Egyptian Revolution Blues (Musical Video)

"Political satire - written while riots were still raging in Cairo, 2011." Sandy Cash

(Photo) Netanyahu: 'Sanctions With Teeth' Against Iran (UPDATED)

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu striding towards the podium at the seventh annual Jerusalem Conference, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010. (Photo: Dave Bender - All Rights Reserved).

By Dave Bender

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for “sanctions with teeth,” against the government of Iran, including imports of gas, and energy exports, in an address to a packed seventh annual Jerusalem Conference.

"'The argument is over,' Netanyahu said of the possibility that Iran was trying to make a nuclear weapon, and added that Iran was a threat to world peace, and to Israel...."

Meanwhile, in a related item, The Jerusalem Post's Sarah Honig, commenting on the Dubai Hamas hit (that, just to keep in mind, was aimed at stopping a Hamas/Iranian attempt to get even more, longer-range weaponry to use against Israel), says pretty much what I've been telling many over the years - often, unfortunately, to little avail:

"'dam butlab dam' (blood begets blood– but only for some)'

"As in yesteryear, so in the 21st century, it’s axiomatic that Arabs have the right to inflict incalculable harm on Jews, but the Jews’ attempts to deflect such blows are evil, outrageous and deserving of merciless punishment."

---

Other conference updates, audio and photos will be posted here: http://www.davebrianbender.com

(VIDEO) Israel: 30 countries at mass-casualty, NBC drill

"Preparing for a germ warfare attack, Israel stages its largest ever drill on emergency preparedness as hundreds of emergency response experts from around the world attend a simulated biological attack on Tel Aviv."

(Video) BBC Porcine Aviation Moment: Gaza & Sderot

From the Beeb: A celebrated (going by the accent and Belfast reference, Irish) UK soldier takes his own professional "boots-on-the-ground" look at Gaza and Sderot - and comes to (for Bush House, as least) surprising conclusions that refute The Goldstone report about last year's battle, and incidentally, much of the BBC's own programming about the conflict:

A year ago the Israeli army was readying itself to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, after a three-week campaign which led to accusations of war crimes.

The Israelis said they launched their assault because they could no longer tolerate the indiscriminate rocket attacks which were being launched on Israel from inside Gaza.

One year on, celebrated Gulf War veteran Colonel Tim Collins travelled to Gaza for a soldier's view of the conflict.

Broadcast on Tuesday 19 January 2010.

The un-embeddable video is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8470100.stm

Anyone with an embed link out there?

(H-T: EoZ)

A'jad = Catskills connection? Not So Fast...

Serious media buzzkill this morning, as the UK's The Guardian, scotches a rumored Jewish background for Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ah well, at least we still have the Supremes - all of them:

Spot the differences:


More Iran-related posts here.

Israeli Policy Advisor on Iranian Jewry's Security & Israel (Updated Audio)

Dr. Eran Lerman (Photo: Dave Bender - All Rights Reserved)

Israel’s incoming Deputy National Security Advisor for Policy, Dr. Eran Lerman, says that while growing riots and unrest in Tehran and other parts of Iran over disputed presidential elections may herald a Persian “Prague Spring,” the outcome for Iranian Jewry may be far less idyllic.

By Dave Bender - http://www.davebrianbender.com

In an hour-long talk given in Atlanta on Tuesday, June 16, Lerman addressed the possibility of sharper, US-led international sanctions to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in the wake of recent Korean missile tests and suspected Iranian cooperation:

“The dam, if you wish, which has already been cracked by North Korean behavior, will be brought down with another crack in Iran. What will come flooding in is an arms race in the region, and beyond the region which will pose a very real threat that this will soon come to blows — nuclear blows — one thing that any American administration is obliged to prevent from happening.”

Lerman, in a multi-city US speaking tour prior to taking up his new post in July, discussed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy speech in the wake of US President Barack Obama’s Cairo address, during a wide-ranging talk given at Congregation Young Israel of Toco Hills.

Turning to historical aspects of the situation, Lerman listed several parallels between Western reactions to Iran’s behavior during and since the 1979 revolution, and the ascent of Nazi Germany before and during WWII:

"Anyone who’s familiar with the internal workings of the Nazi regime would know that it was much more brittle in '38 than it seemed from the outside. This is something that has stuck in my mind since I read [William] Shire’s majestic work — and there’ve been many confirmations of this ever since: the German High Command was convinced that this little, crazy corporal from Munich is taking them to a war in which they will be wiped out — turns out to be true.

"They feared that if the British and French stand up to [Hitler], and the Russians will come in on the side of the Czechs – the Czechoslovak state had a formidable military – and that this combination will be much too strong for Germany to handle. And so they prepared, in case he came back from Munich with war on his hands, to arrest him – and 'terminate his contract,' as they say.… The commander of the German forces had a plan laid out — in detail.

"Instead, the 'genius' comes back victorious. And we paid for this mistake with 60 million lives, [and] six million Jews, and many others."

When this reporter asked about the fate of the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Iranian Jews remaining in Tehran and other major cities who could be held as hostages against any Israeli military action against the Tehran regime, Lerman, a past deputy chief of the Israeli Defense Forces Intelligence Strategic Planning department, sighed and offered a bit of black humor:

“Look – we have to bitterly joke about these people who were give an opportunity to leave in [19]50, were given an opportunity to leave in [19]70, were given an opportunity to leave in [19]80, and are still there – therefore [the Iranian authorities] will hang them as ‘Zionists.’

“But bitter jokes aside,” Lerman said, “it is an issue,” and cautiously offered an even more bitter prospect – that of Israel being forced to choose between self-preservation and the security of an ancient Jewish diaspora community: “It is simply something that we will have to weigh against the larger [pause] considerations that may involve our very survival [pause] as a people and as a state.”

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Go here for more, including audio excerpts of the talk.

(This post's audio & text will be updated - check back soon)

Mr. Virtual Crap, Meet Mr. Mideast Fan...

From the JPost:

The upcoming home front drill, Turning Point 3, is based a scenario in which "a combined missile and rocket attack on Israel from all sides combined with terror attacks from within," and is "not a fictional scenario," Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilan'i told members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Matan Vilan'i describes upcoming home front drill simulating war on three fronts (opens a new video console page)

Vilna'i briefed the committee on the state-wide drill, scheduled to begin on May 31. The threat of missiles hitting mainland Israel "is not unrealistic," Vilna'i continued. "If a war breaks out, that is probably what would happen."

Yeah, well alright then.

Trying mightily to unstress as I type in all the tags below... even if I always did appreciate the Israeli penchant for "cutting to the chase," about what's at stake.

Israel: 'A Soldier's Mother,' on Iran, and Defining 'Normal'

Click on the image for a full-sized, readable photo (Courtesy: Israel Homefront Command)

A Soldier's Mother has a painfully poignant entry about what the average Israeli must face daily, and, especially in recent days over the prospect of a missile war with Iran, and other neighboring countries and entities:

"They sent us something that is designed to be attached, hung, or using the magnet conveniently located on the back, stuck to the refrigerator door. The slogan says, “To be protected exactly in time.” (Trust me, it sounds better in Hebrew).

"The rest of the hand-out features a map of Israel in various colors. To the right of the map, the question: “How much time do we have to get to a protected area?”

"Below the question, there’s a legend, divided into two parts. The top part covers the bulk of Israel from the north Isra(bordering Lebanon and Syria), the instructions say to enter immediately. The next area, just to the south and west of these areas shows that you have 30 seconds. From there, down through the rest of the country, you have anywhere from 60 seconds to 3 minutes. To comfort those who know us personally, we are in the 3 minute zone, aren’t we lucky?"

Read the rest.