RUTHFULLY YOURS

While the world is focused on the horrendous terrorist attacks carried out by the Islamic State group and on the international campaign being waged against the organization in Iraq and Syria, the IDF is maintaining two intensive sectors opposite the group, in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.

The majority of operations in both sectors is clandestine and is held as part of the IDF’s doctrine of the “campaign between the wars,” a title that encompasses a host of covert and low-intensity military and intelligence efforts to prevent enemy states and terrorist organizations from becoming stronger and thwart their offensive activity. Arab media reports about drone strikes in Sinai or the elimination of terrorist operatives on the Golan Heights usually receive only a casual mention, if that, in the Israeli and international media. The reason for that is simple: Barring a terrorist attack, there’s only minor media interest.

Keeping things on the down low involves intensive operational and intelligence activity seeking to ensure that Israel does not find itself in Islamic State’s crosshairs. The reason that the IDF has, until now, preferred to spare the public the details of its operations in these two sectors is two-pronged: the natural clandestine nature of things and the desire to keep a low profile vis-a-vis ISIS.

While the balance of power in the two sectors is clear to all, Israel has no interest in seeing ISIS operatives in Sinai or the Golan Heights train their sights on its territory. The fact that Wilayat Sinai‎, Islamic State’s proxy in the south, and the Khalid ibn al-Walid Army, an ISIS-affiliate group based in the Syrian Golan Heights, are engaged in internal wars rather than fighting us, is very convenient for Israel.

This week, the IDF gave Israel Hayom an exclusive glimpse into the intensive, nightly counterterrorism operation against ISIS on the northern border, which aims to foil threats and ensure that the civil war raging in Syria and the parallel battles taking place in Sinai do not spill over into Israel.

No-man’s-land no more

The security fence in the southern part of the Golan Heights does not overlap with the border. For operational and topographical reasons, the IDF chose to place it in dominant areas across the ridgeline rather than adhering to the border itself. As a result, small “no-man’s-land” enclaves were formed between the border and the security fence. These enclaves — stretching up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) deep in some areas and merely dozens of meters in others — are separated from Israel by the security fence, but nothing separates them from enemy territory.

In the summer of 2006, Hezbollah used one of those enclaves, which the IDF refrains from operating in so not to risk breaching Lebanese territory, to abduct IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, triggering the Second Lebanon War. As part of the war’s lessons, the IDF decided to no longer leave the enclaves be, and then-GOC Northern Command Gadi Eizenkot ordered intensive activity in all of them, up to the very last inch.

The rationale was political — preserving Israel’s sovereignty over the entire territory; operational — removing the threat; and also psychological — shifting the balance of power back in the IDF’s favor by again positioning it as the party taking operational initiative.

The Palestinian population is not some hapless victim of the terror groups, but the very crucible from which they emerged

Congress is finally considering legislation to stop the Palestinian Authority from incentivizing violence…This has to stop, and the Taylor Force Act…attempts to do that. As it currently stands, the act would cut U.S. foreign assistance to the West Bank and Gaza in its entirety if the “payments for acts of terrorism against United States and Israeli citizens …do not stop…. There should definitely be no ‘pay to slay’, but…[b]eing smart counts for more than being right. And the smart approach is one that also recognizes that innocent Palestinians…should not be forced to pay for the mistakes of a government they cannot control. – David Makovsky et al“The Smart Way to End ‘Pay to Slay’”, Foreign Policy, August 2, 2017.

Lesley Stahl, on CBS’s 60 Minutes on the effects of US led sanctions against Iraq (May 12, 1996): We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”

Madelaine Albright, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , subsequently President Clinton’s Secretary of State: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.

Recently, three members of the well-known think-tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, posted an article on the new legislative initiative, named the Taylor Force Act after the West Point graduate and veteran, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Israel last year.

Appropriate and imperative

The proposed bill, which was recently passed in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support, is designed to stop American financial aid to the Palestinian Authority [PA] until it ceases its generous payments to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to the families of deceased terrorists.

Perversely, under the prevailing conditions, the more gruesome the act of terror and the longer the sentence imposed on the perpetrator, the greater the remuneration!

Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal points out, under existing circumstances, “U.S. aid becomes a transfer payment for terrorists”.

This is clearly an unconscionable situation and hence legislation to contend with it, and correct it, was not only appropriate, but imperative.

The need for a punitive response to the egregious “pay for slay” custom of the PA was conceded by the previously mentioned Washington Institute article, entitled “The Smart Way to End ‘Pay to Slay’”.

Penned by David Makovsky, distinguished fellow and director of the project on the Middle East Peace Process, veteran diplomat Dennis Ross, distinguished fellow and counsellor on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship, and Lia Weiner, a research assistant, it clearly proclaims “There should definitely be no ‘pay to slay’… This has to stop.”

“…the ‘mistakes’ of a government they cannot control”.

However, it cautions against an across-the-board cessation of US funds to the PA, calling for a more nuanced (read “watered-down”) application of the punitive cuts:“Threats of sweeping cuts to Palestinian aid may hurt the cause more than they help.”They warn that “To entirely defund U.S. aid to the West Bank and Gaza is…to halt economic and social progress there”, proposing instead an approach that “recognizes that innocent Palestinians…should not be forced to pay for the mistakes of a government they cannot control”.

But making the innocent members of the population pay for the nefarious deeds of governments they “cannot control” has been the hall mark of American policy across the globe for years—even when those governments have been far more tyrannical than the PA.

‘Precision-guided missile factories” are being built in Lebanon and Syria, and unless the UN stops them, Israel will.

That, more or less, was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s message to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Jerusalem on Monday.

The new UN chief vowed to “do everything in my capacity to make sure that the [UN Interim Force in Lebanon] fully meets its mandate.” UNIFIL, established after Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah in south Lebanon, was charged with disarming Hezbollah. It didn’t.

The UN Security Council is set to renew UNIFIL’s mandate Wednesday. It automatically does so each year, even as Hezbollah, no longer a ragtag organization, now commands a formidable Lebanese-based army that dominates vast swaths in Syria, with tentacles in Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere. All while UN forces look on.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah has amassed over 100,000 missiles and other arms, hidden in plain view at private homes, or under schools and infirmaries, ready to hit neighboring Israel. And as Bibi noted Monday, new factories in Lebanon and Syria would allow Hezbollah to manufacture missiles there, rather than risk losing them en route from Hezbollah’s patron, Iran.

“This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN should not accept,” the prime minister told Guterres.

Well, when Israeli leaders say they won’t “accept” something, they usually mean it — the country sets red lines and enforces them. But the UN? Could it actually help prevent a looming war? Not with its current blasé attitude.

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley wants change. On Friday, she told reporters that UNIFIL commander Maj. Gen. Michael Beary of Ireland is the “only person in south Lebanon who is blind” to Hezbollah’s arming. In an unprecedented personal rebuke, Haley added, “That’s an embarrassing lack of understanding on what’s going on around him.”

Haley said she wouldn’t accept an automatic renewal of the force’s mandate, demanding “more robust” action on Hezbollah’s arms.

Is that realistic?

A tiny country surrounded by implacable enemies and an international hate machine in the media and the academies contributes more to the welfare of the entire world than any single nation in the hostile and hypocritical European nation….amazing indeed! Thanks to my e-pal Michael Ordman for compiling this weekly list….rsk
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Detecting cancer early via hyper-MRI. Researchers at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center have made a breakthrough in non-invasive scanning. Using high-power MRI imaging they illuminate nuclei of Phosphorus atoms in body tissues. It reveals tissue pH (acidity) levels that can indicate the early formation of tumors.
http://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/A-Hadassah-hospital-world-first-503372

Cause of rare children’s disease discovered. Dr Orly Elpeleg of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center has identified the genetic mutation responsible for a rare and devastating pediatric neurological disease that has baffled doctors for years. Discovery of the DNA flaw can help early diagnosis and treatment development.
http://nocamels.com/2017/08/rare-children-disease-gene-mutation

A bracelet to monitor vital signs. Israel’s BiPS Health is developing a medical bracelet that constantly monitors blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), respiration rate and heart rate. The bracelet incorporates two short inflatable finger cuffs with sensors. It will benefit both nurses and patients.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-looks-to-develop-blood-pressure-wrist-monitor/

Preventing kidney damage during surgery. Israel-founded biotech Quark has announced success in a Phase II trial of its treatment for preventing kidney damage during open-heart surgery. 300,000 such operations are performed annually in the US alone. Quark is now in Phase III trials to use the treatment in kidney transplants.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-quark-reports-positive-kidney-treatment-trial-1001199311

Brain center dedicated. I reported previously (Mar 2013) on the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Brain Sciences Center. Construction is now complete and the $58 million building, scheduled to open in October. Another $92 million has been allocated for future research projects.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hebrew-university-to-dedicate-new-brain-research-center/

Emergency medical training for Gap Year students. Thanks to United Hatzalah, Israel gap year students can now participate in Israel’s first officially recognized NREMT (national registry for emergency medical technicians) program – the most recognized accreditation for medical first responders in the United States.
https://israelrescue.org/campaigns/NREMT

First transplant using lab-grown bone. Medical history was made at Emek Medical Center in Afula when semi-liquid live human bone tissue grown in a lab from a 40-year-old patient’s own fat cells was transplanted into the patient’s arm by injection. The early-stage trial used technology by Israel’s Bonus Bio (see here)
https://www.israel21c.org/in-world-first-israeli-man-gets-lab-grown-bone-tissue-injected-in-arm/

More innovative Israeli bandages. (TY Hazel) Israeli border police medics have been testing Israeli-made Woundclot bandages that clot the blood fast (even on stomach and artery wounds) and then dissolve in a week.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=44695
Also, Dr Amir Bakar (co-founder of Israeli startup Nurami) explained his post-brain-surgery patches on ILTV. https://www.youtube.com/embed/i6_hK0SUyBw?rel=0 (See also 5th Feb newsletter)

“Why Gaza does not have bomb shelter[s]? Hamas took control of Gaza Strip in 2005 following Israeli withdrawal. However, hostilities never ended… Had Hamas built bomb shelters, the causalities would have been reduced. It seems Hamas does not pay much attention to the number of dead Palestinians.” — Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, journalist, Arab News, 2014.

Israeli soldiers do not set out to kill Palestinian children. Palestinian terrorists, however, knowingly and with malice aforethought, shoot, blow up, and slit the throats of Israeli children. You come from a Christian community, yet you appear to show compassion only for Palestinian children. If you do have feelings for Jewish children, I have never heard you say so.

Israeli children are never taught to hate and kill Palestinians. Their schools inculcate peace-making and the Jewish ethic of tikkun olam, “repairing the world,” making it a better place. No international body has ever shown otherwise. But there is a vast body of evidence showing that Palestinian teachers and leaders do the exact opposite. British and other foreign aid money paid to the Palestinian Authority goes “into Palestinian schools named after mass murderers and Islamist militants, which openly promote terrorism and encourage pupils to see child killers as role models.”

You have close connections to the Palestinian people and ought to have influence on them, to preach a Christian message of love and brotherhood. Are you willing to tackle them on their destructive use of children as cannon fodder and their educational system that turns little boys and girls into Jew-hating fanatics? Will you have the humility to apologize to the Jews of Israel for your unjustified accusations, to speak with them, to meet senior officers in their military, and to learn at first-hand how they work for eventual peace, however many times their efforts to bring it are thwarted by Palestinian rejection? I think you owe them that.

The Iona Community, about which I have written here before, is an ecumenical Christian fellowship in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, but its main activities take place on the island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides, which is seen as a place for spiritual retreats. It has an international reputation for preaching love, a spiritual vocation, and fellowship among Christians. To me however it is also deeply anti-Semitic through its extreme hatred for the state of Israel and its one-sided support of the Palestinian narrative – according to the definitions of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the US State Department.

The Abbey of the Iona Community, on the island of Iona, Scotland. (Image source: Akela NDE/Wikimedia Commons)

Earlier this year, Sammy Stein, chairman of Glasgow Friends of Israel, complained to the group about remarks made at a meeting addressed by Iona’s Leader-Elect, Dr. Michael Marten. Marten had argued[1] more than once that Israeli soldiers routinely and deliberately shoot Palestinian children, while knowing that they are children. In a reply[2] to Mr. Stein, Marten and the Reverend Peter Macdonald, the community leader, asserted that Marten’s statement had been true, and tried to back up their vilification by referencing a number of media and UN reports, including anti-Israel NGOs such as B’Tselem and Electric Intifada. I was asked to respond to their diatribe; the result is the letter below. Will Macdonald and Marten, take in what it says and find a more honest way to express Christian concern, not just for the children of Gaza and the West Bank, but for Jewish children murdered in their beds and at school by Palestinian terrorists?

Dear Rev. Macdonald and Dr. Marten,

Earlier this year, you co-signed a letter to Mr Sammy Stein, Chairman of Glasgow Friends of Israel, in which you cited sources and made statements regarding the belief that “Israeli military forces routinely attack children”, regularly shooting and killing them. Mr Stein has asked me to respond to your letter, which I believe to be anti-Semitic under the most widely accepted definition of the term, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Definition, signed by and accepted by 32 countries, including the UK and the European Parliament, and therefore having force in the jurisdiction in which you live and act. I am not Jewish, but for most of a long life I have defended Israel as the only safe haven for Jews and Middle East Christians, faced on all sides by violent enemies and by the rapid recrudescence of vicious anti-Semitism across Europe as well as a centuries-old hatred of Jews across the Islamic world.

I would ask you not to make a knee-jerk dismissal of my arguments before you come to them, and I ask you to reflect on what I have to say and to pray about it. For I hope to show how far you stand as Christians from a fair, honest, and compassionate understanding of the sufferings endured by the people of Israel, whether they be Jews, Muslims or Christians. I say that because Israel is quite literally the only country in the Middle East and far beyond that provides freedom of religion and equal rights for all its citizens. As a former lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies, a Middle East historian, and the holder of a doctorate in Iranian Studies, I make that statement in the firm understanding that it is true.

It is hard to feel sorry for Lebanese-Swede Amanda Hanna, who was stripped ‎of her Miss Lebanon Emigrant 2017 title this week — some nine days after ‎being crowned in the annual expat beauty pageant — when it was discovered ‎that she had visited Israel last year as part of an academic tour.‎

Hanna, who expressed her gratitude on Facebook at having won the August 12 ‎finals, was declared unfit to fill the role of best-looking Lebanese expat in a ‎statement released by the organizers of the event, held in Dhour El Choueir. ‎‎”After communicating our decision with Lebanon’s minister of tourism,” the ‎communique read, “he decided that Hanna should be stripped of her title ‎because her visit to Israel violates our country’s laws.” ‎

Hanna should have known this was going to happen, and not only because ‎Lebanon is the Jewish state’s sworn enemy. Indeed, had she done her ‎homework, she would have learned that any contact with Israelis in Lebanon is ‎punishable by imprisonment. She also might have discovered that the movie ‎‎”Wonder Woman” was banned from its theaters because it stars Israeli actress ‎Gal Gadot. A simple Google search, too, would have revealed that Miss ‎Lebanon Saly Greige came under heavy fire two and half years ago for ‎appearing in a selfie with Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, during the Miss ‎Universe pageant in Miami. After Matalon posted the photo (of herself with ‎Miss Slovenia, Miss Japan and Greige) on Instagram, Greige was criticized ‎widely in her country for being a traitor. To defend herself against the ‎accusations, Greige said that she had been taking a photo with Miss Slovenia ‎and Miss Japan, when suddenly “Miss Israel jumped in.” ‎

It is not Hanna’s fault that Lebanon is one large base for the Shiite terrorist ‎organization Hezbollah. But it was her choice to participate in an event ‎sponsored by the powers-that-be in Beirut, who are not only evil in and of ‎themselves, but who enjoy warm relations with the regime in Tehran.‎

This makes perfect sense to anyone who has been paying attention, since ‎Hezbollah is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s proxy in Lebanon. Furthermore, ‎Lebanese President Michel Aoun and his government, headed by Prime ‎Minister Saad Hariri, are openly pro-Hezbollah. In fact, Aoun met with Iranian ‎Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari ‎on Monday morning at the Baabda Palace in Beirut, and received an invitation ‎from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for an official visit to Tehran for the ‎purpose of enhancing their relationship. ‎

Iran’s burgeoning position next door to Lebanon, in Syria, was the focus of ‎Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Russia this week. In a meeting with Russian ‎President Vladimir Putin at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday, ‎Netanyahu warned that he would take military action, if necessary, to prevent ‎Tehran from expanding its presence in Syria. Like Lebanon, Syria borders ‎Israel in the north. Hezbollah fighters, Shiite militias and Iranian Revolutionary ‎Guard Corps soldiers, who joined forces to safeguard the regime of Syrian ‎President Bashar Assad against Islamic State and other Sunni rebels — all of ‎whom also promote jihad against the Jews — pose a grave danger to the Jewish ‎state.‎

‎”We cannot forget for a single minute that Iran threatens every day to ‎annihilate Israel,” Netanyahu told Putin, who has been supporting Assad and ‎his Tehran-backed allies since 2015. “Israel opposes Iran’s continued ‎entrenchment in Syria. We will be sure to defend ourselves with all means ‎against this and any threat.”‎

TEL AVIV—White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and other U.S. officials on Thursday met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the final leg of a Middle East diplomacy tour, as President Donald Trump attempts to revive dormant peace talks between the adversaries.

Mr. Kushner, who is also the president’s son-in-law, spoke first with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem before sitting down with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

The White House had indicated that it would present a strategy for negotiated peace to both sides Thursday. But details of such a plan weren’t immediately released following the meetings. Mr. Trump has made reaching peace between Israelis and Palestinians a key foreign policy priority, calling it the “ultimate deal.”

A brief statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office called their meeting “constructive and substantive,” and expressed his appreciation to the Trump administration for its “strong support of Israel.” The Israeli leader looked forward to talking further with U.S. officials in the weeks ahead, it added.

“Things are difficult and complicated,” Mr. Abbas said in a statement released as he met with Mr. Kushner. “But nothing is impossible in the face of good efforts.”

Mr. Kushner was joined on the trip by Jason Greenblatt, the White House’s special representative for international negotiations, and Dina Powell, the deputy national security adviser. The group also met with officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan to discuss the peace process. It was unclear when the delegation would leave Israel.

Mr. Trump’s attempts to advance peace talks are unlikely to yield progress in the short term, according to Western diplomats and analysts.

Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition government is reluctant to agree to enter negotiations for a Palestinian state that right-wing hawks believe will risk Israel’s security.

Palestinian officials, meanwhile, aren’t willing to enter peace talks that don’t entertain the notion of statehood.

“There are likely to be a lot of ups and downs on the way to peace and making a peace deal will take time,” a White House official said ahead of Thursday’s meetings.

Mr. Trump has shifted from the long-held U.S. policy of supporting a two-state solution to the conflict, saying he would instead support a solution on which both Israelis and Palestinians agree. CONTINUE AT SITE