• Israel Hayom: The U. California-Davis is offering a course on the BDS movement against Israel.
• South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress, endorsed Israel Apartheid Week.
• California Governor Jerry Brown to sign a “trade, research and economic development pact” with Israel this week.
• How the Ukrainian crisis impacts the Mideast
It is critical – from Israel’s vantage point – for the US and Russia to work together on Iran, and to be on the same page regarding the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Howard Wohl (why liberals must repudiate the BDS movement), Martin Kramer (NY Times has a soft spot for Rashid Khalidi), a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette op-ed on Presbyterian rejection of Zionism, Calgary Herald columnist Naomi Lakritz (let’s mark Palestinian women apartheid week), the Daily Pennsylvanian (Israeli aid to Syrians), a NY Post staff-ed (the Mideast’s forgotten Christians), and an irritating Financial Times staff-ed (Obama must get real with Netanyahu — click via Google News).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• The Jewish Chronicle has good news from Argentina:
The Argentinian government has suspended dialogue with Iran, heralding a shift in policy that coincides with improved relations with Israel.
The government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is understood to have taken the measure after becoming frustrated with the lack of progress achieved in a controversial investigation into the 1994 Amia bombing.
• Is Israel buying information from Syrian rebels?
• Mordechai Kedar: Last week’s Israeli air strike on Hezbollah protected the Saudis too:
One tool that Iran has at its disposal to deter Israel and Saudi Arabia, and to act against them if needed, is to give long-range missiles to Hizb’Allah to use against Saudi Arabia and Israel, in that order. In the last three years it has become clear to Iran in the Syrian killing field that Teheran’s greatest and most dangerous enemy is not Israel, but Saudi Arabia. This is the reason that Hizb’Allah needs new, longer range missiles than the tens of thousands of missiles that it has today. The purpose of the Israeli attack this week on these missiles was to protect Saudi Arabia as well as Israel.
See also Eyal Zisser on Hezbollah’s dilemma.
• Renewed fighting halted humanitarian aid to the Yarmouk refugee camp. Maan News reports that the Islamist al-Nusra Front re-entered the Yarmouk refugee camp:
All non-Palestinian militant factions agreed to leave Yarmouk on Feb. 11 in a deal to allow humanitarian aid to the camp, whose residents were dying of hunger and disease.
• Next year, the copyright on Mein Kampf expires, and anyone will be able to publish it. I’m glad Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed is worried.
Mein Kampf, which is sold and celebrated even in the countries which Hitler despised, such as the Arab world and India, will be tested by our ability to defeat racism and promote the idea of co-existence in a world where borders are porous and the tone of hatred is increasing.
• Israeli intelligence chief Yuval Steinitz argued in a Washington Post op-ed that the nuclear deal being pursued with Tehran will encourage — not limit — Iranian nuclear activity and dangerously increase the odds of proliferation.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s “charm offensive” has had a dramatic effect in the West, but no one in the Middle East buys Iran’s projection of pacifism. Indeed, Tehran’s direct involvement in Sunni-Shiite carnage in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq has sharpened its image. Iran’s breakout capability will be pivotal in regional assessments, with most governments likely to conclude that if the deal leaves Iran only a year or two away from the bomb Tehran ultimately will go nuclear.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Jonathan Tobin (the shelved IAEA report on Iran) and Elliott Abrams (how Iran views US handling of Ukraine crisis).
(Image of drone via YouTube/calhanap, sun via Pixabay/Nemo, atom via deejaywill)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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