'Hizbullah has target list ready'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS AND JPOST.COM STAFF
07/11/2010 18:02

Cmdr. says group has list of places to hit in Israel for next war.
BEIRUT - A senior official with Hizbullah stated on Sunday that the group has a list of military targets inside Israel to hit in any future war.

Hizbullah commander in South Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, made his comments in response to last week's release by Israel's military of maps and aerial photographs of what it described as a network of Hizbullah weapons depots and command centers in South Lebanon.

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5,000 Lebanese soldiers head south

Kaouk told the state news agency that Israel's release of the information came on the anniversary of "Israel's defeat" in the 2006 war in which Hizbullah battled Israel to a stalemate.

Israel is "preparing something" for Lebanon and Hizbullah is on high alert to prevent it, unnamed sources in the group were quoted by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat as saying Saturday.

Many interpreted the IDF's publicizing of the intelligence as an attempt both to deter Hizbullah attacks and to prepare the Israeli public for a future war should it be deemed necessary.

The Hizbullah sources claimed the photos were fabrications, but said "we are avoiding any heated exchanges because we want the Lebanese's summer to pass quietly and without incident."

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Hizballah advances 20,000 troops to Israeli border
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July 11, 2010, 4:42 PM (GMT+02:00)

Hizballah ammo bunker in Al-Khiam
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu keeps on vowing that Iran will not be allowed to establish an outpost on Israel's borders, but he has not lifted a finger to stop this menace ensconcing itself in the north. He cannot realistically expect feeble UN reprimands and the puny French contingent of UNIFIL to blow away the 20,000 Hizballah troops dug in in 160 new positions in South Lebanon, backed by a vast rocket arsenal - even though this is a gross violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701.
Iran's proxy has therefore won the first round of its drive to recover the forward positions lost in the 2006 war and stands ready for the next. Israel has reinforced its border defenses against this massed Hizballah strength just a few hundreds meters away.
How could Jerusalem let this to happen?
The answer is by a misguided policy of misdirected reliance on international players and diplomacy, as though the military menace existed only in documentary form, instead of real armies led by single-minded terrorists with utter contempt for the rules of international diplomacy.
The guns Israel invoked for dealing with the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza - President Barack Obama and the European Union - were too big for their target and the Middle East Quartet's envoy former British premier Tony Blair had to be roped in. The guns Israel relied on to deal with Hizballah - the UN and France - are too small and ineffective for the job.

Following a French complaint, the UN Security Council convened Friday, July 9 and passed a resolution "strongly deploring the recent incidents involving UNIFIL peacekeepers which took place in southern Lebanon on June 29, July 3 and July 4." All parties in Lebanon were urged "to respect the safety of UNIFIL and United Nations personnel."
The UN was not even asked to address Hizballah's illegal redeployment in new positions in the South - only the harassment of peacekeepers - nor did it do so. In one instance last week, French troops on patrol were pulled out of their armed vehicles, their weapons snatched and they were beaten with sticks, rocks and eggs.

This was no spontaneous outburst. debkafile's military sources report that the "villagers" were instructed by Iran's new Iranian commander in Lebanon, Hossein Mahadavi, to hit on the French contingent to punish Paris for supporting the UN Security Council's expanded sanctions for its nuclear violations, while at the same time blocking the peacekeeper's access to the "closed areas" where the new Hizballah bases have been set up.

Tehran nominated a high-ranking officer to Lebanon - Mahadavi's former job was commander of Iran's Overseas Division - indicating the importance it attaches to this volatile borderland. Indeed, if Hizballah gets away with its new deployment in the South and is allowed to make it permanent, the UN force will have lost even this scrappy foothold and Hizballah will be free to carry on its preparations for war without the slightest hindrance.
So much for Netanyahu's pledge, reiterated during his talks and interviews in the United States last week, that in negotiations with Arabs, especially the Palestinians, Israel will never accept any accommodation that permits Iran to set up military and rocket bases on its borders.

The fact is that since he entered the prime minister's office, he and defense minister Ehud Barak have done nothing to hold back the stream of armed Hizballah militiamen flooding South Lebanon, although they are now actively endangering the one-and-a-half million Israelis living just across the border.

If they imagined that UN peacekeepers would suddenly stand up and start repelling this southward tide of men and war materiel, they need only to take note of the tepid UN reprimand last Friday to understand that the Elysee Palace had no intention of letting French troops pick up the Hizballah ball and chase the Shiite terrorists back to their former positions.
Tehran and Hizballah therefore felt they could safely issue a new spate of threats: Israelis traveling anywhere in the world faced kidnap or death in response to a series of hits attributed to their clandestine agencies, such as the assassination of a key Hizballah commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in 2008, the deaths of the Iranian nuclear physicist Prof. Massoud Ali Mohammmadi in the middle of Tehran in January of this year, and the Hamas operative responsible for Iranian money transfers to the Gaza Strip Mohammed al-Mabhouh in Dubai nine days later.
Israel responded to the verbal escalation on July 7, by doing something it has never done before: Col. Ronen Marli, chief of the northern border's Western Brigade - the unit which will have to hold off the enemy in the early hours of attack from Lebanon - exhibited to the public aerial photos and intelligence maps recording the new spread of Hizballah forces: He reported 20,000 armed men scattered through 160 village and towns - only in the South, where its presence is prohibited by the UN-mediated ceasefire of 2006. The images did not include the substantial strength Hizballah maintains in central Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley to the east, or its estimated 40,000 rockets and missiles.

The Israeli colonel was of the opinion that an "event (a military attack or terrorist operation) could erupt today or in a year." He admitted it could be a surprise. Adding: "But we are working in different ways to thwart any event and if happens, we'll know how to handle it."
The IDF backed him up with an announcement that Israel is beefing up its strength along the Lebanese border and, the next day, July 8, the Jerusalem center for terrorist threats, published a warning to Israelis abroad, including the United States, to beware of abductions and murderous attacks.
Saturday, a Hizballah spokesman responded: "All three (UN, France, Israel) are preparing something, but we are ready," it said. "Our forces in the South are on the highest level of war preparedness."

The next conflagration may be just a single lighted match away. It could be ignited by some local incident, a terrorist event outside the Middle East or an order from Tehran.

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Libyan ship: We're going to Gaza
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
07/11/2010 14:04

Aid vessel organizers say they won't be deterred by Israeli demands.
The aim of the Libyan backed aid ship the Amalthea remains to sail directly to Gaza, Youssef Sawani, executive director of Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, which has mounted the operation, said Sunday in an interview with Army Radio.

In response to these comments Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Army Radio on Sunday that "no ship of any kind will be allowed to arrive at Gaza."

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"I hope that common sense will prevail," said Lieberman. "They can deliver aid for Gaza to El-Arish or Ashdod."

The foreign minister added that Israel was not looking for a confrontation but that no one would be allowed to undermine the country's sovereignty.

MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al) echoed Sawani's claims that the Amalthea activists are still intending to sail directly to Gaza. Tibi has been in contact with the organization sending the ship.

"The goal is to reach Gaza," said Tibi. "There is not only a humanitarian goal, but there is also a political message."

Amalthea's cargo: 2000 tons of rice, sugar and corn oil

The Amalthea departed on Saturday evening from a port southeast of Athens, carrying 2,000 tons of cargo, including sacks of rice and sugar, and corn oil and olive paste, mostly donated by Greek companies and charities, organizers said.

In addition to 15 volunteers - all from Libya, except for a Nigerian and a Moroccan - the ship has a crew of 12 from Cuba, Haiti, India and Syria.

Greek authorities said on Saturday night that the ship was headed for Egypt. "We confirmed the destination in talks with the Libyan ambassador and the ship's agent," Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras said earlier in the day.

"The ambassador speaks for the state of Libya, I speak for the NGO," Sawani said. He said the ship would not seek confrontation with the Israelis.

If Israel does not allow the ship into Gaza, the group will seek "any other appropriate destination - El-Arish or other - to deliver the goods to the people in need," Sawani said.

Talkback
THE SHIP GOES TO GAZA ANYWAY

What happens is that these people got already ISRAEL's number specially its "brave" superminister and its accomodating PM, which is why they dare defy Israel's prohibition The North Korean "leader" sank the S. Korean ship for no apparent reason. He gives the UN and everybody else the finger and everybody keeps mum but what happens if ISRAEL decides to sink this ship, which is openly confronting and defying Israel's authority?? I guess sinking it would have a sobering effect on any other "flotillas" attempts but, will the Israeli "leaders" have the "cojones" to do it ? I DOUBT IT

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There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Gaza has become the worlds largest free lunch. Gazians don't work because they don't have to. Gazians don't produce because they don't have to. Want to know where the "refugees" are at any one time...go down to the beach. They are laughing all the way down to the food, cloths, cash for nothing line.

Aid to Gaza?

There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Gaza has become the worlds largest free lunch. Gazians don't work because they don't have to. Gazians don't produce because they don't have to. Want to know where the "refugees" are at any one time...go down to the beach. They are laughing all the way down to the food, cloths, cash for nothing line.

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Obama: Israelis Mistrust Me Because My Name is Hussein

by Hillel Fendel
In an exclusive interview with Israel's Channel Two, U.S. President Barack Obama was asked why he thinks Israelis mistrust him. "Some of it may just be the fact that my middle name is Hussein," he told interviewer Yonit Levy, "and that creates suspicion. Some of it may have to do with the fact that I have actively reached out to the Muslim community, and I think that sometimes, particularly in the Middle East, there's the feeling of the friend of my enemy must be my enemy."

Levy interviewed Obama shortly after Obama met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last week in a meeting both sides described as "successful."

ZOA: It's the Policies
The Zionist Organization of American (ZOA) said that Obama ignored the fundamental reason why Israelis mistrust him - namely, his anti-Israel policies.

The true "answer is staring him in the mirror," said ZOA National President Morton A. Klein. "Israelis distrust Obama because he has proved in office to be a deeply hostile, unsympathetic president… The record shows that Israelis did not initially dislike or suspect Obama of hostility to Israel (though his record of associations with an anti-Israel pastor and church, as well as anti-Israel activists and academics, would have given them good grounds for unease). As recently as May 2009, 31 percent of Israelis were found to regard Obama as pro-Israel, as opposed to merely 14 percent who regarded him as pro-Palestinian and 40 percent who regarded him as neutral."

Cairo Speech Did It
Klein said that Obama's Jewish support began plummeting after his Cairo speech in June '09, in which "the right of Jews to their own country in their biblical, religious and legal homeland was written off as a consolation prize for the Holocaust; Palestinian suffering was compared to Jewish suffering under Nazism; and Muslims were lauded in all sorts of inaccurate ways."

Asked if he believes that Netanyahu is the right man to bring peace, Obama answered, "I think that not only is Prime Minister Netanyahu a smart and savvy politician, but the fact that he is not perceived as a dove in some ways can be helpful in the sense that any successful peace will have to include the hawks and the doves, on both sides, and in the same way that Richard Nixon here in the United States was able to go to China because he had very strong anti-communist credentials, I think Prime Minister Netanyahu may be very well positioned to bring this about."

The Freeze Question
Levy misspoke but quickly corrected herself in her "settlement freeze" question, asking, "Will you, by the way, extend -- request that Israel extends that settlement freeze after September?"

Obama neatly sidestepped the query: "You know, what I want is for us to get into direct talks. As I said yesterday, I think that if you have direct talks between Abu Mazen, Netanyahu, their teams, that builds trust. And trust then allows for both sides to not be so jumpy or paranoid about every single move that's being made, whether it's related to Jerusalem or any of the other issues that have to be dealt with.."

ZOA President Klein noted that Obama's opposition to the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria has been another source of Israeli concern about the US leader, saying:

"So too has Obama's continuing focus on and opposition to Jews moving to and building in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem ;
his manufacturing a crisis over Israel merely announcing a building project in a Jewish neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem in which his Administration ‘condemned' Israel, and called its action an ‘insult' and an ‘affront';
Obama's telling TIME magazine that Israel has made no serious concessions, despite it agreeing to a 10-month freeze on Jewish construction;
his ignoring of Palestinian incitement to hatred and murder while increasing aid to the PA to $900 million, then adding another $400 million last month;
his support for the Arab so-called ‘Arab Peace Initiative,' which demands Israel's return to the pre-1967 borders, give up half of Jerusalem and permit Arab refugees and their millions of descendants to move to Israel;
and his insistence of creating what will be another Arab terror state on the pre-1967 borders."
Obama: Netanyahu Won't Surprise Me on Iran
When Levi asked if he was concerned that Netanyahu might unilaterally try to attack Iran, Obama responded, "You know what, I think that the [U.S.-Israel] relationship is sufficiently strong and that neither of us try to surprise each other but we try to coordinate on issues of mutual concern. And that approach is one that I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is committed to."

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

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Israel wants peace talks, Palestinians say 'not yet'
In interviews with the American media on the weekend following his visit to the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his message that he is ready to immediately sit down with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and negotiate a final status peace agreement.

"You cannot resolve a conflict, you cannot successfully complete a peace negotiation if you don't start it. And I say let's start it right now, today, tomorrow, in Jerusalem, in Ramallah or anywhere else," Netanyahu told CNN interviewer Larry King.

But Netanyahu insisted this time around the Israelis and Palestinians must stop bickering over small points and look forward to a comprehensive and general peace so that the region can move on from conflict.

"Going at it piecemeal, piece by piece, is just to have a thousand cuts without seeing where this thing leads," he told the Council on Foreign Relations.

Netanyahu said he impressed these points upon US President Barack Obama when they met in the Oval Office last week, and the White House confirmed that Obama had followed up by phoning Abbas and insisting that direct Israeli-Palestinian talks begin by September.

But on Saturday Abbas said he was happy to continue indirect US-hosted peace talks, at least until the American pressure results in more Israeli concessions.

"We said that if there is progress we will go to direct talks. If no progress happens, what is the benefit of negotiations that will be futile and useless?" Abbas asked reporters in Ramallah.

Abbas then appeared to throw a wrench in plans to resume peace negotiations when he set the precondition that under any final status peace deal, all Jewish communities deemed to be built on "Palestinian land" must be fully dismantled, including the large Jewish neighborhoods on the eastern side of Jerusalem.

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'Hatred of Israel is growing'

Outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev on Sunday warned that hatred of Israel in the halls of the United Nations is reaching a peak.

"Our situation in recent months can be compared to the 1970s, when Zionism was being called racism," Shalev said in an interview with Army Radio.

Shalev said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is still determined to impose an international commission of inquiry into Israel's forcible interception of a Turkish-led flotilla that tried to break Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza on May 31. That despite the fact that most Western powers have accepted Israel's internal investigation, which is being overseen by three respected international observers.

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Arab MK Helped Libyan Ship; MK Ben-Ari: Sink it

by Hillel Fendel
Amid conflicting reports as to the destination of the blockade-busting Libyan ship, it has been learned that MK Ahmed Tibi was involved. MK Ben-Ari says it should be sunk, which would be a legal act if done within Israeli territorial waters.

Dr. Tibi, an Arab Knesset Member of the Raam-Taal party and past official advisor to Yasser Arafat, confirmed Sunday morning that he had been in touch with the organizers of a Libyan ship headed eastward. The captain originally said he was headed for Gaza, in an attempt to break Israel's naval blockade, and Libyan backers repeated again today that this is still their plan.

It was reported last night that Israeli diplomatic efforts had borne fruit and that the boat would set anchor in Egypt instead.

Tibi said he gave the organizers a list of medicines needed in Gaza. The ship is reportedly laden with 2,000 tons of food and medicines.

Meanwhile, MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) said he believes that this latest threat against Israeli sovereignty should be met with force. "In order to stop this flood that could lead to dozens of ships and thousands of refugees storming our borders, this ship should be sunk."

"This is the only way they will realize that we are ‘crazy' and that we will do whatever necessary to defend our right to exist," Ben-Ari said. "It will cost us in the short run, but will have great benefits in the long run."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the Libyan ship is an "unnecessary provocation… Goods can be delivered to Gaza via our Ashdod port, after they are properly checked. We will not allow weapons and the like for combat-supporters in Gaza. We advise the ship to allow itself to be escorted to Ashdod, or to sail directly to El-Arish ."

(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Signs of Weakness, Acts of Betrayal and the Failure of HOPE

Rick Richman at contentions Friday:

.... Gelb writes that Obama entered office with a "near-zero base of foreign-policy knowledge and no experience in the Middle East," demanded a pre-negotiation halt to West Bank construction, to which "no Israeli leader, even a dovish one" would ever agree, adopted the "brilliant tactic" of publicly humiliating Israel's prime minister (not even shaking his hand at the end of the prior meeting), and "only made matters worse" this week by appearing as if he were cowed by domestic politics into treating Netanyahu well. Gelb concludes that Obama needs new advisers.

That is a little like blaming the bit players for the failures of a one-man show.

The problem has been more than a staffing issue. Over the past year, Netanyahu (1) formed a coalition government with parties to both his right and left, (2) proposed immediate negotiations with no preconditions, (3) formally endorsed a two-state solution (as long as one of them is Jewish and the other is demilitarized), (4) removed scores of West Bank roadblocks and checkpoints, (5) implemented an unprecedented settlement moratorium, and (6) plans even more gestures to the perpetually confidence-impaired Palestinians to encourage them to join negotiations to give them a state.

During the same period, the Palestinians have been unwilling to commence direct negotiations unless Israel first conceded the principal issues to be negotiated, and Obama has acted as if he were the Palestinians' attorney....

Also Friday: Obama praises Abbas as committed to peace

WASHINGTON-President Barack Obama is backing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's commitment to peace.

Obama spoke by phone on Friday with Abbas. In a White House account of the call, Obama expressed strong support for Abbas' leadership on behalf of Palestinians....

.... Obama is trying to show careful attention to both sides and prod direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians. The White House said he and Abbas discussed ways to revive those talks in the near term....

Today's headline:

Abbas: No point in direct talks with Israel now

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian president... said that under current circumstances would be pointless....

.... Mahmoud Abbas sounded determined not to return to the table unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commits to an internationally mandated settlement freeze and agrees to pick up talks where they left off under the Israeli leader's predecessor in December 2008....

Hmmm, looks like Charles was right:

The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution.

And speaking of final solutions, Voz Iz Neias?

Washington - A former fighter in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) turned US spy offered a rare glance into one of the most complex countries in the Middle East.

During a conference held at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday, Reza Kahlili (pseudonym) estimated that Iran will eventually attack Israel, Europe and the Persian Gulf states. He called for a preemptive strike on the regime in Tehran, but not on the Iranian people or the country's infrastructure.

Kahlili accused the Obama Administration of being naïve. According to him, the American overtures are viewed by the Iranian regime as a sign of weakness, while the Iranian people consider the efforts to engage the regime an act of betrayal against their struggle for freedom.

"This is a messianic regime.

There should be no doubt - They are going to commit the most horrendous suicide bombing in human history.

They will attack Israel, European capitals and (the) Persian Gulf region at the same time,"

said Kahlili.

[Listen to the full speech here.]



As if you couldn't tell already, Rosh Chodesh Av begins at nightfall tonight. This date initiates The Nine Days of mourning that culminate in Tisha b'Av.

If curious, see also ~
What Mourning Means: Reflections of Rav Soloveitchik zt"l

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