Today’s Top Stories
1. The Palestinian Authority arrested Patriarchal Vicar Swerios Malki Murad. As head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, “Murad is the highest-ranked Christian clergyman to be arrested by the PA since its inception in 1994.”
PA Prosecutors said Murad was arrested after a woman filed a civil complaint, but didn’t explain its nature. Around 5,000 Syriac Orthodox Christians live in the West Bank, mostly in and around Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Members of the Syriac community threatened to leave the PA over their leader’s arrest.
Breaking • #Syriac Orthodox bishop Mor Severios Malke Mourad arrested by Palestian authorities in #Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/dg71HuIM0v
— DAVID ܕܘܝܕ (@dvdvrgl) April 3, 2016
2. Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the JTA he wants Congress to reauthorize sanctions on Iran by the end of the 2016. The Obama administration opposes reauthorizing sanctions.
3. Israel Electric Corp. to cut power to Bethlehem in half over the PA’s NIS 1.7 billion ($451 million) debt.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. HonestReporting’s “Red Lines: The Eight Categories of Media Bias” is a new video series based on our latest E-book (available on Amazon for a small fee). In the first video of the series, The Jerusalem Post’s Steve Linde and Gil Hoffman, the Algemeiner’s Ruthie Blum, and Dan Diker of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs discuss misleading terminology.
5. UC Regents Condemn Anti-Semitic Anti-Zionism: Media Disapprove: In a special guest post, Cherryl Smith, PhD and Professor Emerita argues that media coverage of the University of California has erased the link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Police are investigating the possibility that soldier who claimed he was stabbed made up the story.
• Israeli and Palestinian pathologists investigating the death of Abed al Fatah a-Sharif ruled that the Hebron assailant was killed by the bullet fired by the Kfir Brigade soldier in a shooting caught on film.
The forensics report concluded that Sharif did not die from the gunshots initially fired by the soldiers he tried to stab. Take your pick of YNet or Times of Israel coverage.
• The IDF reported a sharp decrease in Palestinian terror attacks last month.
March saw an overall number of 6 terrorism incidents (including shootings, stabbings, and vehicle rammings), compared to 56 in February, 45 in January, and 40 in December.
• Since October 1, 2015, 34 people – Israeli soldiers and civilians, as well as foreign nationals and Palestinians – have been killed in stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks. Haaretz pays tribute to their memory.
The Israeli casualties of the third intifada and their stories https://t.co/rl1eoQQY0S pic.twitter.com/FqC3LjByGO
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) April 4, 2016
• If Israeli gay rights is just pinkwashing “the occupation,” will advances in medical marijuana become known as Israeli weedwashing? (You saw that, uh, buzzword, here first.)
• President Reuven Rivlin said he’s prepared to meet Mahmoud Abbas to kick-start direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
• For all the readers who have been asking me about the status of Mark Regev‘s ambassadorial appointment . . .
It's now official. Presented my credentials @foreignoffice as Israel's UK Ambassador. Excited to be here. pic.twitter.com/5zNZRb2O6p
— Mark Regev (@MarkRegev) April 4, 2016
Mideast Matters
• The Israeli volleyballers Ariel Hilman and Sean Faiga got their visas to play in the Federation Internationale de Volleyball’s Qatar Open. The Jerusalem Post says Qatar kept their participation under wraps.
• In a first of its kind operation, one of the Islamist groups fighting in Syria managed to drop propaganda leaflets from drones flyin over several Damascus neighborhoods. NOW Lebanon adds:
Jaysh al-Islam demonstrated its ability to operate surveillance drones over the Syrian capital in early February, when it released a startling video of aerial footage of Damascus—including government-controlled areas in the center of the city.
Commentary/Analysis
• Must read: Former UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks weighs in on the connection between rising anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. He writes in Newsweek:
In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, Israel. Anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism.
The legitimization has also changed. Throughout history, when people have sought to justify anti-Semitism, they have done so by recourse to the highest source of authority available within the culture. In the Middle Ages, it was religion. In post-Enlightenment Europe it was science. Today it is human rights. It is why Israel—the only fully functioning democracy in the Middle East with a free press and independent judiciary—is regularly accused of the five crimes against human rights: racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide. This is the blood libel of our time.
The same issue was the topic of today’s New York Times Room for Debate section. Addressing the issue were Daniel Gordis, Benjamin Gladstone, Sherene Seikaly, Lisa Goldman, and Omar Zahzah.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Steve Emerson: The unfair media bias
– Reuven Berko: Hamas’ weak hand
– Eyal Zisser: Islamic State increasing presence near Israel’s borders
– Elliott Abrams: If American Jews and Israel are drifting apart, what’s the reason?
– Selin Nasi: How close are Turkey and Israel to a deal?
– Eli Lake: The Iran nuclear deal keeps changing
– Amb. Yousef al Otaiba: One Year After the Iran Nuclear Deal (click via Google News)
– Wall St. Journal: More dollars for the ayatollahs (click via Google News)
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Adam Fagen; Rabbi Sacks CC BY-NC-ND European Parliament;
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