US TO ISRAEL: IF YOU ATTACK, WE DON’T HAVE YOUR BACK!
by Gil Ronen (IsraelNationalNews)

The U.S. military’s top officer made statements Thursday which appear to warn Israel that it should not expect U.S. assistance if it chooses to attack Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, said such an attack would “clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program,” The Guardian reported Thursday. He added: “I don’t want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it.”

Dempsey said he did not know Iran’s nuclear intentions, since intelligence does not reveal intentions. What was clear, he said, was that the “international coalition” applying pressure on Iran “could be undone if [Iran] was attacked prematurely”.

The White House said on Thursday that Iran has a limited window of time to accept the West’s conditions regarding its nuclear weapons program.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters the U.S. is “closely studying” the UN International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) quarterly report on Iran, “but broadly speaking it is not surprising that Iran is continuing to violate its obligations.”

“As the report illustrates,” he added, “we are in a position to closely observe Iran’s program.”

Carney said the US has told Iran that “The window of opportunity to resolve this remains open … but it will not remain open indefinitely.”

Iran has increased its uranium enrichment capacity by at least 30% in the last four months, according to the IAEA report. It has doubled production capacity at the Fordo nuclear site, the report says.

IF JESUS ENTERED BETHLEHEM TODAY
by Giulio Meotti

A Jew named Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew, was born in Bethlehem. The child was circumcised, lived as a Jew, prayed as a Jew, kept Jewish rituals and spoke in Aramaic to his fellow Jews. It occurred 600 years before Islam raised its head for the first time.

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.

The century of Joseph Goebbels has taught all of us that a lie starts as a very small one, but if it is not corrected, it festers like a virus destroying truth.

A few days ago, the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, and South Africa’s government approved the boycott of goods produced in “Israeli settlements located within occupied Palestinian territory”, charging the Jewish State of being an “apartheid state”.

While pre-1967 Israel was far from “Arabrein”, a Nazi-like ideology sees the entire State of Israel as an alien, undesirable island in an Islamic sea that must be submerged. This is the only apartheid which emerged from President Barack Obama’s de-legitimization of Jerusalem’s post-1967 neighborhoods and Jewish life in Judea and Samaria.

The apartheid against the Jews is epitomized by two stories routinely neglected by the Western media.

One is the fate of the Arabs who sold houses and land to the Jews.

Former Palestinian intelligence official Muhammad Abu Shahala has recently been sentenced to death by the Palestinian Authority for selling the Machpela building in Hevron to Jews. By now, dozens of Arabs have been murdered for selling their homes to Jews.

In 1995, the Palestinian Legislative council voted in favor of the death sentence. The PA’s mufti of Jerusalem, Ikremah Sabri, and the Palestinian chief Islamic judge, Tayseer Tamimi, issued religious fatwas authorizing the killing of Arabs who sell property to Jews. Not even Nazi Germany in the 1930s knew this level of anti-Jewish pathology.

A few days ago, the Western media published dozens of frontpage stories about the attempted lynch in Jerusalem by a group of Israeli hooligans against Arabs. Alas, they wailed, here is the “proof” that Israeli democracy is sick and racist.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see the same outrage in the Western press when Israelis were really lynched by the Arabs. That is the second form of anti-Jewish apartheid.

Where was the Western press on October 12th 2000, when two Israeli soldiers went the wrong way and ended up in Ramallah, where they were apprehended by Yasser Arafat’s thugs to be tortured and torn to pieces?

Who remembers the name of Ofir Rahum, the Jewish boy from Ashkelon who was lynched in Ramallah?

Who knows the name of Amnon Pomerantz, who made a fatal wrong turn in the el Burej refugee camp, where his car was smashed and set fire with Amnon, still alive, inside?

Who knows the story of Shani Ladani, the worker of Moshav Nitzanei Oz, west of Tulkarm, who was bound and shot in the head from point-blank range simply because he was a Jew?

Who knows what the Palestinian Arabs did to Hillel Lieberman, a saint who was lynched while trying to save Joseph’s Tomb?

And what about Ethiopian immigrant police officer Yosef Tabeja, who was killed while patrolling between Qalkilya and Kfar Saba on September 29, 2000, by the Palestinian Arab partners with whom he had just shared a snack?

Identifying Jesus as “a Palestinian living under an occupation” has become normative for Churches in the current anti-Israel crusade.

A few weeks ago Israeli archaeologists discovered a seal bearing the name “Bethlehem” in ancient Hebrew script, one of the most important pieces of physical evidence supporting the Jewish claim to the town before it became revered as the birthpace of Christianity.

At that time, two thousand years ago, a Jew named Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew, short for Yehoshua, was born in Bethlehem. The child was circumcised, he lived as a Jew, prayed as a Jew, performed Jewish rituals and spoke in Aramaic to his fellow Jews. It occurred 600 years before Islam raised its head for the first time.

Today, he would be lynched as a Jew, the massacre would be excused as the “anger” of the perpetrators is fully justified in international eyes, while his “settler parents” would be demonized in the Western newspapers for provoking the native population.

If Jesus “the occupier” were to live today in Judea or Samaria, he would not be allowed to walk in the wadi under his town, he would not enter the surrounding villages because he would not come out alive, his movement would be limited, he would not leave his community at certain hours, he would not hike except in groups and only when someone is carrying a weapon, he would lock his door at night, his road would be closed for hours because of shooting, he would go to school by armored buses, he would drive with a ceramic vest, he would build a fence, he would install cameras, he would constantly face firing and possible lynching.

While there are thousands of Palestinian Arabs in Israeli hospitals, what would happen to a bleeding Jesus if he entered a hospital in Bethlehem today?

Shame on these anti-Semitic bishops, hypocritical journalists and self-righteous intellectuals who abrogated to themselves the right to teach morality to Holocaust survivors and who allowed the word “Jew” to become, once again, an accepted insult in the global square

IRAN CLAIMS IT HAS NO INTEREST IN NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
by Chana Ya’ar (Arutz Sheva News)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini claims the country has no interest in producing nuclear weapons.

However, he told the Non-Aligned Movement summit for heads of state on Thursday, Iran will continue to pursue its nuclear technology development program. Khameini insisted Iran’s nuclear activities are aimed at developing peaceful atomic energy.

“Our motto is nuclear energy for all, and nuclear weapons for none,” he said.

It is Khameini who holds the ultimate power over whether or not nuclear weapons are created — and used — or not, in Iran.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is attending the summit, told Iran’s leadership on Wednesday to stop threatening Israel, his spokesman said. The U.N. chief urged Iran to prove in concrete terms the country’s nuclear activities are peaceful.

In addition to his meeting with Khameini, Ban met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili, spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Khameini fiercely criticized the U.N. Security Council in his speech, calling the international body an illogical, unjust and defunct relic of the past used by the U.S. “to impose its bullying manner on the world.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS ISRAEL TO THE UNITED STATES?
by David Lev (IsraelNationalNews)

For those who think that Israel is a $3 billion-a-year strategic liability for the U.S., the cause of Muslim terrorism, Mideast instability, and high gas prices, New York attorney and Israel advocate Mark Langfan has a message: Get a map.

Preferably, the 3D topographic raised-relief map system of Israel that Langfan developed back in 1991, which gives viewers a perspective on Israel – and on the Middle East – that they may not have had before. The map shows just how important Israel is to U.S. interests – how a strong and secure Israel, far from being a strategic liability, is actually the one thing that is preventing the Middle East from falling into complete chaos.

With an Israeli presence in the high ground of Judea and Samaria and on the Golan Heights, “Israel is immune to an existential attack” by ground troops from Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. In a video, Langfan lays out the case for Israel’s retention of these areas; with them, Israel can defend itself and ensure a semblance of order in the region, Without them, Iran and its radical Islamist allies would have a free hand, picking through the debris of the “regimes” of the Middle East, and eventually taking over the greatest prize of all – oil-rich Saudi Arabia, thus controlling the fate of the entire Western world.

In the video, Langfan revives the idea of the “domino theory,” which was a cause for great debate in the U.S. during the Vietnam War era. But there’s no debate over what a Middle East domino spill would look like; a weak Israel without its strategic land assets would be open for attack by a revitalized Islamist front, led by Egypt, Hizbullah, Hamas, and Syria (with the likelihood that Bashar al-Assad will eventually be replaced by an Islamist government, as happened in Egypt).

If Israel is destroyed – or even if it is allowed to survive (temporarily) in a cowed, defensive state, the Islamist front, led by Iran, would continue with its agenda to take over the Middle East. First to go would be Jordan, which Syria has coveted for decades, and which Islamists despise because of King Abdullah’s ties with the West. By that time, Iraq would also have been absorbed into the super “Shiastan” state expanding from Iran – and there would be nothing to stop Iran and the Islamists from walking into Saudi Arabia and taking over. The Islamists would be in full control of all waterways that Western navies could use to send ships and troops to the region, including the Persian Gulf and the Suez Canal. And at that point, Langfan says, the U.S. and Europe would be truly be the vassals, or “dhimmis,” of the Islamists.

Even if the U.S. could find the wherewithal to defend its Middle East interests under such conditions, it would cost far more than the $3 billion Israel gets each year- not to mention the costs in blood and treasure from a protracted war in which U.S. troops, without a friendly base to work from, are forced to fight in difficult desert conditions. That is, of course, even if the American people could be rallied to take on such a fight – unlikely after their experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.

All this can be avoided, however, if the U.S. supports Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria and in the Golan. Also he mentions the importance of Gaza, which Israel has since abandoned – resulting in tens of thousands of missiles being fired at southern Israel by Hamas, and inspiring Hizbullah to attack Israel with tens of thousands of its own missiles from the north. If that is the result of abandoning the small territory of Gaza – which does not even have strategic defensive height and is surrounded by sparsely populated desert areas – what would be the result of Israel’s abandonment of the much more important territories in Judea, Samaria, and the Golan?

Langfan hopes we never have to find out. “Israel is the cause of U.S. stability,” he says. “Israel is the tip of the West’s spear against a Muslim tsunami.”

If you don’t believe him, just check the map!

IRAN CONFIRMS REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS IN SYRIA
by Chana Ya’ar (Arutz Sheva News)

Iran has publicly confirmed that its government has sent elite Revolutionary Guards to support the troops of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country’s civil war.

Commander Gneral Salar Abnoush told a group of volunteer trainees during a speech delivered Monday, “We are involved in fighting every aspect of a war – a military one in Syria, and a cultural one as well.”

His remarks, reported by the Daneshjoo News Agency, made it clear Iran has committed its military might to aiding government troops in clashes with rebels in Syria’s savage civil war.

“Today, Syria is resisting as our front’s surrogate, and we all have a responsibility to support it and not to let the line fall,” said Mullah Hussein Taeb, according to the Iranian semi-official FARS news agency. It was Taeb, “No. 2” to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini and Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence head, who was responsible for squelching the anti-government protests in Iran in 2009.

Up to this point, analysts were only certain that Iran had been sending tactical and financial support. It was also known that Syrian cyber police were being trained by Iranian experts.

Iranian opposition groups said that one of the Iranians that were kidnapped in Syria earlier this month was a senior officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The general, Abd a-Din Huram, was one of 48 Iranians captured by Syrian rebels. According to the opposition groups, Huram is responsible for Revolutionary Guard operations in the Azerbaijan region of Iran. The rebels holding the Iranians threatened to execute them unless the Syrian government freed hundreds of prisoners.

EGYPT KILLS SINAI TERRORISTS
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (Arutz Sheva News)

Egyptian soldiers killed 11 terrorists in the Sinai and confiscated weapons, according to Egyptian television, quoted by Voice of Israel government radio.

The report, which also stated that 23 terrorists were captured, along with Israeli-made ammunition, was confirmed by the defense ministry. Only one day earlier, an Egyptian newspaper reported that President Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood party, secured a ceasefire agreement with terrorist leaders.

Cairo said Wednesday it will escalate its war on terror in the Sinai Peninsula, where Bedouin, Hamas and Al Qaeda-linked terrorists have exploited a vacuum of power and taken control of large areas.

After terrorists killed 16 Egyptian border guards in early August, Egypt began moving in tanks and aircraft, in violation of the 1979 Peace Treaty with Israel that prohibits a military buildup in the Sinai without Israeli approval.

Morsi has insisted that the deployment is in Israel’s interest because it is aimed at terrorists and not at a future military attack on Israel, which has bitter memories of the 1973 Yom Kippur War when Egypt rolled its tanks into the Sinai and southern Israel while Syria attacked from the north.

The Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel from Gaza on the west to Eilat on the east, is fertile ground for Bedouin terrorists, many of whom have aligned with Hamas and Al Qaeda cells. They have been a source of smuggling of drugs, terrorists, weapons and migrant workers from Africa.

One tribe was reported to have handed over to the Egyptian army a large cache of weapons and ammunition on Sunday. The size of the arsenal in the Sinai was indicated by the Egyptian Interior Ministry’s announcement that it has seized more than 20,000 weapons over the past several months.

IRAN LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO NUCLEAR POWER
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (Arutz Sheva News)

The United Nations nuclear inspection agency, IAEA, is beefing up attempts to force Iran to cooperate at the same time it is expected to report Iran has installed 350 new centrifuges since May.

The new centrifuges are in addition to a previously-reported 1,000 that have been installed, part of Iran’s plan to have 3,000 centrifuges working.

Newspapers from Pakistan to the United States reported Wednesday that the French news agency AFP quoted diplomats in Vienna that the IAEA will issue a report on Friday detailing Iran’s nuclear progress at the Fordow facility, buried deep underground in order to protect it from a bombing attack.

The nuclear site is enriching uranium to a concentration of 20 percent, far below the 90 percent grade needed for a nuclear bomb but easily upgraded to that level.

Iran continues to insist it is developing its nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes, but Ahmadinejad’s recent reiteration that Israel must be annihilated could be used by the Islamic Republic as reasoning that striking Israel with a nuclear warhead is part of its homemade “peace process.”

The IAEA reputedly is establishing a new “Task Force” to get tough with Iran, which so far has succeeded to dodge nuclear inspectors.

Western dependence on diplomacy and sanctions has not convinced Israel that anything except military action can stop Iran, but even the IAEA has shown signs of giving up on Iran.

Last week, it was reported that Iran has “sanitized” a nuclear research facility at a military base to the point that it may be too late to inspect it.

Ahmadinejad has been deploying the same tactic for more than two years of negotiating with the IAEA, agreeing to terms and then negotiating again, allowing the continuation of unsupervised nuclear development towards what the West says is Iran’s objective of reaching the capability of manufacturing and delivering a nuclear warhead.

This week, Iran is hosting the Non-Aligned Movement, which is being attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

“Our enrichment activities will never stop and we are justified in carrying them out, and we will continue to do so under IAEA supervision,” Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said before the summit.

MUSLIMS PLAN 3-DAY JUMAH EVENT TO PRESSURE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
by Fern Sidman, NY Correspondent

Approximately 20,000 Muslims are expected to attend a three-day event called “Jumah at the DNC,” according to the published itinerary of the upcoming Democratic National Convention to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Jumah event is being sponsored by the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA)is the national Muslim American non-profit organization that seeks status with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization(NGO).

The Charlotte Observer reported that the event will kick off August 29 with a Friday afternoon jumah prayer service in Marshall Park in uptown Charlotte, followed by an Islamic issues conference that will address such topics as “Islamophobia, Anti-Shariah, Middle Eastern Crisis, the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act.” This will be capped off with the Islamic Regal Banquet and an Islamic cultural festival.

The purpose, according to BIMA, is to attract national and international attention to the plight of American Muslims and to hold political parties accountable for issues that affect them.

At a press conference in early July, Jibril Hough, the spokesman for BIMA and a local activist said, “Thousands of Muslims are going to perform the Friday ritual prayer. We hope our people will leave feeling rewarded about who they are and what their issues are and have a candidate checklist.”

However, not all Muslims feel that BIMA represents their perspectives and M. Zuhdi Jasser M.D., founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy has expressed serious concerns.

“It is troubling that the Democratic National Convention has decided to promote and lend its name and national political platform to the organizers of the ‘Jumah at the DNC'”, he said. “The leaders of this event, Jibril Hough and Imam Siraj Wahha, are advertised as moderates. They are radicals. These individuals embrace Islamist supremacy and have demonstrated support for radical ideologies.”

Dr. Jasser added, “Their jumah group prayer is against the Patriot Act, the NYPD, and Islamophobia. Their views on these topics have nothing to do with preserving our democracy as we know it, but it is about empowering their Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers into the very fabric of the political system so that Americans become anesthetized. We need American Muslims to speak up and marginalize these radicals. The DNC needs to understand and reject them because of their radical history and ideas.”

As the leader of the Islamic Center of Charlotte, a Sunni mosque, Jibril Hough is known as being an outspoken opponent of North Carolina Congresswoman Sue Myrick, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee. He has called her plan to expose and enact legislation against jihadist activity in America “a fear campaign” and has labeled it as the “new McCarthyism”.

Moreover, Jibril Hough is the North Carolina leader of the Islamic Political Party of America (IPPA), based in Charlotte. According to Dr. Jasser, the IPPA issued a press release in 2002 claiming the Jews were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He asserts that the IPPA has close ties to another organization known as Jamaat Al Muslimeen (JAM), The Islamic Peoples Movement, who have gone on record as being Holocaust deniers.

During an interview with radio station talk show host Keith Larson on the WBT station in Charlotte, it was revealed that Hough’s mosque is owned by The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), an organization blacklisted by the U.S. Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror finance case in U.S. history.

According to government reports, NAIT is also a front group for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in America. Hough denied any knowledge that his mosque was owned by NAIT and said he was unaware that they had been blacklisted, although during the interview he defended Hamas and accused the U.S. and Israel of the only “real” terrorism.

The other organizer of the “Jumah at the DNC” event is Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who heads the Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York. He is the leader of The Muslim Alliance in North America and is a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

During the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), who was convicted of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks, Wahhaj served as a character witness, describing Rahman as a “respected scholar” and as “bold; as a strong preacher of Islam.”

Wahhaj is also a Board of Trustee member of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF) (who’s website currently features an anti-Jewish, anti-black rant), and is also considered to be a Muslim Brotherhood front organization.

Like Hough, Wahhaj is connected to NAIT by way of his membership in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was also found by the government to be a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to the Militant Islam Monitor web site, in 1992, while addressing an audience of New Jersey Muslims, Wahhaj said that if Muslims were more clever politically they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.

“If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if 6 to 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us”, he was quoted as saying.

The other organizer of the “Jumah at the DNC” event is Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who heads the Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York. He is the leader of The Muslim Alliance in North America and is a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

During the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), who was convicted of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks, Wahhaj served as a character witness, describing Rahman as a “respected scholar” and as “bold; as a strong preacher of Islam.”

Wahhaj is also a Board of Trustee member of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF) (who’s website currently features an anti-Jewish, anti-black rant), and is also considered to be a Muslim Brotherhood front organization.

Like Hough, Wahhaj is connected to NAIT by way of his membership in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was also found by the government to be a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to the Militant Islam Monitor web site, in 1992, while addressing an audience of New Jersey Muslims, Wahhaj said that if Muslims were more clever politically they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.

“If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if 6 to 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us”, he was quoted as saying.

MORSI: “PEACE TREATY WILL REMAIN INTACT”!
by Gil Ronen (IsraelNationalNews)

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is quoted Tuesday as saying that his country’s military operation in Sinai is being carried out in a way that fully honors international agreements.

In an interview with Reuters that was quoted by Voice of Israel government-sponsored radio, Morsi said that Egypt threatens no one, and that its forces’ presence in Sinai should not be a cause for concern on the regional or international levels.

Morsi also said that the peace treaty with Israel will remain intact, but refrained from saying whether he would agree to meet any Israeli leaders. He said Egypt would adopt a “balanced” foreign policy in order to safeguard its interests.

Egyptian newspaper Al-Yom al-Saba reported that the Egyptian Army has put its anti-terror operation in Sinai on hold, as Morsi talks to the leaders of the Islamist groups in Sinai. “Secret contacts” between Morsi’s representatives and the heads of Salafi groups were held at Sheikh Zweid and Rafiah, in an attempt to restore calms to the peninsula.

“BLOODY SATURDAY” DEATH TOLL IN SYRIA HITS 440
by Chana Ya’ar (IsraelNationalNews)

Nearly 450 people died Saturday on the bloodiest day of the savage civil war fought by Syrian Army troops and opposition forces.

Approximately 440 victims, mostly civilians, were killed in the clashes centered in the capital city and in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city.

Fierce fighting between government troops and the Free Syrian Army left more than a hundred dead in the northwestern commercial hub, located 310 kilometers (193 miles) from Damascus.

Of those, nearly 300 were killed, including an undetermined number who were apparently shot to death “execution style” near the southwestern Damascus suburb of Daraya and surrounds, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

Since the beginning of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, ignited by the regionwide Arab Spring, the United Nations High Council for Refugees (UNHCR) has estimated that more than 202,000 Syrians have fled the country.

Varying estimates by activist and human rights organizations, among them the SOHR and the United Nations, place the death toll between 18,000 and 25,000. A report last week estimated the number of displaced citizens driven from their homes, at 1.5 million.

It is extremely difficult to be accurate in assessing the numbers due to the fact that the Syrian government blocks access to the country by independent journalists and humanitarian aid organizations.

More than a dozen foreign and local journalists have been killed in action while attempting to cover the civil war.