Beating Our Gums Instead of Turning Weapons Into plowshares

Troubles in Kosovo according to this report. (See 1 below.)

Oil now, water later. (See 2 below.)

Iran keeps developing far ranging missile delivery systems for its "peaceful" nuclear weapons program and a White House spokesman beats his gums.Meanwhile Sec. Rice and GW keep preferring diplomacy knowing they have few options and just want to finesse the problem onto their successor. Our ship of state is being steered by a captain in denial and/or paralyzed by circumstances.(See 3 below.)

And the beat goes on in Israel as well. (See 4 below.)

Honest Reporting continues to catch the BBC in their biased knee-jerk reporting. This time it was their initial headline describing the Jerusalem attack by an Arab Israeli consumed by hate driving his bulldozer that took place several weeks ago. (See 5 below.)

Tha UN knows its 1701 mandate is being violated but nothing will happen. The West continues in denial overcome by fear of its inability to rise to the challenge. Gaffney's article is telling - "Islamists have the West just where they want us." By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. (See 6 below.)

Dov Weissglas, Sharon's former intermediary with GW, writes: Israel's enemies no longer fear Israel and why should they. Israel's leadership is impotent, the nation is paralyzed by its dependency on world opinion and its own internal discord. As noted above the West has "Gullivered" itself!

The same can be said for the U.S. Russia, Iran, Syria thumb their nose at us and know we will or can do nothing in pursuit of our interests or ability to protect ourselves. We have become a pitiful giant and a bankrupt one at that and not all because of Iraq or Islamic terrorism. The moral foundation for our bankruptcy was laid years ago after Viet Nam. The fiscal foundation for our bankruptcy was laid post WW 2, as we embraced many of Roosevelt's socialist concepts and reforms.

Both have eaten at the fiber of this nation and I see nothing on the horizon which will reverse this pattern. As I have often written there is nothing in the bible or Shakespeare that says we were ordained to remain the world's greatest power forever. We will remain a player and a powerful one but our standard of living is in decline and future generations will be saddled with out profligacy.

The most recent evidence is the inability for our political system to flush up candidates better than the two running. Political choices reflect a nation's reality, its understanding of its situation and commitment to meet its problems. Neither Obama nor McCain suggest to me we are serious, care or even have a clue.(See 7 below.)

Dick



1) CREEPING CRISIS: THE SERBIAN GOVERNMENT’S PLAN FOR KOSOVO


Kosovo Serbs escalated an already-simmering crisis in Kosovo on June 28 by convening the Assembly of the Association of Municipalities of Kosovo and Metohija in Northern Mitrovica. Formation of the assembly was publicly announced two weeks in advance by Slobodan Samardžić, the Serbian government’s Minister for Kosovo and Metohija. Samardžić has emerged as the chief promoter of a Serbian plan to chip away at the sovereignty of the newly-independent Republic of Kosovo through repeated local challenges to its authority. As we noted in our analysis of June 3, 2008, the assembly, and the local councils of Serbs in various Serb-inhabited areas of Kosovo, are modeled closely upon Serbian municipalities and assemblies created by lieutenants of the late President Slobodan Milošević in 1990-91 in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Those assemblies and their derivative organs were the primary perpetrators of Serb takeovers and the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs at the beginning of the wars in those countries in 1991-92.

June 28 marked the end of a five-month post-independence phase in Kosovo’s history, during which all major actors made their positions clear. Following their declaration of independence on February 17, 2008, Kosovo’s Albanian leaders expeditiously implemented the Ahtisaari Plan, the short name for the “Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement,” written by UN negotiator Martti Ahtisaari and submitted to the UN Secretary General on March 26, 2007. Kosovo’s Albanian leaders had reluctantly accepted the plan as a condition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia during failed efforts to reach agreement with Serbian government negotiators. Meeting a deadline specified in the Ahtisaari Plan, delegates in the Kosovo Assembly adopted a Constitution and passed 41 legislative acts to implement all provisions mandated in the plan. The new laws were signed by Kosovo’s president on June 16, the day after independence took effect. In short, Kosovo’s Albanian leaders have done everything required of them by the Ahtisaari Plan and maintained restraint in the face of rising Serb provocations.

On the other hand, ultra-nationalist Serbs, headed by officials of selected ministries in the Republic of Serbia, have undertaken various acts to undermine the government of Kosovo. After nine years of relatively benign financial support and control over Serb institutions in Kosovo, Belgrade’s officials have changed course in the aftermath of independence and adopted strategies modeled closely on those of the late President Milošević. They have ordered Serb policemen in the integrated Kosovo Police Service and Serb employees of Kosovo’s municipalities south of the Ibar to walk off the job. Although the Ahtisaari Plan provided for Serbia’s continued involvement in Kosovo and awarded wide-ranging autonomy to Kosovo’s Serbs, Belgrade-based leaders have isolated and in some cases threatened those who cooperated in establishing the plan-mandated institutions. Serbian government ministries have staged violent incidents in Belgrade (February 21), Northern Mitrovica (March 17), and the village of Borivojce in Kosovo’s multiethnic Kamenica municipality (June 26).

The Serb plan, in common with those of Milošević’s lieutenants in 1991 and 1992, aims to contest the jurisdiction of the existing state and to incite conflict between conciliatory Albanians and Serbs, in this case those Serbs who would accept the generous terms of the Ahtisaari Plan and work within the framework of the Kosovo Constitution. The plan is also intended to provoke Albanians and international security forces to violence in order to discredit them internationally. The Serbian campaign is such a perfect imitation of Milošević strategies as to make its activities risibly predictable. Serbs following Belgrade’s instructions are likely to locate their provocations in multiethnic areas or along ethnic boundary lines. On June 26, they did just that, as Serbs gathered to protest construction of a mosque in Kamenica municipality, an exemplary multiethnic municipality with a conciliatory mayor. International security forces can anticipate that Serbs will “spontaneously” erect roadblocks or barriers obstructing free movement of Albanians on major communication routes through Serbian settlements. Various local Serb municipal assemblies and the Assembly of the Association of Serbian Municipalities, illegally constituted in defiance of UNMIK and the laws of Kosovo, may also be expected to issue repeated proclamations and create Serb institutions to rival those specified in the Ahtisaari Plan. The Serb nationalists have thus far refrained from establishing a separate Serb police force, contenting themselves instead with infiltrating officers of Serbia’s Ministry of the Interior into the Kosovo Police Service. Any effort to establish a separate Serb police force would be a direct provocation that would invite intervention from KFOR.

The Serbian-government-led actions constitute a clear and present danger not only to safety and security in Kosovo but to stability throughout the region. The conduct of Serbian government ministries and parties in Kosovo is an egregious violation of behavior expected of an aspiring member of the European Union; it would be so even under guidelines for relations between constituent polities in Yugoslavia before Milošević’s dubious legal changes of 1989 and 1990. As leaders of the US, the European Union, and NATO prepare to hail the imminent formation of a “pro-European” government in Serbia, they should also attend to the grave threat to stability that Serbia is incrementally implementing in Kosovo.

2) Israel's Water Crisis
By Yisrael Ne'eman




Technion professor and former water commissioner (1991 – 93) Dan Zaslavsky gave a chilling interview to the Voice of Israel radio station this morning when he blasted state water policies, declaring that Israel’s water crisis has fully arrived in the summer 2008. Zaslavsky is well known for having curbed water usage especially by the agricultural sector during his two year stint as water commissioner. He is often accused of having destroyed the “Jaffa orange” market by eliminating subsidies to citrus growers. His explanation in the early 1990s was that the Israeli public does not have to subsidize water prices so juicy oranges can be sold in Europe and North America. Furthermore he saw no reason why Israel should be wasting precious water supplies over an agricultural symbol. It was a blow to the Israel citrus industry but a blessing in disguise. Water might be seen as a commodity but in essence it was becoming a luxury.

Most importantly he demanded an overhaul of Israel’s water policies. One must plan for a future growing population and not deplete resources. Israel’s largest natural water resource is the coastal aquifer which over the years has been depleted to the point that 20% of its wells are saline due to the encroachment of Mediterranean waters, this caused by over pumping. The mountain aquifer is shared with the Palestinians and cuts through the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and the Jerusalem hills. Both Israelis and Palestinians dip in too deeply causing deficits here as well. Next we have the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) whose waters are below the red line and within a few months will be beyond the black line meaning the pumping facilities will be higher than the water line. Anyone visiting the Kinneret nowadays notices the shoreline has receded by tens of meters with water tables nationwide lower than anyone can remember. Overall Israel has a national water emergency, even if undeclared by the government.

Zaslavsky is convinced that by mid-summer water will be cut and possibly closed down to a good portion of Israel’s farmers due to government refusal over the years to allocate the necessary funding for desalination plants. Monies have been invested but not enough and not fast enough. Five years ago Israel had 29 small desalination facilities for brackish non-coastal waters and the medium sized Eilat plant built in the 1970s. Beginning in 2003 Ariel Sharon’s second government began a major project to build desalination plants along Israel’s Mediterranean coast. The expectation was that in 6-7 years Israel would overcome its water problems by constructing these four major plants.

In the 1990s the Jewish National Fund developed dams in the Bet Shean Valley for water conservation and in the Negev to catch flood waters. During the same period water recycling plants, in particular the Shafdan in the center of the country began recycling hundreds of millions of cubic meters of home usage water. Once recycled, these waters were sent to the Negev for agricultural endeavors. Today Israel recycles 75% of all its water. Despite all these efforts the country is water short and not only because of recurring droughts so common in this part of the world. Rather public awareness is very low, there is no real government information campaign and Israelis waste water. There is also little law enforcement.

Five years after the government finally stepped in there are two desalination plants on the coast, one in Ashkelon processing 100 million cubic meters annually and at Palmachim with a capacity of 30 million – a nice beginning but far from enough. As of May 2008 the Hadera plant (100 million) has gotten the okay but work has yet to begin while construction of the Ashdod facility (100 million) is held up in court. Minister of Infrastructure Benyamin Ben Eliezer spoke of the need to go beyond the original target of 505 million cubic meters to be recycled annually and to reach for 750 million cubic meters. This he believes can be done by 2013 and not by 2020 as originally planned but this would demand billions in water infrastructure development in the immediate future. Furthermore there are plans to recycle another 20% of waste water bringing to total to 95%.

Interestingly enough Israel has the technical knowledge to handle the water emergency but politics and budgetary considerations get in the way. Everyone knows what needs to be done and how to do it. But political parties push their own agendas and because water is an agreed upon issue monies are not allocated since it is a non-divisive issue. According to Zaslavsky certain economists believe desalination is too expensive. Only a crisis can bring about the immediate funding necessary. Well, the crisis is now.

As Zaslavsky pointed out in the interview we only need a lapse of a year or two to destroy decades of hard work as turning off the faucets to the kibbutzim/moshavim will kill off the deciduous fruit and citrus orchards. Certainly fish ponds and dairy farming will also suffer. People will leave their farms in the north and south of the country, essentially abandoning many of the border areas. As he put it “they will head for the Land of Tel Aviv”. Zionism will be urbanized, one of the great fears of the labor Zionist pioneers and in particular Israel’s first PM David Ben Gurion who spoke of Tel Aviv as a possible Carthage, a city state with no hinterland should Jews not live in the Galilee and the Negev. Zaslavsky warns not only of tens of billions of shekels (or more) being lost but of the unraveling of the Zionist idea.

To sum up, it may be too late for the government to get its act together. Zaslavsky predicts water shutdowns before long. Yet if planning and implementation move ahead at record pace (hardly likely but possible), by 2013 and not 2020, Israel could have 750 million cubic meters of desalinated water along with 475 million cubic meters of recycled water. Added together that is 1,225 million cubic meters (or 1 billion, 225 million), quite a tally.

Time is of the essence. A national water emergency needs to be declared, water rationed and laws enforced, meaning heavy fines for violations. This is the only way to bridge the gap between planning and implementation without doing ourselves irreparable damage due to lack of foresight.

3) Iran tests 2,000-km, one-ton capable Shehab-3 missile


White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "The Iranians should stop the development of ballistic missiles, which could be used as a delivery vehicle for a potential nuclear weapon, immediately."

The Tehran TV bulletin Wednesday, July 9, announcing the test-launch of the Shehab-3 missile, one of nine launched from an undisclosed desert location, stressed that with a 2,000 km range it could reach Israel.

Two other types of missile with shorter ranges were also fired as part of the Great Prophet III war games launched two days ago by Revolutionary Guards navy, air force and ground units. Along with the statement, Guards air force commander Hossein Salami said: "We are ready to defend the integrity of the Iranian nation."

Tuesday, the senior IRGC Navy cleric said: If the US attacks Iran, “we will immediately strike back at Tel Aviv. Our first target is Tel Aviv and only then will we attack US shipping in the Persian Gulf.” Monday, a US-UK-Bahrani naval exercise began to drill measures for protecting Gulf oil installations.

4) New witness to give key testimony in Olmert corruption investigation
By Jonathan Lis

Sharon Tzur, a former Likud activist who was considered close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, is one of the key people summoned to give a deposition to the Israel Police in the investigation it is conducting in the United States in the corruption case against Olmert.

The prime minister is suspected of having illicitly received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jewish American millionaire Morris Talansky over the course of 15 years.

Tzur, 36, is suspected to have been present in the hotel suite with Olmert on at least one occasion when cash-filled envelopes changed hands.

Tzur founded and runs Media Watch International, an organization that seeks to promote pro-Israel views in the American media. American Jewish businessman Ronald Lauder is one of the organization's major donors.

Another person from whom police are soliciting testimony in the U.S. is political consultant Zev Furst. Police want to know whether any of the money that Talansky gave Olmert made its way to Furst.

Law enforcement sources said that Tzur's name came up repeatedly during their initial inquiries into the Talansky affair, but upon further investigation, none of the information seemed to indicate that she was truly involved in the case; therefore, they decided to focus on Talansky.

However, Talansky himself mentioned Tzur's name several times during his interrogations by the police, saying that she had been present in one of the hotel rooms where he handed Olmert an envelope containing thousands of dollars in cash. Police are therefore hoping that she can confirm Talansky's story.

Tzur's response could not be obtained Tuesday night. Her office in New York said she was on vacation and could not be reached.

Tzur was born in Canada and moved to Israel at age 7 with her mother. Her grandfather, Zvi Rosenblatt, was one of the people accused of the murder in 1933 of Haim Arlosoroff, a politician from Mapai, the forerunner of the Labor Party.

In 2000, the local paper Iton Tel Aviv ran a profile of Tzur in which it described a meeting in the office of then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, at which she, Olmert, Uzi Landau, Roni Milo and Natan Sharansky were present.

This past May, an investigative report in Haaretz Magazine revealed that Tzur paid a hotel bill for Olmert and his wife, Aliza, at a luxury hotel on New York's Fifth Avenue, the Peninsula. At the time, Olmert was minister of industry, trade and employment. He was in New York to attend an exhibition by his wife, a well-known artist.

The report revealed that in April 2005, the Olmerts stayed in a luxury suite whose normal price was $2,600 a night. However, thanks to Olmert's friendship with billionaire Michael Kadoorie, one of the hotel's owners, they were given the suite for $500 a night. Thus the final tab came to $2,200 - and it was paid by Tzur and MWI.

Tzur claimed at the time that Olmert was being hosted by MWI during that trip because while he was there, he participated in eight meetings on the organization's behalf.

The three-man Israeli police team now in the U.S. is planning to conduct depositions in New York, Washington and Las Vegas in the hope of finding documents and testimony that support Talansky's story. They will visit Talansky's office, the bank from which he withdrew the money that he gave Olmert, and the hotels at which he met Olmert.

Since the information they have amassed has not yet been sent back to Israel, the police and prosecution have not yet had a chance to examine it in depth. But the reports they have sent back since arriving about 10 days ago indicate that the material they have found does support the suspicions against Olmert.

"We have no doubt that in the coming days, 'spins' of one sort or another will be published about the case," said a law enforcement official. "So we must state clearly: The investigators' work is progressing as it should. It is impossible at this stage to say that the suspicions against Olmert have been disproven. On the other hand, it would be highly unserious to say at this stage whether an indictment will be filed against him and what it might look like."

However, other sources said that the case against Olmert is solidifying thanks to the testimony collected in recent weeks.

Olmert himself will be questioned by the police again this Friday, under caution. At this session, he will be confronted with the new material gathered over the last few weeks, both in the U.S. and through questioning additional suspects and witnesses in Israel. In particular, he will be shown evidence indicating that contrary to his previous assertions, he made personal use of some of the money he received from Talansky.

Olmert has said the money was used solely for his electoral campaigns.

This will be Olmert's third interrogation since the Talansky affair broke, and it is expected to take only about two hours. Its main purpose is to "lock" him into an account before he has a chance to thoroughly examine the new material and adjust his story accordingly.

Olmert adviser: Police using media leaks to coach Talansky ahead of cross examination

Olmert's associates said Wednesday that the State Prosecutor's Office and the police were leaking confidential details from the corruption investigation against Olmert in efforts to coach the prosecution's key witness ? Talansky.

The prime minister's media adviser, Amir Dan, said Wednesday "in recent days the police are using a reprehensible tactic of coaching witnesses and coordinating stories via habitual and selective leaks to the press of investigation materials. The police are not permitted to speak with Talansky until he is cross examined, and they have found a way to "circumvent" this prohibition by transferring messages to him [in the media] before his cross examination next week. The transfer of messages to Talansky in this way is expected to continue ahead of his imminent testimony, and I won't be surprised if they include details from the questioning of the prime minister

5) Caught: BBC's Shocking First Response to Terror Attack

We catch the BBC's despicable first headline before it gets changed.

At the time of writing, more details are emerging on today's (Wednesday July 2) terror attack on Jerusalem's busy Jaffa Street thoroughfare. A Palestinian resident of Jerusalem went on the rampage in a bulldozer, attacking two buses, a number of cars and innocent passers-by, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more before being shot by an Israeli policeman.

While BBC Online currently covers the story "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem," this was not the original headline. Offering a glimpse into the BBC's warped journalism, the initial headline read "Israel bulldozer driver shot dead".

While, this time, we were able to catch the BBC before it amended its headline, this example offers further evidence of the BBC's mindset - the initial instinct to portray Israel as an aggressor and a Palestinian as a victim even if that Palestinian was actively involved in a terrorist attack against innocent civilians.


That this terror attack took place opposite Jerusalem Capital Studios, the local headquarters for many international media outlets, including BBC, Sky News and CNN, ensured that footage and coverage were available almost immediately. The BBC's very own correspondent Tim Franks even witnessed much of the incident from his office window. The BBC can have no excuse for not having the basic facts of the story in front of them from the very beginning.

Our Special One Year Analysis of the BBC demonstrated how its headline selection for stories focused on combat and terrorist attacks was inconsistent and favored the Palestinian side. Stories about Palestinian attacks never directly named the aggressors. Instead, headlines such as "Rocket injures dozens in Israel" were used.

Indeed, even the latest BBC headline "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem", is also fundamentally flawed, failing to attribute the attack to the Palestinian individual who carried it out. Instead it refers to an inanimate machine as the instigator. Of course, the bulldozer did not carry out its actions of its own free will. It was not the city of Jerusalem, the subject of the headline, that was murdered, but at least three innocent Israelis.

For accurate coverage and the latest developments from Jerusalem on this breaking story, see English-language Israeli sources such as The Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz and YNet News. You can also read the thoughts of HonestReporting's Backspin blog editor who happened to be in downtown Jerusalem at the time of the terror atttack.

6) Officials: 1701 on verge of collapse
By YAAKOV KATZ


United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, passed to stop the Second Lebanon War, is on the verge of collapse as Syria continues to rearm Hizbullah, senior defense officials warned Tuesday night ahead of a scheduled security cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will convene the cabinet to discuss the rearmament of Hizbullah since the Second Lebanon War and to discuss ways to curb the flow of weapons from Syria to the guerrilla group.

During the meeting, the ministers will be briefed by Military Intelligence on Hizbullah's rehabilitation and preparation for another round of violence with Israel.

Defense officials said Israel's only course of action at present was to attempt to place pressure on diplomatic officials from European countries that contribute to UNIFIL.

"Syria is rearming Hizbullah at a rapid pace and this is proof that 1701 has completely failed," one official said.

The peacekeeping force's mandate will be up for renewal next month and Israel is looking to see if it will be possible to make changes that will give the force more freedom to prevent Hizbullah's rearmament.

7)Our enemies no longer scared: IDF must find a way to frighten our enemies as it did in the past
By Dov Weisglass


In a press conference last week, Nasrallah said cheerfully said that Israel has no idea whether its kidnapped troops are alive and contemptuously belittled the Israeli Mossad for claiming it has a “source” that does not exist.


But perhaps Nasrallah has a few good reasons to be satisfied: He proved that he can abduct soldiers and engage in tough talks with Israel on their return. He showed that Israel has no choice but to negotiate in line with his terms and ultimately accept his demands. Yet the most bothersome fact is that Nasrallah illustrated Israel’s weakness and openly presented it as state that should not be feared.


Indeed, Samir Kuntar, a murderer who does not deserve to live, will soon return to Lebanon, with Nasrallah thus delivering on his promise to his followers.


Once upon a time, when our founding fathers were in power, that same Mossad which Nasrallah now disparages would have eliminated him a long time ago. However, Israel today is not the Israel it used to be.


Hamas too realizes that it is dealing with current-day Israel. It fires rockets and mortar shells with no fear; it forced Israel to lift the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip; it holds on to abducted soldier Gilad Shalit and keeps fooling those negotiating on his release.


Despite its misery and inferiority, Hamas is talking to Israel as an equal. Its leaders threaten us, make demands, and present conditions. They conduct themselves as though they know Israel has no other choice except for negotiating in line with their rules. And they’re right. With Gilad Shalit’s guards able to enjoy imported Israeli ice cream on hot days, they really don’t have much to fear.


Image is crucial in Mideast
While Nasrallah’s annoying smiles and Abu-Zuhri’s cheeky hand gestures do not constitute an existential threat to Israel, in this part of the world image and mood carry supreme importance when it comes to national security. The impression that Israel is weak is disastrous, even if this is merely an impression. Without an image of strength and deterrent power, Israel will find it difficult to guarantee its security in this wild part of the world.


Those who grew up in Israel’s early years remember days of near hunger, unemployment, and housing distress. Ye the poor Israel was able to deliver tough blows against its enemies. A small military that was meagerly equipped, undisciplined, and forced to absorb thousands of recruits from all over the world was able to plan, dare, hit the enemy deep in its own territory, and scare it.


Especially notable were Ariel Sharon and his comrades in Unit 101 and in the paratroopers – just like fighters in other elite forces – who shaped a systematic and tough retaliation policy of killing the murderers and their masters at their homes in the village, camp, or headquarters.


Those fighters in the 1950s did not possess the weapons, equipment, and means available to the army today, yet they and their commanders – in the army and in government – possessed plenty of comprehension, creativity, courage, and determination that led to a long series of retaliation operations and other assaults on the enemy’s home front. The IDF was thus able to achieve its main mission: Frightening the murderers and their masters.


The Second Lebanon War is the best evidence of how important impressions are in the Middle East: Hizbullah’s fortifications, strongholds, and neighborhoods in Beirut were pulverized, yet it still celebrated a victory. The IDF, which has been working to draw conclusions from that war, must find a way to again scare the enemy. The fear will regain (at least partly so) some of Israel’s dignity and security.