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Daybreak: Abbas Rejected Offer to Free Prisoners

Plus ultra-Orthodox protest IDF draft changes in New York City, and more

by
Stephanie Butnick
June 10, 2013
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) during an East Room statement at the White House on the first day of the Middle East peace talks September 1, 2010 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) during an East Room statement at the White House on the first day of the Middle East peace talks September 1, 2010 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• The Times of Israel reports that last year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to free 50 Palestinian prisoners, held since the 1990s, but Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the offer. Abbas is currently asking that all 107 of the pre-Oslo prisoners be released before peace talks are renewed. [Times of Israel]

• An anti-Hezbollah protester was killed in Beirut after a reported clash between protestors and Hezbollah supporters. [NYT]

• Nearly 30,000 Orthodox Jews gathered in Foley Square in downtown Manhattan to protest recent efforts by the Israeli government to draft ultra-Orthodox men into the IDF. [Forward]

• This weekend’s fire bombing attacks on two kosher restaurants, as well as a home in a largely Jewish residential area, weren’t anti-Semitic attacks, Montreal’s Jewish federation says. [JTA]

• The U.S. government found the diary of Alfred Rosenberg, a top Nazi aide and one of Hitler’s closest confidants, which sheds light on Nazi policy and the German occupation of the Soviet Union. [Reuters]

• Google celebrates what would have been Maurice Sendak’s 80th birthday with a whimsical Google Doodle to honor the children’s writer and illustrator. [Slate]

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.