Iranian Arms Ship Captured by Israel Shows Tehran’s Real Aims
The Francop episode glaringly reveals Iran’s strategy of surrounding Israel with deadly ordinance in hostile hands.
Also on Thursday Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a press briefing:
The navy captured a ship that was carrying a vast quantity of ordnance. … The main component of this war materiel was rockets whose sole objective was to attack and kill as many civilians — women, children and the elderly — as possible.
This is a war crime. This is a war crime that the UN General Assembly … should investigate, discuss and condemn. This is a war crime that should prompt the UN Security Council to convene in special session, especially since it was in gross violation of UN Security Council resolutions. This is a war crime which we know the Iranian regime intends to repeat, further arming Hezbollah, which has already fired thousands of missiles at our communities.
This is what the international community should concentrate on at all times but especially today. But instead, they have chosen to assemble and condemn the IDF and the State of Israel, and to try and undermine our legitimate right to defend ourselves. …
I think that the time has come for the international community, at least its more responsible countries, to recognize the truth and not promote a lie.
In trying to make “the ship” a lever to shift world attention from Israel’s alleged sins in Gaza to the actual ongoing treachery and belligerency of Iran, Israel faces an uphill battle. It is true that Israel has mustered some sympathy from democracies on the Goldstone report. In Thursday’s General Assembly ballot on the resolution endorsing the report, Israel was joined by the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and some Eastern European countries in voting against it. Most of the EU countries abstained.
But when it comes to Iran itself, the West continues to dither. Iran’s rejection of the deal to have its uranium enriched abroad, after stringing the U.S. and its allies along for another few weeks while its centrifuges keep spinning, has brought little but bewildered silence. Regarding the courageous anti-regime agitation within Iran, President Obama has already announced that “we do not intervene in Iran’s internal affairs.” There is still no sign of sufficient Western will and unity to organize truly effective sanctions against the mullahcracy.
Israel still hopes, and is striving hard, to make clear what Iran’s conversion from a terror-exporting power to a nuclear-armed, terror-exporting power would mean, and to muster Western resolve to do something about it. The Francop episode glaringly reveals Iran’s strategy of surrounding Israel with deadly ordinance in hostile hands while it exports subversion throughout the Middle East and in Africa and South America.
It is not a problem Israel wants to deal with by itself. It may yet have to.
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P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/
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11 Comments
1. Libertyship46:This is a very, very, troubling piece of news. First of all, let me congratulate the Israeli Navy on a job well done for intercepting such a ship. It just shows how good Israeli intelligence can be when hunting down illegal arms shipments (I wish our government had such good intelligence coming out of the Middle East). Second, I thought the mighty United Nations peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon was supposed to stop Hezbollah from re-arming? You mean, they’re falling down on the job? Say it ain’t so. It just shows once again how impotent and useless United Nations military forces are. But what really should trouble Americans is the silence coming from the Obama administration concerning this event. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the White House even issued a statement relating to this incident. If they did, it certainly did NOT get much play on the evening news broadcasts. Well, it would be just like Obama to throw Israel under the bus while he continues on his search for his Holy Grail, which is universal healthcare insurance. Obama is a domestic kind of guy, and the rest of the world out there is simply a “distraction,” as he likes to say about all things that prove to be inconvenient to him. Notice his administration didn’t even strongly condemn this act, let alone criticize the Iranians for supplying a terrorist organization, which Hezbollah is. I really fear for this country when we can take a strong ally, like Israel, and be willing to throw them under the bus just so that their fate won’t divert attention from the President’s domestic agenda. We’re in trouble here, folks. The clock is ticking for Israel and nobody at the White House seems to care. I guess Obama will at least issue a press release once Iran gets a nuclear bomb.
Nov 7, 2009 - 4:29 am 2. Professor Guvinoff:How much evidence is needed before the “Islamic Republic of Iran” is recognized as the most determined jihadist entity of our time?
What does “Islamic Republic” mean? Why can’t we recognize the deception? We live in the era of cowardice, and we will come to regret it.
Nov 7, 2009 - 7:16 am 3. Joel:It’s all of a piece with Obama’s “noninterference” between the vicious Islamo-fascist regime in Tehran on the one hand, and the antiregime activists on the other. In their courage, they’re isolated like Israel.
Nov 7, 2009 - 8:50 am 4. David W. Lincoln:Remember, Teheran is being aided by Ankara via Damascus. Aren’t there verses in the Old Testament of the Bible which refer to Damascus being laid waste. So my expectation is this: Act 1 – Israel attacks the Iranian nuclear system, or something else which has the effect of crippling Iran. Act 2- the retaliation of Iran, and its partners. Act 3- Damascus is taken out. Act 4 – the usual dancing around to prevent the war from escalating even further.
Is there anyone who views the near future differently?
Nov 7, 2009 - 12:47 pm 5. Joel:To #4, it will be a shame if Israel, with its smallness and vulnerability, has to take on this job, but it’s looking that way more and more; Obama does not appear reality-attuned on this one, or perhaps doesn’t have the spine.
Nov 7, 2009 - 12:57 pm 6. Gringo:As Iran imports a lot of its gasoline, one thing Israel could do is knock out gasoline refineries in Iran.
Nov 7, 2009 - 2:21 pm 7. Ruvy:David, at comment #3. Leave out Act 4.
Nov 7, 2009 - 3:11 pm 8. Ruvy:Sorry, that was comment #4. Also add, in place of Act 4, a massive missile attack on Israel, which results in a massacre of Arabs here.
Nov 7, 2009 - 3:13 pm 9. RichieB:BHO will be shocked when he wakes up one morning and sees the Straits of Homez in a Blaze and oil rushes to 500 bucks a barrel, only then will he HAVE to address the issue; Stay Tuned…its about to be ON !!
Nov 7, 2009 - 3:54 pm 10. David W. Lincoln:I encourage people to look at “Royalty for a grown up nation” by Conrad Black to see how the top tier of the British Commonwealth can be more than an understudy to the US. Given how fast things are going, there simply is not enough time for the deformed souls, zombies, and similar ilk with their paws on the levers of power inside the Beltway, to get their acts together.
So, a united foreign policy to defend Israel. One other constellation could coalesce to defend Israel, namely those countries which were behind
the iron curtain. So, with these two groupings,
others have the avenue open to support Israel more openly, rather than engage in doublespeak (the term used by Sharansky in “The Case for Democracy”).
For, I am impressed with Sharansky’s follow up to
Nov 7, 2009 - 5:28 pm 11. Stephen Brady:“The Case for democracy” where he cites Herzl’s
original definition of zionism, before it was taken over by ben Gurion. Herzl was referring to
a transplanting of diaspora Judaism from the countries where Jews had diaspora culture, and what gets transplanted includes the best of that host culture. For instance, the best of the United States gets transplanted to Israel, the same for Russia, Ethiopia, Argentina, anywhere where there was, well is, diaspora Judaism.
To #4: I agree with you, and see the scenario playing out exactly in the manner that you suggest. However, the Israelis may decide not to dance, in Act Four.
To #6: When Israel actually attacks Iran, I would suggest that they destroy the Kharg Island terminal, from which Iran exports 80% of its oil. This would put the Mullahs in a difficult position, economically, to say the least.
Nov 9, 2009 - 9:42 am