The Iranian-Israeli War - Yossi Klein Halevi
Regardless of the affiliation of the actual perpetrator of the massacre of eight students in a yeshiva library in Jerusalem last week, the ultimate responsibility for this attack, as for almost all the terror attacks on Israel in recent years, lies with Iran. The Palestinian struggle is no longer about creating an independent state. It is about being a front-line participant in the Iranian-led jihad to destroy Israel, evolving from a nationalist to a religious war. A real solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict can only be reached by dealing with its primary instigator: Iran.
    After Yasser Arafat launched a war against Israel in September 2000, he initiated an alliance with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. Until then, Iran's only client within the Palestinian national movement had been the Islamic Jihad, the smallest of the Palestinian terrorist factions. According to a former chief of Israeli military intelligence, Arafat promised the Iranians that he would turn Gaza into a second southern Lebanon, and Iran began providing weapons and funds to Arafat's Fatah. In January 2002, Israel intercepted the Karine A, a ship carrying Iranian-supplied Katyusha rockets and mortars and C-4 explosives for use in suicide bombings.
    Three years ago, Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal orchestrated a formal alliance and today Hamas is an integral part of the Iranian war against Israel. Iran has trained hundreds of Hamas operatives - and continues to fund individual members of Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades. The writer is a senior fellow at the Adelson Center for Strategic Studies of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. (New Republic)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, March 12, 2008]

U.S. Warns Europe of Iran Missiles - Kim Murphy
Lt. Gen. Henry Obering III, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency warned Thursday that Iran was within two or three years of producing a missile that could reach most European capitals. "They're already flying missiles that exceed what they would need in a fight with Israel. Why? Why do they continue this progression in terms of range of missiles? It's something we need to think about,"  "Our short-range defenses could protect Rome and Athens," Obering said, but he warned that London, Paris and Brussels would remain vulnerable "against an Iranian [intermediate-range missile] threat."
    Many in Europe have expressed doubts that Iran would target European cities. But Obering said it was possible to imagine as little as seven years from now a nuclear-armed Iran shutting off oil shipments in the Persian Gulf, or al-Qaeda militants seizing freighters off Europe and arming them with nuclear-tipped Scud missiles "to punish the West for invasion of Muslim holy lands."  (Los Angeles Times)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, February 29, 2008]

Mullahs in Space - Peter Brookes
On Feb. 5, Iranian President Ahmadinejad ordered the launch of a ballistic missile described as a "space launch vehicle" from a new space center in northern Iran. Iran claims it set the stage for a future launch of the first Iranian-built satellite next spring. A space program is critical to developing ICBM capacity. Theoretically, if you can launch a ballistic missile that can place a satellite into earth orbit, you have the scientific wherewithal to hit a target anywhere on Earth with a warhead, including a nuke. A two-stage missile from Iran could reach our East Coast; three-stages, the whole United States. The writer, a Heritage Foundation senior fellow, is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. (New York Post)

Iran Could Have Enough Uranium for a Bomb by Year's End - Markus Becker
New simulations carried out by European Union experts come to an alarming conclusion: Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium to build an atomic bomb by the end of this year. When the U.S. released a new National Intelligence Estimate last year, it seemed as though the danger of a mullah-bomb had passed. The report claimed that Tehran mothballed its nuclear weapons program in autumn 2003.
    As part of a project to improve control of nuclear materials, the European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC) in Ispra, Italy, set up a detailed simulation of the centrifuges currently used by Iran in the Natanz nuclear facility to enrich uranium. The results look nothing like those reached by the U.S. intelligence community. For one scenario, the JRC scientists assumed the centrifuges in Natanz were operating at 100% efficiency. Were that the case, Iran could already have the 25 kilograms of highly enriched uranium necessary for an atomic device by the end of this year. Another scenario assumed a much lower efficiency - just 25%. But even then, Iran would have produced enough uranium by the end of 2010. (Der Spiegel-Germany)
[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, February 22, 2008]

Iran Developing Nuclear Warheads, Exile Group Claims
Mohammad Mohaddessin, a representative of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, claimed Wednesday in Brussels that Tehran had established a command and control center to work on a nuclear bomb and that it was also setting up a center to produce warheads. He said Iran had closed down one center only to open another later with the same purpose, and called the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate "not accurate." He said he had provided the latest information to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday and urged them to investigate more sites in Iran and interview more scientists. Mohaddessin said the information came from sources within Iran, including from among staff at covert nuclear plants. (AP/International Herald Tribune)
    The new command and control center, coded-named Lavizan-2, was established at Mojdeh on the outskirts of Tehran last April, near the site of a previous facility razed after its exposure. Production of nuclear warheads is at a complex code-named B1-Nori-8500 at Khojir, about 20 km. further southeast. Mohaddessin said the Khojir site was under the charge of missile expert Mehdi Naghiyan Fesharaki, who was transferred there two years ago. "This means the regime is getting to the point of connecting nuclear weapons to missiles," he said.
    "The Iranian regime is undoubtedly developing the nuclear bomb. None of the essential work has been halted....All three parts have been speeded up," he said, referring to uranium enrichment, weaponization, and missile development. "Time is running out to stop the regime acquiring a nuclear bomb. If we do not act today, tomorrow might be too late." (Reuters)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, February 21, 2008]

Amir Oren, Ha'aretz, Dec 2007: "A hearty Persian laugh was heard in Tehran after looking at U.S. intelligence's website with the unclassified version of "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities." The document enables the ayatollahs' nuclear and operations officials and the heads of the Revolutionary Guards to conclude that the Americans have no understanding of what is really happening in Iran's nuclear program. They have no solid information, they have no high-level agents and they have nothing more than a mix of guesswork and chatter. The dissemblance and concealment have succeeded."

Feb 2008: In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Admiral Michael McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence attempts to reverse the damage done by the NIE.

June 2007: Iran moves significantly closer towards acquiring the essential material for a nuclear bomb

Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon: Iran "would have nuclear technology within a year and a half, and will have the bomb within 3-5 years."

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