Thursday, June 11, 2015
'Ally': Michael Oren's Memoir to Expose Obama Administration's Abuse of Israel
Former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren is set to release a new memoir June 23: Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide. The book tells the story of Oren’s four years (2009-13) as Israel’s representative in Washington–and reveals just how hostile the Obama administration is towards Israel. Though he argues Obama is not anti-Israel, Oren notes that his administration did all it could to bully Israel into compliance with its hopelessly naïve new agenda in the Middle East.A new inside account of Obama’s Israel ire
Breitbart News was shown an uncorrected galley of the text, on the promise that we would not quote from it. Suffice to say that the Obama administration–and to a lesser extent Hillary Clinton, who was responsible for carrying out its foreign policy at the time–emerge looking ill-informed at best, thuggish at worst.
In one episode, State Department staffers cheer as a senior official slams Israel’s envoy. In another, Susan Rice does her best impression of a Chicago mobster, with an implied threat.
Oren is uniquely placed to chronicle the deterioration of relations between the two government–just as he was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s best choice to limit the damage. An American Jew who became an Israeli citizen, Oren understands both countries and their cultures. A distinguished historian, he has a keen sense for detail, and his book weaves personal recollections and anecdotes into a detailed, even forensic, narrative of diplomatic disenchantment.
Oren encounters an administration stacked with left-wing professors and their students, who are attempting a perilous experiment in American foreign relations, and who treat Israel, at best, as their guinea pig. He begins to worry that many of Obama’s public gestures of support for Israel are also attempts to constrain Israel in a bear hug, preventing it from acting on its own. And he frets about an erosion of support for Israel among American Jews, urged along by left-wing J Street.
When it’s released June 23, the new book by bestselling historian Michael Oren is going to be the talk of Washington and Jerusalem — not to mention everywhere people take an interest in the relations between the United States and Israel, which is to say, in many if not most places on the planet.Isi Leibler: American Jewish leaders fail to respond to Obama’s threats
It’s called “Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide,” and I’m not sure that in the annals of diplomatic history there’s ever been anything quite like this astonishing account of Oren’s four years (2009-2013) as Israel’s ambassador in Washington.
It’s an ultimate insider’s story told while all the players save Oren are still in place; the Israeli prime minister he served still holds office and the administration to which he was the ambassador will remain in power until January 2017.
It’s not that there’s lots of breaking news in “Ally” that will startle people. Rather, it makes news on almost every page with its incredibly detailed account of the root hostility of the Obama administration toward the Jewish state.
Stressing that he considers Israel’s security paramount and that he “understands Israeli concerns and fears,” he insisted that the Jewish state needed tough love from its friends, assuring his audience that he felt he had a better understanding of Israel’s needs than Israelis themselves. He effectively called on American Jews to choose between his flawed evaluation of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the concerns about security and survival shared by the majority of Israelis.Rabbi Abraham Cooper: Obama’s No Anti-Semite – But He Fails To Understand History’s Oldest Hatred
Obama had the chutzpah to warn that the current Israeli government would alienate the people of America and the global community because it was diverging from the noble sentiments expressed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
Intensifying his vendetta against Netanyahu, he effectively described him as a deceitful liar who could not be trusted. He constantly harped on two statements that Netanyahu had uttered in the heat of the election and had subsequently repeatedly repudiated. However, not even once did he condemn the Palestinian Authority for its daily incitement of hatred, sanctification of mass murderers, or criminalization of Israel at the UN.
He warned that Israel has become obsessed with fear, claiming ludicrously that the US had proposed solutions by which, given goodwill, Israel’s security concerns could have been overcome. He urged Israelis to adopt “the politics of hope.”
He chided Israel for being obstinate and inflexible, thus preventing the peace process from moving forward, and clearly held Israel responsible for the breakdown of negotiations – conveniently ignoring the fact that it was PA President Mahmoud Abbas who terminated the talks and breached the Oslo Accords by unilaterally seeking recognition at the United Nations and uniting with Hamas. He failed to make mention of Israel’s major concessions, including a 10-month settlement freeze to pave the way for negotiations – to which Abbas only responded in the 10th month – and the wretched release of mass murderers who were subsequently fêted as heroes and many of whom renewed their terrorist activities.
And to top it off, Obama even made the outrageous observation that Netanyahu “had so many caveats, so many conditions” that the Palestinian officials and others might not see Netanyahu as a reliable negotiating partner.
In his recent Atlantic interview with President Obama, Jeffrey Goldberg asked about Iran, anti-Semitism, and the nuclear bomb.
While admitting “there are deep strains of anti-Semitism in the core [Iranian] regime,” the president tried to explain them away with a historical analogy: “Well, the fact that you are anti-Semitic, or racist, doesn’t preclude you from being interested in survival. It doesn’t preclude you from being rational about the need to keep your economy afloat; it doesn’t preclude you from making strategic decisions about how you stay in power; and so the fact that the supreme leader is anti-Semitic doesn’t mean that this overrides all of his other considerations. You know, if you look at the history of anti-Semitism, Jeff, there were a whole lot of European leaders . . . .”
This argument is essentially a revival of the Western democracies’ (wishful) thinking in the years leading up to World War II. Hitler’s regime, they admitted, was anti-Semitic – but the same could be said, they noted, for other European regimes, past and present. The problem with this apology for appeasement was its failure to recognize the difference between the traditional anti-Semitism of European leaders and the Nazis’ genocidal anti-Semitism.
Genocidal anti-Semitism had never been put into practice when in 1938 Neville Chamberlain ignored the potential catastrophic threat it posed. By 1945 a shocked world saw the results of a war of extermination against the Jews carried out by a modern state – a state so driven by virulent anti-Semitism that it often diverted personnel and materials from the epic military conflict in order to expedite the killing of Jews.
PA Official: Netanyahu Using Goebbels' 'Big Lie' Tactics
Continuing a well-worn theme in the Palestinian Authority, a top diplomat in the PA on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of using “Goebbels tactics of the big lie” to smear the reputation of PA chief Mahmous Abbas.Abbas says PA must re-examine agreements with Israel
Israel Radio quoted Nimar Hamad, a top security advisor to Abbas, as saying that “Netanyahu is using propaganda and lies to convince the world community of his point of view. This is exactly what Goebbels, the chief of Nazi propaganda did – lie, lie, and lie.”
Hamad was speaking in an interview on official PA television, responding to comments Netanyahu made a day earlier at the Herzliya Conference.
"I committed to two states at Bar Ilan," Netanyahu said in his hour-long speech, referencing his controversial 2009 speech voicing support for the establishment of a Palestinian state. "The solution as I see it is a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state."
In the last round of peace talks, the Palestinian Authority (PA) adamantly refused to recognize Israel's existence as the Jewish state, Netanyahu said. "The Palestinians expect us to recognize a Palestinian state. But they won't recognize a Jewish state for the Jewish people. That's what we want. Mutual recognition.”
All lies, said Hamad; the PA had “long ago” recognized Israel, and it was Netanyahu who was preventing talks. “Just like the Nazi propagandists, Netanyahu spreads the big lie in the hope that it will be 'bought' by naïve people.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday called for the re-examination of political, economic and security arrangements with Israel, Palestinians news agency Ma'an reported.PA Official: Stop the 'Settlements' or Face More Violence
At a press conference with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolicat in Belgrade, the PA chief said Israel must "stop violating our agreements and fully commit to them." He stressed his commitment to peace based on the Arab peace initiative, and "on justice and international legitimacy."
He also voiced his objection to temporary resolutions or borders under any future peace accord, and urged the Jewish state to release security prisoners jailed in Israel and stop building in settlements.
The PA head's latest statements align with his preconditions set out last month to restarting peace talks with Israel. There, he also called for the halt of all settlement construction in the West Bank and for the immediate release of Palestinians that were imprisoned before the Oslo Accords who were supposed to be released in 2014.
An official in the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday threatened Israel with violence if it continues its “settlement building”.International court team to probe war crimes allegations in Israel
Walid Assaf, who heads the PA’s “Commission Against the Wall and Settlements”, warned against what he described as “settlement plans more serious than can be described in words."
"We are witnessing today the beginning of a settlement campaign in all Palestinian lands starting from the village of Sussia, through the valley east of occupied Al-Quds and ending in the east of Tubas, in order to establish a connection between the settlement blocs and draw the final map of settlements,” he said.
"The plans of the Israeli settlement expansion over the next four years have brought us to a full understanding that the situation does not leave the possibility of a diplomatic solution based on the two-state solution," continued Assaf.
He then stressed that there will be no return to negotiations without cessation of the “settlement building” and a date to end the "occupation" and threatened that if the diplomatic process fails to bring an end to the “settlement”, we will be witness to “widespread popular activity” to stop it.
The International Criminal Court is set to send a team of investigators to Israel by the end of the month to examine Palestinian allegations of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Netanyahu thanks US military chief for America’s friendship
As part of a preliminary examination of the Palestinians’ claims, the investigators are scheduled to arrive on June 27 and will try to determine if there is sufficient evidence that crimes covered by the court have been committed, Haaretz reported on Thursday, citing Palestinian sources.
The Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said in a statement that such trips by prosecutors are not an unusual occurrence.
“As part of its preliminary examination activities, the Office of the Prosecutor conducts field visits as it has done in the past with other situations under preliminary examinations,” the statement said. “From the outset, the prosecutor has consistently made clear that the situation in Palestine will not be treated any differently from the others. Therefore, the office as per normal practice, is considering a visit to the region during the course of its preliminary examination. Contrary to media reports, no date has been confirmed and further planning is required.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday told visiting Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs Gen. Martin Dempsey of the appreciation Israel has for what America’s servicemen and women are doing in the region and for the sake of freedom.US Official: Iran Means What it Says About Destroying Israel
The two men met in Jerusalem during a visit to the country by the top US military commander.
“You’ve been a wonderful friend and a grand champion of America and of America-Israel relations,” Netanyahu said. “We appreciate it. I want to take this opportunity to also express our respect and deep admiration for America’s fighting men and women.
“We know you’re extended around the world, including in our region. We know we have no better friends than the American people, the American governments, the American fighting men and women. You fight for America, but you also fight for freedom,” he said.
Dempsey recalled the US military’s strong ties with IDF commanders, and how Netanyahu, as prime minister, serves the Israeli people.
The Iranian leadership disingenuously denies it, but the “hints” they give about wanting to destroy Israel are the real thing, former top Pentagon official General Michael Flynn asserted on Wednesday.Obama Bending Over Backwards to Preserve Iran Nuclear Deal
Speaking before Congress, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said the deal being worked out between Iran and Western powers “leaves a lot to be desired,” and that there was no doubt Tehran would eventually develop nuclear weapons.
And, he added, there was no doubt that those weapons would be directed against Israel.
Flynn was joining critics from Israel, France, and elsewhere, who have been warning that the deal being built on a set of understandings announced earlier this year by US Secretary of State John Kerry would not enforce supervision of the agreement – in essence, relying on nothing more than Iran's promise that it will not develop nuclear weapons.
With the deadline for the agreement set for the end of June, diplomatic activity surrounding the deal has increased considerably in recent weeks – but just Thursday, France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius reiterated that the deal, as it stands, did not have enough teeth.
Israel, too, is very concerned about the brewing deal.
On April 2, the State Department released a “fact sheet” on the emerging nuclear agreement with Iran that included this pledge: “U.S. sanctions on Iran for terrorism, human rights abuses, and ballistic missiles will remain in place under the deal.”Iran satellite launches tied to ballistic missile program, UN experts say
Today the Associated Press is reporting: “The Obama administration may have to backtrack on its promise that it will suspend only nuclear-related economic sanctions on Iran as part of an emerging nuclear agreement.” The “may have to” could be puzzling to outsiders: Why does the administration have to do anything? The answer, of course, is because the president wants a deal concluded with Iran by June 30, no matter the details.
This requires some extremely creative reinterpretation of the April 2 fact sheet by State Department spinners who are now claiming that, on second thought, pretty much ALL sanctions are nuclear-related: “For example, they say measures designed to stop Iran from acquiring ballistic missiles are nuclear-related because they were imposed to push Iran into the negotiations. Also, they say sanctions that may appear non-nuclear are often undergirded by previous actions conceived as efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program.” Clearly the current leaders of the State Department are graduates of the Bill Clinton School of Linguistics: “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”
Iran has launched a space satellite using technology that could “contribute to” the development of a ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons, according to a United Nations-appointed panel of experts monitoring the issue.Iran Threatens Legal Action if U.S. Enforces Sanctions Against Terror-Linked Airline
Tehran intends to launch more such satellites, the panel said.
The most recent launch came last February 15, the experts noted, adding that the Iranian government has already announced plans to conduct three additional satellite launches before March 2016.
The vehicle used in the February launch—from a military base in northern Iran-- was based on a “space launch vehicle” that is variant of Iran’s Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which has a range of about 1,000 miles. The Shahab-3 is one of two Iranian missiles that the experts say “are believed to be potentially capable of delivery of nuclear weapons.”
The experts noted that the future satellites will be boosted aloft “from more powerful launchers and on the back of bigger carriers.”
Iran’s missile development—peaceful or not-- is one of the murkier and more contentious issues surrounding the ongoing negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the world’s major powers—precisely because ballistic missiles have been shunted to the side of a potential deal centered on nuclear enrichment activities that the Obama Administration is pushing hard to conclude by June 30.
Iran will “take legal action” against the United States if the U.S. prevents an Iranian airline with ties to terrorist groups from flying recently purchased planes, Reuters reported today.What Iran Will Buy With Obama’s $50 Billion
Iran’s Mahan Air, blacklisted by Washington, bought eight second-hand Airbus A340s and one Airbus A321 in May in defiance of U.S. sanctions. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported last week that the planes would be used on international routes.
The U.S. Treasury department said last month that Mahan Air had a “blockable interest” in the planes, meaning they could be subject to an asset freeze, raising the possibility that Washington may attempt to have them seized at airports outside Iran.
“As long as … a disruption has not taken place, we cannot make a definite assertion. But if it happens, Iran will take legal action,” said Alireza Jahangirian, head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA).
U.S. administration officials are still defending the nuclear deal by assuring us that Iran will only use the $50 billion “signing bonus” they expect to receive on the country’s internal needs. No Iranian official has ever promised that, not even to the Iranian people who have been struggling with economic hardships. Yet the U.S. administration has presumed that Iran’s infrastructure is more significant to the regime than hegemony over Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.Protective Edge Fallen to Receive Annual State Ceremony
Let’s imagine a scenario where Iran decides to spend the windfall on infrastructure and on addressing the needs of the Iranian people, as Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew assured the world it will in an address to the Washington Institute last month. The Iranian people will surely be relieved, and the credibility of the reformists will probably increase. But most significantly, Iran will become a nation with no ambitions for regional dominance. Iran will eventually have to let go of Syria’s Assad, Hezbollah, and all their militias in the region—including those in Yemen and Iraq, because the money is needed for infrastructure and to help rebuild the country’s own economy. The mullahs will then sit down with the world powers to find a realistic political solution for Syria and stop the bloodshed. Wonderful, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, the Obama Administration’s big hopes are unlikely to pan out, for two big reasons. One, no one has forced or will force Iran—deal or no deal—to stop its military operations in the region, so why would they? They can spend the $50 billion both internally and on their regional militias and maintain some kind of “Resistance Economy” until sanctions are lifted and investments get going. Two, Syria is too significant for Iran to just let go, as Iranian officials have declared publicly many times. Without Syria, Iran will lose its link to Hezbollah and thereby its leverage over Lebanon and its borders with Israel. If this leverage is lost, Iran will be forced to let go of its ambitions to become a main regional player and to forget about exporting the Islamic Revolution, the hope on which the regime was founded.
At the request of bereaved parents, the Defense Ministry has agreed to recognize last summer's Operation Protective Edge as a full-scale war, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.MEMRI: Rising Tensions Between Jordan, Palestinian Authority
As such, a state memorial service will be held every year in honor of the 67 soldiers who lost their lives in the two-month-long war.
The council discussing the issue concluded talks on Wednesday and recommended the Defense Ministry immediately establish an annual ceremony. An IDF representative attending the hearing said the army's Chief of Staff was receptive to the idea and would approve it.
Bereaved parents have already announced their expectation that the Prime Minister and the President attend the ceremony in order to pay their respects to the fallen soldiers.
Eli Ben-Shem, the chairman of Yad Lebanim, an organization that supports bereaved families in cooperation with the Defense Ministry, expressed satisfaction at the council's decision.
"Because both the state and the army now officially recognize Protective Edge as a military campaign, an official memorial ceremony will be held each year on Mount Herzl, as is done for all Israeli military campaigns."
Two recent events aggravated the existing political disputes and tensions between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority (PA). On May 22, 2015 worshippers disrupted a Friday sermon delivered at Al-Aqsa mosque by Jordanian chief qadi Ahmad Hulail, who was visiting the mosque at the head of a high-level Jordanian delegation. Also in late May, the Arab media reported that Jibril Rajoub, the president of the Palestinian Football Association, who holds dual Palestinian and Jordanian citizenship, refused to back the Jordanian candidate for the presidency of FIFA, King 'Abdallah's half-brother Prince 'Ali Bin Al-Hussein.Turkey Asks Hamas Commander to Scale-Back Terror Activities
These two incidents sparked furious reactions from the Jordanian public and leadership against the PA and its senior officials. It was claimed that the incidents were deliberate political measures aimed at harming the Kingdom of Jordan, and that the PA had forgotten Jordan's generous support of the Palestinian cause and was betraying Jordan. Calls were made in the Jordanian media and official circles, as well as on social media, to settle accounts with the Palestinian leadership and reassess Jordan-PA relations. PA officials, headed by Mahmoud 'Abbas, paid a special visit to Jordan in attempt to appease the Jordanians.
It should be noted that Jordan-PA relations have been strained for some months due to the submission of a Palestinian draft resolution to the UN Security Council in December 2014 to set a date for ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state – a move that Jordan claimed was carried out without proper coordination with it.
This report will review the circumstances behind the current tension, and the responses in Jordan and the PA to the events that sparked it.
Turkish authorities have reportedly asked a senior Hamas commander to scale-back his activities in Turkey, in order to avoid Ankara being accused of abetting terrorism.Hamas Starts Using Border 'Attack' Road
According to Haaretz, Turkish intelligence transmitted the request to Salah al-Arouri, who was expelled from Judea and Samaria by the IDF after being released from prison in the 2011 Schalit Deal, but who today continues to direct Hamas operations in the "West Bank" from his new base in Turkey.
Turkish intelligence services have long been aware of al-Arouri's activities, which even include running a network of training camps on Turkish soil, as well as recruitment, and planning and directing attacks against Israeli military and civilian targets. Until now, however, Turkey's Islamist AKP rulers - whose party is modeled on the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot - have chosen to turn a blind eye to Hamas terrorist activity in Turkey.
That changed at least slightly, according to the report, after Israeli defense officials complained to the US over the Hamas training camps operating with impunity inside Turkey - which is a member of NATO and considered a US ally.
American officials demanded an explanation from Ankara, which responded by telling al-Arouri to lower his profile in order to prevent Washington from accusing the Turkish government of aiding and abetting terrorism.
After having paved an attack road along the length of the security barrier in Gaza, Hamas terrorists are now patrolling the road at a negligible distance from IDF border posts in an apparent attempt to create a new security reality and ready the ground for attack.Shin Bet says it foiled Hamas money trail from Gaza to West Bank
In recent days pictures have surfaced online showing armed Hamas terrorists in uniform conducting patrols in white Toyota 4x4 pick-up trucks along the road, all in broad day light and at a distance of just 300 meters (984 feet) from the border.
It is unclear whether the patrols are meant just to show a Hamas presence right on the border, or whether they are also intended for surveillance and gathering information about the IDF array on the border to be used in future attacks.
What is clear in the pictures is the direct threat posed by the patrols, as in the background of the pictures IDF posts and the border fence are clearly seen.
It would appear that the new patrols are meant to lull the IDF into accepting a new security reality in which Hamas has a presence on the border, and from that new status quo it would be easier for the terrorist organization to launch an attack under the guise of yet another patrol.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Wednesday the arrest of a Gazan woman suspected of transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars from Gaza to the West Bank for Hamas activities.PreOccupied Territory: Candy To Celebrate Palestinian Deaths Inexplicably Selling Badly (satire)
Sana’a Hafi, 42, from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, allegedly transferred the money to her brother Hassin Abu Kayuk, who is serving time in an Israeli prison. He allegedly sent some of the money on to Hamas members in Judea and Samaria. Hafi also allegedly used currency exchange businesses to get the funds to Hamas operatives in the West Bank, security sources said.
“Every one along the chain took a commission, and passed the funds on,” one source told The Jerusalem Post. Hafi was arrested at the Erez crossing on May 26 while trying to enter Israel from the northern Strip.
“Hafi said during questioning that a large part of the money she transferred to her brother was used, among other purposes, to purchase a luxury apartment and a vehicle. She added that she got the funds from Hamas’s Al-Nor organization, which transfers money to prisoners and to the families of Hamas ‘martyrs’ and wounded members,” the Shin Bet said.
Hafi allegedly used currency exchange businesses to circumvent bans on the movement of Hamas money using electronic bank transfers.
An entrepreneur who hoped to be the first to open an untapped market in Israel admitted error in gauging the size of that market, and that there appeared to be no demand for candy specifically sold for distribution to celebrate the deaths of Palestinians.Washington Sanctions Three Key Members of Hezbollah
Simcha Le’aid, a Tel Aviv businessman, thought he had an original angle on the thin-margin retail candy market, especially in Jerusalem, where ethnic tensions run high. He opened an online business, preordered two tonnes of candy and festive packaging, and placed ads in media catering to Jewish audiences, but as of yesterday, not a single order had been placed since the enterprise began operations in January.
Le’aid had seen Palestinian celebrations of Jewish or Israeli calamity on multiple occasions, most notably last summer when Hamas operatives kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teens. He assumed, based on media coverage of right-wing Jews, that the latter would respond with open pocketbooks to an initiative offering them an analogous outlet for celebration of Palestinian misfortune.
Specifically, Le’aid thought of the abduction and murder by immolation of a Palestinian teen in apparent retaliation for the deaths of the three Jewish teens, which was portrayed in several media publications as exposing the true nature of the right-wing, religious Jewish demographic. “It was a no-brainer,” recalls Le’aid. “People who dehumanize the enemy are more likely to be favorably disposed to celebrating that enemy’s downfall. It was a sure thing.”
Inexplicably, however, Le’aid was unable to sell a single package. “Initially I thought thee was something wrong with the online system, because the niche for this product is just begging to be exploited,” he said. “So I actually went to various places around the country and placed dummy orders, which arrived just fine.” He then realized it must be a marketing problem.
The United States Treasury on Wednesday placed on its sanctions blacklist three Lebanese men and companies they are tied to, calling them part of a "key Hezbollah support network."Lebanon Gets More US Arms - Or Is It Hezbollah?
According to the AFP news agency, the Treasury placed asset freezes and restrictions for doing business on real estate businessman Adham Tabaja and his Al-Inmaa group of companies, Kassem Hejeij and Husayn Ali Faour, and the company he manages, Car Care Center.
The Treasury said Tabaja is a member of Hezbollah, which is officially labeled a terrorist organization by Washington, and that Al-Inmaa is used by Hezbollah for investment and holding properties.
It said that Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting has recently obtained oil and construction projects in Iraq that "provide both financial support and organizational infrastructure to Hezbollah."
Hejeij, the Treasury said, works with Tabaja and also provides financial support to Hezbollah.
Lebanon last week received a shipment of U.S. arms worth $146 million. The arms consisted of AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles, the third major arms shipment the country has received this year.Iran Moves Into Syria, Reportedly Executes Syrian Military Commanders
Sources in Lebanon said that the weapons would be used to battle Islamic State and Islamist groups in Syria that have been conducting skirmishes along the border. Among the targets of the Lebanese Army is the town of Arsal in the country's northeast, which Islamic militants have been jousting for control of in recent months.
However, many in Israel have expressed fear that those weapons could end up in the hands of arch-terror group Hezbollah.
In February, the U.S. sent to Lebanon over 70 M198 Howitzers, as well as tens of millions of rounds of ammunition. Before that, Beirut received over 50 Humvees. Over the past decade, officials said, the U.S. has donated over a billion dollars in aid to the Lebanese army, although until this year most of that was for non-lethal materials.
Many, however, fear that the new weapons could end up in the hands of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, which works closely with the Lebanese army to combat Sunni Islamists who have taken over large parts of Syria. In a recent Washington Post article, Tony Badran, a Middle East analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that “in the eastern Bekaa area, the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) is playing a direct support role for Hezbollah operations, and, for example, they will deploy to areas that Hezbollah has cleared and then set up checkpoints.
Recent reports from Syria suggest the military forces of dictator Bashar Assad are crumbling under the strain of fighting a five-year-long civil war, and dealing with the rise of the Islamic State, which has been scoring military victories in Syria as well as Iraq.Syria Asks UN to Dismantle its Nuclear Program
Assad has supposedly appealed to his Iranian patrons for military assistance. If claims that Iranian officers are taking control of Syrian units, and even executing Syrian commanders for cowardice, are correct, the Iranian cavalry has arrived, and its leaders don’t like what they see.
Lebanon’s Now relates a claim from the London-based Arabic-language Al-Quds al-Arabi that Iranian commanders have executed three Sunni officers “who were among the regime troops that withdrew from the Mahmbel and Bsanqoul checkpoints following rebel advances in the southern Idlib province area on Saturday.”
Several soldiers under the command of these officers were also reportedly executed, on charges of “betraying the homeland.” Ominously, other Syrian troops present at the execution were unable to intervene on behalf of their colleagues, because Syrian forces in the Jourin area “are under the command of Iranian officers.”
War-torn Syria has asked the UN atomic watchdog for help in converting a nuclear facility and shipping abroad potentially dangerous nuclear material, the head of the watchdog said Monday.Australia: ISIS Has Radioactive Material It Could Use to Develop WMD
"We have received a request from Syria early this year...we are studying the request," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano told reporters according to AFP.
The assistance would entail converting a small reactor near Damascus so that it can be fueled with low-enriched uranium (LEU) instead of the more dangerous highly-enriched uranium (HEU).
Syria's stock of around one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of HEU would then be sent back to China, which built the so-called Miniature Neutron Source (MNSR) reactor that is used for training and research.
HEU can be used inside a nuclear weapon, but this is extremely difficult to do.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has gained access to radioactive material from hospital and research centers in territory it has seized in Iraq and Syria, prompting fears that it could develop a large “dirty” bomb, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told The Australian.Islamic State isn’t just destroying ancient artifacts — it’s selling them
Last Friday, Bishop warned that ISIS is recruiting “highly trained professionals” to develop chemical weapons.
She made those comments while addressing the Australia Group, an alliance of about 40 nations, plus the European Community, established 30 years ago to prevent the export of materials that can be used to develop chemical, biological and radiological weapons.
Bishop told The Australian that the concerns she alluded to during her speech stemmed from reports filed by Australia’s Defense Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
NATO expressed concern about ISIS collecting radioactive material from hospitals and research centers that would normally only be available to governments, reportedly said Bishop, adding, “The insurgents did not just clear out the cash from local banks.”
Islamic State militants have provoked a global outcry by attacking ancient monuments with jackhammers and bulldozers. But they also have been quietly selling off smaller antiquities from Iraq and Syria, earning millions of dollars in an increasingly organized pillaging of national treasures, according to officials and experts.Video shows IS-linked group executing accused ‘Mossad spy’
The Islamic State has defended its destruction of cultural artifacts by saying they are idolatrous and represent pre-Islamic cultures. Behind the scenes, though, the group’s looting has become so systematic that the Islamic State has incorporated the practice into the structure of its self-declared caliphate, granting licenses for digging at historic sites through a department of “precious resources.”
The growing trade reflects how Islamic State fighters have entrenched themselves since seizing the Iraqi city of Mosul a year ago Wednesday, in a dramatic expansion of the territory they control in this country and neighboring Syria.
The extremist group’s recent capture of Syria’s majestic 2,000-year-old ruins at Palmyra threw a spotlight on the risk that the Islamic State poses to the region’s rich cultural heritage. It is, however, just one of 4,500 sites under the group’s control, according to the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.
An Islamic State affiliate group Tuesday published a brutal video that showed terrorists forcing a prisoner in the Sinai Peninsula accused of being an Israeli spy to dig his own grave before executing him.Video Shows ISIS Using U.S. TOW Anti-Tank Missiles in Capture of Palmyra
The video was disseminated by Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which is fighting an insurgency against the Egyptian government that recently swore allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.
The prisoner, dawning an orange jumpsuit similar to prisoners held elsewhere by IS affiliates, had been accused of spying on behalf of the Israeli Mossad spy agency.
The video shows clips from his arrest up until his execution, reported the Daily Mail. The contents of the video could not be independently verified.
Presumably, most of these weapons have been obtained by ISIS in their victories against Syrian and Iraqi military and U.S.-backed so-called “vetted moderate” Syrian rebel groups.JPost Editorial: Erdogan’s loss
Over the past year I’ve reported here at PJ Media about the defections and surrender of “vetted moderate” groups and leaders to ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria. In particular I have noted the capture and use of CIA-provided TOW missiles by Jabhat al-Nusra:
So now we have conclusive proof of both Al-Qaeda and ISIS using TOW missiles that had been provided to U.S.-backed “vetted moderate” groups. The CIA program to supply these “vetted moderate” groups with TOW systems began in April 2014, meaning that it took less than a year for these heavy weapons to end up in the hands of designated terror groups.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi admitted recently that the Iraqi army lost 2,300 Humvees that had been provided by the U.S. to ISIS in their seizure of Mosul a year ago. Other reports indicate that ISIS has also obtained 40 M1A1 tanks, 74,000 machine guns, and 52 M198 Howitzer mobile gun systems.
When U.S. weapons now in the hands of terrorist groups end up killing American soldiers and civilians, who will answer for this growing blowback?
It is always a welcome development when an autocrat- wannabe (even when he struts about in the guise of a democrat) is brought down a peg.Turkey's AKP Blames Election Result on 'the Jewish lobby' and 'Crusaders'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan harbored unconcealed ambitions to resurrect a present-day version of the Ottoman sultanate of old, with himself cast in the starring role. For that he needed enough parliamentary clout to change the constitution and put unprecedented executive powers in the president’s hands, in contrast to his current status as titular head-of-state only.
This is what Sunday’s election in Turkey was all about.
Erdogan failed to amass the mandate he sought and, for the first time since his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) rose to power 13 years ago, he lost his parliamentary majority.
In itself that certainly appears to justify joy in Israel, which Erdogan – a Muslim Brotherhood torchbearer – bashes relentlessly and vituperatively.
On June 7, Turkey had 56.6 million registered voters. Of those, only 18.8 million (33 percent) voted for the party the "bipartisan" President Erdoğan fiercely supported during the party's election campaign, which means that there are 37.8 million (more than twice as many as pro-Erdoğan) Turkish voters who think the opposite.
Or 37.8 million Turks who were pawns in a plot staged by a union of neo-Crusaders. Using the typical Erdoğan et al. jargon, the numbers must spell an apocalyptic message: 59 percent of Turks are plotters, coup-lovers, terrorists, traitors and Zionists. And, in this calculation, according to some Muslim clerics who do not hide that they worship Mr. Erdoğan, 59 percent of Turkey is not Muslim – since Muslims should not vote for anyone other than Mr. Erdoğan (or whichever party he points to).
Too bad, Mr. Erdoğan's worst enemy today is what he has too passionately advocated for 13 years to intimidate his opponents: the nation's will in mere percentages and numbers of seats in parliament. For the first time in 13 years, his party is in the minority. Naturally, he is off the air for the first time in several years, and probably speechless, trying to digest defeat and make a hero's comeback. He is the lone would-be sultan in a too-expensive and too-spacious Ankara palace. The next few years will see his existential war against real, quasi-real and phantom-like enemies.
Like someone observed recently from across the ocean: "Mr. Erdoğan is trying to drive a porcelain bus with gold-rimmed wheels." After last Sunday's elections that bus is on the road again minus its bumpers, hood, a couple of doors and windows, trunk and quarter panel – not to mention a leaking fuel tank.
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