Present Military Activities in Israel and Future Iranian Hopes
More Military Pressure in Gaza Strip and Political Pressure in Syria to Release Israeli Prisoner and Stop Rocket Launches!
July 9, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Israel has two goals – Get their soldier set free and stop the rocket launches.
Hamas has two objectives – Exchange the soldier for a large number of Palestinian prisoners and get Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. There are two leaders in Hamas, one in Israel and an exiled one in Damascus. The leader in Syria is really the one who runs the show, which creates a problem for the leader in Israel, who must face the consequences of the decisions made in Damascus
It appears things are about to get hot and heavy in the Gaza Strip.
The DEBKAfike Exclusive, which follows, tends to justify that prediction.
Begin Debkafile Exclusive
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hamas and two allied terrorist groups getting set for showdown with Israel in S.
Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis
July 9, 2006, 1:37 PM (GMT+02:00)
Whereas Palestinian combat in northern and eastern Gaza was confined to scattered RPG and anti-tank missile fire by small teams, Hamas, the Jihad Islami and the Popular Resistance Committees are preparing for a major showdown in the south. Tall earthworks to fortify the two towns against Israel attack are going up using heavy equipment impounded from local farmers and builders. The walls are meant to impede the advance of Israeli
armored columns and give Palestinian anti-tank missile squads the advantage of height for attacks. Hamas is also collecting ground-air missiles to hit the Israeli helicopters targeting teams of gunmen. Many streets in Rafah and Khan Younes have been booby-trapped and mined.
Israeli intelligence estimates that Hamas will hold back from major attacks in the next two or three days while conducting close surveillance of IDF and Shin Bet methods of operation. This explains why they are not using the Grad rockets in their arsenal. But any Israeli military escalation may well be met by a large-scale attack on Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip or a major terrorist attack in Israel, accompanied by
the shooting of the Grad rockets.
End DEBKAfile Exclusive
Begin Excerpt from Haaretz Article
Abbas sends PLO envoys to Hamas leader Meshal in Syria
July 9, 2006
By Amos Harel, Yuval, Avi Isaacharoff, Aluf Benn and Mijal Grinberg
Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday dispatched two
PLO envoys to Syria, to meet with exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal.
The envoys were reportedly sent to discuss the crisis with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
The Damascus-based Meshal has so far declined to tone down Hamas’ militant stance over the crisis that began with the abduction of an Israel Defense Forces soldier, which led to the IDF current ground operation in Gaza to free Corporal Gilad Shalit and halt Qassam rocket fire against Israeli targets.
Neither Taysir Khaled, an official from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine who sits on the PLO Executive Committee, or Abdullah Khorani, an independent and former members of the executive committee, belong to Abbas’ Fatah movement, nor are they considered directly linked to the PA chairman.
Relations between Abbas and Meshal have soured over the past few months, after the Hamas leader insinuated in a speech that Abbas acts on behalf of Israel and the United States. In the speech, Meshal also indirectly accused the PA chairman of attempting to topple the Hamas government.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the cabinet that in addition to Israel’s military operation in Gaza, diplomatic efforts continue via Egypt and other channels to press Damascus into putting pressure on Hamas.
Mediators: Meshal behind cease-fire offer Mediators in the efforts to free Shalit said Saturday that Israel must seriously consider Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s offer for a mutual end to military operations. According to the Egyptian sources, “the proposal may have been made in coordination with Khaled Meshal.”
Haniyeh called Saturday for a general cease-fire. In a statement published on behalf of Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas-led government said that “in order to extricate ourselves from the current crisis, all sides must restore calm and mutually end all military operations.”
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is demanding Shalit’s release as a condition for a cease-fire agreement with the Palestinians, according to a senior source in Jerusalem.
“We want the soldier and an end to the Qassam attacks in return for a cease-fire,” the source said Saturday.
The same source assessed that if Hamas met the two demands, the IDF would pull out of the Gaza Strip, adding that no progress had been made in talks for the release of the soldier.
He also said that no negotiations were being held.
End Excerpt from Haaretz Article
And all of the confusing daily activity in Israel between the terrorists and Israel will continue to grind on toward an eventual ending long hoped for by the Arab nations, as summarized by the Iranian President in the article from Arutz Sheva, National News Service, which follows.
Begin Excerpt from Arutz Sheva Article
Ahmadinejad: Conditions for Removal of Israel Are at Hand
Sunday, July 9, 2006 / 13 Tammuz 5766
Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, clearing up any ambiguity in previous calls to “wipe Israel off the map,” now used an Arabic word for the removal of body hair to describe his plans for Israel.
“All the conditions for the removal of the Zionist regime are at hand,” Ahmadinejad told an Arab Conference of Iraqi Neighbors meeting Saturday. For the first time, he employed the Arabic word ezaleh, which is used to describe the irreversible removal of body hairs or a woman’s virginity.
“Nations in the region will be more furious every day. It won’t take long before the wrath of the people turns into a terrible explosion that will wipe the Zionist entity off the map,” Ahmadinejad told the foreign ministers of Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey, Bahrain and Egypt. The heads of the Arab League and the Islamic Conference were also present, in addition to a special United Nations representative.
None of the foreign ministers present, including Jordan, Egypt or Turkey – commonly regarded as Israel’s friends in the Arab/Muslim world – objected to the call for annihilation. Instead, the following statement was issued: “The Arab foreign ministers participating in today’s Tehran meeting expressed their strong condemnation of this continuing and increasing aggression against the Palestinian people.”
The Iranian president went on to blame all of the region’ s trouble
s on the Jewish state. “”The basic problem in the Islamic world is the existence of the Zionist regime, and the Islamic world and the region must mobilize to remove this problem. It is a usurper that our enemies made and imposed on the Muslim world, a regime that prevented the progress of the region’s nations, a regime that all Muslims must join hands in isolating worldwide.”
He ended with a call on all nations to cease their support of Israel. “[All nations] should realize that their support for the illegitimate, usurper, Zionist regime is a mistake.
The waves of fury of Muslim nations will not be confined within the boundaries of the region, and the people who close their ears to the cries of the Palestinians and blindly support this regime will be responsible for the consequences.” “I tell them to dissociate themselves or face the terrible consequences.”
End Excerpt from Arutz Sheva Article
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