Today’s Top Stories
1. Haaretz: The ongoing US government shutdown is imperiling aid to the Palestinian security services.
2. Israel will reportedly seek $250 billion in compensation from eight Arab states that forced Jews to leave property and assets behind during the founding of the Jewish state. According to Israeli media reports, we’re specifically talking Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Iran.
For the past 18 months, utilizing the services of an international accountancy firm, the Israeli government has quietly been researching the value of property and assets that these Jews were forced to leave behind, the TV report said.
It is now moving toward finalizing claims as the Trump Administration prepares for the possible unveiling of its much-anticipated Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal. A 2010 Israeli law provides that any peace deal must provide for compensation for assets of Jewish communities and individual Jews forced out of Arab countries and Iran . . .
The Palestinian Authority has sought over $100 billion in compensation from Israel for assets left behind by Arab residents of what is today Israel . . . .
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Egypt is pushing CBS News to pull the plug on an interview with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. Cairo hasn’t expressed why, but it’s believed the Egyptians are trying to walk back Sisi’s confirmation that Israel is cooperating with the Egyptian military in the battle against Sinai’s Islamic insurgents.
The full interview is due to air tonight over Egypt’s objections.
In the News
• According to Mideast media reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post, “Kuwait rejected the opportunity to co-host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar because the country did not want to comply with FIFA regulations, where it would have to allow all nationalities to enter the country . . .”
• Egypt’s military announced that it destroyed 37 tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Sinai peninsula in 2018. During the same period of time, the IDF destroyed 15 Gaza tunnels crossing into Israel. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• The Media Line takes a closer look at the Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs selling property to Jews.
• Hamas arrested five men accused of ransacking the Gaza offices of the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation, the official station of the Palestinian Authority.
• Dozens of incendiary balloons landed in Israel near the Gaza border on Sunday morning.
Toy drone with countless balloons launched from the #GazaStrip was found by a resident of a southern #Israel community less than an hour ago. pic.twitter.com/OpnoHJwIcz
— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) January 6, 2019
• Following Muslim protests, a London mosque cancelled a planned Holocaust exhibition linked with Yad Vashem.
• Drip drip drip: The JTA reports on the surfacing of video footage of Jeremy Corbyn applauding a Neturei Karta rabbi’s speech calling for the “dismantling” of Israel in 2011.
The Neturei Karta is a fringe Orthodox sect which, per the Jewish Chronicle, has 5,000 followers internationally, meaning it “makes up just 0.03% of the entire Jewish population.” Rabbi Yisrael Dovid Weiss was most recently in the news for presenting a symbolic gift to Hezbollah‘s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem in Beirut in March, and is particularly reviled for addressing a Holocaust denial conference in Tehran in 2006 attended by then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and American white supremacist David Duke.
In footage captured by the blogger Richard Millet, during the event Rabbi Weiss went on an extreme anti-Israel rant in which he calls for the “dismantlement” of the state of Israel. Corbyn (head just in view) lends his support for this statement by applauding his outburst: pic.twitter.com/EDNgu9qsSl
— The Golem (@TheGolem_) January 3, 2019
• New Orleans cancelled its Women’s March, citing the anti-Semitism controversy involving the movement’s national leadership.
• Swastika graffiti was found defacing synagogues in Dublin and Ventura County, a Melbourne elder-care home for Holocaust survivors and a Connecticut condo complex.
• Belgium‘s ban on kosher slaughter has Jews worried about what comes next.
Commentary
• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:
– David Makovsky, Dennis Ross: We need to talk about Iran and Russia in this Israeli election
– Alan Dershowitz: The New York Times incentivizes Hamas violence
– Detroit News (staff-ed): Good riddance to UNESCO
– Michael Kranz: Why Trump’s withdrawal from Syria is bad news for Israel — and good news for Iran
– Stephen Daisley: The real racism against the Palestinians
– Jonathan Weisman: American Jews and Israeli Jews are headed for a messy breakup
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinians’ New Year’s resolutions
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Jason Kuffer; Sisi via YouTube/60 Minutes;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please note our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
