Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Senior Al-Aksa fugitive arrested in Bethlehem

The elite IDF Duvdevan unit arrested wanted fugitive and senior member of the Fatah Al-Aksa Brigades Adnan Mohammed Hassan Abayat, 31, who for the last couple of months hid in the Holy Family Maternity Hospital, an obstetric medical center in Bethlehem.

Abayat together with Rateb Ali Hassan Nabhan, 32, another wanted fugitive, were found hiding out in the hospital's laundry armed with two Kalashnikov rifles, three M16 rifles with telescopic sights, 15 ammunition clips and a heavy machine gun.

The two were responsible for numerous attacks against Israelis and the murder of 8 Israeli civilians and soldiers in the past four years."

Pre-Empting Pre-Emption

FrontPage magazine.com :: Pre-Empting Pre-Emption by David Bedein
On August 15th, The Revolutionary Brigades of the Iranian Army held a military parade in which they displayed the Shaab 3 missile that Israeli intelligence experts estimate has a range of 1300 kilometers, that even with a potential nuclear payload can reach any target in Israel. Not only can the Shaab missile hit Israel, but it could also hit U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf and other American bases throughout Turkey.

Meanwhile, Israel's chief of military intelligence, Major General Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, told the Israeli government last July that Iran had supplied hundreds of Iranian-made missiles to Hezbollah that can hit all of northern Israel and territory as far south as Tel Aviv. In addition, another several dozen missiles can reach the southern city of Beersheba in southern Israel’s Negev desert.

Last September, the Iranians conducted a test launching of the Shaab 3 missile and thousands of Iranians cheered the banner and slogan which accompanied the test: "WE WILL WIPE ISRAEL OFF OF THE FACE OF THE EARTH."

Iran had pioneered the Shaab missile in 1992. Modeled after the North Korean "Nu-Ding 1" weapon, it was improved by German, Russian and Pakistani technologies.

Two weeks ago, a senior official of Israeli Air Force Intelligence testified at a closed session of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel’s Arrow missile defense capability could do little to stop any such barrage of this kind of missile. Israel’s Arrow missile is designed to intercept S.C.U.D. missiles or other lower grade potential missiles only.

This week, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton confirmed that Iran indeed told European representatives that it would be able to manufacture nuclear weapons within four years and that within a year it would be able to enrich uranium itself that can be used in such weapons of mass destruction. Bolton said that Iranian representatives made these statements in meetings with representatives from Britain, Germany and France. Bolton also said that the United States is consulting not only with officials from those three countries, but also with representatives from Russia and Japan and other governments regarding Iran's nuclear capability. He said that the consultations are taking place before a meeting of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency next month.

Israeli nuclear expert Dr. Gerald M. Steinberg, writing in The Jerusalem Post on August 20th, 2004 agreed that International Atomic Energy Agency head, Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, is trying to find a "non-confrontational solution." However, Steinberg expressed skepticism about the need for dialogue and negotiations, since, in Steinberg’s words, "The evidence of Teheran's violations of commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is clearly presented in IAEA reports, but there is little willingness to do anything about it."

And Nobody Cries Foul

Boycotting Sports matches against Israel, with impunity

But facing the prospects of punishment, Mr. Miresmaeili turned coward. Just before his match against the Israeli, he seems to have binged on food, stuffing himself to the point that he no longer fit his weight class, earning an automatic disqualification. Rather than taking Mr. Miresmaeili to task for his stated political stunt, Olympics officials have accepted his highly contrived alibi. The Iranians will apparently pay no price for their transgression.

Unfortunately, this is a typical tale. Israel continually suffers sporting boycotts, and officials, Olympic and otherwise, continually turn a blind eye toward this injection of politics into sport.

Ever since Israel's founding, some Muslim nations have refused to compete against the Jewish state. In 1962, when Indonesia hosted the Asian Games, it chose to officially cancel the event rather than permit Israeli participation. After the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the boycott intensified and has come to permeate almost every venue. Earlier this year, for instance, Israeli fencers were initially not allowed to attend that sport's world cup in Jordan. Organizers feared that the mere presence of Israelis would cause the entire Muslim world to drop out. (Jordan ultimately caved in to international pressure and invited Israelis.) Even the mentally impaired have suffered this exclusion. At last year's Special Olympics in Ireland, both Saudi Arabia and Algeria refused to play Israel in soccer and table tennis.

Not surprisingly, Saudi Arabia has been one of the leading proponents of the boycott. In 2002, Prince Sultan signed a letter endorsing an Arab Football Federation proposal to ban Israeli competition in all international soccer matches. And when the Saudi Nabeel Al-Magahwi refused to play an Israeli at the 2003 world table-tennis championship in Paris, he became a cause célèbre. "In addition to the great support I received from government officials, residents and expatriates, I have received a special certificate from the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat that I'm very proud of," Mr. Al-Magahwi told a news conference.

Even as the Bush administration has applauded Libya's baby steps toward reform, the Gadhafi family has been another boycott stalwart. Earlier this summer, it refused to let Israeli chess players attend the world championship in Tripoli. (Chess's governing body is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee.) Because the colonel's sons are sports fanatics, the country has aggressively lobbied to host other major events. But it dropped its bid to bring the 2010 soccer World Cup to Libya rather than provide the International Soccer Federation with assurances that Israeli players and fans would be granted visas.

Hizbullah admits helping Intifada, plans to keep attacking Israel across border

Hizbullah will keep up pressure along border: "BEIRUT: Lebanon's southern border will remain a line of active confrontation with Israel because the plight of the Palestinians is a cause that affects the entire region, says Hizbullah's deputy secretary-general.

Sheikh Naim Qassem said Hizbullah has a 'religious and moral' duty to provide assistance to the Palestinian intifada and will not limit itself to liberating 'a few kilometers' of Lebanese territory, a reference to the Shebaa Farms.

In an interview with The Daily Star on the eve of the party's internal elections, Qassem said Hizbullah's battle-readiness is better than ever.

'We are now highly prepared to face Israel. We are more highly prepared than at any previous time,' Qassem said. 'The battle with Israel is not at an end. We are always in expectation of an Israeli attack in Lebanon. That's why Hizbullah continues with its logistics and training to prepare its members for any eventuality in facing attacks by Israel.'

The organization uses the United Nations-delineated Blue Line as a locus for direct military confrontation with Israel. That confrontation generally takes either the guise of retaliation for Israeli actions in Lebanon and further afield, or consists of Hizbullah-instigated attacks, such as those in the Shebaa Farms."

Newsweek article on Palestinians

Newsweekarticle on Paletinians

Israel's near-defeat of the Palestinian resistance has also stirred demands for reform. After 3,000 deaths (many of them civilians) and massive destruction, many Palestinians feel exhausted, beaten and skeptical about the logic of continuing the armed struggle. The few active guerrillas in the West Bank admit that attacking Israeli targets has become a near-insurmountable challenge. "The [724km security] wall has made it almost impossible for us to conduct operations," says Zacaria Zubeideh, the leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Jenin refugee camp. Battered by Israel's harsh reprisals, ordinary Palestinians have turned their anger toward both the militants and the Palestinian Authority. After Hamas guerrillas fired Qassam rockets from the Gaza village of Beit Hanoun last June, Israeli troops occupied the village for 39 days, destroying houses, razing fields and shooting dead 21 people, both militants and civilians. "We're eating s—t from both sides," complains Mustafa al Refeiri, a farmer whose house and banana plantation were bulldozed by the Israelis during the siege. "If we tell Hamas not to fire, they'll shoot us. And if they fire their rockets, the Israelis will shoot us. We're caught between two fires, and the Palestinian Authority does nothing to help us."

Turkish PM to send top advisers to Israel

In a surprise move, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing to send his top three advisers to Israel to repair ties, with a clear message that the Jewish state holds a unique place for Turkey."

Erdogan's harshly-worded statements against Jerusalem since the assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March had eroded ties with Israel.

Egemen Bagis, Omer Celik, and Saban Disli, advisers who accompany Erdogan on every visit to abroad and are known as his right arms, helping him to shape vital foreign policies, will arrive in Jerusalem on August 30. The trip is to take place just a month before Erdogan's planned visit to Syria.

A Top Turkish government official told The Jerusalem Post that the advisers' visit is meant solely to deliver the message of Erdogan's good will toward Israel directly to his counterpart, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Fatih Altayli, a prominent columnist for the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, commented on the visit in an article in Thursday's edition, referring to the advisers as Erdogan's "three aces". Their visit seems to be an attempt to normalize ties between the two allies, Altayli wrote.

Some have suggested that pressure from the United States and American Jewish lobbies might have played a role in convincing Erdogan and his advisers that relations with Israel shouldn't be allowed to remain in poor shape.

Islamic group claims responsibility for Paris Jewish center attack

French investigators said Monday they were skeptical about claims of responsibility for Sunday's attack on a Paris Jewish center by an unknown Islamic group.

The group, Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad, issued a claim of responsibility Sunday evening on the Islamic Web site known for militant Islamic comment.

The message said the attack was "in response to racist acts by Jews in France against Islam and the Muslims and the desecration of Muslim cemeteries by Jews".

"It is also meant ... as a simple response to the racist and savage acts by Jews in Muslim countries like Palestine and other Muslim and Arab countries," it said.

It said such "acts are carried out by the descendents of monkeys and pigs, with the help of the French government which stands idle before the Jews at the expense of the Muslims in France," AFP news agency reported.

It said the blaze marked the 35th anniversary of a fire at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which gutted the southeastern wing of the holy shrine.

Investigators said they doubted the claim because they did not believe a small neighborhood community center would have drawn attention from international militant groups. As well, the post referred incorrectly to the community center as a synagogue.

The Jewish community center in eastern Paris, used as a meeting place and soup kitchen for the elderly and disadvantaged, was torched before dawn on Sunday. No one was hurt as flames tore through the center on the first floor of a six-story building, located near the Bastille square.

When the smoke cleared, graffiti with anti-Semitic slogans such as "Jews get out" was found scrawled across the walls, police said.

The Terror Web

The Terror Web - a long analysis of Al Qaeda, Spain, the Madrid bombings and how terrorists are using the Internet.

S. Africa says won't sell uranium to Iran

South Africa will not assist Iran's nuclear development and will not sell any uranium to the Islamic Republic, the South African Ministry of Defense told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.

Ministry spokesman Sam Mkhwnazi confirmed statements made earlier in the day by South Africa's ambassador to Israel Maj.-Gen Fumanekile (Fumie) Gqiba, who told Army Radio that South Africa will not aid Iran's nuclear program, and will not support any country wishing to develop nuclear weapons.

Israelis try to save young Arab victim of Pal terror attack

New York Times (requires subscription):

Mahdi Abu Snaineh, 6 years old, cannot move his legs or his left arm, and has shrapnel close to his spinal cord and his aorta. His father, Nidal, 27, hovers nearby, wary of the bustling Israelis at Hadassah University Hospital who are trying to save his child. Mahdi was in a car with his grandparents at a checkpoint in northern Jerusalem last week when a fellow Palestinian set off shrapnel-filled explosives by remote control. His grandfather died instantly and his grandmother was wounded. Mahdi, sitting in the back, was paralyzed, his abdomen pierced by nearly 10 pieces of shrapnel.

Mahdi was originally taken to a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where doctors operated on him to repair his intestines cut by shrapnel and diagnosed partial paralysis. The family asked that the boy be transferred here to Hadassah University Hospital-Ein Kerem, which has a pediatric intensive care unit and neurosurgeons.

The hospital's policy is to treat all who are ailing with evenhandedness, said a Hadassah spokeswoman, Barbara Sofer.

Dr. Ido Yatsiv, director of the pediatriac unit, said that Mahdi would live, and was "guardedly optimistic'' that the boy would regain movement in his legs. Shrapnel in his thoracic vertebrae has caused the spinal cord to swell, but it is not severed. Doctors want to see if the swelling will go down before deciding whether to operate.

Similarly, shrapnel near Mahdi's heart, a centimeter from his aorta, could be threatening if the body does not begin to form scar tissue around it. Again, the doctors want to wait. There was also shrapnel in Mahdi's armpit, which reduced the movement of his hand, and paralysis of the phrenic nerve, which helps the diaphragm create suction in the lungs.

If the doctors find they must leave some shrapnel, Dr. Yatsiv said, with a quiet sigh, "he'll set off the metal detectors for the rest of his life'' - no small issue for a Palestinian in Israel. But more important, he said, is that Mahdi walk again.

U.S. Eyes Money Trails of Saudi-Backed Charities

U.S. Eyes Money Trails of Saudi-Backed Charities
Includes a discussion of how Saudi exports Wahhabism to the West.

Lantos Urges Syria to Follow Libya's Steps

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria should follow Libya's example and renouncing weapons of mass destruction and links to anti-Israel militant groups in return for better U.S. ties, a prominent U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday.

'As a friend of the Syrian people I want to see the leaders of this great nation ... make the right choice as well,' said Tom Lantos of California, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives' International Relations Committee.

Libya's 'Colonel (Muammar) Gaddafi ... will reap endless benefits in political, economic and cultural ties with the United States and the civilized world as a result of his actions,' he told a news conference in Damascus after meeting Syria's Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara.

In May, Washington imposed economic sanctions on Damascus chiefly because of its concerns over support for Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups, lack of security on the Iraq-Syria border and its alleged pursuit of unconventional weapons."

Vacation

I will be on vacation Thursday through Monday, so probably no posts until I am back.
Have a great weekend!

British so-called philosopher : Palestinian terror is morally justified (Al Jazeera)

In a breathtaking display of moral inversion, a British "philosopher" calls America's actions in Iraq immoral terrorism but Palestinians blowing up babies are morally justifiable.

A leading radical philosopher, who has been compared to Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre and praised by Noam Chomsky, says Palestinian "terrorism" is a moral response to Israeli ethnic cleansing.

Ted Honderich, a professor of philosophy at University College London, plans to take the same message to the Edinburgh International Book Fair on Thursday, where tickets to hear his speech have already sold out.

The philosopher plans to begin his talk at the Opus Theatre with a close look at definitions of terrorism, particularly when it applies to Palestine and the expansion of Israel outside its 1967 borders.

He concludes it is "killing and maiming for political and social ends … illegal in terms of national or international law", and suggests Iraq could also fall into this definition.

"America is now engaged, as I say, in the principal piece of moral stupidity of this time … it is as if the causes of terrorism that are neo-Zionism and Palestine do not exist," he added.

However, defining "neo-Zionism" as the movement to expand Israel outside its pre-1967 borders, he condemns some Israeli policy today as an "ongoing rapacity of ethnic cleansing, the violation of the remaining homeland of the remaining Palestinians".

"It dishonours the great Jewish moral and political tradition of resolute compassion for the badly-off, a tradition now exemplifed by Noam Chomsky."

"This rape of a people and a homeland is in its wrongfulness a kind of moral datum … and issues in a moral right on the part of the Palestinians to their terrorism," he concludes.

Bracelets string the public along

As with most things in Hollywood, a new fashion statement has made its way down to the masses. Those red-string kabbalah bracelets you've seen Madonna and Demi Moore wearing are now sold at Target for $25.99.

Madonna says she's now a devout practitioner of kabbalah (the interpretation of Judaism in terms of the workings of the 10 powers of God through which God created and interacts with our world). But those who study it say calling them kabbalah bracelets is misleading.

"They have nothing to do with kabbalah; that's the trick of the marketing," says Eliezer L. Segal, a professor of religious studies at the University of Calgary. "The public that's being catered to doesn't know any better."

Segal says the red string dates to Greek and Roman times, and the practice was later adopted by Jews. The only mention of red string in Jewish texts, says Segal, is in the Tosefta, a supplement to the Mishnah, a book of oral laws. It's in a section that discusses superstitious practices -- which ones are forbidden and which are accepted. Putting on red strings is one of the things that's forbidden.

In Eastern Europe, families nevertheless tied the red string to cribs to divert diseases such as scarlet fever. There it was called a bendel ribbon in Yiddish. They also attached it to the clothing of older children. Now they are used to keep away "the evil eye."

These days they're available in gold, too -- the red string is weaved into a gold chain. For those who have been to the Old City of Jerusalem, the fact that they're going for $25.99 is laughable: Visitors can buy them in Israel for about 22 cents.

Israeli tourists flock to Islamic revolt-torn Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Gulzar Ahmad, owner of a handicraft shop near scenic Dal lake in Srinagar, the main city of Muslim-majority Kashmir, recently changed the language of his outlet's signboard from English to Hebrew.

It was another sign of the new acceptance of visitors from Israel. For the second successive year, Israelis top the list of foreign tourists visiting a region where tens of thousands have been killed in a revolt by Muslim militants against Indian rule.

"Seventy percent of my customers are Israelis," 50-year-old Ahmad, a Muslim, told Reuters. "So I changed my signboard to attract more Israeli customers."

On the face of it, Kashmir, once a tourist haven but now the centre of a bloody Islamic insurgency, seems like a most unlikely destination for Israelis who are themselves battling Palestinian Islamic militants at home.

However that, and the fact that Kashmir is now one of the most violent regions in the world with daily gun battles between troops and militants, grenade attacks and bomb blasts, has not apparently reduced its attraction to Israeli tourists.

"Kashmir is an amazing place and so are its people. They are Muslims but not hostile to us," said Rita Katzir, a 28-year-old computer software engineer from Israel.

"Now, violence can touch you anywhere, in any part of world. I can die anywhere -- in Washington, in Jerusalem, here in Srinagar or in Tel Aviv or any other city.

"Death is destiny."

A Kashmir tourism department officer said 960 Israelis had arrived so far this year compared to 1,097 last year.

The Chinese were second with 700 visitors to the Himalayan region known for its lush pines, snow-capped mountains, lakes and streams, houseboats and picturesque trekking routes.

Most foreigners, including the Israelis, come to Kashmir despite advisories by their countries to avoid the region.

Kashmiri rebels have targeted Israeli tourists in the past. They abducted 6 Israelis from Srinagar in 1991. One of the captives was killed, four escaped and the last was set free.

"I know about the trouble here, but I respect rules and act by the rules. After it gets dark I go to my hotel," said Ronan Madiani, a 32-year old lawyer from Israel, who was staying with his wife on a houseboat on the calm Dal lake.

Visitors say few places in the world can compete with Kashmir for the tag of being a paradise. But locals say that the 15-year revolt, which has killed more than 40,000 people, has turned an idyllic corner of South Asia into paradise lost.

"We know what trouble means and how painful it is when it spills blood," said Adam Koaz, a student form Tel Aviv. "I have full sympathy for the people of this beautiful part of world. I can only pray for them."

Silencing truth: Olympic hypocrisy

Silencing truth, By Debbie Schlussel

Excerpts:

The bloody Games must go on.

To date, the IOC refuses to allow any memorial to these athletes who gave their lives for this "holy" commercial extravaganza, which today might be called the BALCO Games (in honor of the steroid producer who seems to be unofficial chief sponsor).

At the 2000 Sydney Summer Games, IOC officials loudly disavowed any connection to a memorial to the slain Israeli athletes, and worse, denounced the memorial. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, the IOC refused to organize a commemorative ceremony for the slain athletes, lest the Olympics dare offend the new Palestinian Olympic Team. (Unlike the rest of the world, the IOC already recognizes "Palestine" as a state.)

"It's not the IOC's policy to stage special ceremonies," IOC director general Francois Carrard told USA Today.

Not surprisingly, that's a lie. At the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the IOC spent lavishly on an exorbitant Alvin Ailey choreographed dance tribute to memorialize the late Olympic Gold Medalist Florence Griffith "Flo-Jo" Joyner -- even though, unlike the murdered Israeli athletes, her death was not Olympic -- or even sports-related.

In contrast to the dead Israelis who still have no Olympic memorial or any Olympic recognition whatsoever, the IOC and the rest of the world consistently worships and sacrifices at the alter of the terrorists who murdered them.

Just months after he masterminded the murder of the Israeli athletes, Arafat and his Palestinian terrorists were rewarded with an official Palestinian mission to the United Nations. Terrorism pays.

As if it's not bad enough that there is now an official Olympic delegation for the contingent whose leader coordinated the murder of an entire delegation in 1972, the Olympics practices ethnic apartheid against the successors of that murdered delegation.

Because Arabic countries and the Palestinian contingent don't want the "embarrassment" of playing and possibly losing to Israeli teams, the IOC forces Israel to play in regional qualifying playoffs outside its region -- against European teams -- for virtually every sport in which it participates.

The bloody show must go on.

The Games have a history of pandering to the worst malefactors in the international "community," to the point of absurdity.

Today, it's Islamic terrorists. Yesterday, it was the Nazis.

In 1936, Jewish athletes were banned from the Games in deference to the Third Reich.

American Jewish athletes, like late track star and New York sports announcer Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, were pulled from the U.S. 400-meter relay team at the Berlin Olympics rather than embarrass Hitler if they won. A concentration camp was being built contemporaneously with the "Nazi Olympics." Two days after the games, Capt. Wolfgang Fuerstner, a German army officer who built the Olympic village committed suicide. He was dismissed from the military for having Jewish blood, according to the Aug. 20, 1936 New York Times. American newspaper headlines, on display at Washington's U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, showed the true "Olympic spirit": "Olympics Leave Glow of Pride in the Reich."

Some things never change. Today the Games show the glow of Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Al-Qaida, and the butchers of the 1972 games. American athletes are warned against "exuberant" flag-waving and celebrations if they win medals. Syria -- where Jamil Al-Gashey, the only surviving terrorist of the 1972 massacre, lives freely and under government protection--has an official Olympic delegation. The bloody games must go on.

Terrorist abuse of Arab children continues

By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian Arabs continue to exploit their own children as pawns in a deadly game to eliminate the Jewish presence in the Middle East, Israeli security officials reported last week.

The latest example of this all too common phenomenon involved a teenage “Palestinian” boy being arrested by IDF troops in Samaria Sunday after they found more than 900 M-16 shells in his possession.

“Palestinian” women and children have been increasingly involved in terrorist activity over the past two years, as Israeli security measures mature and the ability of adult male terrorists to penetrate Jewish population centers wanes.

Common practice

Security sources quoted by Arutz 7 last week said that in the past three months, Palestinian Arab terrorists had on at least three occasions used children as direct participants in terrorist operations.

In one instance, a group of teenage Arabs between the ages of 11 and 14 were caught smuggling weapons across the Gaza-Egypt border.

On another occasion, a 17-year-old “Palestinian” blew himself up prematurely en route to carry out a homicide bombing in a large Tel Aviv suburb.

In the final cited incident, three Arab youths aged 13-15 were prevented from perpetrating a shooting attack in the Galilee town of Afula when soldiers at a northern Samaria military checkpoint stopped and inspected them.

The security sources said the three examples were but a small sampling of the widespread use of Palestinian Arabs children as weapons in a campaign to murder Israeli Jews.

Indoctrination of death

They blamed the sadistic indoctrination taking place in PA-controlled schools, where “Palestinian” kids are taught to idolize dead terrorists and aspire to a “glorious” death in the battle to free their “homeland” from Jewish “occupation.”

Under the terms of the Oslo Accords, Yasser Arafat and his PLO were supposed to revise “Palestinian” schoolbooks in order to teach local Arab children to seek peaceful coexistence with Israel’s Jews.

Recent surveys of the textbooks currently used in PA-controlled schools revealed that, more than 10 years after Arafat made “peace” with the Jewish state, the above stated commitment has still never been met.

Iran Delivered Missiles to Hizbullah in Lebanon via Syria (MEMRI)

Kuwaiti Daily: Iran Delivered Missiles to Hizbullah in Lebanon via Syria

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa recently reported that Iran has delivered missiles to Hizbullah in Lebanon via Syria, and that Iran and Syria are cooperating closely in missile development and deployment. The following are excerpts of the article: [1]

"Two cargo aircraft landed on the morning of Wednesday, August 4, 2004, at one of the Syrian military airfields in north Damascus. There to greet the planes were Iranian Ambassador to Syria Riza Baqiri and Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mas'ud Idris."

Al-Siyassa also reported that "several Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers had arrived the previous day from their headquarters at a Hizbullah military camp near the town of Qasrbana in al-Buqa' in order to unload a significant number of surface-to-surface missiles."

According to information received from the Syrian opposition in London on Saturday, August 14, the missiles "are of the most recent and improved Iranian model, with a 250- to 350-kilometer range, with which it is possible to hit any target in Israel." The sources also reported to Al-Siyassa that the two deliveries comprised 220 missiles "that Iran had not so far supplied to any foreign entity…

"Over Thursday and Friday [August 12-13], the missiles were transported in civilian Syrian and Lebanese trucks to three Hizbullah military bases" in the regions of Jenta and Yahfufa near the Syrian border, as well as to southern Ba'albek.

The Syrian opposition said that according to information they claim to have received from a senior source in the Syrian military in Damascus, "the alert level of the Syrian missile corps, deployed mostly in the North and East of the country [i.e., Syria], has been raised to high after commanders in military intelligence and in the Ba'th party in Damascus received information about the possibility that the Israeli Air Force would attack the nuclear reactors in Iran via Jordanian, Iraqi, and Turkish skies."

It was also stated that in the event of such an Israeli attack, "Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon overseeing the deployment and maintenance of thousands of missiles of various ranges would fire these missiles at cities in the Hebrew state, which could expand the aerial attacks on the nuclear, chemical, and biological installations and uranium-enrichment plants in Iran, such that the attack would also include Syria and Lebanon." In the same article, Al-Siyassa reported that a "Syrian military source told the Syrian opposition in London that an Iranian military delegation specializing in missiles had accompanied the two deliveries to Syria, in order to oversee the deployment of the missiles in the various regions in Lebanon."

Kuwaiti journallist: Don't blame Zionism for violent Arab culture

The journalist and former Kuwaiti Communications Minister, Dr. Sa'ad Bin-Tafla, said that violent tendencies in Arab culture have deep roots and are not a product of the conflict with Zionism.

"I believe we are all responsible for this culture and Zionism and Imperialism have no part in it," Bin-Tafla declared in a recent interview with Jordanian television, "It is incorrect to say that violence is the result of the occupation. The French occupation left Algeria after a million victims fell, and then 100,000 Algerians were slaughtered by other Algerians, in the name of Islam, within less than ten years. That is to say, sadly, more than even Israel could have killed during the period of the intifada. This violence has cultural roots, unconnected to the occupation....

"The number of killed in Algeria and those killed by other Arab regimes is greater than the number of Palestinians killed by Israel..." the former Kuwaiti minister explained, adding, "There is a culture of violence that existed before the Americans arrived in Iraq and the Gulf, and even before the Israeli occupation in Palestine; before the American occupation in Afghanistan...."

Bin-Tafla stated, "the slaughter, the destructive abuse, the anarchy and the bloodshed do not approach in any way the legal definition of Jihad or resistance. It is anarchy and terrorism and is indicative of frustration and a culture of collective suicide reminiscent of whales [which beach themselves]. Such a culture stems from objective and personal reasons."

Bin-Tafla traces the source of much of the frustration among Arab youth to "an extremist religious stream" in the Islamic world. "It tells [the youth], 'You must achieve one of two things - martyrdom or victory,'" the Kuwaiti journalist explained, "It prettifies the culture of violence and describes it as resistance and Jihad."

Bin-Tafla also lays the blame on the Arab media: "Unfortunately, many in television, radio and print media... pushed these youth towards frustration and caused them to die needlessly, killing others with them, and to divide the world into black and white."