DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

UAE: Japanese Tanker Struck by Suicide Bomber - Praveen Menon (National-UAE)
    A boat loaded with explosives is suspected to have rammed into the Japanese supertanker M Star in the Strait of Hormuz on July 28, UAE experts said on Friday following investigations. A specialized team found traces of homemade explosives on the hull of the vessel.
    See also Al-Qaeda-Linked Group Claims Japanese Tanker Attack (AP)
    The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, an al-Qaeda-linked group, said Wednesday one of its suicide bombers had hit the Japanese oil tanker in the Persian Gulf last month to avenge the plunder of Muslim wealth.
    A crew member was injured and the vessel sustained a square-shaped dent on the rear side of the hull during the incident.
    The Brigades have in the past claimed responsibility for the August 2005 firing of Katyusha rockets that narrowly missed a U.S. navy ship docked at Aqaba in Jordan and the July and October 2004 bombings at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik and two other resorts that killed a total of 98 people.

Israeli Exports Shift from West to East Adam Gonn (Media Line)
    Israeli exports eastward have increased more than 100%, according to a new report by the Israel Export Institute.
    The U.S. is still Israel's main export destination, but India has now overtaken Europe as the second largest export market, while China has climbed to fifth place.
    Exports to India rose 102% in the first half of 2010, while export growth to China increased 115%, reaching $755 million.
    "This has been a bad year for Europe so they are importing less and it's been a good year for India and China with more stable consumers [markets]," said Prof. Joseph Zeira from the Department of Economics at Hebrew University.

Israelis Teach Martial Arts to Chinese - Boaz Arad (Ynet News)
    A group of former IDF combat soldiers, Krav Maga and martial arts experts are giving security training courses to employees of major Chinese companies operating in danger zones around the world, Yediot Ahronot reported Monday.
    After Chinese employees found themselves victims of armed robbery and abductions during their work overseas, an Israeli company, Alpha Angel, has been operating in China for the past two years to teach the Chinese how to handle dangerous situations.

Older Gazans Recall Israelis - Ben Hubbard (AP)
    Gaza Palestinian Sobhi Hamami, 61, fondly recalls the 23 years he worked on an Israeli kibbutz, where he learned Hebrew, swam in the pool with Israeli friends and celebrated holidays with his Jewish boss.
    Older people remember when jobs in Tel Aviv and contact with Israelis were a short drive away.
    Israel says the current travel ban will remain to keep out would-be attackers until Gaza is ruled by a government that doesn't seek Israel's destruction or consider Israeli civilians legitimate targets. Hamas rejects those conditions.

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

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

Observations:

Israel, Arab World Finding Common Ground Over Iran - Elliott Abrams (Wall Street Journal)

• Who will stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program, the Arabs wonder; they place no faith in endless negotiations between earnest Western diplomats and the clever Persians. Israel is the enemy of their enemy, Iran. Now, the usual description of Arab-Israeli relations as "hostile" or "belligerent" is giving way to a more complex picture. Israel is as unpopular in the Arab street as it has been in past decades (which is to say, widely hated), but for Arab rulers focused on the Iranian threat, the Israeli toughness the Arabs have complained about for over a half century is now their own most likely shield against Iran.
• The Egyptian regime feels no love for the Israelis, but there is significant security cooperation between the two countries; Egypt's rulers see the Shia in Iran, not the Jewish state, as the more dangerous threat to Arab power in the region.
• Fears are far greater in the Gulf. Given Iran's proximity - and the existence of a Shia majority in Bahrain and a significant Shia population in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern province - it is not difficult to think of Iranian pressure, money and even guns leading to riots and violent uprisings.
• The Gulf regimes want Iran stopped. They are not sure the need to do that is understood as well in Washington as it is in Jerusalem. There will be denunciations and UN resolutions, petitions and boycotts, but there is a clear coincidence of interests between the Arab states and Israel today in the face of the Iranian threat. Given the 60 years of war and cold peace between Israel and the Arabs, this is one of the signal achievements of the regime in Tehran - and could prove to be its undoing.

  The writer is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.