Israel Daily News Stream 06/06/2012
June 6, 2012 15:28 by Pesach BensonArab Spring Winter
• Barbara Walters admitted an ugly conflict of interest: Walters helped Sheherazad Jaafari advance her career after the Syrian spin doctor facilitated Bashar Assad’s interview. Details and links on Backspin.
• What’s the the common denominator here?
- The road to success in Syria lies through compromise with Russia.
- Why Assad Can Still Count on Moscow and Beijing.
- “Russia alone has the power to topple the regime and avert a civil war.”
- “Is Moscow even capable of securing al-Assad’s exit from power?”
• Meet “Mustapha,” a veteran of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. He’s now in the Bekaa Valley putting his experience to good use training the next generation of jihadis to fight Bashar Assad. Christian Science Monitor reporter Nicholas Blanford writes:
The Lebanese recruits are not the only non-Syrians to volunteer for the struggle against the Assad regime, the FSA volunteers say. Other foreign fighters include Jordanians, Tunisians, Algerians, and Saudis.
Their presence underlines the sectarian nature of the increasingly violent uprising, effectively turning the country into a new theater of jihad pitting a predominantly Sunni opposition against an entrenched regime elite drawn mainly from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
• Syria declared a number of Western diplomats personae non grata. The BBC says the move followed the expulsion of Syrian diplomats in the wake of the Houla massacre.
• Time‘s Tony Karon weighs in on the state of the Egyptian revolution. Overtaken by events, the secular liberals flail away:
But the revolutionaries remain (politically) trapped in the square with a limited organization and power base, which limits their ability to shape events. They deride the Brotherhood’s conservatism and accuse it of duplicity and complicity with the regime, yet they appear to lack a strategy for competing effectively with the Islamists among the impoverished majority, let alone one for effecting a real shift in power in Egypt.
Despite the dramatic events of the past 18 months, there has in fact been no revolution in Egypt. A revolution by definition is a dramatic shift in power from one section of society to another, and the grim reality in Egypt is that the regime once headed by Mubarak remains very much in power, despite his ouster. Some of the personnel at the top have changed, but not the regime itself.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Der Spiegel rounds up German coverage of the country’s Dolphin sub sale to Israel. The media’s pretty supportive. Nice infographic on the Dolphin deterrence factor too. See also the Prime Minister’s interview with Bild.
• Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are heating up. Baku certainly feels Israel’s love, even if it’s “written off” by Uncle Sam and Europe. The NY Times writes:
From Azerbaijan’s view, Israel has been more understanding than European countries that have criticized Baku about rights abuses but that do not acknowledge the challenges on its borders or the difficulty in building a secular culture in a predominantly Muslim country.
• Israel unveiled a cyber-war simulator. The Jerusalem Post explains:
The simulator was developed specifically to train government and military personnel how to protect critical infrastructure and sensitive computer networks, like those used by the IDF.
The simulator offers training to prevent cyberwarfare events by simulating network protection scenarios. It allows debriefing and evaluation sessions in order to draw conclusions from the trainees’ performance.
• The Daily Mail‘s Michael Burleigh’s in Tel Aviv to learn more about the Israel-Iran issue. Here’s his take on the “two Jews, three opinions” phenomenon going on within the political, military and intelligence echelons. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were really this clever?
This is like a hall of mirrors where real intentions are difficult to determine amidst so much bluff and double bluff. It might be a case that the spies do protest too much, and that their dissent is deliberately calibrated to show us that any decision to attack Iran has been reached only after careful consideration of all counter-arguments. That is designed to offset any likely international criticism (or sanctions) stemming from an unprovoked act of aggression.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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Andy Routledge
6:24 pm
Jun 06, 2012
It interests me to know if Israels position on the Syrian conflict is determined by the lack of ability to support the uprising or the lack of will. Israel knows that the Syrian regime and for that matter the Egyptian one also, has been giving it’s own people a very rough deal to ensure the continuation of “controllable poverty”. Are we Israelis in some part complicit to the plight of these two nations. Firstly, the paid the price of war with Israel and secondly, they paid the price of peace in the case of Egypt and status quo in the case of Syria. Are we justified in taking the fruit offered by regimes that give it at the expense of the poor people of these lands?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Tal
7:26 pm
Jun 06, 2012
Andy, Israel is in a precarious position. Whatever it does it will be criticised for. Its a catch 22. It may even be detrimental for Israel to be involved in external conflicts. Might inspire further Jihad. You can see how this has happened with America’s involvement in Iraq. As to your last comment I’ll ask you why aren’t Jews allowed to enter into the PA controlled areas? Why were shoes and stones thrown at Jewish kids (by the shopkeeper and the community in Jordan) for the crime of looking ‘Jewish’? Why are no Jews (not Israelis) allowed in Saudi Arabia?’ Why doesn’t the UN care neither about the latter nor about the plight of the good people of these dictatorial regimes. Are they justified in offering this ‘price of fruit’? Honestly Andy, they can keep their ‘fruit’
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Tal
7:32 pm
Jun 06, 2012
Andy, maybe ‘we Israelis’ tried but were held back at border control for having Israeli stamps on our passports.
And with reference to Jorday where Israelis are allowed to enter Why were shoes and stones thrown at Jewish kids (by the shopkeeper and the community) for the crime of looking Jewish? This is a high price for ‘fruit’ indeed…
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Citizenstat
7:33 pm
Jun 06, 2012
Andy, I figure you for either a complete cynic or a total naif. You want Israel to become involved in Syria and Egypt?!?!! Do you have any notion of the anti-Israel/Jewish invective that spews from the government, media, schools, and clergy in both those countries?? Israel would suffer less harm from sticking its head in a lion’s than from meddling in either place.
Your remark that Israel may be somehow responsible for Syrian/Egyptian turmoil defies rationality. Both countries went to war with Israel two and three times, respectively. That they got whupped for their efforts does not make Israel complicit in their current problems.
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Mr. Light-Bright
7:37 pm
Jun 06, 2012
and concerning “fruit” (that is: what good comes out), I see very little good if any, coming out of the arab league in the United Nations! Where were they during the Libya uprising? What about japan’s nuclear disaster? I know even Israel sent help for Japan’s tsunami victims.
Bear good fruit, and the world will see and know : ) amongst all propaganda, true(honest) good acts can cut through the deceptive imagery (of course unless the person viewing the fruit is sick in the head, in which case they say bad as good and good as bad).
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Empress Trudy
9:21 pm
Jun 06, 2012
It is delusional in the extreme to think that anyone will worry about the millions and billions these two princes of the Tyrant Thief King Abbas happen to siphon off for their own enrichment. This IS THE STORY of Palestinians. This is how the clans, families and criminal gangs that are the Palestinian ‘leadership’ have operated since forever. And this is exactly what the UN and EU sees as normal statecraft. Abbas’ sons will likely get an award from the UN for financial ‘responsibility’.
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Stephen
11:23 pm
Jun 06, 2012
I just read the full review Targeted Killings and Double Standards ( http://jcpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/tk-5jun12.pdf ) that is mentioned on your site. Fascinating reading. I wonder, why, after almost three years, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International has yet to respond to the well documented
HRW and AI obviously have one standard for every other nation of this planet but another one for Israel. Standards that are used for all other Western militaries are not allowed for Israel and Israelis. If this is not bias, when what is it?
Who, other than us, watch these so-called and self appointed watchdogs and “guardians”? HRW and AI have, themselves, much to answer for.
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Israel Daily News Stream 06/06/2012 | Blogs about Israel aggregation
7:58 pm
Jun 07, 2012
[...] Continued on Page 2 [...]
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