Today’s Top Stories
1. Good news and bad news from the UK Labour party. The good news is that the party adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s full working definition of antisemitism. The bad news is that the party leaders also attached a statement that the definition will not “in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of the Palestinians.” Jewish activist Richard Angell’s response quoted by the Jewish Chronicle sums up the exasperation:
“A ‘right to be racist’ protection when debating the Middle East is not just wrong, it harms the cause of peace but it will also continue a culture where Jewish people cannot feel at home in Labour.”
As for the party leader himself, Jeremy Corbyn maintained that it is not anti-Semitic to describe the creation of Israel as racist. (He was overruled by Labour’s National Executive Committee.)
2. Israel’s High Court of Justice gave the state permission to evacuate the illegally built West Bank Bedouin Village of Khan al-Ahmar. The justices said “the main issue in the case was not whether the eviction could be carried out, but where the residents would be relocated.” Haaretz coverage.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. An Abu Dhabi judo event was reinstated after United Arab Emirates organizers promised to treat the Israeli team equally. Israeli sporting officials hailed the move. The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam begins on Oct. 25.
Last year, the UAE snubbed Israel by refusing to play the Israeli anthem or fly the Israeli flag when Tal Flicker won a gold medal.
4. Video: Cutting Funds to UNRWA: Will it Stop the Violence? Washington defunding the UNRWA, which supports Palestinian refugees, is more complicated than you think. HR’s Daniel Pomerantz discussed the issue with former Palestinian negotiator Gaith Al-Omari on i24 News.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar admitted the weekly March of Return clashes were staged to avert internal crisis. Ynet coverage.
Gaza’s Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar openly admitted on Tuesday that the weekly “March of Return” protests staged on the Gaza border in recent months were intended to avert an internal crisis and divert pressure onto the Israelis.
“After the reconciliation efforts (between Hamas and Fatah) reached an impasse, a number of factions planned to cause an internal explosion in the Gaza Strip, but the Marches of Return thwarted the plan,” Sinwar said during a Hamas conference in the coastal enclave.
• Israel shut down the Erez border crossing with Gaza following violent clashes and heavy damage to infrastructure.
• Explaining Washington’s rationale for defunding the UN agency overseeing Palestinian refugees, US Ambassador David Friedman said that $10 billion in aid to the Palestinians since 1994 “were bringing the region no closer to peace or stability, not even by a millimeter.”
• The IDF acknowledged carrying out airstrikes on 202 Iranian targets in Syria since 2017. The hits “were mostly shipments of advanced weaponry, as well as military bases and infrastructure, which the IDF officials said drove Iranian forces to abandon some posts.” More on the story at Reuters.
• After Jerusalem suggested it could strike Iranian targets in Iraq, The Media Line takes a closer look at what Tehran’s designs for Iraq mean for Israel.
Window Into Israel
• Eurovision organizers demand preparation work on Shabbat and free expression for participants . . .
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was in lockdown this afternoon as dozens of protesters tried to break in. Per the Jerusalem Post, “The demonstrators are retired policemen protesting that their pensions are not equal that of retired career IDF soldiers and officers.”
• Here’s a by the numbers look at Israel’s population, based on figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. More details at the Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post and Haaretz.
– 8.9 million: Overall population
– 162,000: population increase (a 1.9% rise) from last year
– 6.6 million: Jews (74.4% of the population)
– 1.8 million: Arabs (20.9% of the population)
– 418,000: Other minorities (4.7% of the population)
– 166,000: foreigners in Israel not included in the stats
– 175,000: babies born in past year
– 43,000: deaths in past year
– 25,000: new immigrants in past year
– 52,809: marriages in past year
– 14,819: couples separated in past year
– 4.2: percentage of unemployment in past year
– 313,000: students in higher education
• For commentary on the domestic scene, the funeral of Sen. John McCain had columnist Nahum Barnea wondering about Israel’s own political polarization.
Around the World
• London’s Metropolitan Police are investigating Labour party members who may have violated hate crimes laws when making a series of offensive comments about Jews. LBC Radio received a dossier of 45 antisemitism cases brought to Labour’s disputes panel, then showed them to Mak Chisty, who previously headed the police’s efforts against hate crimes:
He has reviewed all 45 anti-Semitism cases within this dossier and found 17 should have been reported to the police as a race-hate incident for investigation.
And he told LBC a further four – including the ones detailed above – warrant a criminal investigation as hate crimes.
• Why is Germany silent on Jeremy Corbyn’s praise of Munich Olympic terrorist?
• Anti-Semitic flyers appear outside Detroit church.
• The president New York’s Vassar College condemned a “disorientation guide” that urged students to “slap a Zionist.” More details at Legal Insurrection.
Commentary
• Worth reading: Ninety-three year-old Stanislaw Aronson survived the Warsaw ghetto uprising, fought in the Polish underground and then in Israel’s War of Independence. He sees antisemitism spreading in Europe and worries people will repeat the mistakes that led to the Holocaust. Here are the lessons he wants to pass on.
Confronting lies sometimes means confronting difficult truths about one’s self and one’s own country. It is much easier to forgive yourself and condemn another, than the other way round; but this is something that everyone must do.
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels commenting on UK Labour’s antisemitism problem . . .
– Danny Stone: Why the way we spell antisemitism is as important as how we define it
– Anshel Pfeffer: Labour’s decision on antisemitism will not solve the party’s existential crisis
– Jon Craig: Labour’s antisemitism announcement not what it seems
– Lyn Julius: Corbyn’s worldview turns the truth on its head
– Eldad Beck: Corbyn will play the victim
– Keith Kahn-Harris: After Labour’s antisemitism U-turn, Jewish people should stick with the party
– Times of London (staff-ed): Labour takes a first step towards rebuilding trust with Jews
• Tweet of the day goes to Paul Gross . . .
Wait… so, the full definition of antisemitism is accepted… but with an amendment ensuring “free speech to criticize Israel”? Given that the definition does not prevent criticism of Israel, the assumption must be that the amendment is there to allow something beyond criticism. https://t.co/jTn9Ng90Yn
— Paul Gross (@pauldgross) September 4, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Amos Harel: Israel signals lull in Syria strikes is over, resuming military action against Iran
– Yoav Limor: In this war, everything goes
– New York Post (staff-ed): Trump is pushing the Middle East to face reality in Palestine
– Yossi Beilin: UNRWA: Right decision, wrong time
– Ben-Dror Yemini: A Jordan-Palestinian confederation—why not?
– Yoni Ben-Menachem: Jordan doesn’t want a confederation
– Meir Indor: The danger of confederation
– Prof. Efraim Inbar: The Oslo process is a proven failure
– Abdulrahman Al-Rashed: Israel’s threat and the birth of Baghdad’s government
– New York Daily News (staff-ed): Lana’s off key: A musician folds to anti-Israel BDS
Featured image: CC BY Nicolas Alejandro; Corbyn via YouTube/JC Sendon; jet CC BY-NC Israel Defense Forces; Israeli children CC BY Kristoffer Trolle; Vassar via Facebook/Vassar College;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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