Israel planning some shenanigans for Iran in the coming month?
2009 is going to be a really fun year!
Obviously you missed this. I really have to hand it to the Israelis, they do not fuck around. The contrast between an Israeli leader saying the first thing he will do in office and Obama closing Guantanamo couldn’t be starker.
Just remember this too. A couple of weeks ago when Israel took on Hamas I told you that Israel was preparing the field of battle so they could take on Iran. They were getting Hamas out of the way first so they can’t make reprisals after Iran gets hit.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hcX49mNGhMPjANq3C-wSH833a0swD962AVP00
Netanyahu says Iran will not get hands on nukes
By ARON HELLER ? 1 day ago
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leading candidate for prime minister, said Saturday that Iran “will not be armed with a nuclear weapon.”
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat. Netanyahu, the current opposition leader and head of the hardline Likud party, called Iran the greatest danger to Israel and to all humanity.
When asked if stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions included a military strike, he replied: “It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true.”
Iran has denied it is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and says it is pursuing nuclear power for peaceful uses. It also denies it is engaged in terrorism, instead accusing Israel of terrorist policies against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, which were occupied by Israel after the 1967 Mideast War.
The Channel 2 TV broadcast interviewed all three candidates for prime minister ahead of the Feb. 10 election. The three did not debate each other and appeared one after the other to answer questions posted by Israelis in YouTube videos.
Tzipi Livni of Kadima and Ehud Barak of Labor were both asked about how they intended to deal with the continuing rocket threat from Hamas militants in Gaza. Both took a hard line.
“Hamas was hit like it was never hit before,” Barak, the defense minister, said. “If they try us again, they will be hit again.”
Israeli launched a massive three-week offensive against Gaza militants on Dec. 27 to stop eight years of near-daily militant rocket fire at southern Israeli towns. Nearly 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, about half of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians.
Livni, the foreign minister, said if Hamas “hasn’t gotten the message yet” Israel would strike it again.
Regardless, she said Hamas could not be negotiated with and called on the people of Gaza to overthrow their regime.
“I do not intend to reach any agreements with Hamas. Agreements I make with people who accept my existence,” she said. “They do not recognize Israel and do not renounce violence and terrorism. They will not be a party to an agreement and therefore the people of Gaza have to expel the Hamas from within them.”
Another crisis to pay attention to is this. Because it could precipitate a confrontation between the two.
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5886
Cyprus fears if Iran arms ship is released, Israeli navy will seize it
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
February 1, 2009, 4:30 PM (GMT+02:00)
Iran arms ship in Limassol
Iran arms ship in Limassol
Israel informed Washington, Cairo and Nicosia that surface missiles bound for Hamas are concealed in the steel holds of the Cypriot-flagged Iran Hedayt which the US intercepted but did not stop in the Red Sea last week.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that after neither the US nor Egypt laid hands on the cargo when they had the chance, Cyprus finds itself stuck Saturday, Jan 31, with hard choices: the US and Israel are pressing Nicosia not to let the ship go without a further search for fear Israel will seize it and precipitate an armed clash with Iran. Tehran on the other hand threatens Nicosia with diplomatic and economic retribution if the vessel is not released forthwith.
Friday, Cyprus president Demetris Christofias said a ship anchored off Limassol was being searched carrying cargo that contravenes UN resolutions. Cyprus state radio reported the vessel may have been traveling from Iran to Syria with weapons destined for Hamas.
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni informed Nicosia that the cargo aboard the Iran Hedayt contravened the UN Security Council Resolution 1747 which forbids Iran to export arms under international sanctions.
But foreign minister Markos Kyprianou later backpedalled by saying the authorities were still trying to determine if the ship’s cargo contravenes United Nations resolutions.
After Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said on Jan. 28 that the US Navy had no authority to seize the weapons aboard the Iranian vessel ?“The US did as much as we could” - Nicosia too is reviewing its options.
As the arms vessel made its way from Bandar Abbas to the Red Sea, tracked by DEBKAfile’s sources from Jan. 20, Jerusalem counted on the Livni-Rice memorandum of understanding for a joint effort to stop Iranian arms smuggling to Hamas kicking in. There was a precedent.
On Dec. 2, 2002, American warships helped two Spanish warships halt a North Korean cargo vessel and confiscate Scud missiles bound for Saddam Hussein hidden beneath sacks of cement.
But the Iranian cargo for Hamas was not touched and the ship was allowed to proceed.
Jerusalem is watching tensely now to see what the Cypriots do next. If they let the arms ship go without confiscating the missiles aboard, Tehran will be encouraged to send more arms ships to Hamas and the entire international effort to stop Hamas rearming, which was implicit in Israel’s unilateral ceasefire, will cave in before it ever took off.
This Iranian arms ship was first revealed exclusively by DEBKAfile on Jan. 20 and tracked further on Jan. 23 and Jan. 25. Click HERE.
So how long before this spins completely out of control.
[quote]John S. wrote:
So how long before this spins completely out of control.[/quote]
I don’t think it will. The situation has been such that I thought anything would set it off the powder keg and all hell will break lose, but it never happens.
There will be military action followed by posturing and the cycle will just continue.
Israel finally received the “Bunker Busters” from the U.S. that they needed to neutralize Irans nuclear facilities.
While I thought that delivering such heavy ordinance was going to be an issue, (we tend to use heavy Bombers); it appears that the Israelis have the capability.
Often Israeli public “threats” are actually just a prelude to action.
Mufasa
[quote]John S. wrote:
So how long before this spins completely out of control.[/quote]
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hcX49mNGhMPjANq3C-wSH833a0swD962AVP00
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leading candidate for prime minister, said Saturday that Iran “will not be armed with a nuclear weapon.”
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat.
When asked if stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions included a military strike, he replied: “It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true.”
The Channel 2 TV broadcast interviewed all three candidates for prime minister ahead of the Feb. 10 election.