Israel pessimistic agreement will be reached by expiration of cease-fire at midnight - Herb Keinon and Khaled Abu Toameh - http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-threatens-Hamas-with-massive-retaliation-as-cease-fire-enters-final-day-371359
A day before the midnight expiration of a five-day ceasefire, Israel sent out clear messages on Sunday that it will respond massively to any type of fire from Gaza and not tolerate a long-term "war of attrition."
"It is not clear whether there will be an agreement," a senior diplomatic official said as the Israeli and Palestinian delegations held indirect talks in Cairo.
If no agreement is agreed upon, the official said, there are two possibilities. The first is that no cease-fire extension or agreement is reached by Monday at midnight, and Hamas renews its firing. "If that happens," he said, "Israel's response will be strong."
He said an example of Israel's likely reaction was last weekend's breakdown of the cease-fire, when Hamas fired mortars at Israel and the IAF responded by hitting 170 terrorist targets inside Gaza.
The other possibility is that the cease-fire lapses, but the firing does not resume, in which case efforts would continue to find a longer-term arrangement, the official said.
But Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his cabinet ministers at the opening of the weekly Sunday cabinet meeting that Hamas is mistaken if it thinks it can cover its military defeat over the last month with a diplomatic achievement.
In an apparent response to Hamas's threats to engage Israel in a long war of attrition if its demands were not met, Netanyahu said further that "if Hamas thinks that we cannot stand up to it over time, it is mistaken."
"In the turbulent and unstable Middle East in which we live, it is not enough just to have more strength, you also need determination and patience," he said. "Hamas knows that we are very strong, but perhaps it thinks we do not have enough determination and patience. And here it is making a big mistake as well."
Netanyahu said that Israel is a "strong and determined" nation, whose citizens and soldiers showed "amazing resilience and fortitude" during the Gaza operation and which will stand "steadfast and united" until "quiet and security" are returned to the country's citizens.
Netanyahu said that Hamas suffered a harsh military blow, which included the destruction of the attack-tunnel network it spent years building, the killing of "hundreds of terrorists," the interception of thousands of rockets, and the prevention of terrorist attacks from the "land, sea, and air."
"If Hamas thinks that by a continuation of a drizzle of rocket fire we will make concessions, it is mistaken," Netanyahu said. "As long as quiet is not restored, Hamas will continue to take very hard blows."
Netanyahu stressed that the Israeli delegation to the indirect talks in Cairo is working under "very clear directives" to insist on Israel's security demands. "Only if there will be a clear answer to our security needs will we agree to any understandings," he said.
Diplomatic sources said that one of the key messages Netanyahu conveyed during the cabinet meeting, and which he will repeat in the upcoming days, is the need for patience in the war of nerves Hamas is waging with the Israeli public.
A subtext of this message is that the Gaza operation is not yet completed, that more time is needed, and that the greater the patience and resolve of the country, the greater the chance that Israel will be able to achieve its goal of long-term security for the South.
Netanyahu briefed his ministers on the situation in Gaza, as did Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen.
One of the problems in the negotiations, it has emerged, is that the Palestinian delegation to Cairo - made up of Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad representatives - is not a united group. For instance, while the Palestinian Authority under Fatah accepted the Egyptian proposals weeks ago, this was not binding on Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
And even among Hamas, there are differences of opinion between its leader Khaled Mashaal, who sits in Qatar, and the leadership in Gaza, which is more eager to come to an agreement. According to Israel, meanwhile, Qatar should be viewed as a state sponsor of terrorism, since it is Hamas's main financial backer.
Before the cabinet meeting, disparities between some of the key ministers became apparent, with Finance Minister Yair Lapid promoting his idea for an international conference, and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett saying that Israel should halt the talks in Cairo.
Lapid, who is to travel to Germany for two days on Wednesday and promote the idea of an international conference as a vehicle for a long-term resolution to the Gaza crisis, said the outline of any agreement needed to be that there would not be a rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip without its disarmament, and there would not be a cease-fire agreement without quiet for the residents of the South.
Bennett called for an immediate end to the indirect negotiations with Hamas, saying that a situation where Israel is "biting its nails waiting for the answer of a murderous terrorist organizations must end."
He said that Israel should immediately cease the talks, and adopt the following formula: "Yes to humanitarian aid to Gaza, no to terrorism."
Under this formula, Israel would allow the passage of food and medicine to Gaza's residents "without limit," but would act "without limits" as well toward any weapons factory or terrorist tunnels found, or against any Hamas leaders.
Israel must extract a heavy price from Hamas for firing on its citizens, he said, adding that "any other arrangement that will tie our hands will bring the next war closer."
Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said that the most important element Israel must insist on is the demilitarization of Gaza. He said that Israel must not accede to Hamas's demands for a seaport or airport, saying that this would be nothing more than "duty free for rockets and missiles. This would mean that if up until now we suffered from Grad and Fajr missiles from Gaza, in the future it would be Scuds."
One official said that Hamas is pushing for a seaport because this would allow Iranian ships to dock and unload weaponry. Likewise, he said, Iran is very keen on securing access to a Mediterranean port.
In a related development, Israel agreed to lift the fishing ban it clamped on Gaza during the military operation, and will now allow fishing up to three miles from the coast.
Meanwhile, the head of the Palestinian delegation to the cease-fire talks in Cairo expressed hope that an agreement over a permanent truce with Israel would be reached in the coming hours.
Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official and head of the delegation, was speaking shortly after holding talks in Cairo with Egyptian intelligence officials and other members of the Palestinian team from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"We won't accept any weak agreement," al-Ahmed said. "Any deal should meet the demands and goals of the Palestinian people, first and foremost halting the aggression, lifting the siege, and launching work to rebuild the Gaza Strip."
He added that the Palestinian delegation would hold a meeting late Sunday with Egyptian intelligence officials to hear about the Israeli reply to the demands.
Meanwhile, Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials reiterated their refusal to make concessions on their demands.
Izzat al-Risheq, a Hamas member of the delegation, said the Palestinians would not give up the rights of their people "who made sacrifices for the resistance."
He said that the Palestinian delegation's goal is to "solidify the victory of the resistance with a political victory at the indirect talks in Cairo."
Hammering Hamas chiefs with pinpointed intelligence is Israel's new war focus - http://www.debka.com/article/24207/Hammering-Hamas-chiefs-with-pinpointed-intelligence-is-Israel-s-new-war-focus-Ministers-in-mutiny
The fact that, after six weeks of the Gaza war, Israel has no victory to show for it and Hamas can still fire 100-150 rockets a day, has sparked a ministerial mutiny against the way the war is managed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon. The replies offered by the two war planners in a televised press conference Wednesday night, Aug. 20, failed to satisfy their critics. A radio interview with one of those critics, Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar, the next morning, showed that the opposition to Netanyahu was snowballing beyond the vocal right-wing ministers Avigdor Liberman and Naftali Bennett. It had been joined by pro-diplomacy Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, head of Hatnua, as well as cabinet members from the prime minister's own Likud.
The hard questions they are asking includes another: Why engage in diplomacy with the Hamas terrorist group in the first place, when it is obvious that Israel will have to make major concessions that would further strengthen Hamas' grip on the Gaza Strip. The IDF should be allowed to finish Hamas off and rid Gaza of a terrorist regime which abuses its people and menaces Israel.
Netanyahu answered his opponents by giving he war a new direction, which he termed "hammering versus attrition" - his answer to the war of attrition launched by Hamas.
In other words, the prime minister has once again opted for dragging the Gaza war into a new phase rather than heading straight for a clear-cut victory.
The IDF embarked on this new phase Tuesday night, Aug. 19, shortly after Hamas resumed rocket attacks on Israel in violation of a 24-hour ceasefire, and Israeli negotiators quit Cairo for an indefinite absence.
Using pinpointed military intelligence, Israeli bombers struck a building in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, where Muhammed Deif, Hamas' military chief, had hidden his family.
Netanyahu and Ya'alon counted on breaking the news of Deif's death as a bombshell at their Wednesday press conference. But this was not to be. Deif's wife and infant son died. Biut Hamas wrapped so many layers of secrecy and disinformation around the incident, that no one can tell whether its military chief came out of the massive bombardment alive or is dead.
Deprived of this trump card, the prime minister lost no time in striking again.
Thursday morning, the Israel air force, acting on precise intelligence, leveled a four-storey house in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, killing three leading lights of Hamas' southern command:
Ra'ad al-Atar (Abu Ayman), commander of the Rafah Brigade, Mohammed Abu Shamala (Abu Khalil), commander of the Southern Brigade; and Mohammed Barhoum. All three were deeply engaged in developing Hamas' capabilities, including digging tunnels to Israel and smuggling weapons into Gaza.
Netanyahu's "hammering" campaign had begun to unfold as the singling out of Hamas military leaders and commanders for assassination.
It is hard to say whether they would have been left alone if the Deif hit had succeeded.
It stands to reason that the IDF could have hit the three southern commanders back in the last week of July, during its punitive operation for the killing of Lt. Hadar Goldin by Hamas and its abduction of his remains.
But activating a hit list against Hamas chiefs in the third week of August takes the war in a direction which Netanyahu and Ya'alon refused to countenance until now - expansion.
It also closes off their preferred solution of the conflict - a diplomatic accord based on the Egyptian initiative which would inevitably lead to the new political horizon, which the prime minister promised Wednesday was awaiting Israel.
Netanyahu also denounced the ministers who inappropriately voice their objections to government policy in the middle of a war.
Gideon Sa'ar rejected this complaint. He also stressed that the Cairo negotiations must not be revived, because the only winner from the process would be Hamas, which would use its ill-gotten gains to beat the rival Fatah led by Mahmoud Abbas into submission.
"Hamas must be defeated for Israel to gain a new political horizon," he said. "And the cabinet is against negotiating terms with a Palestinian terrorist organization."
If the interior minister has got it right, Netanyahu and Ya'alon no longer have a majority for the way they are running the war in the security-political cabinet - and possibly even in the full cabinet too.
Hamas conducts summary mass executions against IDF intelligence penetration - http://www.debka.com/article/24209/Hamas-conducts-summary-mass-executions-against-IDF-intelligence-penetration
Hamas put 18 Palestinians before firing squads as Israel informers Friday, Aug. 22. Eleven were executed at a police station in Gaza City; then seven were shot dead publicly in a square outside the central mosque.
The Palestinian fundamentalists exposed the excruciating brutality of their methods to warn off Israel's Shin Bet and army intelligence from future targeted killings of its commanders. Hamas has avoided confronting the IDF which is massed outside the Gaza border and moved the war to its home front.
The Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip know they have to contend with local Palestinians willing to serve Israel, because of their total exposure to the loss of family, friends, livelihood, homes - or even their lives - under IDF bombardment in retaliation for Hamas rocket fire against the Israeli population.
Those who have already suffered such losses are more than ready to act as the Israeli air force's target markers - whether for remuneration, or to get back at Hamas rulers who have brought death and disaster down on them and their families.
Hamas security agencies hunted down the Palestinians who were suspected of leading the Israeli Air Force and its smart precision bombs to their targets this week: Military chief Mohammed Deif, whose fate is still unknown, and the commanders of southern Gaza.
The Palestinian Islamists, who lean heavily on Iranian and Hizballah advisers, seem to have taken a leaf out of their methods in order to halt Israeli liquidation of their military chiefs.
Some of the 18 victims summarily executed Friday were most likely innocent, but were not afforded due process to clear themselves of the charge of collaboration. That is the way of these extremists. By its action, Hamas set its feet on a course from which there is no return, only war to the end.
The gruesome images coming from the Gaza Strip brought to mind chillingly the video of the Islamic State's unspeakable murder of the American journalist James Wright Foley aged 40, perpetrated in punishment for US air strikes in Iraq.
It took the Palestinian Hamas just three days to demonstrate it had not changed its spots and belonged to the same barbarian fraternity as IS.
The tragedies of 18 anonymous Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are not likely to affect the course of events in the Middle East. However they should at least dispel any illusions in the minds of Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or even Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, that there is any prospect of drawing to the table the savage Hamas, any more than the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, for any kind of productive negotiations to end the Gaza conflict.
While those three leaders seriously seek a political resolution to the Gaza conflict, Hamas is eager for nothing but bloodshed.
Netanyahu-Sisi-Abbas lineup tells Hamas: Accept an extra month's truce - or Ramallah will - http://www.debka.com/article/24197/Netanyahu-Sisi-Abbas-lineup-tells-Hamas-Accept-an-extra-month's-truce---or-Ramallah-will
The Egyptian and Palestinian Authority delegations slapped down an ultimatum for Hamas when negotiations for a durable Gaza truce resumed in Cairo, Sunday, Aug. 17. debkafile's intelligence report that Hamas was given the option of declaring a one-month extension of the five-day ceasefire which runs out Monday midnight, or else the announcement would be made from Ramallah Monday in the name of the Palestinian national unity government. This was the first joint action taken by the triple bloc formed by Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for pushing the Islamist Hamas-Islamic Jihad duo up against a wall.
Their lineup, backed from the wings by Saudi King Abdullah and Russian President Vladimir Putin, set itself five objectives:
1. To confront Hamas with a solid political-security front which is beyond its power to break.
2. To corner Hamas into accepting the Egyptian ceasefire proposion unchanged and unconditionally.
3. To compel Hamas to disarm, i.e. dismantle its rockets and tunnels, so pulling the teeth of its military wing, Ezz e-Din al-Qassam.
4. To distance the Obama administration from the triple bloc's dealings with the Palestinian Islamist factions.
5. To keep the Europeans from interfering in those dealings.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy meeting in Brussels offered Friday to take charge of Gaza's border crossings and work to prevent illegal arms flows.
Saturday, Cairo, Jerusalem and Ramallah politely informed Brussels that they preferred to handle this situation on their own and no European diplomatic or security assistance was needed.
The quiet shaping of this three-way alliance for resolving the Gaza conflict, by means of a sustainable cessation of hostilities, kept most of Israel's and world media guessing, says debkafile. In the interests of tight secrecy, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon chose to keep the rest of the cabinet in the dark as well, incurring loud complaints from ministers.
The proposition the three partners have formulated puts Hamas and Jihad on the spot. The Arab world has abandoned them and their only source of funding is Tehran. So their choices are grim: Face an escalated war that Israel will fight until the bitter end, or swallow hard and accept the only proposition on the table which is tantamount to disarmament and capitulation.
Their isolation is complete. The Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders have managed to cut Hamas away from any backing in Washington, Qatar and Turkey as well as blocking its path to Moscow.
To encourage Hamas to choose the right path, the Israel Air Force is cruising around-the-clock over Hamas bases and command centers in the Gaza Strip, ready at a signal to switch to the offensive if the Palestinian fundamentalists make the wrong choice in Cairo.
Mahmoud Abbas, who appeared to be sitting on the sidelines of the Gaza conflict during Israel's month-long military operation, finally threw in his lot with Sisi and Netanyahu when it came to the crunch.
The tone of address adopted by Netanyahu at Sunday's cabinet session was a pointer to the tough new mood prevailing in Jerusalem: "Hamas is mistaken if it thinks it can come out of a military defeat with a diplomatic victory... or that we lack the resolve and endurance for a drawn-out conflict," he said..
A solid Netanyahu-Sisi-Abbas lineup confronts Hamas-Islamic Jihad at resumed negotiations in Cairo - http://www.debka.com/article/24197/A-solid-Netanyahu-Sisi-Abbas-lineup-confronts-Hamas-Islamic-Jihad-at-resumed-negotiations-in-Cairo
A three-way bloc fronted the talks for a durable truce in Gaza when they resumed in Cairo Sunday, Aug. 17. debkafile's intelligence sources report exclusively that Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have lined up in a solid phalanx against the Islamist Hamas-Islamic Jihad alliance.
Their lineup, backed from the wings by Saudi King Abdullah and Russian President Vladimir Putin, set itself five objectives:
1. To confront Hamas with a solid political-security front which is beyond its power to break.
2. To corner Hamas into accepting the Egyptian ceasefire proposion unchanged and unconditionally.
3. To compel Hamas to disarm, i.e. dismantle its rockets and tunnels, so pulling the teeth of its military wing, Ezz e-Din al-Qassam.
4. To distance the Obama administration from the triple bloc's dealings with the Palestinian Islamist factions.
5. To keep the Europeans from interfering in those dealings.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy meeting in Brussels offered Friday to take charge of Gaza's border crossings and work to prevent illegal arms flows.
Saturday, Cairo, Jerusalem and Ramallah politely informed Brussels that they preferred to handle this situation on their own and no European diplomatic or security assistance was needed.
The quiet shaping of this three-way alliance for resolving the Gaza conflict, by means of a sustainable cessation of hostilities, kept most of Israel's and world media guessing, says debkafile. In the interests of tight secrecy, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon chose to keep the rest of the cabinet in the dark as well, incurring loud complaints from ministers.
The proposition the three partners have formulated puts Hamas and Jihad on the spot. The Arab world has abandoned them and their only source of funding is Tehran. So their choices are grim: Face an escalated war that Israel will fight until the bitter end, or swallow hard and accept the only proposition on the table which is tantamount to disarmament and capitulation.
Their isolation is complete. The Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders have managed to cut Hamas away from any backing in Washington, Qatar and Turkey as well as blocking its path to Moscow.
To encourage Hamas to choose the right path, the Israel Air Force is cruising around-the-clock over Hamas bases and command centers in the Gaza Strip, ready at a signal to switch to the offensive if the Palestinian fundamentalists make the wrong choice in Cairo.
Mahmoud Abbas, who appeared to be sitting on the sidelines of the Gaza conflict during Israel's month-long military operation, finally threw in his lot with Sisi and Netanyahu when it came to the crunch.
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