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
Five Tips for John Kerry In Dealing With Israel Nadav Eyal offers ideas for Senator John Kerry, nominee for US Secretary of State, on how best to manage US-Israel relations. Israel
Israelis or Palestinians? Where's the Missing Partner? Akiva Eldar writes about perceptions that the Government of Israel may prefer delaing with Hamas rather than Fatah. Palestine
Avigdor Liberman and the Revenge of Danny Ayalon Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman's failure to foresee the bitterness of his ousted Deputy Danny Ayalon, might cost him his political future. Israel
Should Europe Classify Hezbollah As a Terrorist Group? Nasser Chararah examines the possible consequences if Europe classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Lebanon
Tens of Thousands of Palestinians Celebrate Christmas in Israel For the second time in four months, the IDF opened the crossing points, allowing thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank to visit Israel, a rare opportunity to cross the physical and psychological fence separating both people, writes Shlomi Eldar. Palestine
Syria’s Future Is Vengeance Shlomi Eldar writes that post-Assad Syria will be a vast campaign of retaliation. Israel
The Turkish 'Model' For Authoritarianism in Egypt Both Turkey and Egypt may be models for a new authoritarianism and more confrontational societies, writes Cengiz Candar. Egypt
Turkey Will Pay a High Price After Assad By throwing its lot completely with Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey will sustain costs whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stays or goes, writes Kadri Gursel. Syria
Tzipi Livni Could Expose Netanyahu Israeli politician Tzipi Livni should enter coalition negotiations and position herself to call Prime Minister Netanyahu out on his peace declarations, writes Akiva Eldar. Palestine
Why Israelis Love To Hate Haneen Zoabi Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi takes advantage of Israeli democracy and undermines Israel’s relations with its Arab citizens, writes Shlomi Eldar. Israel
Netanyahu Pummels Obama, And the Public Cheers If in the past Israelis resented a PM pummeling the US president, nowadays they are indifferent to these words and leave it to Prime Minister Netanyahu to sink the ship, writes Ben Caspit. Israel
New 'Party of God' Will Divide Kurdish, Turkish Islamists Turkey's newest political party, Huda-Par, a legal Islamic Kurdish party from within Hezbollah, marks a rapid divergence of the paths of Kurdish and Turkish Islamists, writes Kadri Gursel. Turkey
