WORLD AT WAR: 10.22.16 - Fatah Prepares for War with Israel

Fatah Prepares for War with Israel - By Khaled Abu Toameh - http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=739

 

Fatah is a two-faced hydra; one face tells the English-speaking international community what it wants to hear, namely, that it supports a two-state solution and seeks a peaceful settlement to the conflict with Israel, while the other tells the truth: it is committed to an armed struggle and the "liberation of Palestine," and is even preparing for war with Israel.

 

Some 300 members of the Palestinian Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, have begun receiving "military training" in the Gaza Strip in preparation for war with Israel.

 

The armed wing of Fatah, Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - The Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division, announced that its members have been enrolled in a new military academy for training "fighters" in the Gaza Strip. The academy, inaugurated recently in the Gaza Strip, would train the "fighters" on various fighting methods "in the context of a program for preparing for any future battle" with the "Zionist enemy."

 

The Nidal Academy was named for Nidal Al-Amoudi, a top Fatah militant killed by the Israel Defense Forces on January 13, 2008, after he carried out a series of armed attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers during the Second Intifada. 

 

"The academy has been named after the commander Nidal Al-Amoudi (Abu Hussein) to fulfill his dream of qualifying the fighters militarily, morally, religiously and revolutionarily," explained a statement released by the Fatah armed group. Noting that some 300 "fighters" have already joined the academy, the group said that they have begun undergoing training in various methods of warfare.

 

"We have pledged to prepare an army of fighters by devoting our full abilities and energies to consolidate the option of armed struggle as the only means to liberate Palestine," the group declared.

 

The Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division is one of several Fatah-affiliated militias that continue to operate in the Gaza Strip despite Hamas's violent takeover of the area in the summer of 2007. These groups pose no threat to the Hamas regime, which is why they are allowed to operate freely in different parts of the Gaza Strip. 

 

The groups' explicit policy is to prepare for war with Israel and launch terror attacks against Israelis. Hamas, however, which expelled their leaders from the Gaza Strip and continues to persecute dozens of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip, is not on their hit list.

 

The Fatah-affiliated militia inauguration of its own "military" academy in the Gaza Strip is a novel move. In recent years, Fatah armed groups have posted videos of their men undergoing military training orchards and fields, far from the watchful eyes of their rivals in Hamas. Now it seems that Hamas has nothing to fear from the Fatah militants, as Israel is the sole target.

 

Thus instead of training their men to retake the Gaza Strip and liberate it from the oppressive regime of Hamas, the Fatah "fighters" are busy preparing for war with Israel or fighting among themselves.

 

Indeed, it appears that the Fatah armed groups are actually competing with Hamas for the title of "Most Prepared to Destroy Israel." Like Hamas, they wish to win the hearts and minds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by showing that they too support the "armed struggle" against Israel and seek to "liberate Palestine."

 

Fortunately for Hamas, the Fatah militias are rather preoccupied with internecine struggles. This leaves precious little time to think about ways of improving their people's lives.

 

Today, at least five other Fatah armed groups function in the Gaza Strip: The Abu Rish Brigades, the Jihad Jibril Brigades, the Abdel Qader Husseini Brigades, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Fatah Sukkur (Hawks). 

 

Some of these groups have in the past claimed responsibility for firing rockets at Israel. And there is not much harmony or love between these Fatah groups, whose members regard each other as rivals and political foes rather than comrades and colleagues.

 

Sources in the Gaza Strip point out that many of the members of these groups are former Palestinian Authority policemen who lost their jobs after the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. As such, many of them remain on the payroll of the Palestinian Authority, despite the fact that they are more than willing to lambast Mahmoud Abbas and his policies. 

 

In other words, these Fatah gunmen who are preparing for war with Israel are indirectly receiving their salaries from Western donors, including the US and many EU countries, who fund the Palestinian Authority.

 

The Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division recently launched a scathing attack on Abbas for attending the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem. 

 

Masked members of the group posted a video on social media in which they strongly condemned Abbas for attending the funeral, saying they are opposed to any form of "normalization" with Israel. They demanded that Abbas apologize to the Palestinians and Fatah, adding that the "armed struggle was the only way to "liberate Palestine."

 

More recently, the same group "welcomed" the shooting attack that was carried out in Jerusalem by Musbah Abu Sbeih and in which two Israelis were killed -- a 60-year-old grandmother and a 29-year-old police officer. "This heroic operation is a clear message that the armed struggle is a deeply-rooted doctrine among Palestinians," the group stated. "The operation is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation."

 

Make no mistake. These groups believe that they represent the real Fatah, the one that never recognized Israel's right to exist and holds on to armed struggle as the only way to "liberate Palestine." 

 

They are not breakaway groups. That is why they continue to operate under the name of Fatah. In their view, they are following the principles of their former leader, Yasser Arafat, who launched Fatah as a "national liberation movement" and never truly abandoned the option of an armed struggle against Israel. It is Abbas and his colleagues in Fatah, they say, who have deviated from Fatah's doctrine and true goals.

 

The power play among Fatah militias in the Gaza Strip reflects the wider division among Fatah's political leaders. According to Palestinian sources, Fatah leaders in the Gaza Strip have truly become disassociated from the faction's leadership in the West Bank. 

 

Abbas's aides blame exiled Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan for the schism, claiming that he provides dissenting Fatah officials with money, in an attempt to undermine the Palestinian president, who is also head of Fatah. Abbas recently summoned Fatah leaders from the Gaza Strip to an emergency meeting in Ramallah to discuss Dahlan's growing influence in the Gaza Strip and the rifts in Fatah. 

 

The move came after thousands of Fatah members who are loyal to Dahlan staged a large demonstration in the Gaza Strip against Abbas. During the protest, they burned and trampled on pictures of Abbas.

 

Such developments in Fatah are notable for a specific reason: by and large, the international community continues to perceive Fatah as the "moderate" Palestinian party with whom Israel should make peace. 

 

Yet Fatah is far from a single united bloc; many groups within the faction, in their own words, continue to seek the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle. Moreover, neither Abbas nor any of his senior Fatah loyalists in the West Bank have repudiated the war-set Fatah militias. Crucially, many of these Fatah militiamen continue to receive salaries from the Palestinian Authority.

 

Fatah is, in fact, a two-faced hydra; one face tells the English-speaking international community what it wants to hear, namely, that it supports a two-state solution and seeks a peaceful settlement to the conflict with Israel, while the other tells the truth: it is committed to an armed struggle and the "liberation of Palestine" and is even preparing for war with Israel. 

 

Worth noting as well is that some of these Fatah militias also continue to operate in some parts of those territories controlled by Abbas's security forces in the West Bank. And like their cohorts in the Gaza Strip, they too receive salaries from the Palestinian Authority.

 

Abbas has lost the Gaza Strip not only to Hamas, but also to his own erstwhile Fatah supporters, who are marching in a totally different direction from the Fatah leadership in the West Bank. The dispute between Fatah and Hamas, which has effectively split the Palestinians into two entities, one in the West Bank and the other in the Gaza Strip, is one reason Palestinians are farther than ever from achieving an independent Palestinian state. 

 

The infighting in Fatah and the gulf separating its leaders is another. Abbas's claim to sole Fatah leadership is hardly credible to even the most credulous of Abbas backers: thousands of his "fighters" are preparing for war with Israel.

 

ISIS hits Kirkuk, opens a 2nd front behind Mosul - http://www.debka.com/article/25730/ISIS-hits-Kirkuk-opens-a-2nd-front-behind-Mosul

 

No one doubted that the US-Iraqi-Kurdish offensive to liberate Mosul would be drawn out and fraught with unforeseen setbacks before the Islamic State was finally thrown out of its Iraqi capital. But on Oct. 21, five days into the Mosul operation, the ISIS terrorists landed their most severe blow, when Islamist fighters and suicide bombers suddenly hurled themselves on the Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk in a coordinated attack.

 

debkafile's military sources report that taking advantage of a chance to catch the US, Iraqi and Kurdish generals leading the attack on Mosul unawares, the Islamist fighters were able to open a second front to the rear of the main battle arena against ISIS.

 

Kirkuk is some 175km southeast of Mosul and 230km from Baghdad. By hitting this important oil city, the terrorists came close to enough to menace the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government region and its capital, Irbil, and expose the Kurdish Peshmerga troops fighting for Mosul.

 

Our military sources note that a large Peshmerga force of some 11,000 troops had been posted to secure the town and its oil fields, under the command of Gen. Mariwan Mohammed.

 

But then, on Wednesday, Oct. 19, the US-Iraqi-Kurdish joint command of the Mosul offensive decided that Kurdish reinforcements were necessary to provide the operation with greater impetus. The extra Peshmerga troops were accordingly ordered to set out from Khazar, 40 km east of Mosul, and join the coalition offensive.

 

However, what they missed, despite the mainly American spy satellites, drones and reconnaissance planes collecting intelligence, was an ISIS concentration clandestinely building up at Hawja, 57km east of Kirkuk. According to our military sources, some of the jihadists reported by the Western media to have turned tail on the run from Mosul had been gathering to the southeast, some 57km from Kirkuk. They stood ready to attack that town.

 

Their opportunity came when the large Kurdish group exited Kirkuk and headed out to Mosul. Kirkuk was left exposed without defenders.

 

Friday morning, the Islamic State launched its surprise attack on the defenseless oil city. Its fighters and suicide bombers slammed into four police stations, Kurdish security offices, residential neighborhoods and a power station to the north. Clashes continued during the day with unknown casualty figures on both sides.

 

At some point, the governor claimed control of the city was regained but residents reported the clashes continued.

 

ISIS said in a statement it had seized "half the city" and had also attacked the Dubiz power plant, killing all the security forces inside, but the claims were not possible to verify.

 

 

Iran Launches War Drills Amid Accusations U.S. Breaking Nuke Deal - Adam Kredo - http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-launches-war-drills-amid-accusations-u-s-breaking-nuke-deal/

 

Uses American-made jets, planes in air force drills

 

Iran on Monday launched a series of war drills that included the use of American-made planes amid accusations by top officials that the United States is violating last summer's comprehensive nuclear agreement, according to regional experts and Persian-language media reports.

 

Iran's Artesh Air Force kicked off a three-day series of drills aimed at displaying the Islamic Republic's air might, according to Iranian military officials who told the country's state-run press that the drills are in preparations for upcoming war.

 

"The goal of holding this drill is the creation of readiness so as to be able to combat any threat, and should a war occur, the Air Force will be the first force to enter the battlefield," Iranian Air Force Gen. Masoud Rouzkhosh was quoted as saying, according to independent translations of the original Farsi provided to the Washington Free Beacon. "The newest armaments of the Air Force like precision-guided bombs and laser-guided missiles will be used in this year's drill."

 

Iran is using many American-made jets in the drills, including F-4 and F-5 warplanes, as well as large Boeing airliners, which are aiding in mid-air refueling tactics, experts told the Free Beacon. Iran also is using Russian-made warplanes.

 

The three-day air drills, now entering their second day, come as senior Iranian officials repeatedly accuse the United States of violating its side of the nuclear agreement.

 

Iranian officials maintain that they will continue to fund global terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas, which are committed to Israel's destruction, despite objections from the United States.

 

"When they ask the foreign minister of America why do you violate your commitments under the JCPOA, they say we have acted on our commitments and even gone further than they require. However, Iranians must do certain things, such as ceasing their support for terrorists and halting their missile activities," Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, the head of Iran's Judiciary, was quoted as saying in Farsi-language reports on Monday.

 

"However, what they mean by terrorists are resistance groups like Hezbollah of Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, which have stood against the violations and crimes of the Zionist regime," Larijani said.

 

Iranian officials have reportedly pressed their counterparts in the United States to explain why America is not, as they claim, upholding its end of the nuclear deal.

 

Iran's outrage over the issue comes just months after the Obama administration made a secret cash payment to Iran of $1.7 billion as part of what lawmakers described as a ransom payment to free American hostages.

 

The Obama administration also has moved forward with new sanctions relief that is expected to provide Iran with even more financial resources, a large portion of which are suspected by Congress of being allocated to the country's military and terrorist organizations.

 

Top Iranian military commanders say the armed forces remain committed to removing the American presence from the region.

 

"The bloody wars of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the continued occupation of Zionists in Palestine, the war of the Ba'ath regime of Saddam against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the conflicts in Lebanon, Bahrain, and other events and incidents where each one [has featured] thousands of dead and maimed and brought about endless destruction, are only part of the behavior of the satanic governing body of America in the region," Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, deputy commander of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, was quoted as saying on Monday, when the war drills commenced.

 

"The presence of America in the region is a cancerous malign tumor that can only be treated by removing the filthy tumor and the ejection of America from the region," Jazayeri added. "In Iran, nobody will permit America to tie its failure to live up to its commitments to defense issues and the interests of the resistance"

 

Regional experts told the Free Beacon that Iran's rhetoric is part of an effort to squeeze more concessions from the Obama administration as it seeks to preserve the deal in the final months of its term.

 

"These comments are part of a calculated gamble to gain additional sanctions relief without any meaningful changes in Iranian behavior," Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Free Beacon. "By constantly referring to perceived failures in American compliance with the accord, Iran is able to threaten the durability of the deal, thereby demonstrating it has exit options."

 

"For months now, Iranian officials have provided a steady stream of criticism against the West for allegedly failing to live up to its own promises pursuant to the accord that would grant Tehran meaningful sanctions relief," Taleblu said.

Iran's efforts have appeared to pay off, as the administration has moved forward with several new plans to boost Iran's access to the global financial system.

 

"Just recently, Secretary Kerry attested to the U.S. going above and beyond the terms of the accord," Taleblu explained. "This was noted by officials in Tehran like Ayatollah Larijani as not being enough. This is a tried and true tactic by Tehran. During the negotiations with the P5+1 that led to the JCPOA, Iran was able to force concessions by upping the ante. This was most notably seen with the centrifuge cap. Now, in the deal implementation era, Iran is upping the ante in an attempt to garner additional relief."