Faced with international criticism over the Mabhouh hit, Netanyahu does not plan to extend Meir Dagan’s term as the head of Mossad.

Dagan was the driving force behind Mossad’s operations against Iran. He managed to shake up the famed intelligence service, which since the 1980s had become heavily bureaucratized and lost its trademark emphasis on the human factor over signal intelligence.

Ousting Dagan is odd at a time when Netanyahu clearly plans to attack Iran, and apparently has gotten Obama’s tentative agreement.

Rabbi Riskin of Efrat, who is normally very sensible, heaped praise on US Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, his former student at a Hebrew school, describing her as “wise of heart and mind.”

It is odd for a respectable Orthodox rabbi to praise a renegade student who turned out an ultra-liberal, a close friend of ultra-leftist Israeli Justice Aharon Barak, and a major proponent of homosexuals.

The Israeli president praised his Russian colleague for his new stance on Iran. What’s the evidence for the KGB regime’s turnaround? After the CIA said that Iran has enough uranium for two bombs—something we’ve been saying for months—Medvedev called Iran’s plans “worrisome.” Does Peres seriously think that the Russians rely on the CIA for assessments, or that Medvedev did not know the Iranian situation as well as we did?

Of course, the Russians remain true to their decades-long policy: the more conflicts are out there, the better it is for them. Whether Iran develops nukes and upsets the region, or the United States attacks Iran and also upsets the region, the Russians will be equally happy.

In the meantime, the Russians have filed a complaint in the UNSC against Germany for intercepting nuclear-related equipment en route to the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

The visiting Russian FM met a whole roster of Israeli officials, including the prime minister, though an Israeli FM would not have been allowed an audience with the Russian president.

The Russian then proceeded to meet the Fatah chieftain.

It seems that Netanyahu has accepted Russia’s involvement in Israeli-Palestinian affairs as the price for Russian permission for an Israeli attack on Iran. For years, the Russians have sought a bigger role in the peace process, but were rebuffed even by the left-wing Israeli prime ministers.

Just as Israel lifted the Gaza blockade and allowed 130,000 tons of aid to be sent there monthly, the leader-in-exile of Gaza’s elected government declared a war on Jews. Speaking in Damascus, Mashaal promised to kidnap more Israelis in order to exchange them for Hamas’ list of jailed murderers.

Speaking in Israel, Mullen emphasized his understanding of our worries about the Iranian nuclear program. He said that sanctions won’t stop Iran from acquiring nukes, and all but confirmed the impending strike.

Speaking in Colorado, Mullen said that Israelis recognize how problematic an attack on Iran would be, and implied that such an attack would not be coming.

If a Debka report is to be believed, Mabhouh was not assassinated, but died in the course of a kidnapping attempt. Netanyahu’s government wanted to trade the lynchpin of Hamas’ weapons-smuggling operations for Shalit.

Previously, the government had “only” agreed to trade a thousand terrorists for Shalit, but this means that they would have released for him a person actively involved in current attempts to murder Jews.