Some 27 percent of Israelis believe that U.S. President Barack Obama is anti-Semitic, according to a Haaretz-Dialog poll conducted this week. Anpther 56 percent questions said they don't believe politicians who call Obama anti-Semitic or hostile to Israel, or who say he is "striving to topple Netanyahu." On the whole, Obama's popularity may be declining in American public opinion, but a sweeping majority of Israelis think his treatment of this country is friendly and fair. Advertisement The poll, which was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday and supervised by Professor Camil Fuchs, comes after reports of a crisis in diplomatic relations due to Israel's announcement during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that it will build 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem.

Jpost:

Some 27 percent of Israelis believe that U.S. President Barack Obama is anti-Semitic, according to a Haaretz-Dialog poll conducted this week.

Anpther 56 percent questions said they don't believe politicians who call Obama anti-Semitic or hostile to Israel, or who say he is "striving to topple Netanyahu."

On the whole, Obama's popularity may be declining in American public opinion, but a sweeping majority of Israelis think his treatment of this country is friendly and fair. 

The Poll itself:

Do you support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's decision to continue construction in Jerusalem ?
Yes, 62% No 26%

Do you think that Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision will lead to more or less pressure from the United States ?
More 61%, less 9%, same 21%

Do you think that President Obama is:
pro-Arab 42%, pro-Israel 9% or neutral 34%

Some claim that if Israel were to withdraw to the '67 lines - including leave the Golan - it would enjoy peace for generations since the Arabs would no longer have any claims against Israel.  Do you think that this is a naive
or simplistic view   or a reasonable and correct assessment?
Naive and simplistic 82% Reasonable and correct 8%

The idea that Obama is antisemitic?

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Middle East envoy George Mitchell's planned trip to Israel Tuesday to try to salvage proximity talks is on hold until Israel agrees to conditions the U.S. made last week, as the crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations appeared to deepen.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the demands in a 45 minute call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.

.....

When Clinton "outlined what she thought appropriate actions would be to the prime minister, she asked for a response by the Israeli Government," Crowley continued. "We wait for that response."

Mitchell could travel to Israel later on Tuesday or may cancel his trip and just go straight with Clinton on Thursday to Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East Quartet, comprised of the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and European Union.

Israeli officials said the U.S. also wants Israel to make a significant confidence-building gesture toward the Palestinians, including possibly

• releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners
• turning over additional areas of the West Bank to Palestinian control.

The U.S. makes a diplomatic crisis out of a blunder.

In recent weeks, the Obama Administration has endorsed "healthy relations" between Iran and Syria, mildly rebuked Syrian President Bashar Assad for accusing the U.S. of "colonialism," and publicly apologized to Moammar Gadhafi for treating him with less than appropriate deference after the Libyan called for "a jihad" against Switzerland.

When it comes to Israel, however, the Administration has no trouble rising to a high pitch of public indignation. On a visit to Israel last week, Vice President Joe Biden condemned an announcement by a mid-level Israeli official that the government had approved a planning stage--the fourth out of seven required--for the construction of 1,600 housing units in north Jerusalem. Assuming final approval, no ground will be broken on the project for at least three years.

But neither that nor repeated apologies from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevented Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--at what White House sources ostentatiously said was the personal direction of President Obama--from calling the announcement "an insult to the United States." White House political chief David Axelrod got in his licks on NBC's Meet the Press yesterday, lambasting Israel for what he described as "an affront."

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JERUSALEM - Israeli-U.S. relations have hit a 35-year low over a West Bank settlement plan that threatens to derail peacemaking efforts with the Palestinians, Israel's envoy to Washington was quoted as saying on Monday.

The comments attributed to Ambassador Michael Oren, a noted Middle East historian, clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assurances that the row resulting from a settlement announcement deemed "insulting" by the Obama administration was under control.

"Israel's ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 ... a crisis of historic proportions," the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Oren as telling other Israeli diplomats in a telephone briefing over the weekend.

The remarks, also carried by other Israeli media, appeared to refer to U.S. pressure in 1975 for an Israeli redeployment in the Egyptian Sinai, occupied by Israel since the 1967 war and the site of renewed fighting in 1973.

I'm getting tired of warning that the US is NOT the only weapons supplier (i.e. Israeli National Security helper) in this world. We would do well to consider a middle east in which our main 'ally' is JORDAN, or IRAQ, or KSA.

I am not one who believes that the west bank, Judea and Samaria is some god given Jewish 'waqf', but I am one who believes that the Arabs have lost in war, actually, SEVERAL WARS OF JEWISH ANNIHILATION, any right to complain about a damn thing, when they could have had a settlement ANY MOMENT THEY WISHED TO ACCEPT AN ISRAEL since 1937. Every day that passes while they obfuscate the true goal, reiterated in Arabic every time they say in English they want peace, SHOULD cause more Jewish building. Given the real goal of the Arabs, what is there to lose?

Since the USA refuses to call a spade a spade, making some Ho Chi Minh Peace, if it works out that way, the goal, rather than an Israel existing in some kind of security among 100% of other neighbors who want her dead, what does ISRAEL have to lose by casting about for other COMPLETELY UNSCRUPULOUS weapons suppliers, who won't make some dreamlike, vapid, 15 year old girl fantasy the aspiration of national policy.

Oren has the correct approach. This should be brought to a head by adults.

We have a lot to lose. More than Israel. And they have a LOT to lose.

UPDATE FROM HAARETZ- ULTIMATUM FROM OBAMA ..always tough on those who can do no harm to us

Palestinian health and education officials, working with foreign donors and international organizations, quietly support family planning through a steady expansion of clinics and community outreach services. Women are taught about the different methods of contraception that are acceptable under Islam -- anything except permanent means, like sterilization or tubal ligation.

''Politically speaking, our leadership believes very strongly that the demographic route is the way to settle the score with the Israelis,'' said Dr. Hassan Abu Libdeh, director of the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.

''In their speeches, they are in favor of more children,'' he said. ''But practically speaking, they are trying to promote the opposite. The Health Ministry and the Education Ministry are doing a lot.'' Few women bother to bring home condoms from the clinics, because men in Gaza refuse to use them.Health and education officials are careful not to advocate population control. They refer delicately to the ''spacing'' of children, underscoring that they are not talking about placing limits on family size, which would violate Islamic teaching.

Women in Gaza average seven children. In the West Bank, where fertility rates are lower, they still average a very high 5.6 children per woman.

But Gaza is a statistical oddity. Whereas its fertility rates are similar to those of desperately poor countries like Somalia, nutrition and health care are much better. This is largely because most Gazans receive prenatal and primary care for their children from the many nongovernmental organizations based there, especially in the United Nations-run refugee camps like Jabalya.

Dr. Abu Libneh, the chief statistician for the Palestinian Authority:
''I don't mind if Gazans continue producing babies, but they will have to move somewhere else,They simply will not fit into their current geography -- forgetting about feeding and employing them, too."

"Unlike the West that practices family planning, we encourage having children for political reasons." (Dr. Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, co-founder of Hamas)

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia sees no reason to stall on the sale of its S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Iran, the Kremlin's powerful Security Council said Sunday, hours before the premier of Iran's adversary Israel was due to visit Moscow.

The possible sale of Russian air defense hardware to the Islamic Republic is a major irritant for both Israel and close ally the United States. Both have pressed Moscow not to go ahead with a deal that may help protect Iran's nuclear facilities from potential air strikes.

"There is a signed contract (to supply S-300 missiles) which we must implement, but deliveries have not started yet," Vladimir Nazarov, deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council secretary, told Interfax news agency in an interview.

"This deal is not restricted by any international sanctions, because the talk is about deliveries of an exclusively defensive weapon," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on Monday, planning to push the Kremlin for urgent "crippling sanctions" against Iran over its nuclear program.

Medvedev chairs the Security Council.

"Israel believes that heavy pressure must be applied on Iran -- above all very severe sanctions, which were referred to by the U.S. secretary of state as 'crippling sanctions'," Netanyahu told the weekly cabinet meeting earlier Sunday.

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For many, the settlement issue essentially boils down to: Should we obey G-d, or should we obey man? Who is our higher authority? 
Again, a difficult conflict has arisen in Israel - this time, with regard to the government's order to freeze construction of new housing units in the so-called Jewish "settlements" in Judea and Samaria.
For many, the issue essentially boils down to: Should we obey G-d, or should we obey man? Who is our higher authority?
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently reversed his position on
construction of new homes in the settlements. He had stood strongly
against US and international pressure on the issue since taking office; but suddenly and surprisingly ordered a construction freeze.
However, it should not be overlooked that the ordered freeze is both temporary and incomplete. It is to be in effect for only 10 months, and does not include 3,000 housing units already under construction in Judea and Samaria. Nor does it include east Jerusalem.
Israeli soldiers have been instructed by their government to enforce the freeze. However, many soldiers are defying those orders.

Fifty-four House members are defying AIPAC and calling on President Obama to lift the deadly blockade of Gaza.

... In short, the courageous 54 want the blockade lifted.

Please take a look at the list of these legislators who will, no doubt, catch hell from powerful AIPAC types in their districts and, more significanyly, among their donor base.

Also note this. The fact that your favorite liberal is not among the 54 does not mean he or she disagrees with their braver colleagues. It only means that they are not ready to stand up and be counted.

How AIPAC Controls US Congress: US Representative Betty McCollum Reacts to the Intimidation Tactics of of the Israel Lobby TAKE ACTION: AIPAC Banned by Rep. McCollum (MN-4)

TAKE ACTION:  Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN-4th district) has banned the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) from her office until she receives a formal, written apology from AIPAC for equating her vote in the House International Relations Committee against HR 4681, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, with "support for terrorists." The following "Letter to AIPAC" from Rep. McCollum will be published in the June 8th edition of the New York Review of Books with a long piece by Michael Massing ("The Storm over the Israel Lobby"). Massing includes the letter as evidence to support his thesis that the tactics of the Israel lobby are harsh, and often extremely effective, in pursuing its objectives: "to keep Israel strong, the Palestinians weak, and the United States from exerting pressure on Israel." Both items are essential reading. Please take a moment to thank Rep. McCollum for her stance against HR 4681 and for her courage to stand up to AIPAC's attempts to smear her and stifle debate. You can call her office directly at 202-225-6631 or call the Capitol switchboard toll-free at 1-888-355-3588 and ask to be transferred to her office. If no one is able to take your call, please leave a brief message of thanks along with your name and address so that Rep. McCollum can get in touch with you.  Please call today!

But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter.

This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.

Arizona

• Raul Grijalva

California

• Lois Capps
• Sam Farr
• Bob Filner
• Barbara Lee
• Loretta Sanchez
• Pete Stark
• Michael Honda
• Lynn Woolsey
• Jackie Speier
• Diane Watson
• George Miller

Connecticut

• Jim Himes

Indiana

• Andre Carson

Iowa

• Bruce Braley

Kentucky

• John Yarmuth

Maryland

• Elijah Cummings
• Donna Edwards

Massachusetts

• Michael Capuano
• William Delahunt
• Jim McGovern
• John Tierney
• John Olver
• Stephen Lynch

Michigan

• John Conyers
• John Dingell
• Carolyn Kilpatrick

Minnesota

• Keith Ellison
• Betty McCollum
• James Oberstar

New Jersey

• Donald Payne
• Rush Holt
• Bill Pascrell

New York

• Yvette Clarke
• Maurice Hinchey
• Paul Tonko
• Eric Massa

North Carolina

• David Price

Ohio

• Mary Jo Kilroy
• Marcy Kaptur

Oregon

• Earl Blumenauer
• Peter DeFazio

Pennsylvania

• Chaka Fattah
• Joe Sestak

Vermont

• Peter Welch

Virginia

• Jim Moran

Washington

• Jim McDermott
• Adam Smith
• Jay Inslee
• Brian Baird

West Virginia

• Nick Rahall

Wisconsin

• Tammy Baldwin
• Gwen Moore

Virginia

• Glenn Nye

GERTZ:
Iran was believed to have dismissed Israel as a military threat.

A simulation at Israel's leading strategic institute re-enacted a crisis over Iran's nuclear program in which an Israeli military option failed to deter Teheran. The exercise by the Institute for National Security Studies envisioned Iran as overcoming U.S. opposition and Israeli military threats as Teheran proceeded with its nuclear program.

"The Iranians (simulations teams) estimated that because of internal and international considerations [U.S. President Barack] Obama would not dare launch a military attack on Iran's nuclear installations," INSS said in a report on the simulation. "Nor in their view did Israel pose a real threat."

If limited to air strikes, I concur completely

The report, titled "U.S.-Iran Negotiations: Simulation Exercise at INSS," did not focus on a Western or Israeli military option against Iran. Instead, the scenarios were limited to Iranian-U.S. negotiations to end Teheran's uranium enrichment program.

INSS organized teams meant to represent Iran, Israel and the United States. At one point, an explosion was reported at Iran's Arak heavy water production plant, for which Israel was blamed.

The report said the Iranian team demonstrated superiority over U.S. negotiators. INSS said Teheran regarded U.S. President Barack Obama as weak and indecisive.

Israel was also seen as vacillating. The simulation showed an Israeli team that could not form a firm position on Iran even while pressing Washington to pursue a military option.

"Israel became a perceptible burden on the United States in the sense that its threats of military action demanded that the United States devote energy to neutralize this possibility," the report on the simulation said. "Conversely, the lack of credibility of these threats in U.S. eyes meant they could not be used by the United States as a possible 'stick' in its negotiations with Iran."

Organizers of the simulation said Obama must improve his negotiating strategy with Iran. But INSS did not rule out the prospect that Obama was simply not serious in stopping Iran's nuclear program.

"At the same time, perhaps he [Obama] is simply not serious enough about arriving at a negotiated outcome," the report said. "It is up to Israeli decision makers to assess which alternative is most likely, and on that basis develop Israel's own approach." 

Lifted directly from the report:

Regarding Iran, its main strength is that it has a clearly defined ultimate aim: obtaining nuclear weapons capability. This aim guides its tactics in confronting the international community. In contrast, while in general terms the US as well as Israel wants to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear state, it lacks well-defined aims and consolidated strategies for dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue. What we observed is that this situation played to Iran's advantage, allowing it to determine to a large degree the pace and even the content of the talks. It used tactics of playing for time and flooding the US with vast amounts of irrelevant information to delay substantive discussion. Iran was also minded to form international coalitions and acquire allies, and demonstrated much flexibility to changing situations.

The Iranians felt superior and displayed this edge towards the Americans in the negotiations game. The US in general and President Obama in particular was perceived as weak. The Iranians estimated that because of internal and international considerations Obama would not dare launch a military attack on Iran's nuclear installations. Nor in their view did Israel pose a real threat. And overall, it was emphasized through the Iranian team in the simulation that Iran saw no way that it could be forced to suspend its ongoing uranium enrichment project unless the regime itself was put in danger. In this context, it was apparent that a military attack on Iran that is not preceded by an intensive campaign to sway world public opinion could cause severe harm to Israel and/or to the US, immunize Iran against further attacks, and generally strengthen Tehran's position.

Any of this surprising in the least? Sound familiar?

I have been saying for years for Israel to be successful regarding Iranian nukes, it is COMPULSORY to go all the way. GAME CHANGER. If they do not, they WILL FACE a regional nuclear war later.

That's all there is.

If I were Netanyahu I don't know if I could launch such an attack, but what I would do is launch a public frank discussion of the choices. And I would ignore the Iranian bluster in return.

An Israel publicly talking about the potential need for a compulsory massive attack with all weapons required for removal of the mullahcracy, and IRGC along with destruction of the nuclear program, in order to avoid a second Holocaust, MIGHT sober up the people of Iran as well.

Following are excerpts from a TV debate with Abdul Alim Musa, imam of the Islam Mosque in Washington, DC, and George Mason University professor Jack Goldstone.

Musa is the founder and head of the As-Sabiqun organization in Washington, DC, which serves to "support the unique needs of Muslims living in the U.S." According to the As-Sabiqun website, Musa converted to Islam while in prison, and is a supporter of Iran's Islamic Revolution, having visited Iran on multiple occasions.  

The website also states that Musa's main inspirations are Malcolm X, Sayyed Qutb, Hasan Al-Banna, and Ayatollah Khomeini, among others. Imam Musa is a regular speaker at college campuses across the U.S. He claims that he is often accused of antisemitism, but defends himself as being anti-Zionist. In October 2001, he appeared at the National Press Club at an event aired on C-SPAN, in which he disputed the official story of what occurred on 9/11.[1]

The following debate aired in English on Press TV on January 5, 2010.

Despite all the issues surrounding the Gaza war, the unfounded claims of war crimes, the UN censure, lawfare efforts, and the contentious casualty count, readers selected a Swedish journalist who had never previously been on HonestReporting's radar. The article in question had absolutely nothing to do with the war, but the fallout it created was steady and ongoing - albeit less dramatic.

So we weren't surprised in the least to find that our winner, Aftonbladet's Donald Bostrom, touched a nerve in readers in ways that few journalists ever do.

It began in August when Aftonbladet, one of Sweden's largest dailies, published a double-page spread in its cultural section headlined: They Plunder the Organs of Our Sons. The story quoted Palestinian claims that Israeli soldiers seized young men from the West Bank and Gaza and later returned the bodies with missing organs. (Read the original article in Swedish here.) It stirred a hornet's nest of issues:

This has got to be one of the most DEBUNKED AND STORIED MODERN BALONEY PONIES OF OUR ERA, and it's not only WIDESPREAD, but they made a MOVIE OUT THE IDEA. How do such blood libels gain traction?

REPORTERS' INNER BIGOTED COMPULSIONS ARE THE MAIN TOOL

1) Independent verification: Bostrom failed to independently verify the claims of the family of Bilal Ahmed Ghanem, who died in 1992. Bostrom later backtracked, saying:

I was [present] during the interview that night, I was a witness. It concerns me to the extent that I want it to be investigated . . . But whether it's true or not - I have no idea, I have no clue.

Moreover, when Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh tracked down the Ghanem family who said they never told Bostrom their son was missing organs:

The mother denied that she had told any foreign journalist that her son's organs had been stolen.

However, she said that now she does not rule out the possibility that Israel was harvesting organs of Palestinians . . . .

Bottom line: Bostrom's story is based on nothing more than unconfirmed testimonies, half-truths and speculation.

2) Using true facts to make a false conclusion: Bostrom "covered" Ghanem's death in 1992, so why revisit the issue? Because he places it in the context of the New Jersey organ trafficking scandal, an international conspiracy is strongly implied but never proven.

3) Burden of proof: Although the burden of proof for such a claim normally falls on the journalist, amazingly, Aftonbladet editor Jan Helin shifted it to Israel, when he told reporters:

The article poses a question - why has this body been autopsied when the cause of death is obvious? There I think Israeli authorities owe us an answer.

Not at all. It's up to Bostrom to convince doctors like Mazen Arafah and Andrea Meyerhoff, who point out that it's medically impossible to harvest organs from people who die of gunshots to the abdomen and chest--as Bostrom described of Ghanem. 

4) Is the article anti-Semitic? The question cuts to the core of the ensuing diplomatic crisis when the Swedish government refused to condemn the article. Swedish officials maintained it was an issue of free speech, while Israeli officials argued that irresponsible journalism that incites against Israel and Jews everywhere.

For the record, Israel didn't ask Sweden to censor the article. For comparison, the UK government condemned the New Statesman for its interview with Khaled Mashaal.

5) News stories take on a life of their own: Since the article went to print, rumors of Israeli organ-harvesting surfaced in Ukrainian elections, were an excuse to ban Israeli doctors from an Egyptian medical conference, and brought at least one pseudo-journalists crawling out of the woodwork with copycat claims.

Moreover, as we prepared to publish these awards, Israel's Channel 2 aired a video of top pathologist, Dr. Yehuda Hiss, admitting that his staff harvested organs from Israelis and Palestinians during the 1990s without families' permission. The video offered no evidence that Palestinians were killed by the IDF (Israel's Institute of Forensic Medicine  in Abu Kabir is a civilian facility operated by the Ministry of Health.) Not letting facts get in the way of a sensational headline, a headline in Sydney's Daily Telegraph stated:

Israeli Army Admits Stealing Organs

"This reprinting of old information must not be allowed to become the occasion for mischief, blasphemous lies or distortions," Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Chairman Alan Solow and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein said in a statement. Media interviews surrounding the reports "provided no evidence to indicate that any Palestinian was killed to 'harvest organs.' Such accusations can inflame the region, incite violence and undermine the chances of peace."

As nasty as the story is, there is actually no linkage to Bostrom's false allegations, which libeled the IDF. The Abu Kabir scandal did not target Palestinians. Israeli soldiers, civilians, Jews, non-Jews as well as Palestinians were the victims of a domestic scandal that was discovered and dealt with by the Israeli authorities to ensure that such ethical lapses would not be allowed to reoccur.

(More information can be found here.)

6) Bostrom's flippant attitude towards the truth: While attending a November media conference in Israel, Bostrom told Ha'aretz's Gideon Levy:

If I were writing it again, I would stress that the IDF liquidates so many youths without a trial and that they take bodies and conduct autopsies on them without the permission of the families. My article created confusion and was incorrectly interpreted.

Even more amazingly, he also told Israel Channel 2's Yair Lapid:

In response, Bostrom said that he understands why people are angry, saying that everyone lies while at war. He said that it is difficult for reporters to distinguish between what is correct and what is a lie.

That's Bostrom in his own words.

Donald Bostrom doesn't know the truth because he failed to put in the necessary long-term investigative work real journalism demands. Nor does he show any concern for the consequences of his words. And for those reasons, HonestReporting readers chose him as the Dishonest Reporter of 2009.

Iran is proceeding with an aggressive nuclear weapons program, and a few dogged holdouts notwithstanding, much of the Obama administration has come to terms with that reality. Official Washington has resigned itself to pursuing a containment policy that some argue will limit Iran's ability to proliferate, terrorize and otherwise exploit being a nuclear power. But it is wrong to think a nuclear Iran can be contained.

The containment argument runs along Cold War lines: The price of breakout is too high; the regime cares only about power, not about using weapons; containment will be simple because the Arabs are so scared of Iran they'll do anything to help us; President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn't have his finger on the button. In fact, these arguments are either false or misleading.

The bottom line of this reasoning is that the Iranians are not much different than the Soviets.

The Shiite regime in Tehran is far more skilled than its Sunni counterparts in the world of nuclear aspirations and sponsoring terrorists. A careful student of history, the mullah govt. surely realizes that the international community has meted out little punishment to nuclear transgressors. Tehran probably sees itself more in the mold of India, a great power whose nuclear weapons are acknowledged and now accepted, than of North Korea, a lunocracy without serious global aspirations or influence. Those Iranian officials who advocate withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty do so not because they see Iran becoming the Shiite hermit kingdom but because they think Persia no longer needs to be constrained by status-quo powers and their status-quo treaties.

Advocates of containment and deterrence suggest that Iran will be encircled by a "like-minded group" of nations bent on raising the costs of adventurism. This absurd notion rests on weak reeds in Europe and Arabs deeply hesitant to act. And who can blame the neighboring Arabs? Egged on by distant powers to cut Iranian access to banking and shipping, they suspect they will be hung out to dry by the next world leader eyeing a Nobel Peace Prize.

Contrast this administration 'hope' with the today's decision by Pakistan, our 'firm ally'.

Worse, the common notion of deterrence is ill-designed for the regime in Tehran. Perhaps it is unfair to suggest that today's Iranian leadership is fashioned from different cloth than the Soviets; after all, we are often reminded that the doctrine of mutually assured destruction worked with the Soviet Union for half a century. But even the most ardent hawks have serious doubts about U.S. resolve to "totally obliterate" Iran in the event of a nuclear attack on, say, Israel -- despite Hillary Clinton's threat, as a presidential candidate, to do just that. Rather, most see the usual hemming and hawing about "certainty," "provocations" and "escalation" as the far more likely rhetoric should such an event occur. And if we in Washington see it that way, why would the Iranians think differently?

Or the Israelis? They might think it better thus to make their pre-emptive attack on Iran, the mullahs and their nuclear weapons, one made with weapons which will ENSURE the result rather than one which leads to a regional war as a result of a some few air attacks on theoretically pin point targets which leave the Iranian nation and it's military capacity largely intact.

Many also scoff at the notion that a responsible Iranian leader would risk using or transferring nuclear weapons or technology. We are told that Ahmadinejad (who most acknowledge is crazy enough to use such a weapon) won't make the final decision. But the regime is remarkably opaque, and shifting power centers ensure that even capable intelligence agencies have low levels of certainty about decision-making in Iran's nuclear program. If our intelligence community's prognostications about Iran's reaction to the Obama engagement policy are any indication (apparently they predicted that Iran was desperate to talk), then it seems safe to conclude that no one knows whose finger will be on Iran's nuclear trigger.

It is possible that Iran will amass enough fissile material to make a bomb and then choose not to fashion a weapon or test. But that is not the history of states that have clandestine nuclear programs, particularly those with advanced delivery systems and warheads. It's also possible that once it possesses such a weapon, Iran will neither use it nor share the technology. But there are few things Iran has not been willing to share, and it is certain to be tempted to use its nuclear weapons as a shield from behind which it can engage in adventurism in Lebanon, Iraq and Israel.

Advocates of a containment policy suggest that in the absence of effective diplomacy or sanctions that deliver results, the stark U.S. options are acquiescence or military action. Privately, Obama administration officials confess that they believe Israeli action will preempt our policy debate, as Israel's tolerance for an Iranian nuke is significantly lower than our own. But subcontracting American national security to Israel is an appalling notion, and we cannot assume that an Israeli action would not provoke a wider regional conflict into which the United States would be drawn.

There are few good options available to roll back Iran's nuclear weapons program. Nonetheless, after a year of false starts and failed initiatives, the Obama administration should be pressed to find a new way forward. At the very least, we must hope the president's new policy will not find footing in the false notion that a nuclear Iran can be contained.

The writer is vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Iran is not going to build
10-12 new nuclear processing facilities, people ..
THEY ARE BUILT

Terror State: A dithering world has for years underestimated the costs of appeasement toward Iran. Tehran's aggressive plans for 10 new nuclear plants show they want dominance, not just a bomb or two.

To any informed observer, it's no surprise that Iran is now collecting its 10-to-1 winnings in the high-stakes game Tehran's Islamofascist government has been playing with the free world for years now.

WRONG ALL WRONG.

They are not going to BUILD 10 new nuke processing facilities.

They ARE built

They ARE operating

It's just that with the discovery of the Qum facility, and the now unarguable fact they are lying, taqiya laden genocidal sons of bitches, they are making sure they can say they TOLD US SO before the rest of these facilities are 'discovered'.

Why on earth do think their attitude, is and has been that the west can't do a damned thing?

The day after Netanyahu bowed to US pressure and announced a total freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria for ten months, Yediot Aharonot reported that the Obama administration now wants Israel to release a thousand Fatah terrorists from prison.

The Americans also want Israel to allow US-trained, terror-supporting Fatah paramilitary forces to deploy in areas that are currently under Israeli military control. Moreover, the Americans are demanding that Israel surrender land in the strategically crucial Jordan Valley to Fatah.

And these are just American preconditions for starting negotiations with the Palestinians. According to Yediot, if those talks ever begin, the White House will demand that Israel accept a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza and agree to ethnically cleanse all the areas of Jews.

So far from winning American support or at least causing the White House to ease its bullying, US President Barack Obama sees Netanyahu's decision to implement a militarily irrational, bigoted policy of prohibiting Jews from building in Israel's heartland as a drop in the bucket.

Israeli tech credited with protecting U.S. troops, combat aircraft

WASHINGTON -- A senior senator said the Defense Department has contracted for Israeli technology that was protecting U.S. ground units in campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The senator said the Israeli technology was more effective than anything else deployed by the U.S. military.

"If you look at some of the things that we have, they have been credited with saving more lives from RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] in Iraq than anything else," Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, said. "This is Israeli technology that you are sharing with us."

Crew chief checks out Litening AT Block II advanced targeting pod.   RNLAF

In an address to the Jerusalem Conference on Nov. 3, Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, cited the Litening air pod, Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle and armored tiles for U.S. combat vehicles. He said the tiles, developed by Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, were saving the lives of American troops.

Rafael also produces Litening, a combat navigation air pod that has been installed on virtually every U.S. fighter-aircraft. Northrop Grumman has been the prime contractor of the Litening program in the United States.

The Hunter was produced by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries. Northrop has also been working with the U.S. Army in developing and maintaining the Hunter.

Inhofe's identification of Litening and Hunter as Israeli systems contrasted with that of Northrop and the U.S. military. The two platforms have not been publicly linked to Israeli companies.

Rafael has been supplying armored tiles for the U.S.-origin Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. The project has been led by General Dynamics for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Another major Israeli project was the armoring of the M-ATV combat vehicle for the U.S. Army. Israel's Plasan Sasa has been the prime subcontractor in a multi-billion-dollar deal to armor more than 5,000 M-ATVs for the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Inhofe told the conference that many Americans were under the misconception that the Israeli-U.S. defense relationship was based on American arms sales. He said the relationship was mutual, and that U.S. arms sales to Israel were in Washington's interests.

"When we send C-130s and Apaches to Israel, we are not doing it for Israel, we are doing it for us," Inhofe said.

Prospects of new war on rise as Hizbullah gains control in Lebanon

WASHINGTON -- Iran's proxies, particularly Hizbullah, are preparing for an imminent war against Israel, a report said.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy said that Hizbullah has increasingly dominated Lebanon and could force the nation into another war against Israel. In a report, the institute said none of the issues that led to the 34-day war between Israel and Hizbullah in 2006 have been resolved.

"If the situation does not change significantly, it may only be a matter of time before a new conflict erupts in and around Lebanon," the report, titled "A Victory for Islamism: The Second Lebanon War and its Repercussions," said. "The group has spent the intervening years greatly expanding its military capacity, to such a degree that it can now decide whether Lebanon goes to war."

Authored by Swedish analyst Magnus Norell, the report said that neither the Lebanese government nor the international community has sought to address Hizbullah dominance, aided by Iran and Syria. Norell, a senior analyst at Swedish Defense Research Agency who formed a backchannel between Israel and Hizbullah to facilitate the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, asserted that Hizbullah has prevented Beirut from using its military.

"Approximately 70 percent of privates in the Lebanese army are Shi'ite, the sect from which Hizbillah recruits practically all of its members," the report said. "Most officers, on the other hand, are Christian or Sunni. This, too, was the case before the civil war."

Norell, along with his Swedish colleague, Magnus Ranstorp, participated in the discussions with Israel that led to the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. Norell recalled that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, today defense minister, decided to "bet" on the assurances of the United Nations and international community that they would prevent Hizbullah attacks on the Jewish state.

Instead, Norell said, Hizbullah embarked on an armament program that led to the 2006 war. He said the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as well as the pullout from the Gaza Strip five years later were regarded by Islamists as "pure capitulation."

"Not only has Hizbullah bolstered its military power and political influence, it has also strengthened its relations with Syria and Iran," the report said. "Finally, it has kept its conflict with Israel at a level high enough to ensure that the question of peace remains moot, but not so high as to endanger its political and military position within Lebanon."

Norell said Hizbullah was regarded by most Lebanese as having won the 2006 war with Israel. He said this has encouraged Arab states to reject peace negotiations with the Jewish state.

"Another war with Israel is expected to happen sooner or later, and Hizbullah is not prepared to allow its preparations to be hampered, either to the north or south of the Litani River," the report said.

Israel: Hizbullah has acquired long-range rockets based in Lebanon

TEL AVIV -- Israel's military has detected Hizbullah acquisition of missiles and rockets with ranges of up to 325 kilometers.

Officials said the weapons could strike targets in most of Israel.

"Some of them have a range of 300 kilometers and some of them have a range of up to 325 kilometers," Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said.

In a Nov. 10 briefing to a parliamentary committee, Ashkenazi said Hizbullah has already deployed the long-range rockets in Lebanon. He said a rocket attack from the Beirut area could reach the nuclear reactor in the southern Israeli city of Dimona.

"There is a paradox," Ashkenazi told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said. "On one hand, there is calm. But when you peek over the fence you can see armament and empowerment."

Officials said the latest acquisition marked the longest-range missiles and rockets in Hizbullah's arsenal. Until 2009, they said, Hizbullah wielded weapons with a range of about 200 kilometers.

Ashkenazi did not identify the latest Hizbullah missile. The missile approximated the range of the Soviet-origin Scud B.

Officials said Hizbullah has amassed an arsenal of 40,000 missiles and rockets, most of them short-range weapons. They said Iran has increased weapons and other military support to its Lebanese proxy.

"We don't delude ourselves," Ashkenazi said. "The situation is delicate and Hizbullah is growing stronger all the time. The Iranian challenge is to increase control over the Middle East through training, arms and money provided to all terror organizations."

Barack Obama told CNN yesterday, "I've restored America's standing in the world..."

Israel's 'Iron Dome' missile defense system to be ready by 2011

TEL AVIV -- Israel plans to deploy a new rocket defense system in 2011.

Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said the military would deploy the Iron Dome system to intercept incoming missiles and rockets. Ashkenazi said Iron Dome was advancing toward production and would be ready in 2011.

"Two new anti-aircraft artillery batteries of the Iron Dome missile defense system, which is designed for the interception of Katyusha and Kassam rockets, will begin operating in 2011," a military statement said on Nov. 14.

Iron Dome was meant to intercept missiles and rockets with a range of up to 70 kilometers. The system, which underwent its first live-fire test in mid-2009, has been developed by the state-owned Rafael Advance Defense Systems.

In a Nov. 10 briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Ashkenazi said Iron Dome would be required for the growing arsenal of short- and medium-range missile and rocket arsenals stationed along Israel's borders. The chief of staff cited threats by Hamas and the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah.

Ashkenazi said Hizbullah has acquired missiles with a range of 300 kilometers. He said Hizbullah has "tens of thousands of missiles in its possession, a small percentage of them able to reach a range of 300 kilometers," the military statement said.

"The chief of staff said that Hamas and Hizbullah, amid the relative quiet in recent months along borders of the north and Gaza Strip, have been rearming with missiles and rockets," the military statement said.

WASHINGTON - The International Atomic Energy Agency and Syria are walking a tightrope and appear to be headed toward a collision over two nuclear sites where undeclared uranium was recently found.

The agency found traces of uranium at the Dair Alzour nuclear site that are not included in Syria's declared inventory, according to a just released report. The Syrians said the uranium came from the Israeli missiles used to destroy the nearby al-Kibar reactor in September 2007.

The presence of uranium particles was detected at a second site near Damascus -- the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor. Syria said it came from the accumulation of samples and reference materials used in neutron activation analysis.

The IAEA is not buying either of the two explanations and is pressing Damascus for more answers and wants to know from where the uranium came. The agency has run its own tests and is certain the Syrian government is not telling the truth.

That's where the tightrope act comes in. The IAEA won't comment on what clearly appears to be evasive behavior by the Syrian government because of concern about its tenuous relationship with Syria.

Israel's Mossad intelligence service obtained details of Syria's covert nuclear facility by secretly obtaining data left on the laptop computer of a Syrian official who visited London, according to a German magazine report.

The U.S. National Security Agency played a key role in identifying the Syrian nuclear facility at al Kibar after communications between Syria and North Korea were intercepted in the spring of 2004, Germany's Der Spiegel reported Nov. 4.

However, the intelligence coup on the facility was scored by Israel's Mossad at the end of 2006 a high-ranking Syrian government official, kept under observation by Mossad stayed at a hotel in London's posh Kensington district and left his computer behind in the hotel room.

"Agents installed a spy program on the laptop, a Trojan horse that secretly steals data," Der Spiegel report.

"On the hard drive are blueprints, letters, and hundreds of photos. The pictures above all are revealing," it stated. "They show the al Kibar complex, in all stages of creation. In the beginning (presumably in 2002, the material is not dated) the construction site looks like a tree house on stilts, with suspicious pipelines to a pumping station on the Euphrates."

The construction was designed to fool overhead satellite reconnaissance photo that were designed to make the plan look normal from space. However, interior photos showed the plant was a nuclear facility.

One photo showed an Asian in a blue gym suit next to an Arab and they both were identified by Mossad Chon Chibu and Ibrahim Uthman. Chon was one of the leading North Korean nuclear experts and Uthman is chairman of the Syrian nuclear energy commission.

The intelligence eventually led to the daring Israeli military attack that destroyed the facility in September 2007, and which was then kept secret for nearly a year longer.

MAAN News (Palestinian) - Bethlehem - Ma'an - Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi said on Tuesday that elections cannot be held without a national unity agreement in place.

"Elections can't be held before rivalry comes to an end," said Barghouthi who is serving life sentence in an Israeli prison. The popular leader however blamed Hamas for the current impasse for their refusal to sign Egypt's latest proposal for Palestinian unity.

Abbas decreed that elections be held in January, a step that Hamas said should be delayed until after a deal is signed.

According to the PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe, Barghouthi told him during a visit to Israel's Hadareim prison, "National unity, and protection of the Palestinian political system are our compass toward completing our national duties. This is far more important than all partisan and individual interests."
As for the peace process with Israel he said, "There is no peace partner in Israel, and the Israeli government is not mature enough to establish a real and just peace with the Palestinian people. Unless Israel ends its occupation of the Palestinian territories it occupied in 1967, enable the Palestinians to build their independent state, guarantee return of refugees, and release all Palestinian detainees, all talks about peace are pointless."

Barghouthi applauded Palestinians in Jerusalem for their steadfastness in the face of Israeli "racist attacks against the capital of Palestine." He called on the Arab and Islamic nations to support Jerusalem and stop "Israeli aggression" which targets the people, the history, and the religious nature of Jerusalem.

TEL AVIV -- Israeli military intelligence has identified a Hizbullah weapons network throughout Shi'ite villages in southern Lebanon, officials said.

"We believe Hizbullah has at least 15,000 rockets and missiles within 10 kilometers of the Israeli border," an official said. "The smuggling of these weapons takes place on a nearly-daily basis."

The Israeli assessment was said to have been the result of intensive air and ground monitoring of Hizbullah movements throughout southern Lebanon, officials said. Over the last four months, Israel has tracked and recorded Hizbullah weapons movements over the Litani River to scores of villages near the southern Lebanese border.

Lebanese troops patrol along the border with Israel in the southern village of Kfar Kila, in August.    AFP/Mahmoud Zayat

On Oct. 13, the Israeli military released a video that showed the aftermath of an Oct. 12 explosion of a suspected Hizbullah weapons warehouse in a village east of the Lebanese city of Tyre. The video, taken by an Israel Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle, showed suspected Hizbullah operatives bringing Katyusha rockets and other weapons out of a destroyed three-story building owned by a senior Hizbullah operative.

One of the Hizbullah rockets appeared to measure four meters. Officials said this could have been a variant of the Iranian-origin Fajr-4, with a range of 70 kilometers and fired by Hizbullah during the 2006 war with Israel.

"The video filmed by the UAV, directed to the site after the explosion, clearly shows a large number of people arriving at the scene and loading Katyusha rockets and other weapons onto trucks," the military said on Oct. 14. "Later, they conceal the weapons and drive them to another weapons storage facility in the village of Dir Kanun A-Nahar, were they were unloaded."

The officials said Hizbullah could be operating as many as 300 military warehouses that contain anything from light ammunition to long-range rockets.

Officials said Israel informed the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon of the alleged Hizbullah warehouse. Hours after the explosion, the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL were seen at the destroyed building.

This was the second time the Israeli military released a video of an alleged Hizbullah weapons warehouse. In July, the military showed footage of Hizbullah operatives removing weapons from a warehouse that exploded in the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Salim.

"The Hizbullah terrorist organization continues to receive deadly weapons from its sponsors, members of this organization," Israel's envoy to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, said on Oct. 14. "At the same time, Hizbullah builds a military infrastructure in the midst of the civilian population south of the Litani River. Its operatives and affiliated civilians openly threaten UNIFIL, obstructing it from discharging its mandate."

Officials said Hizbullah receives weekly shipments of rockets, missiles, assault rifles and ammunition from Syria. They said Iran has financed the weapons, much of it which comes from Syrian Army arsenals.

Despite repeated Israeli complaints, UNIFIL has failed to intercept Hizbullah weapons shipments. Officials said UN peace-keeping patrols have encountered increasing hostility from Hizbullah-controlled Shi'ite villages.

"UNIFIL will not put its troops in danger in any confrontation with Hizbullah," the official said.

Israeli surveillance system in Lebanon uses UAVs and sensors

NICOSIA -- Lebanese security sources said a secret Israeli surveillance system in southern Lebanon combined unmanned aerial vehicles with tiny sensors that could monitor the movement of Hizbullah operatives and weapons.

They said the sensors were fitted with explosives to self-destruct if found by Hizbullah or the Lebanese Army.

"These do look like some sort of espionage device," United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon has confirmed Lebanese assertions that Israel had planted sensors near key sites in southern Lebanon. UNIFIL said several of the underground sensors, believed planted during the Hizbullah war in 2006, exploded on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18 between the Lebanese villages of Hula and Meis Al Jabal.

"Preliminary indications are that these explosions were caused by explosive charges contained in unattended underground sensors which were placed in this area by the Israel Defence Forces apparently during the 2006 war," UNIFIL said on Oct. 18.

The sources said the sensors enabled UAVs to survey Hizbullah movements and the flow of weapons to the Iranian-sponsored militia. They said the Israeli network also contained listening devices on telephones throughout southern Lebanon.

"The sensors could both provide live-stream video as well as listen to conversations and radio communications," a Lebanese security source said.

The use of sensors was said to have stemmed from the failure of UAVs to see through the morning fog along the Israeli-Lebanese border. In contrast, the sensors were believed capable of transmitting images in any weather.

The Israeli surveillance system was said to have relayed data to a command and control headquarters in the Israeli border community of Manara. Manara overlooks much of southern Lebanon, particularly the Shi'ite sector.

The Lebanese Army has warned that it would block Israeli overflights in the south. In mid-October, the army began opening heavy machine gun fire toward the Israeli military tactical UAVs.

The sources said the UAVs were also believed to have detonated camouflage explosives in southern Lebanon. One such bomb exploded in October near suspected Hizbullah operatives.

JERUSALEM -- A new poll shows only 6 percent of Israeli Jews see President Barack Obama's administration as pro-Israel, while 50 percent see it as pro-Palestinian.

That is a dramatic change from the previous U.S. administration of George W. Bush, which 88 percent termed "pro-Israel" and just 2 percent labeled pro-Palestinian.

Many Israelis reject Obama's call for a total settlement freeze and have come to see him as overly sympathetic to Palestinian claims.

The poll, taken after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said for the first time he supported a demilitarized Palestinian state, found 36 percent of respondents viewed Obama as neutral.

Netanyahu's advisers and aides offered varying explanations for Israelis' negative view of Obama, ranging from blaming the media for focusing on the perception of strained relations between Washington and Jerusalem to the belief that Obama faulted Israel for the lack of peace in the Middle East.

Last week, Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that the prime minister believes Obama wants to create a confrontation with Israel to help him improve relations with the Arab world, aides said.

This has been OBVIOUS from the moment he appointed people like Merrill Mcpeak, Brezhinski, and Powers. OVER A YEAR AGO. AS A CANDIDATE.

GERTZ - WASHINGTON -- Gulf Arab states share Israel's concern about the pro-Iranian shift by the United States, Israeli officials said.

The officials reported initiatives by several of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states to discuss strategy toward Iran amid the new U.S. dialogue by President Barack Obama. They said GCC representatives expressed deep concern that Obama's new policy would ensure Iranian dominance in the Gulf region.

"We don't know if the U.S. administration will be assertive enough, and if Iran goes nuclear it's going to be hell for all of us," a senior Israeli official quoted a GCC representative as saying.

An anti-aircraft gun at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran. AFP/Behrouz Mehri

Michael Herzog, chief of staff to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said he has been approached by GCC and other Arab officials regarding Iran. Herzog, a reserve brigadier general in the intelligence corps, recalled a meeting with a "very prominent figure" from an unidentified GCC state.

"'We are on the same side," Herzog quoted the GCC official as saying. '"We feel threatened by the Iranian nuclear projects, by their political ambitions, by their subversion and so on. And frankly,' he said, 'we are skeptical of whether Iran could be stopped.'"

Herzog reported similar conversations with officials in Egypt, Jordan and North African states. He said all of them sought talks with Israel regarding the Iranian threat.

"The No. 1 topic that comes up is Iran," Herzog told a May 7 briefing at the Washington Institute. "They are scared by the Iranian projects and ambitions. They are willing to do a lot in order to stop it. They don't know exactly what. They are skeptical -- some of them -- of whether Iran could be stopped."

Other Israelis with contacts in the Middle East agreed. Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said Arab allies of the United States were preparing to cooperate with Israel to stop Iran.

"It is hard to believe that the State Department does not understand that the moderate Arab states will cooperate to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb regardless of the Palestinian issue," Inbar said. "The Iranian threat dwarfs any potential repercussions of an impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian track."

Inbar said moderate Arab states have concluded that Iran was bolstering Hamas and Hizbullah to destabilize the region. He said Arab leaders have become alarmed by Hamas's military buildup in the Gaza Strip.

"The struggle against Hamas, just as the quest to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, serves American interests and those of its allies in the Middle East. It is only marginally related to Israel," Inbar said. "Unfortunately, Obama's Washington does not get it yet."

Officials said the biggest change in attitude has been that of Egypt. They said Egypt, which sees Hamas as a threat, did not try to disrupt the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip in January 2009.

"They basically, without saying so, gave us a free hand and wished that we would crush Hamas," Herzog said. "By the way, many of our neighbors privately used to tell us, 'Why don't you destroy Hamas,' while, of course, publicly condemning us."

Herzog said the GCC has been divided over Iran. He said Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have sought partners to counter Iran while Qatar was seeking an alliance with Teheran.

"We once were told by a Qatar leader," Herzog recalled. "He said, 'Look, Iran is like a few dozen meters from our shore. I have to take that into consideration. That's why I behave the way I behave.'"

"Netanyahu's demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state is ruining the chance for peace."

According to Egyptian news agencies, Mubarak further added that "not Egypt, nor any other Arab country would support Netanyahu's approach"

the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Muslim generations until Judgement Day. This being so, who could claim to have the right to represent Muslim generations till Judgement Day?

TEL AVIV -- Israel has drafted a delivery schedule for the first export of unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia.

Officials said the first Israeli tactical UAVs would be delivered to the Russian military in late 2009. They said the delivery would include the Searcher Mk-2 medium-range UAV as well as miniature I-View and Bird Eye-400 platforms.

"There has been an agreement to accelerate the project," an official said.

In April 2009, Israel and Russia signed a $50 million deal for the delivery of UAVs by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries. This would mark the first Israeli military sale to Russia.

Officials said Russian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin was expected to visit IAI in June to examine UAV production lines. They said Popovkin would also be briefed on IAI's Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV, sold to India and Turkey.

The decision to accelerate the UAV project was reported in wake of Russia's decision to halt the MiG-31E fighter-jet project for Syria. Officials said Israel's Defense Ministry was encouraged by the Kremlin's decision to suspend the $500 million deal, and then pressed for an expanded military relationship with Moscow.

"The Russian move bolstered our confidence that we could have a trustworthy relationship with Moscow," the official said.

The much-anticipated meeting between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu on May 18 went off smoothly, if a bit tensely, as predicted. Everyone was on best behavior and the event excited so little attention that the New York Times reported it on page 12.

As expected, however, the gloves came off immediately thereafter, with a series of tough American demands, especially U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's insistence on May 27 that the Netanyahu government end residential building for Israelis in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. This prompted a defiant response. The Israeli governing coalition chairman pointed out the mistake of prior "American dictates," a minister compared Obama to pharaoh, and the government press office director cheekily mock-admired "the residents of Iroquois territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem."

We are going to end up on opposites sides from the only real ally we have ever had in the middle east, and at it's heart the reason is a little problem Mr. Obama has in his soul.

If the specifics of who-lives-where have little strategic import, the Obama administration's rapid and harsh turn against Israel has potentially great significance. Not only did the administration end George W. Bush's focus on changes on the Palestinian side but it even disregarded oral understandings Bush had reached with Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.

Yasir Arafat smiles as Barack Obama meets Mahmoud Abbas in July 2008.

An article by Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post captures this shift most vividly. Diehl notes, based on an interview with Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, that by publicly and repeatedly stressing the need for a without-exception freeze of Israeli building on the West Bank, Obama

has revived a long-dormant Palestinian fantasy: that the United States will simply force Israel to make critical concessions, whether or not its democratic government agrees, while Arabs passively watch and applaud. "The Americans are the leaders of the world. ... They can use their weight with anyone around the world. Two years ago they used their weight on us. Now they should tell the Israelis, 'You have to comply with the conditions'."

Of course, telling the Israelis is one thing and getting their compliance quite another. To this, Abbas also has an answer. Expecting that Netanyahu's agreeing to a complete freeze on building would bring down his coalition, Diehl explains that Abbas plans "to sit back and watch while U.S. pressure slowly squeezes the Israeli prime minister from office." One Palestinian Authority official predicted this would happen within "a couple of years" - exactly when Obama is said to expect a Palestinian state in place.

I wonder what Hassan Nasrallah and Ajad are saying to each other about the mysterious ways of Allah, hmmmmm?

Barack Hussein Obama. Say it proud. Say it out loud. The middle moniker that dared not speak its name during the election campaign is now front and centre of the US president's attempt to woo the Muslim world, the theme of his visits to Riyadh on Wednesday and Cairo on Thursday.

Petrified of the potential political fallout of being branded a Muslim, Candidate Obama - a practicing Christian - never used the name "Hussein" and its use was frowned upon as a forbidden code for the nutty accusation that he was some kind of Islamic Manchurian candidate.

No more. To say Barack Hussein Obama - BHO for short - now appears to be the height of political correctness.

As I argue in this analysis for the Telegraph dead tree edition, Obama is seeking to return to a Middle East policy based on realism - buttressed by the bona fides of his own multi-cultural (including Muslim) background.

In other words it's back to George Marshall speaking to Truman in 1947, who told the president if he recognized Israel not only would he lose his Secretary of State (Marshall) but he would lose his vote in 1948.

The State Dept wins. And all of American Israeli policy is conflated with American Jews, 2500 years of history, a president who is now liable to admit (or CLAIM) he was born Muslim, and the idea that American interests are served by oil from Wahabbis scared of nuclear Shia for a year or two who might be induced to not hate hate us with 205% of their souls, reducing it temporarily to 189%, and we will all be AGOG at the politics of religion mixed into this complete coming FIASCO

Make no mistake about the path we are on.

Israel and the USA are going in opposite directions, and will very shortly find themselves on OPPOSITE SIDES in the middle east.

OPPOSITE SIDES

The USA is going to try and impose a peace and will find Israel resistant to ideas which will kill it and in absolute, black and white terms RESIST AMERICAN POLICY GOALS.

Freeing Barack Hussein Obama to tack the other way, and radically change American policy AGAINST DEMOCRACY and TOWARDS OUTRIGHT POLICE STATES, AND THEOCRATIC DICTATORSHIPS for blurry goals of soft landings among those who see lions and lambs in the same bed.

This is NOT A LIBERAL POLICY.

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA IS
JIMMY CARTER ON CRACK

Administration blocks helicopters for Israel due to civilian casualties in Gaza

Government sources said the administration has held up Israel's request for the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. The sources said the request was undergoing an interagency review to determine whether additional Longbow helicopters would threaten Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

"During the recent war, Israel made considerable use of the Longbow, and there were high civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip," a source close to the administration said.

And in a parallel story from July 1945, Boeing representatives have stopped deliveries of B-29's to the Army Air Force due to high civilian casualties in Nagoya, and Tokyo when the smell of burning flesh could be detected inside the bombing aircraft.

The Israel Air Force has also requested U.S. permission to integrate the Spike extended-range anti-tank missile into the AH-64D. Spike ER, developed by the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, has a range of eight kilometers and was installed on the Eurocopter Tiger and AgustaWestland A129 helicopters.

The sources said the deployment of Spike would require integration into the Longbow's millimeter-wave fire control and acquisition system. They said this would require permission from both Boeing and the U.S. government.

Israel's Defense Ministry and air force have discussed procurement of additional Longbows with the U.S. firm Boeing. But the sources said the Longbow as well as other defense requests have been shelved by the administration amid its review of the potential use of American weapons platforms by Israel.

The Russians WILL sell to anyone. The Israelis ARE fighting for their lives.

If we want to see the IAF buy Mil helicopters from Russia and make them equal to anything we have with Israeli ELINT, targeting, and weapons...this is certainly the way to ensure it.

Barack Obama is JIMMY CARTER ON CRACK

A refusal by the United States to allow Israel to repair computer systems in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is at the heart of disagreements between the Defense Ministry and the Pentagon that have been holding up an official Israeli order for the fifth-generation fighter jet.

The JSF, also known as the F-35, is a stealth fighter jet under development by Lockheed Martin. Last year, Israel received approval from the Pentagon to purchase up to 75 aircraft in a deal that could reach close to $20 billion.

The US has closed down production and canceled production of the F-22, which the Pentagon says is the only fighter we have which could penetrate the Russian sold but not yet installed S300PMU air defense system in Iran, rather than sell these to any of Israel, Japan or Australia, all of whom have asked to buy them.

Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that talks between the Israeli defense delegation in Washington and the Pentagon have picked up speed in recent weeks but have yet to result in agreement due to the US's refusal to grant Israel access to the plane's internal computer mainframe.

The Americans are concerned that by allowing Israel to independently repair the computers, the Israel Air Force will get its hands on the classified technology that was used to make the plane.

Israel, on the other hand, has argued that due to its operational requirements it needs to have the ability to repair damaged or broken computer systems in "real time" and cannot wait for a computer system to be sent to the US for repairs in the middle of a war.

The Americans have told Israel it will receive a number of spare computer systems that it could install in place of a damaged system but would still have to send the damaged system to the US for repairs.

"This is the core of the disagreements right now," explained one senior defense official. "We have major operational constraints and need to have the ability to repair the systems on our own."

Due to the disagreements regarding the computer, as well as American opposition to the integration of Israeli systems into the plane and its overall soaring cost - now reaching $100 million - the Defense Ministry has recently asked Boeing for details on the new and advanced model of the F-15 Eagle, which is claimed to have enhanced stealth capabilities.

There is also an option to upgrade existing F-15s to the Silent Eagle model at a much lower cost.

In March, Boeing unveiled the F-15 Silent Eagle (F-15SE), a new configuration of the F-15 which has undergone improvements and modifications that, according to media reports, give the plane a stealth capability that is effective in evading radars on enemy aircraft but not against ground-based radar systems.

Improvements in stealth include coatings and treatments to the aircraft, as well as a new design for the conformal fuel tanks that includes the possibility of carrying weapons inside them instead of fuel.

Israel operates several squadrons of F-15s, including one of 25 F-15Is, the aircraft with the longest-range in the IAF.

I see an Israeli designed and built stealth fighter, and stealth drones in the future which will compete on the open market with and perhaps for American sales, and absolutely WILL end up sold to any purchaser.

Is that really the desired outcome here?

Considering what Kissinger did in 1973, in both pre war threat 'had Israel struck first, they would not have received "so much as a nail" ' (rather than the Israeli policy which was to preempt), and in withholding resupply, and where we are with the administration and it's appointments, stated goals and speeches both during the campaign and now, the USA is proving that Israel's (i.e., the Jewish people in history in this case) original foreign policy in the face of the 1948-1966 US arms embargo - Israel will never be able to look to or depend on any other nation or people, and will never have real allies or friends, and should look only to itself - is utterly correct. Of course at that time, the mullahs and their genocidal compulsions DID NOT EVEN EXIST. There was no Hizballah, no HAMAS, no IRGC.

It will be the USA which faces the most problems in the ME, and in the world as a result of the choices it is making in foreign policy, defense and intelligence now. Problems CREATED by this admin which will last 50 years or more.

In whose long term interest is it that Iran remains without nukes, or the mullahs are destroyed?

What policies are we engaged in which will deliver these goals?

The concrete objective conclusions based on actual events is that, we are forcing Israel to be physically weaker, and politically weaker in order to compel them to commit acts not in their own interest because we believe a peace in the ME on our terms will serve our goals. We do not consider serious the idea that such a peace will kill Israel in the end.

This means the USA inside this administration regards ISRAEL (and another group here) as the problem in the middle east.

They believe that Israel compelled to act as we wish means Iran will understand our actions be cognizant that we mean them no harm and will feel that way towards us.

This 'reality' in the minds of this admin underlies all their actions.

It is my observation, therefore, that this administration believes Walt and Mearsheimer as well.

Watch what happens here in America as a result of this belief by the administration.

Obama's (adult) lifelong preacher, Wright said Israel was a gangster state...publicly. Obama is going to act as if it is and cast a baleful eye at those who support the idea that this gangster state is one of our key allies in this world.

I don't know how Obama's economic ideas are going to play out, but he is going to be the largest and most calamitous failure in American history as president in foreign affairs as history records, over the fullness of time.

President Obama's efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel's nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say.

The issue will likely come to a head when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mr. Obama on May 18 in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to seek assurances from Mr. Obama that he will uphold the U.S. commitment and will not trade Israeli nuclear concessions for Iranian ones.

Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, speaking Tuesday at a U.N. meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said Israel should join the treaty, which would require Israel to declare and relinquish its nuclear arsenal.

"Universal adherence to the NPT itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea, ... remains a fundamental objective of the United States," Ms. Gottemoeller told the meeting, according to Reuters.

...snip

Asked by The Washington Times whether the administration would press Israel to join the NPT, the official said, "We support universal adherence to the NPT.

...snip

For the past 40 years, Israel and the U.S. have kept quiet about an Israeli nuclear arsenal that is now estimated at 80 to 200 weapons. (Most estimates I have seen put that number 450-600) . Israel has promised not to test nuclear weapons while the U.S. has not pressed Israel to sign the nuclear NPT, which permits only five countries - the U.S., France, Britain, China and Russia - to have nuclear arms.

The U.S. also has opposed most regional calls for a "nuclear-free Middle East." The accord was forged at a summit between Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and President Nixon on Sept. 25, 1969, according to recently released documents, but remains so secret that there is no explicit record of it. Mr. Cohen has referred to the deal as "don't ask, don't tell," because it commits both the U.S. and Israel never to acknowledge in public Israels nuclear arsenal.

When asked what the Obama administration's position was on the 1969 understanding, the senior White House official offered no comment. 

...snip

The Obama administration is seeking talks with Iran on its nuclear program and has dropped a precondition for negotiations that Iran first suspend its uranium enrichment program.

"What the Israelis sense, rightly, is that Obama wants to do something new on Iran and this may very well involve doing something new about Israel's program," said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, a Washington think tank.

Bruce Riedel, a former senior director for the Middle East and South Asia on the White House National Security Council, said, "If you're really serious about a deal with Iran, Israel has to come out of the closet. A policy based on fiction and double standards is bound to fail sooner or later. What's remarkable is that it's lasted so long." Mr. Riedel headed the Obama administration's review of strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan but does not hold a permanent administration position and has returned to private life as a scholar at the Brookings Institution. 

...snip

Israel began its nuclear program shortly after the state was founded in 1948 and produced its first weapons, according to Mr. Cohen's book, on the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War. Israeli defense doctrine considers the nuclear arsenal to be a strategic deterrent against extinction. But its nuclear monopoly is increasingly jeopardized by Iranian advances and the possibility that Iran's program could trigger a nuclear arms race in the region.

Israel's arsenal has also been an open secret for decades, despite the fact that Israeli law forbids Israeli journalists from referring to the state's nuclear weapons unless they quote non-Israeli sources.

In 1986, the Israeli nuclear scientist, Mordecai Vanunu disclosed in the Sunday Times of London photographs and the first insider account of Dimona, the location of Israels primary nuclear facility. Israel responded by convicting him of treason. He was released in 2004 after spending 18 years in prison but has continued to talk about the program on occasion. The government has barred Mr. Vanunu from leaving Israel.

...snip

In 2000, Israeli journalist Aluf Benn disclosed that Mr. Clinton at Wye River promised Mr. Netanyahu that "Israels nuclear capability will be preserved." Mr. Benn described as testy an exchange of letters between the two leaders over the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty. He said Mr. Netanyahu wrote Mr. Clinton: "We will never sign the treaty, and do not delude yourselves - no pressure will help. We will not sign the treaty because we will not commit suicide."

The Bush administration largely dropped the treaty in its first term and reopened negotiations in its second term with a proposal that did not include verification.

...snip

Mr. Obama has made nuclear disarmament a bigger priority in part to undercut Iran's and North Korea's rationale for proliferation. His administration has begun negotiations with Russia on a new treaty to reduce U.S. and Russian arsenals. He also has expressed support for the fissile material treaty.

"To cut off the building blocks needed for a bomb, the United States will seek a new treaty that verifiably ends the production of fissile materials intended for use in state nuclear weapons," he said last month in Prague. "If we are serious about stopping the spread of these weapons, then we should put an end to the dedicated production of weapons-grade materials that create them."

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank, said such a treaty would be the first step toward limiting the Israeli nuclear program.

"The question is how much of a priority is this for the Obama administration?" he said.

John R. Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador and undersecretary of state, said Israel was right to be concerned.

"If I were the Israeli government, I would be very worried about the Obama administration's attitude on their nuclear deterrent," he said. "You can barely raise the subject of nuclear weapons in the Middle East without someone saying: 'What about Israel?' If Israel's opponents put it on the table, it is entirely possible Obama will pick it up."

However, Ms. Gottemoeller endorsed the concept of a nuclear-free Middle East in a 2005 paper that she co-authored, "Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security."

"Instead of defensively trying to ignore Israels nuclear status, the United States and Israel should proactively call for regional dialogue to specify the conditions necessary to achieve a zone free of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons," she wrote.

The paper recommends that Israel take steps to disarm in exchange for its neighbors getting rid of chemical and biological weapons programs as well as Iran forgoing uranium enrichment.

Can you believe these people?

4.5 million jews, 6 million Israelis, 300 million muslims right there want them dead. And we are talking about removing nuclear weapons from their arsenal.

Hey 53%, hey 87% of jews in America are you HAPPY YET?

"Israel has to work toward a two-state solution," declared Vice-President Joe Biden today in a speech to the annual conference of a powerful pro-Israel lobby group in Washington.

"You're not going to like my saying this," he warned the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) before adding that the Jewish state should not build any more settlements on Palestinian territory, and should "dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement".

There are, in the West Bank and Gaza 3 Palestinian movements. One movement is led by the Holocaust Denier/Minimizer Abbas, who only in April again asserted that while the Palestinian Authority may sign agreements which recognize Israel, he has no right to enforce this on the people or other movements. The other two movements are Hizballah and HAMAS. So there's certainly nothing to discuss there. More the idea that a peace deal with this batch will HELP with Iran is too stupid to believe, 2 out of 3 ARE the IRGC. They are Iran.

It is clear that to Obama, Israel is Czechslovakia, and the West Bank and Gaza the Sudetenland.

Meanwhile in the capital of the nation we are 'engaging with our dialog', Syria, the president of Iran says ..

"The Zionist occupiers are destructive microbes, because Zionism itself is occupation, aggression, the use of assassination and annihilation," he told a joint news conference with President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital.

"Zionism was created to threaten us. To support the Palestinian resistance is a humanitarian and popular obligation," Ahmadinejad said in remarks in Farsi that were translated into Arabic.

"Syria and Iran are united in supporting the Palestinian resistance."

Syria also is claiming that H5N1 (swine) flu is an american product.Progress on all fronts, eh.

What are other leaders thinking of all this? What are they thinking in other intelligence agencies? What are they going to keep to themselves?

I guess then it should be no surprise that Israel reacts this way..

"Whether or not Israel got the green light from Washington to attack Iran is almost immaterial, as everybody in the region would believe that the U.S. was complicit," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

One U.S. diplomat envisaged Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak telephoning Pentagon chief Robert Gates, unannounced, "to give a heads-up and explain" once the mission were under way.

Since Biden was so idiotic and dhimmish that he wanted to pay jizya to the Mullahs after americans had been killed in 2001, is there ANYONE in Israel who would trust the VP of the US with a moment's advance knowledge of an attack?

With each statement and admonishment, with every lack of undertstanding of the nature of the Palestinian desires, this administration brings regional war closer. There may be nothing anyone can do to prevent this, but Obama and his remarkably stupid and dangerous ideas are being noted by those who DO understand, and wonder what else he lacks the ability to move correctly on.

GERTZ:

The Bedouins were said to have resided in central and eastern Sinai and allegedly were connected to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

Another ..'they'll never work together' story.

Egyptian security sources said Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah ordered the establishment of sleeper cells in Egypt as Israel prepared to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Looks as if even Sharon badly misjudged this entire mess.

The sources said the Hizbullah network contained more than 100 people, located in such cities as Alexandria, Cairo and El Arish.    AP/Ben Curtis

The sources said Hizbullah, directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, intended to use Cairo as well as the Sinai Peninsula to transfer funds, weapons, instructions and recruits to the Gaza Strip.

"Iran and Iran's followers want Egypt to become a maid of honor for the crowned Iranian queen when she enters the Middle East," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu Al Gheit said.

You mean they weren't just enforcing the law so that international chaos and war would be avoided?

The sources said details of the Hizbullah network have been provided by Sami Shihab, identified as a cell chief and captured in April 2009. Shihab, a Lebanese national whose real name is Mustafa Mohammed Yusef Mansour, was said to have told Egyptian interrogators that Hizbullah had prepared a series of attacks on Israeli and other foreign targets in Sinai.

Gee, any guesses who "other" means? Maybe Thais?

"Elements of the cell monitored tourist sites in [Sinai's] Taba, Sharm e-Sheikh, Dahab and Nueiba to conduct operations against Israeli tourists and visitors," Shihab was quoted as telling interrogators. "They monitored Israeli ships moving through the Suez Canal."

The sources said a Hizbullah commander, Mohammed Qublan, was assigned the mission to establish a network in Egypt in 2005. They said Qublan visited Cairo and transferred funds to Egyptian and Palestinian recruits.

The sources said many of the Bedouins were arms and drug smugglers with connections in Israel. They said the Bedouins were ordered to recruit their relatives in Israel to the Hizbullah cell to facilitate smuggling and mass-casualty attacks.

You mean it's not really about the 'occupation' ? I can hardly believe it !

The Hizbullah network in Egypt was used to facilitate the flow of fighters, weapons and ammunition from Africa to the Gaza Strip.

The sources said the network intensified activity in February 2008 in wake of the assassination of Hizbullah operational chief Imad Mughniyeh, a killing blamed on Israel.

In addition, the sources said, Hizbullah planned three at least attacks on Israeli targets.

Hizbullah was said to have planned at least three attacks against Egypt and Israel. One plot stipulated a huge suicide bombing in Tel Aviv meant to result in scores of casualties.

Another plot was to identify and attack an Israeli or U.S. ship in the Suez Canal.

A third target was Israeli vacationers in the southern Sinai.

"This is the tip of the iceberg," the source said. "We are sure that we will uncover additional plots as additional terrorists are captured."

I wonder how Egypt will question them? With Honeyed Chicken and Rice Pilaf and soft walls meant to make a loud noise if you hit it, while preventing whiplash?

"The [Hizbullah] supreme leadership ordered Hizbullah not to stage operations in Egypt, rather within Israel," Shihab was quoted as saying. "The operations have been already approved."

At first, Shihab said, Hizbullah planned to attack Israeli interests in Egypt. He said Hizbullah sent operatives on forged passports to collect intelligence on a range of Israeli targets.

Another Hizbullah operative, Nasser Abu Umra, was said to have confessed to acquiring and concealing suicide explosive belts. Abu Umra was also said to have purchased a house in the divided city of Rafah to store weapons.

"This serious case, which affects the national security of Egypt and its national sovereignty, calls for zero tolerance and the protection of the state within a legal framework," Egyptian Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mufid Shehab told parliament on April 14.

The sources said the Hizbullah network contained more than 100 people, located in such cities as Alexandria, Cairo and El Arish. They said the Sinai network contained at least 25 Hizbullah operatives, believed to have been provided haven by Bedouins in the central part of the peninsula.

"The Central Committee of Hizbullah approved this, and Hizbullah sent Lebanese and Palestinians to form the network," a security source said.

Bedouin smugglers have been clashing with Egyptian security forces throughout eastern Sinai. On April 13, an Egyptian border guard was shot and killed along the Israeli frontier. At the same time, another shootout was reported between Egyptian forces and Bedouins in central Sinai.

Officials said the Hizbullah network was preparing to intensify weapons smuggling to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. They said the network, alleged to have already assembled suicide explosive belts, planned to purchase a boat and bring weapons from Somalia, Sudan and Yemen to Egypt.

"They were observing and locating the tourists groups who repeatedly come to south Sinai resorts and residences paving the way to target them in hostile activities," Shehab, the Egyptian minister, said.

Israel

"Obama could instruct Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to slow or decrease these purchases, which would send an unmistakable signal that it was no longer business-as-usual." Stephen Walt Position: Professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government

WASHINGTON -- A leading ally of President Barack Obama and critic of the Israel lobby in the United States has outlined a proposed U.S. campaign to pressure Israel that would suspend the intelligence dialogue between the two countries.

The timing is good.

Israel's "special relationship" with the United States has been low-hanging fruit for the unrelenting and politically victorious critics of the Bush administration's War on Terror which targeted militants in Iraq, Iran and Syria in coordination with Israel's security agencies.

Stephen Walt, a U.S. professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, who co-authored with John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago a controversial study on the Israeli lobby in the United States, has drafted recommendations for the Obama administration to pressure the new Israeli government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

Walt, regarded as influential in the U.S. diplomatic community, said the campaign should begin by administration criticism of Israel and support for United Nations resolutions that condemn the Jewish state.

"U.S. officials could even describe Israel's occupation [of the West Bank] as 'contrary to democracy,' 'unwise,' 'cruel,' or 'unjust,'" Walt wrote in the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy.

"Altering the rhetoric would send a clear signal to the Israeli government and its citizens that their government's opposition to a two-state solution was jeopardizing the special relationship."

Netanyahu was scheduled to fly to Washington to meet Obama in May 2009. But on April 16, the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported that Netanyahu was expected to cancel his visit amid an assessment that Obama would refuse to meet the Israeli prime minister.

"Within four years there will be a permanent settlement between Israel and Palestinians," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was quoted by Yediot as saying. "We don't care who the prime minister is."

Walt's report, titled "Can the United States Put Pressure on Israel: A User's Guide." marked the latest recommendations to the Obama administration to revise U.S. policy toward Israel.

In March 2009, a report by a bipartisan panel of foreign policy analysts called on the White House to pressure Israel as part of an effort to resolve the U.S. conflict with the Arab world.

Stephen Walt, left, of Harvard University, and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago.  Greg Martin / N.Y. Times

The book by Walt and Mearshimer, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, generated controversy but also served to validate a growing alternative foreign policy consensus for a new administration elected in large part on the basis of the repudiation of the 43rd U.S. president.

But the book was also repudiated by such ideologically opposed former foreign policy officials as former Secretary of State (1982-89) George Shultz and former N.Y. Times correspondent and former President of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie Gelb.

"Anyone who thinks that Jewish groups constitute a homogeneous 'lobby' ought to spend some time dealing with them," Shultz wrote in the U.S. News and World Report. "For example, my decision to open a dialogue with Yasser Arafat after he met certain conditions evoked a wide spectrum of responses from the government of Israel, its political parties, and American Jewish groups who weighed in on one side or the other. ... The United States supports Israel not because of favoritism based on political pressure or influence but because the American people, and their leaders, say that supporting Israel is politically sound and morally just. ... So, on every level, those who blame Israel and its Jewish supporters for U.S. policies they do not support are wrong. They are wrong because, to begin with, support for Israel is in our best interests. They are also wrong because Israel and its supporters have the right to try to influence U.S. policy. And they are wrong because the U.S. government is responsible for the policies it adopts, not any other state or any of the myriad lobbies and groups that battle daily--sometimes with lies -- to win America's support."

Leslie Gelb wrote in the New York Times Book Review that the scholarship was shoddy and that the authors were biased. "More troublingly, [Walt and Mearsheimer] don't seriously review the facts of the two most critical issues to Israel and the lobby -- arms sales to Arab states and the question of a Palestinian state -- matters on which the American position has consistently run counter to the so-called all-powerful Jewish lobby. For several decades, administration after administration has sold Saudi Arabia and other Arab states first-rate modern weapons, against the all-out opposition of Israel and the lobby. And make no mistake, these arms have represented genuine security risks to Israel. . . And on the policy issue that has counted most to Israel and the lobby -- preventing the United States from accepting a Palestinian state prior to a negotiated deal between Israel and the Palestinians -- it's fair to say Washington has quietly sided with the Palestinians for a long time."

Walt warned against any immediate attempt by Obama to reduce the $3 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel. He said this would result in a battle with the Democratic-controlled Congress.

"There's a lot of potential leverage here, but it's probably not the best stick to use, at least not at first," Walt said.

"Trying to trim or cut the aid package will trigger an open and undoubtedly ugly confrontation in Congress -- where the influence of AIPAC and other hard-line groups in the Israel lobby is greatest. So that's not where I'd start."

But Walt urged Obama to reduce U.S. strategic cooperation with Israel. He said the administration could suspend the dialogue between the Israeli and U.S. intelligence communities as well as that of the Israeli military and the Defense Department.

"Today, such a step would surely get the attention of Israel's security establishment," Walt said.

Walt also recommended that the United States reduce its procurement of Israeli defense equipment, another step that would not require congressional approval. Israel has sold a range of armor, munitions and platforms deployed by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Obama could instruct Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to slow or decrease these purchases, which would send an unmistakable signal that it was no longer business-as-usual," Walt said.

"Given the battering Israel's economy has taken in the current global recession, this step would get noticed too. And most of these measures could be implemented by the Executive Branch alone, thereby outflanking die-hard defenders of the special relationship in Congress."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned Israel's right-wing government on Thursday that it risked losing Arab support for fighting any threats from Iran if it shuns Palestinian peace talks.

Signaling U.S. impatience with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reticence over peace talks, Clinton said Arab nations had made clear to her that Israel must be committed to the Palestinian peace process if it wants help countering Iran.

"For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can't stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand in hand," she told the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.

We are in such deep trouble as a nation I don't even know where to start.

Here it is...There are NO CIRCUMSTANCES, NONE under which a Muslim majority nation will EVER take the side of Israel publicly or privately against another Muslim nation.

If Ms Clinton does not know this she should be HOME MAKING TUNA SANDWICHES. Thoughts that she knows something we don't about this are TOTAL SELF DELUSION.

A Hamas cleric who once participated in an international conference of "Imams and Rabbis for Peace" -- whose delegates vowed to "condemn any negative representation" of each other's religions -- has wholeheartedly espoused Hamas's racist ideology in a recent Friday sermon on Hamas TV.

Ironically, this latest profession of Hamas's genocidal racism was preached and broadcast at the start of the month in which the UN is meeting in the "Durban II" conference in Geneva to condemn Israel as being "racist."

According to the Hamas interpretation of Islam, the Jews are inherently evil, seek to rule the world, and are a threat to Muslims and all of humanity. Therefore they are destined to extermination. In the words of Hamas religious leader Ziad Abu Alhaj, "Hatred for Muhammad and Islam is in their [Jews'] souls, they are naturally disposed to it..."

He asserts that because of the Jews' inherent evil, the Jewish state, "Israel ... is a cancer that wants to rule the world." One can find the details of the Jews' plan in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which he jokingly refers to as "The Protocols of the Imbeciles of Zion" (a play on words in Arabic). He concludes that the Jews are destined to be annihilated:

"The time will come, by Allah's will, when their property will be destroyed and their children will be exterminated, and no Jew or Zionist will be left on the face of this earth."
[Hamas (Al-Aqsa) TV, April 3, 2009]

Sounds like a religion of peace to me.

He also claims that the Jews wanted to murder Muhammad.

This imam, who is preaching the genocide of Jews, participated in the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in 2006, which also featured many prominent rabbis from Israel. The final statement from the Seville conference included the pronouncement, ". . . We condemn any negative representation of these [religious beliefs and symbols], let alone any desecration, Heaven forbid. Similarly, we condemn any incitement against a faith or people, let alone any call for their elimination, and we urge authorities to do likewise."

REPORTED BEFORE as early as 2006
GERTZ:
TEL AVIV -- Iran was said to be preparing to deploy a Soviet-origin intermediate-range ballistic missile that could be equipped with a nuclear warhead.

Israeli intelligence sources said Iran is completing modifications of the BM-25 ballistic missile, supplied to Teheran in 2007. They said Russian scientists and engineers were preparing the BM-25 (R-27 / SSN-6) for operational use in 2009.

"The BM-25 would give Iran the capability to strike anywhere in the Middle East and Europe," an intelligence source said.

Iran acquired BM25 land-mobile missiles with launchers from North Korea and other sources. Now Russian scientists and engineers are said to be preparing the BM-25 for operational use.   jcpa.org

Over the last three years, Iran acquired several dozen BM-25s from North Korea and Ukraine. The intelligence sources said most of the Soviet-origin missiles, designed for ship launch, were deemed faulty or obsolete.

Meanwhile Israel has prepared its own missile option against Iran, a report said.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies said Israel was preparing an intermediate-range missile attack option against Teheran. In a report, CSIS said Israel was deploying the Jericho-3 missile, with a payload of 750 kilograms, to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

"If the Jericho-3 is fully developed and its accuracy is quite high then this scenario could look much more feasible than using combat aircraft," the report, titled "Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran's Nuclear Development Facilities," said.

Authored by analyst Abdullah Toukan, the March 14 study said Israel's Jericho-3 contained a circle error of probability of several dozen meters. Toukan said the Jericho-3 could overcome the difficulties of an Israeli aircraft strike on Iran, located about 1,000 kilometers from the Jewish state.

"The most recent version of the [Jericho] missile seems to be a two-stage, solid-fuel propellant with a range of up to 900 miles [1,500 kilometers] with a 2,200 pound payload," the report said.

The 114-page study said any Israeli missile attack would spark an Iranian counter-strike. Toukan said Iran would use its Shihab-3B intermediate-range ballistic missiles against the Jewish state. The report said Iran was believed to have fewer than 100 such missiles.

The report said Israel was believed to have deployed Jericho-3 in late 2008 and might have stored the missile in Zeharya, near the city of Bet Shemesh. The missile was said to be designed to eventually reach a range of 6,500 kilometers.

"Israel has carried out the successful test launch of a long-range, ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead," the report said. "Israel has begun a program to extend the range of its existng Jericho-2 surface-to-surface missile. The Jericho-3 is planned to have a range of 4,800 kilometers to 6,500 kilometers which brings all of Iran and the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries within range."

Toukan envisioned that most Iranian missiles would be intercepted by Israel's Arrow-2 ballistic missile defense system. He said that most of the incoming Iranian missiles would fall in neighboring Jordan.

The report said an Israeli strike would require advanced U.S. air-to-ground weapons. Toukan cited the GBU-27 BLU-109 2000-pound class penetrating warhead and the GBU-28 BLU-113 5000-pound class penetrating warhead for any mission to destroy Iran's Natanz centrifuge facility as well as the Isfahan uranium conversion facility.

"We can conclude that a military strike by the Israeli Air Force against Iranian nuclear facilities is possible, however, it would be complex and high risk in the operational level and would lack any assurances of a high mission success rate," the report said.

Israeli intelligence assessed that the BM-25 upgrade was coordinated with Iran's nuclear weapons program.

"The Iranians have been using components and technology from BM-25 to improve existing systems, including the Shihab," the intelligence source said.

On March 25, Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said Iran has reached the capability to enrich uranium for an atomic bomb.

Yadlin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Iran could enrich enough weapons-grade uranium for a bomb within several months. Weapons-grade enrichment requires a 90 percent level.

"They are enriching fissile material in a low percentage of 4.5," Yadlin said. "But whoever knows how to enrich [fissile material] 4.5 percent knows also how to enrich it 20 percent, 60 percent or 93 percent. With 4,000 centrifuges spinning, to change from 4.5 percent to 93 percent takes only a few months to a year."

OK this is all very nice, but again I will make the point that any such attack will bring about attacks by Iran on Israel, US forces, Hormuz, Abqaiq, gas prices above the $4/gallon levels we saw last year, and calumny upon the state of Israel and jews around the world unseen since ... the first crusade?

Given this, and the fact that these items are NOT a deterrent to Israeli action compared to becoming toast, why would Israel NOT seek to take out the leadership of Iran and look for another regime entirely ... remember even another inimical regime, which is both non apocalyptic, not dedicated to a quranically based killing of the jews, and not inclined to support HAMAS and HIzballoid genocidal freaks is all it would take to create a VAST improvement in the wowrld situation.

Israel won;t be looking for Jefferson and Madison over there.

Russia signs first Israeli drone deal

REUTERS
April 10, 2009 08:24 ET

* Russia says signed deal for Israeli drones

* First Israeli drone purchase by Moscow

(Adds Israeli defence and industry sources, changes headline)

By Amie Ferris-Rotman

MOSCOW, April 10 (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday it had
signed a contract to buy drones from Israel, in the first such
deal analysts said was aimed at strengthening the armed forces
after last year's brief war with Georgia.

"We signed a contract with an Israeli firm for the delivery
of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)," local news agencies quoted
Russian Deputy Defence Minister Vladimir Popovkin as saying.

Russian media have reported the deal is worth about $50
million and that Russia will buy three different types of drones
from Israel's largest defence firm, state-owned Israel Aerospace
Industries (IAI).

An Israeli defence source with knowledge of the deal told
Reuters the Israel Aerospace Industries sale was the first drone
sale to Russia by an Israeli firm. IAI officials declined to
comment.

Russia's five-day war with neighbouring Georgia last August
exposed a Soviet-style army with obsolete equipment and a lack
of spy drones and high-precision bombs, analysts said.

An industry source in Israel said Russian generals were
impressed with the drones Georgia had bought from the Jewish
state and approached the Israelis shortly after the war.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that budget cuts this
year in the wake of the financial crisis will not affect planned
purchases of new weapons for the armed forces.

Israel's Haaretz daily said on Friday that the deal for the
drones went ahead only after Israel received clear signals from
Russia that it had no intention of selling S-300 anti-aircraft
missile systems to Iran.

Asked if the sale was connected to the S-300, the defence
source agreed there was a link, but gave no further details.
(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman in Moscow, Ori Lewis and Dan
Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Charles Dick)

Following are excerpts from a drama show presented at the Gaza Islamic University, during a festival commemorating Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin. The show aired on Al-Aqsa TV on April 3, 2009.

Jewish father: We Jews hate the Muslims. We love killing Muslims. We Jews love drinking the blood of Muslims and the blood of Arabs. Are you Arabs? Are you Muslims? I hate you. Yes, I hate you. I hate you in order to please God. In order to please God... In order to please God...

Shimon, his son: Dad, I don't know how God could possibly be pleased with you when you stink so much. You haven't taken a shower for two years, yet you talk about pleasing God.

Father: In order to please God...

Shimon, my son, I'd like to teach you something. You must hate the Muslims.

Shimon: Of course I hate them.

Father: You must drink from the blood of Muslims.

Shimon: But mix it with soda water.

A former German government official, Hans Rühle, has disclosed classified information on the discovery of Syria's covert nuclear plant that was built with North Korean assistance before being destroyed in an Israel air strike.

Ruhle stated in a column that appeared in the Zurich newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung on March 19 that Iran helped finance the Syrian plant at al Kibar. He stated the CIA's role in the defection of Iranian defector Ali Reza Asghari in February 2007 was "a spectacular intelligence coup."

In addition to details of Iran's nuclear program, Asghari's "biggest surprise" was the disclosure that Iran was bankrolling the Syrian-North Korean nuclear program.

The disclosure embarrassed not only the Americans, which spend billions monitoring foreign nuclear developments, but the Israelis as well, who had thought that Syria's weapons of mass destruction programs were limited to chemical and biological weapons.

Ruhle said the late Syrian leader Hafez Assad decided to cooperate with Iran and North Korea on the nuclear project with the goal of developing nuclear weapons.

North Korean ship traffic to Syria began the first deliveries of equipment in 2002 but aroused no suspicions from U.S. or Israeli intelligence. It wasn't until the fall of 2006 that suspicions began to arise.

One reason for the intelligence failure was the fact that there was no electronic communications coming from the al Kabir construction site, Ruhle said.

Instead, the Syrians used couriers to communicate on the al Kibar project.

Ashgari's revelations took western intelligence by surprise and they launched a top secret operation to find out about the plant, he stated. The operation included a 12-man commando unit in two helicopters to obtain soil samples and photographs of the plant. The mission proved it was a North Korean design reactor.

That led to the Israeli F-15 bombing raid on Sept, 6, 2007 that took the Syrians by complete surprise.

The North Korean role in the reactor was kept secret for months to avoid upsetting the six-nation nuclear talks on North Korea, which had become a centerpiece of the Bush administration's Asian diplomacy. The talks ultimately failed.

Ruhle said Israel estimated the Syrian nuclear program cost Iran between $1 billion and $2 billion.

"The deterrent effect of the Israeli action in September 2007 will probably not last," he stated.

Iran "Is Known to the World as a Nation that Cannot Be Defeated"

"Thanks to the steadfastness of the Iranian nation, which stands behind the dear leader [Khamenei], this nation continues in its glorious path and is known to the world as a nation that cannot be defeated. Today, thanks to great achievements, the threat to Iran has been lifted, and no power in the world entertains the notion of taking action against the Iranian nation. Even if someone were to entertain this notion and want to undertake any act of aggression against the nation... he should know that the Iranian nation is ready, and any hand outstretched in order to attack will be cut off.

"The Iranian nation is one of civilization, culture, and values. It is peace-loving, and [its people are] people of reason and dialogue, justice and brotherhood. It desires that this atmosphere should exist throughout the world. They [the West] say that the world cannot be run through terror or militarism. We say the same thing; in fact, this is the deepest wish of the Iranian nation. However, the question here is: why are they making shows of force thousands of kilometers from their borders and attacking other nations? Stop your shows of force and aggression, and look to the world in peace and tranquility..."

TEL AVIV -- Israel is preparing for the prospect that Iran would attempt to smuggle radiation bombs into the Jewish state.

Officials said the government has ordered the installation of advanced systems to detect radioactive substances. They said the systems would be installed in major airports and sea ports.

"We believe that Iran could be plotting with terrorist groups a radiation attack," an official said.

Such a weapon would be easily deniable, and might give the mullahs the dream they could escape the inevitable cataclysmic response. Anyone who tries this with Bibi at the helm is out of their gourd. Southern Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Iran......GOOOOOOOOOOOOONE. PFFFFFFFFFT.

Officials said a radiation-detection system has been installed in the Israeli port of Haifa, which processes 1.5 million containers per year. They said the system was capable of scanning containers for radioactive material.

The intelligence community warned the government in 2007 of the prospect of a radiation bomb. Officials said such a bomb could be assembled by Iran, Hizbullah or Al Qaida.

"A dirty bomb could result in thousands dead without any fingerprints," the official said. "It is a more likely option than Iran firing a nuclear missile."

In fact the nuclear material, smuggled from hospitals in the USA (for instance) could be managed EASILY. That's why it's so important that retaliation against nation states which support terror be believed. And why Israel makes it clear that it is not only ready to ACT ALONE, but be alone in the aftermath. This should be stated publicly. Just the way JFK did.

"An attack from Cuba will be regarded as an attack
from the USSR and will be met by retaliation"

The Mullahs, Hassan Nasrallah, and HAMAS should all be left thinking that 'those jews are crazy and will kill everyone, and that will be the end of the Islamic revolution, and the end of us and our movements'

Officials said the radioactive detection system would also be installed in Ben-Gurion International Airport. Ben-Gurion is the largest airport in the country.

The Israeli effort has been coordinated with the United States. The United States has recruited allies to help track ships believed to contain weapons of mass destruction. 

BELIEVERS THAT THERE CAN BE PEACE AMONG HAMAS, HIZBALLAH AND IRAN AND ISRAEL COMMENT HERE

Conflict resolution is still not high on list of Syria's strategic priorities

The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran and North Korea were the key contributors to Syria's nuclear weapons program. The men who run Syria Affiliation: Alawi sect of Shia

-- The Syrian regime has never been regarded as particularly helpful to Western interests in that it quietly but actively aided Al Qaida insurgents transiting its borders to and from Iraq and has continuously helped supply both Hizbullah and Hamas in their proxy wars against Irael.

And yet the leader Bashar Assad (and his attractive wife) dress in fashionable European designer attire and eschew the thuggish public behavior of other dictators in the region.

The quiet military/intelligence band of Alawi brothers he heads and that run the country carefully cater to the Sunni majority that makes country function to the degree that it does and holds down key posts in the middle levels of government.

But the same covert clique worked with North Korea to build a nuclear reactor apparently aimed at producing a Syria arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

This inconvenient fact is downplayed by the newly-empowered U.S. State Department that chafed under President George W. Bush's inclination to favor the Pentagon (during his first term at least) in foreign policy debates.

Under President Barack Obama, the diplomatic corps and significant segments of the U.S. intelligence community under its sway, see engagement with Syria and Iran as the key to conflict resolution and peace in the Middle East.

Good luck with that.

As an advisory by Middle East Newsline warned:

In the latest assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Syria's alliance with Iran is described as unnatural and "may erode if Syria is accommodated significantly in any diplomatic agreement with Israel."

Somebody at DIA might want to know that the Syrian alliance with Iran is nearly 30 years old and survived three Arab wars. DIA might also want to know that President Assad's Alawi-dominated Syria, the minority that comprises 10 percent of the population, has never maintained normal relations with any of its neighbors -- Arab, Sunni, secular, Islamic or Jewish.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, right, welcomes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad upon his arrival at the Amman airport.  AFP/Khalil Mazraawi

Syrian opposition sources report Damascus has been hosting foreign delegations to plan the resumption of its nuclear program. They said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad plans to construct a nuclear facility over the next year.

"A new delegation of Iranian and Ba'athist Iraqis supported by Iran has arrived to Damascus last week to energize the Syrian nuclear program," the Reform Party of Syria said on March 12. "The delegation is comprised mostly of nuclear scientists but their specialized expertise remains a mystery."

The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran and North Korea were the key contributors to Syria's nuclear weapons program. In September 2007, the Israel Air Force bombed a suspected plutonium production plant in northeastern Syria near the border with Iraq.

RPS did not provide details of the Iranian delegation to Syria. Sources in Damascus said the destroyed site at Al Kibar has been rebuilt as a missile facility.

The U.S. intelligence community has also determined that Syria is modernizing its military, including the fighter-jet fleet and missile arsenal.

The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that Syria was upgrading its missile, rocket, anti-tank, aircraft and air defense inventories. The Pentagon agency said Syria was receiving advanced Russian air defense systems to combat any Israeli air strike.

Before and after photos of a suspected plutonium production plant in northeastern Syria targeted by the Israeli air force in a strike carried out just after midnight on September 6, 2007.  Wikipedia

"Significant air defense related deliveries include at least two SA-22 self-propelled short-range gun and missile air defense systems from Russia in June 2008, out of a contract for several dozen," DIA director Michael Maples said. "Recent Syrian contracts with Russia for future delivery include new MiG-31 and MiG-29M/M2 fighter aircraft, and the SA-X-17 medium-range SAM system."

The SA-22 has been marketed by Moscow as the Pantsyr-S1 mobile air defense system. Pantsyr was developed with financing by the United Arab Emirates, a leading client of the system.

The MiG-31, a high-altitude interceptor meant to replace the MiG-25, has been deemed one of the most advanced fighter-jets in the Russian Air Force. The MiG-29M/M2 marks an upgrade of the legacy MiG-29, the staple of the Syrian Air Force. Damascus has not bought fighter aircraft in more than 20 years.

"Syria's ballistic missile inventory is designed to offset shortfalls in the country's conventional forces," Maples said. "It includes older Russian-built SS-21s as well as Scud B, Scud C, and Scud D missiles. Syria continues to flight test ballistic missiles which it views as a strategic deterrent against Israel."

In a briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 10, Maples said Syria was supplying anti-tank guided missiles to the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. He said Damascus has regarded Hizbullah as an "extension of its own defense capabilities against Israel in potential future conflicts."

DIA assessed that Syria contains a stockpile of chemical warfare agents, including nerve gas, which could delivered by aircraft or ballistic missiles. The agency said Damascus has advanced its biological weapons program and could fire missiles with a BW warhead.

"Based on the duration of Syria's longstanding biological warfare program, we judge some elements of the program may have advanced beyond the research and development stage and may be capable of limited agent production," DIA said in a report submitted to Congress.

"Syria is not known to have successfully weaponized biological agents in an effective delivery system, but it possesses a number of conventional and chemical weapon systems that could easily be modified for biological agent delivery."

Syria is also involved in supplying of the Hamas regime in Gaza, an operation that has become more difficult since its 2008 war with Israel.

A report by the Israeli intelligence community said that Iran, in wake of the Israel war, would face greater difficulty in restoring Hamas's military capabilities than in Teheran's rearmament of Hizbullah in 2006. The report by the state-financed Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center pointed out that Iran does not have direct access to the Gaza Strip as it does to Lebanon.

However, Hamas's military buildup in the Gaza Strip has been directed by Hamas headquarters in Damascus, Syria, headed by Khaled Mashal, the report said. The report said the buildup has focused on rockets and mortars and IEDs in an effort similar to that of Hizbullah in 2006. Hizbullah was said to have engaged in weapons smuggling for Hamas.

"In the Middle East, there are some countries which manufacture such rockets, including Iran and Syria," the report said. "In our assessment, Iran initiated the technological adaption to make it easier to dismantle the rockets for smuggling into the Gaza Strip for Hamas and the other terrorist organizations."

While new thinking seems to be in vogue these days in Washington policy circles, the priority in Teheran and Damascus remains what it has been: high tech weapons of mass destruction.

KUMBAYA FANS AND YAYO SMOKERS COMMENT HERE

Gates, under Obama, raises the bar on criteria for U.S. action in Iran
A senior official asserted that President Barack Obama was unlikely to order the destruction of Iran's nuclear weapons facilities.

Instead, Obama was expected to first determine whether a nuclear Iran would constitute a direct threat to the United States.

"I think that the barrier first of all will be are we going to be attacked here at home," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.In a television interview on March 12, Gates appeared to reverse years of U.S. warnings that it would consider all options, including military, to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. Instead, Gates asserted that neither Obama nor his successor would rely on U.S. intelligence assessments on whether Iran has already reached the capability to produce atomic bombs.

"He is going to ask a lot of very hard questions," Gates said. "And I think that hurdle is much higher today than it was six or seven years ago."

U.S. intelligence breaks with Israel's on nuclear headway by Iran

The U.S. intelligence community has disputed an assessment by its Israeli counterpart and the Pentagon regarding Iran's nuclear program.

In an assessment that played down warnings by U.S. military chiefs, the American intelligence community determined that Iran has failed to produce highly-enriched uranium, required for the assembly of nuclear weapons. Two leading U.S. intelligence officials said Iran was not known to have begun refining low-enriched uranium into fuel that could be installed into a missile warhead.

Officials said the U.S. intelligence community and military dispute Iran's progress toward nuclear weapons. On March 1, Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Teheran has accumulated enough fissile material to produce a nuclear bomb.

Within hours, senior officials in the Obama administration, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, disagreed with Mullen. Later, the admiral issued a clarification.

"There are differences among the [U.S.] intelligence communities," Blair said. "Our current estimate is that the minimum time at which Iran could technically produce the amount of highly-enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon is 2010."