Today’s Top Stories
1. The IDF destroyed another cross-border terror tunnel. According to Jerusalem Post and Haaretz coverage, the tunnel stretched a few hundred meters into Israel, leading “into agriculture fields near Kibbutz Nirim,” but did not yet have an opening.
The tunnel destroyed on Sunday was found deeper into Israeli territory than the tunnel belonging to [Palestinian Islamic Jihad], which was found on the border and was in advanced stages of construction, Manelis said, stressing that Hamas had put significant effort into it.
More at the Times of Israel and Ynet.
2. Responding to weekend rocket fire from Gaza, the IDF struck four Hamas targets in the Strip, including two weapons manufacturing sites. One rocket hit a kindergarten in Sderot. Nobody was there, but the building was damaged.
And today, an Israeli security guard is fighting for his life after being stabbed at Jerusalem’s central bus station. Security cameras caught the attack on video. The attacker was apprehended.
And this morning, 9-year-old Israeli girl was injured in a Gush Etziyon rock throwing incident.
Security camera footage of #Jerusalem stabbing attack catches moment where #Palestinian stabbed #Israeli in the upper body pic.twitter.com/SRnN0L4EUE
— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) December 10, 2017
So while clashes broke out around the West Bank and along the Gaza border, Jerusalem remained relatively calm until the afternoon stabbing.
Security camera footage of #Jerusalem stabbing attack catches moment where #Palestinian stabbed #Israeli in the upper body pic.twitter.com/SRnN0L4EUE
— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) December 10, 2017
3. Qais al-Khazali, the commander of an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia was seen on the Lebanese-Israeli border. An analyst told the Jerusalem Post:
But, he added, “You also have to wonder, where is UNIFIL? The visit of the leader of a foreign militia funded and trained by the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps] is another example of the UN mission’s overall failure to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, where the Lebanese state is [supposed to be] the main (and only) actor,” he added.
Commander of Iranian-backed Iraqi militia seen in south Lebanon https://t.co/kW4ixKFK0c pic.twitter.com/tCymWOx3sc
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) December 9, 2017
4. History Channel Flunks Jerusalem 101: If journalism is history’s proverbial first draft, what are we to make of the History Channel’s distorted take on Jerusalem?
5. Jerusalem Fallout: More Media Muckups: Between the West Bank clashes, Gaza rocket fire and international anger, there was no shortage of warped news and commentary.
6. The Toronto Star’s False ‘Facts’ on Jerusalem: Are Tony Burman’s views are so divorced from reality that he must change facts?
Israel and the Palestinians
• According to the Times of Israel, one important reason for Jerusalem’s overall calm was a decision not to place restrictions on Friday’s Temple Mount prayers:
On Thursday and Friday at the Damascus Gate, often a focal point of protest and violence, journalists outnumbered the protesters — a sign that news editors had taken Hamas’s repeated entreaties for a new intifada more seriously than the Palestinians themselves.
On Saturday in Jerusalem, the protests were smaller still.
And outside of this one congested point in the city, life has gone on as normal . . .
Without Arab Jerusalemites taking a central part in protests surrounding the fate of their city, it may be that the furious demonstrations elsewhere — in the West Bank, the region and beyond — may fade away as well.
• The IDF accused the Palestinians of using ambulances as cover for stone-throwing. Backstory at the Times of Israel.
Earlier today, during violent riots in Ramallah's main square, Palestinians threw stones at security forces. The rioters shielded themselves with an ambulance, knowing that security forces wouldn't employ dispersal tactics against it pic.twitter.com/mmqRDYWxT0
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 9, 2017
• Weekend’s best headline, courtesy the Times of Israel.
• Jerusalem Post: The White House believes it can ride out temporary Arab anger because the Palestinian Authority is too reliant on the US.
• Now that the US has recognized Jerusalem’s capital status, the Associated Press notes what isn’t changing: Americans born in Jerusalem still will not be able to list “Jerusalem, Israel” as their place of birth, official State Department maps won’t be redrawn, and it’s not clear what’s in store for wording on future policy papers, transcripts, announcements, etc.
• The Czech Republic wants to move its embassy to Jerusalem now and accused other EU leaders of “cowardice.”
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron, then he’s off to Brussels for meetings with European Union leaders. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• EU vows push to make Jerusalem capital for Palestinians too.
• At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, US Ambassador Nikki Haley didn’t back down from widespread criticism, telling council members “Change is hard.”
The debate unfolded at a largely symbolic emergency meeting of the council — no vote on a resolution was planned, as the US has veto power — two days after Trump reversed two decades of US policy on the holy city . . .
Asked what he expected to come from the UN meeting, one diplomat said: “Nothing.”
• Palestinians to make play for Dead Sea scrolls at UNESCO
• An IDF commander was suspended after being caught on film stealing fruit from Palestinians in Hebron on Saturday.
• Although Israel doesn’t have diplomatic relations with the Gulf states, Israeli media reports a group of Bahraini religious leaders arrived over the weekend “to send a message of peace.”
Around the World
• Swedish state TV ties Trump’s Jerusalem recognition to ‘incredibly strong Jewish lobby.’
In a broadcast Wednesday immediately following Trump’s address about Jerusalem, the broadcaster SVT asserted that the “Jewish Lobby in the US is incredibly strong,” and said the lobby “has championed this issue for a long time.”
“It was an unfortunate choice of words that immediately was corrected by our senior news commentator,” Charlotta Friborg, executive editor and publisher SVT News, told JTA in an email.
• Firebombs were thrown at a Swedish synagogue following a demonstration against Trump’s Jerusalem declaration. Protesters called to kill Jews. Unfortunately, CNN‘s headline needed a little copy editing:
• ACLU sues Arizona over law barring boycotts of Israel
Commentary/Analysis
• Come on, Stephen Daisley, tell us what you really think:
The international community is obsessively ignorant about the Jewish state, checking in occasionally to lecture an embattled liberal outpost on the proper etiquette for preventing its children from being blown up. This engenders a reflexive idiocy that treats absurd banalities as wise statecraft. Those who insisted for years that the peace process was dead now say that Trump has killed it. Those who asserted that US foreign policy was controlled by the Israel lobby now lament the surrender of America’s neutrality. Those who championed recognition of Palestine without negotiations are suddenly sceptical about unilateralism. Senator Dianne Feinstein wrote to Donald Trump to warn that implementing the Jerusalem Embassy Act would ‘spark violence and embolden extremists’. Dianne Feinstein voted for the Jerusalem Embassy Act.
The Palestinians have threatened to respond with rage and unrest. Or ‘Thursday’ as it’s otherwise known. So little is expected of them that the threat of violence is seen as a reasonable response to Trump’s proclamation.
• Lots of spilled ink, burnt pixels, hot talk and hot air over Jerusalem, Trump and the peace process. Don’t worry, I saved a few for tomorrow’s roundup.
– Mayor Nir Barkat: Israel’s eternal capital gets is long overdue recognition
– Bret Stephens: Jerusalem denial complex
– Spengler: Who’s following Trump’s lead on Jerusalem?
– Elliott Abrams: The Palestinian violence is not spontaneous
– Dennis Ross and David Makovsky: Moving US embassy to Jerusalem is not a disaster
– Avi Issacharoff: To date, Palestinian protests are a case of ‘intifada lite’
– Yoram Hazony: Trump recognizes that humiliating Israel didn’t bring peace (click via Twitter)
– Fraser Nelson: Trump’s Jerusalem move will not derail Mid-East peace – not now the Saudis are leading the charge
– Bernard Avishai: Palestinians reject Trump’s Jerusalem declaration
– Jonathan Schanzer: Jerusalem is already Israel’s capital. Trump just made it official.
– Melanie Phillips: A historic watershed shames Britain and Europe
– Kenneth Lasson: Why Trump is right on Jerusalem
• Gotta like this take from the Chicago Tribune‘s Scott Stantis.
https://twitter.com/sstantis/status/938791868422328321
– Yaakov Katz: How Trump’s Jerusalem decision was a defeat for terror
– Alan Dershowitz: Violence should not determine policy
– Oded Granot: Palestinians not gung-ho for 3rd intifada
– Mordechai Kedar: 20 reasons why every foreign embassy should move to Jerusalem
– Daniel Shapiro: On Jerusalem, Trump just offered talk. Does Kushner’s peace plan offer real substance?
– Michael Totten: Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and always will be
– Mark Patinkin: The president and the passions of Jerusalem
• Staff editorials weighed in on the Trump declaration, including the Toronto Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Boston Herald, Baltimore Sun, San Diego Union-Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Guardian, and Irish Times.
• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Hanan Ashrawi, Diana Buttu, Ramzy Baroud, Raja Shehadeh, Mairav Zonszein and Aziz Abu Sarah, and the poison pen of Patrick Chappatte.
By @PatChappatte pic.twitter.com/83ep3uo5L4
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 7, 2017
Featured image: CC BY Jon S; passports CC BY-SA Tim Sackton; Haley and Danon via UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe; eyes via YouTube/OB1KXB;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
