Hamas announces ‘popular army’ after Temple Mount clashes

[bemildred]

Hamas announced the creation of a “popular army” in the Gaza Strip on Friday, saying it was ready for any future conflict with Israel, particularly over the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque site at The Temple Mount.

At a ceremony at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the devastated Palestinian territory, a spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades — the military arm of the Islamist Hamas — said 2,500 recruits would form “the first section of the popular army for the liberation of Al-Aqsa [mosque] and of Palestine”.

Mohammed Abu Askar, a Hamas official, said those older than 20 could sign up “to be prepared for any confrontation” with Israel.

Hamas and Israel fought a 50-day war this summer which resulted in the deaths of 2,140 Palestinians — at least half of them combatants, according to Israel — and 73 Israelis, the majority of them soldiers.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-announces-popular-army-after-temple-mount-clashes/

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Dunno how popular it will be, now that Israel has announced

they'll knock down the homes of any attackers. Unless all of the 'popular army' folks reregister as living at Netanyahu's address.

[Jefferson23]

2. And they're off.. n/t

[bemildred]

3. I'm starting to think Hamas wants to pick a fight. nt

[Jefferson23]

4. If that's true, it makes me wonder what the hell is happening to their unity deal.

You may be right, they seem to be doing more than just asserting themselves..much more.

How is the whole Nasrallah/Israel thing going? I haven't read much today...was out a good part
of the day.

[bemildred]

5. I consider that was just bluster on both sides.

Nasrallah is not known for running his mouth every day.

Lebanon has it's hands full and so does Hezbollah, and I would say so does Israel, so I don't expect either of them to heat things up by choice.

Hamas, on the other hand, they might well think that entangling Israel is some more confilct is just the thing. We already have the beginnings of a new intifada.

[Jefferson23]

6. So nothing new that would benefit any of those parties with the exception of Hamas.

Risky business, I say...whatever they're thinking. I know
they wanted very much to get Palestinians from the WB into Jerusalem, they
have wanted that and it kind of fell apart if I recall correctly..there was
a lot of cracking down on dissent there not long ago.

[bemildred]

7. Well, nobody is really working at the peace talks,

but Hamas are the only ones I think might want to heat things up again, they have definitely been encouraging the West Bank and Jerusalem riots and calling for a new intifada.

[Jefferson23]

8. Yea, they have been and the angry statements toward Abbas about the salaries and

no reconstruction happening in Gaza fast enough etc.

[Scootaloo]

9. Israel should opt out of indulging Hamas, then

Treat attacks as crimes, send police after the suspects. Jerusalem isn't Gaza, can't claim otherwise.

Netanyahu needs to back Israel away from the fight it's been picking over al-aqsa. Even if it means Bennet stomps out in a huff. As messy as new elections would be, they're a hell of a lot less messy than the current alternative.

[Jefferson23]

10. The third intifada is here

November 6, 2014

A third intifada. People have been talking about it for more than a year already, threatening that its eruption is just around the corner and that it’s likely to be more violent and hellish than its two predecessors.

Periodic situation evaluations of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) highest command echelons warned that the harsh economic situation, lack of a diplomatic horizon and overall feeling of frustration and that there is no way out are likely to be the catalysts. Shin Bet assessments disseminated in 2013 even showed worrisome data regarding growing unrest in the West Bank, and painted the picture of the lone terrorist going out on his own to carry out an attack without the backing of organizational infrastructure. These assessments even led to closer security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the goal of detecting and thwarting the first signs of terrorist organization if and when they appear on the ground.

But apparently the Israeli security system didn't imagine that the third intifada it had anticipated, warned against and prepared for would erupt specifically in Jerusalem, and with such intensity.

The vehicular terror attack carried out on Nov. 5, and the one committed two weeks previously on Oct. 22 claimed the lives of three Israelis and wounded many others. When we add the attempted murder of right-wing activist Yehuda Glick on Oct. 30, one of the prominent members of the Temple Mount Faithful group, there is no room left for doubt: An additional ''Al-Aqsa intifada” (as the second intifada was named) is taking place now, and Jerusalem is both the battlefield as well as the cause of the unrest. Or, to be more precise: the Temple Mount is the catalyst for the eruption of the current intifada in Jerusalem. We can deduct this from the words of relatives of two terrorists who carried out the recent vehicular terror attacks in the city.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/11/third-intifada-jerusalem-violence-temple-mount-religious-war.html#ixzz3IUbOEdLV


Israeli border police officers walk in front of the Dome of the Rock in the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, Nov. 5, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Ammar Awad)