Today’s Top Stories
1. According to the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter), last week’s airstrike on Syria’s T4 airbase targeted an advanced Iranian air defense system and that “Israel had begun planning the strike before a suspected Syrian chemical weapons attack on April 7.”
2. During a UK parliamentary discussion on antisemitism, angry Labour backbenchers accused Jeremy Corbyn of lacking the moral clarity and decisiveness to take action against antisemitism within the party. In a stormy meeting that lasted nearly three hours, MPs — some driven to tears — shared the burgeoning hate mail, threats and abuse they and their friends have received for speaking out against antisemitism. More at The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Jewish Chronicle. See Anoosh Chakelian‘s take.
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3. At the behest of BDS advocates, the city council of Durham, North Carolina, voted to prohibit international police exchanges. Pro-Palestinian supporters originally sought a resolution singling out police exchanges with Israel.
A police spokesman said the department hasn’t engaged in any exchanges with Israel and doesn’t plan to. WRAL-TV reports former Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez spent a week in Israel undergoing training.
“None of the training had anything to do with militarization,” Lopez said. “It was about leadership, it was learning about terrorism and then learning about how to interact with people who are involved in mass casualty situations and how to manage mass casualty situations.”
Lopez also said while he was chief, two of his commanders went to Washington, D.C., to receive training from Israeli police, and he felt the experiences were valuable.
4. AP’s Three-Way Independence Day Botch: Wire service marks Independence Day with a trifecta of errors.
5. HonestReporting’s mission to Israel is soaking up the Memorial Day experiences. The group visited the Heritage Center of the Givati Division in Ashdod, participated in a memorial ceremony at one of the military cemeteries and then visited the Armored Corps Memorial Site and Museum. The somber mood changes at sundown when the Independence Day celebrations kick off.
Israel #MemorialDay visiting IDF'S Givati Brigade. On the vase is the word יזכור we remember. Those who died to keep us safe. Soon going to the memorial ceremony. With #HRmission2018 and the soldiers of Givati. pic.twitter.com/1cDpoWCXFO
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 18, 2018
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israeli intelligence doesn’t believe the US-led missile strikes on Syria have deterred Bashar Assad from using chemical weapons again, per Ynet.
• Gaza gunmen fired on Israeli soldiers operating along the Gaza border on Tuesday evening, prompting an IDF tank to fire shells at a Hamas border post. No Israeli casualties were reported.
• A Palestinian man arrested with knife at Qalandiya checkpoint this afternoon admitted he intended to stab an Israeli.
• Diplomat’s wife snubbed — just for being Israeli.
• An alleged Hamas agent says he met Dutch officials at event organized by Oxfam. The JTA reports that Abu Amin Rashed’s Facebook post about Monday’s meeting in The Hague is raising concerns about government money provided to Oxfam making its way to Hamas.
Around the World
President Reuven Rivlin and a Holocaust survivor at Auschwitz during the 2018 March of the Living
At issue in the group’s complaint are comments in which Rivlin reportedly told Polish President Andrzej Duda that Poland allowed the implementation of Germany’s genocide, National Movement Vice President Krzysztof Bosak said.
The alleged comments during commemorations at Auschwitz last Thursday were carried in Israeli media and were not part of Rivlin’s public remarks.
Bosak said it would be unacceptable if Rivlin asserted that Poland bears any responsibility for the Holocaust. While the National Movement understands that diplomatic immunity protects the Israeli president from prosecution, it wants the nature of the president’s remarks to be clarified, he said.
• Italian soccer fans taunted a rival team’s followers with anti-Semitic chants.
• Jewish cemetery vandalized near Paris.
Commentary
• Racheli Frenkel, the mother of Naftali Frenkel, one of the three teens who were kidnapped and murdered in 2014, nails the essence of Memorial Day.
My Memorial Day has hardly changed. It has always been mine, ours, the closest thing to sanctity that can be created by a secular calendar. It has never been perceived as a gesture towards the bereaved family, as a show of respect and goodwill, a gesture towards the victim. It’s coming together around the loss we are all experiencing. One doesn’t have to lose a close relative, God forbid, to feel that this date is part of Israel’s personal and familial calendar.
But our memorial days have never been a veneration of the dead. This isn’t a culture of martyrs. We will always favor, appreciate and celebrate life over death. It is good to live for our country, it is good to live. It is good to raise the price of life.
I again attended the Israeli Air Force Memorial Day ceremony. Amazing how the loving memory of each fallen servicemember is honored, and in the care shown to the bereaved families, whether from this year or decades ago. The solidarity of Israeli public mourning is deeply moving. pic.twitter.com/iNjUsPRZgg
— Dan Shapiro (@DanielBShapiro) April 18, 2018
• A who’s who of British personalities shared their thoughts on What Israel Means to Me.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Boaz Bismuth: Giving thanks for the miracle of the ordinary
– Rabbi Warren Goldstein: Israel at 70
– Barbara Kay: A gift for Israel’s birthday: a legal summary of its clear legitimacy
– Arsen Ostrovsky: Celebrating Israel’s independence: A story of hope, courage and freedom
– Seth Frantzman: Hezbollah’s war of words telegraphs Iran’s response to Jerusalem
– Roger Boyes: Israel and Iran face a showdown in Syria
– Rick Ekstein: Israel’s search for peace may pass through the Gulf
– Times of London (staff-ed): New lows for Jeremy Corbyn
Featured image: CC0 Craig Dennis Rivlin via Facebook/Reuven Ruvi Rivlin;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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