9/01 Links: Netanyahu Warns Don't Test Israel’s Strength, Hamas Terror Attack on Jerusalem Foiled

From Ian:

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Hamas terror attack thwarted in Jerusalem

Two men, aged 22 and 25, have confessed to planning a terror attack in Jerusalem at the Mamilla Mall, near the Old City, police sources revealed on Sunday.
The men, who worked as cleaning staff at the mall, planned to use their access to plant a bomb in a trash can at the popular shopping center during the imminent Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) holiday season.
The men are residents of Shuafat and Ras Al-Amoud, two East Jerusalem neighborhoods, and therefore have blue Israeli identity cards, allowing them access to Jerusalem without going through the security check that most West Bank Palestinians must undergo.

Another ABC [Australia] fact-checking fail: Gaza and Breast Cancer

Why does the ABC continue to fail to adequately fact-check its stories about the Gaza Strip?
In July, I reported how the ABC uncritically parroted the easily disprovable tall tale by one of its guests that Gaza is devoid of birds, and AIJAC's Allon Lee reported Radio National host Phillip Adams' untruth about the population density in the Gaza Strip.
Now comes ABC reporter/producer Rania Zaydan's contribution. In her report for Newsline, "Charities raising breast cancer awareness in Gaza", Zaydan abandoned her critical faculties, offering up a story riddled with inaccuracies and baseless anti-Israel innuendo. (h/t EoZ)

Barry Rubin: So You're Going to Attack Israel with Chemical Weapons?

Of course it the bluff is called and if the aggressor added onto the attack, it would achieve far more damage to the attacker with no real benefit. Will such an operation contribute to Assad winning the civil war or surviving? Of course not.
So these threats should be laughed at--no matter that the threats must be prepared for carefully--and the response would be: You and what army?
But one can also ask this: In the face of such American behavior what possible credibility can be put on Obama Administration guarantees to Israel? Remember that the side Obama supports includes al-Qaida which is firing rockets into Israel even as America ponders an attack on the Syrian regime! For the first time America is objectively a co-belligerent with a force actively attacking Israel!

John Yoo: The Benefits Outweigh the Costs in Syria

To stand in the way of this pragmatic approach to international law, the White House has bound itself to a misreading of the U.N. Charter. As historian Marc Trachtenberg has shown, the U.S. delegation to the U.N. drafting conference did not understand the Charter to limit Washington’s freedom to use force. Senators, for example, were concerned that the new treaty prohibited the Monroe Doctrine. But in a May 1945 meeting, delegate John Foster Dulles said that “at no point would the member states give up their right to use force in all circumstances.” Under his logic, the United States could still wage war to advance the United Nations’ goal of maintaining world peace and security. Leo Pasvolsky, the key State Department official on the U.N. negotiations, confirmed that “there was certainly no statement in the text under which we would give up our right of independent action.” He later explained to the delegation that “if the Security Council fails to agree on an act, then the member state reserves the right to act for the maintenance of peace, justice, etc.”

Netanyahu warns enemies not to test Israel’s strength

Israel is “calm and confident” in the face of regional turmoil, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting.
Speaking hours after US President Barack Obama delayed a military strike at Syria pending a Congressional vote, Netanyahu declared that “Israel is calm and confident. Our citizens know that we are well prepared for any circumstance.”
He added: “The citizens also should be aware that our enemies have very good reasons not to test our strength and might. They know why.”

Samaria Prepares – Again – for Tel Aviv Refugees

In an emergency meeting held late last week in light of threats from Syria, the Samaria Regional Committee was instructed to prepare in case the region is asked to absorb Israelis from the Tel Aviv region.
Samaria (Shomron) could be used as a refuge in case of a chemical weapons attack from Syria. Military experts believe enemy armies will not target Israeli communities in Samaria due to the relatively high risk of missing and hitting an Arab city.

Israeli Politicians Slam America for Hesitation and Hypocrisy

He continued, “When the world is silent in the face of atrocities like in Syria, where one hundred thousand buried people are evidence of clear use of weapons of mass destruction, we see today as we face great danger, and question if no one in the world will stand by us, we can only protect ourselves.”
Bayit Yehudi MK and member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yoni Chetboun said, “Genocide in Syria needs to shake every person in the ‘free world.’ It is important to understand that without a surgical operation, weapons will remain in the hands of the insane.”

Obama blinked first

Even though just two years ago the U.S. Navy joined the coalition to topple Moammar Gadhafi in Libya without prior congressional approval, this time Obama flinched from making an even more limited move in Syria. Given that Obama was not going to formally declare war (only Congress has the power to do so), there was no logic to his choice to voluntarily relinquish his powers as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Unlike the decision of another Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1968 to unilaterally halt the aerial bombardment of Vietnam after years of fighting, Obama decided to silence his guns before the first shot was even fired.
Even if Congress approves military action in Syria after it returns from recess, the whimpering message delivered on Saturday by Obama will resonate in Damascus, Tehran, Moscow and Beijing, and further hasten the end of the American era.

Obama’s (unwelcome) chance

Further,it is all but certain that some in Israel and abroad will argue that a massive US strike on Syria would be counterproductive as it will only boost those in Iran who view nuclear weapons as the ultimate guarantee against the “bullies of the world” threatening the Tehran regime. But they will be wrong. Irrespective of such Iranian calls, in the wake of a decisive American action in Syria, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would have to conclude that when the president of the United States vows that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, he actually means it.
As for Assad himself, he must conclude that the US response was his last warning – any future use of weapons of mass destruction would most assuredly spell the destruction of his regime.

Putin demands US present proof of Syria chemical weapons use

Putin also called the allegations against the Assad regime “utter nonsense.”
“While the Syrian army is on the offensive, saying that it is the Syrian government that used chemical weapons is utter nonsense,” he said.
Addressing US President Barack Obama as a Nobel Peace Laureate, Putin urged him to think “twice before making a decision on an operation in Syria.”

Rebels pan US delay in strike, say Assad emboldened

Opposition groups reacted negatively to news that the US would hold off on a strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad Saturday night, with some accusing US President Barack Obama’s of endangering them with his “backpedaling.”
“The death will continue in Syria because of the (failure of the) leadership of the United States to act decisively at this point,” Syrian National Council spokesperson Louay Safi said after the announcement, according to NBC News.

Syrian Officials Gloat: Obama Defeated Before War Began

Speaking to Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeem, Jamil said Obama “was defeated before the war began.”
America’s “muddled” position on airstrikes “has made a mockery of the U.S. administration all over the world,” he said, adding, “Previous administrations never cared about public opinion, Congress or allies.”
Jamil mocked the Syrian rebel fighters, who had hoped for a U.S. intervention that would weaken the Assad regime. “For them this popular saying applies: You brought us halfway to the water well, then abandoned us,” he taunted.

Syrian Media Releases List of Potential Targets in Israel

Specific targets labeled as "legitimate" for Syrian missile strikes included Israel's Dimona nuclear plant, petrochemical production plants in Haifa, Hazor military airbase, the Palmachim, Zala'im and Tzrifin military bases, Kalandia airport, and military and intelligence facilities in Turkey and Cyprus.

Weak world response on Syria boosts chance of strong Israeli action on Iran

The Iranians are carefully watching the world's response to the Syrian atrocities. If the response is not harsh enough, or swift enough, or serious enough, they may very well conclude that they would face a similar type of situation and read that as a green light to proceed with their nuclear program at full throttle speed.
The Israelis are also watching the world reaction. And Israel, too, may very well conclude that if the world's response is not harsh enough, or swift enough, or serious enough, then they too will feel that they have a green light to take action to stop the Iranians.
The lack of a strong international response in the face of rows and rows of gassed bodies wrapped eerily in white shrouds just 220 kilometers from Jerusalem might not compel Israel to take action against Assad, but it surely may compel it to think twice about relying on the world to rid it of the Iranian nuclear menace.

Suez Canal Authority says attack attempted on container ship

"One of the terrorist elements has carried out a failed attempt to affect the movement of ships in the Suez Canal by targeting one of the passing ships, Cosco Asia," Memish said in a statement about the Panama-flagged ship.
"The attempt failed completely and there was no damage to the ship or the containers it carried. The situation was dealt with strictly by the armed forces," he said, adding that the traffic of ships is moving normally. (h/t zvi)

Controversial Middle East ad pitched to TTC

An ad campaign about Israel and the Palestinian territories is being proposed to run on the Toronto Transit Commission.
The TTC says it will review whether to accept the advertising, submitted by a Montreal-based group called Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East.
The message is similar to a controversial ad campaign on Vancouver’s transit system from the Palestine Awareness Coalition, said Grace Batchoun, of the Montreal group.

Haldor Advanced Technologies Awarded Surgical Instrument Tracking and Management Agreement with Premier Healthcare Alliance

Premier, a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,900 U.S. hospitals and 100,000 other healthcare sites, awarded a three-year contract to Haldor Advanced Technologies to provide RFID enabled surgical instrument tracking and management solutions.
“We are honored to be have been selected by the Premier healthcare alliance as a new supplier partner”
Haldor’s real-time surgical instrument management solutions provide visibility into the location, status and condition of individual surgical instruments in operating rooms and sterile processing departments.

Israeli cyber security businesses poised to gain from Syrian crisis

The high-profile cyber attacks emanating from Syria may end up giving Israel’s economy a long-term boost by raising demand from its burgeoning cyber security sector.
Before the West could fire a single shot towards Damascus over the use of chemical weapons, the conflict claimed a fresh round of cyber victims when a group called the Syrian Electronic Army attacked The New York Times and Twitter’s servers on Tuesday.
Though not the first such attack by the group that supports Syrian President Bashar Assad, the timing as the world anticipated a US-led military operation, vaulted the hacking into international headlines.

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