Monday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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JPost editorial: Message to Assad

The target seemed to be a Syrian version of Iran’s Fatah-110 missile, capable of traveling 300 kilometers with a half-ton warhead.
Most important of all, however, is the message that is sent to both Syria and Iran. By standing by its warnings that it would not tolerate the transfer of gamechanging weapons to Hezbollah, Israel has made it clear – this time at least – that when it uses the rhetoric of “unacceptable” and “intolerable” it is not just being “so hectoring and schoolmarish,” as Foreign Policy’s Rosa Brooks recently put it in an article titled “Would Machiavelli have drawn a red line?” While statesmen of other countries seem to make declarations without having any intention of standing behind their words, Israel will not tolerate Syria’s crossing its red lines. And that is an important message for the mullahs of the Islamic Republic, too.

McCain: IAF Showed Up Gen. Dempsey on Syria No Fly Zone

On April 30, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that imposing a no-fly zone on the Syrian government through U.S. Airforce sorties over Syria would be a daunting but feasible prospect, but he said he doubted the value of the likely outcome.
“The U.S. military has the capability to defeat that system, but it would be a greater challenge, and would take longer and require more resources” than in Libya, Dempsey told reporters.

Lawmakers: Israeli strikes show Syrian air-defense vulnerability

“The Israeli strikes over the last 48 hours have indicated that those Russian air-defense systems are not as robust as is sometimes reported,” he said. “We can stop Bashar Assad from killing his own people.”
“We have to arm the opposition. We also need toward imposing a no-fly zone so that Bashar Assad cannot continue to use helicopter gunships against civilians and so the refugees he's creating aren't destabilizing our allies like Jordan.”

Obama’s Seat on the Fence

After two years of empty U.S. rhetoric and threats for crossing imaginary red lines, Assad had no fear of U.S. intervention. He was right. Even using the horrendous Sarin gas had done nothing to get Obama off his fence. Instead, under heavy criticism for his reluctance to accept the evidence that Sarin gas was used, Obama is now trying to redefine either “red,” or “line,” or both.

Barry Rubin: The Region: Syria: The empire strikes back

US strategy, and that of the West and international organizations, has been based on two ideas that have proven to be wishful thinking.
Given the recent military gains of the Syrian regime, obituaries of dictator Bashar Assad have proven exaggerated, and that puts the Obama administration in a bind.

Simon Wiesenthal Center Slams Contextless Huffington Post ‘Israel Strikes Again’ Headline

There is “no context,” Huff-Watcher wrote ”Why is Israel ‘striking’ Syria? Every responsible ‘newspaper’ in the world is saying something about the reason.”
Huff-Watcher contends that the headline lacking context is not new for the Huffington Post when it comes to reporting on Israel. “This is nothing new. It is part of HuffPost’s continuing pattern of whipping up hatred against Israel and Jews, through egregiously decontextualized headlines and headline imagery, ignoring the preceding attacks that made Israel’s military response necessary, then falsely depicting Israel as the aggressor,” the blogger writes.

Egyptian, Hamas tensions increase By Khaled Abu Toameh

In yet another sign of increased tensions between the two sides, the Egyptian authorities on Sunday banned two Hamas officials from entering Egypt.

Iran/Hizballah’s Global Shi’ite Terror Network

There are two main components to the Iran-centered Shi’ite terror network: The first is the Quds Force – the elite overseas arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, tasked with carrying out attacks, subterfuge, and arms smuggling around the world – and the second is Tehran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hizballah.

Kenyan Court Sentences 2 Iranians to Life in Jail

Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 and led officials to a 15-kilogram (33-pound) stash of the explosive RDX. Officials in Kenya say the two suspects may have been planning attacks on Israeli, American, British or Saudi Arabian interests in Kenya.

WJC pans Hungary PM for falling short against anti-Semitism

Prime Minister Viktor Orban did not go far enough in condemning the anti-Semitism that has reared its head in Hungary, the World Jewish Congress said Sunday, hours after Orban called for zero-tolerance of anti-Jewish activity at the opening address of the group’s annual meeting in Budapest.

New gateways to old hatreds

Even for those acutely aware of the rise of anti-Semitism worldwide, viewing “Jew Bashing: The New Anti-Semitism,” a new, investigative documentary, is a profoundly disturbing experience. It is also a must-see.
The impressive feature, written and produced by award-winning Canadian-Israeli filmmaker and former war correspondent Martin Himel, is divided into four segments: the Middle East, Europe, the US and Canada. Each is approximately 45 minutes long, and the viewer remains spellbound throughout. Canadian media visionary Moses Znaimer is the executive producer and a different section of the series will be screened on Canada’s VisionTV on Monday evenings throughout the month of May.