The Takeaway: Would Hamas complicate US plans for reset with Palestinians? Also: the back story on the spat between Israel and Jordan; Gulf post-COVID economic trends; Turkey’s Kurds; Egypt and Somalia; and more! Originals
Egypt sentences activist Sanaa Seif to 18 months in prison Seif, who had been in pretrial detention since June, was convicted Wednesday of spreading false news and misusing social media. Egypt
Ukraine rejects Iran's final report on downed passenger plane The Iranian government said last year's shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was the result of a human error. Iran
Palestinians receive first batch of vaccines through COVAX More than 60,000 doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived in Ramallah on Wednesday. Palestine
Syrian refugees aggravate Turkey’s unemployment problem Syrian refugees working illegally at low wages are exacerbating already severe unemployment in Turkey. Syria
Will Erdogan be Turkey’s next Ataturk? Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to partly admire, and imitate, the methods Ataturk used to accumulate and consolidate power. Turkey
Liberman positions himself as Mr. Security By denouncing Prime Minister Netanyahu for not retaliating against the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman positioned himself as a responsible political leader who is assertive about security. Israel
Palestinian press losing media war in current crisis Palestinian media has failed to articulate an alternative narrative to the crisis with Israel, often relying on Israeli sources to write reports, following the killing of three Israeli youths and a Palestinian teen. Palestine
Sistani signals opposition to renewing Maliki’s term Iraqi Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani has drawn red lines about the candidates for the premiership and demanded that a government quickly be formed, before the scheduled date next month. Iraq
Netanyahu under pressure for a large military operation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces demands by his coalition partners for a strong reaction to the Gaza rocket fire, while the international community will surely refrain from backing him on a large-scale military operation. Palestine
Trade, security concerns bring Turkey, Israel closer Turkish-Israeli relations are still far from normalized, but developments in the region are converging the two countries' security and economic interests. Palestine
Palestinians doubt Israeli narrative of murdered teens Some Palestinians believe Israel orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of the three settlers to facilitate an assault on the Palestinians. Palestine
Israel's police face another scandal With the backdrop of recent scandals, the Israeli public no longer trusts the police, while its senior officers, including the chief of police, Yohanan Danino, continue to ignore criticism. Israel
Egypt cautiously optimistic on coming Renaissance Dam talks With tripartite talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan concerning the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam scheduled for later in July, Cairo is hopeful that some of the dam’s technical specifications will be modified. Egypt
Iranian lawmakers want to restrict Khatami from public Former President Mohammad Khatami is under the spotlight once again, with some conservative parliamentarians asserting he is banned from public engagements, while others deny their claim. Iran
Friendship, Obama-style On the occasion of the 2014 Israel Conference on Peace, US President Barack Obama calls on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to compromise, but does the United States not bear any responsibility for the negotiation crisis? Israel
