DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

China's Rise in the Middle East - David Schenker and Christina Lin (Los Angeles Times)
    The Middle Kingdom is planting deep roots in the Middle East these days. China gets more than a quarter of its oil imports from the Persian Gulf and has billions invested in Iran's oil sector.
    Starting in the 1990s, China filled a void in Syria left by a decaying Soviet Union, providing the terrorist state with a variety of missiles.
    The most recent manifestation was the unprecedented inclusion in October of Chinese warplanes in the Turkish military exercise Anatolian Eagle, maneuvers that previously had included the U.S. and Israel.
    David Schenker is director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Christina Lin is a visiting fellow at the institute.

An Intricate Plot Unleashed in Mumbai, a New Threat to the West - Sebastian Rotella (ProPublica-Washington Post)
    Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley set up shop in Mumbai in September 2006 to begin undercover reconnaissance for a sophisticated attack that would take two years to plan.
    He had spent three years refining his clandestine skills in the terrorist training camps of the Pakistani Lashkar-i-Taiba militant group.
    Lashkar escalated its war on the West with a 2008 attack on Mumbai that targeted Americans, Europeans and Jews as well as Indians.
    In December 2007, Headley's estranged fourth wife, a Moroccan, told officials at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad that she believed he was a terrorist. She made references to training and suicide bombings and described his frequent travel to Mumbai, U.S. law enforcement officials say.
    Headley's mentor, Sajid Mir, oversaw the Mumbai attack. Indian intelligence officers were able to intercept and record nearly 300 calls. Mir's voice dominated the conversations.
    The Jewish center known as the Chabad House was attacked about an hour after the assault began. The gunmen shot Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his pregnant wife, Rivka, 28, as well as two visiting rabbis from New York, Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum and Ben-Zion Chroman.
    Two female hostages were still alive at Chabad House: Yocheved Orpaz, an Israeli grandmother, and Norma Rabinovich, a Mexican tourist. Mir told a gunman to hand Rabinovich the phone. He ordered her to propose a prisoner exchange to Israeli diplomats.
    Hours later, Mir gave the order to kill her. A gunman named Akasha sounded reluctant. Mir turned icy when he learned the two women were still alive. He demanded: "Have you done the job or not?"
    Akasha executed the women as Mir listened, according to the transcript. The gunfire echoed over the phone.

London Review of Books Targets Israel - Yaniv Halily (Ynet News)
    The British organization "Just Journalism" on Monday published a scathing study on the way Israel is being covered by the London Review of Books, which takes the harshest stand against Israel among all British media outlets.
    The magazine systematically publishes articles criticizing Israel with such statements as: "The State of Israel wishes to inculcate in its soldiers a neo-Nazi ideology wrapped in Judaism."

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

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

Observations:

Over to You, Mr. Abbas - Editorial (Jerusalem Post)

• The key significance of Israeli acceptance of another building freeze in Judea and Samaria for another three months would lie in Israel's demonstrable renewed commitment to a negotiated peace that best serves its interests - this despite Israelis' skepticism over the intentions of the Palestinian leadership.
• A new freeze would also be critically facilitated by Washington's specific caveat that it not extend to construction in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, the unnecessary focus of much U.S.-Israel friction these past few months.
• It is particularly troubling that President Obama, unlike his predecessor, has refrained from expressing understanding for "the new realities on the ground" - and specifically Israel's need to maintain settlement blocs in any future agreement. Nevertheless, as Netanyahu has made clear, Israel's interest lies in seeking an accommodation if one can be found, putting an end to interminable conflict.
• Netanyahu is rightly concerned by the possibility that the West Bank will turn into a second "Hamastan." Rocket and missile fire lobbed into a narrow-waisted Israel from the hilltops of Judea and Samaria would constitute an existential danger that has not been sufficiently addressed in previous peace proposals. Hence the prime minister's insistence on Israeli military control along the Jordan border.
• With Israel on board, in step rather than in friction with Washington, it is Abbas who should come under pressure to compromise - and to take positions that give his people, and ours, the opportunity for genuine reconciliation and a secure future.