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Today’s Top Stories
1. The PLO’s gearing up for another statehood bid at the UN. The NY Times and CNN preview what’s happening.
2. Despite hacker claims that they’re targeting US banks in response to the Mohammed video, NBC News reports that the attacks are coming from the Iranian government.
National security officials told NBC News that the continuing cyber attacks this week that slowed the websites of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are being carried out by the government of Iran. One of those sources said the claim by hackers that the attacks were prompted by the online video mocking the Prophet Muhammad is just a cover story. . . .
The attack is described by one source, a former U.S. official familiar with the attacks, as being “significant and ongoing” and looking to cause “functional and significant damage.” Also, one source suggested the attacks were in response to U.S. sanctions on Iranian banks.
3. IDF Corporal Netanel Yahalomi was killed in a terror attack along the Israel-Egypt border. The incident hit close to home for Israel21c.
“Did you hear the news,” she asked?
Now, that’s not generally something you want to hear from a combat soldier serving along a ‘hot’ border where African refugees, Bedouin drug smugglers and Arab terrorists of every ilk are regularly attempting to traverse for their own particular means.
Readers of The Guardian will be forgiven for being behind on the story: The paper’s only report on the attack — an AP dispatch written before Yahalomi’s death was confirmed — was never followed up. What makes The Guardian’s lack of follow-up sloppy is that AP reports like this one did update the situation.
Israel and the Palestinians
• According to a new poll, Palestinians are starting to perceive that life is better in Gaza than in the West Bank. Details at the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR).
• This could be an interesting read: Nachman Shai’s doctoral thesis on Israel’s public diplomacy during the second intifada won an award and will be published as a book. Shai was the IDF spokesman during the First Gulf War. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Heh: Comment is Free contributor Ghada Karmi plugs the one-state solution even as Hamas already pushes the three-state solution.
• A Washington Post blog invited Pastor John Hagee to write a guest post on Christian Zionism.