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Friday, March 03, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Arrow missile may block Iranian attack
An Israeli military official said the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system can intercept and destroy an incoming missile from Iran.
The high-ranking Israeli Defense Force official, who was unnamed, told the Jerusalem Post Thursday that the system could be used on a missile with a nuclear warhead. "We will shoot all of Iran´s missiles down," the official told the newspaper. "The Arrow knows how to intercept the Shihab missile."
Improvements have been made to the missile, after senior military officials said last year it was not ready to protect against the Iranian threat.
Israeli firm endorses Dubai port deal
Israel’s largest shipping company endorsed a bid by a United Arab Emirates-based company to control six U.S. ports.
“We are very comfortable calling at DP World’s Dubai ports,” Idan Ofer, chairman of Zim, wrote in a letter to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), who has led criticism of the Bush administration for making the deal. “We have not experienced a single security issue in these ports.”
Clinton and others say the deal has not had sufficient review, especially considering the role UAE banks played in handling money for the Sept. 11 terrorists and UAE’s adherence to the Arab boycott of Israel.
Zim skirts the Arab boycott by running ships under other nations’ flags.
Dems target UAE for boycott
Three Democrats in Congress are circulating a letter expressing “deep concerns” about a Dubai-based company’s proposed management of six U.S. ports.
The letter to President Bush, drafted this week by Reps. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), warns that the United Arab Emirates pledged millions last month to help the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and is enforcing an Arab League boycott of Israel.
“The agreement that your Administration approved not only could place the safety and security of U.S. ports at risk, but enhance the ability of the UAE to bolster the Hamas regime and its efforts to promote terrorism and violence against Israel,” says the letter, which will be sent only when it gathers a substantial number of signatures in Congress.
The letter so far has been signed by 41 Democrats, but no Republicans.
Democrats in the Senate also have criticized the plan because of Dubai’s participation in the boycott.
“You’re owned by a holding company that’s owned by the Dubai government — and it’s enforcing the boycott against Israel,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) told CEO of Dubai Ports World, Ted Bilkey, Wednesday at a Senate Commerce Committee meeting.
Israelis warned away from Jordan, Egypt
Israel upgraded a warning against its citizens traveling to Jordan or Egypt’s Sinai Desert.
The government’s Counter-Terrorism Unit reissued its long-standing travel advisory Thursday, citing new levels of terrorist activity in the two Arab countries. Israel has full relations with both countries.
A previous warning about travel to Sinai was borne out in 2004 when Islamist suicide bombers struck Red Sea resorts favored by Israelis.
Scheuer: Israel of no U.S. concern
A former top CIA analyst says Israel’s existence is of no concern to the United States.
Michael Scheuer, until 2004 the top analyst advising a CIA team hunting for Osama bin Laden, has become an ardent critic of U.S. support for Israel since his retirement.
In an article this week on www.antiwar.com, an isolationist Web site, Scheuer said the United States should have welcomed Hamas’ victory in recent Palestinian legislative elections as a triumph for democracy. Instead, he said, the United States made a mistake by distancing itself from Hamas because the terror group calls for Israel’s destruction.
“If both the Palestinians and the Israelis erased each other from the face of the earth tomorrow, it would have no notable impact on America,” he said. “Indeed, that result would save a lot of U.S. money and get a lot of Americans out of harm’s way.”
He predicted Israel would emerge triumphant in such a battle because of its military superiority.
“Life is always tough, however, and the elimination of one or both sides would have no discernible impact on life in North America,” he wrote.
Israeli company under scrutiny for sale
U.S. authorities are closely reviewing an Israeli high-tech company’s bid to buy a U.S. firm.
Check Point wants to buy Sourcefire, a Maryland-based software firm that does business with U.S. security agencies.
The revelation in Thursday’s Washington Post comes as the Bush administration is under fire for its decision to authorize the sale of management of six U.S. ports to a company based in the United Arab Emirates.
The Check Point sale is undergoing deeper scrutiny because of its owner’s ties to Israeli military intelligence and ties between Sourcefire’s founders and the U.S. National Security Agency.
Costa Rica ignores soccer boycott calls
Costa Rica played Iran in a soccer game, despite calls for a boycott.
An informal boycott of Iran’s team has been in place because of calls by Iran’s president for Israel’s destruction and because of Iran’s refusal to cooperate with nuclear inspectors. Iran won Wednesday’s match in Tehran, 3-2.
Iran, which like Costa Rica has qualified for this year’s World Cup in Germany, has otherwise been unable to play tune-up, or “friendly,” matches with other World Cup contenders.
The game had become a source of friction in Costa Rica, traditionally a staunch ally of Israel, with Jewish legislator Aida Faingezicht and the country’s main daily newspaper calling on the local football federation to cancel the game.
Football officials said the game represented a “hope for peace” and argued that politics and sport should not mix.
http://www.jta.org/
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