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Today’s Top Stories
1. The Wall St. Journal (via Google News) reports that both Jordan and Lebanon are chafing at the idea of accepting Palestinian refugees from Syria:
The prospect of a large new influx of Palestinians has rekindled bad memories from the 1970s, when militants—among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who arrived after the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967—sparked a civil war in Lebanon and an uprising against the Jordanian monarchy . . .
When asked why he thought Jordanian officials were treating Palestinian refugees differently than the Syrians, he said, “They are afraid other countries will ask Jordan to become the Palestinian country.”
2.Israel evicted Palestinians from a tent camp set up in an undeveloped area of Maale Adumim. The Palestinians said their “village,” set up on Friday, was intended to block Israeli development in the E1 area. See Jerusalem Post and YNet coverage.
Your local paper may report otherwise, but Despite the Hype, E1 Doesn’t Cut the West Bank in Half.
3. Media reports say the EU will offer a peace plan that would establish a Palestinian state along the 1967, with land swaps. The Times of Israel writes:
“The Europeans cannot force an agreement on us, but they certainly have the ability to embarrass us,” a senior Israeli diplomat was quoted as saying. “They are formulating a policy of parameters that will set forth the principles of a future peace agreement, and they will put it on the table.”
The source said the Palestinians were very likely to accept such parameters, while Israel would have difficulties with it. “This will push us into a corner,” the source said.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Must read: Dr. Qanta Ahmed says Israel’s Jihad is Mine:
Coloring their fascism with Islam, Hamas claims religious legitimacy to openly seek destruction of the Jewish state and eradication of the Jewish people. By grafting themselves onto Into Islamic ideals – the vertebral column of that which is most sacred to Muslims – they render Islam itself heinous, representing their true ruthlessness: theirs is a willingness to sacrifice anything –including Islam – to portray Israel as evil.
This ethos was captured in a single unprecedented obscenity: Hamas’ morbid motorcade. Cocksure thugs, defiantly cruising on motorcycles trailed exposed cadavers of Palestinians – Muslim men – trousers pooled at dead ankles. To chants of ‘Allah-hu-Akbar’ as dozens of Palestinian onlookers silently watched, Hamas took its ghoulish victory lap explicitly to show Gazans how they execute ‘suspected informers to Israel’. This is the Islam of Hamas.
This is why Hamas does not represent me, or other believing Muslims. This is why Israel’s battle is mine. This is why Israel’s struggle – Israel’s jihad – is mine.
• The Gray Wolfe squares off against Peter Beinart’s blog, Open Zion, over the issue of Mizrahi Jewish refugees.
The claim that Mizrahiim went to Israel out of Zionism and not because of Arab pressure is a lie of the most despicable kind—one that’s made in the face of mountains of available evidence because of personal opinions. It’s also been the Arab party line for the past 65 years.
• For more commentary/analysis, see a NY Times staff-ed, Jonathan D. Halevi, Dore Gold, Aaron David Miller (who offers four reasons why Palestinian unity efforts are a joke), the NY Post, and Israel HaYom.
