According to the most recent intelligence reports, former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's gesture for peace – disengagement from Gaza – may have set the stage for the next phase of war.
A senior IDF officer said this week that the weapons Hamas is smuggling into Gaza have become significantly more sophisticated now that they have a free hand to do so without Israeli interference. Since the Gaza takeover by Hamas, it has reportedly smuggled in 20 tons of explosives via the Philidelphia Corridor from the Sinai into the Strip. According to the officer, Israel currently has a limited time frame to address the findings.
"There is today an opportunity since the world has not yet become accustomed to the new Hamas entity, and Hamas has not yet fully completed strengthening it's military capabilities," according to the Jerusalem Post, quoting the unnamed official.
"The Gaza Strip is a boiling pot, the fire underneath is fueled by economy and ideology, and the lid over it is Israel. Hamas is currently not acting against Israel because it is not in the group's interest, but one must not mistake this with the organization's ultimate goals."
Hamas has gone from being a terrorist group to ...   more »

by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) State pension funds in Texas are being given the opportunity to voluntarily divest from companies doing business with Iran in a move to encourage them to avoid supporting a terrorist country.
If Republican Governor Rick Perry’s efforts fail to persuade the companies to divest on their own, however, he is prepared to work toward official measures to force them to make the move.
“This is a country (Iran) that has a clear terrorist focus, has a clear mission to wipe a friendly democracy and a very close ally of the United States off of the face of the earth,” said Perry on Wednesday.
The Texas governor met last month with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Opposition Leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) during his visit to Israel last month to accept a “Friend of Zion” award from Global Capital Associates.
The case for divesting from firms doing business with Iran was made by Netanyahu, a former Finance Minister and Prime Minister.
Perry said he would convene a special session of the state legislature if he cannot begin divestment proceedings without passing a bill for the purpose. A law that included divestment from Iran was nixed by ...   more »

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Capitalising on the increasingly bellicose rhetoric in Moscow, a group of influential retired generals yesterday said the United States was preparing to invade Russia within a decade.
Interviewed by Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia's biggest circulation newspaper, the four senior generals - who now direct influential military think tanks - said the United States had hatched a secret plan to seize the country's vast energy resources by force.
"The US is both laying the ground and preparing its military potential for a war with Russia," said Gen Leonid Ivashov, a former joint chief of staff.
"Anti-Russian sentiment is being fostered in the public opinion. The US is desperate to implement its century-old dream of world hegemony and the elimination of Russia as its principal obstacle to the full control of Eurasia.
The generals said the conflict would inevitably spark a third world war, but predicted it would be fought only with conventional weapons or "low impact" nuclear missiles.
Dismissed by some critics as the Cold War nostalgia of a handful of Soviet dinosaurs, such opinions nevertheless reflect a growing mood of nationalism both within the Kremlin and among many ordinary Russians wistful for lost superpower status.
Engaged ...   more »