Talk like an Egyptian

Michael Young, the savvy opinion editor of the Beirut Evening Star, provides Slate online with a shrewd analysis of the Mossad's Damascus hit on a senior Hamas thug:

"Several news reports harked back to an article in Al-Hayat on Friday, ... citing 'Arabic sources in a European capital,' suggested that an unidentified Arabic intelligence service had provided Israel's Mossad with a 'complete file' on Hamas operatives and leaders living abroad. ...

"An educated guess—and it's only that—would probably lead us to Cairo.... Egypt has a convincing motive: It has repeatedly seen its efforts to mediate between the divided Palestinian factions scuttled by Hamas suicide attacks. Was the handover of the file an effort to warn Hamas to be more careful in the future? The theory is as good as any other."

Read the full piece. You'll be better informed (if not wiser) than you were before.