Today’s Top Stories
1. Two Israelis disappeared in Gaza. The disclosure came after Haaretz got a gag order lifted.
Hamas captured 28-year-old Avraham (Avera) Mengistu, a mentally ill Ethiopian Jew, after he climbed over the border fence last September. The second man, a Bedouin whose name has not been released, entered Gaza through the Erez crossing in April. Neither has been seen since.
Israel is working through foreign intermediaries to secure their release. Hamas claims it doesn’t know Mengitsu’s whereabouts and says it believes he went to the Sinai through a tunnel in order to make his way to Ethiopia. Israel isn’t buying that story.
. . . there are two reasons why Hamas would disseminate this false story: the first is to preserve him as an “asset “ for future negotiations with Israel.
The second possibility is that something bad happened to him, and the person responsible for him is hiding that information from everyone, including senior Hamas officials.
It’s believed that Hamas also has the bodies of Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff-Sgt. Oron Shaul, who were killed during Operation Protective Edge. Hamas hasn’t offered evidence to confirm this, but it demands that Israel release Palestinian prisoners who were freed in the Gilad Shalit swap but re-arrested after the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teens.
2. Israel opened contact with International Criminal Court prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. According to Haaretz:
Israel’s reason for opening contacts with the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor is only to make its position clear to the court – that the ICC does not have any authority to hear Palestinian complaints on the matter – a senior Israeli official told Haaretz.
3. Argentinian Jews are fuming after President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner used Shylock to explain Greece’s financial crisis, then reiterated it on Twitter.
4. Israel’s Existence Lost in BBC Translation: Why did translators deliberately leave out a whole world of meaning?
5. Follow FightingBDS on Twitter for everything you need to know about the assault on Israel’s legitimacy and how to fight back. And stay tuned for a soon-to-be-released Fighting BDS e-book.
Israel and the Palestinians
• For a fleeting moment, I really thought AFP was going spin Hamas as responsible for Gaza’s woes. After describing a Hamas rally with plenty of trash talk, AFP built me up with this paragraph:
Despite the belligerent talk, there appears to be little appetite for conflict on either side for now. Analysts however say failing to address the misery of Gazans who have faced three wars in six years will only sow the seeds for future violence.
What a tease that was. The next paragraph continued in this direction:
A UN official on Wednesday called for an end to the “inexcusable” Israeli blockade of the territory that has helped prevent rebuilding.
• The New York Times sat down with outgoing UNRWA director Robert Turner.
“If we can’t open our schools in September, I think the reaction of our population will be pretty severe,” Mr. Turner said. “We’re really the last institution standing. We’re the last thing the population trusts.”
• With Holland’s foreign minister scheduled to visit Israel and the Palestinians next week, i24 News takes a look at the Dutch diplomatic role in trying to get peace talks back on track.
Mideast Matters
• I can already see the juxtaposition of photos on the front page of Israeli papers: Mobs in Tehran burning Israeli flags while Kerry and Zarif shake hands in Vienna. We could be in for some amusingly contradictory sound bites.
Tehran’s anti-Israel Quds day falls on date of new Iran deadline
• I liked the refreshing candor of this AP headline.
• How’s Egypt’s war on Islamic State going? The Wall St. Journal (click via Google News) takes a closer look. Don’t be surprised if the Israeli weather report calls for sunny with a chance of rockets:
Israeli analysts said last week’s onslaught near the border and rocket launches from Sinai into southern Israel aim to stir friction between Israel and Egypt by inviting retaliation. Any Israeli military incursion into the neighboring territory, however, risks exposing Egypt’s military weakness and straining their strategic alliance.
• Hezbollah fighters reportedly deserting posts amid Syria offensive
Commentary/Analysis
• What’s the significance of the Hamas possibly having two captive Israeli citizens? Ron Ben-Yishai says it’s not necessarily a worst case scenario, while Avi Issacharoff notes Hamas will seek a high price for their return.
• Here’s a very thoughtful and counter-intuitive view on the unfolding nuclear agreement: Once a deal is reached, it paradoxically makes a military option more likely. Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz explain why in the Wall St. Journal (click via Google News).
No American president would destroy Iranian nuclear sites without first exhausting diplomacy. The efforts by Mr. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to compromise with Tehran—on uranium enrichment, verification and sanctions relief, among other concerns—are comprehensive, if nothing else. If the next president chose to strike after the Iranians stonewalled or repeatedly violated Mr. Obama’s agreement, however, the newcomer would be on much firmer political ground, at home and abroad, than if he tried without this failed accord.
Without a deal the past will probably repeat itself: Washington will incrementally increase sanctions while the Iranians incrementally advance their nuclear capabilities. Without a deal, diplomacy won’t die.
You’ll have to read the full piece to see why Gerecht and Dubowitz almost take it for granted that Iran will cheat.
• Yiftah Curiel has me going hmmmmm.
• Worth reading: Brett Kline calls on BDS supporters in the West to visit Israel and the PA, and see for themselves why boycotts harm the Palestinians.
How much contact do boycott proponents have with average Palestinians, not those who work in offices in Ramallah? If they were to come to Husan and dozens of other villages like it in the West Bank, the European and American activists would find that Palestinian entrepreneurs and workers want and need more contact with Israelis, not less.
“We small-time entrepreneurs in Palestine cannot survive without working with Israelis, and the benefits are mutual,” Samir states. “For us, the boycott, the moukata’a, is ridiculous. Nobody here likes the Israeli occupation, but cutting ties would be a death wish.” . . .
Samir and his family, and others like them, would be hurt more than Israelis would by a boycott. Enabling their economic survival is more important than winning politically correct propaganda points for international media consumption.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Mudar Zahran: If Israel disappears, others will too
– Alex Fishman: Marketing a bad nuclear agreement
– Jennifer Rubin: Why Iran’s irrationality matters
– Jonathan Tobin: Who benefits from endless negotiations?
– Times of London (staff-ed): In praise of walls: fenced frontiers keep danger at bay
Featured image: CC0 Unsplash/Thong Vo with additions by HonestReporting
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