BY DEBKAFILE The Israeli Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commandos intercepted the German-owned A.S. Victoria Tuesday, March 15 about 320 kilometers off Israel’s Mediterranean coast on its way from the Turkish port of Mercin to Egyptian El Arish with Alexandria its final destination. The Liberian-flagged vessel was carrying a large consignment of weapons bound for the…
BY DANIEL PIPES— First, these rebellions fit into the context of a regional chessboard, what I call the Middle East cold war. On one side stands the “resistance” bloc led by Iran and including Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and Qatar; it seeks to shake up the existing order with a new one, more piously Islamic…
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN, STRATFOR— The Muslim world, from North Africa to Iran, has experienced a wave of instability in the last few weeks. No regimes have been overthrown yet, although as of this writing, Libya was teetering on the brink. There have been moments in history where revolution spread in a region or around the…
BY RYAN MAURO, FRONTPAGE MAGRy– The world has marveled at how Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution caused a domino effect bringing down Egyptian President Mubarak and sparking uprisings throughout the region and beyond, as far away as Venezuela, Albania and Belarus. Now, the unrest has spread to China and almost every single country in the Middle East…
BY ISRAEL PROJECT— For the first time since Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979, two Iranian ships crossed through Egypt’s Suez Canal on Tuesday. The international shipping waterway connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Iranian officials say the ships are headed to Syria and the Mediterranean for a year-long naval training mission, the BBC…
BY ICEJ NEWS— Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave an interview on state TV Tuesday, dismissing recent street protests against his regime which resulted in two deaths and dozens of injuries, saying they are “going nowhere.” “It is clear the Iranian nation has enemies because it is a nation that wants to shine, conquer peaks and…
BY NOAH BROWNING AND KIM MURPHY, LA TIMES—- The continuing wave of unrest sweeping the Middle East led to a fifth day of protests Tuesday in Yemen and thousands of protesters swept into the main square of the capital of Bahrain, setting up tents and vowing to stay until the government agrees to major reforms.…
BY MICHAEL RUBIN, AOL NEWS—- Few Egyptians will mourn Hosni Mubarak’s downfall. His three-decade rule was sclerotic. He not only failed to address growing economic failings but also refused to even listen. As a guest observer at Mubarak’s 2006 National Democratic Party convention, I watched as senior officials cut microphone power to party members who…
by Caroline Glick Today the Egyptian regime faces its gravest threat since Anwar Sadat’s assassination thirty years ago. As protesters take to the street for the third day in a row demanding the overthrow of 82-year old President Hosni Mubarak, it is worth considering the possible alternatives to his regime. Thursday afternoon, Egyptian presidential hopeful…
by Isabel Kershner, The New York Times For Israel, the prospect of a government in Lebanon backed by Hezbollah, one of Israel’s worst enemies, seemed to be the realization of a nightmare. Yet some analysts here said it was not necessarily an immediate cause for alarm. The previous Beirut government, led by Saad Hariri, “never…