by Avi Issacharoff
Hamas and Israel remain bitter enemies, but neither wants an all-out war, and so both sought to prevent a day's escalation from turning into something far more devastating.
With the tailing off of the Gaza conflict, and the end to the barrages into Israel and the IDF’s counter-strikes, it’s plain that the shared desire of both Hamas and Israel for a return to “normality,” and the avoidance of war, prevailed. Proof of this is that the status quo ante has been restored, with no change to the previous understandings between the sides. Israel and Hamas recommitted to their familiar formula: quiet will be met with quiet.
Neither side wants an escalation. To use a boxing analogy, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, and then Israel, put on the gloves for 24 hours, but heeded the bell and retired to their corners at the end of the round...
Even when hitting back, the Israeli army was careful mainly to target unmanned positions and facilities. As of this writing, there was not a single Gazan fatality reported in the dozens of Israeli retaliatory strikes.
Rocket and mortar fire from Gaza was far more indiscriminate; in the first Islamic Jihad barrage on Tuesday morning a shell exploded in the yard of a kindergarten. Nonetheless, it appeared that the terror group commanders did not wish to lose complete control and to force Israel into a harsher response. That first barrage came before the children had arrived.
Looking at both sides, there was almost the sense of an unseen hand coordinating where to fire and how heavily, until the previous calm had been restored...
NOTE: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warnedWednesday that in the event of another escalation, the IDF will conduct the most powerful assault on terror targets the Gaza Strip has seen in years. He charged Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terrorist groups of responsibility for 36 straight hours of massive rocket and mortar attacks.(Why wait? For how long will the inapt response and gamble with Jewish lives last? Remove them from Gaza and end the threat!)
Not a single Islamic Jihad or Hamas member was killed in any of the Air Force strikes. Not a single launching cell was attacked on the most extensive day of battle since Operation Protective Edge, a day in which the Palestinians fired more than 100 rockets and mortar shells. Security sources say they didn’t want to escalate the events in the south because of the northern front. (Terrorist leadership is still alive; enemy population still occupies Gaza - Nobody can end or win conflict with inadequate, proportional response! It can only be stopped by killing terrorists and removing terror supporting population from Jewish land. Bombing empty ‘facilities’ is not enough - it was done many times before!)
Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak
This is a message to BDS supporters: Please, be positive and campaign for "Buy Palestinian products”! Could you suggest products that could be put in the list “Made in Gaza”? Without doubt, the ‘signature’ products like mortar shells and Qassam rockets, and suicide bombers, and ‘newcomer’ – incendiary kites, will be included with delivery guaranty!
The United States vetoed an Arab-backed UN draft resolution calling for protective measures for the Palestinians that won backing from 10 countries at the Security Council. A US resolution condemning Hamas also failed. China, France, and Russia were among the countries that voted in favour of the draft put forward by Kuwait on behalf of Arab countries. Four countries, Ethiopia, the UK, the Netherlands, and Poland abstained. A few days before, Kuwait on Wednesday blocked a US-drafted UN Security Council statement that would have strongly condemned the firing of rockets and mortar shells by terrorists in the Gaza Strip on Israel. (I hate gutless 'friends' of Israel, who abstain, more than enemies who voted “Yes”!)
A top official in the IDF’s Southern Command said Israel must take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which would likely bring quiet to the Gaza region. A top official in the IDF’s Southern Command said Thursday Israel must take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which would likely bring quiet to the Gaza region. (Aid for rockets - fear trade!? Israel has been there before, many times! How about removing them all from Gaza?)
The IDF has revealed the projectiles fired at Israel in the afternoon were made in Iran. “The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a terrorist organization rooted in Iranian ideology,” the IDF spokesperson said in a statement. “Today, they used Iranian-made weapons.” In March 2014, Israel’s Navy intercepted a Klos-C” ship in the Red Sea that was carrying a massive shipment of arms and headed for Hamas in Gaza.
No 'Traditional' Condemnation from the US
The United States avoided condemning Israel’s approval of thousands of homes in Judea and Samaria. The White House position on settlements has shifted considerably since former president Barack Obama left office in the beginning of 2017. Contrary to his “not one brick policy,” which opposed any construction beyond the 1967 lines, his successor Donald Trump has taken a less confrontational approach.
Dozens of rockets launched a week ago by terrorists from the Gaza Strip hit facilities supplying electricity to the Gaza Strip. Due to the damage to the facilities, three lines supplying electricity to the southern Gaza Strip were stopped. (Just a few days before, a border crossing was also destroyed and Hamas refused medical aid from Israel!)
Ministers Shaked and Steinitz say armed conflict and retaking of the Gaza Strip are now on the table after more than 70 rockets, mortar shells were fired into Israel's south in less than a day a week ago. Shaked said Israel should go even further, contrary to partial take-over Steinitz talked about, and mull a potential retaking of the coastal enclave as a decisive move to topple the Hamas regime. (It will work only with removal of all enemy population from Gaza - end this horrific stupidity!)
The Hamas terrorist organization has been significantly weakened following the latest rounds of clashes with Israel. “The army’s sharp response crippled Hamas’ naval force, as well as their drone manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure,” an officer said. According to the source, Israel’s defense establishment was prepared for a significant escalation with Hamas.
Israel and Russia agree to boot Iran and Hezbollah from Israel's northern border. Israel and Russia have reached an agreement whereby Israel will not intervene to prevent the deployment of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troops to the southern border and the Golan Heights, effectively reasserting Assad’s control there, and Moscow will make sure that these troops do not include Iranian or Hezbollah forces.
Abbas: Jerusalem Put Me in the Hospital
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas blamed the new US embassy in Jerusalem and the US recognition of the holy city as Israel's capital for his recent hospitalization. Abbas, 83, has a history of health problems and smokes heavily. He was discharged a week ago after being hospitalized for nine days. Abbas was elected for a four-term term in 2005, but remains in office nine years after his term expired. He has not appointed a successor. (Well, next logical step for him is grave!)
The Knesset plenum approved a bill amending the Administrative Courts Act (Amendment 117). The amendment seeks to establish Courts of Administrative within Israel’s Magistrate’s Court system. The bill will force Arabs to show hard proof in Land Ownership Petitions! The new amendment could also mean that land disputes will no longer result in court rulings mandating the complete demolition of a Jewish settlement. The High Court of Justice has tyrannized the Israeli settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria since the early 1990s. (After 70 years of independence, normality of the land ownership system must be established!)
A salvo of twenty-eight mortar shells were fired on Tuesdaymorning at Israeli towns surrounding the Gaza Strip, with at least two exploding inside the communities, one in a kindergarten yard. According to the IDF, the majority of the projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. (Hamas is at war with Israel - it is time to realise it and free Jewish Gaza from enemy occupation!)
Court unanimously rejects petition against law allowing Knesset to expel MKs who express racism or support for terrorism. The Impeachment Law allows the Knesset to dismiss a Knesset member "whose actions constitute incitement to racism or support for an armed struggle against the State of Israel." (Interesting - Israel’s legal system usually takes an anti-Zionist position.)
Despite 2005 disengagement removing Israeli civilians and military forces out of Gaza Strip, South Africa demands Israel 'leave Gaza'. After the recent disturbances by the Gaza Strip’s border, South Africa, whose government is pro-Palestinian Authority, recalled its ambassador. (Facts are irrelevant where Jew-hatred is concerned!)
Some 50 percent of air-defense batteries belonging to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad have been destroyed after they fired on Israel Air Force jets in recent months during multiple operations. "...We do not destroy batteries that do not fire on us,” said a senior IAF officer.
There is Nothing to Harm
Turkish Foreign Ministry warned Israel against recognizing the Armenian genocide, warning that it would only harm itself if it did so. "We think that Israel putting the events of 1915 on the same level as the Holocaust is harming itself first and foremost." (There was never a good relationship between Israel and Turkey! Jews can find a better holiday destination. The Armenian genocide was used by Hitler, because nobody cared about it, to justify and unleash the Holocaust!)
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke out against the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem, saying it was the wrong move. "I openly stated this was a mistake. I think that we should avoid escalating the tension in the region.” (There is no peace in the region - There is nothing to "escalate"! The US embassy move is a matter between Israel and the US - shut up idiots!)
Nasrallah: If War Breaks out with Israel...
Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said that if war breaks out with Israel, Hizbullah will prevail. (The problem with our enemies is that they believe in their own delusions!)
Labor Party officials pushed back against a proposal by faction member MK Eitan Cabel to “sober up” and abandon the failed 1990s-era “land for peace” negotiations formula with the Arabs in Judea and Samaria, in favour of a more realistic approach that will preserve Israel’s ability to negotiate effectively if the political situation between Israel and the PA (or its replacement) makes talks possible in future. (The proposal is not really revolutionary, just the same idiotic procrastination and unwillingness to face and recognise reality!)
QUOTE of the WEEK:
“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” - George Bernard Shaw – For how long is Israel going to pretend that so-called Palestinians want peace and tolerate terror?
by Yochanan Visser
With May coming to an end we had two mini-wars this month and next month could see a big one if diplomacy should fail.
The two mini-wars in May, the one that took place in the night of May 10 between Iran and Israel in north Israel and this week’s confrontation between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Israel, showed similarities which revealed that the Israeli military has a new strategy.
Just like the direct confrontation with Iran on May 10, when the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps lobbed 32 missiles at Israel and the IAF destroyed 50 Iranian targets in Syria in response, the army did the same with Hamas and Islamic Jihad this week.
The IAF destroyed much of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s military infrastructure in Gaza when Israeli warplanes and combat helicopters destroyed 65 military targets in the coastal enclave.
"Israel sent a message that if attacks begin again, the attacks on Hamas and its offshoots will become more forceful. Now, actions will decide what the future holds," a senior Israeli defense official told Arutz Sheva.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, or should we say Iran, apparently got the message and asked Egypt for help in order to establish a cease-fire.
Both terror organizations are considered part of the so-called ‘resistance front’ - the loose coalition of Iranian-backed terror organizations and Shiite militias which are taking their orders from Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps...
The Israeli leader on Wednesday repeated Israel preserved the right to act in all of Syria against Iran.
"We will continue to act against (Iran’s) intention to establish a military presence in Syria, opposite us, not just opposite the Golan Heights but anywhere in Syria," Netanyahu said...
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