Middle East / Levant

MK Zeev Bielski, chairman of the Knesset subcommittee on Israel’s home defense: “The home front is not ready. We have made improvements over the situation since the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when the home front was completely unprepared, but the situation is not good.”

After the recent attacks on Israeli embassies in India and Georgia, Jewish institutions in the U.S. are asking a question that is much closer to home: Does Iran pose a local terror threat?

If the reports are accurate, North Korea is playing a direct role in helping Tehran create the infrastructure to assemble nuclear warheads that can be mounted on missiles aimed at Israel, American military bases in the Persian Gulf and pro-Western oil sheikhdoms in the Middle East.

At a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, coinciding with the Super Tuesday primaries, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum accused President Barack Obama of appeasement of Iran and urged an ultimatum demanding that it put a stop to its nuclear production immediately, or the US will "tear down" its plants. Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich took a break from their race for votes in the high-stakes primaries to speak to the pro-Israel lobby.

Berlin-based researcher Benjamin Weinthal argues that Israel is militarily capable today of launching a successful attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. It would require successive strikes, using GBU-28 bunker busters to knock out Iran's entire nuclear program. Those devastating bombs were delivered to Israel by President Obama, who made good on a promise made by President Bush.

Obama sought to assure Netanyahu that the United States was keeping the military option against Iran open, and "has Israel's back," and at the same time urged Israel to wait patiently for the sanctions and, possibly, diplomacy, to do their job. Netanyahu, for his part, concentrated on Israel's undeniable right to defend itself against Iran, and reiterated that Israel sees Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its existence. The problem is, both leaders had held precisely the same positions before and after their meeting. So why meet?

After immigrating to Israel from England in 1999 at age 50, Susan Nathan has become an outspoken pro-Palestinian advocate, appearing in the Swedish Human Rights festival and the Stockholm Olof Palme Centre, as well as forums sponsored by the Arab American Association. She came to India for medical treatment, but her visa expired and the government wants her out on suspicion of contact with extremist Muslim organizations.

Occupy AIPAC is a weekend long series of events to coincide with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual Policy Conference, going through March 6. The Occupy AIPAC website says the group is gathering in Washington DC for a policy-style summit on the issues of Iran, the Arab Uprising and Palestine and "the affects of AIPAC in determining US foreign policy around those topics."

So who are the Megillah characters in this round? We definitely have our Hamman in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. King Achashverosh should be President Barack Obama. Benjamin Netanyahu would be Esther, given his direct dealings with the ruler of the free world. And, if you ask me, I'm voting in favor of Amos Yadlin for the role of Mordechai. On June 7, 1981, Amos Yadlin, who later became chief of Israel's military intelligence, was one of eight Israeli fighter pilots who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak.

Republicans see a political opening in the disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem over two major issues: Jewish settlements and their influence on the peace talks with the Palestinians, and the Obama administration's pressure on Israel to hold off on a military strike against Iran. A House Budget Committee pressed Panetta on reduced budget requests for Israel's missile defense program against ballistic missiles and rockets.

Once we recognize that the enemy is not acting against us based on rational reasons, but out of a pathological hatred, it is our duty to act on our conclusion and strike at the enemy, disregarding world opinion.

Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council indicated that - despite the blood of over 7000 Syrian citizens on the hands of Hizbollah's patron Assad - political expedience alone will dictate its policy: "There are no permanent enmities in politics as there are no permanent friendships. Alliances are built on goals. We want to achieve our goals."

Malkah and Yishai discuss Canadian dedication to Israel, and simple but deeply important aspects of distinctly Jewish life, experts from Brookings get real on Middle East dynamics, and, finally, Rebbitzin Mizrachi teaches how to be truly happy.

In pre-Oscar television interviews, actors Shlomo Bar-Aba and Lior Ashkenazi, stars of the Israeli Oscar nominated "Footnote," which last night became the tenth Israeli nominee to not win the big prize – were telling anyone who would listen that it was definitely going to be Iran this year. And they were right. The Hollywood elite which decides these things gave the nod to Iran's "A Separation," from what we hear a fantastic family drama, and Director Asghar Farhadi has taken home the Oscar for best foreign language film. While Director Joseph Cedar, an observant Jew, went home empty handed for the second time in his career. Bummer.

Why would Saudi Arabia support Israel instead of attacking it? Forbes' Peter Cohan argues that Saudi Arabia is dominated by Sunnis, while Iran’s ayatollahs are the Sunni's sworn enemies, the Shi’ites. Saudi Arabia’s rage against the Shi’ites exceeds its dislike of its Jewish neighbors.

The Syrian military continues to pound opposition strongholds as voting stations opened around the country to decide on a new constitution.

A rock throwing Arab mob attacked on Friday a group that included Congressmen Elliot Engel and Jerald Nadler. The two legislators from New York State were on tour of the Mount of Olives Cemetery, along with Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein, and Rabbis Abraham and Menachem Lubinsky, founders of the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim. Their tour was guided by JewishPress.com Managing Editor Yishai Fleisher.

Qatar is going all out to assemble a major conference next week, with 350 representatives from Arab and Islamic countries, who will discuss "the legal status of Jerusalem before and after the Israeli occupation." The funny thing is that Palestinian Knesset members who will be spewing their venom at the conference, decrying Israeli crimes against humanity, yada, yada, yada, will be the only democratically elected officials. Is this a fun region or what?

Some days you just have to love Israelis, who take time out of their busy schedules to express their love thine enemy thing online.

The AP reported that the European Union is working on regulations that would shut out Iran's banks from the financial clearinghouse SWIFT, which is...

The Syrian army's assault on Homs enters its 20th day and resulted in the deaths of 80 people on Wednesday, including 3 journalists...A UN report accuses "officials at the highest level of government" of committing "crimes against humanity and other gross human right violations"...Egypt recalls its ambassador...Saudi Arabia blasts Syria and Russia...Free Syrian Army is turning away jihadists...Republican presidential hopefuls join growing chorus of voices that support arming the opposition.

On occasion it's nice to read good things about one's country, reflected through the eyes of a sworn enemy. If half of what Iran's UN ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told the UN Security Council about Israeli covert operations, cyber warfare, psychological war and assassination of nuclear scientists is true, then we should sleep quietly tonight…

As atomic energy watchdogs reported being denied access to critical Iranian nuclear facilities, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters that Israel alone would make the decisions necessary for the security of its citizens.

Two settlements in Samaria will be celebrating a modest expansion with Wednesday's decision to add nearly 700 housing units to an area where so much Jewish blood has been spilled. Now wait for it… wait for it… international condemnations!

Ilan Pappé is one of Israel's "New Historians" who blame the state's founders of committing a well planned ethnic cleansing to drive the Arabs out of the promised land. Now three California state schools are featuring his lectures and the local Jewish community is not amused.

It turns out the FBI is using training materials that are inaccurate and offensive to Muslims. So the bureau's chief told an assembly of Muslim organizations about the removal of about 1 percent of the total number of training documents produced by the FBI. Except it also turns out that some of the folks Mueller assembled were not themselves so inoffensive…

At stake is nothing short of an all out effort on the part of Israel, Britain, France, and the US, to squash, militarily, the Iranian nuclear program. In a regional mood that's becoming reminiscent of the days before Desert Shield, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, as well as Russia, will likely, if tacitly, support and encourage an attack on Iran. What we may be seeing in the days leading up to the Obama and Netanyahu March 5 meeting, is a president being dragged, against his best intentions, into a new, hot war.

Anyone seeking to find daylight between the Republican and Democrat positions on Israel will get plenty of it now, with the Conservative challenger to the mainstream Republican presidential candidate. Has Israel (and the Jewish voter) found a potential, unexpected ally in the White House?

The Muslim Brotherhood is feeling ripe for a planned takeover of Egypt, following which everything we've known about Israel-Egyptian relations may have to be scrapped.

While the world is shocked and enraged by the brutality of Syria's military assault on its own civilians, President Bashar al-Assad is not without friends, both faraway and next-door.