A third intifada?

 Another excellent analysis by Jack Cohen.  Yasher Koach!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Cohen <jcohen2@bezeqint.net>
Sent: Tue, Oct 22, 2013 10:06 pm
Subject: A third intifada?

In the past there have been two Palestinian "uprisings" or intifadas.  The first intifada was a rather spontaneous and chaotic affair in 1987-91.  The second intifada was a planned and organized insurrection against Israel from 2000-2005 led by Yasir Arafat, who had been allowed to return to "Palestine" by PM Yitzhak Rabin to head the Palestine Authority.  Arafat wanted to re-establish his control over the terrorist forces after his years of absence (exiled in Tunisia) and also to try to undermine Israeli control over the "territories" of Gaza and the West Bank.  In neither case were the intifadas successful in achieving their main aims.  Apart from the killings, the suicide bombings and the IDF responses, Israeli control continued and the intifadas achieved nothing substantive, they did not demoralize the Israeli people.  They did however prevent negotiations proceeding between Israel and the Palestinians.

 

Now President Haniyeh of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has publicly called for a third intifada.  He is doing this in order to show his disapproval of the current negotiations between President Abbas of the PA, Arafat's successor, and Israel.  He says that he is also in favor of a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation leading to Palestinian unity, but he can't have it both ways.  What he is really trying to do is to wrest control of the Palestinian movement away from Abbas and the Fatah/PLO into the hands of Hamas, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood.

 

At this point in time Hamas is caught in a bind.  They strongly oppose any accommodation with Israel and support the formation of a Palestinian State only as a replacement for Israel, in all of Palestine.  They also support the return of all Palestinian "refugees" and the release of all Israeli prisoners.  But, Hamas has a problem since the Egyptian Army under Gen. al-Sisi removed Pres. Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) from power and established an interim military government.  They are currently crushing the rebel Islamists in Sinai and have destroyed almost all of the tunnels under the Egyptian-Gaza border that was the lifeline for Hamas.  In order to make common cause with the MB when it was in power in Egypt, Hamas cut its ties with Shia Iran.  Now it has no other potential allies.  That is why Haniyeh is trying to reassert his leadership of the Palestinian movement.  Israel must be careful to watch for a third intifada starting in the West Bank and to crush it with all available means, particularly if the current negotiations between Israel and the PA fail, as they are likely to do.

Swimming Success of Israeli swimmers pours water on Arab boycott in Dubai

The emirate organizers tried to hide the Israeli delegation’s presence at a World Cup event last week, but Gal Nevo and his colleagues' achievements forced them to rethink.

By Uri Talshir | Oct. 22, 2013 | 12:34 AM

Three years ago, following a drawn-out, diplomatic-security saga, the Israeli delegation landed in Dubai for the FINA World Swimming Championships (in a 25-meter pool). During the opening ceremony, the announcer mocked the delegation and addressed it by its initials, ISR. The organizers did everything in their power to downplay the presence of Israelis in the emirate.

Last week, when the Israeli national swimming team returned to Dubai for a World Cup series event, they were again ignored. This time there was no ceremony with a walk-past by national delegations, but in everything related to the scoreboard and television coverage, the organizers prevented the word “Israel” or the Israeli national flag from appearing, thereby causing disruptions both to television broadcasts and in publicizing race results poolside.

“In order that our national flag and name wouldn’t appear, the results of every race we competed in were not publicized,” says Gal Nevo, one of Israel’s most senior swimmers, describing the absurd situation.

“Competitors swim with us in the heats in the morning, and expect to see the results on the scoreboard in order to know whether they’ve qualified for the final. But on the screen they’re already broadcasting the next race, without mentioning the names and times from the previous heat. I watched the broadcast on television of the race in which Amit Inbar won a medal. She swam in lane 1, but the broadcast focused completely on the other half of the pool. Of course there weren’t any results [announced] and it was impossible to know whether she’d finished in third place.”

Swimmers from other countries wondered what was causing the apparent lack of organization, and received the explanation from their Israeli counterparts.

“Everyone was really surprised to learn what had caused this situation,” says Nevo. “For some, the penny dropped and they said ‘Wow - that’s it! Now I realize why we couldn’t see all the results on the scoreboard.’ They didn’t expect it and didn’t believe that politics had been brought into the event in such a crude way. I, for one, was surprised by the tremendous amount of empathy the other swimmers showed for us.”

Unlike the prestigious competition in 2010, this time the Israelis were competing in a relatively minor tournament – which is how the Israeli swimmers reached the finals. Inbar’s medal was Israel's first, to be followed by Nevo, Guy Barnea and Yakov Toumarkin reaching the finals in their categories, thereby boosting the Israeli presence in Dubai.

“They sort-of boycotted us, but our achievements made their ignoring us much more prominent,” says Nevo. “It happened too many times, and swimmers from other countries began to notice the phenomenon.”

On the last day of competition the event’s organizers suddenly stopped interfering with the broadcasts and the poolside scoreboard, and at last recognized the existence of the Israeli swimmers.
“We saw a change – Amit was the first to swim in a final, and suddenly we heard the announcer say the word ‘Israel,’” recalls Nevo. “We saw her on the screen and thought maybe it’s a mistake, that one of the producers had failed to notice. There had been a similar mistake the previous day, and then the whole broadcast was disrupted, but this time we realized that the barrier had been breached. “We reached a few finals that day, and saw that we appeared on television together with the flag, were shown warming up before the races and on the scoreboard. Everything was normal, and then I realized just how many times our flag had appeared. Maybe the organizers wanted to prevent it, but apparently they also felt that the situation had become ridiculous and started acting logically. As I was readying for my final I heard the words ‘Gal Nevo from Israel,’ which is not like hearing ‘Gal Nevo from ISR.’”

While competing, Nevo and his colleagues did not comprehend the size of their achievement. It was only a few hours later, when they were out of the water and able to look at the bigger picture, that they realized the importance of what had happened.

“All the time we were too concerned with how we swam, was the time good enough, what it means in terms of our training programs, how we divided up our energy, where our style needs improving and other professional nuances,” he says. “Then suddenly you say, ‘Wait, look what we did and what happened around us.’ That excited me more than all the medals. Suddenly I realized that this is one of the major reasons that I do what I do – to represent Israel anywhere in the world, to show its positive sides and that its athletes are good.

“Suddenly you arrive in a country that has refused to recognize you until now, and know that the next time we’ll be here they won’t play those games with us. I don’t know how many television viewers we’re talking about, but the people in the emirate saw the Israeli flag over and over again, and were exposed to the country’s sporting aspect.”

Nevo, 26, from Kibbutz Hamadia, is the Israeli team’s unofficial captain, and has often been quoted on the wider aspects of representing his country. Two years ago, while competing in the World Championships in China, he told Haaretz about the pride he felt when, in his heat, he beat all the swimmers representing Arab countries. This time again, albeit in a more refined manner, Nevo emphasized his patriotic streak in the pool.

“I swim for myself and love the competitiveness, but that’s only part of the picture,” he explains. “The dream is to represent your country, and this has been part of me since I was 17 years old, when I had to decide whether to become a combat soldier or an outstanding athlete. My [sporting] environment wanted me to continue to swim, but on kibbutz you grow up on the value of serving in the most combative unit and to give your most [to the country]. There was a bit of a clash between these desires. The achievements I have reached prove that I made the right decision for myself, and the desire to help the country as an athlete is always foremost.”

BBC WATCH: Hamas claims tunnel, calls for new intifada, praises recent terror attacks: BBC silent

Hamas claims tunnel, calls for new intifada, praises recent terror attacks: BBC silent

As readers may recall, the October 11^th BBC report on the subject of the murder of Col. (res.) Sariya Ofer included the following statement:

“The dead man is the third Israeli to be killed in what Israel characterises as “terror attacks” in the last month in the West Bank. Two serving soldiers have also died.” [emphasis added]

Both the wording and use of punctuation in that statement imply that the BBC questions the classification of the various recent attacks as terror incidents, as indeed the BBC College of Journalism warned would be likely to be the case in its entry on the subject in its style guide.

“Beware of paraphrasing and selective quotation, e.g.: “The Israeli prime minister said that while ‘terrorist’ attacks continued he would not back down.” Putting the single word ‘terrorist’ in quotes may give the impression that the BBC is sceptical about the prime minister’s assessment of the nature of the attacks.”

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, however, does not share the BBC’s scepticism. In a speech given on October 19^th he called for a third Intifada in order to disrupt the ongoing talks between Israel and the PLO.

“Urging a renewal of intifada “resistance,” Haniyeh praised the “heroic martyrs” responsible for a series of recent terrorist attacks in the West Bank, in which two soldiers were killed, a retired army colonel was bludgeoned to death, and a nine-year-old girl was shot and lightly injured. In the latest suspected terrorist attack, on Thursday, a Palestinian man rammed a tractor through the gate of an army base north of Jerusalem and was shot dead by IDF forces.”

Of course BBC audiences have yet to be informed of the content of Haniyeh’s latest speech or the fact that Hamas has officially taken responsibility for the construction of the recently discovered cross-border tunnel.  
Likewise, BBC audiences have not been informed of the attempted infiltration in the Negev town of Meitar on October 20^th, the shots fired at an IDF patrol near Kibbutz Sufa on the southern part of the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on the evening of the same day, the discovery of an IED on the Gaza border on October 21st or the attempted stabbing on a bus travelling between Beit Shemesh and Beitar Illit – also on the evening of October 20th – as captured on the bus’ security camera.  

These latest additions to the BBC’s record of omission are of course less surprising when one considers that it elected not to include the issue of terrorism in its definition of the so-called “core issues” of the Middle East conflict.