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Archive for the ‘Middle East’ Category

Largest Ever, Upcoming U.S.-Israel Joint Drill Sending Message to …

www.theblaze.com1/8/12

Arrow 3 Defense Missile Launch Test (Photo credit: Israeli Defense Ministry via Israel Hayom). A planned American-Israeli missile defense exercise is receiving special attention on the heels of a 10-day Iranian naval exercise …

Israel and US to hold joint missile drill | Aerospace & Defence News

aerospace.firetrench.com1/9/12

Israel and the United States are to hold a joint missile defence exercise, the Israeli military said late on Thursday. ASDNews … Last week it test-fired three missiles during war games east of the strait at the entrance to the Gulf. …

An upcoming American-Israeli missile defense exercise is receiving special media attention because it comes on the heels of a ten-day Iranian naval exercise, plus Iranian threats of closing the Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli Defense Forces played down the timing of the announcement, calling such periodic exercises “routine:”

“These exercises, which are part of a long-standing strategic partnership, are planned in advance and part of a routine training cycle designed to improve the interoperability of our defense systems. Like other bi-lateral exercises, Austere Challenge 12 represents another milestone in the strategic relationship between the US and Israel, as well as a step forward in promoting regional stability".

“The exercise scenario involves notional, simulated events as well as some field training, and is not in response to any real-world event".

“The exercise has been planned for at least two years and therefore has no relevance to any world events".

The AP quoted a senior military official who said on condition of anonymity:

"Thousands of American and Israeli soldiers from different units will take part, and the drill will test multiple Israeli and U.S. air defense systems against incoming missiles and rockets".

In a speech last month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta previewed the exercise, citing it as an example of what he called,

"The administration’s unprecedented levels of defense cooperation with Israel to back up our unshakable commitment to Israel’s security".

And on Sunday’s Face the Nation, Panetta stated two red lines for the U.S.:

"Our red line to Iran is do not develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us. I think they need to know that, that if they take that step, that they’re going to get stopped. We made very clear that the United States will not tolerate the blocking of the Straits of Hormuz. That’s another red line for us and that we will respond to them.".

See also, What Would Trigger A US Strike On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?

And Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey on the same show said he believes,

" Iran has the capability, for a period of time to block the Strait of Hormuz, but we would take action and reopen the Straits".

Efraim Inbar, who is director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, says that even if it’s not intended as a response to Iranian moves:

“Any military exercise has political implications. The military organ is always connected to political even if that’s not the intention on the part of the Americans or Israelis. It’s a clear political signal to the bad guys. After we saw the military exercise by the Iranians last week, everybody with political sensitivity tends to believe this is a counter-flexing of muscle".

Inbar also addressed expressions of isolationism in the U.S., something which has been gaining more media attention due to the presidential campaign of GOP candidate Ron Paul:

“This type of exercise expresses the importance of Israel to the U.S. particularly when the U.S. is seen as being weak in the region. It is leaving Iraq, it is on its way out of Afghanistan. Israel is probably the only place a U.S. military airplane will eventually be able to land in the Middle East".

“U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation is beneficial to both sides. The U.S. is a super power and we are a small state but in our area contrary to what isolationists say in the U.S., we all still need allies, or what used to be called ‘calling stations’. Israeli ports are open to the U.S. In fact, the only port where the U.S. can probably bring ships safely in the Eastern Mediterranean is to Israel. Looking at the other countries: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, the Mediterranean is becoming an Islamist lake".

And an Israeli Air Force officer emphasized that not only Israel gains from the relationship:

“The Americans are eager to conduct this exercise, we are their laboratory in the field of missile defense. A laboratory because Israel has extensive firsthand experience of absorbing incoming rockets and missiles from Hamas and Hezbollah and regularly activates its Iron Dome system to combat the threat".

The Telegraph reported from London that the UK will deploy its largest warship, the HMS Daring, to the Persian Gulf to,

“send a significant message to the Iranians”.

The UK destroyer is due to arrive in late January.

And Oil Supplies?

Western powers have agreed a contingency plan to tap a record volume from emergency stockpiles which could replace nearly all the Gulf oil that would be lost if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz.

Santorum Instructs Students On Same-Sex Marriage and Health …

jonathanturley.org1/5/12

When a student asked Santorum asked about health care, the student cited a 2009 Harvard study and noted that he did not “think God appreciates the fact that we have 50 to 100000 uninsured Americans dying due to a lack of healthcare every year.” He should know better to cite an academic study to Santorum …. Many have simply packed up and left the state (which helps keep the unemployment rate statewide low). Those who stay in rural Iowa are often the elderly …

American Power: Santorum Sharpens Aim at Romney

americanpowerblog.blogspot.com1/6/12

"A lot of blue collar workers have been left behind in America," Mr. Santorum said Thursday in Manchester. Later, at a campaign event in Tilton, he said his family and his friends' families had worked in factories. To a man who …

What disturbs me most about this video is that the students from New England College are unable to follow the simple logic behind Santorum’s questions.

Santorum knows that his anti-g**-marriage stance will cost him votes, but he was at least patient and trying to make our next generation think a little.

But sadly, they were unable to.

Why Is That Important?

Because if our students aren’t either encouraged, or convinced to give up on their simplistic thinking, then America will soon lag behind a great many countries.

Consider perhaps the attitude that most US students have toward Israel.

They believe that Israel is the villain and that Palestinian land has been appropriated when in fact a Palestinian people never existed

People were displaced, both Jews and Arabs, but Israel absorbed the displaced Jews whereas Arab countries never absorbed displaced Arabs.

Both displaced peoples were around the same size; about a million people.

Why do they have that attitude?

Because they were seduced by simplistic propaganda when they could have checked out the facts easily and quickly, but they didn’t and don’t.

Why?

Because their professors are rabid left-wingers, and the students are lazy and want to be spoon-fed!

Every year, campus hate groups such as the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine join a festival of lies called the “Israel Apartheid Week” whose theme is that Israel is an apartheid state, in spite of the fact that Israel has Arab members of the Knesset; that Arab Israelis can and do vote without any restrictions; that Arabs use the same toilets, buses and restaurants etc. as Jewish Israelis.

Happily, and alternative is now being presented and it’s an honest one and not simply a propaganda one.

Please check out: The Wall Of Lies