Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel removed metal detectors from the Temple Mount after late night vote by the security cabinet.
The security cabinet also approved a plan to install advanced equipment to replace the metal detectors with high resolution cameras with facial recognition software and thermal systems capable of detecting bombs. The NIS 100 million plan and will take six months to put in place. In the interim, the police presence will be significantly boosted. The Islamic Wakf opposes the plan.
Even after the last of the metal detectors were dismantled, the Islamic Wakf called on Muslims not to come to the Temple Mount until it finished reviewing Israeli security measures at the holy site.
It’s not clear if the removal of the metal detectors was linked to Israeli-Jordanian talks which resolved the diplomatic standoff at the Israeli embassy in Amman (see item 2 below).
Tweet of the day goes to Jonathan Schanzer.
1. Israelis killed
2. Israel adds security
3. Pals get violent
4. Israel removes security
5. Pals claim victory
6. World leaders praise calm— Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) July 25, 2017
2. Ending the crisis in Israeli-Jordanian ties, the Israeli security guard who was stabbed inside the Israeli embassy compound in Jordan and killed his attacker returned to Israel along with the rest of the embassy staff. Haaretz explains the face-saving compromise that defused the situation:
According to the official, Israel refused to allow the guard to be interrogated, but agreed to allow Jordanian police to arrive at the embassy compound to hear the guard’s description of the incident in the presence of Israeli diplomats. Jordanian police arrived at the embassy to hear the guard’s statement Monday evening. Nearly an hour later, the entire embassy staff boarded a convoy and headed back to Israel.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Times of Israel: Jordanian police threaten to jail Israeli pilgrims for praying at the Tomb of Aaron.
Jordanian authorities did not respond to requests to comment on the report, but a diplomat said Jordanian officials warning Jewish pilgrims to keep a low profile was not uncommon. In the past, Israelis have complained that border officials prevented them from crossing with tefillin and prayer shawls.
The Jerusalem Post adds that the Jews had traveled there because the anniversary of the biblical high priest was on Monday.
4. Tangled Timelines on the Temple Mount: How many errors can be crammed into a single editorial?
Israel and the Palestinians
• Pizzeria owner wallops Petah Tikva stabber with a pie platter. We’ve seen Israelis fight off terrorists with ordinary objects like selfie sticks, guitars, sewing machines and umbrellas. What next?
• Haaretz: Netanyahu secretly met with UAE foreign minister in 2012 in New York.
• Five BDS activists prevented from boarding flight to Israel.
• I haven’t seen anyone else pick up on this announcement covered by Asharq al-Awsat:
Moscow announced on Monday the deployment of monitors from its military police 13 kilometers from the demarcation line between Israeli and Syrian troops in the Golan Heights.
The new step removes “Hezbollah” from the cross-line as part of a deal struck between Russia, the US and Jordan to fix the boundaries of this zone and impose a ceasefire in the area.
• The New York Times announced that it David Halbfinger will be the paper’s new Jerusalem bureau chief. The Times says Halbfinger will move to Israel in August and begin work after Labor Day.
Halbfinger replaces Ian Fisher, who filled in after the previous bureau chief, Peter Baker was abruptly recalled in December, 2016 to shore up the paper’s White House coverage.
Big day. A dream fulfilled. Looking forward. Wish me luck! https://t.co/VUzLoXh2Xs
— David Halbfinger (@halbfinger) July 24, 2017
Around the World
• Nassau county executive attempts to sever stadium contract with Roger Waters in first test of anti-BDS law.
According to local legislators and Nassau County Attorney Carnell T. Foskey, because the coliseum is county-owned, the concert would violate local law 3-2016, which prohibits the county from doing business with any company participating in the economic boycott of Israel.
• Austria: Palestinian gets life for inciting killings of Jews.
Commentary/Analysis
Jacoby points to Parks’ support for Israel, including adding her signature to full page New York Times advertisement in which prominent African-American leaders declared, among other things:
We have fought too long and too hard to root out discrimination from our land to sit idly while foreign interests import bigotry into America. Having suffered so greatly from such prejudice, we consider most repugnant efforts by Arab states to use the economic power of their newly acquired oil wealth to boycott business firms that deal with Israel or that have Jewish owners, directors or executives and to impose anti-Jewish preconditions for investments in this country.
See also Jeremy Burton also weighs in on the legislation. Meanwhile, a pair of officials from the American Civil Liberties Union got a Washington Post soapbox to oppose to anti-BDS legislation under Congressional consideration.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Sara Yael Hirschhorn: Settlers’ lives matter
– Ben Lynfield: Charged atmosphere in Jordan leads to Israeli concessions
– Fred Maroun: The problem with metal detectors is that they’re Jewish
– Benny Avni: Malice on the Mount: The hate behind the latest Mideast crisis
– Bassam Tawil: Abbas’s security doubletalk
– Seth Frantzman: Playing chess with the Third Intifada
– David Horovitz: When Netanyahu walked eyes wide shut into disaster
– Moshe Arens: Israel’s inciter-in-chief
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Israeli-Jordanian alliance tested
– Ben-Dror Yemini: Muslim self-racism: The ‘low expectations syndrome’
– Avi Issacharoff: Netanyahu turns capitulation into personal triumph
– Nahum Barnea: Amman embassy shooting was just what Netanyahu needed
– New York Post (staff-ed): Palestinians’ latest excuse for rioting
Featured image: CC BY-SA Tom Woodward; Aaron’s Tomb via Wikimedia Commons; Parks CC BY-SA tara hunt;
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