Today’s Top Stories
1. The US State Department confirmed it is began withholding money it originally planned to provide the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The US transferred $60 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) but held back on a further $65 million “for future consideration.” More on the Beltway politics at the Washington Post.
In response, UNRWA launched a fundraising campaign and reportedly began laying off teachers and aid workers.
For comparison, the US is also the largest donor to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which oversees assistance to all the other refugees in the world. In 2017, the UNHCR received $1.4 billion from the US, around 40 percent of its budget.
HR Video: Should America Stop Funding UNRWA? The US wants to cut support to the UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees. Is that wise? And what alternative is Israel suggesting?
2. The reason Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is ruling out US mediation for peace talks is because parts of the Trump administration’s peace proposal — yet to be issued — were leaked by the Saudis to Ramallah. According to Israeli media reports, Jerusalem isn’t the issue, it’s the excuse. The Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel explain:
According to the reports on Channel 2 and in Maariv, the Trump plan being written by his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner would create a Palestinian entity that is less than a state, and it would not be based on the pre-1967 lines. Israel would control its borders and the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem would be an issue for negotiations, settlements might not have to be removed, and the Palestinian refugee issue would not be addressed.
“We understood that Trump’s declaration did not really matter and had no impact on what is happening on the ground,” Caspit quoted senior officials close to Abbas telling Knesset members who met with him last week. “We just used the declaration as a preemptive strike to torpedo the negotiations before the Americans finished drafting their peace plan, so we wouldn’t have to reject it publicly later on.”
The Palestinians were quoted saying that the international community accepted the Jerusalem excuse for ruling out negotiations because there is a consensus in the world on the city being the capital of two states.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. German police raided a number of homes and businesses across the country in a massive search for 10 Iranian agents believed to have been targeting Jews and Israelis — specifically the Israeli embassy in Berlin and Jewish community institutions, including kindergartens. The suspects are thought to be members of the Quds Force, a special unit within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Was it the result of a Mossad tip?
Israel and the Palestinians
• The PLO Central Committee recommended suspending Palestinian recognition of Israel and security cooperation. The PCC also claimed the Palestinians are no longer bound by the Oslo accords. The Jerusalem Post notes that there’s no time frame for carrying out the threat. Palestinian leaders have threatened to end security cooperation a number of times in recent years but never followed through.
• After I criticized the media for whitewashing Abbas’ revisionism and rejectionism, I’m glad to see followup analysis from the Associated Press and Washington Post.
• In case you were looking for it, there’s an English translation of Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at MEMRI.
• In Cairo, Mahmoud Abbas insisted that Palestinians are the descendants of the Canaanites, who predated the biblical patriarch Abraham. This puts the PA chief at odds with his own chief envoy to the US, Maen Rashid Areikat, who has argued that the Canaanites were occupiers too because the Palestinians predated even them. Draw your own theological conclusions.
• Israel reportedly struck a Hezbollah arms depot near Damascus on Tuesday night.
• Security forces discovered and safely detonated a cell phone bomb planted at the entrance to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus. It was discovered on Tuesday morning, ahead of a visit by 1,000 Jewish worshipers. The pilgrimage went on as planned, though Palestinians pelted the Jews with stones as they left the holy site.
• The Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza reopened for the first time since Israel destroyed a terror tunnel running directly underneath.
• Israeli authorities intercepted what was described as “the largest consignment ever” of military gear en route to the Gaza Strip. “The shipment included thousands of items of military clothing, including boots, coats and combat vests, all in camouflage colors,” and was seized at the Port of Ashdod on Monday.
An Israeli police search team discovered a series of pages ripped from the Bible carefully weighed down with rocks in the area that he was last seen. Other handwritten notes quoting Bible verses were also discovered.
Some of the notes included references to the story of Jesus fasting in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights.
• The Independent introduces us to Jerusalem’s new deputy mayor, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.
Israel and India
• Just before this roundup was published, Haaretz reported that a previously scrapped $500 million deal to sell Spike anti-tank missiles to India “is back on the table.”
• Moshe Holzberg, orphaned in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, made his first visit to the Chabad House where his parents were killed. Indian media seemed to attach great importance, judging from the heavy interest by the Mumbai Mirror, Times of India, Indian Express and NDTV.
• Can Air India win Riyadh’s assent to direct India-Israel flights passing through Saudi skies?
India has been keen to map out speedier flight routes in Saudi skies to reduce the journey duration by around two hours by enabling it to fly west without the need take roundabout routes, thereby slashing costs on fuel and significantly increasing the number of tourists flying between Israel and India.
In addition, the new route would enable the airline to dramatically reduce the price of flight tickets and simultaneously stimulate competition among other airlines.
If Saudi Arabia agrees to the move, it would likely be presented to the Indians as a gesture and not to the Israelis, since Jerusalem has no formal diplomatic ties with Riyadh.
• For a sense of what they’re saying in the Indian media, see Jael Silliman and an Indian Express staff-ed.
Around the World
• US reality TV host’s anti-Semitic outburst sparks anger when presenter Toni Snow asked a guest whether he was going to “Jew us down.”
• Daily Telegraph: The British government is funding a special trip for student leaders from all 108 UK universities and colleges to Auschwitz in a bid to combat campus anti-Semitism.
• Jewish cemetery in Eritrea vandalized, dozens of graves destroyed.
• Racist, anti-Semitic fliers dropped in Virginia neighborhood ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Commentary
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels over Abbas’ speech.
– David Horovitz: Abbas couldn’t make peace with the Jews; he believes his own lies about us
– Elior Levy: Despite threats, Abbas won’t halt security coordination
– Ben-Dror Yemini: The moderate Palestinian leader’s lies
– Daniel Shapiro: Abbas exits with one final, outrageous performance. Now, America must contain the damage
– Mordechai Kedar: The speech in which Abbas dug his own grave
– Charles Bybelezer: Having missed the boat, the Palestinian Authority is sinking
– Yossi Beilin: Abbas the spectator
– The Australian (staff-ed): Palestinian leader’s own goal
– Rafael Medoff: Mahmoud Abbas, the world’s worst historian
– Ron Kampeas: Will Abbas’ explosive comments kill the peace process?
– Michael Goodwin: Abbas proves to be nothing more than a two-faced, anti-Semite
– Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi: With his Ramallah rant, Mahmoud Abbas declares intention to proclaim a Palestinian entity
• I’ll buy David Hazony‘s cab driver barometer:
Based on a sampling of Jerusalem cab drivers, Abbas’ insult to Trump was far worse than “May your house be demolished” as appeared in Western media. More accurately would be rendered “may you and your descendants be destroyed.” Not very nice.
— David Hazony (@davidhazony) January 15, 2018
• Judging from the Irish Times‘ Michael Jansen’s response to the speech, you’d think Israel never had any prime ministers who offered the Palestinians anything in the years since Oslo.
• Speaking of “sh**hole countries,” Tom Gross recalls the time a French ambassador described Israel as a ‘sh***y little country’ – and polite society defended him. Gross concludes:
One would hope that if the representative of a major western government today were to describe the Jewish state, rather than African states, as sh—y, there would be an equal level of outrage. But somehow I doubt it.
• UNRWA aid unspun in the op-eds:
– Abdallah Al-Hadlaq: Stop funding for racist UNRWA until it dwindles and dies
– Nonie Darwish: The terrorism jobs program: Pampering the Palestinians must end
– Daniel Pipes: 99% of ‘Palestine refugees’ are fake
– Michael Rubin: US support for UNRWA has gone on long enough
• Why the righteous indignation from is Codepink co-founder and BDSnik Medea Benjamin about being banned from Israel, which she actively supports people to boycott anyway?
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Ron Finkel: Peace is coming, but it’s under the radar
– Giulio Meotti: Arab regimes terrified by Israel’s freedoms
– Shrenik Rao: Can India really play ‘best friends’ to Israel, Palestine and Iran at the same time?
– Alexander Aciman: Can a Jew love France?
– Seth Frantzman: Seven years later: The Arab Spring’s messy endings
– Jerusalem Post (staff-ed): Hawaii and Israel
Featured image: CC BY-NC Roland Scheerer; Dore via Wikiart; dollar CC BY photosteve101;
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