BULLETIN No.93

Report: Hamas willing to recognize Israel
Asia Times End of story: Israel triumphant As in a well-plotted novel, President George W Bush's increasingly public plans to attack Iran have a certain inevitability about them. At its core, the hostility toward Tehran is aimed at containing the Shi'ite problem and securing Israel's dominance of a "New Middle East". - M K Bhadrakumar
Ha’aretz – Al-Qaida No. 2: Eliminating Israel is the duty of every believer
Stratfor PNA: Hamas Tests the Waters With its Stance on Israel
Yedioth Ahronoth ‘Convergence to cost billions’ PM Olmert tells Wall Street Journal he will seek broad international support for plan to evacuate 70,000 settlers from West Bank; PM will ask U.S. financial backing for plan, to be completed within 18 months at USD 10 billion cost
Debka DEBKAfile: Iran’s ex-president Hashemi Rafsanjani in Damascus to redouble pressure on Washington More...
Stratfor PNA: Hamas Tests the Waters With its Stance on Israel
Israel Says US Should Take Lead in Dealing With Iran's Nuclear Program
Troop attacks not terrorIsrael's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, has declared that Palestinians who kill Israeli soldiers are not terrorists.
West warned on Arab interests Ismail Haniyeh warned yesterday that decisions by the U.S. and European Union to suspend aid to his Hamas-led government are jeopardizing Western strategic interests in the Arab and Muslim world.
The Economist Jerusalem The last conquest of Jerusalem
Jerusalem's holy places The heart of holy war

ChamPress
Iran, Syria: Rafsanjani, Al Assad Meet
Syria & China to Boost Cooperation between their Armies
Siniora: Looking forward to visiting Syria soon
Belarus Depicts Syria as Strategic Partner
Aoun: 'Why not' invite Lahoud into dialogue?
Daily Star Shiites need clarity, but no loyalty oath By Michael Young What did Walid Jumblatt mean when he told Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, at one of the more recent national dialogue sessions, that Syrian President Bashar Assad was behaving like Hassan Sabbah, the leader of the medieval Ismaili sect of the Assassins?

New York Times Analysts Say a Nuclear Iran Is Years Away Experts said that Tehran lacks the skills, materials and equipment to make good on its immediate nuclear goals.
Bloomberg US says Iran could make nuke in days
William Arkin Iran: Send in the Marines?
NPR 'New Yorker''s Hersh on Iran (audio)
Washington Post Editorial Iran's Nuclear Progress The regime answers Western diplomacy by firing up the atomic factory.
After Diplomacy Fails Think Imaginatively About Iran By Mark Helprin, With an intermediate-range strategic nuclear capacity, Iran could reign over the Persian Gulf, further separate Europe from American Middle East policy and perhaps unify the Islamic world.
Analysis Iran's Defiance Narrows Options for Response By Peter Baker
Iran Underlines Intention To Grow Nuclear Program Project Announced to Install 54,000 Centrifuges
Analysis Iran's Defiance Narrows Options for Response By Peter Baker
William Arkin Iran: Send in the Marines?
US Faces Coalition of Unwilling on Iran - Gerard Baker, RealClearPolitics
Poll: 48% back Iran military action
NRO A Mullah’s-Eye View of the World By Michael Ledeen
Brent Scowcroft: Don't get belligerent
UPI Analysis: Iran one step closer to nukes
Analysis: U.N., Security Council and Iran
Commentary: Stormy global forecast By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE
Democracy Arsenal Iran is Not Cuba and Bush is not Kennedy
Iran Navy Overview
From Invasion To Occupation New York Sun By MICHAEL RUBIN
Iran, 'The Club' and the Saudi ShiftThreatsWatch.Org
UPI Commentary: Rumsfeld's management style
Commentary: Stormy geopolitical forecast Hurricane force geopolitical winds are in the forecast for the rest of the year, and beyond.
New Statesman To nuke or not to nuke: bush decides
Der Spiegel Wave of Strikes Shakes Tehran Iranian government has an internal crisis on its hands. The country's high level of poverty has triggered a series of intense social struggles.
The war on Iran Iranians know that if the US bombs the country's Russian-maintained nuclear sites, it could be construed as an attack on Moscow. They also know that Shi'ites in Iraq would turn extreme heat on the occupation forces. And Iran has the power to halt all oil shipments via the Strait of Hormuz. - Pepe Escobar
RFE/RL Iran Forcing Its Way Into The Nuclear Club Is Tehran bluffing, or has it actually taken a step which opens the way to a nuclear bomb?
Editorial Iran's nuclear milestone
Richard Armitage urges talks with Iran
Iran nuclear move draws ire of UN United Nations Security Council members loudly criticised Iran’s declaration that it had achieved significant progress in uranium enrichment in defiance of international demands for a nuclear freeze
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Schoolyard threats on both sides no answer over Iran
Nuclear drive 'will go on'Iran has defied international outcry and a threat of sanctions by announcing that it will push ahead with plans for a huge underground uranium enrichment plant with tens of thousands of high-speed centrifuges.
The Times Iran is racing down nuclear route before UN can put up roadblock What purpose does Iran's uranium enrichment serve and what can international diplomacy do to stop it
US Faces Coalition of Unwilling on Iran - Gerard Baker, RealClearPolitics
Editorial Iran's nuclear milestone

Christian Science Monitor Shiite exodus from mixed towns in Iraq
Thousands of Iraqis have fled their homes due to rising sectarian violence
UPI Walker's World: Sunni vs. Shia The arcane argument about whether or not a state of civil war exists in Iraq between Sunni and Shia is suddenly being overtaken by the more worrying prospect that the clash between the two sects may be spreading more
KurdishMedia The Kurdish resistance to Southern Kurdistan annexing with Iraq - By Dr Rebwar Fatah
DAVID BROOKS The Past Meets the Future How the Exodus story relates to Iraq.
New Republic Ousting Jaafari won't solve Iraq's problems by Spencer Ackerman
BBC A fractured Iraq? Civil war fears rise as Iraq's sectarian violence continues

Washington Institute Preventing Turkey’s Popular Slide away from the West With Turkey’s governing party discussing Middle Eastern politics in terms of Islamic codes, Turkish public opinion increasingly identifies with the region through Islam rather than national identity By Soner Cagaptay
Political Islam's Opportunity in Jordan With Elections Due This Year and Next, Wing of Muslim Brotherhood Aspires to Power
Daily Star When it comes to political Islam, Moscow seems confused By Konstantin Eggert
Daily Star If the Arab League can't show courage now, it never will
OpenDemocracy Lies, damn lies and terrorism "Terrorism experts" have been much in demand since 9/11, but it's time they include state terror in their analyses, argues Fred Halliday