Holy Land Sitrep July 8, 2014

US UN observer shot and wounded in Sinai by unknown person. There are a large number of US and UN forces in the Sinai monitoring the area. I believe that the monitoring is part of the Egypt-Israel peace accords. In the past couple of years, there have been a number of attacks against them, probably by Sinai Islamists. The main Salafi-jihadi group in the Sinai, which recently swore allegiance to ISIS, is Ansar Bait al-Maqdis. In this very interesting video, all in Arabic, a preacher announces that the group will fight the Israelis alongside Hamas. They also condemned the Egyptian government for shutting down the smuggling tunnels to Gaza. Stabbing attack on security guard outside the Maale Abumin settlement in the West Bank. A number of Arabs were arrested, and one resembles the description of the attacker. Attacker came from the nearby Arab village of Kfar Azaria. This was probably another lone wolf attack. Hussam al-Kawasmeh, mastermind of Hebron teen kidnapping, was arrested. Other two from the same family who actually conducted the kidnapping, are on the loose. Hamas did not kidnap and kill those three teenagers. Instead it was done by the Kawasmeh family of Hebron, a rogue group outside the control of Hamas who does not follow Hamas’ orders and often does things on their own. Hamas leadership had absolutely no idea about this attack and played no role in it whatsoever. Hence the Israeli Gaza War, supposedly initiated due to this attack, made no sense. Probable terror attack in Ramleh, Israel. An Arab woman motioned a Jewish mother and her three kids to cross the street, then gunned the engine and ran them over. Exact nature of attack, and condition of 4 Jews and disposition of the Arab suspect unknown. Terror attack thwarted, location unknown, probably in the West Bank. A drunken Arab woman with open beer can screamed at a checkpoint that she was about to commit a terror attack. A search revealed a large knife on her. An Arab attacked a soldier somewhere, probably on the West Bank, and tried to steal his gun. The soldier wrestled the Arab to the ground and he was arrested. The soldier shot in the Jerusalem shooting attack the other day may be near death if some reports are to be believed. This is because the Hebrew word that was used to describe his condition, which means difficult, is often used in the case of someone who is near death. The US is arming the Kurds undercover. US military in Kurdistan is providing assistance to the peshmerga and also to Maliki regime in terms of intelligence gained via the air. Iraqi government uses that intel to target ISIS, etc. Officially, the US is not arming the Kurds because we do not want to break up Iraq. However, the breakup of Iraq seems a foregone conclusion. Quite a few people are supporting an independent Kurdish state in Iraq, including, unbelievably, the Turks. The Kurds and Turks have developed a profitable relationship involving the export of Kurdish oil. All Kurdish oil is really officially owned by the Iraqi government since Kirkuk is still a part of Iraq. However, Maliki has been treating the Kurds as poorly as he has been treating the Sunnis. The Kurds are supposed to get a share of Iraqi oil revenue but instead they have been getting nothing whatsoever. Also the Iraqi government gives no aid to the Kurds. Arabs and Kurds do not like each other very much. Arabs have a very racist attitude towards Kurds living in Iraq and Syria. All Arab regimes in both Syria and Iraq have treated them poorly. Further, your average Arab on the street does not think much of Kurds either. ISIS has been ordering Kurds to leave all of the areas it conquers. In a number of cases, Kurds have simply been executed by ISIS. This even includes Sunni Kurds, so there does not appear to be any reason for this other than sheer Arab anti-Kurdish racism. For their part, Kurds are not particularly racist against Arabs, Assyrians or other non-Kurds. Kurdish Sunnism is milder, more secular and Sufi oriented than Iraqi Arab Sunnism. Further, Kurdish Sunnis get along well with Shia Kurds and Shia Turkmen. This is because Kurds lack the anti-Iranian racism so common to Arab Sunnis. Kurds themselves are basically an Iranian people, and they speak a language related to Persian. Kurds also get along fairly well with Yezidi and Shabak Kurds, mostly because they are fellow Kurds. ISIS seized Mosul Dam. This dam controls electricity to Mosul and Baghdad. Blowing up the dam would put Mosul under 65 feet of water and Baghdad under 5 feet of water. This is a very grave situation. Obama just ordered humanitarian aid to the trapped Yezidis on Sinjar Mountain. There may be up to 100,000 Yezidis on the mountain. A number of children have died of thirst and some old people died of poor conditions that deteriorated existing conditions. ISIS controls all the entrances to the mountain, so the situation is quite dire. The Yezidis are trying to make it to Irbil in Kurdistan where they will be safe. Although Kurds have attacked and even massacred Yezidis in the past, most recently in the 19th Century, these days, they pretty much leave them alone and just see them as fellow persecuted Kurdish people. An Italian antisemitic mullah was deported. This is the charming fellow who gave a sermon in which he stated, “Kill the Jews!” It was recorded and led to quite a stir. Britain is going to restrict arms sales to Israel! It is really amazing what is happening over there. The UK is really starting to turn against Israel. Situation not looking good at all for Israel.

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0 thoughts on “Holy Land Sitrep July 8, 2014”

  1. Dear Robert
    You wrote that Kurdish is related to Arabic. Not so, Kurdish is an Indo-European language and part of the Iranic branch, so it is related to Farsi.
    Regards. James

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