Israelis infiltrate Syria to provide clandestine aid

Exclusive: Israelis infiltrate Syria to provide clandestine aid

Tuesday, August 07, 2012 | Elizabeth Blade, Israel Today

 

The recent announcement of Israel’s President Shimon Peres that the state will respond “with force” to any violent attempts by Syrians to cross the border deepened divisions on the issue of the influx of refugees escaping their war-torn country. But some Israelis have determined to help no matter the cost.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Syria’s neighboring states are currently hosting some 120,000 people, with the number expected to reach 185,000 by December 2012. The conflict, which is entering its 17th month, has also left some 1.55 million people displaced within Syria (IDPs), but many experts believe that the actual numbers are much higher.

In a bid to tackle the acute issue, some Muslim countries have already opened their doors to those fleeing the Assad regime. Turkey, for example, is currently hosting some 43,387 Syrians. Many are also registered in Jordan (36,824), Lebanon (31,596), Algeria (20,000), Egypt (10-12,000) and Iraq (8,445).

Yet, the borders of Israel remain sealed, with authorities fearful of giving a “green light” to waves of refugees that could put the tiny country's borders and security at risk. Nevertheless, there are Israelis who want to help the refugees and have taken matters into their own hands by going into Syria to provide unofficial relief efforts.

An Israeli organization, whose name cannot be disclosed, infiltrates enemy lines in an attempt to provide people with everything from food, clothes, hygiene, and other essentials, to medical help and psychological assistance. Such activists are in technical violation of an Israeli law that bans citizens from visiting countries like Syria that are at war with Israel. Their work is also forbidden by the Syrian authorities, which effectively means that these humanitarian relief activists are risking their lives to help, because capture by the Syrian authorities or army will mean certain death.

“We have some 200 Israelis – both Jews and Muslims – currently working on the project along with a network of local contacts,” said the architect of the organization. “These people – comprised of highly trained doctors, trauma personnel, aid convoy and other professions, most of whom speak Arabic – are ready to risk their lives, even though some of them are not even trade-able,” she continued, referring to swap deals between various terrorist organizations and the Jewish state.

Syrians who collaborate with the NGO (and other, similar organizations) or accept help, are regarded as traitors and subjected to torture, imprisonment and execution. Thus, in order to protect the identities of the organization’s agents, their local contacts, as well as the refugees themselves, the NGO prefers to keep a low profile, secretly operating in Syria and the neighboring states, including Jordan and Turkey.

Listing more than a thousand members – some of whom have already participated in multiple missions in the world’s most dangerous places – the official website of the organization www.il4syrians.org states that the NGO has already helped 80,000 Syrians

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http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23330/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Israel Remains Calm as It Girds Itself for War

By Julie Stahl and John Waage

CBN News Jerusalem Bureau

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

 

              Sea of Galilee, south of Golan Heights

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- Syria admitted for the first time recently it has chemical weapons and may use them against outside forces.

Fears that those weapons could fall into terrorist hands or that jihadists could infiltrate Israel's border with Syria has the Jewish state on high alert.

Israeli authorities are quietly stepping up distribution of gas masks at malls and other public places. By the end of the year, the army estimates another half million gas masks will be distributed -- an average of more than 80,000 a month.

But Israelis say they're not panicking about chemical weapons. They're just doing what they're told and getting prepared. "Yes, I'm concerned but I don't think the masks will help us. Just God will help us, I think," one woman at the gas mask distribution center told CBN News. "Everybody's concerned because nobody knows what happens. I sleep well at night," another man said.

The Israeli-Syrian Border

Meanwhile, chemical weapons falling into the wrong hands is not the only Syrian threat Israel is facing.

The Israeli-Syrian border on the Golan Heights has been Israel's quietest border for the last 40 years. But experts say that could change if and when Syrian President Bashar Assad falls.

"We run into a country that has no rule of law, no law, no authority and then it's used to regularly attack Israel, let's say in the Golan Heights with rockets, with terrorist infiltration, similar to what we see along Israel's border today with Gaza and with Sinai," Jerusalem Post military correspondent Yaakov Katz told CBN News.

Israel captured the strategic Golan plateau during the 1967 Six-Day War. It borders Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Damascus is just 40 miles away. It also has a commanding view of farms and communities around the Sea of Galilee below and, on a clear day, all the way to Mediterranean port city of Haifa. Recently the Syrian civil war came very close to the Golan Heights. The Syrian army attacked a village less than a mile from the border.

Five hundred soldiers crossed into the de-militarized zone not far from where pro-Palestinian protesters breached the border last year. That means terrorists could also cross the border.

"As Jihadi, Sunni Islamist fighters cross into Syria to take part in fighting against the regime, they are anti-Israel, too, and very keen to hurt Israel," Middle East analyst Jonathan Spyer told CBN News.

Golan residents say they feel the tension, but they go on living.

"We're working in our agriculture, in the vineyard, the orchards," said Golan resident David Morad, noting it's different on the border than even a few months ago.

"We can see there is some pressure in the Israeli army, the Israeli government. We don't know what will be with the chemical weapons. It's become very close to our border. So even one mistake, they can attack us," Morad said.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/August/Israel-Remains-Calm-as-it-Girds-Itself-for-War/

Mitt Romney Forms Jewish American Coalition

Mitt Romney Forms Jewish American Coalition

Days after returning from his trip to Israel, Mitt Romney formed a Jewish American coalition in an effort to bolster his bid for presidency.

By Rachel Hirshfeld

First Publish: 8/2/2012

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters

Days after returning from his trip to Israel where he declared Jerusalem to be the undivided capital of the Jewish state, Mitt Romney formed a Jewish American coalition in an effort to bolster his bid for the presidency.

"The Jewish community has made contributions to American society that stand in amazing disproportion to its numbers, and I am genuinely honored to have so many of its leading thinkers, diplomats and political leaders support my campaign," Romney said in an announcement released Tuesday through his presidential campaign.

The coalition is co-chaired by the Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), former Hawaii Jewish Governor Linda Lingle, former Senators Norm Coleman and Rudy Boschwitz, and Adam Hasner, a Florida congressional candidate.

“Governor Romney understands that peace in the Middle East will only be achieved when Israel is secure within its borders and not the target of violence fueled by senseless hatred,” Cantor wrote in the coalition’s opening statement. “He will leave no stone unturned in the effort to keep Israel secure.”

The group's 39-member advisory board includes top advisers to his campaign who have served in previous Republican administrations, including Tevi Troy, Dov Zakheim and Den Senor.

Alluding to his recent visit to the Jewish state and highlighting a stark contrast between the current administration’s stance on Israel and his own, Romney asserted, "Having just visited Israel at a critical juncture in the history of the Middle East, I am persuaded that now, more than ever, America needs to stand with Israel."

"I will extend the hand of friendship because our partnership is not merely a strategic alliance but a force for good in the world,” he said.

The main purpose of the coalition, he said, is “to reach out to the Jewish community and help increase support for the Governor which in my mind has been escalating daily.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/158519