Prepared for the Conference of Presidents | |
| DAILY ALERT |
Thursday, March 12, 2020 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Two Americans and one Brit were killed and 12 coalition soldiers were wounded as 18 Katyusha rockets hit Iraq's Camp Taji base housing U.S. troops Wednesday, the U.S. military said. The attack marks the largest on a U.S. base in Iraq since Iran fired missiles at bases housing U.S. troops in January. (Fox News) See also Is Iran behind Rocket Attack on U.S. Forces in Iraq? - Seth J. Frantzman The attack on the Taji base in Iraq Wednesday has all the fingerprints of an Iranian-backed militia attack. (Jerusalem Post) 18 members of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces were killed in the al-Bukamal area of Syria on Thursday in airstrikes carried out by three unidentified aircraft targeting the Al-Imam Ali base and the al-Hassian area near the border with Iraq. The targets were used by pro-Iranian militias as military headquarters. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights-UK) Iranian officials trace the origins of the country's coronavirus epidemic to a number of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects in the city of Qom built by scores of workers and technicians from China. In the face of American sanctions, "China has been the trading partner of last resort but, in this case, it has turned into a very toxic bomb," said Sanam Vakil, deputy Middle East director at Chatham House, a think tank in London. China Railway Engineering Corp. is building a $2.7 billion high-speed rail line through Qom. Chinese technicians have been helping refurbish a nuclear-power plant nearby. There are also Chinese religious students studying at Qom's seminaries. (Wall Street Journal) The "growing threat posed by unmanned aerial systems, coupled with our lack of dependable, networked capabilities to counter them, is the most concerning tactical development" in the Middle East since IEDs, Gen. Frank McKenzie, who heads the U.S. Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. Since May 2019, Iranian-supported groups have "conducted scores of UAS reconnaissance flights near U.S. and Iraqi Security Force bases" and used drones in the September attack against Saudi oil facilities, McKenzie said. (Bloomberg-MSN) The U.S. State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Wednesday. The Iran section includes a discussion of anti-Semitism in Iran. "Members of the Iranian Jewish community are reportedly subject to government restrictions and discrimination. Government officials continued to question the history of the Holocaust, and anti-Semitism remained a pervasive problem. In May, President Rouhani implied Jewish control over various Western interests, saying that speeches by foreign officials criticizing Iran were 'written by Zionists word for word.' Cartoons in state-run media outlets repeatedly depicted foreign officials as puppets of Jewish control." (U.S. State Department) Investors in Lebanon's dollar bonds are nursing big losses after the government failed to repay a $1.2 billion bond due on Monday, triggering the country's first ever sovereign default. (Financial Times-UK) Reza Mehregan, a civil rights activist who is one of the 14 signatories to a letter published last June asking Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to step down, was sentenced by an appeals court to six years in jail, human rights groups reported March 10. (Radio Farda) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The total number of coronavirus cases in Israel reached 100, health officials confirmed on Thursday. At least 91 people have been hospitalized. Two are in serious condition, while three more are considered moderate. (Ynet News) A senior official in the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has confirmed that Israel has sent coronavirus testing kits to Gaza via third-party mediators, along with medical equipment, in response to an appeal by Gazan medical personnel. The official said that "handling the coronavirus outbreak takes precedence over any political consideration, and without help from Israel, Gaza would be in a very difficult situation in the case of an outbreak." No cases of coronavirus have yet been reported in Gaza. (Israel Hayom) See also Israel Delivers Disinfectant to West Bank amid Coronavirus Outbreak - Celia Jean In wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Israel coordinated the entry of 20 tons of disinfectant into the West Bank on Tuesday. (Jerusalem Post) See also Mideast Fight Against Coronavirus Elicits Rare Unity - Joshua Mitnick The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how Israel and the Palestinian areas in the West Bank are in fact one unit in the battle to preserve public health. COVID-19 tests from Palestinians were sent to laboratories at Israel's Sheba Hospital for analysis because such lab facilities don't exist in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority is enforcing its own closure on Bethlehem to prevent the virus from spreading to other cities in the West Bank. (Christian Science Monitor) In a new human rights report released by the State Department on Wednesday, the U.S. refers to the Arab residents of Israel's capital as "non-Israeli residents who live in Jerusalem." U.S. officials told Israel Hayom that the new definition reflects reality: the Arab residents are not Israeli citizens, but there is no Palestinian state, so they cannot be considered Palestinian citizens. A senior U.S. official said "the goal of this report is to maximize accuracy....Peace can only be built on a foundation of truth, anything else will crumble and fail." One official said the administration was surprised by the strong disavowal by Israeli Arabs of the U.S. peace plan and its call for land swaps that would have some Israeli Arabs live in a new Palestinian state. For dozens of years, Arabs in Israel have called themselves Palestinians and, therefore, the U.S. can't understand why they are so vehemently against becoming citizens of a Palestinian state. (Israel Hayom) Israeli defense firm Elbit said Monday that its U.S. subsidiary, Elbit America, had won a U.S. Air Force contract worth up to $471 million to supply a missile warning system to F-16 fighter jets belonging to the U.S. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command. The work will be carried out in Fort Worth, Texas, over a 10-year period. (Times of Israel) 17 Bedouin women from the Negev graduated from Magen David Adom's six-month Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course on Sunday. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Hamas has determined that a truce can boost its regional standing in the Middle East and enable it to find support beyond its traditional, more radical allies. At the same time, a ceasefire enables Hamas to build up its resources. Driven by these objectives, Hamas has pursued efforts to reach understandings with Israel. However, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which maintains strong relations with Tehran, has torpedoed these attempts. Hamas must decide whether to enforce its rule in Gaza or co-opt the PIJ as a partner. Israel also needs to decide whether it will allow the PIJ to continue to strengthen its forces. Alternatively, Israel could launch a targeted campaign against the PIJ, striking its leaders, infrastructure and rocket developers, and blocking its funding sources. Activating a comprehensive campaign against the PIJ would allow Israel to realize a truce far more definitively than would continuing the status quo. The writer served as military secretary to three Israeli defense ministers and as Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. (The Hill) See also Palestinian Islamic Jihad Delegation Arrives in Moscow - Yaser Albanna A delegation from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, led by the group's chief, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, arrived in Moscow on Wednesday to meet Russian officials in response to an official invitation by the Russian Foreign Ministry. (Anadolu-Turkey) See also Israel Protests Russian Foreign Minister's Meeting with Islamic Jihad Leader - Lahav Harkov (Jerusalem Post) The attempts by Iranian authorities to hide information from the public regarding the downing of the Ukrainian airplane by the Revolutionary Guards in January and the outbreak of the coronavirus in February have caused further significant damage to Iranian public confidence in Islamic Republic institutions. However, this does not mean that the current political order is under any significant immediate threat. A large part of the public, including those opposed to the regime, are still concerned about chaos and loss of control, particularly in view of the experience of many Arab countries in the past decade. To many Iranians, the alternative to the current regime may be even worse, for instance, a Revolutionary Guard takeover of power centers if the current political system collapses. Moreover, the Iranian regime still holds significant means of repression, and does not hesitate to resort to brutality to repress demonstrations that challenge its stability. The writer is a research fellow at INSS specializing in Iran. (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) Observations: The Illusion that the Palestinian Leadership Is Prepared to Negotiate Peace - Jason Greenblatt (CNN)
The writer is a former assistant to the president and special representative for international negotiations. |
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