Jerusalem – Hamas’ thriving military industry in the Gaza Strip has skipped several grades ahead. Israel now fears that Hamas will try to develop unmanned aerial vehicles on its own.

Since Hezbollah is transferring know-how to Hamas, it can be presumed that Hamas will also try to achieve capabilities in this area.

Expert terrorists who returned to the Gaza Strip after taking courses in Iran are combining their knowledge and abilities with the Palestinian academic world; lecturers at Al-Azhar University in the Gaza Strip, mainly in the subjects of chemistry, physics and electronics, are an integral part of the weapons development network. Hamas has aerial aspirations, and in the future it will undoubtedly try to develop aerial capabilities – an air force of its own.

In the Second Lebanon War, and prior to that, Hezbollah operated at least five unmanned aerial vehicles. These are unmanned “flying platforms”: aircraft intended to serve for observation and guided bombs. Since Hamas is learning from Hezbollah, it can be presumed that the organization will also try to develop similar capabilities.

What is most worrying and frustrating to security officials in Israel is Egypt’s behavior toward Hamas. Despite the breaching of Philadelphi Road, Cairo is continuing to conduct covert negotiations with Hamas in the Gaza Strip in order to reach some kind of calm in the relations between the two sides. Hamas is once again threatening the Egyptians to blow up the barriers that were rebuilt if its men are not allowed to pass through the road, which was supposedly closed. The Egyptians backed down in the face of the threat, and are permitting the experts returning from Iran to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.

Moreover in order to aid in the search and arrest of Gazans who infiltrated Sinai, Israel turned a blind eye and enabled the Egyptians to move to the forefront of Sinai, near Philadelphi Road, El-Arish and Rafah three infantry battalions – contrary to the peace accords. It is true that the Egyptians are arresting armed men who have infiltrated Sinai, but on the other hand, behind the scenes and covertly, they are continuing to cooperate with Hamas, thereby enabling it to build up its strength uninterrupted. They recently arrested the commander of Hamas’ southern brigade in El-Arish, but after pressure applied to them by the organization, the man was released and returned to the Gaza Strip.

“Egypt is playing a double game,” says an Israeli security source.

“On one hand, it ostensibly closed the border, arrested terrorist operatives and managed to impose upon Hamas the old arrangement of the Rafah crossing. But on the other hand, it is overlooking the buildup of Hamas’ strength and the continued passage of terrorist elements and weaponry through the Egyptian border. One hand arrests, and the other hand releases.”

Israel To Europe: Don’t Let Iran Develop Gas Fields

Israel has turned to leading European countries and requested that they work to make the European Union impose strict sanctions on Iran, even stricter than those decided upon by the U.N. Security Council. Among other things, Israel has asked the European countries to prevent Iran from receiving technologies and equipment that will permit it to develop the gas fields within its territory.

Eight members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, from the coalition and opposition, were sent by the Foreign Ministry to various European capitals in order to encourage a tightening of the international sanctions regime against Iran. Israel mainly seeks to influence the position of Austria and Germany, which have access to technology for gas field development. The Austrian governmental energy company recently signed a huge deal with Iran, which also includes assistance in the development and utilization of gas fields and exporting gas to Europe. MK Ephraim Sneh of the Labor Party was sent to Austria in order to meet with the political leadership in Vienna and explain the dangers inherent in the deal.

Israeli Member of Knesset Yossi Beilin, former Israeli Deputy, was sent to Berlin for talks with leaders of the Israeli left-wing parties in Germany. “The message behind sending the MKs to Europe is that on the issue of the Iranian threat, there is a broad common denominator between the Knesset factions, unlike the Palestinian or Syrian issues,” emphasized Mr. Beilin. “The European intelligence report could weaken the desire to impose further sanctions on Iran, at a time when it looks as though the sanctions are working. It is important to emphasize the connection between the peace process and what is happening in Iran. A nuclear Iran would prevent any possibility of promoting a peace process in the region.”

The representatives of the Israel Knesset Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will ask the European countries to ensure that the issue of Iran’s nuclear program is not returned to the International Atomic Energy Agency, but rather remains on the table of the Security Council.

Mr. Beilin will meet today with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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