Today’s Top Stories
1. Suicide bombers struck Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. Last I saw, reports said 41 killed and 239 injured. Nobody has claimed responsibility, but Turkish officials believe Islamic State was behind the terror attack.
All the Israelis in the airport are accounted for and safe, and Israeli eyewitnesses described the carnage. And the Jerusalem Post talked to Turkey’s chief rabbi to gauge the Jewish community’s mood. Haaretz identified one of the dead as Nisreen Melhem, a 28-year-old Palestinian journalism student from the West Bank town of Arraba. Six other Palestinians were also injured.
Tweet of the day from Arash Karami:
https://twitter.com/thekarami/status/747916038428188672
2. Israel’s cabinet approved the accord re-normalizing ties with Turkey.
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3. The IDF’s scrapping it’s contentious and misunderstood Hannibal directive and coming up with a new procedure for responding to situations in which a soldier is captured. The New York Times writes:
Prof. Asa Kasher, a philosopher and one of the authors of the Israeli military’s ethics code, told Israel Radio, “For 20 years, I have been speaking against the way commanders mistakenly understand the Hannibal procedure, as if it allows them to kill the soldier.” He added, “If there are so many soldiers that understand the order that way, including high-ranking commanders, then it is right to cancel it, erase it, to throw it out and to write a new order that will be unequivocal.”
4. Al-Aqsa Mosque Confusion at the International Business Times: Nobody shut down the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israel and the Palestinians
• They’re not as deadly as regular bullets, but sponge-tipped bullets are still dangerous. In the unlikely event that West Bank clashes ever feature non-lethal rubber-tipped rocks, I’ll take the Palestinians whining to AFP about the IDF’s riot-control measures a little more seriously.
• Worth reading: Majd Al Waheidi’s Notes on a Gazan’s Visit to Israel.
• Canada chastises Palestinian president for accusing Israel of poisoning well water.
• Senior Hamas officials blast the re-normalization deal.
• The Jerusalem Post takes a closer look at the future of Israel-Turkey energy ties.
• Rekindling Israeli-Turkish defense industry ties will take time. The pre-Mavi Marmara level of trust won’t be restored right away, and Israeli businesses found other partners. That’s the consensus among experts who talked to Globes and Defense News.
• Israel will seek a seat on the UN Security Council for the 2018-2019 term. Ethiopia, Bolivia, Sweden, and Kazakhstan were elected to the council for the upcoming 2016-2017 term. The Jerusalem Post notes that “Israel is one of the 67 UN Member States that have never been members of the Security Council.”
• Turkish police arrested an Israeli-Arab trying to join up with Islamic State forces in Syria. Ibrahim Hassan Yussef Ighbariah, a 23-year-old resident of Umm al-Fahm, was sent back to Israel and is now in Shin Bet custody. Times of Israel coverage.
• UK agency fears for future of kosher slaughter following Brexit vote.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Eyal Zisser: The regional impact of normalization
– Burak Bekdil: Turkey and Israel: Happy together?
– Yaakov Amidror: An impossible demand
– Scott Peterson: Why Turkey’s Erdogan settled for less than he wanted from Israel
– Abraham Ben-Zvi: Turkey: Reading between the lines
– Jonathan Tobin: No peace with blood libels
– Barbara Kay: The indigenous tribes of Israel
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Ed Yourdon with modifications by HonestReporting; Al-Aqsa CC BY-SA glichfield; UN CC BY-NC-ND United Nations Photo;
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