Today’s Top Stories
1. Mahmoud Abbas was discharged from a Ramallah hospital with a clean bill of health after undergoing what Palestinian media called “routine medical checks.” But Haaretz reports that Israeli officials are concerned the 82-year-old PA president’s health is declining:
Israeli and Palestinian sources believe that Abbas’ health has deteriorated in recent months and that any further worsening could hasten the changing of the guard at the Palestinian Authority. Abbas’ inner circle is interested in minimizing the severity of his medical problems.
Meanwhile, Seth Frantzman lays out five post-Abbas possibilities.
2. An IDF military court upheld the conviction and 18-month jail sentence of Hebron shooter, Elor Azaria. Judges said Azaria’s version of events wasn’t credible, but also denied an appeal from prosecutors seeking a stiffer sentence. Take your pick of Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Ynet, Times of Israel and Israel HaYom coverage.
In a case which divided Israel, Azaria was caught on film shooting and killing an incapacitated Palestinian who attacked soldiers in Hebron.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Though security was tight and tension was taut, Friday prayers at the Temple Mount passed without violence. Calm remained on the holy site on Sunday.
Palestinians saw the Temple Mount showdown as a rare grassroots victory while Israelis criticized what they called Netanyahu’s “capitulation.”
4. Podcast Interview With Journalist Hunter Stuart: Julie Hazan, HonestReporting’s US Director and Shahar Azani, Executive Director StandWithUs in New York, discussed with US journalist Hunter Stuart how his perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shifted as a result of his firsthand experience working as a journalist in the region. Also discussed were Stuart’s hopes for the future of the news media, and his views on global politics.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly suggested to US envoys a possible land swap with the Palestinians, according to Israeli media:
Netanyahu reportedly suggested that jurisdiction of several Israeli Arab villages in the Wadi Ara region could be transferred to Palestinian control in exchange for Israel annexing Jewish settlements in the Gush Etzion bloc in the West Bank . . .
The TV report did not specify when the proposal was raised or when Israel sought the exchange to take place. The television report said there was no confirmation of the report from the prime minister or the US administration.
• The IDF raided the Ramallah-based headquarters of PalMedia on suspicion of inciting terror in its broadcasts. Equipment and documents were seized, according to Israeli media reports.
• An effort by Palestinian supporters to quietly force the US to fund the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was short circuited after being exposed by journalist Benny Avni.
The resolution was due to be adopted on Friday but was postponed, according to UNRWA lobbyist Matthias Schmale. Avni wrote (before the postponement)
The resolution, sponsored by a large group of countries sympathetic to the Palestinians, will recommend “a gradual increase in the support provided to [UNRWA] from the regular budget of the UN” by next year. Plus, mandatory fees in the past could only fund the salaries of non-Palestinian workers; the new resolution removes that restriction as well.
Camel nose, meet tent. Eventually the entirety of America’s contribution to UNRWA will be decided by UN members rather than Congress.
• Israel is targeting Amnesty International over the organization’s latest anti-settlements campaign, reports Israel HaYom:
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is exploring the possibility of denying tax benefits to individuals or organizations that donate funds to Amnesty International due to a recent campaign launched by the human rights group against Israel’s settlements.
The human rights group’s “50 Years of Occupation” campaign calls on the international community to boycott Israeli products manufactured in Judea and Samaria, as well as impose an arms embargo on Israel, claiming that the Jewish state’s settlement enterprise constitutes a war crime.
• Ynet: Israel builds pipeline to absorb sewage from Gaza due to Strip’s power shortages.
• Worth reading: Tales From Inside an Israeli ER.
Mideast Matters
• US officials to CNN: Iranian-backed group fired a missile deep into Saudi Arabia. Do Houthis have Scuds now?
The missile, described by one official as a Scud, was fired from Houthi controlled territory near Sa’Dah in northern Yemen and flew some 930 kilometers before landing near the western coast of Saudi Arabia.
It is assessed that the target was a Saudi oil facility near the port city of Yanbu.
• Turkish reporter admits he made up a Jared Kushner quote praising Erdogan.
Around the World
• Haaretz: SlutWalk Chicago to allow Zionist symbols after all.
“I do think that at SlutWalk Chicago we have some apologizing to do around the confusion with some of our tweets.”
• The Sunday Times of London apologized and removed an anti-Semitic article targeting female BBC hosts.
Readers called for columnist Kevin Myers to be sacked, after he suggested BBC presenters Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz earned high salaries because they were Jewish.
The piece, titled “Sorry, ladies – equal pay has to be earned”, appeared in the Irish edition of the newspaper.
• California imam apologizes for anti-Semitic sermon — but another fiery sermon surfaces
• Delegates to Australian Labor Party conferences in New South Wales and Queensland are expected to throw their support behind a resolution that “urges the next Labor government to recognise Palestine.” The initiative is being led by former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr.
No "conditions" to recognition of Palestine. No ifs or buts. Recognition to save two state solution being buried in settlements.
— Bob Carr (@bobjcarr) July 28, 2017
• Two New Jersey men responsible for a string of attacks on synagogues were sentenced to 35 years.
The two were convicted last year of spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti at synagogues in Maywood and Hackensack, attempting to burn down synagogues in Paramus and Rutherford and throwing Molotov cocktails into the Rutherford home of a rabbi from December 2011 to January 2012.
Commentary/Analysis
• My eyes are glowing in the dark after reading all these Temple Mount commentaries.
– Spengler: Arab humiliation and the Temple Mount
– Khadija Khan: Palestinians: The metal detector scam
– Bassam Tawil: Metal detectors or lie detectors — who is violating what?
– Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Amir Avivi: Temple Mount crisis proves violence pays
– David Weinberg: Israel must disabuse Abbas of the notion he can bully Israel
– Dr. Reuven Berko: A pyrrhic victory
– Zvi Bar’el: Arab states fear that a Palestinian uprising would spark another Arab Spring
– Ben-Dror Yemini: The ‘Al-Aqsa libel’ lives on
– Raphael Ahren: After Temple Mount surrender, PM seeks to divert attention by sliding right
– Stephen Pollard: Israel and Palestine are just a few rash moves away from a Third Intifada
– Norman Bailey: Making mountains out of molehills
– Orly Azoulay: Trump’s Mideast peace deal is fading away
– Liel Leibovitz: Was Iran behind the recent Temple Mount violence?
– David Harris: Stop infantilizing the Palestinians
– Selin Nasi: The Turkish-Israeli rift over the Haram al-Sharif
– Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll: Our past is being denied to us
– Alex Ryvchin: The price of historical vandalism
– Jonathan Tobin: Team Trump’s quiet Mideast success
– New York Daily News (staff-ed): Outrage over Temple Mount in Israel encapsulates cycles of Palestinian terrorism
• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend.
– Eugene Kontorovich: Israel anti-boycott bill does not violate free speech
– Charles Bybelezer: Back in the MidEast: Has the Russian bear returned for good?
– New York Post (staff-ed): Palestinian Authority now uses half of all foreign aid to reward terror
Featured image: CC BY-SA Tom Woodward Abbas CC BY-NC-ND UN Geneva; Feltz via YouTube/dating nake; Winkleman via YouTube/BBC News; Temple Mount CC BY-NC-ND RV1864;
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