Middle East Inside Line: Israel's Lebanon Message, Hezbollah's Response, Livni Challenges Netanyahu

Israel's Message, Hezbollah's Response: In an official statement on Tuesday evening, Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak said:

The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will continue to act firmly and determinedly to protect the residents of Israel and the sovereign borders of Israel. Israel strives for peace and has proven this in 2000 when its forces withdrew to the international border. However, Israel will not tolerate in any way an attack on her soldiers or civilians within her sovereign territory.
In a televised speech on Tuesday night, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah described the Lebanese army as "heroic'"and continued:

This time we stood and watched...but next we will not.

Israel's aggression on Lebanon has never stopped. We will not stand idle...we will cut any hand that attack our army.

Gaza Latest: Why Israel Is Welcoming the UN Enquiry
MENA House: Rockets on Jordan and Israel; Lebanon-Israel Clash — UPDATES

Syrian President Bashar Assad told his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman that Syria would stand behind Lebanon and provide any necessary support, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported. Assad said that the IDF fire "proves once again that Israel is constantly working to destabilize security in Lebanon and the region".

Israeli Opposition Furious over Netanyahu's Cooperation with UN: On Tuesday, Israel's opposition leader Tzipi Livni criticised the Netanyahu Government for accepting a UN inquiry into the raid on the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May. She said:, "The IDF has a chief of staff, not a secretary general. I am opposed to a UN inquiry that will involve the IDF, its soldiers and its commanders."

Tension on Turkish-Israeli Front: On July 25, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak claimed that Turkey's newly appointed head of intelligence, Hakan Fidan, could leak secret information shared between the two countries.

Fidan was previously a foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and served as Turkey's representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency. He was also present at the nuclear swap deal signed among Turkey, Brazil and Iran.

In response, Israel's envoy Gabby Levy was summoned in Ankara. "We expressed our discomfort and dissatisfaction with Barak's statement," a Turkish foreign ministry official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Hamas Praises Hezbollah: Following the friction between Israel and Lebanon which left at least three dead behind, Hamas praised Hezbollah in its confrontation to Israeli forces.

"We pay tribute to the Lebanese national army, which has the full right to counter the repeated Zionist violations of its land and sovereignty," the Hamas statement said.

Erdogan's Name Given to Hamas Leader's Grandson: The 47-year-old Ismail Haniyeh has 11 children and 15 grandchildren. The 15th one was named as Erdogan, in the sense of honouring Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Iran Feature: The Activism of the Women's Movement (Mouri)

EA contacts have notified us of a new electronic journal on the Middle East and Iran, Muftah. One of its first articles is by Leila Mouri, an Iranian women's rights activist who works as a journalist with the first Iranian website on women’s rights, Women In Iran and blogs in Persian and in English.

Shiva Nazar-Ahari, a journalist and human rights defender who had already spent 9 months in Evin prison, was scheduled to appear in court on May 23, 2010 on charges of propagation against the regime for her work with the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), as well as allegations of acting against national security because of her participation in gatherings on November 4th and December 7th, 2009. A member of the “One Million Signature” campaign for women’s rights, Nazar-Ahari was arrested at her home shortly after Iran’s June 2009 presidential election. She was released for a short time in September on $200,000 bail, but her freedom did not last long. In December 2009 she was again arrested, this time as she was on the way to attend the funeral ceremony of Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri.  Despite consistent pressure from Iranian authorities, she had denied all charges brought against her and had paid the price of defiance by spending most of her prison term in solitary confinement.

While Nazar-Ahari was arrested too soon after the election to participate in the June demonstrations, many women were involved in the uprising  and played a central role in the mobilization of the Green Movement.

A more recognizable symbol of women’s participation in the protests was the young university student Neda Agha-Soltan, whose shooting and gruesome death on the streets of Tehran on June 20, 2009 became aninternational rallying cry against the heavy-handed tactics of the Iranian government. Agha-Soltan became a symbol not only of the Green Movement, but also of all Iranians who were killed for opposing the regime.  In a heavily patriarchal society, her ordeal was a reminder of the crucial status of women in the social and political life of Iran.

Agha-Soltan and Nazar-Ahari are members of a new generation of politically active Iranian women, born and raised after the 1979 Revolution. Their struggle against the oppressive policies of the Islamic Republic has been well documented, but their situation has become especially harrowing over the last year. In the wake of the 2009 protests, and under the pretext of maintaining order and protecting national security, the Iranian regime has escalated its suppression of the women’s movement. Many women activists have been arrested, imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to long prison terms, while others have left the country in fear of their safety. As a result, there has been a troubling decline in the activities and influence of the women’s movement, which some observers have considered to be the most potent agent for change in the country.

The Re-Emergence of Women in the Islamic Republic

The death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, coinciding with the end of the Iran-Iraq war, marked the beginning of a new phase in the Islamic Republic. After eight years of war, Iran’s decimated economy was suffering from a lack of foreign investment and buckling under the pressure of Western sanctions. The regime responded by instituting a series of programs aimed at “reconstruction,” through economic growth, rational distribution of benefits and essential changes in human resource development. It was at this time that President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanajani established the first governmental department devoted to women’s issues. Dubbed the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, it was founded in 1992 to improve the situation of women and to promote their abilities and talents, in service to the future development of the country.

The ensuing years saw increased investment in women’s education, and in turn a higher level of university-enrollment, a development that had a significant impact on the status women in society. One major factor in this regard was the “Islamicization” of universities, a series of policies aimed at the transformation of the university environment and pursued from the early days of the Islamic Republic. With traditional families feeling more confident in the piety of Iran’s universities, women began attending classes at a higher rate than in previous generation, causing a dramatic increase in the number of female students. According to the 1994 census, 40 percent of university students were female. This proportion reached 60 percent in the 2003-2004 academic year and 64 percent in 2008.

Following graduation, many of these female students entered the job market only to be bitterly disappointed with their prospects. Faced with an ailing economy and a patriarchal culture unwilling to grant them equal rights, this educated group of women began demanding changes in attitudes and policies. At the same time, the influx of educated female candidates had a perceptible effect on the percentage of women employed in different economic sectors, such as industry and agriculture, with their numbers increasing substantially. The growing presence of women in the work force gradually led to the establishment of women’s trade unions in the late 1990s.

Read rest of article....

Gaza Latest: Why Israel Is Welcoming the UN Enquiry

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Israel would accept an international probe into the raid on the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May.

The panel will begin its work on 10 August and will file its first report with the UN Security Council by the middle of September. Heading the panel will be former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, an expert on international maritime law. The vice chairman is outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who is considered pro-Israel and pro-United States. Turkey and Israel also will send representatives.

This is the first time Israel is cooperating with a UN investigation of the actions of Israel Defense Forces. Haaretz reports the mandate of the panel:

The panel's mandate is to examine the investigations that Israel and Turkey are carrying out regarding the incident of the Gaza-bound flotilla on May 31. In addition, the panel will seek to examine the facts surrounding the flotilla and recommend ways to avoid such incidents in the future.

The panel will not be authorized to call witnesses --- especially no Israeli soldiers or officers.

So it will be a very limited investigation; the US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said the nternational panel will be "complementary" to national enquiries. Rice added that the US expected  "that the Panel will operate in a transparent and credible manner and that its work will be the primary method for the international community to review the incident, obviating the need for any overlapping international inquiries".

So why did Israel, contrary to initial expectations, accept a UN panel? Because, at the end of the day, it is an investigation doing no more than looking at national (i.e., Israeli) investigations which have already tried to define the findings, findings which have already tried to contain the fact that nine activists died on board the Flotilla.

MENA House: Rockets on Jordan and Israel; Lebanon-Israel Clash --- UPDATES

UPDATE 0705 GMT: Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent of London, reviews the clash between Israeli and Lebanese forces.

On Sunday, a few hours before six rockets hit Israel, Jordan, and the sea off the coast, Israeli President Shimon Peres was returning from Cairo and talks with Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.

Since Peres' departure, four key events have occurred, raising questions about growing instability in the region.

Early Monday morning, Deir el Balah, a refugee camp in the southern region of the Gaza Strip was attacked by Israeli F16 fighter jets. The home of leader  Alaa al-Danaf, Hamas wing leader and Al-Qassam Brigades leader was targeted. Military medical services coordinator Adham Abu Salmiyya said, "At least 42 civilians were injured in the attack."

UPDATED Israel-Lebanon: Border Clash Kills At Least 4 Soldiers, Journalist (Al Jazeera)
MENA House: “Iranian” Rockets Used in Attacks on Israel and Jordan

About 90 minutes later, the rockets struck Eilat in Israel and Aqaba in Jordan. One Jordanian was killed and four other people were injured.

On Tuesday, Israeli and Lebanese forces clashed on the border. Three Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist died. Lieutenant Colonel Dov Harari, an Israeli battalion commander, was killed, and a second Israeli officer was critically wounded. in an exchange with the Lebanese army.

Debate on Launch Location of "Iranian rockets"

A top Jordanian government official claims there is proof that the rockets were fired from the Sinai in Egypt; however, he did not elaborate on the precise location.

Ahmed Meslemani reported that Egyptian security officials have denied the assertion: "It would not be logical geographically to fire from the Sinai peninsula as the area is mountainous and with very high security."

An Egyptian intelligence official said that police and 100 Bedouin trackers searched the area in the Sinai thoroughly but found nothing. He added that surveillance cameras also picked up no indication of activity: "They (Jordanians and Israelis) said that the rocket was fired from the Pharaoh hotel close to Taba. We searched and we found nothing."

The Latest from Iran (3 August): Explosive Words

2000 GMT: Defense Watch. The Ministers of Defense of Iran and Oman have agreed to "secure the Straits of Hormuz".

1950 GMT: Conspiracy Theory of the Day. Qassem Ravanbaksh, editor of Parto-ye Sokhan (linked to Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi), has declared that former President Mohammad Khatami visited Saudi Arabia before the June 2009 election to get money.

More tangibly, Khatami has been fined $300 over an unspecified speech because of a complaint by Ahmadinejad Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

1945 GMT: Basij Disruption. Basiji paramilitaries have disrupted a memorial service for former member of Parliament, Ismail Tatari, at a Kermanshah mosque because they thought Mehdi Karroubi might be present.

1905 GMT: Taking On the President. Leading MP Darius Ghanbari has joined the criticism of President Ahmadinejad, from across the political spectrum (see 1700), for the conference of the Iranian diaspora. Ghanbari also charged the Government with the wrong strategy as it "chased" elite Iranian and foreign investors.

1900 GMT: Meeting Mousavi. A group of Iranian journalists have posted a report on Rah-e-Sabz of a discussion with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard.

NEW Iran Analysis: Saharkhiz & Abtahi Dent the Government’s “Fear Factor” (Shahryar)
NEW Iran Feature: Did Ahmadinejad Chief of Staff Reveal the Bomb?
NEW MENA House: “Iranian” Rockets Used in Attacks on Israel and Jordan
Iran: Secularists, Reformists, and “Green Movement or Green Revolution?” (Mohammadi)
Iran Analysis: Hyping the War Chatter — US Military Chief Mike Mullen Speaks
The Latest from Iran (2 August): The Campaign Against Jannati

1853 GMT: No Debate. In the least surprising news of the day, the Obama Administration has rejected President Ahmadinejad's call for a public discussion with Barack Obama at the UN General Assembly in September. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "We have always said that we'd be willing to sit down and discuss Iran's illicit nuclear program, if Iran is serious about doing that. To date, that seriousness has not been there."

1845 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The trial of film director Jafar Panahi, arrested in March for criticism of the regime, has been postponed to late September because the judge and prosecutor did not appear in court yesterday.

1840 GMT: Sanctions Watch. As EA readers have already noted, the US has formally imposed sanctions on 21 firms it claims are front companies for the Iranian Government.

The claimed fronts included two Belarus-based banks, two Germany-based investment firms, and mining and engineering companies in Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, and Iran.

The news has been noticed inside Iran, with Press TV headlining the development.

1700 GMT: The Battle Within. Alef has asked the President to "please observe national dignity", criticising Ahmadinejad's "strange" challenge to Barack Obama to a debate in the US.

1539 GMT: Viewing Iran. Our colleague Lara Setrakian of ABC News has launched a new site, The MidEast Memo. Included in its opening entries are a look at the case of the three Americans still detained a year after hiking into Iranian territory and a review of sanctions and Iran's attempts to get around them.

1535 GMT: Economy Watch. Fereydoun Khavand, an economist at the University of Paris, claims in an interview that Iran's unemployment rate is at its highest point in six years.

1530 GMT: So You Want a Debate, Mahmoud? An interesting twist in the story of President Ahmadinejad's call on President Obama to hold a public discussion with him in the US....

Five imprisoned journalists, including Isa Saharkhiz, Masoud Bastani, and Mahdi Mahmoudian, have challenged Ahmadinejad to debate them publicly about his Government's performance.

1315 GMT: Ahmadinejad Today. Another speech by the President, this one to Iran's conference on international media: no apparent talk of Zionist assassination plots but lots of condemnation of the United Nations' "anti-Iran" position. Ahmadinejad referring back to the 1980s, said that "certain people who forced Imam Khomeini to 'drink poison'" and accept the UN resolution ending Iran-Iraq war are still active.

The President also gave his audience an intense rhetorical assault upon the Western media.

1255 GMT: Political Prisioner Watch. The death sentence of Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei, arrested in post-election protests, has been upheld. According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the appellate court did not hold a hearing and confirmed the sentence verbatim.

0950 GMT: International Front. Looks like Iran is to going to skip diplomacy --- a move to talks on uranium enrichment with Washington, as well as other countries --- for grandstanding. The Foreign Ministry has followed President Ahmadinejad's call-out of his American colleague for a public discussion: "If US President Barack Obama expresses his readiness, the UN General Assembly [meeting in September] would be a good opportunity for face-to-face transparent talks.”

0920 GMT: We have posted an analysis by Josh Shahryar, "Saharkhiz & Abtahi Dent the Government’s 'Fear Factor'."

0825 GMT: The Supreme Leader's Next Fatwa. His "I am the Rule of the Prophet" declaration may still be disputed, but Ayatollah Khamenei has reportedly moved to his next topic: the danger of music.

On the same day that Iran's legendary singer Mohammad Nouri was buried, Khamenei supposedly replied to a follower: "Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic."

Fars said the fatwa was given to a 21-year-old follower who was thinking of starting music lessons. Khamenei answered, "It's better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music."

We are checking if the fatwa is on Khamenei's official website.

0815 GMT: Do You See a Theme Here? Four of Press TV's last eight stories: "Iran trivializes US war threat"; "Iran rejects reports of US war threat"; (my favourite) "Iran prepares 'enemy-crushing' plans"; "Iran warns Israel against new ME war".

0805 GMT: The Mousavi-Karroubi Statement (A Reaction). Despite the rather limited nature of the Mousavi-Karroubi declaration on the way forward, EA's Ms Zahra is hopeful: "I have the impression that Moussavi is slowly passing over his red lines, his latest statement reads rather democratic, although recurring to religious expressions like a 'Pharaonic' regime."

Ms Zahra also notes former President Mohammad Khatami's most recent speech with its emphasis on the experience of Iran's Constitutional Revolution as a "democratic revolution".

0800 GMT: The Mousavi-Karroubi Statement. Radio Zamaneh summarises yesterday's meeting between Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, headlining criticism of both the Iranian Government and the international pressure on Tehran.

Indeed, Mousavi and Karroubi linked the two, stating, "Uncalculated remarks and decisions of the government have humiliated Iran and led to multilateral sanctions and threats”. They added that the Government was lying about the economic situation, as the sanctions “burden workers, farmers and the impoverished strata of the society, and they could lead to inflation, economic decline and rise in unemployment.”

Mousavi also urged the judiciary to deal with "disturbing news" on political prisoners, and both men said government plans to establish 7000 Basij paramilitary bases across Iran show how the Basij hasbeen transformed into “a military-political party to oppress people, students, dervishes and their civic demands and also to engineer the elections".

Mousavi and Karroubi urged Iranians to “establish social networks to produce truthful content and statistics regarding the situation of the country.”

0740 GMT: Propaganda and "Sedition". Gozaar has a lengthy analysis, with background from the 1990s, of the campaign of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting against Iranian intellectuals and activists through the series Fitna.

0725 GMT: We open this morning with a separate feature on the reported statement of the President's Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad indicated last year that Iran is approaching capability for a nuclear weapon.

That is not the only explosive --- sorry for the pun --- declaration coming out of Iran, however. There was a flurry of non-military activity on Monday pointing to further conflict, from the opposition's challenge to the head of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Jannati, to the revelation of former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi of last summer's Tehran "show trial" to criticism of the President from his "conservative" adversaries in Parliament. There was a legal twist, with Ahmadinejad apparently filing a lawsuit against one of his Parliamentary nemeses, Ali Motahari.

Even the attempted deflections from these conflicts merely added a layer of political humour. The Government's attempt to showcase its support from Iranians abroad, through a gathering of 1300 of them in Tehran, was hindered by "hard-line" criticism that the exercise was a waste of money and even included a "CIA associate".

And Ahmadinejad's speech to the conference moved from the significant --- an indication that Iran was ready for direct talks with Washington --- to the diversionary, with his declaration of readiness to speak publicly ("debate") with President Obama in the US in September and his claim that Zionists were trying to assassinate him.