Today’s Top Stories
1. Here we go again: Top UN staffer in Gaza said elected to Hamas leadership. Muhammad al-Jamassi, the UNRWA’s infrastructure chief is reportedly an elected member of the terror group’s politburo. More at the Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center, which disclosed Jamassi’s terror ties.
The UNRWA recently suspended Suhail al-Hindi over his leadership position in Hamas.
2. Why is the Swiss government funding initiatives that call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews? The Jerusalem Post picked up on a report in the Basel-based Basler Zeitung which raises a lot of questions:
According to the report, since 2013, the Swiss government has funneled nearly $700,000 to a human rights office in Ramallah that has functioned as a front organization, to avoid criticism by Western countries. The office is funded by Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, and seeks to cover up the antisemitic work of its partner NGOs, the report said . . .
The Swiss government has not been transparent about whether their funding streams entail graft, the article said. In response to reports last year about alleged financial misconduct involving Middle East projects, the Swiss parliamentary body Bundesrat rejected a motion from MP Christian Imark in 2016 to ban taxpayer money for initiatives that spread “racism and antisemitism.”
3. The Knesset passed a law barring BDS supporters from Israel. The legislation “prevents foreign nationals who have publicly called for a boycott of the Jewish state or work on behalf of an organization that advocates these measures from entering Israel.” It isn’t clear yet when the law goes into effect.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. When Palestinian Journalists Protest Normalization: How many of the people demonstrating outside the Palestinian Journalists’ Union are employed by Western news services?
5. HR’s Daniel Pomerantz appeared on the i24 News talk show, The Spin Room. He discussed the state comptroller’s report on the 2014 Gaza war, the future of settlements and the two-solution, and more with MK Miki Zohar and Israeli journalists Ami Kaufman and Tammi Molad-Hayo.
The show made news when Zohar said Israel should annex the West Bank without giving Arabs full rights of citizenship. In response, the US warned Israel not to annex the West Bank.
THE SPIN ROOM | With Ami Kaufman | Sunday… by i24news-en
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israeli security forces trying to arrest a Palestinian terrorist in a village killed the fugitive after he opened fire on them on Sunday night. Ynet coverage.
• Council to remove Arafat St. sign following Netanyahu’s request
• A congressman visiting Israel to examine relocating the US embassy to Jerusalem believes Trump will indeed make the move. See Times of Israel and CNN coverage. The latter writes:
The latest six-month Presidential waiver on a congressional order to switch the embassy location, signed by President Barack Obama at the end of last year, expires in May.
DeSantis told reporters he did not expect Trump to follow the lead of all his predecessors and sign a further six-month extension.
• It’s like deja vu all over again: The PLO named a children’s camp after a terrorist; Dalal Mughrabi led the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, in which Palestinians terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians, including 12 children. Palestinian Media Watch raised the red flag.
• Ynet: A delegation of 11 senior Turkish journalists is visiting Israel for tours and briefings. It’s the first such media delegation since Israel and Turkey re-normalized relations after the Mavi Marmara affair.
• IDF soldiers defused two explosive devices near the Israel-Gaza border fence Tuesday morning.
Around the World
“The unenviable challenge facing the Israeli government is how to express its visceral horror over the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the U.S. without becoming a pawn in America’s partisan debate or jeopardizing its critical working relationship with the administration,” said Shalom Lipner, a former Israeli official and now a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Chief Sephardi Rabbi urged Netanyahu to speak out against US anti-Semitism.
• A swastika and anti-Semitic language referencing the Holocaust was found carved into doorway of Cleveland-area synagogue.
• According to the New York police officials, 42 headstones found toppled over in a Brooklyn Jewish cemetery had fallen over due to a combination of neglect and soil erosion. Several local officials are still calling for an investigation, the New York Daily News reports.
• France asks, can an anti-Semitic tweet ever be considered a mockery of anti-Semitism?
• Israel got off to fast start at the World Baseball Classic, beating South Korea in overtime, then routing Taiwan. Watch the highlights of games one and two.
ESPN has already called Team Israel the Jamaican bobsled team of the WBC. Team Israel’s mascot, Mensch on the Bench, is also drawing warm fuzzy attention.
What a way to open #WBC2017!
Israel tops South Korea, 2-1, in 10 innings. pic.twitter.com/93uPvNPCPC
— WBC Baseball (@WBCBaseball) March 6, 2017
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Eylon Aslan-Levy: Jerusalem already has plenty of embassies—just not to Israel
– Dr. Reuven Berko: Welcome to Hotel Banksy
– Amos Yadlin, Moshe Yaalon: PA must stop rewarding acts of terrorism
– Nathan Diament: How to end the PA’s ‘pay-for-slay’ laws
– Moshe Arens: For the next Gaza war, Israel must seek permanent quiet in the south
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Where is Hamas headed?
– Yair London: Zionism’s anti-Zionist protector
– Annika Hernroth-Rothstein: The value of fair play
– Peter Kurti: Israel’s enemies
– Eden Gorodischer: BDS movement backfires, deals blow to thousands of Palestinians
– Jonathan Hoffman: Something is rotten in the state of academia
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Arab idol or Arab apartheid?
– Hindustan Times (staff-ed): On his visit to Israel, it’s time Modi separates the diplomatic hyphen
– Ng Weng Hoong: China the wildcard of the Mideast peace process
– Hala Nasrallah: The internal collapse facing Lebanon’s Shiites
Featured image: CC BY-SA J Sawkins; money CC0 Pixabay; Trump via YouTube/FOX Sports;
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