Report: Assad's inner circle plans defection if Syria unrest boils over

Senior regime officials have reportedly established contact with opposition groups and Western governments, while secretly moving funds into foreign bank accounts.

Senior Syrian government officials are quietly preparing plans to defect to the country's opposition in the event that a 15-month uprising in the country manages to destabilize the regime of President Bashar Assad, the British newspaper Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday.

“We are seeing members of Bashar Assad’s inner circle make plans to leave,” an unnamed senior U.S. official told the newspaper.

According to the report, members of the regime have also established contact with representatives of Western governments and begun moving large sums of money into foreign bank accounts in Lebanon and China.

The report also quoted a senior member of the Syrian opposition, also unnamed, who confirmed that opposition groups were seeking American assistance in encouraging the defection of members of the regime.

“I know for sure there are some high-ranking officers who are waiting for the right chance to defect," said the opposition member. “We have names of people in the presidential palace. There are rumors that there is one who is really close to the president and we are expecting to see him out of the country soon.”

On Thursday, a colonel in the Syrian air force, Hassan Merei al-Hamade, defected to Jordan. The colonel, a pilot, was sent on a mission to attack the southern Syrian city of Daraa, but instead landed his MiG 21 fighter jet in Jordan, where he was granted political asylum.

According to the Telegraph, three other pilots on the mission also considered defecting, but ultimately decided against it, fearing that they would be turned away by Jordanian authorities.

The Syrian air force is considered particularly loyal to the Assad regime, and defections from within its ranks could indicate that cracks are emerging within the military.

Rocket barrage hits southern Israeli town; IDF kills terrorist involved in attack along Egypt border

More than 20 missiles have been fired from Gaza into Israel on Wednesday; Israelis in communities near Gaza border instructed to remain in protected spaces.

                       

A Qassam rocket that landed in a southern Israeli town - Hershkovitz - June 20, 2012

Gaza rocket fire renewed Wednesday as more than 20 missiles were fired into southern Israel.

A barrage of rockets and mortar shells hit one of the towns in Eshkol Regional Council around noon on Wednesday, causing a fire to erupt. No casualties were reported.

Later on Wednesday, the Israel Air Force carried out a strike in Gaza which targeted a World Islamic Jihad operative who was involved in the terror attack on the Israel-Egypt border on Monday.

The Home Front Command instructed residents of communities near Gaza border to remain in protected spaces and avoid groupings of more than 500 people.

Several families from Eshkol Regional Council that do not have a bomb shelter in their homes moved into preschools in the town, which are protected according to government regulations.

Since midnight on Tuesday, more than 20 Qassam rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza into Israel, 15 of them hitting Eshkol Regional Council. A Grad rocket landed near Be'er Sheva, and two of the rockets landed inside towns but caused no casualties, though light damage was caused to an industrial structure.

In response to the recent rocket fire, the Israel Air Force launched several attacks in the northern Gaza Strip. Overnight Tuesday the IAF attacked an additional six sites. According to the IDF spokesperson, all attacks were successful. The spokesman added that "the terror organization Hamas was responsible for the activity in Gaza" and the rocket fire on the Israeli south during the past two days.

Last night, a Border Patrol officer was moderately wounded on Tuesday when a rocket hit a residential area in the western Negev. Three other officers were lightly injured. All four were taken to Ashkelon's Barzilai medical center.

Approximately 50 rockets were fired since Monday night from the Gaza Strip; Hamas took responsibility for the rocket fire overnight Monday, and announced on Tuesday afternoon that its military wing had fired 10 Grad rockets toward Israel. The rocket fire marks an unusual move for the group, which has been avoiding launching rockets toward Israel for many months now.

Following the attack, communities near the Gaza border were put on heightened alert. The residents were given instructions to remain at a close distance to a bomb shelter.

In the past 24 hours, the Israel Air Force carried out several air strikes in the Gaza Strip. Overnight Sunday, Israel attacked a military compound in southern Gaza.

On Sunday morning, a terrorist cell crossed the border from Egypt into Israel and detonated an explosive device which ended up killing an Israeli citizen who was working on the construction of the Israel-Egypt border fence.

On Monday evening, the IDF carried out strikes in several locations in Gaza, and Palestinian reported that five people were wounded. Shortly afterward, the IDF carried out two more strikes and killed four Palestinians.

Israeli soldier goes on hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian prisoner

An Israel Defense Forces reserves soldier, who has refused to partake in army duty to protest Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, has gone on hunger strike in military prison, in what he said was a show of solidarity with Palestinian administrative detainees.

Yaniv Mazor, a 31-year-old Jerusalem resident, was sentenced last week to 20 days in jail over his refusal to fill any position, be it combat or otherwise, in what he said was the occupying army. He was transferred to the IDF's Tzrifin prison on Monday, launching his hunger strike the following day.

In a phone conversation with his attorney Michael Sfard on Friday, Mazor said that he had "become appalled over the last few months by the hunger strike initiated by Palestinian administrative prisoners, but I couldn't do much about it."

"I decided to start a hunger strike in solidarity [with the Palestinians], and in order to raise awareness on the issue of administrative detention, and not to prompt my own release," Mazor added.

The IDF reserves soldier added that he was incarcerated "of my own volition, since I have done something for which I understand I must pay a price. The hunger strike is in protest of administrative detentions."

Mazor's friends at the left-wing NGO Ta'ayush said that they had learned that the reserve soldier was placed in isolation after he had refused to wear uniform in the prison as well as to address prison commanders using their official ranks.

Ta'ayush activists also said that prison officials had cancelled the automatic shortening of his sentence (a day for every 10 days), for unspecified reasons.

Mazor, a tour guide in profession, served in the armor corps between 1999 and 2002, with most of his service taking place in the Jordan Valley and some in the West Bank.

He had also reported six or seven times to reserves duty, when, as he told journalist Hagai Matar, the question of Israel's occupation of the territories began bothering him more and more.

"I arrived in the army as a typical product of the system," he told Matar, "a nice boy, serving in the territories, doing what he's told. Without thinking. Mostly without thinking."

According to Mazor, he had also tried so-called "grey insubordination," in which the soldier doesn't make his refusal public. However, after he had returned from a year-long trip abroad, he decided he could not "resume the façade anymore."

At first, he was sentenced to a 15-day suspended sentence a week and a half ago, after announcing his refusal to serve. Sfard said Mazor was told by his battalion commander "to go home and think."

"Yaniv told me that he spent the weekend in a tour of Hebron with Breaking the Silence – a NGO collecting testimonies by IDF soldiers concerning their service in the occupied territories – and in a tour of the South Hebron Hills with Ta'ayush," Sfard said, adding: "His thinking didn't change in those two days, and his stance regarding insubordination as well."

He was then ordered to return to the base on Sunday, where the brigade commander sentenced him. According to Mazor, he was informed by the commander that he would continue receiving summons for military service.

The IDF's response was not received prior to the publishing of this article.

Netanyahu inadequately heeded IDF warnings ahead of Gaza flotilla raid

State Comptroller Lindenstrauss accuses premier in 153-page document of being inadequately prepared for the 2010 maritime takeover, says Barak silenced opposition to a military raid.

 IDF soldiers going on board the Mavi Marmara, May 2012.

The decision-making process was flawed, the discussions were hurried and superficial, the National Security Council was kept in the dark, and scenarios of extreme violence were ignored – these are only some of the harsh criticisms found in the State Comptroller's report on the government's handling of the Turkish aid flotilla to Gaza, which took place on May 2010.

Micha Lindenstrauss's highly critical report, released on Wednesday, stretches over 153 pages and deals with both the government's performance in the Turkish flotilla incident and with the application of the National Security Council Law, as well as, Israel's national propaganda apparatus.

In his report, Lindenstrauss named Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the party responsible for the incident: "The decision making process regarding the dealings with the Turkish flotilla led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and under his responsibility was found to include essential and significant flaws."

"The prime minister's decision-making was made without proper coordination, documentation, or preparation, despite the fact that the government, the IDF's top officers, and senior intelligence officials were all aware that the Turkish flotilla wasn't like the flotillas that preceded it," the report added.

The comptroller indicated that despite the fact that Netanyahu was well aware that the incident was highly irregular in its scope and was personally involved in the preparation for it, he hadn't internalized the fact that intercepting the flotilla with force could lead to a violent confrontation onboard the Mavi Marmara, leading to a large number of casualties.

The report lists multiple cases in which officials, including then Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, warned of a violent response by the boat's passengers.

A few weeks before the flotilla set sail, Ashkenazi sent a letter to Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, in which he suggested the flotilla be thwarted by diplomatic means before resorting to use of force.

According to the report, after the letter was sent, Netanyahu held four work meetings with Ashkenazi, in which the matter was discussed.

IDF official: Israel government should prepare for casualties

On May 6, 2010, three and a half weeks before the flotilla, Barak convened a meeting to discuss the preparation for the flotilla, in which Ashkenazi warned of the possibility that Palestinian activists from the Gaza Strip will try to attack IDF navy vessels.

"It is important that the government realize what we're expected to face," Ashkenazi said at the meeting.

In the same meeting, Barak instructed the IDF to prepare for the possibility that live rounds may be fired at the commandos by the flotilla passengers and to make sure that uninvolved persons are kept from harm. The defense minister also instructed the army to present these contingencies to Netanyahu. "He needs to know," Barak said.

A week later, at another meeting convened by the defense minister, Barak reiterated his fear that the passengers would fire at IDF soldiers. "I hope this doesn’t happen, it didn't in previous like incidents," answered then Israel Navy chief Eliezer Marom, adding that it wasn't likely that the passengers would shoot at IDF forces.

The comptroller’s report also mentions a meeting of the IDF's general staff ten days before the flotilla, at which a high ranking officer warned of violence. Two days later the chief of staff spoke in the same vein in his office.

"Completing the IDF's stated mission as it has been defined for it will lead to confrontation with foreign nationals onboard and will create a provocation which will serve to further fan the flames of criticism already targeting Israel," stressed Ashkenazi.

Five days before the flotilla’s arrival, in the only meeting on the subject the seven-member forum of senior ministers held, Ashkenazi warned the ministers that a military takeover of the Mavi Marmara would lead to a violent confrontation. "I want to clarify that it isn't easy but we will do it. It is no-two minute operation," he said.

"If anyone wants to make a drama out of it – there's enough fuel for two or three days – not an hour…. I have no doubt that there will be violence there. Let it be made clear. The people will confront us. I think it's an illusion to think that if 20 people descend onto a ship with 400 people aboard they will be met with applause. They will fight them," he added.

Netanyahu: I didn't receive information on the danger posed by the flotilla

The long list of examples included in the comptroller’s report contrast with the answers Netanyahu gave to whether or not he knew and understand that a takeover of the flotilla could escalate into a violent confrontation.

Netanyahu and his office members admitted that all the relevant discussion summaries were made known to the prime minister. But Netanyahu claimed that in none of these said discussions mentioned the possibility of violent confrontation.

"The chief of staff didn't raise the issue of the threat that flotilla members posed nor did he voice any concern that violence would erupt," the Prime Minister's Office told the comptroller and his staff, adding: "In the meeting at the Defense Minister's office the possibility that the flotilla was dangerous because of its size or the probability that shots would be fired was assessed as negligible."

Netanyahu and his staff presented the comptroller with responses to each one of the report drafts, in which in each case they reiterated the claim that "the whole time the possibility that the army wasn't prepared to deal with the flotilla wasn't raised."

According to the report, Netanyahu himself said during a meeting with the comptroller that "in no place, in no discussion, not with anyone, not with the defense minister, not with the chief of staff, not with the commander of the navy…nowhere was a problem with the operation raised."

These statements made by Netanyahu are strange in light of the quotes presented in the report from the senior minister meeting in which at least three ministers raised concerns over the IDF's plans, inquired about the details and were silenced, only to be silenced.

For example, Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor asked Ashkenazi "Do you have enough men?" Ashkenazi's response shows that possible problems were in fact raised. "There will not be [enough men] in the beginning…gradually there will be," he said. "We are boarding armed very selectively, not everyone, but there is no choice, because someone may be shot."

Minister Benny Begin asked "What possibilities do they have to block off the bridge?" to which the chief of staff answered that this was possible "but in the end with force we will be able to do it."

Lindenstrauss: Security officials anticipated armed conflict

The comptroller repeated the statements presented to him by the Prime Minister's Office in their defense five times throughout the report, but at the end he rejects them, stating that in fact Netanyahu was presented with the possibility of a violent conflict.

"IDF estimates presented to the government, including the prime minister, did in fact state that the flotilla could be stopped, Lindenstrauss wrote in the report.

"However, different security officials, including the minister of defense and the IDF chief of staff, warned that the incident won't be peaceful, and could escalate to use of weapons and firing at our soldiers, and that it was believed that the passengers would oppose the actions of the IDF, and that there will be a conflict with them," he added.

Lindenstrauss said that in "the inspections leading up to the report, we couldn't find any evidence that the defense minister checked the IDF's preparedness for dealing with violent activity on the part of the passengers, though he himself pointed out that this was possible…. In the opinion of the state comptroller the government, the prime minister, the seven-member senior minister forum should have looked into the objectives and plans of the military action in a orderly manner; especially since they themselves realized the action had wide reaching reproductions."

Israel - IDF: Ultra-Orthodox recruits can plug gap in technical units

IDF says overall enlistment to technical units has declined by a few thousand every year since the middle of the previous decade.

Technical units in the Israel Defense Forces, particularly in the Israel Air Force, are hundreds of soldiers short and need immediate reinforcements. Army officials believe ultra-Orthodox recruits could fill these positions. This was one of the messages conveyed by Personnel Directorate officials to members of the Knesset committee that is evaluating ways to increase Haredi enlistment.

The IDF says overall enlistment has declined by a few thousand every year since the middle of the previous decade, mainly due to the rise in service deferrals for Haredi men in these years. The trend is not expected to reverse itself until the middle of the current decade.

The army believes it has done as much as it can to stem the reduction in the numbers of soldiers assigned to combat and technology assignments using measures such as issuing fewer waivers due to mental or physical health considerations. Another factor contributing to staffing problems is the decline in graduates from vocational high schools.

Around 380 ultra-Orthodox men currently serve in technology positions in Haredi units in the IAF, which has made preparations that should make it possible to increase that number to 1,000 within a year or a year and a half. Until then, the air force will have to use outside firms to close the gaps.

The committee, chaired by MK Yohanan Plesner (Kadima ), was established to evaluate alternatives to the Tal Law, the legislation stipulating the terms for Haredi military service that was recently declared unconstitutional by the High Court of Justice. It is expected to submit its recommendations for a successor to that law by the end of the month, with an eye to passing the new law by the end of July, before the Knesset starts its summer recess.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are monitoring the committee's work.

Haredi representatives on the Plesner Committee have said during the sessions that they will not permit the state to interfere with the considerations of their yeshiva students. Specifically, they have said they will not support the committee's recommendations if these young men are stripped of their right to choose whether to enlist or to continue their religious studies.

The Haredi representatives say their community is already changing for the good, with more young people entering the labor market and the army, and that coercion by the state would put it on a collision course with the ultra-Orthodox community.

Committee members from non-Haredi parties, meanwhile, stress the importance of gradual steps to increase Haredi enlistment, including the use of draft quotas - or targets, a more flexible term that could also include the addition of incentives.

Negative incentives, in the form of financial sanctions against yeshivas that prevent their students from enlisting and making yeshiva heads criminally responsible for submitting false enrollment reports to the state, may also be considered.

The goal of all of these is to offer Haredi men a broad menu of choices, including various Haredi-only units and different types of civil and national service.

The issue of the quota, or numerical target, is considered particularly sensitive. The committee will presumably be asked to recommend a percentage of yeshiva students - between 5 percent and 20 percent - who will receive a total waiver from service to their state on account of their outstanding talent for religious study.

One possibility already being considered is for the committee to issue a majority report in the likely event that the Haredi representatives will not agree with these relatively low percentages.