'Iran trying to start Israel-Syria war'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
11/05/2010 17:46

On northern tour, PM says Teheran spreading lies to up tensions.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of trying to "stir up" a war between Israel and Syria.

Speaking during a tour of the IDF's Northern Command on Tuesday afternoon, Netanyahu said Iran was "spreading lies in order to escalate tensions."

"We want security, stability and peace," he stressed. "Israel has no intention of attacking its neighbors, contrary to false rumors which have been spread on the subject."

Concerning Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal to increase Moscow's involvement in the region, the prime minister said Israel would "give its blessing to any contribution to advance peace, as well as any practical steps taken by our neighbors, including Syria, that lead to calm in the region and the start of a peace process."

Netanyahu reiterated that Israel was "ready to enter peace talks with Syria without preconditions, just like we are doing now with the Palestinians."

Netanyahu, accompanied by IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and OC Northern Command Gadi Eizencott, was attending a military exercise, which Ashkenazi was at pains to stress was just a "routine drill," and not meant as a message "to anyone."

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Netanyahu: The Battle for Jerusalem is a Battle for Truth

by INN Staf
Prime MInister Binyamin Netanyahu attended the annual Jerusalem Day celebration at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem. In his speech, Netanyahu stressed the importance of Jerusalem and the unbroken connection of the Jewish people to the city, quoting the verse from Isaiah 62: "For Zion's sake I will not be silent and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still, until her righteousness emerges as a shining light and her salvation burns like a torch".

The Prime Minister continued: "The battle for Jerusalem is a battle for truth. With us is someone who was with me this evening and asked to come here with me, Professor Alan Dershowitz, who fights for our truth, our way of life, and is himself a yeshiva graduate." After the ensuing applause, the PM continued:

"There can be no justice without truth and if there is a perversion of justice vis a vis our city and nation, it means the truth has been perverted, because the truth is that Jerusalem is our city and we never compromised on that," he said, "not after the destruction of the First Holy Temple, nor after the destruction of the Second. We were a majority in the city until the 9th century and we returned 2000 years later and witnessed the city's destruction once again.

There is no other nation that feels this deeply about a city. Yet there is no other nation that has allowed such complete freedom of worship to other religions in this city. We will continue to build Jerusalem, a city that is full of life."

The packed audience, including hundreds on the street outside the yeshiva who watched the event on a large screen, burst into applause and song.

To the Yeshiva head, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, who encouraged him to be strong in facing the pressure of other nations and be strengthened by the support he sees at the yeshiva, the PM answered: "Don't worry about me. I am strong, strong enough. I am grateful for your support and your desire to strengthen me. We come from the same roots. My grandfather was a close friend of Rabbi Kook, for whom the yeshiva is named. Our past is what molds our future. Let us strengthen one another."

Since the first year of Jerusalem's liberation and reunification 43 years ago, the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva holds a major event on the eve of Jerusalem Day. The Chief Rabbis, other prominent rabbis, Mayor, Ministers, MK's and other public figures attend the evening. At the end of the speeches and song, the entire yeshiva sings and dances its way to the Western Wall in the middle of the night.

The Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Rav Sheer Yashuv Cohen, described the first minutes at the Western Wall in 1967 when a jeep carrying his father, the Nazir Hayerushalmi and Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook rushed to the wall and Rabbi Goren blew the shofar there for the first time. Former MK Chanan Porat, who was in the paratroop corps and took part in the liberation of Jerusalem, told how religious and non religious soldiers shouted the "Shma Yisrael" (Hear O Israel) prayer at the wall..

The Speaker of the Knesset, MK Ruby Rivlin spoke at the start of the event, saying "Over the last year, Jerusalem has lost many supporters. It worries me that Jerusalem Day is becoming a holiday for the knitted skullcap crowd alone. Today, some Zionist political parties who spoke of united Jerusalem until a short while ago, are now seeing the city as a problem and obstacle to our continued existence here. The same politicians who voted laws protecting Jerusalem into effect are now looking for loopholes in those same laws that will allow them to raise their hand against Jerusalem.

"Today, Jerusalem doesn't know who is on her side and who is against her, who are her builders and who are her looters, who is truly faithful to her and who is just using her for his own ends."

"Today it is clear that a unified Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty is not a given. We have reached the stage where the world claims that we have stolen the city and wants us to turn the clock back 43 years. It is clearer than ever that a people whose loyalty is up for grabs will find that its existence is limited, G-d forbid. Zionism without Zion, without Jerusalem is an empty shell. Our ability to withstand attacks on Jerusalem depends a great deal on our resolve and patience, on our ability to bide our time until the sword that is drawn over the city is removed."

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Russia Wants to Build Nuclear Plants in Syria

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Russia, which is helping Iran build nuclear plants, now wants to add Syria to its list of investments in atomic energy while the US enlists support for the idea of making Middle East free of nuclear weapons. Israel is the only country in the region that is thought to have nuclear weapon capability, but Syria is suspected of having tried to build a nuclear warhead.

U.S. President Barack Obama last week renewed sanctions against Syria, which has been trying to gain access to mass destruction weapons.

The United States recently confirmed Israeli estimates that Syria has helped arm Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon with tens of thousands of missiles. The U.S. government defines Syria as a country that sponsors terror, and a nuclear power plant would give it access to enriched uranium, a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon.

"Cooperation on atomic energy could get a second wind," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a press conference with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. He echoed Iran's claim that all countries should be able to build nuclear power plants for peaceful purposes.

Russia and China, both of which have an economic investment in Iran's nuclear plants, have blocked American proposals that the United Nations Security Council pass harsh sanctions against Tehran because of its lack of cooperation on allowing United Nations nuclear inspectors to examine its facilities.

During Medvedev's visit, Assad called on the Russian president to help keep nuclear weapons out of the Middle East, meaning Israel. The impression of a presence of nuclear weapons in Israel, which has not confirmed or denied its capability, gives the Jewish State a measure of deterrence as the Arab world continue to stockpile more advanced weapons.

The upgrading of ties between Russia and Syria could lead to a declining influence of the United States in the region as Syria pursues its aim of forcing Israel to surrender the strategic Golan Heights, restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. (IsraelNationalNews.com)

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Medvedev sees Hamas leader in Damascus, an affront to US and Israel
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 11, 2010, 9:29 PM (GMT+02:00)

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev welcomed in Damascus

Before Israel's president Shimon Peres had time to unpack his bags from his Moscow visit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was closeted with the Palestinian terrorist leader, Hamas' Khaled Meshaal in Damascus, Tuesday, May 11. Present too were Syrian president Bashar Assad and leaders of the extremist Palestinian organization in Syria and Lebanon.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, apparently unaware of the Russian president's plan to meet the heads of Israel's arch-foe Hamas, referred earlier to Medvedev's comment that Moscow seeks a role in Middle East peacemaking by welcoming any constructive contribution to the effort. He also accused Tehran of warmongering between Syria and Israel.
Monday, the day the Russian leader arrived in Damascus, debkafile's sources predicted his visit would be the occasion for a weapons deal which might even be a secret back door for Iran to acquire the sophisticated weapons Moscow has denied to date.
It was also an opportunity for Moscow to dramatize its polar differences on Iran with Washington by gestures of support for the extremist Tehran-Damascus-Hizballah-Hamas alignment in the Middle East at the expense of the pro-Western moderate bloc led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Last week, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak brusquely refused to receive Assad for a get-well visit to Sharm el-Sheikh.

Both Washington and Jerusalem were unpleasantly surprised by Moscow's willingness to provide Bashar Assad with a public shot in the arm just a week after the Obama administration renewed US sanctions against Syria, citing its support for terrorist groups and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction as an "extraordinary threat" to American national security. Syria is widely shunned in the Middle East itself.
In Jerusalem, Israeli government leaders were too busy with the reopening of indirect talks with the Palestinians to gear up in time to seriously forestall the damage to Israel's interests predicted from expected Russian-Syrian deals and Moscow's shifting orientation toward the radical Middle East bloc. Medvedev's surprise meeting with the Hamas leadership Monday was perceived as yet another slap in the face to both Washington and Jerusalem.

President Peres, hurried dispatched to Moscow for Sunday's events marking the 65th anniversary of the allied victory against the Nazis, found Kremlin leaders deaf when he maintained that Iran and Syria were a danger to Middle East as promoters of terrorist activity. He commented wryly that Syria's Assad must be the only ruler in the world to treat missiles for Hizballah as a vehicle for peace.

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Israel Joins 'Elite Club' of World Economies

JERUSALEM, Israel - Israel joined the "elite club" of international economies this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, following the Jewish state's acceptance to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

"This is recognition of the vibrancy of Israel's economy," Prime Minister spokesman Mark Regev told CBN News.

"It's an international vote of confidence in Israel's platform under which Israel can continue to advance and increase the standard of living of every Israeli citizen," Regev said.

Israel has been working toward this goal for more than 15 years.

"This is a momentous occasion and good news for Israel's economy," a beaming prime minister told reporters. "Israel has joined the elite club of world economies, the OECD," he said.

Intense lobbying right up to the last minute by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to block Israel's membership did not convince even one nation to boycott the Jewish state, with all 31 members voting to accept Israel, along with Estonia and Slovenia, as the OECD's newest members.

"The very fact that the well-connected Fayyad, a former International Monetary Fund economist, failed to sabotage the move is a success for Israel and hardheaded reason," a Jerusalem Post editorial pointed out.

"In contrast, negative misrepresentations of the ‘Zionist entity' as a repressive, racist, apartheid state belong to the fairyland world of hateful propaganda and a well-developed Palestinian victimization complex," the Post stated.

Netanyahu said membership in the OECD has three main advantages. The first he described as a "degree," tantamount to a "stamp of approval" in the world of international economics.

"The second advantage is that it sets standards we are expected to implement here. The OECD has standards. Not everyone meets all the standards, but the members try to meet most of them," he said.

"The third advantage is that it opens new horizons for investments, which were previously closed to us," he said.

During his tenure as finance minister in the Sharon government, Netanyahu played a key role in reviving the nation's battered economy.

Four years of Palestinian suicide bombers and terror attacks had pulled the bottom out from under the nation's tourism, agricultural and construction sectors.

A firm believer in privatization, Netanyahu described the nation's overall economic plan as a 10-step process, founded on two key principles: controlling government spending and reducing taxes to stimulate growth.

Click here to read the prime minister's full speech.

"We cannot stay an average country, not with regard to corporate tax and not with regard to income tax. We must be better," Netanyahu said, before explaining in some detail the process in a way that even a layman could grasp.

Six of the ten steps have already been accomplished, two are being implemented this year and two would be launched in the coming year, the prime minister said.

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Israeli Ambassador Talks Iran, Syria, U.S. Relations

Video

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/May/Israeli-Diplomat-Talks-Iran-Syria-US-Relations/

WASHINGTON -- From the looming threat of a nuclear Iran to tensions with the Obama administration, Israel is facing difficult times.

As the Jewish state's top diplomat in Washington, D.C., Michael Oren deals with these challenges and more on a daily basis.

Prior to taking on his current role as Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Oren wrote two bestselling books on Middle East history.

He says any future history books written about the region won't include a nuclear-armed Iran.

"We do not believe that Israel could co-exist with a nuclear Iran," Oren told CBN News recently in an exclusive interview. "We don't believe that many Middle Eastern states could co-exist with a nuclear Iran. We don't believe the world can co-exist with a nuclear Iran."

Oren: Nuke Containment Won't Work

Oren believes the Cold War strategy of nuclear containment would not work with the Iranian regime.

One reason -- the Iranians would share their arsenal with their terrorist proxies like Hezbollah.

"We think it's a very high probability," Oren said. "It's not just a concern. It is a working assumption of the state of Israel. To be fair, not just the state of Israel. I think the United States government shares our estimates in this manner and our very, very deep anxieties."

Hezbollah owns a growing stockpile of approximately 60,000 rockets aimed at Israel.

Many of those rockets were supplied by Syria -- an Iranian ally that the Obama administration is currently trying to engage.

"The Syrians have done absolutely nothing to warrant a better relationship with anybody," Oren said. "We think the Syrians, on the contrary, have created a dangerous situation in the Middle East. They've acted recklessly.

White House Pushes Nuke-Free Mideast

The U.S. has long supported Israel's stance of neither confirming nor denying whether it possess nuclear weapons.

However, the Obama administration raised eyebrows recently with its support for a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East. International pressure is also mounting for such a move.

"The achievement of that great goal can only come at the end of a process, not at the beginning of the process" Oren told CBN News. "And that is a process of direct negotiations between Israel and all Middle Eastern states culminating in a comprehensive peace. At which point all arsenals of missiles, of weapons of mass destruction, can be eliminated."

Israel-U.S. Relations Improving

Oren said that despite recent tensions over construction in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Israel's relationship with the Obama administration is improving.

He added that both sides support the current proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians -- in which one city will be on everyone's lips -- Jerusalem.

"The policy of the government of Israel is the same policy of every government of Israel, going back to 1967," Oren said. "And that is, Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of the Jewish people, the eternal capital of the Jewish people."

A Unique Perspective

Oren grew up in New Jersey and attended school in the U.S. before moving to Israel as a young man.

Having one foot in America and another in Israel has given him a unique perspective in his current role.

"Taking up this position was the realization of a lifelong dream," he said. "To be able to serve as the nexus, the bridge, between the land of my birth and my childhood to my ancient homeland, the country of my people."

It's a bond he's helping to preserve against a growing host of threats.