Today’s Top Stories
1. The American Anthropological Association’s membership voted down a resolution calling on the group to boycott Israeli academia. Inside Higher Ed reports that despite the loss, the AAA still plans to push through several other relatively toothless measures.
https://twitter.com/Tbard379/status/740090109446475776
2. The PA is back to peddling claims that the Palestinians were living in the Holy Land even before Abraham. Palestinian Media Watch rounds up a number of comments over the last few weeks.
PA leaders have made me roll my eyes over the years claiming Canaanite heritage and even pre-Canaanite descent (the Canaanites were occupiers too). Adopting pre-Abrahamic ancestry is also a theological stretch for PA claims that Jesus was a Palestinian, since that would mean Jesus was a Canaanite.
Here’s Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs and Supreme Shari’ah Judge, in his own words this past Friday.
3. Did the Saudis provide Israel with intelligence during wars in Lebanon and Gaza?
4. Fear and Loathing in the BBC and Bangladesh: As sectarian tensions rise, conspiracy theories and he-said-she-said journalism contribute to fear and Israel-loathing in Bangladesh.
[elementor-template id="323780"]Israel and the Palestinians
• Two cars fired on in West Bank near Ramallah this morning.
• The grandson of one of the original founders of Hamas is now a gay Christian who received asylum in the US. The Times of London picked up on a report by Vice News.
• If you’re into reading diplomatic tea leaves, the Jerusalem Post points out that US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and the European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini “barely mentioned” the French peace initiative in addresses they gave about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Federica Mogherini and Susan Rice
• In Sunday’s Israel Daily News Stream, I pointed out that USA Today coverage of the Paris peace conference didn’t mention that neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority were invited, giving the impression Israel was rudely blowing off the parley. The paper added this correction.
Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article failed to explain that Israel and the Palestinian authority were not invited to the session.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Barak Ravid: Netanyahu treads carefully around Russian bear
– Ted Gup: Anthropologists’ Israel boycott: Long on sanctimony, short on promise
– Suha Halifa: Why Netanyahu may have gotten it wrong on the Paris summit
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: The Fatah mess
– Alan Dershowitz: New York is right to counter-boycott anti-Israel boycotters
Featured image: CC BY-SA Tom Woodward with additions by HonestReporting; Mogherini CC BY-NC-ND European External Action Service; Rice CC BY-NC-ND IREX;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
