Today’s Top Stories
1. Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu addressed Congress on the Iranian nuclear threat. If you haven’t seen it, here’s the video and transcript. See below for more fallout and commentary.
2. Argentina wants to revive a joint “truth commission” with Iran to get to the bottom of bury the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish community headquarters. More on this at Reuters. And the Buenos Aires Herald picks up on a related war of words between Israel and Argentina.
3. Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority banned a tourism ad which might have duped people into thinking that Jerusalem’s Old City is part of Jerusalem. See AFP coverage and the ASA ruling.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• CNN: Did Netanyahu change any minds in Congress?
• After the speech, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour discussed Iran with Yuval Steinitz. My antennae twitched at 5:22 when Amanpour said to Steinitz that the speech didn’t say anything new. Steinitz’s response:
First, you know, it’s quite paradoxical on the one hand to ask the Prime Minister not to reveal anything from the ongoing negotiations and then to say it didn’t expose anything new.
• Obama on speech: Netanyahu said nothing new.
• CNN: Did Netanyahu change any minds in Congress?
• Reuters picked on a UN report deploring Iran’s human rights record.
The report from the office of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the U.N. Human Rights Council cataloged U.N. concerns about rights violations in Iran against women, religious minorities, journalists and activists . . .
Iran was believed to have executed at least 500 people between January and November 2014 and possibly many more, the report said. Most victims did not get a fair trial and over 80 percent of those executed were drug offenders, it said.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The PLO is holding a powwow in Ramallah to discuss the future of Israeli-Palestinian ties. According to the Jerusalem Post:
The sources said that the PLO representatives would discuss the possibility of suspending or cutting security, economic and political ties with Israel.
• Reuters: In his first report to the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteur Makarim Wibsono called on Israel to investigate the deaths of Palestinian civilians during Operation Protective Edge. A former Indonesian ambassador, Wibisono replaced Richard Falk last year.
• Surprise, surprise: The Palestinians are faulting Kerry for backing Israel at the UN Human Rights Council.
• Did a court ruling change the status of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount?
Around the World
• To get a better understanding of anti-Semitism, the daily Berliner Morgenpost invited Israeli ambassador Yakov Hadas-Handelsman to read some of the embassy’s daily blitz of hate mail in this video (with English subtitles).
• French Jewish leader Roger Cukierman discussed the country’s climate for Jews with NPR (audio/transcript).
Commentary/Analysis
Lots of commentary from local papers who waited to hear what Netanyahu had to say before weighing in. I sprinkled a few cartoons and tweets that caught my eye.
The Israeli reactions:
– Haviv Rettig Gur: Speech gave voice to Arab concerns
– Dr. Kobi Michael — Time for an Israel-Sunni alliance
– Herb Keinon: After the speech, life goes on
– Raphael Ahren: Amid criticism, Bibi signals some readiness to compromise
– David Horovitz: A devastating, irrevocable indictment of Obama
– Chemi Shalev: Netanyahu’s splendid speech and the carnage in its wakern
The American reactions:
– Josh Rogin: Netanyahu’s careful, clever speech to Congress
– Gil Troy: The American-Israel friendship will survive
– Anne Gearan: Bibi makes his case, but audience has limited leverage
– Tom Friedman: What Bibi didn’t say
– Nicholas Gallagher: Bibi speaks for the Sunnis
– Elliott Abrams: Bad arguments about a bad deal with Iran
– Dana Milbank: Congress declares war at Netanyahu’s request
– Elise Labott: 10 questions about Netanyahu’s speech
– William Galston: A forecful, but misguided address (click via Google News)
– Jeremy Ben-Ami: What Netanyahu’s speech left out
– David Ignatius: Netanyahu’s zero-sum game on Iran
The Iranian reactions:
– Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo: Netanyahu’s nuclear deceptions
The media reactions:
– AP: Fact check: Did Netanyahu go too far in US speech?
– Washington Post staff-ed: Obama needs to provide real answers to Netanyahu’s arguments
– Los Angeles Times staff-ed: A strong warning to Congress — and Obama
– New York Times staff-ed: Mr. Netanyahu’s unconvincing speech to Congress
– Wall St. Journal staff-ed: Netanyahu’s challenge (click via Google News)
– Daily Telegraph staff-ed: This is no time for a rift in the West over Israel
– Boston Herald staff-ed: “A very bad deal”
– Pittsburgh Tribune staff-ed: “Netanyahu’s call was clarion”
– USA Today staff-ed: Netanyahu comforts hardliners everywhere
– Houston Chronicle staff-ed: Bibi’s bad form but right message
– Denver Post staff-ed: Netanyahu falls short on options
– Toronto Star staff-ed: Tough line rings hollow
– Detroit News staff-ed: Netanyahu issues fair warning to U.S., world
Cartoonists weighing in include the Detroit Free-Press‘s Mike Thompson, Dutch cartoonist Joep Bertrams (this is sick), and the Arizona Republic‘s Steve Benson (no relation to me). There’s a lot of ways to look at the latter’s cartoon. How do you see it?
• For commentary that’s not related to Iran see Beth Kissileff (Inside the artistic boycott movement),
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Thom Sanders
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
