WarSclerotic

‘PRC behind Eilat missile attacks’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Defense establishment source says it is highly likely that Popular Resistance Committees was behind missile fire at southern city of Eilat two weeks ago

Yoav Zitun

A defense establishment source said Thursday that it is highly likely that the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) was behind the missile fireat the southern city of Eilat two weeks ago.

Israeli officials believe that the terror cell that carried out the attack infiltrated the Sinai Peninsula from Gaza and fired the missiles as an act of revenge over the assassination of the secretary general of the PRC Zuhair Qaisiat the beginning of last month.

The missile fire on Eilat did not result in any injuries or damage, yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear after the attack that those responsible would pay the price.

“We are building a fence. It can’t stop missiles but we will find a solution for that. We will strike those who aim to harm us,” he said.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak also commented on the attack and noted that “The situation in Sinai requires a different kind of deployment,” adding “this was a serious incident. We’re studying it and we will go after those who fired on Eilat and targeted Israeli citizens.”

Al Qaisi’s assassination prompted a round of violence, during which dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza. A calm ensued following a ceasefire agreement.

Barak: Iran bought 5 weeks for n… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

By YONI DAYAN

04/19/2012 22:48

Prior to meeting with top US military officials, Barak says Tehran is focused on reaching nuclear capability; says “all options on the table” against Iran; calls for world to take steps to overthrow Assad in Syria.

Photo: REUTERS

Iran bought five weeks for its nuclear program through talks with the international community under the auspices of the UN International Atomic Energy Association, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview with CNN’s Kristiana Amanpour on Thursday.

Barak spoke prior to a meeting with US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey in Washington. During that meeting, which lasted over an hour, the officials discussed a wide range of issues, including Iran, Syria, US aid to Israel, maintaining Israel’s qualitative edge in the region, and the Iron Dome missile-defense system.

“I am realistic enough to not be so optimistic about talks with Iran,” he said. “The Iranians have a history of deceiving the world, something through steps like this. So we are a little bit skeptical.”

Barak mentioned a Muslim notion called Takia, which he said grants Muslims the right to lie in order to deceive non-Muslims, for the sake of the religion.

“It is clear that the Iranians are focused on reaching nuclear capability, and they are ready to defy and deceive the whole world,” he said.

Asked if he believed the sanctions promoted by the international community will be enough to avert a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Barak stated that “the sanctions are quite effective, but are far away from working.” He added that Ayatollah Khomenei had probably not yet given the order to start actually building a nuclear bomb, but said that this was only because they feared this would lead to a military strike.

Barak said that if Iran were to stop enriching uranium past 20%, move their 20% enriched uranium to a friendly country, and decommission their installation in Qom, and agree to IAEA conditions, Israel would be satisfied. “This should be the threshold (for negotiations),” he said. “If this threshold is not set at the opening of negotiations, they will never be met.”

Barak threatened that “all options are on the table” when asked whether or not there was a possibility that Israel could strike Iranian facilities before the start of the next round of talks, set to take place in Baghdad.

“It will be extremely more complicated, it will be extremely more dangerous… to deal with Iran once it goes nuclear,” he said. “It happened already with North Korea, it happened with Pakistan.”

Asked if Israel would inform the US if it decides to attack Iran, Barak said “we have very open, frank conversations with the US about these kinds of things… We do whatever is reasonable.”

“I don’t want to implicate the United States, I don’t want to drag the United States into anything,” he added, saying that there is no difference in Israeli and US intelligence assessments of Iran.

Turning to Syria, Barak had some harsh words for President Bashar Assad. “What is happening there is a tragedy, it’s a crime. They are slaughtering their people there by the day,” he said, adding that the international community should take action, including sanctions, to stop this. “Anything from providing them with weapons to creating safe areas along the borders” for citizens, Barak said.

Barak singled out the Russians and the Chinese for the failure of the United Nations Security Council to take effective action against Assad.”Assad’s fall would be a major blow to Iran… it would weaken dramatically both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. It would be very positive,” Barak said.

Gantz: IDF’s ‘Steely Arm’ will Hit Back at Enemies – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Lt. Gen. Gantz

IDF Spokesman’s Unit

Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, IDF Chief of Staff, warned Israel’s enemies Wednesday that any attempt to harm Israel will be met with a painful response.

“The IDF draws from the memory of Holocaust Remembrance Day military strength and moral resilience that directs it in every crossroad and leads it to victory time after time,” Gantz said, in a ceremony at the Masua Institute at Tel Yitzchak.

“This strength of both body and soul is with us at all times and especially now – when the winds of revolution undermine the stability of the Middle East and create an extremely complicated, multi-front challenge,” he said, “while in the background we witness attempts to harm the State of Israel, its residents and Jewish people around the world.”

“As the children, the grandchildren and the great grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, we now stand in IDF uniform, as the steadfast protectors of the State of Israel – a nation that was and still is the essence of their hope and their dream.”

“On this day of self examination we once again renew our oath to those who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust, and the promise that the Jewish people will never again stand defenseless.”

“We will ensure that here, in the flourishing living project in our forefathers’ land, the Jewish people will continue to grow, develop and be an example for the nations of the world.”

Gantz added: “I say tonight to those who wish us ill, in the loud and clear voice of tens of thousands of IDF soldiers who are standing guard: we are the steely arm that will hit back hard at any attempt to harm the Jewish people. We are the defensive shield of the nation that will never again stand helpless and defenseless. Never again!”

Netanyahu: Israel obligated to pr… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

It is the world’s duty to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear arms, but first and foremost it is Israel’s obligation, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday at the state’s Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem.

In a speech that dealt heavily with Iran, Netanyahu said the obligation Israel must take from the Holocaust is not only to remember the past, “but to learn the lessons and more importantly to implement those lessons to ensure the future of our people.”

He noted that this was especially true in this generation, when there are those calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, and when Iran is working toward obtaining the means of achieving that goal.

“The truth is that an Iran armed with nuclear weapons is an existential threat to Israel’s existence,” Netanyahu said. “The truth is that a nuclear Iran is an immediate threat to other nations in the region, and a grave threat to the peace of the world. And the truth is that it is necessary to prevent Iran from getting nuclear arms. That is the obligation of the world, but first and foremost it is our obligation.”

Netanyahu’s comments came at the ceremony whose theme this year – under the banner of “My Brother’s Keeper” – was Jewish solidarity during the Holocaust.

Hundreds of survivors attended, and six survivors who assisted other Jews during the Holocaust were honored during a torch lighting ceremony.

“In one week we will raise the flags of Israel’s independence which rose for the first time 64 years ago,” President Shimon Peres told the crowd.

“Today, it is clear that the reality we have built is the vision we once dreamed.”

“We used to be a question mark; today we are a strong country,” he said. “Humanity has no choice but to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust and stand strong in the face of existential threats, before it is too late.”

Peres told the audience that during Passover he traveled all over the country.

“Blue skies, blooming fields, lovely children, hardworking people,” he said. “I wondered about the communities they originated from which are no longer. For a moment, I replaced Tel Aviv with Vilna, Haifa with Bialystok, Deganya, Nahalal, Beersheba with Plonsk, Riga, Odessa. Not a single Jew remains there.”

Tragic events earlier in the day cast a shadow over the proceedings, when a 20-year-old soldier from Mevaseret Zion, Hila Bezaleli, was killed during rehearsals at nearby Mount Herzl for the Independence Day ceremony next week.

Netanyahu also paid tribute to her at the start of his comments, as well as to 19-year-old soldier Yehoshua Hefetz, of Jerusalem, who collapsed and died during a tryout for an elite unit.

The prime minister, who came under a great deal of domestic criticism last month after delivering a speech at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington drawing parallels between the Iranian threat and the Holocaust, pushed back hard against those critics who said this argument both trivialized the Holocaust and sowed panic in the country.

“I know there are those who don’t like when I say these types of unpleasant truths,” Netanyahu said. “They prefer not to talk about a nuclear Iran as an existential threat, and claim that this statement, even if it is correct, only sows fear and panic.”

Netanyahu said Israel dealt with existential threats – in 1948 and 1967 – when the country was infinitely less strong than it is today, and that during those periods the country’s leaders, first David Ben-Gurion and then Levi Eshkol, told the nation the truth about the dangers it faced.

The nation did not panic, but rather united to defend itself, Netanyahu said.

“I believe in the Jewish people’s ability to deal with the truth, and I believe in our ability to defend ourselves against those who want to kill us.”

Netanyahu charged that those who dismiss the Iranian threat as being exaggerated or not serious have not learned anything from the Holocaust.

He said there were always those among the Jewish people who preferred to scorn unpleasant truths rather than face them head on. This, he added, was the way certain Jewish intellectuals dealt with revisionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, ridiculing his warnings to Polish Jews in 1938 of the oncoming disaster.

To those who argue that the singular evil of the Holocaust should not be raised when talking about the present dangers and that doing so in some way cheapens the Holocaust and insults the victims, Netanyahu replied, “I completely reject that approach.”

On the contrary, to be deterred from speaking the truth and saying that today, like then, there are those who want to destroy millions of Jews, “that is cheapening the Holocaust, that is an insult to the memory of the victims, that is ignoring its lessons.”

While the Jewish people had neither a voice to stir the world to action, or an army to defend itself during the Holocaust, today the reality is different, Netanyahu said.

“Today we have a state, today we have an army,” he said. “We have the ability, obligation and determination to defend ourselves.”

Netanyahu pledged that as prime minister he would not hesitate to tell uncomfortable truths to the world, nor to his own people, which “is strong enough” to hear it.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Special Report April 18, 2012, 9:23 PM (GMT+02:00)

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: A nuclear weapon is a sin…

In the direct, secret exchanges between the US and Iran which led up to the Istanbul talks with the six powers, of Saturday, April 14, President Barack Obama quietly backed off from his demand that Iran “come clean” on its nuclear activities and open up to international inspection, debkafile reports.
This concession paved the way for Tehran’s consent to discuss his framework proposal to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent, halt work at its underground facility for higher enrichment near Qom, and export its stockpile of highly enriched uranium for final processing to 20 percent for use in medical isotopes. This would be presented as a deal for settling the nuclear controversy.
debkafile’s military sources: The Iranians may find it worth their while to accept this framework. After all, once sanctions are lifted by the end of June – as Tehran demands – and they are freed of IAEA oversight, the Iranians can go forward with their plans for building a nuclear weapon undisturbed and Washington can celebrate a breakthrough.

Israel has not received word of this deal.

debkafile’s Washington sources report that in contrast with the downbeat mood in Israel, Washington is already celebrating its success in resolving the Iranian nuclear conundrum and averting war.
Our sources have two points to make in this regard:

1. Tehran has not yet put pen to paper to approve the American proposal and agreed only to move forward in their back-door negotiations without prejudice:

2. Obama will eventually have to level with Israel, the American people and the rest of the world on his deal with Iran.
There is no chance of Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu going along with agreements on the lines under discussion between Washington and Iran, because they would allow Iran to develop nuclear armaments relieved of the hindrances of international oversight and sanctions.
The Israeli prime minister, when he addressed the state ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day Wednesday night, spoke at length of the mortal danger a nuclear Iran for the Jewish state. He said those who maintained Israel lacked the military capacity for dealing with the Iranian menace were wrong.
“We can and will defend ourselves,” he said.“I won’t stop stating the truth (about Iran) at the UN, in Washington and in Jerusalem.”

debkafile reported earlier Wednesday, April 18:  Officials in Jerusalem angrily dismissed reports of a breakthrough in last Saturday’s nuclear negotiations in Istanbul between six world powers (P5+1) and Iran and most emphatically the claim that “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played his expected role in this choreography” by criticizing the negotiators for giving Iran a five-week freebie for continuing enrichment without limitation, as cited in a Washington Post article on Wednesday, April 18, by the columnist David Ignatius.
Iran is presented as ready to agree to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent and halt work at its underground facility for higher enrichment near Qom, and export its stockpile of highly enriched uranium for final processing to 20 percent for use in medical isotopes. Israeli sources say this report is false: Far from this being the shape of an eventual settlement, it was the shape of American demands relayed to Tehran in side-channels going via Paris and Vienna. Israel was never informed of Iran accepting this formula or its presentation to the Istanbul meeting.

Above all, they stressed, Netanyahu has not and will not play a role in any choreography of this kind staged by the Obama administration.
The Americans appear to have been taken in by the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s public pledge in February not to commit the “grave sin” of building a nuclear weapon as representing the Islamic regime’s face-saver for caving in to US pressure. The WP article is indeed captioned” “The stage is set for a deal with Iran.” Nothing, say debkafile‘s military and intelligence sources, is farther from the truth. According to our Iranian sources, there is no sign of the Iranians caving in.
The article itself appears to represent Washington’s comeback for a radio interview aired a few hours earlier, Tuesday, April 17, by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya’alon, in which he sharply criticized the Obama administration for its handling of the nuclear dispute with Iran: “We (Israel) no longer believe in the Americans, and on the Iran issue, we are not in the same boat.”

“Three years ago, Iran had 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium; today it has five and a half tons,” he pointed out.

Ya’alon also warned that after the way the proceedings went in Istanbul, right after the second round of talks on May 23 in Baghdad, “Israel will review its steps,”
Citing the classical Hebrew adage: If I do not watch out for myself, who will? (אם אין אני לי מי לי?) , he noted: “Obama too has said Israel has the right to self-defense.”

The deputy prime minister was the first Israeli national figure to suggest that, after May 23, the Netanyahu government would approach a decision on the date for a countdown to an attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

Yaalon certainly said enough to cause some agitation in Washington, judging by the flood of phone calls debkafile’s sources report coming in from Washington with requests for clarifications.
Earlier that Tuesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in another radio interview that the“P5+1” group’s talks with Iran must result in a clear-cut resolution, the end of Iran’s nuclear program. He did not believe they would, although he hoped to be proved wrong.
The two Israeli ministers would not have delivered their downbeat comments if indeed US talks with Iran over and under the negotiating table had achieved, or even approached, the breakthrough depicted in Washington.