Today’s Top Stories
1. The IDF killed seven Islamic State terrorists approaching the Israel-Syria border overnight. The military said it had tracked the seven for some time and launched an airstrike when they were in the buffer zone between the two countries. They were killed approximately 700 feet (200 meters) from the border. The Jerusalem Post reported that “elite IDF troops found seven bodies with grenades, 5 Kalashnikov rifles and suicide vests, among other items.”
Meanwhile, reports cited by Haaretz said that “Russia plans to deploy military police on the Golan Heights and set up eight monitoring posts to avoid any possible provocations there.” And the Russian Defense Ministry announced that UN peacekeepers returned to the Israeli-Syrian border for the first time in several years.
> The Independent disclosed provocative emails by Momentum activists claiming “Jews ‘manufactured’ some of the antismemitism to exploit to ‘generate an atmosphere of insecurity’ because ‘Zionists’ want to ‘exploit and generate the fear of antisemitism.'”
> The Jewish Chronicle went undercover to a meeting of Corbyn’s allies.
> The Times of Israel reported that Corbyn supported a 2011 parliamentary motion for Holocaust Memorial Day to be renamed ‘Genocide Memorial Day.’
> The Times Times of London unearthed more Corbyn comments comparing Israel and Nazi Germany as well as an awkward leaflet promoting the 2010 Holocaust Memorial Day event he hosted.
> The Daily Telegraph reports that Corbyn instructed police at that Holocaust memorial event to throw out any Jewish activists speaking up for Israel.
> On top of all that, staff editorials in The Independent and Daily Telegraph harshly condemned Corbyn and Labour. And columnist Sam Greenhill wondered if Corbyn’s past Israel slurs are the reason he has refuses to align Labour with the widely recognized definition of anti-Semitism.
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3. As Iranian-backed Houthi militias in Yemen threaten to close the Bab al-Mandab strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, Israel said it would join an international coalition to keep the waterway open. An Iranian closure of the strait would choke Israeli shipping and create a crisis for the world’s oil market — 4.8 million barrels of crude oil pass through Bab al-Mandab daily.
Saudi Arabia suspended oil shipments through Bab al-Mandab after Houthis fired a missile at a tanker traversing the strait last week.
4. Video: LGBT and International Human Rights: What’s happening in the Palestinian territories is truly shocking.
In the News
• If you’re reading tea leaves to gauge the likelihood of a Gaza war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a trip to Colombia “due to the situation in the south.” The PM was to attend Wednesday’s inauguration of Colombia’s new president, Ivan Duque. The Jerusalem Post points out, “This is the first time Netanyahu has cancelled a trip abroad because of the security situation in the country in years.”
• Poll: “Nearly two-thirds of Jewish Israelis think Israel should launch a large-scale military offensive in the Gaza Strip if its Hamas rulers do not abide by the latest ceasefire agreement.”
• Caving to pressure, Tunisia to host 7-year-old Israeli chess whiz.
• Following a spike in terror balloons, Israel banned gas and fuel transfers to Gaza.
https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1024726286193840128
• Hamas banned a seminar in Gaza “on the Palestinian media’s role in highlighting the issue of Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli prisons” because it was organized by Fatah organizers failed to ask for a permit.
• In battle for eastern Jerusalem, property deeds are the weapon of choice.
• The Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) takes a closer look at Israel’s Druze community, which continues protesting the nation state law.
“The state of Israel respects our dead, but not our living,” said Naser Saba, 40, from this Druze village of 10,500 in the hills outside Haifa in northern Israel. His brother Alam was killed in 2001 during a military operation and was buried in a military cemetery with an Israeli flag covering his casket. “We want to be wrapped in the flag when we’re alive too.”
• New York’s Barnard College to host prisoners’ group accused of ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror organization.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Pinhas Inbari: Ahed Tamimi: What’s in a name
– Stewart Weiss: Terror balloons: Child abuse, not child’s play
– Ben Judah: British Jews find their voice
– Dov Waxman: Who gets to define antisemitism?
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND James Russo; Corbyn via YouTube/Imajsa Claimant;
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