Today’s Top Stories
1. Turkeys’ Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, bragged to reporters that Ankara’s support for Hamas made it “mainstream.” He doesn’t realize Hamas is just dragging down Turkish credibility. This line was the biggest whopper of all:
“If our relations [with Israel] had not deteriorated, Hamas was going to recognize Israel in the event of a two-state solution,” he told a meeting with Anadolu editors.
2. France is deploying 10,000 extra forces to provide security forces at “sensitive locations.” The BBC quoted Interior Minister Bernard Cazaneuve saying that nearly half the personnel would be dispatched to France’s 717 Jewish schools.
3. Following up on Der Spiegel‘s claim that the Syrians have a secret nuclear site, Syrian rebels told Arab media (picked up why YNet) they’ve seen Iranian officers and an “unprecedented” Hezbollah security presence in the area where the facility is said to be. But experts who talked to the Christian Science Monitor cast doubt on the claims. Iran denies it all.
4. BBC Reporter at Paris Rally: “Palestinians Suffer at Jewish Hands”: Tim Willcox’s apology doesn’t go far enough.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Qatar denies rumor that it plans to expel Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
• Mama’s don’t let your babies grow up to be jihadis: Yousef Yaakub Nasrallah, a 20-year-old Israeli Arab tried to join Syrian jihadis, but was captured and tortured by the Syrian army. After returning to Israel, he was indicted. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• After a policeman in the Sinai was abducted, Egypt cancelled a decision to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.
French Terror: The Aftershocks
• According to Israeli media, French president Francois Hollande conveyed to Israel and the PA his “preference” that Netanyahu and Abbas not attend yesterday’s Paris rally. Both initially agreed, but wound up going anyway.
Audibert explained that Hollande wanted the event to focus on demonstrating solidarity with France, and to avoid anything liable to divert attention to other controversial issues, like Jewish-Muslim relations or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
See Boaz Bismuth‘s take.
• The hero of Friday’s terror attack, Lassana Bathily, described to YNet how he saved lives by hiding customers in a freezer, escaping the store, and helping police.
• Quenelle comedian Dieudonne praises terrorist: “As far as I am concerned, I feel I am Charlie Coulibaly.” The Facebook post was since removed.
• Jordy Mira, the witness to Paris officer’s death, told the Associated Press he regrets sharing his footage online.
Commentary/Analysis
• In the wake of Paris, Israeli-Arab journalist Nazir Mgally bravely uncomfortable questions for Muslims, most notably, “How did these terrorists grow up among us?”
These forces have emerged and grown under our wings. They acted and still act in our name and in the name of our beliefs and ideas. They studied in our schools. They played in our alleys. We know them. We followed their childhood and adulthood. We ate and drank with them. We shared their joys and troubles. We shared the same traditions. They are a minority who became terrorists, who lost their compassion and morality. And we, the majority, spread different values and other ways. This does not absolve us of the responsibility for them.
True, not all Muslims are terrorists. But unfortunately, the statement that most terrorists are Muslims or converts to Islam, is also true. This is not only a problem, it is also a responsibility. Before demanding that the West search its soul, we must ask ourselves where we went wrong in enabling this cruel way that contradicts our religion and morality.
• It’s rather hypocritical of the Turkish, Egyptian, and Russian governments to march for press freedom in Paris while harshly cracking down on the same thing at home, n’est-ce pas? Professor Marc Lynch summed up my headspace.
• Norman Lebrecht traces his family’s French history to the 1700s, then makes a blunt view of the French-Jewish situation in a Daily Telegraph op-ed:
For myself, I am unable to pretend that life will go on as before. My history, as a Jew of France, is over.
• The long, bloody trail that led to the Charlie Hebdo massacre
Europe has tolerated anti-Semitism in its midst for too long.
• Yes, this exists in Israel. I’d just like to see one sentence in this New York Times op-ed about conscientious objectors acknowledging that the IDF does protect Israelis from harm too.
• Pinhas Inbari looks at the implications for Israel of a leading Muslim cleric urging Islamic pilgrims to upend the Arab boycott and visit Jerusalem holy sites. See also the Dubai-based Gulf News.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Melanie Phillips (Jews, not cartoonists, are Islam’s real enemy), Maajid Nawaz (Neutralizing radical Islam — Wall St. Journal via Google News),
Featured image: CC BY flickr/Jon S; Netanyahu and Hollande via YouTube/IsraeliPM
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