DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Egyptians Seize 100 Antiaircraft Missiles Bound for Gaza - Roee Nahmias (Ynet News)
    Egyptian security forces on Wednesday uncovered a large cache of missiles and mortar shells in northern Sinai believed bound for Gaza, the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabe' reported Thursday.
    The cache was seized near Nahal, on the smuggling route to Gaza, and contained 100 antiaircraft missiles, 45 rocket-propelled grenades, and 40 explosive devices.

An Unusual Alignment of Interests in the Middle East - Michael J. Totten (Commentary)
    More than any other Arab head of state in the world, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has mastered the art of telling listeners what they want to hear. He knows those in the West find it refreshing that he can talk like a liberal while Iran's Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threaten apocalypse.
    Syria, though, is the most aggressive state sponsor of terrorism in the world after Iran.
    Meanwhile, Iraqis gave Ayad Allawi and his slate of staunchly anti-Iranian candidates a plurality of votes in the recent election. The moderate Nouri al-Maliki came in second while the pro-Iranian Iraqi National Alliance came in dead last.
    Iran tried to Lebanonize Iraq with its Sadrist militias but seems to have failed.
    What we have, for the most part, is an Arab Middle East that wants to put the Israeli conflict on ice and resist the Iranian-led "resistance" instead - which is more or less what the Israelis want to see happen. It's an unusual alignment of interests, but it is authentic.
    President Barack Obama clearly wants to tilt U.S. foreign policy more toward the Arabs, but he doesn't have to do it at the expense of our alliance with Israel.
    Just start with what Washington, Jerusalem, and most of the Arab states have in common and build outward from there.

Iran Jams Satellite Signals Carrying Foreign Media - Christoph Seidler (Der Spiegel-Germany)
    The regime in Tehran has been blocking foreign media broadcasts, including those of the BBC and Voice of America, from Europe's largest television satellite, Hot Bird 8, in an effort to prevent critical foreign media coverage from reaching domestic viewers.
    When the Iranian regime decides to block its signals and targets the satellite, the Farsi services of the BBC and Voice of America instantly disappear from television screens not just in Iran but throughout the satellite's coverage area.
    The UN has condemned it as an act of sabotage.

How Hamas Survives in Gaza (Economist-UK)
    The tunnels that snake under Gaza's border with Egypt have multiplied so fast that supply sometimes exceeds demand. So stiff is commercial competition that tunnel-diggers complain that their work is no longer profitable.
    Cement, which cost 300 Israeli shekels ($80) a sack two years ago, has dropped almost tenfold in price, precipitating a spate of building. Eyewitnesses say that flashy 4x4 vehicles can actually drive through tunnels.
    Some economists say Gaza is growing faster than the West Bank run by the rival Palestinian Authority, albeit from a far lower base. The petrol pumped into Gaza by underground pipes from Egypt costs a third of what it does in Ramallah, the Palestinians' West Bank capital.
    As well as lower prices, Gazans benefit from civil-service payrolls. The UN employs 10,000 Gazans, and Salam Fayyad's West Bank government is the largest employer of all.

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

Observations:

Why Obama Is Picking the Wrong Fight - Gary Rosenblatt (New York Jewish Week)

• I can't help thinking that President Barack Obama, in his desperate search for a way out of the Israeli-Palestinian standoff, is looking deliberately in the wrong places, picking on Israel - not because it makes sense - but because he can. And because it's more expedient than pressuring the Palestinians and upsetting the oil-rich Arab nations.
• I believe the president wants to broker a peace deal in the Mideast. But based on his actions in attempting to jumpstart negotiations since taking office, he has shown a disturbing lack of appreciation of the complexities of the issue. And in his haste he has weakened his most vital democratic ally in the region and strengthened those most resistant to Western values, compromise, stability and peace. Obama is also guilty of chutzpah in thinking his very public pressure on Netanyahu can force a change of government in Israel that would be more accommodating of the Palestinians.
• Obama has picked on the wrong party in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Where is the condemnation - or even mention - of the Palestinian Authority for failure to endorse a two-state solution or acknowledge the right of a Jewish state to exist in the region, and for its praise of suicide bombers as "martyrs?" Why should the Palestinian Authority engage in serious talks with Israel, leading to compromise, when Washington is applying all of the pressure on Jerusalem?
• The rhetoric we hear from Secretary of State Clinton and from the president is painstakingly symmetrical in its praise or criticism of Israel and the Palestinians. But there is little symmetry. Israel is a democratic ally and vital strategic partner that has consistently been willing to make painful sacrifices for peace, and has made peace with Egypt and Jordan. The PA remains a group founded on and still connected to armed struggle, one that has carried out murderous attacks on innocent civilians, demonizes Israelis and Zionists and has refused every peace-making effort over the years.
• What's needed now is for Washington to step back and heed its own advice: for decades we heard, and agreed with, the message that peace will only come through direct negotiations between the parties themselves, when they are ready. That's how peace was brokered between Israel and Egypt, and Israel and Jordan. But for now, Obama has managed to give the Palestinians every reason and excuse not to negotiate directly, leaving the impression that Israel is intransigent and the Palestinians willing to compromise, when the very opposite is true.