Today’s Top Stories
1. Egypt is taking a new carrot and stick approach with Hamas. First the stick: According to a Hebrew-language report on nrg picked up by The Algemeiner, Egypt is demanding that Hamas distance itself from Iran. Cairo’s leverage? A threat to close the Rafah border crossing:
Egypt, nrg said, has been angered by talk that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh might soon lead a delegation on a visit to Iran. According to the report, Sinwar was told that rapprochement between Hamas and Iran could prompt Egypt to nix plans to expand the hours of operation of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza and loosen travel restrictions.
The Egyptians, according to nrg, issued a clear directive to Hamas to not express support for Qatar amid the ongoing tensions between the Gulf emirate and a group of its regional neighbors — including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others. Qatar’s backing of Hamas is one of the points of contention behind the dispute.
As for the carrots, the Jerusalem Post reports that Egypt is offering to provide Gaza with electricity additional humanitarian aid, and an easing of restrictions at the Rafah crossing if Hamas accepts a list of Cairo’s security demands that may be tough for Hamas to swallow:
Among Egypt’s demands, according to Ashraq Al-Awsat, was a request to extradite 17 wanted terrorists to Egypt, a demand that Gaza crack down on security along the border between Sinai and the Strip as well as a demand that Hamas discontinue weapons smuggling to Sinai.
Yesterday, Israel decided to cut electricity to Gaza by 40 percent, acceding to a request by the Palestinian Authority. The PA and Hamas are at loggerheads over who is responsible for paying for the electricity. The Egyptian offer takes the edge off complaints that Israel’s cut-back would be “catastrophic.” It’s not yet clear when the power reduction would begin.
More on the story at the Times of Israel.
2. The Prime Minister’s Office is considering shutting down Al Jazeera’s office in Israel, following in the footsteps of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. But Ynet reports the move isn’t as simple as it sounds.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, was quoted in the Jerusalem Post saying the network would petition the High Court of Justice if necessary.
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3. It was inevitable that the Gulf states would dogpile on Hamas after pulling out the knives on its patron Qatar. But if the Red Crescent and United Arab Emirates knew Hamas had launched rockets from hospitals during the 2014 Gaza conflict, why wait three years to say so? The UAE-based The National writes:
Emirates Red Crescent staff came under attack from Israel in response to Hamas fire from a Gaza hospital where they were working, the charity’s secretary general said at the Crown Prince’s Majlis on Monday night.
Mohammed Al Falahi said his organisation felt sacrificed after Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, fired on Israelis from the field hospital bringing retaliation from the Israelis . . .
“This shows their [Hamas’s] wicked intentions and how they sacrificed us,” Mr Al Falahi said. “They always claim that the enemy targets humanitarian envoys but the betrayal came from them.
4. On the i24 News program The Spin Room with Ami Kaufman: Deputy Minister of Defense, Eli Ben Dahan discussed a variety of hot issues, followed by analysis with HonestReporting’s Daniel Pomerantz and journalist Tami Molad-Hayo.
THE SPIN ROOM | With Ami Kaufman | Guest… by i24news-en
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel doing little to promote its own bid for a UN Security Council seat, the Jerusalem Post reports.
• CNN takes a closer look at what the Qatar crisis means for Hamas.
• Hamas jailed a Palestinian who posted a video on YouTube criticizing the terror group. Mohammed al-Taluli, 25, accused Hamas of “pushing the youths to death” by encouraging teens to demonstrate near the Israel-Gaza border, reports the Times of Israel.
In recent days, two Palestinians were killed in clashes after throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers.
#Gaza youth activist Mohammed al-Taluli has reportedly been arrested again by #Hamas after he criticised the militant group on Youtube pic.twitter.com/2OAuJfiYbn
— Sophie McNeill (@Sophiemcneill) June 12, 2017
Commentary/Analysis
• Still parsing the Six-Day War legacy . . .
– Prof. Efraim Inbar: The Six-Day War: Israel’s costs vs. its benefits
– Zvi Bar’el: Israel’s 1967 victory perplexes Arab intellectuals to this day
– Alex Ryvchin: Still little chance for harmony in a region of perpetual conflict
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror: Gaza power crisis: Striking the right balance
– Amos Harel: Reducing power to Gaza, Israel bets on Abbas and hopes to avoid war
– Dore Gold: Dismantling UNRWA a prerequisite for peace
– Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander Joffe: World must wake up to UNRWA’s failures
– Bassam Tawil: How to send the wrong message to Palestinians
– Nicholas Rostow: How the Balfour Declaration became part of international law
– Alan Dershowitz: Why won’t Abbas accept “two states for two peoples”?
– Prof. Daniel Friedmann: The only solution to the ‘right of return’
– Prof. Judea Pearl: Debating the morality of the BDS cult
– Rachel Avraham: Why Israel should recognize an independent Kurdistan
– Guy Milliere: Islamic anti-Semitism, French silence
– Marc Goldberg: The irrelevance of anti-Semitism
Featured image: CC0 Pexels; lightbulb CC BY-NC-ND picturoma;
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