Today’s Top Stories
1. Saudi Arabia approved Air India to cross its airspace for direct flights between New Delhi and Tel Aviv. It’s the first time flights to Israel have been allowed through Saudi skies. Haaretz explains that the good diplomatic news also means stiff competition for Israel’s national airline, El Al:
The approval means that the duration of flights from India to Israel will be shortened by two-and-a-half hours, compared to the route currently in use. The new route will allow the airline to reduce fuel costs and sell cheaper tickers to passengers.
Right now the only carrier that flies directly to India is El Al, which flies an 8-hour route from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Mumbai. The route crosses the Red Sea south of Yemen, then turns east to India. Since New Delhi is a new destination from which there are no flights to Israel, the aviation company will be getting a 750,000 euro grant from the Tourism Ministry for operating the new line, according to a calculation of 250,000 euros per weekly flight. This grant is, among other things, the impetus for Air India to launch the line.
More at the Times of India.
2. Polish President Andrzej Duda signed into law controversial legislation which criminalizes blaming Poland for the Holocaust.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Syrian state media claimed Israel attacked an Iranian research base west of Damascus and that defense systems intercepted some of the missiles. There were no details offered on damage or casualties. Israeli officials didn’t comment.
In the News
• A Palestinian was shot dead while trying to stab an Israeli security guard at the entrance to Karnei Tzur, an Israeli settlement near Hebron, this morning.
• Iran’s prospective supreme leader visited the Israel-Lebanon border in January, escorted by Hezbollah commanders and Iranian officers. More on Ayatollah Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi’s tour at the Jerusalem Post and MEMRI.
• Israeli activists are scoffing as the leader of the Norway’s leftist Red Party nominated the BDS for a Nobel Peace prize.
What a joke! But then again, the Nobel Committee does have a track record of awarding 'non-violent' Palestinian leaders, you know, like Yasser Arafat. #BDS #Nobel https://t.co/Er8vsESARn
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 4, 2018
• With anti-Semitic attacks on the rise, France’s popular Jewish radio station moves into unmarked, secure studio.
• Chelsea soccer fans chant anti-Semitic songs less than a week after the team started an anti-hate campaign.
Commentary
• Ron Ben-Yishai and Avi Issacharoff suggest a new West Bank intifada is brewing. The latter writes:
Everyone knows that the Abbas era is all but over; they’re just waiting for him to actually leave. No one knows exactly what the “day after” will look like, but there is a general consensus that it will be violent and tumultuous. Abbas’s regime is viewed with open hostility, and Hamas is gaining support.
• People are still buzzing about the Polish Holocaust law.
– Slawomir Sierakowski: Restricting the phrase ‘Polish death camps’ only raises its profile
– Frida Ghitis: Poland’s Holocaust law should terrify you
– Jan Gross: Poland’s death camp law is designed to falsify history (click via Google News)
– Vivian Bercovici: On the linguistics of Polish death camps and other things anti-Semitic
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Ira Rifkin: Surveys say younger evangelicals and Democrats abandoning Israel. Crisis in U.S. Middle East policy?
– Einat Wilf: Anti-feminism and anti-Zionism
– MP John Mann: I’m not Jewish but whatever I talk about I receive antisemitic abuse
Featured image: CC BY Thomas8047; Air India via YouTube/San Francisco International Airport; Auschwitz via YouTube/BBC News;
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