Russian Initiative: How Enforceable Is It?

Everything you need to know about today's coverage of Israel and the Mideast. Join the Israel Daily News Stream on…

By September 16, 2013

• How Syria Media Advisers Decided Who Would Speak to President Assad

• Turns out Israel urged President Obama to accept Russia’s deal. According to the Wall St. Journal:

On Sept. 11, Mr. Kerry spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he believed Russia wasn’t bluffing and that a deal was possible, according to American and Middle Eastern officials briefed on the exchange. Israel shared U.S. concerns that strikes could strengthen rebels linked with al Qaeda and allow them to seize Mr. Assad’s weapons.

• For more commentary/analysis, see Der Spiegel, Michael Totten, Jeffrey Goldberg, and Bloomberg News.

[sc:midsignup ]

Rest O’ the Roundup

• The Egyptian army says it discovered a network of booby traps along the Egypt-Gaza border. AP writes:

In the last 48 hours, he said, troops had discovered explosives laid in tunnels along the border and under Egyptian watchtowers, with detonating wires running back into Gaza.

The same spokesman also said the military destroyed 152 smuggling tunnels since July.

Egyptian soldier

Egyptian soldier along Gaza border.

• Jerusalem Post: A bunch of former high-level European officials are calling on Catherine Ashton to be tough with Israel on the settlement guidelines.

• I’m glad to see China thinks of nothing of boycotts. Tel Aviv University and Tsinghua University in China signed an academic collaboration agreement.

(Image of WMD symbols via Wikimedia Commons/Thkrech, soldier via YouTube/Euronews)

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Return to Page 1

[sc:bottomsignup ]

© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025

Pesach Benson

Pesach Benson

A Baltimore native, Pesach was with HonestReporting from 2011 to 2020. He edited the Israel Daily News Stream and authored the e-book, Red Lines: HonestReporting’s 8 Categories of Media Bias. Before moving to Israel in 1995, he worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times. Pesach has a B.A. in political science from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where he was executive editor of the campus newspaper.

Discover More

Get clear, reliable Israel news and tools to fight media bias.

Subscribe