Hamas' Secret Service: the Ghost unit

Feb. 9, 2009

A slightly chilling article from The Jamestown Foundation by Abdul Hameed Bakier describes a Hamas unit called “Ghost” Suicide Bombers:

Recently, Islamic and jihadi internet forums circulated an article entitled “The Ghost suicide bombers. Who are they? And how do they spend their day?” (hanein.info, January13). The posting, written by the Gaza correspondent for the influential Doha-based Islamonline website, included a short interview with the trainers of Hamas’ suicide bombers (Islamonline.net, January 12).

Islamonline’s correspondent, Muhammad al-Sawaf, said the suicide bombers, known as “Ghosts” to other Gaza militants, are the first line of defense in Gaza. They spend up to 48 hours at a time in ditches, reciting verses from the Quran while waiting for Israeli forces to pass by in order to blow them up. The bombers belong to the military wing of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam battalions of Hamas. Abu Moath, an al-Qassam leader supervising the suicide bombers, said the bombers are very determined individuals chosen carefully by Hamas: “They live like any other pious Palestinian youth. Some of them are university students that go about their lives without raising unwanted attention or bragging about their end mission. They go through a special faith program.”

Since the start of the conflict in Gaza, the “ghost” suicide bombers have isolated themselves from families and friends. They spend their time hidden close to areas where Israeli forces deploy. On the selection criteria for suicide bombers, Abu Moath briefly explained that only young people are chosen from the ranks of al-Qassam’s battalions, which number up to ten thousand fighters. Abu Moath disclosed females are also recruited to the ranks of the suicide bombers. The candidate bombers are secretly scrutinized by al-Qassam lieutenants to make sure they are religiously committed and responsible. The next phase is to notify the bomber of their acceptance and put them through psychological and military training on weapons and tactics, especially those used by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Abu Moath asserts that all through the selection and training phases the suicide bombers are tutored by religious clerics and Islamic preachers. Upon completion of training, the bombers are sent behind enemy lines. Each group of suicide bombers is compartmentalized and does not know the location or composition of other groups to avoid compromising their comrades if one of them is captured by the Israelis. Abu Moath admits such captures happen very often because the suicide bombers operate behind enemy lines. Each suicide bomber is issued special weapons and a custom-tailored explosive belt.

Other Hamas units of suicide bombers include the “Booby-Trapped Martyrs.” These martyr units are designed to deploy on the streets and alleys of Gaza’s cities, armed with heavier explosive belts than those used by the “ghosts.” These units are as secret and compartmentalized as the “ghost” suicide bombers and deploy with Hamas commando units tasked with kidnapping Israeli soldiers.

Many forum chatters hailed and prayed for the “ghost “ and “martyr” suicide bombers, posting comments such as: “It is only my lack of luck that I am not with them. I wish them all the best in this life and hereafter. May God give them steadfastness and determination, amen.”

In another interview by Islamonline correspondent al-Sawaf, al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said Hamas fighters have surprised the Israeli forces with offensives attacks rather than the expected defensive operations. He said the suicide-bomber Mahmoud al-Rifi, whom he claimed stayed for days in a ditch on the al-Raes mountain west of Gaza city and blew up an Israeli commando unit, was one example of Hamas’ successful new guerilla warfare tactics. However, other sources said al-Rifi did not carry out a suicide attack; rather, he waited for Israeli forces in a ditch on the al-Raes mountain and attacked a detachment of Israeli commandos with a machine gun, killing two Israeli soldiers before being killed while trying to take a third injured soldier prisoner (muslm.net January 9).

According to earlier threats by Hamas leaders, Hamas is expected to resume suicide bombing attacks in Israeli cities in retaliation for the war on Gaza. Regardless of the Israeli wall built to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel, Hamas leaders allege they have managed to infiltrate tens of their suicide bombers who are already in place in Israel and the West Bank awaiting orders (alrainews.com, December 22, 2008). Even though Hamas has enough experience and possible accomplices among Palestinians living in Israel to resume suicide attacks in Israeli cities, Israeli forces demonstrated their ability to prevent suicide attacks in the assault on Gaza. The absence of successful suicide attacks on Israeli forces in the conflict is likely an indication of Hamas’ inability to recruit enough volunteers to perpetrate suicide bombings, regardless of whatever claims are made by the Hamas leadership.

UN-neutral Getting Bitten by the Dog it Feeds

Summarizing recent weeks of the Hamas-UN battle
Feb. 9, 2009

If nothing else positive, and there was little positive, the Gaza war has brought to light several inconsistencies, or shall I say ‘UN-consistencies,’ when it comes to the United Nations and its dealings with Hamas, Israel and the Palestinians.

First, here are some incidents that have occurred in recent weeks:

1. When Israelis saved Arab students trapped in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) school in East Jerusalem, they encountered pictures depicting the IDF as murderers. Several students fell into a six-foot deep hole when a floor in the school collapsed on Feb. 1. Israeli responders found drawings depicting Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border shooting Palestinians at them at point blank range while they tried to get food. Another picture, drawn by a student, showed an Arab shot to death by an Israeli soldier.

2. The United Nations agency in charged of a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire in Operation Cast Lead has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary material against Israel and Jews.

3. UNRWA brought the media to watch while it tried to pass unapproved goods through the Gaza border Tuesday, Feb. 3. The Israeli army, as expected, turned away the unappoved trucks then slammed UNRWA for trying to pass through the unkosher good and bringing the media to film Israel’s rejection of the trucks. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Spokesman Maj. Peter Lerner said the incident was a “regretful provocation. ... UNRWA receives preferential treatment at the crossings, and today alone 50 of its trucks were allowed in.”

Just two days later, however, Hamas put on its own show albeit not for the cameras. Hamas turned against its complicit ally, the UN, and twice in one week (Feb. 3 and 5) commandeered hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid from UNRWA. The UN actually ceased shipping aid over the border until Hamas returns the goods.

Perhaps the UN is beginning to see the light. Or at least one ray. In another first, it announced this week it will probe Hamas’ use of children as human shields during the war, according to The Jerusalem Post.

“It is still very difficult for us to say that it was actually happening and we still need to conduct a full investigation into what exactly took place... but we are not denying that it happened; it is absolutely possible that Hamas was using its civilians as human shields,” said UN special representative for children and armed conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy.

A small leap for morality, but a huge step in the right direction for the UN nonetheless.

Also, in a report released last week, a former legal official with UNRWA accused the organization of politicizing the Palestinian refugee issue. James Lindsay, UNRWA’s legal advisor from 2002 until 2007, said the agency should conduct background checks so as not to hire terrorist organization members anymore; help those who wish to move out of refugee camps by expanding loans; and shift from a “status-based” system of aid designated for refugees to a “needs-based” system.

Andrew Whitley, director of the UNRWA representative office at UN headquarters, slammed the report and immediately did what the report lambasted the UN for: politicizing the situation.

“Someone reading this paper with no background would assume that the Israeli government was a benign actor.,” he said. “No mention is made of the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

But NGOs are notoriously biased against Israel. A Jerusalem-based watchdog, NGO Monitor, documented more than 500 statements by some 50 NGOs just in one month during the recent fighting in Gaza.

“These statements are characterized by overwhelming condemnation of Israel, devoting minimal attention to Israeli human rights and casualties,” the organization reported. “These same groups were markedly hesitant to condemn the widespread and illegal use of human shields by Hamas. ”

A Palestinian from Gaza blamed Hamas for the humanitarian crisis in the Strip. Nuaf Atar, a Fatah operative captured during the operation, accused Hamas government officials of controlling humanitarian aid Israel allowed in and selling it instead of distributing it for free, as was intended. But Israel continues to get blamed by the NGOs and the international community, which clamors for it to open the borders for a more free flow of goods. Goods that never make it to the people who need them.

NGO Monitor Executive Director Gerald Steinberg summed it up best: “The consistent attempt to demonize Israel in the media and in the courts while turning a blind eye to the illegal activities of Hamas demonstrates that many human rights groups have lost their moral compass.”

Carter strikes again

Former president exhibit his usual anti-Israel gusto
Feb. 9, 2009

I have a hard time choosing. Is former Pres. Jimmy Carter blindly optimistic or blatantly anti-Israel? He can’t be an optimist, he was a US president, but that leaves us with the latter.

If you are going to solve the Israel-Palestinian issue you cannot be against wither side, but in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Carter clearly outlines which side he believes must pay up in order to achieve peace. Perhaps its the reporter’s fault for not asking tough questions, but he never puts the onus on Hamas or the Palestinian Authority for stopping acts of terrorism.

Carter, 84, talks about his new book, the assertive and cheerily titled “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land.” I have yet to read the book, but in the interview with reporter Mike Tolson, Carter, 84, notes that he is optimistic for “peace” because “the vast majority of Israeli citizens also are committed to withdrawing from the West Bank.” No recognition of the State of Israel by Hamas or cessation of terror is a prerequisite for peace apparently.

He goes on to say that the war in Gaza has engendered “more intense hatred and resentment against Israelis for doing this.” No mention of the Hamas rockets that were unanswered for nine years and which terrorized innocent civilians occasionally killing a few, but only a few because they are miraculously inaccurate..

Feeling at one with The One is he?

“Most presidents have been very cautious and have waited until the last part of their administration before they would expend that capital, and it’s too late. (Obama) has taken a different position, as I did 30 years ago. I started the first day, even before I became president, to do that.”

Carter insults the “Israeli lobby” in the United States: “You have to remember that the major Israeli lobbies, they’re not in favor of peace. They never have professed to be. What they are in favor of is protecting the policies of whatever government is in charge in Israel. If you look at their Web sites, they make that quite clear. So they’re for Israel, they’re not for peace between Israel and its neighbors.”

How interesting. He is basically calling Israel supporters war mongers. This is an incomprehensible insult to intelligence and to the people who support Israel. No mention of Hamas supporters and pro-Palestinian lobbyists. They are for peace.

In conclusion, if you don’t agree with Carter’s approach to peace, then you are not for peace. Diplomatic, hey?

Troubles with Turkey cause Jews to rethink Armenian genocide

Feb. 5, 2009

And now for an issue dear to my heart: Jews check Armenian genocide stance. Only fitting that one genocide survivor support another. However, the article is thin on proof of an actual movement. From the Jerusalem Post:

An official with a leading American Jewish organization told the The Jerusalem Post on Monday that a deterioration in Israel-Turkey relations might prompt his group and others to reconsider Armenian efforts to win recognition of the century-old Turkish massacres as genocide.

A bill that would ensure such recognition by the US, which was backed by Rep. Adam Schiff - a Jewish Democrat who represents a heavily Armenian area of Los Angeles - failed to make it to a Congressional vote in 2007. However, it sparked a row in the American Jewish community between those who sided with Turkey in an effort to protect Israel's political interests, and those who argued that Jews were particularly responsible for helping other groups block the public denial of genocide.

"No Jew or Israeli in his right mind will insult Turkey," the official told the Post. "But next time... they might not come to Turkey's aid or equivocate quite so much on the issue."

The Bush administration opposed the bill out of concern for what it would do to US-Turkey relations.

I’d like to add that even several Israeli politicians oppose recognition for the same reason.

The current blowup between Israel and Turkey comes amid expectations that the Obama administration will name academic and writer Samantha Power, an expert on genocide, to a key National Security Council post dealing with multilateral institutions. Power has been outspoken in labeling the Turkish massacre of Armenians genocide, albeit from outside the government.

Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman - whose opposition to the Armenian genocide legislation in 2007 provoked widespread criticism - told the Post that as long as Israel maintained its diplomatic ties with Turkey, he saw no immediate reason to change his position on any future genocide resolutions.

"This is not a punishment or a reward issue - we don't change our position on what's right or wrong based on what people say," Foxman said. "The interests between Israel and Turkey continue."

Foxman also noted that he knew of Jewish friends who had cancelled trips to Turkey over Erdogan's comments, but described the Erdogan flap as a disagreement between "friends."

The Armenian community of some 20,000 in Israel has long lobbied the Israeli government to recognize the genocide. Several Israel scholars have taken up the cause arguing that of all people groups, Jews should express sympathy with genocide victims. But the issue hasn't taken hold in the political world. Three years ago, Knesset Member Yuri Shtern told me (noticing that my married name is Armenian) that he and Israel's chief Rabbi Yona Metzger traveled to Armenia and were fighting for recognition. Shtern--a fair and compassionate politician--has since died of cancer, however, and no one has taken his place on this issue.

On the other hand, it is rare for Israel to have strong ties with a Muslim nation and recognizing the genocide would risk their friendship with Turkey. But after the outburst of Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan at the Davos conference, Israelis are starting to see just how far their friendship with Turkey stretches, or not. Erdogan stalked off the stage there on Jan. 29, calling Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres a murdered.

Since then relations ahve been strained with both sides trying to patch things. But trust has been damaged.

Turkey: “It’s not a business-as-usual relationship anymore,” said Cengiz Candar, a columnist for Radikal, a Turkish daily. “It’s a very uneasy sort of cohabitation in this region now.”

Israel: "He has burned all the bridges with Jerusalem,” said one senior Israeli official, who spoke anonymously to the NY Times. “He won’t be seen as an honest broker anymore.”

Turkey denies slaughtering 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1914. Recognition of the genocide would mean denying Turkey's claims, thus ruining relations with the vast Islamic country.

To learn more about the Armenian genocide, of which my husband's grandparents were survivors, check this out: Armenian Genocide (http://www.armenian-genocide.org)

UN-neutral accuses Hamas seized Gaza aid

Feb. 4, 2009

The UN, after blaming Israel for not letting aid through, albeit unapproved aid, is now accusing Hamas police of raiding a UN aid warehouse in Gaza City on Tuesday and snatched 3,500 blankets and hundreds of food parcels.

According to a UN statement: "This took place after UNRWA staff had earlier refused to hand over the aid supplies to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs. The police subsequently broke into the warehouse and seized the aid by force. The aid was due to be distributed to five hundred families in the area. UNRWA condemns in the strongest terms the confiscation of its aid supplies and has demanded that it is returned immediately."

Obviously Gazans are in need of aid after Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas. Gunness also said Wednesday this is the first time Hamas has seized UN aid. Er hmm. Not according to the Jordanians, but whatever.

Israeli officials have charged that the militant group routinely confiscates supplies meant for needy Gazans. But Israelis are biased, of course.

Isaac Herzog, responsible for the humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, called the robbing of UN warehouses by Hamas “further proof that Hamas is continuing to make life miserable for the population of Gaza and will use any means to intensify its suffering.”

Israel insists that humanitarian assistance transferred to the Gaza Strip go to the civilian population only, without allowing Hamas to benefit from it. Herzog noted that Israel allowed aid trucks through even while under fire.

Hamas had no comment.

Mahmoud “Wipe out the Jews” Ahmadinejad a Jew?

Feb. 4, 2009

Could it be? The son of a leading Iranian authority alleges that the Iranian president, who has called for the destruction of the Jewish state, is himself Jewish.

Mahdi Khazali apparently wrote in a blog that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots. The story was picked up by the Hebrew-language Omedia website and Radio Free Europe. He said Ahmadinejad changed his name, attacks Israel and the Jews and expresses strong Muslim religious beliefs in order to hide his Jewish roots.

The name under scrutiny is Saburjian and A’jad hails from the Aradan region of Iran. The accusations appear in an article Khazali wrote entitled, “The Jews in Iran” where he says the time has come to “reveal the truth” about the Jews’ role in Iran. Not sure what that means.

A'jad's relatives once told the The Guardian that the family had changed its name for "a mixture of religious and economic reasons."

Of course this could be a political strategy: A'jad is up for re-election five months from now. Perhaps his opponents think they can defeat him by using his own rhetoric against the Jews.

Hope and Change, also for Hamas

Feb, 4, 2009

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told the Iranian Parliament yesterday that Hamas has even more legitimacy after winning the war against Israel. Fars News reports:

Hamas government's legitimacy has grown stronger after the Israeli regime failed to attain its goals through the invasion of Gaza, Hamas Political Leader Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday.

"The enemy announced ceasefire without any preconditions for Hamas and it's a great success," Meshaal said.

He viewed Hamas's victory a result of faith and jihad (holy war).

"Today when Iran and Turkey stand by the Palestinian cause, they strengthen our cause and it's a real conflict with the US administration and Israel's supporters."

"Israel's power is in destruction and killing and this power is not useful for them anymore," the senior Hamas official said, adding, "There will be no security even through occupation and Israel's downfall has began already."

Addressing European countries, he reiterated, "We are still waiting for them to play a different role based on their long past history with the Islamic and Arab world and based on their experiences which are deeper than those of the Americans."

"The US president's change may be an opportunity for Europe and the western world to change their policies and press the new US administration not to repeat the past mistakes," Meshaal added.