• Iran Suspected of Clean-Up Operation at Nuclear Site - Jon Swaine
  Iran may have carried out a clean-up operation at a building suspected of being used for nuclear weapons experiments within a key military facility, experts warned Monday. New satellite photographs appear to show unusual activity in recent weeks at the Parchin site outside Tehran, according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). A large stream of water pictured flowing from the building, said to feature an "explosive chamber" for testing, "raises concerns that Iran may have been washing inside the building," the group said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been denied access to the site since 2005.
      "Iran should immediately allow IAEA inspectors into the Parchin site and allow access to this specific building," said ISIS founder David Albright, a former inspector. (Telegraph-UK)
• Britain Seeks to Delay EU's Iran Ship Insurance Ban - Dmitry Zhdannikov and Justyna Pawlak
  Britain is seeking to persuade fellow EU members to postpone by up to six months a ban on providing insurance for tankers carrying Iranian oil, arguing that it could lead to a damaging spike in oil prices, European diplomats said. Iran exports most of its 2.2 million barrels of oil per day to Asia. The four main buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - have yet to find a way to replace the predominantly Western shipping insurance provided by London insurers. (Reuters)
• Fayyad: Palestinians Isolated and Short of Funds - Michael Stott and Samia Nakhoul
  Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday the Palestinians may have "lost the argument" on the international stage for an independent state. He said the Palestinians had failed to galvanize a distracted world behind their cause. Arab unrest, the U.S. presidential elections and financial crises in Europe had combined to knock the Palestinian issue off the global agenda.
      Fayyad said Palestinians must get their own house in order before they could hope for independence and he called for elections that have long been delayed. "A basic right of our people is being violated. The right of being able to choose our leadership," he said. Fayyad added that he was convinced that independence would be achieved within ten years. (Reuters-Chicago Tribune)
      See also A Palestinian Reformer's Downfall - Ben Birnbaum
  In the spring of 2011, Mahmoud Abbas announced his intention to seek recognition of a Palestinian state through the UN. When a bipartisan congressional delegation met with Salam Fayyad in Ramallah around that time, he made clear that he opposed the plan.
      If Fatah and Hamas ever reconcile, Fayyad will almost certainly be out of a job. Why Hamas would resent Fayyad is no mystery. He is everything they hate - secular, pro-Western, abhorring of violence, and accepting of Israel. (New Republic)

• Netanyahu Calls on Abbas to Return to Negotiations - Tovah Lazaroff and Khaled Abu Toameh
  The new national unity government offers an opportunity to rekindle the stalled peace talks, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Tuesday as he called on PA President Abbas to return to the negotiation table. "I hope that President Abbas will use this opportunity to resume the peace talks," he said. (Jerusalem Post)
• Israeli Car Comes Under Fire in West Bank - Michal Shmulovich
  Terrorists opened fire Tuesday evening on an Israeli vehicle near the village of Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah on Route 60, a main north-south highway in the West Bank. (Times of Israel)
• IDF Uncovers Explosive Charges in West Bank Village - Florit Shoihet
  On Tuesday, IDF forces operating in the village of Tamon, near Bekaot, found five hidden explosive charges. Three Palestinians were detained for questioning. The explosive devices were ready for immediate activation and were relatively large and complex. (Israel Defense Forces)
• Israeli Archeologists Uncover City from the Time of King David
  Five years of archeological research at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a fortified city in Judah adjacent to the Valley of Elah, 30 km. southwest of Jerusalem, were presented Tuesday in a new book, Footsteps of King David in the Valley of Elah, published by Yediot Ahronot. According to Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "This is the first time that archeologists uncovered a fortified city in Judah from the time of King David....Thus, various suggestions that completely deny the biblical tradition regarding King David and argue that he was a mythological figure, or just a leader of a small tribe, are now shown to be wrong."  (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

• Shaul Mofaz Agrees to Join Benjamin Netanyahu's Coalition - Jodi Rudoren
  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel significantly expanded his power on Tuesday, creating the largest and broadest coalition government in recent memory. "I think Prime Minister Netanyahu has been determined since he got elected to re-establish a very strong political center in Israel," said Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and an adviser to Mr. Netanyahu during his first term as prime minister, in the 1990s. "What does it mean to be in the center? It means willing to make compromises to ensure peace, but at the same time insisting that any arrangement you make has a large security component."
      Kadima party leader Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister, said the new coalition would be able to "contend better with the challenges facing Israel," including "a historic territorial compromise with our Palestinian neighbors." Nabil Abu Rudeineh, chief spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the new coalition could present new opportunities - but in the next breath reiterated the positions about settlements, borders and Jerusalem that have been stumbling blocks in the past. (New York Times)
• Netanyahu Boosts Israel's Deterrence - Ron Ben-Yishai
  The unity deal worked out secretly by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz boosts our deterrence power on the Iranian front and Israel's ability to press the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany not to compromise too much. Mofaz has served as defense minister and IDF chief of staff in the past, and will be joining the forum of top government ministers - now nine in number - entrusted with taking decisions on critical security and diplomatic issues, providing another experienced hand.
      In the final analysis, the formation of the new government boosts Israel's deterrent power and upgrades its leadership's decision-making ability on the security and diplomatic front, topped by the Iran issue. (Ynet News)
• Losing Hope in Syria's Devastated Countryside
  In the village of Bashiriya in Idlib Province, the helicopters appeared over the top of the hill shortly after 9 a.m. on April 9. A volley of rockets incinerated the first houses, while the gunners pursued the fleeing villagers with their machine guns and shot those who didn't manage to take shelter under the trees. They even mowed down a herd of sheep. The tanks arrived minutes later, already firing indiscriminately into the village from hundreds of meters away. Then came the soldiers, who went from house to house, first looting and then burning down more than 100 houses. It's been quiet in Bashiriya since the attack. Half of the 7,000 residents have fled.
      A trip through the villages in northwest Idlib Province leads through a world in which the inhabitants are being kept in check but are no longer under the government's control. The fear of the once omnipresent government informants has disappeared in the villages, where everyone now speaks his mind and the drivers for the FSA write "Free Army" on their dusty rear windows. (Der Spiegel-Germany)
• Libyan Missiles on the Loose - David Ignatius
  The spread of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles from Libya after the overthrow of Gaddafi's regime poses a growing threat to commercial planes. A State Department official said in February that Gaddafi had acquired 20,000 of these weapons, and that only 5,000 of them had been secured through a $40 million U.S. program to buy up loose missiles.
      Here's the scary part: Two former CIA counterterrorism officers told me last week that technicians recently refurbished 800 of these man-portable air-defense systems (known as MANPADS) - some for an African jihadist group called Boko Haram that is often seen as an ally of al-Qaeda — for possible use against commercial jets flying into Niger, Chad and perhaps Nigeria. (Washington Post)

Egypt's Revocation of the Natural Gas Agreement with Israel: Strategic Implications - Shmuel Even (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)

• On April 22, 2012, the national Egyptian gas companies, EGAS and EGPC, announced the revocation of the agreement to supply natural gas to Israel.
• In 2010, Egypt supplied the Israel Electric Company (IEC) with 37% of its gas consumption; in 2011, that dropped to 18% because of attacks on the pipeline in northern Sinai.
• The revocation of the agreement is a decision that was clearly made, or at least approved, at Egypt's highest political levels.
• Stopping the flow of Egyptian gas puts the last nail in the coffin of one of the only manifestations of normalization between Israel and Egypt. It seems that the peace agreement is still viewed in Egypt as a strategic necessity rather than the basis for peaceful relations.
• From the perspective of Israel's energy market, the revocation of the agreement is preferable to its continuation under the current circumstances.
  
  The writer, a senior research fellow at INSS, retired from the IDF in 1999 following a long career in the Intelligence Branch.