Israel Matzav: Russia expels Israel's military attache in Moscow

Russia expels Israel's military attache in Moscow

Israel's military attache in Moscow, Vadim Leiderman, has been expelled from the country for spying. Israel Radio reports that Leiderman was questioned upon his return to Israel, and the IDF is saying with 100% certainty that he was not a spy.

Leiderman, the Defense Ministry said in a statement, was arrested by surprise last week by Russian security authorities and questioned at length on suspicions that he was spying on Russia on behalf of Israel. The arrest came as a delegation of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee visited Moscow under the leadership of the committee chairman and former defense minister Shaul Mofaz.

Israeli-Russian military ties have had their ups and downs in recent years. Israel openly criticized Russia earlier this year for supplying Syria with advanced Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles which the IDF fears will be transferred to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

On the other hand, the Defense Ministry permitted Israel Aerospace Industries last year to sell a production line of some of its mid-level unmanned aerial vehicles to a Russian company which is manufacturing the drones independently in Russia.

According to the IDF and Defense Ministry statement, Leiderman’s term as military attaché to Moscow was supposed to end in two months. The IDF said that upon his return from Moscow, Leiderman was questioned by security authorities which ruled out the allegations that the attaché was operating as a spy in Russia.

So why would Russia doe something like this? Perhaps this provides a clue.

Israel Matzav: Russia expels Israel's military attache in Moscow

Love of the Land: Watch the Themes, Not the Headlines

Watch the Themes, Not the Headlines

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
24 February '10

A basic principle is to look at the underlying interests and perceptions of specific governments, not the immediate headlines. Over and over we see stories that prove false in a few days yet probably leave a lasting impression to the contrary on readers.

That thought is prompted by a recent flurry of stories that the Palestinian Authority is about to return to negotiations with Israel. In fact, for reasons I’ve outlined repeatedly in this blog (relating mainly to the radical nature of internal Palestinian politics) that isn’t going to happen for a long time.

Another story we keep hearing is about how Russia or China are about to support real sanctions on Iran. Yet every time an official from those countries makes a statement it is to the contrary.

(Read full post)

Love of the Land: Watch the Themes, Not the Headlines

Love of the Land: Falling Into Place

Falling Into Place

With all the debate going on in America about the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the "situation" with Iran, it is interesting that the vast majority of Americans have no idea of where these countries actually are!! * * *A look at the map shows what seems to be forming as a spreading Iranian area of influence bordered by Israel on the West all the way to India on its Eastern border. A worrying development for both of our countries.
Love of the Land: Falling Into Place

Love of the Land: Never Give Up

Never Give Up

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
29 October 09

Bob Kagan asks a salient question: What will the Obama administration do when it’s clear (well, clearer than it has been) that we’re being played by the Iranian regime? He explains:

So now the test results are in: Iran’s intentions, it seems, are not good. Tehran apparently will not accept the deal but will propose an alternate plan, agreeing to ship smaller amounts of low-enriched uranium to Russia gradually over a year. Even if Iran carried out this plan as promised — every month would be an adventure to see how much, if anything, Iran shipped — the slow movement of small amounts of low-enriched uranium does not accomplish the original purpose, since Iran can quickly replace these amounts with new low-enriched uranium produced by its centrifuges. Iran’s nuclear clock, which the Obama administration hoped to stop or at least slow, would continue ticking at close to its regular speed.

Kagan implores the Obama team to show some spine and move ahead with sanctions to show we mean business. And really, if we didn’t get snookered by the Russians, they, in exchange for our selling out the Poles and Czechs on missile defense, “should come through by joining in sanctions.” Right? But like Kagan, I find it hard to believe that any objective evidence of “failure” will be taken to heart. We’ll simply double down, extend the deadlines, and continue the “hard work of negotiating.”

We’ve already refused repeatedly to take no for an answer on a series of deadlines, and have already absolved Iran for maintaining the secret Qom site. So why should we suddenly show some fortitude? We’ve already beckoned the mullahs back into respectable international company. We’re going to be the skunk at our own garden party?

The Obama team’s devotion to engagement has become a religious-like devotion. Contrary facts are reinterpreted to maintain the core ideology. We must simply be faithful and patient. As Kagan notes, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that ”engagement is an end in itself, not a means to an end.” If engagement ever stopped, we would have to dosomething. And if the vision of a grand multilateral international community doesn’t quite match reality we might — oh my! — have to act on our own. The imposition of American military power we’ve already been warned isn’t going to “permanently” solve anything. (Not like shipping part of Iran’s uranium to Russia to be replaced in a year, huh?)

Much damage has already been done by the faux negotiating. The Iranian regime has solidified its position and taken on an air of legitimacy. News of its suppression of dissent and brutality is out of the headlines. We’ve been enablers in the snuffing out of Iranian democratic protests. (Defunding them certainly went a long way in that direction.)

So will Obama show us he is the savvy negotiator and tough guy his ardent fans think he is? C’mon, it’s not like we’re talking about Fox News or the Chamber of Commerce.

Love of the Land: Never Give Up

Israel Matzav: Russia: 'We'll veto Goldstone referral to ICC'

Russia: 'We'll veto Goldstone referral to ICC'

Although Russia voted in favor of referring the Goldstone Report to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Israel's foreign ministry says that it has received messages from Russia indicating that it will use its veto in the Security Council to prevent the report from being discussed in the Security Council or referred to the International Criminal Court.

The remarks were made in a meeting between Russian Ambassador to Israel Peter Stegney and a Foreign Ministry official. The ambassador relayed messages from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Ministry sources said.

...

Stegney noted that Russia had voted in favor of passing the report to the UN headquarters in New York "because it had no choice," and even blamed European Union countries. According to the ambassador, the EU tried to ease the resolution's wording, but failed "due to the stance of Western countries."

Stegney stressed that Russia believes Israel should investigate itself. "The most important thing is that the peace process won't suffer," the Russian ambassador said.

State officials said that Stegney had slammed the Goldstone Report, saying that "it includes statements that do not relay on facts, but rather on subjective estimations."

Russian denial coming in 4, 3, 2, 1.....

No, I don't trust the Russians. The only real motivation they have to vote against Goldstone is that it could be used against them some day in Chechnya (or Georgia or Ukraine, although the latter two countries don't have terrorists and the Russians are bullying them). If that were to happen, I believe the Russians would just ignore it or get the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) and the 'non-aligned' countries to bail them out.

Another motivation the Russians may have - which I don't regard as real because its effect is an illusion, but which is likely to be the price Israel will pay for Russian support in the Security Council - is to make Israel show up at Russia's 'peace conference.'

One official said the Moscow conference may be in peril now, not because Israel is trying to punish Russia, but rather because the diplomatic process - as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned - would be harmed as a result of the Palestinian Authority's pushing the Goldstone Report forward.

"This is not a threat, just a statement of fact," the official said.

...

Russia has been trying for nearly two years to put together a Middle East conference as a follow up to the November 2007 Annapolis conference, but so far to no avail. Israel had up to now not objected, but just wanted to ensure that the timing was right and that the meeting would be more than just a photo opportunity.

The Middle East Quartet, made up of the US, Russia, the EU and the UN, reaffirmed at its meeting last month its call for a conference in Moscow.

Israel ought not to show up for that conference anyway.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Russia: 'We'll veto Goldstone referral to ICC'

Israel Matzav: Russia agrees to new sanctions on Iran?

Russia agrees to new sanctions on Iran?

Reuters is reporting that Russia has agreed to new sanctions on Iran.

[Russian President Dmitry] Medvedev made clear that Moscow was ready to back further sanctions against the Islamic Republic unless it changes course on its nuclear program, despite Russia's general reluctance to support such punitive measures.

"Russia's position is simple," he said. "Sanctions are seldom productive but they are sometimes inevitable."

...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to join his counterparts from the other five countries to discuss their Oct. 1 meeting with an Iranian delegation in Geneva. It is the six powers' first meeting with Iran since July 2008.

Russia had previously ruled out new sanctions against Iran but appears to have reversed its position.

Obama announced last week that he would scrap plans for a U.S. missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had angered Russia. Washington and Moscow have denied any quid pro quo deal on Iran sanctions in exchange for scrapping the shield, but analysts and U.N. diplomats suspect otherwise.

The previous U.S. administration said the shield would protect against an attack by Iran but Moscow suspected it was the target. Moscow's anger about the project was one of the reasons U.S.-Russian relations sank to a post-Cold War low.

Russia and China reluctantly backed three council resolutions imposing sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program but worked hard to dilute the measures.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband at the United Nations on Tuesday. Mottaki said afterward that the Western powers knew sanctions were a failed policy.

"If they would like to taste once again the failed policies, that is up to them," he said.

The United States and Germany have called for targeting Iran's energy sector if it refuses to suspend its enrichment program. The U.N. sanctions in place against Tehran focus on its nuclear and missile industries.

Let's not celebrate prematurely. Russia may be willing to endorse sanctions but what's left unsaid is what sanctions they might be willing to endorse and whether those sanctions might be effective.

We're still a long way from stopping Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Israel Matzav: Russia agrees to new sanctions on Iran?

Israel Matzav: Why Russia is arming Iran

Why Russia is arming Iran

Kim Zigfeld has an interesting take on why Russia is arming Iran. It's mostly about hating America.

Just weeks ago, rumors began circulating that Vladimir Putin’s KGB had begun sharing intelligence directly with the Hezbollah terrorist organization. At the time, the obscurity of the sources reporting this information combined with the seeming insanity of such a policy made the reports appear questionable to many. But now, with a secret delivery of high-technology weapons to Iran, such reports become chilling to contemplate.

Russia achieves a great deal by sowing terror in the Middle East. First and foremost, such terror ripples through international oil markets and drives up the price of Russian crude — the only thing keeping the Putin regime afloat these days after the Russian stock market collapsed in the wake of the global economic crisis. In August, Russia’s budget deficit increased a horrifying 40 percent, and a jolting 15 percent currency devaluation is predicted before the end of the year.

...

No wonder the Iranians are in quite a hurry to get their hands on Russian missiles to ward off an Israeli military strike — with the Obama administration dithering, Israel can have no confidence that American diplomacy will defuse the crisis, and that means Iran can have no confidence its infant nuclear arsenal will survive without Russian protection.

Announcing Russia’s refusal to help rein in Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated: “Iran is a partner that has never harmed Russia in any way.” One must wonder whether Lavrov would accept American military aid to the Chechen terrorists who stormed the Dubrovka theater and the school in Beslan on the grounds that Chechens had never done anything to Americans. It seems doubtful that he would do so, but hypocrisy of this kind has never been any sort of brake on Russian (or Soviet) foreign policy in the past.

Russia’s hatred of America is so intense, and its economic mismanagement and failure so profound, that it has become quite desperate. It is a neighbor of Iran and no friend of Islam (as any Chechen can testify). Just as American weapons given to the mujaheddin of Afghanistan yesterday are used against Americans today, so too Russian weapons flowing into Iran may come back with interest some day. But this is Russia’s only card to play in the geopolitical game of cold war that the Kremlin’s clan of KGB rulers simply cannot walk away from, regardless of the cost to the people of Russia or the world.

The Israelis aren't going to accept a diplomatic outcome that leaves the possibility of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran needs the Russian S-300 regardless of whether it fears an attack by Israel or by the United States.

But other than that, she's spot-on. The Russians are back to the cold war game of fomenting terrorism and crises. But when the next Cuban missile crisis comes along (in Venezuela), Obama won't stare down the Russians like John Kennedy did. Obama will capitulate and allow the missiles to stay.

Read the whole thing.

Israel Matzav: Why Russia is arming Iran

Israel Matzav: Russia says 'nyet' on new Iran sanctions

Russia says 'nyet' on new Iran sanctions

On Monday, Prime Minister Netanyahu disappeared for about ten hours. It now appears that Prime Minister Netanyahu traveled to Russia for an urgent meeting relating to Iran (Moscow is about a 3.5 hour flight from Tel Aviv), probably relating to the sale of anti-aircraft missiles to the Islamist regime.

But by Wednesday, Israel's largest daily, Yediot Ahronot, was reporting that Netanyahu had flown secretly to Moscow to voice concern over the possible sale of Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. Other Israeli newspapers published similar accounts, saying Netanyahu had made the 15-hour trip on a private plane leased from a local business mogul.

People familiar with Netanyahu's movements said the plane belonged to Yossi Meiman, head of the Merhav Group, an Israeli conglomerate with energy and media interests. Netanyahu leased the plane - instead of using a government aircraft - to help ensure secrecy, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Merhav had no comment.

...

The Haaretz daily said Netanyahu discussed Russian arms deals with Iran and Syria, and that Israel presented evidence that Russian arms were making their way to Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. In another report, the paper said the talks were also focused on sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has agreed to sell to Iran. The delivery of the S-300 missiles would make it much more difficult for Israel to carry out an attack on Iran.

The reported visit follows the hijacking last month of a freighter that was later intercepted by Russia off Cape Verde, thousands of miles from the Algerian port where it was supposed to have docked. A Russian maritime expert and the European Union's top anti-piracy official have suggested the Arctic Sea may have been carrying missiles bound for Iran. Israeli media have speculated the Mossad tipped off the Russians to the elicit cargo.

As the rumors swirled of clandestine talks, Russian officials remained silent. "We have seen these reports in various media, and you know that not all the details add up, but there is nothing more I can tell you," Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as saying Thursday.

The Russian daily Kommersant, citing a "highly placed source in the Kremlin," confirmed the visit and speculated the talks had been on an extremely urgent matter, "like Israel updating Russia on its intention to attack Iran."

Read All at :

Israel Matzav: Russia says 'nyet' on new Iran sanctions

Israel Matzav: Confirmed: Russia to supply MiG-31 fighters to Syria

Confirmed: Russia to supply MiG-31 fighters to Syria

This is bad news. In a deal that could alter the balance of power in our region, the Russian newspaper Kommersant is confirming that Russia has agreed to supply MiG-31 fighter jets to Syria. The Russians had previously denied there was an agreement. The jets have not yet been delivered, although MiG-29 jets are being delivered.

Kommersant cited the head of Russia's state-run United Aircraft Corporation, Alexei Fyodorov, as saying a 2007 contract to sell MiG-31E [pictured. CiJ] interceptor fighters to Syria has not entered into force.

The paper said Russian arms sales officials have denied such a contract exists.

Red All at :

Israel Matzav: Confirmed: Russia to supply MiG-31 fighters to Syria

Love of the Land: International Justice (1998)

International Justice (1998)

Today's Golden Oldie is from ten years (11) ago this month. July 1998.

Saying that Israel is judged by a double standard is a waste of time. We know it. They know it. So in this cartoon I tried to wring a wry laugh out of the unfair and ugly situation.

A classic goal of much of Jewish Humor.

Taken from Love of the Land: International Justice (1998)

Israel Matzav: Israel courts the Russian bear

Israel courts the Russian bear

After meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres announced that Russia is 'reconsidering' the sale of the S-300 anti-missile system to Iran.

"President Medvedev gave a promise he will reconsider the sales of S-300s because it affects the delicate balance which exists in the Middle East," Peres told reporters via video link from Sochi.

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Israel Matzav: Israel courts the Russian bear

Israel Matzav: Russia upgrading naval bases in Syria

Russia upgrading naval bases in Syria

Russia is upgrading a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea. The base is ostensibly to be used to support Russian naval anti-piracy operations off Somalia, but the real reason is apparently to re-assert itself in the Middle East. Israel is not thrilled.

The source said the base, established during the Cold War but little used since, would support Russia's anti-piracy operations off Somalia.

Read All at :

Israel Matzav: Russia upgrading naval bases in Syria

Israel Matzav: Israel's new patron?

Israel's new patron?

With Israel's relations with the United States on the skids, Israel has apparently decided - wisely - to play the field. Last week, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman was in St. Petersburg to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While there are plenty of disagreements between the two countries, the New York Times reports that Lieberman - a native Russian speaker who immigrated to Israel from Moldova in the late '70's - and Putin hit it off quite well.

Read All at :

Israel Matzav: Israel's new patron?

Israel Matzav: Quid pro quo

Quid pro quo

Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.

This past week, the Russian government canceled a sale of MiG 31 fighter jets (pictured) to Syria. Tonight, we have word on the quid pro quo for that cancellation. Israel Aircraft Industries, which is what is known as a 'government company' in Israel, has agreed to expedite the delivery of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) that were ordered by the Russians in April so that delivery can begin by the end of this year.

Read All at :

Israel Matzav: Quid pro quo

RUSSIA SIGNS DEAL TO SUPPLY IRAN WITH AIR-DEFENSE MISSILES

Russia signs deal to supply Iran with air-defense missiles

By The Associated Press


Tags: Iran, air-defense missiles

Russian news agencies say a top defense official has confirmed that Russia has signed a contract to sell S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran but that none of the weapons have been delivered.

Russian officials have consistently denied claims that it already has provided some of the powerful missiles to Iran and had not clarified whether a contract existed.

The state-run ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies and the independent Interfax quoted an unnamed top official in the Federal Military-Technical Cooperation Service as saying Wednesday the contract had been signed two years ago.
Service spokesman Andrei Tarabrin told The Associated Press he could not immediately comment.

Supplying the S-300s to Iran would markedly change the military balance in the Middle East.