Today’s Top Stories
1. Fed up with Hamas stealing cement for Gaza reconstruction, Israel suspended deliveries of building materials to the Strip. Israel placed tight restrictions on construction material to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its tunnel network; Hamas, however, has managed to obtain the goods.
More on the story at the Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel.
2. It turns out that the Jews who refused to leave Yemen in the recent Israeli airlift are having second thoughts. The Media Line reports that the remaining 67 Jews — mostly elderly and children — have faced a lot of harassment in recent weeks amid Yemenite anger over the evacuation.
Those who remained behind have confirmed reports that the spate of publicity accompanying the mini-exodus and showcasing the 600-800 year old Torah scroll that the emigrants took with them has effectively drawn targets on the backs of those who opted out of the airlift.
Jews lived in Yemen since 900 BCE, until 2016, when it became untenable. Don't bother asking why the world needs a Jewish state.
— Tim Dempsey (@tim_dempsey) April 4, 2016
3. The Palestinian Authority freed Syriac Orthodox Church leader Swerios Malki Murad, who had been arrested yesterday. The Syriac community of 5,000 people threatened to leave the West Bank over Murad’s detention.
Although they refused to discuss the nature of the complaint, Palestinians said that the woman had accused the head of the church of “sexual assault.”
4. Join HR For a Field Trip to Israel’s Northern Border: Are you in Israel for the Passover holiday? Join us for a special, full-day trip to the Lebanese border with Mideast expert Yisrael Ne’eman.
When: Tuesday, May 3 (bus leaves at 8:00 AM prompt).
Where: Bus departs HR’s Jerusalem headquarters (58 King George St).
Cost: $130 per person, including mehadrin packed lunch ($115 per person, without lunch).
Space limited: Advance registration required.
Click for more info and to register.
5. The Six Questions About Paywalls You Were Afraid to Ask: I’ve received a few reader queries about newspaper paywalls: What are they? How do they work? Why do we link to paywalled articles in our critiques and Israel Daily News Stream? And how can readers get around them?
Israel and the Palestinians
• Police arrested a Palestinian at a West Bank checkpoint planning to ram a car he stole into soldiers.
• Israeli Bedouins call on Hamas to release mentally disabled prisoner
• The UN partially backtracked on a censored Israeli exhibit. Panels about Arab Israelis and Jerusalem’s historical importance of Jerusalem are still disallowed, but another about Zionism was okayed.
Around the World
• An anti-BDS student was accused of violating campus ‘safe space’ rules for simply raising her hand.
The student, Imogen Wilson, prefers to keep the discussion focused on BDS and not about her ill-treatment, judging from Wilson’s commentary and recent tweets. Indeed, the Edinburgh University Students Association’s council voted to align itself with BDS.
Maybe people should be less concerned with my arm movements and more concerned that EUSA just passed policy to support BDS.
— Fizzy Abou Jawad (VP Education) (@EdUniVPE) April 1, 2016
• French BDS activists lose high court appeal over racism convictions
• Vandals spray painted swastikas on a number of Quebec homes, cars, and more. The Montreal Gazette reports that investigators have no suspects and the Jewish community isn’t convinced police are taking the vandalism seriously enough.
"Police…have yet to classify the vandalism as a hate crime." Duh?! Vandals deface Laval homes, cars with swastikas https://t.co/loE7tx0G23
— Gail Copeland (@copelandconsult) April 3, 2016
• The US Navy intercepted a shipment of weapons it says were sent from Iran to Yemen, including “1,500 AK-47s, 200 RPG launchers and 21 .50-caliber machine guns.” Similar illicit arms shipments have been intercepted in recent weeks by the Australian and French navies.
Commentary/Analysis
• Islamic State is now competing with Hezbollah for the hearts and minds (and the money and martyrs) in Latin America, the Caribbean, and South America. According to a Jerusalem Post op-ed, it raises fears of Islamist sleeper cells, weapons trafficking, and the IS-Hezbollah rivalry spilling into the Western hemisphere.
An ISIS arrival, a Sunni infiltration into what prime minister Yitzhak Rabin called “Hezbollahland” – could create a firestorm.
Far more dangerous in its rivalry with a Shi’ite Hezbollah network – now battle-hardened in Syria and the beneficiary of Iranian largesse – are the prospects of a radioactive/radiological dispersion device or dirty bomb as a demonstration of ISIS Sunni one-upmanship.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Lorne Gunter: UN shows anti-Israel bias once again
– Yoram Ettinger: Islamist terrorists couldn’t care less about the Palestinian cause
– Barbara Kay: Ottawa’s support of Israel deserves more than just words
– Bassam Tawil: The historic betrayal of the Palestinians
– Angela Epstein: Jeremy Corbyn gains very little from confronting Labour’s anti-Semitism
– Reuters: Saudi Arabia’s bitter Lebanese divorce
Featured image: CC BY Theodor Hensolt with additions by HonestReporting; paywall CC BY Stephen Ferne; Central America CC BY-SA Wikimedia Commons;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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