Today’s Top Stories
1. According to Israeli media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said “yes” to regional peace talks under the framework of the 2002 Saudi peace initiative. Meanwhile, Friday’s Paris peace parley ended with a call for another conference by the end of the year. The Palestinians are unhappy because all they got was a lousy communique — and a “non-binding” one at that.
See below for more commentary and analysis.
2. High level commanders from Hamas and Islamic State in the Sinai reportedly met to discuss cooperation, according to Israeli media reports:
According to Channel 2, al-Menii’s branch of IS in Sinai were to help Hamas operatives smuggle arms into the strip via tunnels in return for sophisticated weapons.
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3. The US State Department’s annual report on terror labeled Iran as “the leading state sponsor of terror.” See AP coverage or Foggy Bottom’s full report.
4. Jerusalem: The Media Myth of Two Cities: The history of Jerusalem didn’t start in 1967.
5. HonestReporting’s Spring 2016 mission continued. Participants visited the Erez border crossing with Gaza for a briefing with IDF officials responsible for humanitarian aid. Afterwards, the group visited Israelis in Sderot and Kibbutz Alumim to learn about life under Palestinian rocket fire.
Kids at Kibbutz Alumim perform play to help cope with fear of Code Red siren for Hamas rockets #hrmission2016 pic.twitter.com/ER7IeqVGKQ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 5, 2016
Israel and the Palestinians
• Memo to USA Today reporter Gregg Zoroya: Israel didn’t “shun” the Paris peace conference because — like the PA — it wasn’t invited.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shunned the conference, saying that only direct negotiations could bring about a resolution to the conflict with Palestinians.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also did not attend, saying there was no point without ground rules and a timeline for a deal.
• Jordanian meddling in the issue of Mahmoud Abbas’s successor has Ramallah fuming.
• I see Israel’s cooperating with providing information to the International Criminal Court after all about the 2014 Gaza war after all . . .
• PA security forces prevented a mob from torching Joseph’s Tomb on Saturday. They were reacting to rumors (denied by the PA) that a 20-year-old Palestinian wounded by Israeli soldiers during a clash succumbed to his injuries.
• Out-of-order electricity lines between Egypt and Gaza caused extensive power outages in the Strip, which is already short of juice on good days.
• YNet picked up on Impact-se‘s study of incitement and hatred in PA school curriculum.
When asked about the results of the organization’s findings, Sheff didn’t have good news.
“The word ‘peace’ isn’t mentioned at all in the education system,” he said.
Did you find any signs of hate or incitement?
“There is no direct call to go out and kill Israelis or Jews. However, there’s a narrative of constant struggle, constant war, Jihad, of sacrificing ones life. This is very dangerous. What we’re seeing is that Palestinian children are being educated and told that political violence is completely legitimate on the one hand, and that Israel doesn’t exist on the other. Israel only exists as an enemy, but doesn’t exist in reality.”
• Palestinians elect new president (on a reality TV show)
• Imagine the outrage if Israel did this:
Three Palestinians, including a minor, die of torture in Syrian prison. So far, 498 Palestinians have died in Syrian prisons in recent years
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) June 4, 2016
Around the World
• Google removes anti-Semitic app used to target Jews online
• Israel’s next growth driver: Immigrants from France?
• Because of viciously anti-Semitic talkbacks, a French weekly magazine was forced to disable comments on an article about ‘The Jews,’ a movie about anti-Semitic stereotypes. The JTA explains:
Fifteen minutes after the article about “The Jews” was published Monday on the website of the weekly Marianne, “a flood of hysterical comments” appeared under the text, the author of the article, Martine Gozlan, wrote in an Op-Ed about the decision to shut down the comments.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend . . .
– Herb Keinon: Israel can sigh relief at parve Paris communique
– Jonathan Tobin: Israei’s foes will always have Paris
– Aaron David Miller: Why US diplomacy can’t fix the Middle East
– Grant Rumley: The Palestinian pathway to Paris
– Judith Bergman: BDS: Terrorism by other means
– Norman Bailey: Israel and the US: The end of the affair
– Charles Krauthammer: Lovable Bernie whacks Israel
– Rod Liddle: Way to go, Jeremy Corbyn – root out those Jew-haters!
– Angela Epstein: Would Labour’s anti-Semtites so freely spout bigotry if they feared the Jews?
– Dvora Waysman: When a divided Jerusalem became whole
Featured image: Michal Fattal/Flash90;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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