ב אֵל קַנּוֹא וְנֹקֵם יְהוָה, נֹקֵם יְהוָה וּבַעַל חֵמָה; נֹקֵם יְהוָה לְצָרָיו, וְנוֹטֵר הוּא לְאֹיְבָיו. 2The LORD is a jealous and avenging God, the LORD avengeth and is full of wrath; the LORD taketh vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies. AVRAHAM FRIED
Israel draws 'red lines' for Obama on Iran
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:24:20 GMT
With Hillary Clinton in Israel, Tel Aviv moves for a set of 'red lines' to be injected into President Obama's policy on Iran.
Israel prepares a set of red lines for Washington to inject into its Iran policy as the current US approach toward Tehran rankles Tel Aviv.
The revelation that the White House will be briefed on its 'red lines' came ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Israel and the West Bank, during which she is scheduled to meet with various high-ranking Israeli officials.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the defense establishment have been working together to formulate a set of redlines for the newly-established US administration of President Barack Obama. HISTORICAL ADOLPH HITLER SPEECH
Thousands of Mexican soldiers pour into the country's most violent city in crackdown on drug gangs
Armed to the hilt, they came from land and air, determined to restore order to Mexico's most violent city.
Nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers and armed federal police poured into the border town of Ciudad Juarez last weekend.
The city - just across from El Paso in Texas - has been ravaged by drug gangs. Just this month 250 people were killed there by hitmen fighting for lucrative smuggling routes.
......................................................................................................................................................................... HISTORICAL SPEECH OF ADOLPH HITLER - 1933
Germany began winter in the doghouse. Spring is yet to arrive, and already Berlin is being embraced as the savior of Europe.
You have to wonder, what will Germany’s status be in Europe by fall?
Less than four months ago, Germany was the bane of Europe, a colossal ball and chain weighing down the efforts of Paris, London and Brussels as they tried to solve Europe’s financial woes. Berlin’s mutinous refusal to back the flamboyant, American-style, billion-dollar bailout packages irked its neighbors. Tensions mounted, barbs flew, anti-German sentiment rippled.
Today Europe is having a change of heart.
“Everyone is turning to Germany as the ultimate savior of the European economy,” Reuters columnist Paul Taylor wrote last week.
A U.S. senator has suggested that voters have made Barack Obama eligible to occupy the Oval Office, whether or not he meets the constitutional mandate of being a "natural born" citizen.
The comments from Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., came in an e-mail sent to a constituent shortly after the election, which just now was forwarded to WND.
The constituent had asked about Martinez's perspective on the issue on which WND and others have reported: claims made by dozens of lawsuits around the country that Obama might not meet the constitutional qualification for various reasons.
"Presidential candidates are vetted by voters at least twice – first in the primary elections and again in the general election. President-Elect Obama won the Democratic Party's nomination after one of the most fiercely contested presidential primaries in American history," Martinez responded.
Iran: Israel "cancerous tumor," Obama on same wrong path as Bush
DEBKAfile Special Report
March 5, 2009, 9:39 AM (GMT+02:00)
Eighty delegations in Tehran hear outpouring of hate
Leading a concentrated outpouring of venomous hate, Iran's supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared Wednesday, March 4, that President Barack Obama is pursuing the same "wrong path" as his predecessor George W. Bush in supporting Israel – "a cancerous tumor" - and he saw no change.
This was Tehran's response to the moderate language coming from the new US president and Obama's willingness to engage in diplomacy to resolve the impasse over its nuclear program.
Addressing a conference in Tehran on the Palestinians, he said: "Another big mistake is to say that the only way to save the Palestinian nation is by negotiations." Negotiations with whom?" he asked. "With an occupying and bullying regime...? or negotiations with America and Britain who committed the biggest sin in creating and support this cancerous tumor…?
"The way to save [the Palestinians] is by standing firm and resisting [euphemism for terror]."
President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad told the conference, which was attended by all the Palestinian factions including Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, "The story of the Holocaust, a nation without a homeland and a homeland without a nation... are the biggest lies of our era."
He went on to say: "The continuation of the Zionist regime on even one inch of the land of Palestine means the continuation of crime, occupation, threat and insult to the nations."
Alil Jafari, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards's contribution to the event attended by 80 delegations was this: "All Israel's nuclear installations are within range of Iranian missiles."
Palestinian tractor driver shot while rampaging in central Jerusalem
March 5, 2009, 1:46 PM (GMT+02:00)
The Palestinian tractor hoisted a police van, injuring two police officers, in downtown Jerusalem at the corner of the Begin and Golomb highways in heavy traffic near the Malha shopping mall. As the tractor driver tried to toss the police van with his shovel onto a bus packed with schoolgirls, a passing taxi driver pulled a gun and shot him dead, cutting the rampage short before it claimed more victims on the jampacked highway.
This was the third time a Palestinian terrorist used a tractor to smash vehicles in downtown Jerusalem.
"BRAD" = OWNER OF MILITEC GUN LUBRICANT. (left click on photo to enlarge)
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Trends research analyst Gerald Celente, who has risen in prominence on the back of his deadly accurate economic predictions, says that the collapse of financial markets heralds the start of “The Greatest Depression”.
In his latest Trend Alert bulletin, Celente attacks mainstream pundits who falsely predicted a market bottom and the start of a recovery, noting that conventional analysts have been proven “dead wrong” again and that, “There will be no turn around in the second quarter of 2009 or 2010 or 2011.”
“The global financial system, built on endless supplies of cheap money, rampant speculation, fraud, greed, and delusion is terminally ill and will not be coaxed into remission by stimulus packages nor restored to health by government buyouts and bailouts,” writes Celente.
The most positive prediction that Celente makes is that the Dow will not reach zero, a tongue in cheek reaction to yesterday’s record plunge which saw the Dow rolled back to 1997 levels well below 7,000.
« Palestinian workers with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency rest in front of the organization’s warehouse in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood. Many are worried that aid given to UNRWA will end up in the hands of Hamas. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)
Billions Flow Into Gaza, and Hamas’s Pockets
March 4, 2009 | From theTrumpet.com
UNRWA and Hamas—working together to annihilate Israel.
........................................................................................................................................................................ TALK RADIO - OBAMA AND THE STOCK MARKET
3 Thus saith the LORD: I return unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain. {S}
Clinton sends two US officials to Damascus, says two-state solution "inescapable"
DEBKAfile Special Report
March 3, 2009, 10:44 PM (GMT+02:00)
Visiting US secretary of state Hillary Clinton detached two officials from her delegation in Jerusalem for a visit to Damascus "to explore some bilateral issues." Tuesday, March 3. They are the State Department's top Middle East official, Jeffrey Feltman, and Dan Shapiro from the White House national security council.
In her meetings with Israel leaders, she pledged "everything we can to ensure Israel's security now and into the future" and repeated her warnings that rocket attacks from Gaza "must cease."
She also said she shared "Israel's concern about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and continued financing of terrorist organizations."
There is no time to waste, said Clinton, before engaging the Palestinians and achieving a stable ceasefire in Gaza which is only possible of the rocket fire stops. It is our assessment that eventually, the inevitability of working towards a two-state solution is inescapable,” she said.
But she also assured that any possible differences of opinion on that vital issue with any Israeli government would not harm the friendly relations and "fundamental alliance" the US and Israel shared.
DEBKAfile reported earlier:
The Palestinian state envisioned by President George W. Bush will get short shrift from Israel's designated prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu when they meet in Jerusalem Tuesday.
Netanyahu has spoken of Palestinian self-government but shied away from saying he would back a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
He is not averse to talking to the Palestinians, but will emphasize that Iran is blocking the Palestinian and all other Middle East issues. Therefore dealing with Tehran is the overriding priority.
Netanyahu will also stress that Iran is utterly determined to attain a nuclear bomb and will not be deterred by sanctions. There is no objection to dialogue with Tehran - as President Barack Obama has proposed – as long as a strict time limit is set so as to draw a line on Iranian procrastination and deceit.
After her talks with President Shimon Peres, Clinton met foreign minister Tzipi Livni. She also had talks with defense minister Ehud Barak and dined with outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Wednesday she visits Ramallah for talks with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad.
A member of the U.S. military whose suspicions about Barack Obama's eligibility to be president prompted him to sign onto a legal demand being sent to Attorney General Eric Holder has now been silenced.
Attorney Orly Taitz, the California activist who through her DefendOurFreedoms.usfoundation is assembling the case, told WND today she's been informed one of the members of the military has been ordered by commanding officers not to speak with media.
The officer's identity was withheld to prevent further actions against him.
However, Taitz confirmed to WND there would be no lack of plaintiffs in her action, which challenges Obama to prove by what authority he operates as commander in chief.
Another active-duty soldier, who identified himself as Staff Sgt. Alan Craig James, volunteered to be identified publicly as a plaintiff in the case, Taitz said.
She said she already has a list of 101 volunteers in her case demanding Obama's proof of eligibility.
ג וַאֲבָרְכָה, מְבָרְכֶיךָ, וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ, אָאֹר; וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ, כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה. 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'
Erev Rav
"The entire 974 generations (Hagiga 14.) which are `Erev Rav which are the souls from the world of chaos, G-d transplants them every generation, and they are the bold-faced of the generation. Our Sages said that in the period of "messiah's footsteps" impudence will become great... and the `erev rav will return to be the shepherds of Israel" - Safra ditz'ni`utha, chapter 1, beginning with the words "They were not watching" (3).
THE WRATH FROM G-D WILL BE DEVASTATING
Hillary Clinton puts America on collision course with Israel as she pledges to press for Palestinian state
LOU DOBBS - "MARTIAL LAW"
I AM GETTING MANY CALLS DAILY ABOUT AMMUNITION AND RELOADING COMPONENTS, SUPPLIES ARE NOW GONE. YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO ME YEARS AGO AS I WARNED YOU ABOUT THIS. THERE ARE NO GOOD BUYS REGARDING ANYTHING. ALL THE WHOLESALERS HAVE NOTHING LEFT. IF YOU BY CHANCE SEE SOMETHING YOU NEED JUST BUY IT WITH YOUR "STIMULUS MONEY". THE PEOPLE WANTED CHANGE AND NOW THEY GOT WHAT THEY ASKED FOR. .................................................................................................................................................................... CIA AGENTS LEAKS INTELLEGENCE
G-D IS DESTROYING AMERICA - NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO GIVE AWAY THE CITY THAT IS OWNED BY G-D = "JERUSALEM" = THIS IS PRE ORDAINED, NONE ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IS BY ACCIDENT. NO RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, NO MERCY FROM G-D. YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ANYTHING YET. G-D HAS INTENTIONALLY PUT THESE CLOWNS IN OFFICE FOR HIS ORDAINED PLAN OF THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR WONDERFUL COUNTRY. THE MORE PRESSURE THEY IN "DC" PUT ON THE JEWS IN ISRAEL THE WORSE OUR SITUATION WILL GET. YOU WILL NOW SEE THE WEATHER INTENSIFY AND RAIN AND FOOD PRODUCTION BECOME A MAJOR PROBLEM. G-D WILL ALSO DESTROY THE "EREV RAV" TRAITORS IN ISRAEL AS WELL, AND HE WILL BRING THE UK TO ITS KNEES = "NO MERCY" FROM G-D THIS TIME. G-D THE FATHER IS MAKING "ALL" THE DECISIONS AT THIS POINT IN TIME. ............................................................................................................
Much of U.S. Could See a Water Shortage
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer
(AP) -- An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year.
Sign in Kfar Akeb boasting of 'American gift' to Palestinian Authority
JERUSALEM – Sections of Jerusalem have essentially been forfeited on the ground to the Palestinian Authority, while Jews, including local landowners, are barred from entering parts of Israel's capital, a WND investigation has found.
The probe further determined the U.S. has been aiding the Palestinians in developing infrastructure in Jerusalem.
Also, it has emerged, the Israeli government has failed to stop Arabs from illegally building thousands of housing projects on Jerusalem land purchased and owned by a U.S. Jewish group for the express purpose of Jewish settlement, culminating in an Arab majority in the neighborhoods.
The situation has been unfolding in the northern Jerusalem neighborhoods of Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis, which are close to the Jewish neighborhoods of Neve Yaacov and Pisgat Zeev in Israel's capital. Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis are located entirely within the Jerusalem municipality.
Military officers from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are working with California
attorney Orly Taitz and her Defend Our Freedoms Foundation, citing a legal right established in British common law nearly 800 years ago and recognized by the U.S. Founding Fathers to demand documentation that may prove – or disprove – Barack Obama's eligibility to be president.
Taitz told WND today she has mailed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a request that he "relate Quo Warranto on Barack Hussein Obama II to test his title to president before the Supreme Court."
The lengthy legal phrase essentially means an explanation is being demanded for what authority Obama is using to act as president. An online constitutional resource says Quo Warranto "affords the only judicial remedy for violations of the Constitution by public officials and agents."
Requesting the action are Maj. Gen. Carroll Childers; Lt. Col. Dr. David Earl-Graef; police officer Clinton Grimes, formerly of the U.S. Navy; Lt. Scott Easterling, now serving on active duty in Iraq; NewHampshire state Rep. Timothy Comerford; Tennessee state Rep. Frank Nicely and others.
Leaving millions of Americans in shock, President Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress have quickly perpetrated nothing less than an economic and political coup d'etat in the once free-market United States of America.
In the guise of "stimulating" the economy, Obama has frightened and intimidated the powers-that-be into embracing European-style socialism. Americans increasingly live with constant anxiety, fearing loss of both their wealth and their personal freedoms as government expands like a cancer.
On top of that, thanks to politicians and pundits' daily offerings of nonsensical and contradictory explanations for the financial crisis, many Americans are confused and paralyzed into inaction.
Israel's next prime minister to tell Clinton that two-state formula impracticable
March 3, 2009, 11:20 AM (GMT+02:00)
The Palestinian state envisioned by President George W. Bush - which secretary of state Hillary Clinton reaffirmed at Sharm e-Sheikh Monday, March 2 - will get short shrift from Israel's designated prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu when they meet in Jerusalem Tuesday.
He is not averse to talking to the Palestinians, but will emphasize that Iran is blocking the Palestinian and all other Middle East issues. Therefore dealing with Tehran is the overriding priority.
Netanyahu will also stress that Iran is utterly determined to attain a nuclear bomb and will not be deterred by sanctions. There is no objection to dialogue with Tehran,as President Barack Obama has proposed – as long as a strict time limit is set to draw a line on Iranian procrastination and deceit.
After her talks with President Shimon Peres, Clinton also meets outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Tzipi Livni before continuing to Ramallah to meet Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad.
24 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the land with utter destruction. {P}
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Obama eligibility tops AOL News Internet reports mock 'Birthers' who want constitutional proof
Internet giant America Online headlined its daily news coverage today witha story and polls covering the "Birthers," a group of people it describes as "fringe conservatives convinced that Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because of supposed questions surrounding his birth status."
Politico's coverage of the questions that still linger over Obama's birth, however, is far from kind.
"Viewed as irrelevant by the White House, and as embarrassing by much of the Republican Party," writes Politico blogger Ben Smith, "the subculture still thrives from the conservative website WorldNetDaily, which claims that some300,000 people have signed a petition demanding more information on Obama's birth."
Smith then states unequivocally that there is no basis for questioning Obama's eligibility, that Obama "was in fact born in Honolulu in 1961" and that "long-settled law" resolves his dual citizenship at birth, another fount of legal questions surrounding the sitting president's eligibility to serve in the Oval Office. Smith cites Hawaii officials who have testified that there do exist records – though unreleased to the public or the courts – verifying Obama's American birth.
To add fuel to his argument, Smith then quotes from several sources, including radio host Michael Medved, to compile a list of descriptions for those he brands as conspiracy theorists, including the following: embarrassing, destructive, crazy, nutburger, demagogue, money-hungry, exploitative, irresponsible, filthy conservative imposters, the worst enemy of the conservative movement, weird, demented, sick, troubled and not suitable for civilized company.
Politico quotes David Emery, an urban legends writer for About.com, who suggests those that want to see proof of Obama's eligibility are fueled by revulsion and rage.
"Thanks to the relentless agitation of the conspiracy theorists and the sheer quantity of hypothetical scenarios and legal arguments floating around," Emery states, "they've clearly succeeded in planting unreasonable doubts in reasonable people's minds."
As WND has reported on several occasions, however, none of the so-called "evidence" of Obama's constitutional eligibility produced thus far is beyond reasonable doubt nor as iron-clad as simply producing an authentic birth certificate, something everyday Americans are required to do regularly, but the president still refuses to do.
As Jerome Corsi, WND senior staff writer, explained, "The main reason doubts persist regarding Obama's birth certificate is this question: If an original Hawaii-doctor-generated and Hawaii-hospital-released Obama birth certificate exists, why wouldn't the senator and his campaign simply order the document released and end the controversy?
"That Obama has not ordered Hawaii officials to release the document," Corsi writes, "leaves doubts as to whether an authentic Hawaii birth certificate exists for Obama."
In its poll, AOL is asking readers: "Do you have any doubt about Obama's eligibility to be president because of his birth status?"
With more than 250,000 responses, results were nearly split with 47 percent saying yes, and 53 percent saying no.
Readers were also asked, "How damaging is this conspiracy theory to Obama?"
With more than 178,00 responses, 52 percent said "Not at all," 28 percent said "Somewhat," and 20 percent said "Very."
Amid a global economic meltdown, high-ranking delegations from 75 countries met at Sharm e-Sheikh Monday, March 2, to approve $2 to 4 billion for rebuilding the Gaza Strip ravaged during Israel's 22-day anti-terror operation last month.
Hillary Clinton will announce at her debut Middle East appearance as secretary of state a $900 million donation: $600 million for the Palestinian Authority, $300 million for Gaza.
Germany too is expected to pledge 100 euros in addition to a European Union package, but the primary donors are Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia.
Egypt will share the kudos with the Obama administration, which will use the occasion to reassert Washington's role as lead Middle East peacemaker.
After they leave the Middle east, their donations will eventually be streamed to three destinations: The Palestinian Authority, Hamas in Gaza and… Tehran.
The donors are undecided over where to deposit the funds once they are delivered, understanding that not a cent can be spent on rehabilitating this Palestinian enclave without going through its ruler, Hamas. Some advise depositing the money with Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, some suggest the World Bank, others a special mechanism (whose bureaucracy would eat up large sums).
The truism that Hamas controls everything that moves in Gaza was amply borne out by the Quartet's envoy Tony Blair. He postponed entering Gaza for months over threats to his life. He finally went in – albeit not too far in – Sunday, March 1 under the protection of an armed Hamas escort.
While there, he may well have heard the whistle of the five missiles Hamas and its ilk fired into Israel that day, one destroying an Ashkelon school.
For eight years, the Israeli cities, villages and businesses ravaged by Palestinian missiles have been repaired at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer, who turns out ironically to be one of the Gaza donors.
Jerusalem has been transferring hundreds of millions of shekels per month to Gaza because the International Monetary Fund's hold Jerusalem responsible for its banks – an anomaly when the US, the EU and World Bank have all agreed that by evacuating the Strip in 2005, Israel had no more responsibility.
Blair's demand that Israel lift its embargo on the terrorist-ruled enclave to allow cement and iron to go through because "food and medicines are not enough" is far from innocent.
He knows that the cement would be used to fortify Hamas installations and the iron on weapons.
By following the donors' money trail, DEBKAfile's sources have found out exactly where the international aid for Gaza ends up: At the corruption-ridden Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, feeding Hamas' military might and paying its armorer, Iran.
The pro-West Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, who is credited with bringing order to Palestinian Authority finances, regularly diverts to the Gaza Strip funds from all PA revenues including donations. Israel and the donor-states agree to their transfer, purportedly to pay the wages of PA officials serving there.
Before Hamas' seized the enclave two years ago, 35,000 officers served with the security services; today, allocations are transferred to cover wages for 70,000.
Since both figures were fictitious, it does not need a mathematician to figure out that Hamas is using the money as a war chest. Some well-informed Israeli sources have confided to DEBKAfile that had Israel carried out an economic Operation Cast Lead against Hamas, the military operation might have been superfluous.
DEBKAfile's sources disclose how Hamas apportions the incoming donations:
Less then 15% for the Palestinian populace – badly hurt during Israel's military offensive but chronically jobless, poverty-stricken, lacking schools and medical facilities since the Hamas takeover.
About 30% supports Hamas' political and religious hierarchies.
Another 25% is spent on maintaining Hamas "security forces" including Izz e-Din al Qassam and its rocket units.
Some 30% purchases an assortment of missiles and rockets, weapons and explosives as well as fortifying military installations and command bunkers - some snaking under the Israeli border packed with explosives and suicide bombers or smuggling tunnels carrying Iranian supplies of improved rockets, explosives and weaponry through Sinai.
The most carefully hidden factor is the portion which pays for Hamas' weapons supplies from Tehran.
DEBKAfile's military sources disclose how these transactions work:
Iran delivers the hardware to the Bedouin smuggling gangs of Sinai, who transport the merchandise to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which is charged bargain basement prices. The money (initially put up by Western donors and Israel) is handed to Tehran after the smugglers rake off their commission. Cairo's pledges to stop the smuggling are cant. Egyptian officers and troops in Sinai are on the take.
The free world and its donors are not contesting their division of labor with Iran – they put up the cash, part of which is diverted to this terror sponsor par excellence for missiles. The delegations meeting in Sharm e-Sheikh prefer to go home feeling virtuous, having shown their support for the most fashionable international aid cause in the world.
Hamas and its sponsors stay behind. They can drop their public pose as victims and have a good laugh over the Western world's gullibility, after maneuvering the US, Europe and Israel into shelling out to make Hamas stronger and footing the bill for its Iranian weapons.
Tehran has already celebrated its success in pulling the wool over 75 pairs of international eyes by asking Interpol, created by the West to internationalize the policing of crime, to arrest what it says are 15 Israeli "war criminals" who were involved in the conflict in Gaza in December and January.
This champion of human rights has even set up a court and launched its own "investigation."
Outgoing Israeli government bargains away military success in Gaza
DEBKAfile Special Analysis
February 14, 2009
All too quickly Israel's three war leaders - prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Tzipi Livni - forgot the goals they set for the three-week military offensive launched against Hamas on Dec. 27, 2008: That Operation Cast Lead would not halt until security prevailed in southern Israel, that the eight-year Palestinian missile offensive be brought to an end and that Hamas never be allowed to rearm for a fresh assault of terror.
Six weeks later, the Islamists terrorists are reaping the spoils of a war they lost.
Jerusalem is feeding Egyptian mediators with concession after concession to keep Hamas at the negotiating table in Cairo and talking about a long-term truce. Frustrated Israeli commanders warn their victory is being traded to buy undreamed-of gains for Hamas, such as the creeping recognition of the Palestinian Islamist group as the Gaza Strip's legitimate ruling power and acceptance of the enclave's status as a forward Iranian base on Israel's southern border. The deal on the table in Cairo would moreover lead to perpetuating the separation between the pro-Western West Bank and the pro-Iranian Gaza Strip, generating a fixed impediment to any discussion of a potential Palestinian state.
Saturday, Feb. 7, defense minister Barak Hamas granted safe passage to Hamas leader Mahmoud A-Zahar to come out of hiding in Gaza for the first time since the hostilities began. He flew to Cairo and on to Damascus to deal with the release of the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit, held since he was kidnapped in 2006. By this concession, Barak gave Tehran, from which Hamas-Damascus takes direct orders, the last word on all these transactions.
Barak is believed to have promised Egypt that other Hamas leaders may also safely emerge from their bunkers as long as the Cairo negotiations continue, even though Hamas has made no commitments of any kind and continues to shoot missiles into Israel as well as smuggling arms.
As Israel's general election looms Tuesday, Feb. 10, Barak, who leads the Labor party, and his colleagues are disseminating pink clouds of optimism while pursuing steps that reverse the goals of Operation Cast Lead: They are solidifying Hamas' strength and its grip on the Gaza Strip for years to come.
DEBKAfile's military sources count eight areas in which the outgoing government is relinquishing assets to Hamas:
1. Military attacks on Palestinian military targets have been suspended in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has offered nothing in return except for an oral undertaking to Egypt to try and keep the level of missile fire down. The Israeli air force responds to each salvo by bombing empty Palestinian buildings and sand dunes.
2. Israel has suspended targeted strikes against Hamas leaders and commanders according to an understanding with Cairo.
3. According to another understanding, Israel will allow an increasing number of supply trucks and types of freights to enter the Gaza crossings daily.
This is a virtual surrender to Hamas' demands for fully opened crossings (translation: end of Israel's embargo of the Gaza Strip). Hamas has not been held to any guarantee for ending its smuggling of arms - or any other quid pro quo.
4. Israel has also promised Egypt to gradually lift its naval blockade of Gaza.
5. Jerusalem has given ground on its initial demand to remove Hamas from the crossings and pass them to Palestinian Authority control. The deal emerging is for foreign monitors to be posted on those crossings and report to Hamas. This is another form of Israeli recognition of the Palestinian extremists' rule of the Gaza Strip and its control of Israel's southwestern frontier.
If approved, it would also perpetuate the divide between the pro-Iranian entity in the Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas and the pro-Western territory of the West Bank under the control of its rival, Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, which Hamas kicked out of the Gaza Strip in 2007
Israeli military sources warn that the eventual upshot of these Israeli concessions will be the collapse of Abbas' rule. Hamas will be able to use the Gaza Strip as a jumping-off base for taking over the West Bank as well.
It is a matter Israeli national policy to withhold recognition from the Palestinian Hamas – which the US and European Union also list as a terrorist organization for its commitment to violence and Israel's destruction. Yet, by knuckling under on this point, Israeli authorities will find themselves engaging Hamas officials willy-nilly in the day-to-day management of the shared border crossings.
6. Many of the soldiers who took part in the Gaza offensive declared that their mission was unfinished because Gilead Shalit remained in captivity. Instead of using its military feat to improve the chances for his release, Israel has allowed itself to be cornered here too. Hamas has upped its demand for the release of 1,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists including convicted multiple murderers of the Fatah, Tanzim, Popular Front and Hamas, which Israel was inclined to accept. Now the price has gone up to 1,250 inmates, all of whom are to be released at the Gaza crossings. The West Bank residents will be sent home later.
7. Israel has agreed to leave the monitoring of Hamas' arms smuggling in Egypt's hands, although Cairo's past record is notoriously wanting. For years, Egyptian police looked the other way as Hamas imported massive quantities of weapons through Sinai.
8. Not by a single word is Hamas required to dismantle its armed strength. Israel is therefore seen to be accepting the presence of an armed terrorist force on its border.
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