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US to Sell Israel Bunker-Busters
Israel facing ‘diplomatic tsunami’ with Arab neighbors
JERUSALEM — The attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo has brought into sharp relief Israel’s increasing isolation in a still region grappling with the changes of the Arab Spring.
Israel was forced to evacuate its ambassador and most of its diplomatic staff from Cairo this weekend after hundreds of Egyptian protesters tore down a security wall protecting the Nile-side embassy, ransacked its files and burned an Israeli flag. It came less than a week after Turkey, Israel’s other major ally in the Muslim world, announced it was expelling the Israeli ambassador and downgrading its relationship to the lowest possible level after a deadly skirmish involving a Turkish aid vessel that was attempting to Read more…
Israeli envoy leaves Cairo after embassy attack
Protesters flee from tear gas during clashes in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo September 10, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
By Amena Bakr and Mohamed Abdellah
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel flew its ambassador home from Cairo on Saturday after protesters stormed its embassy building, plunging Egypt’s military rulers into their worst diplomatic crisis since they took over from Hosni Mubarak.
Three people were killed and 1,049 wounded in clashes between protesters and police, the Health Ministry said.
The United States, which has poured billions of dollars of military aid into Egypt since it made peace with Israel in 1979, urged Cairo to protect the embassy after protesters hurled embassy documents and the Read more…
IDF general: Likelihood of regional war growing
Iranian missile (Photo: Reuters)
Recent revolutions in the Arab world and the deteriorating ties with Turkey are raising the likelihood of a regional war in the Middle East, IDF Home Front Command Chief, Major General Eyal Eisenberg warned Monday.
“It looks like the Arab Spring, but it can also be a radical Islamic winter,” he said in a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
“This leads us to the conclusion that through a long-term process, the likelihood of an all-out war is increasingly growing,” the IDF general said.
“Iran has not abandoned its nuclear program. The opposite it true; it continues full steam ahead,” he said. “In Egypt, the army is collapsing under the burden of regular security operations, and this is reflected in the loss of control in the Sinai and the turning of the border with Israel into a terror border, with the possibility that Sinai will fall under the control of an Islamic entity.”
“In Lebanon, Hezbollah is growing stronger within government arms, but it has Read more…
‘March of the Million’: Over 460,000 protest across country
Demonstrators in Tel Aviv’s Kikar Hamedina take part in huge rally demanding social justice; Student Union chair to PM: “Let us live in this country”; Large demonstrations in J’lem, Haifa, Afula.
An estimated 460,000 people gathered across the country on Saturday evening to protest for social change as part of the “March of the Million,” Channel 10 news reported.
Over 300,000 people were in Kikar Hamedina in Tel Aviv where a huge rally was taking place after a march through the streets of the city.
Student Union Chairman Itzik Shmueli called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to “Let us live in this country,” during a speech at the rally in Kikar Hamedina.
“Mr. Prime Minister, take a good look at us: We’re the new Israelis,” he told the hundreds of thousands of people who Read more…
Report: Israel sends 2 warships to Egyptian border
Military sources tell AP Israeli Navy sent additional warships to maritime border with Egypt following intelligence indicating viable terror threat. Meanwhile, Iran set to send 15th fleet to area as well as ‘to thwart pirate activity
The Israeli Navy (INF) has decided to boost its presence and patrols near Israel‘s maritime border with Egypt due to a viable terror threat in the area.
Israeli security sources told the Associated Press on Tuesday that two additional warships have been dispatched to Israel’s Red Sea border with Egypt. Another source stressed that the operation was routine, telling Reuters that “two naval craft have been sent to the Red Sea. This is not unusual.”
On Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Benny Gantz ordered that Read more…
Former head of Israel’s National Security Council (NSC): “Israel Prepares for War with Egypt in Sinai Desert”
The former head of Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) urges military action by the regime in the Sinai Peninsula, following growing tensions with Egypt.Uzi Dayan told Israel’s Channel 7 on Friday that Israeli military and security forces should prepare for a period different from the past in dealing with the new Egyptian government.
He claimed that the military effort would aim to target those that represent a threat to the Israeli regime.
“This is the time for the Israeli army to prevail its control inside Sinai,” Dayan went on to say.
Israeli troops are banned from entering the Sinai Peninsula under a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt.
Tensions have escalated between Cairo and the Tel Aviv regime after Israeli soldiers killed several Egyptian military and security personnel on Thursday.
Dayan also revealed that a meeting was held in the presence of Read more…
Religious violence, abuse growing: world study
WASHINGTON — Religious-linked violence and abuse rose around the world between 2006 and 2009, with Christians and Muslims the most common targets, according to a private US study released Tuesday.
“Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66 percent) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59 percent),” said the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life study.
In 2009, governments in 101 nations, more than half the globe, used at least some measure of force against religious groups. A year earlier only 91 nations had done so, the report said.
As of 2009, more than 2.2 billion people, or nearly a third of the world’s population of 6.9 billion, lived in countries where religious restrictions had risen substantially since Read more…
PM would accept pre-’67 lines as baseline for talks
Israel to negotiate using 1967 lines, with mutually agreed swaps, if Palestinians accept two states, one Palestinian and one Jewish.
With the Palestinians set to seek recognition of statehood at the UN in just a number of weeks, Israel said Tuesday it would be willing to accept the 1967 lines as a framework for talks as part of a package in which the Palestinians would recognize Jewish state.
Israeli officials said this framework would be a package deal whereby Israel would agree to entering negotiations using the 1967 lines, with mutually agreed upon swaps, as the baseline of talks; and the Palestinians would agree that the final goal of negotiations would be two states, a Palestinian one and Jewish one.
Israel raised the formula as officials from both parties, the US, EU and Russia are continuing to work on a document to provide a framework for a return to negotiations that could make a Palestinian bid at the UN superfluous.
According to this formulation, one official explained, each side would get something: The Palestinians would get the 1967 lines as the baseline, something they have long sought; and Israel would get Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
Israel, according to the official, has made Read more…
Israel Protests: Has Israel Been Hit by the Arab Spring?
As Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing the strongest wave of protests since he took office, he was forced to announce that members of his government would meet protesters to try and calm public discontent.
Reuters
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
In the last two weeks, tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to demonstrate against the rising living costs, putting pressure on Netanyahu and asking for reforms.
This week-end has seen the largest wave of protests hit the country when more than 150,000 protesters gathered at sites across Israel on Saturday night, which analysts say could have been inspired by anti-government protests in neighbouring Arab countries.
Israelis are growing concerned with the increasing gap between rich and poor, high taxes and food prices, the cost of education and call for greater state involvement.
On the other hand, the middle class is also unhappy and insist it has become a de facto minority. Protests over Read more…
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