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March 13, 2008
Sabotaging a Peace Deal

There was a short ceasefire between Hamas in the Gaza strip and the Israeli government.

This cheasefire was initiated through informal talks in Egypt. For a few days no rockets were launched towards Israel and the IDF refrained from further killings in the Gaza strip. Hamas published a list of conditions to formalize and prolong this temporary truce into a longterm armistice.

Hamas’s terms mirrored proposals raised by Egyptian mediators trying to piece together a truce deal, which would also end Gaza rocket attacks on Israel by militants from Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

Violence has declined sharply over the past week. A ceasefire could foster progress in U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas last June.

So there was a wider deal in the making between Hamas, the Palestinian Authority under Abbas and Israel to reopen the border crossings to Gaza. But some Israelis didn’t agree:

Abbas said Monday during a meeting with Jordanian journalists that "a senior figure in the Israeli government is undermining the negotiations for internal reasons and because of personal hostility to me." He was in Jordan to meet with King Abdullah.

A Jordanian journalist who published the story noted that Abbas is referring to Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Barak and others have no interest in peace. They set out to reignite hostilities and yesterday ordered the assassination of four Palestinians in Bethlehem:

Witnesses confirmed that undercover Israeli forces sprayed the car with bullets once, then moved closer to the car and opened fire again, as if attempting to make sure the men were dead.

Passersby pulled the bodies of the four men from the small red car, which had been parked in front of a bakery when the Israelis opened fire. The men had been waiting for their dinner.

This was not a some necessary action to avert an immediate attack. As Haaretz explains:

The four militants killed in Bethlehem were on the IDF’s wanted list for around eight years, and the operation where they were eliminated was a settling of scores by the police anti-terror squad and the Shin Bet security service.

Was it also urgent? Apparently not. The four were not associated with any specific terror alerts. The decision to launch the operation was probably more a matter of opportunity than immediate need.

Opportunity for what?

The killed men belonged to the Islamic Jihad, a group not under control of Hamas. This morning the group responded to the assassinations by launching some 15 rockets towards Sderot. The Israeli army will of course ‘retaliate’ for these by killing more people.

Meanwhile Barak is bragging about his heroic deed of again sabotaging any attempt for a peaceful solution:

Speaking at a memorial service for slain Israel Defense Forces soldiers whose burial locations are unknown, Barak said Israel had proven its commitment to this goal on Wednesday when troops killed four wanted militants from the Islamic Jihad organization in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

The ceasefire talks are thereby officially finished before they began in earnest. Barak is hoping to use the renewed violence to unseat Olmert as Prime Minister and take that position for himself.

That attempt will cost more Palestinian and Israeli blood. But such has never stopped Barak who during his career blocked peace deals again and again.

The ‘western’ media will of course skip over this little episode and again blame Hamas, Iran or whoever they see as the villain of the day for not wanting a peaceful solution.

Posted by b on March 13, 2008 at 13:16 UTC | Permalink
Comments

here’s the subtitle for a NY Times article this morning on their RSS feed:
“Rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza, and the Israeli Air Force carried out its first strike in Gaza for nearly a week”
so anyone just browsing by might well get the impression it’s those dastardly militants that just never give poor peace-loving Israel any respite.
mission accomplished.

Posted by: ran | Mar 13 2008 14:04 utc | 1

Well, how can Barak hope to be taken seriously by Palestinians as a partner in negotiations if he’s using something close to a death squad just to be the next PM?

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Mar 13 2008 14:42 utc | 2

Shoot to to kill

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Mar 13 2008 16:53 utc | 3

?…nothing about this here in Denmark where the worry is that people “down there” won’t by our cheese, butter and stuff like that because of the gd reprinting of the “Mohammed cartoon” and some related, but rather complicated issues that would be OT.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Mar 14 2008 19:35 utc | 4

Slightly off topic, but good historical context on a little discussed component of Israeli operations: Review of Army of Shadows, Palestinian Collaboration With Zionism, 1917-1948.

Posted by: Alamet | Mar 14 2008 23:52 utc | 5

Palestinian Forces’ Training Marred by Delays, Politics

A U.S.-funded program to train and equip Palestinian security forces is mired in delays, a shortage of resources, and differences between Israelis and the Americans over what military capabilities those forces should have once deployed in the territories.
Weeks into the course, which began in late January, U.S. and Jordanian instructors had yet to receive essential training equipment, including vehicles, two-way radios, dummy pistols, rifles and batons, and a U.S.-designed curriculum, Americans with close knowledge of the program said. Because of Israeli concerns, the group of more than 1,000 Palestinian trainees has not been outfitted with pledged body armor or light-armored personnel carriers. The shortages and delays have forced U.S. and Jordanian trainers to improvise their way through the program, including purchasing pistol-shaped cigarette lighters for use in arrest drills and using their own cars for driver training. One of the Americans said, “In short, we are faking it.”
…
Although Israel insists that the Palestinians must have effective security in the occupied West Bank and Gaza before its forces withdraw further, the Israeli government has placed significant restrictions on the U.S.-coordinated training effort.
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Course manuals, provided by the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL, arrived after the courses began, the Americans said. The course work is in English, program administrators acknowledged, even though most of the trainees speak only Arabic.
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One American said trainers had to edit out sections on how to use tanks and grenade launchers to breach buildings, among others involving offensive military tactics.
“Is that normal for training? No,” said William J. Durch, a senior associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington research group, and an expert in training international security forces. “Is that normal for a program that someone simply wanted to get going for political purposes? Yeah.”
…
Israeli officials have blocked delivery of body armor to Palestinian forces of a grade capable of stopping rounds from the M-16 assault rifles used by Israeli troops, American officials said. That level of armor, however, is needed to protect against AK-47 fire from Palestinian fighters.

Posted by: b | Mar 15 2008 9:07 utc | 6

Given that Hamas’ charter openly advocates violence towards not only Israel, but Jews in general, it’s kind of bizarre that anyone would claim that Hamas is interested in any peaceful solutions. To make that claim credible they have to change their charter and to formally recognize Israel, the way the rest of the world did many decades ago, and the way international law requires.
Hamas’ offer of a “truce” is just a subterfuge to give them time to rearm and continue their violence. There’s absolutely nothing to indicate that they are interested in peace with the Israelis, or, for that matter, even with their fellow Palestinians, who they continue to attack and fight. I’m no fan of the parties currently in charge of the Israeli government, nor of Barak, but he’d be absolutely insane to take seriously Hamas’ claim to be interested in peace. Like I say, if that was true, then they’d prove it, which they continually refuse to do.
Hamas is not in any position to offer any “conditions” of any sort whatsoever, and Israel is under no obligation to make consessions simply to get someone to recognize international law and the authority of the UN.The Palestinians need to formally recognize Israel and change the charters of both the PLO and of Hamas, before Israel should undertake ANY negotiations at all or stop their self-defense efforts. They should do this unilaterally and without any expectation of any Israeli concessions. Nothing else will do at this point. There have been 60 years of attempts by the Israelis to achieve peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians, who have been offered their own state many, many times, but the Palestinians clearly aren’t interested. Now it’s time to stand up to them and make it clear what they have to do … or suffer the consequences.

Posted by: mike | Mar 15 2008 19:02 utc | 7

@Mike – The Palestinians need to formally recognize Israel
Could you please tell me within what borders the Palestinians should, in your view, recognise an entity Israel?
1946 – 1947 – 1949 – 1968 – 2007?
Where are these borders?

Posted by: b | Mar 15 2008 19:24 utc | 8

Gideon Levy: A minister of war

Defense Minister Ehud Barak is a bitter disappointment. He was the first statesman who dared suggest brave, though lacking, solutions. Now, he has turned into the chief saboteur of any chance for a calm in the fighting, a cease-fire or diplomatic progress. Barak has long forsaken talk of peace. He certainly does not believe in Olmert’s peace initiative and is trying his best to destroy it.
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Instead of issuing a clear IDF order to calm the area to coincide with the government’s new initiative, he is doing everything he can to disrupt it. And we have yet to mention morality: Long gone are the days when targeted killings were disputed. When people argued they were carried out only against “ticking bombs.” Now, even retired terrorists are being killed in cold blood in their cars. They are charged with old crimes and executed without trial, instead of being arrested, a method that would prevent the next outbreak of violence while remaining moral.
…

Posted by: b | Mar 16 2008 13:05 utc | 9

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