That’s what Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Saad al-Harir, claimed may be in the works today in an interview with the BBC in which he accused Israeli aircraft of repeatedly violating Lebanese air space on a daily basis:
“We hear a lot of Israeli threats day in and day out, and not only threats,” Hariri told the BBC. “We see what’s happening on the ground and in our air space and what’s happening all the time during the past two months — every day we have Israeli war planes entering Lebanese air space,” he said.
“This is something that has been escalating, and this is something that is really dangerous,” Hariri said in a video posted on the BBC’s web site.
The BBC quoted Hariri as saying he feared the prospect of another war with Israel.
Last month Syria also accused Israel of pushing the region toward war to which the foreign Minister of Israel responded with threats that Israel would easily defeat the Syrians in any conflict and that the current ruler President Bashar al-Assad would suffer the fate of regime change. Prime Minister Netanhayu later stated that Israel wants peace and not war with Syria, but clearly not everyone in his cabinet is willing to reject bellicose rhetoric against its neighbors.
Certainly that is the view of Hamas leader in exile, Khaled Meshal, which was reported by Yeshiva World News on Monday:
“I don’t see any chance of advancing on the Palestinian, Syria, or Lebanese fronts because the Israeli leadership is one of war, violence and occupation, not one that exhibits a desire for peace”.
The terrorist leader made his statements to the ITAR-TASS News Agency during a visit to Russia. […]
It should be noted that it was Meshal who was targeted in an assassination attempt during Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s first tenure, about a decade ago. While the Mossad never officially accepted responsibility, the apprehension of two ‘Mossad agents’ in Jordan resulted in a diplomatic row, compelling Netanyahu to send the antidote for the pharmacological agent injected into Meshal, thereby saving his life.
I suppose if I had been the target of assassination attempts for which Israel tacitly admitted responsibility when it provided medical assistance in the form of an antitdote to the poison injected into me, and the same person who led Israel at that time was its leader again, I might have a dim view of Israel’s intentions. One thing we do know is that there has been next to no movement on any peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians despite the election of President Obama.
And the Arab media in the region is reporting that Israeli Missile ships moved from the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal earlier this month, presumably destined for the Persian Gulf, reports that the conservative news website, Right Side News is taking seriously:
Reports are coming out of the Arab Media that two Israeli “Missile Boats” passed through the Suez Canal, on February 6th, enroute to the Red Sea. Speculation is that the ultimate destination is, in fact, the Persian Gulf.
The website Strategy Page also has made this same claim regarding the movemnt of Israeli warships to the Persian Gulf, based on reports from Egypt, which allegedly allowed Israel’s Navy free passage through the Suez Canal:
February 10, 2010: Egyptians reported that two Israeli warships passed through the Suez canal recently. The two ships are believed headed for the Persian Gulf, where Israeli ships have been mapping the local waters, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy.
For years, Egypt would not allow Israeli submarines to pass through the Suez canal. But last June, an Israeli submarine went through the Suez canal and conducted naval exercises in the Red Sea. Israel said that the sub would not be stationed in the Red Sea, but would return to its Mediterranean base. There were reports that an Israeli missile boat passed through the canal last Summer as well.
Those reports in the Egyptian press also claim the United States military has been conducting “extensive maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, including some across Iran’s shores.” The information is sourced to “senior Egyptian” officials. This information is possibly being being “leaked” to the public at this time as a means to pressure Iran. Iran’s government recently announced its intent to enrich uranium to the 19.75% level in order to produce medical isotopes, a move condemned by the US Secretary of Defense Gates:
“I think that everybody’s interest is in seeing this issue resolve without resorting to conflict. But it makes it all the more important,” he said. “We have to face the reality that if Iran continues and develops nuclear weapons it almost certainly will provoke proliferation in the Middle East. That’s a huge danger.”
This all may be a grand Kabuki show of saber rattling by Iran (for domestic political purposes where the political opposition is once again planning massive street protests) in which the US Government and Israel have chosen to play a role. Their actions certainly fit the pattern of the “stick” in the “carrot and stick” approach to Tehran which the Obama administration has been pursuing under Secretary of State Clinton for some time now.
But the warning signs are getting more and more ominous that the Israel’s “dogs of war” may slip the leash of its presumed handler, the US government, and attack one of its neighbors in the near future, if only to show its Middle Eastern neighbors that it remains the predominant military force in the region and can act with impunity regardless of whether a Republican or Democrat occupies the seat in the Oval Office.
It would not surprise me one bit.
In my Magical Pony land, I’d love to see Obama go directly to the UN and introduce a resolution of condemnation when the Israelis start their next war.
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The landscape in the Middle East is now one of increasingly interdependent crises. Tensions have heightened, if not spread out in a “arc of crisis” extending from Iran and Afghanistan to Lebanon through Iraq, Syria and the Palestinian Territories.
Biden: Israel has ‘sovereign right’ to attack Iran
The plan of attack is well prepared, Israel will be thankful and cooperate for a two-state solution, bantustan style. Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize well deserved, and again on speaking terms with the US strongest ally in the ME. The Iraq War deficit created for the Sunnis will be well compensated by the Iran attack. The House of Saud will express their $$$ gratitude.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Obama is now so in retreat from Cairo that it is conceivable that Netanyahu, who now dominates Obama and the Executive (again; Congress of course is in the bag as always), is calling the shots. He is the person to watch on Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.
It is my own feeling that Lebanon is the likely first target, given that Hezbollah whipped the IDF in that mano a mano fight in 2006, when Israel slaughtered 1,200 mostly civilian southern Shiite Lebanese with artillary and airpower. Bush remarked at the time, something to the effect that sometimes you have to kick some ass to show who’s boss. Well, that was not the impression Hezbollah came away with, nor most others.
It might be mentioned the Opeation Summer Rains against Gaza civilians went on at the same time. That was more successful. 600 mostly civilian Palestinians were killed in that operation. In fact, if one goes back to the first Lebanon invasion by Sharon in 1982 when 20,000 mostly civilian Lebanese and Palestinians were killed, one would have to say that the Israeli armed forces are at their best against civilians.
Um, what does the POTUS have to do with other peoples deciding to settle their irreconcilable differences? Put another way, how about this:
The idea of Israel – or any other nation – as America’s dog on a leash is fairly offensive to my thinking.
Hariri responds further, reported by Hareetz this morning:
Over the last few years, there have been reports of Hezbollah moving toward greater representation in the Lebanese government. Given the extensive damage and loss of life from Israel’s 2006 attack, I suspect that such statements by Hariri reflect a “not again” attitude toward the Israelis, and that the next time, the Lebanese army will be a player.
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It wasn’t Syria, so which state possessed the sophistication to murder the Lebanese PM Hariri by a massive bomb? Israel has been on its ordinary spree of extrajudicial killings and most recently in Dubai. Obama couldn’t make a fist in the legislative process in Congress due to a split Democratic party, apparently his administration is also divided in doves and hawks. Gates and Clinton are pushing the envelop on Iran and a pro-Israel stance. The failure of the Clinton years all over again, worsened by an economic downturn
“We admire America not only for its dynamism, and for its power, and for its wealth.
We admire America for its moral force. As Jews and as Israelis, we are proud that this
moral force is derived from the Bible and the precepts of morality that the Jewish
people have given the world.”
Speech PM Netanyahu before US Congress in 1996
Translation of policy in his speech:
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
“while we continue to settle the occupied lands…”
Wasn’t it a previous Likud PM, Shamir, who said (not exact) that “we can keep them (Palestinians) in autonomy talks for ten years, in the meantime put a half million settlers in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria)”? I think it was. Nothing has changed. It is all about taking Eretz Israel, all else is nothing more than cover, distractions, including assassinations.
Reading the Israeli newpapers also indicates that there is an escalation in Arab arrest, digging around the Temple Mount, building in E. Jerusalem/West Bank, bombings in Gaza, arresting peace activists, and killing more Arabs…..so ya, the more Obama pushes for a two state solution in 2 years, the more chance for war. Maybe they can even get more land to settle.
Obama has been weakened to the point that Israel no longer need worry itself about him. So they are acting accordingly.
http://www.lobelog.com/?p=550&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A
+Lobelogcom+%28Jim+Lobe%27s+Blog%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
AND:
Religious Lunatic Threatens To Wipe Entire Nation Off Map
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/02/religious-looney-threatens-to-wipe-entire-nation-off
-map.html
Israel’s carrots for “peace” are always new wars against countries they can’t control. We took out Saddam for them, and they did not budge a bit.
“Amalek” is the enemy whose only interest is your extermination – negotiate with him if you like, his bottom line never changes…
I do believe it was Amalek land the hebrew speaking people were after.
The Amalekites were nomads – there was no such thing as Amalek land. Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, or Jebusite land? Yep.
But not Amalekite.
Right….no such thing as Palestinian either, right.
So why the need for ethnic cleansing??
If a people’s only intention is to ethnically cleanse your people and they cannot be dissuaded from that course of action then you have roughly three options: surrender/suicide, perpetual conflict, ethnic cleansing. Is there a fourth option that I missed?
I guess you justify ethnic cleansing.
If every man, woman and child of a people-group swore to ethnic cleanse me and mine then that would be a fairly easy decision – I’m not big on suicide or perpetual conflict.
I guess you can now see what the Palestinians feel like.
Much the same way that they felt under Jordanian and Egyptian rule, I’m sure.
“Because we took the land this gives us the image of being bad, of being aggressive. The Jews always considered that the land belonged to them, but in fact it belonged to the Arabs. I would go further: I would say the original source of this conflict lies with Israel, with the Jews – and you can quote me.”
– Yehoshofat Harkabi, former Israeli Chief of Military Intelligence, in “Peace Won’t be a Plane Ticket to Cairo”; International Armed Forces Journal, October 1973, p.30.
Great blog, I recommend it to you.
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/02/quote-of-the-week-yehoshofat-harkabi.html
If the context is the West Bank and Gaza then I don’t think there’s any debate there – that land did indeed belong to the Arabs. They lost that land when they massed troops and tanks to invade Israel again in 1967 in yet another failed attempt to “push Israel into the sea.” Naturally, the Palestine Liberation Organization had been founded three years before Egypt and Jordan ceded Gaza and the West Bank to Israel – and one wonders why Israel looks askance at yet another Partner For Peace™…
what are the prospects for a new Arab coalition to come together like in 1967 or 1973 and try to invade Israel? Israel doesn’t need the land they won for defense. They keep it because it’s too politically painful to give it up.
The prospects of a coalition invading them are indeed pretty slim, no doubt, but I certainly understand when a people say “Never Again!” and mean it – we’re not exactly returning Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California any time soon either. The political pain for Israel is about the same today as it was in ’67 – the left wanted/wants to give it back, the right wanted/wants to annex and depopulate it, and neither could or can force their will upon the other so they compromised – occupation, an option that hasn’t worked well in all of recorded history as far as I know.
That said, I don’t blame Israel for the plight of the Palestinians – I don’t think things were much different for Palestinian Arabs under the authority of the Egyptians and Jordanians, or the British before them, or the Ottomans before them.
well, that’s kind of a cop-out if you ask me. I might have blown off the plight of blacks in South Africa by arguing that blacks hadn’t been much better off In America until 1965. I also think it’s more onerous to be a subject of an occupying power that doesn’t share your religion and culture. So, Palestinian Christians might have felt pretty oppressed by the Ottomans, I doubt Muslims felt that anywhere near as oppressed by them as they do by the Israelis.
While it’s true that Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon have never treated their Palestinian refugees very well, I don’t think that excuses Israel. They, after all, created those refugees.
As an American, my view is that we pay a price for supporting Israel, and we ought to demand in return that they make the hard decisions to create a viable Palestinian state. We can assure their territorial integrity and security against any reprise of the 1967 or 1973 wars, and the threat of terrorism will diminish for both Israel and for us if a viable state is granted.
I know it’s politically difficult, but it would be easier if America could get organized to make Israel do what they can’t seem to do on their own. Part of that is for Israel to stop using its influence over our politics to prevent us from making them do what they can’t do themselves.
In any case, I can’t support the status quo for both moral and practical reasons.
Obama is not ‘weak’ when it comes to international affairs. Plus nobody knows what Obama is saying to the main players behind closed doors. Obama’s standing and respect among foreign leaders would be a reason for Israel to want him gone ASAP.
One of the main goals of an Israeli attack on a neighbor would be an attempt TO weaken Obama. For some insane reason Israel is more comfortable with a neo con as POTUS.
The point of Israel’s actions is to weaken a POTUS they feel is too respected.
Frankly, I find talk of Obama being ‘weak’, either internationally or on domestic policy to be silly and uninformed, said by people either with an agenda or not paying attention. It’s the Senate and the media that is ‘weak’, or even broken.
The rest is village and republican talking points.
nalbar
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Must disagree with you on this one. I had great expectations of Obama. I must admit he lacks courage in the Office of President, the most powerful position on earth. Great similarity as was seen between Bush and Sharon, coordinating an established Neocon policy in Middle East. Iran nuclear threat first priority, negotiations for a bantustan Palestinian state afterwards. Jordan Valley to remain part of (occupied) Israel’s homeland.
(WaPo) May 19, 2009 – Obama has endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as the best way to establish peace between it and other Arab nations, only two of which currently recognize the Jewish state. After two hours of talks at the White House, Obama said Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states must do more to achieve regional peace, making clear that “when it comes to my policies towards Israel and the Middle East that Israel’s security is paramount.”
Netanyahu, who took office in March at the head of a fragile and sharply hawkish governing coalition, declined to endorse Obama’s call for a two-state solution to the conflict. He made clear that his interest in checking Iran’s nuclear ambitions is far greater than his desire to revive dormant peace negotiations with a divided Palestinian leadership.
See my earlier comment and reference to Netanyahu’s speech to US Congress in 1996.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Nah, I think his domestic agenda is what is superseding any strong efforts against Israel. It’s something I long suspected, especially around last summer, and Luce’s FT article basically confirmed it.