Giora Eiland: Obama nixed Israeli plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities

Mida (Hebrew) has an interview with Major General Giora Eiland (ret.), Israel's former National Security Advisor.

According to Eiland, Bibi Netanyahu was ready to strike Iran's nuclear program, but pressure from the US nixed the plan. Eiland, who says this happened last year, believes that this was because Obama did not want to jeopardize his re-election campaign; according to Eiland it was right after Obama's disastrous first debate with Romney, which would mean October 2012.

Eiland points out that since last year, Iran has had time to get closer to the bomb, and things wouldbe more difficult nowadays. he believes that a strike last year would have crippled the program; whether that is still possible is much less clear nowadays.

The general added that the ideal scenario would be an American attack to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat, but given how the US is acting towards Syria, the idea that this would happen seems much more remote today.

While the world is riveted by the Syrian situation, Eiland says, the real drama is the countdown to Iran's nuclear weapons capacity.

(h/t Yoel)

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Peter Beinart's cocoon

In the New York Review of Books, Peter Beinart is upset that the organized American Jewish community doesn't invite Palestinian Arabs to speak at their events. He believes that American Jews don't give enough empathy to Palestinian Arabs.

For the most part, Palestinians do not speak in American synagogues or write in the Jewish press. The organization Birthright, which since 1999 has taken almost 350,000 young Diaspora Jews—mostly Americans—to visit Israel, does not venture to Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank. Of the more than two hundred advertised speakers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) 2013 Policy Conference, two were Palestinians. By American Jewish standards, that’s high. The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum earlier this year, which advertised sixty-four speakers, did not include a single Palestinian.

...Guidelines like Hillel’s—which codify the de facto restrictions that exist in many establishment American Jewish groups—make the organized American Jewish community a closed intellectual space, isolated from the experiences and perspectives of roughly half the people under Israeli control. And the result is that American Jewish leaders, even those who harbor no animosity toward Palestinians, know little about the reality of their lives.

Beinart grudgingly admits:

This lack of familiarity with Palestinian life also inclines many in the organized American Jewish world to assume that Palestinian anger toward Israel must be a product solely of Palestinian pathology. Rare is the American Jewish discussion of Israel that does not include some reference to the textbooks and television programs that “teach Palestinians to hate.” These charges have some merit. Palestinian schools and media do traffic in anti-Semitism and promote violence.

But:

Still, what’s often glaringly absent from the American Jewish discussion of Palestinian hatred is any recognition that some of it might stem not from what Palestinians read or hear about the Jewish state, but from the way they interact with it in their daily lives.

Beinart is at least as guilty of willful blindness as the American Jewish establishment he is insulting. His "Open Zion" site all but ignores the Palestinian Arab hate and antisemitism, just as he attempts to minimize it and contextualize it here as a natural result of things Israelis did. He says that most terror attacks are the result of anger at Israeli actions from the first intifada, without mentioning who started the first intifada. No doubt Israel's initial reaction was more severe than would be acceptable today, but at the time Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza would travel freely to pre-1967 Israel and Israelis would visit freely to Arab areas, without fear.

The restrictions that Beinart is so upset about today came because of Palestinian Arab terror, not the other way around.

Moreover, while Beinart talks about checkpoints that exist today, what does he think would happen if a two-state solution that he so passionately supports would occur? They wouldn't be checkpoints - there would be national borders. Try commuting to another country every day, let alone an enemy country, and see how painless it is.

American Jewish leaders have access to The New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian and, yes, Open Zion. Jewish Americans read Thomas Friedman and Roger Cohen. The idea that they somehow live in a pro-Likud bubble is ridiculous. They know far more about Palestinian Arab claims and grievances than readers of Open Zion know about the day to day incitement against Israel and Jews in Palestinian Arab lives - not just "textbooks and television programs" but virtually every newspaper, every school, every medium.

This is the stuff I expose along with MEMRI, Palestinian Media Watch and others.

Beinart would like to pretend that we cherry pick the worst examples. To an extent that is true. That's how the media works - to show the worst in order to illuminate the facts - something Beinart is doing in this very essay.

However, as someone who reads quite a bit of Arabic media daily, I can assure Beinart and my readers that the hate isn't an anomaly, while people like Salam Fayyad are the silent majority. No - within the "cocoon" of Palestinian Arab life, there is zero tolerance for any viewpoint that is the least bit conciliatory to real coexistence and peace. The hate is pervasive, not anomalous. Anyone who would speak to an American Jewish organization would, by that very fact, lose all legitimacy from their own people.

Beinart knows this, but he won't dare say it.

One need only look at this post from yesterday to see that this is true. Not only is there virtually no voice for true peace among Palestinian Arabs, but even the slightest attempts at coexistence are demonized and practitioners blacklisted.

How often does Open Zion report on this? For that matter, how much does the NYT, BBC and other mainstream media (the recent Forbes piece being a rare exception) report on this?

Where are the Palestinian Arab "Open Zions?" Where are the people who really want co-existence who can speak out without being tarred that worst of all insults - "collaborators"?  You will not find any Arab Beinarts writing for Palestinian Arabic media.

Beinart's own self-created cocoon where he pretends that most Palestinian Arabs want peace is even more bizarre. In his entire lengthy essay, he does not mention Islamic fundamentalism once. The reason is once again willful blindness - Beinart knows that there is no way that fundamentalist Muslims, represented by Hamas - winner in the last PA elections - would ever accept Israel's existence in any manner.

So Beinart chooses to ignore that problem and pretend that Salam Fayyad, an unelected former prime minister who barely scraped together 2.4% of the vote for his own party, is mainstream and Hamas is all but nonexistent.

Even though he admits that "Virtually every Palestinian I’ve ever met considers Zionism to be colonialist, imperialist, and racist. " Sure, let's invite them over to the Hadassah meeting so we can hear all about it!

That is willful blindness of a far worse kind than anything he can say about the American Jewish establishment.

The real cocoon is the one that looks at the Middle East and pretends that it is Jewish American leadership that is somehow more in denial than liberals like Beinart. The real cocoon is the place where the extent of Palestinian Arab intransigence and hate is downplayed and glossed over as simply a few TV programs and textbooks, with no mention of, say, Gaza being controlled by a separate party that considers all of Israel to be "occupied." The real cocoon is the place where, even in light of the Arab Spring, Muslim fundamentalism simply isn't worth mentioning as a problem.

Israel doesn't want to oppress anybody, but it has an obligation to protect its citizens - the supreme obligation of any nation. The line it needs to walk in order to do that is a thin and jagged one, and one that for the most part has been successful. Today there is less terror than ever before even as restrictions on Palestinian Arabs are being slowly lifted. This is what should be emphasized, highlighted and encouraged.

Beinart, though, is blind to the real facts - because he is the one who lives in a cocoon.

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Syrian refugees in Egypt being treated like garbage

From Al Ahram:

Some 88 Syrian refugees, including 25 children, are waiting to be deported to other countries after being detained in Alexandria.

The refugees detained are accused of attempting to emigrate illegally from Egypt. "They were deceived by someone in Alexandria who took money from them and convinced that they can emigrate from Egypt to Italy," said Safia Serry, an activist from Alexandria who is following the Syrian refugees file in the city.

...Serry adds that some of the Syrians detained in Alexandria received official refugee refugee IDs. "Many of those Syrian refugees got yellow IDs as refugees registered with UNHCR, while Palestinians who used to live in Syria and that came to Egypt as refugees got white IDs," Serry told Ahram Online.

"Things are harder for the Palestinians who do not have money as they have no passports, only limited travel documents," Serry said, adding that deported Palestinians have no option but to return to Syria.

Since 30 June, Syrian refugees have been facing accusations from media in Egypt of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, especially that some Syrian songs and chants, as well Syrian independence flags, were witnessed in the pro-Morsi Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in dispersed by force 14 August.

Several media figures like Youssef El-Hossainy and Mohamed El-Ghaity — as well as Tawfik Okasha, who asked viewers directly to attack Palestinians and Syrians in Egypt — have frequently attacked the Syrians on their TV shows, portraying them not only as supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, but as trying to destabilise the country and transfer the Syrian experience to Egypt.

Even among Egyptian political figures the die is cast against Syrian refugees. Mostafa El-Gundy, a leading member of the Constitution Party, called on the Egyptian people in July to kill any Syrian or Palestinian on the spot if caught at any major checkpoint after the ousting of Morsi. Rumours spread at the time of the Rabaa sit-in alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood were hiring Syrians to participate in their rallies and that Syrian women were offered as brides in Rabaa.

The media campaigns led to pronounced xenophobia in some areas in Egypt against Syrians. Some Syrian refugees have reported being attacked and harassed by angry citizens in Alexandria and 6th of October City. Some Syrian owned shops and small restaurants in 6th of October City area, where there is a large Syrian community since two years, have also been targeted.

Some Syrian families have been forced to leave apartments they rented as owners refuse to have Syrians as tenants after the media campaign, said Al-Atassi.

“Families are scared to send their children to buy anything from the street. They now fear to speak in Syrian accent for fear of being spotted and attacked in the street,” another Syrian activist in Egypt told Ahram Online, preferring to remain anonymous out of concerns for safety.

“I know a man who was attacked and stabbed by an angry mob just because he is Syrian. This man is a father who lost a child and a wife in the war and came to Egypt searching for safety for the rest of his family,” said the activist.

Must be the occupation, since everyone knows that is the source of all the problems in the Middle East.

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Syria regime upset at singer who gave concert in Bethlehem

From Albawaba:

Asala Nasri's recent visit to Palestine raised many eyebrows in the entertainment world and media. The singer was the first ever Syrian to perform in Palestine since 1967. The performance was held in a small village near Bethlehem and was part of the “Layali Barak Suleiman” Festival.

But Asala's visit was interpreted as cooperating with Israel and a violation of Syrian laws. Syrian law states that any visitors to the occupied territory will be imprisoned for a period of 3-10 years.

Asala is known to be completely opposed to Bashar Al Assad's government and has openly spoken her mind about the ruthlessness of his regime that's killing the lives of innocent Syrians. A number of Syrian lawyers are gathering suitable documents to file a lawsuit against the star.

Now, weeks after the incident, the singer isn't scot free from criticism. Asala's brother and business manager Anas Nasri stated that his sister obtained her entry Visa into Palestine just like any other individual, adding that she had to go through Israeli checkpoints to enter the West Bank as well.

Anas argued that Asala isn't the only singer to perform in Palestine; stars like Egyptian singers Mohamed Mounir, Mohamed Fouad, Hani Shaker, Hussam Habib and Kuwaiti singer Abdallah Al Rowaished entered Palestine in the same way Asala did and none were accused of cooperating with Israel the same way his sister was.

A number of Syrian lawyers are gathering suitable documents to file a lawsuit against the star.

According to Sayidaty.net, the lawsuit was filed by supporters of the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad as revenge against Asala for opposing Assad's regime and supporting the Revolution instead.

The lawyers further stated that Asala was granted her entry Visa to Palestine through Israeli officials. They're demanding that the singer is stripped of her Syrian citizenship for cooperating with Israel. Syrian law states that any visitors to the occupied territory will be imprisoned for a period of 3-10 years.

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9/02 Links Part 2: PA: US Behind All Wars, Fisk Blames Israel, Schama - The Story Of The Jews

From Ian:

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PMW: Official PA daily accuses the US of being behind civil wars in Syria, Egypt, and 9/11 attacks

Since the beginning of what is called the ‘Arab Spring’, the official Palestinian Authority daily has been publishing opinion pieces accusing the US and Israel of being behind the civil wars in the Middle East in order to divide and weaken Arab states and strengthen American power. The deaths in the Arab world, including those in Syria following the chemical attack, are presented as actions in line with US policy. The official PA daily wrote today:
“Events of mass killings do not upset [America] because they themselves have used killing as a means and a strategy to attain global domination… This is a tyranny and an effort whose goal is to divide every country… Americans aspire to topple the nation states that appeared in the Arab world after WWII.”

Abbas: We are negotiating on the basis of the pre-1967 lines

Abbas said he agreed to July’s resumption of talks “only once he’d received an official US guarantee that negotiations would be on a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 lines,” the report said. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had emphatically refused Abbas’s demand, ahead of the talks, to publicly state that negotiations for a Palestinian state would be based on the pre-’67 lines, and the United States has not made public any assurances it may have made on the issue to Abbas.
Abbas also reportedly told the Fatah officials that the Palestinians are maintaining their demand that East Jerusalem be the capital of a future Palestinian state, a condition he called a “red line.”
Israel’s President Shimon Peres said Monday that Netanyahu had decided that Israel’s interests require a two-state solution, hence his readiness to resume negotiations with Abbas. Netanyahu had taken a “difficult decision” to restart talks with the Palestinians, said Peres, “and I respect that. I don’t believe he took it as an isolated step. He decided upon two states and no less important he decided against a bi-national state.”

Abbas says peace with Israel will be brought to a referendum for Palestinians 'everywhere'

Abbas, who was speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in Ramallah, said that Palestinians everywhere would be asked to approve an agreement with Israel through the referendum.
"If there is any development and an agreement, it is known that we will go to a referendum," Abbas clarified. "It won't be enough to have the approval of the Fatah Central Committee or the PLO Executive Council for an agreement. Rather, we would go to a referendum everywhere because the agreement represents Palestinians everywhere."
Abbas's calls for a referendum echo those on the Israeli side that any final status agreement with the Palestinians be put to a referendum. The Palestinian leader made similar comments regarding a referendum in an interview with a Jordanian newspaper in July.

U.S. Reveals: Indyk Took Part in One Peace Meeting

The U.S. State Department revealed on Sunday for the first time that the U.S. envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian Authority talks had taken part in a meeting between the two parties since negotiations resumed in late July.
"The negotiations have been serious, and U.S. Special Envoy Martin Indyk and his team have been fully briefed on the bilateral talks and also participated in a bilateral negotiating session," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "As we have said in the past, we are not planning to read out the details of these meetings."
The State Department decided to make the disclosure regarding Israeli-Palestinian Authority negotiations after media attention about their course was overshadowed by the violent crackdown on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons against its people.

Abbas cancels goodwill meeting with leftist MKs

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas canceled a pre-Rosh Hashana toast with more than 30 ministers and Knesset members that was set for Tuesday because he came under pressure from the anti-normalization movement in Ramallah.
Abbas invited the Knesset’s Caucus on Ending the Israeli- Arab Conflict to his headquarters in Ramallah after a Palestinian delegation was greeted by 30 MKs and ministers and a Palestinian flag at the Knesset on July 31. That meeting emphasized the need to have a show of force in Ramallah to boost the nascent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
But the anti-normalization movement, which is strong inside Abbas’s Fatah party, criticized him for meeting such a high-profile Israeli delegation so soon after the IDF killed Palestinians in recent incidents in Jenin and Kalandiya. They also did not like it that he was hosting a toast in honor of the Jewish New Year.

Analysis: The Hamas threat from the West Bank

There have been at least three known arrests of Hamas terror cells in the West Bank this year, prior to the latest investigation.
They all form part of a broader effort by it to recover its West Bank infrastructure, which was all but destroyed by Israel’s counter-terror operations a decade ago.
These incidents raise an unavoidable question: Can a future attack, one that isn’t thwarted, have direct repercussions on current relative calm between Israel and Gaza? To what extent are these two arenas interlinked? So far, these questions have not been put to the test, thanks to the lifesaving efficiency of the Shin Bet.

Two bombs explode near IDF patrol on Gaza border

A similar incident took place Friday, when an IED exploded near an IDF patrol traveling along the Gaza border fence. No soldiers were injured in Friday’s incident.
Aside from isolated rocket fire attributed to rogue Islamist groups, the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has largely been calm since the ceasefire that ended last November’s Operation Pillar of Defense.

Robert Fisk finds Zionist smoking gun in likely U.S. attack against Syria

In addition to the obvious point that Iran, since the 1979 revolution, has been America’s enemy as well as Israel’s, even by the low standards of anti-Zionist agitprop, Fisk’s thesis rests on a comically thin argument. He would have Indy readers believe that the U.S. decision to engage in what will almost certainly be a very limited use of force against a few military targets in Syria, in retaliation for crossing President Obama’s red line over chemical weapons, actually represents a stealth plan to aid Israel.
It’s unclear of course how a few cruise missiles launched against Syrian chemical weapons sites would change the balance of power in the civil war, or even minimally disrupt Iran’s continuing military support for the regime in Damascus, or how any of this would affect Israel’s efforts to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. However, to those preaching to the anti-Zionist choir – and engaging in the facile “who benefits?” causation – such pesky questions regarding empirical evidence are obviously never relevant.

92-year-old former SS member on trial for WWII crime

Germany put a 92-year-old former member of the Nazi Waffen SS on trial Monday on charges that he murdered a Dutch resistance fighter in 1944.
Dutch-born Siert Bruins, who is now German, entered the Hagen state courtroom using a walker, but appeared alert and attentive as the proceedings opened.

Autotalks to get cars ‘talking’ on the road by 2015

For drivers, overtaking a truck is always a risk. Now, the latest craze of the auto technology arena, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems – or, cars that can “talk” to one another in real time – is promising to lessen that risk and heighten road safety.
Autotalks, founded and headquartered in Israel, has become a world leader in V2V as well as vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology, which enables, for example, traffic lights and other infrastructure to respond to an emergency vehicle’s needs.

Gauzy Smart Glass Controls Light with an Eco Touch

Israeli startup Gauzy has invented smart glass that goes from transparent to opaque with nothing more than a touch. Based on liquid crystal technology used in LCD screens, this revolutionary new product has great eco potential.
Founded in 2009 by CEO Eyal Peso and CTO Adrian Lofer, who worked together at Alvarion, Gauzy aims to revolutionize the glass industry by introducing products that can control how much light passes through.

New pathway to treat colorectal cancer, pulmonary fibrosis

A type of white blood cell called a macrophage is one tricky customer. Expose macrophages to a certain stimulus and they’ll promote healing. But expose them to a different stimulus and they actually make the condition worse.
A team of Israeli researchers is making unprecedented progress in mapping the mechanism of these “good guy, bad guy” cells and understanding their role in the progression of two deadly diseases: colorectal cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), an incurable lung condition.

Who wants to be a (Technion) millionaire?

If you ever wondered about how to get rich, it turns out you should go to Haifa and walk through the gates of the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. In a new list published by Bloomberg Rankings, the Technion tied for seventh among the world's universities for the number of graduates who are CEOs of U.S. tech companies with a market value of more than $1 billion.
Among the top 10 universities on the list, the Technion is the only one located outside the U.S.

Israel Daily Picture: Happy New Year! Jews Will Blow the Shofar (Ram's Horn) in Synagogues on Thursday and Friday

Jews around the world prepare for Rosh Hashanna this week, the festive New Year holiday when the shofar -- ram's horn -- is blown in synagogues.
The American Colony photographers recorded a dozen pictures of Jewish elders blowing the shofar in Jerusalem some 80 years ago. The horn was also blown in Jerusalem to announce the commencement of the Sabbath. During the month prior to Rosh Hashana, the shofar was blown at daily morning prayers to encourage piety before the High Holidays.

BBC: The Story Of The Jews

This epic five-part series presented by historian Simon Schama explores the story of the Jewish experience from ancient times to the present day.

(Video might be taken down by YouTube)

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Comic book hero of the 1930s: Abdul the Arab (Collaborator)

I just saw a series of comics from the late 1930s called Abdul the Arab. As described in a comics wiki:

Abdul the Arab was a young Arabic warrior and son of a chieftain named Ali Bey. Eventually, Abdul became an ally of British Intelligence solving crimes and freeing captives such as Englishmen and even a captured Chinese princess named Mulan. His enemies include villains such as Sunyan Tse, the Masked One, and the Worshipers of the Sun God. He was assisted by his close friend Hassan.

In his adventures, Abdul works with the British to stop other Arabs who are scheming against them. Here is where he saved a scientist whose invention would have forced the free world to bow to the Arabs:

Here's his trusty friend Hassan beheading an Arab about to kill Adbul:

The anti-Arab bigotry of the stories...

...is apparently offset with how wonderful (and Western-looking) Abdul is as he kills the "bad" Arabs.

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The "Arab Street" is alive and well and spreading fear in the West Bank

For most of the past century, the "Arab Street" has been largely a myth, used to scare Westerners with the idea that at any minute, hordes of Arab savages might go crazy and start doing awful things if Western nations didn't do what the Arabs (or Muslims) wanted. I have called this "The Diplomacy of Fear."

I've documented this idea back to 1877.

In fact, until the Arab Spring, the "Arab Street" pretty much did whatever the leaders told it to do. They controlled the media and they controlled the mood of the country.

Then, things changed. The Arab Street is striking fear not in the hearts of Westerners, but of the very leaders who used to cynically use the idea for their own selfish purposes.

Two events occurred in the last couple of days to show that in the PA, the "street" actually already controls the government and the leaders.

The first one is that Mahmoud Abbas postponed a meeting with dovish Israeli leaders:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas canceled a pre-Rosh Hashana toast with more than 30 ministers and Knesset members that was set for Tuesday because he came under pressure from the anti-normalization movement in Ramallah.

Abbas invited the Knesset’s Caucus on Ending the Israeli- Arab Conflict to his headquarters in Ramallah after a Palestinian delegation was greeted by 30 MKs and ministers and a Palestinian flag at the Knesset on July 31. That meeting emphasized the need to have a show of force in Ramallah to boost the nascent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

But the anti-normalization movement, which is strong inside Abbas’s Fatah party, criticized him for meeting such a high-profile Israeli delegation so soon after the IDF killed Palestinians in recent incidents in Jenin and Kalandiya. They also did not like it that he was hosting a toast in honor of the Jewish New Year.

Is Abbas a leader or a follower? Clearly, he is more beholden to special interest anti-Israel groups in his own party than to keeping mere promises made to Israelis. He is afraid of "the street" and how he would look if he breaks the unwritten rules that they make up.

The second story is that the Jerusalem Arab schools that were considering using an Israeli curriculum (story here) have caved to critics, and rejected the idea of changing the schoolbooks from those filled with anti-Israel lies to those that actually tell the truth (although, admittedly, with some pro-Israel spin.) The publicity was too much - they are in real fear for their lives if they go ahead with the planned curriculum change.

See also the two Forbes articles I linked to on Friday, showing how even modern, high-tech, enlightened Palestinian Arab entrepreneurs are in mortal fear of having their names associated with anything Israeli - even though they happily work with Israelis every day. Again, they are terrified of the Arab street finding out they cooperate with the country that even an independent Palestinian Arab state would need to cooperate with to have a chance of surviving.

Yes, the "diplomacy of fear" has now morphed into becoming the greatest single weapon against Arab progress and peace. Until Palestinian Arabs confront it and say, plainly, that the only way forward is by cooperating with Israel, this hateful thought process will only grow.

This is yet another reason why peace is impossible. And it is yet another problem that no one in the West even considers as they pontificate about "peace plans."

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9/02 Links Part 1: Kerry Has Proof of Sarin Gas, Arab League Calls for Action by UN and R.O.W.

From Ian:

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David Horovitz: Obama unleashes horror in Jerusalem

Jerusalem is worried, too, of a direct line between requesting Congressional approval for military action against Syria — a relatively straightforward target — and feeling compelled to honor the precedent, should the imperative arise, by requesting Congressional approval for military action against Iran — a far more potent enemy, where legislators’ worries about the US being dragged deep into regional conflict would be far more resonant.
Israel remains hopeful that, to put it bluntly, Obama’s America will yet remember that it is, well, America. The alternative, it rather seems, is something the leadership in Jerusalem finds too awful to so much as contemplate just yet.

Anne Bayefsky: Obama Pushes Syria Intervention with Same Argument He Ignores on Iran

Virtually every argument the President made Saturday about why Syria threatens our national security can be applied to Iran many times over. “Risks making a mockery of the global prohibition” on nuclear proliferation. “Endangers our friends.” “Could lead to escalating use” of nuclear weapons. Has the “United Nations Security Council completely paralyzed.” “Flouts fundamental international rules.”
Congress would understand Iran. But the President of the United States refuses to make the case.

Kerry: We have proof sarin used in chemical attack

The United States now has evidence of sarin gas use in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday, adding that the “case is building” for a military attack.
A day after President Barack Obama stepped back from his threat to launch an attack, deciding first to seek approval from Congress, Kerry said in a series of interviews on the Sunday television news shows that the administration learned of the sarin use through samples of hair and blood provided to Washington by first responders in Damascus.

Syrian Captain Told: Fire Chemicals or be Shot

The messages were picked up by British officers. Anonymous Royal Air force (RAF) and Ministry of Defense sources who spoke to the Express said the messages were initially treated “with caution” due to fears they could have been planted by rebels.
The intercepted radio messages begin with a regional commander demanding that the captain of a Syrian Army artillery battery fire chemical shells.
When the officer protests, he is told “in direct terms” that if he does not fire the weapons, he will be killed.

JPost Editorial: Obama’s strategy

Aside from the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, there are no “good guys” among the sides of the conflict. The despotic Assad regime, which has no qualms about using chemical weapons to kill its own citizens, is battling against forces aligned with al-Qaida – the archenemy of the US – and against the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is to Obama’s credit that in his address on Saturday night, he said what was needed to be said: “I’ve told you what I believe, that our security and our values demand that we cannot turn away from the massacre of countless civilians with chemical weapons.”
Obama’s decision to seek congressional approval – rather than a sign of weakness of wishy-washy indecision – might instead be the wise move ahead of such a potentially volatile action.

Invoking Israel, Kerry Says Congress will Vote 'Aye'

John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, said on Sunday that the administration had new evidence that sarin gas was used in an attack by Syrian government forces that killed 1,400 people last month. Kerry also said that he is certain that Congress will approve the attack on Syria, and invoked the name of Israel in this context.
“I can’t contemplate that Congress would turn its back on Israel and Jordan and the allies of the region,” Kerry said on “Fox News Sunday,” saying that lawmakers had a duty to act to uphold international norms against using chemical weapons. Kerry stressed that it was important to send a tough message to other nations pursuing weapons programs, like Iran and North Korea.

David Cameron may mull putting Syria action back on table

According to a report in the Times of London, Cameron’s hasty decision to rule out action in Syria following a parliamentary vote last week rejecting intervention was taken to mean that Britain would not get involved even if the regime of President Bashar Assad would carry out an additional chemical weapons attack. This reportedly stunned even Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, the main opponent of the bill.
Calls to reconsider were led by Tory leader Lord Howard of Lympne, London Mayor Boris Johnson, former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, and former Tory foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

Syrian Rebel Leader Praises Minister Uri Ariel

One of the leaders of the Syrian rebel groups had praise on Sunday for none other than Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel of the Bayit Yehudi party.
Abu Adnan, one of the rebel leaders in northern Syria, spoke to Israel’s Channel One News and expressed his appreciation for Ariel’s comments regarding the chemical attack near Damascus.
“Allow me to send a message of thanks and appreciation to Housing Minister Uri Ariel for his humane and valuable statements and for his beautiful expression of emotion toward the children killed in Syria and toward the women being killed in Syria,” Abu Adnan told the channel’s Arab affair analyst Oded Granot.
“We appreciate this stance and thank him very much,” he added.

Whoever wins in Syria, its Christians will lose

The relentless persecution of Christ’s followers is foretold in the Gospels. Suffering is portrayed as the pathway to triumph. The global position today conforms quite closely to that picture. Three quarters of the world’s 2.2 billion Christians — the expanding part — now live outside the largely tolerant West. At the same time, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reports that Christians suffer more persecution than any other religious group.
Within the Middle East, however, the story is not of expansion accompanied by persecution but of persecution leading to elimination. The ‘Sunday’ people are now following the ‘Saturday’ people out of the Middle East. The outgoing Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, who knows that history, has called the suffering of Arab Christians ‘a human tragedy that is going almost unremarked’. He complained that ‘people don’t speak more about it’.

Analysis: Gulf States, Rebel Allies likely to wait before doubling down

Salman Shaikh, the director of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that if the US congress rejects intervening in Syria and Obama follows that advice – similar to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s acquiescence to his parliament’s rejection – then “we may see even more heightened efforts by Arab states working with others to make a coalition of the willing.”
The current coalition he says is both “unwilling and confused,” and because the Gulf States are determined that Syrian President Bashar Assad must go, then, in such a hypothetical situation, they would work to build other coalitions, increase support for the rebels, and ally clandestinely with various powers.
In this scenario, there would not be direct military intervention by Arab states, but a stronger push of support for the rebels. This option, is not without its risks, said Shaikh.

Arab League calls for international measures against Syria

The Arab League is calling for the United Nations and the international community to take steps against Syria over its recent alleged gas attack.
Arab foreign ministers arrived in Cairo on Sunday for an urgent Arab League meeting to discuss the Syrian crisis and the potential military strike on the country.
A final resolution was passed Sunday urging the UN and international community to "take the deterrent and necessary measures against the culprits of this crime that the Syrian regime bears responsibility for."
The League's foreign ministers also said those responsible for the attack should face trial, as other "war criminals" have.

Syria asks UN to stop US strike, 'prevent the absurd use of force'

In a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and President of the Security Council Maria Cristina Perceval, Syrian UN envoy Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari called on "the UN Secretary General to shoulder his responsibilities for preventing any aggression on Syria and pushing forward reaching a political solution to the crisis in Syria", state news agency SANA said on Monday.
He called on the Security Council to "maintain its role as a safety valve to prevent the absurd use of force out of the frame of international legitimacy".

Syrian army moves Scud missiles to avoid strike

At the headquarters of the army's 155th Brigade, a missile unit whose base sprawls along the western edge of Syria's main highway running north from the capital to Homs, rebel scouts saw dozens mobile Scud launchers pulling out early on Thursday.
Rebel military sources said spotters saw missiles draped in tarpaulins on the launchers, as well as trailer trucks carrying other rockets and equipment. More than two dozen Scuds - 11-metre (35-foot) long ballistic missiles with ranges of 300 km (200 miles) and more - were fired from the base in the Qalamoun area this year, some of which hit even Aleppo in the far north.

Hezbollah says it will hit Israel from within Syria

A source in the joint operations organization formed between the Syrian Army and Hezbollah said the group is seeking to keep Lebanon out of any “military initiative” it may take, according to the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper and cited by the Naharnet website on Monday.
“Hezbollah is controlling 8,000 kilometers [around] Homs and will not hesitate to participate in an attack by firing surface-to-surface missiles from Syria,” the source said. “The party will not use its tactical and strategical rocket launchers inside Lebanon.”
However, should Israel attack Lebanon, then Hezbollah will use its rocket launchers deployed in Lebanon to respond, the source warned.

Egypt’s Morsi to stand trial over protesters’ deaths

Morsi will be tried in a criminal court for allegedly inciting his supporters to kill at least 10 people, use violence and unlawfully detain and torture protesters. Fourteen other members of the Muslim Brotherhood will be tried with Morsi, including top aides and leading members of his political party.
The case dates back to one of the deadliest bouts of violence during Morsi’s one year in office. At least 100,000 protesters gathered outside the presidential palace on Dec. 4, protesting a decree Morsi issued to protect his decisions from judicial oversight and a highly disputed draft constitution that was hurriedly adopted by the Islamist-dominated parliament.

Egypt judges recommend banning Muslim Brotherhood

The panel said Monday in a recommendation to Egypt’s administrative court that the Brotherhood has operated in violation of the law.
The recommendation isn’t binding to the court, which holds its next hearing on November 12. It appears however a step closer to banning the group, whose legality was disputed even before Morsi’s ouster.

French interfaith imam assaulted, called ‘Zionist’ in Tunisia

A French imam known for promoting Jewish-Muslim relations said he was physically assaulted in Tunisia by a man who called him a “Zionist.”
The attacker of Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Drancy near Paris, punched him in the chest and shoved him to the ground on Sunday near Hotel Gammarth near Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.
“He insulted me, called me a ‘Zionist and collaborator’ and then he hit me,” Chalghoumi was quoted Monday as telling Le Parisien daily. Chalghoumi was assaulted in front of his wife and children, who also were hit by the unnamed attacker, the report said.

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Hamas Mufti wants to kill anti-Hamas demonstrators

Palestine Press Agency reports that Sheikh Yunis al-Astal, a Hamas MP and considered the Mufti of Hamas, has told the Tamarod Gaza movement to "prepare their burial shrouds" if they go ahead with their planned anti-Hamas protest on November 11.

Al-Astal also has a history of making crazed antisemitic statements, as MEMRI notes:

The [Jews] are brought in droves to Palestine so that the Palestinians – and the Islamic nation behind them – will have the honor of annihilating the evil of this gang.
...
All the predators, all the birds of prey, all the dangerous reptiles and insects, and all the lethal bacteria are far less dangerous than the Jews.
...
In just a few years, all the Zionists and the settlers will realize that their arrival in Palestine was for the purpose of the great massacre, by means of which Allah wants to relieve humanity of their evil.
...
When Palestine is liberated and its people return to it, and the entire region, with the grace of Allah, will have turned into the United States of Islam, the land of Palestine will become the capital of the Islamic Caliphate, and all these countries will turn into states within the Caliphate. When this happens, any Palestinian will be able to live anywhere, because the land of Islam is the property of all Muslims.
...
Allah punished the Israelites many times throughout history. He punished them by means of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. He punished them by means of the Companions of the Prophet in the Arabian Peninsula, at Al-Madina, and at Khaybar. He punished them by means of the Germans, and before that by means of the Romans. Today, it is the turn of the Islamic nation to punish them once again.

By this logic, Allah must really be hating the Arabs nowadays.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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The Hizballah scenario

Over the past week or two, we have seen numerous threats from Iran and from Syria that any US attack on Syria would result in Israel being attacked.

The latest comes from an Iranian Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi visiting Damascus:

“The Israeli regime will be the main loser of any military action in Syria,” Boroujerdi said at a press conference in Damascus on Sunday after a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He added that Tel Aviv has so far been defeated four times by the resistance and emphasized that it would suffer a fifth defeat if it launches another war.

“Military attack on Syria will set the entire Middle East region ablaze and will put the security of the Zionist regime [of Israel] in jeopardy,” the Iranian lawmaker stated.

So how likely is it that there will be an attack on Israel if the US drops a few bombs on Syria?

Iran is not going to attack Israel directly. It wants to maintain the illusion that it is not an aggressive country; it hides its attacks behind others. It also doesn't want to risk Israel responding with an attack on its nuclear facilities.

Syria is not likely to attack Israel. Assad has no desire to open up another front in his mostly deadlocked war. Already, we have seen Israel attack Syria directly to bomb weapons on their way to Lebanon with no response. While Saddam Hussein attacked Israel during the first Gulf War it was meant to draw a response that would bring the Arab world to his side, but today the Arab world would not mind too much if Israel responded forcefully against the Syrian regime.

That leaves Hizballah.

It is doubtful that Hizballah wants to start any attack on Israel. It is already stretched thin with thousands of troops in Syria, and battling its image in Lebanon as the residents of that country are increasingly upset at Hizballah's adventurism and its slowly dragging them into a war they want nothing to do with.

For its part, Hizballah has been stubbornly silent among the Lebanon/Syria/Iran axis as to how any attack would affect Israel.

However, Hizballah is not an independent actor. It is effectively an arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. If Iran demands that Hizballah shoot rockets at Israel, Nasrallah cannot say no. And as we noted, Iran likes to hide its aggression behind others.

While Israel would be forced to respond to a Hizballah attack directly, it would make sense for Israel to pre-emptively state that any attack from Hizballah would be considered to have been done at the urging of Syria and Iran, and that any response will not only be directed at the source of the rockets but at the source of the command.

If this is a war of rhetoric. Syria and Iran think that they can dissuade Western powers from acting because of threats to Israel. Since they are quite subject to psychological projection, it makes sense that they themselves can be dissuaded from using Hizballah to attack Israel with counter-threats to them directly. While I don't think Israel should attack Iran (unless it is to use it as an excuse to neutralize their nuclear program that is quickly approaching a point of no return) a promise to respond to the real sources of the bombing might make Iran and Syria think twice before instructing Hizballah to attack.

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Ma'an implies mosque preceded Tomb of the Patriarchs

At the end of an article about Arab protests against Jews living in Hebron, Ma'an gives some background, Muslim-propaganda style:

The Israeli military-controlled H2 zone includes the ancient Old City, home of the revered Ibrahimi Mosque -- also split into a synagogue referred to as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

No, the entire site has been known as Tomb of the Patriarchs for 2000 years before Mohammed was born. The ever-liberal Muslims didn't allow Jews to enter their second-holiest place for hundreds of years.

Then again, Ma'an also says "Settlers in the property have committed frequent acts of violence against local Palestinians since occupying the property, including arson attacks and physical assaults, according to Christian Peacemaker Teams." without mentioning that Arabs have murdered quite a few Jews in Hebron over the years.

Oh, you mean you expected Ma'an to be truthful?

By the way, I couldn't find any video of the protests mentioned in the article. There was a protest in Hebron against American involvement in Syria, though, that was just as large ("dozens."). Why cover one and not the other?

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Report: Muslim Brotherhood gave $250M to Sinai jihadists to attack police and army

Al Monitor translates an interview in Iraqi newspaper Azzaman with Hussein Abdel Rahman, spokesman of the Brothers Without Violence group, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot that adheres to the same principles as the MB but eschews violence.

At the very end of the interview Rahman - who apparently knows quite a bit about what is going on in the Ikhwan - reveals a bombshell:

Azzaman: Amid persisting violence in the Sinai against the army and the police, some people are accusing Muslim Brotherhood leaders, mainly Mohamed Beltagy and Ezzat, of being involved in those incidents. Are these claims valid?

Abdel Rahman: The international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood earmarked a sum of $250 million to fund some jihadist movements in the Sinai, like al-Gama'a al-Islamiya and the Salah al-Dine Brigades, and supply them with arms sometimes to conduct acts of violence against the army and the police. Unfortunately, some are accusing Muslim Brotherhood youth of committing these acts, but it is not true. They are innocent of such acts that are caused by some leaders who have adopted the approach of Sayyid Qutb, such as Essam al-Aryan, Safwat Hegazi and Tarek al-Zomor. As for Badie, he did not manage any recent acts; Ezzat is actually the current mastermind of the Muslim Brotherhood.

While he denies direct involvement of the MB with the jihadist attacks in the Sinai, he admits freely that the jihadists are funded by the MB.

In this light, the Egyptian arrests of the Brotherhood leaders seems much more grounded in reality and less in harassment, as it sometimes appears. The implication is also that if the MB has given $250M to the Sinai jihadists, then certainly they must have bankrolled their fellow Hamas movement - and the idea that Hamas was involved in the Sinai attacks in some form becomes far more plausible as well.

(h/t Max S)

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