The organizers of Freedom Flotilla II against Israel's naval blockade on Gaza – among them Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal's son-in-law Hamoud Tareq - never dreamed the stalling of their expedition would be served up as the founding step of the nascent pro-US Israel-Greek-Turkish alliance. If Mahmoud wants to jump aboard this grouping, he must drop his UN move for Palestinian recognition, so pre-empting the storm Binyamin Netanyahu's ill-wishers are counting on for ending his rule.

President Barack Obama has shelved any serious effort to generate Israel-Palestinian negotiations for at least two years, debkafile's exclusive sources report from Washington. "It's a second term issue," he is quoted as telling his advisers. Only in November 2012 will he know if he is returned for another term as president and then too is unlikely to get back to the Israeli-Palestinian issue for several more months – "depending largely how the Arab Revolt" goes.

Only two Arab autocrats have succumbed to six popular uprisings: four have survived. NATO's score in Libya is zero to one as Europe's war sustainability is hit by the falling euro Two countries are in the grip of civil war and two undergoing partition. Yet Barack Obama is grimly ...

Obama and Erdogan had divided up Arab Revolt missions between them, targeting another two Arab rulers, Muammar Qaddafi and Bashar Assad, for eventual eviction – first by diplomacy, then by force - when Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi jumped in with a demand for NATO to halt hostilities in ...

Prime Minister Netanyahu has dropped his long-time ally and partner-in-policymaking Defense Minister Ehud Barak and turned to hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as his only adviser. But essentially, Bibi has dispensed with a circle of advisers and taken over the solo lead in all defense affairs and important foreign relations.

The Syrian army went into action Tuesday, June 21, the day after the Assad speech, to drive back to their homes the nearly quarter of a million civilians who fled towns and villages on the Turkish border to escape military persecution. Syrian President Bashar Assad remains undeterred by the risk of a showdown - even after the ominous phone conversation between US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Ministeror and Obama's demand that his regime end the "outrageous" violence now.

The Arab Revolt erupted in Tunisia on Dec. 18, 2010, exactly six months ago. The latest  DEBKA-Net-Weekly out last Friday offers the first interim report: The uprisings are log-jammed after ousting two Arab presidents: Three rulers, Saudi King Abdullah, Qaddafi and Assad, defy the US and Europe and Yemen is breaking up. Qaddafi, Assad and Saleh are evoking tribal and clan allegiances to survive.
So where does this leave Obama, Netanyahu and Erdogan?
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The US is willing to replenish NATO's empty missile and smart bomb arsenals but needs to know who is footing the bill. Robert Gates like British and French Libyan war commanders don't believe in NATO's ability to topple Muammar Qaddafi.

The final touches on US President Barack Obama's push to revive Israel-Palestinian negotiations are being put in place by his Middle East advisers David Hale and Dennis Ross and the legal adviser to the National Security Council Jonathan Schwartz who arrived in Israel Tuesday, June 14. After tying up arrangements in Jerusalem, the group is to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Thursday.
debkafile reports the Israeli and Palestinian leaders have dropped pre-conditions and agreed to sit down and talk.

Iran Tuesday, June 14, warned the US against military intervention in Syria. debkafile reports an American naval and ship-borne missile interceptor build-up in the Mediterranean along with US fleet movements in the Aegean, Adriatic and Black Seas. The US Bataan with 2,000 marines, 6 fighter-bombers and 27 helicopters aboard is deployed opposite Syrian shores. Warned of a possible US operation against Syria, Hizballah is moving its ground-to-ground rocket arsenal from northern Lebanon to the center.

Two scandals are rocking the Israeli government: One arises from the former Mossad chief Meir Dagan's deadly attacks on the Netanyahu government; the other from US sanctions suddenly landing on Israel's richest plutocrats, the Ofer Brothers. Both have their roots in the Gulf oil emirate.

After the Americans drove Israel security contractors and the Mossad out of Abu Dhabi, the Ofer Brothers thought their business dealings through Palestinian middlemen were safe. US sanctions opened their eyes to this miscalculation.

Iran struck another blow in its nuclear offensive against the world: Wednesday, atomic chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani said Iran's 20-percent uranium enrichment would be transferred from Natanz to Fordo near Qom this summer. Improved centrifuges would triple purification capacity. debkafile's military sources report that this move will substantially shorten Iran's road to weapons grade uranium of 90 percent. The Fordo facility, burrowed deep in a mountainside and protected by anti-air missiles, is all but invulnerable to air attack.

Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan is traveling far and wide to build an international Muslim army on call for rapid deployment to parts of the Muslim and Arab world deemed threatened by Riyadh and for containing Iranian expansion. He is buying arms in China, raising recruits in Pakistan, Malaysia ...

Bashar Assad and Muammar Qaddafi look like surviving the "Arab Spring" revolts against them. Neither is buckling under the various batteries of US and Western pressure. Assad has begun regaining control of his country, while all five of Qaddafi's brigades have survived NATO pounding intact. To break the impasse, debkafile sources reveal that on the G8 sidelines, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev closed a secret deal: Assad would stay and Qaddafi must go.

The White House is going full steam ahead with preparations for an early summit between US President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to restart the peace process, debkafile's Washington sources report exclusively. While Obama is satisfied with extracting from Netanyahu three major concessions, Israeli sources call on the US president to shift ground on "land swaps" and security provisions or the peace talks will end amid an Israel-US crisis as soon as they begin.

With a new strategic partner in hand after losing Turkey and Mubarak's Egypt, the Israeli prime minister was in a position to underline Israel's continued adherence to its military option against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Secret Saudi-Israeli intelligence parleys are now joined by Jordan.

The Saudis plan to carve out a new Arab republic in southern Yemen under their thumb and let civil war divide the country in two. They have dumped Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and US objectives in the country.

During his London visit, Obama turned down British quid pro quo offer to trade stepped-up US military intervention in the Libya war in return delayed British troop drawdown in Afghanistan. US-British differences on Libya war remained unbridged.

US President Barack Obama corrected the harsh impression Israel gained from his May 19 Middle East speech in one of the most pro-Israeli addresses ever delivered by an American president. He explained to the 11,000 delegates at the AIPAC conference Sunday, May 22 that the final Israeli-Palestinian borders would differ from the 1967 lines because of the "mutually agreed swaps" he had also advocated.  The US president thus addressed the cardinal objection raised insistently by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.