A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

October 25 , 2007 Israel and Gaza

The 'War of Almost Attrition' [the War of Attrition took place between Israel and Egypt from1967-70] continues between Israel and Hamas and the Islamic Jihad around Gaza.  Over the past few days, Israel has been successful in killing those who had launched a Qassam at Sderot and armed Hamas fighters who were close to the border.  Meanwhile, it was reported today that Minister of Defense Barak has approved a plan to start cutting off electricity and fuel in retribution for any Qassam attacks.  The plan is for any missile attack, electricity will be cut off for 15 minutes.  Interestingly, last night Deputy Minister of Defense Matan Vilnai stated that Israel would not make a direct connection between the firing of missile and the cut off of electricity.
 
The New York Times published online a series of photos showing the site of the alleged Syrian nuclear facility before the attack and then now.  It shows a site that has been completely eliminated.  Clearly Syria is trying to eliminate any sign that anything ever happened.
 
The United States announced that it has designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the entire armed forces of Iran as terrorist supporters.  With that announcement, the United States imposed additional economic sanctions against both groups.  The actions are mostly symbolic since there has been nearly no interaction between the United States and those groups.  The action is more a part of a global attempt to try to convince other nations to agree to greater sanctions against Iran.