DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Report: Ten North Koreans May Have Died in Israel Raid in Syria - Yoko Kubota (Reuters/Washington Post)
    Ten North Koreans helping to build a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria may have died in an Israeli air raid last September, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Monday, citing South Korean intelligence officials.
    The dead included officials of the North Korean Communist party unit that exports weapons and military technology and members of the North Korean military unit which made nuclear facilities in the country.
    Two or three North Koreans survived the air strike.

Israel: UNIFIL Is Hiding Information about Hizbullah from Security Council - Barak Ravid (Ha'aretz)
    UNIFIL is intentionally concealing information about Hizbullah activities south of the Litani River in Lebanon to avoid conflict with the group, senior sources in Jerusalem have said.
    In the last six months there have been at least four cases in which UNIFIL soldiers identified armed Hizbullah operatives, but did nothing and did not submit full reports on the incidents to the UN Security Council.
    A new report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with regard to Security Council Resolution 1559 briefly mentioned an incident at the beginning of March in which UNIFIL soldiers encountered unidentified armed men, and included no additional details.
    The incident described in the report had actually been a clash between UNIFIL and armed Hizbullah activists, driving a truck full of explosives, who threatened the Italian UNIFIL battalion with weapons.
    Instead of using force as required by their mandate, the UN soldiers abandoned the site.
    A diplomatic source at the UN said senior officials in UNIFIL and in the UN Secretariat brought heavy pressure to bear to have the incident erased from the report or at least to blur it.

Amos 3 Satellite Launched into Space - Hanan Greenberg (Ynet News)
    Israel's Amos 3 communications satellite was launched into space successfully on Monday from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
    The satellite, designed and built by Israel Aerospace Industries, is expected to function for 18 years and will replace its predecessor, Amos 1.

Egypt Holds Four in Suspected Hamas Plot (Reuters)
    Egyptian security forces detained four people and have accused them of plotting to buy fuel for a pilotless aircraft for the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, security sources said on Saturday.
    Two of those detained were members of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood.
    Sources said the aircraft was meant to be loaded with explosives for an attack.

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

Observations:

Why Israel Kept Quiet Over Nuclear Syria - Con Coughlin (Telegraph-UK)

• Even after CIA director Michael Hayden's briefing of Congress about the Israeli air strike on a top-secret military site in Syria, when he confirmed that the North Koreans had indeed been helping the Syrians to build a nuclear reactor, the Israelis are still refusing to discuss the matter.
• The reasons are twofold. When the Israelis first became concerned about the North Koreans' activities in Syria last summer, the Americans were negotiating a delicate deal to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program in return for a relaxation of the trade sanctions that have crippled the North Korean economy. Had the Israelis gone public with the intelligence, it might seriously have undermined Washington's diplomatic efforts.
• The Israelis are also keen not to reveal too much about the technical aspects of the air strike, which is regarded as the most sophisticated operation by the Israeli air force since the 1981 mission against Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility, which thwarted Saddam Hussein's ambition to acquire a nuclear weapons arsenal. To carry out the attack undetected, the fighter-bombers had to be fitted with equipment that extended their bombing range, while penetrating Syria's state-of-the-art, Russian-built air defense systems.
• Syria's experimentation with nuclear proliferation has more to do with its strategic alliance with Tehran than any pretensions the Assad regime might entertain about becoming a nuclear superpower. Now, it appears that the Syrians are quietly helping the Iranians with their nuclear weapons program.