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Today’s Top Stories
1. Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington for talks with President Obama. AP and Reuters preview what’s in store. David Horovitz, John Podhoretz and Marc Tracy respond to Obama’s interview with Jeffrey Goldberg. Horovitz writes:
But Netanyahu, his aides had long been indicating, was ready to accept the framework proposals — as a non-binding basis for further negotiations. So no need for confrontation there. And he must have held out little hope that he was going to shift Obama’s stance on Iran, however powerful he believes his arguments to be. So not much point in confrontation there, either.
But then came that bombshell Bloomberg battering.
The timing could not have been any more deliberate — an assault on the prime minister’s policies delivered precisely as Netanyahu was flying in to meet with him, and on the first day, too, of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC’s annual tour de force conference across town.
By the way, Dan Raviv writes for CBS News that the White House will nudge Bibi to stop killing Iranian nuclear scientists. (?)
2. The appearance of a photography drone over a Gaza sporting event raises the question: Are media photography drones a potential a potential risk for Israel?
The use of cilvilian drones has defense implications for Israel. Officials at “Cybermoon” see the drones’ movement in Gaza as a potential risk for a verity of attacks – cyber-attacks from the sky, dropping small booms or using it as an intelligence tool or for air-to-air fight. Flying a civilian drone is more legitimate then the old Hamas plan of building an army of drones.
Hamas has tried to have Drones in the past and we have spotted that in a video which was taken by the drone, the handlers had the support of the Hamas forces in Gaza.
3. Hassan Rouhani confirmed for the first time that Iran was interested in acquiring a nuclear weapon — but not anymore. He told Russia Today:
Iran abandoned its military nuclear program because owning nukes is a sin, the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani revealed in an interview. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formalized the ban with a religious decree forbidding nuclear weapons.
For more background, see Israel HaYom.
4. Irish Journalist Abuses Holocaust to Attack Israel: Frank McDonald compares Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto and accuses Israelis of behaving towards the Palestinians as Nazis did to the Jews.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinians are mulling a successor for Mahmoud Abbas, reports the Financial Times (via Google News). According to The Media Line, Mohammed Dahlan may (or may not) be one of them.
• AP picks up on a sign of the times:
Palestinian civil servants in the Gaza Strip are calling on the Hamas government to pay them their full salaries, a rare expression of discontent in the territory.
• According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there was a 123 percent rise in settlement construction in 2013. There may be more to the figures than meets the eye, but for now, it’s safe to assume the Western press will make over the issue. See YNet.
• Cairo warns Hamas: We’re shutting down the tunnels and holding you responsible for border trouble.
• Nic Robertson of CNN examines the BDS movement and the impact it’s having on Israel. See also Voice of America.
• Over the NY Times Room for Debate, Lara Friedman and Daniel Gordis square off on the issue of boycotting settlements.
• Mark your calendars: British Prime Minister David Cameron will address the Knesset on March 12. Cameron was scheduled to visit Israel in February, but had to reschedule when the UK was hit by severe flooding.
- Why is Argentina tilting from Iran to Israel?
- Israel buying info from Syrian rebels?
- What happens next year when copyright on Mein Kampf expires?
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