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. With no end to Egyptian pressure, Hamas signals “readiness” to reconcile with Fatah. Among the confidence building measures reported by the Jerusalem Post, Fatah members who fled Gaza will be allowed to return to their homes, political prisoners will be released, and Fatah officials will be free to visit the strip. McClatchy News has more on Hamas’s falling fortunes.
2. I haven’t been following Turkey’s corruption scandal, but its on my antennae now because the bribery and money laundering ultimately benefited Iran. A Turkish professor explained the scam to Today’s Zaman. In a nutshell:
Oil extracted in Iran is sold to third countries. The revenues are transferred to Iran in the form of cash or gold. Of course, because the system is illegal, the transactions in the third countries have to involve bribery or blackmail. The mediators of course receive their entitlements and commissions.
3. Abu Dhabi is drawing yellow flags for barring a Dutch soccer team, Arnhem Vitesse, from bringing Israeli defender Dan Mori. The club’s drawing heat for planning to travel without Mori, but later reports indicate Vitesse is appealing to FIFA. More at the Daily Mail. Dylan Hanley summed up my thoughts.
When Israelis are involved racism becomes ‘just politics. Shame on Vitesse ‘Vitesse’s Mori refused entry to UAE’ http://t.co/eCtShwIals
— Dylan Hanley (@dylanrhanley) January 7, 2014
4. The NY Times Finally Covers Palestinian Incitement: The paper of record shines a powerful spotlight on Palestinian incitement.
5. Send Me a Speaker From HonestReporting: Are you looking for a top speaker for your synagogue, church, school, university or organization? Invite someone from HonestReporting to give a briefing on anti-Israel media bias and the work we do.
Israel and the Palestinians
• With the EU taking a harder line on Israeli settlements, this new development wasn’t long in coming. According to The Independent, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) is going to investigate G4S, a UK-based security contractor that supplies equipment to Israel used at West Bank checkpoints:
Given the illegality of the settlements under international law, the OECD is expected to question G4S on how it can justify, as a company from an OECD-member country, supplying or servicing kit that aids the occupation.
• Bungled Headline of the Day, courtesy AFP:
You have to read the article to find out the plans aren’t really so new. You don’t have to agree with the settlement policy, but can we be a little more accurate here?
A defence ministry official told AFP the planned building work was announced last October.
“Sunday’s publication is only the second of four necessary steps before building work can begin,” the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that obtaining the necessary permits will take “months.”
• Israeli Arabs living in The Triangle told YNet they don’t want to live in a Palestinian state.
Atmanah said that if the transfer would be approved most of the residents of the area would be forced to move to cities such as Hadera, Afula or Pardes Hanna.
• Jewish activists in Germany are up in arms over a commentary published in Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (Neue OZ) denying Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. If you know German, judge Franziska Kückmann’s commentary for yourself. I haven’t seen a full translation of this.
• Well paint me black — the Rolling Stones are in talks to give Israel satisfaction with a Tel Aviv concert later this year. Get off of my cloud, Roger Waters, you can’t always get what you want. Details at the Times of Israel.
• For more commentary see staff-eds in the Washington Post, LA Times, and Christian Science Monitor, plus op-eds from John Bolton, and Time.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Comments like Adam Kredo’s scoop give me confidence that the misunderstood mullahs really and truly want nuclear power for warm fuzzy peaceful purposes. Pass the Kool Aid:
A top Iranian lawmaker and cleric said that the country’s uranium enrichment program could allow it to build a nuclear weapon “in two weeks” in order to “put down Israel,” according to multiple reports in the Farsi language press.
• Why are Iranian and French negotiators the only ones showing any cunning? asks John Vinocur.
• Don’t Get Suckered By Iran: Just fix the interim accord’s problems.
Arab Spring Winter
• Worth reading: Hezbollah’s Ideological Crisis
• I wonder if groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists will adopt Abbas Karnib. He worked in the “technical department” of Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, and died of injuries from last week’s Beirut bombing.
Precious little’s known about Karnib’s technical expertise, but by Al Manar standards, he was probably over-qualified. AFP explains:
According to the channel, he was “an ex-prisoner in the jails of the Zionist enemy,” Israel.
• A New York Times op-ed by a pair of former US security officials worries that Egypt’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood will have a spillover effect, spawning terror beyond Egypt’s borders.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Big Media’s camping out at Tel Aviv’s Tel Hashomer Hospital, as the Ariel Sharon “death watch” revs up. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Glenn Greenwald to Israeli media: Edward Snowden has more Israel-US secrets yet to disclose.
• Bordeaux became the first French city to cancel anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala’s show. AP reports that other French cities are likely to follow suit after getting a green light from the interior ministry.
The 47-year-old Dieudonne denies his act — or the “quenelle” — is anti-Semitic. However, he has been convicted more than a half-dozen times for inciting racial hatred or anti-Semitism over the years.
• Israel-Argentina: The scars that never heal
(Image of Rolling Stones via Flickr/Der Pfalzgraf)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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