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. Israel-Gaza tensions heated up with multiple IDF operations against Palestinian rocket fire which continued throughout the day. Shortly before this roundup was published, there were reports that Egypt successfully mediated a cease fire.
Analyzing the escalation’s Islamic Jihad/Iran angles are Avi Issacharoff, Dan Margalit, and Ron Ben-Yishai. By the way, Hamas and Iran admit they’re increasing cooperation.
2. A Palestinian refusal to extend peace talks beyond the April deadline will imperil future prisoner releases. Yaakov Peri explained why to Israel HaYom.
3. For a roundup of what they’re saying about David Cameron’s visit, see Herb Keinon and Raphael Ahren (how Cameron’s speech broke the mold), plus a positive reaction to the Knesset speech in a Daily Telegraph staff-ed. This tweet by Col. Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, caught my eye.
4. It’s Just “Tit-For-Tat” For the Financial Times: “Tit-for-tat” expresses a false moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorists and Israel’s defensive measures.
5. If Palestinian refugees were placed under the jurisdiction of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, you wouldn’t see the UN Relief and Works Agency’s Margot Ellis taking to the The Guardian to whine about aid money “following the cameras” and the “news fatigued” West Bank. When one UN aid official distastefully competes with another agency for donors, you know something’s wrong.
Besides, the Arab “Spring” busted the myth that the Mideast revolves around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But Ellis thinks the UNRWA will raise money by bashing Israel.
The only way of dealing with these man-made emergencies is to get rid of the underlying causes: the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and the closure of Gaza which is stifling the economy, increasing poverty and unemployment, and forcing even greater dependency on aid provided by the international community.
See my colleague Simon Plosker’s take: Only Israel to Blame in UNRWA’s Eyes.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Did the Daily Mail go out on a limb and declare the West Bank part of Israel? How do you read this snippet?
The finds are part of at least two dozen phylactery scrolls were discovered in the 1940s and 50 along with the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a limestone cave in the West Bank’s Qumran in Israel.
• Must have been airdropped by some of those nasty Zionist vultures:
Israeli fruit seized from Saudi market
• For more commentary/analysis, see Ephraim Sneh (trade-offs for peace) Seth Lipsky (is the US really an honest broker on the peace process?), Emmanuel Navon (recognizing Israel as a Jewish state), and the JTA (Beating back the assault on Israel’s legitimacy), and Boaz Bismuth (Jordanian rage at Israel).
• The Christian Science Monitor and Voice of America visited Syrians being treated in Israel’s Western Galilee Hospital. While we’re making the rounds, Haaretz visited Ukrainians being treated in Israel.
(Image of money via Flickr/Argenberg)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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