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1. US Mil. Analyst: Obama is the First Anti-Israeli President
by Hillel Fendel
Lt.-Col. (ret.) Ralph Peters, military analyst and author of a book on Middle East politics, says Obama apparently has a chip on his shoulder against Israel – and it’s not “helpful to our civilization.”
Peters, who wrote “Endless War: Middle Eastern Islam vs. Western Civilization,” was asked to explain why he felt American-Israeli friendship appears to have been derailed so dramatically. “The answer is two words,” he said. “President Obama.”
“Obama’s treatment of [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu [during their recent meeting in Washington] was disgraceful and shameful,” Peters told FoxNews. “We treat our enemies with greater courtesy! In addition, it was counter-productive – because this vendetta on the part of the White House against Israel - all it does is encourage the Palestinians and their Arab backers to make ever wilder demands that Israel cannot possibly fulfill. This is not a peace process; this is something about a chip on the President’s shoulder.”
Peters says that Obama’s approach is “absolutely” a departure from past American policy. “It all started with Obama’s Cairo speech,” he said, “where Obama attempted to appease radical Muslims in the Middle East, cold-shouldered Israel, and raised Palestinian expectations that he’d take care of Israel and that the Palestinians would get their revenge. Secondly, in the past, under Presidents Clinton and Bush, there were face-to-face negotiations; the Palestinians were offered one deal after another, and it was always – always! - the Palestinians who walked away.”
Obama Refuses to Recognize the Basic Equation
The American animosity towards Israel “is not about housing in Jerusalem or anything else,” Peters emphasized. “We need to back up and get a little wide-angle picture and recognize the fundamental issue in play here: Israel wants to live in peace with its neighbors, and its neighbors want Israel destroyed. The President refuses to understand that.”
“It’s become a credo of the left-wing that Israel is always the oppressor,” Peters continued, “and that the Palestinian terrorists are freedom fighters, etc. … Obama’s mother is extremely left, his university chums are on the left, he spent 20 years with the Rev. Wright – all of their doctrines say that the Palestinians are wonderful and that the Israelis are basically Nazis... I think that the President has gotten that by osmosis… This is our first anti-Israeli President; it’s bewildering and astonishing.”
Peters said that Israel is not perfect: “This is not a question of giving in to everything that Israel wants; Israel screws up too. But [American policy must] be a balanced approach that takes into account that Israel, for all its many faults is the only rule of law, democracy and respecter of human rights in the entire Middle East; they are part of our civilization. To turn away from Israel as we are doing is not going to help our diplomacy; it is going to hurt our civilization.”
2. China Agrees to 'Discuss' Sanctions on Iran
by Hana Levi Julian
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has confirmed reports of a tentative agreement among the six world powers, including Russia and China, on whether to increase sanctions on Iran.
“The group continues to be united, but there will be a lot more consultations in the coming weeks, not only among the G-6, but also among other members of the [United Nations] Security Council, and other countries,” Clinton said.
According to a report released Wednesday night, China agreed to impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic during a conference call with representatives of the United States, Germany, France, Britain and Russia.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev said Jerusalem welcomed the decision by China to discuss the new sanctions, but expressed doubt that effective action would be taken. “It's an interesting change and progress on the part of China, which has eased its opposition to new sanctions against Iran, but there is no need to indulge in premature joy,” Shalev commented dryly. “Ultimately, the United Nations will not impose crippling sanctions against the Iranian regime."
Shalev added that even if sanctions were to be adopted, they will “not prevent Iran from continuing its operations to enrich uranium – but will be penalties imposed only on the Revolutionary Guards.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, Said Jalili, left Tehran on Wednesday for China in hopes of convincing Beijing to resist imposing new sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
3. Third Muslim Terror Attack in Russia
by Hana Levi Julian
Two people were killed and a third was critically wounded Thursday morning in the third suicide bombing attack in less than a week in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, located in the northern Caucasus, close to Chechnya.
A report by the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Russian police as saying the blast, which resulted from a car bomb, came in the wake of an apparent terrorist "work accident" in the western section of Dagestan.
At least 12 were killed and 26 others were wounded a day earlier in a double bombing by the Islamic Chechen terrorists in the same region. Among the dead were seven police officers and the local police chief.
Wednesday's attack struck the town of Kizlyar, about 1,000 miles south of Moscow, where an attack two days earlier by a pair of “black widows” – female suicide bombers – had struck the city's metro, killing 39 people.
The double bombing was carried out by two men, one who blew himself up in his jeep after a police officer told him to pull over for violating a traffic regulation. His accomplice, disguised as a police officer, carried out a secondary attack following the initial explosion. Once a crowd had rushed to the scene to rescue the victims, the second terrorist arrived dressed as a senior police lieutenant and detonated the explosives. The attack occurred near a day care center, empty at the time, and a police station.
The strategy is a familiar one to security personnel in Israel, who are always careful to keep crowds as far away as possible from the site of a terror attack or a suspicious package. Palestinian Authority terrorists routinely attempt to follow up initial attacks with secondary explosions.
'We Have to Face Reality'
Meanwhile, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Murgaliyev ordered stepped-up security across the republic of Dagestan. “The terrorists are looking for any target,” he said. “We need to pay attention to fundamental everyday objects such as cinemas, schools, colleges and universities.” Russia's response to terrorism would be “harsh and unforgiving,” he added.
Russian security officials are concerned that another Islamic wave of terror has begun across the country. Chechen terror leader Doku Umarov, known as the “emir of Northern Caucasus,” threatened in February to attack “the Russian heartland.” He followed up the statement last month with a vow to “liberate” the regions of Krasnodar, Astrakhan and Volga.
Late Tuesday evening, a bomb scare in the heart of the capital caused security officers to block off a street close to the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), next to the Lubyanka metro station. As in Israel, a robot sapper was sent in to defuse the suspected car bomb. Early Wednesday morning, sappers were once again on the job, after police officers discovered a suspicious object under one of their vehicles: two bottles taped together with batteries. The “bomb” turned out to be a fake, filled only with urine.
The former Russian director of Interpol, Major-General Vladimir Ovchinsky, warned Thursday in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, “We have to face reality. We have to understand that the terrorists' war against Russia never truly ended.”
4. Iranian Nuclear Scientist Defects to US
by Hana Levi Julian
U.S. officials have confirmed that a top Iranian nuclear scientist has defected to the United States.
The nuclear physicist, Shahram Amirit, disappeared last summer three days after he arrived in Saudi Arabia on a religious pilgrimage. Officials confirmed Wednesday that he defected to the United States in a covert CIA operation, leaving behind his wife and children. The CIA refused to comment on the report.
Nearly two months later, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had accused the United States of abducting the scientist, and added that Saudi Arabia “must [also] be held accountable in this regard.”
Information Confirmed What was Already Known
Amiri apparently worked at or near Fordow, a nuclear facility outside the Iranian holy city of Qom, according to officials briefed on the operation by intelligence personnel. Amiri, a man “in his 30s,” was resettled in the U.S. and is working for the CIA, reported ABC News, which added that the information he provided helped confirm what the CIA "already knew" about the Qom facility.
The award-winning nuclear physicist was described as a scientist at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, which the United Nations identifies as one of several nuclear research facilities in the country overseen by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Two additional nuclear sites in which uranium is being enriched have also recently come to light, as it becomes increasingly clear that Iran maintains a tightly-compartmentalized system of managing its nuclear development program in order to minimize security leaks.
ABC News added that the CIA has been sending agents for more than a decade to Iranian-American communities in the United States hoping to recruit relatives from Tehran.
Israel has repeatedly urged the international community to increase economic sanctions against Iran in an effort to force the Islamic Republic to halt its nuclear development activities. It is believed by many intelligence agencies, including Israel's Mossad, that Iran is building an atomic weapon. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also repeatedly threatened to wipe the State of Israel "off the map of the world."
5. Obama Popularity Dropping in America
by Hana Levi Julian
U.S. President Barack Obama's popularity is plummeting, according to the USA Today/Gallup poll, published Wednesday by the newspaper. The survey found that Americans appear to be fed up with legislative leaders as well.
Half of those surveyed said Obama does not deserve to be re-elected.
The telephone survey of 1,033 adult Americans last Friday through Sunday found that for the first time since he was elected president, Obama failed to win a majority willing to say he shares their values and can manage the government effectively.
The country was nearly evenly split over the president's job performance, with 50 percent of respondents approving and 43 percent giving Obama the “thumbs down."
Half of the respondents said the president should take at least a moderate amount of the blame for the economic problems they face – nearly double last summer's response.
However, Obama maintained a lead over other Democratic leaders in the U.S. government: 52 percent still had a favorable opinion of the president, as opposed to 36 percent for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and even fewer with a positive opinion of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid – 29 percent.
Nor did the Republican leaders fare much better. Only 29 percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of House Republican Leader John Boehner, while Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell did a little better, garnering a 31 percent approval rating.
6. Counter-Terrorism Drill in New York
by Hana Levi Julian
New York City police officers staged a counter-terrorism drill in the Big Apple during the morning rush hour on Wednesday.
Officials said the exercise was scheduled several weeks earlier. However, the New York Post quoted a source saying it was ordered Monday, “hours” after the first of three terror attacks this week in Russia. The first attack, a twin bombing at two Moscow subway stations, killed 39 people. Two days later, a double suicide bombing left 12 more dead and 18 wounded in the southern republic of Dagestan, about a thousand miles south of the Russian capital. A third suicide bombing attack struck the same region Thursday morning, killing two people in western Dagestan.
The second Russian attack took place just a few hours before the New York Multi-Agency Super Surge counter terrorism drill was carried out.
Members of the city's police force, the MTA, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, Army National Guard and other U.S. agencies reassured travelers as they patrolled the New York subway system, telling them it was only a drill. Bomb-sniffing dogs were walked along the trains and platforms.
Commuters told the New York Daily News they felt “safer” after having seen the uniforms rushing around with guns and other equipment through Grand Central Station, Penn Station and other hubs in the city's transit network. A 48-year-old commuter on the Long Island Railroad added, “I don't want to feel like I'm in a police state, but if it's necessary to keep terrorism at bay, I'm all for it.”
7. Priestly Blessing at Wall, Midnight Prayers at Joseph's Tomb
by Hillel Fendel
Tens of thousands of people – Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger among them – came to the Western Wall on Thursday morning to receive the traditional holiday Priestly Blessing from hundreds of Kohanim.
The blessing is a regular part of morning prayers in most of Israel, as opposed to in the Diaspora, where it is recited only on holidays. After having their hands rinsed by Levites, Kohanim (descendants of Aharon the Priest) make their way to the front of the synagogue during the repetition of the Amidah prayer, place their tallit (prayer shawl) over their heads and outstretched hands, separate their fingers in the prescribed manner, turn towards the congregation, and recite the 15-word blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) word by word.
It is the position of some Rabbinic scholars that just as the Kohanim fulfill a Biblical command in reciting the blessing, those who are blessed similarly fulfill this commandment.
It has become a twice-yearly festive ritual to gather at the Western Wall on the second of the Intermediate Days of both Passover and Sukkot for the occasion. The Priestly Blessing for the Shacharit service was held at 9:30 a.m., and for Mussaf at 10:15 a.m.
The police closed off several roads near the Old City of Jerusalem this morning, causing heavy traffic tie-ups in the vicinity. Shuttle service was provided to the Western Wall.
Rabbis Metzger and Amar, together with Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, greeted worshipers and visitors to the Wall after the prayers at a special tent set up nearby for the occasion.
Hundreds Visit Joseph's Tomb
Some 700 people gathered for a midnight visit and prayers at Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem (Nablus). The IDF helped secure and arrange the visit. A yeshiva, Od Yosef Chai (Joseph Still Lives), was situated at the site for more than 20 years, and it was protected as a Jewish site under the Oslo Accords. However, following battles with Palestinian terrorists in 2000, the IDF retreated from the holy site, and the Muslims vandalized and burned it.
Jewish presence at Joseph’s Tomb over the past decade has been restricted to nearly clandestine visits, both official and unofficial, several times a year.
