Navy preps for Libyan flotilla
By HERB KEINON AND YAAKOV KATZ
07/12/2010 01:28
Ship is determined to break Gaza blockade, not sail to Egypt.
The navy went on high alert Sunday as activists behind a Libyan-backed ship that set sail from Greece the day before expressed determination to sail directly for Gaza, and not El-Arish in the Sinai, in an attempt to break Israel's naval blockade.
Defense officials said the navy was tracking the ship and had put forces on standby in case it needed to board the vessel, as it did when confronted with the Gazabound flotilla in late May.
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Violent resistance aboard one of those ships, the Mavi Marmara, left nine Turkish activists dead.
The navy, the officials said, would make contact with the ship while it was still far from Gaza, likely in international waters, and request that it follow naval vessels into Ashdod Port. If it refuses or does not agree to sail to Egypt, Israel has prepared plans to commandeer it.
Government officials called the entire episode "superfluous."
"Maybe no one told the Libyans, or the information has not yet reached them, but following the cabinet decision a couple weeks ago, civilian cargo now goes into Gaza," one official said.
"This exercise is both a superfluous and unnecessary gesture."
The official said Israel would allow no ship to break the "security envelope" around the Gaza Strip, but added that the organizers could bring the vessel into Ashdod, and that Israel would allow representativesfrom the boat to accompany the cargo - reportedly some 2,000 tons of rice, sugar and corn oil - into Gaza.
The ship is being funded by a charity headed by a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and is expected to approach Gaza early Wednesday morning.
Youssef Sawani, executive director of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, said Sunday in an interview with Army Radio that the vessel was heading for Gaza, although on Saturday, foreign ministry officials from Israel and Greece said the ship was headed for Egypt.
In response to Sawani's comments, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Army Radio on Sunday that "no ship of any kind will be allowed to arrive at Gaza."
"I hope that common sense will prevail," Lieberman said. "They can deliver aid for Gaza to El-Arish or Ashdod."
The foreign minister added that while Israel was not looking for a confrontation, no one would be allowed to undermine the country's sovereignty.
MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al), who has been in contact with the Libyan charity group, echoed Sawani's claims that the ship, the Moldovan-flagged Amalthea, was headed directly to Gaza.
"The goal is to reach Gaza," Tibi said.
"There is not only a humanitarian goal, there is a political message."
In addition to 15 volunteers - all from Libya, except for a Nigerian citizen and a Moroccan national - the ship has a crew of 12 from Cuba, Haiti, India and Syria.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.
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Israel debates F-15 purchase
By YAAKOV KATZ
07/12/2010 01:47
Silent Eagle aircraft debuts in US; Defense Ministry follows closely.
The Israel Air Force closely followed the maiden flight of the F-15 Silent Eagle, which took to the skies over the weekend in the US. Debate continued within the Defense Ministry over whether it should buy the aircraft in the face of expected additional delays in the development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The flight took place over St. Louis, headquarters of the plane's developer, Boeing Co.
During the 80-minute flight, the plane, called the F-15E1, opened and closed its left-side conformal weapons bay, which contained an AIM-120 Instrumented Test Vehicle (ITV) missile that was not launched.
"The Silent Eagle demonstration flight validated our initial engineering design approach," said Boeing F-15 Development Programs Director Brad Jones. "Our intent was to verify all systems are operational in a flight environment. This flawless flight allows us to move into the next phase. In the next couple of weeks, we will ferry F-15E1 to the test range and launch an AIM- 120."
Boeing unveiled the F-15 Silent Eagle (F-15SE) last March as a new configuration of the F-15 that had undergone improvements and modifications, reportedly providing the plane with a stealth capability that is effective in evading radars on enemy aircraft but not against ground-based radar systems.
Improvements in stealth include coatings and treatments to the aircraft, as well as a new design for the conformal fuel tanks that includes the possibility of carrying weapons inside them instead of fuel. Israel operates several squadrons of F-15s, including one of 25 F-15Is, the aircraft with the longest range in the IAF.
While Boeing is still reportedly awaiting Pentagon approval to export the plane, Israel has already held a number of initial discussions regarding the plane and its capabilities.
The maiden flight comes as the Defense Ministry is holding a series of consultations aimed at reaching a decision on which aircraft to buy and how many by the end of the summer.
Israel would like to buy the JSF fifthgeneration fighter jet manufactured by Lockheed Martin, but is concerned with expected delays and the soaring price of the plane, now estimated at close to $150 million. In comparison, the F-15SE will reportedly cost around $100m.
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Hectic preparations for historic Ahmadinejad visit to Beirut
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 11, 2010, 11:33 PM (GMT+02:00)
Ahmadinehad ready for his first close-up to Lebanese-Israel border
Feverish preparations are afoot in Tehran for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first visit to the Lebanese capital. Reporting this, debkafile's Iranian sources define the trip's purpose as a confrontational exercise to warn the US and Israel that full implementation of the tough new UN, US and European sanctions will provoke an Iranian war on Israel - waged from Lebanon.
Iran's rulers came up with this plan in their marathon consultations last week, prompted by the realization that the US embargo on gasoline and other refined oil products were for real. Combined with the Obama administration's partial success in closing the US banking system and markets to Iranian firms and the UAE's consent to close its ports to Iranian traffic, the new measures have the potential for throwing a large spanner into the Islamic Republic's normal economic activity.
The planning for Ahmadinejad's trip to Lebanon - probably towards the end of July or early August - went into high gear after Syrian president Bashar Assad and the Qatari ruler Shiekh Hamad Bin Khalif Al Thani (who engineered the power-sharing accord for setting up the Lebanese government coalition in 2009) reacted positively to the notion of the threesome landing in Beirut aboard the same plane or in convoy, at the invitation of Lebanese president Michel Suleiman.
This procedure was advised to insure the Iranian president against a possible Israel attempt on his life and also that of Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who would be on hand in the welcoming party headed by the Lebanese president.
Sunday, July 11, debkafile reported that Hizballah had massed 20,000 armed men along the border with Israel, while Israeli Defense Forces had ranged tank and armored divisions on the other side of the border.
The broad outline of the visit was laid down by Lebanese Shiite lawmaker Nabih Beri and Alaedin Boroujerdi, Chairman of the Majlis foreign affairs and security committee, who was in Beirut last week to attend the funeral of the Shiite cleric Ayatollah Hassan Fadlallah.
It was decided to use the occasion for the Iranian, Syrian, Qatari and Lebanese leaders to hold a war conference, essentially to plot moves for ramping up the Arab-Israeli conflict. They have already decided in principle to lay the groundwork for a high-tension crisis to erupt between Israel and Lebanon some time in September or October, by which time Tehran will be able to gauge in full how much the new sanctions are hurting Iran.
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Iranians to Israel: Bomb us, please!
The portrait painted by the world media is that Israel and Iran are the worst of enemies, and that the Islamic Republic is united in leading the charge against perceived Jewish injustices against the Palestinian Arabs.
As demonstrated in a telephone exchange between average Iranians and Israeli lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, that simply is not true. Israel and Iran had warm relations prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and many average Iranians remain friendly toward the Jewish state.
The exchange took place late last week on Voice of Israel's Farsi radio program. Sources in Iran said that millions of Iranians listen to the Israeli program in their mother tongue, despite the risk of being jailed and tortured for "contact with enemy agents."
The show's host took calls from a large number of Iranians and translated their questions for Hanegbi. Nearly all of the callers expressed support for international pressure on their own regime over its defiant nuclear program, but warned that the current sanctions are not enough. They urged Israel to press for stronger international measures, including the use of military force - be it Israeli or American.
A caller who identified himself as a university student from Tehran reminded Israelis that their forefathers had been freed from slavery and exile by the Persian king Cyrus, and that Israelis owe the Iranians of today their support in overthrowing an oppressive Islamic regime that threatens the entire region.
Hanegbi, whose comments were translated by the host into Farsi, responded by noting that all Israel feels the pain of the Iranian people, and watch with broken hearts as the Iranian regime violently suppresses movements for democratic freedom in the country.
Hanegbi concluded by saying that Israelis "remember the special relations between Israel and Iran before the rise of the ayatollahs. I am certain these relations will return."
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Jordan: Boycott Drive Hits Next Level
by Maayana Miskin
One of Jordan's largest committees to oppose the normalization of ties with Israel - the Higher Executive Committee for Defending the Homeland and Confronting Normalization - has called on national unions not only to avoid business with Israel, but to take the additional step of refusing to deal with companies that transport goods to and from the Jewish state.
The committee asked the Jordanian general federation of trade unions to refuse to load or unload goods from Israel or the United States, or to do any work involving ships heading to Israel. The request was signed by Hamza Mansour of the Islamic Action Front.
Mansour noted that the Swedish Dockworkers Union had temporarily refused to work with Israeli ships in response to a clash between Israeli soldiers and a Gaza-bound flotilla. Turkish citizens aboard the flotilla brutally attacked soldiers, who opened fire in response, killing nine.
Jordan, not Sweden, should take the lead in boycotting Israel, he said.
Regarding its call to boycott U.S. goods, the committee said America "is a strategic ally for the Zionist enemy, and is very hostile against the Arabs and Muslims."
Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994. However, many political parties and other groups in Jordan oppose the peace deal, and have called to cut all ties with Israel.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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'Declare Gaza a Part of Egypt'
by Maayana Miskin
The best way to solve the problem of terrorism in Gaza is to move backward, not forward, says Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara, Druze member of the Likud party.
"What we need to do is declare that Gaza is a part of Egypt," Kara told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news service in an interview Sunday. "That'a a unilateral move that makes sense. They talk about going back to the way things were in 1967 - so we should keep in mind that back then there was no Palestinian people and Gaza was a part of Egypt, and Judea and Samaria a part of Jordan."
The problem with putting Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Authority is that the PA lacks true control, Kara said. "There is no leadership in the PA, there is nobody prepared to rule. We're playing pretend," he declared.
When asked why Egypt would agree to return to authority in Gaza, Kara explained that the change in leadership would benefit Egypt as well as Israel. Egypt understands that Iran is developing a foothold in Gaza, and Egypt wants to weaken Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
" is becoming a terrorist power taking orders from Iran. That's a danger to Egypt as well," Kara stated.
He also spoke about negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Kara expressed frustration with the "masochistic" construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, and stated that he is planning to quit his post if the government does not allow construction to resume in September.
Kara also strongly opposed the 2005 Disengagement. He refused to defect to the breakaway Kadima party, preferring to stay in internal opposition with Likud.
If the freeze had a chance of leading to peace, the MK said, he might feel differently. However, he continued, the freeze is more likely to encourage terrorism.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Archaeologists Unveil Oldest Writing in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM, Israel - Hebrew University archaeologists unearthed a tiny clay fragment etched with the oldest writing ever discovered in Jerusalem.
Archaeologists believe the 2 x 2.8 x 1 cm. fragment, dating to the late Bronze Age (14th century) before King David conquered Jerusalem, was likely part of a larger tablet.
Israeli archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, director of the City of David excavations, said researchers had been analyzing the fragment for more than six weeks to ensure an accurate report on "one of the most important finds we've ever had."
The fragment was discovered during a process called wet sifting from an area between the Old City's southern wall and the City of David. Mazar believes there is more to be found.
"A piece this small wouldn't have been sitting there all by itself. There have to be more pieces like it," Mazar said.
Hebrew University Prof. Wayne Horowitz, assisted by Dr. Takayoshi Oshima, deciphered the cuneiform symbols and concluded that a highly trained scribe executed the work.
"What we can see is that the piece was written in very good script and the tablet was constructed very well," Horowitz said. "This indicates that the person responsible for creating the tablet was a first-class scribe," he said.
"In those days, you would expect to find a first-class scribe only in a large, important place," said Horowitz, who specializes in Assyriology.
"This shows that Jerusalem was not a provincial backwater. was one of the main cities of the area," he said.
The City of David excavations, under the auspices of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, are being funded by Americans Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman.
The Jerusalem Post contributed to this report.
