Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel’s Defense Ministry released numbers revealing how much the PA spends on stipends for terrorists imprisoned in Israel and for the families of terrorists killed while carrying out attacks. The figures reported in Ynet and Israel HaYom indicate the PA paid out NIS 1.23 billion overall (roughly $358 million).
Individual stipends depend on the length of the prison sentence, how many children the terrorist has and whether the terrorist is an Israeli national. Extra bucks for Jerusalem residents too.
In 2017, the Palestinian Authority paid prisoners and freed prisoners over NIS 550 million, while families of killed or wounded terrorists received some NIS 687 million. This constituted some seven percent of the PA’s overall budget . . .
The data was included in a memorandum attached to the Law to Prevent Payments to Terrorists and Their Families by the Palestinian Authority.
According to the memorandum, at the end of every year the defense minister would present a report concluding the annual payments made by the PA to terrorists to the Security Cabinet for approval. In accordance with that report, the sum will be deducted from the tax money Israel collects on behalf of the PA.
2. According to a Swiss report picked up by the Jerusalem Post, Saudi Arabia sought to purchase an Iron Dome system to defend itself missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen. The Saudis were reportedly interested in other Israeli-made military tech as well.
Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations. But the Swiss paper reported that Saudi-Israel intelligence cooperation has registered “further progress,” according to observers in Tel Aviv and Riyadh.
3. Israel struck a weapons depot on a Syrian military base near Damascus overnight, the Syrian army claims. Israeli officials haven’t commented on the reports. More at the Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. The BDS Blacklist Ban: HR Debates Peace Now on i24News: Is the law “blacklisting” BDS activists from entering Israel anti-democratic? HR’s Daniel Pomerantz debates Yariv Oppenheimer from Peace Now on The Rundown on i24 News.
5. Sanitizing the BDS Movement? The BDS movement is more than just about boycotting Israel. It’s about the delegitimization of Israel and the end of the country as a Jewish state. So which papers got it right and who sanitized BDS?
Israel and the Palestinians
• A senior Hamas official, Imad al-Alimi, is fighting for his life in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital after being shot in the head. There are all kinds of rumors about what happened, so this Ynet snippet will have to suffice.
The circumstances behind the injury are still unclear. It is possible he tried to take his own life after being diagnosed with cancer a year ago, or that he was hurt in an assassination attempt. A third option is that his handgun accidentally discharged, hitting him.
• Israeli trade delegation to Cuba may augur a diplomatic thaw
• After various postponements, Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to visit Israel, Egypt and Jordan. AP reports that Pence is “not expected” to meet with Palestinian officials, who are fuming over Trump’s Jerusalem declaration.
• Is President Donald Trump widening a rift between the evangelicals and Mideast Christians over Jerusalem?
Around the World
• Stockholm’s ambassador to Israel acknowledged that Sweden is failing to protect its Jewish community.
“This is the reality of the Jewish community and it’s a failure, it’s not something that should be allowed to happen,” Sweden’s ambassador to Israel, Magnus Hellgren said as he acknowledged that his country failed to protect the Swedish community in the wake of anti-Semitic incidents.
• Kosher market near Paris set on fire one week after it was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.
• Berlin‘s government-funded Jewish museum is being accused of pro-Palestinian bias after it opted for Muslim, not Jewish symbols in advertising a Jerusalem exhibition.
• Security forces in Jordan thwarted a plot by Islamic State to “carry out a series of coordinated and large-scale attacks” across the country. Police arrested 17 members of the terror cell, seizing weapons and other unspecified “materials.” More at the Times of Israel.
• I wonder what this means for Israel’s qualitative military edge. Reuters reports that the White House has nearly completed a plan “to help drum up billions of dollars more in business overseas for the U.S. weapons industry.”
According to the report, guidelines on military export rules will be eased and “give greater weight to the economic benefits for American manufacturers in a decision-making process that has long focused heavily on human rights considerations.”
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Yehuda Kurtzer: How Israel’s BDS blacklist falls short of its own goals
– Ephraim Sneh: How to prevent a Gaza explosion
– Jerusalem Post (staff-ed): Shut down UNRWA
– Rowan Polovin: Downgrading Israel degrades South Africa
– David Harris: 10 ways that Israel is treated differently
– Elliott Abrams: The princes and the mullahs
Featured image: CC BY liz west; money CC0 Pexels; Gothenburg CC0 Pixabay; soldiers CC BY US Army;
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.
