Bangkok police inspect blown-up taxi

Iran’s “three Musketeers” Bangkok terrorists used $27 portable radios to hide one bomb and parts for other explosives that appeared be meant for magnetic bombs against Israelis,ABC reported Tuesday night.

The disclosure ties the modus operandi with the magnetic bomb attack in New Delhi, where the wife of an Israeli diplomat was seriously wounded.

ABC said it obtained exclusive photos that showed the inside of the cheap radio with six magnets along with small ball bearings, ingredients for a magneticbomb.

Another photo showed one of the terrorists, Saeid Moradi, holding a radio in each hand. The botched bomb plot unraveled when explosives being handled by Moradi and others in the terrorist cell blew up in the house they were renting. The Iranians fled, but Moradi had taken at least two bombs with him. He threw one of them at a taxi cab that he unsuccessfully tried to flag down. The bomb injured bystanders.

Police already were approaching him when he threw a second bomb, which hit a nearby pickup truck and bounced back at him, exploding and blowing off his legs.

Police said that they discovered two more unexploded bombs and explosives in the rented house.

Sources told ABC that the bombs were smuggled though the airport when the terrorists arrived two weeks ago, or they might have been brought in via a diplomatic pouch.

The attack in New Delhi and foiled attacks in Baku and Bangkok point to an Iranian effort to engage in international terror against Israelis in retaliation for the assassination of five Iranian nuclear scientists over the past two years. The Mossad was alleged to be behind those attacks, but Israel has not commented on the allegations.

Mohammed Hejazi

A top Iranian general warned Tuesday that the Islamic Republic will pre-emptively strike anyone who threatens it, The Associated Press reported.

The news agency quoted Gen. Mohammed Hejazi, who heads the military’s logistical wing, as having told the Fars news agency, “We do not wait for enemies to take action against us. We will use all our means to protect our national interests.”

The remarks come following speculations in the media that Israel may launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Both the U.S. and Israel have not ruled out such an attack, but the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, said earlier this week it is “premature” to decide to attack Iran at this point.

Last week it was reported that officials in key parts of President Barack Obama’s administration are increasingly convinced that sanctions will not deter Tehran from pursuing its nuclear program and believe that the U.S. will be left with no option but to launch an attack on Iran or watch Israel do so.

The report in the British Guardian said that there is a strong current of opinion within the administration – including in the Pentagon and the State Department – that believes sanctions are doomed to fail, and that their principal use now is in delaying Israeli military action.

The growing concern among U.S. officials that Israel may strike Iran without consultingwith the Obama administration may have led to the U.S. extending an invitation to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to meet with Obama in Washington on March 5.

Obama’s National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said on Monday that the two leaders will discuss the “full range of security issues of mutual concern.”

Donilon concluded three days of talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem amid escalating tensions over on Iran’s nuclear program. He met with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and others.

The White House described the talks as a reflection of the Obama administration’s “unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Earlier this week, Iran threatened a “crushing response to Israel’s slightest move”. The Islamic Republic’s ambassador to Lebanon, Qazanfar Roknabadi, said on Saturday that “Iran will not start a possible war with the Zionist regime but will deliver a decisive response to any aggression by the regime.” As usual, he refrained from using the term “Israel.

Elad Benari – Israel National News

A month after a terror attack against Israelis was foiled in Azerbaijan, local authorities have arrested a terrorist cell whose members belonged to the Hizbullah terror group and held Iranian passports.

According to a report on Tuesday by Israel’s Channel 2 News, Azerbaijan police arrested the members of the terror cell on suspicion of planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the country. The report quoted a source in the local Defense Ministry as saying that the terrorists belong to the Iranian intelligence service and to Hizbullah, and that their target was foreign citizens residing in the country. However, it was unclear from the comments whether the terrorists specifically targeted Israeli civilians.

The report noted that security services in Azerbaijan believe there is a connection between the terrorists who were nabbed in the country and the terror attack at the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi last week. According to local police, the captured terrorists had been gathering intelligence and acquiring weapons.

In January, Azerbaijan officials said they uncovered an Iranian-linked Muslim gang that plotted to assassinate Chabad rabbis who teach at the Chabad Jewish school in Baku.

Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry named one of the gang members as Balagardash Dadashov, an Azerbaijan citizen who lives in the Iranian city of Ardabil. He and two others, Rasim Farail Aliyev and Ali Alihamza Huseynov, were charged with smuggling weapons and explosives into the country.

The National Security Ministry said that Dadashov had contacts with Iranian intelligence agencies and promised Aliyev, his brother-in-law in Ardabil, $150,000 to kill foreigners in Baku “in order to put an end to their public service.”

It was later reported that the terrorists who were arrested were planning an attackagainst the Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Michael Lotem.

Saudi Arabia military

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said itssecurity forces would quell unrest in its Shiite dominated Qatif region with “an iron fist.”

The ultraconservative Saudi Kingdom blamed an unnamed foreign power – widely understood to be Shiite Iran – for stirring up unrest and backing attacks on its security forces in the Eastern Province.

“It is the state’s right to confront those that confront it first … and the Saudi Arabian security forces will confront such situations … with determination and force and with an iron first,” the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The statement was in response to a sermon preached in the Qatif area of the Eastern Province last week criticizing the government’s handling of the protests there, in which at least six people have been killed.

Clashes between Shiite protesters and security forces in Qatif began at the height of the Arab uprisings last year. Four people were killed in November, one in January and one earlier this month.

Members of the Shiite minority have long complained of discrimination, saying it is harder for them to find government jobs, attend university or worship in the open than it is for Sunni citizens.

The government says it does not discriminate against Shiites and has said the increased security is intended to protect Qatif residents. It has repeatedly blamed the clashes on people attacking security forces.

Tuesday’s statement said the security forces were using “the greatest restraint … despite continuing provocations” and “will not act except in self defense and will not initiate confrontations”.

“Some of those few (who attacked security forces) are manipulated by foreign handsbecause of the kingdom’s honorable foreign policy positions towards Arab and Islamic countries,” the ministry’s spokesman said in the statement.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies are in a struggle for hegemony over the Persian Gulf with Iran, whom they have repeatedly accused of provoking their indigenous Shiite populations to rebellion.

illegal Arab construction

For generations Jews who dreamt of Zion collected their pennies so the Jewish National Fund could purchase land in Israel. Today illegal Arab building on JNF lands goes unchecked by Israel’s leaders.

No fewer than 700 illegal housing units have been built by Arabs in the past two years on land purchased for Jews by the JNF in northern Jerusalem.

Arutz Sheva contacted the JNF to ask about the problem. However, JNF officials say the Israel Land Authority is responsible for administering the lands on their behalf.

Aryeh King, chairman of the Israel Land Fund, says his organization is conducting a careful survey of the illegal structures using arial photographs, but adds the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the illegal building occurs beyond Israel’s security fence.

“We’re discussing lands in Qalandiya,” King explained. “All entry and activity has to be coordinated with the IDF and Ministry of Defense. No enforcement can be undertaken in these areas without the cooperation of the military and police. This is routinely denied on ‘security grounds.’”

For example, King says, “We have an aerial photo of an old building from before 2005, but the security fence being built makes these areas out of bounds, and we have no way of documenting and making claims for enforcement.”

“This inaction is politically motivated, and people don’t realize what is happening. The JNF offers to purchase land at nominal prices in order to return them to the Jewish people, but that’s not what is happening.”

“I hope that those who donate to the JNF will think twice before giving their money a body that does nothing to secure the assets they hold in trust for the Jewish people,” King added.

In light of the grim reality on the ground, King recently sent a letter to JNF donors, as well as members of the JNF board. In the letter, he describes the situation on the ground as seen through ariel photographs, which he attached to the letter.

He writes, “The Jewish National Fund purchased lands before the state of Israel was declared with donations from Jews around the world. These lands were registered in the name of the Jewish National Fund. For over a decade the JNF has allowed Arabs to squat on these lands and illegally build without permission.”

In the letter he mentions he has failed to make inroads with JNF officials, and asks for others (including board members) to help him in bringing pressure to bear on the organization, “in hopes of eradicating this phenomenon of illegal building and returning assets estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars to the Jewish people.”

He says, “Illegal construction on Jewish National Fund lands in the past two years totals over 700 housing units. In light of the deterioration of assets purcahsed through donations from Zionist Jews, and given that Israel’s government seems intent to modify its existing policy to allow for the loss of these assets, I have no choice but to make this information available to the public.”

“It is my hope that you, members of the JNF board, will stern yourselves to the task at hand and marshal the necessary resources, as well as legal efforts, to restore the land you hold in trust for the Jewish people to them.”

King then  signs the letter and writes, “If the Fund does not do this as soon as possible, then I would like to offer a symbolic sum of money to the JNF to purchase the assets in question.”

Arab-Muslims stone police, tourists on Temple Mount

Muslims hurled stones and shoes at police escorting Jewish and Christianvisitors on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday.

“An officer was slightly wounded and treated at the scene,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, adding that two Arabs were arrested.

Police say officers had been put on high alert earlier in the day after receiving reports Jewish and Muslim groups were set to clash at the site.

The alert was raised after various Muslim groups posted calls online urging people to head to the compound to “protect” it after a group of Jewish pilgrims said they were planning to ascend to Judaism’s holiest site.

Police were deployed around the Temple Mount and throughout the Old City “following various calls on different Internet sites by terrorist groups calling on people to go protect the compound after calls from the extreme right to come today,” Police spokeswoman Liba Samri said.

Over a dozen vans filled with riot police were reportedly parked by the Dung Gate near the Mughrabi ramp, which runs from the Western Wall plaza up to the Temple Mount.

On Sunday, police used tear gas to disperse Muslims who were throwing stones at tourists and police inside the compound. In that incident police arrested 18 people.

A similar protest took place last week when a group of Jewish worshippers sought access to the site.

Police say it “was not clear” why the “disturbances” broke out, but one local Arab told an AFP reporter stone throwers were targeting religious Jews who entered the site with a group of Christian tourists.

However, it was reported earlier on Tuesday that the Al-Aqsa Center had released a report that it had been informed Israeli authorities planned allow Jews access to the Temple Mount.

According to the report, Jews would be able to perform “Talmudic rituals” (i.e., pray) on the Temple Mount.

The Al Aqsa report goes on to say that Israeli police plan to use the new arrangementto “cleanse the Temple Mount of Muslims under flimsy pretexts.”

According to another plan “revealed” by the Al Aqsa Center, Jews will “freely enter the mosque” between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., between Muslim prayer times. These alleged plans will be implemented this year.

The Temple Mount is the site of the historic Al-Aqsa Mosque (705 CE). However, it is also the site of the the Temple of Solomon (~950 BCE to 587 BCE) and the Second Temple (517 BCE to 70CE) and is indisputably Judaism’s most sacred site.

The Muslim Waqf, which Israel has allowed to manage the site since liberating the Temple Mount in 1967, has long maintained a discriminatory policy seeking to bar Jews entry to the site.

Cairo, Tahrir Squear

The “Arab Spring” is too “too flowery and seasonal a term to describe anearthquake that threatens to bring down structures that have been standing for decades,” a former senior Israeli intelligence official said Monday.

Dr. Eran Lerman, director of theAmerican Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Israel office and a former senior intelligence officer in Israel’s Directorate of Military Intelligence made his remark at the Conference of Presidents gathering in Jerusalem.

While he unrest that began in the Arab world was initiated in the name of democracy, secularization and modernity, it soon spiraled into widespread uprisings, revolutions and resistance movements that continue to destabilize the region, at an increasing rate, and empower Islamic regimes.

Professor Asher Susser, Senior Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University then went on to say that the term “Arab Spring” is an unconscious effort to completely ignore and disregard the crucial, underlying fact that culture plays a huge part in the political environment in which we live and overriding world dynamics.

He continued to say that we live in a global age, one governed by instantaneous communication, embodied by Facebook and Twitter. Yet, while such social networking sites may have helped bring about and spread the Egyptian riots and, so-called “Arab Spring, “such attempts at globalizing the conflict, only serve to overlook the inherently Islamic nature of the revolts and deem culture as irrelevant in international relations that are, fundamentally, cultural. Attempts to do so, only serve to undermine and disregard factors that are critically important.

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu – Israel National News 

Armed and masked rebels are organizing as Assad extended his crackdown on his political opponents on Tuesday.

Armed and masked rebels are organizing as Syrian President Bashar Assad’s extends his war against the opposition and  fires on Domestic protesters Tuesday, wounding several civilians.

Assad’s biggest weapon is the lack of worldwide unity against him, with China and Russia balking at joining Western-backed sanctions while Iran supplies his regime with direct aid of weapons and soldiers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards

A media blackout, except for several reporters who have infiltrated into rebel  areas,  has allowed Assad’s forces to continue the daily slaughter of opponents at will. Soldiers and “goon squads” murdered more than a dozen more victims in Homs on Tuesday.

Ground troops are  reputedly deploying for a possible assault on the city that could make the attacks and death toll to date child’s play in comparison as the Arab Spring rebellion moves into its month.

Assad has confounded predictions as far back as months ago that his regime would fall within a matter of days or weeks, but the need to shoot live fire on demonstrators in the capital of Damascus on Tuesday may be the beginning of the end of what for all intents and purposes is a war between the military on one side and civilians and army deserters on the other.

If it becomes a do-or-die situation, Assad is likely to choose death for the opposition, no mater how high the toll, so long as he remains protected by Russia and China from further condemnation.

One other factor ini his favor is that the grass-roots opposition has lacked a nationalleader, in contrast to the rebellion in Libya against Muammar Qaddafi, who eventually lost power to the National Transitional  Council and was killed while trying to escape the country.

On the other hand, the lack of unified opposition  has exposed Assad loyalists to sniper fire and shootings at random. One Syrian businessman was shot to death by gunmen Tuesday in the Assad stronghold of Aleppo,  two days after guerilla fighters killed a senior state prosecutor and a judge.

Tawfiq Okasha

Egyptian Presidential Candidate Tawfiq Okasha declared last week that the Egyptian Army will engage in armed warfare against Israel, the United States and the European Union within three months.

The declaration, made in a segment translated into English by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on February 9, Okasha slso said that “like the Nazis, the Jews aim to rule and own the world.”

“Hitler’s principle was that the best race must become master of the world… Hitler established German Nazism to rule and own the world. On the other hand, we find that this is precisely the same philosophy as that of the Israelites and the Jews who say: we are the Semitic people, we are the best in the world, and we must rule and own the world, because the Semites are the kings of the earth and all that is upon it,” he said.

“Hitler knew that the Jews uphold the same ideology…. Hitler believed that the Germans were the masters of the world, whereas the Jews believed that they are the masters of the world.”

“Thus, a battle ensued. Either the Jews would destroy Hitler, so that they would be able to continue pursuing their goals of ruling the world, or else, Hitler would annihilate the Jews…”

He continued to state that, “Hitler was defeated because the Jews conducted a clandestine battle against him. Two if Hitler’s advisors were working for the Jews… Hence, the Jews managed to get close to Hitler, by means of his closest advisors.”

Addressing the interviewer, he asked, “See how long the Jews have been conspiring against the world? Since the end of WWII.”

It seems quite inaccurate, though, that he is blaming the Jews of “conspiring against the world” only “since the end of “WWII.” After all, weren’t those the same accusations used by Nazi propaganda prior to the onset of the war, and in fact, for hundreds and hundreds of years?

He then went on to say that Israel, America and the European Union are planning to destroy three institutions in Egypt with “exceptional malice,” namely the Egyptian general intelligence agency, the Egyptian armed forces, and the Egyptian military intelligence.

He then declared, “as of today, the war effort of the people has begun. This is essential, a war effort!”

“This is a fierce and bitter battle which began without any shooting, but will end with shooting. I say this here and now, the Egyptian army will open fire on the armies of the enemies,” he proclaimed.

When asked exactly when an armed war would begin, he replied, “within three months.”

Rachel's Tomb

Arabs rioted Tuesday near the Rachel’s Tomb compound, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, and hurled rocks at Jews who came there to pray.

A Border Police force sealed off access to the holy site for some time until order was restored.

Miriam Baadani, who manages the Rachel’s Tomb Heritage Fund, toldArutz Sheva Tuesday that the riots prove the government was wrong when it decided not to include the site among those heritage sites that will undergo ”renovation and empowerment” this year.

“We know that Rachel’s Tomb is not sufficiently protected from a security point of view,” she explained, “and today we received additional proof of this.”

Baadani said that the fund has received an NIS 5M donation from abroad that made it possible to carry out renovation work, which is ongoing. Still, she added, a roof needs to be built over the compound, to protect visitors from rocks and gunfire, and to allow them to view the dome on the Tomb’s roof without fear.

In addition, she said, protected parking needs to be provided for the thousands of people who come to the Tomb to pray.