Category Archives: Israel

War of Drones Reaches the Sinai: Everybody Hitting Muslims and Arabs…………

August 9, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“Egyptian security officials say an Israeli drone fired a missile in the northern Sinai peninsula, killing five suspected Islamic militants and destroying a rocket launcher. Residents heard a large explosion Friday in the region near the border with Israel. The officials say the attack was in cooperation with Egyptian authorities. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Israeli military said they are looking into the report. Egypt’s military and security forces are engaged in long battle against Islamic jihadists in the largely lawless peninsula..………….”

American drones have been blasting Muslim and Arab territory in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, North Africa, the Sahel with impunity for a few years. The intended targets have been Al-Qaeda terrorists, but many civilians have been killed and injured. They have also been spying on whoever they have not been bombing, including Iran (remember the hacked RQ-170 Sentinel drone of Dec. 2011?).
Now Israel seems to be getting into the act. Israeli drones have reportedly been violating Lebanese and Syrian, possibly other, airspace for some time. Now they seem to be engaged in attacks over the Sinai Peninsula, almost certainly with the consent of the Egyptian military. The Egyptian military, good at overthrowing governments and shooting civilians, apparently cannot pacify the Sinai any more than it can win wars. It seems to have decided to subcontract the security of the Sinai to the Israelis. If media reports today are correct.

So what we have are foreign drones waging war over Muslim and Arab territory, a battle-front extending from South Asia to the African Sahel. Now the Sinai has been added. Next target of drone attacks to fill the gaps? Possibly Gaza and Libya.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Germany, Israel

Bibi Netanyahu Joins Cartoon Network in Germany………..

August 7, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“German daily Stuttgarter Zeitung published a caricature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he poisons the dove of Middle East peace. According to the drawing, the prime minister is spilling poison from a bottle marked “settlement construction” onto a peace of bread, as the dove stands next to him, holding an olive branch in its mouth. In early July, the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung, a daily newspaper, published a caricature criticizing Germany’s military aid to Israel. “Germany presents” the drawing’s subheading read, elaborating: “For decades Israel receives arms, sometimes for free. Israel’s detractors believe Israel to be a voracious Moloch. Peter Beinart condemns this situation.” Beinart is a liberal Jewish professor and journalist known for his critical stance on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. …………….”
Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Iran, Israel, Mossad, Mujahideen Khalq, nuclear Iran

Next Year with the Bomb: Mossad’s Iranian Proxies Claim Secret Nuclear Site………

July 13, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“An exiled Iranian opposition group claimed on Thursday to have evidence of a hidden nuclear site located in tunnels beneath a mountain near the town of Damavand, 70 kilometres (44 miles) northeast of Tehran. The Paris-based militant group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), alleges the site has existed since 2006 with the first series of subterranean tunnels and four external depots recently completed. The group also claims the recently elected president Hassan Rowhani, a former nuclear negotiator, had a “key role” in the programme…………….”

MEK, MKO, PMOI, former pals and henchmen of Saddam Hussein, are as credible on Iranian nuclear matters as the North Korean intelligence services are on South Korean politics, possibly less. In matters Iranian and nuclear, they are as credible as Mr. Netanyahu, who has been predicting an Iranian nuclear bomb “next year” since the 1990s. Which points them out as being much less credible than the Mossad.
The Iranians retaliate by claiming that the MEK was involved as proxies for Mossad (even for some Western agencies) in murdering Iranian academics and scientists and their families inside Iran. (But that can’t be, can it? After all, that would be called terrorism if the targeted victims were Westerners). They have also claimed that the MEK were involved in terrorist acts abroad for which the Iranian regime was blamed (maybe). Normally this new secret site would have been reported to the United States intelligence community and the Mossad (not necessarily in that order) before publicizing it in the media, if it were true. Unless the newly legitimized MEK has gone off the reservation. Therefore, my fatwa is that it is probably not true. Besides, with more than half the world’s satellites focusing their powerful cameras and audio receivers on Iran there is not much the mullahs can do that is not known by Western governments (and I mean they better have that noisy fan on and the curtains closed when necessary)……………

On Nuclear Weapons and Authoritarian Regimes and Crying Wolf Deliberately

Obama Goes Nuclear in Israel: Pushes Iran Threshold Beyond 1995 and 2001 and 2007 and 2013 and……..

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Iran, Israel, U.S. Congress, US Foreign Policy

Lieberman Pushes Israeli War Agenda from Outside the US Senate…………

July 11, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“While the tumultuous events in Egypt and Syria have focused the public’s attention on civil strife in those countries, Iran remains the biggest threat to the United States in the Mideast, says former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. “The most dangerous challenge to U.S. national security brewing in the region continues to be the Iranian regime’s pursuit of a nuclear-weapons capability,” Lieberman, who served in the Senate as both a Democrat and an independent, writes in The Wall Street Journal. The most important recent development in Iran is last month’s election of Hasan Rouhani as president and reaction to that result has generally been divided in two ways, says Lieberman, now senior counsel at the law firm……………….”

Good old Joe Lieberman. There was a time in 2000 when I thought Al Gore’s best and boldest move was to choose Joe as his running mate. The man who later in 2008 worked so hard to get Sarah Palin elected vice president of the United States. Lucky the American people were smarter than he was. Joe who single-handed screwed up Mr. Obama’s original Healthcare plan. He spent the last few years of his Senate tenure pushing for new Middle East wars, pushing for new and improved American wars on more Arab and Muslim lands. He made sure before he left the senate that the American sanctions, the blockade, against Iran are so water tight they can never be removed without congressional approval, meaning they can never be removed without Israeli approval.
Like Tony Blair, Joe occasionally crawls out of whatever rock he is under, to push for his favorite next war.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Cinema, Culture, Israel, Jews

Was Superman Jewish? Is Superman Jewish? About the Socialist Haganah…….

June 17, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“Superman, the invention of two U.S. Jews, is a profoundly Jewish character whose film history is entwined with that of American Jewry…………It’s hard to imagine anyone less Jewish — or more goyish — than Superman. One could point to his white-bread name, his Midwestern origins, his hypermasculine physique, his feats of strength and his overall Man of Steel status. Yet Superman was the creation of two American Jews, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who envisioned him as a conceptually Jewish character……………….”

I am not sure about this. When Superman first landed on Earth and was adopted by a Christian family in the flyover rural Midwest, even Jews would not have identified any Jewishness in his character. He was so physical and apolitical, he was not even a socialist.
Anyway, now the Muftis and shaikhs (Shaikh Al, Shaikh Qaradawi, et al) will have another beef with the Man of Steel, even if he is now claimed to be kosher and halal. One thing in his favor with the shaikhs: he never joined a kibbutz and the Haganah in Palestine. As far as we know; but Hollywood is not done with Superman, never will be.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Iran, Iran Elections, Israel, U.S. Congress

Iran: Mr. Rouhani’s Illusory Western Honeymoon……….

June 16, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“The stunning landslide election of Hassan Rowhani as Iran’s next president highlighted a deep frustration among many Iranians about the direction of their country, especially an economy marred by skyrocketing prices, stagnant salaries and dwindling job opportunities. In explaining their vote for Rowhani, many spoke of change. They alluded not to hot-button international issues such as Iran’s contentious nuclear program or its die-hard support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but to the slumping economy…………………”

Iranian elections have shown over the years that they are often unpredictable. The moderate Hassan Rouhani is the newly elected president of Iran. The people of Iran have shown they are eager to reform and engage. But probably not to surrender. There is suddenly so much talk of goodwill in Western media, especially in American media. For now.
We should remember the last reformist president of Iran. Mohammed Khatami was even more reformist, more engaging. Iran’s nuclear program was not deemed as contentious, mainly because Israel had a different government and the U.S. Congress did not act as a branch of the Likud coalition. Khatami even showed sympathy and turned a blind eye to the American invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Yet in January of 2002, Mr. Bush delivered a bad speech in which he added Mr. Khatami’s country to North Korea and Baathist Iraq in a stupidly-named Axis of Evil.
So, give it some time. Mr. Netanyahu and his omnipotent lobbyists and the U.S. ~~Knesset~~ Congress have not started their work on Mr. Rouhani yet. And they will.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Europe, Hezbollah, Israel, Terrorism

Free Bulgarian Army: Remember the Bulgarian-Israeli-US Evidence of Hezbollah Terror Attack?………………

March 18, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“Bulgarian investigators said Monday they will conduct test explosions to help move forward a probe into last year’s airport bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian, as media reported dead ends in the case. Two buses were to be blown up using bombs that were similar in composition and strength to the one used in the July 18 attack at Burgas airport on the Black Sea, investigation chief Georgy Iliev told state BNR radio. The aim of the experiment is to find out where the still unidentified bomber stood at the time of the detonation and whether he was carrying the bag with the explosives on his shoulders, or whether it was placed in the bus’s luggage compartment. Iliev’s comments came as Bulgarian media reported that the probe had come to a standstill after investigators failed to obtain key information they had requested from Australia, Canada, Lebanon, the United States and Morocco………… Chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov told the newspaper that the evidence collected so far was not conclusive enough to stand up in court. On Saturday, Bulgaria’s caretaker prime minister Marin Raykov said it did not plan to initiate a procedure for blacklisting Hezbollah….. ………”

Remember all the immediate convictions that were issued in Western and Israeli media? And the secret intelligence officials who assured the New York Times of clear evidence that Hezbollah and/or Iran were behind the terrorist attack? Remember ‘intelligent’ Congressmen who assured us that the evidence was conclusive?

They rushed it to get the European Union to rush into listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. European right-wing politicians salivated. Many other Europeans ‘noticed’ that the conclusions were shoddy, that incomplete ‘evidence’ was being used to push them into making ‘certain’ political decisions quickly. Many in the Bulgarian opposition (Bulgarian dissidents? Bulgarian activists? Let’s call them the Free Bulgarian Army) accused the right-wing regime of politicizing the investigation (i.e. doing the bidding of fellow right-winger Netanyahu). Now that there has been some sort of regime change in Sofia, things have changed.
Odd, there were several anonymous officials who swore, swore cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die style, that the evidence against Hezbollah was clear. Just as they had agreed with Netanyahu a few months earlier that the evidence against the Iranians clear. That can’t be untrue: it was after all in the New York Times and all over CNN. Even some of the Arab media eagerly got into the act.
The jury is still out on this; it can go either way. Here are links to previous posts on this Burgas terror topic:

New Doubts Cast on Bulgarian Accusations in Terror Bombing

Bulgarian Terror Mystery: Hezbollah Today, Iran Yesterday, Syria Tomorrow, Girl Scouts of Arabia Next Year?

Bulgaria: Did Hezbollah Go Stupid at a ‘Convenient’ Time?

Case for an Israeli Attack? a Boy’s Wolf, Michael Oren, Deep Throat II, Salacious Pun

About Netanyahu, the Mullahs, and all them Plots

Terrorism: Hallmarks of the Bulgaria Suicide Bomber with a “Shaved Head

N Y Times and Anonymous Deep Throat Certain Iran was Behind Bulgaria Terror Attack

Terrorism: Bibi Natanyahu with Bulgarian Egg on His Face, For Now

Terrorism in Iran and Bulgaria, Netanyahu and Hitler and Danzig and Sudetenland

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Obama Goes Nuclear in Israel: Pushes Iran Threshold Beyond 1995 and 2001 and 2007 and 2013 and……………

March 15, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“President Barack Obama says it would currently “take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon.” In a Thursday interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV ahead of his upcoming visit to the country, Obama says he doesn’t want to “cut it too close” and therefore all options remain on the table in countering the Iranian nuclear program. The issue has been one of the most fraught between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has repeatedly threatened to act militarily should Iran appear to be on the verge of obtaining a bomb, while the U.S. has pushed for more time to allow diplomacy and economic sanctions to run their course. In the interview, aired Thursday, Obama says he still favors diplomacy over force…………”

Of course he favors diplomacy over force, because there will be no use of force. There can’t be a unilateral Western use of force, mainly because it will become a long war of attrition and it can achieve nothing beyond more destruction in the Middle East. Now that the 2012 elections are over, the price of the Israeli bride can be reduced, she is not as desirable as she was last years. But she may become desirable again in future cycles, in 2014 and in 2016.
All this “all options are on the table” talk is pure political nonsense. Mr. Obama speaks like he is on the campaign trail, which he is of course since he is heading to Israel. The United States will not go to war just to keep Iran from having the “capacity” to develop a nuclear bomb. Mainly because nobody knows how to destroy the capacity or ability to develop a bomb. Mainly because a military attack will fail and just make the mullahs go nuclear: decide to militarize. The Iranians have been saying loudly, including issuing a fatwa, that a nuclear bomb is haram, meaning not kosher (in Likud-ese language).
Anyone who knows anything about nuclear physics probably knows that the Iranians cannot keep it a secret (even I know it, and I have forgotten most of my physics beyond how to enrich Uranium to more U-235 isotope content).
So, Mr. Netanyahu keeps talking about the nuclear danger of Iran, although he doesn’t claim that Iran will have the bomb by 1995 anymore, nor by 2001 anymore, nor by 2007 anymore, nor by 2014 anymore, nor by…………..
No more nuclear “slam dunk” is possible. People are smarter than that now, although most of the Western media seems to be as dumb as in 2003.
The Saudi princes still claim not so secretly that they suspect Iran plans to develop the bomb soon. How do they know that? They read Israeli media, well mainly the Jerusalem Post, or maybe their Mufti told them so.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Israel, POTUS

Mr. Obama in Israel: only Halal Food with his Ale…………….

March 13, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“The stringent dietary restrictions will be dictated by the timing of Mr Obama’s arrival at Jerusalem’s landmark King David Hotel on March 20 – after it has changed to a full religious menu in preparation for the start of the annual Jewish Passover festival five days later. Bosses at the 233-room King David say they are unable to make an exception for the presidential party. Pasta dishes will be very much off the menu, while dishes rich in vegetables will predominate – even on room service, which will operate 24-hours-a-day for the duration of the president’s visit…………….”

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Al-Qaeda, Europe, Hezbollah, Israel, Terrorism

New Doubts Cast on Bulgarian Accusations in Terror Bombing……..

February 20, 2013 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“But European ministers who demand hard evidence of Hezbollah involvement are not likely to find it in the Bulgarian report on the investigation, which has produced no more than an “assumption” or “hypothesis” of Hezbollah complicity. Major revelations about the investigation by the former head of the probe and by a top Bulgarian journalist have further damaged the credibility of the Bulgarian claim to have found links between the suspects and Hezbollah. The chief prosecutor in charge of the Bulgarian investigation revealed in an interview published in early January that the evidence available was too scarce to name any party as responsible, and that investigators had found a key piece of evidence that appeared to contradict it. An article in a Bulgarian weekly in mid-January confirmed that the investigation had turned up no information on a Hezbollah role, and further reported that one of the suspects had been linked by a friendly intelligence service to Al-Qaeda………….”

There is no need for a “friendly intelligence service” to link the Bulgaria terrorist operation to Al-Qaeda. I noted early on strong doubts about the early Western media and “anonymous officials” allegations, given the MO of the terrorists. Even as Mr. Netanyahu was pointing fingers toward others. I reproduce some comments and my previous posts on this:

“Netanyahu had been sifting through the news for a few days, looking for something new to pin on the Iranians, his usual accusation du jour. It had been a slow week: no terrorist activity, not even a major traffic pile-up disaster. His luck was about to turn. The right-wing Bulgarian authorities got it a bit wrong and blamed Hezbollah instead, but only because of the imminent European Union decision on its “terrorist list”. One day later the center and left-wing Bulgarian “opposition” struck.…….. Why do “they” insist on politicizing these investigations so openly and flagrantly, on aiming them toward certain conclusions? That only loses them credibility, even if their conclusions might be correct. That is just what happened to the corrupt and incompetent Lebanon STL Hariri investigation (remember first it was Syria, then Iran and Syria then Hezbollah then the Mexican Cartel then the Girl Scouts of Arabia). Her are links to some of my posts on this Bulgaria terror attack.……….“

On the other hand, it is possible
that Hezbollah went totally stupid and decided to do a traceable
terrorist bombing in the heart of eastern Europe. On the eve of the EU decision on listing it on a terrorist list. They have done a similarly stupid thing, in the summer of 2006. The Iranians once claimed that the Mossad did the Bulgarian operation, which is as stupid as claiming that Iranians killed their own nuclear scientists.

On the other hand, it could have been the irresistible urge to avenge the Israeli bombing of Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in February 2008. But the timing casts suspicion on the claim of the right-wing Bulgarian authorities. Nevertheless, many Arab leaders and especially royal potentates are holding their breath, praying toward Brussels, for the EU to do the Israeli bidding and “list” Hezbollah.

Bulgaria: Did Hezbollah Go Stupid at a ‘Convenient’ Time?