Hamas Happy To Let Israel Rest In Peace

from Investor's Business Daily
By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

"Apart from the time restriction (a truce that lapses after 10 years) and the refusal to accept Israel's existence, Mr. Meshal's terms approximate the Arab League peace plan..." Hamas peace plan, as explained by the New York Times

"Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" Tom Lehrer, satirist

The Times conducted a five-hour interview with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal at his Damascus headquarters. Mirabile dictu, they're offering a peace plan with a two-state solution.

Except. The offer is not a peace but a truce that expires after 10 years.

Meaning that after Israel has fatally weakened itself by settling millions of hostile Arab refugees in its midst, and after a decade of Hamas arming itself within a Palestinian state that narrows Israel to eight miles wide — Hamas restarts the war against a country it remains pledged to eradicate.

There is a phrase for such a peace: the peace of the grave.

Westerners may be stupid, but Hamas is not. It sees the new American administration making overtures to Iran and Syria. It sees Europe, led by Britain, beginning to accept Hezbollah. It sees itself as next in line. And it knows what to do. Yasser Arafat wrote the playbook.

With the 1993 Oslo accords, he showed what can be achieved with a fake peace treaty with Israel — universal diplomatic recognition, billions of dollars in aid, and control of Gaza and the West Bank, which Arafat turned into an armed camp. In return for a signature, he created in the Palestinian territories the capacity to carry on the war against Israel that the Arab states had begun in 1948 but had given up after the bloody hell of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Meshal sees the opportunity. Not only is the Obama administration reaching out to its erstwhile enemies in the region, but it begins its term by wagging an angry finger at Israel over the Netanyahu government's ostensible refusal to accept a two-state solution.

Of all the phony fights to pick with Israel. No Israeli government would turn down a two-state solution in which the Palestinians accepted territorial compromise and genuine peace with a Jewish state. (And any government that did would be voted out in a day.) Netanyahu's own defense minister, Ehud Barak, offered precisely such a deal in 2000.

He even offered to divide Jerusalem and expel every Jew from every settlement remaining in the new Palestine.

Would Be Madness

The Palestinian response (for those who have forgotten) was: No. And no counteroffer. Instead, nine weeks later, Arafat unleashed a savage terror war that killed 1,000 Israelis.

Netanyahu is reluctant to agree to a Palestinian state before he knows what kind of state it will be. That elementary prudence should be shared by anyone who's been sentient the last three years.

The Palestinians already have a state, an independent territory with not an Israeli settler or soldier living on it. It's called Gaza. And what is it? A terror base, Islamist in nature, Iranian-allied, militant and aggressive, that has fired more than 10,000 rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians.

If this is what a West Bank state is going to be, it would be madness for Israel or America or Jordan or Egypt or any other moderate Arab country to accept such a two-state solution. Which is why Netanyahu insists that the Palestinian Authority first build institutions — social, economic and military — to anchor a state that could actually carry out its responsibilities to keep the peace.

Endless War

Apart from being reasonable, Netanyahu's two-state skepticism is beside the point. His predecessor, Ehud Olmert, worshiped at the shrine of a two-state solution. He made endless offers of a two-state peace to the Palestinian Authority — and got nowhere.

Why? Because the Palestinians — going back to the U.N. partition resolution of 1947 — have never accepted the idea of living side by side with a Jewish state. Those like Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who might want to entertain such a solution, have no authority to do it. And those like Hamas' Meshal, who have authority, have no intention of ever doing it.

Meshal's gambit to dress up perpetual war as a two-state peace is yet another iteration of the Palestinian rejectionist tragedy. In its previous incarnation, Arafat lulled Israel and the Clinton administration with talk of peace while he methodically prepared his people for war.

Arafat waited seven years to tear up his phony peace. Meshal's innovation? Ten — then blood.

© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
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How Do You Spell Blackmail? H-I-L-L-A-R-Y

Hillary is basically telling Israel that you better do what we say, or else. It's the same message Obama issued said a few days ago.

Rees

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Israel on Thursday that it risks losing Arab support for combating threats from Iran if it rejects peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies on Capitol Hill before the House State and Foreign Operations subcommittee on Thursday.

Clinton said Arab nations had conditioned helping Israel counter Iran on Jerusalem's commitment to the peace process. [That's complete BS. That is what Obama and Hillary are trying to now start. my comment]

"For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can't stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand in hand," Clinton told the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.

She added that Arab countries "believe that Israel's willingness to re-enter into discussions with the Palestinian Authority strengthens them in being able to deal with Iran."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is set to visit Washington in May and Clinton stressed she was not going to jump to any conclusions regarding Israel's stance until the upcoming talks with him.

"The prime minister will be coming to Washington in May, and we think that it is important not to prejudge what their view is and how that can best be approached," she said. [No, you're just basically firing a warning shot or Israel's bow with your comments - my comment]

Concerning a funding request for the Palestinians, Clinton said the State Department would ensure that no US taxpayer money goes to Hamas.

"No aid will flow to Hamas or any entity controlled by Hamas," she said.

Clinton repeated that any new Palestinian Authority government that included Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous agreements.

However, she indicated that the US would not necessarily cut funding to the Palestinians even if Hamas joins the unity government and fails to meet the three above conditions, noting that the US continued to provide funds to Lebanon, whose government includes Hizbullah.

"We are doing that because we think, on balance, it is in the interest of the United States," she said.

The US secretary of state went on to defend US President Barack Obama's effort to engage diplomatically with Iran, calling it a reasonable alternative to what she called a failed Bush administration policy.

"We tried the policy of total isolation for eight years," she said in a rising voice, "and it did not deter Iran one bit. The nuclear program has continued unabated. They weren't supporting Hamas before. They are supporting Hamas now." [Unless Israel attacks Iran, I would be every penny I have that Obama will allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. - my comment]
AP contributed to this report

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Obama Is Politically Raping Israel

Obama is intentionally trying to back Netanyahu into a corner. He's not allowing the Middle East Peace Process to be negotiated between the Israel and the Palestinians. No, he's going to embarrass Netanyahu by forcing him to accept a settlement that will make it impossible for peace to be sustained. He wants shame Netanyahu and Israel in front of the entire world when Netanyahu has to tell Obama he will not agree to the plan.

Well, it's crystal clear who's side Obama is on, and it's definitely not Israel's. Everyone should go back now and review Obama's speeches. He blatantly lied in order to keep the Jewish vote. The sad thing is how many people voted for him, all the time having a warm fuzzy feeling about how he supported Israel. He's reached the pinnacle of betrayal.

I believe Israel will survive. Israeli's have all the will and military capability needed to survive. Will it get incredibly ugly? Will a lot of people die? Yes and Yes. People might say it doesn't have to be that way, but I believe it does.

The bottom line is that there is no chance for peace in the Middle East until Iran is defeated militarily. When that happens, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia become neutered.

Israel wants peace. If all the surrounding countries didn't want to destroy Israel, the Israeli people would care less about them and just go about their business. However, until Israel's neighbors are finally subdued militarily, there will never be peace in that region.

Netanyahu in a very diplomatic, discrete manner should just tell Obama to "shove it!" Someone needs to get Obama off his political high horse. He truly believes he can solve all the world's problems, but of course they will be solved 'his way'.
Rees

Obama to ask Israel for direct peace talks based on Arab League peace plan
from the DEBKAfile
Exclusive Report
April 21, 2009

Obama and Abdullah see eye to eye
DEBKAfile's exclusive Washington sources disclose that their meeting ended with the US president accepting the extended Arab League Middle East peace plan initiated by Saudi Arabia. This confirmed the statement by his special Middle East envoy George Mitchell on his visit to Jerusalem last week that the Arab peace plan had been incorporated in the Obama Middle East peace plan based on the creation of a Palestinian state.

The new version simply spells out some of the clauses in the original, such as what the Arab governments mean by "normal relations" with Israel. The Jordanian king left with the president a document listing the deal the Arab states are ready to offer Israel for withdrawing to the pre-1967 war lines, i.e. evacuating the West Bank, Golan Heights and historic Jerusalem, and accepting the foundation of a Palestinian state.

The two leaders agreed the document would not be published before Obama presents it to Netanyahu at the White House in June. He will ask the Israeli prime minister for an immediate answer and urge him to accept the Arab peace plan as the basis for direct negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria in which the United States will be actively engaged. [if Netanyahu accepts the plan there won't be any need for negotiations. my comment]

Our sources add that the US president is seriously considering making a televised speech before Netanyahu's arrival to play up the Arab proposals on offer provided Israel is ready to make far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians and Syria.
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Obama Cancels Netanyahu Visit - Rahm Emanuel laying down the law to Israel

from theage.com.au
Jason Koutsoukis
April 18, 2009

CAN Israel still call the United States its best international friend? Apparently not, if you believe the tone of the local media.

Watching the drama unfold inside Israel, the increasingly tense dialogue between US President Barack Obama and new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking on all the trappings of a duel.

Almost every day brings news of another sore point between the two countries, a source of yet further inflammation of their once warm relations.

One could be forgiven for thinking that the more immediate threat to Israel's national security lay across the Atlantic rather than from closer to home.

It is bad enough that President Obama uses almost every opportunity he can to set the parameters of a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Now US officials are openly using Israeli anxiety over Iran's fledging nuclear program as a bargaining chip to force Israel's hand on giving up control of the West Bank Palestinian territory.

No less a figure than White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel — whose father fought with the militant Zionist group the Irgun, and whose appointment had provided such reassurance to Israeli officials — was quoted this week laying down the law to Israel.

If Israel wants US help to defuse the Iranian threat, Mr Emanuel was reported to have told Jewish leaders in Washington, then get ready to start evacuating settlements in the West Bank.

Talkback radio blazed with fury across the country the same day, as Israelis protested that no US official had the right to tell them where to live.

Then on Thursday came the news that Mr Netanyahu's planned first meeting with President Obama in Washington next month had been called off.

Mr Netanyahu had hoped to capitalise on his attendance at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington to visit the White House.

But Administration officials informed Mr Netanyahu's office that the President would not be "in town".

Washington sources added that the Obama Administration would not be continuing the tradition that had developed during the Bush years of hosting Israeli prime ministers whenever they showed up in town, sometimes with just a phone call's notice.

It might have been no more than coincidence, but yesterday Israeli defence officials told the liberal daily Haaretz that Israel's $US15 billion ($A21 billion) purchase of 75 US-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets was now under review due to "the unexpected high cost and disagreements with the manufacturer".

Contrary to initial expectations, President Obama has wasted no time becoming fully engaged in the Middle East peace process, despite the magnitude of his domestic political agenda. While Mr Netanyahu has refused to endorse a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict agreed to by his predecessor, President Obama has made it abundantly clear that the US will accept nothing less than Israel living side by side with a sovereign Palestinian state.

Mr Obama is also demanding a freeze on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, and has dropped the Bush administration's opposition to Hamas being part of a future Palestinian Authority government.

According to prominent Israeli political commentator Maya Bengal, who writes for the country's second-largest selling newspaper Maariv, the holiday is over.

"As Passover comes to an end, so comes to an end, it seems, the days of grace granted to the Netanyahu Government by the American Administration," says the commentator.

Tel Aviv barman Meir Avraham, 30, says he can feel on the street the tensions being played out between the US and Israel.

"This is one of the the main things that the people are talking about at the moment," says Mr Avraham, who recently returned to Israel after several months in Townsville.

All Israelis, says Mr Avraham, understand the vital nature of the relationship between Israel and the US. "If we lose America, then we are alone," he says. "So we must listen to what America wants. But really I think this is more about the little brother testing the limits of the big brother."
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Obama Officially Abandons Israel - Continues charm offensive for radical rulers

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
April 18, 2009

The new US president's dramatic global policy steps have easily dwarfed the knotty Israeli-Palestinian peace issue handed down from one US president to the next over decades. Barack Obama's outstretched hand to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Iran's best friend in the Americas, on April 17, at the summit of American leaders in Port of Prince, made the talk surrounding Special Middle East Envoy George Mitchell's mission to Jerusalem and Ramallah this week sound eerily like voices from the past.

After talking to Mitchell, Israel's prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak tried the usual bromides: They protested that Jerusalem's ties with Washington and Jerusalem were as strong as ever and they would work together toward an agreed solution for the Palestinian problem.

But those words were lost in the black Iranian cloud hanging over the relations.

Barack Obama has set his sights and heart on friendship with the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran and their radical allies. The name and policies of the occupant of the prime minister's office in Jerusalem do not matter - any more than Tehran's determination to complete its nuclear weapons program in defiance of the world, or even its first A-bomb test in a year or two, for which intelligence sources report Tehran is already getting set.

Obama's Washington believes America can live with a nuclear-armed Iran – a decision probably taken first under the Bush presidency. But Israel cannot, and may have no option but to part ways with the Obama administration on this point. As a nuclear power, Iran will be able to bend Jerusalem to the will of its enemies, make it unconditionally give Syria the Golan plus extra pieces of territory, tamely accept a Hamas-dominated Palestinian West Bank louring over its heartland and let the Lebanese Hizballah terrorize Galilee in the north at will. All three would make hay under Iran's nuclear shield, while Tehran lords it over the region in the role of regional power conferred by Obama's grace and favor.

In no time, Israel would be stripped of most of its defenses.

Israel is not the only nervous country in the region. But Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is the only Middle East leader brave enough to stick his neck out, albeit with Saudi backing, and stand up to the Iranian peril, direct and through Hizballah.

He has also outspokenly criticized Washington's courtship of the revolutionary Islamic republic.

Cairo's Al Ahram Saturday, April 18, accused Iran, Syria, Qatar, Hizballah, Hamas, al Jazeera TV of a conspiracy to overthrow Egyptian government.

But the US president is not daunted by the radicalism or enmity of his new friends or the loss of old ones. At the Summit of All Americas, Obama greeted Hugo Chavez 24 hours after the Venezuelan ruler said: "The United States Empire is on its way down and will be finished in the near future, inshallah!"

Using the Muslim blessing to underline the wish for America's downfall was no bar to the smile and handshake; neither was Venezuela's recent severance of its ties with Israel for no provocation or its willingness to host a delegation of Hizballah (internationally branded a terrorist organization) in Caracas.

What is relevant to Obama is Hugo Chavez's role as co-architect of the joint Russian-Iranian campaign to displace American influence in the southern hemisphere. The US president has opted for winning America's enemies over with smiles and embraces rather than punishing them like George W. Bush.

Obama continues to woo Bashar Assad apace despite his blunt refusal to loosen his strategic ties with Tehran or stop supporting the Lebanese Shiite group [with arms] because Hizballah is dedicated to fighting Israel, - as he is quoted as saying in the pro-Hizballah Lebanese publication al Akhbar on April 17.

For the first time in years, the administration this week sent a high-ranking delegation to Syria's independence day celebrations at Washington's Mandarin Oriental Hotel, headed by Jeffrey Feltman, former ambassador and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs.
The thaw in relations has gone so far that some Washington wags are calling Assad's capital "Syria on the Potomac."

The American storm besetting the Middle East leaves Israel's most vital interests way behind. The condition Netanyahu put before Mitchell for progress in peacemaking - that Israel be recognized as a Jewish state, which was instantly rejected by Palestinian Authority leaders – aroused scant attention in Washington or anywhere else.

As Netanyahu will find when he meets Obama in Washington early next month, Israel is no longer a prime factor in US global policy, because America has fundamentally reshuffled its Middle East allegiances and alliances. Even Tzipi Livni at the helm in Jerusalem would not divert Obama from his détente with Ahmadinejad, Assad and Chavez.

To gain points with his new friends, Obama's White House is not above nudging Israel to please them. This week, his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told Jewish leaders whom he met in Washington that if Israel wants America's help for thwarting Iran's nuclear program, it must first start evacuating West Bank settlements.

This was of course cynical claptrap.

Even if every single settlement were to be removed and Israel lined up with Obama's quest for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the US president would not drop Tehran or help Israel strike Iran's nuclear facilities. He has already ceded Tehran's uranium enrichment program (and therefore its drive for nuclear arms), and would forcefully oppose any Israeli military action. US defense secretary Robert Gates indicated as much this week when he went to almost absurd lengths to play down the Iranian nuclear threat and Israel's ability to handle it.

So what options are left to Israel at this juncture?

1. To bow under the Obama tempest until it blows over in keeping with the old proverb which says that trees bowing in the wind remain standing. This would entail going along with US acceptance of Iran as a nuclear power. The question is will Israel's trees still be standing when the storm has passed and, if so, in what strategic environment?

2. To follow the example set by Likud's first prime minister Menahem Begin in 1981. He stood up to Ronald Reagan's fierce objections and sent the Israeli Air force to smash the Iraqi nuclear reactor before it was operational. Saddam Hussein never rebuilt the facility. By following in Begin's footsteps before it is too late, Netanyahu would change the rules of the game regionally and globally.

(The London Times reported from Jerusalem Saturday that the Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government. Two civil defense drills have been scheduled to prepare the population for missiles that could fall on any part of the country without warning.)

3. Israel could go for a more modest target, one of Iran's faithful surrogates – Syria or Hizballah – to warn Washington that a larger operation is in store for their boss. If the Gaza offensive against Hamas last January was meant to send this message, it failed. Hamas is still the dominant Palestinian power and Barack Obama was not swayed from forging ahead with his policies of rapprochement with Iran and other radical world leaders.
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Axe-wielding terrorist kills boy, wounds 7-year-old in Bat Ayin

from The Jerusalem Post
April 2, 2009

Government spokesman Mark Regev condemned the attack as a "senseless act of brutality against innocents."

Speaking by phone from the scene, Magen David Adom paramedic Ronen Bashri told The Jerusalem Post that ambulances and emergency response teams were called to the settlement after receiving a report of an axe attack.

"We found a seven-year-old boy fully conscious with a head injury caused by a sharp object," Bashri said. "And we found a 16-year-old whom we had to declare dead on the scene."

Nativ's funeral will be at 5:00 p.m. in Kfar Etzion.

Magen David Adom chairman Eli Bin told the Post, "I can confirm that an axe caused the fatal head injury." He added that the injured boy was struck by a sharp object, possibly the same ax. "Both victims sustained head injuries," he said.

The attack ended after one resident who saw the younger boy running from the terrorist stepped in and disarmed the man.

Roadblocks were set up throughout the area in an effort to capture the attacker, and security forces immediately launched an investigation to determine how he entered the community. The initial assumption, that the terrorist was an Arab laborer and had therefore not aroused suspicion, was refuted when it became clear that the settlement only employed Jewish laborers.

The IDF said the possibility that the terrorist was holed up in one of the houses in the settlement had not been ruled out, while Palestinians reported that after the attack, Israeli security forces surrounded a house in the Arab village of Kherbat Tzafa.

IDF sources also said that the army was preparing for the possibility that Jewish settlers would avenge the attack by striking back at Arabs in the West Bank.

Bat Ayin is home to religious settlers who have refused to build a security fence around their community, as is the rule in most other settlements, saying fences are a sign of insecurity.
There was no word on whether the attacker acted alone.

Less than an hour after the attack, the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. A murky terrorist group calling itself the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh also claimed responsibility for the attack in an e-mail sent to the Associated Press.

THE FOLLOWING REFLECTS JUST HOW SICK HAMAS AND ISLAMIC JIHAD ARE:

For its part, Hamas called the attack a natural response to the "occupation."

"This attack was committed in the framework of the resistance," Ayman Taha, a spokesperson for the group said. "This is a reaction to the continuing occupation and the continued building of settlements."

"This is a natural reaction," he said, "especially against the backdrop of Israeli attacks. We are a people occupied, and it is our right to defend ourselves and to act in every way and with every means at our disposal in order to defend ourselves."
Following the attack, Magen David Adom went on its highest level of alert across the West Bank.

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Netanyahu: Biggest peril to Israel and mankind is...

Netanyahu: Biggest peril to Israel and mankind is radical regime seeking nuclear arms

March 31, 2009

from DEBKAfile.com

Introducing Israel's 32nd government to the Knesset, Tuesday, March 31, Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel faced two major perils on two fronts - the economy and security. Neither was caused by our actions, but the outcome of both will depend on how Israel acts.

Israel seeks peace with the entire Arab and Muslim world, but continues to be threatened by the forces of Islamic extremists.

Netanyahu then called on the Palestinian Authority to embrace peace: "If it is really peace that you seek – we can achieve it. We will promote [negotiations] on three tracks, financial, security and diplomatic…"

The incoming Israel prime minister said: "We will support a Palestinian mechanism which fights terror. We have no desire to rule over another people. The final accord will allow the Palestinians to rule themselves, barring elements which menace Israel. "

Netanyahu then presented his jumbo lineup of 30 cabinet posts including 6 without portfolio and 8 deputy ministers drawn from five parties, Likud, Israel Beitenu, Labor, Shas and United Torah Judaism.
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Israel successfully tests anti-rocket system

Israel successfully tests anti-rocket system
from Breitbart.com
Mar 27 06:30 AM US/Eastern
By MATTI FRIEDMAN
Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel has successfully tested a high-tech system designed to protect civilians from rocket attacks by militant groups in Gaza and south Lebanon, the Defense Ministry said.

Defense officials said Friday in the wake of the test that the Iron Dome system's development is on schedule and will likely meet its target date of 2010, when it is due to begin shooting down incoming rockets fired by Gaza militants.

A ministry statement released Thursday evening said that in a series of tests this week the system faced rockets of the type fired by Palestinian and Lebanese militants, and "operated successfully regarding the targets of the test."

The statement termed the tests a "milestone." It did not say specifically what the tests entailed and stopped short of saying the Iron Dome had actually shot rockets down with an interceptor missile, which it is designed to eventually do.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with defense ministry regulations, said there has yet to be an intercept by the system.

They have said in the past that the first intercept is expected at the end of 2009.

Developed at a cost of over $200 million, the system is intended to eventually fire missiles that home in on incoming short and medium-range rockets of the type used by militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups have launched thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza since 2001, sparking numerous Israeli military incursions, most recently the devastating three-week Gaza war that ended Jan. 18. Rocket fire has continued since the war, though it has dropped off in recent weeks.

In 2006, Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war that saw the Shiite militants launch thousands of medium-range rockets into northern Israel as Israeli forces pushed into south Lebanon.

Both militant groups have close ties to Iran.

Around one million Israelis live within range of Hamas rockets. Israel believes that Hezbollah possesses rockets that can reach the country's center in Tel Aviv, meaning that most Israelis are now in range of rockets from the north and the south. That makes the development of an anti-rocket system a priority for Israel.
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U.S. Air Force C-130 Bombers destroy 17 Truck Weapons Convoy in Sudan

DEBKAfile Special Report
March 26, 2009

DEBKAfile's military sources: Sudanese and Egyptian security officials reported Tuesday, March 24, the day Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir arrived in Cairo, that in January, US Air Force C-130 bombers taking off from bases in Djibouti destroyed a 17-truck clandestine convoy carrying smuggled arms as it travelled through Sudan to the Egyptian border. All 39 passengers were killed, said those officials. Wednesday night, CBS TV News quoted unidentified US Pentagon officials as claiming the attack was not carried out by American but Israeli aircraft.

No official comment has come from Israel.

Our military sources report that Iran's main arms smuggling route to Hamas in Gaza runs through Sudan. The weapons are quietly unloaded from Iranian merchant vessels to convoys of trucks or camels at Port Sudan on the Red Sea. After crossing into Egypt, the supplies make their way to the Gulf of Suez where local smugglers' boats move the arms freight across Sinai.
The size of the convoy targeted for air attack, 17 trucks and 39 passengers, is the first tangible eye-opener to Iran's vast weapons-smuggling program for Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. The hardware transits Sinai and reaches its destination through their tunnel network on the Egyptian-Gaza border.

According to DEBKAfile's intelligence sources, the arms trucks have been plying the Sudan-Sinai route at the rate of two or three large convoys per month, tracked by US and Israeli spy satellites.

The supplies continue since the convoy was destroyed two months ago, only the smugglers are more careful, using various devices to evade satellite detection. For instance, the trucks no longer travel in convoys, but separately, or else they transfer the arms to different kinds of vehicles such as camels and small boats which hug the Sudanese and Egyptian coasts.

Last January, the US and Israel signed an agreement calling for an international effort to stem the flow of weaponry and explosives from Iran to Gaza. It covered intelligence coordination, maritime efforts to identify ships carrying the hardware, and the sharing of US and European technologies to detect and block weapons-smuggling tunnels between Sinai and Gaza.

One Cypriot-flagged Iranian arms ship was diverted in the Gulf of Aden, forced through the Suez Canal and finally had its illicit freight confiscated at Larnaca.

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