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Summary of DEBKAfile Exclusives in Weeks Ending Dec. 25, 2008
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| Kidnap, glider attacks in Jerusalem foiled. Two Palestinians arrested 14 Dec.: DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that two residents of the Jerusalem village of Isawiya, Iyad Abid, 20, and Abdullah Abid, 21, were indicted before Jerusalem district court Sunday, Dec. 14, on charges of plotting a series of terrorist attacks on Israeli Border Guard and army officers on duty in the neighborhood of their village. One plan was to ram a border patrol jeep, use electric shockers to stun the officers and take them hostage against the release of jailed Palestinians, including members of their family.
Isawiya is strategically located close to the Hebrew University, Hadassah hospital which serves the neighborhood, Mount Scopus, French Hill and the Jerusalem-Maaleh Adummim highway. The two accused Palestinians, brothers and Hamas members, also conspired to crash a glider loaded with explosives on the IDF electronic early warning station on Mount Scopus. Russia considers first Israeli military purchase – spy drones 16 Dec.: A $10-12 million transaction for Moscow to purchase Israeli spy drones for the Russian army is in negotiation with Israel’s Aerospace Industries’. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the sale, if finally approved by the defense ministry in Tel Aviv, would be Israel’s first advanced hardware sale to Russia. It would also mark a reversal of Israeli policy, since the Russian army would almost certainly use the drones in another future round of hostilities with Georgia over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A drone transaction with Moscow would give the Russian army a technological-intelligence edge over Caucasian and Caspian nations, like Georgia and Azerbaijan, and therefore place in doubt their future arms purchases from Israel. Crowded Sderot shopping center takes direct Qassam hit from Gaza, 12 injured 17 Dec.: The 15th missile of Wednesday, Dec. 17, from Gaza, which injured 12 people – three from shrapnel, the rest in shock – exploded in the Sderot supermarket parking area, destroying shops and cars and scattering crowds of panicky Hanukah shoppers. The attack capped two days of a massive Palestinian missile and mortar barrage against several Israeli towns and villages without an Israeli military response. Only after the Sderot shopping center was ravaged did the Air force go into action against the Palestinians launching missiles from Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. Even then, the Palestinians kept on firing raising the day’s number of missiles to 21. Olmert’s bid to revive Syrian track runs into blank walls 19 Dec.: Israeli caretaker prime minister Ehud Olmert has been warned that the trip he booked to Ankara for next Monday will be an exercise in futility. Damascus let it be known Friday. Dec. 19, that acceptance in advance of its “borders document” was the pre-condition for direct peace talk. This six-point document covers Israel’s withdrawal – not only from the Golan but also from another slice of territory, the northeastern bank of the Sea of Galilee and Hamat Gader region, which is part of pre-1967 Israel. This maximalist approach, say DEBKAfile’s sources, aims at notifying US president-elect Barack Obama and designated secretary of state Hillary Clinton that Damascus’ “borders document” is a take-it-or-leave it proposition. Syrian leaders appear to believe that after he takes office, Obama will assign American partners to the negotiations, who will tilt the talks in Syria’s favor. Opposition Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu said the post-election government he expects to lead next year would not be bound by any “Olmert-Livni concessions to Syria” or abandon the Golan. US-Russian in race to arm Lebanon with heavy weapons 20 Dec.: In their race to arm the Lebanese army with heavy weapons, which Israeli diplomacy has failed to deter, the United States and Russia have no way of keeping them out of Hizballah hands; Shiite soldiers make up nearly half the force and Hizballah’s hands are on the levers of the Beirut government. Israel’s tardy diplomatic efforts to forestall the flow fell on deaf ears in Moscow and Washington. David Hale of the state department announced the US package for Lebanon Friday, Dec. 19, while denying Washington was competing with Moscow. He said that in addition to M-50 Supersherman tanks, the US package for Lebanon included “air support capabilities (helicopters) with precision weapons and urban combat gear.” The US was helping the Lebanese army “to maintain internal security and fighting terrorism in Lebanon,” he said. DEBKAfile also reveals that a group of Hizballah operatives recently paid a secret visit to Moscow and asked for Russian hardware. Jerusalem is too busy spinning fairy tales about the feasibility of peace with Syria to pay enough attention to the hectic, hostile activity on Israel’s northern border. Israeli government again backs down as Gaza missile war boils over 21 Dec.: No military action to stamp out the Palestinian missile blitz against southwestern Israel will be undertaken before “international support” is organized and an attempt to renew the “ceasefire” with Hamas is undertaken. This was the gist of the Israeli cabinet decision Sunday morning as Palestinian missile fire continued. Schoolchildren were told to stay in their classrooms and forbidden the playground. Magen David Adom’s first aid services are on high alert. Hamas leaders have gone into hiding in the smuggling tunnels honeycombing the southern Gaza Strip in case Israel goes back to targeted assassinations. Iraq orders Iranian exiles to leave ahead of PM Maliki’s Tehran visit 22 Dec.: Days before Iraqi Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki visits Tehran, his government has told the opposition People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) it is no longer welcome in Iraq and the 3,500 Iranian exiles would be deported. Cont. Next Column |
DEBKAfile reports they have nowhere to go. No government has offered the group asylum although Jordan has supported the PMOI’s claim to remove its terrorist listing by the European Union, based on its having laid down arms and renounced violent action in 2001.
From 2003, Ashraf Camp came under US protection after the US military destroyed more than 2,000 tanks, armored personnel carries and other weapons. But the handover of security to the Iraqi government has left the organization in the lurch. First Palestinian anti-air gun fire against Israel helicopters. Military option still on ice 22 Dec.: For the first time in 9 years of Palestinian warfare, anti-air gun fire was directed from the ground against Israeli aircraft, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. The guns opened up Sunday night, Dec. 21, against Apache helicopters before they crossed into Gaza air space from Nahal Oz to strike missile crews. The helicopters returned the fire which came from hideouts in the orchards of northern Gaza. Notwithstanding the severe escalation of Gaza attacks, a senior military source told DEBKAfile that a substantive military raid is not on the IDF’s immediate agenda. The government led by Ehud Olmert and defense minister Ehud Barak would prefer its postponement to mid-2009 or later. Kings Abdullah of Jordan and Saudi Arabia showered $316,000-worth of precious jewelry on Condoleezza Rice 23 Dec.: They included an emerald and diamond necklace, ring, bracelet and earrings set from Abdullah II and Queen Rania and a ruby and diamond necklace with matching earrings, bracelet and ring from Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. US: Russia’s S-300 missile sale to Iran is Israel’s decision point 23 Dec.: An American military intelligence official says Russia’s sale of S-300 long-range missiles to Iran presents a “decision point for Israel, since once the anti-aircraft system is in place it could deter any strike” against Iran’s nuclear sites. State department spokesman Robert Wood said Monday, Dec. 22: “We have repeatedly made clear… that we would strongly oppose the sale of S-300.” From Iran, they could reach American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and shift the Middle East military balance of power. Amid the confusion contrived by Moscow about the state of the consignment, an American source said Tuesday: “The US believes it is taking place.” In Moscow, a “military-diplomatic source in Moscow” said Monday the S-300 systems are being packed up… and expected to be delivered from the defense ministry’s warehouses.” The latter statement indicates the missiles going to Iran straight from Russia’s own emergency stores and not waiting to come off production lines. Large-scale missile defense exercise 23 Dec.: A big missile defense exercise was conducted Tuesday in the southern Israeli towns of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Gedera, Yavne. Gaza clash impending – Israel air strikes versus Palestinian long-range missiles They can reach a distance of 42 km – an area far broader than the strip taking hits from Gaza Wednesday which was delimited by Ashkelon to the north and Netivot to the east. Therefore an outer rim of 30 locations 30 km distant from the Palestinian enclave has now been connected to the Homeland Command’s early warning system, including Kiryat Gath, Kiryat Malachi, the Lachish Region and Ashdod. The Israeli security cabinet meeting Wednesday approved military action to extinguish the escalating Palestinian offensive which Wednesday left a trail of 57 shock victims – half of them children – and wrecked homes, vehicles, shops, workshops and roads. The ministers took into account that Hamas might counter effective Israeli air strikes in Gaza with its long-range missiles. Former national security adviser Giora Eiland urged the government in a radio interview to start treating the Gaza Strip like a neighboring hostile state and hold its Hamas regime responsible for the insupportable missile aggression. Israel must fight back – not just against the missile teams, but go for the belligerent Palestinian government’s infrastructure, even if 100 civilians are killed every day, because this would finally give Hamas a strong incentive to live in peace instead of making war. Tehran deflects Hamas SOS for intervention against an Israeli attack in Gaza 25 Dec.: Hamas asked Tehran Dec. 25, for its support by a threat to intervene if Israeli launched an attack on Gaza, DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report. Tehran gave Hamas no promises, saying it was watching to see how Israel’s military operation evolved. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert meanwhile strongly urged Gazan Palestinians to stand up to Hamas and stop them shooting missiles to ward off Israel’s military operation. He addressed them over al Arabiya television. In Cairo, foreign minister Tzipi Livni said after talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak that she did not ask Egypt for permission to embark on military action in the Gaza Strip. This decision was solely Israel’s, she said. Our sources note that the Iranian regime is thinking twice before making any military commitments for deterring Israel. For one thing, they believe it would have the opposite effect and offer Israel vindication for a major campaign. In southern Lebanon, close to the Israeli border, Lebanese army sappers defused seven Katyusha rockets fitting with timing devices a short time before they were set for launching against Galilee. There is no word who rigged them, but they apparently came out of Hizballah’s arsenal. |
Category: Palestinian N.A.
Palestinian National Authority
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THE DEBKA REVIEW – A WEEK AT GLANCE
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Israel’s Wanton Aggression On Gaza
By Stephen Lendman
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11526
Global Research, December 30, 2008
It’s not the first time and won’t be the last. On December 27, AP reported that:
“Israeli aircraft struck Hamas security compounds across Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of simultaneous attacks, and Hamas and medics reported dozens of people were killed.”
Haaretz headlined:
“Israel launched (Operation Case Lead) Saturday morning (at around 11:30AM with no warning) the start of a massive offensive against Qassam rocket and mortar fire on its southern communities, targeting dozens of buildings belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group.”
AlJazeera.net reported that “Israeli missiles target Gaza,” and continued:
“Israel has launched air strikes on Hamas installations across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 155 people and causing heavy damage, according to officials and witnesses.”
“At least 30 missiles (later over 100 reported) were fired at targets on Saturday (morning), with the head of emergency services in Gaza saying at least 200 people were also wounded.” By Sunday afternoon, Ma’an News reported much higher numbers – at least 285 known dead, more expected, and over 900 injured, many seriously.
Among the dead was Gaza’s police chief, Tawfiq Jabber, after a missile struck a police graduation ceremony in Gaza City. Other “casualties” (presumed killed) were governor of the Al-Wusta (central) Districts, Ahmad Abu Aashur, and commander of Security and Protection Services (in the government police), Ismail Al-Ja’bari.
The Strip’s interior ministry reported that all Gaza security compounds were destroyed. According to Hamas’ deputy leader, Mousa Abu Marzook: So far “the aggression (hasn’t) stop(ped)….they are targeting all the police headquarters and offices. We will defend our people, we will retaliate against this aggression….our military will retaliate.”
Marzook asked the international community to condemn Israel’s wanton state terrorism. “Nobody in this world can accept what happened….the international community (must) stand against this and say that it is not acceptable.” Former Palestinian information minister, Mustafa Barghauthi, said: Israel didn’t attack Hamas, it attacked “the whole population and the free will of the people of Gaza. (Israel is guilty of) war crimes.” Hamas’ leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said “Palestine has never witnessed an uglier massacre.”
In Damascus, Khled Meshal, Hamas’ political leader in exile, said Hamas pursued “all peaceful options without results” in calling for new Intifada resistance. The Arab League was tepid in its response. It called an “emergency” Sunday meeting in Cairo, then postponed it until Wednesday, December 31.
Meanwhile, the raids continue; the death and injury toll mounts; vast amounts of despair, anger, and destruction as well; and Fatah leader and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (from Cairo) blamed Hamas for the violence. That provoked outrage from Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. He accused Abbas of “downplay(ing) the sufferings of our people in Gaza, belittl(ing) their pains, (and) providing justification of the holocaust and war waged by Israel.”
As always, most of the dead and wounded are civilian men, women and children. No matter, according to Israeli military spokesman Avi Benayahu saying: Saturday’s attack is “only the beginning. The operation was launched following the violation of the terms of the lull by Hamas and the unceasing attacks by Hamas authorities on Israeli civilians in the south of the country.”
In fact, “attacks” were the pretext, not the cause of Israel’s aggression. Since Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in January 2006, Israel, Washington and the West withheld recognition and more. All outside aid was cut off, an economic embargo and sanctions were imposed, and the legitimate government was isolated and vilified.
The leading candidate to become Israel’s next prime minister, Tzipi Livni, vows as a “strategic objective” to overthrow Hamas by military, economic and diplomatic means. Her main opponent, Benjamin Netanyahu, pledges to “topple the Hamas regime” and end its effective resistance against an oppressive occupation.
All along, Hamas has been conciliatory to no avail. Earlier in the year, its leaders agreed to a ceasefire and observed months of it unilaterally, despite repeated Israeli violations and Gaza being under siege. On November 4, it ended after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) entered the Strip (without cause) and killed six Hamas officers supposedly to close off tunnels close to the Kisufim roadblock. Thereafter, in spite of both sides calling for peace, IDF hostilities continued.
Israel is a serial aggressor. Hamas responds in self-defense as international law allows. Article 51 of the UN Charter permits the “right of individual or collective self-defense (against an armed attack) until the Security Council has taken measures to maintain international peace and security.”
On December 21, 1965, the UN General Assembly adopted Res. 2131 titled: “Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of Their Independence and Sovereignty.” It called armed intervention, subversion, and all forms of indirect intervention synonymous with aggression and, for the first time, recognized “the legitimacy of struggle by the people under colonial rules (including occupation) to exercise their rights to self-determination and independence.”
On November 22, 1974, the General Assembly passed Res. 3236 recognizing that Palestinians have the same right to self-determination as other sovereign states.
On June 8, 1977, Protocol 1 to the August 1949 Geneva Conventions was passed – “relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts.” It declared the legitimacy of armed struggle (or resistance) to achieve self-determination as long as no proscribed methods are used. Further, “all states (are urged) to provide material and moral assistance to the national liberation movements in colonial territories (including occupied people seeking freedom).”
Rarely do Palestinians get any, and, since 1967, have been some of the most isolated people in the world. For Gazans, no outside aid gets in, except for what Israel occasionally lets UN and humanitarian agencies supply and the little coming through tunnels on Egypt’s border. It’s never enough and falls woefully short of minimum amounts needed to survive. The result is a growing humanitarian crisis, an entire people on the verge of breakdown, compounded by mass slaughter, destruction, and it’s “only beginning” according to the IDF spokesman.
The world community is silent and lets Israel do as it pleases – despite repeated international law violations, willful acts of aggression, grievous harm to four million people under occupation, including 1.5 million under a medieval Gaza siege, now under attack.
Reports were that EU nations and Russia called for (but didn’t demand) an end to hostilities. According to Reuters, Washington urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties but stopped short of calling for an end to the attacks. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe blamed Palestinians in saying “Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop.” Unsaid was that they respond to IDF violence or that until December 27 no Israeli was killed or injured.
Blame the Victim, Not the Aggressor
On Saturday, Condoleeza Rice accused Hamas for the violence. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could only express “deep alarm,” and where was Barack Obama? An AP photo showed him on vacation “working out” at the Semper Fit Center at the Marine Corp Base Hawaii in Kailua, Hawaii on Saturday, and CBS News reported that he’s “closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza, but there is one president at a time,” according to Brooke Anderson, his chief national security spokesperson.
In a July 2008 interview, The New York Times asked Obama if Israel should negotiate with Hamas in Gaza. He replied that “I don’t think any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens….I expect Israelis to do (all they can to stop them)….In terms of negotiating with Hamas, it is very hard to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state, does not recognize your right to exist, (and) has consistently used terror as a weapon. Hamas is a terrorist organization….it’s hard for Israel to negotiate with a country like that.”
Hamas was democratically elected. It’s the legitimate Palestinian government. It’s falsely called a terrorist organization, and it has every right to resist an illegal occupation under international law. It observed a unilateral ceasefire for months and extended peace overtures numerous times in the past. Israel spurned them by dividing Gaza and the West Bank, co-opting Mamoud Abbas, inciting Fatah against Hamas, isolating Gaza, and pursuing a policy of aggression, killings, targeted assassinations, mass incarcerations, and torture with full support from Washington, the West, and (from his comments above) the incoming Obama administration.
The UN Refugee Works Relief Agency’s (UNWRA) operations head for Palestinian refugees, John Ging, expressed outraged on what’s happening. Earlier he said: Gazans got nothing from the months of ceasefire. There was no “restoration of a dignified existence. We had our supplies restricted (during the period) to the point where we were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position” with very little food left until it ran out.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) campaigns for Palestinian justice in areas of civil, human and political rights according to international law. Along with the Palestine Return Centre (PRC), the Palestinian Forum of Britain (PFB), the British Muslim Initiative (BMI), Stop the War, Friends of al Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), and Respect, Islamic Human Rights Commission it organized emergency protests opposite Israel’s London Embassy on December 28 and 29 to demand an end of the Gaza siege and ongoing aggression. The urgency was highlighted by saying: Israel’s Cynicism (Is) Supported by the West’s Complicity” as it called for public solidarity to end it.
For her part, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni ordered the Ministry to “take emergency measures (to) open an aggressive and diplomatic international public relations campaign,” according to Haaretz. In other words, Israel will spin its wanton aggression into justifiable self-defense and get dominant media help to sell it.
On December 27, The New York Times took the lead. It reported that “Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas security facilities in Gaza on Saturday in a crushing response to the group’s rocket fire….Israeli military officials (called the attack) an effort to force Hamas to end its rocket barrages into southern Israel. Thousands of Israelis hurried into bomb shelters amid the hail of rockets,” making it seem like Israel resembled London during the blitz when, in fact, Hamas attacks are mere pin pricks and only respond to first-strike Israeli attacks.
The Times and dominant media are silent on this. They continue spreading spurious lies about Hamas being “officially committed to Israel’s destruction, and when it won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 and then ‘forcibly’ took over Gaza in 2007, it said it would not recognize Israel, honor previous Palestinian Authority commitments to it, or end its violence against Israelis.”
All of the above is untrue. The Times continues to report falsely. Hamas wants peace, has repeatedly been conciliatory, and its founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said earlier that armed struggle would end “if the Zionists ended (their) occupation of Palestinian territories and stopped killing Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians.”
Israel rejects all overtures. More recently, Hamas offered peace and Israeli recognition in return for a Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders – its Occupied Territories that it’s entitled to under international law.
As early as 1988, the PLO under Yasser Arafat accepted a two-state solution with Palestinians willing to settle for only 22% of their pre-1948 homeland – a generous offer that, if accepted, would have had two sovereign states living peacefully alongside each other as neighbors.
Israel rejects this out of hand. It chooses dominance over peace, violence over reconciliation, and imperial conquest above the rule of law. It’s colonizing the West Bank, ethnically cleansing the population, and continues to terrorize Gaza. “The newspaper of record” is selective about “fit news to print,” so uncomfortable truths are suppressed. It reported that one Israeli was killed Saturday and another four wounded, one seriously, but didn’t explain that previous rocket attacks caused no deaths or injuries.
After many months of siege compounded by ongoing attacks, Gaza is gravely affected, but so is the West Bank. Under the Fatah government, no rockets are launched, yet Israel maintains a violent occupation, continues to seize Palestinian land, expand its illegal settlements, and lets its residents terrorize Palestinians with impunity, even in cases of wanton killings and destruction of property.
Early Reports on the Ground and from Israel
On Saturday, Haaretz reported that 60 warplanes hit 50 targets simultaneously, then 20 more “struck 50 Palestinian rocket launchers in an effort to minimize Hamas’ retaliatory strikes.” The attack hit civilians with the IDF stating that those near targeted sites were “liable to get hurt.” Some were children leaving school when the strikes were launched.
Haaretz writer Amos Harel called them “the harshest IDF assault on Gaza since the territory was captured during the Six-Day War in 1967.” Palestinian sources described a massive attack, like “shock and awe,” destroying about 40 targets in three to five minutes. The IDF spent months picking sites, and dozens more may “come under attack in the coming days. Little to no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians. From Israel’s standpoint, Hamas” brought this on itself. In Pentagon-speak, civilians are “collateral damage,” but pictures of the slaughter show otherwise – stark evidence of crimes of war and against humanity that no authority will punish.
Also at issue is whether IDF ground forces will follow the air attacks, and if so, it won’t be the first time. The right-wing Jerusalem Post quoted president Shimon Peres saying: “Israel will take all steps demanded of it to stop the rocket fire (but) we will not go into Gaza. There are other ways – we didn’t leave Gaza in order to go back.”
The Ma’an News Agency reported (through Monday AM) at least 310 killed and over 1000 wounded with medical sources saying arrivals at Gaza City hospitals are in “pieces.” In addition, the Head of Emergency and ambulance department, Muawiya Hassanain, confirmed that medical crews continued pulling dozens from under rubble.
Things are desperate as he asked all Arab states for aid in the form of medications and operating supplies for those too badly injured to be moved. Hospital corridors are filled with bodies and gurneys, and local morgues are out of space.
Israeli defense minister and former prime minister, Ehud Barak, declared Gaza’s 20 square kilometers a “special military zone” – a classification just short of a declaration of war. It already is for its people, and here’s how Al-Azhar University professor Said Abdelwahed described conditions late Saturday:
“It is horrible outside! Minutes ago I heard the hissing of a Palestinian Qassam rocket, then another one accompanied by an explosion. It seems that the second one was hit by an Israeli aircraft that may have been targeting the Palestinian group. The news now is saying that an Israeli Apache helicopter has targeted a recreation ground with fish ponds.”
“Al-Shifa hospital said that there are more than 195 dead and over 570 injured there. Every minute the number of casualties goes up. These are the figures in Gaza, but there are still no official statements from other towns and villages and refugee camps. Near our apartment, my youngest son was waiting for his school bus when the preventive security department was hit 50 meters from where he was standing. Two men and two young girls died immediately.”
“It is utterly dark now. I am operating a small generator to contact the world via internet. Tonight everyone in Gaza is scared. It’s totally dark (there’s no power); children cry from fear; (at least) 206 people are dead. They (and the injured) line the floor at Al-Shifa hospital, but (it’s) poorly equipped. (Its) administration called on people to donate blood. The teachers’ syndicate declared a three days strike in protest….”
“Just in, Israeli aircraft (Saturday night) hit places east of Gaza City where a number of people were killed and injured. Casualties are rising. People remain under rubble. One mother lost two young daughters and a son as they were heading to school.”
“Tonight is cold mainly for those whose windows (were) shattered by explosions.” With Gaza under siege, “there is no glass available” to replace them. “In the apartment building where I live, 7 apartments witness freezing cold nights. They use blankets to cover in the place of the broken windows. Hundreds of homes” are in the same condition. Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh “gave a televised speech….to raise morale and to reconfirm that Hamas will not surrender. The death toll reached 210″ and number of seriously injured is now up to 200. Another air raid” is now in progress north of Gaza City.
UNRWA Expresses “Horror”
The UN Relief and Works Agency commissioner Karen AbuZayd was outraged over Israel’s attack, the mass killings and destruction, and expressed her “deep sadness at the terrible loss in human life.” She reminded Israel that it’s a signatory to “international conventions that protect non-combatants in times of conflict (and added that) these conventions are worthless if they are not upheld.” A statement said that UNRWA will “exert all efforts to respond as quickly as possible to relieve suffering and pain (and added that today’s attacks follow) weeks of a tight blockade that prevented UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies from assisting the population (that’s) unable to (meet) their basic needs, and now” they’re under attack.
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Expresses Outrage in Calling for An Immediate End of the Attacks.
It blamed the suffering in Israel and Gaza “squarely with successive Israeli governments” in citing 41 years of “increasingly oppressive Israeli Occupation without a hint that a sovereign and viable Palestinian state will ever emerge.”
Why so? Because Israel and Washington won’t tolerate one beyond the fiction of isolated, surrounded, impoverished, and impotent bantustan outposts that IDF forces can enter at will and wreak havoc on a helpless population.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad Response
After the air strikes, Hamas ordered its Al-Qassam Brigades to respond “by any means necessary.” Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called for a “massive response” and for renewal of others inside Israel. Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Al-Batsh called Israel’s attack “open war.” He also condemned the world community and Arab states for their “silence on such massacres” and vowed that Israel “would never make the resistance factions surrender.”
West Bank Protests
Demonstrations erupted across the West Bank, including in Bethlehem, Ramallah city center, the Ad-Duheisha refugee camp, Hebron, Tulkarem, and East Jerusalem. Violent clashes broke out between Palestinian youths and IDF forces in Shufat refugee camp on the northern outskirts of East Jerusalem. Also in Qalandia, Ar-Ram and Al-Isawiya. Dozens of injuries and arrests were reported. Black flags were hung around the city and a commercial strike was declared.
Tulkarem governor Talal Duweikat and Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Hasan Khriesah joined hundreds of others in the streets. The city declared a day of mourning in response.
In Hebron, hundreds of university students protested for an end to violence. They chanted anti-occupation slogans and called for Fatah and Hamas to unify for a common purpose. The group marched to the Bab Az-Zawiyah neighborhood where confrontations erupted with IDF forces, and they, in turn fired suffocating amounts of tear gas.
In Ramallah, Fatah organized a rally for hundreds and called for a general strike to close all city shops for the day. Demonstrators and international community institutions raised banners with slogans saying “one blood, one nation, Gaza and we are with you.” Ministry of Prisoners Affairs, Ziyad Abu Ein, called on all Palestinians to unite in dark days. PLC member Mustafa Barghouthi called Israeli violence “their harshest crimes against Palestinians” and condemned world and Arab leaders for their silence.
In Bethlehem, protests erupted in the Ad-Duheisha refugee camp (south of the city) and a larger crowd assembled in the city.
A December 27 Palestinian press release read:
“A demonstration to condemn the massacres being committed in Gaza.”
“Palestinian Civil Society organizations in the Bethlehem area, people of various political affiliations, Christians, and Muslims, and all people of conscience in the Bethlehem area are gathering at 5PM (Saturday) in front of the Church of Nativity and Omar’s mosque in Bethlehem.”
Through Sunday afternoon, around 300 people were massacred by bombing besieged Gaza. Over 1000 were reported injured as well. The victims include men, women, and children, and the numbers keeps rising. “Join us today as we call for ending the massacres, ending the siege on Gaza, for reconciliation between all Palestinians, and for freedom.”
Signed:
Khalid AlAzza
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
Dr. Abdelfattah AbusrourThe Union of Health Work Committees – Gaza – Late Saturday Press Release – from Executive Director Yousef Momeusa
After two waves of Israeli air attacks, “television footage showed dead bodies scattered on a road and wounded and dead being carried away by distraught rescuers. There was widespread damage to buildings.” The number of dead exceed 200 and is rising. At “least 750 were wounded, 125 with critical injuries.” Updated numbers are much higher and continue climbing.
“The military operation makes the Palestinian blood fall like rain. As a consequence, the civilian population in the cities of Rafah, Khan-Younis, middle camps, Gaza City, Beit-Hanoun and Beit-Lahiya and in the refugee camp of Jabalia are suffering from the most horrible onslaught of Israeli military power….The number of dead and injured are increasing by the minute.”
“The infrastructure is being destroyed leaving many areas without power and water. Medical supplies in the hospital are largely exhausted (and) food supplies are dwindling.” A real health crisis looms. UHWC is working “around the clock at the risk to themselves to deal with the crisis….The entire world is witnessing these scandalous and outrageous acts, and yet no concrete steps have been taken!!”
“UHWC asks you to issue a strong Last Appeal Statement condemning Israel’s human rights violations against the Palestinian people and to demand a cessation of this military offensive….There are no political considerations which can justify the silence of the international community any longer.”
Signed,
Dr. Yousef Momeusa
Executive DirectorProfessor Said Abdelwahed of Al-Azhar University, Gaza
on the End of the Six-Month CeasefirePrior to Israel’s December 27 attack, he feared the worst and said it “means escalation; bombardment, air raids. It means military activities on the border. The last six months brought big pressures on our social life, on resources, all due to the Israeli siege.” With it were high prices on goods able to enter from Egypt through tunnels that for the most part Israel allows given the dire situation on the ground.
“I can’t see any progress being made towards a united Palestinian government. I think both sides” lose out as a result, “but Israel takes (full) advantage….The students (at my university) are deprived of many things. They are disappointed young people with no hope or future in front of them, so they are in bad shape.”
Abdelwahed mentions a Gaza City health worker “expect(ing) the situation to deteriorate (further): more incursions and more military operations in border areas. While the world is busy with Christmas, Israel can take action. (Already) we have 16 hours of power cuts a day. Hospitals have to run generators for hours at a stretch, which they weren’t designed for. So they break down – and because of the closure we have no spare parts….I cannot see the internal situation improving soon. We’re short of everything. Eighty per cent of people in Gaza (rely) on food assistance. It’s a big problem.” It’s now much bigger.
At 11PM on Saturday, Abdelwahed reported new air raids were in progress concentrating on the “eastern parts of the city of Gaza. One woman lost 10 of her family. Only she and a daughter remain alive. The daughter couldn’t speak to the media because she didn’t (understand) what happened. Panic is everywhere in the city and we anticipate (worse still) to come. Demonstrations erupted in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.” The death toll keeps climbing. “An Israeli caller just rang us up. My youngest son answered. The caller threatened that if I have any weapons they will hit my place!!!”
There have been “five air raids in 10 minutes. Targets are societies and groups of social works in thickly populated areas. One mosque was hit as well. I am without electricity for 30 hours so far. I am still operating a small generator to contact the world via internet.”
Abdelwahed sent this email on Sunday. “My family and I are okay but stressed….the building adjacent to (ours) was hit by a small rocket from a helicopter. (The) situation is horrible and people are really panicked.”
“Last night, F16s targeted Al-Aqsa satellite channel and leveled it to the ground.” Surrounding buildings are impossible to live in. “One small mosque across the street from Al-Shifa Hospital was (demolished).” Homes were badly damaged as well, one “belong(ing) to a friend of mine; he told me that what he witnessed was hard to describe in words….Also his sister was severely injured.”
A medical doctor friend “told me that the death toll climbed to about 500 (though the media reports around 300) and more than 1000 injured.” Israelis are targeting Rafah tunnels. “Hundreds of Palestinians stormed the Egyptian border with a bulldozer and on foot but failed to (get across) as the Egyptians shot live at them.”
A “new air raid on different targets (reported) minutes ago. Many died and injured. My window glass (is) shattered. (The) Customs house and passport department have been demolished minutes ago. Aircraft are still in the sky operating.”
“F16s (just) destroyed the largest security building in Gaza….Four missiles leveled the building to the ground; also police stations were hit and totally destroyed today. (We’re hearing that many areas) were targeted by Israeli warplanes. Large numbers of civilians, including children died and were injured in today’s attacks. At Rafah border, one Palestinian was shot dead (by the Egyptians). The situation on the border is terribly bad. An Israeli ground attack seems possible.”
Ma’an News Agency Updated Timeline Late Saturday Through Mid-Day Sunday, December 28 and 29
— 10:15PM – 2 more air strikes; at least 3 killed and 4 injured in Zaitoun neighborhood, Gaza City, and Jabalia in the north;
— 11:30PM – Israeli air strikes hit the Al-Mansura neighborhood east of Gaza City; 3 Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades deaths are reported;
— 11:50PM – air strikes hit Khan Younis in southern Gaza and several northern areas;
— 1:01AM Sunday – Israeli jets strike the security room in front of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City; a close by mosque is hit killing at least 2 and injuring 7;
— 6:30AM – a medical storehouse in the Al-Junayna neighborhood and a fuel storage facility with diesel and benzene in the Tal As-Sultan area are hit – both near Rafah in the south; buildings and vital civilian supplies were destroyed; at least 3 deaths were reported;
— 6:45AM – Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood is bombed; several were injured and a police center destroyed;
— 8:00AM – Hamas police headquarters was attacked in the evacuated Israeli kfar Darum and Al-Matahin settlements;
— 10AM – a police station in the Shuja’iyya Gaza City neighborhood was bombed; also three homes in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood west of the city were destroyed;
— 10:30AM – a jeep in Gaza City’s Zaitoun neighborhood was attacked killing one child; a second strike targeted the Jabalia area; no casualties were reported so far;
— 11:00AM – the temporary headquarters of the Rafah governorate was bombed injuring several people; the original building was destroyed on Saturday;
— 11:45AM – the government municipal council offices were bombed in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza; several injuries were reported;
— Noon – the As-Saraya government compound was attacked, killing one child and injuring several others;
— Monday, December 28 – Israel’s assaults continue with no letup; Haaretz reported that the Islamic University and another government compound in Gaza City were destroyed; other targets hit included a guest palace and at least some residential homes; “at first light Monday, strong winds blew black smoke from the bombed sites in Gaza City over deserted streets,” punctuated by new explosions; Ehud Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said military action would continue until Israel “no longer (fears) terror (from) rocket barrages.”
Throughout the attacks, images and reports on the ground are horrific and disturbing. All around is death and destruction. Amputated bodies fill Al-Shifa Hospital hallways. In one corner, a dead seven-year old boy is in a cardboard box because the hospital ran out of sheets to cover him.
One man is dazed after watching his son killed during the police graduation ceremony. Another father stood next to his son as he was decapitated. He’s still screaming. In a hospital waiting room, a mother is silent after her son was pronounced dead.
Carnage is everywhere, inside and on the streets – body parts, blood, strewn clothing and other items. Twelve-year old Ayaman is screaming as his father tries not to let him see the bodies of his brother and uncle torn to pieces under sheets.
Yaha Muheisen stops searching for his son’s body and Nawal Al-Lad’a can’t find her two sons bodies in the hospital so she searches through rubble.
Gaza medical personnel confirm that the majority of the dead are civilians, including men, women and children. Most were torn to shreds. Bodies continue to be pulled from rubble. Some Palestinians say images resemble the 1982 (Beirut) Sabra and Shitila massacres of about 3000 men, women, children and infants during a 62-hour (proxy) Phalange militia force rampage while the IDF stood by and let it happen.
Ariel Sharon was defense minister at the time. After Israel invaded Lebanon in 1981, he authorized the operation, and in his autobiography confirmed that he negotiated it with Lebanon’s president-elect Bashir Gemayel. Afterward, journalist Robert Fisk called it “one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century.” Another in Gaza remains ongoing.
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote that “The neighborhood bully strikes again….Once again, Israel’s violent responses….exceed all proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international law and wisdom. What began yesterday in Gaza is a war crime….Once again the commentators sat in television studios and hailed the combat jets” that killed the innocent. “Once again, they urged (not) letting up….Once again, they described” disturbing images as a “difficult scene….When the bully is on a rampage, nobody can stop him.”
Journalist Amira Hass called Gaza “Little Baghdad, bombs everywhere, smoke, fire, people not knowing where to hide, fear everywhere, rage and hatred.” She wrote painfully of carnage and death, of the living searching for loved ones, of no electricity, no gas, no flour, no bread for the past week, just despair and destruction as Israeli attacks continue.
Harold Pinter on Israel
On December 24 at age 78, Harold Pinter lost his long battle with cancer. He was the most influential playwright of his generation, the 2005 Nobel laureate for literature, a voice of political protest, and a passionate campaigner against human rights abuses. The Nobel academy citation called him an author “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed room.” For some, he was a “permanent public nuisance, a questioner of accepted truths, both in life and art.”
Too ill with cancer, he recorded his award ceremony speech on videotape, voiced strong opposition to the Iraq war, Britain’s role in it, and called the invasion a “bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law.” Would he say less about Israel’s current assault?
Pinter was Jewish, a critic of Israel’s illegal occupation, and its brutality inflicted on Gazans. He was one of 105 prominent Jewish signers of an April 2008 “We’re not celebrating Israel’s Anniversary” petition. Its last paragraph read:
“We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on (Gaza) civilians and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.” Pinter called George Bush a “mass murderer.” He felt no different about merciless Israeli leaders.
A Possible Ground Invasion?
On Sunday, Haaretz reported that the IDF “will call 6500 reservists to duty, as part of the largest Israeli offensive on (Gaza) since it” seized the Territory in 1967. Defense officials said that the call-up is part of military preparations for a possible escalation of fighting. Meanwhile, IDF infantry and armored troops (including tanks) man Gaza’s border for a possible ground invasion, and Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak warned that “The operation will be deeper and expanded as much as necessary.”
“The Bloodiest Day in the History of Occupation”
That’s from a Palestinian Centre for Human Rights PCHR) December 27 press release that “condemn(ed) in the strongest terms the war waged by” the IDF on Gaza. As it’s done many times before, PCHR calls on the international community and High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to intervene immediately, to stop the killings, and to end the unprecedented devastation and deteriorated humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
The Gaza-based One Democratic State Group called for “all civil society organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately (to pressure their governments) to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it.” It’s press release headlined: “Stop the Massacre in Gaza – Boycott Israel Now!”
The “Stench of Death Hangs Over Gaza,” wrote Ola Attallah, IslamOnline correspondent from Gaza City. Can we sense it, smell it, feel it, anguish over it, and decide once and for all this won’t stand! If not now, when? If not us, who? If wanton butchery isn’t incentive enough, what is?
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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Olmert accuses Jewish settlers of pogrom
The Associated Press,
Published: December 7, 200
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Jews who attacked Palestinian civilians carried out a “pogrom.”
Settlers went on a rampage after Israeli forces evicted a group of squatters from a contested building in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Video footage supplied by an Israeli human rights group shows a settler firing shots at Palestinian rock-throwers from close range, hitting two of them. A second settler is also seen opening fire.
Palestinians said that in all 17 Palestinians were wounded in the clashes, five of them by gunfire.
Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday that the incidents have “no name other than pogrom” and that he was “ashamed.”
Pogrom is a word most often used to describe mob attacks against Jews in Europe.
The two settlers caught on film have turned themselves in to police.
Source: International Herald Tribune, December 7, 2008
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Nobel laureate: Suspend Israel from UN
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire says the United Nations should suspend or revoke Israel’s membership.
Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead McGuire, who arrived in Gaza on the "Free Gaza" boat, left, holds a gift from Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, right, at his office in Gaza City last month. Photo: AP Maguire says Israel should be punished for ignoring a series of United Nations resolutions over the years. Maguire won the 1976 peace prize for her work with Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
She is visiting the Palestinian territories to protest Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel virtually sealed off the territories after the Hamas took over there in 2007. The closure tightened two weeks ago in response to Hamas rocket fire on Israeli border communities.
Maguire told a news conference Thursday that it’s time for the international community to take action against Israel.
Last month, Maguire and 27 international protesters sailed into the Gaza Strip in the “Free Gaza” boat to bring attention to Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory
Source: www.jpost.com,
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Middle East Priorities For Jan. 21
By Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew BrzezinskiFriday, November 21, 2008; Page A23
The election of Barack Obama to be the 44th president is profoundly historic. We have at long last been able to come together in a way that has eluded us in the long history of our great country. We should celebrate this triumph of the true spirit of America.
Election Day celebrations were replicated in time zones around the world, something we have not seen in a long time. While euphoria is ephemeral, we must endeavor to use its energy to bring us all together as Americans to cope with the urgent problems that beset us.
When Obama takes office in two months, he will find a number of difficult foreign policy issues competing for his attention, each with strong advocates among his advisers. We believe that the Arab-Israeli peace process is one issue that requires priority attention.
In perhaps no other region was the election of Obama more favorably received than the Middle East. Immediate attention to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute would help cement the goodwill that Obama’s election engendered. Not everyone in the Middle East views the Palestinian issue as the greatest regional challenge, but the deep sense of injustice it stimulates is genuine and pervasive.
Unfortunately, the current administration’s intense efforts over the past year will not resolve the issue by Jan. 20. But to let attention lapse would reinforce the feelings of injustice and neglect in the region. That could spur another eruption of violence between the warring parties or in places such as Lebanon or Gaza, reversing what progress has been made and sending the parties back to square one. Lurking in the background is the possibility that the quest for a two-state solution may be abandoned by the Palestinians, the Israelis, or both — with unfortunate consequences for all.
Resolution of the Palestinian issue would have a positive impact on the region. It would liberate Arab governments to support U.S. leadership in dealing with regional problems, as they did before the Iraq invasion. It would dissipate much of the appeal of Hezbollah and Hamas, dependent as it is on the Palestinians’ plight. It would change the region’s psychological climate, putting Iran back on the defensive and putting a stop to its swagger.
The major elements of an agreement are well known. A key element in any new initiative would be for the U.S. president to declare publicly what, in the view of this country, the basic parameters of a fair and enduring peace ought to be. These should contain four principal elements: 1967 borders, with minor, reciprocal and agreed-upon modifications; compensation in lieu of the right of return for Palestinian refugees; Jerusalem as real home to two capitals; and a nonmilitarized Palestinian state.
Something more might be needed to deal with Israeli security concerns about turning over territory to a Palestinian government incapable of securing Israel against terrorist activity. That could be dealt with by deploying an international peacekeeping force, such as one from NATO, which could not only replace Israeli security but train Palestinian troops to become effective.
To date, the weakness of the negotiating parties has limited their ability to come to an agreement by themselves. The elections in Israel scheduled for February are certainly a complicating factor, as is the deep split among Palestinians between Fatah and Hamas. But if the peace process begins to gain momentum, it is difficult to imagine that Hamas will want to be left out, and that same momentum would provide the Israeli people a unique chance to register their views on the future of their country.
This weakness can be overcome by the president speaking out clearly and forcefully about the fundamental principles of the peace process; he also must press the case with steady determination. That initiative should then be followed — not preceded — by the appointment of a high-level dignitary to pursue the process on the president’s behalf, a process based on the enunciated presidential guidelines. Such a presidential initiative should instantly galvanize support, both domestic and international, and provide great encouragement to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
To say that achieving a successful resolution of this critical issue is a simple task would be to scoff at history. But in many ways the current situation is such that the opportunity for success has never been greater, or the costs of failure more severe.
Brent Scowcroft was national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. He is president of the Forum for International Policy and the Scowcroft Group. Zbigniew Brzezinski was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter. He is trustee and counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The two are authors of “America and The World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy.”
Source: www.washingtonpost.com, November 21, 2008
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DEBKA:Russia lines up with Syria, Iran against America and the West
Summary of DEBKAfile Exclusives in Week Ending Sept. 18, 2008Russia lines up with Syria, Iran against America and the West Sept 12.: Moscow announced renovation had begun on the Syrian port of Tartus to provide Russia with its first long-term naval base on the Mediterranean.As the two naval chiefs talked in Moscow, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki in the Russian capital for talks on the completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant by the end of the year.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report Russia’s leaders have determined not to declare a Cold War in Europe but to open a second anti-Western front in the Middle East.
In the second half of August, DEBKA file and DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s analysts focused on this re-orientation (Russia’s Second Front: Iran-Syria), whereby Moscow had decided to use its ties with Tehran and Damascus to challenge the United State and the West in the Middle East as well as the Caucasian, the Black Sea and the Caspian region.
In aligning with Tehran and Damascus, Moscow stands not only against America but also Israel. This volatile world region is undergoing cataclysmic changes at a time when Israel is without a fully competent prime minister.
Missile alert is revived on Israel-Gaza border
12 Sept.: DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources report that the leaders of the Iranian-backed Jihad Islami terrorist group in Gaza have warned they will go back to firing missiles at neighboring Israeli towns and villages unless the ruling Hamas stops persecuting them.
Our military sources report that Israeli forces securing the Gaza border went on missile alert Thursday, Sept 11, when Hamas heavies continued their crackdown.Hamas gunmen are systematically bulldozing the Jihad bases, built over the ruins of the former Israeli Gush Katif villages, and flattening the sites. They have seized control of Jihad mosques in the southern part of the Gaza Strip and are making arrests.
Syrian commandos invade 7 Greater Tripoli villages of N. Lebanon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report13 Sept.: Two Syrian commando battalions accompanied by reconnaissance and engineering corps units have crossed into Lebanon in the last 48 hours and taken up positions in seven villages, most of them Allawite Muslim, outside Tripoli, DEBKAfile’s military sources reported Saturday, Sept. 13. They are the vanguard of a large armored force poised on the border.Damascus has signaled to Washington and Paris: Don’t interfere.
The Syrian incursion coincided with the expected arrival of Russian naval and engineering experts for renovating Tartus, the Syrian port 40 kilometers north of Tripoli, to serve as the Russian fleet’s first permanent Mediterranean base.
Seen from Israel, once Assad’s army completes its advance on Tripoli, he will control the full length of the military supply route for Hizballah from the Syrian ports of Latakia and Tartus. The Russian presence will add a new and troubling dimension to this development.
Russia, US pull further apart over Iranian nuclear activities
13 Sept.: Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Friday a military solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions is unacceptable and there is no need for new sanctions. At the same time, Washington has imposed new sanctions on Iran, blacklisting a main shipping line and 18 subsidiaries. The US government accuses the maritime carrier of ferrying contraband nuclear material, which Tehran denies.Washington sources predict this may be the prelude to more serious actions, such as a naval blockade to choke off Iran’s imports of fuel products.
Moscow continues to support the European Union’s diplomatic drive to trade incentives for Iran’s consent to curb “some of its nuclear activities.”
The nuclear watchdog has asked Tehran to account for 50-60 tons of missing uranium from its main enrichment site at Isfahan. It is enough to produce five or six nuclear bombs and is suspected of having been diverted to secret sites to boost the covert production of weapons-grade uranium.
Terror suspected in Aeroflot crash which killed all 88 people aboard
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report14 Sept.: DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report from Moscow that three Jewish families, two Habad students and a Russian general were among the 88 passengers and crew killed in the Aeroflot Boeing 737 crash at Perm, Siberia, Saturday, Sept. 13. The plane was in flight from Moscow.Russian authorities reported the plane’s sudden disappearance off the radar at the moment cockpit communications shut off. This indicated the craft may have exploded in mid-air. They suspect terrorism as the cause of the crash because –
1. At least five passengers bought tickets but did not turn up for the flight. Security officials are trying to locate their addresses and sifting through the wreckage for unaccompanied luggage.2. One of the passengers has been identified as Gen. Gennadiy Troshev, a Russian hero for quelling the Chechen rebellion.
3. Our sources name one of the Jewish – or possibly Israeli – families aboard the doomed flight. They have been named as Ephraim Nakhumov, 35, his wife Golda, 24, and their two children, Ilya, aged 7, and Eva, aged four.
Thirty-four people die in Iraq Monday
15 Sept.: At least 22 people were killed and 32 wounded by a female suicide bomber who blew herself at a police gathering in Iraq’s Diyala province.The guests were attending an Iftar banquet, when Muslims break their fast during the month of Ramadan, in Balad Ruz, 70km (45 miles) north of Baghdad.
Earlier, two car bombs exploded in central Baghdad, killing 12 people
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In show of bravado, Iran launches “air defense exercises”
Iranian official sources report that the air force drill began Monday, Sept. 15, in half of the country’s 30 provinces. They gave out no details of which provinces or how long the exercise would last. The commander of Iran’s aerial defense, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Mighani said that any enemies attacking the Islamic Republic would regret it.The exercise was launched on the day the UN nuclear watchdog reported that non-cooperation from Tehran had stalled its efforts to establish whether or not Iran was developing nuclear warheads, enriching uranium for military purposes, testing nuclear explosives or building nuclear-capable missiles.
Tehran is not deterred by sanctions or tempted by international diplomacy to give up its nuclear aspirations, especially since the Georgia conflict with the United States has presented Iran with Russian backing for its nuclear program and opposition to sanctions.
Iran’s defense minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said scornfully Monday: “Threats by the Zionist regime and America against our country are empty” – showing that Tehran feels free to go forward with its nuclear plans.
Gates arrives in Baghdad unannounced
15 Sept.: Gates arrived in Baghdad to supervise the handover of the Iraq command from Gen. David Petraeus to Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno. Petraeus moves on to lead the Central Command overseeing Middle East, Afghanistan, Horn of Africa.
France wants more sanctions on Iran for stonewalling UN nuclear probe 16 Sept.: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report that for lack of Tehran’s cooperation, it has made no progress in establishing whether or not Iran is developing nuclear warheads, enriching uranium for military purposes, testing nuclear explosives or building nuclear-capable missiles..Furthermore, despite three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions, Iran has not stopped nuclear enrichment. At present, 4,800 centrifuges are operating and another 2,000 are getting read to start work in the near future.
DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report that the Tehran administration shows more contempt than ever before toward the UN, international diplomacy and potential sanctions, certain that the prospect of a US and Israeli military strike on its nuclear facilities recedes further day by day.
“Threats by the Zionist regime and America against our country are empty,” said defense minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar,”
Ex-PMs Barak and Netanyahu in secret power-sharing talks
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report16 Sept.: Defense minister Ehud Barak of Labor and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu of Likud are in advanced negotiations to rotate the premiership between them in order to cut the ground from under Kadima’s winner as leader. The ultra-religious Shas is in on the plan.This is reported by DEBKAfile’s political circles.
Barak’s Labor and Netanyahu’s Likud combined with Eli Yishai’s Shas hold more Knesset seats – 43, than Kadima’s 27. They are in a position to prevent the winner of the Kadima primary from automatically taking over from Olmert as head of the incumbent government coalition. Without Labor, Kadima lacks the numbers to form a viable coalition government.
DEBKAfile’s sources report that Netanyahu and Barak are close to accord on the general principles of their partnership but are still working on details. Netanyahu would go first up until a general election because Barak, who is not a member of Knesset, cannot become prime minister. Barak believes he can use his pact with Netanyahu to push Kadima’s buttons and at the right moment, take the party over and form a left-of-center Labor-Kadima bloc to fight his current partner, head of the right-of-center Likud.
North Korea conducts long-range missile engine ignition test
17 Sept.: The test at the new Tongchang-ri site was detected by the U.S. KH-12 spy satellite. The base is located 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the North Korean border with China,
At least 11 killed in bloody Hamas crackdown on Doghmush clan militia in Gaza
16 Sept.: The dead included Momtaz Doghmush, head of Army of Islam and co-kidnapper with Hamas of Gilead Shalit, and in infant. Hamas battled the militia for five hours with mortar fire on its base at the Sabra district of Gaza City, losing one of its gunmen.
Sixteen killed in al Qaeda attack on US embassy in Yemen
17 Sept.: Eight Yemeni soldiers, six assailants and 2 civilians were killed in an al Qaeda suicide car bombing, RPG rocket and shooting attack on the US embassy in Sanaa, Wednesday, Sept. 17. No embassy staff members were harmed in the five explosions reported by a US official.DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources disclose that Yemeni president Abdullah Salah, formerly a US partner in the war on terror, recently began working with al Qaeda to win their help for quelling plots by army dissidents to overthrow his regime and for beating back an Iran-backed Shiite rebellion.
In March, al Qaeda mounted a mortar attack which missed the US embassy but injured 13 girls at a nearby school; other attacks targeted the Italian mission and Western tourists. Non-essential US staff were ordered to leave Yemen in April.
CIA chief: Al Qaeda greatest security threat to US
17 Sept.: Speaking in Los Angeles, CIA director Michael Hayden said Osama bin Laden has said repeatedly that he considers acquisition of nuclear weapons a religious duty and he intends to attack America “in ways that inflict maximum death and destruction.”North Korea and Iran were also threats. Hayden confirmed that the nuclear reactor Israel destroyed in Syria last year was similar to one in North Korea. Iran, he, has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity to produce nuclear weapons.
DEBKAfile notes: This comment contradicts the US intelligence assessment last year that Iran had discontinued its military nuclear program in 2003.
Tuesday, diplomats said that the UN watchdog had intelligence showing Iran had tried to refit a long-distance Shehab missile to carry a nuclear payload.
Israeli banks hammered on Tel Aviv stock exchange
17 Sept.: In Tel Aviv, prices plunged across the board, with the major banks taking an extra beating. The public voted no-confidence in the leading banks (Bank Hapoalim plunged 12.5 percent) and disregarded the finance minister, Ronnie Bar-On’s assurances that the Israeli economy is insulated from the global crisis.After meeting bank heads Wednesday, Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer issued a statement that Israel banks are “relatively well run.”
Economic experts foresee an Israeli recession around the corner. Lehman Brothers is a major player in Israel’s structured-products market and options market. Personal savings schemes, exports to the United States and Europe and foreign investment are also susceptible.
As foreigners employed on Wall Street, Israelis are second only to Canadians.
Thousands have been thrown on the job market. Aside from those recalled by Lehman Brothers after the Barclays buyout, many will return home adding to the pressures on the job market. Israel’s hi-tech industry, second only to the US in annual start-ups, was already facing difficulties before the current crisis, as export orders began drying up.
After her narrow win, Livni’s ability to form government in doubt
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis18 Sept.: Foreign minister Tzipi Livni scraped through to victory in the Kadima party’s first leadership primary Wednesday, Sept. 17.although her win was challenged by transport Shaul Mofaz, one percent behind her (43 to his 42 percent). Early Thursday, Mofaz finally called Livni to congratulate her. Later, he announced he was quitting politics, including the party and government.The real results differed dramatically from the three TV exit polls which wrongly awarded Livni a landslide victory and were up to 10 percent wide of the mark. Throughout the campaign the foreign minister was a media favorite and inaccurately described as unchallenged successor to Ehud Olmert both as party chair and prime minister.
Kadima comes out of the primary bitterly divided.. Livni faces the daunting dual challenges of uniting the party and persuading all the government coalition parties to accept her as prime minister.
Kadima’s two senior partners, Labor and Shas, are already looking at alternatives.The low Kadima turnout, according to DEBKAfile’s political analysts, was a public vote of non-confidence in the party. At the Tel Aviv stock exchange Wednesday, another popular vote of no confidence took place – this one against the economic system ruled by Kadima ministers and the banks