Today’s Top Stories
1. Saudi Arabia lost the right to hold an upcoming chess tournament after two Israeli players complained to the event organizers that the Saudis were refusing to give them visas to attend. The World Rapid and Blitz tournament will instead be held in Russia on December 25-31. The Times of Israel reports:
“The Championships were moved from Saudi Arabia to Russia due to the policy adopted by Saudi organizers,” FIDE director general Emil Sutovsky told The Times of Israel in an email.
The arrangement for the Saudis to host the tournament was first questioned last year when several Israeli players were denied the necessary visas.
2. Turns out many Indonesians protesting against the Australian debate on moving its embassy to Jerusalem were paid to show up, and have no idea what they’re demonstrating about. Fairfax Media reporters got the scoop at a recent Jakarta “protest.”
One woman, who usually runs a food stall and who declined to give her name, confirmed she had been paid 35,000 rupiah (a little less than $3.50) to attend on Friday and at the protest held on Tuesday, too.
“The police asked if we were paid rupiah 100,000, I said no it’s just rupiah 35,000. I haven’t been paid yet. I was promised to be paid tonight. He [the organiser] will be come to my house and pay me,” she said.
She did not know who the main speaker was, nor apparently what exactly she was there to “protest”.
I also learned today that rent-a-crowd is a long-time staple of Indonesian politics. It’s hard to see why Australians should care about Jakarta’s official stance on the embassy move — or other issues — if the sturm und drang is just manufactured.
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3. The chairman of Temple University’s board of trustees, Patrick O’Connor slammed Professor Marc Lamont Hill, telling the Philadelphia Inquirer that “Free speech is one thing. Hate speech is entirely different.” Hill, who teaches media studies, is in hot water after addressing the UN and called for Israel’s destruction. Amid the uproar, CNN dropped Hill as one of its analysts.
Meanwhile, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Journalists Syndicate slammed CNN for dropping Hill, saying the “Zionist lobby controls most of the American media.”
4. Independent Headline Jumps the Gun on Netanyahu: The police recommendation to indict Israel’s prime minister on corruption charges is just that – a recommendation. We scored a correction when one paper mischaracterized the development.
In the News
• A Hamas court sentenced to death five Palestinians and an Israeli-Arab for ‘collaborating’ with Israel. The Israeli, identified only as “Amal” was convicted in absentia. Eight other Palestinians were sentenced to hard labor.
• Ynet reports the second installment of $15 million in Qatari funds is expected to be delivered to Gaza this week.
This time, however, both Israel and Hamas have decided to keep the money transfer low key in the wake of the public criticism that was sparked by the first transfer. An Israeli official went as far as saying that photographing the money suitcases would not be allowed . . .
And indeed, the first money transfer was plagued by irregularities, making it impossible for Israel to guarantee that the money reached the right recipients. Furthermore, on the same day as the Qatari money transfer, Hamas’s military leadership also received salaries, making it unclear which funds were transferred and to whom.
Moreover, the criteria for families eligible for Qatari funds after their relative was killed or hurt during clashes with the IDF are not clear enough, with Qatar also handing out money to “unemployment academics” whose identity is unknown.
• The PA recently established a deeply unpopular Palestinian Social Security Law to administer social security benefits on behalf of Palestinians in the West Bank. How unpopular is it? Well, Palestinians who have permits to work in Israel held a protest at the Qalandiyah checkpoint calling on Israel’s Histadrut labor union not to transfer their benefits to Ramallah.
• Worth reading: As Iran strengthens its grip on Iran, analysts tell The Media Line the time has come to reevaluate the West’s support for Beirut.
• I liked this Reuters explainer on the Netanyahu investigation, laying out the allegations, what the police recommendation means, how it all impacts the likelihood of early elections. The New York Times also nicely breaks down the other police probes.
Yesterday, the police recommended charging Netanyahu with fraud, bribery and breach of public trust in the Bezeq affair. The PM is suspected of having an understanding with Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq’s majority shareholder, in which Netanyahu gave the telecom regulatory benefits in exchange for favorable coverage on the Elovitch-owned Walla! News. Netanyahu maintains he innocent of all the allegations.
• A report released by State Comptroller Joseph Shapira criticized Israeli preparedness for dealing with a major fire disaster. Shapira’s report said authorities such as fire and rescue services, the IDF Home Front Command, police and others “failed to implement key recommendations from prior comptroller reports on the issue.”
Citing the damage caused by a wave of fires in 2016 and the Carmel forest fire of 2010, Shapira called the absence of reform and lack of readiness “grave.”
• Drip drip drip: UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn offered his Hanukkah greetings in a clunky video ironically acknowledging a Jewish presence in Jerusalem thousands of years ago and the existence of a temple denied by Palestinians.
Corbyn’s recognition of Hanukkah is by definition recognition of the eternal ties of the Jewish people to the city of Jerusalem. I assume he will now demand that the British government recognises the City of David as capital of Israel & relocates our embassy there. https://t.co/dYs1JvceJI
— Rɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ Kᴇᴍᴘ ⋁ (@COLRICHARDKEMP) December 2, 2018
• Istvan Szavay, a senior official in Hungary’s Jobbik party resigned his leadership positions after a recording surfaced of him admitting to verbally and physically assaulting a Jewish woman. Also in Hungary, a magazine published an antisemitic cover image of one of the country’s Jewish leaders.
• The president of Pitzer College slammed his faculty’s support for suspending a study abroad program with Israel.
• “Carnegie Mellon University police are investigating anti-Semitic words and symbols discovered in a book in Hunt Library on campus.” And campus police are investigating a vandalized menorah at Penn State University. Last, but not least, Stanford University is investigating a large swastika found engraved on a grand piano in a campus concert hall.
• Celebrities say white supremacists used a new video app to trick them into endorsing antisemitic conspiracy theories, reports Buzzfeed. “Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, actor Andy Dick, and rapper Soulja Boy said they didn’t know they were endorsing anti-Semitism on Cameo” and moved to have their videos taken down.
Commentary
• For commentary on the Netanyahu investigation’s political implications, see Lahav Harkov, Anshel Pfeffer and Yonah Jeremy Bob.
• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: The US is Israel’s ally, not its sponsor
– Bassam Tawil: Why Iran funds Palestinian terrorists
– Yoni Ben Menachem: Palestinian Authority and Hamas join forces against the US
– Dr. Reuven Berko: Hamas’ salvation through the gutter
– Daniel Pipes: Pushing for an Israeli victory is the only way to end the conflict with the Palestinians
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND ilirjan rrumbullaku; chess CC BY-SA chrisgj6; money CC0 Public Domain Files; Netanyahu via YouTube/CNN; Favre CC BY-NC-ND Elvis Kennedy;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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