Today’s Top Stories
1. Turkish and Saudi forces are reportedly ready to launch a ground offensive against Islamic State forces in Syria. Iran responded by offering to help defend Syrian air space.
Meanwhile, skepticism abounds whether a partial ceasefire will take hold. As it is with the Mideast, all sides involved are positioning themselves for an escalation before the ceasefire kicks in.
2. Israel declared an end to its diplomatic crisis with the European Union over the latter’s controversial guidelines for labeling settlement products. According to YNet:
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said on Friday that the sides had “overcome the crisis” and that Israel would no longer insist on the exclusion of EU bodies from peace talks with the Palestinians over a two-state solution to the Middle East peace process . . .
Nachshon also said Israel received assurances the move to label settlement products “is not a political step to determine future borders or to boycott Israel.”
3. An Israeli-Russian free trade agreement expected to be reached soon, according to both the Jerusalem Post and Russia’s state-owned Tass News Agency.
4. Science Channel: Yet Another Map Fail: What on earth is going on with the Science Channel leaving Israel off the map?
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• This afternoon, a Palestinian trying to stab a guard at a checkpoint near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa was shot and killed. An IDF patrol responding to rock-throwing near Jenin this afternoon came under Palestinian gunfire. Soldiers returned fire, killing two Palestinian teens. On Saturday, a 17-year-old Palestinian woman trying to stab an Israeli soldier in Hebron was shot and killed. Ban Ki-moon would call these attacks on Israelis “human nature.”
• Obama to reluctantly sign trade bill that lumps together Israel and settlements
Such language, meaning that the bill is applicable to Israel and the settlements, “contravenes longstanding U.S. policy towards Israel and the occupied territories, including with regard to Israeli settlement activity,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement, hours after the measure was approved in the Senate by a vote of 75-20.
Nonetheless, while the president objects to that particular facet of the legislation, Earnest suggested his accepting it, and signing the bill, was part of the nature of bipartisan compromise. “As with any bipartisan compromise legislation, there are provisions in this bill that we do not support,” Earnest said.
• Worth watching: CNN takes a closer look at Israeli concerns about Gaza tunnels.
Meanwhile, the New York Times also looks at other cross-border threats Israel faces.
• Lacking legitimacy and relevance, what diplomatic options does the Palestinian Authority have? Gregg Carlstrom’s Foreign Policy dispatch should be a sober wake-up call for Ramallah. Jamie Walker, a correspondent for The Australian (click via Google News) raises a similar point.
• While Brazil isn’t budging on approving former settler leader Dani Dayan as Israel’s ambassador to Brasilia, the South American government approved Dorin Golden as Israeli consul in Sao Paulo. In the absence of an ambassador, Golden — who has served in the diplomatic corps for 30 years — will be Israel’s ranking envoy in Brazil.
• Israel did something nice for a gay Palestinian, which means we’re going to get blasted for pinkwashing again.
High Court ruling ends gay Palestinian’s asylum nightmare
• Speaking at an international security conference in Munich, Jordan’s King Abdullah argued that the key to defeating Islamic State is a two-solution resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Evergreen headline. ‘Nuff said.
• BDS supporters on social media are giving soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo a red card for appearing in an Israeli commercial.
Mideast Matters
• Angered over recent comments disclosing Egyptian-Israeli security cooperation, Egyptian president President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi cancelled an upcoming meeting in Cairo with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• CIA chief: Islamic State has ability to produce chemical weapons. Press reports picked up on comments John Brennan told 60 Minutes in an interview to be aired tonight.
Around the World
• The British government is moving to block local councils and other public bodies from boycotting. According to London’s Sunday’s Times:
The move is likely to be controversial, with critics portraying it as an attack on local democracy. The regulations will prevent any public authority from imposing a boycott on a country signed up to the World Trade Organisation government procurement agreement.
British firms will still be advised to clearly label products produced in Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory to ensure consumers can decide for themselves whether to buy them.
• Airbnb removed a British host from its platform who refused an Israeli guest because of his nationality.
• The Spanish Jewish community is threatening legal action El Jueves, a satirical magazine which portrayed hook-nosed Israeli soldiers abusing Jesus and urinating on Palestinians. Jerusalem Post coverage.
While magazines lambasting religion and politics in an irreverent style are fine, he said, it is “absolutely unacceptable” to engage in “anti-Semitic attack and slanders against the Jewish people.
• Police in Columbus, Ohio, shot and killed a machete-wielding man who attacked patrons of a restaurant owned by an Israeli man. Four people were injured in the attack. It’s not clear yet what the motive was. The Nazareth Mediterranean Cuisine restaurant is owned by Hany Baransi, an Israeli Arab originally from Haifa.
• Dutch store highlights Israeli settlement goods to protest separate EU labeling guidelines.
Commentary/Analysis
• In an interview with the Times of Israel, US Jewish communal leader Malcolm Hoenlein raised a warning about “Israel illiteracy” rife among young US Jews.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Alex Joffe: Healthy institutions don’t boycott Israel
– Jonathan Tobin: An Arab right to back terrorism?
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Israel’s Arabs: A tale of betrayal
– Ben-Dror Yemini: Balad MKs perpetuating the conflict
– Nahum Barnea: Temple Mount: King Abdullah approves, the Shin Bet appeals
– Moshe Dann: The Occupation: beginning and end
– Ely Karmon: Moscow’s alliance with Iran and Hezbollah threatens strategic Israeli interests
– Eyal Zisser: Putin the big winner in Syria
– Abdulrahman Al-Rashed: Moscow and the scarecrow of World War III
Featured image: CC BY Pedro Ribeiro Simoes; EU flag CC BY Nicolas Raymond; Spanish flag flag CC BY-NC-ND Chris;
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