World View: Palestinians Celebrate with Fireworks as Israel Releases 26 Prisoners

World View: Palestinians Celebrate with Fireworks as Israel Releases 26 Prisoners

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Thousands of Palestinians celebrate with fireworks as Israel releases 26 prisoners
  • Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ anti-missile system intercepts Sinai rocket
  • China’s propaganda program frightens opponents and stirs domestic nationalism

Thousands of Palestinians celebrate with fireworks as Israel releases 26 prisoners

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas welcomes the released Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday (AFP)
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas welcomes the released Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday (AFP)

Israel on Tuesday released 26 Palestinians from prison as its first offour such releases as one of the conditions for “peace process”negotiations with the Palestinians to proceed. The 26 were welcomedas heroes in the West Bank and Gaza, where thousands of Palestinianwell-wishers cheered their arrival as fireworks lit the sky. The 26have all been prisoners since before the 1994 Oslo peace agreement,and had been convicted of crimes such as murder or terrorism.Relatives of the Israeli victims held protests all day, and someprotesters tried briefly to block the buses from leaving. The “peacetalks” between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are scheduled tobegin on Wednesday. AP

Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ anti-missile system intercepts Sinai rocket

With terrorism increasing in Egypt’s Sinai region, which is on theborder with both Gaza and Israel, concerns have been growing of rocketattacks on Israel from Sinai. On Tuesday, terrorists in Sinai firedrockets into Israel, targeting the southern city of Eilat. At leastone rocket was intercepted by Israel’s “Iron Dome” anti-missilesystem. No missiles struck Eilat. The Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis jihadigroup claimed credit for launching several Grad missiles, blaming theattack on last week’s never-confirmed missile strike on Sinaiterrorists by an Israeli drone. Jerusalem Post and Reuters

China’s propaganda program frightens opponents and stirs domestic nationalism

During crises earlier this year between China and the Philippines overthe Scarborough Shoal, and between China and Japan over theSenkaku/Diaoyu islands, the Chinese media contained regularappearances of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) figures makingthreatening and hawkish statements. While some China analysts calledthese remarks “reckless statements, with no official authorization,”they were remarkably effective. On the one hand, they stoked Chinesenationalism, leading nearly 80% of the Chinese people to supportmilitary action and war against the Philippines for the latter’saccept a new status quo: the Philippines backed down completely andceded the Scarborough Shoal to Chinese ships, while the Japanesebacked down partially, forced to accept almost daily confrontationswith Chinese patrol boats around the Senkaku Islands. Although notofficial Chinese policy, the PLA’s “hawkish faction” appear integralto Chinese handling of international conflict. Jamestown

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