GOING ON OFFENSIVE TO EXPOSE WORLD HYPOCRISY VS. ISRAEL!
by Eli Stutz

If you heard about an attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in which hundreds of civilians were killed, would you assume that the attack had been perpetrated by Israel? According to Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, you very likely would – and you’d be wrong.

In an op-ed that appears today in the Wall Street Journal, Deputy Minister Ayalon had harsh words for an international community which berates Israel for its actions, while ignoring similar actions by other countries in a multitude of conflicts.

Vividly describing a brutal attack on a Palestinian refugee camp where 500 people were killed, Ayalon writes, “While most will assume that the events described above took place in the West Bank or Gaza, they actually took place in Lebanon in the summer of 2007, when Palestinian terrorists attacked the Lebanese Army, which struck back with deadly force.”

Ayalon highlights the fact that when Israel is not involved, the world is silent. “At the time, there was little international outcry,” he writes. “No world leader decried the ‘prison camps’ in Lebanon. No demonstrations took place around the world; no U.N. investigation panels were created and little media attention was attracted. In fact, the plight of the Palestinians in Lebanon garners very little attention internationally.”

According to Ayalon, there are more than 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon, lacking basic resources and deprived of their rights. And therefore, he writes, “It is the height of irony that a Lebanese flotilla is organizing to leave the port of Tripoli in the next few days to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza.”

Ayalon goes on to expose the truth about Gaza, that instead of being a poverty-stricken region with a major humanitarian crisis, its markets are actually brimming with food. “This is the same Gaza that just opened a sparkling new shopping mall that would not look out of place in any capital in Europe. Gaza, where a new Olympic-sized swimming pool was recently inaugurated and five-star hotels and restaurants offer luxurious fare.”

All this comes to expose the hypocrisy of the flotilla missions, says Ayalon. “Whether it is from Turkey, Ireland or Cyprus, those that participate in these flotillas reek of hypocrisy.”

Ayalon’s senior advisor, Ashley Perry, explained Ayalon’s motivation for the article to Israel National News. “The purpose was to expose the hypocrisy of many of the so-called human rights activists who try to single out our conflict and Israel from the many conflicts around the world,” said Perry.

“The flottila exposes something we aways knew, but just makes it more obvious. The Lebanese perpetrated injustices against its own Palestinians, and have left them in second class status. It really exposes the hypocrisy of the whole flotilla exercise.”

Ayalon and Foreign Minister Avigdor Leiberman have stated in recent months that now is the time for Israel to stop being defensive and to go on the offensive when it comes to international PR. Ayalon’s piece in the Wall Street Journal appears to be a step in that direction.

AL-QAEDA CREATING AN ARMY IN YEMEN!
by Maayana Miskin
(Arutz Sheva News)

The heads of Al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed Thursday to be creating an army in the country’s south. In an audio recording posted online, terrorist commander Mohammed Sayeed al-Omda said Al-Qaeda will soon have a fighting force of 12,000 soldiers based in the cities of Aden and Abyan.

Omda issued a threat to continue attacking Yemeni troops. “This is a message to the Yemeni government forces and National security service: Our swords are ready and we are going to cleanse the land,” he declared.

Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for two fatal attacks on government targets in Yemen since June, and is suspected of being behind an additional two attacks in the same period. The international terrorist group accuses the Yemeni government of joining with “crusaders” and killing Muslims in the battle against insurgent groups.

Al-Qaeda poses a real and immediate threat to the Yemeni government, according to United States Marine Corp General James Mattis, who is charged with heading US forces in the region. At his nomination hearing Tuesday Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Yemen has been pushed “to the breaking point.”

Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh has dealt with crises “through negotiation and by co-opting his opponents,” Mattis said, adding “there are signs his ability to exert control is waning.”

Mattis listed Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan as the locations from which come the greatest threat from Al-Qaeda and its affiliate groups. The greatest threat lies in tribal regions of Pakistan “as those are strategic footholds for Al-Qaeda and its senior leaders,” he said.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS GIVING GREEN LIGHT FOR ISRAELI STRIKE ON IRAN!
by Gil Ronen
(IsraelNationalNews)

Nearly one third of the Republican congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a resolution that would support Israel’s right to use “all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran”, including military force.

The resolution was introduced by Rep. Louie Gohmert [R-Texas] and 46 co-sponsors.

House Resolution 1553 “condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its threats of ‘annihilating’ the United States and the State of Israel, for its continued support of international terrorism, and for its incitement of genocide of the Israeli people.”

It “supports using all means of persuading the Government of Iran to stop building and acquiring nuclear weapons” and pledges that the U.S. will ensure that Israel “continues to receive critical economic and military assistance, including missile defense capabilities, needed to address the threat of Iran.”

In addition, it “expresses support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran, defend Israeli sovereignty, and protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within a reasonable time.”

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a pro-Iranian lobby group, is up in arms over the proposed resolution.

“Obviously we are reaching silly season in Washington with the elections in November,” NIAC’s founder-president Trita Parsi told RN, a news venue that focuses on Russian issues. He added that “there have already been some signs that Israel is going to be a major element that some Republicans will use to get both voters as well as finance, donations to campaigns, away from the Democrats.”

However, Parsi said, “even silly season has real repercussions on the real world.” The resolution would send “a dangerous signal” to Israel, that some in congress would welcome military action by it against Iran, while the White House and U.S. military oppose such a strike, he argued.

NIAC’s website warned that the “game plan” behind HR 1553 was spelled out earlier this month by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton in the Wall Street Journal, when he wrote: “Having visible congressional support in place at the outset of an attack will reassure the Israeli government, which is legitimately concerned about Mr. Obama’s likely negative reaction to such an attack.”

“The Obama Administration quietly resisted Congressional efforts to pass unilateral economic sanctions for over a year, before ultimately giving in to Congressional pressure,” NIAC wrote. “Now that ‘crippling’ sanctions have been put in place, the far-right wing and Iran-hawks have begun openly advocating for what has always been their ultimate objective: war with Iran.”

NIAC warned that an attack on Iran would ignite a regional war that would put the lives of “innocent Americans, Iranians, and Israelis” in harm’s way, as well as risking the pro-democracy movement in Iran, U.S. national security and the stability of Iraq and Afghanistan and the global economy, which relies on oil from the Persian Gulf.

NIAC denies allegations that it is used as a tool by the Iranian regime, citing its condemnations of human rights abuses in Iran.

WAGING WAR MORALLY
By Jerusalem Post Editorial

Refraining from war against evil is truly immoral.

The ravages of the Afghanistan war were displayed for all to see. Tens of thousands of documents, most of them descriptions made by lower-ranking servicemen of specific incidents that took place between January 2004 and December 2009, detailed the day-today realities confronted by the coalition forces in Afghanistan.

There was the duplicity of Pakistan, suspected of receiving aid from the US and other coalition countries, while at the same time providing Taliban forces with vital support. There was the widespread corruption of Afghanistan’s officials and police, which prevented funds earmarked for orphanages, hospitals and other humanitarian needs from reaching their destination.

But what received the most Israeli media coverage – because of the pertinence to Israel’s battles against Hamas and Hizbullah – were the extensive reports of civilian deaths caused by coalition forces.

Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, who this week made public the 91,000 secret, sensitive US military documents on the war in Afghanistan, said at a press conference on Sunday, “It is up to a court to decide clearly whether something is, in the end, a crime. That said, on the face of it, there does appear to be evidence of war crimes in this material.”

Assange did not seem too concerned about the possible criminality of his own decision to leak documents that could endanger coalition forces operating in Afghanistan.

Were Judge Richard Goldstone to look into the incidents of civilian deaths detailed in the paperwork, he would probably agree with Assange. Judging from Goldstone’s verdict on Israel during Operation Cast Lead, as detailed in his UN report, he would all but ignore the Taliban’s use of Afghanistan’s civilians as human shields, while incriminating the US, Britain and the other coalition forces for perpetrating war crimes such as disproportionate collateral damage.

In fact, applying Goldstone’s ethical standards would effectively rule out the possibility of warfare of any kind against foes like the Taliban.

“When you send a lot of soldiers to a place like Afghanistan inevitably there will be some civilian casualties,” Prof. Asa Kasher, an internationally renowned expert on military ethics and author of the IDF’s moral code, noted in response to the Wikileaks material. In other words, it is impossible to launch a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, or for that matter, against Hamas in Gaza, without committing what Goldstone and other human rights activists would consider to be “war crimes.”

According to Kasher, Israel’s rules of engagement are utterly ethical and essentially the same as those of all other western countries, including the US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and other coalition countries fighting in Afghanistan. Professionalism, another important factor in maintaining a high ethical standard, is also equivalent.

So if Israel’s actions in Gaza were judged to be illegal, so would the coalition’s in Afghanistan.

The implications of Goldstone’s thinking are far-reaching – and not just for Israel – as the leaked documents underline.

Were his parameters accepted, they would mean that Israel, unable to engage in warfare with Hamas without causing civilian casualties, would have to refrain from defending itself altogether. Instead, it would have to rely on diplomacy with an organization that refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist. Doing nothing to protect residents of Sderot and other settlements near Gaza from the constant barrage of Kassam missiles is, apparently, not immoral.

Meanwhile, the US, Britain and the other coalition forces would have to give up their war against the Taliban and Al-Qaida, launched after 9/11. Religious extremism would be free to run rampant, murderously settling scores against those who cooperated with the coalition forces in the hope of ushering in a freer society – women who removed the burqa, politicians who pushed for democracy and freedom, and educators who hoped to supplement the Koran with math, science and literature.

But morality does not demand submission to terrorists and violent religious extremists. Terrible things happen in war, including the unavoidable deaths of civilians.

But refraining from waging war against evil, or defending what is good, is a betrayal of the human obligation to champion freedom.

That would be truly immoral.

PA GOVERNMENT SHAKEUP PLANNED NEXT WEEL!
by Hana Levi Julian
(Arutz Sheva News)

The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority is allegedly headed for a major shakeup next week; Prime Minister Salam Fayyad may be tasked with forming a new government.

Fatah parliament speaker Azzam Al-Ahmad told the Bethelehem-based Ma’an news agency on Tuesday that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is conducting talks with all of the PA factions in Judea and Samaria to discuss the structure of the new government.

However, although Abbas is setting up the structure of the new government, it is Fayyad, or possibly “another politician” that will be tasked with forming a new coalition, according to Al-Ahmad.

He added that regardless of who becomes Prime Minister or what the composition of the new government will be, it will “remain affiliated to Fatah” and “strictly follow Fatah party policies.”

New PA government elections were originally scheduled for January, but were postponed by Abbas, who rescheduled the polls for early June, and then reportedly deferred them indefinitely. Likewise the current government shakeup, which was first considered in February, according to media reports, and then again proposed by Fayyad in April just before the launch of indirect talks with Israel.

Fayyad: Future Leader or Victim?

Fayyad, who majored in economics during his university years in the United States, also worked for the World Bank and has built a network of contacts that has served him well in the global arena.

He was hand-picked by the Bush administration to build the PA government’s economic and administrative infrastructure in hopes of preparing it to accept the responsibility of national leadership, should a final status agreement be inked with Israel.

However, Fayyad is not a member of Fatah – in fact, he is an independent, and not necessarily subject to the whims of the “old guard” that surrounds Abbas and his cronies, a status that might eventually cost him his life.

According to a senior PA intelligence agent recently quoted by Arab activist and writer Fadi Elsalameen, there are elements in both Fatah and the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist organization that are quietly plotting to kill the PA Prime Minister.

The agent, identified only as “J,” explained to Elsalameen, “Fatah wants the Ministry of Finance, and Fayyad refuses and threatens to resign every time they bring this up. No one has loyalty to him.”

The writer, who runs the PalestineNote.com web site, observed, “The fact that Fatah and Hamas could disagree on every national agenda item, but agree on the elimination of Fayyad, is sinister and telling. If Palestine is to be established as a legitimate state, dirty backroom dealings to squeeze out an inflexible political element must come to an end.”

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BINYAMIN NETANYAHU AND JORDANIAN KING ABDULLAH CONDUCT RARE AND SECRET MEETING!
(IsraelNationalNews)

The two hour long meeting was not made public until after its conclusion and was described by the Prime Minister as “very positive”.

During the meeting, Netanyahu told Abdullah that Israel believes it is time for direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and expressed his belief that such negotiations are also in the interest of all moderate Arab countries. King Abdullah said during the conversation that peace is the only way in which to achieve security and stability and as such called for all unilateral moves to that delay peace to end.

Speaking of his meeting with the Jordanian king at the site of the National Security College’s graduation ceremony in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said: “We must have peace agreements that include a solution to the threats against us, because we do not want to repeat what happened when we withdrew from Lebanon and got an Iranian military base in the north, and we do not want to have what happened in Gaza, where a southern Iranian enclave was created with increasing armament.”

The two leaders also discussed ways for Israel and Jordan to cooperate in the fields of economy, energy, and transportation. Of particular significance was their discussion of collaboration between the two countries that would see a railroad linking Eilat, Aqaba and Ashdod.

“I told the king of Jordan that we are going to connect the State of Israel with a network of roads and trains, and that we are starting to build a valley train from Haifa to the Jordan Valley,” said Netanyahu. King Abdullah said, “We are also building a train to the same area, let’s connect.”

Tuesday’s meeting was not the first surprise meeting between the two leaders. In May 2009, Netanyahu paid a surprise visit to Jordan. During that meeting, Abdullah demanded that Netanyahu “immediately declare his commitment to a two-state solution, declare acceptance of the Arab peace initiative and to take necessary steps to move forward toward a solution.” He also said that Israel must open all crossings into Gaza.

In the past year, the Jordanian king has voiced some anti-Israel remarks. Last May, he warned that following discussions with US President Barack Obama that war will break out within 18 months if Israel does not accept the Saudi Arabian 2002 Peace Plan. In April of this year, the king warned that the status of Jerusalem could blow up into another war and stated that Jordan was better off economically before it made peace with Israel in 1994. He also said at the time: “I think the long-term future of Israel is in jeopardy unless we solve our problems. Fifty-seven countries in the world, a third of the United Nations, do not recognize Israel. In a way, I think North Korea has better international relations than Israel.”

Netanyahu summarized Tuesday’s meeting by saying that Jordan has a great significance in promoting peace and that King Abdullah constitutes an essential factor of the process to achieve peace.

BARAK WARMS ISRAEL WILL ATTACK LEBANON IF HIZBULLAH STARTS WAR!
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(Arutz Sheva News)

Israel will consider Lebanese government buildings and bases a target if Hizbullah starts up another war against Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Monday.

The Defense Minister revealed that then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Ehud Olmert, when he was Prime Minister in 2006 and asked him not to touch what Barak called the “precious government” of Beirut.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post, Defense Minister Barak added, “We didn’t attack it. I think that they’re responsible for what happens, and if it happens that Hizbullah will shoot into Tel Aviv, we will not run after each Hizbullah terrorist or launcher of some rocket in all Lebanon. We’ll see the government of Lebanon responsible for what happens, and for what happens within its government, its body politic, and its arsenal of munitions. And we will see it as legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese State, not just to the Hizbullah.”

Barak also warned the United States “that the walls between the Lebanese armed forces and Hizbullah—it’s quite porous. And whatever you give the Lebanese armed forces might end up in the hands of Hizbullah, be it technology or weapons or whatever. “The Obama Administration recently announced it is giving the Beirut government $100 million in military aid.

Barak also admitted—perhaps for the first time publicly—that his order in 2000 for a sudden pullout of Israeli forces from Lebanon enabled Hizbullah to prepare for war against Israel.

“We pulled out and ended up with an area full of rockets and missiles,” he admitted. “We did it next in Gaza and ended up with an area full of rockets covering Tel Aviv as well as other parts of the south and half of Israel. And within the framework of considering an agreement with the Palestinians that will establish a Palestinian State side by side with Israel, we should make clear that the three underlying principles of our security are fully assured, namely the West Bank will not become like Gaza and southern Lebanon, another launching pad for rockets against the coastal plain of Israel.”

The Defense Minister is currently in Washington, and he said that he will be talking with the U.S. Defense Department and military officials about American arms sales to Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia.

“There are considerations in Washington about moving forward with major deals with our neighbors and we want to make sure that we are in an understanding with the Obama Administration.

“We understand the American need, under the strategy of the Administration, to kind of strengthen the moderate Arab countries facing the same threat from hegemonic Iran. But, at the same time, we have a tradition of understanding with following administrations to keep Israel’s superiority in weapons’ systems and munitions.”

The Defense Minister also will discuss the prospective purchase of the advanced F-35 fighter jet. Reports last week indicated that the sale was imminent. Barak said, “We will have to make the final decisions in relatively short time,” but he pointed out that Israel needs “to be able to participate in production of some parts in our industry as well as making sure that we can continue keeping our real military edge.”

Turning to Iran, the Defense Minister said that the United States and Israel are closer than ever to sharing the same diagnosis unlike the previous situation whereby the NIE [National Intelligence Estimate] declared three years ago that Iran has suspended its quest for nuclear weapons.

“I think that basically it’s still time for sanctions. Probably at a certain point we should realize that sanctions cannot work,” he said.

OBAMA WARNS ABBAS: “START TALKS OR ELSE!”
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(IsraelNationalNews)

A secret 36-page memo based on Obama Administration statements indicates that the President warned Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to start direct talks with Israel or risk losing American support for the recognition of the PA as a country.

The Associated Press reported it has possession of the document, under the letterhead of the Palestinian Negotiations Department and which indicates the warning came from President Barack Obama via U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell.

It shows that the Obama Administration has resigned itself to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remaining head of Israel’s coalition government. “Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is not in political danger of being replaced,” the document states.

It adds that Abbas is under pressure from both the Arab world and within the PA, whereby his consent to direct talks with Israel would be “political suicide” for him. However, the document warns, “Abbas needs to accept direct talks now if he wants President Obama’s help in facilitating statehood.” The memo says that PA advisors are in favor of rejecting the American ultimatum.

Abbas told PA media on Sunday that he is resisting pressure from “the entire world” to concede his long-stated condition that Netanyahu extend the 10-month building freeze that expires in late September.

Senior Cabinet ministers as well as the Prime Minister have clearly stated they will not extend the freeze. Political support for the coalition is strong, with even the center-left Israeli media generally recognizing that the PA keeps adding on new conditions for direct talks.

Abbas has in effect insisted on acceptance of a proposed PA state without negotiations on any substantial issues, such as the status of Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Abbas have been blaming each other for the failure to sit down for direct talks. “We have negotiated with Israeli governments before, more than once. Why would we avoid such talks? We are not,” Abbas told reporters after discussions with King Abdullah in Jordan.

Prime Minister Netanyahu repeated on Monday his oft-stated declaration that he is ready to meet Abbas immediately without pre-conditions. “We have an understanding with the Americans that we need to move now, without any delay, to direct negotiations, but in response, we have a clear Palestinian attempt to avoid this process,” Netanyahu said. “They are trying to stall and to sneak away from direct negotiations and to cause the Arab League to shackle the talks.”

The secret memo from Washington indicates clearly that President Obama has given up on pressing Israel for any more concessions, which Jerusalem has made on a regular basis since the Roadmap Plan was announced by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002.

The memo puts the Palestinian Authority in the unaccustomed position of having to compromise or “going for broke” by continuing its previously announced strategy of waiting for the United States to declare the PA as a new Arab country within Israel’s borders.

State Department officials would not confirm the exact language of the memo, but said, “This indeed illustrates where we are.”

PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said the memo is not entirely accurate, but confirmed that American officials told Abbas that he has to sit down with Israel “if he wants Obama to help.”

AIR FORCE ITS GAZA WEAPONS PLANT FOLLOWING ATTACKS
by Maayana Miskin (IsraelNationalNews)

The Israel Air Force demolished a weapons plant in northern Gaza early on Monday morning. The operation came in response to recent attacks by Gaza terrorists on Israelis in the western Negev.

Planes also took out two smuggling tunnels along the border between Gaza and Egypt. Pilots reported direct hits, and all planes returned safely back to base.

The IDF released its usual statement for such incidents, saying, “The IDF will not tolerate attacks on Israeli citizens or IDF soldiers, and will respond with determination and strength to any entity using terrorism against the state of Israel.” The statement also noted that “the IDF sees the Hamas terrorist organization as bearing sole responsibility for what happens in Gaza, and for maintaining quiet in the area.”

On Sunday, terrorists fired at least four rockets and mortar shells at communities in the Gaza belt region. One of the weapons used in the attacks was more advanced than the usual rockets; experts who examined the rocket found that it was produced outside Gaza and smuggled in.

On Sunday evening, an IDF reserves force arrested five Palestinian Authority Arabs near the Jewish town of Elon Moreh in Samaria. The five are thought to have been on their way to commit a terrorist attack.
Soldiers arrested an additional terrorist overnight.

TABLET DISCOVERED BY HEBREW UNIVERSITY – MATCHES CODE OF HAMMURABI
by INN Staff courtesy of Hebrew University

For the first time in Israel, a document has been uncovered containing a law code that parallels portions of the famous Code of Hammurabi. The code is written on fragments of a cuneiform tablet, dating from the 18th-17th centuries B.C.E in the Middle Bronze Age, that were found in Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeological excavations this summer at Hazor, south of Kiryat Shmonah, in northern Israel.

The Hazor excavations, known as the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin, are under the direction of Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor and Dr. Sharon Zuckerman of the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology. Previous excavations were directed at the site by the late Prof. Yigael Yadin in the 1950s and 1960s.

The fragments that have now been discovered, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, refer to issues of personal injury law relating to slaves and masters, bring to mind similar laws in the famous Babylonian Hammurabi Code of the 18th century B.C.E. that were found in what is now Iran over 100 years ago. The laws also reflect, to a certain extent, Biblical laws of the type of “a tooth for tooth,” say the researchers.

The Hazor law code fragments are being prepared for publication by a team headed by Prof. Wayne Horowitz of the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology. Thus far, words that have been deciphered include “master,” “slave,” and a word referring to bodily parts, apparently the word for “tooth.” The style of the text is similar to that of the Hammurabi Code, said Prof. Horowitz.

“At this stage, it is difficult to determine whether this document was actually written at Hazor, where a school for scribes was located, or brought from somewhere else,” said Prof. Horowitz. He said that this latest discovery opens an interesting avenue for possible further investigation of a connection between Biblical law and the Code of Hammurabi.

These two fragments are the 18th and 19th cuneiform finds from the Hazor excavations, which now form the largest corpus of documents of cuneiform texts found in Israel. Previous documents dealt with such subjects as the dispatch of people or goods, a legal dispute involving a local woman, and a text of multiplication tables. “These tablets point to Hazor’s importance as a major center for administration and scholarship in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages,” said Prof. Ben-Tor.

The Hazor excavations, sponsored by the Hebrew University and the Israel Exploration Society, take place within the Hazor National Park. The archaeological team is presently about to begin uncovering a monumental building dating to the Bronze Age, where they expect to recover additional tablets.