Today’s Top Stories
1. Did embattled UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn once visit the Knesset to free Mordechai Vanunu, who leaked Israeli nuclear secrets?
2. Another damaging photo of Corbyn and a Palestinian terrorist surfaced. At the Tunisian wreath-laying ceremony, Corbyn “shared a platform” with the exiled leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, Maher al-Taher, the Times of London and Daily Mail report.
A month after the photo was taken, the PFLP claimed responsibility for Jerusalem’s Har Nof synagogue attack. Four rabbis, including a British national, and Druze police officer were killed when two Palestinians armed with axes, knives and a gun stormed the synagogue during morning prayers.
Corbyn shared Tunis platform with MAHER al-TAHER of PFLP = Palestinian terror gang which murdered UK Rabbi in a Synagogue https://t.co/3O7W07gGCT via @MailOnline
— Tom Carew (@tmcarew) August 16, 2018
3. The latest Mideast reports picked up by Times of Israel, Haaretz, Ynet and Israel HaYom on a possibly emerging ceasefire deal say it will last for one year and establish a Cyprus-Gaza shipping connection which Israel would have security control of.
The deal would also include “Qatari funding for Gaza’s electricity bills in cooperation with Israel, and Qatari payment of civil service employees’ salaries in Gaza in cooperation with Egypt.”
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
In the News
• According to Israeli media reports Egypt’s intelligence chief, Major General Abbas Kamel, recently visited Tel Aviv to discuss a long-term Gaza ceasefire with his Israeli counterparts.
• The parents of Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in Gaza in 2014, are seeking a temporary injunction against Israel’s efforts for a Gaza ceasefire. The High Court of Justice agreed to hear their request.
• Was the IDF’s re-opening of the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza a premature move?
• Palestinian leader tightening screws on Gaza to serve his own interests accuses the US of promoting Gaza aid to serve its own interests.
• The US warned that neither Israelis nor Palestinians would be fully pleased with President Donald Trump’s peace initiative, and that both sides would have to make painful compromises. To emphasize the point, White House envoy Jason Greenblatt tweeted his joint statement with Ambassadors Nikki Haley and David Friedman and Trump’s advisor/son-in-law Jared Kushner in English, Hebrew and Arabic. More on the story at the Times of Israel.
https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1029817371228364800
• Israel arrested a Belgian national suspected of terror activity last month. A gag order was lifted on Palestinian-Belgian Mustafa Khaled Awad, who is accused of being part of a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror cell. He was detained trying to enter Israel at the Allenby Bridge crossing from Jordan.
• The IDF’s Military Advocate General closed the file on “Black Friday,” the bloodiest day of the 2014 Gaza war, saying there were no grounds to open a criminal investigation.
On August 1, 2014, one hour after a humanitarian ceasefire began on August 1, Hamas fighters attacked an IDF unit, killing two soldiers and abducting Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was dragged into a tunnel. The IDF initiated the so-called Hannibal Protocol (which is no longer in use) to prevent the Hamas personnel from escaping with Goldin. In the course of IDF shelling and air strikes that day, 42 armed Palestinians and 72 likely civilians were killed. The MAG concluded that the civilians were not deliberately targeted and that officers worked to prevent collateral damage.
• UN agency says schools for Palestinian refugees will open on time despite US aid cut. The UN Relief and Works Agency is responsible for more than 700 schools and 22,000 teachers for around 500,000 children in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
• Israel’s Government Press Office scored a correction with Sky News. The web site referred to Black September “activists” involved in the Munich massacre, then changed the wording to “terrorists.”
Hey @Skynews, "Black September activists" are no less than terrorists. Why are you continuing to mislead your readers?@EmmanuelNahshon https://t.co/cY9tM4zfil pic.twitter.com/fS2Ulf3io0
— Gov't Press Office (@GPOIsrael) August 16, 2018
• While Jeremy Corbyn denies Labour’s antisemitism problem, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad wears his on his sleeve.
• Fearing a pro-Palestinian backlash, an Israel-themed Brazilian Carnival parade was nixed for this (!?)
The consulate recently learned that the Aguila de Oro Samba School had decided to focus on Brazil’s rising corruption as a theme for this year’s parade.
• A European debating tournament banned national-origin discrimination after a Qatari team refused to debate Israeli counterparts.
• Defying ‘intimidation’ by BDS advocates protesting Israeli sponsorship, Berlin music festival gets underway.
• Michigan congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib endorses one-state solution, pledges to slash Israeli military aid
• Ilhan Omar, who once called Israel an ‘apartheid regime,’ wins congressional primary in Minnesota
• Israel’s Health Ministry urged calm as more Golan waterways said to be contaminated.
A health official said authorities were considering closing off more rivers and streams in the Golan Heights — including the Jordan River — possibly for months, as more people were hospitalized with symptoms feared to be leptospirosis, a bacterial disease that can be fatal and is transmitted via animal urine.”
Waterways currently closed to bathers are Zavitan, Zaki, Yehudia and Meshushim streams, the Jordan River in the area of Jordan Park, Betekha and Bethsaida in the Majrasa, the Daliot River estuary and the Jilbon River.
• Will the National Defense Authorization Act force Al Jazeera to register as a foreign agent in the US? It’s all about transparency:
The NDAA is the major defense-spending bill signed annually by the president. This year’s bill included a small section relating to foreign-owned media. Concerns about such media transmitting in the US have increased since the 2016 election. The Russia Today TV network registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act under pressure in 2017 . . .
Now Congress has sought another way to potentially force Al Jazeera’s connections to Qatar out into the open. Section 722 of the NDAA is titled “Disclosure requirements for the United States-based foreign media outlets.” It calls on the Federal Communications Commission to transmit to Congress every six months details about content, and a description of the relationship of the media outlet to the foreign government, as well as the legal structure of the media entity.
Commentary
• Cabinet minister Naftali Bennett talked up the controversial nation state law in a New York Times op-ed.
• On the domestic scene, Zev Chafets examines the meaning of Israel’s upgraded Standard & Poors credit rating.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Col. (res.) Ronen Itsik: Calm, but at what price?
– Elior Levy: The scale of arrangement between Israel and Hamas
– Max Boot: I’ve been visiting Israel since 1998. The path to peace is shrinking.
– Mitchell Bard: Hamas anniversary is reminder of terror group’s agenda
– A. Z. Mohamed: In Islam, Jerusalem is not Mecca
– Jonathan Freedland: For Corbyn, precision and honesty are the way out of this wreath mess
– Robert Philpot: Shrugging off critics Trump-style, Corbyn withstands outrage, rises in polls
– Dennis Ross: Iran is throwing a tantrum but wants a deal
Featured image: CC0 BY Unsplash/Charlotte; Nahal Meshushim via Wikimedia Commons; Al Jazeera CC BY Mohamed Nanabhay;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please note our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
