Video

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/May/US-Seeks-to-Shore-Up-Hezbollah-Moderates/

JERUSALEM, Israel - The Obama administration's plan to shore up "moderate" elements in the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terror organization must be a "joke" and is certainly naïve, a top Israeli military official said on Thursday.

John Brennan, special assistant to President Barack Obama and deputy national security adviser, told a Washington think tank on Tuesday that while some elements of Hezbollah "are truly a concern to us," the U.S. needs "to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements."

But Israeli Army reserve Maj. Gen Yaakov Amidror, said he couldn't believe that anyone in Washington would believe there could be "moderates" in Hezbollah. Watch more of Amidror's comments here.

Must Be a Joke

"I think it's a joke," Amidror told CBN News in Jerusalem.

"I don't believe there is anyone in the administration who is naïve enough to believe there are moderate elements within Hezbollah," said Amidror, former commander of the IDF's National Defense College and IDF Staff and Command College.

Brennan said he is intrigued by this "very interesting organization," which has evolved from "purely a terrorist organization" to a position in Lebanon's unity government. That position includes several cabinet posts and parliamentary veto power.

"I am pleased to see that a lot of Hezbollah individuals are in fact renouncing that type of terrorism and violence and trying to participate in the political process in a very legitimate fashion," Reuters quoted Brennan as having said.

According to Brennan, the group's "terrorist core" will eventually give way to its political aspirations.

"However within Hezbollah, there's still a terrorist core and hopefully those elements - within the Shi'a community in Lebanon and within Hezbollah at large - they're going to continue to look at that extremist terrorist core as being something that is an anathema to what, in fact, they're trying to accomplish in terms of their aspirations about being part of the political process in Lebanon," he said.

But Amidror said that Hezbollah is not run locally.

"The decisions of Hezbollah not made by pure Hezbollah members but with a full integration with Tehran," Amidror said. "There are more people in Tehran who are making decisions for Hezbollah than people within Hezbollah who are these decisions."

Can't be that Naïve

Asked about the article, which appeared in Thursday's Jerusalem Post, Amidror said he thought there must be something wrong with the translation.

"I don't believe there is anyone in the administration who is naïve enough and unfamiliar enough with Hezbollah to believe there are moderate elements within Hezbollah that might act against Iran.

"I don't believe this naïveté exists in Washington, I think that this is something that Jerusalem Post has to go and to find where a mistake was maybe in the translation to what is going on in Washington to the front page of Jerusalem Post because if the Jerusalem Post is right something wrong in Washington," he said.

According to the Post, it's not the first time Brennan has made such comments.

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Washington doesn't think Hizballah's all that bad

John Brennan, assistant to US President Barack Obama for homeland security and counterterrorism, told a Washington conference on Tuesday that Lebanese terrorist militia Hizballah has evolved significantly over the years, and cannot today be defined as a purely hostile and evil entity.

Reuters quoted Brennan as telling conference participants that Hizballah is a "very interesting organization" that has evolved from a "purely terrorist organization" into a movement that now boasts members of parliament and even cabinet ministers.

Rather than take issue with the Lebanese public for electing terrorists to government, much as the Palestinians did when they handed Hamas a landslide electoral victory in 2006, Brennan attributed the phenomenon to an alleged tactical shift inside Hizballah.

"I'm pleased to see that a lot of Hizbullah individuals are in fact renouncing that type of terrorism and violence and are trying to participate in the political process in a very legitimate fashion," he said.

With that view apparently shaping the Obama Administration's policy regarding Hizballah, Brennan suggested that rather than shun and combat the terror group, the White House intends to "find ways to diminish [the terrorists'] influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements."

Brennan seemed to have forgotten that while a few Hizballah members may voice more "moderate" positions, they are a fringe element within a group that his firmly controlled by those seeking the violent destruction of the Jewish state.

Observers in Israel noted that Brennan's position was akin to finding a few Al Qaeda officials willing to speak in a slightly-less-violent tone and using them as justification for engaging the group diplomatically.

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IDF to Turn Back 'Free Gaza' Ships

JERUSALEM, Israel - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Navy to make preparations for turning back the fleet of eight boats planning to deliver cargo to the Gaza Strip next week. The deterrent will require a sizable number of Israeli ships.

Foreign Ministry officials informed ambassadors from Turkey, Greece, Ireland and Sweden that the ships would be stopped at sea before reaching Gaza.

Over the past two years, the Navy has turned back a number of boats dispatched by the Free Gaza movement while also allowing a few to deliver their goods.

Either way, the group continues to label Israeli policies toward Gaza "outrageous, cruel and violent," while failing to note rocket attacks or activities against Israel by Hamas and other Gaza-based terror cells.

According to the most recent posting on the Free Gaza movement's website, a 1200-ton cargo ship, named after the late international activist Rachel Corrie, has set sail from Ireland to meet up with the "eight-vessel Freedom Flotilla" carrying construction material, medical equipment and school supplies.

Corrie died on March 16, 2003, after dropping to her knees in front of an Israeli bulldozer clearing underbrush to uncover bombs near the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.

While an investigation determined that the driver was unable to see her, the activists, who had defied orders to leave the area, successfully promoted the accident as murder.

Israel, which has continued to deliver supplies to Gaza residents, insists there is no humanitarian crisis there.

Last week the IDF transferred 14,000 tons of fuel, food, medical supplies and equipment, clothing and animal feed to the Strip.

The Jerusalem Post contributed to this report

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Jerusalem Mayor Dismisses Construction Freeze

Video

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/May/Jerusalem-Mayor-Dismisses-Construction-Freeze/

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is dismissing reports of a construction freeze in his city.

The Obama administration has been demanding Israel freeze construction in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to coax Palestinians back to negotiations. But Barkat said he has told U.S. officials about his plans for new construction projects.

"What I did say to the administration is that I hope that nobody is actually hinting that a freeze will happen, or I hope that nobody's hinting that the freeze should be only to the Jewish people, population of Jerusalem as this would be illegal both in Israel and anti-constitutional in most democratic countries in the world," Barkat said.

Barkat also said he anticipates building some 50,000 apartments in Jerusalem over the next 20 years for both Jewish and Arab residents of the city.

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Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 20, 2010, 2:20 PM (GMT+02:00)

USS Truman carrier

debkafile's military sources report a decision by the Obama administration to boost US military strength in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf regions in the short term with an extra air and naval strike forces and 6,000 Marine and sea combatants. Carrier Strike Group 10, headed by the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, sails out of the US Navy base at Norfolk, Virginia Friday, May 21. On arrival, it will raise the number of US carriers off Iranian shores to two. Up until now, President Barack Obama kept just one aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of Iran, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea, in pursuit of his policy of diplomatic engagement with Tehran.
For the first time, too, the US force opposite Iran will be joined by a German warship, the frigate FGS Hessen, operating under American command.
It is also the first time that Obama, since taking office 14 months ago, is sending military reinforcements to the Persian Gulf. Our military sources have learned that the USS Truman is just the first element of the new buildup of US resources around Iran. It will take place over the next three months, reaching peak level in late July and early August. By then, the Pentagon plans to have at least 4 or 5 US aircraft carriers visible from Iranian shores.
The USS Truman's accompanying Strike Group includes Carrier Air Wing Three (Battle Axe) - which has 7 squadrons - 4 of F/A-18 Super Hornet and F/A-18 Hornet bomber jets, as well as spy planes and early warning E-2 Hawkeyes that can operate in all weather conditions; the Electronic Attack Squadron 130 for disrupting enemy radar systems; and Squadron 7 of helicopters for anti-submarine combat (In its big naval exercise last week, Iran exhibited the Velayat 89 long-range missile for striking US aircraft carriers and Israel warships from Iranian submarines.)
Another four US warships will be making their way to the region to join the USS Truman and its Strike Group. They are the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy and guided missile destroyers USS Winston S. Churchill, USS Oscar Austin and USS Ross.

debkafile's military sources disclose that the 6,000 Marines and sailors aboard the Truman Strike Group come from four months of extensive and thorough training to prepare them for anticipated missions in the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

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Israel, PA can't agree on what they're talking about

By HERB KEINON
21/05/2010 03:43

Water, says Jerusalem; borders, say Palestinians
US envoy George Mitchell left Israel on Thursday afternoon, ending the second round of proximity talks, with each side claiming their contacts with the American mediator focused on something completely different.

Following a three-hour meeting with Mitchell, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying the second part of their meeting focused on water issues, while the first part of the talks dealt with a number of issues, including gestures Israel might make to the Palestinians.

RELATED:
Analysis: Why Obama lightened his tone

A day earlier, following Mitchell's talks with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, PA negotiator Saeb Erekat, true to what the Palestinians want the discussions to focus on, said the discussions centered on final-status issues such as borders and refugees.

Mitchell's team released no information on the content of the talks, leading to the conclusion that either each side was simply telling the press what they wanted the talks to focus on, or that Mitchell was now talking about different issues with each side, and would only later get the two parties to focus on the same issues.

The agenda of the talks has been an issue in hot dispute for months.

Mitchell, who was in the region for just three days, is expected to return within two weeks to resume the negotiations. In the meantime his adviser, David Hale, will remain here and continue contacts with both sides.

According to the statement put out by the Prime Minister's Office, the first half of the meeting, which on the Israeli side was attended only by Netanyahu and his envoy Yitzhak Molcho, dealt with the possibility that Israel would make gestures toward the Palestinians during the four months of indirect talks.

Among the gestures apparently being weighed is paving an access road to the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, being built north of Ramallah, on land slated for nearby settlements.

The statement also said Israel expected the Palestinian leadership to help create a positive atmosphere for the talks, and not to launch international diplomatic campaigns against Israel such as its unsuccessful efforts to bar Israel's entrance into the OECD, which took place on May 10.

Even as Netanyahu was talking with Mitchell about building a positive environment, Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Shaath unveiled a plan to "completely isolate Israel and punish it" by preventing its upgrade with the EU and even working to expel it from the UN.

Israeli officials reacted with astonishment to this campaign, saying it would be brought up in talks with Mitchell and that it demonstrated that "parts of the Palestinian leadership are stuck in a conflict mindset and are incapable of moving toward peace and reconciliation."

Regarding the water issue, the Prime Minister's Office said Israel believed it would be possible to get regional cooperation from neighboring states on this issue and to attract investments "for the benefit of both Israel and the Palestinians."

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EU delegation 'too anti-Israel'
By EUROPEAN JEWISH PRESS
20/05/2010 18:19

Italian MEP calls European trip "an anti-Israel propaganda mission."

BRUSSELS -An Italian centre-right member of the European Parliament decided on Thursday to quit an official delegation due to visit Israel next week because he feels his fellow MEPs are too "anti-Israeli."

Gabriele Albertini, a member of the European Poeple's Party (EPP) who heads the influent European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, explained his decision by the fact that the composition of the delegation was "not balanced," his assistant, Luca Toschi, told EJP.

"Rather than a peacekeeping mission, it looks like an anti-Israeli propaganda mission is being prepared," Albertini, a former mayor of Milan, said.

The delegation of 25 MEPs from the foreign affairs, development and humanitarian aid committees, was due to have talks with members of the Knesset.

However, a plan to visit Gaza was rejected by the Israeli authorities as part of the Israel's policy not to allow foreign officials visitors to enter the Palestinian territory run by Hamas because those visits "give moral support to the Islamist group."

Albertini then stressed to his colleagues that the delegation should "re balance" its itinerary in line with Israeli demands but several members of the delegation felt "offended" by the refusal and voted to ask Egypt to enter Gaza through its crossing point instead. They also decided to snub a scheduled meeting with Jerusalem's Mayor Nir Barkat.

"The MEPs wrongly thought that Israel was targeting the European Parliament while even French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was denied the right to entry into Gaza earlier this year," Luca Toschi said.

According to the EUobserver website, Albertini singled out his German centre-right colleague and former European Parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering for criticism.

"The honorable Mr Poettering wanted to convene a press conference to censure the conduct of the Israeli government before we start our journey," he said.

The German MEP reportedly replied that he "is of the opinion that the Israeli government cannot tell the members of the European Parliament whom they should see or not."

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J'lem irked by PA bid to isolate Israel
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND HERB KEINON
21/05/2010 03:43

Fatah member planned to expel Israel from UN.
A furious Jerusalem on Thursday denounced a declared Palestinian Authority effort to isolate Israel and eventually have it expelled from the UN as both outrageous and risible.

"Israel is not going to be kicked out of the UN," said a senior Israeli official. "This is ridiculous."

He was speaking after the PA announced that it was stepping up its diplomatic and economic "intifada" against Israel.

The idea of intensifying a campaign of delegitimization, leading ultimately to Israel's UN expulsion, was unveiled on Wednesday night by Nabil Shaath, a member of the Fatah Central Committee and one of the chief architects of the Oslo Accords.

Speaking at a conference in Ramallah, Shaath said: "There is a need to create and endorse new struggling tools, such as the popular resistance, and to increase our efforts in the international arena to isolate and punish Israel, prevent it from deepening its relations with the European Union and attempt to expel it from the United Nations."

The "nature of the Jews and the Holocaust in Germany helped Jewish communities establish strong strategic ties with countries that have influence in the international arena," added Shaath, a former PA foreign minister who is closely associated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Israeli official said such a campaign stood "in complete contrast to the peace process."

He added: "You can't on one hand say you want peace with Israel, and on the other hand act to delegitimize us. This is unacceptable and raises questions as to the Palestinian commitment to peace and reconciliation."

The official said that Israel would raise these issues in the proximity talks, as it already did on Thursday during the talks between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US envoy George Mitchell, when Netanyahu protested against the Palestinians failed effort to block Israel's admittance into the OECD (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).

"We will put these issues front and center in our talks," the official said. "This is totally contradictory to a successful peace process and demonstrates that parts of the Palestinian leadership are stuck in a conflict mindset and are incapable of moving toward peace and reconciliation."

The official pointed to the PA's OECD campaign as evidence that there was no chance of Israel losing its seat on the world body.

"At the OECD they only needed to win one vote out of 31 to block our entrance, and were unable to get it," he said.

The problem was not that the Palestinians might succeed, he added. The problem was the negative mindset that these attempts represented.

Orchestrated by the PA government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the new Palestinian "uprising" also calls for "peaceful demonstrations" in the West Bank against settlements and the security barrier and waging a total boycott of all products manufactured in the settlements.

At the Ramallah conference, which was also broadcast to the Gaza Strip, Shaath called on Palestinians to intensify pressure on Israel through nonviolent means.

"We need to continue and step up the pressure on Israel, regardless of whether the peace talks are resumed or not," he said. "We need to rally international support for our cause and impose sanctions on Israel. We must pursue Israel in all international bodies and institutions."

Shaath said Fatah's declared strategy was "to endorse a growing nonviolent popular struggle" against Israel, in light of the fact that the "armed struggle" had become impossible and undesirable at this phase.

He said that during a recent visit to Gaza he told Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh that "Arab, regional and international circumstances don't allow us to launch an armed struggle against Israel."

Therefore, he added, the Palestinians should mobilize their energies to wage a "peaceful resistance" against Israel by isolating it and stepping up the pressure on it.
The nonviolent struggle was "not less honorable than the armed struggle and does not mean surrender to Israeli conditions," Shaath said.

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Jerusalem Neighborhoods: Old and New

by Hillel Fende
Ramat Shlomo, in the news because of Israel's now-suspended plans to expand it, is one of several new neighborhoods in the historic Jewish capital. Though international elements speak glibly of "Arab east Jerusalem," close to a quarter of a million Jews live in the parts of Jerusalem liberated by Israel during the Six Day War of 1967.

Jerusalem was named Israel's capital, as it had been during King David's time, after the War of Independence in 1948-9. During and prior to the war, there had been talk of internationalizing the Old City and environs, but the plan was never implemented due to opposition from both the Jewish and Arab parties.

Alongside Israel's capital in the western half of the city was eastern Jerusalem, annexed by Jordan in 1950; a wall and barbed wire divided the city in two. By 1967, the population of Jewish Jerusalem had grown to 260,000. Among its most famous neighborhoods were then Me'ah She'arim, Rehavia, Emek Refaim/German Colony, Geulah, Givat Sha'ul, Beit HaKerem, Kiryat Moshe and Talpiyot.

Other notable neighborhoods include Ein Kerem, Katamon, Yemin Moshe, Nahlaot, Romema and Machaneh Yehuda, and the newer Har Nof and Bayit V'gan.

The Six Day War in 1967 marked Israel's successful military response to the deployment of several Arab national military forces threatening to "drive the Jews into the sea." The war saw the Old City of Jerusalem come under Jewish control for the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple 1,900 years before. Together with the Old City, Israel regained all of the area west of the Jordan River, known as Judea and Samaria.

Israel then expanded the borders of its historic capital, and built in its old-new areas the following neighborhoods:

* Ramat Eshkol (the first to be built), French Hill, and Sanhedria Murchevet, all not far from the center of town;

* Ramot (population: approximately 40,000), Ramat Shlomo (18,000), N'vei Yaakov (a recreation of the neighborhood that existed there before 1948; 20,000 people), Pisgat Ze'ev (42,000), and the Atarot industrial zone in the north;

* Gilo (population: 40,000), East Talpiyot (15,000), and Har Homa (11,000) in the southeast;

* Mt. Scopus, Mt. of Olives, and, most recently, Nof Tzion to the east.

Within 13 years after the Six Day War, the population of Jerusalem had increased by well over 55%, growing to nearly 410,000. It continued growing at a fast clip: In 1990, there were over 524,000 people, and 657,000 in the year 2000. The current population is close to 780,000.

The newly-approved 1,600 units to be built in Ramat Shlomo are slated to fill some of the area between Ramat Shlomo and Ramat Eshkol/Sanhedria.