Daily Brief–July 14, 2010

Palestinian property demolished in East Jerusalem

Israeli bulldozers resumed the demolition of Palestinian property in East Jerusalem yesterday, destroying six buildings, at least three of which were homes. Such demolitions had been temporarily halted in order to encourage direct peace negotiations with Palestinians.

Israel claims that the structures were uninhabited, and that they had been built illegally. No such houses had been demolished in East Jerusalem since last October. These seem to mark the end of an unofficial freeze that Israel imposed after criticism from the Obama administration.

Gunfire in Gaza
In Gaza, Israeli forces entered the residential area of Juhor Addik and fired shells toward civilian homes, killing a Palestinian woman and injuring five others last night. In a separate incident today, a boy was wounded in Gaza by Israeli gunfire while collecting stones in an area watched by Israeli forces.

The Libyan aid ship heads to Egypt, after Israeli military warns it will not allow it to reach Gaza.

• Armed men attack Yemeni intelligence offices.
• The Iranian scientist who surfaced in Washington yesterday is returning to Iran.
• Iraq militants attack the house of a member of a moderate Sunni Muslim.
• Israel admits to ‘mistakes’ in its Gaza flotilla raid.

DAILY SNAPSHOT

Iraqis gather in Baghdad to protest and call for the formation of an Iraqi government–four months following the national elections. July 14, 2010 also marks the 52 year anniversary of the Iraqi Revolution led by General Abdel Karim Qassem–who was later deposed and executed by the Baathist coup (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images).

Arguments & Analysis

Turkey’s the talk of the town
Writing from the Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs, Didem Aykel argues that Turkey’s recent ‘activism’ in the Middle East is not wholly new, surprising, or unjustified, and fits into its strategy in the region of playing a third way in dealing with the ‘West’ and the ‘East’. Still, it would do well to not lose focus on the festering problems in its own backyard (Cyprus, Armenia, and the Kurds). Meanwhile, CFR scholar Steven Cook lays out some of the recent history of Turkey and its relations with the U.S., Israel, and other countries in the region like Syria, to explain its current policies. Much of its foreign policy is an inevitable shift from a Cold War-era mentality to a increasingly confident, and flexible, nation.

‘Trapped by Gaza blockade, locked in despair’ (Michael Slackman and Ethan Bronner, New York Times)
Victim to an ongoing Israeli and Egyptian blockade, and placed into a political situation which directly confronts the pain of internecine conflict (between Hamas and Fatah), the people of Gaza remain in a situation of “idleness, uncertainty and despair.” As one Gazan puts it: “My only dream is to have patience.”

‘Iranian unrest grows over economic woes’ (Barbara Slavin, Asia Times)
A year after the political unrest associated with the disputed reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, economic demonstrations are increasingly the new form of social discontent. With sanctions permeating the background of discourse and amidst ongoing poor domestic economic indicators, the Green Movement may not be the most of the government’s worries.

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