DEBKAfile - DEBKAfile Exclusive: Ahmadinijad’s bluster boosted by secret deal for North Korean Taep’o-dong-2 ballistic missiles

DEBKAfile - DEBKAfile Exclusive: Ahmadinijad’s bluster boosted by secret deal for North Korean Taep’o-dong-2 ballistic missiles--4000 KM range

Los Angeles Times: Remaking the world in six days

Los Angeles Times: Remaking the world in six days:
Remaking the world in six days
Though it failed to bring peace, Israel's 1967 military triumph saved the country and changed the global landscape.
By Michael Oren

BY ALL contemporary accounts, it was one of the most stunning military victories in history. In six intense days of fighting that began on June 5, 1967, Israeli forces saved their country from an imminent existential threat, defeated three major Arab armies and almost quadrupled the territory under their country's control.

Israeli flags flew on the banks of the Suez Canal, over the Golan Heights and above the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism. The victory was so great that Israelis naturally assumed that this would be their last war and that the spoils of their triumph could be traded for a permanent peace.

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The Six Day War -- No Pyrrhic Victory- WSJ.com

Global View - WSJ.com: "On the morning of June 5, 1967, a fleet of low-flying Israeli jets surprised the Egyptian air force on the ground and destroyed it. This act of military pre-emption helped save Israel from what Iraq's then-President Abdul Rahman Aref had called, only several days earlier, 'our opportunity . . . to wipe Israel off the map.' Yet 40 years later Israel's victory is widely seen as a Pyrrhic one -- 'a calamity for the Jewish state no less than for its neighbors,' according to a recent editorial in the Economist.

And the alternative was?

The Six Day War is supposed to be the great pivot on which the modern history of the Middle East hinges, the moment the Palestinian question came into focus and Israel went from being the David to the Goliath of the conflict. It's a reading of history that has the convenience of offering a political prescription: Rewind to the status quo ante June 5, arrange a peace deal, and the problems that have arisen since more or less go away. Or so the thinking goes.
[Photo]
Israeli soldiers by Western Wall, June 1967.

Yet the striking fact is that all of Israel's peace agreements -- with Egypt in 1979, with the Palestinians in 1993, with Jordan and Morocco in 1994 -- were achieved in the wake of the war. The Jewish state had gained territory; the Arab states wanted it back. Whatever else might be said"

Putin Threatens West Over Plan To Deter Missiles - WSJ.com

Putin Threatens West Over Plan To Deter Missiles - WSJ.com

The big bad Soviets are back, but with a difference -- Putin is much more dangerous than the relatively cautious, sclerotic old men of the Soviet Union. he has more money at his disposal (thanks to the high price of energy) and is not influenced by the horrific Soviet WWII experience, which held back the Soviet leadership from taking global revolution too far (and in fact, partially as a result of this mindset, they were better at controlling nuclear technology proliferation than the West was). the Soviets are attempting to convince the Syrians now that Israel intends to attack them and that they'd better preempt (just as they did in '73), they are arming Iran with anti-aircraft weaponry (even while they slow the pipeline on helping Iran's nuclear effort), and they are playing their effectively anti-American role almost everywhere on the international stage. No wonder that Defense Secretary Gates has been reaching out to the Chinese lately on military cooperation (while our political leaders push them aware over the downside of globalization).

Putin looks more likely to act like some James Bond film super villain than his Soviet predecessors did. Is it possible that Putin will put Iranian fingerprints on an attack of American forces or interests in Iraq, the Gulf or Europe that is calculated to send us to war against Iran, thereby further making the US unpopular in the world as the big bully, bleeding us and also taking care of an annoying and potentially dangerous Iranian nuclear problem,cutting them down to size to give the Russians more ability to reassert control in the Arab world? It might sound like something from "24", but with this Russian dictator, it is distinctly possible...

Israel spurns C-Ram anti-rocket system | Jerusalem Post

Israel spurns C-Ram anti-rocket system | Jerusalem Post

This article indicates that Israel can effectively prevent most Kassam rockets form landing on Sderot for the cost of four, $15 Million systems that the Israelis are unwilling to buy, preferring a homegrown super system that will be available in 2011. We use this system to protect the Green Zone in Baghdad, and the Brits use it to protect their critical assets in Iraq from mortars, artillery and rockets. It might not be 100% perfect, and will not stop the psychological damage of knowing you are being shelled, but if it can protect this level f protection, it is criminal that it not be deployed by the Israelis and reflects the moral bankruptcy of Israel's leadership.

Several interesting ideas in the talk back blog to this column with regard to this missile system:

1. Israel use the tax revenue that it withholds form the Palestinians to pay for this device -- the Palestinian democratically-elected government is causing the problems, let them pay for this partial solution.

2. Simultaneously with deploying a mostly effective solution like this, Israel should announce that a 100 meter radius around each Kassam launch site will be deemed a military target and be obliterated, putting more pressure on civilians to do something about the launch of these rockets from their land, and their democratically chosen government (again, we must not let the Pals off the hook for this -- this terrorist government is by their own creation, not imposed from the outside, and they must bear the consequences for their irresponsible democratic action -- enough low expectations of the Arabs -- hold them responsible for their own actions).

3. Ominously, one step removed form number 2, one person suggests that Israel allows its own "militant movement" to develop, manufacture their own Kassams, and let them fly. I am worried because I do see an increasing danger of rebellion by elements of the Israeli military against their government's lack of willingness to take decisive action against Gaza, while one town in Southern Israel withers and dies. Last week, over 100 Israeli army reserve officers from Sderot demonstrated against the government's restraint against Gaza as immoral and destroying their homes, the obverse of the Zionist dream. Keep an eye on this development as it spreads. One well-placed tragedy (another Gaza terrroist attack or kidnapping against Israeli soldiers, leading to bad casualties, or a truck bombing) and this could develop into a broad movement quickly. I am not suggesting the possibility of a military coup, but this government is stupid enough to defy the will of the people for so long before something may pop in Israel's dysfunctional democratic system.

Stay tuned...