All things considered today was a defeat for the Palestinians. Israel prevented infiltration with a minimum of firepower.. It is imperative to let the Palestinians know that Israel will defend its borders. Just imagine if the Palestinians were able to created a million man march on our borders. The first defeat for them is that they didn’t succeed in creating a serious challenge and the second defeat is that we easily contained what they did manage to do. Israel should be placing landmines along their border and the fence. The facts are not yet clear. Waiting for the IDF to report.Ted Belman
About 70 Palestinian refugees manage to cross border fence from Syria; four Lebanese said killed, 10 wounded as protesters trying to cross border from Lebanon come under fire.
By Jack Khoury, Anshel Pfeffer HAARETZ
Israel Defense Forces troops on Sunday opened fire on masses of infiltrators trying to breach Israel’s northern borders with Syria and Lebanon, as Nakba Day demonstrations erupted across the region. Some eight people were reportedly killed in the clashes over the course of the day.
Four people were said killed as scores of Palestinian refugees spilled into the town of Majdal Shams, which runs along Israel’s border with Syria. The Magen David Adom medical services said about a dozen others had been wounded. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed opening fire on infiltrators.
About 70 people, most of them Palestinian refugees, managed to cross the border, according to residents of Majdal Shams. Initial reports had put the number of infiltrators into the hundreds.
“The way it was reported to me, they broke through the fence,” Dolan Abu Salah, the mayor of Majdal Shams, told Army Radio.
Thousands of people also gathered in the Lebanese town of Maroun a-Ras, close to the Israeli border, to mark Nakba Day.
Four people were reportedly killed and at least five were wounded there, as Palestinian protesters tried to push their way across the border with Israel, local media reports said, citing eyewitnesses.
Carrying Palestinian flags and chanting “we want our land back” thousands of Palestinians tried to approach the electrical fence that separates Lebanon from Israel, but Lebanese army troops fired in the air and ordered the crowd to return to where the rally was held.
The demonstrators pelted the Lebanese army with stones as it struggled to hold them back from the security fence.
But around 50 protesters managed to reach the fence and started throwing stones at the Israeli soldiers on the other side of the fence, prompting the Israeli soldiers to fire their guns and tear gas at the protesters.
Speakers representing the various Palestinian factions called through loud speakers on the Palestinian youths to stop throwing stones at the Israelis, but their calls were ignored.
Nakba Day violence strikes in W. Bank, Gaza, e. J’lem
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND REUTERS
Palestinians report 45 injured by IDF fire in northern Gaza; several W. Bank rioters arrested; Israelis injured as demonstrators throw rocks.
Some 45 Palestinian Nakba Day protesters were wounded when the IDF opened fire on the Gaza border on Sunday, according to Palestinian medics. The protesters had approached the border in northern Gaza.
Earlier Sunday, four Palestinians were arrested during a Nakba Day protest near Bethlehem. Protests were also underway in Beit Omar and Nebi Salah, and three Nakba Day demonstrators were arrested in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya for throwing stones. Police forces, with the aid of a helicopter, managed to disperse the stone-throwers who fled into the village. There were no reports of injuries in the incident.
In addition, Molotov cocktails were thrown at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, lightly injuring one policeman.
Also in east Jerusalem, an 18-year-old Israeli man was injured when stones were thrown at his car in A-Tur.
About 100 Palestinians clashed with IDF soldiers at the Kalandiya crossing; no injuries were reported.
Nearly 10,000 border police officers were stationed throughout the country in cities with Arab and Jewish populations and areas where conflict was expected in light of Nakba Day. Police were asked to show restraint and not release live fire, unless there was a real threat to human life.
Increased security in east Jerusalem and surrounding areas was expected to continue for the next few days.
Tensions rose in east Jerusalem this weekend following the shooting death of a Palestinian youth during a riot in the capital’s Silwan neighborhood.
At police headquarters in Jerusalem on Saturday evening, Insp.-Gen. Yochanan Danino spoke with intelligence officials and commanders from the Border Police, the Operations Branch and the Jerusalem district, and drew up final plans for Sunday.
Aim higher and pass the ammunition.
I put nothing past the Islamofascist pigs. Maybe the best thing would be to fire at their feet and let them walk into your gunfire.
As I have been warning for months, via my broadcasts on Middle East Radio Forum, the “marches” that were initiated today on the Gaza-Israel Eretz Crossing, the Lebanese border, the Syrian-Israeli cease-fire line, all attempted to emulate the Moroccan Green March of November 1975. At that time some 350,000 men, women and children, all unarmed, all carrying a Koran, walked across the frontier of Western Sahara (then under Spanish control) and took the territory without firing a shot. It forced Spain to give up control of the territory, though that was never legally completed. Morocco, de facto, annexed the entire area and has continued to occupy it for the last 36 years! Defying UN and AU resolutions, ignoring repeated calls for a referendum to ascertain the wishes of the Sahrawi people, Morocco’s strategic move provided the role model for today’s Arab attempts against Israel. More such attempts , no doubt, will follow. Israel should have been prepared for this eventuality.
Dr, Steve Carol
Prof. of History (retired)
Official Historian,
Associate Producer of
Middle East Radio Forum
Author: Middle East Rules of Thumb:
Understanding the Complexities of the Middle East
The above is from an Arutz Sheva article entitled “All infiltrators have returned to Syria”
It is hard to believe!!! Hundreds of Syrians get in to Israel ilegally. The IDF can’t or won’t stop them. They “hang out” in Majdal Shams and end up leaving not because the IDF is tough and efficient, but because the locals convinced them to go back!!!!! In addition, their return was conditional on the IDF not being allowed to interfere!!!!! What a crock!! I’m really pissed off now. Who calls the shots in Israel anyway?? The Druze dictate the terms of how and where the IDF can intervene???
As far as I’m concerned this is a terrible embarrassment at best, and Israel is certainly fortunate this didn’t turn out into a major problem.
Where are Israel’s leaders?? Who leads the IDF?????
Unbelievable!
I have advocated for years that this should be the rule: For every Jewish adult killed by Arabs, 10 of them will be kill. For every child killed 100 should die.
If they step one foot into Israel illegally, shoot to kill.
If the perpetrator throws a stone, shoot to kill.
If they try to kill you with a machine, shoot to kill.
drjb is correct.
It is time for Israel to stop playing the ‘Light Unto Nations’ game and start playing war games as the Muslims are doing and have been doing since long before 1948.
The Muslims do their damnedest to kill as many Israelis/Jews as possible whether it be with stones or tractors, Molotov cocktails, suicide bombers or knives.
With odds of 100 or more Arabs for each Jew the Jews cannot afford to play tit for tat. A balanced, proportional approach is called for and a true and equal balance would be 100 Arabs for 1 Jew. A winning approach would be more than 100 for 1 — far, far more.
Relatively speaking it fizzled. It could have been much worse, perhaps overwhelming. Israel made mistakes. Could have been better prepared. No great harm done. Next ime we will do better.
I agree with drjb but add that Israels borders must be respected and defended with what ever force is deemed necessary.
Ted, I respectfully disagree with your opinion.
Israel’s borders were breached in Lebanon and more seriously in Syria were Syrian and Palestinian flags were hoisted in the main square of Majdal Shams. That over 150 syrians crossed into Israel is alarming. How easy is it to cross anyway?? If 150 can cross in one shot, how much more so can a band of 4-5 terrorists. Scary!! What if they had been properly trained and armed???
That Israel used a minimum of force to quell these problems is not a positive in my book. The control that Israel exercises invites further action against it. Israel should have the opposite posture. Israel should be feared by its neighbors. It should clearly say that anyone ilegally crossing into its territory from Lebanon and Syria (both in a state of war with Israel)will be shot. As Israel does with Palestinians attempting to ilegally infiltrate Israel from Gaza.
As far as the Palestinians in Israel (Judea and Samaria),Israel should tolerate protests and demonstrations as long as there is no palestinian violence. If violence is perpetrated against Israelis, Israel should use all means without restriction to supress the violence. No more Mr Nice Guy.