Today’s Top Stories
1. Eight people were killed and 11 injured when a terrorist driving a pickup truck plowed for a mile along a busy Manhattan bike path, hitting bikers and pedestrians. Sayfullo Saipov was eventually shot by police while running, waving what turned out to be a paintball gun and a pellet gun and yelling “Allahu akbar.”
A 29-year-old Uzbek national, Saipov is hospitalized and expected to recover. He left behind a note claiming allegiance to Islamic State.
New York officials called it the city’s deadliest attack since 9/11. More at the New York Times, whose headline calls it terror.
Among the fatalities were five Argentinians, one of whom was Jewish businessman, Ariel Erlij.
An Associated Press backgrounder on vehicular attacks around the world included a deadly Palestinian truck attack on soldiers in Jerusalem in January.
2. The Palestinian Authority began taking control of Gaza-Egypt border crossings from Hamas. More on the story at Haaretz and the Times of Israel. And the Daily Telegraph adds:
The Rafah crossing is almost always closed but PA officials said a deal had been reached with Egypt to permanently open it in mid-November. If Rafah is opened permanently, it could potentially ease the humanitarian suffering of Gaza’s two million residents and allow them to travel more freely through Egypt to the outside world.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Times of Israel: A UN plan calls for $18m to aid Palestinian legal efforts against Israel.
In a recently released plan that outlines the world body’s support for the Palestinian Authority from 2018-2022, the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) includes a budgetary framework that would allocate millions of dollars to specifically help Palestinians pursue international legal avenues against Israel.
4. HR In a Minute: How to Be a Media Watchdog: How can you know what’s really happening in the Mideast? Here are some tips you can use at home.
4. ‘Attack’ on a ‘Militant Tunnel’: Parroting Terrorist Propaganda: The Independent plumbs new depths with false claims of an Israeli air strike based on terrorist propaganda.
5. HR Prompts Telegraph Correction to ‘Tel Aviv Government’ Error: Editors needed reminding that Tel Aviv isn’t Israel’s capital.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel is setting up special police unit to safeguard law and order on the Temple Mount. More at the Jerusalem Post:
The Temple Mount Unit will be equipped with advanced technology and will gather intelligence in order to protect visitors to the holy site, the ministry said.
The unit will include approximately 200 policemen, in which 100 will be specially recruited to the police in the course of the next year.
• Islamic Jihad confirmed that the cross-border terror tunnel destroyed by the IDF earlier this week was intended to be used to abduct Israeli soldiers.
• The IDF ruled out terror in yesterday’s incident near Halamish. Soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian car that failed to comply with orders to stop. The driver was killed and his sister was injured.
• With Kurdish independence rallies in mind, the Iraqi parliament criminalized the display of ‘Zionist symbols’ across the country. Kurds demonstrating for independence often unfurled Israeli flags; Israel is the only government that openly declared support for Kurdish independence.
• Duke University Press is under fire over book claiming Israel has policy of maiming Palestinians to dominate them.
Commentary/Analysis
• David Pope, the staff cartoonist at the Canberra Times, had this take on the Battle of Beersheva. The imagery of Benjamin Netanyahu riding on top of the donkey with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s face has a whiff of fatuous claims that Zionist neocons control the government of (fill in the blank here). Israel is protesting the cartoon.
• Hold your nose: Mahmoud Abbas (or his ghost writer) got op-ed space in The Guardian to elaborate on why “Britain must atone for the Balfour declaration – and 100 years of suffering.”
Plenty more Balfour 100 commentary.
– Dore Gold: The historical significance of the Balfour declaration
– Ben Cohen: Year zero: The Palestinians and the Balfour Declaration
– David Parsons: No apologies for Balfour
– Gil Troy: We don’t need no Balfour declarations . . . or celebrations
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Avi Issacharoff: Islamic Jihad doesn’t want to rain on the reconciliation parade
– Elior Levy: Islamic Jihad’s unpredictable response
– Alex Fishman: Tunnel explosion puts Palestinian reconciliation to the test
– Hanin Ghaddar: Shiite unrest in Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND sinkdd; New York via YouTube/The Telegraph; Temple Mount CC BY-NC-ND Michael-Ann Cerniglia;
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