Today’s Top Stories
1. Mahmoud Abbas will visit Iran sometime in the next two months. Although the visit needs to be seen in the context of frosty Hamas-Tehran ties, the Jerusalem Post reports that one item on the PA-Iran agenda is a campaign against Israel’s nuclear program.
Majdalani said on Monday his visit to Iran resulted in an agreement to revive the idea of an international conference to rid the region of Israel’s nuclear arsenal and weapons of mass destruction.
Israel has never confirmed whether it possesses nuclear weapons.
2. A delegation of US Congressmen visiting the Temple Mount were stalked and harassed by Muslim men, including members of the Waqf staff. The Jerusalem Post‘s scoop includes a video.
3. A Hamas tunnel digger arrested by the Shin Bet last month had a lot to say to his interrogators. According to the Times of Israel, we’re talking about the routes and locations of new tunnels and their entrances and exits, and goodies from Tehran:
Iranian support came in the form of cash, advanced weapons and sophisticated electronic equipment meant to interfere with control signals for Israeli drones over the coastal enclave . . .
Shaer told investigators that material for Hamas’s war infrastructure is now being brought into Gaza under the guise of reconstruction programs aimed at repairing the damage caused during the fighting, when thousands of buildings were destroyed.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinian hunger-striker Mohammed Allaan was transferred to Barzilai hospital amid fears he will be force-fed. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• If you listen carefully, you can hear BDSniks gnashing their teeth as 15 Nobel laureates and hundreds of science students arrive in Jerusalem for next week’s World Science Conference Israel. The Times of Israel writes:
Such a gathering would be notable at any time – but it’s especially relevant, and encouraging, at a time when the BDS movement has scored some victories on college campuses, as well as in the corporate word, said Guy Kibetz of the Foreign Ministry, who is helping coordinate and organize the event.”
• The Obama administration requested lower bond for Palestinian appeal of terror case.
• Paris is moving forward with plans to dedicate a day of beach festivities (along the Seine) to Tel Aviv. While I appreciate Mayor Anne Hidalgo for standing fast against BDS criticism, I have to wonder about back-handed “compliments” like this coming from her office. Here’s what AFP wrote:
Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s deputy Bruno Julliard said Israel’s critics should distinguish between “the brutal politics of the Israeli government and Tel Aviv, a progressive city“.
• Former Italian lawmaker and journalist Fiamma Nirenstein was appointed as Israel’s next ambassador to Rome. Haaretz reports that if she’s approved, Nirenstein would begin serving next summer, and have to give up her Italian citizenship.
Nirenstein is considered one of the strongest pro-Israel voices in Europe, and would often appear on broadcasts in Italy and elsewhere to debate politicians or other personalities who criticized Israel.
• Germans use Holocaust street memorials to bash Israel?
• At the World Badminton Championships, Israeli’s Misha Zilberman blamed his first round defeat on Indonesia issuing a last-minute visa. Zilberman was stuck in Singapore and only arrived in Jakarta the day before his match. AFP reports:
“I am very disappointed that I didn’t show even 50 per cent of what I could because I didn’t practise for the last five days or hit any shuttles,” he said.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• CNN: Obama’s Iran deal rhetoric troubles American Jews
• President Obama continued his media offensive for the Iran deal, discussing the accord with Steve Inskeep of NPR (take your pick of video or transcript). He also discussed the deal and its implications with Mic and answered questions submitted by young adults around the world.
• Russian warships dock in Iran for war training
Mideast Matters
• There’s a new Syrian Druze militia apparently armed with the financial support of the Israeli Druze. It opposes Assad, Islamic State, and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
The Druze sheikh explained the funding for the new armed group, saying that they had acquired weapons “from our own free money, the fear of our people in Palestine [for our safety] and the fear of expatriates who wish to protect the mountain.”
Although the Druze leader implied private donors in Israel and elsewhere abroad had helped finance his group, he insisted that it “would not take funding from states.”
Commentary/Analysis
• Quite a few people are speaking out against the rising anti-Semitic tone in the public discourse over the Iran deal. Ben-Dror Yemini weighs in on the illusion of Jewish power. William Jacobson comments on the dual-loyalty flack Senator Charles Schumer is taking for opposing the accord. Lenny Ben-David recalls how George Bush Sr. responded to anti-Semitism during a 1991 battle over loan guarantees. See also Bret Stephens (Wall St. Journal via Google News), Abraham Ben-Zvi, Elliott Abrams, Shmuel Rosner, and a slightly more generous Jonathan Chait.
And thank you, James Taranto, for citing HonestReporting (and linking to Sunday’s roundup) in your Wall St. Journal column today (click via Google News).
On the other side, for example, we have Stephen Walt plugging David Bromwich’s little screed at the Huffington Post. For a sampling of tweets, see MJ Rosenberg and Judith Millstead.
• I can think of reasons for and against pulling international peacekeepers out of the Sinai, but it’s fair of this New York Times staff-ed raise the question. Is their mission obsolete, no longer justifying the danger they face from Islamic State?
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Ehud Yaari: How Iran plans to destroy Israel
– Yoel Cohen: Can Israel’s image be normalized?
– Marion Bernard: From Riyadh in the French Riviera to Tel Aviv in Paris
– Emily Landau: What 29 top US scientists don’t know
– Omer Dostri: Palestinian terror reinvents itself
Featured image: CC BY flickr/John Ragai with modifications by HonestReporting; Nirenstein CC BY Wikimedia Commons/Shomroni
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