Middle East Report Feb. 9, 2016

Few Israelis, including the people who wake up at night to the clatter of Palestinians in Gaza digging tunnels under their floors, have never heard of Mohammed Al-Emadi. But his importance to their lives cannot be overestimated, because he is the Persian Gulf Emirate of Qatar’s de facto ambassador to the Gaza Strip and to Israel.

He is moreover Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s secret weapon against Hamas’s terror tunnels.
On Monday, Feb.8, Education Minister Naftali Bennett was reported as urging an immediate attack on the Hamas tunnels during a recent security cabinet meeting, of which he is a member.

The next morning, the defense minister furiously dismissed his colleague’s demands as “reckless, childish and irresponsible” and accused him of potentially dragging the country into war from cynical motives. “War isn’t child’s play and it costs human lives,” Ya’alon said.

Ya’alon’s unwillingness to go into action against the Hamas tunnels is not down to the IDF’s inability to handle the mission, but to the new element in the Israel-Hamas equation:  His cooperation with the Qatari ambassador, who has set up an office in Gaza City. This office has become the nerve center between two Palestinian organizations, Hamas and Jihad Islami, and Israel’s defense authorities.
The Qatari envoy’s office processes every message passing between Gaza and Tel Aviv.
For example, after the popular uproar in Israel over the terror tunnels, Israeli media carried reports that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had sent messages to assure Israel that they had no intention of launching a fresh round of warfare.
That message, carried secretly by the Qatari envoy, had two sections that were not published:
The two Palestinian groups asked Israel not to misunderstand their military actions in Gaza because, it was claimed,  they were defensive not offensive.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad also asked Israel to intercede on their behalf with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi to ease his closure on the Rafah border town, part of Cairo’s tough crackdown on the two terrorist groups.

Israel did not respond directly. But on, Monday, Feb. 8, in an interview to the Saudi website “Elaf”, IDF Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordecai accused Hamas of treating in Gaza hospitals ISIS-affiliated terrorists who had been injured in Sinai attacks on Egyptian troops and police officers.

He revealed that, on the orders of the Hamas military wing, Ezzadin al-Qassem Brigades, those ISIS casualties were transferred to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes through secret tunnels.

Gen. Mordecai’s implied message was this: First stop giving ISIS terrorists medical care, then we may consider putting in a word for you in Cairo.
But according, to my  counterterrorism sources, the general held back on two even more serious aspects of Hamas’s secret collusion with Egypt’s archenemy in Sinai.
First, he omitted mention of the flow of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters to Sinai, where they were reinforcing the ISIS affiliate against Egypt.

Second, he said nothing about the Hamas-Islamic Jihad’s clandestine deals for the smuggling of weapons through Sinai into the Gaza Strip, often from Libya.
The Qatari envoy is not just brokering messages between Israel and Gaza. Essential goods in large quantities, including fuel and building materials, are being regularly trucked into the Gaza Strip from Israel. Each consignment must first obtain a stamp of approval from Al-Emadi’s office.
Israel accepted this procedure for three reasons:

1. Its defense authorities and the IDF trust the Qatari envoy’s good judgment on the choice of items for delivery.

2. His office, as designated representative of the Emirate of Qatar, is responsible for payment for the goods ordered on the shopping lists its office relays to Tel Aviv. Some Israeli factories are now exclusively producing goods on those lists, confident that payment by the emirate is guaranteed.

3. A copy of those shopping lists is also sent to Cairo. This enables Qatar to keep the Israeli and Egyptian military authorities in full coordination and abreast of events in Gaza.

At the same time, Al-Emadi stays clear of the two Palestinian groups’ military affairs, such as their infiltration tunnels and missiles. New pictures appearing on Gaza social media in the last few days show the Qatari ambassador visiting a tunnel, apparently to find out at first hand what the uproar in Israel was about.

Finally, the importance can’t be overstated of seriously debating the defense minister’s Gaza policy and the wisdom of reposing so much trust in the Gulf emirate, whose wider interests transcend the Israel-Palestinian sphere and include backing for Syrian rebel groups, some of them Islamic extremist terrorists.

Qatar’s interests also touch on additional fronts of Palestinian terror, as well as the Syrian conflict, Iran’s military intervention in Syria and Hizbollah’s role.

The average Israeli has begun gaining the impression that the defense minister has no answer for addressing the country’s multiple security threats, other than handing out economic incentives for inducing its many enemies to refrain from hostilities.
Moshe Ya’alon can only blame his own rhetoric for this image. A statement he made in October 2014 marked a turning-point in Israel’s military history. “Hizbollah now has 100,000 missiles in Lebanon, and we are not taking action to destroy them. There are hundreds of missiles in Iran, and we are not making a decision to destroy them,” is what he said at the time. The minister has being making comments in the same vein every since. Dismissing as “reckless and childish” ideas that differ from his passive approach for dealing with the Hamas tunnels, the threats from Syria and the current wave of Palestinian terror, is no answer. Shutting down the debate on these vital issues is more dangerous than airing it.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkot said Tuesday that the military’s top priority is the elimination of the terror tunnels under construction in the Gaza Strip. “Hamas believes that the ability to secrete operatives in to Israel for terror attacks is a tool of warfare that will make up for its inferior combat capacity against the IDF. Substantial Palestinian assets are therefore being sunk into creating the tunnel system.” Eisenkot went on to say: “We have launched a major operational, technological, intelligence and engineering project to foil this threat, and are open to more initiatives and ideas” 

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said Tuesday that the government is pursuing a multiyear plan for the establishment of a security fence on all of the country's borders, and will prevent breaches of the fence in the West Bank. He added that the plan is estimated to cost billions of shekels so it will take years to be completed. Netanyahu made the comments during a visit to a section of the security fence under construction on the Jordanian border.

Syrian sitrep Feb. 9, 2016, click the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyjNykc0c8Q

Syrian sitrep Feb. 8, 2016, click the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N6ch9a7RIU

Crisis news Feb. 9, 2016, click the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_LfBC4js1s

Isaiah 17 says that Damascus shall be a ruinous heap. How close are we to that coming to pass? Click the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Da56IKPLm8

Few Syrian Christians being admitted to the U.S. Click the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yztNODbpU7Q



Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, above, said during an appearance on Russian television that Chechen special forces, pictured above with Kadvrov, are fighting alongside Russian troops in Syria, and that they have suffered casualties. He did not specify the location of the deployment or the fronts where they have fought. The Chechen special forces brigades are an integral part of the Russian military as Chechnya is part of Russia. Some of the units, disguised as volunteer fighters, fought in eastern Ukraine in recent months.