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Daybreak: Erdogan Demands Assad Ouster

Plus new Iran sanctions, the king of Jordan’s trip, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
November 22, 2011
Prime Minister Erdogan today.(Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Erdogan today.(Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)

• Prime Minister Erdogan, of Syria’s once-close ally Turkey, this morning for the first time called on President Bashar Assad to step down. [AP/WP]

• The United States, Canada, and Britain imposed further sanctions on Iran’s financial and energy industries yesterday, though they stopped short of completely isolating its crucial central bank. [NYT]

• Israel is still freezing the transfer of Palestinian Authority tax revenue in protest of the UNESCO membership. [Haaretz]

• In visiting the West Bank, Jordan’s King Abdullah meant to demonstrate that President Abbas is still the top Palestinian and that the Palestinians’ homeland is not Jordan. [NYT]

• Upholding a promise, Vice President Biden met with a handful of Jewish leaders, who lobbied him—almost certainly unsuccessfully—to lobby the president to free Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. [Ynet/Vos Iz Neias?]

• Much of the West Bank and Gaza is without cell phone and Internet access following what is said to have been an organized hack. [WP Blog Post]

After this punt return last night, many wondered if the New England Patriots’ Julian Edelman is Jewish. He is not. Great play, though.

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