Today’s Top Stories
1. Belgium’s Jewish community cancelled Purim festivities “at the request of the police due to the police’s fear of additional terrorists in the area,” YNet reports. Smaller, low-key gatherings will be held instead.
“The police said that they are unable to protect the event while the city is in a state of war,” he said.
Belgian security forces are still searching for suspects. The casualty count now stands at 31 dead and 270 injured. See today’s Daily Telegraph and CNN liveblogging.
Meanwhile, tweet of the day goes Israeli journalist Amichai Stein.
Israel is much safter then Belgium – according to #Australia goverment travel advisory pic.twitter.com/6LRYb9pqER
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) March 23, 2016
2. The UN is preparing to return international peacekeepers to the Syrian side of the Israeli border. YNet coverage.
3. An Israeli court indicted an Islamic Jihad cyber terrorist who hacked into IDF drones over Gaza and see their video feeds. Maagad Oydeh was also indicted for hacking into other video cameras belonging to the IDF, police, and transportation authorities, “enabling the terror group to study the location of civilians and IDF personnel in real-time as it was firing rockets at Israel.”
Oydeh’s hacking also allowed Islamic Jihad to keep track of the movement of airplanes at Ben Gurion Airport, to view the passenger list on incoming and outgoing flights, the type of airplane and its weight and landing and departure times.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• AFP: Hamas staged military exercises to test combat readiness
• Academic freedom, Hamas style: The Hamas-run Islamic University suspended a professor who took to Facebook to criticize the terror group and the college administration.
• Meeting with a group of foreign diplomats, cabinet minister Gilad Erdan explained why BDS threatens the free world, not just Israel.
For one, he argued, BDS seeks to destroy Israel’s scientific, academic and economic ties with the international community. “This would be bad for Israel, but it would also be very bad for the millions of people around the world who depend on Israeli innovations for their lives and well-being.”
Second, the boycott campaign “threatens the most fundamental values of democracies,” such as free speech,” Erdan said. He said the BDS activists seek to stifle open discussion, “try to force you to accept their views, and threaten you if you don’t.” They bully companies, harass consumers and blacklist artists . . .
If democracies allow proponents of BDS to take advantage of the freedom of expression to intimidate opponents and silence debate, similar methods will soon be used against other targets as well, he posited . . .
Furthermore, he said, BDS is a “direct threat to the idea of universal human rights,” and accused activists of singling out Israel while ignore massive human rights abuses in Iran, Syria and elsewhere. “This hypocrisy not only undermines the basic idea of universal rights and standards, but harms the effectiveness of the entire international system.”
Around the World
• According to Asharq al-Awsat, the 17 Jews evacuated from Yemen were flown out via Jordan. Regarding rumors that Iranian-backed Houthis collaborated with Israel, the paper adds:
Some sources exposed that large sums of money were given to Houthi militias as to ease out the group’s escape from the war-torn country.
A Houthi just told me that there war is against America and Israel. LOL. I replied, "You seem confused. You are fighting us in #Yemen"
— Summer Nasser سمر ناصر اليافعي (@ToEducate) March 22, 2016
• A Revolutionary Guards general and crony of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded that Iran annex Bahrain. The Gulf states are certainly taking note of Saeed Qasemi’s comments:
. . . “Bahrain is an Iranian province that was detached from the Islamic Republic of Iran due to the Western colonialism.”
“Iran must make efforts to bring Bahrain back into Iranian territory and transform it into a part of Bushehr province,” Qasemi further stated.
• The Alberto Nisman case was ordered to a court that handles political murder trials.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Herb Keinon: Brussels attacks won’t translate into more support for Israel
– Boaz Bismuth: Not because of the occupation
– Yossi Melman: What Europe has to learn from Israel on security
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Why is Nasrallah speaking in public?
– Jonathan Schanzer: The Iran deal’s biggest loser: Hezbollah’s uncertain future
– Prof. John Traphagan: Boycotting Israeli academics
Featured image: CC BY-SA Estitxu Carton with additions by HonestReporting;
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