Today’s Top Stories
1. Violence flared up along the Israeli-Syrian border over the weekend. It started on Saturday morning when an Iranian drone entered Israeli air space and was shot down by a helicopter. Israel launched retaliatory air strikes against Iranian targets and Syrian anti-aircraft batteries. One Israeli F-16 jet was shot down in a flaming crash — caught on video which Ynet explains — into a field near Kibbutz Harduf was c. The two pilots ejected themselves from the aircraft. One is currently listed in moderate condition at Haifa’s Rambam Hospital. The second pilot was released from the hospital today.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, six people were killed in the Israeli strikes. Seth Frantzman nicely summarizes the tick-tock of what’s known.
Flights in and out of Ben Gurion Airport were halted for about an hour during the skirmish. Israel today boosted air defenses in the north. More on the story below.
HonestReporting flagged a number of faulty headlines. Iran Attack: It All Started When Israel Fired Back.
2. Mazen Adi, a former Syrian ambassador who once accused Israel of trafficking in human organs, has left a teaching position at Rutgers University. While a university spokesperson confirmed to local New Jersey media that Adi no longer teaches there, “it is not immediately clear whether he was fired or left on his own accord.”
Adi served as a diplomat for 16 years, including as ambassador to the UN, where he served as a mouthpiece for the Assad regime, justifying war crimes against civilians. He taught international law at Rutgers since 2015.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. US Ambassador David Friedman took to Twitter to lock horns with Israel’s Haaretz daily. It has to do with the fact that A) Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal, who was stabbed to death last week by a Palestinian was a resident of the Har Bracha settlement in the northern West Bank, and B) Friedman had donated an ambulance to Har Bracha 20 years ago. Columnist Gideon Levy made his opposition to Har Bracha more than clear. Further background at the Jerusalem Post.
What has become of .@Haaretz ? Four young children are sitting shiva for their murdered father and this publication calls their community a “mountain of curses.” Have they no decency?
— David M. Friedman (@USAmbIsrael) February 9, 2018
Israel and the Palestinians
• Questions you’re probably asking about the Israeli-Iranian-Syrian skirmish:
– What’s known about the downed drone?
– What’s the drone threat Israel faces?
– When was the last time Israel lost a plane in combat?
– What would an extended conflict do to Israel’s economy?
– What are Syrian rebels saying about Israel now?
– Does the clash change the rules of the game? (Yes or no, depending on who you ask.)
• Tweet of the day goes to Daniel Shapiro.
For those questioning whether the Iranian UAV in Israeli airspace was attacking Israel, what level of sovereignty-violation from an avowed enemy should Israel be expected to tolerate? Or maybe Israel should wait and see if the UAV has a payload? Please.
— Dan Shapiro (@DanielBShapiro) February 10, 2018
• Work is underway on a concrete wall along the Israeli-Lebanese border to protect from Hezbollah infiltration. Priority is being given to Israeli towns and kibbutzim. Ynet visited Rosh HaNikra, where initial work has already begun. This was written before the weekend border skirmish.
The main goal of the wall is to prevent Hezbollah’s elite “Radwan” force from infiltrating Israel during a conflict, and trying to capture an Israeli town or military outpost, an act that would deal a severe blow to Israeli morale and a boost for the terrorist group.
For their part, a UNIFIL spokesman said Wednesday that Israel had begun work south of the border line and added that the UN organization was closely monitoring the events. The spokesman, quoted in Lebanese media, said that UNIFIL was maintaining contact with officials on both sides of the border in order to solve the matter (Lebanese objections) and prevent unnecessary tension or deterioration.
• Saudi Arabia denied reports it gave Air India permission for overflights on a direct Tel Aviv-New Delhi line.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reports that a growing number of Pakistanis are wondering if they should follow in India’s footsteps and “adopt constructive ties” with both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• “Qatar’s leaders have assured Jewish-American organizations that Al Jazeera’s documentary on the Israel lobby in the United States will not be aired, five sources in pro-Israel circles in Washington told Haaretz,” though subsequent reports suggest the video may be aired anyway. Qatar is engaged in a charm offensive with American Jewish leaders.
Last week a number of pro-Israel organizations in the United States received letters from Al Jazeera informing them that their employees would appear in the documentary.
The film is based on the work of an undercover reporter who gained access to pro-Israel organizations in 2016 and videotaped their employees at work. The documentary is similar to one that Al Jazeera aired last year on Britain’s Israel lobby. Al Jazeera gave the organizations three weeks to reply to their quotes that will appear in the film.
• Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri discussed the issue of deporting African migrants in a Washington Post Q+A.
• Israel appointed a new ambassador to Jordan as ties between the two countries continue to renormalize. Amir Weissbrod, a career diplomat, becomes Israel’s top envoy in Amman, closing the chapter on last year’s crisis over the shooting death of two Jordanians at the Israeli embassy by a security guard in an altercation that was disputed by both countries.
• The PA slammed a delegation of Arab journalists who visited Israel, calling for the Arab world to boycott them to deter other such visits, which it said “promoted normalization.” More at the Times of Israel.
Hosted special guests from the Arab world in Jerusalem today – a delegation of Moroccan, Lebanese, Syrian, Kurdish & Yemeni journalists, visiting in order to get to know Israel, its history and its society from up close.
Welcome – اهلا وسهلا بكم pic.twitter.com/yOZbwyoHZ9— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) February 5, 2018
Around the World
• “Egypt’s army is bulldozing homes and olive groves to build a buffer zone around the airport in troubled North Sinai Province, but the operation will displace thousands, according to residents.” But it’s only an outrage if Israel does it. The El Arish airport buffer zone is in response to an ISIS assassination attempt on two high-level Egyptian security officials in December.
• Germany’s new governing coalition agreement denounces Israeli settlement policies and opposes American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But Israeli officials told the Jerusalem Post they weren’t especially perturbed.
• JTA: “A McGill University internal investigation absolved students involved in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel of outright anti-Semitism on campus but decried Jew hatred, triggering mixed reactions from the Jewish community.”
In letters to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority and the Tampa Sports Authority, Fine warned that Lorde’s April performances would violate Florida law, which bars state and local governments from conducting business exceeding $1 million with any organization engaged in a boycott of Israel . . .
“When Lorde joined the boycott in December, she and her companies became subject to that statute,” the representative continued. “The taxpayers of Miami and Tampa should not have to facilitate bigotry and antisemitism.”
• Ohio lawmakers are poised to pass anti-BDS legislation.
• Lithuanian ethics official faces call to step down after offering a cash reward for thesis pinning war crimes on Jews.
In the blog entry, Sadauskas offered 1,000 euros, or $1,221, to “a school student, a university student, a postgraduate student, a teacher or a scientist who will collect information, documents, materials and write a thesis (at least 10 printed pages) or a publication about individuals of the Jewish nationality who killed people, contributed to deportations or tortures,” the LETA news agency reported Thursday.
Commentary
– Yaakov Katz: The open war with Iran has begun
– Amos Harel: In first, Israel and Iran are engaged in a head-to-head confrontation in Syria
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Conflict with Iran is here
– Judah Ari Gross: Freed from shroud of ‘foreign reports,’ Israel-Iran fight steps out from shadows
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Iran pushing for new northern status quo
– Avi Issacharoff: Riding high after IS defeat, Iranian axis tries its luck with Israel, US
– Dan Zaken: Northern flare-up: Iran testing Israel, Russia
– Anshel Pfeffer: Israel struggles to draw new red lines in Russia’s Syria playground
– Yoav Limor: Iran wants Putin to intervene
– Mary Dejevsky: Iran is extending its regional power in Syria – this is Israel’s worst nightmare
– Ben Lynfield: Can Russia defuse the confrontation with Iran?
• Last word, for now, goes to Amos Yadlin:
1.The cheers in Damascus, Beirut, and Tehran are odd. Even the commentators in Israel who explain that Israel has lost its air superiority are far off the mark. True, sometimes there are loses, or mistakes on our side, but the balance is unequivocal:
— Amos Yadlin (@YadlinAmos) February 10, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Smadar Bat Adam: Gaza water crisis the result of Hamas’ incompetence
– Fred Maroun: Arab by birth, Zionist by choice
– Abdulrahman Al-Rashed: Do we allow Air India’s request?
– Jennifer Gerber: The UK pays disproportionate attention to Palestinian child prisoners
– Bassam Tawil: The Hamas-ISIS war, corrupt leaders
– Gary Rosenblatt: Is Israel losing the Democratic Party?
– Jonathan Tobin: The sinister reason behind Qatar’s wooing of the Jews
• Last but not least, Fisk’s being Fisk again.
Featured image: CC0 bykst; Qatar CC0 Pixabay; Lorde via YouTube/Elvis Duran Show; soldier CC BY-NC Israel Defense Forces;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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