Today’s Top Stories
1. A Palestinian terrorist stabbed and killed a US-Israeli man at a shopping center near the Gush Etzyon junction, near Jerusalem today. Ari Fuld, a 40-year-old US immigrant living in Efrat, was a prominent social media personality and Israel activist. He served in an elite IDF paratroop unit before going on to become assistant director of Standing Together, an organization that supports IDF soldiers. Despite being stabbed, Fuld managed to chase after and fire at his attacker before collapsing.
He is survived by his wife and four children. As this roundup was published, the funeral was due to be held at 11:00 PM at the Kfar Etzion settlement.
The attack was filmed by security cameras. The Palestinian, identified as 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin, was subdued by quick-thinking passersby. According to Haaretz:
A source close to the Jabarin family that he informed his parents that he planned on carrying out an attack at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The family subsequently informed security forces though, they could not locate him in the tomb’s vicinity.
See Romi Sussman‘s moving tribute.
He lived as a hero and died as a hero. My big bro is gone.
Thanks for the messages. Really. Just looking for oxygen now…https://t.co/uupt1nQGIP
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) September 16, 2018
2. An alleged Israeli air strike on Damascus International Airport is said to have targeted an Iranian weapons delivery for Hezbollah and other Tehran-backed militias. Per Israeli media reports:
The strike attributed to Israel also reportedly targeted several weapons storage rooms at the airport. Efforts were made to disguise the true purpose of the buildings, the report said, with some of the warehouses labeled “United Nations” or “DHL,” the international mail company, in an apparent effort to evade Israeli intelligence-gathering efforts.
3. JTA: “Belgium has broken its relations with the Palestinian Education Ministry over its honoring of terrorists and will no longer fund the construction of its schools, a government spokesperson said.”
The Hebron-area school in question had been named after Dalal Mughrabi, who was part of the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, in which 38 civilians, including 13 children, were killed.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• The PLO mission in Washington, which served as the Palestinian quasi-embassy, closed it offices on Thursday.
• Will the US Navy abandon Israel over a Chinese company winning a tender to operate the new port of Haifa? In 2015, Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) won a bid to take over the port, which is expected to be operational in 2021. Haaretz raises some questions:
The Americans who were at the conference think Israel lost its mind when it gave the Chinese the keys to Haifa Port. Once China is in the picture, they said, the Israel Navy will not be able to count on maintaining the close relations it has had with the Sixth Fleet . . .
The Chinese company SIPG won the bid to expand the Haifa Port three and a half years ago. The project is slated to be inaugurated in 2021 and calls for the Chinese company, which also operates the Port of Shanghai, to run the Haifa Port for 25 years. Another Chinese firm won the bid to build a new port at Ashdod.
Those decisions were made by the Transportation Ministry and the Ports Authority, with zero involvement of the National Security Council, and without the navy being in the picture at all. The problem lies not only in the implications that ties with the Chinese have for Israel’s relations with the United States, which under the Trump administration is ramping up its rhetoric on China because of the trade wars and tensions in the China Sea.
• According to Mideast reports picked up by the Times of Israel, a top trade official from the United Arab Emirates secretly visited Israel in August to discuss trade ties.
• Prague to open “Czech House” in Jerusalem as possible prelude to an embassy move. The center, which is expected to house a cultural center, as well as offices of the Czech Republic’s trade and tourism offices, is scheduled to open in November, reports the Jerusalem Post.
• A balloon attached to what appeared to be an incendiary device, was found near the West Bank settlement of Beit Horon, near the Israeli city of Modiin. According to the Jerusalem Post, “incidents of this kind are rare in the West Bank and the balloon in Beit Horon is unlikely to have come from Gaza, given the settlement’s distance from the Strip.”
• Australia’s federal government halted $21 million in funding to Union Aid Abroad after discovering taxpayer money found its way to a Palestinian organization that employed a member of a listed terror group.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the MA’AN Development Centre is employing as a field and media co-ordinator, Hamza Zbiedat, who is a supporter and affiliate of terrorist organisation, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) . . .
Zbiedat, who was arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces on October 14, 2017, is the second PFLP affiliate employed the MA’AN Development Centre . . .
The government requires NGOs, like Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA, ensure that their partners, like the MA’AN Development Centre, do not provide direct or indirect support or resources to individuals associated with terrorism.
EXCLUSIVE: The Morrison Govt has suspended funding to a union group and its Palestinian partner organisation after we reveal they have in their employ a second terror affiliate https://t.co/pzRwb6894Y
— Sharri Markson (@SharriMarkson) September 12, 2018
• Pass the tissues: Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who recruits children for martyrdom operations burst into tears during speech urging people not to cut the faces of kids during the Ashura mourning period. Shia Muslims mark Ashura as the day Hussein Ibn Ali, a grandson of Mohammed, died in battle.
Window Into Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suspected of having an understanding with Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq’s majority shareholder, in which the PM gave the telecom giant regulatory benefits in exchange for favorable coverage on the Elovitch-owned Walla! News.
Mrs. Netanyahu was indicted in June on separate charges of misusing state funds. Her trial begins on October 7.
• The IDF formed an advisory committee to clarify working procedures between the between the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and correspondents covering military affairs. The Jerusalem Post explains that membership in the Military Correspondents Association — or even mere recognition as a military correspondent — gives reporters clearance for briefings with senior officers and information on breaking news ahead of the foreign press.
• Firebombs were hurled at a concert venue hosting a mixed-gender Israeli Arab band Siraj in Umm al-Fahm on Saturday. Haaretz reports that local imams opposed the event “not only because of men and women were performing together, but because men and women concertgoers would not be seated separately.”
• For a sense of the domestic discourse, see Yonah Jeremy Bob‘s take on tensions between Netanyahu and outgoing police chief Roni Alsheich.
Around the World
• Drip drip drip: A trade union leader and ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is facing calls to resign for saying Israel could have triggered the party’s antisemitism crisis to distract from “atrocities” it committed.
Here’s just part of what Mark Serwotka said at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign event, as reported by The Independent. (Labour stands by Serwotka.)
He added: “I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I’ll tell you what – one of the best forms of trying to hide from the atrocities that you are committing is to go on the offensive and actually create a story that does not exist for people on this platform, the trade union movement or, I have to say, for the leader of the Labour Party.”
https://twitter.com/Richard4Park/status/1040339382295646208
• Drip drip drip: The president of UK’s Jewish students union resigned from Labour over antisemitism.
• Drip drip drip: Labour accused of ‘inexplicable’ failure to inform MPs of threats from members
• Drip drip drip: The Daily Mail reports a fresh antisemitism row is breaking out over the Labour candidate trying to unseat Boris Johnson in his Uxbridge seat. You can see Ali Milani’s controversial old tweets at The Tab.
• Drip drip drip: According to the Daily Telegraph, “prosecutors are considering bringing charges over six Corbyn-supporting Facebook posts calling for violence against Jews.”
• Drip drip drip: Former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ eloquent denunciation of Labour antisemitism is worth watching.
"My Lords, it pains me to speak about antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred. But I cannot keep silent." Here is my speech from today's debate in the House of Lords about #antisemitism in Britain. pic.twitter.com/JYWSaRxuVt
— The Office of Rabbi Sacks (@rabbisacks) September 13, 2018
• Bishops of the Church of England adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s full definition of antisemitism.
• European Commission to Ireland: Banning Israeli settlement imports would breach EU trade rules.
• German music festival boycotts Brian Eno for pro-BDS views.
Eno was slated to appear at the Electricity Conference in Düsseldorf in October but last week he signed a letter urging a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest that will be held next year in Israel.
Festival organiser Rüdiger Esch told the Westdeutsche Zeitung it “was the only right decision” to disinvite Eno because “we don’t want to invite anyone who supports activities against the State of Israel, even if you cannot agree with the current settlement policy.”
• Thanks to reduced airport fees and Israeli Ministry of Tourism grants, carriers are now flying between Tel Aviv and a number obscure destinations.
• Turkish woman denies joining Israeli army after fake tweet goes viral, tsk.
Commentary
• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Daoud Kuttab and Avi Shlaim.
How is it possible for Avi Shlaim in @guardian to discuss the failure of the Oslo process without mentioning the Palestinian suicide bombers & terror attacks that turned Israeli public opinion? Do Palestinians have no responsibility for the lack of peace? https://t.co/OaXvfORWfO
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 16, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Elliott Abrams: Trump’s Augusta Victoria mistake
– Ghaith al-Omari: Why Trump’s closure of the Palestinian diplomatic mission could backfire
– Reuven Berko: Trump train didn’t stop for the Palestinians
– Dov Waxman: Punishing the PLO isn’t going to win Trump any ‘deal of the century’
– Daniel Beaudoin: UNRWA: What will be the repercussions of Trump’s funding cuts?
– Ariel Kahana: Putting the PLO in its place
– Dennis Ross, Dave Harden, David Makovsky: Reshaping US aid to the Palestinians
– Mitchell Bard: The Palestinian victimhood narrative no longer sells
– Robert Satloff: The myth of ‘failed’ peace
– Melanie Phillips: Demonizing Israel and the hijacking of language
– Douglas Feith: Oslo at 25: A personal view
– Udeid Nassar: Hezbollah is a state above the state
– Daniel Byman: Another war in Lebanon?
– Seth Frantzman: How the US could lose Iraq to creeping Iranian influence
– Tanya Gold: Among Britain’s antisemites
– Yuval Arad: We must never stop searching for my father, Ron Arad
Featured image: CC BY Nick Page; destroyer via US Navy; Sara Netanyahu via YouTube/IsraeliPM; Eno via YouTube/Red Bull Music Academy;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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