Washington: Hizballah has got hold of chemical weapons

End Of Days News

For the first time in many years, voices in the US administration were criticizing the Israeli defense forces for under-reacting and, in this case, also underestimating the chemical weapons threat emanating from Syria and neglecting to pursue counter-measures. This is what visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak heard when he met US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon Tuesday, March 5, as the new defense secretary’s first foreign visitor.

debkafile’s military and Washington sources disclose that Barak was berated for “inadequate and cursory” military preparations which failed to take into account that a chemical attack on Israel would make it necessary for the IDF to enter Syria – most likely for an offensive operation coordinated against the common threat with the Turkish and Jordanian armies.

Present at the meeting between Hagel and Barak were also Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. Our sources add that the conversation ranged over the Syrian crisis with no reference to a nuclear Iran.

From the defense secretary, Barak heard intelligence estimates confirmed for the first time by an American official that Hizballah has been able to procure a quantity of chemical weapons from Syria – a development which Israel’s leaders have vowed to prevent.

The proliferation of chemical weapons to HIzballah and other armed bands on Israel’s borders was apparently in the mind of Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin, UN Security Council president for March, when he cautioned Monday that trouble was building up between Israel and Syria.
Read debkafile’s earlier report:

At UN Center in New York, Israeli and Russian delegates separately warned Monday, March 4, of a dangerous situation developing in the area of separation on the Golan captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Syrian troops were forbidden to enter this area under a ceasefire formalized in 1974 between Syria and Israel.

 

Read More: http://www.debka.com/article/22803/Washington-Hizballah-has-got-hold-of-chemical-weapons

Netanyahu mulling minor ‘land transfer’ to Palestinians ahead of Obama visit

End Of Days News

Package of goodwill gestures — including approval of building requests, release of prisoners and transfer of ammunition — reportedly drawn up by defense establishment

 

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly mulling transferring responsibility for small areas of West Bank land to the Palestinian Authority as part of a package of major goodwill gestures drawn up by the defense establishment ahead of US President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to the region.

 

According to a report in Maariv on Tuesday, the gestures will include the transfer of authority over two access roads — one to the new Palestinian city Rawabi, and the other to the West Bank city of Tulkarem — to full Palestinian control, the approval of building plans for 10 Palestinian villages currently deemed illegal and under threat of being demolished, the release of many of the 123 Fatah prisoners arrested by Israel before the Oslo peace talks, and the transfer of small arms ammunition to the Palestinian security forces.

 

The report states that the gestures were discussed in the past in talks with Quartet envoy Tony Blair, but Netanyahu rejected them. The defense establishment reportedly drew up the plans while explaining to Netanyahu that the moves would not be a major political liability for the prime minister, but could create a positive global public relations effect.

 

Netanyahu made brief reference to Israeli concessions in his Monday address to the AIPAC Policy Conference, but focused more on Israel’s imperative to ensure its security.

 

“Israel is prepared for a meaningful compromise, but as Israel’s prime minister I will never compromise on our security,” Netanyahu told the Washington gathering by satellite feed from Jerusalem, noting that Israel had withdrawn from south Lebanon and Gaza, “and we got terror. That can’t happen a third time.”

 

“Israel seeks a peace with our Palestinian neighbors, a peace that will end our conflict once and for all,” he insisted, “but that peace must be grounded in reality and in security…. In the Middle East, a peace you cannot defend will not hold for five minutes.”

 

Netanyahu’s caution was in keeping with US Vice President Joe Biden’s decidedly pessimistic tone on the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

 

“It’s going to require hard steps on all sides, but we all have a profound interest in peace,” Biden told the conference. “We’ve got to get caught trying,” he quipped, quoting former US president Bill Clinton.

 

“So we remain deeply engaged. As President Obama has said, while there are those who question whether this goal will ever be reached, we have no apologies for continuing to pursue this goal.”

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-mulling-minor-land-transfer-to-palestinians-ahead-of-obama-visit/