Today’s Top Stories
1. PA security forces have arrested more than 100 Hamas members in the last two weeks. YNet reports:
The operations reached a climax on Sunday night when – in an unusual step – the forces arrested 40 Hamas members, including released detainees, academics, and students in a coordinated effort conducted in multiple cities across the West Bank.
You see, the PA wants to avoid any flare up of violence ahead of the Israeli elections.
2. With Egyptian constantly raising the heat, I sense desperation behind this Hamas offer.
3. What kind of signal are the Iranians trying to send? Tehran unveiled the Soumar, a made-in-Iran cruise missile. The Revolutionary Guards wouldn’t do something like that without Ayatollah Khamenei’s approval:
Inbar says that “it’s much easier to hide a cruise missile. They are smaller and more mobile [and] you can launch them from a variety of platforms on land, from submarines, bombers and even disguised merchant ships.”
4. Campus Anti-Semitism Becomes a Mainstream Issue: The mainstream is finally recognizing the surge in hostility towards Jews on campus.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• This is very unusual: Republican senators sent an open letter (pdf format) to the Iranian leadership warning them that any nuclear deal signed with President Obama lacking Congressional input could be nullified by a future president. More at Bloomberg News.
• In a briefing for Israeli reporters, a US official (anonymous — big sigh) said that aspects of the nuclear deal will last more than 10 years, and that the US would indeed know if Iran tries to make a breakout. Haaretz and YNet coverage:
• Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed his speech and the Iran issue with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation. Why is the Prime Minister disturbed by reports of the US offering a nuclear umbrella to the Gulf states? (Skip to the 3:48 point).
I don’t know [if the report is true], but if it’s true, it raises two troubling questions. The first is it means that Iran has a nuclear weapons program — otherwise, why offer, presumably the Gulf States, why offer them nuclear protection? The second is, if it’s true, it signals a shift in U.S. policy from preventing a nuclear Iran to containing one, and that’s not good.
Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer discussed the Netanyahu speech and Iran with CNN.
• France: Iran’s nuclear commitments don’t go far enough.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Iron Dome so ruined Hamas’s war plans during Operation Protective Edge, they’re shifting from long-range to short-range rockets. Times of Israel coverage.
• In Gaza, Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah practiced attacking IDF positions.
• Poor George Galloway. Days after demanding thousands of pounds from Twitter users calling him an anti-Semite, it looks like the MP will be stuck with a £70,000 legal bill. And Galloway’s legal team is facing legal scrutiny of its own. According to the Times of London:
Mr Lewis, of Seddons solicitors, told the police there “appears to be a strong prima facie case” that Chambers committed blackmail and fraud by making “false representations that costs of £6,000 had actually been incurred by Mr Galloway”. He also asserts that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Mr Galloway committed “offences of conspiracy to blackmail and conspiracy to commit fraud.”
Around the World
• Is the EU’s working definition of anti-Semitism being salami-sliced to nothing? I can’t decide what to make of this:
• YNet: An Israeli held hostage in Nigeria for five days was freed after the company he worked for paid an undisclosed ransom.
• Mohammed Emwazi, a.k.a. “Jihadi John” apologized to his family in Britain for bringing shame on them, but not for killing several Western hostages in a series of ISIS videos. A few papers picked up on the Times of London‘s scoop:
Emwazi’s apology to his family is partly self-serving because under Islam it is believed that those who disobey or disrespect their parents are more likely to go to hell. A message of regret could arguably allow him to fulfil his “religious obligations”.
• Lesley Stahl and a 60 Minutes crew traveled to Argentina to uncover the mystery of Alberto Nisman’s death (see video or transcript).
Meanwhile, the journalist who first broke the story of Nisman’s death filed a lawsuit against Argentina’s state-owned news service and airline. When Damian Pachter fled Argentina for his own safety, the Telam news service released his Aerolineas flight details.
Commentary/Analysis
• Worth reading: Obama, Netanyahu’s speech, and American leadership
The controversy isn’t just about Iran. It’s also about America’s role in the world.
• What is stopping the Arab world from understanding that Israel is a viable ally against a common enemy – Iran? Yaron Friedman asks.
• Is the PLO threat to end security cooperation an empty threat?
• Are the Palestinians really ready for peace talks after the Israeli elections? asks Khaled Abu Toameh:
When Aloul and other Palestinian officials talk about preparations for another “confrontation” with Israel, they are referring to the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to promote boycotts of Israel in the local and international arenas, as well as filing “war crimes” charges against Israelis at the International Criminal Court.
So while some Israelis, Americans and Europeans are talking about the need to revive the peace process after the March 17 elections in Israel, the Palestinians are clearly moving in a different direction.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Robert Satloff (The most overlooked line in Netanyahu’s address), Daniel Siryoti (Palestinians no longer an Arab priority), Jeffrey Goldberg (The Iranian regime on Israel’s right to exist), Victor Davis Hanson (Israel, Jews and Obama), Nicholas Blanford (Iran-backed advance in southern Syria rattles Israel), and a Times of London staff-ed (Israel must end years of inertia and find a path to peace with the Palestinians).
Featured image: CC BY Pedro Ribeiro Simo?es via flickr with additions by HonestReporting
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