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Daybreak: U.N. Showdown Set

Plus a weekend of rockets, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
October 31, 2011

• This morning, UNESCO became the first U.N. body to accept the Palestinian Authority as a full member, setting the stage for a confrontation with the United States, which is currently required to pull all UNESCO funding. [CNN]

• Skirmishes between Gaza-based terrorist groups (not Hamas) and Israel raged throughout the weekend; several terrorists were killed, as was one Israeli civilian. [NYT]

• There is a lot of chatter about potential Israeli military designs on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. [Ynet]

• A must-read dispatch from Damascus, where the months-long protests may well have blown over even as the sense of oppression has not. [WP]

• The IDF whistleblower Anat Kamm, who leaked documents to Haaretz, received four-and-a-half years in jail for espionage. [AP/WP]

• It’s not only the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Emergency Committee for Israel: J Street, too, has rejected the Anti-Defamation League’s “unity pledge” on Israel. [Jewish Journal]

• Ruth Madoff speaks. She has cut ties with her husband completely. [NYT]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.