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1. War with Iran Could Last Years, Says Bar-Ilan U. Researcher
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
If war breaks out between Iran and Israel, it likely would last for ”years and not weeks,” according to Bar-Ilan University researcher Dr. Moshe Vered. Iran also might target Jews around the world.
He calls on Israel to internalize the prospect of an unprecedented lengthy war and explains that once the government and public understand the threat, they will be better prepared to find ways to shorten the conflict.
A researcher at the university’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, he recently published a sobering paper that based his hypothesis on the Iranian Shi’ite Muslim approach that the very existence of Israel is an insult to Muslims. He states that its philosophy is that “Allah promises them victory” and there is an obligation of Muslims to sacrifice themselves and surrender material goods for the sake of annihilating the Jewish State.
Entitled “The length and conditions for ending a future war between Iran and Israel,” the research paper notes that Iran fought Iraq for eight years despite suffering the deaths of half a million people, with another two million wounded and catastrophic damage to the economic infrastructure, amounting to $100 billion.
Dr. Vered (pictured at left) pointed out that the war ended only when the Shi’ite rulers in Iran realized that the regime was in jeopardy. Until then, the leaders felt there was no room for compromise.
The scenario
He rules out ideas that a quick missile war would put an end to a conflict because neither side would score a “knock-out,” and Iran does not have the capability of successfully attacking Israel with hundreds of long-range missiles.
He predicts it is more likely that if Israel initiates a pre-emptive strike, Iran will play the role of the victim and let the international community condemn Israel. At the same time, Tehran would secretly ferry troops into Syria and Lebanon, possibly through Shi’ite communities in Iraq and with the silent approval of Turkey.
The next stage in the war would be massive rocket attacks by Hamas from the south and Hizbullah from the north. Israeli military intelligence officials estimate that both terrorist organizations possess advanced missiles far beyond what were used in the 34-day-old Second Lebanon War in 2006.
With long-range weapons that could be fired from deep in Lebanon, Israel would be forced into capturing most of the country, and face a deadly and costly guerilla war. At the same time, a massive military threat from Syrian territory to the Golan Heights would require large numbers of reservists to defend the region.
El Al planes to be targeted?
Iran also probably would try to target Jews around the world, especially El Al planes, synagogues, Israeli offices abroad and Jewish community centers. Hamas would resume suicide attacks against Israel.
Dr. Vered points out that there are those who think that Iran’s verbal threats against Israel are for internal political consumption, in which case war is a distant possibility. However, Shi’ite fundamentalism requires a “holy war” to wipe out Israel, whose existence violates Muslim principles against Jews ruling ”Muslim land,” meaning Israel, and having sovereignty over Muslims in the country. Israel also stands in Iran's way to become the dominant force in the Middle East.
Muslim rulers always have tolerated Jews on condition that they are a small minority and dependent on their host rulers, Dr. Vered explains.
His sees three possibilities for a quick end to a war, barring a new level of understanding and preparedness by Israel. International interference and the use of nuclear weapons, presumably by Israel, are two options.
However, he explains that whereas world leaders previously shortened Israeli-Arab wars, with Israel usually having the upper hand, the Jewish State presumably would not be in such an advantageous position against Iran. The result would be pressure on Tehran, where the Shi’ite philosophy does not allow compromise.
Pressure would be wielded against Israel if the Israeli Air Force were to bomb Iran’s oil fields, causing the price of oil to soar. Iran would use that circumstance to strengthen its determination to annihilate Israel.
The use of nuclear weapons is far off in the horizon, Dr. Vered avers.
He sees one other solution to shorten the war: an American decision to join Israel and strike Iran.
2. MK Danon: Netanyahu Lulling Likud to Sleep
by Gil Ronen
“Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu wants to lull the Likud movement to sleep,” MK Danny Danon (Likud) warned Tuesday. The first-term parlimentarian and former World Likud head, who is one of the more prominently nationalistic Knesset members in the ruling party, said that Netanyahu wants to prevent the upcoming elections to the Likud's internal institutions so that he can “enjoy quiet on the internal front in the next two years.”
"Our interest is the opposite of that.” he explained. “We must strengthen the Prime Minister by having the Likud and its institutions act in the face of the pressure by the US and [President Barack] Obama. The Likud movement will stand up and tell them – we will not renew the freeze in Judea and Samaria and we will not freeze Jerusalem.”
Danon called on Likud Central Committee members to participate in a vote Thursday on Netanyahu's proposal to change the party's constitution in a way that would put off internal elections. “One does not just change the constitution on whim,” he said. “The convention needs to take place at its scheduled date. Whoever cares about the Land of Israel and wants the Likud to stay faithful to ideology must come and vote 'no.'”
Asked why he thought Defense Minister Ehud Barak had outposts at Ramat Migron and Maoz Esther razed Tuesday morning, Danon said that the timing had to do with the fact that Barak is currently abroad.
“Barak is doing this now because he is not here,” he explained. “Why doesn't he destroy the homes of Arab lawbreakers? The Prime Minister needs to understand that the Defense Minister is sabotaging the coalition; Barak is trying to put the Prime Minister to the test and to see where his loyalty lies – with the Labor party or with the real voters in the Likud.”
3. Jewish Hospital in Tangiers Torn Down
by Hillel Fendel
Moroccan Jews fear the local cemetery might be next on the chopping block, after a former Jewish hospital in Tangiers, Morocco was abruptly razed by authorities.
Bulldozers arrived at the Benchimol (Ben-Shimol) Hospital very late Friday night in the midst of the Passover holiday, and by morning the buildings were leveled. “It’s by order of the governor,” the wreckers told the guard, who had no way to stop them. The hospital, which was built in 1889, has been abandoned for about a decade. Though it was known as the Jewish hospital, members of all religions were treated there.
Dr. Leah Ness, Deputy Minister for Pensioner Affairs, has turned to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to ensure that no further action will be taken against the dwindling Jewish community in Morocco. The Ministry of Pensioner Affairs oversees the recovery of stolen Jewish property left in Arab countries.
The two-square kilometer (500 acres) hospital complex was built by Chaim Benchimol, a translator for the French Consulate in Tangiers and a member of the Jewish Community Board. According to various reports, the land is owned by the Benchimol family, while the hospital itself was owned by the Jewish Community.
“Does this mean that there are no more civil rights in Morocco?” asked one former member of the community. “I hope not. We have heard rumors, which sometimes materialize, that the authorities are now eyeing the old Jewish cemetery [which is close to the city’s port], in which are buried many rabbis, holy people, and our relatives.”
The Jewish community in Tangiers is considered one of the oldest in the world, dating back to shortly after the destruction of the First Temple nearly 2,500 years ago. Today, only several dozen Jews remain, together with several Jewish institutions such as the Shaar Refael and other synagogues, the cemetery, a community center, and educational institutions.
Elad Benari reported on Shalomlife.com that members of the Moroccan Jewish community in Canada and around the world have begun to send e-mails to the president of the Tangiers Jewish community, asking him to either take steps to prevent further actions against Jewish institutions there or step down. Of the approximately 250,000 Jews in Morocco in 1948, fewer than 7,000 remain, mostly in Casablanca.
4. US: Hizbullah Has One of World’s Largest Missile Arsenals
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Syria is helping Hizbullah stockpile “far more rockets and missiles than most governments in the world,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday at a joint press conference with visiting Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Without specifically mentioning the Scud missile, which Hizbullah reportedly is adding to its arsenal with Syria’s and Iran’s help, Secretary Gates stated, "Syria and Iran are providing Hizbullah with rockets and missiles of ever-increasing capability… and this is obviously destabilizing for the whole region.”
His comments came at the same time that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has tried to assure Lebanon that Israel has no intention of attacking Hizbullah. The latter's forces have blended in with the Lebanese army to the level that Prime Minister Netanyahu said it is hard to distinguish between the two.
Defense Minister Barak (pictured at left with Gates) also tried to soothe fears, saying at the press conference that "we do not intend to provoke any kind of major clash in Lebanon or vis-a-vis Syria.” Israel and Hizbullah fought the 34-day Second Lebanon War in 2006, which ended with United Nations guarantees that Hizbullah would be disarmed. However, commanders of UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said at the outset that they were not able to carry out the mandate.
The United Nations has ignored most of Israel’s appeals to put a stop to Hizbullah’s smuggling of missiles, which now number three or four times the 20,000 missiles it possessed before the war and which are far more sophisticated. The Scud missile, used by Iraq against Israel in the 1991 Gulf War, can easily strike Tel Aviv from Lebanon.
Although the United States has not confirmed that Hizbullah has Scuds, the reports on their being shipped by Syria actually may have been leaked by the United States in order to put pressure on UNIFIL. Hizbullah’s dominance in southern Lebanon and its alliance with the Lebanese government would make any counterterrorist measures or diplomatic moves ineffective.
Following the report last week, which was confirmed by President Shimon Peres, the U.S. State Department summoned Syria’s chief of mission for a warning of Damascus’ “provocative behavior,” but Syria has rejected all accusations.
5. Sounds and Smells Challenge New Intifada
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The IDF has added non-violent weapons to its arsenal to combat the talked about new “white Intifada,” which is supposed to feature non-violent protests but usually is accompanied by real violence. The ”eye-for an-eye” tactics parallel the “rock machine” that shot stones back at Arab rock-throwers in the first Intifada in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Using “skunk” (pictured below) and ”scream” machines to douse rioters with a foul smell and chase them away with loud noise, the IDF will reduce the number of those wounded and prevent a convenient way for pro-Arab media to portray Israel in a negative light.
The Palestinian Authority last week officially launched its attempt at a non-violent Intifada at a conference in Ramallah where Martin Luther King III spoke of his slain’s father civil rights movements against segregation in the United States.
Blacks did not have to abandon violence as they did not engage in it to begin with.
After hearing speeches from Arabs and the comments on “resistance,” the Arab code word for violence, he commented, “I am very optimistic. But I also know that we still have a long way to go."
The new tactics focus on the weekly demonstrations near two Arab villages at the separation-security fence in Samaria. Injuries often are suffered by Israeli soldiers and police from rocks and other missives as well as leftists and Arabs who are kept back with tear gas and rarely with rubber bullets, but media generally focus on the "civilians".
The "skunk machine” (pictured above) is a small cannon that fires foul-smelling liquid which provides soldiers with a non-harmful weapon. The “scream machine” is mounted on IDF vehicles and produces an ear-splitting noise that also causes no injuries but helps scatter rioters.
"This is a new trend, and we're trying to address it in a new way,” IDF operations officer Lt. Col. Eliezer Toledano told the Los Angeles’Times' Edmund Sanders. "We have to adjust ourselves to the reality today."
While foreign media play up the talk of "non-violent” tactics, Israelis have yet to see a change on the ground. PA Arabs continue knifing attempts and daily stoning and firebombing attacks against Jewish motorists in Judea and Samaria, with the intention of causing fatalities.
With soccer teams and town squares named after suicide terrorists, PA leaders have an uphill battle, if they mean what they say, to convince the Arab “on the street” to stop using violence because the message they send is a contradictory one. “The Palestinian Authority preaches peace and incites war,” points out Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).
His Arab media watchdog group has filtered out and translated into English hundreds of examples of two decades of PA incitement to violence and educational program promoting “Jihad” to conquer all of Israel, which the Palestinian Authority considers “Arab Palestine.” They have not ceased.
Marcus has noted that PA television constantly delivers a message of hatred of Jews and a Jewish Israel and denials of the right of Israel to exist, as well as of any Jewish connection to the Western Wall (Kotel) and Temple Mount.
"The hour of resurrection will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice!" one Muslim cleric preaches on PA television.
In a recent speech in Philadelphia, Marcus emphasized the reality in the PA today, despite the “non-violence conference.” He quoted from Hitler’s Mein Kampf, "If you want adults to be killers, teach the youth hate."
6. Caution: Growing Threat to Jews on California Campuses
by Hillel Fendel
Two University of California professors warn that Jewish students face greater dangers as Muslim extremist organizations grow in campus influence.
In an article on AmericanThinker.com, Leila Beckwith and Tammi Rossman-Benjamin – Professor Emeritus at the UCLA and Lecturer at the University of California Santa Cruz, respectively – write of the growth of Al-Awda, the presence of the Muslim Students Association or Muslim Student Union in nearly 600 North American colleges and universities, the activities of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and more.
"Many of the activities of these groups specifically harass and intimidate Jewish students," they write, and "it is not inconceivable that these groups' anti-Semitic discourse and hostility could escalate into incidents of physical violence. Nevertheless, California administrators have been unwilling to respond to, or even acknowledge, the threats that Jewish students face on their campuses."
Al-Awda, for instance, is an organization that opposes Israel's right to exist, supports foreign terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hizbullah, organizes strongly anti-Israel rallies and events, and often features virulently anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic speakers and films at its events.
"Al-Awda has also made significant inroads on college and university campuses in North America," the professors write, "by partnering with dozens of Muslim and pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel student groups. The first four of Al-Awda's seven annual international conventions were held on university campuses (University of Toronto, Hunter College, UCLA, and San Francisco State University)," and its conventions and regional conferences are invariably sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Student Association (MSA).
In California alone, SJP and MSA groups from more than ten California public colleges and universities have collaborated with Al Awda in hosting events.
Speaker Boasts at Success in Silencing Israeli
A sample Al-Awda event was reported on by undercover reporter Lee Kaplan this past February. One speaker, Dr. Jess Ghannam, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Global Health Sciences at UC San Francisco and Adjunct Professor of Ethnic Studies at SFSU, gloated at the successful disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech at UC Irvine MSU. "Now, every single Israeli military official and politician will be afraid to speak publicly," Ghannam said. "It's huge!"
The MSA, founded by the extremist Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, has had speakers on college campuses who justify suicide bombers and jihad and/or have acted in support of Hamas. Both the MSA and the SJP have repeatedly promoted anti-Israel events that at times become openly anti-Semitic and voice support for suicide bombers. At UC Irvine, for example, the professors write, "the MSA has been involved in acts of physical aggression, harassment, and intimidation of Jewish students; has produced posters equating the Star of David with the swastika; and hosts speakers who compare Jews to Nazis and praise terrorism."
Chancellors Condemn - But Only in Principle
The response of university officials has been weak, to say the least. For example, Beckwith and Rossman-Benjamin write that "all ten University of California Chancellors recently signed a statement condemning 'all acts of racism, intolerance and incivility' … Nevertheless, not one UC Chancellor has condemned the MSA/MSU or SJP groups on his or her campus for the hateful, anti-Semitic programs they mount, or the hostile and intimidating environment they create for Jewish students."
At a special three-hour UC Regents meeting last month devoted to addressing recent acts of intolerance and bigotry on UC campuses, the discussion focused almost entirely on African-American students and other under-represented minorities. The "longstanding and intolerable harassment and intimidation of Jewish students by members of the Muslim and pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel student groups were not mentioned even once," the professors write.
In addition, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education has refused to afford Jewish students the same protections against harassment and intimidation as it grants to every African-American, Latino, and Arab student. This policy is an above-board feature of Obama administration policy, said Kenneth Marcus, former director of the OCR, who quoted Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali as indicating that the Obama administration would not pursue cases of harassment against Jewish students.
Raising the Alarm
"The MSA/MSU and SJP chapters on many California campuses are unlike other official student groups," the two professors conclude. "Their affiliations with organizations that support terror and seek to wage Islamic jihad make them a threat to every member of the campus community, but especially to Jewish students. The refusal of university and government officials to afford protections to Jewish students on California campuses is absolutely unconscionable and should be protested loudly and clearly by parents, donors, and taxpayers across the state and across the nation."
7. Entebbe Hero - Bereaved Brother, Dedicated Dad - Speaks to TNL
by Arutz Sheva TV
Maj. Gen. Doron Almog speaks on "Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem" about the battles he took part in as an IDF officer and the battle he led for the benefit of his own son and others. In the second part of the special edition of "TNL," recorded on Israel's national Memorial Day, Ari and Jeremy speak with Almog, famous for his involvement in the 1976 Operation Entebbe.
He was the first commander to land on the runway in Entebbe, marking it for the Israeli planes that followed. He then led the capture of the airfield's control towers, enabling the Israeli forces to free the hostages held captive in Uganda. Almog was the last to leave Ugandan soil after the successful mission. Another highlight in his prestigious career was the 1984-85 Operation Moses, the clandestine airlift of 6,000 endangered Jews from Ethiopia to Israel.
In the above video, Almog also speaks with Ari and Jeremy about recently-killed IDF officer Eliraz Peretz, who once approached Almog because he was debating his future in the army after his brother was killed in service. According to IDF rules, bereaved family members can be released of any combat life-endangering service. Almog also is a bereaved brother and he strengthened Eliraz to do "what his heart told him to."
Almog's brother Eran was a tank commander killed on the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War. After the tragedy, Almog discovered that, because of the danger to the forces, Eran was abandoned, bleeding to death in the tank. It was that experience that strengthened Almog's belief in the idea that "soldiers must never be abandoned on the field."
Almog also speaks about his son Eran, who suffered from severe autism and developmental disability, and the Aleh Negev village he founded. Aleh Negev provides residential, medical and social services to the severely handicapped of southern Israel. After Eran's death at the age of 23 in 2007, Aleh Negev was renamed in his memory, Aleh Negev Nachalat-Eran.
