Today’s Top Stories
1. Palestinians launched more flaming kites at Israel on Friday. The kites did little damage this weekend (the winds blew them back over Gaza). However, the IDF retaliated for the first time by striking a Hamas position on Sunday morning which military officials said was being used as a launching pad for the kites.
Hell of a progressive movement they have there. “We are waiting for the wind to pick up so we can fly tens of kites and burn their crops,” – https://t.co/OFwHFwgRiH #gaza
— Alex Ryvchin (@AlexRyvchin) May 6, 2018
2. Palestinian youths at the Kerem Shalom set Gaza’s own gas line on fire at weekly fence protests. The IDF said the Palestinians didn’t cross over to the Israeli side and destroyed their own fuel supply infrastructure.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. According to Israeli media reports, “Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are pumping a quarter of a billion dollars into the Islamic Waqf and a slew of Muslim organizations in East Jerusalem.”
The three countries are describing the move as an act of “rescue” to finance renovations at holy sites, but Israeli officials fear their involvement will go beyond money and could spark violence in the run-up to the ribbon-cutting on May 14, the TV report said.
Iranian Nukes
• According to Israeli media reports, intelligence officials from France, Germany and Britain have visited Israel to see the nuclear documents Israel stole from Iran.
• Netanyahu and Putin to meet in Moscow on May 9, ahead of Trump’s May 12 deadline for quitting the Iranian nuclear deal.
• A number of papers picked up on a Boston Globe scoop that former secretary of state John Kerry is quietly engaging in “shadow diplomacy” with Iranian and European officials to preserve the nuclear accord.
• Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer discussed the Iranian nuclear revelations with CBS News.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinian clashes along the Gaza border continued on Friday. Some 10,000 Gazans showed up, with riots breaking out at five different border locations. Soldiers had to respond to the usual burning kites, attempts to breach the fence, burning tires, etc.
• In new videos, IDF accuses Gazans of faking injuries, taking small kids to riots.
Throughout Hamas’s activity, fake injuries and the exploitation of women and children are rampant. This was all intended to disguise terror activity, including hurling explosives & grenades, attempted infiltrations, & burning Israeli land pic.twitter.com/4tUgCszvKk
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 5, 2018
• Al Jazeezra footage shows a group of around 15 Gazans breaching the border and running around in Israeli territory celebrating before being chased back into the Strip. Background at the Times of Israel.
• At least six Palestinians reported killed as a large explosion rocked central Gaza on Saturday. Palestinian media reports described the blast as a “work accident.”
• US officials are denying reports that the Trump peace plan will call for Israel to transfer four eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods to the Palestinian Authority
• Amid furor over his antisemitic speech, Mahmoud Abbas was re-elected as the top leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Abbas apologized, which gave the UN an excuse to not condemn the PA leader.
• Israel withdrew its bid for a seat on the UN Security Council.
• The Algemeiner picked up on a report about PA membership in Interpol — the organization which facilitates cooperation among international police in areas such as counter-terror, organized crime, and cyber-crime.
Findings include A) a trend among autocracies to use Interpol to harass political opponents abroad, B) the Palestinian Authority sought Interpol membership as part of a political war against Israel, and C) the US and its allies should oppose PA membership until it reaches a peace agreement with Israel.
• Two leading US human rights activists refused entry to Israel, one for BDS ties.
• Tunisia bid for 2022 Youth Olympics frozen over ban on Israeli athletes.
Window Into Israel
• The Knesset may give Israel’s rabbinical courts the power to punish non-Israeli Jews who refuse to grant a divorce to their wives. Haaretz explains:
The bill would allow these courts to prevent non-citizens in these circumstances from leaving Israel after a visit, or even to jail them. Such steps against foreign nationals are thought to be unprecedented.
• A Knesset committee advanced the Supreme Court override bill this afternoon. The bill — which would allow lawmakers to pass legislation struck down by the High Court with a simple majority of 61 MKS — is expected to be voted on by the full Knesset on Wednesday.
• PM removes Facebook post claiming Arab soccer fans celebrated hikers’ deaths.
• In Israel’s latest corruption case, several Beit Shemesh municipal officials were arrested on accusations of “receiving valuable kickbacks from business people in return for advancing their interests by allowing them to purchase city land for development.”
Around the World
• Ahead of today’s Lebanese national elections, the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) reports that Hezbollah is facing serious discontent. More than 1,200 Hezbollah personnel have been killed fighting in Syria since 2012, and 28 percent of the casualties are from the organization’s Bekaa Valley heartland.
• Hezbollah ‘settlers’ are changing Syria’s demography under Iranian direction. See Memri and The Algemeiner.
• Local council elections were held all over the UK. While the overall numbers didn’t change too much in terms of Labour vs. Conservative success, one outcome drew a lot of attention. Barnet, the London borough with Britain’s largest concentration of Jews, voted overwhelmingly for the Tories. Barry Rawlings, the leader of the Barnet Labour group, summed it up in a frank op-ed published in The Guardian:
I will always believe that if the evidence of antisemitism in the party had been dealt with as it should have been over the last two years, Barnet would have a Labour council this weekend.
What happened instead was an election day phenomenon that I never want to experience again. Jewish residents voted in protest against Labour. In Golders Green, which has a large Jewish population, turnout was above 70% compared with below 40% in other polling districts. Non-Jewish residents voted against us in solidarity with their Jewish friends, neighbours and loved ones. We are a community, after all. Hundreds of our own supporters, even members, told us that this time they couldn’t bring themselves to vote Labour.
It is agonisingly difficult to describe the feeling of standing as a Labour candidate in a political environment that has turned toxic.
• As if further confirmation was needed about Labour’s antisemitism problem, former London mayor Ken Livingstone tried to defend Labour’s flop – by claiming Hitler collaborated with Jews. “Inside simply 10 seconds of an interview this morning the disgraced ex-London Mayor insisted that anti-Semitic allegations towards him had been a “smear” and that the Nazi dictator HAD “collaborated” with Zionists within the 1930s.” Watch the full interview on Sky News and draw your own conclusions.
• Uber suspended a Chicago driver accused of kicking an Israeli diplomat out of his car for simply speaking Hebrew. The ridesharing organization came under scrutiny after Itay Milner, deputy consul general of Israel to the Midwest described Thursday night’s incident on Facebook.
• Germany‘s antisemitism czar supports banning banks and financial institutions that support or enable BDS.
• Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories roil Washington D.C. city council, “seemingly getting worse with every public attempt to ease the tensions,” the Associated Press reports.
• Wait, what?
Dutch cop cites Israel in asking removal of Holocaust memorial sign
Commentary/Analysis
• When a New York Times staff-ed says Mahmoud Abbas’ antisemitism makes him an unfit partner for peace, you know something fundamental is shifting.
• Avner Yona, a farmer living in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the Israel-Gaza Strip border, weighs in on the Gaza terror kites and their impact.
• Hmmmm. The Economist accuses Syria of “erasing” the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp next to Damascus.
• Regarding Hamas, Malaysia and the drone engineer killed in Kuala Lumpur, Jonathan Schanzer comments:
The longer Hamas operatives like al-Batsh are welcome on Malaysian soil, the more likely it becomes that Israel moves against them. But for Kuala Lumpur, the concern should probably be the financial links that can be drawn between the terrorist group and Malaysian banks or financial institutions. With the Hamas-Malaysia connection increasingly exposed, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where new U.S. sanctions are not under consideration.
• Plenty of commentary about Israel, Iran and the future of the nuclear accords . . .
– Matthew Kroenig: Why Netanyahu’s revelations are significant
– Emily Landau: Netanyahu’s speech proves what we knew all along — and that changes everything
– Amb. Mark Regev: The Iran nuclear deal was based on lies and is untenable
– Dennis Ross: Israel’s intel coup actually provides good arguments for staying in the Iran nuclear deal
– Abdulrahman Al-Rashed: Iran must prove Netanyahu is lying
– Yaakov Katz: The Iran show
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Mossad’s achievement a deterring strategic factor in Israel-Iran conflict
– Yaroslav Trofimov: Can Israel’s clash with Iran be contained in Syia? (click via Twitter)
– Nahum Barnea: Israelis deserve to know: Is Netanyahu pursuing war with Iran?
– Washington Post (staff-ed) Netanyahu’s revelations aren’t enough to justify ripping up the Iran nuclear agreement
– Fred Weir: As Israel-Iran rivalry burns, Russia’s Tehran ties may get singed
– Reuel Marc Gerecht: The nuclear deal makes America complicit in Iranian crimes
• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend . . .
– Yossi Klein Halevi: How Israelis see the world
– Yossi Kuperwasser: Abbas is not the problem
– Daniel Gordis: Netanyahu and Abbas clarify Israel’s choices
– Avi Issacharoff: In Gaza, setting fire to their own gas lines to fuel the flames of protest
– Cnaan Liphshiz: It’s not just Abbas: Blaming Jews for the Holocaust is widespread
– Anshel Pfeffer: Abbas’ Holocaust revisionism shows his moral failure, but his political failures are much worse
– Lev Golinkin: When Abbas spews anti-Semitic vitriol the response is thunderous. Not so much for Poland’s prime minister
– Dr. Reuven Berko: The end of the peace process
– Seth Frantzman: Palestinian antisemitism: Skin deep, widespread and not well-understood
– Hen Mazzig: The nakbas
– Stephen Daisley: Jewish voters didn’t just beat Labour, they shamed them
– Colbert King: The stench of anti-Semitism and racism mars Washington
• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Peter Beinart.
Featured image: CC BY Pedro Ribeiro Simes;; flags CC BY-NC fabcom; Corbyn via YouTube/Daily Mail; Netanyahu via YouTube/IsraeliPM; quill CC0 Pixabay/Ashreila;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
