of Gaza. These are days of ordeal, responsibility and considered judgment, and not days for criticism, factionalism and politics.

Esteemed Members of Knesset, these days the world is divided between moderates and extremists, between those who believe in live-and-let-live and those who try to impose their beliefs upon others, between people who wish to live in peace and people for whom hate, incitement, terror and violence are their daily routine, the basis for educating their children, and the voices emanating from some of their mosques.

These are the days when every individual in the region and in the world has to choose a side. And the sides have changed. No longer is it Israel on one side and the Arab world on the other. No longer is it a choice between the political process and hope, or a war on terror. Israel chose its side the day it was established; the Jewish people chose its side during its thousands of years of existence, and the prayer for peace is the voice sounded in the synagogues.

There is one thing I am unwilling to accept. Choosing peace does not mean surrendering to the radical and terrorist elements. And while fighting terror, it is forbidden to abandon the political process and hope. Choosing peace and life is part of the war on terror and extremism. And Israel's side, the right side, is the side of all those who want to advance the peace process based on the idea of two states and everyone who understands that we need to fight against our common enemies.

Let no one make the mistake of thinking that our values, our aspirations for peace, and our commitment to democracy will prevent us from doing what we must do in order to protect each and every Israeli citizen. Israel is making it plain yet again today that its desire for peace is not a sign of weakness. Israel is proving that it has the ability, the will and the social and political cohesiveness to defend itself against those seeking to inflict harm upon it.

Many voices are making themselves heard throughout the world today in English, French and Arabic, and, in a clear, strong voice, we are telling them all the truth that is not broadcast on television in the Arab world - and this is the truth that needs to be voiced from this podium to the entire world.

The true conflict is between the extremist elements and the moderates in the region. Hamas is an extremist Islamic organization that does not represent any of the Palestinian people's aspirations, but rather is ruling them for its own ends and purposes. Hamas does not recognize the existence of Israel or Israel's right to exist here. It lives off fear and hate. Hamas receives support from Iran and Syria, in the form of money, weapons, and training. Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Israel is on the right side. We made a strategic decision to advance the peace process with those who have chosen the same side as us and wish to promote the idea of two states. We immediately made it clear that we can only succeed if at the same time we all take a stand against the terror and hate that Hamas represents.

When we made the decision to leave Gaza in order to disengage ourselves from responsibility for what was happening there and to create an opportunity for peace, we clarified at the time that Israel is not leaving the key to its life and security in the hands of whoever will be in charge there.

Hamas, which is ruling Gaza, refuses to accept the three conditions of recognizing Israel, renouncing terror, and accepting previous agreements. We will not accept the use of any similar language when it comes to Hamas and Israel. We are responsible for our security. Israel's approach to security does cannot be put off to later. We retained the capability to respond, and that is exactly what we are doing today.

Israel has been under attack from Gaza for the past eight years. We did everything we could to prevent a deterioration of the situation. We agreed to the calm that was immediately violated by Hamas when it refused to advance the release of Gilad Shalit, continued to arm itself, and continued firing. The calm was violated by Hamas. Hamas is the party responsible for violating the calm; and whoever has given Hamas support, assistance and refuge is today paying the price.

Israel is entitled to defend itself against any attempt to harm its sovereignty, the well-being of its residents and the security of its citizens. Israel's actions fulfill its basic right to self defense. Hamas is a terrorist organization – and we are treating it as such.

Israel is acting against Hamas and not against the Palestinian population. Israel would like to reiterate to anyone with complaints about the population, to redirect them to the party directly responsible for the population's situation – Hamas, which is holding the population hostage.

Israel has done everything possible to avoid the moment at which it would be forced to take action, but that moment finally came. We will make the most of it, in order to change the equation.

Israel is waging a struggle, but this struggle is not Israel's alone. Israel is standing on the frontlines of the Western world's war against terror, and we expect support for doing the right thing and fighting the war of the entire free world.

It is true: the pictures broadcast on television all over the world are provoking harsh public opinion against Israel. Unfortunately, some of the world's decision makers are swayed by public opinion and the media, even though they know what is true and what is not, and how they would act in a similar situation.

From this podium, I call upon the world's leaders, and particularly those from the Arab world – those who understand that the threat does not come from Israel but from the radical elements in the world, headed by Iran; those who know what Hamas really is; those who know that Hamas is a problem for the entire Palestinian people and not just Israel's problem. They know that as long as Hamas rules in Gaza, Gaza cannot be part of a Palestinian state. They know that the road to peace passes through the war on terror, extremism, hate and incitement, which means a war against Hamas and those like Hamas.

It is the leader's responsibility to make choices. Leadership has the power and the responsibility to do what is right, even if runs counter to public opinion, and this is the test of what is right.

This is also a test of the leadership of the Arab public in Israel. You are leading the Arab population here on a thin rope. The thin line between what is allowed and what is forbidden must not be crossed - between legitimate and illegitimate, between right and wrong. Each of you must choose a side, and the choice is between Arab and Jew. The right side is the State of Israel along with all the moderate elements in the region, including the lion's share of the Palestinian public and the Arab world. Then there is the side of terror and extremism. There is no middle ground.

Yesterday I was in Sderot with the foreign ambassadors, and the mayor told them a story that I would like to share with you as well. Schoolchildren who wanted to prove their rabbi wrong held a butterfly in their hands and asked him if it was alive or dead. If he said alive, they would crush it; if he said dead, they would open their hands and set it free. Upon being asked, the rabbi responded, "It is in your hands. If you wish, it will live. If you wish, it will die."

Israel knows how to rally together when it is fighting for its own. A country must protect all its citizens. On the way here, I heard that Hamas has announced that the man killed by the rocket strike in Ashkelon was a Zionist, although he was actually an Israeli Arab. They don't make that distinction.

We have conducted ourselves with unsurpassed restraint. We grinded our teeth, bit our lips, unturned every stone, to prevent the need for widespread action. However, our responsibility is to the safety of our children, their right to walk to school and kindergarten. Living quietly is the right of every person on this earth. This parliament, like this entire nation, needs to be united and to send out our thanks to the IDF, to the members of Israel Security Agency, and to all those fighting and protecting the home front. The home front that has become the front line in recent years, and to which we must restore peace of mind.

Continued (Permanent Link)

IDF video clears Israel of blame for Gaza family deaths

Here are two stories about the death of the Gaza family and the video taken by the drone. Neither quite captures the flavor of the incident. Unfortunately, the video is apparently not yet available on the Web, but it was shown on Israeli TV. Clearly, the IDF was chasing an armed group and had fired missiles at it. In each case, a small detonation was followed by a larger one, indicating that the missile hit ignited explosives. One of the group reached an area in front of the courtyard of the family in Beit Hanoun. The family was in the courtyard, which was concealed from the drone cameras by hedges. A small missile fired at the terrorist touched off a much larger explosion, killing the family.

 

In the film, the terrorists are clearly seen to be running as IDF pursues them, but a Swiss volunteer in Gaza claimed that the Palestinians had invented the fable that the Islamic Jihad man had come to distribute sweets to the family, celebrating killing or wounding of two Israeli soldiers. Amon the "sweets" it seems were several RPG rockets.

 

Moral of the story - beware of Islamic Jihad terrorists bearing sweets.

 

Ami Isseroff

 

 

Last update - 18:34 02/05/2008

IDF releases clip clearing itself of blame for Gaza family deaths

By Haaertz Service and News Agencies

The Israel Defense Forces on Friday released a video exonerating itself of responsibility for the deaths of Palestinian woman and her four children in Beit Hanun on Monday, which the clip shows were caused by the detonation of explosives carried by a Gaza militant hit in an Israel Air Force strike.

Israel and Hamas have exchanged accusations since the incident over blame for the civilians' deaths in the northern Gaza Strip town.


According to the IDF panel investigating the deaths, the target of the IAF strike on Monday was a group of four Palestinian gunmen which had been identified.

IDF Spokesperson's Office said the panel concluded that, "one gunman was targeted and hit from the air. As a result a strong secondary explosion occurred" when ammunition and weaponry he was carrying in a back pack was detonated.

This "secondary" blast was what killed the mother and her four small children, according to the Spokesperson's Office statement, which continued: "The second gunman was targeted and hit as well, causing an even bigger explosion ... Both explosions were significantly stronger than those caused by the IDF attacks against them."

Four militants, armed with weapons, are clearly seen walking near the home in the clip.

The video formed the principal evidence for the panel, which was appointed by GOC Southern Command Major General Yoav Galant.

Army spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovitz, said the militants were going out to battle in the middle of residential neighborhood.

An Israeli human rights group had called for a criminal probe, saying the military appeared to have violated international law by firing close to the family's home.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert voiced "deep remorse" for the victims, but said Hamas militants operating in civilian areas had exposed non-combatants to danger and turned them "into an inseparable part of the war."

*****

Israel issues drone video of disputed Gaza deaths

 

Fri May 2, 2008 11:11am EDT

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's military released video footage on Friday which it said showed that accidentally detonated Palestinian munitions, rather than direct Israeli fire, killed a Gazan woman and four of her children this week.

Residents of Beit Hanoun, a town in the northern Gaza Strip, insisted that the April 28 deaths were caused by an Israeli tank shell or air force missile fired at Myassar Abu Meateq's home.

An unrelated Palestinian described by hospital officials as a 17-year-old student was killed outdoors in the same incident. Another Palestinian of about the same age was wounded.

Publishing the conclusions of an internal investigation along with black-and-white footage from a surveillance drone, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) spokesman said that during fighting in Beit Hanoun the air force twice fired missiles at Palestinian gunmen "carrying backpacks loaded with ammunition" near the home.

"One gunman was targeted and hit from the air. As a result a strong secondary explosion occurred," the spokesman said in a statement.

"The second gunman was targeted and hit as well, causing an even bigger explosion ... Both explosions were significantly stronger than those caused by the IDF attacks against them."

The first clip of high-angle footage tracks two figures walking on a road. A caption describes them as gunmen, though weapons cannot clearly be seen. An explosion envelopes the two, followed by a second, slightly bigger blast moments later.

The second clip shows a figure lying outside a building that a caption marks as the Abu Meateq home. A big and sustained explosion takes place, its flames reaching into the building.

A caption says that this "larger explosion" was "most likely caused by the setting off of weaponry carried by the terrorist". Another caption says that the Israeli missile that set off the blast was aimed at the centre of the street.

"The possibility that the family was hit by other IDF fire was eliminated since this was the only incident recorded that day in which attacks were carried out in the area," the spokesman's statement said.

Hamas and Abu Meateq's neighbors denied that Palestinian gunmen were operating near the home during the Israeli attacks.

The Palestinian faction Islamic Jihad said one of its gunmen was killed by Israeli forces elsewhere in northern Gaza. Another Palestinian militant was shot dead later in the day.

The killing of Abu Meateq and the four siblings -- whose ages ranged from 1-1/2 to 5 years old -- dealt a blow to Egyptian bids to broker a Gaza truce between Hamas and Israel.

Hamas deplored the deaths as a "war crime" and fired short-range rockets across the border in retaliation. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was "deeply sorry" about the deaths but blamed Hamas fighters for operating among civilians.

Ibrahim Abu Meateq, a half-brother of the four slain children, dismissed the Israeli military's findings as a lie.

"We knew they were not going to treat us fairly. Other families have been eliminated before and they didn't take responsibility," he told Reuters, referring to the high civilian toll from past Israeli raids on Gaza.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Avida Landau in Jerusalem, Editing by Giles Elgood)

Continued (Permanent Link)

Three Israeli soldiers killed in clashes near Gaza border

Last update - 15:34 16/04/2008    

 

 Three Israeli soldiers killed in clashes near Gaza border 

 

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent 
 
Three Israel Defense Forces soldiers from the elite Givati Brigade were killed on Wednesday in an exchange of heavy gunfire with Palestinian militants next to the Gaza Strip security fence.

 

A preliminary IDF investigation suggests that an operational mishap occurred during the soldiers' raid, a senior officer in the Southern Command told Haaretz.

 

The officer said that the army was investigating why reinforcements were not sent to back up the Givati troops and whether the soldiers were sent on the correct path.

 

  
The IDF said that the clashes occurred near Kibbutz Be'eri, in the western Negev, as troops entered the Strip to arrest a band of suspicious looking figures.

 

The soldiers were killed after troops spotted two Hamas militants planting a bomb near the Israeli border. Troops pursued the militants, only to fall into an ambush by another Hamas force lying in wait, Israeli defense officials said.

 

Three other soldiers were wounded in the clashes, two of them moderately, and were taken to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva for treatment.

 

The army named one of the slain soldiers as Corporal Matan Ovadati, 19, of Moshav Patish. The names of the other fatalities have not yet been released.

 

An IDF spokeswoman said soldiers had shot several Palestinian gunmen during the fighting, though there were no reports of injuries among the militants.

 

The six Israeli casualties were struck in the first few minutes of the clashes. Two were killed instantly, another was critically wounded, and the other four sustained various levels of injuries.

 

Palestinian medical workers and Hamas reported that IDF troops killed four Hamas gunmen in a separate battle in Gaza near a terminal used to supply fuel to the coastal territory.

 

Hamas said soldiers, backed by helicopters, killed the four militants during fighting east of Gaza City, a few hundred metres from the Nahal Oz border terminal. The terminal was the site of a terrorist attack last week, in which two Israeli civilian workers were shot dead by Gaza gunmen.

 

An IDF spokeswoman said soldiers clashed with Palestinian gunmen in the area and identified hitting them. An Israel Air Force air craft also fired at a group of gunmen, the army said.

 

At least five Palestinians were injured in the clashes at several points in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and medics said.

 

Two Palestinian civilians were wounded when their house was hit by a tank
shell, medics said. The army did not immediately comment on that incidents.

 

In one of the areas east of Gaza City, IDF armored vehicles hit and damaged a mosque, local residents said. Orange and olive trees were also
uprooted, the witnesses said. The IDF did not immediately comment on the damage to the mosque and trees.

 

Throughout the fighting, militants fired 10 Qassam rockets and a number of mortar shells at the western Negev on Wednesday morning. There was no word of casualties in any of the incidents.

 

Hamas claimed responsibility for both the Qassam fire as well as the slaying of the IDF soldiers.

 

Meanwhile, an IDF soldier was moderately wounded late Tuesday when shot by a Palestinian sniper in the central Gaza Strip.

 

Earlier Tuesday evening, the Israel Air Force attacked two Palestinian militants as they rode a motorcycle through the northern Gaza Strip, killing one and wounding the other, Hamas police officials said.

 

They identified the casualties from the missile attack in Jabalya refugee camp as members of Islamic Jihad, one of several Palestinian militant factions.

 

The dead man was named as Mohammed Ghausain, Islamic Jihad's commander in northern Gaza. He was hit while riding his motorcycle in the Jabalya refugee camp, Palestinians said.

Continued (Permanent Link)

The Winograd report: a bigger failure than the Second Lebanon War

This is my take on the Winograd report at ZioNation Web log.

 

Ami Isseroff

The Winograd Report on the Second Lebanon War

30.01. 2008
http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000485.html
Original content copyright by the author
Zionism & Israel Center http://zionism-israel.com

The long awaited Winograd report on the Second Lebanon War (see text of press conference on Winograd findings) has finally arrived. The suspense, if there was any, has ended, not with a bang, but a whimper. The public part of the report noted strategic failures at the military and political levels, but the report is so vaguely worded that everyone can make any claim they wish.

We should put the failure of the Second Lebanon war in context and understand its significance. Failures of individual operations are nothing new and plague every army. IDF has never been immune from such failures, from the Israel War of Independence and throughout each campaign, successful or otherwise.The political decisions made after every war have always likewise not been uniformly optimal, and the decision to go to war has sometimes been questionable. However, never before has Israel seen such a combination of failures at every level, inflated expectations, incompetent military strategy, failure to protect civilians, low morale, failure of national purpose, decisions that disregarded the value of the lives of soldiers and diplomatic and public relations bungling. The Israel government tried to match the most powerful army in the Middle East against an enemy whose main weapon is his mouth, and the mouth won.

The report itself is a continuation of the failures of the Lebanon war and the political reaction to the report is a further continuation of those failures. The report was obviously tailored to serve political interests and protect those in power, at least in the public version. The politicians are each interpreting the report in terms of their own interests. Hassan Nasrallah of the Hezbollah joined forces with Likud and other Israeli opposition leaders in claiming that the report indicates Olmert is a failure and has lost all credibility. Kadima party members insist that the report exonerates Ehud Olmert.

Continued at The Winograd Report on the Second Lebanon War

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Rabin took responsibility for a failed mission

(Cross-posted from Israel: Like this, as if)

Israel's media are busy reminiscing about Yitzhak Rabin.

Today (Oct. 24) on our Hebrew lunar calendar is 12 Heshvan, the 12th anniversary of the assassinated Prime Minister's death. (On the Gregorian calendar, the assassination took place Nov. 4.)

One Rabin memory which stays with me is hearing the rumble of his deep voice in a television broadcast that echoed from open windows along the silent streets of Tel Aviv on Sabbath Eve, October 14, 1994.

Rabin had gone on the air to announce the failure of a rescue mission. A Sayeret Matcal commando force acting on precise intelligence had raided a house north of Jerusalem in an effort to free Nahshon Wachsman, a young Israeli soldier who was being held hostage by Hamas. The hostage died in the rescue attempt, which also took the life of the Israeli mission commander, Capt. Nir Poraz, 23.

Today in a radio interview one of his aides recalled that Rabin insisted that night on publicly taking responsibility for the failure of the mission. Ehud Barak, who was then the military chief of staff, was ready to go on the air with the announcement, the aide said, but Rabin emphasized, "I was responsible."

Rabin later said that approving this rescue operation was one of the most difficult decisions of his life.

Taking responsibility is a quality for which people remember Rabin. How many other heads of government can you recall going on national television to take responsibility for a mission that failed?

-- Joseph M. Hochstein, Tel Aviv, October 24, 2007

Continued (Permanent Link)

Preparing for the worst: Israel's missile defense

Israel To Develop Top-Tier Missile Interceptor
By BARBARA OPALL-ROME Posted 10/22/07 18:22

TEL AVIV - While Israeli political leaders may still harbor hope of diplomatically dismantling Iran's nuclear program, Ministry of Defense (MoD) officials are forging ahead with plans to develop new top-tier defenses against doomsday-like threats should diplomacy fail.

"Unlike the diplomats and politicians, we don't have the luxury of hope," a senior military planner here said. "Our job is to anticipate the most extreme, worst-case scenarios and make sure we're prepared to handle them."

Defense and industry officials say the prospective top-tier defensive layer - known here as Arrow-3 - requires development of an entirely new interceptor capable of blunting potentially devastating salvo attacks by nuclear-tipped Iranian missiles. Preliminary MoD plans envision the exo-atmospheric Arrow-3 as the nation's future front line of active defense, with the operational Arrow-2 deployed as a second-echelon guard against lesser threats and so-called leakers.

The planned upward extension of Israel's defensive envelope promises more opportunities to intercept incoming missiles, thereby boosting success rates - or so-called kill probabilities - from current levels of more than 80 percent to "somewhere in the very high 90s," said the planner, a general officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

"After careful analysis, we've come to the conclusion that we need an upper layer," said Arieh Herzog, director of the MoD's Israel Missile Defense Organization. "Our requirement is now quite clear: We need to give ourselves more chances to intercept the threats we will face."

Herzog said he is confident that existing Block 3 and new Block 4 upgrades of the Arrow-2 are now capable of defending against current and projected near-term threats. But for the longer term, given the specter of synchronized launches of increasingly high-performance nuclear-tipped missiles, the top tier becomes imperative, he said.

Looking at All Threats

In a preliminary conceptual design study conducted over the past year or so, Herzog's team and experts from the Israel Air Force examined options for defending against future threats. Options included more Arrow-2 upgrades and the U.S.-planned Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system."What we discovered is that THAAD is an excellent system, and I'm sure
whoever uses THAAD will derive great benefit from it. But in our specific case, it cannot fit our requirements," Herzog said.

According to Herzog, Israel's operational force of Arrow-2 and PAC-2 systems now provide the type of high-low mix that the MoD plans to recreate - through Arrow-2 and the proposed Arrow-3 - for future, far more sophisticated threats.

"Right now, with Arrow-2 and existing Patriot systems, we have a good solution against the Scud-family of threats from Iran, Syria and other points in the region," he said.

The Israeli missile defense boss said security classification prevented him from discussing specific reasons that his evaluation team ultimately disqualified the THAAD. He said, however, Israeli professionals are discussing the top-tier report and the new Arrow-3 with counterparts from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

He said MDA support for the prospective interceptor is critical, not only for the considerable funding anticipated from Washington, but because of the need to share data and subsystem technologies over the life of the program.

"We've not yet decided how much year-by-year funding each side must earmark for the program, and we'll probably need to sign new documents about how technical information should be handled," Herzog said. "But I hope by the end of this year, all these details will be sorted out and we'll be able to say we have a real program."

He estimated it would take at least five years and "several hundred million dollars" for the first Arrow-3s to become operational.

Herzog said the new interceptor would use the same radar, battle management and other supporting systems developed for Arrow-2, helping to keep interoperability up and costs down.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will remain the prime contractor and lead integrator for the prospective Arrow-3 program, Herzog said.

In interviews here, industry sources said IAI has already begun negotiations with Boeing Missile Defense Systems to extend the co-production partnership begun in 2003. Boeing produces nearly 40 percent of Arrow-2 components under a complex, U.S.-funded government-to-government teaming agreement managed by Israel's MoD and the Arrow program office in Huntsville, Ala.

Two-Part Iran Strategy

Israel's two-pronged strategy for countering the Iranian threat was clearly evident last week, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Moscow pushing harsher sanctions on Tehran and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Washington drumming up support for strategic cooperative initiatives.

In an Oct. 16 Pentagon meeting focused largely on the Iranian threat, Barak and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed to collaborate jointly on multiple layers of anti-rocket and anti-missile defense. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the two sides agreed to establish a committee to evaluate Israel's proposed Arrow-3, as well as new developments aimed at halting "Palestinian rockets coming from Gaza."

Barak also reaffirmed Israel's "understanding" of multibillion-dollar arms packages planned for Arabian Gulf states as part of Washington's Iran-focused Gulf Security Dialogue, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The Iranian threat also dominated discussions Barak held with U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and key congressional leaders, Israeli sources here said.

Meanwhile, Olmert was attempting to persuade Russian President Vladmir Putin of the need for get-tough sanctions favored by Israel, the United States and many leading European states. In three hours of one-on-one deliberations - which included presentation of the latest Israeli intelligence on the Iranian nuclear program - Olmert managed to offset some of the Russian-Iranian solidarity exhibited during the Russian leader's visit to Tehran earlier last week, an Olmert aide said.

Yet key issues remain open, including pending Russian arms sales to Iran and Syria, the aide said. And while Putin "expressed genuine interest in understanding our security concerns," the aide said Moscow remains opposed "at this time" to sanctions.

Earlier last week, following meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Putin rebuffed U.S., European and Israeli calls for sanctions and insisted he had seen no convincing evidence to counter Tehran's claims that ongoing nuclear efforts are for peaceful, energy-related purposes. In an Oct. 16 news conference in Tehran, he upbraided Bush, French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy and other world leaders for even hinting at use of a military option to solve the dispute.

Israeli officials are taking comfort in Washington's commitment to deny Iran nuclear weapons.

They are also intensifying efforts in China, where they are appealing for support - or, at least non-active objection - to sanctions. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is scheduled to visit Beijing later this week in attempts to persuade Chinese leaders not to veto resolutions planned for introduction in the U.N. Security Council.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Israel to replenish war stocks from US AID

A report in defense news explains that Israel will replenish stocks of war materials depleted in the Lebanon war from U.S. aid, rather than relying on the local defense industry. U.S. aid must be used to purchase equipment in the United States.

 

This raises many questions. What happened in the last year that prevented replenishment of war stocks? What would have happened had there been a war with Syria? What will happen to Israeli defense if the US decides NOT to supply arms to Israel at some point?

 

According to the report:

 

While Congress and the administration support MoD's acquisition efforts, Israeli industry executives are concerned about the huge amounts of money to be spent on American, rather than locally made, weaponry.

Hardest hit are Israel's state-owned Rafael Armament Development Authority, Israel Aerospace Industries and Israel Military Industries, all of which produce alternative weapons that executives here insist are often more capable than U.S. systems.

Executives here took particular exception to MoD's plans to fill Air Force warehouses with U.S. Sidewinder air-to-air and AMRAAM missiles, when the Python-5, Derby and follow-on indigenous systems were specifically designed to Israeli requirements. Industry sources here note that locally built air-to-air missiles for decades have come to symbolize Israeli industrial acumen on the world market.

If future Air Force stocks are filled with U.S. missiles, firms here not only are denied billions of shekels in new orders, but risk significant erosion in international sales, sources here say.

 

 

A particular case for local weaponry was made dramatically by the use of U.S. manufactured cluster bombs, which are made to a low standard and leave a lot of unexploded material that is hazardous to civilians.

 

The amount of aid cited in the article is not materially higher than aid in previous years, despite the supposed compensation for military sales to Arab countries.

 

Why doesn't anyone think of releasing a larger share of this aid for use in purchasing Israeli made equipment?

 

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Barak versus the ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers

The article states:

11% received exemptions this year on grounds of being ultra-Orthodox, an increase of 1% over last year.

As it is Jerusalem Post, we can assume that they mean that last year there were 10% ultra-Orthodox exemptions, and this year there were 11%. That is an increase of about 10%, not 1%.

 

For our mathematicians: assume that the number of ultraorthodox increases at the rate of 10% of current ultra-orthodox draft dodgers each year. In what year will all draftees be exempt because they are all ultra-orthodox, unfit or abroad? Now assume that there is a non-induction induction effect. By that I mean that for each ten ultra-orthodox draft dodgers, there will be 3 or 4 non-ultra-orthodox who decide they aren't going to be suckers: if the ultra-orthodox don't go to the army, why should they serve? Can you imagine the absurdity of the fact that Druze youth volunteer to serve in the army of the Jewish state, while ultra-orthodox Jews do not? Can someone explain how and why this is justified? Can you explain why a kibbutznik who belongs to peace now should be guarding settlements, while an ultra-orthodox Shas or United Torah Judaism voter who insists that Israel must never give up a millimeter of the occupation is busy making believe he is studying the Talmud?

 

There is a solution however.  "Medically unfit" includes those who died before age 18 - we can start drafting the dead as well as the quick.

 

For the rest of us, an easy question: If it costs NIS 40,000 (currently - soon to be increased) to pay university tuition for one future Israeli engineer, how much does it cost to pay tuition for 100 ultraorthodox draft dodgers? Answer NIS 0. Yeshiva tuition is paid for.

 

The Israeli government can hardly complain, since they promulgated the Tal law. It is impossible that the majority of Israelis support this unfair, suicidal law, and yet periodically it is renewed, the monstrous offspring of incestuous coalitions.

 

Ami Isseroff

 

Barak: Draft dodging a security threat

Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 30, 2007

Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Monday that the growing number of youth who dodge the IDF draft will eventually harm national security and turn the IDF from a "people's army" into an "army of half the people."

"When a soldier who goes out to the battlefield feels like a sucker, this harms national security," Barak said during a conference at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security in memory of Ha'aretz military commentator Ze'ev Schiff who passed away last month.

Barak said that Israel needed to return to the days when military service was something to be proud of and draft dodgers carried the mark of Cain. Barak added that Israel's true heroes were those who served in the IDF.

Burning Issues: The Tal Law and IDF non-enlistment

"A society under an existential threat will only know how to survive if it respects those who defend it," he said.

Ahead of the August draft, the IDF reported damning statistics showing a sharp rise in the number of teenagers dodging military service. The total reaches 25 percent of youth born in 1989 and scheduled to enlist in the IDF this summer.

Of the 25%, some 11% received exemptions this year on grounds of being ultra-Orthodox, an increase of 1% over last year. Seven percent did not enlist for medical reasons, including physical and mental conditions. Four percent did not enlist because of criminal records, and 3% live abroad.

Barak further blasted university lecturers and employers who do not accommodate students or workers who are called up for reserve duty.

"I wonder what Schiff would have said about the delegitimization that military service has been granted by elements in Israeli society starting with university lecturers who don't find solutions for students who miss exams due to reserve duty," Barak said.   

Continued (Permanent Link)

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Message to Bereaved Families

Prime Minister's Office 22 April 2007

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Message to Bereaved Families

Dear Families,

A moment before we mark 59 years of independence, we stand silent as we remember the precious, heavy and painful price which accompanies our struggle for existence as a Jewish, democratic, sovereign and independent country in the Land of Israel.

< span style="font-family:arial;">Over the past year, we were again reminded that this aspiration involves struggle and heartache, and that is because, even today, there are, among our enemies, those who cannot resign themselves to our existence, and seek to destroy the sovereignty of Israel by harming its citizens and soldiers. Again we had to stand up for and defend the lives of the citizens of Israel; we were forced to fight for and defend the State and the right of the residents of the North and South to live their lives in tranquility and security.

Since the last Remembrance Day, we have lost 233 regular and reserve soldiers and members of the security forces, largely during the Second Lebanon War, which was intended to ward off the threat on our northern border. Even today, we continue working toward and hoping for the return the three kidnapped soldiers. We also hope and pray for the full recovery of the wounded.

For the 59 years of our existence, during war after war and during routine days, we paid with the blood of the best of our children for all our futures, and for the hope to live in our country in peace. You, the bereaved families, have paid the terrible price of this hope. On this day, we stand beside you - who carry in your hearts the memory of the fallen every day - with the promise and vow that we will remember the fallen and that their memory will remain etched in the heart of the nation forever.

May the memory of the fallen be blessed and be forever bound to our lives.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Good news: IDF soldiers learning to shoot

The article states:

"All the training has paid off," the officer said after a lieutenant told Peretz that as a result, the soldiers "had bridged gaps" and now knew how to "better use their submachine guns and sniper rifles."

Good. Now if the defense minister will also take the lens caps off the binoculars, maybe we can have some real progress.

These are supposed to be the best soldiers in the world. What happened?

---

Israel to UN: Stop Hizbullah arms flow
By YAAKOV KATZ and SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 28, 2007

Israel is considering taking action to stop the smuggling of weapons from Syria to Hizbullah, although plans for the time being entail a continuation of diplomatic efforts to change UNIFIL's mandate so that the UN force will deploy along the Syrian-Lebanese border, Israeli sources said on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot met with UNIFIL commander Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano of Italy at Northern Command headquarters in Safed. Sources said the two discussed the Syrian arms smuggling and ways to better enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which forbids the transfer of weapons to Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.Defense Minister Amir Peretz hinted on Tuesday at a possible Israeli use of force along the Syrian-Lebanese border. During a tour of the Gaza border with Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, Peretz said that for now, Israel would continue to demand that the international community stop the weapons traffic.

"We demand from all the international parties involved to put an end to the smuggling," he told reporters during a briefing at the IDF's Yiftah base just north of Gaza, home to the Givati Brigade's Shaked Battalion. "In theend, however, we will take responsibility and will do everything to defend the State of Israel. We will not allow the situation in southern Lebanon to return to the way it was on the eve of the war."

The IDF and the Foreign Ministry have been conducting a worldwide public relations campaign, showing intelligence collected inside Lebanon to representatives of countries that could assist in changing UNIFIL's mandate. On Monday, senior IDF officers presented intelligence to visiting UN envoy Michael Williams, and officers have also recently presented the information to the United States and Russia, and to European countries that are members of UNIFIL.

Also on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that while Security Council Resolution 1701 was only being "partially implemented," it was the best option at the time.

Livni told the panel Israel was working with "international partners" to find ways to tighten the border between Lebanon and Syria. "Hizbullah is getting stronger beyond the Litani [River]. At this point, we could not act there freely if we needed to," she said.

During Tuesday's briefing, Peretz also hinted at a possible military operation in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is continuing to build up its strength. He said Israel was interested in "giving the cease-fire a chance" and planned to continue diplomatic efforts to stop the Kassam rocket attacks.

"Due to the continued military buildup [in Gaza], however, we are obligated to prepare ourselves," he said. "When we will need to conduct the necessary operations to curb the growing threat, we will do so without any fear or hesitation."

At the Yiftah base, Peretz and Ashkenazi heard soldiers' views on a potential operation inside the Gaza Strip. A company commander told the minister that due to a major increase in training - a key result of the lessons of the Lebanon war - the soldiers were now better prepared for the next war.

"All the training has paid off," the officer said after a lieutenant told Peretz that as a result, the soldiers "had bridged gaps" and now knew how to "better use their submachine guns and sniper rifles."

Officers who were present at the meeting spoke of a "positive dynamic" between Ashkenazi and Peretz and of a feeling of a "new spirit" within the IDF.

The meeting hit an emotional point after an officer from the battalion of abducted Cpl. Gilad Schalit asked Ashkenazi to allow his unit to remain in the Southern Command and to participate in the fighting in Gaza until Schalit is freed.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Point of view: IDF border police kill three Islamic Jihad "militants"

Undercover Border Police kill three Jihad terrorists in JeninBy YAAKOV KATZ, JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
NABLUS, West Bank

Other possible headlines (depending on point of view):

"IOF martyrs three Palestinian freedom fighters"

"Three Palestinian citizens killed by occupation army"

"Apartheid Israel regime oppresses Palestinian freedom fighters"

---

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1171894536931&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Undercover Border Police operating in Jenin killed three armed Islamic Jihad terrorists Wednesday morning, including the group's local leader, Ashraf Sa'adi.

The other two were known Islamic Jihad operatives Muhammad Abu Nasa and Daoud Jabli.

One soldier was lightly wounded in the operation, in which the troops exchanged gun fire with Sa'adi and his men.

According to Palestinian witnesses at the scene, the three were sitting in a car when a black car drove up alongside and fired shots. The men in the black car were not wearing any uniforms, they said. Two of the men were killed on the spot and the third, Sa'adi, exited the car and tried to run but was shot down and killed, the witnesses added.

The army disputed the witnesses' account, saying troops had tried to arrest Sa'adi in a hospital parking lot, but he opened fire at them. Troops returned fire, killing the three terrorists, the IDF said.

Following the operation a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Abu Ahmad, warned Israel, "This new crime will not pass without tough punishment.

"Their blood will be the fuel of our holy battle. And our reaction is coming soon."

Islamic Jihad tried last week to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel but the bomber, who was from the Jenin area, was caught.

Also Wednesday morning, dozens of jeeps backed by bulldozers raided the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday and the army said its operation to track down gunmen in the flashpoint city would continue.

The troops had withdrawn on Tuesday but were back at dawn Wednesday, witnesses said.

Bulldozers sealed off all entrances to the old city with rubble and jeeps patrolled the streets of much of the city to reinstate a curfew, they said. About 50,000 people were confined to their homes.

Five suspects were arrested in house to house searches for militants, the army said.

The army has said the operation is necessary in the city known for its militant activity since most of the suicide bombers trying to enter Israel from the West Bank come from Nablus.

Thus far, one Palestinian has been killed in the operation, which began Sunday.

In related news, IDF units operating in other areas of the West Bank overnight Tuesday arrested a total of 25 Palestinians wanted for involvement in terror, the army said.

No troops were wounded in the operations.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Peretz views the world through capped binoculars

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz, who has been accused of incompetence in the past, was caught viewing a training exercise through capped binoculars. In Ha'aretz, Gideon Levy comments that the storm of criticism this raised is due to prejudice against non-Ashkenazy Jews. Actually it is probably prejudice against defense ministers who lose wars and can't use binoculars.


Everybody should have a chance to be defense minister, regardless of ethnic origin, intelligence quotient, esperience or aptitude, right? This can create a trend: Language teachers who cannot spell, Mathematics professors who cannot solve equations, finance ministers who cannot add and subtract...

---

Israeli Defense Minister Inspects War Moves Through Capped Binoculars

Friday, February 23, 2007

AP

Feb. 21: Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz, right, looks through binoculars without realizing the plastic lens-caps were left on.

Israel's beleaguered minister of defense was blinded by criticism over photos taken of him watching military maneuvers through binoculars with the lens caps still on.

Various newspapers published photos of the in-the-dark Amir Peretz peering through the dysfunctional binoculars during an inspection of Israeli troops in the Syria-bordering Golan Heights, the BBC reported.

Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi pointed out the war moves and explained them to Peretz, who looked through the capped device three times and nodded, according to the BBC, even though all he saw was black.

"The outlook is dark for Peretz," joked top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot.

Photographs splashed across Israel's two major newspapers on Thursday, showed Peretz, lips set in concentration, face tilted to the light and eyes glued to binoculars ... with their black lens caps still firmly on.

Alongside him, his right-hand man, Ashkenazi, kitted out in battle dress, expertly adjusts his own binoculars to watch troops going through their paces on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Peretz, a former trade union chief whose own military experience is limited to national service, has been vilified in Israel for his perceived mishandling of last year's war in Lebanon.

A vast majority of Israelis want him to resign from the defense ministry on the grounds of chronic incompetence and military inexperience.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Israel Intelligence (Aman): Palestinians greatest threat

If this is true, it seems rather strange to ignore Iran and Hezbollah and focus on the Palestinian threat, which is still relatively minor compared to the long range rockets of Hezbollah, the nuclear IRBM potential of Iran and of course, our friends the Syrians.

---

Israeli intelligence to present annual report to government
Sunday: Palestinians greatest threat to Israel's security
Date: 24 / 02 /
2007 Time: 14:31

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=19817


Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Israeli military intelligence has said that they do not anticipate a military conflict with Syria in the coming year; the intelligence expects a possible escalation on the southern front with the
Palestinians.

The Israeli newspaper of Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the Israeli intelligence bodies, Shin Bet and Mossad will present the Israeli government on Sunday with their annual report, which focuses on the threats to Israel's security.

According to the report, a large-scale military confrontation with Syria is not probable at this stage, however, military officials and intelligence described the year 2007 as a "crucial and substantial year" with regards to
developments in the Middle East.

The paper added that Israel continues to monitor political developments in Lebanon. It also said that Israeli forces should pay more attention to the Gaza Strip, where, despite the ceasefire, Palestinian movements continue to grow in strength and amass weapons.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Halutz stopped development of safe Israeli cluster bomb and other vital arms

Now they tell us.

Halutz stopped advance of vital arms
Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 14, 2007
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359851851&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Development of a weapons system that could have been used against Hizbullah during the second Lebanon war was halted in 2002 by Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, then commander of the air force. Development of the system has now resumed on the orders of the current IAF commander, Maj.-Gen. Elazar Shkedy, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The system was being built by Israel Military Industries (IMI) until 2002, when the project's funding was cut by Halutz and his deputy at the time, Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehustan, today head of the IDF's Planning Division.

Development of the weapon was started in 2000 by then-OC Ground Forces Command Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yiftah Ron-Tal. Since the Ground Forces Command lacked the funds to develop the weapon, Ron-Tal joined forces with the IAF.

The system is not intended to harm civilians, and is being developed according the International Mine Action Standards.

"There is no doubt that this system would have assisted IDF forces during the Lebanon war," a former officer in the Ground Forces Command told the Post. "It could have stopped Hizbullah in their tracks and prevented the guerrillas from transferring weaponry and rockets from place to place."

According to another officer who was involved in the project, Halutz and Nehushtan decided to cut the funding due to a change "in their priorities." The Ground Forces Command, the officer said, then had no choice but to stop development.

But now, following the disappointing results of the second Lebanon war, IMI has once again been approached by the IAF, which has expressed what is being described as "extreme interest" in the weapon. The air force has yet to resume funding, but IMI sources told the Post they believed development would begin in the near future.

This is not the only time Halutz prevented the procurement of weapons that could have helped the IDF during the recent war. In August, Time magazine reported that as IAF commander, he rejected a US offer in 2002 to sell Israel "bunker buster" bombs capable of penetrating underground Hizbullah bunkers, saying that Israel had its own "superb weapons."

During the Lebanon war, however, Israel received an emergency shipment of bunker buster bombs from the US after its own weapons failed to destroy Hizbullah installations.

Following the war, IMI head Avi Felder appointed Dan Peretz, VP for research and development, to head a committee to study the IDF's future needs.

The panel concluded the technology existed to produce a variety of weapons that could have assisted the IDF, and possibly even changed the outcome of the war, but that for various reasons the military had decided not to purchase the weapons.

One example was the IMI system. Another weapon, development of which was stopped by the IDF before the war and has now been restarted.

The IDF has purchased several models for elite units and is now considering equipping all its ground forces with the advanced weaponry.

Another weapon the military declined to purchase from IMI before the war was a cluster bomb that self-destructs if it does not detonate upon impact, unlike the ones the IDF receives from the US.

"Had the IDF bought our cluster bomb it would have spared Israel a major diplomatic crisis," Dan Peretz said in reference to US intentions to impose sanctions on Israel for using American made cluster bombs against international regulations.

"The bottom line," Peretz concluded, "was that all of the technology was there. It was just that the IDF wasn't equipping itself with the necessary platforms and weapons."

Continued (Permanent Link)

Coming to terms with Gush Etzion

Coming to terms with Gush Etzion
The varieties of compassion and national grief.

We are told by those who know, that we must have compassion for the suffering of others, and indeed we do. The whole world must know by now of the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Sheikh Yassin was head of the Hamas, a blameless "militant" spiritual leader, cut down mercilessly by the evil and greedy Zionists, while he was engaged in the worthwhile pursuit of planning to send more evil Jews to meet Allah. Everyone mourns the tragic death of the blameless Rachel Corrie, who came to Gaza to defend Palestinian weapons smuggling tunnels against the heartless IDF. Who can forget little Muhamed Al-Dura, who was certainly killed by someone in front of the artful cameras of French television?

Every Palestinian child, and every politically correct and compassionate advocate, knows the names of all the Zionist massacres that ever took place, and of several that did not, and the numbers of countless victims, real and imaginary. Who does not know of Deir Yassin? What Counterpunch reader will not be able to tell you that in Jenin, the Zionists murdered 500 innocent Palestinians? No matter that actually 56 Palestinian Arabs died in Jenin. No matter that most of them were armed guerillas (or terrorists or "militants" if you like). No matter that these guerillas and their friends were responsible for murdering over a hundred Israelis in the previous month. Mohammed abu Nimr, a Palestinian who professes peace, explained that the Israelis murdered 500 Palestinians in Jenin, while the Palestinians were only engaged in nonviolent actions. Nobody remembers the names of those murdered Israelis except their relatives and friends. Mohamed Abu Nimr is going to bury the fact of their death as well.

You know who Muhamed Al Dura was. Probably you heard of Rachel Corrie. Do you know Amil Almalich? Michael Ben-Sa'adon? Israel Samolia? They were killed by a suicide bomber in Eilat just now. In a month, who will remember their names? Who will remember that they died? It was another "nonviolent action" of the Palestinians. If Israel decides one day, that it must take up arms to stop suicide bombing, won't the usual people write about another 500 imaginary Palestinian victims, and entirely ignore the real Israeli victims?

In the pages of Los Angeles Times, the 500 imaginary victims of the imaginary Jenin massacre were compared by a warped Jewish writer to the very real Jewish victims of the Nazi SS in the Warsaw Ghetto. It is not permissible for Jews to discuss the Holocaust in the context of the death of Jews, as that is part of the "Holocaust Industry," but it is perfectly fashionable to expound upon the imaginary Holocaust of the Palestinian Arabs. Without a shred of proof, the hysterical proponents of misguided compassion insist that the evil Zionists are perpetrating genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians. The facts don't matter to these disciples of Jose Saramago, of Ilan Pappe and other fiction writers. What matters is emotion.

The required emotion is hatred for Israel and Zionists. Compassion for imaginary victims is one byproduct, outrage at the imaginary crimes of the Zionists is another. Never mind that almost all the Palestinian Arabs are still very much alive, except for the ones who blow themselves up in our cities and become "martyrs." No less a person than Spanish Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, likewise compared the imaginary victims of Jenin to victims of the Holocaust. It is fitting, since Senor Saramago is a writer of fictional novels.

In past years, the Palestinian Authority, in order to educate its people to accept peace with their Israeli neighbors no doubt, staged a yearly Nakba ceremony, to commemorate the disaster that overcame the Palestinian Arabs in 1948, when their leaders induced them to try to exercise their sovereign right to annihilate the Jewish people. The effort failed, and the perpetrators suffered. While we Israelis mark our days of mourning with a minute of silence, Palestinian commemorations seem to require gunfire and rioting. True pluralists must appreciate the varieties of grief. The Palestinians made the commemoration of this event into an organized expression of constant grief and of hate for the Jews. None of us are not allowed to forget the Nakba in writing, in art exhibits and in demonstrations. A genuine Nakba industry sprang up, with people bused to demonstrations, carrying signs of their native towns, keys of their houses. The Nakba must be remembered. Only the causes of the Nakba, like the cause of the Israeli "massacre" in Jenin, must never be examined too closely.

When did Israelis, expelled from the old city of Jerusalem and from Hebron in 1936 and 1948, ever demonstrate with keys to their houses? When did the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees expelled from Arab lands demonstrate with keys to their houses?

Palestinian grief is a public affair. It demands compassion. It is politically correct to have compassion for Palestinian Arabs and to describe their suffering in the minutest detail.

Israeli grief must be handled differently however. In the past, Jews were weak. It was not fitting to mourn for Jews, because that was after all, the fate of Jews. No sense getting upset over the deaths of a few more unfortunate Jews in Kishinev or Ukraine or wherever, is there? But now the Jews in Israel are no longer victims. Now it is not fitting to mourn for Jews because we are strong. We are therefore, "the oppressors." Jews don't get compassion.

All you folks who know about Rachel Corrie and Mohamed al-Dura, here are pictures of evil Zionist colonialist imperialist racist oppressors killed by "militants" of the Palestinian "resistance." Can you identify even one of them?

See http://www.zionism-israel.com/vic/123_israeli_kids_killed.htm to find the names of these Zionist victims and many others. They are our honored dead.

Very probably you heard of Deir Yassin. Every Palestinian knows this place, where berserk Jewish underground fighters apparently killed about 100 civilians. Have you heard of the Lamed Heh? Don't be ashamed. A poll showed that 50% of Israelis never heard of the Lamed Heh either. The Lamed Heh were thirty five young men of the Haganah, sent to bring supplies on foot to Gush Etzion in January of 1948. The story told of them, is that they were seen by an Arab shepherd on the way, and though they knew he might inform on them and call out an ambush, they would not kill him. True or not, this story was repeated to every Israeli child, not as a warning of the cruelty of the enemy, but as an example of the moral values of Israeli fighters.

The facts that are known for certain: they were ambushed at dawn and murdered. They were never given a chance to surrender of course. Their mutilated bodies were photographed by a British soldier, who left his film in a Jerusalem shop to be developed. He never came to pick it up. About 50 years later, the film was discovered by chance. It was decided that the pictures were too gruesome to be shown to the public. It is not politically correct, from the anti-Zionist point of view, to have compassion for Jews. >From the Zionist point of view, It is demoralizing to show casualties.

It is not politically correct either to mention that massacre outside Gush Etzion or the one that took place in May in Gush Etzion, where a large number of soldiers (Jewish of course) who had surrendered were mowed down. It is not politically correct either, to mention the (Jewish of course) civilians were murdered in Hebron or Jerusalem in 1929 or 1936.

This young man below is Danny Mas. He was the leader of the Lamed Heh. He probably died because he would not kill an Arab shepherd.

You never heard of him before, did you? The compassionate people of Counterpunch and the Nation never heard of him either. Naomi Klein, who writes fiction about Jewish Nazis in Jenin, never heard of him. He was a Palestinian martyr, more Palestinian than Izzedin al Qassam who was a Syrian. But Danny Mas was a Jewish Palestinian, so there are no Danny Mas terrorist squads named after him.

That is our fault. The fault of Israelis and Jews. Jews never liked to dwell on unpleasant things. In Jewish history, time was allowed to obliterate catastrophes. We always wanted to believe that the previous expulsion, the previous pogrom was the last one in history. Now we are safe. Those things always happened in the bad old country. Here in this new place, we are safe. This country after all, is not like Czarist Russia or medieval Poland or medieval Spain, is it? Nothing bad can happen to Jews here. This country is modern, moderate, democratic and progressive Weimar Germany.

In Israel, or Palestine, news of Arab atrocities was hushed up. We, the evil "Israel Lobby" don't want that news to get out. Palestine was, and Israel is, supposed to be a safe haven for the Jews. If we told people that Jews die here, they would say that Zionism is a failure. And indeed, when the fiction writers of Counterpunch and the Nation mention Israeli casualties, they invariably explain that these casualties are "proof" of the failure of Zionism.

So how can we come to terms with Gush Etzion, with the death of the Lamed Heh, with the deaths of over a hundred children in the recent Palestinian "nonviolent actions," with the deaths of three people in Eilat in the most recent suicide bombing? How are these Jewish deaths different from all those others, in the other countries, that we don't want to think about?

They are different. Imagine if there had been an IDF in 1942, and Israeli paratroopers could have rescued the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, killing their Nazi guards. No doubt the Jose Saramagos and Mohammed Abu Nimrs of the world would explain that the Jews committed a massacre in Warsaw, while the Germans had performed only nonviolent actions. No doubt a Naomi Klein would explain that Jews ought to have compassion, and that the Israelis had made her ashamed to be a Jew. But it would still be worth it, no?

Please don't have compassion for Danny Mas and the Lamed Heh, or for the sisters and wives of these victims or for the parents of those poor dead children. They don't want your compassion or your pity. These people deserve your respect and love. They made their sacrifice so that we Jews could be a free people in our own land. If you are Jewish, even if you are a writer of anti-Zionist fantasies in the Los Angeles Times, they died so that you could be free too.

That is how we must come to terms with Gush Etzion.

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Reserves officers publicly call for Barak for defense minister

Reserves officers publicly call for Barak for defense minister

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3358701,00.html

Former senior office holders publish letter calling for Peretz dismissal; express support for Barak, saying 'only experienced leader can rehabilitate defense establishment'

 

Mietal Zur Published:  01.30.07, 10:53

 

 

A letter calling for former Prime Minister Ehud Barak to replace Defense Minister Amir Peretz was published by 54 reserves officers on Tuesday. A matching petition was submitted to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

 

The letter, which was published in Haaretz newspaper, stated "it's critical to place the most experienced and fitting person in charge of the defense establishment. We call on all those involved to appoint Ehud Barak as defense minister.

The impressive list of senior officers signing the letter includes former Labor Party chairman Maj. Gen. (res) Amram Mitzna, former Mossad Chief Shabtai Shavit, former Defense Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron, former coordinator of activities in the territories Shmuel Goren and several others.

 

"Israeli society isn't learning from experience. We experienced a war in which the military and political leadership failed. We are facing numerous challenges now. Every day that passes without a change to the defense establishment is a wasted day," Mitzna told Ynet.

"Peretz's appointment was a fatal mistake. We cannot have an inexperienced civilian, devoid of all involvement with defense in the past, at the head of our defense establishment," he said.

Shavit echoed these sentiments, saying the second Lebanon war proved that the defense establishment is not functioning optimally.

"Israel needs the most experienced man to rehabilitate the defense establishment and return our power of deterrence…Barak is the best, most experienced man for a job that is needed to address future threats," he added.

 

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

IDF veteran --- A friend in need

IDF veteran --- A friend in need

http://israel-like-this-as-if.blogspot.com/2007/01/friend-in-need.html

 

Veterans of an Israel paratroop company that fought in Lebanon more than two decades ago received an urgent appeal for help this week.

 

Their former company clerk, now a suburban working mother, distributed e-mails to the entire unit about the plight of one of their 1980s comrades-in-arms who recently encountered disastrous business reverses.

 

To keep from losing everything including his home, this ex-fighter needs to come up with lots of money in the next few days.

 

Soldiers who have learned to trust each other with their lives can make requests like this. He will pay back the loans after he gets back on his feet, the company clerk wrote.

 

This story has a particular poignancy.

 

What happened is this. The soldier who is in trouble today did not return to private life after Lebanon. While other members of the company were dispersing into various walks of civilian life, he stayed in the army. He served in an elite covert unit where he laid his life on the line many times.

 

After 20 years in the army, he took his pension and went into business, supplying doors and windows for buildings. He invested his pension and everything else he had in the business. It prospered.

 

Not long ago a major customer declared bankruptcy and disappeared. This set in motion a classic sequence. Now he cannot fill orders or buy new merchandise, and the banks are closing in.

 

Declaring bankruptcy is not an option for him. He intends to stay in his community and raise his children there.

 

He needs to raise almost $90,000. In response to his plight, some army buddies opened a bank account Thursday to receive funds for him.  More than $4,000 came in the first day.

 

It is not the first time veterans of this particular unit have responded to such appeals in civilian life. They came to the unit many years ago as teen-aged volunteers, and a spirit of mutual responsibility stays with them much later in life.

 

This trait may not make news, but it is one of the reasons Israel's combat soldiers are a formidable group to face in battle.

 

---Joseph M. Hochstein, Tel Aviv

Continued (Permanent Link)

Rabbis: Naveh deserves to be killed

Jan. 18, 2007 19:08 Updated Jan. 19, 2007 1:40
Rabbis: Naveh deserves to be killed
By MATTHEW WAGNER

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1167467765105

A group of rabbis have issued a halachic opinion implying that OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh deserves to be killed.

The rabbis, all connected with a movement to resurrect the Sanhedrin, the ancient Jewish governing body, said in their halachic ruling this week that Naveh was guilty of being a moser, a Hebrew word that can be roughly translated as an informant or traitor. Literally, it means someone who transfers another's property or person to enemy authorities.

The rabbis see the Olmert government as the equivalent of a gentile enemy that "evilly and violently expels and causes mental and physical damage to Jews."

Maimonides ruled in his Mishneh Torah: "It is permitted to kill a Jewish moser anywhere, even today when rabbinic courts are not permitted to decide on capital punishment matters."

Maimonides stipulated that the death penalty is issued even if the person is not currently involved in traitorous activity but is expected to do so again in the future. Naveh's supposed treason consists of signing administrative orders prohibiting approximately 20 right-wing extremists who live in Judea and Samaria from returning to their homes and families for an indefinite period.
The IDF said that the orders, which were issued without a trial, have prevented clashes between settlers and Palestinians.

However, the rabbis said the administrative orders were part of Naveh's plan to "prepare settlements in Judea and Samaria for transfer to the enemy. Abandoning these places to foreigners endangers Jewish lives."

In the halachic decision, which is personally addressed to Naveh, who is Orthodox, the rabbis accuse him of transgressing the prohibition against "passively standing by while your brother is killed."

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem and a former IDF rabbi, signed the decision together with Rabbis Reuven Hass, Yehuda Edri and Ido Elbo, and Prof. Hillel Weiss of Bar-Ilan University.

Ariel's brother, Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel, said he had nothing to do with his brother's actions.

"That decision is not based on halacha," Ya'acov Ariel said. "It was politically motivated."

However, Rabbi Yishai Babad, secretary of the Rabbinic Committee of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip (Yesha), said that the halachic ruling against Naveh was correct in principle.

"But Yesha rabbis would not issue such a decision for fear some hothead might get the wrong idea and try to take the law into his own hands," Babad said.

Weiss said that he and the rabbis who issued the decision had no intention of advocating murder. "We just hope that Naveh will wake up and stop his criminal activities," he said.

Betar Illit Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus criticized what he called "fringe elements" for issuing the moser ruling.

"The public must denounce those uneducated louts, who cynically manipulate the Torah in a damaging way against a senior IDF officer who has done so much to support Jewish settlements," he said.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Inner workings of Yamam tactical hostage rescue team revealed

Inner workings of Yamam tactical hostage rescue team revealed
by Rebecca Anna Stoil
Jerusalem Post, Jan. 17, 2006
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467748508&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

After five-and-a-half years, the public now knows that it was Zohar Dvir who served as commander of the Yamam tactical hostage rescue team, the most elite unit of the Israel Police.

 

During his service, Dvir nabbed bombers minutes before detonation, settled the score with terrorist leaders and even survived near-fatal injuries that almost put an early end to his prestigious career.

 

Known until now as "Z," Dvir revealed his identity for the first time as he concludes his service, after leading the unit since the early days of the second intifada.

 

Dvir also made another disclosure, telling journalists that during the second intifada the Yamam managed to kill some 50 terrorists en route to suicide bombings and also killed an additional 129 wanted terrorists.

 

But it is the number of arrests - rather than kills - that attest to the unit's significance in the Israeli security community. A total of 550 wanted terrorists were captured alive and arrested in the same period by the unit, considered internationally to be the finest anti-terror police force in the world.

 

Apprehending terrorists wanted for questioning rather than simply killing them is one of the unit's specialties.

 

Yamam was founded in 1974, following that Ma'alot terror attack in which terrorists infiltrating from Lebanon stormed a school, taking the students hostage. As a tactical and hostage rescue unit, the Yamam was organized for precision missions that require more finesse and a steadier trigger finger than any other existing units.

 

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, a nine-year veteran of the Yamam, said the unit "is the most advanced anti-terrorist unit in the country and has prevented hundreds of terrorist attacks on all levels.

 

The unit is "unique in its capability to be at any time in any place," allowing the Yamam to "continue to save lives every day," he emphasized.

 

For over two decades, the defense establishment struggled with the question of how to differentiate between Yamam missions and missions for its IDF parallel, the Sayeret Matkal (famous for the headline-grabbing hostage rescue in Entebbe in 1976). But, said Dvir, both units have "grown up" and, since 2002, the two former rivals have begun to cooperate rather than compete. Following the mass-hostage situations in Beslan and the Moscow Stadium, the two units began to hold joint training sessions in which Dvir shared equipment and strategies with his IDF counterpart.

 

Dvir himself came to the Yamam after a long service of command in elite IDF infantry and special forces units, including the Golani Reconnaissance Unit. He joined the unit in 1999, already holding the rank of IDF lieutenant-colonel (res.) and after a brief two years assumed command of the unit.

 

It has been a busy period for the Yamam, which tries to maintain a low profile. Dvir told reporters that upon multiple occasions motorists frustrated by unexplained traffic jams in the Sharon never found out that the reasons for the slow-down were Yamam operations nabbing would-be bombers. "We met them on the way. We always give them the chance to surrender, but some choose to take a short cut [to paradise ] anyway."

 

"The public is aware of only about 10% of what we do," Dvir explained, "and that is good for us. We mostly care that whoever needs to know, knows."

 

Training is grueling, frequently including urban rappelling, bomb detonation and tactical entry to buildings.

 

"This is a unit that is on one hand like an American Swat team, and on the other hand is like a military commando unit," Dvir explained.

 

The unit likes to bring in former officers as team members, he said.

 

"A company commander who is now the fourth team member from the right still thinks like a company commander, and from our perspective, that is a benefit."

 

Many of the Yamam's operations focus on getting both terror leaders - and increasingly, their computers - out of the West Bank and Gaza alive and in a condition that allows security services to gain vital intelligence information from their prisoners.

 

Of his long list of successful operations, Dvir said the one that remains closes to his heart was when his unit tracked down the terrorist who killed filmmaker Revital Ohayon and her two young sons Noam, 4, and Matan, 5, in their Kibbutz Metzer home in 2002. His team had found the young mother dead, hugging her children, but "one year and one month later due to intelligence from the Shin Bet" the Yamam was offered the chance to try to apprehend the terrorist who killed them. The terrorist was killed in the arrest attempt.

 

"After that, I did something that I never do. I called Avi Ohayon and told him that the circle had been closed," Dvir reminisced.

 

But despite the daring deeds and Dvir's distinguished combat history, his career was almost terminated in 2005 by a chance encounter with a reckless driver. En route to pay a condolence call to the family of Yamam officer Dror Shushan, who had just been killed in a motorcycle crash, Dvir pulled over to the side of the road to rescue a motorist in an overturned car. After pulling the injured man to safety and instructing another passerby to erect warning signs on the shoulder of the road, a truck disregarded the danger signs and plowed into the car where Dvir was administering first-aid to the crash victim.

 

Both Dvir and the victim of the initial crash were thrown approximately 25 meters by the force of the truck slamming into them. While the other victim was killed immediately, Dvir was rushed in critical condition to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center suffering from massive head injuries as well as broken legs, a broken pelvis, a broken jaw and broken ribs. His next memory is six days later when he woke up concerned that if he didn't recuperate soon, he would lose command of the Yamam.

 

Within two-and-a-half months of the crash, Dvir was back in the office, on crutches.

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

IDF troops kill Fatah militant during operation in West Bank

Last update - 10:22 18/01/2007   

IDF troops kill Fatah militant during operation in West Bank

 

By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/815043.html

Israel Defense Forces troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant in the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, local hospital staff said.

 

Local residents identified the man as Mohanad Ghandour, 32, a militant of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

 

Ghandour was often referred to as Mohanad the Jordanian, because he is a Palestinian citizen of Jordan.

 

The army said troops had spotted an armed man during an operation in Nablus' Old City and had shot him. It said the man did not fire at its forces.

 

"Troops spotted an armed man whom they identified as a threat and shot at him," an army spokesman said.

 

Medical staff said the man died of his wounds before arriving at hospital.

 

Local residents reported stone-throwing clashes with troops who remained in the area and said three men had been shot and wounded. Hospital staff said one of the men was seriously hurt.

 

On Tuesday, a 10-year-girl was seriously wounded by Border Police troops in the West Bank village of Anata, northeast of Jerusalem, according to Palestinian sources said on Wednesday.

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Mazuz to consider limiting Ehud Olmert's authority

Last update - 11:25 18/01/2007   

Mazuz to consider limiting Ehud Olmert's authority

 

By Yuval Yoaz and Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondents

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/815013.html

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz will consider limiting the authority of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in accordance with developments in the criminal investigation into the Bank Leumi affair, Mazuz's deputy said Thursday.

 

Eyal Yanun informed attorney Yossi Fox of Mazuz's intentions, in a response to Fox's request that the attorney general suspend Olmert due to the criminal investigation against him.

 

State Prosecutor Eran Shendar was recently named "acting attorney general" for three months, which is what enabled him, in place of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, to make the decision about opening a criminal probe against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the Bank Leumi case.

 

Olmert is suspected of having tried to alter a tender for Leumi's privatization, with the goal of assisting a friend who was bidding. Mazuz decided that it would be improper for him to be involved in the case because his sister, Yemima Mazuz, was involved in the tender, in her role as the Finance Ministry's legal advisor.

 

By law, however, only the attorney general can approve a criminal investigation of the prime minister. After consulting with colleagues at the Justice Ministry, Mazuz decided to ask acting justice minister Tzipi Livni to appoint Shendar as "acting attorney general," so that Shendar could make the decision instead.

 

On Tuesday, Shendar decided to give the investigation the go-ahead. Should the probe not be finished in three months, Mazuz might ask Livni - or whoever is then justice minister - to extend Shendar's appointment.

 

The police's fraud squad appointed four investigators on Wednesday to handle the probe. Police have already conducted preliminary inquiries into the affair, which the Justice Ministry requested to help it decide whether a criminal investigation was warranted; during these inquiries, they took preliminary testimony from Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and Accountant General Yaron Zelekha. Olmert, who is thus far the only suspect, will not be questioned until the final stages of the investigation.

 

Over the next few days, the investigators will obtain warrants to search for and confiscate documents; only then will they begin summoning witnesses for questioning. If necessary, they will also depose witnesses overseas.

 

Australian businessman Frank Lowy, the friend for whom Olmert is suspected of trying to rig the tender, said Wednesday that he welcomed the decision to open an investigation. He vehemently denied that he or any representative of his acted in any way improperly, and said he is certain that the investigation will prove this.

 

Lowy ultimately withdrew from the tender before it closed, and Cerberus-Gabriel, bought the bank.

 

The spokesman added that, while Lowy has known Olmert for many years, he never donated to Olmert personally or to any political campaign in which Olmert was involved.

 

"The Lowy family was approached to join a consortium to tender for an interest in Bank Leumi," the spokesman said. "After considering the investment and conducting some preliminary due diligence, it was decided not to proceed with the consortium or the tender process. The Lowy family did not then or now have any involvement at all with Bank Leumi."

Continued (Permanent Link)