This issue looks at Israel’s attack on a Syrian weapons convoy, Iran’s recent missile launch, more anti-Semitic rhetoric from Morsi, Saeed Abedini’s sentence in Iran, the mysterious blast at an Iranian nuclear site, the first installment of fighter jets to Egypt, disturbing news of new Muslim violence in London and even more disturbing news regarding what Muslims are now teaching.

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News from The Israel Project

A version of the advanced anti-missile system that Israel reportedly intercepted in a Syrian convoy bound for Hezbollah

Israeli Air Force jets struck a weapons convoy traveling from Syria into Lebanon Tuesday, in an operation that appears to have been aimed at preventing the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah from acquiring advanced SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles from the increasingly endangered Bashar al-Assad regime. Israeli officials have been warning for months, and in increasingly explicit language, that Jerusalem will not allow the transfer of Syria’s advanced weapons, including and especially chemical and biological weapons, to terrorist groups. The strike this morning may indicate that Damascus is testing the so-called Israeli “red line” regarding such transfers. As news of the operation began to emerge, The Israel Project was hosting a press briefing with a former top Mossad official on the risks posed by Syrian instability in general, by the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah in particular, and on Israel’s approach to the new security environment.

Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon has reserved for Damascus the ability to launch a “surprise retaliation” against Israel, a day after reports emerged of multiple Israeli Air Force operations designed to bolster Israel’s “red line” against the transfer of Syria’s nonconventional arsenal. Later in the day state-controlled Syrian media outlets reported that Israeli jets had struck a compound rumored to be linked to Syria’s nonconventional weapons program.

Iran’s recent missile launch, in which the Islamic republic claims to have sent a monkey into space, would also demonstrate that the regime possesses intercontinental ballistic capabilities, according to NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate John Grunsfeld. Reuters conveys the concerns of multiple Iran watchers and analysts to the effect that Iran’s space program is being used by the Iranian military to develop and hone delivery systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Trying to contextualize why he had urged Egyptians to teach children hatred for Jews, and also why he had referred to Zionists as “the descendants of apes and pigs,” Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi reportedly told a Senate delegation last week that controversy over his remarks was the result of a Jewish-controlled US media conspiracy. The reaction of the Senate delegation, described in a Foreign Policy exclusive, was not positive. Morsi’s comments are difficult to reconcile with the evaluations of some foreign policy analysts, who have insisted that the Muslim Brotherhood-linked president is a sophisticated statesman and a level-headed pragmatist.

IT’S NEWS TO ME

Iran Sentences American Pastor Saeed Abedini to 8 Years in Prison
NRB Media Source reports: Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, an American imprisoned in Iran on charges of evangelizing, was sentenced to eight years in prison. According to the American Center for Law and Justice, Abedini was verbally sentenced in Tehran by Judge Pir-Abassi, known as the “hanging judge,” to eight years in prison for threatening the national security of Iran through his leadership in Christian house churches. He will serve the time in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, known as one of the most brutal. More.

Mysterious Blast Rocks Iranian Nuclear Facility
Joel Rosenberg reports: Last week, Reza Kahlili — a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officer who became a double-agent for the CIA —reported the following:

“An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime. The previously secret nuclear site has become a center for Iran’s nuclear activity because of the 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to the 20-percent level. Read more.

Obama Gives Fighter Jets to Islamic America-Hating Egypt
GodfatherPolitics reports: On January 22nd four of the proposed 20 F-16 fighter jets were

F-16 Fighter Jet

delivered to Egypt. The jets, decorated with Egypt’s flag on their tails, are part of a $213 million “gift” from the United States, including 200 Abrams tanks. To paraphrase the contemptible Hillary Clinton, Why should that matter? After all, Egypt is already in possession of more than of 200 such aircraft, courtesy of their “friend,” America. What do another four or even 20 such military aircraft in Egypt’s bloody hands matter? Read more.

Islamist Gang Enforces Shari’a on London Streets
Islamist Watch reports: Disturbing videos have been posted online by the “Muslim patrol,” a group of thugs who harass Londoners about obeying the rules of their self-proclaimed “Muslim area.” In one clip, they berate a woman for her attire, bully men into relinquishing their alcohol, chase a couple away from a mosque, and use a bicycle accident to promote Islam; the hoodlums describe themselves as “vigilantes implementing Islam upon your own necks.” Another clip focuses on the destruction of bra ads, and each video is punctuated by a soundtrack of chanting and gunfire. Five have been arrested after the emergence of new footage in which a man whom the Islamists suspect to be gay is peppered with insults in East London. “You are walking through a Muslim area dressed like a fag,” one is heard saying. “You need to get out of here.” None of this is surprising. Over the past few years, stickers have declared certain London neighborhoods to be Shari’a zones and gay-free zones, while radicals dubbed the “Tower Hamlets Taliban” have threatened women and homosexuals.

Muslims are now Teaching Students that Cannibalism against Christians is Permitted.

 

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