Thursday February 28, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

It has been reported that Israeli intelligence has issued 2 reports describing how Iran smuggled special systems to retrofit Hamas' rockets and make them more accurate with GPS satellite guidance systems.

The reports describe that the new guidance system is brought in small suitcases the size of airplane carry on bags commonly called wheel-ees.

Hamas smuggled in this new technology which literally transforms the status quo on the ground. A simple rocket is now a computerized smart bomb.

This is a game changer.

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Wednesday February 27, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Israel is preparing for a swarm of locust that is capable of devastating plant growth and agriculture.

The locust have begun making their way towards Israel as a result of the heavy rains that recently fell in eastern Yemen and on the Sudan-Eritrea border.

The Israeli Ministry of Agricultural explained that huge swarms of locust have begun migrating from Saudi Arabia. They will make their way to southern Israel via a small stretch of Jordan and the Red Sea.

Israel has prepared a series of pesticides to stop the locust. A similar swarm was stopped by Israel in 2013. While most of the locust were destroyed, several hundred thousand still got through and caused plant damage.

Locust do not pose a danger to humans but they have the ability to destroy the entire agriculture produce of Israel.

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Tuesday February 26, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has come out strong making statements about their prowess and capabilities especially their ability to fire rockets that can hit places north of Israel.

Why - and why now?

Islamic Jihad is making a play for power on the streets of Gaza. Their goal is to wrestle power from Hamas which currently controls Gaza.

Islamic Jihad is a relatively small group in Gaza - significantly smaller than Hamas. In order for Islamic Jihad to get more supporters, Islamic Jihad must show that Hamas is no different from Abbas and his Fatah party and the Palestinian Authority.

Islamic Jihad must show Palestinians that the true protectors of Gaza's Palestinians is Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And that’s why we have started to see rallies and protests and hear public statements filled with bravado, telling people on the streets of Gaza how powerful Palestinian Islamic Jihad is.

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Monday February 25, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is headquartered in Gaza, has as its goal the total destruction of Israel. They made the announcement on Iranian TV.

Islamic Jihad said that they have missiles that they can launch from Gaza and hit as far as Netanya, an Israeli city north of Tel Aviv.
The threat is serious, very serious.

The vast majority of Israelis, two thirds of Israelis, live in a very small stretch of land reaching from just south of Tel Aviv to just north of Tel Aviv.

It is very important to understand that just because a news item was broadcast on Iranian tv does not mean that it is true.

What is true is that Iran has those rockets. The question is whether Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been able to smuggle the rockets into Gaza.

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Monday February 18, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Teheran is suffering from a terrible problem - sink holes. The ground simply opens up and whatever is underneath, falls into the earth.

These sink holes are being caused by a thirty-year drought. The excessive water shortages cause the ground to be very weak and to shift. In addition, because of their water shortages, Iran has been pumping more and more from their underground water sources which are called aquafers.

The water they pump is saltier than their regular water and the pumping process reduces the amount of water which, in turn, dries up the foundation under the surface of the ground.

Over 8 million people live in Teheran. The risk to buildings, roads, infrastructure are enormous. It could all be solved by improving the water situation. But given the sanctions imposed against Iran, that isn't impossible.

Iranian leadership will, hopefully, wake up and see the crisis. Hopefully, before it is too late.

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Sunday February 17, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

We need to be kept abreast of the happenings on campus and the state of anti- Israel anti-Semitic activity.

This morning Galei Tzahal, also known as Israeli Army Radio, posted an audio recording of a Hebrew University professor speaking at Columbia University an Ivy League college in Manhattan.

Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian said that Israel experiments on Palestinians. That Israel tests all kinds of weapons on Palestinian towns.

The title of her talk was "Disturbing Spaces - Violent Technologies in Palestinian Jerusalem".

The idea that Israel uses Palestinian neighbors and villages as field to testing sites for new weapons is way off the charts. In addition to weapons she asserted that the IDF experiment with tactics.

"They check for which bombs to use, gas bombs or stink bombs. Whether to put plastic sacks or cloth sacks. To beat us with their rifles or to kick us with boots."

The IDF evaluates and critiques every single action. The post op after a military operation is written and discussed at every level and lessons are gleaned from successes and failures. From successes they look to see how to improve and the same is true for failures.

This is hardly experimenting.

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Friday February 15, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Remember the woman in Iran who stood up on a transformer, took off her white hijab and waved it like a flag. The woman who was then arrested, fired from her job and convicted of indecency and willingly violating the law. The woman who was sentenced to 3 years in prison and was threatened with taking her child, Viana, away.

Before her prison term began the woman, Azam Jangavi escaped Iran with her daughter and is now awaiting asylum. She sat down for a recent interview with Reuters and described her situation and why she took a stand.

This is what she said: "I was telling myself: 'Viana should not grow up in the same conditions in this country that you grew up in' ... I found a human smuggler with a lot of difficulty. It all happened very quickly, I left my life, my house, my car behind."

This woman is a hero. She, and her daughter, are also in danger. Her message is very important.

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Thursday February 14, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Russia is on the offensive and trying to undercut the US. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called several meetings over the past few days and given press conferences.

In his terms --- he laments. He really means Russia is very upset that Palestinian Statehood is not part of the Trump Peace Plan making its way around the Middle East.

"Ending the split will strengthen the position of Russia and the international community, supporting a diplomatic solution based on decisions of the international community," Lavrov said. "There are countries that don't see an end to the division and therefore conclude that without it, the two-state solution has become mission impossible."

To combat the Trump plan Abbas is also traveling to Arab capitals especially Riyadh. His secretary general Saeb Erekat sent a letters to foreign ministers protesting the Trump Plan.

Everyone is running. Everyone is shouting. No one has seen the plan. We need to see the plan to make an honest evaluation.

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Wednesday February 12, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Israel's largest international airport is named after David Ben Gurion, the first president of Israel. Ben Gurion Airport is now the target of cyber attacks.

In fact, Ben Gurion Airport repels 3 million cyberattacks per day. Per Day!!! Most of the attacks are from computer bots. But there are also real hackers involved.

In order to better defend against these attacks Israel, and especially Ben Gurion Airport, has created a consortium of cyber defense companies, organizations and even private companies.

The consortium includes Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), CyberArk, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., El Al’s Cockpit Innovation hub, Karamba Security and ClearSky.

They have created a combination of veteran cybersecurity and aerospace firms that, according to an official statement from the consortium, already offer "a broad range of aviation, security, intelligence and cyber solutions for the global market" alongside "young startups with cutting edge cyber products and technologies."

The threats are real. And Israel is taking them very seriously.

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Tuesday February 12, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

For years it has been known that Israel and the Saudi Arabia have had discussions and communications. There are established lines of communication.

But what is new is that the Saudis have now admitted that a relationship does exist. This admission officially sanctions the dialogue.

It became official through Turki al Faisal the former ex chief of Saudi Intelligence. He said that Israel and the Saudis have been talking for 25 years.

This was all made public in an interview in Israeli media and Qatari media.

Light is shining and many things like this are coming out of the dark and into the light.

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Monday February 11, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Humor is one of the coping mechanisms that Israelis use to deal with the constant threat presented by their enemies.

An ad promoting recycling, for example, pokes fun at the head of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

On Thursday a huge ad with Nasrallah's image was put up on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv. It beckons Israelis to recycle their plastic bottles.

Above the top on Nasrallah's head the caption reads: "I don't recycle bottles." Under the image of Nasrallah the caption reads: "Nasrallah has been stuck in a bunker for 12 years. What's your excuse?"

The humor is biting.

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Friday February 8, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt are off to the Middle East for week long trip. They will be visiting five Arab countries. The objective of their trip is to brief leaders on the details of the still secret Trump peace plan. The focus will be on the economic aspects of the plan.

Kushner and Greenblatt will stop in Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

We are only able to speculate about the Trump plan. Uncharacteristic of DC politics - there have been almost no leaks about the real content of the plan.

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Thursday February 7, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Iranian leadership is threatening the United States, telling them that they must leave Syria.

This is no surprise. At one time or another almost every Muslim and Arab country has issued the same warning and made it clear that the United States should not be in any Muslim country. They have said that no non-believer should tread on Muslim soil.

Syria is one of the centers of Muslim tradition and culture and so, they claim, the United States has no place being on Syrian soil.

Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to the Ayatollah Khamenei recently said: "Whether they want to or not, the Americans must leave Syria."

It just so happens that the United States wants to leave Syria as was announced by US President Donald J. Trump. The question is when.

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Wednesday February 6, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Iran is trying to understand why European nations have not started to buy their oil.

In November, eight European nations received an official waver from the United States permitting them to buy oil from Iran. None of them have taken advantage of their waivers.

Fars, an official Iranian news agency, posted the comments of Bijan Zanganeh, Iran's Oil Minister. He said that they have been in contact with the Europeans and there has been no movement or interest. "[W]e have called them many times, but they do not return our calls." He was probably referring to Greece and Italy.

There are several interesting lessons that we must learn from this.

First, US sanctions are hurting Iran. Second, the countries that get permission to trade with Iran are still reluctant to do so because of feared backlash from the United States.

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Tuesday February 5, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

Iran has prohibited walking dogs in public. Dogs are considered to be evil in Iran. And according to Iranians, the fact that the West embraces dogs is a sign of their backward nature.

Hossein Rahimi, Teheran's chief of police said: "Certain people who bring their dogs to public places cause panic and anxiety among the public." He added that local police have obtained permission from the judiciary to confront dog owners who walk their pets in public.

"People who walk their dogs in public places shall be dealt with severely."

Dogs will also be banned from cars, Rahimi said, underlining that "police will seriously confront dog owners who let their dogs ride in their cars."

Iran wants to discourage all dog ownership.

In 2010, A senior Iranian religious leader issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that dogs were "unclean" and not to be kept as pets. "Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West," Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi said. "There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children."

Despite it all, especially among Tehran's middle class, dog lovers persist and they continue to own pets.

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Monday February 4, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

On February 14th Russia will host a summit with Iran and Turkey in their Back Sea resort.

The objective of the summit is to devise solutions to the problem called Syria.

Russia and Iran want the Syrian regime to continue under the leadership of Bashar Assad.

Turkey wants to oust Assad.

Turkey is not alone. NATO and the United States are working to remove Assad from power.

Is there any real hope that a possible resolution will emerge from the Summit? Highly doubtful.

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