Iran's Two-faced Regime Exposed Again, but is Anyone Paying Attention?
The Quds Force, headed by a mastermind named Qassem Suleimani (who answers directly to Khamenei), uses banks and front companies to pay for and manufacture weapons, before attempting to transit them to proxies.Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas Cannot Make Concessions on Any Core Issue
According to UN Security Council Resolution 1747, Iran is banned from trading in, or sending weapons across, international borders. Yet, as the latest arms shipment intercepted by Israel demonstrates, Iran systematically violates this resolution.
When the regime feels the need brutally to suppress internal dissent, it can call the Basij (a volunteer paramilitary force that receives orders from the IRCG) and its two million volunteers to the streets of Iranian cities.
But Ayatollah Khamenei is now trying a new way of keeping the streets free of protesters by allowing Rouhani to pursue talks with the West. This, Khamenei evidently hopes, will put a lid on growing disquiet over the country's economic troubles, many of them caused by international sanctions.
At the same time, he is permitting the IRGC and Quds Force to continue their global terrorism exportation program -- an effort combatted around the clock by Israel's intelligence agencies. The intercepted weapons ship is just one of many arms transfer attempts being blocked by Israel.
Today it is clear that the Palestinian Authority is preparing to hold Israel responsible for the failure of the peace talks because of its refusal to comply with all of the Palestinians' demands.Our Desire To Destroy Israel As A Jewish State Is Not A Core Issue (satire)
The peace talks are scheduled to end in late April in accordance with Kerry's nine-month deadline. But the Palestinian Authority leadership has no plans to wait until then to declare the failure of the peace process.
Palestinian officials in Ramallah say that the talks with Israel have already failed, but Obama and Kerry continue to live in denial. There are no direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Rather, each side is conducting separate negotiations with Obama and Kerry.
The latest statements from Palestinian Authority officials show that the issue of Israel's Jewishness is only a secondary issue compared with the sensitive issues of Jerusalem, refugees, borders and settlements.
Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not going to bring the two sides closer to reaching agreement on any of these core issues. This is what Obama needs to take into consideration when he meets with Abbas. He also needs to take into consideration what many Palestinians are saying – that Abbas is not authorized to make concessions on any of these issues.
Then there’s the question of refugees. What’s wrong with insisting it’s about justice for the deprived, instead of a flood of millions of Palestinians into the area that will quickly overwhelm the Jewish population? We shall ignore for the moment the fact that the refugees themselves have by and large accepted the fact that they have no hope of returning, at least not en masse, to the homes they left behind. And the fact that the State of Palestine that we’re building right now will explicitly deny citizenship to those refugees and their descendants, for the specific purpose of foisting them on Israel. It’s pretty jarring to shift the focus onto the effect of that scenario, i.e. the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state. We have to focus on the other core issues.
Such as borders. Which, I need not remind you, will exclude Jews from the confines of the nascent Palestine. But it’s not about the Jews. It’s about denying the Jews a foothold in this land.
And Jerusalem: what happens if we concede any Jewish control of, or even presence in, our holy city? You know, the one so holy that the Koran never even mentions it. As long as the city is under Muslim control, we do not plan to make an issue of its being under Jewish rule.
Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not a core issue. At least as long as we can fool Europe, Obama, and the Israeli Left into believing that.
David Singer: Floundering Obama needs to grab Bibi’s 1984 lifeline with Both hands
President Obama’s interview with Jeffrey Goldberg on 2 March exposed the President as a leader lacking in understanding and vision – bound to a 20-year-old negotiating process that has proved an abject failure and will continue to do so until Obama finally declares it dead and buried.Isi Leibler: Obama-Netanyahu rift is unbridgeable
The President still clings to the vain hope that the framework agreement for peace being drafted by Secretary of State Kerry will be accepted by Israel and the PLO – allowing the long drawn out negotiating processes established under the Oslo Accords, Bush Roadmap and Annapolis to continue until a peace agreement is executed between Israel and the PLO – matching those signed by Israel with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
The interview exposed Obama’s flawed knowledge concerning the following crucial issues that are critical to properly understanding the conflict and positing its possible resolution:
Israel will go through the ritual of approving the Kerry framework agreement with major reservations. If the Palestinians do likewise, negotiations will continue, although nobody will be holding their breath in expectation of a positive outcome in the short-term.MEMRI: Lebanese Media Report Shift In U.S. Attitudes Towards Hizbullah – Though It Is A Designated Terrorist Organization
The best achievement would be an agreement to concentrate on interim solutions until such time as the Palestinian people and their leaders are genuinely willing to engage in peaceful coexistence.
But for the next two years while Obama is in office, there must be a concerted effort to retain American public and congressional support in order to deter the current administration from implementing Obama’s threat to stop protecting Israel at the United Nations and other anti-Israeli dominated international forums.
In addition, we must not become complacent about the special military assistance and cooperation we receive which was even strengthened by the Obama administration and remains crucial for the IDF to retain a qualitative advantage against its adversaries.
The media reports focus on the relationship between the U.S. and the director of Lebanon's General Security Directorate, ‘Abbas Ibrahim; although it is an official Lebanese body, this directorate, and Ibrahim himself, are close to Hizbullah. Before heading General Security, from 2005 to 2008, Ibrahim headed military intelligence in South Lebanon – and, according to many Lebanese Sunnis, this apparatus and those in charge of it in South Lebanon are pro-Hizbullah. At Qatar's request, Ibrahim also mediated between this country and Hizbullah in November 2013.Obama Advisers Warn Of Paint Shortage For More Red Lines (satire)
This paper will review the reports on the contacts and the relationship between the U.S. and Hizbullah, on the development of these contacts and this relationship, on their possible reasons and purposes, and on their possible connection with the shift in U.S. foreign policy towards Iran and towards the entire region.
Officials in President Barack Obama’s cabinet advised him today that the administration’s inventory of red paint is nearly exhausted, having used it repeatedly and ineffectively with Syria, Iran, and Russia. More red lines, they warned, might demand more red paint than this presidency has at its disposal.Netanyahu looks to Belgium-Holland border for settlement solution
In a communique between departments, both the Department of the Interior and the Treasury noted the unexpectedly profligate use of red paint since President Obama’s ultimatum to Syria two years ago in which he warned that the use of chemical weapons against insurgents fighting the Assad regime would constitute a red line, and that crossing such a line would mean a harsh America or international response.
After the first use of such weapons was confirmed, Obama backtracked on the automatic nature of a US response, if any, forcing a redrawing of the red lines at a point much more distant than the mere use of such arms against civilians and the war crimes that entails.
The prime minister has tasked Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit with researching the arrangements that prevail in the Belgian “Baarle-Hertog” and Dutch “Baarle-Nassau” areas — complex border arrangements that originated in a mixture of medieval treaties, land swaps, land sales and other agreements — to see whether they constitute a viable legal precedent for similar arrangements under which Jewish settlers could stay put within a Palestinian state, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported on Sunday night.Abbas: 5 Million 'Refugees' Must be Allowed into Israel
Taking a precedent from the Belgian-Dutch arrangements, which have been described as the “most complicated” in the world, was one of “many ideas” being contemplated by Netanyahu, the TV report said.
According to Channel 2 correspondent Udi Segal, after Netanyahu raised the idea in meetings, the National Security Council has compiled a comprehensive report addressing the practical aspects and legal precedents.
Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas clarified his positions regarding the issues of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and the so-called “right of return” of Palestinian “refugees” in an appearance broadcast by PA TV, translated by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute).Arab League Head Urges ‘Firm Stand’ Against Recognizing Israel as Jewish State
It is worth watching, for anyone who harbors any doubts regarding what the “moderate” PA leader seeks, in the negotiations with Israel. Abbas states clearly: no Jewish communities will remain in the PA, and 5 million “refugees” worldwide, “from Canada to Japan” – including all of the descendants of Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 – will have the right to “return” to Israel.
In his address, broadcast three days ago, Abbas rejects categorically even the idea that settlement “blocs” will remain in the PA state ("not one stone") and says that any agreement with Israel will be brought before the Palestinian people worldwide, for a referendum that will accept or reject it.
Nabil Elaraby, the head of the Arab League, has called on Arab countries to take a “firm stand” against recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.Arab ministers: Lebanon has right to defend itself against Israel
Elaraby made his remarks Sunday as part of an Arab Foreign Ministers conference in Cairo, the Associated Press reported.
On Friday, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas made similar comments, saying there is “no way” he would recognize Israel as a Jewish state. PA-based Al-Quds newspaper on Saturday quoted U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying, “The American position is clear, Israel is a Jewish state. However, we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final [U.S.-brokered peace] agreement.” (h/t MtTB)
Lebanon has the right to defend itself against Israeli aggression and to liberate its territories occupied by Israel, Arab League foreign ministers said in Cairo on Sunday.Shadow War
“Lebanon and the Lebanese have the right to liberate or retrieve the Shebaa Farms, Kfar Shuba Hills and the Lebanese part of the Ghajar village, and to resist any Israeli aggression or occupation with all legitimate and available means,” read a joint statement released by the ministers.
The interception last week by the Israeli navy of a ship in the Red Sea carrying rockets apparently destined for Gaza was part of an ongoing battle to block Iranian arms shipments that is usually waged out of the public eye, security officials in Tel Aviv said over the weekend.Israel puts cache from seized arms ship on show
“Not a week passes without Israel thwarting an Iranian attempt to transmit arms to terrorist entities threatening Israel’s security,” a defense official told the Jerusalem Post.
These efforts usually involve non-military means, he said, such as uncovering the name of a company that provides components for Iranian missiles or the name of a bank financing the movement of arms.
However, there are sometimes air or sea strikes hundreds of miles from Israel’s borders to stop actual movements.
Dozens of rockets, boxes of hundreds thousands of bullets and nearly 200 mortar rounds will be opened for the world to see Monday as Israel puts weapons on show from a recently intercepted ship smuggling arms that it says exposes the “true face of Iran” which allegedly dispatched it.Iran's Intercepted Weapons Shipment Unloaded in Israel
The IDF says it found 40 long-range M-302 rockets aboard the Panamanian-flagged Klos-C it intercepted in the Red Sea last week, as well as 181 122mm[should be 120mm] mortar shells and approximately 400,000 7.62-caliber rounds.
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the mortar rounds had been made in Iran. (h/t Bob Knot)
Congress expected to approve $160 million for Iron Dome
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed last week during his visit to Washington that the U.S. Congress is expected to approve an additional $160 million of funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system, Israel Hayom has learned.Man killed on border identified as Jordanian judge
Currently, there are seven Iron Dome batteries in operation, and the Israel defense establishment's goal is to have 14 batteries in operation by the end of 2015. The increase would provide Israel's skies with full coverage against rocket threats.
A Palestinian man was shot and killed at an Israeli-Jordanian border crossing Monday morning, after reportedly attacking a soldier there.Tel Aviv bus bomber sentenced to 25 years in prison
The incident occurred at the Allenby Bridge border crossing in the Jordan Valley, connecting the West Bank to Jordan.
The shot man was identified by the Palestinian Ma’an news agency as Nablus resident Raed Zeiter, 38.
According to a Facebook page associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s office, Zeiter was a Jordanian passport holder and served as a civil court judge in the Hashemite Kingdom.
The man who bombed a Tel Aviv bus, wounding 26 people during Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Monday.Jewish Home MK’s car stoned in West Bank
Muhammad Abed al-Jaffer Nasser Mafarja was convicted as part of a plea bargain deal he signed in December 2013, which dropped the harshest charges against him and allowed him to avoid a life sentence.
Palestinians hurled rocks at Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked’s car late Sunday night. No injuries were reported.DHS tells American border guards to run away from illegal immigrants hurling rocks at them, fleeing in vehicles
Shaked and her aides were riding in the car when it was pelted with stones near the West Bank settlement of Tapuah, Israel Radio reported.
Damage was caused to the vehicle.
Top administration officials have directed 21,000 border patrol officers to retreat whenever illegal immigrants throw rocks at them, and to avoid getting in front of foreign drug-smugglers’ vehicles as they head north with their drug shipments.Bulgarian police recover DNA evidence of one of Burgas bombers
“Agents shall not discharge firearms in response to thrown or hurled projectiles… agents should obtain a tactical advantage in these situations, such as seeking cover or distancing themselves,” said the instructions, issued Mar. 7, under the signature of Michael Fisher, chief of U.S. Border Patrol.
Agents were also directed to keep their weapons holstered when drug smugglers drive by.
Agents can’t use guns against “a moving vehicle merely fleeing from agents,” say the instructions. (h/t MtTB)
DNA belonging to Lebanese-born Canadian Hassan El Hajj Hassan, the man in charge of the logistics of the attack, was found at a hotel in Nesebar, a nearby resort town.Car Bomber Thwarted By Manual Transmission (satire)
Hassan, who Bulgarian authorities say remotely detonated the bomb in the suicide bomber's backpack, arrived in the country some three weeks before the attack on June 28, 2012.
He stayed at the hotel in Nesebar for a week. He left two baseball caps and a towel in the hotel room, from which investigators extracted the DNA, according to the report.
A Palestinian man was killed this morning while attempting to attack Israelis with a car bomb, but was unable to drive the vehicle to his selected location. The vehicle he had been provided was a stick-shift transmission and he had only learned to drive automatic. The bomb exploded short of his destination and otherwise caused no damage.PA minister: Shahid's "sins are forgiven with the first gush of his blood"
Abdallah El-Fatuh, 22, was on his way out of Jenin toward the nearest IDF roadblock. His handlers in Islamic Jihad had given him a standard transmission 1999 Hyundai Accent, but the Nablus native was apparently too ashamed to admit he was unable to complete his mission for so seemingly silly a reason.
Al-Qaeda group’s ranks in Gaza growing, leader says
In an interview with The Associated Press, Abu Bakir al-Ansari described a movement that is larger and better organized than is generally believed, with dozens of fighters now in Syria, and claimed his group killed an Italian activist three years ago. He said Gaza’s Salafis have agreed with Hamas to observe a truce with Israel for the time being, but that they are ready to fight at any time.EU’s Ashton in Tehran: No guarantee of final nuke deal
“We have a deal with Hamas to abide by the truce as long as Israel abides,” Abu Bakir said. “But once it violates the truce, we fire our rockets without any consultation with Hamas.”
“This interim agreement is really important but not as important as a comprehensive agreement (which is)… difficult, challenging, and there is no guarantee that we will succeed,” Ashton told a joint news conference in Tehran with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.Kerry calls for return of Jewish-American missing in Iran for 7 years
Ashton was in Iran Sunday for top-level meetings with officials who are pursuing a track of talks they hope will eventually end international pressure and suspicions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
“It is very important that with the support of the people of Iran for the work to going on by the minister and his team and with the support of international community for my work that we should aim to try to succeed,” Ashton said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry marked the seventh year since the disappearance of an American Jewish man in Iran with a plea for his safe return.Saudi princesses plead for freedom
Robert Levinson, 66, disappeared seven years ago from Kish Island, Iran. He is one of the longest-held American citizens in history, Kerry said in a statement on Sunday.
A group of Saudi princesses has reportedly been held in captivity for the past 13 years in villas at the royal compound in Jeddah.
Two of the princesses, daughters of King Abdullah, have appealed for help from the The Sunday Times in emails and phone calls from their guarded home, the British newspaper reported.
Princesses Sahar, 42, and Jawaher, 38, are being held together in one villa, while their sisters Hala, 39, and Maha, 41, are being held in solitary confinement in separate villas on the compound. All four sisters were reportedly placed under the control of three of their half-brothers, at the order of the king.