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. As today’s roundup went to press, news broke that Egypt plans to put Mohammed Morsi on trial for terror, espionage, and conspiring with Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are implicated too, so take your pick of AP, CNN, and BBC coverage and pass the popcorn.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s ties with Hamas are well-known, and the Gaza overlords will certainly be on eggshells if they weren’t already. Can’t wait to learn what evidence implicates Hezbollah and Iran. But remember, Egyptians are suckers for conspiracy theories from the sublime to the ridiculous; there’s also a Calvinball in Cairo component.
Morsi already faces charges related to the deaths of demonstrators. That trial adjourned in chaos on the very first day.
2. Why did the BDS movement react so strongly when Mahmoud Abbas declared in South Africa that Palestinians should only boycott settlements, but not Israel? Matthew Kalman explains the stakes:
It wasn’t quite a denunciation of the BDS campaign, but the remarks threatened to transform the boycott from its self-image as the principled projection of native Palestinian policy to the bastard foreign child of freelance troublemakers.
3. The Saudi break with the US continues turning heads with a NY Times op-ed written by the kingdom’s ambassador to the UK. What message do you think the Saudis want to send Washington?
4. Joe Hyams to the IAJF: No Iron Dome in the Media War:
“The best way we can support our soldiers on the battlefield is by investing in our own defensive measures for public opinion.”
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Times of Israel lays out how Hamas used the winter storms to defame Israel.
• According to Arab reports, Jordan’s giving Hamas the cold shoulder to show solidarity with Egypt. King Abdullah and Jordanian officials aren’t returning calls to Hamas representatives.
• Terror victim’s family accuses Netanyahu of caving in to China. More on the story at Time.
• Fallout from the American Studies Association vote to boycott Israeli academics begins. Penn State-Harrisburg is dropping its institutional membership in the ASA.
• Spengler: Settlements aren’t the obstacle to peace, they’re the litmus test of peace.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Fiamma Nirenstein and Tom Friedman,
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Israel reached an agreement in principle to sell offshore gas to Jordan. According to the Wall St. Journal (via Google News), technical details to be ironed out, but politics remain the biggest threat now:
Jordan and Israel maintain limited commercial ties, but any gas supply deal could be especially fraught. The government of King Abdullah has long faced criticism at home and among Arab neighbors over Jordan’s relations with Israel. Any agreement that could appear to make Jordan reliant on Israel would likely face domestic and Arab-world scrutiny.
• The Iranian press initially called last month’s Geneva agreement a “treaty.” Now the mullah media refers to it as a “letter of agreement,” while Tehran’s foreign ministry calls it a “statement of intent.” Amir Taheri assesses the collapsing nuclear deal.
• Worth reading:
The Israeli intelligence officer who really knows what the Iranians are talking about.
• Reuters: The West is signalling to Syrian opposition groups that Assad may stay.
• Israel HaYom’s Boaz Bismuth responds to reports that he was offered a job by the Prime Minister’s office to expel African migrants.
• Small signs of a thaw: After a six-year break, Israeli planes to resume flights to Turkey this summer.
(Image of flame via Flickr/arndw)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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