News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Israel Foils Al-Qaeda Plot to Blow Up U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv
Israel on Wednesday said it had foiled an "advanced" al-Qaeda plan to carry out a suicide bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and bomb other targets. The Israel Security Agency arrested three Palestinians who plotted the attacks. They were recruited by an operative based in Gaza who worked for al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
The Palestinians planned on attacking the International Convention Center in Jerusalem with firearms and then killing rescue workers with a truck bomb. Al-Qaeda planned to send foreign militants to attack the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on the same day using explosives supplied by the Palestinians. Five men were to fly into Israel with fake Russian passports to attack the American Embassy.
Aviv Oreg, a former head of the Israeli military intelligence unit that tracks al-Qaeda, said, "This is the first time that Ayman al-Zawahri was directly involved." (AP-Washington Post)
- Iranian Foreign Minister: "We Did Not Agree to Dismantle Anything" - Tom Cohen
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted Wednesday that the Obama administration mischaracterizes concessions by his side in the six-month nuclear deal with Iran, telling CNN that "we did not agree to dismantle anything."
"The White House version both underplays the concessions and overplays Iranian commitments" under the agreement that took effect Monday, Zarif said. "We are not dismantling any centrifuges, we're not dismantling any equipment." (CNN)
- Syria Talks Begin in Rancor; Syrian Foreign Minister Lashes Out at Kerry - Anne Gearan and Liz Sly
Peace talks to end Syria's civil war got off to a shaky start Wednesday, with disagreement about what the goal of the negotiations should be. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem accused Arab neighbors of sowing terrorism and insurrection, and he dismissed as interlopers the U.S. and other Western backers of Syrian rebels.
Syria's government rejects the premise that the goal is to establish a temporary government to replace Assad. Russia, a sponsor of the conference, insists that Assad's ouster is not a foregone conclusion.
(Washington Post)
- U.S. Learned in November of Photos Said to Show Torture in Syria - Mark Landler and Ben Hubbard
The Obama administration first learned last November about a harrowing trove of photographs that were said to document widespread torture and executions in Syrian prisons, a senior official said Wednesday. The administration believes the photos are genuine, based in part on the meticulous way in which the bodies in the photos were numbered. But it seems clear that the photos that appear to document the torture and executions will not fundamentally alter American policy, which is to push for a political settlement that will remove Assad from power.
(New York Times)
- Russian Police to Get Counter-Terrorism Training in Israel
Russian and Israeli police officials have agreed to regular training exchanges in the field of anti-terror operations and transport security. Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said during a visit to Israel: "We are interested in learning how your special units carry out anti-terrorist operations and hostage-release missions and ensure security and order at mass public events."
(RIA Novosti-Russia)
- Boycott of Israel's SodaStream May Affect Palestinian Workers - Hind Mustafa
SodaStream, a target of the BDS movement, has 20 factories around the world, one of them at Mishor Adumim in the West Bank, employing around 900 Palestinian workers. SodaStream's CEO Daniel Birnbaum stressed the benefits Palestinian employees receive:
"We give them an opportunity to not only have a job and health insurance, but also social benefits and a very high pay scale which they could never achieve in the West Bank."
(Al Arabiya)
- Scarlett Johansson Stands Tall Against Israel Boycotters - Benny Avni
Actress Scarlett Johansson, who is shooting a Super Bowl ad for SodaStream, has agreed to be the company's "first global brand ambassador."
(New York Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- IDF Targets Terrorists Involved in Rocket Fire - Ron Ben-Yishai
Instead of automatically responding against Hamas, Israel's new policy focuses on targeting the individuals directly involved in rocket fire from Gaza. Since intelligence shows that Hamas is indeed working to prevent rocket fire, there is no point in destroying a Hamas training camp in response to rockets fired by a rebellious element.
Hitting the people directly involved in the launchings has international legitimacy - the Americans use the same method against al-Qaeda. Moreover, such intensive and systematic responses to rocket fire create a strong deterrent effect.
In previous years, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had nearly a monopoly over the acquisition of rockets, which arrived from Iran or were funded by Iran and entered Gaza through the smuggling tunnels. Recently, because of Egyptian activity against the tunnels, a large system of local rocket production has developed in Gaza.
(Ynet News)
- Fatah Threatens on its Facebook Page to Bomb Tel Aviv - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
On Jan. 21, the Fatah movement, headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, posted a video on its official Facebook page in which its military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, threatens to turn Tel Aviv into a "ball of fire." The threats are made by a masked man in uniform standing in front of a group of other masked men, all of whom are holding weapons. The eight-minute video shows masked men in military training, arsenals of weapons, missiles being launched, as well as footage of Israelis running for shelter during missile attacks.
(Palestinian Media Watch)
- IDF Discovers Firearm Hidden in Child's Backpack
On Tuesday evening, IDF forces at a checkpoint in the Jordan Valley discovered an improvised firearm and ammunition inside a child's bookbag in a Palestinian vehicle during a routine inspection.
(Israel Defense Forces Blog)
- Video: Canada's Prime Minister Sings to Israeli Crowd - Ofer Petersburg
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper surprised the guests at a festive Jewish National Fund gala in Jerusalem Tuesday when he took off his tie and performed several sixties songs to the enthusiastic crowd.
(Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
- Assad's Indispensable Foreign Legions - Jeffrey White
Since 2012, the Syrian regime has created a force of foreign combatants that has become essential to its survival. According to Assad's narrative, the Syrian Army is winning the fight against the rebels, but it is the foreign legions from Iran, Hizbullah and Iraq that have made such claims possible.
Based on reported casualties and the estimated effects of defection, desertion, and unreliability, the regime's regular forces have been whittled down from over 300,000 to perhaps less than 100,000, with even fewer available for combat operations. Without foreign forces, the regime would likely be unable to undertake significant ground offensives at this point in the war, and it would have difficulty defending some areas of the country where it is still holding on.
Hizbullah probably maintains around 4,000 men in Syria at any one time, and has likely rotated as many as 10,000 through the country. At least 300 have reportedly been killed (probably many more) and hundreds wounded. Iraqi Shiite fighters are also present in large numbers, often fighting alongside Hizbullah.
The writer, a former senior U.S. defense intelligence officer, is a fellow at The Washington Institute.
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
- 2014 - The UN Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People - Anne Bayefsky
All visitors to UN Headquarters in New York, including school children from across America, walk off the elevator straight into the "Palestine" exhibit.
According to the display, Palestinians are the new Jews, having suffered an "exodus" in 1948. Total Arab rejection of a Jewish state (contrary to the 1947 UN partition resolution) and repeated efforts to annihilate Israel are not mentioned. Instead, in 1948 "the first Arab-Israeli war breaks out."
There are triumphant photos of Yasser Arafat and lots of photos of miserable-looking Arab children. Not a Jewish victim in sight.
The writer is director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.
(Jerusalem Post)
- The Threat of the "Salafi Crescent" - Shaul Shay
In the last decades an Iran-dominated Shia Crescent was considered the main threat to Israeli and regional security. However, the growing involvement of Sunni Salafi jihadis in Iraq (since 2003), among the rebels in Syria (since 2011), and in Lebanon has created a "Salafi Crescent," reflecting a Sunni ambition to establish a caliphate controlling much of the Middle East.
Such a Sunni jihadist-dominated region would become a safe haven for Islamic terror groups and a platform to launch jihad against Israel and moderate Arab countries.
Col. (res.) Dr. Shaul Shay, a research associate at the BESA Center, is a former Deputy Head of the Israel National Security Council.
(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University)
Observations:
Did Netanyahu Invent the Demand that Israel Be Recognized as a Jewish State? No. - Yair Rosenberg (Tablet)
- Former Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invented the controversial demand that Israel be recognized as a Jewish state in a future peace agreement with the Palestinians in 2010. But this claim doesn't stand up to historical scrutiny.
- In fact, according to the "Palestine Papers" - a massive trove of leaked documents published by Al Jazeera - the demand was broached by then Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in 2007 in Annapolis prior to Netanyahu's election in 2009. On November 13, 2007, Livni discussed the subject of Israel's Jewish character with the Palestinian negotiating team:
- "The ultimate goal is constituting the homeland for the Jewish people and the Palestinian people respectively, and the fulfillment of their national aspirations and self-determination in their own territory."
- Actually, as Israel's chief archivist Yaacov Lozowick has documented, the idea that Israel be recognized as a Jewish state was conceived years earlier:
- "In July 2001...a group of some two dozen intellectuals from both sides convened...[to formulate a] joint declaration....The Israelis, alerted by the fiascos of Camp David and Taba to a nuance they had previously overlooked, demanded that the statement clearly say that Israel would be a Jewish state and Palestine an Arab one. The Palestinians refused. Jews, they said, are a religion, not a nationality, and neither need nor deserve their own state."
|