Today’s Top Stories
1. After weeks of politics, polls and pundits, Britons are casting their votes in today’s general election. Final surveys indicated an edge for incumbent Theresa May and her Conservative Party over Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party. However, the race tightened after terror attacks in London and Manchester. Other issues included Brexit, security and government spending.
Live-blogging the election day updates are the BBC, The Independent, The Guardian, and Daily Telegraph. Polls close at 10 p.m.
2. German mayor cancels BDS events due to anti-Semitism.
The events were canceled because of concerns that “a large number of the supporters of BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] hold antisemitic positions,” the municipality said in a statement sent to The Jerusalem Post.
“So long as it cannot be clarified that the BDS movement officially and publicly does not question Israel’s right to exist, such events cannot take place in city facilities,” Krogmann stressed.
3. Might the UN Security Council pass a resolution calling for a withdrawal of Hezbollah forces in Southern Lebanon? Could the mandate of UNIFIL peace monitors there be strengthened in advance of a possible Israel-Lebanon conflict? That’s what US Ambassador Nikki Haley and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The unanimously passed Security Council resolution 1701 which ended the 2006 war in Lebanon specifically declared that Southern Lebanon (specifically, between the Litani River and Israeli border) be an “area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon.”
“If there is another conflict and we will have to hit missile launchers that are placed in private homes, it will be difficult for the Security Council to condemn us if the matter is brought to the Security Council now,” the official said. “We want to bring to the world’s attention, now, that Hezbollah is arming and using schools and hospitals to place launchers so that if there are victims in the future the world does not come to us with complaints.”
Israel and the Palestinians
• Fascinating scoop by Haaretz, which obtained documents detailing how the Obama administration sought to bridge Israeli-Palestinian gaps to advance peace efforts, the eyebrow-raising language on borders that Netanyahu was willing to accept, and how everything fell apart. It certainly pokes holes in the idea that Israel and its leaders aren’t interested in peace:
But Abbas didn’t accept Obama’s framework document. He didn’t reject it, though – he simply didn’t respond . . .
Other American officials, as well as Israeli ones, see this episode as proof of Abbas’ inability to deliver a final peace agreement, mostly as a result of his internal political troubles.
• Both AP and Reuters look at the impact of the Qatari crisis on Hamas. A lot of people argue, with validity, that when Hamas is cornered, it launches rockets at Israel to draw it into war. But one analyst’s observation to Reuters is worth pondering:
Equally, he said, Hamas is unlikely openly to kick up a fuss so as not to compound the pressure Qatar is under.
“Hamas feels it owes Qatar gratitude because of its political and financial support all these years,” he said.
• Arab Israeli brothers charged in Hamas plot to murder Israeli military officer.
• PA President Mahmoud Abbas will put aside settlement halt for peace talks, aide says. Let’s wait and see.
• Palestinian Media Watch: Jibril Rajoub lies to Palestinians: “I did not mention the word sovereignty” re. the Western Wall
• Proof that activists need their morning coffee too. Don’t you hate it when this happens?
• Hamas bomb expert who survived three Israeli assassination attempts killed in Gaza blast.
• Israel is stepping up its efforts with Egypt against Islamic State in the Sinai as the jihadis wage ‘war’ for control of the Egyptian border. Here’s a by the numbers look based on IDF figures shared with the Washington Free Beacon:
1,000-2,000: “active members of ISIS” operating in the Sinai region
5-7: terror attacks per week
10: weekly casualties from ISIS attacks
Commentary/Analysis
• Veteran journalist Matti Friedman weighs in on what the AP’s collaboration with Nazi Germany should teach us about reporting the news. It all boils down to a galling lack of media transparency and more recent examples of editorial compromises made for the sake of access in places like Gaza and North Korea.
Western news organizations that maintain a presence in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example, make compromises in return for access and almost never tell readers what those compromises are. The result, in many cases, is something worse than no coverage—it’s something that looks like coverage, but is actually misinformation, giving people the illusion that they know what’s going on instead of telling them outright that they’re getting information shaped by regimes trying to mislead them.
Friedman’s observations bring to mind CNN executive Eason Jordan’s extraordinary mea culpa about the dangerous trade-offs the network made in Iraq with Sadddam Hussein — written only after dictator’s downfall, of course.
• The Six-Day War commentaries continue . . .
– Ronen Bergman: How the KGB started the war that changed the Mideast
– Stephen Daisley: When will the Six-Day War finally end?
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Avi Issacharoff: Will the Saudi-Qatar clash push Hamas into a dangerous corner?
– MK Ksenia Svetlova: Looking for a new equation in Gaza
– Prof. William Jacobson: Justice for Rasmea
– Prof. Alex Mintz: Why is Nasrallah threatening Israel again?
– David Pollock: Palestinians not as hostile to Trump’s posture as Americans assume
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinian crocodile tears and terrorism
Featured image: CC BY Eric Chan; May and Corbyn via YouTube/Channel 4 News; UK flag CC0 Pixabay; Fajr-5 CC BY-SA Linthias12; Sinai via YouTube/Rick UK;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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