Middle East
The Arab Spring period featured large-scale civil wars, uprisings and the involvement of external elements in failed states, as old orders fell apart. But new developments depict a different scenario, according to an ex-senior intelligence officer.
The Bedouin residents of an illegal outpost have begun to cultivate a huge tract of land, using heavy equipment, in an attempt to establish facts on the ground that will be very difficult to reverse.
Avigdor Lieberman divulged details on U.S. “deal of century” before resigning, Al-Hayat reports • Plan calls for Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and expanded powers for Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria • Lieberman: “The report is false.”
In Brazil, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Trump administration plans to present the “deal of the century” at a time “they believe would be the most conducive to its success” • U.S. agrees that presenting plan during election cycle would undermine its chances.
IRGC deputy commander Mohammed Reza Naqdi: Israel must be wiped out, Zionists annihilated; “We can destroy KSA, U.S. bases in the region.”
They are also banking on France and its small presence in Syria to bolster the Kurds against a possible Turkish attack.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and other officials have warned against releasing the plan during the Israeli election season, so that the vote is not a referendum on the American proposal.
Still, the Israel prime minister cautioned in a meeting closed to the media that “there are no guarantees, and we will have to fight mightily.”
Norway-based jihadi scholar Mullah Fateh Krekar: “New groups will emerge after Al Qaeda and ISIS are gone because the Koran and Sunnah are permanent.”
Some excitement—and perhaps a lot more doubt—has been swirling in political and academic circles about the ongoing nature of Jerusalem’s Gulf-oriented approach to diplomatic, and hopefully, economic relations.
“In the Talmud and Jewish law, we learned that poor non-Jews need to make a living just like poor Jews, and so, too, this is the ruling according to which non-Jewish prisoners should be freed just like Jewish prisoners; it is already known that the commandment to free prisoners is one of the most important commandments,” he wrote.
Egyptian, Lebanese, Algerian and Moroccan journalists working for media outlets in France, Egypt and Belgium are set to visit Israel as part of initiative by Israeli Embassy in Paris • Knesset speaker hopes the visit will contribute to how Arab media views Israel.
