02/04 Links Pt1: In 2014 War, Gaza Rockets Killed More Palestinians than Israelis; When It Comes to UNRWA, Are the UN’s Holocaust Memorial Pledges Meaningless? ~ EoZ

From Ian:

In 2014 War, Gaza Rockets Killed More Palestinians than Israelis

The Iron Dome’s-based greatest test came when IDF troops attacked Hamas positions in the Gaza strip in July 2014. Gaza militants launched around 4,600 rockets and mortar shells in response, around one-quarter of which landed near areas populated by Israeli civilians. The six Iron Dome batteries then active were hastily reinforced with three more. Together, they shot-down 735 rockets and mortar shells and failed to intercept around seventy, consistent with an 85 percent to 90 percent success rate claimed by the IDF.

In total, Palestinian rockets and mortars killed five Israeli and one Thai civilian and injured eighty in 2014. Additionally, nearly three hundred short-firing militant rockets landed in Gaza, killing thirteen Palestinian civilians, most of them children.

Despite the system’s popularity in Israel, critics have questioned whether officially successful Iron Dome intercepts are actually effective at neutralizing incoming projectiles, though some of the more sweeping critiques themselves appear flawed when given scrutiny . A more measured 2018 assessment by Michael Armstrong argues the system’s success rate against projectiles landing in populated areas may lie between 59 percent to 75 percent.

Cost-efficiency is another concern. Though some sources list the Tamir missiles as costing as little as $35,000 each, the new Pentagon’s funding request lists a price of $150,000 per missile. Even this higher figures is peanuts compared to multimillion-dollar Patriot air-defense missiles. But even going by the lower figure, each Tamir is many times more expensive than the projectiles it is destroying.

This has led some Israelis to advocate for a directed-energy weapon component to more cost-efficiently handle mass attacks. The Israeli firm Rafael has developed a laser called the Iron Beam with this capability in mind, though atmospheric diffusion limits its engagement range to a seven-mile radius.

Why Is the Pentagon Procuring Iron Dome?

Expert reverses course, says Trump's ‘most pro-Israel president ever’

A week after raising doubts on President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a leading Mideast policy expert reversed course and affirmed Trump as “the most pro-Israel president ever.”

Daniel Pipes, founder and president of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum think tank, had written in a January 23 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that although the specific details of Trump’s peace plan have not been publicly revealed, recent hints indicate that the proposal “doesn’t sound good.”

But on January 30, in the aftermath of his discussion on the Wall Street Journal column with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Pipes wrote on Twitter that that Trump is “the most pro-Israel president ever.”

“In particular, the president bucked conventional thinking and made overdue changes by: Withdrawing from the disastrous Iran deal; moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, carrying out a law on the books since 1996; obstructing efforts at the United Nations to delegitimize Israel; accepting Israeli acts of legitimate self-defense; encouraging Arab countries to cooperate with Israel; cutting funds for the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, including active support for the Taylor Force Act,” Pipes tweeted. “I hope for a continuation of this positive record despite my known concerns.”

Others have shared Pipes assessment of President Trump’s record on Israel.

When It Comes to UNRWA, Are the UN’s Holocaust Memorial Pledges Meaningless?

During the event, Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, president of the 73rd-session of the UN General Assembly, reminded the audience that the UN was born out of the ashes of World War II to stop hatred and demonization of the “other.” She then added that we will never root out all the evils that led to the Holocaust, but that we can contain them by our actions — and said that we must “provide education that emphasizes citizenship and respect of the other.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, declared: “Today it is our responsibility to choose the right side of history and to overcome apathy and speak up. The goal of the Holocaust was to erase the Jews. We should not muddy this memory with universalism. … We must not be apathetic.”

UNRWA has been responsible for the education of many hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children, and much of the education it has provided — or allowed to be provided — contains incitement and calls for the murder of innocent Jews and Israelis. Recent translations of the newest textbooks purchased by UNRWA from the Palestinian Authority, and supposedly vetted by UNRWA, are in blatant violation of UN standards. Instead of promoting peace, tolerance, and respect of the other, these books are fraught with antisemitism, demonization, calls for violence against “the other” (Jews), and denial of a member-state’s (Israel’s) right to exist.

Mr. Secretary-General, we urge you, in this new year of 2019, to prove that the United Nations is no longer indifferent. You can and must take action against UNRWA’s hate-filled curriculum. The proof is there. The books have been translated from Arabic to English, and we can all see that they teach hate. The words spoken at the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust must be translated from words into deeds.

Seth Frantzman: Chronicler of Iraq’s Jewish history murdered in Karbala

Alaa Mashzoub told the tale of how Iraq once was. He wrote about the country’s historic Jewish community. He told stories about Karbala and wrote novels. On Saturday, he was gunned down while riding his bicycle. His loss is mourned among Iraqis at home and in the diaspora, and appears to be an example of the continuing wave of assassinations that plague the country.

According to The Baghdad Post, Mashzoub was born in 1968 and graduated from the University of Baghdad in 1993. He was a journalist and intellectual who wrote novels, including a book about Jewish history in Iraq, published in 2017. A journalist in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war, he suffered along with many Iraqis from the privations of the blockade in the 1990s following the Gulf War. After the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003, he became more prolific.

His novel on the Jews in Iraq, called Hamam al-Yahud (The Jewish Bath), takes place in 1918 and looks at a period of coexistence when the Jewish community was thriving. It received praise online in Arabic. According to an obituary published at Raseef22.com in Arabic, the book tells the story of a Jewish man who settled in Karbala, the Shi’ite holy city in Iraq. He opens a shop and builds a public bath, or hamam. The book highlights pluralism and coexistence.

The article asks why was he killed, and notes that the police have launched a special investigation and cautions against assigning blame. However, some pointed out that he was a critic of extremist elements in Iran and had critiqued the Islamic Revolution that swept Iran in 1979. It is the 40th anniversary of that revolution.

Why American Efforts to Train Arab Armies Have Failed, and How They Can Succeed

The U.S. has spent 70 years and tens of billions of dollars training Arab militaries - with almost nothing to show for all the effort. The U.S.-trained Egyptian Armed Forces performed miserably in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm. The U.S.-trained Iraqi Army collapsed when attacked by a couple thousand Islamic State zealots in 2014. The U.S.-trained Saudi military fell flat when it intervened in Yemen in 2015.

In recent years, Americans have begun to eye an exit from the Middle East, but few want to walk away and have Iran, Hizbullah, the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, or other U.S. enemies take over. In an ideal world, America would leave behind strong Arab allies, able to defend themselves from their common foes. But that seems far away today.

A series of problems have haunted Arab armies throughout the modern era. The Arab world never really industrialized, and this meant that many Arabs came to the military without much understanding of advanced machinery.

As a result, Arab personnel often failed to get the full potential out of their weapons and invariably failed to maintain them properly, with the result that the real numbers of tanks, planes, and artillery pieces they could field were far fewer than what they had purchased.

Generations of U.S. military personnel who went off to the Middle East to try to teach one or another Arab army to fight like the U.S. armed forces can attest to the stubbornness of these problems.

Because the problems they were trying to fix stemmed from these societal factors, I heard the same complaints over and over again, from country to country and decade to decade.

Rivlin welcomes Austrian president, thanks him for fighting antisemitism

“Austria bears shared responsibility for the Holocaust,” said President Alexander Van der Bellen of Austria on Monday.

Speaking during a visit with President Reuven Rivlin at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, der Bellen noted that many Austrian citizens took part in the tragic events of World War II.

“We bow our heads in memory of the victims in humility and respect,” he said. “We admitted our shared responsibility too late and that caused problems in our relations at the beginning.”

In their statements to the press both presidents discussed the threat of growing antisemitism and committed to working together to conquer it.

“Unfortunately, antisemitism is not disappearing,” said Rivlin. “It is raising its head across the world, and even more so in the last year. In your own country, there were some 50 antisemitic incidents last year, some of which are being investigated by the police.

“On the other hand, Austria led European support for the EU’s statement against antisemitism,” he continued. “This statement stresses the importance of education for Holocaust memory, and calls on governments to take steps to ensure the safety of their Jewish communities, organizations and citizens. It would be a tragedy if Jews were afraid to express their beliefs in Europe.”

Rivlin said the way to stamp out antisemitism is by taking responsibility for the past and by fighting against any hint or act of antisemitism or xenophobia.

Morocco silent amid rumors of Netanyahu visit next month

Morocco’s communications minister has refused to comment over the weekend on reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to arrange a state visit to Morocco just before Israelis go to the polls in April 9 elections

“We do not deal in rumors,” government spokesperson Mustapha El-Khalfi said Thursday, when asked about the reports, according to Morrocan news outlet, Goud.

French-language website Le Desk reported last month that National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat is working, with US support, to arrange a meeting between Netanyahu and King Mohammed VI in Morocco.

The visit would take place around March 30, right after a visit to the African country by Pope Francis, according to Israel’s Channel 12 news.

According to Le Desk, Mohammed VI may see developing closer ties with Israel as an inroad with the Trump administration, as Morocco courts US support for its claims to Western Sahara, which most of the world views as an occupied territory.

Netanyahu’s office has also refused to comment on the reports.

Record at a Glance: NJ Sen. Cory Booker’s Mixed Record on Israel

Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker announced Friday that he is entering the 2020 U.S. presidential race.

Since being elected to the Senate in 2012 after serving as mayor of Newark, his record on Israel has been mixed at best, and sometimes going back and forth on certain issues.

In 2016, Booker, 49, who represents a state with more than half a million Jews, labeled BDS as an “anti-Jewish movement” and last year co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act that would prohibit American businesses from boycotting the Jewish state.

“We’ve seen the alarming rise in anti-Semitism in the United States and across the world in recent years manifest itself in many deeply concerning ways, including in the actions of foreign governments targeting Israel and the Israeli people,” he said.

However, on Tuesday he voted against the Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act—legislation that is a combination of four bills, including one that would enable state and local governments in the United States to fight BDS.

He also posed last August with a sign from a pro-BDS group that read “From Palestine to Mexico. All the walls have got to go,” a motto coined by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

Per the watchdog organization NGO Monitor, “USCPR is a national coalition of hundreds of groups working to advocate for Palestinian rights and a shift in U.S. policy, and is a leader and mobilizer of anti-Israel BDS campaigns.”

Spanish Railway Company Refuses Tender to Build Train in ‘Occupied’ Jerusalem

A Spanish railway construction company announced on Friday that it had rejected an Israeli tender to build part of the Jerusalem railway because of “the occupation of land through which will pass a section of the railway.”

According to a report in Al-Wattan Voice, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF, or Construction and Other Railway Services) announced that it “refuses to build a section of the railway in Jerusalem because [it] included Palestinian land that will be confiscated, in violation of the resolutions of international legitimacy.”

The report indicated that due to the tender’s plan to build through eastern parts of Israel’s capital, workers also refused to work on the project.

The Palestinian Authority has asserted that it claims Jerusalem as its capital, despite the fact that the PA currently operates out of Ramallah.

Israel's highest-ever credit rating shows confidence in economy

Standard & Poor's (S&P) decision at the weekend to affirm Israel's AA- credit rating brought a large sigh of relief for the Israeli economy and foreign investors, especially amid expectations that the country's budgetary deficit will widen in the coming year.

The AA- rating from S&P is the highest rating Israel has ever received from the credit agency, on par with the Czech Republic, Estonia and Qatar. The highest rating is AAA.

During Sunday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised "another achievement for the Israeli economy," describing S&P's affirmation of the credit rating first received in August 2018 as a "very strong expression of confidence" in the country.

"The stable outlook on Israel balances external and security risks against Israel's solid economic growth prospects," S&P said, explaining that the ratings are supported by Israel's prosperous and divers economy, external balance sheet and flexible monetary policy framework.

Holding back the credit agency from granting an even higher rating, the company said, was Israel's moderately high public debt burden, in addition to "significant security and geopolitical risks" emanating from Syria and Iran.

Netanyahu to enact penalty for Palestinian pay-for-slay: report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to authorize withholding taxes and tariffs collected for the Palestinian Authority in light of its continued monthly payments to terrorists and their families, for the first time since the Deduction Law was passed last year.

The Deduction Law requires the Defense Ministry to present the Security Cabinet with information about how much the PA paid terrorists in prison or the families of terrorists who were killed, and for the Finance Minister to deduct that amount from the taxes and tariffs Israel collects for the PA. The Defense Ministry confirmed that it is in "advanced stages" of collecting the information, in order to transfer the report to the Security Cabinet, as required by law.

Netanyahu said he will enact the law, Yisrael Hayom reported, but is concerned that it will destabilize the PA, and is seeking a way to find a balance between the two elements.

The US cut all aid to the Palestinian Authority recently, as a result of their own law making the aid contingent on the PA stopping its payments to terrorists. Despite the significant economic penalties, the PA plans to maintain its current policy. The PLO's Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat said this week that the US policy is "misguided" and will lead hundreds of Palestinians to lose their jobs.

Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry is working on gathering precise figures for how much the PA paid those who attacked Israelis in 2018, in order for Israel to block funds, as well.

IDF orders demolition of Givat Assaf, Ofra terrorists’ homes

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday announced its intention to demolish the homes of two Palestinian terrorists who allegedly conducted two deadly shooting attacks in under a week in December.

The brothers Salih and Asem Barghouti are believed to have conducted a December 9 terrorist attack outside the Ofra settlement, in which seven Israelis were injured, among them a seven-months pregnant woman, who was seriously wounded. The woman’s baby was delivered in an emergency operation, but died days later.

Salih Barghouti was shot dead three days later in his hometown of Kobar as he attacked Israeli security forces in an attempt to evade arrest, the army said. A day after that, Asem Barghouti opened fire at a bus stop outside the Givat Assaf outpost near Ramallah, killing two soldiers stationed there and seriously injuring a third serviceman and a civilian woman, according to the IDF.

Asem Barghouti, who fled the scene after the shooting, was arrested in the home of an alleged accomplice in the nearby village of Abu Shukheidim on January 8.

Israeli Mosque Prayer Caller Fired Over Photos in Bodybuilder Outfit

A prayer caller at a mosque in the Israeli city of Acre is appealing for his job back after being fired over photos posted online of him in a revealing outfit at a bodybuilding contest.

Ibrahim al-Masri said he lost his job as chief muezzin of the Al-Jazzar Mosque after local officials came upon the photos of him at the state bodybuilding championship in 2017.

“Each sport has a specific type of clothing. Football has its own, tennis has its own, swimming has its own. Same thing for bodybuilding,” Masri said, referring to the wire-thin briefs competitors typically wear.

“I never dreamed this would happen. Because I know that Israel is a democratic country, and if someone makes a mistake, they can fix it,” Masri said. “But to fix a mistake with another mistake? It’s not right.”

Around 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arab. Mosques and other non-Jewish religious institutions are supervised by local officials who report to the Interior Ministry.

A ministry spokesperson said that Masri “was dismissed in accordance with all the rules” but declined to give further details about the case. The mosque declined to comment and referred questions to the ministry.

“Palestinian government” dies, an oxymoron is born

“Palestinian Government Resigns,” a New York Times headline announced this week. It must have been quite a surprise to Times readers to learn that there was such a thing as a Palestinian government, since until now, all they have heard —in the Times and other major news media— is that Israel “occupies” the Palestinian Arabs.

Just last week, in fact, the Times featured an essay by pundit Michelle Alexander about what she called “the Palestinian people struggling to survive under Israeli occupation.” It was 2,200 words long—that is, three times the size of an average op-ed. Space is at a premium in the world’s most influential newspaper, but I guess when the editors at the Times feel a subject is really important, they can find the space they need.

So ask yourself: Isn’t there a contradiction between having your own government, and “struggling to survive” under foreign “occupation”? Of course there is. The contradiction is as plain as day. It’s just that nobody ever talks about it.

J Street, the Washington Post, and congress members like Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez never speak about the fact that the Palestinian Arabs already have a government—because that would conflict with their narrative about the “Israeli occupation.” And they need to promote the “occupation” lie in order to keep up the pressure on Israel to make more and more concessions. That’s how the game works.

And yet there you have it, the “Palestinian Government Resigns” headline staring us all in the face at our breakfast tables.

Hamas praises PLO groups for refusing to join new government

Hamas on Monday praised several Palestinian factions for their refusal to join a new Palestinian Authority government.

“The refusal of major PLO factions to participate in the new government is a step in the right direction to stop the policy of singularity and to affirm that there is no alternative to partnership and national consensus,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

His statement came in response to the announcement by a number of PLO factions, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) the and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), that they will not be part of the new government. The groups said that the formation of such a government would solidify the divide between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Last week, PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah submitted his government’s resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas. The move came shortly after the Fatah Central Committee recommended that Abbas establish a new government consisting of PLO factions and independent personalities.

Hezbollah supporters bike along Israeli border in protest of IDF

Dozens of Hezbollah supporters rode motorbikes used in military operations along Lebanon’s border with Israel to protest against the IDF, Lebanese media reported.

According to Lebanon’s The Daily Star, the group of 60 men rode from the town of Bint Jbeil across from the Israeli community of Yiron on “cross motorbikes which the party has used before for military resistance operations.”

“We’re ready if you ask,” one of the riders was quoted by The Daily Star as saying, adding, “If you want us on cross [motorbikes], then we are at your service.”

The individual stated that the slogan for the ride was “to Jerusalem on millions of cross bikes” and aimed to show loyalty to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Today,@UN ambassadors saw a Hezbollah attack tunnel dug from Lebanon into Israel.
While they were bearing witness to this violation of UNSCR 1701, a motorcade waiving Hezbollah flags drove through southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah isn't just violating 1701, it's making a mockery of it https://t.co/Qrv9arwRKc
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 3, 2019

Hezbollah deputy says Israel is not ready for a confrontation with Lebanon

Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general accused Israel of not being ready for a confrontation with Lebanon in an interview on Lebanese TV on Sunday.

Naim Qassem said that “Lebanon’s new government is a unity government,” and that only three of its government ministers are members of the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Qassem was responding to comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Hezbollah has infiltrated Lebanon with the support of Iran.

“Hezbollah joined the Lebanese government, and now it controls the government, and thus Iran controls it,” Netanyahu said while briefing a delegation of United Nations leaders, just before they headed to Israel’s northern border to inspect one of Hezbollah’s cross-border attack tunnels. The delegation is in Israel on a mission headed by Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon.

Netanyahu then spoke about Operation Northern Shield, which ended three weeks ago: “Just as we stopped the tunnels, we will stop all acts of aggression from Lebanon, Syria or Iran.”

He said that the Hezbollah’s terror tunnels are a “flagrant violation of international law… The very fact that you arrived in Israel attests to your integrity. I hope that this will also characterize your future actions in the UN, which only last year pushed forth 20 resolutions against Israel, while only six against other countries, including Syria, Iran and Sudan.

“What matters is not only that you see the truth, but also that you tell it,” the prime minister continued. “We want to see you change your decisions.”

MEMRI: Assad Regime: If Israel Does Not Cease Its Attacks, It Will Find We Are Capable Of Defending Ourselves

In the course of January 2018, the Syrian regime and its affiliated media escalated their statements against Israel. The statements came in response to Israel's continued attacks against the Iranian presence in Syria: On January 11, a Syrian military source reported that Israeli planes had fired several rockets into the Damascus area,[1] and on January 20 the Syrian army reported an Israeli attack in the south of the country, which, unusually, had taken place during the day. [2] The Syrian regime responded by firing a surface-to-surface missile into the Israeli Golan.[3] This prompted Israel to launch what the Syrian regime called "its most violent and large-scale attack" in Syria to date, which, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, resulted in the death of at least 21 people, 12 of them members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).[4] In an unusual move, Israel admitted to carrying out this last attack, one of whose targets was the Damascus international airport.[5]

Alongside its standard responses to the attacks – such as claims that Israel dares to attack Syria only thanks to the support it receives from the U.S. and that the UN Security Council (UNSC) is not doing enough to stop it – the Syrian regime has begun taking a harsher tone and threatening a direct attack on Israel. Articles in the regime and pro-regime press likewise made threats, warning Israel that Syria has missile capabilities of which it is unaware and that its end is near.

This report reviews the threats voiced by Syrian officials and in the Syrian press against Israel.

Syrian Regime: Israel Will Not Be Able To Withstand The Syrian Missiles, Which Can Reach Every Part Of It
In a January 22, 2019 UNSC session on the situation in the Middle East, the Syrian representative to the U.N., Bashar Al-Ja'afari, criticized the UN for failing to condemn "the almost daily Israeli aggression" against Syria, the latest example of which, he said, was Israel's bombing of the international airport in Damascus. Directing a threatening message at Israel, he asked: "Is it not time that the UNSC took the necessary measures to stop the repeated Israeli attacks on the soil of the Syrian Arab Republic? Or must Syria draw the attention of the war-mongers on this council by exercising its legitimate right to self-defense and responding to the Israeli attack on the [Damascus] civilian international airport with a similar attack on the airport in Tel Aviv?"[6]

1979-2019: European cowardice on Iran

The ayatollahs just hanged a homosexual and nobody protested in Europe. Alireza Nader, head of New Iran, an organization of Iranian dissidents, said from America: “The silence of Europe over the barbaric treatment of the Khamenei regime is shameful: the European Union only seems to worry about the nuclear agreement and trade links, as if the Iranians had no alternative to living under tyranny”. It is that Europeans do not know what it means to fight for freedom.

The Iranians just hanged the 87th woman under the “moderate” President Rouhani (3,600 executions under his leadership). Women executed for defending themselves during an epidemic family violence legitimized by Sharia, or Islamic law.

Meanwhile, Europe was celebrating the “World Day of Hijab”. That veil that Iranian women can not take off without risking arrest, beatings, jail, torture.

And Europe's feminists keep silent.

The US ambassador to Berlin, Richard Grenell, invited Western countries to protest after the last hanging in Teheran: “Many of our European allies have Embassies in Tehran. This barbaric act must not go unanswered. Speak up”.

The answer soon came. While the Islamic fascists who rule in Iran set up the gallows and, as usual, Iranian generals threatened to destroy Tel Aviv, the European countries (France and Germany leading them) were busy launching the new payment mechanism to do business with the Iran, eluding American sanctions.

The Europeans, still the same cowards.

Iran says it has put ‘guided warheads’ on missiles that can reach Israel

Iran has equipped its most advanced, longest-range missiles, which can hit Israel and US bases in the Gulf, with new precision guided warheads, state media reported Sunday.

According to the unsourced report in the Fars news agency, the new home-made guided warheads have now been attached to the Khoramshahr, a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles.)

“The new generation of missiles with guided warheads has been named Khoramshahr 2 and they can be controlled until hitting the target and are able to carry warheads weighing nearly 2 tons,” the report said.

It said that the new warheads had previously been mounted on the shorter range Emad, Qadr and Qiam missiles.

IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami Threatens to Annihilate Israel

Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the IRGC, said on Channel 2 TV (Iran) on February 2, 2019 that Iran has the experience and technological ability necessary to expand the stealth capabilities, destructive capacity, and range of its missile force, and that it hasn't done so only because of strategic considerations. Explaining that Iran's current defense strategy is one of deterrence and that this strategy is not fixed, Salami said that any desire on the part of Europe or other countries to disarm Iran of its missiles might give Iran no choice but to make a "strategic leap." He said: "Let no one negotiate with us, recommend anything to us, or request anything from us" with to Iran's missile program. Salami added that the Islamic Revolution has inspired and given confidence to other military powers in the Middle East and that it has connected them to Iran in terms of policy, strategy, and security. He also said that Iran's influence in the region is a matter of faith because the people and Iran share a conviction regarding a spirit of Jihad and of revolution against the tyrannical rule of the Zionists, the Americans, the terrorists, and the takfiris. In addition, Salami threatened Israel, saying that it is vulnerable and bringing itself closer to death. He said: "If Israel makes a mistake that sparks a new war, they can rest assured that this will bring about their elimination… They will be annihilated before the Americans get here. They should look for cemeteries outside of occupied Palestine."

Iran Unveils Long-Range Cruise Missile on Revolution Anniversary
Iran Showcases New “Hoveizeh” Cruise Missile

Senior Iranian MP Pishe Calls on Russia to Activate S-300 Systems during Israeli Air Strikes

Heshmat-Allah Falahat Pishe, Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in the Iranian Majlis, was interviewed on Russia Today TV on February 1,2019. Pishe denied that he had accused Russia of collaborating with Israel in Syria against Iran. However, he asked the Russians to activate the S-300 system during Israeli air strike to test it and see whether it works. He said: “Russian, Iranian, and Syrian soldiers shed their blood together in Syria. This blood should not be sacrificed for just any reason. We have achieved a lot [together] and we must continue on this path.” Piche Added: “I do not know why the Russians hesitate to say that our relationship is strategic. We have fought together and Russia is under American sanctions, just like us. In order to deal with that, we expect more cooperation from the Russian side.”

Israelis Savor Wildflower Crop, Despite Gaza Arson Damage

The annual five-week Adom Darom (“Red South”) nature festival along Israel’s Gaza border and in the Western Negev kicked off this past weekend, with 60,000 Israelis converging on nature reserves and fields to see the annual blooming of Israel’s protected wild red anemones, or kalaniyot in Hebrew.

Visitors took tours and walked among the blooms—without picking them, which is illegal. With the abundant rainfall that has fallen in Israel, the blossoms were particularly numerous.

Blooming flowers were reported along the Gaza border, cropping up in fields that had been destroyed by arson fires set by Gazan Arabs, who flew incendiary kites and balloons into Israel for months prior to the beginning of the rainy season. Some 7,000 acres of land were burned, causing damage estimated in the tens of millions of shekels.

Many of the fields and former forests will be left fallow for a year to allow the land to recuperate before determining how best to rehabilitate it.

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