Everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast. Join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Today’s Top Stories:
1. Egypt’s political disarray turns even more chaotic. The nation’s highest court dissolved parliament saying elections held six months ago were unconstitutional. The military junta declared full legislative authority.
A separate ruling allows Hosni Mubarak’s former Prime Minister, Ahmed Shafiq, to run in presidential elections this weekend. More at CNN and The Lede.
2. Israel HaYom elaborates on the public diplomacy deficit described in the Lindenstrauss report. All the Western news services picked up on the state comptroller’s assessment of the Mavi Marmara affair. Washington Post correspondent Karin Brulliard was par for the course.
3. The US is teaching Syrian rebels how to use technology to win the media war. We’re talking about tricks for using cell phones securely, “Internet in a suitcase” for when the regime cuts web access, encryption techniques, and useful apps. Time notes:
It’s a peculiar irony that a lot of the subversive know-how being exported to the Syrian opposition was originally developed to circumvent U.S. authorities.
Israel and the Palestinians
• BBC and two NGOs blame Israel for Gaza’s sewage problems and related health problems. But as I blogged earlier today, you have to understand the Pipe Dreams involved before wading into the cess pool.
• My colleague, Yarden Frankl, dissects Christiane Amanpour’s imbalanced look at the peace process. Hanan Ashrawi and a former US negotiator joined the discussion, but where are the Israelis?
• I liked CNN reporter Tim Hume’s look at the row over the Church of the Nativity’s possible World Heritage status as a Palestinian site.
• Irish tongues are wagging over a strange email leaked from the Israeli embassy in Dublin. The deputy ambassador suggested humiliating and shaming Israeli activists sympathetic to the Palestinians.” The Irish Times writes:
The channel reported that the Israeli foreign ministry was taken aback by the content of the leaked correspondence. It quoted an official statement from the ministry in which it said that while it tries to combat “delegitimisation” of Israel internationally, it does not “engage in witch-hunts”.
• The Global Peace Index ranked Israel as one of the least peaceful places in the world: behind even Syria, Egypt, Iran, and Eritrea. I’ll give the last word on the matter to Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Yigal Palmor:
“How is it possible that that Israel is a more dangerous place than Syria? Perhaps in some parallel universe, but not in any empirical reality in which real people live,” he told The Times of Israel.
