February 13, 2012 | 6:08 am

February 13, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. (Photo: Reuters)

Obama’s Dangerous Game With Iran

In an in-depth article for the Daily Beast, Daniel Klaidman, Eli Lake and Dan Ephron look at the evolution and choreography of the current administration’s policy on Iran.

Israeli officials now insist that Obama has undergone what they regard as a positive evolution in his views on Iran. “The rhetoric from the United States today is different from what it was a year ago,” says an Israeli in Netanyahu’s inner circle. “Today, when you listen to Obama ... you get the feeling the Americans are ready to attack if worse comes to worst.” Another official privy to discussions on Iran at the highest levels in Israel says, “It becomes clearer and clearer that America is on the course of a growing conflict, growing friction, growing risk of a big conflict with Iran.”

Warning Iran Against Hitting ‘Soft’ American Targets

Iran must understand any assault on any American target will be viewed as an act of war, and draw an appropriate response, writes Alan Dershowitz in the Wall Street Journal.

Under international law, an attack on an embassy is an attack both on the embassy’s country and on the country in which the embassy is located. And under the charter of the United Nations, an attack against a nation’s citizens on its territory is an act of armed aggression that justifies retaliatory military action.

Palestinian unity deal faces big hurdle

Mahmoud Abbas must pull off a delicate balancing act in order to preserve the latest Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement, write Karin Laub and Mohammed Daraghmeh of the Associated Press.

The Palestinian leader has to satisfy international demands that the interim government — to consist of politically independent technocrats — not be a front for Hamas, shunned by the West as a terror group. If it is seen as too close to Hamas, the Palestinians would likely lose hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid. At the same time, he risks sabotage from Hamas leaders in Gaza if he tries to strip them of too much of their power.

Sunni-Shiite conflict: fact or fuss?

Writing in Today’s Zaman, Ramazan Gözen explores the roots of a sectarian divide within Islam, and the extent of its role in current international affairs.

There are undoubtedly certain problems and a rivalry between Turkey and Iran, but aren’t Turkey and Iran rivals with other countries, too? Does that lead us to think that the Turkey-France discord we are seeing today or the US-Iran dispute can be explained in terms of sectarian problems? Of course not.

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