"The IDF's future operations will be BROADER AND MORE DEMANDING IN TERMS OF THEIR SCOPE AND PACE, with more risks than Operation Cast Lead (in the Gaza Strip). We in the political echelon will act so that the ordeal won't come to pass but, still, you must win every trial," The Jerusalem Post quoted Ehud Barak as saying on Tuesday.

He made the remarks days after the Israeli military held its most extensive nationwide drill dubbed "Turning Point 3", preparing itself for a possible regional war by attacking Iran's nuclear facilities. During the 5-day military drill, Israeli forces and civilians prepared themselves for A SIMULTANEOUS WAR AGAINST HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH, SYRIA AND IRAN and practiced counterinsurgency tactics against Israeli Arabs.

The Israeli Defense Minister cautioned that this war would take place in a condition that the army has not so far experienced, and asked the ISRAELI SOCIETY TO BE PREPARED TO A PAY A HIGHER PRICE IN TERMS OF LOSSES. "The country will have many challenges, but what matters is the IDF's (Israel Defense Forces) durability and its ability to come out on top in every battle," he added.

"Wealth creation via our globalised economy has not come about by accident. It is the result of a collective choice for openness," he said. "Now more than ever, we have to resist. Protectionism doesn't protect. In the long run it just makes things worse." He added that British companies were the largest foreign investors in the US, supporting one million American jobs that on average pay 30 per cent above the national average.

"We have no equivalent 'Buy British' requirements for government procurement in the UK. Shutting out foreign competition sends a bad message on how open markets are valued in the United States and will often end up with taxpayer money going less far," said Sir Nigel. British and European firms have reported being excluded from or not bothering to apply for lucrative civic projects funded by President Barack Obama's £490 billion stimulus package.

State and local governments have stuck closely to Buy American sections of the legislation, even though the language of the bill encouraged open competition.

"PEACE MEANS BANKRUPTCY FOR US." Despite a UN arms embargo on Somalia, the Horn of Africa nation is awash with weaponry from all over the world that has fuelled one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. In the latest cycle of civil war, militant Islamists have been fighting the Somali government for the last two years and 18,000 civilians have been killed in the crossfire. Weapons are captured, sold and recycled constantly between both sides, experts say. Many arms have come from Ethiopian soldiers who intervened in Somalia between 2006 and early 2009.

HERE IS A PRICE LIST FOR SOME POPULAR WEAPONS:

Anti-tank weapons cost $5,000, while a rocket-propelled grenade launcher is quoted at $200, plus $150 per grenade.
A new pistol from Yemen is $650, a second-hand one from Russia is $400 and a new American pistol is $700.
A new Belgian pistol is $500 and a new Russian one is $1,000. Rounds cost between $1.50 and $3 each.
An Indian-made AK-47 costs $140. Better quality versions from North Korea cost $600 and the Russian original costs $400.
Hand-grenades go for $25 each, landmines $100.

"BUREAUCRATS MANAGING COMPANIES DOES NOT WORK, POLITICIANS DOMINATING THE ECONOMY DOES NOT WORK," Gingrich told about 2,000 Republicans who attended a fundraising dinner at the Washington Convention Center last night. Gingrich was preceded by a series of speakers who also took aim at Democrats and the government bailout of Detroit-based GM, New York-based American International Group Inc and other companies, as well as the $787 billion economic stimulus legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress in February.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Obama has a "radical agenda." Republicans have "watched them take over banks, insurance companies, auto companies," he said, "and now they want to take over your health care."

Actor Jon Voight, the master of ceremonies, opened the evening with a series of sharp attacks on Obama, something many Republican leaders have been hesitant to do in light of the president's high approval ratings. "WE ARE BECOMING A WEAK NATION," said Voight, calling Obama a "FALSE PROPHET." Republicans need to find their way back to power to free the nation from "this Obama oppression," he said.

THE ESTABLISHMENT LEFT HAD BEEN CRUSHED ACROSS MOST OF EUROPE, JUST AS IT WAS IN THE EARLY 1930S. It is not clear why a chunk of the blue-collar working base has swung almost overnight from Left to Right, but clearly we are seeing the delayed detonation of two political time-bombs: rising unemployment and the growth of immigrant enclaves that resist assimilation.

Note that Right-wing incumbents in France and Italy, survived the European elections unscathed. Left-wing incumbents in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and of course Britain were either slaughtered, or badly mauled. In Germany and Austria, the Social Democrats suffered their worst defeats since World War Two. It was the peeling away of Socialist support during the Bruning deflation of the Depression years - so like today's Weber-Trichet deflation - that led to the catastrophic election of July 1932, when the Nazis and Communists took half the Reichstag seats.

But as readers know, I still fear that this depression is quietly deepening. So, we may lose three or four governments in Europe in coming days or weeks - or even worse, they may survive. The drama is unfolding as I feared. Half way through the depression, WE ARE FACING EXACTLY THE SORT OF POLITICAL DISINTEGRATION THAT OCCURS IN TIMES OF PROFOUND ECONOMIC RUPTURE.

Remember, the dangerous phase in the Great Depression was Stage II, after the collapse of Austria's Credit-Anstalt in mid-1931 set off a disastrous chain-reaction that Autumn. DON'T COUNT ON THE POLITICAL FABRIC OF EUROPE HOLDING TOGETHER if our green shoots shrivel and die in the credit drought of the long hot rainless summer that lies ahead.

It argues that "religious literacy" is a "vital skill" in a globalised and multicultural society. The project is running in schools in Asia, North America and Europe. The Faith Foundation, created by Mr Blair after stepping down as prime minister, has the aim of fostering better relations and understanding between world religions.

The launch of the education arm was marked by an international video link-up between pupils from Bolton, Delhi and Bethlehem. Pupils in the Middle East will be among those taking part - in an area where Mr Blair is now a peace envoy. "If you look round the different parts of the world and you look at conflicts, I would say a very large percentage of them have a religious dimension or a faith dimension to them," said Mr Blair at the launch in London. "So to get young people at an early age to be comfortable with people of a different faith is extremely important."

In Pakistan's Sindh Province, the City's School in Bhit Shah is participating. The school has Muslim, Hindu and Sikh students but its head teacher says the "real problem is not fanaticism", but the need for communities to get to know each other. Schools are also taking part in India, Singapore, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Thailand, Indonesia, the United States and Canada. The project, which has its own syllabus, has been accredited for an International GCSE.

Banks have been eager to pay back the money TO ESCAPE POTENTIALLY ONEROUS GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS, SUCH AS CAPS ON EXECUTIVE PAY. However, some observers fear premature repayment could stop the banks lending and thus undermine the chances of an economic recovery. The Treasury did not name the banks who got the approval to repay.

MANY BANKS HAVE CHAFED AT THE RESTRICTIONS ON EXECUTIVE PAY that accompanied the capital injections. Eight of them were pressed by the US Treasury to take government funds in late October at the height of the crisis. Permitting some banks to repay money to the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, effectively initiates a process of separating stronger banks from weaker ones as the financial sector begins to regain its balance.

Some banks remain on government life support, which makes them subject to the pay restrictions. Others complained they did not need the help and were being put at a competitive disadvantage because they couldn't set their own pay levels.

The tensions emanating from Pyongyang are beginning to hit nascent business ties with the South: a Seoul-based fur manufacturer became the first South Korean company to announce Monday it was pulling out of an industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong. The complex, which opened in 2004, is a key symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas but the goodwill is evaporating quickly in the wake of North Korea's nuclear test on May 25 and subsequent missile tests.

Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper today. "Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means… AS WELL AS A MERCILESS OFFENSIVE MEANS to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as "OFFENSIVE" in nature. Pyongyang has long claimed that its nuclear weapons program is a deterrent and only for self-defense against what it calls US attempts to invade it. Intensifying its confrontation with the US, North Korea handed down 12-year prison terms to two detained American journalists on Monday.

Describing the event, the council's website "calls participants to seek justice for 'Palestinians' so that both Israelis and 'Palestinians' can finally live in peace," WORDING CRITICS SAY OMITS HALF OF THE CONFLICT. A participating church in Edinburgh, Scotland, will require attendees to walk around a replica of Israel's security barrier before entering. Efforts in Israel and the Arab-occupied areas will centre on protests at checkpoints, 'refugee' camps and Jewish communities in post-1967 territories. At least 20 nations will be represented in the World Council activities.

IT ALSO SIGNALLED A MAJOR TURNING POINT FOR ISRAEL, WITH WHOM OBAMA PROPOSES TO GRADUALLY MINIMIZE US STRATEGIC TIES. Obama and his advisers intend to start cutting down on their military and intelligence discourse with Israel. Instead of conferring with Israel on its military and undercover moves in the Middle East and Muslim world, Washington will make Cairo and Riyadh the crux of its regional teamwork, turning to Israel only when it is unavoidable.

The US administration has opted for this policy reorientation because it seeks to enter into negotiations with Iran unencumbered by Israeli baggage. Close US ties with the Jewish state are also seen as a burden in Obama's future diplomatic engagements with Arab and Muslim governments such as Syria, which he wants to bring into his new Arab line-up. When he stated in his speech in Cairo, "America will align its policies with those who seek peace", Obama was actually saying that he will pick and choose US allies without being bound by the past.

Meanwhile, Obama declared to the Muslim world on Thursday that he will "personally" see to it that THE HEART OF THE JEWISH HOMELAND [JUDEA AND SAMARIA] IS RENDERED JEW-FREE AND HANDED TO THE ARABS FOR THE CREATION OF A [TERRORIST] STATE OF THEIR OWN. "The only resolution" to the Arab-Israeli conflict, he said, "is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians [sic] each live in peace and security."

Obama compared 2,000 years of Jewish suffering that culminated in mass murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust with the "pain of dislocation" suffered by the Arabs who were made into refugees as a result of their own peoples' aggression against Israel 61 years ago, and whose leaders have kept them in that status as pawns with which to achieve their own political and religious aspiration. Obama insisted that Israel - whose 4,000-year existence has been richly recorded, both biblically and extra-biblically - must acknowledge THE 'PALESTINIANS' "RIGHT TO EXIST" AS A NATION, DESPITE IT NEVER HAVING BEEN A PEOPLE AND NEVER HAVING HAD A NATIONAL HOMELAND, A NATIONAL FLAG OR ANY OTHER NATIONAL SYMBOL.

Mitchell pointed out that a "normalization of relations" between Israel and Arab nations is in "the security interests of the United States." The Obama government has found a new basis for pressuring both sides to meet by making a regional peace and the creation of a PA state matters of American security.

Following Mitchell's statement, ABBAS REITERATED HIS REFUSAL TO MEET WITH PRIME MINISTER BINYAMIN NETANYAHU UNTIL THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AGREES TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW PA STATE. He also maintained, "We were requested to take care of security, and we have done this. Israel must fulfil its obligations" and stop building in Judea and Samaria.

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU HAS OFFERED TO MEET WITHOUT ANY PRE-CONDITIONS BUT HAS POINTED OUT THERE WILL BE NO PROGRESS UNTIL PA CHAIRMAN MAHMOUD ABBAS ACCEPTS ISRAEL AS A JEWISH STATE. The Israeli leader has rejected President Obama's call for recognizing a yet-to-be created PA state, a move that Abbas likely would interpret as the acceptance of his demands that the new Arab country be established on all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, including eastern Jerusalem, where he wants the Arab capital.

A RECOGNITION BY ABBAS AS A JEWISH STATE WOULD PREVENT THE PA FROM IMPLEMENTING THE CONDITION OF THE SAUDI ARABIA PEACE PLAN, which calls for the immigration of five million foreign Arabs to Israel on the basis of their claim of ancestry in Israel. Abbas has said he would not insist that all five million be allowed to enter Israel but has not said what number he will settle for.

"To this day, there are those who insist that the Holocaust never happened – a denial of fact and truth that is baseless and ignorant and hateful," Obama said in the German death camp which witnessed the death of some 56,000 people, more than 50,000 of whom were Jews. "I have no patience for people who deny history," Obama added, "And the history of the Holocaust is not something speculative." Many saw Obama's visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp as an attempt to balance his Cairo speech a day earlier in which he reached out to the Muslim world. Obama also referenced Jewish suffering in that speech, hinting to the Muslim world that it must end widespread Holocaust denial.

OBAMA WAS WIDELY CRITICIZED FOR COMPARING THE DEATH OF SIX MILLION JEWS TO THE SITUATION OF PA ARABS. "Obama made a shocking parallel between the destruction of European Jewry and the suffering that the Arabs of Israel brought upon themselves when they declared war on Israel," Ichud Leumi (National Union) MK Aryeh Eldad said. "If Obama does not understand the difference between them, perhaps he will understand it better when he visits the Buchenwald concentration camp in the coming days.

AND IF HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND IT EVEN THERE, THEN ISLAM WILL ONCE AGAIN TEACH IT TO HIM, JUST AS IT TAUGHT HIS PREDECESSOR ON 9/11."

Zionist Organisation of America President, Morton A. Klein said, "This was a primarily strongly biased speech, inimical to Israel, supportive of false Palestinian and Arab claims against Israel, and blatantly factually inaccurate. THE PRESIDENT'S REMARKS IN THIS SPEECH MAY WELL SIGNAL THE BEGINNING OF A RENUNCIATION OF AMERICA'S STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH ISRAEL."

Netanyahu slammed media coverage of the past few days, saying he had read and heard quotes attributed to him that he did not say. "I would like to make it clear," he said. "We want to achieve peace with the Palestinians and with the countries of the Arab world, while attempting to reach the maximum understanding with the US and our friends around the world."

However, Netanyahu added, "My aspiration is to achieve a stable peace that rests on a solid foundation of security for the State of Israel and its citizens." The prime minister said that he intends to discuss the issue with his coalition partners and "other elements among the Israeli public" prior to delivering his address.

US SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON HAS SAID SHE IS REFUSING TO HONOUR AN AMERICAN PROMISE THAT ISRAEL CAN RETAIN ITS LARGE JEWISH POPULATION CENTRES THAT WERE BUILT IN JUDEA, SAMARIA AND SIGNIFICANT PARTS OF JERUSALEM. She repeated a claim that the Roadmap requires Israel to surrender all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza - although in truth the document only calls for the future borders of Israel and a new PA state to be negotiated.

Secretary Clinton's blunt dismissal of the "informal" promise places more than 100,000 residents of Maaleh Adumim, Ariel, Betar Illit and Gush Etzion on the list for future expulsions to make way for a Palestinian Authority state. The State Department previously had dodged taking a stand on whether the Obama administration would honour the promise.

"There is no memorialisation of any informal and oral agreements. If they did occur, which of course people say they did, they did not become part of the official position of the United States government," Clinton said at a news conference with the Turkish Foreign Minister. She repeated a claim that the Roadmap REQUIRES ISRAEL TO SURRENDER ALL OF JUDEA, SAMARIA AND GAZA, although the document only calls for the future borders of Israel and a new PA state to be negotiated.

The letter also states, "I remain committed to my June 24, 2002 vision of two states living side by side in peace and security as the key to peace, and to the road map as the route to get there. UNDER THE ROAD MAP, PALESTINIANS MUST UNDERTAKE AN IMMEDIATE CESSATION OF ARMED ACTIVITY AND ALL ACTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST ISRAELIS ANYWHERE, AND ALL OFFICIAL PALESTINIAN INSTITUTIONS MUST END INCITEMENT AGAINST ISRAEL."

"We accept these results… with sportsmanship and in a democratic way and we accept that the ruling camp has won the parliamentary majority," Nasrallah said in a televised address, a day after the surprise victory by the anti-Syrian coalition. The United States, which backs that "March 14" alliance, renewed its support to the group, which also enjoys the backing of regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt. President Barack Obama said Washington would "continue to support a sovereign and independent Lebanon, committed to peace."

"It is our sincere hope that the next government will continue along the path towards building a sovereign, independent and stable Lebanon," he said in a statement. THEIR LOSS IS A MAJOR BLOW TO HEZBOLLAH'S PATRONS, SYRIA AND IRAN, where hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will also be competing against rivals who advocate less confrontation with the West in an election this week. Despite his coalition's defeat, Nasrallah said the result showed his group still enjoyed massive popular support.

Hariri has previously said the opposition could join a unity government, but without veto power. Hezbollah, classified by the United States as a terrorist organisation, sees veto rights as vital to fend off any challenge to its status as an armed group resisting Israel. LEBANON'S RIVAL CAMPS ARE AT ODDS OVER HEZBOLLAH'S GUERRILLA FORCE, MORE POWERFUL THAN THE LEBANESE ARMY, AND RELATIONS WITH SYRIA, WHICH DOMINATED LEBANON FOR THREE DECADES UNTIL 2005.