531 Times of Israel: Yes, we do control the media

Times of Israel: Yes, we do control the media

(1) Times of Israel: Yes, we do control the media
(2) Jewish control shows The Anti-Christ is here - Brother Nathanael
(3) Yitzhak Shamir ordered assassinations of Bernadotte and British
minister - Philip Weiss
(4) Tourists in Israeli settlements offered the chance to practice
shooting "terrorists"
(5) Bill Kristol boasts of purging the Arabists from the Republican Party
(6) EU's Iran Sanctions Intended to Appease Israel - oilprice.com
(7) IDF commander says Israel is preparing "a very strong attack against
Lebanon"

(1) Times of Israel: Yes, we do control the media
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jews-do-control-the-media/

Jews DO control the media

July 1, 2012, 11:05 am 38

Elad Nehorai

We Jews are a funny breed. We love to brag about every Jewish actor.
Sometimes we even pretend an actor is Jewish just because we like him
enough that we think he deserves to be on our team. We brag about Jewish
authors, Jewish politicians, Jewish directors. Every time someone
mentions any movie or book or piece of art, we inevitably say something
like, “Did you know that he was Jewish?” That’s just how we roll.

We’re a driven group, and not just in regards to the art world. We have,
for example, AIPAC, which was essentially constructed just to drive
agenda in Washington DC. And it succeeds admirably. And we brag about
it. Again, it’s just what we do.

But the funny part is when any anti-Semite or anti-Israel person starts
to spout stuff like, “The Jews control the media!” and “The Jews control
Washington!”

Suddenly we’re up in arms. We create huge campaigns to take these people
down. We do what we can to put them out of work. We publish articles.
We’ve created entire organizations that exist just to tell everyone that
the Jews don’t control nothin’. No, we don’t control the media, we don’t
have any more sway in DC than anyone else. No, no, no, we swear: We’re
just like everybody else!

Does anyone else (who’s not a bigot) see the irony of this?

Let’s be honest with ourselves, here, fellow Jews. We do control the
media. We’ve got so many dudes up in the executive offices in all the
big movie production companies it’s almost obscene. Just about every
movie or TV show, whether it be “Tropic Thunder” or “Curb Your
Enthusiasm,” is rife with actors, directors, and writers who are Jewish.
Did you know that all eight major film studios are run by Jews? Pretty,
pretty, pretty, pretty good. (photo credit: CC BY-SA Angela
George/Wikimedia Commons)

Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. (photo credit: CC BY-SA Angela
George/Wikimedia Commons)

But that’s not all. We also control the ads that go on those TV shows.

And let’s not forget AIPAC, every anti-Semite’s favorite punching bag.
We’re talking an organization that’s practically the equivalent of the
Elders of Zion. I’ll never forget when I was involved in Israeli
advocacy in college and being at one of the many AIPAC conventions. A
man literally stood in front of us and told us that their whole goal was
to only work with top-50 school graduate students because they would
eventually be the people making changes in the government. Here I am, an
idealistic little kid that goes to a bottom 50 school (ASU) who wants to
do some grassroots advocacy, and these guys are literally talking about
infiltrating the government. Intense.

Now, I know what everyone will say. That everyone tries to lobby. Every
minority group and every majority group. That every group has some
successful actors and directors. But that’s a far call from saying that
we run Hollywood and Madison Avenue. That the Mel Gibsons of the world
are right in saying we’re deliberately using our power to take over the
world. That we’ve got some crazy conspiracy going down.

Okay. Fine. So some of that is kooky talk.

But let’s look at it a bit deeper.

Maybe it’s true: everyone lobbies. Maybe it’s true there are actors of
every ethnicity out there. But come on. We’re the ones who are bragging
about this stuff all the time. Can’t we admit that we’re incredibly
successful? Can’t we say it to the world?

I’ll give my theory for why Jews don’t want to talk about their control
of the media.

First of all, as much as Jews like to admit that so many of them are
successful, and that so many of them have accomplished so much, they
hate to admit that it has to do with they’re being Jewish. Maybe they’ll
admit that it has something to do with the Jewish experience. But how
many Jews will admit that there is something inherently a part of every
single one of them that helps them to accomplish amazing things?

The ADL chairman, Abe Foxman, was interviewed in a great article about
the subject and he said that he “would prefer people say that many
executives in the industry ‘happen to be Jewish.’” This just about sums
up the party line.

The truth is, the anti-Semites got it right. We Jews have something
planted in each one of us that makes us completely different from every
group in the world. We’re talking about a group of people that just got
put in death camps, endured pogroms, their whole families decimated. And
then they came to America, the one place that ever really let them have
as much power as they wanted, and suddenly they’re taking over. Please
don’t tell me that any other group in the world has ever done that. Only
the Jews. And we’ve done it before. That’s why the Jews were enslaved in
Egypt. We were too successful. Go look at the Torah — it’s right there.
And we did it in Germany too.

This ability to succeed, this inner drive, comes not from the years of
education or any other sort of conditional factors, but because of the
inner spark within each Jew.

Now, the reason groups like the ADL and AIPAC hate admitting this is
because, first of all, they are secular organizations. Their whole
agenda is to prove that every Jew is the same as every other person in
the world. I cannot imagine a more outlandish agenda. No, we’re
different. We’re special. And clearly, that whole thing about big Jewish
noses was totally blown out of proportion. (illustrative photo: Abir
Sultan/Flash 90)

And clearly, that whole thing about big Jewish noses was totally blown
out of proportion. (illustrative photo: Abir Sultan/Flash 90)

Of course, people hate when anyone says this. They assume that if you’re
saying that Jews are special, it somehow implies that they’re better.

To be honest, I’m not really sure what the word “better” even means.
What I do know is that being special simply means a person has a
responsibility to do good.

I think that’s the real reason most Jews are so afraid to admit that
there’s something inherently powerful and good about them. Not because
they’re afraid of being special. But because they’re afraid of being
responsible. It means that they’re suddenly culpable when they create
dirty TV shows that sully the spiritual atmosphere of the world. It
means that things can’t just be created for the sake of amusement or fun
or even “art.”

Suddenly, we can’t screw up the world.

The interesting thing is that Jews have done so much for the world in so
many other ways. They’ve moved forward civil rights; they’ve helped save
lives in Darfur, Haiti and just about everywhere else.

But that’s not enough. Fixing the world physically is only half the battle.

Our larger battle, the harder battle, is elevating the world
spiritually. And this is what the people that fight with every inch of
their soul to prove that Jews are just the same as everyone else are
afraid of. It means that we can no longer just “express ourselves.”
We’ll have to start thinking about the things we create and the way we
act. It means we’ll have to start working together. It means we’ll have
to hold one other, and ourselves, to a higher standard.

The time has come, though. We no longer have to change our names. We no
longer have to blend in like chameleons. We own a whole freaking country.

Instead, we can be proud of who we are, and simultaneously aware of our
huge responsibility — and opportunity.

Elad Nehorai is a writer living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn Five years
ago, he became a religious Jew in the Chabad Hassidic community and has
since written about his experience extensively, most recently in his
blog Pop Chassid and on the Huffington Post. You can find him on Twitter
and on Facebook.

(2) Jewish control shows The Anti-Christ is here - Brother Nathanael

{I don't agree with Brother Nathanael's rejection of Obamacare - Peter M.}

From: Brother Nathanael <bronathanael@yahoo.com> Date: 2 July 2012 14:10

{http://www.realjewnews.com/
My Name Is Brother Nathanael Kapner
I'm A "Street Evangelist"
I Grew Up As A Jew
I'm Now An Orthodox Christian
I Wish To Warn How Zionist Jews
Are Destroying Christianity Throughout The World}

http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=734

Three Faces Of The Anti-Christ

By Brother Nathanael Kapner

Many are now asking the question, “When will the Anti-Christ come?”

Now, if the emblems of the Anti-Christ—whom the Orthodox Church teaches
will be a Jew—are now part of everyday life, then his advent is at the
very doors.

You see, the tokens of the Anti-Christ are these: A Universal Military,
Globalization – that is, a One World Governance, and the Worship of
Jewish Polity.

And three Jewish faces now active in public life augur the coming of the
Anti-Christ and embody his work:

Senator Carl Levin, head of the US Senate Armed Services Committee;
Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs; and Elie Wiesel, apostle of
Holocaustianity.

Carl Levin is the sole sponsor of the National Defense Authorization
Act—known as the NDAA—which authorizes the US military to arrest
American citizens without due process of the law and to launch armed Spy
Drones…30,000 of them…flying throughout Amerika’s unfriendly skies.

Couple this with Washington’s imperialist tool, “NATO,” and you have a
Universal Military enforcing a Zionist-Jewish agenda worldwide.

Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs heads the global economic apparatus
wherein all the chokepoints of globalization: Currency Exchange Rates
(Forex), Letters of Credit, and Interbank Payments (Swift), are fully in
the hands of International Jewry.

And Elie Wiesel is the key agent of the worldwide veneration of Jewish
polity whereby the Holocaust narration frames all-things-Jewish as
victim of an evil conspiracy to be opposed by every Gentile, even
children, who are bombarded daily with Holocaustianity in our public
schools.

Now, all of this brings the coming of the Anti-Christ—at the very doors.

Just look at last week’s Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare.

For if the State can tax us as the penalty for refusing to purchase
ObamaCare then it can easily force us to receive an implanted chip into
our wrists or pay the penalty of starving us to death.

Starvation is a better option.

But for those who serve their bellies and their passions, capitulation
to football and fries—which the Anti-Christ will provide in great
abundance— means nothing less than the starvation of the soul.

(3) Yitzhak Shamir ordered assassinations of Bernadotte and British
minister - Philip Weiss

Kristoffer Larsson <krislarsson@comhem.se> 2 July 2012 13:31

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/07/shamir-ordered-count-bernadotte-assassination-to-save-jerusalem-for-jews-but-will-his-obits-tell-you-that.html

Shamir ordered Bernadotte assassination to save Jerusalem for Jews. But
will his obits tell you that?

by Philip Weiss on July 1, 2012 28

Israeli president Shimon Peres is calling the late Yitzhak Shamir, dead
at 96, a "brave warrior." What does that mean? It means he used
terrorism with very important political consequences. As head of the
Stern Gang, Shamir authorized the assassinations of Lord Moyne, the
British minister in Palestine, in 1944, and Folke Bernadotte, the U.N.
envoy (and Swedish count) in 1948.

The Bernadotte murder is particularly important: Bernadotte wanted to
internationalize Jerusalem and limit the borders of the new Jewish
state. His murder helped shift partition from 55 percent of Palestine to
the Jewish state to 78 percent.

But will the obits tell you that? CNN whitewash:

Born in Poland, Shamir moved to Palestine and fought for Israeli
independence.... Shamir was a leader of the Jewish Zionist underground
group that fought the mandate in the 1940s.

It wasn't just the mandate, he fought the U.N.

There is a shameful statement by Hillary Clinton at the end of that piece.

"From his days working for Israel's independence to his service as prime
minister, he strengthened Israel's security and advanced the partnership
between the United States and Israel," she said in a statement.

I know she's a diplomat, but could she have kept her mouth shut on some
of this? Shamir was the Israeli prime minister, after all, who helped
force Hillary's husband Bill to run to George Bush's right on
settlements in 1992, a position that helped him to defeat the incumbent
Bush, who had opposed settlements.

The British are clear about this. Here is the lead of the Financial
Times obit for Shamir.

Yitzhak Shamir, who has died at the age of 96, is most likely to be
remembered as a terrorist against British rule in Palestine during the
1940s and as a man whose aggressive Jewish settlement policy on Arab
lands may have stymied Middle East peace for a generation.

Compare that to the New York Times' wishywashy Israel-o-philic lead, by
Joel Brinkley:

Yitzhak Shamir, who emerged from the militant wing of a Jewish militia
and served as Israel’s prime minister longer than anyone but David
Ben-Gurion, promoting a muscular Zionism and expansive settlement in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, died Saturday at a nursing home in
Tel Aviv. He was 96.

What's a militia? The Stern Gang. Why did they call it a gang?

Haaretz is more honest, though it never mentions Bernadotte:

When he was 20, he immigrated to Palestine and joined the Irgun two
years later. By day he worked in an accountant’s office and at night
took part in anti-British activities.

Shamir said “we didn’t take any action blindly or automatically or just
for the sake of violence. Our aim was to intimidate rather than to
punish ... reprisals were never a cause for celebration. They were
simply an existential need.” In 1940, Shamir left the Irgun, following
Avraham Stern, and became a leader of the Lehi ? which the British
called the Stern Gang.

In December 1941 he was arrested and spent time in the Mizra prison near
Acre. After escaping in September 1942, he was put in charge of
operations. In this role he was responsible for the 1944 assassination
of Lord Moyne, the British minister of state in the Middle East.

As Shamir put it, Moyne “was a senior official in enforcing British
policy in Palestine and didn’t for a moment hide his strong opposition
to Zionism and his negative feelings toward the Jews.” ...

The New York Times has been more forthcoming about this in the past.
Here is Clyde Haberman on Kati Marton's biography of Folke Bernadotte,
in the Times, 1995:

[Shamir] she says, signed [Bernadotte's] death warrant. He was part of a
troika that led Lehi after its guiding force, Avraham Stern, was killed
by the British in 1942. His name was Yitzhak Yezernitsky, a short
bulldog of an immigrant from the Russian-Polish border. Four decades
later, he became Israel's Prime Minister under the name Yitzhak Shamir.

Ever suspicious and tight-lipped, Mr. Shamir, nearly 80, still speaks
elliptically about the Bernadotte assassination. In a recently published
memoir, "Summing Up," he acknowledges that Lehi wanted the mediator
"removed from the arena." But the group "took no responsibility for the
deed," he says. "The idea was conceived in Jerusalem by Lehi members
operating there more or less independently."

Ms. Marton strips away this deliberate ambiguity. There is no doubt, she
says, that Shamir and his co-leaders imposed a death sentence on
Bernadotte and selected a four-man squad whose trigger man was one
Yehoshua Cohen.

Yes and now the Times restores that ambiguity.

In her book, A Death in Jerusalem, Marton quotes a Haaretz report:

"the decision to assassinate Bernadotte... was taken at a meeting of the
Lehi [Stern Gang] Central Committee in which Yitzhak Shamir, former Lehi
commander, participated. Who pulled the trigger is less important,
[Shamir] said in another place, what is important is that it was the
Lehi Central Committee which decided on the assassination."

She goes on to say that Shamir was the one man with no "milk in his veins":

[T]hose Israelis who have studied both the case and the man in the
context of their country's history insist Shamir was the key player. "It
takes a strong man to give such an order," says Shabtai Teveth
[Ben-Gurion biographer]. ... Shamir is such a man."

Not only has Yitzhak Shamir... never disavowed his role in the murder of
the mediator; he has frequently stated that his time as Lehi commaner
was the best time of his life.

The Stern Gang was afraid that Ben-Gurion would accede to the U.N. and
Bernadotte to give up Jerusalem. Marton says Shamir's co-conspirator
Israel Eldad "regards the murder of Bernadotte as one of Lehi's [Stern
gang's] great achievements. In his view, it saved Jerusalem from the
Arabs."From Marton's book, in the weeks before Bernadotte was killed:

In his new plan, Jerusalem would belong neither to Israel nor to the
Arabs, but would be internationalized along the original UN proposal.
All of the fertile Galilee would go to Israel, while Ben-Gurion's
beloved Negev, would, in return, go to Transjordan.

Here is a related entry from the late NYT foreign affairs columnist C.L.
Sulzberger's diary, A Long Row of Candles:

August 24, 1948

On July 22 Bernadotte told a few people confidentially in Rhodes that he
foresaw the following ultimate solution for Palestine:

There will be a Jewish state, no matter what else happens. Its
boundaries will have to be radically altered to proved a more compact
and workable state. Its Arab neighbors must be given an ironclad UN
guarantee against any move to expand.

Bernadotte was murdered a month later. So much for a compact state and
limits on expansion. Israel got the Negev and much of Jerusalem.

(4) Tourists in Israeli settlements offered the chance to practice
shooting "terrorists"
Kristoffer Larsson <krislarsson@comhem.se> 20 June 2012 01:06

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/tourism-in-israeli-settlements-practice-shooting-palestinians.html

Tourism in Israeli settlements: Practice shooting Palestinians

by Abir Kopty on June 19, 2012 5

Yedioth Ahronot cover page, June 18th, 2012

This article was originally published on June 18, 2012 on Abir Kopty's
website.

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot published a story today (June 18th,
2012) about a tourist activity offered by Gush Etzion settlements, where
visitors can practice how to shoot "terrorists".

Stories about such tours both in settlements and army bases are always
published, but no serious attention given to such scary culture of
hatred and violence. (see here one example in Hebrew from 2003) Shay,
extreme tourism instructor:"Your mommy won't be here to protect you, so
stand up like a man," continuing, "Are you ready to take out a
terrorist?". (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Tourists from across the globe visit Gush Etzion settlements, where they
are offered by settlers "enjoyable" package under the name "Hebrew
Extreme Tourism" with range of activities that include: story telling
about battles, view live shooting performance and an activity where
visitors can practice shooting at "terrorists-mechablim" cardboard
pictures hung on the wall.

The word used for terrorist in Hebrew is "Mechabel" (mechablim for
terrorists). In Israeli discourse this is a synonym for
Palestinian.About Abir Kopty

Abir Kopty is a Palestinian activist in several movements and social
change organizations focused on feminism and human rights and the
struggle to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine. She works as media
analyst and consultant and is a former city council member in Nazareth &
former spokeswoman for Mossawa, the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in
Israel. She holds a Master's in Political Communication from the City
University of London.

(5) Bill Kristol boasts of purging the Arabists from the Republican Party
Kristoffer Larsson <krislarsson@comhem.se> 19 June 2012 13:19

http://original.antiwar.com/buchanan/2012/05/28/how-bill-kristol-purged-the-arabists/

How Bill Kristol Purged the Arabists

by Patrick J. Buchanan, May 29, 2012

After taping John Stossel’s show on May 15 in New York, the Mrs. and I
took the 10 a.m. Acela back to Washington. Once we had boarded the
train, who should come waddling up the aisle but Bill Kristol.

The Weekly Standard editor seemed cheerful, and we chatted about the
surge in Mitt Romney’s popularity and prospects.

I did not ask what he had been doing in New York, but thanks to the
websiteMondoweiss, I found out. Kristol was there for a May 15 “debate”
with Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, the pro-Israel organization, at B’nai
Jeshurun synagogue on the Upper West Side.

After listening to Kristol, writes Phil Weiss, “I am still reeling.”

“Kristol was treated like royalty and came off as … a Republican Party
warlord,” bragging “about how all the hostile elements to Israel inside
the Republican Party were purged over the last 30 years — [and] no one
[now] dared to question the power of the Israeli lobby.”

“The big story in the Republican Party over the last 30 years, and I’m
very happy about this,” said Kristol, is the “eclipsing” of the George
H.W. Bush-James Baker-Brent Scowcroft realists, “an Arabist
old-fashioned Republican Party … very concerned about relations with
Arab states that were not friendly with Israel….”

That Bush crowd is yesterday, said Kristol. And not only had the
“Arabists” like President Bush been shoved aside by the neocons, the
“Pat Buchanan/Ron Paul type” of Republican has been purged.

“At B’nai Jeshurun,” writes Weiss, “Kristol admitted to playing a role
in expelling members of the Republican Party he does not agree with.”
These are Republicans you had to “repudiate,” said Kristol, people “of
whom I disapprove so much that I won’t appear with them.”

“I’ve encouraged that they be expelled or not welcomed into the
Republican Party. I’d be happy if Ron Paul left. I was very happy when
Pat Buchanan was allowed — really encouraged … by George Bush … to go
off and run as a third-party candidate.”

Kristol’s point: Refuse to toe the neocon line on Israel, and you have
no future in the Republican Party.

Ben-Ami seemed equally exultant: “We’ve won the war; we won the war,” he
told the audience. Ninety-nine percent of Congress now votes almost 100%
pro-Israel.

But Ben-Ami appeared nervous about how this unanimity in the Congress
behind Israel had been achieved:

I very seriously and absolutely do believe that a significant percentage
of American members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are
intimidated on this issue (of Israel). … They worry about the
ramifications of speaking out. … They are worried about the attacks that
they will receive.

Ben-Ami said the 50 members who have criticized Israel are courageous,
but “another 200 are scared to do it.” Haaretz.com reports Ben Ami as
saying congressmen “live in fear” of the Israeli lobby.

Kristol laughed at this and dared Ben-Ami to name them.

When Ben-Ami brought up the destruction of Palestinian rights on the
West Bank and said Hillary Clinton repeatedly raises this issue with
Israel, writes Weiss, “Kristol sniggered.”

It’s a “myth,” said Kristol, that Arabs care about Palestinians. The
Israeli occupation on the West Bank can last for 45 or 60 years more.
Bill Kristol on Palestinian rights sounds like Bull Connor talking about
Negro rights in Birmingham in 1965.

Another source says Kristol predicted that Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose
voting record is closer to Socialist Bernie Sanders’ than to
conservative Jim DeMint’s, will be secretary of state in the Romney
administration.

A former head of the Israel lobby AIPAC describes Lieberman as “the No.
1 pro-Israel advocate and leader in the Congress.”

Joe led the cheers for our last three Middle East wars — and has pushed
for two more, against Syria and Iran.

About Kristol’s comments, a point of personal privilege.

George W. Bush never “encouraged” me to go third party. At the Iowa
straw poll in 1999, he asked me to stay in the party, and party chair
Jim Nicholson came to my home to make the same request.

At the synagogue, Kristol was never asked about his role in the Iraq War
that he and his collaborators pressured Bush to wage as “Israel’s fight
against terrorism is our fight.”

Some 4,500 Americans died in that war, 35,000 were wounded, and 100,000
Iraqis perished, leaving half a million widows and orphans.

Result: U.S. influence in the Middle East is at a nadir. Al-Qaeda has
spread into Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, and North Africa.

Now the neocons are worming their way into the Romney camp, dropping us
hints on whether John Bolton or Joe Lieberman will be the next secretary
of state.

Has Gov. Romney imbibed the Kristol Kool-Aid that caused the war and
cost the party Congress in 2006 and the presidency in 2008?

Hard to believe, but we should find out before November.

(6) EU's Iran Sanctions Intended to Appease Israel - oilprice.com

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/EUs-Iran-Sanctions-Intended-to-Appease-Israel.html

EU's Iran Sanctions Intended to Appease Israel

By Jen Alic | Wed, 04 July 2012 20:57 | 1

The EU’s oil embargo on Iran that came into effect on 1 July is likely
to do as much damage to the European Union as it is to Iran and the
imposition of these suicidal sanctions is more about Israel than Iran.

Had Israel taken a break from its saber-rattling, the EU sanctions would
likely have been postponed during the third and latest round of nuclear
talks that took place in Moscow in late June. This would have (and
should have) been on the table. But Western leaders are still concerned
about Israel and the last thing President Barack Obama wants right now
is for the loose Israeli cannon to go off before the November elections.

The 1 July EU oil embargo on Iran coincides with a new set of US
sanctions punishing those cutting oil deals through Iran’s central bank,
as well as a European ban on shipping insurance for tankers carrying
Iranian oil.

Iranian oil exports have dropped around 20%. Europe is Iran’s fifth
largest customer and new sanctions will, on paper, amount to a loss of
around a million barrels a day. However, the sanctions have been more
successful largely because of the economic crisis that has seen the
price of oil fall even in the face of reduced supply from Iran.

At the same time, Iran is not desperate. Even once the EU oil embargo
begins to show its teeth and if that results in a 50% reduction in
Iranian oil exports, as predicted, Iran still has serious oil revenues
to fall back on.

The sanctions are also less hard-hitting than they would have been had
China played along. In fact, this is a perfect opportunity for China to
step in and score itself a few lucrative Iranian energy projects that no
one else is “allowed” to take.

As Peter Lee notes in the Asia Times, “the bottom line is that, by
necessity, two way Sino-Iranian trade and integration between the two
economies has exploded with the cut-off of Iran from the West and
forcing Iran to denominate its trade in yuan will simply accelerate this
trend.”

On the domestic front, there are grumblings that the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is behind on payments to its
personnel, for which they blame the government (via the media). There is
a great deal of politics behind statements like this. Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Khamenei controls the Guards, while President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad is the head of the government. Situations like these are
often best viewed as part of the on-going power struggle between
Khamenei and Ahmadinejad—a struggle the latter is losing.

What effect will the sanctions have on Europe? Certainly Italy, Greece
and Spain—the latter two in particularly dire straits—are bemoaning the
sanctions as they rely heavily on Iranian imports, though some of the
pain was already being offset by low oil prices.

Greece will feel the oil embargo the most. In an interview with Deutsche
Welle, oil expert Volker Blandow noted that Greece “had contracts with
Iran which had decoupled delivery and payment. This meant that Greece
received oil on credit, and could pay for it later.” Now Greece will
have to make advance payments that it can’t afford.

It is a disastrous decision in the middle of a massive debt crisis that
is threatening to rip the eurozone apart, but anything to keep Israel
from launching a war.

That the price of oil has surged to a one-month high this week is only
indirectly a result of the new sanctions on Iran and specifically on
speculation that European central banks and the Chinese central bank
will ease monetary policy by cutting interest rates to offset reduced
supply from Iran.

Directly, however, the EU oil embargo is not expected to result in any
immediate jump in oil prices because the plan has been in the works for
nearly six months and the frenzy to secure alternative supplies (and the
resultant speculation) is already pretty much over.

Of course, Tehran will enjoy a small victory in this rise in oil prices.

By. Jen Alic of Oilprice.com

Jen Alic is a geopolitical analyst, co-founder of ISA Intel in Sarajevo
and Tel Aviv, and the former editor-in-chief of ISN Security Watch in
Zurich.

(7) IDF commander says Israel is preparing "a very strong attack against
Lebanon"

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/senior-idf-officer-israel-is-preparing-for-the-next-lebanon-war-1.449126

Senior IDF officer: Israel is preparing for the next Lebanon war

Officer says instability in Syria could ignite violent confrontation
with the Lebanese army, says 'Goldstone report will pale in comparison
to what will be here next time.'

By Gili Cohen | Jul.05, 2012 | 9:02 PM | 4

The commander of the IDF's 91st Division, Brigardier-General Hertzi
Halevy told journalists on Thursday, "We understand that there is more
than one factor, whether this is Lebanese, or whether it will come from
somewhere else, that can ignite the border here."

The 91st Division, part of the Northern Command, and responsible for the
front with Lebanon, sees developments in Syria as one of the factors
that could upset the calm that has prevailed in the region since the
war. The collapse of the Syrian regime may also bring with it an
increase in Jihadi or Hezbollah operatives, who may try to carry out
targeted attacks in the area.

Already, Northern Command intelligence says certain areas of the border
between Lebanon and Syria are "lawless zones," which enable the transfer
of more advanced weapons into the region. The IDF has stated that there
are some 60 thousand missiles in Lebanon, ten times more than there were
in the country during the first Lebanon war. Hezbollah has the
capability to launch a large quantity of rockets in a short period time,
and this could cause significant damage on the Home Front.

In IDF simulations of what a third Lebanon war would look like, ground
maneuvers in villages that are considered bastions of Shiite Hezbollah
become particularly important. "The next war will be different, and
therefore we should stop it as quickly as possible, in order to make
things easier for the home front. This means carrying out a very strong
attack against Lebanon, and the damage will be enormous," says a senior
officer in the Northern Command.

"The Goldstone report will pale in comparison to what will be here next
time. There is no choice but to fight against the enemy where he is, and
that is in the heart of a populated area. "

Despite Halevy's warnings against Hezbollah violence in the north, the
majority of violent incidents have actually been taking place on the
initiative of the Lebanese army, which has aimed its arms at the IDF.
Only last week an unusual incident occurred on the Hasbani River, near
Ghajar. A group of eight soldiers, who were on patrol in the area with
the company commander, identified five fighters from the Lebanese Army,
together with RPG launchers and snipers. In a subsequent investigation,
a tracker reported that a commander from the Lebanese force had
instructed his fighters to harm IDF soldiers. In response, the IDF
advanced the tank force in the area as a cover, sending a strong message
to the UNIFIL force in the area that the IDF would respond harshly in
case of any fire from the Lebanese army.

In practice, the forces serving in the region must practice restraint:
Official policy dictates that the IDF must not open fire first, except
for extenuating circumstances. Nevertheless, recent violent events have
occurred only with the Lebanese army, and not with Hezbollah.

"When things happen with the Lebanese army, it is preferable to solve
them with an M16, and not with F-16s," a senior official in the area
explained.

The Northern Command point out that reconstruction work in Bint Jbeil,
the site of a major battle during the 2006 war, was only completed a few
months ago. The next confrontation, they point out, will cause even more
damage. In the event that the situation would erupt, said Halevy, "the
IDF is preparing seriously and professionally for another Lebanon war.
The response will need to be sharper, harder, and in some ways very
violent. The next war will be with very heavy exchanges of fire on both
sides, and so both need to make every effort to stop this happening. In
the Goldstone Report, the community and the world tended to get confused
and think that this can be done in a nicer way. It cannot be nice.
Without the use of great force, we will find it difficult to achieve the
aim, and the enemy should also know that.