Today’s Top Stories
1. JTA: “The Dutch Foreign Ministry officially is urging Jews no matter where they are to speak out against Israel’s presence in the West Bank.”
An official ministry document listing as an objective actions that “encourage diaspora Jewish communities to voice their opposition to the occupation” appeared in a report published earlier this year on Dutch funding for the Breaking the Silence group.
It’s an unusual statement for European governments offering funding for organizations that they say are promoting peace or coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians. Breaking the Silence is a group of Israeli combat veterans who oppose the occupation.
Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands’ minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, once worked for UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides assistance to Palestinians, and is the wife of a former Palestinian Authority diplomat. Her ministry pledged $218,000 to Breaking the Silence in its 2018 budget.
2. “Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who met late Monday night, resolved to encourage Arab nations to establish economic relations with Israel,” according to an Arab report picked up by the Jerusalem Post.
3. The Irish senate advanced a bill criminalizing the import and sales of goods from West Bank settlements. The ban still faces a number of legislative hurdles before being signed into law; further debate is scheduled on Tuesday. According to the Jerusalem Post, “The bill calls for a fine of up to 250,000 euros or five years in jail for those found guilty of such activity.”
The Times of Israel reports officials in Jerusalem are keeping their cool:
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday evening declined to comment. But in private conversations, Israeli officials appeared unperturbed, estimating that the government in Dublin will ultimately prevent the legislation from coming into force, even, if need be, blocking it technically from advancing.
Irish critics of the legislation say the legislation breaches international trade agreements and that only the European Union can enact such a ban. More at the Irish Times.
4. Whitewash: PBS on Iranian Jews: Whitewashing the Iranian regime may not have been the intention, but a dispatch’s lack of context does exactly that.
5. I’m pleased to see that HonestReporting’s legal action against Airbnb caught the attention of the Jerusalem Post and The Federalist.
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In the News
• Chad conditioned its restoration of ties with Israel on ‘extensive’ weapons sales and security cooperation, per Israeli media reports. Chad and other West African nations are fighting Boko Haram’s jihadist insurgency.
• The son of Brazil’s president-elect confirmed to Jared Kushner that the country’s embassy will move to Jerusalem.
“The question should not be whether we will do it, but when we will do it,” Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro told Jared Kushner during a meeting in Washington on Tuesday.
• For once, the grass is finally greener on our side. Thanks to winter rains, drone footage picked up by the Times of Israel shows foliage returning to Israel’s scorched Gaza-border areas.
• Palestinians claim more than 60 babies have been born from sperm smuggled by Palestinian prisoners out of Israeli jails.
• Globes takes a closer look at the challenges Israel faces in building the EastMed gas pipeline with Greece, Cyprus, and Italy.
• The IDF Home Front Command’s Search And Rescue Brigade was accepted as a member of the UN International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG). The Jerusalem Post explains what this means:
With accreditation, the Home front Command’s rescue unit can now join aid missions under the auspices of the UN to disaster-stricken countries around the world- including those countries who have no formal relations with Israel or even countries considered adversaries.
• Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, a talking head who periodically appears on CNN, stirred up controversy by calling for “a free Palestine from the river to the sea.” At a UN event, no less. The Jerusalem Post explains:
Hill accused Israel of denying “citizenship rights and due process to Palestinians just because they are not Jewish,” and expressed his support for the BDS movement. Hill stressed that, although peace is an ideal, “we must not romanticize or fetishize it. We must promote non-violence at every opportunity, but cannot endorse narrow politics that shames Palestinians for resisting, for refusing to do nothing in ethnic cleansing.”
CNN's Marc Lamont Hill appears to call for violence against Israel and for the elimination of Israel, says, "Justice requires a free Palestine from the river to the sea."
The phrase "from the river to the sea" is a phrase used by those who believe Israel should be eliminated. pic.twitter.com/26TL205Ylb
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 28, 2018
• Around the world: A Holocaust scholar at Columbia University found swastikas and antisemitic slurs spray-painted on her office wall. Racist and antisemitic abuse in English football rose for the sixth year in a row. The Scottish National Party expelled a blogger accused of writing an antisemitic post. Houston authorities are investigating a synagogue fire as possible arson.
Commentary
• Here are the commentaries I’m reading today:
– Peter Lerner: It’s not so simple for Israel to just ‘end the occupation’
– Avi Bell: Is Airbnb violating the Fair Housing Act?
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Trump’s statements on Israel will boomerang
– Wall St. Journal (staff-ed): Education and antisemitism (click via Twitter)
– Yoni Ben Menachem: Iran prepares for escalation along Israel’s northern border
Featured image: CC BY-ND Willy Verhulst; Irish symbol via Wikimedia Commons; Dutch flag CC0 pxhere;
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