MIDEAST UPDATE: 1.20.17 - Israel faces Bedouin population time bomb

Israel faces Bedouin population time bomb - http://www.debka.com/article/25890/Israel-faces-Bedouin-population-time-bomb

 

First Sgt. Erez Levy, 34, an officer in the operations branch of the Israel Police, was crushed to death Wednesday morning, Jan. 18, in a car-ramming attack at the Bedouin village of Umm-al-Hiran in the southern Negev region. He was laid to rest that afternoon at the military cemetery in the city of Yavneh. He left behind a wife and two children, along with his parents and siblings.

 

Levy's murderer, a 47-year-old villager, who was a member of the southern branch of Israel's radical Islamic Movement, was shot and killed.

 

Levy, along with hundreds of other policemen and members of the Border Police, had reached the outskirts of the Bedouin village to provide security for the heavy equipment arrived to carry out a court-ordered demolition of houses built illegally on state-owned land.

 

For the sake of an orderly operation without casualties, the various authorities had negotiated for months with Bedouin leaders on alternatives. The day before the outbreak, understandings with representatives of the village were concluded and a deal signed, under which they agreed to relocate to prepared plots in the Bedouin town of Hura.

 

 Wednesday dawn, however, found a large crowd descending on the village and a group of Israeli Arab lawmakers led by the United Arab Party's chairman, Ayman Oudeh, egging the villagers on to renege on the deal they had just signed for alternative housing.

 

In short order, the mob was rioting, throwing rocks and firecrackers at the police. The rampage culminated in a Bedouin ramming a jeep into a group of policemen, killing Sgt, killing Sgt. Levy and injuring a second officer.

 

Hours later, in an interview with the Army Radio "Galei Tzahal," another United Arab List lawmaker Jamal Zahalkeh, who was not there, claimed nevertheless, "The policeman wasn't run down, he was killed by gunfire from other policemen."

 

The evidence of helicopter video footage and witnesses on the spot confirmed that Yakub Abu Al-Kiyan picked up speed to deliberately smash his new jeep into the policemen who were standing at the side of the dirt road leading into the village. 

 

It also shows how the officers hesitated to open fire, deterred by the recent case of IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria who was convicted by a military court of manslaughter for killing an injured terrorist. At Umm Al-Hiran, police fired in the air rather than the killer-driver's head as he raced towards them. Only after two police officers were down was he shot and killed.

 

In the face of this tragedy, the police face hard questions about how they managed a highly sensitive operation finally ordered by the District Court and Supreme Court after long hearings of the residents' petititons. Why did they fail to cordon off the demolition site and surround its perimeter with border police sentries? Why were no roadblocks and police vehicles in place around the village to distance politicians and other troublemakers, including including Arab Knesset Members?

 

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh bears responsibility for this bungled operation, as well as those Israeli Arab lawmakers who habitually exploit any opportunity for inciting trouble.

 

Whoever is to blame, it cannot be denied that the Bedouin population, which is largely concentrated in the Negev, is becoming a ticking bomb for Israel. Statistics show that less than 2% of Bedouin eligible for conscription sign up for military service, mostly in the Border Police's patrol or tracker units.

 

At the same time, the fact that their villages are crammed with firearms, along with their familiarity with army and police methods of operation, prevent law enforcement arms from cracking down on rampant crime in the south. And not just ordinary crime: Bedouin lawlessness extends to involvement in terror, religious radicalization, support for the fundamentalist Hamas, road deaths and the systematic violation of building and zoning laws.

 

It was only a matter of time before the lawlessness exploded into fatal violence. On Wednesday, it was 1st Sgt. Levy who paid with his life.

 

Palestinian Authority News Agency: Trump Responsible for Spilled Blood If U.S. Embassy Relocated to Jerusalem - by Jack Tonhaben - http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/01/19/pa-threatens-holy-war-if-us-goes-ahead-with-moving-embassy-to-jerusalem/

 

The Palestinian Authority has issued dozens of threats against the planned move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, warning that such an act would bring war and an end to all previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

 

According to Palestinian Media Watch, noting that the PA often resorts to threats of violence when it seeks to thwart political action by Israel or other governments, the PA statements were made via official channels and on social media, as well as several Palestinian Authority officials on separate occasions.

 

The official WAFA news agency said in a clip aired on January 17 on Palestinian television that "the peaceful line of Mahmoud Abbas is liable to be cut off by the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem. Then the [spilled] blood will be the responsibility of American President [Donald] Trump."

 

Several Palestinian leaders have warned of a religious war should the US move its embassy.

 

Palestinian Minister of Religious Affairs Yusuf Ida'is "demanded that the sources of religious authority in Egypt, and particularly Al-Azhar and Dar Al-Ifta (Muslim religious institutions), speak about the danger of transferring the American embassy to Jerusalem. ... He emphasized that the decision to transfer the embassy means the destruction of the region and strife, and that this is liable to push the region towards a religious war," official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported on Monday.

 

Last week, the PA mouthpiece reported, "Secretary-General of the [PA] Islamic-Christian Council [for Jerusalem and the Holy Places, Fatah Revolutionary Council member], and professor of international law Hanna Issa said ... that this step will have disastrous consequences for the peace process, the two-state option, and the security and stability of the region, and will lead it into a religious war."

 

Speaking on Saturday, the Palestinian Authority's mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, stated that the potential embassy transfer is "an attack on Muslims worldwide."

 

"The promise of the President-elect to transfer the embassy is not only an attack on the Palestinians, but rather on [all] the Arabs and Muslims. The Muslims and Arabs will not remain silent when they see the aggression realized at the moment of the transfer of the embassy to occupied Jerusalem," Hussein was quoted by Al-Hayat al-Jadida as saying, according to the PMW translation.

 

Fatah official Abbas Zaki warned that moving the embassy would mean that the PA is freed from all past agreements signed with Israel:

 

Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki emphasized that the Palestinian leadership will not allow the transfer of the American embassy, and will be absolved of the previous decisions and agreements. He also warned against turning Palestine into a war zone if the new American administration decides to transfer it. ... He warned against the terrible dangers whose course cannot be predicted. Zaki emphasized that no power in the world can prevent the Palestinians, Muslims, and Christians as one from carrying out their national obligation to defend their occupied capital.

 

Posts on Fatah Facebook pages have called on the Arab world to unite around the Jerusalem issue and lamented the Arab infighting that has sidelined the Palestinian cause, PMW noted.

 

A cartoon reproduced on a Fatah Facebook page on January 10 shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a kippah on his head and a Star of David on his tie devouring the Dome of the Rock while Arabs are busy fighting each other. On the bottom of the Dome of the Rock is written "Jerusalem," and on the cloud of dust the Arabs are raising is written: "The Arab state of affairs."

 

PMW noted that the amount of threats has not been equaled since those of September-October 2015 intended to dissuade Israelis from visiting the Temple Mount. A wave of violence that started then, known as the "stabbing intifada," claimed the lives of 43 Israelis and 269 Palestinians.

 

 

Israel steps up shadow war with Hezbollah - By Ed Blanche - http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Voices/2017/01/17/Israel-steps-up-shadow-war-with-Hezbollah/6641484665638/

 

Israel's Institute for Nation­al Security Studies stressed in its annual strategic assessment, released Jan. 2, that Hezbollah remains the most serious threat the Jewish state faces.

 

It urged Israel's intelligence es­tablishment to intensity efforts to block the transfer of advanced weapons systems to Hezbollah - a process that may already be under way with a spate of air and missiles strikes against Syria.

 

The vast majority of the arms supplied to Hezbollah from Iran pass through Syria. Hezbollah, a key force keeping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power amid the war in the country, is reportedly building military bases and seek­ing to establish a presence in the disputed Golan Heights, a strategic volcanic plateau that overlooks Is­rael's agricultural heartland.

 

Iran, Hezbollah's patron and arms supplier, is listed as the second-ranking military threat by INSS, in part because of its distance from Israel.

 

Combined, Iran and Hezbollah, which serves as the Islamic repub­lic's strategic arm in the Levant, present a comprehensive threat to Israel that far exceeds any other. This ranges from Iran's growing bal­listic missile force and the nuclear weapons Israel's military leaders are convinced it will develop in the coming years to Hezbollah's emerg­ing tactical capabilities.

 

Much of that is due to advanced weaponry it amassed in recent years despite repeated Israeli airstrikes against weapons convoys and targeted assassinations in Syria and Lebanon of key figures in ac­quiring or developing Hezbollah's firepower.

 

Hezbollah is estimated - largely by Israel - to possess more than 130,000 rockets and missiles, in­cluding long-range weapons capa­ble of destroying city blocks.

 

In recent weeks, the covert war between Israel and Hezbollah that has dragged on for five years ap­parently flared again, possibly this time with higher stakes.

 

There have been several missiles attacks reported in Syria, all pre­sumably Israeli weapons launched from either the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights or from Lebanese airspace. These were ap­parently aimed at curtailing de­liveries of advanced weapons to Hezbollah that in the past have reportedly included Soviet-era SA- 22 air defense missiles, which, for the first time, allow Hezbollah to directly challenge Israel's control of the air in Lebanon and Syria, and Yakhont anti-ship missiles that could be used against Israel's off­shore gas facilities.

 

On Nov. 30, at least two missiles, apparently fired by Israeli jets in Lebanese airspace, hit a con­voy of trucks outside Damascus, triggering speculation the trucks were carrying advanced weapons to Hezbollah.

 

On Dec. 2, Israel report­edly conducted two airstrikes us­ing Popeye missiles around Damas­cus, one against a weapons depot manned by the Syrian Army's crack Fourth Armored Division at Sabbou­ra, northwest of the Syrian capital. The other blasted several cars near the Damascus-Beirut highway.

 

In a 3 a.m. strike on Dec. 7, several surface-to-surface mis­siles hit installations in the Mezzeh military airbase at Damascus Inter­national Airport, where Hezbollah maintains a high-security facility for receiving arms airlifted from Iran before they are trucked to Leb­anon. The missiles started several big fires at the airport, triggering major explosions.

 

In a separate attack on that date, Hezbollah facilities in and around the town of Zabadani, on the bor­der with Lebanon and a key junc­tion in the overland arms route to Hezbollah strongpoints, were hit. On Friday, Syria accused Is­rael of another missile strike on the Mezzeh base in a predawn attack that triggered multiple explosions and caused casualties.

 

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged for the first time in April 2016 that Israel has been mounting airstrikes in Syrian territory to curb shipments of what he called "game-changing weaponry" to Hezbollah.

 

The Jerusalem Post suggested on Dec. 8 that the Israelis' strikes the previous day had tar­geted "the presumed base of the Syrian Army's secretive Unit 450, a branch of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre that is at the center of the Assad regime's chemical weapons program north of Damascus."

 

On the same day, Israel's hawkish defense minister, Avigdor Lieber­man, raised the ante by claim­ing that the Israeli Air Force had thwarted an attempt to transfer chemical weapons from Syria to Lebanon.

 

If that is true, it suggests that Hezbollah and Iran may be pre­pared to escalate the covert efforts to upgrade Hezbollah's arsenal to a highly dangerous new level.

 

Lieberman often shoots from the hip and his comments may have had political overtones but it was the first time a top-level Israeli offi­cial had voiced such concerns.

 

These air and missile strikes con­stitute what the Israelis call a "cam­paign between wars," a concept that involves overt and covert oper­ations designed to thwart emerging threats, particularly the acquisition of advanced weaponry.

 

This is a finely balanced confron­tation short of war in which both sides observe certain restraints that will prevent hostilities escalating to all-out conflict.

 

But now Israel seems to be step­ping up the shadowy conflict with Hezbollah, as Iran seeks to estab­lish a presence in the divided Go­lan, a red line for Israel.

 

Lieberman warned that while Is­rael has no interest in intervening in the Syrian war, it would take ac­tion to preserve Israelis' security, particularly on advanced weapons transfers to Hezbollah. Israel, he declared, "will make decisions ac­cording to this policy without tak­ing other circumstances or restric­tion into account."