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. The Toronto Transit Commission put a red light on an anti-Israel ad campaign on buses and subways. A spokesman told the JTA the commission considered the ads misleading:
“Our legal opinion,” Ross said, “is that there has never been a finding by any international court or tribunal with respect to the illegality of loss of land, and by making that statement, it potentially could cause discrimination or advocate hate towards a specified group, in this case Israelis and/or the Jewish people.”
Ross said the four ads contained similar language, maps and the line “illegal under international law.” He said “the real legal issue” for the transit commission “was a statement that we determined to be either inaccurate or misleading.”
Here’s the ad:
2. Israel-Turkey ties continue unraveling. Ankara’s intelligence chief is going to recommend cancelling agreements allowing Mossad agents to work on Turkish soil. But with the way Turkey deliberately exposed Israeli spying in Iran, it’ll be a long time till the Mossad thinks about partnering with the Turks on anything. Times of Israel coverage.
3. Ali Jarbawi has some frank words for Palestinians who want annul the Oslo Accords. He writes in the NY Times:
If those calling for the cancellation of Oslo were serious and not just engaging in political sloganeering, then they should, logically, also be asking for the dismantlement of the Palestinian Authority. But because growing numbers of Palestinians are becoming financially dependent on the Authority for salaries and for services, and because so many people are benefiting from its existence, the Authority is now considered by many to be a “national achievement” that should be preserved . . .
If the majority of Palestinians want the Authority to survive, then they should accept that it will perform the task of negotiating.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Benjamin Netanyahu and John Kerry are meeting in Rome today to discuss peace talks. Haaretz reports that the two have scheduled a seven-hour meeting, “four of which will be spent in private talks with no aides present.” While Iran, Syria and Egypt are on the agenda, most of the discussion will be about the peace process.
• Incumbent candidates won Israeli municipal elections marked by low voter turnout. See Times of Israel coverage of the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv results. YNet rounded up the tallies for more municipalities. While eastern Jerusalem Palestinians boycotted the vote, the Washington Post added:
But outside Jerusalem, participation by Arab Israelis was high in the cities where they are the dominant population, with 70 percent or more going to the polls.
• Why are the PA and Hamas flirting with Bashar Assad?
• For more commentary/analysis, see Daniel Nisman,
Rest O’ the Roundup
• According to Arab media reports, Israel destroyed another weapons shipment en route to Hezbollah. Take the buzz with a grain of salt — details are scarce and nobody’s confirming anything.
• The NY Times took an in-depth look at the White House’s handling of Syria, finding conflicted advisers and a very uncertain president with no good options. Would more decisive activity have bolstered moderate rebels? Could the US avoid being sucked into a quagmire?
• Reuters elaborates Saudi Arabia’s move away from the US.
• Survivors of the 1983 bombing of the US Marines barracks in Beirut shared their memories with the BBC on the 30th anniversary of the attack. A Hezbollah suicide truck bomber killed 241 American servicemen; a simultaneous bombing killed 58 French paratroopers. Iran’s current defense minister, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, is linked to the attack.
• For commentary on the Iranian nuclear talks, see UPI‘s James Zumwalt.
• Are Bahrain’s riot control forces trigger happy? The NY Times reports that the country’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, put out a public tender for “1.6 million tear gas shells, 90,000 tear gas grenades and 145,000 sound and flash grenades.” That’s more than one shell/grenade for every Bahraini citizen.
(Image of Obama via Flickr/The White House)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
