WarSclerotic

Republicans slam Obama’s new war approach | The Times of Israel.

Lawmakers say fight with al-Qaeda might be nearing end, but president showing ‘lack of resolve’ toward Syria and Iran

President Barack Obama speaks on Thursday, May 23, 2013, at the National Defense College. (photo credit: image capture/YouTube video)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans keep slamming President Barack Obama’s push to move the government away from a war footing and refine and recalibrate its counterterrorism strategy.

Republican lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina say Obama is projecting weakness at a time when the United States needs to show resolve against terror networks like al-Qaeda.

Graham said Sunday that “at a time when we need resolve the most, we’re sounding retreat.”

Obama gave a major speech Thursday in which he said al-Qaeda is “on the path to defeat” and signaled that he’s reluctant to commit troops overseas to conflicts like Syria or other countries struggling with instability in the uncertain aftermath of the Arab Spring. He’s also modifying policies on the use of unmanned drone aircraft to try to limit civilian casualties and is redoubling his longstanding — but so far unfulfilled — promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where many terrorism suspects are being held without formal charges.

Obama is trying to recast the image of terrorists from enemy warriors to cowardly thugs and move the United States away from a state of perpetual war.

But Graham said Obama is displaying a “lack of resolve” despite a slew of concerns in the Middle East, including civil war and chemical weapons in Syria and threats to Israel from Syria’s unrest and Iran’s nuclear program.

“We show this lack of resolve, talking about the war being over,” Graham said. “What do you think the Iranians are thinking? At the end of the day, this is the most tone-deaf president I ever could imagine.”

“I see a big difference between the president saying the war’s at an end and whether or not you’ve won the war,” said Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. “We can claim that it’s at an end, but this war’s going to continue. And we have still tremendous threats out there, that are building, not declining, building, and to not recognize that, I think, is dangerous in the long run and dangerous for the world.”

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, defended the president, reprising Obama’s theme that maintaining a wartime posture runs the risk of compromising US principles.

“If we’re constantly thinking of this as a war, we stand a chance of doing things that compromise our freedoms,” Durbin said.

Obama ally Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said that “having transparency, having rules and engaging other activities other than military to help curb the war on terror — diplomacy, economic sanctions and things like that — is going to be useful as well. So I think the president did a very, very smart pivot, realizing we’re not going to let up on terrorists, but at the same time we’re going to meet the changes in the world.”

Graham and Durbin spoke on “Fox News Sunday.” Schumer and Coburn spoke on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Ya’alon: If S-300 shipment leaves, we’ll know how to act – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Defense minister confirms Russian missile shipment has yet to depart for Syria; says budget cuts entail less training for reserves; Lieberman: Radical axis crossed red lines

Yoav Zitun

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon confirmed on Tuesday morning that the S-300 missile shipment from Russia to Syria has yet to leave for its destination.

He stressed that the missile shipment “is a threat, and I can testify that the deal is not making headway. The shipments have not left yet. Let’s hope they won’t, and if they do, we’ll know how to act.”

Syria signed a contract to buy four S-300 systems in 2010. The deal is worth a reported $800 million. At the request of Israel, Russia postponed delivery of the first batch last year.

The Sunday Times reported that after the alleged Israeli raid on targets near Damascus earlier this month, the Russians were furious, and Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, said the contract would go ahead.

In a conversation with reporters following a briefing in a Home Front Command base in Ramla, Ya’alon said: “The Home Front Command has drawn many lessons from the last years and is giving the populace ways to deal with wartime events.

“In recent years, our enemies have chosen to arm themselves with missiles and rockets. We have stood the tests, and sadly, we’ll stand more tests.”

Ya’alon also referred to reports on the cuts to the defense budget. “There are cuts and they should be withstood,” he said.

“In the debate over the budget it was clear we’re facing a tough year-and-a-half and we’ll have to share the economic burden. There’ll be fewer reserves calls, less training for reserve troops and less employment for servicemen.”

Ya’alon warned against the proposed haredi conscription, and said that “When you disparage a sector and threaten to throw it to jail, it will not be integrated.”

He said that the conscription outline was unacceptable, and that he believed the final draft will change.

In Tuesday’s Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, MK Avigdor Lieberman referred to the Syrian crisis and to the Iranian nuclear threat, saying that “the last period is characterized by the radical axis crossing all the red lines.”

Lieberman pointed a finger at the international community for failing to intervene in Syria. “There is no question today whether there was use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces,” he said. “The massacre of 90,000 people was not answered by the international community.”

Concerning Iran, he said: “there is no doubt that Iran is running toward a nuclear bomb. I hope we can make the right decisions.”

Diplomat: Russia to arm Syria regime with anti-aircraft missiles to prevent foreign intervention – Diplomacy & Defense – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

( Russia’s instant reaction to the EU’s lifting of the arms embargo to the rebels in Syria.  – JW )

Top Russian diplomat says Moscow will go through with sale of S-300 missiles to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army; Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says that if weapon systems reach Syria, Israel will react.

By The Associated Press, Gili Cohen and Reuters | May.28, 2013 | 2:38 PM

A Russian S-300 in Moscow. Photo by AP

A top Russian diplomat confirmed that Moscow will provide Syria with state-of-the art air defense missiles to prevent foreign intervention in the country.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov wouldn’t say whether Russia has shipped any of the long-range S-300 air defense missile systems, but added that Moscow isn’t going to abandon the deal despite strong Western and Israeli criticism.

Ryabkov said the deal helps restrain some “hot heads” considering a military intervention in Syria.

Russia has been the key ally of the Syrian regime, protecting it from the United Nations sanctions and providing it with weapons despite the civil war there that has claimed over 70,000 lives.

Ryabkov’s statement comes a day after European Union’s decision to lift an arms embargo to Syrian opposition.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Tuesday implied that Israel will retaliate in Syria should the weapons systems reach the war-torn country.

Ya’alon said that Russia’s intent to supply Assad’s army with the advanced anti-aircraft systems is “a threat, as far as we’re concerned,” but asserted that the weapons have yet to be shipped out.

“I can’t say there’s been an acceleration (in weapons delivery),” he told reporters. “The shipments haven’t set out yet and I hope they won’t. If they do arrive in Syria, God forbid, we’ll know what to do.”

The defense minister’s statement appears to contradict remarks made by IAF chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, who said last week that Assad’s regime has invested millions in purchasing anti-aircraft missiles, and that the S-300 shipment “is on its way.”

Russia’s foreign minister said earlier this month that Moscow had no new plans to sell the S-300 to Syria but left open the possibility of delivering such systems under an existing contract.

Israel is concerned that the weapons meant for Syria’s arsenal could fall into the hands of Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside Assad against the rebels in Syria.

Last month Israel reportedly launched air strikes in Syria, targeting medium-range missiles that had arrived from Iran and were destined for Hezbollah.

From London to Stockholm: Europe’s lost generation acts in the name of despair, not Allah – World – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

( Phasers on apologism!  Haaretz desperately tries to whitewash the growing menace of radical Islam in Europe.  Pathetic… – JW )

The increasingly bleak economic situation – one that pits immigrants against native-born sons and daughters in search of scarce jobs – is the reason for the recent violence.

Unemployment among European youth. Photo by AP

The fire that raged over the last week through the suburbs of Stockholm has all but burned itself out. Over the last 24 hours, there were a few additional reports of cars set alight in other towns in Sweden but it seems that the festival of arson in which hordes of young stone-throwing rioters claimed hundreds of vehicles and dozens of public buildings is almost at its end. For now. What’s left is for the politicians, police officers and sociologists in this usually peaceful Scandinavian country to try and understand the reasons for this sudden outbreak of violent rage.

The riots were sparked by a shooting incident in which police killed an elderly Portuguese man who they suspected was holed up in his apartment and threatening to harm his wife in the west Stockholm neighborhood of Husby, where close to ninety percent of the residents are immigrants. It’s tempting to extrapolate from these circumstances the failure of Sweden’s fairly liberal immigration policies and the so-called collapse of the vision of a multicultural European society, but that is a much too easy conclusion. The rioters’ anger was also directed at police stations but there were very few actual physical altercations with police officers and eventually, order was restored towards the weekend when older residents, themselves immigrants and in many cases parents of the rioters, volunteered to patrol the streets helping the police return calm. Not all those arrested were immigrants; Police also detained members of Swedish far-right movements.

The closest comparisons to the Stockholm 2013 riots are those that broke out in the boroughs of London in August 2011, also then following the fatal shooting of a black man whom the police believed to be armed with a handgun. The riots which continued for five nights in various parts of the British capital and other English cities also died down quickly, without leaving a clear trace as to the reason they suddenly erupted. But despite the fact that the first fatality, Mark Duggan, who police sources claimed had been involved in drug dealing, belonged to an ethnic minority, the rioting did not take place on racial or ethnic lines. Neither were the majority of rioters immigrants. There were black and white and mixed-color gangs. Among the hundreds of rioters who received jail sentences was even Jamie Waylett, an actor in the Harry Potter films, so it would be hard to characterize them all as belonging to the margins of society. The fact that in many cases, gangs of young people gathered after receiving Blackberry messages to riot in a certain place underlines that poverty and depravation were not a central factor.

The attempt to connect the fact that many of those rioting in Stockholm last week were immigrants from Muslim countries and the putative rise in terror attacks by young European Muslim individuals is also extremely superficial. The world’s media was focused last week on south London, where two young British men of Nigerian origin ran down and then murdered a soldier with butchers knives and then attributed their act to Allah and their protest over Britain’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the resulting public and media climate, it may seem tempting to find some correlation between these events, but it would be exaggerated to connect them to the growing number of Muslims living in Europe.

The two suspects in the Woolwich killing last week, both of Nigerian-Christian origin, indeed converted to Islam and came under the sway of the outlawed fundamentalist movement, Al-Muhajiroun, but this small group is ostracized by most of the Muslim community in Britain. What motivated them, says Mehdi Hasan, political director of Huffington Post UK and a prominent British Muslim journalist, was not Islam but “a huge identity crisis not just in the Muslim community, but across British communities.

“This guy in the video says bring ‘our soldiers’ back from ‘our lands.’ Well, it can’t be both. People are deeply confused but it’s not about politics, it’s not about foreign policy, it’s not even about theology. It’s about local factors, it’s about identity issues, people rebelling against their parents, conversion issues, all these issues in a 21st century society that comes about in a toxic mix.”

The murder of Lee Rigby last week in London reminded many of the actions of a young Frenchman of Algerian origin, Muhammad Merah, who last year killed three soldiers and four Jews in Toulouse, France. But if the radicalization of millions of Muslims living in Britain and France was as deep as some commentators would have us believe, we would have seen many more of these cases. Merah wasn’t particularly religious: He hung out in nightclubs and wore designer clothes. The two suspects in London claimed to be acting in the name of Allah and on behalf of Muslims suffering in the Middle East, but they had a great deal in common with another murderer – one who despises Islam.

Anders Breivik, who in two terror attacks murdered 77 people in Norway two years ago, did so in the name of a racist Nordic ideology he constructed for himself. Breivik, Merah and the Woolwich suspects Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are all extreme cases, but they are faithful representatives of a disconnected and estranged generation growing up over the last two decades throughout Europe. They are a generation of young people who can’t find jobs. And, with the growing depression in large parts of the Eurozone and Britain and the austerity measures taken by many governments, they are young people who see no hope of employment on the horizon.

The EU’s statistics bureau recently put the level of unemployment among young adults in member states at 22.8 percent. In Greece and Spain, the level has crossed 50 percent. Europe is not just a destination for waves of immigration from developing countries, it is going through an internal migration of young men and women leaving their hometowns and seeking jobs, mainly in Germany and Britain. The waves of violent protests over the last three years in Greece, and to a lesser extent in Spain, are rooted in economic troubles, not immigration or religion. The rioters are mainly local young people, not immigrants, who have lost hope and respect for society and figures of authority, and have nurtured a deep hatred towards the police who represent both. In Greece in particular, it is the immigrants who are most vulnerable during these riots, especially when the neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, is involved. In last year’s elections, it received seven percent of the votes.

The financial situation has caused a wave of disgust with politicians of all stripes, and has brought huge electoral success to “anti-political” parties such as that of comedian Beppe Grillo. Grillo, the founder of the Five Star Movement in Italy, won a quarter of the overall vote earlier this year, but refuses to sit in a coalition with other parties. Italy is also seeing a renaissance of neo-fascist parties such as Casa Pound, which rejects the democratic system. The populist anti-politics trend is gathering steam also in Britain, where the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) attracted a quarter of the votes in local elections last month. UKIP’s main platform is against Britain’s membership in the EU, but its rhetorical style is very similar to that which is so fashionable now in Europe. Racist groups in Britain such as the anti-Muslim English Defense League (EDL) also seem to be succeeding, if well over 100,000 “likes” on its Facebook in recent days is any measure. And of course there is France, where the hapless Francois Hollande who only last year defeated Nicolas Sarkozy is now trailing the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, in the polls.

Many have already pronounced multi-culturalism in Europe dead and will continue doing so, but these eulogies ignore reality. Europe today is multi-cultural: That’s a simple fact and the wheel cannot be turned back. The leaders of the continent may win some votes if they promise to change their immigration policies but their real challenge is to save the young generation, both immigrants and native-born, from descending into the social and political chaos that will only result in more mass rioting and acts of extreme violence by deluded individuals.

Steinitz: S-300 can be used by Syria to hit civilian planes | JPost | Israel News.

Defense Minister Ya’alon: S-300 hasn’t yet been delivered to Syria, “but if it is, God forbid, we will know what to do”; Russian official defends sale, saying anti-aircraft system will deter “hotheads” from intervening in Syria.

Israel Hayom | Israeli public largely unfazed by homefront exercise.

Two air-raid sirens sound on Monday as part of nationwide homefront defense exercise, but public mostly continues on with normal activities • Students move into shelters at their schools • President Shimon Peres: Today, we are practicing for a test. I hope we don’t have to face that test in reality.

Israel Hayom | ‘Iran nuclear, Syria chemical, Hezbollah rockets: Axis has crossed all red lines’.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Avigdor Lieberman says Iran is moving at a “crazy pace” toward a nuclear weapon; no doubt that Assad has used chemical weapons; and Hezbollah missiles can hit anywhere in Israel.

Weak American battery – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: Failure to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks another sign of diminished US status in region

Eitan Gilboa

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visited the region for the fourth time since he took office in February as part of the effort to jumpstart the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. But the American battery is weak, and the starter doesn’t work. Kerry’s efforts cannot be detached from the US’ status in the region and its failed policies with regards to burning issues such as the war in Syria.

Obama’s hesitant conduct in the face of the use of chemical weapons and the supply of advanced Russian missiles to Syria exposed further deterioration of Washington’s position in the Middle East and the world. Putin’s Russia, which seeks to reclaim its superpower status by incessantly challenging Washington’s positions, senses the continued American weakness and is taking full advantage of it.

Obama and Kerry’s strategy is based on two false assumptions. The first is that this is the last chance to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians due to the results of the revolutions throughout the Arab world, the weakening of Hamas, the weakened status of Netanyahu and the addition of politicians who support the negotiations to his cabinet – such as Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni. The second assumption is that the only way forward is to reach a permanent, comprehensive agreement which can and should be reached quickly.

As far as Israel is concerned, the revolutions across the Arab world have created uncertainty that does not foster a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians. If the continued reign of incumbent Arab leaders is uncertain, and if a new leader such as Egypt’s Morsi declares his intention to amend the peace treaty with Israel, then what value does an agreement with a leader such as Abbas have?

Hamas is not weaker, and as for the new Israeli government, the Americans would be wise to read Lapid’s recent interview with the New York Times. Moreover, the Americans assumed that Obama’s visit to Israel, the alleged reconciliation between Israel and Turkey and the softened Arab peace initiative would increase motivation on both sides to resume negotiations, but these developments have yet to produce the expected results.

Kerry threatens that in case the sides do not resume talks he would introduce a new American peace plan. All previous American peace initiatives have failed. Examples include the Johnson plan of 1967; Rogers in 1969; Carter in 1977; Reagan in 1982 and 1988 and Clinton in 2000. The reason for these failures was simple: The Americans presented balanced plans that demanded concessions from both sides, but each side focused on the concessions it was asked to make and ignored the benefits it would reap. The only processes that yield any results emanated from the region itself – such as the peace treaty with Egypt and the Oslo Accords.

In the past American threats carried weight, because the peace plans were accompanied by a threat that those who reject or undermine the initiatives would bear the responsibility and be penalized. Today the Obama administration is perceived as being weak, so the threat is not treated with the same seriousness. Obama wasn’t even able to convince Abbas to withdraw his demand for a settlement construction freeze before negotiations with Israel are resumed, and he also failed to persuade Turkish PM Erdogan to cancel his plan to visit Hamas-ruled Gaza.

It seems the alternative that would help advance the peace talks consists of a significant interim agreement that would remain in effect for a period of five years. But in order to implement such a deal, the battery must be recharged and the starter must be replaced.

Prof. Eytan Gilboa is director of the Bar-Ilan University School of Communications and research associate at its Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies

In Britain, Police Arrest Twitter And Facebook Users If They Make Anti-Muslim Statements – Yahoo! Finance.

( Pinching myself… I must be dreaming… – JW )

British police are arresting people in the middle of the night if they have made racist or anti-Muslim comments on Twitter following the murder of a soldier by two Muslims in Woolwich, London.

Three men have so far been taken into custody for using Twitter and Facebook to criticize Muslims.

In the Woolwich attack, Lee Rigby, a drummer in the Royal Regiment of Fusliers, was run down in a car and then hacked and stabbed to death by two men with knives and a cleaver. They told a man video recording the scene that it was vengeance for the killings of Muslims by the British Army.

One man has been charged with “malicious communications” on Facebook, the Daily Mail reports.

Two others have been arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. The police are now arresting people based on mere speech in social media, a detective said in a statement to the press:

‘The men were arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. Our inquiries into these comments continue.

‘These comments were directed against a section of our community. Comments such as these are completely unacceptable and only cause more harm to our community in Bristol.

‘People should stop and think about what they say on social media before making statements as the consequences could be serious.’

The arrests come at the behest of British Muslims, who fear a backlash against them following the death of Rigby, The New York Times says:

The police and Muslim groups have said that there have been anti-Muslim episodes in many parts of the country, the most common involving derogatory messages on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

A number of arrests have been made, with criminal charges being leveled in some cases under laws against inciting racial or religious hatred, and Muslim community leaders have reported rising concern among the estimated 2.5 million Muslims in Britain.

Two men were detained in the middle of the night after they expressed anger at Muslims on Twitter. The Independent quotes police as saying:

“We began inquiries into the comments and at around 3.20am two men, aged 23 and 22, were detained at two addresses in Bristol.

“The men were arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. Our inquiries into these comments continue.”

Israel Hayom | Nasrallah: From Arab champion to Sunni nemesis.

Boaz Bismuth