Today’s Top Stories
1. Qatar is reportedly pushing a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal.
2. Palestinian twin sisters, age 18, were arrested plotting bomb attacks. One of the girls had learned from Internet videos how to assemble the bombs. Police found pipe bombs, fertilizer, Hamas headbands, and more hidden in their home near the West Bank town of Tulkarem. YNet notes the incitement factor:
The Shin Bet said that Diana was exposed via the internet to radical Islamic preaching encouraging women to take part in acts of terror against Israel and Jews, and this reinforced her decision to act as she did.
3. Shimon Peres was rushed to the hospital after complaining of chest pains last night. This came one week after the 92-year-old ex-president suffered a minor heart attack. Peres — who is reported to be awake and alert — is currently at Tel Aviv’s Tel HaShomer Hospital for observation and testing after doctors detected what they said was an irregular heartbeat.
4. Fading Truth on the New York Times Editorial Page: In an editorial about truth telling, the New York Times makes some rather inaccurate assertions.
5. NPR Erases Israel From the Map: Why did NPR publish an image that erased Israel from the map? HonestReporting gets the correction.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Shots were fired at an Israeli car driving near the West Bank settlement of Dolev last night.
• Without walking back from the substance of his criticisms, US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro conceded that his recent comments about Israel’s policies in the West Bank came at a bad time — on the same day terror victim Dafna Meir was laid to rest.
• An IDF air strike hit a Hamas compound in Gaza after Palestinians fired a rocket at Israel last night. The rocket landed in an open area, causing no damage.
• On the face of it, a new British law demanding greater corporate transparency has nothing to do with Israel. But lawyers tell the Jerusalem Post that the required disclosures — intended to fight money-laundering, tax evasion, and terror financing — will be a “windfall” for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement:
For committed and organized BDSers, the new disclosure and fast disclosure will make it easier and quicker for them to target Israeli companies, but they were investing major resources in identifying and targeting Israeli companies even before.
Around the World
• Looking to re-establish business ties with Europe, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is visiting Italy and France. It’s been almost 20 years since an Iranian president has visited Europe.
• India is considering an Israeli-style security barrier along its border with Pakistan and along other “sensitive frontiers,” and Israel is ready to share its expertise. The Indian Express adds other countries have expressed interest in Israeli security barrier technology.
Recently, Hungary and Bulgaria have turned to Israel for advice on building a fence modelled on the one set up on the southern Israeli border with Egypt to stop influx of refugees.
Commentary/Analysis
• Despite having the best record in the NBA’s Central Division, the Cleveland Cavaliers axed their Israeli head coach David Blatt. Nobody is spinning Blatt’s dismissal in the context of the Mideast conflict — except for some pro-Palestinian trolls. Is Haaretz cartoonist Amos Biderman is ridiculing those trolls, or taking them seriously?
— Amos Biderman (@Amos123Biderman) January 25, 2016
• In a Wall St. Journal op-ed (click via Google News), Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely denounces the Palestinian Authority’s misuse of foreign aid — especially for stipends given to terrorists and their families.
Embarrassed by public revelations of the misuse of the foreign aid, in August 2014 the Palestinian Authority passed the task of paying stipends to terrorists and their families to a fund managed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, also led by Mr. Abbas. Lest there be any doubt as to the purely cosmetic nature of the change, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah made assurances as recently as September 2015 that the PA will provide the “necessary assistance” to ensure these terror stipends.
This procedural ruse apparently calmed the consciences of donor governments that continue to transfer aid.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– MK Anat Berko: Critics are now bashing Israel’s pro-democracy efforts
– Jonathan Schanzer: 10 years of Hamas: The Palestinians must solve their divide before peace with Israel
– Bernard Avishai: EU vs BDS: The politics of Israel sanctions
Featured image: CC BY Mo Riza; Peres CC BY-NC-ND European Parliament;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
