Today’s Top Stories
1. IDF engineers uncovered an attack tunnel stretching into Israel. The army said it’s not clear yet if the tunnel was dug before or after the 2014 Gaza conflict. YNet reports that no exit shafts have been found yet, and that engineers are working to determine the tunnel’s entire path.
Later in the day, soldiers on the border were shelled. No injuries were reported and the IDF returned fire.
BREAKING: IDF uncovered 2nd #Hamas terror #tunnel in last 3 weeks through intel, advanced tech, & ground operations pic.twitter.com/YeXOEG9EP5
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 5, 2016
2. Mahmoud Abbas confirmed to visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende that the PA continues paying salaries to convicted terrorists. Brende urged Abbas to abolish the stipends. I haven’t seen any Western papers pick up this disclosure, so I’ll link to Palestinian Media Watch and Norwegian press coverage.
3. Cambridge University students will hold a referendum on withdrawing from the National Union of Students. The move is a response to the election of Malia Bouattia as president of the confederation of 600 British student unions representing seven million students. See also Cambridge Student coverage.
Bouattia has previously said she supports Palestinian resistance and doesn’t consider it terror.
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4. The Media’s Role in Fueling Anti-Semitism: It’s encouraging that the British media’s taking anti-Semitism seriously, but there’s an air of hypocrisy amidst all the outrage and righteous indignation.
5. IBT: Palestinians Fire First, Israel ‘Ends Ceasefire’: Palestinians fired on soldiers searching for Gaza tunnels, prompting Israeli air strikes on the Strip. So who broke the cease fire?
6. Euronews Headline Turns Palestinian Vehicle into Victim: When a Palestinian car ramming injured IDF soldiers, Euronews states it was the Palestinian car that was rammed.
7. Holocaust Remembrance Day Siren: Every year on this day, something extraordinary happens in Israel: the sirens sound, and everybody stops. We did too. Take a look with us.
Israel and the Palestinians
• After yesterday’s flare up of Gaza violence, Israeli jets struck targets in the Strip overnight.
• Was Baha Nabata a “collaborator” who deserved to be killed?
A Palestinian activist from east Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp, who was shot dead in a hail of bullets on Monday night, feared for his life for working with Israeli officials to improve living conditions in the beleaguered community, the former east Jerusalem portfolio head said on Wednesday.
Baha Nabata, 31, a well-regarded civil rights and youth-group leader, was shot seven times in the camp at approximately 11:30 PM by an assailant who fired 10 bullets at him before fleeing the scene on a motor bike, according to witnesses . . .
Nabata’s numerous accomplishments included paving the camp’s roads, setting up emergency medical services for residents, and training firefighters with help from the Jerusalem Fire Department.
• Israeli manufacturers say the terms of the White House’s defense aid package will be a “mortal blow” to the Israeli defense industry and cost thousands of jobs.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Obama wanted to ensure that all the funds in a new 10-year defense package would be spent on US-made arms, which would scrap the 26.3% of the aid that until now was converted to shekels and spent in Israel each year . . .
Even if America added $1 billion in annual aid, the clause would actually cut hundreds of millions of dollars of spending within Israel that supports the local industry.
• Palestinians told AFP that Egypt pumping sea water into cross-border tunnels is creating sinkholes, devastating crops, and damaging border area infrastructure as the ground becomes increasingly salinated.
Around the World
• Egyptian State Information Chief: ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoons to blame for violence in the Middle East. Salah Abdel Sadek may be on to something. In 2006, Professor Hasan Bolkhari, a cultural advisor to the Iranian education ministry, insisted the cartoon was a Jewish conspiracy to change Europe’s perception of mice. Who’d a thought it?
• Labour suspended another party figure who claimed Jews caused ‘an African holocaust.’
• According to The Independent, British Jewish activists are taking legal against three local authorities that voted to boycott products from Israeli settlements.
Jewish Human Rights Watch (JHRW) is seeking judicial review against three authorities – Leicester City Council, Swansea City Council and Gwynedd Council.
The campaign group is expected to ask Lord Justice Simon and Mr Justice Flaux, sitting in London, to rule the “anti-Semitic” boycotts unlawful because they breach the Local Government Act 1988 and the Equality Act 2010.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Yaakov Lappin: Hamas under pressure as Israel makes progress on tunnels
– Yoav Limor: Hamas may conclude it has nothing to lose by starting another war
– Deborah Lipstadt: The perils of ignoring Holocaust history
– Limor Samimian-Darash: Between covert and overt anti-Semitism
– Jeffrey Herf: Hitler and the Nazis’ anti-Zionism
Featured image: CC BY Nicolas Alejandro with additions by HonestReporting; Tom and Jerry via YouTube/Jonni Valentayn;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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