By securing Assad and its alliance, Iran gains upper hand for nuclear talks

Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan’s talks with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Thursday, March 29 were closed to the press, but a statement published on Khamenei's official website said he told Erdoğan that Iran strongly opposes any foreign intervention in Syria's conflict and will defend Damascus so that it can continue to be a center of “resistance” against Israel.
Twelve hours later, Iran’s Lebanese stooge, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah, interrupted his Friday night sermon to declare triumphantly: “The die in Syria is cast. Talk of military intervention is over. There is no more talk about arming the opposition or about toppling the regime!”
Saturday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi announced, “The battle to topple the state is over, and the battle to solidify stability and move towards a renewed Syria has begun.”

Bashar Assad’s victory over the 12-month uprising to unseat him is unquestioned. With massive Iranian and Russian intelligence and military support, the Syrian army was able to push the rebels out of the cities – barring isolated pockets in Homs and Idlib – and drive them to the rural periphery, where they can’t hold up for long.
One observer, describing their situation as “undergunned and overwhelmed,” reported that Syria's rebels have to negotiate for hours for every box of bullets they haul across the border for their war against Assad. “And their frustration is starting to show.”
Tehran, Damascus and Hizballah are crowing over their success in derailing the Obama administration’s two-pronged policy for halting a nuclear Iran. It hinged on Tehran’s isolation by unraveling its alliance with Damascus and Hizballah and economic pressure through tough financial sanctions and an oil embargo.
Iran has come out of the woods firmly in position at the head of its bloc, now cemented by Assad’s defeat of his foes. Tehran’s hand is much strengthened for the coming nuclear talks between Iran and the Six Powers due to start in two weeks. Washington will have to pay for any Iranian concessions by starting the process of unwinding sanctions.
Responding to this situation during his visit to Tehran, March 28-29, Erdogan played both ends against the middle: He made the gesture to Obama whom he had just met in Seoul of cutting down Turkey’s purchases of Iranian oil by one fifth. At the same time, he signed lucrative deals with Iran for expanding the volume of their trade to $35 billion over the coming years.
Certain that sooner or later, Washington would slot Turkey onto the list of nations exempted from implementing the oil embargo against Iran, the Turkish prime minister could afford to defy US financial sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
And Tehran could afford to ignore as harmless the White House announcement Friday that the US would “go forward with sanctions on foreign banks continue to buy oil from Iran and further isolate Iran’s central bank.”
Khamenei listened carefully to the message Erdogan presented him from the US president. But he did not send back an answer. He evidently meant to leave Obama on tenterhooks until the nuclear talks begin next month.
The failure of Obama’s linked strategies for Iran and Syria resounded in the background of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Persian Gulf mission Friday and Saturday, described officially as aiming to bring Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states aboard a US-led front against Iran and Syria.

In Riyadh, Friday, she heard King Abdullah place responsibility for the Syrian debacle squarely at the door of the Obama administration for spurning the Saudi intervention plan to establis opposition sanctuaries in Syria under air force and ground forces' protection.
On Saturday, more recriminations echoed between the lines of the announcement of Clinton’s meeting with the foreign ministers of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). G

GCC Secretary Ahmed Al-Kaabi said: The meeting at the GCC secretariat will focus on the Gulf’s position on Syria and the role of the US and other allies. He added, “In fact, Saudi Arabia, along with fellow Gulf nation Qatar, has called for a timely approach, including arming the rebels and carving out a safe haven inside Syria from where the opposition can operate.”

Iran’s supreme leader gave the United States, Saudi Arabia and the GCC them his answer Thursday, when he pledged on his website strong opposition to any foreign intervention in Syria's conflict and the defense of Damascus, so that it can continue to be the center of “resistance” against Israel.
It is clearly too late to reverse the tide in Damascus: Should the US have a sudden change of heart and accept the Saudi plan to intervene in Syria and arm the anti-Assad rebellion, that route would be cut off by Tehran calling off the nuclear talks and so robbing Obama’s Iran policy of its ultimate goal.
The second Friends of Syria Clinton will be leading in Istanbul Sunday, April 1 has likewise been overtaken by events. Iran, Damascus and Hizballah have left the Syrian opposition and their adversaries’ tactics behind them in the dust.

This ought to be a resounding lesson for the Israeli circles who argue that it is up to America to deal with a nuclear Iran, a much-quoted minority chorus led by the ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan, the moderate ministers Benny Begin and Dan Meridor and the newly-elected head of the opposition Kadima party, Shaul Mofaz. They would all like to shrug off Israel’s responsibility for preempting a nuclear Iran and pass the buck to the United States.
Washington’s management of the Syrian crisis and its non-military approach to a nuclear Iran has left Assad in the saddle and enhanced Iran’s prospects of hanging onto its nuclear weapons capacity, while escalating anti-Israel “resistance” from Damascus.
Assad and Khamenei felt no urgency to go through with the large-scale pro-Palestinian spectacle they had planned for the Israeli-Arab Earth Day Friday. They now have bigger fish to fry.

The convoy of buses standing by in Damascus to carry an international legion of pro-Palestinian sympathizers flown in from Tehran to the Golan border with Israel was therefore sent away, and the HIzballah-led rally scheduled to storm the Israeli border was relocated to central Lebanon.

Denmark: Groups rally against 'Islamification' of Europe

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF

LAST UPDATED: 03/31/2012 18:29

A long-planned gathering of far right-wing movements from across Europe met in Denmark on Saturday to try to form a pan-European anti-Islamist alliance, a project that will test the cohesion of a fringe trying to build support from fears about immigration and militant Islamists.

Members of far-right groups from throughout Europe, including the he English Defense League (EDL) and the German Defense League, arrived in the Danish city of Aaruhus for the rally, which was expected to draw and anti-Islamic crowd from Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania and Sweden, according to the Guardian.

Organizers in the EDL who put together the event said they did not expect more than 700 people to attend, but insisted the rally would mark the beginning of a European movement against the "Islamification" of the continent, according to the London newspaper.

2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe

Car Review: Sporty model gets a makeover, more power

By Ron Amadon, MarketWatch

DAMASCUS, Md. (MarketWatch) — Not one to stay with the status quo for long, Hyundai gave its sporty model a makeover for the new model year.

A pre-introduction event brought the chance to drive one on a track as well as some twisty roads and on a backed-up interstate, but more on that in a minute. The 2013 models are in dealers’ showrooms now.

At the Las Vegas-area track, the four-cylinder stick shift coupe more than held its own, with predictable handling and a feeling that I was not pushing this rig hard enough. Cornering was flat and feedback was excellent, but the six-speed manual in the test car was not as good as some other sports cars. It was difficult to figure where in the pedal travel the clutch started to grab, but kicking off one athletic shoe and driving with just in a sock on the left foot improved things considerably.

But there was one other glitch. The seat could not be lowered enough to properly seat a 6-foot-tall tall driver wearing a helmet. I could have lowered the seat back, but I hate driving that way and so went around the track with a sideways view.

2013 Hyundai Genesis

PRICE RANGE	$24,250 - $28,750
FUEL	premium
ENGINES	2L I-4 274 hp 3L V-6 348 hp
EPA RATING	20-31 mpg 18-28 mpg
CAPACITY	2 adults
HANDLING	outstanding
POWER	Fun with either engine
RON'S RATING	"But, officer ... "

In fairness, I must say it was fun to raise a little hell with this true-blue sports car, without worrying about radar-equipped police. Even at triple-digit speeds, the coupe felt glued to the road.

Hyundai KR:A005380 -1.48% offered another coupe as transportation back to base camp and it proved comfortable for the long ride that occurred, highlighted by snow above the 4,000 foot level in the Nevada mountains and an accident involving two big rigs that backed up traffic for 9-1/2 miles.

That long slog at about 5 mph again brought up the clutch engagement question and the reality that the new for 2013 eight-speed automatic would be tranny of choice for those who don’t intend to take their car to the track very often. An automatic with paddle shifters was not available in time for this test. Hyundai says that model will peel off 0-60 in the five-second range. The turbo four should not be far off that figure.

Finally free of the wrecked semis, traffic took off like a bunch of bees that had just discovered the world’s biggest honey pot. A typical speed of around 80-plus was the norm on the interstate and I and my traveling companion made it back to base in time for a nice dinner.

For 2013, the coupe has received a makeover both back and front, as well as a new interior. I was less than a fan of the front styling, but the rear end looks much the same, except for the new tail lamps, and the interior is a winner for the lucky two people who get to ride there. To the rear there is some handy storage space.

Hyundai’s tradition of nicely styled interiors continues with a boatload of standard equipment. Controls were a short reach away and the instruments a cinch to read.

The base model turbo 2-liter four gets a boost to 274 horsepower, a gain of 30 over 2012. The 3-liter V-6 also gets a power boost to 348 hp from 306 and would be my choice were I in the market for this car.

Not changed were the fun parts of the car, that make it a true challenger to the Ford Mustang F +0.20% and Chevy Camaro GM +1.34% . However, those two have as loyal a customer base as the rival pickup trucks that the Detroit two also build.

A base-model Genesis coupe with the four-banger and automatic will average 20 mpg around town while drivers who behave themselves can up that to 31 mpg on the highway. The V-6 should produce 18 to 28 mpg. The six and the turbo four run on premium.

Along with the base T model, the four is also available as an R-Spec model and a Premium trim level. The six comes in R-spec, Grand Touring and Track models.

The starting price tag for the base model is $24,250, up to $28,750 for the R-spec 6. For that amount of cash, you get a first-rate sports car that can fill the needs of the weekend racer and those who simply want a fun car for the daily commute.

Sporty-car shoppers are missing a lot if they bypass the Hyundai garage.

Ron Amadon writes about cars for MarketWatch from Washington.

Withering: Krauthammer, Noonan Demolish Obama Policies

Two must-read pieces to start your weekend off right. The first comes from Peggy Noonan, whom Allahpundit correctly identifies as one of 2008's misguided "Obamacons" (conservatives who were taken in by the Democrat's pragmatism charade). Noonan has grown increasingly critical of Obama's performance in office, but the tone of her latest column suggests she may have reached a tipping point. Her distaste has become personal, if not visceral. A sampling:

What is happening is that the president is coming across more and more as a trimmer, as an operator who's not operating in good faith. This is hardening positions and leading to increased political bitterness. And it's his fault, too. As an increase in polarization is a bad thing, it's a big fault. The shift started on Jan. 20, with the mandate that agencies of the Catholic Church would have to provide services the church finds morally repugnant. The public reaction? "You're kidding me. That's not just bad judgment and a lack of civic tact, it's not even constitutional!"

Faced with the blowback, the president offered a so-called accommodation that even its supporters recognized as devious. Not ill-advised, devious. Then his operatives flooded the airwaves with dishonest—not wrongheaded, dishonest—charges that those who defend the church's religious liberties are trying to take away your contraceptives. What a sour taste this all left. How shocking it was, including for those in the church who'd been in touch with the administration and were murmuring about having been misled.

...

If you jumped into a time machine to the day after the election, in November, 2012, and saw a headline saying "Obama Loses," do you imagine that would be followed by widespread sadness, pain and a rending of garments? You do not. Even his own supporters will not be that sad. It's hard to imagine people running around in 2014 saying, "If only Obama were president!" Including Mr. Obama, who is said by all who know him to be deeply competitive, but who doesn't seem to like his job that much. As a former president he'd be quiet, detached, aloof. He'd make speeches and write a memoir laced with a certain high-toned bitterness. It was the Republicans' fault. They didn't want to work with him.

He will likely not see even then that an American president has to make the other side work with him. You think Tip O'Neill liked Ronald Reagan? You think he wanted to give him the gift of compromise? He was a mean, tough partisan who went to work every day to defeat Ronald Reagan. But forced by facts and numbers to deal, he dealt. So did Reagan. An American president has to make cooperation happen. But we've strayed from the point. Mr. Obama has a largely nonexistent relationship with many, and a worsening relationship with some.

Read the whole thing. Despite Obama's best efforts, Krauthammer was never bamboozled by the "hope and change" fraud. Dr. K drops the hammer on the president's open mic moment in the Washington Post:

You don’t often hear an American president secretly (he thinks) assuring foreign leaders that concessions are coming their way, but they must wait because he’s seeking reelection and he dares not tell his own people. Not at all, spun a White House aide in major gaffe-control mode. The president was merely explaining that arms control is too complicated to be dealt with in a year in which both Russia and the United States hold presidential elections. Rubbish. First of all, to speak of Russian elections in the same breath as ours is a travesty. Theirs was a rigged, predetermined farce. Putin ruled before. Putin rules after.

...

Obama is telling the Russians not to worry, that once past “my last election” and no longer subject to any electoral accountability, he’ll show “more flexibility” on missile defense. It’s yet another accommodation to advance his cherished Russia “reset” policy. Why? Hasn’t reset been failure enough? Let’s do the accounting. In addition to canceling the Polish/Czech missile-defense system, Obama gave the Russians accession to the World Trade Organization, signed a START Treaty that they need and we don’t (their weapons are obsolete and deteriorating rapidly), and turned a scandalously blind eye to their violations of human rights and dismantling of democracy. Obama even gave Putin a congratulatory call for winning his phony election.

...

Can you imagine the kind of pressure a reelected Obama will put on Israel, the kind of anxiety he will induce from Georgia to the Persian Gulf, the nervousness among our most loyal East European friends who, having been left out on a limb by Obama once before, are now wondering what new flexibility Obama will show Putin — the man who famously proclaimed that the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century was Russia’s loss of its Soviet empire? They don’t know. We don’t know. We didn’t even know this was coming — until the mike was left open. Only Putin was to know.

As I noted yesterday, the DNC has elevated Putin puppet Dmitri Medvedev to official Obama surrogate status, and the Soviet-era propaganda rag Pravda is editorializing forcefully on behalf of Obama's re-election effort. Read the piece. It's comical -- replete with dark suggestions that President Bush stole the 2000 election and angry potshots at Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney 2012: Because Pravda Hates Him.

The Market Ticker - NBC Is The Skittle Network by genesis

Are you pissed off yet? You will be.

NBC News is being excoriated in some circles – with competitor Fox News Channel leading the charge – for selectively editing audio of the 911 call placed by George Zimmerman just before he killed Trayvon Martin.

Yep. They got caught too.

In the NBC segment, Zimmerman says: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.”

So Zimmerman is a racist, right? Uh, not quite.

The full version, though, unfolds like this:

Zimmerman: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”

911 operator: “Okay. And this guy, is he white black or Hispanic?”

Zimmerman: “He looks black.”

What do you call it when the media invents things? That's not reporting folks.

Maybe NBC is trying to incite a race riot. Or maybe it's just pure slander. Incidentally there's no defense available to a news organization (or any journalist) when they intentionally do something like this. Zimmerman ought to consider suing their ass to somewhere beyond the orbit of Mars.

More to the point, however, this sort of invention of a conversation that never happened by splicing together two pieces of tape means that nothing the media is telling you can be accepted as true without independent proof irrespective of which side of the debate the alleged "report" is on.

While we're at it I have some more questions, but I'll keep it to just two for right now. Both would help understand what actually happened that night, and neither, to my knowledge, has been investigated and reported upon.

Let's ask "why not?"

First, ABC reported that Trayvon's body was kept in the morgue as a "John Doe" for three days. However, Martin's father called the Sanford police department the morning after the shooting when he noted his son was not home, and they came out and made the identification. Where did that discrepancy come from and was ABC trying to intentionally smear the Sanford police department? There is an adjunct question to this -- we know Trayvon had a cellphone with him because he was allegedly talking with his girlfriend. Were there numbers with the tags "Mom" and "Dad" in it? Wouldn't you have expected the police to look over what was inventoried, assuming that Trayvon wasn't carrying ID and call any obvious contact number such as one tagged "Mom" or "Dad"? Now maybe the cellphone had a passcode on it or something similar, but there's an obvious open question on the delay in identification and contact with the parents, and it deserves an answer.

Second, Trayvon Martin was allegedly out at night, on foot and in a rainstorm getting iced tea and skittles. Ok, here's the address where the altercation took place from the police report:

2381 Retreat View Cir
Sanford, FL 32771

Now go to Google Maps and type in that address.

Next, find me a convenience store -- you know, a place to buy skittles and an iced tea. Just type in "convenience store" in the "Search Nearby" box.

Where's the closest one and how far is it on foot?

In a rainstorm, for a bag of skittles and can of iced tea, both ways? Possible? Sure. Plausible? That story ought to be able to be checked, and rather easily -- all convenience stores these days have video recorders.

So has anyone checked to see if indeed the deceased hiked the anywhere from 2-4 miles to and from one of the half-dozen convenience stores in the general area (none closer than about a mile on foot, incidentally, and all somewhat of a pain in the ass to get to due to what appears to be a limited access highway -- 417 -- between the location and the stores which would force you to walk quite a bit further than you could go "as the crow flies".)

These are pretty basic questions. In fact the closest convenience store is a Murphy USA; to reach the others north of the location (the ones south are a LOT further) you'd have to walk past it, so it's highly likely that's the store -- if the story of going out for skittles and iced tea holds up.

Does it? Has anyone checked?

We'll start there; I've got more queued up.

Predictably, Land Day Protests Turn Violent

Tear gas, rocks, and stun grenades filled the air as Palestinian rioters and Israeli security personnel skirmished today — the Land Day protests unraveled into predictable anarchy and violence.

In Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel, hundreds of Palestinian protested, and later rioted, as they marched on Israeli border positions. In an abrupt contrast to the relative silence at the Qalandiya crossing between Ramallah and Jerusalem this morning, the attempt to “liberate” Jerusalem descended into chaos at the conclusion of Friday morning prayers.

Organizers of the Global March on Jerusalem boasted of a complex and thoroughly planned effort to flush Israel’s borders with two million activists, refugees, and militants from across the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan for Land Day. (March 30 is when Palestinian and Israeli Arabs commemorate deadly protests that took place in Israel over land rights in 1976.) The organizers included Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and leftist and extremist groups, and were backed by Iran and other Arab governments.

ADVERTISEMENT

Protestors burned tires and threw Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, who were deployed to prevent large-scale violence and the possible infiltration of Israeli territory. In the West Bank and Gaza, Israelis responded with non-lethal countermeasures, such as tear gas, the Scream device (used to disperse crowds with projected audible dissonance), and the Skunk (a modified carrier that sprays a non-toxic foul-smelling substance at large crowds). At the Erez Crossing between Israel and Gaza, 14 injuries and one death were reported after Gaza protesters crossed into the no-man’s land close to the Israeli border. The rioters were fired upon after failing to heed warning shots by IDF personnel. Large groups of Palestinians gathered at landmarks in Lebanon and Jordan, but did not attempt to breach the border.

The protests were marred by conflicts amongst the various factions claiming leadership over the masses, which resulted in infighting. Hamas, Palestinian Authority, and Lebanese security forces also beat back attempts to approach Israeli border crossings with clubs and truncheons. In Bethlehem, Palestinian police formed a human chain to keep protesters from reaching the checkpoint. A protester threw a Molotov cocktail that lit a fire on an Israeli watchtower after Palestinian police withdrew.

The day’s planning was beset by division within the organizers’ ranks months before the protests were to begin. From the onset, Iranians and other proxy groups sought to interfere. The few calls for nonviolent resistance and discourse during the day’s events were drowned out by the more radical elements.

The ensuing calamity resulted in visibly frustrated Palestinian aggressors largely retreating from Israeli security forces. The protesters who remained after most of the crowd dispersed were unable to sustain any cohesive momentum to continue their violence. By nightfall, only infrequent reports of rock-throwing and verbal incitement were being reported on Israeli radio and television.

The underlying failure of the Palestinian cause has been and continues to be its inability to look inward and to contemplate the underlying reason of their discontent. The crowds, led by political demagogues, misdirected their anger at Israeli authorities in the wake of their own leadership’s failings and dabblings in folly-induced, faux-nationalist events.

Revolutions in other Arab nations have not acted as catalysts for popular protest or civil disobedience in the West Bank and Gaza against their respective ruling regimes. The political leadership of Hamas and Fatah allow their citizens to wallow in mediocrity. The respective leaders of both organizations jockey amongst themselves for power, further the status quo by refusing to negotiate with Israel, and manage to distract their people by allowing the Palestinian street to vent its steam when needed, usually at Israel’s expense. These displays almost categorically lead to injuries, and sometimes cost Palestinians their lives.

The Palestinian leadership devotes years to planning and hundreds of thousands of manpower hours to these displays of false national victimhood — protests that spiral into violence, incitement, terrorism, and other grand plans of subterfuge that always end in grandiose failure to obtain their number-one goal: a state of Palestine. Recognition and realization of a Palestinian state will only come when Palestinians recognize the source of their anguish does not come from Israel, but from within their own ranks.

Got our back? More like stabbing us in the back

“There should not be a shred of doubt by now that when the chips are down, I have Israel’s back,” proclaimed U.S. President Barack Obama at the AIPAC conference earlier this month. “There is no good reason to doubt me on [Israeli] issues,” he similarly grumbled to The Atlantic. “I have made a more full-throated defense of Israel and its legitimate security concerns than any president in history ... I have kept every single commitment I have made to the state of Israel and its security ... We’ve got Israel’s back.”

Well, Obama definitely has a thing with Israel’s back. But he doesn’t seem to “have” our back. He is “at” our back. Stabbing us in the back, it appears.

How else can one explain the blatant and bold sabotage of Israel’s security that the Obama administration is engaged in? All the adamant protestations of support for Israel don’t weigh up against the concrete damage that administration officials are doing to Israel’s deterrent power and operational military capabilities through purposeful leaks of information relating to Israel’s strike abilities against Iran.

In a deliberate American campaign to scuttle any planned Israeli hit on Iran, Washington is leaking classified intelligence assessments and documents that rip deep into our most sensitive military zones.

Worst of all is the revelation (through Foreign Policy Magazine, yesterday) of State Department documents and CIA-provided details of Israel’s secret “staging grounds” (air bases) in Azerbaijan, from which the IAF can more readily strike into Iran. In the article, “senior intelligence officers” and former CENTCOM commanders name specific Azeri airstrips from whence Israel is apparently operating; name Israeli officials involved in managing the secret relationship with Azerbaijan; and provide astonishing detail on the air staging logistics that would be involved in an Israeli military operation there.

This follows upon the Congressional Research Service study leaked earlier in the week, which pans Israel’s ability to do much damage to Iran, and suggests that an Israeli strike would uselessly stir up a hornets’ nest. Great cost, with little gain, the report said. Two weeks ago, the Obama administration leaked to The New York Times results of a classified Pentagon war game dubbed “Internal Look” which forecast that an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would likely draw the U.S. into a wider regional war in which hundreds of American forces could be killed. This is to say: Don’t you dare act, Israel, or the Obama administration will blame you for getting Americans killed. And to make sure that Israel understood just how directed this leak was, the newspaper was allowed to publish the exact location, date, parameters and some names of participants in this war game. A fully authorized leak. A targeted kill.

So, for all the talk of “complete coordination” between the U.S. and Israel on the Iran file, it seems that Obama is playing rough with Jerusalem. Obama said that he “is not bluffing” when it comes to stopping the Iranian drive for nuclear weapons. “Not bluffing,” perhaps, but it seems that he meant that meant not bluffing about stopping Israel from acting against Iran.

Obama boasts at length at every opportunity about upgrades in U.S.-Israel intelligence sharing and weapons development that he has authorized. Aside from being benefiting America well as Israel, these upgrades are, of course, primarily aimed at holding us back from attacking Iran. The enhanced security cooperation is a bear hug designed to handcuff Israel. And it is counterbalanced and canceled out by security sabotage such as the Azerbaijan expose.

Obama is at our back, indeed.

IDF and Hamas battle Jihad Islami snipers trying to provoke Gaza warfare

The most violent event of Palestinian-backed Earth Day Friday, March 30, was a battle around the Gaza-Israeli Erez crossing between Israeli forces and marksmen of the Iran-backed Palestinian Jihad Islami,DEBKAfile’s military sources report. The shooters were laying down fire to cover a mass Palestinian rush on the Israeli border and the crossing so as to force Israeli soldiers to shoot into the crowd. Multiple Palestinian casualties would have given Jihad the pretext for reviving its missile offensive against Israeli towns and villages.
Our sources report that IDF fire was not aimed at the demonstrators but the marksmen. All the same, in the subsequent melee, one Palestinian man was killed – Mahmoud Zachout, member of a prominent Gazan family, and 14 were injured. At an early stage, members of the Hamas internal security battalion intervened. They split up - one section to stop the Jihad fire, the other, to block the procession’s march on the Israeli border. Zachout may have been killed by bullets from either side. Their source is under investigation.

DEBKAfile has not established whether the rare collaboration between Israeli forces and Hamas was planned or that both sides happened at same point to appreciate their shared goal, which was to stop Jihad Islami violence and de-escalate the tension. The result was to save a demonstration from descending into a bloodbath.
Israeli commanders commented at the end of the day that, although all the country’s borders remained intact and Palestinian mobs were prevented from breaking through to Israeli areas, as they had planned in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, the turmoil may not be over. Only thousands turned up for pro-Palestinian street demonstrators in Israel and its Arab neighbors, a mere fraction of the March of a Million that was planned jointly by Iran, Hizballah, Syria and Jihad Islami, Tehran’s tool in Gaza.

The beefed up IDF military concentrations will therefore remain in place on guard against fresh outbreaks around Israel’s borders with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian areas up to and during the eight-day Passover festival beginning Friday, April 6. The Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz has cancelled Passover leaves for key combat units and ordered them to stay on operational readiness.

WSJ: Obama Expands His Executive Power

Despite campaign promises to refrain from using executive powers to bypass Congress, President Barack Obama is increasingly doing just that, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

From helping rebels in the Libyan revolution to granting states waivers from the No Child Left Behind education act, Obama is finding it easier to push his agenda without asking for approval from elected senators and representatives, the paper said.

And that is not sitting well with either Republicans or Democrats who are keen to defend their own turf against what they see as an overreaching executive.

“When he ran for president, Barack Obama promised to roll back President George W. Bush's use of executive power, a defining point of the Bush presidency,” Laura Meckler wrote in the Journal piece. “The pledge was part of a broader pitch about Mr. Obama's governing style, which he said would focus on solving problems in a pragmatic, cooperative way.

“The allure of executive power, it turns out, is hard to resist,” Meckler added. “Most every chief executive has found ways to escape the shackles of the legislature and expand the power of the presidency. Three years into his first term, Mr. Obama has developed his own expansive view of going it alone, asserting new executive powers and challenging members of Congress in both parties.”

White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler told the Journal that Obama has developed a broadr view of executive power since his days as a U.S. senator. "Many issues that he deals with are just on him, where the Congress doesn't bear the burden in the same way," she said. "Until one experiences that first hand, it is difficult to appreciate fully how you need flexibility in a lot of circumstances."


Read more on Newsmax.com: WSJ: Obama Expands His Executive Power
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

The State Department's Jerusalem syndrome

I went to the US Consulate this week to take care of certain family business. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. I think it is ironic that two days after my extremely unpleasant experience at the consulate, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland refused to say what the capital of Israel is. It was ironic because anyone who visits the consulate knows that the US's position on Jerusalem is in perfect alignment with that of Israel's worst enemies.

Last time I went to the consulate was in 2007. At that time the building was located in the middle of an Arab neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem. It was unpleasant. In fact it was fairly frightening. Once inside the building I couldn't shake the feeling that the Americans had gone out of their way to make Israeli-American Jews feel uncomfortable and vaguely threatened.

But then, I was able to console myself with the thought that the US has been upfront about its rejection of Israel's right to assert its sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem. By treating Jews as foreigners in their capital city and behaving as though it belongs to the Arabs by among other things hiring only Arabs as local employees, the US officials on site were simply implementing a known US policy. True, I deeply oppose the policy, but no one was asking me, and no one was hiding anything from me.

The new consulate is much different, and much worse. The State Department opened its new consulate in Jerusalem in October 2010. It is located in the Jewish neighborhood of Arnona. It was built on the plot that Israel allocated for the US Embassy after Congress passed Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995 requiring the US government to move its embassy to Jerusalem. I read that construction began in 2004. I haven't been able to find out whether when construction began it was to build the embassy or a new consulate so I don't know yet whether the Bush administration thought it was building an embassy that the Obama administration turned into a consulate or if the Bush administration thought it was building a consulate that the Obama administration completed.

Whatever the case, the fact that the building that was supposed to be an expression of US recognition of Israel's capital in Jerusalem is being used as the consulate is an unvarnished act of aggression against Israel and Congress.

If I am not mistaken, the US Consulate General in Jerusalem is the only US consulate in the world that is not subordinate to the embassy in the country where it is located. When it was located in a hostile Arab neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, the fact that it was not subordinate to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv was upsetting. But it was also easily justified in light of US policy of not recognizing Israeli sovereignty in eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem.

But Arnona is in western Jerusalem. It is a Jewish neighborhood that even the most radical Israeli leftists don't envision transferring to the Palestinians in any peace deal. Putting the consulate in Arnona - and on the site reserved for the embassy no less - is the clearest expression of American rejection of all Israeli sovereign rights to Jerusalem imaginable.

And the fact that it is located in the heart of a Jewish neighborhood is far from the only problem with the building.

Israelis who live in Jerusalem and need US consular services are required to go to the consulate in Jerusalem. You can't just go to Tel Aviv to avoid the unpleasantness. This again is due to the fact that the US does not recognize ANY Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. From the State Department's perspective, people who live in Jerusalem -- even in Arnona and Rehavia and Ein Kerem etc. -- live in a DIFFERENT COUNTRY from people who live in Tel Aviv and Netanya. We can no more receive services from the embassy in Tel Aviv than we can receive services from the embassy in Amman.

I will be writing more about the US's adversarial treatment of Israel as embodied in its treatment of Jerusalem in next week's Jerusalem Post column. But suffice it to say here that Victoria Nuland's statement to AP reporter Matt Lee, (posted below in case you missed it), is a true depiction of America's policy on Jerusalem - and though it, on Israel.

It would be useful for someone to get Mitt Romney on record discussing his position on Jerusalem. Assuming that he says - like every other Republican presidential candidate - that he supports transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem, he should further be asked to explain how, if he is elected president, he will force the State Department to change its policies towards Israel and respect US law by treating Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Posted on March 30, 2012 at 8:28 AM

© 2012 Caroline Glick