Israel ramps up efforts to curtail African immigration

Israeli attacks on African immigrants have spread from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as politicians push to curb immigration. On Sunday, an Israeli law came into effect allowing for authorities to detain and hold immigrants without trial or deportation for three years. On Monday, the state requested a Jerusalem law be lifted that prohibits the repatriation of South Sudanese citizens, a move that has received condemnation from human rights groups. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to increase efforts to deport illegal migrants and stem the flow of African asylum seekers into Israel. His statement came the day before a building on Jerusalem's main Jaffa road housing 10 Eritrean migrants was firebombed, injuring four people. Protests and attacks on immigrants in Tel Aviv have increased over the past weeks as statements made by right-winged politicians and army officials have become increasingly fierce referring to migrants as "infiltrators," "garbage," "rapists," and "cancer." Conversely, left-wing lawmaker, Don Henin, spoke against recent anti-immigration efforts, calling them "immoral."

Syria

The Syrian opposition has said it will no longer respect the U.N. brokered ceasefire with the government after President Bashar al-Assad failed to comply with an ultimatum to end fighting by Friday. Free Syrian Army spokesman Major Sami al-Kurdi said, "We have resumed our attacks but we are doing defensive attacks which means we are only attacking checkpoints in the cities." Opposition fighters attacked six army checkpoints in northern Idlib province and carried out several assaults outside Damascus killing at least 80 Syrian soldiers over the past weekend, in one of the deadliest attacks on government forces since the beginning of the uprisings. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights estimates the death toll at 113 since Friday. Meanwhile, as international pressure has mounted on Assad to end violence, the government has expelled western diplomats from 17 countries. The U.S., French, British, and Turkish envoys have been included among those deemed "personae non gratae." However, many are no longer in the county. The move came in retaliation for last week's expulsion of senior Syrian diplomats by 13 countries.

Headlines  

• Egyptian presidential candidates and activists have called for mass protests against the verdict in the Mubarak trial and for the disqualification of Ahmed Shafiq from presidential elections.
• The Yemeni army is preparing an offensive on the al Qaeda held town of Shaqra while fighting has intensified in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province.
• Libyan government forces have regained control of Tripoli's airport after armed militiamen overran the runaway demanding the release of the group's commander.

Arguments & Analysis

'Do Cyberattacks on Iran Make Us Vulnerable?' (Room for Debate blog, The New York Times)

Mikko Hypponen: "Other governments are already on the move. The game is on, and I don't think there's anything we could do to stop it any more. International espionage has already gone digital. Any future real-world crisis will have cyberelements in play as well. So will any future war. The cyberarms race has now officially started. And nobody seems to know where it will take us. By launching Stuxnet, American officials opened Pandora's box. They will most likely end up regretting this decision."

James Lewis: "Cyberattack is now part of warfare, no different from any other weapon. The publicity around Stuxnet may complicate U.S. efforts to get international rules for the use of cyberattack, but the White House decided that tampering with Iran's nuclear program was more important than possible risk to slow-moving negotiations. Whether a covert program should remain covert is an operational and political decision -- politics usually wins. Iran was not surprised to learn that the United Sates is using cyberattack, nor was any other major power, and if you think this news is a watershed moment you have been sleeping under a tree."

Ralph Langner: "The elephant in the room is not even cyberwar. War can be waged only by nation states. In cyberspace, the real threat comes from nonstate actors against which military deterrence is powerless. It does not require the resources of a nation state to develop cyber weapons. I could achieve that by myself with just a handful of freelance experts. Any U.S. power plant, including nuclear, is much easier to cyberattack than the heavily guarded facilities in Iran. An attacker who is not interested in engaging in a long-term campaign with sophisticated disguise (which rogue player would be?) needs to invest only a tiny fraction of effort compared to Stuxnet. Almost two years ago, I wrote that Iran seemed to be begging for a cyberattack. I did not imagine that the same could become true for the United States or other industrialized countries, but it appears like we're getting there."

'Mass Imprisonment' (Haaretz)

"The flood of migrants from Africa is a worldwide problem. Israel should participate in solving it - and not merely by brutal, sweeping measures. Even as politicians vie with one another over who can inflame anti-migrant sentiment more, and as acts of violence, like yesterday's arson attack on an apartment full of migrants in Jerusalem, grow steadily more severe, the government isn't taking a single positive step to solve the problem. A portion of these migrants to Israel should be given basic rights and allowed to work and live a decent life until the situation in their own countries improves. Israel is capable of absorbing them. Of course, Israel must also control the flow of migrants over its borders. But even so, the state can't ignore the refugees from war who are knocking at its gates, and certainly not those who are already living here. Incitement, hate-mongering and mass detentions won't solve anything."

--By Jennifer Parker and Mary Casey