Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is Prime Minister Netanyahu’s de facto “peace process minister,” is in Washington for talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is fresh from winning a supposed “concession” from the Arab League for the American-sponsored peace process.

Kerry has come up with a proposal to adopt most of the Saudi 2002 Peace Initiative, which is virtually everything that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has demanded.

Kerry’s mission is to make a deal. Getting Israel and the Palestinian Authority to agree on the final status of an independent Arab country under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority would be a glorious triumph for Kerry, possibly the stepping stone to the White House in  2016.

To get there, he is taking the course of least resistance, meaning the Israeli government.

Enter his real peace partner, Tzipi Livni.

Prime Minister Netanyahu holds the portfolio of Foreign Minister until there is a court decision on whether Avigdor Lieberman is guilty of fraud or can return to his former post. In the meantime, Netanyahu hurriedly bought Livni’s tiny party of six Knesset Members into the government by granting her the responsibility for handling the American effort for Palestinian Authority peace talks, one of Livni’s pet hobbies.

She and Kerry have the same goal, a deal at any cost with the prize of international admiration.

He came away from a meeting with the Arab League last week and tried to sell Israel a bill of goods of the Great Concession: The Arab supposedly are prepared to amend the Saudi 2002 Peace Initiative and back “land swaps,” meaning Israel would have their approval for sovereignty over a small amount of the land that was restored to the country in the Six-Day War in 1967.

In return, Israel would fork over an equal amount of land that has been part of the country since 1948.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheik al-Thani, whose kingdom has been unusually aggressive in handing out fat checks to Hamas and is pouring money into Arab areas of Jerusalem as well as the Palestinian Authority, led the Arab League delegation.

He agreed that perhaps – maybe if this and maybe if that, and if Israel behaves – the League could agree to “minor” land swaps.

For Kerry, this was a big concession. He “broke” the back of the Arabs and all that is left for him to do is tell Israel it is the best thing for the country since felafel.

“The Arab League delegation affirmed … the two-state solution on the basis of the 4th of June 1967 line, with the (possibility) of comparable and mutual agreed minor swap of the land,” he declared.

Of course, no one has any idea of what “minor” land swaps could mean, but you can rest your bottom dinar it does not mean that Israel would retain Gush Etzion. Maaleh Adumim? Maybe. Maybe not.

Perhaps the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Ramot, French Hill, Pisgat Ze’ev and Talpiot, among others? Could be.

And Gilo? Probably not.

It does not matter now. The most important thing for Kerry and Livni, his one-woman Israeli government fan club, is to talk it up. It does not matter to them that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal already has rejected the idea. But they can take of him later and drop Hamas from the list of outlawed terrorist organizations, make it a legal terrorist group, and everything will be just fine.

Livni said the Qatari prime minister’s grand concession of possibly, just maybe, agreeing to a  minor land swap was “very positive news.”

And what would land would Israel give up in this “minor” swap. Most likely, enough land to link Gaza with Judea and Samaria.

Of course there is one not so minor point that Kerry has forgotten. Actually, he has not forgotten because the State Dept. does not know any better.

What Israeli Arab in his right mind would give up all the benefits and security he gets from the Israeli government and become subjects of the Palestinian Authority in order to help Kerry’s political career?

The IDF has launched a surprise call-up of an entire division of 2,000 reserve soldiers for a week-long exercise in the north in the first such maneuver in many years as instability grows on the entire northern border, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Golan Heights.

“This is a special drill, the first of its kind, which simulates a broad-based call-up” to test the system’s capability and preparedness, a senior IDF source said.

The drill is a dry-run, and the mission of reserve officers is to come up with new combat procedures and update plans within 48 hours and prove their flexibility to respond to sudden changes in enemy threats.

The last massive sudden call-up of reserves was prior to last November’s Pillar of Defense counterterrorist campaign, when more than 50,000 reservists flooded the Western Negev and prepared for a ground invasion of Gaza. The IDF sent the soldiers back home without entering Gaza after the Air Force put a temporary end to rocket attacks, which have resumed in the past month.

The exercise coincides with reports that President Barack Obama already has given the go-ahead to the U.S. Armed forces to prepare for a military strike on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces once there is binding proof that he has used chemical weapons against rebels.

The president said at a press conference Tuesday, “We know chemical weapons are being used in Syria,” but he added their still is no confirmed evidence of which side is using them.

It is presumed by virtually all analysts that Assad is the war criminal who has begun to unleash one of the most ghastly weapons in the world, using chemicals to kill and disfigure Syrian civilians.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon tried to play down the entire call-up, but his comments may have been his way of explaining why he did not even know of the surprise exercise.

He said Israeli media were “making a big deal out of nothing” and that “not even a tank” was moved in the exercise.

That is true, but the maneuver is not to meant to move weapons, as was done in the Pillar of Defense call-up. It is meant to test the capability of the reservists to drop everything, report for duty and draw up battle plans.

One IDF officer also played down the significance of the call-up, saying it was planned for several months. That also may be true but only underlines its significance.

Like Obama, the IDF is not acting out of panic, but is preparing for the worst, and for good reason.

The Syrian civil war has spilled over into Jordan and into Lebanon. More than 1 million refugees have flooded Syrian’s neighboring countries.

Hezbollah, backed by Iran, has thrown thousands of its fighters into the civil war, where Al Qaeda is trying to establish a power base if and when Assad falls.

Lebanon has been a seething pot, one degree under the boiling point of another civil war. Hezbollah and pro-Assad parties dominate the government, which is an ongoing political earthquake.

The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper quoted Lebanese sources that Hezbollah is preparing for an “Israeli attack,” which could be its code word for an American strike on Syria.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly met this week with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to coordinate a common position. Russia has a vested interest in Syria and has everything to worry about since it has been a prime supplier of chemical weapons.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu summed up the situation last week in understated language. “Israel watches with keen interest and concern the latest developments in Syria and Lebanon,”   ”Syria is breaking down and Lebanon is unstable. Both places pose considerable threats to Israel’s security,” he said.

In the background is Iran, Assad’s key ally.

The Islamic Republic has been huffing and puffing, but is not looking for war at least not without a nuclear weapon.

However, like all Arab wars, they have fueled themselves out of control, and it is highly unlikely that anyone is “making a big deal out of nothing” as 2,000 soldiers continue their exercise near the northern border.

Egypt is urging Palestinian Authority PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to postpone elections while trying to convince the rival Hamas terrorist organization to drop demands for simultaneous presidential and legislative elections.

Holding elections at this time, which already is four years after Abbas’ mandate has expired, would torpedo efforts for a unity government, sauces told the Egyptian Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

The possibility of holding elections in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is virtually non-existent, according to the report. Sources also said that merging the Fatah and Hamas armies, both of which include terrorist units, would harm the process of reconciliation.

Hamas and Fatah underwent a bloody separation during a terrorist militia war in Gaza six years ago in which Fatah suffered heavy losses, leaving Abbas in charge of Judea and Samaria and Ismail Haniyeh as de facto Gaza Prime Minister of Gaza.

IAF attacked targets in Gaza, after rockets from Gaza hit Israel on Saturday night.

The IAF says they hit a weapons cache in southern Gaza.

In response to the Gazan terror attack, Israel also completely closed the Kerem Shalom crossing. The Erez crossing has also been closed to all transfers and traffic except for humanitarian purposes.

Since Hamas took over the Gaza strip in 2006, Gazans have been subjected to corruption and oppression at the hands of their Islamist rulers. Recently, several reports and testimonies have confirmed that Hamas rule has also meant Hamas involvement and control in a drug trade in Gaza.

Let’s examine the facts.

The Palestinian News Agency, WAFA, reported that Hamas leaders’ involvement in the drug trade and corruption has turned 680 Hamas leaders into Millionaires (that is 80 millionaires more than the 600 reported by the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat) newspaper.

WAFA reported that the wealth came from controlling the smuggling of good through the tunnels with Egypt, including “alcohol and drugs,” describing Hamas leaders as “Gaza’s drug lords”.

In addition, the prominent Egyptian newspaper, al-Mesryoon, quoted Egyptian writer and academic Abdul Munim Saeed as saying that Hamas was the main importer and exporter of drugs into Gaza.

Egyptian security sources told the Al-Dostory Al-Asly newspaper that Hamas was charging tunnel smugglers ten percent of their proceedings, including those coming from drug trafficking.

The Islamic News Agency also published a report on Hamas’s drug trade in Gaza. In the report, Gazan public figures and intellectuals complained that Hamas let drug dealers out of jail within two or three days of their arrest, as Hamas’s judges “were very lenient on drug dealers” at the same time they were jailing Hamas’s political opponents.

A doctor who visited Gaza recently and who agreed to speak to me on the condition of anonymity, said he believed that Hamas controlled the drug trade in Gaza through importing and selling mood-altering drugs, particularly Tramadol, a drug used to treat pain, similar to codeine.  The doctor said he witnessed wide-spread use of the drug by Hamas fighters and that many Gazans use the drug to comfort themselves from their daily suffering under Hamas. “Only a government can import such huge amount of Tramadol,” he said. “Hamas must be directly involved in this matter.”

Even pro-Hamas writer Fayez Abu Shamaleh admitted that Tramadol has become a common-use drug in Gaza under Hamas.  He noted average street prices for drugs have dropped 80 percent in the last few years, making drugs accessible even by Gaza’s school children.

A Palestinian news website, Yabous Press reported that the drug trade in Gaza was controlled by Hamas’s Police Counter-Drug Unit, which is supposed to fight drugs. Yabous Press reported Hamas police would arrest drug dealers who don’t work for them, confiscating their drug supplies, and then selling it in the market for themselves.

In October 2012, several Palestinian news websites have been circulating the names of 66 Hamas government members known in Gaza for controlling the drug trade in Gaza including a son of a Hamas government minister.  As of now, Hamas has not commented or denied these reports.

Hamas has brought misery, pain and destruction to Gaza, so Hamas’s alleged involvement in narcotics trafficking should not come as a shock to anyone.

Residents of the Eshkol region, near Gaza, almost managed to sleep last night, until a midnight Red Alert siren broke the silence, as one, or possibly two Gazan rockets hit in open areas.

No injuries or damage was reported.

Gaza terrorists attacked the western Negev with two rockets or mortar shells around 11 p.m. (4 p.m. EDT) Thursday, causing no injuries or damage.

The Color Red early warning siren of 15-20 seconds was not activated.

The latest violation of the Pillar of Defense ceasefire last November followed by 24 hours missile attacks on Eilat, which were probably lunched from the Sinai, officially under Egyptian rule but infested by Hamas and other terrorist gangs.

Terrorist in Hamas-controlled Gaza have attacked southern Israel with rockets or land mines at least three times the past month, and as usual, the government has said it won’t tolerate the challenge to Israel’s sovereignty. And, as usual, the IDF has responded “proportionately,” meaning hitting a couple of weapon factories and terrorist tunnels that are known to exist but are strafed only as an after-the-fact retaliation.

“We will not tolerate such incidents and will retaliate,” said Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, echoing statements made by his predecessor Ehud Barak.

Less than two weeks ago, Gaza terrorists detonated a bomb designed to blow up an army vehicle patrolling on the Gaza security road. No one was injured, but the vehicle sustained light damage.

Hamas has denied it arrested Salafist terrorists for rocket attacks on Israel two consecutive days earlier this month.

No matter who is in charge, the expected resumption of rocket attacks is a fact and marks yet another round of escalation of terror that follows every ceasefire, either by a few hours, days or weeks.

The government and the IDF repeatedly have gone along with Hamas’ game, agreeing to a ceasefire while openly stating that it won’t last.

Hamas is sitting on a huge stockpile of weapons, many of them far more advanced than mortar shells or rockets. Given its raison d’être of destroying Israel, every military officer knows full well that it is only a matter of time before Hamas uses the weapons against Israel.

After the Operation Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense counterterrorist operations four years ago and six months ago respectively, the IDF is ready for the next encounter, sooner or later.

Shortly after the bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, the Arabs of Gaza danced in the streets, handing out candies to passersby, Israel News Agency reported.

Mohammad al-Chalabi, head of a Jordanian Salafi group, said on Tuesday that he was “happy to see the horror in America’ after the explosions in Boston,” the Daily Mail reported. “American blood isn’t more precious than Muslim blood,” al-Chalabi added. “Let the Americans feel the pain we endured by their armies occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and killing our people there,”

According to the Christian Science Monitor, Somalia’s Al Shabaab mocked the blast victims on its official Twitter feed, and used the attack as an opportunity to criticize U.S. policy. “The #BostonBombings are just a tiny fraction of what US soldiers inflict upon millions of innocent Muslims across the globe on a daily basis,” read one tweet.

Pundit Juan Cole noted that Monday bombings and other mass violence also killed dozens of civilians in Syria and Iraq. The world is stitched together, he wrote, by the common human experiences of sorrow and grief that follow such tragedies.

Al Jazeera’s Khaled A Beydoun, under the headline “Boston explosions: ‘Please don’t be Arabs or Muslims,’” wrote:

The knots in my stomach tightened with preliminary reports from the New York Post that Boston Police had seized a “Saudi National”. In a media nanosecond, “Muslims” was trending on Twitter, additional news providers corroborated the reports, and the hatemongering ensued.