17 | March | 2012 | WarSclerotic

Archive for March 17, 2012

Iran parliament speaker: Israel a barking dog

March 17, 2012

Iran parliament speaker: Israel a barking dog – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Ali Larijani compares Israel to barking dog that won’t dare attack Islamic Republic . ‘Israel won’t make the mistake of attacking Iran because it’s not prepared to play with its own destiny,’ he says

Associated Press

Iran‘s parliament speaker on Saturday compared Israel to a barking dog that won’t dare attack the Islamic republic over its controversial nuclear program.

“They make a lot of fuss about it but don’t dare to attack Iran,” Ali Larijani said of Israel. His comments were posted on the parliament’s website. “They are like dogs that keep barking but are not for attacks.”

Israelis opposed to strike

Recent polls in Israel have suggested that a majority of Israelis oppose an Israeli strike on Iran if carried out without US cooperation.

Iran has scattered its nuclear facilities across the vast country and moved key portions underground to protect them from possible attacks.

Tehran has already warned that it would respond to an attack against it by barraging Israel with missiles and taking control of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, a key passageway where a sixth of the world oil passes through.

A new version of Iran’s Shahab-3 missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) and is armed with a 1-ton conventional warhead. That would put Israel, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan and Pakistan within striking distance.

Iran has warned that oil prices will dramatically increase should it be attacked and believes that its threat of choking off the Hormuz strait will be one of the factors deterring Israel and the US from taking military action.

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A View From Israel: Dilemmas of a protracted conflict

March 17, 2012

A View From Israel: Dilemmas of a… JPost – Opinion – Columnists.

By ISRAEL KASNETT

03/16/2012 16:50

There is no need to wait for terrorist groups to build up their weapons supply and start firing long-range, accurate missiles on Israel.

By Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

The false sense of quiet citizens have gotten acclimated to in recent months has once again been shattered by rockets slamming into Israel’s towns and cities. Over one million citizens are at immediate risk of losing their lives every time terrorists launch a rocket. And given that over 300 rockets were fired in the last few days alone, the potential casualty count is horrifying.

Israel must obliterate Hamas’s capabilities to harm civilians, whether Israeli or Palestinian.

The same goes for the Popular Resistance Committee and Islamic Jihad, the two groups actually behind the rocket and mortar attacks in the last week.

Israel’s seemingly muted response has been met with varying degrees of condemnation.

Some government officials, including Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee head Shaul Mofaz (Kadima), have called for a more heavy-handed approach than Israel has so far employed.

Arab MKs Taleb e-Sanaa, Muhammad Barakei and Jamal Zahalka all slammed the government for “pouring oil on the fire.”

Amusingly, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has referred to IDF activity in Gaza as a “massacre” and even human rights champion Syria condemned Israeli “aggression.”

It is likely that an all-out war in Gaza at this point could result in a high casualty count on both sides, and it is doubtful that anyone could stomach such a scenario.

Also, the UN is looking for a distraction from the government massacre in Syria and it makes no sense to offer it such an opportunity.

AND YET, Israel is caught up in a tit-for-tat, low-level war with Hamas as it has been for years, and now Islamic Jihad and the PRC, and there comes a point when decisive action must be taken to eradicate persistent threats.

In the larger context of Israel’s threats, if our leaders truly believe that Iran is close to achieving nuclear capability and that they will employ Hamas to hammer Israel on its western flank, it would make sense that now is the time to weaken Hamas before it can serve Iran’s interests.

The question is whether targeted assassinations are the way to achieve this.

Admittedly, killing Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi did not reduce Hamas’s capabilities to strike Israel, and going after its top leaders today may not necessarily result in a decimated Hamas, either. But it may be worth the try.

So far, Israel has shown it can manage a conflict with an enemy that has the clear disadvantage of relative immobility, but terrorist groups employ collective punishment as a means to secure their goals. They terrorize the Palestinian population by firing from within civilian areas, assassinate those suspected of collaboration with Israel and cynically use the civilian population as a human shield.

Additionally, terrorists use collective punishment by firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli population centers, thereby placing over one million men, women and children at immediate risk.

The collective punishment argument against Israel often used by those “concerned” with human rights simply does not hold up in this case.

Further dilemmas facing Israel include the fact that terrorists blur the line between combatants and noncombatants and any Israeli targeted strike or ground operation will include some degree of collateral damage.

Israel can weaken terrorists through means other than targeted assassinations and a full-scale ground operation.

It can destroy smuggling tunnels that run between Egypt and Gaza, reduce the electricity supply and cut off funding.

IF ISRAEL’S leaders are forced to manage the conflict with the Palestinian Authority in lieu of resolving it in the immediate future, its implications are significantly different than the decision to manage the conflict with Hamas.

Twenty-first century warfare has taught us that groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PRC must be destroyed – not engaged in negotiation.

There is no need to wait for terrorist groups to build up their weapons supply and start firing long-range, accurate missiles on Israel. Israel needs to move from appearing complacent to demonstrating resolve.

Israel has long been a leader in the fight for terrorism, with foreign militaries looking to it for guidance and instruction.

But Hamas is incredibly resourceful. It has outmaneuvered the IDF on numerous occasions and it is now expanding its global influence.

Its former inability to reach much of Israel’s population with inaccurate but deadly Kassam rockets is gone.

Today, Hamas has in its possession Grad and Fajr rockets that have longer range and the capability to reach hundreds of thousands more citizens.

The placement of more Iron Dome anti-missile systems does not solve the dilemma of how to defeat an enemy that is bent on destroying Israel. Iron Dome must not be viewed as a fallback plan. Rather, it must be seen as the first step in the decisive war against all terrorist groups in Gaza.

While continuing precision targeted assassinations against terrorists, Israel should implement economic sanctions and reduce the electricity supply. It should target as many tunnels as possible and obliterate all weapons factories.

Israel may not deliver a mortal blow against terrorists on the first day, but a sustained operation of this kind could eventually reduce their capability to attack Israel.

With a turbulent Sinai in the south, a strengthened Hezbollah in the north and a shaky Syrian regime to the east, Israel cannot afford to allow Hamas and other terrorist groups time to further build up their deadly capabilities.

Israel must take decisive action and decimate Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PRC.

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Fatah accuses Iran of trying to block Palestinian unity

March 17, 2012

Fatah accuses Iran of trying to block Pale… JPost – Middle East.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

03/17/2012 18:37

Following Hamas visits to Iran, Fatah says the Islamic Republic is paying Hamas leaders in Gaza to block reconciliation efforts; attempts to implement unity agreement at an impasse.

Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh arrives in Tehran

By REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

Iran is funding some Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip to encourage them to thwart efforts to achieve reconciliation with Fatah, Azzam al-Ahmed, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said Saturday.

Ahmed’s charges came in response to the visit of two top Hamas leaders, Mahmoud Zahar and Ismail Haniyeh, to Iran in the past few weeks.

“Iran does not want the Palestinians to end their divisions,” Ahmed told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal. “Iran is responsible for foiling attempts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.”

Relations between Hamas and Iran were strained recently following the Islamist movement’s refusal to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ruthless crackdown on his opponents.

Relations between the two sides suffered another setback with the signing of the Qatari-brokered reconciliation pact between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.

In a bid to ease the tensions, Zahar and Haniyeh visited Tehran separately in the past few weeks, assuring the Iranian leaders that Hamas has not abandoned the armed struggle against Israel despite the deal with Fatah.

Ahmed admitted in the interview that efforts to implement the reconciliation pact have reached an impasse. He blamed Iran for the “inciting” Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip against rapprochement with Fatah.

“Iran has apparently played a role in inciting Hamas leaders against the reconciliation agreement,” he charged. “Iran is playing a negative role with regards to the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation.”

The Fatah official added that Iran has provided financial aid to Haniyeh in return for his opposition to the Qatari-brokered deal.

In response, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denounced the allegations as “trivial.” He accused the Fatah official of seeking to escalate tensions with Hamas and reiterated his movement’s readiness to implement the reconciliation accord instantly.

Abbas, meanwhile, told a visiting Jordanian parliamentary delegation last Friday that “small obstacles” were preventing the establishment of a Palestinian unity government, as envisaged by the reconciliation pact.

“I don’t want to go into details, but there are some small problems facing the formation of a unity government dominated by technocrats,” Abbas was quoted as saying. He nevertheless expressed hope that the two sides would be able to overcome the obstacles.

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At least 27 dead in Damascus bombings. Russians man Syrian air defenses

March 17, 2012

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 17, 2012, 2:58 PM (GMT+02:00)

Deadly Damascus explosion

Syrian State TV reported two car bombing attacks on Air Force Intelligence and Security Police Headquarters killing at least 27 people and wounding 97 Saturday morning, March 17, accusing “terrorist gangs.” In a third attack, a bomb was planted on a bus carrying members of the Palestinian Liberation Army in the Al Yarmouk suburb of the Syrian capital. The pro-Iranian PLA operates under Syrian military intelligence command.

debkafile reports: Western military experts tracking the various centers of violence in the Middle East in the last eight days see a line connecting the outbreak of missile fire from Gaza to southern Israel, which erupted on March 9, the blasts which hit Damascus on March 17.

They were also linked to several more incidents in the wide region of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, Iran, and Syria as the United States, NATO members and Israel intensified their naval movements in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Those sources highlight three military developments, all involving Iran, in just over a week:

1. Their initial premise is that the car bombings in Damascus Saturday were the work of foreign hands, possibly set up by Saudi Arabia or Qatar to revive the anti-Assad revolt, after the regime smashed the armed rebellion in its last stronghold in Idlib. The rebels scattered, many of them to Turkey, although the protest movement was not stamped out.
This defeat went down painfully in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the rebels’ foremost arms and fund suppliers, and they may have struck Assad’s strategic support centers Saturday to inject new life in the armed revolt.
The fact that a pro-Iranian Palestinian group in Damascus was also targeted by anti-Assad Arab powers was no more a coincidence than the targeting of the pro-Iranian Jihad Islami in Gaza by the Israeli Air Force last week.
2. The airlift carrying aid to Assad last month, the biggest Iran had ever organized, was critical in helping him win out over the revolt.

As OC US Central Command Gen. James Mattis explained March 3 to the Senate Armed Services Committee: They (Iranians) are working earnestly to keep Assad in power. They have flown in experts. They are flying in weapons. It is a full-throated effort by Iran to keep Assad there and oppressing his own people.”
debkafile’s military sources add: This effort was made possible by Baghdad’s permission to fly over Iraq directly to Syria. According to our Washington sources, US President Barack Obama tried interceding with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to block the Iranian transport flights to Syria only to be turned down.
The massive air transport of equipment on behalf of Bashar Assad served also as a practice maneuver for Iran to staged airlifts of hardware to Middle East arenas of interest in other potential conflicts, such as hostilities between Syria and Lebanon and Israel.
This week, therefore, the Iranians took active part in two Middle East conflicts in Syria and the Gaza Strip, where Israelis were partly consoled by the performance of their homemade Iron Dome interceptor in blowing up a large number of Iran-supplied Grad missiles before they landed on their cities.
Iran’s heavy involvement in a third area Yemen attracted less attention. Tehran is keeping up a supply of arms and cash to northern and southern Yemeni tribes fighting the government with a view to gaining a foothold in Yemen ports and access to the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Sraits, the meeting point between the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

3. Tuesday, March 13, Deputy Russian Defense Minister Alexei Antonov vigorously denied accusations that Russian Special Forces were stationed in Syria. He would only admit that “Syria has technical experts of the Russian military,” going on to explain: “For example, where we export tanks… we have to send technical experts to train our foreign counterparts to use the equipment.”

Intelligence sources confirm that the Russian official mentioned tanks, but not the 50 Pantsyr-S1 interceptor batteries, now the backbone of Syrian air and missile defenses, which Moscow sold Syria or that Russian military crews have since mid-January taken over their operation from Syrian personnel.

This is what Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, meant when he pointed out that “Syria’s air defenses were five times more sophisticated as those in Libya, making airstrikes riskier and more complicated.”
So if the US, any NATO power, Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Qatar, is inclined to embark on military operations to enforce security zones in Syria under a protective umbrella of no fly-zones on the Libyan model, Gen. Dempsey warned them they would be lethally challenged by a dense network of sophisticated Russian-made air defenses operated by Russian experts. This network also shielded the Iranian airlift to Syria from attack.

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EU faces deepening dilemma over Iran

March 17, 2012

EU faces deepening dilemma over Iran.

United Press International
BRUSSELS, March 16 (UPI) — EU diplomats face a deepening dilemma over Iran’s disputed nuclear program as they try to avert an Israeli strike on the country.

There is a fear such an action could drag the Europeans into the conflict.

Germany has said it will back Israel, a position that European Union on the whole isn’t too keen to adopt, analysts said. German news magazine Der Spiegel said German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s forthright pledge to come to Israel’s aid displeased German Foreign Ministry officials.

Earlier in March, Germany, France, Britain and the United States offered Iran a new opportunity to restart talks on its nuclear program. The offer was made under the umbrella of the P5+1 contact group of nations, which includes China and Russia.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton offered Iran renewed talks “within the coming weeks at a mutually convenient venue” to reach “a comprehensive negotiated long-term solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature” of Iran’s nuclear program.

Ashton wrote the letter in response to Iran’s initiative in September last year to resume talks.

Ashton’s diplomatic effort is being backed by German diplomats. Merkel’s senior aide Helga Schmid has been in telephone contact with Iran’s deputy nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. But Israel, along with the United States and other Western countries, suspect Tehran aims to build a nuclear weapon.

U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters a diplomatic response to Iran’s nuclear program “is deeply in everybody’s interests — the United States, Israel and the world’s — to see if this can be resolved in a peaceful fashion.”

Obama’s comments came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed impatience with waiting for results of diplomacy and sanctions on Iran.

“Israel must reserve the right to defend itself, and after all, that’s the very purpose of the Jewish state: to restore to the Jewish people control over our destiny,” said Netanyahu, who met Obama in Washington.

As prime minister of Israel, he said, “I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation.”

So far the EU has avoided taking sides but Merkel, to her own diplomats’ dismay, has often spoken out in support of Israel in the event of a conflict.

No other European country has so clearly placed itself at Israel’s side, Der Spiegel said. “For me, as the German chancellor, Israel’s security is never negotiable,” Merkel said in 2008 during a speech to the Knesset. “And consequently, in the hour of truth, these cannot remain empty words.”

As a result of past pronouncements Berlin is pinning its hopes on a successful outcome of the talks with Iran. In a conflict Germany may be called upon to do more for Israel than supplying weapons to counter an Iranian attack.

“Merkel has virtually given the Israelis carte blanche to do as they please,” the news magazine said, citing unnamed German diplomats. If a conflict erupts, it may be “ultimately impossible to remain neutral in such a conflict.”

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn indicated Europe saw no alternative to talks with Iran. “If they fail, an Israeli military strike is practically inevitable. We have to prevent that at all costs,” Asselborn said.

Meanwhile, like the Americans, Europeans are hoping the sanctions will put enough financial pressure on Iran to lead it to talk, analysts said.

This week Iran lost its SWIFT link for money transfers in a further tightening of the sanctions. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication said it will halt service for about two dozen Iranian banks that have been sanctioned by the European Union, including Iran’s central bank.

The SWIFT cutoff will likely affect Iran’s ability to make purchases worldwide, financial analysts said.

Iran will likely find other means of completing major transactions but the SWIFT ban will affect all Iranian businesses that depend on interbank electronic transfers.

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The gathering storm

March 17, 2012

The gathering storm, cont’d | Power Line.

Dr. Bob Shillman writes: “In his speech below, Netanyahu describes what he attemtped to do in Washington and he summarizes the Israeli government’s views about Iran. My conclusion drawn from his speech and from many other sources is that Israel will attack Iran in the next few months…with or without U.S. support.”

For relevant background to this speech, see my introductory remarks to the video of Netanyahu’s AIPAC speech last week. The text of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s March 14 speech in special session of the Knesset follows, as translated by the Prime Minister’s office:

Mr. Speaker, I have been sitting here for hours, listening and enjoying myself. It is just like the reception at AIPAC. MK Wilf was there, as well as MK Dalia Itzik and Minister Yossi Peled. I missed this place, the praise, the compliments, the manners, and above all, Israeli understatement. In short, I missed you.

I am not being sarcastic when I say this. I appreciate the purpose for this meeting, hearing specific problems which allows me, at the very least, to try to address various problems bothering us in a practical manner. However, before I begin, I would like to thank the residents in the South and the heads of local authorities there, the IDF commanders and soldiers and the Israel Security Agency.

It is said that the job of Prime Minister of Israel is one of the most complex ones in the world. I can tell you from experience: there is truth to this statement, but even during difficult hours, there are moments that give one small comfort and warm the heart. This was the case this week when I met with the Iron Dome soldiers, men and women who are protecting all our homes.

By the way, in the age of missiles this statement is very accurate. They are protecting our homes. There were soldiers there who were from the area, from Ashdod, but also from the Galilee. They are protecting all our homes. I felt the same way when I met with the residents of the South and their heads of the local authorities. They are an important component in our national resilience. Therefore, I am certain that I speak for all the members of Knesset when I say that I salute them all. They certainly deserve it.

I would like to clarify that there is no such thing as hermetic defense and there never will be. The combination of offensive readiness, defensive readiness and national resilience is a winning combination and we must nurture it.

I would like to say something to my colleagues, the Ministers and members of Knesset. During my recent visit to Washington, I set two goals: the first goal was to clarify that Israel has the right to defend itself by itself against any danger. The second goal was to raise the threat of Iran’s nuclear armament to the top of the international community’s list of priorities.

With regard to the first goal, the recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself – there are those for whom this right seems self-evident. However, we had a previous Prime Minister, important and wise – Menachem Begin – who said that sometimes it is important to restate that which is self-evident. So I decided to do that, forcefully. Israel has the right to defend itself and, if necessary, to realize that right. This position was positively received in the United States, I would even say in the most profound way.

This position has earned absolute support from the American people. It has earned resounding approval in the Congress. I heard it from the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Democratic leadership, the Republican leadership – from everyone. And it has also earned official recognition from the White House.

President Obama told me very explicitly during my visit, and I quote, “Israel must have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat”. He also added, “Israel has the sovereign right to make its own decisions with regard to its security.”

I appreciate the President’s statements, and I appreciate the deep and staunch alliance we have with the United States of America. As I said in Washington, in light of what is occurring in our region, in the Middle East and even beyond, this alliance between Israel and the US is prominent. However, there is something even more prominent and that is our right, our duty, to be the masters of our own fate.

Here Netanyahu gets to the meat of his speech:

Israel has never left its fate in the hands of others, not even in the hands of our best friends. This is the supreme duty I am charged with as Prime Minister of Israel. It is the supreme duty all Prime Ministers of Israel are charged with. It was this duty that David Ben-Gurion upheld when he declared the establishment of the country in 1948.

The American then-Secretary of State, the legendary George Marshall – and I say legendary because he was a World War Two hero – asked Ben-Gurion to wait. He said that there was time. However, Ben-Gurion did not wait, he decided to declare the establishment of the country. Prime Minister Levy Eshkol also upheld this duty during the waiting period in 1967, when the stranglehold around Israel grew tighter. On the eve of the Six Day War, he sent Abba E[ban] to the White House to ask the United States to fulfill the written commitment they gave Israel when it withdrew from the Sinai in 1956 and open the Straits of Tiran. President Johnson asked Abba Even to wait. He was told that it was not the time. More than that, they told him, “If you act alone – you will stay alone”. However, Eshkol upheld his duty and he acted.

Finally, in 1981, that same duty guided Menachem Begin as he faced the question of the Iraqi nuclear reactor. He was well aware of the international criticism that would come, including, by the way, from our friend, the United States and President Reagan. He knew there would be such criticism if we acted to destroy the Iraqi reactor. However, he did his duty and acted. Let me tell you, my friends, with time it became clear that our relations with the United States not only were not harmed, they grew even stronger.

We would prefer that Iran abandon its nuclear program peacefully. Everyone prefers this, and of course, so do I. However, the duty I am charged with is to defend Israel’s independent ability to defend itself against any challenge.

I presented the example I just gave you to my hosts in Washington, and I believe that the first goal I set, to strengthen the recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself – I think that goal was achieved.

The second goal of my visit, to raise Iran’s nuclear armament to the top of the international community’s list of priorities – I believe that goal was also achieved. I would like to clarify to you that this is not the result of one visit. I have been acting to this end, together with my colleagues here, methodically for over 15 years. I have always believed that an Iran armed with nuclear weapons would pose an existential threat to Israel and a serious threat to the well-being and security of the entire world. I warned against this threat even when it was not popular to do so, and even when it was unacceptable – when many leaders in Israel and around the world preferred to ignore Iran’s nuclear program and its repercussions.

Netanyahu then addresses in an Israeli context a fable on which United States policy has been based:

There were those who believed, and probably still believe, that an agreement with the Palestinians is the solution, that it would lead to a solution of the Iranian problem. As if an agreement with Mahmoud Abbas would stop the centrifuges. Let’s make a deal and the centrifuges will stop spinning. Whoever wants to believe this can do so, but he is simply burying his head in the sand.

There are many reasons to come to an agreement with the Palestinians: because we want peace; because we want calm; because I do not want a binational state. However, thinking that an agreement with Abbas will stop Iran and its satellite states – this is a dangerous illusion. I must admit that some people excel at illusions.

I had just returned from Washington, and I heard several members of Knesset and others say, “It is very good that you raised the issue of a nuclear Iran to the top of the international community’s list of priorities. But look – it is the Palestinian issue that is exploding in our faces”.

Understand, the dominant factor that motivates these events in Gaza is not the Palestinian issue. The dominant factor that motivates these events in Gaza is Iran.

Gaza equals Iran.

Where do the missiles come from? From Iran.

Where does the money come from? From Iran.

Who trains the terrorists? Iran.

Who builds the infrastructure? Iran.

I have said this many times: who gives the orders? Iran.

Gaza is a forward operating base for Iran.

I heard some people say that a third- or fourth-rate terrorist organization is acting against a million citizens in the State of Israel. That is not true. Iran is operating against us.

I hope that if not all, at least most members here and the public understand that the terrorist organizations in Gaza – Hamas and Jihad, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon – are taking shelter under an Iranian umbrella.

Which brings him back to the subject of a nuclearized mullahcracy:

Now imagine what will happen if that umbrella becomes nuclear. Imagine that behind these terrorist organizations stands a country that calls for our destruction and it is armed with nuclear weapons.

Are you ready for this? I am not ready for this! And any responsible leader understands that we cannot let this happen – because of nuclear terror and the nuclear threat, but also because of the strengthening of conventional terror and the firing of missiles at us.

A Prime Minister of Israel cannot entrust the ability to act against this threat to others.

Netanyahu turns his attention back to Gaza:

I know there are people who claim that I am terrifying people. I heard those same people say exactly the same thing when my colleagues and I warned them against the Disengagement, when we said that Gaza would become an enormous terrorist base – they said I was terrifying people then as well. I resigned from the government because I was not prepared to be a part of that Disengagement. When I said they would fire missiles from Gaza on Ashkelon, Beer-Sheva and Ashdod, they said we were sowing panic. They said a unilateral withdrawal would lead to a breakthrough in peace. Well, where is that breakthrough? What peace?

We dragged the entire country into the mud, and we are dealing with a situation that was created as a result of the Disengagement. We, unlike other people, are dealing responsibly and with discretion with this problem, and we will eventually resolve it, just as we are resolving the other problems we inherited. We will resolve them too.

They brought Iran into Gaza – we will remove Iran from Gaza. We did not bring Iran into Gaza – you brought Iran into Gaza!

Wherever we withdrew, Iran entered. We withdrew from Lebanon, Iran came in. We withdrew from Gaza, Iran came in. Some people suggest that we act in a similar manner in Judea and Samaria. Iran will come in there too. I cannot believe that there is anyone, despite your yelling, despite your objections and opposition, who does not understand that we cannot repeat this same mistake a third time.

I believe that perhaps all of you, with certain isolated exceptions, understand that we cannot repeat this mistake. If we come to an agreement with the Palestinians, we must ensure that our security foundations are sound and that Iran cannot enter the territory. We also know that when we warned that this would happen in Gaza and that a unilateral withdrawal would lead to this exact result, some people ignored those warnings, and today we know the results. We also know that we cannot agree to this for long.

Our enemies must know that, at the end of the day, Israel will not accept an Iranian base in Gaza. Sooner or later, Iran’s terror base in Gaza will be uprooted.

This is a Churchillian speech that is also a portent of what is to come.

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Israelis Laugh Off Iranian Nuclear Threats

March 17, 2012

Israelis Laugh Off Iranian Nuclear Threats | Fox News.

JERUSALEM – The threat of Iranian nuclear weapons and a possible Israeli military strike are not the usual ingredients of comedy.

But Israelis are responding to the heated rhetoric and dire warnings with comic skits and Daffy Duck — gallows humor in the face of what their leaders say is a real danger.

Israel has been warning that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, despite Iranian denials. Israel believes this threatens the existence of the Jewish state, given Iran’s parallel missile development and frequent references by its leaders to the destruction of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hints at Israeli military action against Iran to stop its nuclear program if international sanctions fail. That, in turn, would likely set off Iranian retaliation and devastating barrages of thousands of rockets and missiles from hostile Iran proxies — Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It’s no laughing matter, but that hasn’t stopped Israel’s premier satirical TV show from taking it on.

Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Country) recently showed a skit with two women at a restaurant.

“You’ve started working out again?” says one, biting into a juicy hamburger. “Of course, winter’s almost over and I don’t want to get to the beach double my size,” her friend responds. The first woman asks: “What beach? That thing with Iran is happening this summer.” Realizing the futility of a diet when the end is so near, the friend devours the burger.

Other TV comedy shows are also awash with Iran jokes. Comedians on a recent episode of “State of the Nation” declared that Israel won’t mount an airstrike because fuel prices for the fighter planes are too high.

A Facebook group is calling for Netanyahu not to start a war until after Madonna performs in Israel in May.

In a recurring Eretz Nehederet skit, viewers are given an inside look into an Iranian nuclear reactor. When two scientists are asked where their third colleague is, the response is delivered deadpan: “He was blown up,” a reference to the suspicious deaths of a number of Iranian nuclear scientists, which Iran has blamed on Israel.

A nuclear reactor even featured in a recent commercial for a cable TV company. In the ad, cross-dressing Israeli actors meet a bored Mossad agent in Iran who accidentally blows up a nuclear reactor.

“It’s a very cathartic response to the existential fear we are experiencing in light of what the politicians are saying,” said Orr Knispel, editor of the Israeli pop culture magazine Pnai Plus.

Knispel said Israelis responded similarly during the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, when Iraqi Scud missiles rained down on Israeli cities, causing panic yet inspiring comedy.

Netanyahu’s grim rhetoric has come back to taunt him. A speech he gave to a pro-Israel lobby in Washington this month spawned a viral video spoof.

Countering Iran’s claim that it intends to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, Netanyahu said, “If it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, then what is it? That’s right, it’s a duck, but this duck is a nuclear duck.”

In a video, his words, repeated over and over, are intercut with snippets of a sputtering Daffy Duck, all set to catchy music.

But there is evidence that all the jokes are covering up some real fears.

“The Last Day,” a five-minute clip that scored hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, is a lifelike doomsday film depicting the day after an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

In a retaliatory attack, missiles slam down near a highway just outside Jerusalem. Panicked drivers attempt to flee the surrounding chaos, only to be halted by a giant mushroom cloud in the distance.

The film’s creator, Ronen Barany, said the cultural responses to the Iran crisis are increasing because the Israeli public feels that the Iranian threat is more concrete than ever.

“We are really afraid and prefer not to think about it, but we know these things can happen,” he said.

“We laugh about it, but we know that it should be taken seriously.”

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Israel-hatred by any other name

March 17, 2012

Israel-hatred by any other name.

Israelis run from a Palestinian rocket attack.

David Frum, National Post · Mar. 17, 2012 | Last Updated: Mar. 17, 2012 12:00 AM ET

Over the past 100 years, the world has seen the creation of some 100 new states – perhaps more states in a shorter period than ever before in the history of the world. Most of those new states have not proved very successful. But there is one among the states that has succeeded magnificently: the state of Israel. So guess which is the one state that people worldwide seek to overthrow? Terrorist-sponsoring Pakistan? Oil-corrupted Nigeria? Oppressive Uzbekistan?

Nope, nope, and nope again.

OK, OK, you say, tell us something we don’t know.

Fine. Over the past few years, there’s been an interesting shift among opponents of the state of Israel. They’ve begun to call themselves “post-Zionist” – a bland, bloodless phrase. The idea embedded in the phrase is that Israel can somehow be transitioned away from its current status as a Jewish homeland via some technical process not involving massacres and exile – that Israel can be abolished without harm to the Israelis.

It’s not a very realistic project, to put it mildly. But it’s an attractive slogan to those who dislike Israel and don’t want to face the implications of that dislike.

Last weekend, militant groups inside Gaza launched a rocket barrage against southern Israel. Up to a million Israelis have had to take refuge in bomb shelters. 200,000 children missed school. This is what anti-Zionism looks like.

Over that same week, as so often in the past, Canadian university campuses have been disgraced by renewed vilification of Israel under the slogan of “Israel Apartheid Week.” The good news for Canada is that these acts of vilification have been met with resounding criticism from political leaders. Federal Citizenship and Immigration minister Jason Kenney said forcefully: “The organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week use the cover of academic freedom to demonize and delegitimize the state of Israel. In reality, this week is nothing more than an unbalanced attempt to paint Israel and her supporters as racist; this week runs contrary to Canadian values of tolerance, mutual respect and understanding.”

Liberal leader Bob Rae agreed: “It is – difficult to understand why this year the focus continues to be on Israel, rather than on the appalling massacres and human-rights violations that have reached intolerable heights in countries such as Syria and Iran.”

The short answer to Rae’s haunting question is that anti-Israelism has never been about human rights. Anti-Israelism has always been about the destruction of one nation and one people.

For many Israelis and many Jews, the continuing intensity of that ancient hatred understandably feels a crushing, intolerable and ultimately baffling burden.

It’s a tragic fact of human psychology that some people targeted by hatred will seek to find in themselves some reason that they are hated. By blaming themselves, they can impose some sense on a universe that otherwise seems terrifyingly senseless. By blaming themselves, they can perhaps hope to find some escape from hatred – short, that is, of the murder or suicide which is what the haters say they want for them.

“If we abolish this part of ourselves – or that – will you then stop despising us? Will you then grant us permission to continue to exist in some subordinated form or other?”

It’s a pattern of thought we see in abused children, in battered women, in bullied gays – and in post-Zionist Jews.

Sometimes it even works a little and for a time, but always at a terrible price.

The point of Zionism was to put an end to the centuries-old pattern that taught Jews to survive by abnegating themselves. And in that, Zionism succeeded. It succeeded for Jews inside Israel – and as Israel flourished, Zionism succeeded for Jews outside Israel, too. If Jews in Canada and Europe and the United States dare today to speak up for themselves in ways that would have shocked their great-grandparents, it is in great part the success of Israel that inspires them.

And those Jews who imagine that they can advance or even retain that self-respect by denigrating Israel – or, worse, by appeasing those who seek to destroy Israel – are making a terrible error. There is no “post-Zionism.” There is only “anti-Zionism” – the modern form of an ancient malignity.

That’s the issue for the Jews in the Israeli bomb shelters. It’s the same issue for the Jews taunted on Canadian university campuses by those who push pamphlets calling for the destruction of this one, and only one, of the nations of the world.

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Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge

March 17, 2012

Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge | Danger Room | Wired.com.

The Navy practices a mock boarding operation on the U.S.S. Princeton in the Middle East, 2010. Photo: U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet

Sending more aircraft carriers to the waters near Iran, it turns out, was just the start. Yes, the U.S. currently has more seapower aimed at Iran in the Persian Gulf than in the fleets of most countries on Earth, Iran included. But that was just the Navy cracking its knuckles.

In the next few months, the Navy will double its minesweeper craft stationed in Bahrain, near Iran, from four to eight. Those ships will be crucial if Iran takes the drastic step of mining the Strait of Hormuz, one of the global energy supply’s most crucial waterways. Four more MH-53 “Sea Stallion” helicopters, another minesweeping tool, are also getting ready for Bahrain, to give the U.S. Fifth Fleet early warning for any strait mining.

Then the Navy will prepare to get closer to Iranian shores. Much closer. It’s got five close-action patrol boats in the Gulf right now. Once the Coast Guard returns three that the Navy loaned out, the Navy will have five other patrol craft in the United States. All those boats are getting retrofitted. With Gatling guns. And missiles.

Sure, the guns aboard the two aircraft carriers currently near Iran are the seapower equivalent of high-powered, long-range rifles. “But maybe what you need is like a sawed-off shotgun,” capable of doing massive damage from a closer distance, said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy’s senior officer. All 10 of those patrol boats, Greenert told reporters at a Friday breakfast in Washington, will get strapped with the Mk-38 Gatling Gun and should make it to the Gulf next year. (Though, alas, they won’t have the Gatling/laser gun mashup BAE Systems is working on.) They’ll also get close-range missiles that can hit Iranian shores from four miles away — the same kinds Navy SEALs use.

Consider it Teddy Roosevelt’s gunboat diplomacy for the 21st century. Over plates of greasy eggs and bacon, Greenert outlined a plan to give the U.S. what is almost certainly the biggest stick the Navy has ever had in the Gulf. The idea, which he didn’t make explicit, is to convince Iran to think long and hard before ever messing with either the U.S.’s Arab allies across the Gulf or disrupting a narrow transit point through which a fifth of the world’s energy supplies flow.

Add up the aircraft carriers, the Gatling-packing patrol craft, the Orions, the Sea Stallions and the minesweepers, and Greenert still isn’t finished with the surge. Then come the new, advanced torpedoes that can compensate for the “turpidity [and] particulate” drags of the Gulf waters. And the drone subs — or, as Greenert put it, “some underwater unmanned neutralization autonomous units” to help hunt mines. And every Navy ship that sails through the strait will come equipped with new, modular “infrared and electro-optical” visibility systems that clarify the foggy Gulf even at night. Extra spare parts and contractor crews will sustain the surge.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Greenert disclosed that he and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will soon ask themselves if the Navy needs to rotate more aircraft carriers to the Gulf. That decision, so important that it’s Panetta’s to make, will come “in the next few months.”

“I looked in every domain, undersea, surface and air,” Greenert said, “to make sure that we’re doing our best for the guys that are over there.”

Even with the prospect of an Israeli bombing campaign lingering overhead, the Navy has already proven it can get Iran to back off its bellicose rhetoric. Tehran hasn’t attacked the U.S. carriers, and it hasn’t mined the strait. Yet.

Greenert suggested that Iran’s naval forces are too sensible to actually challenge the vastly superior American force nearby. The regular Iranian navy is “professional, courteous [and] good mariners,” he said. Even the radical Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps isn’t “ramping up” in the Gulf and keeping its activities “normal.”

Perhaps true. And once the Navy’s surge forces all get into the Persian Gulf, the Iranian sea forces might not have any choice, if they want to continue existing. But if Iran’s pattern of miscalculation continues, then the larger Navy force nearby might be a provocation — and will have to end a fight quickly if it breaks out.

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India links Delhi terror attack on Israeli embassy to botched Thai bombing

March 17, 2012

India links Delhi terror attack on Israeli embassy to botched Thai bombing – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Delhi police say Iranian suspect in India attack had been in contact with Iranian man who was arrested in Malaysia and accused of involvement in Bangkok blast.

By The Associated Press

Indian police said Friday that a bomb attack that wounded an Israeli diplomat’s wife in New Delhi last month is connected to a suspected plot to attack Israeli targets in Bangkok that was blamed on a group of Iranian men.

Israel has accused Iran of orchestrating those plots as well as a failed bombing in the former Soviet republic of Georgia that also targeted an Israeli diplomat. Iran has denied any involvement.

	The scene of Monday’s attack against an employee of the Israel Embassy in New Delhi. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a motorcyclist attaching a device to the car.
	Photo by: AP

Indian authorities had declined to implicate Iran in the Feb. 13 blast here that wounded the diplomat’s wife and three others with a bomb attached to her car by a magnet. However, the investigation is increasingly centering on Iranians and those with ties to Iran.

Last week, police arrested an Indian freelance journalist who reportedly worked for Iranian news organizations to investigate possible links to the bombing. Earlier this week, they issued arrest warrants for three Iranian men who had left the country.

	An injured man lies on the ground after a bomb he was carrying exploded, in Bangkok February 14, 2012.
	Photo by: Reuters

Delhi Police Commissioner B.K. Gupta told reporters Friday that one of those three men, Housan Afshar, had been in contact with Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, who was arrested in Malaysia and accused of involvement in the Bangkok blast.

India was asking Interpol for assistance in finding and extraditing the men, according to foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin.

“We have informed the Iranian ambassador of these developments so as to seek the cooperation of the Iranian authorities in bringing those involved in this dastardly attack to justice,” he said in a statement.

Police accused Sedaghatzadeh of being the operational head of the module that was planning the Bangkok attacks and said his arrest in Malaysia led them to Afshar. Gupta said police found that Afshar and the Indian journalist, Syed Mohammed Kazmi, had been in telephone contact.

Police said the Iranians had performed reconnaissance at the Israeli Embassy last May before returning to Delhi in January and February to plan the attack.

Two of the three accused left India before the attack and the third left shortly after, police said.

Gupta said Kazmi was deeply involved in the reconnaissance.

“He has been arrested as a facilitator and for being a part of the conspiracy. His questioning brought to light that he has been in contact with persons of Iranian origin involved in the attack for some time,” Gupta told reporters.

He said Kazmi told police he went to Iran twice last year, promised to provide assistance to the attackers in India and was paid $5,500. In addition to helping with surveillance of the embassy, Kazmi booked a plane ticket for one of the Iranian suspects to leave the country, Gupta said.

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