How it Stacks Up

Worrisome news from the Middle East:

Iran Testing Advanced Centrifuges - Mark Heinrich
Iran is testing an advanced centrifuge at its Natanz nuclear complex, diplomats said on Wednesday, a move that could lead to Tehran enriching uranium much faster and gaining the means to build atom bombs. Iran had 3,000 P-1 centrifuges working by November, but only at an estimated 10% of capacity. Diplomats tracking Iran said it had started mechanical tests of a more efficient P-2 model, which is designed to enrich uranium 2-3 times faster. Diplomats said Iran had decided to install no more P-1s and expand capacity only with their more efficient successor.
    "I believe this is a disturbing development," said David Albright, head of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security and an ex-UN weapons inspector. (Reuters)

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Hamas Warns of Renewed Wave of Suicide Bombings - Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
    In a statement on Hamas' Internet site, Dr. Abu-Osama Abed al-Ma'ati, Hamas' envoy to Iran, warned that the suicide bombing attack in Dimona was the beginning of a new wave of such attacks after a year's pause.
    Hamas has also stepped up its involvement in firing rockets into Israel over the past couple of days.

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PA Glorifies Dimona Terrorists - Yadid Berman (Jerusalem Post)
    The terrorists who perpetrated Monday's suicide bombing in Dimona were glorified in three newspapers controlled by the PA, including the official Al-Hayat al-Jadida, controlled by Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Media Watch reported Wednesday.
    "The perpetrators of the operation died as shahids (glorious martyrs)," Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported on Feb. 5.
    The Palestinian dailies Al-Iyam and Al-Quds also defined the bombers as shahids.
    Also described as shahids in the Palestinian media were two Palestinians who attempted to murder Israelis in Kfar Etzion's Makor Haim High School several weeks ago.

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Muslim Extremists from Egypt Poured into Gaza to Fight Israel - Khaled Abu Toameh
Thousands of Arab men flocked to Gaza from Egypt in the past two weeks, offering to join in the fight against Israel, sources close to Hamas said Wednesday. Some of the men had come from Iraq where they had been carrying out attacks against U.S. troops. "Hamas has turned the Gaza Strip into an international center for global jihad," said one PA security official. "Most of the men who entered the Gaza Strip through the breached border are now being trained in Hamas' camps and schools." Another PA security official said that a number of Iranian security experts had also entered Gaza to help train members of Hamas and other armed groups. (Jerusalem Post)

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Two Children Injured by Palestinian Rocket at Israeli Kibbutz - Yonat Atlas
Two girls - Tchelet, 2, and Yardena, 12 - were injured from shrapnel Wednesday when a Kassam rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza landed near a kindergarten at Kibbutz Be'eri. "This time the rocket fell without warning; it just exploded right before my eyes," said Gladis Za'arur-Fishbein, Tchelet's mother. Another Palestinian rocket hit a house in Sderot. (Ynet News)
    See also A Kibbutz in the Shadow of Kassams - Tovah Lazaroff (Jerusalem Post)
    See also Hamas Says It Fired 26 Rockets into Israel
Hamas said Wednesday that its fighters launched 26 rockets into Israel since Tuesday night. (Xinhua-China)

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Good news from the Middle East: