Barkat defends Silwan project
By JPOST.COM STAFF
06/22/2010 12:23

Mayor stresses benefits to Arab sector, slams Barak's talk of delays.
The office of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat strongly defended its approval of the King's Garden redevelopment project Tuesday, demanding the support of senior government officials. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in particular, came in for some heavy criticism from city hall.

"Instead of supporting city hall's efforts to strengthen and address the serious disadvantages inherited over the years in the eastern part of the city, the defense minister acts without checking the facts first," said a city hall spokesperson.

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The statement from the spokesperson continued, "the new plan for Silwan will allow the addition of thousands of apartments for the Arab sector and resolve hundreds of building violations. Barak should be one of the primary supporters of this plan."

Barak had remarked earlier Tuesday that the controversial redevelopment effort may be delayed several months due to political concerns.

"The King's Garden project, which has been awaited for 3000 years , can wait another three to nine months if the State's policy considerations necessitate it," Barak said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Barak intend to meet to discuss the government's official response to the outcry raised over the building project.

Israel is open to a negotiated solution regarding the King's Garden redevelopment project in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, the Prime Minister's Office stated Tuesday.

"The PMO expresses the hope that the dialogue will continue with those who built their homes on public land in violation of the law and that an agreed upon solution will be found that will keep in line with the law," read the PMO statement.

The PMO's reponse came amid concerns emanating from Washington regarding the demolition and redevelopment plan approved by the Jerusalem Municipality Monday for the predominantly Arab neighborhood.

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US-led armada secretly drilled bombing Iranian targets, missile defense with Israel
DEBKAfile DEBKA-Net-Weekly June 21, 2010, 6:54 PM (GMT+02:00)

SuperHornets taking off from US carrier
The armada of 10 US warships plus an Israeli and German battle vessel each, which transited the Suez Canal Friday, June 18, has reached the Persian Gulf, debkafile's military sources report.
But first, from June 6 through June 10, the USS Harry S. Truman carrier Strike Group was deployed 50 miles of the shore of southwestern Israel, secretly drilling the interception of incoming Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah missiles and rockets against US and Israeli targets in the Middle East.
This was first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 449 on June 18.

The fleet let by the Truman then headed for the Persian Gulf through the Suez Canal accompanied by an Israeli missile ship (not identified) and the German missile frigate FGS Hessen F221.

For five days and night, the Truman's sixty F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter bombers took off on simulated bombing missions against targets set up by the Israeli Air Force at its firing range on the Nevatim Base-28, in the Negev desert southeast of Be'er Sheva - one of its three big air bases.
The exercise was prompted by rising tensions from Syria's deployment of advanced Scud missiles for Hizballah on its border with Lebanon. it took place not far from the spot where Israeli commandos subsequently raided the Turkish Mavi Marmara on May 31.
The Super Hornets flew simulated bombing missions night and day against targets set up by the Israeli Air Force at its firing range on the Nevatim Base-28, in the Negev desert southeast of Be'er Sheva - one of three big Israeli air facilities.
The exercise had 60 American F-16 fighter jets landing at Israeli Air Force facilities from bases in Germany and Romania, refueling and taking off with Israeli fighter bombers to practice long-range bombing missions over the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and drill air-to-air combat along the way.
Both Washington and Jerusalem withheld public exposure of this US-Israeli aerial exercise, dubbed Juniper Stallion 2010. President Barack Obama ordered all US missile interceptors in the Middle East to go on war alert in the second week of June, including batteries aboard US Sixth Fleet vessels on the Mediterranean and the US Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf.
debkafile's military sources add that Israel's missile's shield, including Arrow anti-missile missiles, was similarly on standby.
It was decided at the White House to stage the Juniper Stallion exercise only eight months after Juniper Cobra 10, the biggest joint war maneuver the US and Israel had ever conducted against missile attack, after receiving new intelligence that Iran, Syria and Hizballah had almost doubled their operational armory of medium-range missiles.
Switching over to a tough line, US defense secretary Robert Gates warned a Senate panel on June 18 that Iran could fire "scores or hundreds" of short- and medium-range missiles against Europe - in salvoes rather than one or two at a time.
Four days later, Gates told a Fox interviewer: "I don't think we're prepared to even talk about containing a nuclear Iran. I think… our view still is we do not accept the idea of Iran having nuclear weapons." Asked whether a military strike was preferable, he said all options remain on the table although some time is left for working on problem."

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Hizballah's "change of mind" over assassinating Israeli - a face-saver
DEBKAfile Special Report June 22, 2010, 1:22 PM (GMT+02:00)

Hassan Nasrallah fails twice, stays in bunker
Hizballah's secretary general Hassan Nasrallah did not feel safe enough to take up Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan's invitation to visit Ankara last week in with the protection of the four intelligence agencies of Iran, Syria, Turkey and Hizballah's own service, debkafile's counter-terror sources disclose. To compound this fiasco, the two Lebanese vessels he planned for breaking Israel's sea blockade of Gaza are still stuck in Beirut despite bulletins about their imminent departure.
To save face, Nasrallah had his sources "leak" to the Kuwaiti A-Rai a claim that his organization pulled back at the eleventh hour from a plan to kill an unnamed high-ranking Israeli on vacation, who was thereupon recalled to Tel Aviv.
Our intelligence sources report that Nasrallah decided to stay home in his Beirut bunker, where he has lived in hiding for four years, for fear that even he went to Ankara with the promised fourfold security shield, an Israeli hit team would get him.

The cancellation of his Ankara trip turned out to suit both host and invitee:

1. Nasrallah, who looks after his security in person, found the two travel plans on offer were chancy. One was to be flown in to Ankara by a Syrian or Iranian military aircraft after Turkey refused to provide one. But neither was keen to provide this service or in a hurry to make the arrangements.

The other was to make his way to Turkey secretly by road through Syria. Nasrallah decided that the 10-hour journey on Syrian highways would expose his convoy to surveillance by Israeli drones and he would very likely not reach his destination alive.
2. As the negotiations between Nasrallah and Turkish security MIT officials in Beirut on his personal security dragged on, Erdogan cooled on the prospect of hosting him.
Not only would this vindicate the Israeli charge that the Turkish leader is not above using terrorists in his hate campaign against Israel, but the campaign itself is running into more and more criticism at home from broad political, military and intelligence circles, who accuse him of a policy which is detrimental to the country's own interests.
Erdogan was persuaded to shelve his plans for Nasrallah's visit and order the MIT team to return home.
To save face for this humiliation - and his failure to browbeat the Lebanese government into permitting the flotilla he sponsored to embark for Gaza - the Hizballah leader engineered a leak to the Kuwaiti A-Rai of Tuesday, June 22. The same story also threatened that an Israeli attempt on the lives of any Hizballah leaders would be deemed a declaration of war and precipitate hundreds of rockets against Tel Aviv and its environs and thousands against other locations.
debkafile recalls the dire Shiite terrorists' threatened to avenge the murder of Imad Mughniyeh, head of their special security branch in a high-scale Damascus suburb in February 2008. While accusing Israel, they have never made good on their threat .

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Gaza sea blockade upheld by US, EU as Israel eases land siege
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 20, 2010, 10:51 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Juliais is stalled at Beirut port
Barring surprises, the sea campaign against Israel's naval blockade of Gaza spearheaded by Turkey may have run its course, debkafile's Middle East sources report.

Beirut is close to abandoning the Lebanese convoy, Damascus has turned away requests to use its ports, Cyprus is negative and even the Iranian expedition appears snarled. Israel has in the last 24 hours won US and European support for its sea blockade. It was endorsed also by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas after the Israeli cabinet bowed to international pressure and approved the passage of all civilian goods to the 1.2 million Palestinians of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
After Israel endured three weeks of international censure for its commando raid on the flotilla aiming to break the Gaza blockade and 9 Turkish deaths aboard the Mavi Marmara, the Netanyahu government has hauled the wheel round, stemmed the tide of opprobrium and stabilized Israel's diplomatic and security position. British ex-prime minister Tony Blair, Special Envoy of the Middle East Quartet, pitched in to help Israel out of a tight spot ahead of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's White House meeting with President Barack Obama on July 8.
The formula drafted and approved by Israel's security cabinet permitted all civilian goods to reach Gaza, banned military, dual-use materials and weapons, and left the sea blockade in place.
In Gaza, Hamas leader Mahmoud A Zahar, furious over the collapse of the campaign against the blockade, declared Sunday, June 20 that it was time for Qassam missiles to be launched against Israel from the West Bank as well as Gaza. Nothing about Hamas' policy had changed, he stressed in response to Blair's admonition that Hamas could become part of the peace process if it released the Israel soldier, Gilad Shalit, held captive for four years, and renounced violence.

debkafile's military sources report that Israel and Western military and intelligence circles in the Middle East warn that a celebration over the apparent end of the flotilla chapter would premature. Thwarted for now, Turkey, Iran, Hizballah and Hamas may be at this minute plotting a major operation for giving the Israeli Navy enforcing the blockade a nasty surprise.
For now, Washington, Jerusalem, the Europeans and Abbas' faction between them have managed to post keep out signs over most Middle East ports usable for sending convoys out to Gaza. The first to be affected was the two-ship Lebanese flotilla that was scheduled to set sail from Beirut port Monday, 21.
The White House in Washington, the UN Secretary's bureau in New York and UNIFIL Command headquarters in Lebanon made it clear to the Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri that letting the two-ship campaign flotilla to depart Beirut port on schedule, Monday June 21, would be a very bad idea. Various bureaucratic pretexts were found Sunday to keep the ship from sailing.
Our intelligence sources also disclose: Campaign organizers turned to Damascus for the use of Syrian ports, only to be told that Syria is at war with Israel and not looking for trouble. Anyway, it would most inconvenient at this time because President Bashar Assad is preparing for a long absence touring Latin America. They have not had much luck with South European, Greek or Cypriot ports because of the deal Tony Blair swung with Netanyahu.
The only ports remaining now for launching boats against the Gaza blockade are Turkish, but the fact that one of the ships, to have carried scores of women campaigners, including many Christians, was dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus (Maryam in Arabic) does not sit easily in Ankara and its Islamic government. The second ship is Julia.
At a joint news conference in Jerusalem Sunday, Netanyahu and Blair announced that a new list of banned goods for passage through land crossings from Israel would be published soon and construction materials allowed for projects under international supervision such as schools, health facilities, housing, sanitation and water - to make sure they are not used for military installations. The opening of additional crossings would be contingent on the security situation.

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While criticizing Israel, Turkey kills Kurds

Many in the international community, including mainstream media outlets, have labeled Turkey's reaction to Israel's interception of a so-called "aid" flotilla to the Gaza Strip a few weeks ago as exaggerated. The latest news out of Turkey reveals that the criticism against Israel is also highly hypocritical.

Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted Israel over the deaths of nine activists aboard one of the flotilla ships after they attacked the Israeli boarding party. He accused Israel of crimes against humanity, and has led the international charge for an investigation and sanctions against the Jewish state. Erdogan's government has decided to downgrade relations with Israel over the incident.

Since the flotilla raid, Turkey has engaged in its own "war on terror" with little or no attention from the international community, and certainly no calls for independent commissions of inquiry.

On the same day as the flotilla raid, Kurdish rebels attacked a Turkish naval base, killing 12 soldiers. Last week, Erdogan's government responded with air strikes on Kurdish positions in northern Iraq that killed 120 people, including a 7-year-old girl.

There were no condemnations of Turkey for using "disproportionate" force, and no UN Security Council meetings regarding the latest flare-up of a 26-year conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.

Some 30 million Kurds live in adjoining portions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Together, these areas make up Kurdistan, the ancient homeland of the Kurdish people, a distinct ethnic group without a country of their own.

For decades, Turkey has oppressed its Kurdish minority of 14 million people by forbidding the use of the Kurdish language and other symbols of national identity in state schools and government institutions. A Kurdish parliamentarian, Layla Zana, was expelled from parliament in 1994 and imprisoned a year later for daring to utter a single sentence in Kurdish from the podium.

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Prophecy Unfolding? Turkey's New Role in Mideast

video

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/June/Prophecy-Unfolding-Turkeys-New-Role-in-Mideast/

JERUSALEM, Israel -- When Israel's defense of its Gaza naval blockade in May turned deadly, it set off a worldwide firestorm of criticism.

While Israel may seem more isolated than ever, some Jews see the pages of Scripture coming alive in this latest Middle East crisis.

Turkey's New Alliance?

The Jewish state has contended that the Israel Defense Forces' interception the pro-Palestinian flotilla was part of an effort to keep weapons out of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

However, that argument didn't stop an international rush to judgment. The U.N. Security Council issued a statement condemning Israel and called for an investigation, while Sweden, Ireland and other nations planned boycotts against the Israel.

The flotilla incident also revealed Turkey as a major new player in the Middle East. Turkey's Prime Minister Erdowan vehemently attacked Israel over the incident, shifting his allegiance toward Iran, Syria and their axis of power.

The move represented a major realignment in the Middle East, with Turkey - once a close ally of Israel and the West - now openly courting the likes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ultimately Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The Winds of War

So, what does this shift of power and increasing isolation of Israel mean? Some in the Jewish state and around the world believe it reflects biblical prophecy.

Following the flotilla incident, the Rabbinical Council of Judea and Samaria issued a statement saying the aftermath seemed to "place us at the beginning of the Gog and Magog process where the world is against us, but which ends with the third and final redemption."

Gog and Magog is a biblical reference found in chapters 38 and 39 of the book of Ezekiel when a coalition of nations attacks the land of Israel.

Whether or not the prophecy is fulfilled soon, many believe war in the Middle East is looming.

Just last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned Iran could launch an attack against Europe with "scores or hundreds of missiles."

Meanwhile, Israel's problems with its naval blockade are not over yet. A flotilla from Iran will be heading to the region to test Israel's resolve once again.

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Top US commander slams Obama
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
06/22/2010 16:31

McChrystal summoned to Washington to explain derogatory comments.
WASHINGTON - The top US commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington to explain derogatory comments about US President Barack Obama and his colleagues, administration officials said Tuesday.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who publicly apologized Tuesday for using "poor judgment" in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, has been ordered to attend the monthly White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person Wednesday rather than over a secure video teleconference, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

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He will be expected to explain his comments to Obama and top Pentagon officials, these officials said.

The article in this week's Rolling Stone depicts McChrystal as a lone wolf on the outs with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to persuade even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war.

The interview describes McChrystal, 55, as "disappointed" in his first Oval Office meeting with Obama. The article says that although McChrystal voted for Obama, the two failed to connect from the start. Obama appointed McChrystal to lead the Afghan effort in May 2009. Last fall, though, Obama censured McChrystal for speaking too bluntly about his desire for more troops.

Obama agreed to dispatch an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan only after months of study that many in the military found frustrating. And the White House's troop commitment was coupled with a pledge to begin bringing them home in July 2011, in what counterinsurgency strategists advising McChrystal regarded as an arbitrary deadline.

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US Bans Government Workers from Israeli Highway 443 at Night

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyah
The U.S. government has banned its workers from traveling on Highway 443 at night, adding fuel to complaints from Jewish drivers that the High Court decision to open the road to Palestinian Authority motorists endangers their lives. The American government also prohibits its workers from using roads in Judea and Samaria.

The American government's instruction was posted on its consular affairs website one day after it was reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's security team does not allow him to travel the road at all, whether day or night.

"U.S. Government personnel and family members are permitted both official and personal travel on Route 443 between Modi'in and Jerusalem without prior notification, during daylight hours only," the website states. "All other personal travel in the West Bank , unless specifically authorized for mission-approved purposes, is prohibited."

Highway 443 is a major artery connecting Jerusalem with the area of Ben Gurion airport and metropolitan Tel Aviv. It was closed in 2002 following several murderous Arab terrorist attacks. Answering a High Court petition filed by Peace Now, the High Court ruled the blanket closure was unfair to the general Arab population.

It ordered the IDF to install new security arrangements to protect Jewish drivers while allowing PA Arabs to drive on the road. Several rock throwing incidents have been reported on the highway since it was reopened several weeks ago.

The blanket order against travel in Judea and Samaria, without prior permission, previously has been posted despite dozens of "goodwill" measures that Israel, under pressure from the American government, has carried out to easy travel for PA Arabs. These measures generally involve checkpoints and roadblocks that were removed - and quickly followed by shootings.

Last week, Arab terrorists, apparently from the Hevron area, killed an Israeli policeman and wounded two others after they opened fire at their vehicle near a former roadblock.

Although the American government has pressed for the goodwill measures aimed at propping up the rule of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and has trained PA police to fight terror, the State Department advises its citizens to stay off the highways there.

"Demonstrations and violent incidents can occur without warning," citizens are told. "Vehicles have also been the target of rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire on West Bank roads. The IDF continues to carry out security operations in the West Bank."

The advisory also singles out the Israeli security forces as the source of possible danger, while not referring to terrorists. "U.S. citizens have been killed, seriously injured, or detained and deported as a result of encounters with IDF operations in Gaza and the West Bank," the advisory continues.

"Travel restrictions may be imposed by Israel with little or no warning. Strict measures have frequently been imposed following terrorist actions, and the movement of Palestinian Americans, both those with residency status in the West Bank or Gaza as well as foreign passport holders, has been severely impeded."

The State Department continues to forbid government employees from visiting the Old City at night and between 11 a.m.and 2 p.m. on Fridays, the Muslim Sabbath. (IsraelNationalNews.com)

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Barak: Gaza is an Iranian military base
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
06/22/2010 02:39

At UN meetings, defense minister defends Israel's Gaza policy.
Gaza still presents a serious threat to the safety of Israeli civilians, Defense Minister Ehud Barak reminded the Socialist International Council at the United Nations in New York.

"For Israel, the Gaza Strip today is an Iranian military base three kilometers from the closest Israeli city , and 60 kilometers from Tel Aviv. Hamas governs the Gaza Strip forcefully, and cruelly suppresses its political opponents," said Barak.

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He added that Israel welcomes international groups that wish to send aid to Gaza through the Ashdod port, but not provocateurs seeking to break the blockade.

Barak on Monday called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to give Israel's internal investigation into the Gaza flotilla raid a chance before calling for an international investigation, according to an Army Radio report.

Ban's office proposed an international investigation, despite Israel's internal probe headed by the Terkel Committee, at a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

During their New York meeting, Barak also commented on the Mariam, an aid ship set to sail to the Gaza Strip from Lebanon in the coming days.

The defense minister said his government would hold Lebanon accountable if more violence results from the ship attempting to break the blockade of Gaza.

Barak told reporters Monday "we view the government of Lebanon as responsible" by granting permission for another ship with activists and aid on board to embark for Cyprus on a new attempt to reach the Palestinian territory.

He said in a brief statement that as a result "there could be friction that could lead to violence, which is totally unnecessary."