IRAN, ISRAEL: Flexing muscles, turning up rhetoric in preparation for possible war

Things are not looking good for the possibility of a peaceful resolution between Israel and Iran over the latter's nuclear ambitions. Oil prices rose and hearts sank across the region this week as Iran began its biggest air defense drill ever and Israel readied a new missile defense system in preparation for a possible three-front war.

Since President Obama was swept into office promising a change toward strong diplomacy to resolve Middle East problems, his policies have faltered and his options narrowed.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank that favors a hard line on Iran, issued a report last week recommending that the Obama administration begin preparing for possible military strikes on Iran next year. If the U.S. does not strike Iranian nuclear and military facilities, the report said, Israel may decide to take riskier unilateral action.

The year is almost over, and so far Iran is unmoved. Neither the threat of stricter sanctions nor a U.S.-backed fuel-swap proposal has persuaded Iran to abandon its nuclear program, and the war of words with Israel is escalating.

ISRAEL: Specter of Meir Kahane continues to haunt politics

Two decades after his party was banned from running for seats in the parliament, Rabbi Meir Kahane and his ideas are once more on its agenda.

Recently, right-wing legislator Michael Ben-Ari asked to hold a discussion in parliament in memory of Kahane, an American-born rabbi who had founded the Jewish Defense League before moving to Israel and founding the militantly nationalist Kach movement that advocated removal of Arabs from biblical Israel. In 1988, Israeli law was amended to bar candidates who incited racism from running for parliament. Kahane, who had held a seat for four years at the time, was banned, and the party was outlawed altogether in 1994.
 
Kahane was assassinated in New York in 1990; some still subscribe to his views.

Ben-Ari filed a motion for a memorial discussion in parliament to mark the assassination anniversary. A reporter spotted it on the list and queried parliament speaker Rubi (Reuven) Rivlin, who removed it, calling it a provocation. Ben-Ari has challenged Rivlin's decision and has brought it up before a parliamentary committee that will vote on it coming few days.

It turns out that other parties expressed keen interest in the issue -- but not Israeli political parties.

MIDDLE EAST: Israel, Hezbollah in warning war

Israel keeps an eye on its northern neighbor. An ear, too. After a long silence during which multiple espionage rings were uncovered in Lebanon, Israel informed the United Nations that it would continue to gather intelligence in Lebanon so long as the government isn't in full control of its territory. 

This was Israel's answer to an official Lebanese petition to the U.N. after the discovery in late October of suspected Israeli listening devices in southern Lebanon. A few days later, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon also confirmed that Israel was gathering intelligence. When Hezbollah is disarmed and the border becomes one of peace, we will stop, he said.

Hezbollah isn't disarming. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the Lebanese government to extend its control over all Lebanese territory and for the disbanding and disarming of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias. That's not happening. Hezbollah is holding both ends of the stick, entering the political and governmental system while holding on to its arms.

MIDDLE EAST: Women's status up in Saudi Arabia, down in Syria, says study

The subject of women's rights in the Middle East is contentious. Sensational media coverage of honor killings and child brides equates religious conservatism with gender inequality, incensing Western feminists on the one hand and provoking regional backlashes on the other.

The reality is far more nuanced, according to the the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report released in late October by the World Economic Forum, which ranks countries based on women's economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.

In Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar -- socially conservative Persian Gulf countries that all rely on some form of Sharia Islamic law -- more women than men enroll in higher education, although they have yet to be fully incorporated into the workforce. 

Syria, on the other hand, which is ruled by a nominally secular regime, has slid in the rankings for the last three years. 

Iran scores low in the fields of economic, educational and health equality, but performs relatively well on political empowerment. 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt still hover near the bottom of the list, but have improved steadily since 2006. 

Yemen remained the lowest-ranked country in the world for the fourth year in a row.

LEBANON: Israel admits spying on its northern neighbor

Israel has openly admitted to collecting intelligence in Lebanon, an uncharacteristically frank admission and a slap in the face of its neighbor.

Of course, everyone spies on everyone in the Middle East. 

But in the past, for the sake of politesse, Israel has refused to acknowledge mounting espionage operations in Lebanon, although their existence is an open secret.

Lebanon has arrested dozens of alleged spies working for Israel this year alone, and recently found and destroyed a number of eavesdropping devices attached to Hezbollah's communications network. 

At the time, Israel said allegations of spying "did not warrant a serious response."

But during a recent visit to the volatile border separating Israel from Lebanon, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon confirmed Israel's information-gathering activities in Lebanon, which he said targeted Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia and political organization that maintains de facto control over southern Lebanon.

"The moment Hezbollah renewed their attacks, we began to collect intelligence. ... We will stop when Hezbollah disarms itself and the border is a border of peace," Ya'alon said, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

"When we are in conflict with an enemy, we gather information about them," he added.

LEBANON: Militant group's attack on Israel complicates the situation along tense border

For years, Israel's main concern on its northern border was the militant Shiite group Hezbollah, a tightly organized resistance movement that participates in the Lebanese government but still maintains its own military and social infrastructure. 

But now another player has appeared, a previously little-known Islamist group calling itself the Battalions of Ziad Jarrah, a branch of the Abdullah Azzam Brigade, that has now claimed responsibility for its second rocket attack on Israel this year.  Ziad Jarrah was a Sept. 11 hijacker, and Abdullah Azzam a mentor of Osama bin Laden.

Although Hezbollah has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, it often coordinates with the Lebanese army and the U.N., which maintains a peacekeeping force in the south.

The Battalions of Ziad Jarrah, on the other hand, are thought to have connections to Al Qaeda, using the well-known Jihadist Fajr media center to claim responsibility for the rocket that was fired on northern Israel on Tuesday from the Lebanese border village of Houla. 

IRAN, ISRAEL: Avowed enemies allegedly held secret nuclear talks

Reports are surfacing about a meeting that allegedly took place between an Israeli atomic expert and a senior Iranian official in Cairo in September to discuss the possibility of making the Middle East a nuclear-free zone. 

The talks, vehemently denied by Iranians but confirmed by Israelis, were reportedly held behind closed doors at the Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo under Australian auspices and would be the first direct negotiations between the two archenemies since the ousting of the shah in Iran in 1979.

Although participants in the meeting had “committed to complete secrecy,” as the Israeli daily Haaretz reported, the talks ended up being leaked by Australian sources to the Australian daily the Age, which broke the story on the purported Cairo meetings in a little-noticed Oct. 16 report.

Israel said today that the meeting had in fact taken place. The spokeswoman for Israel's Atomic Energy Commission, Yael Doron, told AFP news service that the agency’s representative conducted several meetings with an Iranian official "in a regional context" under Australia's tutelage.

Tehran, on the other hand, has denied that it held nuclear talks with the Jewish state. "This lie is a kind of psychological operation designed to affect the constant success of Iran's dynamic diplomacy in the Geneva and Vienna meetings," AFP quoted atomic organization spokesman Ali Shirzadian as saying.

Shirzadian was referring to the talks held in the Swiss and Austrian capitals over the last few weeks between Iran and six world powers on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear enrichment program. 

LEBANON: Hezbollah releases video, denies Israeli 'rocket' claims

 
Hezbollah has released its own video claiming that the "rocket" captured on Israeli surveillance tape after an explosion at the home of Abdel Nasser Issa in southern Lebanon was nothing more than the rolled-up metal door to the garage where the explosion occurred.

On Monday, Issa, a Hezbollah member, was reportedly injured in the blast that scorched the garage of his home in the village of Teir Felsay. Competing claims surfaced immediately as to whether the explosion was caused by a Hezbollah weapons cache or an unexploded Israeli ordnance, with Israel airing footage taken by an unmanned drone supposedly showing Hezbollah fighters removing rockets from the site of the blast.

Hezbollah's footage, which originally aired on the group's Al  Manar television channel, shows men loading the door into a covered truck while UN peacekeepers look on. Click here to watch both videos on the BBC's website.

A piece posted on Hezbollah's website wa3ad.org explains that accidents with unexploded Israeli ordnances are not uncommon, and that some people may take them home and try to defuse them (Arabic link) in order to then sell the emptied shell to scrap-metal dealers. At least 290 people have been killed or injured by unexploded Israeli ordnances in southern Lebanon; a number of those incidents have been linked to scrap-metal collection.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, a top official in Hezbollah, has denounced the Israeli drone's violation of Lebanese airspace as the "real attack on Lebanon." Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh told the Lebanese daily As-Safir that he intends to file a complaint with the UN Security Council, of which Lebanon is a non-permanent member as of Thursday.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: Al Manar aired footage Thursday supposedly showing the "rocket" captured on Israeli surveillance film was actually the rolled-up garage door. Credit: almanar.com.lb

LEBANON: Israeli army says video shows Hezbollah blast site was weapons cache

The Israeli Defense Forces has released a video it says shows Hezbollah fighters clearing munitions from the home of party member Abdel Nasser Issa in southern Lebanon, where a mysterious explosion took place Monday evening.

The grainy surveillance video, which was purportedly shot by an unmanned Israeli aircraft, shows dozens of figures loading trucks at the site of the blast before the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers arrived on the scene. Click here to view the video on the IDF's website.

The incident is under investigation, with contradictory news reports saying that the site was a Hezbollah weapons cache or that the explosion was caused by old Israeli ordnance. No one was killed in the blast, but Lebanese authorities confirmed that one person was wounded, reportedly Issa.

Israel filed an official complaint with the United Nations after the explosion, which it said proves Hezbollah is continuing to store weapons in southern Lebanon in violation of U.N. Resolution 1701. Hezbollah, which describes itself as a resistance movement, has never denied its weapons and often boasts of its military capacity.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

LEBANON: Mysterious explosion in Hezbollah member's house

A mysterious explosion went off in the home of Hezbollah member Abdel Nasser Issa in southern Lebanon on Monday evening, sparking a flurry of contradictory reports regarding the cause of the blast and number of casualties.

Hezbollah denied initial reports that five people had died, including a party official and his son. Local media claimed that no one was killed but that Issa was undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital for serious injuries.

The Israeli army issued a statement claiming the explosion "proves again the presence of weapons forbidden in southern Lebanon" under U.N. Resolution 1701, and Israeli resident Shimon Peres accused Hezbollah of turning Lebanon into a "powder keg." But as of this afternoon, Hezbollah's news channel, Al Manar, was favoring an AFP report suggesting the explosion may have taken place while Issa was attempting to defuse unexploded Israeli ordnance he found next to a nearby river.

A spokeswoman for the U.N. peacekeeping force confirmed that the Israeli Army requested an investigation into the explosion, which comes just a few months after another mysterious blast in an abandoned house near the Israeli border which was widely believed to have been caused by a Hezbollah weapons cache. Hezbollah has maintained that the building contained unexploded Israeli shells from the 2006 July war.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: the first-floor garage where the explosion took place was scorched when a still-unexplained explosion went off Monday night. Credit: Naharnet.com