Today’s Top Stories
1. The International Criminal Court ordered chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to consider opening a full investigation of alleged IDF war crimes during the Mavi Marmara affair. According to the Jerusalem Post:
The decision puts the ICC the closest it has ever been to intervening directly in the Israeli-Arab conflict and places the court in the position of potentially being harsher on Israel than Bensouda, who herself has been criticized by Israel for recognizing a State of Palestine . . .
Bensouda very well may close the file again, but the court’s order means there is a very serious chance Israelis will face a full criminal investigation – something that has not yet occurred even regarding the 2014 Gaza war, Operation Protective Edge.
According to law professor Avi Bell, the ICC has “declared war” on Israel, while Elliott Abrams says the court “has degraded itself to the condition of the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies.”
2. Gaza was rocked by a series of car bombs this morning targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad figures. Islamic State graffiti was found at the scene of one of the attacks. Jerusalem Post coverage.
3. They didn’t necessarily bury any hatchets, but a meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Saudi King Salman certainly suggests a thaw in years of hostility and mistrust. Are the Saudis trying to pull Hamas out of Iran’s orbit? According to the Daily Telegraph:
It is thought to be highest level get-together between the two sides since the outbreak of the Arab Spring in early 2011, which plunged the Middle East into extended upheaval, and appeared to be motivated on the Saudi side by a desire to weaken Iran by luring Hamas away from its influence.
4. Join HonestReporting for an exclusive briefing with Dr. Jonathan Spyer, director of the Rubin Center for Research in International Affairs, at the IDC, Herzliya.
He’ll be discussing the war in Iraq and Syria and its significance for Israel and the Mideast region.
– Where: Agron Guest House, 6 Agron Street, Jerusalem
– When: Thursday, July 23; 7.00 p.m. prompt (doors open 6:15 p.m.)
– Advance registration required. Click here to book your tickets.
– Cost to offset expenses: 50 NIS per person (prepayment required).
– For more info, email: [email protected]
5. Daily Telegraph Places Al-Aqsa Mosque in “Jerusalem, Palestine”: But geography isn’t the only thing that the Telegraph is confused about.
6. HR Radio: What Part of “Death to Israel” Is Confusing? In his latest Voice of Israel interview, Yarden Frankl takes on the BBC’s assertion that Iran no longer threatens Israel and asks why the New York Times is acting like a cheerleader for the nuclear deal. Click on the image below to listen.
Israel and the Palestinians
• I wonder how much Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez was influenced by media coverage of the Gaza war.
Tennessee shooter was upset over Gaza war
• The UK ended a partial arms embargo on Israel, placed amid concerns that British-made components in radar systems and tanks — among other things — might be used against Gaza civilians. The license exports could be suspended again in the event of another war. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Hamas plot to attack Israel, PA in West Bank foiled by mass arrests
• A recent ruling by the Dutch Supreme Court concerning Israeli-controlled territories adds a new and surprising twist. Holland can extradite Rabbi Eliezer Berland to Israel, even though his crimes occurred in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. In fighting extradition, Rabbi Berland argued that international law didn’t recognize Israeli jurisdiction over those areas. Eugene Kontorovich‘s reaction is worth reading.
• After the Knesset shot down a bill proposing the death penalty for terrorists, Jerusalem Post reporter Lahav Harkov called out The Indepedent‘s Lizzie Dearden.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• At a celebration marking the end of Ramadan, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public remarks on the nuclear accords. Here’s how the Times of Israel best summarized it:
Nine things Khamenei hates about you
• US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is due to visit Israel today to assuage Israeli concerns about the Iran deal. Some media reports indicate that Carter won’t necessarily be offering military equipment but rather “military exercises, arms stockpiles and regional troop presence.”
• Iran bans US inspectors from nuclear sites: Only inspectors from countries which have normal relations with Iran will be allowed in.
The revelation of this caveat has attracted concern from some analysts who maintain that only American experts can be trusted to verify that Iran is not cheating on the deal and operating clandestine nuclear facilities.
• Reporter Jon Karl of ABC News sparred with White House spokesman Josh Earnest over the president’s claim that “99 percent of the world” supports the accord.
Mideast Matters
• According to The Algemeiner, US is “seriously” considering Jonathan Pollard this year. But Pollard’s lawyers told the Times of Israel they have received no indication of this.
• Mideast news reports indicate Hezbollah arrested 175 of its own men for refusing to fight in Syria. Pass the popcorn: the fighting in Zabadani isn’t going well.
. . . the hesitation began after 120 Hezbollah fighters were killed in confrontations with opposition groups and another 200 were wounded.
• South African official threatens to probe students for visiting Israel
• Prominent Russian Jewish activist shot in Moscow; Sergey Ustinov, a 62-year-old businessman and Russian Jewish Congress board member is in critical but stable condition. Community leaders believe the attack was anti-Semitic.
• Hitler salutes and anti-Semitic slogans at football match in Belgium
Commentary/Analysis
• Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog is very much against the Iran deal. Jeffrey Goldberg weighs in on the Herzog factor. “Buji” is now a militant. Militant?
Herzog’s militancy on the subject of the deal places the Obama administration in an uneasy position. While the administration can—and has—dismissed Netanyahu as a hysteric, the eminently reasonable Herzog, who is Secretary of State John Kerry’s dream of an Israeli peace-process partner, will find receptive ears among Democrats for his criticism. Herzog’s critique of the deal also places American Jewish organizations in a curious dilemma. It will be fraught for liberal Jewish organizations to endorse the Vienna agreement if both the right-wing government in Jerusalem, and its center-left opposition, are so vehemently opposed to it . . .
Herzog would not tell me when he’s arriving in Washington to launch his non-lobbying lobbying campaign, but I expect he will arrive soon, and I expect that he will find himself the target of a great deal of lobbying as well; from the administration’s perspective, Netanyahu is a permanent adversary, but Herzog is a respected friend—one who could do damage to the administration’s cause on Capitol Hill, if he so chooses.
• Here’s another New York Times staff-ed cheerleading for the Iran deal:
While Iran supports Shiite allies and other militants in the region, the threat it poses to Sunni Arabs and Israel militarily, especially if the deal deprives it of a nuclear weapon, is exaggerated. The Sunni countries together spend about $130 billion a year on defense while Iran’s military budget is about $15 billion. Israel, the region’s most capable military power, spends about $16 billion plus $3 billion from America, and has a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, NYT columnist Roger Cohen misrepresents Israel’s desire to avoid war. Cohen also claims the agreement’s critics have offered no alternatives, but David Horovitz noted three. Here’s Cohen:
So what do the critics, from Republican presidential hopefuls to the Israeli government, seek in place of the deal with Iran that verifiably blocks Tehran’s path to a nuclear weapon for at least the next 10 to 15 years? Presumably, they want what would have happened if negotiations had collapsed. That would be renewed war talk as an unconstrained Iran installs sophisticated centrifuges, its stockpile of enriched uranium grows, Russia and China abandon the sanctions regime, moderates in Iran like Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are sidelined, and a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic draws closer.
• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend:
– Paul Berman: The Iran deal and a Cold War flashback
– Danielle Pletka: 8 unplanned results of the Iran deal
– Emily Landau: A deal with gaping failures
– Jeff Jacoby: Iran deal not worthy of Nobel recognition
– Prince Bandar Bin Sultan: Why the Iran accord is worse than the North Korea deal
– Charles Krauthammer: A deal worse than we could’ve imagined
– Robert Satloff: If the Iran deal fails . . .
– Trudy Rubin: Will deal allow Iran to cause more Mideast trouble?
– James Rubin: When the Iran deal tastes this good we can live with the smell
– National Post: Netanyahu’s warnings apt on Iran (staff-ed)
– Dror Eydar: History’s sense of humor
– Nahum Barnea: Bibi bets against Obama in Congress battle against accord
– Emanuele Ottolenghi: Obama’s one aim: making friends with the mullahs
– Norman Bailey: The West held all the aces – and lost
– Amir Taheri: Is Iran now under the tutelage of the six world powers?
– Jonathan Schanzer: It just got easier for Iran to fund terror
– Alan Dershowitz: US gave away better options on Iran
– Alan Kuperman: The Iran deal is built on a lie
• Last but not least:
Hamas is set to win a seat at the UN table
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Daniel Hoherd with additions by HonestReporting; Spyer via YouTube/AIJACvideo; Herzog via YouTube/Tovah Lazaroff
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