Not saying that Israel did it excuses Hezbullah from seeking revenge for it, i.e. war.
Here are some more interesting tweets from Malbrunot's timeline. This series quotes an unnamed diplomat to which I am adding the Bing translations except where they seem ridiculous:
II- "Les groupes armés syriens anti-Assad n'ont pas la capacité de réaliser une telle opération sophistiqué même si Israël a pu recourir..."
Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander vows to continue weaponizing until Israel is destroyed
As you read this piece (which you saw yesterday if you follow me on Twitter), please keep in mind that the results of President Obama's sellout to a nuclear-armed Iran include the removal of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani (pictured) from the designated terrorist list, and billions of dollars in weapons being released to Iran as a result of the ending of the weapons boycott and the release of billions of dollars of Iranian money that was being held by the West.
"...they (the US and the Zionists) should know
that the Islamic Revolution will continue enhancing its preparedness
until it overthrows Israel and liberates Palestine," IRGC's top
commander in Tehran province, Brigadier General Mohsen Kazzemeini, told
operating units in Tharallah Drills in the Iranian capital on Wednesday.
"And we will continue defending not just our own
country, but also all the oppressed people of the world, specially those
countries that are standing on the forefront of confrontation with the
Zionists," continued the General.
Sum 250,000 Iranian Basiji (volunteer) forces in
the form of 250 battalions started massive drills in Tehran on Wednesday
and Thursday to practice fighting against security threats.
In relevant remarks in 2014, Supreme Leader of the
Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei noted that criminal
acts of the wolfish and child-killer Zionist regime in Gaza had revealed
its true nature, and said, "Only way to solve this problem is full
annihilation and destruction of the Zionist regime."
He also underlined that Palestinians should also continue their armed struggle against Tel Aviv.
"The armed resistance by the Palestinians is the
only way to confront Israel," Ayatollah Khamenei said addressing a group
of Iranian university students in Tehran at the time.
If you're a Jew and you voted for Obama in 2012, are you ashamed of yourself yet? Because you ought to be. (I can excuse - reluctantly - people who voted for him in 2008 because a lot of people didn't realize he was an anti-Semite, but there was no excuse for repeating that mistake in 2012).
And this doesn't even consider the probability of a nuclear-armed Iran down the road....
The Ex-Im bank provides government loan guarantees to a handful of
major corporations — coincidentally, major political donors — that allow
them to sell goods to foreign countries without worrying about whether
or not they’ll actually get paid. If a country should fail in its
obligations, Uncle Sam will make the debts good. The American taxpayer
ends up on the hook for the cost of expanding corporate business in
suspect nations with wobbly economies. Yet the small number of
corporations who benefit from the Ex-Im bank are all quite wealthy, and
capable of obtaining loan guarantees privately through insurance. The
taxpayer is made to do what the market is ready to do just because it
saves these corporations money.
One country where the Ex-Im bank has not operated in recent years is
Iran. This is because of the American sanctions that will be rejected
as a part of approving the Iran Deal. The Congressional Research
Service has recently published a document detailing the ways in which
the Ex-Im bank will be freed to undertake loan guarantees with Iran.
The CRS piece was written by one of their research specialists in
foreign policy legislation, Dianne Rennack. The complete report can be
viewed at the end of this post.
...
According to the report, restrictions on the Ex-Im bank working with
Iran are going to be released by the repeal of a number of executive
orders (E.O.). E.O. 13590 prohibits the Ex-Im bank from entering into
relationships with individuals named personally in the sanctions, such
as Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s unconventional warfare program. The Iran deal will repeal this order.
E.O. 13622 authorizes sanctions on foreign financial organizations
associated with Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism. That will also
be repealed under the deal.
E.O. 13628 freezes money and property owned by named human rights
violators. Under the deal, their property will be returned to them, and
loan guarantees from the Ex-Im bank will also become available to them.
Finally, the repeal of E.O. 13645 will allow loan guarantees related
to Iran’s oil industry. Petroleum companies will be able to fund their
operations in Iran without worrying about whether Iran will pay them,
because the American taxpayer will.
...
Iran has announced that is planning to buy 80 to 90 Boeing and Airbus aircraft every year. Boeing is one of the corporations that benefits from the Ex-Im bank, and it has held the threat of moving its business offshore over the head of the Congress during debates about the bank. Humanitarian safety concerns
about Iran’s aging aircraft have already impelled the United States to
waive restrictions on sales of repair parts for older aircraft. The
Senate might permit Iran being allowed to buy new commercial aircraft on
the same basis. Having those aircraft financed not by Iran but by the
American taxpayer, however, will remain controversial.
And those of you who voted for President Soetro have something else of which you can be ashamed.
Senator Tom Cotton is the American people's lawyer
Senator Tom Cotton demolishes US Secretary of State John Kerry in the cross-examination below. It lasts about seven minutes - we can only imagine what he would have done with more time.
Let's go to the videotape. Summary here (Hat Tip: Elihu S).
You don't think they're trying to hide anything, do you?
The Sunni states in the Persian Gulf are extremely critical of the Iran nuclear sellout. But less because of the nuclear issue than because of the release of sanctions and the lack of restrictions on Iran's terror support. You know, the things Obama-Kerry decided were 'less important.' This is from the first link and it's from Jonathan Spyer.
“Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states can only welcome the nuclear deal,
which in itself is supposed to close the gates of evil that Iran had
opened in the region. However, the real concern is that the deal will
open other gates of evil, gates which Iran mastered knocking at for
years even while Western sanctions were still in place.”
From this perspective a particularly notable and dismaying aspect of
the deal is its removal of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and
its Quds Force commander, Maj.-Gen. Qasem Soleimani, from the list of
those subject to sanctions by the West.
The ending of sanctions on the IRGC, and more broadly the likely
imminent freeing of up to $150 billion in frozen revenue, will enable
Iran to massively increase its aid to its long list of regional clients
and proxies. Iran today is heavily engaged in at least five conflict
arenas in the region.
...
In Syria, beleaguered dictator and Iranian client Assad remains in
control in the west and south largely because of Iranian support and
assistance – up to $1b. per month, according to some estimates. For as
long as Assad remains, the war remains, allowing such monstrous entities
as Islamic State and al-Qaida to flourish.
...
In Iraq, the Iranian-supported Shi’ite militias of the Hashd
al-Shaabi are playing the key role in defending Baghdad from the advance
of Islamic State. These militias are trained and financed by the
Revolutionary Guards and organized by Soleimani and his Iraqi right-hand
man, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, also thought to be an IRGC member.
In Yemen, the Iranians are offering arms and support to the Ansar
Allah, or Houthi rebels, who are engaged in a bloody insurgency against
the government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Among the Palestinians, Tehran operates Palestinian Islamic Jihad as a
client/proxy organization, and is in the process of rebuilding
relations with the Izzadin Kassam, the powerful military wing of Hamas.
All this costs money. In a pattern familiar to the experience of
totalitarian regimes under sanctions in the past, Iran has preferred to
safeguard monies for use in service of its regional ambitions, while
allowing its population – other than those connected to the regime – to
suffer the consequent shortages.
Still, in recent months, things weren’t going so well. Assad has been
losing ground to the Sunni rebels. Hezbollah has been hemorrhaging men
in Syria. The Shi’ite militias were holding Islamic State in Iraq but
not advancing. Saudi intervention was holding back further advances by
the Houthis in Yemen. Hamas was looking poverty-stricken and beleaguered
in its Gaza redoubt.
The sanctions, plus these many commitments, were bringing the Iranian
regime close to an economic crisis that would have confronted the
regime with the hard choice of lessening its regional interference or
facing the consequences.
No longer. The deal over the nuclear program is set to enable Tehran
to shore up its investments, providing more money and guns to all its
friends across the Middle East, who will as a result grow stronger,
bolder and more ambitious. This, from the point of view of the main
powers in the Sunni Arab world, is the key fallout (so to speak) from
the deal concluded in Vienna. IRGC “outreach” to Shi’ite minorities in
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and to the Shi’ite majority in Bahrain, is also
likely to increase as a result of the windfall.
...
Similarly, in Lebanon the West is supporting and equipping the Lebanese
Armed Forces, without understanding that the Lebanese state is largely a
shell, within which Hezbollah is the living and directing force. In
Syria, the US is pursuing a half-hearted campaign against Islamic State,
while leaving the rest of the country to its internal dynamics.
Another document dump from Wikileaks reports that Syria told an Iranian delegation to Damascus in December 2009 that Syria will not retaliate for an Israeli strike on Iran - even if the Israelis get there through Syrian airspace.
Written by the United States Embassy in Damascus, the cable dated Dec. 20, 2009, summed up the visits earlier that month of Iranian National Security Advisor Saeed Jalili, Vice President and head of the Environmental Department Mahammed-Javad Mahamadzideh and Defense Minister Ahmad Ali Vahidi to Damascus.
The cable cited an unnamed Syrian official who claimed that in the talks the Syrians told the Iranians that they would not participate in an Iranian retaliation to an potential Israeli strike.
“We told them Iran is strong enough on its own to develop a nuclear program and to fight Israel,” the Syrian official was quoted as saying in the cable. “We’re too weak.”
According to the cable, Syria resisted Iranian entreaties to commit to joining Iran if fighting broke out between Iran, Hizbullah and Israel.
The unnamed source told the embassy officials that the Iranian delegation came to Syria “to round up allies” in anticipation of an Israeli military strike.
“It [an Israeli strike on Iran] is not a matter of if, but when,” the source was quoted as having heard from the Iranians.
The cable noted with interest that Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Al Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps – the force responsible for supporting Iranian proxies throughout the region – had accompanied the Iranian national security adviser Jalili on his visit to Damascus.
According to the cable, Jalili and Soleimani met with Syrian Foreign Minister Wallid Muallem, as well as unspecified members of Hizbullah.
“Suleimani represents the business end of the resistance,” the source said. Suleimani is reported to have played a key role in recent years in arming Hizbullah and Hamas with long-range rockets and missiles.
The source went on to tell the embassy officials that the Syrian military predicted that Israel would fly over Syria on its way to attack Iran and was conducting surveillance of Syrian radar stations with drones ahead of such an operation.
It's about time someone in this region looked out for their own self-interest. Heh.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
