Submitted by: M Mullikin
Saturday 12 October 2019
Germany’s Jews Feel ‘Under Siege’ Following Rise in anti-Semitism……
12 October 2019
12 October 2019
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer with
members of the Jewish community at the syna-
gogue in Halle, eastern Germany, following an
attack that left two people dead.
Jewish community leaders express frustration that their warnings about mounting anti-Jewish hostility haven’t been sufficiently heard…….
BERLIN—A day after an attack on a synagogue left two dead in Halle, eastern Germany, Jews across the country said they felt increasingly under siege from growing anti-Semitism across German society.
Jewish community leaders had warned for months about a rising number of assaults by recently arrived migrants from the Middle East, Islamists and far-left opponents of Israel.
But the Halle attack, which authorities said appeared motivated by far-right ideology, underlined the formidable threat still posed by right-wing extremists in the country.
“We have seen a rise in anti-Semitism for years now, we see it across society. We see it on the right, on the left, in Islamism, and in mainstream society,” said Remko Leemhuis, acting director of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin.
“Right now it feels like it’s coming from everywhere.”
On Thursday, several community leaders expressed frustration that their warnings about mounting anti-Jewish hostility hadn’t been sufficiently heard and criticised the fact that the Halle synagogue wasn’t under police protection, as is customary in most large German cities, particularly on the high holy day of Yom Kippur.
Two missiles set an Iranian tanker on fire near the Saudi coast…………….
October 12, 2019
October 12, 2019
Two missile explosions, 20 minutes apart, set a tanker belonging to the National Iranian Oil Company on fire in the Red Sea on Friday, October 11 when it was 95 kilometres from the Saudi port city of Jeddah.
Iranian state media IRNA said the explosions damaged two storerooms aboard the oil tanker and caused an oil spill into the Red Sea.
Iran’s Nour news agency, close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, later said the situation was under control and no crew members were injured.
It gave the vessel different names, “Sanitised” or “Sabity” or “Sinopa”
The US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which oversees the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The explosions came after a series of attacks attributed to Iran, including the shooting down of a US drone over the Strait of Hormuz, attacks on tankers sailing in the Gulf and, finally, the cruise missile-drone assault on Saudi oil facilities which halved its output.
If a missile strikes is confirmed. this would be the first time since that series of attacks began to unfold five months ago that an Iranian oil tanker was targeted.
The two missiles were fired from the Saudi coast or a Saudi missile boat.
If the Saudis were responsible, the incident is capable of triggering a major outbreak of hostilities, including the trading of missile strikes between the oil kingdom and Iran.
Turkey is short of military strength to achieve Erdogan’s ambitious goals in Syria…..
October 12, 2019
October 12, 2019
The Turkish push into north-eastern Syria started with the aim of conquering three border towns, Ras al-Ayn, Tel Abyad and Ain al Issa, held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
By Saturday, October 12, Day 4, that triple object proved beyond the Turkish army’s strength without bringing in substantial foot and armoured reinforcements and incurring many casualties.
Turkey therefore decided to start with two targets, grabbing the outskirts of Ras al-Ayn and sections of the key M4 highway near Ain al Issa. (On Saturday afternoon, Turkish sources claimed that the town had fallen.)
If Ras al-Ayn was really in their hands, which other sources deny, Turkish troops would be able to surround and overwhelm the SDF force defending the town of Kobani.
To prevent this happening, the US last week sent a small Marine force to take up position in the north-east town of Kobani and on the hill overlooking the M4.
On Friday, this force came under Turkish artillery fire, which caused no harm. Turkey claimed it was “a mistake,” which is hard to believe since the Turkish officers have detailed maps of the locations of US forces in the region.
At all events, by Saturday, M4 had not been captured by the Turks.
The tactic employed by the Turkish high command, given the small number of troops provided for Recep Edrogan’s Peace Spring Operation, is to aim for an important local victory in one sector, before moving on.
The SDF have, in contrast, opened up five separate fronts on the Syrian-Turkish border and were shelling Turkish border villages and towns.
There have been scores of casualties on both sides, and tens of thousands of refugees fleeing affected locations, but none of the various figures published are credible.
The Turkish-Kurdish contest has so far refrained from more than exploratory skirmishes, say military and intelligence sources.
The coming days will reveal whether it is likely to develop into a long-term confrontation.
Some 140,000 well-armed SDF Kurdish fighters are dug in along a 300km front east of the River Euphrates.
They have set up a defence line which is heavily fortified and barricaded, studded with anti-tank traps and supplied with plentiful ammo stores.
The Turkish force in Syria at present is too small to tackle this Kurdish force. To raise an army equal to the task of smashing the Kurds, Turkey would need a large-scale military call-up, and even then, might be short of manpower for the task.
The Turks are further constrained by the refusal of both the US and Russia to allow their air force to operate in northern Syrian air space, thereby hobbling their ability to advance very far across the Euphrates.
But the Turkish president has a more ambitious plan. He wants to make it impossible for Syria’s Kurds to establish an autonomous state. That objective is still way out of Ankara’s reach.
Pressure is ramping up on President Trump, including from his own Republican Party, to stop the Turkish operation in Syria.
As matters stand now, there are no signs of an imminent Kurdish collapse in the early stages of the Turkish thrust into north-east Syria.
They are well prepared for war with the Turkish army and, armed with good stocks of US-supplied weapons, are pursuing the correct tactics for meeting the current threat.
Inside the White House…..
11 October 2019
By Bill Koenig
White House Correspondent
11 October 2019
By Bill Koenig
White House Correspondent
Syria Withdrawal
Trump 'went off script' during call with Erdogan, senior military source reveals
PENTAGON – President Trump "went off script" during his call on Sunday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before he announced that the U.S. would withdraw all troops from north-east Syria ahead of a Turkish military operation in the region, a well-placed senior U.S. military source told Fox News on Wednesday.
During the phone call, Trump had talking points, according to the source: “Tell Erdogan to stay north of the border."
“He went off script," the source said.
Erdogan launched Operation Peace Spring on Wednesday morning after President Trump said the U.S. would pull its troops from the area, a move many analysts and political observers have called a blow to the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces there.
Erdogan said the mission was to "neutralise terror threats" and establish a "safe zone."
At least seven civilians have been killed in Turkish strikes in north-eastern Syria since Turkey began its assault, according to activists and a war monitor.
Earlier Wednesday, Turkish forces carried out airstrikes in "civilian areas" and caused a "huge panic among people of the region," according to a spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
U.S. military officials told Fox News the president ordered the military not to get involved in the strikes, after the Kurds requested air support.
Turkey announced later on Wednesday that its ground forces had invaded north-eastern Syria to fight the Kurds.
Kurdish forces in north-eastern Syria were guarding thousands of captured Islamic State (ISIS) fighters with the help of the U.S. in the area.
Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon [pictured above] that the captured terrorists were "really bad people who should go back to Europe."
"We said to various countries, we'd like you to take your people back. Nobody wants them, they're bad," Trump said, adding that "maybe the Kurds […] if not them, Turkey" would deal with the ISIS fighters.
According to the well-placed military source, “The president has said a number of times: 'Just let the Turks do it!’” in reference to Syria and fighting ISIS.
The president’s views about wanting to leave Syria have been well known since December 2018, when former Defence Secretary Jim Mattis [pictured below] resigned amid Trump's plans to pull out of Syria and abandon the Kurds, long-time U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
Senior military commanders were surprised by the timing of the president’s announcement on Sunday night.
“This is a big deal,” according to the source. “The SDF will have to reorient to the north” and stop fighting ISIS.
Trump "doesn't buy the argument that ISIS unchecked will follow us home," the source said they were told from members of the president's national security team.
If the ISIS fighters escape, they'll "go back to Europe," Trump said Wednesday.
What is likely to follow will look like “ethnic cleansing” by the Turks, according to the senior military source.
“I don’t know how many people will die. A lot of people will die,” the source said, adding they were “sick about it."
There is "no plan" for the 10,000 ISIS detainees and 2,000 foreign fighters with the Kurds, all of whom have been guarded by the SDF, according to the source.
"There’s not a plan for any of that. The Turks are not going to take responsibility for the ISIS detainees”, the source said.
"The Turks don’t see ISIS the same way we do."
"Strategically, everything we warned about is happening,” the military source said, referring to ISIS attacking Raqqa, Syria, and the SDF preparing to leave its positions to fight Turkey.
From a military perspective, an investment of 1,000 U.S. troops to keep stability in northern Syria was reasonable, the source maintained. “I can’t imagine where the anti-ISIS mission remains viable.”
While no decision has yet been made, the source said there are concerns about force protection and the inability of U.S. troops to continue their missions of partnering with the SDF to go after ISIS, meaning it could be all but certain the remaining 1,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn.
“[I] can’t see why you would leave U.S. forces there" now, according to the source, who also said no one would partner with the United States in the future.
"How do you get other partners? What would give them a reason to trust us?” the source said.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump warned Turkey that its initial assault was a "bad idea."
"The United States does not endorse this attack and has made it clear to Turkey that this operation is a bad idea," Trump said in a White House statement.
"Turkey has committed to protecting civilians, protecting religious minorities, including Christians, and ensuring no humanitarian crisis takes place — and we will hold them to this commitment."
Trump later told reporters that he would employ "far more than sanctions" against Turkey if the country fails to act in the most "humane way" possible, and that he hoped Erdogan would act rationally.
When asked what would happen if Erdogan wiped out the Kurds, Trump threatened to "wipe out" Turkey's economy, saying he'd done it once before.
The main loser from this uncertain project is Iran. After its missile coup against the oil facilities of Saudi Arabia on September 14, the Islamic regime was comporting itself as the proven master of the region.
Suddenly, Tehran found itself thrust aside when a major episode was in the making on the most active Middle East front: Syria.
Even Tehran’s close allies, Russia and Turkey – least of all the US – failed to consult with or even alert Iran to the Turkish operation in the works.
Attempting to put its foot down, Iran this week staged an unannounced military exercise with special forces along its border with Turkey. It attracted not the slightest notice in Washington, Moscow, Ankara – or even from the Kurds.
US plans to send thousands more troops to Saudi Arabia………...
October 12, 2019
October 12, 2019
Pentagon sources reveal that a large number of additional troops, possibly thousands, are to be sent to Saudi Arabia, following the September 14 attack on its oil facilities attributed to an Iranian cruise missile-drone attack.
No official comment has come from the Pentagon.
Washington is reassessing its military deployment in the Gulf region, including the role of its aircraft carriers, in the wake of that attack.
Unidentified aircraft reported striking Iranian targets on Syrian-Iraqi border…….
October 12, 2019
October 12, 2019
Iranian and Syrian sources reported on Friday that unidentified aircraft had during the night struck Iranian and allied positions, including Hizballah and Iraqi Shiite militias, strung out along the Syrian border with Iraq.
The assault was described as extensive. No official source has confirmed or responded to this report.
Israel Warns Iran: A Saudi-Style Shocker Would Spur Our Missiles against Your Regime……
12 October 2019
12 October 2019
Under threat from Iran, Israel marked the 66th anniversary of the grim October 1973 War with a harsh Yom Kippur Eve message to Tehran – first through intelligence back channels, then in the words of IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi.
He said on Monday night, October 7: “We will not let Israel come to harm, but if it does, we shall respond with power.”
This message told Iran in terse shorthand: Israel will not stand for a surprise assault like the September 14 cruise missile-drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities and, if attacked, the IDF, in contrast to the US and Saudis, will hit back at regime and strategic targets on Iranian soil.
Should the attacks come from Hizballah in Lebanon or Shiite militias in Iraq, now massively armed by Iran with ballistic missiles and air defence systems, then Israel will aim its counter-offensive at those sources of aggression.
Military and intelligence sources reveal that the appropriate instructions have been handed out to Israeli forces standing by ready for action.
Our sources do not rule out a second-strike missile launch from Israeli Navy’s nuclear-armed Dolphin submarines. [pictured above]
One or two of Israel’s five Dolphins, which also carry conventional missiles, is on tactical duty in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea opposite the Iranian coast.
That an Iranian assault may be not far away was stressed in the five-hour briefings received by Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday, October 5, at its first session in two months.
The ministers were informed by Mossad Director Yossie Cohen and Kochavi that Iran has developed cruise missiles capable of penetrating US and Saudi air defence and anti-missile radar screens to reach any Middle East targets safe from detection.
US Gulf Forces Drill Evacuation under Iranian attack, Move Carriers out of Range…….
12 October 2019
12 October 2019
The US command and control centre at Al Udeid Air Base was left without a human presence for 24 hours on September 28, for the first time since it was established 13 years ago to guard a broad world region from North-east Africa through the Middle East to South Asia.
The 300 aircraft usually aloft over trouble spots like Syria, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf had disappeared over the horizon and the combined aerospace hall once filled with US and allied officers now held ghostly whispers.
The base in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, just a couple of hundred miles across the Persian Gulf to Iran, had emptied out to drill a wholesale evacuation in the event of an Iranian missile attack.
“The functions CAOC provides for air power are so critical that we can’t afford to have a single point of failure,” Major General Chance Saltzman explained.
Since the Iranians shot down a US surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz in June and their missiles inflicted a shock attack on Saudi oil facilities, the US commanders have been taking Tehran’s multiple threats to attack US forces with the utmost seriousness.
Although the Al Udeid operation’s move to the Shaw Air Base in South Carolina was temporary, it reflected a major shift in posture, indicating that the Pentagon had not ruled out the centre being crippled by an Iranian missile attack across the Gulf.
This shift was also strongly manifested months earlier by a quiet relocation from the Gulf of another symbol of US military might.
Last May, the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Group and its 90-plane strong air wing sailed out of the Gulf into the open waters of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, to escape Iran’s newly developed Hoveyzeh, one of the Soumar family of cruise missiles.
The Hoveyzeh, which has an estimated range of 2,000 to 3,000 km, can bypass all existing “American and Israeli defence systems and reach any target in the Middle East without being detected.”
The US Central Command now estimates that a US aircraft carrier, until recently the epitome of US global might, has become because of its size highly vulnerable to this deadly weapon and risks being sunk by an Iranian attack, either by a Hoveyzeh missile or a whole range of new weapons.
The new classes of mine and torpedoes and quiet diesel submarines make operations close to Iran’s coastline more dangerous than ever before.
Since May, the USS Lincoln group has endeavored to stay out of harm’s way some 200 miles off the coast of Oman.
For now, Washington has no answer to Iran’s threat to US forces in the Gulf. Hence the beginning of an epic reshuffle of its assets in the region.
Israel Report
Editor; Mike Claydon
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