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Daybreak: Syria Continues Ramadan Attacks

Plus, Iron Dome redeployed, Obama backers shift Israel focus, and more in the news

by
Stephanie Butnick
August 05, 2011
President Obama Meets With Israeli President Shimon Peres At The White House.(Roger L. Wollenberg/Getty Images)
President Obama Meets With Israeli President Shimon Peres At The White House.(Roger L. Wollenberg/Getty Images)

• Syrian military forces brought tanks and snipers to Hama, killing 200 people this week. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Syrian regime has been responsible for more than 2,000 deaths in the past five months. [JPost]

• The IDF has redeployed the Iron Dome missile defense system near Ashkelon in response to rocket fire into Israel that an IDF spokesperson attributed to Hamas. [Haaretz]

• Obama supporters are no longer highlighting diplomacy efforts in Israel, instead emphasizing the president’s improvements to the military relationship between the U.S. and Israel. [Washington Jewish Week]

• Meanwhile, Obama’s decision to set up an Atrocities Prevention Board and implement training programs to identify and prevent genocide won the president support from Jewish groups. [Jewish Journal]

• A NATO strike outside of Tripoli may or may not have killed Muammar Qaddafi’s youngest son, Khamis Qaddafi, a Libyan military commander. [JPost]

• An Israeli-American photojournalist filed a complaint that the IDF fired tear gas canisters and gas grenades at him and another journalist while they covered a protest in the West Bank last week. [JPost]

• And, on a lighter note: in what is quite possibly the best thing on the internet, here is a series of pictures of rapper Drake hugging people. Team Drake! [Tumblr]

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