Today’s Top Stories
1. Is Israel developing a buffer zone in Syria by secretly supplying rebels near the border with food, medical assistance and money? That’s what the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) reports. It’s remarkable that Syrian rebels now speak on the record about their relationship with Israel.
The Israeli army is in regular communication with rebel groups and its assistance includes undisclosed payments to commanders that help pay salaries of fighters and buy ammunition and weapons, according to interviews with about half a dozen Syrian fighters. Israel has established a military unit that oversees the support in Syria—a country that it has been in a state of war with for decades—and set aside a specific budget for the aid, said one person familiar with the Israeli operation . . .
“Israel stood by our side in a heroic way,” said Moatasem al-Golani, spokesman for the rebel group Fursan al-Joulan, or Knights of the Golan. “We wouldn’t have survived without Israel’s assistance.”
Israel’s aim is to keep Iran-backed fighters allied to the Syrian regime, such as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, away from the 45-mile stretch of border on the divided Golan Heights, the three people said.
2. Israel began reducing electricity to Gaza, in response to a request from the Palestinian Authority.
3. Escalating the Syrian civil war, Iran fired missiles at Islamic State positions in eastern Syria. The Iranians said the missile strike was retaliation for a pair of terror attacks in Tehran earlier this month, which Islamic State claimed responsibility for. It also came on the heels of the US downing a Syrian war plane “after it dropped bombs near local ground forces supported by the United States.”
See Ron Ben-Yishai and Amos Harel, who comment on the message Tehran’s missile launch sends Israel and the US.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. Lost Between the Headlines: Honoring Hadas Malka: Why does the news industry deny Israeli victims of terror the focus of headlines?
5. Video: Media, Murder and Israel: When terrorism occurs in other parts of the world, headlines emphasize the victims. But when terror occurs in Israel, headlines instead accentuate the dead terrorist.
Israel and the Palestinians
• According to Israeli media reports, the government ordered what was described as a “de facto construction freeze” of 6,000 housing units in Jerusalem’s disputed neighborhoods of Har Homa, Gilo and Pisgat Zeev.
It may be related to US peace moves. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will reportedly join presidential envoy Jason Greenblatt, who is expected to arrive in the Mideast in the coming days. Greenblatt will be meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials to push forward peace efforts. More on the story at the Times of Israel and Reuters.
Kushner visit more evidence that Trump’s serious on Is-Pal peace. Dares both sides 2 say no to his family. He has leverage if he moves fast.
— Dan Shapiro (@DanielBShapiro) June 19, 2017
• The conflicting claims of responsibility for Friday’s terror attack got more muddled with the parents of one of the terrorists saying their son was a member of Fatah.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in which Border Policewoman Hadas Malka was killed and four other people wounded. Hamas claimed the attack was carried out jointly with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. According to Israel, the three Palestinians were all unaffiliated.
• Police arrested six Palestinians suspected of throwing firebombs at Jewish homes. According to the Jerusalem Post, five of the six are minors.
• Reuters: Weeks after the US blocked the appointment of ex-Palestinian prime minister Salaam Fayyad as the UN’s envoy to Libya, Secretary General Antonio Guterres will instead tap a former Lebanese cabinet minister for the post.
Around the World
• Worth watching: PBS News Hour takes an in-depth at look at Hezbollah.
• In London, about 1,000 marchers — some waving Hezbollah flags — demonstrated against Israel. Judging from the Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News, one especially noteworthy moment of idiocy was when demonstrators blamed “Zionists” for the Glenfell tower tragedy.
London today. Hezbollah flags. ‘Khaibar Yahud’ anti-Jew slogans. Hamas supporters. Why is this allowed? pic.twitter.com/iB5LDCUprJ
— Ed Husain (@Ed_Husain) June 18, 2017
• Tensions are rising between Chile’s Jewish and Palestinian communities. Jews fear the Mideast conflict is being imported to the South American country, reports the Jerusalem Post.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Ben-Dror Yemini: Being right about Gaza power supply is not enough
– Col. Richard Kemp: How to fight Islamic terror effectively — learn from Israel
– Bjorn Brenner: Is Europe more desperate for a Palestinian state than the Palestinians?
– David Ibsen: Qatar enables Hamas’s Gaza oppression
– Tony Duheaume: Hezbollah’s Mahdi Scouts and their road to martyrdom
Featured image: CC0 jarmoluk; Golan CC BY-NC Israel Defense Forces;
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