Today’s Top Stories
1. The Daily Beast: Israel is prepared to intervene if ISIS threatens Jordan’s stability. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph looks into ISIS popularity in Jordan.
In Jordan, the actions of Isis in Iraq are inspiring radical factions of the country’s largely Sunni society, who sympathise with the group’s ambition to depose Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, and the Shia-dominated government.
“Isis is now being seen as a protector of Sunni identity,” said Hassan Abu Hanieh, an analyst of jihadist groups and childhood friend of the Salafist preacher Abu Qatada.
2. Egypt arrested 15 ISIS operatives “which had used tunnels to cross from Gaza into the Sinai Peninsula.” According to Israeli media reports:
Further interrogation of the cell by Egyptian forces revealed that the group’s intent was to relay messages and set up terrorist cells for the ISIS in Egypt, to fight the Egyptian government.
3. Over at Foreign Policy, Elliott Abrams and Uri Sadot note that West Bank’s latest facts on the ground indicate a real settlement slowdown:
A geographic analysis of the data, moreover, suggests that the seIsttlers have an additional reason to worry: under Netanyahu’s current government, construction outside the so-called major settlement blocs — the areas most likely to remain part of Israel in a final peace settlement — has steadily decreased.
4. More Hate From Eamonn McCann: Columnist continues his anti-Israel hate in the Belfast Telegraph, accusing the Jewish state of treating Palestinians abominably.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Three Israelis were injured when a Gaza rocket hit a Sderot factory. Three workers were injured; the building went up in flames. Jerusalem Post coverage. Israel responded with airstrikes on terror targets in Gaza.
• No surprises — it was just a matter of time till it became official that US envoy Martin Indyk resigned. He’ll return to his old position at the Brookings Institute. So is the next man up?
Indyk’s position will be filled on an interim basis by Deputy Special Envoy Frank Lowenstein, who will now serve as the Acting Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations. The temporary appointment has caused some in Washington to suspect that the permanent position may not be filled.
In 2011, Lowenstein left his job as John Kerry’s foreign policy adviser to join the Podesta Group, a lobby group, consulting and representing US corporations doing business around the world. He returned to Kerry, now the Secretary of State, in 2013.
• For Israeli kids, summer camp is a time for hiking, swimming, sports, crafts, etc. Contrast that with Gaza’s Hamas-run summer camps, featuring military training, obstacle courses, Nazi salutes, and indoctrination. MEMRI rounded up photos the camps proudly posted on Facebook.
• A group of California academics signed a letter protesting that $7,000 of public money financed a “Palestine solidarity trip.” Professor Rabab Abdulhadi of San Francisco State University met with Leila Khalid (a convicted PFLP hijacker) and Sheikh Raed Salah (leader of the Islamic Movement, the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood).
• Ex-Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Why We Must Support Israel:
We need to unequivocally condemn these kidnappers. Hamas, which continues to propagate the destruction of Israel and seeks no peaceful co-existence with the Jewish state, needs to be recognized for what it is: a terrorist organization that cannot play a legitimate political role as long as it continues to adhere to its violent campaign against Israel and commitment to its demise.
We need to support peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, but there can be no peace while young boys are kidnapped, and terrorists seek violence and destruction. This is not just Israel’s problem; it is in our national interest.
• A who’s who of Washington officials feted Shimon Peres with a farewell dinner. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius was on hand for what turned out to be a moving evening.
• Lengthy historical revisionism combined with a paywall is the death knell of most content. That’s why MacBeth’s soliloquy comes to mind while looking over Raja Shehadeh’s latest screed against Israel at the London Review of Books.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
• For more commentary/analysis, see, Bernard Avishai (kidnapping puts moderates in a terror trap) and Hilik Bar (Abbas didn’t kidnap the teenagers, he is offering us his hand).
Arab Spring Winter
• The Daily Telegraph looks into ISIS popularity in Jordan.
In Jordan, the actions of Isis in Iraq are inspiring radical factions of the country’s largely Sunni society, who sympathise with the group’s ambition to depose Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, and the Shia-dominated government.
“Isis is now being seen as a protector of Sunni identity,” said Hassan Abu Hanieh, an analyst of jihadist groups and childhood friend of the Salafist preacher Abu Qatada.
• Israel’s ex-national security advisor, Yaakov Amidror, called on Israel to bolster Jordan against the ISIS threat.
• See also Shimon Peres’ take on the Islamic threat in a Huffington Post interview.
Israel, he said, is no longer the most significant threat to the majority of Arabs in the Middle East.
“Until now, maybe Israel was the first problem in the eyes of many Arabs,” he said. “Today, they have to say it openly, the real problem for the Arabs and for us are not the mutual mistrust but really the problem of terror, which is a common danger to them and to us.”
• For more commentary/analysis of the ISIS situation, see Zvi Mazel (without allies, US finds itself in the same camp as Iran), Boaz Bismuth (Fear Iran, not ISIS), Trevor Royle (ISIS vs. Israel), and Amos Harel (could Israel be drawn into the ISIS crisis?).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Meet the Israelis behind Google doodles.
• Catherine Collins notes the death of David Stoliar, the only survivor of the 1942 Struma disaster.
The Struma was carrying nearly 800 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi-controlled Romania to Mandate-era Palestine. When the Struma’s engine failed, Turkey refused to repair it, leaving the refugees adrift in the Black Sea, where it was sunk by a Soviet submarine.
Images: Featured image CC BY-SA flickr/Garry Knight, Hamas camp via Facebook/Gazacamps2014
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