7/01 Links Part 1: Fools Rush In Where Statesmen Fear to Tread and Syrian Rebel Thanks Israel!

From Ian:

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Barry Rubin: Fools Rush In Where Statesmen Fear to Tread

What the heck is the U.S. line on Egypt? To support the elected repressive, anti-American, anti-Christian, antisemitic, anti-woman, anti-gay regime which cannot even decide on taking billions of dollars from international banks which would never be paid back?
Unhappiness is when you know that Iran’s regime is smarter than the U.S. government.
Maximum unhappiness means knowing that Iran's, the Muslim Brotherhood's, al-Qaida’s, and Turkey's leaders are smarter than America's.

David Horovitz: Why ‘a little more work’ won’t do it, Mr. Kerry

In a region where instability is now the norm pretty much everywhere bar Israel, and where Iran has thus far outmaneuvered the West as it speeds toward a nuclear weapons capability, this is a pretty discouraging time for a tiny country to be contemplating high-risk territorial compromise — especially when Hamas’s quickfire violent takeover from Fatah of Gaza in 2007 constituted a profoundly worrying precedent for what might occur were Israel to withdraw from the West Bank.
Kerry’s unfathomable enthusiasm notwithstanding, there are no short cuts. The only source of potentially justifiable optimism lies in a process of changed atmosphere and changed attitudes — a gradual process — in a Middle East, moreover, where Iran has been successfully faced down and relative moderates consequently emboldened.

Israeli official: Kerry disappointed in Abbas

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is disappointed in the conduct of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said on Sunday after Kerry departed Israel following his latest attempt to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Before taking off from Ben-Gurion International Airport, Kerry promised to return soon and announced that two of his aides would remain in Israel to work on bridging remaining differences that are preventing the resumption of negotiations.
A senior Israeli diplomatic official said that "most of the American pressure is directed at [Abbas] right now."

Kerry vs. Palestinian obstinacy

We are nowhere close to meaningful negotiations. There have been past cases in which a U.S. secretary of state came to the region and Israel agreed to give up, before negotiations, inalienable assets and this led to the hardening of the other side's positions. One should remember the willingness of the governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak to hand the Golan Heights over to the regime of Hafez Assad.
Israel's representatives and advocates around the world now have the chance to again show who the real obstacle to peace is. The reality, following the recent round of shuttle diplomacy, speaks for itself.

Honest Reporting: Get Your Head Around This

Writing about US Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest Middle East visit, Harriet Sherwood of The Guardian includes the following sentence:

Israel says it is willing to negotiate without preconditions, but has so far refused to meet Palestinian demands.

I’m still trying to get my head around this. Does it even make sense?

Guardian photo caption runs interference for ‘Hamas Jihad Camp’, again.

So, according to the Observer caption, Hamas-run camps merely reinforce “awareness of the conflict with Israel.” As such language would leave the impression that children are merely receiving educational instruction on the political dynamics of the “conflict”, here are some photos from the camps, which (as reported on multiple new sites), are clearly military in nature.

EU Slams Gaza for Executions of 'Collaborators'

The EU mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah on Sunday condemned the recent execution of two Palestinian Authority Arabs in Gaza by Hamas authorities, a statement quoted by the Ma’an news agency read.
"The de facto authorities in Gaza should refrain from carrying out any executions of prisoners and comply with the de facto moratorium on executions put in place by the Palestinian Authority, pending abolition of the death penalty in line with the global trend," the statement said, according to Ma’an.

Activists storm Muslim Brotherhood HQ as protests continue

Protesters stormed and ransacked the Cairo headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group early Monday, in an attack that could spark more violence as demonstrators gear up for a second day of mass rallies aimed at forcing the Islamist leader from power.
Organizers of the protests, meanwhile, gave Morsi until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to step down and called on the police and the military to clearly state their support for what the protest movement called the popular will.

Turmoil grips Egypt as four ministers quit Morsi government

Youths hurl firebombs and rocks while storming building; 16 dead, nearly 800 hurt since anti-Morsi protests began; president refuses to bow to pressure for his resignation.

We have no beef with Israel, Syrian Islamist rebel group says

Earlier in June, an unnamed spokesperson for a Syrian rebel group operating near the Turkish border told Israel Radio that his group “hopes for peace and security with Israel after the downfall of the Assad regime,” but that it doesn’t want Israel to interfere in the revolution.
The best weapon Israel can grant the rebels is its recognition of the justness of their cause, the Syrian rebel told correspondent Eran Singer.
Horan, in his conversation with The Times of Israel, went so far as to offer rare praise for Israel’s efforts to provide medical assistance for Syrians injured near the border with Israel in clashes between Assad forces and rebels.

Saudi Arabia Jails Seven for Facebook Activism

The eastern sector has seen a number of demonstrations by minority Shi’ites over alleged government discrimination and negligence since the region-wide Arab Spring uprisings two years ago.
“Sending people off to years in prison for peaceful Facebook posts sends a strong message that there’s no safe way to speak out in Saudi Arabia, even on online social networks,” HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said in the statement.