IRIS Blog

Nothing unites Israelis in outrage more than the seizure of hostages. On July 4, Israel will mark the 30th anniversary of the Entebbe operation that freed over a hundred Israeli hostages, and little has changed since then in the national ethos of rescue. The last Zionist ideal still shared by most Israelis is the determination to fight back. An Israeli soldier held hostage is a taunt against the Zionist promise of self-defense, an unbearable reminder of Jewish helplessness.

Our obsession with hostages is a tactical weakness but a strategic strength. It allows terrorists a stunning psychological advantage: With a single random kidnapping, they hold an entire society emotionally hostage. Strategically, though, hostage-taking only strengthens Israeli resolve.

The kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, ongoing Qasaam fire, the acceptance by "man of peace" Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas of the "National Conciliation Document" (in a version even more radical than the original) and the murder of Eliahu Asheri provides Israel with a window of opportunity to launch an important - and possibly critical - operation to roll back the ever growing Palestinian capability to engage Israel in a debilitating war of attrition and bog down Israeli forces needed in the event of the threat of invasion.

This window won't last long. Pressure will only increase on Israel to find a way to gracefully step back. And the National Conciliation Document could very well end up succeeding in facilitating internal Palestinian stability so that they can be an even more dangerous enemy to the Jewish State.

Would a Defensive Shield operation in Gaza bring permanent peace?

Of course not.

The war against terrorism, just as the war against crime, never ends.

But that's hardly an excuse for not fighting.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz refused a request by the Shin Bet security service and the government to place dozens of senior Hamas officials under administrative detention or hold them as "bargaining chips" under the Unlawful Combatants Law.

Mazuz insisted that the arrests be carried out under ordinary criminal warrants that would require legal proceedings against the Hamas officials under the Prevention of Terror Ordinance. They will probably be charged with membership in or leadership of a terrorist organization.

The detainees will be brought before a judge for a remand hearing within the next 96 hours, and legal proceedings against them will be carried out in military courts in the territories.

A Justice Ministry spokesperson said that the change in policy towards ministers and parliamentarians who are members of Hamas was carried out with the approval of and in coordination with the judiciary, and that Israel intends on arresting more Hamas officials.

Last night Israeli forces excecuted arrest warrants issued by Israeli courts for the arrest of members of the PA government. With that surprising single action, it announced an end to an era which enabled governments to separate themselves from the actions of uncontrolable "militants." To be honest, the Hamas government merely tried to follow in the footsteps of the Arafat one. He used to go on TV after every... terrorist attack, express his "condemnation" of it... and insist that though he would have liked to, he is powerless to stop it.... Hence, had he been able to, he would have curtailed their activity. Captured Palestinian documents containing detailed receipts for terrorist sevices exposed the act for the use it was. Though Israel no longer accepted the "inablity of the PA" to control the militants, the closest it came to ending it was by confining Arafat to his enclave.

When rejectionist Hamas became the official PA govenment, its leaders tried to retain the old argument, by "sort of" separating Hamas from the PA government they ran.

A government cannot act as a mere go between between its own citizens and foreign governments. It must be held responsible for the actions of all of its citizens.

Nine and a half months after completion of the pullout from the Gaza Strip, the IDF reoccupied it. The horror scenario of those who objected to the pullout has come true. Israel discovered that it could not just leave and throw away the key, that the Green Line in Gaza did not deter the Palestinians, and that the Palestinians ignored Israeli threats of harsh retaliation.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warded off the IDF's proposals for a ground operation against the Qassam launchers in recent weeks....

Sunday's attack on the Kerem Shalom outpost and kidnapping of Gilad Shalit removed Olmert's inhibitions....

Israel is striving toward a broader goal that will ensure quiet for a longer period. Olmert also understands that if the fighting continues, he can forget about the unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank. It will be difficult enough for him to explain the point for carrying out a deep pullout from the West Bank as the IDF reoccupies the Gaza Strip.

Two possible goals come to mind: one is an internationally backed cease-fire, similar to the Grapes of Wrath understandings achieved in Lebanon in the 1990s.... curtailing of the assassinations in exchange for the cessation of Qassam fire. The question is whether there is a responsible body in Gaza with which to make such a deal, as was the case with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The second, more ambitious target, would be toppling the Hamas government and reinstating Fatah. This would be vindicated in the world as a move against a criminal terror government and creating a partner for future negotiations over the West Bank. The question is whether Israel has enough power to overthrow the Palestinian government.

Both in Israel and abroad, the media... have universally lauded the document for "implicitly recognizing Israel," something Hamas has hitherto refused to do. Even the Wall Street Journal - not usually a Palestinian apologist - credited it with "implicit recognition of Israel" in a June 15 editorial.

Yet in fact, the document does nothing of the sort - and not only is this plain from the text, but Hamas spokesmen have said so explicitly.

To see the document as "implicitly recognizing Israel" requires interpreting its demand for a Palestinian state in "all the territory occupied [by Israel] in 1967" as signifying this territory only, thus implying an Israel alongside. Unfortunately, the text belies this interpretation.

According to a Hebrew translation published by Haaretz, the actual wording is as follows: "[The Palestinian people ? desires the liberation of its lands and the realization of its right to liberty, return, independence and self-definition], including the right to establish an independent state with holy Jerusalem as its capital on all the territory occupied in 1967" (emphasis added).

In other words, a state in this territory is merely one part of the broader goal of "the liberation of [Palestinian] lands." Or to put it in historical context, this is a reincarnation of the PLO's 1974 "phased plan," under which any "liberated" territory would serve as a base for pursuing Israel's ultimate destruction.

BUT THE document also offers additional proof of its nonrecognition of Israel's right to exist: its insistence on a "right of return" for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants, which is a euphemism for eliminating Israel demographically. The 4.3 million refugees and descendents (according to UN figures), combined with Israel's 1.4 million Arab citizens, could democratically vote the Jewish state (5.3 million Jews) out of existence.

The original document called for "restricting" attacks on Israelis to the territories captured by Israel in 1967. The revised document, however, calls for "focusing" the attacks on these territories, implying that Palestinian groups could still carry out attacks inside Israel. Although the document calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem, it does not talk about a two-state solution or Israel's right to exist.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denied reports that the revised document recognizes Israel's right to exist. "We agreed to all the articles of the document without having to recognize Israel," he explained. "This is a major achievement for Hamas because the agreement also allows us to pursue the resistance against Israel." A senior official in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office characterized the document as a "non-starter." He said that the document is an internal Palestinian matter.

If terror consists of randomly killing and maiming non-combatant civilians for the purpose of sowing fear and insecurity, Sunday's raid on an Israeli military post, carried out by the military wing of Hamas, was the antithesis: A well-planned and well-executed attack on a strictly military target that was chosen long in advance - an act of war. The Palestinian organizations have wanted to kill civilians rather than soldiers because this is precisely the message they have wished to deliver - namely, that their enemy is not specifically the Israeli "occupation," nor even the Israeli army, but the entire Jewish population of Israel.

The Palestinian Authority now has a Hamas government - and however this government may twist or turn, and however it may have tried to disassociate itself from the hundreds of Kassam rockets shot from the Gaza Strip into Israel with its complicit knowledge in recent months, it cannot disassociate itself from the Hamas soldiers who raided the Israeli outpost on Sunday. Israel should therefore say to this government: "The charade is over....We are also declaring war on you. From now on we will treat you as any country treats another country it is at war with. We will close all our borders with you, cease providing you with all services, and consider any branch of your government, any of its members, and anyone on your side contributing to your military effort, legitimate war targets....And when you're ready to sue for peace-and-quiet, let us know."

• By invading Gaza, Israel hopes to counter increasingly bold Palestinian attacks - such as the firing of some 1,000 Kassam rockets at Israeli border towns and the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas earlier this week. The quandary Israel confronts today originated in the unilateral withdrawal of all Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza last August. Infiltrations and rocket strikes began almost the day after the Gaza disengagement. Several Kassam rockets struck Ashkelon, Israel's major industrial city in the south - and the Palestinians elected a Hamas government sworn to escalate the violence.



• By demonstrating that disengagement impaired rather than enhanced Israeli security, Hamas has dissuaded many Israelis from supporting a similar withdrawal from the West Bank, from where Kassams could be launched at Tel Aviv and the Ben-Gurion Airport.



• After a few days of heated battles and accusations of Israeli atrocities, the government will be compelled to extract its forces from Gaza, and the rockets will keep raining on Sderot. Posing as defenders of the land, Hamas will be made more, not less, popular by the Israeli attack. There is, however, one way to avert a public relations disaster for Israel, to limit casualties, and to restore Israel's deterrence power.



• Israel must return to the targeted-killing policy that enabled Mr. Sharon to triumph over terrorist organizations. Israel must target those Palestinians who order others to fire rockets from within civilian areas but whose families are located safely away from the firing zones. No Hamas or Islamic Jihad leader should be immune from such reprisals - neither Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah nor Khaled Mashaal, who masterminds Hamas from Damascus.



• Those responsible for causing injury and death to both Israelis and Palestinians must pay the ultimate price. Only then can quiet be restored to Israel's borders...

The IDF confirmed early Thursday a report the Popular Resistance Committees issued from Gaza that it had executed Eliyahu Asheri, 18, of Itamar, who was kidnapped earlier this week in the West Bank. Asheri's family has been notified.

His funeral was scheduled to take place at 2:30 p.m. in Jerusalem, with the funeral procession to pass from Beit Sanhedria to the Mount of Olives in the city.

OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh revealed Thursday morning that the youth had been shot in the head immediately after the kidnapping on Sunday.

"I believe the resistance (fighters) should not be content with taking one Israeli soldier as a prisoner," Osama Hamdan, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, who is close to Hamas' political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal, told Al-Manar television in Beirut.

Mashaal's deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told AP in Damascus, "This soldier is a prisoner of war."

These are not happy days in Israel. It's like coming to visit a family waiting for news about it's kidnapped injured child and the news is that another one was gone. Israel is a very intimate family and no one is thinking about anything else.

Of course, a search party is out - in this case it is the Israeli army in Gaza. Everybody hopes that additional loss of life can be avoided. The government is trying to find ways to pressure the kidnappers by discomforting the life of their Palestinian citizens.

MSM helps.... Euro news, BBC, CNN and Dubai news follow the terrorists script meticulously. (LGF has them acting even worse. They pit Israeli in tanks vs. Palestinian women (dressed in Hamas garb) demanding the release of women and children. - Do remember those are women and children sent by the PA to blow themselves up to kill Israelis and become martyrs. MSM, of course, fails to mention... that the PA creates such a disfunctional, debased society that sitting in an Israeli prison sounds good to some Palestinian youngsters.

The Israeli MSM, like the US one, is busy in self criticism. The Israeli MSM is to the left of the American one. So, they report that the Israeli right is praising the Gaza operation. In a democracy, politics is ever present.

But the people, the people ignore the background noise and focus on the father who asked his son to try to survive. The people hear the Palestinians give the middle name of the other soldier and they know he is indeed kidnapped and his kidnappers got hold of social security card. They hear that warning of plans to kidnap additional soldiers and they know that no matter how many times they asked their sons and daughters not to hitchike, its all for naught.

All we do is pray and hope against hope. The kidnappers are threatening to butcher their hostages in front of cameras.

On June 5th, the Los Angeles chapter of CAIR sponsored a community town hall meeting at the Islamic Center of Irvine (ICOI), a mosque that propagates venomously anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric. In a Khutbah (sermon) given at the ICOI last month, entitled ?The Abuse of a Religion to sustain a Racist State,? the ICOI?s Director of Religious Affairs, Sadullah Khan, stated, ?Jews who came [to Israel] brought with them a Western arrogance ... ? In the sermon, which is found on the ICOI website, Khan liberally quoted alleged neo-Nazi William Baker and described Zionism as ?racist,? ?diabolical? and ?sinister.?

Participating at the CAIR event was CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. Ayloush?s appearance at ICOI makes sense, as he, himself, has been known to exhibit an extreme hatred towards the state of Israel. According to Dr. Daniel Pipes, whom Ayloush has likened to ?a KKK person,? he (Ayloush) has repeatedly used the term ?Zionazi,? when discussing Israelis. He has referred to Zionism as ?a political ideology whose tentacles are rooted in racism,? and he has stated that the violent Intifada (Uprising) that was twice perpetrated by the Palestinians against the Israelis ?really indicates standing up against injustice.?

Accompanying Hussam Ayloush as a participant at the June 5th CAIR event was the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI field office in Los Angeles, Stephen Tidwell. Tidwell, apparently, was there to quell concerns that the FBI was actively eavesdropping on local Muslims.

IDF tanks ready at the Entrance to Gaza.

IDF tanks and troops rolled into southern Gaza before dawn Wednesday, encountering little resistance from Palestinians, in a bid to pressure Palestinian militants into releasing an Israel Defense Forces soldier seized Sunday in an attack on a military position near the Gaza border.

The operation, dubbed "Summer Rain," was launched after two days of failed mediation over the release of Shalit. Defense sources told Army Radio on Wednesday morning that the Gaza incursion is the first stage of the operation.

IDF troops penetrated one kilometer into the southern Strip, deploying tanks and armored vehicles in open areas east of the border town of Rafah, including the disused international airport at Dahaniyeh, Gaza's only airport.

According to information gleaned by the Palestinian Authority, Shalit is being held in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza. His captors may be considering moving him elsewhere, possibly to the Jabalya refugee camp, on the outskirts of Gaza City in the northern Strip.

IAF aircrafts also attacked a Gaza City power station after midnight Tuesday, cutting power to much of the area, Palestinian security officials said.

Gaza's Electric Power Station in flames after direct hits by IAF Missiles.

Kidnapped Yeshiva student Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri