Middle East Update

by Hillel Fendel
Wednesday’s decision (September 19) by the mini-security cabinet to declare Gaza a “hostile entity” continues to make international waves - while Defense Minister Ehud Barak says a large-scale Israeli attack on Gaza is coming closer.

Only two weeks after allegations of Israel’s bombing of a nuclear facility in Syria, the UN’s atomic watchdog agency voted Syria deputy chairman of its General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that began Monday September 17, In Vienna. Sana, a Syrian news agency, boasted on Tuesday’s election and said that Syria [...]

by Ezra HaLevi Iran has promised a devastating “final response” to supporters of the Jewish State on October 12, the Islamic Republic’s Quds (Jerusalem Day) “Supporters of the Zionist regime will receive their response during the world Quds Day’s rallies,” Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said at a weekly press conference Wednesday [...]

New York police authorities on Wednesday turned down on security grounds a request from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit “Ground Zero” in lower Manhattan, the site of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, as part of his visit to the US for the opening of the UN General Assembly. Ahmadinejad [...]

Israel’s security cabinet declared Gaza an “enemy entity” on Wednesday September 19, voting among other things to disrupt its power supply as a response to the ongoing Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli communities. The ministers decided, however, not to disrupt Gaza’s water supply. All of Gaza’s fuel, including diesel, gasoline and natural gas, comes from [...]

Ynet News
Dozens of Syrian military officers and Iranian engineers were killed on July 26 in Halab, Syria, as they were attempting to mount a chemical warhead with mustard gas on a Scud-C missile, Jane’s Defence Weekly reported Monday. An explosion spread lethal chemical agents, including mustard gas, VX gas and sarin [...]

An IDF paratrooper, St.-Sgt. Ben-Zion Heneman, was killed and another soldier was wounded during heavy fighting in Nablus early Tuesday morning September 18, that erupted during an arrest operation. Heneman died of wounds received when a bullet fired by a Palestinian gunman penetrated the seam of his flak jacket. During the fighting, Palestinians also threw [...]

Third visit to US since becoming president
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak at the 62nd opening of the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York, triggering protests among Jewish groups.

by Hillel Fendel
Amidst uncertainty on the Syrian front, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he “has much respect” for Syrian dictator Assad, and is willing to make peace without pre-conditions. “Making peace with Syria” is generally understood to mean Israel’s giving up the strategic Golan Heights, from which Syria constantly attacked Israeli towns prior to [...]

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
According to the Palestinian Media Watch organization, a Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority newspaper has printed a cartoon appearing to glorify Osama Bin-Laden and the 9/11 attacks on the United States.