Today’s Top Stories
1. A Palestinian terror group is going into German politics, the Jerusalem Post reports:
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an EU and US classified terrorist entity responsible the murders of scores of Israelis, seeks to enter the German Bundestag in the September 24 federal election.
2. Times of Israel: Israeli and US officials have renewed talks on US embassy move to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, PA officials say the US asked them for three or four months to prepare a peace plan.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. According to a study picked by Ynet, the UN spends four times more on Palestinian refugees per person than any other refugee in the world.
The findings of the study seem to reinforce Israel’s traditional argument against the split between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides assistance only for Palestinian refugees.
4. Al Jazeera Exposed: Blood Libels, Defamation and Lies: A defamatory documentary portrays volunteers helping the IDF as the worst international war criminals imaginable.
Israel and the Palestinians
• UN Secretary General Antonion Guterres is in Israel. He received a briefing from a senior IDF intelligence officer about Hezbollah tightening its grip over Lebanon.
• A five-year-old Palestinian boy died after ingesting poison at Gaza’s increasingly polluted beaches. According to The Independent, “More than 110 million litres of sewage is spilling into Gaza’s waters a day thanks to the coastal enclave’s electricity crisis.” Earlier this summer, Gaza sewage forced the closure of an Ashkelon beach.
• Jerusalem Post: The Government Press Office is leaning against revoking the media credentials of Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau chief Elias Karam.
• Worth reading: The New York Times profiles Hezbollah and how significantly it has changed over the course of its roles in both Syria and Iraq.
Hezbollah has become active in so many places and against so many enemies that detractors have mocked it as “the Blackwater of Iran,” after the infamous American mercenary firm.
See also this Cipher Brief interview with David Schenker on Hezbollah’s threat to Israel.
Around the World
• An Israeli living in Houston — former AP journalist Ramit Plushnick-Masti — described tying to riding out Hurricane Harvey and her family’s subsequent rescue from their flooded house:
The water outside was over my head and I had to swim. On the boat were several other families, including two elderly people, a 6-month old baby and two dogs. As we made our way toward the local church that had become a shelter, the boat’s propeller hit the ground and we all got off.
Wading through knee-high water, with white plastic garbage bags full of clothing and laptops on our shoulders, we made our way toward the church, which had no power. There were at least 100 people there and no cots, but it was dry, and we made it our home for the night.
We made a ravioli dinner, using a flashlight to see, and we slept on the floor. But we knew we were lucky. Others had water in their homes over their heads and had broken through their roofs to get out. Elderly people did not have their medicine. Everything we lost is material. We will rebuild, and our family is whole.
Dozens of Jewish families have been displaced by the flooding. And learn about some Israelis who drew on their IDF experience to rescue Houstonians. More rain is expected with CNN adding:
Swollen rivers in east Texas aren’t expected to crest until later this week, and federal officials are already predicting the deadly Tropical Storm Harvey will drive 30,000 people into shelters and spur 450,000 victims to seek some sort of disaster assistance.
As rain continues in Houston, the Coast Guard is receiving 1,000 calls per hour for rescues https://t.co/RwZU6gxwPq pic.twitter.com/hezX6i5G3s
— CNN International (@cnni) August 29, 2017
• British police are re-investigating the murder of a controversial Palestinian cartoonist in London in 1987.
At the time of his death, Naji Salim Hussain al-Ali was one of the most prominent cartoonists in the Arab world and was sharply critical of Palestinian and Arab politics and leaders. He often received death threats.
• A Dutch Justice Ministry employee who was suspended and threatened with termination for saying that Zionists invented the Islamic State terrorist group can sue for damages, a judge ruled.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Avi Issacharoff: After summer vacation, Middle East gears up for conflict as usual
– Alex Kane: PA payments to terrorists to continue no matter what Congress does
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Destroying the judiciary
– David Singer: Abbas set to defy Trump and Netanyahu at the UN
– Yoaz Hendel: Trump and Israel: The more things change, the more they stay the same
– Ariel Bolstein: Follow Frankfurt’s lead against BDS
– Jack Rosen: Israeli aid to Syria shows new possibilities with its Arab neighbors
– Yaakov Lappin: Victory, not deterrence, will be Israel’s goal if Gaza war breaks out
– Zvi Bar’el: An Iranian, Russian and Israeli walk into Syria
– Michael Herzog: The Temple Mount: An Israeli perspective
– Moshe Arens: The results of the Iran nuclear deal
– David Lesch: Iran is taking over Syria. Can anyone stop it?
Featured image: CC BY-NC Kent Landerholm;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
