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Daybreak: For West, ‘Defeat’ in Syria

Plus Abbas reacts to the Arab Spring, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
May 07, 2012
Regime opponents in Homs crowd U.N. observers' vans.(Joseph Eid/AFP/GettyImages)
Regime opponents in Homs crowd U.N. observers' vans.(Joseph Eid/AFP/GettyImages)

• The international community is getting ready to “admit defeat” in brokering a Syrian cease-fire. Presumably, after such an admittance, a more effective plan will follow. [WP]

• President Abbas’ recent efforts at censoring Palestinian media are actually a response to new, Arab Spring-prompted reporting on governmental corruption. [NYT]

• Slowly but surely, it has become okay to criticize the king of Jordan, and broader instability may soon afflict that country as well. [WP]

• A High Court judge criticized the Israeli government for failing to dismantle the Ulpana neighborhood in the settlement of Beit El, as the High Court itself ordered. [Haaretz]

• The Saudi ambassador returned to Cairo, re-establishing diplomatic relations following an unusual riot last week. [NYT]

• Al Qaeda released a video of Warren Weinstein, a Virginia-based contractor captured in Pakistan, pleading to President Obama for his life. [AP/Vos Iz Neias?]

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