John Kerry renews efforts for Israel-Hamas cease-fire; Christmas Island refugees are self-harming and should be assessed in Australia, says Human Rights Commission; $40 billion stimulus package for South Korea; calls for factory inspections and worker education in Bangladesh; Algerian plane goes missing; and more
Top of the Agenda
Kerry Renews Push for Israel-Hamas Truce
U.S. secretary of state John Kerry shuttled to Cairo late Wednesday, making a renewed bid for cease-fire negotiations after meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (Haaretz). Hamas signaled that it could accept a cease-fire that included guarantees that Israel would ease its restrictions on the movement of people and goods in Gaza (WSJ), with Turkey and Qatar serving as conduits to the militant group. Meanwhile, the U.S. aviation authority permitted flights to resume service to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport (WaPo) and the UN said three aid workers were killed in Gaza, the first UN fatalities since the Israeli offensive began (Daily Star).
Analysis
"Hamas is looking beyond that at the benefits of the conflict. It is now much more difficult for Abbas to continue giving Hamas a secondary role in a Palestinian unity government. As for Netanyahu, his efforts to undermine such a government may have been damaged, since any resolution to the Gaza crisis may have to include the Palestinian government as a party," writes Michael Young in the Daily Star.
"The second-best solution might be to have the Palestinian Authority, which is more moderate than Hamas and after all is supposed to be nominally in charge of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, assert its actual authority in Gaza. Yet, surprisingly, there does not seem to be much discussion of this option. That may well be a tribute to Hamas's success–little discussed but hugely significant–in knee-capping Fatah's infrastructure in Gaza," writes CFR's Max Boot in Commentary.
"Without a process that includes all parties at the negotiating table, though, I fear this cycle of violence, punitive and disproportionate as it is, can lead only to an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria-type extremism among the Palestinians. Only the darkest cynic would wish for that," writes Mohammed Omer for the New York Times.
PACIFIC RIM
Australian Rights Body Challenges Offshore Asylum Policy
The Australian Human Rights Commission called on the federal government to move families held in offshore detention on Christmas Island to the mainland for refugee assessment (SMH), calling attention to reports of self-harm. The government disputed some of the claims (BBC).
SOUTH KOREA: Seoul on Thursday announced a $40 billion stimulus package to revive a stagnant economy (Korea Times).
ELSEWHERE:
Calls for factory inspections and worker education in Bangladesh
Algerian plane goes missing
This is an excerpt of the CFR.org Daily News Brief. The full version is available on CFR.org