Israel quadruples Air Force
capability to 'strike thousands of terror targets' per day - http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/06/02/israel-preps-air-force-able-strike-thousands-terror-targets-per-day/
Israel's military has been preparing to significantly improve air combat capabilities.
The Israel Air Force expects to quadruple offensive capabilities by 2015. Military sources said the Air Force was preparing its fighter-jet and attack helicopter fleets to strike thousands of targets per day.
"In a single day, Israeli planes can strike thousands of terror targets and exceed the IDF's [Israel Defense Forces] achievements during extended operations," the military said.
[On June 2, Israel and Syria exchanged fire along the Golan Heights. There were no reports of injuries.]
In mid-May, Israel Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel said the military service was only second to the United States. Eshel told a security conference that Air Force capabilities rose drastically over the last two years.
"I believe our capabilities are only second to the United States - from both an offensive and defensive standpoint," Eshel said. "We have an unprecedented offensive capability, which allows us to accurately strike thousands of targets in one day. We have doubled our abilities twice in the past two years."
Eshel said his assessment was based on an Air Force study as well as talks with representatives of foreign militaries. He said the increasing firepower of the Air Force would enable Israel to defeat adversaries within days.
"The Air Force at the end of 2014, in less than 24 hours, can do what it did in three days during the Second Lebanon War [in 2006], and can do in 12 hours what it did in a week during Operation Pillar of Defense [in 2008],"
Eshel said. "Israel cannot afford lengthy attacks. We need to win quickly. A short time, in my opinion, is a few days. I do not believe in conducting long wars."
The sources said the Air Force also improved interoperability and firepower accuracy. They said the military service was also implementing a doctrine on how to control and limit the pace of war.
"What characterizes [our] air power is our ability to control its impact, and this is very important during incidents of combat between wars," Eshel said. "Everything is flexible and subject to change. This is the advantage of the Air Force: the ability to take the hammer that was made for wars and use it in a more limited capacity."
Netanyahu plans to counter US
acceptance of Palestinian unity by blocking West Bank elections
- http://www.debka.com/article/23968/Netanyahu-plans-to-counter-US-acceptance-of-Palestinian-unity-by-blocking-West-Bank-elections
The US and European decision to continue funding the Palestinians under their new, Hamas-backed government, is a landmark: For the first time, the US and Europe will be bankrolling an organization branded under their own laws as terrorist, as well as its armed militia, the Ezz e-Din al-Qassam, debkafile's counterterrorism sources note.
The structure of the Fatah-Hamas coalition government, sworn in by Mahmoud Abbas under prime minister Rami Hamdullah in Ramallah Monday, June 2, says it all: From that date, the Hamas regime ruling the Gaza Strip is dissolved and its prime minister Ismail Haniyeh and ministers step down. They are replaced by the government of reconciliation in Ramallah, which is henceforth responsible for ruling both territories, and running their public services, education, health, and law and order enforcement.
The Islamist Hamas ruled the Gaza for seven years after ousting Fatah in a coup. Now, to the relief of its rulers, it is able to shrug off the responsibility for scrounging for half a billion dollars a year to sustain the territory's 1.8 million inhabitants - especially now that Gaza is under siege by Egypt as well as Israel.
The people of Gaza will be fed, clothed, housed and educated with the help of the financial aid the US and EU have pledged the government in Ramallah. And Hamas is now free to devote its resources from other quarters to maintaining its own, autonomous security and militia branches - its tools of terror - numbering 20,000 serving and reserve personnel.
Those resources are provided by Qatar, Gulf tycoons, Iran and Hezbollah.
The Palestinian power-sharing deal has therefore maneuvered the Obama administration and European Union into supporting the efforts of Iran and fellow radicals for keeping Hamas alive as a viable operational arm, in keeping with Tehran's objectives - and in direct conflict with the interests of Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has found no answer to this dangerous development.
He commented Tuesday: "I'm deeply troubled by the announcement that the United States will work with the Palestinian government backed by Hamas, which has murdered countless innocent civilians." He then appealed to "all those who genuinely seek peace to reject President Abbas' embrace of Hamas... as simply unacceptable."
That appeal, much like Netanyahu's rhetoric on the Iranian nuclear issue, fell on deaf ears, because it was not backed by action. It only underscored the disarray in Israeli government circles over the international points Abbas had scored by healing the breach in the Palestinian movement.
Some ministers, led by right-wing members of Netanyahu's Likud and Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home, are saying that talk is not enough: Israel should hit back at Washington's willingness to do business with the Hamas-backed Palestinian regime by annexing settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.
However, the Netanyahu government set itself on course toward this blind alley in November 2012 when, instead of letting the IDF finish Operation Pillar of Defense to crush Hamas in the Gaza Strip after its decade-long missile campaign against Israel, the prime minister accepted a premature ceasefire, orchestrated by the US. He accepted the Hamas' inclusion in a US-led diplomatic process. That process was part of Barack Obama's grand design to establish a "moderate" Muslim bloc composed of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar and Turkey, that would form a bridge to the Palestinian Hamas.
Netanyahu's acceptance of this arrangement proved short-sighted: The Muslim Brothers no longer rule Egypt, the Qatar emir was ousted in a coup and Hillary Clinton may not even remember how she powered this short-lived process as Secretary of State.
But in Israel, the chickens came to roost. Mahmoud Abbas decided to take advantage of the plight of the radical Hamas. He also recognized that President Obama had never given up the hope of reconciling the two wings of the Palestinian movement. He gambled on the Hamas card and it paid off.
Netanyahu is left casting about for a strategy to even the score. He hopes his chance will come when elections to the Palestinian parliament and presidency come around in six months - that is if they take place on schedule and if the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation lasts that long.
He confided to his close advisers Tuesday, June 3, that he is determined not to let those elections take place and so repeat the mistake made by his predecessor Ehud Olmert, who permitted the vote, knowing that Hamas would sweep the board and seize control of the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip. Olmert acted under pressure from Washington. There is no guarantee that Netanyahu will behave any differently.
Palestinians create unity government
with Hamas terror group. Why is this a problem? - Joel C.
Rosenberg - http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/palestinians-create-unity-government-with-hamas-terror-group-why-is-this-a-problem/
U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace talks ended in April. Unfortunately, the Israelis and Palestinians did not make peace with each other. But in a development that surprised many, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank did make peace with the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
On Monday, the Palestinians announced a "unity" government comprised of the somewhat moderate Fatah movement and Hamas.
Why is this a problem?
Because Hamas is a radical terrorist organization. Its 1988 charter makes clear that it is an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood; forbids all peace talks; calls for the annihilation of Israel by armed, violent jihad; seeks to impose Sharia law on every man, woman and child in the Holy Land; and would force all Jews and Christians to convert to Islam or be branded an infidel and suffer.
Consider a few quotes from the Hamas Charter:
*The Preamble of the Hamas charter quotes Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood found Hassan al-Banna calling for the destruction of Israel: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
*Article Eight of the Hamas charter: "Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes."
*Article Eleven: "This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia (law) and the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Moslems consecrated these lands to Moslem generations till the Day of Judgment."
*Article Thirteen: "Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement....There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
*Article Thirteen: "When did the infidels do justice to the believers? 'But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah.' (from a section of the Qur'an known as, "The Cow," verse 120).
For now, Mahmoud Abbas will remain president of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.). But there is a new Prime Minister - Rami Hamdallah - a new cabinet, and many new questions about the implications of such an alliance.
The Israeli government immediately denounced the P.A.'s move, and urged the U.S. and other nations not to recognize or fund the new government.
"I call on all responsible elements in the international community not to run to recognize the Palestinian government of which Hamas is a part and which rests on Hamas," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel and the international community must not embrace it. This will not strengthen peace; it will strengthen terrorism."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) called for a suspension of U.S. financial aid to the Palestinians, which totaled about $440 million last year.
"President Abbas argues that the new government is composed of ministers without political affiliation, but this new government appears dependent upon Hamas and Hamas continues to support terrorism in its quest to destroy the state of Israel," Cantor said in a statement. "The burden lies with this new unity government to demonstrate in words and actions that it is truly independent of Hamas, that it rejects terrorism, and that it is committed to a peaceful two-state solution, including recognizing Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state."
A State Department spokesperson, however, said the Obama administration plans to continue funding the P.A.
Please pray:
*For true and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
*For salvation for all the leaders in the region through faith in Jesus Christ.
*For the Lord to change the hearts of the Hamas leaders away from jihad and Sharia law and towards true peace and reconciliation.
*For Palestinian Arab Christians to be strong and courageous and bold for Jesus Christ under a government partially led by Hamas.
*For wisdom for Palestinian pastors to know how best to preach the Word and shepherd the flocks under their care at this critical time.
Here are more details on the new unity government:
"Palestinians overcame last-minute squabbles to form a new 'government of national unity' Monday, backed by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which the United States and Israel have branded a terrorist organization," reports the Washington Post.
"The announcement of the transitional government, led by the moderate Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and with ministries run mostly by technocrats, represents a significant step toward ending a seven-year feud between the Palestinian political factions that separately control the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," the Post noted. "It also appears to skirt, barely, U.S. prohibitions on aid to a Palestinian government that has 'undue' Hamas presence or influence. The Obama administration had worked behind the scenes to suggest terms for the new coalition government that would not trigger the U.S. ban, reasoning that the money helps preserve American leverage."
"The reconciliation pact throws together two antagonistic camps with opposing visions: Hamas, the resistance movement that controls the Gaza Strip and does not recognize Israel, and the Palestine Liberation Organization and its political party, Fatah, which just concluded nine months of ultimately fruitless peace negotiations with Israel," added the Post. "Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and PLO leader, promised that the new government would continue a course of nonviolence. He said any peace talks with the Israelis would take place under the auspices of the PLO - not the interim government."
"Today we declare the end of the split and regaining the unity of the homeland," Abbas said in a recorded speech on Palestine TV. "This black page in our history has been closed forever."
"Left undecided for now is whether Hamas and its military wing will allow the new government to run the security forces in the Gaza Strip and whether Hamas would be allowed to operate more freely in the West Bank - permitted, for example, to stage mass rallies or run social programs, which the group is now banned from doing," the Post reported.
Palestinian unity government moves
forward while Israel and US equivocate - http://www.debka.com/article/23964/Palestinian-unity-government-moves-forward-while-Israel-and-US-equivocate-
US Secretary of State John Kerry stated after his Sunday night phone call to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) that the Obama administration would judge the Palestinian unity government, due to be sworn in Monday afternoon, June 2, by its deeds. Recognition would depend on the new regime recognizing Israel, upholding previously-signed Palestinian international undertakings and abstaining from terrorism and other violence.
Abbas sidestepped those commitments by assuring the Secretary that the new Palestinian ministers were appointed by him and they would conform to his wishes and policies.
Kerry must realize, after a year of being messed about in an abortive peace process, that Abu Mazen is a chameleon, apt to trot out different words and decisions as the moment takes him.
But how to explain the acceptance of this sliding scale by the Secretary of State and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and their equivocations in the face of the most outrageous Palestinian pretenses?
debkafile offers three possible explanations for their meekness:
1. John Kerry has chosen to put a brave face on the crash of his Middle East initiatives in late April and carry on as though his efforts may yet bring Israel and the Palestinians together for a peace accord - even though it is clear to the region and even Washington that the process is dead.
2. Netanyahu Sunday issued a dramatic call to the world not to recognize the new Palestinian unity government. "Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks Israel's destruction," he said. "Such a government would not bolster peace but strengthen terror." He added later that he couldn't understand how when terrorism raised its head in Europe, in the form of the vile murders at the Brussels Jewish Museum, there were European leaders who had friendly words for the Palestinian terrorists, Hamas.
The same night, another Palestinian rocket landed on the Israeli side of the Gaza border.
Later, the prime minister was quoted as telling the security cabinet that he had been assured that Washington would not extend "immediate" recognition to the new Palestinian government.
This phrasing betrayed Netanyahu's awareness that the Obama administration did not propose to put up a fight against dialogue with Hamas, notwithstanding its terrorist record.
Therefore, while condemning the Palestinian government of reconciliation and promising to cut off ties, the Israeli prime minister has not suspended the transfer of funds to Ramallah or abandoned cooperation with Palestinian security services.
And so, as Abu Mazen's new government goes forward, Israel's high rhetoric will lose its resonance.
3. debkafile's Washington and Jerusalem sources report that Washington did inform Jerusalem that it stands by a written US commitment not to recognize or cooperate with a Palestinian regime which has a Hamas component. It was first given in May 2011 by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and endorsed by her successor John Kerry at the outset of Israel-Palestinian peace talks last year.
Nonetheless, Netanyahu can't avoid seeing that the Obama administration is looking for a way to wriggle out of this pledge.
Hamas too, had to grapple with Abu Mazen's prevarications. It did so by staging a crisis every few hours up to the last minute before the final installment of the new government at 1 o'clock Monday.
The union, if it finally comes to be, will stand on shaky legs and be only skin deep.
Hamas has no intention of giving up its control of the Gaza Strip and subsuming its rule into the joint government, or of giving up its autonomous military arm, the Ezz e-Din Al-Qassam.
Even Palestinian daydreamers can't imagine Hamas and Fatah agreeing on conditions for holding free elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a new parliament and president to succeed Abbas.
Therefore, John Kerry, Binyamin Netanyahu, Abu Mazen and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh are all playing along with a political game, although even play-acting may have consequences when politicians are on the stage.
One is the postponement of the agonizing decisions the Israeli and Palestinian leaders would have been compelled to make for a peace accord. But the big winner is Hamas - which is why it is willing to put up with a lot - although it dug in its feet at the last moment over the office of Palestinian prisoners and demanded that all Palestinian security agencies declare war on "the Zionists."
By its reconciliation with Abbas' Fatah, this extremist Islamic group gains respect in Tehran and Moscow, after losing its allies in Damascus and Cairo, as well qualifying for international legitimacy without compromising its basic tenets and practices.
Israel to Permanently Deploy
Nuclear-Armed Submarines off Iran Coast - http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=22355
Preparing for the coming Psalm 83 war
"Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." Psalm 83
Jerusalem, Israel - Israel is to deploy three submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday. According to the Times report, one submarine had been sent over Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, and in the possession of Syria and Hezbollah, could be used to hit strategic sites within Israel, such as air bases and missile launchers.
Sunday Times quotes IDF official saying the 3 German-made long range submarines will gather intelligence, act as deterrent and potentially land Mossad agents.
Dolphin, Tekuma, and Leviathan, all German-made Dolphin class submarines of the 7th navy Flotilla, have been reported as frequenting the Gulf in the past, however, according to the Sunday Times report, this new deployment is meant to ensure a permanent naval presence near the Iranian coastline.
A flotilla officer told the Times that the deployed submarines were meant to act as a deterrent, gather intelligence and potentially to land Mossad agents. "We're a solid base for collecting sensitive information, as we can stay for a long time in one place," the officer said.
The flotilla's commander, identified only as "Colonel O," was quoted by the Times as saying that the submarine force was "an underwater assault force. We're operating deep and far, very far, from our borders."
.
The submarines could be used if Iran continues its program to produce a nuclear bomb. "The 1,500km range of the submarines' cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran," a navy officer told the Times.
Apparently responding to the reported Israeli activity, an Iranian admiral told the Times: "Anyone who wishes to do an evil act in the Persian Gulf will receive a forceful response from us."
Last July, defense sources reported that an Israeli submarine had sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea last month, describing the unusual maneuver as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.
Israel has long kept its three Dolphin-class submarines, which are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles, away from Suez so as not to expose them to the gaze of Egyptian harbormasters.
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