Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel halted the return of terrorists’ bodies after the funeral of Alaa Abu Jamaal “turned into a display of hatred and incitement,” YNet reports. Jamaal rammed his car into a Jerusalem bus stop in October, then proceeded to attack people with a meat cleaver, killing Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky.
2. Were Photographers Right to Boycott Bibi’s Press Conference? Pool photographer walks away in protest against prime minister’s overzealous security guards.
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3. I love the premise behind this must-watch video. Back story at Town Hall.
Filmmaker Ami Horowitz recently visited Portland State University, a hot spot of the BDS movement in America, to see how far students would be willing to go to support the anti-Israel cause.
Posing as a representative from “American Friends for Hamas,” a fake organization, Horowitz was able to raise hundreds of dollars from students by advocating for the bombing of schools, hospitals and cafes.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Palestinians rejected Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call for direct peace talks under French auspices. Media reports also say Egypt’s trying to arrange an Israeli-Palestinian summit.
• AP takes a closer look at PA corruption and public suspicion over how public money is spent.
For example, the government hasn’t submitted annual budget reports for mandatory audits for four years, effectively preventing scrutiny of how millions of dollars are spent, said corruption monitor Aman, the Palestinian branch of Transparency International.
Noblesse oblige? Palestinian officials' opulent housing fuels charges of corruption @karin_laub @MohammedDaragh1 https://t.co/z4vznlkv0A
— Dan Perry (@perry_dan) May 24, 2016
• Smadar Haran, survior of the 1979 Nahariya terrorist attack, tells her story to foreign war correspondents, “who walk away in tears, shock at her lack of hate, and in awe of her refusal for revenge.” YNet was on hand for this unusually emotional gathering.
While with one hand they were writing down every word, with the other, they were wiping away tears.
This was the first time that the Foreign Ministry had ever flown in a delegation of European war correspondents. The purpose of the trip was to expose the journalists to the terror that Israelis have to deal with, and find correlations between the Israeli and European fight against terror.
• Harriet Sherwood of The Guardian visited Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city. I was amused by this snippet in which developer Basher al-Masri takes a shot at BDS:
He describes some of his critics as “cappuccino leftists”. “Who decides what to boycott and what not to boycott? It’s okay to study at Tel Aviv university but not to buy Israeli cement?” (This is a dig at Omar Barghouti, a founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, who was a student at the institution.)
Around the World
• Democrats drafting party platform include critics of Israel, friends of Israel – and a BDS backer
• If you thought UK Labour MP Naz Shah’s anti-Israel outburst was a once-off incident, the Daily Mail posted photos of her at demonstrations against Tesco and Sainsbury, which sell Israeli products, and against McDonalds, which has restaurants in Israel.
• Woman stabbed at kosher restaurant in Amsterdam.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Josh Lipowski: A decade of Hamas
– Jonathan Tobin: How do you define a war crime?
– Seth Frantzman: How they sold us the Iran deal
– Bret Stephens: Netanyahu against the generals (via Google News)
– Judith Bergman: ‘Disproportionate’ response to New York stabber highlights hypocrisy over Israel
Featured image: CC BY-SA Tom Woodward with additions by HonestReporting; Rawabi CC BY-NC scottgunn;
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