Today’s Top Stories
1. The IDF, the Shin Bet, the Border Police and the Israel Police carried out a joint operation overnight Wednesday during which they discovered weapons-manufacturing equipment in the Palestinian village of Al-Ram northeast of Jerusalem.
Following the discovery, the security forces sealed off two of the illegal workshops while two lathes were confiscated along with numerous other weapons. Another lathe was located in a village in situated in the Etzion Regional Division.
2. A ringing endorsement as Hamas praises a resolution by the United Nations’ cultural body condemning Israeli activity in eastern Jerusalem and the Old City, and urging the UN to prevent the “Judaization” of those areas.
3. More than 60 artists, including four Pulitzer Prize winners and other prominent writers, actors, directors and playwrights, have signed an open letter calling on New York’s Lincoln Center to cancel performances of a play co-produced by two Israeli theater companies and backed by the Israeli government.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• Despite no evidence to back it up and an outright Israeli denial, the Palestinians have accused Israel of making payments to individuals convicted of launching attacks against their people. Issa Qaraqe, head of the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs, told the London-based Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that the Israeli government was supplying a monthly salary to several individuals convicted of the murders of Palestinians. Perhaps the question should be why is Newsweek even bothering to report cynical Palestinian propaganda designed to deflect attention from their own very real payments to terrorists.
• Indian PM Narendra Modi, on a three-day official visit to Israel, met Moshe Holtzberg, the 11-year old son of Chabad emissaries murdered in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Then 2-years old, Moshe was rescued from the scene by his Indian nanny and both now live in Israel. The heartfelt meeting is well worth watching.
• The 20th Maccabiah Games, known as the “Jewish Olympics,” will open tonight with a record 10,000 athletes. It is the third largest sporting event in the world, according to organizers.
• Newly elected Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday suggested that Hamas is close to reaching a prisoner swap deal with Israel, in his first major speech since assuming the position.
• A new survey of the Palestinian public shows a significant decrease in support for an armed intifada. Three months ago, support stood at 51%, while today, only 39% support violence. Interestingly, more than half of the respondents said they support nonviolent resistance.
Around the World
• Canada’s Halifax Pride festival will be without the support of several organizations this year as the festivities are being boycotted. Why? Because an attempt to remove a pro-Israel campaign from the festival was defeated. This is just the latest example of Jewish or pro-Israel LGBT organizations being treated like pariahs.
• The UK government has acknowledged in recent days that it is withholding a study on the Saudi role in fostering extremism in Britain, and opponents have accused PM Theresa May of pandering to the Saudi royals to protect British trade deals.
Commentary/Analysis
• Why do women become terrorists? Candida Moss in the Daily Beast says:
Another reason we find female radicals especially shocking is due to the association of women with notions of pacifism and maternal love. Often women are thought of or function as enablers of jihad via their children. A Hadith notes that Paradise is laid at the feet of one’s mother, and women play a prominent role in encouraging violence. But women are not only the potential mothers of terrorists. Brown points to the words of Reem Rayishi, a Hamas activist who blew up herself and four Israelis in 2004: “I have two children and love them very much. But my love to see God was stronger than my love for my children, and I’m sure that God will take care of them if I become a martyr.”
• As the South Australian parliament passes a motion that calls on the federal government to recognize “the state of Palestine … and announce the conditions and timelines to achieve such recognition,” Israeli Ambassador to Australia Shmuel Ben Shmuel gets op-ed space in The Australian:
Unilateral recognition rewards the Palestinians for their behaviour thus far, which has been characterised by violence and obstructionism. It legitimises the Palestinian campaigns of incitement against Israel and legitimises the ongoing payments by the Palestinian Authority of $300 million of international aid money a year to the families of deceased terrorists who have murdered Israelis, and convicted terrorists jailed in Israeli prisons. It legitimises the naming of schools and streets after terrorists and the indoctrination of the population with hate propaganda against Israelis and Jews. It encourages their refusal to recognise the legitimacy of a Jewish state within any borders. A unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state does not bring peace; it drives it further away.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– For India and China, the Cold War Is Over and They Have Billions of People to Feed – David Rosenberg
– Time to Call Out Activists’ Anti-Semitic Bigotry – Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Featured image: CC BY-SA Michael Coghlan;
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