Today’s Top Stories
1. Meeting in Helsinki, US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin said all the things Israelis needed to hear about Syria. But in the absence of specifics, I won’t say I’m reassured. More on the Israel angles at the Times of Israel and Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter).
When terrorist forces are wiped out in south and west Syria, Putin said, “the situation on the Golan Heights must be restored to what it was after the 1974 agreement, which set out the terms for the disengagement of forces between Israel and Syria.”
In a statement following the press conference Monday, Netanyahu thanked the two leaders for their commitment to Israeli security . . .
Netanyahu “very much appreciates the security coordination between Israel and Russia and the clear position expressed by President Putin regarding the need to uphold the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement between Israel and Syria,” the statement added.
2. As Russian-backed Syrian forces pressed their offensive in the Daraa province, some 200 displaced Syrians massed at the Israeli border waving white flags, apparently asking for help.
After a few moments, the Syrians dispersed, the army said, and they could be seen walking back toward a displaced persons camp in the village of Bariqa, near the border.
Since Assad’s renewed offensive against the largely rebel-held Daraa and Quneitra provinces began last month, Israel has expressed fears that Syrians from the areas might attempt to breach the border in an attempt to seek refuge inside the Jewish state.
3. Egypt gives ultimatum to Hamas to end the terror kites and balloons within days, shuts the Rafah border crossing.
“Hamas cannot stop the launching of the balloons in one go because it will damage its position in the eyes of the Gaza residents and those who support it who will see it as a collapse. Therefore, it has to do it gradually,” once source in Gaza told Ynet.
Meanwhile, Israel halted the transfer of gas and fuel to Gaza. Food and medicine are still being allowed in, but only on a case by case basis.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• Israeli army drills for Gaza incursion, in apparent warning to Hamas.
Monday’s exercise — which the IDF invited local media to film, and which was detailed on the evening’s main news broadcasts — appeared intended to send a message to Hamas that Israel was prepared to take drastic action, if needed, to bring peace back to the communities in the Gaza periphery, which have also endured weeks of “fire kite” attacks launched from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
• Israelis discovered a falcon near Gaza with an incendiary device tied to it. Per Ynet, “An initial inspection by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority revealed that the falcon was harnessed to, and not merely entangled in, the combustible material.” The Times of Israel adds that “the falcon was found dead, hanging by the attached string from a burned tree near the Nahal Habesor riverbed.”
It’s the first time Palestinians used animals to spread fires. On a handful of occasions, Palestinians unsuccessfully sent bomb-laden donkeys and horses at soldiers, resulting only in the deaths of the animals.
A falcon attached to a rope with flammable material was found today near the Gaza Strip. Arson fires have been caused by incendiary materials flown from Gaza into Israel. Apparently it’s not enough to destroy nature with kites, now falcons are being used for terror as well. pic.twitter.com/j6noxwCwqS
— COGAT (@cogatonline) July 16, 2018
• If the IDF were to overthrow Hamas, what would the power vacuum mean for Israel? Analysts discussed the issue with The Media Line.
• Although the Trump administration hasn’t expressed any inclination on the matter, a congressional sub-committee is going to hold hearings on recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.
• Iranian ties to Hamas are more overt than ever. An address by Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, to a Gaza conference by video link up was cut short by a technical glitch. Hamas blamed Israel. More at Ynet.
• CNN got rare access to UNIFIL to learn more about what peacekeepers do along the Israel-Lebanon border.
• European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini blasted Israeli cabinet minister Gilad Erdan, demanding the Minister of Strategic Affairs provide proof to his accusations that the EU finances terror and BDS activities. Haaretz saw the letter while the Times of Israel fills out more details.
Window Into Israel
• An inaugural flight of landed at Eilat’s new llan and Assaf Ramon International Airport. The airport is due to open in March, 2019.
• The Knesset passed the ‘Breaking the Silence’ bill into law; non-governmental organizations deemed to be acting against the state or IDF will be barred from Israeli schools. More on the story at the Times of Israel.
• Does Israel need a law to define itself as the nation-state of the Jewish people?
• Knesset passes law: Pregnant women no longer need to wait in line.
Around the World
• A federal judge in Louisiana ruled that Jewish heritage can be basis for race discrimination. AP explains:
The nation’s highest court hasn’t defined what “race” means under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, U.S. Magistrate Mark Hornsby said in a court filing Friday. But he concluded that Jewish citizens have been treated as a racial or ethnic group entitled to the law’s protection against employment discrimination . . .
The magistrate issued his findings in a civil case football coach Joshua Bonadona filed against Louisiana College in February. Bonadona claims the college’s president, Rick Brewer, refused to approve his hiring because of what he allegedly called the applicant’s “Jewish blood.”
• Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has a history of Israel-bashing, struggled with explaining “the Israeli occupation” during an interview on the PBS talk show The Firing Line. The Jerusalem Post has backstory on this video people are buzzing about.
[Margaret] Hoover then asked: “You use the term ‘the occupation of Palestine’. What do you mean by that?”
In response, Ocasio-Cortez exclaimed “Oh!”, paused, and said “I think that what I meant is the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas, in places where Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to their housing and homes.”
The interviewer continued to press her for clarification, at which point Ocasio-Cortez somewhat deflected the request, stating that she is “not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.”
Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacks Israel, calls them the occupiers of Palestine.
When pressed on what she meant she struggled to give an answer and then admitted she does not know what she is talking about. pic.twitter.com/e3Uq1eupD3
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 16, 2018
• In Australia, anti-Israel activists vandalized the office of retiring Labor MP Michael Danby.
The Brisbane branch of anti-Israel group “Justice for Palestine” boasted about the act on social media a short time later, displaying photographs of vandalism.
The stickers accused Mr Danby of being “silent on apartheid”, “silent on the mass murder of unarmed men, women, infants, children, medics and journalists”, and “silent on ethnic cleansing”.
• A letter signed by 68 British rabbis denounced the Labour Party for ignoring the Jewish community in its decision to revise the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. More on the ongoing controversy at the Daily Telegraph. Hours later, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis sent his own unprecedented letter to Labour’s National Executive Committee warning it not to adopt the watered-down definition.
• German police mistakenly beat the victim of anti-Semitic attack in Bonn:
Yitzhak Melamed, who teaches philosophy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in a lengthy Facebook post published Friday accused the police of brutality, then of whitewashing their conduct and falsely blaming him for provoking the assault. Police subsequently apprehended the assailant.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Ron Kampeas: Understanding the Syria moment at the Trump-Putin news conference
– Herb Keinon: The Putin-Trump news conference that made Netanyahu smile
– Prof. Hillel Frisch: Why Russia needs Israel
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: The moment of truth in Gaza
– Elior Levy: Proving itself to Iran, Hamas is deliberately playing with fire
– Binyamin Rose: Why the Golan should remain Israeli
– Dore Gold: Recognizing Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinians’ latest ‘apartheid fatwa’
– Ben Cohen: The Irish Senate’s ‘boycott Israel’ debate
– Charles Bybelezer: What Ireland’s boycott bill means for Israel
– Evelyn Gordon: The only country with no right to a normal foreign policy
– Ryan Bellerose: Jews and the dream of indigenous peoples everywhere
– Mordechai Kedar: Heterogeneous Iran is ripe for fragmentation begun from within
Featured image: CC BY-NC Patrick; Mogherini via YouTube/Frederick Moulin; gavel CC0 pxhere; Mt. Hermon CC BY-NC-ND David King;
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