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Today’s Top Stories
1. Iran’s trying to re-establish its weapons-to-Gaza pipeline via Sudan. The Daily Telegraph‘s Con Coughlin writes:
According to intelligence reports received by Western diplomats, Iranian and Sudanese officials have recently had a series of meetings with Hamas to establish a new arms route. At the same time a number of unscheduled Iranian cargo flights have been logged between Tehran and Khartoum. On several occasions Boeing 747 aircraft were used, suggesting Iran is trying to smuggled significant quantities of arms to Gaza.
2. The White House now believes Bashar Assad did use chemical weapons against civilians. Asharq al-Awsat points out that until President Obama takes action, the White House — not Assad — will be under siege. The Washington Post and Haaretz weigh in on the burning question: What’s Washington’s next step? Dominic Lawson tosses aside those arguments. Forget the sarin, he says. Assad crossed the red line with his first murder. And Elliott Abrams says American credibility is on the line because Iran’s watching Obama’s response very closely.
3. Moderate Syrian rebels? The NY Times says you won’t find any in liberated areas.
Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.
4. Video: Boston Marathon Bombers Were “Terrorists”. So when Palestinians launch rockets at civilian targets in Israel, asks Yarden Frankl, why does the media refuse to call them terrorists?
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Guardian picked up on a video of Gaza teenagers trained by Hamas to handle guns and explosives. The kids in this video are 15-17 years old.
[Hamas] that real weapons are used in training. However, a video shot at the Gamal Abdel Nasser school near Gaza City appears to show students carrying Kalashnikovs and a boy firing an artillery shell at a mocked-up watchtower bearing an Israeli flag. Schoolboy Izzadine Mohammed confirmed to the Guardian that he had been trained in handling real weapons at a camp this year.
About 5,000 boys have participated in the camps since the programme started in September, according to the education ministry.
See also Daily Telegraph coverage.
• Worth watching: Channel 4 takes a look at Gaza’s booming real estate industry.
• After seeing enough of the It All Started When Israel Fired Back phenomenon, connoisseurs of good headlines will appreciate this AP headline:
• Washington insider to Israel HaYom: Abbas is holding up the peace process, and the White House knows it. What took ’em so long to realize this? Abbas’s do-nothng approach is well-known.
• Human Rights Watch criticized Israel for human rights violations during last year’s Gaza’s conflict. I liked CNN‘s look at the matter.
• The Wall St. Journal (via Google News) visits Rawabi, the new Palestinian city under development. Israelis and Palestinians are sparring over land for an access road that would be under Palestinian control.
• Fox News: Is a geography textbook used in Tennessee public schools biased against Israel?
• John Kerry has about eight weeks to push the peace process before Mahmoud Abbas begins pushing unilateral action in international organizations. See The Media Line‘s update.
• George Bisharat (LA Times op-ed) slams Israeli racial profiling at Ben Gurion Airport, ties it into a proposed American partnership that would ease restrictions on Israelis traveling to the US.
• For more commentary/analysis, see David Ignatius and Jonathan Freedland.
- Why do Egyptians now view Hamas as “a burden?”
- Did Israeli jets buzz Bashar Assad’s palace?
- More bad press for Hezbollah.
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