AP – The prospect of conflict with Iran has eclipsed Afghanistan as the key national security issue with head-spinning speed. After years of bad blood and an international impasse over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, why does the threat of war seem so suddenly upon us?
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Dwindling time, rising tension make Iran top fear
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Iran Vows to Hit Back at Any Country That Stages an Attack
From Yid With Lid, ” As Criticism Over Anti-Semitism Increases – Media Matters Digs In Its Heels .”
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Media Matters Digs In
Protesters surround a vehicle the convoy of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as it enters the Gaza Strip Thursday. (Image source: Reuters)
A shoe is thrown at the convoy of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as it enters the Gaza Strip Thursday. (Image source: Reuters)
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Palestinian Protesters Hurl Shoes at Visiting UN Chief, Accuse Him of Bias Toward Israel
Israel’s diplomatic and military correspondents got quite the surprise watching the live feed of the Senate Intelligence Committee when Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) revealed the head of the Mossad had made a secret visit to Washington earlier this week to hold talks with senior U.S. officials. The item led the “Mabat” main newscast on Israel’s government-run network IBA on Tuesday evening and was the headline on Ha’aretz newspaper’s website. The travels of Mossad Director Tamir Pardo are usually kept secret and in fact, the name of the head of the Mossad and Shin Bet [Israel’s version of the FBI] were up until a few years ago kept secret from the public. Ha’aretz reports: The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel. During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors. Feinstein then indicated that she had met Mossad chief Pardo earlier in the week in Washington, with Petraeus adding that he too met Pardo and cited what he called Israel’s growing concern over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The CIA chief also said that it was important to note that Israel considered a nuclear Iran as an existential threat. In Sen. Feinstein’s defense, the travels of the head of the CIA to close allies is not as closely guarded, and she might not have known Israel’s modus operandi on the matter. On the other hand, as head of the Intelligence Committee, the senior Senator from California might have considered that with tensions running so high, some meetings are best held close to the vest. The question also remains: why did CIA Director Petraeus also publicly confirm the meetings? He called it “part of an ongoing dialogue.” The entire exchange can be seen here on C-SPAN – Feinstein makes the Mossad comment at 34:30. Reflecting the heightened tensions, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Tuesday Iran’s “evil” leaders must not be allowed to get nuclear weapons, and he called Iran’s nuclear program the world’s “central problem.” Peres’ remarks opened the prestigious Herzliya Conference . Ha’aretz reported : “Nuclear weapons mustn’t be allowed to fall into the hands of Iran’s Ayatollah regime,” Peres said, calling Iran’s religious leadership the “most morally corrupt regime in the world.” Hinting at the possibility of a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the president reiterated the Israeli stance, according to which “no option should be ruled out in our dealing with the Iranian danger. This is an existential threat.” “It is the duty of the international community to prevent evil and nuclear [weapons] from coming together. That is the obligations of most of the leaders of the free world, one which they must meet,” Peres said. On what he called “the moral significance of this battle,” the president spoke of an Iranian regime which “executes people for their views. It funds, trains, and guides terrorists to spread terror and murder across the globe.” The AP reports that Israeli officials believe if a military strike on Iran’s nuclear installations is going to be effective, it must take place by this summer, due to Iran moving facilities underground. Additionally, over the weekend, veteran Israeli intelligence reporter Ronen Bergman wrote in the New York Times Magazine that he agrees this year is key: “After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of the military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012. Perhaps in the small and ever-diminishing window that is left, the United States will choose to intervene after all, but here, from the Israeli perspective, there is not much hope for that. Instead there is that peculiar Israeli mixture of fear — rooted in the sense that Israel is dependent on the tacit support of other nations to survive — and tenacity, the fierce conviction, right or wrong, that only the Israelis can ultimately defend themselves.” Clapper told the Senate panel he believes Iran has advanced technically on uranium enrichment and that its political decision on if to construct a nuclear device is the central issue: “These advancements contribute to our judgment that Iran is technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon, if it so chooses,” Clapper added, saying that the U.S. judged “Iran would likely choose missile delivery as its preferred method of delivering a nuclear weapon.” See Buck Sexton’s coverage of the hearing here , including what the Iranians might have in mind for the U.S.
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Did Sen. Dianne Feinstein Reveal…Mossad Chief’s Secret Visit?
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has conducted an extensive survey of the websites of pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East and has published a guide to events planned for 2012. Some activities are focused on public relations, others have the potential to cause violence, and yet other activities seem aimed at further destabilizing Israel’s already shaky neighborhood. The Center reports : The networks waging the campaign to delegitimize Israel are planning a series of propaganda displays for 2012, some of them in the upcoming months. They intend to hold marches (promoted by Hamas), a protest fly-in to Ben-Gurion International Airport, a flotilla and propaganda events for the “Israeli apartheid week.” The most high profile event on the horizon is the Global March to Jerusalem , which is encouraging activists worldwide to gather in convoys and head together to Jerusalem on March 30th, or “Land Day” a day Palestinians mark the killing of six Israeli Arabs over a land dispute with Israeli authorities in 1976. Upon entering its website, the Global March’s logo says a lot: a map of Palestine including all territory from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, with Israel completely wiped off the map. The map is painted in green, the signature color of Islam, suggesting organizers view their struggle as a religious one. Activists plan to gather in areas bordering Israel, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. The Meir Amit Center reports: The organizers of the marches plan to send groups from several countries to Arab states bordering on Israel. The participants will attempt to cross the border and invade Israeli territory. Global March organizers describe combating the “Judaization of Jerusalem” as a key objective: The march will demand freedom for Jerusalem and its people and to put an end to the Apartheid, ethnic cleansing and Judaisation policies affecting the people, land and sanctity of Jerusalem… The march will confirm that the policies and practices of the racist Zionist state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity. According the Global March’s North American website , endorsers include a mix of Palestinian and anti-war groups, as well as “United Progressives,” an anti-war group that promotes various progressive causes. Individual endorsers include Lauren Booth, a British broadcaster for Iran’s Press TV who has called Gaza a “concentration camp” and Richard Falk, an expert on the UN Human Rights Council who was derided for publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon on his blog last year depicting Jews as a bloodthirsty dog urinating on Lady Justice. Falk has also suggested that the U.S. government was behind 9/11 and that the media covered it up. While American and European activists purporting to be peaceful are endorsing the Global March to Jerusalem, it is simultaneously being promoted by Hamas, a group committed to Israel’s destruction which the U.S. and European Union categorize as a terror group. Gaza’s Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced the march at a December 14th rally as seen in the video organizers posted: Hamas frequently invokes its goal of “saving” Jerusalem from the “impurity of the Jews” painting the issue as a religious struggle. These hard-core Islamists decry what they call the “Judaization” of Jerusalem without any regard to the historical fact that Jews have lived for millennia in the city holy not only to Islam, but to Christians and Jews. A YouTube video promoting the Global March includes images equating Israel with “cancer” and suggesting Israel’s founding was a “great plundering.” It calls Jerusalem “a Holy City inhabited by Palestinians for centuries.” The Meir Amit Center assesses that so far, response from the West has been small. Another obstacle: activists need permission to hold marches in neighboring countries. Besides the Global March, Pro-Palestinian activists are planning protests from the sea. The Meir Amit Center reports on a planning meeting that took place in Italy in November aimed at learning lessons from the past failed flotillas whose goal is to break Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza. It reports: …the coalition sending the flotillas is also apparently examining the possibility of sending a large flotilla from several different European ports. […] The flotilla organizers are also busy raising donations for the funds necessary to purchase a large number of ships. Another protest aims to enter Israel by air. Last summer, international activists flew to Ben-Gurion Airport for demonstrations, but most were arrested and sent home on outbound flights. The Meir Amit Center examined activists’ websites and reports that this year’s “fly-in” is scheduled for April 15th, during the Passover holiday and a week after Easter: The objective of the fly-in was described by its organizers as challenging the “policy of isolation” Israel imposes on the West Bank. Fly-in participants have been requested to arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport but to keep a low profile, apparently to make it difficult for Israel to prevent them from entering the country. All these activities are being described as peaceful protests, but as history shows, there are potential flash-points. Israeli police are aware of the chance of violence, as occurred last spring when pro-Palestinian protesters marking the anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War tried to storm the Israeli border from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. The Israel Defense Forces called it a Syrian-government “provocation.” As it is, tensions are high, especially with the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks not showing any signs of progress. It’s also worth keeping an eye on Jordan — the launching point for some of the Global Marchers — a country where the “Arab Spring” has not arrived. With a majority Palestinian population living under minority Hashemite rule, it’s not unfathomable that a march ostensibly aimed at Israel could take on a life of its own to air grievances against King Abdullah’s regime. So far, demonstrations bringing together Palestinians and international activists have not been game-changing events. The Free Gaza Flotilla failed to break the sea blockade, and “Boycott Israel” activists have not impacted Israel’s economy. It remains to be seen if this spring’s “Global March” will recruit “massive” throngs as advertised, or not. Organizers say they are banking on “the spirit of the Arab spring revolutions and the determination of young people who were able to overthrow dictatorships.” Israeli police and border patrols are no doubt preparing for the worst.
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‘Global March to Jerusalem’: Pro-Palestinian Activists Planning Protests from Land, Air, & Sea
Photoshop source: SaveJersey.com You can peruse my Twitter page for highlights and lowlights of the CNN GOP debate in Florida, but this basically sums it up: Wolf Blitzer went all Oprah/TMZ with his fishing into the candidates’ wives’ lives. Newt doubled down on open-borders stupid and gave an indignant defense of illegal alien grandmothers that the SEIU and La Raza would love. To which Romney aptly replied: “The problem isn’t 11 million illegal alien grandmothers.” Rick Santorum and Ron Paul sparred over Latin American dictators and freedom-fighters. Paul supporters the former. Santorum supports the latter. Paul shined where he’s strongest — providing a clarion stand against government bailouts. Santorum landed solid blows on health care and the individual mandate supported by both Romney and Gingrich. Romney failed to defend his painfully exposed Achilles’ heel, Romneycare — and bizarrely argued that we needn’t “get angry about it.” Smile while your budgets are hemorrhaging… Santorum also said encouraging things about the need to get entitlements under control instead of spending on pie-in-the-sky moon missions. Then again, this is a guy who supported the massive prescription drug entitlement under Bush. Sigh. Blitzer devoted an embarrassing amount of time to Gingrich’s moon colonization plan, prompting Paul (here I am saying something positive about Paul again!) to jibe that the only people we need to send to the moon are some politicians. Score. I was glad to take my nose plugs off for a fleeting moment and appreciate some lively, substantive debate — even if it happened unintentionally between bouts of Wolf Blitzer-led bloviations and special interest-pandering. There was no Macarena, but Wolf and the candidates came pretty close. Big loser: Gingrich. Big gainer: Santorum. Big surprise: Paul’s likeability factor, even if he is completely on the moon when it comes to Israel, jihadists, and national security. Big, unchanged reality: Big Government Romney, Big Government Gingrich, and Not As Big A Government As He Voted For When He Was in the Senate But Still Too Big Government Santorum. The journey/march/slog (towards a brokered convention??????) continues…
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Fly Them To the Moon. Please.
