Today’s Top Stories
1. Worth reading: Thumbs up to the New York Times for a heckuva dispatch about Gazans living in dread of Hamas’ tunnels. Palestinians told reporter Diaa Hadid they hear the sounds of digging and fret about the consequences of tunnels in their civilian areas, validating what Israelis in Netiv Ha-Asara are also hearing).
A neighbor who is 29 and goes by the name Abu Mohammad, said that the danger of nearby tunnels made him reluctant to rebuild. “I give it 99.5 percent that our house will be destroyed again,” he said. “I go crazy thinking about it.”
2. Regarding the latest Israeli political developments, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon resigned from politics. It was reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered Yaalon the foreign ministry portfolio after the defense ministry was given to Avigdor Liberman. But YNet now reports that Netanyahu will keep the foreign ministry portfolio for himself in the hope of bringing the Labor Party into the coalition in the future.
In addition to the Foreign Ministry, Netanyahu is also holding onto the Communications Ministry, the Economy Ministry and the Regional Cooperation Ministry—all of which have been operating without a minister for months on end.
3. Did an Austrian presidential candidate lie about witnessing a terror attack in Israel? Or was Norbert Hofer, of the populist Freedom party, confused about what he saw during a 2014 visit to the Temple Mount? The Guardian picked up on Austrian media coverage. More background at Haaretz.
4. The Sunday Times Confuses a Proposal for Policy: While the appointment of Lieberman is not without controversy, journalists are obligated to report the facts accurately and let readers form their own judgment.
5. The Media Platform For BDS Lies: Journalists inaccurately portraying BDS enable and feed the movement, providing it with exactly the platform it needs to promote its lies.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• A gunman opened fire on an armored Israeli bus near Tekoa on Saturday night. No injuries were reported.
• After a 6-week suspension, Israel renews cement deliveries into Gaza. The Times of Israel explains what changed:
COGAT halted the import of cement and other building materials at the beginning of April after an undisclosed amount of cement intended for the rebuilding effort of the beleaguered Strip was “taken by Imad al-Baz, deputy director of Hamas’s Economic Ministry,” the Defense Ministry body said on its Arabic Facebook page at the time.
Deliberations between Israeli and UN officials, including Nickolay Mladenov, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, yielded an agreement to allow cement to be imported anew. Stipulations included al-Baz’s dismissal and an increase in the number of Palestinian inspectors on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, according to the sources.
• Israel returned the bodies of two Palestinian terrorists.
• The Foreign Press Association denounced Hamas after it detained SIPA Press photographer Heidi Levine for several hours, then barred her from entering Gaza.
As she exited, Hamas security told Levine she was banned from the territory, claiming her work “reflects badly on Gaza.” It provided no examples of the work that allegedly upset it.
https://twitter.com/JohninJerusalem/status/733343500901744640
• Israeli Ambassador the UN, Danny Danon, rejected Arab demands to remove a panel from an exhibit which calls Jerusalem “the spiritual and physical capital of the Jewish people.”
• The Jerusalem Post discussed with several IDF officers the pros and cons of a Gaza seaport for Israeli security.
• The toughest police beat in the world is Jerusalem’s Old City.
• It’s going to be a lot easier for foreigners to do business in Israel because of some newly amended regulations that the Ministry of Justice signed off on, according to Globes.
Around the World
• Another example of Iranian moderation?
• Alberto Nisman may have been forced to kill himself, says Argentine prosecutor.
• A Jewish sophomore was forced to hide from violent anti-Israel activists at the University of California-Irvine. The Observer vividly described Eliana Kopley’s terror.
• Major French bank Credit Mutuel shut down anti-Israel BDS account — it appears that La Campagne BDS France used illegal means to open its account, the Jerusalem Post reports.
• British feminist historian declines prestigious Israeli award following BDS pressure
• Ontario parliament defeats anti-BDS bill.
• Amid the EgyptAir tragedy and intelligence warnings of another Islamic State attack, there’s renewed interest in Israeli security measures at Ben-Gurion Airport, especially in the UK. Judging from the Daily Telegraph, Times of London and CNN, Israeli expertise won’t be easily duplicated in the West, and “passenger profiling” is a dirty word. The Telegraph explains:
Whereas European airports usually apply the same procedures to everyone, Ben Gurion’s doctrine is “risk-based security”. The system is designed to identify passengers who are believed to pose a high risk and subject them to special checks.
“There are some measures that fit only to Israel,” said Mr Zakay. “When I read in the media ‘why don’t European airports copy the Israeli security concept?’ It’s impossible. We are a unique country with a unique security structure.”
Ben Gurion’s intensive security is possible partly because the airport remains relatively small by European standards. Last year, 16.5 million passengers went through its terminals, compared with 75 million at Heathrow and 66 million at Charles de Gaulle in Paris . . .
In addition, Ben Gurion is the only international airport in Israel, allowing the country to focus all of its effort and expertise on this one facility.
• Headstones smashed in ‘sickening antisemitic act’ at a Manchester Jewish cemetery
• A New York Times editor who denounced anti-Semitism among Donald Trump’s followers was flooded with anti-Semitic tweets from Trump supporters.
• Current and former Facebook staffers told the New York Times the Trending Topics group was ill-managed and relied on personal news judgment, but had no intentional, institutional bias.
Commentary/Analysis
• Fallout continues from Israeli coalition politics. Among the commentaries that caught my eye:
– Ronen Bergman: Israel’s army goes to war with its politicians
– David Horovitz: Why dumping defense minister was no ordinary political maneuver
– Aaron David Miller: What Bibi stands to gain and lose from cabinet shake-up
– Gary Rosenblatt: For Bibi, short-term victory and long-term risk
– Jonathan Freedland: Israel has turned right and exposed the battle within
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Elliott Abrams: The military aid standoff: An argument, not a crisis
– Bassem Eid: To advance the peace process, first fix the PA
– Michael Freund: Poking a gaping hole in the Palestinian narrative
– Sarah Stern: At the epicenter of BDS
– Martin Kramer: How independent is Israel?
– Alex Ryvchin: The Australian Left must learn from UK Labour’s anti-Semitism scandal
– David Bernstein: Ben Shapiro discovers right-wing anti-Semitism
Featured image: CC BY Silecyra with additions by HonestReporting; Canadian flag CC BY Alex Indigo;
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