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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi meets with top Israeli singer Rita while visiting President Shimon Peres' official residence in Jerusalem.

Syrian slips Hizballah Fateh-110 missiles able to destroy Israeli cities
DEBKAfile Special Report February 7, 2010, 8:40 AM (GMT+02:00)

Syrian-made Fateh-110 to Hizballah

The secret transfer of the mobile surface-to-surface Syrian-made Fateh-110 (range 250km) missile to Hizballah sparked the prediction Friday, Feb. 5 from an unnamed US official that cross-border arms smuggling from Syria into Lebanon outside state control was "very dangerous" and "paved the way to war similar to Israel-Hizballah conflict of 2006. debkafile's military sources report hat Israel warned Syria through at least two diplomatic channels against Hizballah using this lethal weapon, which is capable of reaching almost every Israel city.
Our sources disclose: Syria pulled the wool of Israel's eyes for the transfer by openly training Hizballah in the use of SA-2 and SA-6 surface-to-surface missiles. Israel had warned it would deem their passage into Lebanon Syrian casus belli by Syria.

The Fateh-110 is still more lethal, accurate and dangerous than the SA-2 and SA-3. it confronts Israel now with a Hizballah armed with a solid-fuel propellant, road-mobile, single-stage, short-range ballistic system weighing three tons with a half-ton warhead and a range of 250 kilometers. It is not deployed in surface batteries but fired from mobile launchers, which the solid propellant renders capable of firing at speed with little advance preparation, before returning to the fortified underground silos Hizballah has sunk in mountain areas across Lebanon.
These features make the Fateh-110 a very tough target for Israeli bombers to strike.
According to our intelligence sources, Israel posted warnings against Hizballah using the weapon through US Middle East envoy George missile who called on president Bashar Assad in Damascus on January 20 and ,even more emphatically, through Spanish foreign minister Miguel Moratinos who arrived in Syria on Feb. 3 after talks in Jerusalem. The message he carried was that if Hizballah ventured to fire the Fateh-110, Israel was determined to hit back at strategic and military targets inside Syria.
This warning instantly prompted the war rhetoric which emanated from Assad and his foreign minister Walid Moallem. Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, known for his undiplomatic, blunt style, responded by warning Syria that it stood to lose the next war and the Assad family would lose its grip on power in Damascus.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak are presumed to have endorsed the first part of Lieberman's comment as representing their own view. But the minister added the personal threat on Syria's leaders on his own initiative.

Assad: Syria will stand by Lebanon

Syrian president, Lebanese official discuss "repeated Israeli threats."

Talkbacks (1)

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Syrian President Bashar Assad went in different directions with their statements on Sunday, with Netanyahu making conciliatory comments, and Assad responding by talking again about war.

Assad, according to the Syrian SANA news agency, held talks with the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, in Damascus and stressed “Syria’s commitment to stand by Lebanon’s government and people against any Israeli aggression.”

According to SANA, “Talks during the meeting dealt with the Israeli repeated threats against countries of the region and Israeli extremism, which is poised for burying any chance for reaching peace by inflaming wars in the region and taking it into the unknown.”

By stressing that Damascus would stand by Lebanon “against Israeli aggression,” Assad seemed to be echoing Syrian Foreign Minister Wallid Muallem’s warning last week that Syria would not stand to the side if the IDF took action against Hizbullah.

Israel, meanwhile, has been saying consistently for months that it would hold the Lebanese government responsible for any aggression from Hizbullah, since Hizbullah is a member of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government.

Assad’s comments followed equally bellicose comments made earlier in the day by Syrian Minister of Information Mohsen Bilal, who said Israel was harming peace in the region and the world, and that its leaders should be tried in an international court.

Speaking at Kuneitra, on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, Bilal lashed into Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said on Thursday in response to Muallem’s threats that if Syria waged a war with Israel it would not only lose the war, but Assad would also lose his power.

Bilal called Lieberman’s words “barbaric and aggressive,” and said the foreign minister was ostracized by the entire world. “These are barbaric and aggressive declarations that show the bankruptcy of that government, and the bankruptcy and barbarism of that man ,” he said.

Netanyahu, who since the war of words with Syria began last week has been issuing statements trying to calm the situation, did the same on Sunday, saying at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting that Israel hoped to complete peace agreements with all its neighbors, including the Palestinians and Syrians, just as it reached an agreement with Egypt and Jordan.

But, he said, Israel would be guided in those efforts by two principles. “First, we will conduct negotiations without preconditions. We do not accept the idea that Israel must always make extraordinary concessions in advance while the other side is exempt from making its own concessions. It is negotiations that will bring about an agreement and we will not enter into negotiations when everything is known in advance.”

Second, he added, “at the end of the negotiations we need to maintain Israel’s vital national interests, especially security. It is doubtful whether any peace agreement that is unaccompanied by solid security arrangements on the ground can last. We want peace that will last for years, decades and generations and to this end, these components, especially security, are essential.”

Although Netanyahu asked his ministers last week not to comment on the Syrian issue so as not to exacerbate a sensitive situation, National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau (Israel Beiteinu) told reporters before the cabinet meeting that while he wanted peace with Syria, it would have to be a peace with the Golan Heights in Israel’s hands.

“The Golan will not be given to Syria,” Landau said. “The Golan is in our hands, the Golan is part of Israel, the Golan is vital for Israel’s security, and those who want peace cannot give up the Golan. We want peace, but those who attack us will pay a very heavy price.

Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog (Labor), meanwhile, called on members of the government to speak in more moderate tones.

“Israel has always known how to navigate in the world of diplomacy with responsibly, moderation and reasonableness, standing firm by its principles and positions,” said Herzog, whose father, Chaim, was an ambassador to the UN, and later the president of the state.

“I come from a family that understands a little bit about diplomacy, and I say that the diplomacy is measured first by restraint, cultured behavior and standing by our principles,” Herzog said.

Red Cross Convoy Targeted in Gaza

GAZA STRIP - Palestinian terrorists detonated a roadside bomb as a Red Cross convoy traveled toward the Erez Crossing in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday.

The explosion, which occurred about a half mile from the crossing, blew out the windows of one of the four jeeps in the convoy, but none of the passengers were hurt, the Red Cross reported.

"The convoy was on its way to the Erez Crossing when an explosion took place on the side of the road," spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza Eyad Naser told Reuters.

"As a result of the powerful explosion, the windows of one jeep were smashed, but the cars continued to Erez and they have left Gaza," he said.

A spokesman for Hamas, the Palestinian faction ruling the Gaza Strip, tried suggesting that an unexploded Israeli shell was to blame, but local residents said they were sure it was a roadside bomb.

Another Hamas official, who spoke on condition on anonymity, said police had pursued a car seen fleeing the scene.

Israeli 'Terrorgence' Officers Stop Threats Online

Video

Israel has been at the forefront in the battle against terrorism for years. Now, the company "Terrogence" is working via the Internet to uncover new online threats.

Former Israeli intelligence agents scan the Web visiting jihadi Web sites and Islamic forums for the group-- looking for solid clues that will stop terror before it happens.

On any given day, one forum can have hundreds or thousands of posts. The years of experience in the intelligence field among Terrogence workers give them the ability to determine which threats could be real.

"We see successes in what we do, meaning we were able to provide early warnings to things that were not known," explained Gadi Aviran, Terrogence founder and chief intelligence officer.

About a month before Christmas, the group found a post by a leading activist giving advice on smuggling explosives.

"You can ignite a detonator chemically, take a medical capsule and put concentrated sulfuric acid in it, and then place it over the explosive material," he claimed.

The same technique was used by the so-called Christmas bomber on Northwest flight 253.

They also find postings linked to visits of dignitaries. That was the case in 2008 when a man said he'd be close to former President George W. Bush on a visit to Israel and asked others for suggestions.

"What we can say is we have found the information, we found it on time, ahead of time actually in the area of the visit," Aviran said.

He added that people don't understand how widespread jihad is on the net.

"The forums or the sources that we track, I would say on an average every day, on any given time there's at least 5,000 to10,000 people playing there, meaning participating in it," he explained. "Over a range of time you would add up to millions."

It's rare, however, to find information about a specific plan of attack.

"The next attack is going to be in the place that they think they can attack," Aviran said. "We're already seeing messages on the Christmas bomber saying 'listen guys, now the airport security is getting tight. Why don't you move to something else.'"

"I's very hard so you've got to have practical successes," he continued. "No, you're not going to win the war on terror because nobody ever has won the war on terror. What you can do is mitigate, minimize, defend yourself better.

Palestinians say they are operating in Jerusalem, Israel denies

Senior Palestinian officials revealed this week that the Palestinian Authority has resumed administrative activity in Jerusalem with the quiet approval of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an interview with WorldNetDaily, PA spokesman Dmitri Ziliani said the Palestinian government had opened several offices in Jerusalem in recent months and had resumed regular meetings there. He reiterated that the Palestinians will not make peace with Israel unless they gain full control over the entire eastern half of the city.

According to the report, the government of US President Barack Obama is helping the Palestinians reestablish their foothold in Jerusalem by financing Palestinian infrastructure projects there.

Previous Israeli governments had allowed the Palestinian Authority to operate in Jerusalem, despite it being a violation of Israeli law. But the PA headquarters in the holy city, dubbed "Orient House," was shut down in 2001 as escalating Palestinian terrorism was directly linked to the operations there.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, released a statement on Wednesday denying that Israel had again permitted the Palestinian Authority to operate in Jerusalem, and insisting that the city will remain undivided under Israeli sovereignty.

Palin: Obama Will Win Again If He Backs Israel and Bombs Iran

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who ran with Sen. John McCain against the Obama-Cheney ticket, said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama can win again if he starts backing Israel and decides to attack Iran.

Speaking on Fox News, Palin stated, “Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decide to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel–which I would like him to do. That changes the dynamics of what we can assume will happen between now and three years. Because I think if the election were today, Obama would not be elected.”

She wrote off President Obama as a man who lectures and does not lead. Palin charged that President Obama’s message to the American people is “just kind of sit down and shut up and accept. When he is up there and he is telling us basically, ‘I know best, my people here in the White House know best.'”

She described the President as being weak on terrorism and national defense. "We are in war," said the former Alaska governor. "These are acts of war that these terrorists are committing. We need to treat them a little bit differently than an American who is worthy, an American being worthy of our U.S. constitutional rights. I don’t think the terrorists are worthy of our rights.

“Treating this like a mere law enforcement matter places our country at great risk because that's not how radical Islamic extremists are looking at this. They know we're at war, and to win that war we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern."

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