Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel will formally announce its intent to leave UNESCO as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Ambassador Carmel Shama-Hacohen to present a formal letter of withdrawal. According to UNESCO rules, Israel’s departure from the cultural organization would take effect at the end of 2018.
In the past year, UNESCO angered Israel with resolutions denying Jewish ties to Jerusalem and Hebron:
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the decision was based on the organization’s “attempts to disconnect Jewish history from the land of Israel.”
However, the withdrawal will contain a provision noting that Israel will walk back the decision should UNESCO conduct reforms and change its attitude towards Israel before the end of next year, a senior Israeli official told Channel 10 news Friday.
2. As expected, the UN General Assembly voted to denounce Trump’s Jerusalem declaration. The non-binding resolution (see full text) passed by a vote of 128-9, with 35 abstentions and 21 countries absent from the proceedings. Take your pick of coverage from the Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Ynet and Haaretz.
In case you missed it, see The UN Debates Jerusalem: A Primer, in which HonestReporting unpacks Thursday’s UN proceedings.
3. Hezbollah recruited a sleeper agent in the Bronx. They took advantage of the fact that Ali Kourani is a dual US-Lebanese national. How many other sleepers might Hezbollah have out in the West?
It is claimed that his Hezbollah handler ordered him to surveil facilities belonging to the FBI and Army National Guard in New York City. He took detailed notes on security protocols at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
In interviews with the FBI after being “deactivated” from the terrorist group’s external operations wing, Kourani allegedly told the feds he was recruited because of Hezbollah’s interest in obtaining dual-citizen sleeper agents who could be activated in case of an emergency.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• In Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said he won’t accept any peace proposals from the US.
• Having threatened to cut aid to countries voting against the US at the UN, AP takes a closer look at the credibility test Donald Trump now faces.
• Ynet: Chinese-backed peace push embraces two-state solution.
• Romania’s parliament weighs relocating its embassy to Jerusalem.
• Thwarted terror attacks in Israel over 2017, by the numbers. Based on Shin Bet figures presented to the Knesset and reported the Jerusalem Post:
– 400: Overall number of attacks thwarted by Israel
– 13: Foiled suicide attacks
– 8: Kidnappings prevented
– 1,100: Potential lone wolf attacks thwarted
– 54: Palestinian attacks successfully carried out
• You know the Palestinians have a problem when the New York Times describes West Bank protests and clashes as meh:
The response has been more of a part-time simulation of an uprising, almost by appointment. A few thousand protesters have turned out at familiar friction points in the West Bank or along the Gaza border on the designated “Days of Rage” called for by the political factions. Other days, hardly anybody has shown up.
• Three Turkish nationals were released from custody after scuffling with Israeli police on the Temple Mount on Friday, according to Israeli and Turkish media reports.
• Denmark says it is tightening up conditions for financial aid to Palestinian non-governmental organizations and revoking its support for some of those NGOs. The Times of Israel explains:
The move came after Denmark launched a review of its practices in May following a meeting where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Samuelsen to stop Denmark’s funding for Palestinian NGOs that are involved in anti-Israel incitement or promote boycotts of the Jewish state.
• US Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of Hezbollah-linked drug prosecutions that the Obama administration abandoned while trying to strike a nuclear accord with Iran. The AG’s directive comes on the heels of last week’s Politico explosive report on Hezbollah drug trafficking and money laundering, a long-term federal investigation, and the Obama administration’s response reported interference.
• I’d like to believe Yahoo entertainment writer Rebekah Scanlan took a BDS press release a way to seriously. If she really thinks that Tel Aviv is “in military occupied Israel,” then A) Scanlan has a really skewed understanding of the Mideast. Does anyone copy edit her work?
By the way, subsequent New Zealand reports say Lorde, a 21-year-old NZ pop singer, is considering dropping her Tel Aviv gig in June.
• A two-day old Syrian baby born with a life-threatening heart defect was airlifted to Tel Aviv for emergency surgery on Saturday.
Commentary
• The New York Times runs 13-day tours of Iran and Barbara Sofer has a bone to pick.
Can you morally justify a visit to Iran if you’re not a journalist, a diplomat or a spy? Do tourists really believe they’ll get a deep and true understanding of this rogue state by complying with the rules of dress and censorship? Tales of Persia, indeed.
Imagine a trip in the 1930s to see the new and fascinating regime in Nazi Germany. You could take your photo near the Brandenburg Gate and feast on authentic streuselkuchen. You might even get to see actual Nazi roundups in action. There were, in fact, such tourists, curious to see what they described as Hitler’s utopia.
The Times trip to Iran will set you back a minimum of $7,995, but the real question is how much will turning this aggressive state into another travel destination on par with Venice and southern Arizona set the world back.
• Don’t miss Peter Lerner’s Twitter thread on the case of Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, the wheelchair-bound Palestinian killed in mysterious circumstances near the Gaza border.
1/6 This is going to be a thread about the #ibrahimabuthuraya case. It has caused a very emotional response on twitter and I want to lay down some questions.
Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, a wheelchair-bound paraplegic, participated in a riot meters near the Gaza border, was killed. pic.twitter.com/uXlPoemMVH— LTC (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) December 24, 2017
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels ruminating on the UN’s Jerusalem vote.
– Ron Prosor: Israel’s efforts are paying off
– Raphael Ahren: Why Israel’s massive defeat at the UN isn’t quite as bad as it looks
– Eli Lake: Nikki Haley confronts the UN’s jackals
– Joe Dyke: Abbas breaks with US over Jerusalem — but for how long?
– Elliott Abrams: Honor and dishonor at the United Nations
– Benny Avni: Anti-Israel General Assembly should feel shamed — not the US
– Max Boot: Trump is right about Jerusalem, but that’s not the help Israel needs
– Prof. Efraim Inbar: Erdogan’s Israel obsession
– Wall St. Journal (staff-ed): Next year in Jerusalem (click via Twitter)
– New York Daily News (staff-ed): UN-acceptable madness as United Nations attacks America over Jerusalem
Listening to UN and to Cuba speaking about Pal’s right to self determination and Iran references to Israeli crimes is more than slightly dizzying. Be clear. If the question were whether the Jews have a right to a state, the motion would fail.
— Daniel Gordis (@DanielGordis) December 21, 2017
• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Daniel Barenboim and Iyad el-Baghdadi.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Peter Lerner: Video of a Palestinian girl hitting soldiers shows the IDF’s moral fiber
– Nachman Shai: Fighting the media wars
– Ben-Dror Yemini: ‘Innocent protestor’ killed by IDF was a terrorist, told his family ‘I Intend to be a martyr’
– Amos Harel: Syria’s Assad is taking over the border region, presenting Israel with a moral dilemma
– Aje Carlbom: Sweden’s new wave of anti-Semitism
– Sohrab Ahmari: Swedish secularism targets Jewish homeschoolers
– Alex Fishman: The new threats at the end of the tunnel
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Another ‘reconciliation’ bites the dust
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Spyros Papaspyropoulos; Azoulay via UN Photo/Kim Haughton; numbers CC0 Pixabay; Copenhagen CC BY Kristoffer Trolle;
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