August 11, 2010
Iran: Watch the Skies
In this month's Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg has a major article about Israel, Iran, The U.S., and an almost inevitable strike by Israel on the Iranian nuclear facilities.
Those who have been reading Seraphic Secret recognize our belief that the current Iranian regime—genocidal yearning theocrats—is an existential threat to the Jewish State. Further, we believe that Israel has an obligation to attack Iran before she crosses the nuclear red line.
The Iranian leadership has denied the Holocaust even as they promise a new Holocaust.
If there is one lesson easily derived from Jewish history it is this: every single time an enemy of the Jewish people has threatened to annihilate the Jewish people they have tried to make good on this promise. This holds true from Haman to Hitler.
There are no exceptions.
And every time we publish a story about the Iranian nuclear threat I receive a blizzard of private emails from either lawyers or academics—always, sigh, Jewish liberals—in which they argue in tedious detail why the Iranians really don't mean what they say.
Please, no more emails. Frankly, I'm out of patience with those who are so generous with Jewish blood. Especially when, in the back of their minds, is the assumption that their blood will not be shed.
Once again, let me quote Herr Hitler's favorite Latin proverb:
Mundus volt decipi, ergo decepiatur.
The world wants to be deceived, therefore let it be deceived.
It is possible that at some point in the next 12 months, the imposition of devastating economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran will persuade its leaders to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons. It is also possible that Iran’s reform-minded Green Movement will somehow replace the mullah-led regime, or at least discover the means to temper the regime’s ideological extremism. It is possible, as well, that “foiling operations” conducted by the intelligence agencies of Israel, the United States, Great Britain, and other Western powers—programs designed to subvert the Iranian nuclear effort through sabotage and, on occasion, the carefully engineered disappearances of nuclear scientists—will have hindered Iran’s progress in some significant way. It is also possible that President Obama, who has said on more than a few occasions that he finds the prospect of a nuclear Iran “unacceptable,” will order a military strike against the country’s main weapons and uranium-enrichment facilities.
But none of these things—least of all the notion that Barack Obama, for whom initiating new wars in the Middle East is not a foreign-policy goal, will soon order the American military into action against Iran—seems, at this moment, terribly likely. What is more likely, then, is that one day next spring, the Israeli national-security adviser, Uzi Arad, and the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, will simultaneously telephone their counterparts at the White House and the Pentagon, to inform them that their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has just ordered roughly one hundred F-15Es, F-16Is, F-16Cs, and other aircraft of the Israeli air force to fly east toward Iran—possibly by crossing Saudi Arabia, possibly by threading the border between Syria and Turkey, and possibly by traveling directly through Iraq’s airspace, though it is crowded with American aircraft. (It’s so crowded, in fact, that the United States Central Command, whose area of responsibility is the greater Middle East, has already asked the Pentagon what to do should Israeli aircraft invade its airspace. According to multiple sources, the answer came back: do not shoot them down.)
In these conversations, which will be fraught, the Israelis will tell their American counterparts that they are taking this drastic step because a nuclear Iran poses the gravest threat since Hitler to the physical survival of the Jewish people. The Israelis will also state that they believe they have a reasonable chance of delaying the Iranian nuclear program for at least three to five years. They will tell their American colleagues that Israel was left with no choice. They will not be asking for permission, because it will be too late to ask for permission.
Snip.
The Netanyahu government is already intensifying its analytic efforts not just on Iran, but on a subject many Israelis have difficulty understanding: President Obama. The Israelis are struggling to answer what is for them the most pressing question: are there any circumstances under which President Obama would deploy force to stop Iran from going nuclear? Everything depends on the answer.
The answer is simple. There is no way Obama will attack Iran. His temperament is that of a glorified community organizer. He does not understand geo-politics and his reflexive hostility to Israel is evident to everyone except Jewish liberals who overwhelmingly support him.
The Israelis argue that Iran demands the urgent attention of the entire international community, and in particular the United States, with its unparalleled ability to project military force. This is the position of many moderate Arab leaders as well. A few weeks ago, in uncommonly direct remarks, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, Yousef al-Otaiba, told me—in a public forum at the Aspen Ideas Festival—that his country would support a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He also said that if America allowed Iran to cross the nuclear threshold, the small Arab countries of the Gulf would have no choice but to leave the American orbit and ally themselves with Iran, out of self-protection. “There are many countries in the region who, if they lack the assurance the U.S. is willing to confront Iran, they will start running for cover towards Iran,” he said. “Small, rich, vulnerable countries in the region do not want to be the ones who stick their finger in the big bully’s eye, if nobody’s going to come to their support.”
Several Arab leaders have suggested that America’s standing in the Middle East depends on its willingness to confront Iran. They argue self-interestedly that an aerial attack on a handful of Iranian facilities would not be as complicated or as messy as, say, invading Iraq. “This is not a discussion about the invasion of Iran,” one Arab foreign minister told me. “We are hoping for the pinpoint striking of several dangerous facilities. America could do this very easily.”
Snip.
Negotiating with the Iranian leadership is not just futile, but dangerous because these are not rational actors:
[The hatred of Israel and Jews is] in a line of Shia Muslim thinking that views Jews as ritually contaminated, a view derived in part from the Koran’s portrayal of Jews as treasonous foes of the Prophet Muhammad. As Robert Wistrich recounts in his new history of anti-Semitism, A Lethal Obsession, through the 17th and 18th centuries Shia clerics viewed Jews variously as “the leprosy of creation” and “the most unclean of the human race.” I once asked Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a leading Iranian diplomat who is now Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, why the leadership of Iran persistently described Israel not as a mere regional malefactor but as a kind of infectious disease. “Do you disagree?” he asked. “Do you not see that this is true?”
Full article here.
H/T Israel Matzav
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:03 AM | Comments (19)
June 28, 2010
Watch the Skies
Seraphic Secret has long maintained that a nuclear Iran is an existential threat to Israel and to the entire Gulf region.
Years ago, we predicted that liberals would shrink from confronting the Iranian menace and default to a policy of containment, a policy that worked with the Soviet Union, but does not apply to the fanatic theocrats of Iran.
Persian apologists—mostly liberal Jews who write me looong, tortured defenses of Iran—maintain that Iran will never use a nuclear weapon against Israel for that would involve the slaughter of Muslims.
But of course, the Mullahs see things a bit differently. Killing Muslims is beyond cool because the dead will get a direct ticket to heaven as martyrs in the war against Jews.
But now, something's happening.
In fact, several things at the same time, which all point to an impending Israeli strike.
1. Israel Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, a very smart man, has leaked that relations between Israel and the Obama administration has suffered a "tectonic rift".
Of course, Oren has denied making this statement.
He's a diplomat. That's what he has to do. But anyone who's been watching Obama's assaults on Israel knows that Oren's statement is accurate.
Obama is rigid leftist who views Israel as a colonial power.
Not a shock when you consider that he spent over twenty years in a frankly rascist, Jew-hating church.
2. CIA director Leon Panetta has just come out with an alarming statement about the Iranian threat.
3. The Obama White House is holding secret talks with Hamas, a terrorist gang whose charter calls for the annihilation of Israel and Jews everywhere.
4. And over at the G8, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has let drop a diplomatic nugget that should make everyone sit up and take notice.
Israel knows that Obama is a soggy player.
And so do the Gulf Sunni states, who are just as alarmed about the Iranian threat as Israel.
Thus it's no surprise that Israel and Saudi Arabia have formed a military alliance that will deal with Iran.
Israel Air Force aircraft dropped off large quantities of military gear at a Saudi Arabian military base a week ago, in preparation for a potential attack on Iran, a number of Iranian and Israeli news outlets have reported.
The unconfirmed report, first published by the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars and the Islam Times Web site, claimed that on June 18 and 19, Israeli helicopters unloaded military equipment and built a base just over 8 km. outside the northwestern city of Tabuk, the closest Saudi city to Israel, located just south of Jordan. All civilian flights into and out of the city were said to have been canceled during the Israeli drop-off, and passengers were reportedly compensated by the Saudi authorities and accommodated in nearby hotels.
The claim follows a report two weeks ago in the London Times Magazine that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to fly through a narrow corridor of airspace in northern Saudi Arabia so as to shorten the flight time required for Israeli jets to reach Iran. The Times said that Saudi Arabia had adjusted its missile defense systems to ensure that Israeli jets are not shot down while passing through Saudi airspace on the way to an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Full story here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:04 AM | Comments (19)
June 17, 2010
Iran: Raping Virgins in the Name of Heaven
Preparing to stone a woman to death in Iran.
When I first conceive a screenplay I search for the spine of the narrative.
Simply put, the spine is the main theme of the story.
This is not to be confused with plot.
For instance, when I was writing A Stranger Among Us, I jotted down the following note:
This is the story of a liberated, non-Jewish woman who turns an isolated, young Hassid into a better man. Conversely, it's the story of the young Hassid who transforms the liberated, non-Jewish woman into a better woman.
It's that simple and that complicated.
The theme of the movie drives the action from the first frame to the last. I've discovered that as long as the theme is clear and compelling, the script will work.
For better or for worse, I tend to think about geo-political affairs with the same narrative eye.
I view the conflict and search for a telling detail that reveals a central truth.
Which brings me to Iran.
A terrorist, rogue state that crushes its own citizens, makes war against the West on numerous fronts, and vows to annihilate Israel.
Iran is a state that officially denies the Holocaust even as it plans a new Holocaust.
But genocide is, unfortunately, an abstraction, which explains why Western liberals have essentially surrendered to Persia's nuclear ambitions.
The Obama White House won't admit it publicly, but they have already accepted a nuclear Iran and plan on a policy of containment, a cold war strategy that worked just fine with the Communists.
The problem is the Communists never believed in Communism. At least not enough to risk nuclear annihilation. They were only interested in maintaining their grip on power and hoarding their privileges.
The ruling classes in Russia and China knew, with deeply cynical hearts, that Communism is a corrupt ideology, just another ugly shell game packaged in the dopey rhetoric of class consciousness and equality.
But the Mullahs truly believe in Islam.
They believe in an apocalyptic version of Islam that sees death and destruction as purifying.
The spine of this story?
It's coming.
Torture, hangings and stoning women to death are common in Iran.
But there is a theological problem for the Mullahs and their thugs.
They believe that virgins are sent directly to heaven.
And they do not want enemies of the state in heaven.
Awk-ward.
The solution is simplicity itself: In the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, the Revolutionary Guards rape virgins before they are executed, often in front of their mothers, brothers and fathers.
Thus, they believe that the young women are consigned to hell after execution.
Such a regime cannot be deterred; such a regime cannot be contained.
And such a regime cannot be allowed to cross the nuclear threshold.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:42 AM | Comments (9)
April 21, 2010
Obama: Strike Against Iran off the Table
Israeli jets train over Nevada.
Years ago, Seraphic Secret predicted that the Democrats would opt to allow the mullahs to cross the nuclear red line. Appeasement to evil is now embedded in the DNA of the Democrats, a party that emulates the toothless European Socialists.
The Democrats will push the notion that a nuclear Iran can be contained and deterred.
This is cold war thinking—naive at best—applied to a fanatic Muslim theocracy that yearns to usher in the Twelfth Imam through an end of days conflagration.
Such a foreign policy is not just nonsense, but it's dangerous nonsense.
As Rafsanjani once boasted, Iran will gladly sacrifice twenty million of its own citizens in order to annihilate Israel.
Here's the main lesson of Jewish history: when someone says they are going to kill you, it's wise to believe them.
In any case, nothing like revealing your strategy to the enemy:
The US has ruled out a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program any time soon, hoping instead negotiations and United Nations sanctions will prevent the Middle East nation from developing nuclear weapons, a top US defense department official said Wednesday.
“Military force is an option of last resort,” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said during a press briefing in Singapore. “It’s off the table in the near term.”
Full story here.
Though there are dissenting voices in the Israeli political and military circles, it is almost unanimous that the Jewish State cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran:
The Israeli security establishment is divided over whether it needs Washington’s blessing if Israel decides to attack Iran, Israeli officials say, as the U.S. campaign for sanctions drags on and Tehran steadily develops greater nuclear capability.
Some senior Israeli officials say in interviews with the Wall Street Journal that they see signs Washington may be willing to live with a nuclear-armed Iran, an eventuality that Israel says it won’t accept.
Full story here.
Obama, a faithful disciple of Jew-haters Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said and the entire radical leftist gestalt will never attack Iran.
Obama's far more worried about Jewish apartments in Jerusalem—an entirely new and murderous shift in American policy—than the proudly genocidal yearnings of Iran, a terrorist Muslim state.
The Iranian nuclear program is the most important issue facing Israel, America, and the entire world. Appeasement will shift power to the Muslim terrorists in a way that is simply unacceptable to a civilized world.
Inevitably, nuclear power will trickle down to non-state players and Iran's proxie armies, Hizbullah and Hamas.
Here's what you can expect:
1. Several dirty bomb are detonated in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.
2. No one claims responsibility.
3. The Arab street erupts in spontaneous joy.
4. The UN expresses regret for the millions of dead, but points out that the Jewish State brought it upon itself.
5. America does nothing in the face of Iran's plausible deniability.
6. As Israel collapses, elements within the IAF armed with thermonuclear weapons, execute their own raids on Tehran, Qom, Riyadh, Mecca, Damascus and Cairo. Estimated dead: seventy to eighty million.
7. The UN and the Democrats demand that the surviving world-wide Jewish community pay reparations to the Arab Muslim world.
8. Muslim riots break out all over Europe, but mainly in France, Great Britain, Germany, Holland and Belgium. The Jews who are not murdered are sent to internment camps. The oh-so-sensitive Europeans heave a great sigh of relief: at last Europe is Judenrein. But the relief is short-lived as the Quisling EU imposes Sharia.
9. The price of oil hits $500 a barrel.
10. Jihadi sleeper cells in America are activated and the slaughter is immense.
If you think this is far-fetched, I would argue that this scenario is actually quite conservative.
My articulate friend Wolf Howling has an excellent post on Nukes, Iran, and Obama's Fantasy World.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:17 AM | Comments (28)
April 13, 2010
Obama Bows (Again), China Kicks Him in the Rear
Barack Hussein Obama bowing to Chinese leader Hu Jin Tao.
There's something profoundly wrong with Barack Hussein Obama.
It's not as if protocol demands that he bow down to foreign leaders.
And it's not as if all his bowing and scraping has gotten anything in return—except maybe contempt.
For instance, Obama has repeatedly declared that he wants China and Russia aboard with sanctions on Iran.
Russia has blown this off, oh, say, a dozen times.
Ditto for China:
On Tuesday, China reaffirmed its long-held skepticism about the need for sanctions against Iran.
"China always believes that dialogue and negotiation are the best way out for the issue. Pressure and sanctions cannot fundamentally solve it," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
But a top White House official said Obama and Hu had agreed their delegations would work together at the United Nations.
Ah, the U.N.
I feel soooo much better.
Funny thing is I agree with China.
Sanctions are useless.
They have never worked against rogue nations.
Ever.
And they certainly won't work with Iran, a fanatic and proudly genocidal yearning regime.
I've heard from several reliable sources that the Obama administration has already accepted a nuclear Iran and are now relying on “containment.”
That's what's known in Obamaspeak as, er, smart power.
But Israel—and the Sunni Gulf states—are deeply alarmed at Obama's cleverness. A nuclear Iran means a nuclear shield for every terrorist entity in the world. You see, the Iranians don't even have to ignite their device to achieve hegemony. The threat alone will create regional havoc and, of course, nuclear proliferation.
Say goodbye to Iraq, because Obama's timetable will create a nice comfy vacuum for the nuclear Mullahs.
And the suitcase bomb scenario will, without a doubt, become a reality, somewhere in Tel-Aviv. Or maybe New York. Or Los Angeles. Or heck, why not London, or Paris.
Obama has declared that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, but that's just talk. The list of Obama's lies is long and well documented.
More important, the Iranians don't believe him.
Israel doesn't believe him.
Nor do the Sunni Gulf states.
As always, Israel, the Jewish state, is alone and she will act alone.
And then Obama will get to blame the Jooz for all the world's problems.
As he learned in his twenty years in Jeremiah Wright's Jew-hating church.
Meanwhile, Anne Bayefsky unmasks the current nuclear charade.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:32 AM | Comments (7)
February 11, 2010
Hope and Change Persian Style
Today is—drumroll please—Revolution Day in Iran.
The Mullahs celebrated by torching choice Western flags and parading effigies of Barack Hussein Obama down the streets of Tehran.
Good thing Obama offered to unclench his fist to the Muslim world. As Sarah Palin said: ”How's that hope n'changey stuff working out?”
So clever. Obama holds Lady Liberty who has blood dripping from her mouth. That's what I like about post-modern Persian art: subtlety.
Burning the American, British, French and Israeli flags. I'll bet the British and French are really annoyed—about being lumped together with Israel.
No demonstartion in the Muslim world is complete without burning an effigy of POTUS. Obviously, the Persians did not get the memo that Obama is so much nicer than Bush.
This is my favorite. Obama wears an Israei tie and wow, he's got a humongous nose. And check out the massive ears. They look, er, simian. Al Sharpton alert. Anyhoo, the Persian regime is not a bunch of malignant Jew-haters. No, they're merely anti-Zionist. Hey, just like Obama's buddies, William Ayers, Rashid Khalidi, and spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright who cleverly referred to Israel as, “... that dirty word.”
Persia is well on its way to crossing the nuclear red line. Nothing to worry about. Obviously, Obama's got the situation covered. He's even holding up Apache helicopter sales to Israel “dismayed” at their use during Operation Cast Lead. Because the Jewish State had the chutzpah to defend itself against a genocidal yearning bunch of Islamist lunatics.
Rob Miller AKA Joshua Pundit, suffered a mild heart attack on Moday afternoon. Mrs. Joshua Pundit has posted that Rob is resting comfortably and doing well. Seraphic Secret is greatly relieved. We had lunch with Rob and Omri Ceren of Mere Rhetoric a few weeks ago and as always, our conversation was lively, informative and rollicking good fun. Rob is one of the smartest guys I have ever met and we wish him a refuah shlemah, a speedy recovery. You can leave your good wishes at his website Joshua Pundit.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:53 AM | Comments (13)
October 06, 2009
Iran's Big Victory in Geneva
The gravest threat facing the West is Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Iran, an imperialist Islamic theocracy, seeks regional hegemony, considers Bahrain a lost Iranian province, regularly threatens genocide against the Jewish State, and has been killing Americans, Israelis and Europeans for over thirty years using their proxies Hizbullah and Hamas.
President Obama's engagement with Iran is but the latest Western initiative that allows Iran to skillfully stretch out talks, thereby giving the Mullahs plenty of time to cross the nuclear threshold.
Ambassador John Bolton analyzes the Geneva talks, that, contrary to Obama's claims of progress, have only strengthened Iran's hand in the face of a dangerously gullible American president.
The most widely touted outcome of last week's Geneva talks with Iran was the "agreement in principle" to send approximately one nuclear-weapon's worth of Iran's low enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia for enrichment to 19.75% and fabrication into fuel rods for Tehran's research reactor. President Barack Obama says the deal represents progress, a significant confidence-building measure.
In fact, the agreement constitutes another in the long string of Iranian negotiating victories over the West. Any momentum toward stricter sanctions has been dissipated, and Iran's fraudulent, repressive regime again hobnobs with the U.N. Security Council's permanent members. Consider the following problems:
• Is there a deal or isn't there? Diplomacy's three slipperiest words are "agreement in principle." Iran's Ambassador to Britain exclaimed after the talks in Geneva, "No, no!" when asked if his country had agreed to ship LEU to Russia; it had "not been discussed yet." An unnamed Iranian official said that the Geneva deal "is just based on principles. We have not agreed on any amount or any numbers." Bargaining over the deal's specifics could stretch out indefinitely.
To read the rest of John Bolton's article, please click here.
And you should know that sanctions will not work.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:56 AM | Comments (5)
October 01, 2009
The Persian Peril
From our good friends at DeNuke Iran:
Today was a meeting among Iranian and Western diplomats in Geneva.
It sounds like this will be the first of many such talk-fests.
If history is any judge, this is a clever delaying ploy on the part of the Iranians.
What seems to be forgotten by all the “talking heads” are the stakes.
Please watch this 30-second internet ad – “Peril” – which is an attempt to keep the potential danger at the forefront while the Western world sings kumbaya.
Counterterrorist analysts Matthew Levitt and Michael Jacobson argue convincingly that The World Can't Trust Iran.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:51 AM | Comments (2)
September 23, 2009
Obama and the Politics of Concession
World leaders prepare for summits with other heads of state by, among other things, studying in-depth psychological profiles prepared by analysts in their security divisions. If authored by skillful psy-op analysts, these profiles are predictive of likely future behavior.
The Mossad dossiers are famous for containing deep information that other services have missed. For instance, the Mossad's file on Bill Clinton contains detailed transcripts of phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky that are, basically, um, phone sex.
International files on Obama are, to be sure, filled with details of his close friendship with Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Michael Pfleger, Tony Rezsko, and Rashid Khalidi. Which points to a supreme opportunist who is quite comfortable in the company of radicals who despise America, and hate Jews.
This profile must be deeply useful to our enemies for it indicates a POTUS who is ideologically weak, psychologically torn, inexperienced, and at best, naive about military and world affairs
The Russian Obama profile, no doubt, predicts a U.S. President who will fold in negotiations over missile defense in Europe. Hence the Russians played hardball and were able to get exactly what they want while giving nothing in return.
In Israel, Mossad's dossier—probably filled with electronic intercepts that would have buried Obama's campaign in the first two weeks—informs Netanyahu that Obama will take a hard line against the Jewish state—it's Obama's default ideology—and then stutter as resistance and reality intrudes.
The great novelist Mark Helprin profiles Obama's politics of concessions with an emphasis on Russia and Iran.
During last year's campaign, Sen. Joe Biden famously remarked that, if his ticket won, it wouldn't be long before "the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy" on foreign affairs. Last week, President Obama, brilliantly wielding the powers of his office, managed to fail that test not just once but twice, buckling in the face of Russian pressure and taking a giant wooden nickel from Iran.
With both a collapsing economy and natural gas reserves sufficient to produce 270 years of electricity, the surplus of which it exports, Iran does not need nuclear electrical generation at a cost many times that of its gas-fired plants. It does, however, have every reason, according to its own lights, to seek nuclear weapons—to deter American intervention; to insure against a resurgent Iraq; to provide some offset to nearby nuclear powers Pakistan, Russia and Israel; to move toward hegemony in the Persian Gulf and address the embarrassment of a more militarily capable Saudi Arabia; to rid the Islamic world of Western domination; to neutralize Israel's nuclear capacity while simultaneously creating the opportunity to destroy it with one shot; and, pertinent to last week's events, by nuclear intimidation to turn Europe entirely against American interests in the Middle East.
Some security analysts may comfort themselves with the illusion that soon-to-be nuclear Iran is a rational actor, but no country gripped so intensely by a cult of martyrdom and death that to clear minefields it marched its own children across them can be deemed rational. Even the United States, twice employing nuclear weapons in World War II, seriously contemplated doing so again in Korea and then in Vietnam.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Meanwhile, Barry Rubin explains why Obama's Mideast policies are an utter failure as France rejects his call for sanctions against Iran.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:54 AM | Comments (2)
September 10, 2009
Dore Gold: The Rise of Nuclear Iran
Ambassador Dore Gold.
Photo: Copyright © Robert J. Avrech
Last week, I was invited by One Jerusalem, to attend a private briefing by Ambassador Dore Gold, whose important new book, The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West, has just been published.
There were about fifteen of us—bloggers mostly, including my good friend Omri Ceren—gathered in the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Ambassador Gold, looking like a sleepy walrus, spoke in measured, diplomatic tones. But he was fiercely passionate and knowledgeable about Iranian history, culture, and diplomacy, past and present.
Point by point, Gold emphasized his main thesis: The Iranian nuclear threat is not just a danger to Israel and the Mid East, but to the West.
International complacency, as the Iranians reach the nuclear finish line, warned Gold, is deeply disturbing. This is a subject that should be in the headlines every single day, instead we are confronted with quietism, and yawns expressing an attitude of:
“So what?”
The international community, explained Gold, points to Pakistan and North Korea as unstable regimes that possess nuclear weapons and yet they have been contained. Thus, why not view Iran in the same light?
The weakness of this argument reflects a misreading of Iran's long term strategic goals.
Neither Pakistan nor North Korea are attempting regional supremacy. Pakistan is focused on its bottomless conflict with India, and North Korea has no plans to conquer Japan; the Norks, in fact, are focused on maintaining their iron grip on the reins of power.
Iran, on the other hand, is an expansionist Islamic theocracy seeking to export their Shia revolution.
For instance, the Mullahs consider Bahrain to be a lost Persian province, and they also lay claim to slices of Iraq that are home to a Shia majority, including the holy cities of Nadjaf and Karballah.
And of course, Iran has threatened, numerous times, to wipe Israel off the map.
Further, unlike Pakistan or North Korea, there is no deterrence with Iran.
The mullahs are prepared to sacrifice millions in order to achieve their expansionist aims. This was proven during the bloody eight year war with Iraq. The Iranians recovered territory snatched by Iraq after just two years of war, but chose to continue warfare for six long years at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Iranian lives. The Revolutionary Guard used children—wearing plastic keys to heaven around their necks—as human minesweepers. A regime that so callously murders its own young—martyrdom operations—is, by definition, capable of anything in the name of Allah.
Hence, the calculus of Cold War deterrence—Mutual Assured Destruction—no longer applies.
“Remember,” said Ambassador Gold, “there were no Communist suicide bombers.” Contrast this to the Arab Muslim world where suicide bombers and their families enjoy enormous status.
Iran, emphasized Ambassador Gold, is the world's greatest exporter of terror. Through various, well-funded proxy armies—Hizbullah, Hamas, etc.—the Iranians have been kidnapping, torturing and killing Americans and Israelis since Ayatollah Khomenei's Islamic revolution in 1979.
And the West has never punished the Iranians for their murderous behavior. Thus the Iranians are encouraged to keep killing for there is never any payback.
The West consistently views Iranian behavior and intentions through the prism of Western values.
This is a mistake the West repeats over and over again, refusing to learn from past experience.
Gold's book is filled with footnoted facts about countless Iranian outrages.
Ambassador Gold emphasized that, contrary to popular opinion, every American administration, from Carter to Obama—including George Bush—has engaged Iran in vigorous diplomacy. And every single administration has been snookered by the Iranians, who consider it perfectly acceptable to lie to the enemy. The Islamic religious doctrine of taquia, elevates this behavior to a religious duty.
And make no mistake about it, the Iranians are intractable in their belief that the West, Christians and Jews, are the eternal enemy.
Time and again, the Iranians have skillfully used dialog and diplomacy to buy time in order to achieve their regional ambitions.
Ambassador Gold would not comment on Israeli military plans for Iran.
Nor would he be drawn into commenting on American military cooperation with Israel.
But Gold was quite adamant on two points:
1. Iran is determined to cross the nuclear finish line.
2. Sanctions cannot work.
On my notepad, I wrote one word in bold script at the very end of the briefing: Sobering.
I have always believed that military action is the only option that will be effective against the mullahs. It's not a pretty option, but it's far better than allowing this cruel state to achieve nuclear breakout.
Ponder this thought: if Iran has the bomb, transnational Islamic terrorism will be sheltered by a nuclear umbrella, a rock solid deterrence—military and diplomatic—that will shield them from any consequences of their terrorist outrages.
Further, nuclear weapons—suitcase dirty bombs—will proliferate among non-state Islamic terrorists, and nuclear blackmail will become coin of the realm.
This scenario could easily tip the balance of world power in favor of the Islamist radicals who are determined to subjugate the West and bring about a barbaric 7th century Caliphite.
The laughter you hear in the background are the Iranians snickering at the credulity of the West.
Currently, the Iranians mock Obama, correctly sensing an administration whose only strategy is: “More talk.”
The Europeans, gutless appeasers, have turned a blind eye.
The Russians and the Chinese enable the Iranians at most every turn.
So once again, as with Iraq's Osirik nuclear reactor, it's up to Israel.
Here's Ambassador Gold speaking to the Heritage Foundation about The Rise of Nuclear Iran. As I said: sobering.
Oh yeah, Obama's loooong speech last night, I watched Cecil B. De Mille's amazing silent film The Godless Girl, 1929, instead. I mean, why bother, it was just the same attempt to sell ice to Eskimos that we've heard a zillion times. Power Line provides a thoughtful and factual analysis.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:20 AM | Comments (5)
July 20, 2009
Rape the Virgins or They'll Go to Paradise
I'm no longer shocked by human cruelty.
History is a wheel that plays reruns of human depravity 24/7.
What does surprise me is the extent of denial in the West regarding Iran and the mullahs who rule that unhappy land.
When Barack Hussein Obama insists that dialog with these butchers is necessary, he is, in effect legitimizing the evil of that Islamic theocracy.
In fact, Obama's foreign policy initiatives have aligned America with some of the most repressive regimes on earth: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Zelaya in Honduras. Obama has played kissy-face with North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Hamas, Fatah, and most recently the Russians made Obama look like an amateur in a game of high-stakes poker.
Well gee, I suppose if Obama could sit for over 20-years and contentedly listen to Jeremiah Wright curse America and Israel and honor a proud Jew-hater like Louis Farrakhan, the mullahs are—yawn—just more of the same.
As for the 78% of American Jews who voted for Obama, don't you think it's time for some serious self-reflection.
In a shocking and unprecedented interview, directly exposing the inhumanity of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's religious regime in Iran, a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji militia has told this reporter of his role in suppressing opposition street protests in recent weeks.
He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so "impressed my superiors" that, at 18, "I was given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."
In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard—essentially raped by her "husband."
"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.
Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"
"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.
"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."
Elder of Ziyon has the complete story.
Omri Ceren at Mere Rhetoric picks up the thread.
Soccer Dad reminds us that raping the virgins before execution has a literary and historical precedent.
And hey, why not allow the mullahs to acquire nuclear weapons?
Obviously, a regime that believes so deeply in the sanctity of marriage can be trusted to act rationally.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:08 AM | Comments (20)
July 06, 2009
Good Thing Obama Didn't Meddle or Else Mullahs Might Hang 'Em High
Mass hangings of Iranian dissidents in Iran.
Let's review:
1) Barack Hussein Obama was reluctant to meddle in Iranian affairs because the Mullahs might accuse America of meddling in Iranian affairs.
2) The Mullahs immediately accuse America of meddling in Iranian affairs because they are a bunch of anti-American theocrats who checkmate Obama at every turn.
I'm gratified that the Republicans vocally and forcefully support the Iranian dissidents.
Meanwhile, over in happy go lucky Honduras, President Manuel Zelaya tried to strong-arm himself as El Presidente for Life and was deposed by his congress and the military and Obama immediately jumped in and, ahem, meddled—on the side of a leftist dictator.
Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright must be so proud.
Is it my imagination or does Obama pretty much always cozy up to totalitarians—the Arab Muslim world, Honduras, Cuba, Chavez, The Mullahs—and play hard ball with our allies: Poland, India, the Czech Republic, Taiwan, Israel, Japan, South Korea.
Furthermore, Obama has not a clue as to how to deal with North Korea.
So how is Obama going to deal with the murderous Mullahs?
Sanctions?
Nah, that might make them angry.
No wonder Israel and Saudi Arabia and Egypt have formed an alliance against Iran.
It's clear that every foreign policy initiative Obama has undertaken is a disaster. His current trip to Russia is just silly. What difference does it make if we have a few less nukes? While we downgrade our nuclear capabilities the bad guys, Iran and North Korea are building theirs. And of course, proliferation to Islamic non-state players is emerging as a very real scenario.
Barack Hussein Obama, a radical leftist left unchecked, will unleash the forces of oppression against world-wide democratic reform and heap dishonor on these United States.
Amid mounting reports of a series of executions carried out by the Iranian authorities in recent days following the disputed presidential elections last month, an Iranian lawyer has given this reporter an insight into the legal struggles he is facing in trying to defend some of those now in detention for participating in opposition protests.
The state-run Fars news agency reported that 20 people were hanged at the Karaj prison west of the capital on Saturday, and another 14 executions elsewhere in Iran have been reported by state media since Wednesday, including six hangings at Teheran's Evin Prison. Many of those executed have been described in state media as drug traffickers — a charge often leveled at dissidents.
Iranian police say that about 1,000 people have been detained for involvement in the public protests that erupted after June 12 presidential elections.
Full story, here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:02 AM | Comments (10)
June 25, 2009
If At First You Don't Succeed Grovel, Grovel Again
Iran's supreme butcher Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ridicules pen pal Obama.
This is definitely from the Neville Chamberlain school of international relations.
Prior to the current uprising in the streets of Iran, Barack Hussein Obama sent a letter to the mullahs begging them to, y'know, like us, to really like us.
Naturally, Khamenei ridiculed Obama's groveling note in a public sermon, recognizing Obama's abject tone and shameless display of weakness.
Obama, a man who has zero experience in international affairs, a man whose knowledge of geo-politics is limited to a narrow and, let's face it, radical leftist interpretation of world history—America is bad, Third World People are groovy, Israel/Jews are ruining everything. Thus, Obama is incapable of recognizing the existence of evil, much less confronting it. Obama's default is: apologize, crawl on your knees to dictators, insult your democratic allies, and claim that all cultures are equal.
The mullahs have a somewhat different frame of reference and it was articulated quite clearly by the Ayatollah Khomeini, as reported in Amir Taheri's Holy Terror, 1987.
Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males... to prepare themselves for the conquest of other countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country of the world. Those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world... Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. They are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean the Muslims should sit back until they are devoured? Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter their armies...Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword. People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only to the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of scriptures urging Muslims to value war and fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.
Obama's naivete is not just breathtaking, but a veritable gift to the murderous mullahs of Persia, and to totalitarians everywhere.
Today, Big Hollywood is proud to participate in the 2nd annual Troopathon with content dedicated solely to the military and their families. Make sure to check out Big Hollywood's Troopathon.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:41 AM | Comments (2)
June 24, 2009
The Savages are Loose, Obama Waits to See How it Plays Out
“You should stop this... you should help the people of Iran who demand freedom... You should help us...”
Nah.
Barack Hussein Obama would rather sit down and chat with mass murderering mullahs because, y'know, he's just so darned smart and charming that his Jedi force field will convince them to give up their nuclear program, abandon their plans to annihilate Israel, cease oppressing women, renounce the hanging homosexuals, and sing kumbaya.
Security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons beat back demonstrators who flocked to a Tehran square Wednesday to continue protests, with one witness saying security forces beat people like "animals."
At least two sources described wild and violent conditions at a part of Tehran where protesters had planned to demonstrate.
"They were waiting for us," one source said. "They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap.
"I see many people with broken arms, legs, heads — blood everywhere — pepper gas like war," the source said.
Another witness said hundreds of people were chased by security forces and clubbed about a mile from the square.
Yet another source, a man who spoke to his wife in the area of the square, recounted what she told him in a phone conversation.
He said she saw security forces shooting and beating people and saw blood on people's clothes and in the streets. The woman said security forces had been carrying butcher knives and batons.
Full story here.
But fear not, Barack Hussein Obama is “waiting to see how it plays itself out.”
Odd, I always believed that America leads the world in the cause of freedom.
Guess not.
Hope and Change for Islamic terrorists, but for a people struggling to loosen the shackles of tyranny, tepid rhetoric.
Reprehensible.
More excellent coverage of the Persian repression from my friend Wolf Howling
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:43 PM | Comments (14)
June 23, 2009
Obama and Mullahs to Celebrate July 4th, Good Times
Neda Salehi Agha Soltan will not be attending a
July 4th barbecue. But her murderers will.
Engagement.
It's the magical concept for Barack Hussein Obama. Because, y'know, he can just charm the Jew-hating (shades of Jeremiah Wright) America-hating (Wright again) mullahs; convince the tyrants to give up their nuclear program and their vow to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth.
Meanwhile, as the Basij and the Revolutionary Guard murder people in the streets, break into homes and arrest alleged enemies of the regime, as Iranian citizens are tortured in black hole prisons, Barack Hussein Obama and the geniuses who run the State Dept. have determined that a happy-go-lucky July 4th bash is just the thing to enlighten our Islamo Nazi buddies.
I think this Iranian dissident, who begs Obama to get involved, is going to be a bit disappointed.
But have no fear, the state controlled media in the U.S.—except Fox News, the lone dissenting voice—will assure us that Barack Hussein Obama knows exactly what he's doing because he's the smartest, most handsome, most wise POTUS who ever lived. Evan Thomas of Newsweek definitely nailed it with this bit of orgiastic pagan frenzy: “...he's sort of a God.”
Let's contrast Ronald Regan on Poland with Obama on Iran:
Yup, what could be more appropriate than a show of solidarity between America and a totalitarian Islamic theocracy that guns down its own citizens in the streets.
The United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters.
President Barack Obama's administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"There's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
H/T Mere Rhetoric
Wolf Howling comments: “Not just immoral, but obscene.” Read the entire post.
Here's some good news. You know that aktion against Trader Joe's by the Jew-hating thugs? Well, it was a complete and utter failure. Divest This! has the story.
H/T A. Mark David
Question: All the divest-from-Israel creatures who say they are concerned about human rights, human dignity, freedom, etc. where are they now that Iran is exploding?
Answer: No Jooz to blame, so why bother.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:56 AM | Comments (13)
June 22, 2009
Blood in the Streets
Neda Soltan's last words were: "I'm burning, I'm burning!"
The following video is graphic.
A young Iranian woman, Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 27, was standing with her father and watching the protests in Tehran, when she was shot in the chest by the Basij, the Brownshirts of the current Islamic regime. She is in her death throes. Her father begs her not to be afraid.
There is nothing worse than watching your child die.
Neda's funeral was supposed to be held at Tehran's Niloufar Mosque. But the Iranian regime ordered the funeral service canceled. Other mosques have also been issued directives warning them not to hold a funeral for Neda. Thousands of her fellow students were expected to attend her funeral.
More commentary and horrifying videos here.
I post this because President Barack Hussein Obama's tepid support for those Persians who are desperate to throw off the shackles of tyranny is disgraceful. But it's not surprising. Obama bet the farm on the Jew-hating Mullahs. He groveled and apologized to the current regime, thus backing himself into a corner where pale, canned statements written by State Dept. hacks are, presumably, the, ahem, ethical way to go.
Bookwork Room writes a letter to the Iranian People that says everything Obama seems incapable of articulating.
Hope and change for Gitmo terrorists.
But for freedom fighters in Persia—nothing.
America should stand firmly on the side of freedom. This is basic to the American character.
Contrast the video above with the Al-Durah blood libel, a bloodless and fraudulent video produced by the Palestinians and disseminated by a craven western media. My friend Breath of the Beast, covers this in detail.
But have no fear, the U.N. just added Iran—yup, no joke—to its Human Rights Commission. So the Iranian dissidents who are being shot down in the streets, beaten in their homes, and tortured in prisons can expect lots of support from that august body.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:20 AM | Comments (14)
June 17, 2009
Hamas: From Gaza to Tehran
All in a day's work for Hamas.
Hamas, the fanatic, Jew-hating terrorists who occupy and rule Gaza, are now doing what they do best—murder, torture and intimidation—on behalf of the current military/Islamic dictatorship in Iran.
You see Barack Hussein Obama does not want to meddle in Iranian affairs, but Hamas has no such compunctions.
Not surprisingly, the Mullahs are accusing America of—what a shock—meddling in Iranian affairs.
Hamas, need I remind my readers, are the same people Jimmy Carter wants removed from the U.S. designated terrorist watch list.
Make no mistake about it, Barack Hussein Obama's restraint in dealing with the current situation in Iran only aids and abets the Mullahs, and deals a terrible blow to those who seek some measure of freedom.H/T Israel Matzav
Hey, I have an idea, let's give the so-called Palestinians another state—they already have Gaza and Jordan—what could possibly go wrong?
Palestinian Hamas members are helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests in support of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, two protesters told The Jerusalem Post On Tuesday.
They made their allegations as rioting on a scale unseen in Iran for nearly a decade continued in the wake of the elections and the allegations that the results were falsified. The protests have now spread from Teheran to other major cities.
Snip.
“The most important thing that I believe people outside of Iran should be aware of," the young man went on, "is the participation of Palestinian forces in these riots."
Another protester, who spoke as he carried a kitchen knife in one hand and a stone in the other, also cited the presence of Hamas in Teheran.
On Monday, he said, "my brother had his ribs beaten in by those Palestinian animals. Taking our people's money is not enough, they are thirsty for our blood too."
It was ironic, this man said, that the victorious Ahmadinejad "tells us to pray for the young Palestinians, suffering at the hands of Israel." His hope, he added, was that Israel would "come to its senses" and ruthlessly deal with the Palestinians.”
Complete story at The Jerusalem Post.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:42 AM | Comments (6)
May 20, 2009
Denuke Iran
There is only one issue that concerns Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli people at the moment.
The Persian march to nuclear power.
All the talk about the so-called Palestinians is a distraction.
1. The so-called two-state solution is a diplomatic chimera, a mantra with no substance. Already, there are two Palestinian states: Jordan and Gaza.
2. Lebanon is about to install a government controlled by Hizbullah, a Persian proxy. Thus, another Arab state, devoted to Israel's destruction, will be in play.
3. The so-called moderate Arab regimes, who pay lip-service to a Palestinian state, are, in fact, privately opposed to the notion. Jordan, from experience, knows that any state with the name Palestinian attached equals destabilization for the Hashemites and the entire Middle East. Egypt is fighting a bitter war with the Muslim Brotherhood, closely aligned with Hamas and Hizbullah, both funded and supported by Persia. Publicly, Egypt kvetches about a Palestinian state but they keep their border with Gaza sealed tight as a drum because they understand that the Gaza Islamists are doing everything in their power to undermine the Mubarak regime. Saudi Arabia are also deeply worried about Obama's soft approach to Persia. They understand that a nuclear Persia means the beginning of the end for the House of Saud.
4. Syria is not interested in a Palestinian state, their only desire is in extending hegemony over Lebanon, a state they consider invalid. They have always believed that Lebanon is a province of Syria, stolen from them by the colonial powers. The Syrian game is to play nice with Persia but ultimately undermine the Shiites and regain power for the Alawite minority. That's why so many opposition politicians in Lebanon keep getting blown to bits. Politically, that's how the Syrians roll.
5. So, the diplomats try and create a linkage between the Persian nuclear threat and the Palestinian conflict, but everyone knows that it's an elaborate charade, public posturing. Behind closed doors, everyone who is sane knows that the Persian facilities must not go hot. A nuclear Persia will turn the ME into a regional hostage to Persian ambitions. The only question is: will President Obama cooperate with Israel in denuking Iran?
Join the online community Denuke Iran.
For information on Israel's preparations for a strike against the Persian nuclear facilities see my article: Foreshadowing.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:14 AM | Comments (11)
May 14, 2009
Foreshadowing
Screenwriters often signal a dramatic turn of events in Act I, and then pay it off in Act II. The classic example is:
CLOSE-UP: A hand opens a desk drawer, revealing a PISTOL.
Later, the same pistol is used to kill someone.
This is called foreshadowing.
Israel is foreshadowing like crazy.
1. The IAF borrowed Soviet MIG 29's jets from a friendly Eastern European nation—I'm guessing Poland—and practicing dogfights and heavy formations with Israeli F16's. Guess which country in the Middle East uses MIG 29's?
2. Earlier this month, Israeli jets flew to Gibraltar and back refueling in mid air. The 2,361 miles distance from Israel mimics the distance required to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities from Israel.
3. IDF reservists were called up to practice manning the Arrow anti-missile batteries.
4. Over the past year the IAF has flown several combat missions into Sudan to destroy convoys carrying weapons from Iran to be smuggled into Gazastan. The IAF flew these missions without interference from a single Arab state. Again, the round trip distance is striking.
President Obama has already sent a message, through back door diplomatic channels, that he doesn't want to be surprised by an Israeli strike against Iran. H/T Israel Matzav.
You see, Obama wants to have time to leak the intel to the New York Times and thereby publicize and abort the mission.
Obama is so confident in his personal charm—hey, he didn't win the election based on his paper thin resume—that he's sure he can talk the Mullahs out of going nuclear. The Mullahs are laughing all the way to Nantaz.
Netanyahu is an adult. The neighborhood he lives in is a bit tougher than Chicago. He, understands that Israel and the, ahem, moderate Arab states, cannot tolerate a Persian bomb. Such a bomb would turn Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan into virtual prison states. The flow of capital would halt and tourism would take a huge hit. The threat of being vaporized by a state that has repeatedly vowed to eliminate Israel is a powerful incentive to, y'know, go to the Grand Canyon rather than Jerusalem.
In case anyone needs a refresher course, let's hear from Persian President Ahmadinejad:
I've heard that one of them [PM Olmert] recently said that the idea of Greater Israel is dead. I would like to declare that the idea of "smaller Israel" is also dead. The very notion of Israel is dead, but they are lagging behind the times. Just like the idea of Greater Israel died 30 years ago, and they did not realize this, and have continued to perpetrate crimes for 30 years... Today, I say to them: The idea of smaller Israel is dead.
I have this weird tendency to take it quite seriously when a holocaust denying Muslim Jew-hater threatens another Holocaust.
But that's just me.
The Persian march to power began when Jimmy Carter aided the Ayatollah Khomeni in his rise to power. Carter was convinced that the Ayatollah was, get this, another Ghandi.
Actually, Ghandi believed that the Jews of Europe were quite right in marching off to the gas chambers. The guy in the shmatte had zero tolerance for self-defense. It's important to note that Ghandi used non-violence against Britain, a modern democracy. If he had tried such a tactic against a totalitarian regime such as Germany or any Arab state, he and his followers would be dust and ashes.
Carter was dead wrong about the Ayatollah, as he was dead wrong about everything, and the world has been suffering the bloody consequences ever since.
Obama is as clueless about the Middle East as he is about the American economy, and health care.
The American president conducts himself vis-à-vis the Arab and Islamic world like a rookie trying to command an armored division. Obama is rushing forward on an imaginary horse, and the people of the region can only hope that his terrible mistakes will not cost the lives of additional thousands.
To read the entire article by Dr. Mordechai Kedar, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:24 AM | Comments (20)
May 04, 2009
Iran's Deadly Tempo
Wolf Howling analyzes the growing Persian threat:
Of the major foreign policy issues facing Obama, Iran ranks at least equal to Pakistan in near term criticality. As Obama gives signals of weakness and acquiescence, Iran is significantly increasing its deadly operational tempo throughout the Middle East. And that in addition to a nuclear weapons program that threatens to lead to nuclear proliferation on a nightmare scale. Obama's response is to seek more talks—now unconditional—with even the threat of force apparently off the table. It is the stuff of deadly fantasy.
Read the rest here.
Meanwhile, the IAF conducted a very interesting midair refueling exercise. Take note of the distance flown:
Israel Air Force planes conducted exercises between Israel and Gibraltar, including midair refueling, according to a report published Saturday in the French weekly L’Express. The writer speculated that the distance of the exercises that were carried out, 2,361 miles (3,800 km) from Israel, appeared to confirm that the IDF is preparing to attack Iran if Teheran continues its refusal to end its nuclear program.
Two weeks ago, the London-based Sunday Times reported that Israel plans to attack Iran’s nuclear reactor using three AWAC planes. A senior military official was quoted as saying, “Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words.”
Full story at Arutz Sheva.
The Israeli strike on the Persian nuclear facilities will not be a small operation of a three or four F16's. It will be a robust strike with massive cyber attacks on the Persian air-defense systems, dozens of attack jets, rescue planes, AWAC's, and almost certainly special forces on the ground in Iran directing air strikes. The world will publicly condemn Israel, but in private these same people will breathe huge sighs of relief. The only people who want the Persians to go nuclear are—what a shock—the Persians, and rabid leftist Jew-haters who hide behind the fig-leaf of, ahem, academic anti-Zionism.
And what will the Persians do in response?
The same thing the Syrians did when Israel knocked out their nuclear facility.
Nothing.
When you hit back at bullies, they retreat into their holes and lick their wounds. Bullies are, by nature, cowards and the Persians, who excel in murdering women and children, are no different.
Make no mistake about it, allowing Iran to possess nuclear weapons opens the door to the proliferation of nuclear terrorism.
Things with Persia are getting even more complicated as Iran launches air strikes in Iraq, attacking Kurd villages.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:27 AM | Comments (10)
April 01, 2009
The Sudanese Raid: Beautiful Chutzpah
Soon after publishing Iran in the Crosshairs, we received a note from a close friend along with his analysis of the IAF raid in Sudan as it relates to the Iranian nuclear program. My friend serves in the military and is an acknowledged expert on things that fly through the air and go BOOM! when they land. Assigned to a sensitive post, the author must remain anonymous.
There are two paths that a nation with nuclear ambitions can travel, the plutonium path and the uranium path. During the Manhattan Project, we chose to walk both. The trinity test in 1944 was an implosion style bomb with a plutonium core. The first test of a uranium bomb was over Hiroshima, Japan on 9, August 1945. We didn't need to test it. We knew it would work.
Iran is pursuing a uranium bomb.
Plutonium bombs are difficult to construct and require nuclear reactors to spike the Pu-239 into weapon-grade material. That makes a plutonium program relatively easy for foreign powers to detect and disrupt.
Uranium is different.
Because U-235 has to be enriched to use in both civilian reactors and bombs alike, it is difficult to ascertain whether a nation wants to split the atom for peaceful purposes or not. The international atomic community prefers that a nation with civilian nuclear power aspirations allow the UN to inspect and monitor uranium processing facilities and experimental reactors for this very reason.
Iran decided to kick inspectors out several years ago. It does not take a nuclear scientist to ascertain their intentions, y'know?
Fortunately, the enrichment process is highly complicated. It takes some 8,000 centrifuges spinning for one year straight to separate enough weapons grade U-238 from the 235 for a single bomb with a 12 kiloton yield. The centrifuges are also highly sensitive to any type of seismic event, so any type of earthquake/explosion that's even in the proximity of their enrichment facilities could set the program back a year or greater.
Back in 2006, I predicted that the Iranians would be nearing a bomb by 2011-2012. I stand by that estimate.
Israel would prefer that we, America, handle things ourselves, but I suspect that they'll continue to keep a close eye on Iran's progress and perhaps try to delay it enough until after the 2012 election — in the hopes that a Republican retakes the White House. Israel wants to avoid a major Mideast war as much as we do.
The real x-factor here is Russia. Ivan controls the speed and tempo of their program. Should they decide to drive a wedge between the U.S. and the rest of the Gulf States, another major Mideast war would be the way to do it. Energy is Russia's new weapon. They want to control as much of it as possible. The irony is, the only thing standing in their way right now is the Saudis, who hate the Iranians almost as much as the Israelis do.
Robert, you hit the nail on the head when you stated: “The Israeli Air Force can strike anywhere and at anytime with devastating consequences. The IAF refuels in mid-air thus the Nantaz nuclear facility is well within our reach.”
Exactly.
Did you know the distance, as the crow flies, between Tel Aviv and Tehran is almost identical to that of Tel Aviv and Khartoum?
And flying those slow KC-130s on a refueling track right between Egyptian and Saudi airspace?
This is just beautiful chutzpah.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:11 PM | Comments (15)
March 31, 2009
Iran in the Crosshairs
Israel is sending a clear message to Iran:
1. We are serious about self-defense, even as the rest of the world defaults to Neville Chamberlain mode.
2. Our intelligence services are second to none; we have eyes and ears—literally—on every aspect of your terror operations.
3. Ditto for your nuclear program.
4. The Israeli Air Force can strike anywhere and at anytime with devastating consequences. The IAF refuels in mid-air thus the Nantaz nuclear facility is well within our reach.
5. The Soviet radar defense systems have been fatally compromised.
6. You are toast.
Israeli sources quoted Tuesday by Time Magazine revealed that the January attack on a convoy of trucks carrying weapons bound for Hamas through Sudan was carried out by "dozens of aircraft."According to the sources, the strike consisted of two runs by F-16 bombers, with F-15 fighter planes also on hand in order to provide a quick response in case Sudanese or other enemy aircraft decided to attack the squadron. After the initial bombing run, the sources said, drones flew over and filmed the burning 23-truck convoy. When the footage showed that it had not been completely destroyed, the F-16s were dispatched for a second pass.
The report said that the aircraft refueled over the Red Sea.
Complete story here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:51 AM | Comments (16)
December 24, 2008
Christmas Message
The Persian Christmas message for suspected homosexuals.
This is what you get when the chattering classes, deeply steeped in Jew hatred, embrace multi-culturalism and moral relativity: an alternative Christmas message from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , in, what a shock, Britain, where Jew-haters sing anti-Israeli Christmas Carols in Church.
But Dorothy Byrne, Channel 4's head of news and current affairs, defended the choice. "As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad’s views are enormously influential," she said. “As we approach a critical time in international relations, we are offering our viewers an insight into an alternative world view."
Okay, so what are some of the, ahem, alternative views of this influential world leader? Let's rewind:
3. Finance and equip Hizbullah, a proxy army, to achieve #2.
4. Hang suspected homosexuals, adulterers, and natch, Zionist spies, in the public square.
5. Sieze British sailors and hold them hostage and make sure to display them on TV as tools of Islamic propaganda.
6. Hang Christians.
7. Murder 240 American Marines.
8. Eliminate and persecute members of the Baha’is.
9. Declare war on America.
10. Gradually, but ruthlessly eliminate the Persian-Jewish community.
Seraphic Secret has long maintained that the Western attempt to “understand” the views of Islamic Jew-haters bent on genocide is to legitimize such totalitarian views.
It is not a virtue to be tolerant of the intolerant. It is, in fact, suicide.
The Islamists are fighting a total war against the West: multiple wars of terror across the globe—anchored by the war against Israel's existence—and in the West, a propaganda/media war—aided by useful idiots—to undermine democratic institutions and values. Most dangerous, the Islamists are enabled by a dinosaur media, careerist intellectuals and politicians.
Here's what you need to understand: evil exists and it must be eradicated.
America and her allies recognized the evil of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and both countries were bombed into nothingness.
The West, sooner or later, must understand that in order to defeat those who claim that Islam is the solution, are, in effect saying: Islam is the Final Solution.
The West will then have no alternative but to reduce the radical Islamic world to ashes. Because sometimes war is the answer.
That is Seraphic Secret's message.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a happy fourth night of Chanukah. And if you want the perfect Chanukah gift—excellent for Christmas too—here's my shameless plug.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:49 AM | Comments (19)
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