Arabs Pushing PA Power-Sharing Deal?

Today’s Top Stories

1. Although Muhammad Dahlan is ruling out a run for the PA presidency, the former Gaza strongman and rival to Mahmoud Abbas told the New York Times he’s open to a power-sharing agreement. And it looks like he has leverage:

Realizing that Mr. Dahlan’s reputation and Gaza roots may make it difficult for him to win popular support in the West Bank, Arab leaders have been quietly advancing a power-sharing arrangement. Another figure, like Nasser al-Kidwa, a nephew of Yasir Arafat, would be the next president, with Mr. Dahlan and others as part of his leadership team.

2. Yes, there’s a disconnect between Israeli and Diaspora Jews on egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.

But you can still take your pick of Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Times of Israel, YNet and Israel HaYom coverage of this morning’s ruckus at the holy site, where Women of the Wall protested the government’s refusal to implement a January compromise between the orthodox and liberal Jewish players — which the Palestinians denounced at the time.

Kotel, shmotel: while Diaspora Jewry is abuzz with news from today's events at the Western Wall, Israeli media and public couldn't care less

— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) November 2, 2016

3. The JTA picked up on a Brandeis University study linking BDS to anti-Semitism on US campuses. Talking about naming and shaming:

The study also found that one of the strongest predictors of a perceived hostile environment toward Jews and Israel on campus, according to the Brandeis study, “is the presence of an active Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group.”

4. Is Israeli Media Under Attack? As the Knesset mulls funding for a new public broadcasting authority, HR’s Daniel Pomerantz discusses the politicization of the Israeli news industry with Arab-Israeli journalist Ali Waked and i24 News’ Jordana Miller. Watch the spirited debate.

FaceOff – 11/01/2016 by i24news-en

Israel and the Palestinians

• Israel’s cautious about Lebanon’s new president. You’ll better understand after you see how Hussain Abdul-Hussain decoded Michel Aoun’s inaugural speech.

• Worth reading: AP provides an in-depth look at Palestinian womens’ rights through the eyes of a female divorce lawyer in Ramallah.

• Egypt’s Football Association is ramping up security for Avram Grant, an Israeli national who coaches Ghana’s national soccer team, after learning of a plot by Egyptian fans to harass him when his team arrives for a World Cup qualifier match next month.

• Today’s the 99th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration — the first time a foreign government acknowledged Jewish national aspirations. British Jewish groups put together a handy resource website about it. Check out Balfour100.

• The Jerusalem Post discussed Israeli-Canadian ties with Canada’s visiting Governor General (“a post akin to the Israeli presidency”).

• Daily Mail: A gang of London teens launched a firework at a group of Jewish children, hitting an eight-year-old girl. The Halloween night attack was caught on CCTV footage.

Commentary/Analysis

• British anti-Semitism directly hurts Israeli efforts for Mideast peace. MK Yair Lapid explains why in a must-read Daily Telegraph op-ed:

The blatant anti-Semitism on display at Jenny Tonge’s event doesn’t bother me. Lord Balfour supported the creation of a home for the Jewish people because he understood that there would always be people like that. The creation of the State of Israel doesn’t prevent modern anti-Semitism, it just allows us to tell the anti-Semites that they can shove it.

 

What does bother me though is that meetings like the one in the House of Lords strengthen the conviction of the Palestinians, time and again, that they have no reason to try and reach a reasonable compromise. If that’s the way Jews are talked about in the House of Lords, then even the Palestinian Authority can drop the façade of being moderate and start to lock up anyone who dares talk about peace and coexistence.

• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .

– Pinchas Inbari: Have some of the PA security forces gone rogue?
– Isi Leibler: Will betraying Israel be Obama’s farewell gesture?
– Robbie Friedmann, Asaf Romirowsky: BDS: A modern blood libel
– Boston Globe (staff-ed) : UNESCO decision on Temple Mount distorts history
– Moshe Arens: Peace is approaching slowly
– Wall St. Journal (staff-ed): Tehran’s man in Beirut (click via Google News)

• For a sense of what the other side’s saying, see Saeb Erekat in Newsweek, who argues that Britain “cannot continue to avoid its responsibility” for the Balfour Declaration.

Featured image: CC BY Robert Couse-Baker; parliament CC BY Martin Hesketh;

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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