http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2012/01/29/drone-explodes-inside-secret-israeli-airbase/

An exclusive report from a confidential highly-placed Israeli source says that a booby-trapped drone crashed and exploded at top-secret Israeli airbase…  is the home of the Israeli missile arsenal including its long-range Jerichos capable of striking Iran.  There were civilian and military eyewitnesses to the crash, which happened within the perimeter fence of the facility…

The eyewitnesses and Israel’s wish to avoid pressure to retaliate against the Iranians, necessitated the publication of a media cover story.  The story claims an advanced Israeli drone crashed near the Yesodot moshav..  Israel also claims the drone took off from Tel Nof airbase.  Eyewitnesses may be able to produce video documentation of the precise location of the crash unless it is impounded by the IDF.

The cover story reminds me in crucial ways of a similar one put out by the U.S. when it lost control of its advanced drone inside Iran.  It did everything in its power to make the world believe that the drone crashed by accident and we vehemently denied it was brought down by Iranian electronic warfare capability.  The more we denied the more people believed we were protesting too much.

Though crashing a drone inside Israel would appear to have Iran’s fingerprints all over it (they would certainly have greatest motivation), it’s hard to believe that Iran could fly a drone 1,000 miles with such precision.  So blame will inevitably fall upon Hezbollah, a Syrian-Iranian ally, which often procures its most advanced weaponry from Iran.  Hezbollah would’ve launched the drone from southern Lebanon.  But I find it unlikely it could master the technological know-how to bring this off without Iranian engineering assistance.

There were no Israeli casualties and the drone explosion caused no significant damage at the base.  But the very fact that Iran or its allies have escalated the psychological war of nerves in such a fashion will raise the temperature inside Israel once the true story is known.  It will confirm among the hawks like Bibi, Barak and Bogie Yaalon the imperative to attack Iran.  And the average Israeli man in the street will be that much more accepting of war given this new level of threat.  But the “beauty” (if such a phrase is appropriate) of a drone attack is that, like the Mossad assassination of nuclear scientists, it’s hard to figure out precisely who is to blame for the attack.  In that sense, it raises the temperature, but does so in a carefully calibrated way.

The fact that Israel could not detect such a threat and stop it before it did its damage indicates also some gaps in Israel’s defensive systems.  Admittedly, drones are hard to defend against and Iran/Hezbollah may not have many at their disposal.  But they clearly can do significant damage as we’ve seen from U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan.  Imagine a drone equipped with a warhead (the current one appeared only to be booby-trapped, but not equipped with a warhead or missile) taking aim at the Kirya?  That, of course, would be the next stage of development and one Israel might expect in the not too distant future.  Certainly, a far more sophisticated step than merely crashing a drone into an airbase.  But by no means beyond the realm of possibility for Iranian engineers at some point.

I have always argued that there is a price to pay for Israel’s black ops campaign against Iran.  In this case, the price was very low.  But it will not always be so.  There’s always a price to pay.  The only question is when you’ll have to pay and how much.

So in short, Silverstein wants us to believe that Hizbullah flew a booby-trapped, Iranian-produced drone and exploded it at top-secret Israeli airbase, causing no damage, just for the “ooga booga” effect. And what does he base this on? The supposed word of an anonymous “highly-placed Israeli source” and his own “intuition” (he knows it “in his bones” remember).

Besides the scenario being highly implausible, I’ll remind readers that I have proven how Silverstein does no vetting of his sources, and will eagerly believe something to be true based on little or no fact-checking. In fact, even the ultra-leftist 972 rag rips Silverstein a new one over this latest “scoop”, albeit for different reasons to me.

There are several problems to this story.  According to current news reports, what crashed was Israel’s largest drone “Eitan”. The drone took off from the Tel Nof airbase and crashed between kibbutz Hafetz Haim and the town of Gedera, some ten miles away from the missile base in question, but only two miles from Tel Nof. Two miles and a malfunctioning Israeli drone seem more plausible than 1,000 miles and an ultra-sophisticated enemy aircraft to me, especially as Richard’s source provides no proof whatsoever the aircraft crashed in some location other than the one reported in the media. Ever since the Night of the Gliders Israel has been supremely paranoid about its airspace, with jets scrambling every time an unidentified aircraft comes within a few dozen miles of our borders (you can find several incidents from the past year alone).  A few days ago they nearly scrambled attack a particularly large flock of birds. The idea a foreign aircraft can go in and fly 1,000 miles in broad daylight without detection and crash into one of Israel’s most sensitive military bases is bizarre to say the least.

Richard also notes in his post that “the “beauty” (if such a phrase is appropriate) of a drone attack is that, like the Mossad assassination of nuclear scientists, it’s hard to figure out precisely who is to blame for the attack.  In that sense, it raises the temperature, but does so in a carefully calibrated way.” Wrong. Drones are such complex and still reasonably rare machines it would actually be extremely easy to identify where one comes from. It doesn’t seem likely Iran built a perfect imitation Israeli drone, gave it to Hezbollah to fly it into Israel, and then to have it crashed without causing any real damage.

Finally, eyewitnesses described seeing a typically dual-tailed drone clearly in distress with one wing bursting into flame shortly before impact – not exactly the behaviour of a kamikaze aircraft, manned or unmanned.

But the real question is who would have us believe this highly improbable hypothesis is true. Iran is mostly trying to avoid escalation. Why it would to give Israel a perfect casus belli by launching such a blatant military attack, that causes no significant damage, is beyond me; but I can well imagine plenty of people within the IDF who would dearly like a casus belli to bolster their case for an attack on Iran. If I was Richard, I would be extremely suspicious of any information – especially uncorroborated information – that helps the pro-war camp in Israel; not to mention the source might be acting in good faith, but is being hoodwinked by his own sources within the system..But  it doesn’t seem far fetched someone in the military establishment would be tempted to see Richard’s blog as the perfect channel for a bit of psy-ops.

So there you have it, folks. Yet another old wives tale from the “old wife” blogger (or should that be “Thank you, wife” blogger).

Update: And once again we have proof that despite his claim, Silverstein does not understand Hebrew. From the comments section to the above post:

This is certainly not the first time he’s shown he doesn’t understand the language.

This time, Perry is reporting that Mossad agents posed as CIA agents to recruit Jundallah terrorists to carry out missions in Iran. According to Perry, this happened between 2007 and 2009, the Bush administration was furious about it – but did nothing – and Obama put a stop to it when he took office in 2009…The sources for the story are said to be unnamed, retired CIA officers, plus former Centcom chief Joe Hoar. Hoar is a vehement opponent of Israel (and of American involvement in Iraq, by the way), who cannot even acknowledge that George Marshall opposed recognition of the Jewish state out of anti-Semitism. Make sure you read that entire last link for the context.

Amir Oren of Ha’aretz reported that a senior Israeli government official called the Perry allegations “absolute nonsense,” and characterized Perry as “openly supporting the Arab cause.” This last statement caused full time anti-Israel blogger Richard Silverstein to get his panties in a knot.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2012/01/14/israeli-intelligence-source-denies-jundallah-false-flag-story/

But what especially irks me about Oren’s report is that he adds a dig against Perry’s credibility that is gratuitous and deeply insulting.  Interestingly, the insult is only in the Hebrew version (wonder why hmm?) and not the English.  Dimi Reider, in his 972 report notes that Oren calls Perry, an “avowed supporter of the Arab cause.”  His Wikipedia article notes that Perry was an “unofficial” advisor to the PLO until 2004.  How does this fact impeach his reporting on the false flag story?  Because he had some informal involvement with the PLO ending eight years ago, that means he has it in for the Mossad on this story?  C’mon.  That’s bush league stuff.  But unfortunately, this is what Israeli intelligence people and their willing collaborators in the media stoop to.  And I say this as someone who’s admired all of Oren’s previous reporting.

Actually, there is nothing in Perry’s story that would give you the impression he was a pro-Arab partisan (and by the way Mossad source and Mr. Oren, Iranians aren’t Arab, but that’s beside the point).  It is a very carefully reported story that contains no animus whatsoever against Israel, nor any gratuitous partisan statements on Iran’s behalf.

While the story itself is not framed in a way that betrays Perry’s anti-Israel proclivities, one need not look past his Twitter feed to see he contains a great deal of animus against Israel.

Notice his retweeting of Ali Abunimah, the vehemently anti-Israel founder of Electronic Intifada, and his characterizing as tiresome this article which points out Hamas terrorism and lack of acceptance of Israel’s very existence.

In addition, I’ve located this video of Perry downplaying the violence of Hamas and Hizballah, and coming out in favor of dialog with them, as well as with Iran, Syria and the Moslem Brotherhood.

He’s also published a book called Talking To Terrorists.

So contrary to Silverstein’s claims, Mark Perry does seem to have animus against Israel and clearly opposes operations action against Iran. This background is relevant in evaluating his objectivity and the merits of his article.

Update: Commentary Magazine adds the following:

The article’s sourcing is problematic and should also raise red flags. Perry relies on two current intelligence officers, only one of whom has seen the memo alleging Israeli malfeasance. One officer—presumably the same who saw the memo and perhaps also wrote it—describes Bush’s reaction, and so presumably was a briefer for the White House. Should Gen. David Petraeus, director of Central Intelligence, wish to identify that leaker, he could do so easily. In addition, Perry talks to four retired intelligence officials, whose names and positions he also cloaks in anonymity. Allowing these officials a wall of anonymity from behind which to throw mud is problematic as intelligence officials have admitted leaks to advance personal political agendas.

At the very least, Foreign Policy should have printed when the retirees left the service. Retired Defense Intelligence Agency officer W. Patrick Lang​, whose animus toward Israel is pronounced, for example, made a cottage industry during the Iraq war of commenting about matters following his retirement. He neither disclosed his role as a registered Foreign Agent nor the fact that he lacked direct knowledge of much for which he purported to be a source.

Update: Still on topic: here’s a recent commercial  for a cable/tablet package with Israel’s HOT cable channel. It’s not translated, but you can get the jist of it.

But for those who could not make head nor tail of that, my friend Dave Bender has provided this summary:

Four Israeli guys hop over to Isfahan, Iran to meet up with the local Mossad agent, who lays out the deal’s benefits.
Quotes:
On beach: “…God only knows where you can get kosher food here…”
On beach: Dabs on suntan lotion, and defensively says: “What?!? You have any idea how much radiation there is here?…”
One tries operate an app on the tablet, and accidentally blows up the nuke factory in the background, and defensively says… “What?!? – just another ‘mysterious explosion in Iran.’”

Today, they uncovered our insidious plot to fire rockets at ourselves. 

REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Lebanese Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn Monday blamed Israel and its agents for the firing of mysterious rockets from Lebanon into the Jewish state in an attempt to undermine security and stability in south Lebanon.“The party that has launched mysterious rockets from the south is known,” Ghosn told The Daily Star by telephone, in a clear reference to Israel and its agents. However, he did not elaborate.

“Lebanon’s enemies, namely Israel, have no interest in the continuation of calm and stability in the south,” he said.

Dickie Sliverstein adds: I knew it!

A massive explosion rocked a Hezbollah stronghold near Siddiqin in the southern coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon overnight Wednesday, a security source told The Daily Star. There were no reports of injuries.

Local media said the explosion likely took place at a Hezbollah arms cache. 

The source told the Lebanese newspaper that the cause of the blast could not be determined because Hezbollah cordoned off the area.

American blogger Richard Silverstein claimed Israel was behind the explosion. Quoting an Israeli official with “considerable military experience,” the blogger wrote “IDF military intelligence (Aman) has out foxed Hezbollah by deliberately crash-landing a booby-trapped Trojan Horse drone in southern Lebanon.

“For over a year, Hezbollah has been attempting to discover how to jam the ground signals commanding the drone so as to disable them in flight. When it discovered the downed craft, its operatives must’ve crowed that they’d finally discovered the key to success. This bit of hubris is how Aman drew Hezbollah into its net. Its soldiers dutifully collected the imagined intelligence trophy and brought it to a large weapons depot it controlled in the area. Once inside the arms cache, Aman detonated the drone causing a massive explosion,” Silverstein claimed.

I am not sure if this propensity to quote Silverstein as a trustworthy source is a general problem at Ynet, or has afflicted only Dudi Cohen, who wrote the previous piece and contributed to this latest one. Either way, it makes me want to ignore Ynet altogether.

Meanwhile, Ynet has conveniently left out the following quote from El Doucherino’s post:

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/11/23/exclusive-israeli-military-intelligence-caused-massive-explosion-in-hezbollah-south-lebanon-arms-cache/

Given the size of the explosion, we should expect that a good deal of its weapons cache in the south has been destroyed.

—-

At any rate, as soldiers, even brilliant ones, often do, Hezbollah made a fatal error which the IDF exploited.  And before Israel’s supporters jump for joy at another Israeli victory in the unending war on terror, remember that in 1999, a Hezbollah cell phone was brought to the vaunted IDF Unit 8200 headquarters for examination.  The soldiers preparing to view it joked “If it explodes, we’ll know.”  It did indeed explode seriously wounding the two senior Israeli intelligence officers.  Not to mention the major amount of egg it splattered on the face of Israel’s renowned intelligence agency.

The moral being, in this dirty game called asymmetrical warfare, you and your enemy circle each other warily seeking to exploit any weakness.  And you will make mistakes because you are only human.  The fatal assumption is that your opponent is the only dumb one who will make them, and you never will.

In other words, Silverstein considers Hizbullah to be an army of soldiers – not a terror organization – and considers their attacks on Israel to be part of legitimate warfare. And despite acknowledging that the explosion likely took out “a good deal of its weapons cache in the south” – reducing the number of rockets to be fired at innocent Israeli civilians – he doesn’t seem overly happy about it, and considers it part of a “dirty game.”

Just so you realize, this is the scum Ynet has chosen as their go-to guy.

Rather, Israel did.

An Israeli raid during the 2006 war in Lebanon killed two Israeli soldiers held captive by Hezbollah, according to a senior aide to a Lebanese leader allied to the group.

Ali Hassan Khalil, who is now health minister and top aide to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, wrote in his memoirs of the 34-day war being published by As-Safir daily in Beirut that news of the death of the two soldiers was relayed by senior Hezbollah official Hussein Khalil.

Hezbollah guerrillas captured the two soldiers in a cross border attack on July 12, 2006, with the aim of exchanging them for Lebanese and Arab prisoners held in Israel. Israel responded by launching a war against Hezbollah demanding the freeing of the soldiers and the disarming of Hezbollah.

The Jewish state failed to achieve its goals and had to exchange the remains of the soldiers with the last Lebanese prisoners it held two years later.

It had been assumed that the soldiers were killed in the original Hezbollah attack. Hezbollah never commented on the condition of the soldiers until it handed over their remains, and it never discussed the issue since.

But Khalil wrote in As-Safir Wednesday that he and Berri were holding a meeting with the Hezbollah official on August 3, 2006, to assess the developments of the war when he told them that the two soldiers had recently died as a result of an Israeli raid on an unidentified location.

 “There is another subject that is known to very few brothers who are directly linked to the issue and no one other than us will find out about it later,” Hussein Khalil was quoted as saying. “Israeli bombardment during the past few days have led to the death of the two Israeli captives… The brothers had taken all precautions to avoid something like this happening but the (Israeli) expansion of bombardment and the use of heavy rockets have led to this.”

Berri aide wrote that Hezbollah’s Khalil continued, saying: “What an irony…  Israel kills the captives that it declared war (to free) them. From our side as resistance, we will continue the battle of negotiations as if nothing has happened.”

The minister did not say why the allegation was not revealed earlier but described the incident as one of the biggest secrets of the 2006 war.

Given our enemies’ disdain of the truth and use of lying to achieve their goals, I am inclined to dismiss this as pure propaganda. Nevertheless, I look forward to the Israel’s response to this allegation.

Update: As I fully expected, the IDF Spokesperson has confirmed this is a blatant lie.

remarks made by Hezbollah rep were blatant lies & just another psychological warfare attempt by the terror org

Update: I totally beat the mainstream media to this story. Booya!

Photo: Zach Goldberger

Muslim hatred in heart of Europe: More than 1,000 Muslims marched Saturday in Berlin and chanted anti-Israel slogans to mark al-Quds Day, set by Iran following the Islamist revolution in the country.

The protestors in the anti-Israel rally were faced by hundreds of Israel fans who also arrived at the site.

Police in the German capital deployed in force to separate the two camps and prevent violent clashes.

The Islamic march was led by Iranian clerics, accompanied by anti-Zionist Neturei Karta Jews living in Europe.

“What’s taking place in Israel is a Shoah for the Palestinians,” one of the radical ultra-Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Beck, told Ynet. “We are waiting for the day Zionism collapses, and then Jews and Muslims would be able to live side by side in peace.”

While the rabbi spoke, protestors behind him were chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “Israel is a terrorist.”

The Muslim protestors held up banners accusing Israel of committing war crimes, as well as photographs of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. They chanted “Freedom for Palestine” and “End the killing of civilians in Gaza.”

Before reaching the square where a rally was held, protest organizers urged the marchers to refrain from anti-Jewish chants, which are considered a criminal offence in Germany.

One can assume that the march was rife with antisemitic chants, given what we know about these anti-Israel protesters, and reaffirmed by the fact protest organizers had to make this special request of the protesters.

Notice the quote by the Neturei Karta “Rabbi”. He talks about Jews and Muslims living side by side in peace. If this is what the Muslim protesters truly want, why the antisemitic chants?

And why the Hizbullah flag? (see 1:37 in the following Press TV report) 

People are deluding themselves if they think these protesters are marching for the palestinian right to a homeland.

They are marching for the palestinian right to eradicate the Jewish homeland. And us Jews, while they are at it.

Which makes Berlin quite a chilling place for such a march, when you think about it.

Update: Photos from the march here, including the following of Hizbullah and Hamas flags on display:

Israel Hayom now reports that she has since received death threats. From the Lebanese side, of course.

A Lebanese belly dancer is facing death threats and cannot return to her homeland after embracing an Israeli musician at an international festival in France.

On June 19, Israeli heavy metal band Orphaned Land performed alongside Lebanese belly dancer Johanna Fakhri at the Hellfest music festival in the western French town of Clisson. At the end of their performance, the Lebanese dancer held up her country’s flag while Orphaned Land’s singer, Kobi Fahri, held up an Israeli flag. The two then hugged and clasped each other’s hands.

Israel and Lebanon are technically at war and it is illegal under Lebanese law for any citizen to have public interactions with an Israeli. Media outlets around the world carried the image of Fakhri and Fahri brandishing their national flags, prompting a seething Hezbollah to declare Fakhri a traitor and issue a death warrant for her. The dancer has since been hiding out in France, fearing for her life if she returns to her homeland.

The threats against Fakhri have now spread from Lebanon. Last week, the French Muslim party PMF, which is closely tied to Hezbollah, carried a quote from Hezbollah on its website, declaring Fakhri “a traitor who collaborates with the Zionist enemy.”

In response, Fakhri released a statement calling her appearance with Fahri an act of peace.

“I know that politics, religion or other matters, moreover foreign ones, don’t hold an important place in a festival, but music is a tool for expression, and has to bring messages, history and legacy,” she wrote. “This way, I wanted to take this opportunity so rare in history — seeing on stage an Israeli group and a Lebanese dancer — to say that beyond the artistic exchange and our collaboration for the love of art, we were willing to make it a symbol of peace. And these two flags that we held as high as the fist can rise transcend all these years of war and suffering.”

Orphaned Land publicist Eitan Levi attributed Hezbollah’s rage to the popularity the band enjoys among Arab and Muslim listeners.

Fahri said he hoped the embrace was the first of many peace gestures.

“The past and history are just too bloody and tragic,” Fahri said. “And If Johanna and I can live as brother and sister — even our last names, Fakhri and Fahri, are similar — as friends and neighbors, then why shouldn’t we influence our nations to do the same?”

Fahri said he had spoken to Fakhri and had invited her to Israel. “I hope she will come,” he said. “[Musicians] have no enemies. Music has no borders and no army. We will continue to have concerts and sing the language of peace.”

 This should tell you much about who wants peace…and who doesn’t.

I think it’s pretty clear she is talking about Hizbullah, and the reason she says she is “not allowed to mention [them] here” is because they are on the US State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

The relevant section of the video is from 16:00-19:30.

One can argue this is hardly surprising, considering scenes like this:

Photo By Abid Katib/Getty Images

But what this footage illustrates is Lauren Booth’s embracing of terror organizations is not a means to an end, with her real goal being to alleviate the suffering of the palestinians.

It shows her embrace of terror organizations stems from a deep-seated admiration for them and, presumably, their goal to destroy Israel.