The United States is considering a “defense umbrella” over the Middle East, if Iran continues to defy international demands to abandon its nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. Clinton insisted this did not mean Washington was abandoning its policy towards Iran, which involves both sanctions and diplomatic outreach. But her comments indicate the U.S. is preparing for the worst possible outcome, in which Iran manufactures nuclear weapons, tipping the defense balance in the Middle East. Her comments were understood as a message to Tehran that the U.S. was not completely ruling out military action against Iran’s nuclear program.

The Israeli Education Ministry announced Wednesday that the Arabic term 'Nakba', meaning catastrophe, would no longer be permitted in school textbooks. The term, used throughout the Arab world to describe the 1948 war and creation of the State of Israel, is extremely divisive in Israel. 'Nakba' is not used in textbooks sent to Israeli schools in Jewish areas, but in 2007 the Education Ministry, then under the control of the left-wing Labor party, allowed a textbook which used the term to be distributed to Israeli Arab schools. Most Palestinians see the term 'Nakba' as accurately describing the results of the war, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to flee the areas that became the State of Israel. Most Israelis, on the other hand, refer to events of 1948 as the War of Independence, and find it offensive for the national education system to sanction its Arabic-speaking citizens referring to the founding of the state as a catastrophe. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said two years ago that the use of the term 'Nakba' in Israeli schools was tantamount to incitement against the state.

Arab countries are not extending a helping hand to Palestinians fleeing violence and harassment in Iraq, according to a Palestinian refugee rights organization. The London-based Al-Awda said Arab countries are not offering solutions for these refugees, while all the countries that are helping them are non-Arab, such as the United States, Switzerland, Iceland, Brazil, India, Cyprus and Malaysia. Arab governments have given no political or financial assistance to these refugees since 2003, the group charges. “Meanwhile they are being exposed to massacres and sectarian murder, by Iraq’s sectarian militias,” an Al-Awda spokesperson told Quds Press. Scores of Palestinians in Iraq have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The mostly Sunni Palestinians were given preferential treatment under Saddam Hussein, and were attacked by Shi’ites after the dictator was ousted.

Palestinian activist Mohammad Srour was detained by Israeli authorities earlier this week on his way home after testifying in Geneva to the UN’s fact finding mission on Gaza. Srour, a member of the Ni'lin Popular Committee Against the Wall, is a regular participant in demonstrations against the effects of the Israeli barrier on the West Bank village of Ni'lin. He and Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack, also a regular participant in the demonstrations, testified before the committee about the death of two young Ni'lin residents during a December 2008 demonstration. Srour's lawyer Lymor Goldstein confirmed Thursday that he had been detained at the Allenby Bridge crossing between Jordan and the West Bank. “I know full well that I will pay the price for this testimony when I return at Israeli crossing points in my journey of return after this hearing,” Srour said during his Geneva testimony.