Today’s Top Stories
1. Despite BDS efforts, cinemas throughout Lebanon will be screening Wonder Woman, which stars Israeli actress Gal Gadot. Ynet writes:
The campaign against Wonder Woman began in April, when the movement sent a letter to the Bureau for the Boycott of Israel within Lebanon’s Ministry of Economy and Trade. The letter noted that Gadot is the former beauty queen of Israel, who served in the IDF and publicly supported Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Since then, however, Lebanese filmmakers have promoted the film and called on the public to buy tickets in advance.
2. The Israeli cabinet held a special meeting in the Western Wall tunnels to mark the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification. Ministers approved plans to make the Western Wall more accessible with A) an NIS 200 million cable car and B) an NIS 50 million handicap-friendly elevator and underground passageway between the Old City’s Jewish Quarter and the holy site.
Also approved was an NIS 177 million plan to better join eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods to the municipal sewage and garbage collection systems. Ynet notes:
. . . 33 kilometers of sewage infrastructure will be built, the existing sewage system will be upgraded, garbage cans and garbage trucks will be purchased and set up to collect waste . . .
The plan references the needs of all Arab neighborhoods, inside and outside the security fence, but at this stage, it will be only be implemented in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem inside the security fence. The Arab neighborhoods outside the fence, which belong to the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, will be dealt with in a separate program.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the meeting in the tunnels a provocation.
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3. Iran is going to bankroll pro-Assad militias in Syria. Voice of America explains that this is another step in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards raising its influence in Syria.
Iran has long expressed a desire to command a unified army in the region, particularly in Syria, and its growing power in Syria and Iraq is causing unease in Western capitals. In an interview with the Mashregh news agency last August, Mohammad Ali Falaki, an IRGC leader, announced formation of a unified army in Syria which appears to have come to loose fruition.
4. HonestReporting’s week-long mission to Israel wrapped up today with a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for briefings by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, Director of Digital Diplomacy DJ Schneeweiss and spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.
Later in the day, they heard from Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren and Professor Eugene Kontorovich, among others, before this evening’s closing dinner.
Visit our mission web site to find out more about next year’s special mission honoring Israel’s 70th birthday.
Dpty Mnstr @DrMichaelOren – there's a war in media & campus. We need diplomatic Iron Dome #HRMission2017 pic.twitter.com/ZuqQRCsMoJ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 29, 2017
In the News
• Looks like the Mahmoud Abbas and the PA made more concessions to hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners than any of the parties involved, including Israel. Emerging details reported by Ynet indicate that Abbas wanted the hunger strike resolved before Muslim holy month of Ramadan “out of fear of significant provocations and demonstrations.”
Ynet has learned that Abbas was pressured by various Palestinian officials to bring about a change in the situation, finally agreeing for the PA to finance the cost of one of the two visits per month prisoners are entitled to with their families.
The cost is estimated to be between $6-7 million per year and was previously financed by the Red Cross, which cut the program following budgetary constraints.
• Sinai Bedouin accuse Hamas of collaborating with Islamic State.
• Israel tested a rocket propulsion system but offered few details about its nature. Haaretz reports that the test was planned in advance.
• A 14-year-old Jewish boy who goes to school in Germany described to London’s Sunday Times the bullying he deals with after letting slip to Muslim classmates that he’s Jewish. According to the Times, about three-quarters of the kids enrolled in Berlin’s Friedenau Gemeinschaftsschule are from immigrant families.
Ferdinand, 14, who was born in London to a British mother and a German father, told The Sunday Times he feared for his life after being repeatedly kicked and punched by students of Middle Eastern and Turkish origin. One of them even threatened to shoot him with a mock gun he believed was real.
The case is under investigation by prosecutors and has added to soul-searching in Germany over the rise of anti-semitism in immigrant communities. It was cited in a damning report by a government advisory body that recommended the creation of an ombudsman to tackle the issue.
The parents have since transferred their son to another school. The European Jewish Press and New York Post also picked up on the Times’ story.
Less than a year before becoming Labour leader, Mr Corbyn visited the cemetery in Tunisia where members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation are buried, including Atef Bseiso, who was directly involved in the Munich attack, prompting outrage from Jewish groups.
Bseiso was assassinated in Paris in 1992. The PLO blamed the Mossad, though others have suggested Bseiso was killed by the Abu Nidal Group.
• North Miami Beach Jewish school evacuated after bomb threat.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Michael Oren: The war that made the Mideast
– Thane Rosenbaum: The Six Day War that lasted 50 years
– Bassam Tawil: Abbas immediately breaks promises to Trump
– Ronen Bergman: If Russia recognizes Jerusalem, why can’t other countries do so?
– Moshe Arens: What makes Arab leaders pragmatic?
– Annika Hernroth-Rothstein: Better safe ?
– Jonathan Spyer: Why eastern Syria is essential for containing Iran
• For a sense of what the critics are saying, see Tony Walker.
Featured image: CC BY-NC Marines; Gadot via YouTube/Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon;; Munich terrorist via Wikimedia Commons;
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