Today’s Top Stories
1. Egypt freed Peter Greste, the Al-Jazeera reporter accused of helping the Muslim Brotherhood and fabricating news.
The Australian journalist’s release needs to be viewed in the larger context of Egypt’s rapprochement with Qatar, whose royal family owns Al-Jazeera, as Amin Saikal explains. Its easier to understand these maneuverings as Calvinball in Cairo.
Greste’s colleagues, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief, Mohamed Fahmy (a Canadian-Egyptian national), and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed, remain behind bars. Reuters reports that Fahmy may be released soon.
2. Fascinating: A German judge ruled that anti-Zionism is a code for anti-Semitism for purposes of incitement. The Times of Israel explains:
At his Essen hearing this winter Can was prosecuted for his use of the term “Zionist” as incitement against a minority.
During the hearing, Can claimed he was not an anti-Semite and had nothing against the Jewish people but only against the Zionist state. In response, Judge Sastry is quoted by Die Welt saying, “‘Zionist’ is the language of anti-Semites, the code for ‘Jew.’”
Sastry’s judgment, which does not form a binding precedent in German law, essentially semantically equates anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
3. According to Asharq al-Awsat, Yemen’s pro-Iranian Houthis are trying to take control of the Bab el-Manded strait, a key maritime choke point connecting the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, and further along, the Suez Canal and Mediterranean.
Iranian influence over the strait would complicate Israeli efforts to interdict Iranian weapons smuggling and potentially threaten Israeli shipping. And as a Jerusalem Post op-ed points out, it gives Iran a “non-nuclear choke hold” on both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Mideast Matters
• Haaretz: Jordan is reinstating its ambassador to Israel three months after Temple Mount tensions.
• The brother of a Jordanian jihadist’s Israeli victim opposes her release in possible ISIS prisoner swap, reports the Israeli media reports. Ibrahim Abu-Garuf’s brother, Hussam, was among the 60 people killed in a coordinated set of suicide bombings of Amman hotels in 2005.
• Hamas says it’s ready to cooperate with Iran “to destroy the Israeli occupation.” And Tehran says it wants to strengthen Iran’s foothold in the West Bank.
• An in-depth UNESCO study (pdf format) of Holocaust education around the world found severe shortcomings in the Mideast.
• Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal (remember him?) launched a pan-Arab satellite TV station, the Alarab News Channel, to compete with Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. Alarab general manager Jamal Khashoggi said all the right things to AFP. From his lips to Allah’s ears:
Jamal Khashoggi, Alarab’s general manager, said the new channel will be even-handed.
“We are not going to take sides,” he told AFP in an interview.
“I think a news channel should not have a political agenda… We should just be a news channel that provides accurate, objective information.”
Commentary/Analysis
• Spengler: China’s Emergence as a Middle Eastern Power and Israel’s Opportunity
Some Chinese strategists predict an Israeli role in the project on par with, or possibly even more important, than that of Turkey. China calls the project “One Belt and One Road,” referring to a belt of railroads, highways, pipelines and broadband communications stretching through China to the West, and a “maritime Silk Road” combining sea routes with port infrastructure from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.
Israel’s location makes it possible for the Jewish state to “play the role of bridgehead for ‘One Belt and One Road’ with the completion of the ‘Red-Med’ rail project,” said Dr. Liu Zongyi at a November seminar at Remnin University. Dr. Liu based at the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, spoke of a $2 billion, 300 km rail line linking Ashkelon with the Red Sea. The “Red-Med” project is usually presented in more modest terms, as a way of absorbing excess traffic from the Suez Canal, or an alternative route in the event of political disruption.
While Israel and China move forward with the Red-Med railway, Egypt last year announced a $4 billion plan to dig a second, parallel Suez Canal to expand traffic.
• A Washington Post staff-ed blasts Hamas Gaza suffering.
THE POST’S William Booth witnessed a chilling event in the Gaza Strip on Thursday: thousands of youths lined up “in crisp military fashion” for a “graduation ceremony” after a week of training by the armed wing of the Hamas movement. Even as thousands of Gazan families struggle to survive amid the rubble of last summer’s war with Israel, and children are reported to be dying from exposure, Hamas is once again investing its resources in preparing for another unwinnable battle.
That this is happening is yet another indictment of this Islamic terrorist movement, which has started three wars with Israel in six years while depriving the 1.8 million people on its devastated territory any hope of peaceful development.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Aaron David Miller (The US-Israel relationship is too big to fail), Robert Jacobs (Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for Gaza’s suffering), Eyal Zisser (Gone are the days of quiet), Yakub Halabi (Israel and Hezbollah’s common interest in Syria), Louis Rene Beres (Seeking “Palestine” while fighting ISIS: a self-contradictory foreign policy),
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Thomas Szynkiewicz via flickr with additions by HonestReporting; map CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com; Shanghai CC BY-NC-ND flickr/JERRYANG
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