DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Iranian General Defects with Hizbullah's Arms Secrets - Richard Beeston and Michael Theodoulou (Times-UK)
    Ali Resa Asgari, 63, a general in the elite Revolutionary Guards and former deputy defense minister, appears to have defected to the U.S., taking with him a treasure trove of his country's most closely guarded secrets.
    Several sources confirmed reports that Asgari had fled to the West, the first senior Iran official to defect since the revolution 27 years ago.
    "It means for the first time, Hizbullah's adversaries may have accurate estimates of stockpiles, weapons types, even perhaps placement and tactics," said Nicholas Noe, the author of a forthcoming book on Hizbullah.
    See also A Coup for Foreign Intelligence - Tim Butcher (Telegraph-UK)
    Asgari was the main Iranian point man in Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s when Iran help found, fund and run Hizbullah and there can be few better sources on how it receives weapons and support from Iran.
    He could also provide crucial information about a Hizbullah attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 in which eight of the CIA's top regional specialists, including the CIA's Near East director Robert Ames, were among those who died, something that explains America's continued reluctance to downgrade its listing of Hizbullah as anything but a terrorist group.
    In spite of Iran's efforts to play down his significance, Asgari's defection represents a genuine coup for foreign intelligence.

Israel Targets Palestinian Terrorists Paid by Iran through Hizbullah - Isabel Kershner (New York Times)
    Ephraim Sneh, Israel's deputy defense minister, explained the arrest of 18 militants in a raid on PA military intelligence headquarters near Ramallah on Wednesday.
    He said Israel had repeatedly asked Palestinian authorities to stop the 18 men from carrying out attacks, including recent ones on Israeli vehicles. But the Palestinians permitted the men to take refuge in the intelligence compound, and it was there that the Israeli forces arrested them.
    Sneh said that although the 18 once were members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigade linked to Fatah, they had severed those ties in the past year and were paid by Iran through Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Palestinian Killed in Crush at Gaza-Egypt Border Crossing (AP/Ynet News)
    A crush of 5,000 Palestinians trying to get through the newly opened Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt Thursday left an elderly man dead and seven people wounded, Palestinian medics said.
    Abdel Hadi Salama said the Palestinian security personnel at the crossing lost control of the crowds, who began pushing toward the terminal and throwing stones at the entrance gate.
    Security men opened fire in the air, he said. Medics said two of the wounded were hit by gunfire.

Hamas Terror Brigade on the March in Gaza (Maan News-PA)
    Dozens of Al-Qassam Brigades' fighters, the armed wing of Hamas, appeared in a military march through central Gaza City on Wednesday, the first such public appearance in several months.
    Hundreds of Al-Qassam members marched through the streets carrying machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades and shouting pro-Hamas slogans.

In Chaotic Gaza, the Internet Is a Target - (Bloomberg/Chicago Daily Herald)
    Soon after a firebomb exploded at 3 a.m. and destroyed four computers in the Al-Shawa Online Internet Cafe in Gaza, owner Alaa al-Shawa clicked onto his e-mail at an undamaged machine.
    The first message was from the bombers, explaining that establishments such as his were keeping Muslims away from prayer and providing pornography. That's why it was hit.
    "This just shows how confused these fanatics are," said Al-Shawa, 27. "Even they use the Internet to circulate their statements."
    About 45 Internet outlets have been bombed since Dec. 1, according to Gaza police.

Is There a Future for Jews in Switzerland? - Simon Erlanger (Jewish Political Studies Review)
    Swiss Jewry seems to be set for steady decline. There are today some 18,000 Jews in Switzerland ­ the same number as in 1900, whereas the general population has doubled since then.
    Assimilation and emigration, mainly to Israel, have reduced the Jewish population.
    In recent years a largely homemade anti-Semitism has arisen that gained momentum with the restitution debate of the 1990s.
    A 2006 study by the University of Geneva's Department of Sociology found that 20% of the Swiss are "affected by anti-Semitism" - in other words, openly anti-Semitic.

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Observations:

Iran: It's Not Just the Nukes - John Davis (Ynet News)

• Israel and America must shift the debate in the world from potential military interventions to Iran's violations of the principles and norms of the international community.
• When Iran frames its quest as an effort to evict and deter America and Israel from the Middle East, we need to generate the conversation with China, Russia and Muslim states around the point that an aggressive Iran with aspirations to dominate is a threat to them.
• When Iran seeks to attract actors to it by focusing on values and culture, we should make every effort to expose the contradictions between human values accepted by the international community and human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic.
• While Iran seeks to maintain the Islamic revolutionary character of its regime yet yearns for foreign trade and investment, we need to expose to the international community that investment in Iran finances its client terror organizations that block the agenda of the international community and disrupt governments across the Middle East.

  The writer is an analyst at the Reut institute.