Today’s Top Stories
1. Mahmoud Abbas’ intransigence is making the Palestinian Authority chief irrelevant to efforts to calm Gaza. Israel began transferring Qatari-funded fuel to the Strip without Ramallah’s consent or coordination. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of “suffocating Gaza.” More on that at Haaretz and Israel HaYom.
Meanwhile, Egypt is pressuring Abbas to get on board with Gaza talks. Cairo threatening to quit its mediation efforts if the PA chief doesn’t play ball.
2. Netanyahu tapped an American-Israeli to be the next Bank of Israel Governor. Meet Amir Yaron, a professor of banking and finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Yaron replaces Karnit Flug, whose five-year term ends in November.
.@Wharton professor Dr. Amir Yaron has been named the next Governor of the Bank of Israel; the @Penn economist—who holds a doctorate from @UChicago—will replace Dr. Karnit Flug, the first female head of Israel's central bank. pic.twitter.com/fWyoInIauc
— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) October 9, 2018
3. The search for the Palestinian who shot and killed two Israelis in a West Bank industrial park continued. PA security forces joined the manhunt.
The Palestinian security official said the PA has been helping Israel search for Na’alowa because it “does not support violent acts and wants to maintain security and stability” in the West Bank.
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In the News
• Mayor Nir Barkat’s plan to oust UNRWA from Jerusalem could face legal hurdles.
• Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit thew a monkey wrench into plans to bring 1,000 Falash Mura from Ethiopia to reunite them with family in Israel. Mandelblit told the cabinet that the Ethiopian reunification plan would make it difficult for the state to justify restrictions on Arab family reunifications.
The legal and bureaucratic complications begin with the Interior Ministry, which does not recognize the Falash Mura as Jewish, meaning the government won’t apply the Law of Return. Rather, the some 8,000 Falash Mura currently in Ethiopia need special permission to immigrate. Family reunification policies for Palestinians are more stringent amid concerns that terrorists would use it to enter Israel.
• Worth reading: Globes takes readers inside Iron Dome’s secret manufacturing plant.
• Guides for the perplexed? The Knesset is mulling legislation to allow unlicensed tour guides for pilgrims and certain foreign groups. Critics say the bill would skew tourists’ impressions of Israel, dramatically lower industry standards and threaten the livelihoods of Israel’s estimated 5,000 active guides.
• “German politicians on Monday accused Bremen’s Senator of the Interior Ulrich Mäurer of antisemitism and urged him to resign after he said Israel executes Palestinians on the Gaza-Israel border.”
Commentary
• Tweet of the day from journalist Michele Chabin:
Spotted this today in a Palestinian refugee camp. While many of the products being sold were from the West Bank & beyond, many were made in Israel. #BDS is a political tool. In reality Palestinians love – and eat – Israeli junk food. #bdsfail pic.twitter.com/DFBWGYrp8z
— Michele Chabin (@MicheleChabin1) October 9, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Vivian Bercovici: The next war in the Middle East
– Yossi Yehoshua: A powder keg in the West Bank
– Dr. Reuven Berko: The same old Sinwar
– Yaakov Lappin: ‘The war between wars’: Israel vs Iran in Syria
– Moshe Koppel, Eugene Kontorovich: Why all the outrage over Israel’s nation-state law?
– Yaakov Ahimeir: Tbe travesty of Palestinian education
– Dow Marmur: Jeremy Corbyn and the insidiousness of anti-Semitism
Featured image: CC0 alberthbq; Iron Dome CC BY-NC Israel Defense Forces;
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