Nasrallah Reportedly Hospitalized in Iran With Cancer

Today’s Top Stories

1. Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is reportedly in Iran getting emergency medical treatment for cancer.

The timing’s ironic: Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of the assassination of pro-Western prime minister Rafik Hariri, and Hezbollah’s heavily implicated.

2. Ex-PM Ehud Olmert reported to prison this morning, to begin a 19-month sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice. Seth Frantzman‘s reaction makes our tweet of the day.

Eventually Israel will have enough government officials in prison at the same time, there could be a "shadow" cabinet in there…#Fail.

— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) February 15, 2016

3. Turns out the European Union blinked over its contentious guidelines for labeling Israeli settlement products. Israel HaYom writes:

Under the new agreement, the EU said it will leave product-labeling decisions up to each individual member country.

 

Israel has said that it will continue to fight bids to label products in each country that intends to do so.

 

The EU also promised that it would not assist in labeling efforts and that it would oppose any boycott or isolation campaigns against Israel. The EU further announced that it is opposed to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, that it is dedicated to Israel’s security and that it condemns terrorism and incitement to violence.

4. A Day of Terror, A Day of Headline Fails: Accuracy and context took a hit.

5. Nissan’s Driving App Can’t Find Israel: A Japanese car maker’s mobile application doesn’t include Israel on its list of countries.

Israel and the Palestinians

• This afternoon, a 15-year-old Palestinian girl trying to stab a security guard at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate was subdued. Last night, also near Damascus Gate, two Palestinians opened fire on Israeli police officers. Both were killed after a brief gun battle and chase. One of the terrorists was a PA police officer.

Last night, a Jewish home in the Beit El settlement was hit by gunfire. Nobody was injured. Police believe it came from a nearby Palestinian village, but are unsure if the shots were deliberate or stray.

Also yesterday, a woman in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood told police she fought off a Palestinian teenager she said tried to stab her. Adding to yesterday’s confusion was a false report of a stabbing in Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell Park.

• Heh: The PA insists the Palestinians will never again negotiate directly with Israel, but they’re happy to continue security coordination in the West Bank.

• Bibi says it’s time for Arab states allied with Israel against Iran to come out of the closet. On a related note is this photo David Hazony shared:

• The Canadian government is mulling funding for the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). According to the Globe & Mail:

The government has indicated it wants Canada to return to its role as an “honest broker” in the region while remaining closely allied with Israel. It is now reviewing whether to extend humanitarian funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which was established in 1950 to deal with Palestinian refugees and continues to work in Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. . .

 

The former Harper government eliminated its ongoing funding for UNRWA in 2010, amid mounting criticism that its schools were hotbeds of anti-Israeli extremism, but gave $14-million in emergency food support in 2012.

• The Jerusalem Post picks up on the latest inciting Palestinian video circulating on social media.

• The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, is visiting Israel and the PA, primarily to “restate long-held American commitments.” More on her visit at The Media Line.

Mideast Matters

• Pessimistic about an upcoming Syrian ceasefire, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon suggested that a sectarian partition of the country was inevitable and perhaps preferable, according to Reuters. Does this reflect Israeli policy?

Yaalon also said there are signs that Arab states are preparing to acquire nuclear weapons in response to Iran. More on that issue at the Daily Telegraph. The Defense Minister was addressing an international security conference in Munich.

• The Jerusalem Post updates what’s known about the Syria’s last remaining Jews — 16 or 17 elderly people all over the age of 70.

• Syrian rebel leader meets with Israeli deputy minister in the Knesset.

• Does Hezbollah have radar able to track (and lock onto) Israeli jets flying reconnaissance missions over Lebanon?

Around the World

• Students at Vassar University are selling T-shirts praising terrorist Leila Khaled to raise money for “Palestinian resistance.” You can do that?

Ithaca University’s Associated Professor Rebecca Lesses acerbically responded:

A fine hero for SJP at Vassar to have – an airplane hijacker who managed to avoid jail. Apparently the people in the two planes that she hijacked – TWA 840 and El Al 219 – don’t matter to them. The terrorist, not the victims, is the one they laud. They don’t appear to be able to imagine themselves as the terrified passengers, wondering what was going to happen to them when armed attackers take over their planes. No, what they like is “sweet fucking antiZionist gear.”

• According to Brazilian media reports picked up by the JTA, a record number of Brazilian Jews made aliyah in 2015.

The desire to flee Brazil’s severe urban violence atmosphere featured as a major reason for Brazilian Jews to claim Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return in the report by Jornal Nacional, Globo TV’s primetime news program.

Commentary/Analysis

• Nathan Brown and Daniel Nerenberg ask, Are we seeing Palestine’s spring at long last? This snippet made me pause:

While we cannot deny that there is some growing interest in various one-state alternatives somehow combining Israelis and Palestinians, what seems more significant is the tendency to defer questions of solutions in favor of developing tactics that can improve the Palestinian position — such as new forms of resistance and boycott.

• I see Israeli-Arab MK Haneen Zoabi got op-ed space in Newsweek.

• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .

– Amos Yadlin: Israel’s options in the face of Hamas attack tunnels
– David Wainer: Does Netanyahu want a Fox News for Israel?
– Ben-Dror Yemini: The new Palestinian people
– Dan Margalit: A new cold war’s implications for Israel

Featured image: CC BY-SA Aleksander Markin; Canada CC BY Brandon Giesbrecht;

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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