Today’s Top Stories
1. Prosecutor claims Argentina’s president illegally covered up Iran’s role in 1994 bombing of Jewish community center. See coverage in the Times of Israel and Buenos Aires Herald.
Alberto Nisman filed a 300-page complaint naming President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and others of seeking to “erase” Iran’s role in the bombing at the AMIA community center offices in which 85 people were killed. He said he wants to question the president and other officials who he claims are involved in the cover-up.
2. After Iran announced that it’s building two new nuclear plants in the Bushehr province, a State Dept. official told Adam Kredo the work is permitted under the terms of the interim nuclear deal.
However, “in general, the construction of light water nuclear reactors is not prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions, nor does it violate the JPOA,” the official said.
3. Israel and the US are at odds over a force of Palestinians being trained as armed guards for the US consulate in Jerusalem. YNet reports that three Israeli guards have already quit in protest.
The Palestinians — some of whom were reportedly arrested for stone throwing and have relatives convicted of terror activity — are receiving weapons training in Jericho.
The plan is a breach of a 2011 agreement between the consulate and the Israeli government, which determined that only former IDF combat soldiers hired by the consulate would be allowed to carry weapons. That year, Israel gave the consulate approval to keep about 100 guns for its security guards, but only if they’re American diplomats or Israelis who served in the army. While the consulate employs scores of guards from East Jerusalem, they have not been armed up until now.
4. Terrorists as Editors: When newspapers use terrorists as editors, you can’t trust what they say.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Hamas and the PA aren’t making any more pretenses of Palestinian unity. The Times of Israel reports Hamas cells are attacking Fatah targets in Gaza. The New York Times reports, among other things, that Hamas and Fatah set up separate checkpoints in Gaza. And Maan News reports Hamas reactivated Gaza’s parliament.
And as Reuters reminds us, the bickering means Gaza reconstruction remains on hold.
• YNet takes an in-depth look at what the Palestinians are doing in the International Criminal Court. Rushing on procedure may actually stymie an investigation. But there are still good reasons for Israel to consider ratifying the Rome statute too.
The theatrics, in this case, are more important to Palestinian leaders than any substance – because they strengthen public support.
• With more than 150,000 rockets and missiles, Hezbollah firepower “apparently even exceeded the firepower possessed by most of the European states combined.”
• This headline gave me a great belly laugh.
Mideast Matters
• Lebanese resent the increasing blurred lines between Hezbollah and the Lebanese army. The Media Line writes:
There is no official record of Hizbullah’s influence over army decision making when it comes to operations. However, a lack of transparency in regard to how closely the two groups coordinate and the absence of examples of the army operating in Shiite areas leaves a bad taste in the mouth of many Lebanese wary of the relationship.
• I’m not sure how significant this is, but Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said he has met with some top members of the Syrian opposition “in an effort to contribute to a political solution to the Syrian crisis.”
• Turkey’s trying to cover up disclosures that an arms convoy intended for Syrian jihadis (and intercepted by Turkish police) was coordinated by Turkish intelligence. Voice of America had clearest coverage.
The trucks were apparently owned by the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH), the same “humanitarian” group which organized the Mavi Marmara.
French Terror: The Aftershocks
• Islamists target Swedish Jews. Since the Paris attacks, threats against Stockholm Jews have doubled; Jews in Malmo and Gothenburg also report a marked surge.
• Days after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu marched in Paris to pay lip service to free speech, Turkey blocked internet access to websites publishing Charlie Hebdo’s cover.
• Oh no, Berliner Zeitung! The German daily mistakenly published anti-Semitic cartoon it thought was a Charlie Hebdo cover. Editors somehow overlooked a link to the real artist’s web site on illustration. Haaretz reports the paper already apologized:
In a tribute to the French magazine a day after the massacre at its editorial offices, the Berlin daily published several of Charlie Hebdo’s past cover pages.
One of them, however, was a fake, showing a cartoon drawn by the anti-Semitic illustrator Joe le Corbeau. The cartoon showed an orthodox Jew, with a caption saying “1 million rebate out of six, for Palestine.” The word “rebate” is a wordplay suggesting rabbis and rebate in German.
• Times of London: Thousands of Jews flee France for safe haven in Britain over the past two years.
Commentary/Analysis
• While Jews are being slaughtered, the Left worries about Islamophobia. Brendan O’Neill (The Australian via Google News) unpacks the problem
We’re witnessing the terrifying meshing together of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, with those who claim merely to hate Israel often slipping into expressions of disdain for “the Jews” and targeting Jewish shops for boycotts.
Indeed, if Amedy Coulibaly, the killer in the kosher store, thought a simple shop was an appropriate place to act out his foul radicalism, it isn’t hard to see why: anti-Israel protesters have been targeting Israeli-linked or just Jewish-owned shops for years now. Jewish produce, Jewish shoppers — all fair game, apparently . . .
This is really why many European leftists find it hard to stand up to the new anti-Semitism: because they played a key role in unleashing it.
• A Palestinian Journalist with No Name or Voice writes an open letter to French President Francois Hollande.
Undoubtedly, now Palestinians like me will now pay a heavier price because President Abbas has been emboldened by his participation in the Paris rally. President Abbas will now step up his assaults on public freedoms because he knows that the international community will only see photos of him marching together with Your Excellency and other world leaders in defense of freedom of expression.
By extending the invitation to President Abbas, you have caused damage to Palestinians like me who have been hoping that someone — maybe even a leader like you — would finally expose the dictatorship of the Palestinian Authority for what it is. President Abbas’s participation in the Paris rally is a severe blow to people like me who are genuinely opposed to terrorism and suppression of free speech.
• Coverage of French terror risks distorting history, argues Michael Goldfarb:
But in the search for balance in recent days, some broadcast news outlets have settled for something else: equivalence – and false equivalence at that. It happens frequently whenever there is violence involving Muslims or fighting between Israel and Hamas.
• Ken Roth — hardly a credible arbiter of what constitutes war crimes or prejudice — weighs in at the Los Angeles Times on the Palestinians joining the International Criminal Court.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Emma Barnett (Somewhere between the Holocaust and 2015 it became OK to blame Jews again), Richard Ferrer (European Jewry’s darkest days since the Holocaust?), Politico (Does free media have an obligation to Islam?), Tariq Alhomayed (Paris as the capital of the world), and a Times of London staff-ed (Britain must embrace Jews arriving from France),
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Ed Yourdon via flickr; flag CC BY-NC-ND flickr/Wolfgang
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
