Today’s Top Stories
1. What’s behind what appears to be a Palestinian push at the UN Security Council seeking “accountability”for Israeli settlement activity? According to AP:
With President Barack Obama in his last months in office, the Palestinians are hoping he will follow up his historic breakthroughs with Iran and Cuba with a push for their cause as well.
However, the Jerusalem Post reports the PA denies handing out a draft resolution against settlements to the Security Council’s permanent members
2. A former Iraqi diplomat who one day hopes to be the Iraqi ambassador to Israel will visit the Jewish state on Sunday even though Israel and Iraq do not have diplomatic relations. According to YNet, Hamad Al-Sharifi has a busy itinerary.
Al-Sharifi will meet with Israelis of Iraqi descent, members of Knesset, and religious leaders from the three Abrahamic faiths. He will also tour the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Knesset, the Supreme Court, Yad VaShem, and many other places.
3. Reuters reports that the PA has created a new constitutional court which critics say tightens Mahmoud Abbas’s hold on power, poses a potential obstacle to reform, and “risks deepening Palestinian political divisions.”
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4. Financial Times Confuses Palestinian Attacks for “Israel Attacks”: While reporting on a decline in the number of Palestinian terror attacks, the Financial Times’s headline refers to “Israel attacks.”
5. New York Times and the Jewish “Homeland”: Examining the concept of “homeland” within the American context, James Traub claims that Jews gained a homeland in 1948 while Palestinians lost theirs.
Mideast Matters
• Another Gaza tunnel collapsed near the Egyptian border Sunday night, killing at least three Hamasniks.
• A new radar system gives Israelis living near the Gaza border 15 seconds to take shelter from mortar shells.
Though Israel’s current alert, based on the Iron Dome radar, warns of incoming rockets and gives communities about 15 seconds to reach shelters, it has proved less effective against short-range shells, often leaving residents little to no warning of attacks.
• According to YNet, Egypt’s transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia requires Israeli cooperation.
According to the reports, Cairo updated Israel of all developments relating to the new borders. Israeli officials said that the topic is being researched by the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs in order to assess its implications. According to the officials, changes to the peace accords may not be necessary, since the Islands belonged to Saudi Arabia anyway, and Saudi Arabia is committed to the accords.
Egyptian representatives told their Israeli counterparts that the signed agreement includes a commitment by Saudi representatives to respect all of Egypt’s peace accord obligations to Israel.
See also Smadar Perry‘s analysis.
• Iran says it began receiving the first deliveries of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia.
• USA Today reporter Michele Chabin visited Jordan’s sprawling Zaatari refugee camp. Jordanians fear the 1.3 million Syrian refugees now in their country will never leave:
“Even if peace breaks out tomorrow,” it could take up to 20 years for Syrians to return home because of the massive destruction in that war-torn country, said Khaled Shorman, director of MASAR, a Jordanian non-profit group that focuses on democracy and conflict resolution.
“Jordanians’ biggest fear is that what happened with the Palestinians will happen to the Syrians,” Shorman said.
Commentary/Analysis
• Fascinating discussion in the Haaretz op-ed section following up on former UK chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. After Peter Beinart took to Haaretz to explain his disagreement with Rabbi Sacks, Haaretz gave a soapbox to British Rabbi Gideon Sylvester to argue against Beinart.
• Over at the New York Times, Peace Now’s Lara Friedman argues that it wouldn’t be unprecedented for President Obama to support a Palestinian statehood resolution in the UN Security Council because every president has allowed to pass, or even voted for, “Security Council resolutions taking Israel to task for actions and policies toward the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors.” I think most, if not all, of Friedman’s examples were toothless criticisms carrying little, if any, legal weight.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Avi Issacharoff: Who cares if the Palestinian Authority prevented an attack?
– Yaakov Lappin: Palestinian attacks now under control, but could resume full-force
– Dan Margalit: Israel’s success against terrorism
– Yossi Kuperwasser: Abu Mazen’s Attempt to Blunt the Knife Terror Wave
– Matthew Lee: Nuclear deal puts US between Iran and a hard place
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Stefan Georgi with additions by HonestReporting; Jerusalem via Wikimedia Commons;
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