Re: Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

Admin Wed 21 Jan 2015, 5:23 pm

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

Russia & Iran forge military compact as Iran & Hezbollah vow massive attacks on Israel’s northern tier. Here’s the latest.
In Uncategorized on January 20, 2015 at 5:55 pm
(Costa Mesa, California) — Are we heading towards another war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror movement in Lebanon? Tensions are rapidly rising. Israeli intelligence indicates that Iran and Hezbollah have been planning a series of major attacks against civilians along Israel’s northern border. Now, Israel appears to have taken pre-emptive action, killing an Iranian general and several of his top operatives in an airstrike. Iran and Hezbollah are vowing revenge.

If that weren’t troubling enough, Russia and Iran have just signed a dramatic military agreement that bodes ill for Israel and the epicenter, something I have been writing and warning about for many years.

I’m here in Costa Mesa today and will be speaking here Wednesday evening as part of The Third Target book tour. But here are the stories I’m tracking today:
Russia and Iran sign military cooperation deal (AP)
Iran general killed with Hezbollah fighters in Israel raid (AFP)

The Attack in the Golan Exposes Iran’s Growing Presence along Israel’s Borders (JCPA)
Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief: Israel should expect destructive thunderbolts (Jerusalem Post)
Iron Dome batteries said deployed as north braces for Hezbollah response — IDF chief says army ‘prepared’ day after Hezbollah members killed in strike; leave canceled for some units near border (Times of Israel)

Excerpts from Washington Free Beacon article:
Iran on Monday promised that Hezbollah would deliver “crushing response” to the Israeli attack over the weekend, which killed six Iranian agents, including a top-level commander, and five Hezbollah members.
“The experience of the past shows that the resistance current will give a crushing response to the Zionist regime’s terrorist moves with revolutionary determination and in due time and place,” Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), was quoted as saying.

The Israeli strike came just days after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that the terror group was preparing for a war in Israel’s northern Galilee region.
It also occurred just a week after Iranian military leaders announced that they are operating missile sites in Syria, which potentially include a nuclear facility.
Senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders were likely planning a sophisticated invasion of Israel’s northern border in the weeks before they were killed by an Israeli airstrike over the weekend, according to Major General Eyal Ben Reuven, the former deputy head of the Israeli Defense Forces Northern Command.

The accuracy of Israel’s strike and the high-level nature of those Iranian and Hezbollah commanders killed indicates planning for a militant incursion into Israel’s northern region, according to Reuven, who said the airstrike shows a “very high level of intelligence” on Israel’s part.
The high-level nature of the Iranian and Hezbollah operatives targeted by Israel suggests that an attack on Israel was imminent, according to Reuven, who handled top intelligence in the region during his time serving in the IDF….
Excerpts from an Agence France Presse story:
“An Israeli strike on Syria killed an Iranian general, Tehran confirmed Monday, as thousands of supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah gathered to bury one of six fighters killed in the same raid,” reports Agence France Presse. “The attack on Sunday near Quneitra on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights enraged Hezbollah’s supporters, but analysts said the group would avoid a major escalation with Israel….”

A source close to Hezbollah said six Iranians had been killed in the attack. Hezbollah told AFP that it was not the source of that toll. Among Hezbollah’s dead was Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of an assassinated commander from the group, and Mohammed Issa, a commander responsible for Hezbollah’s operations in Syria and Iraq….

The strike came days after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened to retaliate against Israel for its repeated strikes on targets in Syria and boasted the movement was stronger than ever. He touted its sophisticated arsenal, including Fateh-110 missiles, which have a range of 200 kilometres (125 miles) or more and are capable of hitting much of Israel. Analysts said the precision Israeli strike, days after Nasrallah’s bellicose remarks, stood to embarrass Hezbollah. ‘What happened is that the Israelis called Hezbollah’s bluff last night,’ said Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University in Beirut. But he said Hezbollah’s response was likely to be limited ‘because if it retaliates, it will be another war. Hezbollah is in Syria and it is not ready for another war against Israel.'”

How serious is the ISIS threat to Israel & Jordan? My interview with “The Times of Israel.”
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Admin Thu 08 Jan 2015, 7:46 pm

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog
Exclusive new poll: Americans fear “catastrophic terrorist attacks” by ISIS inside US, Israel & Jordan.
“Washington Examiner” reports results of survey commissioned for launch of #TheThirdTarget.
In Uncategorized on January 7, 2015 at 9:01 pm
(Headline in today's Washington Examiner)
(Headline in today’s Washington Examiner)
In the wake of the horrific terrorist attack in Paris earlier today, the Washington Examiner published the results of an exclusive poll that we commissioned for the launch of The Third Target novel.
The poll found Americans deeply fear a “catastrophic terrorist attack” by the Islamic State (aka, “ISIS”) inside the United States, against our ally Israel, and against the Kingdom of Jordan, one of our most important moderate Arab allies.
The novel, which was released nationwide yesterday, is a political thriller that imagines ISIS plotting genocidal attacks against all three countries, and launching other terror attacks in Europe and Iraq, as well.
Here’s the story….
Poll: 74% fear ‘catastrophic terrorist attack’ inside United States
By Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, “Washington Secrets Column,” January 7, 2015
Americans are deeply worried that the a “catastrophic terrorist attack” by Islamic militants, like the one Wednesday on a Paris magazine staff, will happen in the United States, according to a new poll.
According to the survey from national pollster McLaughlin & Associates, 74.2 percent of likely voters said they fear terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State will strike U.S. targets if they aren’t stopped. The poll was provided to Secrets.
Worse, they believe the terrorists will use chemical or biological weapons, not just the guns used in Paris on the staff of the humor magazine Charlie Hebdo, which published cartoons the extremists didn’t like.
The poll was commissioned by author Joel C. Rosenberg, the New York Times bestselling author of the new terror thriller, “The Third Target.”
He told Secrets today: “The Paris attack is a horrible reminder that we can’t get complacent about radical Islam generally or ISIS specifically.”
As with past books, Rosenberg’s newest about the Islamic State threat is partly built on interviews he conducted with former CIA directors, a leader of Israel’s Mossad, and Middle Eastern rulers including the prime minister of Jordan.
“My original plan was to write a novel that would warn people that ISIS was going to become a serious threat to the U.S., Israel and our Arab allies over the next five years or so. But events have moved much faster that I realized. When I started, President Obama was calling ISIS a ‘JV’ team. Now they are creating genocidal conditions in Syria and Iraq,” he told Secrets.
In the poll, Americans also said that they are worried about an ISIS attack on Israel. Just over 72 percent said they expect an attack there if ISIS isn’t stopped. Below is the poll….
[To read the full poll results concerning fears of a terror attack inside the U.S., Israel and Jordan, please click here]