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
Rouhani Offers Chance for Turkey, Too Better relations with Iran could relieve some of the pressure on Ankara caused by the Syrian war. Turkey
Can Israeli Shas Party Outlive Its Spiritual Leader? No man has shaped the face of modern Israel as has the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, the official king of Sephardic Judaism, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Israel
Young Iraqis Vent Frustrations On Facebook In light of Iraq’s tightly controlled media and an increasingly dangerous security situation, many of the country’s youth have turned to Facebook to organize protests and voice dissent. Iraq
English Learning Lags in Iraq English is the most daunting and frequently failed subject in Iraq’s end-of-school exams, indicating a need to update teaching methodologies and focus on it earlier. Iraq
Kuwait Youth Movement Reignites Opposition Frustrated with the lack of progress by the parliamentary opposition, a Kuwaiti youth group is seeking to revitalize the protest movement. Kuwait
Netanyahu to Adapt His Position On Changing Iran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems unable to readjust his conservative position on Iran, when facing President Hassan Rouhani's new approach to the West. Israel
Israel Should Put Rouhani to Test Instead of denigrating the new foreign policy of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Israel should put him to the test and demand concrete, confidence-building action. Israel
Tunisia President: Al-Qaeda Threatens New Arab Democracies Moncef Marzouki blames the Syrian civil war for a resurgence of Islamist terrorism and warns that Egypt’s banning of the Muslim Brotherhood is “the most dangerous thing for you and probably for us.” Originals
Algeria Battles Recruiters From Jabhat Al-Nusra Algeria's security services are reaching out to neighboring countries in an effort to thwart Jabhat al-Nusra's recruitment of young people for jihad in Syria. Originals
Rouhani UN Speech a Significant First Step Despite opposition from Israel's prime minister, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's speech to the UN General Assembly could push talks forward. Lebanon
Yemen’s Brotherhood: Early Losses and an Unknown Future Following the Yemeni revolution, the local Muslim Brotherhood has worked to expand alliances, but often at the expense of their revolutionary partners, which could cost them vital public support. Saudi Arabia
Middle East Stability Hinges On Lebanon's Neutrality In his UN speech on Sept. 24, the Lebanese president reminded the world of the importance of helping Lebanon and keeping it neutral. Lebanon
