Signs of the Times

Iran’s New Ballistic Missile

{image_1} Iran said it has successfully tested a new ballistic missile that is harder to detect and will now start mass-producing them. The missile, called Qiyam, is reportedly designed without stabilizer fins and was delivered to the aerospace wing of the Revolutionary Guards. Iran’s state television, Al-Alam, said the surface-to-surface missile was a pure Iranian project. The missile’s range wasn’t disclosed, but experts believe it is similar to Russian-designed Scud rockets, which can reach several-hundred kilometers. They make up the core of Syria’s arsenal, and reports said the new Iranian missile could find its way to Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Hamas: No Recognition of Israel

{image_1} A key official with Hamas told the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency that they would be willing to accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines—regarding the West Bank [Judea and Samaria], East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip—but that they would not recognize Israel. Comments by Mahmoud al-Zahar, cofounder of Hamas, to Ma’an radio imply that, for Hamas, the creation of a Palestinian state could result in a long-term truce with Israel, but would not lead to permanent peace with Israel. Zahar said that formally recognizing Israel would threaten to prevent millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants from coming to Israel as well as “cancel the right of the next generations to liberate the lands [presumably the rest of Israel].”

Goldstone Retracts War Crimes Claim against Israel

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The chairman of the UN Human Rights Council fact-finding team that accused Israel of possibly committing war crimes during the 23-day, 2008–09 Gaza war effectively retracted those claims on April 1 in an op-ed in The Washington Post. Judge Richard Goldstone, of the UN’s Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead, said that if he had known then what he knew now, the report would have been different. He said Israel’s own investigations into the war, which were recognized in a UN follow-up committee’s report, have indicated that “civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.”

Mideast Arms Buyers Stocking Up

{image_1}The governments of the Middle East and North Africa dug deep into their pockets last year to stock up on weapons, according to the annual study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Experts doubt the current wave of political turmoil will do much to change that.

550 Hizbullah Bunkers Identified

An Israeli security official provided The Washington Post with a map detailing no less than 550 bunkers, 300 surveillance sites, and 100 other facilities the Jewish state believes belong to Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon. Most of the sites marked on the map are located south of the Litani River. [Hizbullah weapons there would be in violation of the United Nations resolution ending the Second Lebanon War.]

Egypt Makes Overtures to Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has welcomed a proposal by his Egyptian counterpart, Nabil Al-Arabi, to improve ties. “A good relationship between the two countries will definitely help stability, security, and development in the region,” Salehi told The Teheran Times.

Prepared for a Hostile Regime in Egypt

{image_1}The story goes that an Israeli army chief of general staff once came to his headquarters and announced that he had some good news and some bad news. The bad news was that Egypt now has top-of-the-line, sophisticated U.S. weaponry. The good news was…that Egypt has top-of-the-line, sophisticated U.S. weaponry. American military support—and the spare parts to keep the equipment running—comes with conditions attached, including that they aren’t used against Washington’s Israeli ally. Nevertheless, Israel never abandoned its doctrine to maintain forces capable of fighting a two-front war, even if it hadn’t faced Egypt on the battlefield for over 37 years and has formally been at peace with it since 1979.

Jerusalem Arabs Prefer Israel

WASHINGTON—The future of Jerusalem is considered one of the core issues in Israeli–Palestinian negotiations and one of the most significant obstacles to a permanent agreement between the two sides. However, it appears that on the Palestinian side, those who live in Jerusalem have already made their decision on the matter—and the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah may not like it.

Missiles Expected to Hit Tel Aviv

{image_1}Tel Aviv has managed to escape the missile threat in the last two wars with Lebanon and Gaza, but with terrorists in both regions having acquired more advanced missiles, the second-largest city in Israel could be hit by dozens of missiles in the next war, according to Haaretz newspaper. The commander of the Dan region in the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command, Col. Adam Zussman, told Haaretz in an interview regarding Tel Aviv, “Under any war scenario, it will be hit by a large number of missiles, missiles that are precise and lethal. However, our preparedness to deal with such missiles has also improved.”

Map of “Palestine” Erases Israel

{image_1}During a visit to Bethlehem, Palestinian Authority [PA] Chairman Mahmoud Abbas held up a stone model of the map of “Palestine” that erases Israel (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 26, 2010). US President Barack Obama has condemned the existence of maps like the one Abbas displayed as a “security” threat to Israel: “I will never compromise when it comes to Israel's security…Not when there are terrorist groups and political leaders committed to Israel's destruction. Not when there are maps across the Middle East that don't even acknowledge Israel's existence” (Obama at AIPAC Conference, June 4, 2008).