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Following the elections in Israel, a need for a reset – The Washington Post

January 22, 2013

Following the elections in Israel, a need for a reset – The Washington Post.

TO LOSE favor in Washington was once political poison for Israeli prime ministers. Twice during the 1990s, Israelis voted out leaders who quarreled with the U.S. president; the second one was Benjamin Netanyahu. So one of the more remarkable aspects of Israel’s current election campaign, which ends at the polls on Tuesday, is that Mr. Netanyahu hasn’t been afraid to play up his notoriously bad relations with President Obama.

Last week the Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg reported that Mr. Obama had been privately repeating the observation that Mr. Netanyahu’s Israel “doesn’t know what its own best interests are.” Rightly or wrongly, Israelis judged that to be a White House leak intended to damage the prime minister’s electoral chances. Rather than flinch, however, Mr. Netanyahu pushed right back, boasting that he had “rebuffed the pressure” that would have had Israel “curb our pressure against Iran” and withdraw to its 1967 borders.

Evidently, Mr. Netanyahu calculates that being seen to stand up to this U.S. president is good politics in Israel — and he may be right. A recent poll showed that half of Israelis believes the prime minister should pursue his policies even if they lead to conflict with the United States. The big story of the campaign has been the surge of far-right parties that reject not only Mr. Obama’s view of Israel but also the two-state solution that has been U.S. policy for more than a decade.

This disturbing trend is partly the result of Mr. Obama’s poor handling of Israel, which he has not visited and where he is widely regarded as supportive of the nation’s defense but unsympathetic to its psyche. If the White House were trying to undercut Mr. Netanyahu, it would be guilty of the same poor judgment the Israeli leader showed in tilting toward Mitt Romney in the U.S. presidential race. No scenario contemplated by political analysts foresees anyone other than Mr. Netanyahu emerging as prime minister from the bargaining that will follow Tuesday’s election.

The question is whether the incumbent will choose, or perhaps be obliged by the electoral math, to include parties from the center and left in his coalition. If he does not, Mr. Netanyahu could find himself isolated both within his own government and internationally: He is one of only two of the top 30 candidates from his own Likud Party to endorse Palestinian statehood.

For that reason, the wise U.S. policy would be to concede, and maybe even welcome, Mr. Netanyahu’s reelection while quietly urging him to construct a centrist government. In the coming months Israel and the United States will likely have an urgent need to communicate clearly and cooperate closely on the threat of Iran’s nuclear program; and they must try to preserve the prospect of Palestinian statehood. Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu may be political foils, but as each begins a new term their deeper interest lies in a reset of their relationship.

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Upgraded Iron Dome intercepts medium-range missile

January 22, 2013

Upgraded Iron Dome intercepts medium-range missile | The Times of Israel.

Rafael and the Defense Ministry successfully test improved version of rocket interception system

By January 21, 2013, 9:27 pm 0
An Iron Dome interceptor missile rising up to meet incoming rockets from Gaza on November 20, 2012. (photo credit: Mendy Hechtman/Flash 90)

An Iron Dome interceptor missile rising up to meet incoming rockets from Gaza on November 20, 2012. (photo credit: Mendy Hechtman/Flash 90)

The Israeli defense establishment on Monday announced the successful testing of an upgraded version of the Iron Dome missile defense system.

The tests, according to the Defense Ministry, aimed to broaden and improve Iron Dome’s “capability and performance” to contend with threats. According to Channel 10 TV military reporter Alon Ben-David, Iron Dome intercepted a missile heavier than a Fajr — the type fired at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip during November’s Operation Pillar of Defense.

The test missile was also fired from a greater distance than its ordinary interception range (the Fajr-5 has a maximum range of 75 kilometers), suggesting that Iron Dome is being upgraded to protect Israeli cities against medium-range missile threats. Iron Dome, according to official literature from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, has a range of 70 kilometers (42 miles).

Together with the David’s Sling medium-range missile defense system, the upgraded Iron Dome will provide Israel with a more comprehensive missile defense capability, military sources said.

Iron Dome was credited with 421 missile interceptions during Pillar of Defense, with an overall success rate of 84%, according to IDF statistics. The system only targets rockets which, based on their trajectory, are set to hit populated areas.

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Mursi needs to admit his real stance from Zionists

January 22, 2013

Mursi needs to admit his real stance from Zionists.

By Abdel Latif el-Menawy

Al Arabiya

 

Monday, 21 January 2013

 

 

Abdel Latif el-Menawy

 

It is totally fine for people to take back their words or actions, but they have to be brave enough to admit they were wrong and to call upon others—especially followers—not to make the same mistake again. This applies to the Egyptian president who retracted statements he made three years ago following the objection of his allies the Americans.

The story goes back to a few days ago when the United States strongly condemned anti-Israeli statements Mohamed Mursi made in 2010 before he became president of Egypt and in which he described Israelis as “the offspring of apes and pigs” and called for supporting “all forms of Palestinian resistance against Zionist criminals.” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described Mursi’s remarks as “deeply offensive” and noted that they “should be repudiated and they should be repudiated firmly.” Nuland urged Mursi to prove to his people and the International Community that he respects all religions and added that such rhetoric does not become a democratic country. I could hear her tone as she raised her eyebrows and waved her index finger menacingly. The Muslim Brotherhood could not afford to upset their ally, thus Mursi declared “courageously” that his words, said following the Israeli aggression on the Gaza strip, were taken out of context and stressed his full respect for all religions and for freedom of faith as was made clear in the presidential statement issued following the president’s meeting with a Congress delegation headed by Senator John McCain.

 

Mursi not misunderstood

 

  I am calling upon the person who made them to courageously admit either the real stance he [Mursi] and the Muslim Brotherhood and their followers adopt or how mistaken they had been for all those years 

Abdel Latif al-Menawy

 

The Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which dug up the interview Mursi made with al-Quds channel and which contained the controversial remarks, seemed to have been offended when Mursi said his words were taken out of context, a response that questions the institute’s credibility, so it decided to post another video in which the president echoes the same views.

Fellow journalist Osama Saber unearthed an article Mursi wrote on the Muslim Brotherhood’s official website on January 10, 2009, that is around 10 years before the controversial video, and in which he made similar remarks.

The article demonstrated that his use of the expression “offspring of apes and pigs” was not a matter of coincidence.

“People have to condemn Zionist brutality… and we tell Palestinians that we support them and that God has chosen them to protect al-Aqsa Mosque and to defend Islam and the Arab world against the Zionist herds, the offspring of apes and pigs.”

 

‘judge him by what he says’

It will be absurd if Mursi reiterates his previous excuse about his statements being taken out of context because it is very clear now, as demonstrated by both MEMRI and Saber, that Mursi was beating around the bush.

We are all aware that those statements were not taken out of context and that this discourse is very common among a large number of clerics and members of Islamist groups. Apart from the remarks themselves, I am calling upon the person who made them to courageously admit either the real stance he and the Muslim Brotherhood and their followers adopt or how mistaken they had been for all those years. It should not stop at that. He also has to ask Brotherhood members and all his supporters to stop using this language if he really believes it was wrong as he said in the shy statement he issued to please the Americans, who in turn see that Mursi has so far passed all tests they gave him. He and his group are expected to pass all the coming tests because it is only power they are after and for that they will always fare well.

I would like to conclude with another statement made by Nuland: “But we’ll also judge him by what he says.”

(Abdel Latif al-Menawy is an author, columnist and multimedia journalist who has covered conflicts around the world. He is the author of “Tahrir: the last 18 days of Mubarak,” a book he wrote as an eyewitness to events during the 18 days before the stepping down of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Menawy’s most recent public position was head of Egypt’s News Center. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists in the United Kingdom, and the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate. He can be found on Twitter @ALMenawy)

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Russia lifts nationals out of Syria. Moscow, Iran arm Assad for major armored push

January 22, 2013

Russia lifts nationals out of Syria. Moscow, Iran arm Assad for major armored push.

DEBKAfile Special Report January 21, 2013, 10:19 PM (GMT+02:00)

 

Russian warships in Tartus
Russian warships in Tartus

The Russian emergency ministry said Monday, Jan. 21 that it is sending two planes to Beirut to evacuate 100 Russians from Syria – the first such effort since the uprising against Bashar Assad began in March 2011. Moscow also announced contingency plans to lift 30,000 Russian nationals from the embattled country.

This evacuation of Russian nationals starting Tuesday was decided after the Syrian high command received orders from President Assad to organize mobile armored strike groups with massive fire power for a big push to run the rebel forces out of the towns, villages and areas they have captured, mostly in the north and southeast.

debkafile’s military sources report that, because they are in a hurry, the Syrian army chiefs decided to use only seasoned officers and men with experience in active service against the rebels, rather than new recruits who would need weeks of combat training. The divisions or brigades holding the line in such trouble spots as Aleppo, Homs and Deraa, are being depleted, some of their units detached for service in the new armored strike groups.
Our sources report that Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps officers are supervising the effort for what Assad sees as his biggest assault yet to finally crush the revolt against his regime.
Its timing marks two fundamental developments in Syria’s bloody civil war:

1. The self-confidence of Assad and his top military staff is gaining in direct contrast to the weakening of the insurgency. It was therefore decided in Damascus that the time was ripe for a major offensive to push the rebels out of the strategic areas from which they could threaten central government.
2. Western-Arab arms supplies to the rebels have slowed down steeply because the funding from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAR has dried up. The high-grade weapons still in rebel hands were mostly looted from Syrian army bases and stores.
3.  According to debkafile’s military sources, Russian officials up to the level of President Vladimir Putin examined the Iranian-Syrian armored strike group tactics and approved.
These developments, according to Western intelligence sources familiar with the Syrian situation, explain the recently intensified coordination between Moscow, Tehran and Damascus and the resulting accelerated flow of Russian and Iranian weapons to the Syrian army.

Russian arms ships are lining up at the Syrian port of Tartus to unload their freights, while Iranian air transports are touching down and taking off at speed from Damascus and Aleppo military airports.
Arms deliveries are coming in aboard large Russian naval vessels, including the Azov and Aklexander Shabalin landing craft, the amphibious Kaliningrad and others.

To camouflage heir rapid movements in and out of Tartus, the Russian navy Sunday, Jan. 20, announced a large-scale sea maneuver would take place in the Mediterranean up until Jan. 29. None of the ships taking part in the drill were identified except to say that they came from Russia’s Baltic, North and Black Sea fleets.
Our military sources report that the Russian deliveries consist mainly of armored vehicles, self-propelling recoilless guns, all-purpose vehicles for rough terrain and a variety of missiles and rockets for combat in built-up areas – all items clearly designed to outfit Assad’s new armored strike units.
Tehran, for its part, is sending ammo, spare parts for Syrian tanks and artillery and missiles.
According to those sources, the Syrian army plans to kick off its new offensive at Daraya, a small town near Damascus which is held by the Free Syrian Army.

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Panetta: US has to ‘fight back’ against al Qaeda after three Americans killed

January 22, 2013

Panetta: US has to ‘fight back’ against al Qaeda after three Americans killed – The Hill’s DEFCON Hill.

The terrorist attack in Algeria that left three Americans and 34 other hostages dead shows that al Qaeda is “committed to creating terror” no matter where its members are located and that America has “got to fight back,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.

“I’m glad we were able to get some rescued, but we did lose three Americans,” Panetta told a small group of reporters Monday as he left the inaugural lunch at the Capitol. “That just tells us al Qaeda is committed to creating terror wherever they are, and we’ve got to fight back.”

He said the militant groups have shown a capacity to rebound even after being pushed out of safe havens.

Panetta’s comments reflected a speech he gave in November in which he said the end is not near in the U.S. fight against al Qaeda.

 

 

He noted that U.S. forces had made key gains against the terror group in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere, but said it was now seeking new footholds in places like Mali, where the United States has aided a French campaign against Islamist militants.

Panetta described al Qaeda like an adapting cancer.

 

“We have slowed the primary cancer, but we know that the cancer has also metastasized to other parts of the global body,” he said.

The hostage crisis began Wednesday when an offshoot of al Qaeda’s North African affiliate, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, stormed a remote natural-gas facility near the Libyan border. The three American hostages killed when Algerian forces intervened were identified Monday by the State Department as Victor Lynn Lovelady, Gordon Lee Rowan and Frederick Buttaccio.

“We extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement. “Out of respect for the families’ privacy, we have no further comment. We are also aware of seven U.S. citizens who survived the attack. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further information to provide.

“As the president said, the blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out, and the United States condemns their actions in the strongest possible terms. We will continue to work closely with the government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of the terrorist attack of last week and how we can work together moving forward to combat such threats in the future.”

Some foreign governments, including Japan and Great Britain, have complained of being kept out of the loop as Algerian forces prepared to raid the compound. The White House so far has refrained from criticizing Algeria, a key counterterrorism ally.

“The blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out, and the United States condemns their actions in the strongest possible terms,” Obama said in a statement Saturday. “We have been in constant contact with Algerian officials and stand ready to provide whatever assistance they need in the aftermath of this attack.”

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