Shimshon 9

This I found on IsraeliGirl, I usually do not watch CNN because of it’s usually biased reports, but this video gives an interesting and rare glimpse into the workings of a terrorist group:

This Video also shows that Hamas is not exactly observing the Truce with Israel.

Arutz 7 reports that:

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Gaza warned Thursday that the temporary ceasefire may end in three weeks, when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins. The month is frequently marked by an increase in terrorism.

This is what a PRC spokesman is saying:

“The Zionist occupation has not yet agreed to the demand to release our prisoners, so our fighters are preparing for the next round in which we will try to abduct more Israeli soldiers to swap them for our hero prisoners”

Only talks? No, see what an Islamic Jihad leader has to say:

Al-Quds Brigades is currently preparing the combatants and stabilize their military and field, development of internal communications among themselves, to carry out military operations successfully.

“There is a large number of martyrs and martyrs who are waiting for the zero hour.”

Looks like we are soon getting into an other round of hostilities. Scary is that not Israel is determining the path of action, but the enemy!

Meanwhile Maan News is reporting that Israel has agreed to support the efforts of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the United States aimed at strengthening Palestinian security forces. Meaning more weapons to the Palestinians!

The Palestinian Maan News Agency reports that Masked men attacked the Ibad Ar-Rahman tourist village in to the north of Gaza City, setting fire to the village, stealing property, and handcuffing and beating security guards on Wednesday.

The Director  of the facility said:

“the village was established two months ago for entertainment of students and their families along to teachers and workers of the school during the summer vacation”.

Was this maybe on of those Gaza summer camps? Are maybe some parents not willing anymore that their children get educated to become martyrs?

Hamas Spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said that:

“Barak’s declarations show that the Israeli government failed to cope with Hamas and the Palestinian resistance’s steadfastness, and they also failed because the Palestinian people supports the resistance.” (from Maan News)

Further he added:

“Barak and his fruitless government do not know that if they commit such follies, they will pay a heavy price. Violence, cruelty and terrorism can’t provide occupation with safety and security.”

Now we reached the point that they are laughing at us.

Gunfire and explosions shook Gaza City on Saturday as Hamas forces battled fighters in a tribal stronghold where suspects in a deadly bombing were allegedly hiding. (Maan News)

Why do Hamas and Fatah kill each other? Why do Iraqis commit mass murder upon their fellow citizens? Why do the Lebanese shoot and blow each other up (Sunnis, Shiites, Alawaits — you name it). Why have they all repeatedly tried to exterminate Israel? Its not because of ideology. It`s because they have the weapons, that`s why.

This rare video shows masked gunmen of the Popular Resistance Committees building and stockpiling rockets, then later militants from the Gaza Qassam Brigades in field combat exercises firing shoulder-fired rockets and live ammunition.

See Video

Hamas militias in the Gaza Strip has banned three major Palestinian dailies.

The Palestinian Journalists Union in the West Bank said Hamas militias in Gaza prevented the three newspapers, al-Quds, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat
al-Jadida, from being distributed after they arrived in the besieged Strip.

Hamas gangs stormed on Saturday the offices of WAFA news Agency in Gaza, stole computers and files and destroyed all of its equipment and furniture. (WAFA)

Palestinian Authority’s security services on Monday morning arrested more than 54 Hamas’ affiliates in Nablus in the northern West Bank, in what is believed to be the biggest apprehension campaign since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. (Maan News)

Looks like the Fatah is retaliating…

Hamas arrests 120 Fatah men after 6 die in Gaza blast (Haaretz).

Palestinians? Who are you? Are you from this planet or aliens?

what is wrong with you? You are doomed, doomed. you will never ever manage to have your own state, just look at you. You are the laughing stock of the entire world. We here are shaking our heads and even those that are anti Israel are sick and tired of your stupidity and antics.

So, if you can’t kill israelis, you end up killing yourselves. Amazing. Do you know how to do anything except hate, kill, fight, terrorise, build bombs, pray, do nothing with your lives, etc…?

Diskin says Hamas using truce to plant mines in Gaza Shin Bet chief tells Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Palestinian group has missiles which can reach Kiryat Gat, Ashdod; adds he
opposes Barghouti’s release.

The Tunnel Business is booming so following some facts:

• Rafah straddles the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. It is divided by an 18ft metal wall that stretches more than 2km (1.2 miles)

• An estimated 40,000 people live on the Egyptian side of Rafah, and 150,000 on the Gaza side

• Tunnels have been used to smuggle goods, weapons and people across the border at Rafah since the early 1990s

• As deep as 20 metres, most have ventilation shafts every 200 metres or so, and engineers can dig an estimated 15 metres a day, using a compass to set the direction

• They are dug from the basements of homes along a 9km stretch of the border

• Having a person smuggled across costs about £1,000, A sack of items about £150

• Since January 2003, the tunnels have been used to smuggle large amounts of various types of weapons into the Gaza Strip, including dozens of RPG rockets and launchers, hundreds of kilograms of explosives, hundreds of rifles (mainly Kalashnikov AK47s) and tens of thousands of bullets, cartridges and other types of ammunition

The government has admitted that it is allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to be transferred to Hamas in Gaza, the watchdog organization Shurat Hadin charged on Thursday. (JP)

In the Middle Ages and other dark periods of Jewish history, scattered Jewish communities  sometimes had to buy their security by taxes or by other payments to the masters of the place. One of the main aims of Zionism was to leave the Jews resident status of a “provider” to make then free and independent, so they didn’t need to curb to its enemies.

Paying money to the Hamas shows that the Israeli leaders are not yet out of the condition of the Jewish Diaspora.

Proponents of an Israeli-Palestinian accord are praising the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect this morning. Yet even if the agreement suspends violence temporarily — though dozens of Hamas rockets struck Israel yesterday — it represents a historic accomplishment for the jihadist forces most opposed to peace, and defeat for the Palestinians who might still have been Israel’s partners.

The roots of this tragedy go back to the summer of 2005 and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The evacuation, intended to free Israel of Gaza’s political and strategic burden, was hailed as a victory by Palestinian terrorist groups, above all Hamas.

Hamas proceeded to fire some 1,000 rocket and mortar shells into Israel. Six months later Hamas gunmen, taking advantage of an earlier cease-fire, infiltrated into Israel, killed two soldiers, and captured Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Hamas’s audacity spurred Hezbollah to mount a similar ambush against Israelis patrolling the Lebanese border, triggering a war in which Israel was once again humbled. Hamas now felt sufficiently emboldened to overthrow Gaza’s Fatah-led government, and to declare itself regnant in the Strip. Subsequently, Hamas launched thousands more rocket and mortar salvos against Israel, rendering parts of the country nearly uninhabitable.

In response, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) air strikes and limited ground incursions killed hundreds of armed Palestinians in Gaza, and Israel earned international censure for collateral civilian deaths and “disproportionate” tactics. Israel also imposed a land and sea blockade of Gaza, strictly controlling its supply of vital commodities such as a gasoline. But the policy enabled Hamas to hoard the fuel and declare a humanitarian crisis.

Israel never mounted the rolling, multi-month operation that the IDF had planned. Traumatized by his abortive performance in the Lebanon War, hobbled by financial scandals, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert balked at a military engagement liable to result in incalculable casualties and United Nations condemnations, but unlikely to halt Hamas aggression.

Like Hezbollah in 2006, Hamas won because it did not lose. Its leaders still walked Gaza’s streets freely while children in Sderot and other Israeli border towns cowered in bomb shelters. Like Hezbollah, which recently wrested unprecedented powers from the Lebanese parliament, Hamas parlayed its military success into political capital.

The European Parliament demanded the immediate lifting of the Gaza blockade, and France initiated secret contacts with Hamas officials. A minister from the Israeli Labor Party, Ami Ayalon, went a step further by calling for Hamas’s inclusion in peace talks — a recommendation soon echoed by Jimmy Carter and the New York Times.

The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire yields Hamas greater benefits than it might have obtained in direct negotiations. In exchange for giving its word to halt rocket attacks and weapons smuggling, Hamas receives the right to monitor the main border crossings into Gaza and to enforce a truce in the West Bank, where Fatah retains formal control.

If quiet is maintained, then Israel will be required to accept a cease-fire in the West Bank as well. The blockade will be incrementally lifted while Cpl. Shalit remains in captivity. Hamas can regroup and rearm.

The Olmert government will have to go vast lengths to portray this arrangement as anything other than a strategic and moral defeat. Hamas initiated a vicious war against Israel, destroyed and disrupted myriad Israeli lives, and has been rewarded with economic salvation and international prestige.

Tellingly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who once declared Hamas illegal, will soon travel to Gaza for reconciliation talks. Mr. Abbas’s move signifies the degree to which Hamas, with Israel’s help, now dominates Palestinian politics. It testifies, moreover, to another Iranian triumph.

As the primary sponsor of Hamas, Iran is the cease-fire’s ultimate beneficiary. Having already surrounded Israel on three of its borders — Gaza, Lebanon, Syria — Iran is poised to penetrate the West Bank. By activating these fronts, Tehran can divert attention from its nuclear program and block any diplomatic effort.

The advocates of peace between Israelis and Palestinians should recognize that fact when applauding quiet at any price. The cost of this truce may well be war.

Wall Street Journal - June 19, 2008

Polls: Public supports large military operation over ceasefire 44%:33%;
Labor-Likud government 53%:35%

It may not be only Ehud Olmert who is so busy worrying about his legal problems that he does not have enough time to address Israel’s urgent security issues. Many Israeli citizens, except of course residents of the South, are probably also completely engrossed in studying the details of the current investigations and have little time left to worry about what really needs to be worried about - the ongoing war in the South. One can only hope that the Israel Defense Forces and its commander, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, are continuing to take seriously the awesome responsibility with which they are charged - assuring the safety of the people of Israel.