Today’s Top Stories
1. He didn’t do anything wrong, but Israeli police detained Washington Post bureau chief William Booth and another man — apparently his fixer — “on grounds of incitement.” Both were released after an hour of questioning. What happened? According to the Times of Israel:
An Arab woman told Booth that if he paid some of the bystanders, they would provoke the nearby police officers and start a violent demonstration, Jerusalem Police spokesperson Asi Aharoni told The Times of Israel.
“Police officers noticed that she said if you pay these youngsters, they will start the provocation and you’ll be able to take pictures,” Aharoni said.
A passerby who overheard the exchange complained to nearby police officers, who “detained a number of suspects to check the facts,” and determine whether any violence had been planned.
Journalists tweeted their support for Booth, and Israel’s Government Press Office posted a statement on Facebook calling the incident “regrettable.”
If a Palestinian indeed offered a Riot-for-Rent, I’d like to hear Booth’s version of the story.
2. Closing the chapter on A Big Orange Mess, Israel’s Partner Communications completed cutting its ties with the French telecomm giant, Orange. The stink began last year when BDS activists targeted the Orange-Partner relationship over Partner’s services to Israeli settlements, Orange CEO Stephane Richard said he would cancel his licensing contract with Partner “tomorrow” if he could. See updates at Reuters and Globes.
3. France formally presented its Mideast peace initiative to Israel this morning. Haaretz described the Paris proposal as a three-step process of consultations with Israeli and Palestinian officials, the creation of an “international support,” and finally, an international peace summit this summer that will re-start negotiations. The Palestinians endorsed the plan, notwithstanding a vow to never again negotiate directly with Israel.
Israel has reservations about the French initiative, especially due to the former French foreign minister’s threat to recognize Palestine as a state if the initiative fails. Israeli diplomats indicated that this threat turns the idea of the conference into an empty gesture.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. Video: It Really is Bias: Comparing Anti-Israel Headlines: Reporters claim their headlines are not really biased but merely reflect proper journalistic practices. So why do headlines about Israel look so different from headlines about similar events in other countries?
Israel and the Palestinians
• Soldiers and Palestinians tussled at Joseph’s Tomb while Jewish worshippers visited on Monday night. Under an agreement with the PA, Jews are allowed to pray once a month at the holy site in Nablus.
• Israel arrested the head of the Fatah-aligned Tanzim militia for directing and funding shooting attacks against Israelis. More at the Jerusalem Post.
• The Jerusalem Post picked up on Shin Bet statistics on the wave of Palestinian terror attacks since October 1. We’re clearly talking about millenials raised all their lives on a steady diet of Palestinian media:
Thirty- seven percent of the terrorists ranged from 16 to 20 years old. A further 10% of those carrying out the attacks were minors, meaning that nearly half of the attackers were younger than 21 years old.
• Palestinian home-made guns add to Israeli security headaches, The Media Line reports:
“We’re not talking about military grade, manufactured weapons. These are weapons that are being produced in homemade factories,” Micky Rosenfeld, spokesman for Israeli police told The Media Line. Improvised or not, Cohen’s death demonstrates that such tools’ lethality cannot be underestimated. “These firearms are reaching the level of military made weapons. They fired like an AK47 or M-16,” Rosenfeld noted . . .
Homemade guns do not have serial numbers which can be traced. In addition, if they were to be made by a small group of people capable of keeping a secret they could stay beneath the radar and surprise Israel’s security forces.
Weapons and explosive devises used by terrorists in attack today at Damascus gate. Police patrols in Area continue. pic.twitter.com/U8HOkRxByw
— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) February 3, 2016
• Press freedom, Palestinian style: PA police detain journalist for reporting on salary of Palestine TV’s hairdresser
Al-Jariri, who hosts a talk show on a Ramallah-based radio station, referred to the case during a program on the misuse of public funds.
• The PLO once warned foreign journalists not use the name ‘Temple Mount’ when referring to the Jerusalem holy site. You see, any name other than Noble Sanctuary (Haram al Sharif in Arabic) encroaches on Palestinian/Muslim claims. I mention that because following imbalanced throwaway line means that Reuters is either A) letting the PLO dictate content (once again), or, B) slacking off on copy-editing. In a dispatch about Israel considering allowing more Palestinian laborers, Reuters writes:
As well as frustration over Jewish settlement-building, deemed illegal by the United Nations, on land Palestinians want for a state, tensions have been rising over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound and Islamist calls for Israel’s destruction.
While we’re on the subject, there’s no mention of Jewish ties to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in this travel review in Australia’s News.com.au. The city was Jewish long before the emergence of Christianity and Islam.
What: The old walled city of Jerusalem is home to two of the world’s holiest sites: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was said to be crucified in around 30AD, and The Temple Mount, where Mohammed was said to begin his path to heaven in 621 AD.
Why: Old Jerusalem has the foundation stones of both Christianity and Islam, the world’s largest religions . . .
Around the World
• Claiming anti-Semitic discrimination, two Jewish professors filed complaints against a Boston-area college.
• A Lebanese man linked to Hezbollah money-laundering activities was arrested at a Panamanian airport — carrying $500,000. The incident will also draw unwelcome attention to Hezbollah ties to the illegal drug trade. Beirut’s Daily Star (click via Google News) reports that the suspect, who also holds a Ghanaian passport, reportedly “managed drug-related operations and money laundering activities” in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
• Islamic State captured a few Syrian air defense missiles that could theoretically shoot down US aircraft. It depends on whether the jihadis managed to also capture control radar and other necessary equipment.
• No surrender? BDS is pressing Bruce Springsteen not to move ahead with plans to play in Tel Aviv this summer.
• Paris remembers Ilan Halimi on 10th anniversary of his brutal murder.
Commentary/Analysis
• This is fascinating. David Collier contacted 31 pro-Palestinian NGOs to ask if it was safe to volunteer in the West Bank. The responses he got — it’s perfectly safe — reveals their schizophrenia. Collier explains
Firstly, they point out that injuries can occur at demonstrations. They suggest this is natural, and would occur if you were to take such actions in ‘many places in the world’. There is therefore no suggestion here that Israel acts out of the ordinary, rather the opposite. In trying to entice the volunteer, ISM lower their guard and let the truth shine through.
Secondly they state that when you are working in the field, either at checkpoints, schools or in the towns, the risk of any injury is ‘low or non-existent’. Once more ISM clearly state that if you just go about your daily business, you are very unlikely to run into trouble.
When you place these two clear-cut statements together, it logically creates a problem for ISM’s position. Clearly Israel are not attacking the Palestinians, but rather in areas where Palestinians choose to confront Israelis, violence can occur. But if you follow the logic, the inevitable conclusion is worse.
As people can go about their daily business without risk of harm, the place and time of the violence must almost always be of the Palestinian’s choosing.
• With the UK government banning public institutions from boycotting Israel, The Independent published a trio of commentaries by Adam Levick, Daniella Peled, and Nash Riggins. Given the typical Indy reader, it’s probably no coincidence that the paper turned off reader comments to Levick’s piece, which was the most pro-Israel of the three.
And over at The Guardian, staff cartoonist, Steve Bell, feels hard done by that issue.
• As the US squanders its influence in the Mideast while leading presidential contenders make Israelis shudder, Israel is diversifying its strategic ties and preparing to move “beyond America.” Bret Stephens (Wall St. Journal via Google News) explains what’s behind Israeli warming ties with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Gulf states, and even India and Greece:
This de facto Sunni-Jewish alliance amounts to what might be called the coalition of the disenchanted; states that have lost faith in America’s promises. Israel is also reinventing its ties to the aspiring Startup Nations, countries that want to develop their own innovation cultures.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Amos Harel: Eight attacks in 12 hours leave no doubt: Israel is in the midst of an intifada
– Andrew Bolt: Labor now the go-to party for the anti-Semite
Featured image: CC BY-SA Esther Vargas; Temple Mount CC BY Chadica;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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