Ismail Haniyeh to Become Top Hamas Leader

Today’s Top Stories

1. Hamas announced that, as widely expected, Ismail Haniyeh was elected chairman of the terror group’s Politburo. It’s not clear when Haniyeh will formally take over the position, replacing Khaled Mashaal. Jerusalem Post coverage. For more on Haniyeh’s bio, see Ynet/AP. Also moving up the totem pole is Yihye Sinwar, who replaces Haniyeh as Gaza’s prime minister and strongman.

Tweet of the day goes to Aviva Klompas:

Hamas replaces leader committed to Israel’s destruction with leader committed to Israel’s destruction #ThisIsNotNews https://t.co/ZNL9F7J5V7

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) May 6, 2017

2. A Dallas-based bank is shutting down an Israel-bashing organization’s account just three days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed anti-BDS legislation into law.

The slated termination of the account for the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which supports the BDS movement, is believed to be the first anti-Israel bank account closed by a US-based bank . . .

 

It is unclear if Comerica closed the account because financial business with the association was running afoul of the anti-BDS law or due to a possible violation of anti-terrorism laws. The association, whose headquarters are in Brussels, has a working relationship with a communist North Korean legal group and defends the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program.

Prince Charles was set to travel to Israel to honour thousands of British war dead at the centenary of the WW1 Palestine Campaign and the historic Balfour Declaration.

 

But insiders say the controversial trip – unofficially pencilled in for later this year – has now been binned.

 

It is feared the decision may have been taken to avoid upsetting Arab nations in the region who regularly host UK Royals.

4. Hamas’s New Charter: Neither New, Nor a Charter: Hamas’ new manifesto does not change the fact that it is still a terror group committed to Israel’s destruction.

Israel and the Palestinians

• How does the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) write such a self-contradictory paragraph?

Hamas dropped a longstanding call for Israel’s destruction and accepted the notion of a Palestinian state based on Israeli borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The group, however, said it would continue not to recognize Israel’s right to exist and would eventually seek to control all of historic Palestine, making up Israeli territory, the West Bank and Gaza.

I’m asking the same question about AP:

It has also dropped explicit language calling for Israel’s destruction, though it retains the goal of eventually “liberating” all of historic Palestine, which includes what is now Israel.

• Worth reading: The Times of Israel takes a closer look the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike, what’s behind it, and why Israel could even benefit by giving consideration to at least some of the demands.

• Bereaved Israeli families demand FIFA action over Palestinian soccer chief Jibril Rajoub’s terror incitement.

• French citizens living in West Bank get official letters addressed to Palestinian territories.

• “A delegation of more than 50 members of Congress is calling on the Trump administration to reverse a longstanding policy that prohibits Americans born in Jerusalem from listing Israel as their birthplace on official documents, according to a letter sent to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.”

In 2015, the US Supreme Court struck down part of a federal statute that would have allowed Americans born in Jerusalem to list “Jerusalem, Israel” as their place of birth, bringing an end to the case of Zivotofsky vs. Kerry.

• Wall St. Journal: For Arab Gulf states, Israel is emerging as an ally. (Click via Twitter).

• A contentious ‘Nationality Law’ defining Israel as a Jewish state cleared a legislative hurdle and will go to the Knesset for further debate. Ynet coverage.

The Nationality Law would enshrine as a Basic Law the concept that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. The legislation determines that all Israeli law must be interpreted according to this principle.

 

The legislation, which is considered its opponents as discriminatory towards Arab Israelis, specifies some of the practical aspects of the State of Israel being the nation-state of the Jewish people. The bill addresses state symbols (national anthem, flag, icons), Jerusalem as the capital, Hebrew as the official language, the right of return for Jews, the ingathering of the exiles, Jewish settlement, relations with the Jewish Diaspora, the Hebrew calendar, and holy sites.

• Israel to evict UN from its Jerusalem HQ? Uh, probably not.

• BDS feels the Bern: Sen. Bernie Sanders defended Israel on Al Jazeera, speaking out against BDS and the UN’s bias against the Jewish state. Watch the video, which is an excerpt from a longer, wider-ranging interview. Backstory at the JTA.

I asked @SenSanders about Palestine, the BDS movement targeting Israel, and whether he supports a one state solution pic.twitter.com/xOQmxMelFp

— Dena Takruri (@Dena) May 3, 2017

• Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby made a surprise visit to Gaza on Thursday. The Anglican Church leader “joined a lunch reception to hear from the Christian community about the particular challenges they face in Gaza,” and laid a wreath at the World War I Commonwealth Gaza War Cemetery.

• Eastern Jerusalem hospital turns away new patients after Palestinian Authority fails to pay millions in debt.

Around the World

• Barcelona‘s Jewish community is up in arms after the city council and mayor A) passed a symbolic resolution condemning the “Israeli occupation and the settlement policy in occupied Palestinian territory,” and then B) a speaking appearing by convicted Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled at a cultural festival sponsored in part by the municipality.

“To me, the municipality’s policy of welcoming refugees is great, but not terrorists who hijacked planes.”

• Wife of Honduran presidential candidate apologizes for praising Hitler.

Commentary/Analysis

• As winds of war rise, Israel must decide whether to pull the plug on Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority has asked Israel to stop deducting the price of the 125 megawatts that flow through the Israeli power lines to Gaza — NIS 40 million ($11 million) per month — from the tax refunds Israel transfers to the PA. What this means is that Israel will have to decide in the next few days whether to completely stop the flow of electricity to Gaza, thus increasing the danger of a humanitarian crisis, and with it the potential for violent conflict . . .

 

Alternatively, Israel could “buy” some quiet by itself paying the Israel Electric Corporation the monthly NIS 40 million for the electricity that Gazans receive from Israel in order to avoid a complete blackout in Gaza. In such a situation, Israel would be supplying and paying for electricity for the offices of high-ranking leaders, including Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, of a terrorist organization sworn to its destruction. Even the electricity in Hamas’s headquarters comes from Israel these days.

 

Israel’s decision-makers face a truly unenviable dilemma.

• Plenty more broken quills and burnt pixels commenting on the new Hamas leadership:

– Avi Issacharoff: New leader, same old Hamas, with Gazans now firmly in control
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Hamas’ game of musical chairs
– Amos Harel: Haniyeh’s election as new Hamas chief brings Gaza back to center stage
– Nic Robertson: Hamas is staring down the barrel of a huge long-term problem

• Zoe Kellner, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a board member of Badgers for Israel, describes the shenanigans behind the student government’s debate over BDS resolutions.

• An Israeli commando comments on finding a rifle inside a Palestinian child’s bed.

• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend . . .

– Brig.-Gen (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser: The Trump effect on the Palestinian arena
– Rafael Medoff: Double standard on Holocaust denial
– Amos Harel: A photo-op with Trump is nice, but what the Palestinians really need is money
– Seth Frantzman: 5 reasons not to buy the “Israel Gulf states allies” narrative
– Yaakov Katz: A war or an operation?
– Prof. Michael Saenger: Bernie Sanders and the boundaries of the conversation
– Ben-Dror Yemini: UNESCO adds more fuel to the fire of hatred
– Zvi Bar’el: In squeezing Hezbollah’s coffers, US also hurts Lebanon
– David Makovsky: When international guarantees utterly failed
– Los Angeles Times (staff-ed): Trump’s latest arrogant overpromise: peace between Israelis and Palestinians
– Zalman Shoval: The Iran deal: An alarming picture

• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Neil Quilliam and Gwynne Dyer.

Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND gato-gato-gato; Prince Charles via YouTube/The British Monarchy; prison CC0 Pixabay; unplugged CC0 Pixabay;

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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