Arab Spring Winter
• Worth reading: Secular Egyptians admitted to The Atlantic‘s Eric Trager that their increasingly violent protests are calculated to push the army into seizing control of the country from the Muslim Brotherhood. But the army — so far — isn’t biting:
Yet despite this pro-military mood swing, the generals are staying away from direct political involvement for the time being. Rather than ruling, the military is focusing squarely on managing its narrow, mostly economic interests. In some cases, it is even using its vast resources to boost its image while the Brotherhood’s falters. This will help the military justify its return to power if Egypt’s current political chaos threatens its assets.
See also the Financial Times (via Google News) on the Brotherhood’s flagging fortunes as opponents take over student and professional unions.
• Mohammed Morsi to hold daily Twitter sessions to respond to citizen concerns.
• The Nusra Front’s union with Al-Qaida in Iraq is throwing Syrian rebel transition plans into chaos and threatening to divide the opposition. The Daily Star looks at the fallout and implications. See also McClatchy News: reporter David Enders said the Nusra Front jihadis who kidnapped him were upfront about their Al-Qaida ties:
The group that abducted us, the Nusra Front – or Jabhat al Nusra in Arabic – has good reason to be suspicious of Americans. In December, the U.S. State Department declared it a front for al Qaida in Iraq and a wing of the Islamic State of Iraq, another al Qaida branch – a relationship that its members don’t try to hide. One bluntly, and smilingly, told me last month: “Of course we’re all al Qaida.”
• A Human Rights Watch report accused Syria for air strikes deliberately targeting civilians. We’re talking about 4,300 civilians killed in air strikes since last summer. It drew a lot of attention from Big Media: take your pick of CNN, BBC, or AP coverage.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Ali Gharib is taking credit for a correction on yesterday’s Washington Post staff-ed about Netanyahu and Iranian uranium enrichment. But the correction doesn’t go far enough for the Open Zion blogger.
• I don’t understand why the Daily Telegraph lends credibility to reports of an Iranian-invented time machine.
The device can predict the future in a print out after taking readings from the touch of a user, he told the Fars state news agency.
Razaeghi, 27, said the device worked by a set of complex algorithims to “predict five to eight years of the future life of any individual, with 98 percent accuracy”.
Before claiming success, let’s wait and see if 98 percent of those predictions come true in a few years — unless Mossad terminators from the future catch up with him first.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Real Passports, Fake Drivers’ Licenses: How Hezbollah Slowly Infiltrated Europe
• The Times of Israel looks at Mideast views on honor and the two ways to view Israel’s apology to Ankara.
The apology was either a shameful capitulation that will cause true harm to Israel’s strategic interests, or a bargain, a toll of insincere verbiage paid in order to smooth the peacock-like feathers of Turkey — an Oriental gesture that promotes Israel’s interests without forcing the state to pay in the true coin of territory and blood.
• NY Times: NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire to coach Canada’s Maccabiah basketball team in Israel. The games begin in July. The NY Knicks forward is currently recovering from knee surgery.
• Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides discussed designating Hezbollah as a terror group, his country’s views on Israeli-Turkey detente, and energy partnership with Israel. Full interview with the Times of Israel.
(Image of Indian flag via Flickr/myriadity, Stoudemire via YouTube/VCmysterious619)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
