Clashes Erupt After Body of Palestinian Teen Found in Jerusalem

Israeli police clashed with Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem after the body of a Palestinian teenager was found after a possible revenge attack. Residents of Shuafat, an Arab district of East Jerusalem, said they saw Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, who was either 16 or 17-years-old, being forced into a car early Wednesday. However, police have not confirmed that it was his body found, and said that, "Everything is being examined." On Monday, the bodies of three Israeli teenagers were discovered over two weeks after they were believed to have been kidnapped. The events have sparked increasing tensions and violence in Jerusalem.

Syria

The transfer of chemical weapons materials has begun between the Danish vessel Ark Futura and the U.S. Ship Cape May at the Italian port of Gioia Tauro in the latest phase of an operation to remove and destroy about 1,300 tons of Syrian chemical weapons. The operation is expected to take about 20 hours. After the Cape May has set off into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the chemicals, including mustard gas and elements of the nerve agents VX and Sarin, will be neutralized through hydrolysis. The process is expected to take between 45 and 90 days.

Headlines  

• Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the militant group now calling itself the Islamic State, has called on Muslims worldwide to take up arms and travel to Syria and Iraq to help build the "caliphate."
• World powers are resuming talks Wednesday with Iran over its nuclear program hoping to reach a comprehensive deal ahead of the July 20 deadline.
• According to the U.S. Justice Department, Ahmed Abu Khattala, who has been charged for involvement in the 2012 Benghazi attacks, has provided information to U.S. interrogators.

Arguments and Analysis

‘Can the PA survive Israel’s attack on Hamas?‘ (Geoffrey Aronson, Al Monitor)

"As this combustible situation unfolds, how vital is it to Israel that the Palestinian Authority continues to exist? Important to be sure, but less so than you might think. 

There are three centers of power and influence regulating Israel’s interest in the PA’s existence: right-wing politicians, budget overseers and, most crucially, the security system.

All share the view that the PA’s value is measured solely against a yardstick of Israeli interests – at the top of which are security and settlement expansion. 

And all agree, without any sense of irony, that Israel’s presence in the West Bank – that is, a continuation of its occupation – offers the PA its best, indeed, its only chance for survival."

‘Study: Muslims hate terrorism, too‘ (Ishaan Tharoor, The Washington Post)

"In a new study released Tuesday, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that "concern about Islamic extremism is high among countries with substantial Muslim populations." This comes at a particularly fraught moment in the Middle East: the jihadist militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has seized whole swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a new caliphate.

The study involved over 14,000 respondents in 14 countries and was conducted between April and May — before ISIS’s dramatic advance through Iraq this past month. But it underscores the growing fear and anger felt by many in Muslim-majority countries when facing a range of militant threats, from that of Boko Haram in Nigeria to ISIS to the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan."

— Mary Casey