MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

And this is being said while Assad is listening. What Syria does next is anybody’s guess …

By Joel Greenberg – “JERUSALEM — In a shift, Israeli officials are welcoming the prospect that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, will be overthrown, an event Defense Minister Ehud Barak says could be weeks away.

As Assad has come under mounting pressure from a revolt at home and moves to isolate him abroad, initial wariness of speaking out publicly about the fate of his regime has given way to open speculation by officials and analysts about how long he can hold on to power, who might replace him and the possible risks of a chaotic disintegration of his rule.

‘Basically, it’s inevitable,’ Barak said in a telephone interview before flying Wednesday to Washington for meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other administration officials. ‘The Assad family, through their own behavior, have lost their last drop of legitimacy and put themselves beyond the point of no return with their brutal slaughter of their own people. He has ceased to be something relevant.’

‘It might take many weeks,’ Barak added, ‘but it’s not a matter of months or years.’

In a separate interview, Moshe Ya’alon, the minister of Strategic Affairs, said: ‘It’s a matter of time and bloodshed before we will witness Assad’s departure. That is our assessment.’

Barak predicted that an eventual removal of Assad would undermine an alliance of Israel’s enemies, including militant Islamist groups backed by Iran and Syria that have fought Israel across its northern and southern borders.” Read more.

Expert: A Threatened Assad May Attack Israel – “Middle East expert Professor Eyal Zisser warned on Monday against a possible Syrian attack on Israel, if President Bashar Assad feels threatened by the anti-regime protesters. In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Zisser said that in the short term there is no reason for particular concern, because a situation which is bad for Assad is good for Israel as this means that the Syrian president is preoccupied with his internal affairs and not with attacking Israel.” Read more.

Report: Syria Arms Medium-Range Missile Arsenal with Chemical Warheads – “The Syrian regime, which has endured nine months of civil unrest spurred by the Arab Spring as it swept across the Middle East, has armed its medium-range missile arsenal with chemical warheads … Damascus armed 600 one-ton chemical warheads to use in the event of a foreign military intervention. Furthermore, President Bashar al-Assad ordered the deployment of 21 missile launchers along its border with Turkey. Syria’s medium-range missiles that can be equipped with chemical warheads have a range of up to 1,300 kilometers…” Read more.

“A senior Israeli cabinet minister on Monday said Iran must be forced to face an existential question over its nuclear drive: choose between getting an atomic bomb, or survival.

‘We believe that in order to stop the Iranian military nuclear project, the regime in Tehran should face a dilemma — whether to have a bomb or to survive,’ Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon told reporters in Jerusalem.

Yaalon said however it was for the international community, rather than Israel, to apply what he called an ‘achievable’ policy.

‘We prefer that the international community led by the United States will bring about this dilemma in order to convince the regime to give up its military nuclear programme,’ he said, stressing the need for political isolation and economic sanctions aimed at the banking and oil sectors.

Israel and much of the international community fear that Iran’s nuclear programme masks a drive for a weapons capability.

Tehran denies any such ambition and says the programme is for peaceful civilian energy and medical purposes only.

‘Our policy is very clear — by one way or another, the military nuclear project in Iran should be stopped,’ Yaalon said, indicating it “might be 12 months, might be 24 months” until Iran was able to reach a military nuclear capability.

Israel has pushed Washington and the European Union for tough sanctions against Tehran, but has repeatedly warned it would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Yaalon, a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle of eight ministers, also reiterated the line that while a military option was still on the table, as ‘the last resort.'” Read more.

(Reuters) – “TEHRAN (Reuters) – A member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee said on Monday that the military was set to practice its ability to close the Gulf to shipping at the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil transit channel in the world, but there was no official confirmation.

The legislator, Parviz Sarvari, told the student news agency ISNA: ‘Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.’

Contacted by Reuters, a spokesman for the Iranian military declined to comment.

Iran’s energy minister told Al Jazeera television last month that Tehran could use oil as a political tool in the event of any future conflict over its nuclear program.

Tension over the program has increased since the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on November 8 that Tehran appears to have worked on designing a nuclear bomb and may still be pursuing research to that end. Iran strongly denies this and says it is developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Iran has warned it will respond to any attack by hitting Israel and U.S. interests in the Gulf and analysts say one way to retaliate would be to close the Strait of Hormuz.

About a third of all sea-borne shipped oil passed through the Strait in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and U.S. warships patrol the area to ensure safe passage.” Read more.

Here is an addendum to some thoughts on this story …

By Elad Benari – “Middle East expert Professor Eyal Zisser warned on Monday against a possible Syrian attack on Israel, if President Bashar Assad feels threatened by the anti-regime protesters.

In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Zisser said that in the short term there is no reason for particular concern, because a situation which is bad for Assad is good for Israel as this means that the Syrian president is preoccupied with his internal affairs and not with attacking Israel.

Zisser added that the concern is in the long run, because it is quite possible that a desperate Assad may decide to rally his people around a common enemy, namely Israel.

Referring to Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s comments on Sunday that the end of Assad’s rule is approaching and that it would be a ‘blessing for the Middle East,’ Prof. Zisser said that these remarks do not have any special meaning for the Syrians as they do not pay attention to remarks made by an Israeli defense minister.

He also spoke of the interview Assad gave last week to ABC News, in which he told veteran journalist Barbara Walters that ‘no government in the world [would] kill its people unless it’s led by a crazy person.’ Zisser explained that the interview is a direct continuation of an attempt by Assad’s men to show him as an enlightened person who is different from his father. This attempt, he said, has been ongoing since Assad took over power from his father.” Read more.

Report: Syria Arms Medium-Range Missile Arsenal with Chemical Warheads – “The Syrian regime, which has endured nine months of civil unrest spurred by the Arab Spring as it swept across the Middle East, has armed its medium-range missile arsenal with chemical warheads. According to a report published by the Sabah daily Sunday, Damascus armed 600 one-ton chemical warheads to use in the event of a foreign military intervention. Furthermore, President Bashar al-Assad ordered the deployment of 21 missile launchers along its border with Turkey. Syria’s medium-range missiles that can be equipped with chemical warheads have a range of up to 1,300 kilometers…” Read more.

“Israel on Sunday night closed the Mughrabi ramp leading to the mosque compound in the Old City over public safety concerns in a move which was immediately condemned by Palestinians officials and Jordan, which is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

‘This is a serious step that shows the Zionist scheme of aggression again the Al-Aqsa mosque,’ Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.

‘This is a violent act that amounts to a declaration of religious war on the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem,’ he said, calling for ‘Arab and Muslim mobilisation to stop this serious event.’

Jerusalem city council says the ramp poses a fire hazard and could collapse onto the women’s prayer section by the Western Wall.

But Muslim leaders fear its demolition could destabilise the mosque compound and accuse Israel of failing to coordinate its renovation with Waqf, which oversees Islamic heritage sites.

The closure prompted a swift response from Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina who warned it was another Israeli ‘attack’ on efforts to revive the moribund peace talks which could shake up the region.

‘These practices create a negative atmosphere in the entire region that could plunge the area into turmoil and tension,’ he warned.

Jordan’s powerful Islamists denounced the decision as ‘flagrant aggression.’

‘This is a very dangerous move,’ the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, Hammam Said, told AFP.

‘The only solution against this entity (Israel) is resistance in order to protect the sanctity of the holy places against such flagrant aggression,’ he said.” Read more.

Egypt, Jordan Warns Israel over Temple Mount Gate – “Egypt has warned Israel over the matter of renovating the footbridge that leads to the Rambam (Mughrabim) Gate to the Temple Mount, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Monday. ‘We are receiving warning messages from the Egyptians, because the Muslim Brotherhood is exerting pressure on them,’ Rivlin told German Ambassador to Israel Andreas Michaelis, who met him in Rivlin’s bureau Monday. The Muslim Waqf, which controls the Al Aqsa area atop the Temple Mount, has demanded that Israel refrain from renovating and rebuilding the walkway, which Jews use to access the Mount. Jordan, too, has warned Israel in the matter.” Read more.

Hamas’ own charter states in no uncertain terms that “Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors … There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad … Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!”  Yet, according to the Turkish President, Hamas supports democracy and peace with Israel?  And this is the ‘moderate’ model from which new leaders of the ‘Arab Spring’ draw their inspiration?  …

By Elad Benari – “Turkish president Abdullah Gul on Sunday said Israel should take advantage of the changes in the Middle East to achieve peace with the Palestinian Authority and the entire Arab world, the Turkey-based Today’s Zaman reported.

Speaking upon his return from Vienna, where he snubbed an official lunch on Friday because of the presence of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Gul told local reporters that Israel had not yet understood the reason for Turkey’s anger with the Jewish state. He added that in order to return to normal relations with Turkey, Israel must achieve peace with the PA and other Arab countries.

Gul added that Israel should take advantage of what he called the ‘efforts for democracy’ being made as part of the Arab Spring, and added that the period of Arab dictators backing the IDF operations in Gaza was over.

‘As the democracy in the Middle East grows, Israel will eventually have to stop the violence in ‘Palestine’’, he was quoted as having said.

Gul also claimed that Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas terror group, is a supporter of democracy and is willing to live in peace alongside Israel.” Read more.

Hamas sets up rocket production line in Sinai – “Hamas has established forward bases and rocket production facilities in the Sinai Peninsula in an effort to protect them from Israeli air strikes, The Jerusalem Post has learned. By establishing the facilities in Egypt, Hamas aims to protect its assets since it believes Israel will not strike targets inside Egypt due to the affect it would have on bilateral relations. Israel has called on Cairo to increase its efforts to restore order in Sinai and to prevent attacks, but the Egyptian military has held back from dismantling the Hamas infrastructure in the peninsula.” Read more.

Flashback: Hamas MP and Cleric: The Caliphate is Coming and in a Few Years a ‘Great Massacre of Jews’ – “The (Jews) are brought in droves to Palestine so that the Palestinians – and the Islamic nation behind them – will have the honor of annihilating the evil of this gang… All the predators, all the birds of prey, all the dangerous reptiles and insects, and all the lethal bacteria are far less dangerous than the Jews… In Just a few years, all the Zionists and the settlers will realize that their arrival in Palestine was for the purpose of the great massacre, by means of which Allah wants to relieve humanity of their evil.” Read more.