Israel and the Palestinians
• The Times of Israel notes that Israel and the peace process barely mentioned in President Obama’s state of the union address.
• Professor Robert O. Freedman (Baltimore Sun op-ed) offers President Obama some advice on his upcoming Mideast trip:
Should new Palestinian elections be held, Hamas could again emerge victorious, as it did 2006. This would be a near-fatal blow to the peace process, as Hamas has not renounced its charter calling for Israel’s destruction.
Given these circumstances, President Obama should use his influence with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to prevent any Palestinian election until Hamas first renounces terrorism and revokes its charter. Whether Mr. Obama has sufficient influence with Mr. Abbas, however, remains to be seen . . .
• Terrific NY Times op-ed slamming the PA’s record on democracy and human rights. David Keyes channeled his inner Khaled Abu Toameh:
So long as Mr. Abbas says he is committed to peace, there appears to be little pressure from the West on issues of human rights. Human rights for Palestinians, it seems, continue to play second fiddle to the peace process.
A good indicator of how committed a government is to upholding peace with its neighbors is its commitment to protecting the human rights of its own citizens. Nations that disregard the freedoms of their own people are not likely to care much about maintaining peace with their historic enemies. Palestinian human rights, in other words, are key to the peace process.
Come to think of it, maybe Toameh was channeling his inner Keyes? Toameh writes that Palestinians want to raise with Obama the PA’s lack of free speech.
As far as many Western governments and journalists are concerned, physical assaults on Palestinian reporters in the Gaza Strip are fine as long as they are not perpetrated by Israel . . .
It now remains to be seen whether Obama and other Western leaders and government officials, as well as human rights groups, will pay attention to the ongoing attempt to silence Palestinian journalists and political activists. Failure to do so will only encourage Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to continue their assaults on freedom of expression.??
• For more commentary/analysis, see Elliott Abrams and Aaron David Miller.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Worth reading: Spy Fail: Why Iran is Losing Its Covert War With Israel
• What keeps up Mahmoud Ahmadinejad awake at night, poor thing?
• Iranian photoshopping just doesn’t fly, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Iranian bloggers were quick to claim that the picture, which purports to show the Qaher-313 jet soaring over a snowy mountain and which was posted on Iranian site Khouz News, had been altered using PhotoShop.
The angle of the shot, as well as the reflections of light and shadows on the plane’s wings, appear uncannily similar to a publicity shot of the jet taken at its unveiling earlier this month.
The background also strongly resembles a stock image of Iran’s Mt Damavand available elsewhere on the web.
Arab Spring Winter
• NY Times: Syrian rebels captured an airbase, along with usable Soviet-era jet fighters:
But even if rebel pilots can start fighting the Syrian Air Force in the sky, they remain heavily outgunned, a reality that some fighters acknowledged on Tuesday in Skype interviews after news of the Jarrah airfield capture.
“It is very hard to use these warplanes because the regime has radars and long-distance rockets, unless it is a suicidal attack,” said the fighter, who identified himself only by his first name, Saado.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
