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Recently released WikiLeaks cables from the U.S. embassy in Israel reveal the co-operation between U.S. and Israeli intelligence organisations, links between Mossad and Bahrain’s King Sheikh Hamad and much more.
Julian Assange revealed that more documents will be released and published, and that the documents to come should shed some light on Israel's problem with Iran's nuclear program and its potential involvement in the assassination of Hezbollah official Imad Mughniyeh.
Assange will give an interview to Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper to defend himself from allegations of anti-semitism and said about the cables:
"The documents we released in the past few months were the fuel that ignited the Arab revolts."Click here to read about where the allegations of anti-semitism against Assange come from.
A cable revealed that during a Joint Political Military Group meeting, Israeli intelligence officials told their US counterparts that:
"Hezbollah possesses over 20,000 rockets... Hezbollah was preparing for a long conflict with Israel in which it hopes to launch a massive number of rockets at Israel per day. A Mossad official estimated that Hezbollah will try to launch 400-600 rockets and missiles at Israel per day, 100 of which will be aimed at Tel Aviv. He noted that Hezbollah is looking to sustain such launches for at least two months.That cable also stated that:
"The Israeli Defence Forces and Israel Defence Intelligence argued that Hizbollah's ultimate goal during any future conflict is to launch a massive number of missiles and rockets daily into Israeli territory, including those that can reach the Tel Aviv area."Ron Holdai, the mayor of Tel Aviv said about the Hezbollah claim:
"We live in Israel, and we have threats made to us all the time. If something were to happen we could cope."The cables also reveal a private conversation that took place in King Hamad's palace on February 15, 2005, between the then U.S. ambassador to Bahrain, William Monroe and King Hamad. Monroe wrote to Washington after the meeting:
"He (the king) revealed that Bahrain already has contacts with Israel at the intelligence/security level (with Mossad) and indicated that Bahrain will be willing to move forward in other areas."Monroe also said that when the conversation with King Hamad turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, King Hamad said that he was happy with the developments in the peace process, and that he had informed his public information minister to cease referring to Israel in official statements of the kingdom as the "enemy" or the "Zionist entity."
Monroe asked King Hamad to start trade relations with Israel but King Hamad said he thought it was too early and that the Palestinian state would have to be established first.
In the cables, Israeli intelligence chiefs describe Mohammed Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ruling military, as impeding Israel's attempts to stop weapons from being smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, and Omar Suleiman, who was Egypt's intelligence minister, as being supportive of stopping the flow of weapons into Gaza.
The cables also show that the U.S. has been helping Israel and Egypt, the major route for weapons smuggled into Gaza, deal with the smuggling problem for several years.
Some of the cables cover discussions between U.S. officials and outgoing Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin. Shin Bet is Israel's internal security service.
Diskin said:
"Israel's political leadership has not yet made the necessary policy choices among competing priorities: a short-term priority of wanting Hamas to be strong enough to enforce the de facto ceasefire and prevent the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel; a medium priority of preventing Hamas from consolidating its hold on Gaza; and a longer-term priority of avoiding a return of Israeli control of Gaza and full responsibility for the wellbeing of Gaza's civilian population."Diskin thought that Israel's Arab citizens "take their rights too far," and said:
"Most of the Israeli-Arabs who have caused problems were refugees who were given permits to re-enter Israel in order to reunify with family members."Diskin also said that Israel's Arab citizens have been loyal to Israel throughout the:
"Previous 60 years, even including the 1967 and 1973 wars, and ‘waves of terror’ that followed.”Assange, who is still under house arrest at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk,UK, will continue his fight to avoid being extradited to Sweden at a two day hearing at the High Court in London on July 12 and 13.
The WikiLeaks founder has been fighting extradition to Sweden where he has not been charged with anything but is wanted for questioning by the Swedish police about accusations of rape and sexual molestation made against him by Sofia Wilen and Anna Ardin. Assange denies the allegations and says he had consensual sex with the two women.
Assange and his lawyers fear that if he is extradited to Sweden he may then be extradited to the United States, where he could face torture, confinement at Guantanamo Bay, both, or even the death penalty.
Assange angered the United States when WikiLeaks published the leaked embarrassing diplomatic cables, the classified documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the 'Collateral Murder' video.
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