Israel Update for June 2012

Hamas Owns Up

The Hamas movement, which usually claims its forces are not involved in rocket attacks, took "credit" for some of the firings. Probably emboldened by developments in neighboring Egypt, it was the first time the ruling Palestinian group had done so since April 2011. This admission prompted further IDF air strikes on Hamas militia positions. The IDF spokesman said several Palestinian were killed as they were preparing to fire rockets or mortar shells, or in some cases right after they had done so. On the morning of June 19, military helicopters spotted a group of militiamen planting roadside bombs just inside of the Gaza border security fence, apparently in anticipation of a possible IDF military move into the area. Several more Palestinian men were killed or wounded in that encounter. Later several non-combatants died when a wall collapsed after the IDF struck a nearby rocket launcher. Defense Minister Barak and other senior government officials made clear Israel was not afraid to launch a full-scale ground operation into the Gaza Strip if necessary. Vice Premier Silvan Shalom of the Likud party warned that "The more things deteriorate, the closer we come to a decision we don't want to make."

On the evening of June 20-a day which saw over 60 rockets directed at Israel-the so-called "military wing" of Hamas announced it had agreed to accept an Egyptian proposal to halt its fire if Israel would also do so. A statement posted on the Hamas web site said "Responding to the Egyptian efforts, we and the armed resistance announce our commitment to stop this round of confrontation as long as the occupation stops its aggression." Of course, it was a terror attack on unarmed civilian workers, planned by militant Palestinian Muslims in the southern Gaza Strip, which set in motion the so-called Israeli "aggression." As usual, IDF military strikes were directed at carefully pinpointed terrorist targets while Hamas and its cronies deliberately lobbed most of their rockets and mortar shells at Israeli civilian communities.

The IDF spokesman's office said the weapons arsenal under overall Hamas control includes many Iranian-produced Fajr-3 Grad rockets featuring more powerful explosive heads and longer ranges than older Palestinian-made Kassam rockets. The office added that longer range Katyusha and Grad rockets are being smuggled all the time into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, along with new anti-tank missiles and heavy mortars. Some of the weaponry is thought to be coming from the large arsenal once controlled by slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The office reported that during the past six years, rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has killed 44 Israeli civilians and injured nearly 1,700 others, some of them children.

Several Israeli commentators noted that the latest rocket barrage was barely reported by the international media, being especially ignored by television and radio networks like the BBC and CNN which are viewed all over the world. Some opined that if Israeli leaders feel forced to respond to continuing rocket fire by sending ground forces once again into the Gaza Strip-an option they are hardly pining for-that story would be heavily reported. In New York, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, handed a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, noting that "the lives of about a million Israelis are being paralysed" by the ongoing Palestinian rocket and mortar fire.

Trouble All Around

While focused on the rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials were also closely monitoring the jarring developments in neighboring Syria and Egypt during June. Military analysts noted that while the dramatic news coming out of Cairo has very grave implications for the future, the expanding civil war inside of Syria has the potential to directly involve Israel in a new military conflict at virtually any moment. Israel's Channel 10 network reported on June 16 that concern is mounting that the Lebanese Shiite Hizbullah militia might be preparing to try to move advanced weaponry, including SCUD missiles, into Lebanon from Syria. It added that the move would come in order to protect the weapons from falling into Sunni Muslim hands if the Assad regime is overthrown, as many predict will eventually occur. Veteran military reporter Alon Ben-David narrated the news story as video pictures showed some SCUDS being recently moved from the Syrian capital Damascus to undisclosed locations. It was not revealed how Channel 10 obtained the footage. Other reports said the missiles were moved to two air force bases outside of the city. Analysts said the SCUDS are actually owned by Hizbullah, which reportedly purchased them from the Syrian regime using Iranian money two years ago. An attempt to smuggle them into Lebanon at that time was met by public Israeli warnings that such transfers would not be allowed to take place.

Analysts warn that any fresh Hizbullah attempts to smuggle heavy weapons into Lebanon could easily spark off another round of conflict with the Muslim militia, which has received copious amounts of new weaponry since the 2006 war in clear violation of the UN-backed ceasefire which ended that conflict. Some say extremist Hizbullah leaders might not be terribly worried about any IDF interdiction since the militant group could then blame Israel for starting any subsequent full-scale conflict. This is precisely what occurred when the Israeli government ordered a first strike in 1967 after Egypt blockaded the southern port city of Eilat and moved troops into the Sinai Peninsula after signing a war alliance with Syria, both then backed by the powerful Soviet Union

The disturbing Channel 10 report came just a few weeks after regional media outlets said Sunni Muslim rebel forces brazenly attacked a Syrian air force base known as As Suwayda. It is located near the city of Daraa some ten miles east of the Golan Heights on the Syrian border with Jordan. The main highway from Damascus to Amman runs through the city. Thousands of refugees continue to pour through Daraa every week on their way to seek refuge in Jordan. Arab media reports said that on the morning of June 3, heavily armed rebel forces fired mortar shells at the air force base, setting scores of warplanes and assault helicopters on fire. They also reportedly managed to destroy some of the aircraft runways at the base. Israeli analysts say the strategic base is extremely important to the besieged Assad regime, being the closest to Israeli military forces stationed on the nearby Golan Heights. The attack came just days before Israeli Armed Forces Chief Benny Gantz expressed concern that Sunni Muslim terrorists might take advantage of the chaos in Syria to aim their weapons at IDF troops in the area. "We may face terrorist attacks on the Golan border fence," he told reporters while visiting the area.

The armed rebel assault near Daraa was significant for another reason. The Syrian uprising against the Assad regime actually began in the city in early March 2011. Syrian security forces arrested a number of children, all belonging to the same family, after some of them wrote anti-Assad slogans on a local school wall. When government officials refused to release the children, who ranged in ages from 9 to 15, anti-regime protests began outside a neighborhood mosque, calling for government reforms and an end to corruption. Syrian forces opened fire on the protestors, leaving four dead. Anti-Assad demonstrations and deadly government suppressions of them have continued in the city almost every day since then, as they have all over the fracturing country, leaving an average of 100 Syrians dead now every day.

Horrible Slaughters

Just a few days before the reported rebel action in the south of Syria-apparently conducted by military defectors-over 100 civilians were slaughtered in several villages near the town of Houla, north of the city of Homs in western Syria. The UN said among the dead were 49 children and 34 women. A UN probe concluded that the victims had been "summarily executed in two separate incidents." They added that survivors of the massacre testified the perpetrators were members of a pro-Assad group popularly known as the Shabiha, which is an Arabic word that roughly translates as "thugs." Like Hitler's "brown shirts," they are known to be doing the dirty work of the regime. The Syrian dictator claimed the attack was part of an "external war using domestic tools," which analysts said was probably a reference to some Al Qaida members thought to be fighting with the rebel Muslim forces. For the first time since the Syrian revolt began in March last year, PM Netanyahu condemned the Assad regime over the slaughters, calling for "the international community to act in the light of continuous Syrian atrocities."

Several other mass killings took place in the war torn country during June; the largest in the city of Hama where the UN said 70 people were murdered. Admitting his peace plan had totally fallen apart, UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan warned, "If the situation doesn't change, Syria faces all-out civil war." Others said it is now evident that such a conflict is already well underway. This seemed to be confirmed when UN monitors attempting to check on the Hama slaughter came under armed attack as they approached the city, prompting the UN mission chief to order all his monitors back to their bases until further notice. He added that the situation does indeed now appear to have escalated into a full-blown civil war.

American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned the Russian government during June that its refusal to sanction UN action against Syria would add explosive fuel to the conflict, which she added "could morph into a proxy war in the region." She also accused Moscow of supplying the embattled Assad regime with arms, including attack helicopters. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied the allegation, claiming his country was only sending back older Syrian helicopters that had been refurbished in Russia. Later in the month, the Kremlin announced it was sending more warships and military personnel to two naval bases it operates out of on the Syrian Mediterranean coast. Military analysts said while they were officially being dispatched in order to prepare to evacuate Russian citizens working in Syria, they would obviously act as a major deterrence to any Sunni Arab, NATO, or other foreign intervention in the conflict. This came after regional media outlets claimed that US President Barrack Obama had vetoed a French-Saudi proposal to bomb Assad's palace in order to either kill him or drive him from power.

Meanwhile the British newspaper Daily Telegraph reported on June 21 that unnamed "senior Syrian government officials" are quietly preparing to defect to the country's opposition if rebel forces manage to destabilize the Assad regime. "We are seeing members of Bashar Assad's inner circle make plans to leave," an unnamed senior American official told the newspaper. The report said the Syrian officials have already been in contact with opposition leaders, while quietly transferring their private money to overseas banks.

With regional birth pangs becoming stronger and more frequent with every passing day, we can only look to the Holy One of Israel who promised long ago that a day will come when "Violence will not be heard again in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders. But you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise (Isaiah 60:18).