This is a quote from the NY Times about the ability of Iran to circumvent some of the embargo:

"We are dealing with people who are as smart as we are, and of course they can read our list."
- STUART A. LEVEY, the under secretary of the Treasury who oversees the
sanctions effort and the blacklist of Iran and its fleet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/world/middleeast/08sanctions.html?th&emc=th

Excuse me; they are way smarter than the USA and Europeans. It is part of their culture to outsmart their opponent all the time. Nothing is wrong with that. That is natural and long practiced globally. The problem is that we are so surprised by it.
Why should they behave in any other way? You have to expect this with any opponent all the time, and with Iran that have been outsmarting us for years.

To be a leader in Iran, or most other Muslim countries, you go through a very difficult, tumultuous life on your way to the top. You outsmart and out maneuver your enemies with all the means in your command, and you eliminate [murder] when needed.
In the Western world, especially the US, the only thing you need is strong ego, ability to talk well and much money behind you. Very little life experience is required beyond local politics. Result- we get often "leaders" with little savvy beyond their narrow range of experience.

It was extremely obvious that Iran's endless maneuvering over the last decade was to proceed as fast as possible towards nuclear bombs while playing with the naivety of the Western world and especially the US. The present administration has been so adolescent, waiting to "negotiate" with the Iranian leadership to find what they really want. They want to control the Middle East, as a starting point to a wider global influence. That is what they have been saying and doing

But the Obama administration said from the beginning, we can deal with them, we will talk to them, may be we can find mutual grounds. How infantile.

How can national "leaders" not realize that they are our enemies? As I said: they have declared it for decades and actually did all they could, short of open war, to cause the US trouble.
It is dangerous for the US to have this kind of inexperienced and naïve leadership.

The only thing that would show that this administration has finally learned how to deal realistically with global problems is for the US to distinguish clearly between friend and foe.

We must bomb Iranian nuclear installations to gain world respect and influence.
And the sooner the better.

That would be the only way that the enemies of the US and Western civilization realize that we mean business and are determined to push for a free and safe world.

This piece on anti-sematism is done well and in a light vain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCtjjNFokTw

For the last few days I had a lot of lengthy email discussions with several Jewish American friends about the Gaza flotilla incident The attacks on Israel by a few of them were incessant and troubling. They brought up so many false accusations against Israel of decades ago it was illuminating. I corrected their mistaken with calm factual information, but they ignored that. They just wanted to find faults with so many things in Israel, it was no use to answer them any longer.

I want to talk here about one item because several people wrote me that Israelis are too paranoid about their nation's security, otherwise, they said, the "attack" on the "Aid convoy" would not have been carried out and every one would have been happy….

People who say Israelis are paranoid about their security have little knowledge of Israel's military reality, did not visit Israeli borders, and had no similar experience to what Israelis have been sadly experienced for decades.

Here are some of the facts:

Many people are still thinking in WWII terms, not on the Israeli-scale, or in Middle East terms."Israel is powerful, it could easily protect itself." I wish it was the case. It is so much more complex.

Even without any nuclear attack by Iran, Israel could be devastated by the thousands of rockets and missiles that Hezbollah and Hamas can spread all over Israel. This would stop for all practical extent, life in Israel.

There is no way to stop the majority of these missile attacks without tremendous Arab civilian casualties since they will be from within population centers.

Four years after the 06 Lebanon war Hizbullah has learned a lot and has fortified its positions with considerably more sophisticated. Longer range missiles, tens of thousands of them. Iran supply them via Syria on a continues basis. Add to it that these missiles may carry chemical poisons, or even nuclear radiation material and the danger grow exponentially. Both these lethal ingredients are available on the international illegal markets for the right price. How could Israel protect itself, how could it respond effectively?

More effective Israeli counter measures will simply kill more Arab civilians, by the thousands. There are no magic solutions that will kill terrorists and not civilians around them. I have seen many videos how the terrorists cover themselves with human shields, some times by forcing kids to stay around them while they shoot the rockets. The terrorists run away immediately afterwards, the kids remain, they have no other place to go.

People say, Israel is so strong, there is no danger to its existence. Israel is strong militarily just against a known nationally based armies- like Egypt and Syria, but can not do much to protect itself from non conventional wars - from large, well organized terrorist armies, Hizbullah and Hamas. Especially because the rest of the "neutral" world aid them by doing nothing to prevent the escalation, as the UN ceasefire agreement in Lebanon dictated.. And these terrorists are not worried about their own civil population, and they certainly are eager to kill Israeli civilians.
Again, the Palestinian clearly stated goal is to destroy Israel, not live in peace with Israel.

In case Israel response to mass attacks the deeply anti- Israeli world, based on deep rooted anti-Semitic feelings, will wreck Israel by boycotts, in the UN, in trade and any other possible means. As far as most of the world's media is concerned it does not matter who started it and what are the facts, Israel is always the aggressor.

Watch carefully Arab propaganda, they are masters of lies and deceptions. It is a deep part of their culture. Listen to their own speeches, [available in English at MEMRI.com] read the views of expert historians.
The Israelis are not able to lie nor exaggerate for the sake of national security. They stupidly, want to be pure too much. It is time for Israel to accept that perception is often more important than facts for most people, including international leaders. Israel can not endure long without some global acceptance. And Israel's enemies are working to delegitimize Israel 24/7.
The global community react to protect the "innocent" civilians that allowed and support the terrorists.

Why humanitarians do not scream about the hundreds of Muslim civilians killed by US in Pakistan and Afghanistan? No one is screaming against the strong US.

Why the Media and peace loving people are so fixated on Israel? Are other innocent civilians less deserving protection? What about the hundreds people who die weekly from military actions all over the globe? Tens of thousands murdered in Russia, Chechnya alone. Why does Israel is always on the front page? Just a coincident?

To understand the security situation you must grasp the small distances involved. The distances between the West bank border and Israeli communities are so short you can almost shoot a rifle from the Palestinian border into Tel Aviv. I stood often on the balcony of my relatives in Kefar Saba and looked into the lights of the next door Palestinian community of Kalkilia. Only fear of Israeli raid keep them from shooting me.

Most Israeli served in the military, they know the military reality. I talked with several Israeli soldiers and officers over the last few years. They are trained to minimize Arab civilian casualties, but some times it is impossible. They often risked their own and friends lives not to kill Arab civilians. These are their orders, training, and personal feelings too.

Non Jews often see the situation much clearer than American Jews. Our past member of Congress told us that Israelis took him to several locations across Israel to grasp the distances. He saw from one place the lights of Amman, Jordan capital, Damascus too, and Jerusalem, plus many Israeli communities.. He was so surprised to see how close were the West Bank borders to many Israeli communities. Maps did not show that, he said.

And he said without any hesitation-"when someone comes to kill me and my family, I will kill him first." He repeated it several times for emphasis since the American Jews listening were so hesitant about what Israel can do to protect itself. I saw Obama saying the same thing on video recently.

A lot of Israelis are justifiably unsettled, worried about their families, their sons and daughters in the military and the survival of their state. And just add the danger of destruction by Iran's nuclear weapons, and you may get a little, very little, grasp of the situation.

As bright as you may be, as educated you may be, even if you served in the US military accept that this is not Kansas any more. Your own life experience is not capable of grasping the Israeli situation.
Do not judge another person until you walked in his own moccasins.

Conclusion:
Israelis are under extreme danger for their own lives, and for Israel's actual existence.

As a minimum, see this video on Israel security.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0

I have wrote a lot recently to my friends about the flotilla to Gaza incident, but this is so much better than my own, I would rather you read his ideas.
Matania

Those Troublesome Jews

Washington Post Op Ed

Charles Krauthammer

Friday, June 4, 2010

The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers.
But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets.

In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded ("quarantined") Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.

Oh, but weren't the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel's offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiel and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza -- as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza.

Why was the offer refused? Because, as organizer Greta Berlin admitted, the flotilla was not about humanitarian relief but about breaking the blockade, i.e., ending Israel's inspection regime, which would mean unlimited shipping into Gaza and thus the unlimited arming of Hamas.

Israel has already twice intercepted ships laden with Iranian arms destined for Hezbollah and Gaza. What country would allow that?
But even more important, why did Israel even have to resort to blockade? Because, blockade is Israel's fallback as the world systematically de-legitimizes its traditional ways of defending itself -- forward and active defense.

(1) Forward defense: As a small, densely populated country surrounded by hostile states, Israel had, for its first half-century, adopted forward defense -- fighting wars on enemy territory (such as the Sinai and Golan Heights) rather than its own.
Where possible (Sinai, for example) Israel has traded territory for peace. But where peace offers were refused, Israel retained the territory as a protective buffer zone. Thus Israel retained a small strip of southern Lebanon to protect the villages of northern Israel. And it took many losses in Gaza, rather than expose Israeli border towns to Palestinian terror attacks. It is for the same reason America wages a grinding war in Afghanistan: You fight them there, so you don't have to fight them here.

But under overwhelming outside pressure, Israel gave it up. The Israelis were told the occupations were not just illegal but at the root of the anti-Israel insurgencies -- and therefore withdrawal, by removing the cause, would bring peace.
Land for peace. Remember? Well, during the past decade, Israel gave the land -- evacuating South Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005. What did it get? An intensification of belligerency, heavy militarization of the enemy side, multiple kidnappings, cross-border attacks and, from Gaza, years of unrelenting rocket attack.

(2) Active defense: Israel then had to switch to active defense -- military action to disrupt, dismantle and defeat (to borrow President Obama's description of our campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda) the newly armed terrorist mini-states established in southern Lebanon and Gaza after Israel withdrew.

The result? The Lebanon war of 2006 and Gaza operation of 2008-09. They were met with yet another avalanche of opprobrium and calumny by the same international community that had demanded the land-for-peace Israeli withdrawals in the first place. Worse, the U.N. Goldstone report, which essentially criminalized Israel's defensive operation in Gaza while whitewashing the casus belli -- the preceding and unprovoked Hamas rocket war -- effectively de-legitimized any active Israeli defense against its self-declared terror enemies.

(3) Passive defense: Without forward or active defense, Israel is left with but the most passive and benign of all defenses -- a blockade to simply prevent enemy rearmament. Yet, as we speak, this too is headed for international de-legitimation. Even the United States is now moving toward having it abolished.
But, if none of these is permissible, what's left?
Ah, but that's the point. It's the point understood by the blockade-busting flotilla of useful idiots and terror sympathizers, by the Turkish front organization that funded it, by the automatic anti-Israel Third World chorus at the United Nations, and by the supine Europeans who've had quite enough of the Jewish problem.

What's left? Nothing. The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense. Why, just last week, the Obama administration joined the jackals, and reversed four decades of U.S. practice, by signing onto a consensus document that singles out Israel's possession of nuclear weapons -- thus de-legitimizing Israel's very last line of defense: deterrence.

The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution.

letters@ charleskrauthammer.com

Some good people are concerned about the deprivation of necessities in Gaza. They care, but they were mislead. The following pictures from Gaza in Arabic newspaper show their full markets, filled of food, clothing, candies, goodies of all types, hardly a deprivation. Just look at their faces, smiling.

In addition, from the time of the Gaza miniwar a year and a half ego, Israel shipped about one million tons of supply into Gaza, almost a ton per each man. Woman, and child.

Not only that the amount of luxury restaurants and large swimming pools is growing all over Gaza. Of course there are some who are poor, as in every society, but it is as always, the rich take a large chunk of the wealth, the poor are shafted.

Note,this is a Palestinian newspaper. Not Israeli.

Please send around to people who believe the people in Gaza are suffering.

http://www.paltoday.com/arabic/News-64161.html