Abbas to Shut Off Money to Gaza and Hamas?

Today’s Top Stories

1. Sources close to Mahmoud Abbas told the Times of Israel the PA chief may cut off all cash to Gaza. The ultimatum to Hamas: Accept our rule or we’ll stop paying your bills. This “would constitute official recognition of the split between Gaza and the West Bank, a divide that over the past decade Fatah and Hamas refused to acknowledge.”

Consequences on the ground would include making the Strip’s energy crisis even more acute, an end to Gaza medical transfers to Israel currently paid by Ramallah, and the possibility of Hamas sparking a new conflict with Israel to divert Palestinian attention.

2. The Trump administration is planning a major revamp in the way US foreign aid is disbursed as well as various cutbacks. Foreign Policy obtained a copy of the 15-page State Department document. Parsing the numbers, Haaretz reports that Egypt and Jordan would face deep cuts while the Palestinian Authority would see a modest increase:

The documents are an internal budget plan that seems in line with the administration’s stated goal of a deep cut of more than a third of the State Department and USAID’s total budget. They show major cuts in foreign aid to numerous countries in all continents, but a small rise of 4.6% in foreign aid to the West Bank and Gaza, which would go up to $215 million for the 2018 fiscal year . . .

 

The document proposes a 47.4% cut to Egypt’s aid – a surprising policy in light of the warm and friendly way in which Trump has treated Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi. It also proposed a 21% cut to foreign aid to Jordan, whose leader, King Abdullah, is the only world leader to have been invited to meet the president twice since his inauguration.

Former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro weighed in:

Except that Congress will never let that happen. Jordan has too many friends who value it there. Israelis will lend their quiet support too. https://t.co/hwzDR0Mw8V

— Dan Shapiro (@DanielBShapiro) April 24, 2017

3. The US is gearing up to defeat another Israel-bashing resolution due for UNESCO debate next week, according to Israeli media reports.

Next Monday, UNESCO is set to vote on a resolution that includes clauses denying any Jewish connection to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, and that attacks Israel for the killing of children in Gaza, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported Monday.

Meanwhile, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova denounced her own agency’s governing board for passing resolutions in recent months denying Jewish ties to Jerusalem holy sites.

Israel and the Palestinians

According to Israeli media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned visiting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel against meeting with representatives of left-wing non-governmental organizations B’tselem and Breaking the Silence.

According to Channel 2 news, when Netanyahu learned of his planned meetings with representatives of the leftist organizations, his office sent a message to the German delegation that this was provocative behavior.

 

However, in an attempt to compromise with the Germans, Netanyahu’s office made it clear to Gabriel that it would not object to a junior representative meeting the organizations on Gabriel’s behalf.

Gabriel said in response that his meetings with the two NGOs would go on as scheduled and that it would be “regrettable” and “unthinkable” if the Prime Minister’s Office scrapped his time with Netanyahu.

• Worth reading: The Daily Telegraph takes a closer look at whether imprisoned Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti can lead the Palestinians to peace, and also what’s motivating his current hunger strike:

But Israel’s government sees something bigger than prison issues in the strike. They believe Barghouti is flexing his political muscles and sending a message to Palestinian leaders by showing how he can unite prisoners from different political factions under his leadership.

 

“Barghouti’s strike is motivated by internal Palestinian political motives and therefore includes unreasonable demands regarding prisoner conditions,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s public security minister.

See Khaled Abu Toameh‘s related tweet of the day.

Palestinian claims that Marwan Barghouti’s health has deteriorated (after only 8 days of fasting) are to help him climb down the high tree.

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) April 24, 2017

• IDF soldiers thwarted a Palestinian stabbing attack near a West Bank army base this afternoon.

• The Jerusalem Post picked on a report by the European Union Institute for Security Studies suggesting a link between rising summer temperatures and Mideast violence. The EUISS calls it a “heat hypothesis.”

• Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland: Security of Israel is a key in Canada’s fight against Islamic State.

• Regarding yesterday’s stabbing attack at the Qalandiya checkpoint . . .

The Israeli security official who was stabbed today by a Palestinian mother of 9 is herself a Muslim Bedouin. What a country. https://t.co/xDLGwBb0mI

— yaacov lozowick (@yaacovlozowick) April 24, 2017

• Jerusalem Post: “IDF Military Advocate General Brig.-Gen. Sharon Afek hinted strongly on Tuesday that he will approve a wider range of Lebanese targets than were approved in the 2006 Lebanon War in the event of a new war with Hezbollah.”

While legal advisers like the MAG never completely share their hand in advance of a war of what targets they will approve, it is even rare for such advisers to publicly and specifically cite a potential targeting issue . . .

 

However, since 2006, Israeli officials have said that Hezbollah has taken deeper control of the state and that the Lebanese state is now more directly supporting even Hezbollah’s military efforts.

• I’m not sorry to hear Abd al-Rahim Ahmed Atik now rests in pieces:

Terrorist who commanded infamous 1987 glider attack killed in Syria

• A Knesset ceremony marking Yom HaShoah shined a light on overlooked Sephardi victims of the Holocaust as MKs read the names of murdered family members from North Africa, Turkey and Greece. I had no idea there were 17 North African Nazi camps located in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.

Around the World

• BDS founder Omar Barghouti received the Gandhi Peace Award from the Connecticut-based group Promoting Enduring Peace. The New Haven Register reported that

. . . Yale University officials issued an unusual statement distancing the university from endorsing the Gandhi event despite the fact it took place in a Yale building.

Although Barghouti is under investigation for tax evasion, an Israeli judge allowed him to travel abroad. Haaretz adds that Barghouti also spoke at New York’s Columbia University and scheduled a pair of events with Jewish Voices for Peace.

Last but not least, the New Haven Register gave an op-ed soapbox to four Connecticut Jewish leaders unpacking why Barghouti isn’t fit for any peace awards. Honoring those like Barghouti will make ‘enduring peace’ much less attainable.

• Times of Israel: Scholar whose work was used to justify Palestinian terror tapped to head US air force.

• Pro-Palestinian academics and students snowflakes at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies are trying to force the cancellation of a speaking appearance by Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev. More at The Guardian.

• Flyers making anti-Semitic, racist and anti-immigrant statements were found in several locations around the Princeton University campus. More on the story at the Daily Princetonian and JTA.

• Administrators from several Australian universities condemned flyers questioning the historical accuracy of the Holocaust which appeared on a number of campuses Down Under.

• Britain’s National Union of Students is in a new anti-Semitism row over a series of offensive tweets in which candidates for top positions in the union posted messages mocking and insulting Jews. The Independent explains:

In online posts seen by The Independent, one current member of the union’s National Executive Council shared a video mocking Jews as having big noses and being tight with money, while another publicly suggested Jewish people are tight-fisted and said he wanted to destroy Israel.

 

A third, who is seeking a position on the union’s executive in elections being held this week, wrote an offensive Twitter message referring to Jews and using the phrase “Heil Hitler”.

 

The Independent can also reveal that, during her time as a student at York University, Malia Bouattia, the current NUS president, was involved in hosting a play called “Seven Jewish Children” that has been widely criticised as anti-Semitic.

Commentary/Analysis

• I’m glad Seth Frantzman picked up on something I was wondering myself:

86% Rise in US anti-Semitism? Half of it was caused by one Jewish Israeli.

• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .

– Jonathan Tobin: Does Iran have a veto on Israeli-Palestinian peace?
– Jamal Barakat: Marwan Barghouti is a convicted murderer. Nothing more.
– Elliott Abrams: The need to change Palestinian political culture
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: The battle over the Golan Heights
– Charles Wald and Michael Makovsky: The two faces of Qatar, a dubious Mideast ally
– Jennifer Rubin: The least surprising statistic
– Avi Dichter: Thou shalt not take the Holocaust in vain
– Marc Schulman: Two takes on what the Holocaust means today
– Giora Eiland: Hitler Youth members must take responsibility for their actions

Featured image: CC0 Craig Dennis; money spigot vectors from Vecteezy and freedesignfile; Gabriel CC BY SPD Schleswig-Holstein; Barghouti via YouTube/rabble.ca News for the rest of us;

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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