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Let the Headlines Speak
Jun 15th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Joint US-Israeli contingency plan: '18 chemical targets in Syria'
While the US prepares to arm rebels and after its confirmation that the Syrian army has used chemical weapons and crossed the much debated 'red line', TIME magazine publishes a detail account of how and when the US and Israel plan to destroy President Bashar Assad's chemical weapon stockpiles. According to the report, the two countries have formed a number of contingency plans in case Assad's regime falls...  

Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home
A recent briefing by senior intelligence officials on surveillance programs failed to attract even half of the Senate, showing the lack of enthusiasm in Congress for learning about classified security programs. Many senators elected to leave Washington early Thursday afternoon instead of attending a briefing with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA)...  

Russia says illegal to impose no-fly zone over Syria
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria using F-16 fighter jets and Patriot missiles from Jordan would violate international law. Russia, which has protected Syrian President Bashar Assad from three UN Security Council resolutions aimed at pressuring him to end violence, vehemently opposes any foreign military intervention in the Syrian conflict.  

Is Obama Starting A War With Syria Just A Distraction From All The Scandals?
Well, isn't that convenient? At the moment when the Obama administration is feeling more heat then ever before, it starts another war. Suddenly everyone in the mainstream media is talking all about Syria and not about the IRS scandal, Benghazi, NSA snooping or any of the other political scandals that have popped up in recent weeks.  

Hassan Rouhani leads Iran presidential election vote count
Early results from Iran's presidential election put the reformist-backed candidate, Hassan Rouhani, in the lead. Official figures give him just over half the 16 million votes counted so far - well ahead of second-placed Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Mr Rouhani could win in the first round if he finishes with more than 50%  

U.S. considers no-fly zone after Syria crosses nerve gas 'red line'
The United States is considering a no-fly zone in Syria, potentially its first direct intervention into the two-year-old civil war, Western diplomats said on Friday, after the White House said Syria had crossed a "red line" by using nerve gas. After months of deliberation, President Barack Obama's administration said on Thursday it would now arm rebels, having obtained proof the Syrian government used chemical weapons against fighters trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. Two senior Western diplomats said Washington is looking into a limited no-fly zone close to Syria's southern border with Jordan.  

Web companies begin releasing surveillance information after U.S. deal
Facebook and Microsoft have struck agreements with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive, a modest victory for the companies as they struggle with the fallout from disclosures about a secret government data-collection program.  

Some Protesters in Turkey Disavow Agreement With Premier to End Park Sit-In
Taksim Square is mostly back to normal: the taxicabs line up in front of fancy hotels, whose doormen no longer clutch gas masks, and outdoor cafes are bustling again.  

IM O'NEILL: We Could See A Bond Crash
As the market speculates on when the Fed will begin to slow its quantitative easing program, former Goldman Sachs Asset Management chairman Jim O'Neill isn't alone in believing a taper would mean turbulence for financial markets. But for O'Neill, it would also "not be a stretch" to see 5% yields on the 10-year Treasury, reports Bloomberg.  

Supreme Court Denies Gruesome Abortion Image Case
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 10 refused to hear an appeal of a Colorado ruling that bars protesters from displaying graphic images of abortion in places that might upset children.  

Russia questions Syrian chemical weapons evidence
Russia's foreign minister says the evidence put forth by the United States of chemical weapons use in Syria apparently doesn't meet stringent criteria for reliability. The Obama administration said this week that it will give lethal aid to Syrian rebels in light of evidence that President Bashar Assad's forces used chemical weapons in the country's civil war.  

‘Over 70 Syrian officers, families cross border to Turkey’
As many as 73 Syrian military officers — including seven generals and 20 colonels — have crossed the border with their families “seeking refuge” in Turkey, the country’s state-run news agency reported Friday.

Report: Mosques Exempt from Government Surveillance
According to an online editorial in Investor's Business Daily, mosques have been off-limits to the FBI for almost two years. Since October 2011, says that report, surveillance or undercover sting operations in mosques have been prohibited without high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department dubbed the "Sensitive Operations Review Committee." The panel was reportedly set up because of complaints from Muslim groups about sting operations conducted by the FBI, which were very effective in disrupting dozens of Islamic terror plots against the homeland—and just months after the ACLU and the Council on American-Islamic Relations sued the FBI, asserting that infiltration and monitoring of Los Angeles mosques violated the civil rights of Muslims in that area.

Kerry's Plan: Core Issues, Then Gestures, and Finally Jerusalem
Jun 15th, 2013
Daily Newsisraelhayom.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Senior diplomatic officials in Jerusalem say that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to unveil a gradual multistep peace plan between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Due to the expected plan, the U.S. has asked the European Union to step back for the time being from its own peace-seeking efforts. At this point, it is unclear whether EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will nix a planned upcoming trip to Israel and leave the stage for Kerry.

Kerry was supposed to visit Israel this week, but delayed his trip, in part to give Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas more time to decide whether to return to the negotiating table with Israel.

The U.S. is demanding that Abbas return to negotiations without preconditions, but Abbas has said that Israel must freeze all construction beyond the Green Line, including in Jerusalem, and release around 100 convicted Palestinian terrorists who have been imprisoned since before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Israel is not willing to accept any Palestinian preconditions for the renewal of peace talks. 

Under Kerry's plan, Israel and the Palestinians would immediately enter into negotiations on core issues, based on the recognition of two states, the right of the Palestinian people to independence and the preservation of Israel's security interests and main settlement blocs. At this first stage, the Palestinians would also receive an economic aid package.

After the two sides reach agreements on a number of core issues, Israel would make a gesture to the Palestinians that includes a freeze of settlement construction and the release of prisoners. 

The issue of Jerusalem would be left for the end of negotiations.

At this point, it is unclear whether Kerry will propose a target end date that would create a timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians are again threatening to renew their efforts to achieve full statehood status at the U.N. Israeli officials said that such a step by the Palestinians would show that they are not willing to move toward a peace agreement with Israel. 

At the same time, some Israeli government ministers are speaking out against negotiations with the Palestinians. 

"I don't see peace on the horizon," Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday. "The entire Middle East is falling apart before our eyes, and none of [the countries in the region] are joining the World Zionist Organization.”

Speaking at the new Land of Israel Caucus in the Knesset, Bennett said the goal of the forum was to find an alternative to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Hizballah Units Near Golan. Some Receive “limited - use Chemical Arms
Jun 15th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

American sources claimed Saturday,  June 15, that the “military support” the Obama administration promised the Syrian opposition Friday consisted of automatic weapons, mortars and recoilless rocket grenades (RPGs) for delivery within three weeks through Turkey.

Those items, say debkafile’s military sources, are no more than a mockery of the rebels’ needs. Any Middle East arms trafficker can quickly lay hands on advanced anti-air and anti-tank missiles for a price running into tens of thousands of dollars – whether in Lebanon, Egyptian Sinai, the Palestinian Authority - or even in trading among the Syrian rebel militias themselves. The going prices, according to our sources, are for instance, up to $50,000 for a shoulder-borne Grail SA-7 anti-air missile and $40,000 for a T-55 tank in poor technical condition plus 40 shells.
After the US weapons arrive, the huge imbalance between the rebels’ and Syrian army’s arsenals will be as stark as ever. It widens constantly with the landing almost every few hours of Russian and Iranian air transports delivering military equipment to cover the ongoing war requirements of the Syrian army and Hizballah.
Friday, as Iranians elected a new president, their supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech: “To the Americans, I say, OK, to hell with you. Any one who listens to you is a loser. The Iranian people have never attached any value to their enemies.”

And in Beirut, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah said: “Where we need to be, we will be. Where we began assuming responsibilities, we will continue to assume responsibilities” and, he added, no one in Lebanon will be allowed to interfere with this.
Nasrallah, half of whose military strength is fighting for Bashar Assad in Syria, was warning Hizballah’s foes at home that he is still strong enough to deal with any opponents of his Syrian venture as well.
On the heels of the bravado from Tehran and Beirut, a statement heard Friday from Damascus strongly pointed to the three allies’ forthcoming direction.  Syrian President Bashar Assad said: “We have plans to open a resistance front on the Golan Heights,” adding that “such a move could unify the various factions in Syria.” This was the first time Assad had disclosed his plans to join “the resistance” against Israel as a diversion for breaking up the rebel front against his regime.
He spoke after ordering the Syrian and Hizballah troops to peel off into two heads and advance simultaneously on two fronts – one, for their major offensive to recapture Aleppo, and two, the Golan, which is divided between Syria and Israel.

debkafile’s military sources report that Thursday night, the first movements were detected heading toward the Syrian side of the Golan and the Jordanian border, from the Syrian and Hizballah military concentrations piling up in the last two weeks around the southwestern town of Deraa.

Senior officers in the IDF’s Northern command have no doubt that Assad plans to deploy Hizballah units on the border of Israeli Golan while a Syrian back-up force will take up position on the Jordanian border. According to some intelligence sources, rudimentary “limited-use” chemical weapons have been handed out to some of the Hizballah units operating in Syria. They come in the form of plastic canisters, roughly the size of a tin of canned food, which can be fired or simply lobbed by hand. Poisonous sarin nerve gas escapes through two holes upon impact.

This device was developed by Iran for the Syrian army to use on a small scale to save Assad from being accused of using a “weapon of mass destruction.”

In Washington, US and Israeli officials took turns Friday night in junking their red lines for Syria. The Obama administration confirmed that the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against the opposition on multiple occasions was “on a small scale.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said in a lecture that Israel had set the Assad regime three red lines against supplying advanced weapons to Hizballah or any other terrorist group; letting them have chemical weapons or allowing Israel to be attacked from the Golan.

Both the US administration and Israel have been overtaken by events. By downplaying the scale of Syrian chemical warfare and providing the rebels with nothing more than light weapons, Washington is in effect granting Assad a license to continue his “small scale” use of chemical weapons. And the Israeli defense minister chose to ignore the fact that the Syrian ruler is past trampling over Israel’s red lines, safe thus far from  evoking an effective response.

The sense of the rest of his remarks at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Friday are equally abstruse: “Israel will not intervene in Syrian in part because any such intervention would harm the side Israel favors,” said Ya’alon. But he did not address the reverse situation which is more realistic, whereby Syria and Hizballah are preparing to “intervene” in Israel.

The impression gained from his remarks was that, just as the Obama administration has chosen to hold back from a pointed response to Assad’s use of chemical weapons, so too Israel is backing away from coming to grips with the offensive build-up targeting its borders.
Is Moshe Ya’alon simply toeing the line of Obama’s non-intervention policy for Syria?

At all events, he never mentioned by a single word the fact that Hizballah has been armed with “limited-use chemical weapons” - either before or after his meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel early Saturday.