"Hassan Nasrallah remained a popular figure in Egypt, even if less so than before"

FLC

 

[Wilson Center/ USIP project]

“…Overall, Iran’s support for Hezbollah and Hamas, which has been opposed by some Arab governments, particularly Saudi Arabia, has been popular among the Arab public, especially in Egypt, and more so in times of armed conflict involving Israel. Despite strong Arab public support for the Syrian rebels, for example, and frustrations with Hezbollah’s support for the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, Hassan Nasrallah remained a popular figure in Egypt, even if less so than before.  

The November 2012 war between Israel and Hamas increased Arab public sympathy for Hezbollah and Iran as the Arab conclusion was that Israel’s inclination to end the fighting early was mostly linked to Hamas’s longer-range rockets that were supplied by Hezbollah and Iran …”

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 1:17 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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No Israels illusions : Hezbollah will not raise the white flag لا أوهام إسرائيلية: حزب الله لن يرفع الراية البيضاء

لا أوهام إسرائيلية: حزب الله لن يرفع الراية البيضاء

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‏السبت‏، 09‏ آذار‏، 2013

أوقات الشام

يحيى دبوق

لا خلاف في إسرائيل على أن الحرب على الجبهة الشمالية، مع سوريا أو مع لبنان، أو كليهما معاً، واقعة لا محالة. تطورات الساحة السورية وما يجري في لبنان، يشيران، من منظور إسرائيلي، إلى إمكانات مرتفعة للتدهور الأمني، وصولاً إلى المواجهة الشاملة. لكن ماذا عن استعدادات إسرائيل وجاهزيتها؟ وكيف ستخوض الحرب؟ وما هي الأهداف المرسومة والممكن تحقيقها؟

أسئلة حاولت صحيفة يديعوت أحرونوت الإجابة عنها، عبر عرض السجالات والتقديرات المختلفة لدى المؤسسة العسكرية، والجدل الدائر بين سلاح الجو والقوات البرية، والأسلوب الأنجع لخوضها.في مستهل تقريرها، حذرت الصحيفة من أنه لا حافزية لدى إسرائيل لخوض الحرب. لكنها أكدت، نقلاً عن مصادر عسكرية، أن التهديد موجود، ويتعاظم و«لدى المؤسسة الأمنية فرضية تتركز على أن المواجهة العسكرية شمالاً، ستندلع في المدى المنظور، سواء مع حزب الله، أو مع المنظمات الإرهابية التي ستثبّت نفسها لاحقاً في سوريا، أو كليهما معاً»

.تضيف الصحيفة، أن «الحرب المفترضة توجب توفير ردّ سريع وقاسٍ، يختلف تماماً عن الحروب الماضية، الأمر الذي يثير جدالاً وسجالات بين سلاحي الجو والبر، حول السبل الكفيلة بخوض الحرب والانتصار فيها».وتكشف الصحيفة أن الجدل برز، خلال تدريب قيادي أجرته أركان المنطقة الشمالية في الجيش، قبل بضعة أسابيع، وتحديداً بين سلاحي البر والجو. أما خلاصة الفرضيتين، فعرضتها الصحيفة على النحو الآتي:يقارن سلاح البر، ما بين التهديد الشمالي من حزب الله، والتهديد الجنوبي من قطاع غزة، ويرى أوجُه شبه بينهما، رغم الاختلاف؛ إذ إن «تهديد كلا الجانبين موجه للجبهة الداخلية وللسكان المدنيين وللجنود، لكن من ناحية حزب الله، فإن تهديده أكبر بكثير، وإذا كانت إسرائيل قد تلقت خلال عملية العسكرية الأخيرة في قطاع غزة 1500 صاروخ، إلا أنها ستتلقى من حزب الله نفس عدد الصواريخ، لكن في كل يوم من أيام الحرب المقبلة، مع التأكيد أن حجم تدمير هذه الصواريخ سيكون كبيراً جداً».وتؤكد فرضية عمل سلاح البر أن الاستناد فقط إلى «المعلومات الاستخبارية الدقيقة، وقدرة سلاح الجو الممتازة، غير صحيح؛ إذ هذه التوليفة لا تستطيع أن توقف إطلاق الصواريخ»، مشيرة إلى ضرورة إدخال القوات البرية إلى الأراضي اللبنانية. ويشدد أصحاب «البزات الخضراء»، على أنه خلافاً لغزة، فإن الشأن اللبناني يتشعب في اتجاهات عديدة، و«يمكن أن تنشب مواجهة عسكرية لأسباب مختلفة، من بينها إيران وبرنامجها النووي، وسوريا والحرب الأهلية ومستودعات السلاح فيها، إضافة إلى تنفيذ سلسلة من العمليات الإرهابية ضد مصالح وأهداف إسرائيلية حول العالم، من شأنها أن تؤثر في أصحاب القرار في إسرائيل»

.أما لجهة التدريبات والاستعداد للحرب، فتنقل الصحيفة عن مصادر سلاح البر تأكيدها أن «القوات الإسرائيلية تتدرب بنحو متواصل، وتحاكي تدريباتها ظروف الحرب الحقيقية»، مشيرة إلى أنه «في حرب 2006، كانت أكثر الصواريخ من الجانب اللبناني موزعة في مناطق وأراضٍ مفتوحة خارج المناطق المبنية، أما الآن فهي موجودة داخل القرى». استعداداً لمواجهة مبنية على هذه الوقائع، «تتدرب القوات البرية على المبادرة إلى عمل عسكري سريع يكون أكثر عنفاً لاجتثاث التهديد من داخل القرى»

.مع ذلك، يحذر سلاح البر من رفع سقف التوقعات، ويؤكد أن «المهمة لن تكون احتلال لبنان أو القضاء على حزب الله، بل التركيز فقط على شلّ قدرته الصاروخية، وإصابة مقاتليه، ومن ثم الخروج سريعاً وبنحو آمن».أما لجهة أصحاب «البزات الزرق»، فيتحدثون بمفاهيم مغايرة، ويبدون ثقة كبيرة بما لديهم من قدرات، على خوض الحرب المقبلة مع حزب الله، محذرين من إقحام سلاح البر في الشمال، ذلك أن «الأميركيين عندما اجتاحوا العراق قضوا على السلاح العراقي هناك، الأمر الذي لم يحدث في سوريا ولن يحدث، وبالتالي فإن منظومات السلاح السوري الضخمة ستصل إلى المنظمات الإرهابية في الشمال».وتشدد فرضية عمل سلاح الجو على «تغيير حاد في بناء القوة وتشغيلها في الميدان، قياساً بالحرب الماضية، والتوفيق ما بين المعلومات الاستخبارية وقدرة سلاح الجو على الضرب ضرباً واسعاً ومتكرراً، لهزيمة حزب الله». وبحسب مصادر السلاح، فإن «قيادة الجيش الإسرائيلي غير قادرة على إدراك ما يمكن الوسائل القتالية الجديدة أن تحققه، أو أن تلحق الهزيمة سريعاً بحزب الله»

.مع ذلك، يوافق سلاح الجو على المحذور الذي دعا إليه سلاح البر؛ إذ «لا يمكن الحديث عن استسلام حزب الله، أو دفعه لرفع الراية البيضاء، بل يمكن التأكيد أنه هو من سيطلق الرشقات الأخيرة (من الصواريخ)، لكنه سيلتزم، في اليوم الذي يلي، وقفَ إطلاق النار».وتؤكد مصادر سلاح الجو أنه في حال نشوب المواجهة، «سنطلب من السكان المدنيين الخروج من القرى (في لبنان)، والبدء سريعاً بالهجوم على الأهداف داخلها، على أن تتزايد الهجمات مع استمرار إطلاق الصواريخ على إسرائيل». وتشير إلى «إمكان المبادرة إلى ضرب بنى تحتية في لبنان، يمكن أن تساعد الطرف الثاني على القتال، لكن يجب عدم استهداف محطة توليد كهرباء يكلف بناؤها مليارات الدولارات، بل يمكن إسقاط ثلاثة أعمدة ناقلة للطاقة، والتسبب بإيقافها».ويؤكد قادة سلاح الجو أن الحرب ستشهد «ضربة قوية جداً من جانب إسرائيل، على أن توقف هجومها لاحقاً، دون اتفاق لوقف إطلاق النار. أما الطرف الثاني، فسيطلق شيئاً قليلاً من الصواريخ ويكف عن المتابعة، لأننا سنعلن له مسبقاً أننا في الوجبة الثانية من القصف، سنكون أكثر عنفاً وقسوة بكثير من الهجوم الأول».أما الصحيفة، فتخلص إلى التأكيد أن الجدال لم ينته، وما زال قائماً، والجهة التي ستحسمه هي المؤسسة السياسية، مع بدء الحرب، إلا أن الصحيفة تنبّه إلى أن الجميع يدرك سلفاً، أن عدم نجاح سلاح الجو في فرضياته، سيعني دخولاً برياً لا مفر منه، وتتساءل، كما مصادر سلاح الجو: هل نريد فعلاً إدخال الجنود الإسرائيليين إلى بيروت؟ أم إلى بنت جبيل؟ علماً أن حزب الله سيطلق صواريخه من وسط لبنان ومن شماله، وهذه الأماكن لن يصل إليها إلا سلاح الجو؟».

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خشية إسرائيلية من مزارع شبعا بحرية

طالب رئيس أركان سلاح البحرية الإسرائيلي، العميد يارون ليفي، في حديث خاص مع صحيفة «إسرائيل اليوم»، بضرورة الابتعاد عن النزاع مع لبنان على حقول الغاز والنفط في عرض البحر المتوسط. وفي إطار وصفه للنزاعات القائمة على الحقول والمناطق الاقتصادية الخاصة لفلسطين المحتلة والدول المجاورة لها، قلل ليفي من حجم النزاع القائم على حدود المنطقة الاقتصادية مع لبنان، مشيراً إلى أنّ «لدينا مع الدولة اللبنانية جدلاً صغيراً يتعلق بعدد من الدرجات في الزاوية القائمة بين منطقتنا ومنطقتهم، إلى الشمال الشرقي من الحدود البحرية»، داعياً إلى تفادي أي احتكاك مع الجانب اللبناني من أجل الحؤول دون التسبب بإنشاء «مزارع شبعا جديدة» في عرض البحر مع لبنان. وأضاف: «أنا أوصي بالامتناع عن إنشاء نقاط تنقيب على الحدود» في تلك المنطقة.وحذّر ليفي من أن التهديدات التي تواجه منشآت التنقيب الإسرائيلية يمكن اختصارها بالآتي: «قوارب مفخخة وسفن صدم، وصواريخ من أنواع مختلفة، وبعضها متطور مثل صواريخ ياخونت روسي الصنع، كذلك يمكن إصابة المنشأة البحرية من تحت الماء بواسطة ألغام عمق أو غواصين، ويمكن إصابتها من الجو». وأشار ليفي إلى أن «خطر أي عملية إرهابية ناجحة ضد منشأة تنقيب إسرائيلية، لا يقتصر على الخسائر المادية المباشرة، أو رفع رسوم التأمين التي تهدد الجدوى الاقتصادية للتنقيب عن الطاقة، بل قد يؤدي إلى امتناع شركات دولية عن المجيء للاستثمار في إسرائيل».

الاخبار

هل رفعت المظلة عن لبنان وبات التفجير قريباً؟

‏الجمعة‏، 08‏ آذار‏، 2013

أوقات الشام

ماهر الخطيب

 

ما بين التحذيرات الخليجية التي تبلغ بها العديد من المسؤولين اللبنانيين، والتهديدات بطرد اللبنانيين من هذه الدول، والمواقف الدولية المحذرة في بعض الأحيان والمهددة في أحيان أخرى، هناك سؤال جوهري يطرح بقوة في الأيام الأخيرة حول وجود قرار بتفجير الأوضاع الداخلية المأزومة على أكثر من صعيد.
على مدى الأشهر السابقة، كانت هناك معادلة يتم الحديث عنها بشكل يومي، تتعلق بما يسمى “المظلة” الدولية الحامية للإستقرار في لبنان، فهل هي باقية، وهل تكفي لحماية لبنان من الإنزلاق نحو المجهول؟

“المظلة” الدولية

طيلة الفترة السابقة، كان هناك نوع من الإجماع بين القوى الدولية على تجنيب لبنان الإنزلاق نحو المجهول الذي تعيشه بعض الدول الإقليمية، وهذا الموقف كان يعبّر السفراء عنه بشكل دائم، ولكن الضغوطات الجديدة في ملفات داخلية بدأت تثير العديد من التساؤلات.

وفي هذا السياق، يوضح الكاتب والمحلل السياسي سيمون أبو فاضل أن هناك نوعين من “المظلات” في لبنان، الأول يتعلق بالمواقف الدولية التي تشدد على عدم إتخاذ مواقف من الأزمة السورية تؤدي إلى “إحتكاكات” على الأرض، أما الثاني فهو بسبب واقع سياسي أمني داخلي حيث أن الفريق الذي له القدرة على تفجير الوضع ليس له مصلحة في ذلك، لأنه منشغل في مواضيع أخرى، لا سيما الوضع الميداني في سوريا، وهو بالتالي غير مستعد للذهاب نحو أي حدث داخلي، بالإضافة إلى أن الوضع القائم يختلف عن العام 2008 على أكثر من صعيد.
في الجهة المقابلة، يرى الكاتب والمحلل السياسي فيصل عبد الساتر أن الوضع في لبنان لم يعد بحاجة إلى “مظلة” من قبل أي جهة، لأن الجميع يعلم أن تفجير الوضع قد يطيح في كل المعادلات القائمة، ويراهن على وعي اللبنانيين وحدهم لمنع الإنزلاق في هذه المعادلات لأن الجميع ذاهب نحو الإنفجار.
ويشدد عبد الساتر، عبر “النشرة”، على أن الحل الوحيد هو أعطاء الدولة الضوء الأخضر للمؤسسات الرسمية لمعالجة كل الحالات الشاذة، لأن من الواضح أن هناك من يريد أن يجر فريقاً معيناً إلى المواجهة، ويعتبر أن التصريح الأهم حول حقيقة ما يجري في المنطقة صدر عن رئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري الدين المالكي، الذي أكد أن كل الأمور مرتبطة بالأوضاع في سوريا، وإنهيار الدولة هناك سيؤدي إلى إنفجارات كبيرة جداً في المنطقة.

لا إنفجار…

على صعيد متصل، لا يرى عبد الساتر أن الضغوط التي تمارس من قبل العديد من الجهات الإقليمية والدولية كافية لتفجير الأوضاع الداخلية، فهو يعتبر أن الأمر يتعلق بالدرجة الأولى بقوى محلية لا تريد الوصول إلى هذه المرحلة.

ويشدد عبد الساتر على أن مواقف الدول الخليجية تعبّر عن سياسة “إبتزاز” تمارس ضد الدولة اللبنانية منذ سنوات طويلة، لا سيما بعد خروج رئيس الحكومة السابق سعد الحريري، ويلفت إلى أن هناك العديد من الأمثلة التي تؤكد هذه السياسة، ويرى أن هناك “رعونة” لبنانية في مواجهة هذه السياسة، ويستغرب في هذا الإطار الهجوم على وزير الخارجية والمغتربين عدنان منصور بسبب موقفه في الجامعة العربية.

من جانبه، يرى أبو فاضل، في حديث لـ”النشرة”، أن لا مصلحة لأحد بالذهاب نحو حالة من عدم الإستقرار، حيث يشير إلى أن الحالة السلفية تبحث عن تأكيد حضورها، و”حزب الله” ليس لديه أي دافع للقيام بأي عمل.

وبالنسبة إلى تصريح السفيرة الأميركية مورا كونيللي المتعلق بموضوع الإنتخابات النيابية، يشير أبو فاضل إلى أنه يعود إلى موقف بلادها التي تأخذ على عاتقها من زمن الحفاظ على الديمقراطية في المنطقة، لا سيما في لبنان، ويرى أن البعض يريد أن يستغل هذا التصريح من ناحية القول أنه تدخل في الشؤون الداخلية، لكنه يؤكد أنه ليس الأول من نوعه، وقد كانت هناك تصريحات عديدة في السابق من أكثر من مسؤول دولي.

وفي ما يتعلق بالتهديدات الخليجية، يوافق عبد الساتر على أنها تعود إلى فترة خروج الحريري من السلطة بسبب مواقف هذه الدول المتضامنة معه وتطور الموقف بسبب الأحداث السورية، لكنه يشدد على أن معاقبة المواطنين اللبنانين المتواجدين في هذه الدول الذين يبحثون عن لقمة عيشهم أمر غير مقبول.

النشرة

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Instagram Scandal Highlights Racism Among Israeli Youth

Israeli youths dance under a huge national flag during a parade marking Jerusalem Day in Jerusalem, May 20, 2012.

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An image of a Palestinian child in the crosshairs of a gun posted on an Israeli soldier’s Instagram account went viral in February after being published by the Electronic Intifada, the US-based blog on Palestinian issues, attracting widespread negative attention in international media. Israeli authorities were quick to assure that this was not a typical case and that the photo did not accurately portray the Israeli military. A few days later, more disturbing pictures of soldiers, including Rambo-like posing and hailing the killing of Arabs, went viral.

According to Rebecca Stein, a professor at Duke University, the use of social media by the soldier on the ground to capture his or her everyday life is nothing new. In a phone interview with Al-Monitor, Stein explained that what makes the Instagram images interesting is the way of aestheticizing the military and thereby normalizing warfare and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

“It becomes clear the extent to which the occupation as a reigning paradigm in Israel is now so banal that it can be rendered in an aestheticized form and circulated like a souvenir,” said Stein.

Yehuda Shaul is a former Israeli soldier and cofounder of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organization that gathers testimonies of veteran combatants to reveal the reality of everyday life as soldiers in the occupied territories. He was not surprised to see the Instagram photo, which he said was almost identical to an image from the second intifada.

“It’s just a fact that in 2013 there is Instagram. It’s not like the disrespect for Palestinian life wasn’t there before Facebook, for instance. It just gives another window into the mindset of what it means being a soldier and how you see Palestinians when you serve in the Palestinian territories — and the answer to that is, not as equal human beings to you,” said Shaul in a phone interview with Al-Monitor. ”[As a soldier] you stand at your post for eight hours, bored to death, and you look for ways to pass some time. Taking pictures through your scope is just something you do.”

Israel authorities aestheticize military culture

The Israeli army guaranteed that the recent case attracting so much attention would be “examined and properly handled,” referring to investigations into whether any criminal acts had taken place. Shaul finds this reaction nonsensical.

“The army is trying to dampen the PR damage while not giving any concern to the real problem this photo is portraying,” said Yehuda. ”It’s not about whether we commit crimes according to the criminal law, but about whether we commit crimes to the moral laws we want to stand up to.”

Stein has been researching new media technologies in connection with the Israeli occupation since Operation Cast Lead in 2008–2009. According to her, the army as well as the state and its different branches of government have since that time been fully aware of the importance of new media and have tried to catch up with the highly digital young soldiers both on and off the battlefield.

Stein also points to the fact that social media tools are not only used by soldiers, but also by Israeli authorities, who have incorporated these tools into their “toolbox of military occupation and war.” While Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been a part of the army’s PR strategy for years, Instagram was added to the list prior to the Pillar of Defense campaign against Gaza in November 2012.

“The operation mission in 2012 made it abundantly clear to anyone who had any doubts about the central role of new media, both in the hands of Israelis and Palestinians on the ground, but also in the hands of the state. Instagram was being used as a platform to celebrate military culture and the targeting of Palestinians,” said Stein.

While it seems that the Israel Defense Forces has taken down its Instagram platform, posting only a select few images on its blog, more can be viewed in a November feature in the New Inquiry, an independent online magazine.

Racism is nothing new

The message of racism and targeting of Palestinians expressed in Israeli soldiers’ Instagram images is apparently not confined to social media. In recent weeks, Israeli media have featured cases of young Israeli Jews who attacked Arab Israelis. During the Jewish holiday of Purim, 40-year-old Hassan Ausruf was severely beaten in Tel Aviv by a group of Israeli youths who, according to Ausruf, shouted racist incitements. On Feb. 26 in Jerusalem, an eyewitness took pictures of an alleged hate crime in which a Jewish woman attacked a Muslim woman, tearing off her head scarf, at a light rail stop.

Hebrew University professor Moshe Zimmerman, a historian specializing in anti-Semitism in Europe and the role of the Holocaust in Israel and postwar Germany, warned some 20 years ago about the growing issue of racism among Israeli youth.

“What is happening now is just a demonstration of what has already been going on for a long time. There is a feeling that Jews are superior to others, and there is a lot of hate to[ward] ‘the other.’ All the racism that we know from European and American history is also found in the Israeli society,” said Zimmerman in a phone interview with Al-Monitor.

Zimmerman attributes the culture of racism to a process of socialization in formal and informal education, which is also reflected among young Israeli soldiers. “The military is the outcome. You educate the Israeli youth to believe in a racist ideology, and the first place where they can practice this is in the army when being confronted by Palestinians in the Palestinian territories,” said Zimmerman.

According to Zimmerman, there is little being done to tackle the issue of racism. He would like to see a bigger effort, especially in the education system, to confront this racist trend.

Lena Odgaard is a Danish journalist reporting from around the Middle East, mainly on Israel and Palestine. She tweets @l_odgaard.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Jewish terror state breaches truce 820 times in three months

Source

Israel has breached its ceasefire agreement with the Palestinians on more than 800 occasions since it was signed last November.

Human rights organisations have revealed that Israel has breached its ceasefire agreement with the Palestinians on more than 800 occasions since it was signed last November. In stark contrast, the Palestinians have broken the truce just twice.

Data based on reports produced by the United Nations, the Israeli Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement (GISHA) and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, as well as Israeli and Palestinian media outlets, found that the three months old ceasefire is not being taken seriously by the Israeli occupation authorities.

According to the data sources, four Palestinian civilians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since November and 91 have been wounded. In the West Bank, meanwhile, six Palestinians have been killed by Israel, with 618 wounded.

A breakdown of the statistics shows that 63 attacks and 13 incursions were carried out by the Israelis in several areas of the Gaza Strip. Israel detained nine people from Gaza during the incursions.
At sea off the Gaza coast, the Israeli navy has carried out 30 attacks on fishing boats belonging to Palestinian fishermen, resulting in several casualties. Thirty-nine fishermen were detained by Israel, including two children. Ten fishing boats were shot at, with 8 being damaged significantly. British Members of Parliament visiting the Gaza Strip last week at the invitation of London-based charity Interpal witnessed Israeli gunboats attacking Palestinian fishing boats well within the 6-mile limit agreed as part of the ceasefire deal.

Palestinians in Gaza launched just two mortar shells in the same period, causing little or no damage in Israel. The human rights groups say that no rockets were fired from Gaza during the three month period covered by the survey, from November 22, 2012 to February 22, 2013.

The ceasefire agreed between Palestinians in Gaza and Israel brought to an end the eight-day Israeli offensive on the besieged territory. Around 170 Palestinians were killed, including 43 children, 15 women and 18 elderly; more than 1,250 people were injured, including 430 children, 207 women and 88 elderly. Three Israelis were killed and about 240 were either injured or treated for psychological trauma. Research in the Gaza Strip claims that 86 per cent of Palestinian children there now suffer trauma at the sound of the Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft which overfly the territory frequently.

– See more :

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What a ‘period of calm’ looks like in the Occupied Territories

22 February 2013  
     

Three months after the last major Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, the “period of calm” is only “calm” for Israel.

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 By Ben White
22 February 2013

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Since the end of the last Israeli incursion into Gaza, its navy has attacked Gaza fisherman multiple times

Three months have passed since the ceasefire that brought an end to Israel’s eight-day attack on the Gaza Strip known as Operation “Pillar of Defence”. This infographic depicts the number of attacks on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military during this three-month period, as well as the number of Palestinian attacks emanating from Gaza. Since late November, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have averaged over one a day, everyday. These include shootings by troops positioned along the border fence, attacks on fishermen working off the Gaza coast, and incursions by the Israeli army.

This data is important for three reasons. First, it is a response to the Western media’s failure to cover the vast majority of Israeli attacks. This fits with a familiar and disturbing pattern, where a regional “period of calm” is exclusively defined in terms of attacks on Israelis. “Calm” from this perspective means security for Israelis – but more dead and injured Palestinians.

Second, data of this nature lay bare the daily reality for Palestinians and the power imbalance between the occupier and an occupied, colonised people fighting for their basic rights. It is instructive that the Israeli army refers to the entry of its forces into the Gaza Strip as “routine activity”. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers continue to snatch Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank, enforce segregation, and protect settler land theft. We have included numbers for Palestinians killed and wounded in the West Bank over this same period because developments there and in Gaza ought not to be viewed as isolated from one another.

Third, if or when there is another assault by Israel on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government and many in the West will seek to emphasise the “rockets” narrative once again. So remember this data, and note what the Israeli army has been doing when – in the words of Israel’s own consul general in Los Angeles – “for the last three months, there hasn’t been a rocket fired from Gaza”.

Contact Stop the War    Address: 1B Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ United Kingdom     E-Mail: office@stopwar.org.uk    Telephone: 0207 561 9311

 

 

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A Gun for Rent: After Libya, Hamas "Jihad" in Syria continues

A Gun for Rent

Other evidence of the involvement of the gangs “Hamas” in the war on Syria submitted by the family “Hamdan Kashta” in the Gaza Strip. The family Mourned Osama Ahmed Hamdan Kashta (his full name), who fell on the territory of Syria.

Another Hamas “Military” leader killed on Syrian territory

The family wed her son to the Virgins in paradise (حور الجنة),as stated inthe above “poster”
that was distributed in Gaza and Palestinian refugee camps.

Hamas Bridegroom is the relative of Osama Hamdan the “Hamas” foreign relations official. 

The dead man was among “Qassam” mercenaries paid by Qatar and sent ” to fight in the ranks of the “Military Council in Tripoli -Libya ” “Al Qaeda” during the Nato war on Libya. He came to through Turkish territory earlier in the year.

It is to be noted that “the descendants of the Prophet Brigade” was founded and financed in coordination with the Qatari client criminal Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the “Hamas” movement. 

Khaled Meshaal has overseen the creation of a security “brigade” in Damascus, led by Kamal Hosni Ghinajah, before he was assassinated last summer at his home in the suburb of “Qudsaya” north–west of Damascus. $ 20 was found in his home million transferred from Qatar through “Hamas” for the “descendants of the Prophet Brigade“ and “Nusra victory!” More

Amman: Funeral of Ghannajah

According to the Opposition “Syria the truth”, Ghanaja was executed in the office of head of Air Force Intelligence Maj. Gen. Jamil Hassan, after the discovery of his betrayal and his work with the Qataris, before his body was transported to his home. He was executed because he was entrusted with security and military secrets, being responsibile for the smuggling of weapons from Syria to the Gaza Strip in cooperation with Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in cooperation between the “Mossad” and a cadre within the private guards of  Khaled Meshaal. The the body Ghanaja  was first discovered in his home two days after his death and announced by “local coordination committees in the Syrian revolution,” which proves that the Syrians militants have a special relationship with him.

The day they tried to kill him was the day Mishal the leader was born,’ a Jordanian journalist told McGeough. ‘The man who died that day was Abu Marzook. Nobody wanted to talk to moderate Abu Marzook (Known as MR. CIA) after that – it was Mishal, Mishal, Mishal.’ Was it Luck as McGeough claimed??



BTW, Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated on the evening of 12 February 2008, he had just finished a meeting with some of the most senior Palestinian leaders in the Syrian capital of Damascus. They had discussed ways to develop the capacities of the Palestinian resistance inside Palestine, and Gaza in particular.

Its important to note that the investigation of the assassination of Mughniyeh, conducted by both the competent authorities Syrian and by Hezbollah, reached in 2009 that a companion of Khaled Meshaal, who was in charge for aranging Mishaal’s meetings with Imad Mughniyeh and the transfer of arms into Gaza and the transfer of fighters to Lebanon for training, was recruited by Jordanian intelligence during his stay in Jordan after he was released from Israeli jails. It is not unlikely that Israeli intelligence has recruited him during his detention.

Because of embarrassment, Both Hezbollah and Syria avoided declaring the results of investigations.

“Hamas“network in Damascus, which was run by “Kamal Ghannajah“,  is implicated in the assassination of Major General Zugheib, the Syrian missile program manager.

The Firing of Missiles by Hamas is Betrayal to the people of Syria.. Thus said Arrour , the shaikh of the so called Syrian revolution, hinting that Islamic Jihah started firing missiles, and explaning why Hamad, Erdugan, and Cliniton rushed to Cairo to force ceasefire. Linsten to the Qassam freedom fighters speeking out and compare with what the Qatari agent said in his press conference in Cairo.

On his Cairo press conference after signing the long truce with the zionist enemy, Mishaal thanked Qater, Egypt and turkey for their support. He visited Gaza with an Israeli visa. In the following Video, Amr Adib asked Mishaal: Why Israel stopped trying to kill you? Listen to his answer.

عمرو أديب – خالد مشغل ، انت ليه بطلوا يغتالوك

The real answer



The Third Birth

Hezbollah Leader: ‘How Are Missiles Getting Into Gaza? Who is Sending them?’ Posted bynahida -Exiled Palestinianat 6:33:00 PM

Finaly listen to The Real Aqsa Shaikh commenting on Mishaal’s press conference Justifying his betrayal by standing with the people

• A Gun for Rent VS a Gun for Liberation
• إزدياد أعداد الغزيين المقاتلين في سوريا
• مصدر سوري عسكري: بالادلة.. حماس تشارك “الحر” في القتل
• Israel, Hamas negotiating truce agreements: Report
• Arrour: The Firing of Missiles by Hamas is Betrayal to the people of Syria..
• “Do not return to Kufr, killing one another, after I am gone.” Why Is “Muslim” Morsi Killing Egyptians?
• Who is the benificiary of the displacing of the displaced Palestinian in Syria?
• Ibrahim al-Amin: Neo-Hamas: The challenges of resistance
• Ibrahim al-Amin:Gaza: What Strategy for the Resistance?
• Celebrations in Abbastan and Hamastan (Edited)
• THE PALESTINIAN SPRING: A New OSLO UNDER COOKING IN CAIRO

 =====

مقتل قيادي عسكري في “حركة حماس” من أقرباء مسؤول العلاقات الخارجية فيها أسامة حمدان على الأراضي السورية!؟

21 شباط 2013 23:02 عدد القراءات 787

دمشق، غزة ـ الحقيقة (خاص): دليل آخر على تورط عصابة“حماس” الأخوانية في الحرب الوهابية على سوريا، قدمته اليوم عائلة “حمدان قشطة” في قطاع غزة. فقد نعت العائلة “فقيدها” أسامة أحمد حمدان قشطة( وهذا اسمه الكامل)الذي سقط على أراضي الشام. وزفت العائلة ابنها إلى حور العين، كما جاء في “البوستر” الذي وزع في غزة وعدد من المخيمات الفلسطينية.

وقالت مصادر فلسطينية في مخيم “اليرموك” لـ”الحقيقة” إن الإرهابي المذكور قتل في المخيم بتاريخ 13 من الشهر الجاري بينما كان يقاتل في صفوف عصابة”جبهة النصرة”. وكشفت هذه المصادر أن القتيل هو ابن عم مباشر لمسؤول العلاقات الخارجية في حركة “حماس”، ومسؤولها السابق في لبنان، أسامة حمدان قشطة (أسمه الكامل)، الذي يحمل الاسم نفسه.

كما وكشفت هذه المصادر أن القتيل كان قياديا في عداد مقاتلي”كتاب القسام” الذين أرسلتهم “حماس” للقتال كمرتزقة مدفوعي الأجر من قطر في صفوف “المجلس العسكري في طرابلس”(تنظيم “القاعدة” في ليبيا) خلال الحرب الأطلسية على نظام القذافي، وجاء إلى سوريا في إطار دفعة المقاتلين الذين جاؤوا من ليبيا عبر الأراضي التركية في وقت سابق من العام الماضي.

يشار إلى أن العميل القطري المجرم خالد مشعل، زعيم حركة “حماس”، كان أسس ـ بالتنسيق مع قطر وبتمويل منهاـ “لواء أحفاد الرسول” في ريف دمشق. وقد أشرف على تأسيس “اللواء” المسؤول الأمني لحماس في دمشق ، كمال حسني غناجة، قبل اغتياله صيف العام الماضي في منزله بضاحية “قدسيا” شمال غرب دمشق. وقد عثر في منزله على 20 مليون دولار كانت محولة من قطر عبر حركة “حماس” لعصابات”لواء أحفاد الرسول” و”جبهة النصرة”!

وبحسب معلومات”الحقيقة”، فإن غناجة أعدم في مكتب رئيس المخابرات الجوية اللواء جميل حسن، بعد اكتشاف خيانته وعمله مع القطريين، قبل أن تنقل جثته إلى منزله . وثمة معلومات تفيد بأن جميل حسن أعدمه بمسدسه الخاص بسبب غيظه، لاسيما وأن غناجة كان مؤتمنا على أسرار أمنية وعسكرية بحكم مسؤوليته عن تهريب السلاح من سوريا إلى قطاع غزة بالتعاون مع “حزب الله” وعماد مغنية الذي اغتيل بالتعاون بين “الموساد” وأحد كوادر الحرس الخاص لخالد مشعل المخترقين من قبل المخابرات الأردنية. وكان أول من اكتشف جثة غناجة في منزله بعد يومين على مقتله وأعلن عنها “لجان التنسيق المحلية في الثورة السورية”، وهو ما يثبت أن المسلحين السوريين كانوا على علاقة خاصة معه.  

استشهد الاخ اسامة قشطة اثناء جهاده ضد قوات النظام السوري البائد بأذن الله…

مع العلم انه من اوائل المجاهدين الذين قاتلوا في صفوف الثوار الليبيين ضد قوات نظام القذافي….

وجاء بعد الثورة الليبية الى غزة في زيارة وجلست معه واخبرنا العديد من الروايات والقصص التي حدثت معهم ومع المجاهدين اثناء المعارك والقتال….

وقد كان رحمه الله يمتلك خبرة كبيرة في المجالات الامنية والعسكرية ولديه خبرة كبيرة في الاسلحة….

هاجر الى سوريا نصرة للشعب السوري وذهب ليقاتل ضد النظام العلوي النصيري البائد باذن الله…

مع العلم انه منقطة اخباره منذ شهر او اكثر حيث كان مصابا اثر احد المعارك ومن ثم استشهد متأثرا بجراحه التي اصيب بها….

ومن خلال تقديري الشخصي وحسب معرفتي البسيطة به اظنه انه كان يقاتل في صفوف جبهة النصرة…..

نسأل الله ان يرحمه وان يتقبله في عليين….

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Becoming Refugees Once More

Palestinians from Syria Return to Gaza 
Feb 14 2013 / 11:24 pm

Israeli bombing of Gaza in November 2012 caused widespread damage. (Photo: Ahmed Dalloul/IRIN)

 

By IRIN

Ahmed Dweik’s family knows a thing or two about the refugee experience.

Theirs started in 1948, when his father fled his Palestinian home town as Israeli forces captured the village of West Batani near Ashdod in present-day Israel.

From there, he settled in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, further south, until the 1967 Arab-Israeli war pushed him to search for an easier life abroad. He went first to Egypt to study, then to Yemen to find work.

That is where Dweik was born. But like his father, he too sought better opportunities, migrating to Syria to look for a better paying job and settling close to Yarmouk, the largest camp for Palestinian refugees in Syria.

“But what happened to my father after the 1967 war happened to me in 2012,” Dweik told IRIN.
In mid-2011, Dweik was in Yarmouk when the authorities opened fire on demonstrations and he was forced to take shelter for a few hours until it was safe to be on the street.

“I knew it was time for me to leave, but where to?”

Yemen, where he grew up, was facing its own unrest, and other Arab countries have made it harder for Palestinians to enter.

That left Gaza, the tiny strip of land under siege by Israel and Egypt, where living conditions are difficult and expected to worsen, according to a recent UN report.

More than 60 percent of the population does not have secure access to food, 39 percent live under the poverty line, and 29 percent are unemployed.

Dweik, his wife and child are among some 150 families who have returned to Gaza from Syria, according to the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (begun by a number of Palestinian figures and NGOs in response to the flight of refugees from Syria). Of those, 154 people have registered with the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).

Syria is home to more than half a million Palestinian refugees who were driven from their homes in the 1948 and 1967 wars. The UN and Palestinian officials are increasingly concerned over their fate in the bloody Syrian conflict.

The Action Group had documented the deaths of 990 Palestinian refugees since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, while many others are missing.

Tens of thousands have sought refuge from the violence with host families in Syria and in government or UNRWA facilities in Syria. Another 20,000 and 5,500 have fled to Lebanon and Jordan respectively, though Tariq Hamoud, who coordinates the Action Group and recently published a study on the impact of the Syrian crisis on Palestinian refugees, says the number of Palestinians who have fled Syria, including to Turkey, Egypt and Libya, may be as high as 50,000.

A Difficult Return

But the return to Gaza is particularly challenging, according to UNRWA’s head of operations in Gaza Robert Turner.

“We don’t expect a significant number of returning refugees because of the difficulties reaching the Strip,” he told IRIN.

In December, following a heavy round of shelling in Yarmouk, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the international community to help Palestinian refugees in Syria to return to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

But “nothing changed”, Adnan Abu Hasna, of UNRWA’s communication division in Gaza, told IRIN.

Gazans who wish to cross through the Egyptian border require proper travel documents, and Egyptian officials are reportedly subjecting Gazans returning from Syria through Egypt to “profound security examinations”.

When Faragallah Abu Jarad, who lived in a Palestinian camp in Dera’a for more than three decades, was forced to leave Syria with his family of 11, he and his two sons ended up in an Egyptian prison for one month where he was subjected to questioning before he was allowed to return to Gaza, he told IRIN.

Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing also denied Dweik entrance to Gaza because he did not have a proper visa or permission. The only way in was through a network of illegal underground tunnels connecting Gaza and Egypt.

“It was risky,” Dweik said. “But here I am.”

But these Palestinians are returning to a place that can offer little in the form of security or opportunity.

After Dweik’s tortuous journey and an attempt to rebuild a life in Gaza, war hit again – and right next door.

The eight-day Israeli offensive on Gaza last November brought memories of violence flooding back. Dweik lives near a government building that was pounded in an Israeli attack.
“Everything was shaking: windows, doors, even the building, but thank God that my family wasn’t hurt,” he said.

He was afraid once more, “but what can I do about it? I suffered a lot to come back here, and I’m afraid that the Egyptians will arrest me if I leave to Egypt, because I entered Gaza via a tunnel.”
Abu Jarad said he is glad his family is safe; but finds it hard to cope with Gaza’s high unemployment and poverty levels.

“It’s not only safety we want,” he told IRIN, “but we also want to rebuild our lives, which have been stolen by war… We left almost everything.”

He is now fixing an old house that his parents inhabited for decades. The walls are cracked and some windows broken because of the Israeli bombardment in November.

Many, though not all, of those fleeing Syria have extended families in Gaza that offer some support.
The returnees also have access to the same UNRWA-provided services as all other Palestinian refugees in Gaza: food, education, health care. They can also apply to UNWA’s job creation project for six months or one year of employment to get them started, UNRWA’s Abu Hasna said.
“More than that we cannot offer them.”

A Gaza government official, speaking to IRIN on condition of anonymity, said returnees can seek social assistance from the government, as can any other resident of Gaza. But he said it would be very difficult, not only politically, but also logistically and financially, for Gaza to take in a large number of Palestinian refugees from Syria who were not originally residents of Gaza.

Dweik called for more attention, including financial and housing assistance, to those who fled their countries of refuge, “because they left with nothing in hand but themselves, looking for a safer place where they can live, not to be refugees all over again.”
(IRIN – irinnews.org)

Related posts:

1. Official: PLO Seeking Return of Refugees to Damascus Camp
2. Ambassador: Palestinian Refugees Can Return to Damascus Camp
3. Palestinian Refugees from Syria Lost and ‘Betrayed’
4. Palestinian Refugees from Syria Feel Abandoned
5. Refugees Return to Lebanon Camp

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Israel’s ‘self-defense’ argument against Hamas holds no water

فتوى حماس المحرمة للعمليات العسكرية ضد إسرائيل

Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas is holding, but unless Israel completely lifts its blockade and includes Hamas in two-state negotiations, renewed rocket attacks from Gaza are likely.

Should that happen, Israel would not be justified in arguing self-defense.

As part of a November ceasefire agreement with Hamas, Israel has partially lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip, at least allowing construction materials into the region pummeled by Israeli airstrikes. It’s a single, forward step that ends a five-year ban on such materials. But without progress in settling the overall conflict, Palestinian rocket or suicide attacks and heavy Israeli responses will almost surely resume.

 

If the past is any guide, even those who would criticize such Israeli attacks as “disproportionate” would hasten to add: “Of course, Israel has the right to defend itself.”

Israel, however, is not defending its homeland against unprovoked attack. Rather it is “defending” a nonexistent right to continue its occupation (direct or indirect) and repression of the Palestinians – and that is what provokes Palestinian attacks from Gaza.

 

The eight days of Israeli bombing and air strikes on Gaza last November were essentially a continuation – though on a much smaller scale – of “Operation Cast Lead,” the three-week Israeli attacks that began in late December 2008. Then as now, Israel and its supporters justified Cast Lead as a legitimate use of force in self-defense to end Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel’s civilian population.

After Cast Lead, a number of major human rights investigations – including the Goldstone Commission, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch – concluded that Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportional attacks against the Gazan population, economy, and societal infrastructures constituted war crimes. At the same time, none of these groups sought to refute Israel’s claim that it acted in self-defense.

Essentially, Israel and its supporters argue that even though Israel ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005, Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli population centers have continued, and thus justify Israel’s right to defend itself.

Their argument is wrong on several counts. First, even though Israel withdrew its Jewish settlements from Gaza in 2005, it continued its indirect occupation of the strip – especially through its land and naval embargo that followed the violent takeover of the strip by Hamas in 2007.
 
Israel continues to wield great power over Gaza’s economy, water, electricity, telecommunications, and transportation networks. Among other measures, it has refused to allow Gaza a functioning airport, seaport, or commercial crossing on its border with Egypt, radically cutting Gazan trade and commerce with the outside world.

The stated reason is for security purposes, but the result is widespread hardship on ordinary Gazans, including heavily restricted movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza; inadequate imports of water used for drinking and irrigation; farmers prevented from tending to and harvesting their fields and crops in border areas, and inordinate harassment of Gazan fishing boats.

Additionally, Israel has continued to assassinate Palestinian militants and periodically attack Gaza’s governmental and police institutions, electrical generating system, roads, bridges, farms, and olive orchards – and many of its bombs and shells have fallen on schools, ambulances, and hospitals, whether intentionally or not.

It cannot be seriously maintained that Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel – even though morally wrong – are “unprovoked” or have nothing to do with this history.

A second reason that the self-defense argument fails is that even if Israel had genuinely ended its occupation and repression of Gaza, it has not ended its direct occupation over East Jerusalem and much of the West Bank. Instead, it has expanded the number of Jewish settlements and land-grabs in those areas.

OPINION: How to make a Hamas, Israel ceasefire in Gaza stick

 

Gaza is not a separate country or people from the West Bank, and the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo agreement specifically states that Gaza and the West Bank are “a single territorial unit.”

Consequently, the Gazan people retain their right of resistance to occupation and repression.

To believe otherwise is like believing that, if the British had withdrawn from New Jersey in the 1770s but continued to occupy the other 12 colonies, New Jersey residents would no longer have had the right to take up arms to support American independence.

To be sure, the right of resistance does not include the right to employ terrorism. At the same time, it is certainly relevant that the Palestinians have no hope of gaining their freedom by defeating the Israeli armed forces. Nor is nonviolent protest and resistance likely to succeed, for Israel has either repeatedly ignored it or suppressed it, often meeting demonstraters (including Israelis) with beatings, rubber bullets, and sometimes real bullets.

The final flaw in the Israeli self-defense argument is that Western morality proscribes the use of force unless all nonviolent means of conflict settlement have been exhausted.

Israel, however, has repeatedly refused to negotiate long-term truces with Hamas, and it has even broken past agreements. While Hamas still refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist, since 2009 there has been substantial evidence that it is ready to go beyond ceasefires and join with the more moderate Palestinian Authority in the West Bank in supporting a two-state political settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Although Hamas’s position has been ambiguous and sometimes contradictory, this does not justify Israel’s refusal even to negotiate with Hamas to explore the peace possibilities.

THE MONITOR’S VIEW: Talk to Hamas? Talk to Taliban? Thank the Arab Spring for those possibilities.

 

As long as the Israeli occupation, repression, and intransigence continue, Israel has no legitimate or persuasive claim that it is defending its homeland against unprovoked Palestinian attacks. To stop those attacks and make last year’s ceasefire permanent, it needs to fully lift its blockade and bring Hamas into the negotiation process.

Jerome Slater is professor emeritus of international politics, US foreign policy, and international security at the State University of New York at Buffalo. A longer version of this piece ran in the journal International Security.

Related

• THE PALESTINIAN SPRING: A New OSLO UNDER COOKING IN CAIRO
• Uprooted Palestinians: The Good War: Israel, Egypt

 

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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The Good War: Israel, Egypt

A member of Hamas security forces checks a truck loaded with gravel at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 30, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

By: Geoffrey Aronson.http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/hamas-israel-ceasefire-gaza.html posted onSun, Dec 30.

If it is possible to talk about a “good” war, then Israel’s Pillar of Defense against the Gaza Strip may well fit the bill. The war was a disaster — in human and material destruction. No one would argue otherwise. But it also crystallized a shared interest in stabilizing the conflict between Israel and Gaza — creating an opportunity that the three principal parties to the conflict — Israel, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Egypt — recognize and appear determined to exploit.

Gaza has long been the most dynamic arena where Israel and Palestinian interests collide. Battles have been fought with depressing regularity, and the periods of calm are inherently unstable, given the failure to reach a grand diplomatic bargain. But it is also the case that Israel, largely through Egyptian good offices, has since Ariel Sharon’s announcement in March 2004 of his intention to “disengage” from Gaza, enjoyed a more fruitful and successful dialogue with Hamas than with the PLO’s Mahmoud Abbas and the West Bank under his nominal rule. Today, Israel’s Egyptian-mediated dialogue with Hamas represents the only working diplomatic channel between Israel and the Palestinians.

The two-paragraph cease-fire document agreed to by Israel and Hamas on Nov. 21 is the latest example of this workmanlike relationship. Hamas did not sign the document, in keeping with the fiction that Israel is not negotiating with Hamas. This is only a cosmetic convenience however, that reflects the shared, strategic interest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas leadership of Khaled Meshal alike. So too the document itself, which offers something for all parties, except that of Palestine’s president Mahmoud Abbas of course, and his Palestinian Authority(PA), which has been reduced to a facilitator of understandings reached between Israel and the government in Gaza.

The “Understanding Regarding the Cease-fire in the Gaza Strip” is divided into two parts — one governs the cease-fire. The other section refers to the “implementation mechanism,” and includes “opening the crossings and facilitating the movement of people and transfer of goods, and refraining from restricting residents’ free movement, and targeting residents in border areas and procedures of implementation.”

In contrast to Yitzhak Rabin’s famous dismissal of the timetables for implementing the Oslo II agreement — remember his “there are no sacred dates” — within the stipulated 24 hours after the agreement’s entry into force, each party was doing its part to see that the understandings were actually being implemented.

Israel and Hamas are each observing a cease-fire, which according to Israeli officials has resulted in the first period of “absolute quiet” in years. Within days of the end of hostilities Israel doubled to 6.9 kilometers the maritime border for Gaza’s fishermen, not adequate but a welcome improvement nonetheless. The Israeli-imposed 300 meter no-go zone inside Gaza’s 50 km border with Israel — which had placed off limits almost one third of Gaza’s much-needed agricultural land was also reduced. Farmers are already planting these newly “liberated” areas without serious incident and Hamas forces armed only with batons are now patrolling the border opposite unarmored Israeli military vehicles.

On Sunday, Israel inaugurated gravel exports from Israel to Gaza for use in commercial construction. These shipments were stopped by Israel after Hamas’ rout of Fateh forces in June 2007 — part of the draconian restrictions on trade adopted by Israel to squeeze the victorious Hamas regime.
The shipments themselves are more important for what they suggest than what they provide. After all, Gaza can import all the gravel it needs and at a cheaper price through the tunnels linking Gaza with Egypt. Israel initially embargoed such trade on security grounds. It didn’t want Hamas to use the material to build bunkers and other military facilities. The resumption of such shipments suggests that such concerns are no longer so compelling. Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, noted that more than 300 truckloads of goods have been moving from Israel to the Gaza Strip on a daily basis.

“They can have much more if they would like to,” he said.

The resumption of this trade is also a symbolic nod in Egypt’s direction. As Israel sees it, the Egyptian government led by President Mohammed Morsi “passed the test” during Pillar of Defense. Despite its initial outrage and humiliation at Israel’s surprise decision to initiate a major offensive, Egypt’s new leaders followed a well-worn script adopted during the Mubarak era, mobilizing Cairo’s intelligence professionals to put an end to the violence. In return, the Netanyahu government has signaled that Israel may be prepared to do more to relieve Egypt of the strategic burden of Gaza’s well-being created by Israel’s disengagement and the associated siege. It would not be surprising to see discussion of an effective end to Israel’s maritime embargo of Gaza and perhaps even a restoration of Gaza’s airport.

More broadly however, is evidence that Israel has been forced to rethink both the political and economic utility of the siege as part of its improved relationship with Egypt, the Hamas government in Gaza, and the movement itself. The decision to permit a visit of a Hamas delegation headed by Khaled Meshal is an unambiguous example of this new look in Israel’s policy — one that has the added advantage of playing to Morsi’s preferences as well. This shared interest also includes reducing Iran’s ties with Hamas, already strained by the latter’s abandonment earlier this year of the Assad regime, and with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, whose leader Ramadan Shallah was pointedly told that he would be targeted if he entered Gaza along with Meshal. Similarly, Cairo requires no prodding from Israel or Washington to rebuff Iranian efforts to join the parade of Arab leaders visiting Gaza.

It would be far too much to conclude that Netanyahu is now expressing an interest in Gaza’s and Hamas’ economic revival. Notwithstanding the cease-fire, the seeds of the next war are already being sown. Israel has not abandoned its strategic interest in forcing Gaza to look to Egypt as its economic umbilical cord. It would be more accurate to say that Israel, and for that matter Egypt as well, is more prepared than it has been in the past to accommodate Hamas’ interests in Gaza as part of a “win-win-win” formula. As long as everyone keeps their guns in their pockets, Hamas can do what is most important to its leadership — turning mortar and bricks into a government that can expand its power to act in a relatively sovereign manner and that can offer Palestinians and the international community a positive contrast, and a prospective alternative, to the PLO’s rule in the West Bank.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/hamas-israel-ceasefire-gaza.html#ixzz2GnQlEzX2

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HRW Double Standards: Gaza Rockets at Zionist Entity Violate War Laws

Local Editor

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip “violated the laws of war” by firing rockets at populated areas in the Zionist Entity during the eight-day war last month, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

Citing Zionist army figures, HRW said that approximately “1,500 rockets were fired at Israel between November 14 and 21,” of which “at least 800 struck Israel, including 60 that hit populated areas.”
These attacks “killed three Israelis, wounded at least 38, several seriously, and destroyed civilian property,” HRW said, noting that there were also rockets fired from Gaza “that fell short of their intended targets in Israel apparently killed at least two Palestinians”.”Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statem
ents that harming civilians was their aim,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

HRW rejected claims by the armed wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committee that their targeting of Israeli civilians was a legitimate “reprisal for Israeli attacks that killed civilians in Gaza”.

“There is simply no legal justification for launching rockets at populated areas.”

Last week, HRW said Zionist Entity’s attacks on media facilities and journalists in Gaza also violated the laws of war. But the organization didn’t mention the bombing of the Palestinian civil infrastructure and houses in Gaza.

191 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed during that fighting. Most of the Palestinian fatalities were civilians, although Israel says 30 senior militants were among the dead. Four of the Israelis killed by rocket strikes were civilians, and two were soldiers.

HRW said that under the laws of war, “civilians and civilian structures may not be subject to deliberate attacks or attacks that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets.”

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