WarSclerotic

‘Egypt seizes Iranian ship loaded with weapons’ | JPost | Israel News.

IDF Deploys Iron Dome in Eilat.

Or Heller

4/4/2013

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said today that Israel will not allow the situation in the southern region to return to a state similar to the one that existed prior to operation Pillar of Defense. Gantz added that the south is strong and stable, prospering and calm, and that things are under control.

The IAF attacked two Hamas targets at night, for the first time since the operation in Gaza, located in Beit Lahiya in the northern region of the Gaza Strip. In the event that the fire of rockets from the Gaza Strip continues, the IDF is preparing to continue attacking more significant targets, despite the comprehension that it is not Hamas behind the fire, but Salafi organizations interested in challenging Hamas sovereignty in the Gaza Strip.

A Salafi organization named the Shurah Council of the Mujehadin, which carried out several terrorist attacks along the Gaza-Egypt border, has taken responsibility for firing rockets this morning towards Sderot, in protest over the death of a Hamas prisoner, who died of cancer yesterday at the Israeli Soroka Hospital.

In the meantime, the fifth Iron Dome battery which was put to use quickly during Operation Pillar of Defense, in order to protect residents of the Tel Aviv–metropolitan, was declared operational after undergoing maintenance. The battery joins the four existing system batteries, two of which have been deployed by the IDF in recent days. One of the batteries has been stationed in the northern region and the other stationed in the southern city of Eilat, in order to protect the city from harm caused by Global Jihad organizations located in the Sinai.

Iran: Are all options still on the table? | JPost | Israel News.

Challenged by escalation in Syria and Gaza, Israel seeks to maintain its deterrence – Opinion – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

The events of the last 24 hours reflect the nature of the security challenge Israel must now confront; the Netanyahu government aims to remind the other parties that they would do well not to force it into a wider conflict.

By Amos Harel | Apr.03, 2013 | 6:28 PM | 10

Sculptures are seen on a hill near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights March 24, 2013. Photo by Reuters

The events of the last 24 hours in the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip reflect the nature of the security challenge Israel must now confront. There’s no danger of a real war, at least for now.

But on both the Syrian border and the border with Hamas in Gaza there is instability that is manifested in sporadic fire into Israel. The Netanyahu government is trying to see to it that these conflicts remain contained and do not escalate into a wider conflict.

On the Syrian front Israel must cope with a weak central government whose control over events along the border has been greatly diminished; it is not always clear who is doing the firing and whether it was approved at the highest rungs of government.

The Gaza City government is stronger than its Damascus counterpart. Until the renewed tensions of recent weeks, Hamas proved capable of controlling the border with Israel in the months since Operation Pillar of Defense.

But over the past 24 hours rockets and mortar shells were fired into the Negev on two occasions. The factions affiliated with the global jihad movement that claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s incidents have the same ideological background as the groups that fired rockets at Sderot two weeks ago, during U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel.

Israel has responded in a similar manner to the cross-border firing from Syria and from the Gaza Strip: To each incident of shelling or burst of machine-gun fire on the Golan Heights, the Israel Defense Forces responds by firing a missile or tank shells directly at the Syrian army positions from which the fire originated – (these have generally been the same positions).

In Gaza, the Israel Air Force bombed two Hamas targets early Wednesday morning in response to Tuesday’s mortar shells.

Israel’s official position, as expressed this week by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, is that there must be an immediate response to any fire on Israeli territory.

In practice Israel is trying to preserve its deterrence on both fronts, by reminding the other parties that Israel has the military edge and they would do well not to force a wider contest.

But in both cases this aim is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. The turmoil in Syria is so great – human rights organizations estimate that in March about 6,000 people were killed in the country’s civil war – that it’s doubtful Damascus can control its military forces fighting the insurgents near the Israeli border.

Moreover, it is still not even clear whether the Syrian soldiers are deliberately firing into our territory or are simply missing their real targets, the rebels who have occupied an enclave of villages along the border.

Despite the threats, Israel can still be pleased that the war in Syria is not trickling into its territory more forcefully, as it has into Lebanon. The alternatives, such as the Assad regime’s introduction of chemical weapons against the rebels (which would increase apprehensions about the imminent disintegration of the Damascus regime, including the loss of control over its weapons stores) seem far worse.

Gaza is a different case. For four months, until nearly the end of March, Hamas imposed iron discipline on the smaller factions and completely prevented any firing into Israel. Now it seems that the cease-fire is weakening. Was this intentional?

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said Wednesday morning in radio interviews that Hamas does not want an escalation and that the Israeli air strike was meant to clarify to the organization that Israel will not tolerate a return to the situation in the months before Operation Pillar of Defense, that is, missiles and mortar shells being fired into southern Israel two or three times a month.

The other Israeli security branches, as well as Palestinian analysts, agree that Hamas is not looking to engage the IDF. In practice, however, the gains of Israel’s November military operation are beginning to erode.

The factions in Gaza are now using weak excuses (most recently, the death from cancer of a Palestinian security prisoner being held in Israel) to open fire.
Israel’s response so far has been restrained, not least because there have been no casualties on our side. But a rise in the number of rockets launched at the Negev could drag Israel into another round of attacks on the Gaza Strip and is liable to reduce the interval before yet another round, down the road, even if neither Israel nor Hamas really wants a fight.

Iran’s Jalili vows stronger defense of nuclear policy – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Chief nuclear negotiator says world powers must recognize Tehran’s right to a nuclear program before any breakthrough is reached in new round of talks

Reuters

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili sounded a defiant note ahead of a new round of talks with world powers in Kazakhstan, saying on Thursday they had to recognize Iran’s right to a nuclear program to see any breakthrough.

Jalili also said the Islamic Republic would defend its right to enrich uranium with “more rigor” after its presidential election in June.

“The impact of the election will be that … our people will defend its right with more rigor,” he said in a speech at a university in the Kazakh city of Almaty.

Addressing the round of talks, due to start on Friday and last through Saturday, Jalili added: “We think our talks tomorrow can go forward with one word. That is the acceptance of the rights of Iran, particularly the right to enrichment.”

World powers suspect Iran’s uranium-enrichment program has a covert military dimension and are asking Tehran to suspend refining uranium to higher levels.

Tehran denies it is seeking to reach the capability to make bombs and says its atom work is for energy generation and medical research.

Palestinians in Gaza fire rocket, mortars at Israel | The Times of Israel.

Two of three shells land in northern strip; no injuries or damage reported

A bucket of mortar bomb pieces from bombs fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip into Israel, Saturday, March 19, 2011. (photo credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

Gaza terrorists shot a rocket and three mortar shells at Israel early Thursday morning, marking a third straight day of projectile fire after several months of calm.

Initial reports indicated that the rocket landed in an open area in the Eshkol region, as did one of the mortar rounds. Two of the shells fired failed to cross the fence into Israel and landed in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

On Wednesday morning, two rockets were fired into Israel, hours after Israel bombed sites in the Gaza Strip in response to several attempted attacks on Tuesday.

The airstrike was the first since November’s Operation Pillar of Defense, launched by the Israel Defense Forces to stem missile fire from the Strip.

Officials have expressed fears that the renewed tensions between Israel and Gaza could spell the end of the informal cease-fire and spiral into renewed cross-border volleys that were a frequent occurrence leading up to November’s eight-day mini war.

“The renewed violations of the ceasefire risk undermining the ‘understanding’ reached between Israel and Gaza on November 21, and unraveling the gradual but tangible improvements achieved since then in the easing of the closure and the security situation in Gaza and southern Israel,” United Nations Middle East peace process coordinator Robert Serry said in a statement Wednesday.

The rocket fire on Tuesday, which sparked the latest round of violence, was seemingly launched in response to the death of a Palestinian prisoner of cancer.

On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “vigorous” blowback if fire emanating from the Hamas-controlled enclave does not cease.

Hamas, for its part, has reportedly been trying curb the rocket fire from the territory, and has even sent calming messages to Israel to the effect that it is working to uphold the ceasefire by, among other measures, arresting members of factions that have been shooting rockets, Israel’s Channel 2 news said Wednesday.

Iran, world powers set to meet for nuclear talks | The Times of Israel.

With the window shrinking on diplomacy, international community aims to curb Tehran’s ability to produce atomic weapons

Iran’s heavy water nuclear facilities near the central city of Arak 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Tehran. (photo credit: AP/ISNA,Hamid Foroutan, File)

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — Iran and world powers trying to curb Iran’s nuclear progress are coming to the negotiating table this week with the window shrinking on diplomacy. Tehran is moving closer to the ability to make atomic arms, and that risks the threat of Mideast conflict.

Israel says the Islamic Republic is only a few months away from the threshold of having material to turn into a bomb and has vowed to use all means to prevent it from reaching it. The United States has not said what its “red line” is, but has said it will not tolerate an Iran armed with nuclear weapons.

Any strike on Iran would provoke fierce retaliation directly from Iran and through its Middle East proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, raising the specter of a larger Middle East conflict. The stakes are thus clearly high for negotiators of six nations meeting their Iranian counterparts in Almaty Friday.

While not threatening force, the United States and Israel both warned Iran ahead of that meeting that they would not allow it to acquire nuclear arms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is a model of a country “talking but at the same time developing nuclear weapons.”

“I think that model certainly can’t be allowed to happen in the case of Iran,” said Netanyahu Wednesday after meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Eide.

In Washington, a senior US administration official urged Tehran to meet demands from the six powers that it scale back on uranium enrichment — a potential path to nuclear weapons — citing President Barack Obama as saying that “all options remain on the table” to prevent Iran from having such arms. The official demanded anonymity as a condition for speaking on the issue.

The six — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — hope the talks will result in at least an incremental advance in a decade of efforts to reduce Iran’s bomb-making capacities by curbing its uranium enrichment program.

The two sides parted in February after meeting in Almaty with agreement to at least keep talking over a new proposal submitted by the six. But they remain vastly divided on what they want from each other.

Iran wants an end to punishing sanctions crippling its economy imposed to force it end uranium enrichment, a process that can generate both nuclear energy and the core of nuclear weapons. Iran denies any interest in atomic arms, insists its enrichment program serves only peaceful needs, says it has a right to enrich under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and describes UN Security Council demands to stop Iranian enrichment as illegal.

“We are talking about peaceful nuclear energy,” Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, said before the latest talks. He said Iran had a right to such a program and accused “a handful of countries” of working ” to deny this right to others.”

The six have moved from demanding a total end to enrichment. As a first step, they now are asking Tehran only to stop production and stockpiling of uranium enriched to 20 percent, which is just a technical step away from weapons-grade uranium. A halt to production and stockpiling would keep Iran’s supply below the amount needed for further processing into a weapon.

Starting a few months ago, Tehran began keeping a ceiling on its higher-enriched uranium stockpile below the amount it would need to produce bomb-grade material by turning some into a form unusable for weapons and holding off on activating more enriching centrifuges.

Neither Iran nor the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose experts monitor Iran’s atomic program, have confirmed that Tehran is continuing to limit its higher-enriched uranium stockpile. But IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told The Associated Press this week he “has no particular indications” to believe otherwise.

While the six are dangling some sanctions relief, they are not offering to lift sanctions on Iranian oil exports and other punitive measures. The offer is not enough for Iran, so at best, the negotiations will end Saturday with an agreement that enough progress was made to talk again later.

Deep-seated Iranian suspicions of US motives adds to the hurdles at the Almaty talks, said Belfer Center nonproliferation expert Gary Samore, alluding to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Samore, President Barack Obama’s coordinator for weapons of mass destruction until January, said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “strongly suspects that the US is using the nuclear issue to ultimately overthrow the (Iranian) regime.”

Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said “the two sides are just too far apart.”

“At best they may narrow their differences,” said Fitzpatrick, a former US administration official.

Even an agreement to keep talking would give both sides short-term gains.

It would leave the international community with some breathing space in its efforts to stem Iran’s nuclear advance. For Tehran, continued negotiations are insurance that neither Israel nor the United States will feel the need to act on threats of action.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press

Egyptian forces capture arms ship off Sinai | The Times of Israel.

Vessel reportedly Iranian, carrying RPGs, ammunition and small arms to Sinai-based terrorist elements

Egyptian security forces detained a fishing vessel reportedly smuggling arms off the southern coast of the Sinai Peninsula on Thursday. Eleven of its crew were arrested.

According to Israel Radio, the ship was an Iranian vessel bearing 60,000 rifles, RPGs, and ammunition, which were believed to be en route to terrorist groups in the Sinai. It was captured 30 kilometers off Ras Mohammad, the southernmost point of the peninsula.

In a separate incident, Egyptian soldiers searched for terrorists preparing to attack Israeli targets in the lawless region, Israel Radio reported. It was not clear whether they intended to fire rockets at the port city of Eilat or target ships in the Red Sea, the report said.

Last week officials said Egyptian forces foiled a number of planned terror attacks against Israeli and Egyptian targets in Sinai. In 2012 rockets were fired from Sinai into Israel and Egyptian forces were attacked by extreme Islamic terror groups. Last month a jihadist group reportedly fired a more advanced rocket as part of a drill.

South Israel on alert for multiple al Qaeda strike. Iron Dome posted.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 4, 2013, 9:18 AM (GMT+02:00)

Egyptian forces in Sinai capture armed Salafist

Incoming intelligence of All Qaeda groups in the Sinai Peninsula winding up preparations for a multiple attack on an Israeli location, such as Eilat, and a US military target in the Negev, has put southern Israel and US forces posted there on high terror alert. This is reported by debkafile’s military sources.
The Israeli high command decided to treat the five Qassam rockets fired at Shear Hanegev Wednesday, April 3, which were claimed by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Salafist “Jihad Brigades in Jerusalem.” as the opening salvo for this coordinated attack. An Iron Dome battery was accordingly moved Thursday to the Israeli-Egyptian border north of the southern port of Eilat and additional IDF strength directed to the South.
Heavy sandstorms in the region have sharply reduced visibility for troop movements and provided excellent cover for terrorist infiltration.
Dozens of armed Salafist and al Qaeda operatives in SUVs on which heavy machine guns were mounted were sighted Tuesday driving along the northern Sinai road linking Rafah on the Gazan border to Sheikh Zuweid. They withdrew hurriedly to the mountainous central region when a beefed up Egyptian military contingent drew up and was able to catch a few.
The group is believed to be preparing to mount a multiple attack simultaneously from Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Eilat may be one target but others are thought to be US forces based in the Negev and also the many American officers and men of the MFO peacekeeping force in northern Sinai.
debkafile: Israeli spokesmen are holding Hamas responsible for the revival of the missile and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip after five months of calm were ushered in by the November ceasefire agreement. They are trying to push the Hamas rulers into asserting control and reining in the Salafist and al Qaeda-linked cells embedded in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel is also calling on the Egyptian government to step up military action to cut down terrorist activity in North Sinai and other border areas.
These Israeli steps have had little effect. Hamas is scared of a direct confrontation with al Qaeda’s cells and allies, while the Egyptian security agencies have adopted a policy of checking the papers of entrants from Sinai to Egypt proper, but not travelers moving in the opposite direction. There is therefore no bar against Islamist terrorists from Egypt and even Libya entering Sinai.