International Politics of the Middle East

a leaked cable

Gen McChrystal was "fuming" about Mr Eikenberry's intervention

Had Dr. Hasan become "an Islamist extremist"? It sure looks that way. But was the horrific slaughter he carried out intended to "intimidate or coerce" anyone? We've heard no evidence to that effect. These terrible killings may have just been an expression of inchoate rage. And if we don't know whether coercion or intimidation was the goal, than we certainly don't know if it was done "for political purposes."

If we learn that Malik Hasan left a note saying "anybody who serves in the US Armed Forces must know they will face retribution," we'll know that he is a terrorist. He will have committed his murders in order to intimidate or coerce. But right now we don't have any evidence that suggests Hasan is any different than the civilian who killed 23 people at a cafeteria right down the road from Ft. Hood, shouting "This is what Central Texas did to me!"

Christian extremist Scott Roeder's act of murder was terrorism, too, because he wants doctors to stop performing abortions. (He and others like him have nearly achieved their goal, too, which makes it pretty effective terror.)

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

John Hemming, the MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on peak oil and gas, said the revelations confirmed his suspicions that the IEA underplayed how quickly the world was running out and this had profound implications for British government energy policy.He said he had also been contacted by some IEA officials unhappy with its lack of independent scepticism over predictions. "Reliance on IEA reports has been used to justify claims that oil and gas supplies will not peak before 2030. It is clear now that this will not be the case and the IEA figures cannot be relied on," said Hemming."This all gives an importance to the Copenhagen [climate change] talks and an urgent need for the UK to move faster towards a more sustainable [lower carbon] economy if it is to avoid severe economic dislocation," he added.

Palestinians may have to abandon the goal of an independent state if Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, the chief Palestinian negotiator has said.

Israel has rejected the idea of a de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, incorporating the Palestinians as citizens, as a "demographic timebomb" that would make Jews the minority.

"This is dictation and not negotiations," he said.

Yemeni rebels have released a video of a man who they identify as one of several Saudi soldiers in their custody, as fighting between Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government spilled over into Saudi Arabia.

the authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.

Saudi Arabia has denied crossing into Yemen, and has also dismissed claims that any of its soldiers have been captured. The military has admitted that a number of soldiers are missing.

Palestinians and foreign activists have torn down segments of Israel's separation wall in a demonstration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

group of masked activists using a lorry pulled down a two-metre cement block before Israeli security forces confronted them with tear gas grenades.

Last Friday, Palestinian youths almost toppled a segment of wall using a hydraulic car-jack in the West Bank village of Nilin.

Jews have the right to kill non-Jews in just about any circumstance, according to Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the illegal Yitzhar settlement's Od Yosef Chai yeshiva.

According to Maariv, the book is a manifesto, "230 pages, no less, on the laws of the killing of gentiles, a guide to deciding whether and when it is permissible to take the life of non-Jews." Shapiro and his followers began selling the guide at Saturday's memorial in Jerusalem for Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Israeli Knesset member who urged the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the occupied territories.

However, the book does not mention Palestinians or Arabs "even by implication," Maariv pointed out, explaining that the author clearly meant to discuss the killing of gentiles as a theoretical concept rather than in the context of the region's politics. The newspaper noted that Shapiro was "careful not to explicitly encourage private individuals to take the law into their own hands." Maariv also quoted settlers as saying, "We respect the rabbis, but they do not represent the settlements nor the outposts."

Syria has denied that a cargo ship loaded with hundreds of tonnes of weapons seized by Israel, was transporting Iranian arms to Syria.

"All the cargo certificates are stamped at the ports of origin, and this one was stamped at an Iranian port."

The weapons were "a drop in the ocean" of arms being shipped to Hezbollah, Ben-Yehuda said.