1. Pentagon Shifts East, The Washington Times, Bill Gertz
2. Russia: Attack on Tehran is Attack on Moscow, Israel National News, Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
3. Israel needs $3.9B to fund Arrow plan, UPI.com,
4. Iranian Nuclear Threat to Israel: Legal Remedies and Remaining Options, BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 160, Dr. Louis René Beres
5. UN chief calls for end to 'occupation', settlements, The Jerusalem Post, JPost.com Staff
6. EU to PA Arabs: We'll Help You 'Grab Land' from Israel, Arutz-7, David Lev

...OBAMA TO SHARE SECRETS

President Obama signaled Congress this week that he is prepared to share U.S. missile defense secrets with Russia.

In the president’s signing statement issued Saturday in passing into law the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, Mr. Obama said restrictions aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on U.S. Standard Missile-3 velocity burnout parameters might impinge on his constitutional foreign policy authority.

As first disclosed in this space several weeks ago, U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could compromise the effectiveness of the system by allowing Russian weapons technicians to counter the missile. The weapons are considered some of the most effective high-speed interceptors in the U.S. missile defense arsenal.

There are also concerns that Russia could share the secret data with China and rogue states such as Iran and North Korea to help their missile programs defeat U.S. missile defenses....

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Pictured left - Moscow's Kremlin

Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. The threat heightens the prospect of World War III in the event of a military strike on Iran.

“Iran is our neighbor,” Russia's outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in Brussels. “And if Iran is involved in any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security.”

Kremlin Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev accused Israel of provoking the United States towards war against Iran, the Russian Interfax news agency reported Friday. “But at the same time, we believe that any country has the right to have what it needs to feel comfortable, including Iran," he added....

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TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Amid controversial cuts in Israel's defense budget and concerns of new conflict in the Middle East, the Defense Ministry is grappling with the problem of funding costly plans to build a multi-layered shield against Iranian and Syrian ballistic missiles.

Ministry sources say, for instance, that $3.9 billion is needed to produce more batteries of the long-range, high-altitude Arrow anti-missile system built by Israel Aerospace Industries and the Boeing Co. of the United States.

But large sums are also needed to produce more Iron Dome system, built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and designed to counter short-range rockets and missiles, as well as develop the David's Sling system for intercepting medium-range missiles, also a Rafael project.

With hefty state funds being diverted to social programs following unprecedented protests in 2011, the defense budget, largely untouchable in recent years, are being slashed to cover much of the cost.

In situations like this, particularly with the threat of war looming so large these days, it's possible that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's right-wing government will turn to the United States for financial support....

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Israel should not expect stable coexistence with a nuclear Iran. Instead, it must enhance active defense, improve nuclear deterrence and target selected Iranian infrastructures. As Tehran edges closer to gaining nuclear capabilities, however, Israeli preemption tactics are becoming far more limited.

On January 16, 2003, the "Project Daniel" Group advised then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons.(1) This report, which contained substantial legal and strategic recommendations, urged the prime minister to suitably enhance Israel’s deterrence and defense postures; to consider a prompt end to deliberate nuclear ambiguity (if Iran should be permitted to become nuclear); and to appropriately refine pertinent preemption options. It also concluded that Israel should not expect stable coexistence with a nuclear Iran and that active national defense should be increased and strengthened accordingly....

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday slammed Israeli settlements as illegal and called for an end to the “occupation,” AFP reported.

Speaking at a conference on democracy in the Arab world in Beirut, Ban said that “the Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories” and “violence against civilians” must end.

“Settlements, new and old, are illegal. They work against the emergence of a viable Palestinian state,” the UN chief stated....

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The battle for control of Judea and Samaria – and specifically Area C, which, according to the Oslo Accords, is under Israeli military and political control – may come down to a “horse race,” if the European Union decides to act on a policy paper that was published by Hebrew daily Yediot Achronot Thursday. According to the document, "Area C and Palestinian state building," the EU plans to encourage, and fund, Arab building and development in Area C, without bothering to seek Israeli approval for projects, and in violation of laws regarding zoning, security, and the environment.

Under the Oslo Accords, Judea and Samaria is divided into three areas

Area A, which is fully administered by the PA, and which Israelis are banned from even entering – both by Israel and the PA;

Area B, which is formally under Israeli security control, but is under PA control for all other purposes; and

Area C, consisting for the most part of the “settlement blocs,” such as Gush Etzion, Ma'aleh Adumim, and the Jewish towns in Samaria in the vicinity of Ariel.

Some 90% of Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria live in Area C, while the PA Arab population of the area is barely 6%....

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