FW: A7News: Video: Syrian Arabs Test IDF at Border, Four Killed
Senior Editor, News From Israel
The War has begun. For Israel to surrender anything to America, would be the biggest mistake ever made. The war is coming, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. You can delay it a bit, as we have done. But you can’t stop it. The surrender of Gaza, just made that war closer. Surrender one inch of Israel, you bring the Arab war on Israel sooner. Surrender one inch, you gain nothing, and you lose it all.
Gabriel
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Sivan 3, 5771 / Sunday, Jun. 05 '11
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Headlines
1. Video: Syrian Arabs Test IDF at Border, Four Killed
2. Netanyahu to France:Thanks but No Thanks on Talks with PA-Hamas
3. Abbas Jumps into French Safety Net, Ready to Talk
4. Hamas, Islamic Jihad Break Unity with Abbas over French Offer
5. John Bolton: US Can Stop PA Initiative by Halting Funds for UN
6. ‘Ofers’ Ships in Iran Carried IDF Choppers for Secret Mission’
7. Obama Inspired Ship to Join IHH Gaza Flotilla
8. Report: US Kills Al-Qaeda's Military Leader - Ilyas Kashmiri
1. Video: Syrian Arabs Test IDF at Border, Four Killed
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
At least four Syrian Arabs were killed by Israeli soldiers after testing Israel’s determination to stop an infiltration, Syrian media reported. It also claimed that several Syrians managed to cross the border towards the Druze city of Majdal Shams.
IDF footage shows Syrian Arabs, several hundred yards north of the border, hurling rocks at Israeli soldiers, who warn them in Arabic to cease and turn back or face gunfire.
Email readers: click HERE and scroll down to see video.
Quiet was maintained on the Israeli side of the border.
Syrian television showed live coverage of the clash, but footage revealed that the planned protests drew only a few hundred people. Approximately 10 people were wounded.
An IDF spokesman said that soldiers warned the Syrian in Arabic to turn back and fired warning shots in the air before firing at them. He added that he could not confirm the Syrian media report that three people were killed.
The spokesman also noted that Syria, unlike Lebanon, did not try to prevent the provocations. Three weeks ago, Syria encouraged protesters to clash with the IDF, as part of an effort to draw attention away from the slaughter of Syrian protesters by security forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
There were no reports of attempts to cross into Israel from Lebanon, whose army has declared its side of the border a closed military zone, as Israel has done on its side.
In Judea and Samaria, several hundred Palestinian Authority Arabs marched to the Kalandia crossing to northern Jerusalem and threw rocks at security officers. Quiet also was reported elsewhere.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet on Sunday morning that “we will not allow extremists” to violate Israel’s borders.
2. Netanyahu to France:Thanks but No Thanks on Talks with PA-Hamas
by Chana Ya'ar
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu thanked France for doing its best to help Israel and the Palestinian Authority reach a final status agreement but said no thanks to talks with a PA government that includes a non-repentant Hamas.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who arrived in Jerusalem on Wednesday, has invited the prime minister and PA officials to attend a Paris peace conference in late June.
PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has accepted the French proposal to attend talks “about President [Barack] Obama's vision... in which he spoke about a [Palestinian] state with the '67 borders with borders with Israel, Egypt and Jordan.”
Netanyahu praised the French foreign minister for his efforts in the service of peace but was not quite so quick to leap into the net. It is impossible to negotiate, much less reach a peace agreement, he reminded, with an entity devoted to the destruction of its “peace partner.”
The proposal comes as a possible face-saving measure for the Palestinian Authority as chances increase that its bid to ask the United Nations to accept its creation as an independent country in September may fizzle.
Speaking at the opening of the government's weekly Sunday cabinet meeting, Netanyahu told the ministers, “We will study the proposal and discuss it with our American friends as well,” Netanyahu said.
However, he said, “We would also like to emphasize and reiterate: Negotiations will not be conducted with a Palestinian [unity] government, half of which is Hamas, a terrorist organization that seeks to destroy Israel. I made it clear to Foreign Minister Juppe that Hamas must adopt the Quartet principles,” Netanyahu said.
“If the claim that there is a new spirit in Hamas is true, then it can find expression in the release of [IDF soldier] Gilad Shalit. If Abu Mazen (PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas) has such good ties with Hamas, he can pressure it to release Gilad. In any case, Hamas is not exempt from meeting the Quartet's conditions,” the Prime Minister added.
Shalit was abducted from an IDF outpost near the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza on June 25, 2006 by operatives from the Gaza-based Hamas, Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and Al Qaeda-linked Army of Islam terrorist organizations. His condition and whereabouts are still unknown.
3. Abbas Jumps into French Safety Net, Ready to Talk
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has accepted a French bid to resume talks with Israel on the ”Obama vision” and throws the diplomatic ball in the courts of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama as the ”UN option” fades.
Abbas said he accepts in principle an offer by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe for "talks about President Obama's vision ...in which he spoke about a (Palestinian) state with the '67 borders with borders with Israel, Egypt and Jordan."
“Neither side would carry out unilateral actions” under the proposal although Juppe admitted he is not overly optimistic. Abbas has made it increasingly clear for more than a year that he will not budge from any of his conditions for establishing the Palestinian Authority as an independent country.
The Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency, closely affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, reported that Abbas and his aides have come to the conclusion that the ploy to establish a state through U.N. recognition is not working. The General Assembly, where the Arab world enjoys a majority, cannot vote on the motion without a prior agreement from the United Nations Security Council, where the United States might veto the proposal of pre-determining PA borders based on the temporary 1949 Armistice Lines that ended with the Six-Day War in 1967.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has not said whether he would accept the French initiative, nor has the United States, which would lose its assumed position of the catalyst for brokering talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The French plan adopts President Obama’s proposal to use the 1949-67 borders as a starting point for negotiations, which is different language for basically the same proposal that the Arab world has rejected for years by placing pre-conditions. Abbas previously has demanded that no talks with Israel be held without a building freeze for Jews in contested areas and an understanding that the 1949 borders are a foregone conclusion.
His sudden about-face by accepting the French offers saves him from taking the blame as the “U.N. option” becomes impractical, but Hamas, now officially a partner in the Palestinian Authority unity government, already has criticized Abbas’ acceptance of the French offer.
Ostensibly, Abbas has jumped down from a high ladder, but he may find himself flat on the ground. Any compromise on his demands, which he has written in stone, would not be acceptable in the Arab world. On the other hand, if he stands on his platform, he will be seen by an increasing skeptical media and American officials as being insincere.
Michael Weiss, Communications Director of the Henry Jackson Society and the spokesperson of Just Journalism that monitors the British media's coverage of Israel and the Middle East, wrote in the London Telegraph last week, “Netanyahu knows as well as Obama that Hamas, which has just been allowed into the Palestinian Authority, will only ever recognize a Jewish state if it’s located at the bottom of the Mediterranean. So any calls for it to reform are merely gestural.”
4. Hamas, Islamic Jihad Break Unity with Abbas over French Offer
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have broken ranks with their new ‘Unity” partner Mahmoud Abbas after he accepted a French offer for talks with Israel.
Abbas, head of the rival Fatah faction and chairman of the Palestinian Authority, said he welcomed the offer of French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe for "talks about President Obama's vision ...in which he spoke about a (Palestinian) state with the '67 borders with borders with Israel, Egypt and Jordan."
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet Sunday morning there can be no negotiations with Abbas so long as Hamas remains a partner in his government. Hamas-Fatah unity is a lynchpin for any diplomatic initiative by Abbas, who cannot claim to represent Gaza without the presence of Hamas, the de facto ruler in the region.
The two rival factions signed a unity deal in Egypt last month after four years of openly bitter relations following the Hamas military coup that ousted Fatah as the ruling force in Gaza.
The new unity pact is seen as more superficial than substantial, as evidence by reactions to Abbas’ acceptance of Juppe’s offer.
Salah al-Bardaweel, a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, told the Chinese news agency Xinhua that Abbas' acceptance "was a hasty step; it is a wrong step and meaningless. It would again bring us to an empty circle of absurd talks that will again hurt the internal Palestinian unity.
"What is needed is that Abbas should immediately stop making unilateral decisions. He should consult with the other political powers and factions if he is really committed to the signed reconciliation agreement.”
Dawood Shihab, spokesman of the Islamic Jihad movement, told Xinhua that resuming talks with Israel "means returning again to the empty circle, to the waste of time and serving Israel's interests."
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s Emad Abu Rahma charged that the French initiative "aims at blocking the Palestinians from applying to the United Nations…. Abbas made a mistake although he knows the final outcomes of resuming such talks with Israel. We call on Abbas to reject these initiatives and stop talking to Israel."
A senior Palestinian Authority official told foreign media that Abbas accepted the French bid because it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Arab League will not succeed in bringing to the United Nations General Assembly a motion to declare the PA as a country based on the non-negotiated borders that it demands.
5. John Bolton: US Can Stop PA Initiative by Halting Funds for UN
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A Congressional law that would stop funding for the United Nations if it recognizes the Palestinian Authority as a state would stop the plan in its tracks, says John Bolton, former American Ambassador to the international body and a possible presidential candidate.
The United Nations is slated to discuss in September an Arab League motion to recognize the Palestinian Authority with borders based on the temporary 1949 Armistice Lines that defined Israel’s territory.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Bolton dismissed the possibility that U.S. President Barack Obama would take such action on his own. He wrote, “Mr. Obama is highly unlikely to do anything so decisive, which is why many in America and Israel remain gravely concerned about this latest Palestinian diplomatic ploy.”
Bolton noted that although U.N. recognition of the Palestinian Authority does not mean it would have membership in the United Nations, “It would nonetheless be a major Palestinian success.”
As far back as 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) issued a "declaration of statehood” and changed the name of its observer delegation to the United Nations from the PLO to Palestine.
“The Palestinians then campaigned to join U.N. bodies like the World Health Organization, reasoning that since U.N. agency charters allow only states as members, the admission of ‘Palestine’ would prove that it, too, was a state,” Bolton explained in his op-ed article.
He noted that at the time, Secretary of State James Baker warned publicly, “I will recommend to the President that the United States make no further contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization which makes any changes in the PLO's status as an observer organization."
Bolton stated, “Although defeating the PLO campaign required further maneuvering, Mr. Baker's statement was the death knell of the ‘statehood’ push.”
After writing that President Obama will not take such action, Bolton turned to Congress, which he said “has a rich history of dealing with U.N. actions it doesn't appreciate. Rather than wait for a Baker-like threat, Congress should legislate broadly that any U.N. action that purports to acknowledge or authorize Palestinian statehood will result in a cutoff of all U.S. contributions to the offending agency….
“Reducing U.S. funding to the U.N. is the next available, highly visible, target of opportunity. It presents the U.N. membership with a fascinating question: Would they rather recognize Palestinian statehood, or keep America's money?"
6. ‘Ofers’ Ships in Iran Carried IDF Choppers for Secret Mission’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The Ofer Brothers ships that reportedly docked in Iran, a basis for U.S. sanctions imposed on their firm, actually were carrying IDF choppers for secret missions that may have included surveillance n Iran’s nuclear sites, the London Times reports.
The ships were allegedly owned by the Ofer Brothers, whose senior member Sammy Ofer died on Friday at the age of 89 and is being buried in Israel Sunday afternoon. He served in the Haganah movement during the British Mandate.
If the Times’ report by Richard Silverstein is true, it would be a severe embarrassment for the U.S. State Department as well as Israeli media and politicians who may have prejudged the Ofer Brothers unfairly. The report also may explain why a Knesset committee suddenly suspended without explanation a special session that was called to investigate the allegations against the Ofer Brothers.
Silverstein wrote that the ships that allegedly docked in Iranian ports may have concealed helicopters in special containers and that Israeli may have used the choppers in secret surveillance on Iran’s nuclear sites.
The original allegations were prompted by State Department sanctions on an Ofer Brothers-linked company that allegedly sold an oil tanker to an Iranian firm, in violation of American sanctions.
A subsequent report in Israeli media charged that another subsidiary of the Ofer Brothers empire docked oil tankers several times at Iranian ports between 2004 and 2010.
7. Obama Inspired Ship to Join IHH Gaza Flotilla
by Gavriel Queenann
A ship flying US colors and carrying 34 passengers is set to joint this year's Gaza-bound, IHH-sponsored “Freedom Flotilla 2” in June, the New York Times reported.
So-called “peace activists” on the first IHH flotilla in May 2010 ambushed Israeli naval commandos who boarded the ship in accordance with international law, attempted to take them captive, and seriously injuring several. The commandos were forced to kill nine aggressors in order to rescue their imperiled comrades.
This year's American vessel, named The Audacity of Hope after US President Barack Obama’s best-selling book, is being organized by an American group called “US Boat to Gaza.”
Obama links to the Audacity do not end there, however. Prof. Rashid Khalidi, director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a friend from Obama’s time in Chicago, is among the supporters of an appeal launched by the group last week.
“We must raise at least $370,000 in the next month,” a statement on US Boat to Gaza’s Web site read indicating it doesn't have the money needed to sail yet.
“These funds will be used to purchase a boat large enough for 40-60 people, secure a crew, and cover the licensing and registering of the boat. Together we will contribute to the great effort to end the blockade of Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestine.”
Khalidi, an outspoken critic of Israel, garnered attention in 2008 when his friendship with Obama became a point of controversy during the US presidential campaign.
Sen. John McCain, Obama’s opponent during the campaign, portrayed Khalidi as a Hamas sympathizer.
Khalidi’s involvement in organizing a US boat for the flotilla project has gained significant attention from conservative bloggers and media personalities in America.
While Khalidi will help raise money for the initiative, he said he does not plan to sail on the ship.
Khalidi wrote in an e-mail over the weekend that while he had not known that Obama’s book would be the inspiration for the ship’s name when he signed on as a sponsor, he does not view it as a potential embarrassment for Obama.
“If the name is a problem for the administration it can simply insist publicly that Israel lift the siege: end of problem, end of embarrassment,” Khalidi wrote in the e-mail .
“That of course would require it to respond to the systematic mendacity of those in Congress and elsewhere who support the siege, and indeed whatever else the Israeli government does,” Khalidi said.
8. Report: US Kills Al-Qaeda's Military Leader - Ilyas Kashmiri
by Gavriel Queenann
After eliminating Osama bin Laden, the United States scored another major victory in the war on global jihad Friday with the targeting killing of Muhommad Ilyas Kashmiri.
Kashmiri, one of al-Qaida's most active leaders and billed as a possible succesor to Bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region according to locals, officials and a spokesman of the dreaded "313 Brigade.'"
While it is always difficult for journalists to confirm reports in Pakistan's volatile tribal areas that are no-go areas, information pouring in from Pakistani spies and tribal journalists indicate that the one-eyed Kashmiri is indeed dead.
On Saturday, Abu Hanzallah, identifying himself as a spokesman for the '313 Brigade', a unit of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al- Islami (HuJI), faxed a letter to media organizations confirming Kashmiri's death in a drone strike on Friday. He mentioned in the message that Kashmiri's death would be avenged.
Last week, during her visit to Pakistan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton singled out Kashmiri as one of the top five al-Qaida and Taliban leaders.
A former officer of Pakistan military's special services group (SSG), Ilyas Kashmiri is believed to have carried out several terrorist attacks in India and Pakistan, including the one on Pakistan's naval air station (PNS) Mehran in Karachi on May 22. His '313 Brigade' is suspected of perpetrating several high-profile operations, including the terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008, in which 166 people were killed. Among the vicitms were Rabbi Gavriel Holzberg and his wife Rivka at the Mumbai Chabad house.
The '313 Brigade' specializes in coordinated, organized simultaneous attacks on targeted places. Kashmiri merged his terrorist outfit into the ranks of al-Qaeda but maintained a separate identity for his group as well.
Kashmiri was also said to be the operational head of al-Qaeda. The United States blamed him for organizing brazen attacks inside Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Washington offered $5 million for any information that would locate the renegade Pakistani military official.
On Friday, two drone strikes targeted compounds near Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan. Later some militants operating in the region claimed that Kashmiri was killed in one of the strikes. The attack came one day after fighting between terrorist insurgents from Afghanistan and Pakistani soldiers resulted in 58 deaths in the same region.
Kashmiri's death has previously been mis-reported. In 2009, Pakistani intelligence and U.S. officials pronounced him dead in a drone attack. The CIA called it a great success in the war on terror. But those reports proved wrong when Kashmiri was interviewed by Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad in North Waziristan.
Kashmiri's death will be a serious blow to Islamist terror outfits after the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden on May 2 in a covert US operation in Pakistan's Abbottabad town.
Ilyas Kashmiri, 47, had a long history of terrorist activity. Like Mullah Omer, he also lost one eye fighting the former USSR forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Later, while working with Kashmiri terrorists against India, he became famous with the Pakistani military establishment for escaping from an Indian jail where he was detained.
Pakistan's former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, banned his HuJI in 2002. Kashmiri was subsequently arrested in connection with an assassination attempt on Musharraf, but was released due to lack of evidence.
Kashmiri was born in 1964 in Bimbur (old Mirpur) of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1964. He got a degree in mass communication from Islamabad's Allama Iqbal Open University. However, during student life, he had strong affiliations with jihadi outfits. His first exposure into the field of terrorism was through the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation front (JKLF).
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