Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.
An AP retraction speaks volumes about Hamas’ media credibility. Islamists dominate panel drafting Egyptian constitution. UN investigation into Israeli settlements ain’t your daddy’s Goldstone report.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• An AP retraction speaks volumes about Hamas’ media credibility. More on that at AP Retracts Story Because of Hamas Lie.
• Haaretz: Israel severs all contact with the UN Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in response to the HRC’s investigation into settlements. The Times of Israel says the investigation ain’t your daddy’s Goldstone report:
It is also important to keep in mind that there is one fundamental difference between the Goldstone report and the yet-to-be-written report about the settlements. Goldstone wrote about a war that had a beginning and an end. While the high number of casualties caused stormy debates about Israel’s alleged “disproportionality,” many world leaders understood that the Israeli army was reacting to years of constant rocket fire and felt the legitimate need to protect Israeli citizens.
The settlements, however, are an entirely different ball game. The entire world — quite literally — opposes what it considers Israeli expansionism in the West Bank.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Conventional wisdom says an attack on Iran would rally Iranians around the regime. But is that really true?
• Memo to Nicholas Kristof: check out the results of this poll Haaretz picked up on.
Nearly two-thirds of Jewish Israelis believe that attacking Iran to stop its nuclear program would be less harmful to Israel than living under the shadow of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a new survey shows.
• Ephraim Halevy urges (and urges) not to allows Iran to play for time.
• Mehdi Hasan insists Osirak was a failure and no model for dealing with Iran.
• Reuel Marc Gehrecht maintains that Washington – intentionally or not — is encouraging Israel to attack.
Arab Spring Winter
• According to opposition web sites, Syria’s Air Force intelligence chief was killed.
• More reports detailing Iran’s assistance for Assad’s crackdown. Reuters notes “electronic surveillance systems, technology designed to disrupt efforts by protesters to communicate via social media, and Iranian-made drone aircraft for overhead surveillance.
• According to Itamar Rabinovich, Western support for the Syrian opposition would be more effective without a UN mandate.
• Good news from Egypt: They’re writing a new constitution. Now for the bad news:
Parliamentarians from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the hardline Salafi Nour Party could comprise at least two-thirds of the 100-member panel, according to results announced Sunday after a vote by both houses of Egypt’s new parliament.
At least eight self-identified liberal members announced their withdrawal from the constituent assembly on Sunday in protest over the overwhelming presence of Islamist politicians who they fear will infuse the founding document with Islamic rules.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Confirmed: Mohammed Merah spent three days in Israel in 2010. The JPost writes:
Merah entered Israel from Jordan via the Allenby border crossing, and was questioned by security forces before being allowed in.
Israeli authorities say his passport was authentic.
Merah’s visit to Israel came before his trip to Afghanistan, the source said.
(Image of Pillay via UN/Paulo Filgueiras, Halevy via YouTube/IsraelNationalTV, Sphinx via Flickr/davehighbury)
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