Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel will resume selling electricity to Gaza after a six-month hiatus. The move came at the request of the PA, though it’s not yet clear what prompted it. The 120 megawatts that Israel previously sent the Strip daily will resume within days, according to Haaretz.
2. Singapore banned a documentary about Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi from being screened at a Palestinian film festival. Tamimi was arrested after unsuccessfully trying to provoke an Israeli soldier by slapping him in front of video cameras. Singaporean officials described the film, “The Radiance of Resistance,” as a “skewed narrative” and “inflammatory.” Reuters adds:
It was screened at a number of festivals worldwide in 2017 and won Best Documentary at the Respect Human Rights Film Festival in Belfast, but has become even more topical following Tamimi’s arrest last month.
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3. Bad blood between Hamas and Islamic State in the Sinai is escalating. In a video released by Islamic State, a man accused of collaborating with Hamas was executed. The Washington Post explains:
The video cited Hamas’ crackdown on Islamist militant groups in Gaza and their failure to prevent the U.S. declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as reasons for attacking the group. It begins with a video clip of President Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem last month.
The confrontation between the two militant groups has been building for more than a year, as Hamas has cracked down on Islamic State supporters in Gaza, and tightened its border with the Sinai in an attempt to repair relations with Egypt.
4. Video Podcast: How Israel Is Perceived in South Africa: HR’s Simon Plosker discusses with South African radio personality Howard Feldman of Chai FM how Israel is viewed in South Africa, how the history of apartheid impacts those perceptions, and more.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Following up on US threats to cut financial aid to the Palestinians and a key UN agency assisting them, the Times of Israel and Associated Press examine the nature and numbers behind Washington’s donations. And the New York Times takes a closer look at the role of the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA).
• The IDF struck what it called “central terrorist infrastructure” (possibly a terror tunnel?) in Gaza on Wednesday night in retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire earlier in the day.
• IDF military police are launching a criminal investigation into the death of a disabled Palestinian during clashes along the Gaza border in December. Palestinians claim wheel-chair-bound Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh was shot and killed by IDF sniper fire. An initial army probe ruled out sniper fire as the cause of death, but couldn’t determine how he died.
The military said it was hindered in its investigation by the fact that Palestinian authorities did not share the details of Abu Thurayeh’s injuries from the demonstration.
• Guatemala offers to help countries move their embassies to Jerusalem.
Iranian Situation
• Cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz discussed the Iranian threat and the country’s unrest in a Q+A with the Times of Israel.
. . . Steinitz posited that most Iranians recognize Israel as an economic powerhouse and are interested in establishing friendly ties with the Jewish state.
“Honestly, I don’t understand why Iranian taxpayers have to spend approximately one billion dollars every year on a Lebanese militia,” he said, referring to the Hezbollah terror organization, an Iranian Shiite proxy bent on Israel’s destruction, among other goals.
• How social media is being used by both sides in Iran’s turmoil.
• Plenty of commentary/analysis of what’s going on in Iran.
– Annika Hernroth-Rothstein: Iranian Jews in a time of protest
– Anshel Pfeffer: Iran protests prove the regime’s days of excusing away its failures are over
– Yves Mamou: Is Hezbollah eating the Iranian people’s bread?
– Eli Lake: The West can help Iranians take back their country
– Eldad Beck: Europe’s deafening silence
– Ray Takeyh: The Islamic Republic of Iran is doomed
– Daniel Schwammenthal: Why are the Europeans so silent on the Iran protests?
• Must read: Former refusenik Natan Sharansky lays out why Western silence emboldens the mullahs and fails the protesters.
Revolutions take place when enough people simultaneously cross that fateful line between silent questioning and open dissent, between cowering in fear and standing up for freedom. Once they do so, the regime can no longer contain the upsurge of opposition and must either begin to liberalize or collapse.
This is why a policy of silence on the part of world leaders is so misguided. What matters to Iranians debating whether to cross this decisive threshold is how much they dislike their own government, as well as their knowledge that the free world — those who share the basic principles for which they are fighting — stands behind them in their moment of truth . . .
Our leaders must not be misled by the argument that publicly siding with Iran’s dissidents will give the regime an excuse to blame the protests on foreign meddling or crack down even harder on dissidents. The government in Tehran will do these things no matter what, since a regime as threatened as Iran’s is right now will take any steps in its power to deflect and suppress opposition.
Around the World
• French Jews protest reprint of anti-Semitic essays from Holocaust era.
• Swastikas painted on two Paris-area kosher shops.
• Does this mean the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer web site is really just another tentacle in an international Jewish media conspiracy?
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Ahmed Charai: Trump’s Jerusalem move could provide a pathway to peace
– Avi Issacharoff: As economy crumbles and with ‘nothing to lose,’ war in Gaza grows likely
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinians always on the wrong side of history
– Raphael Ahren: Trump’s Mideast policy: Diplomatic Darwinism in the quest for the ultimate deal
– Grant Rumley: Mahmoud Abbas doesn’t have a Trump strategy
– Ariel Bolstein: The new front against BDS
– New York Post (staff-ed): Team Trump finally starts treating Palestinians fairly
Featured image: CC0 PublicDomainPictures; electricity CC BY-NC Ariel Dovas; flags CC BY-NC-ND Leo Prieto; Iran CCO Max Pixel; Sharansky via YouTube/BBYO;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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