What Is Site 911? And Why Is The U.S. Building It For Israel At A Cost Of $100 Million?

U.S. overseeing mysterious construction project in Israel

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of a five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv.

Expected to take more than two years to build, at a cost of up to $100 million, the facility is to have classrooms on Level 1, an auditorium on Level 3, a laboratory, shock-resistant doors, protection from nonionizing radiation and very tight security. Clearances will be required for all construction workers, guards will be at the fence and barriers will separate it from the rest of the base.

Only U.S. construction firms are being allowed to bid on the contract and proposals are due Dec. 3, according to the latest Corps of Engineers notice.
Site 911 is the latest in a long history of military construction projects the United States has undertaken for the IDF under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. The 1998 Wye River Memorandum between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has led to about $500 million in U.S. construction of military facilities for the Israelis, most of them initially in an undeveloped part of the Negev Desert. It was done to ensure there were bases to which IDF forces stationed in the West Bank could be redeployed.
As recorded in the Corps’ European District magazine, called Engineering in Europe, three bases were built to support 20,000 troops, and eventually the Israeli air force moved into the same area, creating Nevatim air base. A new runway, 2.5 miles long, was built there by the Corps along with about 100 new buildings and 10 miles of roads.
Over the years, the Corps has built underground hangers for Israeli fighter-bombers, facilities for handling nuclear weapons (though Israel does not admit having such weapons), command centers, training bases, intelligence facilities and simulators, according to Corps publications.
Within the past two years the Corps, which has three offices in Israel, completed a $30 million set of hangars at Nevatim, which the magazine describes as a “former small desert outpost that has grown to be one of the largest and most modern air bases in the country.” It has also supervised a $20 million project to build maintenance shops, hangars and headquarters to support Israel’s large Eitan unmanned aerial vehicle.
Site 911, which will be built at another base, appears to be one of the largest projects. Each of the first three underground floors is to be roughly 41,000 square feet, according to the Corps notice. The lower two floors are much smaller and hold equipment.

Security concerns are so great that non-Israeli employees hired by the builder can come only from “the U.S., Canada, Western Europe countries, Poland, Moldavia, Thailand, Philippines, Venezuela, Romania and China,” according to the Corps notice. “The employment of Palestinians is also forbidden,” it says.
Among other security rules: The site “shall have one gate only for both entering and exiting the site” and “no exit or entrance to the site shall be allowed during work hours except for supply trucks.” Guards will be Israeli citizens with experience in the Israeli air force. Also, “the collection of information of any type whatsoever related to base activities is prohibited.”The well-known Israeli architectural firm listed on the plans, Ada Karmi-Melamede Architects, has paid attention to the aesthetics of the site design as well as the sensibilities of future employees. The site, for example, will be decorated with rocks chosen by the architect but purchased by the contractor. Three picnic tables are planned, according to the solicitation.
The Corps offered a lengthy description of the mezuzas the contractor is to provide “for each door or opening exclusive of toilets or shower rooms” in the Site 911 building. A mezuza (also spelled mezuzah) is a parchment which has been inscribed with Hebrew verses from the Torah, placed in a case and attached to a door frame of a Jewish family’s house as a sign of faith. Some interpret Jewish law as requiring — as in this case — that a mezuza be attached to every door in a house.
These mezuzas, notes the Corps, “shall be written in inerasable ink, on . . . uncoated leather parchment” and be handwritten by a scribe “holding a written authorization according to Jewish law.” The writing may be “Ashkenazik or Sepharadik” but “not a mixture” and “must be uniform.”
Also, “The Mezuzahs shall be proof-read by a computer at an authorized institution for Mezuzah inspection, as well as manually proof-read for the form of the letters by a proof-reader authorized by the Chief Rabbinate.” The mezuza shall be supplied with an aluminum housing with holes so it can be connected to the door frame or opening. Finally, “All Mezuzahs for the facility shall be affixed by the Base’s Rabbi or his appointed representative and not by the contractor staff.”
What’s the purpose of Site 911? I asked the Pentagon on Tuesday, and the Corps on Wednesday said that only an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman could provide an answer.
This may be a trend-starter. The Corps is also seeking a contractor for another secret construction project in Israel in the $100 million range to awarded next summer. This one will involve “a complex facility with site development challenges” requiring services that include “electrical, communication, mechanical/
HVAC [heating, ventilation, air conditioning] and plumbing.” The U.S. contractor must have a U.S. secret or equivalent Israeli security clearance for the project, which is expected to take almost 2¹/₂ years to complete.
That sounds like a secure command center.
The purpose of Site 911 is far less clear.

 

Israel’s Antimissile System Attracts Potential Buyers

The success cited by Israel for its Iron Dome antimissile system in its confrontation with Hamas has re-energized American missile defense advocates and generated new interest in the global arms bazaar from nations like South Korea that face short-range rocket threats from hostile neighbors.

But even ardent supporters of a continent-size missile shield to guard the United States and other NATO members acknowledge the limitations of Iron Dome, which is a tactical system designed to shoot down unsophisticated rockets — basically flying pipe bombs — with a range of less than 50 miles.

Some American technical experts also say they want hard evidence before judging whether Iron Dome knocked out as many rockets as Israel has claimed. Iron Dome’s most salient feature, according to American experts now examining after-action reports from Gaza, may well be its software: The system rapidly discriminates between incoming rockets that are hurtling toward a populated area and others not worth expending a far costlier Iron Dome interceptor to knock down.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas focused global attention on missile defenses, and came as the United States and its Arab allies have undertaken a costly effort to knit together a regional shield in the Persian Gulf to protect cities, oil refineries, pipelines and military bases from a potential Iranian attack.

“This will ratify the common-sense notion that these systems can play a role in defending you,” said Eric S. Edelman, a former under secretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration. “It will be especially relevant as we move into an era in which there will be more countries with small inventories of rockets and missiles — and more countries that will want to defend against them in a reasonable way.”

The effort in the gulf is envisioned to include advanced radar as well as sets of two antimissile systems with accompanying radar: Patriot Advanced Capability interceptors and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. Those weapons would be linked with the radars and missiles carried aboard American Aegis warships in nearby waters.

There is a similar effort in the Pacific centered on radars in Japan, Aegis warships at sea and land-based interceptors in Alaska and California.

The Obama administration’s more recent focus has been the system to protect NATO allies in Europe with advanced radars based in Turkey and long-range interceptors to be based first in Romania and subsequently in Poland. American officials have emphasized that the limited number of interceptors in Europe are all about Iran, and would be inadequate to blunt Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal; but the system remains an irritant in relations with Moscow.

During the conflict with Hamas, Israeli officials report that Iron Dome knocked down more than 400 rockets on flight paths to populated areas, with a kill rate of 85 percent. Hamas is said to have fired off more than 1,400 rockets in all, but Israel was able to limit Hamas’s ability to launch more of its arsenal of 12,000 rockets with pre-emptive attacks on the storehouses where they were kept.

But some antimissile experts have expressed doubt about Israeli claims for Iron Dome, which is built by Israeli defense firms but has received about $275 million in financial support from the United States. Bright flashes can create a visual impression of overwhelming interceptor success, when in fact they may represent nothing more than the interceptor warhead blowing up, these skeptics warn.

“I’ve met the guys in Israel, and they’re smart,” said Richard M. Lloyd, an antimissile expert with more than a dozen patents and two major textbooks on warhead design to his credit. “But I’m not seeing the things I want to see” to prove that Iron Dome actually succeeded to the extent described by Israel.

Mr. Lloyd, who works for Tesla Laboratories Inc., a defense contractor in Arlington, Va., said he had studied dozens of publicly available photographs of spent rockets that landed on Israel. Few of them, he said, showed signs of damage from Iron Dome’s exploding warhead and the specific mechanism by which the interceptor is designed to make its kill — a dense spray of speeding metal fragments.

He acknowledged that some of the photographs may have been of enemy rockets that Iron Dome had not targeted because they were not headed toward populated areas. “I’m not saying the system is no good,” he stressed. “I’m saying I need more information.”

The president of Tesla Laboratories, George Stejic, echoed the doubts and said that the Israelis might have been tempted to exaggerate the degree of antimissile success as a calculated maneuver. “From a military perspective, the Israelis have every interest in overstating the efficacy of the system in order to deter missile launches,” he said. Israeli officials reject such skepticism, and stand by the statistics of Iron Dome’s success that they have released.

“The numbers are very accurate,” said one Israeli official who discussed sensitive internal assessments of Iron Dome on the condition of anonymity. “Many of these video clips and pictures were taken by citizens, not professionals. You cannot learn very much from videos taken with an iPhone.”

Iron Dome is wholly different from what would be required to defend a nation against long-range launchings by Iran or North Korea, even with their limited arsenals of those weapons, and it would do nothing to defend against a larger arsenal of intercontinental warheads, likely accompanied by decoys, from nations like Russia or China.

But South Korea has expressed interest in buying Iron Dome to defend the populated areas that have pushed toward the border with North Korea, which fields thousands of short-range rockets. Officials say Singapore has also been in discussions to purchase Iron Dome.

Israel acknowledges that Iron Dome is insufficient for its full missile-defense needs, and development is under way for David’s Sling, an antimissile system against medium-range rockets like those fielded by Hezbollah in Lebanon. An Arrow system is in the field to watch for a potential missile attack by a more distant Iran.

Missile defense enthusiasts in the United States now urge the American military to consider Iron Dome for support of ground units like those deployed in Afghanistan. “I think the successes of Iron Dome create a pretty big opening,” said Riki Ellison, chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

Hezbollah drone may have been sent to monitor Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona

A drone aircraft that entered Israeli airspace earlier this week was apparently on a mission to take pictures of the Dimona nuclear research center in southern Israel, Israeli officials confirmed Friday.
What the aircraft managed to learn and whether it transmitted its observations to a remote facility was not immediately known. Israeli officials have said the aircraft was launched from southern Lebanon and was shot down “some time” after it entered Israeli air space. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia, says that its technicians assembled the aircraft from parts provided by Iran.
“This was a crude device, but it was a drone with all the capabilities that unmanned aerial crafts offer, and for that reason it is worrying,” an Israeli military official told McClatchy under the condition that he not be identified because he was not authorized to discuss sensitive information with a reporter. “We are studying the drone now to learn more about what it accomplished and what Hezbollah intended with it.”
The drone was the third unmanned aircraft Hezbollah has dispatched over Israel. Israeli officials said it was the most sophisticated to date. According to the initial account of its downing, the aircraft entered Israeli airspace from the Mediterranean and traveled about 35 miles before it was shot down. Dimona, where Israel is believed to assemble its nuclear weapons, is about 45 miles from the Israeli coast.
Whatever its mission and capabilities, the drone marked another escalation in Israel’s conflict with Iran over Iran’s nuclear program. Israel believes Iran is attempting to build a nuclear weapon, a charge Iran denies, and has threatened to bomb that country’s nuclear facilities to prevent it from developing the technology to build one.
Whether Iran would contemplate attacking Dimona in response to Israeli actions is unknown, but at a minimum, the presence of an Iranian drone near the Dimona nuclear facility would seem to be a taunt that whatever Israel might do, Iran is capable of doing as well.
Hasan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, proudly claimed the downed aircraft in a speech Thursday. “It is our right to send other drones whenever we want,” he said. “It was not the first time and it will not be the last.”

Nasrallah said that the drone had been designed in Iran and assembled by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Hezbollah was responsible for the drone, telling reporters that Israel would “act with determination to defend its borders at sea, on air and land," just as it had "thwarted Hezbollah’s attempt” to send an unmanned aircraft into Israeli airspace.
Netanyahu, who spoke during a tour of Israel’s southern border, was seconded by Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, who later told Israel radio that the drone had “failed on its mission.”
He said that the drone had been spotted and was monitored by the Israeli military for several minutes before being shot down over an uninhabited zone in southern Israel.
The Israeli military official who spoke to McClatchy, however, said it was possible that the drone had captured and transmitted imagery of the area around Israel’s nuclear research center at Dimona.
“Iran’s technology and ability to make drones has improved in recent years, and whatever they have been developing they have shared with Hezbollah,” said the Israeli military official. “They know that through Hezbollah and other allies in the region they can send a message to Israel.”
Iranian officials were quoted in their state media as saying that the drone’s ability to enter Israeli airspace exposed the weakness of Israel’s air defenses.
Since the drone’s downing, Israel has deployed a missile-defense system near the Lebanese border. An army spokesman confirmed that the Patriot missile-defense system was deployed near the northern Israeli city of Haifa. The system, which was developed with American backing, can intercept medium-range ballistic missiles, planes and drones from a distance of 35 to 100 miles.
“There is a sense of potential with Hezbollah . . . as well as with Iran, for things to heat up quickly. There is a sense of tit-for-tat,” said the Israeli military official.
Iran has accused Israel of assassinating scientists involved in its nuclear facilities and of sabotaging Iran’s online systems with complex virus and cyber-hacking. A computer worm known as Stuxnet that was designed by the United States and Israel to disable controls on sensitive equipment is credited with setting back the Iranian nuclear program several years.
Iran, in turn, has been accused of launching attacks on Israeli computer systems and other “Western targets.”
On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed in a speech on cyber security that computer attacks over the summer had devastated the computer systems of oil companies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Speaking to a group called Business Executives for National Security in New York City, Panetta described the Shamoon virus that infected the computer systems as “very sophisticated.” He said it first struck the Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco two months ago, causing the computers to display an image of a burning American flag. Then the virus overwrote all of the files in a computer with what Panetta called “additional garbage data” that rendered the computers useless. Panetta said 30,000 computers had been destroyed.
A few days later, Panetta said, the virus appeared on computers of a Qatari energy company, RasGas.
Panetta did not blame the attacks on Iran, but both Saudi Arabia and Qatar are bitter foes of Iran. The two countries also have been providing weapons to insurgents fighting to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, an Iranian ally.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/12/171390/hezbollah-drone-may-have-been.html#storylink=cpy

Plasan Troop Seat

Israeli firm Plasan Sasa had many products, including a vehicle seat combat resistant to the effects of IED (Improvised Explosive Devices).

The seat has a 5 point harness clamps. It dampens the effects of "blast" and reduces side impact. The head support is height-adjustable. The backrest tilts forward to allow access for equipment placed behind it.

Israeli Female Soldiers Show Their Stuff In Recent Border Clash With Militants

Female Israeli Soldiers Are Proving Themselves In Combat

Last Friday, Caracel, the Israeli military's only mixed-gender combat battalion, won a shootout against forces on the border with Egypt. Israeli officals said three gunmen on the Egyptian side were killed, one by a female soldier, according to the Associated Press. Israel created Caracel in 2000, to integrate women into combat duty. Although it is a combat battalion, its main responsibility has been defeating drug smugglers at the borders with Jordan and Egypt. Until the ousting of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak last year, it was a pretty simple gig. So simple, in fact, it was claimed that the male soldiers in Caracal weren't strong enough to be in a regular, all-male combat unit.
In the States, military leaders are finally realizing what female soldiers can do. This July, the Christian Science Monitor reported that the U.S. military was going to open combat arms positions to female troops. Which on paper is a major step. But women have unofficially been in combat for years, whether they dressed as men to get to fight in the Civil War, or drove supply convoys down Iraqi roads littered with improvised explosive devices.
In the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, wars without typical front lines, Lt. col. Tammy Duckworth lost her legs when the Black Hawk she was piloting was shot down over the Sunni Triangle in 2004. Spc. Monica Lin Brown, a medic, was awarded a Silver Star for running through gunfire to get to her battle buddies while deployed to Afghanistan in 2007. She was attached to an infantry unit; they
weren't supposed to take her "outside the wire," but needed a medic.
While U.S. leaders saw women as emotionally different, U.S. Army recently realized that women are not, in fact, just smaller men. In 2011, the Army started fielding a new Women's Army Combat Uniform, designed with different ratios in the chest, waist, and sweep; narrower shoulders; elastic waistbands; and pockets in spots female soldiers can actually reach.
This year, they went a step further, introducing protective gear for female proportions. In the new vests, women will be able to sit down without the vest hitting their chins, run without getting bruises on their hips, and properly position the butt of their M16s in their shoulders. Also, when protective vests fit properly, soldiers are better protected.

Israeli air force re-engining Hermes 450 fleet

An effort is being made to decrease the noise emitted by engines used by the Israeli air force's unmanned air systems. The need stems from the heavier payloads carried by the aircraft, which demand using their engines in high power mode.

The noise footprint of some Elbit Systems Hermes 450 unmanned air vehicles has been decreased via a re-engining effort which is now under way. New UAS of this type are already equipped with more powerful and quieter engines.
In addition to expanding the range of missions that can be performed due to its reduced noise output, the new R902 (W) "Wankel" technology engine being integrated with the Hermes 450 also enables the tactical UAS to achieve an improved endurance of more than 20h.

The new engine has a larger combustion compartment than its predecessors, enabling the roughly 40kg (88lb) design to deliver more than 70hp (52kW).
Before the re-engining was launched, the air force had tested some types of mufflers on the Hermes 450's engine, but the results were not satisfactory. Examples still being flown with the old engine are currently used for training purposes, and during missions that do not require a "silent approach".

Israel's Arrow-3 missile-killer nears test

Amid growing fears Israeli leaders are preparing a pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, defense sources say the Arrow-3 interceptor, seen as Israel's ace in the hole against Tehran's ballistic missiles, is close to its first flight test.
The two-stage missile being developed by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries and the Boeing Co. of the United States will be Israel's main line of defense against Iran's growing arsenal of immediate-range Shehab-3 missiles and the more advanced Sejjil-2 weapons under development.
The upcoming test-firing, delayed for about a year, will take place against a backdrop of growing threats of retaliation by Tehran if Israel, or even the United States currently locked in its own confrontation with Iran in the Persian Gulf, attacks the Islamic Republic.
The Arrow-3, the most advanced component of a multilayered missile defense shield the Israelis are building, will take place "soon," says Itzhak Kaya, who heads the Arrow program.
This will be the first test of all the Arrow-3 systems. Subsystems have already been tested.
The second stage has its own propulsion unit that enables it to maneuver toward its target. It can reach twice the altitude of Arrow-2.

The Pentagon, which provides much of the funding for the joint program and has been seeking to persuade U.S. legislators that it's worth Congress investing taxpayers' money in the project, says Arrow-3 will be able to provide four times the coverage of Arrow-2.
Kaya disclosed that recent testing involved simulated interceptions to evaluate Arrow-3's detection capabilities.
The new variant operates with an advanced version of the EL/M-2080 Green Pine solid-state, phased array radar system manufactured for Arrow by Elta Electronic Industries of Ashdod, a subsidiary of IAI's Electronic Group.
"A successful identification of the attacking missile by the Arrow System increases the chances and certainty of an interception," Kaya said.
Neither of the first two Arrow variants has been used on combat and there have been concerns about its ability to counter a heavy salvo of Shehab or Sejjil missiles.
Uzi Rubin, considered one of the pre-eminent missile system analysts in the Middle East, recently said Arrow could cope with any missile fired by the Iranians.
"I can't say that every incoming will be known down," he told Israel Army Radio. "There isn't 100 percent protection and not everything is a success.
"But for every single missile coming from Iran there's a single Arrow missile capable of intercepting it one for one."
Rubin, a former air force brigadier general, was head of Israel's Missile Defense Organization in 1991-99 and oversaw development of the Arrow series.
"Iran has between 300 and 400 Shehab-3 missiles it can fire at Israel," he said.
He also disclosed that Iran's aerospace industries manufacturing the Shehab, a program controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has significantly improved the missile's accuracy from "a marked target that could cover a few kilometers to just a few hundred meters."
That would make the Iranian missiles a much greater threat to Israeli airbases and military installations, as well as the national infrastructure, than previously thought.
The latest variant of the high-altitude, long-range Arrow is designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in space outside the Earth's atmosphere in the final phase of their trajectory and destroy them on impact.
The Arrow-2, the version operationally deployed by the Jewish state, is built to tackle hostile missiles at lower altitudes within the atmosphere by exploding near them.
The first Arrow missiles were deployed in 2000. There are at least two batteries operational, one in northern Israel and the other outside of the coastal Palmachim air force base south of Tel Aviv where most of the program's test flights have been conducted.
Arrow-2 will remain as a secondary line of defense, with two other systems designed to counter shorter-range missiles and rockets closer to the ground.
The Iron Dome system, developed to intercept projectiles with a range 5-40 miles, has been in action against Palestinian Grad and Qassem rockets since March 2011 and is reported to have a kill rate of around 75 percent.
It's built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which is also developing the David's Sling system to counter missiles with a range of up to 130 miles. It's not expected to be deployed for another 18 months.

Source 

Ex-ambassador to Israel: U.S. will go to war with Iran in 2013

Former Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, offered a dire prediction of a U.S. confrontation with Iran, saying it could escalate into war as early as next year.
"I'm afraid that 2013 is going to be a year in which we're going to have a military confrontation with Iran," he said Sunday on "Face the Nation."
Indyk joined a roundtable of foreign policy experts to discuss the latest protests in the Middle East and Israel's public statements pressuring the United States over Iran.
The former ambassador said the time has not come, yet, that the U.S. needs to take military action. "Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon," he said. [W]hile there's still time, there's not a lot of time."
As for the public dispute between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama over Iran, Indyk said he doesn't think "the difference between Netanyahu and Obama on this is that great, in terms of the President's commitment not to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons."
On Israel's insistence that the U.S. publicly declare a "red line" that Iran is not permitted to cross, Indyk said "that is an unreasonable requirement. The idea of putting out a public red line - in effect issuing an ultimatum - is something that no president would do. If you noticed, Governor Romney is not putting out a red line; Senator McCain didn't, either. And neither is Bibi Netanyahu for that matter, in terms of Israel's own actions."

Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, echoed Indy's assessment that negotiations with Iran have not dissuaded the Iranians to halt their nuclear program. He said Netanyahu has sought to increase pressure publicly because "he doesn't want these things to be drawn out indefinitely."
The roundtable also discussed the anti-American protests across the Arab World the past few days, saying they are a defining moment for newly-minted, post-Arab Spring governments.
"[T]he old world of the Middle East is gone. No new world has yet taken its place," Haas said, likening the protests to a "forest fire" and the Middle East to the "wild west."
"It's more than about a film. This is the equivalent of a forest fire. Anything could set it off, so the film is the wrong place to focus," Haas said. 
"I think the president was right on one thing he said the other day: these countries are not allies, they're not adversaries, they're somewhere in-between," he added. "The Muslim Brotherhood, for example, in Egypt, it has to decide whether it's a government, a political party, or a popular movement."
New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman said the protests, which began in part due to an anti-Islamic film mocking the Prophet Mohammed and led to the death of four American Consulate workers, are "confused and fraudulent."
"Twenty thousand Arab Muslims in Syria have been killed, and there hasn't been a single protest around the Arab world, yet our embassy in Cairo and Libya, our consulates there, were ransacked because of a nut ball film on YouTube," Friedman said.
"[T]here's just a huge fight going on... over what is going to be the future of this region. Who's going to set the rules? And right now, you have the far, far right in the Muslim world trying to challenge the right in the Muslim world, and no leaders really standing up and charting, I think, a progressive, forward future," he added.
Friedman said the countries are in danger of "falling behind exponentially in this globalized world today." He said countries in the Middle East "have exactly enough time, starting now, to get into the modern world.
"And to spend another decade futzing around with Islam as the answer? Islam is a great and glorious faith, but it is not the answer to their development issues today."
Indyk, who is now at the Brookings Institution, said the problems of some Middle Easter countries go beyond anti-American protests. The Middle East is experiencing a "descent into chaos and the potential for a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shias, to spread from Syria to Iraq to Lebanon and then to Bahrain and even Saudi Arabia. And so there's real potential here for much more instability that we're already witnessing."

Female Soldiers of Israel Defense Forces's Karakal Combat Unit

 Female Soldiers of  Israel Defense Forces's Karakal Combat Unit

Israeli Female Soldiers Ready for Leisure And War

                                        Israeli Female Soldiers Ready for Leisure And War

Female Soldiers of The Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Israel threatens to block US aid to Egypt to stop German submarine deal

Israel has threatened to use its considerable influence over US foreign policy to block Egypt's purchase of two submarines from Germany. According to German press reports, Israel intends to prevent Egypt from buying two Class 209 submarines. Bild newspaper quoted Israeli diplomats as saying that Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi must first show that he can be trusted before such deals can be allowed. They were speaking during the visit of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to Israel.
"If this does not happen," said the unnamed sources, "Israel will use its influence in the United States to cut American aid to Egypt." They argued that it is unreasonable for the Egyptian government to appeal to
Washington for economic aid worth millions of dollars if this is then spent on arms and armaments.
A London-based commentator pointed out that as the exact details of the German deal are as yet unknown it is deceitful of the Israelis to suggest that Egypt would use economic aid from Washington to buy submarines.

Israel think of launching an electromagnetic pulse on Iran

Israel would consider launching an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) on Iran to cripple all of its transport networks and communications, and thereby stop the development of its nuclear program, said Sunday the Sunday Times.

The newspaper quoted an American expert on defense issues that Bill Gertz, August 29, in his column on the conservative website video The Washington Free Beacon, expressed "growing concerns" reported by the U.S. Secret Service "on the trigger by Israel of a strike on Iran with a high-altitude nuclear explosion intended to disrupt all electronic devices in the country. "

Recently, an American author, Joe Tuzara wrote in the Israeli newspaper right Israel National News that the acceleration of the development of nuclear weapons by Iran could trigger a preemptive attack Israel's IEM. "The explosion would not create nor breath nor radiation on the ground, but the food supply will dry up and become almost impossible communications, leading to an economic collapse," he wrote.

For its part, Uzi Rubin, who had collaborated in the development of missile defense of Israel, seen in the Sunday Times that "it is out of the question to use a nuclear weapon, even for use as a non-lethal EMP.""There are ways to create an EMP from the ground," he says, however.

The destructive potential of EMI, a powerful shock wave created by the interaction between the explosion and the Earth's magnetic field was found in 1950 and 1960 as a side effect of nuclear explosions at high altitude. It is also possible to produce from a microwave generator, the ground.

Iran: Scenarios of striking Israel

The question of using force to halt the progress of the Iranian nuclear bomb has not yet been decided by the Israeli leaders. If the head of the government, Netanyahu and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, are for many voices - generals, former intelligence chiefs, intellectuals, President Shimon Peres - warned against the consequences of intervention. "It is impossible to consider that managers can take such a decision without a minimum consensus among the political class and the security cabinet," says Bruno Tertrais, expert from the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS).

Every day that passes brings us closer to this possibility, however. The diplomatic process is almost at an end: the negotiations were "killed" by the unwillingness Iranian sanctions were almost to maximum.Mixture of computer viruses and targeted assassinations of scientists, covert action program has slowed, but not enough. The latest report from the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, released in late August, has determined that Iran had doubled the number of centrifuges at Fordow , a site buried under a mountain near Qom, the shelter, therefore, possible air raids. "The Iranians have made ​​no effort, no concession. They give ammunition to those who want to move up a gear, "says a source close to the matter.

Soon, the Iranians will be able to transform their uranium to 20% highly enriched uranium to 90% and make several nuclear warheads. The "zone of immunity" beyond which facilities and activities will be critical strikes more vulnerable to Western, especially because they have been buried, is approaching. "If the Israelis allow this limit to be exceeded, it depends entirely on the United States for their security. What they can afford, "said a European diplomat. Hence the temptation to hit, damage to which can be and still get a reprieve that could go up to two years. A break long enough to look for new solutions, hoping that in the meantime the Iranian regime, which sees the Jewish state as a "cancerous tumor" to eradicate, have changed.

The scenario most commonly studied in Israel, where the army, the IDF has been training for several years, is that of a single raid, "invisible" and dazzling to minimize reaction of the Arab street. As one who had destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 or the al-Kibar site in Syria in 2007. To accomplish this mission, Israel has antibunkers fragmentation bombs, which were delivered by the United States. IDF is also negotiating with U.S. officials providing tanker aircraft that would allow her to be independent hunters.

The operation, however, may be more hazardous than Osirak or al-Kibar, where Israeli bombers had destroyed a reactor. In Iran, the intelligence services have listed twenty sites, 5 or 6 very important. "With the prospect of military intervention, the Israelis must at least reach the Fordow site before it is operational and complicate the activities of Natanz," said Camille Grand, Director of the FRS.

On the merits, the Americans, the main allies of Israel, are also committed to do everything to prevent the emergence of a nuclear Iran. But the clocks do not show the same time on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic shores. Acting alone, the Israelis - who can not afford, for technical and political reasons, too long to keep their fighters in the sky of the Middle East - must do so quickly.

"One bomb" against the Jewish state ...

In Washington, the sense of urgency is not the same. In the election campaign, weakened by the economic crisis, caught in matters of domestic policy, Obama wants to avoid having to manage a new international crisis before the election on November 6. He also knows that if the U.S. military is in charge of the Iranian problem, it can save time, maybe six months, the Israeli calendar - with its bombs hyperpuissantes and its ability to conduct a real campaign air.

But Netanyahu does he trust Barack Obama? The two men did not like much. "And the Israelis remember that the Americans had also said they would not let Pakistan and North Korea have a nuclear weapon. We know what it is today ... "says a close case. However, the Iranian nuclear issue is considered an existential threat to Israel, "one bomb country" sometimes say the Iranians, that is to say, incapable by themselves to survive, despite its nuclear status, a bomb Iran, because of its small size and its lack of strategic depth.

For several weeks, senior American officers march in Tel Aviv, probably written the local press, local officials to call for restraint vis-à-vis Iran. The United States has suddenly decided to downsize they had assigned to joint exercises in Israel, due to disagreements over how to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat.Some experts now believe that the debate on U.S. intervention could be a compromise between Washington and Tel Aviv: a "yellow light" Americans. Mitt Romney is a supporter of the firm vis-à-vis Iran.As for Barack Obama, he can afford to lose the support of the American Jewish lobby?

Iran's Ahmadinejad says no place for Israel in new Middle East

DUBAI (Reuters) - Many thousands of Iranians shouted "Death to America, death to Israel" during state-organized protests on Friday and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told them there was no place for the Jewish state in a future Middle East.

Iran, penalized by tough Western sanctions, faces the threat of an Israeli or U.S. military strike on its disputed nuclear facilities. With popular uprisings reshaping the region, the Islamic Republic is also trying to prevent the overthrow of its closest Arab ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"You want a new Middle East? We do too, but in the new Middle East ... there will be no trace of the American presence and the Zionists," Ahmadinejad told worshippers at Tehran University in an event broadcast live on state television.

The Iranian leader, whose own authority is under challenge from hardliners as well as reformers, was restating Tehran's familiar goals as the Middle East undergoes a very different upheaval from the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power.

"Saving the existence of the Zionist regime (Israel) is a joint commitment by most arrogant Western governments," Ahmadinejad said in a speech to mark the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day decreed by Khomeini and held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
He called for Muslim unity to foil Western support for Israel, which he described as a "cancerous tumor" for its occupation of Palestinian land.

But there was little unity on display at an Islamic summit in Mecca earlier this week when the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria despite Iran's objections.

Speaking at the emergency summit, Ahmadinejad said Western powers could never be a role model for the Islamic world.
"Freedom and democracy will not come from the barrels of NATO guns and the interference of Western nations," he said.

Shi'ite Iran has watched in dismay as rebels drawn mainly from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority try to oust Assad, whose country has been a vital part of Iran's "axis of resistance" against Israel, Sunni-ruled Arab states and the West.

"I think the enemies have been successful to a certain extent in creating regional conflicts," Ahmadinejad acknowledged, without naming Syria.

Iran accuses the United States and its allies in the Middle East of backing Assad's opponents to try to relieve pressure on Israel by destroying the "axis of resistance" between Tehran, Damascus and the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah movement.

State television said millions of Iranians joined the al-Quds Day marches across the country and showed large crowds chanting slogans and carrying portraits of Khomeini and his successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Some bore a coffin decked with pictures of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders. Demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags.

Israel, thought to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power, sees Iran's nuclear activities as a threat to its existence and has repeatedly threatened military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the issue. Iran denies seeking a bomb and says its nuclear work has only peaceful purposes.

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Hezbollah says can kill tens of thousands of Israelis

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah said on Friday it could kill tens of thousands of Israelis by hitting targets with what it described as precision-guided missiles in a declaration that seemed aimed at deterring Israeli strikes on Lebanon or its regional backer Iran.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his group could turn the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis "to real hell" by hitting a small number of number of targets which he said was "not large" - a possible reference to nuclear facilities, though Nasrallah would not go into details.

"During any stage of an attack on our country, if we are forced to use or target this type of target, to protect our people and country, we will not hesitate," he said.

Nasrallah's remarks will likely be factored into Israeli calculations ahead of any military action against Iran, which is pursuing a nuclear program viewed as an existential threat in Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said he believes his country would suffer up to 500 casualties in any conflict aimed at wiping out Iran's nuclear facilities - which both Israel and Western powers believe Tehran is using to develop nuclear weapons.

"We can talk about tens of thousands of dead," Nasrallah said in a speech to mark Jerusalem Day, commemorated on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan according to a tradition established by Iran's late Ayatollah Khomeini.

"I tell the Israelis that you have a number of targets, not a large number ... that can be hit with precision rockets ... which we have," Nasrallah said.

"Hitting these targets with a small number of rockets will turn ... the lives of hundreds of thousands of Zionists to real hell," he said.
Israel, thought to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power, has repeatedly threatened military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue. Iran denies seeking a bomb and says its nuclear work has only peaceful purposes.

Hezbollah is a Shi'ite Islamist guerrilla and political movement founded after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 with Iran's help and has deep ideological links to the Islamic republic.

The group last fought Israel in 2006 during a 34-day war in which 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.

Since that war, the group has a number of time suggested it had expanded its arsenal in an apparent strategy of deterrence.

Nasrallah did not say whether the precision-guided rockets he described in his speech were a new addition to the group's arsenal. Marking Jerusalem Day in Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said there was no place for Israel in a future Middle East.

Nasrallah said Israel was still debating whether to attack Iran because "Iran was strong and brave". "We all know that the Islamic republic's response will be very great and thunderous if it is targeted by Israel".

Iran: Israel's Zionist regime 'an insult to humanity'

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hits out at Israel amid growing tensions over its uranium-enrichment programme

 Israel's existence is an "insult to all humanity", Iran's president has said in his latest attack on the Jewish state.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said confronting Israel was an attempt to "protect the dignity of all human beings" as "the existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to all humanity".
He was addressing worshippers at Tehran University after nationwide pro-Palestinian rallies marking al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.
Israel considers Iran an existential threat because of its nuclear and missile programmes, support for radical anti-Israel groups on its borders and repeated references to Israel's destruction. Ahmadinejad has frequently made such calls, as has Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran has denied it is seeking to build nuclear weapons, saying its programme is peaceful and aimed at producing electricity and radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

Israel has been engaged in an increasingly public debate about whether to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Its official position is to press for diplomatic and economic measures to persuade Iran to halt its uranium-enrichment initiative. "But all options are on the table," Israeli leaders have said, a reference to a possible military strike if other measures fail.
Iran has warned it would retaliate to any such attack and threatened to strike US interests in the region.
In his speech on Friday, Ahmadinejad said Israel was "a corrupt, anti-human organised minority group standing up to all divine values". "Today, confronting the existence of the fabricated Zionist regime is in fact protecting the rights and dignity of all human beings," he added.
Iran and Israel have been enemies for decades. Tensions between the countries have intensified since 2005, when Ahmadinejad announced that Israel would one day be "wiped off the map".
Asian Defence News

Israeli Women Turning Away From Combat Duty

Over the last few years Israel has had problems maintaining the strength of its only female infantry battalion and female combat jobs in general. Currently 1.6 percent of Israeli combat jobs are filled by women. The army wants to increase that to two percent and to that end is staffing the new Iron Dome anti-missile units with women. Israeli law forbids sending women into combat but does allow for giving them jobs that might lead to combat situations. Over the last few years fewer women have volunteered for combat jobs. So the military is experimenting with new screening and training methods, to address common complaints among women inclined to volunteer for these jobs. So far these efforts have led to a 15 percent increase in volunteers but more are needed. Part of the problem is that a growing proportion of potential recruits are young men and women from ultra-orthodox Jewish families. The men are exempt from conscription and the women usually marry early. This exemption is under heavy political attack by the majority of Israelis but so far the exemption stands. Israel has, over the last few decades, expanded the number of combat jobs women can volunteer for. Israel conscripts men (for three years) and women (for two years). But women have more exemptions (especially marriage). Women who volunteer for combat duty are hard core because not only will they have to undergo some strenuous training but will have to serve three years on active duty, plus several years as reservists. This is necessary to justify the longer training required. Like many other countries Israeli military police units contain men and women. Same with dog handlers, border guards, artillery units, and some search and rescue units. Women have long served as flight instructors, as well as trainers for tank crews. There is also a largely female infantry unit, the Caracal Battalion. Part of the 512th Brigade in Southern Command, the battalion was formed in 2000, to provide a place for women who wanted to be in the infantry. It's a light (not mechanized) infantry unit that mainly serves along the Jordanian or Egyptian borders. The battalion took part in safeguarding Israeli civilians and troops during the 2005 evacuation of Gaza. Initially, about half the troops in Caracal were female, as are most of the officers and NCOs, and, usually, the commander. Now about 70 percent of the Caracal members are women, although it was 90 percent three years ago. While many troops see Caracal as a publicity stunt and a sop to the feminists, the unit has performed well and has a reputation as a no-nonsense and reliable outfit. During their independence war in 1948, Israel had female infantry units but these were withdrawn. Not because the women couldn't fight but because Arab units facing them became more fanatical, and less likely to surrender, when they realized they were fighting women. There has long been pressure from conservative Jewish clergy in Israel who want women to be barred from combat jobs, while Arab radicals are urging more women to get involved in terrorism operations, including suicide bombings.

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