This week’s Shire Network News is up and ready for your listening pleasure. Dr. Rusty Shackleford of the Jawa Report is our feature interview. My segment is a little longer than usual. It’s on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s mirroring Hitler, only the new term for “Jews” is “Zionists.”

I’ve also updated the On Second Thought page, where you can listen to my segments if you don’t have time to listen to the whole podcast. But you’re missing out if you’re not listening to all of it.

*Please see disclaimer below*

Last week Syria built up its forces along the Lebanese border. Assad apologist Andrew Lee Butters wrote:

In recent days, anti-Syrian politicians in Beirut have been crying wolf about an increase in Syrian soldiers on the border with northern Lebanon. They worry that the buildup is a prelude to Syrian incursions on the pretext of stamping out radical Islamist fighters there, but really aimed at reasserting Syrian hegemony. On the other hand, the Syrians say that the buildup is part of an attempt to clamp down on smuggling, and there is reason to believe them.

Michael Young didn’t see it in such innocuous terms:

An imminent Syrian invasion of Lebanon is not in the cards. But Assad will continue to see how far he can push the envelope in Lebanon, both politically and militarily. And when he realizes he can push it very far, his confidence will rise, and with it the risk that Syria will use its army in more substantial ways. That’s not good news, and it’s not good news especially when foreign governments seem so utterly without conviction in preventing Syria from reimposing its hegemony over Lebanon.

However the news about yesterday’s car bomb attack in Damascus makes me wonder if the smuggling explanation might be closer to the truth. Now the Jersualem Post is reporting:

A mysterious explosion near Damascus on Saturday claimed the lives of at least 17 people, including a brigadier-general, further destabilizing the Syrian regime.

The article speculates about the identity of the general, but that’s less important than the fact that this attack took place so close to the time that Syria reinforced its troops on the Lebanese border. Is it possible that the redeployment was in reaction to intelligence that there had recently been an infiltration? Or perhaps against a threat of further infiltrations?

Last December a Lebanese Gen. Hajj was killed, presumably by Syria.

Anti-Syrian politicians, however, were quick to blame Damascus, accusing the Syrian regime of seeking to cause instability in Lebanon. “I point an accusing finger directly at the Syrian regime as the scheme has been carried out since three years until today with no one to deter this regime,” said Antoine Andraous, a member of the March 14 bloc.

Then in August a Syrian general with ties to Assad was killed in Lebanon.

General Mohammed Suleiman, one of Mr Assad’s closest confidantes, was shot dead on Friday at his chalet in the prestigious Rimal al-Zahabieh, Arabic for “Golden Sands”, seafront resort, 9 miles north of Tartous on the Mediterranean coast. A sniper, apparently located out at sea, shot him in the head, neck and stomach and he was pronounced dead at a hospital in Tartous.

Even leaving out the death of Imad Mughniyeh, it seems that generals have become targets in the Syria Lebanon war. I’ve been skeptical of the claims that Israel killed Mughniyeh, and nothing I’ve seen so far suggests that Israel was involved in any of these other deaths. Is there, perhaps, a lethal group fighting for Lebanon’s independence operating beneath the radar?

UPDATE: I asked an expert and was told that there’s no basis for this speculation. Please ignore.

Crossposted on Yourish.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Haveil Havalim is up at A Barbaric Yawp, one of the best-named blogs, ever. Go read the many different bloggers writing about Israel and Jewish issues.

And forgive me, I forgot to link last week’s. It was at Jack’s, who works very hard for the money. Except we don’t pay him, so he just works hard. So you have a plethora of posts for your morning (and afternoon and evening) read. And that’s a good thing on this eve of Erev Rosh Hashanah.

Some quick picks:

I could never live in Israel. Israelis are so…

A Tale of Two Sons

A visit to Rachel’s Tomb

Imshin finds a great Selichot tune. And then there’s Bush Lied, Bees Died. Good research, Imshin.

The Atheist Jew finds that the world is full of nuts. Yeah, we already knew that.

Wait for the punchline on this one.

Now go surf the rest yourselves.

In an interview with Neil MacFarqhar of the NYT, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had the following exchange:

NYT: On another subject, you are a Persian; you are not an Arab. Your country has never directly at least fought a war with Israel, and yet you seem obsessed by the Jews. Why?

President Ahmadinejad: We have nothing to do with their business at all. Jewish people live in Iran; they have lived there historically. They have a representative in our Parliament. Although there are only 20,000 people, they still have one representative in Parliament. Whereas for the rest of the population you have a minimum requirement of 150,000 people to have one representative. So the Jewish people are treated just like everyone else, like the Christians and the Muslims and the Zoroastrians. They are respected. Everyone is respected.

The question is really over Zionism. Zionism is not Judaism. It is a political party. It is a very secretive political party, which is the root cause of insecurity and wars. For 60 years in our region people have been killed, they have been threatened for 60 years, they have been aggressed upon for 60 years. Several large wars have occurred. A large number of territories there are occupied. More than five million people have been displaced and become refugees. Women and children are attacked in their own homes. They demolish homes over the heads of women and children with bulldozer, in their own house, in their own homeland. These are not crimes that one can shut ones eyes to. We disagree with these criminal acts and we announce it loud and clear. The anger of the U.S. government does not prevent us from saying loud and clear what we think about these acts. As long as these crimes are not rooted out we will continue voicing our concern.

I thought the interview was rather good. MacFarqhar did not follow up, but let Ahmadinejad talk. Many of his answers ranged from denial to non-responsiveness. MacFarqhar did not have to follow up because the responses spoke volumes. Or as MacFarqhar put it in a companion piece:

He was distinctly less forthcoming about domestic problems in Iran. At one point when he started to grow testy while being pressed about economic problems under his administration, an aide sitting at his elbow advised him in Persian to stay calm while answering.

I’m reasonably certain that MacFarqhar speaks Arabic, this little observation suggests that he understand Persian too. “Less forthcoming” is a bit of an understatement. And of course Friday’s Qud’s Day celebrations gave lie to Ahmadinejad’s claim that it is Zionists not Jews he opposes.

Presumably on Friday, the world’s news photographers had no other purpose than to photograph Quds day demonstrations.

Iran however had its own way of celebrating - by denying the Holocaust.

Iranian students have released a book containing cartoons of the Holocaust, including some depicting hospitalized Jews on respiratory machines attached to canisters of Zyklon B, the gas used to exterminate Jews during World War II.

The students, members of a state militia, unveiled “Holocaust” in Tehran’s Palestine Square on Friday in the presence of Education Minister Ali Reza Ali-Ahmadi, during annual demonstrations calling for the retreat of “Zionists” from “occupied Palestine.”

The Post’s article first notes that Ahmadinejad spoke last week against Zionists but observes:

The book, however, talks explicitly of the history of the Jews “before, during and after the Holocaust.” The cartoons show caricatured Jews with large, hooked noses trying to fabricate evidence for the Holocaust, while the text states that the Nazi massacre has been highly exaggerated, makes fun of testimonials from survivors and accuses present-day Jews of trying to make money from the Holocaust.

The article ends with a quote from the sole Jewish member of the Iranian parliament saying saying that anti-Zionism, not antisemitism is the policy of the Iranian government. Of course he’s in an unenviable position. He may be in the Majlis, but he better say whatever the regime tells him. It’s true that on the surface he parroted Ahmadinejad’s lie, but anything else and he would have experienced the true “freedom” that Mad Mahmoud boasts about. Overall the Post’s report makes the case that Zionist means Jew to Ahmadinejad and the mullahcracy in Iran.

Related thoughts here and here.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

There is now a permanent American presence in Israel dedicated to keeping an eye on Iranian missile launches.

The U.S. Army’s European Command deployed an early-warning radar system in Israel last week along with a 120-member support team, the weekly Defense News reported.

The move marks the first permanent presence in Israel of American military personnel. The high-powered radar system is meant to augment Israel’s defenses against Iranian ground-to-ground missiles.

According to Defense News, more than a dozen transport aircraft delivered the radar, its ancillary systems, equipment and technicians, as well as maintenance and security specialists to the Nevatim Air Force Base in the Negev. It has not yet been made operational.

There are wheels within wheels within wheels in this decision.

The new radar will give Israel added minutes to respond to a missile launch, compared with the systems it currently uses. Assisted by data sent from American satellites, the system can detect Iranian missiles shortly after they are launched.

A link with the Arrow missile system makes it possible to launch a defensive missile, and increases the chance of intercepting the incoming missile while giving the home front more time to respond.

The deployment of the radar system may be understood in two contradictory ways. One is that it prevents Israel from taking independent action against Iran, which the United States has made clear in recent months it opposes. The radar system, and Americans stationed here, will restrain Israel, which would be wary about launching an attack that would endanger U.S. personnel.

On the other hand, the deployment of the radar system strengthens Israel’s defense against missiles if Israel and/or the United States attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities. The defense system could reduce casualties and damage to the home front from a response by Iran and its allies.

This would give decision-makers more freedom to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Defense officials said they had made arrangements to receive the equipment and personnel in “record time” - two months from the July talks.

Given that the military never truly tips its hands, and that I don’t believe the Guardian piece from last week that said that George W. Bush denied a request by Israel to attack Iran, this is an important piece of the puzzle to determining the American/Israeli response to Tehran’s threats to destroy Israel. If I were a military pundit, I’d have something to tell you. But I’m not.

I thought that America and Israel were going to attack the nuclear plants together, or even have U.S. jets painted Israeli blue and white (go look at some of my much older posts). I do believe I’m wrong about that. I can’t begin to make a guess any more. I’m going to learn how it plays out like most of the rest of the world—as it happens.

But I do feel better knowing that there are American soldiers with sophisticated radar and missile defense systems in Israel, keeping an eye on Iran (and probably other nations as well). Just wait until the Buchananites and the other Jew-haters get a load of this.