By EARL COX— The White House has announced that Mr. Obama plans to visit Israel in late March. Everyone is wondering about the “real” reason for Obama’s visit because he has been lukewarm to cool toward Israel for a long time. According to some conjecture, Mr. Obama’s stopover is intended for working sessions on the…
By DEBKAFILE— President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Iran was a “nuclear state” during his Cairo visit two weeks ago. Saturday, Feb. 16, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shed more light by saying, “Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons but no power could stop Tehran’s access to an atomic bomb if it intended to build it. debkafile:…
By TAYLOR DINERMAN, GATESTONE— Before the North Koreans successfully launched a (non-functioning) satellite into orbit on December 12, 2012 there were reports, notably by space expert and NBC News consultant, James Oberg, that Iranian missile experts had been spotted in North Korea. If true, this would be perfectly consistent with the longstanding and close relationship…
By Rochel Sylvetsky & Gil Ronen, ARUTZ 7— One of the goals of U.S. President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel is to deliver a message to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, not to carry out any “military surprises” against Iran while the U.S. in engaged in negotiations with it. Voice of Israel public radio, which…
By ROBERT JOHNSON, BUSINESSINSIDER-— In the first week of December 2012, Iran announced the capture of a U.S. Navy Scan Eagle drone and plans to learn its secrets. Having been off the coast of Iran last fall and seen the number of Scan Eagles surveilling the region it always seemed reasonable to me that Iran…
By Prof. EYAL ZISSER, ISRAEL HAYOM— Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad’s visit to Cairo on Tuesday started off on the wrong foot. The visitor recited his usual hateful and hostile invective against Israel to Egypt’s citizens, but they preferred instead to press Ahmadinejad on Syria, where Iran is supporting its ally President Bashar al-Assad while he…
By JONATHAN S. TOBIN — COMMENTARY — Iran’s official denial of reports of a major explosion at its underground nuclear facility in Fordow is heartening for those who are hoping that the rumors about a setback for the Islamist regime are true. The optimistic scenario would be based on the notion that if Iran is…
By TIMES OF ISRAEL— Israel’s Home Front Defense Minister Avi Dichter on Sunday welcomed a report that Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility had been rocked by a huge explosion. The report was published Friday on the website wnd.com, under the sensational headline: “Sabotage! Key Iranian nuclear facility hit?” It claimed that a blast deep within Fordo…
By BARRY RUBIN, RUBIN REPORT— I did a lot of soul-searching before writing my latest article, “After the Fall: What Do You Do When You Conclude America is (Temporarily or Permanently) Kaput?” Of course, I believed every word of it and have done so for a while. But would it depress readers too much? Would…
By YAAKOV AHIMEIR, ISRAEL HAYOM— Democratic Senator John Kerry is not going to have any problems filling the shoes of his predecessors in his new capacity as secretary of state. As the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he has gained expert knowledge on the U.S.’s ties with other countries, making him a…