Middle East / Levant

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury sat at the cafe of the five-star Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in downtown Dhaka – capital of the third-largest Muslim nation on earth – proclaiming his love for Israel and the Jewish people.

JERUSALEM – Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak has ordered IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz to draw up plans for a possible series of preemptive strikes against various Scud missile installations and suspected WMD (weapons of mass destruction) sites across Syria, as the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship appears to be entering a dangerous phase.

"We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria," Clinton said Tuesday. "We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria."

IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh said Monday night that “Syria has the world’s largest arsenal of chemical weapons, along with rockets and missiles that can reach all of Israel." But Palestinian officials criticized the amplified Israeli criticism on Sunday as a tactic to deflect attention from Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and the "moribund peace process."

Vice Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, is calling Syrian President Bashar Assad’s war against opposition a “genocide”, and said Israeli support is behind efforts to overthrow him.

JERUSALEM – Despite the absence of an attack on Iranian military and nuclear facilities, Israel and the U.S. are engaged in a covert cyberwar campaign against a growing list of Iranian targets. The dual objective is to hamper the Iranian regime’s ability to build an atomic bomb while pressuring them to bow to Western and UN demands to downgrade their enrichment capabilities to less than 10 percent.

The IDF Operations Department has put together instructions for military operations in cyberspace against enemies of the Jewish state. The IDF will engage in consistent and continuous intelligence gathering operations online, and said it will handle cyberspace as a battlefield as important as those at sea in the air, and on the ground, executing attacks when necessary.

In an address marking the 23rd anniversary of the death of his predecessor Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also accused the West of cynically exaggerating the threat a nuclear Iran poses to divert attention: "What Americans and Westerners do is idiotic. They magnify the nuclear issue to cover up their own [economic] problems."

JERUSALEM – In a meeting with a visiting U.S. delegation fresh off nuclear talks in Baghdad, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak and National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror expressed their government’s growing concerns over America’s diplomatic negotiations with Iran.

"Iran is here," said Northern Command Chief Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, "its negative influence is significant in the Gaza Strip, in Lebanon and in Syria." He also warned, "al-Qaeda might attack Israel in time." Meanwhile, an Iranian official threatens that a Syrian war would "engulf" Israel.

According to a report in the semi-official Fars News Agency, Iran's foreign ministry has blamed Israel for the recent massacre of Syrian civilians in Houla, claiming that “we palpably feel the Zionist regime's hand in Syria's internal developments."

Thousands gathered overnight in Tahrir Square, Cairo, to demonstrate against Egypt's election results which will pit deposed ruler Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq against Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi in a runoff election on June 16 and 17.

Deputy Minister for Development of the Negev and Galilee Ayoob Kara on Monday called on Western democracies "to stop their intolerable procrastination, which allows the Assad regime to continue its massacres."

Kaspersky Lab announced on Monday the discovery of a highly sophisticated malicious program being used as a cyber weapon attacking several countries. The complexity of the newly discovered malicious program exceeds those of all other cyber menaces known to date.

Barak took the opportunity to reiterate that "All options remain firmly on the table."

Saudi Muslims have launched several campaigns against McDonald's in "response to the savage attacks on the noble Prophet," under banners like "Help your Prophet!" and "Together in support of the Prophet."

Evidence found in an underground bunker in Iran could signal the country’s having moved one step closer toward the uranium threshold needed to make nuclear arms, International Atomic Energy Agency diplomats said today. IAEA inspectors found traces of uranium enriched up to 27 percent at Iran's Fordo enrichment plant.

According to Najem News —which says the bank's policy "contradicts Jordan's laws and constitutions"—the bank "fired all female employees who refused to wear the hijab, after warning them that it is mandatory, despite the fact that some of the employees are Christians."

The 144-page indictment seeks 10 aggravated life jail sentences for each commander, including former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, according to the English-language Turkish news service Today's Zaman, citing the Sabah daily.

In anticipation of the historic Presidential elections being held today, the Egyptian Independent offered a survey of the foreign policy platforms of the candidates. Despite their differences, they speak in one voice about the need to restore Egypt to its rightful place of primacy in the Arab world and their hostility towards Israel.

Retired general turned security analyst and Junta spokesman Sameh Seif Al-Yazal told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that rumors about an Israeli military intervention in Egypt are "misguided," because it was "not in Israel’s interest to fight Egypt at the present time, as the situation remained tense with its other neighbors."

Tomorrow, Wednesday, will see the start of new talks, in Baghdad, intended to persuade Iran's government to halt the enrichment of uranium, and also allow international inspectors complete access to its facilities. Ideally, President Obama would have liked to manage the progress of these talks, but both Republicans and Democrats don't completely trust the executive branch to do the right thing on Iran.

Animosity toward Israel is playing a significant role in the Egyptian presidential race, according to a report by Reuters.

Washington prefers the diplomatic option and stated as much time and again – but it seems that beneath the surface, an attack is ready to roll on command. An unusual moment of candor on the part of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro at a closed meeting in Tel Aviv, reveals the planning behind the scenes. "The military option is not only possible, it's ready," he says.

The House on Tuesday approved a non-binding resolution that "strongly supports United States policy to prevent the government of Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability," and expresses "opposition to any policy that would rely on containment as an option in response to the Iranian nuclear threat." Americans for Peace Now urged members of Congress to "vote NO or PRESENT."

In a televised speech in suburbs south of Beirut on Friday, Hizbullah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah boasted that his sophisticated terror network is capable of hitting any target “in Tel Aviv and occupied Palestine”, and would target Tel Aviv in a future war.

Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri is a 28 year old Saudi citizen now living in Yemen who is expert at creating bombs that can elude...

A report titled "The Emperor Has No Clothes: Palestinians and the End of the Peace Process" was issued this week by the International Crisis Group, asking: "Does anybody still believe in the Middle East Peace Process?" It claims the current process, even if it yields some local progress, "will not bring about a durable and lasting peace.

Speaking at the annual convention of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly in Atlanta on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden made the case that Obama's strategies regarding the Iranian nuclear program have worked, but said the decision to strike must be Israel's. "I would not contract out my security to anybody, even a loyal, loyal, loyal friend like the United States," Biden said.

Warren Weinstein, an American humanitarian aid worker kidnapped by al-Qaeda  begged US President Barack Obama to free all al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners in US...