'IDF training for possibility of an ISIS strike from Sinai or Golan Heights' - http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/The-IDF-is-training-for-the-possibility-of-an-IS-strike-from-Sinai-or-Ramat-Hagolan-436547
"It would be very hard to organize and carry out an attack on the scale of Paris, in Israel. Not impossible, but hard," former national security adviser says.
Yaakov Amidror, former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed concerns regarding the Islamic State threat on Israel in an interview with Israeli radio channel 103 FM on Monday.
"Let's break down the threat into three possible scenarios," said Amidror, "There's no need for hysteria," he said.
He said that the description of an ISIS attack on Israel as imminent is exaggerated.
"Islamic State can strike Israel in one of three ways," Amidror said.
The first would be through the establishment of an IS affiliated terror cell within the Arab Israeli community. "This cell would have access to enough weapons, intelligence, and explosive materials to carry out a Paris-style attack in Israel," Amidror said.
The Shin Bet would be able to handle this threat, according to Amidror. "Up until now the Shin Bet's coverage of Arab Israelis has not been bad," he said. Only two of the assailants in the recent wave of terror that struck Israel were Arab-Israelis.
This first possibility is not of utmost concern, Amidror said. "It would be very hard to organize and carry out an attack on the scale of Paris, in Israel. Not impossible, but hard."
The second scenario in which an IS terror cell could strike Israel, the former security adviser said, is through the creation of cells among Palestinians in the West Bank or east Jerusalem. "It would be easier for them to organize in those communities," he said. "Those types of environments foster a less-tolerant view of Israel," he said. "That's where Hamas terror cells arose in the past, so we need to take into consideration the possibility that a similar IS terror cell could arise in the future."
Amidror assured that the Shin Bet was properly monitoring this possible scenario as well.
The third way that IS could exert its influence into Israel, according to Amidror, is through cross-country borders. "IS could come from across the border," he said. "The IDF drilled for this scenario recently."
Amidror said that IS is exerting influence in Egypt - training heavily in Sinai - and forming cells in the Golan Heights.
"There could always be a surprise cross-border attack, but the IDF is prepared for this possibility," Amidror assured.
Knife Intifada - By Matt Ward - http://www.raptureready.com/soap2/ward40.html
Israel is under attack and victim of a new type of terror.
While the world has been distracted by events in Paris, Syria and the almost daily horrors caused by ISIS, Jews have been dying daily in Israel. The Palestinians have launched an undeclared Third Intifada. This new and very deadly uprising has been caused primarily by the president of the Palestinian Authority-Mahmoud Abbas. His constant baiting and lies over the Temple Mount have provoked a spasm of blood and murder from the young Palestinian men and women that he leads.
Abbas has consistently claimed that Israel intends to cut Palestinians access to the Temple Mount and Al Aqsa Mosque complexes. This is a lie and completely false. The Israeli government has no such aspirations, yet Abbas has continued to spew his hate-filled rhetoric resulting in the deaths of a significant number of Israelis.
Even worse, Imams from all over Gaza have preached from their Mosques of the need for Palestinian men and women to rise up against this perceived oppression in defense of Al- Aqsa using whatever means they can; cars, guns rocks or knives. This, they have been doing, in quite some numbers.
The Knife Intifada, as it has become known, is causing a political and social crisis within Israel. Jews have been run over and rammed to death by Palestinians terrorists in cars. Young children have been seriously injured by rocks thrown onto the wind shields of moving vehicles. Jews have been shot and killed, and unsuspecting men and women of a variety of ages have been stabbed, seriously injured or killed.
An old woman in her eighties was recently chased down by a knife wielding Palestinian man in his mid-twenties. When apprehended he said he was proud of his actions, as were his family as he was "resisting." Truly nothing speaks of courage like the sight of a young man with a knife running down an old woman. Incredibly brave!
This Intifada is affecting the psyche of ordinary Israelis. They are used to feeling besieged from outside their borders, but to experience terror in their own neighborhoods day in and day out is beginning to have a profound effect.
Imagine no longer daring to look at your mobile phone as you walk down the street because of the need to stay alert in case you are attacked.
Imagine waiting for a bus at a bus stop and standing behind the bus shelter instead of in front of it for fear that you may be rammed by a car and seriously injured.
Imagine trying to only walk down the sidewalk toward oncoming traffic so you at least have some warning should a car stray from the road to try to kill you.
If you are a woman, imagine not wearing high heels anymore in case you have to run for your life.
Or imagine making sure that you don't leave anything embarrassing in your home in the morning, in case someone else has to come back to your house that evening because you cannot.
Yet in surveys the overwhelming majority of Israelis remain determined that they will not look on every Arab as if they could be a terrorist. Israelis have determined that they will not stop going to work or to the gym, to the cinema or to restaurants. Many Israelis have determined that they will not lose their perspective amid this growing threat to themselves and their families.
Their spirit is reminiscent of the Blitz spirit seen in London during the 1940s. The fact that ordinary Palestinians are prepared to leave their homes and randomly attack Jewish men, women and children with complete disregard for their victims or their own survival-is as a result of the years and years of lies and hate with which they have been indoctrinated.
Through schools, mosques, social media and their own government, Palestinians of all ages have been fed a daily diet of hatred and lies toward Israel for almost seven decades. This message has now become a generational one.
This Knife Intifada has put the political leadership of Israel at odds with the leadership of the IDF. The Israeli Defense Forces believe they have a solution to this nightmare; a complete lockdown of all Palestinian areas. This would even involve Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem and Palestinian-populated areas of Judea, Samaria and Hebron for an indefinite period.
Israeli military and intelligence experts are of the opinion that the desired effect of a de-escalation of attacks will only be achieved by an ultimatum: Give up terrorism or be cut off from Israel and therefore die economically.
Netanyahu, while leaving this option open, is deeply fearful that a total lockdown on Palestinian areas will have a negative effect politically at home and internationally. (This is an under-statement.) IDF commanders are of the belief that if the Palestinian terror is not stopped it will continue to escalate to the point where the hand of Netanyahu will be forced to take action.
Netanyahu fears that if his hand is forced and the IDF's plans for suppressing this wave of terrorism is implemented then it would be seen as a declaration of all-out war by the Palestinians and lead to a dramatic escalation between the two sides, ultimately ending in full-scale armed combat between them.
This would without question further deeply alienate Israel in the eyes of the world.
The awful strategic reality Israel faces is that with each passing year, most in the world seems to hate her more and more, irrespective of what she does or who is at fault. The fact that Palestinians are carrying out these horrendous attacks day after day on innocent Jewish Israelis is seen as irrelevant; it must be Israel's fault somehow because of the "occupation" as the warped logic goes.
Israelis are isolated and they do stand all alone at this point. This situation will only get worse in the days, months and years ahead. Israel is becoming more hated by all and approaching the day when the whole world will come against her (Zechariah 12:3).
Ultimately God is going to allow Israel to go to such a place of international isolation and condemnation that they have no other option but to turn to Him and to cry out to Him for deliverance. This is a part of that process and this abandonment by the world proves that He is once again beginning to turn His attention back to dealing with Israel.
This means that the closing of the Gentile age must be close at hand.
Like no other time before, we should be praying for Jerusalem and the Jewish men, women and children that live within Israel's precious God-ordained borders.
"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:3).
And, lest we should become arrogant, how long do we think it will be before radicalized individuals or groups within our own midst learn the lessons of this cheap, easy, asymmetrical warfare that the Palestinians are so effectively demonstrating, and will start attacking people in a similar manner within our own communities?
El-Sisi in Athens to press forward on big Egyptian-Greek-Israeli gas deal - http://www.debka.com/article/25070/El-Sisi-in-Athens-to-press-forward-on-big-Egyptian-Greek-Israeli-gas-deal-
Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi has arrived in Athens for three days of talks with Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras on a plan for establishing the first ever Mediterranean consortium for the joint exploitation of Israeli, Egyptian and Cypriot off-shore gas wells. debkafile's Middle East sources disclose in an exclusive report.
Tuesday, Dec. 8, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu defended his government's handling of Israel's offshore gas bonanza in a briefing to the Knesset Economy Committee, he faced a barrage of opposition criticism, much of which focused on unfounded claims that Egypt had dropped out of a deal for the purchase of Israeli gas.
The consortium, in advanced negotiation between the Egyptian president, Greek Prime Minister Alexs Tsipras and Binyamin Netanyahu, is designed for two goals. which are to satisfy the gas requirements of Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, and to export the remainder to Europe.
The three parties are studying three alternative plans:
1. Transfer the Mediterranean gas to Greece and then pipeline it to Europe: Greek Prime Minister Tsipras raised this option with Netanyahu during his unexpected visit to Jerusalem on Nov. 26. He proposed linking the Israeli gas fields, especially the largest Leviathan well, with the Cypriot offshore Aphrodite gas field and Egypt's Zohr Mediterranean field, and so make it possible to transfer the gas to Greece and from there to Europe.
Tsipras maintained that the European Union, of which Greece is a member, would consider taking part in the construction of the new pipeline networks together with the gas terminals necessary for exporting it.
2. Transfer the gas of all three countries via Turkey.
3. Build a pipeline from the Israeli oil port city of Ashkelon to Egypt. Western Egypt has two giant gas-processing facilities on its Mediterranean coast, one owned by British Gas and the other by Spain's Union Fenosa Gas. They could transform the gas to LNG for shipping by tanker to Europe.
In his briefing to the Knesset committee, Netanyahu maintained, "The bottom line is that I see the supply of gas as the basis for protecting (Israel's) national security, and we need to be strong in order to gain alliances and make peace."
In Athens, the Egyptian President echoed those sentiments when he said: "More cooperation is needed in these difficult times and in this sensitive area. Such cooperation could be in the exploitation of mineral resources, it could be an economic cooperation and even a military cooperation," he said.
In other words, joint exploitation of the Mediterranean gas fields will enable the countries of the region to confront the security challenges that they face, as well as facilitate economic cooperation and joint military efforts to protect the gas fields and pipelines.
debkafile's sources report that El-Sisi, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and the Israeli and Greek prime ministers are planning a summit meeting in the coming days to bring forward and seal a deal for the economic consolidation of the Egyptian, Israeli and Cypriot gas fields and the means for exporting the gas.
Despite the arguments put forward against the government's handling of the gas issue by Knesset members, including opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog and loudest opponent of the gas deal, his fellow party member Shelly Yachimovich, the key facts are indisputable.
Their party, the Zionist Union, constantly advocates a quest for peace based on regional alliances. Yet when an important regional alliance becomes feasible, on the basis of cooperation in the exploitation of Mediterranean gas, its leaders try and shout it down. They are even proposing to endlessly delay the entire project by petitions to Israel's Supreme Court. This step would make one of Israel's leading political parties guilty of frustrating one of the most important and productive political and security-related developments Israel has attained in recent years.
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