December 18, 2012 | 12:53 am

December 18, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

Egyptian security forces detain a protester injured in clashes between supporters and opponents of President Morsi near the presidential palace in Cairo, December 6, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

In-depth

'These Guys Are Thugs'

Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei tells David Kenner of Foreign Policy that Morsi is engaged in a power grab, and slams the U.S. for not speaking out. 

ElBaradei evokes Yogi Berra to describe U.S. policy on Egypt: It reminded him, he said, of "déjà vu, all over again" -- a throwback to when the United States would give the Mubarak regime a free pass on human rights as long as it protected Washington's regional interests. The opposition has compiled evidence that some of the judges overseeing the process were impostors and that Christians were turned away from polling stations. However, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland avoided presenting an opinion on the alleged irregularities at a Dec. 17 press briefing, saying only that the United States is "not going to opine" until the process is concluded.

What Pollard Did and Didn’t Do

The length of the convicted spy's jail term has more to do with outrage at him talking to the Israeli media than the gravity of his crime, says Jonathan Tobin in Commentary Magazine. 

...what Pollard did was bad enough. There is no need for anyone to misrepresent his spying as part of an Israeli effort to undermine the United States. None of this is likely to change the minds of those in the U.S. intelligence establishment who take the position that Pollard must die in jail so as to set an example for other potential spies. Nor will it dampen the desire of some who have used him to justify unreasonable suspicions or even attempts to single out and prosecute other American Jews. It remains a fact that while Pollard’s espionage was a unique chapter in American intelligence history, his sentence is still the most severe ever handed out to a spy for a friendly country.

Daily Digest

• Times of Israel: Planning committee expected to approve more East Jerusalem construction
• Haaretz: Poll: 67% of centrist Israelis wouldn't elect party that splits Jerusalem
• Jerusalem Post: Liberman resignation takes effect; plea bargain unlikely
• Ynet: US: Hagel nomination irks pro-Israel conservatives
• New York Times: With the Why Elusive, Two Boys, Two Burials
• Washington Post: Official: 2 Russians, 1 Italian kidnapped in Syria
• Wall Street Journal: The Economic Cost of a Nuclear Iran

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