The BBC’s Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell comments about President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the Israeli Knesset last night. She says President Zelensky has proven skilful at adapting his message to different groups of lawmakers, and pointedly questioned why some countries officially appear to be indifferent to Russia’s invasion of his country or sitting on the fence.

The Times and Independent report that the US said it was “profoundly disappointed” the UAE allowed an official visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his first to an Arab state since civil war broke out in his country 11 years ago. Al-Assad met the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and discussed “fraternal relations” — how the UAE can support the Assad regime politically and promote trade. The visit was not publicly announced.

The Telegraph follows comments made at the weekend by Joshua Zarka, the Israeli foreign ministry’s deputy director general, about the proposed Iran nuclear deal set to be signed in Vienna. Zarka said the country was “extremely troubled” by what it saw as the likely prospect of Tehran spending hundreds of billions of currently frozen dollars “on arming its proxies and financing its proxies” in the region. Zarka also warned that tensions between Israel and Iran in the region would “grow significantly” in the event of sanctions against Iran being lifted.

Osama bin Laden’s former spokesman was allowed back into the UK in 2020 after being questioned for just an hour on a video call by counterterrorism officers, according to The Times. Adel Abdel Bary, 61, returned to Britain after his release from jail in the US, where he was convicted for his part in the 1998 terrorist attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and wounded 5,000. As part of efforts to monitor Bary, the Metropolitan Police applied to the High Court for a notification order against him. Bary challenged the order on mental health grounds, citing post-traumatic stress disorder “associated with imprisonment and torture in Egypt, then imprisonment in the UK and US”.

The Guardian reports from the West Bank on Israel turning a blind eye to Palestinians illegally clambering through holes in the security fences to make a living in Israel. “Despite the walls and fences, Palestinians have always managed to enter Israel. While there is no data, people in the West Bank have begun crossing in increasing numbers over the last few years in search of better-paid work. That used to entail playing a deadly cat-and-mouse game with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) – but since the pandemic hit, the situation appears to have relaxed.”

The Independent follows the latest Houthi rebels attack on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia. On Sunday, a barrage of drone and missile struck Saudi energy and water desalination facilities, causing a temporary drop in output at a refinery but caused no casualties, Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said.

The Financial Times warns that the Ukraine war is sparking food shortages in Arab nations as wheat prices soar. Grains and vegetable oil from Ukraine and Russia are crucial to national diets across the region and even before the Ukraine crisis, Lebanon was in the grip of a financial meltdown.

In the Israeli media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the Members of Knesset and cabinet ministers yesterday evening dominates the headlines. Channel 12 News suggests that Israel’s policy will not change because of Zelensky’s intervention and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will continue to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, because doing so is good for Israel’s purposes, regardless of the outcome. In Yediot Ahronot, Sima Kadmon argues that that Zelensky’s speech “was a direct and blunt attempt to appeal to the Israeli public and its leadership’s sense of guilt” and criticises the President’s “historic distortion and disturbing comparison… between the situation in Ukraine and the Jewish Holocaust”. She notes how the Ukrainian president spoke about the “choice” between good and evil that the Israeli government faces today, similar to that of the Ukrainians 80 years ago, and describes it as an “act of charlatanism… it’s a distortion and a lie”. In Maariv, Ben Caspit is more forgiving of Zelensky, writing: “Zelenskyy was wrong to invoke the Holocaust to illustrate Ukraine’s situation, but he enjoys mitigating circumstances. When a man is fighting with all but his bare hands against a nuclear superpower that has brutally attacked him, he shouldn’t be taken to task for making mistakes. He did what we would have done in the same situation: he tried to rattle and shock his audience at any price. We also do that from time to time, repeatedly citing the Holocaust and comparing it to present-day threats even as we ignore the fact that Israel is a regional power, has nuclear weapons according to foreign reports, and doesn’t face an existential threat.”

Kan Radio reports that last night the Israeli Police arrested the assailant who stabbed a police officer earlier in the evening in East Jerusalem’s Ras el-Amud neighbourhood, inflicting moderate injuries. The suspect, a 23-year-old resident of the Jabel Mukaber neighbourhood, was found in a relative’s home. Relatives of the suspect described him as suffering from mental illness. Meanwhile, some 400 IDF soldiers are currently in the process of demolishing 20 structures in the outpost of Maoz Esther and a second nearby settlement outpost in Binyamin. Maoz Esther was last removed two years ago.

Israel Hayom publishes comments by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett yesterday who repeated his attack on the Biden administration’s intention to remove Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from the list of terrorist organisations. “We are very concerned about the United States’ intention to agree to the impudent Iranian request. Revolutionary Guard is the largest murderous terrorist organisation in the world,” Bennett said at a cabinet meeting. Bennett criticised Biden, without mentioning his name, for his eagerness to sign a nuclear agreement, and said: “Unfortunately, we see determination to sign the nuclear agreement with Iran at almost any cost, including saying that the largest terrorist organization in the world is not a terrorist organisation. That’s too high a price.”

Walla news follows concerns over the rising number of COVID cases. Yesterday 12,869 new cases were confirmed – the first time in a month that more than 10,000 verifications have been detected per day. The rate of positive tests rose to 20.48 per cent and the reproduction rate has jumped to 1.23. However, the number of people hospitalised from the virus continues to decrease, standing at 331, including 143 on ventilators. Following the increase in morbidity, a discussion was held last night at the Ministry of Health in which they reviewed the situation in Israel.

Maariv reports that the Ministry of Justice has released a new report on the level of reported racist incidents in Israel in 2021 as the world marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. According to the report, 458 investigations were begun, of which 23 per cent were complaints about discrimination in the provision of services, 11 per cent about discrimination in employment, 10 per cent about racist expression in the public sphere, 9 per cent about racist / stereotypical publicity in the public sphere, 7 per cent about racial expression in the civil service, 7 per cent about police work, and 4 per cent about racism in education. Half of the complaints were made from Israelis of Ethiopian origin and the Arab community, and 10 per cent belonged to members of ultra-Orthodox society. Advocate Awka Zena, head of the government unit for coordinating the fight against racism in the Ministry of Justice, said: “The unit works resolutely against all forms of racism that occur in public institutions. In addition to dealing with preventive complaints, the unit implements horizontal moves to combat racism, such as the move against anti-racism currently being led by the Ministry of Education”.

The Jerusalem Post reports that an estimated half-million people turned out Sunday in Bnei Brak day to pay final respects to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who died on Friday at the age of 94. For hours the mourners stood in fearfully crowded conditions, as the police – traumatised by the Meron disaster last Lag Ba’omer – worried and warned of people being crushed by the enormous crowds. The massive crowd recited Psalms and heard long eulogies loudly bewailing the loss of a spiritual leader known to millions of religious Jews worldwide simply as “Reb Chaim”.

Israel Hayom reports that the Israeli Navy is currently partaking in NATO’s multi-national “Noble Dina” exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Basin. Amid heightened tensions in Ukraine between Russia and the West, and with NATO in particular, Israel considered withdrawing from the exercise to avoid being perceived as taking a non-neutral stance in the conflict. After a discussion on the matter, however, IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi decided to participate as planned. In the past, Noble Dina exercises have included counterterrorism scenarios and drills to protect ports. Ships have also practiced anti-submarine procedures and conducted search-and-rescue scenarios as well as a simulated battle between ships.