Today’s Top Stories
1. The manhunt continues for the Palestinian who shot to death two Israelis in yesterday’s terror attack at the Barkan Industrial Park in the West Bank. Israel identified the suspect as Ashraf Naalwa, who worked at the park. Kim Levengrond Yehezkel 28, was buried in Rosh Ha’Ayin. Ziv Hajbi’s funeral was underway in Nir Yisrael, near Ashkelon as this roundup was published.
Where's the coverage? Two Israelis brutally murdered yesterday in a horrific terror attack by a Palestinian at the Barkan industrial zone. Yet there's nothing in @Independent @Telegraph @thetimes @BBCWorld. Don't Israeli victims of terror count for the UK media? pic.twitter.com/K3qIRe2A6v
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 8, 2018
2. Israel’s national broadcaster, Kan, is on the brink of losing its rights to broadcast the the next Union of European of Football Associations (UEFA) championship and the 2022 World Cup. According to Israeli media reports:
The reason: UEFA’s demand that Kan will not broadcast the games to Israeli citizens living beyond Israel’s 1967 lines, namely the West Bank. Kan won a bid for the rights to broadcast the games in both Hebrew and Arabic in late 2017.
Citing people within Kan, Yedioth reported UEFA’s demands are a result of a Qatari company acquiring the rights to broadcast the games in the Middle East and North Africa, including the Palestinian territories. This includes any Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
3. Examining the failure of talks trying to calm the Gaza situation, analysts told The Media Line that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas has no intention to ease up on Hamas. According to Israeli media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the cabinet yesterday that Israel is preparing for a military offensive for the likelihood that humanitarian conditions and border clashes will spiral out of control. Props to Australia’s ABC News for a thorough and balanced look at the situation.
4. New York Times: ‘Israel Says’ a Terror Attack Happened: Why did a headline cast doubt on a terror attack when the report itself asserted all the facts?
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
In the News
• A third victim recuperating from the deadly terror at the Barkan industrial park, 54-year-old Sarah Vettori, shared her story for the first time:
Vettori said she never though such a thing could happen but admits that it most likely will not be the last incident of this nature.
“I’ve worked with Arabs for many years, and I’m not afraid. Unfortunately this is not the first and not the last time something like this happens. If he would have found me, I would not have been here. To my relief, he was in shock and did not even look under the table,” she added.
• Shedding light on Naalwa’s motives, the New York Times adds:
The Israeli military and the Israeli security agency known as Shin Bet said they had determined the assault was a terrorist attack, while allowing that the assailant may also have had personal motives.
The Israeli authorities pointed to a message on Facebook that the suspect had apparently posted before the attack as one indication that he was not out only for personal vengeance. According to the Israeli news media, he suggested in the post that he had been called by Allah.
• Since opening in 1982, the West Bank’s Barkan Industrial Park has been a symbol of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, where roughly 7,200 Israelis and Palestinians work side by side. What does yesterday’s terror attack there mean for coexistence there and in the West Bank’s other 19 industrial parks? The Times of Israel visited Barkan.
Amjad Mughar, who has been working at Barkan for the past three years, expressed concern over what he expected to be an increase in daily security checks of Palestinian workers, as well as the possibility that he might lose his work permit altogether.
“I don’t know how I will be able to support my six kids without this job. I really don’t know why someone would do something like this,” Mughar added.
According to Moshe Levran, who works as an export manager at Twitto Plus, one of the Barkan factories, “The Palestinian employees are more distraught over the incident than the Israelis ones are.”
• Outgoing Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat discussed with the Associated Press his plans to remove UNRWA — the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees — from the city.
• White House envoy for Jason Greenblatt told the Times of Israel that the US won’t propose an Israel-Jordan-Palestinian confederation.
• Sappers neutralized an incendiary balloon found in a settlement north of Jerusalem on Monday.
• A new wave of Democrats tests the party’s blanket support for Israel.
• Sara Netanyahu’s trial kicked off yesterday with 45 minutes of pre-trial arguments over procedural matters. Judge Avital Chen scheduled the next pre-trial hearing for November 13. I’m not clear if the month between hearings reflects A) the judge’s hope that the PM’s wife and prosecutors can still settle their issues without a trial, B) delay tactics by one side or the other, C) an overworked legal system, or D) all of the above.
Mrs. Netanyahu and an employee of the Prime Minister’s Office are accused of fraudulently spending $100,000 in state funds to pay for catered meals. The Prime Minister’s wife maintains her innocence. The Jerusalem Post takes a closer look at what happened in the courtroom, what didn’t, and what’s next.
• Former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz has become the wild card of Israeli politics. A poll concluded that if he founded a party — presumably centrist — it would take 12 parliamentary seats, mostly at the expense of Yesh Atid and Zionist Union. In either scenario, Likud would take the most overall Knesset seats.
• The cabinet approved a plan to reunite 1,000 Ethiopian Falash Mura with their relatives in Israel. But for Ethiopians already in Israel, the government’s move won’t go far enough. The JTA adds, “There are some 8,000 Falash Mura in Ethiopia awaiting permission to immigrate to Israel, most of whom have some family members in Israel.”
Commentary
• Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman got op-ed space in the Jerusalem Post to weigh in on Khan al-Ahmar. I think it’s a signal that Israel will soon move to evacuate the illegally-built Bedouin village near Jerusalem.
• The Balata refugee camp and the new Palestinian city of Rawabi are 24 km apart. Joelle Fiss wonders how the camp’s gritty poverty and the city’s shining opulence of coexist.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Moshe Arens: The real issue behind the downing of the Russian plane
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Israel and Russia – back to the future
– Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror: Israel and Russia: Common objectives, separate interests
– Amos Yadlin: The critical security challenges Israel has to face
– Uri Heitner: Don’t fight Abbas’ battles
– Elior Levy: Hamas testing the limits, Abbas intransigent
– David Aaronovitch: Has British Jewry’s stand against antisemitism increased it?
Featured image: CC BY-NC Thom Sanders; soccer CC0 Max Pixel;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please note our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
