Today’s Top Stories
1. A gunman killed 39 people in a terror attack on a crowded New Years party in a popular Istanbul nightclub. Among the dead was an 18-year-old Israeli woman identified as Leann Zaher Nasser from the Arab town of Tira. A second Israeli woman, also from Tira, was reported to be hospitalized with moderate injuries. As this roundup went to press, Turkish police were still searching for the suspect.
2. Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull condemned Resolution 2334 as ‘one-sided.’ The UK wenth further, issuing an unprecedented rebuke of John Kerry’s speech. (Unanswered, however, is why the UK voted for the resolution.)
Intervening in the increasingly hostile international dispute today, a spokesman for the British Prime Minister said: ‘We do not… believe that the way to negotiate peace is by focusing on only one issue, in this case the construction of settlements, when clearly the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is so deeply complex.
‘And we do not believe that it is appropriate to attack the composition of the democratically-elected government of an ally.’
But I thought "Friends need to tell each other hard truths?" State Dept surprised at Theresa May rebuke over Israel https://t.co/EvbL2c4dvE
— Lisa Daftari (@LisaDaftari) December 30, 2016
3. Spanish town votes to reverse BDS resolution it passed this year.
4. NPR Covers Up Ethnic Cleansing of Jews: An “explainer” story about settlements only muddies the waters.
Israel and the Palestinians
• I hope these figures tweeted by Khaled Abu Toameh give pause to the diplomats jetting into France for the upcoming Paris peace conference.
Poll: 62% of Palestinians in favor of abandoning Oslo Accords; 53% support armed intifada against Israel.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) December 31, 2016
• After sounding out Arab reactions to Kerry’s speech, the New York Times summed them up as “praise and shrugs.”
• A Palestinian woman was shot while trying to stab Israeli security personnel at the Qalandiya checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Friday.
• The Wall St. Journal (click via Google News) examines the rightward shift of the Israeli mainstream. Despite fears that Jerusalem’s response to resolution 2334 will isolate Israel,
Most of the Israeli electorate is with Mr. Netanyahu. Although roughly half of the Jewish Israeli population still supports a two-state solution, less people—39%—are willing to give up East Jerusalem and large settlement blocs in the West Bank or make compromises with Palestinians that the international community seeks, according to a recent poll by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute . . .
More than half of Israelis define themselves as part of the conservative or right-wing camp headed by Mr. Netanyahu, Ms. Hermann’s research shows.
Yet even centrist parties in Israel don’t oppose some settlements. The Yesh Atid party, which is aimed at secular Israelis and currently polling neck and neck against Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, gave a major policy speech in 2012 in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ariel. It was a symbol of Israelis’ steady drift to the right in recent years.
• YNet: Hamas instructed its operatives around the world to take more precautions following the recent murder of Tunisian drone engineer Mohammad al-Zawahri.
• A Palestinian woman was shot while trying to stab Israeli security personnel at the Qalandiya checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Friday.
• The Los Angeles Times looks at what people are saying about the one-state solution.
• Palestinian editors take note: Encouraging readers to martyrdom doesn’t boost your paper’s circulation.
• Worth reading: Ex-CIA chief Gen. Michael Hayden discussed with Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman the behind the scenes events leading up to Israel’s 2007 air strike on a Syrian nuclear facility, shedding light on his relationship with Mossad chief Meir Dagan, the lengths Damascus took to keep the project secret, and why Washington ultimately demurred on attacking Deir ez-Zor itself.
Around the World
• Vandals turn Arizona family’s outdoor menorah into a swastika.
https://twitter.com/DrFloydCobb2/status/815346970831257600
• Greek game firm closes Auschwitz ‘escape room’ following complaints
Commentary/Analysis
• The imbalance of the New York Times op-ed section continues with Philip Gordon essentially arguing that Netanyahu isn’t interested in peace and Rashid Khalidi insisting that Resolution 2334 and Kerry’s speech are “too little, too late.
As for letters to the editor, the train already left the station in December 29’s letters. Readers and editors have moved on to other issues. Right, Yair Rosenberg?
https://twitter.com/yair_rosenberg/status/815343322529230849
• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see ex-ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, Diana Buttu, Brent Scowcroft and Thomas Pickering, Gwynne Dyer and Richard Gross (who doesn’t think anything of consequence to Mideast peace happened between Sadat’s assassination in 1981 and the Gaza disengagement of 2005).
• Still lots of spilled ink and burnt pixels over John Kerry, settlements, and the peace process.
– Einat Wilf: Yes to the occupation, no to the settlements
– Maajid Nawaz: Why did Obama pander to the UN’s stunning anti-Israel bias?
– Ben-Dror Yemini: Blocking peace
– Eli Lake: Kerry yearns for peace in a vanished Middle East
– Steven Cook: The misplaced optimism of the two-state solution
– Anshel Pfeffer: What Kerry’s speech says about Obama’s Israel strategy
– Charles Krauthammer: Obama’s final, most shameful, legacy moment
– Alan Dershowitz: Britain and Australia more supportive of Israel than Obama and Kerry
– Eugene Robinson: If there’s no two-state solution, what will Israel become?
– Douglas Murray: Britain’s little lies
– Fran O’Sullivan: Netanyahu has bigger fish to fry than NZ
– Trudy Rubin: The reality behind the UN vote
– Selin Nasi: Will the UN decision force Israel to act?
• Staff-eds weighed in:
– Washington Post (staff-ed): On Israel, we’re right back where Obama started
– National Review (staff-ed): John Kerry’s indefensible swipe at Israel
– National Post: Eight years of Obama’s foreign policy disasters recapped in only two horrific weeks
– San Francisco Chronicle: The Obama team is right to criticize Israel
• Tweet of the weekend goes to Orli Sagi. You see, Palestinian activists dressing up as Santa so they can be photographed confronting the IDF are one of my season’s gratings.
Only in Israel 😉 pic.twitter.com/K6ZsIiSAO1
— orli sagi❤️ ????????? (@SagiOrli) December 31, 2016
• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend:
– Prof. Miriam Elman: Trump’s plan to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem could help the peace process
– Bernard Avishai: Is Donald Trump the friend Israel needs?
– Ruth Wisse: Free speech and anti-Semitism (click via Google News)
– Gil Troy: The man whose dream became Israel
– Uzay Bulut: Football is never just football
– Gary Rosenblatt: Five lessons I learned in ’16
Featured image: CC BY-NC Jens Schott Knudsen with additions by HonestReporting; flag CC BY zeevveez; chatter CC BY-NC bellmon1;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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