Today’s Top Stories
1. Suffering from pneumonia, Mahmoud Abbas is hospitalized in Ramallah. once again raising questions about the succession of PA leadership.
Succession is a delicate issue in Ramallah: The 82-year-old leader and heavy smoker is president of the Palestinian Authority, the head of the ruling Fatah party, and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (an umbrella organization of Palestinian parties and factions) and has no clear political heir.
Israeli officials are already assessing the situation as the beginning of the end of Abbas’ rule.
As @JSchanzer points out, Abbas has no deputy an no succession plan. We may be a few good doctors away from a leadership struggle at the top of the PLO. https://t.co/83pSQQFKHo
— Stephen Daisley (@JournoStephen) May 20, 2018
2. The UN Human Rights Council is creating a commission of inquiry to probe the recent Gaza clashes.
In the video, Farahmand interviews Avichay Adraee, the head of the Arab media division of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. Farahmand translated into Persian Adraee’s message to Iranians that the IDF has no ill will towards Iran’s population and inviting Iranians to visit Israel.
This would explain why laptop journalists serve as “Mideast correspondents” by basing themselves in Lebanon — frequently writing about Israel without ever visiting Israel. One case in point: The Independent’s Beirut-based Bethan McKernan.
4. The Rotten Onion: When Parody Crosses the Line: Israeli soldiers are portrayed as blood hungry baby killers in a “satirical” post that crosses the line between humor and age-old antisemitism.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Paraguay opened its embassy in Jerusalem on Monday.
• Palestinians crossed Gaza fence and set fire to an empty IDF post on Tuesday morning. Israel retaliated with tank fire on a Hamas observation post.
• Despite the international condemnation of Israel, the New York Times describes what I’ll call “marchers’ remorse” in Gaza:
But to many Gazans, the tangible benefits of so much bloodshed were hard to discern, with plenty of blame to go around — including for Hamas.
At a market near the main protest camp, Abdul Rahman, 59, a vegetable trader, called the effort a total waste. “Zero,” he said. “In fact, less than zero.” . . .
But many Gazans, having lost friends or suffered grievous wounds in the protests, feel cheated by Hamas . . .
“Nothing achieved,” said Mohammed Haider, 23. “People are dead. They deceived us that we would breach the fence. But that didn’t happen.”
• Two Gazans were charged with flying incendiary kites to Israel. Ynet coverage.
• The European Union will give 30 million euros to reconstruct Kerem Shalom crossing — the Palestinian side of the crossing, which was trashed by Palestinians.
• PA employee in Gaza sets himself on fire after salary withheld.
• Following Gaza fence clashes, Indonesia cancels visas issued to Israelis. Calcalist explains that “Israel has no formal diplomatic relations with Indonesia, but the two countries maintain economic ties, and Israelis can visit the country using temporary tourist visas for groups, and individual business visas.”
• CBC News discussed the Gaza violence in separate interviews with Ahmed Yousef of Hamas and Israeli Deputy Minister Michael Oren. Both were asked tough questions, but props to Oren for taking over the interview from host Carol Off.
• As the Palestinians press the International Criminal Court for a war crimes investigation of the IDF, Prof. Eugene Kontorovich discussed the ICC issues with Al Jazeera.
• The New York Times takes a closer look at the Israeli government’s outreach to US evangelicals:
While Israel has long depended on the support of the Jewish diaspora, the Netanyahu government has made a historic and strategic shift, relying on the much larger base of evangelical Christians, even at the risk of turning off American Jews who may be troubled by some evangelicals’ denigration of their faith . . .
But liberal Israelis warn that the increasingly close ties between the Israeli right and the Christian right are accelerating a polarization that is turning support for Israel into a partisan question in Washington; not one Democratic lawmaker attended the embassy opening.
• Jerusalem Post: “The Israeli arms industry is expected to lose $1.3 billion in revenue each year and as many as 22,000 workers could lose their jobs when the latest agreement for military aid from the US kicks in at the end of this year, the Defense Ministry warned at a Knesset Finance Committee meeting on Monday.”
In the waning months of the Obama administration, Israel and the US agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding, which governs a decade of US military aid to Israel. Under the terms of the new MOU, the US will now provide Israel with a record $38 billion in military assistance. However, Israel will no longer be allowed to spend 26.3 percent of the aid on Israeli defense companies. Thus, Israel arms industry stands to lose $1.3 billion in revenue, jeopardizing 22,000 jobs and 130 factories.
• It’s time to talk Turkey:
– Erdogan hints Turkey may ban some Israeli goods because of Gaza violence
– US lawmakers (and Israel) look to block sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey
– Amid diplomatic row with Turkey, Israel to debate recognizing Armenian genocide
– Erdogan: Turkey will not give up Jerusalem:
Around the World
• US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US is preparing “the strongest sanctions in history” on Iran.
Trump’s newly installed top diplomat also hinted at the possibility of military action should Iranian leaders reconstitute their nuclear program.
“If they restart their nuclear program, they will have big problems, bigger problems than they’ve ever had before,” he said. Pompeo also threatened to “crush” Iran’s terrorist proxies around the world.”
• Former London mayor Ken Livingstone resigned from the Labour Party amid anti-Semitism allegations.
His resignation means an internal Labour investigation into his conduct automatically ceases and it remains unclear what would happen if he chose to reapply for party membership.
"The presence of Ken Livingstone was starting to create a bunker mentality in the Labour Party"
"You know who else had a bunker …"
"Not now, Ken.
— Sam Whyte (@SamWhyte) May 21, 2018
• Dutch state TV accused of anti-Semitism in Israeli Eurovision song spoof.
• Catastrophic destruction as Syrian and Russian forces pound the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus.
The scenes from Yarmouk on Sunday looked like Stalingrad in 1942 or Berlin in 1945, during the Second World War: bombed-out buildings as far as the eye can see; roads turned to rubble; alleyways turned into canyons of destruction, gutted, gray and slumping from air strikes. There doesn’t appear to be anything left of many city blocks that were once a thriving community, the home of more than 200,000 people in 2011 when the Syrian civil war broke out. Now only a few thousand remain. Those who do are reported to be starving under the regime’s siege.
This is (was) #Yarmouk Palestinian Camp in #Syria … Bombardment, siege by Assad & friends vs ISIS, has turned it to a death camp amid regional, international silence. pic.twitter.com/WjmUqDzrCG
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) May 21, 2018
• 11 said killed, dozens hurt in blasts at Syria’s Hama air base. The Times of Israel cited conflicting Arab reports — one said it was “an attack on an advanced Iranian air defense system,” while another said “the blasts were caused by a ‘technical malfunction’ at a weapons storage depot.”
• German paper axes cartoonist over controversial Netanyahu drawing widely slammed as antisemitic.
The cartoon by Dieter Hanitzsch, which appeared in Munich’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday, depicted Netanyahu celebrating Israel’s Eurovision win while holding a missile adorned with a Star of David.
Despite the paper’s editor-in-chief apologizing for the cartoon, Hanitzsch refused to do the same, leading to his dismissal.
• Romanian PM faces possible dismissal over Jerusalem embassy move.
• A history teacher in Buenos Aires was caught on camera giving a lesson defending Hitler and justifying antisemitism. Argentine Jews said they’ll take legal action.
“Jews took advantage of the people who needed money, they loaned the money and then they chased them to get their money back, always with interest. They had the money but they did not help Germany improve. They did not help the people to generate employment nor to create industries. This generated a certain hatred towards Jews,” Evequoz said in a lesson recorded in 2015, which was posted on social media this week.
• Looks like Bashar Assad is desperate for soldiers.
When protests against the Assad regime began in 2011, the Syrian army numbered about 250,000. But tens of thousands of defections, desertions, and mass casualties over more than seven years of conflict have gutted the military. While its current size is unknown, one thing is clear: Assad is now going to great lengths to reconstitute his forces. The problem is that few Syrians want to fight for him.
• The internet thinks Britain’s newest royal Meghan Markle is Jewish. Here’s the truth.
• Ireland‘s Minister of State Defense Minister rejects claim he has ‘blood on hands’ over Israeli drone procurement
• A German bank is allowing a BDS group “to raise funds to boot Israel from sponsoring an August pop culture festival as well as urge the federal government to expel Israel’s ambassador from Berlin because of the Gaza conflict,” reports the Jerusalem Post.
• British Muslim group denounces antisemitism in full page newspaper ad.
• Arsonists attacked a synagogue in the southern Brazilian town of Pelotas, painting threats and pro-Palestinian messages on the walls before setting it alight. The building only suffered minor damage. The JTA reports that this was the third attack on Pelotas synagogue.
Commentary
• A number of Israeli and US officials went on the offensive, denouncing the Western media for buying into Hamas lies. The IDF’s chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, got op-ed space in the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) to weigh in on Hamas lies. In the Washington Post, Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer called on the media and the world to stop demonizing Israel for defending itself. And US Ambassador David Friedman, opined on Fox News that “the liberal media sides with Hamas over Trump.”
Manelis evidently touched a nerve with correspondent Gregg Carlstrom.
Why do newspapers give Israeli mouthpieces space to accuse journalists (including their own!) of being naive, incompetent apologists for terror? https://t.co/PIYieXDmac
— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) May 21, 2018
• Plenty of commentary on the Gaza situation:
– Avi Issacharoff: Why Hamas beat a tactical retreat after near-descent into full war with Israel
– Seth Frantzman: Eight weeks in Gaza: What did the ‘Great March of Return’ accomplish?
– Ron Ben-Yishai: There is a way to solve the Gaza crisis
– Charles Bybelezer: The ‘blame game’ does not alleviate Palestinian suffering
– Yaakov Katz: Media failures, surrealism and imperfect public diplomacy
– Ido Levy: My fellow Americans, let’s not be so quick to condemn Israel
– Shmuel Rosner: Israel needs to protect its borders. By any means necessary.
– Daniel Shapiro: Don’t let this Gaza crisis go to waste
– Gil Troy: Why the left buys into every anti-Israel smear
– National Post (staff-ed): Hamas writes the anti-Israel script and Canada foolishly plays along
– The Australian (staff-ed): Israel entitled to defend border
https://twitter.com/ProfDBernstein/status/998581859360694277
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: The US wants to crush Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. But how?
– Bernard Avishai: The fight to define the very essence of Israel
– Sami Peretz: An angry Erdogan stands to harm Israel-Turkey economic ties
– Raphael Ahren: Even hawks are wary of new law that lets PM, defense minister declare war
– John Rentoul: Finally, Corbyn has done the right thing and got Livingstone out of the Labour Party
Featured image: CC0 unsplash; Farahmand via Facebook/Mehrdad Farahmand; royal wedding via YouTube/WHD Studios;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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