Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.
US pressures Israel not attack Iran. Khader Adnan’s hunger strike continues. And foreign support for rebels “pours into Syria” — from Iraq.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Worth reading: Arab, Like Me
• Maan News reports that Gaza’s electrical crisis was alleviated with the arrival of 300,000 liters of fuel — via the smuggling tunnels.
• Mark Regev explains to CNN‘s impatient Hala Gorani why Khader Adnan’s in administrative detention.
Meanwhile, AP reports that Israel’s Supreme Court moved up a hearing on Adnan’s appeal. The Islamic Jihad member is being treated for his hunger strike in a civilian hospital, where his health and living conditions are closely scrutinized by doctors, lawyers, journalists and NGOs. Gilad Shalit should’ve had it so good.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• A widely quoted AFP report says the US is putting big time pressure on Israel not to attack Iran.
‘Israel is under pressure from all sides. The Americans don’t want to be surprised and faced with a fait accompli of an Israeli attack,’ a senior Israeli official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
‘They are telling us to be patient and see if the international sanctions against Teheran will eventually work,’ he said.
See also JPost coverage of Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s meeting with the visiting US National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon.
• German military expert Hans Ruhle argues in Die Welt (German) that an Israeli strike could set the Iranian atomic agenda back 10 years. The ever-prescient Spengler quotes and expands on Ruhle’s essay. It’s polar opposite more pessimistic assessments at the NY Times and CNN.
• Iranian soccer team cancels match with Serbian club — because Partizan Belgrade head coach Avram Grant is Israeli.
• More commentary at the WSJ (staff-ed, click via Google News) Jennifer Rubin, Niles Gardner, Uri Dromi, John Yemma, and (gulp) MP John Baron. Last but not least, Gideon Rachman (click via Google News) points out that Western leaders have more confidence in Netanyahu’s arguments than they’re publicly letting on.
Arab Spring Winter
• IDF foils terror attack on Egypt border
• If Egypt unilaterally alters the Camp David treaty, Israel may refuse to sign peace agreements with other neighbors.
. . . why sign agreements with other neighbors if these accords are not kept, Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor said Monday.
• Unrest spreads to Damascus, where soldiers fire on protesters. Reuters writes:
Demonstrations and clashes with security forces have rocked Damascus in the past week, undermining President Bashar al-Assad’s claims that the 11-month uprising has been the work of saboteurs and limited mainly to the provinces.
• Worth reading: Homs, City of Torture.
• As a result of global paralysis, Syria’s sectarian war goes international as foreign fighters and arms pour into country.
For years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, weapons and fighters slipped in across the border from Syria. Now the roles are being reversed with the flow coming the other way, although the numbers involved remain unclear.
• An exiled Iranian writes a poignant open letter to Asma Assad:
You are not the same woman who once spoke to me about the plight of children in Palestine and elsewhere. A river of blood, including that of children, runs through your country. It’s hard for me imagine your hands blood-soaked, but your family is behind this ongoing massacre.
Asma, you are a mother, so how can you stand by a man who gives the orders to execute entire families in their homes? How can you sing lullabies to your daughter and son when so many Syrian mothers, especially in Homs, now have no one to sing to? How can you sleep in a bed with a man who has mastered the dark arts of torture and murder?
(Image of F15 via Flickr/Israel Defense Forces)
