Saturday Headlines:

The Middle East:

Video: 15,000 Elite Iranian Special-Ops Head To Syria

The regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria is expecting up to 15,000 Iranian troops to help maintain order in the country’s provinces, a Chinese newspaper reports. Iran has yet to confirm or deny the news.

Ahmadinejad: World Will Witness Iranian Nuclear Progress

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Islamic Republic would soon announce "very important" achievements in the nuclear field, state TV reported.

"In the coming days the world will witness Iran's announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements," Ahmadinejad told a crowd at Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square in a speech relayed live on state television. He gave no details.

Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Soon Announce Major Nuclear Achievements

Haniyeh In Iran: Hamas Will Never Recognize Israel

Hamas would never acknowledge the Israeli state, said Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian movement in Gaza, on Friday in Tehran.

"They (West) want from us to stop resistance and acknowledge Israel but I herewith announce that this will never happen," Haniyeh said though an interpreter at a ceremony marking the 33rd anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution.

"Our message and the message of all those who lost their blood in the Palestinian lands is that all occupied lands will eventually be liberated from Israeli occupation," Haniyeh said.

He thanked Iran for its constant support for Palestinian resistance groups and called on maintaining unity in the Islamic world.

Below, we see the latest from Caroline Glick. The bottom line? The peace process is over. Now it's time for war:

Column One: The Fatah-Hamas Peace Process

On Monday afternoon, the Palestinians destroyed officially whatever was left of the concept of a peace process with Israel.

When PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas signed a deal with Hamas terror-master Khaled Mashaal in Doha, Qatar, the notion that there is a significant segment of Palestinian society that is not committed to the destruction of Israel was finally and truly sunk.

In an apparent bid to inject a bit of reality into the delusional discourse, Netanyahu condemned the pact. As he put it, “If Abbas moves to implement what was signed today in Doha, he will abandon the path of peace and join forces with the enemies of peace.”

Netanyahu added a personal appeal to his supposed partner in peace saying, “President Abbas, you can’t have it both ways. It’s either a pact with Hamas or peace with Israel. It’s one or the other.”

Abbas already made his choice. He has cast his lot and that of Fatah with Hamas.

In so doing Abbas once more exposed the dirty secret that everyone knows but no one likes to discuss: Fatah and Hamas share the same strategic goal of destroying Israel. Fatah’s strategic goal remains what it has been since it was founded in 1959: The obliteration of the Jewish state.

The Decline of America:

NRA Official: Guns To Be Outlawed With Obama 2nd Term?

A top official with the National Rifle Association said Friday that President Obama will move to "destroy" gun rights and "erase" the Second Amendment if he is re-elected in November.

Mr. LaPierre said the president's two Supreme Court appointees — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan— are "two of the most rabid anti-gun justices in history." He also accused Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of being a foe of gun rights.

And with the possibility of two or more Supreme Court justice positions opening during the next four years, the NRA official warned that gun ownership would be in jeopardy if Mr. Obama stays in office.

Bishops To Obama: No Dice

After a long day of supposed “accommodation” and discussion, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops took a close look at the supposed adjustment of the HHS mandate yesterday. Their conclusion? It represents no change at all, and the bishops will press for a “legislative solution” to Barack Obama’s mandate:

The bishops note that the Obama administration never even bothered to contact them to discover what their true objections are, and what would satisfy them. The White House simply presumed to know church business better than the bishops and offered an “accommodation” that is anything but. In fact, that sounds a lot like the process that produced this mandate in the first place.

The Obama administration’s “accommodation” was nothing more than a smoke screen intended to get rid of a bad political problem. The bishops aren’t going to let them get away with it, and that means that Obama will still have religious organizations — and not just Catholics — demanding an end to the mandate and forcing a fight over religious liberty. Don’t expect it to go on for long, because this will prove disastrous to Obama’s political support in the fall if left in its current status. I’d give it a week, perhaps less, before we see areal climbdown.

Problem Solved?

The birth control mandate was a signal by this president that he most certainly does not hold the Constitution as sacred. He also underscored the reality that the left has most certainly been engaged in a war against religion, and now they will take no prisoners. This move was a ruthless slap in the face to Catholics, and to all believers of any faith, that this administration believes he alone -- not God -- should determine your actions and behaviors. He has established himself as the supreme arbiter of humanity -- as though he is a god.

Breaking Taboos

Among recent news stories are instances of people talking back, openly challenging the received wisdom in surprising ways. For example, Karen Handel calls Planned Parenthood a “gigantic bully“ for pushing abortion on the Komen foundation.

The bishops of the Roman Catholic church finally nerved themselves to openly clash with the president in a public space

A prominent supporter of global warming has recanted his belief in public. “I feel duped on Climate Change,” said former German environment senator Fritz Vahrenholt. “He wants to break a taboo. ‘The climate catastrophe is not occurring,’ he writes in his book ‘Die Kalte Sonne’ (The Cold Sun), published by Hoffmann and Campe, which will be in bookstores next week

And as for Karen Handel, she’s no longer with the Komen foundation. But none of this has come as a surprise. Everyone fully expected to be punished.

But they spoke out anyway which suggests that the power of liberal orthodoxy, while still awesome, can no longer completely intimidate. The results are that orthodoxy has had to retreat, be it ever so slightly. “(Reuters) – As soon as the news hit, the deluge began.”

All legitimacy, even that of authoritarian regimes, is fundamentally based on an accepted belief. In dictatorships, it is the belief that the secret police are all powerful. In the liberal West, it is the myth that the elites are the all-wise source of public approval. Just as Syria’s Assad is suffering from a growing realization that he can’t stop the rebels, the biggest danger facing the liberal orthodoxy is a growing awareness that they can’t stop the heretics from speaking out in the public square.

The Western orthodoxy remains very powerful. But recent events prove that it is not invincible; it is mainly founded upon bluff, which despite the recent outbursts by heretics remains largely unshaken. But a confluence of factors —economic difficulty for the most part, and growing awareness in the street that the elites are not all they are cracked up to be — suggests that the hairline fractures will grow and grow. Until … well, who knows?

Around the world:

This Is What An Economic Depression Looks Like In The 21st Century

Those that warned that Greece was headed for a financial collapse were laughed at and were called "doom and gloomers". Well, nobody is laughing now. Greeks were able to live way beyond their means for many, many years but eventually a day of reckoning arrived.

Things are going to get a lot worse in Greece. And in case you haven't been paying attention, these kinds of conditions are coming to the United States as well. We are heading down the exact same road as Greece went down, and the economic pain that this country is eventually going to suffer is going to be beyond anything that most Americans would dare to imagine.

Tensions Flare In Athens Ahead Of Austerity Vote

Civil Society Breaking Down In Greece

Even with a deal with two of his three coalition partners about a modest austerity program that would cut pensions and other benefits, Greece seems poised to come apart at the seams. Massive strikes and messages of sympathy with the protestors from police and even the finance ministry reveal a nation on the brink.

Pentagon Calls For "Urgent" Upgrade Of Massive Bunker Busting Bombs, As Iranian Threat Looms

The military's so-called Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb, requires an "urgent" upgrade, according to Pentagon officials who are trying to ensure that 20 of the bombs are battle-ready -- possibly for use against Iran, though officials have been tight-lipped on potential targets.

Defense appropriators on Capitol Hill agreed to the request on Wednesday, just one month after Iran announced it would begin uranium enrichment at a hardened underground facility near the city of Qom in the Fardow mountain range. The tunneled facility is thought to be beyond the range of the bunker buster in question -- the largest non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. Air Force's arsenal.

Meanwhile, Israel successfully tested upgraded radar for its Arrow Missile Defense shield that it jointly developed with the Pentagon. The Blue Sparrow 2 missile was fired from an undisclosed location deep in the Mediterranean Sea towards Israel.

The test comes just days after Iran tested its Shahab 3 missile, which is capable of hitting Israel, and on the same day that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran to improve ties.