Today’s Top Stories
1. Luke Baker, Reuters’ Jerusalem bureau chief and current head of the Foreign Press Association, had a rough day, being detained by Hamas. Baker went to the Strip to cover Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar’s meeting with the Foreign Press Association in Gaza.
Will the FPA make an official complaint, or does that only happen when the police are Israeli? And how does Baker compare the experience of Hamas and uncomfortable Israeli scrutiny as explained by Joe Hyams, HonestReporting’s CEO.
And what are we to make of a reporter who shrugs off the incident as “polite questioning” in one tweet, and doesn’t acknowledge the incident in his Gaza report?
https://twitter.com/LukeReuters/status/702791650477797378
2. If and when the PA holds elections, the jailed Marwan Barghouti plans to run for president, his wife said. Barghouti, who was leader of Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim militia, was convicted of five counts of murder and is serving five life-sentences.
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3. Argentinian prosecutor declares Alberto Nisman ‘was murdered.’
Saenz’s are the first statements by an official to affirm that Alberto Nissan was killed in January 2015 when he was found dead in his Buenos Aires City apartment with a gunshot to his head.
Nisman, who was Jewish, was the chief prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish community headquarters. He accused President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner other high officials of covering up Iran’s role in the bombing, which killed 85 people. Nisman’s death came one day before he was to brief the National Congress of Argentina.
4. Why The Independent Recycles ‘Apartheid’ Week Op-Ed: If editors expect a unilateral end of the “apartheid regime” in the West Bank, Israel could theoretically offer citizenship to Palestinians, but that would amount to annexation, which is also a dirty word.
5. Sacrificing the Truth for Comedy: The Toronto Star posts a “comedy” video promoting BDS through anti-Israel lies and libels.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Hamas civil servants begin strike over unpaid salaries, reports Maan News.
• Obama signs law to defend Israel from boycotts, but says settlements don’t count.
• After British Prime Minister David Cameron called Israeli construction in eastern Jerusalem “genuinely shocking,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat fired back saying eastern Jerusalem’s better off now than it was during the British Mandate.
• YNet: Israel’s ambassador to Cairo, Haim Koren, gave a rare interview to Egyptian journalists, and “surprisingly, the transcript of the interview was published, and what’s more, the journalists were not afraid to expose the fact that they had spoken to the representative from Israel.”
• Gay Iranian poet seeks asylum in Israel.
Around the World
• Israel’s ambassador to Bangkok confirmed to the Phuket Gazette that he approached Thai authorities before they moved to cancel an appearance last month by the controversial French comedian and hate-speech convict Dieudonne M’bala M’bala.
The comedian, who goes by the stage name Dieudonne, has been arrested at least 38 times for violating French hate-speech laws, and has been forced to pay more than €50,000 in fines and damages for various anti-Semitic, defamatory or hateful or inciting comments. Last year, a Belgian court sentenced him to two months in prison for racist and anti-Semitic remarks he made during a 2012 show.
Dieudonne’s Asian tour took another hit in January when he was denied entry into Hong Kong, forcing the cancellation of two shows.
• Anti-BDS legislation challenges 50-year American precedent on settlements as more than half the states are considering bills. Most recent activity in Iowa and Florida.
• Iran’s in the advanced stages of an attack on a Saudi airliner. The Manila Times reports that the Saudi embassy tipped off Filipino authorities:
The source said it is possible that the terrorist plot would be launched in Malaysia, Indonesia or the Philippines.
Commentary/Analysis
• National Post cartoonist Gary Clement aims his poison pen at BDS.
The reasoning of the Boycott, Divest, Sanction Israel movement… I'm not buying it. pic.twitter.com/vDtTfIs4Go
— Gary Clement (@garyjoelclement) February 24, 2016
• Hamas is fracturing, and Israel should be worried, Jonathan Schanzer argues.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Jonathan Tobin: Iran pledges cash for killing Jews
– Reuven Berko: Fatah-Hamas feud hits boiling point
– Terry Glavin: Boycotting Israel doesn’t help Palestinians
– Louis Rene Bere: Shaping Israel’s military nuclear doctrine
– Joe Lieberman: The absence of US leadership makes world more dangerous than ever
– Efraim Inbar: Consequences of a US retreat
– Avi Issacharoff: Defeated by Iran, the Saudis wash their hands of Lebanon
– Ariel Ben Solomon: Saudis pulling money from Lebanon is a sign the country is lost to Hezbollah
Featured image: CC BY-NC Just Call Me Mo; Nisman via daniberliner; Dieudonne via Dieudonne Officiel;
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