‘Iran threatens nuclear explosion in Israel’s Dimona facility’

Via msn.com en/US, Dec. 26 with a link to the Jerusalem Post

View of the Israeli nuclear facility in the Negev Desert outside Dimona

“A Twitter account run by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Friday threatened to blow up the city of Dimona in the Negev desert, where a nuclear facility is located.

The IRGC account, with its 12,100 followers, posted a video showing multiple explosions in a desert. “Then on the day, we [God] will deal you the fiercest blow. We will surely inflict punishment, “ the IRGC wrote in Arabic, citing a quote from the Koran, adding the hashtag “Dimona.”  The video is post-dated to Friday.

pic.twitter.com/7OqXdJHPf9

— IMA Media • ایما مدیا (@imamedia_org) December 25, 2021

The account provides a link to the IRGC’s Telegram account, with its 376,084 subscribers. Both the IRGC Twitter account and Telegram account show the IRGC logo—an arm raised while clutching a rifle.”

Clicking through to jpost.com, a different title: Jerusalem Post, Dec. 26, 2021,Why Iran’s threat to attack Israel’s Dimona matters – analysis; The decision to unveil a new multiple-drone launcher while splicing that with a digital mock-up of Dimona is a new level of Iranian aggressive threats.

Dimona nuclear facility seen in satellite imagery published available on the Mapbox application ...Mapbox???

“Iran has published and distributed a video of rockets and drones being used to attack Dimona in the Negev Desert. It says the attack took place during the recent 17th Great Prophet drill with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the IRGC Air Force.” [...]

Tehran says it “simulated a missile and drone attack on the Dimona nuclear center using 16 ballistic missiles and five suicide drones, successfully,” according to its semi-official Fars News Agency. The Jerusalem Post reported on the initial videos on Saturday. Iran has now doubled down with its own reports, bragging about its abilities.

The video was published by Fars and Tasnim New Agency, main Iranian media outlets linked to the government and the IRGC. This means the video is a purposeful attempt by Iran to threaten Israel, which, of course, isn’t exactly new. Tehran threatens Israel everyday with various forms of destruction; it continually has to come up with new threats.”  [...]

“Iran simulated “targeting the development of weapons of mass destruction by the Zionist regime,” the report said. In the initial stages of the drill, Iran had showcased IRGC missiles and drones, it said.”  [...]

“Fars published the video in full, which has been circulated online for several days. According to Tasnim’s defense correspondent, “In the last stage of the joint exercise, 16 types of solid and liquid fuel ballistic missiles, as well as 10 suicide UAVs known as Shahed-136 drones, simulated targeting Dimona.”

Iran simulated “targeting the development of weapons of mass destruction by the Zionist regime,” the report said. In the initial stages of the drill, Iran had showcased IRGC missiles and drones, it said.”

I guess readers re supposed to take the Jerusalem Post’s translations at face value. Why not?

Curiously, 2 days earlier: ‘Israel's Iran question: To strike or not to strike? – opinion; Will an overt airstrike on Iran really achieve so much more for Israel in terms of a delay than continued covert operations?’, DECEMBER 23, 2021,

"Targets would vary:

“The first would be Natanz, Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility.The complex consists of two large halls, roughly 300,000 square feet each dug somewhere between eight and 23 feet below ground and covered by several layers of concrete and metal. The walls of each hall are estimated to be approximately two feet thick. The facility is also surrounded by surface-to-air missiles.

The next facility would be the heavy-water plant under construction near the town of Arak, which could be used one day to produce plutonium. Iranians say the material will be used for medical and research isotope production, but in reality could have the ability to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.”, etc.

‘Report: Jake Sullivan Reassures Israel US Willing to Take Harder Line on Iran;Sullivan met with Bennett and other Israeli officials in Jerusalem’, by Dave DeCamp, December 22, 2021, antiwar.com

"Sullivan reportedly laid out three scenarios to the Israeli officials:

  1. A deal is reached within the next few weeks, and the JCPOA is revived, which Sullivan doubts will happen.
  2. A “freeze for freeze” agreement that would give Iran some sanctions relief in exchange for freezing certain aspects of its nuclear program
  3. Negotiations fail and the US implements new sanctions and other pressure on Iran

Israeli officials have made it clear that they are against the idea of a “freeze for freeze” or any type of interim deal. The Israelis claim Iran is only using the negotiations to buy time while it develops a bomb despite a lack of evidence for the assertion. The head of the CIA, William Burns, recently said the spy agency has no evidence Iran has decided to pursue a nuclear weapon.

I reckon there’s plenty of evidence now....

‘Key Differences Between Shia and Sunni Muslims’, learnreligions.com  

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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From the cartoon bomb Bibi presented to the UN in September 2012, to today, perfectly stated by CIA head, William Burns:

"The spy agency has no evidence Iran has decided to pursue a nuclear weapon."

As has been stated for the past decade by multiple sources. Including the OP, Wendy Davis, and me.

So if the "nuclear bomb threat" is bogus, what Is Israel so desperate about? That's my question and so far the answers I can guess about are unsatisfactory.

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NYCVG

wendy davis's picture

@NYCVG

the (many versions of) the cartoons bibi's bomb'! it may not end, but as to the US and zionist israel: who's the client, who's the state?

is israel receiving more defense money than the publicly stated $3.8 billion from the US by now?

yes, iran has been enriching plutionium to higher levels in reaction to the killing sanctions imposed on the nation.

it's much the same as 'russia about to invade ukriane' agitprop. moscow is tiring of it, and putin and lavrov are pushing back hard with dire warnings.

one answer to your Q may be that Ahmadinejad has been quoted as saying: 'wipe israel off the map', but as i read it, he was speaking of zionism, not israel per se.

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zed2's picture

Here is the real problem, the US doint want countries to be able to tell other countries what they can and can't do in a number of important areas. Unless we do that we cant put forward arguments saying its okay for say Israel to have nuclear weapons for self defense and not Iran.

At least I think thats probably whats going on.

We also want to keep human rights out of trade. Currently countries cannot boycot other countries for human rights reasons, as faras I know. Nomatter what they do to their own people within their own borders. There is something wrong with that stupid change. We should be making nuclear weapons illegal for everybody, and push for human rights to be allowed in trade law like the WTO. Make it legal for things like wages (minimum wages) to be legal in WTO law. Right now GATS Article 16 prohibits many things that speak to labor standards and minimum wages. But we are not allowed to boycott countries businesses because they pay people almost nothing. (as long as it isnt nothing)

I suspect we'll be on thin legal ice if we tried to make wages or worker safety issues in trade, since its barred, we cant, We totally sold all humanity out. We threw away the boycott option. Oligarchs can do whatever they want. We threw away our minimum wage laws, we threw away our safety standards. Buy or die. We may have to let countries do all the jobs if they are cheapest, and if we tried to argue their wages were too low to require we only traded with countries that paid a living wage" or even a minimum wage of any kind, we would almost certainly lose a suit in the WTO.. Its barred by GATS.

What kinds of arguments could we use to allow a boycott on Iran due to a nuclear program there?

We likely couldnt. Because we don't want such restrictions on trade. Slavery is even legal in the US, if somebody is duly convicted of a (any?) crime.

Nuclear war is a crime. Most of its victims are the weak, people who couldn't be held responsible for our corporate agendas.

America is open for business. Nomatter what. If somebody leaves work because of a life threatening situation the employer can fire them! Remember September 11, 2001.

The dust was extremely dangerous. That dust killed a great many of the first responders. It also was so fine it would have gone through most masks. Just like virii.

It should have been possible to predict that increase in mortality in advance with a dark-field microscope.

Suppose we were attacked by terrorists - with a nuclear device.

The cost of one nuclear device being detonated in an American city would be so high that it would bankrupt this country. Insurance doesnt cover it. It woud be a total loss.

We have to recognize the fact that nuclear weapons must be prohibited, they must be unthinkable and prohibited for all countries.

Use of nuclear weapons would make food so much more expensive that billions of people, especially children would die.

WHo would pay that cost? Not insurance companies. We all would. Nomatter who was to blame, we all would pay a huge price. And the horrible fact is that we really could not prevent it with the level of security people think. Turning the world into a police state, what thge olgarchs and billionaires want, cant be allowed.

Look at the thinking that went into the decision to bomb the cities in Germany and Japan.

Who died in World War II? The poor. Who got rich in World War II? The richest families in GHermany and Jap[an. They remained the same before and after the war. None of them paid for the war. They stayed on top. All the families who made fortunes on slave labor in WWII remained the richest families.

And many of them went on funding fascism..

How do we prevent nuclear terrorism? Being human and altrusitic and fair to one another? In other words be human, not monsters.

Yes. No violence. That would only make the risk higher. The kind of thinking we seem to espouse in trade seems to be making extreme poverty worse. Everywhere.

Countries now have M economies, where there is no middle class. Instead they have very rich and very poor. And nobody in the middle. Because the oligarchies in the popor countries are getting rich paying almost nothing. Its their right. They may refuse to pay workers a living wage, when they can get away with that. And they do.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVGJDwEWIrI]
Thats what we're headed towards here. Thats what the billionaires want. A race to the bottom, now. They say human labor is worth less. Because of automation, human labor is worth less. Labor saving technology is like workers who work for free. Its economic effect is similar. We cant avoid that.

(Despite all they try to tell us, the fact is so called "free trade economics" logic is fallacious. We also claim that that i how and why we were (supposedly) so successful. But thats not at all true. All the arguments they use to arge for neoliberalism are based on misinformation. We did not espouse "free trade" during the periods of growth in the US. The US was actually protectionist all that time. So was the UK.

Its all bullshit.

The reason they want what they call "free trade" is that they want to take the resources of the developing countries, under extremkely advantageous circumstances.

We dont want them being able to say no, "No, we don't want to sell you our unobtainium" "we need it"

.. we can't do that. What will be the future? Depends on your money. No money, no honey.

Politicians already gave away the store. To their fellow oligarchs.

What about the vote? It cant do anything. They already gave away the store.

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zed2's picture

Israel helped South Africa get the bomb, in the 1970s. And quite possibly other countries, maybe Taiwan.

At around the same time, we were helping Iran get it.

Our current dilemma what we got for our incredible stupidity, and looking the other way as to lots of really horrible entities we supported.

Like Osama Bin Laden, the Shah Of Iran. Pol Pot and his Red Cambodians, the Khmer Rouge (because they were fighting our enemies the Vietnamese, who invaded Cambodia and ended the barbarianism of the Khmer Rouge. Who killed a third of the people in the country. One of the most brutal and paranoid regimes in history.

WE supported dozens of madmen and dictators, it seems, we still support dozens of bloodthirsty right wing regimes we shouldn't. Dozens of extremist right wing regimes in Africa, Asia and Latin America, And Europe. Along with our arms dealing, money laundering buddies in crime, the United Kingdom. We are arming the whole planet. And land grabbing.. And resource grabbing.

Why are we opposing public higher education, healthcare and public water utilities all around the world, now?

Insanely wrong trade rules! Extremist ideology! Just like Iran? Kind of but different. We push A different kind of extremism here in the US. .

Sarah Joseph's book is worth reading.

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wendy davis's picture

@zed2

inclination to read your entire link here:

At around the same time, we were helping Iran get it.

but it's about nuclear power, not nuclear bombs.

before the shah was deposed (historians argue who supported it save for the CIA and likely MI6), it was those agencies who overthrew the secular Mossadeq in 1953 who had nationalized iran's oil.

i remember that journalist andre vltchek always said that modern iran is socialist in its own way, although i don't remember the particulars.

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what is all this sabre rattling about? and why does the us have to be involved? if the jews and arabs have some score to settle, let them go toe to toe and see what they learn. btw, withdraw all military support from the israel regime to level the playing field and see how it goes ..

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wendy davis's picture

@QMS

long, QMS, but an answer would have required more time than i had last night.

first: mintpress news has carried a lot of columns on israel v. the palestinians lately, some arabs, some muslims iirc.

second: saudi arabia. between 2015 and 2020, the U.S. agreed to sell over $64.1 billion worth of weapons to Riyadh, averaging $10.7 billion per year. Sales to other belligerents in the war, like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also rose exponentially. both biden and trump, but er...dementia joe is reviewing his 'in defense only' scheme.

do i remember correctly that iran had bombed an oil storage depot in KSA? if so, good.

saudi arabia (and israel?) have bombed the houthis in yemen until there's little left.

double sigh.

iranians comprise 15% of the shia muslims, sunnis, like saudi arabi, the rest.
in bahrain, home of the US's fifth fleet, the majority shias are ruled by...Sunnis. they've risen up in the past, but to no avail....and worse. small wonder.

arrgh; just checked. now the US and israel have begun bombing yemen. OMG.

here is news concerning the assassination or iran's top nuclear scientist from the times of israe:

Netanyahu hoped hit would sink nuke deal, even under Biden">times of israel:

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in November 2020 in a sophisticated hit led by a Mossad team that reportedly deployed a computerized machine gun, required no on-site operatives, took less than a minute, and did not injure anyone else, including the scientist’s wife who was with him at the time.

"The report detailed how Israel had been closely following Fakhrizadeh’s career and movements since at least 2007 and began making preparations for an assassination operation in late 2019 and early 2020, following a series of meetings between Israeli officials led by then-Mossad director Yossi Cohen and high-ranking United States officials, including then-US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the CIA director Gina Haspel.

These preparations moved into high gear by the summer of 2020, according to the report, and Israel decided to press ahead, driven by two factors: Iran’s tepid response to the January 2020 killing of its top general Qassim Suleimani in a US drone strike facilitated by Israeli intelligence, and the rising likelihood that Trump would lose the national election that November to Joe Biden, who had indicated he would return the US to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran."

i haven't checked on the final round of JCPOA talks in vienna, but looking just now, this made me laugh out loud!

As Vienna Talks Enter Eighth Session, Iranian Regime Demands Still Show Signs of Escalating, dec. 29, 2021

from the ncri, national council of resistance to iran, located in italy...

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wendy davis's picture

i'd mistakenly remembered the assassination of Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3, 2020 as his having been iran's top nuclear scientist, but i was wrong. but he a was apparently murdered not only by the US war machine (as mr. wd reminded me), but also by the IDF.

Dec. 21 2021, RT.com: Israeli role in killing of top Iran commander Soleimani revealed; Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intelligence chief Major General Tamir Hayman has admitted the country’s role in the assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, describing the killing as “significant and important.”

"Soleimani died in a drone strike on January 3, 2020 in Baghdad, Iraq after then-President Donald Trump ordered the targeted assassination. At the time, US media reported that Israeli intelligence had worked with American officials to locate the Iranian official.

The revelation by the former IDF intelligence chief comes days after comments from former President Trump about the assassination were reported. According to reports, in an interview for an upcoming book, Trump said then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “willing to fight Iran to the last American soldier.”

sorry, but i need to get offline now. it takes a longish time to get ready for bed, unguents, potions, and other home health protocols to get more than a few hours sleep.

sleep well if you're able, and imagine a better and more just world.

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It sowed the seeds of humanities destruction. This hatred will never go away until Israel goes way.
Technology will continue to grow and nuclear holocaust will becone inevitable.

The only way to defuse it is to remove Israel and stop sowing hate in foreign nations.

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wendy davis's picture

@Battle of Blair Mountain

where the peaceful jews, arabs, and muslims might go. trump's nephew sure figured out the solution, didn't he? enclaves of them with checkpoints, long roads between.

P P & M issued their warning as far back as 1982:

Light one candle for the strength that we need
To never become our own foe

And light one candle for those who are suff'ring
Pain we learned so long ago

Light one candle for all we believe in
Let anger not tear us apart!

Light one candle to bind us together
With peace as the song in our heart
....................................................................

Mondoweiss.net covers news and opinions about palestine, israel, and the US.

from today: Once again this year, the UN General Assembly repeatedly voted overwhelmingly to criticize Israel. Why?

"Again in 2021, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed 14 resolutions aimed at criticizing Israel (and supporting the Palestinians). On every resolution, only a handful of countries (among them the USA, Canada and a sprinkle of small Pacific island nations) stood with Israel. Some others abstained."

The assembly debates the SAME (or nearly the same) motions every year, and all of them denounce Israel’s repeated violations of UN General Assembly resolutions.
..................................................

But while Israel adopted the part of the UN proposal giving it a Jewish state, Israel defied the UN proposal in that it:

Seized much more land than proposed in the partition plan (78% vs. 55% of historic Palestine)

Took over Jaffa and seized West Jerusalem
Expelled over 750,000 Palestinians
Confiscated their property
Destroyed over 400 villages
Prevented refugees from returning
Restricted the civil rights of the Palestinians who remained in Israel

and the US funds israel...jezum crow, how sickening.

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Dawn's Meta's picture

@wendy davis New Year. Oh,Wendy if only it will be so.

Best wishes to you and Mr. WD.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

wendy davis's picture

@Dawn's Meta

and your partner, Ms. Meta.

if only our wishes and (even apatheistic) prayers would come true.

i did have one hope come true. yesterday a mountain lion killed a doe out in one of our hay meadows near some trees. mr. wd wanted to go look at it and the tracks. i begged him not to go, not knowing when the lion would come back to feed again. as in: 'do me a favor and stay away!'

he agreed. ; )

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wendy davis's picture

and i haven't read it yet, but the popular resistance newsletter featured this:

Iran Is Spearheading A Geopolitical Sea Change In West Asia
By Matthew Ehret, Orinoco Tribune, December 30, 2021

ehret opens:

"Checkmate.

While the west bangs on about Vienna talks, sanctions and military options, Iran has been quietly building a vast network of alternative solutions to cement its Asian ascent.

Benjamin Franklin once famously wrote to his fellow colonials: “Either we hang together or we hang separately.”

Those words are just as true today as they were 270 years ago, for empires have always controlled by dividing their victims into regional tribal interests in order to be better conquered.
............................................

The China-Russia-Iran alliance challenges rules-based disorder

Since Iran finalized its Comprehensive 25 Year Cooperation Plan with China on 27 March, a completely new geometry has arisen in Southwest Asia, which is evolving at breakneck speed.

An ancient civilization serving as the third foundational pillar supporting the Greater Eurasian Partnership, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on 17 September, Iran has finally emerged as a leading driver for stabilization and progress.

Alongside security agreements with Russia that have seen the two nations conducting Indian Ocean military drills in February 2021, Russia, Iran and China (RIC) have also parties would hold joint naval drills in the Persian Gulf by the start of 2022.

good night, and good luck.

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