Updates

Antisemitism

• A group of US Marines in Afghanistan have been subject to criticism after posing with a Nazi flag. (AP)

• Australia’s anti-Israel boycott movement has chosen to protest outside a synagogue in Melbourne on Saturday, disrupting Sabbath prayers. (Herald Sun)

Arab Spring

• Daniel Byman explains why Israel is concerned about instability in Arab regimes while Brian Murphy and Karen Laub report that the Arab revolutions’ attendant Islamist rise is enticing Hamas away from Iran and into the arms of the Muslim Brotherhood. Uri Savir argues that America should stop giving military aid to Arab countries and instead focus on education and democracy-building and David Goodman claims that Morocco and Saudi Arabia may have avoided revolutions by censoring social media. (Brookings, AP, JPost, NYT)

• Israeli Jeans have been invading Egypt and sterilising men with “infertility belts”, at least according to one Egyptian TV pundit. (MEMRI)

Pakistan

• Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency is beingtaken to court for kidnapping. (Guardian)

Turkey

• Turkey’s ruling AKP has re-instated an Ottoman era ban on non-Muslims worshipping at an ancient Byzantine church which had been converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. (Commentary)

UK

• Former British MP George Galloway has been exposed for his support of antisemitic former Malaysian President Mahatir Mohammed and for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. (Harry’s Place, Atlantic)

• Marina hyde laments the British tabloids’ obsession with the physical appearance and fluctuating weight … of terrorists. (Guardian)

Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz