Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel busted a Hezbollah terror cell in the West Bank under the command of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s son, Juad. From Lebanon, the younger Nasrallah used social media networks to recruit and send instructions. The cell trained suicide bombers, among other things.
2. Did Israel suggest that PLO form a “community police” unit in eastern Jerusalem? The Jerusalem Post picked up on an Arab report asserting that:
The paper quotes Israeli sources as saying that, in return for the establishment of the local police force, Israel would cease to send its security forces into Old City neighborhoods, the Shuafat refugee camp and Anata, without prior coordination with the active PLO forces in the area.
3. Meanwhile in the Jordan Valley . . .
#Israel has started construction of a fence along the border with #Jordan…. pic.twitter.com/laga9J8hYl
— Ruth Marks Eglash (@reglash) January 20, 2016
4. Skewed Priorities in the Times: The Times of London ignores the Palestinian terrorist murder of Dafna Meir in favor of a story on Israeli price fixing of school trips to Poland.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The State Department said it backs a European Union resolution distinguishing between settlements and Israel proper. State Dept. spokesman John Kirby also said the EU’s labeling of settlement products is not tantamount to a boycott.
• I’m glad Facebook’s cracking down on racist anti-migrant posts in Europe. I just wish they’d show a similar urgency for tackling violent Palestinian incitement against Israel too.
- Israel eyes world coalition to force social media platforms to block incitement
- Facebook begins Europe-wide campaign against extremist posts
• Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s still feeling the heat after calling for an inquiry into what she called Israeli extrajudicial killings of Palestinians. Opposition MPs plan to call Wallstrom to a mandatory parliamentary debate on “incitement to violence emanating from the Palestinian Authority, as well as rising concerns over foreign aid given to the PA.”
• New Iranian-backed terror group makes inroads in the West Bank and Gaza.
• For the first time, a Brazilian government official spoke on the record against the appointment of Dani Dayan as Israel’s ambassador to the South American country.
• Police arrested a 16-year-old suspected of vandalizing Jerusalem’s Dormition Abbey with anti-Christian graffiti on Sunday morning.
• For a window into the thinking of the Israeli security establishment, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said he would prefer Islamic State over Iran in Syria. Not a pleasant strategic choice to make, is it? Islamic State, said Yaalon, doesn’t have the capabilities of Iran, which already “tried to open a terror front against us on the Golan Heights.”
“Iran determines future of Syria and if it leads to perpetuation, Iranian hegemony in Syria will be huge challenge for Israel,” he said.
• The latest incremental news on Israeli-Turkish rapprochement: According to Turkish media reports, Ankara has agreed to appoint Can Dizdar as ambassador to Israel — if Israel and Turkey can iron out the details of re-normalizing ties.
Around the World
• Caving in to BDS pressure, Slovenia’s largest supermarket chain, Mercator, removed Israeli products from the shelves.
• A Belgian Jewish newspaper filed a complaint with the government authority on combating discrimination (ICGK) over another paper’s interview with a Holocaust denier who said nobody died in the gas chambers. According to the JTA:
In its complaint against De Morgen, Joods Actueel cited legislation from 1995 that forbids claiming the Holocaust did not happen – a law which Freilich claims was broken both by De Morgen and by the newpaper’s interviewee, Siegfried Verbeke.
Joods Actueel also filed a complaint with the Belgian Council for Journalism.
• The National LGBTQ Task Force, a US advocacy organization for gay rights, reversed itself and reinstated a meeting with Israeli LGBTQ activists at an upcoming Chicago convention. The US group had cancelled a meeting with leaders of A Wider Bridge, an Israeli gay advocacy organization, following pressure from Palestinian activists.
• Anti-Israel protesters ran-amok at King’s College during a talk by former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon. Police were called in and calm was eventually restored, but no arrests were made.
• A Turkish synagogue was vandalized following the first prayer service held in 65 years there. Istanbul’s Istipol Synagogue was originally built in 1694.
• Uncle Vladimir reads the papers too . . .
– Poll: 43% of French Jews interested in aliya
– German Jewish leaders: We’re no longer safe here
– Putin: Jews fleeing Western Europe should move to Russia
• The Israeli Sailing Association is seeking guarantees from World Sailing that Israeli competitors will be able to contend in future events. This comes on the heels of Yoav Omer and Noy Drihan being unable to compete at a youth championship in Malaysia. According to the Jerusalem Post:
The ISA is concerned that its representatives will be unable to compete at the 2016 Youth World Championships to be held in Oman in December and the World Cup final to take place in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in October. Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Oman or the United Arab Emirates.
Commentary/Analysis
• Tweet of the day is Eugene Kontorovich‘s take on US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro’s recent comments.
Ridiculous thing about @AmbShapiro's "two systems" criticism is that US would scream if Israel applied its law to the territories.
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) January 19, 2016
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Eric Mandel: Why college students who fight for social justice should support Israel
– Shimon Shiffer: A message from the White House
– Robert Cutler: Rebooting Israeli-Turkish relations
– Bret Stephens: Why the US should stand by Saudis against Iran (via Google News)
– Ira Rifkin: Meet The Guardian’s ‘Protest’ section – a sign that the times, they are a-changin’
Featured image: CC BY cannik; apps CC BY Jason Howie; Yaalon CC BY Marc Mueller; Putin CC BY-SA MARIAJONER;
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