Friday, March 27, 2009

Whodunit

"We have major problems with Sudan as a source of contraband arms." Thus saith one who should know. "The Egyptians cannot be relied upon to patrol that big, porous border." They most certainly should but can't be bothered. Israel's intelligence networks are quite capable of identifying such nuisance data. Besides which, blatant evidence of Iran's supplying Hamas with weaponry, along with the rockets that keep raining down on Israel's border towns clearly identify their source.

And while Israel complacently denies nothing, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert blandly reminded any who might require reminding that "there is no place that Israel can't reach" in its continuous need to protect itself, in the process striking at terror targets "near and far ... in the north and in the south ... There's no need to mention details; people can use their imaginations".

Two U.S. officials spilled the beans; that Israeli jets hit a convoy from Sudan carrying weaponry from Iran destined for Gaza, during Operation Cast Lead. It was clear that an agent of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards had co-ordinated the smuggling operation. Sudan prefers to name the convoy attackers as American. But then, they also see no political distinction between Americans and Israelis.

Sudanese, Eritrean and Ethiopian smugglers were killed, some 39 people, ferrying seventeen trucks stuffed with weapons destroyed in the Israeli jets' bombing mission in an isolated region near Port Sudan on the Red Sea, on their way to Egypt. "A convoy of vehicles carrying illegal weapons was bombed near the Sudanese-Egyptian border in mid-January, admitted Sudan's transport minister.

The message to Iran clearly is that Israel can strike where and when it wishes, in its defence. The message to Hamas is that Israel will continue to hamper its rearming of rockets, anti-tank missiles, high-grade explosives and other armaments.

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