Today’s Top Stories
1. Although no officials are confirming anything, Mideast media is swirling with reports of a Israel-Hamas ceasefire in the works. The gist of the coverage is that Hamas has agreed to an proposal brokered by Egypt and UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov for a 5-10 year ceasefire. The Israeli cabinet is meeting today for an update on the progress of talks; a vote on accepting the proposal is not expected for several days.
According to Hadashot, the first phase of the plan would see the Rafah border crossing with Egypt reopened on a permanent basis, and eased restrictions on the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.
The second phase of deal, according to Hadashot, would see an agreement between Hamas and Fatah that would see the Palestinian Authority take control of the Gaza Strip under the auspices of Egypt. It was not clear how this could be reconciled with Hamas’s refusal to relinquish its weaponry — a stance that has scuppered previous Fatah-Hamas reconciliation efforts.
In return, the PA would resume paying its employees in Gaza whose salaries it has withheld, the TV report said. The second phase also outlines a roadmap for elections to be held in Gaza within six months.
A third phase would implement long-proposed humanitarian projects like the establishment of a port in the Sinai in Egypt that would serve Gaza, the report said.
Marginalized by the activity, Fatah warned Hamas not to strike a truce of any kind with Israel. Ynet got some behind the scenes coverage.
One sticking point is the fate of two Israeli citizens and the bodies of two IDF soldiers held by Hamas. Hamas reportedly is willing to negotiate their return only after the implementation of the ceasefire, which worries the families of Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oren Shaul. Also held in Gaza are two Israelis, Avraham Mengitsu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are mentally unstable and wandered across the border in separate incidents.
2. According to White House emails obtained by Foreign Policy, Jared Kushner is looking to remove the refugee status of millions of Palestinians and shut down the UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for aiding them.
“It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA,” Kushner wrote about the agency in one of those emails, dated Jan. 11 and addressed to several other senior officials, including Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt.
“This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” he wrote . . .
In the same January email, Kushner wrote: “Our goal can’t be to keep things stable and as they are. . . . Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there.”
More at at the Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Palestinian terror balloons from Gaza sparked 40 fires in southern Israel over the weekend. On balloon carrying flaming material was found on the roof of a home in Beersheva.
Meanwhile, a falcon tied to incendiary device was found dead in southern Israel near the Gaza border on Thursday evening.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Trump administration released millions in frozen aid to PA security forces. The unfrozen $42 million is earmarked only for Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, the Times of Israel reported.
Meanwhile, the White House is putting together a policy team ahead of the unveiling of its long-awaited and little-known Mideast peace plan. AP calls this ” the first evidence in months that a plan is advancing.”
• The Israeli navy intercepted another boat trying to break the Gaza blockade. The Swedish-flagged “Freedom” was towed to Ashdod. The people aboard — including individuals from Canada, Sweden and Malaysia — are expected to be deported. Israel has blockaded Gaza since Hamas took over the Strip in 2007 in order to prevent weapons smuggling.
• Palestinians carjacked an Israeli in the West Bank, stranding him on the side of the road near Qalqilya. Palestinian police picked up 71-year-old Natan Said and his car was later found and returned. Said shared his story with Ynet.
• A Palestinian who saved Jewish kids after a terror attack is about to be kicked out of Israel, according to Israeli media reports.
The Palestinian man, who has not been named, received a temporary visa to live and work in Israel after receiving death threats in his home town near the West Bank city of Hebron.
In 2016, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on an Israeli car near Hebron, killing the driver, Rabbi Miki Mark and injuring his wife and daughter. A Palestinian, whose name was never publicized, offered assistance to the family. Shortly afterwards, the Palestinian Authority fired him from his public service job. The second Palestinian arriving at the scene, Dr. Ali Shroukh, also helped, making himself a target of Palestinian abuse as well.
• With no anti-Israel record, does the head of the UN’s Gaza probe, David Crane, a sign that Israel may get fair treatment?
• Mahmoud Abbas appointed veteran spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh as deputy prime minister. According to the Jerusalem Post, “sources in Ramallah said the appointment was probably connected to reports about tensions between Abbas and [PA Prime Minister Rami] Hamdallah.”
Abbas also fired Issa Qaraqe, who heads the PLO’s Committee for Detainees and Ex-Detainees. Did it have anything to do with growing Israeli and US pressure on the PA to halt terror stipends to Palestinian terrorists and their families?
• Ibrahim al-Madhoun, director of the Hamas-run Youth Media Center, apologized for a recent Skype interview on i24 News Arabic. Madhoun had discussed the impact of UNRWA budget cuts on Palestinian refugees. Normalization is so taboo . . .
• Other countries abolished debtors’ prisons, but not Hamas. According to The Economist, debtors’ prisons in Gaza are full.
• Israeli fighter jets flew in Croatian victory parade, angering Serbia reports the Times of Israel. August 4 marked the anniversary of Operation Storm, the last major battle in Croatia’s 1995 war of independence against Serbia.
The participation of three Israeli F-16 Barak jets is taking place against a backdrop of Israeli-Croatian arms deals worth half a billion dollars. In January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced their plans to move forward with the sale of about 30 Israeli F-16s to Croatia.
The deal is expected to be completed by 2020.
Window Into Israel
• Some 50,000 Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square for a Druze-led demonstration against the nation state law.
• AP takes a closer look at the five-year drought that’s confounding proponents of desalination, farmers and government officials.
• Standard & Poors upgraded Israel’s credit rating to to AA-, with a stable outlook, the best rating it has ever received from the international credit rating agency. Amiram Barkat explains how it happened and what its significance is.
• Good news: Eilat’s coral reef is growing.
• For more commentary on domestic issues, Netanel Fisher, Zev Chafets and Prof. Abraham Diskin weigh in on the nation state law.
Around the World
• A scientist believed to be the head of Syria’s chemical weapons program was reportedly killed in car bombing on Saturday night, according to Arab reports picked up by the Times of Israel. If you’re wondering who the heck Dr. Aziz Asbar is, Seth Frantzman put together everything you need to know.
• An op-ed by embattled UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s reaching out to the Jewish community flopped. Published in The Guardian, Jews denounced Corbyn’s piece over the weekend because:
A) it wasn’t strong enough,
B) he suggested that it’s not racist to be anti-Zionist,
C) Corbyn copied-and-pasted one passage, nearly word-for-word, from a piece he wrote in April,
D) it was published online late Friday afternoon (5:30 PM, in fact) shortly before Shabbat, and in the paper’s Saturday print edition, making it impossible for Jews to respond. The Times of London explained the significance of that:
Most Friday evening services at synagogues around the country would have started an hour after the article was published. Many Jewish community leaders were therefore unavailable for comment. Some Orthodox Jews who observe the Sabbath strictly do not use electricity from sunset on Friday until Saturday night.
So keen is Corbyn to engage with Jews that he publishes this (awful) piece on a Friday night, for a Saturday paper. So not a single observant Jew can engage with it. (And he did the same thing with the Chakrabarti report, announcing it Friday night.) https://t.co/RMaAgLDTtg
— Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) August 3, 2018
Before the piece was published, plans for Corbyn to address a Jewish audience collapsed.
• Corbyn faces a claim he allegedly called MP Dame Louise Ellman ‘the Honourable Member for Tel Aviv.’
• The Daily Mail takes a closer look at the imprisoned Hamas terrorists who Jeremy Corbyn referred to as “brothers” shortly after the 2012 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap.
• Britain’s press regulatory body IPSO (the Independent Press Standards Organization) sided with a “Jewish cabal” Labour member over Holocaust row. Guido Fawkes picked up on IPSO’s ruling.
• The Times of London takes a closer look at how the party finds ways to let off antisemitic Corbyn allies.
• BDS activists are pushing the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team to cut ties with a company that supplies sniper rifle scopes to the Israeli Defense Forces. The Oregonian reports:
In a press release sent out before the event, Katbi Smith said, “It is unacceptable for our hometown team to promote a company which provides sniper scopes to the IDF, a murderous death squad that upholds apartheid through continuous brutalization of Palestinians.” . . .
Katbi Smith said her group plans to “escalate this campaign with actions at future Blazers games and events.”
• Hamzeh Daoud, the Stanford U. resident assistant who recently touched off a firestorm by saying he would “physically fight” resigned. Backstory at Inside Higher Ed.
• A European Union report details international web of Hezbollah terror funding.
• Elie Wiesel’s childhood home in Romania was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.
Commentary
• Lots of spilled ink and burnt pixels over Jeremy Corbyn and Labour antisemitism problem:
– Anshel Pfeffer: Why Corbynism is a threat to Jews throughout the Western world
– John McTernan: How anti-Semitism crept into Europe’s political mainstream
– Stephen Pollard: Corbyn is no ‘militant opponent’ of antisemitism – he is its ally
– Daniel Hannan: So now we know: the Left’s ‘anti-racism’ does not extend to solidarity with Jews
– Councillor Nickie Aiken: The view from Westminster
– Michael Segalov: Corbyn must step up and disown those who tolerate antisemitism
– Kyle Orton: The British Left’s meltdown over anti-Semitism should be a warning
– Jamie Rodney: The Labour party is no place for a Jew
– Jeremy Rosen: Jeremy Corbyn the Zionist
– Melanie Phillips: UK Jewish community leaders lose the plot on antisemitism, hate and lies
– Henry Zeffman: Corbyn has led Labour into nightmare of his own making
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Zvi Bar’el: Hamas stands to emerge dominant from possible Gaza deal — at Abbas’ expense
– Yoav Limor: ISIS is alive and kicking on the Golan
– Elior Levy: Iran’s $100 million aid to Hamas and Islamic Jihad
– Doron Ella: China supplies weapons to Israel’s enemies
– William Jacobson: Ahed Tamimi’s mother calls out “racism” of Ahed’s Western supporters
– Rachel Avraham: Pakistan’s new prime minister: Good for Israel?
Featured image: CC BY zoetnet; White House CC0 Pxhere; prison CC BY-NC-ND Mr.Kitsadakron Pongha; Eilat CC BY-NC-ND yoel_tw; Trail Blazers via YouTube/NBA; Corbyn via YouTube/VICE News;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
