News | Israeli Jews oppose ban of Islam’s minarets: poll.

Share	Send	Save	Print	[ Wednesday, 13 January 2010 ]

Last year Switzerland, which only has four minarets, banned the Islamic structure

DUBAI (Al Arabiya)

Forty-three percent of Jews would not support a ban on Islam’s minarets in Israel, a survey revealed Tuesday, which an American Rabbi said showed Israelis are more tolerant to Islam than their Swiss counterparts.

The recent survey, conducted by Jerusalem-based KEEVOON Research, for the U.S.-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU), found that only 28 percent would support a ban on minarets in Israel, a large contrast to the 57.5 percent of voters in Switzerland who voted for the ban, and 29 percent were undecided.

“When it comes to freedom of religion Israelis are apparently much more tolerant than their Swiss counterparts,” FFEU’s president, Rabbi Marc Schneier, was quoted by Israel’s Ynet news as saying.

Israeli press reported that the strongest opposition of banning minarets came from national religious Israelis, 55 percent of whom said they would “strongly oppose” such a ban, and 53 percent of ultra-Orthodox Jews said they were opposed.

“There is a definite correlation between religious observance and tolerance towards Islam,” Schneier said, adding “Israelis seem to put politics aside as opposition to banning minarets actually increases as we move further to the right on the political spectrum.”

Schneier said “the fact that less than one-third of all Israeli Jews support banning minarets indicates that from the Israeli point of view, there is room for respectful coexistence between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs when it is based on religion and not politics.”

ANALYSIS / Iran scientist likely killed by opponents of nuclear program – Haaretz – Israel News.

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It’s doubtful we will ever know who really killed the Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi. Those who carried out the assassination will never claim responsibility, and those who will, probably didn’t do it. In light of the complexity of Iranian affairs, many organizations might have an interest in Dr. Mohammadi’s death. Theoretically, it could be a hit by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards or the intelligence community. Mohammadi identified with the opposition and with the 2009 presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. There is, however, no precedent in Iran, at least not in recent years, of such a violent assassination of an opponent of the regime or a suspected spy. The regime usually deals with such cases with arrest followed by a trial or by permanent disappearance. Advertisement It could be an underground organization opposing the regime such as the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or groups representing ethnic or religious minorities such as Kurds, Arabs or Sunnis. These groups have carried out violent actions and terror attacks against symbols of the regime – either on their own behalf or for foreign intelligence agencies. Therefore, it is more likely that the assassination was carried out by those seeking to damage and delay Iran’s nuclear program. That, of course, means Western governments, especially the United States and Israel. These governments use their espionage agencies to gather information about the Iranian nuclear program. There are reports about efforts to damage equipment purchased abroad for the program, to recruit agents from within Iran’s nuclear project with access to information, and to lure senior officials associated with the country’s nuclear program to defect. The possibility that Western, or even Israeli, spy agencies are behind the latest assassination is supported by precedent. According to foreign news reports, Israel acted in a similar fashion during the 1960s against German scientists working to develop missiles in Egypt, and during the 1970s against various scientists. These included Egyptians and the Canadian scientist Gerald Bull who worked on Iraq’s nuclear and missile projects under Saddam Hussein. His colleagues at Tehran University claim that Mohammadi was not connected whatsoever with Iran’s nuclear program. However, precedent shows that Iranian universities, especially the chemistry and physics departments, have served as a front for Iran’s nuclear program. They have purchased and hid equipment, and their professors and experts have served as consultants for the program. Reports have increased in recent years about attempts by Western espionage agencies to harm Iranian scientists; there have even been a few reports about Iranian scientists who died under mysterious circumstances. In one case, a scientist died at home, ostensibly of suffocation from a gas space heater. No matter who is behind yesterday’s incident it is obvious that this Beirut- or Gaza-style assassination represents another blow to the regime’s image, as well as to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The regime faces determined opposition at home, as well as international threats and pressure – including the threat of military action against its nuclear program. It also faces ethnic and religious minorities operating underground organizations that occasionally carry out violent acts against the regime to win autonomy or rights denied to them.

DEBKAfile – Petraeus: Iran’s nuclear infrastructure can be bombed.

January 11, 2010, 11:31 PM (GMT+02:00)

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower arrives

The deployment in the Middle East of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group in the first week of January adds muscle to the words of Gen. David Petraeus, CENTCOM commander, on Jan 10 that Iranian nuclear infrastructure, albeit strengthened against attack with enhanced underground tunnels, wasn’t fully protected.

“Well, they certainly can be bombed,” he said to CNN. “The level of effect would vary with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they have and what capability they can bring to bear.”

This judgment contradicts recent US media estimates that Iran’s nuclear facilities buried deep in fortified tunnels are now protected against air or missile strikes.

Declining to comment on the likelihood of an Israeli strike, Gen. Petraeus said there was still time for diplomacy, but pointed out: “It would be almost literally irresponsible if Centcom were not to have been thinking about ‘what ifs’ and making plans for a whole variety of different contingencies.”

DEBKAfile‘s military sources add: CENTCOM was substantially beefed up by the USS Eisenhower carrier which President Barack Obama deployed in the New Year to the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean in support of the US Fifth and Sixth Fleets. He ordered this six-month deployment, the first since he took office a year ago, in view of the rising tensions around Yemen and Iran.

The Eisenhower carries eight air squadrons on its decks.

Air Wing Seven is made up of four fighter-bomber squadrons, a squadron each of early-warning surveillance, electronic warfare and tactical support aircraft and another of anti-submarine helicopters. Its strike force consists of the USS Hue City guided missile cruiser, and two guided missile destroyers, the USS McFaul, USS Farragut and USS Carney.

Obama said in a recent interview that he had not intention of sending US combat troops to the terrorist havens of Somalia and Yemen because “working with international partners is most effective at this point.”

This statement ties in with pumping up America’s naval and air strength in the two volatile