Today’s Top Stories
1. Kissing up to Egypt, Hamas is removing Muslim Brotherhood slogans and images from the Gaza Strip. According to Asharq al-Awsat:
It is thought that this surprising step is linked to the agreement that was concluded last week with Egyptian intelligence leaders. The agreement concerns the disengagement of the Palestinian organisation from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that all pictures and slogans that refer to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas’ affiliation with them have been removed. According to the sources, all logos and images were removed, including those that had been there for years.
This ‘disengagement’ will only go so far. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ideology won’t disappear, even if the portraits and slogans do.
2. According to Turkish media reports picked up by Haaretz, the Istanbul suicide bomber tailed the group of Israeli tourists from their hotel to the Istiklal Avenue pedestrian mall where he blew himself up.
#Turkey: #ISIL bomber followed #Israel tourist group from the moment they left their hotel in Beşiktaş district, trailed them to Istiklal.
— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) March 21, 2016
3. The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, the Islamic State-affiliated group operating along the Syrian-Israel border has a new leader. YNet reports that Abu Abdullah al-Madani’s appointment is unusual because A) he’s Saudi, not Palestinian, and B) the group’s previous leader, Abu Obeida al-Qahtani, is still very much alive.
4. The Guardian Removes Statements Questioning Jewish Responsibility For Fire: Why were quotes questioning Jewish responsibility for an alleged arson attack omitted from wire copy appearing in the paper?
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• I didn’t see this in any Western papers, but Maan News reports that Congress is blocking $159 million in aid to the PA “to pressure the PA to relaunch negotiations with Israel.”
• The UN Human Rights Council will today discuss a resolution calling on member states to boycott Israeli settlements. The Jerusalem Post writes:
The resolution would include halting the exportation of products to UN member states as well as creating a database of all Israeli businesses over the pre-1967 lines.
This is one of five anti-Israel resolutions that the UNHRC in Geneva will discuss as part of its 31st session that ends March 24.
Micah Lakin Avni, whose father, Richard Lakin was killed in a Palestinian terror attack last year, addressed the UNHRC.
• Haaretz: A clandestine operation airlifted 19 Yemenite Jews to Israel. Yemen is in the grips of a civil war involving the Saudi-backed government forces, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, as well as jihadists affiliated with the rival Islamic State and Al Qaida groups. According to the Jewish Agency, 50 Jews, mostly in Sanaa, the capital city, chose to remain, where they live in a compound under the protection of pro-government forces. Israel and Yemen do not have diplomatic relations.
• According to the Shin Bet, this week’s fire at the home of Ibrahim Dawabsha does not appear to be the work of Jewish terrorists.
“The findings thus far at the scene are not consistent with the characteristics of a deliberate arson attack by Jews,” it said.
All other information about the investigation remained under a court-imposed gag order.
Dawabsha is a key witness in the prosecution of two Jews indicted for last year’s arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma which killed his cousins, Saad and Riham Dawabshe, and their 18-month-old son.
• Hamas is cracking down on social media dissent. Ignorant interrogators sometimes pose ridiculous questions, but the lack of free expression is no laughing matter, NPR reports:
Aloul, 44, was arrested Jan. 3, taken from his home by some half-dozen Hamas police officers, who confiscated two laptops and his phone. He was held for eight days, and tells of being forced to hold still for long periods in uncomfortable positions and of being struck during interrogations.
Aloul says investigators wanted to know just one thing: Who was paying him to criticize Hamas on social media?
“I finally figured out my interrogator didn’t know what a hashtag was,” Aloul says now with a laugh. “Because he asked as if it was something you buy.”
• Addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Vice President Joe Biden blamed both Israelis and Palestinians for the impasse in peace efforts.
Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich were all scheduled to address the annual conference today. Bernie Sanders turned down an invitation to speak.
• The Globe & Mail visits Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city.
Around the World
• JTA: Illinois became the first state to publish a list of companies banned from doing business with the state. The Prohibited Investment List lists 11 companies that boycott Israel, five Iran restricted companies, and dozens of Sudan restricted companies.
A number of the entities on the list approved Friday by the Illinois Investment Policy board have pulled money from Israeli businesses that operate in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, but have not boycotted Israel within its 1967 lines. At least two of the entities have said their disinvestment from Israel in recent years was based on commercial, not political, calculations.
• A second member of the Oxford University Labour club quit, accusing the club of being “discriminatory.”
• Following a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in Newton, Massachusetts schools, Mayor Setti Warren announced an initiative to fight the hate incidents. More at the Boston Globe.
• The mayor of Athens signs declaration against anti-Semitism.
• Brown U. investigating anti-Semitic, anti-gay graffiti
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Yair Lapid: A UN Council for Terrorists Rights
– Yisrael Medad and Eli Pollak: Distortions in the foreign press – part one
– Raphael Ahren: The Istanbul attack and Israel-Turkey relations
– Judith Bergman: This is Turkey — deal with it
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA patrickdevries2003 with additions by HonestReporting; Biden via YouTube/Robert Kraychick; Athens CC BY-NC SkatDesign;
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