Sunday
Jan252009
The Latest from Israel-Palestine-Gaza (25 January)
Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 16:10
Later Updates: The Latest from Israel-Palestine-Gaza (26 January)
Earlier Updates: The Latest from Israel-Palestine-Gaza (24 January)
Latest Post: How Israel Helped Spawn Hamas
11:15 p.m. Finally, Some White Smoke. After talks in Cairo today, Hamas official Ayman Taha said his organisation is offering a one-year cease-fire to Israel.
This is just an opening move, however. The Hamas delegation has to confirm the 12-month offer with the organisation's leadership in Damascus, and it is linked to a full opening of Gazan borders. Israel's offer of an 18-month cease-fire, presented by the Egyptians to Hamas, held out only a partial opening of crossings.
10:45 p.m. Soft Power, Tehran Style. While aid to Gaza is held up by Israeli restrictions, Iran continues to further its political objectives with assistance. Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani said today that Iran will rebuild the Gazan Parliament destroyed by Israeli air raids.
9:30 p.m. While there were no concrete results from the Cairo talks, Egypt is publicly rushing away from Israel and towards "the Palestinians". In Brussels, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit appealed to Europeans to press Tel Aviv to ease the economic blockade, "I ask the European Union to do (things) very, very quickly to rebuild to help the Palestinians to get out of this crisis. We need to force the Israelis to negotiate and also tell them to open crossings and to give Palestinians a chance to live in a normal way."
Gheit's statement is more rhetoric than substance, however. Egypt is refusing to have foreign monitors on its side of the border, so it is effectively passing the buck to Israel, which is balking at an arrangement on the Gazan side.
Meanwhile, some Europeans are still stuck on the old script of the Palestinian Authority's triumphant re-entry into Gaza. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband proclaimed, ""The reunification of the Palestinians under the recognised and cherished voice of President Abbas is so important."
6:35 p.m. No significant news from the talks in Cairo with Hamas and Fatah delegations. Egyptian officials have issued a holding statement that "Egyptian efforts to consolidate the ceasefire, reach a [permanent] truce, reopen Gaza crossings and resume Palestinian national dialogue" were discussed.
6:10 p.m. As expected, Israel's Cabinet has approved a measure providing legal protection to its military officers if they are accused of war crimes over the Gaza conflict.
5:15 p.m. Propaganda of the Day. Uzi Mahnaimi, who writes from Tel Aviv for the Times, trumpets, "An American naval taskforce in the Gulf of Aden has been ordered to hunt for suspicious Iranian arms ships heading for the Red Sea as Tehran seeks to re-equip Hamas."
That's not news --- we posted this days ago --- but then Mahnaimi is not a reporter in any meaningful sense of the day. Instead, he's a channel for Tel Aviv's "information" line, which in this case is ramping up the campaign against Iran.
Thus Mahnaimi states that a US ship intercepted a "former Russian vessel" and held it for two days --- again, not news, as we noted the incident when it occurred earlier this week --- and adds, "According to unconfirmed reports, weapons were found." Very unconfirmed: the former Russian vessel had artillery, which Hamas does not use, and no further arms were found when it was searched in report.
Of course, this doesn't stop Mahnaimi, who tosses in the Israeli suspicion that two Iranian destroyers, sent to help fight piracy off the Somalian coast, are part of a scheme to run weapons to Gaza. And he has more:
Of course, Iran may be supplying weapons to Hamas but this story is Israeli-inspired misinformation, of value to Tel Aviv's political schemes but worthless for any analysis of the aftermath of the Gaza conflict.
3:30 p.m. Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Beirut, has issued a defiant statement about the attempt to block arms shipments to Gaza: "We will continue to get weapons into Gaza and the (West) Bank. Let nobody think we will surrender to measures. Perhaps matters will get more difficult, but we are ready to ride out any difficulty ... so that the resistance continues."
Hamdan added that those who think monitoring can detect the movement of weapons through tunnels "are deluded".
11:15 a.m. Rafah Kid has posted a series of new photos from Jabaliya with the note, "It's a mess here."
11 a.m. From the diary of Mohammad Dawwas, reprinted in The Independent of London:
10:05 a.m. More on the aid front: Iran has established a Gaza Reconstruction Headquarters to "build 1,000 houses, 10 schools and five mosques, and reconstruct 500 shops, a hospital and a university".
10 a.m. Hamas has begun distribution of $52 million of aid in Gaza, with families receiving $1300 for each member killed and $650 for each wounded. The Observer of London has a lengthy background article.
Morning update (9:20 a.m. Israel/Gaza time): Important talks in Cairo today with Hamas and Fatah delegations on issues such as the manning of the border crossings. Hamas representatives will meet the head of Egyptian intelligence, Omar Suleiman, who met with an Israeli envoy on Thursday.
As we noted yesterday, if Hamas and Fatah agree on an arrangement in which some Gazan-based members of the Palestinian Authority join the border force, along with guards from European Union countries and Turkey, it will throw a difficult choice back at Israel. Tel Aviv will either to hold out, maintaining its stranglehold on aid and the Gazan economy, or ease its policy on the crossings.
Earlier Updates: The Latest from Israel-Palestine-Gaza (24 January)
Latest Post: How Israel Helped Spawn Hamas
11:15 p.m. Finally, Some White Smoke. After talks in Cairo today, Hamas official Ayman Taha said his organisation is offering a one-year cease-fire to Israel.
This is just an opening move, however. The Hamas delegation has to confirm the 12-month offer with the organisation's leadership in Damascus, and it is linked to a full opening of Gazan borders. Israel's offer of an 18-month cease-fire, presented by the Egyptians to Hamas, held out only a partial opening of crossings.
10:45 p.m. Soft Power, Tehran Style. While aid to Gaza is held up by Israeli restrictions, Iran continues to further its political objectives with assistance. Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani said today that Iran will rebuild the Gazan Parliament destroyed by Israeli air raids.
9:30 p.m. While there were no concrete results from the Cairo talks, Egypt is publicly rushing away from Israel and towards "the Palestinians". In Brussels, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit appealed to Europeans to press Tel Aviv to ease the economic blockade, "I ask the European Union to do (things) very, very quickly to rebuild to help the Palestinians to get out of this crisis. We need to force the Israelis to negotiate and also tell them to open crossings and to give Palestinians a chance to live in a normal way."
Gheit's statement is more rhetoric than substance, however. Egypt is refusing to have foreign monitors on its side of the border, so it is effectively passing the buck to Israel, which is balking at an arrangement on the Gazan side.
Meanwhile, some Europeans are still stuck on the old script of the Palestinian Authority's triumphant re-entry into Gaza. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband proclaimed, ""The reunification of the Palestinians under the recognised and cherished voice of President Abbas is so important."
6:35 p.m. No significant news from the talks in Cairo with Hamas and Fatah delegations. Egyptian officials have issued a holding statement that "Egyptian efforts to consolidate the ceasefire, reach a [permanent] truce, reopen Gaza crossings and resume Palestinian national dialogue" were discussed.
6:10 p.m. As expected, Israel's Cabinet has approved a measure providing legal protection to its military officers if they are accused of war crimes over the Gaza conflict.
5:15 p.m. Propaganda of the Day. Uzi Mahnaimi, who writes from Tel Aviv for the Times, trumpets, "An American naval taskforce in the Gulf of Aden has been ordered to hunt for suspicious Iranian arms ships heading for the Red Sea as Tehran seeks to re-equip Hamas."
That's not news --- we posted this days ago --- but then Mahnaimi is not a reporter in any meaningful sense of the day. Instead, he's a channel for Tel Aviv's "information" line, which in this case is ramping up the campaign against Iran.
Thus Mahnaimi states that a US ship intercepted a "former Russian vessel" and held it for two days --- again, not news, as we noted the incident when it occurred earlier this week --- and adds, "According to unconfirmed reports, weapons were found." Very unconfirmed: the former Russian vessel had artillery, which Hamas does not use, and no further arms were found when it was searched in report.
Of course, this doesn't stop Mahnaimi, who tosses in the Israeli suspicion that two Iranian destroyers, sent to help fight piracy off the Somalian coast, are part of a scheme to run weapons to Gaza. And he has more:
Iran plans to ship Fajr rockets with a 50-mile range to Gaza. This would bring Tel Aviv, its international airport and the Dimona nuclear reactor within reach for the first time.
Of course, Iran may be supplying weapons to Hamas but this story is Israeli-inspired misinformation, of value to Tel Aviv's political schemes but worthless for any analysis of the aftermath of the Gaza conflict.
3:30 p.m. Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Beirut, has issued a defiant statement about the attempt to block arms shipments to Gaza: "We will continue to get weapons into Gaza and the (West) Bank. Let nobody think we will surrender to measures. Perhaps matters will get more difficult, but we are ready to ride out any difficulty ... so that the resistance continues."
Hamdan added that those who think monitoring can detect the movement of weapons through tunnels "are deluded".
11:15 a.m. Rafah Kid has posted a series of new photos from Jabaliya with the note, "It's a mess here."
11 a.m. From the diary of Mohammad Dawwas, reprinted in The Independent of London:
22 January: I went to the burns department in Shifa hospital. I've never seen anything like this in my life. These phosphorus burns. Their bodies were black. One person has stitches everywhere. It's worse than killing people. They look like the living dead. I also went to the north, to Beit Lahiya. This was one of the most beautiful areas of farmland. Now it's gone, you can't recognise the place. I wanted to cry.
10:05 a.m. More on the aid front: Iran has established a Gaza Reconstruction Headquarters to "build 1,000 houses, 10 schools and five mosques, and reconstruct 500 shops, a hospital and a university".
10 a.m. Hamas has begun distribution of $52 million of aid in Gaza, with families receiving $1300 for each member killed and $650 for each wounded. The Observer of London has a lengthy background article.
Morning update (9:20 a.m. Israel/Gaza time): Important talks in Cairo today with Hamas and Fatah delegations on issues such as the manning of the border crossings. Hamas representatives will meet the head of Egyptian intelligence, Omar Suleiman, who met with an Israeli envoy on Thursday.
As we noted yesterday, if Hamas and Fatah agree on an arrangement in which some Gazan-based members of the Palestinian Authority join the border force, along with guards from European Union countries and Turkey, it will throw a difficult choice back at Israel. Tel Aviv will either to hold out, maintaining its stranglehold on aid and the Gazan economy, or ease its policy on the crossings.
tagged Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Ali Larijani, Ayman Taha, David Miliband, Egypt, European Union, Fatah, Gaza, Hamas, Iran, Israel, Jabaliya, Mahmoud Abbas, Mohammad Dawwas, Omar Suleiman, Osama Hamdan, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Rafah Kid, Red Sea, Somalia, The Independent, The Observer, The Times, Tunnels, Turkey, Uzi Mahnaimi, War Crimes, West Bank in Middle East & Iran
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Ali Larijani, Ayman Taha, David Miliband, Egypt, European Union, Fatah, Gaza, Hamas, Iran, Israel, Jabaliya, Mahmoud Abbas, Mohammad Dawwas, Omar Suleiman, Osama Hamdan, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Rafah Kid, Red Sea, Somalia, The Independent, The Observer, The Times, Tunnels, Turkey, Uzi Mahnaimi, War Crimes, West Bank in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (16)
(edited by moderator)
WHERE IS THE INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE OVER THE BRUTAL MASS TORTURE OF FATAH BY THEIR HAMAS ARAB BROTHERS ?
YOU HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH GROUPS ARE A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES, ALWAYS POINTING YOUR...FINGER AT THE MOST ETHICAL COUNTRY ON THIS EARTH; ISRAEL.
DID I READ IT RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE((( MOST ETHICAL))))) COUNTRY ON EARTH..
I THINK THERE ARE 2 LOST LETTERS HER ; WHICH ARE (((UN)))..
EVEN ON PLANET MARS ; ISRAEL WOULD BE THE COUNTRY WHICH COMMITING THE MOST SYSTEMATICALLY RASISTICS MANOUVERS AND CONTEUOSE ILLEGEL BREAK OF GENEVA PRICIPLES AND U.N DECESIONS.
THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ISRAEL WHICH COMMITING WAR CRIMES INFRONT OF THE WORLD'S EYES BUT STILL CLAIMING WITH ALL RUDNESS TO BE THE OASIS OF DEMOCRACY GURDED BY THE MOST ETHICALLY ARMY 8MAY BE ETHICAL HAS ANOTHER MEANING IN HEBRU!!!!)
AND HAMAS WHICH IS A RESISTANCE GROUP ; THAT HASN'T EVEN THE RIGHT TO DEFEAND ITSELF
Hilarious post. You sound like you'd be shocked that Iran would be running guns to Hamas, their proxy. Next you'll claim astonishment that Hezbollah also receives money and weapons from Tehran.
How can you say in one post that it's "Israeli propaganda" that Iran is runnng weapons and then post in the next that hamas is crowing about receiving weapons? Let's try to be at least a little intellectually honest here, shall we?
Israel said to stop firing rockets, Hamas didn't, they paid for it. As for the amount of deaths, the Palestinians are the propaganda merchants and shouldn't be believed one iota after the truth about Jenin came out.
As for the comment above about Hamas slaughtering Fatah supporters once they had the opportunity, there's no good way to spin that. You have an open civil war between Palestinian factions. Yeah, let's encourage Israel to take down the wall and give them a state.
I'll stick to the point of the post and avoid polemic. If there is to be a viable peace process, not only between Israel and Palestine but also in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, then it's important to establish what activity is going on.
Iran has provided political support to Hamas but it does not have the same relationship with the Sunni Hamas that it does with Shi'a Hezbollah, whose members have received military training in Iran. Thus, the claim that Iran is "arming" Hamas needs to be proven, especially if you're pressing the case of confrontation with Tehran.
Apart from the Kharine A incident of January 2002, which has been alleged but not established as a case of Iranian Government weapons-running to Hamas, Tehran's military backing of Hamas has been asserted without substantial evidence. And The Times article does nothing to change that --- none of Mahnaimi's claims are proven and some are wildly inaccurate.
Did anyone see the allegations that a Saudi Abu Muhammad al-Murri, has been killed in the recent bout of fighting in Gaza?
You wrote:
"Iran has provided political support to Hamas but it does not have the same relationship with the Sunni Hamas that it does with Shi’a Hezbollah, whose members have received military training in Iran. Thus, the claim that Iran is “arming” Hamas needs to be proven, especially if you’re pressing the case of confrontation with Tehran."
Iran did indeed train Hamas operatives as admitted to by Hamas themselvse:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3512018.ece
Sunni or Shia desn't matter when the enemy of the enemy is ones friend.
I guess that argument was blown completely out of the water.
Scott, do you have any other sources bar a secondary-source article in the Times? I would be really interested if you do.
I think you need to place this in some perspective- What is Hamas heavy weapons capability? Nil. What is Hamas control of the so-called battle space related to resupply, air supremacy, naval capabilities: near nil. Hamas anti-aircraft capabilities: virtually nil. Hamas anti-tank capabilities: extremely limited. Hamas rocketry: relatively primitive and rather limited in quantity. Hamas access to small arms, mortars and ammunition: even here, far less than that of the IDF Recently trained Hamas fighters: relatively few in number, despite a larger body possessed of considerable zeal. Hezbollah, with direct lines of supply from Iran through Syria, has vastly superior access to Iranian aid, but even Hezbollah is heavily outclassed militarily.
Did Iran drive the Hamas philosophy and enable it to achieve prominence? No, Hamas has ample justification of its own for most all of what it has done over the years. Hamas emerged without Iranian help, has a completely different agenda from Iran, and has a very tenuous connection to Tehran. Notions of Hamas as an Iranian puppet/proxy or some such thing seem extremely naive, at least from where I sit.
Sorry, Scott, but Marie Colvin is far from a reliable source. She's well-connected with intelligence and military services and has been used by them to channel "information". Something more than an unnamed "senior commander" of Hamas is needed to establish the truth of your (or The Times') claim.
Wow, it's great to be back in the water.... :)
Ah, I get it. I can't seem to find any Hamas denial of the claim.
I find it humorous that you slam a Sunday Times correspondent but use the Tehran Times, al-Jazeerah, Alertnet, the Telegraph and amusingly, CNN who actually admitted not reporting unfavorable news about Saddam so they didn't lose access:
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/CNNs_Iraqi_Cover-Up.asp
You can't have it both ways, you can't say the Times of London is wrong and quote other sources known to be propaganda tools for the Arabs as a whole and Hamas in particular. Plus, even imam's think the Telegraph lies:
http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com/2008/12/27/lies-of-the-daily-telegraph/
Add to that the fact you linked to the Guardian, a paper that has been hard-core anti-Israel for decades. I know, i know, you wrote for them so you probably have a built in bias but look at how they are perceived by normal folks and how inane it sounds to slam the Times.
You've been proven wrong and nearly every paper reported the Times story about the training. So, adding the original Times story, no rebuttal from the Palestinians and additonal papers reporting it without any corrections, I'd have to surmise that it's true regardless of who the author was.
i bet you believe Paul Krugman's words are gospel, huh?
By the way, I also find it amusing that you link to stories every day that are sourced on background or attributed to sources such as "high ranking officials" or somesuch other description. but if it's the highly-reputable Times of London versus, say, the highly biased BBC, you immediate dismiss it out of hand.
Thanks for having a good read through the site. I think you'll find we generally quote from sources that offer first-hand evidence. That means, for example, that we might use the Tehran Times if they are doing a direct interview but rarely if they are using 2nd-hand information or quoting "anonymous sources".
But good analysis is more than quoting --- it also means assessing the report and the reporter. I've read Colvin for years, and I know the circles of sources she uses. So, when she uses an unnamed "senior commander" (when, in contrast, Al Jazeera English always name their Hamas sources in the stories we've cited from them), I think a grain of salt is OK.
I'd be happy to consider your own cases of analysis if you could give a specific example rather than a sweeping charge of bias. And if you can offer an economic analysis to challenge Paul Krugman, I'd be happy to consider that as well.
Here's to you and quality analysis....
Have you ever quoted a "second hand source" in your reporting? You've written for some big papers and you've never quoted anyone who reported info?
You're asking me to trust your word as to Colvin's sources but you are incredibly biased so how can I do so?
I note that yu didn't say a word about Eason jordan and the shameless expolits of CNN. Not surprising but curious.
Jordan held back on stories because he feared his sources would be killed if he ran the revelations based on their inside info. Personally, I don't consider that "shameless" --- I consider it a very difficult moral and journalistic decision.
And of course we often quote 2nd-hand here, since I can't personally interview the Secretary-General of the UN, Ehud Olmert, Jon Stewart, etc. from our base in Birmingham, UK.
But these are peripheral to your original, important argument. Please feel free to show me a case on this site where, drawing from our extensive and, yes, professional coverage of global information, we have mis-reported an incident. This would be valuable feedback and engagement --- I wouldn't want, and I'm certain you don't either, this exchange to descend into polemic.
Of course, in the six years of writing my blog, I've reported on events that were subsequently proven false. I'm sure after six years of writing here, the same will be true.
That said, my point about picking and choosing remains. Not a single claim made in the Covin piece was disputed or proven untrue and whether or not yu like or trust the Times is essentially irrelevent. Facts are facts and if the facts aren't disputed by the target of the story than i have to assume that indeed they are true.
The Colvin piece can't be disputed because it's a claim from a single, anonymous source --- it has no more worth than hearsay in a court of law, and it does not constitute "fact", in the Times or on this website.
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