In this issue:

Israeli Source: 'War Party' in Final Push for Iran Attack

ElBaradei Threatens To Quit if Iran Attacked

Expose Plans for Gasoline Embargo Against Iran

Iran Sanctions Bill Targets Russia, Too

Israel Wants to Transfer Gaza Refugees to Egypt

Israeli Source: 'War Party' in Final Push for Iran Attack

June 20 (EIRNS)—A senior Israeli source has warned, in discussions with EIR, that an intense policy brawl has erupted in Israel, over the issue of Israeli preventive strikes against Hezbollah, and bombing raids against Iranian nuclear sites, including the enrichment facility at Natanz. The source reported that the Cheney circles in Washington have been putting tremendous pressure on the fragile Olmert government to carry out preventive strikes against sites in Iran, and against the Hezbollah security infrastructure in southern Lebanon. These pressures come as progress is being made on a number of key peace negotiating fronts, involving Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria.

The source, which EIR identified as a U.S.-based Israeli with strong ties to the present Olmert government, reported that top officials of the Israeli Defense Force, including the current chief of the general staff, Gen. Gabriel Ashkenazi, strongly oppose both of the military schemes. At a recent security cabinet meeting, the source reported, Ashkenazi bluntly warned of the dire consequences for Israel of strikes against either Hezbollah or Iran's nuclear facilities, calling such schemes "madness." Nevertheless, hardliners, including Likud Party chairman and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Olmert's current deputy prime minister, are pressing for Israeli military strikes against Iran. The source reported that when Olmert was recently in Washington to address the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention, he met privately with President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and came under intense personal pressure from the Vice President to take action against Iran. He claimed that Israeli pilots are now covertly training on state-of-the-art U.S. fighter jets at locations in the Nevada desert, in preparation for an Israeli bombing of Natanz and other Iranian sites.

On June 20, the New York Times reported that, in early June, Israel conducted large-scale military exercises, involving more than 100 F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, as well as helicopters, over Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. The exercise covered a distance of 900 miles, which is also the distance between Israel and the Natanz enrichment facility in Iran. The day after the exercises were completed, Mofaz gave an interview to the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, warning that, "if Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack.... Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable."

ElBaradei Threatens To Quit if Iran Attacked

June 21 (EIRNS)—Following a June 20 New York Times story on an Israeli air exercise rehearsing an attack on Iran, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohammed ElBaradei threatened to resign if Iran was attacked. "I don't believe that what I see in Iran today is a current, grave and urgent danger. If a military strike is carried out against Iran at this time ... it would make me unable to continue my work," ElBaradei told Al Arabiya television, as reported in Ha'aretz. "A military strike, in my opinion, would be worse than anything possible. It would turn the region into a fireball. If you do a military strike, it will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons, with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West."

Expose Plans for Gasoline Embargo Against Iran

June 17 (EIRNS)—An international neoconservative network, active in Britain, the United States, and Israel, is planning an embargo of gasoline shipments to Iran, in the hope that this anti-civilian measure will provoke Iran into a war response, reports a highly qualified Arab intelligence source, known to the EIR for more than two decades.

EIR finds this report credible, and is alerting policymakers and citizens in order to widely expose the machinations by the British and Vice President Dick Cheney's neocons, and derail their attempts to start a new war in Southwest Asia against Iran.

The main story is that there will be an international embargo on the delivery of gasoline and other refined petroleum fluids which are Iran's major imports, with the assumption that this will have such a devastating effect on Iran's economy and population, that Iran will respond militarily—either directly in the Persian Gulf, or asymmetrically, against the United States or any other country involved in this operation.

Once Iran attacks, a U.S. or Israeli military strike would be justified as "defensive." This would then give the war party around Cheney, led by Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams, the excuse to avoid having to inform or seek approval from Congress.

The report indicates that this embargo has not yet been approved by the Bush Administration—the main reason being, that a shipping embargo, tantamount to a naval blockade of Iran's ports, is an act of war under international law. So, neocon planners are seeking other means to effectively impose the embargo, which they believe would bring Iran "to its knees." Iran imported about one-half of its fuel needs at a cost of $5 billion in 2006, but is the world's second-largest oil producer, and fourth-largest crude oil exporter in the world.

Instead of a blockade, the "British are more than happy," reported the intelligence source, to implement an embargo arranging the cancellation of insurance—through insurance giants such as Lloyd's—for any tanker delivering gasoline or fluids to Iran. At the same time, Iran's own large tanker fleet will also be cut off, meaning its tankers will not be allowed to enter any port without insurance.

Iran Sanctions Bill Targets Russia, Too

June 19 (EIRNS)—The "Iran Sanctions Act of 2008," with at least 72 out of 100 U.S. Senators co-sponsoring it, was voted out of the Senate Finance Committee yesterday by a 19-2 vote. A companion bill has already passed the House 397-16. Both bills target U.S. nuclear cooperation with Russia, as well as intensifying economic and financial warfare against Iran.

The Senate bill bans all U.S. exports to Iran (except agricultural commodities and medicines), and all imports from Iran (closing the "pistachio loophole"); it would freeze assets of certain Iranian officials, levy sanctions against foreign companies investing in Iran oil and gas, and would hold U.S. parent companies liable for violations of sanctions by their subsidiaries.

Both House and Senate bills would also kill the U.S.-Russia "123" civil nuclear cooperation agreement. This was opposed by Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), who stressed Russia's cooperation on Iran, but only four Senators voted to take it out of the bill. In a House hearing last week, Administration representatives argued in defense of the "123" agreement, showing its benefits to the U.S., including that about half of the nuclear fuel purchased in the U.S. comes from highly enriched uranium once used in Russian nuclear weapons.

Demonstrating the insanity pervading the Congress at this time, no one, Democrat or Republican, opposed tightening sanctions against Iran.

Israel Wants to Transfer Gaza Refugees to Egypt

June 20 (EIRNS)—A major humanitarian disaster is taking place in the Gaza Strip, as a result of the continued isolation of Gaza following the Hamas takeover. There are hundreds of Palestinians trapped at the Erez crossing trying to flee to the West Bank, most of whom are Fatah members who fear for their lives. The Israelis refuse to allow them to transit through Israeli territory in order to travel to the West Bank. Israel wants to transfer them to Egypt, a move that Egypt refuses due to the obvious fear that this would be an attempt by Israel to expel refugees from the territories.

The Israelis have not only refused entry to those who are wounded or sick and requiring medical attention, but have set up barricades and stationed tanks on both sides of the checkpoint. The refugees are trapped between the two barricades. The Israelis are using the excuse that there could be terrorists.

In an editorial demanding that Israel allows the refugees to pass through Israel, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz compares the government action to what happened in the days before the Holocaust. "In the dark days before the Holocaust, it was similarly argued ... that the German and Austrian refugees fleeing for their lives could include moles seeking to assimilate into the countries through which they passed and sabotage them." The editorial also quoted scripture on how God damned, even in the tenth generation, the Ammonites and Moabites for not allowing Moses to lead the Jewish people to cross through their land.

The complicating factor is that Palestinian President Mahmout Abbas also refuses to allow the Gazan refugees to enter the West Bank on the claim that he does not want to see Gaza totally controlled by Hamas. On the other hand, he refuses to hold a dialogue with Hamas until it returns to the status quo.