This week’s activities in the Middle East have been overshadowed by Syria and her prodigies. Following is a brief summary by debkafile of the current situation as relates to Syria’s changing strategy concerning Israel. Four days after a “senior Israeli official” warned Assad through The New York Times of Wednesday, May 15 that he risks forfeiting power if he retaliates for Israeli attacks on weapons supplies to terrorists, “Israeli officials” were telling the London Times of Saturday, May 18 something quite different: “An intact, but weakened, Assad regime would be preferable,” they said. “Better the devil we know than the demons we can only imagine if… extremists from across the Arab world gain a foothold there.”
The night before this report, Fox News aired footage appearing to show Israeli commandos inside Syria racing back on foot to Israeli territory. Without going into whether the two sets of “Israeli officials” were one and the same, their utterances are clearly making Israel’s policy-makers and defense leaders look muddled and uncertain – or, worse, unable to think clearly – about how to cope with the menace building up on the Syrian Golan. This could take the form of a Syrian war of attrition and/or a Hizballah offensive against Upper and Western Galilee. At all events, the Syrian civil conflict appears poised ready to spill over to one or more of its neighbors, starting with Israel as a result of six factors:
1. President Barack Obama’s inability to make up his mind on whether the US should intervene militarily in Syria – even in a limited way, such as the imposition of no-fly zones or finding a way to supply non-Islamist Syrian rebel groups with sorely needed weapons.
2. The US president’s refusal to recognize that chemical weapons have already been used in Syria. His reaction to the file put before him in the White House Friday, May 17, by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan – with evidence from physicians treating wounded Syrians – remained dismissive. “The US has seen evidence of chemical weapons being used in Syria,” he said, adding however, “it is important to get more specific details about alleged chemical attacks.” This comment was interpreted as the US president’s acceptance of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian war so long as it was on a limited scale. Obama, like Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has therefore waved away another red line for military intervention in the Syria conflict, by closing his eyes to the evidence. Former Israeli defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was more realistic last week when he brusquely brushed aside a radio interviewer’s query by saying: Of course, Assad has used chemical weapons and isn’t it obvious that he has already transferred to Hizballah both chemical substances and other advanced weapons?
3. Following again in American footsteps, Israel failed to prevent Russia sending advanced S-300 anti-air and Yakhont anti-ship missiles to the Assad regime – both improved versions which were outfitted with sophisticated radar to improve their range and precision. When Netanyahu was challenged with failing in this mission in his May 14 trip to buttonhole Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, he said only that he would “travel wherever is needed and talk to whoever is needed to keep Israel safe and secure.”
This was the closest he came to admitting that he had fallen down on his efforts for keeping advanced Russian weaponry out of Syrian hands.
4. Strategic errors, which may turn out to be irreversible, because they emanated from faulty assessments shared by Israel and the Obama administration of the strengths on the Syrian battlefield. To this day, the US, Israel and Turkey cling to the belief that Assad’s days are numbered and refuse to recognize the steady advances made by the Syrian army in its counter-offensive for dislodging the rebels from land they captured in more than two years of combat.
5. This misreading of the Syrian ruler’s survivability is part and parcel of the omission by Obama, Netanyahu and Erdogan to appreciate and counter two major strategic changes overtaking the region:
a) They stood aside as Moscow, Tehran and Hizballah deepened their military commitments to Assad’s fight for survival – starting with the arrival of Russian military personnel in Syria to man the sophisticated missiles supplied by Moscow until Syrian crews were instructed in their use.
They didn’t raise a finger to interfere with the almost daily Russian and Iranian air lifts to Syrian air bases of complete brigades of elite Hizballah fighters and thousands of Iranian Bassij militiamen who now control key war sectors. Washington, Jerusalem and even Jordan sat on their hands when 3,000 Iraqi members of the Asai’b al-Haq (League of the Righteous) and Kataib Hizballah poured across the border into Syria to support Assad’s war on the Syrian rebellion.
b) Because they kept their distance from all these strategic game-changers in and around Syria, the US and Israel lost their chance to break up the Tehran-Damascus-Hizballah alliance. This objective the Obama administration once offered as his priority and the pretext for avoiding military action against a nuclear Iran. What Washington achieved by its hands-off stance on Syria was the very opposite: Instead of weakening the triple alliance, Obama has allowed it to be bolstered by Russian and Iraqi increments.
It is no wonder, therefore, that Moscow, Tehran, Damascus and Hizballah are behaving like winners and gearing up for the next stage of the Syrian war, which, if Tehran and Hizballah have their way, will evolve into a war of attrition against Israel waged from the Syrian Golan. The opening shot was fired Wednesday, May 15 by a Palestinian terrorist front under Syrian, Iranian and Hizballah tutelage, which shelled an Israeli military observation post on Mt. Hermon. This attack drew no direct Israeli response – par for the course.
6. A war of attrition against Israel from the Golan would not be a new experience either for Damascus or Moscow. In 1974, from March to May, Syrian forces, refusing to accept the defeat of their 1973 offensive against Israel, launched a harsh war of attrition from the same enclave, on the advice of their Soviet patron. In what became know as “the little war,” Syrian forces kept Israeli Golan under heavy shelling barrages and tried repeatedly to capture Mt Hermon. The big secret of that short-lived conflict was the deployment by the Soviet Union of two Cuban armored brigades on the Golan front against Israel, airlifted in from Angola. All the same, Damascus was forced to accept a ceasefire on Golan which was observed from that day on until the present. This time, the big difference is that Moscow can leave the heavy-lifting for a limited war on Israel to Tehran and Hizballah. Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah in one of his fiery speeches expressed eagerness to make the Golan his new front for war on Israel. And Friday, May 17, it was reported in Tehran that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had entrusted Al Qods Brigades commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani with the task of sending troops to the Golan to embark on hostilities against Israel. Once they begin, it will be hard to stop the violence from spreading to Israel’s borders with Lebanon, from Syria into Turkey and from Jordan into Syria and Iraq.

As reported on Wednesday the Putin-Netanyahu meeting at Putin’s Black Sea get-away in Sochi ended with the two leaders at loggerheads on Syria. Putin warned Netanyahu that Israel and its armed forces (the IDF) were headed for war with Syria, a war in which Russia may well be involved, and not just by supplying arms and advice. Netanyahu’s warning to Putin came just hours after mortar shells hit the Mount Hermon area for the first time in the two-year Syrian civil war, and as Arabic newspapers reported, talk of Hezbollah opening “a new front” against Israel on the Golan Heights. Israel had warned Damascus that if Bashar Assad chose to hit back at Israel for any further military strikes, Israel would bring down his regime. Syria also vowed last week to respond “immediately and harshly” to any further Israeli airstrikes, after Israel carried out two early morning attacks earlier this month on weapons consignments being stored in and around Damascus en route from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The shipments contained highly sophisticated Fateh-110 missiles. Today we know that Putin made good on his promise to provide Syria with four batteries of the advanced S-300 Anti-Aircraft System. We also know that Putin nor Netanyahu put all their cards on the table at Sochi, however, their meeting ended with the Russian leader fully confident that his capabilities for safeguarding Assad were greater than Israel’s ability to destroy him. We can just pray that Putin doesn’t have to prove his confidence by defending Assad in battle. The area to keep your eyes on at the moment is the Golan where Hizballah is digging in and preparing to wage a war of attrition against northern Israel with the help of Syria’s flow of advanced weapons. Depending on Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz’s decision for Israel’s next move, this activity in the Golan could mark the starting point of a war against Israel by Syria, Hizballah and other Assad proxies.

“For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. Psalms 27:5

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu interrupted his week to fly to Russian to meet with President Putin, at his villa on the Black Sea at the resort of Sochi, and all he came away with is his frequent-flyer miles. Netanyahu had made the long trip in a last ditch attempt to prevent Russia’s announced sale of S-300 Anti-Aircraft Systems to Bashar Assad’s beleaguered military. After a long series of “nyet’s,” Putin put Netanyahu on the hot-seat for much of their three hour meeting. He was addressed and redressed him concerning Israel’s two air strikes against Damascus on May 3rd and 5th. He was issued a stern warning by Putin: “In this critical period it is especially important to avoid any moves that can make the situation worse.” This was the diplomatic way of saying, “Pay close attention Binyamin, I want this to be perfectively clear! Another air-strike inside Syria is going cost ya big time. Understand? And furthermore, you of all people are in no position to demand Russia to void its sale of advanced, surface-to-air missiles to Syria. Putin wanted to make sure that Netanyahu understood that his journey to Sochi was a waste of time and that the control of the S-300 systems was now in the hands of Assad’s military and Russia’s technical support technicians. This now places Israel between the preverbal rock and a hard place. With Russia soldiers in Syria helping them to operate their new S-300 weapons systems they would be obvious victims of any attacks against these sites. This basically gives Assad and the Russians air-control of the skies over Syria, and parts of Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. This is a whole new ballgame now for the IDAF. Another interesting report came out of the British Iles today when analysis-work done by King’s College, London suggested that the Iranian 2010 Stuxnet malworm attack actually improved Iran’s enrichment operations. They believe that it uncovered vulnerabilities in Iran’s enrichment facilities which would have otherwise gone unnoticed. This allowed the Iranians to speed up their enrichment while the nuclear watch-dogs thought they were slowed down due to the Stuxnet virus. Additionally, today the Russian Navy is sailing back toward the Med with the intent of remaining. Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov said Sunday, May 12, that the process is underway for creating a permanent staff to run Russian fleet operations in the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean deployment would comprise five to six warships and their service vessels as well possibly as nuclear submarines, which say our military sources, are armed with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
The new permanent deployment is the next Russian step for safeguarding Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus and deterring military attacks on his Hizballah allies and Iranian interests in their three-way bloc. Moscow is also announcing loud and clear that Russia is finally restoring its military presence to the Middle East in 2013 after the last Soviet squadron exited the Mediterranean in 1992. Putin sees Obama and the US as weak and unprepared for any military action in the Middle East, and specifically Syria, as an open gateway for a Russian comeback in the region. This time they will come with a cornucopia of advanced weapons to trade for legitimacy and a permanent place in the ME. For now, there is no stopping Putin, not even if Turkey or Israel were to embark themselves on military intervention.

“To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.” Titus 1:15

After being on the road for a month it is good to be back with my laptop sharing with each of you this week’s happenings in the Middle East. Things had been unusually quiet these past weeks until a week ago, when on May 5th the Israeli Air Force attacked a military convoy on the outskirts of Damascus carrying suspected chemical agents to Hizballah in Lebanon. This attack brought quick verbal reproaches from Syria, Iran, Russia and the UN. This set in motion another phase in the non-ending civil war in Syria. The political powers seeking influence in the region have begun efforts to align themselves to have a say in the break-up of Syria when the time comes. The key players continue to be Russia, Turkey, the US, Iran and Saudi Arabia. While China would certainly like to be included in this list they have too much on their plate back home to get involved at this time. The upper-hand in this grab for control of Syria’s future will obviously be with whichever country can bring Syria’s rebel groups and military to the table for talks ending the fighting. Saudi Arabia is trying a longshot to be that country by exploring dialog with its number-one regional rival Iran. The Saudi’s actually have two objectives riding on this gamble, first is to end the Syrian conflict and secondly to insure Sunni Lebanon’s political future. They have given up on US policy in light of Russia and Iran’s unbending support for Bashar Assad. Therefore, Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal took advantage of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), in Jeddah this week on the Mali conflict, for getting together today, May 13th, with Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi who also was in attendance. The US has lost its opportunity to be a player here due to Obama’s fixation on Assad removal from power. This has blocked any dialogue with Russia and Iran due to their strong support for Assad. While this dance is taking place in the Middle East Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu will be traveling next week to the Black Sea town of Sochi for a personal call on President Vladimir Putin. Netanyahu is on another Syrian mission, i.e. to make a last-ditch attempt to persuade Putin to call off the sale of advanced S-300 Anti-Aircraft Missiles to Syria. However, it would appear that the chances of that happening are very slim. This is Putin’s way of getting back at Israel for attacking the target near Damascus on May 5th. He said his government would stand by all its commitments to Syrian ruler Bashar Assad and help defend his regime. At this point it looks like nothing will stop the scheduled S-300 deliveries. The S-300 is designed to shoot down airplanes and missiles at a range of 125 miles. These missiles also come with Russian crews officially described as instructors for training Syrian crews. Therefore, Israel will be potentially prevented from attacking these missiles batteries for fear of hitting Russian officers and troops. This could even prevent any further aerial operations over Syria by the IAF. Putin is currently unassailable in the Russian political context, he like Obama, has been empowered by his third term as president — “long live the king.”

“Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed to rob the needy of justice ….” Isaiah 10:1-2a

Two years after the popular revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak, Egypt appears headed toward a “failed state” scenario. While Cairo has not yet defaulted on its debts — an economic hallmark of nearly all erstwhile states — it already meets many of the other political conditions associated with comprehensive failure. In Washington, the discussion is narrowly focused on the implications of the rapidly deteriorating economic situation, with little appreciation that the financial morass is inextricably linked to the government’s increasingly authoritarian politics. If the ruling Islamist party does not change its approach, the economy will not improve, and the state will move closer to collapse. Since the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) came to power, governance in Egypt has exhibited several classic characteristics of failed states: Inconsistent and selective application of law. Deterioration of services: Basic public services such as electricity and gas are falling apart, with most Egyptians experiencing daily power cuts.. Unaccountable security apparatus: The interior minister, a Brotherhood loyalist, deploys the police to clash with opposition protesters while protecting the MB thugs who beat and torture demonstrators. Delegitimization of the state: Due to a legally faulty election law issued by the Morsi-appointed upper house of parliament, the legislative elections originally slated for this month have been delayed until November. Meanwhile, the opposition is now refusing to participate in elections because Egyptian institutions cannot guarantee the fairness of the process. When Secretary of State John Kerry tried to mediate last month, the MB undercut his efforts by publicly calling for elections without any of the promised changes to the electoral law, which were the basis of his mediation. The situation is pushing Egypt toward failure, and the MB government shows no sign of seeking a solution.
The political crisis has contributed to the country’s rapid economic deterioration. Unemployment has risen sharply, and tourism — which traditionally comprised around 20 percent of gross domestic product — is virtually nonexistent, with hotels experiencing occupancy rates of 10 percent on average. The dearth of dollars from tourism and foreign investment has left foreign reserves at a record low. Foreign currency is scarce, forcing many to turn to the black market at exorbitant exchange rates. Devaluation of the Egyptian pound has exacerbated the rising price of goods, and inflation is expected to worsen once the government implements the austerity measures mandated by the International Monetary Fund.
With the IMF loan that far off, the economy will face grave challenges this summer. The government will struggle to cover pensions, salaries, and remaining subsidies, and any number of nightmares could materialize: prices of consumer goods succumbing to hyperinflation; the U.S. dollar vanishing from banks and exchange offices; bank runs leading to bankruptcy; unprecedented losses on the stock exchange; lack of liquidity for new or existing projects; a lower credit rating that further drives away foreign investors; a drastic increase in petty crime; increasing layoffs; and the ever-looming prospect of a hunger revolution. Indeed, at the rate Egypt’s economy is deteriorating, the much-debated IMF loan would likely keep the country afloat for only a few more months at most — it is by no means clear that the money would catalyze much greater foreign assistance as Cairo expects.

While this site is normally devoted to events in the Middle East I was surprised and quite concerned today by Dekafile’s report on the two young men who were responsible for the Boston bombings this past Monday. This two men, the Tsarnaev Brothers formally from Chechnya, were Muslim spies recruited by the US and Saudi Arabia to penetrate the Wahhabi jihadist networks that were spreading across the restive Russian Caucuses. Instead, the two former Chechens betrayed their mission and went secretly over to the radical Islamist networks. Below is Dekafile’s full report which raises many questions concerning our and the Saudi government’s involvement in the terrorist bombing in Boston. This terror event begs the question of what other activities is our government involved in that risks the safety of the people of this nation. This story needs to be understood by every American and all those responsible and involved in any way involved for this terrorist act, no matter who they may be, should be brought to justice here in American courts.

The Tsarnaev brothers were double agents who decoyed US into terror trap
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis April 20, 2013

The big questions buzzing over Boston Bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have a single answer: It emerged in the 102 tense hours between the twin Boston Marathon bombings Monday, April 15 – which left three dead, 180 injured and a police officer killed at MIT – and Dzohkhar’s capture Friday, April 19 in Watertown.

The conclusion reached by DEBKAfile’s counterterrorism and intelligence sources is that the brothers were double agents, hired by US and Saudi intelligence to penetrate the Wahhabi jihadist networks which, helped by Saudi financial institutions, had spread across the restive Russian Caucasian.

Instead, the two former Chechens betrayed their mission and went secretly over to the radical Islamist networks.

By this tortuous path, the brothers earned the dubious distinction of being the first terrorist operatives to import al Qaeda terror to the United States through a winding route outside the Middle East – the Caucasus.

This broad region encompasses the autonomous or semi-autonomous Muslim republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, North Ossetia and Karachyevo-Cherkesiya, most of which the West has never heard of.

Moscow however keeps these republics on a tight military and intelligence leash, constantly putting down violent resistance by the Wahhabist cells, which draw support from certain Saudi sources and funds from the Riyadh government for building Wahhabist mosques and schools to disseminate the state religion of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis feared that their convoluted involvement in the Caucasus would come embarrassingly to light when a Saudi student was questioned about his involvement in the bombng attacks while in a Boston hospital with badly burned hands.

They were concerned to enough to send Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal to Washington Wednesday, April 17, in the middle of the Boston Marathon bombing crisis, for a private conversation with President Barack Obama and his national security adviser Tom Donilon on how to handle the Saudi angle of the bombing attack.
That day too, official Saudi domestic media launched an extraordinary three-day campaign. National and religious figures stood up and maintained that authentic Saudi Wahhabism does not espouse any form of terrorism or suicide jihadism and the national Saudi religion had nothing to do with the violence in Boston. “No matter what the nationality and religious of the perpetrators, they are terrorists and deviants who represent no one but themselves.”

Prince Saud was on a mission to clear the 30,000 Saudi students in America of suspicion of engaging in terrorism for their country or religion, a taint which still lingers twelve years after 9/11. He was concerned that exposure of the Tsarnaev brothers’ connections with Wahhabist groups in the Caucasus would revive the stigma.

The Tsarnaevs’ recruitment by US intelligence as penetration agents against terrorist networks in southern Russia explains some otherwise baffling features of the event:

1. An elite American college in Cambridge admitted younger brother Dzhokhar and granted him a $2,500 scholarship, without subjecting him to the exceptionally stiff standard conditions of admission. This may be explained by his older brother Tamerlan demanding this privilege for his kid brother in part payment for recruitment.

2. When in 2011, a “foreign government” (Russian intelligence) asked the FBI to screen Tamerlan for suspected ties to Caucasian Wahhabist cells during a period in which they had begun pledging allegiance to al Qaeda, the agency, it was officially revealed, found nothing incriminating against him and let him go after a short interview.

He was not placed under surveillance. Neither was there any attempt to hide the fact that he paid a long visit to Russia last year and on his return began promoting radical Islam on social media.

Yet even after the Boston marathon bombings, when law enforcement agencies, heavily reinforced by federal and state personnel, desperately hunted the perpetrators, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was never mentioned as a possible suspect

3. Friday, four days after the twin explosions at the marathon finishing line, the FBI released footage of Suspect No. 1 in a black hat and Suspect No. 2 in a white hat walking briskly away from the crime scene, and appealed to the public to help the authorities identify the pair.

We now know this was a charade. The authorities knew exactly who they were. Suddenly, during the police pursuit of their getaway car from the MIT campus on Friday, they were fully identified. The brother who was killed in the chase was named Tamerlan, aged 26, and the one who escaped, only to be hunted down Saturday night hiding in a boat, was 19-year old Dzhokhar.

Our intelligence sources say that we may never know more than we do today about the Boston terrorist outrage which shook America – and most strikingly, Washington – this week. We may not have the full story of when and how the Chechen brothers were recruited by US intelligence as penetration agents – any more than we have got to the bottom of tales of other American double agents who turned coat and bit their recruiters.

Here is just a short list of some of the Chechen brothers’ two-faced predecessors:

In the 1980s, an Egyptian called Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed offered his services as a spy to the CIA residence in Cairo. He was hired, even though he was at the time the official interpreter of Ayman al-Zuwahiri, then Osama bin Laden’s senior lieutenant and currently his successor.

He accounted for this by posing as a defector. But then, he turned out to be feeding al Qaeda US military secrets. Later, he was charged with Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam.

On Dec. 30, 2009, the Jordanian physician Humam Khalil al-Balawi, having gained the trust of US intelligence in Afghanistan as an agent capable of penetrating al Qaeda’s top ranks, detonated a bomb at a prearranged rendezvous in Kost, killing the four top CIA agents in the country.

Then, there was the French Muslim Mohamed Merah. He was recruited by French intelligence to penetrate Islamist terror cells in at least eight countries, including the Caucasus. At the end of last year, he revealed his true spots in deadly attacks on a Jewish school in Toulouse and a group of French military commandoes.

The debate has begun over the interrogation of the captured Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarmayev when he is fit for questioning after surgery for two bullet wounds and loss of blood. The first was inflicted during the police chase in which his brother Tamerlan was killed.

An ordinary suspect would be read his rights (Miranda) and be permitted a lawyer. In his case, the “public safety exemption” option may be invoked, permitting him to be questioned without those rights, provided the interrogation is restricted to immediate public safety concerns. President Barack Obama is also entitled to rule him an “enemy combatant” and so refer him to a military tribunal and unrestricted grilling.

According to DEBKAfile’s counter terror sources, four questions should top the interrogators’ agenda:

a) At what date did the Tsarnaev brothers turn coat and decide to work for Caucasian Wahhabi networks?

b) Did they round up recruits for those networks in the United States – particularly, among the Caucasian and Saudi communities?

c) What was the exact purpose of the Boston Marathon bombings and their aftermath at MIT in Watertown?

d) Are any more terrorist attacks in the works in other American cities?

While the US mourns the victims of the Boston bombings, Israeli leaders are busy preparing for a potential military attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities. However, the truth about who was behind Monday’s terrorist attack is still to be determined irregardless of what country the two perpetrators were from. A senior military commander of the Islamic regime of Iran had warned less than two months ago that terrorism was coming to America. Additionally, sources within Iran’s Supreme Leader’s office have been reported as saying that a team of Quds Force terrorists leaders had infiltrated the United States this year to attack the Great Satan from within. The source indicated the team planned to create instability in America through terrorism if the US failed to accept the regime’s illicit nuclear program to increase sanctions, confront Iran militarily or intervene in the Syrian Civil War. Iran’s media outlet Fars, denounced Obama’s decision to help the opposition in Syria and hinted that the Boston attack is related to al-Qaida and hardcore Sunnis. It concluded that Obama would likely not name the Muslims as the guilty party to protect his own image. Although the Islamic regime has long warned that America will not be safe from its reach and that it must not only accept Iran’s nuclear program, but also end its support for the opposition in Syria. At this time the Boston investigators have not had sufficient opportunity to see if there are any links to Iran. Israel on the other hand is more concerned with permanently stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program and they are ready to strike with or without US support. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made this clear in an interview with the BBC yesterday. Israel has “different vulnerabilities and different capabilities” from the United States, he said. “We have to make our own calculations, when we lose the capacity to defend ourselves by ourselves.” Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of strategic and intelligence affairs and international relations, said in an interview that Iran was abusing the diplomatic process to further its uranium enrichment program and that it was “high time” for the international community to issue Iran “a deadline or a timetable, or even a military threat.” Despite the White House efforts to contain Israel, its Prime Minister has made it very clear that Israel was prepared, and had the capability, to carry out a lone military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities if necessary.

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forever more.” Psalm 125:2

Don’t look now, but the birthday of Kim Jong-Un’s grandfather, Kim Il-Sung, is right around the corner on Monday, with absurd celebrations and marathons and magic horses all weekend. But nothing would do more poetic justice to North Korea’s warped version of history and its “unacceptable” war-mongering rhetoric than to drown one of its oldest enemies in a sea of nuclear flames. Which absurdity will win out? “North Korea warned Japan Friday that Tokyo would be the first target in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula if it continues to maintain its hostile posture,” reports South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency this morning in America, by way of a report from the DPRK’s state-run Korean Central News Agency. That’s pretty scary, especially since things had been calming down for a few days there — and especially considering the Pentagon can’t even make up its mind about what, exactly, Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities look like right now. But there’s sort of a loophole in today’s news. Notice how the warning reads: “if it” — as in Japan — “continues to maintain its hostile posture.” What the North Korean propaganda machine appears to be referring to is Tuesday’s action out of Japan, when it set up a slew of interceptor missiles in Tokyo as a precaution against North Korea’s declarations of war. And there have been plenty of precautionary measures from around the globe of late after what Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday called “unacceptable” rhetoric from the all too excitable Kim dynasty. But there is a deeper, more immediate layer of trouble: By the time Sunday afternoon strikes in the U.S., so will the 101st birthday of Kim Il-Sung, the autocrat who formalized the dynasty’s way of rule in the 1960s and ’70s and who, according to the history of North Korea, was responsible for single-handedly defeating the Japanese. Just yesterday KCNA, the state-run news agency, pumped out a story about a painting of Kim Il-Sung’s white horse, which supposedly saved his life by spotting that North Korea’s Supreme Leader was on fire. That sort of gives you an impression of how ridiculous — and ridiculously important — this occasion will be in Pyongyang for showing off history and might. And some experts have long voiced legitimate fears that the Kim might actually do something to mark that occasion, such as sending — or threatening to send — a medium-range missile into the territory of the grandfather of absurdity’s favorite enemy. So what’s giving peace a chance? Well, mostly that North Korea has an actual history of making threats it never fulfills. But, at least for planning purposes, nuclear provocations might get in the way of North Korea’s big national marathon Sunday to celebrate Kim Il-Sung. “Despite warnings of pre-emptive nuclear strikes and imminent war, ahead of the marathon state TV showed a calm scene in Pyongyang yesterday, with North Koreans holding open air dances in preparation for their April 15 national holiday,” reported NK News, which adds, “Held every year on the streets of North Korea’s capital city, the Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon will take place this Sunday as part of a broader multiple-day sports tournament held to commemorate the April 15 birthday of North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung.” There’s no way all that open-air dancing would be all for naught, right? North Korea’s threat against Japan also comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke in Seoul on Friday. He offered, as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did yesterday, some very practical analysis that North Korea probably doesn’t want to hear — a lot of which revolved around not backing down (via the BBC). The rhetoric that we’re hearing from North Korea is simply unacceptable – by any standard – and I am here to make it clear today on behalf of President Obama and the citizens of the United States and our bilateral security agreement, that the United States will, if needed, defend our allies and defend ourselves (Source the Atlantic Wire).

NOTE:
This blog may be somewhat intermittent over the next few weeks as your blogger will be traveling until around the middle of May. However, if anything really important happens I will do my best to keep you, my readers, informed.

The Syrian rebels have been fighting desperately in an attempt to take over Damascus and Syria’s government. While it appeared for a while they might be successful the power of Iran’s elite Republican Guards forces and Assad’s military were finally able to push them out of the center of the city. The Syrian armored units cornered the rebel forces which had massed in the Ghouta suburb ready to take the center of Damascus. Few survived the merciless pounding by the Syrian tanks and artillery. In two other eastern suburbs, Daria and the Sayida Zainab, the rebels were surprised while preparing to storm the international airport and made a panicky rush for the exits when they saw the Syrian forces driving toward them. Syria’s rulers owe this landmark success to the speed of their operation and the positioning of tanks and heavy artillery in the vanguard to lay down a hellish carpet of fire as they moved. This tactic was almost certainly designed by Assad’s foreign military advisers, either Iranian or Russian, as the largest-scale military operation to be seen on the battlefield in Syria’s two-year uprising-turned-civil war. The rebels fought back Monday with a suicide car bomb attack in the Sabaa Bahrat Square of central Damascus. “Terrorists detonate car bomb between Sabaa Bahrat Square and Shahbander Street,” the state broadcaster reported, pointing to an apparent suicide attack. Firefighters rushed to the area, attempting to control blazes started by the explosion which one state broadcaster said took place near a school, adding that children were believed to be among the dead and wounded.
The attack near the Syrian central bank was not immediately claimed by any group.
“We say to those behind these attacks that the Syrian people… will move forward to crush these armed terrorist gangs,” Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi said, speaking to media at the scene. The attack near the Syrian central bank was not immediately claimed by any group. “We say to those behind these attacks that the Syrian people… will move forward to crush these armed terrorist gangs,” Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi said, speaking to media at the scene. The foreign ministry, meanwhile, said that Syria will not accept a chemical weapons team, as proposed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons. Ban has “suggested a supplementary mission allowing the mission to deploy throughout Syrian territory, which is contrary to the demand Syria made to the United Nations,” a ministry official said, cited by state news agency SANA. He said “Syria cannot accept such maneuvers on the part of the UN secretariat general, bearing in mind the negative role that it played in Iraq and which cleared the way to the American invasion” of that country in 2003. So Syria’s civil war continues daily adding more causalities to the 70,000 which have already perished.