Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Hebrew press reports say Israel and several Arab and Gulf states are discussing an alliance to counter Iran. Times of Israel coverage:
The Arab and Gulf states involved in the new talks have no diplomatic ties with Jerusalem, the report noted. What they share with Israel, it said, is the concern that President Hasan Rouhani’s new diplomatic outreach will fool the US and lead to a US-Iran diplomatic agreement which provides for “less than the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program.”
• Black is white, up is down, and day is night at the UN, where Iran was elected rapporteur for the Disarmament and International Security Committee. ‘Nuff said.
• Prime Minister Netanyahu’s media offensive against Iran and President Hassan Rouhani continued. NBC News and Charlie Rose posted portions of interviews to be aired tonight. Bibi also talked to the US Hispanic TV station, Univision. A video on the Prime Minister’s YouTube channel featured outtakes from all three. More on the interviews at the Jerusalem Post.
• Alan Dershowitz accused the NY Times of distorting Bibi’s UN speech, fisking the paper’s staff-ed reaction. Related reading: 5 Reasons Bibi’s UN Speech Called Out the NY Times. Dershowitz concludes:
The question remains: Why would the American media bend over forwards to place Rohani in a positive light while bending over backwards to present Netanyahu in a negative light? Is it because we place our understandable hope for peace over the reality that difficult barriers that still exist? Is it because a “friendly” Iranian head of state is a more interesting story than a realistic Israeli head of state?
Whatever the reason, distorting reality is neither in the interest of good reporting nor in the interest of peace.
• The Saudi foreign minister cancelled his UN speech in protest over the organization’s handling of Israel and Syria. Big Media didn’t notice for two days, poor thing.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Mitch Ginsburg, Max Fisher, Clifford May, Vali Nasr, Aaron David Miller, Nile Gardiner, Benny Avni, and Campbell Clark.
See also staff-eds in the Vancouver Sun, Washington Times, and Bloomberg News.
Arab Spring Winter
• The NY Times found the Syrians military rather nonchalant to the arrival of chemical weapons inspectors.
Members of the Syrian military put a different spin on giving up the weapons, according to a retired military officer, Syrian journalists and others here. Those people said that military officers had called the arms outdated and of little use other than as a psychological counterpoint to Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal. The officers contended that the government’s ally Russia would provide it with better weapons to counterbalance Israel.
• Sex, media, and jihad: Are reports of a women’s “sex jihad” campaign just another example of Damascus disinformation?
Truth is secondary here. It doesn’t matter anymore if Jihad al Nikah is an actual phenomenon. Either way, it takes over everything else that matters. The same can be said about all the other shocking information coming from Syria, including the savagery of beheadings, the heart-eating man, the burning of churches, and the barbarism of the rebellion.
These realities, although factual and truthful, are often exaggerated. They also overwhelm everything else about Syria and the revolution. They take over all other layers and make genuine calls for freedom and reform insignificant. Al-Qaeda may be a sexy topic, but sex jihad is even more so.
• Does Egyptian media share the nation’s vision for democracy?
(Image of Washington via WikimediaCommons/Francisco Diez, hijab via Flickr/rana ossama)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
