Today’s Top Stories
1. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre reopened to worshipers after Israel backed off from plans to tax church-owned commercial properties and suspended separate legislation impacting church land sales. The Jerusalem Post explains:
Netanyahu became involved after it became clear that the closure of the church had the potential to cause Israel considerable diplomatic damage, and both Jordan and the Palestinians claimed that this was an indication that Israel was “threatening the presence of Christians in the Holy Land.” . . .
Netanyahu agreed with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to establish a team led by Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, with the participation of all the relevant parties, to find a solution to both issues.
In the meantime, the municipality has frozen its tax collection efforts, and legislation concerning the sale of church property will be suspended.
More background and what happens next at Ynet.
2. Satellite images indicate Iran is building a new military base in Syria, northwest of Damascus. The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Ynet, Haaretz and Israel HaYom all picked up on a Fox News scoop.
According to the report, Western intelligence sources estimated that the base, which contains large hangars, can store ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel and is operated by the Quds Force – the special operations arm of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
A base similar to the one revealed in the new satellite photos was discovered last November south of Damascus and was destroyed in December by an Israeli airstrike.
New satellite photos show Iran establishing another base in Syria https://t.co/wFD4VIOjnn
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 28, 2018
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3. A French court ruled that the brutal murder of Sarah Halimi will be prosecuted as an anti-Semitic hate crime after all. Kobili Traore, a 28 year-old Muslim, was heard calling Halimi’s daughter a “dirty Jewess” and yelling verses from the Koran before throwing the 66-year-old retired physician out of the third-floor window of her Paris apartment.
French Jews were in a uproar earlier this February when a judge dropped the hate crimes charges from Traore’s indictment. Traore has confessed to the murder and is pleading temporary insanity.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Bungled headline of the day: Jerusalem’s Christian leaders never used the words ‘Nazi-like persecution’ in their protest against the now-suspended tax plan and legislation. While Israelis bridle at being compared to Nazis, I can’t imagine church leaders will appreciate The Independent misquoting them. The word Nazi doesn’t even appear in the article. (Here’s why headlines matter.)
Contrast that headline with this Wall St. Journal snippet (click via Twitter):
In all, the Israeli attempts to collect taxes and impose a new law had angered the Palestinian Christian community and its leaders, who in a statement Sunday likened Israeli actions to persecution of Jews during “dark periods in Europe”—an oblique reference to Nazi Germany.
• MEMRI: Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party gave an apartment to the family of Ahmad Nassar, the terrorist who murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevach in a drive-by shooting last month.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Brazil in June, becoming the first Israeli PM to visit the South American country.
Around the World
• Dutch groups cancel speeches by Palestinian ex-terrorist Rasmea Odeh
• The British Labour Party may open a new probe of ex-London mayor Ken Livingstone, whose suspension from the party is nearing an end. Livingstone was suspended for comments claiming that Adolf Hitler supported Zionism. A number of MPs threatened to quit their seats if Livingstone is reinstated.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Jonathan Tobin: The embassy will move — and the world won’t end
– Dr. Reuven Berko: When the ‘agent of peace’ cries for jihad
– David Horovitz: The weakening of Israeli democracy
– Gil Troy: The Netanyahu hangover brings out the worst in us all
Featured image: CC0 Pixabay; pilgrims CC BY-NC scottgunn;
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