Today’s Top Stories
1. Former Israeli president Shimon Peres is recovering after suffering a mild heart attack. According to Israeli press reports, the 92-year-old Peres is conscious and in good condition after undergoing an emergency catheterization.
2. Israel is barring Sweden from any role in future diplomatic process with Palestinians in response to Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s call for an investigation into what she called Israel’s “extrajudicial killings” of Palestinians. Swedish Ambassador Carl Magnus Messer was also summoned for an official rebuke.
3. Al Jazeera America is shutting down, will stop broadcasting on April 30. Was it done in by second-rate programming, a bad business model, or falling oil prices that impacted its Qatari sugar daddy?
https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/687456826917564418
4. CNN Promotes Politicized Palestinian Museum: Was it really appropriate to include a politicized Palestinian museum in a feature on cultural attractions opening in 2016?
5. Hamas Democrats and Israeli Dolphin Spies: Hamas did not take democratically seize control of Gaza, nor did it capture any “Mossad dolphins.”
Israel and the Intifada
• A Palestinian stabbed and lightly injured an IDF commander near Nablus before being shot and killed. Earlier in the day, a Palestinian trying to stab soldiers near Hebron this morning was shot and killed.
• The diplomatic standoff between Israel and Brazil continues. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Israel won’t offer a different diplomat in place of Dani Dayan to serve as ambassador to Brasilia.
• AFP: A Hamas military court sentenced four Palestinians to death for allegedly collaborating with Israel.
• Palestinian journalist Ayman Al-Aloul continued speaking out about being detained by Hamas. Al-Aloul, who works for an Iraqi TV station, described his treatment to AFP:
“My journalism was annoying them so they charged me with incitement against the government of Gaza and therefore the Hamas movement and the Palestinian resistance,” he told AFP at his home in Gaza on Wednesday
Alul said he was exposed to “torture”, referring to “verbal abuse that should not be used against a person my age. I am a civilian without any security problems.”
He added that while he was hit lightly, the psychological attacks were more damaging.
• The Times of Israel visited the Gaza border. Is the situation a little too quiet?
• An eastern Jerusalem Palestinian was sentenced to one year in prison for Facebook posts inciting violence and terror. Haaretz coverage.
• Citing “security concerns” the veteran British band, Manfred Mann, cancelled a Tuesday concert in Tel Aviv.
• Israel’s AirMule drone ambulance made its first untethered test flight. It’s capable of landing in tight spots helicopters can’t reach and carry up to two people.
Around the World
• In 2015, Iran executed 1,084 people, an average of nearly three a day.
• The Media Line takes a closer look at reports of Russian arms transfers to Hezbollah and what it means for Israel.
• Are politically correct French authorities calling terrorists ‘unbalanced’ to cover up the anti-Semitic motives?
• French President Francois Hollande says its “intolerable” for Jews to have to hide their skullcaps. The #TousAvecUneKippa hashtag is asking everybody to wear a kippa on Friday in solidarity.
Friday at 10am….#TousAvecUneKippa
Wear a kippah in solidarity with France pic.twitter.com/aNSRiTFcqq— SussexFriendsofIsrael (@SussexFriends) January 13, 2016
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Josh Cohen: Putin is the closest thing to a friend Israel has ever had in Moscow
– Ksenia Svetlova: Will strategic Russian weapons find their way to Nasrallah?
– Smadar Bat Adam: Sweden’s diplomatic distortions
– Elyakim Haetzni: Coexistence and the status quo
– Kelly Yang: Being Israeli and being Jewish, in Chinese eyes
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Iran’s humiliation of US sets the tone
– Elliott Abrams: Washington’s promise, Europe’s Jews
Image: CC BY-NC-SA Trey Ratcliff; Peres CC BY Bundesministerium fur Europa; Brazil CC BY abdallahh;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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