Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel and the US want to clear up the intelligence leak affair before President Donald Trump arrives in Israel next week. That’s why the two countries are fast-tracking a joint inquiry into what exactly Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about Islamic State.
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that the info came from IDF Military Intelligence, whose source was in Raqqa, Syria. And the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) described Israel’s man in Raqqa as “the most valuable source of information on external plotting by Islamic State.”
2. A settler whose car was stoned by a mob of Palestinians shot and killed one of the rioters this afternoon near the West Bank town of Hawara, near Nablus. Media reports described the Palestinian ambush as an attempted lynching. More on the story at the Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and Ynet.
Two other Palestinians were injured, including a photojournalist identified as Majdi Ashtiyeh of the Associated Press.
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3. Ahead of Trump’s visit, the PA is putting together a request for an economic stimulus package. The Times of Israel describes Ramallah’s wish list:
Among the requests presented by PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s entourage during a visit to Washington earlier this month were an airport in the West Bank, hotels on the the coast of the Dead Sea, a power station in the northern West Bank and a cement factory in Bethlehem.
4. The Independent Embeds Tweet Calling for Israel’s Destruction: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” is a call for Israel’s destruction as it refers to all of the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israeli police targeting Hamas’ West Bank terror infrastructure confiscated cars, computers and thousands of shekels given to the families of Palestinian terrorists in the Hebron area. The IDF said Hamas used these gifts to boost its recruiting and encourage more attacks. More at the Jerusalem Post.
• As so-called ‘honor killers’ get away with murder, Palestinians say PA law and judges are outdated. The Times of Israel takes a closer look at the phenomena of Palestinian honor killing and efforts to change PA law to swing justice back towards women.
• Trump’s Mideast trip might include the first direct Saudi-Israeli flight.
• The European Union announced its new ambassador to Israel will be Emanuele Giaufret. The Italian diplomat will succeed Danish Lars Faaborg-Andersen, whose four-year term ends this summer.
Around the World
• Northwestern U. president Morty Schapiro joined a vigil for victims outside convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh’s campus speech. Odeh is due to be deported from the US for lying to immigration officials about her involvement in two Jerusalem terror attacks in 1969 — one of which killed two Israeli university students.
“He attended the vigil to show his support for the students who were slain,” said Northwestern spokesman Bob Rowley in an email. “He held a candle in silence with the others, some 120 people, gathered outside. One of the signs at the vigil read, ‘May their memories be for a blessing.’”
• Administrators at University California-Irvine are reviewing a pro-Palestinian student group’s protest during Israeli veterans panel. The Los Angeles Times notes that “It was the second time in a year that Students for Justice in Palestine interrupted an event presented by Students Supporting Israel.”
• JTA: All 50 US governors signed a statement rejecting BDS.
• Denmark is set to announce $8 million in grants to radical pro-BDS Palestinian NGOs.
• Ban on ritual slaughter passes without opposition in Belgium’s largest region.
• Judge dismisses lawsuit aimed at stopping slaughter of chickens in Jewish ritual
• Tombstones toppled at Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia.
Commentary/Analysis
• Worth reading: Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman weighs in on Trump’s leak and what it means for the bigger picture of Israeli-US intelligence cooperation.
In this relationship, Israel has always had an advantage in the recruitment and handling of agents in Arab countries, and the Americans have the edge when it comes to the technology for intercepting transmissions. In practical terms, Israel has become the eyes and ears of the United States in the Middle East. This arrangement has freed the United States from a heavy intelligence-gathering burden. But it has also forced the Americans to depend upon the Israelis . . .
In recent months, Israel has passed on to the United States a great deal of highly sensitive and detailed information about the close coordination between the armed forces of Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, under Russian command. The problem, according to a former senior Mossad official, lies not in the information but in the most highly sensitive sources, some of whom were cultivated for years: “The Russians are not dumb. They’ll realize where it comes from and they or their allies, all Israel’s enemies, will take appropriate steps.”
See also Yossi Alpher‘s take on what Israel makes of Trump’s gaffe.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Jonathan Tobin: On Israel, Trump has moved from outsider to wimp
– Ido Aharoni: Trump in Israel: What’s the plan?
– Tovah Lazaroff: Six reasons Trump’s visit appears jinxed
– Yoav Limor: Trump leak: Just a snag, nothing more
– Avi Issacharoff: Barghouti is forcing Israel to decide between bad and worse
– Deborah Lipstadt: The meaning of Assad’s alleged crematorium
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Mark Belokopytov; confidential CC0 Pixabay;
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