• Under Airstrikes and Missiles, Gaddafi Forces Roll Back
  From Ajdabiya in the east to Misrata in the west, coalition aircraft on Wednesday targeted Libyan mechanized forces, mobile surface-to-air missile sites, and lines of communications. Neither the rebels nor Gaddafi has mustered the force for an outright victory, raising concerns of a prolonged conflict. NATO nations remained deadlocked over the alliance's possible role in enforcing the UN-authorized no-fly zone. Meanwhile, NATO warships started patrolling Wednesday to enforce the UN arms embargo against Libya. (AP-Washington Post)
      See also Gaddafi Shells Towns, Rebels Pinned Down in Libya's East - Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy (Reuters)
• Syria Cracks Down on Protests, 25 Killed - Garrett Therolf and Meris Lutz
  25 people were killed by Syrian security forces Wednesday in the southern city of Daraa, witnesses said, when hundreds of government security agents raided the Omari mosque where anti-government demonstrators had sought refuge. Security forces used live ammunition against supporters of the protests from nearby villages attempting to join them. "There are hundreds of wounded and injured in the streets," a human rights activist reported. (Los Angeles Times)
      See also At Syrian Hospital, Casualties "All Had Bullet Holes"  (MSNBC)
• Jewish Leaders Demand Increased Protection at Mount of Olives Cemetery
  Israelis and American Jewish leaders are demanding that the Israeli government increase protection to ensure that those buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem can rest in peace. Israelis claim Palestinians from surrounding east Jerusalem neighborhoods attack visitors two to three times a week, sometimes stoning funeral processions. They accuse Arabs of building illegally on top of graves, using tombstones as goalposts for soccer games and lobbing firebombs to desecrate the cemetery.
      At a recent visit to the cemetery, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said he's heard from hundreds of families in the U.S. who can't visit buried relatives without protection from armed guards. "In Jerusalem, Jews can't go and visit an ancient burial site that is supposedly sacred?" Hoenlein asked.
      At least 150,000 graves line the hill opposite the Temple Mount. Between 1948 and 1967, when the Mount of Olives was under Jordanian control, some 40,000 graves were destroyed. In some parts of the cemetery, vandalism has reduced many gravestones to piles of shattered shards. Arabic graffiti blots some of the walls. (AP-Washington Post)
      See also The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem - Nadav Shragai (ICA-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

• Bomb Explodes in Jerusalem; 1 Dead, 30 Hurt - Nir Hasson
  A bomb exploded Wednesday at a crowded bus stop outside the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, just opposite the central bus station. A British woman was killed and at least 30 people were wounded in the incident, three of them seriously.  The bomb was apparently hidden in a bag next to a telephone pole. (Ha'aretz)
      See also "Jerusalem Explosion Victims Were Completely Covered in Blood" (Ha'aretz)
      See also "There Were 20 Seconds of Silence, Then Screams Began" - Tovah Lazaroff (Jerusalem Post)
• Islamic Jihad Commanders Go into Hiding - Ron Ben-Yishai
  The Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza ordered all its commanders to go into hiding for fear that the IDF will aim to kill the group's leaders, reinforcing the estimate that Islamic Jihad was behind the bombing in Jerusalem Wednesday. (Ynet News)
      See also PA Police Arrest Two Islamic Jihad Members for Jerusalem Attack - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
• Israel Air Force Strikes Rocket Launchers after Attacks from Gaza - Yaakov Katz
  Israeli airstrikes hit rocket-launching terrorists, smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border and a Hamas training camp following rocket attacks in Beersheba and Ashkelon. On Wednesday, seven mortar shells containing white phosphorous struck Israel. All schools were closed on Thursday in Beersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon as a result of the security situation. (Jerusalem Post)
      See also Shock and Fear Returns to Beersheba - Ben Hartman
  Hours after a Grad rocket crashed into a Beersheba neighborhood Wednesday, schoolchildren walked around collecting ball bearings and other shrapnel that had been packed into the rocket to maximize its destructive power. Mordechai Saani's house was pockmarked with holes, and there was shattered glass all over. Ball bearings were still lodged in the interior walls in each of the house's four rooms. "We heard the alarm and grabbed the kids from their beds and took them to an interior room only moments before the missile struck," Saani said.
      The neighborhood was the boyhood home of Vice Premier Silvan Shalom. The strike blew out several windows of the synagogue built by Shalom in honor of his late father. Shimon Tsiboni, 33, was at the synagogue when the sirens went off. "It was a serious miracle, look at where it struck, literally between two houses," Tsiboni said. "Only a few meters this way or that and it would have killed everyone inside those houses."  (Jerusalem Post)

• The West's Revenge on Gaddafi - Benny Morris
  Ostensibly, Western air and naval units have been attacking Libyan military facilities in order to protect the rebels and surrounding civilian populations from Gaddafi's murderous onslaught. Many observers suspect that the West's real aim is to topple the Gaddafi regime. An element of revenge is surely at play here, and rightly so.
      On April 5, 1986, Gaddafi sent a team of terrorists to bomb a West Berlin nightclub, La Belle, frequented by American servicemen. In the explosion, three died and 230 were injured. On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 passengers and 11 villagers of Lockerbie. The bombing was carried out by two Libyan intelligence agents, tried and convicted in a Scottish court in 2001. On September 19, 1989, a team of Libyans planted a bomb on a French DC-10 airliner flying between Chad and Paris, killing all 171 on board.
      The U.S., France and Britain have never forgiven Gaddafi for these outrages. What we are seeing now is the long-delayed, but sweet, payback. (National Interest)
• British Columnist Melanie Phillips Being Investigated by Police for Referring to Arab "Savages" Who Murdered Jewish Family - Robin Shepherd
  Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator, reported Friday that Bedfordshire Police are investigating the magazine because a group called "Muslims4UK" took exception to a piece by Melanie Phillips on her blog in which she referred to the Arabs who had murdered five members of a Jewish family in Itamar the week before as "savages." The story was reported in the media, but if you'd blinked you'd have missed it. Melanie's column was a typically robust effort to point out the moral depravity of news outlets which, if the situation had been reversed - if five Arabs including a three-month-old baby had been knifed to death in their beds by Jews, for example - would have given it saturation coverage.
      A prominent British columnist does what prominent British columnists are supposed to do - she attempts to shift the terms of the debate back on to a more rational and principled footing - and the net result is that the police have been called in because she has offended Muslim sensitivities. (Robin Shepherd)
      See also A Family Slaughtered in Israel - Doesn't the BBC Care? - MP Louise Bagshawe (Telegraph-UK)

U.S. Must Take Sides to Keep the Arab Spring from Islamist Takeover - Ray Takeyh (Washington Post)

• Islamism is very much a relic of the 20th century, a discredited orthodoxy of limited appeal to the Arab masses. History has shown, however, that well-organized parties of circumscribed appeal can nevertheless assume greater influence by exploiting the disarray of transition periods and divisions within democratic camps.
• The problem is compounded by the temptation among many in the West to appeal to the "political" wing of militant organizations such as Hizbullah or to reach out to "moderate" elements of Islamist parties. The challenge for Washington today is not to cling to some kind of ecumenical spirit but to actively choose sides and fortify the political center against forces of intolerance.
• Many in the West presume that once Islamist parties are integrated into the political order, the burdens of governance will inevitably lead them to dispense with their ideological past. This does a disservice to the Muslim Brotherhood and its many offspring, denigrating their commitment to their dogma.
• The moderation that these groups have exhibited in the past few decades in places such as Egypt was pragmatism born out of compulsion, not some kind of intellectual evolution. Relieved of the constraints of Arab police states, they are free to advance their illiberal, anti-Western agendas.
  
  The writer is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.