Today’s Top Stories
1. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres suggested military force to protect Palestinians from Israel. It was one of four proposals he offered for resolving the Gaza situation. In any event, none of the following will fly without US support and Israeli cooperation:
– Providing a “more robust UN presence on the ground” with rights monitors and political officers to report on the situation.
– Pouring in more UN humanitarian and development aid to “ensure the well-being of the population.”
– Creating a civilian observer mission that would be present in sensitive areas such as checkpoints and near Israeli settlements, with a mandate to report on protection issues.
– Deploying an armed military or police force, under a UN mandate, to provide physical protection to Palestinian civilians.
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon’s response: “The only protection the Palestinian people need is from their own leadership.”
How does the UN Sec. Gen. propose preventing such a force from becoming a shield for Hamas, which continues rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and population centers, thereby denying Israel its right of self-defense under Article 51 of UNCharter? https://t.co/42Dig2n6wt
— Dr. Dore Gold (@DrDoreGold) August 18, 2018
2. Palestinian riots continued along the Gaza border on Friday. Israel responded by closing the pedestrian crossing at the Erez Crossing except for humanitarian cases. Jerusalem called it a warning to Hamas.
The closure is a symbolic move by Jerusalem since the Erez Crossing is used by few Palestinians. Those who do use the crossing do so with official authorization on humanitarian grounds, mainly belonging to aid organizations.
On Saturday night, Palestinian media outlets also reported on the partial closure against a background of stalled talks in the ceasefire arrangements.
As for ceasefire talks, Mahmoud Abbas openly said he’s trying to sabotage the Egyptian-mediated peace efforts. Talks will pause on Tuesday for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
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3. A video surfaced of UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn endorsing a boycott of Israel back in 2015. It contradicts Corbyn’s previous claims that he doesn’t support “a comprehensive or blanket boycott.” Backstory at the JTA.
In the footage filmed in Belfast, he is asked: “Can the panel give hope to the people of Palestine by supporting the movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions against Israel?”
He replies: “I think the boycott campaign, divestment campaign, is part and parcel of a legal process that has to be adopted.” He later adds: “I believe that sanctions against Israel, because of its breach of the trade agreement, are the appropriate way of promoting [the] peace process.”
4. Google Maps ‘Crosses Country Borders’ in Jerusalem: According to Google Maps, a walk from HonestReporting’s new offices in downtown Jerusalem to the Old City may “cross country borders.” A political statement or a technical glitch?
5. HR Prompts The Guardian to Downgrade Palestinian ‘Ambassador’: According to diplomatic protocol, and the UK’s list of diplomatic representatives, Manuel Hassassian’s official title is “Head of Mission,” not “Ambassador.”
Israel and the Palestinians
• According to Arab media reports picked up by the Times of Israel, “a Syrian military intelligence officer in charge of the army’s ‘Palestine Department’ was assassinated Saturday.”
According to Israel’s Army Radio, quoting Syrian opposition sources, Habib was the point man in President Bashar Assad’s regime “responsible for the struggle against Israel.”
There was no word on the identity of the shooters or a possible motive.
• An Israeli Arab was shot and killed by police while trying to stab a policeman in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday.
• Israeli security forces investigating the death of an Israeli woman killed by a Palestinian motorist believe the fatal hit-and-run was an accident and not a terror attack. Hava Roizen, a 42-year-old Russian immigrant was struck by a car in the northern West Bank on Thursday evening. The driver turned himself in to PA police the same night and will remain in their custody.
“I was afraid that if I stopped they would kill me, so I fled,” the driver told Palestinian police, according to Hebrew media reports.
• The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center takes a closer look at the how Palestinians use vests labeled as “press” to carry out attacks against Israelis.
• The US consulate in Haifa is closing down on September 1 with public services to be divided between the embassy in Jerusalem and its Tel Aviv branch. An embassy official told Ynet it was “part of internal planning of the embassy and of administrative reasons.”
• Israeli Arabs want to set July 19 — the anniversary of the nation state law’s passage — as Israel Apartheid Day, the Jerusalem Post reports. There’s room to debate the law, but it’s not an apartheid law. It’s telling that Israeli Arabs never jumped on the Israel Apartheid Week bandwagon in that event’s 14 years. (Here’s why.)
Around the World
• Per The Independent: “Antisemitism training at this year’s Labour conference is at risk of being scrapped after Jewish members accused party leaders of trying to ‘censor’ the sessions.”
• The Labour party suspended former MP Jim Sheridan over comments he made about the Jewish community on Facebook.
• Fatah cast doubt on Corbyn’s claim that no terrorists were buried in the Tunisian cemetery. The Independent explains:
Fatah’s official Facebook page carries a tribute to Atef Bseiso, who is buried at the cemetery in Tunisia, stating that he was involved in planning the “Munich operation”.
• The Labour party filed a formal complaint with Britain’s Independent Press Standards Organization, the UK press regulatory organization, over media coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s wreath-laying imbroglio, The Guardian reports. A damaging photo from 2014 of Corbyn holding a wreath by the graves of Palestinian terrorists connected with the 1972 Olympic massacre in Munich made front page news last week:
In its complaint, the party said the Sun, the Times, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Express and Metro had misrepresented the event, which the Labour leader attended in 2014.
The press regulator has acknowledged the complaint and said it will consider taking the case further, raising the prospect that it could attempt to rule on the definitive chain of events surrounding Corbyn’s visit to the cemetery.
It is highly unusual for a senior politician to turn to the press regulator over negative media coverage.
I doubt Corbynistas will get much satisfaction from IPSO. HonestReporting has been left empty-handed after filing far more credible complaints with the regulator.
• UK Jewish leader calls Corbyn premiership an ‘existential threat’ to community.
• Munich massacre survivor brands Jeremy Corbyn an ‘anti-Semite who admires terrorists.’
• As pro-Palestinian politicians win US primaries, American Jews ask if it’s ‘a wave or a ripple.’
The answer depends on who you ask. Pro-Israel operatives who focus on maintaining bipartisan support for the Jewish State insist it means very little. Presuming they go to Capitol Hill, they will be just three of 535 members of Congress . . .
But there are others who think what’s beginning to unfold is the inevitable outcome when an Israeli prime minister aligns himself, or is perceived to align himself, with one political party, and who advances policies that are known to ostracize America’s progressive movement — with which most US Jews happen to associate.
• BDS activists shut down Berlin music festival event due to Israeli sponsorship.
• 20-year-old and co-conspirator charged in Indianapolis-area synagogue vandalism.
• Romanian police nab suspect in anti-Semitic vandalism of Elie Wiesel’s home.
• Germany investigates website selling “Heil Hitler Beer,” “Fuhrer Wine” and “Zyklon B Peanuts.”
• Canadian Jews decry fashion shoot at Ottawa‘s Holocaust Monument as desecration. Last word on the issue goes to Jane Daly.
Who needs to calm down? The Jewish people? Like there isn’t one other place for a fashion shoot in Ottawa than a memorial for the millions killed in the Holocaust? Who wants to look at clothes with that as a backdrop?
— Jane Daly (@dalybeauty) August 15, 2018
• Canadian lawmaker rescinds award to activist who participated in pro-Palestinian ‘hate rally.’
• A Canadian newspaper praises Palestinian mothers who sent their sons on jihad missions.
Commentary
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels on the Gaza situation . . .
– Amb. Danny Danon: The UN enables Palestinian rejectionism
– Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser: Does Israel have a strategy for Gaza?
– Avi Issacharoff: Why a true long-term deal for the Gaza Strip is still a long way off
– Zvi Bar’el: The Qatar dilemma: When even a supporter of terrorism can be an Israeli ally
– Yoav Limor: Hamas’ moment of truth
– Hillel Frisch: Why Hamas escalated and why it is winning the current round
– Alex Fishman: The art of playing for time
– Herb Keinon: Syria in Gaza, without the Russians
• For commentary on the domestic scene, Lahav Harkov and Col (Res.) Dr. Raphael Bouchnik-Chen weigh in on the nation state law. Tweet of the day goes to Seth Frantzman.
There are people who comment in western media about changes in Israel and its society who have never set foot in a barber shop in Israel, never taken public transport or been to most of Israel, yet despite shallow, surface cliched knowledge they are quoted and listened to #think pic.twitter.com/K8lnQxxg6w
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) August 19, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading this weekend . . .
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: On the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords
– Amos Harel, Amir Tibon: Why Iran thinks it has an ‘insurance policy’ against an Israeli or US strike
– Maysam Behravesh: US’s ‘Arab NATO’ plan will not curb Iran
– Michael Freeman: BDS has nothing useful to contribute to the Mideast peace process
– Jay Sekulow: UNRWA has changed the definition of refugee
– Dr. Yitzhak Degani: The Assad regime returns to the Golan
– Jonathan Tobin: The Corbyn challenge for progressives
– Brendan O’Neill: The shameful double standards of the Corbyn crew
– Fiamma Nirenstein: Corbyn unmasked: He brought flowers to terrorists
– John Lloyd: Can UK’s Labour rid itself of anti-Semitism?
– Daily Telegraph (staff-ed): Labour needs to confront the moral outrage surrounding Corbyn
– Christopher Booker: The BBC still thinks we should appease Iran’s dictators, but Iranians themselves are protesting
Featured image: CC BY-NC Roland Scheerer; newsboy via Public Domain Files; US flag CC0 Pixabay;
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