Obama wanders into Gaza conflict, calls for ‘cessation of hostilities’

 

IDF treats wounded on 20 July. (Image: AFP, Jack Guez)

New post up at Liberty Unyielding.  Enjoy!

IDF intercepts deadly Iranian arms shipment in Red Sea

On 5 March, Israeli forces stopped and boarded a freighter in the Red Sea, KLOS-C, which was carrying a cargo of battlefield rockets from Iran to Port Sudan.  The crew of the ship doesn’t appear to have known what was loaded in Iran; more on that later.  Sudan has of course served for years as a waypoint for Iranian arms deliveries to Gaza.  (See The Tower on this as well.)

According to the IDF, Israeli intelligence actually observed the rockets in question being transferred from Syria to Iran several months ago.  The rockets are versions of the Syrian-made M-302, the rocket used in a 302mm multiple-rocket launch system (MLRS).   The Assad regime has supplied

Israeli security: “War war” returns to the Middle East

 

Kerry on the Peace in Our Time tour.

One of the peculiar features of the Obama administration has been its apparent belief that it can maneuver against America’s longstanding security posture, and yet continue to subsist inside of it, as if the strength or credibility of it won’t change with the change in policy.  Team Obama’s blinders about this clearly extend to the Middle East situation as a whole.  That means they extend to Israel’s situation as well.

John Kerry may or may not realize that he is pressing for a security deal

Observations on Obama’s trip to Israel: Apologies (Part 1)

Obama went to Israel, and, as expected, gave some bland speeches and didn’t suggest putting anything new on the table in the now-defunct-in-all-but-name “peace process.”  To the question, “Why now?” the answer is that he is building a putative pro-Israel narrative for the 2014 congressional election (Jeff Dunetz has a nice piece on that).

The one thing that did come out of Obama’s trip is a pseudo-apology from Israel to Turkey on the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010.  That leads to the first observation.

The history:

Oops – The IDF didn’t kill Baby Mashrawi (and other things that didn’t happen during Pillar of Defense)

[Warning: graphic images]

Diligent readers of the Washington Post may know by now that UN observers in Gaza attribute the death of 11-month-old Omar Mashrawi, during Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012, to a Hamas rocket which fell short and hit a Gaza City home.

WaPo initially reported the death using an AP photo with a caption that implicated an “Israeli strike.” The corrected story has that reference removed from the caption, after AP removed it in a correction to its original posting with the photo.  Numerous print and online news outlets used the same AP photo, however, with the original caption alluding to an Israeli strike.

Yet bloggers doubted at the time that the damage done to the Gaza City home was caused by an Israeli strike.  Elder of Ziyon’s post on the Mashrawi question mentioned these doubts first,