Today’s Top Stories
1. After seven years of fighting, the Syrian army completed its takeover of the Golan Heights frontier with Israel. According to Israeli media reports, Israel conveyed a message to Russia “to ensure that Syrian government forces do not harm or massacre civilians,” and also suspended humanitarian aid programs.
The decision marks the first time the Israeli border will be fully closed to Syrians seeking life saving services and medical care since Operation Good Neighbor was initiated nearly five years ago.
2. A number of Arabs noted on Twitter with irony that Ahed Tamimi gained nine kilos in prison, unlike prisoners of the Bashar Assad regime. The tweets caught the Jerusalem Post‘s eye.
The difference between Israel and Bashar AlAssad#AhedTamimi lucky girl Because it was in Israel's prison not Assad’s prison
ahed Tamimi came out of prison in good health, better than before.
Notice : The father of ahed Tamimi supports Assad's regime pic.twitter.com/nkd6T4mhRY— Nedal Al-Amari (@nedalalamari) July 29, 2018
3. The family of Mohammad Tareq Yousef, the Palestinian terrorist who stabbed Yotam Ovadia to death last week is now eligible for a terror stipend. Yousef was shot and killed as he stabbed two other Israelis on Thursday night in Adam, a settlement north of Jerusalem.
By declaring the murderer a “Martyr”, the PA is saying that he did an exemplary act according to Islam, for which he will be rewarded in the afterlife by Allah. In addition, the PA will reward the terrorists’ family financially, as the PA does all families of so-called “Martyrs,” with a one-time grant of 6,000 shekels ($1,643) and a monthly allowance for life of 1,400 shekels ($383).
4. You Won’t Believe What One News Site Called the IDF: “Israel Occupation Forces” is just a provocative slur used by Palestinians and the press release which the story was based on.
5. New York Times’ Myths About Israel as a Jewish State: Everyone’s entitled to their views, but op-eds still have to be grounded in accurate facts.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
In the News
• Israeli policewoman lightly hurt by Molotov cocktail during a violent riot in this morning. Israeli security forces were carrying out an arrest raid in the Deheishe refugee camp near Bethlehem when Palestinians started throwing rocks and firebombs.
• Palestinian terror balloons landed in Beersheva for the first time on Monday evening.
• Israeli journalist Neri Zilber has me going hmmmmmmm.
For 1st time Palestinian security forces patrol through Hebron's (divided) Old City in full uniform & weapons. Israel must have given okay. This is good news as far as these things go. https://t.co/8qoTwFzm4Q pic.twitter.com/NThA504jHA
— Neri Zilber (@NeriZilber) July 31, 2018
• Israel’s security cabinet was briefed on possible scenarios for a war with Hezbollah and its implications for the home front. Haaretz reports that because Hezbollah’s rocket threat, a conflict in the north could mean evacuating hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in the north.
One issue that keeps the top brass up at night is the level of the Israeli public’s expectations, based on experience of attacks on the Home Front in the past and versus what they should expect in the event of a major conflict up north. During the last two Gaza campaigns, Pillar of Fire (2012) and Protective Edge (2014), the Iron Dome system managed to shoot down about 90 percent of the rockets fired at built-up areas. People living in central Israel became entirely too sanguine and many have come to ignore instructions during war. But a clash up north will force Israel to cope with hundreds of rockets a day, and will do much more damage to the home front, both in the north and in the center of the country.
The extent of rocket shootings and the still-limited number of anti-ballistic missiles Israel has, will not enable similar interception statistics in the event of another war in the north.
• Poll: 58% of Israeli Jews support the nation state law.
• Isaac Herzog begins his first day as chairman of the Jewish Agency tomorrow. The former Labor Party leader shared his thoughts on bridging Israel-diaspora gaps in Associated Press interview. Meanwhile, Haaretz looks back at the legacy of the man Herzog’s replacing: former Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky.
• Prime Minister backs artificial island for new Tel Aviv airport. The government plans to close down the Sde Dov Airport, which handles domestic flights to Eilat, northern Israel and the Golan.
• No end to the madness: Bombshell tape shows Jeremy Corbyn ally blamed ‘Jewish Trump fanatics’ for inventing Labour antisemitism. The Jewish Chronicle posted a recording of “Peter Willsman’s angry rant – at the meeting attended by Mr Corbyn where Labour’s ruling body approved a controversial new code of conduct on antisemitism.”
• The Times of London takes an in-depth look at the UK Labour Party’s problem with antisemitism.
• Why does it not surprise me that The Independent was the only mainstream paper to treat Noam Chomsky’s latest rant as news?
Commentary
• For commentary on the domestic scene, Nahum Barnea, Raphael Ahren and Dror Eydar weigh in on the nation state law.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Arnold Roth: More horror than heroism: Ahed Tamimi
– Colin Shindler: Would a Corbyn-led Labour government pose an existential threat to British Jews?
– Councillor Nickie Aiken: Strip away the ideological cloak that masks the new antisemitism: it is crude racism
Featured image: CC BY-NC Kartik Malik; Sharansky via YouTube/CBN News;
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