Today’s Top Stories
1. According to Arab reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post, Amman “began the process of revoking the Jordanian citizenship of about 30 Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials and their families,” including PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
Many Senior Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials, including Abbas and his two sons, were given Jordanian citizenship over a decade ago, a Jordanian official disclosed in early 2011 . . .
The report did not disclose any information as to why Jordan decided to begin the process of revoking the Palestinian leaders’ citizenship now.
2. Russian Defense Ministry confirmed plans to transfer advanced S-300 air-defense systems to Syria.
It’s likely related to reports that the head of Moscow’s Security Council held separate meetings in Sochi with Israeli and Iranian counterparts.
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3. British Jewish leaders came away disappointed and angry after meeting with Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn. Stephen Pollard details why the meeting broke down. Ahead of the meeting, Corbyn published an op-ed in the Evening Standard about his efforts to rid Labour of antisemitism.
Meanwhile, Jewish Labour MP Fabian Hamilton took to The Independent to express his own disillusionment with Corbyn.
Israel and the Palestinians
• CNN: “US intelligence is monitoring a series of cargo flights from Iran into Syria, that the US suspects may be carrying weapons systems into Syria for potential use by Bashar al-Assad’s regime or Iranian forces.”
An administration official confirms to CNN that the flights took place and the US and Israel are both concerned the cargo could potentially include weapons that could eventually be used to threaten Israel.
One member of the HLMG, Lord Richard Dannatt, a former UK Chief of the General Staff, got op-ed space in the Daily Telegraph to explain that the West “has no coherent plan” to avert a war between Hezbollah and Israel:
In the absence of a concerted international effort to rein in Iran in the region – and no such coherent Western strategy currently exists – we must be prepared to expect Israel to defend its vital security interests robustly. Many criticise the IDF for being heavy-handed but, having quizzed their Chiefs of Staff personally, I believe they would act within acceptable legal and moral standards. Yet the legitimate military objectives Israel would be forced to attack in a conflict with Iran, and its proxy terror-armies hiding among civilians in Lebanon and Syria, would make for a very grave war.
To have any hope of avoiding such a conflict, Britain and her allies must understand Israel’s position, making clear to Iran and Hezbollah that their campaign of terror against Israel will be met by international condemnation and an acceptance of Israel’s fully legitimate military reaction. We should now proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety, ending the farce of our denying a reality that even their own leader articulates – that it is but one organisation, and its terrorism and politics are linked inextricably. If they say it, why don’t we accept it?
The Jerusalem Post and a separate Telegraph piece picked up on the story.
• Germany: Every state can name capital, but not Jerusalem.
• The Financial Times (click via Google) visited Efrat as the rising price of settlement homes suggest they’re here to stay. It’s a good report, though I must quibble about some missing context. One reason Israelis are comfortable purchasing in the Gush Etzyon bloc, the West Bank area south of Jerusalem, is that its widely expected to remain Israeli after a peace agreement is reached.
But his $500,000, two-storey villa has shot up in price and is now valued at about $1.3m.
It is a trend that reflects a growing belief among Israelis that most of the settlements that dot the West Bank, especially those closest to Jerusalem, such as Efrat, are de facto permanent. The price of an average four-room apartment in the main settlements has jumped 60 per cent in the past decade, according to Israel government data analysed for the Financial Times by Haim Mesilaty, head of the Real Estate Appraisers Association.
Window into Israel
The government’s announcement Tuesday that it was abandoning the effort to send the migrants to unidentified African countries — widely reported to be Rwanda and Uganda — was welcomed as a positive step by advocates for about 36,000 migrants in Israel. But the move is also likely to bring even more uncertainty to those who have no official status here.
See also the Times of Israel, which gauged the mood of residents of southern Tel Aviv.
• Israeli Border Police officer sentenced to 9 months for killing Palestinian teen after agreeing to a plea deal.
• Two cars were torched in an Israeli-Arab village near Nazareth. Graffiti found on a nearby wall saying “Jews let’s win” has police treating it as a hate crime.
Around the World
• US Supreme Court rules that victims of Palestinian terror cannot sue Arab Bank in American courts.
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict overshadows celebrations as Jewish community pulls out of annual Liberation Day march in Rome.
• U. California-Berkeley students call for removal of ‘antisemitic,’ ‘anti-Israel’ lecturer.
• After more than 50 New York U. student groups pledged to boycott Israel and its supporters, the JTA visited the campus to find out What it’s like to be a Jewish student at NYU.
• George Washington U. student government passes Israel divestment resolution.
Fun fact: of all the schools at which radical activists have managed to shove through resolutions calling for the administration to boycott or divest from Israel, not one has ever actually done so. https://t.co/Rzk0rZaDRK
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) April 24, 2018
Commentary
• “The extreme levels of brutality meted out by the Assad regime and its allies against civilians in Syria have improved the image of the IDF by comparison across the Arab world,” writes Elizabeth Tsurkov.
On April 17, 2018, when Palestinians mark Prisoner’s Day, a popular Syrian opposition website decided to mark the occasion by posting an infographic comparing Israeli prisons and those of the Assad regime.
The infographic shows that while 7,000 Palestinians are incarcerated in Israel, 220,000 Syrians are held in regime detention facilities. According to the infographic, 210 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since 1967, while 65,000 Syrians have died in regime detention over the past seven years.
Such irreverence of Palestinian suffering by an Arab media outlet would have been unimaginable a few years ago.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Anshel Pfeffer: Everyone’s talking about Russia’s S-300. Why now, and why should Israel be worried?
– Dennis Ross: Russia risks a wider Mideast war (click via Twitter)
– Fred Weir: Will Russia’s involvement in Syria end up burning its ties with Israel?
– Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser: Iranian moves in Syria threaten Israel
– Moshe Arens: Palestinian refugees – War by other means
– Jerusalem Post (staff-ed): The West Bank is “disputed,” not “occupied”
– Chemi Shalev: Trump and Macron White House lovefest should make Netanyahu anxious
– Ada Aharoni: Uprooting of Jews from Arab countries, an answer to modern antisemitism
– Thomas Friedman: Israel’s got its own refugee dilemma: African ‘Dreamers’
– Ron Kampeas: Does Natalie Portman’s snub of Netanyahu make her the face of liberal Zionism?
– Attila Somfalvi: Natalie Portman is just a symptom of US Jewry’s changing attitude towards Israel
– Douglas Schoen and Arielle Confino: Want to fight anti-Semitism? Teach people about the Holocaust.
Featured Image: CC0 TheAngryTeddy; Jordan coat of arms CC BY-SA Wikimedia Commons; Dannatt via YouTube/Max Mallows; Hezbollah via YouTube/Gika Jisa; Supreme Court CC BY-NC-ND Aaron Fellmeth Photography; thinking CC0 Max Pixel;
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