Today’s Top Stories
1. FIFA opened disciplinary procedures against Palestinian soccer chief Jibril Rajoub. The Israeli Football Association filed a formal complaint over his conduct leading up to the Argentine soccer snub. FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, also rejected the PA’s proposal to amend its constitution with a stronger emphasis on human rights.
2. In a first, US Ambassador Nikki Haley proposes that the UN General Assembly condemn Hamas. The proposal comes in response to a vote to condemn Israel’s “excessive use of force” in handling the Gaza border clashes. That resolution submitted by Turkey and Algeria and due to be voted on later today — doesn’t even mention Hamas.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding and the US has no veto power, but the Jerusalem Post notes a degree of risk to Haley’s move:
A resulting vote that fails to condemn the militant organization might play into Hamas’ messaging at home, that the organization holds some legitimacy in the United Nations. Sources tell the Post they expect the vote to fail but for there to be a large number of abstentions.
3. After evacuating residents, Israel completed the razing of 15 unauthorized settlement houses in the Netiv Ha’Avot area of the Elazar settlement, near Jerusalem. Around 1,000 teens trying to block the demolition clashed with police. More color from the Jerusalem Post.
The homes are part of the larger outpost which is in the process of receiving authorization to become a legal neighborhood of the settlement.
But these homes, originally thought to be on state land, cannot be authorized and the High Court of Justice has ruled that they must be taken down. It did so in response to a petition from the Left-wing group Peace Now.
I couldn’t help but notice that the foreign press corps wasn’t interested in the story, sufficing with wire coverage from AP and Reuters. Is it because A) journalists and editors are fatigued by the Gaza protests, or B) this evacuation lacked the “if it bleeds it leads” drama of the heavily covered 2017 Amona evacuation?
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel is limiting the amount of helium into Gaza after terror balloons continue sparking fires. Meanwhile, the JTA takes the pulse of southern residents shaken by the kite fires.
“We try to be optimistic. It’s all about resilience,” Lachyani says. “We don’t complain. We don’t let them run our lives. You burn and we plant. Our morale is high. There is something about tragedy that connects you more to the people you live with.”
• Israel is hosting an international security conference and the agenda includes Israeli monitoring of social media to thwart Palestinian terror attacks. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told AP that using algorithms to keep tabs on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have helped Israel thwart more than 200 attacks.
Andrew Ferguson, a professor at the David A. Clark School of Law at the University of the District of Columbia, said Israel appears to be one of the world leaders in using big data for policing activity. He said some U.S. police departments have begun using similar techniques, albeit on a much smaller scale due to civil liberties concerns.
“You may be seeing the future in Israel,” said Ferguson, author of “The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement.”
“Israel is at the cutting edge of using this technology in ways that we haven’t seen in other countries, partly because other countries have been concerned about pushback from civil liberties groups,” he said.
Erdan said he is well aware of the need to strike a balance between freedom of expression and public safety. Judges must sign off on all arrests and be convinced that the suspects truly pose a threat to public safety.
• Israel has developed a supersonic missile and it’s impressive.
Dubbed “The Rampage” after a popular video-game, it is a supersonic, long range accurate air-to-ground assault missile with a warhead, rocket engine and advanced navigation suit which allows for precision targeting at a very low mission cost compared with existing solutions.
The missile can be fitted to the Israel Air Force’s F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets and is meant to be dropped outside areas protected by air-defense systems.
• The Shin Bet declared Monday’s stabbing in Afula a terror attack.
• There’s a lot of buzz about an in-depth New Yorker feature looking at Donald Trump’s plans for teaming up with Israel and the Gulf states against Iran, “and leave the Palestinians and the Obama years behind.” It’s a sexy read, but Adam Entous’ narrative style is loose on sourcing, so judge for yourself.
It includes new revelations about under the radar Israeli-UAE relations, as well as Israeli ties with Donald Trump during the election campaign and presidential transition, among other things.
• Buckingham Palace released new details of Prince William’s upcoming visit to Israel, Palestinian territories and Jordan. The Duke of Cambridge is due to arrive in Israel on June 25. His itinerary includes engagements in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Ramallah. Second in line to the throne, Prince William will be the first senior British royal to pay an official visit to Israel. Previous royal trips were classified as “private visits.”
In case you’re wondering, the Jerusalem Post learned that an employee from the British consulate in Jerusalem will brief the royal on the city’s history and geography to sidestep the delicate problems of having an Israeli or Palestinian do it.
• Yahya Staquf, the leader of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization is visiting Israel and facing a backlash at home for it. See also the Times of Israel, which caught up with Staquf on the sidelines of the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum in Jerusalem.
• Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan, is visiting Israel. Idan’s family was forced to flee Iraq when she posted on Instagram a photo of her new friend, Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman. Backstory at the Times of Israel.
Miss Iraq Sara Idan is currently visiting Israel & has reunited w/ Miss Israel, her old friend from the @MissUniverse pageant. Welcome to Israel!
Friendly relations between Israelis & Arabs will defeinitely help in ushering in a better tomorrow for all of us in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/mOLKNv4IiZ
— Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) June 12, 2018
Window into Israel
• The police department’s Fraud Investigation Unit questioned Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time on the Submarine affair. Several of the prime minister’s associates are under investigation for graft involving an NIS 2 billion purchase of submarines and ships from a German company. Netanyahu is not a suspect in that affair.
Also, armed with new evidence, the police plan another round of interrogation for Netanyahu over the separate Bezeq affair. Police are investigating whether the PM had an understanding with Bezeq’s majority shareholder, Shaul Elovitch in which Netanyahu gave the telecom giant regulatory benefits in exchange for favorable coverage on the Elovitch-owned Walla! News site.
• Floods inundate southern towns as freak rains hit Israel.
Around the World
• According to Israeli intelligence assessments, the US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal has already caused more economic damage to the Islamic Republic than expected, creating immense pressure on the Tehran regime. Haaretz writes:
According to Israeli intelligence, Iran had hoped to reap sizeable profits from deals with European and American companies during the coming period. However, now the Tehran regime faces abandonment by companies that already signed contracts, in addition to the negotiations with other companies, because of the American move. Thus, internal pressure on the regime, in the form of frequent demonstrations by the opposition in cities across the country, is also coming into play. Most of the demonstrations focus on the cost of living.
Meanwhile, Israeli leaders praised the US-North Korea summit, saying it increases pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program.
• Johannesburg’s mayor suspended a senior city councilwoman for declaring she was a friend of Israel.
According to a video of her speech, Mpho Phalatse, a council member in charge of health, said at a weekend pro-Israel event: “I would like to declare that I am a friend of Israel and the city of Johannesburg is a friend of Israel. Shalom.”
“We value you, we celebrate you, we appreciate you, feel at home…” she told participants at a conference held as part of a series of events organized by pro-Israel community and religious groups.
Mayor Herman Mashaba announced that he had decided “to suspend… Phalatse pending an investigation into the full and proper context in which those remarks were made.”
More on the story at the Mail & Guardian and Jewish reactions at The Citizen.
Joburg’s Councillor Mpho Phalaste: “I would like to declare that I am a friend of Israel, and the city of Johannesburg is a friend of Israel! Shalom shalom! #IStandWithIsrael #SAFI18 ???? pic.twitter.com/Dl9SWTDVmV
— Ido Daniel (@IdoDaniel) June 10, 2018
• Paris suburb removes ‘Nakba Lane’ street sign after complaints from Jewish groups and government officials.
• Ontario premier-elect says he will ban Toronto’s ‘anti-Semitic’ Quds Day rally. Doug Ford’s tweet came after one speaker at Saturday’s demonstration, Sheikh Shafiq Hudda, called for “the eradication of the unjust powers such as the American empire, such as the Israeli Zionists.”
Our government will take action to ensure that events like Al Quds Day, which calls for the killing of an entire civilian population in Israel, are no longer part of the landscape in Ontario.
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) June 10, 2018
• Kenya Airways asks permission to cross Sudanese skies to reach Israel. The flag carrier wants to launch a weekly Nairobi-Tel Aviv flight in 2019.
• Swastikas found daubed on Jewish monument to Holocaust victims in northeastern Holland.
• The Spanish city of Oviedo disinvited an Israeli orchestra and ballet group from an autumn cultural program. Related reading: BDS: The Bane in Spain
• Louis Farrakhan lost his Twitter verification after tweeting a video of a 90 minute rant, describing it as “Thoroughly and completely unmasking the Satanic Jew and the Synagogue of Satan.” The blue and white check mark badge is gone, but more worryingly, his hateful message is still online.
Commentary
• What they’re saying about the Trump-Kim summit . . .
– Ron Kampeas: Here’s what the Trump-Kim summit could mean for Israel and Iran
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: Are Israeli officials in dreamland over the North Korea talks?
– Herb Keinon: What do the North Korean talks mean for Iran?
– Amos Yadlin, Ari Heistein: The four scenarios facing Israel as the US withdraws from the Iran deal
– Zvi Bar’el: Trump-Kim summit: Iran’s Khamenei can’t smile just yet
– Con Coughlin: North Korea has shown willingness to change – unlike the increasingly hostile Iran
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Singapore summit won’t bring peace on earth, but it does prevent a war
– Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi: Tehran: Your time will come
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Gil Troy: The Palestinian ‘kiteifada’ deserves an ignoble prize
– Matan Barad: An IDF soldier’s description of experience in Gaza
– Yossi Kupperwasser, Tamara Elashvili: Lies no longer count as diplomacy
– Shalom Lipner: When fighting BDS helps BDS
– Noam Katz: Fighting BDS: Far from feeble
– William Galston: The fracturing of the Jewish people: Israel a red state, US Jews remain blue (click via Twitter)
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: No place for gays
– Pinhas Inbari: Is Tahrir Square coming to Ramallah?
– Yigal Walt, Tamer Nashef: Why do leftists love a Palestinian cause that rejects their values?
– Sue-Ann Levy: Toronto turns blind eye to illegal anti-Israel hatefest — again
– Dr. Shaul Shay: Why Israel should help solve Jordan’s economic problems
Featured image: CC BY flash.pro; UN CC BY-NC-ND United Nations Photo; Trump via YouTube/CNBC; Prince William via YouTube/AP Archive; atom CC0 Pixabay;
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