Tuesday, July 09, 2019
Netanyahu warns Iran that F-35s can reach ‘anywhere in the Middle East’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran on Tuesday that Israel’s F-35 fighter jets can reach “anywhere in the Middle East,” following threats against Israel in recent weeks by senior Iranian officials.
“Lately, Iran has been threatening Israel with destruction,” Netanyahu said, standing in front of an F-35 Adir jet during a visit to the Nevatim Air Force Base in the south. “It should remember that these planes can reach every place in the Middle East, including Iran, and of course also Syria.”
The F-35 stealth jet is not believed to have an effective range to reach Iran unassisted, but it could conduct operations there with in-air refueling, a capability possessed by Israel’s air force.
Netanyahu visit to Nevatim included meetings with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, and the air force’s top command echelons.
Norkin last year said that Israel had used the fifth generation fighter jet in operations in the Middle East. At the time, Norkin did not specify in which countries the aircraft had been used.
Israel has long seen Iran as its greatest threat, while Iranian officials regularly threaten to destroy the Jewish state.
Seth Frantzman: Innovations in the U.S.-Israel Security Alliance
In April an Israeli airstrike struck an Iranian base in Syria on the road to the ancient city of Palmyra. The target, according to an Israeli report, was an Iranian 3rd Khordad air defense system. Two months later a U.S. Global Hawk drone flying over the Gulf of Oman was struck by a missile fired by a 3rd Khordad system in Iran, almost leading to war.The Gaza you don't see
The two incidents highlight the shared threats faced by the U.S. and Israel, not only from Iran but also from hybrid groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, and Islamic State, which operate as both parastate entities and terrorist organizations. The result of these shared threats and the close political ties between Washington and Jerusalem is a uniquely close relationship between the two country’s militaries. Often the Israel-U.S. defense relationship is seen through the lens of U.S. foreign military financing for Israel, which comes to more than $3 billion a year. Far less attention is paid to the fact that since the 1980s Jerusalem has become a key supplier of advanced military technology to Washington. To name one recent example, the kibbutz-owned Israeli vehicle manufacturer Plasan supplied add-on “modular armor kits,” exterior platings that covered American military vehicles and protected U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. “That armor which was developed in Israel has saved many hundreds or thousands of lives of U.S. troops of vehicles hit by IEDs,” recalls Dan Shapiro, former U.S. ambassador and visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies.
Israel now has three of the largest defense companies in the world, Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. With $7.5 billion in exports in 2018 it is the eighth largest arms exporter in the world. The country has excelled in supplying the U.S. in areas where Washington requires a technology quickly. American companies—encumbered by a lengthier and more bureaucratically involved bidding and defense-acquisition process—can’t always move as quickly as their Israeli counterparts to meet the dynamic requirements of the modern battlefield. “There is a range of technologies where things were brought to market faster than in the U.S. or with no U.S. counterpart and once they see the effectiveness and use they [the U.S.] want it and it is mutually beneficial,” says Shapiro, who concludes that the U.S.-Israel alliance is unique in this respect. “I’m sure there is no other country where we see so many examples of it.”
The increasingly popular Twitter account called @Imshin disseminates videos, blog posts, and news from the middle-class and wealthy world of the Gaza Strip that never make it into the mainstream media.
According to the UN, 53% of Gazans live in poverty, despite humanitarian assistance. But while world media outlets choose to focus solely on photographs of destitute Gazans carting off sacks of UNRWA flour by donkey cart, the swank world of high-class hotels, black-tie restaurants, and gourmet supermarkets stocked to overflowing with Israeli products are ignored, presenting a misleading picture of what life in Gaza after Israeli "occupation" is truly like.
Under the hashtag #TheGazaYouDontSee, Imshin, who prefers to keep her identity anonymous, shares diverse vignettes from life in Gaza that are a far cry from the oppression and misery that "everybody knows" is the lot of the Gazan population. From shopping sprees to swimming academies, bumper cars to the upscale Palmera Restaurant, Imshin opens our eyes to the fact that life in Gaza is more complex than what anti-Israel propagandists would have one believe.
"Tala and Ameer share their day with us," Imshin tweets. "They start with lunch at the Palmera Restaurant. They've obviously been there before, they know exactly what they want and don't need on the menu."
"The reason I started following children's vlogs was that reading and listening to Palestinian news accounts, sites and radio stations was depressing and started to make me anxious," Imshin told Arutz Sheva. "I wanted a lighter non-political input, which still exposed me to the local dialect. I was very surprised with what I found."
PMW: Fatah and PLO summer camp teaches children to honor arch-terrorists who murdered hundreds
A branch of Fatah's Shabiba youth movement has produced a video that shows "how Fatah teaches its children loyalty to the Martyrs' blood" at a summer camp for Palestinian kids, which was organized by the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs.Turkish organization teaches Arab kids from east Jerusalem that Israel is theirs
In the video, children are chanting a song honoring several arch-terrorists who murdered hundreds, asking God to "have mercy" on former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein who massacred hundreds, former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and his deputy Abu Jihad, founder of the Hamas terror organization Ahmed Yassin, and head of the Black September terror organization Abu Iyad. - all of whom orchestrated numerous terror attacks in which hundreds were murdered. The children are wearing T-shirts with the logo of the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs and the logo of the 2019 Palestinian summer camps:
Text on screen: "The Fatah Shabiba [Youth Movement] Committee - Bethlehem Branch
This is how Fatah teaches its children loyalty to the Martyrs' blood"
Children: "Saddam Hussein - O God, have mercy on Saddam Hussein
Yasser Arafat - O God, have mercy on Yasser Arafat...
Ahmed Yassin - O God, have mercy on Ahmed Yassin
Abu Jihad - O God, have mercy on Abu Jihad...
Abu Iyad - O God, have mercy on Abu Iyad"
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, July 4, 2019]
A Turkish organization, seeking to deepen Turkish influence in Jerusalem, has launched this summer a series of summer camps for Arab children in east Jerusalem.Convicted terrorist running France-sponsored summer program in east Jerusalem
The group, named "Our Heritage," posted details of its activity on social media, saying "We teach the children in our Jerusalem … [that] they are the legal owners of this country."
As part of the Turkish-funded summer camp activities, children were taken on a hike to the Sataf nature reserve to the west of Jerusalem.
Our Heritage operates in east Jerusalem as an arm of the Turkish government. Its goals are to promote the Turkish agenda among the population of east Jerusalem and deepen the historical and cultural legacy of the Ottoman Empire in Jerusalem, which they call "preserving Ottoman history in Jerusalem for future generations."
Maor Tzemach, chairman of the Lach, Yerushalayim ["For You, Jerusalem"] group, discussed the latest Turkish activity with Israel Hayom, saying that the Our Heritage organization was "showing off in the Arab sector in Jerusalem with the goal of causing them to adopt the positions of Turkey."
"This subversive organization is operating free summer camps for east Jerusalem children. Israel must put a stop to the Turkish organization's activities immediately. The Turkish 'Our Heritage' has crossed a red line of what is acceptable [conduct] between countries.
A program funded by the French Foreign ministry in coordination with its representatives in east Jerusalem is being operated by a member of the terrorist group from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to a report by NGO Monitor.Defending the Freedom of Jerusalem
The East Jerusalem Youth Initiative Program, set to commence this week at the city's Chateaubriand French Cultural Center, says it aims to provide leisure activities, sports and psychological counseling to some 500 youths from the city's Silwan neighborhood, whom the program says have been "very negatively affected by Israeli demolitions."
The program is being run by the Al Bustan Project, which is funded by a series of local councils in France as well as the French Foreign Ministry. According to the budget plan, Al Bustan is set to receive nearly €400,000 (around $450,000) from various aid agencies in the French government.
In the past, the Al Bustan Project has been tied to activities that expressed support for terrorism. In one such incident, Al Bustan organized a production in which Palestinian children were seen holding weapons and demonstrating on a child how the United States and Israel "execute Palestine."
Amb. Dore Gold told the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) conference in Washington on Monday:
In 1999, when I was Israel's ambassador to the UN, I sought instructions from then-Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon about how to respond to a Palestinian provocation at the UN involving a resolution calling for the internationalization of Jerusalem.
Sharon told me to read over the Knesset speech of our first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, from December 1949, in which he declared that he was moving Israel's capital to Jerusalem. Ben-Gurion reminded the international community that the people of Israel had "faithfully honored for 2,500 years the oath sworn by the first exiles by the rivers of Babylon not to forget Jerusalem."
In 2016, UNESCO asserted that the Temple Mount was connected to Islam, but it refused to acknowledge any Jewish connection whatsoever, or, for that matter, any Christian connection. The same year, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution branding Jerusalem as "occupied Palestinian territory," insinuating that the Temple Mount and the Western Wall were Palestinian!
At the July 2000 Camp David Summit, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat told President Bill Clinton that there never was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. If there was no Temple, then Israel had no historical claim to Jerusalem. But President Clinton responded that "not only the Jews but I, too, believe that under the surface there are remains of Solomon's temple." Denying its history entailed an affront to the Christian faith as well.
According to Christian and Jewish sources brought forward by Prof. Moshe Gill, in his monumental study, A History of Palestine, published by Cambridge University Press: "The Jewish population residing in the country at the time of the Moslem conquest in the 7th century consisted of the direct descendants of the generations of Jews who had lived there since the days of Joshua bin Nun."
In the 1400s, Jewish immigration to the Holy Land had increased to such a scale that the Franciscans petitioned the Pope to issue an edict prohibiting Christian sea captains from carrying Jewish passengers to the Holy Land. By the mid-19th century, the British Consulate in Jerusalem determined that Jews had already restored their majority in the city in 1863.
Today, across the Middle East, the holy sites of all the great faiths are under a new assault by the forces of jihad. The only force that will protect Jerusalem for all the great faiths is the modern State of Israel.
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo: The U.S. and Israel: A Friendship for Freedom
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told the Christians United for Israel conference in Washington on Monday: "The American welcoming of the new Jewish state into the family of nations [in 1948] was one of the most consequential diplomatic decisions of the 20th century...as a statement to the world of who we are as Americans. It proved, as we continue to prove, that we stand for human dignity, that we stand for justice, that we stand for independence."
"Modern Israel is the only truly free nation throughout the entire Middle East. It has an enormous respect for religious freedom....Here, too, Israel's commitment lights the way for the rest of the Middle East and indeed for the entire world."
Erick Stakelbeck -when they deny Jewish presence for 3000 years in Jerusalem archaeologists find more proof .Sending that straight to @lsarsour pic.twitter.com/UMyLRD7BhA
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) July 9, 2019
Newt Gingrich: Antisemitism threatens Israel like militaries used to
Antisemitism is today as great a threat to Israel’s survival as the classic military threats that once confronted the Jewish state, according to Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the US House of Representatives.VIDEO: Anti-Israel Protesters Surround and Try To Intimidate Journalist Outside CUFI Summit
Gingrich made the comment during an interview he did with Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz for his podcast “Newt’s World” about Katz’s new book – “Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power.”
“It seems to me that as successful as Israel has been with technology and as successful as the Israeli economy is and as successful as the ability to innovate is that there is a rising tide of antisemitism, which was a totally different kind of problem and which may well be as big a threat to Israel’s survival as anything that's military,” said Gingrich.
Gingrich said that the rise in antisemitism in the United States and across Europe is “one of the things that most worries” him today.
In a recent interview with The Post's Omri Nahmias, Gingrich said that President Donald Trump was the "the most pro-Israel president in history. I think he believes it. I think it’s in his heart. I think that Jared [Kushner] has had an impact on him, and having his daughter [Ivanka] become Jewish had a certain impact on him."
Not surprisingly, none would condemn Hamas or Hezbollah. None would tell me what a Palestine, “free from the river to the sea” meant to them. None would say whether or not they believed that Jews should be cleansed from the land. And none would address the alleged terrorist connections of co-sponsoring organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
Instead, when the protesters I spoke to pulled up my LIF post and word spread that I was the same person who had tried to attend yesterday’s training, they began efforts to try intimidate me. One refused to speak to me at all because [he] “do[esn’t] speak to Zionists.” Soon after that others approached me, surrounded me, stood close, and held keffiyehs and signs in my face to block my sight and camera. They started to yell that “fascists” were not welcome, and began singing loudly in my direction.
On multiple occasions, I had to tell the people getting in my face not to touch me or I would call the police.
If I walked in another direction to renew my camera’s sight-line, they followed me and continued to surround me, blocking my view and unfurling their keffiyehs in my face.
They told me to leave, and that I was “not allowed” to be there. More than once, I was forced to tell them not to touch me, to step back from me. Most refused and continued to yell over me.
Their intent, clearly, was to intimidate me into leaving, and perhaps to provoke me into a physical confrontation. Eventually, a police officer was forced to escort me out of the protest and into the venue.
After this confrontation, I entered the venue to watch the summit from the media location.
The protesters made one last appearance; during Vice President Mike Pence’s speech, a few erupted with unintelligible chants. They were almost immediately drowned out by the cacophony of CUFI attendees calling simply, “Israel lives!”
And by the time I left the conference for lunch, all the protesters had gone.
Bolton: US Won't Fund Palestinians While They Pay Terrorists
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton spoke at the Christians United for Israel summit, advocating for ending funding for Palestinians until they negotiate and lauding Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the country's capital.
Top US Jewish Group Slams Palestinian Authority Over Stepped-Up ‘Pay-to-Slay’ Policy
A top US Jewish group condemned the Palestinian Authority on Monday for stepping up its policy of funding terrorists and their families.This Ongoing War: The BBC and Pay to Slay
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CoP) Chairman Arthur Stark and Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Malcolm Hoenlein said in a statement:
“According to newly-released budget figures from the Palestinian Authority, it has increased the ‘pay-to-slay’ salaries provided to perpetrators of terrorist acts against Israelis, providing lifetime pensions to perpetrators or to their surviving relatives. At a time when they are cutting salaries of Palestinian Authority employees, they are increasing the amounts set aside to those who murder and wound Israelis. This, despite the condemnation of most of the Western world of the practice of rewarding and inciting such wanton acts of terror and destruction.”
Stark and Hoenlein continued, “The United States, Israel, and other countries have withheld funds equivalent to the amounts spent on this outrageous program. It once again demonstrates that the Palestinian Authority has no concern for their people who bear the brunt of the impact of the cutoff of the funds. The fact that the government did not only not cut off the payouts but increased the funding is a clear sign that [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas has no interest in improving relations with other states and meeting international accepted standards.”
After several years of being below the media radar, we appeared on BBC News last week.
Its Middle East correspondent, Yolande Knell, prepared a report that examined how Israelis - in this case, the two of us (Frimet and Arnold Roth) view the Palestinian Authority's relentless program of incentive payments to imprisoned terrorists and to the families left behind by dead Palestinian Arab terrorists.
Being the BBC, the report then focused on how the same appalling payments are viewed within Palestinian Arab society. Or at least among that segment which benefits in a personal sense from those payments.
Note also - again, this being the BBC - that the word "terrorist" - is not mentioned once.
Is there hope to end anti-Israel bias at the UN Human Rights Council?
While member states have no problem singling out Israel in international organizations, said Neuer, when any critique of other countries are brought up, member states often complain that the critiques are out of place.NGO Monitor at the 41st Session of the UN Human Rights Council
“There is no doubt that singling out the only Jewish state in the UN is a new form of anti-Semitism,” said Neuer. “There needs to be a groundswell of activism and advocacy demanding an elimination of this gross form of discrimination against the Jewish state, and by extension, the Jewish people.”
“That’s the natural state of things. There are overwhelming odds against Israel. It is an uphill battle and constant fight,” he said.
Even so, Neuer is still fighting.
Hoping to increase public knowledge about voting patterns on Israel and to expose hypocrisy, UN Watch will create a new online database available this year that includes updated information about every resolution dealing with Israel, key talking points for what’s wrong with the UN and how to fix it, and an online petition that the public can use to petition their foreign ministries and members of parliament.
“On the database, you will be able to see which country belongs to which UN bodies – who sits on the human-rights council, who sit on the women’s rights commission. You’ll find some shocking things; for example, you’ll find that Saudi Arabia and Iran are on the women’s rights council and China and Cuba on the human-rights council.”
According to Neuer, the ability to make a change within the UN begins with being informed, and then, speaking out.
“If all citizens and countries do this,” he contended, “it can make the difference.”
NGO Monitor is a project of The Institute for NGO Research, a recognized organization in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (since 2013). As such, the Institute for NGO Research is participating in the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council by presenting submissions and giving oral statements. See below for these materials.
Item 7
Thank you, Mr. President.
On June 8, 2016, I was sitting at a café in Sarona Market Tel Aviv when two gunmen opened fire at the restaurant directly behind me.
Four innocent people were murdered in this horrific terrorist attack.
Yet, this Council, under the biased agenda Item 7 continues to target Israel and ignore the perpetrators and funders of this and other terror attacks that have taken the lives of over 3,000 Israelis.
Iran and its fundamentalist regime are the leaders of this terror network, and themselves regularly declare their intent to eliminate the Jewish State.
On Israel’s Northern border, Iran, with help from North Korea, provides advanced weaponry and financial support to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the Assad regime in Syria. Hezbollah has dug multiple terror tunnels under the Lebanon-Israel border in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
PA Looking to Mend Relations With US Administration
A senior official in Ramallah revealed to Israeli daily Israel Hayom on Monday that the Palestinian Authority and Washington have been exchanging messages in an effort to smooth things over and end the PA boycott against the US administration.
According to the official, a senior delegation led by the head of the PA General Intelligence Service, Majed Faraj, is expected to fly to Washington in the near future to hold talks with White House officials. Representatives of Abbas and Trump recently engaged in secret talks to hash out the details of the meeting, said the official.
“These discussions are strictly feelers, although both sides have shown a positive approach and made progress toward possibly renewing relations,” said the official.
According to the official, one of the reasons for the PA’s change in course is its dissatisfaction over the US-sponsored economic summit in Bahrain in June, which was attended by Arab states despite pleas from Abbas to boycott it. According to the official, Ramallah viewed their participation as “a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.”
Another reason, said the official, is that Ramallah expects the diplomatic portion of the American peace plan to be unveiled following the upcoming Israeli election (set for Sept. 17), and the Palestinians want to have stabilized their relationship with Trump and his envoys by then.
Palestinian Official Azzam Al-Ahmad: Arab Spring, Current Conflicts Are American-Zionist Plot to Cause Arab Nation to Disintegrate; Israel Is Arabs' Enemy, Not Iran pic.twitter.com/IMnkklk2ft
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 9, 2019
IDF uncovers cross-border attack tunnel from southern Gaza
The military on Monday uncovered a cross-border attack tunnel that entered Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, five years after the start of a 2014 operation aimed at finding and destroying such passages.Israel Uncovers Another Gaza Cross-Border Tunnel
The tunnel was found during the construction of an underground barrier around the coastal enclave, the Israel Defense Forces said.
It was not immediately clear if the tunnel uncovered on Monday was newly dug or an older passage that had not yet been found by the IDF.
“At this time, IDF soldiers are conducting an investigation of the passage. More information will be provided shortly,” the army said in a statement on Monday night.
A spokesperson for the Eshkol region, in which the tunnel was found, said the local government was in contact with the military about the matter.
“The tunnel does not represent a threat and it is being taken care of by the IDF,” the regional council said in a message to residents.
The IDF discovered a new tunnel to cross from the Strip into Israel, showing that Hamas has not given up its tactic of terror tunnel-construction. Our Daniel Tsemach reports. Palestinian affairs expert Alon Eviatar analyzes.
Israel Almost Doubles Work Permits to Gaza Arabs
The Netanyahu government has increased the number of Arab workers who are allowed to leave the Gaza Strip to work in Israel, in coordination with Hamas, the Saudi owned newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi which is published in London reported this week. It is speculated that this is the reason for the relative calm prevailing at the Gaza border these days.Is Hamas' Military Drone Tech Improving?
Maher al-Tabaa, head of Gaza’s Chamber of Commerce, said this weekend that Israel has committed to increase significantly the number of permits granted to businessmen from the Gaza Strip to enter its territory. These are not work permits per se, and the recipients are defined as licensed to business people, but in practice these are manual workers.
According to al-Tabaa, the number of permit holders has been increased by 66%, from 3,000 to 5,000, and the minimum age of workers allowed to enter Israel reduced from 30 to 25.
This and other concessions Jerusalem has given Hamas as part of the understandings reached through the mediation of Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations, has yet to be mentioned by Israeli officials.
Up until the start of the escalation of violence at the Gaza border in March 2018, these manual day workers were a common sight in southern Israel.
Israel's military shot down a drone that originated from the Gaza Strip, one that looked more complicated than the others that have come over the Israel-Gaza border. Is the Strip's weaponized drone tech improving? Our Daniel Tsemach reports.
50% of Gazans support armed conflict to end ‘occupation’
Nearly 50% of Palestinians living in Gaza believe the best means of ending the “occupation” is through armed conflict, according to a report released Monday by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR).Palestinian throws firebomb at cops, is shot, arrested – police
According to the survey, 46.3% of Gazans and a third of Palestinians living in the West Bank believe that armed conflict is the best means of ending the conflict.
However, the study also found that almost half (48.9%) of Palestinians still believe in a two-state solution. Strikingly, a greater percentage of Gazans (52.9%) were supportive of such a solution than those living in the West Bank (46.9%).
“The window of opportunity is still open and most Palestinians still agree to the two-state solution, while recognizing the rights of both people,” said Gadi Baltiansky, director-general of the Geneva Initiative in Israel, an NGO that promotes a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians using diplomatic, political, educational and public tools. “Young people are more likely to support one state, which means the end of Zionism – and therefore a serious political process is not only critical, it is also urgent.”
The new poll, overseen by Dr. Khalil Shikaki, was taken in late June and asked questions of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.
Police officers shot and arrested a Palestinian man who threw a Molotov cocktail at them outside a military court in the northern West Bank, police said.BBC video highlights 'Teaching Palestinians to talk about sex'
According to police, the Palestinian assailant threw the firebomb at a Border Police post outside the Samaria region military court next to the Palestinian village of Salim, near Nablus.
“He was shot by border guards in the lower body,” police said. “The assailant was arrested.”
No Israeli security officers were injured in the attack.
The Palestinian man’s condition was not immediately known.
Following the attack, police closed off the entrance to the military court. Police sappers were also called in to the area.
The BBC has released a feature video titled "Teaching Palestinians to talk about sex," in which Safa Tamish, a sex educator and the founder of Muntada Al-Jensaneya, runs a workshop teaching Palestinian men and women to talk about a topic which is normally seen as forbidden to discuss in their community.Eisenkot to U.S.: Condition support of Lebanese army on action against Syria
Many of them have never openly discussed the topic, and many are uneducated when it comes to sex education, how their own bodies work and sexuality in general.
"When I was younger, I didn't know how women got pregnant," one of the participants said.
Tamish runs open discussions within these workshops and emboldens the participants to use "proper names for body parts in Arabic," instead of Hebrew, to desensitize the participants to the normally taboo-like rhetoric of talking about sex within their communities.
Speaking to a group of sex educators during a portion of the video, Tamish explains best practices in getting participants to open up and feel comfortable in the discussion.
Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot called on the United States to condition its continued support to the Lebanese Armed Forces on two conditions: the LAF takes steps to intercept weapons transferred to Hezbollah from Syria and acts against Hezbollah strongholds in the southern part of the country.Countering the Hizbullah Threat to Israel
The United States has provided more than $1.7 billion to the LAF since 2006 alongside light-attack helicopters and weapons like Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, precision artillery, and TOW-II anti-tank missiles.
Eisenkot wrote the proposal in a policy paper published by the Washington Institute where he is currently serving as a guest fellow. Eisenkot stepped down as chief of staff in January. In the paper, titled “13 years since the Second Lebanon War”, Eisenkot – who served as head of the IDF Operations Directorate during the war, outlined what Israel would like to see happen in Lebanon in order to avoid a new conflict with Hezbollah.
“Because Lebanon’s military depends on foreign aid, donor countries can condition their contributions on the LAF becoming more active on two fronts: intercepting weapons transferred through Syria and increasing operations in Hezbollah strongholds south of the Litani River,” he wrote. “Concurrently, the international community should pressure the civilian government to boost its sovereignty in the south and take full responsibility for what happens there.”
Eisenkot also called on the United Nations to “reinvigorate” the mandate of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon as part of an effort to restrict Hezbollah.
While Israel's border with Lebanon has seen 13 years of relative quiet and stability since the 2006 war with Hizbullah, the group has continued to expand its robust arsenal and develop three crucial power multipliers: precision capability for its missiles, a second front against Israel from Syria, and an offensive plan to penetrate Israeli territory, both above ground and via tunnels.The Lebanese Army and UN Peacekeepers Provide Cover for Hizballah in Southern Lebanon
To counter the improving precision of Hizbullah rockets, the IDF has attacked missile production plants and stockpiles while taking open and covert action against weapons transfers from Iran. To prevent a second front against Israel in the Golan Heights, the IDF struck deep along that frontier. Most recently, the IDF destroyed Hizbullah tunnels into Israel that they had worked on for over a decade.
Today, Hizbullah is capable of launching missiles into Israel on an even larger scale than 2006. Yet Israel's defensive and offensive capabilities have greatly improved, and the IDF enjoys major intelligence, aerial, and ground superiority - enough to ensure victory in a future conflict and make Iran and Hizbullah pay a heavy price.
In December of last year, the IDF launched Operation Northern Shield, which uncovered and destroyed six attack tunnels dug by Hizballah from Lebanon into Israel. Jerusalem had showed the Israeli-side openings of tunnels to the UN International Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)—whose task is to ensure that only the Lebanese military is operating in the southern part of that country—but no action was taken in response. With the thirteenth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War approaching this Friday, Assaf Orion examines the failures of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war and created UNIFIL:Iran's New Global Terrorist Network
While the United Nations reports thousands of patrols in the area without any findings, recent events proved that Israel has a credible intelligence picture penetrating even Hizballah’s clandestine and compartmentalized projects. Israel’s exposure of physical evidence sheds light on the absurdity of the UN’s declamations about the “lack of evidence” of violations of Resolution 1701.
[Likewise], there is a wide gap between the international community’s appeals to the Lebanese government and the simple fact that this government, whether as a hostage or as a willing accomplice, plays an active role in concealing Hizballah’s military and in enabling its activities against Israel and against the UN forces. Since Iran and Hizballah have seized control over politics in Lebanon, the Lebanese government is not the solution, but rather part of the problem.
[Thus] the gravest military threat to Israel’s security today has gradually emerged in Lebanon: a massive, forward array of Iranian firepower on Israel’s northern border, embedded in populated areas while enjoying a sovereign state’s protection and cloaked in international denial. . . .
US, British, French and other Western bases in the region are the most likely targets for future terrorist attacks, and a number of Western governments are understood to have responded by ordering their military and diplomatic missions in the region to upgrade security arrangements.Pence at CUFI Summit: ‘Iran Should Not Confuse American Restraint With a Lack of American Resolve’
The discovery of the African network follows recent revelations of Iran's attempts to expand its terror network in Europe, as well as other parts of the globe including Latin America and the Middle East.
The Iranian cells are said to be active in a number of African countries including Sudan, Chad, Ghana, Niger, Gambia and the Central African Republic.
Last month, The Jerusalem Post, quoting from an intelligence report from the German state of Hesse, claimed that Iran was one of the main state actors involved in espionage in Germany. It said Iran was involved in the illicit procurement of technology for weapons of mass destruction.
A slew of top US and Israeli officials addressed the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit in Washington, DC, on Monday.Pence: ‘No More Pallets of Cash to the Mullahs in Iran’
Speaking to a crowd of thousands at the annual gathering, Vice President Mike Pence hailed the US-Israel relationship, saying that the alliance between the two countries had “never been stronger” than during the past two and a half years.
Pence vowed that his boss, President Donald Trump, would “never compromise the safety and security of the Jewish State of Israel.”
On Iran, Pence said the Tehran regime “should not confuse American restraint with a lack of American resolve.”
“We hope for the best, but the United States of America and our military are prepared to protect our interests and protect our personnel and our citizens in the region,” Pence declared. “We will continue to oppose Iran’s malign influence. We will continue to bring pressure on their economy. And under President Donald Trump, America will never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.”
Vice President Mike Pence declared during remarks to the Christians United for Israel Conference on Monday that there will be no more "pallets of cash" for the Iranian regime.
"There will be no more pallets of cash to the mullahs in Iran," Pence said.
Last year, President Donald Trump announced the United States withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and imposed sanctions on the country. Since then, the Trump administration has reimposed crippling sanctions against Iran. The sanctions have targeted Iran's ballistic missile program to its business deals with Europe. Iran responded by threatening retaliation against the U.S.
"The previous administration's so-called deal didn't prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, it simply delayed it for roughly a decade. In exchange, the deal gave away billions of dollars in cash sanctions really Iran has used the phone more terrorist attacks on innocence across the region," Pence said.
Pence added that the Trump administration reimposed every sanction the Obama administration lifted.
"President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and we have reimposed every last section that was lifted. And under this president, we implemented a maximum campaign to change brands more line behavior and hold the regime accountable for its destructive actions," Pence said. "The Iranian economy is reeling under unprecedented us sanctions. Now Iran must choose between caring for his people and continuing to fund its proxies who spread violence and terrorism throughout the region and breathe out murderous hatred against Israel."
EU Calls on Iran to Reverse Uranium Enrichment and Uphold Nuclear Deal
The European Union on Tuesday urged Iran to reverse its scaled up uranium enrichment that breaches a nuclear arms control deal it agreed in 2015.
“We continue to urge Iran not take further measures that undermine the nuclear deal to stop and to reverse all activities that are inconsistent with the JCPOA, including the production of low-enriched uranium,” an EU spokeswoman told reporters, referring to the deal’s formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran has said it will boost its uranium enrichment in a few hours above a cap set by the nuclear deal, a move that could mean the return of all economic sanctions on Tehran.
Senior Iranian Ayatollah Movahedi-Kermani: We Will Enrich Uranium As We See Fit for Energy, Science; We Don't Want Nukes, We Can Just Strike Those at Israel's Dimona Reactor; If We Are Attacked, Persian Gulf Will Turn Red pic.twitter.com/FaaWWbVpDa
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 9, 2019
