Today’s Top Stories
1. Fearing a Gaza crisis, Israel has asked the US to ease up on cutting funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which provides humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees:
Israeli defense officials relayed that cutting UNRWA’s budget could be extremely problematic, saying that while Israel had no objection to cutting the agency’s budget in the West Bank because other organizations would fill the void, no such organizations could do the same in Gaza.
Israel’s declared position, as expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is that “UNRWA needs to pass from this world” and that responsibility for the Palestinian refugee issue should be transferred to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the body that deals with all other refugee matters in the world.
With that, Israeli defense officials and politicians have expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, in part because any health or sanitation crisis there would immediately affect Israel. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that contamination does not stop at the border.
2. A last-minute funding compromise between the government and Israel’s public broadcaster enables Israel to keep Eurovision hosting rights.
Under a last-minute compromise agreement announced on Channel 10 News on Tuesday morning, the Finance Ministry and the [Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation] decided that a special loan would be taken out to provide the EBU guarantee. The loan will not be funded with taxpayer money, but through a private body that has not been identified, Channel 10 reported.
3. The controversy over Jeremy Corbyn’s homage to the terrorists responsible for Munich Olympics Massacre escalated. See below for the continuing fallout.
4. En-Thralled with BDS: A 10,000-word diatribe bends, breaks and hides the truth about the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• The PA is pushing a new initiative to remove or suspend Israel from the United Nations over the controversial nation-state law.
• Are Israel and Hamas close to a cease fire deal? An unidentified Israeli source told the Los Angeles Times a deal is “virtually done.”
• Israeli cabinet ministers reportedly reject plan to return PA control to Gaza.
• An Israeli cabinet minister confirmed that Prime Minister secretly visited Egypt in May to discuss a possible long-term ceasefire in Gaza. Israeli media reports cited by Reuters said the two also discussed easing the Gaza blockade and rehabilitating its infrastructure.
• The IDF discovered another network of Hamas hackers using false identities of attractive young women and infected apps to target soldiers.
• In a series of West Bank raids, the IDF shut down a firearms-making workshop, seized guns and arrested 21 Palestinians.
• Poll: Israeli and Palestinian support for two-state solution at lowest level in nearly 20 years.
• Evergreen headline: PA again vows to continue paying prisoners, families of ‘martyrs.’
• Peter Beinart, a columnist and prominent voice of liberal American Jewry, was pulled aside for questioning at Ben Gurion Airport “and interrogated for an hour about his political views, before being allowed to enter Israel.” The Shin Bet subsequently apologized and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Beinart’s questioning an “administrative mistake.”
In recent months, Jewish notables of different stripes entering the country have been pulled aside and questioned, such as philanthropist Meyer Koplow, IfNotNow founder Simone Zimmerman and author Moriel Rothman-Zecher.
Beinart, a contributor to CNN, The Atlantic, and Haaretz, is often critical of Israeli policies. He described the incident in The Forward. Social media sympathy was widespread, but not unanimous.
Dude, I hate to break it to you, you weren't detained. You were questioned at the airport. The whole thing lasted an hour. You weren't a prisoner of conscience, or any other kind of prisoner. I know a lot of right-wingers that get questioned longer. https://t.co/ER1y3IZyty
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) August 13, 2018
• Argentina blames Gaza violence on Palestinians.
• Fatah’s official Facebook page honored Japanese terrorist Kozo Okamoto. He, along with two other terrorists, carried out the 1972 Lod Massacre, opening fire on travelers in Lod Airport. Twenty six people were killed and 80 others were injured. Okamoto was eventually released in a 1985 prisoner swap and currently lives in Lebanon. Japan has a warrant for Okamoto’s arrest but Lebanese officials have ignored Tokyo’s extradition requests.
• In an interview with Saudi media, ex-Mossad chief Tamir Pardo said he doubted Russia could remove Iran from Syria, and suggested international sanctions on Lebanon to weaken Hezbollah.
• Manila confirmed that firebrand Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte will visit Israel in September.
• Defense Minister is in the process of selecting the next IDF chief of staff. Haaretz looks at the four generals who interviewed for the military’s top job. Eyal Zamir, Yair Golan, Aviv Kochavi, and Nitzan Alon are all vying to replace Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, who is retiring on January 1.
Around the World
• The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator unspin UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s contradictory explanations for his homage to the Palestinian Black September terrorists responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. Corbyn told Sky News, “I was present when it was laid, I don’t think I was actually involved in it.”
Being “present” is the same as being involved. When I attend a memorial, my presence alone, whether I lay a wreath or not, demonstrates my association & support. There can also never be a “fitting memorial” for terrorists. Where is the apology? https://t.co/TNQpCs6mN2
— Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) August 13, 2018
• Daily Mail: The so-called “peace conference” Corbyn attended before the graveside ceremony “featured speeches by terror chiefs who called violence ‘magnificent’ and compared Israel to ISIS,” a reference to Islamic State. Here’s just one of the chestnuts that was said in Corbyn’s presence.
At the event in Tunisia, top Hamas leader Oussama Hamdan presented a ‘four point vision to fight against Israel’ and praised the group’s ‘great success on the military and national levels’, adding that the violence was ‘magnificent’.
• The controversy escalated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Corbyn taking shots at each other on Twitter. It’s not normal for the prime minister to get involved in a domestic British affair. The BBC explains the significance of their exchange:
[Corbyn’s] supporters say the purpose of Benjamin Netanyahu’s message is to shut down that sort of criticism of Israel’s actions.
But his critics will argue that the fact such a senior figure has got involved in Labour’s internal row over anti-Semitism shows how urgently the party needs to resolve an issue that has been hanging over it for months.
Israeli PM @Netanyahu's claims about my actions and words are false.
What deserves unequivocal condemnation is the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces since March, including dozens of children.https://t.co/H5nXqi3pnU
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 13, 2018
• The Times of Israel takes a closer look at Corbyn’s chief spin doctor, Seumas Milne. Before becoming Labour’s director of communications, he was editor of The Guardian’s Comment is Free section. Here’s the money quote that validates Jewish gripes with Comment is Free during its six years under Milne:
“I never regarded him as a journalist, but as a propagandist,” says a former Guardian colleague. “The basics of reporting both sides of an argument were anathema to him.”
• Judge says he’s likely to dismiss suit accusing San Francisco State U. of antisemitism.
• Jewish leaders question timing of EU summit on Yom Kippur. Was the the Salzburg confab’s scheduling a deliberate move or just insensitive?
• German police are investigating after the Israeli and US embassies in Berlin received threatening letters with white powder last month.
Commentary
• American Jewish philanthropist and activist Ronald Lauder is worried about Israel-diaspora ties. Shmuel Rosner‘s response makes me go hmmmmm.
Lauder has valid points, but falls flat with this: He wants Israel changed because it complicates USJews effort to keep youngsters enthusiastic about heritage. Tough luck. This is US responsibility. Israelis will not take blame for failure https://t.co/S5vqJU9yDv
— Shmuel Rosner (@rosnersdomain) August 14, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Jonathan Spyer: Israel’s interest in the US-backed enclave in eastern Syria
– Jonathan Tobin: The Gaza conundrum and the two-state solution
– Yaakov Lappin: Hamas is taking the region to the brink of war
– Yossi Mekelberg: One step forward, two steps back in Gaza
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: How will the International Criminal Court view new evidence regarding Gaza Beach war crimes?
– Amy Spiro: Eurovision spat isn’t Israel’s “hallelujah” moment
– James Sorene: Even pro-Palestinian activists are appalled by Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to Israel
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND greenzowie; money CC0 Pixabay; Beinart via YouTube/#NANYC; Duterte via Wikimedia Commons; Milne via YouTube/Captain Corleone;
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