DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Yemeni Air Strike May Have Killed Cleric Linked to Ft. Hood Attack - Sudarsan Raghavan (Washington Post)
    Yemeni forces killed at least 30 suspected militants in an air strike Thursday in southeastern Yemen.
    The dead may include Anwar al-Aulaqi, the extremist Yemeni-American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in last month's deadly Fort Hood attack.
    A Yemeni government official said the apparent target of the strike was Aulaqi's house, where al-Qaeda leaders were believed to have gathered.
    See also Saudi Military Destroys Katyusha Rockets along Yemen Frontier - Mohammed al-Kaabi (Asharq Alawsat-UK)

Israel: First Jesus-Era House Found in Nazareth (AP)
    Israeli archaeologists say they have uncovered remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus.
    They say the find sheds a new light on what Nazareth might have been like in Jesus' time - probably a small hamlet with about 50 houses populated by poor Jews.
    See also Photos of the Excavation Site (Ha'aretz)

Curb on Veil in Egypt Backed by Islamic Clerics - Dina Zayed (Reuters)
    Egypt's three most prominent religious leaders have backed a government ban on the niqab, or full face veil, in dormitories and examinations, saying it had no basis in Islam.
    "Al-Azhar is not against the niqab but against its misuse," the government-run al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday cited Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the head of al-Azhar University, as saying.
    He said it was a social habit that had no roots in sharia (Islamic law). More than 13 religious scholars have found that the face veil has no substantial roots in Islam, but rather can be considered a "form of extremism," the official MENA news agency cited Tantawi as saying.

Renewed Lebanese Drug Trade Seen - Bassem Mroue (AP)
    Lebanon's drug-producing heartland is back in business with a resurgence of marijuana and poppy fields, adding another dimension to Israel's war with Hizbullah.
    Production in the Bekaa Valley, a Hizbullah stronghold, peaked during the civil war, then died down to the point where the U.S. removed Lebanon from its list of big producers in 1997.
    Aram Nerguizian, an expert at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says Hizbullah has enough financial support without depending on drug money, but uses the drug trade to gather intelligence on the Israeli military.

Blast Injures 3 Gaza Militants (Xinhua-China)
    A blast wounded three Palestinian militants in Gaza on Tuesday when an explosive device went off prematurely in al-Burij.
    According to witnesses, the militants were apparently going to plant the explosives on a route the Israeli army uses.

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

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

Observations:

There's Only One Way to Stop Iran - Alan J. Kuperman (New York Times)

• President Obama should sigh in relief that Iran has rejected his nuclear deal. Within a year, or sooner in light of its expanding enrichment program, Iran would almost certainly have replenished and augmented its stockpile of enriched uranium, nullifying any ostensible nonproliferation benefit of the deal. Had the deal gone through, Iran could have benefited from a head start toward making weapons-grade 90%-enriched uranium by starting with purified 20%-enriched uranium rather than its own weaker, contaminated stuff.
• If Iran acquired a nuclear arsenal, the risks would simply be too great that it could become a neighborhood bully or provide terrorists with the ultimate weapon, an atomic bomb. Incentives and sanctions will not work, but air strikes could degrade and deter Iran's bomb program at relatively little cost or risk, and therefore are worth a try. They should be precision attacks, aimed only at nuclear facilities, to remind Iran of the many other valuable sites that could be bombed if it were foolish enough to retaliate.
• There are three compelling reasons that the U.S. itself should carry out the bombings. First, the Pentagon's weapons are better than Israel's at destroying buried facilities. Second, unlike Israel's relatively small air force, the United States military can discourage Iranian retaliation by threatening to expand the bombing campaign. Finally, because the American military has global reach, air strikes against Iran would be a strong warning to other would-be proliferators.
• Negotiation to prevent nuclear proliferation is always preferable to military action. But in the face of failed diplomacy, eschewing force is tantamount to appeasement. We have reached the point where air strikes are the only plausible option with any prospect of preventing Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons. Postponing military action merely provides Iran a window to expand, disperse and harden its nuclear facilities against attack. The sooner the U.S. takes action, the better.

  The writer is the director of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Program at the University of Texas at Austin.