By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- June 22, 2008 ....... Part of the following was communicated by the Israel Cabinet Secretariat to the Israel News Agency.

For anyone following the news in Israel today, they would have a hard time deciding upon which headline would take top honors.

At the weekly Cabinet meeting held today Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that he had decided to extend the appointment of Meir Dagan as Director of the Mossad. This comes at a time when it has been rumored that Israel is preparing to attack Iran.

The New York Times reported that Israel carried out a major military drill over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June that US sources say was apparently a "rehearsal" for a potential attack on Iran's nuclear sites. According to the report, more than 100 IAF F-16 and F-15 fighter jets took part in the exercise.

The IDF Spokesman's Office responded saying that the IDF "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel" while US security sources confirmed the long distance exercise "which would be hard to miss."

Recently Israel Transportation Minister and former IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz stated that if Iran continued its nuclear program, Israel "will attack it." The week before Mofaz made his comments, Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel had a "viable military option", and last Sunday former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh said he believed that Israel would, in the end, need to attack Iran.

There is very little doubt that Iran is highly illuminated on the radar of the Israel government as US President George W. Bush has announced that the US would not attack Iran before Bush finished his term. And when Israel uses the words "military option" it is designed to place pressure where pressure belongs. No different than Iran making threats to wipe Israel off the map, Israel is dead serious to attack Iran if they continue their nuclear arms production. Israeli warnings to attack Iran are not threats, they are promises.

So when French President Nicolas Sarkozy stepped off his plane today at Ben-Gurion International Airport for a three-day visit in the region, he must have also been thinking about Iran.

Although Sarkozy said that the creation of an independent Palestinian state is essential to Israel's security there is little doubt that he would not have welcomed Israel fighter jets landing and taking off from France soil to prepare for hitting Iran.

Sarkozy is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres and opposition head Binyamin Netanyahu. The France President will address the Knesset (parliament) and accompany Israel President Peres on a helicopter tour of the Dead Sea and the Judea Desert. He will also trek to the West Bank city of Bethlehem to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

As Israel and French flags waved at Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer briefed the Cabinet on the recent series of earthquakes in southern Lebanon. Israel appears to be more prepared for an attack by Iran and Syria than mother nature taking her revenge out on Israel cities.

And as talk of an Israel strike on Iran circulates, Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the Israel Cabinet today that the European Union has recently decided to upgrade its relations with Israel. It is very evident that Europe also worries about a potential attack by Iran against "infidels" in France, Spain, England, Sweden and Turkey.

Even as talk of war looms high above Jerusalem, Israel Tourism Ministry Director-General Shaul Tzemach briefed ministers on the activities and achievements of the ministry in recent months, and the
contribution of the tourism industry as a lever for growth in the Israeli economy, both in terms of income and the number of people employed in the workforce. He presented the Tourism Ministry's objectives for incoming tourism in the coming years, notably: attracting 5 million tourists from the year 2012.

As the Cabinet amended previous decisions and decided that the agricultural communities within nine kilometers of the fence around the Gaza Strip will be able to receive a 15% increase in the number of foreign workers, Israel increased the number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a truce with Hamas entered its fourth day.

A total of 90 trucks were to enter Gaza through the Sufa crossing during the day, up from between 60 and 70 before the truce went into effect, said IDF spokesman 2nd Lt. Gil Karie. While food was being handed out to people in Gaza, the parents of captive soldier Gilad Shalit asked Israel's Supreme Court to block the Gaza Strip cease-fire. They were join by the family of Israel MIA Ron Arad.

And as the Israel Cabinet approved several Foreign Service appointments with Saguy Karni going as
Ambassador to Angola and Non-resident Ambassador to Mozambique and Sao Tome e Principe; Edward Shapiro goes as Ambassador to Belarus, Yisrael Mei-Ami as Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Non-resident Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, ShimeiTzur as Non-resident Ambassador to Armenia, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan; and Avraham Sharon as Non-resident Ambassador to Moldova, Olmert was poised to create unemployment for a few of his Cabinet ministers.

Being pressed with an attack by or on Iran, Ehud Olmert had no patience for cabinet ministers belonging to his main coalition if they backed a parliamentary move to take him down him over a corruption scandal.

Firing Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Labor Party from the government would leave Olmert without a legislative majority and open the way for an early election likely to disrupt Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians.

But faced between Iran`s state TV saying that Iran defense minister has warned of an "unlimited destructive" response if they are attacked by Israel and a political move by Ehud Barak against Olmert, Olmert would shove off the former IDF Chief of Staff and hero of Entebbe in seconds. Olmert has well proved that he is a loyal Israeli and one who seeks to eliminate both international and internal threats to Israel's leadership during a time of imminent war.

Mostafa Mohammad Najjar told Iran television that "Iran will strongly counter any hostile action with a destructive response, considering all options regardless of time and place".

Israel is not shaking. Born from the ashes of the Holocaust, Ehud Olmert, the Mossad, the Israel Defense Forces and the people of Israel are more than ready to prevent a second Holocaust. Israel will never be wiped off the map, but if Iran continues to make threats as it prepares nuclear weapons against the Jewish democratic state, it will soon find itself thrown back into the Middle Ages with weapons never seen nor used before.

Ahmadinejad, who denies that the Holocaust ever happened and even sponsored a Holocaust cartoon contest, should join Sarkozy as he files over Masada and Gamla with Shimon Peres.
He would hear the words: "never again".

 

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in New York for the Internet by Leyden Communications.

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