Arab Spring Winter
• Egypt votes in second day of presidential elections. AP reports:
The winner will be officially announced on Thursday, but the result could be known by as early as Monday morning, based on not entirely reliable exit polls conducted by campaign workers or samples of votes counted across the nation.
• Reuters: UN suspends its Syrian monitor team. CNN: Opposition slams UN. AFP: Syria tightens its grip on Homs.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Washington Post: Iran’s oil exports are down 40 percent. Revenue loss amounts to around $4.5 billion a month. Consumer prices are up 40 percent while Iranian currency has lost 50 percent of its value. What’s next?
“After July 1, Iran’s world of hurt becomes a lot worse,” Kupchan said.
• Call it the Swiss diss: Switzerland’s ignoring the sanctions on Iran’s banking and oil sectors. Details at the Jerusalem Post.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Ehud Olmert bombed Syrian nuclear facility despite George Bush Jr.’s preference for a diplomatic approach. That’s what former White House advisor Elliott Abrams told the Jerusalem Post:
When Bush informed Olmert of the US decision in July 2007, Abrams recalled, Olmert said the strategy was unacceptable to Israel. It was clear to everyone that from this point on there would be no sharing of plans and that “Israel would let us know afterward,” he said.
Indeed, according to Abrams, Israel informed Washington immediately after the September 7, 2007, strike.
Abrams’s comments were in the context of an interview about the State Comptroller’s report on the Mavi Marmara affair. Abrams expanded on his defense of the Prime Minister in a separate piece at his Council of Foreign Relations blog.
• Israel HaYom: Turkey’s investigating IHH boss Bulent Yildirim for transferring money to Al-Qaida. The IHH (Humanitarian Relief Foundation) spearheaded the Mavi Marmara flotilla. Israel previously screamed about the IHH’s ties to radical Islam but nobody was interested. Malam detailed the associations last year.
• Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz died. He’s best known for forcing a legal settlement with The Independent after Robert Fisk erroneously claimed that Nayef had authorized security forces to use live ammo against unarmed demonstrators. And in 2002, Prince Nayef told a Kuwaiti paper that Zionists were responsible for 9/11. Meanwhile, Elliott Abrams assesses would-be successors.
• Worth reading: Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno on the Olympic refusal for a minute of silence:
Bollocks.
• Roland Martin (CNN) is fed up with Israeli appeals for Jonathan Pollard’s release.
(Image of Sida via YouTube/euronewspt)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
Clicking “Unsubscribe instantly” on your mailing will remove you from the Israel Daily News Stream list, but not from your regular HonestReporting emails.
