Daily News Brief — July 19, 2010

Egypt meets with leaders to push for direct peace talks

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with U.S., Israeli and Palestinian leaders yesterday in an effort to get direct peace negotiations started; Mubarak wasthe only leader to meet with any of the other leaders directly. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has set the conditions for direct talks with Israelis, demanding that Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu agree to recognize the 1967 borders as the basis for a future Palestinian state, and accept the deployment of international forces to guard the borders.

The Arab League has still yet to permit Palestinians to move forward with direct talks. While Mubarak was meeting with U.S., PA and Israeli leaders, the head of the league announced in Cairo that Israel must provide”written guarantees” before direct talks would be permitted.

Mubarak, who has a relationship with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, has been pushing for direct talks despite his own growing health concerns. Many speculate the President could die within a year.

• Syria bans full face veils from Syrian universities.
• EU says Gaza’s borders must be opened to help recover its battered economy.
• A 2001 video of PM Netanyahu admitting he deceived the U.S. during the Oslo accords has surfaced.
• Netanyahu and Lieberman split over Israeli conversion bill.
• Suicide bombers kill 47 people in Iraq.

Iraqi security display grenades and other arms found stashed in a car repair garage in the al-Khadhra area of western Baghdad on July 19, 2010. According to official sources the garage was used to assemble car bombs and alike (Ali al-SaadiAFP/Getty Images).

Arguments & Analysis

‘Is the U.S. making sure Israel doesn’t attack Iran?’ (Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz)
Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs at the State Department, Andrew Shapiro, discusses the administration’s Mideast policy, especially on the U.S.-Israel security relationship and the Iran question.

‘Taking the troubled waters in Egypt’ (Abdel Monem Said Aly, The Daily Star)
In the aftermath of an historic May agreement between Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania on the sharing of the Nile river, conflict abounds. Because the agreement sought to undo a status quo that had privileged the ‘historic rights’ of Egypt and Sudan, both countries refused to sign the agreement and have continued to press ahead with their own claims.

‘Mercurial Maliki on cusp of retaining power’ (Sami Moubayed, Asia Times)
After months without a government, most signs are pointing to the retention of power by the incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. It will still likely be awhile before the details on coalition formation are worked out, but the weekend’s deal between the PM and Muqtada al-Sadr are evidence of the horse-trading indicative of a forthcoming government formation.

‘Thinking outside the box about Hamas’ (Carlo Strenger, Haaretz)
The history of political conflict internationally, and within Israel itself, suggest that the country’s current policy vis a vis Hamas is misguided. Waiting for a sudden about-face from the Islamic Resistance movement is an exercise in futility, and Israel should understand the need to more forthrightly engage with the movement’s reality.

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