Today’s Top Stories
1. Gag order partially lifted on arrests of Jewish extremists in firebombing of Palestinian home in Duma. Identities of those arrested remain sealed.
2. IDF demolishes home of terror mastermind behind the Henkin murders.
3. UN Atomic Energy watchdog says Iran was developing nuclear weapons much later than previously believed. According to the New York Times report:
Tehran conducted “computer modeling of a nuclear explosive device” before 2004. It then resumed the efforts during President Bush’s second term and continued them into President Obama’s first year in office.
Israel and the Wave of Terror
• A Hungarian mayor blamed Israel and Jews for the Paris terrorist attacks, then apologized when his comments were made public.
“What happened in Paris is clear evidence that certain business circles, dare I say business circles which are likely backed by the Jewish state, are trying to pit Christian Europe against the Muslims,” he said, according to JTA news agency.
A recording of his comments were leaked to Nyugat.hu news website, causing an outcry.
However, Huszar was quick to apologise for what he called his “unfortunate wording” and posted a statement on the municipal website. In it, he claimed that “it was not my aim to offend anyone, especially not people of Jewish religion”. I apologize from those whom I offended. I am sorry for what happened,” he continued.
• Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to German Parliament: “I fear that wherever they label products based on their place of manufacture, they will also, someday, label people based on where they’re from.”
• Panel: State Department propaganda campaign against Islamic State is not working.
The developments are the latest indication of continued turmoil in the Obama administration’s effort to erode the online appeal of a terrorist group that has used a massive presence on social media to attract recruits, radicalize followers and incite attacks against the West.
Meanwhile, US sending special forces to Iraq to fight Isis on the ground. And military officials are calling for a wider set of targets for airstrikes.
If the United States does not further expand its target set, or loosen its rules of engagement, even intensified airstrikes will be ineffective, said retired Navy Cmdr. Chris Harmer, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
…
“We are loath to strike those because we are going to hit civilians,” Harmer said. “If the counter argument is we cannot hit civilian casualties, there is no way we can hit the Islamic State because they are intermingled.”
• Poll shows Israeli right gaining in popularity.
Around the World
• The divisive BDS debate at the Park Slope Food Coop in New York has resurfaced.
• Editor’s code for UK publications adds rule about accuracy of headlines in news stories, and that they match the content below them.
• Republican front-runner Donald Trump announces plans to visit Israel in near future.
Commentary/Analysis
• Media critic Ira Rivkin sums up the feelings on both sides about the upcoming departure of New York Times Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren.
The Times is arguably the world’s most influential newspaper and the Jerusalem job is among its most visible perches. That means only the thick-skinned need apply. I’m talking rhino-hide thick.
…
The charges of bias fly fast and furious. And they come, at one time or another, from just about every faction – from the far-right and the far-left, from Israelis and Palestinians, from those in-country and those outside it. From every angry troll with a keyboard.
• Jerusalem Post’s diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon analyzes Israel’s standing in the world as evident at the Paris climate change conference.
With an earthquake sweeping through the Middle East and countries all over the world trying to figure out how to deal with the aftershocks, and with economies around the world more and more driven by technology – which Israel is very good at – more and more of these countries want to deal with Israel, even if they disagree with certain aspects of the current government’s policies.
Israel may not be the darling of the world’s ball, but – as was on full display in Paris – isolated it is not.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Dennis Ross: Misreading the Middle East, Again
– Jonathan Tobin: Why It Matters That Iran Lied
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