Daybreak: Public Tensions, Private Friendship

• Both Israel and the United States have reason to convince the world that the former will bomb Iran, against the latter’s wishes. Actually, though, the two are cooperating on the subject ever more closely (with bombing relatively unlikely). [NYT]

• Syria accused Israel of planting uranium traces at the suspicious compound that IDF planes bombed two years ago. [AP/JPost]

• The IDF is readying crucial, exculpatory information regarding a strike in last year’s Gaza conflict that the Goldstone Report called illegal. [Haaretz]

• The Obama administration wishes to exempt China from new Congressional sanctions aimed primarily at Iran in order to coax its support at the United Nations; this, in turn, is angering Japan and South Korea. [WP]

• With Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York) stepping down from the post, the new chair of the super-powerful Ways and Means Committee is Jewish Congressman Sander Levin (D-Michigan). [NYT]

• The i’s are dotted, the t’s are crossed, and it’s official: on June 5, Orthodox rabbi-in-training and middleweight champion Yuri Foreman will face Puerto Rican sensation Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium. The House That Ruth Built hasn’t seen a bout since 1976, when, in a controversial decision, Ken Norton lost to Muhammad Ali. [AP/ESPN]