Headlines

There are several interesting headlines today:

"Iran to hold large-scale war games"

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps will begin large scale military maneuvers in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the country's state TV said Wednesday, a move likely to heighten tension at a time when the West is at a deepening standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.

"Lieberman: Jerusalem not negotiable"

Speaking at diplomatic reception to mark Independence Day, foreign minister asserts Jerusalem's status as Israel's undivided eternal capital, says any attempt to impose peace will fail.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman took advantage of the diplomatic reception at the President's Residence marking Israel's Independence Day to assert that Jerusalem is not up for negotiation. "Today, I stand before you in Jerusalem, as Israel's foreign minister, and reaffirm late Prime Minister Begin's statement: Jerusalem is our undivided, eternal capital," he said.

"Waiving the rules on the Syrian-Lebanese border"

Hizbullah and its allies simply made clear that any attempt to interfere with their military arrangements would be met with blunt force, and no further attempt was made.

The result has been that over the past three-and-a-half years, under the indifferent eyes of the world, the roads between Syria and Lebanon have hummed to the sound of arms trucks and suppliers bringing Syrian and Iranian weaponry to Lebanon.

The response of Israel has been to observe the situation, and to make clear that the crossing of certain red lines in terms of the type and caliber of the weaponry being made available to Hizbullah would constitute a casus belli.

The recent heightening of tensions has come because of emerging evidence that these red lines are being flouted with impunity.

"Hizbullah arms real danger to Israel"

Following last week's uncertainty surrounding a reported Syrian Scud missile delivery to Hizbullah, a senior US senator said Tuesday that the guerrilla group most likely obtained the weapons and that its missiles posed a real danger to Israel.

"I believe there is a likelihood that there are Scuds that Hizbullah has in Lebanon. A high likelihood," Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, told AFP."The rockets and missiles in Lebanon are substantially increased and better technologically than they were and this is a real point of danger for Israel."

Hizbullah sources confirmed last week that the group had received a shipment of Scud missiles from Syria, but Damascus denied the reports, saying Israel was trying to stoke tensions in the region.

"Obama Admin angered by Jerusalem commercials"

Senior members of US President Barack Obama's administration expressed frustration and anger to Ha'aretz over a new series of television commercial airing in the US that support Israel's outright claim to a unified Jerusalem.

The first commercial aired this week, and featured famed author, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who told viewers that for him as a Jew, "Jerusalem is above politics." In the commercial, Wiesel goes on to point out that Jerusalem is mentioned more than 600 times in the Bible, but not a single time in the Koran.

In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America on Monday, Netanyahu insisted that his government would never accept the US-backed Palestinian demand that it halt Jewish construction in any part of Jerusalem