Another bizarre Iranian conspiracy theory

It is truly mind-boggling how Middle-East Muslims can just make up facts to fit their twisted worldview.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - In Italy the death of Fiat heir Edoardo Agnelli five years ago is viewed as a tragic suicide. In Iran, he is venerated as a martyr for Islam, supposedly murdered in a Zionist-orchestrated boardroom putsch.

On the fifth anniversary of his death, some 200 Iranian students gathered on Tuesday in a candlelit vigil outside the Italian embassy in Tehran, carrying placards reading 'No to the Zionist coup at Fiat' and chanting 'Death to Israel'.

'Edoardo was a martyr for Islam and was killed by the Zionists,' said Hamideh Taghizadeh, among a group of young women in all-enveloping black chadors, clasping posters of Agnelli.

His fall from a motorway viaduct in northwest Italy offers all the ingredients Iranians need in their conspiracy theories -- a heady mix of Judaism, family rivalries and ruthless big business.

The conspiracy runs as follows: after Agnelli converted to Shi'ite Islam, Israeli agents decided Fiat could not fall into such hands, murdered him and ensured the Elkann family, of Jewish origins, should run the carmaking dynasty.

Italian investigators found no suggestion his death was anything other than suicide.

Agnelli did have a strong interest in Shi'ite Islam, once visiting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual father of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

But the graduate of oriental literature and philosophy was also interested in other religions and travelled widely in Asia and Africa.He never worked for the Turin-based car empire.

The Agnellis buried him in their Christian family tomb.

Mohammad Ghadiri Abianei, a diplomat who said he had known the Fiat heir during a posting in Rome, claimed Agnelli had converted to Islam and changed his name to Mehdi.

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Arab Denial (Yaron London)

I think most Israelis identified with the latest victims of the radical Islamic hurricane, and joined in the pain of the Hashemite Kingdom and worried about the future of that country.

In my heart I hoped this tragedy would spring forth at least a few drops of sweetness. I hoped the fact that blind murder had finally struck them would lead the Palestinians to question the justice of suicide bombers, but this hope proved false.

I watched the reactions in the Arab world and heard their denunciations of the bombing, but not even one person thought to compare the wanton slaughter of Jews and the wanton slaughter of Muslims.

Most protested the fact that Muslims had the audacity to murder other Muslims, not over the fact that innocents were killed. The message was frighteningly clear: there is nothing wrong with terrorism in-and-of-itself. The mistake in the current instance was the religious makeup of the targets.

For example, a debate was held on Jordanian television in which participants refused to recognize the fact that several Muslim groups have embedded themselves in a culture of murder.

They claimed there is only one Islam, and whoever deviates from its religious message is not Muslim.

By excluding the murderers from the boundaries of Islam, there is no possibility to study the weakness of a society that produces murderers wholesale. Self-criticism is possible only when a society dares recognize the fact that the dregs of that society are, in fact, part of that society.

To our incredible sorrow, there are few signs to suggest that this process has gripped Muslim society.

Denial is the heritage of the masses and the heritage of the intellectuals.

The claim that it is impossible for Muslims to carry out such a loathsome act, and therefore the culprits cannot possibly be Muslim, is simply understood by many Jordanians: If the attack wasn't carried out by Muslims, then it must have been carried out by someone else.

And if it was carried out by someone else, it must have been someone or group trying to weaken the Arabs – in other words, the Jews.

This warped logic has led Arab journalists and statesmen to blame Israel for terror attacks in Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh, for the pogrom Muslims carried out on the Copts in Egypt, for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, and of course – the September 11 attacks in the United States.

One British reporter traveled to the village in the West Bank. On a small path near the mourning tent, he spoke to family members of the victims and asked them who they thought was responsible for the massacre. Every single one blamed Israel.

Why would Israel have killed them? The answers were angry and babbled, but they showed clearly that they, too, had internalized the message that Muslims wouldn't have murdered fellow Muslims, and so it must have been Israelis, born with a murderous nature.

In order to reject the possibility that Muslims would murder other Muslims, one would have to erase entire chapters of history. But the memory is an illusive tool. It is the nature of man to preserve those memories that reinforce his worldview, and to erase the ones that call that outlook into question.

These villagers can't stomach the thought that the same emotions that drive the shaheeds (martyrs) they produce also drove Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi to murder their loved ones.

One needn't be an expert in psychology to understand that such an admission would drag them to the edge of the abyss of the naked, terrible truth: those responsible for the murder in Amman are not "others" – Israelis, Zionists, Americans or the CIA, but rather by the victims themselves; that is to say, those wrapped up in self denial.

It is too bad that the author doesn't take the next step - that it is impossible to negotiate in good faith with people who cannot even admit truth when it hits them in the face.

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Quick round up of those who blame Jews for Amman blasts

It is worthwhile to occasionally look at what the terror-supporting morons of the world have to say.

• "The suicide bombers story was created and spun to cover up the real crime. The real targets of the bombings were Palestinian high ranking officials and Chinese military personnel. "(Did Al-Zarqawi Really Bomb Amman? by Dr. Elias Akleh, globalresearch.ca)

• "It is now obvious the Amman hotel bombings were a black op executed by Mossad, British intelligence, or the American military, or it was a collaborative effort of all three (suspicion, however, falls on the Israelis, since they have plenty of experience with these sort of operations..."(Amman Bombings: More Suspicious Details, by Kurt Nimmo, uruknet.info)

• " The fact that few (if any) Israeli Jews have been killed in any of the major terror incidents which have occurred in recent years - despite the fact that the alleged perpetrators are anti-Zionist - is indirect evidence that the bombings are actually being carried out by an Israeli agency, be it the Mossad or some other top secret entity charged with black ops of this nature. Similarly, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the 'al-Qaeda' websites currently being cited in news reports are anything other than undertakings of Israeli intelligence intended to help allay suspicions that the bombings were actually sophisticated operations involving explosives planted inside the hotels." (Israel's latest black op - the most transparent yet?, "socialdemocracynow", Mathaaba.net)


• "Now, with the ceiling story dismissed and the evacuation of the Israelis prior to the attack story all but extinguished, "we are told these al-Zarqawi militants included a "husband and wife team" and they "carried out the Amman attacks with explosive belts after carefully staking out the hotels for a month," according to The Associated Press. The “suicide bombers” story was cooked up to cover up the real crime." - Who Profited from Amman Bombings, aljazeera.com)
  

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Israel caves totally to American pressure on border crossings

It is just insanity. Any benefits from the Gaza withdrawal are being eroded very quickly.

Again, we see American pressure on Israel and Israel refusing to fight this pressure in her own self-interest. Despite the fact that Israel willingly helps the US unquestioningly in areas that the US needs help, time after time the State Department (and seemingly the White House) pressures Israel to do more - meaning sacrificing Israeli lives and her economy on the altar of an illusory "peace".

A Google News search for the past month on US "pressure on Egypt" comes up empty. But for "US pressure on Israel" we find not only this Rafah fiasco, but also pressure on settlements, and on Israeli arms exports to Venezuela and China, where Israel is giving up on hundreds of millions of dollars.

And of course the liberal media prefer to look at Israel thumbing her nose at the US and the US doing all that Israel desires. It is a constant theme among anti-semites, and also in al-Guardian, which asks the absurd question "Why does the US refuse to pressure Israel, even for its own good?"

Rice Secures Rafah Package Stripped of Adequate Counter-Terror Safeguards

DEBKAfile Special Analysis
November 15, 2005, 1:28 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt will reopen on November 25 as a Palestinian-Egyptian facility with a European presence. Video images will be transferred to a control center at the Kerem Shalom crossing which is on Israeli soil. It will be manned by Israelis and Palestinians with a European presence.

Israel will not be entitled to demand that suspected terrorists be kept out or detained. The Palestinians will only be required to report on the arrivals of VIPs, diplomats and humanitarian cases – no one else. Mofaz lauded this as “another stage in Egypt’s involvement.” He made no reference to the failure of Egyptian border police’s failure to secure the Philadelphi border enclave against the massive smuggling of arms and terrorists since the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

As for the crossings from Gaza into Israel, Israel surrendered the prerogative to shut down them down to secure personnel against terror alerts, although these facilities are notoriously prime terrorist targets. Jerusalem has undertaken to first notify the US embassy in Tel Aviv and back up its “request” with specific information, thus parting with its intelligence secrets. It must then wait for permission from Washington – or its refusal - to the closure.

Effective preventive action may well be held up by this delay.

By surrendering this point, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon relinquished a key element of Israel’s sovereign right to self-defense and agreed to hamstring its own army’s freedom to combat terror. The presence of Palestinian customs inspectors at Kerem Shalom makes an additional inroad on Israeli sovereignty.

From Dec. 15 to January 15, “secured Palestinian convoys” will start rolling across southern Israel from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. The Palestinians want their own forces to secure the trucks. All that has been settled is that the Americans and Europeans will determine the procedures for their passage through Israeli territory.

There is no sign of the Sharon government standing up to Washington’s demands on that point either, so it is more than likely that Palestinian “forces” will be let loose on a wide swathe of southern Israel to escort 150 trucks a day bound for Hebron, Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus.

The provisions for the Rafah crossing will also be applied to Gaza’s deep sea port construction of which begins without delay. Israel has therefore forfeited control and oversight over incoming goods and people to Gaza by sea as well as overland.

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750 lashes and 40 months in jail - for praising Jews

He won't make that mistake again!

RIYADH (Reuters) - A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced a teacher to 40 months in jail and 750 lashes for 'mocking religion' after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper said on Sunday.

Al-Madina newspaper said secondary school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi will be flogged in public after he was taken to court by his colleagues and students.

He was charged with promoting a 'dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer', the newspaper said. It gave no more details.

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Bill Clinton to Israel: Don't act unilaterally against terror

Ex-president Bill Clinton urged Israelis over the weekend not to overreact to comments by newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recommending that Israel be 'wiped off the map.'

Speaking at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on Saturday, Clinton acknowledged that the remark was 'outrageous,' but he cautioned that the Iranian leader was 'not elected because of his hatred for Israel or the West.'

'He was elected because of the economic distress of ordinary Iranians, and which he promised to relieve by giving them financial assistance,' Clinton explained, according to the Jerusalem Post.

He warned Israel not to act unilaterally when reacting to terrorist threats, saying that 'true peace and security can only come through principled compromise.'

So Clinton says Israel should compromise with those who want to see it destroyed? I wonder if he gives Bush the same advice, not to act unilaterally when dealing with Al-Qaeda. I seem to remember Clinton unilaterally shooting some ineffective rockets towards Afghanistan jihadi training camps - tsk, tsk, how could he react to a terror bombing in such a way?

I hope that this was taken way out of context. I expect such lunacy from Carter, but not Clinton.

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The Independent's Fawning Obituary for a Terrorist

A terrorist gets memorialized in the Independent (UK)'s obituary page, exactly the same as authors and prominent business leaders. Unbelievably, the obituary lists his terror accomplishments in exactly the same way that obituaries mention others' charitable and scientific accomplishments.

Look - he's a published author of a guide on how to make bombs! He became "extremely pious" so he "embraced jihad"! The suicide attacks using his bombs didn't actually kill anyone - but their explosive power "[led] to the deaths of 245 people!"

This is truly one of the sickest examples of relative morality that has ever been published.

Azahari Bin Husin
Terrorist 'Demolition Man'
Published: 14 November 2005

Azahari bin Husin, statistician and bomb-maker: born Malacca, Malaysia 1957; Associate Professor of Statistics and Valuation, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 1991-98; married 1994 Wan Noraini Jusoh (two children); died Batu, Indonesia 9 November 2005.

How and why this mild-mannered Malaysian mathematician transformed himself into "Demolition Man", the most wanted fugitive in South-East Asia, is a puzzle which authorities are hard pressed to solve after his violent death last Wednesday.

Azahari bin Husin eluded capture for three years after allegedly supplying explosives to the Islamist extremist group Jemaah Islamiah which has ideological and financial links to al-Qa'ida. Police say his signature car bombs and explosive backpacks were used in at least four suicide attacks against "soft targets" in Bali and Jakarta, leading to the deaths of 245 people, including 26 British tourists in the 2002 Kuta night-club bombings. Azahari was briefly apprehended in Sumatra, but was unrecognised as the bespectacled militant wanted by Interpol for plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Singapore, and he slipped off. But he struck Jakarta's Australian Embassy in September 2004, personally driving his customised car bomb and parking it 300 metres away. Police suspected him of planting similar bombs in August 2003 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, where he was seen sketching in the lobby weeks before the explosions.

Fingerprints taken from one of the suspected militants killed in a police raid on a safe house in East Java on 9 November matched Azahari's records. An hour-long gun battle ended dramatically when a militant sheltering inside blew himself up, and police found a stockpile of 30 more explosive devices in the rubble. Documents discovered in a cohort's hideout the plans for a pre-Christmas "bomb party" to be unleashed at Jakarta schools and churches.

Azahari was born in 1957 in Malacca, the cosmopolitan port town 150km south of Kuala Lumpur. At the age of 17, he left home to study in Adelaide, Australia, where he became an avid jogger and a motorcycle aficionado. But the gregarious student dropped his mechanical engineering courses after four years. An Australian classmate, John Cooper, recalls the young Azahari as "bright and cavalier. He seemed to have a healthy disrespect for authority."

When, aged 20, Azahiri returned home, the Iranian revolution was in foment and Islamic students around the world took heed. Asahari did well enough in his statistics coursework in Malaysia to be accepted as a foreign student at Reading University, where he was enrolled in the late 1980s. Contemporaries remember his fondness for women, sport, and fast cars. After submitting his doctoral thesis, he left Britain for employment in Jakarta as a property-market analyst, but found he preferred life in academia. He married a co-lecturer at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at Skudai, Johor, where he eventually was appointed Associate Professor of Valuation and known for his lively classes.

It was only when his young Acehnese wife, Noraini, had difficulty conceiving a baby that Azahari turned to religion. Following visits to a Muslim faith healer, she became pregnant and bore two children in quick succession. After she was diagnosed with throat cancer, Azahari became extremely pious. He embraced jihad and was drawn to charismatic leaders such as the Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir, spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah. With Noordin Mohamad Top, headmaster of a religious boarding school, he promoted a pan-Muslim territory extending from the southern Philippines to southern Thailand and recruited youths to become martyrs for the cause.

Azahari perfected his bomb-making skills at a jihadi camp in Sadaa, Afghanistan, in 1999, after months of training in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, and went on to design the Jemaah Islaimah bombers' manual with emphasis on backpack explosives. He attended a meeting in Thailand with Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who was considered Osama bin Laden's point man in South-East Asia. After Hambali's arrest in August 2003, Azahari rose through the organisation's ranks.

Counter-terrorism experts have described Azahari as a master of disguise. But in the past few years, officials said, he invariably wore an explosive belt around his waist to avoid being captured alive.

One of Azahari's former students, Lum Chih Feng, recalled his teacher's enthusiasm for English Premier League football. He preferred close-fitting Western clothes and rarely wore an Islamic skullcap and robe except at the mosque.

Shortly after his second baby was born in 2001, Azahari left home, telling his wife: "I have a greater cause in life. It is to serve God."

Jan McGirk

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.

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Rabin was more hawkish than Sharon is today

IsraelNN points out:

In fact, however, Rabin was totally against a withdrawal from Gush Katif. In his last Knesset speech, he said:
'We will not return to the lines of June 4, 1967... The security border will be placed in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest interpretation of this concept... [We will] include Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are east of what was the Green Line... and also... settlement blocs like Gush Katif; would it be there were others like them in Judea and Samaria as well.'

Neither was Rabin in favor of a Palestinian state, and stated clearly his envisioned solution of a 'Palestinian entity that is less than a state.'

It is also interesting to remember that Rabin's reaction to the first "intifada" was far more violent than Sharon's reaction to the second one. It is perhaps unfair to compare the two, but the sainthood that the Left confers on Rabin seems more than a little misplaced, and conversely the concessions that Sharon has made to the Palestinian Arabs seem foolhardy compared to those Rabin may have offered.

At any rate, the consistent labeling of "dove" and "hawk" done incessantly by the media reflects more their perceptions and wishful thinking than the reality.

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Senior PA officials explicitly support continued terror

For some reason, the mainstream media completely missed these interviews by the PA national security advisor and the PA minister of civil affairs.

The official PA policy is continued terror, period.

Statements by Jibril Rajoub
	(Photo: Al-Arabiya, November 4, 2005)
		Jibril Rajoub, the PA's national security advisor, and a leader of the second generation of Fatah, was interviewed in Cairo by daily newspaper Al-Zaman on October 30, 2005. He stated that Abu Mazen would not, under any circumstances, ask the PA security apparatuses to disarm Hamas and the PIJ as long as Israel occupied the West Bank .
		As a guest on an Al-Arabiya TV talk show on November 4, 2005, Rajoub was asked about his statement in Al-Zaman regarding the disarmament of Hamas and the PIJ. He replied as follows (Translations from the original Arabic):
	“ The West Bank is one thing, the Gaza Strip is something else . Israel retreated from the Gaza Strip and a dialogue was held to deal with the subjects of weapons [i.e., the PA's attempt to stop armed men from roaming the streets] and security for Palestinian civilians. The West Bank is still occupied and resistance [i.e., terrorist activities] is a legitimate right . However, regarding everything concerning the Gaza Strip, we of the PA have decided that a law will be passed by the legislative council to deal with the carrying of weapons.”
		During the program he stated several times that the matter of the various organizations' weapons was an internal Palestinian issue which would be dealt with by a dialogue between the PA and the organizations “taking into consideration the position of the PA regarding one weapon and one law…”
		He also expressed his determined objection to the launching of missiles from the Gaza Strip but did not take a firm stand (and was in fact ambiguous) about launching them from the West Bank . He stated that: “the residents of the Gaza Strip have a right to live in peace. Will a missile fired from Gaza liberate the West Bank ?” The interviewer said: “I understand from what you say that you are in favor of launching missiles at Israel from the West Bank ,” and Rajoub answered: “ I am not in favor of [launching] missiles, but it is our right to resist, to react and to confront the occupation . However, the resistance must follow an agenda we agree on…”
		He was then asked whether it had been agreed that the lull would end at the end of 2005. He answered: “No. The lull is part of our national program, and therefore whether or not it ends also depends on a national dialogue. The lull is open and changes according to developments in the field . Its main objective is to maintain local and international momentum, which serves Palestinian interests.” The lull's function, according to Jibril Rajoub, is “ to exert pressure on the criminal Israeli government .”
	Statement by Muhammad Dahlan
	Muhammad Dahlan (right) at a press conference dealing with the Rafah crossing point (Photo: Al-Jazeera RV, November 7, 2005)
		Muhammad Dahlan is minister of civil affairs and among the leaders of second-generation Fatah activists . During a visit to the town of Khan Yunis , he called to strengthen national unity, “ to complete what was achieved in the Gaza Strip. To liberate Jerusalem and the West Bank and for the refugees to take by force the right to return to their houses ” (Palestinian News Agency, November 6, 2005).

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Got another one

I don't usually post these stories because others do a better job, but since this was not widely reported it is worth mentioning and praising the IDF for yet another job well done.

IDF troops killed Hamas leader in Nablus, Amjad Hinawi, 34, during a gunbattle which erupted before dawn Monday when soldiers attempted to arrest the fugitive.

Overnight Monday, numerous troops operated in Nablus against the city's terrorist infrastructure and arrested eight Hamas fugitives, Army Radio reported.

Among their aims was to arrest Hinawi, but when gunmen opened fire at the soldiers during the operation, troops returned fire, killing Hinawi.

A Kalashnikov rifle, a handgun and two magazines were found on Hinawi's body.

Ha'aretz adds:

Hanawi is believed to have masterminded several suicide bombings in Israel in the 1990s.

Israel has conducted raids against hideouts of commanders of armed groups on nearly a nightly basis since a suicide bombing late last month killed six Israelis in an open-air market in the town of Hadera.

A number of commanders have been killed, prompting vows of vengeance from the targeted groups, in particular the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Palestinians have strongly criticized the IDF raids and assassination operations, saying that they have foiled PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to seek promises of calm from the armed organizations.

Ooooh, not the dreaded "efforts to seek promises of calm"! Abbas must really be serious this time!

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US needing help from the IDF

A fascinating article from Haaretz, excerpted below, shows again how the US needs Israeli expertise to help in Iraq - but does not allow Israel to mention it.

This is a consistent theme through the current relationship of the US and Israel, and it is not one that is good for Israel. If Israel would start acting like a partner rather than a stepchild it would go a long way in justifying the aid that the US gives Israel, showing that it is an investment rather than a bribe or boondoggle as in the billions given to Egypt or millions given to the PA.

The US might not need Israel as much as Israel needs the US but it is not a one-way street by any means.

At the end of last month, Brigadier General Joseph Votel, a boyish-looking, tall and smiling American, made an urgent request to an old friend of his from Washington − also a brigadier general, but in the Golani Brigade rather than the Rangers − Nitzan Nuriel, the chief of the foreign liaison department of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. So urgent was the message that the Pentagon didn't even update their military attache in Tel Aviv. Votel implored Nuriel to send him a top-secret item the IDF has developed that could be useful in combating the improvised explosive devices (IED) used against U.S. forces in Iraq.

Nuriel called the chief of the Engineering Corps, Brigadier General Shimon Daniel, who was the Northern Command chief engineering officer during the war against Hezbollah IEDs before the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon and who has been holding professional contacts with Votel and his aides for the past year and a half. Daniel convened the Israeli experts, Nuriel set off on the obstacle course of coordination and authorization - and within a record time of five days, the items in question and their manuals were on a plane headed overseas.

It may sound exaggerated, unfounded, or at least pretentious, but at the end of 2005, the salvation of U.S. President George W. Bush is in large measure dependent on the military intelligence of Israel: the ability of the IDF, the Defense Ministry and the defense industries to help the Americans thwart the IED attacks in Iraq is becoming the tipping point on which the Bush administration is tottering. This conclusion is the final link in a logical chain, which is known to the decision-makers and those in uniform but has been hidden from others.

Bush's most severe entanglement is in Iraq; the quagmire has resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 U.S. troops since the start of the war, though a quarter of them died in accidents, from sickness or suicides. The most lethal factor are the IEDs planted along roadways or in booby-trapped vehicles. By the Americans' admission, the most effective aid in their efforts to defeat the IEDs comes from Israel. The ministering angels who are working to extricate Bush from his distress are, thus, Daniel, Nuriel and Rafael. The last-named is not a person but a corporation: the Armament Development Authority. A bit of Rafael's activity to protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan was revealed last summer in the form of a report that the U.S. Army was acquiring anti-explosives protection kits manufactured jointly by Rafael and the U.S. firm General Dynamics. Other activity is classified.
...
In one of its recent visits to Israel, a delegation from Votel's task force spent three days touring IDF units, guided by the chief engineering officer of Northern Command and with the emphasis on the Engineering Corps' Yahalom unit, a special-operations force. The U.S. Army maintains frequent and regular contacts with the IDF.

The IDF takes pride in this. The U.S. Army is ashamed, citing outdated and transparent pretexts − what will the Arabs say? − which are unable to conceal professional embarrassment. This is not a matter of joint operational planning or intelligence secrets; it is a matter of saving lives − American lives − an issue that is the epicenter of the concern of politicians in Washington. However, instead of congratulating themselves about know-how that was acquired with the blood of the IDF soldiers who were killed in Lebanon and the territories and which is the property of the entire Israeli public, Israeli politicians − the latest of them was Mofaz in his visit to Washington a week ago − are willing to forgo the status of common-law wife and make do with the appearance of a concealed mistress.

Officially, Centcom (U.S. Central Command) is barred from talking directly to Israel − it is supposed to do so only through Eucom (European Command?) or Washington. The prohibition is usually maintained, but life-and-death issues override it. Centcom despaired of the bureaucracy, while soldiers are being killed every day, and three officers who are serving in Iraq came to Israel to learn from the IDF how to combat IEDs. There are also Israeli combatants in Iraq who were released from the IDF to enlist in the U.S. Army. These are not two-footed warriors but members of Oketz, the IDF's canine unit, whose American trainers came to the unit's base to learn how to work with the dogs.

In the best tradition of official Washington doublespeak, even as Israel was requested to say nothing, the Pentagon decided to mention the Israeli angle, to prove that no stone is being left unturned in the effort to defeat the IEDs. A week ago the Los Angeles Times reported that the lone star worn by Votel is making it difficult for him to move along the corridors of the Pentagon. A more senior officer is needed, a three-star general. This is a peculiar idea: another two pieces of serrated tin on a general's shoulder and the explosive devices will be gone. The navy respects expertise and experience, the army respects ranks, the commander of the navy's bomb disposal unit was quoted as saying in National Defense. Maybe it will be Lieutenant General Russel Honore, who gained glory in commanding his troops in post-Katrina New Orleans. Honore, who commands the reserve units and National Guard forces being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, was outraged that the soldiers' training does not include sufficient preparation to deal with the IEDs.

In a self-defensive press briefing at the Pentagon, Lieutenant General James Conway, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that supreme priority has been assigned to combat the IEDs. "The only remaining effective tool Iraqi insurgency has against coalition forces is the improvised bomb," Conway said, and once U.S. and coalition forces find a way to eliminate IEDs, "it's over." The "it" in question is the campaign in Iraq, but before that happens, Conway confirmed it has been proposed to appoint a three-star general above Votel - like Conway's rank − to oversee IED work.

To prove the Americans are learning from the best and most experienced sources, Conway noted that the British had encountered the problem of explosive devices in Northern Ireland and the Israelis have coped with suicide bombers in Israel and Lebanon. "We've tried to study what their experiences were and learn from that." Dutton, the British
general, added another piece of information which explains why it is vital to draw on the knowledge the IDF gleaned coping with Hezbollah devices: the materials and the technology used in making IEDs are entering Iraq from the same source - Iran.

Votel and his colleagues reviewed in public a range of systems and stratagems in use by the enemies of the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan: detonation by wireless, by tripwire, by remote control of cars and by dog and sheep carcasses. Thousands of disruptive systems have been supplied to the forces, but according to reports these also disrupt the U.S. forces' communication network, so the soldiers tend to shut them off. Another difficulty the U.S. has is collecting accurate data about the attacks perpetrated by the IEDs, such as the time of the detonation, the location of the device and the situation of the force that was attacked. An analysis of this data in southern Lebanon helped the IDF improve its combat tactics against Hezbollah.

The key to the booby-trapped cars, an Israeli officer told his American colleagues, lies in mapping the fleet of vehicles in Iraq and marking them in a way that makes it possible to spot them from a safe distance and to identify suspicious vehicles which were not present along the route earlier. The weak point of the Americans is the movement on the roads, for patrols or in convoys. The U.S. Army also understood it is essential to train all logistics personnel and drivers as riflemen who are liable to encounter an attack aimed at killing or kidnapping them, and just to be on the safe side, a simulator for practicing responses in convoys was upgraded.

A soldier who is not present is not hurt, and the original sin of the U.S. Army in Iraq, in its mission to protect the emerging regime in Baghdad, is its failure to develop "control without presence" − a swift action, sparing in manpower and focused, that achieves results without banking on large-scale presence that eventually becomes bankruptcy. The IDF learned how to do this, on an impressive albeit not absolute scale, in its activity against Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank. This is a decentralized combat doctrine, on which the copyright belongs, in part, to the former commander of the Israel Navy, Rear Admiral (res.) Yedidya Yaari, now the president of Rafael.

In the area of combating explosive devices, and in other areas as well, the IDF and sophisticated defense corporations in Israeli industry are so far ahead of their American counterparts that self-admiration needs to be cooled with a doze of modesty; it is not that the Israeli ability is small but that the American needs are large. "The new brigade that is equipped with the Striker combat vehicle is responsible for an area of 38,000 square kilometers in Iraq, almost twice the size of Israel," a realistic IDF officer said this week, "and without diminishing the importance of the lessons we learned and taught others from convoys of eight kilometers to the Beaufort and to the Dlaat outpost [in Lebanon], their convoys have to cover 80 and sometimes 180 kilometers. So we, with all respect, are a drop in the ocean.

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Has the Muslim "blame Israel" excuse lost its potency?

When Arab or Muslim regimes or leaders have had domestic or political problems over the past fifty years, there has always been a reliable way out: blame the Jews, blame Israel, blame Zionists. As long as hatred could be redirected to the always reliable Jews, the heat would be off the true source of the problem, whatever it may have been. it was a free and very effective solution to all kinds of problems.

But it seems that nowadays, the "blame Israel" excuse has lost much of its power. Whether it is because of Israeli diplomatic moves or because of overuse, it seems that only Iran is still using it with any regularity, and that appears to be because Iran is increasingly isolated from its fellow Muslim nations. Indeed, Iran's constantIsrael bashing may be making it more difficult for other Muslim nations to follow suit nowadays.

Iran's isolation can be seen in this news story:

Saudi Arabia has agreed to end all economic boycotts of Israel, allowing the World Trade Organization (WTO) yesterday to admit the oil-rich kingdom as its 149th member, diplomats said.

The WTO's ruling general council, which includes the United States and Israel, endorsed the Saudi entry during a special session yesterday.

The kingdom's minister for commerce and industry, Hashim Yamani, signed the protocol of accession, which means that Saudi Arabia will become a full member on Dec. 11, just days before a big WTO meeting in Hong Kong.

To join, Saudi Arabia agreed to scrap all economic boycotts and it pledged not to resort to any future discriminatory trade measures against the Jewish state, diplomats said.

This story is nothing short of amazing, even if it is only an empty paper gesture. Saudi Arabia has always been at the forefront of the Israeli boycott and his shows that the boycott has been a complete failure. And it also shows just how out-of-step Iran has become in the world today. I think it is not surprising that in the face of such a crumbling of the united Muslim voice against Israel, Iran redoubles its efforts to paint Israel as a villain, and the general Arab world is not keeping to the Iranian company line::

Asefi condemned last week's bombings in Amman and hinted at Israel's involvement. "The bombings were suspicious. Reports indicate the Zionist regime has been behind the event," he stated.

It should be mentioned that the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper has retracted a report that Jordanian security services evacuated Israeli citizens staying in the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman beforethe bomb attack. At least one Israeli was confirmed dead in the blasts.

The second paragraph (not separated in the original story) is most interesting, in that it is a Jordanian news source that is going out of its way to show that Iran's blaming Israel is ridiculous - again, something that would not have been seen a few years ago.

Another indication that the "blame Israel" days may be on the wane among the general Arab population comes from this story about Arab-American comedians:

There are a few simple rules for being a "real Arab man."

Among them: Ignore the first few buttons on your shirt. Wear tremendous amounts of cologne. Oh, and blame every bad thing in the world on a Zionist conspiracy.

It may be a minor and amusing story but when Arabs can joke about how they always blame the Zionists for everything, it does show that the argument is not nearly as powerful as it used to be.

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Our friends the Jordanians

Two factoids from an article about Jordanian reaction to the terror attacks in Amman.

In one, a man had to insult Zarqawi in the strongest possible terms:

Munder Moomeni, a 38-year-old former soldier who lives next to Zarqawi's house, 13 Ramzi St., described his former neighbour as "a bastard."

"By killing Jordanians here in Jordan, civilian Jordanians going to a wedding, they did something that not even a Jew would do," he said.

Yet another sad example of an Arab who didn't read the memo that said "Make sure you never say bad things about Jews to the press - only Zionists!"

But right after that example of tolerance and moderation from the Arab world comes this:

However, religious leaders in the impoverished town suggested the hotel bombings occurred because Jordan had "strayed from Islam."

"Those who care about the country's security and peace should strive to build the umma [Islamic nation]," the local imam said in his sermon without once directly condemning the attacks.

"What befell the umma happened because it strayed from Islam."

Yes, these are shining examples of that most liberal bastion of Islamic tolerance, and America's close ally in the war on terror.

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Al-Qaeda justifies Jordan bombings, says it's just trying to fight Jews and Christians

A couple of points are noteworthy:

1 - Al-Qaeda does seem to be affected by Arab criticism. Which means that if the "moderate" Arabs had shown the same outrage after 9/11 as they are now for 11/9, Al-Qaeda might be severely weakened by now.

Unfortunately, we know that most of the Arab world was not unpleased by 9/11.

2 - Notice that this statement doesn't complain about "Zionists" in "Palestine", but "the presence of Jews." Let's not hold our breath to see Arabs protest against that, and trying to educate Zarqawi about the centuries of peace and tolerance between Jews and Arabs they always try to tell the West.

3 - It is pretty obvious that when Islamofascists say "Crusaders" they mean "Christians."

CAIRO, Egypt — In an apparent response to Jordanians who took to the streets to call for its leader to “burn in hell,” al-Qaida in Iraq took the rare step Thursday of trying to justify the triple suicide bombings that killed 56 people, mostly Arabs.

Earlier Thursday, the group posted a Web statement claiming responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks. Then a second al-Qaida statement appeared on the Internet “to explain for Muslims part of the reason holy warriors targeted these dens.” That statement appeared after Arab-wide expressions of outrage.

“Let all know that we have struck only after becoming confident that they are centers for launching war on Islam and support the crusaders’ presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine,” the group said.

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Abbas finds suicide bombings immoral - if Palestinians die

Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Jordanian suicide bombings on a purely moral basis:

President Abbas expressed his solidarity with the brotherly Jordanian people, renewing his condemnation of such a terror attack, which he described as a crime against humanity.

As far as I can tell, he has never "condemned" any Palestinian suicide bombing attack against Israel on moral grounds, only pragmatic grounds as being against Palestinian interests:

RAMALLAH, October 26, 2005, (WAFA)- President Mahmoud Abbas condemned on Wednesday the suicide operation in Khedera town, north of Israel. Abbas revealed that such operations harm the Palestinian people's interests and could widen the cycle of violence and bloodshed, expressing at the same time his absolute anger over the operation.
He said that the latest missile launching from Gaza Strip (GS) to Israel and this suicide operation are considered a severe breach to the truce agreement reached in Cairo, adding that it is not acceptable for anyone to take the law into his hands.

In other words, he might agree that the Jews deserved to die, but it should be done in a proper war by the PA at the right time.

He's still Arafat in a suit.

Hat tip to IMRA via Iris.

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