Biometric database to be formed in Israel
Government approves bill calling for creation of database of all Israeli citizens. Data to include fingerprints, computerized facial features embedded on IDs, passports



Coming soon to the rest of the West!






Shin Bet Head: Israel Abandoning Jerusalem Neighborhoods

(IsraelNN.com) Israel has abandoned several eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods within the separation barrier, leaving them without army or police patrols, according to Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin.Neighborhoods are being abandoned…and it leaves a vacuum where Hamas operates.

"Neighborhoods are being abandoned…and it leaves a vacuum where Hamas operates," he added. Smuggling of weapons has increased, and police find it more difficult to deploy forces in neighborhoods where the terrorist infrastructure has strengthened.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima) pointed out that 20 percent of terrorist attacks in the past five years involved Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem. He explained that a dramatic change has occurred this year, raising a red flag through the direct involvement in terrorist attacks by Arabs who live within the separation barrier.

Three attacks this year that resulted in the deaths of 11 Jews were carried out by eastern Jerusalem Arabs who acted on their own, without any apparent ties to an organized terrorist movement. "It is extremely difficult to foresee and to prevent these types of attacks," Dichter noted.

Olmert's Last Trick

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement that he intends to resign following his party's mid-September primaries to select a new leader was greeted graciously across the Israeli political spectrum. Even political rivals commended Mr. Olmert for displaying courage and dignity in acknowledging his inability to continue leading the country under a pall of police investigations into his alleged corruption. In fact, though, Mr. Olmert may be about to embark on one of the most politically corrupt maneuvers in Israel's history.

According to aides, Mr. Olmert intends in the coming weeks to intensify negotiations with both Syrian and Palestinian leaders. He knows, of course, that what remains of his term is hardly enough time to reach an agreement on either track. Instead, he seeks to create the foundation for a future agreement -- hoping, aides say, to ensure that he isn't remembered only as the prime minister removed from office by scandal.

But there could be a more nefarious motive at work: that Mr. Olmert will use peace negotiations to prolong his stay in office. According to this scenario, neither of Mr. Olmert's likely successors, Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni or Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, is likely to create a stable coalition. The collapse of the government would then be followed by elections, which, polls say, would result in a victory for Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Olmert may believe that progress toward a peace agreement with either the Palestinians or the Syrians will convince the all-powerful Israeli media -- overwhelmingly left-wing and deeply antagonistic to Mr. Netanyahu -- to support his continuation in office.

Syria closes in on peace deal with Israel

The Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is racing to conclude a peace deal with Syria before he steps down from office in a few months.

Syria is close to agreeing to “normal relations” in the words of its president, Bashar al-Assad, and to disengage from Iran in return for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights. The outline of a deal was reached in talks brokered by the Turks, according to reports in Israel.

“We [Syria and Israel] desire to recognise each other and end the state of war. Let us make peace . . . let us end, once and for all, the state of war,” Imad Mustafa, Syria’s ambassador to the United States, told a Washington audience last week.

Assad, who is due to visit Tehran this weekend, is expected to inform his Iranian partners that Damascus has opted to loosen its links with them and move closer to Israel. The meeting is likely to be a difficult one since Iran has been financing the rebuilding of Syria’s armed forces and a mutual defence pact has only recently been ratified.

Israel warns Russia: We'll neutralize S-300 if sold to Iran

If Russia goes through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Israel will use an electronic warfare device now under development to neutralize it and as a result present Russia as vulnerable to air infiltrations, a top defense official has told The Jerusalem Post.

The Russian system, called the S-300, is one of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world today and has a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time. It has a range of about 200 kilometers and can hit targets at altitudes of 27,000 meters.

While Russia has denied that it sold the system to Iran, Teheran claimed last year that Moscow was preparing to equip the Islamic Republic with S-300 systems. Iran already has TOR-M1 surface-to-air missiles from Russia.

Iran Threatens Strait of Hormuz
Key Oil Shipping Passage Could Be Blocked for a Month

WASHINGTON — Two days after a diplomatic deadline passed for Iran to end the reprocessing and enrichment of uranium, the chief of the country's Revolutionary Guard force is threatening to close down one of the world's most critical oil shipping passageways, the Strait of Hormuz.

A picture released by Irna news agency shows military ships and helicopters of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards during maneuvers in April 2006 off Larak Island in the Gulf Sea.

The Revolutionary Guard commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari, spoke to Iranian reporters after testing a new antiship missile that he said could sink "enemy ships" at a range of more than 200 miles. He said shutting down the Strait of Hormuz would be easy.

"Enemies know that we are easily able to block the Strait of Hormuz for an unlimited period," Iran's official news service, the Islamic Republic News Agency, quoted Major General Jafari as saying.

'2 US aircraft carriers headed for Gulf'

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times.

Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region.

The US Navy would neither confirm nor deny that carriers were en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment due to what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy."

While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believed were heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan.

Gog and Magog.