Today’s Top Stories
1. Wikileaks released more documents highlighting US snooping on world leaders, including a tapped phone call between Benjamin Netanyahu and former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi in 2010. According to the documents, Berlusconi offered to help Israel mend frayed ties with the US.
2. A rash of Gaza suicides points to rising poverty and despair that shows no signs of abating, according to the Times of Israel. With unemployment at 38%, some Gazans clamor for war, others turn to Hamas for employment:
Every activist in the military wing, as opposed to officials in the Hamas government, receives three meals a day and is always paid on time.
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3. International experts identified seven new cases of chemical attacks in Syria.
4. Video: Is Israel an Apartheid State? As Israel Apartheid Week organizers prepare campus events demonizing Israel, Daniel Pomerantz examines the truth of their claims.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The IDF demolished the homes of two Palestinian terrorists who, in separate attacks in Tel Aviv and Gush Etzion on November 19, 2015, killed five Israelis.
• Worth reading: Time visited Israeli communities on the Gaza border to learn more about the threat of Hamas terror tunnels.
• Palestinians confront dilemma of working in the settlements
Israeli companies in the West Bank are pressured by the international community to move out of the disputed territories, but that would leave tens of thousands of Palestinian workers without a job they depend on to make ends meet.
• The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, talked to the Jerusalem Post about Palestinian efforts to slap Israel with war crimes charges and whether the Jewish state can get a fair hearing.
• Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan hosted a secret meeting of Jewish leaders from around the world to share ideas and strategies for fighting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. The Jerusalem Post reports:
Among the matters discussed were early detection of boycott threats, concrete steps to deal with threats to companies in or working with Israel, increasing pro-Israel activities online around the world, positive branding for Israel and bringing groups of influential people to visit Israel.
The ministry plans to use some of its NIS 100m. budget for this year to hire 10 locals to work at major Israeli embassies and battle delegitimization and boycotts. Their work will focus on early detection of boycott efforts and positive branding for Israel.
• Israel hosted a delegation of Arab journalists who live in Europe. According to YNet:
The four journalists, of Iraqi, Syrian, and Egyptian descent, write from Europe for a variety of Arabic-language news outlets, including Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Sky News, the BBC Arabic, Deutsche Welle Arabic, and Kitatbat.
They asked that their identities not be revealed because if it became known that they visited Israel, they would not only be risking their job, but also their lives. . .
“Our exposure to Israel is welcomed,” said one journalist. “We can argue about things, including the Palestinian issue, but we must not fall into the trap of hatred and incitement. This visit to Israel changed the way we think about all of you.”
• Haaretz: A psychiatric evaluation concluded that Yosef Ben-David, the lead defendant for the brutal murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir in 2014, is sane. The evaluation allows his trial to move forward after Ben-David’s lawyer entered an insanity plea.
Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was beaten and burnt to death on the day after the funeral of three Israeli teenagers kidnapped and killed near Hebron. Ben-David’s two co-defendants, both minors, were already convicted.
Around the World
• The annual Israel-Apartheid Week bash-athon kicked off at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) kicked off. Dr. Rafeef Ziadah accused Israel of rape and organ-harvesting. Israel Apartheid Week is being held this week in the UK. Campuses in other parts of the world organize IAW events on different weeks between now and April.
• The entertainment magazine, Variety, refused to publish an Israel Apartheid Week advertisement after initially accepting payment from Jewish Voices for Peace. Magazine executives told JVP they couldn’t publish it “because it would need to have a softer tone.”
The ad, whose top line reads “Free Trip to Israel at the Expense of Palestinians,” calls on Oscar nominees to refuse a free Israel trip worth $55,000 offered in their “swag bags.”
• Canada’s parliament officially condemns BDS by an overwhelming majority.
• Pro-Israel activists scored a victory in Spain, where the municipality of Aviles overturned a BDS resolution passed one month ago, calling it “discriminatory.”
• At Montreal’s McGill University, students advanced a motion calling on administrators to divest the university’s holdings from three companies operating in the West Bank and “profiting from violations of Palestinian human rights.” According to the Montreal Gazette, a change in university policy would first require online ratification by the entire student body, which in any event would not be binding on the McGill administration.
• Britain’s media regulatory body, Ofcom, warned an Islamic TV station, Peace TV Urdu, it could face sanctions for two broadcasts featuring recordings of Dr. Israr Ahmad, who died in 2010.
“In our view the terms used to describe Jewish people such as ‘like a cancer’, ‘evil genius,’ ‘their poison,’ ‘cursed people’, ‘cursed race’ were particularly strong and inflammatory,” the watchdog stated.
• Hezbollah founder criticizes its intervention in Syria.
Commentary/Analysis
• More commentary on tense state of relations between Israel and the foreign press. Eylon Aslan-Levy argues that the media is twisting the knife into Israel over the ‘lone wolf intifada,’ while Prof. Eli Avraham calls on the Israeli government to systematically track coverage.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Michael Oren: Discriminatory labeling laws hurt Europe’s fight against anti-Semitism
– Alex Fishman: No hope for Gazans
– Ronen Bergman: The lies and truths behind recent reports on Ron Arad
– Abdulrahman Al-Rashed: When Lebanon becomes an Iranian colony
Featured image: CC BY-SA Dave Crosby; McGill CC BY-NC-ND Ricky Leong;
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