Today’s Top Stories
1. Israeli and Turkish diplomats signed an accord to re-normalize ties. The deal must now be approved by the Turkish parliament and Israeli cabinet. Expect it to pass, but not without a stormy debate in Jerusalem. Times of Israel coverage.
Did nobody tell the UN Secretary General about the detente and the glimmer of hope it brings to Gaza? Or is Ban Ki-moon just tone deaf?
UN Secretary-General denounces Israel’s Gaza blockade
Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reports that an UNRWA school in Gaza hides map of ‘historic Palestine’ during the visit. Evidence of such one-state maximalism from the river to the sea in a UN-funded school isn’t considered polite enough for the press corps to see.
2. Israeli-Turkish rapprochement is supposed to end legal action against soldiers involved in the Mavi Marmara raid. But the Jerusalem Post reports that the International Criminal Court’s involvement in the affair isn’t as simple as you thought:
But Turkey cannot technically close the war crimes file at the ICC because it did not submit it to the court directly, but rather via the relatively unknown Indian Ocean island state called the Union of the Comoros.
Comoros was used by IHH supporters as a vehicle for filing the war crimes complaints to the ICC, because there were ships in the flotilla with connections to it, giving the former French colony the right to have a voice.
However, once a war crimes complaint is filed, the filer loses control of it and the ICC prosecution may now decide on its own what to do regardless of who filed the complaints.
The good news is that chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s not interested in pursuing the case, but the case is still technically alive.
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3. Fearing for his life, Palestinian journalist Abed al-Qaisi is in exile (via Israel Matzav) after a video last year exposed PA police brutality. See also Khaled Abu Toameh‘s take on the PA crackdown on journalists.
Israel and the Palestinians
• After two days of clashes, police announced they are closing off the Temple Mount to non-Muslim visitors through Thursday.
• Meanwhile, over at the UN Human Rights Council . . .
Western states on Monday boycotted the Agenda 7 debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, in which over 35 countries attacked Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza . . .
Agenda Item 7 mandates that the UNHRC debate Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinians during each of its sessions. No other nation has such a standing agenda item. All other human rights abuses around the globe are dealt with under Agenda Item 4.
https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/747625956915871745
• Settlers: 60,000 of our people suffering from water shortages.
• IDF chief of staff gave orders to reform the controversial ‘Hannibal’ directive. Judging from Haaretz, there are a lot of misconceptions within the IDF about what exactly the Hannibal directive allows soldiers to do if one of their own is captured.
• A French court ruled out any new investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat. Judges said there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest that the former Palestinian leader was murdered, as his widow, Suha, claims. AFP coverage.
• Abbas aide: ‘Wherever you see an Israeli, slit his throat.’
• Following up on Israeli-Turkish rapprochement, Globes reports that a gas deal between the two countries could be finalized by the end of 2017, and that Israel could potentially export 8-10 BCM (billion cubic meters) of natural gas to Turkey by 2020.
Meanwhile, the New York Times rounds up Israeli reactions to the Turkish reconciliation.
Around the World
• US eyes Israeli short-range missile interceptor for Europe defence
• Bank of Israel Governor Karnit Flug says Brexit will have little economic impact on Israel. Haaretz takes a closer look at what Brexit means for Israelis living in the UK.
• The New Jersey state legislature is boycotting BDS. The state’s $71 billion pension fund will no longer invest in companies that boycott Israel or Israeli businesses, and the fund has two years to divest itself, reports the JTA.
• City of Bondy, near Paris, votes for motion boycotting Israel.
Commentary/Analysis
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels weighing on Israel and Turkey.
– Avi Issacharoff: For Hamas, lousy deal exposes Turkey as a paper tiger
– Herb Keinon: Turkey deal – Just enough ambiguity for both sides to claim victory
– Norman Bailey: Turkey roasts Israel
– Raphael Ahren: Israel and Turkey find magical land where (almost) everyone’s a winner
– Zalman Shoval: The deal is an accomplishment
– Yaakov Amidror: Reconciliation will have little impact on Hamas
– Armin Rosen: Why Turkey needed to reconcile with Israel
– Benny Avni: A rare foreign policy success for Team Obama
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Ron Prosor: UN’s moral Ban-kruptcy
– Michael Oren and Omer Barlev: Ban Ki-moon, we have lost faith in the UN
Featured image: CC BY-NC Israel Defense Forces with additions by HonestReporting; Flug via Wikimedia Commons;
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