Today’s Top Stories
1. Israeli jets destroyed a Syrian anti-aircraft battery near Damascus after it fired on them while they were flying a reconnaissance mission in Lebanese air space. No Israeli jets were hit. The incident occurred this morning, hours before Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was due to arrive in Israel.
2. As expected, Austrian voters elected 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz as prime minister. But the bigger story is that far-right Freedom Party came in second place. Austrian Jews are calling on Kurz not to include the Freedom Party in his new coalition. More at the JTA.
Sebastian Kurz
3. The election of Audrey Azoulay, a French Jew of Moroccan descent, as director general of UNESCO isn’t enough to persuade Israel and the US to remain in the cultural organization. Israeli officials told Ynet they’re taking a wait and see approach.
4. When a New York Times Correction Needs a Correction: An editor’s note strikes the wrong note cheerleading for BDS.
5. Israeli Hospital, Syrian Victims: HR FieldTrip October 2017: An HonestReporting field trip visits Israel’s Ziv hospital where Syrian victims receive treatment, and goes on to explore the Druze of Israel’s north.
Tour guide Ihab Zaidan dicussing the relationship between Israeli Druze and the state at a memorial to the IDF’s fallen Druze soldiers in Daliyat al-Karmel during HonestReporting’s field trip to northern Israel. on October 15, 2017. Photo by Daniel Pomerantz
In the News
• AP: Israel to probe foreign funding of human rights groups.
• Islamic State in the Sinai claimed responsibility for two rockets fired at southern Israel yesterday. The rockets landed in open areas causing no damage.
• Members of an anti-BDS ‘dream team’ of Israeli minorities are gritting their teeth in the face of an intense incitement campaign. Ynet writes:
Reservists on Duty planned to send this team—comprised of two Muslim Israeli-Arabs, a Palestinian, a Druze, a Bedouin and a Christian Israeli-Arab—to elite American and European universities to speak, in fluent Arabic and English, against BDS, denouncing it and the delegitimization campaign it wages against Israel.
However, immediately after the unique delegation was made public, several of its members began suffering a spate of humiliations, threats and insults online.
• So the Saudi view of Trump’s new Iran approach matches Israel’s.
• Uruguayan Holocaust memorial vandalized with anti-Semitic slurs.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Amb. Alan Baker: Palestinian unification must honor Palestinian commitments
– Frida Ghitis: Proposed deal proves Hamas rule was a disaster for Palestinians
– Alan Dershowitz: President Trump did the right thing by walking away from UNESCO — for now
– Alex Fishman: Trump’s Iran deal speech: A recipe for a regional explosion
– Sarit Zehavi, Christina Hen: UNIFIL has become a fig leaf for Hezbollah’s military deployment in Southern Lebanon
– Asaf Romirowsky: How Palestine ‘occupies’ itself
– Adnan Oktar: Boycotts are not the answer
– Haisam Hassanein, Wesam Hassanein: How Obama nudged Arab leaders toward Israel (click via Twitter)
– Dr. Mordechai Kedar: What next, once ISIS falls?
Featured image: CC BY-SA carterse Kurz via YouTube/euronews (magyarul); quill CCO Pixabay;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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