• The Muslim Brotherhood broke its pledge not to field a presidential candidate in Egypt when it became clear that a liberal apostate from the group as well as an ultraconservative alternative might garner lots of votes if it didn’t. The candidate is Khairat el-Shater. [NYT]
• The so-called Friends of Syria, including several Arab countries and the United States, are now officially funding the opposition. [WP]
• Following his call for a popular uprising, well-liked, jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti has been placed in solitary confinement and denied the right to receive visitors. [Haaretz]
• You’ll be shocked—shocked!—to learn that Palestinian unity is, according to President Abbas, “frozen.” [JTA/Forward]
• Several alleged shooters in a January skirmish in Ramallah are members of the Red Crescent; one is the goalie on the Palestinian Olympics soccer team. [Israel HaYom]
• A traditionally Orthodox liberal blogger publicly resigns from Open Zion. Relatedly, we are now entering our fourth week of Peter Beinart-related news. [JI Daily]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.