Here’s a bit from the Wikipedia entry on the Phoney War:

At the Nuremberg Trials, Alfred Jodl said that “if we did not collapse already in the year 1939 that was due only to the fact that during the Polish campaign, the approximately 110 French and British divisions in the West were held completely inactive against the 23 German divisions.”

That’s right. We could have stopped the insanity right there if we had just acted.

Well, Israel is wondering if we aren’t at that same September 1939 moment where a little action could save millions (even billions) of lives and avert global catastrophe.

From the rhetoric that’s coming out of Jerusalem, it looks like Israel is getting ready to act on its own.

Or, is Israel trying to startle us out of that trance-like state that we’ve been in for the last few years?

It looks like we’re going to find out the answer to that question sometime during the next few months.

Israel Vice PM: Military strike can hit all of Iran’s nuclear facilities

Speaking at Herzliya Conference, Moshe Ya’alon calls the possibility of a nuclear Iran a ‘nightmare to the free world,’ says explosion at Iranian missile base targeted missile system that would have threatened the U.S.

Ha’aretz, 02.02.12, By Barak Ravid

All of Iran’s nuclear faculties are vulnerable to a military strike, Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Thursday, calling the potential of a nuclear Iran a “nightmare to the free world.”

At the closing day of the Herzliya Conference, Ya’alon referred to the many tools at the international community’s disposal that could serve to slow down or stop Iran’s advancement toward nuclear weapons capability: international pressure, economic sanctions, support of Iranian opposition, and military actions.

Speaking of the possibility of a military strike of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the vice PM said that “the West has the ability to strike, but as long as Iran isn’t convinced that there’s a determination to follow through with it, they’ll continue with their manipulations.”

“The Iranians believe that a determination isn’t still there, both in regards to military action and in regards to sanctions,” Ya’alon said, adding that “any facility protected by humans can be infiltrated by humans. It’s possible to strike all Iran’s facilities, and I say that out of my experience as IDF chief of staff.”

Read the rest of the article here.

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Is Israel preparing to attack Iran?
By David Ignatius, February 2, The Washington Post

BRUSSELS – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is the growing possibility that Israel will attack Iran over the next few months.

Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb. Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon — and only the United States could then stop them militarily.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t want to leave the fate of Israel dependent on American action, which would be triggered by intelligence that Iran is building a bomb, which it hasn’t done yet.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak may have signaled the prospect of an Israeli attack soon when he asked last month to postpone a planned U.S.-Israel military exercise that would culminate in a live-fire phase in May. Barak apologized that Israel couldn’t devote the resources to the annual exercise this spring.

President Obama and Panetta are said to have cautioned the Israelis that the United States opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold. But the White House hasn’t yet decided precisely how the United States would respond if the Israelis do attack.

The Obama administration is conducting intense discussions about what an Israeli attack would mean for the United States: whether Iran would target U.S. ships in the region or try to close the Strait of Hormuz; and what effect the conflict and a likely spike in oil prices would have on the fragile global economy.

The administration appears to favor staying out of the conflict unless Iran hits U.S. assets, which would trigger a strong U.S. response.

Read the rest of the article here.

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Also:

Barak: If sanctions fail, Iran must be hit

Ya’alon: Iran was working on US-range missile

What I want to describe here on Israel Outlook, is a book written by the subject of the email, Richard Maybury. The name of the book is The Thousand Year War in the Mideast – How It Affects You Today.

I have lived in the Middle East for a decade and a half, analyzing everything I could find about the place, and I can truthfully say that the book is unusually accurate – while being subtly flawed.

Let me get into the flaws of the book, first. Actually, it’s pretty much one flaw that propagates itself throughout. And, it’s not really a flaw. It’s a misrepresentation of a tiny, tiny minority.

He claims that all religion is based on two fundamental laws:

Do all you have agreed to do.

Do not encroach on other persons or their property.

To put it more succinctly, the two fundamental laws can be summarized in four words:

Integrity and Property Rights

If you say that I’m ignoring ‘encroachment on persons’, I can tell you that I’m not. Under his paradigm, you own yourself, so anything encroaching on you is an issue of property right. If you touch me, you are touching my property. Don’t touch me.

He characterizes Christianity and Judaism this way, and that is an incorrect characterization for true Christians, and for that matter, true Jews. Let me take Judaism first because it feeds into Christianity.

Rabbi Hillel, one of the greatest authors of modern Judaism is famous for “The Golden Rule”. As it is recounted to us, one day, a non-Jewish man went to Rabbi Hillel and challenged the Rabbi to explain the Torah, while the man stood on one foot. Rabbi Hillel answered:

That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.

That, is classic Judaism.

When Jesus began to preach, Hillel had been dead for something close to twenty years. One day, a rabbi went up to Jesus, and like the non-Jew, challenged Jesus to tell him how to earn eternal life:

The US is sending an Aircraft Carrier Battle Group (or at least a Strike Group) to Israel – along with several thousand US troops. AND, they are integrating US and Israeli command staff – both at EUCOM in Germany and at HaKirya in Tel Aviv (Israel’s version of the Pentagon).

And, this isn’t just a one-off exercise because it’s being referred to as a deployment. So, quite a bit of what appears in and around Israel – and is American – will stick around after the exercise is over.

How far will this integration go?

It’s hard to know, but it must be something of a relief to Israeli command staff to see the US military treating threats in the region so seriously.

Unfortunately, the US is a fickle benefactor, so I would be careful about how excited to get by this development. But, this is still big.

May it bode well for Israel’s future.

US commander visits Israel to finalize missile drill

Jerusalem Post, by Yaakov Katz, 12/20/2011

Israel, US to hold largest ever missile defense exercise this spring; thousands of US soldiers will be deployed in Israel.

Israel is moving forward with plans to hold the largest-ever missile defense exercise in its history this spring amid Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.

Last week, Lt.-Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US’s Third Air Force based in Germany, visited Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming drill, expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.

The drill, which is unprecedented in its size, will include the establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at EUCOM headquarters in Germany – with the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East.

The US will also bring its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and shipbased Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to Israel to simulate the interception of missile salvos against Israel.

The American systems will work in conjunction with Israel’s missile defense systems – the Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome.

Gorenc came to Israel for talks with Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Force’s Air Defense Division.

Read the rest of the article here.

When will the muslims ever learn?

Just yesterday, Major General Eyal Eisenberg, Chief of IDF Home Front Command, warned:

“It looks like the Arab Spring, but it can also be a radical Islamic winter. This leads us to the conclusion that through a long-term process, the likelihood of an all-out war is increasingly growing.

“Iran has not abandoned its nuclear program. The opposite it true; it continues full steam ahead,” he said. “In Egypt, the army is collapsing under the burden of regular security operations, and this is reflected in the loss of control in the Sinai and the turning of the border with Israel into a terror border, with the possibility that Sinai will fall under the control of an Islamic entity.”

“In Lebanon, Hezbollah is growing stronger within government arms, but it has not lost its desire to harm Israel, and the ties with Turkey aren’t at their best,” Major General Eisenberg added.

Referring to what he characterized as the possibility of a “radical Islamic winter,” Major-General Eisenberg said: “This raises the likelihood of an all-out, total war, with the possibility of weapons of mass destruction being used.”

During his address, the senior IDF official revealed that new, more lethal arms surfaced in the hands of Gaza terror groups during the latest round of fighting in the area. As result of the disturbing development, Israeli civilians were instructed to adopt greater precautions, he said.

“We discovered a new weapon, and as result of this we instructed the public to hide under two roofs, rather than only one,” he said.

He also went on to add that 25% of local authorities in Israel are insufficiently prepared to face emergency situations.

I think that its interesting to see that many in the intelligence community in Israel are upset with General Eisenberg’s comments:

“It’s unclear why an IDF general heats up tensions in the region and why he exposes secret intelligence information about new Palestinian capabilities,” one official said.

I, of course, appreciate hearing what the general said. I can only hope that more people begin to understand what’s coming and what’s happening so that the US can help do something about it.

The problem is that the US is asleep.

Worse, the US appears to be causing some of what is happening.

Not only should I ask if the muslims will ever learn, but I should also ask if WE will ever learn.

It’s as if we are determined to bring the world crashing down around us. We have clearly gone insane.

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Source: Ynet News

More articles on this subject:

Terror attacks skyrocket in August‘Gaza militants have Libyan arms’IAEA worries over Iran military nuclear work Report: Egyptian forces raid Jihad cells in Sinai Report: Israel sends 2 warships to Egyptian border
More to lose in crisis with Turkey than meets the eye
Turkey gives Israeli diplomats 2 days to leave country

In our hope for a different future, most of us have attempted to make parallels between the Catholic Church and Islam. Just like Islam, the Roman Catholic Church has been violent, legalistic and oppressive. And, just like the Roman Catholic Church, we argue that Islam too could reform and turn away from its violent past.

Those that point out that Islam has yet to do so are shouted down by historians who talk about an unfortunate series of events that have kept modernization out of the grasp of Muslim civilization. They say (quite loudly) that the Islamic Caliphate in the late 1400s through the 1600s was on the verge of its own Renaissance when they were kicked out of Spain in the West and forced to fight off the Mongols in the East. This militarized the Islamic empire, they argue, and kept Islam in a dark age of violence and ignorance.

But that presupposes that Islam CAN be modernized. What if we are wrong? What if Islam CANNOT be modernized?

I believe Catholic Christianity was able to be ‘modernized’ precisely because Catholicism was NOT biblical. It was not true to the text of the New Testament of the bible.

In Christianity, the truest expression faith pushes us down the path towards pacifism.

The opposite is true about Islam. In Islam, the truest expression of faith pushes the ‘believer’ towards Jihad. And, the Islamic principle of Naskh or ‘abrogation’ nullifies all the verses in the Quran that might refer to peace.

So, the question remains. Can Islam be modernized? Can it have a renaissance?

I’m beginning to think that it’s not possible. I’m beginning to think that Islam is just too fragile, and I’m not alone in this. The Catholic priest, Fr. James Schall writes:

The fragility of Islam, as I see it, lies in a sudden realization of the ambiguity of the text of the Koran. Is it what it claims to be? Islam is weak militarily. It is strong in social cohesion, often using severe moral and physical sanctions. But the grounding and unity of its basic document are highly suspect. Once this becomes clear, Islam may be as fragile as communism.

I found the above quote in David Goldman’s article in Pajamas Media, Father Schall on the Fragility of Islam. David writes in his article:

A tiny minority of analysts, [David Goldman] included, have argued instead that Islam cannot be reformed or situated in democratic institutions; its militancy, rather, stems from the realization that it cannot survive modernity. “Koranic criticism yet may turn out to be the worm in the foundation of radical Islam,” I wrote in 2003. Much of the Muslim world is repeating the West’s transition out of traditional society, but in lapsed time.

That is the subject of my forthcoming book, How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam is Dying Too).

An index of Islam’s loss of faith is the unprecedented collapse of fertility in many Muslim countries, most notably Iran. The average Iranian has six siblings, but will have 1.5 children. The Persian nation will not survive this demographic collapse. There are seven working-age Iranians to care for each set of parents; in the next generation there will be one and a half. That is an impossible tax even for industrial nations whose per capita GDP exceeds $30,000, and an unimaginable problem for a country with a per capita GDP of only $6,000. Iran is going to die.

Why so few children? Just as Fr. Schall suggests, we will find when we poke through the rubble that Muslims are as rare in today’s Iran as Communists in the Russia of the 1980s. According to a BBC account Iran has the lowest mosque attendance of any Muslim country at just 2%.

Now, you would think that this is good news. And, it IS good news – in the long run.

Unfortunately, you have to get past the ‘short run’ before the ‘long run’ happens. And, as Islam continues to fail, it will engage in ever greater cycles of repression and violence. These ‘death throes’ could (and will) do terrible damage to anyone within reach of Islam.

So, the good news of the decline of Islam has a terrifying element to it.

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But, there is another bit of chilling news that I’ve just received over the past few days, and no one is talking about it.

Remember what I talked about a few days ago of a cache of man portable surface to air missiles that Ghadafi had stockpiled when the rebels took over? Some 15-25,000?

Well, I’ve heard from the people at Geostrategy Direct, that Hamas has requested something like 25 surface to air missiles from the rebels. Apparently they either want to shoot down passenger airliners taking off from/landing at Ben Gurion International Airport. Or, they might be asking for longer range missiles to take down aircraft overflying Israel.

Whatever the case, this is going to be worrying news for Shrutei Bitachon Clalli – Israel’s intelligence community (of which, Mossad is only one part).

It is true that some of these weapons are almost 30 years old, and most may misfire, but all it takes is one of those missiles to work. If Hamas succeeds in shooting down a 747 with over 400 passengers on board the Israel-Palestinian conflict, will have been changed forever.

Oh, and Hamas is only asking for 25. Please remember that there are up to another 24,975 missiles still running around that Hamas can ask for, if the first 25 don’t work.

Here’s an interesting video that puts this fact (among other facts) into perspective as it talks about Israel’s need for defensible boarders:

All it takes is one terrorist, with one working missile, in the right place, at the right time, to change the face of this conflict forever.

How long will it be before this happens?

I don’t know, but we’re frighteningly close to getting there.
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Please also see my new article on OmegaShock: Microchipping Humans by 2017?