• Al Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed the group had captured a Jewish development expert in Pakistan, Warren Weinstein, and that he would be released pending Israel’s lifting the Gaza blockade. [Haaretz]
• During Hosni Mubarak’s reign, there wasn’t a barrier on most of the Israel-Egypt border. Now, there is one. [WP]
• For the first time, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad admitted that he wouldn’t retain that position in a reconciled, Fatah-Hamas unity government. [Haaretz/Forward]
• Despite administration opposition to potentially antagonizing allies, the U.S. Senate voted 100-0 to pass sanctions against foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran’s central bank. [Reuters/Haaretz]
• Lebanon has sent funds to the international tribunal probing the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s prime minister. Notably, Hezbollah opposed the funding. [NYT]
• Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood explicitly rejected a post-election alliance or coalition with an even more conservative Islamist party. [NYT]
Boker tov, Amar’e!
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.