Today’s Top Stories
1. The Knesset passed the Nation-State Law last night, formally declaring in law that Israel is a Jewish state. Supporters say it enshrines Israel’s identity as a Jewish state while critics say it marginalizes Arab citizens. Here’s the full text of the law, and few key snippets so you can judge for yourself.
> “The Jewish nation-state bill is a Basic Law with constitutional heft that declares Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. It anchors in law the state’s menorah emblem, Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, national holidays and the right of all Israeli residents to preserve their heritage without consideration of religion and nationality.”
> “Similar to a constitution, the Basic Laws underpin Israel’s legal system and are more difficult to repeal than regular laws. The nation-state bill, proponents say, puts Jewish values and democratic values on equal footing. Critics, however, say the law effectively discriminates against Israel’s Arabs and other minority communities.”
> The basic laws, enacted in the absence of a single constitution, legally supersede the Declaration of Independence and, unlike regular laws, have never been overturned by Israel’s Supreme Court. Basic laws can only be amended by a majority of 61 in the Knesset.
> “The bill also strips Arabic of its designation as an official language alongside Hebrew, downgrading it to a “special status” that enables its continued use within Israeli institutions.”
> “The most controversial clause, which appeared to pave the way for the creation of communities segregated by nationality or religion, was removed from the legislation earlier this week.”
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
2. The British Labour Party’s National Executive Council rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s full working definition of antisemitism, and is accused of fudging the issue by “pledging a review.”
Meanwhile, Jewish Labour MPs fear a civil war, but it seems like that’s already underway. Veteran MP Dame Margaret Hodge told off party leader Jeremy Corbyn, calling him an ‘an antisemite’ to his face (she only denied using the f-word) then doubled-down in a Guardian commentary. MP John Woodcock resigned from Labour as did Jewish party activist Tal Ofer.
3. IDF delivers aid to displaced Syrians as rebels surrender to Bashar Assad. More on the ceasefire deal at Ynet.
4. Sky News Distorts Contentious Israeli Nation State Law: While there’s room to debate the merits of the Nation Sate Law, Sky News paints an incomplete picture.
5. Talk Show Producer Tweets Hooey and Why It Matters: What does it say about public discourse when a talk show producer retweets a months-old lie about Israeli “apartheid” and “genocide?”
Israel and the Palestinians
• Just before this roundup was published, Israeli media reported an IDF airstrike on a Hamas terror balloon cell, killing one Hamasnik and injuring three others.
• Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban arrived in Israel yesterday for a two-day visit. Ties between Budapest and Jerusalem have expanded despite concerns over the right-wing Orban’s brand of nationalist politics and antisemitic dalliances. President Reuven Rivlin warned Orban of the dangers of ‘neo-fascism.”
Previews in the Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel lay out the significance of Orban’s visit. Dispatches in Haaretz and the Times of Israel take the pulse of Hungarian Jewry.
• Flaming balloon from Gaza lands in preschool near children at play.
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals condemned the Palestinian use of a bird to start a fire. PETA’s denunciation on Twitter came after a dead falcon with an incendiary device tied to it was found in Habesor National Park by an Israeli parks worker helping extinguish a fire.
• The IDF’s using an autonomous drone system to try to intercept Gaza kites, balloons. The system “uses optic sensors to identify the launch of airborne arson devices, then launches another drone to intercept the threat and neutralize it — a process the system handles from start to finish without any human input.”
• Palestinians slammed a Saudi documentary about Israel’s founding. “The two-part series, titled ‘The Naqba,’ is rich with imagery from the Holocaust and from the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish population. It interviews Israelis, Arabs and historians in what it says is an attempt to depict the controversial topic in an unbiased light.”
Window Into Israel
• State comptroller Yosef Shapira warned in a new report that Israel is not prepared for a major earthquake. Too many schools, police and fire stations, buildings housing medical services, prisons and bridges are at risk — because A) they were built before the 1980s, when the government began enforcing durability standards, and B) plans to reinforce them were never implemented.
Shapira also criticized the Ministry of Tourism for the insufficient preparedness of hotels.
• United Torah Judaism party to remain in government despite the question of Haredi army conscription being unresolved. Party leader Rabbi Yaakov Litzman had threatened to pull out of the governing coalition if the issue wasn’t settled by today, when the Knesset begins its summer recess.
Around the World
• Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is distancing herself from the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her latest comments on a Democracy Now! livestream interview came on the heels of a disastrous Q&A with PBS.
• Another Mideast peace plan bites the dust. Oldoz Javidi has already retracted her idea, saying it could be “misinterpreted.”
• An Austrian province is mulling limiting kosher meat sale to registered Jews, with government officials citing concerns for animal welfare. Jewish leaders say that the required registry smacks of Aryan racial laws implemented by the Nazis. JTA coverage.
• Study finds online antisemitism is going mainstream in Germany.
• Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg told Recode he wouldn’t remove Holocaust denial posts because “I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.” That brought a heap of criticism, forcing Zuckerberg to clarify his comments. Meanwhile, Berlin lawmakers insisted that Facebook must adhere to German Holocaust denial laws.
Just tuning in here, but if Zuckerberg won’t shut down Holocaust denials, just why should we believe they are gonna tamp down misinformation ahead of the election? What is the baseline for when wrong information is being offered in bad faith if not that?
— Jessica Huseman (@JessicaHuseman) July 19, 2018
Commentary
• Over at i24 News, Eugene Kontorovich explains the legal case for recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.
• For commentary on the domestic scene, Emmanuel Navon and Dr. Aviad Bakshi weigh in for the Nation-State law while Amir Fuchs and Yedidia Stern oppose it.
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels about the British Labour Party’s antisemitism problem . . .
– Naftali Bennett: We won’t let Labour divide the Jewish people
– Stephen Pollard: Jeremy Corbyn, the anti-racist who turned Labour into the party of anti-Semitism
– Times of London (staff-ed): Labour and antisemitism
– Denis MacShane: Labour rejection of EU’s definition of antisemitism is morally wrong and politically foolish
– David Hirsh: Understanding Labour’s disavowal of the IHRA definition
– Stephen Daisley: Labour members must pick a side in the fight against anti-Semitism
This Labour leadership "would rather lead a party where it is not antisemitic to compare Israel to Nazi Germany, than lead a party where Margaret Hodge MP, whose grandmother and uncle were murdered in the Holocaust, feels she is welcome." https://t.co/kbAnK19KxD
— Dave Rich (@daverich1) July 18, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Daniel Shapiro: Trump’s appalling display in Helsinki shows Netanyahu was right all along to invest in Putin
– Ian Lee: Why Netanyahu liked what he saw from Trump in Helsinki
– Ilan Jonas: If Iran gets back to nukes, Israel is better prepared to strike
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Iran supports Palestinian terror groups
– Noa Landau: Israel’s tightening alliance with central Europe’s nationalist leaders is splitting the EU
– Herb Keinon: Putting the Western Wall on the itinerary for world leaders
– Anna Ahronheim: Is Israel heading to another war with Gaza … over kites and balloons?
– Charles Bybelezer: The Israel-Hamas standoff is set to play out
– Seth Lipsky: Will Schumer drop Israel for Ocasio-Cortez?
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: What does Trump’s denial of Russian hacking mean for Israeli elections?
– Allison Kaplan Sommer: Principled activists or entitled brats? What’s wrong with the Birthright walk-outs
– Bethany Mendel: Playing politics with Birthright? That’s like stealing a free trip to Israel
– Ira Rifkin: Anti-semitism: Journalistically parsing its current upsurge both here and abroad
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA ERIO; Israeli emblem via Wikimedia Commons; Orban via YouTube/Dr. Steve Turley; earthquake via Wikimedia Commons;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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