Syria hosts the exiled head of Hamas, and has done so for years. Syria arms Israel’s enemies in Lebanon, and has done that for years. Syria regularly holds what is, in effect, conventions of terrorists so that they may plot against Israel.

And Ehud Olmert says he’ll hold peace talks with Syria with no preconditions. There’s no need for Syria to cease aiding and abetting the murder of Israelis before Israel will officially talk about giving back the Golan Heights.

“We want to make peace… we are willing to make peace with Syria unconditionally and without demands. I have a lot of respect for the Syrian leader and the Syrian policy,” Olmert said in a meeting with Russian reporters at his Jerusalem residence.

This follows a statement by Olmert on how much he “respects” Bashar Assad. Really? Respects a mass-murderer of Israelis and Lebanese, as well as a man who contributes to the murder of Americans?

What is wrong with this man? And what is wrong with Israelis that they can’t get a no-confidence vote on him and give someone else a chance to run the nation? He “respects” a murderous dictator who is trying to destroy Israel? I’m sorry, but Godwin’s Law is simply begging to be invoked here.

Israel’s satellite technology is about to get even better.

In a unique flight scheduled for liftoff from India Sept. 17-20, Israel’s first “Polaris/TecSat” military imaging radar satellite is to be launched along with India’s first military recon spacecraft. They will be fired into an approximately 600-km. (372-mi.) polar orbit atop the same powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The mission, from India’s launch site on an island in the Bay of Bengal, will also inaugurate major military space cooperation between India and Israel.

If successful, the Israeli space-based radar will put Israel among the small list of nations with imaging radar reconnaissance satellites able to distinguish camouflaged vehicles from rocky terrain, for example, and to see at night and through clouds and foliage.

The launch of Polaris 1 will also provide Israel with a new capability that will be focused heavily on Iran, including obtaining data for a potential Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Aviation geeks will enjoy reading the full story, but for the rest of us, the interesting stuff is in this post.

Two more stories to read, though: First, Bret Stephens in the WSJ discusses the North Korea angle of the Syria raid.

As for the North Korean theory, evidence for it starts with Pyongyang. The raid, said one North Korean foreign ministry official quoted by China’s Xinhua news agency, was “little short of wantonly violating the sovereignty of Syria and seriously harassing the regional peace and security.” But who asked him, anyway? In August, the North Korean trade minister signed an agreement with Syria on “cooperation in trade and science and technology.” Last week, Andrew Semmel, the acting counterproliferation chief at the State Department, confirmed that North Korean technicians of some kind were known to be in Syria, and that Syria was “on the U.S. nuclear watch list.” And then there is yesterday’s curious news that North Korea has abruptly suspended its participation in the six-party talks, for reasons undeclared.

That still leaves the question of just what kind of transfers could have taken place. There has been some speculation regarding a Syrian plant in the city of Homs, built 20 years ago to extract uranium from phosphate (of which Syria has an ample supply). Yet Homs is 200 miles west of Dayr az Zawr, the city on the Euphrates reportedly closest to the site of the attack. More to the point, uranium extraction from phosphates is a commonplace activity (without it, phosphate is hazardous as fertilizer) and there is a vast gulf separating this kind of extraction from the enrichment process needed to turn uranium into something genuinely threatening.

Herb Keinon in the JPost (Stephen’s old paper) raises an interesting point:

First of all, if indeed the alleged IAF sortie over Syria had to do with a nuclear shipment from Pyongyang, then Israel’s stock has to go up because it will be seen in a few key capitals as the force that will not allow nuclear proliferation in the region.

It is interesting to note, by the way, the resounding lack of condemnation - either in Europe or even in the Arab world - to Israel’s alleged attack.

There is absolutely no condemnation of the attack from anyone but Syria, Iran, and North Korea. No EU representative is shaking his fingers at Israel and demanding an investigation. The UN is silent. The OIC, ditto. Syria’s Arab neighbors have nothing to say. The usual anti-Israel voices are utterly—and mysteriously—silent.

This is not the way they would be acting if Israel had, say, really destroyed a Hezbollah arms dump. The conventional wisdom would have been on the order of, “Well, they might have been weapons destined for Lebanon, but Israel had no proof, and anyway, that’s what the UN is for and Israel should have gone through channels.

Instead, we have nothing. A little bit of bluster from Syria, and nothing else. As they say: The silence is deafening.

Apparently, the world doesn’t care if Israel bombs things that might hurt someone besides Israel, like a Syrian nuke site. It’s only when Israel defends Israel that the world has a problem. Remember this the next time Israel heads into Gaza to take out Hamas rocketeers. Or don’t bother. I’m sure I’ll bring it up.

On September 9, 2003 16 people and more than 80 were wounded in two suicide bombings in Israel.

Sept 9, 2003 - Nine IDF soldiers were killed and 30 people were wounded in a suicide bombing at a hitchhiking post for soldiers outside a main entrance to the Tzrifin army base and Assaf Harofeh Hospital. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Senior Warrant Officer Haim Alfasi, 39, of Haifa; Chief Warrant Officer Yaakov Ben-Shabbat, 39, of Pardes Hanna; Cpl. Mazi Grego, 19, of Holon; Capt. Yael Kfir, 21, of Ashkelon; Cpl. Felix Nikolaichuk, 20, of Bat Yam; Sgt. Yonatan Peleg, 19, of Moshav Yanuv; Sgt. Efrat Schwartzman, 19, of Moshav Ganei Yehuda; and Cpl. Prosper Twito, 20, of Upper Nazareth. Sgt. Liron Siboni, 19, of Ramat Gan died of her wounds on November 19. Sept 9, 2003 - Seven people were killed and over 50 wounded when a suicide bomber at Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim St., the main thoroughfare of the German Colony neighborhood in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Dr. David Appelbaum, 51, and his daughter Nava Appelbaum, 20, of Jerusalem; David Shimon Avizadris, 51, of Mevaseret Zion; Shafik Kerem, 27, of Beit Hanina; Alon Mizrahi, 22, of Jerusalem; Gila Moshe, 40, of Jerusalem; and Yehiel (Emil) Tubol, 52, of Jerusalem.

Three days earlier Israel had the opportunity to strike

It was Sept. 6, 2003, a time — much like today — of open warfare between Israel and Hamas, which Israel, the United States and Europe have labeled a terrorist group, and which now controls the Palestinian Authority. Eight Hamas leaders had gathered to plan terrorist attacks, Israeli intelligence reported. . . . A Shin Bet agent in the command center called out the identities of the men. “It was the ‘Who’s Who’ of Hamas,” said Gabi Ashkenazi, then Yaalon’s deputy. “People we’d been hunting for years.” “It got intense,” Yaalon recalled. “The reports — ‘Here comes Mohammed Deif.’ ‘Here comes Adnan al-Ghoul.’ ‘Here comes Ismail Haniyeh.’ They said the names, I pictured each one, and I pictured blown-up buses and disco bombings, and shootings, murders of children, and kidnapped soldiers.” Gallant, the prime minister’s adviser, called Sharon at his ranch and told him about the extraordinary gathering. “We’re talking about people responsible for killing hundreds of Israelis,” Gallant said. “They’re planning on killing hundreds more.”

In the end, then Prime Minister Sharon aborted the mission refusing to risk the civilian deaths. Would the September 9 terror attacks have been averted had Israel struck? Probably not, the proposed Israeli strike was too close to those terror attacks.
But in the next two months over 30 people would be killed in terror attacks, including 3 Americans in Gaza. Had Israeli struck some number of Israeli (and American) civilians likely would have been saved.

There will be no condemnation in Turtle Bay for those Israelis who weren’t protected by the pre-emptive strike. And not statement of concern from Foggy Bottom about the employees Israel failed to protect. But in Israel there could be a prosecution for killing Salah Shehadeh in June 2002. In that attack, 14 civilians were killed. According to the Geneva conventions (Article 28) there is no immunity to civilians when a combatant is present.

The State Prosecution has agreed to establish an independent commission to probe the death of 14 civilians during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehadeh in June 2002, Channel 10 reported Monday evening. Shehadeh was Hamas’s military leader in the Gaza Strip at the time. A one-tone bomb dropped by Israeli aircraft on a Gaza City neighborhood killed Shehadeh and an additional 14 civilians who were in the area. The State Prosecution informed the High Court of Justice on its decision to launch the investigation during a hearing on a petition submitted by the extreme left-wing group Yesh Gvul.

It’s difficult enough fighting an enemy that doesn’t respect any international limits on targeting non-combatants. But when those fighting terror have to worry about possible legal complications of their actions, it makes their job nearly impossible. This threatens to deter the deterrers more than it will deter the terrorists. As Israel Matzav asks

Suppose - by some miracle - Ehud K. Olmert decides next month that the time has come to introduce Ismail Haniyeh or Mahmoud al-Zahar to their 72 virgins. Who in the IDF will carry out the order?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

israel, terrorism.

Once again, Egpytian border guards have murdered an African refugee. And once again, the world utterly ignores it.

Egyptian border guards shot dead an Eritrean man trying to cross the border into Israel, Egyptian police sources said on Monday.

The guards detained four other Eritreans traveling in the same group in the central section of the Sinai border, they said.

The body of the Eritrean man arrived in the hospital in the provincial capital El Arish on Sunday with a bullet wound in his back, they added.

They shot him in the back.

Still waiting for the condemnation from the UNHRC. Nope. Nothing. HRW has a press release from the earlier murders.

All together now, kids: What time is it?

That’s right. It’s Israeli Double Standard Time.

1 to 600 would be the ratio of Israeli missiles to Iranian missiles needed to win a war between the two.

Iran says it has 600 Shihab-3 missiles aimed and primed to hit Israel if either Iran or Syria is attacked.

Earlier Monday, an Iranian Web site affiliated with the regime reported that 600 Shihab-3 missiles were pointed at targets throughout Israel and would be launched if either Iran or Syria were attacked.

“Iran will shoot 600 missiles at Israel if it is attacked,” the Iranian news Web site, Assar Iran, reported, saying such a barrage would “only be the first reaction.”

According to the report, dozens of locations throughout Iraq being used by the US Army have also been targeted. The Shihab missile has a range of 1,300 km. and can reach anywhere in Israel.

The Olmert administration seems unfazed.

Israeli officials are treating Iran’s latest claims that it has 600 Shihab-3 missiles aimed at targets throughout the country the same way it treated Teheran’s claims last month to have crossed a key nuclear threshold: by listening carefully, but not believing everything they hear.

“We don’t believe all the Iranian rhetoric. I don’t even think the average Iranian believes it,” a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office said of the Monday claim. “We are not flippant and are watching carefully, but that doesn’t mean we believe everything they say.”

The official said that few in the world believed Iranian claims earlier this month that they had 3,000 centrifuges in place and running - a process that could produce enough enriched uranium for an atom bomb within a year.

Perhaps that’s because Israel really only needs to send one—or two at most—missiles into Iran. From that special store, the ones packed with the extra punch that Dimona gives them.

I’m just sayin’. It’s a 1-to-600 advantage, if you ask me.

My first reaction to this report: What right has the U.K. got to tell Israel what to do?

Israel must strike a balance between ensuring short-term security and helping the Palestinian territories develop economically to secure a more stable future, a British government report said on Monday.

The report, “Economic aspects of peace in the Middle East,” said the economic outlook for the Palestinian economy is already bleak and with its population growing rapidly the situation is unsustainable.

“Striking the balance between Israeli security and Palestinian economic freedom poses a great challenge for Israeli policymakers and security officials, but it is one that cannot be avoided,” the report said.

The report recommends immediately removing obstacles to travel within the West Bank and operating continuous and predictable border crossings for goods and people into and out of Gaza.

It was commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2005, when he was finance minister. He has long argued that the political and security situation can only improve if there is a strong and sustainable Palestinian economy.

My second reaction to this report: What effing right has the U.K. got to tell Israel what to do?

My third reaction to this report: I think you get the drift.

News flash, Britain: It’s not the British Mandate of Palestine anymore. You screwed up when it was, and you’ve been screwing Israel over ever since it wasn’t, so my report to the U.K. regarding their report on Israel: Shut it.