WarSclerotic

FM: If PA wants war – they’ll get war – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( Really?  Last month they got a cease fire…  Shut the f-ck up and DO SOMETHING ! – JW )

Avigdor Lidberman warns that any future rocket fire from Gaza will mandate ‘full invasion of Strip’

Yuval Karni

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman commented Tuesday on the Palestinian threat to seek ICC action over Israel‘s plans to build 3,000 new housing units in the West Bank, saying that Israel “Has to be clear: If the Palestinians want peace – they’ll get peace. If they want war – they’ll get war.”

Speaking at a Hanukkah event held by Yisrael Beiteinu in Tel Aviv, Lieberman also stated that any future rocket fire from the Strip would mandate not just an IDF incursion of the enclave, but a full-blown invasion.

“Any rocket attack mandates a wide-scale ground invasion of Gaza… Such an operation shouldn’t be restricted by any means, it should see (the IDF) take full control of Gaza. We have no other choice – the world needs to know that.”

He further blasted the Left, and especially Labor Chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich, Meretz Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On and Hatnua Chairwoman Tzipi Livni for siding with the Palestinian Authority.

“I’m bothered by the fact that some Israeli politicians keep saying that ‘Abu Mazen is a peace partner.’ They repeat that like parakeets.

“I listened hard and I tried to hear Gal-On, Yachimovich and Livni denounce the attacks against Israel, but all I heard were attacks on Israel,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman further said that only the joint Likud-Beiteinu ticket can lead Israel: “Can Galon handle security problems? Can those two blabbermouths, Yachimovich and Herzog, deal with the threats Israel faces? Maybe Livni and Mitzna? We’ve already seen what they can do.

“Only Netanyahu and Lieberman can handle the problems Israel face,” he declared.

The foreign minister also leveled criticism at the IDF soldiers who fled a stone-throwing mob in the West Bank last week, saying that “Soldiers choose to flee instead of shooting because they fear being investigated by the Military Police.”

Iran insists on nuclear ‘right’ … JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

Photo: GeoEye-ISIS

IMF $4.8 billion loan to Egypt postponed, PM calls for ‘social dialogue’.

( IMF could teach Obama a thing or two. – JW )

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Egypt’s Prime Minister Hesham Qandil defended President Mohammed Mursi’s recent decision not to increase taxes and called for a “social dialogue” on the tax measures next week. (Al Arabiya)

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Panetta says Assad ‘got the message’ on US opposition to chemical weapons use | The Times of Israel.

US defense secretary suggests threat is no longer escalating

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (photo credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — The Syrian government seems to have slowed preparations for the possible use of chemical weapons against rebel targets, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday.

Last week, US officials said there was evidence that Syrian forces had begun preparing sarin, a nerve agent, for possible use in bombs.

Speaking to reporters flying with him from Washington to Kuwait, Panetta suggested the threat was no longer escalating, although he was not specific about any Syrian military preparations.

“At this point the intelligence has really kind of leveled off,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way.”

Panetta was in Kuwait to visit US troops at the start of a four-day trip. The US has about 13,500 troops in this country; they are a remnant of the 1991 Gulf War in which a US-led coalition force evicted Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

Asked whether he believed Syrian President Bashar Assad was heeding Western warnings against using chemical weapons, Panetta said: “I like to believe he’s got the message. We’ve made it pretty clear. Others have as well.”

He noted that the Assad regime is coming under increasing pressure from rebel forces.

“Our concern is that if they feel like the regime is threatened with collapse, they might resort to these kinds of weapons,” he said.

Syria is believed to have a formidable arsenal of chemical weapons, including sarin and mustard gas, although its exact dimensions are not known. Syria is not a signatory to the 1997 Convention on Chemical Weapons and thus is not obliged to permit international inspection.

In the interview with reporters on his flight from Washington, Panetta also said he expects Obama administration decisions in the next few weeks on what military missions and forces the US will seek to keep in Afghanistan after its combat mission ends Dec. 31, 2014.

The US now has about 66,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of an international coalition that has been fighting the Taliban for more than 11 years.

Panetta said he would consult further with Marine Gen. John Allen, the top coalition commander in Kabul, before making further recommendations to President Barack Obama on a post-2014 military presence.

Panetta also said he is encouraged by what he called a downward trend in the number of attacks on U.S. and coalition forces by their Afghan partners. These so-called insider attacks accelerated for much of 2012, threatening to disrupt the US-Afghan military partnership.

Panetta said the number of such attacks fell from 12 in August to two in November.

“Steps that were put in place to try to deal with that threat I believe have been effective,” he said. He did not mention specific steps, but they include more rigorous vetting of Afghan army and police recruits and a requirement that US troops carry loaded weapons at all times, even when on coalition or Afghan bases.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Anti-Mursi protesters breach presidential palace barricades.

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

On Tuesday, police cars surrounded the Square, the first time they had appeared in the area since Nov. 23, shortly after a decree by the Islamist president giving himself sweeping temporary powers touched off widespread protests. (Reuters)

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Obama to start sending US F-16 fighter jets to Egypt – on Israel’s election-day.

DEBKAfile Special Report December 11, 2012, 3:26 PM (GMT+02:00)

Egyptian Air Force F-16 figher jets over Cairo

The Obama administration took a careful look at the political calendar before announcing that the first four F-16 fighter planes – of the 20 approved in a $1 billion US foreign aid package to Egypt – would be delivered Jan. 22.

The announcement came Tuesday, Dec. 11, as Cairo and other Egyptian towns were set for massive rival demonstrations for and against President Mohamed Morsi’s decision to hold a referendum on a pro-Islamist constitution Saturday. It therefore came in for rising criticism in Washington of the wisdom of sending the jets to an unstable Egypt in the grip of a strong political confrontation.

A broad range of opposition groups – pro-democratic, liberal, secular, women and Christian – are demanding that President Morsi cancel the referendum. The Muslim Brotherhood is mobilizing its supporters to counter this protest. As the first anti-Morsi groups began gathering in Tahrir Square Tuesday, nine were hurt by masked gunmen.

The opposition has clipped President Morsi’s wings once by making him annul the near-dictatorial powers he gave himself. Forcing him to forego the referendum would further undermine his authority.

So the president fought back by authorizing the military to secure state buildings and arrest civilians in the incendiary days leading up to Saturday’s referendum. debkafile’s military sources report that Monday, six Egyptian Air Force F-16 fighters flew symbolically over Cairo.

However, the 2nd and 9th Divisions stationed around Cairo stayed in their barracks and the only uniformed personnel visible on the street were the Republican Guard troops on permanent duty in the capital’s center.

By approving another 20 F-16 jets for Muslim-ruled Egypt on the day of the competing demonstrations, President Obama showed the Egyptian people that he stands foursquare behind President Morsi and that more US military aid is on the way.

The first four jets will arrive in Egypt the day after Barack Obama’s Jan. 21 swearing-in for a second term as US president at the Capitol – and not by chance. That date also coincides with Israel’s Jan. 22 general election.
Obama is therefore using those warplanes as a signpost for the Muslim-Arab Middle East – and the Israeli voter – to show them that he is sticking unswervingly to his policy of support for the region’s Muslim Brotherhood – and especially the Egyptian president – even if Morsi did slip up by a grab for sweeping powers that alienated most of the opposition.

The US promise of new fighter planes was also a recommendation to the Egyptian army to pick the right side and opt for President Morsi if they wanted US military assistance to keep coming. Washington was also ready to consider providing them with more high-tech items in addition to those already supplied.
At all events, President Obama has made his choice, opting for Egypt’s Islamists against the pro-democracy and liberal opposition – a choice that he might have found embarrassing when he campaigned for his second term.
Israel had a dark premonition of what was coming.  Obama began laying the background for his strong alignment with Islamist Egypt last month with the dramatic announcement of a ceasefire in Cairo on Nov. 20, that was delivered jointly by Morsi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
By this announcement – and by maneuvering Israel into abstaining from a ground operation in the Gaza Strip to complete its air operation against Palestinian terrorist targets – Obama pulled the Egyptian president out of his hat as a fully-fledged international figure ready to jump to the top of his newly-minted Sunni Muslim Middle East coalition. In addition to Egypt, its chosen members were to be Turkey, Qatar and the Palestinian Hamas. Israel was to be a secret partner and contributor of high-grade intelligence.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was ready to fit into the role cast Israel by the US president. He therefore chose to hold back from a ground incursion in the Gaza Strip and then agreed to the radical Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal visiting Gaza last week.
His reward came at the same time as Washington’s announcement of the 20 F-16 fighters for Egypt: The US has appropriated $650 million worth of ordnance to refill the Israeli arsenals depleted by the massive Pillar of Defense air offensive in Gaza.
Under this deal, the US will supply the Israeli Air Force with 6,900 satellite-guided “smart bombs;” 10,000 mixed bombs – including 3,450 one-tonners and 1,725 bombs weighing 250 kilograms – as well as two kinds of buster-bunkers – 1,725, GBU-39 bombs and 3,450 BLU-109s.

Israel is the farthest our missiles need to reach, Iran’s air force commander says | The Times of Israel.

Statement follows report casting doubt on Tehran’s intercontinental missile capabilities

A surface-to-surface missile is launched during the Iranian Revolutionary Guards maneuver in an undisclosed location in Iran, Tuesday, July 3, 2012 (photo credit: AP Photo/ISNA, Alireza Sot Akbar)

Iran’s air force commander said Tuesday that the distance between Iran and Israel is the maximum range that Tehran requires its missiles fly. Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh made the statement in response to a US intelligence report revealed last week that claimed Tehran is no longer on track to achieve an intercontinental missile by 2015.

“We don’t need missiles with more than a 2,000-kilometer range, even though have the technology to build them,” Hajizadeh told reporters. “Israel is our longest-range target.”

The US report, penned by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, cast doubt on a view long held by US intelligence agencies that Iran could test-fly an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015 if it receives “sufficient foreign assistance.”

According to the report, Iran is not receiving as much help as would likely be necessary, notably from China or Russia, to reach that goal.

It is also increasingly tough for Tehran to obtain certain critical components and materials because of international sanctions related to its disputed nuclear program, the 66-page report stated.

US ready for increased ties with Syrian rebels | The Times of Israel.

Obama administration reportedly on track to recognize the new Syrian opposition council as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people

A fighter belonging to the Syrian opposition forces looks and waits for regime troops (photo credit: Mustafa Karali/AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is getting ready to tighten its ties to Syria’s main opposition group, a step in the intensifying diplomacy that officials hope will craft an end to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s embattled regime.

Officials say the administration is on track to recognize the new Syrian opposition council as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people at an international conference on the crisis in Morocco this week.

The move will pave the way for greater US support for those seeking to oust Assad and follows the blacklisting of a militant Syrian rebel group with links to al-Qaida. That step is aimed at blunting the influence of extremists amid fears that the regime may use or lose control of its stockpile of chemical weapons.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had been due to attend Wednesday’s meeting in the Moroccan city of Marrakech but canceled her trip because she was ill with a stomach virus, her spokesman, Philippe Reines, said. Instead, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will lead the US delegation.

On Monday, Clinton designated Jabhat al-Nusra, or “the Support Front” in Arabic, a foreign terrorist organization. The move freezes any assets its members may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from providing the group with material support. The designation is largely symbolic because the group is not thought to have holdings or support in the United States, but officials hope the penalties will encourage others to take similar action and discourage Syrians from joining.

That step was part of a package intended to help the leadership of the newly formed Syrian Opposition Council improve its standing and credibility as it pushes ahead with planning for a post-Assad future.

More significant, though, will be the upgraded status for the council that the US is preparing to announce in Marrakech. That is expected to be accompanied by pledges of additional humanitarian and nonlethal logistical support for the opposition. It’s unlikely that the US would add military assistance to that, at least in the short-term. Providing arms remains a matter of intense internal debate inside the administration, officials said.

Recognition of the council as the sole representative of Syria’s diverse population will bring the United States into line with Britain, France and several of America’s Arab allies, which took the same step shortly after the body was created at a meeting of opposition representatives in Qatar last month.

The US had been leading international efforts to prod the fractured Syrian opposition into coalescing around a leadership that would truly represent all of the country’s factions and religions. Yet it had held back from granting recognition to the group until it demonstrated that it could organize itself in credible fashion.

In particular, Washington had wanted to see the group set up smaller committees that could deal with specific immediate and short-term issues, such as governing currently liberated parts of Syria and putting in place institutions to address the needs of people once Assad is ousted. Some of those committees could form the basis of a transitional government.

Officials said the US evolution in recognizing Syria’s opposition would closely mirror the process the administration took last year in Libya with its opposition.

“I would remind you of how this went in the Libya context where we were able to take progressive steps as the Libyan opposition themselves took steps to work with them, and to advance the way we dealt with them politically,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.

In that case, Libya’s National Transitional Council moved from being “a” legitimate representative to “the” legitimate representative of the Libyan people. While the revolution was still going on, the council then opened an office in Washington, and the administration sent the late Ambassador Chris Stevens to Benghazi, Libya, as an envoy in return. The move also opened the door for Libya’s new leaders to access billions of dollars in assets frozen in US banks that had belonged to the Gadhafi regime.

The move could allow the Syrian opposition to set up a liaison office in Washington with a de facto ambassador.

It is unclear, however, given the level of violence in Syria and the potential threat of chemical weapons, if the US would soon send a representative to rebel-controlled areas of the country.

The conflict started 20 months ago as an uprising against Assad, whose family has ruled the country for four decades. It quickly morphed into a civil war, with rebels taking up arms to fight back against a bloody crackdown by the government. According to activists, at least 40,000 people have been killed since March 2011.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

US supplies Egypt with F-16 fighter jets – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( Is it just me, or is this un-f-cking believable? – JW )

Mubarak signed deal, Morsi to reap benefits: 20 fighter jets courtesy of US administration. Republicans fume: Egypt yet to prove itself democratic

Ynet

The US will supply Egypt with 20 F-16 fighter jets as part of a billion dollar aid package, FoxNews reported. The first four jets will be delivered on January 22, after undergoing examinations in Fort Worth, Texas.

The deal was signed in 2010 during the reign of Hosni Mubarak. But given the political instability sweeping the country, some have begun to wonder whether it is wise to donate fighter jets to an already 200 strong air force fleet.

American taxpayers should no longer be Egypt’s arms supplier (Photo: AFP)

Quoting Malou Innocent, a foreign policy expert, FoxNews said: “Should an overreaction (by Egypt) spiral into a broader conflict between Egypt and Israel, such a scenario would put US officials in an embarrassing position of having supplied massive amounts of military hardware … to both belligerents.” The report added that: “Given Washington’s fiscal woes, American taxpayers should no longer be Egypt’s major arms supplier.”

Keep your friends close

Republican Congresswomen Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwomen of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, criticized the military aid to Egypt. “The Obama administration wants to simply throw money at an Egyptian government that the president cannot even clearly state is an ally of the United States,” she said.

On the other hand, Pentagon spokesperson Col. Wesley Miller remarked, “The US-Egypt defense relationship has served as the cornerstone of our broader strategic partnership for over thirty years.

“The delivery of the first set of F-16s in January 2013 reflects the US commitment to supporting the Egyptian military’s modernization efforts. Egyptian acquisition of F-16s will increase our militaries’ interoperability, and enhance Egypt’s capacity to contribute to regional mission sets.”

State Department official Andrew Shapiro also argued in favor of the administration’s plans to continue with military aid: “I know that the uncertainty over the Egyptian transition has prompted some in Congress to propose conditioning our security assistance to Egypt. The administration believes that putting conditions on our assistance to Egypt is the wrong approach, and Secretary Clinton has made this point strongly.

“Egypt is a pivotal country in the Middle East and a long-time partner of the United States. We have continued to rely on Egypt to support and advance US interests in the region, including peace with Israel, confronting Iranian ambitions, interdicting smugglers, and supporting Iraq,” he told FoxNews.

Waiting for Sunday

While Egyptian President Muhammed Morsi has nullified presidential decrees granting him far reaching powers, the new constitution is far from in being in place with its fate hinging on the political tensions between the pro-Morsi Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and the liberal and left wing opponents.

Ongoing protests have prompted Morsi to allow police forces to arrest protests, though he stresses that such a move is only temporary. On Sunday a much anticipated constitutional referendum is scheduled to be held.

Russia rejects U.S. pressure to seek Assad’s exit.

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to persuade Syrian President to quit and threatened Damascus with sanctions. (Reuters)

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