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| DAILY ALERT |
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Hamas announced on Monday that it accepted a ceasefire proposal given to it by Egypt and Qatar. Three Israeli officials said the Hamas announcement surprised the Israeli government and that Israel didn't receive the text of the response until an hour after Hamas' announcement. When the Israelis read Hamas' response, they were surprised to see it contained "many new elements" that were not part of the proposal that Israel agreed on that was presented to Hamas ten days ago. "It looked like a whole new proposal," one official said. Two senior Israeli officials said that over the weekend, the Egyptians gave the Hamas delegation in Cairo a new proposal without coordinating with Israel. The officials claimed CIA director Bill Burns and other Biden administration officials knew about the new proposal but didn't tell Israel. (Axios) See also Inside the Scramble to Broker a Deal in Gaza - Peter Baker Hamas did not "accept" a ceasefire deal so much as make a counteroffer to the proposal on the table previously blessed by the U.S. and Israel - a counteroffer that was not itself deemed acceptable. President Biden called Prime Minister Netanyahu on Monday to again press the Israeli leader to hold off any full-fledged attack on Rafah. (New York Times) Israel said the terms of Hamas' ceasefire proposal remained "far from" meeting its "requirements." A senior Israeli and a senior U.S. official said that Hamas' proposal diverges from the one Israel had helped craft with Egypt. It calls for an end to the war, which Israel has said it will not accept. Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, said Monday there were "significant gaps" between Israel and Hamas. (CNN) See also Hamas Agrees to Free Just 18 Hostages unless Israel Ends the War - Einav Halabi Hamas says it will only free 18 hostages unless Israel agrees to end the war, according to a report on CNN. The report said Hamas refused to release only live hostages in the first phase of the deal. It also demanded that Israel would not be able to oppose the freeing of any prisoner from its jails, and that Palestinians released by Israel would be allowed to remain in the West Bank and not be exiled to Gaza. Hamas wants 30 Palestinians freed - up from 20 - for every Israeli hostage released and 50 - up from 40 - for every female soldier. Israel said Hamas has put forth a radical proposal, which it was turning down. (Ynet News) Israel took control of the Rafah crossing linking Gaza to Egypt on Tuesday morning after it warned civilians in the eastern part of Rafah to evacuate to zones in the west. The Israeli military said a "vast amount of people" had heeded its call to evacuate eastern Rafah ahead of the operation. During the operation, 20 militants were killed, tunnel shafts were discovered, and an explosive-laden car driving toward Israeli troops was struck. No Israeli soldiers were injured, Israel's military said. "The Philadelphi Corridor, which runs the length of the Gaza-Egypt border, is much more important than the four battalions of Hamas that you have in Rafah," said Ofer Shelah, a military analyst with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "Hamas has been resupplying itself and reinforcing itself mainly from the Sinai desert." (Wall Street Journal) See also Israeli Flag Raised at Rafah Crossing - Avi Ashkenazi A video from the IDF Spokesperson's Unit showed an Israeli flag raised at the Rafah crossing on Tuesday. (Jerusalem Post) Yahya Sinwar, the terrorist mastermind behind Hamas' massacre of nearly 1,200 people, including over 30 Americans, is believed to be using hostages as human shields to hold off Israeli soldiers seeking to capture him in a tunnel deep below Gaza, Gen. Jack Keane, former U.S. army vice chief of staff, told Sky News Australia on Thursday. "My sources tell me that Sinwar, who is the number one leader in Gaza of the Hamas organization, has 15-20 hostages protecting him and his family," Keane said. "That's why they have these hostages, to guarantee their survival. Israel is absolutely right in putting military pressure on them to force the release of the hostages." (Fox News) Iran is training Hizbullah fighters to carry out drone attacks on Israel at a rapidly-expanding top secret base. Located five miles from Qom, the drone facility has tripled in size since it was set up in 2006, according to leaked classified Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) documents. Once a small airport for crop-spraying planes, it has gone from a runway of 500 meters in 2007 to 1,500 meters in 2020, allowing for bigger, long-range drones such as those used in Iran's aerial assault on Israel on April 13. The Gangine center, which has remained secret until now, serves as a drone pilot training center for Lebanese Hizbullah. (Telegraph-UK) Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, said in a February 2, 2024, sermon posted on Mawteni48 that the world must prepare for the "day after in America." He said that America has grown old, that it is on the verge of retirement. Salah quoted a hadith according to which the Muslims will take over a "white house," and claimed that it refers to Islam taking over the White House in Washington. He said the future caliphate will spread Islam into every home in every continent in the world, including in America. He stated that Islam will conquer Rome, which symbolizes all of Europe. (MEMRI TV) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Four IDF soldiers were killed in a Hamas rocket attack on Sunday on the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza. 10 soldiers were wounded, 2 severely. (Ynet News) Two IDF reserve soldiers were killed in a Hizbullah drone attack against an army position near Metula in northern Israel on Monday. (Times of Israel) The IDF on Monday began evacuating the population in Rafah neighborhoods, following the collapse of the hostage deal negotiations. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit told the Gazan population in Arabic, "The IDF is expanding the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi and is calling on the population to temporarily evacuate from the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah to the expanded humanitarian space." The IDF dropped instructions for the evacuation via designated routes for residents in eastern Rafah to reach the safe areas prepared by the military near Al-Mawasi. The IDF estimates that 100,000 Palestinians reside in the evacuated area. The move isn't a wide-scale evacuation of the entire Rafah area. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said, "The expanded humanitarian zone includes field hospitals, tents, and increased quantities of food, water, medications, and additional supplies. In addition, in cooperation with international organizations and other countries, the IDF enables the expansion of the scope of humanitarian aid entering the Strip." The area being evacuated includes the area where the rockets were fired from that killed 4 Israeli soldiers on Sunday in the Kerem Shalom area. (Ynet News-Jerusalem Post) At the official state ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem on Sunday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added several sentences in English to his address for the international community. "In the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against those who sought our destruction. No nation came to our aid. Today, we again confront enemies bent on our destruction. I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself....If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. But we know we are not alone because countless decent people around the world support our just cause. I say to you: We will defeat our genocidal enemies. Never Again is now." "The horrific terrorist attack of Oct. 7 was not a Holocaust. Not because they lacked the intent of genocide, but because they lack the ability to carry it out. The intention is the same; the Nazis acted in order to completely destroy the Jewish people. The Hamas murderers are instructed to do the exact same thing. They murder babies, children, women, men, the young and the elderly. They do so without batting an eye. They kidnapped our brothers and sisters, and half of them are still held hostage, underground, in the dark." (Ynet News) The IDF's new Eitan heavy armored personnel carriers (APC) began their operational deployment on Oct. 7 when they were brought to the combat zones in the Gaza envelope and deployed as a barrier between the terrorists' infiltration routes and the communities close to the border. Initially, in the combat in Gaza, they mainly served for the rapid extraction of wounded from the battlefield. So far, over 250 wounded soldiers have been evacuated with the new APCs. Subsequently, as proficiency with them increased, they were also used for operational incursions deep into the war zone. The Eitan APC is capable of speeds of 100 km/h, two to three times faster than the older IDF APCs, which allow it to evade Hamas anti-tank rockets. "No soldier was harmed inside the Eitan APC, because it is a very fast vehicle that can deal with various threats," says a Defense Ministry source. (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War During the negotiations in Cairo concerning the Israeli hostages, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar faced no substantial pressure to agree to a deal. Hamas seems to have a vested interest in prolonging the negotiations for weeks or even months. They likely believe that ongoing international and domestic pressure will eventually compel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the conflict. Therefore, Israel has no other choice but to use military force against Hamas. The rocket barrage fired from Gaza into Israeli territory Sunday underscores the untenable situation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad operating as organized terrorist factions within Gaza. Such attacks demonstrate that as long as Hamas and Islamic Jihad remain active anywhere in Gaza, Israelis living in the Western Negev cannot safely return to their everyday lives. Moreover, while IDF operations in northern Gaza momentarily halted rocket fire, these attacks have sporadically resumed after Israeli forces pulled back. It is unmistakably clear that decisive action in Rafah is imperative, not only to dismantle the threats posed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but also to secure a deal for the release of hostages without succumbing to Hamas' narrative of forcing Israel to end the conflict on their terms. (Ynet News) The barrage of rockets and mortars towards Kerem Shalom on Sunday that killed four IDF soldiers is Hamas' response to those who question the necessity of an Israeli military operation in the Rafah area. The results of the attack also illustrate the danger of prolonged waiting and hesitation on the Israeli side. Hamas draws great encouragement from the attitude of the U.S. regarding the war in Gaza. The Biden administration is striving to end the war through a deal involving the release of the Israeli hostages, without achieving any of Israel's objectives; a deal that would allow Hamas to recover militarily and upgrade its status not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and the region as a whole. In the meantime, this administration is tying Israel's hands from taking action in Rafah, forcing it to increase humanitarian aid despite it reaching Hamas' control, pressing it to open the Erez Crossing that was attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, and implement ideas like the maritime corridor the terrorist organization could only dream of. In addition, it allows the international community to make decisions that undermine Israel's status and hints that the stockpile of pressure tactics at its disposal has not yet been exhausted. All that remains for Hamas is to continue insisting on its exaggerated demands in the negotiations, buy time, exploit the supply to equip its fighters, re-establish its rule, and prepare its forces for the continuation of the campaign. Israel must act forcefully to crush Hamas in Rafah and shape a new reality in the area, without relying on international arrangements that have never proved themselves. The writer, a former Israeli national security advisor, is chairman of the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy in Jerusalem. (Israel Hayom) Israel has presented a generous and expanded proposal to the mediators, far beyond what is necessary. The shameful, loose, and destructive behavior of the mediators, led by the U.S., which reportedly offered Hamas guarantees without Israeli approval that the current deal would eventually lead to the end of the war, helps Hamas harden its stance. After seven months, the time has undoubtedly come to stop talking and waiting for the Hamas murderers and to move towards actions. Hamas only understands the use of force and exploits any behavior that shows weakness. Israeli flexibility and concessions invited only more pressure and Hamas attacks. As long as Hamas is under the impression that it almost gets everything it wants without a deal, they will have no interest in reaching one. Unfortunately, all the mediators helped Hamas reach this conclusion. The writer, a professor at the Technion, served as Israeli national security advisor and as acting head of the National Security Council. (Jerusalem Post) The battle for Rafah in Gaza is an essential part of Israel's war of self-defense against Hamas. The terrorist group's leaders have dragged out negotiations for a ceasefire for months. The invasion of Rafah was made necessary on Oct. 7, when Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis. At that moment it became impossible for Israel to allow Hamas to control territory, remain in power and plan the next massacre, as the terrorists pledge. Mr. Biden's decision to set himself against any move on Rafah is hard to understand. Since there was no other way Israel could achieve its objectives, it put the President on the side of Israeli defeat and Hamas victory. He now has a chance to support Israel so it can finish its Hamas campaign as quickly as possible. As a senior Israeli official points out, "This Administration never supports anything we do until we do it." In October, the White House opposed any ground invasion of Gaza. Israel did what it had to do - as it's doing now. Despite media reports, Hamas hadn't "accepted" a genuine ceasefire-for-hostages deal. It made its own offer that Israel end the war, which means accepting defeat. (Wall Street Journal) The Administration is squeezing Israel hard to abandon its plan to take Hamas' last Gaza stronghold in the city of Rafah. Axios reporter Barak Ravid said Sunday that the U.S. put a hold last week on a shipment of U.S.-made weapons to Israel. The fact that the U.S. didn't deny the report is telling. The Israelis view Ravid as the Biden Administration's preferred media conduit for its leaks about U.S. policy on the Israel and Gaza conflict. Israel's government can't end the war with Hamas' military brigades intact, and that means going into Rafah, as difficult as it may be. The U.S. should be putting pressure on Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. The more Hamas thinks it might be saved by U.S. pressure on Israel, the less likely Hamas is to agree to a ceasefire. That's a recipe for extending the war. Mr. Biden's strategy of pressuring Israel to make concessions that its government and citizens are united against hasn't worked. It hasn't won concessions from Hamas and its allies in Iran and Lebanon. Mr. Biden was in a stronger position, politically and strategically, when he spoke with moral clarity about Hamas and in support of Israel after Oct. 7. The fastest way to end the war is with an Israeli victory, and withholding weapons is exactly the wrong message to send an ally under siege. (Wall Street Journal) Hamas' strategy is becoming clear: Play a "waiting game" where time is the variable that serves to their advantage. The more time that passes, the greater the pressure on Israel to refrain from military operations. By appearing to engage in serious negotiations, leaking various statements that purport to show their interest in a deal, and continuing to negotiate while not deciding, Hamas avoids being blamed for refusing to deal while simultaneously disrupting IDF strategy. In essence, Hamas is the party in control of the negotiations. With repeated public pronouncements by outside actors opposing Israeli action in Rafah, Hamas can take their time, believing that Israel will not act without the expressed consent of the U.S. The writer is a clinical psychologist and a fellow at the Jerusalem Center specializing in political psychology. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Anti-Israel Protests Representatives of the PA and Hamas, as well as their media, have reported extensively on the protests on U.S. campuses, expressing hope that they will force the U.S. administration to adopt a tougher policy against Israel. They see the protests as aimed at eliminating Israel and undermining the United States. PA leaders are pleased with the anti-Israel protests at American universities but are unwilling to tolerate similar demonstrations at their own universities, fearing that they could be used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to create instability and insecurity. In recent weeks, PA security officers have been removing Hamas flags from electricity poles in villages and towns in the West Bank. PA security forces have also foiled attempts by some students to set up encampments at Palestinian campuses similar to those at U.S. campuses. Hamas, which has a long record of targeting political opponents, college students, journalists, and human rights activists, was the first Palestinian party to condemn the U.S. authorities for their actions against anti-Israel protesters, some of whom have publicly declared their support for the Iran-backed terrorist group. At the same time, Palestinian columnists have lamented the lack of comparable demonstrations at Arab and Palestinian educational institutions. Palestinian political analyst Rima Kattaneh Nazzal wrote: "Where are Arab universities in this uprising? Where is the Palestinian academic community, especially the student blocs and university professors? Why do they remain silent?" The writer, a veteran Israeli journalist, is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) With "Gaza solidarity encampments" having sprung up on more than 100 U.S. campuses (and with Canadian and British campuses now following suit), Islamists and the hard-left have turned Western universities into a theater of war against Israel, the Jewish people and America. Hamas supporters have burst through inadequate Western defenses to turn the Palestinian cause into a beachhead in their war to bring down a West that refuses to acknowledge the threat it faces. The proxy campus war against Israel and the Jewish people is based on defamatory lies from start to finish. The U.S. and UK governments are adding fuel to the fire by parroting the same nonsensical Gaza civilian casualty figures, giving credence to Hamas blood libels about the IDF targeting hospitals, and falsely accusing Israel of stopping humanitarian aid. All this reinforces the hysteria against Israel and the Jews. The enemies of Israel and the West think that they're winning. They've thought as much since Oct. 7, when the terrible blow inflicted upon Israel galvanized them into believing that the destruction of Israel and the conquest of the West were now within their grasp. The genocidal threats against Israel and psychotic abuse of Jews being chanted by the students is the same language that's been used by the Palestinian Arabs and the wider Muslim world for the best part of a century. Yet both America and Britain have denied this reality and have appeased and emboldened Israel's Palestinian and Iranian attackers. While the U.S. has provided Israel with the military support to prevent its annihilation, the Biden administration is doing everything it can to cripple Israel's war of self-defense and ensure that it doesn't win against Hamas. The writer is a columnist for The Times (UK). (JNS) Large groups of students, faculty and professional agitators have taken over major swaths of campuses across the U.S. as chants in support of Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, and bombing Israel have been the consistent soundtrack of the protests. The synchronized eruption of these protests, the use of common talking points and well-oiled logistics surrounding the supply of sleeping arrangements, food, water and medical support for the protesters have raised red flags surrounding the funding for this phenomenon. "What we are seeing is not a random emotional response but the fruition of 20 years of groundwork and preparation by several anti-Israeli, pro-terror groups," said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor. A series of student groups are organizing these protests, including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Within Our Lifetime (WOL). "SJP has no U.S. revenue service (IRS) status and most of the money sources are hidden, which raises major concerns," Steinberg said. "There is simply no transparency about who is funding them." Hatem Bazian, the founder of SJP, was previously a major fundraiser for the nonprofit Kindhearts, which was censured in 2006 by the U.S. Treasury Department for giving money to Hamas. Bazian is also a co-founder of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which is currently under investigation by the Virginia Attorney General after being accused of being a reincarnation of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which shut down after it was found liable in civil court in 2004 for its support of Hamas. Another major financial backer of the student protests has been the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which has been "closely linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)," recognized as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU. Several members of Samidoun are also members of the PFLP, including chief coordinator Khaled Barakat and international coordinator Charlotte Kates. Another source of financial support for pro-Palestinian activism on campus is foreign governments including Qatar, aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2020, a report showed that Qatar had invested $5.6 billion in 81 American universities since 2007 to promote Islamic studies and to suppress the study of Middle Eastern minorities. (JNS) The Associated Press says the campus demonstrators are "antiwar protesters." The New York Times has gone with "pro-Palestinian." These aren't neutral, or accurate, descriptions. A leading group backing the demonstrations, Students for Justice in Palestine, exulted in the terrorist attack "against the Zionist enemy" on Oct. 7. Terrorist-group regalia has been spotted at protests at Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. Incidents too numerous to count have led the Anti-Defamation League to labeled the Columbia demonstrators "pro-Hamas activists." Peace is not the organizing principle of the protests. The protesters at Columbia have listed several official demands. They don't include that Hamas release all its hostages. The protests are not even bringing attention to the plight of Gazans. They're bringing attention to the protesters. The media should call the protests what they are: anti-Israel. The writer is the editor of National Review and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. (Washington Post) There are women leading protests on university campuses, wrapped in keffiyehs and a face covering, passionately crying out for what they call freedom fighters and their "just war" against Zionist genocide and the general existence of the Jewish state. What they are doing - explicitly in many cases - is teeny-bopping for Hamas, as girls used to yell and scream for the Beatles. It's truly chilling. Too many pro-Hamas, pro-Palestine women claim the acts of sexual violence carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7 are Zionist fabrications. Others know perfectly well that the rape, torture and abductions happened, but seem to think it's all wonderfully noble "resistance." These protest babes, ardent, self-righteous, are cheering on terrorists who, when not raping women, insist on a brutal patriarchal society. Do these women really want an ISIS-style caliphate? Do they want rape and the threat of murder as an instrument of control as the framework for society in which all must live? Or do they only want these things for the "Zionists"? (Telegraph-UK) The International Criminal Court On April 24, a dozen Republican senators wrote to International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan, amid reports that the ICC is considering issuing arrest warrants against top Israeli officials. The letter said: "Such actions are illegitimate and lack legal basis, and if carried out will result in severe sanctions against you and your institution." "The ICC is attempting to punish Israel for taking legitimate actions of self-defense against their Iranian-backed aggressors. In fact, in your own words, you witnessed 'scenes of calculated cruelty' conducted by Hamas in Israel following the October 7 attacks. These arrest warrants would align the ICC with the largest state sponsor of terrorism and its proxy. To be clear, there is no moral equivalence between Hamas' terrorism and Israel's justified response." "The ICC is also prohibited by its charter from proceeding in any case unless the relevant government is unwilling or unable to police themselves. You yourself have said that 'Israel has trained lawyers who advise commanders and a robust system intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law.' By issuing warrants, you would be calling into question the legitimacy of Israel's laws, legal system, and democratic form of government." "Target Israel and we will target you. If you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned." (Times of Israel) Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is widely expected to issue several arrest warrants in the coming days against Israeli leaders for the crime of defending the Jewish state against Hamas, who committed the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. This would be an unconscionable and unprecedented misuse of the law, upending the framework upon which the international legal order is based. The ICC was established in 2002 as "a court of last resort," with the primary goal of ending impunity for those accused of the most heinous of crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It was never intended to be applied in the Orwellian circumstances of prosecuting Israeli leaders as they defend the Jewish state against the murderers and rapists of Hamas. The IDF has gone to unprecedented lengths, not seen in the history of modern warfare, to abide by the laws of war and avoid harm to civilians, even when doing so has put the IDF's own soldiers at risk. They have done this while continuing to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid. White House national security spokesman John Kirby has emphasized that "there is no evidence" that the Israelis "have violated international humanitarian law" or that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders will severely curtail every democracy's fight against radical Islamic terrorism by exposing them to spurious and unfounded charges, based purely on political considerations. It must be made clear that if Khan chooses to proceed with issuing warrants, it will be the death knell of the court's very legitimacy. Arsen Ostrovsky is a human rights attorney who serves as CEO of the International Legal Forum. John Spencer is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point. (The Hill) Observations: A Coordinated Attack on America's Jews and Israel - Dr. Steven Windmueller (Los Angeles Jewish Journal)
The writer, Emeritus Professor of Jewish Communal Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. |
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