Today’s Top Stories
1. The US Supreme Court struck down a law ordering US passports to include the word “Israel” as place of birth for US citizens born in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post sums up the outcome of Zivotofsky vs. Kerry:
The 6-3 split ruling was also a victory for the administration of US President Barack Obama, which said the law unlawfully encroached on the president’s power to set foreign policy and would, if enforced, undermine the US government’s claim to be a neutral peacemaker in the Middle East.
You can read the court’s ruling — it’s 93 pages of pdf joy. (Disclosure: My kids were born in the never-occupied western side of Jerusalem and have US passports.)
2. The UN left Israel and Hamas off a list of entities violating children’s rights. The list includes groups like ISIS, Al Qaida, and the Taliban. According to Reuters:
U.N. special envoy for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, had included Israel’s army and Hamas in a draft of the report she had sent to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Ban had final say on the blacklist, which was distributed to Security Council members on Monday.
U.N. sources have said Ban’s decision to override Zerrougui’s recommendation was unusual. They also said Israel lobbied Ban hard to stay off the list, though it denied pressuring him.
3. Research estimates that Tehran managed to spend “between $14 and $15 billion in military and economic aid to the Damascus regime in 2012 and 2013” despite sanctions that left Iranian banks unable to access international banking transfer systems. Eli Lake explains why this matters:
Such figures undermine recent claims from Obama and his top officials suggesting that Iran spends a relative pittance to challenge U.S. interests and allies in the region. While the administration has never disclosed its own estimates on how much Iran spends to back Syria and other allies in the Middle East, Obama himself has played down the financial dimension of the regime’s support.
4. The Irish Times: Multiple Lies and Distortions in Three Parts: The Irish Times’s Michael Jansen publishes a three-part series of anti-Israel lies and distortions.
5. HR Radio: Benefits, Boycotts, and Bedouins: Is Israel forcing Bedouins off their land or is there more to the story? Is the CEO of Orange telecom really unaware of the movement to boycott Israel? HonestReporting’s Yarden Frankl discusses this and more with Voice of Israel. Click to listen.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The EU’s representative to the PA urged Israel not to demolish a Palestinian “village” of tents and shacks built illegally with EU support. Around 340 Palestinians live in Sussiya, near Hebron. The Jerusalem Post writes:
The EU, he said, has worked to support the village through educational initiatives and by providing temporary shelters. The EU symbol is on the sign to the village and on at least one of its structures. Last month, the nongovernmental group Regavim charged that the EU is helping Palestinians build hundreds of illegal structures in the West Bank, in an attempt to help shore up the Palestinian hold on Area C of the West Bank.
That would explain why the Daily Telegraph reports that envoys from all 28 EU-member states went to Sussiya to show solidarity with the Bedouins.
• Visiting Czech Foreign Minister attacked settlements, saying construction “reinforces the atmosphere of hate.”
• Greece officially starts using term “Palestine.”
The BDS Battle
• Diplomats: EU has Israel sanctions ready, and Uncle Sam may not be able to help
• Some 30 graduate students and Ph.D candidates at Tel Aviv University gathered to discuss BDS. You won’t believe what happened next.
• Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: BDS makes it “almost impossible” for European Jews to support Israel. Britain’s former chief rabbi explained why at a forum in Herzliya:
“Jews have been faced with a choice: live in Europe and criticize Israel or be silent, or leave Europe,” he said.
• If you’re looking for free publicity for your cause, get a whole bunch of people to sign your letter to the editor. If your cause is part of The Guardian’s left-wing groupthink, the editors will elevate your letter to an important news story. Works for BDS all the time.
Around the World
• The Bashar Assad regime’s morale is down, and visiting Iranians are furious. According to the Times of London, we’re edging towards an Alawite rump state.
Diplomatic sources in Damascus say they believe that the regime is moving towards accepting partition, retreating to and entrenching the strategically important areas that it can best defend — Latakia, the cities of Hama, Homs and Damascus, and the stretch of territory linking them all together.
“The reality of the facts on the ground appears to be setting in,” one source said. “The regime is turning its attentions to defending only those parts of the country that it can, and leave the rest for the rebels and Isis to fight it out.”
• The Saudis are reminding everyone they’re prepared to go nuclear if that’s what it takes to counter-balance Iran. Prince Mohammed bin Nawwaf bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to Britain, reiterated the message in a Daily Telegraph interview.
• Iranian commanders reportedly execute Syrian officers
• Al-Jazeera’s recent interview with Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammad Al-Golani still stirs controversy. Arabs are debating whether the interview was a legitimate scoop or an inappropriate platform for a terrorist.
“The whole principle of interviewing the leaders of terrorist organizations is a crime when considering the legal side of things, and is totally unacceptable according to international media standards and agreements, in addition to the fact that the [Arab League’s] Media Charter forbids incitement to violence [on television],” Abu Zeid said.
But others have praised the channel for airing the interview, and said it was important for the public to know and understand what organizations such the Al-Nusra Front actually want in order to successfully counter their ideology on a wider scale.
• 15 charged with planning jihadist attacks on French Jews
• Tourists and locals were shocked by a graphic display of anti-Israel images set up in Amsterdam‘s Dam Square featuring “disturbing images of the bodies of Palestinian children supposedly killed by IDF soldiers,” and more.
Commentary/Analysis
• Frida Ghitis came closes to capturing my head space on the Supreme Court’s Jerusalem passport ruling.
But U.S. policy should reflect the fact that the western side of the city is not in play, because the only people who reject Israeli sovereignty over the west are those who reject Israel’s right to exist. Why, then, does Washington not acknowledge that western Jerusalem, at the very least, is Israel’s capital?
• Legal beagles weighing in on ruling include Julian Ku of Opinio Juris, Jack Goldsmith of Lawfare, and Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog. See also Jonathan Tobin and Chemi Shalev.Staff-eds in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times gave the court a thumbs up.
• Analysts talking to the Jerusalem Post assess what the Turkish election results mean for Israel.
• I’m also reading today:
– Mitch Ginsburg: Israel favors “cumulative deterrence” in Gaza
– Richard Cohen: The ugly effort to boycott Israel
– Dror Eydar: The truth about international law and BDS
– Danny Rubinstein: Syria’s disintegration: the death of Arab nationalism?
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Jens Schott Knudsen with additions by HonestReporting; passport CC BY flickr/Tony Webster; Rabbi Sacks CC BY-NC flickr/UK in Holy See; Al Jazeera via YouTube/Mahabbah Cinta;
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