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Today’s Top Stories
1. Acrimonious, hostile, and heated are some of the adjectives describing Martin Indyk’s meeting with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Israeli papers widely quoted Maan News coverage. Despite the PA’s unilateral moves, the US isn’t officially throwing in the towel. See the Jerusalem Post and NY Times for the latest on the diplomatic front.
2. Israel’s foreign service ended its strike, meaning diplomats are returning to work and embassies are re-opening. Haaretz lays out the details of the arrangement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs employees and the Finance Ministry.
3. Britain’s National Union of Journalists to debate boycotting Israel next week. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
Bottom line, you can’t call yourself an objective journalist if you support the boycott of the country you cover. Journalism has to be outside the realm of politics.
If this motion does come to a vote, NUJ members should disclose their votes. It’s in the public’s interest to know.
And if the motion passes, the journalism of its members working in Israel will have zero credibility.
4. The Times and “Occupied Arab Land”: Times of London makes an inaccurate, prejudiced assertion about Jewish ties to the West Bank.
5. The Guardian Corrects the Error: No, Israel didn’t directly tie a prisoner release to recognition as a Jewish state.
6. What is the Power of Economic Pressure on Israel? How much influence does the business sector have on the peace process?
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Palestinians said talks can continue, but only on borders. If not, they’ll pursue membership in more international organizations.
• YNet rounds up what US lawmakers had to say about cutting American aid to the PA or closing the PLO’s mission in Washington.
• I haven’t seen much Big Media interest in Israeli-Arab views on the latest developments, but two reports deserve a thumbs up. NPR talked to Israeli-Arabs, some of who talk about feeling out of place in Palestine and wouldn’t want to live there. And Global Post sounded out what Israeli-Arab victims of Palestinian terror had to say about the possible prisoner release.
• Memo to AFP: Aside from the fact that Gilo ain’t a settlement, the moniker “Arab East Jerusalem” is just as prejudicial as referring to Harlem as “Black North Manhattan.
US officials were privately angered on Tuesday when Israel reissued tenders for 708 settler homes in Gilo, a settlement neighborhood in Arab East Jerusalem.
• The blame game begins.
• Israeli security personnel on the Gaza border came under Palestinian sniper fire. No injuries reported.
• For more commentary/analysis, see staff-eds in the LA Times, USA Today, and NY Sun (on releasing Pollard), and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on the peace talks.
See also David Horovitz (why the peace talks failed, part 94), Robert Danin (did White House pull the plug on Kerry’s peace mission?), Ron Ben-Yishai (what’s the point of extending peace talks?), Jonathan Tobin (Abbas fled talks first chance he got), the Times of Israel (why didn’t Israel demand Palestinian unity as a precondition for peace talks?), Barak Ravid (Kerry, go home), John Podhoretz (why Kerry failed), Ari Shavit (Kerry needs a Plan B), Judith Miller (Obama’s misguided Pollard gambit), and Dan Kurtzer (against releasing Pollard).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• According to the UN, there are now more than 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
• Reuters: Tehran and Moscow are making progress on a $20 billion barter to trade Iranian oil for Russian industrial goods and food.
(Image of Dead Sea via Flickr/Government Press Office)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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