New sanctions on Iran? Lower price of oil

Dec. 10, 2008

Israel's President Shimon Peres told an Israeli-Arab audience that military action is not needed in Iran as long as the price of oil keeps dropping.

In a clever twist on sanction, Peres suggested that Israel work with the United States, Europe and China to reduce the price of oil, which would deplete Iran's economy and strip it of resources to make nuclear weapons.

“Iran's leaders must ask themselves what the children will eat tomorrow morning. What will they give them, uranium?” he said.

Somehow I think the regime is less concerned with human rights than it is with wiping other nations off the planet as previously stated by Iran's president.

Army warns more residents to prepare for rocket fire

Dec. 8, 2008

The Israeli army widened the range of rocket fire threats all the way to Ashdod - a 15-mile distance from northern Gaza. The new threat zone encompasses 500,000 Israelis.

The warning on Monday advised Ashdod residents to begin preparing themselves for the possibility of rockets. Defense officials have estimated that Hamas has acquired rockets with a 15-mile range.

The improved weaponry is attributed to more effective weapons smuggling through the Egyptian border. Writing in Ynet, Alex Fishman draws some sobering conclusions:

In the past week, Hamas fired about 100 rockets. A month ago, when the IDF operated against a Gaza Strip tunnel, Hamas fired 30 industrial Grad rockets in order to signal to Israel that it intends to dictate a different kind of lull. If Hamas can afford to fire 30 Grads just to signal, it means its weapons warehouses must be full.

According to Israeli estimates, Hamas has an emergency supply of fuels and food that would enable it to withstand a month-long Israeli assault. Instead of preparing for war, perhaps it would be better if the group handed out all those goods in the warehouses to hungry Gaza residents.

Frightening.

Radio host asks resident: Is it irresponsible to live near Gaza?

Dec. 8, 2008

Israelis are known to be left wing and to support appeasement. As a matter of fact, a majority of Israelis support the creation of a Palestinian state, but simultaneously recognize that it will seek to destroy the Jewish state.

But a reporter on Voice of Israel government radio crossed the line when she insinuated that living in legal and undisputed Israeli neighborhoods near Gaza is irresponsible. Host Anat Dolev interviewed Batya Holin who lives in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, located less than a mile from the Gaza separation barrier where rockets rain down even during "cease-fires."

Holin said it is the government of Israel that is irresponsible for allowing its citizens to live under these threats for years. She also warned that the government's plans to surrender Judea and Samaria will only serve to bring Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in rocket range.

"All of the people of Israel understand what we are doing here, but the leaders do not care. Is that responsible?" she asked. "Tel Aviv is next."

US still enemy of the Palestinians, ambassador says

Dec. 8, 2008

Well, the rise of the oceans may be slowing and perhaps our planet is beginning to heal, but the image of the US hasn't improved yet in our enemies' eyes.

Despite having elected Barack Obama as president, which was supposed to resolve issues with all hostile nations, the US remains an enemy of the Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon.

Abbas Zaki told Lebanon's OTV that the Palestinian Authority will view the United States as an enemy as long as the US has a strategic alliance with Israel.

Zaki was asked how Israel or the US could be considered enemies by the Palestinians if they are currently in peace negotiation and providing aid to Palestinians. He replied that the PA is just putting on a show in order to negotiate with Israel and US because it has no other choice at this time.

This is the ambassador speaking. Diplomatic, hey? Zaki insists that even though Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas regularly refers to the US as a friend of the Palestinians in public addresses, he doesn't really mean it.

Pardoned terrorist plans another attack

Dec. 4, 2008

While I was in Jenin facing not a hint of terrorism, Tel Aviv was under a terrorist threat that shut down the city on Tuesday. The threat went largely unreported because it was just that, a threat. Had it been more, we would've heard more. Police arrested three Palestinians at the scene.

So imagine my surprise when I found out today that two Palestinian masterminds behind the attack were previously pardoned by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Also, WorldNetDaily reporter Aaron Klein quoted a senior member in the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades who said that Hizballah helped pay for the planned attack. The Islamic Jihad terrorist group in Jenin coordinated the planned attack with Al Aksa, but did not take the usual credit because of the prime minister's plan to free another 250 terrorists as a "goodwill" gesture to the Palestinians, Klein explained.

Another terrorists involved in planning the attack was Mohammed Abu Drei, who was killed by the Israeli army in a counterterrorist operation in Nablus earlier this week.

According to Israel National News:

The PA ostensibly has taken responsibility for maintaining law and order in Nablus and Jenin, but the deployment of armed special forces has mostly acted as a showcase for the United States and the PA to convince Israel that terror is under control. However, while the special forces fight crime, they do [not deal with counterterrorism (my words)].

The planned Tel Aviv bombing was to be carried out with explosives that police discovered in a bag after the initial arrest of a Jenin resident in a house near Tel Aviv.

Government spokesmen announced that Islamic Jihad was behind the foiled operation and did not make any mention of Fatah, which the Olmert administration is trying to prop up through concessions and counterterrorist operations aimed mostly at rival terrorist gangs.

The pardoned terrorist who was arrested is Ahmed Amire, a member of Al Aqsa from Jenin and who may have provided Israeli intelligence with more information about the imminent attack. Prime Minister Olmert granted amnesty to him, and to Drei as well as more than 100 comrades from Al Aqsa in return for a promise to turn in their weapons, remain in the custody of the PA for three months and not return to terrorism.

Report: Israel preparing Iran attack options

Dec. 4, 2008

Israel isn't leaving anything to chance. The Jerusalem Post reported this week that the Israeli army is drawing up plans for a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities on its own. Just in case.

"It is always better to coordinate," one top Defense Ministry official explained last week. "But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination."

Israeli officials have said it would be difficult, but not impossible, to launch a strike against Iran without receiving codes from the US Air Force, which controls Iraqi airspace. Israel also asked for the codes in 1991 during the First Gulf War, but the US refused.

In September, a Defense News article on an early warning radar system the US recently sent to Israel quoted a US government source who said the X-band deployment and other bilateral alliance-bolstering activities send parallel messages: "First, we want to put Iran on notice that we're bolstering our capabilities throughout the region, and especially in Israel. But just as important, we're telling the Israelis, 'Calm down, behave. We're doing all we can to stand by your side and strengthen defenses, because at this time, we don't want you rushing into the military option.'"

The "US European Command (EUCOM) has deployed to Israel a high-powered X-band radar and the supporting people and equipment needed for coordinated defense against Iranian missile attack, marking the first permanent US military presence on Israeli soil," Defense News wrote. The radar will shave several precious minutes off Israel's reaction time to an Iranian missile launch.

Iran's nuclear chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said last week that the country has more than 5,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant. Israeli intelligence estimates predict Iran will have a nuclear bomb by late next year.

Air Force Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan said in an interview with Der Spiegel the air force would be ready if asked to attack.

Teheran said it didn't take Israel seriously.

Jenin in pictures

Dec. 4, 2008

There's lots going on today. Hebron is about to boil over into civil war (Jewish settlers vs. Israeli army); Israel will go ahead and attack Iran without US permission if they want; and assurances are coming out of DC and Jerusalem that Obama and Netanyahu would work great together, contrary to suspicions that they'd butt heads over policy and final status negotiations.

But first, here's some photos and facts from my trip to Jenin:

The city has been synonymous through the intifada as a hotbed of terrorism. Indeed, Gov. Qadoura Mousa spent 12 years in Israeli prisons presumably for terrorist activities and was the head of Fatah's armed wing under Yasser Arafat. He is an appointee to the position.
The refugee camp is right in the middle of the city, in the valley, surrounded by the entire town. About 40,000 people live in the city with more than 200,000 including suburbs. Part of the camp has so far been rebuilt with money from the Emirates, while the other part still languishes with decrepit housing, posters of martyrs and litter-strewn streets. You can see it from this hilltop.

Israel invaded the Jenin refugee camp in 2002 because it was believed to be one the primary places where bombs were being manufactured for use in terror attacks against Israelis. When Israel went in, reports began to circulate and got widespread coverage of a massacre by Israel of the Palestinians. Thousands dead. In the end, the final death toll was confirmed at 52 to 56 Palestinians – anywhere between 5 and 26 of whom were estimated to have been civilians – while 23 IDF soldiers were killed as well. Israel met with severe opposition by armed gunmen. The bomb from a 2002 suicide bombing in which 17 people were killed and 42 wounded, came from an explosives laboratory in this very camp.In 2002, the army also found a number of mortar shells, homemade grenades, and bullets in a building, and another explosives factory in a cave there along with Israeli army uniforms, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the middle of the camp is a symbol of the long and painful memories: a metal horse made from parts of cars and ambulances destroyed during the Israel invasion in 2002.