Today’s Top Stories
1. A 19-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen was arrested in Ashkelon on suspicion of carrying out a wave bomb threats made to JCCs and other Jewish institutions around the world. The Jerusalem Post reports what’s known so far after an Israeli judge lifted a gag order on the case:
There are still few details available about the suspect’s profile, but he is not in the IDF, not ultra-Orthodox, and at some point made aliya and possibly has psychological and social problems . . .
It is unknown how many others might have worked with the suspect, but it is believed that he was the main operator of the scare-spree and might have even acted completely on his own.
The suspect may be indicted in Israel, so one question being asked is, Will he be extradited to the US?
2. London reeled from yesterday’s terror attack outside the British parliament building. Police haven’t released the identity of the man who deliberately plowed into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge and left his car to stab people before he was shot and killed by police. A policeman, a Spanish teacher and a man whose name has not been released, were killed while 40 people were reported injured. Islamic State claimed responsibility.
The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and BBC are live-blogging the latest updates. Israel joined other countries offering condolences and solidarity against terror.
3. Concerned about their advertisements appearing alongside extremist and offensive content, several major US advertisers pulled their ad accounts with Google and YouTube. More on the story at the Times of London, USA Today and TechCrunch.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. Which Country is Missing From AP’s Vehicular Terror List?: Failing to acknowledge Palestinian car-ramming attacks as similar terror in other countries feeds false narratives and erases Israeli victims of terror.
5. MSN News Promotes Anti-Israel Water Libel: MSN News photo caption falsely claims that Israel reduces the flow of water to the Palestinians during periods of conflict and pursues discriminatory water policies.
6. HR Prompts US News Tel Aviv Correction: Tel Aviv is certainly not Israel’s capital.
Israel and the Palestinians
• According to Israeli media reports, Israel rejected a request from the Trump administration to halt construction in isolated West Bank settlements.
According to several Hebrew media reports Wednesday, Greenblatt set out terms under which the US would not oppose the construction of new homes in Jewish neighborhoods over the pre-1967 lines in East Jerusalem, and would accept an agreed number of new homes each year inside the major settlement blocs, while no new homes would be built in isolated settlements. Building in the blocs would be within an agreed annual quota, Greenblatt proposed, according to Channel 2.
Israel “was surprised” by the stringency of the demands, and rejected them, the report said.
• An Israeli police officer was suspended after he was caught on film beating a Palestinian truck driver in eastern Jerusalem.
• AP: Arabs protest UN’s withdrawal of Israel ‘apartheid’ report
• Israeli Foreign Ministry cadet course to include first Muslim woman. Rasha Uthmani, 31, “is currently nominated to be Israeli Embassy in Turkey’s spokesperson,” according to Ynet.
• Reminder: Daylight Saving Time begins in Israel. Clocks “spring forward” one hour at 2am Thursday night (Friday morning). In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians change their clocks the next night.
• Before this ends, Ken Livingstone and Hitler may yet do a lot of damage to the UK Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn. The former London mayor insists he’ll take Labour to court if he loses a party disciplinary hearing over anti-Semitic comments he made last year.
Commentary/Analysis
• As Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor is worth listening to when he argues that reforming the UN will only happen if democracies stand together. After lauding Secretary General Antonio Guterres and US Ambassador Nikki Haley for getting an “Israeli apartheid” report withdrawn, Prosor writes:
Guterres deserves credit, but it will take more than one resignation to bring real change. Reforms are long overdue but desperately needed if the U.N. is to shed its reputation for bloated, ludicrous hypocrisy and restore trust and credibility to international institutions . . .
For too long, democracies have gone along with what they knew to be a farce. Only if we are honest, courageous and determined in calling out this abomination, will the world get international institutions that are credible, dependable and fit for purpose. It is time for democracies to stand up. It is time for change.
Prosor’s not a lone voice in the wilderness: A staff-ed in The Australian also weighs in against the UN farce.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Dr. Col. (res.) Moshe Elad: Hamas fundraising: Follow the money
– Norman Bailey: Gulf states weigh Israel options
– Yossi Melman: How worried are Israel’s leaders about Putin’s Syrian warning?
– Elliott Abrams: What’s the Palestinian contribution to peace?
– Orly Azoulay: Why is Trump so obsessed with Israeli-Palestinian peace?
– Amos Yadlin , Kobi Michael: The Palestinian “internationalization” strategy: End of the road?
– Ami Ayalon, Gilead Sher and Orni Petruschka: Peace in Israel will only come through a two-state solution
– Annika Hernroth-Rothstein: Linda ?Sarsour and liberal Jews’ hard choices
– Dov Maimon: Europe’s Jews becoming collateral damage in continent’s civilization clash
Featured image: CC BY Silke Remmery; watch CC0 Pexels;
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