A few weeks ago something strange started happening to main trunks of connectivity linking the Middle East & Asia to the rest of the world via undersea cables, one by one over the short period of a few days main cables from a number of companies failed due to cuts in the seabed lines. India, and Egypt in particular were affected by the outages and a scramble was on to dispatch ships & repair crews to fix the cuts.

Today’s bandwidth hungry users flush with video & communications needs got a taste of the major slowdowns & connectivity problems associated with over saturated use.. Highlighting the importance of maintaining integrity over communication infrastructure as fastidiously as we guard more ‘concrete’ examples of infrastructure in these security conscious times.

Theories

The initial reaction was ”from ship anchors” - But theories ranged all the way up to intelligence agencies snipping the wires in order to insert listening technologies inside. The fairly targeted zone combined with a rapid loss of cables going out one after the other raised suspicions of sabotage or possibly terrorism as motives. Lo and behold the official UN agency now investigating is saying that sabotage or terrorism are not to be ruled out:

Saboteurs may have cut Mideast telecom cables: UN agency (breitbart)

Damage to several undersea telecom cables that caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on Monday.
“We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago,” the UN agency’s head of development, Sami al-Murshed, told AFP.

Five undersea cables were damaged in late January and early February leading to disruption to Internet and telephone services in parts of the Middle East and south Asia. [...]

These days cyber warfare plays just as much an integral part of the war on terror & crime as good old fashioned guns do, the Islamic Jihad for instance has made cyberspace a key battlefield to own. So who’s targeting critical telecom infrastructure under the sea and why? All part of the latest battlefield in the communication wars perhaps.

*Incidentally, as is the case generally with our Arab & Muslim friends, they don’t like to share things with Israel.. In this case Israeli connectivity was not affected as we are forced to operate on one of two main separate lines that we not affected or sliced, which link us to Europe & beyond.

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7 days of celebration baby

Less known than Bin Laden but much more lethal. The Hizbullah / Iran master terrorist is apparently dead today. Co-founder of Hizbullah, believed to have invented the suicide truck bomb as a tool of carnage, believed responsible in the planning of the slaughter of US Marines / French troops in Lebanon, hunted for over 20 years internationally as a mastermind of terror, believed to have undergone reconstructive facial surgery to mask his face.. If it’s true it’s a massive blow in the war on Terror! (I only question the authenticity slightly due to the massive efforts of deception Imad was famous for.)

JPOST: Damascus bombing kills Hizbullah No. 2 ; ‘Mughniyeh was co-founder of Hizbullah’ ; Israel denies involvement in Mughniyeh assassination

USA Today
CNN
Imad search here at the hashmonean.

Glorious news really, there’s just no other way to put it. Kudos to whomever found him & blew him up car bomb style, something he so richly deserved. Man I hope we did it.. But if the Americans got him, that would be sweeeeet too!

The side note: Damascus now in the hot seat, knowingly sheltering arch terrorists within its loving embrace. Maybe Pelosi or Obama should jet out there so we can all talk it over and make a few more concessions? “Yes we can!” <– Preferably elect someone who can actually protect freedom as opposed to delivering fancy speeches full of sweet nothings.

Update / Hat Tip:
 Debbie Schlussel via Hotair comments…

Obama’s senior foreign policy advisor is INDEED there in Syria already! Oh the irony, what a slap in the face to the foolhardy Obama strategy of “engaging” the Jihad in dialog..

Update II: Fallout - Bush orders expanded sanctions on Syria & Officials (Reuters)

Obstensibly related to Iraq, but the timing smells a heck of a lot like the side note up there and a hearty ’you bastards had an arch terrorist planning, baseing & operating openly within your borders and now you’re gonna pay, er at least a little bit’. I’m thinking this is only the 1st round of pain Syria will face due to having Imad liquidated in their capital Damascus, hey what I can say other than “you’re either with us or the terrorists.”

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Annapolis be damned. Defend the State!

The city of Sderot is being strangled by terrorists, less than 28% of the population remaining is attending school from fear. That’s of what’s left, because mass amounts of the city have simply picked up & moved. This is a travesty, these are not occupied territories for the intl. community to salivate over, there are no excuses - This is an assault on the land of Israel across its borders. How many more red lines will be crossed by the Kadima coalition?

Hamas is upgrading.. Again. (Haaretz)

• Capable of long term storage of missiles
• Ashkelon in rocket sights
• Launching rockets remotely from underground!?

Pull the coalition down now

This is out of control, we cannot have a terrorist state on Israel’s borders acting with impunity like this, it is contrary to every policy, every sacrifice made by the country since its inception 60 years ago. This government is the biggest failure in Israeli history. Defend the State of Israel or resign. That goes for Barack too, that military swagger does not excuse from the task of defending this country, stop vacillating and give the order to assault Gaza or go home.

We don’t need another Peretz Defense Minister, I can’t speak for anyone else but I’m getting tired of these Labor Party Defense Ministers, since their arrival we are indeed always on Defense.. and losing. When Shaul Mofaz was Defense Minister under the Likud the terrorists hid underground, now they build bunkers to fire & hide their rockets underground. That is the Kadima legacy so far, our enemies getting exponentially stronger thriving on our weakness.

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 Hamas ‘Foreign Minister’ pays personal price for violence, terrorism.

Violence, and targeted anti-qassam operations have swept the strip this past two days leaving 17 Palestinians killed, most of them militants including Mahmud Al Zahar’s son, the second in command behind deposed PM Haniyeh who vowed Hamas would respond..

Gaza: Mahmoud al-Zahar’s son, 16 others killed by IDF (Ynet)

[...]
Al-Zahar accused the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah movement, of complicity in his son’s death. “This is the hope of Abu Mazen and his colleagues, the collaborators with Israel and the spies of America,” Zahar said, referring to Abbas by his nickname. Hamas, he vowed, will respond to Tuesday’s raid “in the appropriate way. We will defend ourselves by all means.”

Another al-Zahar son was killed in a botched Israeli assassination attempt against the elder al-Zahar in his home three years ago. [...]

No one ever takes responsibility in the Jihadi world, this one’s Abu Mazen & America’s fault by some intense form of Hamasnian logic.. In Either case, he’s payed a heavy price for extolling the virtues of martyrdom, it will only get worse for Hamas members & leaders when we assault Gaza fully & dismantle the large military they’ve raised. As usual, that large scale operation is delayed for now to bolster the Annapolis talks, which won’t bring back the young Ecuadorian Israeli volunteer shot to death on a kibbutz near Gaza by a Palestinian sniper this morning.

Sniper attack on kibbutz volunteer

In the course of the fighting, a Palestinian sniper fired from the border area into Israel, killing 20-year-old Carlos Andres Chavez, a volunteer from Ecuador who was working in a potato field at the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz, Israeli officials said. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility.

“The shooting of the Ecuadorian youth demonstrates the necessity of the defensive measures the military is carrying out with pinpoint operations,” Israeli military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich said. Israel has been cracking down on Gaza militants who bombard southern Israel with rockets and mortars and attack troops along the border, even as it seeks peace with Abbas’ West Bank-based government. [...]

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Our distinguished guest, President Bush is heading out of Israeli control today and the concern in Israel for his safety is palpable. Numerous Gazan groups spurred on by the radical Hamas have called for the assassination of the US President on his visit, the Jerusalem Post reports 3 radical Palestinian groups calling for violence against Bush in the last 24 hours alone.

Violent Demonstrations Expected

Yesterday while Bush was in Tel-Aviv & Jerusalem, violent protests, flag burnings & burnings of Bush in effigy took place in Gaza, and violent demonstrations are expected in the West Bank areas where the President is expected to visit with Abbas & PA officials, who themselves are now equally concerned for his safety.

We are taking these threats very seriously,” a senior PA security official told The Jerusalem Post. “We have taken several precautionary measures to foil any attempt to target Bush or to disrupt his visit.”

Another PA security official accused Hamas of being behind most of the threats against the US leader. “Hamas has turned the Gaza Strip into a safe haven for numerous terrorist groups,” he said. “All these groups are operating there under the auspices of Hamas.” [...]

Some 20 masked gunmen belonging to the Army of the Nation held a press conference in Khan Yunis in which they condemned Bush as the “leader of the infidels” and accused him of “waging war against Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.” The group vowed to receive Bush with suicide bombers during his visit to the Palestinian territories.

A spokesman for the group who identified himself as Abu al-Hifs denied his men were affiliated with al-Qaida or Fatah al-Islam. “We are all Muslim youth from here,” he said. “Fatah al-Islam and al-Qaida are our brothers. Although we have no ideological difference between us, we don’t belong to them.” [...]

This is combined with the previous Al Qaeda messages, 2 in the past two weeks calling for violence against Israel & Bush. It’s quite dangerous frankly, Israel is not allowed security control in PA autonomous areas, and of course Gaza is really Gazastan now..

The Palestinians have created a cesspool of terrorism & violence, which even now threatens to mar the visit of the man most responsible for trying to fulfil their dream of statehood. Bush is en-route to Ramallah now, please keep him safe.

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The arrival this week of President Bush will mean it’s extreme danger time in Israel, and the threat is very real.

Al Qaeda in the last two weeks has released two tapes, one by Bin Laden himself calling for the ‘liberation of Palestine’, the second calling for attacks on the President of the United States and US targets. These tapes are not to be taken lightly, as intelligence has often postulated that they are directives & message carriers to the international terror network from leaders pointing to targets & times to strike & initiate carnage.

Israel itself is going on the highest alert & mobilizing to try & avert the danger, but despite our superlative military & security complex it’s our government’s general incompetence which worries most. Endless security establishment, intelligence briefings, and military warnings of the terror soup cooking in Gaza have been almost totally ignored for nearly 2 years now. Hamas has a full fledged military army developed and Al Qaeda supporting Jihad has seeded itself in both Gaza, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon - Totally surrounding the Jewish State on every side.

Arms & men have been flowing from Egypt totally unimpeded while we discuss our ‘peace options’ like suicidal maniacs, we are already reducing & delaying endlessly because “This is a sensitive time diplomatically.”

Go to ground

Tourist spots, Hotels, public areas, and especially anything affiliated with the USA like consulates will be prime targets this week, not too mention half of Jerusalem, I’d be lying if I said I won’t be thinking about it as I go about daily life in Tel-Aviv. Hezbollah to the North, Rockets from the Gazan west, suicide bombers from the ‘PA controlled’ east, mixed in with Al Qaeda crazed Jihadists gunning for blood.. We are in for a hell of a time.

The President is most welcome, though it is too bad his foreign policy of late and the Israeli government’s endless tail wagging to it have squeezed us into this dangerous corner.

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Michelle Malkin has the goods on the latest Jihad tape released,

it references Annapolis, Abbas and a call for Jihad to ultimately liberate Jerusalem and establish the worldwide caliphate.

[...] “My brothers in Palestine, we, all Muslims, the Mujahedeen are by your side, in your confrontation with the Zionist enemy,” al-Zawahri said. “We will not let you down even if your politicians do.”

Israel’s latest intelligence suggests Al Qaeda is active all around Israel, exploiting Jordan & Egypt primarily as footholds, but that the terror group has not firmly established itself in the Gaza strip as of yet. This seems to be a rallying call to Islamic Jihad, Hamas & assorted scum to get more active. Indeed today Hamas announced it would be stepping up with even more attacks against Israel.

All I can is these guys must have serious cohones. Israel is at the brink, being asked to concede more & more for peace. It is 10000% assured that Israel will act very very forcefully no matter how the process unfolds in order to buttress the message that it prioritizes security above all else, even if negotiations are ongoing.

When Israel is divided for peace & pursuing it, it is without question the most dangerous time to trifle with it, as we tend to react with total fury. Anything else spells the end of our government’s ability to proceed. This is the Mid East, we don’t trifle around like our friends the brits & the yankees - We’ll find these people & kill them in their beds if they play on our court. Then we’ll find where their families live & blow up their houses, honestly.. We could care less what Amnesty says about it - these terrorists don’t hide the fact they seek our total destruction.

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Left Out in The Cold

It shouldn’t be this way, the big guy, El Presidente! The guy who’s deeds Jewish conservatives could finally point to and say ‘you see what we’re talking about? There’s love on this side of the aisle..” Yeah, that guy. The Joe who looked into the camera tilted his head snorted & said ‘Well, we’re gonna smoke ‘em out of their holes’ and vowed on a dank New York morning into the megaphone heard round the world, that pretty soon ‘everybody would be listening’. 

I’m talking about this guy..

There’s few stadiums in the world where this rock star could ever get a warmer reception than right here in Israel. Gallup polled recently & found that regarding foreign leaders internationally, Bush scored highest in Israel - with a 66% support rate. After 7 years, he’s on his way. Trouble is, under his direction his State Department has been making a heck of a mess around here, and if a cheerleader like me is feeling sombre, it leaves me saddened to think that after all we’ve been through it shouldn’t be like this.

Gaza gone wrong

We had to convince Bush to get on board with giving back Gaza, he was opposed but in the end felt it might be a big step towards peace. So he sent Condi Rice to try and lay some ground to smoothen that process’ arrival. That’s when the trouble started.

Instead of ushering peace, we got an ushering in of American policy somehow deluded (READ STATE DEPT.) in the belief that Hamas, the terrorist organization should be allowed on the ballot despite the fact they were still an armed terrorist group. Condi rolled her dice smug in the warmth of her democracy strategy, problem is she woke up to a Hamas elected terrorist group majority. Olmert one month in office began his own march of weakness incidentally, it was the start of our total subservience to the frankly incompetent US State Department.

Mistakes happen, so you correct them. Bush doctrine should have been applied, but it was not. Instead Condi scratched Europe’s back and Israel’s face by insisting that Rafah - The Egyptian / Gaza crossing be under Palestinian control with EU monitors. Of course we objected, pleaded. We knew the PA was not willing or able to control normalcy and the result was Hamastan. The EU Monitors never controlled the entry of weapons, they were the 1st to flee in fact when enough weapons had been amassed allowing Hamas to flip a full military coup in lieu of security in the territories.

We’ve had our soldiers kidnapped, our citizens bombarded, our faith in big steps shaken to the core. In the end, Rice’s State Department looms larger than ever by tying our hands. Worse, her mentors are advising Rice she should pressure us into negotiating with the terrorists. That guy, is that his intention - to tie our hands from defending ourselves?
I Don’t believe it.

Push for Peace

I was aghast in 2002 when on the White House lawn I heard the big guy call for a Palestinian State. Not that I have a problem with a Palestinian state, more like the most powerful man calling for one gratis. He rarely disappointed back then though, so the next sentence was about ‘certain new facts on the ground’. Man to man he assured Sharon that settlements were a reality that would have to be dealt with, & more importantly reality dictated they be dealt with by leaving them exactly where they were. Mr Big, practical, driven by realities & convictions.

But then the US State Department buttressed by old farts like Jim Baker, and Hamilton screamed bloody murder that if only you sacrificed Israel up on the altar, all the world would fall into place. Iraq, the Middle East, the Saudis, even the tooth fairy would once again give small children large fortunes while they slept! Just get rid of those damned Joooz!

Rice rice rice, having zero and I repeat zero middle east experience herself, embraced this madness and convinced the big guy to do so as well. Now we find ourselves negotiating with terrorists, the US flirting with Iran, and Pelosi getting foot massages in Syria. We find Israel’s government like dopey, going along with the US in lock step despite the fact that each & every policy rolled out further endangers our national security. Is this what that guy wanted? A sacrifice of Israel.. Like Abraham & Isaac, only this time all of us lacking faith Rice will stay the executioners hand like the angel of Gd did?
I don’t believe it.

Lebanon, the Paris Hilton of the Middle East

It’s hard to find a more useless country in the Rice plan currently than Lebanon. A more fertile, pliable and western zone to plough her democracy theory she will never find. Yet, despite a war, UN harmony, and even the slapping around of Israel internationally Hezbollah still calls the shots. The US sponsored regime is on life support, and the militants supported by Iran & Syria have knocked off yet ANOTHER pion of Lebanese democracy in the last two days.

Did we smash our enemies lobbing rockets on our population? Did we kill Hassan Nasrallah for attacking our country? Did we seize the opportunity to defang a significant portion of the terrorist threat Bush, the big guy has been talking about for 8 years now? Nope. We looked to Rice, and the State Department. We banked on her close multilateral relationships with the French (the whores of the middle east, if a tail goes up in the Levant, you can rest assured the French will be right there to take a sniff.) and you know what we got for our troubles? The Clap. Is that what that guy wanted? Israel humbled on the battlefield, and neutered in the UN?
I don’t believe it.

Iran - The Jihad itself armed with Nuclear Weapons

This time the threat is not only to Israel, but our entire way of life comprising Tel-Aviv through London to Washington all the way to pretty San Diego. This time it’s all those scary speeches rolled into one, this time it’s not two buildings coming down but entire cities & populations at risk from terror. The entire balance of power this century is in theory on the table here. Of all times, of all situations this is the LAST ONE of all where we would ever expect America to slide us a 3 of spades instead of the ace in the deck!? What the HELL?

We, known worldwide as willing to act to defend ourselves deferred. We put all of our eggs in the American Easter basket. How could America relent on this, after all Iran is the very antithesis of America. Safe bet, because if Israel goes we figured America goes with it and surely this empire of greatness cannot possibly be so stupid as to deal with the devil. But, it required yet again putting our faith in Rice and the State Department. Sanctions, coalitions, the white marbled gleaming UN we were told would finally after 60 years do one damn thing right. But lo and behold the price keeps getting steeper, while the Iranian program gets deeper, and now the entire thing seems for naught. Bush assures us, Rice jets around, but we all know what’s coming. Grand Bargain, and leave your AMEX at home because ‘they only take the ISRACARD’ for payment where Rice is shopping.

Iran, unless we stop it ourselves now in the 4th quarter no less - will be a nuclear power and the fate of Israel will forever be altered. Is that what the big guy wanted? To be the President of the United States under a rising nuclear powered Islamic Jihad for generations to come?
I don’t believe it.

All Smiles

When he arrives we will smile, we will feel glad. The same gladness you feel when an old friend is seen after years apart. But deep down it will be hard to cover up the fact that right now the NIE may be talking in terms of high-confidence, but here in Israel our confidence in our stalwart ally is dropping faster than a stone. If you come George, do us all a favor and leave Dr. Rice at home.

Because will all her footsie playing, it has become clear we’re the pascal lamb, and worse her Arab friends have no qualms about spitting in her face and laughing all the way home at Israel’s expense. Maybe when they are here Rice can explain to us, and George why her partners in the Arab coalition, both the Egyptians & the Saudis have opened new warm relations with Iran in the last 48 hours, Saudi Arabia has invited Ahmadinejad to be their guest on the Haj, Pilgrimage to Mecca! The first Iranian President ever to be bestowed the honor. Egypt has opened relations for the 1st time since Saddat was assinated by Islamic Extremists.

Believe it.

Bush to take a Hands-On peace talk role (Jpost)
Israeli official: U.S. is not doing enough on Iran nukes (Haaretz)
‘Iran tested new missile during summit’ (Jpost)
Russia, Iran agree on plant completion (Jpost)

Update - Lieberman Quote:
“I have to correct the State Department,” Lieberman said. “They spoke about 300 housing units in Har Homa, but there are 3,000 on the way.”

Damn straight. The State of Israel does not stop growing on account of a world desire to eat Palestinian hay. Get your own damn barn. We’ve done our bit for peace.

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Lost your ticket to the big Peace Summit? Didn’t get the VIP invite?.. Don’t fret.

If peace is not your thing, and terror is your name of the game then the Palestinians are organizing just the thing for you, an anti-Annapolis war summit. This way all the terror groups can get on the same page regarding the next ’wave of resistance’.

Notice this summit takes place in EARLY November, because the Palestinians don’t just use terrorism after a move towards peace, they liberally employ it just before such a move too, so they need a few weeks grace ahead of the actual Annapolis Summit in order to properly prep the next big wave of Jew-Murder.

Guess who’s invited? Fatah! Yes looks like Israel’s ‘peace partner’ is being invited to BOTH conferences, pity Arafat is dead.. He’d love that sort of thing.

Via the MEMRI Blog

Palestinian Factions To Hold Conference As Alternative To Annapolis

Islamic Jihad deputy secretary-general Ziyad Al-Nakhaleh has said that the Palestinian factions will, in early November, hold a national conference paralleling the Annapolis Conference, in order to “expose and resist the American plan.”

He said that those invited to the conference, which is to be at a location outside the Palestinian Authority, will include representatives from all the Palestinian factions, including Fatah and independent national figures.

Source: Al-Quds, Jerusalem; Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London, October 8, 2007

Quick Update:
Possible Summit location chosen?

Maybe this is where they are planning to meet..

File Photo - IDF Press Office
An IDF soldier stands next to a Palestinian smuggling tunner near Rafah

Tags: Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Annapolis Summit, Peace Process

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