Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel’s in danger of losing next year’s Eurovision competition because of a disagreement over who foots the bill. Per Ynet, the Prime Minister’s Office insists that the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (also known by the Hebrew acronym Kan) has sufficient budget to pay the estimated NIS 148 million ($39 million) cost. Kan officials say that covering the bill would force them to “fire 200 employees or cut down on original productions.” Tomorrow could be the day of reckoning:
The production cost of the Eurovision in Israel is estimated at 35 million euro, and the IPBC was supposed to transfer 12 million euro as a guarantee to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) by August 1.
The EBU has agreed to give the IPBC an extension until August 14, but the issue of where the money will come from has not yet been resolved.
Israel won the right to host the annual singing contest with Netta Barzilai’s triumph with her song, “Toy.”
2. Worth reading: Bloomberg News examines how Israel’s juggling Gaza while trying to keep an eye on Iran in Syria.
3. Munich Olympics massacre widows lashed out at UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for laying a wreath at the graves of the Black September terrorists responsible for the attack. In a statement to the Jewish News, Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano said, “For Mr Corbyn to honour these terrorists, is the ultimate act of maliciousness, cruelty and stupidity.” Eleven Israeli athletes were murdered during the 1972 summer games.
Meanwhile, the senior director of an influential UK think tank backed claims that the Israeli Mossad is behind the anti-Corbyn campaign.
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In the News
• Calm continues to hold along the Israel-Gaza border. But don’t call it a ceasefire.
It is unclear if Hamas stopped the rocket fire as the result of a mutual understanding reached with Israel, or if it was a unilateral decision.
Sunday was calm, after lower level violence continued over the weekend, with Palestinians launching a number of incendiary kites and balloons at Israel, an IAF air strike, and the death of two Palestinians during violent border riots.
Israel has imposed tight restrictions on the border, the kind that signify a situation of continued violence. It has continued its almost two-week ban on fuel and gas into Gaza and its more than a month long ban on commercial goods.
Update on the situation in #Israel's south:
? 7,413 acres of land burned
? 1,364 fires started by incendiary kites/balloons
? 10-12 million NIS worth of damage from arson attacks
? 1,832 people treated for trauma pic.twitter.com/GVXJPLqcyC— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) August 13, 2018
• According to Israeli media reports, Israel has confiscated tens of thousands of balloons being delivered to Gaza.
• If Ahmed Abu Hamadeh had died after being held in an Israeli prison, he be a media sensation and Palestinian prisoners would probably launch a hunger strike to draw attention. Hamadeh, who was wanted for murder and weapons dealing, led an armed gang that made him perhaps the PA’s biggest enemy in the Nablus area. He died after being detained in a Palestinian prison in Jericho, so Hamadeh’s just a minor blip. More at the Jerusalem Post.
• Syrians are trying to determine the cause of an explosion at a rebel arms depot in the northern town of Sarmada on Sunday. The weapons were stored in a residential building, which explains why reports say at least 39 civilians were killed, including a dozen children. A second building was flattened by the blast. “Most of those killed were family members of fighters from HTS, an alliance led by jihadists from Syria’s former al-Qaida affiliate . . .”
• Iran unveiled a new short-range ballistic missile. The Al-Mobeen or “The Divine Conquest” has a reported range of 300-500 km.
• Now that Warsaw has backed away from its contentious Holocaust law, Israel-Polish ties recovering nicely, thank you very much.
Police are investigating possible corruption in Housing & Construction, Israel’s largest construction firm that builds projects all over the world. Housing & Construction is being probed by the Israel Police for allegedly paying bribes to African officials to win construction contracts.
After the investigation was launched earlier this year, Arison sold her controlling stake in the firm to American-Israeli businessman Naty Saidoff for 1.1 billion shekels ($301.5 million). The transaction was completed last week.
Commentary
• Progressives have a new definition of racism: ‘prejudice plus power.’ What does that mean for Jews?
• For commentary on the domestic scene, Eugene Kontorovich weighs in on the nation state law while Ben-Dror Yemini shares some thoughts on the protest against it.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Peter Lerner: The question of proportionality
– Bassam Tawil: UN enabling Hamas’s war machine
– Marie van der Zyl: Jeremy Corbyn must come out of hiding and do the right thing
– Dave Harden: Kushner is right about the United Nations
– Liora Cohen: Humanitarian aid just a ruse
– Uzay Bulut: The Turkish-Palestinian hate fest
– The Independent (staff-editorial): Jeremy Corbyn may not be antisemitic but he gives too many people grounds for doubt
– Sam Knight: Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitism crisis (Here’s the 2015 Stephen Pollard column Knight refers to)
Featured image: CC0 Pexels/Rebecca Zaal; Arison via YouTube/Shari Arison;
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