Is North Korea Testing Iran's Nuclear Device? - Amil Imani and James Hyde

by Amil Imani and James Hyde

Iran’s Islamic regime is intent on forcing the Apocalypse on a bewildered and unready world.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is yet another toothless U.N. body that is in for a whirlwind of frustration when it inspects Iran’s nuclear program sites. The provisions of the agreement negotiated by Secretary of State John Kerry and his team of sycophants make Neville Chamberlain’s “peace in our time” negotiations with Hitler look like a stroke of genius.

Iran’s Islamic regime is an incredibly dangerous foe. Like ISIS (or Daesh, a moniker that group loathes), Iran has an apocalyptic view of current and near-future events. But this time around, a group of believers in Shia Iran, with tremendous resources, are intent upon forcing the issue, making the conditions so dire that they leave the reluctant Saheb-ul-Zaman, the Lord of the Age, the Mahdi, their messianic myth, no choice but to appear and assume his universal reign.

Devotees drive both, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic State, to quicken the End Times apocalypse. Iranian leaders hold to a Shia brand. ISIS leaders hold to a Sunni brand. But both are obsessed by a belief that their messiah is coming. The Iran Shiites believe they must lay the groundwork for the messiah (Mahdi) to come and build their Kingdom or Imamate. ISIS isn’t really waiting. They have propelled a jihadist storm to build the Caliphate now, so that the Mahdi will come soon.

To the latter, there will be no manifestation until the world gets a front row seat to a full-blown cataclysmic event, and that’s what’s being planned now. Despite having negotiated the Iran deal to postpone Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear device, Obama and Kerry have witlessly cut a Faustian bargain with Iran, whose theocratic supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is all too happy to lead chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in response.

We believe, based on comments made by two remarkable experts on this subject, Dr. Peter Pry of emptaskforce.org and Ambassador Hank Cooper of highfrontier.com, the latter of whom worked in the Reagan Administration, that Iran already has the bomb and is working on figuring out how to get it into a vehicle and send it our way. It will not, however deliver annihilation to any single city or cities in the conventional sense. That would be pointless, futile and suicidal. Instead, working together with North Korea, they will seek to take out our electric infrastructure and anything electronic via satellites they already have in space and others they’ll put up into space. Unlike most satellites that orbit the earth horizontally (from west to east), the Iranian and North Korean satellites orbit from south to north over the poles, often going right over the center of the U.S. It’s what they may have in those satellites that keeps us up at night. (We’ll explain in Part Two of this dissertation.) 

What is of primary interest to us in Part One is where Iran is developing its nuclear weapons technology and it’s not in the Middle East, even though that’s where they want us looking. It’s no secret that Iran and North Korea have been trading “buddies,” but there are indications that they plan to work together to develop a “Complete America Annihilation” technology. The January 6, 2016, North Korean nuclear test may be the proof of that team effort. Kim Jon Un’s farcical boast that he was testing a “small” hydrogen bomb is a red herring. To those who don’t understand the difference between a standard nuclear warhead and a hydrogen bomb, the latter is 1,000 times more powerful and what was tested seemed closer to what fell on Hiroshima than something that could take out a couple of cities.
To raise the stakes, both countries have expressed their ardent desire to destroy us. The Iranian regime has been working their way to a nuclear bomb for almost thirty years. While Iran may well have achieved its nuclear goal, testing their monster would not have been possible in Iran. It would be picked up quickly not only by military sensors, but the U.S. Geological Survey, which recorded the latest North Korean test as being equivalent to a 5.1 earthquake. While Iran is earthquake prone, we would know the difference between a nuclear test and a bona fide earthquake almost immediately. It would be far too risky to attempt in the Middle East. So, where else could they go to test? Most likely to North Korea with a gift of badly needed oil and perhaps with some money and food. In exchange, Iran would get North Korea to test their bomb for them and it may not be the first time.

This was the fourth nuclear test conducted by North Korea. We learned from the Daily Beast and other sources, that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of Iran’s nuclear program, and other Iranian nuclear scientists had been present during North Korea's three previous nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, and 2013, and were likely present during the most recent test on January 6.

The Daily Beast suggests that, “In October 2012, Iran began stationing personnel at a military base in North Korea, in a mountainous area close to the Chinese border. The Iranians, from the Ministry of Defense and associated firms, reportedly are working on both missiles and nuclear weapons [there].” That would make Iran’s recent missile tests in the Middle East decoys.

By having a base in North Korea, Iran is able to escape any identification of their nuclear activities while back in Iran, and they appear to be compliant. The vicious mullahs want that $150 billion to finance not only Islamic terror, but both theirs and North Korea’s efforts to utterly destroy the U.S. in an instant.

Business Insider points to a study conducted by David Albright, a renowned nuclear physicist and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security (I.S.I.S.) at the Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University. As he explained, North Korea has built enough physical infrastructure to greatly ramp up its (and/or Iran’s) bomb materials production.

"There's been a lot of construction of buildings, renovations, and some new structures at the [Yongbyon] site itself," Albright said. ‘Certainly the light water reactor has materialized…. What we have trouble with is figuring out what's going on inside those buildings.’

“Researchers think North Korea has upgraded facilities to produce nuclear reactor fuel, but Albright says that it isn't known where the fabrication plant for the light-water reactor is located. And it isn't known how North Korea's uranium centrifuges are configured or how efficiently they're operating.”

North Korea is a hauntingly impoverished country. With China professing objections to its nuclear testing, it’s not likely that they got the cash to build the new structures from their mentor to the north. So from whence came the money for all of these new buildings? Enter Iran. In addition, as stated above, it’s not known how many or how sophisticated North Korea’s centrifuges may be. It is known that Iran has state-of-the-art centrifuges, which it has been disassembling in accordance with the terms of the Iran deal, although those doing the work have mysteriously stopped.

Reuters reports that, “Only decommissioned centrifuges were being dismantled to begin with, of which there were about 10,000 at Natanz and Fordow, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran has said.”

Over the years, Iran had successfully enriched uranium to 20 percent -- weapons grade -- in those centrifuges. Nuclear experts contend that enriching to 3 to 5 percent is ideal for a power plant.

It’s quite possible that at least some of those disassembled centrifuges have been flown to North Korea. But Iran may also have shipped some other things to their bosom buddies. Reuters also reports that when the IAEA entered the Parchin facility, they didn't find what they expected to.  “Inside the building, we saw indications of recent renovation work,” the IAEA said in a report. “There was no equipment in the building.”

Inside they were expecting to find a containment vessel designed to test nuclear triggers. Could that have been shipped to Korea, too? The IAEA didn’t find it anywhere else.

So far, all four nuclear tests have been relatively “small” in terms of yield. But it’s not so much about how much yield there is that’s important here. They’ll be focusing instead on emitting protons, lots and lots of protons. We’ll explain in Part Two what they will most likely send our way, but we can tell you in advance that the United States is woefully unprepared for what may be coming, and soon.


Amil Imani and James Hyde

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/is_north_korea_testing_irans_nuclear_device_.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

A Parable for Germany - David. P. Goldman

by David. P. Goldman

• Dying Germany has only one item on its bucket list, and that is redemption. The Germans cannot seek redemption from the crimes of their grandparents because they do not understand what motivated them to do such terrible things.
• For Merkel and most of Germany's elite, the appearance on Germany's threshold of millions of Muslim refugees is a final chance at redemption, an opportunity for Germany to redeem itself from the crimes of its past through a transcendent act of selflessness.

Denke ich an Deutschland in der Nacht
Dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht
If I think of Germany in the night
It kills my sleep.
– Heinrich Heine.

Once there was an old man who in his youth committed a terrible crime, the murder of many innocents. He no longer could remember what drove him to do this; he tried not to think about it, and his memories came to mind unwillingly and infrequently. Rage and guilt had faded long ago into a vague residue of disgust. He worked hard and found some distraction in the monotony of daily tasks. He sought diversion in tasteless entertainment; he followed football, looked at pornography, watched the dubbed version of American comedies, and took vacations at the beach.

He had a child but no grandchildren; his child knew that he once did unforgivable things, but did not want to know what they were, and the old man did not want to tell him. The old crime hung like a black curtain between them.

The old man could feel that he did not have long to live. Ahead of him he saw only days clouded with boredom, illuminated only by the occasional flash of regret. He let the days come and go one at a time until their count might come to an end, for he did not know any other way to live. Because he had no ties to life, he had no way to prepare for death.

One day the old man met a street urchin and on an impulse invited him back to his apartment. He fed the strange boy and gave him a place to sleep. The next morning the old man bought the urchin new clothes, and gave him things -- a smartphone, a video-game system, a football jersey. The street kid made himself at home and said little.

Before long, the old man noticed that things had gone missing. A watch that belonged to his father disappeared from a drawer. A silver souvenir goblet no longer stood in the cupboard. Even worse, he came home to find things broken with apparent intent. The remains of a glass pitcher lay in shards on the kitchen floor. The bathroom mirror was cracked. A sofa cushion was slashed.

At length, the old man confronted the boy: "I have only done you good. Why do you do this to me?" The boy laughed at the old man, then punched him. The old man lay on the floor, bleeding from his nose and lips. Perhaps he should call the police? He thought: "No, I will not call the police. What does it matter? I will die soon anyway. Perhaps some good will come of it." The prospect of death robs us of rationality, especially if we perceive that our life has gone wrong.

* * *

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2015, was the model of rationality, finding resources to backstop Germany's near-bankrupt southern neighbors during the great European debt crisis of 2012, defusing the Ukraine crisis after the Maidan coup and the Russian takeover of Crimea, balancing Atlantic commitments and European integration, while presiding over Europe's only successful major economy. Merkel was rational, that is, until she wasn't.

Admitting 1.2 million Muslim refugees in 2015 and perhaps another million in 2016, and sticking to her guns after the organized mass sexual abuse perpetrated by migrants in Cologne and other German cities on New Year's Eve, was an act of existential despair, not a rational act. What explains this seemingly sudden transformation?

Chancellor Merkel, it seems clear, acted on an impulse that was as sudden as it was irresistible. As the global refugee count passed the 60 million mark last year, Germany did nothing. Between January 1, 2014 and June 30, 2014, fewer than 1000 newspaper stories appeared in the German-language media with the word Flüchtlinge (refugees) -- mostly about boat disasters in the Mediterranean.

A January 2, 2014 story in the Berliner Morgenpost noted that the German government planned for 6,000 refugees in the course of the year. During the second half of the year, more than a quarter of a million stories appeared. Only when the refugee crisis threatened to create a humanitarian disaster on Germany's borders did the Merkel government act.

This kind of impulsiveness begs explanation. Since the Second World War, Germans have preferred not to think about their past, because it is too horrible to contemplate. The German school system dutifully teaches about the Holocaust and German cities dutifully memorialize the murdered Jews; the walls of Frankfurt's old Jewish cemetery are covered with small bronze plaques for every Jew deported from the city. "They will never forgive us for Auschwitz," quipped the Austrian-Israeli psychiatrist Zvi Rix, and Germans often attempt to relativize the crimes of National Socialism by attributing similar things to the Jews. 54% of Germans under the age of 29 have a negative opinion of Israel, according to a January 2015 poll by the Bertelsmann Institute.

Germans work hard and immerse themselves in private life: in hobbies, vacations, and sports. But they do not have children, to a great extent because they do not like themselves. Germany is dying. It can not only foresee, but calculate with a reasonable degree of accuracy, the point at which so few Germans will inhabit the lands between the Rhine and the Oder that it will be as meaningless to speak of Germans as it is to speak of Etruscans or the people of Thrace. At 1.3 children per woman, Germany's population of young people (0 to 19 years) and working-age adults (20 to 64 years) will halve by the end of the present century.

Dying Germany has only one item on its bucket list, and that is redemption. The Germans cannot seek redemption from the crimes of their grandparents because they do not understand what motivated them to do such terrible things. Their great-grandparents during World War I believed in the superiority of German culture, and their grandparents during World War II believed in the superiority of the Aryan race. Today's Germans can only believe that no culture and no race has any claim to precedence, and that all the world's cultures have equal value.

Israel's unabashed nationalism horrifies them, because National Socialism's claim to the status of "master race" was a Satanic parody of the Election of Israel. Jewish strength and success, in German eyes, are an uncomfortable reminder of the Nazis' perversion of the biblical idea of Chosenness.

For Merkel and most of Germany's elite, the appearance on Germany's threshold of millions of Muslim refugees is a final chance at redemption, an opportunity for Germany to redeem itself from the crimes of its past through a transcendent act of selflessness. The Germans turned away from self-sacrifice for the Fatherland to the extreme of self-absorption. Germany became materialistic, irreligious, and Philistine. But self-absorption was a poor distraction from the sense of horror that lingered after the Second World War. The Nazis used terror and horror -- Schrecken und Entzsetzen (lit. "dislodgement") to bind the German people to their leadership. The prospect of new horrors arising not from a clash of civilization, but from internal clashes within Muslim civilization, is too much for the Germans to bear, because it recalls the horrors of the past war.

That is why Germans tumbled headlong into their decision to admit millions of Muslim refugees only when the horrors of war presented themselves on Germany's own doorstep. Until the flood of refugees reached Central Europe last summer, Germany showed little interest in their problems. As noted, Germany had prepared to admit only 6,000 refugees in 2015. Not until September, after a news photo of a drowned Kurdish boy went viral, and a dozen decomposing bodies were found in an abandoned truck in Austria, did Merkel declare, "Wir schaffen es." ["We can do it."] It is also why Germany will not reverse this policy no matter what sort of crimes the refugees commit.

Mrs. Merkel's rationality crumbles before the horrific prospect of human suffering. Germany's elites hope that one last, great national valedictory act will open the prospect of redemption.

Ordinary Germans, to be sure, do not like to be assaulted sexually by organized mobs, or subjected to other social pathologies that the refugees bring with them. Despite some objections, including some very vocal ones, Germans nonetheless will do what the Obrigkeit [Authority] tells them, just as they always have done.

Sadly, Germany is looking for redemption in all the wrong places. Its obsession with helping the refugees is not a mistake or a misjudgment, but an existential impulse so powerful that all the evidence in the world of the baleful effects of this policy will not outweigh it. There is no dissuading the Germans from hastening their own destruction. They can only stand as a terrifying example for the rest of us.

• Follow David P. Goldman on Twitter

David. P. Goldman is an American economist, author and a principle of Asia Times HK, Ltd.

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7221/germany-parable

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Welcome to the Banana Republic - Kenneth R. Timmerman

by Kenneth R. Timmerman

With a wave of his wand, Obama defies the law.

In case you were just enjoying the weekend with your family and not listening to the news, the world changed over the past 48 hours.

The United States has now officially become a Banana Republic.

In sweeping moves that gave the lie to repeated assertions by Secretary of State John Kerry that there would be no “comprehensive” deal with Iran, the United States on Saturday gave Iran a clean bill of nuclear health, lifted sanctions on more than 400 Iranian government entities and individuals, and swapped U.S. citizens held hostage by Iran for Iranian nationals convicted of violating U.S. export control laws.

There was so much news over the weekend that the media has had a hard time keeping up. But not your government, which has been beavering away so they could trade away our sovereignty, our legal system, and our national security interests at the stroke of a pen.

The Treasury Department has been working for months to draft a package of implementing regulations for Obama’s ill-conceived nuclear deal. The thicket of U.S. sanctions on Iran has become so dense over the years that Treasury had to post a separate web page with a guide to sanctions relief, which was split among eight separate statements.

My favorite was a list of 400 Iranian state entities now removed from U.S. sanctions. I had been tracking many of those companies for years.

With a stroke of the pen Iranian banks, including the Central Bank (which I would call the money-launderer-in-chief), have returned to the international financial system, and once again can do business with the United States or move dollars around the world. Already on Sunday, the Central Bank announced that it had reconnected to the international SWIFT wire transfer network, from which it had been banned under sanctions.

What this means is that Iran is now free to move the $100 billion or so released from blocking orders in Japan, South Korea, India, China, and Turkey, and move it anywhere it pleases, including to terrorist networks. It can also use the money to buy weapons, ballistic missile parts, or nuclear-related equipment, as long as they don’t originate in the United States.

That surely will be welcome news to the millions of Iranians who are unemployed, and to the thousands of political prisoners sitting in Iranian jails, who really, really want new toilets. And of course, all that money available for nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles will hearten Iran’s neighbors, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Also freed from sanctions is the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), put on the U.S. list of terrorist-supporting entities because it has repeatedly been caught moving weapons and explosives to terrorists. And, of course, Iran Air, which can now graduate from moving terrorists and intelligence operatives under cover of on board air marshals, to becoming the best friend of the European Airbus consortium as it seeks to purchase 114 Airbus jetliners.

Over at the Justice Department, U.S. government lawyers have been quietly negotiating with a variety of different district courts so they could spring four convicted criminals and three men awaiting trial on the magic day.

The national media is calling it a “prisoner exchange.” But the Iranian regime made clear it was not when they refused to release Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi as part of the deal. An English language dispatch from the government-run FarsNews website explained, “Namazi remains in jail for his charges are financial, and not political.”

In other words, the five Americans released on Saturday by Tehran were hostages, whereas the seven Iranians released in the United States were charged with violating the U.S. criminal code.

The crooks won.

Obama granted rare, pre-trial pardons to three of the men who were indicted earlier this year in Houston for illegally procuring high-tech equipment for Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. One of them, Bahram Mecanic, was a repeat offender, and had been busted twice before as an Iranian procurement agent.

Obama commuted the sentences of three others who were already in jail, and ordered federal prosecutors in Vermont to drop charges against the seventh man, Nima Golestaneh, who was extradited from Turkey and pled guilty in December to hacking U.S. defense contractors to steal sensitive software.

And it gets better. The U.S. also agreed to either drop prosecution or to revoke international arrest warrants, known as “Red Notices,” against another fourteen Iranians wanted for illegally procuring U.S. weapons spare parts or high technology for Iran’s missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Because, as we now know, Iran has no intention of building nuclear weapons and their nuclear program is entirely peaceful. Obama told me so.

No one can argue with a President who wins freedom for hostages-- unless of course his name is Ronald Reagan and he is a Republican.

But Obama missed a great opportunity to use the tremendous leverage a decade of intensifying sanctions had bought him, and insisted that Iran release the hostages in exchange for the nuclear agreement.

Instead, he showed the world that the United States has become a Banana Republic, where the rule of law is subjected to the whims of the Leader.

Again.

One American did not benefit from the President’s benevolence: former FBI agent, Bob Levinson. Is it because Mr. Levinson is Jewish that the President decided not to insist that he be included in this diabolical exchange?

Sources close to the Levinson family told me they think Levinson’s fate has been sealed for some time. “He was kidnapped by the IRGC [Islamic Revolution Guards Corps] and held in an IRGC jail, and the White House has known that for some time.”

But don’t expect this White House to move heaven and hell to get back Mr. Levinson -- or his remains.

“Why would they endanger their love fest with Iran over Rob?” this family friend close to the negotiations with the Obama administration told me. “Obama and his people don’t like government people to begin with. So their thinking is, what was he doing there in the first place?”

Benghazi, anyone?

Kenneth R. Timmerman

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261509/welcome-banana-republic-kenneth-r-timmerman

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

More leftist libel - Dror Eydar

by Dror Eydar

To the thinkers at Haaretz and the Swedish foreign minister, using force to stop a terrorist attack is an "extrajudicial killing."

The newspaper Haaretz has once again libeled Israel throughout the world in the clearest possible way. Columnist Gideon Levy is feeling the pain of our neighbors and is losing his mind and ability to draw distinctions along the way: "Israel executes people without trial nearly every day," and "any other description is a lie." No less. Now the haters of Israel and those plotting against it will quote his ridiculous assertion as if it was the Torah from Mount Sinai.

What has happened to the Israeli Left, that natural and justified action to protect lives has turned into an indictment against us? "Executions" refers to an intentional act. Who gave Levy the right to judge what people do when they are being attacked? Is the spirit free just then to examine in laboratory conditions the fine points of how appropriate the response is? 

"They shot them to death indiscriminately -- women, men, teenage girls, teenage boys. … They shot to kill, to punish, to release their anger, and to take revenge," Levy wrote, a precise description of the Arab barbarism of the past 100 years that has specialized in murdering any and all Jews. But Levy was referring to Israel's security forces and to his own people, the people of Israel, who are dealing with ongoing murder attempts. As backup, Levy brought up the B'Tselem organization, which "documents" additional cases of "executions." 

I don't understand. If there is a case of a crime being committed and not brought to justice, by all means file a complaint with the police. You get the sense that Levy is actually the one making unfounded accusations "without trial." 

Levy stood up for the dubious honor of Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, "one of the few ministers with a conscience left in the world." We didn't hear the "woman of conscience" from Sweden tweeting anything about the hundreds of cases of murder committed only last week by jihadist Islam and its metastases throughout the world. 

If someone had managed to kill the loathsome stabber before he killed Dafna Meir in Otniel Sunday as her children watched, can we reasonably assume that the thinkers at Haaretz and the Swedish foreign minister would add that to the list of "extrajudicial killings"? 

Because that's what lies below the surface of the bunch of anti-Semites in Europe: They aren't interested in making people's lives better, and not in the rights of Muslims. Israel is their target, because in pseudo-liberal circles from Sweden to here at home, an emergency call-up has gone out to fight against the Jews' right to a state of their own and their right to defend their lives. The Swedish foreign minister has voluntarily (or not) joined the large camp fighting to crush (and boycott!) the only stable historical law of the last 200 years -- the return of the Jews to Zion. 

"Execution" is the regular activity of those people who see murdering a mother in front of her children as an act of heroism, and are cheered on by their society. Some leftists in Israel have reached such an entrenched identification with the other side that their actions testify that we're not looking at any Israeli Left, but rather at Palestinian nationalists.

Dror Eydar

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=15009

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

British PM: ‘Muslim women must learn English or be deported’ - Shoshana Miskin

by Shoshana Miskin

David Cameron prompts backlash by announcing plans to teach Muslim women English.

British Prime Minister David Cameron

Reuters

 

British Prime Minister David Cameron has provoked criticism after announcing his plans to help Muslim women learn to speak English fluently, while simultaneously warning they could be deported if their language skills do not improve.

Cameron announced a £20 million (about $28.5 million) fund for language classes to help teach 22 percent (190,000) of Muslim women in England who speak little or no English.

Classes are planned to take place in homes, schools and community centers with travel and childcare costs provided as to encourage maximum participation.

The tests will apply to spouses who have been living in Britain for over two years. However, rights to stay in the UK can be revoked and families could be broken up and mothers can be deported back to their country of origin if they fail the mandatory English language test.

"You can't guarantee you will be able to stay if you are not improving your language," said Cameron in an interview with BBC radio. "People coming to our country, they have responsibilities too."

Cameron said that a lack of language skills could make Muslims in Britain more vulnerable to messages of extremist groups.

"I am not saying there is some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist, of course not," he said, "But if you are not able to speak English, not able to integrate, you may find therefore you have challenges understanding what your identity is and therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message."

Naturally, his comments drew criticism from Muslim groups and opposition parties accused him of "disgraceful stereotyping."

Lady Warsi, the first female Muslim cabinet minister, welcomed the new money for language teaching, but said, "This lazy and misguided linking, and what I saw once again as stereotyping of British Muslim communities, I felt took away from what was a positive announcement."


Shoshana Miskin

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/206647#.Vp01PFKzdds

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Netanyahu backs revised version of NGO bill - Shlomo Cesana and Edna Adato

by Shlomo Cesana and Edna Adato

At weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says new transparency bill should not require NGO representatives to wear special name tags at the Knesset • Netanyahu: Public has right to know who is financing NGOs.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Sunday's cabinet meeting | Photo credit: AP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his support for the controversial "NGO transparency bill" on Sunday and said it should extend to all NGOs that receive funding from foreign governments. He added that the bill should not require NGO representatives to wear special name tags at the Knesset.

Speaking at the start of Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said transparency was part and parcel of civil society. 

"I do not understand how a requirement for transparency is anti-democratic," he said. "The opposite is true. In a democratic regime, we need to know who is financing such NGOs, from the Right, the Left, up or down. Financing by governments is certainly something the public should know about. It has a right to know. 

"What needs to be done is adopt the norms accepted by the U.S. House of Representatives. And therefore, I request that this law be advanced with two amendments: First, to drop the demand that representatives of these NGOs wear tags in the Knesset -- this is unnecessary. Second, to require reports about the first shekel or dollar from foreign governments; we will thus bring the law in line with what is accepted in the U.S. In my view, these two amendments are necessary. I think that they are very important."

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi), who is among the supporters of the bill, said Netanyahu's revised version was compatible with the current language. 

"I will forward his suggestions and have them reviewed by the professional staff," she said. "I am glad the prime minister realizes how important it is to have transparency when it comes to NGOs that receive funding from foreign governments. I expect all the parties in the coalition to join forces and see this bill passed."

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved the bill on Dec. 27 at Shaked's request. The bill essentially brings the level of scrutiny of NGOs to that of lobbyists. As the bill stands, as well as the name-tag requirement and disclosure of funding sources, NGOs would have to file more detailed financial reports.

Shlomo Cesana and Edna Adato

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=31191

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Editorial In Saudi 'Al-Riyadh' Daily Advocates Setting Timetable For Peaceful Saudi Nuclear Program - MEMRI

by MEMRI

It should be mentioned that, since the July 15, 2015 announcement of the JCPOA, many articles in the Saudi press have called upon Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to take advantage of the next decade to develop military nuclear programs of their own as a countermeasure to the Iranian nuclear threat

Following the implementation of JCPOA and the lifting of sanctions from Iran, the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh published an editorial titled "What Will Happen in 15 Years?", which expresses fear about the future development of Iran's nuclear program. The editorial notes that, by 2031, most of the restrictions that the JCPOA places on Iran will be lifted, leaving this country free to advance its nuclear program as it pleases. It therefore advocates joining the nuclear club and laying down a "road map" for building Saudi nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes that will be ready before 2031.

It should be mentioned that, since the July 15, 2015 announcement of the JCPOA, many articles in the Saudi press have called upon Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to take advantage of the next decade to develop military nuclear programs of their own as a countermeasure to the Iranian nuclear threat that will reemerge after the expiring of the agreement.[1]

The following are excerpts:[2]

"Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said yesterday [January 16, 2016] that the sanctions on his country would be lifted immediately upon the issuing of the IAEA report [announcing] that Iran has met its obligations under the nuclear agreement that was signed with the superpowers in July of last year [2015]. [Even] if we ignore the political and economic implications of this agreement for the region in the near and distant future, there is [nevertheless] one aspect of this agreement that must be taken into account. In 2031, [this] nuclear agreement will be consigned to the U.N. archives, and Iran will be free to do whatever it pleases regarding its nuclear program. This, because most of the restrictions imposed [on Iran] by the articles of this agreement expire in 15 years. In the interim, Iran will enrich uranium to a level of no more than 3.67 percent, which is the safe level. But what happens after 15 years...?

"U.S. President Barack Obama is counting on the [assumption] that, in the course of this [15-year] period, a change will occur in Iran's behavior that is [currently] detrimental to its neighbors. [This] philosophy of the president's stems from his conviction that the minute the Iranian people is allowed a taste of a sanction-free [existence] it will surely become peace-loving. In this situation, [he believes], Iran's policy-makers will not think of advancing towards the manufacture of a nuclear bomb, [because] this would cause trouble for the Iranian regime and the Iranian people, who would refuse to go back to the era of sanctions after tasting freedom from sanctions. The fact is that the American president has thrown the Iranian regime a lifeline that will ensure its survival, and North Korea is an example of how nuclear power can constitute a shield for diseased regimes... This philosophy [of Obama's] should not interest us at all...

"What we need to do, even today, is begin preparing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes so as to gain the necessary knowledge about the nuclear fuel cycle and build nuclear reactors for producing electricity and desalinating water, [thus] varying our energy sources. After all, the [Saudi] kingdom is developing constantly, and according to the data it burns over four million barrels of oil every day in producing electricity, and in 2035 this figure will reach ten million barrels [a day]. The loss of this natural resource and the profits it could generate is therefore estimated at millions of dollars a day. 

"Furthermore, the kingdom has the right to enrich uranium up to the internationally permitted level, that is [a level of] 3.75 percent. Saudi Arabia's constructive conduct, which seeks peace with the countries of the region, helps it advance in this direction, as does [the fact that] it eschews all the characteristics of misguided countries that [already] possess this technology. [Such technology] confers international prestige, and this is an undeniable fact for the nuclear club is a club of elite countries, even if some of them are described as misguided, terror-supporting and members of the Axis of Evil.

"A brief review of the nuclear programs in the region leaves us confident of Saudi Arabia's ability to begin building nuclear reactors and complete them before 2031. The UAE, which means to build four reactors, announced in 2008 its comprehensive policy for developing nuclear energy for civilian purposes. The digging [of the foundations] began in 2012, and now they are working to have the first one operable by 2017. The others will go online gradually by 2020.

"Egypt, which is also experiencing difficulty in meeting its energy needs, announced last year that it and Russia had signed an agreement for building four nuclear reactors [in Egypt], the first of which will become operative in 2024.

"These reports prompt us to set out a timetable or a clear road map for a civilian nuclear program to meet Saudi Arabia's goals. The King Abdallah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy will naturally supervise the [nuclear] program, by virtue of its expertise. 2030 will be set as the date for activating the first nuclear reactor." 

 

---

[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6112, Saudi Press: We Must Have A Military Nuclear Program Within A Decade, July 22, 2015.    

[2] Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), January 17, 2016.

MEMRI

Source: http://www.memri.org

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

"Progressives" Turning Evangelicals Against Israel - Matthew Vadum

by Matthew Vadum

Today’s CAMERA conference focuses on an insidious leftist agenda.

Having infiltrated segments of the Christian community, the anti-Israel Left is becoming increasingly aggressive in its well-funded efforts to undermine support for Israel among Evangelical Protestants.

"Christian anti-Zionism is the new form of Christian anti-Semitism," Tricia Miller told FrontPage in an interview last week. "There is an unsuspecting evangelical audience that is being subjected to this."

Miller is a senior research analyst at the Boston, Mass.-based nonprofit Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. Miller will join other speakers at CAMERA's daylong conference today titled "The Assault on Christian Support for Israel," that begins this morning in West Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Other speakers at the CAMERA conference today include CAMERA executive director Andrea Levin; Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, director of interfaith affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Randal Neal, western regional coordinator for Christians United for Israel; and Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder and president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. David Suissa, president of TRIBE Media Corp., will deliver the keynote address.

Founded in 1982, CAMERA describes itself as a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East.

The Left's anti-Israel agitation efforts in the form of the BDS (boycott, divest, and sanction) movement, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as a campaign to destroy Israel, have long met with considerable success.

Just last week those who control pension funds at the (mainline-Protestant) United Methodist Church blacklisted five Israeli banks for so-called human rights reasons. "It appeared to be the first time that a pension fund of a large American church had taken such a step regarding the Israeli banks, which help finance settlement construction in what most of the world considers illegally occupied Palestinian territories," the New York Times reports.

But in recent years, Palestinian Christians and their allies, many of whom have connections to Sabeel, a Jerusalem-based Christian anti-Zionist group, have opened a second front against Israel. They have worked hard to stigmatize pro-Israel evangelicals in the U.S. by "portraying them as zealots intent on engineering a showdown between Christianity and Islam," according to CAMERA.

The anti-Israel message took hold in some mainline-Protestant churches that have been losing worshipers to evangelical churches for the past half-century.

Other Palestinian Christians, sometimes affiliated with Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank, have worked with Israel-haters in the U.S. to turn American evangelicals against Israel by means of "Christ at the Checkpoint" conferences in Bethlehem every two years. Attendees are told that Christians shouldn't support Israel because their support makes it difficult to proselytize in Muslim-majority countries, and because it is a haven for Jews, the people who rejected Jesus as their messiah.

Anti-Zionist films have also been used to influence evangelicals, portraying rocket-launching Palestinians as peace-loving victims of brutal Israeli aggression. One, titled “With God on Our Side,” features a young Palestinian claiming his people "really want his peace." Another, produced by Hobby Lobby heir Mart Green, portrays Israelis as warmongers.

Christ at the Checkpoint, which claims to encourage people to “take an active role as followers of Christ in spreading justice and peace,” has gone even farther, employing Third Reich-style propaganda techniques against Israel.

A video promoting a conference last year equates Islamic State (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) with the State of Israel.

As Miller explains, in the video, produced by people who claim to be Christians:

Images of ISIS captives about to be beheaded are juxtapositioned with images of the security barrier Israel was forced to build to protect its citizens from suicide bombers during the second Intifada. Images of the Jordanian pilot about to be burned alive in a cage are juxtapositioned with scenes of Palestinians going through a checkpoint. And images of the ISIS flag are juxtapositioned with those of the Israeli flag.

The obvious implication is that the security measures Israel has been forced to take in response to Palestinian suicide bombers is equivalent to what ISIS is doing to people as it seeks to forcibly establish a caliphate ruled by an extreme form of Islamic law.

The video also equates Israel and ISIS with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. In so doing, the contagious spread of swine flu is equated with the terrifying ease with which ISIS is conquering territory, and with the existence of Israel, or at the very least, Israel’s need for a security barrier with checkpoints.

Comparing Israel to contagious diseases isn't much different than Adolf Hitler railing against Jews as a "dangerous bacillus," Miller notes. And equating Israel to swine flu is similar to likening Jews to pigs, a common rhetorical technique used by Nazis and Islamists.

The Left views Evangelical Protestants, known for their fervent support of Israel, as an attractive target for anti-Israel indoctrination because there are so many of them. Every evangelical who leaves the pro-Israel fold weakens American support for Israel.

Evangelicals, a huge voting bloc in the United States, say they number about 90 million in American society and have eclipsed mainline Protestants as a group. Evangelicals are more likely even than American Jews to believe that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people, according to CAMERA.

The political campaign to delegitimize Israel is helped by a fallacious narrative that identifies Jesus of Nazareth as a Palestinian rather than a Jew, says CAMERA's Miller, who earned a Ph.D. in the Hebrew Bible from Claremont Graduate University, and is author of the recent book, Jews and Anti-Judaism in Esther and the Church. Having Jesus as a Palestinian unravels the foundations of the Christian faith, which grew out of Judaism, she notes.

This kind of revisionist thinking that rewrites the history of Jesus is already on display in American culture. President Obama's Jew-hating former pastor, Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, has claimed that "Jesus was a Palestinian," that Palestinians were the "original people" in the area, and that Israel is an "apartheid state."

Such sentiments are also popular on college campuses across the nation.

And they may become mainstream in an evangelical church near you, thanks to the efforts of anti-Zionist activists.

Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative reporter and the author of the book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261507/progressives-turning-evangelicals-against-israel-matthew-vadum

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

A call for sanity: How the Quran-abiding Muslims view the Jews - Adnan Oktar

by Adnan Oktar

The author writes that Quranic verses taken out of context and therefore misinterpreted are used as a pretense for Muslim hatred of Jews. (But for now, the view of Jews illustrated below is - shall we say - a minority view)

This article is in response to Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld's article on Jewish Schools in the UK and the apes and pigs dilemma.: 

It is clear to anyone that our world is in dire need of peace. Any contribution to peace, small or large, will be extremely valuable. For this reason, I believe that clearing a major confusion about how the Quran-abiding Muslims really see Jews is of paramount importance.

For decades now, regrettably certain religious authorities in the world, especially in Muslim areas in and around Israel disillusioned by erroneous explanations derived from traditions, superstitions, and fake hadiths (Prophet Mohammed’s sayings),  created an image of Jew-hating Muslims. They even went as far as making absurd claims that Jews descend from pigs. (Our Jewish brothers and sisters are surely beyond such remarks).

It is crucial that Muslims and non-Muslims alike become aware that such an approach and attitude is purely non-Quranic, untrue, not to mention disrespectful and downright racist.

As a matter of fact, Prophet Moses is the most mentioned Prophet in the Quran. Torah, Prophet Moses and the righteous Jewish people are praised in multiple verses throughout the Quran.

In the three verses that radicals try to use, either knowingly or due to lack of information, God is condemning the transgressors from the Jewish communities of the time that defied the orders of God. In these verses, those transgressors that caused trouble for the pious Jews are condemned through metaphorical expressions that compared them to pigs and apes. It should be noted that there are many verses where transgressing Muslims are condemned in similar ways in the Quran.

Therefore taking these verses out of context and trying to apply it to a whole group of people that God wants Muslims to love and protect is a defiance of the Quran (Quran is beyond that), and a blatant display of racism, which is strictly banned by Islam.

Now let’s look at the verses in question and see why such an approach is unacceptable.

Jews according to the Quran 

First and foremost, Muslims love and deeply revere all the Prophets, and Prophet Moses is a very beloved messenger of God for Muslims. In addition, Muslims accept those parts of the Torah that are in compliance with the Quran.

Now let’s see why radicals are gravely mistaken in their interpretation of some verses:
Shall I tell you of a reward with God far worse than that: that of those whom God has cursed and with whom He is angry – turning some of them into monkeys and into pigs – and who worshipped false gods? (Qur'an, 5:60) 

The Quran has a self-explanatory beauty and in some cases one would need other verses to understand a verse. For this reason, singling out a single verse by taking it out of context might lead to very erroneous conclusions. This is exactly what is happening with the verses in question.

From the verses preceding the above one, we understand that the 60th verse refers to the transgressors amongst the Christians and the Jews, through a metaphorical expression. After pointing out to the errors of the offenders, our Lord makes a clear distinction between the righteous and the transgressors in these communities and praises the pious amongst them:

Those who have faith and those who are Jews and the Sabaeans and the Christians, all who have faith in God and the Last Day and act rightly will feel no fear and will know no sorrow. (Qur'an, 5:69)


In the second verse that are widely attempted to be used by radicals, our Lord says: When they were insolent about what they had been forbidden to do, We said to them, “Be apes, despised, cast out!” 

(Qur'an, 7:166) 

As the verse itself makes it very clear, this condemnation is for the deviator and transgressors that ignored the orders of God. However, once again it is preceded by verses that make a clear distinction between the righteous ones and the transgressors. In the verse 164, God mentions about Jews who persistently warned that transgressor community, calling them to the truth.

And in the 159th verse, our Lord draws attention to a distinguished people amongst the Jews: Among the people of Moses there is a group who guide by the truth and act justly in accordance with it. (Qur'an, 7:159)


The last verse used by the radicals once again refers to the offenders that disobeyed the orders of God. Our Lord, after praising righteous people among Jews and Christians in the 62nd verse, condemns the transgressors who broke the Sabbath in the 65th verse.

Christians and Sabaeans, all who have faith in God and the Last Day and act rightly, will have their reward with their Lord. They will feel no fear and will know no sorrow. 
(Qur'an, 2:62)
You are well aware of those of you who broke the Sabbath. We said to them, “Be apes, despised, cast out.” (Qur'an, 2:65) 

These verses make it very clear that, such condemnation applies only to those that defy the orders of God.

As one reads the Quran in its entirety, it will become plainly clear that there is no adverse viewing of the Jews, on the contrary, pious Jews are praised by our Lord in many verses where He reveals that He will give them a great reward. Indeed, Prophet Mohammed was a great example with his loving, embracing attitude towards them and with his Medina Document, the first written constitution in history that guaranteed the lives, beliefs, honors, and rights of Jews and considered them as the brothers of Muslims.

We hope that Muslims all around the world abandon hostility towards Jews with the pretense of justification having a religious background. Our Lord wants us to love and protect our brothers from the People of the Book.

We cannot allow ourselves to be swallowed by anger and hatred when our religion commands us the opposite. We should keep in mind that the mistakes of few cannot justify hostility towards an entire society and especially not on non-existing religious grounds. 

Adnan Oktar is an influential Turkish writer and opinion leader.
Note: Mr. Oktar's representatives were in Israel for several meetings with government officials (including Prime Minister Netanyahu)  journalists, and academicians.  Dr. Babuna and Dr. Gundogdu gave Mr. Netanyahu copies of Mr. Oktar’s books on the peaceful message of Islam and briefly discussed importance of peace and love to solve the inherent problems in the region. Later, together with Rabbi Yehuda Glick, they met with many politicians, religious leaders, academicians and journalists including Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, Culture Minister Miri Regev, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze'ev Elkin, Deputy Minister of Regional Cooperation Ayoob Kara, several MPs including Dr. Anat Berko, Avi Dichter, Miki Zohar, Sharren Haskel, Naava Boker, Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli amongst others, also appearing on i24 news.

Adnan Oktar

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18253#.Vpz14VKzdds

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Russian robots on the ground for four-army assault to retake Aleppo - debkaFile

by debkaFile

Russian military intervention since late August has lifted the Syrian army out of its hopeless state and imbued its officers with fresh vigor and the troops with high morale.

 
Argo Mobility Platform combat robot 
 
Russian, Syrian, Iranian and Hizballah troops were taking up positions Monday, Jan. 18, for a massive offensive to retake Aleppo, Syria’s second city. The rebel militias occupying different parts of the city have repulsed all previous assaults.

A victory in Aleppo (prewar population: 1 million) is expected in Moscow, Tehran and Damascus to reverse the tide of the war and force the Syrian rebels to accept that their insurgency is at an end and their only remaining option is to join the peace process initiated by Russia on Syria’s future.

Russian military intervention since late August has lifted the Syrian army out of its hopeless state and imbued its officers with fresh vigor and the troops with high morale. Bashar Assad’s army is not the same largely defeated one of five months ago. Russian air strikes have restored its commander’s confidence in their ability to win. Cutting-edge weapons are reaching combat units with Russian military advisers on hand to teach the Syrian army how to use them, along with exposure to advanced methods of warfare that have been developed by a world-class military.

debkafile’s military sources add that the operational standards of Hizballah and the pro-Iranian Shiite militias fighting alongside the Syrian army have likewise been enhanced by their exposure to Russian tactics.

Those tactics have produced a substantial drop in Hizballah, Iranian and Syrian casualties in battle, contrary to reports of high casualties claimed in the Western mainstream press.

Robots, novel replacements for boots on the ground, recently made their debut appearance in the Syrian arena, our military sources have revealed. They are cast in a star role in the offensive for the recovery of Aleppo.

Heralding a revolution in modern warfare, the Russians are fielding two kinds of robots – the Platform-M combat robot and the Argo Mobility Platform, both heavily armored and capable of functioning day or night in a variety of battlefield conditions. Platform-M gathers intelligence, uncovers fixed and moving targets and destroys them.  It also provides firepower support for forces on the move and secures military installations or routes traveled by the army.  Platform-M is armed with semiautomatic or automatic control firing systems.for destroying enemy targets But extra fire power can be mounted on the system as required.

The Argo is designed for rough-country operations, especially on mountainous or rocky terrain. In recent battles, Syrian rebels were startled to find themselves under sudden heavy fire from the unmanned Russian robots.

Russian General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov recently spoke of a plan to “completely automate the battle in Syria.” He added, “Perhaps soon we will witness robotic groups independently conducting warfare.” Our military sources comment that this vision is overly futuristic. No totally robotic battlefield exists anywhere in the world today outside sci-fi cinema.


debkaFile

Source: http://www.debka.com/article/25170/Russian-robots-on-the-ground-for-four-army-assault-to-retake-Aleppo

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