Today’s Top Stories
1. Palestinian President Abbas addressed the UN Security Council, calling for a peace conference to establish a two state solution based on 1967 borders.
The media made no mention of the critical context: that when speaking to a Palestinian audience, Abbas frequently says the opposite. For example, in his speech of January 14 (just last month) Abbas stood in front of a map of Israel and said, “This is our country,” stated that Jews have no connection to the land of Israel or to Jerusalem, referred the entirety of Israel as “Palestine” six separate times, and discussed the “occupation”…of 1948 (the year of Israel’s independence).
The biggest shocker at the UN was Abbas’s claim, “We are the descendants of the Canaanites that lived in the land of Palestine 5,000 years ago and continuously remained there to this day.” This claim is not supported by modern scholarship, and actually contradicts the Koran.
On all these points, the media gave Abbas a free pass: simply repeating his claims with no additional research, background or context.
See more in our video here:
2. The Israeli corruption scandals continue to unfold as a former aide to Benjamin Netanyahu turns state’s witness and a dramatic recording is revealed of the owner of Israel’s major telecommunications company ordering favorable coverage of the Israeli PM possibly as a quid pro quo.
3. Revealed: The IDF thwarted an attempted Islamic State bombing of a flight from Australia thanks to Military Intelligence Unit 8200.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• While Al Jazeera’s output can be highly problematic, at least the station is one of the few Arab ones to host Israeli spokespeople on air. An appearance by the IDF spokesperson for Arabic media has provoked a storm of criticism from those opposed to “providing a platform for the Zionist enemy” and “promoting normalization” with Israel.
• Was the return of a the body of a Palestinian terrorist who murdered three Israelis a mistake? The IDF Chief of Staff thinks so.
• Israel to issue 20,000 more work permits to Palestinians.
• The Palestinians’ envoy to the US faces silence from the White House.
Mideast Matters
• Bashar Assad is bringing a catastrophe to the hundreds of thousands of people in Eastern Ghouta while the world sits by.
• Egypt’s president says his country “scored a goal” by signing a $15 billion deal with an Israeli company to get natural gas that will help turn Egypt into a regional energy hub.
• Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq got their hands on at least nine high-tech, U.S.-made M-1 tanks as early as 2015, the U.S. government acknowledged earlier this month. Along with the belated admission, the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department say they are trying to take back the tanks.
Around the World
• What’s going on within South Africa’s ruling party when it comes to its policies towards Israel? Will a downgrade in relations be implemented? Nobody seems to know for sure.
Commentary/Analysis
• American journalist, editor, and political activist Clifford D. May writes in the Washington Times about the situation in Gaza, with historical perspective. May is the president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
• Professor Richard Landes produced this 20 minute video on how BBC and CNN covered the Middle East Conflict in the waning days of the Obama Administration, and the effect of “pack journalism.”
Everyone Agrees: The BBC and CNN on UNSC Resolution #2334 and Kerry’s Speech from Al Durah Project on Vimeo.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Do Arabs Back Israel in a Clash with Iran? asks Evelyn Gordon
Featured image: CC BY dulnan;
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