Today’s Top Stories
1. Hamas forces have returned to the Gaza border in what appears to be a bid to restore calm, according to Israeli media reports. Meanwhile, Israel announced that it is closing the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza because of the terror kites and balloons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is taking other steps, but didn’t elaborate.
On a related note, Qatar’s envoy to Gaza floated a trial balloon of his own, telling Israeli radio that letting 5,000 Gazans work in Israel would calm the border and end the terror kites and balloons.
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2. Syria blamed Israel for an airstrike last night on a military base. The T4 base, located near Homs, is known to be used by Iranian personnel. After one airstrike on T4 earlier this year, an IDF officer confirmed to the New York Times that Israel had been responsible.
3. South Carolina became the first state to adopt a uniform definition of antisemitism. Columbia lawmakers adopted the State Department’s definition, which adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition.
The IHRA working definition made news in the UK last week when the Labour party adopted a watered down definition, angering British Jewry.
In the News
• The opening of Sara Netanyahu’s trial has been postponed to October 7. Mrs. Netanyahu is accused of fraudulently spending $96,000 on ordered meals at the state’s expense despite the prime minister’s residence having a cook available.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court accepted a request from attorney Yossi Cohen, who sought to postpone the opening hearing in the case due to a clash with another case he is working on.
• Defiant Abbas says he won’t halt stipends to terrorists.
• After Israel arrested a Turkish national suspected of transferring money to Hamas, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavusoglu says Ankara will “retaliate.” Israel is taking measures to restrict President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s efforts to expand his influence in eastern Jerusalem.
• Israel’s earthquake preparedness, by the numbers. Based on Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel coverage of an emergency meeting of officials from the Defense Ministry, municipalities and rescue services following a series of light earthquakes in northern Israel.
– Over 10: number of earthquakes striking around the Kinneret in recent days
– 4: Earthquakes felt in northern Israel just on Sunday
– 6.2: Richter scale magnitude of Israel’s last major earthquake in 1927
– 500: Fatalities from the 1927 earthquake
– 74,000: Israeli students trained to be first responders after an earthquake
– 16,000: Expected fatalities in a 7.5 magnitude earthquake
– 100,000: Expected injured in a 7.5 magnitude earthquake
– 10,000: Expected number of buildings destroyed in a 7.5 magnitude earthquake
– 377,000: Expected homeless in a 7.5 magnitude earthquake
– NIS 200 billion: Estimated cost of damages from a 7.5 magnitude earthquake
– 80,000: Buildings more than three-stories high that were built before 1980, and not constructed to current standards
– “not much”: What’s been done to strengthen buildings and infrastructure, according to a 2004 state comptroller’s report
• Pakistan’s only officially recognized Jew, Fishel Khalid openly made his case against restrictions on traveling to Israel in a recent Pakistani Daily Times op-ed. His piece caught the eye of National Public Radio, which interviewed Khalid to learn more.
I am raising my children to be Jewish, yes. And mark my words, either Pakistani state allows me or not, I’m going to celebrate Passover next year in Jerusalem, Israel.
• North Korea once sought to extort Israel by offering to stop working with Iran on missile technology — if Israel coughed up $1 billion. The Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) picked up on the new memoir of a North Korean diplomat who defected.
In a Stockholm cafe one winter’s day in 1999, North Korea’s ambassador to Sweden made a proposal to his Israeli counterpart, according to a former Pyongyang diplomat: Give North Korea $1 billion in cash and we will scrap our agreements to sell our missile technology to Iran and other enemies of Israel.
The Israelis refused, and days later offered food aid instead, according to the account. The talks ended without an agreement. Since then, North Korea has remained a steady supplier of conventional and ballistic weapons and nuclear technology to countries such as Iran and Syria.
• Jewish Syrian wearing a Star of David pendant attacked in Berlin.
• More swastika carvings found in Ridgefield, Conn.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Ron Ben Yishai: Assad’s huge victory and what it means for Israel
– Amos Harel: Syria strike: On eve of Moscow meeting, Netanyahu sends Putin strategic message
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Assad’s Pyrrhic victory
– Manfred Gerstenfeld: Can Labour stamp out antisemitism as long as Corbyn is chairman?
Featured image: CC BY Sjoerd Lammers Photography; South Carolina CC BY Jeff Turner; earthquake via Wikimedia Commons; North Korea via Good Free Photos; Iran CC0 Pixabay;
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