Israel has never confirmed or denied possession of nuclear weapons, but according to new report by US experts it has at least 80 operative warheads and has enough material to produce up to 190 more.
In a report published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, nuclear weapon proliferation experts Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen assess that Israel stopped producing nuclear warheads back in 2004 once it reached around 80 munitions.
However, the country can easily double its arsenal since it has enough fissile material to build at least another 115 bombs, experts say.
“There are rumors that Israel is equipping some of its submarines with nuclear-capable cruise missiles,” the report says, echoing the 2013 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute yearbook on armament and international security which also suggested Israel could have nuclear-capable submarine-launched cruise missiles and reported the same assessment of nuke stockpiles.
The suspicions were fueled by the fact that Germany supplied Israel with five Dolphin-class submarines, allegedly capable of launching nuclear missiles, and signed a contract to build a sixth.
It remains unknown how many nuclear warheads of the total inventory could already be deployed, as Israel continues to maintain its long-standing policy of nuclear opacity. In December 2012, Israel once again dismissed the latest demand from the members of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to join the accord.
Israeli stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction have come under unusual scrutiny following the US-Russian roadmap for the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons, which is seen as a significant step towards a WMD-free region.
Recently declassified CIA documents suggest that Israel secretly built up its own stockpile of chemical and biological weapons decades ago. This has added more fuel to the lingering complaint of Arab states, who constantly accuse Israel of possessing nuclear weapons. Israel remains one of just seven countries which has never ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention as well.
In his speech on Sunday before talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said that “in any case, Israel must be poised and ready to defend itself, by itself, against any threat – and this capability and readiness are more important now than ever.” – RT
The seven Israelis suspected of scamming tens of millions of dollars from U.S. pensioners in a so-called “Nigerian scam” can be extradited to the United States to face trial there, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on Wednesday.
The seven, arrested by Tel Aviv police in July 2009, have been charged by American prosecutors for a serious of legal violations, including conspiracy to commit fraud. Some of the defendants also face money laundering charges.
The defendants are suspected of building a sophisticated crime network to defraud elderly American pensioners. Over four years, the network netted tens of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.
The defendants, all in their 20s and 30s, allegedly phoned American pensioners, told them they had won the lottery and asked them for a fee of several thousand dollars for the transfer of the prize money, which in fact never existed.
The investigation that uncovered the network was conducted in conjunction between Israeli and U.S. law enforcement agencies.- Haaretz
Missiles that Russia reported were launched in the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday were part of a joint American-Israeli military exercise, Israel’s media said.
The reports said Ankor(Sparrow)-type missiles was directed from bases in the Mediterranean and in the centre of Israel.
Moscow’s defence ministry, as cited by Russian news agencies, said its early warning system had detected the launch of two ballistic missiles from the central part of the Mediterranean fired towards the Sea’s eastern coastline on Tuesday morning.
Israel’s army said it was “not familiar” with any missiles being fired in the Mediterranean.
Tensions have been running high in the region after a reported chemical attack near Damascus. The USA and France claim that the Syrian government used sarin gas in the attack. – AFP
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims Ankara has proof Israel was behind the July 3 military “coup” that toppled Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, Turkish media report.
Erdogan said the West was beginning to redefine democracy as a process that is not solely determined at the ballot box, although the poll represents “the people’s will.”
“This is what has been implemented in Egypt. Who is behind this? Israel. We have evidence,” Erdogan said, as quoted by the Hurriyet daily, during a meeting with provincial chairs of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Erdogan spoke of a meeting between Turkey’s justice minister and a “Jewish” intellectual in France before Egypt’s 2011 elections.
“The Muslim Brotherhood will not be in power even if they win the elections. Because democracy is not the ballot box’: This is what [the intellectual] said at that time,” the PM continued.
Erdogan did not clarify what connection the unidentified intellectual had to the Israeli government or how his alleged opinion proved Israel played any part in the recent ouster of Morsi.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to respond to Erdogan’s accusation. “This is a statement well worth not commenting on,” said ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.
In March, Israel attempted rapprochement with Turkey after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Erdogan to apologize for the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid that resulted in the deaths of eight Turks and one Turkish-American.
Erdogan accepted the apology and both sides agreed to carry out further discussions. The PM, however, said that normalization of bilateral ties would take time, insinuating that Turkey wanted to ensure victims of the raid were compensated and that Israel remained committed to easing the restriction of goods to Gaza before restoring relations.
The Turkish PM, an outspoken supporter of Morsi and his Islamist government, lashed out at the West for failing to act in light of last week’s bloody crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Having previously condemned the coup, Erdogan insisted that Morsi be reinstated through a democratic process.
Erdogan’s ruling AKP, which has Islamic roots, had developed ties with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and aimed to boost Turkey’s regional clout by bolstering its relationship with the North African state. – RT
Ex-Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters during a concert
In an impassioned and hard-hitting open letter to fellow “Rock and Roll” musicians, Roger Waters (frontman and lead guitarist of world-famous rock band, PinkFloyd) has invited and called-on his peers to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel campaign (see the full letter underneath). In a letter issued from Warsaw (Poland) earlier this morning, Waters writes:
“To cut to the chase, Israel has been found guilty – independently – by international human rights organizations, UN officials, and the International Court of Justice, of serious breaches of international law. These include, and I will name only two “the Crime of Apartheid” [and] the Crime of Ethnic Cleansing…[I]t falls to civil society and conscientious citizens of the world, to dust off our consciences, shoulder our responsibilities, and act. I write to you now, my brothers and sisters in the family of Rock and Roll, to ask you to join with me, and thousands of other artists around the world, to declare a cultural boycott on Israel.”
Waters explains in his open letter that there are two recent events that have prompted his letter, one of which was the December 2012 cancellation by Stevie Wonder of a headline performance at a benefit dinner for the Israeli Defence Force. Water adds that he, together with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “wrote to Stevie [Wonder] to try to persuade him to cancel. My letter ran along these lines, ‘Would you have felt OK performing at the Policeman’s Ball in Johannesburg the night after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960?'”
Roger Waters (60) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and composer best known for his role in world famous rock-band, Pink Floyd. Waters served as bassist, co-lead vocalist, lyricist, principal songwriter and conceptual leader of the band. Pink Floyd subsequently achieved international success with the concept albums “The Dark Side of the Moon”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Animals”, “The Wall” and “The Final Cut”. Pink Floyd has sold more than 250 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million units sold in the United States as of 2013.
In his open letter from this morning to rock and roll musicians, Waters also challenges mainstream media and specifically criticizes the USA media, stating that: “The clear inference would be that the media in the USA is not interested in the predicament of the Palestinian people, or for that matter the predicament of the Israeli people. We can only hope they may become interested as they eventually did in the politics of apartheid South Africa.”
The open letter by Roger Waters ends with reference to the former Apartheid regime in South Africa, the 1980s international boycott of South Africa movement and specific mention of the African National Congress’ (ANC) recent Mangaung boycott of Israel resolution:
“Back in the days of Apartheid South Africa at first it was a trickle of artists that refused to play there..then it became a stream, then ariver then a torrent and then a flood. (Remember Steve van Zant, Bruce and all the others? “We will not Play in Sun City?”)…The sports community joined the battle, no one would go and play cricket or rugby in South Africa, and eventually the political community joined in as well. We all as a global, musical, sporting and political community raised our voices as one and the apartheid regime in South Africa fell…Maybe we are at the tipping point now with Israel and Palestine. These are good people both and they deserve a just solution to their predicament. Each and every one of them deserves freedom, justice and equal rights. Just recently the ANC [African National Congress], the ruling party of South Africa, has endorsed BDS. We are nearly there. Please join me and all our brothers and sisters in global civil society in proclaiming our rejection of Apartheid in Israel and occupied Palestine, by pledging not to perform or exhibit in Israel or accept any award or funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.”
Background
With Israeli discrimination, human rights abuses, violations of International Law and illegal settlement construction on the increase, Palestinians, inspired by the successful boycott and isolation of Apartheid South Africa, called on the international community in 2005 to play a decisive role in their struggle for self-determination and an end to Israel’s Apartheid policies. Palestinians called on global civil society, artists and multi national corporations to impose a program of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The Palestinians laid out three demands that Israel needs to respect for the boycott to be called-off. Firstly, an end to the illegal Israeli Occupation. Secondly, allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. And, thirdly, for Israel to ensure full equality for Palestinian citizens living inside Israel (see:www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro). Activists maintain that the BDS campaign is not a malicious, blunt or punitive one which is out to punish Israelis but rather it is a practical, non-violent, goal-orientated and focused campaign that is uncompromisingly entrenched in international law and human rights – and also one that is increasingly supported by (progressive) Israelis themselves. Just some of the artists and intellectuals who have publicly lent their support and respected the boycott in recent years include: award-winning musician, Stevie Wonder; Jazz artist, Cassandra Wilson; Maxi Jazz of the UK band, Faithless; musician, Elvis Costello; Pultizer-prize winning author, Alice Walker; intellectual, Stephen Hawking and most recently, the film director, Mira Nair.
BDS South Africa warmly salutes Roger Waters for his principled position. His open letter is sure to go down in history as a turning point in the boycott of Israel campaign and the larger movement for a free Palestine.
Issued by Muhammed Desai on behalf of BDS South Africa
Roger Waters’s letter
To My Colleagues in Rock and Roll
Nigel Kennedy the virtuoso British violinist and violist, at The Recent Promenade Concerts at The Albert Hall in London, mentioned that Israel is apartheid. Nothing unusual there you might think, then one Baroness Deech, (Nee Fraenkel) disputed the fact that Israel is an apartheid state and prevailed upon the BBC to censor Kennedy’s performance by removing his statement. Baroness Deech produced not one shred of evidence to support her claim and yet the BBC, non political, supposedly, acting solely on Baroness Deech’s say so, suddenly went all 1984 on us. Well!! Time to stick my head above the parapet again, alongside my brother, Nigel Kennedy, where it belongs. And by the way, Nigel, great respect man. So here follows a letter last re-drafted in July.
To My Colleagues in Rock and Roll.
In the wake of the tragic shooting to death of un-armed teenager Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his killer Zimmerman, yesterday, Stevie Wonder spoke at a gig declaring that he will not perform in the State of Florida until that State repeals its “Stand your ground” Law. In effect he has declared a boycott on grounds of conscience. I applaud his position, and stand with him, it has brought back to me a statement I made in a letter I wrote last February 14th, to which I have referred but have never published.
The time has come, so here it is.
This letter has been simmering on the back burner of my conscience and consciousness for some time.
It is seven years since I joined BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) a non violent movement to oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and violations of international law and Palestinian human rights. The aim of BDS is to bring international attention to these Israeli policies, and hopefully, to help bring them to an end. All the people of the region deserve better than this.
To cut to the chase, Israel has been found guilty, independently, by international human rights organizations, UN officials, and the International Court of Justice, of serious breaches of international law. These include, and I will name only two;
1.The Crime of Apartheid:
The systematic oppression of one ethnic group by another.
On 9 March 2012, for instance, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called[1] on Israel to end its racist policies and laws that contravene the prohibition against racial segregation and apartheid.
2.The Crime of Ethnic Cleansing:
The forcible removable of indigenous peoples from their rightful land in order to settle an occupying population. For example, in East Jerusalem non Jewish families are routinely physically evicted from their homes to make way for Jewish occupants.
There are others.
Given the inability or unwillingness of our governments, or the United Nations Security Council to put pressure on Israel to cease these violations, and make reparations to the victims, it falls to civil society and conscientious citizens of the world, to dust off our consciences, shoulder our responsibilities, and act. I write to you now, my brothers and sisters in the family of Rock and Roll, to ask you to join with me, and thousands of other artists around the world, to declare a cultural boycott on Israel, to shed light on these problems and also to support all our brothers and sisters in Palestine and Israel who are struggling to end all forms of Israeli oppression and who wish to live in peace, justice, equality and freedom.
I am writing to you all now because of two recent events.
1. Stevie Wonder.
Word came to me, the first week of last December that Stevie Wonder had been booked to headline at a gala dinner for the Friends of The Israeli Defend Force in LA on 6th December 2012. An event to raise money for the Israeli armed forces, as if the $4,3,000,000,000 that we the US tax payers give them each year were not enough? This came right after The Israeli defence Force had concluded yet another war on Gaza, (Operation Pillar of Defence), according to human rights watch, committing war crimes against the besieged 1.6 million Palestinians there.
Anyway, I wrote to Stevie to try to persuade him to cancel. My letter ran along these lines, “Would you have felt OK performing at the Policeman’s Ball in Johannesburg the night after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 or in Birmingham Alabama, to raise money for the Law Enforcement officers, who clubbed, tear gassed and water cannoned those children trying to integrate in 1963?”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu also wrote an impassioned plea to Stevie, and 3,000 others appended their names to a change.org petition. Stevie, to his great credit, cancelled!
2. Earlier that week I delivered a speech at The United Nations. If you are interested you can find this speech on you tube. The interesting thing about these two stories is that there was NOT ONE mention of either story in the mainstream media in the United States.
The clear inference would be that the media in the USA is not interested in the predicament of the Palestinian people, or for that matter the predicament of the Israeli people. We can only hope they may become interested as they eventually did in the politics of apartheid South Africa.
Back in the days of Apartheid South Africa at first it was a trickle of artists that refused to play there, a trickle, that exercised a cultural boycott, then it became a stream, then a river then a torrent and then a flood. (Remember Steve van Zant, Bruce and all the others? “We will not Play in Sun City?”) Why? Because, like the UN and the International Courts of Justice they understood that Apartheid is wrong.
The sports community joined the battle, no one would go and play cricket or rugby in South Africa, and eventually the political community joined in as well. We all as a global, musical, sporting and political community raised our voices as one and the apartheid regime in South Africa fell.
Maybe we are at the tipping point now with Israel and Palestine. These are good people both and they deserve a just solution to their predicament. Each and every one of them deserves freedom, justice and equal rights. Just recently the ANC, the ruling party of South Africa, has endorsed BDS. We are nearly there. Please join me and all our brothers and sisters in global civil society in proclaiming our rejection of Apartheid in Israel and occupied Palestine, by pledging not to perform or exhibit in Israel or accept any award or funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.
The BBC is due to cut comments made by violinist Nigel Kennedy about “apartheid” in Israel when it broadcasts his concert, performed with Palestinian artists as part of the Proms musical festival, on British television channels next week.
The concert, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall last week, featured 17 musicians from the Palestine Strings, the troupe performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons alongside Kennedy.
Kennedy likened the situation in Israel to apartheid in South Africa.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a bit facile to say it but we all know from experiencing this night of music tonight that giving equality and getting rid of apartheid means there’s a chance for amazing things to happen,” said Kennedy.
The decision to cut Kennedy’s comment was made due to “editorial reasons,” they removed because of “the way it fitted in with the program, ” a BBC spokesperson told Al Arabiya English.
“Nigel’s comment to the audience at his late-night prom on August 8 will not be included in the deferred BBC 4 broadcast on August 23 because it does not fall within the editorial remit of the proms as a classical music festival.”
Kennedy has previously refused to play concerts in Israel, but has participated in the Palestinian-run Jerusalem Festival in East Jerusalem.
In 2007 he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “It’s no coincidence. I became aware of the Palestinian story while I was a student in New York. My girlfriend then was Palestinian, and, through her, I began to familiarize myself with and understand the problem even before the [separation] wall and the other atrocities.
“She had to return home every year or she would lose her citizenship, and, like it was for all of us students, that wasn’t exactly her thing. Then I understood that it was simply a way to harass the Palestinians and prevent them from studying,” he added.
Kennedy dedicated his performance at the Proms to Palestinians, according to his introduction.
“The concert tonight is very emotional, because I am performing for people who are imprisoned, to give them two hours of fun and show them that the world has not forgotten about them,” he said.
Dressed in popular Palestinian garments, the players from the Palestinian orchestra played a specially-curated fusion of classical work with Arab and folk music alongside the celebrated violinist. – Al Arabiya
By Ruthie Blum. For the past two months, I have intermittently been barred from Facebook.
The first time it happened was in June, when I tried to post my Israel Hayom column. Suddenly, a window popped up, telling me that inappropriate material had been found on, and removed from, my page. I was warned that if I continued violating Facebook’s “community standards,” I would be banned from the social network for good.
The notice included a link specifying these standards, and a demand that I click to acknowledge I had read and understood them. Failure to do so, it said, would result in my inability even to open Facebook to read my newsfeed. I complied.
The following statement appeared: “Facebook gives people around the world the power to publish their own stories, see the world through the eyes of many other people, and connect and share wherever they go. The conversation that happens on Facebook–and the opinions expressed here–mirror the diversity of the people using Facebook. To balance the needs and interests of a global population, Facebook protects expression that meets the community standards outlined on this page. Please review these standards. They will help you understand what type of expression is acceptable, and what type of content may be reported and removed.”
Underneath the explanation, examples of unacceptable content were listed. Among these were “violence and threats,” “self-harm,” “bullying and harassment,” “graphic content,” “nudity and pornography,” and “hate speech.”
I was puzzled. Neither I nor anyone else who had shared articles with me had engaged in any of the above. And, as eagerly as I searched, I couldn’t locate a single dirty picture on my timeline.
Indeed, the only activity visible, other than the occasional photo of one of my family members, was political in nature.
Since global politics is what I write about–with an emphasis on the defense of Israel and criticism of its detractors–this is obviously what dominates my Facebook page. Comments on pieces I post are also related to issues of foreign policy, Zionism, anti-Semitism, the Middle East and the United States.
What, then, could possibly be the reason for my suspension?
Figuring at first that it must be some kind of error, I simply chalked it up to spam and waited until I was allowed back into Facebook’s good graces.
When this warning appeared a second time, however, I did what I always do when baffled by cyberspace–I called my kids. After admonishing me for being an idiot where the Internet is concerned, one of them told me to change my settings. This would prevent other people from posting on my page without my permission. I took his advice and assumed I had solved the problem.
The very next day, I received the warning again, this time with a slightly harsher tone. After all, I had become a serial offender. I was banned not for 24 hours, but for three days. This meant that not only was I unable to post anything, but I could not even “like” anyone else’s posts.
The only good thing about this was that it gave me the chance to snap back at my son that maybe I’m not such an idiot. I had done as he had instructed, and was still getting the menacing message. Ha.
The next step, we decided, was to send a message to the folks at Facebook. Hey, I hollered, I haven’t been posting anything incendiary. Please advise. Alas, no response was forthcoming.
Again I returned to the rules of conduct, to see if I could decipher what I was doing wrong and how I could make it right. The clue was at the bottom of the “community standards” page, in a paragraph titled “Reporting abuse”: “If you see something on Facebook that you believe violates our terms, you should report it to us.”
In other words, someone has been complaining about me to Facebook, reporting abuse on my part. This person clearly doesn’t like what I have to say–which is always from a conservative viewpoint–and has come up with a way to silence me through bullying.
It is actually he or she who is violating Facebook standards, not I. But there is nothing I can do about it, other than go on the defensive, and so far not very effectively.
This is exactly how the enemies of Israel operate. They repeatedly accuse the Jewish state of acting in an illegitimate fashion, thereby placing the burden of proof on the unwitting defendant. It is a brazen and shameless tactic. And it works like a charm.
Facebook is a private enterprise that has the right to choose its users. Those users do not pay for the privilege; and it is a huge privilege for writers to have access to such a massive readership. Whoever has been targeting me knows this full well.
He or she is also aware that all one has to do to ruin Israel’s reputation is to cast aspersions. Social networking takes care of the rest.
UPDATE (7:55 pm): The Observer received the following statement from Facebook:
As our team processes more than one million reports each week, we occasionally make a mistake. In this case, we mistakenly removed content fromRuthie Blum’s profile, and worked to rectify the mistake as soon as we were notified. We apologize for the inconvenience caused due to the removal of this content, and we have already taken steps to prevent this from happening in the future. Additionally, we have removed any blocks on associated accounts. – The Observer
A Nairobi lawyer wants to sue Israel and Italy for killing Jesus Christ.
Dola Indidis is taking his case to the International Court of Justice.
Indidis is Catholic and says he knows Jesus had to die, as espoused in the Bible.
But he doesn’t believe it was necessary for Christ to die so brutally.
Two thousand years after the fact, he wants Israel and Italy to be held accountable for the actions of Roman governor Pontius Pilate and Herod the King of the Jews.
“My case is that Pontius Pilate, who tried Jesus Christ, had no jurisdiction. The judge himself says on the record, says he had no jurisdiction. Later he changed the story when he was under pressure.
“He convicted Jesus, who also did not have an equivocal plea of guilty, and he sentenced him a sentence which was also not lawful…”
Indidis says Pope Francis is aware of his case and that some in the Vatican support it.
Few of Indidis’s compatriots feel the same though — but he’s adamant the ancient wrong needs to be corrected.
He’s seeking a judgment from the International Court of Justice that the legal process wasn’t followed.
Egyptian Armed Forces Spokesperson Colonel Ahmad Ali categorically denied circulated reports of Israeli drone attacks behind the two blasts that hit the Egyptian city of Rafah Friday, killing at least five suspected terrorists.
“It is not true, either in form nor substance, that there were any attacks from the Israeli side inside Egyptian territory,” Ali told the state news agency (MENA).
“Likewise, the claim that there was coordination between the Egyptian and the Israeli side in this matter is a matter completely void of truth.
“The Egyptian border is a red line that could not be violated.” The Israeli government did not comment on the reports.
Several international news agencies have published reports about Israeli drone attack inside Sinai Peninsula Friday.
Earlier Colonel Ali released a statement saying that two explosions were heard at 4:15 pm in the area of Egra in Northern Sinai, adding that the area is currently being inspected to reveal the cause of the explosions.
Militants based mainly in North Sinai near the border with Israel have been launching attacks on Egyptian and Israeli targets over past years, but they have escalated their assaults since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.
The Sinai Peninsula is largely demilitarized as part of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979 but Israel has approved troop reinforcements to combat the militants and smuggling by Palestinians into Gaza. – KUNA
Two blasts that wounded four Israeli soldiers on the border with Lebanon were in fact an “ambush” set by Hezbollah, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on Thursday.
The explosions hit the patrol on Wednesday when the troops ventured 400 metres (yards) into south Lebanon, parts of which are controlled by the powerful Shiite movement.
“The enemy blundered when they violated the border with Lebanon, and fell into a trap that only the resistance could set,” said the newspaper, which has links to Hezbollah.
“Only Hezbollah can make bombs that blow up Israelis” when they pass by, it said.
Hezbollah, which has close ties to Iran and the regime in Syria, is considered Israel’s arch-foe, and the two fought a brief but bloody summer war in 2006.
“The Israeli unit fell into a well-set ambush and the enemy found itself faced with a difficult question: ‘How did Hezbollah know we were there?'” the daily wrote.
“The ambush is a dangerous failure for the enemy because it shows that Hezbollah has an intelligence structure that allows it to know when a patrol arrives, its route and to set a trap for it,” it added.
“That means the resistance is prepared for every eventuality, in case of confrontation on a wider scale or in case of a general conflict.”
The Lebanese army said four Israeli soldiers were wounded by explosions 400 metres inside Lebanese territory.
Israel’s military confirmed the toll without specifying what side of the border the soldiers were on as they were “carrying out nocturnal activities in the Lebanese border area when the explosion occurred”.
The soldiers were members of an elite unit, Israeli public radio reported.
A UN officer in the area said the 10-strong Israeli unit withdrew taking their wounded with them, as troops on the Israeli side of the border fired flares to aid their exit.
The barbed wire marking the border had been cut, an AFP correspondent reported, and the two blasts occurred in a pine forest several hundred metres into Lebanon.
The heavily mined area has seen several rounds of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the incident on Wednesday but gave no details.
“Our soldiers defend us and our borders, which is what they were doing last night. We will continue to react to defend Israel’s borders,” he was quoted by military radio as saying.
Hezbollah controls large parts of south Lebanon.
In 2006, it fought a bloody 33-day war against Israel that devastated much of the Shiite-majority south and parts of Beirut.
The conflict killed some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them troops. – AFP
Someone please get Roger Waters a new hobby. May I suggest knitting or macramé? Something that keeps him busy and takes his attention away from offending Jews.
At a recent concert, Waters released an inflatable pig with a Magen David (Star of David) painted on it. A “pig-drone” of sorts. The song was “Run like Hell”. Now far be it for me to drone on (pun very much intended) but displaying a sacred religious symbol next to fascist symbols like the hammer and sickle that represent communism smacks of something far more nasty.
Now we know Roger is the poster child for BDS and has a penchant for walls and kangaroos (excuse my very lateral reference to the Russel Tribunal!) and would balk at any allegations that would insinuate that he is anti-Semitic. Isn’t he just an artist exploring his creativity?
Flying pig… the inflatable pig used by Roger Waters at his concerts with the Star of David showing
No Rog, you aren’t. Your politics are well known. While you have the right to spout your anti-Israel, BDS drivel, however misguided it may be, you have crossed the line. This time you are not making loaded statements about Israeli policy, this time you are taking a holy symbol and aligning it with the most hated forms of political governance. Straight out of the Goebbels propaganda handbook.
The preferred tactics of the anti-Israel brigade is to disguise their intentions under the cover of concern for the Palestinians of other minority groups in Israel. It is a thinly veiled disguise. I think we should ask Waters where is the pig with the Ahmadinejad head? Where are the effigies spray painted with the likes of the most heinous human rights abusers? If you are at a loss, we have a whole neighborhood full of them in the Middle East. Some throw opponents off the top of buildings, some throw acid on young girls in attempted honor killings, hell some even call for the destruction of a whole country!
With rising levels of anti-Semitism around the world, this kind of action is not only offensive, it is irresponsible and alarming. It is just not kosher for a variety of reasons. This does not make you a creative and lyrical genius, all it show is that you have completely lost the plot.
Roger may I suggest you run like hell. Run yourself along to a much needed reality check.
—-
Rolene Marks is a passionate advocate for Israel and has appeared on radio, television and has been published in numerous global publications. Rolene is a member of the Media Team Israel, an advocacy body that fights media bias. Currently residing in Modiin, Israel, Rolene volunteers for WIZO and previously represented the organisation on the World Zionist Congress. Rolene can be heard frequently on Chai FM, a Johannesburg-based radio station giving political commentary. In 2007 Rolene participated in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Young Jewish Diplomats Leadership course.
Israel’s peaceful relationship with its neighbors in Egypt comes at a high price: the deal obliges the US to provide massive amounts of unconditional military aid to Egypt.
And that’s where things get dicey. A military coup normally obliges the US to suspend military aid, which is why the US is avoiding calling this coup a “coup” in so many words, hoping to gloss over that fact.
But Egypt is a big deal, and a coup there is a little hard for the US to just write off as no big deal, which has Israeli officials fretting the prospect that the US might eventually be obliged to revoke aid to the new junta and “violating” the Egypt-Israel treaty in doing so.
Not that this means a serious risk of war, as both nations have been be getting billions from the US for decades and are both armed to the teeth. The US money buys Israel a lot of influence however, like the right under the treaty to dictate Egypt’s military policy in Sinai.
Israel is also expressing concern that jihadists will use the “power vacuum” to carry out attacks along the border, though Egypt has heavily deployed its military along the Gaza frontier, so this also seems unlikely.
In the end, the first impact the coup may have for Israel is weakening Hamas and strengthening Fatah, as Hamas had close ideological ties with President Morsi and was even in the process of ditching its long-standing alliance with Syria and Iran in favor of Egypt.
The Syrian government, which has long sought to portray its repression of the revolt against its rule as a crusade against Islamists, is relishing the Brotherhood’s humiliation in Egypt. Assad, in comments to be published in the state-run newspaper al-Thawra on Thursday, declared that “what is happening in Egypt is the fall of so-called political Islam.”
The president urged the country’s military to “return full authority” to “a democratically elected” government.
“Will the Brotherhood see the reality of events — and they rarely see any reality other than the visions in their own minds — and step down under the pressure of tens of millions of Egyptians? Or will the country be pushed into a civil war?” asked the announcer who read Wednesday afternoon’s news broadcast on state television, ahead of the daily digest of army victories against “terrorists” opposing the government.
Meanwhile, in rebel-held portions of Syria, people are starting to chafe at the behavior of the Islamist groups.
The execution on the streets last month of a 14-year-old boy for making a blasphemous comment and a rule issued this week by the city’s self-appointed Sharia court banning women from wearing makeup have stirred anger in the northern city of Aleppo. Citizens in the northeastern city of Raqqah have staged small-scale demonstrations against the Islamists who hold sway there.Some in Raqqah have watched with eager interest as the unrest unfolds in Cairo, said a resident who spoke via Skype on the condition that he not be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject. “The time will come when people realize that these groups don’t represent Islam, and they will kick them out,” he said.
Further afield, the recent mass demonstrations in Turkey, hailed as a model for emerging Arab democracies, were sparked by plans to chop down trees in a central Istanbul park but quickly grew into a wider expression of unease with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarian style and his policies of Islamicization.
In Tunisia, the ruling Ennahda party, a Brotherhood affiliate, has held the middle ground between the radical Salafis who have threatened to use force to impose Islamic law and secularist activists, in another reflection of the splits opening up across the region that could shape a new round of turmoil.
“There is a fundamental divide in the Arab world over big issues such as the role of religion in government . . . and the identity of the state,” Hamid said. “It is a real, fundamental divide, and there is a lot at stake.” antiwar.com
The Israeli branch of McDonald’s says it won’t open a restaurant in a Jewish settlement to protest Israel settlement policy.
Irina Shalmor, spokeswoman for McDonald’s Israel, said the owners of a planned mall in the Ariel settlement asked McDonald’s to open a branch there about six months ago. The chain refused because it is the policy of McDonald’s Israel’s owner to stay out of the occupied territories.
The decision was not coordinated with McDonald’s headquarters in the U.S., she said.
Israeli lawmakers have protested the decision, reported in local media Thursday. One says she’ll boycott the chain.
Tzahi Nehimias, co-owner of the mall, says Burger King and an Israeli burger chain both offered to open branches at the mall.
Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas said that Britain had been preparing gunmen to invade Syria two years before the crisis there flared up in 2011
During a TV show, Dumas said ”I was in Britain two years ago, and I met British officials, some my friends…they admitted that they were up to something in Syria.”
”They even asked me to join them in my capacity as a foreign minister, but I declined,” he added.
He indicated that the plan of striking Syria had been prepared in advance long before the 2011 events, adding that the goal was to overthrow the Syrian government that considers Israel an enemy.
The TV show was dedicated to discussing the war in Syria.
French magazine: ‘Jihadists’ involvement in Syria much bigger than Afghanistan
The French magazine “Le Nouvel Observateur” quoted a senior French official as saying that the participation of French Jihadists in Syria is bigger that their involvement in Afghanistan war.
The French magazine said that the French intelligence verified the identities of 270 French nationals who are fighting in Syria, indicating that their return has become a major concern for the French interior ministry.
The magazine said that the number of European ‘Jihadists’ fighting in Syria ranges between 1,500 and 2,000, in addition to hundreds of Tunisians. – SANA
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