Today’s Top Stories
1. Hamas seeks a ‘Shalit Deal 2’ for the return of two missing Israeli civilians and the bodies of two IDF soldiers. YNet lays out what’s known besides Hamas’s overall goal of the release of hundreds of security prisoners:
It also demands an “entry fee” to even engage in negotiations in the form of the release of 50 security prisoners arrested during “Operation Brother’s Keeper,” conducted in the West Bank following the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Israeli teens.
Hamas’s demand for “entry fees” was first reported by Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat several months ago, and has now been confirmed for the first time by an Israeli official.
Jerusalem has rejected Hamas’s demand to release prisoners as a precondition to begin the negotiations.
2. Big media marked the 40th anniversary of Israel’s dramatic Entebbe rescue operation. The Washington Post was on hand when a group of hostages and commandos reunited. The New York Times focuses on a revealing interview of Prime Minister Netanyahu discussing the raid and his brother, Yoni, who commanded the mission. Tablet lists 10 things you might not have known about the rescue. And YNet ran a series of commanders’ testimonies about the operation’s various stages. See also the Uganda Daily Monitor.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Africa, touching down at Entebbe airport in Uganda just in time to mark the 40th anniversary of the rescue operation there. His trip will continue with stops in Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Israel’s Ambassador to Kenya discussed the significance of the Prime Minister’s visit with the Kenya Star.
40 years ago today in the greatest special forces raid since WW2 Israelis rescued 102 hostages at Entebbe, Uganda. pic.twitter.com/WD6MFeLBkR
— Rɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ Kᴇᴍᴘ ⋁ (@COLRICHARDKEMP) July 4, 2016
3. YNet: US citizens who were aboard the Mavi Marmara filed a lawsuit against Israeli ministers:
In the lawsuit filed to a federal court in Washington, a copy of which Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked received over the weekend, the four seek compensation in light of the “war crimes” Israel has committed both in stopping the flotilla, which was making its way to Gaza, and by imposing a military blockade on the Strip.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. Petition: PA Funding for Terrorism and Murder: Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, was murdered in her sleep. The killer’s mother called him a “hero,” and the PA will pay the terrorist’s family a perverted stipend. Watch our video and sign our letter demanding for the media to properly cover the PA’s stipends to terrorists and their families.
5. The Independent’s Israel Hate Tramples on Elie Wiesel’s Legacy: Columnist Rupert Cornwell twists Elie Wiesel’s legacy of peace and understanding into tool for attacking the world’s only Jewish state.
See below for more tributes to Wiesel.
6. HonestReporting is proud to have hosted the Elder of Ziyon #HasbyAwards yesterday on our rooftop in the heart of Jerusalem, honoring some of Israel’s greatest supporters who work tirelessly to defend Israel and share its real story. Congratulations to all the winners. See our photo album and check out the high-octane #hasbyawards tweets.
Mission Accomplished … #HasbyAwards are officially trending No.1! cc. @elderofziyon @HonestReporting pic.twitter.com/ad1kNm2BzM
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 3, 2016
Israel and the Palestinians
• Jerusalem advanced plans for 800 new homes on the politically incorrect side of the Green Line. We’re talking about 560 housing units in Maale Adumim, and 240 more in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Har Homa and Ramot. As well, 600 new units for Arabs in Jerusalem’s Beit Safafa neighborhood were also green-lighted.
Right-wing politicians are urging the government to annex Maale Adumim.
• Palestinians opposed to normalizing ties with Israel are trying to sink a shopping center being built near Ramallah by developer Rami Levy. The Palestinians are threatening to blacklist Palestinian businesses setting up shop with Levy.
• The Palestinian terrorists who attacked Tel Aviv’s Sarona pedestrian mall last month originally planned a mass-murder attack aboard a Tel Aviv-Haifa train. The two gunmen and a third person, were indicted in Tel Aviv this afternoon. The Shin Bet said they were inspired by Islamic State.
• Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi takes to the Times of Israel to explain the West Bank water crisis and background you probably didn’t know.
• The governor of Hebron was barred from entering Israel after he paid condolences to the family of Mohammed Trarayra — who was killed by Israeli security guards after killing 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her bedroom last week. Governor Kamal Ahmad Hassan insisted that his visit “was of a social and religious nature and had no political statement.”
• In exchange for significantly higher US military aid, Israel would have to forfeit the right to spend 26% of aid in Israel. Globes examines what’s behind the demand:
Senior sources, well-versed in Israel’s defense industries told “Globes” that this demand follows an Obama administration capitulation to the demands of large US defense company lobbyists to revoke this privilege. At the same time, the Democratic administration is also apprehensive about the Trump campaign to bring home jobs from abroad.
“This is not the first time US defense giants have acted against what they term a US ‘subsidizing’ of Israeli competition,” stated an Israeli source familiar with what he defines as a collision of the two allies’ pure economic interests. “US defense industries have always objected to the term enabling Israel to spend more than 25% of US aid on procurement in Israel.”
• Palestinian incitement hit the rubber chicken circuit. YNet describes the scene:
Families of Palestinian teenage terrorists who are imprisoned in Israel, were invited on Saturday to a special dinner in East Jerusalem during which the terrorists’ names were glorified.
Each family was given a commemorative plaque and a drinking mug featuring an image of its jailed relative. The event was attended by former Jerusalem Mufti Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, who is known for his extremist views.
https://twitter.com/McGMaryland/status/749781216505630720
• A Turkish ship carrying 11,000 tons of food, medical supplies, toys and other humanitarian aid for Gaza docked in Ashdod yesterday. The first trucks carrying the supplies arrived in Gaza this afternoon.
• The IDF struck two targets in Syria after Israel was hit by stray fire from across the border. Haaretz coverage.
Around the World
• Tributes to Elie Wiesel continued. Glenn Richter discussd how Wiesel inspired the movement to free Soviet Jewry, while the Los Angeles Times examined why Israelis took a look a long time to embrace Wiesel.
“Elie Wiesel’s mission to centralize Holocaust memory in Jewish identity didn’t find a place in the Israeli ethos,” Halevi said. “Over the years, Israelis began to understand the Holocaust in a much more nuanced way, and not just as a story of Jewish passivity, and began to see survivors generally and Wiesel in particular as heroes of the spirit.”
See more tributes by the Times of London, Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Salkin, Yoel Rappel, Reuven Hammer, Jonathan Tobin, Dan Margalit, and Menachem Rosensaft. Meanwhile, Palestinians are attacking Wiesel’s legacy over his support for Zionism. More on that at the Times of Israel and Harry’s Place.
Elie Wiesel went from a victim of war crimes to a supporter of those who commit them. He did more harm than good and should not be honored.
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) July 2, 2016
• The EU classifies Hamas as a terrorist entity, so why is Germany harboring 300 Hamas figures and another 950 from Hezbollah? The Jerusalem Post got a look at a German intelligence report.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Amb. Danny Danon: Applause can kill
– Raphael Ahren: New Security Council slightly better for Israel, but no game changer
– New York Post: Time for Uncle Sam to stop funding Palestinian terror
– Moshe Arens: Realigning Israel’s foreign policy
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: What does the future of terrorists on Twitter, Facebook look like?
– Douglas Murray: UK Labour Party finds itself innocent!
Featured image: CC0 from Unsplash/Image Catalog with modifications by HonestReporting; F-35 CC BY Forsvarsdepartementet;
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