FOOD FIGHT ! ! !

Lebanese union to sue Israel for 'claiming ownership' of falafel

By DPA

A new war between Israel and Lebanon has erupted, but this time the war is not geopolitical, but rather an issue of cuisine-who has sovereignty over traditional Arab dishes and sandwiches.

The president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association Fadi Abboud, said he is preparing to file an international lawsuit against Israel for allegedly "taking the identity of some Lebanese foods" and thus violating a food copyright.

"In a way the Jewish state is trying to claim ownership of traditional Lebanese delicacies like falafel, tabouleh and hummus" Abboud said.

According to Abboud, the Lebanese are losing "tens of millions of dollars annually" because Israel is selling and marketing traditional Lebanese dishes.

"The Israelis are marketing our main food dishes as if they were Israeli dishes," he charged.

"We are working on registering all the foods and ingredients which will be submitted to the Lebanese government so it can appeal to the international courts against Israel," Abboud said.

"The Israelis are marketing such Lebanese delicacies under the same names and ingredients around the world," he added. "This is harming and causing great losses to Lebanon."

Abboud said he prepared his memo on the subject, based on the case of the Greek "feta cheese precedent" that occurred six years ago.

At the time, Greece managed to prove in international institutions that it was the "originator" of feta cheese and won the case.

According to Abboud, while Lebanon never registered the names and ingredients of its own delicacies, "it can refer to the Greece precedent since these foods are historically known as traditional Lebanese foods.

"By doing so, we are preventing Israel from stealing our main food trademarks and selling them around the world," Abboud added

Last update - 20:39 06/10/2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1027016.html

Bush Selling Stealth Fighters to Israel

A number of times Israel has been accused of passing US military technology to other countries in the arms sales which are a large part of its economy. Is selling this stealth technology to Israel really a good idea? SCENARIO: Israel "reverse engineers" US stealth, makes modifications, and sells the result to its arms customers (this has happened before, as with Cobra helicopters).

Lockheed official: Saudis not in talks for stealth fighter jet

By YAAKOV KATZ

Despite Israeli fears that Saudi Arabia is on its way to acquiring the stealth Joint Strike Fighter, Israel is the only Middle East country Lockheed Martin is currently in talks with regarding the sale of the fifth-generation jet, a top company executive said Sunday.

Israeli defense officials have recently raised concerns that the US will sell the new jet, also known as the F-35 Lightning II, to Saudi Arabia or even to Egypt - two countries with strong strategic ties with Washington. Due to these concerns, The Defense Ministry is pressing the Pentagon to allow the air force to install Israeli-made systems in the aircraft, which the IAF will likely begin receiving in 2014.

"No other countries in this part of the world are in discussions," Tom Burbage, general manager of the F-35 program for Lockheed Martin, told reporters in Tel Aviv on Sunday. Asked about Saudi Arabia, Burbage said there were no talks between Lockheed Martin and Riyadh regarding the plane.

Burbage also revealed that $200 million worth of contracts had been signed with Israeli defense companies involved in the development of systems related to the Joint Strike Fighter. He said this would likely increase to half a billion dollars by the end of the program.

Last week, the Pentagon announced plans to sell Israel up to 75 JSFs in a $15 billion deal. Nine countries - including Britain, Turkey and Australia - are members of the JSF program. Israel is a Security Cooperation Participant after paying $20m. in 2003 to obtain access to information accumulated during the development of the aircraft, which will be priced at approximately $80m. each.

Burbage said Israel would begin receiving the JSF in 2014. To meet that date, the air force will need to sign a contract with the Pentagon by October 2009.

The jet is still under development and is not yet in service, but the US plans to eventually acquire 2,458 planes for its army, Marines and air force at a cost of $300b. The F-35 was designed as a replacement for a range of warplanes, including the F-16, which is a large component of many air forces worldwide.

Oct 5, 2008 23:49 | Updated Oct 6, 2008 3:40

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017467671&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

US drops plan to put diplomats in Iran

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON

The Bush administration has shelved plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran in part over fears it could affect the US presidential race or be interpreted as political meddling, The Associated Press has learned.

The proposal to send US diplomats to Teheran for the first time in three decades attracted great attention when it was floated seriously midyear, but has been placed on indefinite hold as November's election nears and Iran continues to defy demands to halt suspect nuclear activities, officials told the AP.

Two administration officials familiar with the matter spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations on the sensitive subject.

The officials said it had been decided to leave the decision to the next US president because it could be seen as a reward for Iran's nuclear intransigence especially when Iranian policy has become a major part of the heated campaign between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

Obama has called for unconditional direct talks with the leaders of potential US foes like Iran and North Korea, assuming that groundwork laid by lower-level officials indicated that the top-level talks would be fruitful.

McCain has ridiculed the suggestion as naive.

Thus, opening an "interest section," or de-facto embassy, in Teheran could be interpreted as a Republican president helping a Republican nominee by neutralizing a distinction that might make the Democrat appealing. Or, it could be seen as hurting McCain by leaving him to defend a more hard-line position than the current Republican president.

Either way, the administration concluded that now was not the time.

"There is no desire to inject this into the campaign," the second official said.

The idea's demise represents the end of any marquee efforts to remake the US relationship with its most formidable Middle Eastern adversary before US President George W. Bush leaves office. Although Bush once called Iran part of an "axis of evil" and says Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is dangerous, he also had allowed a variety of tentative overtures toward Tehran.

The best-known effort would have had US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sit down for negotiations over Iran's disputed nuclear program, with the tantalizing prospect of expanded talks on other subjects. She said she would go anywhere to have those conversations, including Teheran, if Iran met its side of the bargain.

That offer went nowhere, in part because Iran refused to meet the US terms to begin talks.

A diplomatic office in Teheran would have served several purposes. It would provide a public face for the US government in a country where suspicion of the United States runs deep and perhaps increase US influence. It also might have made it easier for Iranian citizens to apply for visas to visit the United States.

The idea of creating an interest section in Iran similar to the one the United States runs in communist-run Cuba has been around for some years. It gained new traction in June when veteran diplomats began to look again at the plan with Rice's blessing.

Rice never publicly endorsed the concept but allowed it was one of several things the administration was considering to improve contact between the Iranian and American people. At one point, there was speculation that an announcement on the matter might be made in late August, which came and went with no action.

Although Iran has a small interest section in Washington, the two countries do not have diplomatic relations and the United States has had no official presence in Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution and subsequent takeover of the US Embassy and hostage crisis. US interests in Iran currently are handled by the Swiss Embassy.

While the Bush administration has given up on opening the interest section in its waning months in office, it has gone ahead with promoting unofficial contacts with Iran.

Late last month, the Treasury Department gave special permission to the private American-Iranian Council to open an office in Teheran. The office plans to promote educational and cultural exchanges by hosting round-table discussions and conferences.

The Princeton, New Jersey-based council will join a handful of other think tanks and policy institutes that have similar licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control to work in Iran, which is under heavy US sanctions over its nuclear program and support for groups the United States labels as terror organizations.

The executive director of the council, Brent Lollis, expressed hope that the opening of the office would improve ties between Iranian and American academics and eventually lawmakers. He also said he hoped it could help pave the way for the opening of a US interest section in Tehran.

"We are in full support of an interest section, and we hope that it will come about," he said. "This is a good beginning for that."

Oct 4, 2008 7:25 | Updated Oct 4, 2008 16:31

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017452942&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Pentagon Computer Hacker in Trouble Again

Canada: Israeli mastermind of global hacking scheme

Ehud Tenenbaum, who 10 years ago hacked Pentagon computers, detained on fraud charges

Court remands 'analyzer' Ehud Tenenbaum, suspected of hacking financial institution in Calgary, stealing CDN$1.8 million. Tenenbaum denies allegations; may face extradition to US for involvement in hacking scheme spanning hundreds of companies worldwide

Yael Levy

A Canadian court ruled over the weekend that 29-year-old Ehud Tenenbaum, an Israeli suspected of hacking a Canadian company's computer system and embezzling CDN$1.8 million, will remain in custody.

Tenenbaum, who was dubbed "the analyzer" after it was discovered that he was the mastermind behind the hacking of the Pentagon computer systems in the late 1990s, was arrested in September along with three other alleged accomplices, which were placed under house arrest Friday.

He may also face possible extradition to the United States, where there is an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

According to a Sunday report in Canada's Calgary Herald, Tenenbaum in suspected of hacking the systems of one of the city's leading financial institutes.

Tenenbaum was scheduled to be released on CDN$30,000 bail, which the court denied after the prosecution entered into evidence documentation suggesting he is the leading suspect in a US case investigating the hackings of hundreds of companies around the world, including some in the US, Russia, Turkey, Holland, Sweden and Belgium.

According to the report, Federal Crown Prosecutor David Gates told the court that "Mr. Tenenbaum is alleged, by the government of the US, to be one of the principal hackers, if not the mastermind, of their entire global operation.

"As of this day, over 100 financial institutions worldwide have been identified as targets of various (Internet) chats involving Mr. Tenenbaum," he said.

Attorney John James, representing Tenenbaum, denied his client's involvement in the acts, saying any actions he might have taken were all portrayed as part of his job for a systems' security company based in Montreal.

The US Federal Prosecution now has 60 days to file an official motion to have Tenenbaum extradited to the US.

Published: 10.05.08, 12:26 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3605401,00.html

John McCain's Granddaughters?

Religious girls refuse Shabbat rescue

Israeli backpackers trapped by snowstorm in remote Indian village treated to rescue mission by consulate, local air force, but two girls refuse to desecrate Shabbat by boarding helicopter

Itamar Eichner

Eleven Israeli backpackers were stranded in a snowstorm in northwestern India during the weekend, and rescued in a complex mission launched by the country's air force. But two other Israeli backpackers were left behind - refusing to be rescued as it would constitute desecration of Shabbat.

The remote village of Kaza, located in the Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh, became shelter for around 150 tourists, 13 of them Israelis, who were trapped there during the raging storm.

Upon discovering that all access roads to the village had been closed off, including the one leading to Manali, the nearest city, the Israeli tourists contacted the embassy.

The backpackers asked Consul Irit Shneor in New Delhi to help them, telling her that earlier Belgium had sent a rescue helicopter to extricate the Belgian citizens trapped in the village. After conversing with Jerusalem the Israeli Embassy decided it, too, would send help.

IDF attache in New Delhi Colonel Yossi Turgeman contacted the Indian air force, which sent out a helicopter funded by the backpackers' insurance.

But the rescue mission left Saturday morning, which prompted two religious girls who were among those trapped to announce that they would refuse to board the helicopters, as this constituted desecration of the Sabbath. Their friends pleaded with them, citing the life-saving extenuation of the law, but they were adamant.

The 11 backpackers arrived safely at Buntar Airport in Kullu, India and called the consul to thank her. "When they all called from Kullu and yelled thanks into the phone they sounded euphoric," Shneor said happily.

The two religious girls remained trapped in the village along with 100 other European tourists. The consulate in New Delhi is currently in touch with them and attempting to assist them with the help of other foreign embassies.

Published: 09.28.08, 13:12 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3603183,00.html

Olmert: 'Jewish underground' behind attack on leftist prof.

[COMMENT: reminiscent of Jewish terrorism against the British in the 1930s and 1940s in Palestine.]

By Reuters

A new ultranationalist underground is apparently active in Israel and responsible for a bombing that wounded an outspoken critic of Jewish settlement in the West Bank, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday.

"The security agencies have been ordered to deal with this case, investigate it and act with the utmost speed to bring to justice what appears to be another underground," Olmert told his cabinet in broadcast remarks.

Professor Zeev Sternhell, a political scientist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University and a leading opponent of settlement building in the Palestinian territories, was lightly wounded on Thursday when a pipe bomb exploded outside his home.

Police found posters in his Jerusalem neighborhood offering a NIS 1.1 million reward for the killing of a member of Israel's left-wing Peace Now movement.

Olmert compared the bombing with the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish ultranationalist and a hand grenade attack that killed a Peace Now activist in 1983.

"A bad wind of extremism, hate, evil, violence and contempt for state authorities is blowing through certain sectors of the Israeli public and threatening Israeli democracy," said Olmert, who is engaged in land-for-peace talks with the Palestinians.

In the 1980s, a Jewish underground group, acting after six Jewish seminary students were killed in a Palestinian attack, carried out bombings that maimed several West Bank mayors and a shooting in an Islamic college that killed three students.

Last update - 20:20 28/09/2008

Members of the group were jailed but the sentences were later commuted by then-President Chaim Herzog.

Nine Israelis arrested for US lottery scam

QUOTE: American officials said it was the largest number of Israelis ever held on a single extradition request.

By ALLISON HOFFMAN, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK

US federal agents and Israeli police arrested nine Israelis in Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan on Friday on charges that they bilked New Yorkers out of more than $2 million through a lottery telemarketing scam.

They are accused of cold-calling people in New York from a "boiler-room" operation in Ramat Gan and asking them to wire as much as $40,000 to Israel to claim nonexistent international sweepstakes prizes.

The ring targeted senior citizens, who were told that the calls were coming from a New York law firm and that the wire transfers were taxes and fees that needed to be paid before the winnings could be released, according to an indictment filed in Manhattan federal court.

More than 10 victims were given a US toll-free number to call and told not to tell anyone about the prize drawing, prosecutors said. The money was allegedly wired via Western Union to accounts at Bank Leumi, Bank Hapoalim and Union Bank between September 2007 and this month.

American officials said it was the largest number of Israelis ever held on a single extradition request.

"Cooperation between law enforcement and prosecutors' offices here and in Israel has made clear that borders provide no safe haven for such fraudulent schemes," Michael Garcia, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

The Tel Aviv Fraud Division of the Israel Police, the Justice Ministry and the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office all participated in the investigation. The suspects were initially detained by Israeli authorities on September 9 and 11.

If they are sent to the US, each defendant will face two counts of committing wire fraud through telemarketing and one of conspiracy to commit fraud. They could be sentenced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

The nine who were arrested are due in Jerusalem District Court on Sunday for hearings on the US extradition request, according to prosecutors in New York.

A 10th suspect, Shai Kadosh, remains at large, officials said.

Sep 27, 2008 23:21 | Updated Sep 28, 2008 1:14

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017408189&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

US  MILITARY  BASE  ESTABLISHED  IN  ISRAEL

In 1973, when Israel was losing a war to Egypt, Prime Minister Golda Meir begged Richard Nixon to send arms and ammunition. She promised that Israel would never, never ask for US troops, but without the ammunition Egypt would win. Well, US troops are now stationed in Israel. No wonder George Bush is regarded as the best friend Israel ever had in the White House. (The interference by the US in 1973, turning an Arab victory into eventual defeat, was the direct cause of the oil embargo that caused a major energy crisis in our country.)

U.S. deploys radar system to detect Iranian missiles at Negev base

By Aluf Benn and Amos Harel

The U.S. Army's European Command deployed an early-warning radar system in Israel last week along with a 120-member support team, the weekly Defense News reported.

The move marks the first permanent presence in Israel of American military personnel. The high-powered radar system is meant to augment Israel's defenses against Iranian ground-to-ground missiles.

According to Defense News, more than a dozen transport aircraft delivered the radar, its ancillary systems, equipment and technicians, as well as maintenance and security specialists to the Nevatim Air Force Base in the Negev. It has not yet been made operational.

The same system has been deployed for the past two years in Japan against possible missile launches from North Korea. The agreement to provide Israel with the system a few months ago was finalized during the visit by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi in Washington in July.

The new radar will give Israel added minutes to respond to a missile launch, compared with the systems it currently uses. Assisted by data sent from American satellites, the system can detect Iranian missiles shortly after they are launched.

A link with the Arrow missile system makes it possible to launch a defensive missile, and increases the chance of intercepting the incoming missile while giving the home front more time to respond.

The deployment of the radar system may be understood in two contradictory ways. One is that it prevents Israel from taking independent action against Iran, which the United States has made clear in recent months it opposes. The radar system, and Americans stationed here, will restrain Israel, which would be wary about launching an attack that would endanger U.S. personnel.

On the other hand, the deployment of the radar system strengthens Israel's defense against missiles if Israel and/or the United States attacks Iran's nuclear facilities. The defense system could reduce casualties and damage to the home front from a response by Iran and its allies.

This would give decision-makers more freedom to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Defense officials said they had made arrangements to receive the equipment and personnel in "record time" - two months from the July talks.

In recent weeks, Israeli sources have tried to play down the presence of an American force on Israeli soil and have portrayed it as temporary until operation of the system is transferred to the Israelis.

In any case, information from early-warning satellites, which greatly increases the radar's ability to pinpoint launches, will remain in American hands. The satellite ground station will be in Europe and transmit data to Israel.

The deployment of the radar system in Israel was an initiative by Republican Congressman Mark Kirk of Chicago, who, looking for a way to help Israel, persuaded the governments of both countries to implement the plan.

Israeli defense officials at first objected to the move, citing a possible limitation to the country's freedom of action. But they acquiesced when it was decided that the system would be supported by data from the U.S. early-warning satellite.

Last update - 03:13 28/09/2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024888.html

Gaza: US, EU, Israeli Starvation Policy Backfires Bigtime

The Gaza blockade was supposed to starve the Palestinians so much that they threw Hamas out. But it has made smuggling so profitable that there may be as many as 500 tunnels to Egypt (another story gave an estimate by Hamas of 200). These food tunnels also can be used to smuggle the weapons and cash that Israel is so worried about: BIGTIME BACKFIRE for this starvation policy. (This story mentions smuggling a bride into Gaza, an earlier story mentioned smuggling animals for Gaza's Zoo !!!)

QUOTE: On some estimates there are now up to 500 passageways across to Egypt . . . a sprawling warren of hand-dug burrows now supplies everything from food, petrol and designer jeans through to guns, drugs and black market Marlboro cigarettes. . . Imposed last year after Gaza fell under the control of the militant Palestinian faction Hamas, the blockade was designed to make Hamas unpopular with Gaza's 1.4 million residents by banning virtually all trade with the outside world.

Inside Gaza's secret smuggling tunnels, the underground route to riches - or to death

With several tonnes of the world's most war-torn soil between us, the shouts of the Palestinian smuggling gang at the top of the tunnel's 30-foot deep shaft had become almost inaudible.

By Colin Freeman, in Gaza

Not that their lead tunneller had whispered particularly encouraging words as he lowered me down.

"The tunnels are very dangerous - they can easily collapse," smiled Ibrahim Abu Sazzar, 23, whose small, wiry build is just right for digging the 300 yard long passageways underneath the sandy border from the Gaza to Egypt.

"One time a day a tunnel caved in on my body and I was stuck for an hour, thinking I was about to die. But what can I do - I need the money to feed my family."

Welcome, if that is the word, to Gaza's "Tunnel Town", where with every perilous scoop of earth they dig, human moles like Mr Sazzar are quite literally undermining Israel's economic blockade.

Imposed last year after Gaza fell under the control of the militant Palestinian faction Hamas, the blockade was designed to make Hamas unpopular with Gaza's 1.4 million residents by banning virtually all trade with the outside world.

But deep beneath the watchtowers and fences of Gaza's 10-mile long border with Egypt, a sprawling warren of hand-dug burrows now supplies everything from food, petrol and designer jeans through to guns, drugs and black market Marlboro cigarettes.

Tunnel gangs charge premiums of up to 150 per cent on their cargos, raking in tens of thousands of dollars a week and making the excavation business one of Gaza's few growth industries.

"We bring through laptops, clothes, computers, medicines, mobile phones and even people," said Hisham al Loukh, 23, another tunneller. "There was even a bride from Egypt who came through one recently to get married to a man in Gaza."

The first tunnels underneath Gaza's perimeters were dug years ago, when they were they were primarily to smuggle weapons and explosives for use against Israel.

But it is during the blockade of the past year that the tunnellers' hazardous craft has really come to the fore. On some estimates there are now up to 500 passageways across to Egypt, mostly clustered around the town of Rafah, which straddles the border.

The tunnels usually surface in the gardens of villas on the Egyptian side of Rafah, where many residents are either sympathetic to the Palestinian cause or willing to lend their properties in return for a share of the lucrative profits.

Each member of a tunnelling gang, usually working in day and night shifts of 10 men each, earns around $15 per metre of passageway dug, which counts as a decent wage in an area which currently has 80 per cent unemployment. But as even the briefest of sojourns down into one of the tunnels makes clear, it is a risky living.

Entering one requires perching precariously on a makeshift wooden chairlift, which is then lowered down the 30 foot deep shaft by a winch powered by a sputtering petrol generator.

As in the Second World War film classic The Great Escape, the tunnel's walls are propped up with makeshift wooden planks, and equipped with ventilation pumps to freshen the musty, damp air at the bottom.

Diggers then use small electric drills to carve a path through the thick clay soil, steering their way by hand-held compass.

But otherwise, the engineering expertise has advanced little since the days of Tom, Dick and Harry. Tunnel collapses have led to dozens of fatalaties - so many that some local shops honour tunnellers in the same fashion as "martyred" local militants, displaying pictures of them clutching spades and drills rather than assault rifles.

The threat is not just from earthfalls. The Egyptian government, which has traditionally turned a blind eye to the tunnels because of historic sympathy for Gaza's Palestinian residents, is now under growing pressure from both Israel and the US to shut them down, and in recent months Egyptian border guards have started dynamiting any entrances that they discover.

"They also pump in water, poison gas, and even sewage," said Mr Sazzar. "But they do not stop us. If part of one tunnel gets blocked, we just dig a new branch in a different direction."

On the Gaza side, little effort is made to hide the tunnels, which lurk under a network of tents and jerry-built shacks along the border.

Israel, which withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005, has occasionally sent warplanes to bomb the passageways, but has not done so since striking a cease-fire deal with Hamas three months ago.

Hamas itself used to impose strict controls on the tunnels' numbers, but has allowed them to proliferate in recent months, mindful that too much economic privation will dent its already wavering popularity with Gaza's impoverished residents.

There are also rumours that Hamas rakes in millions of dollars by imposing an unofficial "tax" on all tunnelled goods, although Dr Ahmed Yousef, a senior advisor in Hamas's foreign ministry, denies such claims.

"The tunnels have become a necessity with everybody tightening the rope around our necks," he said. "It is a safety valve to make goods available, because we cannot get them from Israel."

Tunnel entrepreneurs are now enjoying such good business, however, that they now have a vested interest in the status quo.

In recent months a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel has raised hopes that the economic blockade might be eased, but some in Gaza fear that should that ever look like happening, local tunnel owners will sabotage it by paying militants to fire rockets into Israel again.

Meanwhile, the list of tunnel "martyrs" continues to grow. The day after The Sunday Telegraph visited, a neighbouring tunnel at Rafah collapsed, killing three people and injuring five others.

Last Updated: 5:37PM BST 27 Sep 2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/3089367/Inside-Gazas-secret-smuggling-tunnels-the-underground-route-to-riches---or-to-death.html

Bush Denied Permission for Israel to Attack Iran

Israel asked US for green light to bomb nuclear sites in Iran

US president told Israeli prime minister he would not back attack on Iran, senior European diplomatic sources tell Guardian

* Jonathan Steele * guardian.co.uk,

Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources have told the Guardian.

The then prime minister, Ehud Olmert, used the occasion of Bush's trip to Israel for the 60th anniversary of the state's founding to raise the issue in a one-on-one meeting on May 14, the sources said. "He took it [the refusal of a US green light] as where they were at the moment, and that the US position was unlikely to change as long as Bush was in office", they added.

The sources work for a European head of government who met the Israeli leader some time after the Bush visit. Their talks were so sensitive that no note-takers attended, but the European leader subsequently divulged to his officials the highly sensitive contents of what Olmert had told him of Bush's position.

Bush's decision to refuse to offer any support for a strike on Iran appeared to be based on two factors, the sources said. One was US concern over Iran's likely retaliation, which would probably include a wave of attacks on US military and other personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on shipping in the Persian Gulf.

The other was US anxiety that Israel would not succeed in disabling Iran's nuclear facilities in a single assault even with the use of dozens of aircraft. It could not mount a series of attacks over several days without risking full-scale war. So the benefits would not outweigh the costs.

Iran has repeatedly said it would react with force to any attack. Some western government analysts believe this could include asking Lebanon's Shia movement Hizbollah to strike at the US.

"It's over ten years since Hizbollah's last terror strike outside Israel, when it hit an Argentine-Israel association building in Buenos Aires [killing 85 people]", said one official. "There is a large Lebanese diaspora in Canada which must include some Hizbollah supporters. They could slip into the United States and take action".

Even if Israel were to launch an attack on Iran without US approval its planes could not reach their targets without the US becoming aware of their flightpath and having time to ask them to abandon their mission.

"The shortest route to Natanz lies across Iraq and the US has total control of Iraqi airspace", the official said. Natanz, about 100 miles north of Isfahan, is the site of an uranium enrichment plant.

In this context Iran would be bound to assume Bush had approved it, even if the White House denied fore-knowledge, raising the prospect of an attack against the US.

Several high-level Israeli officials have hinted over the last two years that Israel might strike Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent them being developed to provide sufficient weapons-grade uranium to make a nuclear bomb. Iran has always denied having such plans.

Olmert himself raised the possibility of an attack at a press conference during a visit to London last November, when he said sanctions were not enough to block Iran's nuclear programme.

"Economic sanctions are effective. They have an important impact already, but they are not sufficient. So there should be more. Up to where? Up until Iran will stop its nuclear programme," he said.

The revelation that Olmert was not merely sabre-rattling to try to frighten Iran but considered the option seriously enough to discuss it with Bush shows how concerned Israeli officials had become.

Bush's refusal to support an attack, and the strong suggestion he would not change his mind, is likely to end speculation that Washington might be preparing an "October surprise" before the US presidential election. Some analysts have argued that Bush would back an Israeli attack in an effort to help John McCain's campaign by creating an eve-of-poll security crisis.

Others have said that in the case of an Obama victory, the vice-president, Dick Cheney, the main White House hawk, would want to cripple Iran's nuclear programme in the dying weeks of Bush's term.

During Saddam Hussein's rule in 1981, Israeli aircraft successfully destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak shortly before it was due to start operating.

Last September they knocked out a buildings complex in northern Syria, which US officials later said had been a partly constructed nuclear reactor based on a North Korean design. Syria said the building was a military complex but had no links to a nuclear programme.

In contrast, Iran's nuclear facilities, which are officially described as intended only for civilian purposes, are dispersed around the country and some are in fortified bunkers underground.

In public, Bush gave no hint of his view that the military option had to be excluded. In a speech to the Knesset the following day he confined himself to telling Israel's parliament: "America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.''

Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman, tonight reacted to the Guardian's story saying: "The need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is raised at every meeting between the prime minister and foreign leaders. Israel prefers a diplomatic solution to this issue but all options must remain on the table. Your unnamed European source attributed words to the prime minister that were not spoken in any working meeting with foreign guests".

Three weeks after Bush's red light, on June 2, Israel mounted a massive air exercise covering several hundred miles in the eastern Mediterranean. It involved dozens of warplanes, including F-15s, F-16s and aerial refueling tankers.

The size and scope of the exercise ensured that the US and other nations in the region saw it, said a US official, who estimated the distance was about the same as from Israel to Natanz.

A few days later, Israel's deputy prime minister, Shaul Mofaz, told the paper Yediot Ahronot: "If Iran continues its programme to develop nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The window of opportunity has closed. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear programme."

The exercise and Mofaz's comments may have been designed to boost the Israeli government and military's own morale as well, perhaps, to persuade Bush to reconsider his veto. Last week Mofaz narrowly lost a primary within the ruling Kadima party to become Israel's next prime minister. Tzipi Livni, who won the contest, takes a less hawkish position.

The US announced two weeks ago that it would sell Israel 1,000 bunker-busting bombs. The move was interpreted by some analysts as a consolation prize for Israel after Bush told Olmert of his opposition to an attack on Iran. But it could also enhance Israel's attack options in case the next US president revives the military option.

The guided bomb unit-39 (GBU-39) has a penetration capacity equivalent to a one-tonne bomb. Israel already has some bunker-busters.

* Thursday September 25 2008 19:02 BST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/25/iran.israelandthepalestinians1