Today’s Top Stories
1. Terror struck Jerusalem when a Palestinian man deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people at a light rail station. A three-month-old baby was killed and nine other people were injured in the attack.
The driver, Abed Abdelrahman Shaludeh, was shot by police while trying to flee on foot and died of his injuries during the night. Police officials said the 20something year-old Shaludeh was a Hamas member previously imprisoned for security offenses.
The baby, Chaya Zissel Braun, a US citizen, was buried last night; More on the story at the Jerusalem Post and YNet. If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s security footage online.
HonestReporting critiqued the Jerusalem Terror Attack: Headline Fails: Hit and run headlines after Palestinian terrorist kills three-month-old baby.
2. What’s holding up Gaza reconstruction now? According to AP and Reuters, it’s a combination of factors: a trickle of aid, Hamas-Fatah feuding, and technical issues. The difference between what ordinary Gazans and Hamas are saying couldn’t be starker:
“We are waiting and waiting,” said Samer al-Khaisy, 29, who lives with his wife and three pre-school daughters in one room of his damaged apartment, with holes in the wall covered by plastic sheets.
“Reconstruction is facing some problems, that is why it is not taking off,” said government spokesman Ehab Bseiso. “These things are not going to be changed overnight.”
3. Strength to Canada after the horrific Parliament rampage. Terror is terror. Except when it happens in Israel and Reuters is involved. After all, one man’s terrorist is another Reuters’ executive’s freedom fighter. Something’s muddled.
By the way, Israeli Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi weighed in on the terrorism threat to Canada.
4. BDS Buster of the Week: Eugene Kontorovich of the Volokh Conspiracy: Professor takes on the American Studies Association’s boycott, forcing the group to change its treatment of Israeli scholars.
Israel and the Palestinians
• YNet: The IDF confirmed that yesterday’s attack on soldiers patrolling the Egyptian border was the result of a drug smuggling attempt that went wrong.
• According to Arab media reports, the PA has agreed to postpone its unilateral statehood push in the UN Security Council. The Jerusalem Post explains:
The paper quoted Palestinian sources in Ramallah as saying that the PA leadership will give US Secretary of State John Kerry a two-month window to present his own plan for peace.
The Palestinians are now conditioning the resumption of the talks on Israel presenting a map with its borders and a full cessation of settlement construction during the talks, according to the report.
• As the 20th anniversary of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, Reuters looks at the security ties between the two countries as the Hashemite kingdom faces the ISIS threat.
But rather than an invading army or Islamic State trying to take over the country, the threat is more about the risk of internal destabilization caused by Islamist cells or agitation within the refugee population – in particular Palestinians in urban camps – that is then exacerbated by economic factors.
• Despite an antagonistic media, Britain’s not a lost cause for Israel advocates. The Jewish Chronicle picks up on a poll finding no mass hostility in public opinion towards Israel after the Gaza war.
• The Irish Parliament called on the government to recognize Palestine in the latest symbolic vote by European lawmakers.
• Israeli firm lands $2.2 billion security deal for the Rio Olympics in 2016.
• There goes the neighborhood: Lebanon reports first suspected case of Ebola.
Commentary/Analysis
• Sarah Tuttle-Singer: This is what happened in Jerusalem yesterday . . .
• Worth reading: Col. Richard Kemp weighs in on untenable suggestions that Israel withdraw from the West Bank for peace.
• The Arab world is a war zone and Israel is expected to adopt an Arab peace plan?
The “Arab Peace Initiative” is an oxymoron. It calls for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights to achieve peace with Syria. One minor problem is that Syria no longer exists. Is Israel supposed to sign a peace agreement with Bashar Assad, who barely controls a quarter of his virtual country, or with ISIL?
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Zorislav Tojanovic, Rabin CC BY-NC-SA flickr/Government Press Office
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