All Posts Tagged With: "israel"

Israel has decided on a policy of strategic independence wherein it will rely only on itself.

Today it was announced that the Bush administration quietly but, indefinitely shelved its plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran. Tehran appears to have taken advantage of America’s financial crisis and weak moment to ditch informal understandings, step up its nuclear arms program and go back to pumping Shiite combatants into Iraq. Iran is heartened by North Korea thumbing its nose at the international community that remains impotent. There is speculation Iran desires to increase American deaths in Iraq on the eve of the U. S. presidential election to help elect what it sees as a naïve, and weak Barack Obama (D) Illinois and further isolate Israel. Joe Biden (D) Delaware, Obama’s VP pick, told Israel to get used to a nuclear armed Iran.

 Iranian Republican Guard and Hezbollah trainers are reported to be training hundreds of Shiite fighters who have recently been infiltrated into Baghdad precincts.

Israel news sources say it has lost out all the way around: First by heeding the Bush administration’s demands to refrain from military action against Iran and rely on international diplomacy and sanctions. Now that this option is bankrupt, Israel is left alone with the prospect of an unstoppable nuclear-armed Iran absent a reliable U. S. ally in the face of increasing Russia presence.

Israel has decided on a policy of strategic independence wherein it will rely on itself.

Israel Buys 75 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency has approved the $15.2 billion sale of 25 F-35 Strike Fighters to Israel with an option for another 50. Military sources report the aircraft will enhance Israel’s air-to-air and air-to-ground defenses: It is armed with advanced radar for striking ground or air targets long distance while destroying any threat in its immediate environment. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multi-role aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air superiority fighter missions. It is second only to the F-22 Raptor that so far has not be exported.

Developed to ensure air superiority until mid-century the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Norway and Denmark all contributed to cost to develop the “joint strike fighter.”

President George W, Bush, in mid-financial crisis, fully discharged his promise of a defense package for Israel before he left office. Last week the U. S. flew a new super anti-missile radar system to Israel. The gadget is said to be detect a baseball and track it at distances over 1,000 miles.

Russia believes America is about to be propelled into an extraordinary shift toward socialism-isolationism ideas it can exploit.

Russia has intensified its spying on Israel and transferring that intelligence on Israel’s strategic capabilities to Iran and Syria. “(I)f the Russians help the Syrians get information, and the Syrians constantly pass it on to Hezbollah, it is a reasonable supposition that the information gathered by the Russians also reaches Hezbollah’s hands,” Col. Ram Dor, chief of information security in the Israeli military, said.

Russia has been monitoring Israel’s military and vital facilities via land, air and sea assets Russian warships are now routinely basing and staging out of Syrian’s Mediterranean naval base at Tartus that has now been converted to a permanent Russian naval base.

Officials said Russia has increased espionage operations inside Israel. They said Russian agents have been directed to identify and target young officers in the Israeli military and intelligence community. That is particularly insidious because there are more than 1 million Russian speakers linked to the former Soviet Union in Israel. Officials said Russian intelligence tracks emigrants who work in the Israeli military and defense industry and traces family inside Russia the purpose is to bludgeon their support by threatening family members still inside Russia.

The Russian intelligence on Israel is being relayed to the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia via Damascus. The Syrians share the intelligence that they gather with Hezbollah, and the other way around,” Dor said. “This we know, because we know how to build a mirror-image that shows us what enemy intelligence knows about us.”

At the same time it was disclosed that Syrian President Bashar Assad has ordered the formation of an Iranian-trained praetorian guard to protect him from assassination which would unravel the Syria-Iranian-Russian triumvirate.

Russia’s expansionist agenda is driven by Putin’s Czarist-like personal ambitions funded by surging oil and natural gas income enabling a 23% increase in military spending, and accelerated by his view that America is about to be propelled into an extraordinary shift toward socialist-isolationist ideas that Russia can exploit.

Democrat give Ahmadinejad a huge gift by sabotaging a major bipartisan anti-Iran rally.

The American Friends Service Committee; Mennonite Central Committee; Quaker United Nations Office; Religions for Peace, and World Council of Churches - United Nations Liaison Office joined together Thursday night to “honor” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what they bill as “bridge building.”

Opponents of the honoring and the dinner itself include: Women United/Code Red, 911 Families, ACT for America, Alliance of Iranian Women, AMCHA, American Center for Law and Justice, American Coptic Union, American Maronite Union, Americans for a Safe Israel, Arabs for Israel, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Center for Security Policy, Christian Solidarity, Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights, Committee on the Present Danger, Concerned Women for America, Council for a Democratic Iran, Family Security Matters, Foundation for Defense of Democracy, Glenn Richter, Founder Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, Guardian Angels, Institute for Freedom and Democracy, International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, International Christian Union, Aryeh Eldad, Israeli Knesset, Jewish Action Alliance, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Log Cabin Republicans of New York City, Open Doors USA,
Phyllis Chesler, author, Rabbi Zev Friedman, Rambam Mesivta high school, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, StandWithUs, Stop Shariah Now, Sudan Freedom Walk, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Traditional Values Coalition, and Women’s Freedom Movement of Pakistan.

They will protest the event. An article in the Jerusalem Post Thursday said Democrat activists this week gave Ahmadinejad a huge gift by sabotaging a major bipartisan anti-Iran rally in New York City this past week disinviting GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin.

Earlier this week speaking to the UN in New York City, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked the U.S. again declaring the “American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road.” And accused “a few bullying powers” of trying to stop his country’s nuclear programs.

Also, as FOX News reported: “With major world leaders watching and just eight hours after President Bush’s final speech before the general assembly, Ahmadinejad used the U.N. platform to decry a “zionist regime” for what he called a persecution on Arab peoples around the globe.”

Iranian President Blames U. S. Military Intervention for Banking Imbroglio

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued his routine anti-American tirade during his visit to the United Nations in New York City Tuesday adding to his usual lecture his opinion of high finance and ranting about the current U. S. banking imbroglio blaming it on U. S. foreign military exploits.

Hundreds protested Ahmadinejad’s appearance and speech, and the U. S. delegation walked out as he prepared to speak. Before his address he told National Public Radio Iran did not wish confrontation with the U. S. or anyone but that it has to defend itself. Hanging over his visit is Iran’s continued nuclear weapon’s development program; Iran’s threats to destroy Israel, and Israel’s promise to prevent a nuclear armed Iran. Looming over the entire region and world is Iran’s effort at coercion by warning it will strangle oil supplies by blockading the Strait of Hormuz.

On June 29, 2008, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Ali Mohammed Jafari, stated that if Iran were attacked by Israel or the United States, it would seal off the Strait of Hormuz, thereby wreaking havoc in oil markets.

On July 8, 2008, Ali Shirazi, a mid-level clerical aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by the student news agency ISNA as saying to Revolutionary Guards, “The Zionist regime is pressuring White House officials to attack Iran. If they commit such a stupidity, Tel Aviv and U.S. shipping in the Persian Gulf will be Iran’s first targets and they will be burned.”

In July dozens of US and foreign navys’ ships conducted Operation Brimstone practicing in littoral operations to keep the Strait open. The U. S. and allies would keep the Strait open.

On January 23, 1980 President Jimmy Carter decreed that any effort to close the Persian Gulf would be an attack on America’s vital national interest and repelled by all means including military force.  Practically that means any effort to close the Strait of Hormuz. The strait is the only sea route for Persian Gulf  oil at its narrowest is 21 miles (34 km) wide bounded on the north by Iran and south by Oman Sea traffic move along two 3 mile wide lanes. There was a series of naval stand-offs between Iranian speedboats and US warships in the Strait of Hormuz occurred in December 2007 and January 2008.

The most serious incident was on 18 April 1988, the U.S. Navy waged a one-day battle against Iranian forces in and around the strait. The battle, dubbed Operation Praying Mantis by the U.S. side, was launched in retaliation for the 14 April mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58). U.S. forces sank two Iranian warships, Joshan and as many as six armed speedboats in the engagement.

Iranian Air Force Conducting Nationwide Exercises

The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) reports no progress in its efforts to establish whether or not Iran is developing nuclear warheads, enriching uranium for military purposes, testing nuclear explosives or building nuclear-capable missiles.

The draft report handed out Monday, Sept. 15, to IAEA board members in Vienna attributes this lack of progress to Iran’s non-cooperation with the inquiry. Observers say the IAEA has been laughably ineffective.

Iranian sources report that the Tehran administration has never been more contemptuous of the UN, international diplomacy and potential sanctions, certain the prospect of a US and Israeli military strike on its nuclear facilities is receding further day by day.

Iranian official sources report that an air force drill began Monday, Sept. 15, in half of the country’s 30 provinces. The commander of Iran’s aerial defense, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Mighani said that any enemies attacking the Islamic Republic would regret it.

Of late, certain influential voices have been raised in Israel arguing against the need of military action to cut down Iran’s covert nuclear bomb plans. President Shimon Peres, for instance, maintains that tough economic sanctions would “do the job.” The latest IAEA report shows this argument is invalid and the U. N. is impotent to deal with Iran.

Much of what is and will happen in the region depends upon the outcome of the U. S. presidential election. Iran is disheartened of late because of McCain’s surge in the polls. Israeli contend they can wait if a McCain election seems likely but, is more likely to attack if Obama appears likely to be elected.

Dutch intelligence sources say the US [or Israel] would decide within weeks to attack nuclear plants with unmanned aircraft to avoid endangering air crews.

Dutch AIVD Secret Service ultra-secret operation underway in Iran in recent years has been halted and an agent recalled in view of “impending US plans to attack Iran,” within weeks, writes Joost de Haas in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. According to intelligence sources in the Netherlands, the US [or Israel] would decide within weeks to attack Iran’s nuclear plants with unmanned aircraft to avoid endangering air crews. The Israeli Air Force would be held back to defend Israel against retaliation.

Dep. Chief of Iran’s General Staff Masus Jazairi said Saturday, Aug. 30, that any attack on Iran would mean the beginning of a new world war.  Iran sources report that Jazairi’s attack aimed at confirming his credentials in Tehran during a major shakeup of the Iranian high command. Such speculation and recent polls that show support for Israel to defend itself against an Iran determined to get nuclear weapons as quickly as possible are believed to be behind the recent spate of threats by Iran.

In addition The Georgia quarrel has all but derailed US-Russian cooperation on the Iran issue. Moscow is not only pulling out of the diplomatic and sanctions front against Iran’s nuclear program; according to Russian sources, Moscow has decided to finally finish building Iran’s nuclear reactor in the southern town of Bushehr before the end of the year, after holding back for five years at Washington’s insistence. Saturday the Kremlin provocatively said it could “wipe-out” NATO’s Black Sea fleet in 20-minutes. That is seen as a threat against NATOs recognition of Ukraine or an offer for it to join the alliance that Russia adamantly opposes.

The presense of Russia workers in Iran finishing the nuclear reactor complicates an Israeli attack since Russian technicians could be killed or injured. Last Fall’s Israeli attacks on the North Korea build, Iranian financed nuclear reactor in Syria is believed to have killed or wounded North Korean, Iranian and perhaps Russian technicians and advisers.

If attacked Iran will likely try to block the Straits’s of Hormuz and that could easily lead to a confrontation with the U. S. Navy carrier task forces in the Persian Gulf.  The U. S. has said it will not allow the straits to be blocked.

An unintended consequence of Russian aggression in Georgia is solidarity on missile defense network.

Israel announced that its early warning radar system, part of its anti-missile-missile array has already detected Syrian missile tests. “It was the kind of test that Iran conducted earlier this year and meant to show that Syria could fire missiles simultaneously from a range of batteries in the southern and central parts of the country,” an official said. The Syrian tests were detected by Israel’s Arrow-2 missile defense system. The Arrow’s Green Pine early-warning radar was said to have a range of more than 800 kilometers, which covers most of Syria. Sources say that the U. S. is rushing to install and a more advanced system in Israel that could monitor Iran and deeper into Russian space.

Sources say North Korea has helped Syria develop a two-stage Scud D meant to frustrate Israel’s missile defense system. They said the launches appeared to test Syria’s command and control network required to sustain a missile attack on Israel and that justifies a more sophisticated early warning system and anti-missile missiles. Syria was also said to have fired the Soviet-origin SS-21 rocket with a 70 kilometer range during the exercise.

Russia objects to Israeli getting the more capable radar and anti-missile systems and is very angry at the U. S. - Polish agreement for anti-missile radars and anti-missile missiles that was announced Tuesday night.

Soviet and Russian Persecution of Jews Ironic Given History

A new poll conducted in Israel after Obama’s visit found that 38 percent of respondents said they wanted McCain in the White House, 31 percent said Obama, and 31 percent had no opinion or refused to answer.

During his visit, Obama met with top Israeli politicians, visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and voiced a more hawkish stance on Iran, saying he would “take no options off the table” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and asserting that “a nuclear Iran would be a game-changing situation not just in the Middle East but around the world.”

But not all Israelis were satisfied by Obama’s statements. Natan Sharansky, a former deputy Prime Minister, described Obama as a “risky” candidate for the Jewish state. American Jews favor Obama.

The pollster old the Boston Globe that several factors are problematic for Obama among Israeli Jews. He cited Obama’s willingness to meet with Iranian leaders as one.

A poll in Israel on May 15, before Hillary Clinton bowed out of the Democratic race, had McCain the preferred candidate over Obama by a margin of 43 percent to 20 percent, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The poll found that 18-to-24-year-olds preferred Obama by a 49 percent to 30 percent margin. A Gallup Poll in May found that American Jews preferred Obama over McCain, 61 percent to 32 percent.

Obama’s tepid response to the Russo-Georgian War is concerning Israelis. Jews are fleeing the fighting and many are enroute to Israel. Fear of repression and the opportunity for bettes lives have seen 23,287 individuals to immigrated to Israel from Georgia since 1989 under the auspices of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

The irony of Soviet persecution of Jews that lingers today was underscored by Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who died at 89 last week, in his last book Two Hundred Years Together, a history of the Jews in Russia, in which he emphasized the prominent contribution of Jewish revolutionaries to the Bolshevik seizure of power.

Russia’s Underwear in bunch over U. S.-Israel Anti-Missile Radar Plans.

Iran is heading towards a major breakthrough in its nuclear weapons capability, Israel’s deputy Israel Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz warned Friday according to an AFP story. Iran is continuing to advance toward a military nuclear capability and is heading towards a major breakthrough,” the Iranian-born Mofaz told a think tank after talks in Washington with US officials.

He charged that Iran was playing for time in talks aimed at halting uranium enrichment with the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain — the permanent UN Security Council members — and Germany, the so-called P5-plus-1. “One thing is clear is Iranians are continuing their policy of buying time and so far they are succeeding,” he said.

Also on Friday Putin’s Pravda, humorously Russian for “truth”, story said “Israel has entered the last phase of its preparations against Iran.” It also said the U. S. was about to pull a “dirty trick” against Russia by installing anti-missile radar in Israel before a new president is inaugurated in 2009. Because the radar system will be jointly operated by the U. S. and Israel without interference and can detect missile launches by Russia then former Soviets have their underwear in a bunch.

Russia and the U. S. have also been butting heads over U. S. proposals to install similar radar systems and an anti-missile missile system in Poland and Eastern Europe extensively to defend against an Iranian threat on Europe. Russia is paranoid about being hemmed in a way unseen since the JFK backed down during the Cuban missile crisis and removed intermediate range nuclear tipped missiles from Turkey.

Pravda’s notorious bent to convoluted propaganda showed through claiming “the Pentagon cannot provide more, than the 200,000 US and coalition forces in the tenuously and unstable region so it could not conduct war against Iran. Russia is still smarting from its humiliation in Afghanistan and peaked by the U. S. military aid to the Mujahedeen that rubbed their collective Slavic noses in it. In any case Pravda claims even a “slight war” - read Israeli attack, and Iran “would not miss a chance to strike oil pipelines and oil structures on neighboring Arab states causing economic upheaval. Pravda said such upset would hurt Europe, India and China most. That Pravda concluded in typical stem winding fashion, “(T)he U. S. would not mind weaker competitors” inferring if Iran refuses to stop it nuclear weapons development and is attacked the U. S. would be boogie-man, provocateur and beneficiary.

Notwithstanding such contortions Israel is resolutely determined to stop Iran’s Mortal nuclear weapon’s threat because of its anti-Semitism and pledge to incinerate Israel. Russia, if it want to contribute to preventing such a conflict, could be much more constructive, and a lot more forthright.

Iran May Breakup “Six Powers” And Get What It Wants

“If Iran takes one step back, the arrogant powers in the world would take one step forward,” said Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a sermon Wednesday, July 30. He spoke three days ahead of a deadline given by the six world powers for his government to give “a reasonable” answer to their incentives for suspending uranium enrichment to produce nuclear weapons.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s statement, broadcast by Iran’s national TV, if it represents Iran’s final position, will have the effect of breaking up the six-power front against Iran’s nuclear program. This may have been his desired effect. Russia and China are expected to take exception to the harsh economic penalties favored by the US and most of Europe and let Iran off the hook. Iran believes it can stall meaningful action against it relying on Russia and China to give it a pass, and ticket into the nuclear club. Iran, Russia and China all believe the U. S., particularly if Barack Obama is elected President, will lack resolve and they can advance their views and influence at its expense and they are arming and positioning to do so.

Simultaneously Israeli transport minister Mofaz, who leads Israel in the regular strategic dialogue with the United States, raised strong concerns over Washington’s direct talks with Iran at a meeting of the forum and encounters with Vice President Dick Cheney and secretary of state Rice on July 31. The hardline Mofaz, one of the leading contenders to succeed Ehud Olmert as prime minister, said “All options against Iran should not only be on the table, but prepared.” Israel has expressed open concern about the consequence of the upcoming U. S. Presidential elections, and is preparing to go it alone.