Israel has, in effect, arrested all of the flotilla members. This means that Israel is free to spin to the news media with little correction from the other side. All the same the damage for Israel is mounting.

The Greek government has decided to discontinue the joint military exercise currently under way and [...]

Charlie Rose interviewed President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus this week. The interview was broadcast on Thursday, 27 may 2010. This is the transcript copied below.

Charlie Rose: I am not the only American who has been here recently.  Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee was here on Saturday and recently as [...]

Russia sells Syria warplanes, air defence systems: official
(AFP) – MOSCOW — Russia is supplying Syria with warplanes, armoured vehicles and air defence systems under existing contracts, ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the head of the country’s state military agency as saying.
Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Russia was selling Syria MiG-29 [...]

Turkey, Syria to hold joint army drills
26 April 2010
AFP – Turkish and Syrian soldiers will hold joint drills this week to enhance border security cooperation, the Turkish general staff said Monday.
The announcement came as yet another sign of the flourishing ties between the two neighbours, came to the brink of war in the late 1990s [...]

Maariv: Secret US-Israeli agreement on construction in East J’lem
Didi Remez | April 26, 2010 at 07:49 | Categories: Diplomacy, Jerusalem
Secret agreement on construction in capital
Ben Caspit, Maariv, April 26 2010 [Hebrew original here]
Israel and the US have reached secret agreements about construction in Jerusalem. Both sides agreed to leave the agreements between themselves and not [...]

Syria
Report: U.S. confirms Syria gave Scuds to Hezbollah
By Haaretz Service
United States officials have confirmed Israeli allegations that Syria supplied Hezbollah with ballistic missiles capable of inflicting heavy damage on Israel’s cities, according to reports in the United States Wednesday.
U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence told the Wall Street Journal that they believe Syria transferred Scud [...]

Haaretz: Sarkozy’s advisers: Renewed talks between Israel and Syria unlikely
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz, 2010-04-03
A report submitted a few weeks ago to French President Nicolas Sarkozy by two of his top diplomats concludes that there is no chance to renew substantial negotiations between Israel and Syria in the near future, Haaretz has learned. The officials had [...]

The following is the translation of Yedioth Ahronoth’s interview with Moshe Ya’alon, aka “Bogi,” Israel’s Vice Premier (nominally, the second in command in Israel’s government) and former former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.  [Thanks to O.N.]
Moshe Ya’alon says that the Israeli government doesn’t really mean what it says about a two-state solution. [...]

Big things are going on in Turkey, where government has detained 49 top military officers and formally arrested 12. It accuses them of plotting a 2003 coup called “Sledgehammer,” which was to be proceeded by explosions at several mosques to create chaos and a pretext for overthrowing the Erdogan government and the AK Party.
The government [...]

Ibrahim Hamidi writes from Damascus about recent business activities that according to him, “are amazing.” A top businessman and banker in Syria also reports that the mood is “upbeat in Damascus.” Evidently people are standing by for important economic indicators during the March investor conference.
Hamidi in al-Hayat covers the serge of businessmen visiting Damascus, the [...]