'Hizbullah arms real danger to Israel'

By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
21/04/2010 08:44

Top US senator says there is a high likelihood terror group has Scuds.

Following last week's uncertainty surrounding a reported Syrian Scud missile delivery to Hizbullah, a senior US senator said Tuesday that the guerrilla group most likely obtained the weapons and that its missiles posed a real danger to Israel.

"I believe there is a likelihood that there are Scuds that Hizbullah has in Lebanon. A high likelihood," Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, told AFP."The rockets and missiles in Lebanon are substantially increased and better technologically than they were and this is a real point of danger for Israel."

Feinstein stressed that the tensions in the North would only subside with a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

"There's only one thing that's going to solve it, and that's a two-state solution," she said.

Hizbullah sources confirmed last week that the group had received a shipment of Scud missiles from Syria, but Damascus denied the reports, saying Israel was trying to stoke tensions in the region.

Related: Lebanese PM says Scuds accusations like Iraq's WMD
Peres in Paris: 'Syria is two-faced'

On Monday, the State Department summoned the senior Syrian diplomat in Washington to accuse his government of "provocative behavior" in supplying the arms.

A department statement announcing the complaint was imprecise about the alleged arms deals by the Syrians. It alluded to the transfer to Hizbullah of Scud ballistic missiles but did not say explicitly that Syria was behind such a deal.

The State Department said deputy chief of mission Zouheir Jabbour was called in to "review Syria's provocative behavior concerning the potential transfer of arms to Hizbullah." It went on to say that providing Hizbullah with Scud missiles risked escalating tensions in the volatile region.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the transfer of any arms, and especially ballistic missile systems such as the Scud, from Syria to Hizbullah," the statement said. "The transfer of these arms can only have a destabilizing effect on the region and would pose an immediate threat to both the security of Israel and the sovereignty of Lebanon."

Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman in whose name the statement was issued, said in a telephone interview that the department was not confirming that a Scud transfer to Hizbullah had taken place. He said the meeting with the Syrian diplomat was conducted to seek answers about Syrian arms deals and to reiterate US concerns.

Last week White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that US concern about reports of Syrian Scud missile transfers to Hizbullah had been raised at the highest levels of the Syrian government.

On April 1, during a visit to Damascus, Democratic Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reiterated US misgivings about the flow of weapons through Syria to Hizbullah and told reporters the US view is that this is "something that must stop" for there to be peace.

The State Department statement linked the issue of Syrian arms provisions for Hizbullah to the broader Middle East conflict.

"The risk of miscalculation that could result from this type of escalation should make Syria reverse the ill-conceived policy it has pursued in providing arms to Hizbullah," it said. "Additionally, the heightened tension and increased potential for conflict this policy produces is an impediment to ongoing efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace in the Middle East."

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US: Iran strike 'off table' for now
By AP
21/04/2010 15:07

Defense official says Washington hopes talks, sanctions will suffice.
NEW YORK - The United States has ruled out an attack on Iran's nuclear program in the short term, a top Defense Department official said on Wednesday.

Instead, the US will focus on negotiations with Teheran and continue its aggressive pursuit of United Nations sanctions against the Islamic regime.

"Military force is an option of last resort," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy told reporters during a briefing in Singapore. "It's off the table in the near term."

Flournoy said the US has not seen Iran engage productively. But, "right now the focus is a combination of engagement and pressure in the form of sanctions."

Israeli officials, who have called for tough sanctions on Iran, did not immediately recalibrate their policy, and emphasized their strategic partnership with the US.

"I think there's a growing understanding in the US and in the international community that everything has to be done to stop the Iranian nuclear program, the sooner the better," one Israeli official said.

"The important thing is to keep our eyes on the ball and to continue this very close dialogue and interchange with the administration… to make sure the international community will really bring about sanctions on Iran as soon as possible."

A Pentagon spokesman clarified on Wednesday that American military action against Iran remains an option even as the United States pursues diplomacy and sanctions to halt the country's nuclear program.

"We are not taking any options off the table as we pursue the pressure and engagement tracks," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. "The president always has at his disposal a full array of options, including use of the military... It is clearly not our preferred course of action but it has never been, nor is it now, off the table."

He was responding to Flournoy's earlier statements in Singapore.

Morrell said the military is "very confident" it could protect the US from a Iranian ballistic missile strike. The US defense system based in California and Alaska is "sufficient to protect us from such a threat, he told reporters.

Last week, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev, urged the Security Council to act on Iran in a timely manner.

"The most alarming danger is that Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons capabilities, while mocking the diplomatic overtures of the international community," she said. "This council has an obligation to translate this consensus into timely and effective action."

In recent months, the US has accelerated its pursuit of Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

"The urgency of the threat and the catastrophic consequences of even a single act of nuclear terrorism demand an effort that is at once bold and pragmatic," US President Obama said last week in Washington, as 47 nations signed a pact to secure the nuclear materials worldwide within four years.

Under a new Nuclear Posture Review, the US pledged that Iran and North Korea would become "more isolated" as part of a new policy that restricts American use of nuclear weapons.

But earlier this week, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran wants direct talks with Security Council members.

Previously, Iran rejected UN-backed proposals that would give Teheran nuclear fuel rods in exchange for its lower-level enriched uranium. Supporters of the plan think it would prevent Iran from making nuclear weapons.

In an editorial on Tuesday, The New York Times called to speed up sanctions.

"Iran is especially vulnerable now, both economically and politically. Its leaders will be watching carefully, especially to see what its longtime trading partners and enablers in Russia and China do," the Times wrote.

But the editorial board claimed a military attack would be a "disaster," and quoted Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, telling reporters on Sunday that military options would "delay" Iran's nuclear program. "That doesn't mean the problem is going to go away," he said.

On Wednesday, Iran's state TV announced that the Revolutionary Guard would conduct large-scale war games in the Strait of Hormuz.

The three-day military maneuvers are meant to "safeguard security" in the region, the Guard's deputy chief Hossein Salami was quoted as saying.

The announcement added fuel to tension with the West. In the past, Iran has threatened to close the strait if attacked.

Salami said the war games sought to demonstrate Iran's role in the waterway, through which about 40 percent of the world's oil and energy supply passes.

AP contributed to this report.

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Adm. Mullen Evades Answer on Shooting Down IAF Jet

by Gil Ronen

The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, evaded a question Tuesday regarding the theoretical possibility that the US would shoot down IAF jets en route to attack Iran.

The Weekly Standard reported that in a town hall meeting on the campus of the University of West Virginia, a US Air Force ROTC cadet asked Mullen to respond to a hypothetical situation: if Israel decided to attack Iran, he said, its jets would need to fly through Iraqi airspace, which is considered a "no-fly" zone by the American military. Would US troops shoot down the Israeli jets, the airman asked, if they entered that zone?

Mullen evaded the question. "We have an exceptionally strong relationship with Israel," he said. "I've spent a lot of time with my counterpart in Israel. So we also have a very clear understanding of where we are. And beyond that, I just wouldn't get into the speculation of what might happen and who might do what. I don't think it serves a purpose, frankly," he said. "I am hopeful that this will be resolved in a way where we never have to answer a question like that."

The cadet insisted: "Would an airman like me ever be ordered to fire on an Israeli aircraft or personnel?"

Mullen still would not answer directly. "Again, I wouldn't move out into the future very far from here," he said. "They're an extraordinarily close ally, have been for a long time, and will be in the future."

Brzezinski: 'confront them'
In September, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski urged the US to fire on Israeli jets if they try to reach Iran. "They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? We have to be serious about denying them that right," he said. "If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not."

US President Barack Obama called Brzezinski "one of our most outstanding thinkers" in 2007, when Brzezinski endorsed his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. (IsraelNationalNews.com)

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Growing American Grassroots ‘Rebellion against Obama'

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
U.S. President Barack Obama and the Democratic party face a grassroots rebellion in mid-term Congressional elections this November, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Popular dissatisfaction with government interference and Big Brother is at record highs, and a growing number of Americans distrust politicians. The Democratic party, which currently holds a majority in both houses of Congress, will bear the brunt of growing voter anger, the Pew study concludes.

It stated, "The study finds a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government - a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter partisan-based backlash, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials."

The mood of the country in one word, increasingly, is "anger." The study did not question respondents on specific issues, such as foreign policy and the health reform law, but the mood of the country suggests that a large enough rebellion at the polls that could upset President Obama's plans, including those for Israel.

A small but growing number of voters are strongly anti-government. The proportion saying that they are angry with the federal government has doubled since 2000 and matches the high [of 20 percent] reached in October 2006," Pew stated.

An uprising against Democrats is indicated by the figure that shows only 17 percent of the respondents think Congress is doing a good or excellent job. 40 percent expressed a positive view of President Obama's administration.

Pew said that the worst problem for Democrats may be that "the link between dissatisfaction with government and voting intentions is at least as strong among independent voters." Independents favor the Republican party in their districts by a 41-34 percent margin, according to the survey.

The margin grows to 66-13 percent when taking into account only the Independents who are "highly dissatisfied." Distrust in the American government has reached its lowest level in 50 years, with only 22 percent trusting it most or all of the time.

A larger minority of the public also feels the government is a major threat to personal freedom, far more than registered in a media survey conducted seven years ago.

One big problem for the Republicans is the growing Tea Party movement, which largely reflects GOP party views but which apparently opposes the leadership. If its runs at the polls as an independent party, it could split the growing opposition to the Democratic majority. Independent parties rarely succeed in the United States, but populist candidate George Wallace posed a serious threat in the presidential elections in 1968.

(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Ex-US Envoy Indyk: Bibi's Refusal to Obama ‘Threatens Alliance'

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Martin Indyk, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, castigated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in The New York Times and on Israel's IDF Army Radio, saying the prime minister prefers a nationalist government over being friends with the United States.

"Netanyahu must make a choice: take on the president of the United States, or take on his right wing," Indyk wrote in the Times. If he continues to defer to those ministers in his cabinet who oppose peacemaking, the consequences for U.S.-Israel relations could be dire."

National Union chairman and Knesset Member Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz sharply criticized Indyk, stating that the "Diaspora has succeeded in creating a Jew like Indyk who is prepared to see the destruction of his people on the sacrificial altar of the masters whom he serves."

"We survived Pharaoh, and we will survive Indyk."

MK Katz charged that the former ambassador is "totally disconnected from the U.S. Congressional majority that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and has the democratic right to build in all of its neighborhoods."

Indyk had previously called for the de facto recognition of Palestinian Authority sovereignty in Jerusalem, which Israel fears would be the effect of the American demand for a freeze on building for Jews in areas of the capital.

Under the headline "When Your Best Friend Gets Angry," Indyk charged in the Times that "one suspects" that Prime Minister Netanyahu stayed away from U.S. President Barack Obama's recent "nuclear summit" because "he does not have an answer to President Obama's demand that he freeze new building announcements" in united Jerusalem.

Indyk repeated his reasoning on IDF Army Radio Wednesday morning, saying that if Israel needs aid from the United States, it needs "to take into account America's interests" and distance itself from the government's largely nationalist coalition.

In both the article and interview, Indyk tried to link an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, based primarily on demands of the Arab world, with solving the Iranian nuclear threat and the American-led counter terrorist war in what he called the "greater Middle East." He pointed out that the United States has committed 200,000 American troops to fighting terrorism while Prime Minister Netanyahu allegedly ignores American policy that the Arab-Israeli struggle is a problem for American security.

Indyk wrote that Prime Minister Netanyahu's absence from the nuclear summit left President Obama holding the bag to take on the task of trying to stop the Iranian nuclear program that Israel says threatens its very existence. The former ambassador claimed that President Obama succeeded in "persuading China to join in a new round of U.N. sanctions against Iran," although he did not refer to China's outright rejection of harsh sanctions, particularly in the energy sector.

"The inability to make progress on the Palestinian issue…gives Iran the opportunity to use Hamas and Hizbullah as proxies to provoke conflict with Israel, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seen as the hero," according to Indyk.

The former envoy also reasoned, "Nothing could better help Obama to isolate Iran than for Netanyahu to offer to cede the Golan . Given Israel's dependence on the United States to counter the threat from Iran and to prevent its own international isolation, an Israeli prime minister would surely want to bridge the growing divide."

Indyk referred to Israel's refusal to halt building for Jews in parts of Jerusalem that the United States does not recognize as under Israeli sovereignty. He called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to follow the steps of former prime ministers Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon, who surrendered the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and a Jewish civilian and military presence in the Gaza region.

According to Indyk, Begin and Sharon acted in order to maintain friendship with the Carter and Bush administrations and Netanyahu should do the same.

He also recalled favorably the famous handshake between former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, orchestrated by Rahm Emanuel, who now is President Obama's White House Chief of Staff. The handshake heralded the Oslo Accords, which were followed by dozens of Arab suicide bombings that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians and wounded thousands of others.

The former ambassador also made no reference to the cold peace with Egypt, whose President Hosni Mubarak has refused to visit Jerusalem except for the funeral of Rabin. In his article, Indyk did not mention the thousands of rockets and mortar shells that rained down on Israel following the expulsion of Jews and withdrawal of troops from Gaza, as well as from the smuggling border with Egypt. (IsraelNationalNews.com)

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Israel Bans Fishing in the Sea of Galilee

Video

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/April/Israel-Bans-Fishing-in-the-Sea-of-Galilee/

Israel has imposed a two-year ban on fishing in the Sea of Galilee in an effort to preserve the supply of fish, which has dropped dramatically.

"This stems from a desire to maintain an ecological balance, preserve water quality and revive fishing which has nearly died out in the Kinneret," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a cabinet meeting Sunday.

"We will support the fishermen and make sure the lake is restocked with fish," he added.

The Agriculture Ministry blames the drop on overfishing and the use of illegal nets.

The new law puts a halt to a practice that dates back to biblical times, according to Agence France-Presse.

The Bible describes how Jesus recruited some of his apostles from among the lake's fishermen, and how he performed many of his miracles there, including walking on its waters