Will Israel Apartheid Week Breach UK Definition of Anti-Semitism?

Today’s Top Stories

1. British university chiefs were put on notice that Israel Apartheid Week activities hosted on campus run afoul of a definition of anti-Semitism that was adopted by UK Prime Minister Theresa May in December. The Jewish News quoted Michael McCann, director of Israel-Britain Alliance:

He added that, as of December, when Theresa May said Britain would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, any support for IAW should be seen as anti-Semitic.

 

“That definition gives examples of how anti-Semitism manifests itself in the context of the state of Israel,” he said. “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, for example, by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor, and applying double standards to the Jewish state by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation. The charge that Israel is an apartheid state breaches the definition and is anti-Semitic.”

Meanwhile, in an unusual criticism, Israel’s ambassador to Moscow blamed Russia for blocking wider international adoption of that anti-Semitism definition.

2. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump “agreed to form a team to examine the Jewish settlement enterprise in the West Bank,” reports Ynet. Indeed, in his meeting with Pence, a “mechanism for coordination on settlements” was discussed, along with recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, countering UN bias against the Jewish state, and Jonathan Pollard.

3. Is there any truth behind reports of Hezbollah’s “game-changing weapons” provided by Iran? Or is it Hezbollah disinformation? Check out MEMRI‘s latest assessment of the Lebanese media as well as related Times of Israel coverage and draw your own conclusions. Meanwhile, an Arab report picked up by Ynet indicate that the Arab world is warning Hezbollah not to go looking for a fight with Israel. Why?

According to the report, Arab states believe that the new US administration of Donald Trump could help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recruit the countries in the region against Hezbollah.

4. Success: Cambridge Dictionary No Longer Cites Tel Aviv as Israel’s Capital: Thank you to all of our readers who took the time to write to Cambridge University Press.

5. Time Op-Ed: “Equality” Means No Jewish State: When you resort to fabrication and twisting reality to advocate for an end to the Jewish state, maybe you’re just plain wrong.

6. A Journalist’s Blind Hatred of Israel: A chief political correspondent unleashes a hate-filled attack on Israel in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Israel and the Palestinians

• After Trump cast doubt on the future of the two-state solution, Big Media gauged the reactions of Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs and wonks.

• Netanyahu departs for state visits to Singapore and Australia today. The Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel preview the PM’s agenda.

• Haaretz: John Kerry offered Netanyahu a regional peace plan in a secret 2016 summit with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.

Netanyahu did not accept Kerry’s proposal and said he would have difficulty getting it approved by his governing coalition. Still, the Aqaba summit was the basis for the talks that began two weeks later between Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) on establishing a unity government.

 

Details about the summit and the plan emerged from conversations between Haaretz and former senior officials in the Obama administration who asked to remain anonymous. The Prime Minister’s Bureau refused to comment.

Later in the day, Netanyahu confirmed to Likud party cohorts that the meeting occurred and that he initiated it.

• Palestinians Target Need for Media Reform.

• Addressing the Munich Security Conference, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, called for moderate Arab states — especially Saudi Arabia — to stand together with Israel against Iran’s nuclear program.

The Times of Israel notes that a government minister representing Saudi Arabia remained in the room during Liberman’s talk, which was followed by an onstage Q+A with the BBC’s Lyse Doucet. The whole thing is on video. More at Reuters.

Somehow, Liberman and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif were originally scheduled to share a stage before conference organizers changed the schedule.

Around the World

• A hoax bomb threat against the Israeli consulate in Miami forced a brief evacuation of the New World Tower, where the mission is located. Local police said they received a call saying a bomb had been planted in the consulate itself. The Miami Herald adds:

Miami Beach’s Jewish Community Centers received bomb threats on Jan. 18 and, along with Alper Jewish Community Center and several other JCCs around the nation, on Jan. 9.

• Tensions remain high at McGill University after the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) called for the resignation of Igor Sadikov. Sadikov, a student politician raised a firestorm on the Montreal campus over his “punch a Zionist” tweet.

The statement came after the McGill administration warned the SSMU that by not demanding Sadikov’s resignation, the student society would be in violation of its own constitution, triggering serious financial consequences, the McGill Daily reported.

Sadikov, by the way, took another stab at an apology.

• After asking Trump about anti-Semitism in the US, the scolding Ami magazine’s Jake Turx certainly made him famous. Discussing the incident with Fox News, Turx defended the president. But with Turx’s question unanswered, the Washington Post took a closer look at anti-Semitism in the US.

Commentary/Analysis

• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend:

– Raphael Ahren: Despite Trump’s indifference, the two-state solution isn’t dead… yet
– Ben Lynfield: Arab states unlikely to clash with Trump over two-state solution
– Dennis Ross: The road to peace
– Alan Dershowitz: Trump: Palestinians must earn a two state solution
– Jonathan Schanzer and Mark Dubowitz: Standing with Israel on the Golan Heights (click via Twitter)
– Zvi Hauser: The Golan in return for Iran
– Uri Heitner: Recognize Israeli sovereignty in Golan Heights

– Amb. Ron Prosor: Israel welcomes the return of the US superpower under Donald Trump
– Rep. Glenn Grothman: Trump right to block Palestine funds
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: The case of disappearing support
– Irwin Cotler: The UN, Salam Fayyad and Israel
– Daniel Gordis: Netanyahu feels at home in the White House
– Jennifer Rubin: What is Trump’s Israel policy?
– Bernard Avishai: Benjamin Netanyahu’s art of avoidance
– Gershom Gorenberg: Netanyahu doesn’t think Trump has a Jewish problem. And that’s a problem.
– Roger Cohen: One-state, two-state blues
– New York Daily News (staff-ed): Netanyahu shines a bright light on the obstacles to a lasting peace
– The Age (staff-ed): The bitter obstacles on the path to peace

– Amos Harel: Can Israel really beat Hamas or Hezbollah?
– Dr. Mordechai Kedar: New leader, same old terror
– Giulio Meotti: Scandinavia: The West’s citadel of anti-Semitism

• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Daoud Kuttab, Robert Fisk and James Zogby.

Featured image: CC BY Jon S; Singapore CC BY-NC-ND Alex Layzell; Liberman via YouTube/David L. Rothschild; Mt. Hermon CC BY-NC-ND David King; handshake CC BY-SA Wikimedia Commons;

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

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