• Abbas Under Pressure to Extend Peace Talks - Ben Lynfield
  Just hours after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel announced that the fourth round of Palestinian prisoner releases, which was supposed to take place on Saturday, would be postponed. "There will be no release on Saturday," Israeli Prison Authority spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said.
      Officials reiterated Israel's demand that the Palestinians first pledge themselves to extending the deadline on peace talks, which is due to expire at the end of April. Since last summer, Israel has so far freed 78 long-serving prisoners in three batches. (Independent-UK)
      See also Americans Pushing to Extend Israeli-Palestinian Talks - Jack Khoury and Barak Ravid
  Senior American officials are attempting to formulate an agreement that will extend negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians past April 29. A senior Israeli official said the Americans are putting great pressure on both sides. "There is a chance a deal will be reached, but the ball is in the Palestinians' court," he said. (Ha'aretz)
• Obama Seeks to Calm Saudis as Paths Split - David D. Kirkpatrick
  With President Obama arriving in Riyadh on Friday, the rulers of Saudi Arabia say they feel increasingly compelled to go their own way, pursuing starkly different strategies from Washington in dealing with Iran, Syria, Egypt and the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region. Saudi Arabian officials are pursuing their own course to try to contain Iran, oust President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, and support the military-backed government that has taken over in Egypt.
      For Obama, a central goal of his visit is to reassure Saudi Arabia that Washington's commitment to its security will not be compromised by negotiations with Iran. In Egypt, Saudi Arabia has effectively replaced the U.S. as Cairo's chief benefactor, in tandem with the UAE. Riyadh encouraged the military's ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood from power and the subsequent crackdown on its supporters. (New York Times)
• Obama Appears Ready to Expand Covert Assistance to Syrian Opposition - David Ignatius
  The Obama administration, stung by reversals in Ukraine and Syria, appears to have decided to expand its covert program of training and assistance for the Syrian opposition, deepening U.S. involvement in that brutal and stalemated civil war. The enhanced aid program would have a counterterrorism focus. The U.S. would help train Free Syrian Army fighters to combat al-Qaeda extremists, even as the rebels launch guerrilla attacks against Assad's army.
      Syrian opposition forces would be trained in camps in Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The number of Syrian opposition fighters receiving training would roughly double, to about 600 per month. Saudi Arabia has agreed to exclude any fighters who have worked with three jihadist groups: Ahrar al-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. (Washington Post)
• As Iran Sanctions Ease, Western Firms Seek a Way In - Benoit Faucon
  Tehran is still choking from a reeling currency, inflation of more than 30% and shortages of water, fuel and medicine. But a steady flow of Western executives through here in recent weeks signals that economic detente with the rest of the world may be on the horizon.
      Businesses exploring the Iranian market "do so at their own peril right now," U.S. President Barack Obama said last month, "because we will come down on them like a ton of bricks." But that hasn't stopped companies from boosting their presence or sending in advance teams. (Wall Street Journal)

• Experts Pessimistic on Chances for Peace Agreement with Palestinians - Ariel Ben Solomon
  Israeli experts and former government officials voiced pessimism regarding the chances for any agreement with the Palestinians at a conference Thursday at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA). BESA director Efraim Inbar noted that Asian Muslim countries want relations with Israel, but are not too concerned about the Palestinian issue. The Palestinian economy is better than in much of the Arab world, he added. "The economy of Gaza is better than Egypt."
      Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan, former IDF deputy chief of staff and Israeli national security adviser, said the Palestinians will not sign an agreement that says it is the end of the conflict.
      Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaacov Amidror, also a former national security adviser, said that while the Israeli government accepted a Palestinian state, the Palestinians "did not move an inch."
      Prof. Uzi Arad, another national security adviser, said, "I can't name a single concession of the Palestinians since 1994." "It is now patently clear that no agreement on final status issues is likely," he added. It is not in Israel's interest to take security risks for a deal if it is not in the context of an end of the conflict, he concluded. (Jerusalem Post)
• Hamas Announces New Islamist Legal Code - Nasouh Nazzal
  Faraj al-Ghoul, head of the Legal Department at the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza, recently announced that the Palestinian parliament in Gaza will impose a new legal code to replace the current one dating from 1936. A senior Hamas official said the new law "is inspired by" Sharia (Islamic law).
      The law stipulates a minimum of 20 lashes for a minor offense, with the number of lashes increasing with the seriousness of the offense. A minimum of 80 lashes is to be imposed in criminal cases. The law also widens the use of the death penalty and stipulates the cutting off of the hand of a thief. (Gulf News-Dubai)
• Israel Low in Car Crash Fatalities - Adrian Hennigan
  A person is less likely to die in a car crash in Israel than in almost any other country in the world. According to the World Health Organization, about four people in every 100,000 died on Israel's roads in 2011 - just one-third of the number dying in the U.S. Additionally, Israel Transport Ministry figures show that the total number of fatalities on the roads in 2012 was the lowest in 50 years (although there was a 5% rise in 2013). (Ha'aretz)

• Syria War Victory Seen as Key to Iran's Leadership of Muslim World - Amir Taheri
  According to Gen. Ismail Qaanai, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force deputy commander, the expected "victory" in Syria is only a prelude to "the greatest victory" (fath al-mobin) that awaits Iran. "We cannot stop at Syria," Qaanai said last month. "Our aim is and has always been to lead the whole Muslim world." He added: "It is obvious that no other power has the capabilities needed to assume leadership in the Muslim world."
      Part of the cockiness in Tehran is due to the belief that the U.S. has knocked itself out of the regional, if not international, equation. "The Americans know that we could hit them hard everywhere, including inside their own territory," says Islamic Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad-Ali Jaafari. (Asharq Al-Awsat-UK)
• A Sign of Rejection - Yoav Sorek
  Big red signs beside Israeli roads leading to Palestinian-governed territories say in three languages: "This road leads to Area 'A' under the Palestinian Authority. Entry for Israeli citizens is forbidden, life-threatening, and against Israeli law." As those of us who live here know all too well, a trip inside one of these areas can indeed prove fatal.
      Yet not all Israelis need avoid entering these areas. Israeli Arabs come and go freely. Only Jewish Israelis are at risk of death. One encounters such signs on the fringes of Jerusalem and the outskirts of Tel Aviv, just a few miles from Ben-Gurion International Airport. (Mosaic)
• Israel Is the "Jewish State": Why It Matters - Kenneth J. Bialkin
  The importance of the issue of recognition of Israel as a Jewish state by the PLO lies primarily in the refusal of the Palestinian leadership to agree to that recognition. The Jewish identity of Israel lies in the DNA of the Jewish People, driven by the dreams and tears of thousands of years of longing of the patriarchs, prophets, dreamers and fighters for a return to Zion.
      So if Jewishness is so firmly instilled in Israel, why must it demand such recognition from the Palestinians? The answer lies in the outspoken refusal of the Palestinians to recognize and accept the obvious truth. It reflects a failure of sincerity to fulfill a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israel conflict, a stubborn refusal that betrays a hatred that may never disappear and contains the seeds of future wars.
      In short, without that recognition, Israel cannot believe in the sincerity of an Arab world that continues to practice the incitement of hatred of Israel and of Jews. Making peace is not like a business deal, like buying a car or a house. There must be trust that you can live together. Without that trust, there should be no deal. (New York Jewish Week)
• Why Palestinians Should Learn About the Holocaust - Mohammed Dajani Daoudi and Robert Satloff
  Should Palestinians (and other Arabs) learn about the Holocaust? We - a Muslim-Palestinian social scientist and a Jewish-American historian - believe it is essential that Arabs learn about the Holocaust.
      Entire chapters of history have been expunged from the curricula that Arab governments teach their students. This is particularly true of the Holocaust. A world that has known terrible atrocities has seen none greater than the effort by Nazi Germany and its allies to exterminate the Jewish people. So methodical, so vicious and so exhaustive was the Nazi effort that a new word was coined to describe it - "genocide." If Arabs knew more about the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, perhaps Arab voices would be more forceful in trying to stop similar atrocities.
      With all the suffering Palestinians have endured, their struggle with Israel is still, at its core, a political conflict, one that can end through diplomacy and agreements. The Holocaust was not a political conflict: the very idea of a "Nazi-Jewish peace process" is absurd.
      Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi is the founder of the Wasatia movement, which promotes moderation in Islam, and the director of the American Studies department at Al-Quds University. Robert Satloff is executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (New York Times)


Weekend Features


• Chinese Believe that Jews Are Clever - Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
  In China, Jews are widely perceived as clever and accomplished, and these are meant as compliments. Scan the shelves in any bookstore in China and you are likely to find best-selling self-help books such as 101 Money Earning Secrets from Jews' Notebooks and Learn to Make Money with the Jews. The Chinese recognize, and embrace, common characteristics between their culture and Jewish culture. Both have a large diaspora. Both place emphasis on family, tradition, and education. Both boast civilizations that date back thousands of years.
      Prof. Xu Xin, 65, launched the Institute of Jewish and Israel Studies at Nanjing University in 1992, once diplomatic relations between Israel and China were established. Today there are more than half a dozen similar programs across the country, many started by Xu's former students. One course at the institute is "Jewish Culture and World Civilization," which attracts 200 undergraduate students per term. He is the author of the best-selling A History of Jewish Culture, and translated the Encyclopedia Judaica into Chinese. The institute is funded largely by foreign Jewish donors.
      Chinese state media has long championed positive portrayals of the Jews, in part because Judaism, with its ethnically-based and non-evangelical nature, has proved less of a threat to the Communist Party than other foreign monotheistic religions, like Christianity or Islam. (Tablet)
• Israel Shoe Technologies Help People Avoid Falls - Abigail Klein Leichman
  Biomechanical engineer Yonatan Manor noticed as his father aged and began to fall frequently. With electronic engineer partners Abraham Stamper and Aharon Shapiro, Manor dug the heel out of a sneaker and installed a sensor-driven motorized mechanism that can drive the shoe backward in a controlled and gentle manner to prevent falling. People who tried shoes from B-Shoe Technologies said they felt it improved their balance.
      The Step of Mind company makes Re-Step high-tech shoes used by physical therapists to train cerebral palsy (CP) patients, stroke and brain injury patients how to walk. (Israel21c)

Iran Reshaping Regional Dynamics in Its Favor - J. Matthew McInnis (American Enterprise Institute)

• By expending vast resources to bolster the Assad regime and Lebanese Hizbullah, Iran has been able to prevent its Syrian ally's overthrow.
• Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei appears to be looking to rebuild Iran's alliances with Sunni states and groups. Hamas and Iran have recently renewed their bilateral relations after a three-year freeze.
• The growing foreign policy rift between Qatar and Saudi Arabia has led to a split in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are determined to combat Iran's regional ambitions, whereas Oman and Qatar see Tehran as a manageable partner.
• Iran's recent $60 billion, 25-year contract with Oman shows the Supreme Leader's willingness to employ an array of economic incentives to reshape regional dynamics in Iran's favor.
• Khamenei has enjoyed watching the Saudi-American alliance fray as negotiations for a final deal on the Iranian nuclear program proceed and the U.S. commitment to the region is increasingly questioned.
  
  The writer, a former senior analyst at the U.S. Department of Defense (1998–2013), is a resident fellow at AEI.