News Analysis From Israel – The Evil Will Come From the North: Part II - Comments Page 2

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• 26 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Sep 30, 2006 at 4:50 pm

  RE comment #25: And I thought I had dreamt that up all by myself!
  
  Shavua Tov, MAOZ, have an easy fast
  
  Nowe for some real interesteing newqs that backs up this article posted two weeks ago.
  
  DEBKAfile Exclusive: French tanks obstruct Israeli tanks over suspected Hizballah robbery of Israeli weapons store
  September 30, 2006, 11:50 AM (GMT+02:00)
  
  The south Lebanese village of Merwahin was the stage Thursday, Sept 28 of the first near-showdown between UN and Israeli forces. DEBKAfile publishes here the first photo of an encounter between 4 French Leclerc and at least 5 Israeli Merkava tanks in that Lebanese village.
  
  Despite the photographic evidence, Israel officially denies the incident. DEBKAfile reports the French force sought to prevent the Israeli unit from combing through the Hizballah-dominated village in search of the raiders who crossed into Israel and broke into the IDF’s Kibbutz Shomera arms store last week. They made off with a large quantity of side-arms, anti-tank weapons, LAU rockets and hundreds of combat grenades, which the Israeli force was determined to recover.
  
  American and German correspondents who witnessed the incident report that the two tank units held menacing positions 50 meters apart for about half an hour, after which the French tanks broke off contact and turned tail. The French commander claims the Israel tanks retreated first. DEBKAfile’s military sources note that this was the second incidence of French backing for Hizballah. On Sept 22, French fighter jets were seen cruising in Beirut’s skies above the podium of Hassan Nasrallah’s “victory speech.” He boasted then that he was not afraid to address the masses directly instead of through armored glass.
  

• 27 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 01, 2006 at 7:50 am

  My friend Aryeh Gallin sent this to me today. He comments: NOTICE THAT OUR MOSSAD WHOLESALE OUTLET (DEBKA) CONTINUES TO PARROT THE MAKE BELIEVE THAT THE KIDNAPPING OF ELAD REGEV AND EHUD GOLDWASSER "PROVOKED" THE LEBANON WAR (SEE ESSAYS BY JOEL BAINERMAN DEBUNKING THIS BUNK). AND THEN THEY LIE AND SAY THE UN FORCES IN SOUTH LEBANON ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OF THE LEBANESE "GOVERNMENT", RATHER THAN A GATHERING STRIKE FORCE (HAS ANYONE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO WHICH NEW NATIONS DAILY ANNOUNCE THEIR COMMITMENT OF TROOPS TO JOINING THIS FORCE?) OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER, POISED TO INVADE ISRAEL.
  
  Israel Quits Lebanon Leaving Hizballah Back in the Saddle under UN Auspices
  DEBKAfile Special Military Report
  October 1, 2006, 10:55 AM (GMT+02:00)
  
  DEBKAfile’s military sources saw the Iast Israeli soldier quit Lebanon before dawn of Oct. 1, Yom Kippur eve, leaving in captivity Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two soldiers whose abduction by Hizballah provoked the 34-day Lebanon war on July 12.
  
  Only one third of the 15,000 international peacekeepers the UN Security Council pledged for an expanded UNIFIL has in fact been deployed in South Lebanon. And even that paltry force has made no effort to stop Hizballah restoring its presence and replenishing its stocks of rockets and missiles to points in South Lebanon within firing range of Israel. In most ways, therefore, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of Aug. 14 is a dead letter.
  
  While withdrawing the bulk of its force gradually, Israel kept the last units behind in a futile effort to persuade UNIFIL commanders to uphold key provisions of the resolution. They refused even the minimal demand to restrict Hizballah’s military movements along the Israeli border. They claimed they could only act with the permission of the Lebanese government. By finally giving way on this point, the Israeli government accepted the determination that UNIFIL is the instrument of the Lebanese government - not the enforcer of UN resolutions or Israeli security.
  
  This concession makes nonsense of the claim that the most important gain of the Lebanon operation was the removal of Hizballah’s fighting forces from access to the Israeli border. This claim was made in a desperate attempt by Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Amir Peretz and chief of staff Lt.-Gen Dan Halutz, to justify the war and its losses.
  
  Looking slightly further ahead, Israel’s policy-makers had better hurry up and form a plan to meet an exacerbated threat from Lebanon, the possible displacement of the Fouad Siniora government in Beirut with a pro-Syrian, Hizballah-dominated administration. This further deterioration in Israel’s national security situation is far from being a remote hypothesis.
  
  Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah used the war to forge alliances with the Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, head of the rival Shiite movement Amal, and the Christian Maronite strongman Michel Aoun. This bloc intends to make a bid to install a pro-Syrian government after Ramadan is over next month.
  
  Our sources in Beirut report a last-minute US-French initiative to frustrate this development. Siniora had his interior minister Ahmed Fatfat posted decree No. 2403 for Lebanon’s five intelligence and security agencies to pool their intelligence data and so provide his government and national army with the means of asserting control over national security. Two pro-Syrian officers, General Security chief Wafic Jezzini, and Director-General of Internal Security forces, Maj.-Gen Ashraf Rifi, stamped hard on this decree. The Siniora government was thus denied a key resource for dominating the country at large, not just the South, and is more vulnerable than ever to a hostile push.
  
  As for Israel’s policy-makers, their handling of the bargaining with UNIFIL was as muddled, vacillating and feeble as their conduct of the Lebanon war itself. By accepting the Aug. 14 truce, they agreed to handing over the Lebanese-Israeli border to an international peacekeeping force without teeth; its rules of engagement are so constrictive that without Lebanese government authorization its members may not fire a single shot - even when necessary to prevent Hizballah moving back to its former aggressive positions or smuggling in fresh supplies of weapons ­ both of which are out-and-out violations of the same Resolution 1701 which mandated its own deployment.
  
  By removing its troops in keeping with that same resolution, Israel has bargained away its last option for extracting information about the fate of the two soldiers seized by Hizballah; Red Cross access has brusquely refused.
  
  In the view of DEBKAfile’s political sources, the last IDF units were kept in Lebanon after the truce for no discernible military or diplomatic purpose but to lull the Israeli public into not looking too closely at their leaders’ feeble negotiating stance and assuming Israel was still a strong player on the Lebanese scene. By Yom Kippur eve, most people were caught up in seasonal pursuits and less inclined to continue their painful in-depth calculation of the war’s net results.
  
  Those results can be summed up in four negative developments which the Olmert government failed to thwart:
  
  1. The wholesale smuggling through Syria of fresh weapons supplies to Hizballah from Syria and Iran, which neither the Lebanese army nor UNIFIL is lifting a finger to stop despite an explicit UN embargo. The heads of Israel’s government neglected to draw lessons from the failed deal on the Gaza crossings and the Philadelphi route, which never prevented arms flowing freely from Egyptian Sinai to Palestinian terrorists, notably the ruling Hamas.
  
  Syria stays technically in the clear of the UN arms embargo by setting up huge arms dumps on its border with Lebanon, ready to be pushed across at a moment’s notice by land.
  
  2. Expanded UNIFIL, which Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni did her best to present as a force with teeth, rather than monitoring Hizballah’s movements and disarming its combatants, is busy monitoring the feuds of Lebanese political and military factions.
  
  3. These international units refrain from entering S. Lebanese villages. There is therefore no hindrance to Hizballah re-occupying those villages and restoring its strongholds within range of the Israeli border. The UN force is not setting up checkpoints to control banned traffic in the South. At best, the units are using makeshift roadblocks which go up for an hour at most before being removed and leaving Hizballah a free field for moving around the South.
  
  4. The naval blockade against illegal arms imports, purportedly maintained by French, Italian, German and Greek war vessels, is about effective as UNIFIL’s ephemeral roadblocks. Their governments consented to the vessels being barred from entering Lebanese territorial waters. And so a strip of ocean 12 miles wide up to the Lebanese coast remains wide open for Hizballah’s arms ships to freely ply the route between Syrian and Lebanese ports.
  
  Anxious to turn disaffected popular attention away from Hizballah’s recovery under the benign auspices of the UN’s European contingents, Israeli ministers and military chiefs have been debating out loud the need to carry out a major ground operation in the Gaza Strip, whence Qassam missiles continue to be fired into Israeli communities and where the Palestinians are building up their arms stocks, unhindered by international monitors and Egyptian police.
  
  Joel Bainerman's article is in the next comment.
  

• 28 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 01, 2006 at 7:59 am

  
  WAR IN LEBANON: FOUGHT OVER OIL?
  copyright (c) 2006 by Joel Bainerman
  
  Excerpt: "the bombing of LEBANON is part of a carefully planned and coordinated military road map. The next stage of the war, which will include attacks against IRAN and SYRIA, is already in the works by Israeli and American military planners. The war will be conducted on behalf of oil interests, not out of any concern to bolster ISRAEL's security. The end result is Israeli territorial control over the EAST MEDITERRANEAN coastline. With this pipeline, the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN will now have an 'energy corridor', as Chossudovsky calls it, to the CASPIAN SEA basin. 'What is important to remember is that all of the participants in the pipeline are UNITED STATES allies -- including ISRAEL, TURKEY, GEORGIA, and AZERBAIJAN'. For ISRAEL, Chossudovsky's conclusions are chilling: ISRAEL is now part of what he says is 'an Anglo-American military axis which serves the interests of the Western oil giants in the MIDDLE EAST and CENTRAL ASIA'".
  
  
  In the second week of July, 2006, Arab Knesset member Talab El-Sana told the Israeli press:
  
  "The war in LEBANON is an American war. ISRAEL is nothing more than a U.S. subcontractor, doing America's work in the MIDDLE EAST. The UNITED STATES is using Israelis and Lebanese to further its own ends. The U.S. has nullified Israel's ability to make independent decisions".
  
  Could the war in LEBANON have had more to do with protecting oil pipelines and AMERICA's geo-strategic goals than Hezbollah shooting rockets into northern ISRAEL?
  
  A Canadian economics professor, Michel Chossudovsky, of the University of OTTAWA, Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, thinks so.
  
  "Virtually unnoticed, the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (B.T.C.) oil pipeline, which links the CASPIAN SEA to the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, took place on the 13th of July, at the very outset of the Israeli sponsored bombings of LEBANON", said Michel Chossudovsky of the University of OTTAWA, Director of the Center for Research on Globalization. "One day before the Israeli air strikes, the main partners and shareholders of the B.T.C. pipeline project, including several heads of State and oil company executives were in attendance at the port of CEYHAN. They were then rushed off for an inauguration reception in ISTANBUL, hosted by TURKEY's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in the plush surroundings of the Cyraoan Palace. Also in attendance was British Petroleum's (B.P.) C.E.O., Lord Browne together with senior government officials from BRITAIN, the UNITED STATES and ISRAEL, including Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. B.P. leads the B.T.C. pipeline consortium. Other major Western shareholders include Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, France's Total and Italy's E.N.I.".
  
  
  O.K., just a coincidence, right?
  
  Chossudovsky does not think so. He claims that what is important about the B.T.C. pipeline it that it bypasses the territory of the RUSSIAN FEDERATION. It transits through the former Soviet republics of AZERBAIJAN and GEORGIA, both of which have become UNITED STATES "protectorates", which are already in a military alliance with the UNITED STATES and N.A.T.O.. Moreover, both AZERBAIJAN and GEORGIA have long standing military cooperation agreements with ISRAEL.
  
  "There are strategic objectives underlying the LEBANON war which are tied to oil and oil pipelines", Chossudovsky points out. "By bypassing RUSSIA, Russia has been weakened. Now, ISRAEL is slated to play a major strategic role in 'protecting' the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN transport and pipeline corridors out of CEYHAN. Also, ISRAEL will increase dramatically the import of oil from the CASPIAN SEA".
  
  Chossudovsky, whose international best seller, "The Globalization of Poverty", has been published in eleven languages, insists that the bombing of LEBANON is part of a carefully planned and coordinated military road map. The next stage of the war, which will include attacks against IRAN and SYRIA, is already in the works by Israeli and American military planners. The war will be conducted on behalf of oil interests, not out of any concern to bolster ISRAEL's security.
  
  The end result is Israeli territorial control over the EAST MEDITERRANEAN coastline. With this pipeline, the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN will now have an "energy corridor", as Chossudovsky calls it, to the CASPIAN SEA basin. "What is important to remember is that all of the participants in the pipeline are UNITED STATES allies -- including ISRAEL, TURKEY, GEORGIA, and AZERBAIJAN".
  
  For ISRAEL, Chossudovsky's conclusions are chilling: ISRAEL is now part of what he says is "an Anglo-American military axis which serves the interests of the Western oil giants in the MIDDLE EAST and CENTRAL ASIA".
  
  Yet the Israeli public has no idea that these aims are what might have motivated its government. Most Israelis believed that the I.D.F. tried to do what they could in order to safeguard the security of the Israeli public -- and simply failed. Didn't do the job right.
  
  Perhaps it was deemed that ISRAEL needed to be weakened -- so that Hezbollah can score a victory, of some sorts, and thus keep not only southern LEBANON unstable for years to come, but much of north western LEBANON and south western SYRIA along the Mediterranean coastline (in the same way that the Oslo Accords strengthen the Palestinians, weakened ISRAEL, and led to ten years of unprecedented instability in ISRAEL). The end result will likely be the UNITED STATES insisting that U.S. or Israeli troops be stationed along this shoreline -- not to protect the pipeline -- but to "ensure regional stability".
  
  Terrible, because the Israeli public will be duped into providing security and protection for a private pipeline deal? Well, not really. There are huge rewards for ISRAEL.
  
  While official reports state that the B.T.C. pipeline will "channel oil to Western markets", Chossudovsky says that the guts of the deal will be that oil from the CASPIAN SEA would be directly channelled towards ISRAEL. An underwater Israeli-Turkish pipeline project would link CEYHAN in TURKEY to the Israeli port of ASHKELON (a distance of 400 km) and then through an existing pipeline between ASHKELON and EILAT which was shut down in the late 70's after the fall of the Shah and the loss of Iranian oil.
  
  Economically, a deal like this would be a major long term benefit to ISRAEL's energy economy. As it can be assumed that the price of oil will continue to rise -- if ISRAEL can be guaranteed a reasonable price for its oil and gas in the way of a 30-50 year supply contract -- it would not only make the cost of acquiring ISRAEL's energy resources much more cheaper and efficient, but also Israeli economic planners could better plan decades in advance for ISRAEL's needs if the country knew the amount and supply of oil the economy had guaranteed access to for decades to come.
  
  Also involved in this project is a pipeline to bring water to ISRAEL, pumping water from upstream resources of the Tigris and Euphrates river system in ANATOLIA. Yet another huge benefit for ISRAEL. Choussudovsky reports that in April, 2006, ISRAEL and TURKEY announced plans for four underwater pipelines, which would bypass Syrian and Lebanese territory.
  
  "Diverting Central Asian oil and gas to the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN -- under Israeli military protection -- for re-export back to ASIA, serves to undermine the inter-Asian energy market, which is based on the development of direct pipeline corridors linking CENTRAL ASIA and RUSSIA to SOUTH ASIA, CHINA and the FAR EAST", he says. "Ultimately, this design is intended to weaken RUSSIA's role in CENTRAL ASIA and cut off CHINA from Central Asian oil resources. It is also intended to isolate IRAN".
  
  Downside of the deal?
  
  Chossudovsky contends that MOSCOW has responded to the U.S.-Israeli-Turkish design to militarize the EAST MEDITERRANEAN coastline with plans to establish a Russian naval base in the Syrian port of TARTUS: A naval base in TARTUS will enable RUSSIA to solidify its positions in the MIDDLE EAST and ensure security for SYRIA. MOSCOW intends to deploy an air defense system around the base, to provide air cover for the base itself and a substantial part of Syrian territory. (S-300 PMU-2 Favorit systems will not be turned over to the Syrians. They will be manned and serviced by Russian personnel).
  
  "Moreover, MOSCOW and DAMASCUS have reached an agreement on the modernization of Syria's air defenses as well as a program in support to its ground forces, the modernization of its MIG-29 fighters as well as its submarines -- as was reported in 'Kommerzant', on 2 June 2006. In the context of an escalating conflict, these developments have far-reaching implications".
  
  Professor Chossudovsky points out that these underwater pipeline routes do not overtly encroach on the territorial sovereignty of LEBANON and SYRIA. On the other hand, the development of alternative land based corridors (for oil and water) through LEBANON and SYRIA would require Israeli-Turkish territorial control over the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN coastline through LEBANON and SYRIA. The implementation of a land-based corridor, as opposed to the underwater pipeline project, would require the militarization of the EAST MEDITERRANEAN coastline, extending from the port of CEYHAN across SYRIA and LEBANON to the Lebanese-Israeli border.
  
  "Is this not one of the hidden objectives of the war on LEBANON? Open up a space which enables ISRAEL to control a vast territory extending from the Lebanese border through SYRIA to TURKEY. 'The Long War'?"
  
  Shabbat Shalom from Zichron Ya'akov
  
  Joel Bainerman
  
  ABOUT JOEL BAINERMAN:
  
  Joel Bainerman is a writer on Israeli and Middle East affairs, who has been researching Middle East political and economic subjects since 1983. His research reports and published archive may be viewed at his website.

• 29 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 01, 2006 at 8:24 am

  This story sadly demonstrates the nature of the Israeli state and why it is anything but a Jewish state.
  
  Violation of Jewish religious rights in the Old City of Jerusalem
  DAVID BEDEIN, Bureau Chief. Israel Resource News Agency
  
  What happened at the small area near the Western Wall known as the "Kotel
  Hakatan" this Rosh HaShanah, the second day of the Jewish New Year must be
  viewed with great severity, because of the precedent that it portends.
  
  While the Jerusalem police spokesman told the media that the police arrested
  a 20 year old resident of Jerusalem's Old City, Eliahu Kleinman, for sounding the Shofar "in order to create a provocation among the Arab
  residents in the Old City of Jerusalem", the people who were present during Morning prayers while Eliahu was arrested tell a different story.
  
  Hedy Kleinman, Eliahu's mother, who came on Aliya from Toronto in 1978, was in the women's section of the prayers, and watched when a Druze member of the Israel Border Police who are stationed in the Old City, motioned to her
  son to stop blowing the shofar during the Musaf section of the Near Year prayer because it bothered the Arabs in the area. Although the custom was indeed to blow the Shoafar during the Musaf service, the policeman screamed that it "this was forbidden because it bothers the Arabs".
  
  People present at the prayers heard the officer send a radio message to his superiors that "these people are in the middle of prayers and that he could not do anything about the young man who was blowing the shofar".
  
  The answer that the policeman got from on his walker-talkee from his Jewish police commander, Guy Gilboa, was to "arrest the shofar blower immediately, even if he is in the middle of prayer".
  
  Two Druze officers, with name tags "Aswan" and "Jamil". arrived on the scene, and signaled Eliahu to stop blowing the shofar and to come with them to the Jerusalem Old City Police station.
  
  Since Eliahu was in the midst of prayer with his feet together, as is the custom, Eliahu would not and could not respond. Eliahu blew the shofar once again, since it is the Sephardic custom to blow the shofar during the Amidah silent prayer.
  
  After he blew the shofar, Aswan and Jamil proceeded to drag Eliahu to the police station despite the fact that he was in the midst of prayer.
  
  At the Jerusalem Old City police station, police commander Gilboa informed Eliahu that he would be charged with disobeying and attacking a police officer and resisting arrest.
  
  Over the past week, as the veracity of the story has come out, the Jerusalem police have stuck to their story that they arrested the Eliahu for blowing the shofar after the "kotel hakatan" after prayers, in order to bother the Arabs.
  
  While the police asked the court for a restraining order to prevent Eliahu from going anywhere near the "kotel haktan" for the next 15 days, his lawyer, Adv. Daniel Rubin, appealed that order at the Jerusalem District Court and the police restraining order was cancelled. However, the police informed the court that they would press charges against Eliahu for
  resisting arrest.
  
  Israel Resource News Agency asked the police if they would apologize for arresting a man during prayer The answer received was "no".
  
  The precedent has been created- that the Israeli police can make an arbitrary decision to disrupt prayers of Jews on the holiest days of the year.
  
  The question remains: will organizations that are traditionally involved in defending religious rights get involved and demand that the Israeli police never violate religious rights of Jews never do any such a thing in the
  future?
  
  Not one human rights or civil liberties organization spoke with Eliahu nor with the people whose prayers were disrupted while their religious rights were violated.
  
  The question is why.
  
  --------------------------------------------------
  
  To my fellow Jews:
  
  May you all have an easy fast for Yom Kippur.
  May you all be inscribed for a healthy and sweet 5767.
  
  Those of you outside of Israel, may you merit returning home at a near time. Permanently. As dangerous as it may seem here, ironically, you will be safest here.
  
  May we see the fall of the evil ru(i)ning our land, and the coming of a full redemption this year.
  
  May those in the government and who bear responsibility for the welfare of the Jewish people who sin in their way repent and choose life, for more is expected from those whose responisibility is greatest.

• 30 - Franco

  Oct 03, 2006 at 6:15 pm

  Hi Ruvy,
  
  This is Franco from the Chavez debate.
  
  Ruvy, this thread is filled with mountains of information that I need to spend extensive time in reviewing to get into it.
  
  Befor I state, is this thread were I should stare of is one of the other threads a better place for me to start.
  
  Fraco

• 31 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 04, 2006 at 6:16 am

  Middle East ON-Line reports "Sheetrit: Israel should accept Arab peace plan"
  
  Justice and Housing Minister Meir Sheetrit calls for applying Saudi initiative, inviting Abbas.
  JERUSALEM - An Israeli cabinet minister from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party said Wednesday that the Jewish state should accept a Saudi peace initiative to solve the conflict with the Palestinians.
  
  "We should take the bull by the horns and, when I say that, I mean we should accept the moderate (Arab) countries' initiative, the Saudi initiative," Justice and Housing Minister Meir Sheetrit said.
  
  He said Israel would be willing to withdraw from Arab territory occupied ever since the 1967 Middle East war, as stipulated in the Saudi blueprint, in exchange for a "complete peace".
  
  "If we are talking about overall peace, if we want overall peace, we are compelled to accept all the elements of the initiative and withdraw to the 1967 borders," the minister added.
  
  "Israel should set the agenda on the Palestinian question... and tell the Saudis, come and talk about your initiative," Sheetrit said.
  
  "We should invite (Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas) Abu Mazen for face to face talks," he said, emphasising Israel was "ready to make significant compromises to draw its permanent borders".
  
  Recent reports in Israel -- denied in Riyad -- have mentioned secret talks between Israeli and Saudi officials, with Olmert leaving it understood he had met a member of the kingdom's royal family.
  
  But last week, the prime minister said the Saudi initiative, adopted by the Arab League in 2002, did not constitute a basis for negotiations.
  
  Under the plan, the Arab world would normalise relations with Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal from land occupied since 1967 and a negotiated solution to the Palestinian refugee issue.
  ------------------------------------------------------
  
  Yup, traitors and fools running the country...
  

• 32 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 04, 2006 at 10:40 am

  Hizballah Shuts Reoccupied S. Lebanese Bases to Lebanese and UN forces
  DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report
  October 4, 2006, 2:05 PM (GMT+02:00)
  
  On Yom Kippur, Oct. 2, 24 hours after the last Israeli soldier left South Lebanon and the day before UNIFIL published its rules of engagement, Hizballah placed roadblocks on all the approaches to the central sector of the South and the entrances to the towns and villages reoccupied by its forces and their rocket units.
  
  These enclaves were declared “closed military zones.”
  
  DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and Western intelligence sources report that neither the Lebanese army which moved south nor the international peacekeepers of UNIFIL venture to set foot in these enclaves. Nor did they raise a finger to block the first broad-daylight consignment of advanced Iranian weapons to be delivered in Lebanon via Syria since the August 14 ceasefire.
  
  This coordinated Hizballah-Iranian-Syrian ploy has brought into question the point of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which was to prevent the resumption of hostilities and Hizballah’s rearmament while helping the Beirut government and army assert its sovereignty in the South. It has also made a mockery of the UN Force and its missions.
  
  These developments effectively assign UN Security Council resolution 1701 to the same dustbin as resolution 1559 which ordered Hizballah disarmed.
  
  It is especially noted that the Israeli government has made no military or diplomatic response to these violations, or even informed the public that Hizballah has redeployed in the precise positions from which it blitzed Haifa, Nahariya, Carmiel, Acre and W. Galilee for more than a month.
  
  Tuesday, Oct. 3, after Hizballah completed its redeployment, the southern commander who orchestrated the rocket bombardment of Israel, Sheikh Nabil Qauq, made his first appearance since the war. He announced that his forces had regrouped, fully armed and in command of rocket supplies, in exactly the same positions facing the Israeli border as they had occupied when they went to war on July 12.
  
  This statement is fully confirmed by DEBKAfile’s military and W. intelligence sources which locate the enclaves Hizballah has cordoned off as closed military zones:
  
  1. Majdal Zoun south of Tyre, from which Nahariya, Acre, Carmiel and Western Galilee were bombed. The Nasser rocket brigade has returned to its posts there with a fresh supply of rockets, as well as the launchers and crews which escaped Israeli counter-attack.
  
  2. Jouaiya, the strategic village occupied by the IDF during the war, has been roped into the Majdal Zoun “military area,” providing Hizballah with full military control of the Tyre district and the ability to bombard UNIFIL headquarters and bases.
  
  3. Siddiquine south of Kana.
  
  4. Deir Amess.
  
  5. The road approaches to the large village of Tebnin in the central sector of the South are blocked.
  
  Our military experts explain that control of Sidiquine, Deir Amess and Tebnin afford Hizballah’s military deployment command of the strategic Jabel Amel mountain region, and its focal points of Haris, Kafra and Aita e-Zott villages. From there, Hizballah fired rockets at Haifa. They were also the centers of the advanced electronic sites from which Hizballah tracked Israeli troop movements across the border and eavesdropped on their signals.
  
  DEBKAfile’s sources also provide detailed information on the Iranian-Syrian arms supplies sent openly into Lebanon on Oct. 2.
  
  In early September, DEBKAfile began reporting on the 25 Hizballah arms dumps maintained for easy access on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border. Damascus was thus technically complicit with the 1701 arms embargo. The Syrian Al Qusayr air base south of Homs and opposite the Lebanese town of Hermel was given over for the use of the forward Iranian Revolutionary Guards command. Since the ceasefire, Iranian air transports have been landing arms for Hizballah at this facility almost daily.
  
  Saturday, Sept 30, Syrian military supplies and maintenance units at this air base prepared a convoy of six trucks for a trial run to test the response. Two were fully loaded with miscellaneous rockets, including Katyusha, anti-air and anti-tank missiles, four with mortars, heavy machine guns and ammunition.
  
  This convoy crossed the border at a central road junction connecting the Syrian village of Qusayr with Mt. Lebanon, and headed southwest to Hermel. Another two arms convoys stood by on the Syrian side of the border, waiting to see if the first one was allowed through. Since both the IDF and UNIFIL sat on their hands, the next two will soon follow.
  
  What the international forces did next on Tuesday night Oct. 3 was to publish its rules of engagement These are the main clauses:
  
  The force's commanders have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind.
  
  UNIFIL personnel may exercise the inherent right of self-defense, as well as "the use of force beyond self-defense to ensure that UNIFIL's area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities."
  
  The peacekeepers also may use force "to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent UNIFIL from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council, to protect U.N. personnel, facilities, installations and equipment and to ensure the security and freedom of movement of U.N. personnel and humanitarian workers."
  
  Also the use of force may be applied "to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence in its areas of deployment, within its capabilities."
  
  DEBKAfile notes that all these locutions are open to broad interpretation.
  
  For instance, “hostile activity” could apply to an attack from outer space since there is no mention of “Hizballah,” “Syria or “Iran.” The “arms embargo” ordered by Resolution 1701 is another unmentionable. “The civilians” to be protected are likewise undefined. UNIFIL’s commander has full discretion to decide whether or not it is aplicable to a Hizballlah rocket attack on Nahariya.
  
  Since UN commanders have state explicitly they will only act with the permission of the Lebanese government and army (in which Hizballah holds the power of veto), there is no way that the international force can carry out its duties as mandated by the UN Security Council.
  
  The Olmert government fully colludes in reducing this body to the same ineffectiveness as it displayed in the 28 years leading up to the Lebanon War. By their silence and passivity, Israeli leaders hope to hide the true outcome of that bungled campaign from Israeli and world opinion. Foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who proudly held up the UN force’s deployment as the war’s only success and the formula for Israel’s successful exit strategy, has been strangely struck dumb.
  
  
  
  
  

• 33 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 04, 2006 at 11:30 am

  Retiring general calls for the resignation of the government - creates ruckus
  
  There are three stories on this: The first is the basic story from Debkafiles, which was published at 11:00 Israel Winter Time. Two of the following stories appear to be from Arutz Sheva
  ==================================================
  Maj.-Gen. Yiftah Ron Tal is the highest ranking serving officer to call for chief of staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz to step down
  
  October 4, 2006, 11:34 AM (GMT+02:00)
  
  He said Israel’s top soldier must take responsibility for the IDF’s failure to win the day in the war against Hizballah. Using combat units to enforce the evacuation of Israeli communities from the Gaza Strip just over a year ago was a serious mistake, he said. It had gravely impaired the units’ combat capabilities and their preparedness for war. Ron Tal was summoned by the chief of staff.
  -------------------------------------------------
  The following two stories are from Arutz Sheva...
  
  Retiring General: Disengagement Led to IDF Failure in Lebanon
  13:57 Oct 04, '06 / 12 Tishrei 5767
  by Hillel Fendel
  
  
  Maj.-Gen. Yiftah Ron-Tal, who retired from the army this year, says there is a clear link between the IDF's execution of the Disengagement from Gaza and its poor performance during the Lebanon war.
  
  
  Ron-Tal last served as the IDF's Ground Forces Commander. Speaking with Voice of Israel Radio this morning, Ron-Tal said that the army's active participation in the expulsion of the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Shomron last year harmed its readiness for the war in Lebanon. "We are still paying the price of this mistake," he said.
  
  Gen. Ron-Tal, who is still officially in the army, said that the "military and political echelons responsible for the warfare in Lebanon should take responsibility for the failure." Asked if he means that Olmert and Halutz should resign, he said, "That is usually what taking responsibility means."
  
  "In June and July of 2005," Ron-Tal said, "the army was sufficiently ready to defeat Hizbullah - but the army dedicated most of its time to training for the Disengagement, at the expense of training [for war]. The army was not at a level that it could not fight, but during the first few days of warfare they had to remove rust... Was the army supposed to deal with Disengagement? It's not the army's job to expel Jews, which was something that was not in consensus, and as a people's army, it should not have had to do this."
  
  In answer to a question, he said he does not intend to enter politics. Speaking earlier with the Kfar Chabad magazine, Ron-Tal said that for a country to volunteer to uproot its own communities is "an act of suicide... I still cannot understand how Israel gave up parts of its land so willingly and enthusiastically, and how it turned the residents who are so attached to the Land into criminals, instead of admiring their struggle to preserve the Jewish character of the State."
  
  Ron-Tal said earlier this year that when he was faced with the choice of either resigning from the army or carrying out Disengagement orders, he deliberated, but chose the latter.
  
  MK Uri Ariel, whip of the Knesset's National Union-National Religious Party faction, said that Ron-Tal's remarks against the army's participation in the Disengagement "reflect the opinion of most of the senior officers. The problem is that they don't stand firm in their position and did not say these things when it mattered." MK Ariel called on other IDF officers to reveal the extent of their opposition to the Disengagement.
  
  IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz has summoned Gen. Ron-Tal for a "clarification" of his remarks. The IDF Spokesman said that it is "not appropriate for an officer on retirement leave who is receiving an army salary to express criticism of the State of Israel's political echelons. The matter is even more grave in light of the fact that Gen. Ron-Tal was a member of the IDF General Staff and was a partner to all the processes and decisions, including the Disengagement plan."
  
  MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said that Gen. Ron-Tal is correct in linking between the army's participation in the expulsion and its failure in the recent war. "The army wasted 4.5 million work days in order to expel 9,000 Jews from their homes," Eldad said, "and the Chief of Staff gave out certificates of excellence to the units that excelled in the expulsion. This is not the way to defeat Arabs."
  
  MK Tzvi Hendel, also of the National Union, was one of the thousands of Jews expelled from their homes in Gush Katif last year. He heard Ron-Tal's remarks with bitterness, saying, "It's too bad that he did not have the courage to say this in real-time, though at least now he got up the strength to say what most of the General Staff thinks."
  
  Hendel added, "During the expulsion from Gush Katif, it was specifically those who wore the IDF uniform who were obligated to warn the entire public against this dangerous and corrupt act, in order to save the IDF - which is precious to the entire public - from corruption and destruction."
  ------------------------------------------------
  
  Halutz Condemns Senior Officer Who Cited IDF Failures
  09:49 Oct 04, '06 / 12 Tishrei 5767
  
  (IsraelNN.com) IDF Chief of Staff has order a recently retired ranking army officer to appear for a meeting concerning the officer's recent criticism of the IDF's operations against Hizbullah terrorists and of government policies, including last year's expulsions.
  
  The former commander of ground forces, Ron Tal, has stated that the army worried about training for the expulsions and demolitions of Jewish communities instead of concentrating on the threat of Hizbullah terrorists. He also called the unilateral withdrawals "suicidal."
  
  A spokesman for the Chief of Staff said, "It is not desirable that an officer on leave toward retirement and who receives a salary from the IDF should express criticism on the government policies.
  
  
  Former OC Ground Forces commander Maj.-Gen. Yiftah Ron-Tal on Wednesday called on IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz to resign from his post.
  
  Ron-Tal said that those responsible for the fighting in Lebanon this past summer must be held accountable for the war's failure. Responsibility lies with both military and political ranks, he said.
  
  He added that there was a clear connection between the IDF's failure in the recent Lebanon war and its participation in the disengagement from Gaza last summer.
  
  "The IDF, from a readiness standpoint, was well-prepared for this war. That wasn't the problem with this war, the emergency storage units and the training. Our army last June and July was in a sufficient state of fitness to subdue Hizbullah, but the army dedicated most of its time to training for the disengagement, and therefore the training suffered," he said.
  
  "It was not on such a level that it was impossible to fight, but there was a need to remove the rust in the first days of fighting. Did the army have to participate in the disengagement? It wasn't its job to evacuate Jews, which was non-consensual, and it, as the army of the people, was not supposed to do that," Ron-Tal said.
  
  Tal also said in an interview with Army Radio that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's convergence plan would likely endanger Israel's security.
  
  The IDF condemned Ron-Tal's comments shortly afterwards, saying it was "not appropriate for an officer on paid vacation before his retirement from the IDF to criticize the political echelons of the State of Israel.
  
  "This matter is even worse in light of the fact that Maj.-Gen. Ron-Tal was a member of the general staff and a part of the general processes and decisions, including the disengagement plan," the army said.
  
  Halutz has summoned Ron-Tal to a meeting to clarify the latter's statements.
  
  Meanwhile, however, NU/NRP faction head MK Uri Ariel said Ron-Tal's comments condemning the IDF's participation in the disengagement reflected the opinion of most senior IDF officers.
  
  "The problem is that they don't stand behind their opinions and say this when the chips are down," he said, and called on all senior IDF officers to reveal how strongly they had opposed the disengagement.
  
  
  
  

• 34 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 04, 2006 at 12:40 pm

  Conaleezza Rice visited Jerusalem today. This means that us common folk will have to suffer road closures to protect this fine lady's (gag, barf) security. That meqns my wife may be sitting for three hours at one of the roadblocks...
  
  In the meantime IMRA reports that
  
  RIGHTS GROUP PROTESTS SECRETARY RICE'S MEETING TODAY WITH TERRORIST LEADER WHO
  INJURED US CITIZENS
  
  Shurat HaDin alleges that Secretary of State is scheduled to meet Fatah Tanzim
  chief al-Sheikh who financed Jerusalem attacks which seriously injured American
  nationals
  
  Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center is protesting today's meeting between the American Secretary of State and a Palestinian terrorist leader, Hussein al-Sheikh, who was responsible for organizing and financing several Jerusalem
  suicide bombings. The terror attacks killed several Israelis and injured hundreds of others including numerous American citizens. Secretary Rice is due to meet the Fatah Tanzim leader at the American Consulate in East Jerusalem
  today as part of her week-long visit of Middle Eastern states.
  
  Shurat HaDin has written to the Israeli police demanding that they arrest al-Sheihk if he enters Jerusalem to attend the meeting. The letter notes that information detailing al-Sheihk's involvement in the terror attack came from the confessions of other Fatah Tanzim terrorists who were convicted of carrying out
  the bombings and shootings. In once instance, the letter states that the involvement of al-Sheihk in a deadly Jerusalem suicide bombing in March 2002 which killed three Israelis and injured more than 85 others was included in a
  military court indictment for which several terrorists have been convicted.
  
  According to the indictment, on March 20, 2002 two members of Fatah Tanzim meet with al-Sheikh at this office in Ramallah and received hand-grenades and cash to carry out an attack. The pair rented a car and bought clothes for the suicide bomber to wear. The next day, March 21st, the pair drove the bomber to a
  checkpoint where he switched cars and proceeded to down town Jerusalem. At 4:20 pm the suicide bomber blew himself on King George Street killing 3 Israelis. Shortly thereafter, the pair returned again to al-Sheikh who assisted them in preparing a press-release in which Fatah Tanzim claimed responsibility for the attack.
  
  Two of those seriously injured in the al-Sheihk financed attack where American citizens, Dr. Alan Bauer and his young son Jonathan. They were walking nearby the terrorist on King George Street when the bomb exploded.
  
  The military court indictment states that: "On that day (on which the terror attack occurred) the defendant (Karim Rateb Yunes Awis), together with Nasser Shawish and Mohammad Khsheika (the suicide bomber), met with Hussein al-Sheikh,
  the secretary-general of Fatah in the area, in his office. al-Sheikh supplied the defendant with money and a couple of hand-grenades for the purpose of carrying out the attack.
  
  "Later on, the defendant, together with Naser Shawish and Hussein a-Sheikh, wrote out an announcement in which Fatah Tanzim claimed responsibility for the attack. Afterwards, Nasser Shawish went to the offices of the news agency ANN, and there he was recorded reading the announcement."
  
  Dr. Alan Bauer, who is represented by attorney Darshan-Leitner, had been complaining to the United States State Department concerning the inactivity of the United States in investigating the bombing which injured him and his son. In
  December 2005, Dr. Bauer wrote again to the State Department which offers rewards for the provision of information regarding suspected individuals responsible for terrorist attacks in which Americans were injured, and demanded
  that the U.S. government take appropriate measures against those who were involved in the attack. In his letter, Dr. Bauer included a copy of the military court indictment which emphasizes al-Sheikh's involvement and financing of the bombing.
  
  In addition to the March 21, 2002 attack, al-Sheikh is suspected of planning and funding an additional terrorist shooting attack in which Shayna Gould of Chicago and Shmuel Waldman of New York, both American nationals, were wounded on January 22, 2002 in Jerusalem.
  
  "Instead of meeting with a-Sheikh in the American consulate", stated attorney
  Darshan-Leitner, "Condoleezza Rice should be making arrangements to indict al-Sheikh for the wounding of innocent American civilians. The State Department's tireless efforts to find "moderate" Palestinians for a dialogue,
  leads its officials to shake the bloody hands of ruthless terrorists, involved in attacks against Americans and Israelis".
  
  --------------------------------------------------
  You think that Olmert will arrest this terrorist and stick the bastard in jail? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you.

• 35 - MAOZ

  Oct 04, 2006 at 1:08 pm

  Ruvy, apropos of the incident you brought down in #29:
  I sometimes participate in the Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivuv She'arim (circling of the gates to the Temple Mount on the eve of the new month). At a certain point, we all stop and pray the ma'ariv (evening) prayer service together. I've many times noticed that, while we're praying the silent prayer, a number of the cops/Magavniks who are "securing" the event seem to make a point of chitchatting VERY audibly with each other or on their cellphones. I'm not at all convinced that the phenomenon's a result of simple thoughtlessness on their part. I suspect they get their jollies disrupting Jewish prayer.

• 36 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 04, 2006 at 2:27 pm

  Thanks for commenting, MAOZ. It is this kind of thing that creates such a bitter kulturkampf in this country when we need for than anything else, unity amongst our own...

• 37 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 11, 2006 at 5:33 am

  Will Israel Wake up One Morning to a Nuclear-Armed Iran?
  DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
  October 9, 2006, 12:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
  
  This is the analysis of the back door Mossad operation, Debkafiles.com. Read it and make your own judgments. Amos Segev, a writer for a handout newpaper for the customers of Egged (the nation's bus main coöperative), "Israeli," wrote in a Hebrew article that the decision on Iran in the end will be ours alone. I'm afraid he is right, and that our leaders do not have the balls to make the right decision.
  
  

• 38 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 11, 2006 at 5:37 am

  DEBKAfile Exclusive: S. Lebanon’s largest town, Sidon, is taken over as Russian-Syrian spy base and Hizballah stronghold
  
  October 9, 2006, 10:09 PM (GMT+02:00)
  
  The two Russian Chechen GRU platoons, Vostok and Zapad, revealed by DEBKAfile Oct. 6 as being deployed in S. Lebanon, are setting up their headquarters and surveillance posts in the Lebanese port of Sidon and giving Syrian intelligence a window on their input. Syria is drumming up local support in the strategic port-town, the largest in S. Lebanon, by pumping weapons to local branches of the two Shiite groups, Hizballah and Amal, and the two pro-Syrian clans which dominate the town.
  
  (This was first revealed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 272 of Oct. 6.)
  
  The carve-up of South Lebanon since Israeli troops pulled out is unfolding as follows: The UN force mandated by UN Security Council resolution 1701 is centered in the Tyre region, whereas Hizballah, Syria’s supporters and the Russian intelligence platoons have taken control of Sidon further up the Mediterranean coast. The three elements are ideally positioned for Hizballah to control the south Lebanese coastal region and for the Russians and Syrians to keep track of the military movements of the Israeli army, UNIFIL and the European naval units off the Lebanese shore.
  
  Senior Israeli officers told DEBKAfile that the takeover of parts of Sidon by Hizballah and Syrian intelligence - plus a Russian intelligence presence " places the security of northern in extreme danger.
  
  After lagging behind Hizballah for years, Amal, the Shiite movement headed by the Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, is now being rewarded for backing Hizballah in the war with new weapons and training by Syrian and Iranian instructors in civilian dress. Arms are also being lavished on the powerful and wealthy South Lebanese Bizeri and Saad clans which oppose the anti-Syrian Saad Hariri, whose father Rafiq Hariri was murdered in February 2005.
  
  Hizballah’s domination of Sidon, backed up by Russian and Syrian intelligence, is a blow which virtually wipes out any advantages Israel gained from the Lebanon war. It transforms UNIFIL and the Lebanese army into a buffer that sterilizes the Syrian-Russian effort to rebuild Hizballah’s military strength and intelligence capabilities.
  
  What is most astonishing is the Israeli government and army’s passivity in the face of this gathering security deterioration which adds up to several blatant violations of the letter and spirit of Resolution 1701.
  
  (See DEBKAfile’s first disclosure of the Russian Chechen deployment in Lebanon in an earlier report on this page.)
  

• 39 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 12, 2006 at 4:49 pm

  This article by Michel Chossudovsky, of GlobalResearch.ca, indicates that Central Asia and the entire Middle East is on a war footing.
  
  While I do not necessarily agree with its conclusions, the data it provides ties, Iran, Russia and China together. The problem is that the Europeans and the Americans are not really OUR allies. The American State Department has always viewed the creation of a Jewish state in Israel as a strategic mistake.
  

• 40 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Oct 13, 2006 at 9:06 am

  This story came as an e-mail and follows the continuing efforts of the Israeli government to destroy the Jewish identity of the country. Ironically, it is a secular Jew attacking the "security" minister, Peretz. The Liberman referred to here is not Joe Lieberman. If only it were.
  
  Lieberman slams Peretz over outposts
  
  Israel Our Home [Yisrael Beiteinu] leader slams Peretz's order to IDF to start evacuating illegal outposts in West Bank
  Attila Somfalvi
  
  
  Defense Minister Amir Peretz's decision to evacuate illegal outposts in the West Bank raised to ire of Israel Our Home leader and right-wing politician Avigdor Lieberman who labeled the move as "provocation."
  
  Peretz ordered the Israel Defense Forces on Thursday to draw a plan for the immediate evacuation of illegal outposts set up by settlers across the West Bank.
  
  Illegal Outposts
  Peretz eyes evacuation of outposts / Hanan Greenberg
  Defense minister orders all illegal structures in West Bank, both Jewish and Arab, to be demolished; wants plans drawn up in near future for evacuation of illegal outposts
  Full Story
  
  
  Tension has been high between the two politicians, following talks between Lieberman and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over the possibility of Israel Our Home joining the government and warnings by Peretz that Labor would leave the coalition should Lieberman join in.
  
  
  "That's an irresponsible act of a man who sacrifices national interests for the sake of personal interests," Lieberman said of Peretz's decision. "If he were eager to implement the law, he would prevent illegal constructions in the Negev and the Galilee," said Lieberman in reference to illegal construction in Israeli Arab communities.
  
  
  "Is there someone who doesn't understand that the issue of outposts is a provocation? It is not about enforcing the law. Peretz is a small man and his evaluations are petty. We will act according to straight and logical principles," Lieberman said.
  
  
  Asked about his meeting with Olmert and reports that he would be given the defense portfolio should his party join the coalition, Lieberman said: "We didn't discuss portfolios … until we discuss the issue of changing the system of governance. I heard a lot of talk in the media. At the moment our evaluation are influence by two issues: stability of the political system and the Iranian issue … It's to live or cease to exist."