Iranian Atomic Urgency
• The NY Times’s smear campaign against Prime Minister Netanyahu (and Israel) continued with a staff-ed confusing Bibi’s (Israel’s) wariness with outright malice:
A certain patience is needed to conduct these negotiations and bring them to a constructive end. But hard-liners are already trying to undercut them. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, for instance, is warning against trusting Iran while members of Congress are threatening new and harsher sanctions.
Lest you think Bibi and Israelis aren’t on the same page, i24 News picked up on a poll finding that 58 percent of Israelis support the prime minister’s stance on Iran.
• Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum weighs in with one heck of an Iranian reality check:
The sanctions’ success has also persuaded the Iranians to try a tactic that has worked well for many other countries, including Russia: Persuade the West to keep its foreign policy concerns in silos — separating economics, human rights and nuclear weapons, as though they have nothing to do with one another.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Michael Singh, John Lyons, Jonathan Tobin, and Dan Margalit.
The Syrian Situation
• Haaretz: Hezbollah’s seeking 15,000 recruits for cannon fodder to fight in Syria.
• Israel’s considering striking long range missiles now in Lebanon that Syria transferred to Hezbollah. According to the Jerusalem Post, we’re talking about Chinese-made (and Iranian-improved) missiles with a range of 1,500 km currently stored in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
• Rebels killed a high-level Syrian intelligence chief linked to the assassination of Rafik Hariri. Washington Post coverage.
• Uh-oh: Did Israeli zombies join the Syrian civil war?
• Imagine what these people would do to Israelis if given a chance . . .
Pregnant women targeted by snipers in Syrian war zone competitions
• For more commentary/analysis, see Jim Hoagland,
Rest O’ the Roundup
• What does this say about the way Egyptians relate to Israelis? AP reports that the family of the first Arab to get Yad Vashem recognition has rejected the award:
“If any other country offered to honor Helmy, we would have been happy with it,” Mervat Hassan, the wife of Helmy’s great-nephew, told The Associated Press during an interview at her home in Cairo this week.
• Karnit Flug tapped as next Bank of Israel governor. She has been the bank’s acting governor since Stanley Fischer stepped down in July. YNet coverage.
(Image of Al-Mouallimi via UN Media & Photo)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
