Today’s Top Stories
1. The IDF arrested three Gaza infiltrators armed with grenades and knives 20 km (about 12 miles) inside Israel.
2. Jews and other concerned citizens protested Labour party antisemitism, with some 2,000 demonstrating outside Parliament. The Jewish Chronicle reports the turnout “included a broad cross-section of the community and a large number of Labour MPs.” The demonstration caught UK media attention, with coverage in The Independent, Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and BBC.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that Labour ignored a formal complaint over the antisemitic mural at the heart of the latest controversy.
Our own Simon Plosker was at the scene
I’m here in Parliament Sq, London supporting the UK Jewish community that I left behind 17 yrs ago to say #EnoughIsEnough to #LabourAntisemitism. pic.twitter.com/NsYZKU6K8Q
— Simon Plosker (@SimonPlosker) March 26, 2018
3. Israel’s Construction Minister Yoav Gallant has said that Israel is unlikely to join the long list of countries expelling Russian diplomats following the poisoning of a Russian spy in in the UK, according to Gallant a member of the security cabinet:
First of all because we share some ideas and interests. Secondly, because there are more than a million immigrants who have come from Russia to Israel, and the Russian administration views them as citizens, or old citizens, or veterans of of Russia. And thirdly, we have to remember what are the proportions and what are the distances.
4. Unpacking Israel’s African Migrant Dilemma: In a special deep dive analysis, we explore the facts, the formalities and the fight over the fate of thousands of Africans in Israel.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The IDF’s bracing for Land Day protests along the Gaza border.
• Times of Israel: Hamas police violently suppressed a Gaza student demonstration at Al-Azhar U. The students were protesting recent administration decisions over unpaid tuition fees. Hamas claims the protest was engineered by Fatah-affiliated students.
• Worth reading: Globes visited Syrian children being treated in Israeli hospitals.
“No treaty is being signed here, but bridges are being built, one by one with the medicine, doctors’ visits, and equipment being transferred, in the hope that it will make them trust us.”
Around the World
• This is a follow up from yesterday’s IDNS: French police arrested two men charged with the brutal killing of 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mirielle Knoll. Investigators are treating it as an antisemitic murder.
• AP: Kansas legislators are trying to salvage a law prohibiting state contractors from boycotting Israel after a federal judge blocked its enforcement, advancing a bill Monday to narrow the ban so it no longer would apply to individuals or small contracts.
Commentary/Analysis
• Worth reading: Over at Foreign Policy, Shai Feldman and Tamara Coffman Wittes point out that there’s “more to the Arab world’s newfound friendship with Israel than ganging up on Iran.” They point to Israel’s energy exports, budding economic interdependence, and the Arab world’s fading interest in the Palestinians.
The cumulative effect of these factors is a dramatic change in the attitude of many Sunni Arab governments: from almost uniform hostility to Israel to increasingly viewing themselves as better off with Israel’s presence in the region. Some Israelis, including in the current government, believe this gives the country a freer hand in managing its conflict with the Palestinians, including even unilateral steps to resolve issues in Israel’s favor.
• Jeremy Corbyn and Labour party antisemitism dominated today’s opinion sections.
– Anshel Pfeffer: The crisis between Jeremy Corbyn and British Jews has reached a boiling point
– Rod Liddle: Nothing proves Jeremy Corbyn is anti-semitic — just everything he says and does
– Sajid Javid: It’s a sad day when British Jews feel they have to come to Westminster to make a stand
– Matthew d’Ancona: Corbyn’s ‘regret’ over an antisemitic mural doesn’t go remotely far enough
– Oliver Wright: Antisemitism row is battle for soul of Labour Party
– Richard Littlejohn: Anti-Semitism seeps from the political fringe to the poisoned heart of the Labour Party
– Hugo Rifkind: Jeremy Corbyn can’t pretend he has only just noticed
– The Guardian (staff-ed): Labour and antisemitism: a leader must lead
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas’s ‘defensive’ drill seen as a warning to Israel, Abbas, and Trump
– Giora Eiland: It’s time for an Israeli initiative concerning Gaza
– Lt. Col. (ret.) Peter Lerner: This Friday, Israel’s tear gas and tanks will confront Palestinian marchers. But brute force can’t be Israel’s only answer
– Dr. Reuven Berko: Hamas: Aggression by any other name
– Avi Issacharoff: As Abbas blows out 83 candles, Palestinians left grasping for an heir
– Wall St. Journal (staff-ed): The UN hates Israel (click via Twitter)
– Ben-Dror Yemini: Despite anti-Israel resolutions, UNHRC undergoing a positive change
– Ron Prosor: It’s time for a change at the UN Human Rights Council
– Assaf Weiss: Where BDS goes, antisemitism follows
Featured image: CC BY-SA Japanexperterna.se; Corbyn CC BY-NC-ND Chris Beckett;
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