 An Iranian university professor killed last week by a blast from a remote-controlled bomb strapped to a parked motorcycle may have been the victim of an Arab hitman, according to opposition groups. The murder of Masoud Ali Mohammadi, 50, a supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader, has been blamed by the Tehran regime on “mercenaries” financed by Israel and Washington because of his role as a nuclear physicist. However, opposition groups who monitor Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese movement, in Tehran, claim that a member of the group, known by his pseudonym “Abu Nasser”, was photographed at the scene of the explosion in Tehran’s affluent Gheytarih suburb. A German-based opposition group released a photograph of a man of similar appearance who, it alleges, was one of the pro-regime demonstrators who stormed Mousavi’s office in Tehran after disputed presidential elections last June. The opposition claims the Revolutionary Guard uses Hezbollah operatives for some bloodthirsty tasks because they have a reputation for ruthlessness, and are outsiders and can always be blamed as opposition sympathisers. Tehran has gone to great lengths to suggest that Mohammadi was killed because he was a nuclear scientist, implying that he was part of Iran’s program to develop nuclear weapons. However, Majid Mohammadi, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Global Studies at Stony Brook University, New York, and also a friend, said: “He was not a nuclear physicist. He was just a physicist. I believe the Iranian [official] media highlight this word ‘nuclear’ to imply he was killed by the Israelis or Americans.” Click here for more from the Sunday Times. FoxNews
 An Egyptian daily newspaper has published an article praising Israel for preventing Iran from completing its proposed nuclear facilities.
The article claims the Israeli intelligence service Mossad has carried out assassinations and acts of sabotage in recent years to prevent the facilities being completed.
The daily newspaper Al-Ahram, in its Saturday edition, says Mossad chief Meir Dagan has led the charge against Iran, and without him the Islamic Republic's nuclear plants would have been completed years ago.
"Over the past seven years, he has worked in silence, away from the media," the op-ed article says. "He has dealt painful blows to the Iranian nuclear program, he is the Superman of the Jewish state."
The Egyptian newspaper cited assassinations, inciting of opposition protests, the carrying out of acts to embarrass Iran's leaders, and covert attacks against nuclear facilities, among the list of achievements by the Mossad chief.
The article also lauds Dagan for his, "many bold victories," against Syria, Hezbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and praises the Israeli intelligence service's wisdom for not admitting its involvement in the various acts it orchestrated.
 I was waiting for the crew at my local car wash to finish drying my car when a young man approached and asked where he could get the US Army decal that I display on the rear window.
“The Army gives them to people who have served, veterans, and I assume to active duty members as well,” I told him.
“You were in the Army?” he asked. Oh yes, a very long time ago before you were born, I replied, noticing a distinct accent.
He was joined by another young man. “Did you fight in the Middle East?” No, I said, but there has never been an absence of wars for America. We have never been free to ignore the rest of the world even if we wanted to.
In a similar fashion, as much as Israel may yearn for peace, they have never been permitted to function as a normal nation. From the hour that Israeli sovereignty was proclaimed, the nation was attacked by its “neighbors” and has, for all intents and purposes, been on a war footing ever since.
The two young men talking with me said they were Palestinians. Both came to America to find peace.
I think that tells you everything you need to know about the reality of Israeli-Palestinian relations—--if one can call the one-sided determination of the Palestinian leadership to “drive the Israelis into the sea.” Or the Iranian pledge to “wipe Israel off the map.” Or the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon being re-armed by the Iranians for whom they are a proxy army against Israel.
In the course of our chat, they said they were both from Gaza and I was reminded that the Israelis, in their futile quest for peace, had forced out their own people from the Gaza strip and turned the area over to Fatah, also known as the Palestinian Liberation Authority.
What they got in return was an endless cascade of rockets from Gaza, not just for a few weeks, but for months and years. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas forced Fatah to retreat to the West Bank where they could have the protection of the Israelis who continue to desperately look for anyone with whom to negotiate a real peace.
In January of last year, the Israelis initiated Operation Cast lead in which their military targeted the sources of the Gaza rockets and looked for Hamas leaders who cravenly hid in the midst the population. The rocketing has largely stopped since then, though ugly individual attacks on Israelis have continued.
The Israeli solution has been to build a very high wall between them and the Palestinians and to maintain tight control over who passes through it. To do otherwise would be to subject their people to suicide bombers and other killers.
“Would you accept peace with Israel?” I asked. I was greeted with broad smiles. Yes, Palestinians want peace I was told, but “Hamas will not permit it.”
So, there you are. It has nothing to do with Washington’s foreign policy with regard to Israel and it has everything to do with the bad intentions of those who continue to use the Palestinian people as pawns of resistance to any Western presence in what they regard as their sacred lands.
The Islamic jihad knows no boundaries, killing Jews, Christians, Hindus and even Muslims with abandon. It took President Obama a year to say out loud that the U.S. is at war with al Qaeda. It took three days to say anything about the Christmas bomber.
Israel was sacred to the Jews for two thousand years before there ever was an Islamic religion. It was sacred to Christians for a thousand years before Islam existed. Jerusalem is never mentioned even once in the Koran, but, for reasons known only to Israel’s “neighbors”, they cannot find any reason to make peace with them.
The two young Palestinians were very happy to be living and working in America. They treated me with the greatest of respect and with good will. That’s the way it should be.
 Michael Ledeen reports some interesting events from inside Iran: - “I have learned that the Deputy Commander of the Guards in the Greater Tehran area, Brigadier General Azizollah Rajabzadeh, is in intensive care following an axe attack to his cranium by one of his crack troops. This follows the shooting of General Ahmad Reza Radan by one of his men, about which I reported earlier.”
- Ledeen says that the assassination of the pro-Mousavi nuclear scientist is a foreshadowing of a greater crackdown on the way. “…Khamenei’s personal spokesman and representative to the Guards, Ali Saeedi, who, we hear from Scott Lucas at Enduring America, has reportedly declared that the the deaths of 75,000 people will be worthwhile if the Islamic Republic is thereby preserved.”
- Planet Iran’s report on the assassination says that two known members of Lebanese Hezbollah were photographed at the scene of the crime.
Also, on January 12, a senior Khamenei representative said on T.V. that “We have manufactured missiles that allow us, when necessary, to replace (sic) Israel in its entirety with a big holocaust.” World Threats
 Hamas and Hizbullah proclaim they will fight until Israel is destroyed, without causing an international furor.In spite of Israel's ongoing dialogue with the United States to search for the right formula for the resumption of talks, the position taken by the Obama administration, and the unfair pressure exerted by the European Union, have brought down the fragile structure which had previously made negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians possible. Though these negotiations did not bring about the desired peace, they did constitute an agreed channel for discussions between the two parties and brought about, for instance, the Olmert government's agreement to an American proposal to train Palestinian forces in Jordan under the supervision of Gen. Keith Dayton, thus paving the way for the creation of a regular Palestinian fighting force trained with Western methods. This was a major concession and a risky one. This force is intended to keep order in Judea and Samaria, but who is to say that it would not turn againstIsrael under different circumstances? Israel has shown a greater willingness in the past year to meet the Palestinians halfway, as exemplified by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Bar-Ilan speech recognizing the two-state principle. Then there was the 10-month freeze on West Bank settlements. HOWEVER, BUOYED by US President Barack Obama's intense wooing of the Muslim world, the Palestinian Authority has chosen the opposite course, refusing to come back to the negotiation table and launching an all-out diplomatic, media and legal war against the Jewish state. The EU is ratcheting up the pressure, and has issued a declaration calling for a withdrawal to the 1967 borders and for Jerusalem to become the capital of both countries. This would, in effect, rendernegotiations useless by determining their outcome from the outset. It is as if the world has forgotten that Israel already made the most extraordinary concessions at Camp David and in Taba. Yasser Arafat not only turned down the Israeli proposals, he did not make any counter-proposition. The same scenario played out at Annapolis in 2008. According to a lengthy Al-Jazeera interview with Saeb Erekat on March 27, prime minister Ehud Olmert made even greater concessions, but that was not enough for PA President Mahmoud Abbas: He walked out when Olmert suggested a jointadministration of the Temple Mount. Erekat also said that when US president Bill Clinton told Arafat at Camp David that he would be the first president of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, but that he had to recognize the fact that vestigesof the Temple were buried under the Aksa Mosque and there would have to be joint administration of the Temple Mount, Arafat put an end to the negotiations. THERE WAS no Israeli denial following these revelations, and recent interviews by Abbas and Olmert support Erekat's version - though the latest round ofnegotiations carried out by Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni enjoyed a degree of secrecy rarely seen here. As such, the extent of the concessions the two leaders had been ready to make was kept under wraps - perhaps for fear of the impact on the coming elections. That was a colossal miscalculation. The Knesset, the country and the world should have been told that the extremely generous terms offered to the Palestinians had been turned down, putting the blame squarely on Abbas. Such a step would have gone a long way to defuse the situation with Obama and his advisers. It seems that the new government led by Netanyahu had not been fully conversant with the details of the failednegotiations and was thus ill prepared to deal with the accusations leveled against it. Then came the Goldstone Report. The main message there is not so much the totally unfounded accusations of war crimes but an attempt to limit the extent to whichIsrael is "allowed" to use force to defend itself against terrorist organizations. Such a move was not totally unexpected coming from the UN, especially from the Committee on Human Rights, where Islamic and Arab countries have a decisive voice. What was not expected was that it would lead, for instance, to the White House asking for "clarifications" following a recent operation in Nablus. (In a confrontation with Israeli security forces, three terrorists who had murdered a father of seven were killed.) This demand, made at the request of the Palestinian Authority, constitutes a dangerous precedent. Coupled with the Goldstone Report, it tends to present a difficult dilemma to the government and to the security forces when contemplating military intervention. AT THE same time, terrorist organizations, at the behest of some Arab countries, will be able to keep attacking our citizens while sheltering behind their civilians, in hospitals, in schools and in mosques. Hamas and Hizbullah proclaim on every available channel that they will never recognizeIsrael and will fight until it has disappeared - without causing an international furor. In fact, Arab organizations, supported by leftist Western groups, are busy getting arrest warrants issued in European countries having relevant legislation against Israeli leaders and army officers for "war crimes," calling for boycotting Israeli products and demonstrating their support for Gaza. In each and every successive confrontation, Arab states and Palestinian movements have been defeated. Now they are seeking other ways to harassIsrael . They are waging an all-out media war to blacken its image and ultimately delegitimize its very existence. They are helped in this endeavor by hundreds of leftist organizations and civil society movements in the West. For them Israel is a neo-colonial power, as is the US. But Israel is easier prey because of its size and isolation. Anti-Semitism is also at work here. Palestinian and Arab media, with the full support of the Islamic establishment in Arab countries, use every anti-Semitic cliché in the book, and some of that leached into the West where it led to a renewal of classic European anti-Semitism. More at JPost
 From Southern California Public Radio: The Obama administration has tapped Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Arif Alikhan for a top job at the federal Department of Homeland Security.
KPCC’s Frank Stoltze says Alikhan immediately becomes one of the administration’s highest-profile Muslims. Frank Stoltze: Arif Alikhan downplays his Sunni Muslim roots. That’s not always been easy. Not growing up in the San Gabriel Valley with a name like Alikhan. … Alikhan rose to chief of the Cyber and Intellectual Crimes Section and worked as a senior adviser to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez in Washington. Now, after two years as L.A.’s deputy mayor for public safety, the 40-year-old returns to the nation’s capital as assistant secretary for the Office of Policy Development at the Department of Homeland Security. Alikhan: This is the main sort of think tank and policy analysis shop that provides advice to the secretary, the deputy secretary, and spans over all of the different component departments of the Department of Homeland Security. Stoltze: His first briefing book was a 90-page list of acronyms he’ll use on his job. He says a big part of his job will be fostering communication between agencies. Alikhan also wants to help improve America’s image with Muslims around the world. Alikhan: I think a lot of people have learned from me about being Muslim, how diverse it is, how there is no real monolithic Islam out there, how Islam clearly, clearly prohibits any type of extremism or violence and absolutely condemns that. Stoltze: He may get that opportunity to teach again at some of the highest levels of the federal government. Wow. Is that the kind of blatant untruths we want taught at the highest levels of federal government, particularly DHS – a group created to protect us from terrorism – borne out of attacks on the U.S. by Muslims? Outright lies? More on Alikhan from Discover the Networks: During his years in Los Angeles, Alikhan was responsible for derailing the Police Department’s plan to monitor activities within the Los Angeles Muslim community, where numerous radical mosques and madrassas existed, and where some of the 9/11 hijackers had received support from local residents. Strongly anti-Israel, Alikhan has referred to the terrorist organization Hezbollah as a “liberation movement.” An affiliate of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Alikhan opposed President George W. Bush’s prosecution of the war on Islamic terror. More from Atlas Shrugs: Back in 2007, Alikhan was instrumental in removing the Muslim terror tracking plan in LA. The controversial Muslim ‘Mapping’ Plan of the Los Angeles Police Department is now “dead on arrival” according to Chief William Bratton. “It is over and not just put on the side,” said Chief Bratton in a meeting with the Muslim leadership of Southern California on Thursday, November 15th. The meeting was moderated by Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, Arif Alikhan and attended by Deputy Chief Mike Downing. Chief Bratton acknowledged the hurt and offense caused to Muslims and agreed to send a letter to the Muslim community announcing the official termination of the ‘mapping’ plan. A major reason for the termination of the ‘mapping’ plan was the Muslim community’s vociferous opposition and active civic engagement in making themselves heard beyond Los Angeles. Muslim organizations demonstrated a strong unity of purpose and message on the issue of ‘mapping’ that led to a position of strength for Muslims in the meeting. Those involved in the initial phases of this controversy were the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Muslim Advocates. … Muslim Democrats welcome Alikhan’s appointment At a banquet/fundraiser for the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California last weekend, the first speaker was Arif Alikhan (Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles – in charge of public safety for the city). He bid farewell, as he is going to take a post asAssistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. Arif Alikhan is a devout Sunni and the son of Pakistani immigrants (here). ….speakers included Arif Ali Khan, the former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles. He bid the attendees farewell as he prepared to leave the Los Angeles area for Washington, D. C. There he will serve as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Professor Agha Saeed of the American Muslim Task Force (AMT) spoke of the aftermath of 9/11 and the struggle of the Muslim Community against the pervasive atmosphere of Islamophobia and hatred. It was a struggle against the tide – a very strong tide – to prevent Muslims in America from being marginalized and silenced. Professor Saeed ….issued five demands from Muslims to the Department of Justice. These demands included a cessation to the infiltration by spies of mosques and an end to the introduction of agents provocateur. In addition there was to be a cessation of attempts to undermine Muslim groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). This is where Alikhan spoke? He was comfortable with this terror talk? Why Alikhan? DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano noted Alikhan’s “broad and impressive array of experience in national security, emergency preparedness and counterterrorism.” I am not sure what she is talking about (neither is she, I am sure.) Arif Alikhan was appointed Deputy Mayor of LA - picked from relative obscurity. He began his career seven years ago, when he took a job with the Department of Justice hunting down computer hackers, crooks who were selling merchandise on Ebay at rock-bottom prices. In his former position as an assistant US attorney, Alikhan consistently did his work accurately and silently, never producing any headlines. But then he suddenly became one of the most important men in Los Angeles, America’s second-largest city after New York. He took the position of Deputy Mayor in November 2006. The year that the Congress went Democrat and history and America took a disastrous turn. How does an obscure bureaucrat and a devout Muslim come to the position of Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles – in charge of public safety for the city? And now Assistant Secretary to DHS? Un-indicted co-conspirator CAIR was thrilled at the appointment: CAIR-LA Congratulates Calif. Muslim Appointed to DHS Post , Arif Alikhan will serve as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development Related: Another Jihad Nominee at Dept of Homeland Security – Napolitano adds adviser with ties to terror backers Last week, Napolitano swore in Damascus-born Kareem Shora, the ADC’s national executive director, to a position on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, an outside-the-department group of national security experts that advises the secretary. Shora is the first Arab rights advocate on the panel. With thanks to Creeping Sharia
 For some time now, the Shiite terror organization Hezbollah has been involved in drug trafficking. American officials have long known of ties between Hezbollah, Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, ties that earn it hundreds of millions of dollars per year. In August 2008, for example, U.S. and Colombian investigators dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money-laundering ring made up of members of a Colombian drug cartel and Lebanese members of Hezbollah.
Previously, the DEA had also targeted a Hezbollah drug trafficking ring in the Tri-Border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. According to Michael Braun, former administrator and chief of operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Hezbollah relies on “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels. U.S. counterterrorism officials have been keeping a close eye on links between Hezbollah and the drug cartels, worried that al-Qaeda could also make use of the drug trafficking routes between the U.S. and Mexico to send its operatives across the border to carry out terror attacks on American soil. If this weren’t enough cause for concern, a weekend report in the German magazine Der Spiegel has established a clear link between Hezbollah, the European drug trade and the illegal transfer of funds from Germany directly to that terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The report says that German police have arrested four Lebanese Nationals (all members of the same family) at Frankfort Airport who were found to be carrying millions of dollars in their carry-on-bags. Later, two other relatives were subsequently arrested, and under questioning admitted that they had sent money back to Lebanon to Hezbollah’s leadership. German police suspect that the two had trained in Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon. Although the link with South American drug cartels has long been known, this is the first time that a direct Hezbollah link with the European drug trade has been demonstrated, although one has been suspected for quite some time due to increased cultivation of drugs in Lebanon. In fact, a 2009 United Nations report by that organization’s Office on Drugs and Crime says that: [Lebanese] farmers in the Bekaa Valley (once the center of the Middle East’s largest hashish industry), appear to be resuming cannabis cultivation, as well as other drugs. This is a disturbing development. During the Lebanese civil war, the drug trade generated nearly $500 million a year in revenue, which was about 15% of Lebanon’s economy at the time. That money was a huge source of revenue for Hezbollah and other militias, also bringing enormous benefit to Syria and Iran, the primary providers of weaponry to Hezbollah. The links between Islamic terrorism and drug trafficking are real and are growing, and in countries such as Lebanon–where government control is weak–Hezbollah has become a state-within-a-state, and the drug trade has become a source of funds for the procurement of its arms and matériel. A fact, which has not gone unnoticed by Hezbollah, is that terrorism does not operate without money; and the drug trade is making them a lot of it. NewsReal Blog
 A Middle Eastern country is building a massive thick steel wall as a barrier between themselves and a Palestinian regime. The country is being condemned for its actions across the Arab world, denounced by Islamist figures like Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and facing angry demonstrations at its embassies around the world. Signs with the president’s face daubed with a Star of David are waved, and furious slogans are chanted.
The new construction project, written about critically in the world press as “choking” Gaza, has been dubbed the “iron wall” and the “wall of shame.” Sound familiar? Nothing new? In fact, the situation is very new. The country that is being berated and condemned is not Israel.
The wall is being build by the Egyptian government to separate territory controlled by Egypt and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Israel is routinely charged with inhumanely and heartlessly fencing off Palestinian Gazans in a “prison,” despite the fact that Egypt’s official crossing to Gaza is also clamped shut, with the exception of a few days each month.
But with the construction of this new wall, Egypt is taking some powerful hits from within the Arab world. The wall being constructed is designed to stop the flow of smuggling between Egypt and Gaza through the border town of Rafah, an underground economy that is not limited to — but certainly includes — major weaponry and ammunition being stockpiled for terrorist attacks and to help Hamas rearm for the next war between Gaza and Israel.
Along with the weaponry brought in to replace the stockpiles decimated in Operation Cast Lead, millions of dollars worth of other commerce flows through the tunnels on a daily basis. Everything from food, to gasoline, to machinery, to farm animals. The tunnels are a major source of revenue for Hamas, which charges a premium for the construction and use of the tunnels and puts a tariff on any goods that are brought in. The planned 10 kilometer-long wall will include steel sheets that will reach 60 meters underground — an attempt to cut off the tunnels and the commerce that flourishes there. In addition to weaponry, the tunnels are also a conduit for terrorists, both reasons that the tunnels themselves were targeted in Operation Cast Lead. Construction of the wall began in early December, with the Egyptian government doing its best to keep news of it quiet for as long as possible. By mid-December, it became impossible to hide such a massive project, and news of the construction broke and began to spread. Even as reports began appearing in the media, Egypt refused to acknowledge its existence. An AP article dramatically described the construction in the same judgmental terms normally reserved for accounts of Israel’s building of barriers: A jackhammer pounded large steel beams side by side into the sandy soil on the Egyptian side of Gaza’s border, putting in place an underground wall that could shift the balance of power in this volatile area. Once completed, the steel barrier would cut off blockaded Gaza’s last lifeline. In the wake of the media attention, demonstrations condemning the Egyptian action have ensued, beginning in Jordan, where an organization of unions and professional associations protested construction of the wall.
Some 150 people gathered outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman earlier this month and burned photos of President Hosni Mubarak. The photos depict Mubarak with a Star of David stamped on his forehead. More at Pajamas Media
 German police suspect the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, of using drug trafficking in Europe to fund part of its activities, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.According to the report published on the magazine's website, German police arrested two Lebanese citizens living in Germany last October after they transferred large sums of money to a family in Lebanon with connections to Hezbollah's leadership, including the Shiite group's Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah. Suspicion was first raised in May 2008, when police found 8.7 million Euros in the bags of four Lebanese men at the airport in Frankfurt. Police searched the men's apartment in Speyer, Germany, and found an additional half a million Euros. According to the report, police suspected the men were selling cocaine in Europe and sending the profits back to Lebanon. The report added that the two suspects went through training at a Hezbollah camp. The suspects deny the charges against them. ( more)
 Israel inched a step closer to deploying a missile defense system along the border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after the Iron Dome successfully intercepted a number of missile barrages in tests held in southern Israel this week. The tests were overseen by the Defense Ministry, the Israeli Air Force and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. which has developed and is manufacturing the Iron Dome, slated to become operational and deployed along the Gaza border in the middle of 2010. The missile barrages that the system succeeded in intercepting included a number of rockets that mimicked Kassam and longer-range Grad-model Katyusha rockets that are known to be in Hamas's arsenal. The Iron Dome is supposed to be capable of intercepting all of the short-range rockets in fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon, by using an advanced radar that locates and tracks the rocket that is then intercepted by a kinetic missile interceptor. During the test, the radar succeeded in detecting which rockets were headed towards coordinates that were designated as open fields and therefore did not launch an interceptor to destroy them. The IDF has already established a new battalion that will be part of the IAF's Air Defense Division and will operate the Iron Dome. Prototypes of the Iron Dome have already been supplied to the new battalion which has commenced training with the systems. The IDF has also located positions along the Gaza border that will be used as bases for the system, which includes a launcher and radar system. After it completes the deployment of the system along the Gaza border, the IDF will begin deploying the system along the northern border with Lebanon. MOD Dir.-Gen. Pinhas Buchris said that the system would eventually "transform" security for residents of southern and northern Israel. "The defense establishment continues to be committed to do everything it can to provide all residents of Israel a multi-layered defense against missiles and rockets," he said. JPost
 THE salient strategic fact in the Middle East today is the Iranian drive for regional hegemony. This Iranian objective is being promoted by a rising hardline conservative elite within the Iranian regime, centred on a number of political associations and on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards corps. This elite, which is personified by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has received the backing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Their aim is a second Islamic revolution that would revive the original fire of the revolution of 1979. They appear to be aiming for the augmenting of clerical rule with a streamlined, brutal police-security state, under the banner of Islam. Building Iranian power and influence throughout the Middle East is an integral part of their strategy. The Iranian nuclear program is an aspect of this ambition. A nuclear capability is meant to form the ultimate insurance for the Iranian regime as it aggressively builds its influence across the region. This goal of hegemony is being pursued through the assembling of a bloc of states and organisations under Iranian leadership. This bloc, according to Iran, represents authentic Muslim currents within the region, battling against the US and its hirelings. The pro-Iranian bloc includes Syria, Sudan, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas among the Palestinians, and the Houthi rebel forces in northern Yemen. Israel, despite lacking official diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, is also a key member of this camp. Unlike the pro-Iranian bloc, which has a simple guiding ideology of resistance to the West, the countries seeking to counter Iran are united by interest only. The rivalry between these two camps now informs and underlies all-important developments in the Middle East. It is behind the joint Israeli-Egyptian effort to contain the Iran-sponsored Hamas enclave in the Gaza Strip. It is behind the fighting in north Yemen, as Saudi troops take on Shia rebels armed and supported by Iran. The rivalry is behind the face-off between pro-American and pro-Iranian forces in Lebanon. The insurgencies in Afghanistan and in Iraq are also notable for the presence of weaponry traceable to Iran in use by insurgents against Western forces. Who is winning in this ongoing Middle East cold war? The rhetoric of the Iranians, of course, depicts their advance as unstoppable. The reality is more complex, and the past year has seen gains and losses for both sides. First, within Iran the electoral victory of Ahmadinejad and the subsequent backing given to him by Khamenei represented a major advance for the Iranian hardline conservatives. Ahmadinejad subsequently confirmed his victory by forming a cabinet that is packed with conservatives and Revolutionary Guardsmen. But the refusal of large sections of the Iranian people to accept the possibly rigged election and the unprecedented scenes of opposition in the streets of Iranian cities in recent weeks have severely tarnished this achievement. The ongoing unrest in Iran probably does not constitute an immediate danger to the regime. But it surely indicates that large numbers of Iranians have no desire to see their country turned into the instrument of permanent Islamic revolution and resistance envisaged by the hardline conservatives. The domestic unrest thus hits significantly at the emerging regime's legitimacy, and their ability to promote their regime as a model for governance to the Arab and wider Muslim world. Iran made major advances in Lebanon last year. The formation of the new Lebanese government in November in essence confirms Hezbollah's domination of the country. Hezbollah is the favoured child of the Iranian regime and its partner in subversive activity globally. There is now no serious internal force in Lebanon able to oppose its will. In Gaza, the Iranian-sponsored Hamas regime is holding on. The Iranian investment is central to Hamas's ability to stay in power. The movement just announced a budget of $US540 million ($590m) for 2010. Of this, just $US55m is to be raised through taxes and local sources of revenue. The rest is to come from "aid and assistance". Hamas does not reveal the identity of its benefactors. But it is fairly obvious that the bulk of this funding will come from Iran. The Palestinian issue remains the central cause celebre of the Arab and Muslim world. The Iranian regime's goal is to take ownership of it. But there have been setbacks here too. The Iranian resistance model failed in a straight fight with the Israeli Defence Forces in the early part of the year. Hamas's 100-man "Iranian unit" suffered near destruction in Gaza. The Hamas regime in Gaza managed to kill six IDF soldiers in the entire course of Operation Cast Lead. This is a failure, recorded as such by all regional observers. In addition, someone or the other appears to be trying to demonstrate to the Iranians that the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy is a two-way street. Hence the killing of 29 Revolutionary Guards in a bombing in October near the Iran-Pakistan border, and the mysterious explosion in Damascus last month that killed a number of Iranian pilgrims. So at the beginning of 2010, the lines are clearly drawn in the Middle East cold war, and the contest is far from over. Ultimately, like other totalitarians before them, the Iranian hardline conservatives are likely to fail through overreach. The inefficient, corruption-ridden and oppressive state they are coming to dominate is likely to prove an insufficient instrument to sustain their boundless ambition. Still, this process probably has a long way to run yet. Much will depend on the sense of purpose, will and resourcefulness of the Western and regional countries that this regime has identified as its enemies. This is a contest for the future of the region. It has almost certainly not yet reached its height. Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Centre in Herzliya, Israel. The Australian
 Sabine Durrant
JOUMANA Haddad, the Lebanese poet, author and critic, recently had a tattoo of a tulip imprinted on the lowest section of her back. She pulls down her waistband to indicate the area in question. ''My kids and my partner, they are not shocked that I have a tattoo, but by the fact that the guy tattooed my arse.'' She roars with laughter. Controversy is not something Haddad is afraid of. She is a figure of some repute in Lebanon, through her own writing as well as her roles as the cultural editor of An-Nahar, the main newspaper in Beirut, and the head of IPAF, the Arabic equivalent of the Booker prize. And now she has launched a magazine called The Body. Its subject matter - serious articles on masturbation, transsexuality and battered women, as well as riffs on ''my first time'' - has caused not just eyebrows but hackles to rise. Haddad's website has been hacked into on numerous occasions and she receives regular hate mail. Hezbollah tried to close her stand at the Beirut Book Fair, and the head of the Lebanese Council of Women has called for the magazine, which is sold in sealed plastic in Lebanon and by mail order in other parts of the Arab world, to be banned. It is this last denouncement that angers and upsets her most. ''Obviously, I acknowledge that some people are not going to like it. But that intellectuals have attacked me - and a women's association at that - I find that stupid and insulting. I launched the magazine because I felt that the body is a long-neglected, crucial part of the Arabic unconscious that needs to be re-explored. I felt it was unfair that the Arabic language had become castrated of an important part of its vocabulary - that the physical has become taboo,'' she says. ''Some of the things written in Arabic a long time ago would make the Marquis de Sade blush.
Now even the word 'breast' in Arabic would be shocking in certain circles. It is your right to approve of that if you want to and, if you do, don't buy the magazine. Ignore it. But, equally, it is my right to publish it, just as it is my right to walk naked if I want to.'' She shakes her cascading hair in a gesture that conveys both sensuality and determination. ''It is this crazy society. In Beirut you will see a woman with a skirt so short you can see her pants, walking beside a woman whose eyes are the only things you can see. That is Beirut. So long as the woman in the short skirt respects the other woman's right and the woman in the veil respects her, it's good. But it is not like that. The woman in the miniskirt feels claustrophobic and the other woman is appalled. More at The Age It is hard to be objective. Our country is a puzzle.'' Haddad, 39, is herself a bit of a puzzle. To watch she is kittenish, flirtatious, her dark-rimmed hazel eyes beneath their extraordinarily long lashes coy one minute, direct the next. She moves her hands all the time - flashing turquoise stones, jangling gold. Her words tumble over themselves - her musings on politics and her candid personal disclosures competing for space. She says she believes in ''the art of the schizophrenic''; that this is how she survived the suicide of her beloved maternal grandmother, life in a city at war, the personal criticisms levelled at her. She is an incredibly busy woman, combining her myriad commitments with her studies for a PhD in comparative literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. And she's incredibly accomplished. She speaks seven languages and claims that each one brings out another personality. ''All these people inside of me are different Joumanas,'' she says. (In Armenian she feels close to her grandmother; in Arabic, the language in which she writes, a poet; in English she is ''cooler, more relaxed''.) HADDAD repeatedly refers to herself as if she were someone else, a habit that denotes a certain self-confidence. ''I have an image of Joumana as a child, climbing in her father's library, to reach the forbidden books: Kafka, the Marquis de Sade.'' She lives in Beirut, by the sea, which is important to her not as a place to swim, but as a horizon. ''It is a very important part of my identity. It represents Joumana. All this unknown, outgoing, the need to see the other side.'' Haddad was brought up a strict Catholic by protective parents. ''I couldn't even go to the movies without my brother, or to a friend's house without my mother waiting there for me - even when I was 17.'' Top of the class at her convent, she was encouraged by her father to be highly competitive - ''I am never satisfied'' - and went to university at 16, two years early. ''In Lebanon, if you are clever, you become one of two things, a doctor or an engineer, so I went to medical school, even though I wanted to write.'' She wasn't happy and after two years found a way to establish her own independence. ''I got married. It wasn't a passionate act. It was my only way out.'' She transmuted her medical training into a degree in biology, then worked for a lingerie company to support her husband, who was still a student. ''Freedom for me happened like this: my head was liberated through books as a child, then expression through writing, and then physically through marriage.'' The marriage lasted 10 years; in that time Haddad gave birth to two children, learnt more languages (Italian, Spanish, German) and found work as a translator for An-Nahar newspaper. In 2005 she became the head of the cultural section. The editor is sympathetic to her other commitments. ''When I am travelling I edit the page in my hotel room in the morning; my laptop is my office.'' Her drive to succeed is exhausting, she admits. ''Because it is your nature, you cannot turn it off. It becomes something that is eating you.'' She is writing a book on Arab women, and the cliches that surround them, and would like to expand The Body, which has sold well, into other areas, namely ''a physical space: a small art gallery, a library, a coffee shop. But I don't dream. I usually plan.'' Her sons, Mounir, 17, and Ounsi, 11, are looked after by Haddad's mother, who lives nearby. ''I am an awful practical mother. I am just there for love.'' Her father is also supportive. ''I always say if my father had imagined when I was a child that I was going to write these things and do these things maybe he would have killed himself. But now he is proud. You do change your parents as well.'' Also part of Haddad's daily life is her ''life partner'', the French Lebanese poet Akl Awit, whom she met at the newspaper in 1998. They married three years ago, for technical reasons, and see each other every day, but sleep in separate houses. ''We like our spaces.'' With Awit, Haddad has found another form of freedom. ''It has been a journey with my own body on many levels. As an adolescent I used to love eating, but my mother used to forbid me, so I ate in secret. I hated my body. It all stopped when I got married. I found an inner equilibrium. But on the sexual level, I was a virgin when I was married, and it wasn't very satisfactory with my first husband. I was a late bloomer. But now, apart from the wrinkles, which I am starting to think about, I feel so good about myself. I mean, if I had to choose it would be the best time for me. From 35 until now!'' Did Awit back her plans for The Body? ''I mentioned it to him and he said I was crazy. He said: 'It isn't the time; it isn't the place.' Hell, I said, we have to invent the time. Invent the place." ''People often ask me why I still live in Beirut, why I have lived here through the war and why I have never written about it. I say, Why do you look for the knife? Look for the scars. ''The scars are this woman who is writing this stuff, doing these things. The war has given me a great deal of power. To survive in a city like Beirut, in this world, you have to keep on fighting.'' More at The Age It is hard to be objective. Our country is a puzzle.'' Haddad, 39, is herself a bit of a puzzle. To watch she is kittenish, flirtatious, her dark-rimmed hazel eyes beneath their extraordinarily long lashes coy one minute, direct the next. She moves her hands all the time - flashing turquoise stones, jangling gold. Her words tumble over themselves - her musings on politics and her candid personal disclosures competing for space. She says she believes in ''the art of the schizophrenic''; that this is how she survived the suicide of her beloved maternal grandmother, life in a city at war, the personal criticisms levelled at her. She is an incredibly busy woman, combining her myriad commitments with her studies for a PhD in comparative literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. And she's incredibly accomplished. She speaks seven languages and claims that each one brings out another personality. ''All these people inside of me are different Joumanas,'' she says. (In Armenian she feels close to her grandmother; in Arabic, the language in which she writes, a poet; in English she is ''cooler, more relaxed''.) HADDAD repeatedly refers to herself as if she were someone else, a habit that denotes a certain self-confidence. ''I have an image of Joumana as a child, climbing in her father's library, to reach the forbidden books: Kafka, the Marquis de Sade.'' She lives in Beirut, by the sea, which is important to her not as a place to swim, but as a horizon. ''It is a very important part of my identity. It represents Joumana. All this unknown, outgoing, the need to see the other side.'' Haddad was brought up a strict Catholic by protective parents. ''I couldn't even go to the movies without my brother, or to a friend's house without my mother waiting there for me - even when I was 17.'' Top of the class at her convent, she was encouraged by her father to be highly competitive - ''I am never satisfied'' - and went to university at 16, two years early. ''In Lebanon, if you are clever, you become one of two things, a doctor or an engineer, so I went to medical school, even though I wanted to write.'' She wasn't happy and after two years found a way to establish her own independence. ''I got married. It wasn't a passionate act. It was my only way out.'' She transmuted her medical training into a degree in biology, then worked for a lingerie company to support her husband, who was still a student. ''Freedom for me happened like this: my head was liberated through books as a child, then expression through writing, and then physically through marriage.'' The marriage lasted 10 years; in that time Haddad gave birth to two children, learnt more languages (Italian, Spanish, German) and found work as a translator for An-Nahar newspaper. In 2005 she became the head of the cultural section. The editor is sympathetic to her other commitments. ''When I am travelling I edit the page in my hotel room in the morning; my laptop is my office.'' Her drive to succeed is exhausting, she admits. ''Because it is your nature, you cannot turn it off. It becomes something that is eating you.'' She is writing a book on Arab women, and the cliches that surround them, and would like to expand The Body, which has sold well, into other areas, namely ''a physical space: a small art gallery, a library, a coffee shop. But I don't dream. I usually plan.'' Her sons, Mounir, 17, and Ounsi, 11, are looked after by Haddad's mother, who lives nearby. ''I am an awful practical mother. I am just there for love.'' Her father is also supportive. ''I always say if my father had imagined when I was a child that I was going to write these things and do these things maybe he would have killed himself. But now he is proud. You do change your parents as well.'' Also part of Haddad's daily life is her ''life partner'', the French Lebanese poet Akl Awit, whom she met at the newspaper in 1998. They married three years ago, for technical reasons, and see each other every day, but sleep in separate houses. ''We like our spaces.'' With Awit, Haddad has found another form of freedom. ''It has been a journey with my own body on many levels. As an adolescent I used to love eating, but my mother used to forbid me, so I ate in secret. I hated my body. It all stopped when I got married. I found an inner equilibrium. But on the sexual level, I was a virgin when I was married, and it wasn't very satisfactory with my first husband. I was a late bloomer. But now, apart from the wrinkles, which I am starting to think about, I feel so good about myself. I mean, if I had to choose it would be the best time for me. From 35 until now!'' Did Awit back her plans for The Body? ''I mentioned it to him and he said I was crazy. He said: 'It isn't the time; it isn't the place.' Hell, I said, we have to invent the time. Invent the place." ''People often ask me why I still live in Beirut, why I have lived here through the war and why I have never written about it. I say, Why do you look for the knife? Look for the scars. ''The scars are this woman who is writing this stuff, doing these things. The war has given me a great deal of power. To survive in a city like Beirut, in this world, you have to keep on fighting.'' More at The Age
 "The military might of Hamas in 2010 is equal to that of Hezbollah's in 2006," an analyst for Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar said. Ibrahim al-Amin, who is affiliated with the Shiite group, wrote "Fighters from Hamas and other (Palestinian) factions have been training for a year on the various uses of anti-aircraft missiles and on how to simultaneously set off a large number of explosives, which would enable it to blow up armored military vehicles the size of a Merkava-type tank." According to the analyst, the Islamist group also practiced firing mid and long-range missiles, as well bombing Israeli communities "located up to 100 kilometers (about 62 miles)" from Gaza. In addition, claimed al-Amin, Hamas has trained special units to expose spy networks and gather intelligence on the "occupation army's deployment and weaponry." "In light of these facts, it is safe to say that the (weapons) in Gaza are equal in their potency to what Hezbollah had on the eve of the ( Second Lebanon War)," he said. "At the time (Hezbollah) did not have the ability to threaten Israel's helicopters, but Israel had admitted that Hamas has been able to acquire anti-helicopter missiles. This will embarrass (Israel) on the battlefield." Al-Amin further claimed that in the past year Hamas fighters "went underground (referring to the construction of bunkers and ditches); this will give it added military capabilities in the face of Israel's aerial superiority." The analyst said Hamas was in possession of Russian-made RPG-29 anti-tank grenade launchers, which were employed by Hezbollah during the war with Israel, in addition to Kornet anti-tank missiles, "which can destroy a tank from five kilometers about three miles) out." Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that Hamas' current capabilities are "better than they were on the eve of Operation Cast Lead," adding that Hamas, as well as other Palestinian terror groups, "will continue to grow stronger in 2010." "Hamas will continue with its efforts to smuggle rockets with a range exceeding 50 kilometers (31 miles) into Gaza, as well as anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles and any other type of weapons," he said. In early November, the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Major-General Amos Yadlin, told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Hamas held a successful trial launch of a rocket with a 60 km range. The rocket, which could reach Tel Aviv from Hamas' stronghold in the Gaza Strip, is apparently Iranian-made.
 AT LEAST two people were killed yesterday in a mysterious blast that shook Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut, a security official said, amid reports it could have targeted the Palestinian Hamas movement. "At least two people have been killed and a number of others injured in an explosion in the southern suburbs" of Beirut where the Shiite Hezbollah movement has its headquarters, the official said.
"The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined."
Earlier the official national news agency NNA said the blast could have been aimed at a member of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Lebanon.
The blast was "the result of three bombs placed under a car whose owner is said to be a member of Hamas," the agency said, adding that two people were wounded in the explosion.
But in a terse report, quoting unnamed security officials, Hezbollah's Manar television said the "blast took place in an office of the Hamas movement causing casualties." It did not give further details.
 These events have been reported to World Threats. All events are occurring in Tehran unless otherwise noted. All times are Tehran local time. 1400 - The suppressive forces have blocked all roads to Ferdosi square and are making the crowd move uptown. An eyewitness said that there were clashes in Ferdosi Square and water cannon vehicles and ambulances were moving towards Fatemi Square. 1300 - Khamenei’s mercenaries are viciously beating people with batons and kick them in Enghelab Street. an eyewitness said that a women was so beaten her dress and scarf were torn but she swiftly ran away with her companion. 1450 - In Vali-e-Asr people are resisting. After the police attacked the people, the crowd set fire to a police car and attacked several banks. From the beginning of Azadi Street to Imam Hossein Square the police are flooded throughout the way especially in Ferdosi, Azadi and Imam Hossein Squares metro stations and any other place there might be a crowd. About 200 people have gathered in front of Tehran University. It is important to note that today the women lead the demonstrations and the men followed. 1630 - Beginning at 1600 the mothers of the uprising gathered in Laleh Park. The police are surrounding them and will not let anyone join the mothers. (These are mothers who have lost children in this revolution.) 1640 - A large number of mourning groups are in the streets. They pay no attention to any attempt by the regime to limit them. In some areas they have rebuilt the scenes of Imam Hossein’s Tasoua. Throughout Tehran people have defied the police and are bringing mourning symbols into the streets. Nobody cares about the regime’s orders. 1630 - When security agents tried to prevent people from gathering on the route between Imam Hossein and Azadi Squares, people inside buses chanted “death to the dictator” and “Allah o Akbar” to protest the regime. Security officers warned the bus drivers that they should not stop in the street. The passengers opened the windows so that their voices of protest would reach the anti-riot forces. The heavy traffic in the street gave the people time to chant anti-regime slogans. 1815 - The regime has announced that mourning groups are only allowed in the streets until 2230. Tough dispersed by suppressive forces people continue the defiance of the clerical regime by chanting Allah O Akbar in the sidewalk of Enghelab Sq.- Tehran Dec.26, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSSW1GZP2Ds Tasoua Uprising - Tehran - Enghelab Ave. Gunshots and suppressive teams riding on motorcycles - Dec. 26, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eUTd4fuPQs More film in following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDpVQF45×2U Analysis. I have over time been had access to intelligence reports of events like these. I saw a lot of reports on the 1979 revolution, the taking of the American Embassy in Tehran and a few other such events. Never before have I reported on a revolution in progress that has been so grossly ignored by the media. It is obvious that the blow-by-blow descriptions of this genuine grass roots revolution are available. But 30 seconds of a one hour new review on CNN is simply not acceptable. If this revolution succeeds a lot of bad stuff in the Middle East and other places will stop happening. Hezbollah and Hamas will lose their major source of funding: the Government of Iran. The Houthi rebels in Yemen will be defeated without the continuing supplies from Iran. Israel will be a whole lot safer. Syria will lose its sponsor. The list goes on. Yet here we sit spinning on our thumbs when we should be working to help the Iranian people rid themselves of the mullahocracy. We will be blamed for this revolution anyway so why not earn that blame honestly? Tomorrow is the tenth day of Ashura, the day Imam Hossein was killed. If you thought today was interesting stay tuned. World Threats
 The Lebanese Defense Minister has made official what Israel long has charged, saying that Hizbullah will help defend the country even though United Nations resolutions call for disarming the terrorist organization. Defense Minister Elias Murr told the official government National News Agency Tuesday, "The role of the army is to cooperate with the UNIFIL in order to implement the resolution 1701, which calls for disarming Hizbullah." Murr then added, “The Lebanese army will defend the country against any Israeli aggression, the resistance [Hizbullah] will do that too; everyone has the right to defend the country." His statement further entrenches Hizbullah as a dominant force in the government, in which it already holds two portfolios out of 30 and together with pro-Syrian allies has veto power over major Cabinet decisions. Murr’s declaration goes further than previous statements that Lebanon will allow Hizbullah to remain armed, a foregone conclusion since UNIFIL officers said at the outset of the ceasefire resolution in 2006 that they would not carry out the mandate to disarm the terrorist group. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned last month that Hizbullah in effect is Lebanon’s army, stating that "the Lebanese government and Hizbullah are becoming interwoven in each other.” The government has a diplomatic excuse for ostensibly defying the U.N. resolution, which forbids arms to all "foreign armies” not authorized by the government. Formally adopting Hizbullah as a defense force effectively neutralizes the resolution at the same time Beirut promises to enforce it. Lebanon has concentrated on Israel’s obligations in the resolution, particularly the prohibition against surveillance flights that search out Hizbullah activity in southern Lebanon. INN
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An Iranian university professor killed last week by a blast from a remote-controlled bomb strapped to a parked motorcycle may have been the victim of an Arab hitman, according to opposition groups. 
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