WarSclerotic

IAF strikes Gaza terror cell attempting to fir… JPost – Defense.

    The Israeli Air Force struck a terror cell attempting to fire long-rage rockets into Israel in the area of Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday.

IAF personnel identified a direct hit on the cell, resulting in injuries to three terrorists, one of whom was in critical condition.

The IDF vowed to continue responding to terror threats, including the firing of high-trajectory weaponry into Israel.

Saturday’s strike came a day after the IAF struck the central Gaza Strip early Friday morning in response to a Kassam rocket attack on Thursday. The IDF Spokesman’s Office said that the location of the strike was a terror activity site.

“The IDF won’t allow any attempts to harm Israeli citizens or IDF soldiers and continues to act against all sources of terror activity against the State of Israel,” the IDF statement continued, saying that it holds Hamas responsible.

No injuries were reported following the strike.

Earlier Thursday evening, a Kassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area inside Israel. No injuries or damages were reported.

On Tuesday, two rockets fired from Gaza exploded in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council. No injuries were reported in that attack.

One of the rockets exploded near an electricity line causing damage. The second rocket landed in an open field.

Lebanon news – NOW Lebanon -Bunker Busters to Israel: Strategic Leak or Foreign Policy Liability?.

Stephanie Spies , Center for Strategic & International Studies, October 1, 2011 

Although this revelation may come as a shock to anyone not privy to classified military information, the most puzzling issue at stake is the timing of this story. According to the article, Obama sold these weapons to Israel in 2009…so why are we just hearing about it now? Some experts believe the leak is nothing more than a ploy to bolster Jewish support of Obama before the next election, while others contend it is meant as a warning to Iran in light of new information confirming the acceleration of the country’s nuclear activities. Then again, it could just be an unapproved disclosure from a notoriously leaky Obama administration. Regardless of the motivations behind such an information leak, it could also have interesting effects on the Obama administration’s attempts to prevent Iranian nuclear proliferation. While the transfer of bunker busters to Israel could reveal the U.S.’s true commitment to stopping Iran’s nuclear program, it could also undermine the administration’s credibility on nonproliferation issues, especially in the Middle East.

The somewhat surprising news of this sale, and the media frenzy that followed, arrived in an environment rather hostile to the Obama administration, particularly on Middle East policy. The President’s most recent attempt to restore U.S. credibility in the Arab world in a speech at the U.N. was dismissed by several countries and journalists as a hypocritical ploy lacking substance, as the U.S. is currently fighting a Palestinian bid for statehood while simultaneously preaching for democracy in the Arab Spring. To say that the U.S. no longer looks like an honest or credible broker of the peace process, according to these sources, would be an understatement. Despite this apparent support for Israel at the expense of the Arab world, however, recent news also illustrates a lack of Israeli, and domestic Jewish, support for the Obama administration. The President “urg[ed] the Israelis to make wrenching concessions to the Palestinians” throughout his term in office, undermining domestic Jewish support for the administration.

Amidst this unfavorable political environment, the story of the bunker buster sale emerged. Suddenly, Obama no longer looks so “anti-Israel”. Even former Bush administration hawks “grudgingly give Obama credit for behind-the-scenes progress” on relations with Israel, claiming “it’s the best military-to-military relationship ever”. According to Lake’s article, Israel requested the bombs in 2005, but was refused by the Bush administration until 2007, when Bush said he would order the weapons for a 2009 or 2010 delivery. Shortly after taking office, Obama secretly authorized the transfer of the bunker busters to Israel. The military deal, Lake writes, “has drawn the two nations’ militaries increasingly close even as their leaders seem politely distant”. In another article, he also quotes Representative Rothman (D-NJ) as saying “Obama gave ‘orders to the military to ratchet up the cooperation at every level with Israel”.

All of this information seems to indicate that Obama has continued to support Israel, despite public accounts to the contrary. Why, then, has it all been kept quiet? The bunker buster sale may have external political consequences that warrant secrecy, but certainly the request for Congress to improve Israeli aid and cooperation is not as controversial. The sale in particular occurred in 2009, yet it is just now becoming public. The Israeli military and government were obviously privy to this information, as were U.S. officials, but the information was still kept secret.

(…) Perhaps the leak was less designed to conjure political support for Obama than it was to send a message to Iran. Although the U.S. has kept “all options on the table” with regards to Iran’s nuclear program, so far the Obama administration has pursued diplomacy and economic sanctions as its primary strategy to deal with such a threat. The transfer of bunker busters to Israel which, according to recent articles, are “deemed important to any future military strike against Iranian nuclear sites” seems to illustrate potential administration support for an alternate military approach. In particular, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James Cartwright is quoted in the Newsweek article as saying that although there was no military opposition to the sale in 2009, “there was a concern about ‘how the Iranians would perceive it’ and ‘how the Israelis might perceive it’”, including fears of giving “a green light for Israel to attack Iran’s secret nuclear sites”. Now that knowledge of this sale has become public, Iran may be receiving that exact message.

The perception that the U.S. is arming Israel for a potential military strike on Iran, whether correct or not, is consistent with other news of the U.S. “bolster[ing] clandestine efforts to undermine Iranian atomic efforts”. Although the facts are, predictably, unclear, Iran believes, and military experts agree, that the U.S. has sponsored a series of covert operations, or at least condoned Israeli actions, to undermine the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, including killing Iranian nuclear specialists and using the Stuxnet cybervirus to target Iranian uranium enrichment equipment. The Obama administration has not publicly said or done anything to indicate that it supports military action as a solution to Iranian nuclearization, but these actions may be intended to convince Iran that the U.S. truly is keeping all options on the table, or in other words, is still entertaining the possibility of strikes on Iranian facilities.

Stephanie Spies is a research intern for the Project on Nuclear Issues. The views expressed above are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Center for Strategic and International Studies or the Project on Nuclear Issues.

Cyprus: Offshore gas search to continue – Israel News, Ynetnews.

President Dimitris Christofias insists Cyprus’ right to search for potential mineral deposits inside its exclusive economic zone is non-negotiable, despite Turkey’s opposition

Associated Press

Cyprus’ President Dimitris Christofias says Saturday exploratory drilling for offshore oil and gas deposits will continue despite Turkey’s strong opposition.

Christofias says the divided island’s right to search for potential mineral deposits inside its exclusive economic zone is non-negotiable and that any foreign meddling is unacceptable.

Related stories:

• US to provide Turkey with attack helicopters
• Report: IAF jets circled over Turkish ship
• Erdogan: US to provide drones to Turkey

Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek speaking south and a breakaway Turkish speaking north in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece.

Turkish warship (Photo: AFP)

 Turkey says the south’s gas search disregards Turkish Cypriot rights and has sent a warship-escorted research vessel to also look for gas off Cyprus.

Christofias repeated on Saturday that the island’s natural resources belong to all Cypriots.

Over 10,000 soldiers have deserted Syria army, says high-ranking defector – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Colonel Riad Assaad says defectors carrying out guerilla-style attacks on security police who enforce loyalty to Assad regime.

By Reuters and DPA

Colonel Riad Assaad, a high-ranking defector from the Syrian military, told Reuters on Friday that more than 10,000 soldiers have deserted the Syrian army and defectors are attacking security police who enforce loyalty to President Bashar Assad.

Guerrilla-style attacks were concentrating on Military and Air Force Intelligence, secret police personnel entrusted with preventing mutiny in the military, who have been behind some of the biggest attacks on pro-democracy protesters, Colonel Assaad told Reuters.

	In this mobile phone image provided by the Shaam News Network, Anti-government protesters gather at al-kessour area in Homs province, September 29, 2011
	Photo by: AP

“They have a major role behind the military units and on roadblocks to shoot soldiers who disobey orders,” Asaad said by telephone from an undisclosed location on the Syrian-Turkish border. Insurgent operations had “improved markedly in quality” in the last week, he said.

Asaad said fighting had also taken place with army forces but that defectors had been trying not to engage the military to help rally support for their cause.

The military and security apparatus has remained mostly under Assad’s control but army deserters, many of whom have reportedly defected because they refused to shoot at demonstrators, have formed a rebel unit called the Syrian Free Army under the command of Asaad, a 50-year-old Air Force officer from Idlib near the border with Turkey.

“Morale in the army is low and defections are mounting all over Syria, although many soldiers are waiting because the regime will kill them or kill their families if they leave,” Asaad said.

“Our goal is to protect the peaceful demonstrations and bring down the regime,” he said, adding there were more than 10,000 defectors out of the 200,000-member army.

Asaad declined to estimate how long Assad could hold on to power but said international support for the rebels, off the table for now, would help “bring down the regime very quickly.”

Syrian troops backed by tanks and artillery advanced in the city of Rastan, near Homs, on Saturday after four days of clashes with army defectors, activists said.

“The city is almost destroyed from the shelling of the army,” an anti-government activist who lives in Lebanon said.

“So far we have 10 army defectors killed and a number were wounded,” he said.

Syrian exiles said there were about 2,000 defectors in the city.
Government troops have been fighting army defectors in Rastan in the first prolonged armed confrontation since protests erupted against Assad six months ago.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across Syria on Friday demanding the removal of President Bashar Assad, as fighting continued between loyalist forces and insurgents in the centre of the country, according to activists.

Foreign journalists are barred from Syria, where the regime has killed an estimated 2,700 people during a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, according to opposition activists and rights groups.

Officer: Syrian defectors target security … JPost – Middle East.

    AMMAN – More than 10,000 soldiers have deserted the Syrian army and defectors are attacking security police who enforce loyalty to President Bashar Assad, a high-ranking defector said on Friday.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad told Reuters that guerrilla-style attacks were concentrating on Military and Air Force Intelligence, secret police personnel entrusted with preventing mutiny in the military, who have been behind some of the biggest attacks on pro-democracy protesters.

“They have a major role behind the military units and on roadblocks to shoot soldiers who disobey orders,” Asaad said by telephone from an undisclosed location on the Syrian-Turkish border. Insurgent operations had “improved markedly in quality” in the last week, he said.

Asaad said fighting had also taken place with army forces but that defectors had been trying not to engage the military to help rally support for their cause.

The military and security apparatus has remained mostly under Assad’s control but army deserters, many of whom have reportedly defected because they refused to shoot at demonstrators, have formed a rebel unit called the Syrian Free Army under the command of Asaad, a 50-year-old Air Force officer from Idlib near the border with Turkey.

“Morale in the army is low and defections are mounting all over Syria, although many soldiers are waiting because the regime will kill them or kill their families if they leave,” Asaad said.

“Our goal is to protect the peaceful demonstrations and bring down the regime,” he said, adding there were more than 10,000 defectors out of the 200,000-member army.

Asaad declined to estimate how long Assad could hold on to power but said international support for the rebels, off the table for now, would help “bring down the regime very quickly”.

Defectors surrounded in Rastan

Assad’s troops and security personnel, backed by helicopters and tanks, have attacked the central town of Rastan where hundreds of insurgents had taken refuge.

Command of the mostly Sunni Muslim military is in the hands of officers from Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that also dominates the security apparatus and the ruling elite in the majority Sunni country.

The Rastan area is a recruiting ground for Sunni conscripts who provide most of the manpower in the military. Local activists said the rebel operations there were being led by Lieutenant Abdelrahman Sheikh of the Free Officers movement, which allied with the Syrian Free Army last week.

“The situation in Rastan is difficult. It is surrounded from all corners but the rebels have road bombs and the attacking forces have not yet managed to mount a full-scale assault on the town,” Asaad said.

“If they overtake Rastan it will become their graveyard. The rebels have resorted to guerrilla warfare,” he added.

Without mentioning Alawite or Sunnis by name, Asaad said morale had plummeted in the military because of sectarian bias brought to the surface during the uprising and that assaults on rural areas to put down pro-democracy protests were leading to ever wider cracks appearing among the rank and file.

“The whole structure of the state is sectarian. The soldiers are repressed and disquiet has been building up from the way army commanders are chosen,” he said.

Asked about the military command, Asaad said Bashar Assad was directly issuing detailed orders on how to crush the uprising, with his younger brother Maher, who commands the Fourth Division, playing a major role, especially in Damascus and its suburbs.

He said the attacking forces on Rastan were composed of Military Intelligence and Air Force Intelligence personnel, as well as selected troops from the 11th, 14th, 15th and 18th divisions.

Around 70 insurgents and civilians have been killed in the attack on Rastan since Tuesday, Asaad said, estimating casualties among the attacking forces in the hundreds.

The state news agency said seven soldiers and police were killed in the operation against “terrorists” in Rastan and another 32 were wounded, adding that the army had “inflicted big losses on the armed terrorist groups.”

Khamenei slams two-state solution at ‘Inti… JPost – Middle East.

    Iran’s supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came out against a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Saturday, speaking at Iran’s fifth International Conference on Palestinian Intifada.

Khamenei said that the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel amounts to a renouncement of the Palestinian rights, asserting that any solution to the conflict must be based on a principle of “the whole Palestine for all Palestinians,” PressTV reported.

He added a suggestion that Palestinians, both in the territories and in the Diaspora, take part in a referendum to decide on any resolution.

The conference, first held in 1991 after the First Intifada, “focuses on the restoration of Palestinians’ rights, including their rights to return to their homeland and determine their own fate, and on the liberation of Palestinian territories occupied by Israel,” according to the Iranian news outlet.

Representatives and participants from some 50 countries were reportedly taking part in the conference, held under the banner of: “Palestine, a land only for Palestinians.”

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani said that the Arab Spring had presented a ripe opportunity for the Palestinians, saying that “very serious measures” should be taken in order to not pass up those opportunities, IRNA reported.