Today’s Top Stories
1. A UN inquiry into attacks on its Gaza facilities during Operation Protective Edge released a summary of its findings. As you’d expect, the summary blames Israel for attacking schools where refugees were sheltered and faults the Palestinians for stashing arms in the schools.
The story’s splash will be limited for two reasons. First, the findings were completely overshadowed by the Nepal earthquake and the Baltimore riots. Secondly, Israel and Palestinian advocates won’t score many points off a mere summary. The BBC says more significant “full 207-page report will remain private.”
2. Anti-Israel activists are trying to hijack the Baltimore riots. While William Jacobson points out what he sees from Palestinian supporters, I wonder what Freddie Gray would make of it all.
When there is a riot or other protest in the U.S., particularly if involving minority communities, “pro-Palestinian” activists try to hijack it and turn it into a criticism of Israel.
We saw it in Ferguson where “pro-Palestinian” activists spread lies that Israel trained the Ferguson police, and actually embedded themselves in the protests to try to turn the protests into anti-Israel protests.
3. The Nepal earthquake death toll’s at 5,000. Casualties are expected to reach 10,000 as information from devastated, remote villages becomes available.
Israeli relief planes finally arrived in Nepal after being delayed by a series of aftershocks and limited parking space for the influx of aircraft. Israelis returning home from the stricken Himalayan country shared their stories with YNet. Most Israeli trekkers have been located, but 11 remain unaccounted for.
4. HR Radio: Rude Tweets and Misleading Headlines: Yarden Frankl discusses a human rights executive’s inappropriate response to Israel’s humanitarian aid to Nepal, some terrible New York Times headlines, and whether Jewish doctors boycotting The Lancet are violating free speech. Click below to hear the whole interview on the Voice of Israel.
Israel and the Palestinians
• In yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream, I mentioned a report by two leading experts in military law assessing the IDF’s targeting practices during last year’s Gaza war. (The Jerusalem Post picked up on Michael Schmitt and John Merriam’s summary at Just Security.) I want to thank readers who sent me a link to the full 52-page report.
• Israel accuses Hamas of recruiting students in Malaysia for military training. Haaretz writes:
According to the Shin Bet, Hamas men in Malaysia actively recruit for military training Palestinians who are studying there. Recruiters also put the students through ideological preparation that includes joining the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian charities that operate there.
After their training, the operatives are sent to set up military networks in the West Bank, act as messengers between the territories and foreign countries, and carry out secret transfers of funds to meet Hamas’ needs.
Last year, Israel foiled a terror attack involving Palestinians trained in Malaysia.
• Times of Israel: Khalil Afaneh, a PA civil servant, was arrested for liking his niece’s comments on Facebook denying that Yasser Arafat was a martyr. And the consequences for his niece, Namir Moghrabi, a student at Bir Zeit University?
Sources close to the university’s administration told the news site that she would be expelled, and a letter issued by the ministry of education would ban her acceptance to any other Palestinian university.
• Is there a connection between Swedish aid and Hamas institutions?
• Israelis in the Golan scrambled to bomb shelters today as two mortar shells landed in a field near Kibbutz Ein Zivan. The army believes they were errant fire from nearby battles between the Syrian army and rebels. No injuries or damage reported.
• Two of the four terrorists killed while trying to plant a bomb along the Israel-Syrian border were Druze brothers whose father was a former Israeli security prisoner. Hezbollah has a track record of recruiting Druze, Christians, and Sunnis to fight Israel.
• Hezbollah’s devising all kinds of methods for covering up its casualty figures in Syria, reports NOW Lebanon.
• A Lebanese man living in Texas was sentenced to five years in jail for lying to US immigration authorities about his ties to Hezbollah.
Commentary/Analysis
• Jonathan Tobin raises an important point about how the emerging nuclear deal with Iran will impact Hezbollah.
But even if Iran never takes advantage of that opportunity or never uses the bomb if it gets one, this deal places Hezbollah and Hamas under a potential nuclear umbrella. That gives the terrorists more freedom to operate and to foment and commit violence against both Israel and the United States. That’s why it’s a mistake for the United States to separate the issue of Iran’s support of terrorism and its desire to eliminate Israel from the nuclear issue.
• For more commentary, see
– Mitch Ginsburg: For Israel and Hezbollah, a high-stakes balancing act
– Yehuda Balanga: Syria: A quagmire of interests
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Thomas Hawk with additions by HonestReporting
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
