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. Hassan Rohani proves his “moderation” by appointing as foreign minister the Holocaust denying Mohammad Javad Zarif. Zarif has previously served as Iran’s ambassador to the UN. David Feith (Wall St. Journal via Google News) writes:
“Iran Nominee Seen As Olive Branch to United States,” blares a headline from Reuters. His appointment, asserts Bloomberg News, “suggests the new Iranian president would like to break a 34-year impasse between the Islamic Republic and the U.S.”
Anything’s possible, but those expecting a breakthrough from Mr. Zarif might want to consult video of a visit he made to Columbia University in 2006. It shows Mr. Zarif sounding a lot like now-former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust-denying firebrand that Tehran’s apologists like to portray as an aberration in Iranian politics.
2. The NY Times and Global Post visited the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya, where Israeli doctors are tending Syrian casualties — mostly children right now.
3. Do you think Palestinian supporters will distance themselves from this Toronto activist’s incitement? Don’t hold your breath:
Addressing the annual Al-Quds Day rally on Saturday, Elias Hazineh, the former president of Palestine House in suburban Toronto, called for “an ultimatum” to Israelis: “You have to leave Jerusalem. You have to leave Palestine.
“We say get out or you’re dead! We give them two minutes and then we start shooting. And that’s the only way that they will understand,” Hazineh said to cheers from a crowd of approximately 400.
4. The Independent’s Unbelievable Response to Complaint from Reader: Editor digs in his heels over headline’s disingenuous reference to Palestinian “political” prisoners.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israeli ambulance stoned in eastern Jerusalem. The NY Times will probably call it an “honored act of defiance.”
• What’s the state of Palestinian reconciliation efforts? According to The Media Line and other Palestinians, it’s a joke.
• Haaretz: In the wake of the EU’s controversial settlement guidelines, Israel’s reconsidering its cooperating with the EU on a variety of research, educational and economic projects. And the Jerusalem Post picks up on diplomatic efforts to counter the guidelines.
• Worth reading: Irish columnist Carol Hunt wants to know what Israel has ever done to deserve the Emerald Isle’s opprobrium.
• For commentary/analysis, see the Baltimore Sun and a Globe & Mail staff-ed.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• The NY Times looks at the intelligence that prompted the US to close its Mideast embassies and consulates. We’re talking about intercepted messages between Ayman al-Zawahri and Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen.
Staff-eds in the Washington Post and NY Times weigh in on what the Al-Qaida threats mean for the US and the Obama administration. See also Bret Stephens (Wall St. Journal via Google News).
• Iranian ex-pat Peyvand Khorsandi warns anyone who will listen not to drink the proverbial Kool Aid about Hassan Rohani’s moderation:
You can’t be a moderate in Iran. Protecting the sanctity of the Islamic Republic’s founding Khomeini-ist principles, and its resulting injustices, is your raison d’etre and if you’re not up to the task, you’re dead.
It’s all very Cosa Nostra – you can’t stray; you can’t pull the wool over anyone’s eyes and thuggish credentials are a must: it’s a gangster regime, pure and simple.
For years this guy was the Secretary of Iran’s feared Supreme National Security Council.
Countless killings occurred under his watch; not least during the student uprising of 1999 which Rouhani vowed to “crush mercilessly and monumentally”.
• David Gardner (Financial Times via Google News) slams Ankara’s crackdown on press freedom. So if you haven’t already done so, add “Turkish model of democracy” to the list of ephemeral media mimicry.
• Israel’s using Twitter diplomacy to reach out to Arabs in the Gulf states. The Jerusalem Post picked up on #EidTalk.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
