The timing is interesting, given the upcoming "Annapolis Conference", which serves to be about PR alone, as Olmert has already ruled out any Negotiations or Compromise in the name of peace.

If you follow the events surrounding Israel's "Disengagement" from Gaza, you will quickly understand that this was the plan all along. While Israel was making a public spectacle of "forcing Jews to leave their homes", it was quietly surrounding the Strip with artillery emplacements, in an operation ominously named "First Rain".

Under this operation, Gaza basically became a "Free-Fire Zone", and several artillery and gunship strikes killed a high number of civilians. Finally, when one of these batteries fired upon and murdered a Palestinian family - picnicking on a beach that had been Segregated "Jews Only" only weeks before, Hamas finally decided to call an end to its unilateral, two-year cease-fire.

(In essence, they took Israel's bait. After all, you can't excuse your Aggression and label it "defense" if you're not being intermittently attacked. Never mind the hypocrisy underlying the entire media's framing of that whole debate ...)

When the Palestinians responded by electing Hamas to power (yes, elected), Israeli Extremists and their Ideological, bought foreign co-conspirators imposed unilateral sanctions on Gaza, a bit of Collective Punishment which increased the hardship of those stuck in the world's largest Concentration Camp.

When they felt Gaza had been substantially weakened, the US and Israel undertook a Coup attempt, using corrupt elements within the Fatah Party, provoking a violent response by Hamas, which expelled the group. Most of the world's media ignored the events leading to this "crisis", and instead only repeated the Propaganda emanating from the US and Israel, which used this to further increase sanctions against Gaza.

Most recently, Israel stepped up its Collective Punishment, except that human rights groups and legal advisors to the Government halted some of its approved measures, because they run contrary to International Humanitarian Law.

This was sold as another "response to rocket attacks" (again highlighting the hypocrisy of the debate's Framing - are the Palestinians allowed to defend themselves from strikes which actually KILL people ... ?), even though high-ranking officials said that this was NOT, in fact, a response to these attacks, but a way to "distance Israel from Gaza's infrastructure".

The real reason for this whole episode, of course, has been to "soften up" the Gaza Strip for a long-planned military attack, a way to undermine the resolve, and hopefully rid this territory of Palestinians altogether.

Of course, the corporate media says none of this, unless you're able to read between the lines. Then it's all right there in black 'n white ...

Barak: Large-scale Gaza operation near
By YAAKOV KATZ, JPOST STAFF, AND AP

A large-scale IDF operation against Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza was drawing near, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday.

"Every day that passes brings us closer to a broad operation in Gaza," Barak told Army Radio.

"We are not happy to do it, we're not rushing to do it, and we'll be happy if circumstances succeed in preventing it," he said. "But the time is approaching when we'll have to undertake a broad operation in Gaza."

Meanwhile, Hamas "terror chief" Muhammad Deif was quoted as saying that Hamas would soon strike "deep inside Israel."

Hamas official Sheikh Ahmad Hamdan of Khan Yunis said Tuesday that he recently met with Deif in the fugitive's hiding place. According to Hamdan, Deif, leader of Hamas's Izzadin a-Kassam armed wing, told him that in the next few weeks, his group would initiate an attack against the "Israeli occupation, and not remain on the defensive."

Deif, wanted by Israel for planning and executing numerous terror attacks, has eluded capture for years. In July 2006, he was wounded in an IAF strike on a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. Palestinian sources reported that nine members of the same family were killed in the attack, including seven children.

Deif has survived at least two other targeted assassination attempts.

The report of the Izzadin a-Kassam leader's alleged plans comes after Brig.-Gen. Moshe (Chico) Tamir, head of the Gaza Division, said Monday that Hamas was trying to establish a bunker system as well as fortified rocket-launching and surveillance positions along the security fence with the Gaza Strip.

Tamir said that Hamas was "building an army" in the Gaza Strip and had obtained unprecedented capabilities through smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. Also Monday, head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Yuval Diskin said that since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the Palestinians have smuggled over 112 tons of explosives into the Strip.

"They are trying to dig tunnels, build surveillance positions and mortar-fire stations along the fence," Tamir told reporters during a briefing concerning the death of IDF reservist Ehud Efrati during clashes with Hamas gunmen early Monday morning. "They are trying to build this up and we are trying to stop them."

Tamir said that Hamas was studying Israeli tactics during the IDF's daily operations along the fence and was trying to use this knowledge in its fighting methods.

 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380691224&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israeli army conducts largest maneuver since Lebanon War in 2006

JERUSALEM, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are conducting in northern part of the country the largest military drill since the Second Lebanon War in 2006, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported Tuesday.

The four-day military operation, started from Sunday, was continuing in north Israel's Galilee region, the report said.

The maneuver was originally planned to take place also in the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel took from Syria in 1967 Mideast War, but the IDF decided to cancel that part of maneuver only two days before the drill for fear that increasing tensions with Syria.

The maneuver involved ground, air and naval forces as well as intelligence and S4 units, said local newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, adding that no live fire would be used in the drill.

A similar drill had been held a month before the Second Lebanon War.

The objective of the exercise is "to synchronize the decision making process between the various military bodies in the midst of a crisis situation," it said.

Yedioth Ahronoth also said that the maneuver will further pressure the decision makers by complicating the combat scenarios with various possible political developments as well as the opening of a new front in southern Israel.

 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/30/content_6975606.htm

Israel sees Palestinians too 'exhausted' to rebel
Reuters | Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Israeli intelligence believes that Palestinians would lack the will for a new popular uprising against occupation should an upcoming peace conference fail to meet their expectations, a senior official has said.

Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, told a parliamentary committee that while failure at the conference could provoke some violence, it would not reach the same level as the Intifada, or uprising, that began in 2000 when the last major peace initiative collapsed.

"In my estimation ... the Palestinians are exhausted. There isn't the energy in the public and there also isn't the leadership right now that could spur such resistance," Diskin was quoted by a parliamentary spokesman as telling lawmakers.

The spokesman offered no definition of what failure might entail. Palestinian negotiators say their goal following a US-hosted conference due by December is the launch of formal statehood negotiations leading to a peace accord next year.

Many observers question whether either the Israeli or Palestinian governments have the strength to implement such a deal – Diskin himself was quoted as saying he did not believe Palestinians were capable of preventing attacks on Israel.

Over 4000 Palestinians and some 1000 Israelis have been killed since the uprising that began after peace talks between then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat broke down in 2000. Violence eased in 2005.

Diskin added in his briefing to the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, sitting in a closed session, that Hamas was consolidating its hold on the Gaza Strip since its violent takeover of the coastal territory in June.

"Hamas has an army of 15,000 trained and armed individuals with underground bunkers and military communication centres. They have smuggled in some 70 tonnes of explosives and they can manufacture mortars, anti-tank missiles and other weaponry," the parliamentary spokesman said, quoting Diskin.

The Shin Bet chief said it appeared unlikely Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would manage to regain control of the Gaza Strip "in the foreseeable future". Hamas routed Abbas's Fatah faction to take control of the enclave in June. Fatah still holds sway in the occupied West Bank.

Diskin added that Abbas's security forces were too weak to ensure control of the West Bank if Israel withdrew troops in the way that it did from Gaza in 2005. He said pulling out of the West Bank would "pose a great security threat for Israel".

Hardline Hamas leader Nizar Rayan said at a rally in Gaza late on Monday that the Islamist group would aim to emulate its seizure of Gaza by ousting Abbas and his Fatah faction in the West Bank as well.

"In autumn the leaves will drop, (Abbas) will drop and we will pray in Abbas's office in Ramallah," Rayan said.

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/4255652a12.html

This proves that the Israelis are planning for the conference to fail.

Proving, once again, that the Palestinians have no partner for peace, since this is a Zionist war to wipe Palestine off the map, and they desire no peace which includes coexistence - the Israeli and Palestinian Peoples be damned.

One has to see the other side of this, and how Israel is playing the game.

if Gazan Palestinians retaliate in a big way, it gives Israel the excuse to launch a major military operation into Gaza, exterminating its people and claiming as their defense to the international community, "they MADE us do it!"

That would be exactly the scenario which many of the hard-liners in the current Israeli government would absolutely love to see happen.


'Gaza power cuts could lead to escalation'

Senior security source expresses fear that defense minister's decision to limit power supplies to Strip will boost terror organization's motivation to fire rockets.

'In the long run they will understand that Israel is not a partner,' another official says

Hanan Greenberg

Israel is entering a complex situation which could yield a large number of discouraging scenarios, including an escalation in the near future, security sources told Ynet on Thursday evening on the backdrop of Defense Minister Ehud Barak's decision to reduce power supplies to the Gaza Strip.

Defense establishment officials explained that in light of the increase in the number of Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip by the Hamas organization and other terror cells, Israel must weigh its options – launching a wide-scale operation or significantly reducing the Hamas-led government's dependency on Israel.

Palestinian Response

'Limiting Gaza power supply a crime' / Ali Waked
Defense minister's decision to reduce power supplies to Strip angers Palestinians. 'Decision is a severe escalation which may lead to a humanitarian crisis in the Strip,' says spokesman for Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestinian

"Choosing the second option raises difficult questions regarding the implementation," the sources admitted.

In terms of the transfer of goods into the Strip, the number of trucks arriving at the crossings will be limited in the near future. Israel will provide entry passes to only 70 trucks a day, as opposed to 120 today, and they will transfer mostly food and medications. All things considered unessential will remain outside.

How will it work?

The defense minister's decision does not only imply a reduction in the in the supplies transferred into Gaza, but also initiated electrical blackouts. The process will be implemented by the National Infrastructures Ministry following a request by the Defense Ministry.

"The electrical blackouts will usually be limited in time and in area, and are aimed at making it clear to the Palestinians that they should take care of themselves rather than depend on Israel," a defense establishment source explained.

About 70% of the power supplies to the Strip come from Israel, 25% are manufactured by the Palestinians, and the rest, about 5%, come from Egypt. Israel will not reduce the supplies of diesel fuel into Gaza, as it used by essential institutions such as hospitals.

The Gaza power stations will continue to receive fuel oil, but the supply of petrol used for domestic purposes will be limited.

"The Palestinian civilian will have to decide whether to drive his car four times a week or only three. This does not constitute humanitarian damage," a security source said.

In spite of various reports and implications, defense establishment officials insist that there is no "punishment scale" according to which power supplies will be cut in accordance to the number of rockets fired.

They admit, however, the Israeli move may increase the pressure on terror organizations to fire a larger number of Qassams and even use rockets with longer ranges.

"This could lead to a situation in which Israel will take harsher steps and cause a 'ping-pong' game between us and the Palestinians. In the long run, however, they will understand that Israel is not a partner and that in order to live their lives normally they must deal with what is happening there inside and not with firing rockets," a security source said.

"This disengagement bears a price for the Palestinians, an economic and social price. They will eventually have to self-examine themselves."

www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3464242,00.html

This has been the plan all along, since Israel pulled its illegal settlements from the strip and surrounded it with artillery emplacements, in an operation ominously called "First Rain".

Under this operation, the IDF shelled and killed an entire Palestinian family, picknicking on a beach which, only weeks before, had been segregated to Jewish settlers only. No doubt this angered the soldier who fired the shell.

Israel then LIED to the International Community, and its own citizenry, about the incident, but international observers and weapons experts analyzing the damage stated that there was no doubt the family was intentionally targeted.

This, and the ensuing military incursions, caused Hamas to end a unilateral two-year cease-fire, which of course allowed Israel to pursue its premeditated course of aggression and collective punishment.

Stage two was Israeli and American arming and supporting corrupt elements within Fatah, in a coup attempt which failed miserably, and has led to the current situation - which Israeli politicians are now saying is the reason they cannot Negotiate for Peace.

UN condemns massive human rights abuses in Gaza Strip
www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1953015,00.html

UN Condemns Israel's Escalation of Gaza Crisis
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/381432.html

ANALYSIS: Israel's real intention behind sanctions on Gaza Strip
Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff , Haaretz Correspondents
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/917385.html