Today’s Top Stories
1. Does Hezbollah possess chemical weapons?
Iran is building and testing short- to medium-range missiles armed with chemical warheads in Syria, former Syrian general Zuhair al-Saqit told [The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication] Maariv. Al-Saqit, who heads the Center for the Detection and Monitoring of the Use of Chemical Weapons in Belgium, also said that Iran’s Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah is in possession of chemical weapons, mostly handed to it by the Assad regime in order to hide their existence from international monitors.
In an interview in Paris, al-Saqit said that a large part of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles, which were hidden from international inspection bodies, were transferred to Hezbollah.
2. Turns out there’s a private Facebook group featuring anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying posts, plus plenty of conspiracy theories about Israel. But the group, “Palestine Live” is in the news because quite a few of its members are high profile people. The Daily Telegraph picked up on research by blogger David Collier, who infiltrated the group, called “Palestine Live.” It included members like UK Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn, other Labour personalities, BBC reporter Yolanda Knell, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin, Tikun Olam’s Richard Silverstein, Jewish Voice for Peace’s Rebecca Vilkomerson and Baroness Jenny Tonge, among others.
One of Collier’s major findings regards the Mavi Marmara affair of 2010. Greta Berlin, a co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement, told the private Facebook group that she blamed another pro-Palestinian activist, Ken O’Keefe, for starting the violence aboard the Mavi Marmara by attacking and disarming an Israeli soldier. It contradicts Free Gaza’s claims that the Israelis fired first.
There’s no evidence (so far) that Corbyn or Knell personally posted anything that would be deemed anti-Semitic. Labour party officials launched a probe.
3. Two Palestinian parties are breaking with long-standing taboos and running in Jerusalem’s municipal elections this October.
Palestinians have historically boycotted municipal elections, claiming that participation recognizes Israeli rule over the city. Whether Ramadan Dabash’s “Jerusalem for Jerusalemites” party or Iyad Bibuah’s “East Jerusalem” party can convince Palestinians to cast ballots remains to be seen.
Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents make up an estimated 37 per cent of the city’s population. If a large proportion of them were to vote, the political makeup of the city council – currently controlled by a rightist-Haredi coalition – could change. However, as the main Palestinian political organizations are unlikely to change their policy against voting, turnout is expected to remain low.
4. To Understand Zionism, Read Herzl Not Mahmoud Abbas: Palestinian historical revisionism of Israel’s founding doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
Israel and the Palestinians
• It’s finally confirmed: In historic first, Air India was cleared for Israel flights over Saudi Arabia. Tickets for the direct, seven-hour flights between Tel Aviv and Delhi are already on sale. The line’s first flight is on March 22. Israel’s national airline, El Al is demanding approval for the same line. Without permission to cross Saudi skies, El Al’s Tel Aviv-Mumbai takes a circuitous path that is costlier and two hours longer.
• On the occasion of International Women’s Day, The Media Line takes a closer look at women’s rights in the PA.
• In the middle of a piece about UN peacekeepers along the Israeli-Lebanese border, Newsweek botched some basic historical information. The original 1948 borders were set by the United Nations with neither state having real territorial contiguity. Israel’s founding fathers nevertheless accepted the plan but the Arabs chose war. Israel never threatened Arab contiguity, but the Arabs threatened Israel’s existence.
When Israel declared independence in 1948, Lebanon joined fellow Arab states in declaring war to support an independent Palestinian state, whose territorial integrity would have been threatened by the creation of a majority-Jewish country.
• The Knesset passed a law allowing the state to revoke the permanent resident status of eastern Jerusalem Palestinians who engage in terror. Haaretz coverage.
Under the law, the state can deport anyone whose residency status is withdrawn.
The government-sponsored law specifies three situations in which the interior minister can revoke permanent residency: If the status was granted under false pretenses, if the resident endangered public safety or security, or if he betrays the State of Israel.
• Palestinians in Gaza are planning a “tent city protest” along the Israeli border. The six-week-long protest, starting March 30, is to draw attention to demands that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to what is now Israel.
Such a demonstration, envisaging families camped out in the sensitive border area, could present a dilemma for the Israeli military that enforces a “no go” zone for Palestinians on land adjacent to Israel’s frontier fence.
Window into Israel
• Ynet updates the latest efforts to resolve the government’s coalition crisis over Orthodox army conscription.
• According to Israeli media reports, “police are looking into suspicions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara tried to get billionaires Arnon Milchen, James Packer and Rupert Murdoch to invest $25 million each in a new Israeli right-wing commercial TV channel.”
• Talk about a misleading Newsweek headline. The Israeli “alt-right” isn’t mainstream and the government’s doing everything it can to deal with Lahav leader Bentzi Gopstein and keep him from becoming part of the establishment. While Gopstein calls for expelling Arabs from Israel, no party in the Knesset advocates that. (And here’s Why Headlines Matter.)
• For commentary on the domestic scene, see Moran Azulay and Jeremy Sharon.
Around the World
• Outrage over use of yellow badges to protest use of Jewish buses in Montreal area.
• The Jewish community of Russia’s Tatarstan region is accusing an ice cream company of racism over the newest addition to its lineup. “Poor Jew,” whose wrapper features an Israeli flag. Radio Liberty reports that a prosecutor has already launched a preliminary investigation. In case you’re wondering, it’s a cone filled with chocolate- and prune-flavored ice cream and topped with peanuts, per the JTA.
This isn’t the first time the Slavista company milked controversy over its marketing. In 2016, it offered a chocolate ice cream called “The Obamka” with a wrapper featuring an African boy.
The same Russian company that made 'Little Obama' chocolate ice cream featuring a dark-skinned boy in 2016 has made a new batch called 'Poor Jew': @MoscowTimeshttps://t.co/KvKqYwfjXg pic.twitter.com/xqJRY3I3Rl
— Dmitry Zaks (@dmitryzaksAFP) March 8, 2018
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Arab countries appear to be fed up with the Palestinians
– Pinhas Inbari: The ‘After Abbas’ issue intensifies tensions among Fatah top brass
– Carole Basri: Do not give holy Jewish artifacts to a country that expelled its Jews
– Molly Roberts: Louis Farrakhan: The anti-Semite who’s haunting the left
• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Daoud Kuttab,
Featured image: CC BY-NC Thom Sanders; chemical weapons symbol CC BY-SA Wikimedia Commons;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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