Prepared for the Conference of Presidents | |
| DAILY ALERT |
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
AIPAC and the ADL are urging lawmakers to co-sponsor a Senate bill introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) targeting Hizbullah and Hamas for using human shields. AIPAC said, "Terrorist groups - including Hamas, Hizbullah and ISIS - are blatantly violating international law by placing their terrorist infrastructure among civilian populations and hiding behind innocent civilians as they carry out armed attacks." ADL said, "We strongly agree that the use of human shields by terrorist groups is illegal, harms innocent civilians, and impedes necessary efforts at self-defense by democracies such as the United States and Israel." Also backing the bill are B'nai B'rith International and the Orthodox Union. (JTA) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn deserves "unequivocal condemnation" for attending a memorial service for the Munich massacre terrorists after pictures emerged of Corbyn attending a 2014 event in Tunisia at which wreaths were laid for the terrorists. Netanyahu wrote on Twitter: "The laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre and his comparison of Israel to the Nazis deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone - left, right and everything in between." (Independent-UK) On Friday, the Kremlin announced that an agreement had been reached between Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan - the five states bordering the Caspian Sea - after 22 years of talks. The Caspian, the largest enclosed body of water in the world, contains 48 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in proven offshore reserves. Is it really a sea or a lake? If it is designated a lake, development rights are divided up equally, with each nation receiving 20%. However, if it is deemed to be a sea, it is split between the nations in proportion to each one's share of its coastline, making Iran the major loser. (Independent-UK) See also Iran's Rouhani: Division of Caspian Seabed Will Require Additional Agreements - Olzhas Auyezov (Reuters) The fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law on Monday, includes a section on U.S.-Israel cooperation in countering unmanned aerial systems. The bill envisions funding for research and development modeled on previous successful collaborative efforts including on missile defense and anti-tunneling initiatives. (Defense News) The Argentine Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday expressing its "deep concern" over the violence in Gaza which it said was "caused by the launch of rockets towards Israel." Relations between Argentina and Israel have warmed significantly since the 2015 election of President Mauricio Macri. (JTA) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Israel and Hamas are reportedly on the verge of reaching a ceasefire agreement following a lull in fighting after a major flare-up last week. No rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel since Friday and there has been a significant drop in arson attacks from Gaza. Senior Israeli officials have said that "quiet will be met by quiet." (Times of Israel) See also Arson Balloon from Gaza Ignites Fire in Israel Tuesday - Matan Tzuri (Ynet News) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met secretly with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi in Egypt on May 22 to discuss Egypt's efforts to promote a diplomatic solution for Gaza, Israel's Channel 10 reported Monday. (Ha'aretz) On July 13, Argentina's Financial Intelligence Unit froze assets of 14 Lebanese nationals and residents of the Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay who were part of a criminal organization linked to Hizbullah and associated with the Barakat clan, a powerful Lebanese Shi'a family whose leader, Assad Ahmad Barakat, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2004. Argentina's move follows closely Paraguay's arrest of two Lebanese nationals suspected of ties to Hizbullah. The writer is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center) Israeli swimmers won two gold medals Monday in the European Paralympic championship held in Dublin, Ireland. Inbal Pezaro, 31, came first in her 200 meter freestyle final, while Ami Dadaon, 17, won the 100 meter freestyle race. Pezaro, who has been paralyzed since birth in her lower limbs, has represented Israel at the Paralympic games since 2004 and has won a total of four silver medals and five bronze medals. (Times of Israel) Israeli startup Timeless Foods makes disposable plastic containers for vacuum packaging of delicate foods, significantly prolonging their shelf life without requiring freezing or even refrigeration. "Our first packaging was developed for pizza and can keep it fresh for eight weeks," said Timeless Foods founder and chairman Michel Habib. (Calcalist) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
With the threats from Iran's president and the leaders of the Iran Revolutionary Guard against the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the security of the Straits of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, many ordinary citizens in Iran are expressing deep concern regarding the possibility of the outbreak of war. Anti-war hashtags have been trending in recent days. An open letter written by a young Iranian to Gen. Qasem Soleimani, stating that if the general wants to drag Iran into war, he should not rely on the writer to join in, became the most discussed subject on Iranian social media. Iranian citizens are filming demonstrations, protests, strikes, and calls against the regime, and posting the clips on social media every day. Every city is experiencing power and water outages. Iran has halted sales of electricity to Iraq and Afghanistan, which caused demonstrations in both countries against the Iranian regime. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) During a visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last month, I was able to get a glimpse into the Saudi social landscape and found that Saudi society was much less culturally conservative than it once was. This transformation is social rather than political. While the Saudi monarchy is allowing, and even promoting, the expansion of some personal freedoms, political freedom remains absent. Neither Saudi authorities nor Saudi public life are now as fundamentalist as they appeared to be just a few years ago. Extremists exist, I was told, but they are now scattered and unpopular. The religious police have been severely reined in; the clerical establishment mostly co-opted; and the hardline dissidents dismissed, blocked from social media, or even imprisoned in a few cases. Whereas a few years ago only non-Saudi men worked at hotel or business lobbies and reception desks, nowadays these jobs are filled by Saudi women, many of whom are fluent in English and comfortable interacting with members of the opposite sex. Yet almost all the Saudi women I saw in public are still fully covered. The writer is a fellow at The Washington Institute. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) The anger of the Gazan population, which for now is mainly directed at Israel, could at any point turn against Hamas too, and its leadership is well aware of it. A party elected as a protest against the failings of Fatah is beginning to resemble those it came to overthrow. In the 12 years since it came to power, its armed struggle against Israel has achieved no tangible results. A poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research suggests that the worsening situation in Gaza is now attributed by Gazans not only to Israel, but to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas as well. The writer is professor of international relations at Regent's University London and an associate fellow at Chatham House. (Arab News-Saudi Arabia) Observations: Israel's Interest in the U.S.-Backed Enclave in Eastern Syria - Dr. Jonathan Spyer (Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies)
The writer is a fellow of JISS. |
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