FREEMAN CENTER BROADCAST- October 11, 2009
For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest." Isaiah 62.
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FREEMAN CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES
P.O. Box 35661 * Houston, Texas 77235-5661
Phone or Fax: 713-723-6016 * E-mail: bernards@sbcglobal.net
P.O. Box 35661 * Houston, Texas 77235-5661
Phone or Fax: 713-723-6016 * E-mail: bernards@sbcglobal.net
OUR WEB SITE (URL): http://www.freeman.org
THE MACCABEAN ONLINE: URL:http://www.freeman.org/online.htm
THE MACCABEAN ONLINE: URL:http://www.freeman.org/online.htm
Freeman Center Blog http://www.freeman.org/serendipity/
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They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth. - Plato
"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see." -- Ayn Rand
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Ignorance Is Weakness - Know The Truth
Self-Inflicted Ignorance Is Suicide
The Freeman Center Is A Defense Against Ignorance
Self-Inflicted Ignorance Is Suicide
The Freeman Center Is A Defense Against Ignorance
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THERE IS NO MAGIC CURE FOR CONFLICT
ISRAELIS MUST BE PREPARED FOR A CONTINUOUS BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL
WE CAN NOT RESIGN FROM THIS STRUGGLE
WE CAN OT DEPEND ON ANY OTHER NATION
THIS IS OUR BATTLE - AND WE MUST FIGHT IT ALONE
WE WILL WIN BECAUSE OF OUR MIGHT AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
AND THE ALMIGHTY WILL BE BY OUR SIDE
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Security and Defense: Temple Mt. - a tinderbox of mixed interests
Oct. 8, 2009
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Nine years ago, after Ariel Sharon, then a candidate for prime minister, decided to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, violent demonstrations erupted. The civil unrest spread to the West Bank, with Palestinians citing the visit to justify an unprecedented wave of violence that quickly became known as the second intifada.
In 2007, the Jerusalem Municipality and Israel Antiquities Authority began rebuilding the Mughrabi Gate, one of the main entrances to the Temple Mount, perched next to the Western Wall. While violence was minimal, the renovation work - which was immediately suspended - drew international condemnation and a Muslim outcry.
This week, violence again broke out on the Temple Mount. The difference was that in this case, there was no purported Israeli "instigation" - no Sharon visit or renovations at the Mughrabi Gate. Instead, this time around, the violence was believed to be the result of a politically motivated campaign launched by Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch.
The security establishment believes that Salah is the main inciter behind the violence in Jerusalem. Israeli assessments perceive his motives to be twofold: He wants to posit himself as the leader of the entire Islamic Movement in Israel, and he is hoping that the publicity he created for himself this week will get Arab countries to open their pockets and donate to his organization.
The wave of violence did not come as a surprise to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), which is responsible for tracking radical elements in the Palestinian Authority and among Israeli Arabs. Several months ago, the agency warned the government that Salah and the Islamic Movement were planning to use Jewish visits to the Temple Mount to spark a fresh round of violence and increase tensions between Israel and the PA.
Salah is well known to Israeli intelligence agencies. In 2003, he was arrested on suspicion of raising millions of dollars for Hamas. He was released two years later in a deal that barred him from traveling abroad and required him to check in with a parole officer on a monthly basis.
In 2007 - two years after his release - Salah and the Islamic Movement in Umm el-Fahm launched the "Al-Aksa in Danger" campaign. Designed to fill the absence of a controversial trigger like Sharon's visit or the Mughrabi renovations, the campaign has garnered support by protesting routine visits by Jews - visits which do not include prayer - to the Mount.
The fear in the IDF is that the violence around Jerusalem will spread to other parts of Israel and the West Bank, particularly in light of Hamas's attempts to escalate the situation with vehement rhetoric out of Gaza.
The Shin Bet has already noted a slight increase in terror attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem during September, While the IDF and Shin Bet are reluctant to attribute the increase in incidents to a new popular uprising, continued Temple Mount violence could set things off.
The IDF Central Command has already drawn up plans in the event that the disturbances spread into Palestinian towns and cities, and defense officials said this week that the "real test" would be Friday morning at Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount.
"It depends a lot on what happens Friday," one official said. "If people are injured on Friday then the violence may escalate, but if things are quiet, then the violence may subside."
THE VIOLENCE in Jerusalem, defense officials stressed, was part of a larger political battle being fought between Fatah and Hamas over control of east Jerusalem neighborhoods in the event of a final peace agreement with Israel. While Hamas is forbidden to maintain a presence in Jerusalem, Salah and the Islamic Movement, the Shin Bet believes, have been serving as the terror group's front in the capital.
In 2007, the Shin Bet announced that it had foiled a Hamas attempt to take control of the Temple Mount. A year-long investigation by the agency uncovered Hamas efforts to dominate religious institutions on the site and to recruit Arabs in east Jerusalem.
Hamas, the investigation revealed, had invested millions of shekels in Jerusalem charities and religious institutions, as well as in construction on the Temple Mount, in an effort to bolster its presence and standing in the capital. One example was a large donation the Islamic group made to enlarge a library and several prayer halls in Solomon's Stables, as well as for the renovation of a public restroom on the holy site.
The Hamas activities on the Mount were coordinated with the Islamic Movement and included organizing events during Ramadan such as large-scale post-fast meals, with the purpose of recruiting support for Hamas and giving the organization a foothold on the site.
Hamas's attempts to gain that foothold have not been ignored by the PA, which views the situation as a battle over control of the future capital of an independent Palestinian state, if and when one is established.
But the PA has also had a hand in stoking the violence this past week. At a cabinet meeting on Monday, the PA government condemned what it called attempts by "radical Israeli settlers" to enter al-Aksa Mosque to hold prayer services. That same day, PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad convened a meeting with a group of foreign ambassadors and described the clashes as a "religious settler offensive on the Temple Mount."
Several months ago, Fayad appointed himself PA minister for Jerusalem affairs in place of the outgoing minister, who quit in protest of PA policy that he said was ignoring Jerusalem. At the time, Israel interpreted the move as Fayad's way of signaling just how important Jerusalem was for the Palestinian cause and the role it would play in a future state.
In one of his first moves in the position, Fayad announced that he was allocating NIS 50 million to bolster the PA's presence in Jerusalem by sponsoring cultural, religious and social activities in the city.
PA security personnel also operate inside the city in civilian clothes, and according to one well-informed observer, they have set up a small police force in the city alongside the Jerusalem Police. In some known cases, the IDF arrested some of the PA policemen who were operating illegally in Jerusalem.
By most assessments, the odds of the Jerusalem violence spreading and turning into a third intifada are slim. A combination of almost-daily IDF operations in the West Bank, the construction of the security barrier and the deployment in several West Bank cities of US-trained Palestinian battalions make it very difficult for Hamas or Islamic Jihad to lift their heads above the ground.
But that doesn't mean that they won't try.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1254861903315&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel, US to simulate response to war
Oct. 11, 2009
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
An IDF drill at Shizafon [illustrative].
Photo: IDF
Photo: IDF
Israel and the United States, amid growing tensions with Iran, will simulate interoperability between missile defense systems this week during the biennial Juniper Cobra missile defense exercise.
The exercise, set to simulate a response in the event of war between Israel, the Islamic republic, Syria and Hizbullah, will begin on Monday and end on Friday. More than 1,000 American troops from the European Command in Stuttgart, Germany have deployed in Israel for the exercise - mostly in the Negev - in addition to some 15 missile ships, some of them carrying the Aegis ballistic missile defense system.
Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, commander of the US Navy's Sixth Fleet, will oversee the exercise alongside senior officers from EUCOM and the US Missile Defense Agency. On the Israeli side, the commander of the exercise will be the new head of the Israel Air Force's Air Defense Division, Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish.
On Friday, Iranian cleric Mojtaba Zolnour, who is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in the Revolutionary Guard, said that if a US or Israeli missile lands in Iran, Iranian missiles will hit Israel in retaliation.
"Should a single American or Zionist missile land in our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel," Zolnour was quoted as saying by the state IRNA news agency.
In March, Iran's deputy army chief made similar remarks, warning that his country would eliminate Israel if it attacked the Islamic republic.
"Should Israel take any action against Iran, we will eliminate Israel from the scene of the universe," Gen. Muhammad Reza Ashtiani said at the time in Teheran.
Ashtiani claimed Israel was "very vulnerable" and dismissed allegations that Iran was worried about Israeli maneuvers.
"Due to its special conditions, Israel is very vulnerable in the region," he said. "The aggressors will face a crushing response."
The Juniper Cobra exercise will include the Arrow missile defense system as well as three American systems - the THAAD, Aegis and PAC-3 - that will all be deployed in Israel for the duration of the exercise.
The purpose of the exercise, defense officials said, was to ensure that if there were a need, the Israeli Arrow 2 ballistic missile defense system would be capable of working with American systems that might be deployed here to bolster Israeli defenses.
Israel is in the midst of developing a multi-layered missile system that starts with the Arrow for long-range missiles; the David's Sling for medium-range missiles, that is currently under development and will be operational in a few years; and the Iron Dome to counter short-range rockets, which will be deployed along the Gaza border in the coming year.
According to some media reports, Juniper Cobra will involve limited live fire from the Israeli and US defense systems. Israeli defense officials would not confirm the reports, but said that it was possible that, following the exercise, the US would decide to leave in Israel some of the systems, most likely the Patriot PAC-3 defense system.
Expectations in Israel are that the US will deploy several Aegis ballistic missile ships - which are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles - in the Mediterranean and Red seas. Israel is already home to the advanced X-Band radar that the Bush administration gave as a farewell gift last October.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1255204765487&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Turkey Forced to Cancel Drill After US, Italy Pull Out
Tishrei 23, 5770, 11 October 09 03:09
by Hana Levi Julian(Israelnationalnews.com) A multinational military drill has reportedly been cancelled due to Turkey's unwillingness to allow the Israel Air Force to participate in the exercise.
The cancellation came after the United States and other nations allegedly withdrew from the joint drill following Turkey's ban on Israel's participation.
The air force exercise, which has been held five times since June 2001, was to be hosted by Ankara and originally involved Turkey, Italy, the U.S., NATO forces and the IAF.
But Turkish military officials informed the IDF last week that the IAF was not welcome to fly in this week's "Anatolian Eagle" exercise due to the use of its planes during Israel's counterterrorism Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last winter.
The operation was launched by Israel on December 27, 2008 to end the thousands of rocket attacks fired at civilians living in towns and cities in Israel's southern region. It lasted until Janary 20, 2009.
Anatolian Eagle was slated to begin Monday, October 12, and continue through October 23.
According to a Jerusalem source, the United States and other members of NATO (North American Treaty Organization) expressed to Turkish officials their displeasure at the ban on Israel.
Turkey was forced to postpone the exercise indefinitely after the U.S. and Italy refused to take part without the IAF.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told Voice of Israel government radio on Sunday, however, that "Turkey has been, and remains an important strategic anchor in the Middle East, and certainly its relations with Israel are something that serve the entire region."
The Anatolian Eagle exercise, intended to improve international aerial cooperation, was hosted at the Konya air base, 250 kilometers south of Ankara. The aircraft trained over the plains of Anatolia (hence the name), near Turkey's borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq.
Israel and Turkey, which until last year enjoyed strong diplomatic, military and trade relations, have flown together over each other's territory in various joint military drills since the signing of a bilateral defense alliance between the two nations in 1996.
Formerly warm ties between Israel and Turkey have cooled considerably since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's harsh criticism of Israel's role in Operation Cast Lead.
Tensions between Turkey and Israel intensified in the wake of a harsh debate over the matter between Erdogan and President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland last January.
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