• Voter Photo ID Resurgence
• Recession To Return by Christmas
• Secret Israeli Attacks Destroy Hamas-Iranian Arms Shipments
• Al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezballuh Move Into South America
• Brazil, Russia, India and China Plot New Reserve Currency To Replace Dollar
• Is GOP Medicare Plan Political Suicide?
• Opinion: Obama Will Lose In 2012
• Obama Plunges In Polls
• Hizbullah Readies for Long Missile War Against Israel
• Feds Botch Drug Cartel Gun Buy Scheme In Arizona
• Open Mic At Chicago Fund Raiser Exposes Obama Vitriol
• Trump Birther Storm Exploding

Al Qaeda is reported to be working in Egypt and Kuwait to receruit and fund  operatives in both countries. The Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip is restoring its operational infrastructure in Jerusalem.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls, paving the way for other states to pass similar laws ahead of that year’s presidential election. But few states did.

 

Now that Republicans control many more statehouses, however, the issue appears

to be taking off. More than 30 states, many with new or expanded GOP majorities,

including Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin, are considering legislation this year that would create or expand photo ID requirements, according to the National Conference of State

Legislatures.

 

“The elections in November made a huge difference on this issue,” said Tova

Wang, senior fellow at New York-based advocacy organization Demos, which

opposes the photo ID proposals. “From a geographic perspective, it’s unlike anything

we’ve seen in years…. It’s moving quickly and seriously in so many places.”

If approved, the new voting rules will take effect in time for next year’s

presidential race

In 11 states, the task of redrawing state legislative districts this year will be completed by a bipartisan commission. In IOWA it will be done by legislative staffers. Of the remaining 39 states, where redistricting will be done mainly by state lawmakers with the governors’ approval, Republicans will dictate the process in 20, while Democrats will control it in only eight. In nine states, control will be split between the two parties.

 Friday Obama warned, failure by Congress to raise the U.S. debt limit “could plunge the world economy back into recession,.” and he acknowledged that he must compromise on spending with Republicans who control the House.

Also on Friday a highly respected economic expert warned that a recession is definite by December and that U.S. stock prices are going to plunge, thanks to Federal Reserve strategies and the soaring price of crude.

“Recovery, ” he said,” has never really gotten off the ground. It’s all government stimulated, we’ll be in a recession by the end of the year.”

Meanwhile, the cost of living in the U.S. rose in March for a ninth consecutive month, led by increases in food and fuel costs that have yet to filter down to other goods and services.

A 33-year-old Arizona inmate who bit K-9 dog’s back after he was caught by a Phoenix police dog is suing police. The guy says the dog violated his civil rights and used excessive force to capture him after he ran from officers in Glendale during a burglary. The dog biter is serving eight years for convictions in the Glendale burglary

Western intelligence sources say Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has facilitated assistance and coordination between Hamas and Hizbullah. The sources said the two Iranian proxies have begun working together on operations outside the Middle East in an effort to bolster Teheran’s policies.

 Iranian weapons convoys toward the Gaza Strip have come under repeated attack in Sudan.

Arab diplomats said suspected Iranian weapons shipments toward the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip were attacked in March and April. They said the attacks appeared to be coordinated by Egypt, Israel and the United States as part of a policy to block Iranian weapons shipments to its proxies in the Levant.

“There is high-level intelligence that tracks Iranian weapons shipments from point of departure in the Gulf through the Red Sea,” a diplomat said.

On April 5, Sudan reported an air strike that killed two people in Port Sudan. The unidentified fighter-jet was said to have fired a missile that struck a car near Port Sudan.

“This was a flagrant Israeli aggression,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti said on April 6.

The Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite channel said the target of the air strike was a weapons smuggler who worked with Hamas. The alleged smuggler was not identified.

This marked the second time in as many months that a suspected Iranian shipment to Hamas was attacked in Sudan. In March, the Egyptian Army attacked a weapons convoy along the Sudanese border said to have contained a large amount of weapons.

“The Egyptian Army had used a range of tactics to destroy seven vehicles,” Egypt’s privately-owned Dream satellite television reported on March 13.

The diplomats said Cairo had been urged by Israel and the United States to increase security along the border with Sudan. Sudan was said to have served as a waystation for Iranian weapons to Hamas.

In 2009, an alleged Hamas weapons convoy in eastern Sudan was attacked near the border with Egypt. The air strike was said to have been conducted by the Israeli military.

Donald Trump says he has never been more serious about running for president and that this is not a publicity stunt - but make sure to watch the announcement on the season finale of “Celebrity Apprentice.” = Kimmel

“This is a strategic watershed for Hamas, which until at least two years ago refused to become directly involved in foreign operations,” an intelligence source said.

The sources said Hamas has been deemed the junior partner in the arrangement with Hizbullah. They said Hamas has been working with Hizbullah in funding and operational planning in North America and South America. They said in some cases both Iranian proxies were believed to be coordinating with Al Qaida as well.

One location of Hamas-Hizbullah cooperation was identified as the triborder region that intersects Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The area, dominated by Lebanese Shi’ites, was as said to serve as a haven for insurgency planning and funding.

On April 2, the Brazilian magazine Veja reported that Al Qaida, Hamas and Hizbullah were coordinating operational planning, recruitment and funding in the triborder region. Veja, citing U.S. and Brazilian sources, said at least 20 operatives from Hamas, Hizbullah and Al Qaida were based in Brazil.

Veja identified Khaled Hussein Ali as a key liasion for Al Qaida in the triborder area. Ali, a Brazilian resident since 1998 and briefly arrested in March 2009, was said to have coordinated insurgency operations in 17 countries.

The sources said the United States has pressed Brazil to intensify efforts to track and arrest Islamic insurgents in the triborder area. But they said Hamas and Hizbullah have been protected by powerful Iranian-aligned Lebanese Shi’ite businessmen based in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

“The coordination [between Hamas and Hizbullah] means that Hamas has turned into a complete Iranian proxy and could do for Sunnis what Hizbullah is already doing with Shi’ites - recruitment, training and operations against Western or Israeli targets,” the intelligence source said.

Critics say it’s illegal for Donald Trump to run for president while hosting a TV show. It’s also illegal to run for president if your hair wasn’t born in this country. — Conan

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday the world needs a new reserve currencies.

Medvedev told a regional summit that the creation of new reserve currencies in addition to the dollar is needed to stabilize global finances.

Medvedev has made the proposal before. It reflects both the Kremlin’s push for greater international clout and a concern shared by other countries that soaring U.S. budget deficits could spur inflation and weaken the dollar.

Airing it at a summit meeting underlined the challenge to U.S. clout.

Medvedev spoke at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes China and four Central Asian nations.

Later Tuesday he hosts a summit of the BRIC group of leading emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The Kremlin’s top economic adviser said Russia may put part of its currency reserves in bonds issued by Brazil, China and India

Such proposals would have been considered nonsense in the past, but now many nations are considering what to do with a US dollar expected to have major declines

This is the ultimate attack on what President Eisenhower labeled the power of the greenback.

If a bill approved by the State Senate this week becomes law, the state will become the first in the country to mandate that schools also teach gay history.

Friday House Republicans passed what some call a suicide pact the so-called Ryan budget entirely on a party-line vote. The most controversial part is ending Medicare for those under age 55 and replacing it with a voucher so Ameericans can buuy their own private indurance. A whopping 76 percent of respondents said that significantly cutting Medicare as way to reduce the deficit was unacceptable.

In a separate question, 50 percent said it was unacceptable to gradually turn Medicare into a voucher system — and that included 56 percent of independents, 61 percent of seniors, and 57 percent of white Blue Dog Democrats. By comparison, 44 percent said that such a plan was acceptable, including 56 percent of GOP primary voters and 65 percent of Tea Party supporters.

Ryan says that his plan wouldn’t give seniors a voucher, but would instead give them a subsidy to help them purchase a private-insurance health plan. In any case pundits says Republicans have armed their opponents for certain defeat in 2012.

The following is verbatim from an opinion article by Jeffrey T. Kuhner a radio talk show personality and a columnist at The Washington Times and WorldTribune. com.

President Obama has all but ensured his defeat in 2012. His speech Wednesday outlining his framework for deficit reduction was a pivotal moment in his presidency - the decisive tipping point, in which he revealed his almost limitless capacity for cynicism and mendacity. He frittered away whatever credibility he had left.

Mr. Obama is in full campaign mode, desperately seeking to consolidate his social democratic agenda. This is why winning re-election trumps everything else - including protecting our long-term economic security. Much of the speech focused on bashing Republicans, especially House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s blueprint for entitlement and tax reform. Mr. Ryan’s plan would rein in government spending, slash the federal deficit and engender economic recovery.

Instead of debating the merits of Mr. Ryan’s proposals, Mr. Obama did the very opposite: He engaged in shameless demagoguery. The president claimed the Ryan plan seeks $1 trillion in “tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires.” This is false. In fact, his budget outline is revenue-neutral. All it does is call for lower rates in exchange for eliminating tax loopholes and special exemptions, which are used mainly by the wealthy - the supposed beneficiaries of Mr. Ryan’s pro-growth reforms. There is no tax cut; it is a figment of Mr. Obama’s imagination. Moreover, the president’s own deficit commission made a similar recommendation. The panel’s goal was to create a more efficient and broader tax code. By Mr. Obama’s logic, the commission’s Democratic co-chairman Erskine Bowles is also a shill for “the rich.”  Perhaps the president is confused by the fact that Mr. Ryan’s plan leaves current George W. Bush-era tax cuts in place. The idea that leaving something alone is a tax cut is the same logic that enabled Mr. Obama to refer to his own tax increases as cuts from “spending in the tax code.” The White House argues that the Obama plan is a viable alternative to the Ryan blueprint. It isn’t. It wants more spending on almost every initiative dear to Democrats - subsidizing windmills and solar panels, protecting Medicaid and Pell Grants, funding “high-speed” railways, providing tax credits for electric cars and expanding the federal education bureaucracy. Big government is not being scaled back; rather, it is being entrenched. The only area of the budget where Mr. Obama proposes real cuts is at the Pentagon, pledging to slash more than $400 billion by 2023. In short, it is the economic program of a transnational progressive: Roll back defense spending while expanding welfare liberalism. Mr. Obama does not even touch Social Security. He - again - falsely asserts that it has no immediate impact on the deficit. He also refuses to change how Medicare operates. The White House and congressional Democrats are demonizing Mr. Ryan, portraying him as someone who wants to balance the budget on the backs of seniors and the poor. It is classic divide-and-conquer politics, which seeks to pit segments of society against one another. Mr. Ryan, however, has no intention of dismantling the entitlement state. He is not a libertarian - or even a hard-boiled Goldwater-Reagan Republican. He is a neoconservative who seeks to revamp Great Society programs to make them sustainable. His proposal would not end Medicare. It would save it. The Ryan plan wants to turn it into a giant voucher program whereby premium support subsidies - starting at $15,000 per senior and rising for lower-income persons - would enable the elderly to purchase private insurance. This would encourage more choice and competition, thereby curtailing rising health costs. The reason the left despises the idea is because it would take millions of Americans off the public rolls, substituting the market for government central planning and bureaucratic control. The power of the liberal ruling class would be diminished. At its core, Mr. Obama’s speech was profoundly reactionary. He is yesterday’s man peddling yesterday’s ideas. He is hoping to preserve the bloated nanny state Democrats have erected since the New Deal. Most of the “spending cuts” he vows will eliminate about $4 trillion from the debt in 12 years are simply huge tax increases. This would cripple the private sector and take America down the European road of permanent high unemployment and low growth. It is a recipe for economic stagnation and national ruin. Mr. Obama refuses to confront the seminal reality of American life: We are going broke. The only way to keep America from heading off a financial cliff is to dramatically reverse course - repeal Obamacare, implement deep across-the-board spending cuts and reform entitlements, especially Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Together these programs constitute nearly $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities; no nation, no matter how big and prosperous, can sustain that financially. America is being drowned in an ocean of red ink. The president’s class warfare is a smoke screen. He hopes to distract voters from his immoral and reckless fiscal record. He is the one who has compiled massive deficits, which this year alone are projected to be a record $1.6 trillion. He is the one who has accumulated more debt during his administration than it took for America to amass in the first 200 years of its history combined. He is the one who is proposing trillion-dollar deficits for years to come. Now, after having wrecked the country’s finances, he is presenting himself as a born-again budget hawk. Even by Washington standards, this is preposterously self-serving. The electorate eventually will see through it; the debt crisis will compel the nation to kick Mr. Obama out of office. Samuel Johnson said that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” No, demagoguery is.

Barack and Michelle Obama will appear on Oprah’s show soon. Not to be outdone, Donald Trump’s hair will be making an appearance on Animal Planet. -Leno

A Gallup poll released Friday morning and taken after his Wednesday speech at Georgetown Universioty.put Obama at his lowest job approval rating ever at just 41%. An Ipsos poll takenb before that speech found 69% of Americans think the nation is going in the wrong direction. A ZOGBY poll found that 56% want someone new to be president while 38% say they want Obama reelected. 7% are unsure.

Rasmussen polling reports just 23% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove.

For the 24 consecutive day the per gallon gasoline price has risen. Obama refuses to release oil from the strategic oil reserve.

The consensus of all polling is that Obama is a better candidate than president. Liberals are no longer seeing “change we can believe in.”

Just 37 percent of self-described lefties say in the latest Rasmussen poll that they still strongly approve of President Obama’s performance.

President Obama wants to raise taxes on the country’s richest people. And you thought Donald Trump hated him before. - Leno

Federal agents and prosecutors last year encouraged Arizona gun dealers to sell firearms to buyers for Mexican drug cartels even after the store owners fretted that weapons might be used to kill Border Patrol agents, according to e-mails obtained by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that the e-mails refute earlier Justice Department denials. The e-mails were exchanged by a federal agent and an Arizona gun dealer last April and June.

“In light of this new evidence, the Justice Department’s claim that the ATF never knowingly sanctioned or allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers is simply not credible,” Grassley wrote in the letter sent Wednesday.

The letter and e-mails were made public Thursday.

The controversy stems from Operation Fast and Furious, an Arizona investigation in which agents monitored weapons and buyers after suspicious sales in an effort to track guns to cartel members.After U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a December shootout near Nogales, Ariz., two AK-47s found at the scene were traced to Operation Fast and Furious. They had been purchased in Glendale 11 months earlier.Federal authorities previously denied that gun-store owners were encouraged to continue selling firearms to cartel operatives, some of whom visited shops repeatedly, purchasing dozens of assault rifles.The e-mails released by Grassley contradict those statements. In correspondence with an unidentified gun dealer last April, ATF Supervisor David Voth wrote:

“I understand that the frequency with which some individuals under investigation by our office have been purchasing firearms from your business has caused concerns for you. . . . However, if it helps put you at ease, we are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into (in) detail.”

The firearms vendor responded by asking for a letter to ensure that he would not face repercussions for selling dozens of weapons to a suspected criminal: “I want to help ATF with its investigation, but not at the risk of agents’ safety because I have some very close friends that are U.S. Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona.”

Terry was killed six months later in a firefight with suspected border bandits. No one has been charged in the slaying.

In the letter to Holder, Grassley said the Justice Department’s depiction of Operation Fast and Furious “is simply not credible.”

He also rebuked the Justice Department for failing to provide records that he began seeking in February.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix on Thursday issued a statement that did not address Grassley’s criticisms or the e-mails. It said federal prosecutors are restricted from commenting about ongoing cases. It also said the Justice Department “will respond to Senator Grassley’s letter as appropriate, and this office will continue to enforce the federal firearms laws vigorously.”

U.S. and Mexican justice authorities have complained for years that cartel bloodshed is fueled in part by the illegal flow of weapons, mostly AK-47s, purchased in the United States and smuggled unlawfully across the border.

Operation Fast and Furious culminated three months ago with 34 arrests and 700 gun seizures.

At the time, Bill Newell, special agent in charge for Arizona, insisted that no guns had been intentionally allowed to enter Mexico.

In addition to claiming the ATF allowed straw buys, agency whistleblowers and some critics also have alleged that agents knowingly allowed hundreds of firearms out of the country, hoping to track the weapons to cartel bosses in Mexico rather than to low-level players in the United States.

Justice Department and ATF officials previously discounted allegations that agents intentionally let weapons be smuggled into Mexico on their watch. Weapons linked to the Fast and Furious investigation entered Mexico, officials said, because the guns were purchased before suspects came under surveillance or because straw buyers managed to slip away while being monitored.

An investigation is being conducted by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.Fast and Furious was part of a larger ATF campaign, Project Gunrunner, launched in 2006 to combat the weapons trafficking.

An inspector general’s report last year criticized the bureau for catching only straw buyers, or minnows.

Reports that hundreds of guns were allowed across the border in pursuit of bigger fish have generated outrage among some Mexican lawmakers and a demand for information from the government’s Foreign Ministry.

A high-ranking official at the FAA had to resign because air traffic controllers are falling asleep. I think FAA stands for “fell asleep again.” — Ferguson

Thinking that reporters were out of the room, Obama opened up Thursday night at a $10,000 a plate Chicago fund raiser about the recent budget talks with Republicans and what he called their efforts to sneak in attacks on Planned Parenthood and his health care bil

“I said (to Republicans), ‘You want to repeal health care? Go at it,’ ” Obama told backers in a private meeting with an open microphone.

” ‘We’ll have that debate. You’re not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget.’ ”

He said he added: “You think we’re stupid?”

Obama took questions from political donors after a press pool had been dismissed. But a microphone remained on, and Mark Knoller of CBS News took notes.

In what amounted to his most extended remarks on talks with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and others, Obama said he protested GOP efforts to add items to the budget bill under discussion.

That included efforts to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

“Put it in a separate bill,” Obama said he told Boehner and his staff. “We’ll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don’t try to sneak this through.”

Obama also had some choice words for Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who chairs the House Budget Committee:

“When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure, he’s just being America’s accountant … This is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill — but wasn’t paid for … So it’s not on the level.”

President Obama laid out his plan to reduce the $14 trillion national debt. Unfortunately for Sasha and Malia, it involves selling a lot of girl scout cookies. - Kimmel

Israel says the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah is preparing for a missile war.

An Israeli intelligence assessment concluded that Hizbullah aimed to fire tens of thousands of missiles and rockets in a war with the Jewish state. The assessment determined that Israel’s financial capital, Tel Aviv, would be the prime target.

“Hizbullah was preparing for a long conflict with Israel in which it hopes to launch a massive number of rockets at Israel per day,” a senior Israeli military intelligence officer said.

Last week Israel made an emergency and secret allocation for an unnamed military expenditure. Most think it is for more Iron Dome anti-missile batteries in anticipation of the Hizbullah missile barrage. In 2009 Mossad estimated Hizbullah could launch up to 600 missiles per day in any war with Israel. Hizbullah was also expected to fire 100 missiles per day toward Tel Aviv.

The analysis said Hizbullah could fire between 24,000 and 36,000 missiles and rockets toward Israel, 6,000 of them toward Tel Aviv. Hizbullah could sustain a missile war against Israel for at least 60 days.

In 2006, Hizbullah fired 4,500 rockets toward Israel during their 34-day war. At the time, Hizbullah fired rockets with a range of no more than 100 kilometers, far from Tel Aviv and central Israel.

“Hizbullah was preparing for a long conflict with Israel in which it hopes to launch a massive number of rockets at Israel per day,” an Israeli officer at the strategic dialogue was quoted as saying. “In the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Tel Aviv was left untouched. Hizbullah will try to change the equation during the next round and disrupt everyday life in Tel Aviv.”

The Israeli intelligence assessment said Hizbullah was receiving missiles from Iran and Syria. The assessment said Hizbullah has deployed more than 20,000 rockets, hundreds of 220mm and 302mm rockets as well as the long-range Iranian-origin Fajr rocket.

Vice President Joe Biden fell asleep during Obama’s Georgetown University speech.  He has now been named an honorary air traffic controller.– Leno

Thanks to Donald Trump even some liberals, such as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, are calling for Mr. Obama to release his birth records. Hawaii’s Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie recently vowed to settle the issue once and for all. He sought to pressure state officials to prove conclusively that Obama was born in Honolulu. He failed. The records remain sealed. Since Obama’s 2008 election, the liberal press corps has treated the issue as a fringe movement - composed of extreme right-wing conspiracy kooks. The establishment media have even negatively labeled them as “birthers,” suggesting they are equivalent to Holocaust deniers or those who believe the Earth is flat.

Yet, the issue has profound ramifications. Mr. Obama has been the most secretive president since Richard Nixon. In fact, much is still not known about Mr. Obama’s past. His medical records, academic records and thesis as an undergraduate student all remain hidden from the public. This is not trivial. Rather, it is crucial to understanding the man occupying the Oval Office - his background, worldview, intellectual influences as a student, academic performance and overall physical ability to do the toughest job in the world.

The American people have a right to full disclosure about their commander in chief.

The reality is that until Mr. Obama shows his proper, documented long-form birth certificate, the issue will not go away - nor should it. Many in Kenya’s political and media class say he was born there before being brought to the United States. His Kenyan family members make the same claim, while others in Hawaii insist he was born in Honolulu. There is only one way to end the controversy: Show us the birth certificate.

Instead, what Mr. Obama has revealed is a certificate of live birth, which is not the same thing. It simply states that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii; it does not prove it. Documents can be fraudulently manufactured after the fact.

The liberal media has a vested interest in not pursuing the story. Throughout the 2008 election, the Washington press corps effectively acted as surrogates for the Obama campaign. They propped him up; they gave him a free pass. He was the progressive messiah who would repeal the hated Bush years. Hence, they failed to vet the presidential candidate thoroughly. Instead, they turned a blind eye to all of Mr. Obama’s conspicuous flaws - his long years spent at the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s neo-Marxist black liberation church, his communist mentors such as Frank Marshall Davis, his ties to radical socialists like Bill Ayers, his repeated calls to create a post-American, anti-capitalist world, his vast political inexperience, his cultural Muslim background and intense hostility toward Israel.

If Mr. Obama was not born in America, then it would serve as the final damning indictment of the establishment media’s complicity with the Democratic Party. Not only would it bring the Obama presidency down, but the entire liberal power structure as well.

“Hizbullah, Hamas, Syria, and Iran may decide that this is the time to divert attention to Israel,” faction or terrorist, it’s become a serious issue that we  Yadlin said. “If chaos is in Syria, and the faction or terrorist, it’s become a serious issue that we  missiles and the chemical weapons have gone to some.

The former head of Israeli military intelligence has warned of the collapse of neighboring Jordan.

Jordan was being besieged by internal threats, particularly the Islamic opposition. In an address to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Yadlin, who left his post in military intelligence in 2011 after five years, asserted that a regime change in Jordan would mark a watershed in Israel’s security strategy.

“It would be a substantial and important change if Jordan becomes hostile,” Yadlin said.

In his March 30 address, Yadlin said Jordan, despite political tension, continues to be committed to the peace treaty with Israel. He said Israel’s border with Jordan, the longest of the Jewish state, marked the most important frontier. In 1994, the two nations signed a peace treaty that included extensive border security arrangements.

“We do enjoy peace with Jordan - once again, not the 100 percent kind of peace that we want, but one that is quite stable and with a lot of benefits for both sides,” Yadlin said. “Israel’s longest border is with Jordan. And I cannot see something that will change the security needs of Israel more than having this long border behave in the way that the Gaza Strip border is behaving.”

In 2011, the Hashemite kingdom, which contains a Palestinian majority, has come under the greatest threat in decades. The Islamic opposition, backed by Al Qaida supporters, has been organizing large demonstrations that called for democratic reform, including the reduction in the authority of King Abdullah.

One scenario raised by Yadlin was that political elements in Jordan or other Arab countries threatened with unrest would seek to divert attention toward Israel. The retired general said Israel was “very pleased” that neither the opposition nor the regime of President Hosni Mubarak blamed the Jewish state for unrest in Egypt in February.

“We have to be aware of the tendency to export the problem to Israel,” Yadlin said. “This was the way Arab dictators behaved for many, many years.”

The former MI chief said Israel must take into account the prospect of Arab regime change in any peace negotiations. Yadlin said Israel’s strategy must ensure sufficient defense should a peaceful Arab neighbor suddenly become hostile.

“If we reach the negotiating table and we are to discuss security arrangements, the events that we are seeing now should be taken into consideration,” Yadlin said. “A change of regime, a change of political balance, should be a possibility that the future defense arrangement of Israel should be taking into consideration.”

Yadlin said Iran and its proxies might decide to divert the Arab revolution toward Israel. He pointed to the sharp rise in anti-regime demonstrations in Syria, the leading ally of Iran and safe haven for Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad.

The price of one gallon of gasoline has increased 67% since Obama became President.