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Daybreak: Brotherhood Wants Presidency

Plus U.S. joins Arab states to fund Syrian rebels, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
April 02, 2012
Khairat el-Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, in 2007.(Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images)
Khairat el-Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, in 2007.(Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images)

• The Muslim Brotherhood broke its pledge not to field a presidential candidate in Egypt when it became clear that a liberal apostate from the group as well as an ultraconservative alternative might garner lots of votes if it didn’t. The candidate is Khairat el-Shater. [NYT]

• The so-called Friends of Syria, including several Arab countries and the United States, are now officially funding the opposition. [WP]

• Following his call for a popular uprising, well-liked, jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti has been placed in solitary confinement and denied the right to receive visitors. [Haaretz]

• You’ll be shocked—shocked!—to learn that Palestinian unity is, according to President Abbas, “frozen.” [JTA/Forward]

• Several alleged shooters in a January skirmish in Ramallah are members of the Red Crescent; one is the goalie on the Palestinian Olympics soccer team. [Israel HaYom]

• A traditionally Orthodox liberal blogger publicly resigns from Open Zion. Relatedly, we are now entering our fourth week of Peter Beinart-related news. [JI Daily]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.