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. Unable to figure out how to supply moderate Syrian rebels without benefiting the Islamists, Washington and London suspended non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels. The Wall St. Journal expanded on the Islamist attacks on Free Syrian Army bases, which forced Gen. Salim Idris, the top Western-backed rebel commander, to flee Syria.
2. Lots of buzz that the White House reportedly nominated Stanley Fischer, the former governor of the Bank of Israel, for the number two post at the US Federal Reserve. The Washington Post and Business Insider, among others, are gushing at the man Haaretz is calling Israel’s rock star banker.
3. Jordan’s lower house of parliament doesn’t consider resistance against Israel to be “terror” and amended a law governing a state security court’s jurisdiction accordingly. The Jordan Times (via EoZ) writes:
The deputies agreed that any actions against Israel cannot be “terrorism” at all; hence, they approved a provision that excludes actions against Israel from terrorism crimes.
The draft amendments limit the jurisdiction of the SSC to five crimes specified in the Constitution: treason, espionage, terrorism, drugs and money counterfeiting.
The bill will be sent to the Senate for deliberations and endorsement, after which it will be forwarded to His Majesty King Abdullah for ratification.
If approved, this Mother of All Loopholes is bound to boomerang on the Hashemites.
4. Why Mandela Would Be Run Out of Ramallah Today: Reconciliation is a very dirty word.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Russia, Hamas break the ice.
• Yesterday, news broke that European auditors found that more than one billion euros were wasted on paying PA civil servants in Gaza who haven’t worked in six years. The full audit’s online at the European Court of Auditors (pdf). The BBC, Reuters, and Wall St. Journal, among others, picked up on the story.
• Jerusalem Post: Saeb Erekat and the PLO are unhappy campers because Guatemala’s president visited eastern Jerusalem.
• One tiny radio station hopes to change the way Palestine treats its women. The Daily Telegraph visited the all-female Ramallah-based Radio Nisaa.
• Gaza ‘cattle torture’ prompts calls to ban live animal exports.
• UK Prime Minister David Cameron to visit Israel in 2014. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Politico, Emmanuel Navon, Jonathan Schanzer, Jeffrey Goldberg, and the Toronto Star.
- Syria has more foreign jihadis than Afghanistan ever did.
- Human trafficking in the Sinai exposed.
- Egypt destroys Hamas weapons warehouses and workshops in the Sinai.
