My Brother's Keeper: Month 2, Week 3, Day 1.

Or if I was writing specifically for Barack Obama;   

"Welcome to the Neighbourhood."

At around 00:00 (03:00 local) Hadar Goldin the Israeli soldier who went missing on Friday (1/8/14) was declared dead by a special commission of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Prior to this public announcement the Goldin family had been visited in person by a delegation of the Israeli government including Moshe Ya'alon the Israeli defence minister and Hadar Goldin's second cousin. I am not aware of the specific information that the commission used to reach this conclusion but I am aware that if this decision were taken prematurely and Goldin were to suddenly appear alive in a country of less then 8 million people heads would literally roll.

I am though aware of the procedure the IDF implements in this type of event and did implement on Friday. Essentially this involves shutting down an area by saturating it with heavy weapons fire in order to give the people in that area no choice other then to stop and seek shelter. Helicopters and drones are then quickly brought in to investigate any movement within the area before finally ground troops are sent in to search the area. As it is extremely unlikely that Goldin and his captors would have been able to escape from the area their remains are most likely hidden amongst the rubble if indeed there are any remains left to recover. This is consistent with the account that Hamas have given of the incident and in the lack of any evidence to the contrary it seems safe to assume that this is what happened.

In order to understand why the IDF respond to potential hostage taking in such a harsh manner you simply need to remember that the US TV show "Homeland" was based on an Israeli TV show "Hatifum (Abductees)." Beyond the physical torture, mock executions, forcible drug addiction and brainwashing shown in those TV shows Hamas have also in the past used hostages to terrorise the hostage's family and by extension the entire state of Israel. For example during the holding of Gilad Shalit Hamas frequently moved him around in the hope that he could be used as a human shield to protect their military facilities from Israeli attack and used him to draw in more Israeli troops as part of a rescue mission so they could be ambushed and killed. Hamas also circulated numerous false stories that Shalit had been executed and released numerous videos which seemed intended to show that Shalit was much happier living as a Muslim then he'd even been living with his family.

Despite the declaration of death the IDF still most certainly want Goldin's body to be returned along with a fair bit of vengeance. As a result the Rafah area has continued to be pounded hard. The most talked about aspect of this intensified onslaught is going to be the rather wild claim by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) that another of its schools has been attacked. What actually appears to have happened is up to a dozen Hamas fighters attacked IDF soldiers before fleeing in a pick-up truck. That truck was tracked from the air and an air-strike called in. That air-strike took place on the road outside the UNRWA school slightly damaging the exterior walls of the compound. It is rather worrying that UNRWA seem happy to describe those Hamas fighters as "civilians who were sheltering in the school."

Elsewhere in the region yesterday (2/8/14)  fighters from the al-Nusra front in Syria crossed in Lebanon to attack a Lebanese army post near Arsal killing seven soldiers in the process. Apart from being an attempt to put pressure on the Lebanese army to put pressure on Hezbollah who are fighting the al-Nusra front and other insurgent groups in Syria this seems like an attempt by the Syrian insurgents to remind that World that although they are on the brink of collapse they are not yet defeated. It also serves to highlight the strategic nightmare that the US and other western nations have inflicted on Israel through their actions in Syria and particularly the US' failure to act in Iraq.

In short Israel has been left facing a very real possibility of being attacked by well armed terrorists groups based in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria at the same time. As with the 1973 Yom Kippur war there is no guarantee that Israel would be able to survive such an onslaught and it certainly wouldn't be able to conduct itself with the level of restraint and concern for civilians that they've displayed in Gaza so far.

As a result Israel needs to finish Hamas off as a military force now while they have the space to do so and US President Obama really needs to learn to take the legitimate criticism Israel has been sending his way with the good grace and maturity that befits a World leader.


16:20 on 3/8/14 (UK date).

Edited at around 19:15 on 3/8/14 (UK date) to add;

Although I try and avoid identifying my sources the rumour I heard about the incident close to the UNRWA school in Rafah spoke only of "militants" and a "vehicle." As you can see from above I took this to mean Hamas militants and a pick-up truck. Sources close to the IDF are now talking in terms of Islamic Jihad militants riding motorcycles although the IDF themselves are investigating rather then commenting.

However the one thing that is not in dispute because it has been established by independent witnesses and footage of the scene is that those killed were militants who were killed by an air-strike on the road outside of the UNRWA school. The school itself only suffered superficial shrapnel damage to its perimeter wall.

This makes the statement by US State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki which expresses the US' outrage at the killing of civilians by Israeli artillery fire at a UNRWA school all the more peculiar. I personally am taking it as a sign that Obama and Kerry are yet to find that good grace.

(Originally Posted on 3/8/14 - UK date).