Today’s Top Stories
1. Terror Collaborating Journalist Gets the Boot: Italian news agency fires reporter Michele Monni, who interviewed Israelis for a Hezbollah documentary.
2. Palestinian court suspended municipal elections that were scheduled for next month. The High Court of Justice ruling gives Fatah a face-saving way to avoid an expected loss to Hamas. Anxious cadres had been urging Mahmoud Abbas to cancel the October 8 voting.
Municipal elections were last held in 2012, while elections for the Palestinian parliament were last held in 2006. As for Abbas, the PA president is currently in the 11th year of a four-year term. Presidential elections were last held in 2005.
No elections because, you know, the ruling party could lose.
Palestinians deserve better. https://t.co/KPrfFtHTtR
— David Hazony (@davidhazony) September 8, 2016
3. Israeli media reports buzzed over documents purportedly showing that Mahmoud Abbas was a KGB agent in the 1980s. According to the reports, his station chief was Mikhail Bogdanov, who today serves as Moscow’s Mideast envoy. See the New York Times for more background on the papers, the Palestinian reactions, and an interesting take on why this is happening now. Somebody’s clearly undercutting someone else — but who and why?
The suggestion that Mr. Abbas may have been on Moscow’s roster more than three decades ago might have been just a historical curiosity but for the fact that it comes at the same time that Mr. Putin has been trying to organize new talks between Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. A Russian envoy was in Jerusalem this week to meet with Mr. Netanyahu, but the Israeli and Palestinian leaders remain at odds and no direct talks appear imminent.
Meanwhile, Russian reports cited by Reuters say Netanyahu and Abbas have agreed in principle to meet in Moscow, though no date has been set.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Here’s a by the numbers look at what’s known about the Hamas military budget, based on Times of Israel research.
$100 million: overall spending on military infrastructure
$40 million: spending on tunnel digging
$530 million: Hamas’ last known budget, from 2014
1,500: Hamas operatives employed in tunnel digging
$250-400: Monthly salary of Hamas tunnel digger
To put it in perspective, The Media Line recently reported that around 140,000 homes were partially or totally damaged from Israeli airstrikes during the 2014 war, of which only 200 have been rebuilt. How many homes could be rebuilt for $100 million?
• Press freedom, Hamas-style:
Hamas releases journo Nuha Abu Amru after forcing her to delete Facebook posts about corruption at Rafah terminal. pic.twitter.com/mpEYNqx8Lr
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) September 7, 2016
• In response to a Syrian mortar shelling hitting the Golan Heights, Israel launched retaliatory air strikes on Syrian Army rocket launchers.
• The Daily Mail went up to Mt. Bental to join Israelis rubbernecking the fighting in Syria and examine what the fighting means for Israel.
Around the World
• A Czech educational atlas will continue referring to Jerusalem as Israel after all. More at the Prague Monitor and Jerusalem Post.
Truth has indeed overcome lies. Czech students will learn the facts -Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel! https://t.co/yTdgatnkSj
— Archive:Mayor Nir Barkat (@ArchiveNir) September 7, 2016
• Israel acknowledges helping Paraguay in fight against Hezbollah.
• Rise of social media linked to rising anti-Semitism.
• Syracuse University pro-BDS faculty are circulating a petition denying pressure to disinvite Israeli filmmaker.
• Israel’s isolated in the world? Judging from Reuters, nobody told Japan.
Japanese executives say they are increasingly drawn to investments in Israel as the price of oil falls and, with it, the influence Arab oil suppliers have on Japan’s decision-making.
• Documents disclose Iran, Venezuela involvement in missile manufacturing program.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Yossi Melman: Abbas, the KGB and the world of Middle East espionage
– Spengler: Let Hezbollah know what will happen if it attacks
– Avi Issacharoff: Israelis have nothing to fear from IS but fear itself
– Aedan O’Connor: Inside a hate-filled anti-Israel protest
– Ariel Bolstein: Is Europe acknowledging terrorists’ salaries?
– Amb. Alan Baker: Israel’s rights in the territories under international law
– Nadiya Al-Noor and Maxwell Adelstein: The “Pinkwashing” accusation and the effects of anti-Israel propaganda on college campuses
– Robbie Travers: France: On its way to being a Jew-free nation?
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Nick; Japan CC BY Philippe Put;
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