Israeli jets were reported flying over Damascus by foreign sources in the last few hours Sunday (April 28). debkafile: Iran is pushing Bashar Assad hard to let Hizballah have sophisticated weapons, including self-propelled SA-17 interceptor missile systems.

Israeli, US, Egyptian and Jordanian counterterrorism agencies are on elevated alert since Oct. 25, debkafile reports: Salafi and al Qaeda cells in Egyptian Sinai are said poised to unleash coordinated terrorist attacks on US and Egyptian targets in Sinai and in Israel to avenge Israel’s targeted killing of two senior commanders of the Salafi-al Qaeda Sinai-Gaza network. Perpetrators of the Benghazi murders of 4 US diplomats are among the jihadi reinforcements coming in from Libya.

Washington is no longer under the illusion that positioning US forces in up to18 places in the Islamic world can quell the mounting wave of anti-US Islamist protests now encompassing 21 countries. The unrest poses Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and fellow regimes with a hard choice between expanding their ties with the US - or bowing to violent radical Islamist pressure to turn their backs on America and give them a place in government. The Arab Spring and President Obama’s outreach to Muslims are going up in smoke.

Hundreds of Palestinians lobbing rocks clashed with Jerusalem police Friday as they marched from Temple Mount, Jerusalem, to Damascus Gate - their first protest against the anti-Muslim film made in the US. Mounted police using stun grenades stopped them reaching the US consulate. Protests erupted too in the Gaza Strip and the Israel Bedouin town of Rahat. Islamists continued to batter the US embassies in Cairo and Sanaa, riot in Bangladesh and Lebanon and also attack the British and German embassies in Khartoum.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov issued a strong warning against a military attack on Iran Monday, April 2, saying that a pre-emptive strike would violate international law. His comments, made during a visit to Armenia, stopped short of threatening (the US and/or Israel) of consequences. debkafile: Moscow and Tehran suspect that the US- Israeli-Greek air-naval exercise codenamed Noble Dina which is in progress across an unusually broad stretch of E. Mediterranean is meant to rehearse war action in the Persian Gulf.

With its latest purchases from Washington, the Saudi Air Force will have more US fighter-bombers of more advanced models than the Israeli Air Force as well as a substantial influx of sophisticated Eurofighter Typhoons. Deep concern over this was recently relayed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Israel acted on the quiet in view of Gulf anxiety over Iranian threats.

The United States launches a large-scale strategic airlift exercise over the Middle East Monday, Oct. 21. Tuesday, the day of the Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit, the giant transports carrying command and combat units will practice swift emergency landings in Israel and Saudi Arabia. The US, Israeli, Egyptian and Saudi armies are on high military preparedness amid warnings of terrorist attacks to disrupt the prisoner exchange and avenge US charges of an Iran-instigated plot to murder the Saudi ambassador.

The day after their El Arish rampage, Al Qaeda gunmen Saturday, July 30, blasted the al Shulaq terminal of the Egyptian-Israeli gas pipeline north of the Sinai town, halting supply for the fifth time since February. This time was different. The saboteurs fired rockets at the terminal until it caught fire, the same tactics they used to raid El Arish Friday. Egyptian forces confronted the assailants but could not save the terminal. This was al Qaeda's first attack on a strategic Israeli installation.

Iyad Allawi, whose Al Iraqiya party won Iraq's general election last April, was forced to admit Friday, Nov. 12 upon losing the premiership to the pro-Iranian incumbent Nouri Al-Malaki that "the concept of power-sharing in Iraq was dead. For Iraq" he said, "there will be tensions and violence, probably." That day, too, debkafile's sources report, Hizballah's Hassan Nasrallah asserted that what happened in Baghdad is destined for Beirut, marking Tehran's next Middle East target for wresting from Washington.

The Obama-Clinton Grand Middle East design falls foul of four players who have suddenly stepped out of position: Hassan Nasrallah, Mahmoud Abbas, Nouri al-Maliki and Hosni Mubarak.