Today’s Top Stories
1. Congress approved a bill targeting Hezbollah financing by banning or sanctioning banks that do business with the terror group.
The legislation also targets Hezbollah’s television channel Al-Manar by aiming to cut the broadcast of satellite operators that air the channel’s programming.
More on other US efforts to defund Hezbollah at the Wall St. Journal (click via Google News).
2. Mahmoud Abbas reshuffled his cabinet and dismissed other officials in what critics are calling a power grab, ousting rivals from key posts. Jerusalem Post coverage.
3. Rather than sell tickets to Israelis, Kuwait Airways dropped its New York-London route, USA Today reports. The US Department of Transportation threatened legal action against the carrier after the discrimination was first discovered in October.
The airline says Kuwaiti law prevents it from making agreements and transactions with Israelis.
Israel and the Intifada
• A Palestinian trying to stab soldiers was shot and killed near Nablus.
• After three months of terror, survivors shared their fears with YNet.
Hirush is now at the beginning of a long rehabilitation process, after which he is interested in returning to military service. But for now, he says, his life has become an ongoing nightmare. “I barely sleep,” he said . . .
Since he awoke after a month of being in an artificial coma, he is afraid of staying alone for even a moment. “When I’m awake I’m always nervous and tense, and I always need people near me,” said Hirush. “I avoid seeing the news or movies, I barely watch TV out of fear that something will trigger memories.”
• Ex-International Criminal Court prosecutor hailed an Israeli report on the legality of West Bank settlements. Fresh quotes from Luis Moreno-Ocampo and context at the Times of Israel.
Earlier this month, the Foreign Ministry, under the directive of Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, published a report arguing that Israel has “valid property claims” to West Bank territory, as “Jewish affinity” with the region dates back thousands of years. The document, authored by the ministry’s legal adviser, also seeks to refute the claim that settlements violate the Geneva Conventions and thus constitute a war crime. The effort to portray Jewish settlements in the West Bank as illegal “ignores the complexity of this issue, the history of the land, and the unique legal circumstances of this case,” the report concludes.
• In a dispatch from Hebron, reporter Elhanan Miller examines the question, Should Israel keep the bodies of dead Palestinian terrorists from their families?
• Typical of the New York Times to turn Palestinians into victims. A lot of suffering could be avoided if everyday Palestinians weren’t ramming their cars into Israelis or stabbing them.
Mideast Matters
• UN atomic watchdog chief to Reuters: It’s possible sanctions on Iran will be lifted by the end of January.
• Iran insists it won’t accept any restrictions on its missile program. Credit Tehran for this great moment in verbal gymnastics:
Iran says the resolution would only ban missiles “designed” to carry a nuclear warhead, not “capable of“, so it would not affect its military programme as Tehran does not pursues nuclear weapons.
• According to Israeli media reports, the Royal Jordanian Air Force reportedly discharged a pilot for refusing to visit Israel as part of a military delegation.
“I was trained as a pilot not to cooperate with Israel, but to fight it,” al-Samdi is reported to have told his superiors.
Around the World
• Over 200 South African scholars pledge to support Israel boycott
• A big stink about the Las Vegas Review Journal being sold to an unidentified purchaser comes to an end as paper confirms Sheldon Adelson is new owner. The RJ is Nevada’s largest paper. Adelson, a casino mogul, also owns Israel HaYom. More at Fortune.
• South Africa court prohibits man from sending anti-Semitic emails
• Police in Zurich placed a security cordon around a Jewish girls school after a suspicious car passed the school several times. Reports say a man was detained, but cops say there’s no indication of criminal action.
Commentary/Analysis
• Worth reading: Sohrab Ahmari (Wall St. Journal via Google News) weighs in on the anniversary of the Arab Spring.
The “Revolution 2.0” model of leaderless, social-media-driven protest was effective against unpopular regimes. But it proved insufficient for winning power, and the liberals failed to articulate a coherent ideological alternative with broad appeal. Had they spent half as much time learning from Israel how to plant democracy in Middle East soil as they did demonizing the Jewish state, today the liberals might be in a better position.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Norman Bailey: Israel, ISIS, and Mideast poker
– Bassam Tawil: More lies from Abbas about the “intifada”
– Jonathan Tobin: The price of unjustifiable murder
– Noga Tarnopolsky: Greece, Cyprus and Israel in strategic repositioning
– Dan Margalit: The inspection joke
• For a sense of what the critics are saying, Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace got op-ed space in the Los Angeles Times.
Image of airplane CC BY Curimedia; Ocampo CC BY Estonian Foreign Ministry; Las Vegas (CC BY-NC Roadsidepictures;
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