Netanyahu envisions ‘major’ war in coming months

Amid lingering talks of war on Iran, Israel’s prime minister-designate raises the alarm about a major military conflict in the coming months.

The soon-to-be prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that „a national emergency” such as Israel’s involvement in a major war would help him in his frantic attempts to form a new ruling coalition.

Following the inconclusive February 20 elections, Benjamin „Bibi” Netanyahu, the hawkish leader of Likud, was tasked with piecing together a new Israeli government.

Netanyahu, who is known as „Mr. Iran” in Israeli circles, has so far failed to gain the trust and support of opposition parties of Kadima and Labor.

According to a report carried by Debka, which is believed to have close links to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, Bibi is planning to settle for a provisional administration before calling for another early election in six months.

„His main consideration is that Israel expects to be embroiled in a major military confrontation in the next few months with Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah – or all three at once,” read the Debka report.

„A national emergency” would then compel Israeli rivals to join Bibi’s government, unnamed political sources were quoted as saying.

The military conflict prediction by the Israeli prime minister-designate comes as earlier on February 16, an annual defense work plan presented to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi for the year 2009 described Iran as „the No.1 threat the IDF is now preparing for.”

The report tasked the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) with reinforcing its strategic aerial capabilities, while zooming in on the development of „remote-piloted vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles”, as well as „infrastructural investments in intelligence and communications devices.”

Israel, believed to be the only possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, describes Iran’s nuclear activities as a threat to its existence.

Israeli officials claim that considering the pace at which Iran is moving ahead with its nuclear program it would become a nuclear power by the end of 2009 and argue that a military attack is a legitimate option for taking out the country’s nuclear infrastructure.

As a response to long-standing Israeli war rhetoric, Iran has moved to upgrade its defenses and has reportedly opted to clinch a deal with Russia to acquire a sophisticated air defense system – the S-300.

Earlier on Tuesday, however, a report revealed that Moscow might take a step and shelve the delivery of the controversial air defense system to Iran as Russia is currently seeking to turn a „new page” in its ties with the US.

„Such a possibility is not excluded. The question [of S-300 delivery] must be decided at a political level, especially as the contract was worked out on a purely commercial basis,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying.

The freeze in the delivery of the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile is expected to help ensure the success of an Israeli airstrike on Iranian nuclear sites.
Western military experts have estimated that the controversial system would rule out the possibility of any such strike on Iranian facilities.

„If Tehran obtained the S-300, it would be a game-changer in military thinking for tackling Iran,” says long-time Pentagon advisor Dan Goure.

Bulldozer Attack in Jerusalem Linked to Palestinian Evictions

It has been speculated that the attack by a 26-year-old Palestinian man ramming a bulldozer into an Israeli police car in Jerusalem was linked to Israeli plans to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, widely believed to be part of the Jewish state’s strategy to change the face of the holy city by expelling its Arab residents.

Palestinian sources said that the man who attacked the police car on Thursday, Mirii al-Radaydeh, was a resident of East Jerusalem and married with one child. He had no history of militancy and acted alone, suggesting that he was responding in rage against escalating Israeli policies against Arab Jerusalemites.

Radaydeh was the fourth Palestinian driver of a construction vehicle to go on the rampage against Israelis in West Jerusalem since last July.

Palestinian officials are warning that protests against evictions, demolitions, expanding Jewish settlements and attempts to consolidate the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem will turn more violent if these measures are not reversed.

Thursday’s attack, which the Israelis called a „terrorist” act, slightly injured the two policemen in their police car before the Palestinian was shot dead by a nearby policeman and a passing taxi driver.

Palestinian officials and analysts have linked the incident to the Jerusalem municipality’s eviction orders of more than 1,500 Palestinians living in some 180 houses in the East Jerusalem suburb of Silwan area. It will become the largest mass expulsion of Palestinians since the Israeli occupation in the 1967 war. Palestinian groups reported that the municipality handed down 36 new eviction orders on Thursday, and 55 to other Palestinian families on Wednesday, adding to the 88 similar orders to al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan late last month. The Israeli authorities, citing that the houses were built without permits, are seeking to link al-Bustan to a green belt area surrounding the walled Old City and turn it into theme park to draw more tourists. The Palestinians, however, say many of the homes have been there for generations and that the newer houses had to be built to accommodate natural growth. All the while the Israeli authorities have forbidden construction permits to the Arabs, while authorizing construction only to Jews.  (continuare…)

…The grand mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Higher Islamic Committee, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, said in a Friday interview with the Dubai-based Al-Khaleej daily that Israel’s encroachment on Jerusalem and its ‘transfer’ plans to expel the Palestinians from the city were leading to a third intifada, or uprising. Some commentators agree. They predict that if Israel pursues its plans to displace thousands of Palestinians by tearing down their homes to empty the city of its Arab inhabitants, not only will it spark another uprising with stone-throwing, but the fourth bulldozer attack in Jerusalem Thursday may mark only the beginning of a new face of the resistance.

ME Times, 06 Martie 2009

Israel swears in new parliament

Israel is swearing in a new parliament following the country’s tightest general election in years.

The swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday for 120 Knesset members came as Benyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud party, continued efforts to form a coalition cabinet.

Netanyahu, who was asked to pull together a ruling coalition by Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, has just under six weeks to complete his task.

Although Likud finished second in the February 10 election, taking one seat less than the centrist Kadima party, Netanyahu has the support of most parliament members.

He already has enough pledges of support from right-wing parties to form a 65-seat majority but he has said that he favours a coalition that includes Kadima, led by Tzipi Livni.

Coalition challenge

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Jerusalem, said that Netanyahu has so far had little success in forming a coalition executive, given that Kadima and the left-wing Labour party have played down a partnership with Likud.

„Netanyhau is really desperately trying to get Kadima and Labour on board, to take part in his coalition – particularly Kadima. He does want to get a centrist government, a broad-based government that is stable,” she said.

„The problem with having a slender majority … is that you are really hostage to the whims and particular interests of the small parties that make up that coalition. You only need to alienate one of those parties and they can threaten to pull out.”

While Kadima won most support in the election, the Labour party, led by Ehud Barak, suffered its worst performance in a general election in years, finishing fourth in the poll.

‘Unstable coalitions’

Yisrael Beitenu, a far-right party that advocates the construction of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, finished third in the poll.

The new parliament is the 18th in Israel’s 51-year history, but the fourth to be sworn in over the past decade.

„Israelis are rather used to all this. Under Israeli law there are supposed to be elections every four years but, in practice, they happen a lot more frequently because there are these unstable coalitions,” Rowland said.

The rise in support for right-wing parties in Israel comes after the country waged a 22-day war on Gaza.

More than 1,300 Palestinians, at least a third of them women and children, were killed, while 14 Israelis died.

al-jazeera.com