Lebanon to Auction Energy Rights in Waters Disputed By Israel

Today’s Top Stories

1. Lebanon’s muddying the waters of energy exploration in the Mediterranean Sea. Bloomberg News explains:

Lebanon wants to auction energy rights to areas in the Mediterranean Sea contested by neighboring Israel and will invite more companies to qualify for bidding next month.

 

The new bidders can apply Feb. 2 to March 31, Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil told reporters at his office in Beirut. The ministry will select license winners by Nov. 15, he said. Lebanon’s cabinet approved two decrees earlier this month allowing the Middle Eastern nation to move ahead with development of its energy assets, ending three years of delays.

 

Five blocks will be available for exploration and development, including areas that lie in waters disputed by Israel. “This is our natural and sovereign right,” Khalil said Thursday.

 
2. Just before this roundup was published, Israeli media reported that the Knesset is reviving contentious legislation known as the Regulation Bill to legalize settlement homes built on privately owned Palestinian land. We’re talking about 4,000 housing units and clause that would block the court-ordered evacuation of the illegally built Amona outpost.

3. Haaretz reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the cabinet last week that the two-state solution is dead and that he now supports giving the Palestinians a “state-minus.” I don’t know what “state minus” means either, but credit the Washington Post for taking a stab at the question.

4. New York Times Ignores its Own Public Editor on Disclosure? Shouldn’t the New York Times disclose that the authors of an opinion piece are also pro-Palestinian activists working with Breaking the Silence?

5. Media Mess Up Over Israeli Bus Crash: The Mail Online and Daily Telegraph bungle a fatal West Bank bus crash.

Israel and the Palestinians

• Jerusalem Post: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will visit France in two weeks to meet with President Francois Hollande about following up on the results of the Paris peace conference.

• In a wide-ranging interview picked up by Israeli media, US President Donald Trump told Fox News that it was “too early” to discuss moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, that the US-Israel relationship “was repaired the minute I spoke to Netanyahu.”

• If the latest charges are true, I hope Netanyahu learned from the experience how to handle typesetting machines, troubleshoot HTML coding, crop photos, juggle breaking news, rewrite leads, manage writers . . .

• Two Palestinians armed with knives were arrested trying to infiltrate the settlement of Karnei Shomron today. And on Friday, shots were fired at Israeli car driving near the settlement of Nili, near Modiin. No injuries were reported in either incident.

• After spending five months in Qatar — possibly being groomed to succeed Khaled Mashaal as the top leader of Hamas — Ismail Haniyeh returned to the Gaza Strip on Friday. The Jerusalem Post answers the question you’re probably wondering:

Haniyeh and another senior Hamas official, Rouhi Mushtaha, passed through the Rafah crossing, which Egyptian authorities opened in an exceptional circumstance to allow for the two men’s passage.

Around the World

• Baroness Jenny Tonge was invited onto London’s JTV to discuss her controversial statements on Israel. She didn’t respond well to Dr. Alan Mendoza challenging questions. See the full interview or a condensed version.

• Citing ‘foreign policy interests,’ Switzerland withholds data on funding for BDS groups.

The ministry’s refusal to hand over the documents is pending appeals. Several European governments have displayed reluctance to release detailed information of their funding for Palestinian activism. However, a refusal citing foreign policy interests is unusual for European governments with a commitment to transparency.

• Mexico chided Israel for Netanyahu’s tweet in support of Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the US-Mexico border. Israeli Ambassador to Mexico Jonathan Peled was tasked with smoothing out ruffled feathers. Meanwhile, the New York Times used the opportunity to take a closer look at Israel’s security barriers in the West Bank and along the Egyptian and Gaza borders.

• Hmmmmmm.

‘Israel no longer in top five issues influencing American Jewish voters’

• German Muslim students protest Holocaust Remembrance Day event, attack Israel. Even worse, their school administrators expressed sympathy for their opposition.

The Weiterbildungskolleg Emscher-Lippe school, where the protest unfolded, has 500 students, 40% of whom have a migrant background. School director Günter Jahn told Der Westen it was good that there was student opposition to the remembrance event. “It is important that there is criticism. That is the basis for a discussion.” He added that in certain communities, criticism of Israel is demanded.

• Germany’s new Foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, accused Israel of running an “apartheid regime” back in 2012.

Gabriel, who till now has served as Economics Minister, replaces Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who will assume the ceremonial post of German president.

• Canada’s Rogers TV drops Arabic-language show following complaint of anti-Semitism.

Commentary/Analysis

• Plenty of commentaries about Jerusalem and the possible US embassy move:

– Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Putting Jerusalem first
– Robert Abrams: A Jerusalem embassy? Liberals shouldn’t worry; the western part of the city is part of Israel, anyway you cut it
– Yoaz Hendel: How can Israelis oppose US embassy move to Jerusalem?
– Yaakov Katz: How Israeli politicians delayed the embassy moving to Jerusalem

• Be afraid. Be very afraid. Fake news is about to get scarier than you ever dreamed.

• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend . . .

– Dror Eydar: Palestinian autonomy: Call it what you will
– David Aufhauser, Sander Gerber: Stop American aid to the PA until the terror ceases (click via Twitter)
– Gary Rosenblatt: Uncomfortable choices in a new world order
– Shannon Gilreath: Freedom of speech and the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act on college campuses
– Ari Briggs: A Jewish town or an Arab town?
– Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh: The Palestinians have no choice but peace

• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Rebecca Vilkomerson.

Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Maria Biblik; Gabriel CC BY Jusos de;

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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