Today’s Top Stories
1. Bahrain’s king denounced the Arab boycott of Israel and said his countrymen may visit the Jewish state, according to Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. He told the Jerusalem Post the king said this earlier this year during a visit to the Gulf state.
The comments are in the news now because King Hamad’s son, Prince Nasser, visited the center’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles last week. The Post notes:
Like all others present, the Arab officials stood in respect as the colorful Bahrain National Orchestra, conducted by Field Marshal Mubarak Najem, played “Hatikva” preceded by the Bahraini and US national anthems, sung by Sumaya Meer and Cantor Arik Wolheim.
And the Los Angeles Times added:
That the prince would come to the Museum of Tolerance — an unabashedly pro-Israel institution — highlights the shifting sands of Middle Eastern politics in an era in which common enemies and concerns can create strange bedfellows.
I haven’t heard the king publicly confirm this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bahraini individuals are already making discreet visits. Could this have anything to do with Qatar’s rival charm offensive targeting US Jews?
2. All the Israeli papers picked up on Hamas’s offer to disband its Gaza administration, hold new elections and begin unity talks with Fatah. I’m too jaded by previous false starts over the years to elaborate (see my 5 Myths of Palestinian Unity). So take your pick of Times of Israel, Haaretz, Ynet, Jerusalem Post and Israel HaYom coverage, or the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) and draw your own conclusions.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. ProPublica blew the lid on how Facebook enabled advertisers to reach ‘Jew Haters.’
Until this week, when we asked Facebook about it, the world’s largest social network enabled advertisers to direct their pitches to the news feeds of almost 2,300 people who expressed interest in the topics of “Jew hater,” “How to burn jews,” or, “History of ‘why jews ruin the world.'”
To test if these ad categories were real, we paid $30 to target those groups with three “promoted posts” — in which a ProPublica article or post was displayed in their news feeds. Facebook approved all three ads within 15 minutes.
More at BuzzFeed.
4. Who Works Out At a ‘Pro-Zionist’ Gym? Gyms are for exercising the muscles. In this case, it looks like one journalist needed some exercise for the brain.
5. European Arrogance Costs Lives: HonestReporting attended a counter-terror conference in Herzliya. Daniel Pomerantz offers some takeaways.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Times of Israel: Israel says it’ll charge PA for Gaza power to avert humanitarian crisis.
“I hereby inform you that if an internal Palestinian solution is not found, we will restore the previous situation and deduct the funds from the tax transfers in the near future,” Mordechai wrote and noted that he had warned Sheikh in the past that such a measure could be adopted.
“There are humanitarian red lines that, if crossed, pose the potential to harm, among others, the health and sanitation sectors [in Gaza] and ultimately the population at large.”
• Palestinian parents in eastern Jerusalem increasingly want their children learning Israeli curriculum over PA curriculum. Here’s a by the numbers look based on a municipal survey picked up by Israel HaYom.
48% — parents of kids enrolled in eastern Jerusalem schools wanting Israeli curriculum
22 — years eastern Jerusalem schools have been using PA curriculum
20% — increase in students opting for Israeli curriculum in past year
300 — students learning Israeli curriculum seven years ago
5,800 — students currently learning Israeli curriculum
• Jerusalem Post: No longer financially hemmed in by international sanctions, Iran is now paying $830 million to Hezbollah, a “dramatic increase” from the $200 million it gave the Shiite terror group last year. And Hamas?
Tehran, which froze its financial support to Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the group refused to support the Assad regime in 2012, is now reported to be providing the Gazan terrorist group some $60m.-70m.
• The last Facebook post of Palestinian stabbing attacker Qatiba Zahran reveals he set out to die as a “martyr,” but the PA claims he was executed by Israel in cold blood. The Jerusalem Post picked up on the latest from Memri:
The claim that Israel had “executed” Zahran had already been made the day after attack, August 19, when the Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused the “occupation authorities” of executing him in cold blood. This was in disregard of the fact that before setting out to perpetrate out the attack, Zahran had posted, on his Facebook page, his last will and testament, announcing his intention to die as a “martyr” in order to “avenge the blood of the martyrs in Palestine.”
• 2 Hamasniks killed in separate Gaza tunnel collapses over the weekend.
• Hebron area hit by rash of stabbing attempts by Palestinian teens.
• As we approach the Jewish New Year, OneFamily pauses to remember the Israelis killed in terror attacks this past year. May their memories be for a blessing.
• AP reports the Association of International Marathons and Distances Races is giving Israel a nasty run for its money:
Israel on Thursday said the international marathon body was injecting politics into sports by excluding an Israeli race because it passes through West Bank territory the Palestinians and most of the world considers to be occupied.”
Mideast Matters
• According to Israeli media reports, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will present President Donald Trump with a specific formula detailing how to “fix or nix” the Iranian nuclear accords. The two leaders are due to meet in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s opening session tomorrow. But see Ron Ben-Yishai‘s take.
• Turkish media conspiracy theories claim Israel is sending Jewish Kurds back to Kurdistan. The Israeli embassy in Ankara was briefly evacuated when Turkish ultra-nationalists demonstrated outside on Friday, calling the Kurdish bid for independence a Zionist plot.
Meanwhile, journalists like NPR’s Jane Arraf and the Jerusalem Post‘s Seth Frantzman are taking notice of Kurds waving Israeli flags after Netanyahu endorsed Kurdish independence last week. Iraqi Kurds are expected to vote for independence in a September 25 referendum.
The only non-Kurdish flag at rally going on now in #Erbil. Israel the sole country to support independence referendum pic.twitter.com/kGf2jKxhfi
— jane arraf (@janearraf) September 16, 2017
• Under the radar, Belarus seen quietly helping Assad boost missile program. Belarus?
Around the World
• As Netanyahu continued his Latin American tour, Mexico and Israeli agreed to deepen business ties, update a free trade agreement and pursue plans to develop Central America. Netanyahu and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos also signed a tourism cooperation agreement and discussed how Israel can help rebuild Colombia after a half-century of civil war.
From Mexico, Netanyahu will fly to New York for the opening session of the UN General Assembly. Meanwhile, the Israeli consulate in New York had its own scare when it received an envelope containing suspicious powder and a threat Netanyahu. The consulate was forced into lockdown.
• Convicted terrorist and immigration fraudster Rasmea Odeh to be deported September 19.
• The U. Maryland is investigating the termination of a pro-Israel professor. Details at The Diamondback and Washington Free Beacon. Landa’s students are speaking up for their former professor.
• Montreal imam who asked Allah to ‘destroy the Jews’ will not be prosecuted
• NY City Council candidate who called out ‘greedy Jewish landlords’ loses primary.
• At the urging of Jewish and other activists, French mayors barred controversial comedian Dieudonne from performing in Marseilles and Grenoble.
Dieudonné, whose full name is Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, has a long list of convictions for antisemitism, inciting racial hatred, condoning terrorism and tax evasion in both French and Belgian courts. His shows often draw large, animated protests . . .
“A multicultural city such as Marseille cannot permit a show which is based on divisive and factious humor… and which is likely to lead to public disorder,” said Gaudin in a statement.
• Attacks on German synagogue ‘may have been anti-Semitic,’ police say.
• Pope Francis snubs group fighting anti-Semitism.
• Canadian officials blasted over taxpayer-funded talk demonizing Israel at Edmonton’s MacEwan U.
Commentary/Analysis
• Worth reading: Peter Lerner‘s take on the terror attack in London’s Parson Green Underground station — especially his point about how the media handled it.
• This weekend’s burning question:
Will BDS supporters refrain from buying the iPhone X?
• Jesus was a Palestinian and similar claims that often cloud Middle East reporting.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Robert Fulford: Obama blinked, Israel bombed: history will show who got Syria right
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Hezbollah: The aggressor becomes the deterred
– Washington Post (staff-ed): Israel’s strike in Syria should be a wake-up call for Trump
– Avi Issacharoff: Hamas’s sudden pragmatism is a mixed blessing for Abbas
– Rhys Dubin: Netanyahu finally supports a two-state solution — Kurdistan and Iraq
– Zoe Strimpel: Why, for the hard Left, Israel remains the source of all evil
– Stephen Pollard: Anti-Zionism often masks Jew-hating, whatever the hard Left may argue
– Shmuel Rosner: What anti-Semitism in America looks like from Israel
– Michael Singh: Trump can make the most of a bad Iran deal
• Talk about cheeky hypocrisy. Robert Fisk, the British columnist who dreamed up the debunked charges of Israeli uranium shells accuses Israel of lying. (Still no retraction after more than a decade.)
Featured image: CC BY-SA Japanexperterna.se; Maryland via Wikimedia Commons; Dieudonne via YouTube/Dieudonne;
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