Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel’s state comptroller issued a scathing report on the way the Israeli government is fighting BDS. Yosef Shapira denounced the Ministry of ForeignAffairs for having no strategy, no funds, no coordination with other relevant ministries, and no successes to claim of.
All because of politics and bureaucracy. Read it and weep.
2. Switzerland’s parliament launched an inquiry into anti-Israel non-governmental organizations linked to BDS and terror. Picking up on Swiss media reports, the Jerusalem Post explains:
The front-page story by veteran journalist Dominik Feusi, headlined “Resistance in Parliament against money for Israel-critical campaigns,” stated that MP Christian Imark had introduced a motion supported by 41 lawmakers from across the political spectrum calling on the FDFA to stop all direct or indirect funding to organizations that sponsor “racist and anti-Semitic actions” or are involved in BDS campaigns.
The move could bring about a sea change in Swiss funding for scores of anti-Israel NGOs operating in Israel and in the disputed territories.
3. A Spanish tribunal declared that BDS is anti-constitutional and discriminatory. Jewish activists took legal action against the city of Gijon, which threw its support behind BDS in January. JTA coverage.
But the Ministerio Fiscal said in its nonbinding recommendation that the objectives of Gijon’s boycott “violate the constitution as well as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.” The motion’s clauses, according to the tribunal, “jeopardize the fundamental right to equality without discrimination on the bases of appearance, ethnicity and religion.”
4. Reuters Chief and Foreign Press Head Abuses Position, Expresses Open Disdain for Israel: Luke Baker’s Twitter activity raises questions about his impartiality towards Israel.
5. Time’s False Claim: Lieberman Threatened to “Kill Palestinians”: An incendiary headline isn’t born out by its own article.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Two Palestinians were arrested for what police are calling the “nationalist rape” of mentally ill Jewish woman. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• In a series of raids around the West Bank, the IDF arrested 21 Palestinians and confiscated guns, ammo, and miscellaneous “military equipment,” including body armor and uniforms.
• Likud and the Yisrael Beiteinu parties made it official and formally signed a coalition agreement. Take your pick of Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, YNet, or Times of Israel coverage.
• USA Today takes a closer look at Palestinian incitement on social media, and Israeli effort to combat it.
• In blow to BDS, Jordan authorized Israel’s participation in national investment fund. “The law relates to the companies that are authorized to participate in national projects administered by the fund.”
• Worth watching: In 1991, Israel airlifted 14,000 Jews out of Ethiopia as rebels advanced on Addis Ababa. The BBC looks back at Operation Solomon through the eyes of Daniel Nadawo, who was then 11 years-old.
• Hamas anti-Semitic Ramandan mini-series is entering its second season. According to YNet, last season’s “crude anti-Semitic tropes, poor acting, and a pompous music score” drew rave reviews. Soap operas, mini-series and other dramas have become popular staples of Arab TV during the Islamic month Ramandan, which begins in two weeks.
“Fida’i” is also the first Palestinian mini-series to have its rights successfully sold to abroad. It will also be broadcasted on Turkish television and dubbed over in Turkish.
• The New York Times picks up on Israel’s decision to stop returning the bodies of Palestinian terrorists. This comes after the Monday night funeral of Alaa Abu Jamal, who killed Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky last October.
You might think from Liam Stack’s report that Israel was simply nitpicking over the number of people attending a funeral. But 200 people chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “In blood and spirit we will avenge you, shahid” (per YNet), is incitement, not a politicized send-off. One of the conditions the Palestinians agreed to for the release of the terrorists’ bodies was funerals would be limited to 40 attendees.
Around the World
• National Public Radio, which received money from the Ploughshares Fund to plug the Iranian nuclear deal, is accused of silencing a top Congressional critic of the accord. Adam Kredo reports that the publicly-funded NPR nixed interviews with Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.).
When asked by reporters last week about refusing the interviews, NPR suggested that Pompeo’s office had never reached out to the station. However, multiple emails viewed by the Free Beacon demonstrate that Pompeo’s office had been in two separate talks with NPR producers about scheduling an interview.
Emails viewed by the Free Beacon show that NPR—which received $100,000 from Ploughshares in 2015 and has been taking money from the group since at least 2012—cancelled a 2015 interview with Pompeo while featuring others, including Iran deal supporters.
• The UK Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn are getting no respite from its anti-Semitism woes. The latest disclosure from the Times of London:
Jeremy Corbyn allegedly backed a 1984 conference that proposed breaking Labour’s links with an affiliated Jewish society which is now due to train his party on dealing with antisemitism.
• Days after he was released on bail, a French court ordered Hassan Dieb, the lead suspect in a 1980 Paris synagogue bombing back to jail. Four people were killed and 40 more were injured by a bomb hidden in a motorcycle outside the Union Liberale Israelite de France, also known as the Rue Copernic Synagogue. More on the story at the Ottawa Sun and Naharnet.
• Last but not least, here’s the tweet of the day, from Frida Ghitis.
https://twitter.com/FridaGhitis/status/735055308498706432
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Norman Bailey: Israel should treat its newfound friends carefully
– Judith Bergman: Where an Israeli writer is a superstar
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians and Jordan: Will a confederation work?
– David Daoud: Why Hezbollah uses failed elections to discredit Lebanese government
Featured image: CC BY-SA Rob Hurson with additions by HonestReporting; Switzerland CC BY-SA Martin Abegglen;
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