News and Analysis (1/2/19)

She was killed when “an Israeli sniper [fired] into a crowd that included white-coated medics in plain view … [though] neither the medics nor anyone around them posed any apparent threat of violence to Israeli personnel”:

• A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident? (NY Times)

Given Western support for the Yemen War and indifference to “atrocities against Palestinians, … interventions by western governments in the judiciary cases in Iran … [seem] hypocritical and politically motivated”:

• The Foreign Office Did Not Have a Hand in My Release from Iran (The Guardian)

Detroit-born woman told to “Go back to India” before an attack that results in hospitalization:

• Muslim Women Visiting from Oklahoma Say They Were Attacked Outside Reunion Tower: ‘She Hit Me in the Middle of the Head’ (CBS DFW)

“Women’s mosques” are enjoying a resurgence, but despite closures during the “Cultural Revolution,” China’s Hui Muslims have had them for centuries:

• Special Report: Meet the Female Imams of Muslim China (The National)

Rulers in Iran and the U.S., each in their own way, see digital currency as a threat to national security:

• Iran Labels Telegram’s Coin a Threat to National Security (Bitcoin)
• Bill to Curb Iranian National Crypto Filed in US Congress (Bitcoin)

The withholding tax would have rendered unworkable “a bilateral agreement to settle oil trades through an Indian government-owned bank … in the Indian currency, which is not freely traded on international markets”:

• India Exempts Rupee Payments for Iran Oil from Hefty Taxes (Economic Times)

Focus “has shifted in selected countries to the promotion of a strand of Salafi ultra-conservatism that preaches absolute obedience to the ruler, a corollary to [MbS]’s crackdown on critics and activists at home”:

• Saudi Arabia and the West’s Right Wing: A Dubious Alliance (Mideast Soccer)