Today’s Top Stories
1. For the first time, Hamas’ financial crisis is hitting its brigades, Asharq al-Awsat reports:
The sources said that “the Al-Qassam Brigades are a red line for Hamas and have always been unaffected by any financial or political crises. However, the organisation was forced to impose cuts on the salaries of the brigade’s soldiers two months ago after the financial crisis deepened”.
According to the sources, the salary cuts extend to soldiers, leaders and officials of the Al-Qassam Brigades. In addition to this, soldiers of the military wing who receive a salary from the brigades as well as another from the government have been requested to choose either one of these salaries and be content with it. The sources also pointed out that the expenses of the brigades were being reduced in general but will not affect “those military occupations that are a high priority”.
2. In recent days, media reports have highlighted shortages of manpower and money at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Israeli politics, which I won’t get into, plays a big part of the ministry’s unfortunate atrophy. I don’t know to what extent they were a factor in today’s confusion about the status of Dani Dayan’s stalled appointment as ambassador to Brazil.
For months, Brazil has refused to confirm the appointment of the former settler leader. Media reports today said Israel had backed down and would seek someone else for the post. But later in the day, the MFA reversed itself, insisting that Dani Dayan remains its candidate. The earlier reports, the MFA, said were the result of a “technical error” and “unfortunate bureaucratic mistake.”
Just an hour earlier, the ministry itself put out a statement confirming that a new tender for the ambassador’s job in Brazil.
https://twitter.com/JohninJerusalem/status/710428345670967296
3. Main takeaways from Reuven Rivlin’s meeting with Vladimir Putin: Israel won’t tolerate any Iranian or Hezbollah presence along the Syrian-Israeli border, and wants the UN Disengagement Observer Force to return to the buffer zone.
UNDOF, which has monitored the border since 1974, has been defunct as the peacekeepers were caught in the middle of Syria’s civil war. Last time I recall the peacekeepers in the news, the IDF saved the lives of Irish soldiers who were sent to rescue Filipino forces surrounded by jihadists back in 2014.
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4. Journalist Group Defends ‘Incitement to Murder’: Terror groups hijacking the word “journalist” tarnish journalism as a whole.
5. AFP Headline, Hamas-Style: Headline refers to a Hamas fighter while implying the terrorist was a member of a party.
6. HonestReporting Australia! For all our HonestReporting friends in Australia and New Zealand, we are happy to announce the launching of our new initiative to fight anti-Israel bias among the media based “Down Under.”
Click here to learn more and subscribe.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Two Palestinians with knives attacked an Israeli woman near Ariel this afternoon.
• Gen. Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, met secretly with a Hamas delegation, according to the Jerusalem Post.
• The ‘State of Palestine’ became a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The move’s a bit of a head-scratcher. The Jerusalem Post writes:
It is unclear how significant an achievement joining the PCA is, with the Palestinians likely to brandish it as supporting their joining the International Criminal Court and Israel likely to underplay it. The PCA is much less prominent than the ICC.
• Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan this morning. See YNet, Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, and Haaretz obits. I was amused by the Dubai-based Gulf News‘s take:
• Why is the Carl Gustav (a.k.a. “the Carlo”) the new Palestinian gun of choice?
While some more advanced rifles and firearms require specialized tools, the Carlo has remained so popular because of how little machinery and technical know-how is required to produce it, according to N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services (ARES), a specialized technical intelligence consultancy.
A drill press, some welding equipment and blueprints from the internet are all that’s needed to create one of these potentially devastating weapons . . .
Around the World
• BBC apologises after radio host tells listeners ‘Israel hasn’t really worked out.’ Sussex Friends of Israel posted this recording of Chris Rogers putting his foot in his mouth.
• US says Europe needs ‘working definition’ of anti-Semitism.
Explaining that anti-Semitism is “evolving into new, contemporary forms of hatred, racism, and political, social, and cultural discrimination against Jews,” Forman lamented that “one virulent aspect is… conflating Jewish communities with Israel, using criticism of Israel as a pretext for anti-Semitism.”
• The University of Toronto faculty gave its endorsement to a student BDS campaign:
The campaign calls on the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM) to divest from companies that are directly profiting from the ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territories, namely: Northrop Grumman, Hewlett Packard, and Lockheed Martin. It also urges the Governing Council to form a committee to review and divest from all companies implicated in violations of international law.
• Latvia’s pro-Nazi army veterans marched in Riga in commemoration of a 1944 battle against Soviet forces. One British reporter, Graham Phillips, was deported for covering the parade.
• Iran preparing to dispatch snipers, commandos to Syria.
Commentary/Analysis
• Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer responded to this week’s New York Times staff-ed castigating Benjamin Netanyahu.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Yair Rosenberg: The real scandal at Oberlin is much bigger than one professor’s anti-Semitism
– Yehoshua Looks: Alumni, act now to purge Oberlin and other colleges of anti-Semitism
– Eugene Volokh: University of California regents are wrong about campus ‘anti-Zionism’
– Los Angeles Times: UC’s intolerance policy goes dangerously astray on anti-Semitism (staff-ed)
– Reuven Berko: Isolated, Hamas fails in Egypt
– Ronald Lauder: Argentina, don’t let the terrorists win
– Uzay Bulut: “Muslim Jerusalem”: Turkey’s message of “Peace” to Israel
– Colum Lynch: Washington made it easy for Iran to fire its ballistic missiles
Featured image: CC BY Elisa with additions by HonestReporting; U. of Toronto CC BY-NC-ND Ming_Bear;
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