Tel Aviv residents began their morning on Thursday with the wail of the Color Red incoming rocket alert siren followed by the boom of the Iron Dome anti-missile system smashing a missilesheading straight for the city.

Large pieces of shrapnel landed in the streets of a neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv. Miraculously, no physical injuries were reported. Falling shrapnel can be extremely dangerous; residents were cautioned to remain in their shelters and safe spaces until given the “all clear” by security officials or Home Front Command — or until 10 minutes of silence has passed.

Barely two hours later, at 11:25 a.m. they were doing it again, with sirens sending hundreds of thousands of residents in Tel Aviv and Yafo (Jaffa) scrambling for cover.

Two missiles were fired at the White City but both landed in open areas in the greater metropolitan area. No physical injuries were reported. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other top officials were in the city consulting on the security situation at the time and they, too, headed straight for the shelter the second the Color Red siren was activated.

Gaza terrorists also fired M75 missile attacks at the eastern Negev cities of Dimona, Yerucham and Mitzpe Ramon, as Hamas searches desperately for a “quality” strike on a significant target. Dimona presents such a possibility; the city is home to Israel’s nuclear plant. At least one missile landed in an open area on the outskirts of the city; no physical injuries were reported. Hamas fired a barrage of three missiles at Dimona on Wednesday night as well. One of the missiles was shot down by the Iron Dome system, and two others landed in open areas, causing no physical injuries or damage.

In general, it’s been a busy morning as the Iron Dome system and its operators pick and choose which rockets and missiles must be eliminated from the skies.

A short-range rocket was shot down as it headed for the western Negev city of Netivot at around 10 am. Two other rockets landed in open areas, but not entirely without cost: the explosion ignited a fire, which required firefighters to risk their lives in coming out to extinguish the blaze as other rockets were exploding. Gaza terrorists fired a barrage of rockets and missiles towards the Negev that reached as far as 84 kilometers (52 miles) from Israel’s border with the region. Meanwhile, the IDF targeted a Hamas terrorist in northern Gaza has he was firing rockets at Israel. A direct hit was confirmed. Several hours earlier, the IDF also eliminated three Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in northern Gaza who were manufacturing medium-range missiles. Out of the PIJ’s approximate arsenal of some 5,500 rockets and missiles, more than 100 have an 80+ kilometer(50 mile) range.

Gaza terrorists fired three M75 missiles at the eastern Negev city of Dimona on Wednesday night, but no one was injured.

Two of the missiles landed in open areas, causing no damage. The third was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, indicating it was headed for a populated area.

The Hamas terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack, stating it had attempted to strike at Israel’s nuclear reactor, which is located just outside the city.

The group also launched attacks on the coastal cities of Rehovot, Yavneh and Ness Tziona. As in Dimona, Iron Dome anti-missile batteries intercepted each missile. Residents of the areas were also warned by the Color Red incoming rocket alert system prior to the attacks, which allowed them time to race to shelters in safety.

On Thursday, July 3, hackers briefly took over the Twitter account of the Israel Defense Forces. The hackers posted a false tweet that one of the dozens of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel had hit a facility in Dimona, reputed to be the site of Israel’s nuclear facility, and that the attack led to a nuclear leak.

The “Syrian Electronic Army” claimed credit for the hacking, and posted what looks like the internal IDF site on its own Twitter page as proof.

The bogus tweet: “#WARNING: Possible nuclear leak in the region after 2 rockets hit Dimona nuclear facility” was sent out late on Thursday and soon thereafter was removed from the IDF Twitter feed.

An apology and explanation for the false tweets was sent out by the IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner midday on Thursday.The IDF blog site remains shut down, with a message that it is “currently under maintenance” and will “be back shortly.” The SEA also claimed credit for this hack, and provided evidence of its access on the SEA website.

The IDF Twitter account, however, is back up and functioning.

The Syria Electronic Army, which claims support for the Syrian government, has hacked many other major cyber accounts. According to an online source, the SEA has hacked accounts including the New York Times, Harvard University, the Financial Times, the Guardian and the Barcelona soccer team.

The SEA also hacked into the Twitter account of the Associated Press on April 23, 2103, and sent out a tweet stating that President Obama had been injured in an explosion at the White House.

In an interview released last summer, SEA members vowed they will attack anyone who makes “false” claims or news about Syria, putting the country and the government in a bad light. They also warned the U.S. not to attack Syria, and blamed “Zionists” for the bad decisions of the U.S., both under President Obama and under President Bush.

Another bogus tweet sent out on the IDF Twitter feed on Thursday was one stating “Long Live Palestine.”

For a tiny country that has just been through an extended period of heightened anxiety due to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, and the more than 50 rocket attacks which have struck Israel since Thursday, the fear of a nuclear leak was a particularly ugly attempt to fan hysteria in Israel.

A train on the Dimona-Be’er Sheva line in the Negev killed 14 camels without being derailed and without any injuries to passengers. The engineer stopped the train at the next station, inspected the train to make sure there was no damage, and then continues to Be’er Sheva.

Camels frequently roam on highways and tracks in the Negev, where Bedouin raise herds of camels, causing a danger to motorists.

An Israel Railways official said the incident occurred at night, when darkness prevented the train engineer from seeing the camels.

The above photograph of the construction site near Dimona in the Negev desert for Israel’s then-secret nuclear reactor was taken in 1960. It is difficult to identify precisely who took that photo, but information in a draft U.S. Intelligence Board post-mortem strongly suggests that British and U.S. military attachés took it and similar photos.

It is likely that this is one of the photographs described on pages 13 and 14 of that report. The plainly visible reactor dome undermined Israeli claims that it was a textile factory under construction.

These images of the reactor site, some of them classified secret or confidential, are located in State Department records at the National Archives. (Record Group 59, Records of the Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Atomic Energy and Outer Space, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy, 1948-62, box 501, Country File Z1.50 Israel f. Reactors 1960)

This is Alan C. Goodison (1906-2006), trained as an Arabist, worked on Israeli nuclear matters at the British Foreign Office’s Eastern Department in the mid-1960s. He coordinated the analysis and distribution of the sensitive Canadian intelligence report on the Argentine yellowcake sale to Israel. Goodison is shown in 1983 when he became Ambassador to Ireland.

Crown copyright image from collection of Foreign and Commonwealth Office history staff.

This is Walworth Barbour (1908-82), U.S. ambassador to Israel 1961-73. He presided over the effort by U.S. diplomats and CIA officers to learn what Israel had done with the yellowcake.

Image from Still Pictures Branch, National Archives, RG 59-SO.

For the full story, check out:

The Israel-Argentina Yellowcake Connection.

Of course, in the end, no one thought Israel was building a nuclear weapon in order to attack or even just intimidate its Arab neighbors. The world understood that Israel had to have the doomsday option because a billion Arabs out there wanted it destroyed. Israel and the U.S., at least officially, believe that Iran’s case is different, because Iran is not a democracy, and because Iran has actually declared numerous time that it wants death to Israel and death to America (still a popular chant in Tehran).

In the end, the West’s chances of actually stopping Iran — not very high. The best they can hope for is a more democratic Iran with nukes that won’t use it to intimidate its neighbors.

I wonder what would happen if Israel suddenly declared that it understands Iran’s fears of its hostile Sunni neighbors, and removes its objections to an Iranian bomb. It’s worth it just to watch the Saudis’ faces go deep red and then, possibly, explode…

The architectural firm responsible for the construction of the Dimona nuclear plant in the 1960s has released rare photos of the project for the first time.

The architect, Dan Eitan, sent President Shimon Peres the black and white photos to recognize the president’s role in the construction of what originally was called “a Negev civic center” and now officially is known as the Nuclear Research Center in the Israeli Negev.

The Israel Defense website published the photos that were taken during the construction of the reactor, which it noted that “according to foreign reports, manufactures hundreds of nuclear and hydrogen bombs for Israel.”

Pictures that were posted include the library, the water tower and residences as well as satellite photography of the reactor taken from space and a sketch of the plant.

The photos were taken by architect Dan Eitan, and were sent by him to Shimon Peres (current president of Israel) in recognition of the latter’s contribution to the construction of the complex.

Israel maintains a policy of “nuclear ambiguity,” meaning that it does not admit nor deny that it possesses nuclear warheads, although most defense analysts estimate the country has at least 200.

Israel has promised it would not be the first country in the Middle East to “introduce” nuclear weapons in the region.

The Arab world has been pushing for the declaration of a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East as a way to force Israel to divulge its nuclear capability.

Israel questions the usefulness of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty particularly in light of Iran’s constant denial of circumstantial evidence that leaves no doubt that it is trying to manufacture a nuclear weapon.

Blueprint of the Dimona nuclear plant in the Negev

Residence units for Dimona nuclear plant staff

An Arab with Israeli citizenship allegedly turned against the state and now is the first Israeli Arab to be charged with joining Syrian jihadists and fight with the rebels, according to an indictment filed in an Israeli court Wednesday.

The case has been under wraps since his arrest last at Ben Gurion Airport after the citizen, 29-year-old Hikmat Massarwa, returned from Syria via Turkey.

His lawyer claimed that Massarwa had no intention of harming Israel and was in Syria for the innocent purpose of locating his brother, who left Israel for Syria several weeks ago and also is suspected of joining  Al Qaeda-affiliated groups.

The increasingly frequent phenomenon of Arabs helping enemy states is of great concern not only to intelligence officials but also to politicians.

Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the Israel Beitenu faction that has since joined the Likud party, has won broad support from nationalists and horrified center-left parties by pushing for a loyalty oath and insisting that Arabs have no less an obligation to the country to fulfill a term of national service.

Israeli Arabs have no less than former Knesset Member Azmi Bishara to look “up” to as a model for a fifth column.

He fled the country six years ago after being indicted for passing on intelligent information to Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War, in which thousands of Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded in the 34-day war that devastated northern Israel, including Haifa.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said that Massarwa, a resident of an Arab area called the “triangle” because of its three-sided area between Netanya and Tel Aviv and the western border of Samaria, is a foreign agent.

Massarwa’s lawyer argued that after his client entered Syria to look for his brother, he was forced “to be part of this population,” referring to Syrian rebels associated with jihadists.

“He did not join the rebels. He helped them build tents and so on, said the attorney, Helal Jabar. “It seems more than a few Israeli Arabs have done this.”

Security agents asserted that rebels in Syria asked Massarwa about information concerning IDF weapons and the nuclear reactor in Dimona and that he was asked to carry out a terrorist attack in Israel, a request he refused.

Arabs with Israeli  citizenship have plenty of encouragement to work against the state. Most Arab Knesset Members not only side with the Palestinian Authority but also often speak against Zionism and the existence of a Jewish state. MK Hanin Zoabi boarded the Mavi Mamara flotilla ship, manned by IHH terrorists, three years ago and has incited against the state.

She has called Israel “inherently racist,” rejects the idea of Israel as a Jewish country, and Zoabi has backed Iran’s efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon, apparently preferring to die in an Iranian nuclear attack if Israel would be destroyed at the same time.

Other magnets for Israeli Arabs to help destroy Israel include the Hamas regime in Gaza, which recruit Bedouin Negev, turning several Arab population centers, such as Tel Sheva next to Be’er Sheva, into Hamas strongholds that Israeli police are frightened to enter.

Another attraction for Israeli Arabs to become Israeli traitors is the Palestinian Authority, whose official maps define Arab Palestine’s borders as the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Jordan River on the east, and the Lebanese and Egyptian borders on the north and south.

With the spillover of the Syrian war into Jordan and Lebanon, and occasional fire on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, Massarwa may not be the last Israeli Arab citizen to be charged with helping the enemy.

With Hamas ruling over Gaza and recruiting Bedouin allies in the Negev and with Palestinian Authority Arabs increasingly frustrated with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ failure to improve their political and economic lives, the Syrian civil war is another inducement to work against Israel.

With the spillover of the Syrian war into Jordan and Lebanon, and occasional fire on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, Massarwa may not be the last Israeli Arab citizen to be charged with helping the enemy.