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Tag: Terrorism

  • Stop The Afghan Drug Trade, Stop Terrorism

    Stop The Afghan Drug Trade, Stop Terrorism

    Rachel Ehrenfeld

    A crop eradication scheme that will really work.

    “The fight against drugs is actually the fight for Afghanistan,” said Afghan President Hamid Karzai when he took office in 2002. Judging by the current situation, Afghanistan is losing.

    To win, the link between narcotics and terrorism must be severed. That is the necessary condition for a successful strategy to undermine the growing influence of al-Qaida, the Taliban and radical Muslim groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    It is all about money–more precisely, drug money. The huge revenues from the heroin trade fill the coffers of the terrorists and thwart any attempt to stabilize the region.

    Though not traded on any stock exchange, heroin is one of the most valuable commodities in the world today. While a ton of crude oil costs less than $290, a ton of heroin costs $67 million in Europe and between $360 million and $900 million in New York, according to estimates based on recent Drug Enforcement Administration figures.

    Since its liberation from Taliban rule, Afghanistan’s opium production has gone from 640 tons in 2001 to 8,200 tons in 2007. Afghanistan now supplies over 93% of the global opiate market.

    “This is a source of income for the warlords and regional factions to pay their soldiers,” warned former Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalili in a May 2005 interview with Reuters. “The terrorists are funding their operations through illicit drug trade, so they are all interlinked.”

    In 2004, the G-8 designated Britain to lead counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan. Its three-year eradication policy was designed specifically not to alienate the local population. It dictated the crop eradication be done “by hand.” Moreover, the British entrusted the provincial governors with the eradication process, even though Afghan provincial governors, many of whom are powerful warlords, have been engaged in the drug trade for decades. Not surprisingly, the eradication effort failed miserably.

    Forbes

     

    02.26.09

  • Army chief condemns ‘callous killers’

    Army chief condemns ‘callous killers’

    The head of British forces in Northern Ireland has paid tribute to the two “magnificent” servicemen shot dead by Real IRA gunmen outside an Army barracks. Skip related content

    Brigadier George Norton condemned the “callous and clinical attack” outside the Massereene Barracks in Antrim on Saturday in which Sapper Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Sapper Cengiz Azimkar, 21, from Wood Green, London, were killed.

    “These were magnificent individuals, and we mourn their loss,” he said.

    He also rejected claims that security at the front of the base was lax, and said: “The Army is living in Northern Ireland as part of the community.

    “We have to lead as normal a life as possible, and ordering pizzas of an evening is something everybody does around the community, as indeed do people leave and enter their houses routinely.

    “Are there other ways we can go about doing these things? That is something we will be looking at at the moment.”

    The dead soldiers from 38 Engineer Regiment were wearing desert fatigues and taking delivery of pizzas before leaving for Afghanistan. Two other servicemen and two pizza deliverymen were also seriously injured.

    At one stage the killers stood over their victims and fired a second volley. Security chiefs believe the gunmen were prepared to murder all six in front of the main gates of the barracks.

    Prime Minister Gordon Brown has visited the army base and met servicemen and military commanders.

    He is now holding talks with Northern Ireland police chief Sir Hugh Orde and political leaders at Stormont.

    The shooting has sent shockwaves through the province and has shaken the peace process.

    The Real IRA, which has claimed responsibility and branded the pizza deliverymen as British “collaborators”, is the same organisation that killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, in the bombing of Omagh, Co Tyrone, in August 1998.

    All sides in Belfast denounced the shooting, and even though republican party Sinn Fein’s condemnation stopped short of expressing sympathy for the soldiers and their families, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA leader in Londonderry, demanded the dissidents call off their campaign.

    He said: “I was a member of the IRA, but that war is over now. The people responsible for last night’s incident are clearly signalling that they want to resume or re-start that war. Well, I deny their right to do that.”

    Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams added that the perpetrators had no support and he urged party members to help the police investigation.

    The MP said: “The attack was an attack on the peace process. It was wrong and counter-productive.

    “Sinn Fein has a responsibility to be consistent. The logic of this is that we support the police in the apprehension of those involved in last night’s attack.”

    The Real IRA “South Antrim unit” claimed responsibility in a phone call to the Sunday Tribune paper in Dublin.

    In a statement, the paper said: “The caller said he made no apologies for targeting British soldiers while they continued to occupy Ireland and also said he made no apologies for targeting the pizza delivery men who, he said, were collaborating with the British by servicing them.”

     

    ITN

  • Articles of Interest to Armenians

    Articles of Interest to Armenians

    Harut Sassounian’s Weekly Commentary

    Comments on Several Important
    Articles of Interest to Armenians


    Publisher, The California Courier
    Senior Contributor, USA Armenian Life Magazine

    In recent days, the international media published so many articlesof interest to

    Armenians that it has become impossible to readthem all, let alone comment on them!

    Here is a summary of some of the more interesting articles with a brief comment on each:

    – A senior Israeli general retaliated last week against the Turkish Prime Minister’s criticism of Israel. Major General Avi Mizrahiurged Erdogan to “first look in the mirror,” and reminded him of the Armenian Genocide, repression of the Kurds, and Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus. In response, the Turkish Foreign Ministry angrily summoned Israel’s Ambassador and handed him a  diplomatic note of protest. In addition, a top Turkish official said he was offended by the Israeli General’s statement. Ironically, the murder of 1.5 million Armenians did not bother this official, but its mere mention did offend him!

    – According to the Turkish “Dogan Haber Agency,” Ali Ihsan Ozturk, President of the Teachers’ Association of Kayseri, and his colleagues, distributed halva (sweets) to passers-by in the main square of the town, “for the soul of Hitler.” Ozturk said he was doing this in reaction to the Israeli General’s criticism of Turkey. It is to be seen whether Israel’s leaders will swallow this bitter halva or retaliate with a protest note of their own!


    – As if Prime Minister Erdogan had not angered Israel and American Jews enough, a Turkish prosecutor now has launched an investigation into whether Israel’s leaders committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” in Gaza. If charged, these Israeli officials would be arrested if they visit Turkey. Regardless of the legal merits of this case, Turkey should be the last country on earth with the right to accuse anyone else of genocide! What audacity! What hypocrisy! As they say in Turkish: “Hem Suclu; Hem Guclu.” (Guilty and Macho)!

    – Zeev Elkin, a member of Israel’s Parliament, recently announced that the Knesset would shortly consider recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Israel, after years of officially refusing to recognize the Armenian Genocide in expectation of political-strategic gains from Turkey, could be finally getting on the right side of this issue.

    – Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel has suspended its flights to the Turkish resort town of Antalya, fearing terrorist attacks against its citizens. The Jerusalem Post reported that thousands of Israelis are boycotting Turkey because their “anger is both deep and palpable.” Could a ban on selling Israeli arms to Turkey be next?

    – Some American Jewish organizations are waking up from their deep moral coma, at long last! The American Jewish Committee (AJC) issued a press release on January 29, denouncing “Turkish Prime Minister’s shameful outburst at Davos.” On February 1, David Harris, Executive Director of AJC, issued an Open Letter to Erdogan, accusing him of using “vicious” and “inflammatory” words to criticize Israel. Harris even dared to remind Erdogan that Turkey “chose to close the border with landlocked Armenia from 1993 to today.” Will the AJC now desist from playing the role of designated liar for Turkey on the Armenian Genocide?

    – James Holmes, a former U.S. Ambassador to Ankara and President of the American-Turkish Council (ATC), told Hurriyet newspaper: “The American-Jewish community’s support for Turkey’s position on the Armenian genocide resolution is gone. They will not expend any political energy in blocking a resolution or a presidential proclamation.” Holmes should resign from the ATC rather than lobby for genocide denial for a fistful of dollars!

    – The Jerusalem Post quoted an unnamed official with “a leading American Jewish organization” as saying: “A deterioration in Israel-Turkey relations might prompt his group and others to reconsider” support for Ankara’s denial of the Armenian Genocide. In my opinion, some Jewish groups, seeing that the Armenian Genocide might be acknowledged by the Obama administration, are wisely abandoning the sinking ship of Turkish denial and jumping on the winning side before April 24!

    – David Plouffe, former campaign manager for Barack Obama’s presidential race, was offered $50,000 by Pres. Ilham Aliyev’s despotic regime to lecture in Baku on human rights and democracy and meet with Azerbaijan’s leaders. Plouffe was so embarrassed by criticism in the international media that he decided to donate his speaking fee to “groups that advocate democratization in the turbulent post-Soviet states of the region around the Caspian and Caucasus mountain range,” according to the Wall Street Journal. One can imagine the contortions on Aliyev’s face when he finds out that his money ended up with Azeri opposition groups or Armenians in Artsakh!

    – The Azeri Press Agency (APA) reported last month that the European Union supposedly paid millions of dollars to several prominent Turks to initiate a petition apologizing for the Armenian Genocide. APA alleged that professors Ahmet Insal, Halil Berktay, Murad Belge; journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, and writer Adalet Agaoglu had received $137,000 each; Prof. Ibrahim Kaboglu, $250,000; journalist Mine Kirikhanat, $90,000; Prof. Atilla Yayla, $575,000; Ertugrul Kurkchu, $1 million; “Mazlumder” group, $100,000; and Etien Mahchupian, Editor of Agos Armenian newspaper in Istanbul, $1.3 million. The Azeri press is even more notorious than Turkey’s for distorting the news! These Turks could truly make millions of dollars should they sue the APA for libel!

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  • Venezuela’s Jews, already uneasy, are jolted by attack

    Venezuela’s Jews, already uneasy, are jolted by attack

    A break-in at a Caracas synagogue on Jan. 31 heightened the concerns of the country’s Jews. (Carlos Hernandez/The Associated Press)

    By Simon Romero
    Published: February 13, 2009

    Listen to Article

    CARACAS, Venezuela: This country’s small Jewish community was already on edge when vandals painted anti-Semitic epithets on the walls of Jewish institutions and businesses last month after President Hugo Chávez cut ties with Israel and called on Jews here to support his description of Israel’s leaders as a “government of assassins.”

    But another episode, the break-in and desecration of a Sephardic synagogue on Jan. 31, intensified the uncertainty among Jews here. Officials are also putting pressure on Jewish leaders to retract criticism of Chávez regarding the attack and to accept the government’s explanation of it as a simple robbery by corrupt members of the intelligence and municipal police forces.

    “The atmosphere of intimidation is terrifying,” said Rabbi Pynchas Brener, 77, a prominent Ashkenazi leader and an outspoken critic of Chávez’s government. “We do not know when this pressure will start to ease up.”

    The government’s handling of the episode has also sown confusion. Chávez has denounced the attack and other forms of anti-Semitism and proclaimed his friendship with Venezuela’s Jews. But he has also asserted that unidentified opponents of his attacked the synagogue to cause disarray before a referendum this Sunday to decide whether Chávez can run for re-election indefinitely.

    “Some sectors of the oligarchy want to overshadow the advances of the revolution with acts of violence,” Chávez said shortly after the attack.

    When the Interior Ministry seemed to contradict his assertion that the attack was an effort to weaken his rule, arresting 11 people and saying robbery was their motive, Chávez shifted his position. He attacked critics who claimed he had created a political atmosphere in which anti-Semitism could flourish, accusing them of harboring the “criminal intent to unleash a religious war in Venezuela.”

    Commentators on state media and pro-Chávez Web sites have taken up with relish Chávez’s initial position that the attack was a plot by his opponents. “The synagogue case seems to us like a media show assembled by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad,” said Hindu Anderi, a pro-Chávez journalist, in comments published by the government’s Bolivarian News Agency.

    Meanwhile, Mario Silva, the host of a program on state television, issued a menacing call for the rabbi of the desecrated synagogue to express gratitude publicly for a swift investigation.

    “I still have not seen the first declaration from the rabbi of the synagogue saying, ‘Sirs, I am thankful to the government,’ ” Silva said Monday night.

    Silva appeared to get his wish on Thursday in the form of an impromptu ceremony broadcast on state television in which the foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro, appeared at the synagogue to meet with Jewish leaders.

    Elías Farache, a leader of Venezuela’s Sephardic community, read a statement at the ceremony thanking Chávez and Maduro for prioritizing the investigation. “We hope the legal process will shed new light on the motivations behind this case,” Farache said.

    Despite the government’s efforts to put the controversy to rest, a sense of dread still lingers among Venezuela’s 12,000 to 14,000 Jews. That number is down from as many as 20,000 in the 1990s because of emigration.

    Chávez and his government have long been dogged by accusations of anti-Semitism, at least since his association with Norberto Ceresole, an Argentine with anti-Semitic views who advised Chávez in the 1990s.

    Chávez later distanced himself from Ceresole but recent statements have led to renewed criticism from Jewish leaders — including one by Venezuela’s ambassador to Russia, who said last year that the brief coup against Chávez in 2002 included “many Mossad snipers, who were Venezuelan citizens but Jews.”

    The warm welcome that Chávez has extended to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has also troubled Jews.

    The tensions intensified last month when Chávez expelled the Israeli ambassador to protest the war in Gaza, and senior officials attended a rally at the Sheik Ibrahim Mosque here in Caracas. “Our revolution is also the revolution for a Free Palestine,” Tareck El Aissami, the interior minister, said at the rally.

    On the sidelines of the televised rapprochement on Thursday at the synagogue, one observer, León Benaim, summed up his view of the attack and the government’s reaction to it.

    “The motive was simple,” said Benaim, 73, a Moroccan Jew who moved to Venezuela three decades ago. “It is to threaten and frighten the Jewish community so that we leave.”

    María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting.María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting.

  • THE DEPKA REVIEW

    THE DEPKA REVIEW

    Summary of DEBKAfile’s Exclusives in the Week Ending February 5, 2009
    Hamas fires first shore-to-ship C-802 missile 31 Jan.: DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal a formidable addition to Hamas’ arsenal: The missile fired from Gaza out to the Mediterranean last week was not a Qassam as reported but a C-802, the Iranian shore-to-ship Nur C-802 missile, which is based on the Chinese “Silkworm.”

    It was launched by Iranian officers who are training Hamas operatives in its use before delivering a large consignment. With its 120-km range and 165-kilo warhead, the C-802’s mission is to break Israel’s 40 km blockade of Gaza’s waters. This is now the key objective of Tehran and the Palestinian Islamists.
    The Israeli Navy’s first brush with the C-802 was in the 2006 Lebanon war. On July 14, it was used by Hizballah to cripple the Hanit missile ship opposite Beirut.

    Our sources affirm that arms smuggling to Gaza continues by land and sea at the pre-war tempo notwithstanding the brave talk in Jerusalem, Washington and Cairo of a concerted effort to stem the flow.

    Since 2006, military experts note, Iran has upgraded the C-802 in an important respect. A new version, of which 1,000 have been delivered to Hizballah, operates without radar. It has the attributes of a cruise missile with small radar reflectivity, a strong anti-jamming capability and the ability to skim as low as 5-7 meters from the water’s surface under the targeted ship’s radar. Tehran claims 98 percent targeting effectiveness for its updated Nur anti-ship missile.

    Ahmadinejad: Iran’s Islamic Revolution not limited to its borders 31 Jan.: Iran’s government spokesman is quoted as saying Saturday, Jan. 31 that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of Khomeini’s overthrow of the shah that Iran’s Islamic revolution was not limited to its borders. His response to the US president Barack Obama’s overtures was a demand that America apologize for 60 years of “crimes against Iran” and its new president carry out a “deep and fundamental change.”

    Gaza rocket alarms Ashkelon Saturday in another Hamas ceasefire breach

    31 Jan.: Hamas again breached its own ceasefire declared Jan. 19 Saturday, Jan. 31, with a Grad rocket against the town of Ashkelon to the north. It exploded harmlessly on open ground after a siren alerted the population. An Israeli air strike hit the rocket team. Last Tuesday, a roadside bomb on the Israeli side of the Gaza border killed an Israeli soldier and injured three, drawing minor Israeli responses followed by two rounds of Qassam fire. The flare-up accompanied the first trip to the region of Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell. Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, cancelled his talks in Washington with US defense secretary Robert Gates last Wednesday amid expectations of a major Israeli response to Hamas violations.

    Egyptian-Hamas talks on a long-term ceasefire in Gaza limp along after Hamas-Damascus rejected Cairo’s first proposals out of hand.

    Meshaal urges Iranian students to join Islamist liberation of all Palestine 2 Feb.: On the third day of his talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran, Hamas’ supreme leader Khaled Meshaal urged Iranian students to join his Islamist movement in helping liberate all of Palestine, secure the return of all Palestinians and retake Jerusalem so that “we can pray together.”

    DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose the three topics uppermost in Meshaal’s talks with Iranian leaders:
    1. Tehran is playing tough in Middle East, including Gaza, to intimidate the Obama administration ahead of direct talks.

    2. Iran will torpedo Hamas’ long-term truce talks in Cairo so as not to grant president Hosni Mubarak any advantages on the Palestinian playing field.

    3. Hamas needs urgent injections of military and economic assistance to shore up its rule in the Gaza Strip.

    If Tehran holds back, the Palestinian Islamists may turn to Cairo and Riyadh for the proffered Saudi-Egyptian aid package for reconstruction. If Iran delivers, Meshaal will instruct the Hamas delegation to ditch the Egyptians and their proposals.

    Israel air raids blow up six Hamas tunnels after Palestinian missile-mortar salvoes 2 Feb.: After 14 missiles and mortar rounds were fired into Israel Sunday, Feb. 1, Israel launched air strikes against a Hamas building in central Gaza and six out of roughly 300 smuggling tunnels running under the southern Gazan border corridor with Egypt.

    The building was empty after Israel forewarned dwellers by telephone of the coming attack. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that although missile, rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel have been building up for the past week , defense minister Ehud Barak stands fast against demands for a major reprisal.

    He maintains that the main threat to Israeli security now emanates from Hizballah.

    Hizballah terror teams fan out in six countries prompting maximum Israeli alert
    DEBKAfile Exclusive Report     2 Feb.: The Lebanese Hizballah has deployed terrorist teams in six countries for attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in revenge for the death of its military chief Imad Mughniyeh who it accuses Israel of killing a year ago.

    This intelligence prompted the counter-terror bureau in Jerusalem to publish Sunday, Feb. 1, an exceptionally high alert for traveling Israelis to beware of assaults and abductions. Security is also high in Israel and at embassies and Jewish institutions worldwide.

    Hizballah also believes it can disrupt Israel’s general election on Feb. 10 by assassinating a senior official.
    According to our sources, terrorist teams have also been drawn from the covert spy and terror cells Hizballah maintains in other parts of the Middle East as well as Africa and Europe.

    Israeli travelers were specifically warned to avoid Arab and Muslim countries – especially Sinai – watch out for unusual occurrences, refuse tempting offers and invitations from strangers, rendezvous with contacts only in public places along with trusted companions and avoid patronizing the same locations, such as hotels and restaurants, with predictable regularity.
    Israeli holidaymakers in Sinai were warned to leave at once.

    Long-range Grad rocket explodes in central Ashkelon 3 Feb.: The Grad rocket from Gaza which exploded in central Ashkelon Tuesday, Feb. 3, damaged vehicles in central Ashkelon and left three people in shock. A busload of passengers escaped to safety with seconds to spare.

    Iran’s first spy satellite launch Tuesday signifies nuclear-capable rocket in hand 3 Feb.: The launch of Omid (Hope), Iran’s first home-made satellite into orbit early Tuesday, Feb. 3, is a breakthrough demonstrating the Islamic Republic has managed to develop long-range, three-stage ballistic rockets propelled by solid fuel and capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

    Cont. Next Column

    		 Israel and Western officials have been playing down this fast-developing capability while proving helpless to hold back Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

    DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report the new satellite is designed for tracking, research and tele-communications and carries digital measuring instruments. Iran’s top-secret “Military Group” – the team of scientists and technicians working on its clandestine nuclear bomb program – is clearly moving ahead undisturbed by UN sanctions or technical difficulties.

    Obama administration gravely concerned by first Iranian satellite 3 Feb.: The White House and Pentagon issued strong statements Tuesday, Feb. 3 about the dangers posed by the launch of Iran’s first homemade satellite into space. DEBKAfile notes that none of the leading contenders in Israel’s Feb. 10 general election, including the defense and foreign ministers – or even prime minister Ehud Olmert – saw fit to react to the event.

    White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said any effort to develop missile delivery capability, continue an illicit nuclear program, threaten Israel and sponsor terror is an “acute concern to this administration.”

    Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that Iran poses “a real threat and a growing threat.” DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that the Obama administration is getting fed up with Tehran continually laying down hard facts ahead of any dialogue begins between the two governments.

    Our Iranian sources see no sign of Tehran softening its attitudes on nuclear or missile issues ahead of those talks.

    Barak loses Gaza truce gamble, Cairo decides to slam Rafah door shut4 Feb.: Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak held off responding to ten days of missile-mortar salvoes from Gaza in the hope of Cairo successfully negotiating a long-term truce deal with Hamas.

    DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Egypt’s announcement Wednesday, Feb. 4, that as of Thursday, its only border crossing with Gaza at Rafah would be closed down for all traffic signaled the breakdown of those negotiations. It followed Cairo’s discovery that Hamas was under orders from Tehran to keep the truce talks dragging on aimlessly together with daily missile and mortar fire against Israel. Barak’s policy of relying on Egypt for results has been discredited. Hamas is expected to respond to its cutoff from Egypt by stepping up cross-border attacks against Israel.

    Wednesday, Christopher Guinness, spokesman of the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNWRA, complained that Hamas police raided its warehouse in Gaza City and stole 3,500 blankets and nearly 500 food packages that were to have been distributed to poor Gaza families. UNWRA demanded their immediate return.

    Five days to Israel’s poll: Frontrunner Netanyahu is slipping
    DEBKAfile Special Analysis     5 Feb.: The man certain to form the next Israeli government after the general election of Feb. 10, Likud’s Binyamin Netanyahu, who started out with a handy lead of well over 30 Knesset seats (out of 120), is losing ground to Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing Israel Beitenu.

    His campaign blunders include his apparent choice of the unpopular Labor leader, Ehud Barak, to carry on as defense minister in the next government. Another is his refusal to name a finance minister for a country worried sick by the slide into serious recession and growing unemployment.

    Both those decision deny the voter hope for a much needed change – especially a new defense minister to replace Ehud Barak, whose policies are widely condemned.

    The average, middle-of-the road voter is worried about national security and therefore leans to the right – away from his Labor party. Polling-day falls amid high security alerts on two potential warfronts, Gaza in the South and Lebanon in the north. The gap between this fraught situation and Barak’s claims of restored deterrence equals his credibility gap.

    His policy of tying Israel’s security to Cairo’s uncertain good offices instead of letting the military do its job crashed with the ill-fated Egyptian-Hamas negotiations in Cairo for a long-term truce. Day by day, Hamas violates its ceasefire pledge by blasting Israel with missiles and mortars. IDF reprisals are confined to aerial bombardments of empty buildings and sandy expanses in the Gaza Strip.

    On top of this unpopular alliance, Netanyahu is unclear on his future policies. It took him until this week to come out with an explicit statement on a key security issue, when he said: “Iran will not acquire nuclear arms. Period.” While promoting an “economic peace” plan for the West Bank, the Likud leader has never come right out and stated his views on George W. Bush’s two-state solution of the conflict.

    Israeli Beteinu is therefore cutting into Likud’s support and threatening to overtake foreign minister Tzipi Livni’s Kadima.

    But although the right-of-center bloc can count on a Knesset majority, the Likud leader will deny the country stable government if he insists on handing out the key defense and finance portfolios to figures outside that bloc for the sake of “a national unity government.” By linking his Likud to Labor, Netanyahu will reach his second term as prime minister from a position of weakness rather than the strength he started out with.

    Israeli naval commandoes board a Lebanese aid ship

    5 Feb.: After the captain refused to heed the Israeli navy’s orders to leave embargoed waters, Israeli seamen boarded the ship and had it towed to Ashdod port. No arms were found on the vessel only a small amount of aid destined for Gaza and a number of Syrian and Lebanese pro-Hamas activists who were taken off for interrogation. They will be sent back to the ship which on no account will be allowed to dock at Gaza.

    Barak: More Iranian ships bound for Gaza
    DEBKAfile Special Report

    5 Feb.: Although defense minister Ehud Barak did not confirm that the Iranian ships on their way to the Gaza Strip carry arms for Hamas, DEBKAfile’s military sources report that they are in fact arms vessels. Tehran will try and break the blockade on Gaza, encouraged by the failure of the US, Egyptian and Israeli navies to confiscate the arms aboard the Cypriot-flagged arms ships now docked at Limassol. Some are already on the way, expected to enter the Gulf of Suez and waters opposite Gaza over the weekend and try to drop their cargoes of weapons containers off shore. Israeli warships and spy planes are tracking them.

    At a special conference Thursday, Feb. 5, prime minister Olmert, foreign minister Tzipi Livni and the defense minister agreed the Iranian arms ships must be prevented from unloading their cargoes, even at the cost of a marine clash with Iran. At stake is the entire international effort to stop the Palestinian Islamists rearming.

    The Cypriot authorities are unloading the Iranian arms ship of cargo that contravenes the UN Security Council sanctions resolution 1747 which bans Iranian arms exports. DEBKA file’s military sources disclosed it was carrying 10 containers of Iranian rockets and other weapons for rearming Hamas in the Gaza Strip in violation of Israel’s terms for accepting a Gaza ceasefire last month.


  • Gaza op strains financial ties with Turkey

    Gaza op strains financial ties with Turkey

    https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3659765,00.html

    Tensions between Jerusalem, Ankara translate into slump in outgoing tourism industry, strenuous industrial relations

    Danny Sadeh

    Published: 01.22.09, 08:10 / Israel Money

    P{margin:0;} UL{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-right: 16; padding-right:0;} OL{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-right: 32; padding-right:0;} H3.pHeader {margin-bottom:3px;COLOR: #192862;font-size: 16px;font-weight: bold;margin-top:0px;} P.pHeader {margin-bottom:3px;COLOR: #192862;font-size: 16px;font-weight: bold;} The recent tension between Jerusalem and Ankara, brought about by the Israeli offensive in Gaza, is beginning to take a financial toll on what was once a prolific relationship.

    Various travel agencies have reported a 70% drop in the number of vacation packages sold to Turkish destinations. Once one of the Israeli tourist favorite vacations spots, Antalya has now been “left for dead”; although some in the industry prefer to see the situation is a passing winter trend.

    Risky Business
    Fear: Turkey may pull deals with Israel  / Arie Egozi
    Defense establishment says Ankara’s growing vex with Israel’s Gaza offensive may result in canceling ongoing contracts, suspending future negotiations
    Full story

    Tourism industry official said Wednesday that the Israeli tourism to Turkey is likely to hit a slump in the immediate run, but in the long run it is more than likely to pick up. “It things remain quiet, the Israelis will go back to Turkey, it’s a very attractive destination.”

    A Foreign Ministry official gave a more caution projection: “The tourism industry is hard to predict, especially now, at winter time. We don’t know what the spring and summer may bring. Turkish tourism official who have contacted us over the last few day practically begged for the Israelis not to shun Turkey, especially Antalya. They said they did not deserve to be boycotted because of their prime minister’s statements.”

    Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently stated that Israel should be barred for the UN over its Gaza campaign. His remarks sparked rage in the Israeli public; even promoting some Israeli members of Facebook to form a “Ban Turkey” group. More than 1,500 people have joined it so far; and a dozen similar groups have sprouted both in Facebook and in other social networks.

    ‘War tainted relations’

    Israel’s industrial ties with Turkey spanned $3.4 billion in 2008 – a 23% increase from 2007 – with exports to Ankara coming to $1.6 billion and imports to $1.8 billion.

    Israel’s major export to Turkey is chemicals, followed by metals, machinery and electrical equipment; making Turkey Israel’s eight biggest commercial partner.

    Ari Malmud, CEO of Hogla-Kimberly’s Turkish operation told Yedioth Ahronoth that “the company’s customer service department has been getting calls inquiring whether we were a Jewish company or an Israeli firm.”

    Another importer of Turkish consumer goods said that “it seems like the Muslim merchants in Turkey are trying to make things difficult and they’re severing ties with their local Jewish contacts.

    “Everyone is laying low for a while. I hope that at the end of the day, finances can prevail over politics.”

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    Doron Avrahami, Israel’s commercial attaché in Turkey said that “since the ceasefire only recently took effect, it is still too early to assess whether any permanent damage has been done to the commercial relationship between the two countries.

    “We do hope everything will get back to normal, but the Gaza offensive has left a ‘bad taste’ here.”

    Navit Zomer, Udi Ezion, Itamar Eichner, Arie Egozi and Itay Smuskowitz contributed to this report