Today’s Top Stories
1. According to the Times of Israel, Hamas and Israel have essentially agreed on a long-term cease-fire. The gist of the deal is that Israel will end the blockade and allow thousands of Palestinian day laborers to enter Israel. Gaza will import items through a Cyprus port overseen by NATO representatives (until a floating offshore port can be developed) and cease all rocket fire and tunneling for eight years. A prisoner swap may be in the works too.
The reported agreement is opposed by the PLO because it wasn’t consulted, and because it would “eventually detach Gaza completely from the West Bank and Jerusalem,” said one Fatah figure. Hamas officials have been dispatched to Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey to discuss the deal.
2. Khamenei: Nuclear deal could still be voted down by Iran.
3. There’s a “covert world of people trying to edit Wikipedia — for pay.” The Atlantic shines a spotlight.
4. Straw Men and “Hard Zionists” in UK Political Race: In an ironic twist, a UK columnist dreams up accusations of anti-Semitism against a British politician to silence his critics.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel indicated it would free hunger-striking prisoner Mohammed Allaan if he agrees to leave the country for four years. Haaretz writes:
According to Palestinian officials, a similar offer was made to Allaan during an earlier stage of his hunger strike, and he rejected it.
• For the third time this week, a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier. YNet reports that the terrorist was shot and killed in the incident at the Tapuach Junction, a popular hitchhiking spot in the northern West Bank.
• Israel seized two tons of fiberglass tubing it said was destined for terror groups manufacturing rockets. According to the Times of Israel:
Tax workers at the Nitzana crossing between Egypt and Israel became suspicious of the shipment, which was ordered by a Gaza-based importer and labeled as containing clothes and materials.
After opening the shipment for a closer look, tax officials discovered the rolls of fiberglass hidden inside.
• Hamas and Hezbollah denounced being blacklisted as terror organizations by Canada, claiming they’re moderate. Call it Islamic Statewashing?
The Islamic State is “not accepted” by most Muslims represented by Hamas, said its boss in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan.
A source close to Hezbollah’s top leadership said extremist movements “mushroom, but they never last and don’t find a place with moderate Sunnis and Shias.
• The Times of London introduces us to Gaza’s Blue Beach Resort. If you’re going to be a human shield for Hamas, you might as well go out in style.
On one side, the resort is flanked by a cluster of cinderblock shacks housing refugees. On the other, sand berms conceal two Hamas training facilities that have been frequent targets of Israeli F16 warplanes during periods of heightened tension.
The hotel has already drawn complaints from its neighbours. On Thursday night the hotel disco proved too much for the militants, who said that the noise was interrupting training.
• IDF troops prepare for possible incursion into Syria
Around the World
• With tweets like this, Ayatollah Khamenei isn’t helping the White House sell the Iran deal to skeptical Israelis.
• An anti-terror law adopted by Egypt targets journalists who file “false” reports on terror attacks. Journalists running afoul of the law could be fined or suspended. AFP coverage.
• The recently launched HuffPost Arabi is digging in its heels over recent revelations of its top editors’ ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
• This Times of London expose of a senior Amnesty International figure Yasin Hussein’s undeclared ties to Islamists would explain a lot about the organization’s animus towards Israel:
The charity was unaware that the husband of its director of faith and human rights featured in documents released after a criminal trial at which connections were revealed between British supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Arab Islamists accused of plotting to overthrow a Gulf state.
Yasmin Hussein was also linked to a Yorkshire-based aid agency that was banned by Israel for its alleged funding of Hamas terrorism; and criticised by colleagues for holding a private meeting with a Muslim Brotherhood government official during an Amnesty mission to Egypt, and staying overnight at his family’s home . . .
Ms Hussein, who is understood to receive a salary of more than £90,000, told The Times that she had “never had any association whatsoever with . . . the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Commentary/Analysis
• Douglas Murray weighs in on the BDS thought police getting Jewish reggae star Matisyahu dropped from a Spanish music festival for not making a statement in support of Palestine.
For a while, only Israeli Jews were made pariahs among the nations because of an unresolved border dispute involving their country. Now it is Jews born anywhere else in the world who can be targeted in the same way. They are singling out Jews — Jews and only Jews. And their singling out of Jews, wherever they are from, makes their racist motivation abundantly clear. If the Rototom Sunsplash festival wants to take part in this racist BDS fever then it is them — and not Jews — whom the world must make into global pariahs.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Avi Issacharoff: The IDF as leader of the PA
– William Kristol: Does Israel stand alone?
– David Harris: On Iran, let’s get serious
– Robert Satloff: A better deal with Iran is possible
– Joe Lieberman: Congress should step up to block the terrible Iran agreement
– Morton Klein: No military option against Iran remains
– Robert Jacobs: Israel must defend its citizens as any country would
– Paul Pillar: The backfiring of Israeli strategy on Iran
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Kevin McShane with additions by HonestReporting; Hamas via YouTube/JewishNewsOne
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
