Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel is bracing for an Iranian missile attack from Syria in retaliation for last month’s strike on the T4 military base. Haaretz explains:
Israel’s assessment is that Iran seeks to settle its open account with Israel, but wants to do so without sparking a war. One possible solution to this dilemma is trying to fire a limited barrage at military targets in northern Israel.
Over the past few days, military officials have briefed mayors nationwide about the latest developments.
The decision to publish this information in the media is presumably meant to deter Iran and Hezbollah from carrying out their plans.
For more, take your pick of Jerusalem Post or Times of Israel coverage, plus Ron Ben-Yishai‘s take.
The Eurovision’s scoring system is based on an equal number of points awarded by judges and the contest’s viewers from across the continent and participating countries.
The BDS campaign’s efforts may thus prove successful in significantly hampering the Israeli’s chances of winning—or even making it to the final.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. According to unofficial results from yesterday’s Lebanese elections, Hezbollah and its allies secured a majority of parliamentary seats. However, because of a multi-ethnic power-sharing agreement, the prime minister must be Sunni, and the Sunni with the most votes was the incumbent, the Saudi-backed PM Saad Hariri, even though his Future Movement actually lost seats. It was Lebanon’s first national election in nine years.
Reuters picked up on one Israeli cabinet minister Twitter response saying that “Hezbollah=Lebanon.”
One “candidate” noted by the Associated Press was a Palestinian refugee. Manal Kortam ran a symbolic campaign to draw attention to the 174,000 disenfranchised Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who have no voting rights and face many job restrictions.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Is Hamas interested in negotiating a long-term truce with Israel? “According to intelligence assessments, the organization is still in dire distress and is currently more open to discussing options it rejected in the past.”
• The IDF said it killed three Palestinians trying to infiltrate Israel from Gaza to carry out an attack. They were found an ax, lighter fluid, a lighter, a bolt cutter and a GoPro camera. The army didn’t comment on whether a fourth Palestinian in the group was apprehended or fled back to Gaza.
• According to Ministry of Defense estimates, the Palestinian Authority will pay Palestinian terrorists who killed Israelis in recent attacks almost $2.8 million each over their lifetimes. The assessment was disclosed during a Knesset discussion on cutting payments to the PA until the stipends for terrorists and their families are halted. Times of Israel coverage.
The bill to be voted on Monday would allow the government to either permanently deduct the funds paid out to terrorists, or “freeze” the payments, leaving the security cabinet with the final say.
• Ahead of next week’s inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem, the PA is urging foreign dignitaries to boycott the event. Meanwhile, US embassy road signs went up in the Kiryat Moriya neighborhood where the building currently called a consulate is located. Further underscoring the relocation, the embassy’s Twitter handle changed from @usembassyTLV to @usembassyjlm.
Also, plans for the new building, which is expected to take six years to build, were released. More on that at Ynet.
Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat displaying both a new sign for the not-yet-existent US embassy in Jerusalem AND how not to use a ladder safely. pic.twitter.com/6ocvawOMgD
— Joshua Davidovich (@Josh_Davidovich) May 7, 2018
• Outcry as UAE, Bahrain send cycling teams to race in Israel.
• Israel’s reaching out to Iraqis on Facebook with a “digital embassy.”
• Worth watching: Pierre Rehov unpacks what’s really happening with the Gaza clashes “Behind the Smoke Screen.”
Window into Israel
• Israeli company sold in staggering $7.1 billion deal. Haifa-based Frutarom, an ingredient and flavor-producer, will be acquired by the New York-based International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. “The deal represents the second largest sale or “exit” of an Israeli company to date, only surpassed by Intel’s purchase of Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017.”
• For commentary on the domestic scene, Yonah Jeremy Bob weighs in on the Supreme Court override bill.
Around the World
• An Uber driver who ordered an Israeli diplomat to leave his vehicle in the middle of Chicago traffic for speaking Hebrew has been barred from the ride-sharing service.
• An 89-year-old neo-Nazi is on the run from justice after failing to show up to begin a prison term. A German court sentenced Ursula Haverbeck to two years for incitement. She has been previously convicted of Holocaust denial.
• Student groups at California Polytechnic State University called for an increase in funding for all clubs — except for the “Zionist” ones.
Commentary
• When three pro-Palestinian activists got op-ed space in the San Antonio Express-News, editors followed up by giving opportunities to reply to local activist Eleanor Siegal and Israeli Consul General Gilad Katz.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Naftali Bennett: Hezbollah is Lebanon is Hezbollah
– Emily Landau: Why does Europe still have faith in Iran, a serial nuclear cheat and liar?
– Tzachi Hanegbi: The JCPOA is fatally flawed
– Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror: The depth of Iran’s deception
– YJ Fischer: Trump is going easy on Iran
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Don’t threaten us with war
– Boston Globe (staff-ed): Scuttling the Iran deal would be a costly error
– Charles Bybelezer: No free lunch: Israel bracing to ‘pay price’ for US embassy move
– Jack Rosen: Treat BDS as the campus scourge it is: The push to vilify Israel too often feeds anti-Semitic rhetoric and conduct
Featured image: CC BY Lucy Fisher; Netta via YouTube/Eurovision Song Contest; Alamo CC BY Nan Palermo;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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