By RONEN BERGMAN, NY TIMES MAG TJCI note: This article is currently the most comprehensive and pragmatic evaluation of issues involving a preemptive attack of Israel on Iran. It’s lengthy, but definitely a worthwhile read. As the Sabbath evening approached on Jan. 13, Ehud Barak paced the wide living-room floor of his home high above…
BY DAN WILLIAMS, REUTERs— A senior Israeli official voiced disappointment in the Obama administration on Sunday, saying “election-year considerations” lay behind its caution over tough Iran sanctions sought by U.S. legislators. While Washington has been talking tougher about Iran’s nuclear work and threat to block oil export routes out of the Gulf if hit with…
DEBKAfile — Thousands of US troops began descending on Israel this week. Senior US military sources told DEBKAfile Friday, Jan. 6 that many would be staying up to the end of the year as part of the US-IDF deployment in readiness for a military engagement with Iran and its possible escalation into a regional conflict. They will…
BY DEBKAFILE— The armies of Saudi Arabia and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council states stood ready Thursday Jan. 5, for Washington to stand up to Iranian threats and send an aircraft carrier or several warships through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf. Riyadh has been leaning hard on the Obama administration not to let…
BY EARL COX, JPOST— United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently returned from the Middle East with a warning directed at Israel. “It’s pretty clear,” he said, “at this dramatic time in the Middle East, when there have been so many changes, that it is not a good situation for Israel to become so…
BY RYAN JONES, ISRAEL TODAY— As expected, the Israeli-Arab conflict has been a major foreign policy campaign topic in the run-up to the 2012 US presidential election. And of the many Republican candidates vying for the chance to challenge President Barack Obama at the polls, Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) is widely viewed as by far…
By TAWFIK HAMID, JPOST— Palestinian officials reacted furiously to Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s assertion that they are an “invented” people. A senior Arab League official immediately condemned Gingrich’s claim that Palestinians are “invented,” calling the claim racist and a cheap stunt to get votes. Israeli Cabinet minister Uzi Landau said Gingrich was right. He…
BY DEBKAFILE— US President Barack Obama’s half-hour tête-a- tête with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Washington Friday, Dec. 16, was vitally concerned with the coming steps in the Syrian showdown and the latest developments in the controversy over Iran’s nuclear weapons program, debkafile’s Washington and intelligence sources report. Their conference was urgent because key…
BY RON JAGER– ARUTZ 7— “Uncle” Tom Friedman has done it again in the New York Times; he has proven that you can be a useful idiot and a Jewish anti-Semite all in one. Evidently, the means justify the ends, Friedman, who has always used his Jewish identity to infer that he is “one of…
By RYAN JONES, ISRAEL TODAY — One of the candidates who currently has a very real chance at becoming the next president of the United States could fundamentally alter Middle East peace-making were he to stick to his campaign platform and rhetoric after taking office. In an interview with The Jewish Channel on Friday, former…