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In Ha'aretz piece on Mitchell's mideast trip, this interesting too:
After completing his visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Mitchell will depart for Amman.
In addition to being one of the issues Mitchell plans to discuss, arms smuggling in Gaza is also on the agenda in Washington, Cairo and several European capitals.
Barak was scheduled to travel to Washington Wednesday night for talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on arms smuggling, and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Israel for talks Tuesday, after discussing the issue with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Cairo Tuesday. Aboul Gheit warned the Europeans against sending a flotilla of ships to counter smuggling off the coast of Gaza.
"You must understand Arab and Muslim feelings," he said. "I urge you to look and consider this ... because it might have consequences in Palestinian and Arab relations with you."
The Egyptian minister said Israel, not Europe, should undertake the effort to stop the smuggling.
The Foreign Ministry began intensive talks this week with a number of European countries over how to deal with weapons smuggling. The ministry created a special team to deal with the smuggling issue, headed by Yaakov Hadas, its deputy director general of the Middle East and peace process division. This week Hadas and ministry deputy director general Yossi Gal will fly to London to discuss a British proposal to deploy naval vessels to monitor the smuggling routes to the Gaza Strip as well as the exchange of intelligence regarding smuggling.
The ministry's deputy director general for Western Europe, Rafi Barak, is to set off for Paris, Berlin, Rome, Copenhagen, Madrid and The Hague to discuss ways in which the countries could help stop the smuggling. France has already announced it will deploy a frigate in the Red Sea to monitor shipping routes. Italy has offered satellite equipment to locate underground tunnels, and Germany is willing to send engineering experts to Egypt.