Today’s Top Stories
1. The EU’s funding illegally built Palestinian structures in the West Bank. According to the Daily Mail, the financial support — at taxpayer expense — violates international agreements:
More than 400 EU-funded Palestinian homes have been erected in Area C of the West Bank, which was placed under Israeli jurisdiction during the Oslo Accords – a part of international law to which the EU is a signatory.
The Palestinian buildings, which have no permits, come at a cost of tens of millions of Euros in public money, a proportion of which comes from the British taxpayer.
This has raised concerns that the EU is using valuable resources to take sides in a foreign territorial dispute.
More on the story at the Jerusalem Post. They were picking up on a report by Regavim.
2. I can’t say I’m satisfied with it, but Sky News apologized for airing images of Gaza destruction during a Holocaust Memorial Day interview with Britain’s chief rabbi:
Mr Lowe said showing images of Gaza while the Chief Rabbi talked about the conflict was logical, but that with hindsight he would not have combined the two, calling it “an indelicate clash”.
He added: “I’m sorry if you or anyone was upset by the interview Adam did with the Chief Rabbi. I agree that the particular circumstances of the use of the pictures from Gaza was unfortunate”.
3. The Uruguayan government confirmed that an Iranian fled the country after a bomb was planted near the Israeli embassy in Montevideo. According to Haaretz, it’s not clear if Ahmed Sabatgold, a political consultant in the Iranian embassy, was trying to harm anyone, or test the embassy’s security preparedness.
4. Brian Williams on the Couch: Did the embattled NBC News anchor embellish a ride in an Israeli Blackhawk during the Lebanon War?
5. How The Media Gets It Totally Wrong About Israel: Sometimes the media can’t tell the difference between victims and terrorists. See HonestReporting on Buzzfeed.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The PA, including Mahmoud Abbas, meticulously studies the details of terror attacks before issuing salaries and rank promotions to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and their families. The Times of Israel looks at Ahmad Talab Mustafa Barghouti and Sa’id Ibrahim Sa’id Ramadan as case studies.
The Barghouti and Ramadan cases are just two of hundreds of terrorists who are rewarded for their actions — not in a blind, faceless program, but in a meticulous, exacting official process that can remain in place for years. The money is represented to donor countries as “government salaries.”
The journalist, Edwin Black, has raised this issue before. See The Guardian from 2013 for more background.
• Reports that UNESCO nixed a collection of Palestinian posters for special heritage status because they were anti-Semitic aren’t entirely accurate, UNESCO officials say.
But it turns out that the Liberation Graphics Collection of Palestine Posters still has a shot at being honored in UNESCO’s Memory of the World program.
“The nomination has not been rejected. The nominator is requested to revise it,” a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said.
“It is absolutely normal for the committee to ask for revisions and improvements of the nominations to make them meet the program’s selection criteria,” the representative added.
You can view the posters and draw your own conclusions.
• Abbas appoints committee to oversee ICC cases
• A Palestinian attempted to run over soldiers at near Bethlehem. Soldiers fired on the car, which got away. No reports of injuries. Times of Israel coverage.
• While reading this BBC dispatch from the new Palestinian city of Rawabi (still under construction), keep in mind how the Palestinians use water as a weapon against Israel.
• After all the sturm und drang, George Galloway appeared on BBC’s Question Time (already on YouTube), broadcast from the London’s Jewish neighborhood of Finchley. See the Jewish Chronicle‘s recap, plus reactions from Harry’s Place and Jake Wallis Simons.
• What took them so long? Diplomats from the Quartet (the US, UN, Russia, and EU) met for the first time in a year and came out in opposition to Palestinian unilateralism. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• The name sound like something protecting your teeth from plaque, but AquaShield’s an advanced sonar system protecting the Israeli coast (and, perhaps, offshore gas rigs), from hostile divers trying to infiltrate. It was installed along Israel’s southern coast near Gaza.
• Reuters: In the latest diplomatic snub, Turkish foreign minister skipped security conference in Munich, refusing to attend a joint a session with an Israeli delegation. Judging from Herb Keinon, I don’t think the Turks missed very much.
Mideast Matters
• Defying Shiite mainstream, Lebanese cleric reaches out to Jews.
• According to CNN, Israel and Jordan are bolstering security ties as they deal with a common threat from ISIS.
Israel has already flown drone sorties over the Jordanian-Syrian border to help Jordan thwart potential attacks from ISIS.
Without accusing the Jordanians of being disproportionate, tweet of the day goes to Max Abrahams of the Council on Foreign Relations.
• Voice of America was on hand as Jordanian Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, visited the US Holocaust Museum, called on the world to learn about it, and tied in the ISIS threat.
He referred to the militants as “takfiri” or “infidels,” despite their claims to be acting in the name of Islam, and said they were deceiving their followers with Nazi-like lies and chauvinistic logic.
• Politico: At the CIA’s request, Newsweek sat on its story on CIA-Mossad cooperation in the death of Hezbollah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, only to be scooped by the Washington Post.
• Will Egypt designate Turkey as a state that supports terror? That’s the goal of one Egyptian’s lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 24.
Around the World
• Greek guerrillas who call themselves The Group of Popular Rebels claimed responsibility for firing shots at the Israeli embassy in Athens in December.
• The Washington Post reports that French Jews are planning an “exodus.”
Far from comforting, the troops’ presence has become for many Jews a symbol of their vulnerability.
“It’s more stressful than reassuring,” said Sebag, who walks past the troops each day as she drops her kids at preschool. Even with all the threats facing Israel, she notes, soldiers are not regularly deployed to defend toddlers.
• The New York Times wants to make up for its biased coverage of Israel with crossword puzzles that only Hebrew speakers can complete. But they botched that too.
Commentary/Analysis
• Robert Fulford‘s wondering: How the heck did ISIS get this far?
• For more commentary/analysis, see Elliott Abrams (“Calling Out” Iran), Boaz Bismuth (“Moderate” ambitions — for a bomb), Uzay Bulut (It’s really hard to please the Jew-haters), and Doyle McManus (Why the US is courting Houthi control of Yemen). See also staff-eds in the Washington Post (The emerging Iran nuclear agreement raises concerns) and Wall St. Journal (via Google News — Another UN human rights fraud).
Featured image: CC BY-SA Estitxu Carton via flickr with additions by HonestReporting
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
