The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday strongly defended Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem in the face of US pressure and what one of his own top diplomats described as the worst crisis in relations with Washington for more than three decades.
A defiant Mr Netanyahu appeared to be digging in despite clear indications that the Obama administration is now demanding the scrapping of plans for 1,600 new Jewish homes, whose announcement overshadowed last week’s visit to Israel by the US Vice-President Joe Biden. Mr Netanyahu’s stance appeared to guarantee, after a highly charged week, the protraction of a stand-off in which a full-scale diplomatic row blew up at the start of Mr Biden’s visit and appeared to abate at the end of it. But it was then reignited by demands from Hillary Clinton and an angry White House that Israel make amends for the “insulting” announcement just as indirect negotiations with the Palestinians had finally been arranged.
U.S.-Israeli relations have hit a 35-year low over a contentious east Jerusalem building project that threatens to derail peacemaking efforts with the Palestinians, Israel’s envoy to Washington was quoted as saying Monday.
Ambassador Michael Oren’s remarks clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assurances that the political turmoil resulting from the settlement announcement, which the Obama administration slammed as “an insult,” was under control.
“Israel’s ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 … a crisis of historic proportions,” the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Oren as saying to Israeli diplomats in a phone briefing over the weekend.
Israeli officials said that the U.S. is pressing the Jewish nation to scrap the east Jerusalem building project.
Russia will not support “crippling” sanctions against Iran, including any that may be slapped on the Islamic Republic’s banking or energy sectors, a senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Moscow last week to press the Kremlin to back tougher sanctions against Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons project.
This week, Netanyahu called for an immediate embargo on Iran’s energy sector.
Israel’s air force on Sunday introduced a fleet of huge pilotless planes that can remain in the air for a full day and could fly as far as the Persian Gulf, putting rival Iran within its range.
The Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making them the size of Boeing 737 passenger jets and the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel’s military. The planes can fly at least 20 consecutive hours and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying diverse payloads.
At the fleet’s inauguration ceremony at a sprawling air base in central Israel, the drone dwarfed an F-15 fighter jet parked beside it. The unmanned plane resembles its predecessor, the Heron, but can fly higher, reaching an altitude of more than 40,000 feet (12,000 meters), and remain in the air longer.
It well known that Mossad has a history of participating in assassinations and using forgein passports when they do so. After the brutal murder of the Olympic team in 1972, they took out those responsible. In the 1960’s they kidnapped Nazi Adolf Eichmann from Argentina so he could be brought to trial and executed.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the “now dead” terrorist, was an illegal smuggler of arms for Hamas. He helped found the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades- militant wings of Hamas, and was involved in the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers, Sa’adon and Sasportas, during the first Palestinian intifada in 1989. It is also believed he was involved in smuggling arms from Sudan to Gaza in 2009.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead on January 20, 2010 in his hotel room in Dubai.
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed that the Zionist regime is moving on a precipice towards demise and it will soon experience annihilation.
“I am very optimistic about the future of Palestine and believe that Israel is moving on the precipice of wane and demise, and God willing its annihilation is for sure,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement Ramadan Abdullah Shallah here in Tehran.
