On Israel 60th Birthday, Picnics And A Warning To Iran

On Israel's 60th birthday, an IDF submarine waves to spectators in
Tel Aviv and to every member of the Iranian and Syrian military.
Photo: Joel Leyden

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- May 11, 2008 ....... Israel is celebrating her 60th birthday this week. From colorful fireworks, laser shows and Israel flag draped skyscrapers to country picnics, folk dancing and IDF parachute drops. The mood is upbeat. And Israel security forces deserve a loud applause for their Intel and field work in preventing Islamic terror attacks from interrupting this joyous and historic anniversary.

But quietly inserted into Israel's 60th birthday celebrations was a highly lethal message for Iran. It was not articulated in the words of Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or Defense Minister Ehud Barak, nor could it be seen in an Israel Defense Forces flyover of Israel's cities. Rather in a very innocent and charming sea show off the coast of Tel Aviv, one could witness one of Israel's new submarines. With fast and deadly missile boats, F-16's and destroyers coming before and after it, this gray sub slowly cruised in full sight of thousands of spectators. But the one spectator which was watching through spies and TV news broadcasts, the one guest for which Israel truly wanted to impress was Iran.

Israel's 60th birthday comes just hours after the country reflects on her modern day birth from the ashes of the Holocaust. With Iran threatening almost daily to "wipe Israel off the map" Israel needed to show the Iran leadership a prelude to a nightmare. One which would send every Iranian to 72 virgins.

For that Israeli submarine was not off on a fishing expedition nor taking tourists to Cypress or Greece. That sub, in all likely hood, is not only able to intercept and sink other ships at sea but can actually perform one other act. On the orders of the Israel Prime Minister and the Israeli defense establishment that sub, which can move anywhere it wishes, can open a hole in its top to allow a missile to hit any part of Iran or Syria. One can only guess what kind of warhead it carries.

Bottom line, Iran and Syria have a pretty good idea of "fixed" Israeli military installations. But a submarine goes quietly unseen day and night. As Iran promises to blanket Israel with thousands of missiles, that sub needs to only get off one shot. And with that blast coming from the sea, Iran would be set back to the stone age.

Not a day goes by that Iran does not make a concerted effort to destabilize the Middle East.
Today Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the situation in Lebanon "a serious development" following a series of deadly clashes between Lebanon government forces and Hezbollah terrorists, who are directly supported by Iran.

"Hezbollah's taking of control (in west Beirut) is a serious development," Barak said during the weekly cabinet meeting.

Israel and the West have long accused Iran of backing Hezbollah and Hamas which seized power in Gaza nearly a year ago and launches near-daily rocket attacks on southern Israel.

Israel knows that Iran is its greatest strategic threat, both because of its accelerating nuclear program and its president's repeated predictions of the demise of the Jewish state.

Iran won't consider any proposals in talks with the West that would require it to stop enriching uranium, said Iran's foreign minister today.

"No incentive weighs equally with the rights of Iran nation," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini. He also told reporters in Teheran that uranium enrichment is an "indisputable right" for Iran.

Iran is already under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment. Washington and its allies accuse Teheran of trying to make nuclear weapons. Weapons which will be able to target any city in Europe.

An Israel security official told the Israel News Agency that the recent launch of a missile from Iran into space illustrated a direct threat to both Europe's and US national security.

On February 25, 2007 Iran launched a missile reaching space. "Iran has successfully launched its first space missile made by Iran scientists," the head of Iran's aerospace research center, Mohsen Bahrami, was quoted as saying. Iran Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Iran was planning to build a satellite and launcher.

"Iran has no plans to land a man on the moon," Col. Adam an Israeli security source told the INA. "The same technology is used to build intercontinental ballistic missiles. This Iran space launch is not a threat to Israel. The Iranians need not reach a space orbit to attack Israel, but such a high orbit would be needed to deliver a nuclear payload into Europe or the US."

Iran launched its first satellite, Sina-1, into orbit from a Russian rocket in 2005 and has said it planned to modify its Shahab-3 missile, which Iran says has a range of about 2,000 km (1,250 miles), to launch satellites. Bahrami said the missile was built by his center in cooperation of the Defense and Science Ministries. He gave no further details. Despite announcing what would be a major advance in Iran's missile technology, the news was mentioned only once by the main state TV news channel and was not carried by other Iranian official media.

But Iran's launch into space has been overshadowed by more recent events in Lebanon and Gaza.

"Hezbollah put down the government of Lebanon," Israel's Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit told reporters ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting.

"It's a very dangerous step in the long run because it is clear that Hezbollah is Iran's long arm. I hope Lebanon's government and army will come to their senses or we will face the reality where Iran rules Lebanon," he said.

A security official in Lebanon said "more than four" Israel warplanes overflew southern Lebanon on Sunday.

Israel no longer sees Iran as a threat to Tel Aviv, Hafia or Jerusalem but through Iran's actions in Lebanon and Gaza, through her reluctance to disarm her nuclear program, it is the civilians in London, Paris, Stockholm and Rome who have something to worry about.

"Iran which denies that a European Holocaust ever took place, is now planning to create a second Holocaust in Europe and in the US," said an Israel MFA source. "Europe will be first to feel this nuclear suicide bomb, as London, Moscow, Madrid, Rome and Paris are now in range of Iranian missiles. We no longer have the luxury of time to implement sanctions. This is not a movie. This is not the "24" TV series about nuclear terrorism. This is real. Sanctions worked against North Korea, they can and will work against Iran."

"Iran has over 20 intermediate range missiles that can reach continental Europe," stated Riki Ellison, President of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. "These 20 BM-25 missiles were purchased from North Korea in 2005 and are a variant of the Soviet SS-N-6 (R-27) submarine-launched ballistic missile. With a range beyond 3,000 kilometers, these missiles pose a direct threat to central Europe."

Last year Iran launched a sub-orbit missile that traveled 94 miles into space and declared their intent to launch satellites in the near future. This launch of a sub-orbital missile by Iran, Ellison noted that "Having orbital satellite launch capability, Iran would have access to deliver payloads to anyplace on earth, as was first powerfully demonstrated 50 years ago by the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957."

Israel, nor any other democratic nation in the world would tolerate another Holocaust.
Here in Israel we remember the Holocaust. We were born from it. We seek peace. Israel has withdrawn unilaterally from Lebanon and Gaza, removed critical security buffer zones as a sacrifice for peace. But is still attacked daily by Islamic terrorists who secure their training, their money and their weapons from Iran. And these attacks will continue as all who are Jewish and Christian are considered "infidels" by Iran.

One just needs to ask a Christian living in Beirut this morning.

Recently France's President Nicolas Sarkozy stated: "For my part, I don't use the word 'war. France's position, he added, is very clear: "No nuclear weapon for Iran, an arsenal of sanctions to convince them, negotiations, discussions, firmness."

Breaking with traditional French policy, which has long resisted sanctions as a diplomatic weapon, Sarkozy laid out a far-reaching strategy to punish Iran economically - both through United Nations and European sanctions and by exerting pressure on French and other nations' corporations and banks not to do business there.

But if those sanctions do not work, if Iran continues to stretch her arms out across the Middle-East as the Nazis stretched their hands across all of Europe, Iran will soon create a conflict which will define its demise.

One just needs to walk along the Tel Aviv beachfront on Independence Day to see how.