Today’s Top Stories
“Of course, we take into account the interests of neighboring states, interests of Israel, our president spoke about that. As we took into account the Israeli concerns, we managed to attain the pullout of Iranian units 85 kilometers [some 53 miles] from the Israeli [-Syrian] border,” the presidential envoy added.
I haven’t seen an official Israeli reaction yet, so note the differences between coverage in the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Ynet and the Times of Israel. The latter noted:
It was not clear what prompted him to say this as Israel has repeatedly and forcibly stated that it will not accept any Iranian presence at all in Syria and last week Israel rejected a Russian proposal to keep Iranian forces in Syria 100 kilometers (62 miles) away from Israel’s northern border, a senior Israeli official said, moments after a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded in Jerusalem.
In any event, you gotta be careful with Sputnik.
Russia attained an Iranian pullout of 85km from the Golan Heights, Russia's Syria envoy tells Sputnik. Contradicts earlier reports of a 100km buffer zone and Israel's official position that it will not tolerate Iran forces anywhere in Syria. https://t.co/v222DTvg9d
— Eliyahu Kamisher (@eli_kamisher) August 1, 2018
2. UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn issued an apology after the Times of London reported that he “hosted an event that compared the Israeli government to the Nazis at the House of Commons on Holocaust Memorial Day.”
In January 2010 when he was a backbencher, Mr Corbyn spoke at and opened a talk entitled Never Again — for Anyone. The event was part of a UK tour called Never Again for Anyone — Auschwitz to Gaza.
The main talk, entitled The Misuse of the Holocaust for Political Purposes, was delivered by Hajo Meyer, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz who became a passionate anti-Zionist and repeatedly made the comparison between the Nazi regime and Israeli policy.
That comparison has become one of the most heated elements of the row over Labour’s decision to rewrite an internationally accepted definition of antisemitism.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Palestinian Authority security personnel, armed and in uniform, toured Israeli-controlled areas of Hebron for first time. Israeli officials confirmed they gave the group of 30 Palestinian security personnel permission, calling it an “exceptional matter” and that the tour didn’t reflect any changes in the status quo of the city’s security. A Palestinian official described the tour to the Times of Israel as “symbolic.”
Under the Hebron Protocol signed by the PLO and Israel in 1997, the Jewish state controls the segment of the West Bank city known as “H2,” where some 500 Israeli settlers live surrounded by 40,000 Palestinians. Hebron’s Old City falls within the area.
In the News
• At a High Court of Justice hearing over the fate of the illegal Bedouin village of Khan al Ahmar, judges told lawyers representing the residents that the village’s demolition was unavoidable. Details at the Times of Israel.
• President Reuven Rivlin reportedly intends to protest the nation state law by signing it in Arabic.
• The New York Times takes a closer look at Druze opposition to the nation state law. Two Druze IDF officers have already resigned in protest.
• Worth reading: Thumbs up to Vox‘s balanced and comprehensive explainer piece on the nation state law.
• Jeremy Corbyn ally Pete Willsman apologizes for rant about Jewish ‘Trump fanatics.’
• If you’re new to the issue of the UK Labour party’s antisemitism problem or having trouble wrapping your head around its almost-daily woes with the Jewish, this JTA piece nicely overviews what’s going on.
• Anti-Zionist graffiti was discovered on a synagogue in the French town of Le Havre. Vandals wrote on a wall by the entrance “no to Zionists, no to Israel” and placed stickers of Palestinian, Lebanese and French flags.
• “The online travel reservation service Booking.com amended its definition of the city of Jerusalem as an “Israeli settlement” following a critical query from a Belgian Jewish newspaper.”
Commentary
• Following up on last week’s controversy, the Jerusalem Post explained in a staff-ed why it fired freelance cartoonist Avi Katz. The Jerusalem Report, a magazine owned by the Jerusalem Post, published Katz’s cartoon about the passage of the nation state law, depicting Israeli lawmakers as a pigs reminiscent of George Orwell’s book, “Animal Farm.”
This @Jerusalem_Post editorial seeks to explain why cartoonist Avi Katz was fired. (It claims the pig imagery used was antisemitic.) But it fails to explain why the cartoon that prompted the firing was approved for publication. https://t.co/Fcnwz3C5Pc
— Ron Skolnik (@Ron_Skolnik) July 31, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Bassam Tawil: The secret reason Arabs reject the Jewish nation state law
– Raphael Ahren: Israel says it’s unfazed by specter of US-Iran summit, but anxiety brews
– Charles Bybelezer: Was the peace process doomed to failure from the start?
– Gilad Kabilo: End the discrimination against Israeli chess players
– Melanie Phillips: Labour antisemitism: The skies are darkening even more
– Gaby Hinsliff: Peter Willsman’s rant points to a Labour party still blind to antisemitism
– Benjamin Weinthal: A deadly plague for Iran
Featured image: CC BY-NC Lori Erickson; Lavrentiyev via Wikimedia Commons;
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