Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.
As Hamas prepares to join PLO, Fatah frets Islamists will spoil the party. Syrian soldiers are shooting anything that moves, and pirates now threaten Israeli offshore gas exploration.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinian negotiator says the PA may withdraw recognition of Israel and abrogate the Oslo accords. The Jerusalem Post says it has to do with Hamas and Islamic Jihad joining the PLO:
At least three senior officials in Ramallah have voiced strong reservations over the decision, a Fatah official told The Jerusalem Post. He said that those who were opposed to the move were worried that Hamas would replace Fatah as the dominant party in the PLO.
One official was quoted as saying that Abbas was paving the way for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to take control not only over the PLO, but the entire West Bank as well.
• The Media Line elaborates on the Hamas break with Iran:
Hamas officials told The Media Line that the Muslim Brotherhood has urged them to cut their remaining ties with Iran because such they threaten to alienate voters angry that Tehran has backed Al-Assad even as more than 5,000 Syrians have died. “Iran can’t be pro-Bahrain Shiite revolution and anti the Syrian revolution,” said a senior PA security source in Ramallah who spoke to TML on conditions of anonymity.
• A study claims that Israel arrested 3,312 Palestinians in 2011. Somewhere in GuardianLand, Deborah Orr is getting ready to denounce Israel for detaining the equivalent of 3.22 Gilad Shalits.
• According to AFP, the IDF caught five Palestinians trying to infiltrate from Gaza.
Arab Spring
• Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent Egyptian blogger, was freed from prison. As soon as he was released, Fattah went back to Tahrir Square, where he saw his wife and baby, who was born while he was in detenion. More links at The Lede.
• Der Spiegel: Syrian snipers death squads are killing anything that moves in Homs:
But, in Homs, anywhere from five to 15 people die every day, most as the victims of snipers. The insurgents have counted more than 200 sniper positions in Homs, from which people are being shot arbitrarily and without warning — not because they are protesting, but merely because they are there.
• Syrian medical personnel who treat protesters are targeted by Assad. The LA Times paints an especially harrowing picture of Homs.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• YNet News: Pirates are disrupting Israel offshore gas exploration.
• Sudan’s buzzing with media rumors that Israel hit another arms smuggling convoy. YNet News and Israel HaYom sort through what’s known.
• Elder of Ziyon takes a look at how Big Media’s use of Judea and Samaria shifted to West Bank over the years. Things changed in the 70’s:
So today the use of the correct historical term for the area is considered extremist, and the use of the anomalous term created when Jordan illegally annexed the area for 19 years is considered normative.
