A year and a bit after the ill-fated interception of the Mavi Marmara that headed last year's flotilla to Gaza, Israel is bracing for another one. This time around, say authorities, they are more prepared, having learned the lessons from operations to public relations and media. (We'll get back to that second point later.)

Israel launched a diplomatic, legal and bureaucratic offensive to prevent the flotilla well in advance and for months has been appealing to governments to block their citizens' efforts to participate, with a certain degree of success. Easing restrictions on goods entering Gaza certainly helped, as has the recent Egyptian decision to open the Raffah crossing, which Israel did not like but quickly recognized as advantageous in this context.

The ships are supposed to rendevous in the Mediterranean and then sail to Gaza but some of the likely candidates in the region are dropping out. Cyprus has announced it will not let the ships in, Greece will let them in but is stalling them with red tape at Israel's request, activists complain. Greece has its own issues this week and will have limited energy to spend on this, one way or the other.

Elsewhere in Europe, delegations met with problems as insurance companies were reluctant to issue policies for the ships and their passengers, after an Israeli legal group, Shurat Hadin, sent letters to the world's leading marine insurance companies advising them they could be held accountable for damages and complicit to violating the law. Other initiatives seek to block satellite communications services to the ships.

The Turkey-based IHH was to be the biggest contingent of the flotilla, its massive passenger ship the largest by far of the dozens of vessels originally slated to sail. Last week the organization announced the ship was staying home.

Icy relations between Israel and Turkey, once-tight allies, are thawing out these days. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Turkish Prime Minister Tayyep Erdogan on his reelection, then deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon reached out to Turkish journalists and vice prime minister Moshe Yaalon was dispatched abroad for discreet talks with Turkish counterparts.

With Syria's troubles spilling into its backyard, Turkey may have bigger fish to fry at this time -- and both countries seem keen to work things out in advance of the United Nations report on the 2010 flotilla. Turkey was not impressed with the early draft and Israeli media suggest the final report, currently due early July, is still pretty critical of Turkey. And Israel, for its part, always needs all the friends it can get.

In recent weeks, the military completed a series of comprehensive drills for intercepting the next flotilla. Netanyahu is determined to uphold the naval blockade, which Israel says aims only to prevent gunrunning to Hamas-ruled Gaza and not against Palestinian civilians. On Monday, the security cabinet approved the operational plan presented by the army.

Israel has reached understandings with Egypt about the ships docking in El Arish and inspecting the cargo before transfer to Gaza by land in case participants decline Israel's invitation to dock at its Ashdod port -- as expected. There's no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, repeat Israeli spokespeople, who call the flotilla a provocation.

The organizers and activists are equally determined to sail for Gaza and are undeterred by the difficulties. And if Israel has eased up some on Gaza, well, if anything, this just proves flotillas work, says the Free Gaza movement . At a news conference in Athens on Monday, organizers said the 10 ships taking part in the voyage would gather at sea toward the weekend before heading to Gaza.

Meanwhile, until any encounter at sea, the skirmish is being waged on YouTube and all sides are uploading fast and furious -- some straightforward, others kind of clever.

And back to that media lesson learned. One of the main problems Israel had getting its message across last time (besides the message) was the long delay in releasing timely visual images and information from the scene while the operation was still ongoing, leaving the media stage to activists and semi-professionals and an anti-Israeli angle. For weeks, Israeli officials have been stressing the importance of the media battlefield and assuring outlets that professional and credible material will be much more timely.

That's good. Less good was the letter from Government Press Office director Oren Helman on Sunday, warning foreign press they could be deported and banned from working in Israel for 10 years if they participated in the flotilla. Besides infuriating both local and international media, the move seems to have embarassed Netanyahu, who ordered the directive be rethought.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem 

Video, from top: An Israeli Defense Forces video explains the Gaza naval blockade from the official Israeli perspective; activist Yonatan Shapira, an Israeli combat pilot who has become an outspoken critic of his county's policies, discusses his reasons for joining the flotilla. Credit: YouTube

After a five-year Palestinian campaign,the highly controversial section of the Israeli separation barrier at Bilin is being rerouted.

The barrier -- mostly fence, part wall -- was erected by Israel at the height of the second intifada to keep suicide bombers out. The track roughly corresponds with the Green Line -- the pre- 1967 borders -- but runs through the West Bank in certain places, blocking Palestinian access to their lands and other villages. Such contested sections have been challenged in Israeli courts, which have on occasion been dissatisfied with the state's security reasoning and ruled the track causes disproportionate harm to Palestinians.

One such section, near the village of Bilin, has long been an icon of the fence controversy, popular protests and bureaucracy. Sporadic in most other places, protests and sometimes fatal scuffles with Israeli soldiers persevere in Bilin, having taken place every Friday for the last five years.

The Bilin protest has become a draw for political activists from the Palestinian territories, Israel and abroad and a local model for popular protest. It's also become a pretty big headache for the Israeli army, and sometimes a diplomatic headache too, as authorities grapple with different ways of keeping away foreign activists.

In recent days, Israel has begun dismantling the controversial section of fence. The fence had dipped too generously into the West Bank, including privately owned lands, more for the sake of the nearby Jewish settlement of Modiin Ilit than for security reasons, and had to be rerouted "in a reasonable period of time," the Supreme Court ruled. That was in September 2007.

Now 2 miles of fence is being dismantled and replaced with 1.7 miles of wall that wraps around Modiin Ilit and hangs tighter around the settlement than the village. The barrier has moved about 1,800 feet  away from Bilin, allowing access to farming areas without having to coordinate with the army.

The project cost $7.5 million, and another $1.5 million was spent on relocating olive and other orchard trees, according to Israel Defense Forces Col. Saar Tzur, commander of the Binyamin regional brigade.  The work is to be finished in coming days, after which Israeli watchtowers will be repositioned and forces moved to the new route, he said.

The new route will present a bit of a challenge to the army, which will have a shorter response time in case of an infiltration of the settlement. For the most part, past troubles have targeted the barrier itself rather than the next-door neighbors.

Will the Friday protests stop now? Very unlikely, according to Tzur. The main reason is money, he said. The Bilin cause has become a well-financed "riot industry."

What took Israel so long to implement its own court ruling from September 2007? The army's short answer is "Ask the Defense Ministry." The military says it doesn't decide policy, only implements it. Another answer may have to do with another September, the one coming up, when the Palestinians will go to the United Nations for recognition of their sovereignty. Between the Friday protests and other regional unrest, Israel needs more holes in its fences like a hole in the head.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jeruslem

Photo: This wall will replace the fence along the road behind it in Bilin, in the West Bank. Credit: Batsheva Sobelman / Los Angeles Times

Babylon & Beyond today is switching to a new commenting system.

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Readers will have the option of posting their Babylon & Beyond comments on their Facebook walls, but that's not required. Readers are welcome to express their opinions about the news -- and about how the new Facebook comments system is working.

Jimmy Orr, the Los Angeles Times managing editor in charge of latimes.com, discussed our online comments and the Facebook system in a March entry to the Readers' Representative Journal.

We hope to see your comments on Facebook.

-- The Foreign Staff of the Los Angeles Times

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement was quick Sunday to ease fears regarding a decision to postpone a meeting between Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal that had been planned for Tuesday in Cairo.

Fatah officials said the decision had to do with Abbas’ busy schedule and did not necessarily mean the reconciliation process between the two rival factions is faltering.

Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation agreement early in May after four years of bitter and sometimes violent rivalry. The agreement called for establishing a unity government with the goal of holding general elections within a year and to rebuild the Gaza Strip, devastated after five years of the Israeli blockade and military assaults.

Forming the unity government has become a stumbling block in the reconciliation effort. Fatah wants current Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to run the new government because it believes the Western-backed Fayyad will be able to prevent an international blockade against the new government because of Hamas involvement. Hamas, however, does not trust Fayyad. 

When the two sides failed to agree on a prime minister during their meeting last week, they called on Abbas and Meshaal to sit together to resolve the issue.

Azzam Ahmad, who heads Fatah's delegation to the reconciliation talks and who announced the postponement after meeting Abbas in Ramallah, insisted that it was Abbas’ busy schedule that had led to the delay.

Abbas is going to be in Turkey on Wednesday and then in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday to address the European Parliament. Ahmad said it was better to give the two leaders time to discuss the complex issue without any interruptions. For this reason, it was believed better to postpone the meeting rather than risk having to end it before an agreement is reached.

Hamas did not seem too thrilled with the postponement. Hamas' leader in Gaza, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, said Sunday that "we were ready for this meeting and we wanted it to tackle all issues in order to have a government of conciliation."

Damascus-based Hamas official, Izzat Rishk, a hard-liner, said Fatah postponed the meeting because it could not get Hamas to agree to Fayyad as prime minister.

Abbas has a lot to risk if the new government is run by a prime minister who is not acceptable to the United States and Europe. Israel is already threatening to again stop transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority. It collects over $100 million in customs duties and taxes on Palestinian-imported goods coming through it ports. These funds account for two-thirds of the monthly salaries of Palestinian public employees, and 150,000 employees will go unpaid if Israel halts remittance.

In a news conference Sunday with the president of the Dominican Republic in Ramallah, Abbas reiterated that the new government would follow his policies, which is based on reaching a solution to the Middle East conflict based on peaceful negotiations with Israel and that will continue the policies of Fayyad’s West Bank-based government.

Hamas does not seem to object, but it does not want Fayyad to be the key person in the new government.

— Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

Egyptian authorities have arrested an American-born law student, who reportedly is doing an internship at a nonprofit organization in Cairo, on charges of being an Israeli spy.

Ilan Chaim Grapel, 27, was detained Sunday in Cairo on “suspicion of espionage and spying on Egypt with the aim to harm its economic and political interest,” according to a statement released by the Egyptian General Prosecution office. Grapel will be held for 15 days pending interrogation, a spokesman for the office said in a statement.

Egyptian intelligence officials believe Grapel, a former Israeli soldier, was sent to Cairo by the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, to provide military and political intelligence and recruit Egyptian agents, according to the spokesman’s statement.

The spokesman noted that Grapel participated in a number of anti-government protests during the revolution, and accused him of attempting to disrupt the demonstrations by provoking attacks on protesters.

Timeline: Revolution in Egypt

A video of images Egyptian security authorities released to Al Masry Al Youm newspaper’s website shows Grapel at protests and standing outside a police station made famous when it was stormed by anti-government protesters.

The caption says, "Egyptian security authorities released a video that allegedly shows an Israeli spy as he is being monitored by security," while the subtitles, paired with sinister music, say, "Israeli spy on Cairo streets."

Egyptian state television reported that Grapel posed as a foreign correspondent and was monitored for months by Egyptian authorities before his arrest.

On Monday, however, an American law student who says he is a former classmate of Grapel’s disputed the spying allegations.

Just a week after Egypt reopened its border crossing to Gaza Strip, Palestinians found Saturday that the checkpoint was temporarily closed without warning and they complained that leaving the enclave is not as simple as they expected it would be.

Egyptian officials at the Rafah crossing said the terminal was closed for technical problems and maintenance. By the afternoon, they said Gazans could cross to the Egyptian side, but only on foot rather than using the usual buses. They did not say when the border would reopen fully.

Officials for Hamas, which controls Gaza, rejected the new terms and called upon Egypt to open the crossing as promised.

On Saturday, hundreds of frustrated Palestinian travelers stormed the Egyptian gate of Rafah crossing after learning about the restrictions.

"I have completed my documents at the Palestinian side and have got my passport stamped. But I was surprised that the Egyptians closed the borders," said Nasser Bayed, who wants to go to Egypt for bone marrow surgery.

"My husband is so sick. He needs an urgent surgery in the heart and he may die here if he is not allowed to cross today," said Abla Farra, from inside an ambulance that carried her husband at the Egyptian gate of the crossing.

Hamas blamed Egypt for hindering the traffic of Palestinian travelers, saying Egyptian authorities have sent back scores of passengers over the last week for security reasons.

About 5,000 Palestinians, most of them members of Hamas, are reportedly on a blacklist used by Egyptian security officials to prevent extremists or terrorists from crossing the border.

Israel has voiced concerns that Hamas will take advantage of the border opening to bring fighters and weapons to Gaza.

RELATED:

France enters the Palestinians' run to September

Amid Egypt's border easing, Gazans feel rare hope

Obama pushes Europe not to support Palestinians' U.N. statehood bid

-- Ahmed Aldabba in Rafah

Photo: Palestinians shout in front of Egyptian soldiers at the iron gate of the Rafah border crossing from the Gaza Strip. Credit: Eyad Baba / Associated Press.

The Palestinian race to September is going at full force, in spite of international initiatives to persuade  them to change their minds.

The latest such initiative came from France.

On a visit to Ramallah on Thursday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe revealed his government’s plan to invite Palestinians and Israelis to an international peace conference late this month or in early July in Paris.

The purpose is to restart the moribund Palestinian-Israeli negotiations before September, when the Palestinians want the United Nations Security Council to vote in favor of a resolution admitting the State of Palestine as a full member of the U.N.,  with recognized borders within the June 1967 armistice line.

“We are convinced that if nothing happens between now and September, the situation will be difficult for everyone,” Juppe said at a news conference after meeting Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Juppe stopped short of saying his country would support the Palestinian effort if Israel turns down the French initiative, which is expected to happen, emphasizing that “if nothing happens until September … all options will be open.”

Though Juppe’s plan is based mainly on President Obama’s Mideast initiative, which calls for resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations based on the 1967 borders, with agreed land swaps, it  goes a couple of steps further, which make the Israeli rejection likely.

While Obama talked about security for Israel, Juppe talked about security for the two states, and while Obama said the issues of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees would be negotiated at a later stage without giving a timeline, the French minister said these issues should be resolved within one year.

The French expansion on the Obama plan seems to have struck a positive note with the Palestinian Authority, but apparently not strongly enough to agree to attend the proposed Paris peace conference, let alone resume negotiations with Israel before it stops all settlement activities and agrees that the talks will eventually lead to a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

Fayyad, speaking at the press conference with Juppe, said that the French initiative could succeed “if it had the right parameters that clearly state the 1967 borders and that reject the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, which will be the capital of the Palestinian state.”

Juppe said the French plan has the backing of the European Union and the United States. All that is left is to have the backing of Israel and the Palestinians.

--Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas expressed disappointment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday and said the Israeli leader's comments had dealt a blow to efforts to resume peace talks.

An emergency meeting of the Palestinian Authority was held Wednesday in response to Netanyahu’s speech and recent speeches by President Obama on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in which the president endorsed the idea of using 1967 borders between Israel and the Palestinian territories, with mutually agreed land swaps, as a basis to revive peace talks.

Though Netanyahu rejected the idea, Palestinians on Wednesday called upon the U.N. Security Council to accept and implement Obama's proposal.

Abbas said at the meeting he hadn’t given up on revival of talks with Israel but would not hesitate to go to the U.N. in September -- Palestinians’ deadline for progress -- to ask the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, in spite of strong U.S. opposition to that move.

Abbas added that going to the U.N. was not “intended to isolate Israel or to de-legitimize it.”

-- Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

Reaction in the Middle East to President Obama’s speech on U.S. policy toward the region ran the gamut from surprise to support to disappointment. Following are selected, edited comments from observers in some of the region's nations:

“It was not expected that Obama would criticize any of the U.S. allies, but he did so when he talked about Bahrain and called for a dialogue with the opposition while calling for the release of prisoners. Obama set a new approach toward the Middle East … opening a new chapter with the Arab world.”

                        — Hassan Sahili, student at the Lebanese University in Beirut

“Emotionally, President Obama’s rhetoric and eloquence appealed to the ears of his audience across the world. But Obama fell short of my expectations when he referred to Syrian and Bahrain authorities.

I expected him to be more serious and harsher in his criticisms of President Bashar Assad [of Syria] and Al Khalifah in Bahrain. Both these countries are run despotically and heavy handedly. Bahrain … is the U.S.A.’s ally, and Syria is not an ally of the U.S.

Both governments are fiercely and brutally suppressing their own people. I expected President Obama to … clearly put pressure on both governments to cave in to the demands of their own people.…

The U.S. in particular and the West in general are treating the regional countries with double standards, as the violation of human rights in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are ignored or neglected while the human rights breaches in Iran are highlighted.

Anyway, President Obama has got a historic, golden and unprecedented opportunity to seize  his place in history … if he addresses the democracy in all countries in the region” equally.

                    — Sadegh Zibakalam, professor of political science at Tehran University 

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

Nobody seems to know what was going through the heads of Amjad Awad, 19, and a distant cousin, Hakim Awad, 18, when they broke into the Jewish settlement of Itamar near their village in the northern West Bank in March and killed a family of five people, including three children.

A relative of Hakim's expressed disbelief, saying the two were just kids. The two, who confessed to the killings to the Israeli army shortly after their arrest in mid-April, have not been allowed any visits by family members.

"They said they have done it and they are not going to plead innocent or claim they made their confession under duress,” their attorney, Faris Abu Hasan, said. “I do not know what kind of state of mind they were in when they confessed.”

Egyptian authorities have arrested and referred to military prosecutors at least 186 people for alleged acts of sabotage, rioting and destruction of public facilities in connection with a protest outside the Israeli Embassy near Cairo late Sunday, a military official told state television Monday.

Clashes between security forces and protesters left at least 353 injured, a deputy health minister said. Many of the injured were treated by emergency medical personnel at the scene and never hospitalized, he said.

Six of the injured remained hospitalized Monday, one in critical condition, he said.

Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and live ammunition at several hundred protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in the Cairo suburb of Giza late Sunday.

At least two dozen protesters were injured, a health ministry official told Egyptian state television. A security official told the Associated Press that one of the injured was in critical condition Sunday.

The protest followed calls on Facebook for a march on Israel on Sunday in solidarity with Palestinians marking Nakba Day, the anniversary of the displacement of Palestinians with the founding of Israel in 1948.