Today’s Top Stories
*** Breaking news *** As this roundup was published, breaking reports of Israeli police searching for a Palestinian terror suspect in northern Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan.
1. It turns out that Shami Chakrabarti, whose report on anti-Semitism in the Labour party suppressed information, was nominated for a peerage by party leader Jeremy Corbyn before her report was published.
And what exactly did Chakrabati cover up? Her interview with Corbyn about his own views on Hamas and other issues related to the party’s top leadership. The Independent, Daily Telegraph and Jewish Chronicle picked up on the Times of London‘s coverage. Outraged British Jewish leaders are calling this a “whitewash for peerages” scandal.
Asked why she had not mentioned this in her report, she said: “I was not adjudicating on Mr Corbyn, his leadership or any other individual in the party.”
Challenged over whether she was satisfied with the answers, Ms Chakrabarti said: “I believe his answers to be genuine.”
During the interview Ms Chakrabarti was also asked if she had been promised a peerage. She replied: “You can ask the question but I am going to evade it at this point.”
More background/links at Harry’s Place.
2. Australia and Germany suspended funds for World Vision activities in the West Bank and Gaza after the arrest of its Gaza director for diverting millions in aid money to Hamas. By the way, the UN deleted a page lauding Mohammed Halabi as a glowing “humanitarian hero.”
Meanwhile, Israeli security officials warn that Hamas likely has plants in other NGOs.
3. Russia admitted it mistakenly flew a drone over Israeli air space. In the incident three weeks ago, two Patriot missiles and an air-to-air missile failed to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• The New York Times picked up on what it calls Fatah’s “incendiary claim” that it killed 11,000 Israelis. The Times’ link to the specific Facebook page doesn’t work, suggesting Fatah removed the boast.
• A Hamas operative was killed in a tunnel collapse on Saturday night. According to the Jerusalem Post, it was the third tunnel collapse in the past month.
• Would-be Jerusalem bomber learned to make explosives from YouTube videos.
• Police discovered a pistol and two loaded cartridges in the school locker of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in eastern Jerusalem. Also this weekend, police found and a neutralized a pipe bomb found outside Rachel’s Tomb.
• Sparking a minor diplomatic incident, Lebanese athletes refused to board bus with Israelis from the Olympic village to the the opening ceremonies.
• In the weeks leading up to Rio, we saw a few stories about Palestinian swimmers not having Olympic-sized swimming pools in the West Bank or Gaza in which train (CBC and Reuters come to mind).Turns out there are Olympic-sized pools in the Palestinian areas, and Tablet‘s Liel Leibovitz didn’t have a difficult time tracking them down.
If we were blessed with journalists who had the ability to use advanced research tools like the Internet, we might’ve benefited from knowing that the Israeli government office for coordinating activities in the West Bank, or COGAT, issued a statement last month on its Facebook page, making it clear that it would’ve gladly considered accommodating al-Atrash had she bothered applying for a permit to train in Jerusalem—which, like Palestinian athletes before her, she refused to do—and wishing her the best of luck anyway. It might’ve also been helpful to note that plenty of athletes around the world, including here in the United States, train, like al-Atrash, in semi-Olympic 25 meter pools, and that to qualify for the Olympics al-Atrash had to have qualified in a regulation-sized pool, which makes the whole access question a rather minor one. But never mind all that, because the Palestinian Territories, you see, have not one Olympic pool but several.
• Worth reading: One month after the death of her father, Rabbi Miki Mark in a Palestinian terror attack, 14-year-old Tehila Mark sat down with YNet to share her memories of the drive-by shooting and how her family is coping with the loss.
• A Palestinian activist appearing on a Syrian opposition TV station (see video or transcript) got into an uncomfortable debate over why the Palestinian cause is the world’s top cause even though more Syrians and Iraqis have been displaced overall. The host, Dima Wannous, really put Muhammad Masharqa in his place with this one pithy sentence.
“In other words, you’ve benefited from the enemy being Jewish and Israeli…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKYgYq_UIC0
Around the World
• More than 400 documents on Israeli-UK nuclear collaboration in the 70s disappeared from the British National Archives over the last four years. According to The Independent:
The losses were revealed by a FoI request submitted by the BBC.
A 1979 document titled “Military and nuclear collaboration with Israel: Israeli nuclear armament”, is among the missing pieces.
The file, contained among government files on arms control and disarmament in the 1970s, apparently relates to a United Nations resolution from 1978 which concerned “increasing evidence” Israel was attempting to acquire nuclear weapons.
• Egypt announced that it killed the leader of Islamic State’s Sinai branch. Abu Duaa al-Ansari and 45 other jihadists were killed in an airstrike near Arish, Sinai’s largest town. More at Reuters.
• Iran confirmed it executed a nuclear scientist who gave info about Tehran’s atomic program to the US.
• German university cancels seminar claiming Israel harvests Palestinian organs.
• Meet Kasim Hafeez
‘I was the campus anti-Semite,’ says reformed Muslim Zionist
• According to the Times of London, Israel cracked a secret message app used by Islamic State terrorists.
Commentary/Analysis
• According to Norman Bailey, Bashar Assad offered Israel an assurance of quiet along the border if Israel supported his regime. It’s a tempting offer, but it depends on whether a post-civil war Assad regime can really break out of Iran’s orbit. Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers making increasing visits to the border doesn’t jive with what I’d call quiet. What does your crystal ball gazing say?
If there is any reality to Assad’s offer, Israel will benefit even more. Just as Egypt and Saudi Arabia are reining in Hamas at a time when the Palestinian leadership on the West Bank is in the last stages of decrepitude, a Syrian-Israeli-Russian coalition to confine Hezbollah to its southern Lebanese base would be much in Israel’s interests.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Sir Eric Pickles: British taxpayers let down by gross abuses of Palestinian aid
– Ariel Bolstein: The truth about humanitarian aid
– Yaakov Amidror: A covenant of shadows
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: The Sinai strike
– Yves Mamou: Palestinians: The “country” where crime is an official job
– Ruthie Blum: Abbas’ latest jaw-droppers
– Amos Harel: Palestinian municipal elections could be final blow for Abbas
– Chloe Valdary: Black Lives Matter’s Jewish problem is also a black problem
– Jeffrey Salkin: Black lives matter. Does Israel?
– Lucy Lips: The definition of Zionism
– Douglas Murray: UK: A tale of two inquiries
Featured image: CC0 Roman Drits/BarnImages with additions by HonestReporting; Chakrabati CC BY Southbank Center;
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.
