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. One of the suicide bombers from this week’s attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut is Palestinian, according to the Daily Star.
2. As Gaza’s energy shortage reaches crisis mode, Hamas and the Palestinians alternate their fingerpointing between Israel, Egypt and “the world.” But this NY Times snippet reveals Hamas-Fatah brinkmanship is the real reason the strip’s sole power plant is idle:
Ihab Bessisso, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said it had rescinded a longstanding tax exemption on fuel for Gaza because it was unfair to West Bank residents.
Hamas has since refused the $1.62 per liter price, insisting on paying no more than 79 cents per liter, Mr. Bessisso said. Instead, it closed the plant.
3. In Geneva, Boaz Bismuth reports that Israeli and Iranian reporters are getting along nicely. But it only goes so far:
The same Iranian journalist who on Wednesday morning spoke to me knowing exactly who I was, even interviewing me for his media outlet, quickly came back to me later and asked me not to publish the picture I took with him during the interview. In the new Iran, there are still many shades of gray.
4. We’re delighted to be hosting the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies-HonestReporting mission in Israel. Writing in J-Wire, Rachel Lustig described a tour of the security barrier, and exclusive briefings with IDF officials.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Over at the LA Times, Uri Resnick got a right of response to Saree Makdisi‘s screed on Israeli-Palestinian water issues.
• With a smile or a threat: the two faces of Gaza’s Hamas.
• Haaretz: The ancient coin which cabinet minister Naftali Bennett flashed during an interview in New York with CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour was illegally taken out of Israel. Bennett used the coin to make a point about historical Jewish ties to the West Bank.
• For more commentary/analysis, see a Providence Journal staff-ed.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Vladimir Putin.The Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post assess yesterday’s Moscow meeting.
• Iranian students told YNet that Israel is correct about keeping the sanctions in place:
The Iranian student asserted that “Netanyahu was right when he said that the leaders of Iran do not consider the citizens of the country and that they must continue the pressure on the leaders. If sanctions are removed, then the extremists in Iran will be more extreme.”
• Israelis shouldn’t worry about this tweet from Ayatollah Khamenei. We can trust the Supreme Leader with nuclear toys.
Israeli regime, this sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region.. https://t.co/yPIv5s0b3L #Iran pic.twitter.com/LD5yaNUYXd
— khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 21, 2013
• For more commentary/analysis, see Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, Michael Oren, George Schultz (Wall St. Journal via Google News), Joe Lieberman, Jonathan Tobin, Roy Gilad, Ari Shavit, Clifford May, Tom Rogan, and Jeffrey Lewis. Last but not least, Seth Lipsky weighs in on the NY Times‘ “Israel lobby” fixation.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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