More in ‘Egypt’

• Despite everything, Israel expects the proximity talks will in fact launch, and soon. [JPost]
• The IDF indicted two soldiers in military court for allegedly getting a Palestinian boy to open a suspected booby-trapped package during last year’s Gaza conflict. [LAT]
• To head off buzzed-about rioting, Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered a 48-hour full closure ...

If you have not been following this exciting story, I wrote a catch-up yesterday for the magazine: do check out.
The most interesting tidbit today in the continuing story of the assassination, likely by Mossad, of Hamas weapons procurer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was that one Hamas official told an Arabic-language paper that his group believes an Arab ...

Angrily responding to an article in the prior issue of Foreign Policy, former President Jimmy Carter—who helped orchestrate the Camp David agreement with Egypt, and in recent years has emerged as an especially staunch critic of Israel—offers this apologia pro vita sua regarding his presidency’s Israel policy:
There was no pressure on me to launch a ...

• The Israeli Air Force revealed new pilotless drones (the size of Boeing 737s) that have a long enough range to be operational against, say, Iran. [NYT]
• The French and Spanish foreign ministers are the most prominent supporters of an initiative that would see the European Union recognize a Palestinian state within 18 months. Israel ...

“It would be more honorable to me and my family if I die of hunger rather than consider coaching the Israeli team,” said Hassan Shehata, who coach’s Egypt’s national squad, explaining that he wouldn’t coach Israel “even if it was the only team that requests my services.” (Um, quick question: did it request his services?) ...

Today in Tablet Magazine, Mideast columnist Lee Smith reports from Beirut on the vertigo the traditional regional Sunni Arab powers—primarily Egypt and Saudi Arabia—are feeling now that momentum has shifted toward non-Arab states Iran, Turkey, and Israel. Book critic Adam Kirsch considers a new history of the shtetl, and specifically its demise during (when else?) ...

• Israelis are oddly torn over their military’s heroic efforts in Haiti. The government wants the world to take note; the right wonders why the world doesn’t take note more; the left wonders why Israel doesn’t behave similarly in slightly more proximate (and also catastrophic) Gaza. [NYT]
• Plans for a wall along Israel’s Egyptian border ...

• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told an Egyptian news agency that Israel killed Yasser Arafat, and he is worried he will meet the same fate. [Arutz Sheva]
• Legendary Lower East Side knishery Yonah Schimmel’s celebrated its 100th anniversary. [City Room]
• Hamas asked Egypt to stop building an underground wall along its border with Gaza. The ...

We were once slaves in the land of Egypt, until the Lord with His outstretched hand did His thing. But, while in Egypt, whatever we were doing, we probably weren’t building the pyramids. Mud-brick tombs discovered last week purportedly demonstrate that the builders of the famous pyramids at Giza were paid laborers, probably drawn from ...

• Despite fears, most West Bank observers believe that an intifada-style uprising is highly unlikely in the near future. They point to a weak Palestinian leadership, tight Israeli control, and a burgeoning economy. [LAT]
• Obama administration officials have disclosed to Israel that the Bush administration sold advanced air and naval weapons systems to Egypt, Saudia ...