Today’s Top Stories
1. Israeli police are recommending that Sara Netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges related to financial improprieties at the Prime Minister’s residence. Take your pick of Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, and Haaretz coverage.
2. Not that anyone would meddle in internal Palestinian affairs, but a number of Arab states are reportedly planning to install Mohammed Dahlan as head of the Palestinian Authority:
The Middle East Eye said the plans key goals are to unite Fatah and strengthen it against Hamas, weaken Hamas, complete a peace agreement with Israel and seize control of sovereign Palestinian institutions in the West Bank . . .
“The parties [the UAE, Jordan and Egypt] believe that Mahmoud Abbas has expired politically and that they should endeavor to stop any surprises by Abbas during the period when Fatah will remain under his leadership until the elections are held,” the source said.
Dahlan, now 55, was the PA’s chief of security in Gaza until 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the Strip. He currently lives in the United Arab Emirates; in 2014, a Palestinian court convicted Dahlan in absentia and sentenced him to two years in prison for defaming Mahmoud Abbas.
3. Former London mayor Ken Livingstone was sacked from his LBC radio show for doubling down on his views that Hitler was a Zionist.
4. AP Writes About Problems in Gaza, Doesn’t Even Mention Hamas: That’s like talking about Syria and not mentioning Islamic State.
5. Video: Terror in a Supermarket, and an 8 Year Old Survivor: Real People Real Stories Part 3: Miri Bachar tells the story of a terror stabbing in a supermarket witnessed by her eight-year-old niece.
Israel and the Intifada
• Members of Hamas cell behind Jerusalem bus bombing arrested as it planned more attacks.
• The Swiss foreign ministry will be hosting a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation “conference” at the end of June, with the participation of “representatives from the Quartet, the EU, Sweden, Norway, China, Russia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.” This background snippet from YNet sums up why I’m skeptical:
Hamas and Fatah have reached many reconciliation agreements in the past including the Mecca Agreement in 2007, the Sana’a Declaration in 2008, the Cairo Agreement in 2011, the Doha Agreement in February 2012, the Cairo Accord in May 2012, and the Cairo Agreement II in 2014. But none of these agreements have been implemented.
• Three Gazans with different jobs in the the Hamas tunnel network told Israeli interrogators about their work, why they did it, and how they came to be captured. YNet published excerpts of the investigators’ transcripts.
• Anticipating a future conflict with Hezbollah, Israel’s training civil defense units in the north of the country to deal with disaster relief. Moreover, The Media Line reports that many of the units are made up of Israeli Arabs.
“There is a big change in the Arab population in Israel in that they are much more willing to cooperate with us,” Makov said. “We give them training in what to do and they see it as a contribution.”
Makov said that more than half of the residents of northern Israel are Arab citizens of Israel, and are under the same missile threat from Hizbullah as Jewish citizens of Israel. While the vast majority of Arab citizens of Israel do not serve in the Israeli army, he said these civil defense units are not part of the army but of the Home Front Command and, for example, volunteers do not wear uniforms.
• The Shin Bet thwarted a Hamas smuggling attempt Thursday morning:
The metal tubes are of the variety typically used by Hamas terrorists to construct mortars, while the water pumps are typically used to pump water out of Hamas tunnels as they are being dug. The items were being shipped disguised in a textile and jewellery shipment. The seizure occurred at the Tarkumiya checkpoint next to Hebron.
• Israel is opposing a Palestinian bid to join Interpol:
In addition to the symbolic victory admission to Interpol would represent, the PA could try to use membership in the force to take legal steps against Israel.
• Morocco refused to play Israel in wheelchair tennis at paraylympic World Cup.
• It’s not common for AFP to examine domestic Palestinian issues, which is why I’m impressed it took a closer look at Gaza’s “wall of silence over child sexual assault.
• Israeli-Greek relations continue improving, thanks to a perfect storm of events in the Mideast and Europe.
• My antennae are twitching: A New York Times report on Israel, Bernie Sanders, and the Democratic Party platform is raised a fuss. The word “occupation” was originally in quote marks, then editors removed them. Now the critics know how I feel when journalists put “terror” in quote marks . . .
Two of the senator’s appointees to the party’s platform drafting committee, Cornel West and James Zogby, on Wednesday denounced Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and said they believed that rank-and-file Democrats no longer hewed to the party’s staunch support of the Israeli government.
Pathetic: NYT uses scare quotes to refer to Israeli occupation of WBank & Gaza https://t.co/wFPTkgt2sk (via @@nsheizaf) – like "torture"
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 26, 2016
• The IDF is setting up a special unit to liase with Syrian residents, according to Israeli media reports.
The aim of the unit is to increase already-established contacts with Syrian residents living close to Israel’s border, and will resemble a similar branch that was established when the IDF was still stationed in south Lebanon during the 1980s, which was itself locked in a civil war at the time.
Around the World
• According to (pro-Hezbollah) Lebanese media reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post, Hezbollah is digging tunnels, placing rockets on border for next conflict with Israel.
• Turns out a group leading an aggressive German BDS campaign is headquartered on property owned by the Bremen municipality. You can do that?
• Netherlands declares BDS ‘free speech’.
• UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is under fire for not responding to a letter from Israeli Labor party leader Isaac Herzog which expressed concerns about anti-Semitism. Details at The Guardian.
• Now we know:
Malia Bouattia was investigated by NUS for anti-Semitism more than a year ago
• The Los Angeles Times takes a closer look at tensions between Jewish and anti-Israel student groups at University California-Irvine.
• A senior Bangladeshi opposition leader was charged with sedition for meeting an Israeli official during a trip to India. Aslam Chowdhury, of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) could face up to three years if convicted. Pakistan Today adds:
Critics say the arrest was part of a crackdown Hasina’s government has launched against the country’s main opposition parties, which include the BNP and its Islamist ally, Jamaat-i-islami.
• Canada to replace outspoken pro-Israel Ambassador Vivian Bercovici with a career diplomat. The Times of Israel rounded up what Canadian media reports:
Jewish Canadians were unsurprised by the move as well. “It’s pretty much the convention that political appointments don’t often survive a change in government,” Shimon Fogel, the CEO of the Canadian Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, told the Canadian Jewish News. “Typically, ambassadors in those circumstances would tender their resignation… It’s standard operating procedure. So nobody should be surprised.”
• Nations with lousy human rights records blocked UN status for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. (Israel, the US, and others voted for CPJ recognition).
• A reporter who invented quotes? Fact-checking forces the removal of 13 stories? Is Joesph Mayton The Guardian‘s version of Jayson Blair? Say it ain’t so!
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– David Weinberg: The day after Abbas
– Avi Issacharoff: Deceiving Cairo and helping ISIS, Hamas sets Gaza on course for new troubles
– Shadi Khalloul: Arabs using Christians to fight Israel
– Jonathan Rosenblum: Why the Palestinians can’t dance, in Obama’s own words
– Judith Bergman: Hatred with and without algorithms
– Wall St. Journal: Democrats vs. Israel (staff-ed via Google News)
– Fred Maroun: The lie of “disproportionality”
– Pinchas Inbari: The new Jordanian-Palestinian chasm
– Shaul Shay: 10 years after Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah at a crossroad
– David Horovitz: US slams Liberman, silent on Iran’s America-hating power broker
– Nima Gholam Ali Pour: Sweden choosing to lose war against anti-Semitism?
– Ehud Ya’ari: The southern front in Syria
– Reuel Marc Gerecht, Ray Takeyh: Iran’s Holocaust denial is part of a malevolent strategy
Featured image: CC BY Terje Skjerdal with additions by HonestReporting; Dahlan via YouTube/AP Archive; home front command CC BY-NC Israel Defense Forces;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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