Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel’s Supreme Court sentenced ex-prime minister Ehud Olmert to 18 months in prison, making him the first prime minister convicted of any crime. A lower court had sentenced him to six years in jail for two counts of bribery associated with the Holyland affair, but the Supreme Court overturned one of the convictions.
Olmert begins doing time on February 15. Seven other former officials and businessmen, including ex-Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski were also sentenced.
Last year, in a separate case known as the Talansky affair, Olmert was also sentenced to eight months in prison for fraud and breach of trust, but judges postponed the start of his sentence, which is still under appeal.
More on the story at the Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Haaretz, and YNet.
Israel is the only country where a president and a prime minister have both been sent to prison by a court, without a coup or revolution.
— Anshel Pfeffer (@AnshelPfeffer) December 29, 2015
One overlooked story was the person who announced the verdict. Justice Salim Joubran, a Maronite Christian from Haifa, is the first Israeli-Arab to become a permanent member of the Supreme Court.
2. Relations between Israel and Brazil are souring over the appointment of former settler leader Dani Dayan as ambassador to the South American country. Haaretz sums up the fuss:
The prime minister announced Dayan’s appointment in August, but Brazil has since refused to approve it, with the government there coming under pressure from Palestinians, and from far-left circles in Israel and Brazil, not to accept the appointment because Dayan lives in Ma’aleh Shomron – beyond the Green Line – and is the former head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria.
Hotovely said there has never been a case where an Israeli ambassadorial appointment has not been accepted by a host country because of the candidate’s ideological positions.
Brazilian officials told the New York Times their objection is because Dayan’s appointment was publicly announced by Israel before Brazil was notified.
3. Israel confirmed it carried out an airstrike in Syria. Speaking to the Arab website, Elaph, Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold said Monday’s strike thwarted a transfer of Russian-made SA-22 missiles to Hezbollah. YNet picked up on the story.
This is the first time an Israeli official makes such a statement not under the cover of anonymity.
4. The 2015 Dishonest Reporter of the Year: Why the BBC Won: As one of the world’s most influential broadcasters, the BBC has the responsibility to get the story right. On Israel, it has failed abysmally. Read more . . .
And our very own Yarden Frankl discussed the BBC’s Dishonest Reporting Award on the Mottle Wolf Show (you can skip straight to 27:00).
Israel and the Intifada
• On Monday night, Palestinians fired on IDF soldiers in Qalandiya.
• Israel transferred to the PA the bodies of seven Palestinians killed in the middle of committing terror attacks. According to sources quoted by the Times of Israel, Israel still has another 50 bodies. All were killed in the last three months, and most are from the Hebron area.
• In an interview with the Jerusalem Post Magazine, outgoing New York Times bureau chief Jodi Rudoren looks back on her tour of duty.
• According to Haaretz, the Israeli government is renewing building plans in the area near Maale Adumim known as E1. I’ve seen news reports over the years claim that settlement activity in that area makes Palestinian territorial contiguity impossible. But Despite the Hype, E1 Doesn’t Cut the West Bank in Two.
• Palestinian unity took another hit in Gaza. Aiming to thwart Fatah plans to celebrate its 51st anniversary, Hamas is rounding up scores of Fatah activists.
• The PA, Hamas, and Egypt are all worried about Israeli-Turkish rapprochement–they seem to think it will lead to some kind of Turkish hegemony over Gaza.
Mideast Matters
• Iran handed over to Russia its stockpile of enriched uranium. According to the New York Times and AP, this speeds up the timetable for “implementation day,” when Iran rejoins the international banking system, is allowed to sell its oil, and gets access to billions of dollars in frozen assets.
• According to investigative reporte Seymour Hersh, Israel turned down a 2012 offer from Bashar Assad to restart peace talks. Hersh’s original report is in the London Review of Books, but for the sake of brevity, this Jerusalem Post synopsis will suffice:
Hersh quotes a Russian official as saying that in late 2012, the Syrian leader, who feared for the future of his regime after a series of military setbacks, indicated an interest in reviving the negotiations, but that Israel said no.
“They said, ‘Assad is finished’,” a Russian official quoted the Israelis as saying. “He’s close to the end.”
• Hezbollah’s financial difficulties are more dire than I realized. According to Lebanese media reports cited by the Times of Israel, Hezbollah “failed to pay November and December salaries to its officials.”
Further, with Congress having recently approved sanctions on banks that knowingly do business with Hezbollah, a delegation of Lebanese banking officials will reportedly visit the US next month to discussed newly proposed guidelines with US State Department and Treasury officials.
Around the World
• The British government is moving to strip local councils of their boycott and sanction power in directives to be issued in early 2016. That’s bad news for the BDS movement. According to the Sunday Independent,
Councillors, MPs and a wide range of NGOs fear that the move, which they complain will be forced through the Commons without proper scrutiny, could stop local authorities refusing to trade with, or include in their pension fund portfolios, companies involved in the arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco products and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank . . .
But activists also fear that the ban could stop councils from divesting from companies operating in Israel’s West Bank settlements – despite the fact that the Foreign Office (FCO) currently advises private sector businesses against trading with or investing in such companies.
• Spain’s National Court lifted war criminal designation from Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials over the Mavi Marmara affair.
• Organizers of the Youth Sailing Championships hosted in Malaysia are under investigation after Israel was unable to send a delegation. Competition began on Sunday, meaning “Yoav Omer and Noy Drihan will not have an opportunity to defend their titles.”
. . . organizers demanded that the surfers would not compete under the Israel flag and wouldn’t be allowed to use any symbol identifiable with Israel on their cloths or surfboards. The hosts also said that should an Israeli win a gold medal the Israeli national anthem would not be played.
• Australian church: Jesus was not Palestinian
• Paris photo exhibit glorifies Palestinian terrorism, Jewish group says
• Anti-Semitic incidents soared in London in 2015.
Commentary/Analysis
• Could Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan become the first world leader to visit Gaza via Israel?
• Tweet of the day
When Palestinians kill Jews they're given a salary. When Israelis kill Arabs they're arrested. Big difference https://t.co/rTXxK8v5g7
— Masked Margie (@MargieInTelAviv) December 29, 2015
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Eyal Zisser: The litmus test of Palestinian stability
– Abdullah al-Hadlaq: Only Palestinians are ‘martyrs’
– Ronen Bergman: The battle over Sinai: ISIS’s next strong force
– Pinhas Inbari: The PA will find no friend in ISIS
– Bassam Tawil: The real threat to Palestinian Christians: Radical Islam
– Abdulrahman Al-Rashed: Kuntar was not a hero nor was Hezbollah ever a resistance
– Avi Issacharoff: Thought Hezbollah gave up on revenge for Kuntar? Think again
– Jason Epstein: The implication of Turkish-Israeli rapprochement
Featured image: CC BY Markus Spiske; sanctions CC BY Neubie; Omer via Yoav Omer;
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