The BBC, Telegraph, Times, Independent and Financial Times report on the ISIS attack that killed US soldiers in northern Syria yesterday. The BBC reports that according to US Central Command, two US soldiers, a civilian employee at the defence department and a contractor died, with another three US soldiers wounded. IS said they detonated an explosive vest next to a US patrol in the Kurdish-held town of Manbij. US forces are in Manbij to back Kurdish and Arab forces. Wednesday’s attack took place at a restaurant near Manbij’s main market. The US troops were at the restaurant to meet members of the Manbij Military Council, a witness said. The US soldiers were subsequently evacuated by helicopter that landed on a playground, the Syrian Kurdish Hawar News Agency reports. It cited the head of Manbij’s health committee as saying that 18 people had been killed, including the US soldiers, and that another 18 had been wounded. US Central Command later confirmed that four Americans were killed. The Financial Times reports that Mike Pence, US vice-president, said both he and President Donald Trump condemned the attack, reiterating that US troops had “crushed the ISIS caliphate and devastated its capabilities.” He said: “As we begin to bring our troops home, the American people can be assured, for the sake of our soldiers, their families, and our nation, we will never allow the remnants of Isis to re-establish their evil and murderous caliphate — not now, not ever.”

Writing in the Times, Richard Spencer argues that yesterday’s attack on US soldiers in Syria shows why the US is pulling out of the country: “US President Donald Trump wants to stop US soldiers being killed in other people’s conflicts.”

David Gardner, writing in the Financial Times, argues that the withdrawal of US forces from Syria will make “the most consistently combustible region in the world more explosive”. He argues that: “Trump may think he can declare victory and leave. But almost everything is in place to guarantee the resurgence of Sunni extremism — which respects no borders”.

The BBC reports that police in Israel have arrested a top lawyer as part of an investigation into claims that judicial appointments were traded for sexual favours. The lawyer has not been named and a gag order covers most details of the case. But police said it concerned the appointment of a female magistrates’ court judge and an attempt to promote a male judge to a district court. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has reportedly recused himself because he is a friend of the main suspect. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut, who are members of the Judicial Appointments Committee, are meanwhile expected to be summoned to give testimony. Israeli police said in a statement that the force’s Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit had launched an investigation two weeks ago after receiving information about judicial appointments. On Wednesday morning one male lawyer was arrested as part of the inquiry.

The BBC reports that Iran has called on the US to release one of its journalists who, it says, was illegally arrested by the FBI while making a family visit. American-born reporter Marzieh Hashemi was reportedly taken into custody upon landing in St Louis on Sunday and was reportedly subjected to “inhumane” conditions. Hashemi’s reported arrest came after Iran detained at least four Americans, some on espionage charges. The FBI declined to comment on the situation in an email to the BBC. Hashemi is reportedly now in Washington DC following her arrest at St Louis Lambert International Airport. US media have been unable to verify Hashemi’s situation with any local jails. Hashemi’s employer, the English-language state broadcaster Press TV, issued a lengthy statement expressing “strong protest” at Hashemi’s situation. According to the outlet, Hashemi told her family in a phone call on Tuesday she had been “subjected to violent and abusive treatment from the very onset”. She said she did not know why she had been detained. The authorities allegedly forced her to remove her hijab and allowed her to wear only a short-sleeved shirt, going against her Muslim beliefs. The statement says she was also denied halal (adhering to Islamic law) food, “being offered only pork as a meal and not even bread”, and as a result ate just a packet of crackers after her arrest.

Mehul Srivastava, writing in the Financial Times, argues that in the weeks since he called for early elections, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has refrained from criticising any of his traditional political rivals. Instead, in public broadcasts and on social media, he has directed his disdain towards a man not even on the ballot: Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit. Srivastava writes that Netanyahu has denied all the charges and launched an unprecedented assault on the attorney-general’s conduct and office, signalling in a nationally televised address that he was braced for an indictment.

Reuters reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, on Wednesday, said that Iran will be ready for a new satellite launch in a few months’ time after a failed attempt this week, ignoring US and European warnings to avoid such activity. Western officials say the missile technology used in such launches could be applied to delivering a nuclear weapon. Iran’s bid to send a satellite, named Payam, into orbit failed on Tuesday as its launching rocket did not reach adequate speed in its third stage. Rouhani was quoted by state media as saying that Iran had “achieved great success in building satellites and launching them. That means we are on the right track. The remaining problems are minor, will be resolved in a few months, and we will soon be ready for a new launch,” he said.

The Telegraph reports that Iran’s ambassador to Britain has said the publicity campaign to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has made the London mother’s chances of early release from prison less likely. The intervention came three days after her husband announced the 40-year old mother from Hampstead began a hunger strike over access to specialist medical care and revealed that she had been offered freedom in exchange for agreeing to spy on Britain after she returned to the country. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt had summoned Hamid Baeidinejad, the Iranian ambassador, to demand that she be granted proper access to medical care following the announcement. The pair said their request for access to medical care outside prison had been granted and ended their hunger strike on Wednesday evening. But Baeidinejad hit out at the publicity campaign, accusing Richard Ratcliffe of “causing chaos and complications and ” telling “lies” about his wife’s treatment. He said Zaghari-Ratcliffe would qualify for an early release scheme but that she had been “ill-advised” by her husband to “adopt measures that are not helpful. We really hope that we can help her from a humanitarian ground and find quick solutions in a way that clemency will be granted,” he said. “Unfortunately in this situation now, when there are always agitations, issues in the media and politicisation of the media, I am concerned that this would not be a situation leading to that conclusion.”

Reuters reports that Yemen’s warring sides started talks in Amman on Wednesday on how to implement a prisoner exchange that will allow thousands of families to be reunited as part of UN-led peace efforts, UN officials and delegates said. Delegates from the Iran-aligned Houthi movement and the Saudi-backed Yemeni Government met in the Jordanian capital to discuss the swap, which was agreed in UN-led talks in Sweden in December. “The two parties exchanged the list of prisoners in Sweden and they’re now discussing steps to implement it,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

All the Israeli media report on the scandal rocking the Israeli judicial system. Israel Bar Association President Efi Naveh was placed under house arrest last night, after being arrested for alleged bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Naveh allegedly worked to secure the appointment of a woman, with whom he had a sexual relationship, as a judge in a Magistrates Court. Naveh also allegedly worked to secure the promotion of a Magistrates Court judge to the District Court, an effort that failed, after having a sexual relationship with the judge’s wife. The Magistrates Court judge and the second judge’s wife were released from custody last night under restrictive conditions after spending the day being questioned by police. Israel Hayom calls it a “disgrace in the legal establishment” and “a sad day for the rule of law and for democracy”. Yediot Ahronot notes: “For decades, the system of judges’ appointments in Israel has been political. Overly political. Up until not many years ago, there was an alliance between the representatives of the Israel Bar Association and the judges on the Judges Selection Committee. That doesn’t mean that the judges who were selected were bad. But it does mean that in all that pertains to appointments, at least to the Supreme Court, one’s agenda and connections were the key to advancement. Ayelet Shaked, as justice minister, brought about a historic change when she brought the chairperson of the Israel Bar Association, Attorney Efi Naveh, over to her side.” The paper concludes: “A country does not become corrupt when corruption affairs are exposed. It becomes corrupt when these affairs are not exposed and not investigated. In the current affair, the investigation is at its height. This is no reason to celebrate. But we can be consoled by the fact that nothing is being swept under the carpet. And that’s something.”

Commenting in Maariv, Ben Caspit writes: “The fact that the judge yesterday refused the police’s request to extend Efi Naveh’s remand by three days and sufficed with placing him under house arrest indicates that it isn’t going to be easy proving the allegations that have been made against Naveh. In the past few years Naveh has amassed enormous power and a huge cache of information. He stirred the pot and made demands, promoted and threatened. He had his hand in everything. He had already marked his next objective: politics. Naveh was like a rock star who rose too swiftly, too high. Instead of becoming addicted to drugs as a path to self-destruction, he became addicted to power, to the sense of omnipotence, to the belief that he was king and that the sun and sky were the limit.”

Channel 14 news, (formerly channel 2) includes their latest polling ahead of the April election; Likud is projected to win 32 seats, Yesh Atid: 14, Israel Resilience Party (Benny Gantz): 13, Labour Party: 9, New Right: 8, United Torah Judaism: 7, Arab Movement for Renewal (Ahmed Tibi): 6, Joint List: 6, Shas: 6, Yisrael Beiteinu: 6, Meretz: 5, Kulanu: 4, Gesher (Orly Levi-Abekasis): 4. According to the poll, Jewish Home, Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua and Moshe Yaalon’s Telem do not make it over the electoral threshold. The poll was conducted by Midgam Research & Consulting among 1,007 respondents who constitute a representative cross-section of adult Israeli society over the age of 18. The margin of error is 3.1 per cent.  They also asked who is best suited to be prime minister, Netanyahu remains ahead of Gantz and Lapid. When the respondents were asked to choose only between Netanyahu and Gantz, 36 per cent chose Netanyahu while Gantz received 28 per cent, 22 per cent chose to answer “neither one,” and 14 per cent responded “don’t know”. Perhaps most significantly, the poll found that many voters still haven’t decided which party to vote for. The poll found that 20 per cent of the public is still deliberating. Most are deliberating among the centre and left wing parties: 22 per cent of the undecided voters defined themselves as centrists, 17 per cent as left-wing and 15 per cent as right-wing.

Yediot Ahronot reports on Israel-UK bilateral relations, writing: “In 2011, years before the idea of ​​leaving the EU, Britain placed Israel among the countries they wanted to strengthen ties, alongside the US, China and Japan. Prime Minister David Cameron wanted to use Israeli companies to become the Silicon Valley of Europe. Years passed, the British decided on Brexit, Cameron resigned – but Brexit may have a positive effect on Israel. If it does withdraw from the EU, at the end of the ongoing fiasco, it will have to sign bilateral agreements with each country it wants to trade with. Thanks to Israel’s status as a technological empire, Britain will be vigorously pursuing it. It needs it not only in high-tech but also in cyberspace and intelligence in the face of the threat of terrorism.” According to the paper: “The courtship even led to political consequences: If, a decade ago, it was the spearhead of reservations about Israel’s policy in the territories, the Brits are looking the other way.  Britain after the Brexit will need Israel more than ever and cooperation is expected to grow, along with the volume of trade. ‘Britain outside the Union’ shall not be subject to its laws. Imports will also shrink, because in the absence of free trade laws the British will look for cheaper alternatives and Israeli companies will be able to enjoy fair competition with other countries.”  The paper also notes, how expensive it used to be to visit London, but has now become a” tourist paradise”. 

Haaretz reports that Hamas interrogated four Italian diplomats at the UN Headquarters in Gaza City on suspicion they were undercover Israeli soldiers. The four men were in a car that did not stop at a Hamas checkpoint and were armed with automatic weapons. Hamas security personnel chased and shot at the car, which then sought refuge in the UN headquarters. Hamas forces then proceeded to besiege the building. After an initial negotiation, a team of investigators entered the building and questioned the four men. They were later released when it became apparent they were Italian diplomats.