Awesome: Non-Existent UNIFIL Mandate Extended For 1 Year! (Ominous Update)
Published August 28, 2008That’s gotta be good for at least another 25,000 missiles from Syria.. (Updated below)
I was getting worried for a bit there the ‘international forces’ might just pickup & leave handing everything back to Hezbollah, thankfully Hezbollah and Syria have now taken all of Lebanon over so this extension will be especially handy. Don’t look now (UNIFIL sure isn’t) but apparently the Lebanon Syria border is totally open and unmonitored according to a UN inspection team dispatched to report on the situation..
Jpost: Security Council renews UNIFIL mandate by 1 year
[...] The report on the Lebanon-Syrian border released Wednesday was commissioned by Ban at the request of the Security Council to assess the implementation of Resolution 1701, passed to halt the Second Lebanon War.
According to the 21-page document, four-wheel-drive vehicles are still crossing from Syria unchecked. Berms or other physical roadblocks are being dismantled or bypassed, and units based at observation posts have failed to enforce regular identity checks of pedestrians or cyclists.
Despite claims that mobile patrols were conducted regularly, the four-person inspection team found no evidence of mobile patrol activity along the border.
Instead, troops were deployed in stationary, military-style observations posts, including in “cross-border areas controlled by Palestinian groups, where it is crucial to maintain efficient control of any movement into Lebanese-controlled areas, as these areas are open to Syria.”
The team also found that the four border security agencies that have been combined into the Common Border Force, which includes the Lebanese Armed Forces, are not sharing information and have not conducted any enforcement operations based on specific intelligence. [...]
Of course, Hezbollah was supposed to disarm, the border was supposed to be monitored and arms smuggling halted, but non of these things have ever been considered never mind implemented. In actuality the Lebanese government has affirmed the right & legitimacy of Hezbollah armed resistance! They now support terrorism, fantastic.
Israel’s attempts to get a chapter 7 applied to the resolution allowing for some actual enforcement? Went nowhere. Seems the consensus was it was better to protect the ‘delicate balance’ in the Lebanese govt than enforce resolution 1701, or 1552 for that matter. Not that it makes any difference, no one in our government is actually doing anything these days anyhow other than worrying about elections, the fact that Hezbollah is building an army and that Iran & Syria are arming large swaths of Lebanon with tens of thousands of missiles is not too much of a concern it seems.
At least ‘The Peace Process’ is on Track
Anyone incidentally hear anything recently from Olmert our Prime Minister? It is as if he was abducted by aliens, he must be vacationing. Thank Gd we have Livni who negotiated this fiasco looking out for our interests..
Assad in Syria is enjoying new found stardom, apparently he is now willing to parlay his hand even more and get not just France to drop any grievances against him, but now the US too! Yup, he has dangled the option of a direct talk with Israel in return for America’s involvement in the process, meaning sanctions et all would evaporate and Syria would be sitting pretty and all he’d have to do is have some coffee with Olmert and then walk away.
Oh Oh, trouble in Shiite paradise: Hezbollah shot down Lebanese military chopper? (Haaretz)
More good news about Hezbollah’s control of Lebanon, armed with sophisticated SAMs now as Israel has been warning? Shooting down aircraft? And of course.. Blaming whom else? Israel..
If this had been an IAF aircraft we might be at war again right now, and while the facts are just coming to light pls don’t mistake for a moment who they thought they might be shooting at. Danger Will Robinson, DANGER!
Big Guns For Israel: McCain Slams Obama on Iran – Hard! (Video Ad *updated*)
Published August 27, 2008No punches pulled in the pursuit of American voters concerned about foreign policy.
I’ve yet to see anything like this so far this campaign season, this ad packs wallop with a capital Dubya. Hitting Obama where it hurts, the much coveted American Jewish swing vote, and building up the strong Evangelical base which is adamantly supporting Israel and is crucial to get out the vote stateside. No more camera snapshot sounds & celebrity snaps, this time the issue isn’t taxes either..
Of course we know Obama has been hounded by close senior foreign policy advisers with questionable views, and questionable links, we know that Obama came out strongly for unconditioned dialog with Terrorist sponsoring nations like Iran, like Syria, we know that Obama has downplayed the Islamic Jihad threat to not only America, but Israel & the free world, Judaism, Christianity and even Islam itself.. We also know that Biden is an Israel supporter but he holds questionable views on appeasement and in this regard not much has been done for Obama on foreign policy.
But now we know it with a 30 second smack to the face that will be tough to counter, nice job.
There is natural reluctance to speak loudly towards candidate preference in Israel as we rely on both parties and roughly 80% favorable American public support from our chief ally, clearly this decision is for America to make as they are electing a President for the United States, but everyone knows that when push comes to shove (and it is getting there in regards to threats) John McCain is our man here in Israel if we could pick and Jewish brethren in the US who usually vote Liberal by about 65% also know it, a few ads like this in Florida can wreak havoc on the Obama / Rep. Wexler led efforts there.
UPDATE: The US Left goes bananas (Memeorandum has the action)
The Obama campaign, and surrogates are going bonkos. Check out the memeorandum mania where the usual whiners complain of distortion which says it all, the ad is a hard hitter and it hits Obama precisely where it hurts as above and they are concerned in Obamaland, this is one of his top weaknesses, he took Biden for this reason and has gotten ZERO bounce from the choice. More Iran ads please, the harder the left froths the more it means the ads are good & the polls will pop.
There is no distortion, Obama is weak on Iran, the American Democrats are WEAK on foreign policy, appeasement is not viable policy and frankly from here in Israel Obama’s golden tongue brings no comfort at all and will not bring A SINGLE SPINNING CENTRIFUGE to a halt. Susan Rice can keep yelping about how great Obama and her own advice is, that don’t make it necessarily true..
National Insecurity
This is the national security night for the American DNC, but as usual they don’t deliver much security it seems at all, because from where I sit the liberal left could care less about US allies, will do little to prevent Iran from going nuclear and will be soft on Israeli options to defend ourselves. Today I heard Susan Rice again say how they will immediately ‘engage with the peace process under Obama’, wonderful.. Another reason not to vote Obama as far as I am concerned because BS doesn’t cut it in the mid east, and things like missile defense are a way of life not a luxury for defense cuts.. Across the board Obama is by far the weaker candidate.
Totally Tankered? : Let me add some fuel to the 767 fire
Published August 27, 2008Daled Amos posted recently about the tanker kerkuffle, touching on a haaretz article which tied recent denied Israeli weapons procurement requests to re-fueling tankers and a possible Iran strike.
In reaction to an article in Haaretz that the US has refused to give Israel the kind of refueling aircraft that Israel might use as part of an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, David Hazony suggests:
From the Bush administration’s perspective, there is no greater threat to American security than an Obama victory, and an attack on Iran really does carry risks of “instability” that could ricochet back against McCain.
So from an Israeli perspective: are they confident enough of a McCain victory to wait and test his pro-Israel campaign rhetoric–or are they still afraid that despite Obama’s current problems he will still be the next president and therefore cannot wait.
Bottom line: which candidate is more likely to supply Israel with the arms she thinks she needs in the current situation–McCain or Obama.
What do you think?
UPDATE: Israel apparently already has one such plane, and is apparently working on a project (The “Green Salad” — scroll down) for integrating a second one in 2009.
Faster, please.
He of course threw in the what do you think tag lol, irresistible really since I don’t think this story is as clear cut as the small initial Haaretz article suggests.
I posted myself about denied procurement requests and looked at the F22 & advanced JDAMS, those two pieces of hardware would really make the difference and they are the stuff of lustful legend for procurement from the US.. These were the hardware pieces in deep discussions when Bush visited in May. But aside from that, multiple hardware pieces are in procurement plans so that in itself does not preclude tankers or the article’s assertion.
It may very well be that tankers were part of discussions, but is it tied to Iran? and what is the McCain link?
On the question of is this the hardware that if denied can prevent a strike and halt Israeli plans, the answer seems to point to no. Israel has 7+ large tankers. The Haaretz article talks about them being 40 years old, but this is the same fleet the US is flying and their tankers are also old. That is enough tankers to get the job done. Would more be better, surely they would especially if tankers are targeted in operations. But, and it is a big but.. Any new procurement of 767s for tanker purposes would likely not be ready or aloft anywhere near the proper time frames for an Israeli strike, these beasts would need to be built first and Italy & Japan are themselves in line picking up 8 total, 6 are not even in assembly. I don’t think this is Iran related as much as it is internal US politics related, and this is where the McCain link comes in.
A significant reason for tanker denials?
The US is currently studying revamping its own tanker fleet. Actually, that is understating things a bit. There’s been a multi-year ongoing scandal regarding these tankers stateside for US use and McCain is smack in the middle of it.
To be brief what is going on is a war between Boeing, Northrop the providers, and an internal struggle at the Pentagon and US legislative halls for where to invest billions for the tankers, at home or abroad, and further which manufacturer can provide a better plane for US armed forces use. At question has been contract awarding practices and the ping pong ball has been batted back & forth wildly, McCain is holding a paddle and a very visible position.(this story is too big to link to generally, here’s one recently from the FT on the situation, )
It seems much more likely that part of the multi-year plan in Israel involves tankers, perhaps tankers have been discussed maybe even denied at this time, but this is much more likely to do with the fact that the USA needs to resolve its tanker issues first, commit and procure before the added politics of selling disputed tankers to say Israel is added to the mix as this would certainly sway things that are already very delicate. As DA mentioned, Israel is currently in its own tanker conversion plan and this effort is fairly longstanding and is budget based. So Israel is looking to expand tanker abilities, but has already been working on this front beyond a large purchase of new aircraft. The US issues will likely be decided once Bush is out of office, further reason to not announce tankers sales right now.
Better put this one out first..
Further, the notion that Israel will have waited until August 2008 to procure tankers needed for a strike on Iran is somewhat crazy talk, because it would take the biggest mistake in military procurement history to rely on plans, fly actual test runs involving hundreds of aircraft (already tanking over the med) and generally prepare only to realize a few months later that you don’t have tankers..
McCain may be involved, Israel may be looking for tankers going forward, the Pentagon may have denied a request at this time more generally, but making this about Iran seems to be overlooking the much more obvious in the USA, the illogical and unadvised idea of throwing Israeli fuel on the already large US tanker fire which has the GOP presidential nominee intimately involved, worse he’s backing the Northrop deal and Israel likely would have picked up Boeings, that is reason enough right there to delay tanker talks.
MSNBC Imploding: Olberman embarrassed on live TV (Video)
Published August 26, 2008Radical swing left has made MSNBC a laughing stock
They are in the tank for Obama (Joe woke up angry after last nights shenanigans), unlike most of the press there is little attempt to cover it. Olberman rails against the President calls him a liar on TV complete with camera cuts and fake mock rage, everyone swoons for Obama who can do no wrong. Hillary Clinton was savaged at the network, it goes on & on day in & out a spectacle of bias that needs to be seen to be believed. Now Rachel Maddow of Air America the failed radio talk liberal network has made the descent into partisan sludge complete with her very own show at MSNBC – Just what they needed, a little balance lol.
Matthews & Olberman running the circus show
Olberman gets caught on open mike and Scarborough reacts ferociously and why not? He sees the network on a one way ticket to flunky ville, when he attempts to file even a single balanced report on Live TV from the convention, Reichsfuhrer Olberman shoots his mouth off like the clown he is.. Even Matthews is feeling a tingle in his leg when this one ends, the tingle of embarrassment no doubt as to what his network & job have become. The laughing stock of the broadcast / media world. Even Puke Buchanan can’t bring them back from the brink, despite being I suspect a licensed exorcist or involved overall, in some form of demonic works lol
For all the olby action check olbermanwatch, if you can stomach it.
H/T Terryann for the video
Ode to the Lonely Left: Peace Now runs wailing to Auntie Rice
Published August 26, 2008Because no one here could care less what they say..
Up in arms, Peace Now released an ‘alarming’ report on new Israeli construction on ‘Palestinian land’. This was of course timed perfectly to the arrival of Secretary Rice in order to put the screws on Israel as much as possible. There are a few problems however with this Peace Now report & they extend beyond the mere statistical numbers.
- No one here cares what Peace Now has to say. They don’t represent Israel’s interests, but Europe’s interest vis a vis the Palestinians.
- None of these areas are Palestinians lands, the build outs are in existing settlements and frankly after 40+ years these lands, territories with thriving communities, schools, clinics, streets are now Israel and will remain so. The Palestinians can eat camel manure if they like, they should have chosen peace 40 years ago. Now they can take 90% of the West Bank or nothing as far as the avg Israeli is concerned, either one is fine.
- Much of the tenders for construction are Jerusalem based, who’s final status may be delayed per the norm in negotiations but has been annexed and will never be divided on account of the hapless Palestinians who couldn’t manage a 7-11 never mind a state. They will have to find a ‘farther’ mosque from Medina & Mecca it seems, because they built theirs on our land. They are squatters and we are the landlords as far a I can see it.
- Secretary Rice in her twilight administration months herself is trying to wring an agreement out with the weakest non functioning non government in Israel’s history. One so badly neutered and beyond effectiveness it is looking somewhat like something Abbas & the Palestinians themselves might throw together.
40 apartments here, 50 apartments there, the whole shebang is over about a 1000 apartments. About 5 urban apartment buildings total worth of housing. It is hard to get excited over these kinds of paltry numbers frankly. It amazes me when in the Arab world and the general public at large people expect life to stop on account of the Palestinians inability to live in peace and settle their hatreds. Life is not stopping, not on account of them, not on account of Rice either..
“I think it’s no secret, and I have said it to my Israeli counterparts that I don’t think that settlement activity is helpful,” Rice said Tuesday.
Helpful to whom? If she means the Palestinians she’s right, if she means the peace process well that’s a sham so far, facts of the matter remain that these lands are not Palestinian, no Palestinian is being evicted to build an apartment. These are rolling dunes of sand, which we transform into communities. It is almost dare I say it with the DNC in session this week.. Progressive of us!
“The government of Israel continues to build in the settlement blocs and outside of them, in spite of its international obligations,” said Hagit Ofran, who heads the Peace Now Settlement Watch Team.
Ofran, the head of the Peace Now Settlement Watch, called on the government to halt construction over the Green Line and said that such building weakened the Palestinians. The report also charged that the government was trying to erase the Green Line and to expand the territorial link between the settlement blocs and the isolated settlements. [...]
Ya Think? No! I don’t believe it! We are trying to secure our settlement blocks teeming with hundreds of thousands of Israelis & families, shocking. This is the kind of quality insight & analysis I have come to depend on from Peace Now. Poor Hagit is still living the early 90′s dream, nobody told her! Apparently she thinks we are going to remove all those Israelis because the Palestinians don’t like it and Europe is offended. Someone should inject her with formaldehyde and display her at the Israel Museum under the Oslo display of relics, this is like discovering a living T-Rex!
I don’t trust the Palestinians’ motivations, sincerity, or intentions.
Until such a time if we need apartments for our communities, we should help ourselves. Until such a time as the PA negotiates peace, they are negotiating with our lands – Not theirs as far as I’m concerned. We should build wherever we like, and they should thank their lucky stars we are so accommodating of them for 40+ years.
As for Peace Now? It doesn’t seem like it is happening, how sad indeed that a prominent left organization has little to few actual lefty Israeli constituents, that their whole purpose is subversion of our state to their European & Palestinian paymasters and the evil Israeli narrative. Used to be someone beyond Dr. Rice actually cared about what they had to say here - Those days are gone and so is the green line.
As for the power of running home to auntie, not what it used to be either it seems, because while we appreciate immesely the efforts of Dr Rice for a common good, at the end of the day we need to live here while Rice will live in Georgetown. If she wants, maybe we can arrange a nice walk-up for her in one of the new apartments being built here, Jerusalem real estate is sure to always be in high demand! She can enjoy the Israeli spring and we can sip mimosas and talk about the good ole days of Oslo when the left in Israel had power, credibility.. When Peace Now meant something, to someone somewhere in the holy land.
Dayan: Newest Likud pickup blasts Syria dialog
Published August 25, 2008One of the top ‘Free Agents’ this season for Knesset election lists, Uzi Dayan has teamed up with Likud
He’s got serious national security credentials and a clean air about him so far regarding corruption, which is why the leader of a small social group called Tafnit with no real Knesset success was courted by Bibi to bring some fresh excitement to the Likud.
The former General has outlined his views on the Syrian track in an op-ed for JPOST, which speaks loudly to the consensus view of the public which is not enamored with Syria as a peace partner by any means. Dayan blasts the dialog as incomprehensible, and briefly outlines where this dialog has weakened the resolve against Syria and resulted in dangerous regional, national security issue collapses as a result.
(Hezbollah, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, etc.)
That's me, I'm part of the vast global Zionist Conspiracy you often 'read' about ;)
