Obama Soft on Hamas .... OKs Turkey Arm Sales to Hezb'Allah

I warned and worried and wrote and was right: Obama will be lethal to Israel. Propping up Hamas and arming Hezb'Allah are deadly moves. Sanctioning the terror proxies of the racist Islamic regime while arming to the teeth the enemies of the Jewish people of the northern and western borders.

Washington signals softer tone on Hamas

Barack Obama's administration is trying to smooth the way for aid to a Palestinian government backed by Hamas in a striking contrast to the policy of George W. Bush, the former president, who sought to bring down any such government.

In a request for more than $800m in US funds for the West Bank and Gaza, the administration has asked Congress to soften rules for granting assistance to the Palestinians, to prevent disruption of aid in the event of a national unity government being formed.

Call your congressman!

The move has attracted criticism from Republicans and could increase tension with Israel's new government, already at odds with Washington over the refusal by Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister, to endorse a two state solution.

Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, is due to discuss the administration's spending plans at appearances in the House of Representatives today and tomorrow. Mark Kirk, a Republican, told the Financial Times that he planned to greet Mrs Clinton by reading out the name of every American killed by Hamas.

According to legislation passed this year, aid to a power-sharing government including Hamas can only continue if Mr Obama certifies that the militant Islamist organisation has accepted international principles including renouncing violence, abiding by past agreements and recognising Israel's right to exist.

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Further proof of where Obama's sympathies lie: Israel shocked by Obama's approval of large Turkish arms sale to Lebanon (hat tip Sounder)

DEBKAfile quotes senior Israeli military circles as staggered by the discovery that US president Barack Obama had approved a large Turkish arms sale to the Lebanese army, including the services of Turkish military instructors. This was taken as further proof that the US president is deaf to Israel's immediate security concerns. Lebanese president Gen. Michel Suleiman has more than once threatened neighboring Israel. When he signed the arms deal in Ankara Tuesday, April 21, he once again pledged publicly to place the Lebanese army at the disposal of the Shiite terrorist Hizballah in any confrontation with Israel.

If that happened, said one Israeli source, Israel could find itself under attack not just by Hizballah as in the past, but by a Lebanese army, well trained and armed by Turkey. He noted that more than 50 percent of Lebanon's fighting manpower are Shiites loyal to Hizballah.

The conviction is growing in Jerusalem that the US president endorsed the transaction as a means of breaking up the long-standing military pact between Israel and Turkey, because it interferes with his Middle East objectives. Our sources note that neither Washington nor Ankara bothered to inform Israel of the transaction or its scope.

After meeting Turkish president Abdullah Gul, Suleiman at the head of a large Lebanese military delegation signed the contracts for the sale and declared with deep satisfaction: "We reviewed the new [US] policies towards the region in the light of President Obama's recent visit to Turkey."

UPDATE: Russia provides 10 MiG fighter jets to Lebanon for free

The MiG29 Fulcrum fighters would be provided free to Lebanon under an agreement on military-technical assistance, the head of Russia’s defence cooperation service said. Mikhail Dmitryev said that the jets would come from Russia’s existing stock.

He said that Moscow was also in talks to supply Beirut with heavy armour, adding that supplies of such weaponry were “now possible after the situation in this nation has stabilised”.

He said: “We view the Lebanese army as the main guarantor of this nation’s stability, therefore the armed forces of this country must be strengthened.”

Comments

[armaros]

This is a bit more complicated than what it appears.

The arms sales reflect an older US policy started by Bush, ostensibly to eventually creating a match to Hezbollah within Lebanon by propping up the Lebanese army.

Turkey is merely following US directives and the US basically had a deal with Turkey to benefit from this transaction.
Even Russia has donated 10 Mig-29s to Lebanon, probably for different reasons, but also to compete within this new arms market.

Obama s line follows that of Bush except that the Democrats seem to believe where the real fault lines are when it comes to Hezbollah s power base. Bush made no such assumptions.

While the old administration clearly followed a factional approach to Lebanon, in line with Israeli tactics of the past, Obama s team sees an opening within the Shia community knowing that not all Shias follow Hezbollah.

The reality is hard to know.
Hezbollah will always play up its real power while Lebanese opposed to them play them down out of a sense of shame.
Needless to say there are non Shia supporters of Hezbollah and Shia opponents of Hezbollah as well.

The risk in this policy is what Rumsfeld aptly called a "Known unknown". Namely the real numbers behind the perception.

We simply do not know who stands where in Lebanon.
Statements and sides change daily.

Sometimes a politician makes public statements supporting Hezbollah only to be able to start his car the next morning while others weigh the power balance and tilt toward the stronger horse out of self preservation or preservation of their ethnic/religious group.

The Democrats' mouthpiece at the Guardian, Michael Tomansky, has a piece here basically illustrating how the Obama position is developed and on what data it is based on.
Even he sounds confused and somewhat sceptical of the observations.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/mar/10/lebanon-syria-obama-democracy-middle-east

What we know for sure is that nobody really knows.

My personal experience with Lebanese people, of whom I met quite a few, suggests a complex state of play but still an overall desire of national independence especially vis a vis Iran. Syria is complicated because many Lebanese have dual citizenship and family ties with Syria as originally Lebanon was part of Syria. They own property in Syria which they don't want to loose, seeing it a diversification from an unstable home market.

But all Lebanese I knew, Sunni, Christian and even Shia seem to want to be independent. The problem is how they perceive that independence. Do they want to be independent of the West and the Saudis and follow the Iran line claiming Iran is too far to conquer them or vice versa.

This desire for independence is what the US has probably latched on to when deciding to arm the Lebanese army, knowing that arming someone opens a form of addiction of sorts requiring good relations for those arms to be repaired, serviced etc.
They concluded that more people supported the Cedar revolution than the one countering it. Very risky as at the end of the day, Lebanon is still in a civil war. A lower key one but a civil war none the less.

So now Obama, if this is a decision his gang made in deed, handing this over to Turkey seems like a more or less dangerous move as it may move that arms dependency away from the US toward Turkey. But unless we know exactly what systems Turkey is selling them, that is hard to judge.
If Obama is in deed behind this, than this is a heavy concession in exchange of what?

- I would like to know.

However this can also be a sub contract involving distribution of US armaments through a Turkish "dealer network" enhancing the Turkish -Nato - US alliance which was facing a Russo-Turkish Rapprochement which Russia initiated last Summer seeing the critical position of Turkey in ways of allowing Russian energy to flow to Europe and servicing Turkeys growing energy market. Russia needed to court Turkey as Turkey was the route for Georgian gas to by-pass Russia to the EU.

So what we could be seeing is really a play against Russia in securing armament markets knowing how aggressively Russia has moved to arm Syria and Iran.

In either case, these arms, including the 10 Migs do not mount a threat to Israel. Lebanon is ages behind Israel in terms of arms.
Hezbollah has arms deals with entities Lebanon does not. Iran, North Korea, Syria, Lebanese diaspora sympathizers with Neo Nazis and Venezuela are arming Hezbollah independently from the Lebanese Army.

Turkey has a Hezbollah problem at home also. There is Iranian encroachment within Turkey s Shia minority.

This is why the former Turkish Islamist PM s visit to Tehran of late is an ominous sign. Just what influence can Iran have over Turkey or what deal would the antisemites running Turkey may have with them.
These are the things requiring further investigation.

[Rocketman]

"The MiG29 Fulcrum fighters would be provided free to Lebanon under an agreement on military-technical assistance, the head of Russia’s defence cooperation service said. Mikhail Dmitryev said that the jets would come from Russia’s existing stock."

Go ahead ... Send 'em up!

LMAO

I'd pay good money to watch THAT air show - brief though it will BE!

(chuckle)

BTW ... Turkey CEASED being an "ally" of the U.S. when they refused to allow the 4th Inf. Div. to enter Iraq from the north and secure the border with Syria. There is a damn good reason why Euros will NEVER allow Turkey into the EU.

~(Ä)~