Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Martin Indyk: The US expected an Israeli strike on Iran during the spring. Everyone’s entitled to some bad predictions, but I wonder about the feeling of being duped by an Israeli ruse. Where’s that coming from?
After no Israeli strike took place, Indyk said that the US officials felt as though they had been duped by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s ruse.
• Ban Ki-moon will attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran. This NY Times headline sums up the view from Israel:
UN Visit Will Set Back Push to Isolate Iran
And a NY Daily News staff-ed goes even further than the Gray Lady:
UN chief’s trip to Iran is a boost for terrorism
• For the first time, a high-level European official has called for the EU to ban Hezbollah. Details at the Jerusalem Post.
• Hezbollah held an unprecedentedly large “exercise” involving 10,000 of its operatives. Picking up on Arab reprots, the Times of Israel says the three-day drill was personally supervised by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards honchos. In addition, some 2,000 more Hezbollahniks are being trained in Iran.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Elliott Abrams and Lee Smith.
Sinai Security Situation
• CNN details on the intelligence sharing Leon Panetta offered Mohammed Morsi:
At the core, is an offer to supply Egypt’s military in Sinai with truck-mounted sensors that provide an electronic signal identifying which nation is operating the vehicle . . .
At the same time, the United States is also offering Egypt increased intelligence sharing, including satellite imagery and drone flights and intercepts of cell phone and other communications among militants suspected of planning attacks, according to an Obama administration official.
• The Media Line, YNet‘s Ron Ben Yishai, and NY Times assess Israeli concerns about the latest developments in the Sinai. The latter writes:
“To the extent that the Egyptian government challenges the clauses of the treaty of peace with Israel, it undermines the regional peace process as a whole — it’s a big deal,” said Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. “If you don’t state clearly what your concerns are as the Egyptians increase their forces in Sinai, you could end up with a fait accompli that undermines your most vital security interest.”
• The Washington Times finds Islamic law rising as Sinai lacks order in the courts:
“We are fulfilling a community need which the government, at the moment, isn’t capable of fulfilling,” said Sheik Asaad el Beik, the Salafist judge who officially opened his Shariah court in November. “There has been no police or judiciary presence since the revolution. If anything, we are filling this gap.”
• For an even meatier analysis, see Sinai, the New Egypt, and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.
Arab Spring Winter
• After President Obama warned Bashar Assad that chemical weapons were a red line that would call for US military intervention, Ammar Abdulhammid of the Syrian Revolution Digest blog wrote a searing response (via Elliott Abrams):
By framing things this way at a time when Assad’s MIGs, helicopter gunships, missiles and heavy artillery are pounding residential neighborhoods and civilian installations, including schools and hospitals, in villages, towns and cities all across Syria claiming hundreds of lives every day, President Obama’s redline will most likely be taken by Assad as greenlight for sticking to his bloody tactics to the bitter end. After all, he was just told by the most powerful man in the world that he has no plans to stop him.
• According to the LA Times, the Pentagon has contingency plans in place to secure Syrian chemical weapons.
• AP: Egypt’s trying to obtain a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• The pre-trial proceedings for the 9/11 trial was delayed by internet problems and tropical storm Isaac bearing down on Guantanamo Bay. See also the Daily Telegraph, which notes that actual trial isn’t expected to begin until 2016.
With 2,976 killed, the five defendants — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Mustapha al-Hawsawi, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Walid bin Attash — will likely face the death penalty if convicted by the military court.
• Steve Brill: CNN and Time were too kind to Fareed Zakaria; readers deserve to know more.
(Image of Indyk via YouTube/AlJazeeraEnglish; 9/11 via Wikimedia Commons/National Parks Service)
For more, see the previous Israel Daily News Stream.
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