Friday Afternoon Roundup -

Sultan Knish


HAMAS IS A 7TH CENTURY PROBLEM

To understand why, let’s step into a time machine and go back to the spring of 632. The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius is engaged in the first of a series of wars with Mohammed’s maddened followers. England is divided into seven quarreling kingdoms. Across the water, the Merovingians are killing each other in ways that would give George R.R. Martin nightmares. Meanwhile in a more civilized part of the world, China’s fading Sui Dynasty fields an army of over a million men in a failed effort to invade Korea.

Back in Medina, Mohammed had come down with the sniffles. He had a fever and a headache and there wasn’t any Tylenol around for miles. Mohammed hadn’t been a very good man and he made a very bad patient. Upon being told that he had pleurisy, he claimed that only people possessed by Satan came down with that disease so he couldn’t possibly have it and instead blamed the Jews for poisoning him.

His own homemade cures, such as bathing in seven skins of water from seven different wells, didn’t help. But before he died, he managed to make the Middle East an even worse place by ordering the ethnic cleansing of Jews and Christians.

Mowing the grass in Gaza – and beyond

DAVID M. WEINBERG

The war with Hamas, unreliability of Abbas and regional instability have forced a shift in Netanyahu’s thinking.

PRIME MINISTER Binyamin Netanyahu speaks at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Friday Photo: HAIM ZACH/GPO

Israel’s protracted conflict with Hamas in Gaza, the feebleness and fecklessness of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and the gains made by radical Islamists in Arab civil wars raging across the region call for a reassessment of Israel’s strategic posture.

In a situation of multiple threats from implacable, non-state enemies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaida and the Islamic State (ex-ISIS), and in an environment where all Arab and Islamic states from Marrakesh to Bangladesh are beset by instability, Israel must figure out how to best guarantee its security for the long term.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has begun to give us a window into his updated strategic thinking on this question. In a little noticed speech in Tel Aviv two weeks ago, and in a press conference last Friday, Netanyahu laid out the essentials of an updated defense doctrine.

A tale of tunnels

Dan Gordon

The Government of the state of Israel has declared in the clearest possible manner that the purpose of the ground incursion which began last night and continues today, is  first of all to deal with the “ homicide tunnels” which the Terrorist Army Hamas, has burrowed beneath the borders of, and well into  the pre 1967 territory of the state of Israel.  The only people who could possibly think of this area as being “ occupied territory” are the same ones who think of Tel Aviv as “ Occupied territory” , or for that matter any square inch of land in this part of the world ,where Israel has the effrontery to declare it’s sovereignty under international law.

In other words, contrary to the perception of some, that the core reason behind this conflict is Israel’s occupation of lands conquered in the defensive war of 1967, Hamas could not, and does not, give a tinker’s damn about “ Occupied territory” . This is so because Hamas regards ANY territory on which there is a sovereignJewish state  as, “ Occupied territory”.

Moreover, Hamas  believes that any such Jewish state has no right to exist.

How to Win in Gaza

Caroline Glick On July 18, 2014 

Originally published by the Jerusalem Post. 
Israel deployed ground forces in Gaza Thursday night both because Hamas’s terror tunnels into Israel have become an unacceptable threat, and because it had to break the deadlock that had developed between it and Hamas.

Until the ground invasion, Israel and Hamas were in a holding pattern. Hamas would not accept a ceasefire deal because Egypt’s offers provided the Iranian sponsored, Muslim Brotherhood terror army with no discernible achievements. And absent such achievements, Hamas prefers to keep fighting. Israel for its part is unwilling to make any concessions to Hamas in exchange for its cessation of its criminal terror war that targets innocent civilians in Israel as a matter of course. As Hamas sees things, it has three ways of winning.

First, if Israel had agreed to ceasefire terms that left Hamas better off than it was when it started its newest round of indiscriminate missile attacks against Israeli civilian targets, then it could have declared victory.

Hamas’s terms for a ceasefire included, among other things, an open border with Egypt, egress to the sea, open access to the border zone with Israel, an airport, a sea port, and the release of terrorists from Israeli prisons. Obviously, if Israel agreed to even a few of these terms, its agreement would have constituted a strategic victory for Hamas.

He gave his life to the soldiers

The death of Dror Hanin, the first Israeli killed in Operation Protective Edge, left an enormous void • "Daddy is gone, so I won't be happy," says Dror's daughter, two weeks before her birthday • "Dror had a huge heart, full of giving," says his friend.

Nitsi Yakov

Dror Hanin poses with soldiers moments before his death

Racheli Hanin was in the middle of making pancakes in her kitchen in Beit Aryeh when she heard on the news that an Israeli had been wounded in a mortar shell attack at the Erez border crossing. She immediately sensed that the man in question was Dror, her husband and the father of her three children. When Dror did not answer his phone, she called the head of the local council, Avi Naim, and the Beit Aryeh chief security officer, Sharon Alfasi. When both Naim and Alfasi kept hanging up on her, she became even more worried. She knew something terrible had happened, but she didn't know quite how terrible yet.

A short while later, when Naim arrived at the family home and told her that Dror had been critically wounded and that he was hospitalized, she still believed that he would survive.

When evening came, Racheli and Naim were called in to identify the body. "He was so peaceful," Naim recalls. "I looked at him and said, 'Get up, Dror.' I actually waited for him to get up. I have lost a lot of friends, but Dror was like a brother."

Hamas' punishment: The plagues of Egypt

Hamas leaders made a grave mistake this week: they rejected Egypt's cease-fire proposal, spitting in the face of the one powerful nation on which they are completely dependent • But Israel must ensure that Hamas, though weakened, remains on the scene.

Reuven Berko

Publicly insulted by Hamas. Egyptian President Abed Fattah el-Sissi | Photo credit: EPA

Hamas' refusal to agree to the cease-fire deal proposed by Egypt and its insistence on continuing to fire rockets toward Israel is reminiscent of the hardheartedness displayed by Egypt's Pharaoh. When examining his decisions from a sober-minded historical perspective, one comes to the conclusion that the Egyptian ruler should have internalized the fact that he was dealing with forces that were much more powerful than him and his magicians.

Without going overboard with this analogy, one can safely conclude that the Hamas leadership is beset by the same failures in understanding the reality of their day just as the evil pharaoh was delinquent in the same regard. Hamas has brought upon itself and its people a series of calamities that apparently won't end in the near future.

Place Hamas in a vise

Yoav Limor

Operation Protective Edge entered a new phase on Thursday night, one meant to break the operational patterns that have become prevalent in the interaction between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas since the onset of the campaign in Gaza Strip. The IDF has launched a limited ground operation, meant to achieve specific tactical goals while increasing the pressure on Hamas so that it will agree to the Egyptian cease-fire proposal.

The decision to launch a ground operation was made 10 days into the Gaza campaign. The cabinet sought to avoid it, fearing it might become overly complicated and thinking that the operation could come to a conclusion -- via cease-fire -- sooner rather than later.

This premise, however proved false, and the change in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon's position on the matter came following the foiled terror attack near Kibbutz Sufa, and the scope of Hamas fire on Israel following the five-hour humanitarian cease-fire both parties had agreed to uphold Thursday morning.

These two events made it clear to Israel that Hamas is determined to take its pound of flesh during the fighting and that opting for defensive tactics only endangers Israel, as it makes it appear weak in the eyes of Hamas.

'Proportionality' in Israel and Gaza?

Paul Austin Murphy

Many people may think that the death toll in Israel is low compared to the 180 or so Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza in the last few weeks. Leftists will no doubt quote the UN's ratio of civilian-to-military casualties, which is said to be 70% civilian.
(Where have these percentages come from? From Hamas. So it's not a surprise that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman, Lt-Col Peter Lerner, has disputed the figures. Indeed where else could the figures come from? Hamas rules Gaza. The BBC has also just been reprimanded for supplying fake pictures from Pallywood... or Gaza as it is also sometimes known.)
There's a simple reason for that “lack of proportionality” (as academics in the West often put it) which seems to have been overlooked by Manuel Hassassian (a Palestinian Authority envoy in the UK) when he said:

“There are no shelters, no bunkers, no place to go, except their homes.”

Israel has built many air-raid shelters and other means of protection for its citizens. It also employs air-raid warnings in response to Hamas rocket attacks. Hamas, on the other hand, doesn't provide its people with either of these things. (See this article on Gaza's lack of bomb shelters.)
The other thing is that Hamas deliberately places its fighters amongst the Gaza civilian population -- as is now both well-known and well-documented. Again, for the same reasons just described.
What is the reason for Hamas's suicidal policies?
It's primarily because this Muslim Brotherhood political party wants some -- or even many -- of its people to be killed.
So why does Hamas want that?

How Congress Can Help Israel Against Hamas

Malcolm Lowe

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4439/congress-israel-hamas

What the Congressional resolutions overlook is that Hamas has officially renounced its responsibility for governing Gaza, while the Palestinian unity government has already begun the process of taking over the administration of Gaza. Consequently, the Palestinian Authority – not Hamas – should be the primary addressee of Congressional resolutions. Congress has the power to impose that demand upon the PA as a condition of further financial support for the PA.
The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, evidently has on his payroll tens of thousands of idle Gazans who are available to root out and destroy those rockets and tunnels.

Last Friday, July 11, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed Resolution 657 in support of Israel's right to defend itself against the rockets fired from the Gaza strip. A similar resolution has also been submitted to the US Senate. This reaffirmation of American support will be deeply appreciated in Israel. To make that support effective, however, a little more will be needed.
The House version "(1) reaffirms its support for Israel's right to defend its citizens and ensure the survival of the State of Israel; (2) condemns the unprovoked rocket fire at Israel; and (3) calls on Hamas to immediately cease all rocket and other attacks against Israel." The Senate version repeats those three demands in almost identical wording and adds a fourth: "Calls on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the unity governing arrangement with Hamas and condemn the attacks on Israel."
What the Congressional resolutions overlook is that Hamas has officially renounced its responsibility for governing Gaza, while the Palestinian unity government has already begun the process of taking over the administration of Gaza. Over a week ago (July 5/6), a senior Hamas official, Ahmad Yousef, was "asked about increased rocket fire on Israel in recent weeks" in an interview with Palestinian news agency Ma'an. His answer: "From a political point of view, (Prime Minister) Rami Hamdallah is responsible and he can give orders to security services to intervene. Hamas is not ruling the Gaza Strip and so it's not responsible for protecting borders"
Anyone paying due attention to recent Palestinian developments should know that this is correct. The unity government was formed because Hamas no longer had the funds to pay its own administration of 40,000 employees in Gaza. This was because the new Egyptian regime closed the tunnels connecting Egypt with Gaza and removed Hamas's two chief sources of income: money smuggled through the tunnels and taxes imposed upon the operators of the tunnels.

Official PA daily: US behind Gaza war and wars in Iraq, Syria and Libya

"The wars in Libya, Iraq, Syria and Palestine were planned by the US in order to protect its interests"   "The US is using [Islamic] extremists as human shields fighting on its behalf, so that American soldiers will no longer be returning home in coffins"   "To undermine the resolution of the [Fatah-Hamas] rift,  the US engaged the Jewish ISIL to attack Gaza"   "The Americans... are truly the head of the snake" http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=12071   by Itamar Marcus   The Palestinian Authority consistently demonizes the United States, in spite of the US being the largest financial supporter of the PA since the Oslo Accords were signed. In its latest attack on the US, the official PA daily yesterday accused the US of being behind the current Gaza war, in order to undermine the Fatah - Hamas unity. The paper also accused the US of sponsoring the extremist Islamic groups fighting the civil wars in Iraq, Syria and Libya. The official daily claimed that the US sent radical Muslims to fight on its behalf, essentially acting as "human shields... so that American soldiers will no longer be returning home in coffins." Palestinian Media Watch has documented many examples in which the official PA daily has demonized the US, often writing that US Middle East policy is based solely on controlling the regions natural resources. In this op-ed, it is argued that the declaration by ISIL, the radical Islamic militia that conquered large areas of Iraq and Syria, that it will not fight Israel right now, proves that "the boss is the same boss, and the goal is the same goal: to tear apart the Arab homeland and gain control of its resources - through the blood of others."

Hamas claims horror movie photo depicts civilian killed by Israelis

Robert Spencer 
Not only does Hamas try to provoke civilian casualties, but when it doesn’t get them, it fakes them. There is absolutely no moral standing upon which to base support for the “Palestinian” jihadists at this point.
As Muhammad said, “War is deceit.”
“Hamas Uses Horror Movie Still of Headless Girl in Miniskirt to Depict Gaza Casualties on Social Media (WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO),” by Joshua Levitt, Algemeiner, July 15, 2014:

As Hamas supporters are being called out on Twitter for posting photos of Syrian casualties from 2012 as victims of the Israeli Army in Gaza in 2014, Israel advocacy group StandWithUs on Tuesday posted a clip from Hollywood horror flick ‘The Final Destination 4′ that was used to create another fake that circulated widely on Facebook falsely depicting Israel killing civilians.

StandWithUs created a short clip of the scene from the movie to show how it was transposed into a screenshot used for Hamas propaganda.

Muslim cleric: “Islam recognizes no distinction between regular armies and civilians”

Robert Spencer 
He is specifically referring to Americans — “American taxpayers” — for supposedly abetting the shedding of the blood of Iraqi children. In any case, if any Muslims heed his words and are in a position to act upon them, more American blood will be shed. These statements are also noteworthy in light of Hamas’s recent jihad rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
“Sudanese Cleric Al-Jazouli: Islam Permits Killing American Women and Children,” MEMRI, June 20, 2014:

Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Sudanese cleric Muhammad Al-Jazouli, which was posted on the Internet on June 20, 2014:
Muhammad Al-Jazouli: American taxpayers share the blame for the blood of every Iraqi child. Our Prophet Muhammad said that anyone who helps kill a Muslim man – even by uttering half a word – no longer enjoys protection. Whoever helps kill a Muslim child, or rather, a Muslim man, with half a word… Listen to this fatwa… In its war with the infidels, Islam recognizes no distinction between regular armies and civilians.

Hamas belittles "defeatist" Palestinians who criticize high civilian death toll

"In 1945, in a single day in Algeria, 45,000 Algerians died. 

In a single day. It wasn't described in Algeria's history 

as forsaking the blood of the Algerians, 

as some defeatists are describing today 

the number of Martyrs as 'trading with Palestinian blood 

and forsaking Palestinian blood'... 

We are not leading our people to execution...

We are leading them to death - I mean, to confrontation."

[Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri] 

Hamas and Fatah defend demands

that Palestinians act as human shields:

Hamas:

"[Israel] has been sending tens of thousands 

of voice messages to citizens' phones... 

asking them to evacuate their homes by a certain time...

 There is no reason to be concerned by them 

or pay attention to them

and by no means should they be heeded."

[Hamas Ministry of Interior spokesman's Facebook page]

Fatah:

 "[Fatah] Central Committee member [Amal Hamad] said 

the occupation has distributed letters to citizens 

residing near the border area,

ordering them to evacuate their homes.

She emphasized that the citizens will not respond 

to these letters,

will not leave their homes"

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 12, 2014]

 http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=12063

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Hamas' recurring demands that its civilian population remain in war zones, and Hamas' need to justify these demands to the Palestinian people, indicate that there may be growing popular dissatisfaction with Hamas' policy of using civilians as human shields to protect Hamas fighters and infrastructure in Gaza.

 

In a striking talk on Hamas TV, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri belittled the Palestinians who are counting the "number of Martyrs," calling them "defeatists." He argued that those "defeatists" should consider the current situation in light of the history of Algeria, which he said lost 45,000 people in one day in 1945. He then made a slip of the tongue in speaking about the population in Gaza: "We are leading them to death," he said, then quickly corrected himself: "I mean, to confrontation."

The Tragedy of the Arabs

Rogers Emerson On July 16, 2014

Years ago, an Iraqi thinker and writer, Kanan Makiya, suggested that the Arab world was delusional with respect to the violence and antipathies that crippled its political culture.
He wrote several books documenting this harsh reality, including Cruelty and Silence and The Republic of Fear, which he wrote using a pseudonym. Sadly, a quarter century later, there is little reason to question Makiya’s perspective or to think the Arab world has any clue how to thrive and survive in the modern world. But for oil, the region would be a morass of failure and poverty – not a single working democracy or successful cultural entity (Lebanon tries, but is besieged north and south and internally); not an ounce of serious tolerance for plurality or civil discourse; no serious and sustained commitment to a culture of inclusion and government of modern law.
I am not convinced that any Arab thinker or writer – past or present – could honestly make sense of the disaster that is playing out in the Middle East today. I include such eminent men of letters and historians as Albert Hourani, Fouad Ajami (rest in peace) or even Edward Said, who no doubt would be tossing out the same old excuses about Western imperialism.

Hamas Wants to Die

David P. Goldman
PJ Media

http://www.meforum.org/4752/hamas-wants-to-die

_{Originally published by PJ Media under the title, "Hamas is the Norm, Israel is the Exception."}

It's like the old joke: Why do Jewish men die before their wives? Because they want to. Civilizations for the most part die because they no longer want to live. That is the nub of my 2011 book How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam Is Dying, Too). They cease to believe in their own future and distract themselves from the prospect of extinction as best they can. Hellenistic Greece was the first universal demographic disaster; it gave us prototypes of the steam engine and the computer (via Hero of Alexandria) as well as the modern literary forms. But even wealthy men exposed their daughters and the population imploded. When Aristotle taught that men naturally seek the good, the overwhelming preponderance of evidence had already turned against him. Most men seek nothingness. Soon the last surviving remnants of the classical world will disappear. In another generation, more people will speak Hebrew than Greek.
Hamas wants to die, obviously and visibly. That thought horrifies Westerners. As a number of Israeli commentators observe, Hamas doesn't particularly care about having a Palestinian State. It wants to destroy the Jewish State and is willing to die in the process. It wants to die in such a way that Israel will die, too. There is something utterly surreal to Hamas crowding civilians around military targets, and Israeli pilots declining to attack them. It recalls joke about the sadist and the masochist. The masochist says, "Beat me!," and the sadist says, No…suffer."

Q & A: What Is This Iron Dome That Is Protecting Israel From Hamas Rockets?

The Daily Signal
Michaela Dodge

As Hamas launches rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel, casualties are kept at a minimum thanks to Israel’s superior air defense system.  In the current conflict, up to 90 percent of the rockets engaged by the “Iron Dome” are intercepted as they approach high-value Israeli targets. The Rafael-Raytheon air defense system has held a high rate of success since it first intercepted a Gaza rocket in April 2011. What is the Iron Dome and how does it operate?  Heritage policy analyst Michaela Dodge answers these questions and more.
What is the Iron Dome?
The Iron Dome is an Israeli air defense and a short-range defense system designed to destroy enemy rockets, mortars, and artillery shells.
How does it work? 
Each Iron Dome battery is comprised of interceptors (Tamir), radars, and command and control systems. The system shoots down incoming rockets mid-air before they hit the target. The system only intercepts rockets that would hit targets of value (population centers, military facilities, etc.). This allows the system to preserve interceptors and save more resources than if it were shooting down every single rocket. In April 2011, the Israelis found out that they needed to launch an interceptor against only about 20 percent of the rockets launched by Hamas.

The Jewish State in a Morally Sick World

7/15/2014 12:01:00 AM - Dennis Prager

Let's drop the names "Hamas" and "Israel" and make a list of the characteristics of two imaginary warring entities. We'll call them Entity A and Entity B. Entity A:
--Declares that its raison d'etre is to annihilate Entity B.
--Sends missiles to explode in the most populated parts of Entity B in order to kill as many civilians as possible.
--Uses families and individual civilians as human shields to protect its own leaders from attack.
--Tortures and kills domestic political opponents.
--Has no political or religious freedom and has no freedom of speech, press, or assembly, and no independent judiciary.
--Is a theocracy.
--Violently oppresses gays.
--Saturates its education and airwaves with a demonic hatred of Entity B.
--Rated a "6" by Freedom House in its 2013 report on freedom in the world. Seven is the worst possible rating. Entity A ranks 6 in freedom, 6 in civil liberties and 6 political rights.
Entity B:
--Recognizes the right of Entity A to an independent existence.

The Gaza numbers game

UN officials’ emotive statements are entirely disconnected from the legal and moral implications of Israel’s actions.

Anne Herzberg 

Five days into Operation Protective Edge, the out-going UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, issued a statement that the number of casualties in Gaza raises “serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”

In a similar vein, UNWRA Spokesperson Chris Gunness has a running commentary of casualties on his Twitter feed, including the plea to “Imagine being a 5 year old in #Gaza This is the 3rd terrifying bombardment in your short life. Where else have 5 year olds suffered thus?” These numbers and emotional appeals, however, are seriously misplaced.

If many civilians are being killed in Gaza, it is because Hamas is storing and launching deadly missiles from within populated areas and exploiting the population there as a human shield. Conversely, if even one civilian were to be illegitimately targeted, that single killing would be illegal.

Thus, the UN officials’ emotive statements are entirely disconnected from the legal and moral implications of Israel’s actions.

Similarly, many highly politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have issued overwrought statements on Gaza casualties, making unverifiable claims that the vast majority are civilians and blaming Israel again. These comments stand in stark contrast to the sterile, pro-forma and brief mentions of Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, to the extent they are mentioned at all.

Despite rockets, Israeli hospital treating Gazan children

Palestinian families brave sirens, checkpoints for help with heart defects.

By Haaret

A Palestinian girl playing next to her mother a few days after receiving heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon in 2012. Photo by Kobi Kalmanovitz

Dr. Akiva Tamir Photo by Kobi Kalmanovitz

Israeli surgeons repair young Palestinians' hearts

By Reuters | Dec. 7, 2006 | 12:00 AM

Even as Israeli air strikes are taking the lives of Palestinian children during Operation Protective Edge, Israeli doctors in Holon are laboring to save the lives of Palestinian children born with heart defects.
The Walla news website reports that even on the day that the operation launched on Tuesday, seven Palestinian children arrived at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon for treatment. One of the children did not make it into Israel.
"It does not matter what side of the political map you are on," said Dr. Akiva Tamir, head of pediatric cardiology at Wolfson. "The parents of these children want them to live – just like parents [in Israel]."
One of the mothers said that she and her son, Marwan, arrived from Gaza via the Erez Crossing. "When we arrived at the checkpoint, there was suddenly a siren," she said, according to Walla. "They quickly brought us to the bathroom. We hid there until it calmed down, and we continued on our way. Despite it all, I had to arrive. It does not matter what the situation is outside."

The Arab attacks on the light rail in Jerusalem were not spontaneous

Elder of Ziyon

Ten days ago we saw images of Arabs rioting and destroying the light rail system in Jerusalem that served - them.

Arab rioters in Shuafat, the hometown of murdered Arab teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir, launched bombs at three light rail stations over the July 4th holiday weekend and severed the train lines to ensure that the system is beyond repair, according to sources on the ground who toured the city.

Shuafat has been one of the main epicenters of violence and riots in Jerusalem since it was announced that Israeli citizens killed Khdeir in an apparent revenge attack for the recent kidnapping and murder by Hamas of three Jewish teenagers.

Rioters in the city were spotted pulling up pieces of the sidewalk near the rail station and using handheld saws to cut into the rail line, which was completed about three years ago.

Others spray painted violent messages against Israel, including one that read: “Death to Israel,” according to photographs.

Netanyahu finally speaks his mind

At his Friday press conference, the prime minister ruled out full Palestinian sovereignty, derided the US approach to Israeli security, and set out his Middle East overview with unprecedented candor. His remarks were not widely reported; they should be

By David Horovitz

Does Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really support a two-state solution, or is his rhetoric to this effect disingenuous? Did he genuinely seek an accommodation with the Palestinians during the nine months of US-brokered negotiations that collapsed in April, or was he just stringing the Americans and the Palestinians along, while his heart is truly with the settlement enterprise?

These are fundamental questions — questions you’d think Israelis and the watching world would long since have been able to answer, especially given that Netanyahu is Israel’s second-longest serving prime minister ever. In fact, though, while many pundits claim to have definitive answers, most Israelis would acknowledge that they’ve never been entirely sure how Netanyahu sees a potential resolution of the Palestinian conflict, which concessions he’s truly ready to make, what his long-term vision looks like.

But now we know.

The uncertainties were swept aside on Friday afternoon, when the prime minister, for the first time in ages, gave a press conference on Day Four of Operation Protective Edge.

Israel's Iron Dome Is Amazing—and That's a Problem

Peter Coy

Photograph by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo Three Iron Dome rockets explode to intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip by Palestinians militants, as seen from the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, on July 10

Israel’s astonishingly effective Iron Dome air defense has prevented Hamas from killing Israeli Jews and spreading terror in the civilian population. Ironically, though, the better Iron Dome works, the less sympathy the rest of the world has for a nation that remains under rocket attack.

Israel hardly feels like a place under assault from close range. Bars, restaurants, and the Mediterranean beaches are still busy. Businesses are open. Although traffic is lighter than normal, the roads are hardly abandoned. Incoming rockets that would ordinarily wreak havoc are being blown up in the air, causing nothing but a boom, a puff of white smoke, and falling debris. Iron Dome’s success rate hovers around 90 percent. No other system in the world is as effective in shooting down short-range and medium-range rockets.

Defense minister: 'If they want a truce, it will be on our terms'

Reports that Qatar, Egypt are trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas • U.N. Security Council calls for a cease-fire in a press statement • U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel calls Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon to discuss the situation.

Shlomo Cesana, Lilach Shoval, Daniel Siryoti, Eli Leon, Yoni Hirsch and Reuters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | Photo credit: Haim Tzach / GPO

As Operation Protective Edge enters its sixth day, world leaders are upping pressure for a cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization.

Following U.S. President Barack Obama's call for a cease-fire on Thursday, intelligence heads in Turkey and Qatar have also offered to help reach a cease-fire agreement, according to a Channel 2 report.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said, "If they [Hamas] want a truce, it will be on our terms. If not, we will continue to crush them."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has yet to reveal information about possible cease-fire negotiations, however, according to the report, the Israeli government rejected the Turkish offer due to the country's intelligence relationship with Iran, and is still considering the Qatari offer.

An official in Jerusalem responded to the reports, saying that Israel's goal is to restore calm and that "we will achieve calm through either military or diplomatic means."

A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said over the weekend that "there are negotiations. In our experience, there are many different ways to end the violence.

Obama’s ongoing shameful behavior against Israel

Isi Leibler
July 13, 2014
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=5159

We are now reconciled to the fact that in any conflict -- even when we are exercising our right of self-defense -- we will either be condemned or, at best, accused of acting disproportionately.

However, the latest round of hypocrisy by Western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, beats all records.

Despite anger and condemnation from many of his constituents, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, until last week, effectively been acting as a supplicant by virtually pleading for a cease-fire, assuring Hamas that Israel would abide by a new truce. Responding to their missiles with “restraint” and reacting on a tit-for-tat basis, bombing empty sites, Israel dispensed with any pretense of implementing genuine deterrence.

Israel Readies First US Co-Production Order for Iron Dome

By BARBARA OPALL-ROME 

Operation Protective Edge: A missile is launched by an Iron Dome battery on July 11 in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod. Three Gaza rockets were shot down over the Tel Aviv area as Hamas militants claimed they had fired M75 missiles at the Israeli city's airport. (DAVID BUIMOVITCH/ / AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Israel fielded its seventh Iron Dome intercepting battery under fire last week in an operational debut that destroyed five Gaza-launched rockets headed for the nation’s economic and cultural heart of Tel Aviv.
In its escalating campaign against Hamas and other Gaza-based groups, the Israeli-developed and US-funded Iron Dome — with an estimated success rate of 90 percent — is demonstrating game-changing value against asymmetrical threats, Israeli officials say.
The July 10 interception over Tel Aviv by Israel’s newest Iron Dome battery averted strategic tailwind for Hamas, which claimed credit for the attack that could have triggered a full-scale Israeli invasion of Gaza, Israeli sources said.
That critical interception and 100 others scored by Iron Dome since the July 7 start of Operation Protective Edge highlights the “strategic significance” of active defenses in Israel’s battle against more than 10,000 Gaza-based rockets threatening nearly three quarters of the country.