Middle East War: 2007

[Sean Osborne]

Starting this thread because...

A) The Hezbollah-Israel War (i.e.: the precursor war) of 2006 is history.
B) Iranian involvement will come as a result of the combat in this war.
C) The conditions and potential results of this war are magnitudes in order of significance above what has occured to date in the Middle East.

I am adding background material from other threads first which are 2007-specific.

[Sean Osborne]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/828914.html

Last update - 03:01 22/02/2007

Syria bolstering forces, troops moving closer to border
By Amos Harel, Aluf Benn and Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent

The Syrian armed forces are being strengthened in an unprecedented way in recent memory with the help of generous funding from Iran and its troops appear to be moving closer to the border with Israel.

The Syrians are bolstering their forces in all areas except the air force, which has been believed to be weak for some time. The main emphasis of the efforts has been missiles and long-range rockets to compensate for the weak air force.

The Syrian navy, after years of neglect, is also being reinforced with an Iranian version of a Chinese anti-ship missile, similar to the oneused by Hezbollah during the second Lebanon war to strike the Israeli destroyer INS Hanit.

In addition to the overall strengthening of the armed forces in Syria, there has been a redeployment of forces along the front lines. It appears that the Syrians have moved forces closer to the border with Israel on the Golan Heights.

The Yom Kippur War on the Syrian front began with a raid by helicopter-borne Syrian commandos on the Hermon listening post, which was occupied by them. The position was not taken by Israeli forces until the end of the war in a very costly battle involving Golani and Paratrooper Brigade troops.

Syria's rebuilding of its military strength has also included test launches of ballistic missiles. Lately, the Syrians test-fired a Scud-D surface-to-surface missile, the latest version of a Soviet-era missile. The Scud-D has a 400-kilometer range and covers most of the territory of Israel.

More than a year ago the Syrians held a missile test but suffered a failure when one of them diverted from its trajectory and fell inside Turkish territory. The debris also fell in populated areas but no losses were reported. Turkey filed an official complaint with Syria, and Damascus apologized for the unusual accident.

In the Scud-D test, two missiles were fired, and the test is believed to have been successful. It is not known what type of warhead the missiles were armed with.

In addition to the larger Scud-type missiles, Syria is in possession of two smaller rockets, and both have been supplied to Hezbollah. One rocket is a 220mm rocket armed with a cluster-bomb warhead, and the other is a 305mm caliber rocket. The range of these rockets is estimated to be several dozen kilometers.

The missiles and rockets are part of an effort to compensate for the obvious weakness of the Syrian air force. This way Syrians could strike Israeli cities and also carry out accurate attacks against military targets inside the country.

The newest and most surprising aspect of the Syrian effort is taking place in its naval forces. In recent years the Syrian navy had been neglected, starting with the decommissioning of its submarines. Later, most of its missile boats came into disrepair or were not upgraded.
The Syrian navy made do with the task of coastal defense, using Russian-made surface-to-sea missiles, some with long-range capability, in the area of the port of Tartus.

However, it appears that the Syrians have chosen to adopt some of the Lebanon war's lessons, and with Iranian help they have renewed emphasis on their navy. The Hezbollah success against the Israeli navy came with the use of upgraded Chinese-made C-802 missiles. Hezbollah
launched these missiles against the destroyer INS Hanit, probably with the direct support of Iranian officers. A missile struck the ship, killed four crew members and caused serious damage.

Syria set to secure advanced anti-tank missiles from Russia
Damascus is close to concluding a large deal with Russia to procure thousands of advanced anti-tank missiles for the Syrian army, according to information received in Israel recently. Such a development suggests that Israel's diplomatic efforts to block the sale have failed.

According to various estimates the deal is worth several hundred million dollars and involves several thousand advanced anti-tank missiles.

For years Syria secured anti-tank missiles from the Soviet Union and later from Russia. During the war in Lebanon last summer Israel found proof that Syria had transferred to Hezbollah advanced Russian-made anti-tank missiles from its arsenal.

Evidence of the existence of these advanced missiles, the Kornet AT-14 and Metis AT-13, came in the form of crates discovered in the villages of Ghandurya and Farun, close to the Saluki River. The shipment documents showed that they had been procured by the Syrian army and transferred to Hezbollah.

Until Israel was able to produce such evidence the authorities in Moscow refused to acknowledge that advanced Russian-made weapons were being transferred to Hezbollah.

But after the war, an Israeli delegation that included members of the National Security Council and the Foreign Ministry presented the evidence to senior Russian officials.

The Russians promised to reevaluate some of the planned arms deals with Syria to ensure that advanced weaponry would not make its way to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.

However, there are now concerns in Israel that Russia will not keep its promise and that the deal with Damascus for the anti-tank missiles is near being finalized.

Syria stepped up its efforts to convince Russia to make the sale following the lessons it reached from the war in Lebanon. The fact that Hezbollah succeeded in delaying an Israeli armored column at the battle near the Saluki River with accurate fire from anti-tank missiles was noted favorably in Arab armies.

In retrospect, and following an IDF study, the number of tanks that were actually damaged during fighting in the war did not exceed several dozen, and in some of them the damage suffered was very minimal. But missile types like the Kornet and the Metis proved their destructive abilities and in some cases even penetrated the armor of
the Merkava Mark IV, which is considered to be the best protected tank in the world.

The IDF found it difficult to counter this threat, particularly since the weapons could be fired accurately from distances of five kilometers.

One of the lessons of the war for Syria was that it needed to improve areas in which it had a relative advantage against the IDF, like the anti-tank missile, and surface-to-surface missiles that can threaten Israel's home front.

In addition, Palestinian militant groups have intensified their efforts to smuggle anti-tank missiles from Sinai to the Gaza Strip.

Armor and infantry units in the IDF are now undergoing training in
tactical maneuvers that will enable them to counter anti-tank
missiles. In addition, there are efforts to upgrade the anti-tank
missiles in Israel's arsenal.

[Sean Osborne]

This is the Debka report of what I'd posted earlier this morning in the "Next Battleground Iran" thread.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3917

Israeli military and government sources report Syria has positioned thousands of rockets on its border with Israel
March 9, 2007, 5:26 PM (GMT+02:00)

Quoting three Israeli military and two government sources, the French news agency AFP reports the Syrian army has accelerated its deployment of medium and long-range rockets capable of striking major towns across northern Israel.
DEBKAfile’s sources note the timing of the unusual disclosure, the day before the Iraqi neighbors’ conference in Baghdad. It appears to be aimed at deterring Syria from being tempted into military action to ease the sense of isolation which the Baghdad meeting will tend to aggravate.
In its detailed report, AFP discloses that most of the Syrian rockets positioned on Israel’s border are 220 mm with a range of 70 km and 302 mm rockets with a reach of 100 km, AFP reports. The latter could reach Israel’s third largest port city of Haifa and its industries, as well as Tiberias and Kiryat Shemona.
Many are hidden in underground chambers and camouflaged silos. The Israeli sources said Syria had built a system of fortified underground tunnels along its border with Israel. They also believed Syria had deployed several FROG rocket launchers with a 550-kilogram warhead and 70-km range in areas between the border and the capital Damascus, 40 km away.
Syria concentrates most of its long-range surface missiles in the north. Its decision to bring them so close to the border may indicate that Damascus is seriously thinking of attacking Israel.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that this redeployment indicates Syria is anticipating an Israeli response to a potential attack by moving tank and armored infantry across the border to strike the rocket formations. The FROG rockets would be used against this incursion.
AFP’s sources see the deployment as an indication that Damascus may be preparing for future “low intensity warfare.” The massive deployment of well-entrenched rockets poses “a real strategic threat” to Israel.
Those sources therefore rebut the low expectations of war with Syria this summer as voiced by Israel’s chief of staff and military intelligence chiefs on Feb. 25. At the time, DEBKAfile’s military experts challenged this evaluation and criticized Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi for reflecting the Olmert government minister’s political line which is one of unquestioning alignment with the current US-Saudi strategy regardless of Israel’s national interests.
A senior government official also told AFP: Israel has absolute superiority in several fields of warfare,” referring to advanced air force and “smart” weapons.
DEBKAfile has reported that Russia was selling Syria thousands more advanced anti-tank missiles capable of piercing tank armor of the types which reached Hizballah from Syria in last year’s conflict.

[Sean Osborne]

See also this thread linked below which hints at the WMD nature of this coming war:

http://www.transasianaxis.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2903


In my opinion and re-assessment:

• This coming war is shaping up to be far more significant than the 6-Day War of 1967 or the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
• This war will have Syria buttressed strategically by Iran and Russia.
• Another key item is the presence of massive US/NATO military power to the east in Iraq, the Persian Gulf/Arabian Sea, and in Afghanistan, not to mention and EU military in southern Lebanon.
• The mixed forces in Lebanon could lead to a military free-for-all.
• Israel can also anticipate coordinated enemy strikes coming from Gaza and the West Bank.
• Israel has no geographic strategic depth but it does has a strategic nuclear reserve and the US/EU in its corner.
• Unlike the war last summer with Hezbollah this war has the potential to affect all areas of the country.
• The 1973 War almost went nuclear. This one has the same if not greater risk of going nuclear.
• It will be an existential war for the State of Israel.
• I anticipate US and EU involvement in the defense of Israel.
• I anticipate a major Israeli/Allied victory.
• I also anticipate Israeli membership in NATO as a potential result.

[Sean Osborne]

In another probably related and very recent development...

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article....ticle_id=80342


Army surveys new sand berms on border
By Nour Samaha and Mirella Hodeib
Daily Star staff
Saturday, March 10, 2007


BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army conducted an "unofficial" patrol along the Syrian-Lebanese border on Friday, in an attempt to assess sand berms constructed by the Syrian Army the previous day, security sources told The Daily Star. Syria began placing sand berms on its border with Lebanon on Thursday afternoon after Syria's foreign minister Walid Moallem had threatened to close the border if international troops were deployed along the frontier. "Why would you want to establish an international control on the border between Syria and Lebanon?" Moallem said during a press conference on Tuesday. "Syria will close its border with Lebanon" if this was the case, he said.

According to the source, a meeting between members of the Joint Lebanese-Syrian Security Committee is expected to take place soon in order to discuss the issue that has arisen over the closure of the border.
Unofficial reports from residents in the areas surrounding the border claim that the berms were being placed within Lebanese territories. The army plans to survey the berms to settle the question.

An advisor for Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said the minister would be releasing a statement on the matter later in the day. The statement had yet to be released as The Daily Star went to print. Murr is currently visiting Washington to discuss the donation of military equipment from the US to the Lebanese Army.
The construction began the same day Murr released a statement claiming that there would be no reason for Syria to shut the border as there are no plans for the UN troops to be positioned between the countries.

[Sean Osborne]

http://www.investors.com/editorial/e...58250119353160

Meddling In The Middle East

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 3/8/2007
Geopolitics: Was a Russian journalist killed for revealing arms sales to Syria and Iran? And is Syria preparing for war on Israel to aid Tehran if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked?

The suspicious death of Russian journalist Ivan Safronov, who fell to his death from a fifth-floor window in Moscow last weekend, may not have been just an accident. It may have been an attempt to derail his investigation of furtive Russian arms sales to Tehran and Damascus.

Igor Yakovenko, secretary-general of the Russian journalist union SJR, told Moscow echo radio: 'From what we already know, it was not a suicide,' adding, 'The chances it was a murder linked to the exercise of his profession are very high.'

Before his death, Safronov, a former colonel, called his newspaper, the business daily Kommersant, from a major Middle East arms fair in Abu Dhabi in late February to report he had 'irrefutable confirmation' about the sale of state-of-the-art Soviet Sukhoi 34 fighter-bombers and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran by way of Belarus.

After Safronov returned to Moscow, he told his colleagues of the 'signature by Russia and Syria of contracts for the Pantsir C1 anti-aircraft system, MIG-29 fighter jets and Iskander tactical missiles.' The Russians have much to hide.

The London Sunday Telegraph reports that a British army board of inquiry into the shooting down of a royal air force Lynx Mark 7 helicopter over southern Iraq last May found it was brought down by a Russian SA14 Strella shoulder-launched missile smuggled in from Iran. Such weapons are also believed to have brought down several U.S. helicopters.

Kommersant said the latest weapons were being sold 'via Belarus to avoid the West accusing Russia of arming rogue states.' But that cat's well out of the bag. The Israeli Daily Haaretz reports Syria 'is close to concluding a large deal with Russia to procure thousands of advanced anti-tank missiles for the Syrian army.'

Damascus saw the effectiveness of these Russian-supplied, Syrian-supplied anti-tank missiles in Hezbollah's unprovoked attack on Israel last summer, in some cases penetrating the armor of Israel's vaunted Merkava Mark IV tank.

Speaking of Hezbollah, a Syrian Baath party official told WorldNetDaily last July that Damascus, encouraged by Israel's failure to soundly defeat the Iranian-created and supported group, was becoming a Hezbollah franchisee, forming its own similar group with the hopes of recovering the Golan Heights from Israel, a group calling itself the Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights.

The group claimed, also last weekend, that it had conducted its first 'attack,' planting six mines within northern Israeli territory in the Golan. The Israeli Defense forces found the mines Saturday night and filed a complaint — for what that's worth — with the U.N. for its failure to police the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli territory.

While this seems like a harmless probe, Syria has more serious and deadly plans, according to Jill Bellamy-Dekker, an American bio-defense analyst living in Europe. She directs the Public Health Preparedness Program for the European Homeland Security Association under the French High Committee for Civil Defense.

In an interview with WorldNetDaily, she said: 'Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran.' According to her, 'The Syrians are embedding their biological weapons program into their commercial pharmaceuticals business and their veterinary vaccine-research facilities' to keep the program secret.

She believes Syria's objective is to mount biological warheads on its inventory of long-range missiles, and she references an April 2000 article published by Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Talas titled 'Biological (Germ) Warfare: A New and Effective Method in Modern Warfare.'

Interestingly, the article was republished in a Farsi translation in Tehran. Some of the material in question may be from stockpiles trucked in from Iraq shortly before Operation Iraqi freedom.

Iran and Syria are on the move, and Czar Vladimir Putin intends to make Russia their arsenal of tyranny.

[Sean Osborne]

Upon the onset of the coming war, Israel will secure the strategic middle. Here's a WND report of the execrcise conducted by the IDF to this end.


http://worldnetdaily.com/news/articl...TICLE_ID=54630


Israel confirms military exercises in West Bank
IDF previously denied claim of large operation preparing for war

Posted: March 9, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern



By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – The Israel Defense Forces today confirmed it carried out military training exercises in two weeks ago in the northern West Bank to prepare for the outbreak of confrontations with the Palestinians.

WND broke the story last week Israel conducted military training exercises in the West Bank, according to top Palestinian intelligence officials. At the time, Israel denied the claim.
The IDF today verified late-February exercises took place in the vicinity of Nablus, the largest West Bank city. The army said the training involved two battalions of paratroopers and was meant to prepare for routine security operations in the West Bank.



The Israel Defense Forces last week completed a large-scale, week-long operation in Nablus. The operation, codenamed "Hot Winter," utilized IDF battalions, reservists and border police guards and purportedly was aimed at arresting top wanted terror leaders in the city.

Nablus is a stronghold of several major Palestinian terrorist organizations, most notably the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. The Brigades and Islamic Jihad are responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years.
During the large operation, the IDF did not arrest any top terror suspects, but the army said it found three weapons factories as well as an arms cache.

One top Palestinian intelligence official said last week he found the operation "unusual" in that it involved a rotation of Israeli forces and "didn't achieve anything militarily as far as fighting terrorism."
"On the ground you had a massive number of soldiers who seemed to be conducting drills. They were in the city the entire week with units switching. Normally week-long military operations utilize the same units and don't keep switching troops. In the end, after a week of a major military presence, what did the IDF get as far as fighting terror in Nablus?" commented the top official.

"The operation was very clearly an urban warfare training exercise, likely for a confrontation with Syria or Iran," the official claimed.
Another top Palestinian intelligence official told WND, "Nablus happens to resemble very closely as a model the city of Damascus."

A spokeswoman for the IDF last week had denied Palestinian claims the large operation was for war training. She told WND the Israeli army arrested 11 militants in the Nablus operation, although she said they were lower-level and did not include any members of Israel's wanted list.
Abu Nasser, the second-in-command of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus, told WND no members of his group or the Islamic Jihad terror organization were arrested during the Israeli operation.

"It didn't feel like we were even being targeted," Abu Nasser said.
The claim of Israeli training follows recent reports in the Israeli media Syria, aided by Iranian officers, has been boosting its army and navy. The reports, denied by Damascus, claimed Syria last week was moving troops closer to the border with Israel.

Israeli security officials told WND Israel is not expecting confrontations with Iran or Syria. Speaking theoretically, they said if any war breaks out involving Iran, they expect Syria, Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists to join the fray and attack Israel.

The security officials said the greatest threat Syria poses to the Jewish state is the country's missiles. They noted Syria recently test-fired two Scud-D surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of about 250 miles, covering most Israeli territory. The officials said the Syrian missile test was coordinated with Iran and is believed to have been successful. It is not known what type of warhead the missiles had.

In addition to longer-range Scuds, Syria is in possession of shorter-range missiles such as 220 millimeter and 305 millimeter rockets, some of which have been passed on to Hezbollah.

According to information received by Israel, Russia is set to conclude a deal worth several hundred million dollars transferring thousands of advanced anti-tank missiles to Syria. Anti-tank missiles used by Hezbollah during Israel's war in Lebanon last summer devastated Israeli tanks and caused the highest number of Israeli troop casualties during the 34 days of military confrontations.

Last week, a senior officer from the intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces announced Hezbollah is stronger today than before the 2006 Lebanon war.

"Hezbollah has reinforced, and it is stronger today than it was before the war in Lebanon," Gen. Yossi Beidatz, head of the IDF's intelligence research department, told the Knesset.

During the war in Lebanon, Hezbollah fired more than 3,000 rockets into northern Israel, killing 39 civilians and devastating many northern towns. Beidatz also said Syria is reinforcing its military to prepare for the possibility of a new armed conflict in the region.

[Sean Osborne]

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/20..._lebanon_1.php


U.S. and Lebanon Defense Secretary counterparts meet

Friday, 9 March, 2007 @ 6:37 PM Washington D.C. - Lebanon's Minister of Defense Elias Murr met with the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of Defense on Thursday at the Pentagon. Murr's U.S. trip has echoed the support of the United Nations, State Department and Pentagon. Defense Minister Elias Murr has said there was no reason for Syria to close its border with Lebanon since U.N. peacekeeping troops are not going to deploy along the frontier. "They will not close the border because UNIFIL is not going to deploy there," Murr told reporters after meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon on Thursday. He was responding to an announcement by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in which he threatened to close the Lebanese-Syrian border if international troops were deployed along the boundary. Murr said Gates reiterated the support of the United States for the Lebanese military without any restrictions. He said that Gates informed him that the Lebanese army will receive the "entire shipment of equipment before the end of June." In response to a question, Murr said that the issue of disarming Hizbullah was not raised. "The army position is clear. This is an internal issue. Neither the United States nor any other country has got to do with it," Murr insisted, adding that the problem will be solved domestically. U.S. Stresses Support for Lebanese Army US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Elias Murr Tuesday that the US supports the Lebanese Army "unconditionally," after the two officials met in Washington in a visit aimed at shoring up support for the army. "We discussed the implementation of Resolution 1701 and the cooperation between the Lebanese Army and the international peacekeeping force," Murr told reporters after the meeting. He said the US expressed support for the army and would be sending equipment, "without any conditions." "Rice reiterated the US support for Lebanon's sovereignty and independence," he said. "We confirmed that the Lebanese Army is capable of monitoring its borders and it is a united force without any divisions," said Murr, adding: "as long as the Lebanese Army exists, there will be no civil war in Lebanon." Murr said that specialized radar equipment would be added along the borders, without specifying which borders. Murr met with UN chief Ban Ki-moon Monday and assured him Lebanon is in full compliance of Resolution 1701, which ended the summer 2006 war and brought about a cessation of hostilities. Sources: AP, Naharnet

[Sean Osborne]

This report holds a strong indicator that the government of Ehud Olmert must go prior to any war breaking out.


http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006542251


Syria Denies Israeli Report That Its Army Is Advancing

February 22, 2007 6:27 a.m. EST


Ryan R. Jones - All Headline News Middle East Correspondent
Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - An Israeli military correspondent on Thursday reported that the Syrian military is being significantly bolstered by Iran, and is redeploying closer to the border with the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

Writing for the left-wing Ha'aretz daily newspaper, correspondent Zeev Schiff said the latest movements by the Syrian army are reminiscent of those prior to the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Syria and Egypt launched a joint surprise invasion of the Jewish state.

"It appears that the Syrians have moved forces closer to the border," wrote Schiff, after noting that "the Syrian armed forces are being strengthened in an unprecedented way...with the help of generous funding from Iran."

The main area of improvement, pointed out Schiff, is in Syria's missile arsenal. Just recently, Syria test fired two Russian-made Scud-D long-range missiles capable of striking nearly all of Israel.

A military advisor to Defense Minister Amir Peretz spoke to Israel Radio a short time after Schiff published his report, insisting there "is no information indicating that the Syrians are preparing to attack us in the coming months." He did not deny the report's assessment regarding Syria's redeployment of forces, however.

Meanwhile, Syrian lawmaker Mohammed Habash told the Al Arabiya television network that the Israeli report was false, insisting that Syrian forces have not increased along the border with Israel.

Habash did substantiate the claims of Iranian help in upgrading Syria's military, explaining that "cooperation between Damascus and Tehran is no secret, as both are being faced with a direct threat."

[American Patriot]

There is already a thread for this. It's called the Arab-Israeli war.

Thank you

[American Patriot]

Nimitz leaves for Persian Gulf
San Diego Union ^ | April 2, 2007

SAN DIEGO – Amid rising tension with Iran, the aircraft carrier Nimitz and several other American warships will leave San Diego Monday for the Persian Gulf to join another locally based aircraft carrier strike group already in the region, military officials said. The Nimitz will join the San Diego-based John C. Stennis Strike Group and relieve the Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to Naval Air Forces Public Affairs.

Military officials said in a statement that the two-carrier presence in the Persian Gulf area is intended to demonstrate U.S. “resolve to build regional security and bring long-term stability to the region.”

The Nimitz's departure comes amid heightened tensions in the region following the detention of 15 British sailors and marines by Iran last week. Iran maintains the detainees were operating in its territorial waters, a charge the British government denies.

President Bush ratcheted up the rhetoric over the incident last week, calling the detainees “hostages” – a term not even the British had used.

The tension over the detainees coincides with international pressure on Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program, which it maintains is strictly for peaceful purposes. The United States and other nations fear Iran is working toward the development of nuclear weapons.

The Nimitz will support the war on terrorism, patrol the Horn of Africa and conduct marine security operations as part of the larger effort to “deter and dissuade others from acting counter to U.S. national interests,” according to a Navy statement.

The Nimitz Strike Group comprises the guided-missile cruiser Princeton, guided-missile destroyers Higgins, Chafee, John Paul Jones and Pinckney, two helicopter squadrons and an explosive ordnance disposal unit.

The Stennis and its strike group left Naval Base Coronado on Jan. 20. It is the largest carrier presence in the Persian Gulf since the start of the war in Iraq.

[Segestan]

Top Hamas official: Kill all Americans
By JPOST.COM STAFF

Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared during a Friday sermon at a Sudan mosque that America and Israel will be annihilated and called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very Last One". Following are excerpts from the sermon that took place last month, courtesy of MEMRI.

Ahmad Bahr began: "You will be victorious" on the face of this planet. You are the masters of the world on the face of this planet. Yes, [the Koran says that] "you will be victorious," but only "if you are believers." Allah willing, "you will be victorious," while America and Israel will be annihilated. I guarantee you that the power of belief and faith is greater than the power of America and Israel. They are cowards, who are eager for life, while we are eager for death for the sake of Allah. That is why America's nose was rubbed in the mud in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, and everywhere.

Bahr continued and said that America will be annihilated, while Islam will remain. The Muslims "will be victorious, if you are believers." Oh Muslims, I guarantee you that the power of Allah is greater than America, by whom many are blinded today. Some people are blinded by the power of America. We say to them that with the might of Allah, with the might of His Messenger, and with the power of Allah, we are stronger than America and Israel.

The Hamas spokesperson concluded with a prayer, saying: "Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them all, down to the very last one. Oh Allah, show them a day of darkness. Oh Allah, who sent down His Book, the mover of the clouds, who defeated the enemies of the Prophet defeat the Jews and the Americans, and bring us victory over them."



They are eager for death for Allah! Stupid.... Why then pray for Victory?

Pretty confident if you ask me..

[Sean Osborne]

There is already a thread for this. It's called the Arab-Israeli war.

Thank you

Just catching up with this thread...

Rick,

My point in creating this thread was attempting to focus on the point that this impending war is not another general Arab-Israeli war as has occuredin the past. This is another animal entirely.

This impending and potentially WMD specific war is being driven by Persian islamofascists (Iranians) who have never been and never will be "arabs".

Just a point of clarification.

[Sean Osborne]

BTW - Nimitz should have arrived in the AO today.

[American Patriot]

Yeah, I figured that out. No problem.

[Sean Osborne]

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200705/FOR20070503a.html


Syrian Buildup Worries Israel, Says New Envoy
By Kevin Mooney
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 03, 2007

Syria is developing military capacities on Israel's northern border in potentially dangerous ways at the same time as terrorist organizations are strengthening their positions in the south, Israel's new ambassador to the U.S. said Wednesday.

Syria assumed center stage in Sallai Meridor's wide-ranging talk at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., which also touched on the political situation in Israel, the "two-state solution," Iran's nuclear program and the potential for more terrorism.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may meet with her Syrian counterpart, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, during talks in Egypt this week on Iraq, according to numerous published reports.

If the meeting goes ahead, it would be the first substantive talks Washington has had with Syria - designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the State Department - in years.

Meridor said accelerated investments in military equipment and stepped-up training exercises raised concerns about potential Syrian aggression. He also noted that Russia has been selling offensive weapons to Damascus.

"Syria is developing a very serious threat on the northern border," he said, describing it as the most aggressive posture it has assumed since 1973. That year, Syria and Egypt simultaneously attacked Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish year.

Meridor said that in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, Hamas was attempting to expand the range of its missiles in the south.

The growing "world-wide" threat of ballistic missiles from state and non-state actors in the region is a major source of concern for Israel's government, Meridor said.

While Israel and the United States are both "very advanced" in shielding against "upper range" weapons, he said, there remained a "gap to close" in the case of shorter-range missiles.

On relations with the Palestinians, Meridor said the Israeli government is pursuing a "two-state solution." The effort, he said, will involve "a very difficult and painful process" for Israelis who would have to explain to their children why territory considered part of the Jewish homeland will be relinquished.

The ambassador declined to comment directly on the tumultuous political situation in his country, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faces growing pressure to step down in the wake of a scathing government report released Monday.

The report accused Olmert of "serious failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence" during Israel's inconclusive war against the Hizballah terrorist group in Lebanon last summer.

Arieh Eldad, a leader within the National Union Party, told Cybercast News Service in a recent interview that he anticipated a return to power for former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Despite the political disarray, Meridor expressed "great pride in Israel's democracy" - an example to other countries in the region.

[Sean Osborne]

According to a DEBKAfile report, about four hours ago the USS Eisenhower CSG departed the CENTCOM AO, passing westward through the Suez Canal, thus decreasing the likelihood of any preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear weapons facilities. The Ike CSG was relieved by the USS Nimitz CSG. The USS Stennis CSG remains on station in the CENTCOM AO.

[Sean Osborne]

There is no lack of attention nor disconinuity of purpose regarding national security in Israel as a result of the Winograd Report. Debkafile is presenting some good details this morning.


However, the Debka-Net Weekly portion of this report misses a couple of essentials and therefore makes incorrect assessments. Read this article by being mindful of three critical details:

1. The US armed forces will not quit Iraq in 2007.
2. The election of Nicholas Sarkozy, who is half Greek-Jewish, half-Hungarian, very conservative and extremely pro-Israel, as the new President of France injects a whole now paradigm regarding French foreign policy and its relationship with Israel.
3. At this time Iranian, Syrian, Hezbollah and Hamas offensive military operations against Israel are dependent upon nothing except an execute order from Tehran.



http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1271

Non-Political Israeli Officials Take Charge of Urgent Policy Business with Washington
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report and DEBKA-Net-Weekly 291
May 7, 2007, 2:14 PM (GMT+02:00)













DEBKAfile’s US sources reveal that, this week, Israeli military and intelligence circles informed their opposite numbers in Washington that there is no vacuum in the management of vital issues and it is ongoing despite the crisis tying the hands of Israeli government leaders, prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Amir Peretz and foreign minister Tzipi Livni, in the aftermath of a critical war report.

This was the first confirmation by senior Bush administration sources that they are working with non-political Israeli circles on urgent and critical affairs and leaving the Olmert government outside policy-making in Washington.

Those Israeli circles have voiced their deep concern over the Bush administration’s inclination to meet Iran halfway on the nuclear question. DEBKAfile’s sources reveal that Washington is considering a compromise that will let Iran continue uranium enrichment against guarantees never to produce weapons-grade fuel or develop a nuclear weapon.

Israel military and intelligence experts have warned the administration that Iran is up to its old tricks of handing out promises it has no intention of keeping. Since this warning appears to be falling on deaf ears, they have asked for a quick and clear decision on the Iranian question. They fear that if it is delayed, the US withdrawal from Iraq in late summer of this year will catch Israel – and the rest of the Middle East – in the grip of two major crises: the dispute with Iran will either be settled or flare, American troops will be in the process of quitting Iraq - and both events may be exploited by Syria, Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami for offensive operations against Israel.

Israel will then face a multiple threat without due preparation.
The US is therefore asked to reach a decision on Iran in the next couple of months before the onset of its pullout from Iraq.

Washington’s Israeli contacts did not spell out the reaction they planned to a US-Iranian deal entailing concessions to Tehran on the nuclear question, perhaps because no one in Jerusalem is in a fit state for a balanced decision. But they inferred that the Israeli military option against Iran was not off the table.

DEBKAfile learns that US Vice President Dick Cheney will shortly be visiting Saudi Arabia and Jordan to discuss two main subjects:

1. The volume and type of US military assistance for the two kingdom to help them absorb the buffeting from the US exit from Iraq and stand up to any military threat from Iran.

2. To pick up the pieces of the disappointing foreign policy tactic led by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, which hinged on the formation of a moderate American-Arab axis for reining in Iran to be led and brokered by Saudi Arabia.

On March 2, 2007, DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Middle East experts reported that Rice’s policy was built on shifting sands. Here are some excerpts from the article

Washington Can Trust Saudi Mediation – But Only for the Short Term
Saudi Arabia’s performance as diplomatic middleman tends to peak when oil revenues are high. Abdullah’s Middle East peace plan finally debuted in 2001 and was adopted with revisions by the 2002 Beirut Arab summit. It then gathered dust for five years. But then, when oil prices soared and the royal coffers overflowed with oil revenues, Abdullah swung into action against the rising threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its contributions to the vicious violence in Iraq, Lebanese instability and Syrian intransigence.

Saudi initiatives may have conveyed the impression of dramatic audacity. In practice, they boiled down to handling the Iranian threat by the classical methods favored by Saudi rulers of dialogue and engagement, fueled by oceans of petrodollars to reward those in tune with their goals.
In the short term, Riyadh’s mediation efforts may work, but their long-term sustainability is problematic. There is no guarantee that oil prices will stay as high as they have been in the last two years; and Saudi diplomacy tends to fade away when oil prices sink. End of quote from DEBKA-Net-Weekly

DEBKAfile adds: The outcome of the Rice initiative was unfortunate; instead of the promised moderate Arab bloc allied with Washington, the Saudis have moved over and joined the radical camp of Iran, Syria and the Palestinian Hamas. Riyadh maintains in its defense that this alignment will wean Syrian president Bashar Assad and Hamas’ hardline Khaled Meshaal from their ties with Tehran. That is something Cheney will have to sort out.

Jerusalem is too engrossed in political antics for keeping Olmert and Peretz afloat in the face of popular disaffection to heed the course of events among Israel’s neighbors. Ignorant of those events, Olmert and Peretz still cling to the illusory windows of opportunity for peace which they believed had opened up in Damascus and Riyadh at the last Arab summit in late March.

For this reason, military and intelligence officials have taken matters in their own hands to make sure that the most pressing issues with Washington were attended to without further delay.

[Sean Osborne]

Today is Day Four of the HAMAS missile barrage against Israel. Keep a very close eye on developments - this engagement will likely escalate rapidly and stands a very, very good, odds-on chance of being the openning salvos of the name of this thread "Middle East War: 2007".

You can track near-real-time developments at Aharon Etengoff's website:

http://www.weaponsurvey.com



and


http://www.debka.com

[Aplomb]

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...31780720070521

Israel pounds Gaza, threatens to kill Hamas leaders

Mon May 21, 2007 7:11AM EDT

By Nidal al-Mughrabi


GAZA (Reuters) - Israel stepped up air attacks in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least five people, and a senior Israeli cabinet minister said all Hamas leaders involved in cross-rocket border rocket fire could be targeted.


"I don't distinguish between those who carry out the (rocket) attacks and those who give the orders. I say we have to put them all in the crosshairs," National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Israel Radio.


Thousands of Hamas supporters took to the streets of Gaza City and gunmen fired into the air, vowing revenge, one day after an Israeli air strike on the home of Hamas politician Khalil al-Hayya.



Hamas said only two of the eight people killed in Sunday's attack were gunmen. Hayya was not injured, though he lost seven family members in the strike.


"We will keep to the same path until we win one of two goals: victory or martyrdom," Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said at the funeral service.



Israeli aircraft carried out a series of attacks in the territory on Monday.


At least four members of Islamic Jihad, on their way to launch rockets at Israel, were killed in an air strike that destroyed their car near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, the militant group said.

One man was killed in an earlier attack on what Israel called a rocket manufacturing facility and Palestinians described as a stonemason's shop.

The air strikes also knocked out electricity to about 50,000 people.

ESCALATION
Israel's security cabinet decided on Sunday to escalate military action in response to constant rocket attacks from Gaza, which have caused injuries but no deaths and have put political pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to act.


The Israeli military moves and an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire seem to have largely calmed more than a week of intense fighting between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions, in which nearly 50 people were killed.



But in a new incident, unidentified gunmen shot and wounded six Hamas men in a book shop in the Gaza town of Khan Younis.


Hamas, which last carried out a suicide bombing in Israel in 2004, threatened to respond to the attack on Hayya's home with "an earthquake" against the Jewish state.



srael's internal security minister, Avi Dichter, said Hamas's leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, whom Israel tried to assassinate in Jordan in 1997, would not be immune to attack.


Dichter also said on Israel Radio that Haniyeh, who lives in Gaza, could be targeted should he become involved in ordering rocket fire.

Israel also targeted Hamas in the occupied West Bank, raiding and shutting down four television stations linked with Hamas in the city of Nablus, a militant stronghold.

Hayya said: "If I was killed today, even if all the leaders were killed, the Palestinian people would replace me and them with hundreds of other leaders."


Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction are partners in a two-month-old unity government whose survival has been threatened by the recent wave of internal violence.


(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah)