Today’s Top Stories
*** BREAKING NEWS *** Shortly after this roundup was published, the IDF shot down an aerial drone that infiltrated Israel from Syria. Developing . . .
With wide support from independent and opposition parties, bill is widely expected to pass despite opposition from the government itself. The Attorney General says the bill violates European Union trade regulations while the Foreign Ministry prefers what it calls a common EU response to settlement activity.
The bill will also be a source of friction for Irish companies doing business in the US, where Congress has already passed anti-boycott legislation. Orde Kittrie explains:
If enacted, it could force U.S. firms with Irish divisions or subsidiaries to make a costly choice between violating either Irish law or U.S. law. If the companies refuse to join in Ireland’s boycott of such products, they could violate the new Irish law. But if they abide by the Irish law, they could violate U.S. law, which prohibits U.S. companies from participating in foreign boycotts that the United States government does not endorse.
Following the bill’s presumed passage, the legislation will then move to the lower house (the Dail) for debate and vote.
More on the story at the Times of Israel and Irish Times. Tweet of the day goes to Alex Ryvchin.
Anti-Israel activists argued that labelling goods from Israeli settlements was about “consumer choice”. Now Irish steps to criminalise such goods, and remove all consumer freedom to purchase them, makes clear that this was just the latest attempt to boycott the Jewish state.
— Alex Ryvchin (@AlexRyvchin) July 11, 2018
2. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed for Moscow today for his third meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin in six months. They’ll discuss — what else? — the latest developments in Syria and Iran’s entrenchment there. Haaretz reports this:
Foreign diplomats informed of the details of discussions between Israel and Moscow say that Israel has agreed not to disrupt the Assad regime’s retaking of control on Israel’s northern border and not to assist the rebels except for humanitarian aid, in exchange for keeping Iranian troops and Shi’ite militias away from the border and maintaining room to maneuver against any increase in their strength in Syria.
Indeed, Syria widened its assault on rebels in areas near the Golan Heights.
3. The JTA takes a deep dive look at the wave of progressive American Democrats who criticize Israel, and the bind it puts on the party’s supporters of the Jewish state. What does the rise of candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Leslie Cockburn mean?
“There’s a lot of evidence that defining liberalism through an intersectional lens has had the effect of casting Israel as an ‘oppressor’ and thus a nation worthy of condemnation even as its actual policies on issues associated with intersectionality are infinitely better than those of its neighbors,” KC Johnson, a history professor at Brooklyn College, former Fulbright instructor at Tel Aviv University and regular Washington Post contributor, told JTA in an email interview . . .
“Liberal Zionists,” Johnson warns, “will need to more effectively communicate how Israel’s policies on women’s issues, LGBT rights and civil rights are consistent with a Democratic Party increasingly oriented around identity politics.”
4. Israel Hate Journalist Tweets Old (Fake) News: Reporter Kitty Holland once tweeted that she won’t interact with Zionists. So it’s not a surprise that she’s spreading more anti-Israel poison on Twitter, this time an old and fake “news report” from a fringe website.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Israeli Navy intercepted a Palestinian boat trying to break the Gaza blockade yesterday. Eight Palestinians aboard were arrested and the boat was towed to Ashdod. Some of the Palestinians were said to have been injured in recent clashes and seeking medical attention abroad. However, the Times of Israel reports:
The vessel’s purported destination was Cyprus, however the boat lacked the equipment necessary to safely reach the island nation, making it more likely that this was a symbolic act of protest.
• Mufti of Jerusalem issues religious decree prohibiting Palestinians from selling property to Jews.
The fatwa, according to Palestinian sources, came in response to an Israeli bill allowing Jews to purchase land in Area C of the West Bank. The bill, put forward by MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi), aims to change a 1953 Jordanian law that prevents foreigners and non-Arabs from directly purchasing land in the West Bank.
• Israel’s Labor Party quit the Socialist International after the umbrella organization of socialist parties and organizations adopted a resolution joining the Boycott Divest and Sanction Israel campaign.
I haven’t seen any response from Israel’s Meretz party, which is also a member of the Socialist International.
• The White House tapped former Obama Mideast peace envoy David Hale for a top post in State Department post. A career diplomat, Hale currently serves as US ambassador to Pakistan. President Donald Trump’s peace plan is yet to be released and it’s not clear what role, if any, Hale might have getting Israeli-Palestinian talks back on track. More at the Times of Israel.
Window Into Israel
Police are investigating whether the PM had an understanding with Elovitch, Bezeq’s majority shareholder, in which Netanyahu gave the telecom giant regulatory benefits in exchange for favorable coverage on the Elovitch-owned Walla! News site.
During his interrogation, which reportedly lasted even longer, Elovitch said he had called Walla’s CEO Ilan Yeshua to change the content of news articles, adding, according to Channel 10 news: “I couldn’t ignore the pleas of [the prime minister’s wife] Sara Netanyahu and the rest of the Netanyahu family. I didn’t want to anger the prime minister. He was my regulator.
“What did you expect? That I would ignore those requests?” Elovitch reportedly told his interrogators. “But I never expected any favors in return. I didn’t talk to Netanyahu about regulatory benefits and there was no bribery deal.”
Netanyahu, who was also grilled by investigators yesterday, said he and his family didn’t get favorable coverage from Walla.
Known as the 1927 Jericho Earthquake, the 6.25 magnitude quake lasted approximately five seconds and rippled from its epicenter in the northern Dead Sea region to Jerusalem, Jericho and Nablus, reaching Ramle, Lod and Tiberias – claiming 500 lives and injuring an additional 700 people. It also caused massive structural damage throughout the region.
This was also the last time an earthquake caused significant damage to Jerusalem. Over 130 people were killed and some 450 were injured.
• For commentary on the domestic scene, Ori Chudy criticizes Israel’s earthquake preparedness as “inadequate.”
Around the World
• In New Zealand, National Party leader, Simon Bridges acknowledged that New Zealand “got it wrong” by co-sponsoring UN Security Council resolution 2334, which denounced Israeli settlements. The resolution was passed in December, 2016, during the waning days of the Obama administration, when the US abstained from the vote rather than veto it.
• Alumni group knocks Columbia U. for ‘disappointing’ response to professor who blamed Israel for “every dirty act in the world.”
• French Jewish family told to remove mezuzah outside apartment.
• Caught between jihadists and neo-Nazis, Swedish Jews fear for their future.
Commentary
• Looks like The Australian‘s staff-ed shares HonestReporting’s sentiments towards Nabil Shaath and his response to Australia’s decision to cut aid to the PA.
In expressing himself as he did, Mr Shaath revealed how out of touch the Palestinian leadership has become in relation to terrorism against Israel and its citizens. It defies reason that Mr Shaath can seriously believe that any self-respecting country should go on providing aid to the Palestinian Authority amid suspicions that it may find its way into supporting those carrying out acts of terrorism. That is the purpose of the “Martyrs’ Fund” and Ms Bishop has taken the right action.
Nothing sums up the arrogant Palestinian sense of entitlement more than Nabil Shaath saying Australia is "worthy of being spat on" for sending aid through accountable NGOs rather than the corrupt PA that pays terrorist salaries. #Chutzpah. https://t.co/DgxyZZHYWH
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 10, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser: Economics won’t help. The Palestinians will continue with terror attacks
– Avi Issacharoff: Closing Gaza border crossing shows Israel has no clear vision for the Strip
– Alex Fishman: The games at play in Syria
– David Wainer, Jonathan Ferziger, Donna Abu-Nasr: Israel’s support for Sunnis in Syria was not a failed investment
– Dominic Green: Trump’s Mideast ‘deal of the century’ turns out to be a big fat nothing burger
– Keith Kahn-Harris: Without trust, Labour’s new antisemitism code is bound to fail
– Kenneth Waltzer: From ‘intersectionality’ to the exclusion of Jewish students: BDS makes a worrying turn on US campuses
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Alex Moreno Fuster; Dublin CC BY-NC ladyb; Democratic donkey CC BY DonkeyHotey; earthquake via Wikimedia Commons; Columbia CC BY-NC-ND Wally Gobetz;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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