Today’s Top Stories
1. Israelis are battening down the hatches ahead of a big snowstorm. Jerusalem learned lessons after being shut down for week during from last year’s blizzard. The rest of the country‘s getting ready too, including the IDF, electric company, airport and railways. And what’s the Palestinian media saying about the weather?
Expected Snow Storm Could Lead to Human Catastrophe in Gaza
I have my doubts whether the snow will match the “snowpocalypse” hype, but tell that to the supermarket scrum I waded into last night.
2. According to Turkish media reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post, Qatar is going to expel Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, who will relocate to Turkey.
3. The Israel Electric Corporation warned Israeli security chiefs that it’s going to start limiting electricity to the West Bank. The IEC is currently owed NIS 1.7 billion for unpaid electricity to the Palestinians. YNet coverage.
Glickman requested that they raise alertness in the forces they led, on both an operational and intelligence level, out of concern that limiting the power supply could lead to various responses by the Palestinian population.
4. Forcing the New York Times to Print the Truth: HonestReporting had a full page ad in yesterday’s New York Times featuring an inspirational speech by Israel’s ambassador to the UN.
5. HonestReporting Radio: CNN’s Settler Soccer Moms: CNN makes unsubstantiated accusations demonizing the entire ‘settler’ community. Click below to hear HonestReporting’s Yarden Frankl interview with the Voice of Israel.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Obama administration’s reviewing its annual $440 million assistance to the Palestinian Authority. The Times of Israel/AP explains:
Under American law, any Palestinian case against Israel at the court would trigger an immediate cutoff of US financial support. Membership itself doesn’t automatically incur US punishment.
• AFP and the Jerusalem Post update the latest on the Palestinian bid to drag Israel to the International Criminal Court.
• Hamas mastermind of kidnap/murder of three Israeli teens sentenced to three life terms.
• It’s generous of FIFA to help Gaza rebuild soccer stadiums. But it’s not nice of AP or AFP to omit the fact that Palestinians fired rockets at Israel from the very pitches FIFA’s footing the bill to fix up.
• Hezbollah all but acknowledged it was penetrated by a high level mole working for Israel. The New York Times explains what Naim Qassem’s unusual remarks really mean:
They could also serve as a warning to Israel that Hezbollah has purged its ranks and is ready to resume efforts to avenge Mr. Mughniyeh’s death.
• Israel’s Supreme Court refuses to endorse army’s plan to build security barrier in the area of Battir’s Roman-era farming terraces. Daily Telegraph coverage.
• The Times of Israel updates the latest on Egypt’s Gaza border buffer zone.
Commentary/Analysis
• Worth reading: Eugene Kontorovich examines what’s motivating the PA to push its agenda at the International Criminal Court. Is the ICC biased against Israel?
In practice, the Palestinians are so-to-speak “judgment proof.” First, noncooperation is easy in place where the killing of “collaborators” is institutionalized. This will make Kenyatta’s witness intimidation look like gentle nudging. No one in Gaza will say, “hey, there was a Hamas launcher in this school here.”
Nor will the Palestinians be punished for non-cooperation – just as Kenya and Sudan have not. Indeed, it is likely that the Palestinians will claim that as a “state under occupation” they simply cannot cooperate with investigators on-the-ground since they will claim they are (for these purposes) under Israel’s thumb. In Israel, on the other hand, a bevy of Israeli NGOs will be lined up to supply the prosecutor with the dirt on alleged Israeli misdeeds, and many jurisdictions are only looking for an occasion to impose sanctions on Israel.
• The fantasy of a Palestinian state will always have an edge on the reality of Israel, argues Bret Stephens (Wall St. Journal, click via Google News).
• For more commentary/analysis, see Dr. Edy Cohen (Fighting Palestinian incitement), Daniel Gordis (Palestinians still don’t want a state), Luke Baker (Abbas rolls statehood dice with ICC move), Yakub Halabi (The Palestinian UN bid, a short-term victory for all), and Diana Moukalled (ISIS’s next targets).
Featured image: CC BY-SA flickr/kmf164; gavel CC BY-SA flickr/Tori Rector
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
