Eye On Israel

[Rasputin]

A British newspaper reported Sunday that Israeli pilots were training to strike targets in Iran with low-yield nuclear weapons, but Israel swiftly denied the report and analysts expressed doubts about its reliability.

Citing unidentified Israeli military sources, The Sunday Times said the proposals drawn up in Israel involved using so-called "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons to attack nuclear facilities at three sites south of the Iranian capital.

Israel has never confirmed it has nuclear weapons, although the Jewish state is widely believed to possess a significant stockpile.

Iran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes like generating electricity.

The Sunday Times reported that Israeli military officials believed Iran could produce enough enriched uranium to build nuclear weapons within two years.

It reported that Israeli pilots had made flights to the British colony of Gibraltar to train for the 2,000-mile (3000-kilometer) round trip to the Iranian targets.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office would not react to the report. "We don't respond to publications in The Sunday Times," said spokeswoman Miri Eisin.

However Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev denied the report, saying: "if diplomacy succeeds, the problem can be solved peaceably."

The United States and its allies suspect Tehran of secretly trying to produce atomic weapons there.

Some view Israeli officials' occasional implied threats as a means of pressuring the world community to take action, building on the recent United Nations Security Council decision to impose some economic sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Some analysts viewed Sunday's report as another element of a delicate diplomatic dance.

"I refuse to believe that anyone here would consider using nuclear weapons against Iran," Reuven Pedatzur, a prominent defense analyst and columnist for the daily Haaretz, told the AP. "It is possible that this was a leak done on purpose, as deterrence, to say: 'Someone better hold us back, before we do something crazy.'"

Former senior intelligence official Ephraim Kam — now of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Strategic Studies — also suggested the report should not be taken literally. "No reliable source would ever speak about this, certainly not to the Sunday Times," he said.

[Rasputin]

Maybe Israel should bust Iran's bunkers

LAST WEEKEND, the Sunday Times of London reported that Israel is preparing a strike on the Iranian nuclear program at several bases scattered throughout the country. The paper claimed that the attack would be carried out with tactical nuclear "bunker busters" supplied by the United States.

Israel quickly denied the Times' report. But the story, which may be wrong in its details, has a certain truthiness. Israel is certainly thinking about how to stop Tehran from getting its hands on nukes.

And why wouldn't it? Given the evident failure of American diplomacy and U.N. sanctions, Israel has two basic choices. It can sit and wait, hoping the Iranians do not drop a bomb on Tel Aviv; or it can preemptively attack, hoping to destroy, or at least retard, the Iranians' nuclear capacity.

American foreign policy "realists" tend to favor the first option. At the core of their argument is the idea that Israel has nuclear weapons and can therefore rely on Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) just as the U.S. did during the Cold War. Does Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say he wants to wipe Israel off the map? It's probably just rhetoric. After all, he knows that if he tried, Israel would retaliate, turning Tehran into a parking lot.

This may seem realistic in Washington or Cambridge, but not in Tel Aviv. Israel is a small, crowded country with a very poor civil defense infrastructure and a population traumatized by its own recent history. Perhaps the Iranian government doubts that the Holocaust happened, but there are 6 million Israeli Jews (that population figure is a macabre coincidence) who don't doubt it. For Israelis, "never again" is more than a phrase over a museum gate.

It is possible, even likely, that Israel could survive an Iranian nuclear attack physically — but not psychologically. It is doubtful that Israel could carry on as a sane, not to mention democratic, society. This is the great insight of Ahmadinejad.

An Israel assaulted in this way would react, of course. But it might not react in the predictable, proportionate, tit-for-tat fashion that the realists have laid out. What, after all, is the practical value (not to mention the moral justification) for killing a million innocent civilians in Tehran?

There are other ways a brutalized Israel might respond. For example, it could decide to settle accounts with a broader group of enemies. That would mean immiserating Iran and the Arab world by destroying their oil fields. Or, if the Palestinians cheered the mass murder of Israelis in Tel Aviv, as they almost certainly would, the Israeli reaction might be to settle the territorial issue of western Palestine once and for all. And if Hezbollah or Syria attempted to intervene, well, the genie would already be out of the bottle.

In other words, if you want to think realistically about the Middle East in a first-strike environment, you had better be ready to contemplate something more dire than a few flattened neighborhoods in downtown Tehran.

The only reasonable alternative to this nightmare is a guarantee that there will be no nuclear attack by Iran. This can be accomplished by changing the regime in Tehran, or by destroying the present government's capacity to build and deliver nukes.

There are Israelis who believe that it is in Israel's interest for the United States to solve this problem. But they are mistaken. The truth is, the U.S. is not directly menaced by Iranian weapons. When President Bush says an Iranian bomb would threaten U.S. friends and interests in the region, he is speaking primarily about Israel. The Iranians frighten a lot of Sunni Arab countries, but they pose an existential threat only to the Jewish state.

Israel needs to fight its own battles. If it encourages, or allows, the U.S. to disarm Iran on its behalf, it can kiss its sovereignty goodbye. Israel will become an American protectorate, a Mediterranean Puerto Rico. The United States is a great friend, but history's lesson is that friends come and go.

Israel's raison d'être is Jewish self-determination — and that includes the ability to survive without relying on the kindness of others.

That kindness, in any case, can't be taken for granted. Just last week, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, the former supreme allied commander of NATO and a member in good standing of the Democratic establishment, confided to Arianna Huffington, on the record, that he fears that "New York money people" (by which he clearly meant American Jews) are already pressuring U.S. officials to go to war for Israel's sake.

This, of course, is a variation on the increasingly brazen charge that disloyal neocon Jews tricked the U.S. into Iraq on orders from Jerusalem — a theory propounded not only by Arab propagandists and academic Zionist-lobby-spotters such as professor Stephen Walt of Harvard, professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and David Duke of the Ukrainian Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, but by many "progressive" Democrats and Buchananite Republicans.

If the Sunday Times is right and Israel is preparing a strike on the Iranian nuclear program, that may not be good news, but, realistically, it is a damn sight better than the alternative.

[donsaeid]

سقوط يك فروند هواپيماي رژيم صهيونيستي در غزه


يك فروند هواپيماي شناسايي بدون خلبان رژيم صهيونيستي شب گذشته در شمال نوار غزه سرنگون شد.



سخنگوي نظامي رژيم صهيونيستي در گفتگو با خبرگزاري فرانسه در اين باره گفت: يك فروند هواپيماي بدون سرنشين اين ارتش در شمال نوار غزه به علت نقص فني سقوط كرد.

اين منبع به جزئيات ديگري اشاره نكرد.

اين نوع هواپيماهاي بدون سرنشين با اجراي عمليات شناسايي به ارتش اسراييل كمك مي*كنند تا محل پرتاب موشكهاي فلسطيني را شناسايي كند.

اين در حاليست كه شاخه نظامي جنبش مقاومت اسلامي فلسطين (حماس) در بيانيه*اي اعلام كرد، اين هواپيماي ساقط شده اسراييلي را بدست آورده است.

گردانهاي عزالدين قسام نوار ويدئويي را در اختيار رسانه*ها قرار داده كه نيروهاي وابسته به اين گردانها را در حال حمل اين هواپيماي اسرائيلي نشان مي*دهد.

[Rasputin]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday that speculation about an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities underscored the risk of failing to persuade Tehran to halt uranium enrichment.

Rice, in an interview with Israel's Channel 10 television, said she believed there was still "plenty of room for diplomacy" in curbing an Iranian nuclear program that Western powers fear could lead to making bombs.

Asked for her view of an Israeli military operation in Iran should diplomacy fail, she replied: "Well, I think that even talk of such just shows how very serious it would be to have Iran continue its programs unabated."

Rice was in Israel and the Palestinian Territories as part of a regional visit to explore the chances of reviving Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and to seek Arab help to stabilize Iraq.

Britain's Sunday Times reported a week ago that Israel had drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive military action against Iran along the lines of its 1981 air strike against an atomic reactor in Iraq, though many analysts believe Iran's nuclear facilities are too much for Israel to take on alone.

Washington has said military force remains an option while insisting that its priority is to reach a diplomatic solution.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously last month to impose sanctions on Iran to try to stop its uranium enrichment. Tehran insists its plans are peaceful and says it will continue enrichment.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has said it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

[donsaeid]

استاد مظنون به جاسوسي براي ايران در اسرائيل به كلاس درس بازگشت


يكي از اساتيد دانشگاه اسرائيل كه 22 روز را به اتهام آن چه كه جاسوسي براي ايران و حزب*الله عنوان شده، در اسرائيل زنداني بود به كلاس درس بازگشت.



به نقل از خبرگزاري آسوشيتدپرس از "وادزورث" ايالت اوهايو، "قاضي فلح" استاد جغرافيا در دانشگاه "ايكرون" اسرائيل كه داراي تابعيت كانادايي نيز است در 8 ژوئيه 2006 در شمال اسرائيل دستگير شد.

چند روز پس از دستگيري فلح درگيري ميان اسرائيلي*ها و حزب*الله درگرفت و رژيم صهيونيستي از وي به عنوان جاسوس حزب*الله و ايران ياد كرد.

وي از تابستان امسال به عنوان "تجربه*اي به شدت دلسرد كننده" براي اسرائيلي*ها ياد كرده است.

فلح در 30 ژوئيه بخاطر اين آزاد شد كه بطور رسمي اتهامي عليه وي وجود نداشت.

وزارت دادگستري اسرائيل در نامه*اي به دانشگاه*هاي مختلف كه به دستگيري اين فرد اعتراض كرده بودند، اعلام كرد تحقيقات لازم درباره وي انجام شده و فلح مشمول بازبيني قضايي شده است.

فلح اعتقاد دارد علت دستگيريش موضعي است كه وي درباره اختلافات مرزي اسرائيل با كشورهاي همسايه اتخاد كرده است.

اين فرد نيز با افشاي وجود زندان*هاي مخوف در اسرائيل و رفتارهاي خشونت*آميز زندانبانان گفت كه وي در طول اين مدت در يكي از سلول*هاي زيرزميني بازداشت بوده و بيش از 60 ساعت بازجويي از او صورت گرفته است.

فلح گفت كه در بازجويي*ها از او سوال* شده اندازه خانه دوستانش در لبنان چقدر است.

وي ادامه داد: «همه مي*دانند اين كار عادلانه نبوده است. اسرائيل از آمريكا پول مي*گيرد و اسرائيلي*ها بايد بدانند اين پول در چه راهي صرف مي*شود.»

[donsaeid]

ديلي*تلگراف:

اسرائيل با بحران اعتماد به نفس مواجه شده است


يك روزنامه انگليسي نوشت، با توجه به مشكلات داخلي و افزايش تهديدات خارجي كه عليه اسرائيل به وجود آمده، اين رژيم با دشوارترين چالش*هاي تاريخ 56 ساله*اش روبرو و با بحران اعتماد به نفس مواجه شده است.



به نقل از روزنامه «ديلي تلگراف»، تازه*ترين زماني كه اسرائيل اين چنين احساس عجز كرد هنگامي بود كه جمال عبدالناصر، رئيس جمهوري مصر موفق به برانگيختن اسرائيل به شركت در جنگ شش روزه شد.

بنابر اين گزارش، اسرائيل اكنون با لفاظي*هاي تند از سوي تهران و اقدامات مداوم محرك در مرزهايش روبرو است.

در چند روز اخير مقامات بلندپايه اسرائيلي و آمريكايي به منظور بحث درباره مسئله هسته*اي ايران تشكيل جلسه دادند.

شائول موفاز، رئيس هيات اسرائيلي كه در جنگ شش روزه نيز شركت داشت اعلام كرد نااميدي از توقف برنامه هسته*اي ايران اشتباه است.

از سوي ديگر رسانه*هاي مختلف از احتمال انحلال كابينه رژيم اسرائيل در پي تشديد اتهامات بر ضد "ايهود اولمرت" نخست*وزير اين رژيم خبر داد.

بر اساس اين گزارش، با توجه به تهيه دادخواست قضايي بر ضد اولمرت، حزب تازه *تأسيس كاديما با بحران جديدي مواجه شده كه احتمال انحلال كابينه رژيم اسرائيل را تشديد كرده است.

در پي بروز نافرماني وسيع در ميان اعضاي حزب كاديما ، سران اين حزب كه در انتظار انحلال كابينه هستند با يكديگر درگير شده*اند.

افكار عمومي در داخل سرزمين*هاي اشغالي اكنون در انتظار تكميل دادخواستي هستند كه به محكوميت اولمرت مي*انجامد اما آنچه قطعي است اين است كه حزب كاديما به دنبال دبيركلي جديد مي*گردد.

كناره*گيري "دان حالوتس" رئيس ستاد مشترك ارتش رژيم اسرائيل به علت شكست از حزب*الله لبنان در جنگ 33 روزه، ديگر سران اين رژيم را نيز به تكاپو انداخته تا براي حفظ باقي*مانده مشروعيت خود، كناره*گيري كنند.

[donsaeid]

يك مسئول ارشد صهيونيستي در پاريس ناپديد شد


يك روزنامه صهيونيستي در شماره امروز خود از ناپديد شدن وابسته نظامي سفارت اين رژيم در پاريس خبر داد.



به نقل از خبرگزاري فرانسه از بيت المقدس، روزنامه معاريو چاپ اسرائيل در شماره امروز خود نوشت :«"ديويد داهان" وابسته نظامي سفارت اسرائيل در پاريس بدون به جا گذاشتن هيچ گونه اثري از خود ناپديد شده است.»

به نوشته اين روزنامه،ديويد داهان كه از افسردگي شديد رنج مي*برد و با گذاشتن نامه*اي سر ميز خود ناپديد شده است و ديگر هيچ خبري از او نيست.

پليس فرانسه با كمك سرويس*هاي امنيتي اسرائيل اكنون در جستجوي اين فرد است.

[Rasputin]

HERZLIYA, Israel (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that if the world's diplomatic efforts to stop Iran's nuclear programme fail, then "much more severe steps" should be taken.

"It is clear to everyone that a diplomatic solution to the Iranian issue is the preferred solution. We also prefer such an outcome," Olmert said in a keynote speech on the last day of the annual conference on Israel's national security in the town of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.

If the world turns "a blind eye now, while ignoring reality... those of us who wish to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power will, down the road, not be left with any choice but to take much more severe steps in the future," he said.

Israel and the West accuse Iran of seeking to acquire an atomic bomb through its nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is solely for peaceful purposes.

Coupled with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, Israel -- considered the sole nuclear power in the Middle East -- has come to consider the Islamic republic as an existential threat.

"Anyone who threatens us, who threatens our existence, must know that we have the determination and capability to defend ourselves, responding with force, discretion and with all means at our disposal," Olmert said.

But he also reassured the Israeli public that "as serious as the Iranian threat is, the threat of a nuclear attack on Israel is in no way imminent."

He welcomed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1703, passed last month, which calls for sanctions against Iran for non-compliance over its nuclear programme of uranium enrichment.

"Iran is very vulnerable and sensitive to international pressure, despite its defiant, arrogant and provocative stance, and it is already paying the ever-increasing price for its behaviour," Olmert said.

On Sunday a senior US official told the Herzliya conference that the pressure exerted by the United States and the international community on Iran over its nuclear programme had put Tehran on the defensive.

"Iran is no longer on the offensive but on the defensive and we have to keep it on the defensive," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said. "Iran has to learn how to respect the power and the will of the international community."

[Rasputin]

Israel is launching a campaign to isolate Iran economically and to soften up world opinion for the option of a military strike aimed at crippling or delaying Tehran's uranium enrichment programme.
Pressure will be applied to major US pension funds to stop investment in about 70 companies that trade directly with Iran, and to international banks that trade with its oil sector, cutting off the country's access to hard currency. The aim is to isolate Tehran from the world markets in a campaign similar to that against South Africa at the height of apartheid.

Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to be pursued in international courts for calling the Holocaust a myth, and saying Israel should be wiped off the map. The case will be launched under the 1948 UN convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, which outlaws "direct and public incitement to genocide".
Before flying to London to spearhead the mission to sell the sanctions, the Likud party leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, said: "A campaign to divest commercial investment from Iran, beginning with the large pension funds in the west ... either stops Iran's nuclear programme or it will pave the way for tougher actions. So it's no-lose for us."

In December the UN ordered a ban on the supply of materials that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programme, and an asset freeze on Iranian companies and individuals. But it stopped short of a full travel ban.

Israeli defence sources claim that Iran is close to the point of no return in its uranium enrichment programme using gas centrifuges.

A senior official said: "They currently have problems but if the programme is allowed to continue without interruptions we estimate they will have mastered the technology this year. We expect a declaration from them in the next month, possibly on February 21, the day of the Islamic Revolution, that they have reached significant achievements.

"It will be a bluff, but it will have the potential of marketing Iran as a regional superpower. If they do it, a nuclear Iran will cast a long shadow over the whole of the Middle East; we will have Hizbullastan in Lebanon, Hamastan here, and Shiastan in Iraq."

Military analysts speaking at an annual conference in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, claimed that Israel was facing an "existential threat" from the Iranian uranium enrichment programme, which Tehran has consistently claimed was for a civilian nuclear fuel cycle. The only division of opinion was over the imminence of this threat.

[Rasputin]

The launch of Israel's campaign to isolate Iran from world financial markets, which began yesterday with the visit of the former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to London, opens a new frontline in the already wizened and battle-scarred face of the Middle East. The first salvo will be directed at western pension funds that invest in companies trading directly with Tehran. A case will also be brought against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad under the 1948 Geneva convention on genocide, for having said that Israel should be wiped off the map. But the offensive against the Iranian president, who has defied the world by carrying on with a programme to enrich uranium, purportedly for civilian use, goes wider and deeper than that.

The consensus among Israel's senior defence and intelligence analysts attending the annual conference in Herzliya this week was that the traditional political map of the Middle East was changing. The dominant Arab states of Egypt and Jordan, with whom Israel had cut deals, were declining in influence. Iran and Turkey were rising as regional superpowers. Pan-Arabism was being replaced by Islamism as the motivating ideology of the resistance to Israel's occupation of the West Bank. The vanguard of that resistance movement was no longer Fatah and the PLO, but Hizbullah and Hamas, an organisation with its roots in the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Both militant groups were waging asymmetric warfare in the failed states of Lebanon and Palestine. Looming over both was Iran, the chief paymaster and string-puller, and, if we are to believe Israeli intelligence, a future nuclear power.
However close Iran is to getting the bomb (and US military analysts are noticeably cooler about the imminence of armageddon than their Israeli counterparts) a convenient conclusion emerges from the current Israeli military consensus: yet again Israel faces an "existential threat". There have been a few of those since 1948. Yet again an implacable and irrational foe, this time a Persian one, is calling for Israel's destruction. And yet again Israel's task is to stand up and fight for its existence, because we all know what happened in 1938. In other words none of this has anything to do with Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, or the occupation of land that is now into its 40th year.

And yet there are opportunities which Israel can seize and which lie within its grasp. True, the most likely option is that stalemate between Fatah and Hamas will continue. A Palestinian civil war will probably not break out, but nor will peace. Senior aides to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, say he will give another two weeks for Hamas to agree to form a government of national unity. If it refuses to recognise past agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, which include the recognition of Israel, one of two things can happen. Either new elections will be called or else Mr Abbas could legally declare a state of emergency and form a series of temporary administrations. And in this land temporary can last a long time.

Either way there are options for an Israel that is interested in the survival of a moderate Palestinian leader. Israel can take a series of short steps that nudge the peace process on, without fundamentally compromising its security. It can start releasing Palestinian prisoners. It can pay out more of their tax revenues, which it has withheld. It can vary the course of the security barrier, releasing more Palestinian land, and it can begin to lift the economic siege. None of these measures are risk-free. Letting farmers through the barriers that lie between their homes and their olive trees also increases the risk of a suicide bomber getting through, but there is also a risk in allowing a weak leader like Mr Abbas to get weaker. The small steps always seem less attractive than the big ones. A nuclear Iran is easier for Israel to contemplate than a Palestinian leader who wants peace.

[Rasputin]

ایندپندنت

افکار عمومی اسرائیل

آماده حمله به ایران می شود

ترجمه بایرام منصوری



روزنامه ایندپندنت چاپ لندن گزارش کرده است که به نظرمی آید ساستمداران عالیرتبه و تحلیل گران اسرائیل درحال آماده ساختن افکارعمومی مردم اسرائیل برای حمله به ایران می باشند. ایران موضوع اصلی بحث دریک فوروم امنیتی دراسرائیل بوده است که این هفته درشهرهرتصلیا دراین کشوربرگزارشده است.

سخنگویان این فوروم شامل مقامات بلند پایه اسرائیل و آمریکا، چهار کاندید ریاست جمهوری آمریکا، و تعدادی ازنئومحافظه کاران برجسته شامل ریچارد پرل و جیمز وولزی مدیرسابق سیا بوده است.

گزارشگرفانینشال تایمزدراین مورد می نویسد: "طبل جنگ با صدایی بسیاربلند در هرتصیلیا به گوش می رسد".

نیکلاس برنزمقام رسمی وزارت امورخارجه آمریکا گفته است که شک ندارد ایران در جستجوی سلاح هسته ای است. جیمزوولزی نیز ایران را در ردیف آلمان نازی قرار داد. جان ادوارد نامزد انتخابات ریاست جمهوری سال 2008 ازحزب دمکرات، دراین کنفرانس اظهارداشت: "آنچه که درنزدیکی ما می گذرد نشان دهنده تهدیدی بی سابقه بر علیه جهان و اسرائیل می باشد".

پرودی جولیانی نامزد حزب جمهوریخوده درانتخابات ریاست جمهوری 2008 آمریکا، هیت رامنی و جان مک کین نیزدراین کنفرانس سخنرانی کردند. جان مک کین نیز نامزد انتخابات آینده است.

(مترجم: برای رسیدن به ریاست جمهوری درآمریکا. اسرائیل باید نامزدها را تائید کند! به عبارت دیگرراه رسیدن به ریاست جمهوری درآمریکا ازاسرائیل می گذرد

[Rasputin]

رسانه های غربی خبر دادند بالون های تبليغاتی اسرائيل بر فراز جنوب لبنان مردم را وحشت زده کرد. اين منابع نوشته اند بالون های رنگی که از گاز هليوم پرشده بود، برای تبليغ يک روزنامه اسرائيلی بود و بوسيله باد به فراز جنوب لبنان رسيده است. اما حزب الله گفت بالون ها توسط يک هواپيما های اسرائيلی رها شده و حاوی گاز سمی است. مردم به وحشت افتادند که اسرائيل به حمله شيميايی دست زده و چندين نفر که حال استفراغ و سرگيجه داشتند به بيمارستان مراجعه کردند. بالون ها را سپس جمع کرده و ترکاندند.

از سوی ديگر نيويورک تايمز گزارش داد که روز دوشنبه در کنگره آمريکا اين مساله بررسی خواهد شد که آيا اسرائيل در رابطه با استفاده از بمب های خوشه ای در جنگ تابستان امسال توافقنامه های بين آمريکا و اسرائيل را شکسته است يا نه. اسرائيل از اين بمب ها در شهرها و روستاهايی که تراکم جمعيتی بالايی دارند استفاده کرده است اين امر با توافق نامه ها که استفاده از بمب ها را عليه شهروندان غيرنظامی و مناطق مسکونی ممنوع ميکند در تناقض است و اين مساله به بحث هايی در کنگره آمريکا منجر شده است.

[Rasputin]

An Israeli court has found former Justice Minister Haim Ramon guilty of sexually harassing a female soldier.
Ramon resigned in August over charges that he forcibly kissed the young woman when she visited his office after completing military service.

The incident happened on 12 July 2006, minutes before a cabinet vote on whether to wage war in Lebanon.

The ruling by a Tel Aviv court is expected to trigger a reshuffle in Israel's beleaguered government.

Ramon - who now faces up to three years' jail - had been vowing to return to cabinet if cleared in a case that has riveted the attention of the Israeli public.

His portfolio is being temporarily handled by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a rising star in Israeli political circles.

This was not a kiss of affection. This has all the elements of sexual crime

Judge Hayuta Kochan
Correspondents say Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been contemplating a reshuffle since last year.

Public approval for his government plunged in the wake of the inconclusive conflict against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon last year.

Lines crossed

The female soldier, known simply as H, is thought to be in her early 20s.

She complained that Ramon, 56 and divorced, hugged and kissed her against her will at a party in his office, at one point forcing his tongue into her mouth.

The three-judge panel was unanimous in its opinion on the case.

"There are some lines that cannot be crossed," said Judge Hayuta Kochan reading out the verdict.

"This was not a kiss of affection. This has all the elements of a sexual crime."

Ramon admitted the kiss, but said it was the outcome of a flirtation initiated by H. The two were photographed embracing before the indecent assault.

He left the court without making a statement. Sentencing is scheduled for 21 February. He has 45 days to lodge an appeal.

The case is one of several involving allegations of wrongdoing by senior Israeli political figures.

President Moshe Katsav faces indictment on charges of rape and other sexual offences.

Police have opened an investigation into Mr Olmert's role in the 2005 privatisation of the country's second largest bank.

[Rasputin]

گروهی از شخصيت های يهودی بريتانيا با انتشار مرامنامه ای تحت عنوان 'صداهای يهودی مستقل'، اعلام موجوديت کرده و هدف خود را تصحيح "سوءبرداشتی همگانی" بيان کرده اند که می پندارد "يهوديان اين کشور صدايی واحد هستند و اين صدا از سياست های دولت اسرائيل حمايت می کند."
در بيانيه ابتدايی اين گروه که جمعی از نويسندگان، اساتيد دانشگاه، حقوقدانان و هنرمندان يهودی آن را امضاء کرده اند، آمده است: "ما بر اين باوريم که طيف گسترده عقايد موجود در ميان جمعيت يهودی اين کشور از سوی آن دسته نهادهايی که خود را نماينده همه يهوديان می دانند، منعکس نمی شود. ما همچنين بر اين باوريم که افراد و گروه ها در هر جامعه ای بايد آزادانه نظر خود را بيان کنند بدون اينکه به آنها اتهام خيانت زده شود."

گروه 'صداهای يهودی مستقل'، که بيانيه آن به امضای افرادی چون سر جفری بايندمن (حقوقدان و رئيس موسسه حقوق بشر بريتانيا)، ليزا اپينيانزی (نويسنده و معاون رئيس انجمن قلم انگلستان)، و برايان کلوگ (استاد فلسفه دانشگاه آکسفورد) رسيده، با اشاره به اينکه سال 2007 ميلادی چهلمين سالگرد اشغال نوار غزه و کرانه باختری رود اردن است، خواهان پديد آمدن فضايی برای به بحث گذاشتن آزادانه بحران خاورميانه ميان يهوديان از همه گرايش های فکری شده است.


اين گروه پنج اصل را به عنوان اصول 'راهنما' برای اهداف 'صداهای يهودی مستقل' برشمرده است:

حقوق بشر امری جهانی است و استنثا نمی پذيرد. اين موضوع در اسرائيل و سرزمين های اشغالی فلسطينيان نيز، همچون ديگر نقاط، صدق می کند.

امنيت و زندگی در صلح حق يکسان فلسطينيان و اسرائيلی ها است.

لازمه صلح و ثبات آمادگی همه طرف های درگير در مناقشه برای گردن نهادن به قوانين بين المللی است.

نژاد پرستی تحت هيچ شرايطی و در هيچ شکلی از آن قابل توجيه نيست؛ خواه يهود ستيزی باشد، يا عرب ستيزی و اسلام ستيزی.

مبارزه عليه يهود ستيزی امری حياتی است و هرگاه که مخالفت با سياست های دولت اسرائيل بی درنگ برپچسب يهود ستيزی می خورد، اين امر حياتی [مبارزه با يهودستيزی] است که زير سئوال می رود.

امضاء کنندگان اين بيانيه نوشته اند وقتی کسانی که خود را سخنگوی يهوديان بريتانيا و ديگر کشورها می نامند، حمايت از سياست های قدرت اشغالگر را مقدم بر دفاع از حقوق اوليه مردم تحت اشغال بدانند، اين اصول را نقض کرده اند.

در ادامه بيانيه 'صداهای يهودی مستقل' آمده است: "ساکنان فلسطينی کرانه باختری و نوار غزه در شرايطی بسيار بد زندگی می کنند و اميد بسيار اندکی به آينده دارند. ما حمايت خود را از صلحی مبتنی بر گفتگو ميان فلسطينيان و اسرائيلی ها اعلام می کنيم و با هرگونه اقدام دولت اسرائيل برای تحميل راه حل هايش بر فلسطينيان مخالفيم."

اين گروه از يهوديان بريتانيايی در پايان بيانيه خود نوشته اند 'صداهای يهودی مستقل'، از اين پس به طور پيوسته نظرات خود را اعلام می کند و از يهوديان ديگر دعوت کرده به اين گروه بپيوندند

[Rasputin]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday Iran's nuclear plans were not as advanced as Tehran claimed, and it was still possible to exert economic pressure to halt the program without resorting to violence.



"I think there is a way to stop the Iranians from moving forward on their nuclear program without violent actions," Olmert said in a speech to American Jewish leaders.

"...They are not as close to the threshold as they pretend to be, and therefore there is still time to fight in a responsible, comprehensive and powerful manner," he said.

Iran is at loggerheads with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build a nuclear bomb. Iran says it wants solely civilian atomic energy.

The Bush administration has stepped up its rhetoric against Iran in recent weeks, prompting speculation it could be laying the groundwork for a military attack.

Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, sent warplanes to bomb an atomic reactor in Iraq in 1981. Its concern has been fueled by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

But Olmert said recent steps against Iran, which include limited United Nations sanctions imposed on December 23, "are more effective than some think they are."

"They are not enough, it's not sufficient, there must be more," he said.

But if the United States, European Union, China and Russia acted in a determined manner they could create enough pressure to "cause such damage to the Iranian economy -- and we see some signs already -- it will force them to reconsider," he said.

Western diplomats say Russia and the European Union have been resisting U.S. pressure to go beyond existing U.N. sanctions on Iran and curtail billions of euros of export credits available for trade with Iran.

European diplomats said this week that Iran has set up two cascades of 164 centrifuges each in its underground nuclear plant, laying a basis for full-scale enrichment of uranium and upping the stakes in its stand-off with the West.

They said the launch of the two cascades -- the first of 3,000 centrifuges planned for installation in coming months -- could form part of a planned announcement of "significant" nuclear progress which Iran is expected to make on February 11.

But Olmert said Iran might be playing a game of bluff.

"If they will convince the international community they are so close and have crossed the technical threshold, then everyone will raise his hands and will say: 'OK, now we have lost this battle so let's try and accommodate with the Iranians.'

"We are not there," he said.