• John Kerry is returning to the Mideast to push peace efforts. Haaretz describes the Secretary of State as a man with a plan:
Kerry’s plan would see a three-month preparatory period of talks between the sides, after which he would present his proposal for the resumption of direct talks. Until then, he is keen for Israel and the PA to commit to further confidence-building measures: on the Israeli side, restricting settlement construction and freeing prisoners, and on the Palestinian side, undertaking not to carry out any more unilateral approaches to the UN or associated bodies.
• Israel HaYom: Israel’s bracing for a “potentially crippling” cyberattack:
The attack is set to take place on April 7, which this year will be the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The planned assault is part of hacktivist group Anonymous’s ongoing #OpIsrael campaign, which was launched in March in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians. As part of the campaign, Anonymous — which has since been joined by several other hacktivist groups including Sector404 and RedHack — said that on April 7 that it would “launch a coordinated, massive cyberattack on Israeli targets with the intent of erasing Israel from the Internet.”
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Worth reading: In the Wall St. Journal, Germany’s former defense minister writes that Berlin needs to demonstrate to both Jerusalem and Tehran that it has Israel’s back.
• Egypt Takes Another Step Towards Autocracy — and Instability
• Thanks to cabinet politics and Avigdor Lieberman’s legal issues (I can’t wrap my head around them either), Israel has no foreign minister. That forces visiting dignitaries to meet with five different Israeli officials (cue the light bulb jokes). Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth is coming and I wish I had more confidence in Israel’s diplomacy-by-committee. The Jerusalem Post writes:
Eide, who is to arrive Wednesday for a one-day visit, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister and acting Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu; International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz; Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, because of her role as the person who will head the negotiating team with the Palestinians if negotiations get restarted; Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, because of what one official said was his “important role in the government,” and Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin.
• Germany supports designating Hezbollah as a terror group.
(Image of dome via Flickr/M.Khatib, Kerry via Flickr/US Dept. of State)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
