Today’s Top Stories
1. According to Israeli media reports, Turkey expelled senior Hamas official Salah Arouri. He masterminded the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers last year.
2. 
Where do American Jews really stand on Iran deal? If you’re looking at recent polls by J Street, AIPAC, or The Israel Project, skepticism is in order. And if you’re trying to gauge who really speaks for US Jewry, don’t bother.
Here’s what Professor Leonard Saxe of Brandeis U. told The Forward after studying the surveys:
“They’re all problematic,” Saxe told the Forward after examining the polls . . . “These are not wonderful studies,” Saxe said. “They’re quick and dirty studies.”
All of the surveys Saxe’s team studied had serious flaws, he related. More importantly, Saxe’s study took issue with the conclusion the polls reached . . .
For Jewish communal leaders seeking a bottom line, the surveys are of little help. At best they provide a picture of a Jewish community skeptical of the details of the deal and split about how to translate these doubts into political action.
3. Will Mohammed Allaan become the first hunger-striking Palestinian administrative detainee to be force-fed under new regulations recently passed by the Knesset? The Times of Israel reports that doctors are refusing to force-feed Allaan, who is allegedly affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In an impressive and sobering background piece, The Media Line looks at what’s involved and why this is happening now. See also Haaretz‘s afternoon update.
4. Why You Should Care About Iran: If you care about human rights, democracy, and freedom, you should be concerned about Iran. View and share the slide show.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Last night, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli at a gas station on Route 443 near Modiin. The Palestinian man was shot and killed by nearby IDF soldiers. The Israeli was hospitalized with light to moderate stab wounds.
• Vatican seeks indictment of Jewish supremacist for supporting church burning
• Merely one day before the Badminton World Championships begin in Jakarta, Israeli player Misha Zilberman finally received a visa to enter Indonesia. According to the Jerusalem Post:
The Olympic Committee of Israel said on Sunday that it will demand to compensate Zilberman with ranking points due to the ordeal he was forced to endure in recent weeks.
Zilberman can close in on a berth at the Rio 2016 Olympics with a couple of wins in Jakarta, but would have faced a tough test against Hsu even in the best of times, not to mention in his current situation.
• Globes: A network of Israeli businesses set up an anti-BDS hotline to help owners dealing with boycotts.
“BDS is not a uniform phenomenon; it is expressed differently in each country. When complaints or reports of such cases are received, we will address the situation specifically, using the tools we have, in order to provide them with a relevant and correct response.”
• Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo insists that the city’s “Tel Aviv on the Seine” event will go on this week, despite BDS pressure to cancel the event.
• Confused Hamas leader posts pro-Israel cartoon
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• A whole bunch of companies linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards will win sanctions relief. According to Reuters, Westerners looking to do business in the Islamic Republic will likely find the Revolutionary Guards serving as a gatekeeper of sorts.
The process is complex and will unfold in stages, with some firms obliged to wait eight years for sanctions relief and others who can expect no concession even then from Washington, a reflection of concerns over activities beyond Iran’s borders . . .
In all, about 90 current and former IRGC officials, entities such as the IRGC itself, and firms that conducted transactions for the Guards will be taken off nuclear sanctions lists by either the United States, EU or United Nations, according to a Reuters tally based on annexes to the text of the nuclear deal.
A handful will see EU sanctions removed once the nuclear deal is enacted on “Implementation Day” expected within the next year.
• If you want to see CNN’s Fareed Zakaria’s full interview with President Obama, it was posted on YouTube in part 1, part 2, and part 3. Meanwhile, Jerusalem responded to the interview’s contentious charge that Israel is unduly meddling in US politics.
But a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the Iranian nuclear issue is not an internal American concern, but rather “has a direct and crucially important impact on Israel’s security.”
Israel, said this official adamantly, “is not meddling in internal American affairs.”
Mideast Matters
• Two Golan Druze were indicted for the murder of wounded Syrian who had been brought to Israel for treatment. Details at YNet and Haaretz: The latter explains:
Bashira Mahmoud, 48, and Amal Abu Salah, 21, were among approximately 30 suspects arrested after a mob attacked a military ambulance carrying two wounded Syrians thought to be linked to a rebel organization that was targeting Syria’s Druze as part of the civil war raging across the border.
• Bashar Assad is desperately pushing for diplomacy, but rebels are more interested in carving up Syria.
Commentary/Analysis
• Why does the mainstream media look away when Palestinians in Arab countries such as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, face torture and ethnic cleansing? Khaled Abu Toameh answers that question:
Similarly, the international media seems to have forgotten that there are tens of thousands of Palestinians living in various Arab countries. The only Palestinians that Western journalists know and care about are those living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
International journalists do not care about the Palestinians in the Arab world because this is not a story that can be blamed on Israel. An Arab killing or torturing an Arab is not an item worth publishing in a major newspaper in the U.S., Canada or Britain. But when a Palestinian in the West Bank complains against the Israeli authorities or Jewish settlers, many Western journalists waste no time rushing to the scene to cover this “major” development.
• Israel wasn’t invited to the inauguration of the new Suez Canal. Did President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi miss an opportunity to make a statement?
• Food for thought: Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Dany Shoham assesses the state of Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Dan Margalit: Administrative detentions are legitimate
– Ray Takeyh: How likely will accord transform revolutionary Iran?
– Roy Gutman: Iran: promoter of upheaval or defender of the status quo?
– Washington Post: The risks of investing in Iran (staff-ed)
• Last but not least, Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzer tag-teamed on a New York Post op-ed laying out how the Iran deal will “unchain Ayatollah Khamenei’s slush fund.”
Featured image: CC BY flickr/Dustin Smous with additions by HonestReporting; numbers CC BY-NC flickr/eltpics; Revolutionary Guards via YouTube/Monitor Mideast;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
