Israel and the Palestinians
• Only at The Guardian: Ben White fisks Dr. Steve Caplan’s take-down of the BDS movement.
BDS makes the link between Israeli crimes and a response to them: the kind of nonviolent, grassroots campaign that has long been used to challenge injustice. Academia is not exempt.
• BDS comes to Los Angeles. At stake is a $150 million bus contract, writes the LA Times:
“As long as Veolia buses and trains carry Israelis between East Jerusalem and illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, no Veolia bus should run down Temple, Spring, Grand, Crenshaw, Vermont or any other street here in L.A.,” Romann said. He later said Veolia has been complicit in what he claims is Israel’s violation of international law.
Palestinian Spring?
• Palestinian protesters are calling for mass protests on Friday to end the Oslo accords. Divided on whether to rail against PA corruption or the cost of living, they’re instead opting for the lowest common denominator. Unfortunately for the protesters, a catchphrase like “Occupy Ramallah” wouldn’t resonate like “Occupy Wall Street.” Jerusalem Post coverage.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• After reading the Jerusalem Post article that AP‘s update is based on, I think the wire service went overboard with the headline:
Israeli PM hints he will keep pressuring US on Iran
• Irish cabinet minister compares world’s failure to stand up to Hitler with the Iranian situation. Alan Shatter, the Minister of Defense and Justice was speaking at a conference marking the 100th birthday of Raoul Wallenberg. If you’re looking for a voice in the wilderness, today’s comfort’s at the Irish Times.
• More commentary/analysis from Bill Keller (NY Times), Fareed Zakaria (Washington Post), Crispian Balmer (Reuters), Christian Science Monitor, NY Daily News (staff-ed) and David Horovitz (Times of Israel). Meanwhile, Joe Klein (Time) and David Remnick (New Yorker) make similar arguments of their own — but Klein’s a bit more polite.
Arab Spring Winter
• LA Times: Syrian rebels are frustrated that world’s attention has shifted from Assad atrocities to embassy attacks. Boston Globe columnist Juliette Kayyem makes the same argument.
With Libya and Egypt in violence, a US ambassador dead, and potential uprisings throughout the Muslim world, the only person who had a good day on Wednesday was Bashar Assad.
By that logic, the Palestinian movement (marginalized by Syria), pushed itself further on the backburner with Gaza protests against the film.
• Daily Telegraph: Syrian Christians are taking up arms for the first time:
Residents of the city told The Telegraph that the city’s minorities feared that they would suffer the same fate as Christians in Iraq, who were heavily targeted by the sectarian violence that erupted after the 2003 war.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Al-Qaida released a video of Warren Weinstein, an American aid worker abducted in Pakistan, appealing to Israel to intervene for his release. AP writes:
The aid worker said President Barack Obama and the American government “have shown no interest in my case.” He appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for help “as one Jew to another,” asking him to accept the militant group’s demands so he could return to his family.
He did not specify in his statement how the Israeli leader could end U.S. airstrikes or have militant suspects around the world released.
Unanswered is why Al-Qaida decided to release this video now.
• A former BBC editor fired a heckuva broadside at his former employers. The Daily Mail writes:
A respected BBC broadcaster has claimed television is dominated by ‘liberal sceptical humanists’ who laugh at Christianity but are afraid to mock Islam.
Roger Bolton, a former editor of Panorama, said an obsession with human rights over religious beliefs had left corporation bosses out of touch with the public.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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