Today’s Top Stories
1. Three Israelis were stabbed to death after a Palestinian terrorist entered their home and began attacking family members at a traditional Friday night Shabbat meal. The Palestinian entered the Neve Tzuf settlement (also known as Halamish) by simply climbing a fence.
The funerals of Yosef Salomon, 70, his daughter, Chaya, 46, and son Elad, 36, were getting underway at the Modiin Cemetery as this roundup was published. The family had gathered to celebrate the birth of a grandson.
Before carrying out the attack, Omar al-Abed, of the West Bank village of Kobar, posted a final statement on Facebook.
“All that I have is a sharpened knife, and it is answering the call of al-Aksa. Shame on you, you who preach hatred. God will take revenge on you and will make it count. All of us are the sons of Palestine and the sons of al-Aksa. You, sons of monkeys and pigs, if you do not open the gates of al-Aksa, I am sure that men will follow me and will hit you with an iron fist, I am warning you.”
Earlier this year, Abed spent two weeks in PA detention about “alleged plans to attack Israelis” before being released.
Elad’s widow, Michal, recounted the attack, describing to reporters how she quickly rushed the children upstairs and called the police.
2. PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced he was suspending all contacts with Israel until the metal detectors were removed. He later confirmed this included security coordination.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman shrugged off the announcement, “saying the security ties are mostly beneficial for the Palestinians anyway.” More Temple Mount developments below.
Meanwhile, Palestinians protesting new security measures at the Temple Mount clashed with Israeli security forces in eastern Jerusalem over the weekend. Israeli police released security footage showing how the the guns used in the terror attack which killed two police officers were smuggled onto the Temple Mount earlier in the morning.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. According to Israeli media reports confirmed by Ramallah, Israel and Jordan will create a Temple Mount security committee that excludes the Palestinian Authority.
4. Temple Mount Tensions: Unholy Headline Fails: Headlines equate Israeli terror victims with rioting Palestinians.
5. Video: Temple Mount: What’s the point in praying if you can’t bring your gun? After the latest violence, HonestReporting breaks down the facts and the media failures.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The UN Security Council is expected to meet on Monday to discuss the Jerusalem violence.
• Israeli officials accused the Islamic Wakf and the PA of inciting Palestinians to murder while also calling UNESCO a “full partner” in stoking the latest tensions.
• According to Haaretz, Israeli police are restricting journalists access to the area around the entrance of Lions Gate, where there is an adjacent entrance to the Temple Mount. This was where HonestReporting’s Simon Plosker recently observed Palestinians and reporters (From the Scene: Temple Mount Troubles).
The police asserted that permitting journalists into the area caused a tumult and a lack of security. The journalists were ordered to move to Mota Gur Way, a few hundred meters from the Old City Walls, and about 500 meters from the Temple Mount entrance. Civilians who are not journalists have full access to this area.
• The Times of Israel takes the pulse of eastern Jerusalem.
“Just remove the metal detectors. They are nonsense,” he urged. “We are going up the tree together and we don’t know who will come down.”
• Muslims around the world demonstrated against Israel. In Istanbul, the JTA reports protesters gathered outside the city’s Neve Shalom synagogue, tried to kick the doors down and throw things inside.
This will rattle a lot of Turkish Jews. In 1986, Palestinians believed to be affiliated with the Abu Nidal terror group killed 22 worshipers in a terror attack. In 2003, four simultaneous truck bombs killed 57 people, including seven at Neve Shalom. Turkish police believe they were carried out by Al-Qaida.
#Istanbul Neve Shalom Synagogue has been attacked in reaction to Israeli applications at al-Aqsa Mosque entrance. pic.twitter.com/Dz8QwC3jje
— dokuz8NEWS (@dokuz8news) July 21, 2017
• Worth reading: Amid Temple Mount tumult, the who, what and why of its Waqf rulers.
• 25 West Bank Hamasniks arrested in Israeli raids overnight.
• One report in The Independent surprisingly opt to drop all context whatsoever. You wouldn’t know from the Indy that Israel installed metal detectors at the Temple Mount because of a terror attack which killed two police officers. Nor is there any understanding offered of why Palestinians oppose the new security measures.
• Jerusalem Post: Israel to deny to radical hard-core BDS activists who are expected to arrive in the near future.
• The Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) profiled Maj. Gen. Yoram Halevy, commander of the Israeli Police’s Jerusalem district — before the Israeli Arab terror attack that sparked the latest violence.
• At the risk of ruining the mood Sarah Helm and The Observer try to create, I have to point out that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is because of Hamas arms smuggling by sea (see examples one, two and three, to name a few). Adding further insult is a reference to Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital. Find out why I call that “lousy synecdoche.”
In a disturbing new twist, the offensive bringing misery to the two million people who live here, most of them refugees, has been triggered by the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, in collaboration with Israel.
A blockade, military and economic, imposed by land, air and sea, was first imposed by Israel 11 years ago to isolate and weaken Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement that took power in Gaza, but not in the West Bank, after winning elections . . .
Across the wasteland is a huge cement wall, a newly constructed section of Israel’s barrier, which Tel Aviv says is necessary to prevent rocket attacks on towns inside Israel.
Around the World
• After last month’s Dyke March scandal, SlutWalk Chicago is banning ‘Zionist displays’ from its upcoming August rally. Background and links at The Algemeiner. Once again, “intersectionality” doesn’t include Jews.
https://twitter.com/slutwalkchi/status/886846435681087488
• Two Scottish Palestine activists convicted over Israeli store protest.
• Vandals toppled 60 headstones in three Hartford Jewish cemeteries.
• Public editors are disappearing, thanks to shrinking newsroom budgets and — believe it or not — public distrust. The Columbia Journalism Review talked to ombudsmen to find out why and what it means.
Commentary/Analysis
• Memo to Daniel Nerenberg: It’s bad enough that you play up fringe Jewish groups that want to rebuild the Jewish Temple, as if they’re mainstream. But how can you not consider that smuggling guns onto the Temple Mount and then attacking from the holy site Israeli policemen changed the status quo?
– Emily Amrousi: A home, not a battlefield
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Explosive chain of events could lead to new wave of terrorism
– Bassam Tawil: Metal detectors and Palestinian lies
– Raphael Ahren: As Temple Mount tensions persist, where’s Donald Trump?
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Abbas is out of the game
– Liel Leibovitz: The Palestinian mountain of hate
– Avi Issacharoff: Israeli leaders can still contain Temple Mount crisis, but require political courage
– Seth Frantzman: Mass protests over Temple Mount carve out unique civil disobedience
– Zvi Bar’el: Arab states conspicuously silent on Temple Mount crisis
Featured image: Hadas Parush/FLASH90; map via CC BY SA Wikimedia Commons; Navy CC BY-SA Israel Defense Forces; Dome of the Rock CC BY Tee Cee;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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