Hezbollah’s Headaches
• Washington Post: Clashes between Hezbollah and Syrian rebels are intensifying.
• Jeff Jacoby (Boston Globe) on Europe sticking its head in the sand over Hezbollah terror:
After 30 years of Hezbollah butchery around the world, can Europe still imagine that pretending Hezbollah is mostly “benign” will keep them safe? That if they feed the crocodile enough, it won’t eat them just yet?
• For commentary/analysis on Hezbollah, see Frida Ghitis and Hanin Ghaddar.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Iran confirmed it’s installing next-generation centrifuges — 3,000 of ’em, in fact.
• Staff-eds: The NY Times appreciates creative diplomacy, the Washington Post frets that the US is going soft on Iran. The latter argues:
If Iran altered its own, unacceptable proposals from previous rounds, there was no indication of it in the accounts of either side. That raises the possibility that the regime will simply pocket the easier terms and return to its stonewalling, with the expectation that another crumbling of the coalition position will ensue.
• For more commentary on the nuclear talks, see Clifford May and the Boston Herald.
Arab Spring Winter
• The Sunday Times interviewed Bashar Assad. This reaction to the attack on an arms convoy and/or military research facility by a country assumed to be Israel strikes me as desperate hot air from a man who has no ability to retaliate against Israel. You can watch the interview on YouTube.
Assad said Syria had always retaliated for Israeli actions, “But we retaliated in our own way, and only the Israelis know what we mean. Retaliation does not mean missile for missile or bullet for bullet. Our own way does not have to be announced.”
He refused to elaborate. Nor would he discuss claims that Syria has been moving its chemical weapons, apparently to prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists.
• In recent weeks, the Egyptian military has been quietly challenging Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Now Egypt’s brimming with rumors that the army is planning to overthrow the government. More at the Wall St. Journal (via Google News).
• Anarchist soccer hooligans against Morsi continued rioting in Port Said, torching a police station. CNN coverage.
• For more commentary on the Arab Spring, see Aaron David Miller, and the Christian Science Monitor.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Some good news from YNet: Israel’s the only Western country to managed to reduce its debt as a proportion of gross domestic product in 2012.
• The LA Times visits Idan HaNegev, which is supposed to become Israel’s largest industrial park. It’s supposed to employ thousands of Bedouins.
The mayor predicts 80% of the jobs at the park will be filled by Bedouin workers from Rahat. But only 60% of Rahat’s residents graduated from high school and most workers are unskilled, so the city is sponsoring education and training programs to prepare them for jobs.
• Worth reading: In a NY Times op-ed, two Argentinians slam their country’s “truth commission” investigating the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish community headquarters.
(Image of Assad via YouTube/HandsoffSyria)
For more, see Thursday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
