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Annexation: Qatar has threatened to stop sending millions of dollars in economic assistance to Gaza if Israel pushes forward with annexation, per Israeli media reports.
“Qatari payments to the impoverished, Hamas-controlled Strip have been key to maintaining quiet there, as well as an unofficial truce between Israel and terror group, and Qatar is reluctant to be seen as enabling any West Bank annexation…”
Meanwhile, senior White House officials are continuing to discuss whether to give a green light to Israeli plans to apply sovereignty to West Bank settlements. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he wants to begin annexing settlements on July 1, though he hasn’t publicly specified the scope of his plans.
Also, property values of West Bank settlements are going up, Bloomberg News reported. Confidence that real estate won’t be transferred to the Palestinians is making West Bank communities more attractive. So does the prospect of streamlining zoning regulations and infrastructure when civilian law replaces military administration.
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At least seven people were killed Tuesday night during airstrikes at a number of locations in Syria. The strikes were attributed to Israel. Reports indicated an Iranian arms shipment had arrived in southern Syria earlier on Tuesday.
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As cases of COVID-19 surge, the Israeli cabinet is considering renewing contentious Shin Bet tracking of virus carriers. The procedures, normally only used for counter-terror operations, involve tracking cellular phone and credit card data. Questions about civil rights are being raised as a result.
“Since the beginning of the week, Israel has seen 1,013 new cases – almost as many as in the entire month of May.”
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Antisemitism Watch: A Tel Aviv U. study reports a new wave of antisemitism sweeping the world. This most current form of an ancient hatred suggests that Jews created or are profiting from the COVID pandemic.
Nevada police arrested a man suspected of shouting “Heil Hitler” while stabbing a Jewish man in Carson City. A Melbourne kindergarten was defaced with antisemitic graffiti. And why do depictions of Jews suckling from pigs still appear on around 40 church exteriors in Germany?
Recommended Reading
- The great myth of Israeli annexation (Alex Traiman)
- Are Israel and Turkey on a collision course in the Eastern Med? (Pesach Benson)
- With Turkey vs Egypt, Israel should brace for Erdogan unhinged (Herb Keinon)
- The axis of evil is in free fall (Prof. Eyal Zisser)
- Iran and the threat of its proxies explained (Griffin Judd)
