US Attack on Syria Claimed

This follows an Israeli attack months ago and is comparable to US attacks inside Pakistan. These things don't accomplish much more than to stir up anger and anti-US resentment among the people of the countries attacked, raising the possibility of a wider war for overstretched US forces.

US helicopters attack Syrian village, say witnesses

American military helicopters have tonight attacked an area along Syria's border with Iraq, causing casualties, according to reports on Syrian state TV and from witnesses.

Quoting unnamed Syrian officials, the television report said the area is near the Syrian border town of Abu Kamal.

Local residents told the Associated Press by telephone that two helicopters carrying US soldiers raided a farm in Hwijeh village, 10 miles (17km) inside Syria's border.

An official Syrian spokesman confirmed eight people were killed in the attack.

Witnesses said five others were wounded; one of the witnesses said five of the dead were from a single family.

The residents refused to allow their names to be given because they feared they would be harassed by authorities.

The US military in Baghdad had no immediate comment.

The area is near the Iraqi border city of Qaim, which had been a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money coming into Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency.

The Syrian foreign ministry has summoned the US charge d'affaires in Damascus to protest at the raid, Syria's state news agency SANA reported tonight.

Syria's deputy foreign minister had informed the US official of "Syria's protest and condemnation of this serious attack", it said. The Iraqi charge d'affaires had been summoned for the same reason, it said.

Iraqi insurgents seized Qaim in April 2005, forcing US marines to recapture the town the following month in heavy fighting. The area became secure only after Sunni tribes in Anbar turned against al-Qaida in late 2006 and joined forces with the Americans.

* guardian.co.uk, * Sunday October 26 2008 19.45 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/26/syria-iraq-helicopter-attack

Sinbad and a Possible Israeli Nuclear Attack on Iran

This has more details on the issue.

Experts: Israel lacks capability to hit Iran's nuke facilities

US weekly Newsweek quotes Western intelligence officials as saying Jewish state unable to destroy Tehran's nuclear facilities using just conventional weapons

Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON - Western intelligence experts believe that Iran's nuclear facilities are so deep underground that it would be difficult for Israel to wipe them out, or even significantly damage them with an air strike, according to an article which will be published by American weekly Newsweek next Monday.

The magazine's Periscope section quotes a "Western official" as saying that in order to seriously setback Iran's nuclear program, at least four of its key development sites would have to be hit, but they are located in tunnels fortified by barriers more than 60 feet thick.

According to the official and other US experts, Israel simply does not possess conventional weapons capable of decommissioning these facilities, since breaking through the thick shell would require, at minimum, several bunker-buster bombs striking precisely the same spot.

Former UN nuclear expert David Albright told the magazine that "these targets would be very hard to destroy."

The report also states that theoretically, Israel could do a lot more damage with a nuclear strike, but US and other Western experts say there is no reason to believe the Israel will be the first to use nuclear weapons.

The magazine then goes into details of the "Sinbad Affair": Two Western sources involved in the counter-proliferation efforts against Iran, US and allied efforts to keep tabs on Iranian nukes suffered a blow recently, due to a miscommunication between the various intelligence agencies.

Sources quoted in the report said that for more than 10 years, Germany's BND (the equivalent of the CIA) employed an Iranian-Canadian informant known by the code name "Sinbad." Sinbad peddled technology to the Iranians, and in turn brought the BND high-quality Iranian government documents, including what was described by the leading German publication Der Spiegel, as "pictures of tunnel-digging machinery and briefing papers on nuclear delivery systems."

But the espionage operation recently ran aground when German Customs officers, unaware of Sinbad's role as a spy, busted him for illegal missile-technology shipments to Iran.

Sinbad had concealed extracurricular schemes from the BND, and the spy agency had no power to stop the investigation. One of the counter-proliferation officials said that Sinbad's arrest was "a significant blow to espionage efforts against Iran's nuclear program."

Published: 10.26.08, 08:17 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3612988,00.html

Jewish UN Official Accuses Israel of Geneva Violations

Israel has long tried to fool people that it is not an "occupier" of Palestine, and thus not subject to the Geneva Conventions, but this Jewish law professor has the courage to stand up and tell the truth about the "Emperor's new clothes."

UN: Israel violated Geneva Conventions

By ALLISON HOFFMAN, JPOST CORRESPONDENT IN NEW YORK

The UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the territories has accused Israel of failing to halt settlement expansion in keeping with the Annapolis protocols and of violating the Geneva Conventions in Gaza.

Richard Falk, an American Jewish law professor who has been an outspoken critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, recommended Thursday that the UN resume economic assistance to Gaza irrespective of whether Hamas satisfies political conditions set by Israel.

He also suggested that the General Assembly ask the International Court of Justice to conduct an assessment of Israeli actions in Gaza and said the UN should ask Switzerland to convene a review of Israel's compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

He added that the world body should "explore its own responsibility with respect to the well-being of the Palestinians living under the unlawful conditions of occupation."

Falk, who described Israel's approach to Gaza as a "siege," pointed to the difficulty of obtaining exit visas from Gaza for medical care as evidence of Israel's "collective punishment" of Gazans.

He cited increased checkpoint security in the West Bank as evidence that the Israeli government was reneging on promises made at Annapolis, which were "specifically understood to commit Israel both to ease restrictions on movement of Palestinians subject to occupation and to freeze settlement activity."

The presentation to the General Assembly's social and humanitarian committee, chaired by the Dutch, was Falk's first since taking over as rapporteur in May from John Dugard, a South African expert on apartheid.

It accompanied Falk's report, submitted to the committee by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in September, in which he insisted that Gaza remains under occupation despite the 2005 disengagement, and therefore is subject to protection under international law.

Israeli envoy Ady Schonmann, a human rights expert in the Foreign Ministry, appeared before the committee to criticize the report, saying that it reflected the "partisan political position which has taken root at the Human Rights Council."

The council, the successor body to the UN Human Rights Commission, has included reviews of alleged human rights abuses by Israel as a regular agenda item sponsored by Islamic countries.

Schonmann protested the "unbalanced nature" of Falk's report, which did not take into account terrorist acts perpetrated by the Palestinians and legitimized Hamas while ignoring "the fact that Hamas's own leaders continue to call for the total destruction of the State of Israel, to reject a two-state solution, to reject the Annapolis process and to declare their active support for terrorism."

Schonmann also criticized Falk for relying on anonymous sources and cherry-picking academics to support his claims.

Falk, for his part, returned the jab by criticizing Israel for refusing to grant him a visa.

Falk's appointment by the UN's Human Rights Council was roundly rejected by Israel, which cited Falk's comparison in 2007 of Israeli treatment of Palestinians to Nazi treatment of Jews in Germany.

Falk told the BBC in an April interview that he made the comparison to shock Americans, adding that he felt the Gaza situation was akin to the crisis in Darfur or the repression of Tibet.

Oct 25, 2008 22:41 | Updated Oct 26, 2008 1:33

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017624172&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israel Mulling Nuclear Attack on Iran?

COMMENT: This story suggests there are only two options: a sustained US strike on Iran, or an Israeli nuclear attack (maybe Cheney would be crazy enough to launch a US nuclear strike).

Experts say Israel unable to hit Iranian nuclear facilities

American and other Western intelligence experts quoted by the Newsweek weekly believe that Iran's nuclear facilities are so deep underground that it would be difficult for Israel to wipe them out, or even significantly damage them, with a quick airstrike.

The experts noted that Israel does not possess conventional weapons capable of knocking out the facilities. Theoretically, they said, Israel could do a lot more damage with a nuclear strike, but there is no reason to believe the Israelis will abandon their policy against shooting first with nukes. (Yitzhak Benhorin, Washington)

Published: 10.26.08, 06:54 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3612969,00.html

Israel "Boycott": Swedes Relocate

Much propaganda is seen trying to turn those boycotting Israel into "anti-semites." Here we see what is more typically the truth. The Swedish company is not boycotting Israel, only Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory: its relocated factory will be in Israel.

Swedes relocate West Bank firm

By TOVAH LAZAROFF

In an unusual situation for the West Bank's Barkan Industrial Park, which so far has largely escaped the pressure of international boycotts, a Swedish-based locksmith company that operates a factory there announced this week that it was relocating to within the Green Line for political reasons.

"We're leaving because [the industrial park] is in the West Bank," Ann Holmberg, spokeswoman for the Assa Abloy company, told The Jerusalem Post by phone from Sweden on Thursday.

Assa Abloy, which acquired the Yavneh-based firm Mul-T-Lock in 2000, also purchased a subsidiary plant at that time in the Barkan Industrial Park, which is located more than 10 kilometers over the Green Line, near Ariel.

The company, Holmberg said, was remiss in not understanding the significance of the location until last month, when the point was hammered home by a report issued jointly by the Church of Sweden, aid group Diakonia, and SwedWatch, a nonprofit group that monitors the conduct of Swedish businesses.

The report, Holmberg said, accused the company of acting in an "unethical" manner and of "violating international law" by having a subsidiary in the West Bank.

The report itself listed a number of international laws it believed the company had broken.

It stated that "businessmen and -women may either be found directly liable for the commission of crimes against international law, or they may be found to have assisted others in the commission of a crime."

A contrite Holmberg said, "We are very sorry that we did not notice it before, but we did not understand that we might be violating international law."

In a statement Tuesday, the company said, "Assa Abloy can only in this context regret that the inappropriateness has not been noted internally, during the eight years of ownership, of having a production unit on the West Bank."

Representatives of Diakonia in Israel did not want to comment on the issue. But Adam Keller of the Israeli left-wing group Gush Shalom said he believed other companies in Barkan were considering leaving. International pressure makes it hard for these companies to conduct business outside of Israel, he said.

Just a few months ago, he added, Barkan Wineries left as well.

Still, Assa Abloy remains one of the few to do so based on such a public statement of ethical consideration. The factory, which was first opened there in 1984, employs 100 people.

Gershon Mesika, head of the Samaria Regional Council, which operates the Barkan industrial site, said that the move did not concern him, because demand to conduct business in the park - which is located on 1,400 dunams and is home to 120 businesses - was so high that there was a waiting list of 30 companies that wanted to move in.

His spokesman David Ha'ivri said the park itself was in the process of rezoning so it could expand by another 100 dunams.

The businesses themselves are an important source of employment for both Israelis and Palestinians in the area, Ha'ivri said, noting that out of the 6,000 workers in the park, some 3,500 are Palestinians - many of whom live nearby and who could not attain work permits for businesses over the Green Line.

"If the settlements and the factories were not here, these 3,500 Palestinians would not have a place to work," said Ha'ivri.

In this park, he added, "Jews are Arabs are working together, and this is the true meaning of coexistence." He blamed the European Union for the move and said, "It is unfortunate that the policy of the European Union is forcing successful factories out of the Barkan area. They are not able to deter the popular demand for more factories."

Ariel Mayor Ran Nachman, who created the park 27 years ago, said it was outrageous that a company, particularly a European-based one, was leaving for political reasons.

When the Nazis herded Jews into the gas chambers, Nachman said, "Sweden was neutral and did nothing. Sixty-five years later, nothing has changed. It is the same Europe and the same anti-Semitism."

The Israeli left-wing groups that work with them, such as Gush Shalom, are even worse, Nachman said, adding that if one goes back to ancient times, the Bible doesn't speak of Palestinians, but it does state that this is the "promised land of the Jewish people."

He declared that when "Gush Shalom dies and disappears," the Barkan Park will still be here.

Oct 23, 2008 23:11 | Updated Oct 24, 2008 11:21

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017612406&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

More Race Riots in Israel: Extremist Jews Attack Arabs

Witness: Haredi youths beat Arab taxi drivers in Jerusalem

By Haaretz Service

Ultra-Orthodox youths rioted in Jerusalem overnight, throwing stones at passing cars and beating Arab taxi drivers, Israel Radio quoted an eyewitness as saying on Wednesday.

According to Israel Radio, the youths beat the taxi drivers after stopping them to find out whether they were Arab. They also set a number of dumpsters alight. The incidents occurred in the Haredi neighborhood of Meah She'arim.

The group was later dispersed by police, who have not yet made any arrests in connection with the rioting.

On Sunday, Jerusalem police arrested three young Israeli Jews after scuffles broke out with Arabs when a garbage truck driven by an Arab was stoned on Bar-Ilan Street. The driver was treated for minor injuries.

A total of seven Arabs were injured in clashes with Jews in Jerusalem on Sunday. In one pre-dawn incident, six Arabs were injured in a brawl with a group of Jewish youths.

The violence came in the wake of Jewish-Arab clashes in the northern city of Acre over the Yom Kippur holiday.

Last update - 14:19 22/10/2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1030418.html

OBAMA UNCLEAN?

Support for McCain was highest - 90% - among Orthodox Jews who said they socialized exclusively with other Jews. . .

[COMMENT: Old Testament, Torah laws of ritual purity forbid certain types of interaction with non-Jews, and should they occur, a purification ritual is required.]

NYU poll: US Jews favor Obama 2:1

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER

NEW YORK

American Jews favor Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama by a ratio of two-to-one, according to survey results being released Monday by researchers at New York University.

The data, taken from a nationwide poll conducted in early September, indicates that Jews as a group are 30 percent more likely than other white, non-Hispanic voters to support Obama.

Surprisingly, the poll found that gap widened to nearly 40% among Jews who rank Israel "very high" as a factor in their choice of candidate, indicating that Israel is a key issue for Jews across the political spectrum.

"Jews always look at candidates in their own camp as more sympathetic to their positions as Jews, so liberal Jews will tend to feel Obama is more pro-Israel than conservative Jews do," lead researcher Steven Cohen, a professor of Jewish social policy at Hebrew Union College, told The Jerusalem Post.

"In fact, liberal Jews have an argument about why McCain is bad for Israel, just as conservative Jews have an argument for why Obama is bad for Israel," he said. "There's a tendency toward cognitive consistency."

Nonetheless, support for McCain tracked support for Israel, with 58% of Jews who said Israel was very important favoring McCain.

US Democratic presidential...

US Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama, prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City.

Photo: AP

Orthodox Jews - a category that encompasses Modern Orthodox and haredi respondents, Cohen said - were the likeliest to support McCain, with 73% indicating support for the Republican over just 27% for Obama.

Support for McCain was highest - 90% - among Orthodox Jews who said they socialized exclusively with other Jews, while only 60% of Orthodox respondents who said they had non-Jewish friends planned to vote for McCain.

Cohen said that while New York Senator Hillary Clinton might have had an easier time attracting Jewish voters than Obama has had, he did not believe large numbers of Jewish Democratic voters would change parties in November.

"I'm willing to speculate that Obama had a bit of a tougher time than Hillary - she's from New York, where most Jewish voters are, and she's familiar," Cohen said. "But if you look at the organized Jewish community, for years already you see that hardline pro-Israel Jews were arguing the Republicans were a better choice."

Yet even Jews who categorized themselves as conservative Republicans were far likelier to support Obama, with 7% indicating they planned to vote for the Democrat over just 1% of non-Jewish conservative white voters.

The difference was almost nil at the other end of the spectrum, where 97% of Jews who said they were liberal Democrats planned to vote for Obama, slightly more than the 96% of non-Jewish liberal Democrats.

Mark Mellman, a Democratic strategist, said Obama's recent surge in national polls and in states like Florida negated the possible electoral impact of a rightward swing among Jewish voters at the margin.

"The question in 2008 is, are we talking about 66% Jewish support for Obama or 75%? That's the range of difference," Mellman said. "In some years that could make the difference between winning and losing, but this year it's not likely to because so many other people are voting for Obama."

At the time of the survey, slightly more than half of all Jewish voters - 51% - favored Obama, while just 25% favored McCain and 24% were still undecided.

That translates into 67% for Obama versus 33% for McCain among those who had already made their choice - though Cohen estimated support for the Democrat among Jews at 75% today, based on his lead in more recent polls.

National polls released Sunday by Gallup and Reuters/C-Span/Zogby indicated a three-point lead for Obama, while an expanded Gallup poll of likely voters showed Obama as much as seven points ahead.

The survey, conducted by the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, was conducted by Synovate, which contacted more than 1,500 Jewish respondents in September.

Another Synovate poll conducted on behalf of the American Jewish Committee in September indicated that 57% of Jews intended to support Obama, with 30% for McCain and just 13% undecided.

Oct 19, 2008 23:58 | Updated Oct 20, 2008 10:54

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017577374&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Axles of Evil? Israel and North Korea

A strange pairing.

Report: Israel world's 2nd most dangerous country for pedestrians

National Road Safety Authority data shows 37% of road accident fatalities in Israel are of pedestrians, notes 14% rise in 2008 alone

Udi Etzion

Israel is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for pedestrians, a recent National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) report suggests.

According to NRSA's data, Israel is ranked second in the world as far as the number of pedestrians who are killed in vehicular accidents goes, with 37% of all road accident fatalities in the country being those of pedestrians. Topping the list is North Korea.

"We've seen a 14% rise in pedestrians fatalities since the beginning of 2008, as opposed to a drop in the number of drivers and passengers' fatalities," Yair Dori, head of the National Road Safety Authority, told Yedioth Ahronoth.

"We keep seeing people who cross the street in red lights or outside a crosswalk, because many of them seem to think that the drivers' are the ones solely responsible for their safety, and that once they set foot on the road, any driver who sees them will immediately hit the brakes.

"That is a false sense of security," added Dori, "as there is no guarantee that would happen. Even people who cross the streets in a legal fashion, must take the proper precautions."

Published: 10.19.08, 10:04 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3610392,00.html

Saving a Legacy: Secret Bush Hanky Panky with Syria

Does Bush seriously think Israel would trade the Golan for a Bush "Legacy"? Bush seems desperate to show *some* (*any*) foreign policy achievement for his EIGHT YEARS in office.

Report: Bush offered to press Israel to quit Golan if Syria cuts Iran ties

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent

U.S. President George W. Bush has apparently offered his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, to press Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights if Damascus promises to cut its relations with Iran, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jareida reported on Friday.

According to the report, Bush made the offer in a handwritten letter transferred to Assad by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

A Palestinian source close to Abbas told the newspaper that the U.S. had presented the offer in a meeting with Syrian officials day earlier.

If Assad agrees to the American proposal, he will carry out his end of the deal in the coming weeks, said the report.

Bush is keen on implementing the deal before the upcoming U.S. elections, said the newspaper, in order to significantly advance the peace process before the end of his term.

The Palestinian source said that Abbas and his entourage were unaware of the content of Bush's letter, as it was meant to remain covert and away from diplomatic eyes, according to the report.

Even the American envoy in Damascus was not privy to this information, said the newspaper.

Despite this, the Palestinian source said that Abbas' latest visit to Damascus was intended for the principle purpose of passing on this letter, said the newspaper. While on the visit, he scheduled no meetings with Palestinian officials or other diplomats in the area.

Last update - 12:14 17/10/2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1029573.html

Iran: More Bush Blundering

Does Bush value the arms deal with Taiwan more than action on Iran? (Hey, the US needs the money !!!) Bush's position on Georgia alienated the Russians, now he antagonizes the Chinese - - just at a time when he needs friendly relations with both.

Diplomats: China blocking new Iran sanctions talks

American officials say Beijing refusing to commit to high-level talks about imposing new sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program, apparently in retaliation for US arms sales to Taiwan

Associated Press

China is blocking high-level talks about imposing new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, apparently in retaliation for US arms sales to Taiwan, according to US officials and diplomats briefed on the matter.

The Bush administration has been trying for more than a week to arrange a conference call among senior officials from the six nations negotiating with Iran. But they have so far been stymied by China's refusal to commit, they said on Thursday.

The officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity in discussing internal deliberations between the United States and its negotiating partners: The other four permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, France and Russia - along with Germany.

The call has been expected since Iran's top nuclear envoy wrote a letter to the six countries on October 6 complaining about the attitude of the West in the talks.

The group discussion is the next step in a slow-moving pressure campaign designed to persuade Iran to give up objectionable parts of its nuclear program. Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon.

The Chinese have not explained why they are balking at the conference call, but diplomats said they assume it is related to the Bush administration's October 3 announcement that it will sell up to $6.5 billion in advanced weaponry to Taiwan.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

West wants urgent consultations

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and is vehemently opposed to such sales. The announcement from Washington prompted a furious response from Beijing, which canceled several upcoming military exchanges with the United States. US officials have defended the sales and called China's response "unfortunate."

At the time, US officials said they did not expect the Chinese moves to extend beyond bilateral cooperation with the United States. China told the US that it would continue to play active roles in efforts over both Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs. China has not stopped cooperating in six-nation talks to get North Korea to abandon nuclear arms.

However, its stalling on the Iran conference call has raised concerns in Washington and European capitals, where officials want urgent consultations on how to move ahead with the Iranians. Iran is defying international demands to halt suspect nuclear activity and refused to accept incentives it has been offered to stop.

Iran is currently under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions and the United States and Europe want to impose a fourth round despite resistance from China and Russia.

Before the Taiwan arms sale was announced, the biggest hurdle to discussions on new Iran sanctions was Russia, which, angered by US and European criticism of its invasion of Georgia, thwarted a foreign ministers' meeting on the subject during the UN General Assembly late last month.

Russia eventually agreed to a new Security Council resolution that reaffirmed previous UN sanctions on Iran but did not add any new penalties.

Published: 10.17.08, 07:01 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3609865,00.html