Today’s Top Stories
1. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki announced that the PA is preparing legal action against Britain for issuing the Balfour declaration almost 100 years ago.
Since the Mideast conflict is so messed up, why stop with Balfour? The PA should also sue Britain and France (for the the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement), Britain and the Husseini family (for the 1922 Cairo Conference, which led to the creation of an independent Transjordan), and the UN (for the 1948 Partition Plan). The Palestinians can even sue themselves for signing the 1993 Oslo accords . . .
See also Dan Margalit‘s take.
2. Can we call this a Saudi-Israeli thaw? Knesset opposition members are preparing for an unprecedented trip to Saudi Arabia.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Islamic State and its rival Al Qaida-linked Nusra Front are stepping up their recruiting efforts in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Haaretz picked up on Lebanese media reports:
They are particularly active in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon, according to the reports. Ain al-Hilweh is home to some 80,000 people and is the largest and most crowded Palestinian refugee camp in the country . . .
Sources in Ain al-Hilweh are not denying that recruitment efforts are going on in the camp, but claim that the phenomenon is limited. They expressed concern that the Palestinian refugees would be the scapegoats for the Lebanese security apparatus’ failure to overcome the Islamist organizations.
Senior Palestinian officials in Ramallah told Haaretz that political leadership is aware of the issue, but cannot cope with it alone. A senior Palestinian Authority security source said that concerns about ISIS infiltrating Palestinian refugee camps also exist in Gaza and the West Bank.
Under the terms of an agreement between Lebanon and the PLO, the Lebanese army does not enter the UNRWA-run refugee camps, allowing Palestinian factions police the camps.
Israel and the Palestinians
• After errant mortar fire from Syrian clashes landed on Israel’s side of the border, Israeli aircraft struck an unspecified target inside Syria. AP coverage.
• Press freedom, Palestinian style:
Palestinian Authority arrests Palestinian journalist Mohammed Khabeisa for writing about the budget of the official news agency WAFA.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) July 26, 2016
• Amid security concerns, the IDF banned Pokemon from military bases.
• Why do Palestinians prefer working in Israel? They get better pay, benefits and other rights than if they worked in the PA. The problem for many of these laborers — especially women — is that Arab middlemen “steal” half the salary, if not more. Palestinian Media Watch documented a few interviews.
Around the World
• Democratic congressman apologizes for calling West Bank settlers ‘termites.’
• Imagine the headlines if Israel did this:
Commentary/Analysis
• After commenting on Europe’s terror problems, Bret Stephens (click via Google News) suggests the continent look to Israel for inspiration.
In all this, the best guide to how Europe can find its way to safety is the country it has spent the best part of the last 50 years lecturing and vilifying: Israel. For now, it’s the only country in the West that refuses to risk the safety of its citizens on someone else’s notion of human rights or altar of peace.
Europeans will no doubt look to Israel for tactical tips in the battle against terrorism—crowd management techniques and so on—but what they really need to learn from the Jewish state is the moral lesson. Namely, that identity can be a great preserver of liberty, and that free societies cannot survive through progressive accommodations to barbarians.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Avi Issacharoff: As Qatar solves Gaza’s wages crisis, could Hamas have Liberman to thank?
– Simon Henderson: Riyadh’s diplomatic dance with Israel
– Daniel Pipes: End US aid to Israel
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Gayle O with additions by HonestReporting
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