Damascus

Why would Israel, in a deliberate and methodical operation planned over a week in advance -- according to statements by senior Israeli military commanders made in Hebrew-language media days before the attack -- target an unarmed ship on a humanitarian mission flying the flag of Comoros? (Unlike Turkey, Comoros is a party of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over war crimes committed on vessels of member states.)

The Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound "Freedom Flotilla" has put the United States in a difficult position. But it has also given Washington an opening for a game-changing action. When ships on a humanitarian mission to the besieged Gaza Strip were violently confronted in international waters, the Obama administration was faced with a choice between one strategic ally, Israel, and a larger international community centered on a key NATO ally, Turkey. The United States also has to be careful to protect fragile Palestinian-Israeli proximity talks that took U.S.

The voice of hanged spy Eli Cohen was heard in Israel today – in a long-lost recording of an interview he once conducted with Radio Damascus.

The London Times claims to have seen satellite pictures of an arms depot and Hizbullah terrorist compound north of Damascus.

There is a new rule, probably the only visible Lebanon policy under President Barack Obama's administration: every US official visiting Damascus must pass by Beirut. The Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri also had to make a stopover in Damascus to absorb any potential domestic commotion surrounding his trip to Washington this week.

A new community center built with a $1.4 million donation from the United States was opened in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.

This has been a busy month so far for the Syrians. The US Congress blocked Obama's attempt to appoint Robert Ford as ambassador following reports of Syrian Scud missiles being transferred to Hezbollah, and on 3 May Washington renewed economic and diplomatic sanctions on Syria that have been in place since 2004.

While the US remains unwilling or unable to reach out to Damascus, the Russians have no such worries, prompting concern that the first visit of a Russian leader to Syria since 1917 could trigger a new Middle Eastern cold war .

Computer-generated actors, Syrians and Israelis, are coming together in unlikely times of warmongering. They are reopening a dim flashlight of discussions, yet this time on the virtual world of endless possibilities where the invisible hand of censorship cannot reach. They do not need a passport to move around in disguise for secret talks and they believe their story is worth telling.

Russia to sell MiG-29 fighter jets, armored vehicles to Syria.

Israel expressed "deep disappointment" Thursday over a meeting the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held this week in Syria with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, saying the organization must play a role in peace efforts.

Calling Hamas "a terror organization in every way," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it expected Russia to stand by Israel in its struggle against Hamas.