Today’s Top Stories
*** Breaking news *** As this roundup went to press, Haaretz reported that Patriot missiles were fired on a drone over northern Israel. Developing . . .
Moments ago 2 Patriot air defense missiles were fired towards a drone which infiltrated #Israeli airspace from #Syria.
— LTC (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) July 17, 2016
1. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan survived a military coup last night. Hundreds of people were killed, and thousands of soldiers and judges have been purged. See below for its implications for Israel.
2. As a result of the coup, UNESCO delayed voting on a one-sided resolution denying Jewish ties to the Temple Mount. The UNESCO gathering happened to be in Istanbul and was cut short. The Palestinians and several other countries pushed for the resolution to be heard today anyway, but Israel found sympathy from European delegates, as well as the Turkish ambassador to UNESCO, who chaired the proceedings.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. The casualty count from Thursday night’s Nice terror attack stands at 84 dead (including 10 children) and 202 wounded. According to AP, 85 people are still hospitalized, while 16 of the dead remain unidentified.
Islamic State claimed responsibility but no solid links tying it to the driver have surfaced so far. The driver was identified as Mohamed Bouhlel, a 31-year-old resident of Nice born in Tunisia, and French officials said he was radicalized “very quickly.” French police arrested three suspects linked to the massacre while authorities called up 12,000 reservists to boost security around the country.
Following the attacks, authorities in Brazil and Cleveland tightened security for the upcoming Olympics and Republican National Convention.
At least one Jewish woman is known to have died. Another Jewish woman is hospitalized while her sister is currently unaccounted for and feared dead, YNet reports.
4. Car Rammings: AFP Calls It “Terror” Everywhere Except Israel: Following the Nice tragedy, AFP chronicles deadly vehicular attacks in Canada, England and Scotland while turning a blind-eye to Israel.
5.Do Israeli Lives Matter to the Australian Daily Telegraph? Not if you judge the newspaper’s front page.
Turkey’s Failed Coup
• Turns out one of the suspected Turkish coup leaders is Gen. Akin Ozturk, who was former commander of the Turkish Air Force. YNet reports Ozturk served a two-year stint in Turkey’s embassy in Tel Aviv as military attache from 1996-1998. YNet also reports another interesting Israel-angle: Many of the tanks used to suppress the coup had been upgraded with Israeli components in 2002.
• Could the failed coup spark Turkish anti-Semitism? Unfortunately, yes.
• Tweet of the day from Hen Mazzig:
I think that Israel need to send a humanitarian aid flotilla to #Turkey right now.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) July 16, 2016
• A Turkish Jew, Jack Gozcu, describes his experience in Istanbul during the coup.
• Oops!
Some of Egypt’s pro-army media jumped the gun in their reporting on Friday night’s attempted coup in Turkey, declaring it a success and welcoming the overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
• See related commentary/analysis:
– Herb Keinon: Will failed coup delay Israel-Turkey normalization?
– Barak Ravid: After the coup, business as usual for Israel and Turkey
Israel and the Palestinians
• Alert security guards arrested a Palestinian carrying explosives as he tried to board the Jerusalem light rail this morning. Our very own Simon Plosker was downtown at the time.
In downtown Jerusalem as security services deal with suspected terrorist with possible explosives. pic.twitter.com/09ayqGOt4D
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 17, 2016
• On Planet Abbas, Mohamed Bouhlel would get a street named after him and his family would get a generous “martyr stipend” if he had killed Israelis.
Palestinian leaders condemn attack in France, declare support for French people
Jihadi Car and Truck attacks are widely praised & popularized in Palestinian society as cartoon shows #NiceAttacks pic.twitter.com/E59CggoVkz
— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) July 15, 2016
• How about a port for Gaza in Sinai?
• Just how many Palestinian refugees are there? That’s the question Congress is pressing on the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which cares for Palestinian refugees. The Jerusalem Post explains why Congressional queries will be a sticky problem for the UNRWA:
Premising Congress’ question is the notion that many Palestinians – arguably a majority – are permanently settled in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank or east Jerusalem, and therefore not under the jurisdiction of a refugee agency. Such a finding would fundamentally change the narrative of the decades-old conflict.
• Here’s how Gaza kids are spending their summer break.
Summer camps organized by Palestinian 'resistance' factions in Gaza Strip. https://t.co/WWQCw4ib5f pic.twitter.com/DMZrQsOhLH
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) July 14, 2016
• Israeli-Arab Rabia Shahada, who is now in Iraq gearing up for a battle in Falujah, talked to YNet about why he joined Islamic State.
“This is Jihad – it’s a pleasure you can’t even find in a hotel in Tel Aviv.”
• Reuters visits Jerusalem’s Ulpan Etziyon, where immigrants — many from France — face the challenges of adapting to a new country.
Around the World
• Iran conducted its 4th ballistic missile test since signing last year’s nuclear accords last week. According to media reports, the missile, “made using North Korean technology, exploded shortly after launch.” The missile was reported to have a range of 4,000 km (2,500 miles). That’s a range that could reach much of Europe.
• Flemish Jews insist better coverage of Israel would have prepared Europe for the Nice truck massacre. The JTA picked up on the statement issued by Flemish Region’s Forum of Jewish Organizations.
“It is inaccurate to say, as we have heard said many times after the Nice attack, that car ramming is a new phenomenon,” the Forum wrote. “By ignoring this method of terrorism in Israel – some believe because of political correctness – one is, regrettably, confronted in a horrific manner with reality.”
• The Jerusalem Post follows up on French-Jewish reactions to the Nice attack.
• A Brazilian university is looking for someone to teach that Zionism is racism. The JTA explains:
The ABC Federal University, in the Sao Paulo metro area, is seeking a teacher of “racial-ethnic relations” who must include in the curricula the subject “connections of whiteness and racist regimes: apartheid, Nazism, Zionism.” The job pays $2,500 per month.
• A Swedish public television station, blocked a documentary linking jihad to anti-Semitism for fear of offending Muslims, according to a Swedish report picked up by The Algemeiner.
According to the report, Sveriges Television (SVT) is coming under fire for refusing to broadcast “Watching the Moon at Night,” due to “political correctness.”
SVT was a major funder of the documentary, which takes an in-depth look at the link between jihad and Jew-hatred, demonstrating the extent to which Jews have been affected by terrorism. Mahrianne Ahrne — a former film consultant at the Swedish Film Institute who initially approved public funding for the documentary — told Berlingske that once the money was approved, SVT kept thwarting the film’s production with “one formal obstacle after another.”
Bo Persson, the film’s director, revealed that SVT project manager Lars Safstrom demanded the movie be more anti-Israel and anti-American. “He tried to influence the film’s content…For us it was totally unacceptable that he should interfere with the content,” Persson said.
The Swedish broadcaster has denied accusations that it is refusing to show the film for political reasons. SVT’s head of documentaries, Axel Arnö, said the documentary did not fit in with the channel’s journalistic standards, as it attempts to prove a single point, rather than chronicle reality.
Commentary/Analysis
• Over at Newsweek, cabinet minister Israel Katz urges the world to put pressure on Hezbollah and Iran:
If Hezbollah chooses to use its arsenal against Israel, it already stated its targets are Israel’s civilian population and national infrastructure like ports or the airport. Israel will have no alternative but to respond with overwhelming force. The Lebanese should not expect to be able to go on with their lives as though nothing happened if Israel comes under fire from Hezbollah. Israel cannot and will not play a protracted game of attrition with a terrorist organization that intentionally hides its forces and arsenals behind Lebanese civilians.
So if we want to protect Israel and also avoid massive destruction in Lebanon — and in an extreme scenario perhaps even a wider regional escalation that could include a possible confrontation with Iran — it is necessary to weaken Hezbollah and pressure Iran now to stop adding even more destructive weapons to the terrorist organization’s arsenal.
• The Nice massacre’s on my mind:
– Christie Blatchford: Best way to cope with terror trauma is to imitate the Israelis
– Boaz Bismuth: Terror never goes on vacation
– Jonathan Tobin: A familiar form of terror
• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend:
– Yaroslav Trofimov: Jewish baby boom alters Israeli-Palestinian dynamic (via Google News)
– Norman Bailey: What is to be done with the West Bank and Gaza?
– Eugene Kontorovich: Why critics of Israel’s new NGO ‘transparency law’ are wrong
– Alan Dershowitz: Who do bigots blame for US police shootings? Israel, of course!
– Ruthie Blum: Palestinian girls pressed into terror: Where’s the feminist outcry?
– Ben-Dror Yemini: It’s about the values
Featured image: CC BY-NC David Jones with additions by HonestReporting; French flag CC0 George Hodan;
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