Visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry talked at length to Egyptian President Morsi in Cairo, Sunday, March 3, about Egypt’s calamitous economic straits, relations with Israel, democratization and essential reforms. Morsi nodded politely but, debkafile reports, was completely wrapped up in the ongoing plan he and the Muslim Brotherhood had hatched for Islamizing Egypt and seizing 100 percent of parliament in the next election – April or June. Washington warns that delay in coming to grips with the economic crisis would be suicidal.

A private report from Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika to Barack Obama contained evidence that the same al Qaeda under the same Egyptian commander committed the Benghazi US consulate and Algerian gas field attacks, and implicated Qatar in bankrolling subversive and terrorist operations to topple the Algerian and Libyan regimes.

The Gulf rulers including Saudi Arabia refuse to spend a petrocent for bailing Egypt out of its economic morass since discovering that the ruling Muslim Brotherhood’s first priority is gaining 100 percent control of parliament and only then grappling with the economy.

A private report from Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika to Barack Obama contained evidence that the same al Qaeda under the same Egyptian commander committed the Benghazi US consulate and Algerian gas field attacks, and implicated Qatar in bankrolling subversive and terrorist operations to topple the Algerian and Libyan ...

As Israeli parties haggle over a new government coalition, Bashar Assad, backed by Iran and Moscow, sits firmly in the saddle and plays hardball with the Syrian opposition. Former military intelligence chief Asher Yadlin says Iran can “achieve nuclear breakout in four to six months.” Ahmadinejad invites Egypt to join Syria, Hizballah and a nuclear Iran for an unbeatable coalition to “solve the Palestinian question” and wipe Israel off the map so that he can pray on Temple Mount, Jerusalem.

The Saudis are backing the Salafists against Egypt’s ruling Brotherhood and their support from Barack Obama and against Qatar’s expanding influence. The army refuses to help President Morsi suppress violent protest.

Moscow and Tehran are capitalizing on President Barack Obama's withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East and his maneuvers for avoiding military involvement in its trouble spots.  Russia is quietly riding piggy-back on Iran's overt drive for influence in Cairo, hoping to recover the high standing enjoyed by the Soviet Union up until 1972. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have sent their aides to Cairo to coordinate their moves.

Qatar is pouring petrodollars into Egypt to outdo Saudi Arabia’s bid for a land bridge to Egypt and to gain high-end assets such as control of the Suez Canal and the acquisition of Egyptian coastal resorts. Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassim said the emirate would double its grants and loans to Egypt from $2.5 to $5 billion bringing the grand total in a single year to $7 billion.  Hamad denied this generosity was tied to plans to invest in the Suez Canal, but no one believed him, especially in Riyadh.

The IDFs’ closure to civilian traffic of a 182-kilometer long security strip, 300 meters deep, along the Israeli-Egyptian border, resulted, debkafile reports, from the failure of US Undersecretary of Defense Michael Vickers to breathe life into the US-Egyptian-Israeli partnership for combating terror during his Cairo trip earlier this month. Refusing to reactivate the Cairo-Jerusalem “hot line” for terrorism, the Egyptians were instead engaged in détente with Iran after Al Qods chief Gen. Qassam Soleimani paid them a secret visit.

Zawahiri has evacuated his al Qaeda jihadists from Afghanistan and Pakistan and relocated them in Egypt, Sinai and Syria, out of range of US drones and special forces, which he judges are the two prongs of the incoming CIA chief John’ Brennan’s counterterrorism strategy.

The Al Qods Brigades Chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani beat the US to the draw in Cairo. He arrived in the last week of December and discussed with President Mohamed Morsi’s top advisers how his organization could help the Muslim Brotherhood build their own militia-cum-secret service.

The Qatari rulers have again swung like a pendulum for and against President Obama’s Middle East goals, joined now by Egyptian President Morsi. Qatar is shifting is focus towards a radical solution of the perennial Palestinian problem, junking standing peace accords and processes.

Qatar and Egypt are playing a double game with Washington, easing Iran’s path to reconnect with Hamas in Gaza after the connection was snapped by the Israeli operation in November.

The US approved 20 F-16 fighter planes for Egypt, part of a $1 billion foreign aid package, Tuesday, Dec. 11, the day scheduled for massive rival demonstrations for and against President Mohamed Morsi’s constitutional referendum Saturday, Dec. 15.  The first four jets will be delivered the day after Barack Obama’s swearing-in as president, and coincide with Israel’s January 22 elections. Obama is telling the Middle East that he stands by his backing for the Muslim Brotherhood, including the radical Palestinian Hamas.

President Obama admires President Morsi and wants him aboard his burgeoning anti-Iran Sunni alliance. The Egyptian street is baying for his blood.

The Hamas brought the Israeli offensive down on the Gaza Strip by pushing out the military envelope too far against Israel while it was still the weakest cog in Iran’s radical terror machine. When Obama learned of Khamenei’s design to convert the Gaza Strip into Iran’s southern front, he ...

Iran suffered a serious setback in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli operation to get rid of Hamas’s pro-Iranian leaders. Tehran had conceived of the Gaza Strip as its gateway to the Muslim Brothers of Egypt and Jordan. Though small in time and scale - and relatively inconsequential in the large Middle East picture - the eight-day Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip helped elevate the US to the Middle East major league at Iran's expense.

For Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to obtain Hamas’s consent to a ceasefire Wednesday, Nov. 21, Israel made certain concessions. The most damaging was acceding to Egypt’s role as truce monitor and arbitrator between itself and Hamas and the address for complaints of violations, misunderstandings and brokering future negotiations for regulating future relations. By this step, Israel accepted Egypt’s superior authority and demoted itself to an equal footing with a terrorist group, Hamas.

Jerusalem, Cairo and Gaza awaited US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's arrival Tuesday night, Nov. 20, to clinch the Gaza ceasefire accord. Israel held back from approval until then and the Palestinians stepped up their missile blitz. debkafile’s analysts say that by giving in to international pressure for a ceasefire – against the objections of top military chiefs and intelligence pros - Israel’s leaders would show they have not learned from their predecessors’ mistakes in ending two wars inconclusively. 

Missile alert sirens sounded across Greater Tel Aviv Saturday, Nov. 17, before an explosion caused by Iron Dome’s interception of one of the two rockets incoming from the Gaza Strip against Israel’s largest conurbation for the third day in a row. The second rocket landed harmlessly on open ground.
Hamas claimed to have launched Iran-made Fajr-5 long-range missile against Tel Aviv. The Iron Dome anti-missile battery was deployed for the first time in Greater Tel Aviv that morning,