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Media Summary

Egyptian Security forces committed war crimes in Sinai, says Human Rights Watch

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In the Times, Anshel Pfeffer writes that: “Deadlocked Israel faces new election.” Israel is facing the prospect of a second general election this year as Benjamin Netanyahu battles against a deadline to form a government by midnight tomorrow and members of Knesset squabble over a law to conscript religious students. Despite his right-wing and religious allies holding a majority in parliament after the April 9 election, the Prime Minister has failed to bridge their differences as the cut-off point approaches. Central to the dispute is Avigdor Lieberman, whose small, nationalist-secular Yisrael Beitenu party controls five seats. It is demanding that the new government pass a law setting strict quotas of religious seminary students to be conscripted into the Israeli military, long a controversial topic. The larger religious parties are adamantly opposed to the law. If tomorrow’s deadline is missed, opposition leaders will be given the chance to form a government. If that too fails, Israelis could face another general election before the end of the year and a period of political paralysis in the meantime.

The Guardian and Independent report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has played a last-minute gambit to persuade politicians to help him form a government, threatening to call fresh Israeli elections if deadlocked negotiations do not succeed. The Guardian reports that Netanyahu told his outgoing cabinet on Sunday:  “I don’t think the country needs to be dragged to another election…but there might be someone who wants that.” US President Donald Trump, a long-time backer of Netanyahu, added his public support on Monday for the Israeli leader. “Hoping things will work out with Israel’s coalition formation and Bibi and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever,” he wrote in a tweet, using a common shorthand nickname. Netanyahu had presented both sides with a compromise, a deal Lieberman’s chief negotiator described as “fake”.

The BBC reports that on Saturday, thousands of Israelis gathered for a mass rally against moves to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution. Protesters amassed outside a museum in Tel Aviv for “pro-democracy” demonstrations organised by Israeli opposition parties. They are accusing Netanyahu of trying to pass legislation that safeguards him from corruption cases. Saturday’s demonstrations were the first held by opposition parties since Netanyahu’s election victory. Some protesters wore Ottoman-style red fez hats and carried portraits of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who they claim “symbolises the regime type that we are opposing”.

The BBC reports that four French men have been sentenced to death by an Iraqi court after being found guilty of joining the Islamic State (IS) militant group. Kévin Gonot, Léonard Lopez and Salim Machou were sentenced on Sunday and a fourth man, Mustapha Merzoughi, on Monday, the AFP reported. They were among 12 French citizens captured in Syria by US-backed fighters and transferred to Iraq for trial. These are the first IS suspects from France to be sentenced to death.

The Telegraph reports that on Monday, France confirmed that an Iraqi court that sentenced four French citizens to death as members of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant had jurisdiction to do so but said it would take “the necessary steps” to try to prevent them from being executed.

The Guardian reports that more than 40 international volunteers – a third of them British – who fought in Syria against the Islamic State terror group have written to the home secretary, Sajid Javid, to condemn his plans to prosecute UK citizens who remain in the country. Four British families whose sons or daughters were killed fighting ISIS have also signed the letter, raising concerns that Javid is “criminalising” those who risked their lives supporting the US-led coalition which two months ago defeated the IS caliphate. Last week Javid told British citizens in northern Syria to leave within 28 days or face a 10-year prison sentence if they attempt to return to the UK. Unveiling powers ostensibly drawn up to tackle jihadist terrorism, he is now accused of failing to distinguish between Britons in the jihadist enclave of Idlib, in Syria’s north-west, and those in the north-east, a region controlled by Kurdish forces that have been in the vanguard of efforts to defeat ISIS.

The Telegraph reports that on Sunday, rebel-held Idlib in Syria faced its heaviest day of strikes since the latest government offensive began on April 30, according to the war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory, which tracks Syria’s civil war, reported on Monday that 815 people, including 226 civilians have been killed since April 30. According to the United Nations, over 200,000 people were forced to flee the continuous bombing and shelling of towns in southern Idlib and northern Hama and have few options to seek safety. Up to 80,000 of those who have fled are sleeping rough with no shelter, and many others are crammed into overcrowded homes.

The BBC and Financial Times report that US President Donald Trump is approving the sale of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, citing Iranian threats to its arch rival. The BBC reports that Trump invoked a rarely used aspect of federal law to push through the $8bn (£6bn) deal – bypassing Congress. He did so by declaring that ongoing tensions with Iran amounted to a national emergency. The move has angered those who fear the weapons may be used against civilians in Yemen by Saudi-led forces. Some Democrats accused the President of bypassing Congress because the sale of weapons – including precision-guided bombs – would have been strongly opposed on Capitol Hill. Weapons will also reportedly be sold to the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

Reuters reports that on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said Egyptian security forces have committed widespread abuses against civilians in restive northern Sinai peninsula, some of which amount to war crimes. Egypt’s ground and air forces have been fighting Islamist insurgents in Sinai for years, in a conflict fuelled by wider Middle East dynamics and a history of state neglect and oppression of the poor and isolated region. The report accused security forces of arbitrary arrests including children, disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings, collective punishment and forced evictions. While there was no immediate reaction from the Egyptian government, it has in the past responded to accusations of rights abuses by saying strong security measures were needed to curb Islamic State and other jihadists on its soil. New York-based HRW said its 134-page report was researched from 2016-2018 and based on interviews with 54 north Sinai residents and former government and military officials, as well as official statements and satellite images.

In the Guardian, Dr Amr Darrag writes: “The west turns a blind eye to Middle Eastern violence at its own peril”. In failing to hold Egypt and Saudi Arabia to account over the deaths of Giulio Regeni and Jamal Khashoggi, he argues, the West is making a rod for its own back.

The BBC reports that according to the acting US Defence Secretary, Patrick Shanahan, the US is to send 1,500 troops to the Middle East to counter the “ongoing threat posed by Iranian forces.” Congress has been notified about the plans, Patrick Shanahan said in a statement. Fighter jets, drones and other weaponry will also be deployed. President Donald Trump announced the move earlier on Friday. He said the deployment was “relatively small”.

In the Financial Times, Najmeh Bozorgmehr writes that Iranians are adjusting to life under US sanctions, with the bet in Tehran, that there will be negotiations with the US, and not war. Today, Iran is more stable than at this time last year, argues Bozorgmehr. This may surprise Donald Trump’s US administration, which has imposed the toughest ever sanctions against the Islamic republic over its controversial regional and defence policies. Iranians had no clue where the US’s economic war was dragging them to last year as they saw their currency plunge about 60 per cent on the open market. But as the republic tries to rebalance the economy, people have found some certainty in the uncertainty and have acted to lessen their economic vulnerability. Their resilience and hedging against rampant inflation will make it difficult for US hawks to push Iran towards the street protests — as in the 1979 revolution — and eventual regime change that they may seek.

The Telegraph reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has suggested that the Islamic Republic could hold a public referendum on its nuclear programme, in the wake of rising tensions in the Persian Gulf. “Article 59 of the Constitution (referendum) is a deadlock breaker … and could be a problem-solver at any junction,” the semi-official news agency ILNA quoted Rouhani as saying late on Saturday. The statement followed Rouhani’s public dressing-down by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his handling of the country’s fast-unravelling nuclear deal.

The Guardian reports that Donald Trump has said he would support Shinzo Abe’s efforts to act as a mediator between the US and Iran, as reports suggested the Japanese Prime Minister would visit Tehran next month for talks with the Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani. Speaking at a press conference on the penultimate day of his state visit to Japan, Trump also gave his backing to Abe’s attempts to set up a first summit, without preconditions, with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, hours after the regime described the US president’s national security adviser, John Bolton, as a warmonger.

The Independent reports that authorities in Iran have arrested around 30 people at a private yoga class in northeastern Iranian city of Gorgan after being tipped off by an advertisement on Instagram. Massoud Soleimani, deputy chief of the city’s Islamic Revolution Court, told the agency that those arrested were wearing “inappropriate outfits” and had “behaved inappropriately.” He added that the instructor did not have a license for the class, and that security forces had been monitoring the house for some time before making the arrests. Mixed gender sports are banned in Iran by the country’s conservative Islamic authorities. Although the practice of yoga isn’t officially forbidden in Iran, teaching at a professional level is. Religious hardliners frequently criticise the corrupting influence of yoga.

The Israeli media is dominated by the coalition crisis and possible new elections. Anshel Pfeffer and Nahum Barnea analyse Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman. Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz writes that: “Seven weeks ago, Netanyahu proclaimed his fifth election victory. By now it’s clear that he hasn’t won. Perhaps no one has. But Lieberman has now blown the race wide open again.” Pfeffer argues that: “Lieberman has the keenest political instincts in the Knesset. He’s concluded that even if Netanyahu can cobble together a coalition, and perhaps even pass some form of an immunity law or overriding clause, he is ultimately going down, with an indictment that will force him out of office and into court in 2020. With Netanyahu gone, there will be a free-for-all on the Israeli right, where no clear successor has yet to emerge. Naftali Bennett tried in the election to lay his claim to the throne, but his party, Hayamin Hehadash, failed to cross the electoral threshold. Two weeks ago, Gideon Saar, made his first tentative claim to leadership when he spoke out against Netanyahu’s proposed immunity law. Now Lieberman is making his move and the coalition arithmetic is on his side.”

Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahronoth, writes that: “Lieberman’s advantage over all the other payers in the political theatre is what he doesn’t have – he does not aspire to anything and he has no one that he must appease. ‘For me, politics is not an obsession,’ he once said, and he meant it. In a world of the obsessed, the un-obsessed is king.” Barnea adds that: “In Netanyahu’s speech last night, he said that new elections would be superfluous, would waste billions and lose precious time. All true. But Netanyahu forgot that it was he, and no one else, who forced the country into early elections the last two times they were held, once because of a free newspaper that was established to benefit him, and the second time because of the indictment against him. It was not the good of the state that he had in mind, but rather personal gain: my kingdom for immunity. When it concerns himself, Netanyahu is obsessed.”

Yossi Verter in Haaretz believes that: “For Netanyahu, the only acceptable option is to form a new government, at the latest by Wednesday. Early elections would mean an indictment and a trial, with no immunity law and no law allowing the Knesset to override the Supreme Court. If, despite this, a few deserters from his coalition thwart the Knesset’s dissolution, the president will be entitled to let another MK try to form a government – presumably Kahol Lavan Chairman Benny Gantz. Gantz will find it very difficult to form a coalition, but he will have almost a month to try. And during this time, views within Likud might change. Knesset members – not just in Likud, but also among its partners – would understand that Netanyahu is history. Even if he managed to stitch together a coalition after Gantz failed (the law allows this), nothing in the world would prevent a pre-indictment hearing followed by an indictment. For the prime minister, this would be his personal Ground Zero. And during this time, someone would arise within Likud to challenge him and suggest to party members that there’s life after Bibi.”

Other commentators are highly critical of Netanyahu’s conduct. Sima Kadmon argues in Yediot Ahronoth, that if Israel is to hold new elections it will be because: “Netanyahu will not relent. Because he is grasping onto his seat with his nails, even though he knows the price that this entails” adding that “the reason he wants to quickly pass the bill to dissolve the Knesset is the same reason that the last elections were moved up: Netanyahu’s personal fate.” Kadmon concludes that “Netanyahu also knows that if the good of the state came first for him, he would return the mandate to the president and let someone else try to form a government. Anyone. For example, one of the senior Likud members who could form a unity government with Blue and White within an hour. Gantz and Lapid’s party was quick to announce that they would have no problem forming a government with any of the top Likud figures—just not with Netanyahu. Theoretically the Likud, headed by anyone else, could quickly form the kind of government that we have not had for a long time, a government that would speak to a majority of the people. If there were anybody in the top Likud ranks today with any backbone, they would know what to do…If, in this situation, there is no one in the Likud to get up and take the next step, that means that there is nobody there who is worthy of being the next leader.”

Ben Caspit in Maariv fact-checks Netanyahu’s speech last night saying that if the national interest was paramount, Netanyahu should: “Let another right-wing candidate form a government right away (Blue and White will support a national unity government led by Yuli Edelstein, for example), or send the mandate back to the president. You have chosen the paralyzing and pointless solution of elections because as far as you’re concerned: l’état, c’est toi. If that were your custom, you would have cleared the way, just like Ehud Olmert did in 2008, before the police had recommended indicting him. If the country’s wellbeing prevails over all other considerations and all other interests, you would not have changed your spots and turned on the incomparably important justice system…You, unfortunately, are trying to weaken and dismantle democracy in order to save yourself.”

In other news, Haaretz reports that Supreme Court President Esther Hayut slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to curb the power of the High Court, with Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit echoing her criticism. Speaking at a Bar Association meeting in Eilat, Hayut said: “A year and a half ago the Prime Minister said a strong and independent court is necessary and that he supports dialogue between authorities. What has changed? Has anything happened since then that justifies a move away from these principles? I think not.”

Maariv and Haaretz report on Syrian attempts to intercept an Israeli fighter jet. An incident occurred in Syria and no Israeli forces were injured. A Syrian anti-aircraft shell was fired at an Israeli fighter jet that was flying in northern Israel yesterday. The shell landed in Syrian territory and the aircraft completed its mission as planned. The Air Force bombed the Syrian launcher that had fired the shell in retaliation. A Syrian army official said that one soldier was killed and another was injured. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said following the incident that the military took a grave view of any threat to the Air Force’s planes and would take action to defend them.