Israel-Hamas Cease-fire, Airstrikes in Syria & Spotlight on UAE

The Hamas terror group has agreed to a tentative cease-fire agreement with Israel, thus ending a nearly month-long round of low-level confrontations. While Israel did not explicitly confirm the truce, the government announced that it was fully re-opening crossings into Gaza to allow for fuel and other goods to pass through.

Officials from Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations mediated the indirect negotiations between the sides, with Hamas claiming that the deal would result in “several projects… to serve our people in the Gaza Strip and contribute to mitigating” the effects of the difficult living conditions in the Palestinian enclave.

On August 6, terrorists in Gaza resumed launching balloon-borne incendiary and explosive devices into southern Israel, causing mass ecological damage. Concurrently, rockets were repeatedly fired toward Israeli communities located near the shared border.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed gratitude to the United Arab Emirates following the first-ever direct flight between the countries. The El Al aircraft carried a high-ranking US delegation led by senior Trump Administration adviser Jared Kushner in addition to a team of Israeli officials. It came just weeks after Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi agreed to a US-mediated agreement to normalize bilateral relations.

Netanyahu also revealed that he had, in turn, invited Emirati officials to the Jewish state,  saying, “We’ll give them the same red carpet [greeting] they gave us.”

It remains unclear if UAE leaders have accepted the invitation.

Netanyahu’s comments came on the backdrop of reports that he, along with Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, in 2018 met with Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi. 

Meanwhile, Israel’s National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat on Tuesday morning attended an impromptu prayer service  at the Israeli delegation’s hotel. He was accompanied by a group of Dubai-based Jews who had traveled to the Emirati capital to celebrate the agreement. Estimates peg the size of the UAE’s Jewish community at somewhere between a few hundred and 1,500.

A top Palestinian official has reiterated his belief that acts of terrorism constitute a legitimate response to the recent normalization deal between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates.

“All the possibilities are open to all the types of resistance… against all expressions of the occupation,” Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub told official Palestinian media in reference to Israel.

Fatah is the ruling party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Rajoub, a former head of the PA’s Preventive Security Force in the West Bank, is widely considered a front-runner to replace Abbas some time in the future.

Palestinians have perpetrated two terror attacks against Israelis in recent weeks.

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday night allegedly conducted airstrikes targeting military installations near Damascus, Syria. The attacks killed up to 11 Iranian-backed fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog group.

While the IDF did not comment on the incident, Jerusalem previously confirmed that it had green-lighted hundreds, if not thousands, of strikes in Syria with a view to preventing Tehran from establishing a permanent military presence there.

Earlier this month, the IDF struck assets belonging to the Syrian army in response to a thwarted terrorist attack along the Golan Heights border.

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson is reportedly in advanced negotiations to purchase the US Ambassador to Israel’s residence in Herzliya Pituah, located just north of Tel Aviv.

The asking price? Some $80 million.

The Trump Administration is reportedly eager to fast track the deal so that it is completed before the US presidential elections in November.  In doing so, the White House hopes to ensure that the May 2018 transfer of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a fait accompli that cannot be reversed by a future US leader.

   

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Antisemitism Watch: Social media platform TikTok has instituted a “zero tolerance” policy for accounts disseminating antisemitism and other forms of bigotry.  The announcement comes as the controversial, Chinese-developed app is facing blow back over what has been dubbed the “Holocaust Challenge,” in which users portray themselves as victims of the World War II Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews.

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• Timeline: Israel, UAE ‘normalization’ Moves Follow Years of Failed Peace Initiatives (Jeffrey Heller, Reuters)

• With the UAE Deal, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement is Over (Emily Schrader, Jerusalem Post)

• Why They Scrawl ‘Free Palestine’ on Synagogues (Jonathan S. Tobin, Jewish News Syndicate)