• A NY Times staff-ed weighs in on the Levy Report, prompting HonestReporting to weigh in on the Times. A Bloomberg News staff also criticizes the Levy report with this warning:
If Israel truly owns and controls the land — and doesn’t just occupy it — and if it fails to give equal rights to Palestinians, then it will be accused of segregationist policies. Those policies would come with international isolation and possibly economic sanctions.
• Mahmoud Abbas probably thinks this is a confidence building measure that puts the ball in Israel’s court:
• NPR picks up on a UNRWA report addressing Israeli home demolitions. The UN and the Palestinians concede that the homes are illegally built — their tack is that “more than 94 percent of all Palestinian permit applications have been rejected in recent years.”
• It’s nice to see soft stories reminding readers of Jewish-Arab co-existence. Case in point: The NY Times visits Hadassah Hospital:
“We are a team here, and there is no difference, if one is Jewish or Muslim or Christian: The task is to help the patients,” Ms. Igbarya said.
• Mahmoud Abbas continues to deny comments attributed to him by ex-Secretary of State Condi Rice and columnist Jackson Diehl. The Times of Israel talked Ignatius and Rice’s staff: both stand by the quotes.
• Daily Telegraph: Suha Arafat asks French judge to declare her husband’s death “murder.”
• Ehud Barak discusses Egypt, Iran, Syria, peace talks, and his political marriage with Benjamin Netanyahu with Time. (Click via Twitter).
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Iran’s Ballistic Missiles Improving, Pentagon Finds
Arab Spring Winter
• A Wall Street Journal staff-ed (click via Google News) slams Kofi Annan for trying to make Iran a peacemaker in the Syrian civil war:
Mr. Annan won the [Nobel Peace] prize having already praised Saddam Hussein, in 1998, as a man of “courage, wisdom, flexibility,” with whom he could “do business.” Now he’s in Tehran finding new despots to praise in his role as the U.N.’s Special Envoy on Syria. “I think Iran can play a positive role” in ending the crisis in Syria, Mr. Annan told reporters, standing alongside the Iranian foreign minister. “So let’s work together to bring peace and stability to Syria.”
Mazal tov, Kofi.
• Muslim Brotherhood Runs Out of Steam in Libya; projections say the Brotherhood won “as little as three percent of the vote in some cities.”
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Israel HaYom: IDF brass approves NIS 3 billion plan to secure offshore gas rigs from terrorist threats.
• The British phone hacking scandal expanded beyond News Corp. The LA Times reports that police arrested two journalists working for papers not connected to Rupert Murdoch’s media holdings:
While the police did not reveal their identities, the two were quickly named in the press as Justin Penrose, a 37-year-old journalist from the Daily Mirror tabloid, and Tom Savage, 34, deputy news editor from the Daily Star Sunday, another popular tabloid.
(Image of Annan via UN/Jean-Marc Ferré)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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