Today’s Top Stories
1. Through an interview with a Free Syrian commander and some articles in the Lebanese press, the Times of Israel sheds some light on what Hezbollah and Iran may be doing in the Syrian Golan:
Lebanese news agency El-Nashra reported on Wednesday that Iran and Hezbollah, in coordination with the Assad regime, were preparing “a large strategic plan” for Quneitra. The plan included engaging the IDF along the 150-kilometer (93-mile) Israeli border with Syria and Lebanon, and training local militias on the Syrian Golan to combat Israel.
“The calculations of Hezbollah and Iran for the region go beyond merely a tactical, limited response to the Israeli air assassination in Quneitra,” read the report in El-Nashra. “The rules of the game dominating the area only yesterday will change.”
2. If ISIS can do this, why not Israel too?
ISIS Reportedly Plans to Get in the 24-Hour Cable News Game
3. Yemen’s pro-Western government accepted a power-sharing deal with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The coup complicates the US war on terror, spells trouble for what’s left of Yemen’s Jewish community, and is not good news for Israel. It will open up the field for ISIS to gain ground on Al-Qaeda in their competition for popularity and recruits. Max Boot gets the last word, for now.
4. Foreign Workers: Another Angle to Bash Israel: The Guardian and Channel 4 News promote a Human Rights Watch report claiming Israeli abuse of Thai laborers.
5. Anti-Semitic Facebook Page Still Up: Why is Facebook still giving a platform for anti-Semitism?
Israel and the Palestinians
• After yesterday’s stabbing attack in Tel Aviv, enough people tweeted #JeSuisCouteau (I am a knife) in support of stabbing Israelis to get the Daily Mail‘s attention. Sick.
• Jerusalem Post: A Muslim preacher was indicted for an impromptu sermon inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in November calling the faithful to “slaughter the Jews.”
• The Asian Football Confederation has some explaining to do after a video documenting the history of the Asian Cup omitted any mention of Israel. Israel hosted and won the Asian Cup in 1964; a few months ago, on the 50th anniversary of the victory, players reminisced with Reuters.
AFC officials told Guardian Australia they were baffled by the omission, and would be seeking answers. It is understood the video was produced by an external agency. Israel does appear in a table on the tournament’s website listing all past winners.
A spokesman for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alexander Ryvchin, said the omission was “highly conspicuous in a film showing extensive footage of every single Asian Cup tournament”.
• Turkish-Israeli trade booms despite harsh rhetoric
Misc. Matters
• Quite a few news services picked up on a Bloomberg News report that the Mossad “has broken ranks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling U.S. officials and lawmakers that a new Iran sanctions bill in the U.S. Congress would tank the Iran nuclear negotiations.”
But later in the day, the Mossad denied that it opposed placing new sanctions on Iran.
• Haaretz and Politico elaborate on the story behind Prime Minister Netanyahu’s invitation to talk about Iran in a speech before a joint session of Congress.
• Israeli TV shows “Iranian missile” that can reach far beyond Europe.
• Don’t expect anything substantial. I’ll be satisfied if today’s UN General Assembly meeting on anti-Semitism raises awareness and a sense of urgency that something needs to change.
• EU official Frans Timmermans: It’s a “huge challenge” to reassure Jews about their future in Europe.
“Today we see in some of our member states that a majority of the Jewish community is not sure that they have a future in Europe,” he said. “I think this is a huge challenge to the very foundation of European integration,” he added.
• Belgium’s public schools are becoming no-go zones for Jews, according to the country’s anti-Semitism watchdog.
• Several Israeli tourists were hurt during an hours-long anti-Semitic attack at a hostel in southern Argentina.
• An Argentine judge released to the public transcripts of intercepted phone calls which formed the basis for charges that Buenos Aires and Tehran colluded to cover up Iranian involvement in the AMIA building. Meanwhile, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner says prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death was not a suicide.
Commentary/Analysis
• Bashar Assad is Hezbollah’s Achilles heel, and as it wouldn’t be difficult for Israel to cripple the diminished Damascus dictator, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has little choice but to avoid escalation. Without Assad, Hezbollah is no match for Hezbollah. Eyal Zisser explains:
With no backing from the Syrian regime, Nasrallah would find himself at a severe disadvantage, in part because he would see an influx of Syrian rebels — led by the Islamic State group — inundating Lebanon. These insurgents would be bent on exacting revenge from the Shiites. Denying Hezbollah its Syrian oxygen would hurt the organization’s efforts to lay its hands on more weapons systems and may bring an end to the Hezbollah-bound arm shipments.
• The New York Times assesses the politics behind Bibi’s invitation to address Congress. Chemi Shalev articulates some very valid concerns about the speech.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Jonathan Tobin (Beauty pageant selfie provides a ‘Middle East for dummies’ tutorial), Glen Falkenstein (Not condemning anti-Semitism only fuels extremism), Allan Massie (Racism against Jews rings alarm bells), and Emmanuel Navon (What Sri Lanka’s elections reveal about the UN and Palestinians).
Featured image: CC BY Elisa via flickr with additions by HonestReporting; Assad via YouTube/Syria Fighting Terrorism
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
