Posts

Airstrike Embroils Israel in Syrian Conflict

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: muffinnJERUSALEM — With the attack in Syria, Israel took its first overt military step into the “Arab Spring” unrest that has destabilized its neighbors and left Israelis feeling more vulnerable than they have in decades.

Israel’s goal was apparently to deny sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, and may not have been intended to stir the pot in Syria. But whether by intent or circumstance, Israel has inserted itself into a civil war that thus far had very little to do with it — and which other Western nations, including the U.S., have kept at arm’s length out of concern that military engagement could only make things worse.

“Until now, Israel avoided becoming involved in this quagmire in Syria,” said Moshe Maoz, a former government security advisor and a Syria expert at Hebrew University. “Now this may be the first sign that Israel has decided to escalate actions to cause [President Bashar] Assad’s downfall.”

Other analysts disagreed that Israel was intending to undermine Assad, especially since any successor to the Syrian leader could prove to be even more hostile. Still, the Syria strike may signal a new willingness by Israel to intervene in the region’s problems.

Israel has not confirmed or denied the reported attack, which took place early Wednesday. News accounts based on anonymous sources from the United States and elsewhere suggested that Israeli fighters struck a military convoy with weapons destined for Hezbollah, which is closely allied with Damascus. The arms were said to include Russian SA-17 antiaircraft missiles, which could significantly boost Hezbollah’s defensive capabilities.

Read more from this story HERE

‘Panicked’ Iran Makes Power Move After Nuke-site Loss

/4 Comments/in , /by

Two days after WND’s exclusive report on the devastating explosions at Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, Tehran informed the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog it was going to install thousands of modern centrifuges at another of its nuclear facilities in an apparent move to restore its bargaining position.

In a Jan. 23 letter to the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, Iran said it plans to install thousands of its upgraded centrifuges at the Natanz facility. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow today that Iran has every legal right under its obligations to the IAEA to enrich uranium, even with the more modern centrifuges.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow today that Iran has every legal right under its obligations to the IAEA to enrich uranium, even with the more modern centrifuges.

Iranian media viewed Lavrov’s remarks as supportive of the decision. But the Russian minister also urged the Islamic regime to “freeze enrichment operations” during the negotiations with the 5-plus-1 countries, the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.

The White House this afternoon called Iran’s decision “provocative.”

Read more on this story HERE.

Ed Koch on Chuck Hagel Nomination: Obama’s Reneging on His Conveyed Support for Israel Has Come Earlier Than I Thought

/1 Comment/in , /by

In an interview with The Algemeiner, former Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, a lifelong Democrat who supported President Obama’s recent re-election, expressed disappointment with the President’s decision to nominate former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense.

“Frankly, I thought that there would come a time when he would renege on what he conveyed on his support of Israel,” said Koch, adding, “it comes a little earlier than I thought it would.”

“It’s very disappointing, I believe he will ultimately regret it,” Koch said, “and it undoubtedly will reduce support for him in the Jewish community, but I don’t think he (the President) worries about that now that the election is over.”

The former mayor who is beloved among many in New York’s Jewish community, said that he believes the appointment will embolden Islamists and will be damaging to the U.S.-Israel relationship.

“It’s not good,” he said, “but fortunately, Congress, overwhelmingly both Democratic and Republican supports the Jewish state, so I’m sure they will defend it against the defense department when it ruptures the current good relationship which exists.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Israeli Ambassador: Syria Transfer of WMD to Militants Would Be ‘Game Changer’

/0 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: upyernoz

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. said that if Syria were to transfer chemical weapons to Hezbollah or other militant groups, it would be a “game changer.”

Ambassador Michael Oren, appearing on Fox News Sunday, said he could not confirm reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces had prepared sarin gas for use. But he said Israel was worried that Syria could transfer the weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party that receives support from Syria and Iran.

“We are watching the situation very carefully,” Mr. Oren said. “Syria has a very varied, deep chemical weapons program. It is geographically dispersed as well. Were those weapons to pass in to the wrong hands, Hezbollah’s hands, for example, that would be a game changer for us.”

Read more from this story HERE.

After a Brief Hiatus, Gaza Tunnels Open for Business

/0 Comments/in , /by

For eight days, the sounds of illegal commerce here at the ragged southern edge of the Gaza Strip were silenced by the pounding thrum of battle.

Israeli military jets bombed the sandy stretch of land just a center fielder’s throw from Egypt each day, hoping to collapse the underground avenues for food, cars, medicines and weapons that support Hamas’s rule in Gaza.

Ahmad al-Arja, a 22-year-old engineering student, was among the army of diggers forced to take the conflict off. But minutes after Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire on the evening of Nov. 21, his boss was on the phone.

“He said, ‘Come on, count on God, and tomorrow morning, start digging,’ ” Arja recalled, as he began with his cousins the tedious, treacherous work of tunnel repair.

The business of Rafah is the tunnel network that circumvents the Israeli blockade of Gaza, and business once again is booming.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Hillary Clinton Says Israel Lacks Empathy, Generosity, and Must Do More To Prove They Understand . . . Oppression

/5 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: veni markovski

In the eyes of Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Israelis don’t have proper empathy, and they must do more to prove that they understand the pain of oppressed peoples (apparently the holocaust doesn’t qualify).

The Secretary also said there was a lack of generosity, and the presence of suspicion, which together caused the Israelis to miss opportunities for diplomatic solutions.

Watch this extraordinary video below:

U.N. Votes to Recognize Palestine

/2 Comments/in , /by

UNITED NATIONS — The General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday to grant Palestinians limited recognition of statehood, prompting exuberant celebrations across the West Bank and Gaza Strip and immediate condemnations from the United States and Israel.

The 193-member U.N. body voted 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions, to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state,” a status that falls well short of independence but provides Palestinians with limited privileges as a state, including the right to join the International Criminal Court and other international treaty bodies.

Speaking before the vote, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the U.N. actions offered the only means to salvage a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We did not come here to delegitimize a state established years ago, and that is Israel,” he said. “Rather we came to affirm the legitimacy of a state that must now achieve its independence, and that is Palestine.”

But the United States and Israel said the Palestinian bid would complicate efforts to restart stalled Middle East peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement accusing Abbas of having “violated the agreements” between the two sides, and pledging that “Israel will act accordingly.”

Read more from this story HERE.

“Hama’s Gaza Victory”: Did Netanyahu capitulate?

/3 Comments/in /by

Headline from the Wall Street Journal editorial on Friday: “Hama’s Gaza Victory.” And their lead sentence: “The cease-fire leaves the terror group intact and politically stronger.”

“Let us be totally honest: This is not a cease-fire – it is a SURRENDER,” says Shmuel Sackett, spokesman for Moshe Feiglin who seeks “authentic Jewish leadership for Israel.”

From Arutz Sheva, Israeli National News: The Hamas terrorist organization has declared November 22, the day after its ceasefire was signed with Israel, as a public holiday in Gaza. “The Palestinian government announces that Thursday 22nd November is a national holiday of victory and an official holiday,” read a statement issued by Hamas. Hamas invited “all citizens to celebrate this occasion and visit the families of the martyrs and the wounded and those affected by the violence and to affirm national solidarity.”

“Everyone is angry at Netanyahu now for signing the cease-fire,” said Moshe Feiglin, who the New York Times not long ago said brought the Tea Party to Israel. Feiglin faces a vote to become a key member of Likud’s Knesset team on November 25. “I see myself as the representative of Liberty in the Knesset,” he said in a recent TV interview.

“But Netanyahu’s predicament is a precise reflection of post-Oslo Israeli society . . . If Netanyahu had ordered a ground invasion of Gaza, soldiers would have been killed. After a short period of time he would have pulled the troops out of Gaza without significant achievements . . . To remain in Gaza, we first have to renounce the very essence of the idea of partitioning this Land. We have to internalize that this is our Land – exclusively. We must – on a national scale – return to the Land of Israel and our Jewish identity. . . Is Israeli society ready for this type of return to ourselves?

“The Israelis want the best of both worlds: security and normalcy. But it has become quite clear that it is specifically the mental servitude to Oslo, the flight from destiny to the enslavement to normalcy and pragmatism – that has so severely compromised Israel’s security.”

_________________________________________________
Bernie Quigley is a prize-winning magazine writer and has worked more than 30 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and book, movie, music and art reviewer. His essays on politics and world affairs have appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News and other newspapers and magazines. He has published poetry in Painted Bride Quarterly and has written dozens of magazine articles. For 20 years he has been an amateur farmer, raising Tunis sheep and organic vegetables. He has written hundreds of columns for “Pundits Blog” in “The Hill” a political journal in Washington, D.C. He lives in the White Mountains with his wife and four children.

Madness: Exchanging One Pro-US Dictator For Another Dictator Who Hates Both the US and Israel

/0 Comments/in , /by

Egypt’s new President (for life?), Mohammed Morsi, riding the afterglow of huge praise from President Obama and Hillary Clinton for his role in ending 8 days of hostility in Gaza, leveraged that glow to seize dictatorial powers over his countrymen.

Morsi a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is tied closely to the United States mortal enemy, Al Quaeda, has been aggressively seizing power since he gained office by winning a democratic election 52-48.

On Thursday he issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight & extended that same immunity to a committee drafting a new constitution for the country that many say has been hijacked by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood allies. Morsis’s critics say he is trying to push through an Islamist state that will marginalize women and minority Christians, infringing on personal liberties.

“Morsi today usurped all state powers & appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh,” pro-reform leader Mohamed El Baradei wrote. “This is a major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences.”

The last time Hillary Clinton visited Egypt, her motorcade was pelted with tomatoes by Egyptians who felt they have been sold out by the Obama administration. These Egyptian citizens feel the Obama administration let Egypt fall into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, an arch enemy of democracy and the western worlds way of life.

But since the pelting of Hillary’s motorcade several months ago, the Obama administration has showered millions of dollars on the Morisis government in spite of his dictatorial moves and his aggressive disregard of previous peace agreements with neighboring country, Israel.

Many Americans think “foreign aid” should be based on the carrot and the stick approach. Regardless of the fact that America is broke, it still borrows money and prints it in order to dole out foreign aid. So lets help our friends, so they can help us.

This foreign aid money should have strings attached…It seems we have exchanged a previous dictator, who was friendly towards us, for a new dictator who is not friendly towards us or our close ally Israel. What kind of madness is this?

We are showering Egypt with billions of dollars; in fact Hillary just authorized giving the Morsi government 450 million in emergency funds on the heels of the just completed cease of hostilities in Gaza. Despite the fact Egypt has total control over weapons smuggled into Gaza and Hamas. Read more from this story HERE.

___________________________________________

Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Video: Hamas Summarily Executes Six “Israeli Spies,” Drags Bodies Through Gaza Streets Behind Motorcycles

/15 Comments/in , /by

Six men accused of being ‘Israeli spies’ were dragged through the streets of Gaza City and executed in front of a chanting mob today as Israel warned Palestinians to evacuate some areas of the territory in apparent preparation for a ground invasion.

Witnesses said the six were taken to an intersection in the north of the city where they were summarily shot for providing intelligence that helped Israel pinpoint key figures in Hamas and the Islamic Jihad targeted by their warplanes.

The names of the men are said to have been scrawled on the road after they had been questioned by Hamas security officials about who provided the ‘human intelligence’ necessary to pinpoint targets for ‘precision’ attacks that have 118 Palestinians – half civilians, including women and children, dead – in seven days of military operations.

Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers have staked tough, hard-to-bridge positions, and the gaps fuel the threat of an Israeli ground invasion. The content of the Egyptian plan is unknown, but both Israel and Hamas have presented conditions and Egyptian intelligence officials are meeting representatives from Israel and Hamas separately.

Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border with Egypt. It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt’s Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.

Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israel has rejected such demands in the past. Read more from this story HERE.