Conflict Blotter

The Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh appears to have been badly misled on this story about a video of an alleged Hamas honor killing in the Gaza Strip. The paper’s Web site is currently leading with the story. Too bad the disturbing video looks to be a 2004 April 2007 clip of a Yazidi girl […]

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The Kuwaiti press claims a pair of scoops on the September 6 Israeli air strike in Syria.
The Al Jerida newspaper reported Friday that retired Iranian general Ali Reza Asgari, who defected in February, gave Israel the intelligence on Syria’s missile program used in the Syrian airstrike. After the former deputy defense minister and Revolutionary Guard […]

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Haaretz’s always provocative Bradley Burston’s offers a fresh Israeli take on Ahmadinejad:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is simply one of Israel’s premier diplomatic and security assets. His expressed views make Israel look pragmatic, clear-eyed, non-paranoid.
He has denied away the Nazi Holocaust as a myth. He has, as well, denounced Israel for Nazi-like actions. Referring to last year’s […]

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Asharq Alawsat reports today (arabic) that Hamas has announced a new plan to share control over the security services in Gaza. The short of it: Hamas will temporarily transfer responsibility for the security services, presidential headquarters and all the crossings into Gaza to the Egyptian government, until the security services can be reconstituted along national […]

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I’m up in the Golan at the moment and will have a post coming on tensions along the Syrian-Israeli border, but in the meantime, this priceless news out of Saudi Arabia, courtesy of Issandr at the Arabist, is a must read.

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Israel is stepping up its military offensive in the Gaza Strip and Defense Minister Ehud Barak is warning that more is yet to come. “We are getting closer to carrying out a widespread operation in Gaza,” Barak told Israel’s Army Radio Wednesday, the Labor Party leader’s 100th day as defense minister.
As Barak readies an assault […]

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A 90-page report by the New York Police department called “Radicalization in the West” breaks down the process that turns an otherwise ordinary Muslim youth into a violent jihadist. It’s nothing new or groundbreaking, but it brings together a series of eight or nine fairly detailed case studies that look at how well-known terror […]

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First two Israeli journalists sneak into Lebanon, and now this. Israeli pundit and security commentator for Yediot Ahranot (and a Lt. Col. in the paratrooper reserves) Ron Ben Yishai has made it out to Deir al Zur in eastern Syria to hunt for the site of the Israeli air strike earlier this month. The full […]

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Though it seems a bit premature, there’s been an uptick this week in speculation about who will succeed President Abbas. Abbas’ term isn’t up for another 18 months and early elections are off the table, but a failed November peace conference could change all that.
Marwan Barghouti is of course one of the names most often […]

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Ever since John Bolton first leaked the North Korea nuclear connection to Israel’s air strike in Syria two weeks ago, I have been skeptical. It seemed a bit too self-serving given Bolton’s own confrontationalist approach to North Korea. I was more inclined to believe those suggesting the strike was simply meant to send a message […]

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