The BBC reports that a planned summit of central European leaders in Israel has been cancelled because of an Israel-Poland row over the Holocaust. Poland withdrew after being angered by comments from Israeli leaders about Polish complicity in the Holocaust. In particular, Israel’s acting Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz used the phrase, “Poles imbibe antisemitism with their mother’s milk”. Katz’s remarks were “racist and unacceptable”, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. There was also Polish fury at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying “Poles co-operated with the Germans” during the Holocaust. The meeting hosted by Israel was meant to bring together the four-nation Visegrád Group: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. But on Monday Israel said the three prime ministers attending – without Poland – would have bilateral meetings with Netanyahu. “It will not be called Visegrád, because this entails the presence of all four,” an Israeli spokesperson said. “It’s going to be a summit with Visegrád members.”

The Guardian and Telegraph report that the leader of the Syrian Kurds has called for a small international observer force to be stationed on the Turkey-Syria border to protect Kurds from what she says is the threat of crimes against humanity committed by Turkish forces. The Guardian  reports that this is according to Ilham Ahmed. Ahmed, co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council – the political arm of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been responsible for liberating much of north-eastern Syria from Islamic State. Described as one of the most powerful women in Syria, Ahmed is leading a Kurdish delegation touring Washington, Paris and London to persuade western countries not to betray the Kurds by leaving them exposed to the threat of a Turkish attack. Ahmed said a final SDF assault on the last ISIS redoubt would finish within days. Plans requiring “time and patience” were being drawn up to eradicate sleeper cells, she said. Ahmed said: “After all that has happened, if there is an attack, we will regard those that remain silent in the face of those threats as guilty of crimes against humanity. It is not just there will no longer be any trust in the coalition forces who we have fought alongside, and that their credibility will have been lost forever. It will mean the emergence of very big wars in this area.”

In the Guardian, Coral Ash and Jeremy Beecham have written letters in response to Brian Eno’s article on Israel and the Eurovision song contest, asking: “Why single out Israel for Boycott?” Ash and Beecham write that: “Singling out the entire state of Israel as opposed to legitimate criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government policies is both divisive and discriminatory, and will not solve the myriad problems currently engulfing much of the Middle East.”

The Times report that social media is under threat in Iran amidst a crackdown on protestors. Iran is in the midst of a widening crackdown on dissent that restarted in January last year at the same time as protests against the collapse of the rial, the sinking economy and widespread corruption at all levels of government. Hundreds of activists and civil society members have been rounded up on national security charges. “The situation for human rights in Iran is getting worse day by day,” said Reza Khandan, a well-known activist, adding: “As if someone who writes a single critical thing is a terrorist.” At the same time, Iran’s gilded youth have stoked anger as they show off the lifestyle that goes with their place in the establishment. The Instagram account “Rich Kids of Tehran” has become emblematic of the privileges afforded to the offspring of government officials able to access foreign education and material riches denied to most others. Businesses and dissenters alike favour the image-based social media service Instagram, which the government threatened last month to ban. It has so far held off from doing so, perhaps for fear of the economic consequences. Protests at Iran’s failing economy broke out last year, posing the greatest popular threat to the government since the 2009 demonstrations.

The Times and Independent report that European powers have snubbed calls by President Donald Trump for them to accept the return of citizens captured while fighting for Islamic State. The Times reports that Trump caused concern on Sunday when he tweeted: “Asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial.” Heiko Maas, the German Foreign Minister, said yesterday: “It is certainly not as easy as they think in America. German citizens have the right to return, but we have little ability in Syria to check whether German citizens are actually affected.” The authorities would investigate all returning fighters and prosecute them, he said. “These people can come to Germany only if it is ensured that they can immediately be taken into custody.” France, like Britain and Germany, has no consular representation in Syria. Laurent Nuñez, the Deputy Interior Minister, said that any French ISIS fighters that managed to find their way back would “all be tried and incarcerated”. Trump’s call received broad approval in Russia, where about 4,500 people have left to join ISIS in recent years. Fyodor Lukyanov, of the government-linked Council of Foreign and Defence Policy think tank in Moscow, said that Trump was “completely right” to demand that European allies take back alleged jihadists captured in Syria.

In the Financial Times, Gideon Rachman writes on: “Islamaphobia and the new clash of civilisations”, arguing that the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds are becoming increasingly intolerant of one another.

The Times and Independent report that the jihadist bride at the centre of a row over whether she can return to Britain has compared the Manchester Arena bombing to military action in Syria. The Times reports that Shamima Begum, 19, drew parallels between the backpack bomb that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017 and the deaths of women and children in ISIS territory, saying it was “a two-way thing”. Sajid Javid, the home secretary, has vowed to block any attempts by Begum to return home, though legal experts have cast doubt over whether he has the requisite tools to do so.

All the Israeli media report on former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s decision to retire from politics. Sima Kadmon in Yediot Ahronoth argues that: “Terms like ‘peace process,’ ‘two states for two peoples,’ ‘peace negotiations’ and ‘a Jewish and democratic state’ have all vanished from our lexicon. We’ve hardened our hearts toward people who still believe that there is a path, or that there is a partner, or that not all hope is lost. And Livni has been the first to pay the price.” In a similar vein, Yossi Verter in Haaretz states that: “Over the last four years, the public has turned its back on Livni’s ideological hallmark – diplomatic negotiations, seeking peace, a two-state solution as a guarantee of Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish and democratic state. In other words, what is commonly termed the left. She discovered that there were no buyers for these wares.” In Maariv, Ben Caspit writes that: “Livni recently became a toxic brand. Despite having been born into a family of fighters and the daughter of a legendary Irgun commander, Netanyahu and his emissaries spun her name into a synonym for the defeatist extreme left…Netanyahu managed to make her so radioactive that every potential partner to the same longed-for ‘merger’ on the center-left fled from her like the plague.” Caspit adds that Livni: “Deserves to be appreciated for what she did, and particularly for what she tried to do. In our raging and mad times, it’s a rare thing for a politician to follow her ideology against the mainstream, against fashion and social media.”

In other election news, Maariv reports on the ‘race to merge’ and Israel Hayom reports on ‘Netanyahu’s last effort to unite the Right-Wing bloc’ and Haaretz reports on progress in talks between Benny Gantz and Orly Levy-Abekasis adding that he is prepared to give her a senior social policy portfolio.

Kan Radio reports that Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid presented his party list for the Knesset yesterday. Writing in Yediot Ahronoth Nahum Barnea says: “Lapid’s got it. His party may perhaps have a glass ceiling that it cannot crack, but beneath the ceiling, it has one leader and one agenda. That is something that Gantz, Gabbay, Kahlon, and Deri do not have at the moment. All in all, this is a good team, with people who had respectable careers in either the security establishment or in local government.” Barnea also says: “Netanyahu has lost all inhibitions in this election campaign. Yesterday he released a video that accused Gantz of plotting with Obama to return the majority of the West Bank and establish a Palestinian state. This allegation is so preposterous that any explanation will sound idiotic. Gantz was Chief of Staff. At Netanyahu’s instructions, he formed a team that worked with an American general on a security plan that would be part of an agreement. Netanyahu gave the Bar Ilan speech in which he expressed support for two states, Gantz did not.”

Haaretz reports that the Visegrád Group Summit in Israel was cancelled after a row with Poland. Israel Hayom quotes a Polish diplomat who complained that: “Poland Supports Israel – and it’s punishing us”. Kan Radio reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet with the Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary today instead of hosting the Visegrád Group summit, which was cancelled against the backdrop of the crisis between Israel and Poland and after the Polish representative cancelled plans to attend the summit. The bilateral crisis got worse yesterday because of acting Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz’s remarks that the Poles had ‘suckled anti-Semitism with their mothers’ milk.’ Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Katz’s racist and unforgivable statements could not go unanswered.

Kan Radio reports that Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi said his country does not intend to continue paying for the Gaza Strip’s electricity after April. Qatar pledged to pay for the diesel fuel for the power plant in Gaza for six months at the cost of $60 million, a commitment that will expire at the end of April. It is believed that the Qatari message may be intended to pressure the figures involved in the issue to expedite planned electrical projects in Gaza, above all a project to connect the Gaza Strip to a large power line from Israel.

Saeb Erekat writes in Haaretz that: “The Arab World just trashed Trump’s Mideast Peace Plan.” With the senior PLO official claiming that: “Despite US envoys’ exaggerations and pretence, the Warsaw conference burst the Trump Mideast team’s biggest delusion that Arab states would back a deal that sells out Palestine, and Palestinians.”