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. Assad’s scattering his chemical weapons to as many as 50 sites, and even preparing to hide more in Iraq.
The movements of chemical weapons by Syria’s elite Unit 450 could complicate any U.S. bombing campaign in Syria over its alleged chemical attacks, officials said. It also raises questions about implementation of a Russian proposal that calls for the regime to surrender control of its stockpile, they said.
2. Egyptian tanks reportedly crossed a fence into a strip of no man’s land between Egypt and Gaza and rumbled along dirt path without crossing into Gaza itself. Times of Israel coverage.
3. Max Fisher fisked fact-checked/annotated Vladimir Putin’s NY Times op-ed. For more on how Putin’s commentary got from the Kremlin and the New York-based Ketchum PR firm to the Gray Lady’s soapbox, see Buzzfeed and the Times’s public editor.
“The op-ed came through the PR firm (Ketchum) and went through the normal editing process,” said New York Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy in an email to BuzzFeed.
ProPublica raised ethical red flags about previous pro-Putin commentaries Ketchum planted in the Huffington Post and CNBC.
4. Monster Cartoon Violates German Press Council Code: “The ruling reinforces the message that artistic freedom cannot be used as a cloak to disguise anti-Semitism.”
5. No Religious Freedom for Jews on the Temple Mount: The Guardian advocates against freedom of worship at Judaism’s holiest site.
The Syrian Situation
• Israel HaYom poll: Given his handling of Syria, 65 percent of Israelis don’t trust Obama on Iran.
• Reports point to an overlooked massacre of 248 civilians in two Syrian villages. The Lede rounds up the links.
• BBC obtained footage of what it says appears to be Iranians fighting in Syria.
- New Olympic chief to resign job facilitating Arab boycott of Israel.
- Big Media marks the 20th anniversary of the Oslo accords.
- Bahrain bans books about Hezbollah.
