WORLD AT WAR: 10.19.19 - What Iran's Friends Are Doing in Gaza

What Iran's Friends Are Doing in Gaza - by Khaled Abu Toameh - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14961/iran-friends-gaza

 

As Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations pursue their efforts to spare the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip another war with Israel, the Islamic Jihad organization is promising its people more suffering, violence and bloodshed. The terrorist organization is also promising to continue the fight until it achieves its goal of annihilating Israel.

 

The Iranian-funded Islamic Jihad's latest pledges came as the organization, the second largest group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, celebrated this week the 32nd anniversary of its founding.

 

Tens of thousands of Palestinians participated in a major Islamic Jihad rally in Gaza City under the banner "Our Jihad [holy war] - The Promise Will Soon Be Fulfilled." The promise, of course, refers to Islamic Jihad's pledge to "liberate Palestine, from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River - a well-known euphemism for the destruction of Israel.

 

Particularly disturbing is that a large number of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, an enclave often described as suffering from a high percentage of poverty and unemployment, continue to support Islamic Jihad, one of the organizations there that has done nothing to improve the living conditions of its people. Their hatred for Israel seems to be stronger than any wish to better their situation by revolting against failed Palestinian leaders and groups.

 

Islamic Jihad has, since its establishment, brought on Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip nothing but misery, destruction and death.

 

During the Second Intifada, which erupted in September 2000, Islamic Jihad and its military wing, Al-Quds Brigades, took credit for killing dozens of Israelis in more than 60 terror attacks. Since 2008, Islamic Jihad has fired thousands of rockets and mortars from the Gaza Strip into Israel, killing and wounding several Israelis. According to Iran's state-run Press TV, Islamic Jihad terrorists fired 3,000 rockets at Israel during the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.

 

After the war ended, the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera TV network broadcast a video of Islamic Jihad's tunnel systems. In the video, an Islamic Jihad member declares that the organization is preparing for its next war with Israel and that the tunnels will be used to launch terror attacks and mortars on Israel.

 

In various statements marking its anniversary, Islamic Jihad could find nothing good to say about its "achievements" for the Palestinians. The organization did not use the millions of dollars it received from its sponsors in Iran to build a school or hospital in the Gaza Strip. It also did not use any of the funds to create job opportunities for the tens of thousands of unemployed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

 

Instead, the money went into building tunnels, and smuggling and manufacturing thousands of rockets and mortars to attack Israel.

 

The only education Islamic Jihad has been offering is one in which children and teenagers receive radical Islamist indoctrination and semi-military training. A report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center found that more than 100,000 Palestinian children and adolescents attend "summer camps" run by Islamic Jihad and Hamas each year:

 

"Their objective is to foster a cadre of future of Hamas [and Islamic Jihad] supporters and operatives for its military-terrorist wing and its organizational and administrative institutions. The campers learn the themes of 'the liberation of Palestine,' jihad and 'resistance' [i.e., terrorism], the destruction of the State of Israel, the so-called 'right of return' and other facets of the movement's anti-Israeli Islamist ideology."

 

In a statement last week, Islamic Jihad's military wing (Al-Quds Brigades) boasted that one of its major achievements in the past 32 years has been "instilling the spirit of jihad and sacrifice" in the hearts and minds of Palestinians. "The organization has always proved that our right to liberate our land can be achieved only through resistance, fighting and jihad against the criminal enemy," the statement added.

 

"The Zionist enemy knows that we are a thorn in its throat. We will remain so until the liberation of our land, from the river to the sea. We will continue to build our military capabilities."

 

In other words, Islamic Jihad's promise is one of unending toxicity: to go on poisoning the hearts and minds of generation after generation of Palestinians - as well as to continue investing millions of dollars in building tunnels and amassing weapons to ensure that the fight against Israel continues forever.

 

For Islamic Jihad leaders, easing the suffering of their people or ending the economic and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip pale in comparison to the real goal of pursuing the fight against Israel - even if that means sacrificing the lives of all Palestinians.

 

"Let us fight for our freedom," Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah said during the organization's rally on October 5.

 

"Be assured that victory belongs to those who pay the price for freedom and are always prepared to do so. Resistance and jihad are the only way to extract our right to Palestine. We stick to our right to all Palestine, no matter how long it takes."

 

Hamas also joined the celebration by congratulating Islamic Jihad on its anniversary and repeating the same threats to continue the fight and jihad against Israel. Salah Bardaweel, a senior Hamas official who attended the rally, heaped praise on his friends in Islamic Jihad for their continued commitment to waging terror attacks against Israel.

 

"We are proud of our relations with Islamic Jihad and its military wing," Bardaweel said.

 

"We are proud of all the resistance groups [in the Gaza Strip.] The policy of resistance and jihad is the genuine policy to liberate all Palestine, and the Palestinian people will not abandon this path. We will not accept any agreement that contradicts the project of jihad and liberation. Under no circumstances will we give up one inch of the land of Palestine."

 

Despite the ongoing threats by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Israel seems to have agreed to a temporary ceasefire with the Gaza-based terrorist groups. Last month, Israel even allowed the delivery of equipment into the Gaza Strip for constructing a new American-funded field hospital.

 

Last week, Israel was reported to have allowed thousands of Palestinians to enter from the Gaza Strip to conduct business and work at jobs, apparently as part of the ceasefire understandings reached under the auspices of Egypt, Qatar and the UN.

 

Earlier, Israel had allowed Qatar to deliver millions of dollars in cash to allow Hamas to pay salaries to its employees. In addition, Israel has allowed the UN to step up aid efforts in the Gaza Strip.

 

Evidently, Israel is doing more to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip than the leaders of Islamic Jihad and Hamas. As the recent statements by these leaders show, the two terrorist groups have nothing to offer their people. The only future they portray is one that consists of terrorism and jihad. The only future they promise is one where more young Palestinians will be recruited as suicide bombers and jihadis in a holy war whose chief goal is to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Iranian-backed Islamist state.

 

With leaders like these, the Palestinians do not need enemies. Hamas and Islamic Jihad simply continue their lies to the Egyptians, the Qataris and the rest of the world with their talk about a ceasefire with Israel.

 

For them, a ceasefire means further amassing weapons and preparing their people for war without worrying about Israeli military action. When will the international community pull its head out of the sand in which it has so long been buried and understand that with organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad running the show, the Gaza Strip will remain the humanitarian disaster that is so bitterly blamed on Israel?

 

 End time players in Syria--is the end near? - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com

 

The New York Times has written a blistering critique of President Trump's pull out of troops along the Syrian border that has resulted in not only Turkey trying to eliminate Kurds, but also firing on remaining US military and placing US nuclear weapons housed in Turkey at risk. The Times says it is rare to see the impact of a foreign policy decision so quickly, and that the move helped Russia, Syria and Iran. The past three presidents foreign policy decisions, however, have caused turmoil in the Middle East-Iraq invasion by Bush; Arab Spring by Obama; and now Turkey invasion by Trump. All helped Russia, Syria and Iran continue to gain an edge. The Trump move also helps Turkey and coalesces a prophetic force.

 

In Daniel 8:19, Gabriel says, "Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. The ram which you saw having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia." Strong's Concordance interprets the word "Grecia" in Hebrew as "Yavan, a son of Japheth (the third son of Noah), his descendants and their land." The Genesis 10 table of nations indicates this area was not only Greece (as Bible interpretations imply), but also the Eastern Mediterranean, including parts of modern Turkey (Magog, Tubal, Meshech). The ram would correspond with modern Iran.

 

According to the prophet Isaiah (17:1), "The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap." Many point to this verse to speculate when and how Damascus will be destroyed. There has been a lot of talk that this is the time that perhaps Isaiah's prophecy will be fulfilled. Damascus, after all, is hardly a city nowadays. It is maintaining a heartbeat after years of civil war and fighting that includes various al Qaeda terrorist groups, Hezbollah from Iran, Russian interests, American interests, Turkey, the Islamic State, and, of course the Assad government. Ezekiel 38 says that in the end of days, God will put a hook in Gog of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal (all in Turkey), to lead a coalition of Persia (Iran), Libya; and Ethiopia (Sudan) against Israel.

 

The ingredients for the end time battle are amassing, but a careful read of the scriptures in their context would reveal that the end is not yet. The words "in that day" and "on that day" are significant because they correspond to the Day of the Lord, such as Gabriel's interpretation saying "for at the time appointed the end shall be." These current events are bringing together many of the end-time players, but according to the prophets, it is not yet the end. There are many events Jesus describes in Matthew 24 that must occur. Another consideration is that in all the prophets' descriptions of these wars and battles, it is God, not men, who destroys Israel's enemies: Isaiah 17:7 and Ezekiel 38:23 both say that men will know their maker and nations shall know "that I am the Lord." Keep watching and praying. These are prophetic times.

 

 

Turkey, Russia, Iran: Filling the Vacuum - by Erick Stakelbeck - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15034/syria-kurds-turkey-russia-iran

 

On the Iran-Iraq border a few weeks ago, I found myself just a few hundred meters from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), standard bearers of a regime that has practically copyrighted the phrases, "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

 

At the Kurdish Peshmerga military base stood a series of small, white structures spread out across the mountaintops on the Iranian side of the border.

 

"IRGC observation posts," said one of my Kurdish hosts, eying the mountains warily.

 

The Pershmerga generals interviewed in Iraqi Kurdistan seemed eager to talk about the threat posed by the IRGC and the Iranian regime-not only to the Kurds, Israel and the broader Middle East, but also to the United States.

 

They were understandably more reticent, however, in discussing the other looming threat in their immediate neighborhood - an increasingly aggressive Turkey, led by Islamist strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 

Erdogan's longstanding threat to invade northeastern Syria - under the pretext of targeting terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - has become a reality. Following the sudden announcement by the White House that U.S. troops would "no longer be in the immediate area," and that Turkey would be "moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria," Erdogan's forces made their move. If reports are accurate, their targets, predictably, reach far beyond the PKK and prove that Erdogan had much bigger designs all along.

 

Turkish forces are reportedly shelling Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria indiscriminately, threatening the area's large Christian minority and deliberately targeting fighters from the U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group comprised mainly of Kurdish fighters.

 

In recent years, these same SDF forces, assisted by American air support, took the lead role on the ground in crushing the ISIS caliphate that had once covered 34,000 square miles of territory across Iraq and Syria. Now they're once again defending their homes and neighborhoods against jihadists - this time, from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has aligned itself with Turkish forces in the invasion.

 

A humanitarian crisis seems all but imminent, with more than 160,000 people having already been displaced by the fighting, according to the UN.

 

A distraught U.S. Special Forces member on the ground in Syria who witnessed the Turkish invasion up close told Fox News that "atrocities...are happening," and that U.S. forces, their hands tied by the White House's abrupt decision, are "sitting by and watching it unfold."

 

With President Trump's announcement last weekend that all U.S. forces are withdrawing from northern Syria, and with Turkish forces driving ever further into Syrian territory, the Kurds, in desperation, have now cut a deal with Russia and the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in hopes of finding some protection from Erdogan's expansionism. To see a longtime, loyal U.S. ally forced to turn to two anti-American regimes for survival is particularly troubling. As that same U.S. Special Forces member told Fox News, "The Kurds are as close to Western thinking in the Middle East as anyone."

 

Erdogan, by contrast, moves further from the West and Turkey's all-but-erstwhile NATO allies seemingly by the day. In response to European leaders' concerns over the Turkish invasion, Erdogan has threatened to allow 3.6 million Syrian refugees to flood Europe- echoing a similar threat he made last month.

 

While the White House announcement last week stated that, "Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years," it was Erdogan who allowed the Turkish-Syrian border to become a virtual sieve and transit point for thousands of jihadi foreign fighters to enter Syria during the height of the ISIS caliphate.

 

Trusting Erdogan - a committed Islamist in the Muslim Brotherhood mold - to oversee the thousands of ISIS prisoners currently held in northeastern Syria creates an instant fox-guarding-the-hen-house scenario. Already, there are reports that more than 785 ISIS fighters have escaped prison and detention camps in northeastern Syria amid the chaos of the Turkish invasion. Their swift recapture is likely not high on Erdogan's priority list.

 

Erdogan, has, in fact, openly harbored members of ISIS, as well as the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Turkish soil. Erdogan, who lamely insists that Hamas is not a terrorist organization, has repeatedly slammed Israel as a "terrorist state" and engages in some of the most vicious anti-Israel rhetoric by a world leader this side of Iran's mullahs.

 

His budding alliance with Iran and Russia, and his sweeping crackdowns on Turkish dissidents and journalists, have made Turkey's shift to the East all the more pronounced. In short, Turkey, under Erdogan's radical leadership, can be best described today as NINO, or NATO In Name Only.

 

The U.S. Congress is looking to push back against Erdogan's brazen foray into northeastern Syria. For months, there has been a bi-partisan effort on Capitol Hill to convince the Trump administration to implement sanctions on Turkey in the wake of its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system.

 

The events of this past week will likely only escalate pressure by Congress against the Erdogan regime.

 

Meanwhile, as Syria's Kurds try desperately to stave off a massacre at the hands of Turkish forces, Iraqi Kurdistan lies directly in the line not only of Turkish but also Iranian fire. As the Iranian regime continues - through Shia militias and other proxies, including the Houthis and Hezbollah - aggressively to expand its influence across Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon, the Iraqi Kurds interviewed fear that they could be next in Iran's crosshairs.

 

In September 2018, for instance, IRGC forces fired seven missiles into Kurdistan in what Iran's regime claimed was an attack on Iranian Kurdish dissidents based there. At least 11 people were killed in the strike, which occurred just a short distance from a Peshmerga military position visited by the author.

 

Today, the U.S. troop withdrawal from neighboring Syria, combined with the glaring lack of response by the West in the face of escalating Iranian and Turkish aggression in the region, have left Iraq's Kurds and other U.S. allies in the Free World feeling more exposed than ever to the expansionist aims of both Erdogan and Iran's mullahs.

 

Given the Kurds' painful history, including genocide at the hands of Saddam Hussein, and the threats they currently face, it's no wonder that many shared an affinity for Israel - and a concern for the future.

 

"We defeated ISIS," a Peshmerga general said, "only to see Iran and its Shia militias become stronger. They are filling the vacuum."

 

Islamist-led Turkey has now joined those same Iranian-led forces in filling that vacuum - with the full acquiescence of the United States.

 

 

 

 

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