position:major general

Israël - Inédit : 106 généraux de l’armée, directeurs du Mossad et membres de la police écrivent à Netanyahu pour lui demander de relancer le processus de paix - Haaretz

▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.624251

In what appears to be the largest-ever joint protest by senior Israeli security personnel, a group of 106 retired generals, Mossad directors and national police commissioners has signed a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to “initiate a diplomatic process” based on a regional framework for peace with the Palestinians.

Several of the signers told Israel’s Mako-Channel 2 News in interviews that Israel had the strength and the means to reach a two-state solution that “doesn’t entail a security risk,” but hadn’t managed to reach an agreement because of “weak leadership.”

“We’re on a steep slope toward an increasingly polarized society and moral decline, due to the need to keep millions of people under occupation on claims that are presented as security-related,” reserve Major General Eyal Ben-Reuven told Mako’s Roni Daniel. “I have no doubt that the prime minister seeks Israel’s welfare, but I think he suffers from some sort of political blindness that drives him to scare himself and us.”

The letter was initiated by a former Armored Corps commander, reserve Maj. Gen. Amnon Reshef. He told Yedioth Ahronoth in an interview published Friday, and posted in English on Yedioth’s Ynetnews.com website, that he was “tired of a reality of rounds of fighting every few years instead of a genuine effort to adopt the Saudi initiative.”

He was referring to the Saudi-backed peace proposal that was adopted unanimously by the Arab League in 2002 (here is the full text) and later endorsed 56-0 by the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, with Iran abstaining. It has since been repeatedly reaffirmed and its terms softened. As currently framed, it offers full peace, diplomatic recognition and “normal relations” between the Arab states and Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal to borders based on the pre-1967 armistice lines, with negotiated land swaps, and a “just” and mutually “agreed” compromise solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

The generals’ call echoes a proposal for a regional peace conference that was floated during the Gaza war this summer by Israel’s science minister, Yaakov Peri, a member of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party and a former director of the Shin Bet security service. It’s currently being advocated within the security cabinet by Lapid and justice minister Tzipi Livni.

Netanyahu takes the position that Palestinian statehood at this juncture would imperil Israel’s security.

Retired generals have occasionally made joint statements in the past, but never in such numbers and rarely on political matters that aren’t directly related to army business. In January 2012, 52 ex-generals signed a petition calling for legislation to require military or equivalent national service for Haredi men. In November 2011, 19 ex-generals called on IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz to combat growing religious extremism in the army. In February 2010, 15 ex-generals signed a statement criticizing “leftist organizations,” including the New Israel Fund, that they said had damaged the IDF by aiding the Goldstone Report.

The 106 signers of the current letter to Netanyanu include 101 IDF veterans with the rank of brigadier or major general, as well as two former chiefs of the Mossad intelligence agency and three former commanders of Israel’s National Police. (Yediot’s report, which preceded Mako, gave a total of 105.)

The generals’ letter apparently doesn’t refer directly to the Arab Peace Initiative (I haven’t seen the letter’s full text yet), but in calling for a regional process it appears to rely on the willingness of the Saudis and Egyptians to sponsor a conference leading to negotiated peace that renders “the Arab-Israeli conflict ended,” based on the initiative.

The purpose of enlisting the neighboring Arab states is to give the Palestinian leadership backing and legitimacy to accept compromises it has failed to embrace on its own in bilateral talks.

Here are the portions of the letter published by Yedioth (translation by Ynetnews):

We, the undersigned, reserve IDF commanders and retired police officers, who have fought in Israel’s military campaigns, know first-hand of the heavy and painful price exacted by wars.

We fought bravely for the country in the hope that our children would live here in peace, but we got a sharp reality check [literal translation: “but reality slapped us in the face” — jjg], and here we are again sending our children out onto the battlefield, watching them don their uniforms and combat vests and go out to fight in Operation Protective Edge…

This is not a question of left or right. What we have here is an alternative option for resolving the conflict that is not based solely on bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians, which have failed time and again… We expect a show of courageous initiative and leadership from you. Lead – and we will stand behind you.

Reservists from elite Israeli intel unit refuse to serve over Palestinian ’persecution’ Israel News | Haaretz
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.615498

Forty-three former members of Israel Defense Forces intelligence Unit 8200, including some officers, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top military officials, saying they would refuse to do reserve service because of Israel’s `political persecution’ of the Palestinians.

“We, veterans of Unit 8200, reserve soldiers both past and present, declare that we refuse to take part in actions against Palestinians and refuse to continue serving as tools in deepening the military control over the Occupied Territories.” the soldiers said in the letter, which was also addressed to IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate.

Among the signatories are a major and two captains in the reserves. Also signing were other intelligence personnel, who include officers and non-commissioned officers who served in the unit in professional capacities.

“It is commonly thought that the service in military intelligence is free of moral dilemmas and solely contributes to the reduction of violence and harm to innocent people" they said in the letter. “However, our military service has taught us that intelligence is an integral part of Israel’s military occupation over the territories.”

The signatories claimed, among other things, that while surveillance of Israeli citizens is strictly limited, “the Palestinians are not afforded this protection.”

The 43 unit members who signed the letter, some of whom serve in the reserves, say that the information that is gathered and stored in the army’s systems “harms innocent people. It is used for political persecution and to create divisions within Palestinian society by recruiting collaborators and driving parts of Palestinian society against itself.”

For this reason, the signatories say, their consciences do not allow them to continue serving that system and depriving millions of human beings of their rights.

Daniel, a captain in the reserves who lives in Jerusalem and signed the letter, said that the process of getting signatures for the letter, which took about a year, started with a small group of people who knew each other from the unit.

“There were fears of how people, and friends from the unit, might respond — if they knew that it was I and if they didn’t know,” Daniel says. But he adds that they felt a sense of responsibility and urgency, so they wrote the letter, Daniel told Haaretz on Thursday. According to the letter’s organizers, most of the people who signed it are reservists, but some of them have adopted a kind of “gray-market dodge” and were not summoned to perform reserve duty.

“I don’t feel comfortable in my conscience continuing to serve, and instead of dealing with the dilemmas and the ramifications, I chose to take a more evasive route,” Daniel said, describing the “gray-market dodge” he has used for the past three years.

“Now, later on, we feel that evasion is wrong, and that we have to take responsibility. In the end, I served there for seven years. I believed in what we did there — and for all those reasons, I must take responsibility for what I see as the perpetuation of the cycle of violence. We hope that people will think critically about these things.”

An official of the IDF Spokesman’s Office said that “Unit 8200 has worked since the day it was established to gather intelligence that allows the army and security agencies to perform their tasks, and each day it helps protect the citizens of the State of Israel.

"The unit uses varied methods and many fields while using methods and rules directed toward those who consume the information and for its own uses only. Those who serve in the unit are trained after a meticulous search process using training methods that have no parallel in the intelligence community in Israel or in the world. The content of their training places special emphasis upon the fields of ethics, morals and work procedures. These are put into practice during their service as soldiers and officers of the unit, and they are under the constant supervision of commanding officers of various ranks.

“The concrete claims made in the report are unknown in the Intelligence Directorate. The fact that the alleged signatories of this letter contacted the media before bringing their complaints to their commanding officers or relevant agencies in the army is surprising and raises doubts regarding the sincerity of their claims.

"Over the years, and particularly in recent years, the unit daily has received appreciation that often takes the form of citations, medals and national-security awards. As for the claims about harm done to innocent people, the process of gaining approval for targets in the army, which is long and meticulous, also takes the topic of uninvolved parties into account.”

The spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s security services, Adnan Damiri, said the reservists made a moral move, and that the Palestinians salute humanitarian ideas of this sort, which come to the aid of an oppressed people, Israel Radio reported.

For Israeli arms makers, Gaza war is a cash cow - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.609919

Far from the fighting in the Gaza Strip and the rocket attacks that have pummeled Israel from south to the Sharon, some 300 employees of Israel Military Industries in Nazareth haven’t left their assembly lines for a minute in the past four weeks. They have been working in shifts, 24 hours a day, to ensure a regular supply of 5.56 mm bullets to Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Others have been hard at work turning out highly sophisticated Kalanit and Hatzav tank shells for the Artillery Corps. The shells, which are fired above the heads of militants armed with anti-tank weapons, exploding in midair above them and releasing shrapnel, were both used on a massive scale for the first time in Operation Protective Edge.

For some years now the state-owned IMI has had an image problem, in part due to it enormous debts and management’s cozy ties with the union locals and the political establishment. Next to the two other big government-owned defense companies, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, until recently IMI looked decided dowdy, low-tech and crony-ridden. Three months ago the state signed a recovery accord with IMI, which offered a generous severance package of 1.3 million shekels ($370,000) to any employee who took voluntary early retirement. Early next year the government plans to hold a tender to privatize the company, and by early 2016 IMI should be in private hands.

Image aside, for several years IMI has very quietly been developing more sophisticated products than bullets, rifles or hand grenades. For example, its new, super-smart MPR-500 multipurpose rigid bomb, which is designed to penetrate reinforced concrete structures and other difficult targets, was first used operationally in Protective Edge. Today, back orders for the bomb total 5.6 billion shekels.

IMI has built the foundations for a more successful business, and in a market where violence erupts every few years a new round of violence erupts, a dependable customer with the IDF and a classroom to test its equipment.

“IMI cooperates with the IDF and the defense establishment in adapting quick solutions for changing needs,” says UMI chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Udi Adam. “The defense industry is in a perpetual learning mode together with the IDF and the Defense Ministry to examine the weapons systems that were introduced for initial operational use in Operation Protective Edge, as well as weapons systems that have been in operational use for a long time.”

One unit of IMI has already been privatized. Israel Weapon Industries, which makes the Tavor assault rifle that is used today by most of the infantry, is owned by Samy Katsav and is considered one of the world’s six leading light-weapons manufactures. The SK Group comprises several companies that supply the IDF.

Israel Shipyards, for example, makes missile boats and the Shaldag patrol boat for the Israeli military, while Meprolight manufactures sights for sniper rifles and night-vision equipment. As is the case for all companies in the group, Meprolight’s most important customer is the IDF, even if 90% of the company’s sales are to foreign countries,.

“After every campaign of the kind that is now taking place in Gaza, we see an increase in the number of customers from abroad,” says Meprolight CEO Eli Gold, adding, “Of course, we marketing abroad aggressively, but IDF operations definitely affect marketing activity.”

Protective Edge’s marketing edge

“Battle-tested” is the best marketing slogan for defense industries the world over, so for Israeli military manufactures Operation Protective Edge has yielded a major competitive edge.

“For the defense industries this campaign is like drinking a very strong energy drink — it simply gives them tremendous forward momentum,” says Barbara Opall-Rome, Israel bureau chief for the U.S. magazine Defense News. “Combat is like the highest seal of approval when it comes to the international markets. What has proven itself in battle is much easier to sell. Immediately after the operation, and perhaps even during, all kinds of delegations arrive here from countries that appreciate Israel’s technological capabilities and are interested in testing the new products.”

That was also the opinion of veteran military correspondent Amir Rapaport, editor of Israel Defense, which covers the local defense industry. “From a business point of view, the operation was an outstanding thing for the defense industries,” he says. “There are two main reasons for that. First, the cloud of budget cuts and project cancellations has been lifted. I believe that after the operation, Israel’s defense budget will be increased and projects that were frozen will be revived. Second, during the weeks of the war, new products were introduced for the army’s use. The war is an opportunity to cut red tape. Weapons systems that have long been under development suddenly became operational during the course of the fighting.

Operation Protective Edge saw many weapons systems and other technology that had been under development since the time of the Second Lebanon War in 2006 enter the field of battle, for instance a unique communications system designed to link air, sea and ground forces to the same infrastructure. “It’s very difficult to defeat an enemy like Hamas, which is a guerrilla organization, but in terms of technology the victory is quite clear,” says Rapaport.

“The operation has a potential to promote defense exports, mainly systems that have proven themselves,” says Maj. Gen. (res.) Danny Yatom, who now deals in defense equipment and other business. “The industry will also benefits as the [Israeli] defense establishment rebuilds inventories. Also, in this war we saw that the army has new needs, especially in regards to tunnels. In my opinion, there will now be an accelerated process of development for that. There’s a financial incentive both for the developers and the manufacturers.”

Yatom contends that the course of Operation Protective Edge shows that future weapons systems must be designed to combat guerrilla organizations rather than conventional armies. One example of the likely change is increased demand for thermal-imaging night-vision equipment, rather than the Starlight technology, based on available light, that is currently more common in the IDF. “Thermal-imaging night-vision equipment is not affected by glow of bombs and by urban lighting, so it makes identification easier,” he explains.

Gold confirms that the army is already thinking about this issue. “During the war the IDF took an interest in this subject,” he says. “But still it’s hard to estimate how things will turn out, because the IDF has yet to formulate a view on the matter. The product itself is not new, and we’ve already sold it to various armies worldwide.”
On the other hand, not everyone thinks that a successful campaign means an increase in defense exports. Maj. Gen. (res.) Isaac Ben Yisrael, a former director of the Defense Ministry’s Research and Development Directorate, cautions that the success in Israel of a certain military system does not necessarily carry over to foreign sales.

“Iron Dome, for example, is one of the main developments in this war,” he says, “but there’s no demand for it in the world, because other countries don’t face a similar threat. Besides, after the war most of the money channeled into the defense budget will be used for restocking inventories, so that the money that would normally be directed toward developing combat systems will decrease.”

He says that despite the criticism being heard about the size of the defense budget, Israel has no choice but to increase the army’s R&D spending. That should be done by channeling profits from the government defense industries into the IDF’s R&D units, he says, rather than handing them over to the Finance Ministry, which funnels this money into the general state budget.

For Israel’s arms makers, Gaza war is their top salesman - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.609919

Far from the fighting in the Gaza Strip and the rocket attacks that have pummeled Israel from south to the Sharon, some 300 employees of Israel Military Industries in Nazareth haven’t left their assembly lines for a minute in the past four weeks. They have been working in shifts, 24 hours a day, to ensure a regular supply of 5.56 mm bullets to Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Others have been hard at work turning out highly sophisticated Kalanit and Hatzav tank shells for the Artillery Corps. The shells, which are fired above the heads of militants armed with anti-tank weapons, exploding in midair above them and releasing shrapnel, were both used on a massive scale for the first time in Operation Protective Edge.

For some years now the state-owned IMI has had an image problem, in part due to it enormous debts and management’s cozy ties with the union locals and the political establishment. Next to the two other big government-owned defense companies, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, until recently IMI looked decided dowdy, low-tech and crony-ridden. Three months ago the state signed a recovery accord with IMI, which offered a generous severance package of 1.3 million shekels ($370,000) to any employee who took voluntary early retirement. Early next year the government plans to hold a tender to privatize the company, and by early 2016 IMI should be in private hands.

Image aside, for several years IMI has very quietly been developing more sophisticated products than bullets, rifles or hand grenades. For example, its new, super-smart MPR-500 multipurpose rigid bomb, which is designed to penetrate reinforced concrete structures and other difficult targets, was first used operationally in Protective Edge. Today, back orders for the bomb total 5.6 billion shekels.

IMI has built the foundations for a more successful business, and in a market where violence erupts every few years a new round of violence erupts, a dependable customer with the IDF and a classroom to test its equipment.

“IMI cooperates with the IDF and the defense establishment in adapting quick solutions for changing needs,” says UMI chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Udi Adam. “The defense industry is in a perpetual learning mode together with the IDF and the Defense Ministry to examine the weapons systems that were introduced for initial operational use in Operation Protective Edge, as well as weapons systems that have been in operational use for a long time.”

One unit of IMI has already been privatized. Israel Weapon Industries, which makes the Tavor assault rifle that is used today by most of the infantry, is owned by Samy Katsav and is considered one of the world’s six leading light-weapons manufactures. The SK Group comprises several companies that supply the IDF.

Israel Shipyards, for example, makes missile boats and the Shaldag patrol boat for the Israeli military, while Meprolight manufactures sights for sniper rifles and night-vision equipment. As is the case for all companies in the group, Meprolight’s most important customer is the IDF, even if 90% of the company’s sales are to foreign countries,.

“After every campaign of the kind that is now taking place in Gaza, we see an increase in the number of customers from abroad,” says Meprolight CEO Eli Gold, adding, “Of course, we marketing abroad aggressively, but IDF operations definitely affect marketing activity.”

Protective Edge’s marketing edge

“Battle-tested” is the best marketing slogan for defense industries the world over, so for Israeli military manufactures Operation Protective Edge has yielded a major competitive edge.

“For the defense industries this campaign is like drinking a very strong energy drink — it simply gives them tremendous forward momentum,” says Barbara Opall-Rome, Israel bureau chief for the U.S. magazine Defense News. “Combat is like the highest seal of approval when it comes to the international markets. What has proven itself in battle is much easier to sell. Immediately after the operation, and perhaps even during, all kinds of delegations arrive here from countries that appreciate Israel’s technological capabilities and are interested in testing the new products.”

That was also the opinion of veteran military correspondent Amir Rapaport, editor of Israel Defense, which covers the local defense industry. “From a business point of view, the operation was an outstanding thing for the defense industries,” he says. “There are two main reasons for that. First, the cloud of budget cuts and project cancellations has been lifted. I believe that after the operation, Israel’s defense budget will be increased and projects that were frozen will be revived. Second, during the weeks of the war, new products were introduced for the army’s use. The war is an opportunity to cut red tape. Weapons systems that have long been under development suddenly became operational during the course of the fighting.

Operation Protective Edge saw many weapons systems and other technology that had been under development since the time of the Second Lebanon War in 2006 enter the field of battle, for instance a unique communications system designed to link air, sea and ground forces to the same infrastructure. “It’s very difficult to defeat an enemy like Hamas, which is a guerrilla organization, but in terms of technology the victory is quite clear,” says Rapaport.

“The operation has a potential to promote defense exports, mainly systems that have proven themselves,” says Maj. Gen. (res.) Danny Yatom, who now deals in defense equipment and other business. “The industry will also benefits as the [Israeli] defense establishment rebuilds inventories. Also, in this war we saw that the army has new needs, especially in regards to tunnels. In my opinion, there will now be an accelerated process of development for that. There’s a financial incentive both for the developers and the manufacturers.”

Yatom contends that the course of Operation Protective Edge shows that future weapons systems must be designed to combat guerrilla organizations rather than conventional armies. One example of the likely change is increased demand for thermal-imaging night-vision equipment, rather than the Starlight technology, based on available light, that is currently more common in the IDF. “Thermal-imaging night-vision equipment is not affected by glow of bombs and by urban lighting, so it makes identification easier,” he explains.

Gold confirms that the army is already thinking about this issue. “During the war the IDF took an interest in this subject,” he says. “But still it’s hard to estimate how things will turn out, because the IDF has yet to formulate a view on the matter. The product itself is not new, and we’ve already sold it to various armies worldwide.”
On the other hand, not everyone thinks that a successful campaign means an increase in defense exports. Maj. Gen. (res.) Isaac Ben Yisrael, a former director of the Defense Ministry’s Research and Development Directorate, cautions that the success in Israel of a certain military system does not necessarily carry over to foreign sales.

“Iron Dome, for example, is one of the main developments in this war,” he says, “but there’s no demand for it in the world, because other countries don’t face a similar threat. Besides, after the war most of the money channeled into the defense budget will be used for restocking inventories, so that the money that would normally be directed toward developing combat systems will decrease.”

He says that despite the criticism being heard about the size of the defense budget, Israel has no choice but to increase the army’s R&D spending. That should be done by channeling profits from the government defense industries into the IDF’s R&D units, he says, rather than handing them over to the Finance Ministry, which funnels this money into the general state budget.

Arab News - 09 July, 2014

Security officers in Saudi Arabia have arrested nearly 2,200 illegal foreign workers in Madinah and Hail and Baha this month for allegedly violating the country’s residency and labor regulations.

Madinah police arrested 884 Asian and African illegals during Ramadan following numerous inspection raids carried out at firms and establishments in the city.

Police in Madinah launched a crackdown on violators in cooperation with the Criminal Investigations Department, Special Task Force and Traffic Department, an official statement said, adding that the campaign is being supervised by Maj. Gen. Abdulhadi Al-Shahrani, Madinah region police director.

Security agencies in Hail, meanwhile, have arrested 305 violators during the last three days, said Col. Abdul Aziz Al-Zenaidi, Hail police spokesman.

“We have handed over the violators to authorities for punitive action,” he said. “We will continue our efforts to arrest labor law violators and residents without IDs throughout the region,” Al-Zenaidi said. In Baha, police have arrested more than 1,000 illegals.

In the meantime, Riyadh Municipality officials closed 23 restaurants in the capital for violating health regulations. They prevented 101 employees from working for not possessing health certificates and fulfilling hygienic conditions.

Iraqi army general killed in shelling near #Baghdad
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iraqi-army-general-killed-shelling-near-baghdad

Shelling west of Baghdad killed the commander of the Iraqi army’s 6th division on Monday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s security spokesman said. Major General Najm Abdullah Sudan “was killed by hostile shelling in Ibrahim bin Ali,” Lieutenant General Qassem Atta told AFP by text message. Ibrahim bin Ali lies in the Abu Ghraib area, just west of Baghdad, near where security forces have been locked in a months-long standoff with militants who have seized control of the city of Fallujah. read more

#Iraq

Egyptian court seeks death sentence for 12 accused in policeman death
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/egyptian-court-seeks-death-sentence-12-accused-policeman-death

An Egyptian court signaled on Wednesday it wanted death sentences for 12 defendants charged with killing a police officer and belonging to a terrorist group, when it referred the case to the country’s highest religious authority. The state news agency said only seven of the defendants were present in court when the judge read his ruling against those accused of killing Major General Nabil Farag last September when security forces arrested Islamist militants supportive of ousted President Mohammed Mursi. read more

#Abdel_Fattah_al-Sisi #Egypt #Muslim_Brotherhood

#Israel denies entrance to West Bank to Gaza unity government ministers
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israel-denies-entrance-west-bank-gaza-unity-government-ministers

Israel has denied three future #Palestinian_Authority ministers from the Gaza Strip entry to the West Bank ahead of the unveiling of a new unity government, public radio said on Sunday. The head of Israel’s military administration in the Palestinian territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai, had informed the Palestinians that the three would not be permitted to cross from Gaza to the West Bank, the radio said. read more

#Hamas #Palestine

Israel authorizes record amount of West Bank land for settlement construction
Haaretz
By Chaim Levinson | Apr. 29, 2014
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.587901

A record amount of land – slightly more than half of it outside the West Bank separation barrier – was confirmed as state land last year, a critical step toward handing over the land to settlements so that more homes can be built on it.

The 28,000 dunams (6,919 acres) were approved by the Civil Administration’s task force for demarcating state land, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the government coordinator in the territories, told a Knesset subcommittee this week. The so-called Blue Line task force, established by the Civil Administration in 1999, is reexamining land designated imprecisely during the 1980s as belonging to the state.

Most of the newly confirmed state land is in areas of strategic importance for settlers, including outposts that could join up with nearby settlements and areas close to the Green Line that could potentially link up with towns in Israel. The largest plot of land is 3,476 dunams near the West Bank settlement of Ariel, while 2,302 dunams were claimed by the state in the southern Hebron Hills.

The land reclamation indicates that Israel is not interested in negotiations, said Dror Etkes, who works with Rabbis for Human Rights to track Israeli settlement policy.

“Anyone examining the places where territory was added to the land under settlement jurisdiction, and [examining] the work of the Blue Line team from early 2013 until today, is forced to conclude that from the perspective of the Israeli government, there is no Oslo, no fence, no negotiations,” said Etkes, referring to the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians.

Egypt army says has ‘complete control’ over Sinai Peninsula - Al Arabiya News

▻http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/04/24/Egypt-army-in-complete-control-over-Sinai-Peninsula.html

“There is obvious stability in Sinai despite rumors that there are still terrorist elements and tunnels in north Sinai,” said Major General Mohamed al-Shahat, who heads Egyptian forces in the peninsula, in comments carried by state news agency MENA.

Suicide bomber strikes Iraqi military facility
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/suicide-bomber-strikes-iraqi-military-facility

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to an army recruitment center in north #Iraq Wednesday, killing six would-be soldiers, the latest in a year-long surge of nationwide bloodshed. The morning attack at the recruitment center in Riyadh, a town in the Kirkuk province, injured 14 other recruits, according to army Major General Mohammed Khalaf al-Dulaimi. Dr. Mohammed al-Juburi at the main hospital in nearby Hawijah confirmed the toll. read more

#Top_News

Egypt reportedly discovers new treatment for AIDS within six months
Text of report by Egyptian state-run news agency MENA

Is it a joke?

Cairo, 23 February: The quantitative treatment for virus C and AIDS diseases by newly-invented devices will begin by the end of June, said Maj. Gen. Tahir Abdullah, the head of the Armed Forces’ engineering department.

On Sunday [23 February], the army’s engineering department announced invention of new devices using capsules that boost the efficiency of the immune system.

The ministry of health had approved the new treatment, Abdullah said.

“We seek to obtain international approvals for it,” he added, praising a role of scientific research of the army’s engineering department.

The designed devices can detect and treat AIDS and virus C without the need for taking blood samples from patients, he noted.

[At 1815 gmt, MENA reported that the armed forces’ engineering department invented new medicine for virus C and AIDS diseases via capsules that boost the efficiency of the immune system and that it designed , Major General Taher Abdullah, head of the department said. The agency also sadi that two devices were designed to detect and treat AIDS and virus C within six months ]

Source: MENA news agency, Cairo, in English 1909gmt 23 Feb 14

Israel’s West Bank policy: In thrall to settlers - not justice -

Haaretz By Chaim Levinson | Feb. 10, 2014 |
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.573318

In November 2008, the then head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Civil Administration in the territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai (now the coordinator of government activities in the territories), presented an affidavit on the priorities for demolishing illegal construction in the West Bank.

The goal was to head off a High Court of Justice petition concerning construction in the illegal outposts of Kiryat Hayovel and Haresha. To do so, a plan had to be presented that would make it look as if there was logic behind the chaos. The first step was to implement court orders, and the second was tackling new construction. Third came construction on private property.

It should be clear that nothing in the affidavit was actually implemented.

In 2011, in response to a different High Court petition, a new policy was formulated. Whatever illegal construction was on private property would be demolished, and whatever was on other land would be legalized.

The state later came up with a new policy in response to further High Court petitions: Whatever was on private property and someone had filed a lawsuit against would be demolished, and everything else would remain. In other words, for the state to do a favor and demolish a house without a permit, there needed to be a Palestinian property owner who would petition the High Court – and only then would the state be ready to move.

Now the state has a new policy, its fourth. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is proud of a letter he forced out of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, in which he states that all new construction will be demolished before it is occupied.

It is clear that nothing of this sort will happen. The only question is whether Ya’alon and Weinstein are fooling themselves, or us.

Construction work at two new prisons in Riyadh and Jeddah is over 95% complete.
▻http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-25766-new-prisons-in-saudi-arabia-are-95-complete

Director-General of Saudi Arabia’s Prisons Department Major General Ibrahim bin Mohammed al-Hamzi made the announcement adding that Riyadh has spent over 2bn Riyals ($533m) building the two jails.

He said the high number of prisoners jam-packed in the cells was the main reason behind the decision to build the new jails.

More than 40,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, are in jails across Saudi Arabia.

#dissidents #prison #Saoud

Palestinians aim to win back right to appeal property confiscations in military court
Palestinians could appeal confiscations in West Bank military courts until last month, when the Israeli army changed its stance.
17th of January 2013
Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.569059

Adalah, an advocacy group for Arab minority rights, wants to overturn the military order barring West Bank Palestinians from appealing the confiscation of their property in a military court.

The order was signed on December 25 by the head of the military’s Central Command, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon.

The order “is designed to harm the Palestinians and restrict their rights, without any legitimate justification,” Adalah wrote to the attorney general, defense minister and Alon. If the order is not revoked, the group will appeal to the Supreme Court, Adalah said.

The military commander in the West Bank is authorized to confiscate property or money implicated in illegal or security-related activity. This clause lets the military and police seize funds believed to belong to terror groups. The authorities can also confiscate vehicles used to illegally transport laborers and equipment into Israel.

Until December 25, Palestinians could appeal confiscations in West Bank military courts, which were authorized to consider such issues based on a 2010 decision by the Military Court of Appeals. In that decision, the court ordered the return of a pneumatic drill to a Palestinian after the police had confiscated it.

Adalah wrote that the order issued last month infringes on property rights and violates international human rights and international humanitarian law.

It said the order also violates Israeli administrative law and international law, which have been recognized in the occupied territories by several Supreme Court decisions. These principles have also been recognized by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in its advisory opinion on the separation barrier, Adalah said.

Afghans: September US #Drone Strikes Killed 14 Civilians — News from Antiwar.com
▻http://news.antiwar.com/2013/12/01/afghans-september-us-drone-strikes-killed-14-civilians

NATO would admit to only three civilian casualties in the incident, saying that they counted 11 dead overall, and that eight are “suspected insurgents.” Maj. Gen. Ken Wilsbach blamed the Taliban for the civilian deaths, accusing them of living “intermixed with the civilian population.”

#victimes_civiles #violation_du_droit_international #leadership

L’ex-premier flic de Jérusalem réagit à des accusations de harcèlement sexuel : « Tout le monde le fait » - Haaretz

Le major-général Nisso Shaham laisse entendre que s’il est traduit en justice, son témoignage serait gênant pour d’autres policiers de haut rang | Haaretz

▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.552561

Sexual relations between high-ranking officers and their subordinates are common in the Israel Police, Maj. Gen. Nisso Shaham said in his disciplinary hearing. Shaham, the former commander of the Jerusalem District Police, was indicted on Monday for fraud, breach of trust, indecent acts and sexual harassment of women police officers, most of whom were his subordinates.

Haaretz has learned that in two Justice Ministry disciplinary hearings this year, Shaham’s attorneys at the time, Navit Negev and Iris Niv-Sabag, claimed that indicting him would constitute selective enforcement. They said his behavior was in keeping with the conventional norms accepted by the police force, where sexual relations between high-ranking male officers and the women subordinate to them were routine and common.

#SexualHarrasment #police #justice #Israël

Militant attack in north #Iraq kills 14
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/militant-attack-north-iraq-kills-14

Militants attacked local government buildings in north Iraq on Wednesday with suicide bombers and mortar fire and clashed with soldiers, leaving 14 people dead, an army officer said. Seven civilians, three soldiers and four militants were killed in the violence in the town of Hawijah, west of Kirkuk, army Staff Major General Mohammed Khalaf al-Dulaimi said. One suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a police station while a second blew up another near a local (...)

#Top_News

Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki says “involvement in the Syrian crisis is against Saudi laws.”

Al-Turki said Monday authorities will also crack down on those planning to travel to Syria to join the fighting there and that some Saudis who joined the Syrian conflict have already fought for al-Qaida outside the kingdom.

AP
▻http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SAUDI_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Military Academy admits students from Brotherhood Families

Daily News Egypt

▻http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/03/18/military-academy-admits-students-from-brotherhood-families

Military Academy admissions have stirred public concern amid reports of accepting students who are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Major General Esmat Mourad, the director of the Military Academy, confirmed the admission of President Mohamed Morsi’s nephew into the academy saying that applicants are judged only upon their skills.

Faites un gros effort, et essayez de vous persuader que les Américains n’étaient pas au courant avant le début de l’attaque :
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/world/middleeast/us-fears-a-ground-war-in-gaza-would-hurt-israel.html

Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, the Israeli Air Force’s commander in chief, was in Washington early in the week — before the Gaza crisis began — and met with American officials, although it was unclear whether he warned them beforehand that Israel intended to launch a missile strike against the Hamas military commander.

Ex-Lebanon security chief says Jumblatt must be killed
►http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Sep-13/187739-ex-lebanon-security-chief-says-jumblatt-must-be-killed-source.a

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Jumblatt “must be killed,” former General Security head Jamil al-Sayyed was recorded as saying on an audio device, a source close to the probe into the case of former MP Michel Samaha told The Daily Star Thursday.

“This [guy] Jumblatt should be the first one to be killed,” Sayyed, a retired major general, was captured on a recording as telling Samaha during a recent trip from Damascus to Beirut, the source said.

Mais en même temps:

But no official request has yet been made by Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghayda to question Sayyed as a witness or a suspect.

ce qui rend l’information assez douteuse.

Résumé de ce que la LBCi considère comme désormais « certain » (j’ignore comment). Noter que les 20 attentats dans des soirées de rupture de jeune, pendant une tournée du Patriarche, dans le but de créer des tensions confessionnelles, qui étaient évoqués jusqu’à ce matin, ne font pas partie ici des choses « certaines ». Tel que c’est résumé ce soir, il s’agit d’assassinats politiques contre des personnalités que les Syriens considèrent comme impliquées dans le conflit armé. Ça n’est plus exactement la même nature de crime.
►http://lbcgroup.tv/news/45194/introduction-to-the-evening-news-12-08-2012

The following facts are now certain: 

Samaha transported the explosives from Syria to Lebanon following the request of Major General Ali Mamlouk, and he received them from General Adnan who is responsible for the containers of explosive devices, according to information made available to LBCI. 

The targets included MP Kahled Daher, his brother, MP Mouin Merhebi and figures supporting the Syrian opposition. 

The explosive devices are not similar to those used during the assassination of Georges Hawi or the assassination attempt against May Chidiac. According to security information to LBCI, the explosive are more developed and have a wider destructive capability. 

The witness, whose real name is Miled Kfoury, and who has three fake names: Zouhair Nahhas, Amjad Srour and Majed Gharib, worked with late Minister Elie Hobeika in the security apparatus where Minister Samaha used to work.

Dans le flux de Naharnet :

ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi and Police Intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan visited PSP leader Walid Jumblat in Mukhtara.

Tiens donc. Ça va encore jaser.

WikiLeaks: IDF uses #drones to assassinate Gaza militants - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/wikileaks-idf-uses-drones-to-assassinate-gaza-militants-1.382269

The IDF uses weaponized unmanned aircraft to assassinate militants, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. The IDF Advocate-General Maj. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit revealed this information to the previous U.S. Ambassador to Israel James Cunningham in a meeting that took place in February 2010.

The details of this conversation, sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to the State Department in Washington, were revealed Thursday when they were published online by WikiLeaks, along with more than 250,000 other diplomatic cables.

Le câble (#cablegate) en question:
►http://wikileaks.org/cable/2010/02/10TELAVIV417.html