Today’s Top Stories
1. May he rest in pieces: Hezbollah confirmed that arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar was killed in an air strike on a Damascus apartment building this morning.
Four Israelis were killed in 1979 when Kuntar and three other terrorists infiltrated from Lebanon; during the attack, Kuntar killed four-year-old Einat Haran by smashing her head on a rock.
Israel freed Kuntar and four other Hezbollah operatives in a 2008 prisoner swap for the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Since then, Kuntar had been accused of inciting Golan Druze violence and reportedly helping Iran build up terror infrastructure in the Syrian Golan. The families of Kuntar’s victims praised the air strike, saying justice was done.
If Israel deliberately killed Qantar, it would have been to foil a current threat, not to avenge his lethal 1979 raid – @JackyHugi @GLZRadio
— Dan Williams (@DanWilliams) December 20, 2015
For now, I’m giving the last word to Smadar Haran Kaiser, who lost her husband and daughter. She described the attack in a gripping first-person account in the Washington Post in 2003.
2. Following secret high level meetings, Israel and Turkey are on the verge of re-normalizing ties. Relations between Jerusalem and Ankara were all but severed in 2010 over the Mavi Marmara affair. Reuters explains what changed:
Turkey, largely dependent on imports for its energy needs, has ramped up efforts to find new sources of natural gas due to worsening tensions with Russia after Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane involved in bombing rebels in northern Syria near the Turkish border last month.
According to Israeli media reports, Israel will pay $20 million in compensation, the two countries will restore their ambassadors, while Turkey will pass a law annulling legal claims against the IDF soldiers involved in the raid, limit Hamas activities on its soil, and expel Salah Arouri, a Hamas operative directing West Bank terror cells. According to a Turkish report, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received an Israeli commitment to ease the Gaza blockade.
The Daily Zaman looks at what’s known about unfolding Israeli-Turkish natural gas pipeline.
3. Because the UN only investigates war crimes when Israel is accused . . .
Israel and the Intifada
• This afternoon, a Palestinian woman tried to stab an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint near Hebron. Yesterday afternoon, a Palestinian stabbed three Israelis in Raanana. And on Friday, soldiers foiled Palestinian car-ramming attacks at the Qalandiya checkpoint near Ramallah and at the entrance to Ofra, a settlement in the northern West Bank.
Palestinian who carried out Friday's vehicular attack wrote in his will: "This is JIHAD – Victory or Martyrdom." https://t.co/azkHKKh8Si
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) December 19, 2015
• Czech Parliament rejects labeling of products from Israeli settlements
• Brazil rejects Dani Dayan as ambassador, official says.
• Nice Israel HaYom profile of Trevor Asserson, the British bias-busting barrister. HonestReporting teamed up with Asserson in 2012 after The Guardian declared Tel Aviv to be Israel’s capital. The threat of legal action forced the paper to amend its style guide.
Mideast Matters
• President Obama signed into law sanctions on banks and companies doing business with Hezbollah.
• Tehran gives new meaning to “poison pen.” Iran’s holding another Holocaust cartoon competition. First prize is $50,000.
• What took the Saudis so long?
• On the fifth anniversary of the Arab Spring, the Daily Telegraph tracked down Faida Hamdy, the Tunisian inspector who confiscated Mohamed Bouazizi’s produce stall, prompting Bouazizi to set himself on fire.
“Sometimes I wish I’d never done it,” Mrs Hamdy told The Telegraph, in her only interview to mark the occasion.
See also Vidhi Doshi, who visited the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, where it all began.
But five years on, Tunisia’s revolution is the only one that any commentators are willing to call a success. A new constitution, an elected government and a Nobel Prize-winning set of revolutionaries now represent a dim hope for democracy to prevail in the Arab world. But Tunisians themselves are less hopeful. 2015 saw the growing influence of ISIS in the country.
• UN officially recognizes Yom Kippur as a religious holiday. CNN explains why it matters:
U.N. employees who observe the Jewish faith will have the day off and no official meetings will take place on this date from now on, according to the Israeli mission to the organization.
Around the World
• Bloomberg News picks up on an upstart Israeli company that won a $25 million Pentagon contract to develop portable, stair-climbing robots that can sniff out booby traps.
• Meanwhile, in France . . .
France saw 84% increase in anti-Semitic incidents in first 6 months of 2015, according to EU's new coordinator for combating anti-Semitism
— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) December 20, 2015
• Paris synagogue goers mildly poisoned by irritant smeared on lock
Commentary/Analysis
• What could the Palestinians learn from the Kurds?
The key take-away is that the Kurds in both Syria and Turkey, and the Kurds of northern Iraq realized that the trappings of statehood meant little if the basis for a functioning society underneath was absent.
Instead, the Kurds turned inwards to gain stability.
Rather than apply for meaningless membership to myriad international organizations, they sought economic prosperity and good governance.
In clear contrast, the Palestinians have tried bullying their way to independence by waging terrorism through suicide bombings, stones, bullets and knives.
• The Force is strong in Michael Ramirez . . .
The Empire Strikes Back #tcothttps://t.co/PvbrdFlsAB
More at: https://t.co/evyfYeu3cc
Book: https://t.co/qQkbg2qVT5 pic.twitter.com/jO1dPEMAuu— Michael Ramirez (@Ramireztoons) December 18, 2015
• Col. Richard Kemp explains why the recent High Level Military Group’s findings on Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza were so different from inquiries by the UN and human rights organizations:
Because, unlike the HLMG, these organisations lack any credible military expertise. This is a problem when you are assessing a military conflict. They also mostly hit this issue from a pre-determined position that they want to be right: Israel is the neighbourhood bully and Hamas are the hapless representatives of a bullied, down-trodden population. And they analyse the situation based on human rights law, not the laws of armed conflict. Human rights law is fine if you are dealing with a police arrest on the streets of London, but not when you’re looking at large-scale violent armed exchanges between warring factions – that is what the Geneva conventions are intended to regulate.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Avi Issacharoff: Samir Kuntar died as Iran’s mercenary, not Hezbollah’s
– Amos Harel: Iran, not Hezbollah, to dictate response to Samir Kuntar’s assassination
– Yossi Melman: Will Hezbollah retaliate for the Kuntar assassination?
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Netanyahu and Erdogan’s shared interests
– Selin Nasi: Herald of a thaw between Turkey and Israel
– Shoshana Bryen: When all else fails, Erdogan calls Israel
– Boston Herald (staff-ed): Israel, Turkey renewal
– Joseph Humire: Iran taking over Latin America
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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