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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Author Interview: Israel’s (not-so) secret plan to prevent a nuclear Iran and create a new Middle East
2023-12-17
[IsraelTimes] For their new book ’Target Tehran,’ Ilan Evyatar and Yonah Jeremy Bob interview spymasters, prime ministers and US officials on the shadowy means used to stop an existential threat.
Q & A can be read at the link.
On the eve of January 31, 2018, a team of agents under the command of the Mossad broke into a secret warehouse on the outskirts of Tehran and extracted an archive containing tens of thousands of highly classified documents detailing the full record of Iran’s efforts to become a nuclear weapons power.

The revelation of the archive’s contents showed that "Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
had for years been lying to the international community about its nuclear program, falsely claiming that it was only for civilian use," write Ilan Evyatar and Yonah Jeremy Bob in "Target Tehran: How Israel is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination — and Secret Diplomacy — to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East." The book hit shelves in late September.

Evyatar and Bob claim Israel’s decision to go after Iran’s nuclear archives had been made two years earlier, in January 2016, by then newly appointed Mossad director Yossi Cohen and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the authors, Netanyahu and Cohen wanted evidence that would convince the Trump administration to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal signed by the B.O. regime in 2015.

Their book documents a decades-long Mossad-led effort — which has included sabotage and liquidations inside Iran — to prevent the Islamic Theocratic Republic from becoming a nuclear power.

As part of their research, both authors had extensive access to Cohen, who directed the Mossad until 2021 and who planned and directed many of the operations that are the focus of "Target Tehran," including much of the secret diplomacy that led to the Abraham Accords.

Bob and Evyatar also had access to former Mossad directors Meir Dagan and Tamir Pardo, several Israeli prime ministers, many other Israeli intelligence operatives past and present, and numerous American officials from the Trump and Biden administrations.

Bob was born and raised in the United States and now lives in Jerusalem. He is the senior military correspondent and literary editor of The Jerusalem Post.

Evyatar was born in Israel and raised in London. He currently lives in Jerusalem and has worked as a speechwriter, ghostwriter, translator and editor — most recently as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Report.

The Times of Israel caught up with Evyatar and Bob in Jerusalem, via Zoom, to speak about their book. The conversation has been edited for clarity.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
NSC chief Hulata confirms Israeli ops in Iran in 2022
2022-07-16
[Jpost] The NSC chief made it clear that Israel would act independently against the Islamic Republic regardless of Washington's view on the issue.

National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata, head of the National Security Council, on Thursday night became the first senior Israeli official to publicly confirm Israeli operations within Iranian territory in 2022.

“We have acted not infrequently over the last year... in Iran,” he said in an interview with Channel 13 in response to a series of questions about whether Jerusalem would act against Tehran directly even in the face of pressure from the US not to rock the boat too much while nuclear negotiations are ongoing.

Israel would act independently against the Islamic Republic regardless of Washington’s view on the issue, Hulata said, adding that this would just be a continuation of what it has already done for the last year.

Although multiple top officials have previously confirmed Mossad operations in Iran in 2022, and the Iranians themselves and sometimes US sources have made such attributions, Hulata was the first to go public.

IRANIAN TARGETS
No fewer than seven top Iranian nuclear, aerospace, drone and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials were killed from late April to early June in a stunning wave of assassinations attributed by Iran to the Mossad, rivaling a wave of operations also attributed by foreign sources to the agency against Tehran in 2020 under former Mossad director Yossi Cohen and in the 2000s under Meir Dagan.

The operations all came after the US announced it would not delist the IRGC from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list and during a multi-month freeze in nuclear negotiations.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
How have Iran's intelligence forces broken down in face of explosions?
2020-07-10
[JPost] - Iran is facing a total intelligence breakdown.

With another explosion on Thursday night, reportedly at an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility, the question is not only how anyone has pulled up to seven attacks off in around two weeks, but how has the Islamic Republic repeatedly failed to stop them.

From 2010-2013, the regime succeeded in cracking a CIA cell and eliminated many CIA operatives.

Even when the US and Israel, according to foreign reports, breached Iran's security for its nuclear program with the Stuxnet virus in 2009-2010, they had to use assets of Dutch intelligence.

In general, Iranian counterintelligence is known as performing at a much higher level than most Israeli adversaries. Sometimes they falsely announce arrests of Mossad agents who are just political opposition members, but sometimes they can flush out spies at a professional level closer to the world's top powers.

Until Israel's January 2018 operation seizing Iran's nuclear secrets, Iranian territory was thought of as much harder to penetrate than Syrian territory, where Israel has admitted to thousands of intelligence and airstrike operations.

In the days of Meir Dagan, a score of attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists were attributed to the Mossad.

But much of that was over a decade ago and many of the scientists were killed alone and outside their facilities — presumably, easier targets than penetrating and exploding whole facilities like a set of dominoes.

What the world is witnessing right now is someone (the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, possibly with Iranian dissident proxy help) hitting Iranian nuclear and conventional weapons and IRGC facilities practically at will. And they are doing it in a way that has virtually never been witnessed in recent memory.

...However, what we appear to be witnessing are the limits of a second-tier counterintelligence force. Up against a premier intelligence or cyber power, Iran is apparently near defenseless.

The questions remaining then are how long these attacks can continue and whether Iran can cope with them or may make some sort of secret contact to cut a deal to get them stopped.

If it does not, the message from whoever is making this happen is clear: continued aggressive actions on nuclear and other fronts will lead to consequences that the ayatollahs had never imagined.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
After a decade Israel admits: We bombed Syria nuclear reactor in 2007
2018-03-21
Israel was behind the 2007 destruction of a nuclear reactor that was being built in northeastern Syria, the IDF Military Censor has now cleared for publication.

Until now, Israeli media have been blocked from publishing details of the reactor’s discovery and the decision- making process that led to its destruction ‐ even as many of those details were being published in the foreign press and in the memoirs of former president George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney.

The Mossad confirmed the existence of the Syrian reactor in March 2007, when the agency obtained photographs of the reactor that was being built in the northeastern Deir al-Zor province, close to the Euphrates River.

The pictures had been requested by the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, which had suspicions that Damascus was engaging in rogue nuclear activity.

Military Intelligence had seen the structure being built during routine satellite scans of the country. Because it was built like a regular building, it was not immediately clear what the structure was. Then-head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin convinced Mossad chief Meir Dagan to send agents to obtain additional, conclusive intelligence.

According to Amir Peretz, who was defense minister at the time, "We had the intelligence but then came the dilemmas," both military and diplomatic.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Peretz explained that in April 2007, he convened his first meeting on the facility with top Israeli officials, during which he made the decision to prepare all options to destroy the facility.

In the months that followed, prime minister Ehud Olmert embarked on a diplomatic push to get Bush to attack the reactor. In July 2007, after Bush decided not to attack, Olmert convened his security cabinet, which ultimately concluded that the reactor had to be destroyed.

"It was a threat that we couldn’t live with," one member of the security cabinet at the time told the Post. "Syria with nuclear weapons would have posed an existential threat to the State of Israel."

Just like Iran nowadays

...Just before midnight on September 5, 2007, four F-15s and four F-16s took off for the al-Kibar facility. The planes entered Syrian airspace via Turkey, and sometime between 12:40 and 12:53 a.m., the pilots called out the operation’s codeword, "Arizona," signaling that some 17 tons of bombs had been dropped on the facility and it had been destroyed.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
How the Mossad and I took on terrorism financing
2018-01-14
In which the head of Shurat HaDin influences covert international events. Herewith a taste:
[Ynet] In a new book published in the US, Israeli lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner reveals how she was entangled in operations with members of the Harpoon unit, a covert financial counterterrorism taskforce that has dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah, Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
, Yasser Arafat and Leb’s banks.

He is known in the world as "the Lebanese Madoff," but 10 years ago he was still called Salah Ezz al-Din: A rich businessman closely associated with Hezbollah. How close? He owned the publishing house of textbooks used in the organization’s schools. The publishing house was named Hadi Nasrallah after the Hezbollah secretary-general’s son, who was killed in a battle with IDF soldier. He wasn’t a person Hezbollah would suspect.

In 2007, Ezz al-Din flew to the Persian Gulf emirates in search of investments. Major funds for southern Leb’s reconstruction began flowing in from Iran after the Second Leb War, and his high-ranking friends from Hezbollah looked for a good place for him to grow in. It is unknown to this very day who was the contact who had given Ezz al-Din the option of promising investments, but it is clear that he had made a deep impression on him.

He invested millions of private dollars and soon began earning a lot. He started an investment firm and recruited more and more investors who enjoyed the money‐thousands of the organization’s supporters in southern Leb, senior Hezbollah commanders and even the secretary-general himself, Hassan Nasrallah, who invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the initiative.

One day, it was all over. A senior Hezbollah commander’s check bounced. Ezz al-Din thought it was a mistake, called the bank and was told that the account was empty. All the other banks too informed him that his money had been emptied out. He called the company in Dubai and got no answer. Ezz al-Din discovered that his partners in the Persian Gulf had disappeared with about $1 billion, mostly from Hezbollah’s funds. Now try and explain that one to Nasrallah.

The Shiite organization’s serious investigations revealed nothing‐Abu Madoff was unable to tell them where the money had gone. "In Tel Aviv, however, people didn’t appear surprised by what happened. Hezbollah had been in (former Mossad chief) Meir Dagan’s crosshairs," says attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

Darshan-Leitner is the co-author of "Harpoon: Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters", which was published in the United States in early November and unveiled the Harpoon unit‐the Israeli intelligence body responsible for the war on terrorism financing, mainly that of the Paleostinians and Hezbollah.

"In the Arab world, people suspected Israelis had done it, but there was no way of proving it," she says about the Lebanese Madoff affair. "They still don’t know what happened to this very day, but according to foreign reports that blamed Israel, there is a certain likelihood that it was a Harpoon operation."

Darshan-Leitner, who wrote the book together with author Samuel M. Katz, knows what she’s talking about. Not only did she interview senior intelligence officials from the mysterious intelligence body for the book, including the person who was in charge of it for many years‐former Mossad director Meir Dagan‐but she was also very involved in it herself.
Link


China-Japan-Koreas
Wisdom from Zion
2017-09-12
h/t Unstapundit
Israel and North Korea are on opposite sides of the Asian landmass, separated by 5,000 miles as the ICBM flies. But Israelis feels close to the nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang. They have faced this sort of crisis before, and may again.

Some history: In the mid-1970s, it became clear to Israel that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was working on acquiring nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them. Saddam had already demonstrated an uninhibited brutality in dealing with his internal enemies and his neighbors. He aspired to be the leader of the Arab world. Defeating Israel was at the top of his to-do list.

After coming to office in 1977, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin tried to convince the U.S. and Europe that Saddam was a clear and present danger to the Jewish state, and that action had to be taken. Begin was not taken seriously.

But Begin was serious, and in 1981 he decided that Israel would have to stop the Iraqi dictator all by itself. His political opponents, led by the estimable Shimon Peres, considered this to be dangerous folly. Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, the legendary former military chief of staff, voted against unilateral action on the grounds that it would hurt Israel’s international standing. Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann, the former head of the air force (and Dayan’s brother-in-law) was also against a military option. He thought the mission would be unacceptably risky.

Begin had no military expertise. But his family had been wiped out in the Holocaust. He looked at Saddam, who was openly threating Israel, and saw Hitler. To Begin, sitting around hoping for the best was not a strategy; it was an invitation to aggression. If there was going to be a cost -- political, diplomatic, military -- better to pay before, not after, the Iraqis had the bomb.

In the summer of 1981, Begin gave the order. The Israeli air force destroyed the Osirak reactor. The United Nations Security Council condemned the attack. The Europeans went bonkers. The New York Times called it "inexcusable." But the Israeli prime minister wasn’t looking to be excused by the Times or the Europeans or even the usually friendly Ronald Reagan administration. He enunciated a simple rationale that would come to be known as the Begin Doctrine: Israel will not allow its avowed enemies to obtain the means of its destruction.

The wisdom of this doctrine became clear a decade later, during the Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein made good on his threat to fire Russian-made SCUD missiles at Israeli cities. The SCUDs landed, and caused some damage and a fair amount of panic, but they were not armed with unconventional warheads. Israel had taken that option off the table.

Similarly, in 2007, Israel confirmed what it had suspected for five years: Syria, with North Korean help, was trying to build a nuclear reactor. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a Begin disciple, sent Mossad chief Meir Dagan to Washington, to ask for American intervention. The CIA chief, Michael Hayden, agreed with Israel’s contention that Damascus (with Iranian financing) was constructing the reactor. But Hayden convinced President George W. Bush that bombing the site would result in all-out war, and who wants that?

Acting on its own, Israel destroyed the Syrian site (reportedly killing a group of North Korean experts in the process). Hayden was wrong about how Syria would react, as he later admitted. If Israel had been reasonable and listened to the CIA, Bashar al-Assad would have nuclear weapons right now.
What's so reasonable about listening to CIA?

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF Holds Largest Exercise In 20 Years To Prepare For Imminent Hezbollah Threat
2017-09-05
[Jpost] The IDF is set to launch a large-scale exercise in preparation for a potential faceoff with the Shi'ite terror group, that continues to pose an imminent danger to the country's security.

The IDF is set to launch a large-scale exercise in preparation for a potential faceoff with the Shi'ite terror group, that continues to pose an imminent danger to the country's security.

Amid rising tensions on Israel’s northern border, the IDF will be launching Monday evening its largest drill in close to 20 years, with tens of thousands of soldiers from all branches of the army simulating a war with Hezbollah.

The drill is unique and unprecedented in scope, the army has affirmed, and it will enable forces to maintain a high level of readiness in an ever-changing region.

According to military assessments, while it is unlikely that Hezbollah attack Israel in the near future, the northern border remains the most explosive and both sides have warned that the next conflict between the two would be devastating.

The IDF is preparing itself for a different kind of war on the northern front. According to the military, while the drill itself is set to focus only on the border with Leb, a potential future altercation would not be contained only in the part of the border and would spread to the entirety of the northern border.

While the primary threat posed by Hezbollah remains its missile arsenal, the IDF believes that the next war will see the terror group trying to bring the fight into the home front by infiltrating into Israeli communities to inflict significant civilian and military casualties.

The two-week long drill will focus on countering the increased capabilities of Hezbollah and is expected to include simulations of evacuating communities which sit on the border with Leb.

During the drill, soldiers will play the role of civilians being evacuated, but with close to 1 million Israelis living in Israel’s north, an estimated quarter million would be evacuated in case a war breaks out with the Shiite Lebanese terror group.

Named after Meir Dagan, the former head of the Mossad, the exercise will see thousands of reservists and all the different branches of the IDF- Air Force, Navy, Ground Forces Intelligence, Cyber- drilling their ability to work side by side in case such a war should break out.

In an attempt to secure the exercise but also simulate what it would be like in case of a real war, no soldiers will be allowed to bring in their phones or any other digital devices.

Hezbollah has rebuilt its arsenal since the last war fought between the group and Israel back in 2006, with at least 100,000 short-range rockets and several thousand more missiles that can reach central Israel. According to some Israeli analysts, the next war with Hezbollah might see 1,500-2,000 rockets shot into Israel per day, compared to the 150-180 per day during the Second Leb war 10 years ago in which 121 soldiers and 44 non-combatants were killed and over 2,000 injured.

In addition to having rebuilt their arsenal, Hezbollah has changed from a terror group fighting guerilla style targets to an army with battalions, brigades and over 40,000 fighters who have gained immeasurable battlefield experience from fighting in Syria on the side of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
But while the threat still looms large, Israel has made it clear that it will continue to work to prevent the group from acquiring advanced weaponry, striking weapons convoys in Syria destined for the group at least 100 times in the past five years.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel's Next Army Chief 'Would Only Strike Iran As Last Resort'
2014-11-30
[IsraelTimes] Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, named Friday night as the next IDF chief of the General Staff, firmly opposes Israeli military intervention to thwart Iran's nuclear program unless Iran poses an immediate existential threat to Israel, an Israeli television report said.

Eizenkot, the current deputy chief, holds to the view that Israel should not strike at Iran "unless the sword is at our throat," Channel 10 reported. That phrase was first used in the Iranian context almost four years ago by Israel's former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, and Dagan subsequently declared that the idea of an Israeli Air Force attack on Iran's nuclear facilities was "the stupidest thing I have ever heard" and that anyone seriously considering any such strike needed to internalize that he would be "dragging Israel into a regional war that it would not know how to get out of. The security challenge would become unbearable."

Eizenkot subscribes to the assessment that Israel must only act against Iran as a last resort, "as do all of Israel's security chiefs," the Channel 10 report said, referring to the outgoing chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, current Mossad chief Tamar Pardo, and Shin Bet domestic security chief Yoram Cohen.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed that Israel will "stand alone" to stop Iran if necessary, has publicly fumed as world powers negotiated intensively with Iran in recent months, and has demanded the dismantling of Iran's entire "military nuclear" capability.

The prime minister delayed naming Eizenkot as Gantz's successor for the past two weeks, the TV report said, in part because he toyed with the idea of finding a candidate with an outlook less similar to that of Gantz.

Netanyahu partly blames Gantz for the sense that Israel emerged "with a tie" from the summer's 50-day war with Gazoo's Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rulers, and looked around for a top officer to succeed Gantz "with more of a knife between his teeth."

Eizenkot, the report said, is a "moderate" like Gantz, who wants to keep any wars Israel has to fight as short as possible, and aims not to enter conflicts without a clear exit strategy.

Eizenkot was the clear choice as next army chief of both Gantz and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, and ultimately Netanyahu decided not to antagonize Ya'alon, and to go ahead with the appointment, which will be formalized in the next few days. He is set to take up the post on February 15.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Parchin explosion: Intentional sabotage or 'work accident'?
2014-10-09
Not all the mysterious explosions which have occurred in Iran's nuclear sites and missile bases in the past eight years were the result of intentional sabotage by foreign intelligence agencies.

"The Iranians are doing a pretty good job in sabotaging the project themselves," former Mossad chief Meir Dagan once said. "They have a sort of 'trust me' culture and carelessness there, which quite often lead to accidents."
Inshallah?
"Excellent kaboom! Nice job, David."
"Thanks, Moshe."
But if someone did succeed in infiltrating the Parchin site with explosives and causing the huge explosion which took place there, we are talking about an exceptional achievement.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Netanyahu Vows To Stop Iran, Even In Defiance Of America
2012-11-07
[Times of Israel] TV report details liquidations and sabotage in Israel's decade-long battle to thwart Tehran, traces ups and downs of coordination with Washington; Olmert slams PM for 'spitting' in Obama's face

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday night to put a stop to Iran's nuclear program by whatever means necessary -- even in outright defiance of American objections -- if neither sanctions, nor other international action, achieves that goal.

"There is no doubt about Iran's intention -- to destroy us," Netanyahu said. "I won't be reconciled to that."

Asked in an interview whether, if reelected in January, he would "pledge that Iran won't have a nuclear program by the end of your next term," Netanyahu said simply, "Yes."

When it was put to him that the US has opposed a unilateral Israeli resort to force, Netanyahu said President Barack Obama
We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us...
had stated that Israel has the right to defend itself as it sees fit, and that Israel dare not entrust its future to others, even to the United States. Israel's prime ministers had ignored US disapproval in establishing the country in 1948 and preempting the Arab attack in the 1967 war, he noted.

Netanyahu was interviewed as part of an investigative TV report that traced Israel's efforts over the past decade to thwart Iran's march toward the bomb. The documentary, which included interviews with several serving and former top politicians and security chiefs, detailed sabotage, liquidations of scientists and other measures used by Israel -- as reported in foreign publications -- to slow the Iranian program. It described the 2007 air strike that destroyed Syria's nuclear reactor as "a general rehearsal for an attack" on Iran.

Asked whether he believed Netanyahu had the guts to order a strike on Iran, the prime minister's former national security adviser, Uzi Arad, said he had "no doubt."

When it was put to Netanyahu himself that others believed he lacked the guts to order a strike, he replied, "I hope I won't have to."

A central theme of the program was the assertion that Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Ehud Barak had ordered the defense establishment in 2010 to elevate its state of readiness so that it would be capable of attacking Iran within hours if so required -- "the closest Israel has come to attacking Iran," according to the program -- but that two top security chiefs flatly refused to do as they were told.

The order to raise the IDF state of readiness to what was codenamed "P Plus" was given by Netanyahu and Barak to then-chief of the General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Mossad chief Meir Dagan at a meeting in Jerusalem two years ago, the program said.

But Dagan, the program claimed, rejected it as "illegal," noting that a full cabinet decision was required for such an order. And Ashkenazi, the program said, vehemently opposed the step because he considered it "a strategic mistake" and feared that implementing the order might lead to an unintended war.

Asked about these dramatic exchanges, Netanyahu did not respond directly, but he indicated that they were inaccurate. And he stressed that "ultimately, the responsibility (for such decisions) is the prime minister's." The chief of staff "has the right to make recommendations," he said. But as prime minister, he would overrule such recommendations if necessary, he indicated.

Barak did not deny seeking to order the raised state of readiness, but he said it had proved impossible because Ashkenazi had not prepared a viable military option. Sources close to Ashkenazi told the program this was untrue.

Vowing that Israel "is ready to act" against Iran, Netanyahu said he was watching the Islamist regime "advancing step by step... toward producing nuclear bombs." When the Jews were being murdered by the Nazis, they were unable to save themselves, he said. But he, as Israel's prime minister, did have the capacity to protect the Jewish nation. "When we didn't have a state, we begged others" to defend the Jews, he said. "Today, we're not begging, we are preparing."

A second major theme of the hour-long program featured withering criticism by former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who is considering making a political comeback ahead of January's general elections, of the handling of the Iranian threat by Netanyahu and Barak. Olmert also blasted Netanyahu for damaging Israeli ties with the B.O. regime.

Lambasting Netanyahu's evident readiness to strike at Iran if all else fails, even in defiance of the United States, Olmert asked mockingly which planes, bombs and special technologies Israel would use -- underlining the centrality of American military hardware to Israel's military capacity. Without naming names, he wondered who Netanyahu would turn to "if something is missing" from the range of equipment needed for an attack or the re-supply needed to sustain one. "Would it be to the people in whose faces we're spitting," he wondered, "those who we're trying to prevent being president of the United States?"

Olmert was reviving allegations that Netanyahu has sought to undermine the Obama presidency and encourage the challenge of Republican candidate Willard Mitt Romney
...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals. More to the point, he isn't President B.O...
 in Tuesday's presidential elections.

Responding directly to Olmert's comments, Netanyahu said such an approach could require Israel, unacceptably, to subcontract its destiny to others. "We're supposed to say there's nothing we can do?" he asked rhetorically, rejecting the notion. "If our backs are to the wall, we'll do what's necessary," he said.

Earlier in the program, without relating to any specific incidents, Olmert had related to the dilemmas he had faced as prime minister when ordering operations designed to slow Iran's march to the bomb. Implying but not stating that he had ordered liquidations of people involved in the Iranian nuclear program, he said "I asked myself questions" about such operations, but reminded himself of the imperative "to prevent Iran from developing the fuse that could end my children's lives."

The program, part of a documentary series called "Uvda" (Fact) on Israel's Channel 2, traced Israel's efforts to stop the Iranian bomb throughout the past decade.

In 2002, it said, then-prime minister Ariel Sharon had ordered Mossad chief Dagan to focus on the Iranian threat. A special Mossad unit was established and, via "dozens of intelligence operations," information was gathered first on Iran's reactor at Natanz and then on the clandestine facility at Qom.

Shown the proof, president George W. Bush assured Israel, "Don't worry, they won't have a nuclear weapon," an aide to Sharon told the program.

But Israel, by 2007, had decided it needed to have its own "program for action," Barak told the program. An Israeli document briefly shown on screen related to plans "to set the Iranians back by at least a few years" and noted, "Israel may have to strike..."

When the American National Intelligence Estimate in late 2007 asserted that Iran had frozen its nuclear weapons program, Israel was stunned, the program said. Its intelligence information conclusively proved that the NIE was wrong, former IDF military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told the program. "There then followed" a series of liquidations, kabooms and other setbacks in the Iranian program.

"A lot of things went wrong," Olmert noted.

"Things blew up," added Barak.

In 2008, when Bush visited Israel, Olmert said he showed the US president incontrovertible proof that Iran was seeking the bomb. From then on, Olmert said, the US and Israel agreed on open sharing of all relevant intelligence information, and to work together to thwart Iran.

There was one caveat, however, the program noted: Bush made it clear that he was "with you all the way," so long as Israel did not resort to unilateral military action.

The program featured much sniping by Olmert at Barak, and vice versa, with each accusing the other of requiring more responsible supervision. Olmert said he would not want "the overall responsibility" for thwarting Iran to be in Barak's hands. Barak said that "when it comes to using force," Olmert "requires supervision." Barak served as defense minister in the Olmert government until four years ago, continuing to hold the post in the current Netanyahu government.

The rebuffed call by Netanyahu and Barak for Ashkenazi and Dagan to get the military establishment ready for a possible strike within hours, the program said, brought Israel "closer than ever" to a strike. This section of the "Uvda" report was partially broadcast on Sunday night, prompting headlines in the Hebrew dailies on Monday.

Relating indirectly to the reported differences of opinion with his former security chiefs, Netanyahu said in his interview that he was "not eager for war" and hoped sanctions or other international action would thwart Iran.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Netanyahu Says Israel Ready to Strike Iran 'if Necessary'
2012-11-06
[An Nahar] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said his country is ready to strike Iran's nuclear sites "if necessary."

An Israeli TV network said Sunday that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in 2010 ordered the army to prepare an attack against Iranian nuclear installations, though the order was later rescinded.

According to private television Channel 2, the order was not implemented due to opposition from the army chief at the time, General Gabi Ashkenazi, and from then Mossad chief Meir Dagan.

At a meeting of top ministers, Netanyahu decided to order the elevation of the army's preparedness level to "P plus", a code meaning the armed forces must be ready to take action.

But Dagan opposed the move, Channel 2 reported, noting that a decision to launch a war against Iran could be taken only by the security cabinet comprising around 15 ministers.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Nasrallah: Our Missiles Are Syrian
2012-07-19
In speech marking Second Leb War's 6th anniversary, Hezbollah leader says 'shahids' killed in Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
 blast were 'our comrades in struggle against Israeli enemy'

"Israel is rejoicing today because the pillars of the Syrian Army were hit. That's what Israel wants - that Syria won't have a strong army, only a police force," Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah told supporters in Beirut Wednesday via video feed.
 
Nasrallah, who addressed the crowd to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the Second Leb War, pointed out the ties between his organization and the Syrian regime and praised the top Syrian officials who were killed in Wednesday's blast in Damascus for their support of the Paleostinians.

He mentioned Damscus' support of Hezbollah during the war. "In the war, the most valuable weapons we had in our possession were from Syria. The missiles we used in the Second Leb War were made in Syria. And it's not only in Leb but in Gazoo as well." Where did these missiles come from? The Saudi regime? The Egyptian regime? These missiles are from Syria."
 
Nasrallah referred directly to the top Syrian officials who were killed, Defense Minister Daoud Rajha and his deputy Assef Shawkat. "When Gazoo had nothing to eat Syria sent missiles and food. Rajha and Shawkat (symbolize) the Syria which helped the resistance in Paleostine. While other Arab regimes blocked (the transfer) of food and donations to Gazoo, it was Syria that sent food and weapons to Gazoo and took a chance. This is the Syria of Bashir al-Assad, this is the Syria of the shahid leaders. We denounce this blow which only serves the interests of the enemy."
 
"These shahids were our comrades in arms, in the resistance and in our struggle against the Israeli enemy. The Syrian army has many leaders which can shatter their enemies' hopes," claimed Nasrallah, while calling for political negotiations. "The solution can only come from dialogue, and we need to hurry up to get it going," the sheikh said.
 
Nasrallah pointed an accusatory finger towards the US and Arab countries. "The Syrian army is the only army in the region not receiving training or weapons from America. There was an interest to destroy this army. America, the West and its pawns in the Arab world used the just demands of the Syrian people and threw Syria into war," he claimed.
 
Nasrallah's speech was broadcast on giant screens during a Hezbollah gathering in a southern suburb of Beirut. "If it be Allah's will, you will remember the 33 days of fighting," he said, referring to the war.
 
Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah has a surprise in store should Israel choose to attack first in any future conflict. "We're preparing a big surprise for Israel, but I won't say what it is because then it won't be a surprise. We know that Israel is constantly gathering intelligence about us and, like in previous wars, it's preparing to land the initial blow."
 
"All Israelis - the generals, the military, the politicians are still under the shock of their surprising defeat (during the war). The Israelis keep on conducting symposiums, write articles and hold discussions with present and past leaders - and they're all talking about the defeat," the Shiite group's leader said.
 
He quoted Meir Dagan, former director of the Mossad, who told former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the war was "a national disaster."
 
"That's good enough for us," said Nasrallah, and claimed that during the war the "resistance" was prepared to bomb Tel Aviv.
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