Inciting war crimes: Israel minister says force Gaza population into Egypt, cut off water, electricity

Electronic Intifada
Ali Abunimah

Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on 15 November 2012.

An Israeli minister has called for the army to bomb Gaza until the population flees en masse into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, and for water and electricity supplies to be cut, a clear case of incitement to war crimes.

Israel Katz, Israel’s transport minister, was quoted on the Orthodox website B’Hadrei Haredim on 11 November:

Israel must act in Gaza with a very clear policy. The leadership of the Hamas, which is responsible for all the attacks and shooting, must be eliminated. Beyond that, we must detach from Gaza in a civilian manner – electricity, water, food, and fuel – and transition into a policy of deterrence, just like in Southern Lebanon.”

Why don’t they shoot at us from Southern Lebanon and do from Gaza? Because there is no clear boundary with Gaza. Because the civilian link with Gaza is unreasonable. Gaza should be considered a border, and every time we are hurt, hurt back [retaliate]. When I see Palestinian citizens escaping into Sinai, the way Lebanese citizens escape toward Beirut when there is a round of fire against Israel – we will then know that the deterrence has been achieved.”

Calling for war crimes

Katz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, appears to be inciting war crimes of the kind Israel committed in Lebanon and previously in Gaza.
In July 2006, hundreds of thousands of civilians in Lebanon fled their homes to escape an indiscriminate Israeli onslaught that left 1,200 people, mostly civilians, dead, and the country’s infrastructure devastated.

Israel’s bombardment of the civilian areas came to be known as the “Dahiya doctrine” after the southern suburb of Beirut that was leveled by Israeli attacks.

According to the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report, Israel applied the “Dahiya doctrine” again during its 2008-2009 attack on Gaza. The report said on page 23:

The tactics used by Israeli military armed forces in the Gaza offensive are consistent with previous practices, most recently during the Lebanon war in 2006. A concept known as the Dahiya doctrine emerged then, involving the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations.

The Goldstone report noted that Israeli officials had explicitly articulated the goals and methods of this strategy.

Such use of indiscriminate and “disrproportionate” force (there is no such thing as proportionate force against civilians), calculated to destroy civilian infrastructure and cause suffering, amounts to a war crime.

Now, just as in those previous cases, Israeli ministers are not shy about publicly stating their criminal intent, confident of the international impunity and complicity that has so far protected them from accountability.

Israel’s current assault, which it began by breaking a truce with Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, has claimed at least 22 Palestinian lives in recent days, with dozens of injuries.

Sixteen Palestinians have been killed since 14 November, the latest a 10-month old baby named Hanin Tafish. Yesterday, Israeli bombardment killed 11-month-old Omar Masharawi, the son of a BBC staffer in Gaza.

Three Israelis were killed this morning in retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza.
With thanks to Dena Shunra for spotting and translation.

UK changes position on IMF loan for Morsi’s Egypt

Amhram
Amer Sultan

British officials refrain from giving full backing to Egypt's $4.8 billion loan request, having previously supported such funding under military rule

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi (R), Prime Minister Hisham Kandil (C),
Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Saeed (L) and Governor of Egypt's
Central Bank (CBE) Farouk El-Okdah (2nd L) meet with IMF Managing Director
Christine Lagarde at the Presidential Palace in Cairo

The United Kingdom has refrained from backing Egypt's request of a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"We prefer to wait and see the results of the negotiations between Egypt and the IMF," a UK Foreign Office spokesperson told Ahram Online.

During her recent visit to Cairo, the IMF's managing director, Christine Lagarde, received a formal request from Egypt for a $4.8 billion loan.

"The UK thinks that this is a good opportunity for dialogue between the two parties," the spokesperson added.

Asked whether the UK would back the Egyptian request if the IMF board decides in its favour, the spokesperson replied: "We do not have anything to say for the time being."

The UK's caution seems to mark a significant change in its attitude towards Egypt's calls for international assistance to overcome its economic difficulties.

The UK provides 5 per cent of the IMF budget, making it the fourth biggest contributor, with equivalent voting power. It follows the US (18 per cent), Germany (6 per cent) and Japan (6 per cent).

Mid-last year, the UK government was enthusiastic about an IMF offer of a $3.2 billion loan at a 1.5 per cent interest during Egypt's period of direct military rule.

A high level UK diplomat then told Ahram Online that the offer was "an amazingly good deal" with "virtually no conditionality."

UK support at the time followed a meeting of British representatives with the Supreme Council for Armed Force (SCAF), which until July 2012 had veto power on all political decisions.

The diplomat explained that his government felt the deal the IMF put to Egypt was very favourable.

Speaking this week, the Foreign Office spokesperson insisted there was no change in the UK positions on the IMF loan after President Morsi took the reins of power from SCAF.

During her visit to Egypt last Wednesday, Lagarde met Morsi and his prime minister Hesham Kandil, and praised the Egyptian vision for reform.

"We are impressed by the strategy that President Morsi and Prime Minister Kandil have proposed during our meetings today," she said at a joint press conference with Kandil.

An IMF technical team is due to arrive in Cairo in early September to begin work on arrangements for the mooted loan.

"We prefer foreign borrowing at this stage given the low interest rate of the IMF loan compared to much higher rates when borrowing domestically," said Kandil, on the matter. 

He added that borrowing domestically would crowd out the private sector and the IMF loan would help ease  liquidity problems.

The IMF said in a statement it had maintained close dialogue on economic policy with Egyptian authorities since the start of the transition period in February 2011. It said it has also provided considerable technical assistance upon request from the government.

Egypt Sends Tanks, Warplanes to Sinai to Fight Militants

AntiWar
Jason Ditz

Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi seems to be in the ultimate no-win situation tonight. Pressed by both Israel and the US to get more involved militarily in the Sinai Peninsula, which is under Egyptian control, he is sending warplanes, tanks and troopsto fight militants.

But while throwing the military at any problem is seemingly the US-approved solution for allies, officials are up in arms against Mursi,accusing him of violating the treaty with Israel by sending troops to fight anti-Israel militants, and demanding that the US withdraw all foreign aid to Egypt in retaliation.
Under the Camp David Accords, the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, Egypt can only send additional troops to Sinai and engage in military operations there if it obtains an Israeli imprimatur. Israel had confirmed the first offensives were approved.

Now, they’re conspicuously silent on the matter, neither confirming nor denying that Egypt’s escalations in Sinai, which are seemingly exactly what they wanted in the first place, were officially approved. That uncertainty seems to be enough to spawn a new round of railing against Mursi, though the condemnation seems to be as much about sidelining the military junta as about the deployment.

Netanyahu Tells Egypt: Keep Tanks out of Sinai

IsraelNationalNews
Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Netanyahu has demanded that Egypt cease sending tanks into the Sinai without approval, a “blatant violation” of the 1979 peace treaty.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has demanded that Egypt cease sending tanks into the Sinai without Israel's approval, a “blatant violation” of the 1979 peace treaty, the Maariv Hebrew-language website reported Tuesday.

Mark Regev, spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister, told Arutz Sheva, “We are not commenting” on the report.

An Egyptian newspaper reported that local Bedouin claimed that Egypt already has sent dozens of tanks to the northern Sinai, near the Israeli border. The report has not been confirmed, and most other media outlets have reported that Egypt is preparing to send in tanks, planes and additional soldiers to combat rampant terror.

Al Qaeda-linked terror cells, Bedouin and Hamas terrorists have taken control of the Sinai Peninsula in recent years, particularly since the end of the Mubarak regime.

A source close to Prime Minister Netanyahu told Maariv the planned buildup, if it already has not taken place, is “a blatant violation of the peace treaty.”

The Obama administration wields influence over Egypt because of its $1.3 billion annual aid to Cairo, and the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu has appealed to the White House to pressure Egypt to stop the deployment.

Israel knows that it is to its benefit if the new Egyptian regime can defeat terrorists in the area, but it also fears that Egypt will not be successful and that terrorists could gain possession of tanks.

Another concern is that Egypt would maintain its new military presence for an unlimited amount of time and establish “facts on the ground: that would represent a de facto change in terms of the treaty, which requires Israeli approval for additional forces.

An unstated concern of almost every Israeli who remembers the Yom Kippur War is that a renewed Egyptian military presence in the Sinai could set the stage for another war, especially if Iran or Hizbullah attacks from the north.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi is scheduled to visit Iran next week to re-establish ties with Tehran, despite the objections of the United States.

Former Obama administration Middle East envoy Dennis Ross wrote in The Washington Post Monday that the U.S. must make clear to Egypt that if it continues to violate its commitments under the Camp David Accords, it would jeopardize its U.S. funding.

Ross said that Egypt's current rulers, the Muslim Brotherhood, must “come to terms with reality,” that they were committed to the Accords. He said that the denial by Egyptian President Morsi that he had responded to a letter of congratulations sent to him by President Shimon Peres, and the attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood to blame the Mossad for the Sinai terror attack, prove that the group cannot tolerate any circumstances that contradicts its philosophy.

Report: Israel moves tanks to Egypt border

Occupied Palestine

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — Israel’s army moved military tanks towards the country’s border with Egypt on Monday, after an earlier cross-border attack killed a man working on Israel’s barrier on the frontier, Israeli media reported.

Israeli news site Ynet said the unusual move to deploy tanks on the border was in breach of the Camp David peace treaty between the countries, which requires the area to remain demilitarized.

The tanks were later withdrawn from the area, and the Israeli army said the move was in response to the attack earlier Monday, and it has no plans to leave tanks on the border, Israeli daily Haaretz said.

Israel and Egypt had agreed in recent months that Cairo could deploy 20 tanks near the border to ward off Bedouin attacks, despite the demilitarization clause of the peace treaty, Ynet reported.

The 1978 Camp David Accords led to Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the first by an Arab country.

Earlier Monday, militants fired on an Israeli crew building a border barrier on the Egyptian frontier on Monday, killing a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and Israeli soldiers shot dead two of the infiltrators, the military said.

The incident, hours after Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory in the country’s presidential election — disputed by the rival candidate — raised Israeli concern about lawlessness in Egypt’s Sinai desert since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

“We can see a disturbing deterioration in Egypt’s control of the Sinai’s security,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, commenting on the attack.

“We are waiting for the election results. Whoever wins, we expect him to take responsibility over all of Egypt’s international commitments,” he told reporters in a reference to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.

Egypt sentences two Israelis, Ukranian for arms smuggling

alakhbar

Egypt's 'Raymond Davis': Ilan Grapel (a U.S. and Israeli citizen)
had his freedom from an Egyptian prison purchased by the
the release of 25 Egyptiian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Two Israelis and a Ukrainian were sentenced to life in prison by an Egyptian court on Monday on charges of smuggling a machinegun and ammunition across the Israeli border into Egypt, a court source said.

The Ukrainian and one of the Israelis are in Egyptian custody, while the other defendant was tried in absentia.

Security along Egypt's border with Israel, long a conduit for the smuggling of guns and people, was relaxed after the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak following a popular uprising in February 2011, as police presence thinned out across Egypt.

The region has been hit by a number of gas pipeline explosions and cross-border attacks.
According to the court that issued the conviction, the Ukrainian, manager of a tourism company in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, had ordered the weapon from one of the Israeli defendants, the source said.

The other Israeli, who lived in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, brought the weapon into Egypt at the border at Taba in a cross-shaped wooden crate.

The machinegun and ammunition were discovered when the crate was placed on an explosives detection machine. The weapon was the sort used by police in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, investigators said.

The captured Israeli has denied knowing the contents of the crate, while the Ukrainian said he had ordered the weapon for personal protection, the court said.

In June, Egypt arrested an American-Israeli on suspicion he was trying to recruit agents and monitor events in the uprising that toppled Mubarak, an ally of Israel and the United States.

He was released in October in a prisoner swap that included the release of 25 Egyptians held in Israel.
Egyptian officials say limits on troop numbers in Sinai under a 1979 peace treaty with Israel make it harder to secure the mountainous region.

Dubious Evidence Israeli Bus Attackers Based in Gaza

Intifada-Palistine

Following deadly terror attacks on Israel, Israeli Air Force attacks kill 9 in Gaza despite lack of evidence connecting attackers to the Strip

Two terror attacks shook Israel on Thursday and Friday. The attackers fired on an Israeli bus, set of a suicide bombing and roadside bombs, fired on civilian vehicles, and engaged in a fire battle with the Israeli army. The day after, 20 Grad rockets hit the Southern Israeli city of Ashdod, damaging a synagogue. By the weekend, eight Israelis were killed and nearly forty injured. Immediately after the attack, the Israeli air force bombed many locations in Gaza. Nine were killed and nearly thirty injured. In an interview with The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky, Lt. Col. Avital Liebovitz admits the army does not connect the attack to the Popular Resistance Committee, whom the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blames. Tarachansky also spoke with Yossi Gurvitz, a contributing editor to +972 Magazine and Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi, a Journalist and social worker based in Gaza City.

U.S. Forces Deploy to Egypt

TheDay.com

Groton - Connecticut National Guard Detachment 2, Company I, 185th Aviation Regiment of Groton has mobilized and will deploy to the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, to support the Multinational Force and Observers.

The unit left Connecticut Jan. 15 for Fort Benning, Ga., for further training and validation. The unit operates C-23C Sherpa aircraft and has deployed three times in the last seven years in support of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The unit will provide an on-demand aviation asset to the Multinational Force and Observers commander to support its mission of supervising the security provisions of the Egypt/ Israel Peace Treaty.

Chief Warrant Officer Four James Smith of Ivoryton commands the aviation unit.