Israel and the Palestinians
• The PLO’s urging NBC to drop Dig, the first TV series for American audiences filmed entirely in Jerusalem. Hanan Ashrawi told Maan News:
“Such a production will legitimize the annexation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the authenticity and character of the occupied city,” Ashrawi said.
• Hamas resumes ties with Iran.
• Al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas-run station educates brainwashes kids with shows like Pioneers of Tomorrow. Memri (video/transcript) flagged this episode featuring Nahoul the Bee explaining negotiations to kids. School House Rock seems so innocent and so long ago . . .
• Visiting Israel, Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said Europe judges Israel by different standards than other Mideast countries. Details at the Jerusalem Post.
• A written exercise for people applying to work in the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) smells to Hillel Neuer like a pro-Palestinian litmus test.
How many applicants were screened by this exam — and whether it remains in use — is unknown. Concerning such exams, OHCHR on Monday informed UN Watch in an emailed statement that it is “quite impossible to find out which ones have been used when, or by whom, or for what specific purpose.”
• For the first time since the October discovery of the terror tunnel, Israel’s allowing building supplies back into Gaza. But only for UN projects.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Jeffrey Goldberg and Mudar Zahran.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• The IDF has concluded that last week’s explosion along the Syrian-Israeli border was the responsibility of pro-Assad forces, not Islamist rebels. Nobody was injured, but an IDF vehicle patrolling the border was damaged by a bomb placed on the Syrian side of the border fence. According to Haaretz:
The investigation revealed that it was a deliberate activation of an explosive charge and not a mine that exploded by accident.
The incident occurred in the northern Golan Heights, near the largest Druze village of Khader, on the Syrian side of the border near Mount Hermon. A senior security official told Haaretz yesterday that there is no presence in that area of insurgents affiliated with the global jihad organizations, which are radical Islamic factions inspired by Al-Qaida.
• Islamist rebels abducted two Spanish journalists in Syria, and their paper covered it up for nearly two months. Reuters explains:
Journalist Javier Espinosa and photographer Ricardo Garcia were taken by rebel group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on September 16 at a checkpoint in Raqqa, which fell to militant Islamist brigades in March, the paper reported . . . .
The incident had not been reported until now because of negotiations with the rebels holding the men, the newspaper said.
The kidnappers have not said what they want in exchange for the men and El Mundo did not say why it had decided to announce the kidnappings now.
There’s a lot of debate about the wisdom of sitting on story when reporters are abducted. Earlier this year, Gawker broke ranks on a blackout of Richard Engel’s abduction, though it too initially sat on the info.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Brett Stephens (Wall St. Journal via Google News), Jonathan Spyer, Mardo Soghom, and NOW Lebanon.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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