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Daybreak: Western Force in Syria?

Plus what’s going to happen to Egypt, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
April 20, 2012
The French foreign minister and U.S. secretary of state in Paris yesterday.(Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty Images)
The French foreign minister and U.S. secretary of state in Paris yesterday.(Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty Images)

• The Friends of Syria, including the United States, suggested that if President Assad doesn’t actually cease fire, they will resort to military action. This was so inevitable that it’s a wonder they just didn’t do this eight months ago. [WP]

• The disqualification of prominent presidential candidates in Egypt has refocused scrutiny on the current military leadership and its true intentions after this spring’s elections. [NYT]

• A top Hamas leader (who is actually a chief rival to head Khaled Meshaal) insisted that the group will never make permanent peace with Israel. [Forward]

• Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, an IDF commander currently suspended after a vicious rifle-butting episode, assaulted several other non-threatening protesters, as you can see in a video that has newly surfaced. [Haaretz]

• Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is reportedly planning a trip to Azerbaijan … . [JPost]

• Vienna is renaming its boulevard Karl Lueger Ring—Lueger was the anti-Semitic mayor who inspired Hitler. Any good you should feel toward Vienna ought to be mitigated by the fact that through 2012 they had a street named after Karl Lueger. [JPost]

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