Today’s Top Stori
1. Two Israelis were murdered in a terror attack in the Barkan Industrial Park this morning. A Palestinian in his 20s who worked at the park tied up and shot two co-workers. A third Israel was injured. As this roundup was published, Israeli security personnel were still searching for the Palestinian, whose name has not yet been released.
The murder victims were identified as Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi.
Four young children—a one-year-old baby, a four-year-old boy, and seven-year-old twins—will grow up without a parent after a Palestinian assailant murdered 29-year-old Kim Yehezkel and 35-year-old Ziv Hagbi earlier today. Each also left behind a spouse, parents, and siblings. pic.twitter.com/d3h5wuZK2g
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) October 7, 2018
2. Mahmoud Abbas blew up a deal to send $60 million of badly needed fuel to the electricity-starved Gaza Strip — enough to last for six months. Delivery of the Qatari-funded diesel fuel was to have begun on Thursday. As a result, Egypt accused the PA chief of derailing the Gaza talks and threatened to end its mediation.
See related commentary by Amos Harel on what this all means for Israel.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. The trial of Sara Netanyahu began today in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. The PM’s wife is accused of fraudulently spending $100,000 in state funds to pay for catered meals. Ezra Saidoff, who served as deputy director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office was also indicted in what has become known as the “Prepared Food Affair.” Mrs. Netanyahu maintains her innocence.
Read up on all the background at the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Times of Israel.
4. Vogue Can’t Glamourize Terror: Vogue’s photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists and show-biz production can’t whitewash who Ahed Tamimi really is.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar now claims he was duped into last week’s Yediot Ahronot interview. The Gaza strongman insisted in a statement first picked up by the Washington Post he would never knowingly give an interview to an Israeli paper. Things took an even stranger turn when the Italian journalist who interviewed Sinwar, Francesca Borri, said she was tricked by Yediot. This report from Ynet addressed Sinwar’s version of events but not Borri’s, so stay tuned . . .
• Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat will remove UNRWA from the city and transfer the UN agency’s schools, clinics, sports centers and other services for Palestinian refugees to Israeli authorities. Associated Press coverage:
The US decision to stop funding #UNRWA creates an opportunity to deal immediately & decisively with the PA's intention to perpetuate the 'refugee problem' & encourage incitement. #Jerusalem residents will not be political pawns for the PA's dangerous strategy to destroy Israel!
— Archive:Mayor Nir Barkat (@ArchiveNir) October 4, 2018
• The Times of Israel introduces readers to Aziz Abu Sara, who until recently was seeking to become the first Palestinian mayor of Jerusalem. He and the other city council candidates on his list dropped out of the race amid threats from other Palestinians. And Sara faces the possibility of losing the residency permit that allows him to live in eastern Jerusalem.
Palestinians living in eastern Jerusalem do not have Israeli citizenship but are allowed to vote in municipal elections. They have historically boycotted local elections, saying that voting legitimizes Israeli authority over the city. Palestinians make up around 37 percent of the city’s eligible voters. Municipal elections across Israel are scheduled for October 30.
• Police foiled an attempt to smuggle cell phones by aerial drone into the Nafha Prison. According to Israeli media reports, the drone, phones and cash were impounded, along with “written evidence with intelligence value.”
• Firefighters battling a massive blaze at Moshav Ein HaBosar, near the Gaza border, suspect it was started by incendiary balloons.
Eli Cohen, a spokesman of the southern district’s fire department, said that “since this is a landfill fire, it could burn for several days and the smoke will continue spreading at the wind’s direction.”
• To comply with a court order on prison overcrowding, Israel will release 300 security prisoners and 700 criminals.
• Netanyahu, Putin agree to meet after downing of Russian plane over Syria.
Window Into Israel
• Yemenite families of disappeared children filed a class-action lawsuit, seeking to force Israel to accept responsibility for at least 69 children who disappeared from state institutions in the 1950s, per Israeli media reports.
• The head of Israel’s Anti-Trust Authority wants to see the state open up to food imports. More at Bloomberg News:
Power in the country’s foodmaking business is “much too concentrated” in the hands of five firms, including Strauss Group Ltd., Nestle SA’s Osem unit and Tnuva Food Industries Ltd., said Michal Halperin, director general of Israel’s Antitrust Authority. Introducing foreign competition would help bring down grocery bills in Israel, a major contributor to one of the highest costs of living among developed countries, she said.
• Vice News visited Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers in Tel Aviv and Kampala to learn more about their life both in and after Israel.
Around the World
• A Palestinian activist suspended from the Labour Party for alleged anti-Semitism was chosen to represent the UK on a government-backed trade mission earlier this year. Britain’s Department for International Trade said it would review its vetting process after the Daily Mail disclosed that Sameh Habeeb, a former editor of the Palestine Telegraph, joined a July delegation to Malaysia and Indonesia.
• Austria is preparing to ban Hezbollah and Hamas symbols according to European reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post. The ban, which is due to take effect in March, will also include symbols of the Muslim Brotherhood, and other European ultra-nationalist groups. Austria already prohibits symbols associated with Nazis, Islamic State and Al-Qaida, among others.
• University of Michigan student: I was forced to attend ‘antisemitic lecture’ comparing Netanyahu to Hitler.
• More than 80 fliers promoting a University of Missouri event featuring an Israeli journalist were “systematically torn down.” Daniel Swindell, an alumnus who helped promote the event and repeatedly hung new fliers after they were repeatedly ripped up said on Facebook that such behavior was common on campus.
• Police in Olney, Maryland, arrested a man suspected of vandalizing a local synagogue with Palestinian slogans. Security footage also caught Eric Sponaugle defacing a nearby Chic-fil-A with messages attacking what he called the company’s homophobia.
• A Jewish community center in Fairfax, Virginia, was vandalized with swastikas on Saturday. Local reports said police are reviewing surveillance footage to identify the suspect.
• Will this be the next BDS battleground? Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber named next chief of BBC Philharmonic.
• Swedish prosecutors appealed a decision not to deport Gazan who firebombed synagogue. Last month, a Swedish appeals court ruled that 22-year-old Gaza-born Feras Alnadim could not be deported back to the PA because he might face Israeli reprisals.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Seth Frantzman: Too many agendas in Gaza preventing quiet
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Is Hamas sending a message to Israel it’s ready for war?
– Yoaz Hendel: Sinwar’s lying gun
– David Bercuson: Putin may not want a fight with Israel, but he may get it
– Hanin Ghaddar, Matthew Levitt: Hezbollah’s urban missile factories put civilians at risk
– Ron Lauder: The newest form of anti-semitism is hatred of Israel
– David Suissa: Why are Israeli voters so stubborn?
– Zachary Thacher: Progressives for Israel
Featured image: CC BY-SA Michele Ursino; Wellber via YouTube/SWR Classic;
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