GPL M/ EAST UPDATES FROM MARCH 11…….NO. 157

LEBANESE ARMY HUNTS ROCKETS SET FOR LAUNCH AT ISRAEL : (Strategy Page)
The Lebanese army has moved another infantry brigade to the Israeli border, along with a company of commandos, to search for rockets. In the last few weeks, Lebanese troops have found and destroyed several dozen rockets set up for remote launch. More rockets have been found in hidden bunkers or inside homes.

IRAN TESTS NEW AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILE : - Borzou Daragahi (Los Angeles Times)
Iran has allegedly test-fired a precision air-to-surface missile with a 70-mile range, a capability that could threaten ships in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s semiofficial Fars New Agency reported Sunday March 8.

IRAN : HOSTILE DRONES DISRUPTED SATELLITE LAUNCH : - Yoav Stern
Hostile unmanned aerial vehicles overflew Iran last month (February) and disrupted the communications systems at the launch site of a missile carrying Iran’s first satellite to space, according to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He said that the disruptions caused a delay of the launch for several hours as the drones flew at very high altitude and used sophisticated electronic equipment to jam ground-based systems. Meir Javedanfar, an expert on Iran, said Monday, “The intelligence war against Iran is intensifying and becoming more public. It seems that the aim is not only to foil Iran’s military development but also to embarrass the leadership.” (Ha’aretz)

ISRAEL ON HIGH ALERT FOR PURIM :
Israel has placed its security forces on a heightened state of alert as the nation begins to celebrate the Purim holiday on Tuesday evening March 10. Thousands of police, fire fighters, and ambulance crews are deployed throughout Israel in an effort to ensure safety at Purim parades and celebrations taking place tonight and tomorrow. A full closure has been imposed on the territories as a precautionary measure out of concern that Palestinian terrorist organizations will seek to carry out an attack during the festivities, which marks the deliverance of the Jewish people from an existential threat retold in the biblical scroll of Esther

ISRAEL’S CENTRAL BANK ANNOUNCES 4.4 Bill NIS STIMULUS PACKAGE :
The Governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, announced on Tuesday March 10, a fiscal stimulus package aimed at helping to alleviate Israel’s current financial crises. The NIS 4.4 billion plan includes NIS 1.5 billion for projects, NIS 1.15 billion to stimulate the export industry, and NIS 1.8 billion to be allocated to the job market. In addition, the Central Bank’s plan includes the implementation of a negative income tax, in which people earning below a certain amount receive supplemental pay instead of paying taxes to the government.

ADMINISTRATION REBUKES UN OFFICIAL FOR ATTACKS ON US AND ISRAEL: - Colum Lynch (Washington Post)
The Obama administration scolded the president of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday March 10, saying that his frequent public attacks against the U.S. and Israel are undercutting the standing of the world body. The rebuke comes one day after Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann lashed out at the U.S. during a visit to Tehran, where he defended Iran’s nuclear program as peaceful.

U.S. ‘INTELLIGENCE-PICK’ PULLS OUT AFTER OBJECTIONS : - Randall Mikkelsen
Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Charles Freeman, named to head the National Intelligence Council which produces formal U.S. intelligence assessments of security issues, withdrew on Tuesday March10, amid congressional objections over his past criticism of Israel and ties to China and Saudi Arabia. Freeman was president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington think tank that received funding from Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)

US INTELLIGENCE CHIEF GIVES LATEST ASSESSMENT ON IRAN :
The US Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, gave Congress the Obama administration’s latest thinking on the Iranian nuclear threat on Tuesday March10, maintaining that the only way to stop Iran from acquiring atomic weapons is convince to Tehran it’s not worth the effort.

TENSIONS REPORTED BETWEEN HAMAS AND JIHAD IN GAZA :
Hamas, the terrorist militia that controls the Gaza Strip, is reportedly in a row with the smaller Islamic Jihad terror faction over their continued firing of rockets into southern Israel without permission. According to reports out of Gaza, ten Islamic Jihad members have been arrested, tortured, and forced to sign a pledge that they will not fire any more rockets until Hamas gives the order.

RUSSIA RECONSIDERS IRANIAN DEAL : by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Russia may not deliver the S-300 air defence systems to Iran, according to Russian news agency Interfax. A deal for the system was signed by the two states in 2005. The unofficial word on the missile system came from Moscow on the heels of a meeting between American and Russian officials last week, when they pledged to work towards agreed approaches to Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. If Iran had the system it would make it a lot harder for Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear sites!

IRAN SEEKS TO BUY BANNED CARBON FIBRE- George Jahn(AP)
Two diplomats say Iran’s national car company Khodro planned to purchase large quantities of carbon fiber, which is under UN embargo because it is a component of advanced centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Iran has used carbon fiber in the rotors of new, advanced centrifuges known as the IR-2, IR-3 and IR-4, which spin uranium gas to produce enriched uranium. The UN prohibits sales of carbon fiber to Iran for any purpose.

IRANIAN TV SHOW SCRAPPED AFTER CHILD CALL A TOY A MONKEY !! : - Robert Tait (Guardian-UK)
On Amoo Pourang (Uncle Pourang), a TV program watched by millions of Iranian children three times a week on state TV, presenter Dariush Farziayi asked the name of the toy monkey his young caller had been given as a reward for good behavior.
…………………………”Well, my father calls him Ahmadinejad,” the child replied.

SAUDI COURT SENTENCES 75 YEAR OLD WOMAN TO 40 LASHES : - Maggie Michael (AP/Washington Post)
A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia, Khamisa Sawadi, has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close relatives. The newspaper Al-Watan identified one man as the nephew of Sawadi’s late husband, and the other as his friend. They were arrested by the religious police

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OVERHAULS U.S. MIDEAST POLICY : - Meredith Buel
Sen. Kerry (USA) says there has been a tectonic shift in the geopolitics of the Middle East, with the rise of Iran creating an unprecedented willingness among moderate Arab nations to work with Israel. “There is a new reality - moderate Arab countries and Israel alike are actually more worried together about Iran t han they are about each other. As a result, they are now cooperating in ways that were unimaginable just a couple of years ago.” Robert Malley, the Middle East program director at the International Crisis Group, says current realities on the ground diminish hopes of quick progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (VOA News)

GERMANY CHARGES JOHN DEMJANJUK WITH COMPLICITY IN DEATHS AT NAZI CAMPS: - Craig Whitlock
German prosecutors Wednesday March 11, issued an arrest warrant for John Demjanjuk, 88, a native Ukrainian who immigrated to the U.S. in 1952, charging him with complicity in the murder of 29,000 people when he worked in 1943 as a Nazi guard at the Sobibor concentration camp.

CLINTON : US GAZA AID TIED TO RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL : - Barak Ravid
Some $900 million pledged by the U.S. to the Palestinians will be withdrawn if the expected PA coalition government between Fatah and Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, Western and Israeli diplomats said Wed March 11..

HAMAS CONDEMNS ROCKET FIRE ON ISRAEL :
Hamas rulers on Thursday March 12 voiced rare criticism of Palestinian rocket fire on Israel, saying now was the wrong time for such attacks. They are not saying the attacks are really wrong, just the timing! The criticism comes as Hamas is trying to reach a long-term cease-fire with Israel and holding reconciliation talks with Fatah in Cairo. Hamas apparently is wary of disrupting these efforts.

ISRAEL ‘APARTHEID WEEK’ ATTRACTING CROWDS AND MEDIA :
The seventh annual “Israel Apartheid Week” being staged this week (march 12+) on college campuses across North America is drawing bigger crowds and more media attention than ever, according to pro-Israel elements concerned with its growing impact. Organized by a coalition of Muslim Student Associations, leftist professors and students, and social activists, the series features lectures, demonstrations and rallies designed to undermine Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state.

CALLS IN EGYPT TO REVIEW OR ABOLISH PEACE TREATY WITH ISRAEL: - Ramadan Al Sherbini (Gulf News-UAE)
Anti-Israel activists in Egypt are demanding to review or even abolish the 1979 peace treaty with Israel. “In view of the enormous changes which have occurred over the past 30 years, Egypt has the right under international law to demand the treaty be revised,” said Hazem Allam, a professor of international law at Ain Shams University in Cairo. In fact, Egyptian courts are presently hearing five lawsuits pushing for scrapping the treaty with Israel.

REPORT; ISLAMIST CELLS ARE MAIN TERRORIST THREAT IN ITALY : (AKI-Italy)
The Italian government investigated 216 terror threats against Italy last year, concluding that Islamic cells were the “primary threat to the public interest, both inside Italy and abroad,” according to an anti-terrorism report presented to the Department of Information Security in Rome on Tuesday.

OBAMA EXTENDS U.S. SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN :
President Barack Obama said on Thursday March 12, he was extending sanctions against Iran for another year as it continued to pose an “extraordinary threat” to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the U.S

RUSSIAN ANALYST WARNS OF IRAN MISSILE AND NUCLEAR THREAT :
Russia and the West would be making a big mistake if they ignored or underestimated the potential missile and nuclear threat coming from Iran, a Russian military expert said on Thursday March 12. “Iran is actively working on a missile development program….They will most likely be able to threaten the whole of Europe,” said Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic Nuclear Forces.

THE ‘FRIENDLY;’ EGYPTIAN CLERIC; ” WE WILL FIGHT, DEFEAT AND ANNIHILATE THE JEWS” :
Egyptian cleric Muhammad Hussein Ya’qoub said on Al-Rahma TV on Jan. 17, 2009: “If the Jews left Palestine to us, would we start loving them? Of course not. We will never love them.” “Your belief regarding the Jews should be, first, that they are infidels, and second, that they are enemies. They are enemies not because they occupied Palestine. They would have been enemies even if they did not occupy a thing.” “We must believe that our fighting with the Jews is eternal, and it will not end until the final battle….You must believe that we will fight, defeat, and annihilate them, until not a single Jew remains on the face of the Earth.” (MEMRI)

MOSLEM STATES SEEK TO CRIMINALISE ‘DEFAMANTION OF ISLAM’ AT DURBAN 2 :
Long-term campaign to protect Islam from insult could sanction beheadings Islamic states circulated a new resolution at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday March 1, that seeks to criminalize “defamation of Islam” as a human rights violation.

PALESTINIAN ‘UNIT Y’ TALKS IN CAIRO NEAR COLLAPSE :
Negotiations between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas in Cairo over the formation of a “national unity” government are on the verge of failure as both sides announced Thursday evening March 12, that they are having trouble coming to agreement on key points, and neither side is ready to give ground.5

PA TV CELEBRATES 1978 MURDER SPREE : by Gil Ronen
The Palestinian Authority (PA) celebrated the single most murderous attack against Israeli civilians by broadcasting an hour-long special Wednesday March 11, on its official television station. Arabs who penetrated into Israel by rubber dinghies from Lebanon carried out the attack, known in Israel as the Coastal Road Terror Attack, on March 11, 1978. They hijacked a tourist bus and killed 38 civilians, 13 of them children.