Damascus Talks Peace, Bids for Sophisticated Military Hardware

From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 350

May 26, 2008


Russian Yak-130 gunship
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When Damascus confirmed peace talks with Israel on May 21, a secret high-powered military purchasing delegation, headed by air force-air defenses commander Gen. Akhmad Ratyb, was already in Moscow. With a $5 billion allocation in hand from Tehran, the delegation was bidding for the most advanced products of Russia’s munitions industry.

The six main categories of interest to Damascus are disclosed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources as –

1. The latest model of the Russian Iskander-E, a surface-to-surface tactical missile with a range of 280 km and a 480-kilo warhead. This missile is considered one of the most advanced of its type in the world today, partly because of its cruise attributes which enable it to home in on target undetected and with high precision. Iskander-E can be guided by pilot-less air vehicles or satellites.

2. Fifty of the latest MiG-29SMT fighter-bombers. The Russians have added advanced avionics and electronics and lengthened the warplane’s operational range. It can fly 3,700 kilometers without refueling, and 6,700 kilometers with in-flight fueling. Their purchase therefore goes with Russian refueling aircraft.

3. The Pantsir S1E air defense missile systems. Syria has already received nine or ten batteries but Moscow has held up the rest of the 36-missile order at American insistence after part of the first consignment was transferred to Iran.

4. Damascus wants 800 Strelets short-range anti-air missiles. The Igla-S version, our military sources report, is shoulder-borne and able to hit surface-to-surface and cruise missiles. Damascus has informed Moscow that the vehicle-mounted version is acceptable for deployment along the Syrian-Israeli border as a defense against Israeli missiles.

5. A key component on the list is 75 Yak-130 light combat-cum-training planes.

As a fighter craft for short distances, the Yak-130 is reputed to be one of the most effective of its type in any of the world’s air forces.

The fact that it has been commissioned by Syria points to heavy investment, with the active help of Russian military experts, in creating a defense system for halting an Israeli invasion.

The Yak-130 is an integral element of the combat equipment in Russian armored divisions. Syria will be able to use this fleet of 75 light combat craft to shield its armored divisions against Israel’s tank hunters, the Cobra and Blackhawk choppers.

The Yak-130 outclasses the Israeli choppers in speed, maneuverability and firepower.

5. Syria wants to buy two Amur-1650 submarines, whose features compare with the Israel Navy’s German-made Dolphins, which are capable of firing cruise missiles.

The Amur-class submarine can strike salvo missile blows at different targets. This is its outstanding feature. Its sonar signature level is considerably less than the Kilo-class vessels which are reputedly the most silent in the world.

Amur subs can operate in all the world’s seas excepting those under solid ice cover, in all weather conditions and in shallow or deep water.

.......................................................benny

IAEA 'alarmed' by Iran's alleged nuclear weapons work: diplomat
Thursday, 29 May 2008
VIENNA (AFP) — Inspectors from the UN atomic watchdog are "alarmed" that Iran has in its possession a document describing the process for making what could be the core of a nuclear weapon, a western diplomat said Thursday.

And at a closed-door meeting with diplomats, the International Atomic Energy Agency's chief for inspections, Olli Heinonen, revealed that the agency had gathered intelligence from around 10 countries suggesting Iran was engaged in weaponisation studies in the past, the diplomat said.

Tehran has repeatedly dismissed the intelligence as "fabricated," and the allegations that it was seeking to build a bomb as "baseless".

At a briefing to prepare IAEA board members for a meeting of the full board next week, Heinonen talked about the so-called uranium metal document, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

The 15-page document describes the process of machining uranium metal into two hemispheres of the kind used in nuclear warheads.

"And the term he used for this document was 'alarming'. He essentially said there was no reason why a country would need to possess such a document unless they wanted to produce uranium hemispheres for a nuclear weapon," the diplomat said.

Iran has told the IAEA that it received the document back in 1987 along with design information for the so-called P1 centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

Tehran insists it did not request the uranium metal document.

But the IAEA said in its latest report that it needed to understand the precise role of the document so that it could determine the true nature of Iran's disputed nuclear programme.

When contacted by AFP, Heinonen declined to comment on what he had said at the briefing, which he described as an "informal technical meeting".

But another diplomat close to the Vienna-based IAEA confirmed that Heinonen, who is the agency's deputy director general, had used the term "alarming" in the context of the uranium metal document.

In a sternly-worded report released on Monday, the IAEA expressed "serious concern" that Iran is hiding information about the alleged weaponisation studies, as well as defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

Experts and observers detected a tougher tone in the language of the report, suggesting that the IAEA was becoming frustrated by Iran's persistent stonewalling of its investigations.

"It's one of the toughest I've seen," a western diplomat said Thursday.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, said the IAEA was "of the view that Iran may have additional information" regarding intelligence that suggested it may have looked into high explosives of the sort used in implosion-type nuclear bombs, and explored modifications to missiles consistent with making them capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, speaking to reporters after the briefing Thursday, again dismissed the intelligence as "lousy" and "fake" and accused the United States was trying to influence the IAEA inspectors for its own political ends.

One of the Tehran's main arguments against the authenticity of the intelligence is that none of the documentation had any official stamp marking it as confidential or top secret.

That and numerous other discrepancies were proof that the intelligence was "forged and fabricated," Soltanieh said.

Western countries such as the United States remain unconvinced by such statements, however, and insist the onus is on Tehran to actively disprove the allegations rather than simply dismiss them as untrue.

"As today's briefing showed us, there are strong reasons to suspect that Iran was working covertly and deceitfully, at least until recently, to build a bomb," said the US ambassador to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte.

"Iran has refused to explain or even acknowledge past work on weaponisation," Schulte said.

"This is particularly troubling when combined with Iran's determined effort to master the technology to enrich uranium. Uranium enrichment is not necessary for Iran's civil programme but it is necessary to produce the fissile material that could be weaponised into a bomb," Schulte said.

..................................................benny

critical mess over Iran
Obama and McCain say Iran must not get the bomb. They should read a new UN report.
from the May 30, 2008 edition

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Both John McCain and Barack Obama say Iran must not be allowed to make an atomic bomb. Whomever wins in November may need to act on this pledge early in his presidency. A new UN report cites "serious" concerns about "possible military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear programs.

The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency is extraordinarily tough. The IAEA isn't known to exaggerate and even openly opposes the Bush administration's tough and sometimes threatening talk against Iran. Up to now, the United Nations agency has largely given Iran the benefit of the doubt about its claim that this petroleum-rich country simply seeks a new energy source.

But evidence of Iran's intent is reaching critical mass, compounded by its secrecy in dealing with the IAEA, not to mention direct threats against Israel and pretensions to dominate the Middle East in the name of a flagging Shiite revolution.

For the US presidential campaign, the issue of a nuclearized Iran should be as hot as withdrawal from Iraq.

The Islamic nation's nuclear intent has become clearer as it adds more powerful centrifuges to enrich uranium – in defiance of three resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Many experts say it could make enough fissile material for a bomb by late 2009.

The IAEA found "substantial parts of the centrifuge components were manufactured in the workshops of the Defense Industries Organization." It also describes evidence of detonators, testing systems, and missile configuration that can only go with a nuclear weapon. So much for last year's estimate by US spy agencies that Iran suspended its weapons program in 2003.

If all that isn't enough to persuade Russia and China to help ratchet up UN sanctions on Iran, then there's more. A report last week by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies found that Iran's nuclear threat has already helped create a dangerous ricochet with a surge among Iran's rivals in the region to develop a nuclear-energy capacity.

As of 2007, 13 Middle Eastern nations were on board the atomic train. The report stated: "What they want is the human and technical infrastructure associated with nuclear-energy programs in order to provide a counterbalance to Iran, both laying the ground for a possible future security hedge, and bestowing national prestige in the context of historic rivalries."

The authors of this report note that Tehran has never asked for a US guarantee not to attack Iran. Iran's nuclear program is probably driven largely by its revolutionary and historic compulsion for influence over the region's Muslims. Yet an American security offer is often suggested by those in the US who believe Iran can be talked down from developing a bomb.

In 2006, the West offered Iran a generous and face-saving way to obtain nuclear energy if it ended its weaponization drive. Iran's rejection of that offer has only helped forge world opinion against it, bringing on tougher sanctions and widening splits between its hard-line and moderate conservatives.

The US presidential candidates should be demanding that the UN tighten the sanctions now. That might save the next president from taking tougher action later.
.............................................benny

No early Iran nuclear estimate update -US official
Friday, 30 May 2008
By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence has no plans to revise an estimate of Iran's nuclear ambitions that critics say underplayed Tehran's efforts to make weapons, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald Kerr said, however, that the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran also reflects significant concerns over Iran's intentions, and that these have been overlooked in public debate.

U.S. intelligence officials have spent considerable effort trying to emphasize those concerns since an unclassified version of the document was released in December, Kerr told a think-tank audience.

"Until we have new data, new facts, we're not going to change the basic NIE, the classified version," Kerr told a dinner sponsored by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"We of course are working every day to either find more facts, new facts, or those that might support where we are today," he said.

The estimate said Iran had stopped its development of a nuclear device in 2003 -- a change from previous findings -- but continued both efforts to enrich uranium that can be used for nuclear weapons and its ballistic-missile program.

The disclosure that Iran had stopped device development sparked an international political storm. It slowed what critics had called a hasty rush led by the United States to confront Iran over its nuclear aims, including possible use of force.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has maintained Iran's nuclear program is peaceful, declared victory.

Conservative critics accused U.S. intelligence of understating the threat and undermining President George W. Bush's get-tough policy on Iran.

"In the end we had the perfect storm. Across the entire political spectrum we had made somebody mad," Kerr said. "We didn't do the job we should have in expressing points we were trying to make."

Kerr said he has since sought to emphasize the critical importance of Iran's nuclear material and missile-development programs, which have continued.

"Once you have fissile material in sufficient quantity we're not talking about a great long period of time before an effective weapons capability might exist," he said.


..................................................benny

The Coming Showdown In Iran




Iran Has Nuclear Ambitions And Israel Says " No "

" As head of Israel - I will not allow this. "







Iran's Defense Minister Has Had It With Israel



Any Action By Israel Will Be Seen As US-Sponsored



Israel Is Stockpiling For An Attack

The USA has given Israel 30 long-range F-15's, at a cost of $48 million each.



Bunker Busters

Israel bought 5,000 bunker-busters

Known by the military designations GBU-27 or GBU-28, "bunker busters" are guided by lasers or satellites, and can penetrate up to 10 metres of earth and concrete.



The Plan


Israel will take off with three squadrons of six F-15's - fly over Iraq, and hit Iran's three key facilities. The US is expected to provide satellite information and refueling as the Israeli jets exit.



Israel's False Flag

Iran will see this as an attack by America, and will threaten to retaliate. Israel will launch a Sunburn 22, taking out a carrier, and Iran will get blamed.



The Attack Is Possible Because of These Missiles
The attack is possible because of these missiles, as well as the location. The US Fifth fleet sits in the Persian Gulf - which is a small bay surrounded by rugged mountains and a 20-mile-wide entrance. These missiles are unstoppable, and the 5th fleet is in range of Iran's land facilities.



Sunburn Missile

Unstoppable


Specs

The Raduga Moskit anti-ship missile is perhaps the most lethal anti-ship missile in the world. The MOSKIT is designed to fly as low as 9 feet at over 1,500 miles per hour, faster than a rifle bullet. The missile uses a violent pop-up maneuver for its terminal approach to throw off Phalanx and other anti-missile defense.

Warhead - 200 KILOTON NUCLEAR
Range - 90 MILES
Size - 31.9 FEET
Speed - MACH 2.5 AT SEA LEVEL



SS-NX-26 Yakhonts

180 mile range and unstoppable

The Yakhonts 26 replaces the Sunburn 22. There is absolutely no way to avoid the missile.

Range
250-300 Km

Speed
Mach 2.5



Exocet missile


Iran has 300 of these.
Exocet missiles cost approximately $250,000 in 1970, and older versions are selling for $ 75,000.


Maximum Speed Mach 0.93
Maximum effective range 65 km


Iran's Ballistic missiles


Amount
Range
Shahab- I 300
320 Km
Shahab- 2 100
500 Km
Shahab- 3 a handful
1300 Km
CSS-8 Missiles 200 Chinese 200
150 Km Iran's missile capabilities


Iran Has An Air Force and Navy
F-14 Tomcats
Iran has an Air Force of 320 fighters, of which 100 are F-14 Tomcats and SU-29 Migs. They also have a capable AA defense system of missiles.


Mig-29


Iran Air Force


Iran Has A Navy

When we attacked Iraq they had nothing but the remnants of their shattered ground army, Iran has a modern military.


Iran Has Subs Equipped With Exocet Missiles


How The Attack Plays Out
After Watching Destruction of Iraq, The Iranians Will Be Forced To Respond


Because Iran is already at total war footing, the attacks will escalate out of control in a matter of days.

Israel hits Iran's nuclear facilities

Iran goes to Alert One

Israel hits a US Carrier and blames Iran

US hits Iran's navy in northern Persian Gulf

Iran attacks with all it's missiles

Iran has already calculated their response, and they realize their only option is a massive attack. Iran is sitting on a stockpile of Exocet, Sunburn 22 and SS-NX-26 Yakhonts missiles. The Fifth Fleet sits at Qatar, and it is within range of the Sunburn-22 and Yakhonts. Iran is said to have commercial freighters equipped with Exocets that will be in port at the time. Once Israel hits the US carrier (similar to the USS Liberty) then Iran will have no choice but to defend itself.


The 5th Fleet sits in a lake surrounded by Iran's rugged mountains, and will be decimated by the missiles. The US fleet will arrive in the Indian Ocean, but will be helpless because the straits of Hormuz will be showered by a Phalanx of hundreds of Exocets.




Iraq's Insurgents Regroup

At the same time, the Iraqi insurgents will begin a counter- offensive. A major attack on the Green Zone would take out most of Iraq's foreign administrators. It's very possible that the Iraq occupation could turn very deadly and costly.

Add to this offensives on Iraq's isolated towns, and the occupiers would be in a multiple quagmire - the occupiers now are surrounded. As supplies and ammunition begin to run out, the status of US forces in the region will become precarious.


Straits Of Hormuz

The occupiers will become the besieged The US will be cornered - if they try to escape, they will be slaughtered in the Straits of Hormuz. With Iran's enormous missile capability, the US will have two choices - either go to the UN for peace, or escalate to an all-out nuclear attack on Iran.




Flow Of Oil Stops

With enough anti-ship missiles, the Iranians can halt tanker traffic through Hormuz for weeks, even months. With the flow of oil from the Gulf curtailed, the price of a barrel of crude will skyrocket on the world market. Within days, the global economy will begin to grind to a halt.

........................................................benny

Israelis to receive new non-conventional warfare kits

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Printer-friendly version By Stan Goodenough
May 25, 2008

While Israel was digesting news of sudden "progress' being made on the road towards peace with Syria, local media learned that the nation is soon be issued with newly refurbished kits for protection against non-conventional war.

Gas-masks and other protective gear that has been collected from the public over the last few years and is being updated will be made available for collection starting January 2009.

IDF officials that disclosed this information to The Jerusalem Post were careful to explain that the decision to begin handing out the equipment has not been affected by any threat of imminent war.

Syria and Iran are known to possess chemical and biological weapons, and have both been pursuing nuclear capabilities too, although the Israeli Air Force bombed a secret Syrian nuclear plant late lost year, possibly cooling that country's atomic ardor for now.

At present, the Israeli public is virtually unprotected from any chemical or biological agents that could get past the IDF and penetrate Israeli population centers.

Even after the Home Front begins distributing the gas-mask kits, it will take more than a year for everyone in Israel to be supplied.

....................................................benny

Dave Dolan Will this prophecy soon come to pass? Isaiah 17:1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ-vmsXgmVA

...............................................benny

Iran's uranium program better, experts say


Published: May 30, 2008 at 7:58 AM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- Iran has doubled its ability to enrich uranium , two experts in the United States say, based on a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Iran's nuclear program could cross a key threshold for nuclear weapons capability next year, scientists and experts told the Financial Times. Iran likely will have enriched uranium that -- in theory -- could be turned into a bomb.

David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said Iran is enriching uranium at about 50 percent of the rate it seeks, up from 20 percent.

Iran says its uranium program is peaceful; the United States and its allies say Iran seeks nuclear weapons.

The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency report said between December and May Iran put about four pounds of uranium hexafluoride into centrifuges at its Natanz facility, implying a faster enrichment rate than in previous months when Iran added two pounds.

"A year ago we were talking about the Iranians making enough low enriched uranium to be put in a little glass vial and shown to the press," said Peter Zimmerman, ex-chief scientist for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Now we have almost as much as two people weigh. That's a lot of uranium for a plant that a year ago we were snickering at."

...............................................benny

Iran not seeking to build nuclear weapons: Putin Sat May 31, 10:19 AM ET



PARIS (AFP) - Iran is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons but Tehran should avoid "irritating" its neighbours, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Saturday in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde.

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Putin, who was in Paris for two days of meetings with President Nicolas Sarkozy and other French leaders, said there was no indication Iran was building its own nuclear arsenal.

But he admitted that Iran's compliance with investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was still a "point to be resolved."

Asked if Iran was trying to acquire nuclear weapons, Putin replied: "I don't believe so. Nothing indicates it."

"The Iranians are a proud people," he went on. "They want to enjoy their independence and exercise their legitimate right to civil nuclear power.

"I am serious. On a legal level, Iran has infringed nothing at the moment. They have the same right to enrichment (of uranium). The paperwork says so. Iran is accused of not displaying all its programmes to the IAEA. This point remains to be resolved...."

Putin stressed that Russia was opposed to Iran achieving a nuclear-power status.

"That is our principled position," he said. "Using nuclear weapons in a region as small as the Middle East would be synonymous with suicide. Whose interests would it serve? The Palestinians? Hardly, the Palestinians would cease to exist...."

Iran is accused by Western powers, including the US and France, of seeking to possess nuclear weapons under the cover of a civil nuclear energy programme.

Earlier this week, the IAEA expressed "serious concern" that Iran is still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads and defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

Putin underlined that he had repeatedly told the Tehran government that it "doesn't find itself in an antiseptic zone, but in a volatile region."

"We ask them to take that into account, and not irritate their neighbours or the international community, and prove they have no ulterior motives."

Tehran is already the subject of three United Nations Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions aimed at suspending its uranium enrichment programme and cooperating fully with the IAEA.

Moscow has recently called on the major powers involved in negotiations with Iran to give Tehran "guarantees" about its own security.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected in Italy next week for a three-day UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) conference.

That has prompted the Israeli Ambassador in Rome, Gideon Meir, to call the Iranian regime "one of the worst in the world," in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica Saturday.

"We are facing one of the worst regimes currently in power in the world," Meir said. "I want to make one thing clear: no-one is referring to the Iranian people, but to their regime.

"To see an international organisation like the FAO invite and welcome a leader like Ahmadinejad, who has clearly and strongly declared that Israel must be destroyed, that a state which is a member of the United Nations must be destroyed, is a great sadness to me," he added.

................................................benny

A Syrian Golan Would Become Another Terror Base
May 31….(Israel Today) Far from actual peace, if Israel gave the Golan Heights to Syria, the Jewish state would be looking at a terrorist base camp as a neighbor, according to Arab affairs expert Guy Bechor of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. “From being an empty buffer zone, the Golan Heights will turn into a crowded anti-Israel region for generations to come. From being a strategic asset to Israel, the Golan will turn into a burden on top of the other regional efforts to eliminate Israel,” he wrote. “Our future generations will not forgive anyone who would do that.” Bechor, who wrote an article published in Ynetnews, said that Syrian President Bashar Assad has apparently already announced that any Syrian resident who moves to the Golan will receive a government allowance. Should terror attacks be launched on Israel from Syrian, Assad, much like Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, will be able to blame extremist groups. In the article, Bechor predicts that a peace deal with Israel will precipitate Assad’s downfall. He outlines three destructive steps that would follow a withdawal: up to one million Syrian residents would immediately be resettled in the Golan; Syria would be as subversive with Israel as it is with Lebanon despite ‘friendship’ between the two nations; and Assad himself will fall allowing for a more dangerous regime to be Israel’s next-door neighbor. “The Golan Heights will turn into the radical spearhead against Israel, and not only from Syria. People will be coming from Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere,” he warns. “Terrorism will be two-pronged both from the Golan and from Lebanon. Life in the north will turn into an unbearable nightmare, yet the situation will be irreversible.”
...........................................benny

Interview: Iran Needs to Come Clean on Nuclear Military Plans
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By DAVID ALBRIGHT AND BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Published: May 29, 2008
Interviewee: David Albright, President, Institute for Science and International Security
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Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
David Albright, a leading expert on Iranian nuclear issues, says the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report (PDF) on Iran indicates that "the situation has gotten worse." Iran continues to develop nuclear centrifuges to make enriched uranium and refuses to answer questions about its past military nuclear activities. "Collectively, the information suggests that Iran did have an ambition both to build nuclear weapons and to create a civil nuclear industry." Albright says the Bush administration should agree to talks with Iran without conditions to test the waters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has just published another interim report on its dealings with Iran over its nuclear program. Can you explain in layman's terms where we are?
The situation has gotten worse. Iran continues to make progress building and operating centrifuges able to enrich more uranium. At the same time, it's not answering the IAEA's questions about Iran's past nuclear activities.
And these activities include possible military activities that the IAEA has received information on from the United States and other countries?
That's right. The IAEA received information from the United States, from Israel, and from other countries pointing to Iran's work on nuclear weapons prior to 2004. And the information that the IAEA collected is listed in this report. Overall the information is pretty compelling that Iran was working on aspects of development of a nuclear weapon. The information doesn't include all the tasks that you need to do to make a nuclear weapon; it's about a subset of those tasks. But the information itself, collectively, is pretty compelling and requires some kind of answer from Iran. Iran needs to produce evidence that it's all not true, or explain what it is and perhaps even admit to having worked on nuclear weapons.
The IAEA is not getting any of that. Iran is simply denying it ever worked on nuclear weapons. Iran says these IAEA files are fake. It does admit that some facts are correct. It says "Well, that wasn't for a nuclear weapons program but for some kind of other military program or other application." But they don't give any evidence for those statements. So Iran's essentially asserting things and not producing the documentary evidence that would refute the claims or allowing access to people who could then provide additional information to the inspectors.
Now, the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of late last year started out by saying that Iran had a weapons program that had ended in 2003. But why is this important today in 2008? Is there some suspicion Iran is still secretly working on military weapons?
There're two issues. One is Iran's credibility. Iran says it never thought about building nuclear weapons since it started its centrifuge program back in the mid-1980s. If it turns out that, yes indeed, the centrifuge program was part of a nuclear weapons program, then it raises real questions about Iran's intent in the future.
Another issue is whether there are new avenues that suggest Iran has been working on nuclear weapons since 2003. Israelis claim they have some evidence. The IAEA presented a piece of evidence in its report where you have a very high-level person from Iran in 2006 talking about the option of getting nuclear weapons.
When you look at the sum total of the information about Iran's historical nuclear program, you don't understand why it was started and what purpose it served. There's contradictory information. Collectively, the information suggests that Iran did have an ambition both to build nuclear weapons and to create a civil nuclear industry. And until the IAEA can figure this out, we don't know what Iran is intending to do with its gas centrifuges. Iran is making steady progress on operating these centrifuges.
Now, at one time people were saying Iran was very slow and wasn't really doing very well with these centrifuges. Has it now improved its work?
This report claims that Iran has significantly improved its ability to operate centrifuge cascades, which are 164 centrifuges connected together by piping. Running one poses certain challenges, running many poses additional challenges. Iran in the past was having trouble with centrifuges breaking apart. The centrifuges were shaped and than had to be turned off. But now, it appears to be running the centrifuge cascades in a much more stable manner.
How many are there?
Three thousand centrifuges in about eighteen cascades.
That's the old P-1 [the original Pakistan-developed centrifuge] design?
That's right. It's the P-1 design.
And they're now starting a P-2 cascade?Interview: Iran Needs to Come Clean on Nuclear Military Plans
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They are developing several centrifuges that are more advanced than the P-1. They've been testing more advanced centrifuges at a place called Kalaye Electric in Iran. The IAEA inspectors have not been allowed to do any inspections there because under traditional safeguards, they don't have the right to inspect there. If Iran allowed the Additional Protocol to come in [granting IAEA inspectors authority to visit any nuclear facility, declared or not; Iran signed the protocol in 2003, but withdrew from it in 2005], then the IAEA would know and would have a right to know everything that happened in Kalaye Electric on more advanced centrifuges. But as a result, the IAEA only learns about these advanced centrifuges when they're deployed in Natanz [at the nuclear facility there]. And they're deployed in Natanz when Iran wants to enrich uranium in those centrifuges. We're estimating Iran has deployed three advanced centrifuges at the pilot plant in Natanz.
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Let me just make a point of clarity for you. There's very small numbers of these advanced centrifuges deployed, I mean, you're talking about ten of each type. It's not like a P-1, which they've deployed by the thousands. These are test models that they're experimenting with so they can, in the future, deploy large numbers. At the end of the day, they're much better than P-1's and they will replace the P-1's in a year or two.
In the last interview we had a few months ago, you were saying that nothing is likely to happen until there's a turnover in the White House next year. Is there really nothing that can be done this year to get the situation in a better situation?
It would be very helpful if the United States could start negotiations with Iran and the European Union to stop the centrifuge programming and at the same time to get the United States to drop its condition that Iran has to suspend enrichment before it'll join the negotiations. The United States has considerable leverage in the situation. And I disagree with Bush administration officials who say that they don't. The United States can change the situation if it now joins the negotiations. But I'm not optimistic that they're going to do it. I mean, every time they're asked, they come up with better reasons they can't. And so, I think it will inevitably wait until the next administration, although I would prefer this administration start now because Iran is making steady progress towards developing nuclear weapons capability.
If Iran decided tomorrow that it wants to make a nuclear bomb, does it have enough highly enriched uranium to do it?
Their cascades make enriched uranium. If they decided to go full out for a nuclear weapon now, they would need at least a year to make enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon. It would probably take them longer.
So in your thinking, the United States should announce, "We're willing to have straight-up discussions with Iran on its nuclear program without any preconditions."
That's right. And the goal is to obtain the suspension of the Iranian enrichment program. The Iranian goal of a functioning enrichment plan is still unacceptable, but I don't see any downside to entering negotiations with Iran and discussing with them, "Look, here's what we want: We want a suspension in the enrichment program, we want the Additional Protocol in force, and here's what we are willing to offer you if you do that." I would add that there should be an additional commitment, which would be Iranian cooperation with the IAEA. Some of the things the IAEA asks for go beyond the additional protocol and so you need additional cooperation from Iran.
What does Iran want from the United States? Some security guarantees or what?
Some things are known, and some things are not known. I think they would want some kind of assurance from the United States that it's not going to attack its nuclear program. And that's certainly a complicated issue with Iran. It's more complicated than in the case of North Korea. For the last few years the Bush administration has made it clear to North Korea that if they did denuclearize they would have less and less to worry about a regime change. So there's a different take on that. In Iran, it's more difficult because of some other actions or activities that Iran is engaged in—supporting terrorists and rejecting Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives. But that being said, you can still separate out the nuclear issue and say, "Look, if you allow greater transparency of your nuclear programs, if you consider options to replace your enrichment programs, perhaps even implement them, then we're willing to give you incentives in conjunction with the EU. We're willing to say, look we're not going to try to destabilize your regime." So, I think you can work that package of things that would allow this whole situation to become much less dangerous.
.........................................benny

Please take the time to read this. This intro is by John R. ( Jack ) Farrington, Major General, USAF (Retired). ~Bash…

“I’ll tell you what war is all about; you’ve got to kill people, and when you’ve killed enough they stop fighting.”
Gen. Curtis LeMay

Introduction

This is one of the most profound articles that I have ever read about this Presidency, this era, and this war. No matter your politics, you owe it to yourself to read this.

An assessment of where the US stands in relation to the Middle East problems, this one is from the guy who had his finger on the nuclear trigger for three years as head of our defense and response complex buried under Cheyenne Mountain at Colorado Springs.

He was the only person who could initiate a nuclear attack after advising the sitting president of a missile launch by our enemies and our need to respond.

No political or civilian type in the US had more knowledge about day to day military actions around the world.

Everyone should find quiet time to read this. As far as I am concerned, it is exactly the direction we should go and the consequences of not doing so are well thought out.

John R. ( Jack ) Farrington, Major General, USAF (Retired)

* * *

Middle East Imperative

by: James Cash, Brig. Gen., USAF, (Retired)

I wrote recently about the war in Iraq and the larger war against radical Islam, eliciting a number of responses. Let me try and put this conflict in proper perspective.

Understand; the current battle we are engaged in is much bigger than just Iraq. What happens in the next year will affect this country and how our kids and grand kids live throughout their lifetime, and beyond. Radical Islam has been attacking the West since the seventh century. They have been defeated in the past and decimated to the point of taking hundreds of years to recover. But they can never be totally defeated. Their birth rates are so far beyond civilized world rates, that in time they recover and attempt to dominate again.

There are eight terror-sponsoring countries that make up the grand threat to the West. Two, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan just need firm pressure from the West to make major reforms. They need to decide who they are really going to support and commit to that support.

That answer is simple. They both will support who they think will hang in there until the end, and win.

We are not sending very good signals in that direction right now, thanks to the Democrats.

The other six, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea and Libya will require regime change or a major policy shift. Now, let’s look more closely.

Afghanistan and Iraq have both had regime changes, but are being fueled by outsiders from Syria and Iran . We have scared Gaddafi’s pants off, and he has given up his quest for nuclear weapons, so I don’t think Libya is now a threat.

North Korea (the non-Islamic threat) can be handled diplomatically by buying them off. They are starving. That leaves Syria and Iran. Syria is like a frightened puppy. Without the support of Iran they will join the stronger side. So where does that leave us? Sooner, or later, we are going to be forced to confront Iran, and it better be before they gain nuclear capability.

In 1989 I served as a Command Director inside the Cheyenne Mountain complex located in Colorado Springs, Colorado for almost three years. My job there was to observe (through classified means) every missile shot anywhere in the world and assess if it was a threat to the US or Canada. If any shot was threatening to either nation I had only minutes to advise the President, as he had only minutes to respond.

I watched Iran and Iraq shoot missiles at each other every day, and all day long, for months. They killed hundreds of thousands of their people. Know why? They were fighting for control of the Middle East and that enormous oil supply.

At that time, they were preoccupied with their internal problems and could care less about toppling the west. Oil prices were fairly stable and we could not see an immediate threat.

Well, the worst part of what we have done as a nation in Iraq is to do away with the military capability of one of those nations. Now, Iran has a clear field to dominate the Middle East, since Iraq is no longer a threat to them.

They have turned their attention to the only other threat to their dominance, they are convinced they will win, because the US is so divided, and the Democrats (who now control Congress and may control the Presidency in 2008) have openly said we are pulling out.

Do you have any idea what will happen if the entire Middle East turns their support to Iran, which they will obviously do if we pull out? It is not the price of oil we will have to worry about. Oil WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE to this country at any price. I personally would vote for any presidential candidate who did what JFK did with the space program—declare a goal to bring this country to total energy independence in a decade.

Yes, it is about oil. The economy in this country will totally die if that Middle East supply is cut off right now. It will not be a recession. It will be a depression that will make 1929 look like the “good-old-days”. The bottom line here is simple. If Iran is forced to fall in line, the fighting in Iraq will end over night, and the nightmare will be over.

One way or another, Iran must be forced to join modern times and the global community. It may mean a real war—if so, now is the time, before we face a nuclear Iran with the capacity to destroy Israel and begin a new ice age.

I urge you to read the book “END GAME” by two of our best Middle East experts, true American patriots and retired military generals, Paul Vallely and Tom McInerney . They are our finest, and totally honest in their assessment of why victory in the Middle East is so important, and how it can be won. Proceeds for the book go directly to memorial fund for our fallen soldiers who served the country during the war on terror. You can find that book by going to the Internet through Stand-up America at http://www.ospreyradio.us/, http://www.ospreyradio.us/ or http://www.rightalk.com/, http://www.rightalk.com/.

On the other hand, we have several very angry retired generals today, who evidently have not achieved their lofty goals, and insist on ranting and raving about the war. They are wrong, and doing the country great harm by giving a certain political party reason to use them as experts to back their anti-war claims.

You may be one of those who believe nothing could ever be terrible enough to support our going to war. If that is the case I should stop here, as that level of thinking approaches mental disability in this day and age. It is right up there with alien abductions and high altitude seeding through government aircraft contrails. I helped produce those contrails for almost 30 years, and I can assure you we were not seeding the atmosphere. The human race is a war-like population, and if a country is not willing to protect itself, it deserves the consequences.

‘Enough - said!’

Now, my last comments will get to the nerve. They will be on politics.

I am not a Republican. And, George Bush has made enough mistakes as President to insure my feelings about that for the rest of my life. However, the Democratic Party has moved so far left, they have made me support those farther to the right.

I am a conservative who totally supports the Constitution of this country. The only difference between the United States and the South American, third world, dictator infested and ever-changing South American governments, is our US Constitution.

This Republic (note I did not say Democracy) is the longest standing the world has ever known, but it is vulnerable. It would take so little to change it through economic upheaval. There was a time when politicians could disagree, but still work together. We are past that time, and that is the initial step toward the downfall of our form of government.

I think that many view Bush-hating as payback time. The Republicans hated the Clinton’s and now the Democrats hate Bush.

So, both parties are putting their hate toward willingness to do anything for political dominance to include lying and always taking the opposite stand just for the sake of being opposed. JUST HOW GOOD IS THAT FOR OUR COUNTRY?

In my lifetime, after serving in uniform for President’s Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan , and Bush I have a pretty good feel for which party supported our military, and what military life was like under each of their terms. And, let me assure you that times were best under the Republicans.

Service under Jimmy Carter was devastating for all branches of the military. And, Ronald Regan was truly a salvation.

You can choose to listen to enriched newscasters, and foolish people like John Murtha (he is no war hero), Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Michael Moore, Jane Fonda, Harry Reid, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and on-and-on to include the true fools in Hollywood if you like. If you do, your conclusions will be totally wrong.

The reason that I write, appear on radio talk shows, and do everything I can to denounce those people is simple. THEY ARE PUTTING THEIR THIRST FOR POLITICAL POWER AND QUEST FOR VICTORY IN 2008 ABOVE WHAT IS BEST FOR THIS COUNTRY. I cannot abide that.

Pelosi clearly defied the Logan Act by going to Syria , which should have lead to imprisonment of three years and a heavy fine.

Jane Fonda did more to prolong the Vietnam War longer than any other human being (as acknowledged by Ho Chi Minh in his writing before he died). She truly should have been indicted for treason, along with her radical husband, Tom Hayden, and forced to pay the consequences.

This country has started to soften by not enforcing its laws, which is another indication of a Republic about to fall.

All Democrats, along with the Hollywood elite, are sending us headlong into a total defeat in the Middle East, which will finally give Iran total dominance in the region. A lack of oil in the near future will be the final straw that dooms this Republic.

However, if we refuse to let this happen and really get serious about an energy self-sufficiency program, this can be avoided. I am afraid, however, that we are going in the opposite direction.

If we elect Hillary Clinton and a Democrat controlled congress, and they carry through with allowing Iran to take control of the Middle East, continue to refuse development of nuclear energy, refuse to allow drilling for new oil, and continue to do nothing but oppose everything Bush, it will be over in terms of what we view as the good life in the USA.

Now, do I think that all who do not support the war are un-American— of course not. They just do not understand the importance of total victory in that region.

Another failure of George Bush is his inability to explain to the American people why we are there, and why we MUST win.

By the way, it is not a war. The war was won four years ago. It is martial law that is under attack by Iranian and Syrian outside influences, and there is a difference.

So, what do I believe? What is the bottom line? I will simply say that the Democratic Party has fielded the foulest, power hungry, anti-country, self absorbed group of individuals that I have observed in my lifetime. Our educational system is partially to blame for allowing the mass of America to be taken in by this group. George Bush has done the best he can with the disabilities that he possesses.

A President must communicate with the people. And, I would tell you that Desert Storm spoiled the people. Bush Senior’s 100-hour war convinced the people that technology has progressed to the point that wars could be fought with no casualties and won in very short periods of time.

I remember feeling at the time, that this was a tragedy for the US military. To win wars, you must put boots on the ground. When you put boots on the ground, soldiers are going to die. A President must make the war decision wisely, and insure that the cause is right before using his last political option.

HOWEVER, CONTROLLING IRAN AND DEMOCRATIZING THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE ONLY CHOICE IF WE ARE HELL-BENT ON DEPENDING ON THEM FOR OUR FUTURE ENERGY NEEDS.

Jimmy L. Cash, Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret.
Lakeside, Montana 59922

http://patdollard.com/2008/01/the-mo...r-posted-here/
........................................benny

Ahmadinejad says US & Israel will 'Disappear'
(Criminal and terrorist Zionist regime has reached the end of its work, Iranian president tells foreign guests marking 19th anniversary of death of country's late revolutionary leader. 'Satanic power' of United States faces destruction, he adds)

June 2….(YNET) Iran's president said on Monday Israel would soon disappear off the map and that the "satanic power" of the United States faced destruction, in his latest verbal attack on the Islamic Republic's arch-foes. Ahmadinejad spoke at a gathering of foreign guests marking this week's 19th anniversary of the death of Iran's late revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. "You should know that the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime which has 60 years of plundering, aggression and crimes in its file has reached the end of its work and will soon disappear off the geographical scene," he said. Turning to the United States, he said the era of decline and destruction of its "satanic power" had begun and added: "The bell on the countdown of the destruction of the empire of power and wealth has begun to ring." The United States, which severed ties with Iran shortly after its 1979 Islamic revolution, is leading efforts to isolate Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. Some analysts have speculated that Israel might attack Iran to stop its nuclear activities, which the West fears are a front for weapons development. Iran, which does not recognize Israel, insists it wants nuclear technology only for electricity. Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, says it has developed ballistic missiles able to hit Israel and US bases in the region.

...............................................benny

Iran Achieves a Four-Front Missile Command Against Israel
June 1….(DEBKA) DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps have created a separate missile command, in which Syria’s missile force is to be integrated. The joint command was formalized in a new mutual defense treaty signed by the Syrian defense minister, Gen. Hassan Turkmani in Tehran last week. Israeli military sources judge the operational merger of Iranian and Syrian missile corps to be a major strategic hazard to the Jewish State. Western and Israeli military experts connect it with other indications that Iran’s program for developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads has gone into high gear and reached an advanced stage. They believe the Iranians have beaten most of the technical difficulties holding it up. On May 26, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which often goes easy on Iran, released a harsh report confirming Iran’s progress in “missile warhead design.” The new missile command was cautiously announced last week by the IRGC commander, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari. He said: “An independent command might be created in Sepah (IRGC) in order to fortify the structure and activities of the missile section.” DEBKAfile’s Iranians sources explain Jafar’s cautious language on three grounds:

1. He was preparing Iran’s population and the Arab world for a pretty portentous development.

2. He was at pains not to put off figures in the West who argue strongly in favor of unconditional talks with Tehran over its nuclear misdeeds. He counted on those advocates shouting down the Western strategists who would appreciate the startling significance of the separate command.

3. Tehran also views Syria’s co-option and the new mutual defense treaty as a sort of guarantee that Assad’s “peace talks” with Israel will in no way detract from his military and other commitments to Iran.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose that the details of the combined command were worked out ahead of the Syrian defense minister’s talks in Tehran: It was agreed that Syria’s missile units would come under the new independent Iranian missile section and their operations would be fully coordinated with Tehran. Iranian officers are to be attached to Syrian units and Syrian officers posted to the Iranian command. In the interim, Hizballah’s rise to power in Beirut has brought Lebanon into the shared Syrian-Iranian orbit. This development has enabled Tehran to line up a row of missiles deployments of varying strengths from Iran, Syria and Lebanon and up to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a missile array never before seen in the Middle East and a strategic menace most of Israel’s security leaders rate unacceptable. Military experts comment that Tehran’s centralized control of four hostile missile fronts will virtually neutralize the American and Israeli anti-missile defense systems in the region; the Arrow and the Patriot missile interceptors could handle incoming missiles from one or maybe two directions, but not four. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israel’s armed forces have been working overtime, against repeated holdups, to get the third Arrow battery installed. It is to be deployed in northern Israel as a shield against Syrian ballistic missiles and Iranian missiles stationed in Syria. The formation of the joint Iranian-Syrian missile command has slowed the project down. It calls for modifications in the Arrow’s deployment to meet the fresh challenge and a time-consuming study by US and Israeli intelligence specialists of how the new command structure functions. Western military sources doubt the Arrow system will be up and running by this summer, a period considered critical by military observers. They discount as over-optimistic recent claims by Israeli officials that the new Iron Dome will be ready for operational testing against short-range missiles in the next year or two. In a related development, DEBKAfile’s Gulf sources report that next week, Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Syrian president Bashar Assad launch a major campaign to further isolate American influence and bludgeon moderate Arab governments into alignment with their extreme anti-US, anti-Israel line. Assad sets out Sunday, June 1, for the United Arab Emirates for talks with Sheikh KHalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in Abu Dhabi. Tuesday, he spends two days in Kuwait. The visits were set up by the Qatar ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who spent Friday, May 30, in Assad’s palace, gathering compliments for the Doha accord he mediated which solved Lebanon’s political crisis by installing a national unity government in Beirut dominated by Hizballah. The Qatari ruler, Assad and Khamenei have joined forces to use the Lebanon accord as an object lesson to teach Arab governments that they do not need the United States or Saudi Arabia to help them manage their problems. This message was relayed in Iran foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki’s arrogant statement in Stockholm Friday. He said: “The United States of America needs a serious review of its foreign policy towards the Middle East. These policies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and generally speaking in the Middle East are mistaken policies.” DEBKAfile’s political sources point out that these reverses are piling up against the United States and Israel at the worst time possible: both governments are hobbled, Washington in the dying days of the Bush administration, and Israel, by the grave corruption allegations against prime minister Ehud Olmert which have placed him and the other two senior policy-makers, the defense and foreign ministers, at loggerheads.

.........................................benny

The article below should cause one to realize that Ezekial 38 will happen prior to Daniels 70th week.......The Lord wipes out all the armies of these invading nations......When this happens...The anti-christs armies will be the number one super power, because Russia and the arabs armies are temporarialy no more.The anti-christ guarrentees Israel peace and security for 7 years. and there would not be an army who would oppose Israel to build the third temple on the temple mount, but yet I believe that this temple will be built within meters of the Dome of the Rock....Because, the Word of God says for them to leave out the outter court


Muslims Warn Temple Mount '100% Islamic'
(Warning: 'Any action that offends holy site will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims')

June 2 ….(WND) Jerusalem and the Temple Mount belong to the Muslims and any Israeli action that "offends" the Mount will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims, declared the chief of staff for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "Jerusalem is Muslim. The blessed Al Aqsa mosque and Harem Al Sharif (Temple Mount) is 100 percent Muslim. The Israelis are playing with fire when they threaten Al Aqsa with digging that is taking place," said Abbas' chief of staff Rafiq Al Husseini.

Husseini was referring to Israeli plans to construct a new bridge from the Western Wall area to the Temple Mount. The old bridge was damaged two years ago. When Israeli workers tried to repair it, Palestinian leaders claimed the work was threatening the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the mosque is located hundreds of feet away, the work did not tunnel under any Mount foundation or touch any structure connected to the mosque, and the repair work, which had been pre-approved by Jordan and the Mount's Muslim custodians, was conducted under the scrutiny of an accessible 24/7 webcam. "Any hurting of Jerusalem will explode the whole negotiations between us and the Israelis, we must work to strengthen Palestinian ties to Jerusalem," al-Husseini said. Israel has been negotiating with Abbas in line with talks started at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis Summit, which seeks to create a Palestinian state before the end of the year. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is widely expected to offer the Palestinians most of the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem. The Temple Mount is located in eastern Jerusalem. Mainstream Palestinian leaders claim the Temple Mount is Muslim in spite of overwhelming archaeological evidence documenting the first and second Jewish temples. Taysir Tamimi, chief Palestinian Justice and one of the most influential Muslim leaders in Israel, argued the Jewish Temples never existed, the Western Wall really was a tying post for Muhammad's horse, the Al Aqsa Mosque was built by angels, and Abraham, Moses and Jesus were prophets for Islam. Tamimi is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. "Israel started since 1967 making archeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s," said Tamimi. "About these so-called two Temples, they never existed, certainly not at the [Temple Mount]," Tamimi said during a sit-down interview in his eastern Jerusalem office. The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples throughout Jerusalem, including on the Temple Mount itself; excavations revealing Jewish homes and a synagogue in a site in Jerusalem called the City of David; or even the recent discovery of a Second Temple Jewish city in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Tamimi said descriptions of the Jewish Temples in the Hebrew Tanach, in the Talmud and in Byzantine and Roman writings from the Temple periods were forged, and that the Torah was falsified to claim biblical patriarchs and matriarchs were Jewish when indeed they were prophets for Islam. "All this is not real. We don't believe in all your versions. Your Torah was falsified. The text as given to the Muslim prophet Moses never mentions Jerusalem. Maybe Jerusalem was mentioned in the rest of the Torah, which was falsified by the Jews," said Tamimi. He said Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus were "prophets for the Israelites sent by Allah as to usher in Islam." Asked about the Western Wall, Tamimi said the structure was a tying post for Muhammad's horse and that it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the Wall predates the mosque by over 1,000 years. "The Western wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It's where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah." The Kotel, or Western Wall, is an outer retaining wall of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple and still stands today in Jerusalem. Tamimi went on to claim to WND the Al Aqsa Mosque, which has sprung multiple leaks and has had to be repainted several times, was built by angels. "Al Aqsa was build by the angels forty years after the building of Al-Haram in Mecca. This we have no doubt is true," he said. The First Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century BC It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515BC after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in AD70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries. The Temple was the center of religious worship for ancient Israelites. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's presence dwelt. All biblical holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Temples served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for Israelites. According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. It's believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed in about 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark what Muslims came to believe was the place at which Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah. Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible 656 times. Muslims worldwide pray with their backs away from the Temple Mount and toward Mecca. According to research by Israeli Author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam historically disregarded Jerusalem. Berkovits points out in his new book, "How dreadful is this place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. He wrote Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship, and sanctifying only one place, the Kaaba in Mecca, to signify the unity of God. As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred.

....................................................benny

Ahmadinejad: Europe Suffering Because of Zionists
(Iranian president drops by Rome for UN summit, tells EU Israel a political, economical burden to it. Italian government, seemingly embarrassed by outspoken guest, drops him from summit's gala closing event.)

June 3….(YNET) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Rome on Tuesday to attend the United Nations summit on global food security. Ahmadinejad was quick to attack Israel upon his arrival, saying Europe was bearing the economic and political costs of the "false Zionist regime." "I do not believe that my declarations create problems," Ahmadinejad told summit goers via an interpreter. "People like my comments, because this way the public can save themselves from the imposition of the Zionists. "European peoples have suffered the greatest damage from Zionists and today the costs of this false regime, be they political or economic costs, are on Europe's shoulders," he said. Italian public television, RAI, reported that the Iranian president's name was dropped from the summit's closing gala event guest list, which will be hosted by Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.Ahmadinejad's participation in the summit has been the source of much embarrassment to the Italian government. Both Berlusconi and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini have made it clear that they would not meet with him, since Iran does not recognize Israel's right to exist. Ahmadinejad had also reportedly asked for a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI but was turned away. The Vatican issued a statement saying all similar requests to see the pope during the summit were declined as well and added that media interpretations that the pope was snubbing anyone were wrong.

.............................................benny

McCain, Obama Exchange Barbs On Iran
June3….(IsraelNN.com) Republican Presidential nominee John McCain and lead Democratic candidate Barack Obama attacked each other's stands regarding the Iranian danger Monday, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made it clear Tuesday that force was still an option for dealing with Iran. Speaking before American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention in Washington, DC, McCain said: "The Iranians have spent years working toward a nuclear program. And the idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refuse to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history. In reality, a series of administrations have tried to talk to Iran, and none tried harder than the Clinton administration." "Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before," McCain said, in a reference to Obama's statements on the matter. "Yet it's hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability. It's hard to see what a summit with Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants. Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them," McCain explained, "we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on. Essential to this strategy is the UN Security Council, which should impose progressively tougher political and economic sanctions. Should the Security Council continue to delay in this responsibility, the United States must lead like-minded countries in imposing multilateral sanctions outside the UN framework. A severe limit on Iranian imports of gasoline would create immediate pressure on Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to change course, and to cease in the pursuit of nuclear weapons." McCain noted that he was one of the senators who authored an amendment calling for the designation of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. "Over three quarters of the Senate supported this obvious step, but not Senator Obama," he said. He opposed this resolution because its support for countering Iranian influence in Iraq was, he said, a 'wrong message not only to the world, but also to the region.' But here, too, he is mistaken. Holding Iran's influence in check, and holding a terrorist organization accountable, sends exactly the right message to Iran, to the region and to the world."

McCain policy 'failed and dangerous'

Sen. Obama was quick to respond to McCain's criticism: "John McCain stubbornly insists on continuing a dangerous and failed foreign policy that has clearly made the United States and Israel less secure," he contended. "Here are the results of the policies that John McCain has supported, and would continue. During the Bush Administration, Iran has dramatically expanded its nuclear program, going from zero centrifuges to more than 3000 centrifuges. During the Bush Administration, Iran has expanded its influence throughout a vitally important region, plying Hamas and Hezbollah with money and arms. During the Bush Administration, Hamas took over.
"John McCain continues to run on a platform of doubling down on George Bush's failed policies.Most importantly, the war in Iraq that John McCain supported and promises to continue indefinitely has done more to dramatically strengthen and embolden Iran than anything in a generation." "Confronted with that reality, John McCain promises four more years of the same policies that have strengthened Iran, making the United States and Israel less safe," Obama continued. "He promises to continue a war in Iraq that has emboldened Iran and strengthened its hand. He promises sanctions that the Bush Administration has been unable to persuade the Security Council to deliver. He promises a divestment campaign, even though he refused to sign on to Barack Obama's bipartisan divestment bill, refused to get his colleagues to lift an anonymous hold on the bill, and willfully ignores the fact that trade and investment between Iran and Iraq continue to expand. He stubbornly refuses to engage in aggressive diplomacy, ruling it out unconditionally as a tool of American power. "Instead of recognizing reality," the Democratic contender added, "John McCain continues to run on a platform of doubling down on George Bush's failed policies, while carrying on his divisive brand of politics. The United States and Israel cannot afford four more years of an unwillingness to change course."

......................................benny

First Iran-made Multiple Launch Rocket fired from Gaza
(Iran-made 107mm Multiple Launcher Rocket - now in Gaza)

June 3….(DEBKA) The new weapon, of the type used by the Lebanese Hizballah against northern Israel, was fired for the first time by Palestinians from Gaza Tuesday, June 3. It landed on open ground in Shaar Henegev. The newly smuggled weapon carries a 8 kg payload, bigger than the Qassam missile with about the same 9 km range, drastically escalates the Hamas-led war against the southwestern Israeli population. For the first time, the Palestinian terrorists have acquired a weapon launched from a vehicle. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that weapons consignments, including increasingly advanced systems, continue to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Iran and Sudan for Hamas and its terrorist allies. The consignments are dropped from freighters into smugglers’ boats in the Suez Canal and unloaded on the Sinai coast. The Egyptian police are performing better now in intercepting illicit weapons deliveries, but their work is seriously impeded by the fact that some of the officers are bribed by the smugglers for their collaboration.

............................................benny

Jerusalem Day Celebrations Begin
June 2….(IsraelNN.com) Lovers of Jerusalem around the world are celebrating the 41st anniversary of the reunification of the holy city during the Six Day War. The central event in the capital will be the traditional Rikudgalim, Flag Dance March, towards the Old City. Girls begin at Independence Park, between Ben Yehuda and Agron Streets, and boys will set out from Sacher Park, a bit further to the west. Thousands of youths are expected to take part, marching and singing with flags of Israel. The day commemorates the miraculous liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem, just days after several Arab armies threatened to wipe the State of Israel off the map. Weeks of trepidation and tension suddenly gave way to celebration and thanksgiving. When the borders of the State of Israel were drawn by the UN Partition Plan of 1947, and were later revamped in 1949 following the War of Independence, the joy of Jews around the world at the establishment of the first Jewish state in the Land of Israel in nearly 1,900 years was dampened by the fact that the holy sites of Jerusalem, particularly the Temple Mount, were left out. The continued longing for Jerusalem was expressed, for instance, by Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, the head of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav. Speaking to his students on Independence Day of 1967, just weeks before the Six Day War, he seemed to be gripped by prophecy when he cried out, "Where is our Hevron? Have we forgotten it? And where is our Shechem (Nablus)? Have we forgotten it? And where is our Jericho? Have we forgotten it? And where is all the rest of the Land of Israel? Where are all the pieces of G-d's Land? Do we have the right to give up even one millimeter? Heaven forbid. Three weeks and two days after the rabbi's emotional cry, Hevron, Jericho, Shechem and Jerusalem were once again in Jewish hands. The continued longing for Jerusalem before 1967 was expressed on another level by Naomi Shemer, in her famous song "Jerusalem of Gold" The original lyrics read, "The city that sits solitary, and in its midst, a wall... How the cisterns have dried, the market-place is empty, and no one frequents the Temple Mount, in the Old City... Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light, Behold I am a violin for all your songs..." Just a few months later, she was able to add these lyrics as the final stanza: "We have returned to the cisterns, To the market and to the market-place, A ram's horn (shofar) calls out (i.e. is being heard) on the Temple Mount, In the Old City." The song Jerusalem of Gold became Israel's unofficial national anthem, sung in joy at every opportunity.

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- Iran Denies Interest in Nuclear Weapons

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Iran’s top leader today denounced any interest in his nation having nuclear weapons, a day after the top U.N. nuclear official expressed “serious concern” over Tehran’s cooperation with international inspectors (see GSN, June 2).

“The Iranian nation is not seeking a nuclear weapon,” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech. “We are seeking nuclear energy for peaceful purposes for daily use and we will continue this path to the envy of our enemies. We will mightily achieve this aim.”

Yesterday, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei called for Iran to offer more transparency and cooperation to the agency if Tehran wishes to allay suspicions about its nuclear ambitions.

Khamenei denied any aspirations for nuclear weapons, Agence France-Presse reported.

“You know the Iranian nation is in principle and on religious grounds against the nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons only incur high costs and have no use. They do not bring power to a nation,” he said.

He also invoked wider concerns about nonstate actors acquiring nuclear weapons.

“Sooner or later, international terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weapons and bring the security of the world arrogance (the West) and all the other nations to an end," he said (Agence France-Presse/Google News, June 3). http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...WdpSk9uEurOdgA
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JPost.com » Israel » Article


Jun 4, 2008 4:32 | Updated Jun 4, 2008 7:00
PM: Stop Iran by all possible means
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
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"The Iranian threat must be stopped by all possible means," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday night.


Olmert delivers speech at AIPAC conference.
Photo: GPO

Slideshow: Pictures of the week Speaking to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, Olmert said that international economic and political sanctions on Iran, "as crucial as they may be," were only an initial step, and must be dramatically increased.

"Iran's defiance of international resolutions and its continued tactics of deception and denial leave no doubt as to the urgent need for more drastic and robust measures," he said.

He called Iran the world's largest exporter of terrorism and a fundamentalist dictatorship, motivated by "utter contempt" for the values represented by the free world and an uninhibited ambition to achieve military superiority and regional hegemony.

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Syrian agency: Peace talks to continue Thurs.
Olmert said that while Israel and the United States had long understood the acute danger embodied in a nuclear Iran, other countries should penalize Iran by barring business travelers, blocking financial transactions and imposing sanctions on Iran's import of refined gasoline and on countries that perform that task for oil-rich but facilities-poor Iran.

"Each and every country must understand that the long-term cost of a nuclear Iran greatly outweighs the short-term benefits of doing business with Iran," he said.

He said that sanctions must be "clearly defined and religiously enforced," claiming that willingness to overlook Iranian violations or "justify Iran's questionable tactics" would immediately be interpreted as a sign of weakness and will only encourage the Islamic republic to proceed with more vigor.

"The international community has a duty and responsibility to clarify to Iran, through drastic measures, that the repercussions of their continued pursuit of nuclear weapons will be devastating," continued the prime minister.

Referring to peace talks with Syria, Olmert said that the country was still a threat to regional stability, "but if it ultimately makes the choice to have peace relations with Israel, for which it will have to disengage from its allies in the axis of evil, this will constitute a drastic, strategic shift in the entire Middle East."

He said Iran's negative response to the renewed diplomatic negotiations can serve as an indication of their benefits.

Olmert emphasized that peace between Israel and Syria was a clear interest to both sides and stressed that any eventual deal would not come at the expense of Israel's security.

"I know all too well the fears, suspicions and criticism which have always surrounded the Israeli-Syrian negotiations, and I do not take them lightly. I can only assure you that any future agreement, if and when it is reached, will be backed by all the necessary security guarantees, and that I will never compromise on anything which could undermine Israel's security or vital interests," he said.

Olmert added that the IDF would not hold back from a wide-scale onslaught in Gaza if Israel believes that it is the best way to restore quiet to southerners .

"Israel will not be deterred by a large military operation in Gaza if and when we come to the conclusion that this is the best way to restore calm on our southern border, but the fact that no such operation has yet taken place does not imply that we are not taking action," he said.

The prime minister went on to say that the battle against Gaza terrorists was a daily and continuous one. "Every day, the government and the security forces weigh all possible alternatives, and make the choice which we believe is the wisest and most effective."

Olmert reiterated that Israel "has never, nor will it ever," negotiate with Hamas, as long as it refuses to accept the principles set by the international community.

He declared that a "clear distinction" must be made between the group and the Palestinian Authority and expressed hope that talks with the PA would lead to an agreement, proving there is an alternative to violence.


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Assad Now Demands Golan Plus Sea of Galilee Shore
June 4….(DEBKA) In his interview in Dubai on June 2, president Bashar Assad raised his price for a peace deal with Israel, DEBKAfile’s political source note. The Golan, which Syria’s invading army lost to Israel in the 1967 war, is not enough; Assad is also demanding a strip of the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which Damascus considers demilitarized territory held by Israel against international law. The last round of peace talks eight years ago broke down over this very demand. The Syrian ruler told the Gulf newspaper al-Khaleej: “But if the question of water is intended for us to give up the 1967 borders that stretch to Tiberias (Sea of Galilee), then there will never be a compromise on the 1967 borders.” The strip Assad referred to is crowded with the Israeli kibbutzim, Ha’on, Tel Katzir, Shear Hagolan and Massada, which in the 1950s and 1960s lived under constant Syrian shelling from the Golan plateau overhead. These attacks often blew up into major Israel-Syria clashes and aerial dogfights. DEBKAfile’s sources comment that Assad published his expanded demands on the day Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert arrived in Washington for talks with the US president and top officials. The message he was broadcasting from Dubai was addressed to George W. Bush’s successor in the White House in the hope that the next president opts for diplomatic talks with Tehran and Damascus. The Syrian ruler therefore made a point of mentioning that serious peace talks with Israel would not start before next year and Washington would need to take a hand in the process. Jockeying for position ahead of these talks, Assad made it clear that he was also challenging Israel’s control of the Sea of Galilee, the main source of its national water supply. “As for water,” he said. “There are international rules that govern these matters and are usually referred to.” Damascus has always claimed that the sources feeding the lake are Syrian and Lebanese and Israel therefore does not have exclusive ownership

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Israel Celebrates Jerusalem 41
June 4….(JNEWSWIRE) Tens of thousands of visitors came up to Jerusalem Sunday and Monday to participate in celebrations marking 41 years since the capital was reunified and restored to Jewish sovereignty millennia after it was lost to them. Parades, concerts, flag dances and fireworks shows are among the numerous events taking place around the city through this week as "Jerusalem 40" the special year of commemorations since the age-old daily Amidah prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem to the Jews was finally answered - draws to a close. The 40th Anniversary of Jerusalem's Reunification coincides with the 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Jewish State, celebrations of which have been underway for weeks, bringing thousands of well-wishers to the land. Sunday also saw massive rallies in celebration of the 60 years taking place in New York and Washington DC as Americans joined their hearts with Israelis for this special occasion. The resurrection of the Jewish nation in their homeland, and their return to rule in Jerusalem, was all foretold in the Bible, in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. Millions of Bible-believing Christians therefore rejoiced when Jerusalem was returned to Jewish rule, remembering the words of Jesus Christ, who about 30 years before the Romans destroyed the city and its Temple in AD70 said that one day, after being trodden underfoot by gentile powers for a long period of time, during which the Jewish people would suffer unending persecution, Jerusalem would finally be restored to its rightful owners. When it happened, in 1967, this restoration was seen as a miracle in and of itself as in just six days Israel demolished Arab armies amassed to destroy the Jewish state. Forty-one years later, as the song "Jerusalem of Gold" made famous after that victory echoes up from the Sultan's Pool down below the Old City walls, an unrelenting international effort continues to wrest the holiest parts of this sacred city away from the Jews once more. Most sought after is Israel's holiest site, the Temple Mount, which is earmarked to become part of the Arab State of Palestine, when it is created. An exclusive report at the top of the WorldNetDaily website Monday was headlined, "Temple Mount '100 percent Islamic' and quoted PLO chief and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas' chief of staff as warning that "any Israeli action that 'offends' the Mount will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims."

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McCain at AIPAC: Mocks Obama's Desire to Meet Ahmedinejad

(McCain at AIPAC 2008)

June 4….(Israel Insider) Over 7,000 people roared their approval of Senator John McCain yesterday as he delivered a foreign policy address to the annual conference of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). The Republican presidential nominee told the crowd that the "surge" had helped turn the tide in Iraq, and he reminded them that Barack Obama voted to cut off funds to American troops. McCain told the conference that the American-Israel alliance must be strengthened. He rejected talks with Iranian leader Ahmadinejad, who yesterday promised his supporters that Israel and the US would soon disappear. The Republican standard-bearer mocked Obama's position that we should immediately negotiate with Ahmadinejad without any pre-conditions. "We hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before. Yet it's hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies the Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability." "Rather than sit down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on."

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Egypt tries to thwart Israel's plans in Europe

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Egypt, Israel, European Union

Egypt has recently been attempting to thwart a proposed agreement to upgrade Israel's relationship with the European Union.

The proposed deal would significantly improve Israeli access to European markets, and could thus add billions of dollars to Israel's economy.

Israel first learned of the Egyptian efforts about two months ago, thanks to a tip received via diplomatic channels. The Foreign Ministry began investigating, and discovered that Cairo had instructed its ambassadors in Europe to wage a diplomatic campaign against the agreement.
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As part of this campaign, Egyptian ambassadors in London, Paris, Brussels, Spain, Rome and other European capitals have met with high-level Foreign Ministry officials in their respective countries to ask them to reconsider the agreement. The Egyptian argument is that in light of Israel's ongoing construction in West Bank settlements and its blockade of Gaza, the EU must not reward Jerusalem in any way.

After confirming this Egyptian effort, Israel decided to confront Cairo. Senior Foreign Ministry officials warned their Egyptian counterparts that Israel views this effort very gravely and wants it stopped. However, the Egyptians denied any wrongdoing.

Israel's assessment, a senior government official said, is that the Egyptian campaign constitutes retaliation for a United States Congress decision to freeze up to $200 million in American military aid to Egypt. Cairo blames Israel for this freeze, because Israel has frequently complained to Washington about Egypt's failure to combat arms smuggling into Gaza. One of the conditions Congress set for unfreezing the aid was an improvement in Egypt's performance in this sphere.

In addition, Israeli officials said, Cairo is upset because the EU has refused to grant Egypt a similarly favorable agreement.

So far, the officials said, Egypt's efforts have not succeeded, and there has been no change in the EU's stance on the agreement. Nevertheless, Israel is furious over what the officials termed Egypt's "double game": even as it claims to be trying to help Israel negotiate a cease-fire in Gaza, it is working against Israel on other fronts.

Israel expects the upgrade agreement with the EU to be signed by the end of the year. The deal governs cooperation in a wide range of fields, from trade to science to diplomacy, and defines Israel as a senior European partner - the highest level of association possible short of full EU membership.

Meanwhile, Israel also sent a formal protest to the Palestinian Authority yesterday over a letter sent by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to the OECD, in which he asked the organization to reconsider its invitation to Israel to join. Fayyad based this request on Israel's military operations in the territories, and construction in the settlements.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who met Monday with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, told Abbas that Israel deems the letter completely unacceptable.

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At AIPAC, Rice Call for Palestinian State Greeted with Silence
June 4….(Israel Insider) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, addressing the AIPAC conference in Washington Tuesday, stressed the urgency of establishing a Palestinian state, saying that increasing violence in the Middle East makes the establishment of a "peaceful" Palestinian state especially urgent. Her remark, however, was received with stony silence, although the secretary had been warmly greeted by the conference at the outset of her speech. After she noted that this would be her last AIPAC conference as Secretary of State, she jokingly thanked the audience for not treating that remark as an applause line. AIPAC has been skeptical regarding the Palestinian leadership's ability to control terrorism. Rice said that while the present opportunity is far from perfect, it is better than any alternative and should not be missed. "Israelis have waited too long for the security they desire and deserve," she said, "and Palestinians have waited too long, amid daily humiliations, for the dignity of a Palestinian state." Regarding Iran, Rice said "We would be willing to meet with them, but not while they continue to inch closer to a nuclear weapon under the cover of talk." "Our partners in Europe and beyond need to exploit Iran's vulnerabilities more vigorously and impose greater costs on the regime - economically, financially, politically and diplomatically," she added. Rice also said the Palestinian track should take precedence over recently started Israel-Syria talks, although she expressed appreciation for Turkey's mediation efforts. Rice, who was to have come to Israel next week on yet another visit, has decided to cancel her trip, apparently in response to the political crisis in Israel. Sources in Washington said Rice is increasingly concerned that the parties will not be able to reach an agreement before the end of the year, and doubts that there will be a possibility of creating negotiations with the next American administration.

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Give that girl a Bible please!

Last update - 17:25 04/06/2008


Defense sources: Syria arming Hezbollah, despite Israel talks

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Tags: Bashar Assad, Syria

Syria is continuing to supply the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization with large amounts of weapons, missiles and rockets even as it conducts indirect negotiations with Israel, defense officials in Jerusalem told Army Radio on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Monday in a series of interviews that resumed peace talks with Israel hinge on the current cabinet remaining in power in Jerusalem.

In interviews he gave to newspaper editors in the United Arab Emirates, Assad said: "The success of the talks depend on the Israeli side and is tied to the Israeli government's ability and how stable it is."
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According to one report, Assad said direct talks would begin only next year, though Syria is not opposed in principle.

"We explained our vision for peace, and we are waiting for the Israeli response. However, our previous attempt to negotiate with Israel was not encouraging, and what we are doing now is to verify that Israel is ready for peace," he said.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak referred to the indirect talks with Syria while touring the northern border Tuesday. "With the Syrians, feelers are being put out to check whether there is a possibility of opening direct negotiations and discussing in that framework all of the topics about which we will have to make tough decisions and make concessions, but it cuts both ways. These will be tough decisions from Assad's perspective and also ours," Barak said.

Referring to Syria's "intimate" cooperation with Hezbollah, including helping to arm it," Barak said "the supreme responsibility in our view falls on Hezbollah, on the one hand, and Syria and Iran, on the other."

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Ahmadinejad: Europe Suffering Because of Zionists
(Iranian president drops by Rome for UN summit, tells EU Israel a political, economical burden to it. Italian government, seemingly embarrassed by outspoken guest, drops him from summit's gala closing event.)

June 3….(YNET) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Rome on Tuesday to attend the United Nations summit on global food security. Ahmadinejad was quick to attack Israel upon his arrival, saying Europe was bearing the economic and political costs of the "false Zionist regime." "I do not believe that my declarations create problems," Ahmadinejad told summit goers via an interpreter. "People like my comments, because this way the public can save themselves from the imposition of the Zionists. "European peoples have suffered the greatest damage from Zionists and today the costs of this false regime, be they political or economic costs, are on Europe's shoulders," he said. Italian public television, RAI, reported that the Iranian president's name was dropped from the summit's closing gala event guest list, which will be hosted by Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.Ahmadinejad's participation in the summit has been the source of much embarrassment to the Italian government. Both Berlusconi and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini have made it clear that they would not meet with him, since Iran does not recognize Israel's right to exist. Ahmadinejad had also reportedly asked for a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI but was turned away. The Vatican issued a statement saying all similar requests to see the pope during the summit were declined as well and added that media interpretations that the pope was snubbing anyone were wrong.

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Yes: Urgency on Iran
Jun 4, 2008


Iranian.ws




Imagine how dangerous, how potentially destabilizing a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities could be to the region and the world. And yet any such attack would be infinitely less dangerous and less destabilizing than allowing nuclear bombs to fall into the mullahs' hands.

Now, with the civilized world at a crossroads, imagine being able to prevent both such chilling scenarios by making tough yet wise decisions in the next weeks and months.

That was the message Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brought to the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Tuesday: "We must stop the Iranian threat by all possible means. Each and every country must understand that the long-term cost of a nuclear Iran greatly outweighs the short-term benefits of doing business with Iran."

The urgency of Iran was probably the reason Olmert travelled to Washington to meet with President George W. Bush so soon after seeing him in Jerusalem, and despite his political travails at home.

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Bush to Olmert: Iran existential threat to peace


Summit in Washington: President Bush tells Prime Minister Olmert world must take Iranian threat seriously, 'which the United States does'; PM Olmert says Tehran is main threat faced by Israel at this time

News agencies Latest Update: 06.04.08, 21:53 / Israel News




Iranian threat tops agenda: US President George W. Bush told visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday that Iran was an "existential threat to peace" and said the world must take that threat seriously.




"It is very important for the world to take the Iranian threat seriously, which the United States does," Bush said as he began White House talks with Olmert, visiting amid a corruption scandal at home that could drive him from office.



Obama Speech

Obama vows to stop Iran from acquiring nukes / Yitzhak Benhorin

Strong support for Israel: Presidential hopeful Obama tells AIPAC conference he will do everything in his power to prevent Iran from obtaining nukes, says Jerusalem must remain Israel's undivided capital
Full Story



President Bush is trying to reassure Israelis worried about the US commitment to keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The two leaders met in the Oval Office.



At this time there is no official confirmation from Prime Minister Olmert's associates that he will ask Bush to order a military strike on Iran before the end of his tenure.



However, a senior diplomatic source involved in contacts with the Americans in recent years said that on several occasions Israel asked for more decisive US action against the Iranians, based on the assumption that diplomatic activity is insufficient to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.



The two leaders were also expected to discuss Israel's request to acquire one or two squadrons of the F-35 stealth aircraft, and possibly also F-22 jets. Both models are considered the most advanced in the world.




Bush welcomes Olmert in Oval Office. (Photo: Reuters)



In a press statement following the meeting, Olmert said that the discussions about the Iranian threat "derive from the need for a profound mutual understanding as to the need for handling the threat, to prevent Iran from acquiring unconventional powers."



"I came out with fewer question marks about the ways, means, time constraints, and determination necessary for handling the issue," he continued.




Olmert also commented on the Syrian peace process, saying that "Israel and the US are cooperating strategically, so clearly the Americans were aware of our efforts with Syria."




He refused to comment on a schedule for the talks however, remarking, "I don't want to create momentary excitement over a subject that is extremely sensitive, which could cause disruption and harm." The prime minister did say that a meeting with the Syrians was not scheduled for the next 24 hours.



Commenting on newly elected Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's speech, during which he promised Jerusalem would remain Israel's undivided capital, Olmert said, "Obama's appearance was impressive, and what he said about Jerusalem was touching."




The prime minister also spoke of the possible ceasefire in Gaza, saying, "We do not desire a military conflict, but do not fear it either. We have presented our position to Egypt. If our position is respected, we will achieve the results we want."





'You come back as my friend'
At the beginning of their meeting, Bush and Olmert again displayed their friendly relationship with the familiar body language of smiles and slaps on each other's back. At the outset of the meeting, Bush told Olmert that the two will be discussing both the Palestinian and Lebanon issues, and also asked for an update on the Syrian question.



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However, the American president made it clear that the other issues will not keep the two leaders from discussing the main issue on the agenda, Iran. Olmert told Bush that Iran is indeed the main threat on Israel, and thanked him for his visit to Israel about a month ago.



Bush said he enjoyed his visit to Israel and characterized it as a "meaningful trip." He welcomed Olmert back to Washington, saying "you come back as my friend."



Roni Sofer and Yitzhak Benhorin contributed to the report


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Jun 5, 2008 12:07 | Updated Jun 5, 2008 20:30
Defense minister: Gaza's day of reckoning is approaching
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
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"Gaza's day of reckoning is approaching," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday on a visit to the Kibbutz Nir Oz factory where Amnon Rosenberg, 51, was killed in a mortar shell attack.


Amnon Rosenberg, 51, was killed by a mortar shell that struck a factory near Kibbutz Nir Oz, in the South.
Photo: Courtesy: Reproduction

Slideshow: Pictures of the week Residents of the kibbutzim Nirim and Nir Oz, Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council head Alon Shoster and Eshkol Regional Council head Haim Yalin attended a meeting with the defense minister.

"From our point of view, the day on which we make the decision whether to accept a truce agreement in Gaza or to embark on a military operation is drawing ever closer and we will do everything to convince everyone of our eventual decision," said Barak.

Yalin criticized the government's conduct. "I am not prepared to bury more people, the government is not doing anything and from my point of view, is is almost nonexistent," he said.

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"A country cannot continue to be run like this," Yalin continued. "We have already heard hundreds of times the declaration that the Gaza Strip's day of reckoning is approaching."

Rosenberg, a father of three from Nirim lost his life, two others were seriously wounded and a fourth suffered light wounds in the noontime attack.


Man stands at the scene where a mortar fired by Palestinian terrorists killed Amnon Rosenberg, 51, in a factory in kibbutz of Nir Oz,Thursday.
Photo: AP
Hours later, Palestinian doctors said a six-year-old girl was killed and her mother wounded in an IAF air strike in the Gaza Strip. The army said it had targeted and hit a gunman.

The mortar shell was one of three fired into the area of the factory. Factory workers said they had walked outside after hearing the first two mortar shells land when they were struck by the third.

The wounded were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. Several people suffered from shock and were treated by Magen David Adom teams at the scene.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the fatal attack. In a statement issued by the group, it pledged to "continue to strike the Zionist military locations and settlement colonies around the Gaza Strip as a response to the nonstop aggression against our people."

Yalin called the situation "intolerable" and said the nation's leaders must decide: Either a cease-fire or an operation in Gaza.

"Nobody cares that we bury people here every week," Yalin told Israel Radio following the attack. "We've been asking to lead normal lives here for seven years. But so what?"

Some time after the attack, Hamas said IAF aircraft targeted a group of gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip but missed them. The six-year-old girl and her mother were in the yard of a house that was hit by the errant missile, relatives said.

Government spokesman David Baker said Hamas "will be held accountable" for the mortar shell barrage.

Defense officials were set to meet Sunday, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert returns from the US, to discuss a response.

The mortar shell attack was the latest in a growing number of lethal rocket attacks from the territory. In early May, Jimmy Kedoshim, 48, a member of Kibbutz Kfar Aza was killed by a mortar shell fired by Hamas terrorists, and Shuli Katz, 69, from Kibbutz Gvar'am, was killed by a Kassam rocket during a visit to Kibbutz Yesha.

On Saturday, two people were wounded by a Kassam rocket in a community in the western Negev's Eshkol region. Shrapnel from the rocket wounded a Thai chicken coop worker, partially severing his hand. A second man was lightly wounded.

On Wednesday, a rocket fired at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal wounded a Palestinian worker there and prompted the IDF to cease transferring industrial fuel, cooking gas and diesel to the territory.

Also Thursday, soldiers operating near Hebron identified several Palestinian gunmen and opened fired on them, the army said.

Palestinian sources reported that one man was killed in the incident, but added that the armed men were engaged in a gunbattle between local families. It was unclear whether the man was killed by IDF or Palestinian fire.

Yaakov Lappin and Shelly Paz contributed to this report
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