Israel can't entrust int'l forces for its security after Austrian peacekeepers withdraw: PM

Source : Xinhua

JERUSALEM, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The disintegration of UN peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights underscores the fact that Israel cannot rely on international forces for its security, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

Netanyahu was referring to Austria's decision, announced last Thursday, to withdraw its 380 troops from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) monitoring a 1973 ceasefire agreement signed between Syria and Israel.

"While (UN forces) can be part of agreements, they cannot constitute the foundation of Israel's security," Netanyahu told his cabinet at the start of its weekly meeting on Sunday.

Netanyahu said that he will raise the issue in his talks with U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry late this week.

In remarks made before the cabinet meeting, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz echoed Netanyahu's statements, saying that the Austrian disengagement from the Golan proves that multinational forces cannot be trusted.

"We saw what such forces are worth in Lebanon against Hezbollah, in Sinai against global jihad groups and weapons smuggling, and now in the Golan Heights," the Walla news site quoted Steinitz as saying.

"Anyone who thinks that it would be possible to combine multinational forces in defending central Israel as part of a diplomatic solution is deluding himself," he added.

On Thursday, Austria decided to withdraw its 380 personnel, more than a third of the 1,000-strong UNDOF peacekeepers, from the UNDOF.

The UN considered the move as a blow to the mission in Golan Heights, an area Israel captured from Syria and annexed in the aftermath of the 1967 war.

The Austrian decision to pull its forces from UNDOF came hours after rebels seized the UN- manned Quneitra interim border crossing in fierce battles against Syrian troops, who later retook the site.

Syria presses for international probe into Qatari special services

Source : The Voice of Russia: News

Syria is pressing for an international inquiry into the role that the Qatari special services have played in abducting UN officials on the Golan Heights on May 7th, the Syrian Ambassador to the UN, Baashar Jafari, told a news briefing

An unidentified person instructed the abductors by telephone from Qatar in a move, confirmed by an official email message that a UN mission member in Damascus has sent to the UN Headquarters, the Syrian Ambassador said. Jaafari feels that Qatar seeks to destabilize the situation in Syria, undermine the UN personnel security and replace the UN force by the armed groups that are resisting the government in Damascus. According to the Financial Times Magazine, Qatar has spent three billion dollars on assistance for the enemies of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Slaughterer israeli Defense Forces soldier killed in Golan Heights

Source : islamicinvitationturkey.com

An israeli Defense Forces soldier has been killed while participating in an operation to clear a minefield in the southern Golan Heights.

The 19-year-old soldier, Roey Yisrael Alfi, was a member of the Engineering Corps. He was participating in an advanced training course near Moshav Yonatan when an old mine went off.

A senior army source said that the mine exploded for unknown reasons.

Ground Forces Commander Major General Guy Tzur appointed a committee of inquiry to investigate the incident.

The occupied Golan Heights is an area surrounded by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, Mount Hermon in the north, and the Raqqad Wadi in the east.

Israel has occupied the western two thirds of this region. Syria controls the eastern third.

Tel Aviv has recently boosted military activities in the area, where clashes between Syrian forces and foreign-sponsored militants have spiked dramatically.

The Israeli military has set up a “military field hospital” at military outpost 105 in the occupied Golan Heights to treat wounded militants fighting against the government in neighboring Syria.

FSA Islamists return after clashes from Israel to Syria

Editor : Branichild (FB)

Al Manar TV reported that Israel has plans to construct a field hospital to treat injured members of opposition fighters. Media had it that 7 opposition fighters had been treated in an Israeli hospital, that will accept and treat Syrian opposition fighters injured members and refugees, to be built either in Golan or AlQunaytiraharea.

The Jewish newspaper israelNation reported  "..Syria and Israel are technically still at war, and there are also jihadists in the opposition forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad as well. Either side could have targeted the group for having gone to Israel. The group was rushed to the medical center 10 days ago after first receiving life-saving treatment at the border from an IDF medic, who treated them once they were brought across the border by the IDF. All had been wounded in clashes taking place near the Syrian border with Israel in the Golan Heights."

Israel is constructing a center for its security forces in Golan borders to monitor Syrian events more closely than before. The report also added that Israel has provided recommendation to its settlers in Golan on proper reactions in the time of crisis.

Zionist IDF Brigadier- General (ret.) Kobi Marom told the Jewish newspaper Arutz Sheva. "The IDF has prepared for the new reality that will be in the Golan," he said.

Also quoted by israelNation.com  newspaper: The case does not mark a change in policy, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya"alon stressed in an interview Saturday with Israel"s Channel 2 television, but rather an exception to the rule. "This was a unique event," Ya"alon said, and any others that might follow would "likewise be considered each on its own merits, on an individual basis."

Israel warns Assad over stray Syrian fire on Golan

Source : Maan News Agency

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israel warned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday to prevent his anti-insurgency sweeps from spilling over into the Israeli- occupied Golan Heights, saying it was prepared to defend itself.

The Golan, lost by Damascus in the 1967 Middle East war and mostly quiet for decades, was repeatedly hit by what the Israelis described as stray Syrian ordnance this week.

No one was hurt but nerves were jangled in Israel, which has tried to keep out of the conflict ravaging its old enemy next door.

"We see the regime in Syria as responsible for what is happening along the border," Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement.

Referring to the 19-month-old Syrian civil war, he said: "If we see that it is spreading in our direction, we will know how to defend the citizens of the State of Israel and the State of Israel's sovereignty."

Yaalon said Syria had previously "conducted itself appropriately" after receiving such messages. "I hope that in this case, too, there will be someone in Syria who takes matters in hand."

Israel annexed the Golan in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. In all past peace talks with Israel, Syria has insisted on the strategic plateau's return. The two countries signed a disengagement agreement in 1974, a year after another Arab-Israeli conflict, but are still technically at war.

Asked about a mortar bomb that landed in a Golan settlement on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak linked the incident to Syrian military operation against rebels nearby.

"We have made clear via UNDOF that we intend for there not to be shells falling on us," Barak told Israeli television, referring to a United Nations observer group on the Golan.

Barak did not elaborate on Israel's plans, saying only: "I hope this will not continue, and that the rebels will win in Syria, that Assad will fall and that, at long last, a new stage in the life of Syria will begin."

US, Israel to hold major missile defense exercise

Source : Maan News Agency

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- The United States and Israel will hold a major missile defense exercise in Israel this month, sending a message of close cooperation as both countries weigh their options over Iran's nuclear program.

The three-week exercise, the largest the allies have ever held, will simulate a variety of long and short-range missile attacks that Israel could face during a regional conflict, said the commanders in charge.

Asked whether it sent a message to Iran, which has warned of an all-out war should Israel try to strike its nuclear facilities, Israeli Brigadier General Nitzan Nuriel said: "Anybody can get any type of message from this exercise."

"The fact that we are practicing together and working together is a strong message by itself," Nuriel said during a conference call with reporters.

Offering a more guarded response, his US counterpart, Lieutenant General Craig Franklin said the exercise, "is not there to send a message", adding that it has been in planning for more than two years.

"This exercise will improve the cooperative missile defense of Israel and will promote regional stability and help ensure our military edge," he said.

More than 3,500 US personnel will take part in the drill, about 1,000 of them in Israel, Franklin said. The US will spend $30 million dollars and Israel about 30 million shekels ($7.90 million) on the exercise.

The weapons will include US Patriot missile batteries and an AEGIS ballistic missile defense ship, along with the multi-tiered missile defense system that Israel has been developing. All but one of the launches will be simulated.

Martin Dempsey, the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will observe part of the drill, said Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Commander Wendy Snyder.

Dempsey confounded some Israeli leaders in August when he told reporters the United States did not want to be "complicit" in an Israeli attack on Iran.

He also warned that go-it-alone military action risked unraveling an international coalition that has applied progressively stiff sanctions on Iran, which insists that its ambitious nuclear project is purely peaceful.

An Iranian military commander said last month the Islamic Republic would make no distinction between US and Israeli interests and will retaliate against both countries if attacked.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing the United States to set Iran an ultimatum or risk seeing Israel launch unilateral strikes. Washington says it will not allow Tehran to obtain nuclear weapons, but has not set out its own red lines.