It's Almost Supernatural

Shin Bet Publishes Terror Report

Jewish Voices will be seething. A Shin Bet report says that there has been an 84% decrease in the number of Israelis killed in terror attacks since the completion of the first portion of the security fence.

Shin Bet report released on Monday that summed up the first four years since the outbreak of violence in September 2000, revealed that terrorist organizations operating in Samaria succeeded in perpetrating 6 suicide bomb attacks inside Israel in which thirty Israelis were killed since the fence's completion. 73 suicide bomb attacks killed 293 Israelis since the outbreak of violence in September 2000. A total of 1017 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in terror attacks in the past four years.

The report details many facts that we didn't need a report to tell us. Amongst the fndings - Interrogation proves Arafat involved in terror attacks, More Israeli Arabs involved in terror, Cooperation between terror organizations increasing, Hizbullah involvement in Palestinian terror.
Of course mention is made of the vile act of using collections masquerading as charity to fund terrorist operations.

Read about the report here.

Judas?

Article from a well respected Arab daily alleges that an Arab country may be assisting Israel against Hamas. There are too many "unknown sources" for me to pay much attention to this article.

The London-based Arabic daily Al Hayat reports that an Arab intelligence agency has been cooperating with the Israeli Mossad, providing it with significant and sensitive information about Hamas bureaus in Damascus, Beirut, Teheran, and the Persian Gulf. A Western intelligence source hints that the country may be Egypt, claiming that Cairo is seeking to wean Damascus and the Palestinian terrorist organization from their alliance with Iran.

I don't think there is a Fatwah big enough for this story if it proves to be true.

How to Deal with Iran

Caroline Glick from Jerusalem Post has written another excellent piece on how to deal with Iran. Just last week Iran rejected calls from the IAEA to cease all uranium enrichment programs. Khatami recently remarked that he will continue with his path of nuclear enrichment "even if it leads to an end to international supervision." This comment was said at a recent parade of the Iranian surface-to-surface Shihab-3 balistic missiles which are code named "Jerusalem."

Glick writes about a recent report published by Henry Sokolski. Sokolski heads the Washington based Non-Proliferation Policy Education Center. Previously he was a US arms control negotiator in the first Bush administration.

Most significantly – and egregiously – Sokolski recommends that in an effort to check Iranian nuclear capabilities, "Israel should announce how much weapons usable material it has produced and that it will unilaterally mothball (but not yet dismantle) Dimona, and place the reactor's mothballing under IAEA monitoring. Israel should announce that it will dismantle Dimona and place the special nuclear material it has produced in 'escrow' in Israel with a third trusted declared nuclear state, e.g., the US." That is, the primary target of Teheran's nuclear arsenal should respond to the emerging threat by disarming itself. If this recommendation were made by a European or an Arab, one could simply laugh it off. But given the respectability of the source, it is necessary to engage it. Adopting such a course would be devastating for three main reasons: First, it ignores the real danger of Iran using nuclear weapons to destroy Israel, as it has threatened. Second, it ignores the rationale behind Israel's nuclear program: deterring the threat of physical destruction by both conventional and non-conventional enemy forces. It is not simply a deterrent against nuclear attack. To discuss nuclear transparency for Israel without calling for conventional disarmament of, say Egypt, whose conventional armed forces alone constitute a strategic threat for Israel, is to ignore Israel's strategic vulnerabilities. Finally, the recommendation makes no distinction between a nuclear-armed, stable democracy and a nuclear-armed, terror-supporting theocracy. Comparing a nuclear Israel and a nuclear Iran is like comparing a housewife in the kitchen wielding a butcher's knife to a murderer in a dark alleyway wielding a butcher's knife. It is both morally obtuse and strategically blind.

(Cartoon by Cox & Forkum Editorial cartoons)
UPDATE
Iran successfully tests 'strategic missile'

Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani announced on Saturday that a "strategic missile was successfully test-fired during military exercises by the Revolutionary Guards and delivered to the armed forces," adding that Iran was "ready to confront all regional and extra-regional threats." In August, Iran said it test-fired a new version of its Shihab-3 ballistic missile. Israeli sources later said it could reach targets more than 1,200 miles away, or 400 miles farther than its previous range.

From Occupied to Disputed Territories

Please take note of my new list, "Understanding the conflict" created on the bottom right of the blog. From time to time I will add articles that give a factual understanding to the historical aspect of the Middle East conflict.

The first article I have added is by Dore Gold from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and is titled FROM "OCCUPIED TERRITORIES" TO "DISPUTED TERRITORIES"

(Link via Smoothstone)

Top Hamas Terrorist Killed in Damascus

Top Hamas terrorist Izz al-Din al-Sheikh was killed in a car bomb in Syria on Sunday.

While not confirming nor denying involvement in Khalil's death, Israeli officials said he was involved in the transfer of arms from Syria and Lebanon to Hamas hands in the Palestinian territories. Security sources said Khalil, while not as well-known as Hamas political figures, was very closely linked to Hamas cells in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They also said he gave the orders for the double suicide bombing attack in Beersheba on August 31 that killed 16 Israelis. Izzadin Kassam, Hamas's armed wing, vowed to avenge Khalil by attacking Israeli targets overseas, the group said in a statement issued in the Gaza Strip. "We have allowed hundreds of thousands of Zionists to travel and move in capitals around the world in order not to be the party that shifts the struggle overseas. But the Zionist enemy has done so and should bear the consequences of its actions," said the statement, a copy of which was faxed to the pan-Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, which broadcast the message.

The Middle East Intelligence Bulletin has a comprehensive report on Syrian terror enablement.

Since the mid-1990's Damascus has been the operational headquarters of the Hamas military wing and a nexus for the transfer of external funds to Hamas operatives in the territories. Syria and Syrian-occupied Lebanon have become major conduits for funneling weapons and explosives to Hamas and safe havens for training hundreds of its operatives... most of the deadly Hamas suicide attacks [of 2001-2] have been linked to Damascus.

Visit HonestReporting for a special report that provides a great overview of Syria's involvement in terror.

Al-Jazeera Poll

A recent Al-Jazeera poll showed that a whopping 93% of viewers support the kidnapping and subsequent murder of infidels in Iraq.

Loosening the Fatah-Al Aksa Links

A while back Honest Reporting requested to be inform if their readers came across news stories describing the links between Al Aksa and Fatah as merely loose.

Today a SAPA-AFP and SAPA AP report in the Star newspaper has done just that.

Also yesterday, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up near a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem, killing two people and wounding at least 14 others, Israeli authorities said. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group loosely linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. - Sapa-AFP and Sapa-AP

As Honest Reporting points out

The evidence, however, clearly indicates that the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is not some "loose offshoot," but rather has a direct and ongoing bond to the Fatah party, which holds a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament. The Palestinian government, therefore, bears direct responsibility for the group's heinous terrorist acts: The Jerusalem Post reports that a disagreement between the two groups has led Fatah to publically recognize its obligations to the AAMB. For their part, the AAMB is feeling abandoned by their sponsor: "Thanks to us, Fatah restored its dignity and power during the intifada," [an AAMB leader] added. "But now the members of the Fatah Central Council are putting pressure on us to disband. We don't trust them any more and we tell them that they are the ones who must go." The leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Tulkarm told USA Today on March 14, 2002: "The truth is, we are Fatah, but we didn't operate under the name of Fatah...We are the armed wing of the organization. We receive our instructions from Fatah. Our commander is Yasser Arafat himself." In November, 2003 a BBC investigation found that up to $50,000 a month was funneled by Fatah directly to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Hatred in Czech Republic

The rising stench of anti-Semitism in Europe continues unabated.

Holocaust memorial vandalized in Czech Republic

Vandals spray-painted Nazi symbols and words disparaging Jews on the monument, a stone sculpture in the shape of a menorah, Tuesday or Wednesday, police spokesman Milan Klezl said.

15 Year Suicide Bomber Apprehended

More proof substantiating the problem with the family reunification program, which allows Palestinians to gain access to Israeli ID cards by marrying Israeli Arabs.

A 15-year old Palestinian was apprehended Tuesday on his way to executing a suicide bombing, Army sources – quoted on Israel Radio – disclosed Thursday evening. Three other Palestinians from the village Yamun in the Jenin region were also apprehended for having planned the attack and assisting to transport the 7 KG suicide belt. One of the three, Za'el Adel Hara, was apprehended in Dir Hanna in the Galilee on Tuesday, and he admitted to having transported the device hidden in a sack of flour. He told interrogators that the belt had already been given to the youth, who received NIS 1,000 in order to commit suicide. He said that the hidden suicide belt had been transported along with other household items of his by a Palestinian who is an Israeli resident in possession of an Israeli ID card. The Palestinian who transported the goods received his ID card as part of the Israeli family unification program. He received NIS 2,000 from Adel Hara to transport the goods from Yamun southwards to Jerusalem, and from there – along Israeli roads – to the Merar region in the Galilee. There, he and his family waited in a tent along with his family amidst a group of illegal Palestinian workers.

Jews for Kerry

Once again we see more proof that Bush does not receive the support of most Jews in America. Kerry does.

Survey: 69% of American Jews would vote for Kerry

Electoral Vote shows that Bush's overall lead in the polls has been reduced. Bush now edges Kerry by 273 electoral votes to 255. 270 are needed to win outright.