IDF Map Confirms Every Israeli is Under Missile Threat

The IDF’s Home Front Command has begun distribution of a color-coded map that divides Israel into regions based on the residents’ distance from the nearest terror army. The map provides graphic confirmation of the fact that every Israeli is under missile threat from either Hizbullah in the north or Hamas in Gaza, or from both.

The Home Front Command launched a public campaign centering on the map and the slogan “protect yourself right on time.” The campaign will culminate in the largest-ever nationwide emergency drill, dubbed “Turning Point 3,” which is scheduled for late May. The campaign includes TV and radio spots, magnetic maps for home refrigerators and information on the Command’s website.

The map divides Israel into 27 regions that are grouped into five ‘belts,’ based on the distance from Hizbullah’s missile array. The ‘belts’ are differentiated by the amount of time residents will have to scurry for shelter after a warning siren sounds. While the northernmost areas like Kiryat Shemona or the Golan Heights must find shelter immediately, the residents of Tel Aviv have the “luxury” of a two-minute interlude between the siren and the expected crash of missiles. Residents of Jerusalem and the south – all the way to Eilat – have three minutes.

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Israel Appears Fated to Clash With U.S.

“Israeli Coalition Appears Fated to Clash With U.S.” — that’s the headline of a Washington Post story predicting big trouble between the Obama administration and the right-wing coalition government Benjamin Netanyahu is putting together, after failing to bring in centrist or left-wing elements. The Post notes, correctly I think, that Netanyahu himself may well be willing to make concessions on issues such as Israeli settlements and the economic measures taken against Palesetinians. But his partners — hardliners such as Foreign Minister-designee Avigdor Lieberman and Moshe Yaalon, said to be the leading candidate for Defense Minister — are unlikely to concur.

Deep into its article, the Post mentions an alternative scenario. In it, Netanyahu would push through some concessions to Palestinians in exchange for meaningful help from Obama on the issue of main concern to Netanyahu and to Israelis — dealing with the threat posed by a nuclear Iran. To the extent that such a compromise is possible, having Lieberman and other hardliners in his government may work to Netanyahu’s advantage in dealing with Washington because it allows him to insist on U.S. cooperation in dealing with Iran without himself seeming like the “obstructionist.”

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Netanyahu Vows To Topple Hamas If Elected

Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday promised that a government under his leadership would topple the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

“[Kadima leader] Tzipi Livni and the people of Kadima scoffed at the predictions regarding rocket fire. A government under my leadership will overthrow the Hamas rule in Gaza and bring about a cessation of rocket fire,” Netanyahu said during a tour of Ashkelon following the first Grad rocket attack since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead some two weeks ago.

“The policy of blindness followed in the past years has brought us to this situation,” Netanyahu continued. “Residents can no longer count on miracles and Kadima policy.”

Livni herself hinted that Hamas may come up against another IDF operation should rocket

fire continue hitting the south of Israel.

“My opinion on this matter is clear: Every attack must be met with a response,” the foreign minister told Jerusalem Radio Tuesday, rejecting out of hand the possibility of diplomatic contact with Hamas.

“Any negotiations with Hamas, whether direct or indirect, are harmful. From a strategic standpoint […] I think that we should make peace with the moderate elements,” Livni said.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister and Labor leader Ehud Barak said that despite the continued rocket fire, Hamas was still interested in maintaining a state of calm in Gaza.

“We hit Hamas very hard, and it is picking up the pieces right now,” Barak said during a tour of the North. “It is really interested in quiet, but the rocket fire is a fact, and we cannot ignore facts.”

Barak also warned that continued rocket fire would be met with a harsh response, “harsher even” than Operation Cast Lead.

via Bibi vows to topple Hamas if elected | Jerusalem Post.

Cheney Warns Of Catastrophic Attacks Under New Policies

Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.

In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.

And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans — and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team — understand.

“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.

Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”

Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration — “that’s about 11 or 12 percent” — have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”

via Source