Today’s Top Stories
1. Sara Netanyahu was indicted for fraud and breach of trust. She reportedly falsely billed the state nearly $100,000 for meals at the prime minister’s residence.
According to a draft of the indictment, Sara Netanyahu instructed staff at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem to order meals consumed at the residence worth a total of 360,000 shekels ($99,000) from gourmet restaurants between 2010 and 2013 in violation of rules barring the residence from ordering meals from the outside during periods when the residence had a cook on its staff.
Investigators in the case gathered evidence that purportedly shows that the prime minister’s wife ordered that the employment of cook at the residence be concealed and that she was aware that ordering meals from the outside for the residence when it employed a cook was a violation of the rules.
2. Hamas paid a Gaza family $2,200 to blame Israel for a baby’s death, according to an indictment Israeli prosecutors filed against a Palestinian related to the child. Mahmoud Omar, a 20-year-old cousin of Layla al-Ghandour, was caught trying to breach the Israel-Gaza border fence and spilled the beans under questioning. The baby’s death triggered furious headlines around the world blaming Israel.
Under interrogation in Israel, Omar, who is Layla al-Ghandour’s cousin, said Hamas leader Sinwar paid the baby’s family 8,000 shekels ($2,200) to accuse Israel of the death of the 8-month-old. The claim came despite the fact that members of the family had previously said that she died of a blood disorder, a condition that the baby’s six-month-old brother apparently also died of last year.
More at Ynet and the Times of Israel.
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3. In solidarity with BDS, the Spanish city of Pamplona declared Israeli officials persona non grata.
Israel and the Palestinians
• As Gaza tensions mount, IDF deployed additional Iron Dome batteries near Strip.
• Booby-trapped Gaza balloons land on trampoline forcing an Israeli mom to tell her kids they’re not toys. Then there’s a separate incident that led to a headline which once upon a time would’ve been bizarre rather than blasé.
• The Jerusalem Post takes a closer look at the possible intelligence fallout from the Gonen Segev affair. Segev, who was minister of energy some 20 years ago, was arrested for spying for Iran. Among other things, Segev is accused of introducing Israelis to agents who were passed off as Iranian businessmen.
In some cases, the best spies are sources who do not even realize they are being exploited.
Furthermore, while Segev can tell the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) everything he told Iran, even he does not know how far the Iranians went with other Israelis he introduced to them.
• The European Union declared that Hamas is violating international law by holding the body of IDF Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, Ynet reports. During the 2014 Gaza war, Goldin was killed and his body seized by Hamas. Hamas also holds the body of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, also killed during that conflict.
• Is an airstrike attributed to Israel on the Syria-Iraq border a signal that the world is getting ready to act against Iran?
• Netanyahu wants Ambassador Ron Dermer to serve another year in Washington, according to Israeli media reports.
Window into Israel
• The police investigation of “Case 2000” took a new twist. Israeli media reports that police now suspect that Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan was a go-between for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yediot Ahronot publish Arnon Mozes as they worked out an alleged quid pro quo in which Netanyahu would advance legislation handicapping Israel HaYom in exchange for more favorable coverage.
Milchan is already a key figure in a separate police investigation of the prime minister. In what is known as Case 1000, Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu are suspected of receiving thousands of shekels worth of illicit gifts from Milchan and other wealthy benefactors. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing in both cases.
• The Knesset amended a law “to allow Israeli employees to request not to work on Shabbat even if they are not religiously observant.” The JTA explains that “the Work and Rest Hours Law previously required employees of any religion to prove that they were religiously observant in order to take off work for their day of rest.”
• For commentary on the domestic scene, see Jacob Magid‘s take on a legal ruling regarding Shin Bet interrogation methods. Gershom Gorenberg‘s weighs in on legislation that would restrict the filming of Israeli soldiers.
Around the World
• I want to thank South Africa’s largest trade union, COSATU, for (unintentionally) drawing attention to the existence of Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries after Israel’s founding. The photo in this tweet was taken 1950, in one of Israel’s maabarot (transit camps).
World Refugee Day wouldn’t be complete without a nod to the 850,000 Jewish refugees forced to leave their homesfrom across North Africa, the Middle East and other areas of Asia.
Today we commemorate #WorldRefugeeDay
Palestinians are the largest and longest suffering group of refugees in the world says @BDSsouthafrica @UN @RTUKnews pic.twitter.com/PhOSyltcWG
— @COSATU Today (@_cosatu) June 20, 2018
• Britain’s Morning Star, a far-left communist paper aligned with Jeremy Corbyn, deleted an article that blamed ‘Israel’s crimes’ for rising antisemitism. Jewish activists are calling for a full apology. The Jewish Chronicle notes:
Euan Philipps, spokesman for LAAS, said the now-deleted article was “a typically ugly example of the antisemitism that has become normalised across the Labour movement”.
He added LAAS could find “no trace” of “John Elder”, who was listed as the article’s author.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Avi Issacharoff: Hamas’s goal: To convince Israel that tolerating fire kites is preferable to war
– Amos Harel: Hamas, Islamic Jihad just rewrote the rules — and the next Gaza war is staring Israel in the face
– Yoav Limor: Hamas is misreading the situation?
– Shlomi Kofman: Israel has no choice but to defend itself against Hamas attacks
– Eldad Beck: The dangerous weaponization of children
– Raphael Ahren: Israel may follow US in freezing out UN rights body, to some diplomats’ dismay
– Seth Frantzman: Is the UNHRC an ‘old boy’s club’ of dictators?
– New York Post (staff-ed): Leaving the UN Human Rights Council was the moral choice
– Tovah Lazaroff: Is the UN Human Rights Council fated to hate Israel?
– Israel Kasnett: Will Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights be Trump’s next move?
– Moshe Arens: It’s now clear why the Iran agreement was a bad deal
Featured image: CC BY Chris Yarzab; Netanyahus via YouTube/IsraeliPM;
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