Israel and the Palestinians
• Do you think this Reuters report will spark another silly live-tweeting sailing expedition by The Guardian?
• Uri Savir weighs in on the peace process.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Conspiracy theories are sprouting like mushrooms in the fertile ground of Egyptian media. The things they’re saying about the US and Muslim Brotherhood are shameful, but they serve the regime’s purpose — cracking down on the Brotherhood while blaming outsiders for the mess. See the NY Times and McClatchy News.
• Egypt denounces Hamas’ arrests of Egyptians in Gaza.
• So what’s the Saudi view on Egypt’s turmoil, and what does it mean for the US?
• Terrorists tried to blow up a container ship in the Suez Canal. Reuters reports that two explosions were heard aboard a Panama-flagged ship passing through the canal, but Egyptian authorities said the ship wasn’t damaged and shipping traffic is continuing normally through the canal.
• The Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme leader, Mohammed Badie, suffered a heart attack in prison; Egyptian officials denied rumors Badie had died. AFP coverage.
• In a Washington Post op-ed, Mara Revkin describes the security vacuum she recently saw in the Sinai.
• Worth reading: Victor Davis Hanson on Israel and the Arab Spring:
Israel had nothing to do with either the Arab Spring or its failure. The irony is that surviving embarrassed Arab regimes now share the same concerns with the Israelis. In short, the more violent and chaotic the Middle East becomes, the more secure and exceptional Israel appears.
• For more commentary/analysis on Israel and Egypt, see Tom Friedman and the Globe & Mail.
• Thanks to Western sanctions, Iran can’t access half its oil earnings. According to AP, the money’s simply accumulating in overseas bank accounts that the mullahs can’t touch:
The U.S. estimates that about $1.5 billion in crude oil revenues is piling up in restricted foreign accounts every month. Crude revenues overall averaged about $3.4 billion monthly in the first half of year, according to the assessment.
That means Iran is not able to either spend or repatriate about 44 percent of its crude oil income.
• Miriam Ziv is stepping down from her post as Israel’s ambassador to Canada. The topic of Iran dominated her exit interview with the National Post.
• Federal budget documents reveal that the US spies on Israel. Does this Washington Post report really shock you?
U.S. intelligence officials take an active interest in friends as well as foes. Pakistan is described in detail as an “intractable target,” and counterintelligence operations “are strategically focused against [the] priority targets of China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Israel.”
(Image of Suez Canal via Flickr/Official US Navy Imagery, rials via Flickr/Adam Jones)
For more, see Thursday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
