The Cutting Edge

Malcolm Hoenlein

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Website manager Ohad Rosen of jerusalemonline.com said on that hackers had recently attempted to disrupt a video message that Malcolm Hoenlein – executive vice president of the Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations – posted on June 18. The video message declared: "I want to tell you that we have no issue with the Iranian people. We want to see you prosper and your country develop. We want to renew the close relationship that once existed between Iran and the United States, and Iran, Israel and many countries around the world. It is regrettable that you have a leadership that does not care about your welfare and the conditions under which you live. Rather, your leadership exploits Iranian citizens in its quest for extremist goals driven by radical ideological commitments that are not consistent with the interests of the people of Iran, or the stability of the region in which Iran finds itself."

The message continued to lay out the case for Iranians to stop their government from pursuing nuclear weapons. Israel has announced it will pre-emptively attack Iran's nuclear infrastructure unless long-stalled international efforts to stop trhe program quickly succeed.

According to the Associated Press, Rosen said that the hackers are “probably Iranian based with Chinese assistance or fingerprints." Rosen added that the hackers were not successful in taking down Hoenlein’s 2 ½ minute message to the Iranian people but did succeed in deleting pictures and icons while also sabotaging links.

According to reports, Iranian hackers also hacked Arab-language websites over name of the Persian Gulf, which some refer to as the “Arabian” Gulf. Behrouz Kamalian, who blogs on mathematics, was reported on the Iranian.ws website to have said on July 21 that his group had hacked about 100 Arab websites, including those hosted by government, academic institutions, and private enterprise in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Iraq.

The hackers managed to superimpose a map of the Persian Gulf, clearly marking it as such. Kamalian’s blog site lists his address in Teheran.

An email inquiry to the Iranian Interests Section at the Embassy of Pakistan to the United States was not immediately answered. No response from Iranian authorities about the cyber hacking has been reported.

Jerusalemonline can be view here.

Senior Contributor Martin Barillas writes on religion and geopolitics at www.speroforum.com