Gound operation Gaza
Thanks to http://muqata.blogspot.com/
10:20 PM Immediate warnings of possible launches in the coming minutes to Ashdod and Ashkelon.
The Muqata refuses to publish any messages from the Gaza and Hamas websites, which are designed purely for psychological warfare (and are highly unreliable). We stand by our reports and accuracy.
10:15 PM Gaza’s primary fuel depot has been hit and is currently ablaze.
10:14 PM IDF HomeCommand special national broadcast on Channel 33 to residents of Israel with directions for behavior in event of rocket attacks. (Going to watch, be back in a few)
10:12 PM Lachish, Western Negev region go on alert for possible rocket launches at them from Gaza in the immediate minutes.
10:01 PM Reports of dozens of Hamas terrorists already killed in first contact gunbattles with IDF ground forces. (Israel Channel 2 TV)
9:57 PM Reports from Israeli sources that the government agreed this afternoon to the additional call up of tens of thousands of IDF reservists, in addition to the previous 9000 from last week.
My uniform, boots and dog-tags are already laid out in my bedroom.
9:54 PM Reports of Israeli Arabs stoning Israeli cars on highway 85 in northern Israel (in response to the IDF war on Gazan terror). Damage reported, no injuries.
9:47 PM CNN reports: Reacting to the [IDF] incursion, chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority Saeb Erakat said: “What this will do is undermine the peace process.”
Thanks Saeb — if you define “peace process” as the weakening of Israel, then I guess you are correct. If it means stabilizing the Middle East for democracy, them I would have to disagree with your erudite analysis.
9:41 PM Israel’s Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak orders total naval embargo on Gaza
9:34 PM Reports that in addition to IDF ground force incursion, the IAF is also hitting additional Gazan targets from the air, and providing air-cover for ground troops.
9:30 PM Israeli Leftists end their Tel Aviv demonstration against the IDF war on Gazan Terror.
Over a thousand people were demonstrating against the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Saturday evening. In response, about 600 activists gathered in the same place to show support for the army and for residents of the South.Witnesses told the Jerusalem Post that many of the demonstrators were wearing Kaffiyehs and waving combined Israeli-Palestinian flags. (JPost)
I don’t understand why these people had their anti-IDF demonstration in Tel-Aviv. Wouldn’t it be much more appropriate to do it in downtown Ashkelon or Sederot while the Gazans continue to fire rockets at Israel?
9:27 PM Gunfire exchanges between IDF troops and Hamas terrorists in the Beit Hanoun area of Gaza (Beit Hanoun is one of the primary locations that shoots mortars and Qassam rockets at Sederot and the Western Negev towns)
9:24 PM Organized Prayers being said for the welfare of IDF troops in Israel and around the world.
9:17 PM Al-Alksa Gazan TV goes “off-air”. Hope their advertisers get a refund…
8:53 PM IDF starts massive military call up of reserve forces, (Emergency Call up #8 (Tzav-8.) (This information permitted by IDF censor). Close to 9000 reserve soldiers permitted to be called up by last week’s government decision.
8:45 PM Reports of at least 3 simultaneous IDF ground incursions into Gaza.
8:44 PM Air Raid Sirens in Western Negev
8:42 PM First clash reported between IDF ground forces and Hamas terrorists in Gaza, heavy exchange of gunfire.
8:41 PM IDF Solider critically wounded last week in Nachal Oz, has regained consciousness.
8:38 PM All Israeli News channels reporting ground incursion — it is still under military censorship to disclose where the incursion has started.
Prayer for the Welfare of Soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces
May He who blessed our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bless the soldiers
of the Israel Defense Forces who keep guard over our country and cities of
our Lord from the border with Lebanon to the Egyptian desert and from the
Mediterranean Sea to the approach to the Arava, be they on land, air or sea.May the Almighty deliver us our enemies who arise against us, may the Holy
One, blessed be He, preserve them and save them from all sorrow and peril,
from danger and ill.May He send blessing and success in all their endeavors, may He deliver to
them those who hate us and crown them with salvation and victory, so that
the saying may be fulfilled through them, “For the Lord, your God, who walks
with you and to fight your enemies for you and to save you”, and let us say,
Amen.
8:24 PM Breaking News: Nissim Keinan, reporter for Reshet Bet, Israel Channel B Radio announced that the IDF Ground Offensive into Gaza has commenced. Sending a prayer and good wishes to our IDF forces — much success and safety.

NEW RUMORS OF WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST
As the Obama team prepares to take office on January 20th, there are new threats and rumors of possible new wars coming in the epicenter. There is also growing concern that nuclear and biological attacks against the American homeland are nearly inevitable in the coming years unless decisive steps are taken to stop Radical Islamic groups and states: Consider the following headlines:
1.) Agence France Presse: “Nuclear, biological terror attack ‘likely’: US commission” – Excerpt: “The authors of a report warning that a nuclear or biological attack is likely within five years present their sobering findings Wednesday to vice-president-elect Joseph Biden as the next US administration prepares to confront the potentially catastrophic threat. The bi-partisan commission will also brief President George W. Bush on their report, which accuses his administration of failing to treat possible biological attacks with the same priority as the spread of nuclear weapons. The report, World at Risk, calls for decisive global action to address the threat and urges the creation of a new post in the White House that would focus solely on overseeing government efforts to prevent an attack with weapons of mass destruction.”
2.) Al-Quds Al-Arabi: “Bin Laden Has Ordered an Attack Bigger than 9/11″ — Excerpt: “On November 9, 2008, the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabireported, citing ‘a source close to the Al-Qaeda leadership in Yemen,’ that Osama bin Laden had ordered a new attack on the U.S. which will be “far greater than the 9/11 attacks.’ The paper said the source was ‘a former Al-Qaeda commander who is still in touch with… the organization leadership, and who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.’”
3.) New York Times:”Iran Said to Have Nuclear Fuel for One Weapon” – Excerpt:”Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors. The figures detailing Iran’s progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium….’They clearly have enough material for a bomb,’ said Richard L. Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb and has advised Washington for decades. ‘They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that’s another matter.’”
4.) Jerusalem Post:”IDF preparing options for Iran strike” – The report suggests Israeli military commandres are actively drafting options for a massive airstrike against Iranian nuclear facilities that would presuppose no support whatsoever from the U.S. once Barack Obama takes office as President. Excerpts: “‘It is always better to coordinate,’ one top Defense Ministry official explained last week. ‘But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination.’ Israeli officials have said it would be difficult, but not impossible, to launch a strike against Iran without receiving codes from the US Air Force, which controls Iraqi airspace. Israel also asked for the codes in 1991 during the First Gulf War, but the US refused. ‘There are a wide range of risks one takes when embarking on such an operation,’ a top Israeli official said. Several news reports have claimed recently that US President George W. Bush has refused to give Israel a green light for an attack on Iranian facilities. One such report, published in September in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, claimed that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert requested a green light to attack Iran in May but was refused by Bush.” Iranian officials, however, indicate that are not worried, believing that prevailing geopolitical conditions make it unlikely for Israeli leaders actually to order an attack.”We think that regional and international developments and the complicated situation faced by Israel itself will not allow it to launch military strikes against other countries,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told reporters in Teheran, according to the Press TV Web site. “Israel makes threats to promote its psychological and media warfare,” he said.
5.) MEMRI: “Pakistani Nuclear Scientist: ‘None Of India’s Cities Can Remain Safe From Our Missiles’; ‘Our Missile System… Can Be Fired in Only 10 Minutes – They Are On the Launchers’” — Excerpt: “Amid growing tensions between India and Pakistan following the 11/26 Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. Samar Mubarakmand spoke of the readiness of Pakistani missiles and of their capability to target Indian cities. Dr. Mubarakmand, who has steered the Pakistani nuclear program for the past several decades alongside disgraced nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, expressed his views during a talk show.”
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Israel nearing wide-scale Gaza op
Following mortar attack on IDF base which left eight soldiers injured, deputy defense minister says ‘their provocations don’t leave us with much choice’. Likud MK Erdan suggests moving Palestinian prisoners to unfortified detention facility in Gaza vicinity
Published: 11.29.08, 13:13 / Israel News
Israel is nearing a wide-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Saturday, several hours after eight Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured in a mortar shell attack on the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel.
“There’s no doubt we’re getting closer to a wide-scale operation in Gaza, but it will be different from what took place in the past,” Vilnai said during an event in the southern city of Beersheba.
“The truce is important to us and to them, as we control the crossings and the other side is afraid of the IDF’s strength. But we must find the right time for an operation. Their provocations are not leaving us with much choice.”
The deputy defense minister rejected the possibility of evacuating the soldiers from the Nahal Oz base following the mortar attack, as the army did with the Zikim base last week. “We won’t vacate every place,” he said.
Addressing the negotiations with the Palestinians, Vilnai said, “Hamas is not a partner for a dialogue as long as it does not recognize us. The only vision we are facing at the moment is Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas), but the tragedy is that he’s getting weaker.
“We must know that the only solution is reaching an understanding with the Palestinians. We must work with every element on the Palestinian side we can talk to, but in Gaza there’s no one to talk to and the only language there is military power.”
As for the Islamic terror and the combined terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the deputy minister said, “This is a troublesome phenomenon. India is the biggest democracy in the world. The problem is Islamic terror which hits the entire world, and we are not just talking about the conflict between Jews and Palestinians.
“The extreme religious terror must worry the entire free world. They want to damage all the signs of democracy we know.”
Referring to Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s statement that Hizbullah has missiles which could reach Beersheba, Vilnai noted that he believes the Lebanese organization has missiles which could even reach the Negev desert town of Mitzpe Ramon.
As for the Labor Party’s deterioration in recent public opinion polls, he said, “Barak asked me to head the election campaign and I agreed. The most talented person to lead the State of Israel is Barak. The only one similar to him is (Likud Chairman) Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I don’t see the political map without Labor. We won’t disappear, and gaining less than 10 Knesset seats would be a disaster for us.”
MK Erdan: Time for creative solutions
Likud Knesset members also addressed the Nahal Oz mortar attack Saturday. MK Gilad Erdan even came up with an original solution, saying the defense minister must set up a temporary detention facility in the Gaza vicinity and jail Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners there.
Erdan demanded that the new facility won’t be fortified. “It’s time for Israel to initiate creative solutions and prove to the world that it’s determined to do anything in order to stop the terror and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
“If they don’t work to stop the fire, they should take into account that the rockets may hurt their men as well. When the government fails to fortify the south’s residents, there’s no reason to protect terrorists jailed in Israel,” he added.
MK Yuval Steinitz blamed the government for the deterioration in the security situation in southern Israel.
“The Olmert-Livni government’s security failure in the face of Gaza turns pale compared to the Second Lebanon War failure,” he said. “We missed the opportunity to stop the Hizbullah missile and terror threat in the north, but in the south we enabled the formation of Hizbullah 2 in the heart of the Negev.
“The government we’ll build after the elections will have to give Gaza an in-depth treatment which will halt the ongoing security deterioration in the south,” he said.
War with Iran?
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Jerusalem, Israel, November 17, 2008) — Israel is unlikely to launch massive airstrikes to neutralize Iran’s nuclear weapons program before the U.S. inauguration on January 20, 2009, barring dramatic new intelligence that points to an imminent Iranian attack.
That’s my sense of things here after spending nearly a week on the ground.
There is scant evidence of a nation preparing for imminent hostilities. The Israeli political system is engaged in gearing up for elections next February 10th. What’s more, senior Israeli officials are still urging the U.S. to take the lead on stopping Iran. “We must unite our forces, led by the international community, led by the United States of America,” said outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in an address to some 4,000 Jewish leaders from around the world. He called for bilateral and international sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran and told American Jewish leaders: “Each and every one of us needs to play a role - lobby your government, lead your organization or identify a project that can exert additional pressure on Iran….It must become more costly to Iran to pursue nuclear weapons than to give [them] up.”
Last Thursday, I had the honor of addressing the World Likud Congress (pro-Israel political activists from the U.S., Africa and Europe) here in the holy city. I was on a panel of Israeli and Iranian experts on the threat posed to the Jewish State by the Ayatollah Khamenei, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the current regime in Tehran. While I agreed with much that my fellow panelists said, I was struck by their lack of urgency for Israel to take action. One said that Israel shouldn’t strike unless its leaders can be absolutely certain that by doing so Iran will not be able to build the Bomb for at least another ten years. Another suggested Israel should not infuriate the incoming Obama administration by launching attacks on Iran without a clear green light from the new President.
I respectfully disagreed. First, let’s be clear: there is almost no scenario by which the Bush administration is going to launch attacks on Iran in the next sixty days or so and thus hand an on-going war to a new American President. Second, the Obama administration has made it crystal clear that it is not going to make neutralizing Iran’s nuclear threat via military means a priority, much less a top priority. Just the opposite: Obama intends to launch “unconditional” negotiations with Tehran. So waiting for the U.S. to “take the lead” is a non-starter at this point. Third, Israel faces an existential threat from Iranian nuclear weapons and it cannot afford to wait much longer. Once Iran has the Bomb, six million Jews here will be in supreme peril. There will never be a “perfect” time to strike Iran, and Israeli leaders will never be able to be certain ahead of time just how long their attacks will push Iran back from getting the Bomb. But is not buying five more years of security - if ten are not possible - still worth it? Fourth, Israel should never surrender its national security decision-making process to Washington. Did Jerusalem wait for the U.S. to act against the enemies of the Jewish people in 1967? Did Jerusalem wait for the U.S. to bomb Iraq’s nuclear facilities in 1981? Fifth, more than ever, Israel leaders like “the sons of Issachar” described in I Chronicles 12, “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”
[UPDATE: President-elect Obama now says he supports the Saudi "peace" initiative. This would require Israel to go back to its 1967 border, re-divide Jerusalem, give up the strategically vital Golan Heights, and give away all of the Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria and the strategically vital Jordan Valley.]
As I’ve written previously, war with Iran will be horrific at many levels. I do not wish for it. Indeed, I am praying passionately for the peace of Jerusalem, as the Bible teaches me to do. But the notion of Iran’s genocidal, apocalyptic leaders getting weapons of mass destruction in their hands is completely unacceptable. I am, therefore, resigned to the possibility that there may now be no other option but for Israel to launch preemptive strikes, since it is increasingly clear Washington won’t.
As I have no influence on such decisions, I am focusing on helping Israelis prepare for the next war. For much of the past week I have been with my Joshua Fund team here in Israel, working with local Jewish and Christian leaders to stockpile emergency relief supplies. I have also had the privilege of preaching at two Israeli congregations to encourage local believers here to continue walking with the Lord, loving their neighbors, praying without ceasing, and girding themselves for the dark days that very well may lie ahead. More on that in my next dispatch.
[AP: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaks during the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Jerusalem, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008. Olmert told the gathering that Iran is still trying to make nuclear weapons, and the world must make a concerted effort to stop the project.]
IAF jets scrambled to northern border
Thirty-five years after the Yom Kippur War erupted, the Israel Air Force scrambled fighter jets to the border with Lebanon after a suspicious aircraft was detected approaching Israeli airspace.
Two jets and an attack helicopter were scrambled to the border one hour before the fast ended after an unidentified aircraft was spotted flying very close to the border. The aircraft, together with ground forces, conducted searches on the ground and shortly later returned to base after the plane turned around and flew back north into Lebanon.
The IDF was on a general high level of alert throughout the country throughout the holiday and particularly in the North, where intelligence officials have said it is possible that Hizbullah will carry out a cross-border attack during the holiday season to avenge the assassination of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh earlier this year.
A similar incident occurred in April when fighter jets were scrambled to Acre after an unidentified aircraft was spotted over the city, raising fears that an enemy plane had infiltrated Israeli airspace. The plan turned out to be an Israeli civilian aircraft that had forgotten to coordinate its flight plan with aviation authorities.
While the IDF is concerned that Hizbullah will try to kidnap soldiers - as it has done in the past - current fears are that terrorists will cross into Israel, fly an explosives-laden drone into Israel, as it tried to do during the Second Lebanon War, or infiltrate a border community like Shlomi and barricade themselves inside a home with civilian residents.
The defense establishment is concerned that Hizbullah will use the holidays, as well as the switchover in government - from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Kadima Party head Tzipi Livni - to launch an attack.
Intelligence assessments have raised the possibility that Hizbullah believes that with Olmert heading a transition government and Livni still working on forming a coalition, neither one will want to respond harshly to an isolated Hizbullah attack and risk another war erupting in the North
US-Poland missile shield deal seen aimed at Russia
Moscow’s envoy to NATO says missile defense system will not be deployed against Iran but rather against his country
Reuters
Published: 08.15.08, 14:41 / Israel News
Russia’s envoy to NATO said on Friday that a deal struck between the United States and Poland on missile defense amid the Georgia crisis showed the system was aimed at Russia.
“The fact that this was signed in a period of very difficult crisis in the relations between Russia and the United States over the situation in Georgia shows that, of course, the missile defense system will be deployed not against Iran but against the strategic potential of Russia,” Dmitry Rogozin said in a telephone interview.
Poland agreed on Thursday to host elements of a US global anti-missile system after Washington agreed to boost Poland’s own air defenses. Washington says the system is aimed to protect the United States and its allies from long range missiles that could in the future be fired by Iran or groups such as al-Qaeda.
Rogozin criticized the United States for failing to support Russia in the crisis over Georgia and said relations with Washington could be harmed.
“I consider that the United States is not acting in a cautious manner in this situation,” Rogozin said when asked about US-Russian relations and the situation in Georgia.
“Instead of getting full moral and political support in the struggle against real aggression and ethnic cleansing, we have heard a mass of unpleasant words and threats. That will of course not strengthen our relations.”
War in november?
Western intelligence analysts continue to look at the strong possibility that Israel could strike Iranian nuclear and military targets this fall, possibly in November. Now three new pieces of data need to be factored into the equation.
First, Iran now claims to have 6,000 operational centrifuges, feverishly enriching uranium. That is double the number operating at the beginning of the year. “Islamic Iran today possesses 6,000 centrifuges,” Ahmadinejad told a group of professors in the city of Mashhad. What’s more, according to the Associated Press, “A total of 3,000 centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program that could churn out enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons. Iran says it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that will ultimately involve 54,000 centrifuges.” That said, not everyone is convinced Iran is telling the truth, or that all 6,000 centrifuges — if they do have them — are actually operational. “An Israeli official who closely monitors the Iranian nuclear program told The Jerusalem Post that Ahmadinejad was probably lying. ‘Our assessment, based on the latest available information and recent reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency, is that the figure of 6,000 centrifuges is unlikely,’ the official said. ‘We believe a figure of between 3,400 and 3,500 is more accurate.’” The key, however, is that Iran is defying the international community and moving steadily in the direction of enriching enough uranium to high enough standards to be able to begin producing nuclear warheads, possibly within the next year or two, according to senior Israeli intelligence officials.
Second, U.S. officials now believe Russia will not be delivering to Iran this fall a promised and paid for state-of-the-art ground-to-air missile system. The S-300 system was supposed to be delivered to the Iranians as early as September, and operational within 6 to 12 months of delivery, according to Reuters. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said: “We firmly believe, based upon our understanding of the situation, that the Iranians will not be receiving that Russian anti-aircraft system this year.” This buys the Israelis more time, but also increases pressure on Jerusalem to strike the Iranians — if they are going to strike at all — before the Russian air defense system is delivered and operational, and probably while President Bush is still in office. That calculus has some analysts looking to a possibly late fall or early winter preemptive strike.
Third, “Iran signaled Thursday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began,” reported the Associated Press. “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday accused Iran of not being serious at the Geneva talks. She warned that all six nations were serious about a two-week deadline for Iran to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or else be hit with a fourth set of U.N. penalties.” Diplomacy is not working. The sanctions that are currently in place are not changing the dynamic. And time is running out. In many ways, the Israelis find themselves today in a situation somewhat like the spring of 1967 when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and other Arab leaders were vowing to “throw the Jews into the sea” and were surrounding the Jewish State with military firepower that posed an existential threat. Israel had to make a decision: strike first and hope to gain the advantage with the element of surprise, or wait to be hit, and risk being annihilated. Let’s keep praying for peace, therefore. After all, the nations of the epicenter are clearly preparing for war.

















