News Digest — 10/1/21
Former IDF Chief: Moderate Countries Share Interest Against Iran
Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot on Thursday (9/30) publicly discussed regional security tensions with Iran, saying, “There’s a giant struggle here against the Iranians, who want to achieve regional hegemony and acquire nuclear weapons. Anyone living in the Middle East understands it would be a completely different Middle East if they achieve regional hegemony or develop nuclear weapons; hence the moderate countries share a common interest. The Abraham Accords have tremendous potential to strengthen regional stability.”
Eisenkot was speaking at a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.
The former IDF chief, who currently serves as a senior researcher at the NSS, also noted that “the Abraham Accords are doubly important in the context of Iran’s dash toward nuclear capability and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan,” a step he says signals America’s desire to reduce its footprint in the region.
“When looking a decade into the future at the trends in the Middle East,” Eisenkot continued, “it’s reasonable to predict it will be a poorer Middle East, more polarized, with a struggle between camps, with an energy crisis and dwindling interest from the international community. Therefore, it is very important to create this center of gravity as a counter to the Iranian threat and against regional and global organizations.”
The conference was also attended by the former head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben-Shabbat, who said, “The current American administration has no less an interest than Israel in [the success of] the Abraham Accords, the purpose of which is to encourage countries to expand and deepen their relations.”
Ben-Shabbat also touched on the peace agreement with Sudan.
“In Sudan, we still haven’t progressed as much as we would have wanted, a few more things need to be taken care of; agreements need to be signed, the process of normalizing relations needs to be accelerated, and we are going about this slowly. When it comes to matters such as these, you can’t run faster than what is possible… a balance must be struck somewhere in the middle. I think that things are ripe now and that it’s only a matter of time and procedures,” he said.
Satellite Images Show Alleged Iranian Missile Factory Seriously Damaged In Blast
A private Israeli intelligence firm released satellite photographs of an alleged Iranian missile production facility outside Tehran on Thursday (9/30), showing the damage at the site after an explosion there earlier in the week.
In the images, taken on Monday (9/27) shortly after the blast, at least a quarter of the building – “a secret missile base” belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the company – can be seen completely destroyed, while additional damage can be seen on the roof along the entire structure.
The photographs were released by ImageSat International, a satellite image analysis firm. The company identified the site as the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.
The IRGC said that at least two members of the organization were killed in the explosion at the center outside Tehran, which it said was a “research self-sufficiency center.”
That appeared to refer to the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization, which was sanctioned by the United States Treasury in 2017 over its work in “researching and developing ballistic missiles.”
Missile facilities and other sensitive sites in Iran have seen fires before.
The most notable came in 2011, when a blast at a missile base near Tehran killed Revolutionary Guard commander Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, who led the paramilitary force’s missile program, and 16 others.
Initially, authorities described the 2011 blast as an accident, though a former prisoner later said that the Guard interrogated him on the suspicion that Israel was behind the explosion.
(timesofisrael.com; ap.com)
‘War With Israel Already Started’ Says Iranian FM Spokesman
“The war with Israel has already started,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told Maariv. “Israel has carried out attacks that were intended to destroy our nuclear program for peaceful purposes. It murdered nuclear scientists. Iran is accused of terrorism, gut there is no good or bad terrorist. The whole crisis in the region is Israel’s fault.”
Khatibzadeh later claimed that Israel had “done everything” to thwart the nuclear talks in Vienna and to cause conflict between Iran and the world powers. He accused the United States of “soft terrorism” by holding up medicine and starving the people of his country.
The Iranian spokesman said that Iran’s strategic decision to return to the seventh round of nuclear talks in Vienna had already been made and that his country had already announced this two weeks ago to the EU representative responsible for the talks.
Asked if he thought a return to the nuclear deal would prevent a military operation by Israel, the spokesman replied: “Israel has severely damaged our research and civilian system. There is talk of an Iranian nuclear threat. But Israel has hundreds of bombs, and it has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
However, Khatibzadeh, who spoke at the World Peace Forum, said that “the region is tired of wars. We must find a new approach to solving the problems according to UN resolutions. All parties must show political will for an arrangement.”
The reality is, Iran, for years, has threatened to destroy Israel at all costs, calling Israel “a cancer that must be eliminated from the earth.” The Islamic Republic has six armies spread throughout the Middle East: in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon and more, resulting in some Arab Countries aligning with Israel to prevent Iranian hegemony in the region.
Poway Synagogue Shooter Gets Life In Prison
A California court has sentenced the gunman responsible for a deadly synagogue shooting in 2019 to life in prison.
John T. Earnest was spared the death penalty as part of a deal with prosecutors, but was sentenced Thursday (9/30) to life in prison with no possibility of parole, after he was convicted of murder and attempted murder.
On April 27, 2019, Earnest burst into the Chabad of Poway synagogue outside of San Diego, opening fire with a semiautomatic rifle.
Earnest killed 60-year-old Lori Gilbert and wounded three others, including Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was leading Passover prayers during the attack.
After the shooting, Earnest called 911 to report the shooting, voicing white supremacist rhetoric during the call.
Judge Peter Deddeh refused to allow Earnest to make a statement at the hearing Thursday (9/30) over concerns Earnest would use it to voice his white supremacist, anti-Semitic views.
(isnn.com)
Mahmoud Abbas’ UN Speech Illustrates Why He Is No Partner For Peace – Lt. Col. Maurice Hirsch
The recent speech by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas before the General Assembly confirms why he is not a partner for peace. Abbas started his speech by referring to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 as a “catastrophe.” For Abbas and the PA, the problem is not the Israeli settlements built in Judea and Samaria after the 1967 Six-day War, but rather the very existence of Israel.
Abbas demands the “return” of millions of Palestinians who have never set foot in Israel. He is really saying that Israel should commit national demographic suicide and agree to its own democratic destruction.
Despite multiple requirements in the Oslo Accords that the Palestinians prevent terror, Abbas justified the PA’s “pay-to-slay” terror-reward policy. The PA spends millions on monthly payments to imprisoned terrorists, released terrorists, wounded terrorists, and the families of dead terrorists, including the families of murderers and suicide bombers.
Abbas is definitely not looking for peace with Israel.
The Writer is director of legal strategies for Palestinian Media Watch.
(jns.org; palwatch.org)
The Folly Of “Economics For Peace” – Dr. Doron Matza
The hope that economic easing in Gaza will moderate Hamas terrorism is a mistaken attempt to apply a western logic of conflict management to a Palestinian enemy whose definition of the end of the conflict with Israel is not in the West’s political-cultural lexicon.
The Palestinian national movement is not a struggle to achieve a political settlement based on territorial compromise. It continues to be a long-term campaign with the ultimate object of completely destroying the State of Israel. Like the PLO, which was unwilling to accept the existence of Israel and expressed that view with violence even as it pretended to negotiate, Hamas’ strategy is based on a combination of negotiations and terrorism.
There is no fundamental difference between the PLO and Hamas. As far as Israel is concerned, they feel the same way: the goal is Israel’s total destruction. This combination of a false willingness to negotiate and constant violent behavior also characterizes Iran in its relations with the US as it attempts to forge a path toward a nuclear weapon. Artificially imposing Western thought patterns on one’s enemies is political folly. Economic regulation carries no promise whatsoever of a secure peace.
The writer is a research associate at the BESA Center (Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies – Bar-Ilan University.
