Today’s Top Stories
1. While US Vice President Mike Pence visited Israel, PA President Mahmoud Abbas flew to Brussels, seeking to enlist European Union recognition of Palestinian statehood and to sideline US peace efforts. For whatever it’s worth, EU officials are backing Abbas on Jerusalem, but are not throwing US mediation under the bus.
The Europeans themselves are interested in playing a “central role” in a renewed peace process, Mogherini said Monday, but she also acknowledged that the US must remain an indispensable part of it.
Abbas’ consolation prizes? Slovenia is poised to recognize Palestinian statehood and separate Israeli media reports indicate that France is quietly pushing to upgrade the PA’s status at the EU.
On the last day of his visit, the VP met with President Reuven Rivlin and visited Yad Vashem and the Western Wall. See below for more on his trip and the only-in-Israel media circus.
2. As the Fatah-Hamas power struggle continues, the PA is imposing taxes on the Gaza Strip, Globes reports.
A decree published two weeks ago by the Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) states that starting in the fall of 2018, residents of the Gaza Strip will lose the tax exemption they have enjoyed in recent years. They will start paying 20% income tax, land taxes, 17% VAT on all products, and customs duties on goods will be raised steeply.
On Monday, Gaza businesses and banks held a general strike to protest economic conditions in the Strip.
3. Top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar admits the terror group is boosting ties with Iran and Hezbollah.
“Our relations with Iran and Hezbollah have returned to their natural path and we intend to develop these relations,” Al-Zahar’s said. “We will expand our ties with Iran and Hezbollah,” he added . . .
Al-Zahar also appeared to have admitted in the interview that Hamas, whose coffers are virtually empty, was in need of Iran and Hezbollah’s financial aid, a fact downplayed by Arab media.
4. Your Resources: Check out our new super resource page, chock full of links to articles, videos and other resources — all at your fingertips. A must to bookmark and share.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Vice President Pence addressed the Knesset (see transcript or video). The key takeaway from Monday’s speech? Official confirmation that the US intends to open its new embassy in Jerusalem before the end of 2019.
• Only-in-Israel media circus (part 1) A Finnish journalist was prevented from covering the Vice President’s meeting with Netanyahu after refusing to be strip searched by the Prime Minister’s security detail. Without identifying the reporter, the Associated Press wrote that the woman “said she was singled out because her father is Palestinian.”
Unless there’s a specific security threat, there’s no reason to treat the foreign press corps this way.
Given all of the technology and intelligence at Israel’s fingertips, we fail to see any good reason for the continued humiliation of professional accredited journalists upon entering the Prime Minister's office and the security attempts to conduct strip searches.
— Foreign Press Assoc. (@FPAIsPal) January 22, 2018
• There was a brief scuffle in the Knesset as some lawmakers from the Joint (Arab) list held up signs proclaiming “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.” MKs aren’t allowed to hold up signs or props and Knesset ushers hustled the lawmakers out of the plenum. The Daily Mail sexed up the scuffle for an excessively clickbait headline.
• Does this Los Angeles Times snippet ignore Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, the location of the first and second Temples, and Judaism’s holiest site?
Pence will also visit both the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest prayer sites. It stands just a short distance from one of Islam’s holiest sites, Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
• Only-in-Israel media circus (part 2) Female photographers covering Pence’s visit to the Western Wall got an unexpected shock when they were forced to work separately (behind) the male photographers. Several took to Twitter under the hashtag #PenceFence; judging from tweets by Noga Tarnopolsky and Yael Friedson, the veep’s hands were tied. JMore at Haaretz.
The #PenceFence debacle is a big deal because in the future editors and directors will prefer sending male reporters and photographers to assignments to guarantee coverage and that directly impacts women in journalism. @talschneider @NTarnopolsky
— (((Gabriella))) (@2samadams3) January 23, 2018
• Only-in-Israel media circus (part 3) Andrea Mitchell brought this on herself. NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent got schooled by Israeli reporter on Israeli politics over an inaccurate tweet.
Wrong on several points. 1, they are not “THE 13 Israeli-Arab members” – there are others. 2, it is always against the Knesset rules to hold up signs or use props and there are examples spanning decades of ppl being removed bc of it. 3, ushers, not security guards led them out https://t.co/JgIGkUFpda
— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) January 22, 2018
• With UNRWA’s work and funding under the Trump administration’s microscope, The Independent visited a refugee camp in Gaza to gauge the mood. Reporter Sarah Helm muddies the water of the so-called Palestinian “right” of return.
Moreover, there is every reason to fear that the US cut to UNRWA’s budget has a political agenda and will be followed by a decision to remove the Palestinian refugees’ right of return home from any future deal. The right to return has been a core Palestinian claim, enshrined in UN resolutions, since the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 when the refugees were driven out of their homes in what is now Israel and have never been allowed back.
Memo to Helm and The Independent’s editors: Refugees don’t have an inherent right of return in international law. As Israeli jurists wrote in 2010, “Had this been a legal right and not a question of morals or politics, it would have already been discussed at the international court.”
• Haaretz: Israeli ministers are deliberating on applying 12 bills to West Bank settlements.
• Border Police thwarted an attempted Palestinian stabbing attack at the Tapuach Junction in the northern West Bank.
Around the World
• Hijab-wearing UK model Amena Khan pulled out of a L’Oreal beauty campaign amid a backlash after several anti-Israel tweets she posted in 2014 surfaced. Khan removed the tweets and apologized. (The New York Post has screengrabs.)
In the deleted messages captured by screenshots and tweet-saving services, Khan called Israel a “sinister state,” an “illegal state,” and said the country is full of “child murderers” and expressed hope for its defeat. In other posts on social media that had not been deleted, Khan accused Israel of “Torture. Murder. Rape. Genocide” and falsely claimed that “Orthodox Jews themselves condemn the actions of Israel.”
• Filipino police arrested a Hamas bomb-making and rocket expert on Saturday. Taha Mohammed al Jabouri, a 64-year-old Iraqi national, was nabbed following a tip off from the Iraqi embassy in Manila. Authorities say there are no indications he was involved in any terror plots in the Philippines and plan to deport him back to Iraq. More at the Philippine Star.
• French broadcaster blasted for prime-time Holocaust joke.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Eldad Beck: Abbas’ EU comfort zone
– Moshe Arens: Abbas’ fiery speech clears up 24 years of hypocrisy
– Grant Rumley: The tragedy of Mahmoud Abbas
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Abbas’ antics undercut Palestinian cause
– Jonathan Tobin: Don’t blame Trump for Abbas rejecting peace
– Herb Keinon: Pence’s speech: What was in it, and what was not
– James Stavridis: How the US and Israel can reshape the Mideast
– Giora Eiland: An independent Israeli policy vis-à-vis Gaza
– Prof. Elie Podeh: Israel-Jordan reconciliation: Better late than never
– Bassam Tawil: No difference between Fatah and Hamas
– Sharon Koifman: BDS doesn’t bother me
– Amb. Alan Baker: Palestinian manipulation of the International Criminal Court
– Swapan Dasgupta: Modi ends hypocrisy on India’s Israel policy
– Richard Kemp: We must end this appeasement and ban Hezbollah
Featured image: CC0 Unsplash/Charlotte; piggy bank CCO Public Domain Pictures/George Hodan; Khan via YouTube/sobat nu baheula tea; talk CCO Pixabay;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
