Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel sentenced Palestinian UN worker Wahid Burash to seven months in prison for aiding Hamas. He was charged with urging higher-ups in the UN Development Program (UNDP) to prioritize neighborhoods where Hamas operatives lived for reconstruction funds, and for diverting 300 tons of rubble to build Hamas naval jetty. More at the Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post, which adds:
Under the terms of his plea deal, the court has taken into account the period Al-Bursh spent in custody awaiting the verdict, and he will therefore be released next week, on January 12.
2. According to Foreign Policy, Israel’s diplomatic response to UN Security Council resolution 2334 is risking its bid for a seat on the Security Council. But this anonymous French diplomat’s take reinforces notions that the UN will never treat Israel like the other members.
A European ambassador said Israel has been “pretty serious about their candidature” over the past year, but its diplomatic charm offensive has hit a brick wall with the settlements resolution.
“I think that it’s over,” the European diplomat told FP. “I never thought they could win anyways.”
Countries serve two-year terms on the Security Council. To join the Security Council for 2019-20, Israel must get support from two-thirds of the UN General Assembly — that would be 129 countries. Israel is the only Mideast country that hasn’t yet been a member of council.
3. Israeli Arab MK Basel Ghattas indicted for smuggling cellphones terrorists in prison.
4. Headline Fails as Israeli Soldier Convicted of Manslaughter: Headlines strip away context to imply Israeli soldiers shoot incapacitated Palestinians as a matter of course.
5. The Independent Deceives Readers to Attack Israel: Memo to the editors: The spike in Palestinian deaths corresponded with a spike in Palestinian attacks.
Israel and the Palestinians
• They can do that? UN-run schools in the West Bank and Gaza are using textbooks that utterly eradicate Israel and Jewish ties to the land. YNet picked up on an Israeli investigation’s startling findings.
These textbooks—written by the Palestinian Ministry of Education—are used in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in both Gaza and the West Bank.
However, the most shocking discovery is that the UN schools don’t teach Palestinian children to recognize Israel as a country—not within the 1947 borders, nor any borders at all.
• Police believe that two shootings in Haifa are terror, after previously treating them as separate criminal incidents. Guy Kafri, a 47-year-old van driver was killed and Rabbi Yehiel Illuz was injured in the Tuesday attacks. As this roundup went to press, a manhunt for a suspect continued, but due to a gag order, there isn’t a lot of information available:
On Wednesday, police launched a manhunt for a suspect, raiding an abandoned home in the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Halissa in Haifa and searching it for over three hours, according to Hebrew media reports.
The suspect lives in the neighborhood, according to reports.
• Times of Israel: Gaza fisherman lost at sea after collision with Israeli navy ship.
• Israeli president opposes contacts with Europe’s far-right:
• Israel is harnessing sunshine with world’s tallest solar tower. Experts tell the Associated Press, Israel has the potential to be a “sunshine superpower.”
Commentary/Analysis
• Delving into the Azaria verdict’s possible “far-reaching global implications for Israel,” Yonah Jeremy Bob notes the International Criminal Court angle:
At the ICC, Hebron shooter Elor Azaria’s manslaughter conviction may affirm the credibility of Israel’s apparatus for prosecuting its own soldiers . . .
But will it be enough? The Jerusalem Post has reported in the past that the ICC team probing Israel has closely followed the case. But the case is only one, and the ICC could view it as a sideshow compared to the hundreds of incidents it is probing from the 2014 Gaza war.
• The Israel Daily News Stream generally doesn’t address domestic Israeli issues, but if you want a window into the Israeli debate over Sgt. Elor Azaria’s conviction, see David Horovitz, Allison Kaplan Sommer, Boaz Bismuth, Judah Ari Gross, Anna Ahronheim, Marc Schulman, Yifat Erlich, and Dror Eydar.
• Over in New Zealand’s Taranaki Daily News, columnist Pattrick Smellie seriously ponders how Israel might wage war on New Zealand. After thankfully dismissing the likelihood of an IDF invasion, Smellie raises the specter of an Israeli cyberattack.
An editor’s note at the bottom of the Smellie column ironically insists, “This article has been edited for clarity since it was first published.”
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Jonathan Tobin: Elor Azaria: Not a simple case of murder
– Martin Indyk: Could an embassy in Jerusalem bring us closer to peace?
– Robert Satloff: Can Trump overcome Obama’s Israel failure
– Greg Sheridan: Obama compounds Middle East mess
– David Collier: Why is there no state of Palestine?
– Prof. Hillel Frisch: Kerry’s attack on Israel
– Mario Loyola: For peace in Palestine, start from scratch
– Brigitte Dwyer: Kerry makes Israel a scapegoat for his failed peace effort
– Ariel Bolstein: Fighting BDS in the courts
Featured image: CC BY-NC Tobia Myrstrand Leander with additions by HonestReporting; Security Council CC BY-NC-ND United Nations Photo; sun CC BY-NC-ND Dmitri F.;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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