A quiet intifada in Jerusalem - Nadav Shragai - http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=9859
On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. - Zechariah 12:3
A "quiet intifada" has been taking place in Jerusalem for a few months now. It's "quiet" because the media isn't telling you about it.
Gaza, ISIS, and the Golan Heights are definitely important, but meanwhile, hush-hush, without anyone saying anything, Jerusalem is becoming divided. There have been thousands of incidents of attacks on Jews, with rocks thrown, fireworks shot as weapons (the newest thing), and Molotov cocktails hurled at Jews where the east and west of the city meet, as well as dozens of cases of frustrated Jews attacking Arabs. Not to mention isolated cases of shootings spattered throughout the city, reported on in the back pages of newspapers.
Jerusalem is now criss-crossed by the "geography of fear" (a phrase coined in the First Intifada). Many fewer Jews and Arabs venture out of their own neighborhoods to "the other side." The everyday contact between Arabs and Jews, which in quieter times was never much discussed, is on the wane.
Islands of normalcy, coexistence and cooperation -- hospitals, transportation, and the workforce -- still exist, but are showing cracks. The Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital, where Jewish and Arab staff treats Arabs and Jews alike, is constantly the target of rocks and Molotov cocktails. Arab drivers who work for Egged or other companies are getting beaten for nothing by hotheaded Jewish thugs.
Even the Bedouin along the highway between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim have become involved.
In "border" neighborhoods like Armon Hanatziv, which faces Jabal Mukabar, or French Hill, across from Issawaia, Jewish residents have begun organizing self-defense. The small pockets of Jewish settlement in the City of David, in Kidmat Zion, in the Muslim Quarter, or in Beit Yonatan, find themselves under siege repeatedly. The dozens of wildfires in the city and its environs -- even near the Knesset -- are also related to hostile activity.
Two buildings, one in Armon Hanatziv and another in Neveh Yaakov in the northeast of the city, represent the breakdown in Jewish-Arab relations in Jerusalem and the implosion currently underway in the capital. Elisha Ben-Kimon of the Yedioth Jerusalem local paper has documented the deteriorating relations between the Jews and Arabs who live together in these buildings. It's nothing to be proud of. There is a lot of mutual racism and loathing, but these are only symptoms of the general atmosphere.
The true litmus test that will determine the future story of the continued unification or eventual division of Jerusalem is the light rail, which crosses the city from the south (Mount Herzl) to the north (Pisgat Zeev) via the Arab neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina. Originally, the advanced system was intended to provide a solution to heavy traffic on the city's roads and crowded public transport. In practice, the train has become a symbol of the fragile coexistence. The train expresses everything about Jerusalem that is sane. For three years it has served hundreds of thousands of Jews and tens of thousands of Arabs each month. The number of violent interactions was next to nothing. But the murder of teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir in retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teens in June, turned it into a symbol of the unrest when hundreds of Arab youths from the north of the city turned their anger against the light rail, destroying stations and vandalizing expensive equipment.
The train was back in operation a few days later, but ever since, nearly every day, rocks and Molotov cocktails are thrown at it -- about 100 such incidents thus far, two or three a day. The municipality and the police insist -- rightly so -- that it continue to run through the Arab neighborhoods. Now the train has become the flag of a faltering coexistence, and anyone who lowers that flag is in effect waving a white one.
The police are proud of the enormous number of arrests they have made, over 600. Some 250 indictments have been issued, but the fact is that no deterrence has been achieved. The police, like the army, must demonstrate more creativity. Intelligence networks must be improved. The city should be flooded with police officers and soldiers to reach the ringleaders of the violence. If nothing else avails, those leaders should be kicked out of Jerusalem, the way arch-inciter Sheikh Raed Salah was. The court will allow it, if it is presented with evidence. If we don't come to our senses quickly, it's only a matter of time before the quiet intifada in the capital heats up.
Israel signs $15 billion gas deal with Jordan - Marissa Newman - http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-signs-15-billion-gas-deal-with-jordan/
15-year agreement makes Israel chief energy supplier for kingdom; minister hails 'historic' move
Israel signed a memorandum of understanding with Jordan Wednesday, under which it will supply the Hashemite Kingdom with $15 billion worth of natural gas from its Leviathan energy field over 15 years.
The new deal is the largest collaboration with Jordan to date, and will make Israel its chief supplier, according to the Globes business news website.
The final agreement will be subject to the approval of Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom, who is expected to confirm it. According to Globes, the US was involved in the negotiations. US envoy Amos Hochstein was said to attend the signing of the memorandum.
Representatives of the Delek Group Ltd. and Nobel Energy Inc. were in Jordan to sign the agreement.
Shalom hailed the agreement, and referred to it as "a historic act that will strengthen the economic and diplomatic ties between Israel and Jordan."
"At this time, Israel is becoming an energy superpower, which will supply the energy needs of its neighbors and strengthen its standing as a central source of energy supply in the region, and I welcome it," he said in a statement.
In February, Israel signed a deal with Jordan to supply $500 million worth of gas to the Hashemite kingdom from the Tamar natural gas field in the Mediterranean.
The Jordanians turned to Israel because their supply of natural gas from Egypt had been halted by repeated terrorist attacks on the gas pipeline from Egypt, a Channel 2 report said.
Israel decided last year to export 40 percent of the country's offshore gas finds, and has since signed a 20-year, $1.2 billion deal with a Palestinian firm, and in June signed a letter of intent to supply energy to an Egyptian facility as well.
In March 2013, Israel began pumping natural gas from the Tamar deposit - discovered in 2009 and located some 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of Haifa - which holds an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
In addition to Tamar, in 2010 an even larger deposit, Leviathan - which boasts an estimated 16-18 trillion cubic feet of gas - was discovered 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Haifa. It is expected to become operational in 2016.
The finds are expected to transform Israel from an energy importer to a major world player in the gas market.
The decision on gas exports grew out of conclusions published by the Tzemach Committee headed by former Water and Energy Ministry director general Shaul Tzemach. The committee, formed in late 2011, had called on Israel to keep the first 450 billion cubic meters for domestic use, and allow the export of up to half of any additional amount extracted from the proven reserves.
The latest deal to date comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a "new diplomatic horizon," and improved regional ties, in the aftermath of the recent military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, the prime minister ordered police to dismantle a newly-erected bridge from the Western Wall to the Temple Mount due to Jordanian pressure, Haaretz reported. A senior official said the construction of the bridge did not receive official governmental approval, and the prime minister was informed of the project through Jordanian diplomats, who lambasted the move.
Egyptian troops hunt Hamas, Islamic Jihad rocket gangs loose in Sinai - Palestinians stall on truce talks - http://www.debka.com/article/24235/Egyptian-troops-hunt-Hamas-Islamic-Jihad-rocket-gangs-loose-in-Sinai-Palestinians-stall-on-truce-talks
A wide-reaching Egyptian military hunt is on across northern and central Sinai for intruding Hamas and Islamic Jihad rocket squads and the launching sites they have buried beneath the desert surface, according to debkafile's exclusive military and counterterrorism sources.
In the last week of warfare with Israel, up until the declaration of the Aug. 26 ceasefire, Hamas and Jihad secretly moved rocket teams across the border into Egyptian Sinai. They plan to use them as a second front for resuming rocket fire on Israel, or provide themselves with a lever in case no deal comes out of the Cairo negotiations later this month for a durable ceasefire and the rehabilitation of the shattered Gaza Strip.
Egyptian and Israeli intelligence surmised at first that only a handful of rocket teams had got through to Sinai and intended to pick them off quickly by air strikes. But in the course of the pursuit, it turned out that the two Palestinian terrorist groups had put down a substantial and elaborate network of sunken rocket pads across northern Sinai and along the Egyptian-Israeli border.
It is linked to a remote activation system located in Bedouin villages and encampments, which also serve as the teams' contact points. Hamas and Salafi groups from Gaza pay the tribesmen, who also work with Al Qaeda's Ansar al-Maqdis, to provide them with food and water. Hamas has long maintained strong operational ties with al-Maqdis. For an independent supply of ordinance, Hamas set up rocket manufacturing workshops in the northern Sinai towns of Rafah and Sheikh Zweid.
Two days after the ceasefire went into effect, the semiofficial Egyptian news agency Mena quoted an Egyptian military source as disclosing that, on Aug. 21, "Thirty-one huts and houses used as launching pads and workshops for rockets were destroyed in the crackdown."
Then, on Monday, Sept. 1, Gen. Will Safti, head of the Palestinian desk at Egypt's intelligence service, arrived in Ramallah. He came for an attempt to bring the quarrelling Hamas and Mahmud Abbas' Fatah factions together for a coherent Palestinian line at the forthcoming talks in Cairo for a permanent ceasefire, political and economic solutions for rebuilding the Gaza Strip, and for the establishment of stable Palestinian Authority rule over the territory. Those talks were scheduled to take place after the ceasefire had held for one month.
But the acrimony between Fatah and Hamas was described as so relentless, that the Egyptian officer gave up and returned to Cairo, without hope of bridging the differences between them or setting a date for the comprehensive Gaza talks to begin.
It is now feared in Cairo that Hamas will take matters in its own hands and activate the covert rocket gangs in Sinai for a resumed barrage against Israel - only this time it will be launched from Egyptian soil. Hamas' Gaza command will then be able to deny responsibility and Israel's hands will be tied for hitting back.
In Gaza City, meanwhile, Hamas announced Monday that it was doubling the budget earmarked for its military wing, Ezz e-Din al-Qassam. There was no word about where the Palestinian fundamentalists had found the tens of millions of dollars they had lavished on their fighting arm.
Israel downed a drone over Golan after it was identified as a Hizballah Ababil 2 - http://www.debka.com/article/24233/Israel-downed-a-drone-over-Golan-after-it-was-identified-as-a-Hizballah-Ababil-2
DEBKAfie's military sources report exclusively that the UAV, shot down Sunday Aug. 31 by an Israeli Patriot battery over Quneitra on the Golan, was launched by Hizballah - not Syria as initially reported. The Iran-made Ababail 2 was on a photography and intelligence-gathering mission over the Golan battleground where the Syrian army and rebels have been fighting for control off the Quneitra crossing between Syria and Israel.
Our sources add that Hizballah launched the unmanned aerial vehicle from a Syrian air base attached to Damascus international airfield, where Hizballah keeps a fleet of Ababil 2 drones transferred from Lebanon.
When the IDF picked up the drone on course for Quneitra, the information was flashed to top Israel government and military decision-makers, who decided on the spot that the Golan military situation was messy enough without a new complicating factor entering the fray. And so it was decided to shoot it down.
Arrayed against Syrian troops on this sliver of land, are at least five insurgent groups, the largest of which is the Syria Revolutionaries Front. Another is the Syrian Al Qaeda offshoot, the Nusra Front. Around 1,100 troops of the UN Disengagement Observer Force are responsible to policing the buffer zone between Syria and Israel that runs through Quneitra.
The Fijian contingent's 44 members, who were abducted Thursday, Aug. 28 by Al Qaeda, are being held in an unknown location as hostages for a ransom that has not been published.
Our military and intelligence sources reveal that, shortly before the abduction, various intelligence watchers spotted a number of Hizballah officers who had arrived on the scene. It was generally estimated in Israel that the Lebanese Shiites were not planning to join the fighting, but had come out of concern that Syrian rebels would manage to drive Syrian troops out of Quneitra and its surrounding villages, and then break through to the Syrian villages on the Hermon and the Chabaa Farms on the Western slopes of the Hermon range. From there, the way would be open for the Syrian insurgents to reach southern Lebanon and mount another front against Hizballah from the rear.
The Druze villages on the Syrian slopes of the Hermon are loyal to Bashar Assad and appear to be preparing to resist the rebel advance should it take place.
HIzballah sent its drone to bring back firsthand information on the state of play in the struggle for Quneitra, as well as on Israel's military deployment just across the border. That was one reason for sending an Israeli Patriot into action to down the aircraft. Furthermore, Israel stood by last Thursday, when Syrian warplanes came overhead and bombed rebel positions in the Quneitra crossing, although this was in breach of the 40-year old accord for the separation zone's demilitarization.
At the same time, Jerusalem relayed a strong warning to Damascus against any recurrence. Next time, Israel would shoot down any intruders. It was therefore important for the IDF to make good on that warning and down the Hizballah drone for the sake of deterrence.
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