Speaking after a gathering of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, a senior Intelligence Branch officer announced Monday afternoon that the IDF had knowledge that kidnapped soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit was being held by Hamas' military wing.
"We know that the soldier is alive and wounded, but we don't know where he is. It's in their interest to keep him alive. He is being held by Hamas' military wing, Izzadin el-Kassam," said the officer. "World leaders have told Abu Mazen to return the soldier," he said. "Their goal was to kidnap a soldier, take him to Gaza, present him in a press conference and demand prisoners. But they know the situation has changed because of the international pressure.
"There is a dispute between Hamas' military wing, led by Khaled Mashaal, and the government, headed by [Palestinian Authority Prime Minister] Ismail Haniyeh. The latter views the situation as a political burden (he called it a hot potato) that has to be solved as soon as possible, while Mashaal believes Hamas should demand prisoners in exchange for Shalit. They are holding a dialougue," he continued. "Abu Mazen and Haniya are taking us seriously and understand our message that if the soldier is not returned, Israel will return to Gaza. They are preparing in the case we come by placing mines and pillboxes," he said.
Currently, efforts to locate Shalit and bring him back home are concentrated on intelligence gathering and diplomacy. Preparing for a possible incursion of Gaza, the IDF is also amassing troops and heavy equipment (tanks, APCs, bulldozers) on the border. According to the officer, "Hizbullah is getting ready on the northern border in case Israel enters Gaza and they would want to open a second front. We are ready to.
If this were any other country than Israel; the world would be saying “just cause” as the troops steam rolled across the Gaza Strip border, instead, the EU and her allies urge the Israeli governments to show restraint.
2 comments:
Last Amazon: You should be studying more Realpolitik, reading more Bismarck and Castiglione. Then some of these mysteries would be revealed to you.
In the eyes of the europeans, it is better that this conflict be fought in the sands of Sinai with Israeli blood than if it migrates up to Paris and Berlin. This is an old European war tactic: Let's you and him fight.
If Israel marches into Gaza, surely there will be a second front in the North with Hezbullah. But what of a third front in the high rises around Paris, Lyons, and Marsellies? Will the Turks rise in Berlin? And when the religion of peace does its 'Watts riots' schtick across Europe, will there not be a backlash of support for the real Nazis who are gathering out of the shadows like the armies of Sauron.
There is alot at stake here. Perhaps you could bring in the reports of chemical weapons that the Palestinans have. Maybe they have a Mustard Gas susprise for the Israeli's. Maybe they think they can win.
I enjoy your analysis and would appreciate your views on the subjects raised.
I, Fenris Badwulf, wrote this.
So much to say, where to begin?
Firstly, I don’t believe that the Europeans want the battle to be fought in Eretz Israel in order for the Europeans to be spared fighting in the streets of Paris, Berlin or Stockholm. Anti-Semitism has long been engrained in the European psyche. Barbara Tuchman touched on it on her work in A Distant Mirror detailing life in 14th Century Europe. During the first black plague the Jews of the Rhinelands were blamed and rounded up in their temples with the doors and windows nailed shut and then were put to the flame. Six centuries later the Rhine peoples had progressed to using gas, ovens and fully utilized the modern assembly line process to rid the world once again of the “Jewish” plague.
The UN vote for the creation of the Jewish state was only carried by the majority of European countries so that they would not have to re-absorb large influxes of returning Jewish refugees/nationals, and if the Arabs wiped them out…c’est la vie – they tried.
It should be remembered that very little help came to the Jews from European countries in the period 1948-1949 while the Arab armies received much support to little avail. The UN only attempted serious ceasefire negotiations once the Jews, against all odds, were gaining the upper hand. Think Yom Kippur War in the Sinai when Sharon had the entire 3rd Army of the Egyptians surrounded and routed. The road to Cairo was not only clear but the IAF ruled the skies over Egypt.
If anything, I believe that most Europeans long for the destruction of the Jewish state and have done everything in their power to see that this conflict goes on indefinitely in the hopes that the day will dawn when the Arabs will win by attrition since they cannot win by ability. Six days, bitch.
At every pivotal moment of the modern state of Israel’s history either the Europeans or the Americans have thwarted the Israeli victories.
Even today, the Europeans are asking the Israelis to hold back. One needs to ask why? Out of love or concern for the Palestinian people? Please, what the UN members fear most is a victorious and triumphant Israel. The Jewish state was founded on the backs of the people no one wanted and has absolutely flourished. Even now Israeli scientists have made astounding discoveries on not only an Aids vaccine but a potential vaccine for Alzheimer’s. Imagine what the Israelis could potentially be able to create if let unmolested and unharrassed by the dogs of war.
The Europeans are no better than the petty Arab despots who use this conflict to enflame the passions of their masses so the moat cannot be seen in their own eye. The Europeans want to believe that at the heart of their conflict with radical Islam lays the European pseudo support of Israel. Frankly, they listen too much to Palestinian apologistas and they forget the rather illusionary relationships certain Arab cultural archetypes often have with truth or reason.
Denial and arrogance rush strongly through Europeans veins. They cannot envision anyone coming from a “third world pisspot” who would not automatically embrace their allegedly superior values, culture or lifestyle. The European mind totally rejects that a rational being might actively seek to take over their society and remake it in an entirely different mold for their own nefarious ends. It is far easier to blame the Jews. Even now the European intelligentsia is busy embracing the idea of a one state solution to the conflict.
I have my doubts that Olmert is the Prime Minister who would actually order a Gaza offensive. He’ll mass his men at the border, and bluster, but I doubt the sincerity of his intentions. Even now he is content to wait for “diplomacy” to work despite the Israeli history of being on the short end of diplomatic stick. Olmert is no Lion of Judea or Ben Gurion, despite his desire to achieve the final borders of Israel. He is nothing more than the flackie of a once great general. I can find no mention of a general call up of reserve forces which would be the most obvious sign that a Gaza offensive is to be launched. It is no accident that the Golani and Givanti brigades have been mobilized and no doubt the use of two of Israeli’s most renown units is pure psychology theatre on Olmert’s part.
While I doubt that an Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip would see the Turks uprising in Berlin or European cities set to the flame, as no Arab peoples have any love of the Palestinians, one needs to question why the Palestinians are launching this offensive at this time. Already there are rumors that Iranians have been spotted massing along with Hezbollah along the northern border. I have no doubt that if Israel launched a Gaza offensive that Hezbollah would open up a Northern front.
But what of Syria? Would this be the time for Syria to launch an offensive to retake the Golan Heights? Would the Iranians stay put if Syria opened up another front in light of the non-aggression pact between the two countries? And would anyone come to the Israelis aid to save the Golan Heights? Would the Americans risk involving themselves on the Israeli side while Iran waits only the slimiest pre-text to call for holy jihad and inflame the whole region? While I cannot see the Turks rising in Berlin it would be most auspices timing for uprising in say Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt where radical Islamists have already established a sympatric base among the locals and are armed. How quick can one say Islamic Caliphate? How much stronger Iran would be with simpatico governmental alliances among the Jordanians, Saudis or Egyptians? And how much harder to bring the Iranians to heel if a Caliphate begins to take shape in the region?
I, the Kateland, wrote this.
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