Today’s Top Stories
1. As Khartoum inches towards the moderate Sunni camp, could Sudan start improving ties with Israel? YNet and the Times of Israel picked up on comments by Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour:
“The matter of normalized relations with Israel is something that can be looked into,” Ghandour said during a convention in the capital Khartoum, in response to an argument heard at the event that Sudan’s belligerent stance towards Israel is an embarrassment to Washington.
2. The Palestinians are seeking a UN Security Council resolution declaring West Bank settlements illegal. And according to Haaretz, PA diplomats are finding sympathetic ears from council members France, Spain, and Egypt. What about the US?
Senior Israeli officials noted that Jerusalem fears that during his last year in office Obama may not veto a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian issue in the Security Council, particularly given the increasing U.S. criticism of Israeli settlement policy. Palestinians, on the other hand, believe America will scuttle any resolution on settlements, either by pressuring member countries to vote against it, or by vetoing it.
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3. A senior Fatah party figure, Tawfik Tirawi, praised Adolf Hitler on Palestinian TV. The Times of Israel has the backstory on this video flagged by Palestinian Media Watch.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Residency rights of four East Jerusalem terror suspects revoked.
• The Atavist Magazine takes a major in-depth look at the murder of US citizen Alisa Flatow and her father’s battle with Washington to hold the Palestinians accountable.
• Coded messages and money transfers: How Hezbollah recruits West Bank terrorists
• It turns out the Swiss government cut a secret deal to establish diplomatic ties with the PLO in the 1970s to avoid terror attacks on Swiss soil. The Jerusalem Post picks up on a Swiss media report.
While full details of the agreement are protected by a 50 year statute of limitations, according to the report, the secret negotiations risked creating a diplomatic crisis with the United States, Britain, Germany and Israel.
The negotiations took place following the hijacking of two Swissair flights in 1970.
• Israeli students to train as ‘online ambassadors’
Mideast Matters
• The Economist takes a closer look at the Islamic State threat on Israel’s borders.
• Israeli counter-terror experts warn the West is ignoring a grave terror threat from Islamic State in Libya. The Times of Israel picked up on a report by The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
“Libya is the only country besides Syria and Iraq where IS controls a large territory and controls government infrastructure, including a power plant, port, and economical ports,” . . .
• If Iran cheats on the nuclear deal, are “all options” available? Together in Tel Aviv, US negotiator Wendy Sherman and former Israel National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror had different responses to that question.
• Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards to gain regional, economic power in post-sanctions era.
Around the World
• I’m glad Spain is trying to right some historical wrongs, but the coincidental Mossad angle is awfully distracting from the warm fuzzy feelings. The Times of London reports:
A former Mossad agent has become the first Sephardic Jew to swear allegiance to the Spanish king in a ceremony symbolising Madrid’s apology for expelling thousands of his ancestors more than 500 years ago.
Avner Azulay, 80, took the oath to Felipe VI at a ceremony near Tel Aviv. He is one of 4,300 Sephardim — which translates as the Jews of Spain — from around the world who have been granted dual nationality.
• British doctors seek to expel Israel from World Medical Association seek to expel Israel from World Medical Association.
• Great moments in conspiracy theories: Dubai’s head of general security, Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, claims that A) President Barack Obama is a secret Shiite Muslim, and B) Israel somehow engineered his election.
Commentary/Analysis
• Must read: Khaled Abu Toameh takes down “parachute journalists” — reporters thrust into an area to cover a story they have little knowledge of. After sharing stories about correspondents woefully unprepared to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Toameh writes:
Misconceptions about what goes on here plague the international media. The binary good guy/bad guy designation tops the list. Someone has to be the good guy (the Palestinians are assigned that job) and someone has to be the bad guy (the Israelis get that one). And everything gets refracted through that prism.
Yet the problem is deeper still. Many Western journalists covering the Middle East do not feel the need to conceal their hatred for Israel and for Jews. But when it comes to the Palestinians, these journalists see no evil. Foreign journalists based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have for years refused to report on the financial corruption and human rights violations that are rife under the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas regimes. They possibly fear being considered “Zionist agents” or “propagandists” for Israel . . .
Western reporters, especially those who are “parachuted” into the Middle East, would do well to remember that journalism in this region is not about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian. Rather, it is about being “pro” the truth, even when the truth runs straight up against what they would prefer to believe.
• Richard Millett was on hand at King’s College when pro-Palestinian activists rioted during a talk by former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon.
Ayalon’s talk lasted an hour. Ironically, Ayalon was talking in front of a white board describing the rules for “safe spaces” at universities. But there is no “safe space” for an Israeli-Jew at British universities.
• Today’s New York Times Room for Debate poses the question, Does Iran remain a threat? Among the debaters are Israeli wonks Eran Lerman and Ehud Eiran.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Alan Baker: Double standards in Israel’s application of law in the territories?
– Trevor Asserson: Things are getting uncomfortable for the Jews of Europe
– Norman Bailey: The growing militarization of the Mideast
– Judith Bergman: Fig leaves don’t hide France’s failure
– Eli Lake: Iran after the nuclear deal: Change we can’t believe in
Featured image: CC BY-NC Thom Sanders; flag CC BY-NC-ND Chris; parachute CC BY-NC Thomas Hawk;
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