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Two Israeli Beduin from the Negev town of Rahat were charged Wednesday with plotting terrorist outrages over the internet with al-Qaida members overseas and marking out civilian and military sites in Israel for attack. The suspects were named by police as Taher Abu Sakut, 21, and Omar Abu Sakut, 22. They were arrested in late May and early June in a joint Israel Police-Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operation. An indictment was filed against them on Wednesday in the Beersheba District Court, accusing them of membership in a terror organization, aiding the enemy during a time of war and transferring...

Finally, we are seeing some European support for our ally Israel. Last week we saw Frances President Nicolas Sarkozy become the first French President in twelve years to visit Israel. Pledging to support Israel, with diplomatic support, resources and even troops if necessary. In regards to nuclear issue with Iran. Now, we see the first ever 'Salute to Israel' parade take place in the U.K. For the rest..... http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/...l-on-rise.html

Following are excerpts from an interview with IAEA Director-General Dr. Muhammad Al-Baradei, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on June 20, 2008. Muhammad Al-Baradei: If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapons, it must leave the NPT, expel the IAEA inspectors, and then it would need at least... Considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has... Interviewer: How much time would it need? Muhammad Al-Baradei: It would need at least six months to one year. Therefore, Iran will not be able to reach the point where we would wake up one morning to an...

He told a pro-Israeli group the right things in a recent speech. But his acts tell another story. The day after securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama addressed the preeminent pro-Israel group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). This mostly Jewish organization, which is largely liberal and Democratic, would seem to be the perfect pushover crowd to launch his fall campaign. By all accounts, he wowed the crowd with rhetorical flares, saying he "had grown up without a sense of roots" and consequently had always "understood the Zionist idea, that there is always a homeland at the center...

Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama vowed Wednesday he would work to "eliminate" the threat posed by Iran to security in the Middle East and around the globe. "There's no greater threat to Israel or to the peace and stability of the region than Iran," he told the powerful pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC). "The danger from Iran is grave and real and my goal will be to eliminate this threat," he said, adding loudly to add emphasis that he would "everything" to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Barack Obama told an AIPAC conference that the Iraq war had endangered Israel. "Because of war in Iraq, Iran, which always posed a greater threat than Iraq, is emboldened," the Illinois senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Wednesday at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy forum. In a wide-ranging speech, Obama said he would be steadfast in his support for Israel and praised the Jewish state for destroying a nuclear reactor in Syria last September. "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," he said to a standing ovation while...

"Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started" stated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He reiterated his belief that Israel would be " erased from the geographical scene." And this is the individual that Obama wants to negotiate with? This just goes to show how truly naive Obama is...you can't negociate with fanatics or lunatics. The mere fact that Obama believes that negociating is a possibility just goes to show the American people who dangerous it would be...

So, round one of the 2008 foreign policy debate goes to ... Barack Obama? Improbable as it seems, in the first direct rhetorical showdown of the general election campaign - over a question, foreign policy "toughness", that's been a perceived Democratic weakness since Vietnam - it was the guy with the thin foreign policy résumé, suspected by some of his compatriots of being a Muslim, who out-punched the war hero with the extensive résumé. And shall I add that the one with the thin résumé and the strange name has a dodgy position on the question at hand, and yet...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused rival Hillary Clinton of saber rattling toward Iran on Sunday and compared her approach to that of unpopular President George W. Bush. "I think it's language that's reflective of George Bush. We have had a foreign policy of bluster and saber rattling," Obama said of Clinton's threat to "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel. "It is important that we use language that sends a signal to the world community that we're shifting from the sort of cowboy diplomacy, or lack of diplomacy, that we've seen out of George Bush," the...

When President Bush visits Israel next week, he should offer to bring that ally fully into the U.S. missile defense network - a step that might forestall an Israeli attack on Iran this year. Two of the most strategically minded Members of Congress I know - Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) - have enlisted 63 colleagues to urge the move as Bush prepares to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding. Specifically, the bipartisan group is calling on Bush to give Israel the advanced X-band radar system that would enable Israel to knock down Iranian missiles early...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080422/pl_nm/usa_politics_iran_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AgHS711vSCz6dVRGpZ.x0x0b.3QA Clinton says U.S. could "totally obliterate" Iran By David Morgan Tue Apr 22, 1:43 PM ET Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned Tehran on Tuesday that if she were president, the United States could "totally obliterate" Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike against Israel. On the day of a crucial vote in her nomination battle against fellow Democrat Barack Obama, the New York senator said she wanted to make clear to Tehran what she was prepared to do as president in hopes that this warning would deter any Iranian nuclear attack against the Jewish state. "I want the...

The Israeli secret service has launched a new venture: it has started to carry an internet diary, or blog, written by four of its agents. The agents discuss how they were recruited, and what sort of work they perform; they also answer questions sent in by members of the public. The tone of the blog is chatty, at times even facetious. The agents from Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, are shown in silhouette. Agent Chet is the sole woman among them. She works in hi-tech. She says she went to the agency because it offered her a better...

(RTTNews) - Syrian sources on Wednesday told London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newpaper that several Arab nations conspired with Israel's intelligence service Mossad, to assassinate Hizbullah chief of operations Imad Mughniyeh earlier this month. The latest speculation on the assassination of the Hizbullah terror chief comes two days after the former Hizbullah commander's widow accused Syria of being behind her husband's assassination. According to the Syrian sources, Damascus was making considerable progress in the investigation of Mughniyeh's death, and would publish the results of its inquiry following the Arab league summit in Damascus in March. ... Mughniyeh was killed in a car...

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Thursday night, Feb. 14, Syrian officials fanned out among Arab broadcasting stations with a warning: Damascus will attack Israel shortly following a decision by Syrian leaders to end its policy of restraint against its territorial violations. Israeli land, sea, air and homeland defense units were earlier ordered to prepare to defend the country’s northern borders against attacks by Hizballah, including rocket strikes, and Syria. Reinforcements were rushed to the north. Israel has received a stream of intelligence confirmations that Iran, Syria and Hizballah have determined not to let Mughniyeh’s death pass without an immediate response. They...

The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had suspended several soldiers after they were filmed exposing their bare buttocks to Palestinians in the south of the occupied West Bank. "All personnel implicated in this unfortunate affair have been identified and immediately suspended from all professional activity," the army said, without specifying the number of servicemen concerned. "This affair dates to a month ago and does not characterise the values taught to our soldiers," a statement said. "It will be settled today and the soldiers implicated will have to answer for their actions." On Sunday the YNet news website posted...

Iran is farther along in its quest to develop nuclear weapons than is thought in the West, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told The Washington Post in an interview published in Saturday's editions. "We think that they are quite advanced, much beyond the level of the Manhattan Project," Barak told the paper. "We suspect they are probably already working on warheads for ground-to-ground missiles ... [and] that probably they have another clandestine enrichment operation beyond the one in Natanz." Barak said the recent findings of the National Intelligence Estimate could be attributed to Iran's toning down of its weapons development program...

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (CNN) -- Israel is "ready now for a deal," said an Israeli official attending Tuesday's U.S.-brokered Mideast summit aimed at laying the groundwork for future peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have "very good chemistry," the official said, adding that he is hopeful a document "will be finalized before we leave Washington Wednesday night." -snip-

Last month, a French court heard an appeals case whose forthcoming verdict will have far-reaching ramifications for all who value truth and accuracy in Middle East news reporting. The case involves Philippe Karsenty, a French journalist and media commentator, who was found guilty of defamation after he called for the firing of two France 2 Television journalists responsible for the September 30, 2000, news report on the alleged killing of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Dura, by the IDF. It has been seven years since France 2 Television broadcast the excruciating footage of Muhammad and his father, Jamal, crouching in...

Those sources say Syria has mobilized armored, missile, air crews and air defense units - partly in readiness for repeats of alleged Israeli incursions of Syrian airspace and partly in response to the partial call-up in Israel which began beginning last Thursday, Sept 6. The Syrian armed forces are on full alert. DEBKAfile’s sources report that the silent war of nerves, started after the first Syrian allegation that Israeli bombers had violated of its airspace Thursday, continues. Jerusalem and Damascus are straining to hold back from an open clash, but voices are rising in the Syrian army urging President Bashar...

In its second circle, Iran has cultivated strategic ties with countries in Latin America, which, led by Venezuela, share its hatred for America. These ties serve three purposes. First, they provide Iran with a global deterrent against the US. Second, they provide Iran with ready support in diplomatic forums. Third, they build support for Iran among the "progressive" set in the US and Europe. In Iran's third circle of alliances are countries like Russia, China and Egypt. While all these states publicly oppose Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons, they effectively block the international community from taking effective action against Iran's...

India to launch Israeli spy satellite MUMBAI: India will launch a foreign satellite with a 'top secret' payload in September. Although officials at the Indian Space Research Organisation are tight-lipped about the nature of the hush-hush mission, information obtained by TOI from other sources suggests that ISRO's proven four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will carry an Israeli spy satellite called TechSar, weighing about 260 kg. The lift-off will be from the space centre at Sriharikota. The launch will mark a crucial milestone in growing Indo-Israeli military ties and there's a likelihood that some of the secret images taken by...

Syria has called on its citizens to leave Lebanon ahead of an expected "eruption" in that country, Arab and Iranian press reports have said. The media reports were translated and made available by MEMRI in a special dispatch on Sunday. "In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon's current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007," the MEMRI dispatch said. July 15 comes one day before a special UN Security Council meeting which is expected to discuss the possibility of stationing international experts on the Syria-Lebanon border,...

The Lebanese army discovered a rocket that was set to be launched Sunday on Israel and prevented it from being fired, shortly after three were launched and two landed in the Israel, Lebanon’s military said in a statement. Two rockets fired at northern town of Kiryat Shmona Sunday afternoon; no injuries reported..The army blamed the attack on “unknown elements”, the statement said. Hizbullah denied firing at Israel on Sunday. “Hizbullah denies being involved in any operation to launch missiles today against occupied Palestine,” said a flash script on al-Manar television. A Lebanese security official said that two 107 millimeter rockets...

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Flying under the radar is helping to put Israel's defense firms very clearly on the map. Stealth technology, including unmanned aerial vehicles, is a specialty for Israeli military technologists, who will be displaying these intelligence-gathering devices, along with other wares, at the Paris Air Show starting Monday. See air show preview. "For the past 60 years, Israel has been a combat laboratory," said Yossi Ben Hanan, a retired major general and head of Sibat, an Israeli agency that coordinates defense-related exports and cooperation for the government. Yechiel Assia, director-general of the Israel Export & International Cooperation...

Hamas hails 'liberation' of Gaza Hamas has taken control of almost all the Gaza Strip Hamas militants have hailed a series of military victories over rivals Fatah in the Gaza Strip as a new "liberation" of the territory.Fighters seized Fatah's Preventative Security building in Gaza City, the intelligence service headquarters, and overran the town of Rafah. A least 20 Palestinians died as the latest battles raged throughout Gaza. The top Palestinian umbrella group, the PLO, urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to declare a state of emergency. The PLO met Mr Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority and the head...

Here is another of my forays into Lawrence Wrights excellent book on the history of radical Islam, The Looming Tower.  First, for those, specifically on the left, who continually state bin Ladens beef with the United States was due to our country having had our troops on "sacred" land, ie Saudi Arabia, Lawrence writes about the Peter Arnett interview in March of 1997 in which we get from the horses mouth what his beef really is.  What is even more interesting for those on the left who state we should stop supporting Israel, we should leave Iraq, just give them...

A Palestinian who escaped from Italy while on parole for the 1985 hijacking of cruise ship Achille Lauro is holed up in the Lebanon refugee camp where the army is besieging Islamist militants. Bassam al-Ashker, now 39, told Agence France Presse by telephone that he is now a militiaman for the mainstream Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and saw it as his duty to brave the fighting to help the thousands of trapped civilians. Ashker was just 17 when he took part in the assault on the Achille Lauro by commandos of the Palestine Liberation Front of Abu...

EACH time I visit Israel, I come home more pro-Israeli - and more worried about Israel's future. The nation has been a stunning success, as close to a miracle as humanity achieved over the last, horrid century. But Israel is also a victim of that success. Built - like the United States - by the "old country's" rejects and outsiders, Israel's triumph is a slap in Europe's face. Europe was comfortable with its image of the Jew as a narrow-shouldered rabbinical student the local toughs could bully. But Europeans don't like Jews with muscles.

Harper accuses Liberals of making political hay on soldiers' deaths Tim Naumetz, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Friday, April 20, 2007 Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested yesterday the Liberal party is exploiting the recent combat deaths of eight Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan with a motion demanding the government put a firm, two-year deadline on the mission. Another Conservative MP went further, accusing the Liberals of siding with "terrorists and the Taliban." Bitter feelings spilled out soon after debate began on the motion urging the government to notify NATO that Canada will pull out its soldiers in 2009, despite Liberal attempts...

Just posted on Drudge. No story yet. Israel should fire up theirs and make it clear Iran is glass if anything happens.

Jimmy Carter's timing is dorky, as always. The same sanctimonious ineptitude that made him the least successful president in US history prompted him to wager the remains of his reputation on advocacy for the Palestinians, precisely when the Palestinians have shown themselves to be their own worst enemies. Carter's obsession with justice in Palestine has the same source as George W Bush's obsession with democracy in Iraq: horror in the face of the alternative has overwhelmed their better judgment. Horror is the ultimate weapon of the Muslim world against the West, I long have argued. [1] Traditional society is crumbling,...

Almost everyone involved in diplomacy aimed at a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israel conflict thinks that the solution is a "two-state solution" -a state of Israel and a state of Palestine, living in mutual harmony, side by side, without terror or conflict between them. President Bush, Prime Minister Olmert of Israel, the leaders of the European Community, Russia, and the United Nations-all are advocates of the "two state solution." In effect, it is a call for a "three state solution" - Jordan, Israel and a terror state in between threatening the elimination of both. However, I respectfully disagree with the...

Beersheba, Israel NEARLY 40 years after it was removed from official maps, atlases and school books, the Green Line has made a significant comeback. Israel’s education minister, Yuli Tamir, has ordered the Green Line border, which separates Israel from the West Bank, to be reintroduced in all texts and maps used in the Israeli school system. From now on, Israeli children will know exactly where the Green Line is and what it signifies — a political border that, at some point, will almost certainly become the line separating neighboring Israeli and Palestinian sovereign territories. It was shortly after the Six-Day...

Nothing short of a military strike will stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, an Israeli newspaper quoted a respected Israeli think tank as concluding today. "There is no longer a possibility for effective sanctions to stop Iran," retired Brigadier-General Zvi Shtauber, of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, told The Jerusalem Post. "Our conclusion is that without military action you won't be able to stop Iran," Shtauber said. Shtauber and former Israel Air Force intelligence officer Yiftah Shapir compiled the institute's annual report on the military balance in the Middle East. Shtauber would not comment on The Jerusalem...

TEL AVIV — Israel's military is bracing for a possible two-front war in the summer of 2007. Officials said the General Staff has received intelligence assessments that Israel could be attacked from both Lebanon and Syria in the north as well as the Palestinian Authority in the south during the summer of 2007. They said the military concluded that Hizbullah and the PA would coordinate missile strikes against Israel. "The last war [against Hizbullah in July 2006] caught both Hizbullah and the Palestinians by surprise," an official said. "Now both sides are in full coordination and when war erupts the...

Outrageous, cowardly and immoral behavior by Hezbollah and the like is obvious to those who choose to pay attention. Unfortunately, clear evidence is still not enough to convince those who remain willfully blind to the militant Islamic threat against the West.

1. First, the facts: Former President Jimmy Carter's new book Palestine Peace, Not Apartheid published by Simon & Schuster is due to be released on November 14. The book's back cover includes the following sentence: "A system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights." 2. Are you surprised by Carter's argument? - I wouldn't think so. He has been critical of Israel for many years now. Last week he told Newsweek "the Camp David accords made some...

Ahmadinejad said he will soon send a message to the American people in an apparent attempt to influence the U.S. public opinion over President George W. Bush's policy toward Iran. "We will issue a message to the American people ... many Americans have asked me to talk to them and offer my opinions to them. This message is being drawn up," he said. In August, Ahmadinejad called for a televised debate with Bush months after he wrote a letter to the U.S. president that Washington said was irrelevant and not addressing the key issue of Iran's disputed nuclear program. Iran...

The Popular Resistance Committees terrorist group said Ata Shimbari, leader of the PRC's rocket-launching unit, was killed Monday in northern Gaza. Six other gunmen were also killed in fighting with IDF troops. PRC spokesman Abu Abir vowed revenge for Shimbari's death. "This is the calm before the storm," he told a news conference.

1) New York City has 11 letters 2) Afghanistan has 11 letters. 3) Ramsin Yuseb (The terrorist who threatened to destroy the Twin Towers in 1993) has 11 letters. 4) George W Bush has 11 letters. This could be a mere coincidence, but this gets more interesting: 1) New York is the 11th state. 2) The first plane crashing against the Twin Towers was flight number 11. 3) Flight 11 was carrying 92 passengers. 9 + 2 = 11 4) Flight 77 which also hit Twin Towers, was carrying 65 passengers. 6+5 = 11 5) The tragedy was on September...

Watching CNN they had a long (4 minute) feature on a family returning to their home in Southern Lebanon. This was a complete propagnada hit piece, it showed the tents (one filled with childs toys) that the family of four were living in now that their home adjacent had been destroyed. Then, unbelievably they follow the 8 year old boy as he gives them a tour of the wreckage, conveniently finding a childs doll at one point in the tour. No discussion of why the house may have beeen targeted, where the missles were hidden, or even what the fathers...

A lot of readers emailed about a new Iranian web site that purports to be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s blog, and a lot of other blogs have linked to it. But before you click through to the site (from somewhere else, I won’t post the link here), make sure your virus prevention software is up to date—because it may try to exploit a weakness in Internet Explorer to install a “back door” in your computer: Pres. Ahmadinejad trying to infect Israelis with web viruses? http://olehgirl.blogspot.com/2006/08/pres-ahmadinejad-trying-to-infect.html

New York: The US government was closely involved in planning Israel's military operations against Lebanon's Hezbollah militia even before the July 12 kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, The New Yorker magazine reported in its latest issue. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh writes that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were convinced that a successful Israeli bombing campaign against Hezbollah could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prototype for a potential US preemptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations.

JUST A HEADLINE AT THE MOMENT.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JOHN BOLTON: “We’re not going back to the status quo ante in Lebanon.” — Bolton. This Saturday PJM Special Correspondent Pamela of Atlas Shrugs sat down with John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the United Nations. In this far-reaching and candid interview, Bolton discusses the UN Ceasefire Resolution, the present and future state of Isreal and the Middle East, and what lies ahead for the USA and the world in the War on Terror.

ATTENTION PRESIDENT BUSH: IF YOU PUT A FORCE BETWEEN THE HEZZIES AND ISRAEL, THE HEZZIES WILL JUST SHOOT OVER THE INTERNATIONAL FORCE WHILE MOONING THE ISRAELIS It seems really stupid to me to put an anti-semitic European force in place to protect Israel from an anti-semitic Arab/Persian force.ATTENTION PRESIDENT BUSH: WHY IS IT OK FOR MEXICANS TO SNEAK INTO OUR COUNTRY BUT NOT CUBANS?

JERUSALEM, Aug. 8 — As Israel’s war with Hezbollah finishes a fourth difficult week, domestic criticism of its prosecution is growing. Yet there is a paradoxical effect as well: the harder the war has been, the more the public wants it to proceed. And while Israelis are upset with how Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has run the war, they seem to agree with what he told aides this week — that given the weaponry and competence of Hezbollah and the damage already done to Israel, “I thank God the confrontation came now, because with every year their arsenal would have...

German officials have made diplomatic protests and threatened legal action after learning Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf is being illegally printed and sold again abroad. The book, published as My Struggle in English, is on its way to becoming a best seller in some countries, but is still banned in Germany. Last month it was revealed that in Turkey it sold out in all the shops where it was on sale and that new copies could not be printed fast enough. Experts estimate that up to 100,000 copies of the work have been printed so far in Turkish, although no official...

I have called this post, "the director's cut", as that is what it is. The narrative here is of how the combination of Hezbollah's media management and modern photo-journalism has turned the recording of a tragic event into theatre, in the best tradition of Michael Moore. As best we can, we have pieced together the jumble of evidence which surrounded the production of the iconic photographs which were published around the world, and put them in perspective. Many of the photographs have been used before, some are new to this site and others are video "grabs". But it is not...

Candid words, evil goals from Iran EDITORIAL:The Edmonton Journal Saturday, August 05, 2006 On Thursday, for those who could hear him above din of exploding bombs and rockets in the Middle East, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did his hated Israeli enemy a major strategic favour. He said that while he now thinks a ceasefire is a good idea, the ultimate goal remains the "elimination of the Zionist regime." And thus he reminded a world tempted to see little difference between the warring parties about the fundamental difference between the Jewish state and those on the Arab and Muslim side...