SWI NEWS: Friday, March 19, 2010 4 Nisan, 5770
IAF strikes in Gaza after Kassam attack
The army said it struck three smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border, a weapons production facility and two tunnels intended for infiltration into Israel to carry out attacks.
Two Palestinians were reportedly wounded in the strikes.
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The Kassam rocket slammed into a greenhouse in the small southern agricultural community of Moshav Netiv Ha’asara on Thursday, ripping through the roof, killing a Thai worker and leaving his coworkers, who came to his aid, traumatized.
The incident marks the first death from Gazan rocket attacks since Operation Cast Lead ended last year.
Senior defense officials had vowed to respond harshly to the attack, but said they would keep its response isolated, to avoid being drawn into a larger-scale conflict with Hamas.
IDF sources said that the rocket was not fired by Hamas, and by Thursday evening the terrorist group was reportedly rounding up suspects behind the attack for interrogations.
“It is currently not in Hamas’s interest to attack Israel,” one senior officer said, noting that while Hamas has attacked IDF border patrols since Operation Cast Lead last year, it has refrained from firing rockets into Israel.
“Hamas’s current policy is to keep the situation quiet so it can continue to build up its military infrastructure ahead of a future conflict with Israel,” the officer said.
The Thai foreign worker, in his 30s, was killed by a Kassam rocket that scored a direct hit on a greenhouse, spraying shrapnel and small potted plants in all directions.
Magen David Adom paramedics tried to resuscitate the man and stem his blood loss, but he succumbed to his wounds shortly afterwards.
Policemen, headed by Sderot station commander Dep.-Cmdr. Shimon Nahmani, and IDF personnel converged on the site.
“This is the third rocket attack that has directly targeted an Israeli community in the past 24 hours,” Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
“The rocket fired was a standard Kassam-type projectile, capable of killing anyone in its radius who did not take cover,” he added. “We are assessing the security situation in the western Negev in light of recent events.”
Yair Farjun, chairman of the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, said the dead man had worked on the moshav for three years and eight months.
“He drove a tractor. He was always smiling. He learned how to speak Hebrew,” Farjun told The Jerusalem Post.
“These attacks do not target the army, and are not part of a military confrontation. The Palestinians are targeting farmers who work their land, civilians, and children.
“A price tag must be set, so that the Hamas government, supported by Iran and Hizbullah, will not think they can fire on us at will and that we will wait for things to get really bad before responding. We are on the front line here,” Farjun said.
“The international community must wake up. We have left Gaza, so what do the Palestinians want now? They are not building up their own economy and society in Gaza. They have turned it into one big military camp, and a base for terrorism,” he said.
“All of these incidents are happening not because Israel is building in Jerusalem, or because a synagogue was opened in the Old City in Jerusalem, they are happening because the Palestinians want all Jews out of this land and seek the destruction of Israel,” Farjun said. “It’s time for the world to know the truth. Those who want to see reality should come here.”
Thai farm workers “are part of our family and community. We make our living by working the land. If the work becomes untenable, our farming will come to a standstill,” Farjun said.
The rocket was apparently fired from deep within the Gaza Strip, he said, citing the IDF Home Front Command. He added that a long-range attack would explain why almost a full minute passed between the sounding of the Color Red warning siren and the rocket’s impact.
“Usually, rockets land 15 seconds after the siren. This time, nearly a minute separated the siren from the impact. From what I understand, this rocket was fired from central Gaza. The man who was killed today lay on the ground when the siren went off, but stood up after 20 seconds,” Farjun said.
Small bomb shelters have been erected near the greenhouses and were situated close to the work areas, allowing workers to reach them within 15 seconds, he said.
“Some of the workers ran toward the shelters, while others lay on the ground,” he added.
A small Islamist faction calling itself Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack. Fatah’s Aksa Martyrs Brigades later also claimed responsibility.
Speaking from the site of the attack on Thursday evening, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (Israel Beiteinu) said, “This is one rocket out of 12,000 that the citizens of Israel have endured in recent years. The responsibility for this attack rests with Hamas.”
Ayalon said the attacks were a result of Hamas incitement to violence.
“While Israel continues to extend its hand in peace, the other side not only refuses to come to the negotiating table, but continues to incite recklessly against Israel,” he said. “Israel still seeks peace and calls for negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without preconditions; however, the incitement must end.”
Referring to the UN-sponsored Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead, Ayalon said the document “provides legitimacy and a propulsion for terrorism and is immoral and unprofessional. With or without the report, Israel will continue to defend its citizens. I call on those who voted for the Goldstone Report to come and see the consequences.”
IDF sources said that since Cast Lead, most rocket attacks against Israel have been carried out by hardline groups such as Ansar al-Sunna, affiliated with al-Qaida and global jihad. These groups consist of a few thousand followers and several hundred armed men, many of them former Hamas fighters who left in protest of the ruling movement’s current policy of refraining from attacking Israel.
Israel’s considerations in restraining its response have to do firstly with the government’s desire to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and secondly with the diplomatic crisis with the United States, which would likely not support Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip.
Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) warned that the rocket attack would lead to a strong reaction, and said that Hamas was ultimately responsible.
“It is severe escalation,” Shalom said. “Israel will not return to the situation of before Operation Cast Lead. The response will be particularly fierce… I hope Hamas will learn a lesson.”
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i (Labor) held a security assessment with officials from the IDF Home Front Command to discuss the level of protection in the area of greenhouses near the Gaza Strip.
“Hamas is in control of Gaza and Israel will hold Hamas responsible for every rocket attack originating in Gaza,” Vilna’i said. “Israel is not interested in a military conflict but will not allow rocket fire against its civilians.”
After the disengagement from Gaza in 2005, Netiv Ha’asara became the closest community in Israel to the Gaza Strip, located 400 meters away from the edge of the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya. At the southern edge of the moshav, a car park was converted into an IDF base and tanks were deployed. An electric fence was erected to stop infiltrators from Gaza, and three concrete walls were built against Palestinian snipers.
AP contributed to this report.
US Lawmakers Stand Up Against Obama for Israel
(IsraelNN.com) U.S. Congressional lawmakers have flooded the White House and the media with letters and news releases complaining about the Obama administration’s unprecedented scolding of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. This, following an Israeli announcement last week that a routine housing project was proceeding apace in eastern Jerusalem.
Politicians from across the political spectrum called on President Barack Obama and his aides to tone down their attacks on Israel and start using a more even-handed approach when dealing with the Palestinian Authority.
Many pointed out the lopsided double standard used by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joseph Biden in harshly condemning Israel’s routine announcement of a zoning approval for new housing in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in northwestern (mistakenly called east by most of the media) Jerusalem – a three-year-old project.
Their criticism was delivered as the PA government dedicated a public square to the memory of a brutal murderer who in 1979 led the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history, slaughtering 37 innocent civilians, including children.
Neither Biden nor Clinton came out with any public statement condemning the PA’s decision to go ahead with the ceremony naming a public square in the terrorist’s honor, nor the PA decision to follow up with a public study day in her memory two days later.
In a letter dated Wednesday, March 17, ten members of Congress told the president, “While your Administration clamors over the announcement of a proposed residential development years away from completion, Iran continues to develop its nuclear weapons capability and Hamas and Hizbullah rearm and reenergize. Remarks made by your Cabinet and advisors embolden Israel’s enemies – who are wholly committed to destroying the Jewish State – and undermine the critical relationship we have with our strongest ally for democracy and peace in the Middle East.”
Senator: Move US Embassy to Jerusalem
“It’s hard to see how spending a weekend condemning Israel for a zoning decision in its capital city amounts to a positive step towards peace,” U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) said dryly in a separate statement. “Rather than launching verbal attacks on our staunch ally and friend, it would be far more worthwhile for this Administration to expend the effort planning for the transfer of our embassy to Jerusalem and tackling the growing Iranian nuclear threat.”
U.S. Representative John Boozman (R-AR) went further, saying, “The Administration has lost focus on what has been the cornerstone of our foreign policy in the Middle East. We have an unbreakable bond with Israel, but the Administration is systematically eroding that relationship. The lack of clear objective and strategy by the Administration challenges and poses a security threat both in the Middle East as well as to our national security.”
In Obama’s own party, U.S. Representative Shelley Berkley (D-NV) sent out a particularly scathing statement about the Administration’s “irresponsible overreaction” to Israel’s Interior Ministry’s awkward timing of its zoning announcement, which Obama advisor David Axelrod termed an “insult” and an “affront.” Berkley noted, “No doubt the administration’s overwrought rhetoric is designed to try to appease Palestinian politicians and convince them the U.S. is an honest partner in the peace process by seizing every available opportunity to criticize the actions of our ally Israel.”
“That strategy also includes ignoring the myriad provocations by Palestinian leaders that make pursuing peace such a long and arduous process,” Berkley pointed out. “Where, I ask, was the Administration’s outrage over the arrest and month-long incarceration by Hamas of a British journalist who was investigating arms-smuggling into Gaza? Where was the outrage when the Palestinian Authority this week named a town square after a woman who helped carry out a massive terror attack against Israel? It has been the PA who has refused to participate in talks for over a year, not the government of Israel. Yet once again, no concern was lodged by the Administration. And, all the while, Hamas restocks its terror arsenal and fires rockets into Israel.”
Shelley added that the U.S. should be pursuing a process of fairness, “not a policy of constant appeasement and reinforcement of the Palestinians’ failings as legitimate partners in the peace process.”
The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) published a complete list of the politicians who issued statements in support of Israel.
U.S. Senate
Republicans
Arizona - John McCain (R-AZ)
Kansas - Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Nebraska - Mike Johanns (R-NE)
Independent
Connecticut - Joe Lieberman (I-CT)
Democrats
Maryland - Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD)
New York - Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Pennsylvania - Arlen Specter (D-PA)
U.S. House of Representatives
Republicans
Arizona - John Boozman (R-AR)
California - Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)
David Dreier (R-CA)
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
Florida - Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)
Connie Mack (R-FL)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Georgia - Tom Price (R-GA)
Ohio - Jim Jordan (R-OH)
John Boehner (R-OH)
Illinois - Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Indiana - Dan Burton (R-IN)
Mike Pence (R-IN)
Mark Souder (R-IN)
Kansas - Todd Tiahrt (R-KS)
Oregon - Greg Walden (R-OR)
Michigan - Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)
Texas - John Carter (R-TX)
Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Virginia - Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Washington - Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
Democrats
California – Howard L. Berman (D-CA)
Florida - Ron Klein (D-FL)
Illinois - Mike Quigley (D-IL)
Michigan - Gary Peters (D-MI)
New Jersey - John Adler (D-NJ)
Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
Steve Rothman (D-NJ)
New York - Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
Eliot Engel (D-NY)
Steve Israel (D-NY)
Nita Lowey (D-NY)
Kevin McCarthy (D-NY)
Anthony Weiner (D-NY)
Nevada - Shelley Berkley (D-NV)
Pennsylvania - Chris Carney (D-PA)
An Arab mob attacks police in Jerusalem. (Flash90)
Yesha Council to Clinton: Jerusalem is Ours
(IsraelNN.com) In a letter to US. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Jewish leaders in Judea and Samaria explain the unshakeable historic and religious bonds between the Jewish People and Jerusalem.
The letter was written in response to President Obama’s and Clinton’s criticism of Israel’s intentions to build in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo. The neighborhood is a part of Jerusalem-proper, and is surrounded nearly completely by Jewish-populated areas. Though it is part of area liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, it was not recaptured from Jordan, but was rather considered no-man’s land between 1949 and 1967.
“We wish to share with you the sentiment and consensus among the Israeli public” regarding Jerusalem, the leaders of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha Council) wrote to Ms. Clinton, who sharply berated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this week over the issue.
The letter continues:
“We Israelis believe in the integrity of a strong, unified and undivided capital for our nation – Jerusalem, the Holy City. We Jews are the descendants of King David, and of a hundred generations of Jews who built and glorified Jerusalem as our capital, beginning over 3,000 years ago.
“From time immemorial, the Jews have worshipped towards Jerusalem and the Holy Temple – and prayed for Jerusalem since the dawn of our civilization.
“Neither Romans nor Greek, Crusaders nor Arabs, Ottomans nor British ever succeeded in shaking our bonds with Jerusalem. Thus, when you demand that we not build housing in our capital, or that we divide our capital and surrender parts of it to others, you must realize that this is unacceptable to Jews everywhere and to us Israelis.
“We will not negotiate on the issue of Jerusalem. We will never divide Jerusalem.
“The Jewish People worldwide support Prime Minister Netanyahu’s action, and stand firmly behind him on this important issue of Israel’s right to defend itself as a sovereign nation.
“We deeply appreciate America’s friendship, but it must be clearly understood: We are a free and sovereign people, and we have the right to determine our destiny.”
Washington sharpens crisis with Israel, may give Palestinians military shield
DEBKAfile Special Report March 18, 2010, 11:36 AM (GMT+02:00)
History Disappearing from the Temple Mount?
For the past few weeks, the Temple Mount has been the scene of clashes between rock-throwing Palestinians and Israeli riot police. But some less visible activity on the Temple Mount may be just as troubling.
The Temple Mount is a treasure trove of Jerusalem’s history. But some of that history may be disappearing.
“It’s a crime, a crime against science and maybe a crime against humanity, but I believe it’s a crime to destroy something like this,” archaeologist Peretz Reuven said.
Reuven is an archaeologist and an expert on the wooden beams of ancient Jerusalem. He’s studied, photographed, and documented many of these ancient beams.
“It’s so rare that beams in the Middle East survive so many years. In places like Jerusalem they are very, very rare,” Reuven saud. “At least two of them gave fantastic dating. They gave dating of around the 10 Century B.C.”
This means some of these wooden beams date back 3,000 years, to the time of King Solomon and others to the Roman or Byzantine periods.
Some are cedars from Lebanon, others are cypress or oak. Many have distinctive carvings. Some have questioned how these can survive so long.
“If they are not outside in the rain and the sun, they could survive for thousands of years, if it’s in a building,” Reuven said. “So we believe that those beams have been removed and reused from one building to another building.”
But Reuven fears many of the beams he’s documented, not those already in museums, have been discarded or even destroyed. He says he cannot find them any more on the Temple Mount.
CBN News saw evidence of workmen burning wood on the Temple Mount. We contacted the Islamic authorities on the Temple Mount about the burning. A spokesman denied any burning was taking place. Instead, he said any burning would be dangerous on the Temple Mount.
But Reuven fears the wooden beams he’s documented, beams that span Jerusalem’s history, may have literally gone up in smoke.
“I feel very angry and very sad,” he said. Reuven also said the destruction may not necessarily be politically motivated, but simply a matter of negligence or ignorance.
Whatever the reason, he says it’s a crime that one of Jerusalem’s treasures may have been lost to the world.
“Israel is one of our closest allies and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that’s not going to go away,” said President Barack Obama to Fox News Wednesday, March 17, after denying any crisis in the relationship. debkafile’s Washington sources note that denial makes a lot of sense for the president because it lets him off the hook for dealing with it.
However, in Jerusalem, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu called his inner cabinet into its second session on the crisis that same night. The seven ministers were asked to review the situation after President Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton turned down their initial proposals for easing the upset and laid down three pre-conditions for restoring normal relations with Jerusalem:
1. The Netanyahu government must extend the 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction to include East Jerusalem;
2. When the moratorium runs out in September, it must be renewed for the duration of peace negotiations with the Palestinians;
3. Israeli must make more concessions to the Palestinian Authority and its chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
The Israeli government was informed that until those conditions were met, its ministers would not be received in Washington by high-level American officials - a virtual boycott, which downgrades the normal diplomatic, strategic and security exchanges between the two administrations to the level of senators and the special Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
Netanyahu tried offering the Obama administration a number of compromise proposals, such as the suspension of construction in East Jerusalem and the city’s outlying Jewish suburbs until September, but they were rejected, as was an offer to prohibit further Jewish purchases of land and buildings in Jerusalem’s Arab districts during peace negotiations.
Obama and Clinton made it clear they would brook no departures from their three demands, which Israel is required to treat as an ultimatum.
Neither party to the difference has mentioned the US administration’s fourth condition for resuming normal relations: an Israeli commitment to refrain from attacking Iran’s nuclear program without prior US consent. Because that commitment has not been offered, administration officials are continuing to hammer Israel in every possible arena. Indeed, the gloves are now off in earnest for insinuations that Israel’s settlement policy is the root-cause of Iran’s drive for a nuclear bomb and of the conflicts endangering American lives in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Vice President Joe Biden launched this drive, when he reportedly attacked Netanyahu for the announcement of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem by saying: “What you are doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
A much-admired American military figure, CENTCOM chief, Gen. David Petraeus, was the next US official to put this linkage into words. In his briefing to a Senate panel, he said Wednesday, March 16: Clearly the tensions on these issues [with Israel] have enormous effect on the strategic context in which we operate in the Central Command’s area of responsibility.”
The general denied he had as yet formally asked for the Palestinian territories to be transferred to his command, but added: “In fact, staff members at various times have discussed asking for the Palestinian territories to be added to CENTCOM’s turf.”
debkafile’s military sources explain that, if approved, this step would be tantamount to providing the Palestinians with an American military umbrella against Israel.
More than one friend of Israel demurred against the Petraeus suggestion.
Former presidential candidate, Republican Senator John McCain, caught on fast to the way the wind is blowing in Obama’s Washington: During his testimony, he put in: “Isn’t the issue not the issue of settlements as much as it is the existence of the state of Israel…? So maybe you could put it all into the larger context of what needs to be done to reduce tensions on the US’s closest ally and friend in many respects.”
The general did not rise to the senator’s challenge, except for a polite: “Absolutely true.”
Some of the more respectable US and British media are playing up the theme that Israel has shot itself in the foot and therefore deserves what’s coming, namely escalating punishment from the Obama administration
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother-in-law, Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi on Wednesday charged US President Barack Obama with being anti-Semitic, and allowing his disdain for the Jewish nation to influence recent policy decisions and statements.
Speaking to Army Radio, Ben-Artzi said, “It must be stated clearly and simply. Unfortunately, there is an anti-Semitic president in America. As a politician, who ran for presidency, he had to hide it, but from time to time, it bursts out from inside.”
Ben-Artzi noted that this should come as no surprise, considering that Obama was spiritually mentored by Rev. Jeremiah Wright for the past 20 years.
“For 20 years he sat with the preacher Jeremiah Wright, who is anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli,” he said. During Obama’s election campaign, it was revealed that Wright’s church on more than one occasion featured Hamas-authored editorials in its weekly bulletin.
Ben-Artzi said that rather than despair, Israelis should view the situation in the White House as a test of their faith and commitment.
“When an anti-Semitic president comes to power in America, it is our test, and we must say: ‘We will not give up. We are a 4,000-year-old people, while you will pass on and disappear in one or two years. Who will remember you? But Jerusalem will always be secure.’
