FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

Everybody’s jumping on the bandwagon:

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Another UN agency joined the chorus of alarm on Friday about the devastating consequences of Israeli restrictions on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, in the run-up to a Palestinian donors’ conference.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that the restrictions Israel tightened after Hamas seized armed control of the territory in June could irrevocably damage the Gaza economy.

It was the third international report released this week about the mounting difficulties endured by the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, following findings from the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.

Let’s leave aside the fact that huge amounts of Iranian money are being spent to smuggle weapons and explosives into Gaza, to support the construction of fortifications on the Israel-Gaza border, to pay the Hamas ‘security’ forces, and to keep the Qassam missile factories humming.

Let’s look at some of the reasons that the Israeli authorities are not allowing free passage from Gaza into Israel.

Today a Qassam rocket damaged a kibbutz factory. Luckily no one was injured. Yesterday a woman was seriously hurt in Sderot when a rocket crashed through the roof of her home and exploded, throwing her into a wall. On Wednesday, more than 20 rockets hit in and around Sderot, and one person was injured. This has been continuing day in and out since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinians complain that sick people have to pass through checkpoints if they need medical treatment that is only available in Israel. In July of 2005 (shortly before the withdrawal) a young woman named Wafa al-Bis was arrested at one of these checkpoints carrying explosives. The BBC described the incident:

Israeli officials said Ms Bis, who comes from the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, was burnt in a cooking accident five months ago, and had received treatment on humanitarian grounds in the Beersheba hospital.

They said she was making another trip for follow-up treatment on Monday, but planned to blow herself up instead.

In an interview shown on Israeli television, Ms Bis said her “dream was to be a martyr”.

She said she was recruited by the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – an off-shoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction.

And here is an example of the Gaza ‘economy’ that the World Bank is so worried about:

The IDF [this August] uncovered an underground tunnel leading from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, the army said Wednesday. The tunnel shaft was connected to a Gaza hothouse used to grow tomatoes and situated 700 meters from the border fence…

Army officials believe that a terror attack had been foiled by uncovering the tunnel. According to estimates, Palestinians planned to use the tunnel in order to smuggle explosives and [place] them under an Israeli military or civilian target.

The IDF was also looking into the possibility that the tunnel was slated to be used to smuggle terrorists into Israel. — YNet

So here are some questions for the World Bank et al:

• Would you want the Gazans for your neighbors?
• Whose fault is it that there are restrictions on passage from Gaza to Israel?
• Wouldn’t the best way to improve the Palestinian economy be to base it on something other than murder?

Technorati Tags: World Bank, Gaza, Israel, terrorism, al-Bis

Speaking of who pays for terrorism,

WASHINGTON – The United States Agency for International Development gave the Islamic University in Gaza nearly $1 million in foreign aid from 2002 to 2006 according to an audit conducted by the agency’s inspector general…

Throughout the four-year period, the agency conducted several inquiries into its funding of the Gaza institution and on each occasion concluded that there was no reason to cease American funding.

The Islamic University also repeatedly claimed that there was no reason to halt the aid on the grounds that it did not support terrorism…

[U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill)] pointed the inspector general of the aid agency to the fact that former Palestinian Prime Minister and current Hamas government head, Ismail Haniyeh, sits on the Islamic University’s board of trustees. Additionally, Palestinian security forces seized assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades during a raid of the university in January. — YNet [my emphasis]

Why do I think they should have been suspicious of the “Islamic University of Gaza”?

Technorati Tags: Gaza, USAID, Hamas, Mark Kirk

Those of us who felt that the Second Lebanon War was an unmitigated disaster for Israel might take some comfort in the fact that a great deal of pain was inflicted on Hizbullah.

Some of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s responsibilities have been taken away by the organization’s backer Iran, the pan-Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat claimed Thursday.

Reportedly, Nasrallah is no longer in control of the organization’s military wing, which is now headed by Nasrallah’s deputy Sheikh Na’im Kassem.

The Iranian official Asharq Alawsat cites as the one who demoted Nasrallah is none other than Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei…

Western intelligence sources cited by Asharq reported that Teheran was furious over Nasrallah’s conduct during the Second Lebanon War and that was the reasoning behind the decision to diminish Nasrallah’s authority. — Jerusalem Post

If nothing else, this emphasizes just how much Hizbullah is a creature of Iran. Indeed, the same article mentions that

Hizbullah’s budget in the last 18 months has been $1 billion, to compensate the organization for the losses it suffered during the war. Hizbullah’s yearly Iranian budget stands on $400 million, [an Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer] added. [my emphasis]

Can you imagine if an enemy of the US were paying billions to terrorists in southern Canada to fire missles across the border and kidnap our soldiers?

Hizbullah is directly supplied through Syria and financed by Iran. The terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad receive similar support, as well as help from Saudi Arabia.

Keep this in mind when you hear that the conflict is between the Israeli Goliath and the oppressed Palestinian Davids.

Condi Rice should think about this when she compares Palestinians to blacks in the segregated South. And then ask herself who is paying and supplying the insurgents that are killing our soldiers in Iraq.

It isn’t Israel.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Nasrallah, Hizbullah, Iran

FresnoZionism.org is one year old this month. The first post, on December 6, 2006, was inspired by the publication of the Iraq Study Group report with its appalling suggestion that the US buy its way out of Iraq by betraying Israel — an idea that, unfortunately, seems to have become policy.

This is the 725th post. Since the beginnning, FresnoZionism has gotten about 60,000 page hits from about 10,000 unique IP addresses. Only some fraction of these are real people reading it, of course. There are 247 comments on these posts, many of them by the indefatigable Shalom Freedman in Jerusalem. There are 33 other sites with links to FresnoZionism right now. All of this makes us small potatoes in the blog world.

Writers and editors are nourished the thought that somewhere someone is actually reading what they produce. Thank you all for this.

Hours after the security cabinet ruled against a large military operation in the Gaza Strip, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Wednesday that it was impossible to defeat a terrorist group without having control on the ground.

During the day, more than 20 Kassam rockets were fired into the western Negev, pounding Sderot and outlying communities. A young girl was lightly wounded by shrapnel in her leg and two others were treated for ringing in their ears after one Kassam struck the middle of a residential neighborhood in Sderot.

“I don’t think that this reality can continue for much longer,” Ashkenazi said at a conference on Israel’s future security challenges at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. — Jerusalem Post

The rocket attacks have barely missed a day since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza strip (the withdrawal was complete in September 2005). In 2006, over a thousand rockets were fired. They have killed 12 Israelis and caused numerous injuries and much property damage.

The rockets and Israel’s disinclination or inability to respond effectively to them are emblematic of the whole situation. The Qassam rockets are not significant in a military sense. Although they are aimed at the civilian population they are not even a real terror weapon, like the German V-1’s and V-2’s.

They are a psychological weapon, designed to crush the self-image and spirit of Israelis. Every rocket that falls and drives shrieking children into a shelter carries the message “we can do whatever we want to you, you cannot defend yourselves, you are nothing”.

But like the chemical warheads that mix two by-themselves harmless substances to form a deadly agent on impact, the Qassams are binary weapons. Unlike the chemical warheads, though, the rocket only carries one half of the destructive payload. Without the second component, the rockets are almost harmless. And that component is Israel’s weak response.

The Chief of Staff is not the only one that understands that there is no alternative to an incursion and continued military occupation of strategic parts of Gaza, including the Beit Hanoun area from which many of the rockets are fired, and above all the ‘Philadelphi Corridor’ which runs along the Egyptian border, and under which weapons, explosives and terrorists are smuggled.

So what’s stopping it? Surely the government understands the damage the rocket barrage is doing.

Here are some of the deterrent factors:

1. Hamas has built fortifications, tunnels, bunkers, etc. along the Gaza-Israel border which would be difficult to overcome, and the fight would bring Israeli casualities.
2. An incursion into heavily populated Gaza would result in Palestinian civilian casualties.
3. A fight in Gaza might cause Hezbollah to open a second front in the North, firing its (more potent) missiles as in 2006.
4. The US, in order to placate the Arab nations that are so important to her effort in Iraq, has forbidden Israel from anything more than limited operations.

The IDF can overcome obstacles 1-3 by careful and creative planning. Ashkenazi believes this, which is why he has made the remarks quoted above.

But he can’t overcome no. 4. Only an Israeli government with the strength of character and self-respect to face the US as a sovereign nation can do this. And it’s not impossible:

• Sooner or later the US will realize that its real enemies are the same as Israel’s enemies. Our relationship with Saudi Arabia has cost us dearly, and our re-engagement with Iran and Syria promises more of the same.
• The US has few real allies in the Mideast, and especially not ones with an effective military and nuclear capability — except Israel.

Strength of character. Self-respect. And a belief in the rightness of the Zionist enterprise, the creation (and now preservation) of a Jewish state in her ancestral home.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Gaza, Gabi Ashkenazi