LEBANON: Different sides tell different stories regarding explosion

On Tuesday, a series of mysterious explosions in southern Lebanon raised the sensitive issue of Hezbollah’s weapons.

Following the incident, the Lebanese Army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) closed off the area to launch a joint investigation into the cause of the explosions.

Meanwhile, Israel quickly cited the explosion as evidence that Iran and Syria have continued to send weapons to Hezbollah in violation of U.N. resolutions.

A senior Israeli officer told reporters that a warehouse that blew up on Tuesday was filled with rockets smuggled from Syria.

"The walls of the building were crushed and there are also many holes in the roof of the building," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, according to the Associated Press. "We believe that this is one of dozens of ammunition storage [depots] in southern Lebanon that were built by Hezbollah." This particular depot is part of "the buildup of the Hezbollah force" in Lebanon, he added.

ISRAEL: Riots in Jerusalem after religious woman's arrest

For the last few weeks, Jerusalem has been burning on weekends. Protesting the city's decision to open a municipal parking lot on the Sabbath to serve tourists, ultra-Orthodox residents have been demonstrating in the streets several Saturdays in a row, rioting and torching dumpsters after the end of the Sabbath.

On Wednesday, Jerusalem burned once more as ultra-Orthodox protesters set city property ablaze and clashed with the police -- but for a different reason. The new wave of rioting was sparked by the arrest of a member of Neturei Karta, a small but feisty group in Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, on suspicion that she starved her child to near-death. 

The 3-year-old had been in and out of hospitals for two years, but doctors couldn't determine the cause of what seemed like chronic and severe malnutrition. The absence of a medical explanation suggested the problem resided elsewhere and surveillance cameras eventually confirmed the suspicions of hospital staff and welfare workers.

LEBANON: Israeli cow incursion sparks border controversy

The Blue Line dividing Lebanon and Israel has been a flash point for conflict ever since the Israeli withdrawal in 2000 and is closely guarded by two national armies, thousands of United Nations troops and the ever-vigilant militant group Hezbollah.

But despite these elaborate security measures, it seems one group has been crossing the security fence daily and with impunity. 

Lebanese shepherds report Israeli cows are being driven into Lebanese territory to drink from the Baathail Lake, which they claim lies entirely within Lebanon.

"Each Israeli cow drinks more than 40 of our goats put together," shepherd Ismail Nasser, from the border village Kfar Shuba, told the Daily Star's Mohammed Zaatari. "Why doesn't UNIFIL consider this as a violation of the Blue Line?"

LEBANON: Hezbollah rhetoric leads Jewish comic to cancel visit

Gad Elmaleh, dubbed the "the funniest man in France," was scheduled to stage a number of performances at Lebanon’s Beiteddine Festival on July 13, 14 and 15.

But Elmaleh, who is of Jewish-Moroccan origin, recently announced that he has canceled all his performances in Lebanon this summer because of security concerns. He said he decided to do so "out of concern for his personal security and that of the [Beiteddine] festival" after a campaign against him by Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim militia and political organization.

The dust-up began last week when the TV station affiliated with Hezbollah, Al Manar, aired a photo of Elmaleh accompanied by an image of an Israeli soldier dressed in military fatigues that bore a resemblance to Elmaleh. 

Al Manar and other pro-Hezbollah media organizations said Elmaleh was pro-Israel and had served in the Israeli army. 

ISRAEL: Iranian Jews show solidarity with Iranian protesters

Their names often pay tribute to Iranian culture and their accented speech still sings the unique music of the language, even after decades. They stay on top of Iranian news, culture, sports and trivia, and stay in touch with friends and family living in a country whose distance from Israel is measured in more than geography. The Israeli community of Iranian Jews numbers about 170,000 --  including the first generation of Israeli-born -- and is deeply proud of its roots.

On Tuesday, around 150 members of the community demonstrated in the Israeli city of Holon, home to the country's largest concentration of Iranian Jews. They expressed solidarity with the people of Iran, chanted slogans against the ayatollahs' regime and in favor of Reza Pahlavi, crown prince of Iran at the time of the revolution and today living in exile.

The show of support was organized by Kamal Penhasi, the Iranian-born editor of Shahyad, the only Persian-language magazine published in Israel. "We speak from the throats of the entire Iranian people, whose voices are being silenced by the censorship of the regime that is killing people on the streets …we are part of the Iranian people and want to tell them we are with them. Enough of this regime;  the Iranian people deserve their freedom," he said at the demonstration.

Penhasi left Iran shortly after the Islamic Revolution. "I saw what happened in 1979; today's events remind me of that revolution," he said. "This is the great spark in the direction of the big revolution." Penhasi says the regime likes to show that it is strong, but in reality it is crumbling from within. "The people of Iran want their freedom and have taken to the streets to prove it." The young generation in Iran knows exactly what's happening in the outside world, they view Israel as a second paradise on Earth after the U.S. in terms of freedom, he says. Acknowledging that "30 years of brainwashing" have damaged Iranians' sympathy to Israel, Penhasi still believes it's there.

ISRAEL: Sympathy for Iranians swells, solidarity gatherings planned

An editorial Monday in the Israeli paper Haaretz said there is good reason for official Israel to stand aside, to refrain from declarations and to "hope quietly for the victory of the Iranian people over its dictators."

And official Israel has been relatively quiet. After initially refraining from making comments, officials became more vocal this week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of "incredible acts of courage" on the part of the protesters and President Shimon Peres -- who still remembers Israel's relations with a different Iran -- called on the Iranian government to let young people "raise their voice for freedom" and to let Iranian women, "a very courageous group of people, to voice their thirst for equality."

Demonstrators in Iran are clamoring for stronger statements from the West, in particular from the U.S. Netanyahu has said he doesn't intend to second-guess the U.S. president, but others in Israel are critical of President Obama's comments, which so far have been reserved.

Obviously this reservation doesn't serve the maybe-revolutionaries, but it doesn't serve U.S. interests either, says Soli Shahvar, the Iranian-born director of Haifa University's Ezri Center for Iran and  Persian Gulf Studies. This is America's chance to pressure the Iranian regime to carry out reforms and extract concessions on other issues related to the Middle East, he says. Obama, Shahvar adds, is afraid of making his first mistake upon arrival at the first critical junction, where, instead of decisiveness, he's shown hesitance. The demonstrators need moral support if they're going to keep the momentum, which Shahvar thinks might increase if they succeed in keeping it up until the 10th anniversary of the July 9, 1999, student uprising.

And the demonstrators are getting moral support, not necessarily where they thought they might. Having been following the events for days -- closely and intensely in a highly computerized and media-oriented country -- Israelis' sympathy is starting to swell and suddenly support demonstrations are being planned all over the place: at Ben-Gurion University by students, in Holon by Iranian Jews and at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square by a Facebook group for freedom. Israelis were also asked to turn on their headlights and tie green ribbons too -- via Twitter, appropriately.

-- Batsheva Sobelman

EGYPT: To publish or burn

The man who once threatened to torch Hebrew-language books now, in a twist of international literary diplomacy, apparently wants to publish them.

Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni is attempting to tidy up his past comments about burning Israeli books by offering a more conciliatory gesture: to print them in Arabic. The change came as writers and artists criticized Hosni’s nomination to head the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

“Farouk Hosni is the opposite of a man of peace, dialogue and culture, he is a dangerous man who inflames hearts and spirits,” went an open letter signed by filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. “We invite all countries dedicated to liberty and culture to take the initiatives necessary to avert this threat and avoid the disaster that would be his nomination.”

Hosni is trying to untangle himself from comments made last year when asked if there were Hebrew-language books in Egypt’s Alexandria library. He reportedly said: “If there are any, I will burn them myself.”

The quip fit the spirit of the artistic war Egypt has waged against Israel for decades. This nation may have been the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but the Palestinian crisis prompted Egypt’s writers, intellectuals, musicians and artists to boycott the Jewish state. That sentiment may work for a novelist but not for a politician seeking the U.N. post for promoting cultural understanding.

Hosni has apologized. The ministry has announced it will publish in Arabic the works of  Israeli writers David Grossman and Amos Oz. Or will it? A report over the weekend in Daily News Egypt suggests otherwise.

Stay tuned for the next chapter. 
    
-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Farouk Hosni. Credit: BBC 

IRAN: Choice of Egypt a mistake, says scholar

Even as the Muslim world eagerly awaits President Obama's address to them Thursday from Cairo, some say he's already dropped the ball in his choice of venue. 

At least one Iranian critic says Obama made a mistake by making his speech in Egypt, which has a peace deal with Israel and was widely criticized during the recent war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip for failing to do enough to support Palestinians. 

"I think that he probably made the worst possible choice to choose Egypt as a place to make a speech," said Mohammad Marandi (pictured), head of North American studies at Tehran University and an American-born U.S. citizen.

"If you’re going to Indonesia, if you’re going to Bangladesh, if you had gone to Turkey, if you had gone to any country, it would have been better than going to Egypt," he said.

ISRAEL: The big drill

 A rocket hits a building. It goes through three floors, killing two people and injuring two others. Combined emergency forces arrive, evacuate the casualties, disconnect the gas, extinguish the fire, comb the grounds. The municipal engineer arrives, building blueprints in hand, and studies the damage. The teams are done, barricades are deployed, police tape stretched and the site is sealed off until the appraiser comes to evaluate the damages.

This didn't happen today. But it could have, which is why it was one of hundreds of scenario simulated by local authorities today throughout Israel in the national civilian defense drill. Codenamed "Turning Point 3," it is a week-long exercise intended to increase public awareness and preparedness in case of missile attacks, as well as test the efficiency and coordination of the various authorities.

"Every citizen in Israel should know that in every place in the country, at any time, an emergency can happen," said Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilani, overseeing the exercise. Most already know this. Twice in recent years, millions of civilians found themselves quite suddenly confined to bomb shelters and safety rooms for extended periods.

LEBANON: Hezbollah draws former Israeli collaborators back home

With Lebanon still reeling from the discovery of multiple Israeli spy networks, local media is now reporting that Hezbollah and its allies are repatriating former Israeli collaborators who fled over the border to avoid prosecution in Lebanon.

It's a surprising move for Hezbollah, whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, recently called for Israeli spies to be executed.