Today’s Top Stories
1. Hamas announced that it’s planning a series of public executions. According to AFP, the 13 Palestinians on death row were convicted of criminal offenses, “mostly murder connected to robberies.”
Of the more than 170 Palestinians sentenced to death since the creation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, around 30 have been executed, mostly in Gaza, according to the [Palestinian Center for Human Rights].
2. The Lebanese Army has built a number of observation towers along its border with Israel, “from which they can observe Israeli military bases, the border fence, the patrol road next to the border fence, civilian roads in Israel, and various towns and kibbutzim along the border.” YNet explains Israeli concerns and why the towers don’t violate any agreements:
People who live in these border communities are saying that, while these observation towers are currently manned by Lebanese Army soldiers, they are concerned that Hezbollah will take them over during the next war . . .
According to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War, the area where the observation towers were built is supposed to be a demilitarized zone. Therefore, according to the resolution, the towers are not allowed to have any weapons in them.
3. It turns out that J Street, which describes itself as a liberal pro-Israel advocacy organization, received more than half a million dollars to advocate the Iranian nuclear deal. The Associated Press reports the money came from the Ploughshares Fund, a foundation opposed to nuclear proliferation and the main non-governmental organization the White House used to push the accord.
This comes on the heels of deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes telling the New York Times Magazine the White House managed to create an “echo chamber” in the public discourse, in part with the help of “outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever else.”
Among the other organizations receiving funding from Ploughshares were the National Iranian American Council, National Public Radio, Princeton University and the Brookings Institute. (Where did Ploughshares get its money to sell the Iran deal?)
J Street — Ploughshares’ largest beneficiary — defended itself by saying the accord improves Israel’s security. Draw your own conclusions from the responses by Ploughshares’ President Joe Cirincione and J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami.
Reading twitter feed from weekend – right wingers seem upset J Street raised money to promote our views on Iran – what exactly did AIPAC do?
— Jeremy Ben-Ami (@JeremyBenAmi) May 23, 2016
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Israel and the Palestinians
• Shortly before this roundup was published, there were early reports that a Palestinian woman unsuccessfully tried to stab an Israeli security officer at a checkpoint just north of Jerusalem this afternoon.
• According to Israeli media reports, Arab countries are open to amending the Saudi peace proposal of 2002. If true, the tweaks would certainly draw Israeli interest.
The Channel 10 report said Arab countries have indicated some of the clauses in the initiative are open to negotiation, including the ones related to the demands that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights and grant Palestinian refugees a “right of return.”
• State prosecutors are trying to compel Breaking the Silence to reveal the identity (or identities?) of soldiers providing anonymous testimony of alleged army misdeeds. The Washington Post had clearest coverage of the legal proceedings and what’s at stake.
• The Knesset’s summer session gets underway today. The Jerusalem Post and YNet preview what’s in store.
• French Prime Minister Manuel Valls is visiting Israel. During talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister urged Valls to drop an upcoming conference on the Mideast peace process, and instead set up a face-to-face meeting between him and Mahmoud Abbas. More at Haaretz.
Valls also made time to talk to i24 News about the Paris peace initiative and France’s support for a one-sided UNESCO resolution that made no mention of Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.
“We regret the UNESCO vote, it was a mistake,” Valls told i24news, reiterating previous remarks made by both Ayrault and French President Francois Hollande.
“No one can think France denies Jewish origins of Jerusalem,” he added.
This prompted a tweet of day from Eugene Kontorovich.
Is that a "sorry pushed the wrong button" kind of mistake, or "oops, we let our diplomatic mask slip" mistake? https://t.co/fIqSdQFzPG
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) May 22, 2016
Featured image: CC BY-NC Sander Spolspoel with additions by HonestReporting; Knesset CC BY-SA Edmund Gall;
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