Today’s Top Stories
1. The guns went silent along the northern border a day after Israel and Hezbollah traded fire. Israel received a message from UNIFIL that Hezbollah isn’t interested in further escalation. Spain blamed Israeli fire for the death of Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, a Spanish member of UNIFIL who died of wounds from yesterday’s crossfire. Israel resumed its search for Hezbollah terror tunnels under the border.
And, more somberly, Israel laid to rest the two soldiers killed. Maj. Yochai Kalangel was 25; St.-Sgt. Dor Haim Nini was 20.
2. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights faults both Israel and the Palestinians for failing to adequately investigate allegations of war crimes from last year’s Gaza war.
Reuters got a sneak peek at a report prepared by the commish, Jordan’s Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein who says the IDF only investigated “exceptional” cases, while the Palestinians have not investigated anything. Zeid will present his report to the UN Human Rights Council in March.
3. The Israel Electric Corp. will start reducing power to the Palestinians today over unpaid bills. YNet reports that as of the end of 2014, the PA owed the IEC more than NIS 1.7 billion, “which leaves the company with no choice but to cut the power supply to the Palestinians by 50 percent for two hours every day – an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.”
4. Must Read: Matti Friedman on the Media’s Obsession With Israel: “In my time in the press corps I saw, from the inside, how Israel’s flaws were dissected and magnified, while the flaws of its enemies were purposely erased.”
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinians attack UN compound after Gaza aid suspended.
• An Israeli Arab was arrested for joining the Nusra Front in Syria. Amin Ahmed Salah Snobar, 24, of Kfar Yasin, was urged to carry out attacks in Israel. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Tweet of the day from the Jerusalem Post’s Gil Hoffman.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Internal emails show Al Jazeera English banning words like “terrorist,” “militant,” “Islamist,” “jihad,” and “extremist.”
“One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter,” the Al Jazeera executive wrote.
• There goes the neighborhood? Jordan refuses to renounce its right to enrich uranium.
The Kingdom, which has no oil, has significant deposits of uranium ore—reportedly 35,000 tons or enough to last Jordan 100 years—and is hoping to commercially exploit the resource.
Israel, too, has taken issue with Jordan’s nuclear ambitions, primarily due to concerns about safety. One of Jordan’s proposed nuclear plants, at least initially, was slated to be built in the Jordan River Valley, a major earthquake fault line.
• In Iraq, Hezbollah was filmed towing US equipment like an Abrams tank and M113 armored personnel carriers into battle. Backstory at Algemeiner.
• Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman didn’t trust his security detail.
Commentary/Analysis
• Lots of commentary/analysis on yesterday’s attack. Here’s a quick rundown of the most notable pieces:
- Mitch Ginsburg: Will an eye for an eye suffice?
- Ron Ben-Yishai: Calm works for both sides, for now.
- Amos Harel: For now, Hezbollah’s response seems calculated and limited.
- Dan Margalit: Choose quiet, despite the pain.
- Avi Issacharoff: Neither side wants war, but that was true last time around too.
- Foreign Policy: Israel is the new front in the Syrian war.
- Christian Science Monitor: Why escalation isn’t inevitable.
- Hanin Ghaddar: What did Hezbollah accomplish?
• For more commentary/analysis, see Irwin Cotler (Anti-Semitism, old and new) and Dan Murphy (Jordan-ISIS prisoner swap not necessarily a mistake).
Featured image: CC BY Jon S via flickr with additions by HonestReporting; atom CC BY-SA Deviant Art/deejaywill
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
