Today’s Top Stories
1. The US indicted two Iranians accused of spying and surveillance of Israeli and Jewish sites in the Chicago area. More at the Chicago Sun Times.
The indictment states that on or about July 21, 2017, Doostdar carried out surveillance and took photos at several Jewish centers in Chicago, including the Hillel Center and the Rohr Chabad House. Doostdar is accused of taking detailed pictures of the security measures at the ultra-orthodox Chabad center.
The indictment does not name the Israeli targets.
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2. The IDF opened a criminal probe into the deaths of two Gaza teens during recent riots. Haaretz explains:
Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek made the decision to examine the two cases: the killing of 18-year-old Abed Nabi next to the border fence in March, and the killing of 15-year-old Othman Hellis next to the Karni crossing in July.
A military statement said initial probes suggested that troops involved in the incidents did not adhere to open-fire regulations.
3. According to Arab reports picked up by Israel HaYom, US President Donald Trump will roll out his Mideast peace plan during his Sept. 25 address before the UN General Assembly.
4. Lessons Learned on South African Limmud Tour: Managing editor Simon Plosker shares his thoughts on two intense weeks of presentations, briefings and interviews in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Mahmoud Abbas and the PA have been effectively sidelined as Israel, Egypt and the US try to arrange a Gaza ceasefire with Hamas. The Media Line examines what this means and what options Abbas still has.
• Police are launching an investigation into the funeral of a terrorist after the family violated an agreement to keep the burial in Umm al-Fahm low key. Ahmad Muhammad Mahamid was shot and killed while trying to stab a police officer in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday. The incident was caught on video.
Fireworks were lit in the town to mark the return of the body, and hundreds attended the funeral. During the procession participants chanted “in spirit and blood we will redeem you martyr.”
According to police the funeral was limited to just 150 family members but “many hundreds were seen participating contrary to the order which defined the time of the funeral, the route, the number of participants.”
• Bloomberg News takes a closer look at Israeli efforts to shore up the Palestinian economy.
• The Jerusalem Post got special access to the IDF’s internal file on the “Gaza beach incident” during the 2014 war. (And here’s The Intercept report the JPost referred to.)
• Staring down calls for a boycott, American singer Lana Del Rey defended her decision to perform in Israel. Del Rey is due to perform at the Meteor Festival at Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan in September.
But in a statement posted to Twitter on Sunday, the singer said “music is universal and should be used to bring us together.”
Window Into Israel
• Israel is easing gun control restrictions for IDF veterans, making an estimated 500,000 Israelis newly eligible for a permit. Take your pick of Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and Ynet coverage.
There are approximately 145,000 gun-license holders in Israel at present. This number does not include people who have firearms because their job requires it, and does not include soldiers and police. Gun licenses must be renewed every three years.
The plan now being completed by the Public Security Ministry would allow almost anyone who has done combat service in the Israeli army to apply for a permit. The ministry believes that among the hundreds of thousands of people who meet this requirement, about 35,000 to 40,000 people will actually apply, boosting the number of permit holders to about 200,000.
(Before you tie this into the American gun control debate, you must see how Haviv Rettig Gur compares and contrasts the Israeli and US gun cultures.)
• Tourism in the Galilee is taking a hit over the outbreak of leptospirosis.
The Ministry of Health has confirmed that 42 Israelis have contracted leptospirosis from bathing in a contaminated spring in the Golan Heights and the waters that it feeds. In most cases the symptoms were mild. The contamination was probably caused from the feces of cattle herds and contaminate waters have been closed. The Ministry of Health stresses that it is safe to travel to the north and the disease cannot be caught from the air or pool water.
• Are Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin subverting Israeli democracy? Ilya Zaslavskiy, an expert on Russia thinks so.
Q: What is the Russian ruling class’s goal in Israel?
But they’re also interested in subverting democracy. A strategic goal for the next few years is to subvert democracy in the West. In some ways they have already succeeded, and the appetite comes with food, as they say. So once they subvert democracy, the goal is to advance more corruption, more vested interests and then just turn the whole West into a corrupt world.
Q: Why do they want to turn the West into a corrupt world?
A: Because then you can engage in what Russians love, which is realpolitik. Whoever is strong gets his own zone of influence and no one else can interfere. Russia would like to divide the world into zones of interest.
Around the World
• Drip drip drip: “Jeremy Corbyn visited Israel and the West Bank in November 2010 with an Islamist lobby group to meet senior Hamas officials, and failed to declare the funding for the trip in violation of parliamentary rules, i24 News can reveal.”
• Drip drip drip: A key ally of Jeremy Corbyn is under media scrutiny. Largely overlooked photos of Tony Lloyd, currently shadow secretary for Northern Ireland, pictured along with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. A 2011 post at Harry’s Place with more photos, notes Lloyd’s scarf, “which depicts, as Palestine, a map which shows not just Gaza and the West Bank, but Israel itself.”
Labour's new shadow Northern Ireland minister, Tony Lloyd, with the leader of the completely Jew-friendly Hamas… awkward… pic.twitter.com/7r3x163giZ
— Full Tilt Boogie (@Full_TiltBoogie) March 25, 2018
• Drip drip drip: Corbyn’s personal secretary, Nicolette Petersen, was dragged into Labour’s anti-Semitism row after it was revealed she once urged supporters to read Jewish newspapers to “show you who not to vote for.” The Daily Mail explains the disclosure of a damaging pamphlet:
Last night, a pamphlet emerged in which she told voters how to get rid of MPs who support Israel in the lead up to the 2010 General Election.
The article was published in the Palestinian News magazine published by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. Mr Corbyn was a patron of the group at the time.
• Drip drip drip: Daniel Sugarman‘s referring to Kevin Maguire‘s latest column.
https://twitter.com/Daniel_Sugarman/status/1031551577516134400
Commentary
• For commentary on the domestic scene, Ben-Dror Yemini weighs in on the Shin Bet’s grilling of Peter Beinart; Moshe Arens notes the differences between Druze and Arab protests against the nation state law.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Peter Lerner: The UN’s insanity on Gaza
– Bassam Tawil: Abbas’s responsibility for Gaza crisis
– Adam Milstein: The grave danger of media bias
– Smadar Bat Adam: What apartheid?
– New York Daily News (staff-ed): A Rey of light: Lana Del Rey refuses to buckle to BDS pressure
– Tammi Rossman-Benjamin: Anti-Zionist attacks at universities have increased — yet schools aren’t doing anything
– Clifford May: Imagining the Islamic Republic
Featured image: CC BY Robert Couse-Baker; Trump via UN Photo/Ariana Lindquist; Del Rey via YouTube/XMVAX; Red Square CC BY-SA Vicente Villamon;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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