Today’s Top Stories
1. Did Israel launch an air strike on Sudan overnight? Something attacked an unspecified military target near Khartoum. While the Sudanese army claims it downed an Israeli drone north of Khartoum, Israel hasn’t commented. YNet coverage suffices.
Israel has attacked Sudanese arms facilities and convoys in the past, destroying weapons destined for Hamas.
2. Making the sausage: As today’s roundup went to press, the Israeli media reported that Benyamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett reached a coalition agreement ahead of tonight’s deadline. It means the Knesset will be run by a one-seat majority. Haaretz explains the significance of the midnight deadline you’ve been hearing about:
But the coalition agreements don’t actually have to be signed by midnight; it’s enough for Netanyahu to inform President Reuven Rivlin that he has the necessary 61 votes. He then has a week to actually present his government to the Knesset.
3. The New York Times takes a closer look at the PA’s unpaid electricity bills to Israel. It’s a complicated, uh, power struggle.
The Israelis and the Palestinian Authority cannot agree on the amount of energy consumed, how bills should be calculated or how payments should be collected . . .
The World Bank estimated in November that Palestinians had failed to pay for 58 percent of the power they used in 2013, up from 37 percent in 2010.
About 40 percent of the power debt is from Gaza . . . The World Bank says that Hamas collects payments from Gaza’s 1.8 million residents but refuses to hand the money over to the Palestinian Authority because of its rivalry with Mr. Abbas and his Fatah party.
Israel and the Palestinians
• French judges wrapped up their investigation of Yasser Arafat’s death and passed along the dossier to prosecutors. Even if there’s evidence of foul play — a big if — there may be no one to prosecute. AFP explains:
The prosecutor now has three months to prepare his submissions on whether to dismiss the case or put it forward to court.
In the meantime interested parties can produce written depositions. However if, as is currently the case, there is no defendant’s name attached to the proceedings, the case is likely to be dismissed.
• Thumbs up to one French paper for the most original fresh quote of an Israeli reaction to the latest allegations from Breaking the Silence. Here’s the European Jewish Press‘ translation of the key snippet from Le Figaro.
Asked by French daily Le Figaro to comment the Bts report, Israeli philosopher Asa Kasher, who drafted the Code of Ethics of the Israeli army but has campaignedfor its flexibility, declared: “No state has the duty to guarantee the same security for enemy civilians as to its own population.”
• The California Community Colleges system shot down a resolution supporting divestment from Israel. It’s significant because the CCC, as it describes itself, ‘is “the largest system of higher education in the nation, with 2.1 million students attending 112 colleges.”
• Post script on an issue of anti-Semitism at UCLA: The coalition of student organization that questioned Rachel Beyda’s fitness for a leadership position solely because she’s Jewish was voted out of government.
• It’s not often we see Big Media shine a spotlight on Palestinian governance. Today, the Christian Science Monitor looked at Mahmoud Abbas’ mandate to lead, while The Media Line reported on a new Hamas import tax that grumbling Gaza merchants say will increase hardship.
• HonestReporting got a nice shout-out from Hong Kong. South China Morning Post columnist Alex Lo picked up on our fight against reporters referring to Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital.
He cited our successful battle with The Guardian and the British Press Complaints Commission back in 2012. Just a few days ago, HonestReporting secured a Sky News correction over the same problem. I can relate to Lo’s exasperation.
Confused? I am!
Around the World
• The Saudi city of Najran was shelled from Yemen. The Saudis blame pro-Iranian Houthi rebels.
The attack was the first significant offensive against a Saudi city since a Saudi-led campaign of airstrikes began in March . . .
Footage broadcast on state television from the city showed debris-strewn streets, destroyed cars and a blackened room in a building where one of the munitions hit.
• Hezbollah supporters explained to NOW Lebanon how and why teens come to fight for the organization.
• Hezbollah, Nusra square off for rematch
Around the World
• Czech anti-Semitism rose 200 percent in 2014.
“It is clear that the Czech Republic’s Jewish community becomes a target of anti-Semitism in relation to the situation in the Middle East,” the chair of the Jewish community of Prague, Jan Munk, said in a statement. “Czech Jews are perceived by some groups as envoys of the State of Israel and are blamed for its political decisions.”
• Ahead of tomorrow’s UK elections, Politico’s Ben Judah visited Bradford to see what it’s like to be A Jew in George Galloway Country.
• As this roundup went to press, Or Asraf was due to be laid to rest in Lahavim, his Negev hometown. The 22-year-old was the sole Israeli fatality of Nepal’s earthquake. The death toll from last week’s earthquake rose to 7,500.
Commentary/Analysis
• Anti-Semitism on US campuses is on the rise. Ruth Wisse asks where it comes and if it can be stopped.
At any rate, the basic truth is this: Israel and the United States, unlovingly paired by their Islamist enemies as the Little Satan and the Big Satan, are prime targets of the same antagonists. It remains to be seen, then, whether the rise of anti-Semitism in America—itself an extension of the Arab- and Muslim-led war against Israel and the Jewish people—will fatally penetrate America’s thick constitutional culture, in which some of us still place our trust.
Universities are the obvious place to begin investigating that question.
• Daniel Gordis and Steven Cook weigh in on the bizarre criticism of Israel’s humanitarian aid to Nepal.
• More commentary I’m reading:
– Ron Ben-Yishai: A battle of wits on the northern border
– Ahmed Charai: The perils of non-engagement in the Mideast
– Arif Tekdal: Turkish-Israeli relations hurt by hate speech, not Mavi Marmara
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Mo Riza via flickr with additions by HonestReporting; Knesset CC BY-SA flickr/Edmund Gall; Kasher CC BY Wikimedia Commons/David Shay;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
