News and Analysis (12/21/11)

“Egypt’s conservative society has been shaken by nearly a week of deadly protests and by powerful images of women being stripped and beaten by soldiers in riot gear;” yet the elections continue:

• Egyptian Women Decry Abuse by Soldiers (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)
• Egypt Elections: Run-off Votes Held After Deadly Clashes (BBC)

The British court says “there is ‘a substantial case’ for saying the US government is bound under international legal agreements to agree to such [habeus corpus] requests from London. The appeal court has now given the British government a further four weeks to secure his release”:

• British Government Asks US to Hand over Unlawfully Held Bagram Detainee (Guardian)

“The secretary was clear that we have no indication that the Iranians have made a decision to develop a nuclear weapon” –  Pentagon press secretary George Little, clarifying Leon Panetta’s statement that Iran could “assemble” a nuclear weapon within a year if they already had a secret enrichment facility that we don’t know about:

• Aides Qualify Panetta’s Comments on Iran (NY Times)

Hashemi wants the “Sunni-backed Iraqiya block to end a boycott of parliament and of his year-old power-sharing government. ‘But,’ he warned, ‘If they insist, they are free to do so and they can withdraw permanently from the state and all its institutions’”:

• With US Gone, Iraq’s Maliki Is Setting the Board for a Power Grab (Christian Science Monitor)

“A small animal rights party proposed the ban and it won backing from a large anti-Islam political party and a solid majority of Dutch voters, leading to easy passage in Parliament’s Second Chamber. But Christian political parties opposed it from the start out of concern for religious minorities”:

• Dutch Cabinet Says It Will Tighten Rules on Muslim, Jewish Animal Slaughter, Won’t Impose Ban (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

France, which has long banned free and open discussion of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews now wants to do the same for the Turkish massacre of the Armenians:

• Turkey Warns of Reprisals if France Passes Genocide Denial Bill (Guardian)

As the brutal repression mounts, signs of a Syrian civil war continue to emerge:

• Activists Say 111 Killed in Syria’s “Bloodiest Day” (Reuters)
• Syrian Army Pursues Deserters as Western Powers Sharpen Rhetoric (Guardian)
• Syria ‘Massacre’: Opposition Calls for UN Action (BBC)

Defending “attacks by Israeli extremists on military bases, mosques and Palestinian property,” Israel’s foreign ministry says that “instead of “interfering with Israel’s domestic affairs,” it should focus on interfering in the internal affairs of Syria:

• Israel Rejects Criticism of Settlements (AP / abc News)

Like the more moderate Freedom and Justice Party, the “Nour Party is committed to agreements signed by previous Egyptian governments, including the 1979 peace treaty with Israel,” insisting that the ““the place for [any changes] is the negotiation table”:

• Egypt’s Ultraconservative Islamist Party Says It Doesn’t Oppose Peace Treaty with Israel (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

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