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Today’s Top Stories
1. Europe has put Syria — and Israel — on notice to act with restraint. YNet picked up on Arab reports:
According to the officials, Assad realizes that a potential Western assault would be a response to his army’s use of chemical weapons and not as a means to affect the current balance of power in Syria.
Assad reportedly used diplomatic back channels to convey that he does not intent to attack Israel as this would lead the Syrian campaign to uncharted territory.
It was further reported that Western nations asked Israel to exercise restraint in case of an assault by Assad or other “actors” supporting him.
Thanks to that chemical attack and the hundreds of civilians who were killed, Assad and his Syrian campaign are already in uncharted territory.
2. If you want a depressing sign of the anti-normalization campaign’s grip on Palestinian society, look no further than Forbes. Last month, investigative reporter Richard Behar, wrote Peace Through Profits?, a lengthy piece about the quiet cooperation of Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs.
Behar says his the blowback left his email inbox “smoking” describing furious reactions in a follow up that’s about the same length as his original cover story.
3. Take care of your computer security. Syria (and Iran, and their online mobs) are certainly capable of cyberspace retaliation. The Washington Times reports:
“It’s foreseeable that [Syrian] state-sponsored or state-sympathetic hackers could seek to retaliate” against U.S., Israeli or Western interests, Michael Chertoff, a former secretary of Homeland Security, told The Washington Times on Wednesday.
The Washington Post found one American hacker waging war on Damascus. See also Israel’s Gadi Evron on Cyber Warfare.
4. Sri Lankan-Born Student Wins HR Award Defending Israel: What drives Timon Diaz, a non-Jewish student with no familial ties to Israel, to defend what is an increasingly difficult cause on campuses worldwide?
5. Syria: Israel Between a Rock and a Hard Place: There is no good outcome for Israel.
6. BDS Now a Humanitarian Organization?: Black is white, up is down, and the anti-Israel boycott-divestment-sanctions campaign is humanitarian.
The Syrian Situation
The lines between Hezbollah and the Syrian regime are so blurred that Israel will hold Damascus responsible if Hezbollah bombards Israel in the coming days, Israeli officials indicated on Wednesday . . .
“They cannot play the game that Hezbollah is somehow an independent actor,” one official said. “We have seen over the last few months that Hezbollah is coordinated very closely with the Assad regime, and it is the Iranians that have orchestrated that close cooperation.”
And how will Hezbollah react? The Daily Star reads the meager tea leaves.
• Western powers are ready to rumble. Meanwhile, Russian and French warship, plus British fighter jets are en route to the Eastern Med.
• Gen. Amos Yadlin discussed with CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour Israel’s intelligence on Syrian chemical weapons, and how the West should proceed.
• Reuters looks at the history of Syria’s chemical weapons program. How ironic: The weapons intended to counter Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal are now being used against the civilians they were supposedly defending.
• For commentary/analysis, see Eyal Zisser, David Horovitz, Nicholas Blanford, Freddy Eytan, David Makovsky, David Ignatius, Michael Totten, Jeff Jacoby, Nicholas Kristof, Boaz Bismuth, and Reuters.
- Palestinian schools in eastern Jersualem are switching to Israeli curriculum.
- Two more U. California campuses exonerated of fostering anti-Semitic environments.
- Egypt arrests five Hamas members involved in massacre of 25 cops.
