June 21, 2013

The US

Headline: Kerry to Defend Syria Policy to Middle East Allies

To Read: TNR's John B. Judis finds it curious that the most vocal objectors to a US intervention in Syria come from the American left-

The left’s opposition to American intervention is Syria is not tactical or prudential. These authors are not arguing that intervention is futile because the rebels have already lost or because al Qaeda has penetrated the opposition or because the war has become a proxy contest in the Middle East. These are legitimate tactical concerns, but the left’s opposition is based on principle, not tactics. It says that the United States should not engage in interventions at all. The most common reference point is George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. But Rosenberg also groups Obama’s intervention in Syria with the interventions in the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Afghanistan (in the early 1980s and after September 11), and Libya.

Quote: “While there may be areas of disagreement, he is very, very different — and certainly different with regard to his father”, Matthew Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Director, giving Rand Paul the official Republican Jewish Kosher seal of approval.

Number: 88, the percentage of Germans who are confident that Obama will do the right thing about global affairs.

Israel

Headline: Palestinian Authority PM Hamdallah resigns

To Read: Shimon Shiffer writes about the many historical inaccuracies that the organizers of President Peres' birthday presented the guests of the event with, and shares a personal anecdote about Peres on the eve of the Oslo Accords ceremony-

Peres was furious. He saw it as an attempt by Rabin to rob him of his glory. We were asked to leave the room, and Peres telephoned Giora Eini, who used to mediate between Rabin and Peres at times of difficult personal conflicts. “It's either me or Rabin, otherwise I'm staying home,” Peres told the shocked mediator. “That man ruined my life. He has been persecuting me for 16 years,” he shouted.

You're wondering how we found out about the conversation? When we got back to the newsroom we discovered that we had forgotten to turn off the tape recorder.  

Quote:  “They eliminated hundreds of candidates and left seven. Then they eliminated (former president Ali Akbar Hashemi) Rafsanjani and Mashaei. They left Rohani. Rohani used to be the national security adviser of Iran and the former nuclear negotiator. He’s the author of a doctrine — I call this doctrine 'talk and enrich'… He wrote the book on it. The book was (about) his experiences in negotiations. He himself said that by calming the international community, Iran is able to steadily move forward with its nuclear weapons program”, PM Netanyahu sharing some more of his thoughts on Iran's President elect.

Number: 75, the percentage of Israelis who are satisfied with President Peres' performance.

The Middle East

Headline: FSA received weapons that will ‘change balance of power,’ chief says

To Read: Javier Solana, former EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of NATO, gives his knowledgeable perspective on the Iranian election and what they mean for the future of the Nuclear negotiations-

I know Rowhani to be a rational and reasonable man, and I am hopeful that meaningful international dialogue can be started. Though efforts to chart a new diplomatic path will meet opposition and resistance from hard-liners at home, the international community should trust the Iranian people and listen to the message that they have sent. It is time to send a message back, by opening constructive, incentive-based channels of communication that enable the international community to achieve a safe resolution of the nuclear issue – and that enable Iran’s leaders to focus on the economic recovery and growth that their people demand.

Quote: “Hezbollah fights the [Israeli] occupation, and our continuous relations with it are based on that principle. We maintain good relations”, senior Hamas official Salah Bardawil denying reports of a serious rift between Hamas and Hezbollah.

Number: 15 million, the number of signatures a rebel anti-Morsi campaign claims to have amassed.

The Jewish World

Headline: Chief Rabbi Metzger suspected of bribery, fraud; police raid home

To Read: A new book retells the stories of Franz Kafka as children's fables-

 It’s easy to brush aside traditional fairy tales and their modern retellings because we have lost our belief in the overtly fabulous, but what Kafka describes becomes more frightening to us as we age. We are sure, as mature people with 401(k)s and digital subscriptions to the Times, that we will never be stalked by an amorous, sparkly vampire, but we are not sure that we won’t be charged and prosecuted for a crime we aren’t even sure we committed. We can tell our children that there is no Big Bad Wolf, but we can’t assure them that they won’t be prevented from reaching their goals by an unseen bureaucracy intent upon burying them in paperwork. In this way—not the bloody, but the banal—Kafka’s work becomes more spooky than the original Brothers Grimm, in which Snow White’s evil queen is forced to dance to death in scalding iron shoes. And though this might be taken as an argument for sheltering kids from Kafka, consider that the urge to avoid feeling fear altogether is stronger in grown-up humans than in small ones.

Quote: “To many people here, being a woman rabbi is like being an exotic animal“, Delphine Horvilleur, one of France's two female Rabbis.

Number: 2,500, the Jewish population in the region where Giovanni Palatucci allegedly saved 5,000 Jews during WW2.