Middle East Diary - 21 July 2014

 

His eminence praised the persistence of the Hamas resistance and the tremendous patience of the people of Gaza and strongly supported their rightful demands to end the current battle.

Sayyed Nasrallah heard from Meshaal comforting and confident stance, as he reassured that Hamas resistance was ready to make a second victory in July."  al-Manar

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Israel should seriousl think about agreeing to a cease fire.   It has been suggested by some of our European friends on SST that Hizbullah does not care about Gaza and will not fight the Israelis over  the "destiny" of th eGazans.  IMO Nasrallah is not making an empty gesture. If the IDF continues its ravishment of Gaza, Hizbullah will begin to fire into nothern Israel.   They can target just about anything in th enoerthern half of the country and have many, many weapons.  A good question now would be the degree of redundancy in Iron Dome.  pl

http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=162072&frid=23&seccatid=14&cid=23&fromval=1

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Hasbara work - "Now, there are 40 people in the interactive unit of the Israel Defense Forces, including videographers, animators, graphic artists and computer programmers, pumping out missives in six languages, on many platforms, in a tone much punchier than the typical news release. “Israel uses the Iron Dome to protect its civilians,” it said on Twitter over the weekend. “Hamas uses civilians to protect its rockets.”

 

Hamas has also tried to harness social media, though its categorization as a terror group by the United States and other Western countries has led Facebook and Twitter to block some official accounts. The Hebrew Twitter feed of its military wing had a polite, amusing exchange the other day with Israelis correcting its grammar."  NY Times

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An excllent article.  pl 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/21/world/middleeast/in-a-clash-between-israel-and-gaza-both-sides-use-social-media-to-fire-epithets-and-hide-behind-euphemisms.html?_r=0

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Iran - " Tehran: Iran has diluted its entire stock of medium-enriched uranium as required under a November deal with world powers, the UN atomic agency said in its latest report seen by AFP Monday. 

Even as talks to reach a nuclear deal with Iran were extended beyond an initial July 20 deadline, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Tehran was standing by its international commitments. 

As agreed under a so-called Joint Plan of Action reached in November, the Islamic Republic has cut half of its stock of 20-percent enriched uranium down to five-percent purity. 

The rest was being converted into uranium oxide. 

Tehran also refrained from enriching above the five-percent level at any of its nuclear facilities, the IAEA report said. "  Zeenews

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You will have noticed that you don't hear any of this in the US media and among the lunatics running the US Congress.  pl

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/iran-complying-with-nuclear-deal-un-watchdog_949001.html

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Gaza Fortifications - "The Hamas movement has developed three distinct types of tunnels:

The first consists of the many hundreds of tunnels along the border between Gaza and Egypt, most of which were sealed recently by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s new regime. These are "economic tunnels." They are designed to bring merchandise and raw materials into Gaza from Egypt. Over the years, and especially after Israel’s withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor (the route running along Gaza’s border with Egypt), these tunnels served as an “underground railroad” of sorts to bring in weapons, including the vast stockpile of rockets that have accumulated in Gaza.

The second network of tunnels is complex and has multiple branches running off it. This network, which was burrowed beneath the cities and refugee camps of Gaza — Khan Yunis, Rafah, Jabaliya, and Shatti — was designed to hide the stockpile of rockets and launchers. At the same time, other tunnels were dug to provide protection to Hamas leaders and allow them mobility. Every single leader of Hamas, from its lowest ranking bureaucrats to its most senior leaders, is intimately familiar with the route to the security tunnel assigned to him and his family. The most senior leadership has its own specific tunnel, which serves as a “war room” in times of emergency, such as the current military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Then there are the tunnels along the border with Israel. These were intended to allow Hamas activists from the Gaza Strip to infiltrate deep into Israeli territory. Israel had already established a security fence along its border with Gaza, which has successfully prevented countless terrorist infiltrations and attacks. So the border tunnels were dug beneath the fence." 

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What is depicted here and in the many pictures of these tunnels now available is a well built preparation of the battlefied for defense of an urban area as well as for leadership protection and "sally ports" into enemy territory for raiding operations.  This is reminiscent of the Hizbullah defensive system preparation that has existed in south Lebanon for a decade or more.  Israel will continue to lose men in its effoet to uprootthis system.  Enemy fighters can emerge anywhere to fight them from prepared positions.  pl

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/israel-idf-tunnels-gaza-underground-network-failure-welfare.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=bda396dff2-July_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-bda396dff2-93066749#ixzz387Z3KQ51

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 Jordan abandons the war in Syria - "Jordan is realigning its stance on the three-year Syrian crisis in response to recent developments in Syria and Iraq. Last week, Information Minister Mohammad al-Momani announced that Jordan “was not interested in training Syrian opposition forces on its territory” and that its “public policy has always been not to interfere in Syrian affairs.” He told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Jordan had never trained opponents of the Syrian regime and that it continues to support a political solution that will bring stability to Syria and decrease the effects of refugees, who present a great pressure on the kingdom’s resources and infrastructure.

 

Momani was reacting to press reports that US officials had confirmed that “Jordan was reluctant to host an expanded rebel instruction program” proposed by President Barack Obama, who had requested from Congress $500 million to finance it. After months of delays, Obama had decided to provide training and weapons to the moderate opposition and in June, national security adviser Susan Rice acknowledged that the Pentagon was aiding Syrian rebels with “lethal and non-lethal support.”"  Al Monitor

 

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Jordan has looked at the geopolitical "terrain' of its "neighborhood" as the Israelis call it and decided that it should not contribute further to the training and equipping of supposedly "moderate" Syrian rebels.  With IS across the eastern border beyonf H-4, and an internal fifthe column of Islamists both in the capital and in the south, Jordan cannot afford the luxury of indulging the R2Pers in their fantasies.  pl

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/jordan-syria-islamic-state-iraq-war-rebels-neutral.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=bda396dff2-July_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-bda396dff2-93066749#ixzz387aLd4kx 

 

Comments

[R2]

Good and about time for Jordan. If anything, King Abdullah would do well to help Assad any way he can in an effort to undo the damage caused by the R2P crowd.

In Mosul, the head sawers burned down an 1,800 year old church.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/20/ISIS-burns-1-800-year-old-church-in-Mosul.html

Geo. W. Bush and the "christian"Zionists have a lot to be proud of with their role in the GWOT.

[turcopolier]

All

"One officer, a veteran of Gaza operations, who left the fighting area for a few hours, told Haaretz: "I've been to Shujaiyeh before, but I've never seen it – or Hamas – like this before. Their equipment and tactics are just like Hezbollah. Missile traps and IEDs everywhere – and they stay and fight instead of melting away like in the past."

In the wake of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the IDF improved its fleet of armored personnel carriers (APCs), including more heavy Achzarit APCs and the new Namer, based on the Merkava tank. New Merkava MK IV was also acquired and equipped with TROPHY anti-missile systems, which is essentially a miniaturized version of the Iron Dome for armored fighting vehicles." Haaretz today.

Saggers will still go right through the armor up close especially on the sides. And then there are always the ubiquitous RPGs
pl

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

With the Middle East exploding, the title for the Obama Administration “Things Fall Apart” becomes more apt. Naked Capitalism has linked to an article that explains why he is the lamest of lame duck presidents. Neo-liberal capitalism is collapsing.

http://newleftreview.org/II/87/wolfgang-streeck-how-will-capitalism-end

“The capitalist system is at present stricken with at least five worsening disorders for which no cure is at hand: declining growth, oligarchy, starvation of the public sphere, corruption and international anarchy”.

Yes, the plutocrats are provoking wars between Shiites and Sunnis and with Russia. Israel is mowing the grass.

Unless the rule of law is restore, greed restrained and compassion rewarded, the remnants of the human race will be trying to survive and reproduce in a post-Apocalyptic Southern Hemisphere.

[Kunuri]

And let's not forget tank traps, big holes dug on regular butamin roads, concealed and covered with strong enough support beams below, but would easily collapse when a 40 ton tank crosses over. And with explosives below. It is foolish to go into hostile environments with armor, or with low tolerance for casualties.

[steve g]

His puffiness, Kerry, did respond to
Chris Wallace' questioning the advisabilty
of extending the talks for four months
with more or less the language used in
the zeenews article. The only part on
his segment he got defensive rather than
spouting unfounded allegations including
the video of the missle truck "going
back to Russia" with one rocket missing.
How an observer could conclude this is
beyond me.

[robt willmann]

Tunnels...another dimension added to above the surface (air space) and on the surface; for example, in the Vietnam War, the tunnels at Cu Chi--

http://www.amazon.com/The-Tunnels-Chi-Underground-Battlefields/dp/0891418695/ref=sr_1_1/179-8191666-2581307?ie=UTF8&qid=1405964660&sr=8-1&keywords=tunnels+at+cu+chi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crimp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Củ_Chi_tunnels

It is interesting that the Palestinians have dug tunnels from Gaza into Israel proper, and that some of those still exist without having been detected.

[jr786]

The only reason that propaganda like this works is that the ground has already been prepared. There are no Palestinians, only Hamas. If there actually were Palestinians, they might have to be considered capable of such white-specific concepts as patriotism, or defending one's home and family from invaders. But all wogs, whatever their nationality or religion, are incapable of such high minded, legitimate motives. Instead, they get painted with the same brush that all Southerners do - if they show any pride, they're racist bastards who want to re-institute slavery.

The same dynamic is at work here, and the Israeli paid for press knows it.

[Medicine Man]

It looks like Israel committed a strategic blunder with long-term consequences when they invaded southern Lebanon in 2006. They seem to have showcased their vulnerabilities for all to see and are now paying the price.

[Cee]

I just sent this video to CNN. Anyone think this will be aired?

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/war-crime-video-shows-sniper-killing-wounded-gaza-civilian

Btw...seven more IDF dead today.

[Cee]

Israeli shill Michael Oren said CHILDREN dug those tunnels!!

Another excuse to kill more of them so there will be more TELEGENIC VICTIMS as that bastard Netanyahu called them yesterday.

[oofda]

And now Israeal is losing the PR battle in the US - and Europe.

"Earlier this month, the IDF's Twitter feed had been full of images of besieged Israelis. But by this weekend Israel was so clearly losing the public-relations war that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained to reporters, tersely, that Hamas uses "telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/why-israel-is-losing-the-american-media-war.html?mid=twitter_nymag

[turcopolier]

The native Izzies and their returned newbies seem to be getting nervous, Bibi has taken to snarling on the air at people who challenge him even a little, and then there is Oren, CNN's "man on the Middle East." (irony alert) He left out the description of platoons of blind orphan children working in the tunnels in darkness while shackled together. At the end of a ten hour shift another child blind only in one eye is sent to lead them back to their orphanage. Hey. It worked for Basil II. pl

[R2]

Kunuri,

True enough, especially the part about the trap being laid with an explosive charge. A couple of years prior to Israel's move into Gaza in late 2008 Hamas destroyed two or three Merkavas in the manner you described.

It appears that this time around Hamas wasn't sleeping in class.

[Matthew]

Col: The Israelis will not--or cannot--admit that the siege is literally killing Gaza. That gives the Palestinians a lot of motivation.

[Fred]

Cee,
Obviously those four boys killed on the beach were combat engineers building an underwater tunnel to attack the IDF navy.

[markf]

Robt,
Third link should be:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cu_Chi_tunnels

[PeterHug]

I once completely floored a Bulgarian co-worker when he realized I knew of Basil the Bulgar-Blinder. Sometimes knowing history is useful...
:)

[Kunuri]

It does not even have to be an explosive charge, just a barrel of gasoline with a plunger detonator. Like trapping tigers in the jungle.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Their strategic blunder was invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

They elected war over building on the peace with Egypt.

That war made Iran a Mediterranean Power - something not existing for 2300 years.

[Cee]

Lord! You made me laugh. What a relief!

[robt willmann]

This article from the British Independent newspaper claims that the Israeli army is using flechette shells in Gaza, which explode and disperse many small metal darts--

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-israeli-military-using-flechette-rounds-in-gaza-strip-9617480.html

[jdledell]

I finally had a chance today to talk with my nephew, a captain in the Golani Brigade. He's in the hospital in Ashkelon with a bullet to the shoulder.

He confirmed that the situation in Gaza is a lot different than the last time they invaded. He said last time the IDF went in, they merely obliterated everything in front of them. They did not pay much attention to their flanks or rear. The IDF was supremely confident that this time would be no different giving no respect to Hamas' fighting abilities. The IDF knew there were lots of tunnels but there are A LOT more tunnels than expected.

The APC that was totaled with 7 deaths happened when a Hamas member popped up thru a precut hole in the cement sidewalk and fired an anti-tank missile to the side from like 10 feet away and then disappeared back down the hole.

My nephew was shot from a house where not 60 seconds before, the IDF had gone in and declared it totally empty. Two other members were wounded when Hamas gunmen suddenly appeared to their rear, 5 or 10 feet from the IDF men.

While he out of action, he reports that IDF movement has slowed considerably as they are being a lot more cautious than when they first entered Gaza. All the rubble from IAF bombing has made movement difficult as well as giving Hamas great hiding places.

[fasteddiez]

Do the Merkava's skirts feature reactive armor? If not, the shape-charged efp's can kill them between the road wheels. My opinions may suck ..... overall, but I think this was a decding factor for the IDF to decamp from Lebanon during the nineties

[Andrew]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBakqLUBWP0&bpctr=1405990552

Israeli sniper killing wounded civilian!

[Tyler]

It is kind of nuts to see what Hamas has done under such a crippling embargo.

Israel is quickly approaching a fork where it either cuts sling load (and opens up an entirely different can of problems as its weaknesses are exposed), or make a desert and call it peace.

Wonder which boogeyman they're going to try and pull out of their hat to get the US involved on a more personal level. Zombie Bin Laden?