Today’s Top Stories
1. Congrats to judoka Yarden Gerbi, Israel’s first medal winner at the Rio Olympics. Israelis joyously lit up Twitter as Gerbi took a bronze medal and her place on the winner’s podium after defeating a Japanese opponent in the under-63 kg competition. Josh Feigenbaum gets tweet of the day.
Best part of living in a small country is how excited they get over a medal. Mazal tov Yarden #Gerbi! https://t.co/2TJ1KloDV4
— Josh Feigenbaum (@jbfeig) August 9, 2016
2. According to a Hamas official, Israel and Hamas are negotiating a prisoner swap for the release of two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two IDF soldiers.
Avraham Mengistu, of Ethiopian descent, and Juma Ibrahim Abu Anima, a Bedouin — wandered into the Gaza Strip in separate incidents. The soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, were killed during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
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3. Turns out Israel’s not the only country with concerns about terror groups infiltrating charity and humanitarian organizations. Australia and several South East Asian states have similar fears. The Australian picks up on a report raising the same red flags as Israel:
The report, to be released in Bali today, is the first regional assessment of the risks posed by terrorism funding. Written jointly by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines and Australia, it warns that “funding through misuse of not-for-profit organisations” to support terror activities poses a challenge for Australian authorities as well as for other countries in the region.
More on the story at the Sydney Morning Herald. Meanwhile, there’s more information about Waheed Borsh, the UN engineer who was helping Hamas. YNet writes:
Borsh’s interrogation also yielded further information that Hamas exploited UN aid for its own purposes. For example, when weapons caches or tunnel entrances were discovered in homes being restored by the UNDP, Hamas would take control of the job site and the materials discovered. This is in contradiction to UN policies which clearly dictate that weapons discovered are to be reported and destroyed.
This naval dock was built by #Hamas using UN resources designated for humanitarian aid. pic.twitter.com/3pQOsjReGV
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 9, 2016
Israel and the Palestinians
• A Gaza man who infiltrated Israel managed to evade capture for nearly a day, according to Israeli media reports.
The man was found by Border Police officers over six miles (10 kilometers) inside Israeli territory, hiding near some greenhouses outside the town of Netivot, Channel 2 news reported . . .
While it is not uncommon for residents of the Gaza Strip to attempt to sneak into Israel, the amount of time it took for security forces to locate the man is unusual.
• The battle for Jerusalem continues. The Palestinian Authority is considering establishing its own Jerusalem municipal council. Meanwhile, there’s a plan to boost the Israeli police presence in East Jerusalem’s neighborhoods.
• The Shin Bet intercepted a shipment of commando knives at the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Gaza hidden among packages of plumbing tools.
• Eight Palestinian operatives injured in Gaza tunnel collapse.
• Meet Ayoub Kara, Israel’s top Druze politician and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s point man on secret outreach to Arab states.
As Arab states crumble while others shudder in the face of Iranian boldness, Kara identifies a rare opportunity for Israel. Never before have the Arabs been in greater need of Israel’s edge, be it technological or military.
Kara shares Netanyahu’s belief that peace lies not in signed documents with neighboring states but in the combination of military deterrence and economic fortitude. Factories and employment in the Arab world guarantee Israel’s safety much better than a negotiation process that leads nowhere, he asserted.
• Worth reading: The Christian Science Monitor takes a closer look at Gaza’s summer camps, especially those run by Hamas.
• Amid Hamas-Fatah feuding, Ramallah invalidates new degrees from top Gaza university.
• In what McClatchy News calls a “quick primer on the disputed land” journalist Teresa Welsh writes, “The state of Israel was created in 1948 on land that had previously been controlled by the British Mandate and was considered the nation of Palestine.”
Memo to McClatchy: In truth, “Palestine” was a region within the Roman Empire and later in the Ottoman Empire, but never a nation.
• Allon Lee has a few bones to pick with a recent Gaza dispatch by Australian ABC News reporter Sophie McNeill.
Around the World
• Canada pulls logo from World Social Forum in Montreal after MPs complained of anti-Semitic events. The lawmakers were especially disgusted by an anti-Semitic cartoon that appeared — and later removed — on the forum’s web site. And then there’s this:
Palestinian activists angry with Canada for refusing to issue them visas to attend World Social Forum meeting in Montreal.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) August 9, 2016
• With the BDS movement suffering a series of defeats in Spain, the JTA examines why judges and politicians are standing up to the boycotters — for now (Ibiza notwithstanding).
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Benny Avni: How your tax dollars are funding Hamas’ next terror war
– Nadav Shragai: The Temple Mount and a chronicle of violence and lies
– Aaron David Miller: Putin, Erdogan and shifting Mid-East alliances
Featured image: CC BY John Ragai with additions by HonestReporting; Kara via YouTube/arabTV
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