David Bedein

--A year from now the threat will be significantly greater than today, because Hamas is using the current lull to build up its forces. Brig. Gen. Sami Turjeman, director of the Operations Department at the Israeli Army General Staff, warned: "In a few months' time we will be faced in the Gaza Strip with a military capability which we have not known up till now.--Jordan And The Palestinians

"Several weeks after the ( Israeli vs. Hezbollah) war, the U.S. supplies stopped," a source said. "There was no real explanation." Israeli and U.S. sources said the State Department has blocked the transfer of weapons and technology to the Jewish state over the last three months. The sources said the halt reflected deteriorating relations between the two countries since the end of the war in Lebanon in August 2006.

In the wake of recent reports about plans to dig a canal linking the Red Sea on the Israeli side and the Dead Sea on its Jordanian side, a fiery argument broke out in Egypts parliament, with the members of parliament (MPs) speaking out against the "Israeli plot to choke the Suez Canal to death." In the course of the debate, which has been going on in parliament for the last two days, Abed el-Aziz Sayef a-Nasser, an aide to the Egyptian foreign minister, was called as an expert witness. A-Nasser is the director of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry's legal department.

Despite Iran's support of Hamas in principle, the relations between the Palestinian organization and the Persian Gulf country were chilly. Among other reasons, this is due to the fact that Hamas is a movement that belongs to the Sunni stream of Islam, while Iran is a Shiite country. However, according to information that has been building up in the security establishment, over the past weeks all the barriers have been removed, and the aid that Iran extends to Hamas is becoming almost as massive as the scale in which Iran funds Hezbollah's activity in Lebanon.

Jordanians bought the bonds from Korean company, Hyundai via James Baker's firm for USD 272 million, and sold them to the Iraqis for USD 450 million dollars' worth of oil. In Israeli businessman Nir Gouaz's estimation, Baker's law firm received USD 33 million in fees for services rendered. The deal was completed in July 2000.

The Bulletin asked the spokespeople of the government of Israel if they would also denounce the leader of the Palestinian Authority Machmud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, for the holocaust denial, which has been an integral part of his legacy. However, the government of Israel would issue no such denunciation of Abbas, who wrote his doctorate in 1982 in Moscow, at the Institute for Oriental Studies.