Everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast. Join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Today’s Top Stories
1. John Kerry spent the weekend shuttling between Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman. Despite the flurry of activity and talk of narrowed gaps, there was no breakthrough.
2. American Jewish student Andrew Pochter was killed in Egypt during weekend unrest. Reports say he was was watching a demonstration in Alexandria when he was stabbed by a protester. Since he studied at Kenyon College in Ohio, and his family lives in Chevy Chase, MD, the story’s local to 10 TV of Columbus and the Washington Post. The latter writes:
Active in a Jewish student group at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he would have been junior in the fall, Pochter traveled to Egypt this summer on an internship to teach English to Egyptian 7- and 8-year-olds. He also hoped to improve his Arabic.
Everybody’s covering Egypt’s massive anti-government demonstrations.
3. Did Israeli forces cross into the Sinai to arrest a Palestinian? Israel’s holding Wael Abu Rida, 35, of Gaza, on unspecified security offenses. According to Reuters, Rida vanished in Egypt, until his family got a phone call from Israeli authorities:
The possibility he was seized from Egyptian Sinai territory could embarrass the Islamist-rooted government in Cairo at a time of major domestic unrest.
4. World War Z: Paramount thinks Turks afraid of Israel, not Zombies: When the West is afraid of irrational anti-Israel sentiment, they end up giving it credibility, argues Yarden Frankl.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Haaretz goes behind the scenes at Wikipedia to look at the site’s edit warring.
• Another Palestinian protesting PA injustice set himself on fire. Blame Israel, right?
Marouf was protesting the late payment of benefits to former prisoners in Israeli jails, and had brought his medical file with him as evidence for the ministry.
• The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, is under fire for supposedly snubbing the Palestinians during his visit to the Holy Land. The Times of London writes:
A representative from the Archbishop’s office said that he had been unable to visit Bethlehem and Nazareth because of a “packed schedule” but added that he had visited Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem on Wednesday and Ramallah yesterday.
• Yossi Beilin visited Toronto, where he hung out with the Toronto Star‘s Haroon Siddiqui.
• For commentary/analysis on the peace process, see Elliott Abrams, YNet, the NY Daily News, and a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff-ed. Haaretz weighs in on the al-Dura video verdict.
- Egyptian conspiracy theories bounce back at the Muslim Brotherhood.
- Foreign Ministry strike puts aliyah on hold.
- Health officials fear Muslim pilgrims will spread deadly MERS virus after hajj.
