Did Qatar Expel Leading Hamas Figures?

Today’s Top Stories

*** Breaking news *** Just before this roundup was published, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli and Togolese guards exchanged blows during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s diplomatic visit to the West African country of Liberia. More below on the prime minister’s visit.

1. Qatar has reportedly expelled a number of Hamas leaders, presumably due to US leaning on the Gulf state, according to Israeli media which picked up on Arab reports.

It [Qatar] gave no details on where the outside pressure came from, but it comes just two weeks after US President Donald Trump met with Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia, calling on them to form a coalition against Islamist terrorism.

 

Israel’s Channel 10 TV on Saturday night quoted Palestinian officials saying the pressure on Qatar to expel Hamas operatives came from Saudi Arabia and the United States. The sources added that the list of names was “only the beginning” and that further expulsions would follow.

Report: Top Hamas operative Saleh Arouri left Qatar to Malaysia (following report that #Qatar asked #Hamas leaders to leave). pic.twitter.com/OhGJiInfjj

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) June 4, 2017

While Hamas denies the reports, this is no doubt related to Iran renewing financial support for Hamas. The Palestinians will eventually find their agenda co-opted by Tehran because sugar daddies come with strings attached:

The deal to restore Hamas’s financial support came after marathon meetings in Lebanon between officials from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hamas, and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group, the report said . . .

 

The Palestinian sources added that Iran views the new agreement with Hamas as an opportunity to build a strong Sunni alliance as it continues its fight against the Gulf states, the Palestinian Authority, and other regional foes.

2. The Iranian land-bridge to the Mediterranean Sea is becoming a reality. The Jerusalem Post notes the significance for Israel of recent developments along the Syria-Iraq border:

Iraqi militias which are close to the Iranian regime have been able to reach a strategically situated village on the Syria-Iraq border. For Israel, it means forces that are close to Tehran pose a risk of linking up through Syria. The Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), reached the village of Um Jaris on the border in northwestern Iraq on Monday. The PMU’s Badr Brigade militia, which spearheaded the dash over 40km. to the border, is close to the Iranian regime . . .

 

Kurdistan24, a Kurdish news channel, reports that the PMU “has previously said it is ready to move inside Syrian territories to continue the fight against [ISIS].”

 

That would be a security concern for Israel, because Hezbollah is present in Syria and uses Syria as a corridor for weapons transfers. Linking up with Shi’ite militias in Iraq that have been compared to Hezbollah and openly show posters of Ayatollah Khamenei, poses a challenge to Jerusalem and the region.

See also Amos Harel and Abdulrahman Al-Rashed on the significance of this land bridge.

3. Our friends the Turks: The Turkish embassy in Israel hosted banned Islamic Movement chief Sheikh Raed Salah at an iftar dinner, a traditional meal breaking the Ramadan fast. You’ll love Ambassador Kemal Okem’s explanation to the Jerusalem Post:

Okem said that he did not send out individual invitations, and that Salah came as part of a general invitation he sent to various Muslim communities in the country.

 

“It’s an Iftar dinner, like the Shabbat dinners you have, just a private, casual dinner with all different kinds of people, who come, eat their dinner and go – to mark Ramadan,” he said. “That was the whole message, Ramadan Kareem. Peace and well-being for the people, that was the message.”

Salah has previously been convicted of providing funds for Hamas, was aboard the Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza, was convicted of incitement, and created a legal mess in the UK, when — despite being banned from entering Britain for fostering hatred — he managed to pass through immigration at London’s Heathrow Airport.

4. Sign our petition demanding fairness and accountability from the Washington Post, which slammed Israel in a one-sided series of articles about the Six Day War’s anniversary.

5. BDS vs. Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman is a natural target for BDS, which cannot allow any Israeli success.

6. Jewish Conspiracy Behind US-Saudi Arms Deal? Columnists are entitled to their opinions. They’re not entitled to use true facts to proffer false conclusions.

Israel and the Palestinians

• Ahead of her upcoming visit to Israel, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley sparked buzz with a Washington Post op-ed denouncing the UN Human Rights Council. Haley is scheduled to address the UNHRC in Geneva before arriving in Israel. Backstory at the Daily Telegraph.

• A Gaza reporter who captured a Hamas execution on camera ‘is now hiding.’ According to the International Business Times, the video, which was partially streamed live on Facebook, was filmed not by Hamas but by the Gaza Now News Agency.

Mustafa Ayach, General Manager of Gaza Now news agency, confirmed to IBTimes UK that one of the agency reporters took the video and uploaded it to Facebook. He added the footage was then taken down and cannot be shown due to security concerns.
 

“The reporter who took the video is now hiding in Gaza as he fears he could be arrested by Hamas security forces,” claimed Ayach, who has been living in Austria since 2015.

 

“Correspondents in Gaza are under threat,” he continued. “We call on the international community to help us.”

 

Ayach has applied for asylum in Austria after fleeing Gaza due to alleged persecution by Hamas security forces, due to his reports.

• Make what you will of the tea leaves from PA official Jibril Rajoub’s latest comments he now denies making to Israeli media:

“We understand that the wall he [U.S. President Donald Trump] visited is sacred to the Jews and ultimately it has to remain under Jewish sovereignty,” Rajoub said on Channel 2’s “Meet the Press.”

 

“There is no argument over this. Obviously, it’s a holy place for Jews,” he added.

Rajoub went on to assert that Temple Mount, however, is Palestinian. More background at the Times of Israel.

• Netanyahu left for Western Africa, where he will address the Economic Community of West African States summit in Liberia. More at the Jerusalem Post.

Front page of local #Liberia newspaper. Respect for #Israel and @IsraeliPM @netanyahu. #IsraelinAfrica ?? ??!! pic.twitter.com/btjtSmGm3h

— Emmanuel Nahshon (@EmmanuelNahshon) June 4, 2017

• New York Times: Israel’s doomsday plan for the 1967 war was to detonate an atomic bomb atop a mountain in the Egyptian Sinai “intimidate Egypt and surrounding Arab states — Syria, Iraq and Jordan — into backing off.” But Deputy Minister and historian Michael Oren, who wrote his own notable book on the Six Day War, rejected the Times report saying the claim “doesn’t hold hold water” and is based on one single source.

• Despite emphatic campaign promises, Trump signed a presidential waiver delaying the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Take your pick of Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel or Haaretz coverage.

• The Trump administration is considering drawing up a “principles paper” to serve as a basis for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, reported Haaretz.

• The Palestinians have paid terrorists $1 billion in past 4 years, according to a Knesset briefing:

Kuperwasser also told the committee that PA claims that the payments to terrorists’ families are social welfare benefits to the needy are false. The Palestinians’ own budgetary documents, he said, “clearly state that these are salaries and not welfare payments.”

• Resisting boycott calls in order to have ‘voice heard,’ Ai Weiwei unveils Jerusalem exhibit

• Denmark’s foreign ministry is halting aid to Palestinian non-governmental organizations while it reviews the recipients’ activities in BDS and glorifying terrorists. Meanwhile, the Palestinian town of Burqa refuses to rename the women’s center at the heart of the controversy. The Dalal al-Mughrabi Women’s Community Center honors one of the terrorists involved in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre.

• Israel HaYom: Pacific island nation Vanuatu recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

• Hours before the film was due to debut, Lebanon banned “Wonder Woman,” though a sneak preview managed to go on as scheduled before the restriction kicked in.

Lebanon decision to ban #wonderwomanmovie due to #Israeli?? actress #GalGadot is sad #wonderwoman #WonderWomanDay
?https://t.co/tSWl9hUiGf pic.twitter.com/lQxLOU3rqa

— Yoav Adler ?? (@YoavAdler) June 4, 2017

• UN chief: Denial of Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitism.

• Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon was elected as one of 21 vice presidents of the UN General Assembly. Times of Israel coverage.

Around the World

• Good news: The European Parliament endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism.

• In an interview with Rolling Stone, Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke unloaded on Roger Waters and the anti-Israel Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS). Radiohead, a British alternative rock band, has been under steady pressure from BDS over a July concert in July.

The kind of dialogue that they want to engage in is one that’s black or white. I have a problem with that. It’s deeply distressing that they choose to, rather than engage with us personally, throw shit at us in public. It’s deeply disrespectful to assume that we’re either being misinformed or that we’re so retarded we can’t make these decisions ourselves. I thought it was patronizing in the extreme. It’s offensive and I just can’t understand why going to play a rock show or going to lecture at a university [is a problem to them].

• Tough few days for Jeremy Corbyn. In a newly resurfaced radio interview from 2010, the now UK Labour leader described described Hamas as ‘serious and hardworking’ and called for trade deal with Israel to be suspended. And per Guido Fawkes, on two occasions, Corbyn shared a platform with convicted PFLP terrorist Lela Khaled, who participated in two airline hijackings.

Last but not least, Corbynistas trolled a Jewish journalist, Emma Barnett with anti-Semitic tweets after she demolished Corbyn during an interview about the cost of a Labour plan to extend free childcare.

All that would explain what seems like an evergreen headline in the BBC this weekend:

Election 2017: Corbyn ‘failing to grasp anti-Semitism’

• Al Jazeera tweeted — then deleted — an anti-Semitic cartoon about climate change. Story and screengrab via the Washington Free Beacon.

Commentary/Analysis

• After the New York Times eliminated the public editor position — among other employee buyouts — outgoing public editor Liz Spayd filed her last column:

Having the role was a sign of institutional integrity, and losing it sends an ambiguous signal: Is the leadership growing weary of such advice or simply searching for a new model? We’ll find out soon enough.

Worth reading was Kelly McBride, while Andrew Seaman‘s tweet summed up my headspace:

https://twitter.com/andrewmseaman/status/869938227523801089

– Dr. Max Singer: The over-dramatization of Israel’s “dilemma”
– Bret Stephens: Six Days and 50 years of war
– Ben-Dror Yemini: Arab leaders did plan to eliminate Israel in Six-Day War
– Aaron David Miller: The myths about 1967 that just won’t die
– Daniel Pipes: 6 days and 50 years
– Asaf Romirowsky: Nakba: The source of Arab-Israeli conflict
– Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror: The 50-year unanswered question
– Yaakov Katz: How Charles de Gaulle fathered Israel’s tech revolution 50 years ago
– Sever Plocker: The prolonged birth pangs of a Palestinian state
– David Harris: 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War: Why history matters
– New York Daily News (staff-ed): 50 years and six days: How the Mideast has and has not changed

• Here’s what else I’m reading . . .

– Wall St. Journal (staff-ed): The Trump Jerusalem waiver (click via Twitter)
– Eli Lake: Trump left the door open for a Jerusalem embassy
– Prof. Eugene Kontorovich: What Trump not signing a Jerusalem embassy waiver would really mean
– Shlomo Avineri: ‘New dawn’ Trump is not the little ray of sunshine Israel needs
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinians: Israel’s goodwill gestures send wrong messages
– Amb. Daniel Shapiro: Trump’s international debacles spell trouble for Israel
– New York Post (staff-ed): Trump’s postponed promise on Israel

Featured image: CC BY-ND Jojo Bombardo; Haley via UN Photo/Mark Garten; Yorke via YouTube/Radiohead;

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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