Everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast. Join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Today’s Top Stories
1. An Israeli Arab from Taibeh was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to join up with radical Islamists in Syria. According to Haaretz:
Altogether, about 15 Israeli Arabs are thought to be fighting in Syria against the regime, with a few more having joined Assad’s side. Their parents say some would like to return, but that once someone is accepted into a militia, he isn’t allowed to leave.
2. Palestinian Authority Human Rights Violations Ignored by Media, West
The report, which has been ignored by mainstream media and human rights organizations in the West, reveals that 10 Palestinians died in January 2014 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of anarchy, lawlessness and misuse of weapons.
The report also lists cases of torture and mistreatment in PA and Hamas prisons. ICHR pointed to an increase in the number of torture cases in prisons belonging to the PA’s much-feared Preventive Security Service in the West Bank . . . .
As far as the PA is concerned, Israel alone is responsible for human rights violations and assaults on freedom of expression and the media.
Evidently, most Western journalists, governments and human rights groups have chosen to endorse the Palestinian Authority’s stance that the only evil-doers are the Israelis. And that is precisely why the ICHR report about the anarchy, lawlessness and human rights violations by the PA and Hamas will be completely ignored in the West.
3. Big Media (in this case, Reuters) finally discovered the story of the ancient Greek statue found by a Gaza fisherman. The bronze Apollo — actually discovered last year — is estimated to be at least 2,000 years old. Hamas has an art wing too, which might explain why they seized the statue.
4. Hate Your Job? Really??? Can you believe quotes that appear in newspapers, or is there more to the story?
Israel and the Palestinians
• Expanding on the SodaStream issue, the NY Times looks at Palestinians working for Israelis in the West Bank.
Diana Buttu, a lawyer who has been studying West Bank work conditions, and other boycott supporters acknowledged that the settlement industry provided important economic opportunities for Palestinians even as it challenged their national aspirations. The deeper problem, she said, was that the Palestinian minimum wage was $410 a month, compared with Israel’s $1,217, and most Palestinian workers lacked pensions, vacation days and disability insurance — factors she and others say are the fault of the Palestinian Authority as well as Israel.
• Aussie reactions to Stone Cold Justice range from a staff-ed in The Australian to the Zionist Federation of Australia, to foreign minister Julie Bishop.
• British MP Yasmin Qureshi apologized for comparing the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Bret Stephens (Wall St. Journal via Google News — why Scarlett Johansson has more backbone than John Kerry), Yaakov Ahimeir (compensating Jewish refugees), Robert Satloff (assessing US peace efforts), and Lawrence Grossman (boycotting Israeli products), and Binghamton U. sophomore Justin Hayet (ASA boycott).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Elliott Abrams debunks Cold War analogies applied to today’s Iranian situation.
• Tweet of the day:
Can anyone spot the irony in this title? “Hezbollah MP: Fighting jihadists should be priority” — http://t.co/2KFWo2GmIy
— Phillip Smyth (@PhillipSmyth) February 10, 2014
• Marwan Bishara (of Al Jazeera) deplores Egypt’s war on journalism Al Jazeera, but Michael Rubin points out that Al Jazeera’s hands aren’t so clean either.
• Elliott Abrams debunks Cold War analogies applied to today’s Iranian situation.
• I wonder if his last words were “I’m only going to demonstrate this once.”
Iraqi terror instructor accidentally blows up 21 recruits
• The Global Post visited the Hula Valley Nature Reserve, where half a billion birds find peace in the Mideast.
• Nice to see Israel and Latin America reaching out to each other. The Jerusalem Post reports that:
- Israel is hosting Peru’s visiting president, Ollanta Moises Humala next week.
- Benyamin Netanyahu is organizing an April trip to Mexico and Colombia.
- Israel is expected to be offered observer status in the Pacific Alliance free-trade bloc.
The Post adds that it’s not all about free trade either:
The Pacific Alliance countries are also important as a wedge in Latin America against Iranian influence. In December, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said during a meeting with visiting Guatemalan President Otto Fernando Perez Molina that Iran had terrorist bases in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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