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One Year After Protective Edge, IDF Set to Launch New Detection System for Gaza Tunnels

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Photo Credit: Reuters The IDF will activate in the coming days a new detection system for underground tunnels running between the Gaza Strip and Israel, a senior Israeli military official said on Tuesday, according to Israel’s Channel 2 news.

Marking one year since the launch of last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, the IDF official told reporters that the new system had recently been deployed along the Gaza Strip . . .

Hamas has long used smuggling tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s Sinai to smuggle weapons and other goods restricted by Israel’s security blockade. Since the end of hostilities last summer, the group has been seeking new smuggling routes, especially as Egypt has recently ramped-up efforts to stymie smuggling along the Sinai border, the IDF official said.

The source also made note of ties between Hamas and Islamic State-affiliated groups in Sinai, which recently launched a series of deadly attacks against Egyptian forces. He said Hamas had provided training for the Egypt-based terrorists and assisted them in smuggling weapons into Sinai. (Read more from “One Year After Protective Edge, IDF Set to Launch New Detection System for Gaza Tunnels” HERE)

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Will Samantha Power Be the First American UN Ambassador to Abandon Israel?

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Last week, mega-philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, co-founder of Birthright Israel, which has brought 500,000 young Jews to Israel, joined with our organization The World Values Network, in a full-page New York Times ad about Ambassador Samantha Power. In the ad Mr. Steinhardt reminded the Ambassador of her commitment at her Senate confirmation hearings, “I will stand up for Israel and work tirelessly to defend it” at the United Nations.

At the AIPAC Annual Policy Conference in Washington, DC, in March, Samantha avowed, “It is a false choice to tell Israel that it has to choose between peace on the one hand, and security on the other. The United Nations would not ask any other country to make that choice, and it should not ask it of Israel.”

Ambassador Power, of course, was correct – security is the foundation of any sustainable peace framework in the Middle East. To its credit, the United States has long stood for justice and served as an essential check against overreach, anti-Semitism, and double standards by Arab and European nations at the UN.

Yet statements in April by Ambassador Power refusing to rule out supporting UN resolutions that target Israel, added to recent claims by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, have raised serious questions about the specter of betrayal by the United States and Ambassador Power during the UN General Assembly in September. Reports have emerged that France plans to put forth a resolution before the UN Security Council that will call for an immediate resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with a hard-cap of 18 months for a final deal. Under the French proposal, if no deal is reached in 18 months, the UN would recognize the Palestinian state, effectively granting legitimacy to an organization that has consistently proven incompetent, corrupt, hostile to democratic values, and openly supportive of terrorism. While the global Jewish community has come to expect little from France, Hamdallah said that France and the U.S. are “coordinating” together on the diplomatic catastrophe. There also exists the possibility that should Israel refuse to accept a UN Security Council Resolution authorizing a timetable for the unilateral creation of a Palestinian State, economic sanctions could be levied against the Jewish State.

For starters, the very notion of this process – which rewards the Palestinian Authority for failure – is patently absurd. In practice, if Israel doesn’t entirely capitulate to every demand of the Palestinian negotiators, the Palestinians are granted statehood. There is zero incentive for Palestinians to even pretend to negotiate in good faith. The mortifying results of the American discussions with Iran on nuclear weapons lowered the world’s estimation of the State Department’s ability to negotiate, but this framework would be a historic nadir. (Read more from “Will Samantha Power Be the First American UN Ambassador to Abandon Israel?” HERE)

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Rockets Land in Israel, Egypt’s ISIS Affiliate Claims Responsibility

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Militants in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula fired rockets into southern Israel on Friday in an incident that caused no casualties but appeared to be linked to fighting between Islamist insurgents and Egyptian security forces.

Islamic State’s Egypt affiliate, Sinai Province, said in a statement posted on Twitter by supporters that it had launched three Grad rockets toward “occupied Palestine”. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the statement.

An Israeli military source earlier said the rockets had been fired from Sinai, which borders Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal.

Israeli police said they had so far found remnants of two rockets in an open area. No damage or casualties were reported.

It was possible the launch was linked to the fighting in Sinai, the military source said, where militants of the Sinai Province group launched their biggest assault in years against Egyptian security forces on Wednesday. (Read more from “Rockets Land in Israel, Egypt’s IS Affiliate Claims Responsibility” HERE)

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Mother of Israeli-Arab Zionist on Master Chef Has This to Say About Her Religion

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The mother of Israeli-Arab Israel supporter Muhammad Zoabi expressed pride in being a Zionist as she appeared as a contestant on the latest season of the popular cooking show MasterChef Israel.

Sarah Zoabi introduced herself to viewers as an “Arab, Muslim, Israeli, proud Zionist” from the northern city of Nazareth. When one of the show’s judges asked her to elaborate on her nationality and beliefs, she said, “I believe in the right of the Jewish people to have their own country, which is the state of Israel, the holy land.

“I’m sure that the people who hear me will say: ‘what, have you lost your mind? How can you say you are a Zionist?’ I want to say to all the Arab [citizens] of Israel to wake up,” she continued. “We live in paradise. Compared to other countries, to Arab countries – we live in paradise.”

The contestant also elaborated on her loyalty to Israel, saying she doesn’t have “another state” or “another flag” with which she identifies. She added, “With all due respect to [the Arab] nation, this doesn’t imply treason. I never harmed anyone.”

Praising the Jewish state, she said there is no other country where she could receive the same freedoms as in Israel. She asserted that 100 percent of Israeli Arabs would prefer living in Israel over Palestinian rule, if given the choice. (Read more from “Mother of Israeli-Arab Zionist on Master Chef Has This to Say About Her Religion” HERE)

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Israel Decidedly Unhappy With Vatican-Palestine Treaty

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Pope Francis has decided to make the Catholic Church’s feelings about Palestine official.

On Friday, the Vatican signed a comprehensive treaty with Palestinian authorities, formalizing a basic agreement between the Catholic Church and the PLO back in 2000. In essence, it is a formal declaration of the Holy See’s support for the creation of a Palestinian state and the peace process with Israel. “[I]t is my hope that the present agreement may, in some way, be a stimulus to bringing a definitive end to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to cause suffering for both Parties,” wrote Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

The agreement follows on the Vatican’s decision in May to change the status of its diplomatic relationship with Ramallah, and officially forgo the recognition of the PLO to make way for the State of Palestine. The Catholic Church has referred to a Palestinian state since at least 2012, but the new agreement solidifies the Holy See’s support.

For the Vatican, the decision represents another unabashed and controversial move into the foreign policy arena. It follows efforts to broker Washington’s watershed decision to re-establish relations with Cuba late last year, and the recent release of Pope Francis’ landmark environment-focused encyclical. But it is also a matter of looking after Catholics everywhere. The new agreement specifically notes that it is also meant to deal with “the life and activity of the Church in Palestine.” It also mentions that “Catholics do not seek any privilege other than continued cooperation with their fellow-citizens for the good of society.” As Reuters reported, some 100,000 Catholics live in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and most of them identify as Palestinians. For the Church, assertively backing the Palestinian cause and the cause of peace, then, is about protecting its own.

The news is not going over well in Tel Aviv. “This hasty step damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement, and harms the international effort to convince the Palestinian Authority to return to direct negotiations with Israel,” said Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. (Read more from “Israel Decidedly Unhappy With Vatican-Palestine Treaty” HERE)

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Israel Conducts Air Strike Over the Border in Lebanon to Destroy This

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Israel launched an airstrike strike in Lebanon in order to destroy its own drone which had crashed, according to reports . . .

An unnamed security source told the AFP news agency that the strike was launched to destroy one of Israel’s drones “that crashed in the mountains outside Saghbine”.

However, the photos of the reported drone published by Lebanese media show Cyrillic script on a piece of the wreckage, “indicating that the drone may have been manufactured either in Russia or Eastern Europe”.

“I think the whole issue is not about Israel at all”, said Tal Inbar, Head of Space and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles at the Fisher Brothers Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies in Israel.

“Look at the pictures of Israeli-made UAVs”, he said, implying that the photos disseminated in the Lebanese media did not appear to resemble Israeli-made UAVs. (Read more from “Israel Conducts Air Strike Over the Border in Lebanon to Destroy This” HERE)

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Anti-Israel Obama Staffers ‘Cheered’ Private Scolding of Israeli Ambassador

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Obama administration staffers listened in on and “cheered” the private scolding of a former Israeli ambassador by senior a State Department official, according to new disclosures by that ambassador, Michael Oren.

The incident took place in 2010, when the Obama administration stoked tensions with Israel over its decision to continue building homes in Jerusalem neighborhoods, according to Oren, who recounts the episode in his new memoir, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide.

At the time, the Obama administration was upset Israel had announced the construction of 1,600 new homes for Jewish people in neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. The announcement coincided with a trip to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden. . .

Oren recounted that when he landed back in Washington, D.C., following the trip, he landed “to learn that [then] Secretary of State Clinton has excoriated Netanyahu for 45 minutes over the phone, rebuking him for humiliating the president and undermining America’s ability to deal with pressing Middle East issues.”

[It was Oren’s turn next:] “There, waiting in his not-nice American mode, was Deputy Secretary Jim Steinberg, who proceeded to read me the text of Hillary’s conversation with Netanyahu,” Oren writes. “This contained a list of demands, including a total building freeze in East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank, most of which would be unacceptable to any Israeli prime minister” . . . Steinberg went on to lecture Oren in a “furious” manner. (Read more from “Obama Admin ‘Cheered’ Private Scolding of Israeli Ambassador” HERE)

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Residents Near Gaza Border Say They Hear “Continual” Underground Tunnel-Digging

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Local government officials in towns near the Gaza border reported on Sunday receiving complaints from residents who say they hear digging underground.

“We have relayed these complaints to security officials who are looking into it,” one source told The Jerusalem Post’s Hebrew-language sister publication Ma’ariv. “According to the complaints, the digging hasn’t stopped for a moment.”

The complaints come less than a day after Israeli warplanes launched reprisal raids against targets in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Islamists in Gaza fired a rocket into Israeli territory earlier on Saturday. Earlier last week, at least two rockets were fired at Gaza frontier towns . . .

“We knew this would repeat itself, this trickle of missiles,” said Eran Zomer, a 27-year-old resident of the moshav of Amioz. “Very simply, the IDF didn’t do the job the last time.”

“I’ve also heard of many residents in the area complaining about hearing digging, so we weren’t surprised that a senior Hamas official said their people continue to prepare offensive tunnels,” he said. “I hope that next time [the army] will properly deal with the tunnels in a timely fashion instead of waiting until 14 terrorists pop out from underground.” (Read more from “Residents Near Gaza Border Say They Hear Underground Tunnel-Digging” HERE)

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US Billionaire Political Foes Unite to Fight Israel Boycotts

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One donated more than $100 million to the Republicans, the other has been the Clintons’ biggest backer. Now billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban, split on U.S. politics, have united to fight boycott threats against Israel.

Adelson and Saban hosted a conference of pro-Israel business executives and activists over the weekend in Las Vegas, to begin an initiative aimed at countering the growing threat of international sanctions against Israel.

“That he’s a Democrat and I’m a Republican has really very little to do with it,” said Las Vegas Sands Corp. founder Adelson, who holds the 25th slot on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, in a joint interview with Saban on Israel’s Channel 2 on Saturday. While you can “rest assured” the two men will not be supporting the same person in the 2016 presidential election, Saban said, “when it comes to Israel, we are absolutely on the same page.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has identified the global trend to boycott, divest and sanction Israel over its policy toward the Palestinians, known as the BDS movement, as a major threat.

The boycott issue gained new prominence after Stephane Richard, chief executive officer of Orange SA, said on Wednesday that the Paris-based telecom company would end its licensing deal with Israel’s Partner Communications Co. “tomorrow” if he wasn’t concerned about legal repercussions. Richard later apologized for his comments, made in response to a question over a threatened boycott of Orange’s Egyptian subsidy, Mobinil, and said they weren’t motivated by political concerns. (Read more from “US Billionaire Political Foes Unite to Fight Israel Boycotts” HERE)

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Qatar Buying Votes to Suspend Israel From FIFA, Says Diplomats; FIFA Execs Indicted

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By Eliezer Sherman. Qatar could be buying votes to suspend Israel from FIFA, Israeli diplomatic sources said on Thursday.

“We suspect that Qatar, about whom claims are circulating that it paid in order to host the 2022 World Cup, is now paying countries to vote in favor of the Palestinians,” diplomatic sources told Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

Israeli diplomats have been working globally behind the scenes to ensure that a vote at the FIFA congress on Friday to suspend Israel from the world soccer federation, spearheaded by the Palestinian Football Association, does not pass.

Although FIFA was racked this week by an explosive corruption scandal instigated by the U.S. indictment of nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives over financial conspiracies, Friday’s congress and the vote to suspend the Israeli Soccer Association were set to move forward. (Read more from “Qatar Might Be Buying Votes to Suspend Israel From FIFA, Israeli Diplomats Say” HERE)
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FIFA Execs Indicted

By Christopher Ingraham. In the end, it only took a $150 million scandal to make Americans care about soccer.

FIFA, the notoriously corrupt and yet seemingly invincible governing body of world soccer, has finally landed itself an indictment that some would say is worthy of its reputation. The charges against a handful of senior FIFA officials include money laundering, racketeering, bribery and fraud. In short, the federal lawsuit alleges what millions of soccer fans have suspected all along: that FIFA officials have been using the organization’s massive influence to line their pocketbooks.

On the surface, it’s just another white collar crime story: rich, powerful men making themselves richer and more powerful. But a closer look suggests that there is a lot of real-world suffering happening as a direct result of FIFA’s decisions.

For the most obvious example of this, look to Qatar. The decision to award the 2022 World Cup to the rich Gulf state with a terrible human rights record was a controversial one right out of the gate. There have been extensive allegations of bribery: why else, some figured, award the Cup to a tiny country with sweltering summer heat and no soccer culture to speak of?

Human rights advocates’ worst fears about Qatar seemed to be confirmed as Qatar began building the infrastructure to host the Cup, and reports of migrant worker deaths started to pile up. The numbers, to the extent that we know them, appear startling: A Guardian investigation last year revealed that Nepalese migrant workers were dying at a rate of one every two days. In sum, the Guardian put the total Qatar death toll of workers from Nepal, India and Bangladesh at 964 in 2012 and 2013. (Read more from this story HERE)
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Corrupt FIFA Donated Tens of Thousands of Dollars to Clinton Foundation, and that’s Not the Only Tie

By Jackie Kucinich. Both Bill Clinton and his family’s charity have been tied to soccer’s governing body, as well as Qatar’s disastrous World Cup bid.

And just like that, another Clinton Foundation donor is in the news.

The Clinton global charity has received between $50,000 and $100,000 from soccer’s governing body and has partnered with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association on several occasions, according to donor listings on the foundation’s website.

Several top FIFA executives were arrested Wednesday in Zurich and face corruption charges stretching back two decades, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Involvement with the embattled body extends beyond the foundation to Bill Clinton himself. The former president was an honorary chairman of the bid committee put together to promote the United States as a possible host nation for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. (Read more from this story HERE).

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