Operation Clear Skies

A platoon of ten thousand cops are to guard President George Bush on his historic visit to Isreal tomorrow. It will be the first visit by a US president in more than a decade. The huge security exercise has been aptly named Operation Clear Skies.

So, what exactly is the purpose of this visit? Is he going to broker a deal between the increasingly isolated Fatah and Israel or peace between the katyusha-firing Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israelis? No one is sure.

Meanwhile Iran has denied that five Iranian boats made aggressive manoeuvers and showed hostile intent against three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route in the Gulf. It is also reported that the Iranian vessels dropped small white boxes into the water.