Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), the House’s chief deputy majority whip, offered the amendment late last week on the eve of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act’s (NDAA) passage in the House.

The NDAA, which passed the House 315-108 on Friday after a flurry of last minute additions, funds all U.S. defense priorities for the coming fiscal year.

While the Senate version of the NDAA does not include a similar amendment regarding Israel, sources on Capitol Hill told the Washington Free Beacon that companion language is likely to be introduced in the near future.

Roskam’s amendment requires President Barack Obama to provide Congress with regular progress reports ensuring the United States makes good on promises to equip Israel with advanced weaponry, including air refueling tankers and advanced bunker-buster bombs.

This type of equipment would make it substantially easier for Israel to launch a unilateral strike on Iran’s dispersed nuclear sites.

Advanced bunker-buster bombs, for instance, would allow Israel to strike deep within Iran’s fortified underground nuclear sites, while air refueling planes would enable Israeli war planes to travel the long distance to Iran without stopping to refuel.

The amendment makes explicit reference to Iran’s nuclear program and Congressional support for Israel’s right to take any military action it deems necessary.

The United States’ arming of Israel could be critical to stopping Tehran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, Roskam told the Free Beacon.

“Under no circumstance can Israel, the United States, or the world afford a nuclear-capable Iran,” Roskam said in a statement. “When it comes to Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, we must maintain a policy of prevention, not containment.”

“This amendment helps ensure that Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, has the capabilities to defend itself against any potential existential threat, including Iran,” Roskam said.

The arms amendment passed just days before the Iranians voted for a new president in a closely watched election.

The winner, cleric Hassan Rowhani, has been dubbed a moderate by the Western media.

However, experts believe Rowhani will engage in fruitless nuclear negotiations with the West as Tehran’s military leaders quietly accelerate their nuclear work.

International nuclear inspectors recently concluded that Iran could be just months away from successfully securing the key components in a nuclear weapon. They also found that Tehran is enriching large levels of uranium, the key component in a bomb.

Roskam’s amendment reinforces Congressional support for Israeli military action on Iran.

“It is the sense of Congress that air refueling tankers and advanced bunker-buster munitions should immediately be transferred to Israel to ensure our democratic ally has an independent capability to remove any existential threat posed by the Iranian nuclear program and defend its vital national interests,” the amendment says.

The amendment additionally “identifies all aerial refueling platforms, bunker-buster munitions, and other capabilities and platforms that would contribute significantly to the maintenance by Israel of a robust independent capability to remove existential security threats, including nuclear and ballistic missile facilities in Iran, and defend its vital national interests.”

Roskam’s amendment is meant to reinforce and strengthen the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, which guaranteed the Jewish state “air refueling tankers, missile defense capabilities, and specialized munitions.”

The White House would be required under the bill to report to Congress every three months on the progress of its weapons deliveries to Israel.

The House version of the NDAA also would allow for the indefinite detention of several terrorists still being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. At least $500 million has been allotted to upgrade and improve the facility.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Iran’s election has exposed popular discontent with the Tehran government but is unlikely to bring about any change in Iranian nuclear policy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Reuters on Monday.

Acknowledging that economic sanctions were clearly taking their toll on Iran, Netanyahu said the pressure needed to be maintained and urged Western allies not to pin their hopes on the newly elected Iranian president, Hassan Rohani.

“He doesn’t count. He doesn’t call the shots,” Netanyahu said, adding that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made all the decisions regarding nuclear policy, which the West fears is geared towards developing an atomic bomb.

“The Iranian election clearly reflects deep disaffection of the Iranian people with its regime, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the power to change Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” said the Israeli leader, who heads a centre-right coalition government.

Iran denies that it wants nuclear weapons and says its atomic program is focused exclusively on civilian needs.

Rohani was viewed as moderate by comparison with the other presidential candidates. His emphatic election victory on Sunday surprised many Western governments.

Iran’s nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005, Rohani said on Monday that Tehran would be more transparent about its nuclear activities in future.

However, Netanyahu, who views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel, quoted a 2004 speech in which Rohani openly acknowledged developing Iran’s nuclear capabilities while all the while holding talks with Europeans.

“They are using time. He himself admitted they were using time basically to continue Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” said Netanyahu, sitting in his Jerusalem office, a large map of the Middle East and Iran pinned next to the main doorway.

“BUYING TIME”

The situation has changed dramatically in Iran since 2004, with increasingly rigid western sanctions damaging the local economy, forcing a sharp reduction in oil output and a deep fall in the value of Iran’s currency.

“These sanctions actually produced the change we have seen today. They did not work counterproductively. They produced some change in Iran, but they have not yet produced the change that we need to see,” Netanyahu said.

“So stay firm with the demands and firm with the sanctions.”

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s only atomic power, has signaled it could take military action against Iran if sanctions and diplomacy fail to bring about a change.

In a speech to the United Nations last September, Netanyahu drew a “red line” for Iran’s uranium enrichment – the point at which it could swiftly upgrade its stockpiles to build a bomb. Officials put this at 250 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium.

Since then, the Iranians have converted some of their enriched uranium into a powder, staying below the threshold set by Netanyahu, in a move that some experts say has enabled Tehran effectively to circumvent the Israeli threat.

Netanyahu said he would not be setting any further red lines, but added that world powers had to persuade Iran to halt all enrichment and remove the uranium stockpiles.

“The red line has not changed. Neither has the Iranian pursuit of approaching it gradually, running out the clock, buying time, putting up a more hospitable face. These are all tactics. Again and again and again,” he said.

The United States has said it will not let Iran obtain the bomb, but in recent weeks the White House has been more focused on the civil war in Syria, announcing at the weekend that it was prepared to arm rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

Netanyahu has previously cautioned against such a move, worried that the weapons could fall into the wrong hands and be turned against Israel, which shares a tense frontier with Syria.

Asked about the U.S. step, the Israeli leader said: “I can understand the decision of President Obama. What is happening in Syria is a tremendous tragedy.”

The defense minister said he “can’t see stability in the near future” in Syria, noting that the worst-case scenario for Israel would be one in which al Qaeda elements cause further destabilization in the region, particularly in Jordan.

“We do not intervene, we do not interfere,” he said. “We are in a very sensitive position of course so any Israeli intervention might affect the side we might support.”

“From our standpoint what should be very clear that Jordan is an asset in the Middle East in terms of stability,” he added. “That’s why we support it and we actually believe Jordan should be supported by the United States by other allies in order to keep Jordan as a stabilizer in the region.”

Ya’alon said the Israeli government has not asked the United States not to arm the anti-Assad forces.

“We are not in a position to dictate or to ask the United States what to do in Syria, but that doesn’t mean there are no consultations,” Ya’alon said.

He said Israel was troubled by Russia providing weapons for Bashar al-Assad’s forces, but said it has not seriously damaged the relationship between the two countries.

“We are not happy with all the Russian activities in the region, we have our opportunity to make our comments about it,” Ya’alon said. “I believe that when we look to the Russian policy, it’s not against us. … The main considerations are not Israel, the main considerations are what they call the ‘superpowers game’ between Russia and the United States.”

On Iran, the defense minister said the West needs to show that it has the “political stomach to go all the way” if it wants to force the regime to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

He said the recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which said that Iran has made progress on its program but has not yet reached Israel’s “red line” of producing 250 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium, suggests that “it may be Iran has internalized Netanyahu’s red line which is why they have avoided reaching [it].”

Ya’alon also addressed the Obama administration’s efforts to renew Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, reiterating that Israel is willing to come to the table without preconditions.

“We say from the very beginning we’re ready to sit at the table immediately,” Ya’alon said. “[The Palestinians] want to get something for coming to the table.”

The defense minister said that the United States should use its leverage of Palestinian aid money in order to influence the actions of Palestinian leaders.

“We believe regarding incitement, the money given to the Palestinian Authority should be conditioned,” Ya’alon said. “There are many leverages on behalf of the West, especially the money.”

Ya’alon said he was “very optimistic” about Israel’s future.

“My optimism is based on what I know about our strengths,” he concluded. “[Israel’s] very well-known secrets, our brains and our hearts.”

Bercovici learned from the radio that there had been a major accident on the highway and that traffic was still blocked. Google announced today that it acquired the Israeli-developed system that had guided her, Waze, for what Israeli Television said was the highest amount ever paid for an application.

Neither Google nor the heads of Waze announced a purchase price, but press reports in Israel have put the sum at $1.3 billion. For drivers the application is free.

What makes Waze unique is its real-time, community-based, nature. In the event of accidents, speed traps, obstructions or other unusual circumstances drivers can signal Waze of the problem, a report that is immediately shared with all other drivers heading in that direction.

“It’s saved me several times,” Bercovici said. “I never start driving without turning it on, even in Tel Aviv itself.”

Waze proved itself last winter when the major roadway in the city, the Ayalon Road, was closed by flooding at rush hour, a circumstance that thousands of drivers with GPS discovered only when trapped in traffic.

Google had to wait until Waze’s negotiations with Facebook collapsed last month, reportedly over the Waze management’s insistence on keeping the firm and its employees in Israel, at least for several years. Google has reportedly accepted these conditions. Waze also conducted talks with Apple.

Waze was founded in Israel in 2006. Although it opened an office in Silicon Valley, most its 100 employees are in Israel. According to Ynet, the firm has been growing rapidly abroad in the past year, tripling its subscribers to almost 50 million users. Ninety percent of drivers use Waze in Israel. In the United States, its present share of navigation apps is 10 percent.

Google’s acquisition of Waze, despite having its own advanced mapping system, is aimed in part at preventing Facebook or Apple from acquiring the technology, analysts said.

Jane’s Defense Weekly first reported that the details were spelled out on the U.S. Federal Business Opportunities website, which carried 1,500 pages of specifications for contractors interested in submitting bids for the contract. The site named in the tender was said to be an Israeli air force facility near the village of Tal Shahar between Tel Aviv and Ashdod to its south. The tender was subsequently removed from the website.

While the tender did not name the missile that the Israelis would deploy at the site, Jane’s said it was likely the Arrow-3, the latest version of a missile being developed by Israel with American funding. An earlier version of the Arrow is already deployed.

Unlike the Iron Dome anti-rocket system, which Israeli officials say has successfully intercepted hundreds of short-range rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, the Arrow is designed to intercept ballistic missiles. Such missiles would be intercepted at ranges of 1,500 miles, long before they reach Israeli air space. The Arrow-3 is scheduled to be deployed by 2015.

Additionally, the published tender included classified information on the design of the base, which would be built to survive a nuclear attack. It included diagrams showing four concrete-hardened launch sites, each designed to hold six rockets.

Jane’s reported that the Tal Shahar facility is already the location of an Arrow-2 battery. It said the four new launch sites would be cut into the surrounding hills. Each would contain six interceptors in vertical launch positions and gantry cranes for erecting additional missiles after the original ones had been fired.

“It means that Israel could potentially launch 24 Arrow-3 interceptors at an incoming wave of ballistic missiles and then engage any targets that were not successfully destroyed using its Arrow-2 interceptors,” according to the magazine.

There was no reaction from any official Israeli source to the report.

Meanwhile, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has reported in its annual survey that Israel has 80 nuclear warheads, of which 50 are designed to be placed on missiles and the remainder as bombs to be dropped by aircraft.

In a video posted on the Knesset’s YouTube channel, Piron can be seen taking the lectern to introduce to the Knesset a bill relating to smuggling in prisons. However, when Piron, who is also an ordained rabbi, reaches the words “insertion of forbidden items,” he immediately begins to snicker.

The Hebrew word for insertion — hahdara – connotes both penetration and smuggling.

“What’s so funny, minister?” asks a deadpan MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), who chairs the debate.

Piron, apologetic, responds “No, no, no,” and tries to calm himself.

MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), seated in the opposition’s back benches, is more direct than Feiglin.

“How is inserting objects in prisons a concern of the education minister?” he chortles.

“I’m beginning to think, what can you insert?” quips Piron, and then finds himself unable to continue amid rising gales of laughter from the benches. “Enough Gafni, stop,” the minister pleads.

[...]

“You want to wait a little?” asks Feiglin kindly, as Piron makes further failed efforts to resume reading his text. The minister takes a glass of water, but that doesn’t help either.

In the end, Piron gives up trying to keep a straight face, and instead of making his speech, takes his glass of water and returns to his seat.

A grinning but under-control Minister of Social Affairs Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) takes Piron’s place and reads the bill, which proposes stricter punishment for those caught smuggling illicit items, and in particular mobile phones, into prisons.

Dan Schueftan, director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa and visiting professor of government at Georgetown University, spoke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy about the security challenges facing a new government in Israel.

The centrist Yesh Atid party finished second in parliamentary elections earlier this year, prompting right-leaning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish a new governing coalition.

Schueftan said the success of the centrist party affirmed a growing belief among Israelis that the prospects for peace with the Palestinians have only worsened since the Arab revolutions began in 2011.

”The Israelis see that there is no new Middle East that is pluralistic and democratic and willing to accept us an independent nation,” he said.

This new centrist majority has developed a “national resilience” in light of the fact that deterrence against terrorist groups such as Hezbollah has not worked, he said.

“Now we aware of the fact that despite showing the Arab states the military, political, and economic strengths of Israel, the conflict is not fading away but only mutating,” he said.

But Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, countered Schueftan’s assertion that the deterrence policy had failed.

“It’s not an accident that since the summer of 2006, we have not seen a Shia missile launched at Israel,” referencing the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, he said.

Israel’s growing prosperity and security relationship with the United States may give Netanyahu room to negotiate a deal with the Palestinians, Feldman said.

”It’s very difficult for Netanyahu to build a comprehensive case that he’s bounded.” Feldman said. “He clearly has room.”

However, Schueftan stressed that Israeli public opinion has shifted against resuming peace talks and that the nation should disengage from negotiations with the Palestinians.

He said he supports a bilateral agreement between the United States and Israel that would discontinue some planned Israeli settlements in the disputed West Bank territory but consolidate existing ones to preserve Israeli security.

The United States could shelter Israel from U.N. and European criticism in exchange, he said.

”I’m expecting the U.N. to charge Israel with killing the Dead Sea any day now,” Schueftan said.

Schueftan was skeptical of reports that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is planning to return to the Middle East next week in an effort to restart peace talks.

“He will bring negotiations at best, and then we will negotiate and nothing will come of it,” Schueftan said. “The chances are zero.”

A senior Hezbollah leader has also announced in recent reports that the terrorist group would support Syrian attacks on Israel’s northern border.

Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general Naim Qassem said in a recent interview that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ready to make good on a threat to bring his country’s civil war to Israel.

“I believe that the Syrian leadership is serious about opening the Golan front,” Qassem said in a May 25 interview that was translated Monday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“After all, it was President Bashar who declared the opening of the Golan front,” Qassem was quoted as saying. “The implementation is dependent upon objective circumstances.”

Two Hezbollah leaders survived an assassination attempt on Monday, according to regional media reports.

Unknown assailants attempted to kill Sheik Maher Hammoud, who is close to the terror group, Al Jazeera reported.

“Security officials said Hammoud was walking from his home in the port city of Sidon to the al-Quds Mosque where he preaches early on Monday when unknown men in a moving car opened fire,” Al Jazeera reported.

Hezbollah has emerged in recent weeks as a key force in Syria’s years-long civil war.

The terror group has been fighting rebels on Assad’s behalf at the request of Iran’s supreme leader.

As the terror group takes the lead in several key Syrian provinces it also has suffered major casualties, calling into question the group’s preparedness for such an operation.

However, Hezbollah leaders have said they will commit anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 troops.

Qassem reiterated Hezbollah’s commitment to fighting Israel on Assad’s behalf.

“We believe that the level of our involvement in some operations [in Syria] that are consistent with the way we see things is legitimate, required, and obligatory,” he said in the interview with Lebanon’s Mayadeen TV.

“This is part of protecting the resistance enterprise, protecting Syria of the resistance,” he said. “If not for that—the fighting, the liberation, and the tipping of the balance in favor of the regime would be the responsibility of the regime itself, and indeed, the regime is taking care of that, and so is the Syrian people, fighting alongside the regime.”

Israel has threatened to respond aggressively should Hezbollah or other pro-Assad forces launch attacks on its northern border.

However, Hezbollah has massed its forces in the Golan Heights despite this threat.

“We, in Hizbullah, have said that we are prepared to help and to participate in this,” he said, noting that “Hizbullah cannot be the one to open the front in the Golan.”

“A front is usually opened by the people of the relevant country,” Qassem said. “When Syria decides to open the Golan front—if it requires anything from Hizbullah, we will be ready to help anyone conducting resistance against Israel.”

Meanwhile, Israel has also threatened to attack Syria should it receive a shipment of Russian made anti-aircraft missiles.

Israeli officials reiterated their stance on Monday, but said that there is not yet evidence the shipment has been made.

Barkat recently visited Hollywood to promote Israel’s juicy film production incentives. Making films and television in Jerusalem is “not only good business, it’s good Zionism,” Barkat told The Hollywood Reporter.

Jerusalem is not only providing a red carpet lined with free dollar bills to film studios, the city also founded a department to better issue filming permits and to aid with logistics. It’s also founding a L.A. satellite office to improve relations. Perhaps this endeavor borrows a play out of the restoring Jersey Shore? A Twitpic of Homeland’s Damien Lewis taking cues in Haifa could go a long way to demonstrate to Tinseltown how easy it is to get a crew set up in Ein Karem. Hollywood is superficial like that.

During his barnstorming tour, Barkat met with studio execs on both sides of the aisle. Vocal Hollywood Republican Jon Voight hosted Barkat at Pat Boone’s Beverly Hills manor. Polar opposite from Voight is Hollywood mogul, Obama mega-donor, and most important, Power Rangers progenitor Haim Saban, who calls Jerusalem “a magical environment for filming.” Saban even promised to shoot his next live-action series in the City of David.

I wonder how his fellow Democrats will feel. This is the party, remember, that infamously booed the inclusion of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in its 2012 national platform.