23 septembre 2013
1
23
/09
/septembre
/2013
21:04
France
- Video: French diplomat punching IDF soldier in the face (Elder of Ziyon) - "This video of the incident, lightly edited, shows that the IDF only acted when it was provoked. Soldiers politely shooed away the activists until they kept pushing past them. It also shows some activists smiling after getting "manhandled" because they wanted it to be caught on camera".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/09/video-french-diplomat-punching-idf.html
- Désinformation visuelle : la vérité qui se cache derrière les images des manifestations en Judée-Samarie (Tsahal) - "Le porte-parole du ministère israélien des Affaires étrangères, Paul Hirschson, a déclaré qu’une plainte formelle pourrait être déposée contre la diplomate française, Marion Castaing".
http://tsahal.fr/2013/09/22/desinformation-visuel-verite-se-cache-derriere-les-images-manifestations-en-judee-samarie/
- La diplomate française Marion Castaing frappe un soldat israélien (Vidéo 9 secondes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI9EvwbUu84
- Et du gauche, la diplomate frappe le soldat au menton, Laurent Zecchini (Le Monde)
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2013/09/23/et-du-gauche-la-diplomate-frappe-le-soldat-au-menton_3482576_3232.html
"[...] Marion Fesneau-Castaing avait oublié de rapporter un détail à sa hiérarchie, que les sites Internet pro-israéliens se sont chargés de rappeler et de diffuser largement, dimanche 22 septembre. Après s'être relevée, l'attachée de coopération humanitaire se dirige vers un soldat (on suppose celui qui l'avait extirpée manu militari du véhicule) et, du gauche, le frappe au menton ! La vidéo montre clairement le visage du soldat rejeté en arrière par l'impact de ce qui n'apparaît pas être un simple soufflet.
Les diplomates français sont consternés. Car cette vidéo place la France en mauvaise posture. Une diplomate chevronnée (âgée de 46 ans) qui, quel que soit le préjudice personnel subi, perd son sang-froid au point de frapper un soldat israélien, l'incident est sans précédent. "Elle a franchi une limite, c'est sûr, et le fait de ne pas nous en avoir parlé est doublement embêtant. Tout dépend maintenant de l'importance que les Israéliens vont vouloir donner à cette affaire", indique une source française.
Au ministère israélien des affaires étrangères, on pèse – "au plus haut niveau" – une réaction, en précisant que celle-ci pourrait aller jusqu'à déclarer la diplomate persona non grata. Le problème est que la France fait figure de "récidiviste" : le 3 septembre, Antoine Masson, chauffeur au consulat, a été arrêté au point de passage (avec la Jordanie) d'Allenby, au volant d'une voiture bourrée de lingots d'or, et expulsé le lendemain.
Tout cela alors que François Hollande est attendu pour une visite d'Etat en Israël, les 18 et 19 novembre. Ce qui fait une arrivée plutôt... roborative pour Hervé Magro, consul général de France à Jérusalem depuis le 8 septembre."
- BDS Israël : les militants d'Alençon condamnés (SaphirNews.com)
http://www.saphirnews.com/BDS-Israel-les-militants-d-Alencon-condamnes_a17575.html
"Les sept militants de la campagne BDS (Boycott, Désinvestissement, Sanctions) originaires de l'Orne, poursuivis après avoir mené une action de boycott de produits d’Israël en février 2010 dans un hypermarché Carrefour d'Alençon, ont été condamnés, jeudi 19 septembre, à 500€ d’amende avec sursis pour « entrave à l’exercice normal d’une activité économique » par le tribunal correctionnel d’Alençon.
Les militants devront rembourser les frais d'avocat des plaignants. En revanche, les juges ne les ont pas condamnés pour « incitation à la haine raciale et à l’antisémitisme », un des principaux motifs pour lesquels ils étaient poursuivis. Une peine de 1000€ avait été requise fin juin pour chacun des sept inculpés, membres du Collectif Palestine Orne, qui bataillent depuis plus de trois ans pour obtenir la relaxe. Ces derniers ont annoncé leur intention de faire appel de la décision du tribunal."
Judée-Samarie
- Des coups de feu léthaux ont tué un soldat de Tsahal à Hébron (Tsahal) - "des tirs directs ont été ouverts sur des soldats de Tsahal à Hébron. Durant l’attaque, un soldat, Gabriel Koby âgé de 20 ans, a été grièvement blessé. Il a été évacué vers un hôpital israélien dans lequel il a succombé à ses blessures un peu plus tard".
http://tsahal.fr/2013/09/22/coups-feu-lethaux-tue-soldat-tsahal-hebron/
- Un soldat israélien tué par balle en Cisjordanie (AFP & Reuters)
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/09/22/un-soldat-israelien-tue-par-des-tirs-en-cisjordanie_3482512_3218.html
"Un soldat israélien a succombé dimanche 22 septembre de ses blessures après avoir été gravement blessé par des tirs à Hébron, dans le sud de la Cisjordanie, probablement par des militants palestiniens, a annoncé la police. L'incident a eu lieu au centre de la ville, près du caveau des Patriarches, un lieu saint pour les juifs et les musulmans. Le soldat aurait été rapidement transporté en soin intensif à l'hôpital de Jérusalem, où il est mort. L'armée a verrouillé la ville d'Hébron et des routes ont été bloquées pour faciliter la recherche du tireur, selon des témoins.
Peu avant les tirs, des témoins ont affirmé que des heurts avaient eu lieu dans la ville entre les forces israéliennes et des Palestiniens qui jetaient des pierres, et un Palestinien a été blessé par une balle caoutchoutée. Des milliers d'israéliens étaient venus à Hébron dimanche, dont la plupart avaient profité de leur semaine de vacances à l'occasion de la fête juive du Sukkot (ou Tabernacles).
Samedi, le corps d'un soldat israélien, enlevé et tué par un Palestinien, avait été retrouvé. Il a été enterré dimanche dans un cimetière militaire à Holon. Selon le Shin Beth, le service israélien de sécurité intérieure, un Palestinien avec qui le soldat avait travaillé dans la ville de Bat Yam a reconnu les faits.
Naftali Bennett, le ministre de l'Economie et du Commerce, a affirmé que ces deux morts devraient pousser Israël à reconsidérer sa participation aux négociations de paix avec les Palestiniens, qui ont repris le mois dernier après trois ans de pause. "Sous les auspices des célébrations de la reprise des négociations, Sukkot s'est transformé en un festival de sang et de blessures pour les soldats israéliens, a-t-il écrit dans une lettre adressée au premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu. Il ne fait aucun doute qu'il y a eu des développements malheureux depuis le début de la reprise des négociations qui font que le gouvernement doit reconsidérer sa position"."
- A bullet that landed a little too close to home (Elder of Ziyon) - "The murderer was upset that Jews have access to their own holy site. His gunshot was meant to deny Jews that right".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/09/a-bullet-that-landed-little-too-close.html
- Netanyahu: Murder of IDF soldier proves fight against terrorism is constant (JP) - "PM sends condolences to family of Tomer Hazan who was lured, killed in West Bank by Palestinian co-worker; UN envoy Serry condemns "shocking murder," stresses calm at "critical moment in the political process"."
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Netanyahu-Murder-of-Tomer-Hazan-proves-fight-against-terrorism-is-constant-326735
- Netanyahu: Jews can move into Hebron building near where IDF soldier killed, Tovah Lazaroff (JP) - “Those who attempt to uproot us from the city of our forefathers will achieve the opposite effect.”
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Netanyahu-Jews-can-move-into-Hebron-building-near-where-IDF-soldier-killed-326815
"Hebron Jews can move into a building next to the spot where a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said just hours after the attack in a statement that spoke of the need to fight terror and support West Bank settlements. His decision expands the Jewish areas of the West Bank city, and allows an Israeli civilian presence in a Palestinian neighborhood next to the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The move comes just one week before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is set to meet with US President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, their first face to face conversation since Israeli Palestinian negotiations were resumed in July. But the death of two Israeli soldiers by Palestinians in the last few days, and continued Israeli settlement activity, have threatened to destroy the fledgling talks.
Just past midnight, Netanyahu said, “Those who attempt to uproot us from the city of our forefathers will achieve the opposite effect. We will continue on one hand to fight terror and to harm terrorists and on the other hand to strengthen settlements.” Hebron’s Jewish community had purchased a three-story building across from the Cave of the Patriarchs, known as Beit Hamachpela, and moved at the end of March 2012. The IDF forcibly evicted them on April 4, because their purchase documents had not been authenticated and they lacked a purchase permit.
In July of this year, a military appeals court validated their purchase of the structure, which abuts a Palestinian school and borders a section of the city under Palestinian Authority control. Palestinians live in a small section of the building, which was not purchased by settlers. But in spite of their court victory, the Hebron families were still barred from moving into their property, because they lacked a final signature of approval from Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. It is now expected that this signature will be forthcoming.
Hebron’s Jewish community thanked Netanyahu for his decision and for working to return Jews to the city of their forefathers. But settler leaders and right wing politicians on Sunday said that stronger steps were needed such as stopping direct negotiations with the PA and halting any goodwill gestures that involve the release of Palestinians prisoners. [...]"
- Reaping what the Gilad Shalit deal sowed, Avi Issacharoff (Times of Israel) - "The exchange of 1,027 terrorists for one soldier bolstered Palestinian motivation for more kidnappings. Tomer Hazan may be only the first to pay the terrible price".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/reaping-what-the-gilad-shalit-deal-sowed/
"This weekend’s kidnapping and murder of 20-year-old Sgt. Tomer Hazan is not the first attempt to kidnap Israeli soldiers or civilians in the two years since the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal. Unfortunately, it also won’t be the last.
Since the deal, about which many of Israel’s security heads expressed reservations, calls for kidnapping a “second Gilad Shalit” have been heard repeatedly from terrorist organizations. Though the motivation for such kidnappings existed before Shalit’s release, there is no doubt that freeing 1,027 prisoners, many of whom were convicted murderers, in return for one hostage soldier, gave a meaningful push to actual attempts to create another “bargaining chip” in order to secure the release of additional prisoners.
On the day of Shalit’s release, October 18, 2011, thousands of Hamas operatives took to the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The slogan shouted by Palestinian youths that day, especially prisoners’ family members, was that the Palestinians needed “another six Shalits” in order to empty out Israel’s prisons.
The Benjamin Netanyahu government, which approved the deal, created this situation with its own hands. And it was clear even then that the next kidnapping was already in the works. Indeed, dozens upon dozens of kidnapping attempts have been thwarted since October 2011.
These attempts are not the sole property of one organization in particular. Though most come from the Hamas workshop, there are also others by Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In some of the cases, terrorist squads were caught inside Israel, searching for a victim. Several of them had hideouts prepared weeks in advance — caches and basements built especially to hold a kidnapped Israeli. Sometimes it was only luck that prevented a murder like that of Hazan.
The heightened motivation and inspiration to kidnap soldiers are not the only negative consequences of the Shalit deal. It turns out that most of the kidnapping attempts have been orchestrated by terrorists, primarily from Hamas, who were released in the October 2011 Shalit exchange. Not the ones who were released to their own homes in the West Bank, but those who were exiled to Gaza or abroad, and are now setting up terrorist networks there, based on their connections with operatives in the field. [...]"
- The price of prisoner swaps (Jerusalem Post editorial) - "Every time Israel agrees to an unequal prisoner swap, a dangerous dynamic is set in motion".
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/The-price-of-prisoner-swaps-326799
"The murder of Sgt. Tomer Hazan, 20, has shocked the nation. Nidal Amar, 42, the Palestinian who admitted to murdering Hazan, said he had hoped to use his corpse to secure the release of his terrorist brother, Nur al-Din Amar, from an Israeli prison.
The brother was arrested in 2003 for involvement in several terrorist incidents, including a shooting in the village of Azun, in which one Israeli civilian was wounded, and the planning of a suicide attack that was to have been carried out by a female bomber inside Israel. Security forces thwarted the plot.
Compounding the tragedy are the circumstances surrounding the murder. A friendship had supposedly developed between the two men as a result of their work together at Tzachi Meats in Bat Yam – Hazan as a delivery boy (he had received permission from the IDF to work while serving in the air force) and Amar as a kitchen worker. Amar took advantage of Hazan’s trust and innocence to lure him to his death in the Palestinian village of Beit Amin, south of Kalkilya.
A number of lessons can be drawn. First, soldiers must strictly adhere to IDF regulations regarding travel in the West Bank, particularly against the backdrop of warnings that Palestinian terrorists are making a special effort to kidnap soldiers. Second, Israeli businesses must not employ Palestinians who lack work permits.
The murder underlines the steep price Israel pays for releasing Palestinian terrorists. In July 2008, PLO terrorist Samir Kuntar and four Hezbollah terrorists were released along with the bodies of 199 Hezbollah men in exchange for the bodies of IDF reservests Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. In October 2011, the government agreed to release 1,027 Palestinians, mostly terrorists, incarcerated in Israel jails in exchange for tank gunner Gilad Schalit, whom Hamas had kidnapped in June 2006.
In July of this year, in a more controversial move that this paper opposed, the government agreed to release more than 100 long-term Palestinian terrorist convicts in exchange for nothing tangible, just a grudgingly conceded agreement by the PLO to restart talks after a nearly three-year hiatus. The first group of terrorists has already been released and the next phase will be implemented soon.
Every time Israel agrees to an unequal prisoner swap, a dangerous dynamic is set in motion. If large numbers of prisoners are released in exchange for a few kidnapped Israeli soldiers – alive or dead – Palestinian terrorists such as Amar are encouraged to kidnap, and kill, more soldiers. Not surprisingly, Israel currently faces a concerted effort to do just that on the part of Palestinian terrorist groups. Twenty-seven attempts to abduct soldiers were foiled in the first six months of the year – twice as many as the same period in 2012.
And when prisoners – including those “with blood on their hands” – are released before they serve their sentences, it emboldens Palestinian terrorists such as Amar who rightly gamble that they too will be released early in a prisoner swap or a “goodwill gesture.” And they have good reason to be optimistic. Amna Muna, who was given a life sentence in 2003 for luring 16-year-old Ofir Rahum to Ramallah, where Fatah terrorists killed him, was released after serving just eight years in the Schalit prisoner swap. [...]"
- Israël : la mort de deux soldats peut-elle embraser la région ?, Danièle Kriegel (Le Point) - "La mort des deux soldats est-elle le fait d'éléments isolés ou de groupes extrémistes ayant une stratégie définie ? Cette question est au centre des préoccupations en Israël, avec son corollaire : est-on devant une reprise générale de la violence en Cisjordanie ? Certains commentateurs, comme le correspondant militaire de Haaretz, Amos Harel, ne le croient pas. Mais au Proche-Orient, rien n'est sûr. Le passé a montré qu'une étincelle est souvent à l'origine d'un embrasement généralisé".
http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/la-mort-de-deux-soldats-peut-elle-embraser-la-region-23-09-2013-1734221_24.php
- Des coups de feu léthaux ont tué un soldat de Tsahal à Hébron (Tsahal) - "des tirs directs ont été ouverts sur des soldats de Tsahal à Hébron. Durant l’attaque, un soldat, Gabriel Koby âgé de 20 ans, a été grièvement blessé. Il a été évacué vers un hôpital israélien dans lequel il a succombé à ses blessures un peu plus tard".
http://tsahal.fr/2013/09/22/coups-feu-lethaux-tue-soldat-tsahal-hebron/
- Un soldat israélien tué par balle en Cisjordanie (AFP & Reuters)
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/09/22/un-soldat-israelien-tue-par-des-tirs-en-cisjordanie_3482512_3218.html
"Un soldat israélien a succombé dimanche 22 septembre de ses blessures après avoir été gravement blessé par des tirs à Hébron, dans le sud de la Cisjordanie, probablement par des militants palestiniens, a annoncé la police. L'incident a eu lieu au centre de la ville, près du caveau des Patriarches, un lieu saint pour les juifs et les musulmans. Le soldat aurait été rapidement transporté en soin intensif à l'hôpital de Jérusalem, où il est mort. L'armée a verrouillé la ville d'Hébron et des routes ont été bloquées pour faciliter la recherche du tireur, selon des témoins.
Peu avant les tirs, des témoins ont affirmé que des heurts avaient eu lieu dans la ville entre les forces israéliennes et des Palestiniens qui jetaient des pierres, et un Palestinien a été blessé par une balle caoutchoutée. Des milliers d'israéliens étaient venus à Hébron dimanche, dont la plupart avaient profité de leur semaine de vacances à l'occasion de la fête juive du Sukkot (ou Tabernacles).
Samedi, le corps d'un soldat israélien, enlevé et tué par un Palestinien, avait été retrouvé. Il a été enterré dimanche dans un cimetière militaire à Holon. Selon le Shin Beth, le service israélien de sécurité intérieure, un Palestinien avec qui le soldat avait travaillé dans la ville de Bat Yam a reconnu les faits.
Naftali Bennett, le ministre de l'Economie et du Commerce, a affirmé que ces deux morts devraient pousser Israël à reconsidérer sa participation aux négociations de paix avec les Palestiniens, qui ont repris le mois dernier après trois ans de pause. "Sous les auspices des célébrations de la reprise des négociations, Sukkot s'est transformé en un festival de sang et de blessures pour les soldats israéliens, a-t-il écrit dans une lettre adressée au premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu. Il ne fait aucun doute qu'il y a eu des développements malheureux depuis le début de la reprise des négociations qui font que le gouvernement doit reconsidérer sa position"."
- A bullet that landed a little too close to home (Elder of Ziyon) - "The murderer was upset that Jews have access to their own holy site. His gunshot was meant to deny Jews that right".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/09/a-bullet-that-landed-little-too-close.html
- Netanyahu: Murder of IDF soldier proves fight against terrorism is constant (JP) - "PM sends condolences to family of Tomer Hazan who was lured, killed in West Bank by Palestinian co-worker; UN envoy Serry condemns "shocking murder," stresses calm at "critical moment in the political process"."
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Netanyahu-Murder-of-Tomer-Hazan-proves-fight-against-terrorism-is-constant-326735
- Netanyahu: Jews can move into Hebron building near where IDF soldier killed, Tovah Lazaroff (JP) - “Those who attempt to uproot us from the city of our forefathers will achieve the opposite effect.”
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Netanyahu-Jews-can-move-into-Hebron-building-near-where-IDF-soldier-killed-326815
"Hebron Jews can move into a building next to the spot where a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said just hours after the attack in a statement that spoke of the need to fight terror and support West Bank settlements. His decision expands the Jewish areas of the West Bank city, and allows an Israeli civilian presence in a Palestinian neighborhood next to the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The move comes just one week before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is set to meet with US President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, their first face to face conversation since Israeli Palestinian negotiations were resumed in July. But the death of two Israeli soldiers by Palestinians in the last few days, and continued Israeli settlement activity, have threatened to destroy the fledgling talks.
Just past midnight, Netanyahu said, “Those who attempt to uproot us from the city of our forefathers will achieve the opposite effect. We will continue on one hand to fight terror and to harm terrorists and on the other hand to strengthen settlements.” Hebron’s Jewish community had purchased a three-story building across from the Cave of the Patriarchs, known as Beit Hamachpela, and moved at the end of March 2012. The IDF forcibly evicted them on April 4, because their purchase documents had not been authenticated and they lacked a purchase permit.
In July of this year, a military appeals court validated their purchase of the structure, which abuts a Palestinian school and borders a section of the city under Palestinian Authority control. Palestinians live in a small section of the building, which was not purchased by settlers. But in spite of their court victory, the Hebron families were still barred from moving into their property, because they lacked a final signature of approval from Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. It is now expected that this signature will be forthcoming.
Hebron’s Jewish community thanked Netanyahu for his decision and for working to return Jews to the city of their forefathers. But settler leaders and right wing politicians on Sunday said that stronger steps were needed such as stopping direct negotiations with the PA and halting any goodwill gestures that involve the release of Palestinians prisoners. [...]"
- Reaping what the Gilad Shalit deal sowed, Avi Issacharoff (Times of Israel) - "The exchange of 1,027 terrorists for one soldier bolstered Palestinian motivation for more kidnappings. Tomer Hazan may be only the first to pay the terrible price".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/reaping-what-the-gilad-shalit-deal-sowed/
"This weekend’s kidnapping and murder of 20-year-old Sgt. Tomer Hazan is not the first attempt to kidnap Israeli soldiers or civilians in the two years since the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal. Unfortunately, it also won’t be the last.
Since the deal, about which many of Israel’s security heads expressed reservations, calls for kidnapping a “second Gilad Shalit” have been heard repeatedly from terrorist organizations. Though the motivation for such kidnappings existed before Shalit’s release, there is no doubt that freeing 1,027 prisoners, many of whom were convicted murderers, in return for one hostage soldier, gave a meaningful push to actual attempts to create another “bargaining chip” in order to secure the release of additional prisoners.
On the day of Shalit’s release, October 18, 2011, thousands of Hamas operatives took to the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The slogan shouted by Palestinian youths that day, especially prisoners’ family members, was that the Palestinians needed “another six Shalits” in order to empty out Israel’s prisons.
The Benjamin Netanyahu government, which approved the deal, created this situation with its own hands. And it was clear even then that the next kidnapping was already in the works. Indeed, dozens upon dozens of kidnapping attempts have been thwarted since October 2011.
These attempts are not the sole property of one organization in particular. Though most come from the Hamas workshop, there are also others by Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In some of the cases, terrorist squads were caught inside Israel, searching for a victim. Several of them had hideouts prepared weeks in advance — caches and basements built especially to hold a kidnapped Israeli. Sometimes it was only luck that prevented a murder like that of Hazan.
The heightened motivation and inspiration to kidnap soldiers are not the only negative consequences of the Shalit deal. It turns out that most of the kidnapping attempts have been orchestrated by terrorists, primarily from Hamas, who were released in the October 2011 Shalit exchange. Not the ones who were released to their own homes in the West Bank, but those who were exiled to Gaza or abroad, and are now setting up terrorist networks there, based on their connections with operatives in the field. [...]"
- The price of prisoner swaps (Jerusalem Post editorial) - "Every time Israel agrees to an unequal prisoner swap, a dangerous dynamic is set in motion".
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/The-price-of-prisoner-swaps-326799
"The murder of Sgt. Tomer Hazan, 20, has shocked the nation. Nidal Amar, 42, the Palestinian who admitted to murdering Hazan, said he had hoped to use his corpse to secure the release of his terrorist brother, Nur al-Din Amar, from an Israeli prison.
The brother was arrested in 2003 for involvement in several terrorist incidents, including a shooting in the village of Azun, in which one Israeli civilian was wounded, and the planning of a suicide attack that was to have been carried out by a female bomber inside Israel. Security forces thwarted the plot.
Compounding the tragedy are the circumstances surrounding the murder. A friendship had supposedly developed between the two men as a result of their work together at Tzachi Meats in Bat Yam – Hazan as a delivery boy (he had received permission from the IDF to work while serving in the air force) and Amar as a kitchen worker. Amar took advantage of Hazan’s trust and innocence to lure him to his death in the Palestinian village of Beit Amin, south of Kalkilya.
A number of lessons can be drawn. First, soldiers must strictly adhere to IDF regulations regarding travel in the West Bank, particularly against the backdrop of warnings that Palestinian terrorists are making a special effort to kidnap soldiers. Second, Israeli businesses must not employ Palestinians who lack work permits.
The murder underlines the steep price Israel pays for releasing Palestinian terrorists. In July 2008, PLO terrorist Samir Kuntar and four Hezbollah terrorists were released along with the bodies of 199 Hezbollah men in exchange for the bodies of IDF reservests Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. In October 2011, the government agreed to release 1,027 Palestinians, mostly terrorists, incarcerated in Israel jails in exchange for tank gunner Gilad Schalit, whom Hamas had kidnapped in June 2006.
In July of this year, in a more controversial move that this paper opposed, the government agreed to release more than 100 long-term Palestinian terrorist convicts in exchange for nothing tangible, just a grudgingly conceded agreement by the PLO to restart talks after a nearly three-year hiatus. The first group of terrorists has already been released and the next phase will be implemented soon.
Every time Israel agrees to an unequal prisoner swap, a dangerous dynamic is set in motion. If large numbers of prisoners are released in exchange for a few kidnapped Israeli soldiers – alive or dead – Palestinian terrorists such as Amar are encouraged to kidnap, and kill, more soldiers. Not surprisingly, Israel currently faces a concerted effort to do just that on the part of Palestinian terrorist groups. Twenty-seven attempts to abduct soldiers were foiled in the first six months of the year – twice as many as the same period in 2012.
And when prisoners – including those “with blood on their hands” – are released before they serve their sentences, it emboldens Palestinian terrorists such as Amar who rightly gamble that they too will be released early in a prisoner swap or a “goodwill gesture.” And they have good reason to be optimistic. Amna Muna, who was given a life sentence in 2003 for luring 16-year-old Ofir Rahum to Ramallah, where Fatah terrorists killed him, was released after serving just eight years in the Schalit prisoner swap. [...]"
- Israël : la mort de deux soldats peut-elle embraser la région ?, Danièle Kriegel (Le Point) - "La mort des deux soldats est-elle le fait d'éléments isolés ou de groupes extrémistes ayant une stratégie définie ? Cette question est au centre des préoccupations en Israël, avec son corollaire : est-on devant une reprise générale de la violence en Cisjordanie ? Certains commentateurs, comme le correspondant militaire de Haaretz, Amos Harel, ne le croient pas. Mais au Proche-Orient, rien n'est sûr. Le passé a montré qu'une étincelle est souvent à l'origine d'un embrasement généralisé".
http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/la-mort-de-deux-soldats-peut-elle-embraser-la-region-23-09-2013-1734221_24.php
- Palestinian Authority refrains from condemning soldier killings, Stuart Winer (Times of Israel) - "While EU, US and UN denounced the attacks, the PA’s foreign minister insisted they are no reason for Israel to divert from peace process".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/pa-foreign-minister-avoids-condemning-soldier-shootings/
"The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister said Monday that the slaying of two Israeli soldiers by Palestinians in separate incidents in as many days should not influence peace negotiations. The statement marked the only official comment from Palestinian officials on the issue, which noticeably refrained from condemning the killings. “This is no reason to shake off the requirements of the peace [process] in any way,” Riyad al-Malki told the Ma’an news agency on Monday. [...]"
- Fatah official: Israel responsible for soldier’s death in Hebron, Gavriel Fiske (Times of Israel)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/fatah-official-israel-responsible-for-soldiers-death-in-hebron/
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government are the ones responsible for the death of IDF soldier Sgt. Gal Gabriel Kobi, Fatah central committee member Abbas Zaki said Monday. Kobi was shot by a sniper while on patrol in Hebron on Sunday. Netanyahu and “his extremist government” are the cause of the soldier’s death, Zaki said according to an Israel Radio report. Kobi wasn’t “on a sightseeing tour in Hebron,” he added.
The prime minister’s Monday announcement that, in response to the incident, Beit Hamachpela, a building near the West Bank city’s Tomb of Patriarchs which was previously boarded up by order of the Defense Ministry, would be immediately resettled, only “legitimizes settlements and aggression,” Zaki said. Kobi’s death was the second West Bank killing of an IDF soldier in recent days. [...]
An Israeli official said late Monday that Israel will submit a complaint to the US over insufficient action on the part of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank in recent days. The source said Palestinian security forces did not do enough to prevent the sniper fire that killed Kobi in Hebron on Sunday, adding that the incitement against Israel in Palestinian media continues even as the sides sit down for talks. The official did not stress whether the complaint would include the fact that the Palestinian Authority has yet to condemn the recent murders. [...]"
- 'Failure to condemn soldier's murder proves PA not seeking peace' (Arutz 7) - "MK Avigdor Lieberman says PA leaders encourage murders of Israelis • Deputy Defense Minister Danon says murder was a result of incitement on behalf of Palestinian leadership • Housing Minister Ariel: Release of Palestinian prisoners results in bloodshed".
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=12133
- Fatah Wing: We're Behind Kidnap, Murder of IDF Soldier, David Lev (Arutz 7)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172129
"Fatah's military wing, the Al Aqsa Brigades, on Sunday took responsibility for the murder of IDF soldier Tomer Hazan Friday. According to Israeli officials, Nadal Amar, the terrorist who killed Hazan, was not affiliated with any terror group. [...] In a statement, the Al Aqsa Brigades said that it had sponsored the murder of Hazan. “This is to inform the world that the voice of the martyrs is the strongest voice,” the group said. “The kidnapping was carried out in a complicated military action by our forces. We succeeded, despite the many roadblocks and other methods to stop us the army put up.” The group also warned against harming Amar. “If one drop of his blood is spilled, many more plagues will fall upon you, O Zionists.” [...]"
- Tackle incitement, stop the killings, David Horovitz (Times of Israel) - "Two decades after Oslo, Palestinians are still murdering Israelis because they’re still taught we have no place here. If that doesn’t change, nothing else will".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/tackle-incitement-stop-the-killings/
"It’s 20 years after that hesitant handshake shared by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn, and tragically little has changed. Palestinians are again killing Israelis — an off-duty young soldier lured to the West Bank on Friday, an on-duty young soldier cynically shot down by a sniper in the West Bank on Sunday. [...]
Much of the Arab world, now as then, dismisses the Israeli deaths as the legitimate or near-legitimate consequence of the foul Israeli occupation. And the international peacemakers, now as then — from the UN, the EU, the Quartet and all — parrot their empty, blind rhetoric about the need for both sides to avoid actions that would prejudice the talks, and the imperative to recommit to terms for Israeli security and Palestinian statehood.
It was only a few short weeks ago, in willful defiance not only of past experience but of present reality, that today’s would-be peacemaker-in-chief publicly declared his conviction — in the dismal tradition of leaders falsely promising an accord before the completion of this presidential term, the end of this calendar year, the convening of this UN General Assembly — that an end-of-conflict accord could and would be sealed within nine months.
In truth, sadly, there was no quick fix to be had 20 years ago. No handshake, even had it been mutually heartfelt, could itself have been transformative back then. And no accelerated negotiating process, even if it involved two sides genuinely determined to find viable compromise, can remake the Israeli-Palestinian reality in a matter of months today.
There is a way forward, but it was given only marginal attention in the failed process that began 20 years ago, and it is patently off the radar for Secretary John “Nine Months” Kerry: It is called tackling incitement. And we won’t have compromise, and we won’t have viable coexistence, without it.
Official Israel is not without blame in this most fundamental of areas. We, too, have our textbooks, and our maps, and parts of our media, and some of even our most senior politicians, peddling a Holy Land narrative that excludes the Palestinians, sidelining them in theory in the apparent hope of somehow doing so in practice. On the ground, too, the growth of illegal outposts, and the expansion of settlements in areas most Israelis do not imagine permanently retaining, run counter to our own interests, and magnify Palestinian doubts about the possibility of compromise, despite a history of Israeli withdrawals — from the Sinai, south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. But most Israelis have long since come to terms with the fact, however unfortunate they may consider it, that there were and are Palestinians as well as Jews in this coveted, bloodied sliver of land, that our state was only revived as part of a plan that also provided for an Arab state, and that we are all going to have to find a way to somehow live alongside one another.
On the Palestinian side of the figurative and literal fence, there is no such wearied recognition. The duplicitous, terror-fostering, handshaking Yasser Arafat of September 1993 bequeathed his people a pernicious narrative that claimed there was no Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and by extension, therefore, no historic Jewish sovereign legitimacy in these parts. Remain committed to the land, eschew a permanent accommodation, trust Palestinian steadfastness, Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian womb, and you will prevail — that was the legacy Arafat bequeathed his people.
And nine years after his death, incitement against Israel’s very existence remains widespread — in Palestinian schools and summer camps, newspaper articles and caricatures, TV shows and advertisements, where Israel has no place, where Israeli cities have Arabic names, where the Jews have no Middle East history.
Arafat told president Bill Clinton at Camp David in 2000 that he couldn’t sign a peace deal because he would be assassinated by his own people for doing so. But that was a consequence of the uncompromising climate that he had most deliberately created. Why, his people would indeed have asked him, are you relinquishing parts of our land to an enemy you have assured us has no claims upon it?
His successor, Mahmoud Abbas, though better intentioned, has shown little appetite to challenge the Arafat legacy. And Israel, and the international community, are heavily at fault for failing to demand that he do so, and for failing to use every scrap of their leverage to marginalize the hierarchies that inculcate hatred and encourage those that push for interaction and conciliation.
So the relentless anti-Israel material continues to spew out in Palestinian-controlled media, streets and squares are named in honor of terrorist murderers, and Abbas demands the release of the most ruthless killers as a precondition for peace talks. Why would Abbas seek their freedom? Because in the unchanged Palestinian narrative, the killers are heroes in a struggle against Israel that, all too plainly, continues.
This is the cycle that has to be reversed if, 20 years from now, we are to find ourselves in a safer, quieter place. There has to be a change of climate — wrought by a change in what is taught and what is written and what is broadcast. So that an illegal Palestinian worker knows his own people will try to thwart his premeditated killing of an Israeli off-duty soldier, lured from their common place of work in Israel to his home village in the West Bank. So that, if a Palestinian sniper picks up his rifle in the hills of Hebron and prepares to take aim at a young sergeant at an IDF position, those around him will intervene and prevent the killing, not hail him and hide him after the deadly act is done."
- Palestinian groups campaign against the peace process, Khaled Abu Toameh (JP)
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinian-groups-campaign-against-the-peace-process-326783
"Several Palestinian groups and figures launched a campaign on Sunday to demand that the Palestinian Authority halt peace talks with Israel. At a press conference in Ramallah, the organizers of the campaign said that the PA leadership should “give in to popular demands to stop the negotiations with the government of [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu.” [...]
The organizers of the new campaign said that the PA leadership should abandon the talks in favor of “reorganizing the Palestinian home, and completing efforts to see Palestinian membership in the UN.” They also signed a petition rejecting the idea of any land swaps with Israel and the annexation of settlement blocs, including east Jerusalem, to Israel in a future deal.
The campaign is being waged by various Palestinian groups, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People’s Party, The National Initiative, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian Democratic Union, as well as several Palestinian political figures."
- Does Jordan Want Palestinians In Control of The Border?, Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute) - "The last thing the Jordanians want to see is hundreds of thousands of Palestinians move from the West Bank or Gaza Strip into the kingdom. Understandably, the Jordanian monarch cannot go public with this stance for fear of being accused by Arabs and Muslims of treason and collaboration with the "Zionist enemy"."
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3984/jordan-palestinians-border
- Hamas official: We’re on the verge of a third intifada, Elior Levy (Ynet)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4432407,00.html
"A day after the murder of Sgt. Tomer Hazan and as news surfaced of the death of an IDF soldier in a Hebron shooting attack, Hamas deputy political bureau chief Moussa Abu Marzouk posted a message in which he predicted that the Palestinians are on the brink of a new intifada. "We are facing a political failure for the Palestinian Authority and the beginning of a new popular intifada against Israel," he wrote on his Facebook page. "John Kerry's $4 million economic plan will not save the day." [...]"
- Israel believes Hamas won’t hesitate to attack again, despite growing isolation, Amos Harel (Haaretz) - "the Israeli army says Hamas and the other organizations in Gaza are continuing to prepare for a possible further round of confrontation. The reduction in smuggling is forcing the organizations to be more self-reliant in producing mid-range rockets to replace the Iranian Fajr missiles. Explosive devices are being laid close to the border with Israel, and it is reasonable to assume that Gazans are tunneling toward that border in the hope of eventually using those tunnels to crawl under the border fence and kidnap Israelis, as Palestinian militants did in June 2006, when they captured Gilad Shalit and killed two other Israeli soldiers near the Israel-Gaza border".
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.548331
- Gaza : une livraison de ciment autorisé pour le secteur privé (AFP)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/09/22/97001-20130922FILWWW00066-gaza-une-livraison-de-ciment-autorise.php
"Israël a permis cet après-midi, pour la première fois depuis 2007, la livraison de ciment et de fer à destination du secteur privé dans la bande de Gaza, a annoncé un responsable palestinien. "Israël a permis aujourd'hui pour la première fois en six ans l'entrée de 40 camions transportant du gravier, de 20 apportant du ciment et de dix autres contenant du fer, pour le secteur privé dans la bande de Gaza", a détaillé Raëd Fattouh, responsable pour les approvisionnements de Gaza, dans un communiqué. Un responsable du ministère israélien de la Défense avait indiqué mardi qu'Israël avait décidé d'autoriser à partir de dimanche le passage quotidien de 70 camions livrant des matériaux de construction.
Israël avait interdit en 2007 le transfert de ces matériaux, craignant que le Hamas au pouvoir dans la bande de Gaza ne les utilise pour renforcer ses positions et construire des tunnels utilisés dans des attaques contre l'Etat hébreu. Dans le cadre d'un accord de cessez-le-feu établi après huit jours de confrontation entre les deux parties en novembre 2012, Israël avait ensuite autorisé l'entrée quotidienne de 20 camions contenant du gravier. Les matériaux de construction de contrebande ont été pendant des années acheminés dans la bande de Gaza via de tunnels creusés sous la frontière égyptienne à partir de la ville de Rafah, mais nombre d'entre eux ont récemment été détruits par l'armée égyptienne après la destitution le 3 juillet du président islamiste Mohamed Morsi, dont le mouvement est allié du Hamas. [...]"
- Egypt closes Rafah again, says it is for Gazans' own good (Elder of Ziyon) - "Isn't it sweet of them to imprison Gazans for their own security? Meanwhile, Israel issued 1,177 permits for people to cross the Erez crossing two weeks ago".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/09/egypt-closes-rafah-again-says-it-is-for.html
- Egypt: Presence of Abbas forces key to opening Rafah border crossing, Khaled Abu Toameh (JP)
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Egypt-Presence-of-Abbas-forces-key-to-opening-Rafah-border-crossing-326697
"Egypt won’t reopen the Rafah border crossing unless forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are allowed to return to the terminal, the PLO ambassador in Cairo, Barakat al-Farra, announced on Saturday. Hamas said the announcement proved that the Gaza Strip was facing a “conspiracy.” Abbas’s presidential guard was in control of the border crossing between 2005 and 2007, when Hamas expelled the PA from the Gaza Strip.
Farra told the Saudi network MBC said that Hamas needed to reconsider its policy toward Egypt and the Egyptian people. He criticized Hamas for meddling in Egypt’s internal affairs by supporting deposed president Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
On Friday, the Egyptian authorities notified Hamas of their decision to close the Rafah terminal “until further notice.” The terminal has been closed most of the time since the ouster of Morsi on July 3. Egyptians have since accused Hamas of involvement in terrorist attacks against Egyptian soldiers in Sinai – an allegation the Islamist movement has vehemently denied. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Egyptians opened the terminal for four hours each day to allow a few hundred Palestinians to leave or enter the Gaza Strip. [...]
Another Hamas official, Salah Bardaweel, said the ambassador’s statements proved there was a “big conspiracy against the Gaza Strip and the resistance.” He accused the PA leadership of playing a major role in enforcing the blockade on the Gaza Strip. “The Palestinian Authority and its embassy in Egypt are conspiring against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” Bardaweel charged. [...]"
- L'Iran présente des missiles balistiques (AFP) - "C'est la première fois que l'Iran montre un nombre aussi important de missiles balistiques théoriquement capables d'atteindre Israël mais aussi les bases militaires américaines dans la région".
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/09/22/97001-20130922FILWWW00027-l-iran-presente-des-missiles-balistiques.php
- Nucléaire : l'Iran prend le contrôle des opérations à Bouchehr (AFP) - "L'Iran a pris lundi le contrôle de la centrale nucléaire civile de Bouchehr (sud), 37 ans après le début de sa construction et alors que le programme atomique iranien est au coeur d'une crise avec les Occidentaux".
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/liran-prend-contr%C3%B4le-op%C3%A9rations-%C3%A0-bouchehr-seule-centrale-053243108.html
- Rouhani casts “moderate” degree of doubt on whether the Holocaust happened (CiF Watch) - "Here’s the video clip of the brief exchange on the Holocaust between Rouhani and NBC’s Ann Curry".
http://cifwatch.com/2013/09/20/rouhani-casts-moderate-degree-of-doubt-on-whether-the-holocaust-happened/
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