The Two- Faced Iran Complains About the Two- Faced Negotiations of Kerry

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

1979, the Shah is overturned and the religious Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned.

Not too long ago, on June 20, 2009, there was a demonstration of the Iranian people who were aroused by the Arab Spring against their rulers, but that has been forgotten since their hard-line factions have seized more power. They were holding protests during their elections, and a beautiful Iranian girl was shot to death by the name of Neda Agha-Soltan, age 26.

Neda, a college student, was forced to quit school because of her dress and appearance of not covering her head and body.  That's why she attended the protest.  "She was shot in the heart by a Basij militia member who insisted he was not trying to kill her. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast over the Internet and the video became a rallying point for the opposition. It was described as "probably the most widely witnessed death in human history"

This time on Tuesday, millions of Iranians participated in rallies that the government backed which marked the 35th anniversary of the  Islamic revolution in 1979.  That was when on February 11th, Iranian religious revolutionaries declared victory over Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who was backed by the USA.  Then the Shiite Muslim clerics came to power

The largest rally took place in their capital, Tehran,  where nuclear talks between Iran and and the USA and their allies were recalled, dominating the event.  They had posters and placards given out to the crowd which had slogans referring to John Kerry's recent remarks that, despite the discussions over the nuclear program, the military option remained on the table.   The placards therefore read, "We are eager for all options on the table."  Evidently they noticed a two-facedness from Kerry.  Young families pushing baby strollers were seen shouting, "Death to America!"  Other posters said, "We are ready for the great battle."  Other people called for the deaths of Obama and Kerry.

Back on the home front, Wendy Sherman, under secretary of state in the State Department  for political affairs,  conceded that the US failed to "shut down" Iran's working  on ballistic missiles.  These have long ranges and are the weapon to deliver a nuclear payload.  It's been 6 months of negotiating and they have to address this problem as part of a comprehensive agreement which will not be agreed on for at least another 6 months.  Tehran had a large window to perfect its weapons systems now.

The USA knows that Iran is going to launch 3 new satellites into space in the next few weeks.  This technology is like those used for ballistic missiles.  Leading experts are saying that Iran's space program is a cover for its ballistic missile work.  Iran's year ends on March 20th and they feel one of them will be launched by then.

Kerry and Wendy left all these problems unsolved.  They didn't address the delivery mechanism, the militarizing of nuclear arms.  Iran had breached a threshold everyone acknowledges and now they can build a bomb.  Senator Bob Corker, Republican from Tennessee, the committee's ranking member, asked them why this had happened.  Iran already has advanced centrifuges.  The situation had been left so that Iran is allowed to continue to perfect their nuclear delivery mechanism.  Few countries in the world possess both   the capability to enrich uranium to high levels and also have an advanced ballistic missile program.  Iran is now a nuclear power.  All they have to do now is to ramp up their uranium production.
                                                                         

Sherman said she is depending on the US to successfully convince Iran to give up its nuclear program.  In her opinion, Iran doesn't need to continue its work at Fordow or any need to the partially constructed heavy water reactor at Arak.  She has no doubt that Iran will have to scale back the number of nuclear centrifuges it is operating.  The question remains as to what will force them to do such a thing.  They are impervious to Kerry's suggestions.
                                                                         
Rouhani, the President of Iran, criticized the US threats against Iran already.  He said that if the negotiators respected Iran's rights, they would get a positive and appropriate answer from Iran, but he also warned that threats would only bring down the nuclear talks to a halt.  He didn't like the way they approached him in the past and doing so had put their nations, region and global welfare and stability in jeopardy.

The rally included re-enactments of scenes from the 1980s war between Iran and Iraq.  That war was so bad that children were serving as soldiers on both sides.
                                                                         

Remember when Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, warned the UN of how close Iran was in being able to make atomic weapons on September 27, 2012?   "Iran is 70 percent of the way there and ... well into the second stage," Netanyahu said while displaying the chart. "By next summer, at current enrichment rates, they will have finished the medium enrichment and moved on to the final stage. From there it is only a few more weeks before they have enriched enough for a bomb."  Everyone pooh-poohed him.  Now the window of opportunity is shut for Israel to halt their progress.  Kerry didn't comply with his warnings at all and now he can't call back the steps taken get Iran to the table to talk in the first place.  Everyone is just too eager to sell them their products being they have come into money.  What was working has been undone by the negotiators.

The Cuban missile crisis  happened when Russia and the USA were at odds.   "After the US had placed nuclear missiles in Turkey and Italy, aimed at Moscow, and the failed US attempt to overthrow the Cuban regime, in May 1962,  Nikita Khrushchev proposed the idea of placing Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt. During a meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro that July, a secret agreement was reached and construction of several missile sites began in the late summer."  Luckily that was averted. 

North and South Korea were going at each other just last year.   " It began because of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2087, which condemned North Korea for the launch of Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2. The crisis was marked by extreme escalation of rhetoric by the new North Korean administration under Kim Jong-un and actions suggesting imminent nuclear attacks against South Korea, Japan, and the United States.  North Korea denounced sanctions UNSC imposed under UNSC Resolution 2087. on the January 23 the government of North Korea announced the continuation of their tests not only devoted to missiles, but clearly with an effort to facilitate nuclear weapons purposes. Moreover, North Korea directly threatened the U.S., announcing that they could launch long-range missiles against that country.

Cuba and North Korea are enough to give the USA a headache as they are the opposite of such a Democratic country, but they are not in any way having a war of religion.  It's territory.  As with Iran, a Shiite country, this is a war of religions, and is much more serious.  Kerry doesn't seem to understand this.  Iran sees the end of the world coming and sees them in the power seat with the return of the 12th Iman.  It means to destroy Israel.  You can't put Iran in the same basket with Cuba and North Korea.  Netanyahu warned that you can't trust  Rouhani.  The negotiators did just that.  

Re: Oregonian newspaper, 2/12/14 page A7, Rallies back Iran's regime, draw millions, by Thomas Erdbrink, NY Times News Service
Act for America actforamerica@donationnet.net, Wendy Sherman/AP 2/4/14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Neda_Agha-Soltan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Korean_crisis
http://www.dw.de/eleven-days-in-february-the-iranian-revolution/g-17423004
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/netanyahu-red-line-cartoon-twitter-202454562.html

US-Israel About to be Unfriended

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

Today's Sunday Oregonian issue has an article in it on page A13 where I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.  "U.S., Israel can't agree on diplomacy" makes me scream out, "What's the matter with you, John Kerry!  Why haven't you learned anything about Israel and its problems that they need to defend in order to exist in this world?"  There is evidence from this article that he doesn't get it at all, and here he is, in charge of Israel's dealings with the world, and he's anti-Israel.

I'm not the only one up in arms about today's dealings.  Diplomatic correspondent, Chemi Shalev of Haaretz newspaper in Israel wrote on their website that if you compare weather with Israel and the USA right now, this is a "superstorm" of relations.  We're talking about an issue that has been critical to Israel for a long long time concerning their very existence.
                                                                     

              Map showing the range of Katusha rockets that can rain down on Israel. Note red area of Gaza along seacoast continues to rain down rockets, mortars and missiles despite cease-fire.

Kerry was said to question in a broadcasted interview Israel's seriousness about peace with the Palestinians.  How dare he even think that - is my gut reaction.  Kerry has no idea of what is going on with the goals of the neighbors of Israel and what Israel is up against in dealings.  It's a poker game of the extreme, played by master chessmen who plot and scheme from beginning of the game to checkmate, and Kerry is simply a checker player.

The thing Netanyahu and the rest of Israel want most in this world is peace, but they have already lost 80% of what was originally promised to them in the Balfour Doctrine through dealings with Britain where they were really cheated out of land including far more than just Judea and Samaria-that and the whole state of what is today, Jordan.  That had originally been promised and planned by the nations of the world to be the Jewish Homeland.  Hoodwinked by the act of taking it outright, Israel lost it to Abdullah who created Transjordan, then later named it Jordan.  There went 80%.  Now Israel had gained back Judea and Samaria after being at war-attacked first by all the neighboring states - and winning.  Yes, winning the land back after much bloodshed.  So now we have John Kerry who insists we have no rights and are to give it back, meaning that all our people have to move out in order for it to be Judenrein like in the Nazi era?  We've already moved out of Gaza for the sake of peace, lock, stock and barrel in the name of peace, and did this lead to peace?  Did any country carry or give a ...about it or help Israel in her hour of need?  No.  We've been under attack since 2001.  It hasn't let up.

Threats have been coming from Iran to  completely destroy Israel.  The steps Islamic countries usually take is to warn first, then attack.  Israel has been warned and now she's watching the progress of the death machine they plot to use.  They are heading for atomic energy where they will have the capability to make atomic weapons.  Saudi Arabia even feels threatened and that's because they are Sunnis and not Shi'a.  The USA is taking this lightly, as if it is a joke.

Israel happens to be the only Jewish state in the world, a state as big as New Jersey which is one of the smallest in the USA.  It's like being Washington DC and the 50 states are all out to destroy their capital.

This article brings out the uncomfortable relationship between Obama and Netanyahu that both had tried to keep in abeyance.  The world knows that Netanyahu has vowed to do anything, including a military strike, to prevent Iran from reaching the point of being able to produce atomic weapons, for they know such a thing would be used on Israel.

I remember well the lecture Netanyahu gave to seemingly simple-minded Obama on TV after Obama was all for Israel to go back to the 67 lines, and Netanyahu was so shocked that he blurted out all the reasons why that was impossible for Israel's security.  Really, it showed up Obama's ignorance of the land and previous wars that Israel has had to fight.  How about the time Netanyahu was at the White House for a meeting with his staff and they were ushered in through the back door, and were not invited for dinner but kept in  a room to keep coming up with ideas.  That burned me up!  How many statesmen have been treated like that?  Obama was showing his feelings, not his diplomacy that time, and he was being crude and rude..

Josef Federman says it correctly in this AP piece that there is a lack of chemistry coming from vastly different world views. That's the problem.  Why aren't the people working with Israel studying their world?   I'm not really sure what Obama stands for, but Netanyahu believes that Israel can't trust any promises from other countries, having been burned so many times already, and must protect itself.  He's been under the delusion that he could trust Obama like Israel has of other past presidents.  He thought that they were on the same page, but dealings have showed they are not.

Why can't the USA understand what has been happening?  Israel gives in and gives in; land for peace after being attacked, and their enemies are never asked to give a thing.  This is happening right now.  Israel won a bloody battle in 1967 and again in 1973 and again in 1982 and again and again and yet they are the ones to give in?  Give land up that is so small?  Follow this rule and Israel will be a mile square island in a sea of sharks and will then be gobbled up.

Even in the Middle East in a shuk, there is give and take until an agreement is made.  You don't cave in immediately. That's what Kerry is doing.  Let's get this over with and the Palestinians are such good people, that Israel has to go along with whatever outlandish demands they make?  Israel has already let out monstrous criminals that they have demanded and that only has whet their appetite to make more demands.  The Palestinians have stuck their big toe into the water and found it was warm.  Now they're jumping into the pool.  There is no barrier to their demands on Israel, and Iran has received the same treatment.  They have been given the green light as well.  My, Kerry is really a hard negotiator.  He's really earning his money.  Just say yes to everything to the enemies of Israel, and then blame Israel.

Ever since Harry S. Truman  backed Israel's right to exist and to come into this world, the USA has been of the same mind.  Up till now, Israel has been the USA's friend in the Middle East when others haven't, and vice versa.  Our very leadership today is not made of the same mettle.  Federman wrote that Obama is a proponent of diplomacy and consensus.  Well, he hasn't been very diplomatic with Israel unless the cameras are on him.  As to consensus, he's made a lot of decisions without our Senators' approval.  Either he makes decisions on his own or waits too long and then all is swept under the rug, like Syria or Benghazi.

 Barack Obama's approval rate from Jan 20, 2000 to now has sunk to 49%.  His high was 69% from Jan uary 22-24, 2009 and low was 38%. October 15-17, 2011.  With ObamaCare's results right now it should reflect an even lower score.  This change, something he brought into his office, is bombing. He warned and ran on change, and he certainly has changed all our ways and means including our bank accounts.   Where Israel was a friend, Kerry  just unfriended her.    No, Israel should not go along with these one-sided demands.  There's nothing in it to protect Israel from another battle breaking out.

Resource: Oregonian newspaper11/10/13, Front page, Obama's magnetism now less of a draw by Jennifer Agiesta and on A15, AP
Oregonian newspaper 11/10/13, page A13, US, Israel can't agree on diplomacy, by Josef Federman, AP

Iran, Sponsor of Terrorism and an Atomic Bomb: Kerry Eased Up Sanctions

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                            

                                Mohammad Javid Zarif in Geneva, Switzerland

So far, the Obama Administration has "promised us a Cadillac but delivers us a 3 speed bicycle with 2 flat tires".  It's hard to tell where we have arrived with Iran at this point in time on this bicycle pedaled by John Kerry, but you can bet your booties that Israel and Saudi Arabia are not happy with it at all.   John Kerry doesn't seem to mind that.  However, "while the U.S. has welcomed the moderate statements by Rouhani, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a meeting with Netanyahu last week that no deal with Iran was better than a bad deal.

The negotiators  nodded positively to Iran to lift for 6 months some financial sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.  "Ah, fellas, we really didn't mean to do that!   So sorry."  After all, Iran has only threatened 100 times to drive Israel into the sea,  Israelis being only apes and pigs and such like saying they had no history in Israel at all.  Whatever is bothering Israel about their rants and ravings? The negotiators think they have reached a deal to curtail Iran's nuclear program and expand inspections in exchange for  lifting sanctions, which was keeping them from getting to their goal in the first place.  Wasn't it Obama that assured Netnayahu that they were standing together in this?  Obama wasn't going to let Iran get the uranium power?
                                                                               

                                             Baroness Ashton

Saudi Arabia joins Israel in their worry about a Shi'ite power threatening their Sunni position in the Middle East.  For some reason, John Kerry, Secretary of State of the USA and Javed Zarif, Iranian Foreign Minister are telling us that this will keep the Middle East from exploding into military action and that now there will be no nuclear standoff.

There has been this international demand that Iran halt the expansion of its uranium enrichment program.  We have had a freeze on the installation of new centrifuges.  They are high-speed machines that produce low-enriched uranium for power plants and highly enriched uranium for nuclear warheads.  It's the evidence that Iran would dare to make an atomic bomb and drop it on Israel that goes along with their vile threats because they dared to return to their lands.

So after putting in only 5 hours, ending at the late hour of 11:30 pm, Kerry, Zarif and the Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU's chief foreign affairs official, had had it.  Goodness knows what they were doing before to wipe them out or where they went afterwards.   The meeting took place in Geneva, Switzerland at the EU's Mission to the UN.  Their days must start at a late hour.
                                                                         

They thought they would end the evening with a simple signing ceremony and see now that talks must continue next week!  They have been disagreeing over Iran's building a plutonium reactor which would lead to an atomic bomb.  This interim accord they want to reach just hasn't got there yet, and they've already said they'd lift these sanctions.

There was a time when Jews loved Iranians.  It was back in the days when Babylonia had conquered Jerusalem and had taken thousands as prisoners and hauled them to Babylonia in 597 and also in 586 BCE.  Then along came our Prince Charming, Cyrus, II who died in 529 BCE, King of Persia, who conquered the Babylonians who had power over the old Israel and Judah.   He took on an enlightened policy towards his subject peoples and in 538 BCE, granted permission to the Jewish exiles of Judah living in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple.  The Jews thought of him as a divine person and loved him for this.  Persia was the home of Jews who lived throughout its 127 provinces and many had lived in the capital, Susa (Shushan) from the 4th century BCE onward.  The Babylonian Talmud was written here during Persian rule.  Our history of the beautiful Queen Esther being married to King Ahashueros of Persia is celebrated in Purim every Spring when it was she who saved all the Jews in the world from total extermination from the mad Haman, the king's advisor.  I've even read that Cyrus could have been the son of Queen Esther.  Maybe it was Cyrus Ist.

WWI changed much of the Middle East with the Ottoman Empire losing along with Germany.  It also affected Persia where the British, Ottomans and Russians occupied it in 1910 before the war even started.  Reza Shah became King of Iran in 1925, establishing a new name along with his new government.

Jews fared well under the Shah, but not afterwards when he was exiled by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 .  Life for Jews in Iran started to change with the Khomeini revolution in 1978.  Many felt very uncomfortable under the strict Islamic regime which he established  and left for Israel and the west.  Their numbers went from 80,000 in 1978 to 20,000 in 1989.  I know of some teen-aged boys who had to escape on camels during this period as they were not allowed to leave, so I doubt if you'll find any Jews speaking out against the regime today.  Living under an Ayatollah is a fact.  The president takes orders from him.  This is a religious state with a population of more than 76,923,300.  Iran is bigger than Texas.

Kerry is not a man from the shuks (outdoor markets where bartering is the rule).  He doesn't know how to bargain like a Middle Easterner.  He was putty in Zarif's hands, and probably Zarif used his charm on the Baroness as well.  I can only imagine as I wasn't there, but what a setting for a movie.  He isn't thinking about Hezbollah, who hit our Marine Barracks in Lebanon in 1983,  and that Hezbollah is funded by Iran.  For the past 30 years this has been going on and they are now strategic partners with Iran.

These 3 negotiators think that they have solved a problem of Israel bombing Iran's uranium center. By easing the sanctions that did touch the nerve centers of Iran, they have eased up to give them just what they wanted; wiggle room.  During the next 6 months, Kerry thinks he can get a requirement that Iran will disclose their full history of their nuclear program that they have managed to keep secret for 18 years.  Why should they ever do that?  Where's the carrot to offer? They've got it!   We're giving them what they want.  They'll be free to secretly build now without economic worries.  Kerry can wait for another 18 years and won't see anything but what they will allow the USA to see.  They're big shots, now.  They have stared down the big powers and got the sanctions lifted with one negotiator before midnight.

This is changing the balance of regional power and is taking away the Sunni Muslim power in the Middle East and giving it to the Shi'a. Look what they just accomplished!   This means that Hezbollah will have a freer hand with more finances coming from Iran.

Does anyone remember the war in 1980's between Iran and Iraq?  That was Sunni and Shi'a.  It was pretty gruesome.  It started in September 1980 and ended in August 1988. Iran had become a power with an Ayatollah and the balance had changed.

Reference:  Oregonian newspaper, 11/9/13 page A7, Experts:  Benefits outweigh risks in Iran nuke deal., bky Roy Guktman, Hannah Allam and Jonathana S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers
New Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/30-years-terror-sponsored-iran-article-1.1493410
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173328#.Un62ndKOQ8o
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/18/bad-iran-deal-will-lead-to-war-israel-minister-warns/added 11/21/13 Amanpour interviews Natali Bennet, Economy minister, about Iran sanctions 

North Korea and Iran: A Twosome Sharing Nuclear Information?

Nadene Goldfoot
Netanyahu just said yesterday that Iran is getting closer to the red line that he had set at the UN.  I note that they've been slowed down by computer viruses like the Stuxnet in June 2010, thought to have been planted by the USA and Israel but not proven.  Iran claimed that 5 Iranian nuclear scientists were killed and they hung an Israeli.   They're building centrifuges that enrich the uranium needed to make nuclear bombs at 3 times the pace.  They could cross that red line and get to a high enrichment of 90% enriched uranium in a much shorter time.

In 2007, the Israelis bombed the al-Kibar nuclear site in Syria which the North Koreans helped to design.  It was a plutonium facility.

Lee Smith, Senior Editor at the Weekly Standard and Fellow at the Foundation For Defense of Democracies and writer about the ties between Iranians and North Korean scientists, feels that they may already have the bomb.  His background gives him some skills to learn about what the Iranians have been doing.  Smith has a B.A. from George Washington University, where he received awards in English and Latin.  He received the Sage Graduate School Fellowship at Cornell University, and studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo and Universite Saint-Joseph in Beirut.  He knows Spanish, Arabic, French and Latin.  English must be his native language.

For at least the last 10 years, the North Koreans have cooperated with Iran on nuclear and missile issues.  The Iranians have several full-time weapons engineers on site in North Korea.  This has not been a secret.

Last fall, North Korea and Iran signed a paper regarding science and technology.  The North Koreans published the names who signed, including the head of Iran's atomic energy organization and the defense minister.  They are exchanging information.  There are precedents for states passing on designs.  The New York Times spoke with a senior US official who said that the North Koreans are testing for 2 countries.

North Korea has been into nuclear goals since December 12, 1985 when they acceded to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.  They then withdrew from the IAEA in 1994.  By July 9th, President Kim II Sung died and Kim Jong II took over.  By August 31, 1998, their 3 stage rocket was fired with a range of 93-1,240 miles which went over Japan.  By July 4, 2006 they had a 7 ballistic missile fail but by October 9th had an underground test.  April 5, 2009 they tested a 3 stage rocket.  May 25, 2009 was a 2nd underground test.  December 17, 2011, Kim Jong II died and Kim Jong-Un took over.  On April 13th, a satellite rocket failed but by December 12, 2012, they launched the Unha-3.

January 2013:  Kim Jong-un, about 20 years old, said that the USA was the prime target for Pyongyang's nuclear  and missile tests.  "North Korea is a "serious threat" to the United States and Washington must be prepared to deal with it, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test.

"We saw what North Korea has done these last few weeks with a missile test and now a nuclear test,"  said Leon Panetta, the outgoing Defense Secretary, at a farewell ceremony.  Their goal is to be a force to be reckoned with.  Now South Korea is planning to build ballistic missiles.

On February 2013:  Iran's Ali Khomeini rejected negotiation with the USA over their nuclear ability.  Both North Korea and Iran feel that no one can stop them.  They are both paranoid, secretive regimes.  Jeffrey Lewis, Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at Monterrey Institute feels it's hard to know if North Korea would give the blueprints to Iran.  They do need money, though, and Iran would pay.

North Korea's 1st test most likely used plutonium.

Iranians were at North Korea's 2nd nuclear test.  In May 2009 the explosion was half the size as its 3rd test.  They probably used plutonium then, too.

Iranians were at North Korea's last nuclear test on Tuesday the 12th.  It was a 5.0 in magnitude, half the size of the Hiroshima blast.  It was believed to be an enriched uranium devise.  "Pyongyang appears to detonate a nuclear device with regional monitors detecting an unusual seismic event, of a magnitude between 4.9 and 5.1, in the same location as the North's Punggye-ri nuclear test site.  Seoul estimates the blast yield at six to seven kilotons."

I'll be listening to Lee speak tomorrow night.  There might be more insights into just what is going on.

Resource:  Why Iran Already Has the Bomb, by Lee Smith  originally on Tablet Magazine. http://www.realclearworld.com/2013/02/14/why_iran_already_has_the_bomb_145279.html
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/key-dates-north-korea-nuclear-missile-programmes
http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_bio&eid=LeeSmith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/05irran-scientist-assassinations-state-tv-confessions_n_1744862.html
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/the-iran-north-korea-connection/2013/02/18/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/world/asia/test-seen-as-push-by-kim-for-credibility.html?_r=0

What Syrian Government Has Been Manufacturing and the Burden on Israelis

Nadene Goldfoot

Israeli Jets Over Lebanon

In  March 1988, Saddam Hussein gassed 5,000 Kurdish men, women and children  in his own country of Iraq.

The entire world has been watching Syria and takes developments in the past 22 months there most seriously.  Iran can be leading Syria  in such negative directions, being they have already killed 60,000 of their own people.   Besides attacking most of their own population, they have been working on  harming Israel and the West.  "Syrian forces began combining chemicals that would be used to make deadly sarin gas for use in weapons to attack rebel and civilian populations, a U.S. official told CNN in December 2012."  Besides that, it's possible that Assad may be losing his grip on the country and its arsenal of all sorts of weapons including the non-conventional ones.  What Israel may have bombed was a "scientific research center"  which was making weapons.  The trucks outside making up the convoy were full of the Russian missiles that were hit.

Syria owns advanced anti-aircraft defense systems including the Russian-made SA-17 and possibly the Russian's S-300, which are long-range anti-aircraft missiles.  If Hezbollah got their hands onto such weapons, it would be devastating.  Then Israel would have difficulty flying over Lebanon to stop Hezbollah from wiping out Israel.

The target that Israel's jets hit in around the border of Syria and Lebanon was their anti-aircraft systems, or a convoy of components for such systems such as the SA-17 anti-aircraft missile defenses.  The target also could have been called electronic radar equipment used for the GPS system of drones.  The US unmanned aerial surveillance vehicle that went down over Iran in 2011 contained such a piece of equipment.  What I saw on TV were huge missiles.

 The site was by a building which manufactured chemical and biological weapons.  The installations were 7 miles away from Assad's palace which is guarded by Iranian Revolutionary Guards.  Trucks in the convoy were also destroyed, of course.  The installation was reported to be badly damaged.  The raid stopped immensely horrible consequences for Israel but has raised the hornet's ire, mainly from Iran.  Their Deputy, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian,  is calling for significant implications for Israel.  Well, what's new?  Already Syria is adding fuel to the fire with threatening surprise retaliations, so Israel is patrolling the skies.  The White House offered advice to Syria saying they should not further destabilize the region by sending weapons to Hizbullah.  Doesn't Syria have enough problems?

Israel is facing Syria and Lebanon in the north who actively conspire with Iran to destroy her.  On the west and south Israel has Egypt with a new government in shatters that is in complete chaos with wild demonstrations.  Jordan on the east is under threat.  The only good thing is the snow that has come to Israel which people are enjoying.

It is at this point that the UN demands to come into Israel and inspect with their Human Rights Committee.  Israel is denying them entrance.  Enough is enough.  From Geneva through Reuters comes the news that the U.N. human rights investigators called on Israel on Thursday to halt settlement expansion and withdraw all half a million Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that "its practices could be subject to prosecution as possible war crimes.A three-member U.N. panel said private companies should stop working in the settlements if their work adversely affected the human rights of Palestinians, and urged member states to ensure companies respected human rights."  The UN is not the law in the world.  Their actions are always centering on Israel even while Syria's government has killed 60,000 of its own people.  They get a pass.  It's Israel that concerns the Muslims.

So what are the Iranians now doing?  On Thursday they reported that they are going to upgrade their nuclear facility at Natanz and just told the UN agency about planning to install more sophisticated equipment.  Then they will be able to accelerate the processing of uranium.  This could speed enrichment by 2 or 3 times.

I would say that Netanyahu has his plate full.  To top it off, Yair Lapid, the new popular leader in the new party of Yesh Atid, who came in 2nd in the election, is following his own agenda.  He's pushy and seemingly controlling.  Chaim Weizmann once said that he was Prime Minister of 2 million prime ministers and Netanyahu is trying to work with one of them.  Everyone feels that Lapid is more interested in becoming the next prime minister and is making it hard on Netanyahu by setting impossible demands on negotiations to form a coalition.  Netanyahu is working on forming as broad a coalition as possible.

  Lapid's strong hand is pinching out the 2 very orthodox parties from the coalition because he plans to have all men called into the draft and that means yeshiva students will all go into the army like others.  This Tal Law allowing exemptions went into affect only 10 years ago and the high court in 2012 had found it unconstitutional and expires in August anyway.  This will allow 14,000 more men to be in the army.   Arab Israelis are exempt.  Druze serve as well as other Israelis from 18.  Men serve for 3 years and women for 2. For a month out of every year they are called back in for the "milueem" period until they are 55.  .

It's enough to realize that missiles heading your way just might be also carrying biological and chemical weapons from very hateful and sick people, but to have all these other problems?  I think Israel is very lucky to have such strong people at the helm of their government.  We pray for them.

Resource: http://backchannel.al-monitor.com/index.php/2013/01/4170/israeli-jets-said-to-have-struck-alleged-weapons-convoy-in-syria/#ixzz2JWahghYb.
Arutz Sheva
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-ultra-orthodox-confident-yeshiva-students-won-t-be-drafted-to-idf-1.414219
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Israel
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/03/source-syria-preparing-chemical-weapons/
http://hnn.us/articles/862.html
Oregonian newspaper 2/1/13 page A8, Israeli air attack spurs syrian  threat by Bassem Mroue AP and Israel faulted for expansion of settlements by John Heilprin, AP, Iran to upgrade nuclear facility, wire report

Are Western Appeasers Following in Chamberlain's Folly?

Nadene Goldfoot
One of the things the Oregonian newspaper didn't report to us this morning was that Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, Iran's military chief of staff,  said that the Iranian nation is standing for its cause and that is the full annihilation of Israel.  He said this to a defense gathering in Tehran.  He continued in saying that the world should recognize the dangers imposed by the Zionist regime of Israel and the idea that Khamenaei considered defending Palestine as a religious imperative.  This is the religious leader defending the Muslim Arabs against Israel, who has had to fight since 1948 to keep their territory and not be driven into the sea, a territory that was declared a state by the U.N.  We conclude that if Iran gets a uranium capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons, they will no doubt use them first on Israel.  Persia had once been the Jews' arch foe from the days of Queen Esther and King Ahashueros when Haman plotted to kill all the Jews everywhere.  The ending of that story was that the tables were turned and Haman and his 7 sons were hung instead.

The UN's IAEA went through the motions of doing something to solve the problem by holding meetings in January and February 2012 in Tehran, Iran.  Then they met in Vienna, Austria on May 14th and 15th.  They said the atmosphere was "upbeat."  They talked about fighting cancer, food safety and security, water needs and other applications of nuclear technology.  Their main agenda was supposed to be  over Iran's disputed uranium enrichment program.  This is to be followed up with another meeting in Baghdad tomorrow, Wednesday, May 23rd.

Yukiya Amano, the director-general is the spokesman for this International Atomic Energy Agency  had visited Iran in 2009.  He said the meeting had been very useful.  His job has been to get Iran to allow inspections of a site they suspect has done secret tests for the detonation of a nuclear weapon which of course Iran ridicules.  They're talking about Parchin, which they had inspected back in 2005, 12 years ago.  They haven't even reached an agreement on a framework of the beginning of a compromise where Iran would stop enriching uranium to 20% purity.  In a trade-off Iran could produce their own fuel at a much lower rate which would not be usable for nuclear weapons.  Will they ever reach a compromise?

Look at the Ayatolla's goal in life.  The group is talking to an apocalyptic regime with leaders who believe it is their religious duty to bring in the 2nd coming of the Hidden Iman who plan to not be deterred from their sacred mission.  I ask again, what are the chances of compromise?

As for the United States, their invasion of Iraq is now being held against them as far as being in the negotiating business by Iran.  IAEA must have been a holdout at the time as Iran thinks they are independent of the USA so is going through the motions of bartering with them as if they were in a shuk (open market).  Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator mentioned that his country was a "serious supporter of global disarmament and didn't want nuclear weapons to be spread about in the world either.  No, of course not, as long as they are the only ones who have them, I imagine.  He threw in that member states should use it for peaceful nuclear technology, but then they won't even go for inspections!  How weird can they get?

People do like deluding themselves as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did in his 1938 declaration that he had achieved "peace in our time."  Then the Nazis marched right through Europe and exterminated six million Jews.  Netanyahu said "I don't think Iran is serious about ending its nuclear program.  Iran is "very good" at buying time."  He was speaking in the Czech Republic with 6 other ministers to sign cooperation agreements who will give Israel their support.

What is all this meeting each other doing for Iran's cause?  Giving them time to finish what they have been building.  That's what Israel fears. Netanyahu said that Iran could be using talks as a game where they agree to something but do not do it, or agree to do something that wouldn't stop his own goal of making nuclear weaponry.  It's like a chess game and so far they are winning.   When they say, "know thy enemy, " take it to heart.  I might ask why the newspapers only give us the upbeat side of the story?  Doesn't any reporter on the wires understand Farsi?  Reporters in Israel understand and are not misquoting.

Resource: frontpagemag.com/2012/05/22/renewed-iranian-calls-for-israeli-annihilation/print/
Oregonian newspaper 5/22/2012  page A5 on uranium enrichment:  U.N. nuclear boss makes visit to Iran
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=4388
Update: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/21/senate-passes-bill-imposing-sanctions-on-iran/

USA Dependent on 2003 Intelligence Assessment of Iran Having Nuclear Capabilities

Nadene Goldfoot
Iran got into the nuclear program in the 1950's with the USA's help which sponsored the "Atoms for Peace Program." 

The USA and the Western European government were involved in their program until 1979 when the Shah of Iran was toppled by the Iranian Revolution that put the Ayatollah in power.  The atomic program was temporarily halted and revived with some Western assistance.  They then created several research sites, 2 uranium mines, a research reactor and uranium processing facilities including 3 known uranium enrichment plants.

Bushehr I reactor was finished with major assistance from the Russian government agency "Rosatom" and opened on September 12, 2011.  Iran announced it is now working on a new 360 MW nuclear power plant located in Darkhovin.  It will be seeking more medium-sized nuclear power plants and uranium mines in the future. 

By November 2011 the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors had rebuked Iran following their report about how Iran had undertaken research and experiments geared to develop at nuclear weapons capability.  Their report outlines in depth their detonator development, multiple-point initiation of high explosives and experiments involving nuclear payload integration into a missile delivery vehicle.  Iran rejected the report as it does with all things such as the Holocaust and accused the IAEA of pro-Western bias and threatened to not cooperate with them. 

The United States is saying that they are depending on a 5 year old intelligence assessment from 2007 asserting that Iran stopped secret work in developing nuclear arms way back in 2003.  From everything they have been threatening, like the destruction of Israel, the little Satan, and the USA, the big Satan, this sort of thinking is just plain unbelievable! 

Just in the past 3 months, Iran has almost tripled the amount of devices that produce 20% uranium.  They had 700 centrifuges strung together in 4 separate series.  Currently they are running 9,000 centrifuges, a jump from 8,000 one month ago.  Now they are churning it out at a rate of about 14 kg, or nearly 30 lbs  a month.  This comes from the International Atomic Energy Agency  (IAEA).  The IAEA has reported these increases. It is a part of the UN, reporting to the UN General Assembly. It has a staff made up of 2,300 from 100 countries with a 35 member board. 

Of course their weapons-making is not being confirmed by the UN.  The UN is top-heavy today with Middle East countries who are not about to cross Iran while they all vie for power.  Iran is not made up of Arabs but Persians, and they have had their disagreements in vying for power, such as the Iran-Iraq War back in the 80's.   Anyway, they realize that Iran's goal in life is to destroy Israel and they also back that goal  Next would be the USA and its Western culture which is the opposite of their goal in life. The UN is not taking the IAEA's word, at least not for public consumption.

Aluf Meir Dagan, recently retired Mossad chief has commented on a TV news interview that Iran possesses many sites for their nuclear work.  The newspaper sites 3 major ones this morning.

1.Main Natanz Site in central Iran, 25 feet underground, protected  by 2 concrete walls.  This is where the enrichment centrifuges are all concentrated, it is believed. 

2. Fordo facility, 40 miles south of Tehran, Now shifting some operations dug into this mountain site south of Tehran that is more heavily fortified, protected by 330 feet of rock, surrounded by anti-aircraft batteries, other defenses run by Revolutionary Guard.   Has 800 centrifuges enriching to 20% level.  They have about 2,000 more centrifuges partially assembled. 

3. Parchin military compound SE of Tehran where high-explosive tests happened when simulating blasts needed to set off nuclear chain reaction.  To have a working nuclear warhead, highly enriched uranium or plutonium is only part of it.  Tests are needed to make sure containment casings and triggers are working.  The IAEA has asked to see this site and have been denied.  They suspect that high-explosive tests happened here from blasts known about. 

Britain, France, Germany, Israel and other US allies are suspicious that activities have gone past 2007s assessment but not the USA.  Our allies all feel that isolated and sporadic activities may be ongoing as the IAEA has already reported.  I'd bet that Israel feels it's been happening even more than that.

Many fear that Iran will have a nuclear warhead in less than a year.  They've stockpiled 5.5 tons of uranium already enriched to 3.5% levels, enough to power reactors and at least 90% is needed to produce material for a bomb.  They've created about 250 lbs of 20% enriched uranium needed to fuel a medical research reactor in Tehran.

3.5% enriched uranium is enough to turn into cores for 4 warheads if further enriched.  To enrich a single warhead, 4 months with centrifuge equipment is needed says David Albright, nuclear expert.  Their stockpile of 20% is half the amount needed for a warhead.  At the pace today, they will reach that goal by the end of the year.  20% material can be converted to weapons-grade faster than lower level uranium.  It would be a crude device with no means of delivery.  Mounting it on a missile would take another 6 months to a year, he told AP.  Has he considered that another group might be working on this goal? 

Israel feels that there is just one window available to bomb these sites.  Dagan disagrees with Netanyahu in that he would rather the USA do the bombing.  He would like to see a regime change so they wouldn't keep the same goal to destroy Israel-and accept a Jewish state in the Middle East.  It's chancy.  Is the glass half full or half empty?  Iran already has had one try at changing and the people were put down quickly with the USA staying out of it.  Dagan sees it as a futile task for Israel with terrible repercussions.  The USA is also saying not to bomb these sites. 

Oh yes, Iran is the 4th largest oil producer in the world.  It is OPEC's 2nd largest with Saudi Arabia being the 1st.  They certainly do need atomic energy in their country, don't they? 

Resource: Oregonian newspaper page A13, Iran weapons-making not confirmed by U.N. by George Jahn AP 3/18/12
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/03/aluf-meir-dagan-of-israel-interview-on.html
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/iaeairan/index.shtml
http://www.iaea.org/About/about-iaea.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Iran

Iran: Israel's Nemesis and Their Nuclear Advancement

Nadene Goldfoot
Wednesday brought news about Iran's advancements in technology in producing nuclear energy.  They said they'd talk about their nuclear program with officicals but would continue their drive toward nuclear self sufficiency.  In the past Iran has just angered the West by appearing to buy time with opening talks and weighing proposals while all the time they were hurrying along with their nuclear program.

The big news was that they just inserted their first homemade fuel rods into their research reactor in northern Tehran.  A new generation of centrifuges were installed and are in operation at Natanz, which is in central Iran.  They are producing nuclear fuel on their own.  On February 10th, they advanced their methods and produced almost 20% enriched uranium up from the 5% they were at,  showing they are getting around sanctions. 

Israel is most concerned because of the threats made to them.  Back on October 26, 2005, Iran's Broadcasting told of Ahmadinejad's speech to a conference in Asia: Ahmadinejad: Israel must be wiped off the map.  The speech was to the "World Without Zionism" conference.   He announced that the Ayatollah Khomeini said Israel must be wiped off the map and this was wise.  They are backing Arabs wanting to create a Palestine without coming to terms with Israel.  To do so would be a defeat in their eyes and it would mean a defeat of the Islamic world. 

Ahmadinejad continued saying that the issue with Palestine would be over "the day that all refugees return to their homes and they come into power".  Therefore, they are against normal relations with Israel and condemn all Muslim leaders who accept the existence of Israel.  To them this is a surrender and defeat of the Islamic world. 

Israel withdrew from Gaza on August 15, 2005 with its completion by September, and Ahmadinejad thought this was a trick to gain recognition or acknowledgment from Islamic states.  Two days later he held a rally and said that he spoke for his people and what the West thought didn't matter. 

Hamas, who took over Gaza and kicked out Fatah's Abbas, reflects the Iranian philosophy, but Abbas seemed to want to make peace.  However, he's now in cahoots with Hamas, perhaps with the theory that if you can't beat them you join them. 

It's no wonder that Israel has said that if sanctions and all other forms of stopping Iran's wiping Israel off the map with nuclear power doesn't work, they will feel they will have to try to stop their attempts, even alone if necessary.  Computer viruses managed to attack Iran's computers that were working on the nuclear program, but must have been cleared out.  It helped to stall their progress for awhile, and naturally the first people Iran blamed was Israel. Mostafa Ahmadi Rashun, 32, nuclear scientist was killed and Israel, CIA and the opposition faction in Iran, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) have been blamed. 

In 1981 Israel hit the Osiraq nuclear reactor in Iraq to squelch their nuclear goals of making a bomb to use on them.  It's thought that they also attacked a similar site in Syria in 2007.  Both had reactors above ground, and it was much easier than any attack on Iran's facilities, which are now spread across Iran and are underground.  Israel is very creative, but this may be an impossible task if they wait past the window of opportunity.  At any rate, they will need a miracle to accomplish this, and they have the USA telling them to keep holding off.     

On Monday Iranians planted bombs to harm Israelis, injuring an Israeli diplomat's wife in India who was in their minivan.  Another attempt was foiled in Georgia on the same day, and one in Thailand on Tuesday.  Israel is not retaliating over this.

Resource: http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel's_unilateral_disengagement_plan
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2106855,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-02-13/israel-iran-attack/53083160/1http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=257168
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/caught-in-his-own-blast-an-iranian-targeting-israel-6917547.html