Today’s Top Stories
1. Mohammed Allaan was in a coma after losing consciousness on Friday. Allaan, accused of membership in Islamic Jihad, has been protesting his incarceration without trial, a controversial legal status Israel calls “administrative detention.” Islamic Jihad threatened if Allaan dies, the cease-fire is over.
Meanwhile, the former US commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison urged Israel to force-feed Allaan “immediately.” The Jerusalem Post picked up on an interview due to be aired tonight:
In an interview to be aired Sunday night on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and Philadelphia’s NewsTalk 990 AM, Colonel Michael Bumgarner, said of Israel, “Without reservation they should force feed him.” . . .
Drawing on his own experience with hunger-striking prisoners, Bumgarner argued that if Israel does not force-feed Allan and prisoners like him, “You are going to have a constant breakdown within any of your institutional settings there.”
2. Although the UNRWA has perpetuated the Palestinian refugee crisis, Israel hasn’t been forced to fund education and health care for thousands of refugees. The Times of Israel takes a closer look at what the UN agency’s money crunch means for Israel:
“When youngsters are out of school, and also suffer from economic hardship, it’s much easier to draw them to political demonstrations,” he told The Times of Israel. “A strike would endanger both the Palestinian Authority and the relative quiet that we [in Israel] have been experiencing in the West Bank. It directly harms Israel’s interests.”
3. Jerusalem Post: The Jordanian-based Arab Bank reached a settlement with US victims of Hamas attacks in Israel, but the terms were not disclosed.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinian Authority faces million dollar lawsuit for torturing prisoner
• Saturday saw a pair of Palestinian stabbing attacks in the West Bank. Two Israeli security personnel were lightly wounded; both Palestinian terrorists were shot. One was killed, the other was lightly wounded and treated on the scene. YNet coverage.
• You need a scorecard to keep up with the Israeli political system’s version of musical chairs, and the latest developments have the Anglo community buzzing.
First are unconfirmed reports that the Prime Minister’s spokesman, Mark Regev, will be appointed ambassador to Britain. The Melbourne native has served in various spokesman and media roles for 20 years at the Israeli embassy in Washington, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Next, Danny Danon was appointed ambassador to the UN. Replacing Danon in the Knesset is Sharren Haskel, a 31-year-old Canadian-born and Australian-educated veterinarian nurse by trade. She’s also a former debate champion.
• I did a double take when I saw this headline too. Life really is stranger than The Onion.
• The IDF’s facing new challenges as Palestinian, Iranian, and Hezbollah hackers boost the sophistication and frequency of their cyber attacks.
• Senior Hamas official arrives in Israel for medical care
• Here’s another example of thawing ties between Israel and the Gulf states:
Dubai-based company offering services in Israel
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• A troubling development that should make all Israelis pause: Israel boosted security for US ambassador Dan Shapiro. According to Israeli media reports, the US embassy received several letters threatening his life, and another threatening message was anonymously posted on Shapiro’s Facebook page.
All the messages denounced Washington’s push for the Iranian nuclear deal.
• Iran says the nuke deal will help it target Israel.
• This weekend, Iran gave the International Atomic Energy Agency documents associated with the Islamic Republic’s alleged nuclear weapons work. AP coverage.
• The unfortunate polarization and demagoguery surrounding the US discourse on the nuclear deal continues. An exhibition at a Manhattan art gallery includes one feature asking, “Chuck Schumer, Israeli Spy?”
• Iranian dissidents spoke up against the nuclear deal, getting a soapbox platform from The Daily Beast.
• Israeli officials continued challenging the Iranian nuclear deal in the mainstream media. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely weighed in with USA Today op-ed (republished in the Detroit Free Press). Israel’s consul general in Los Angeles, David Siegel, discussed Iranian cheating with Breitbart News.
And Ambassador Ron Dermer sat down with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. I couldn’t find the full interview on-line, but here are clips one and two. Dermer also appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Mideast Matters
• The US says there’s a strong likelihood that Islamic State used mustard gas against Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq. The Wall St. Journal (click via Google News) reports:
The attack in question took place late Wednesday, about 40 miles southwest of Erbil in northern Iraq. A German Defense Ministry spokesman said about 60 Peshmerga fighters, who help protect Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, were reported to have suffered injuries to their throats consistent with a chemical attack while fighting Islamic State.
• Egypt continues plans to expand its Sinai-Gaza buffer zone by 500 meters. Cairo completed a survey, and according to the Egypt Daily News, approximately 1,200 families will be evacuated. This is on top of the more than 3,000 families whose homes were demolished during the buffer zone’s earlier stages. Can you imagine the outrage if Israel did that?
• Bahrain arrested five men in connection to a July bombing that killed two policemen in the capital city of Manama. According to Bahraini security, the group was trained and financed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah. More at Gulf News and Reuters.
• There’s been a lot of buzz (and outrage at Islamic State) over the New York Times‘ in-depth expose on the terror group’s systematic campaign of rape and slavery specifically targeting Yazidi women. Reporter Rukmini Callimachi shared with Kaelyn Forde how she got the story and earned the trust of the Yazidi women who escaped.
Around the World
• Britain’s Labor Party is investigating an abusive anti-Semitic hate campaign aimed at one of the party’s critics of front-runner Jeremy Corbyn. MP John Mann has received a slew of ugly emails and tweets over the last six weeks. More at the Sunday Express and Jewish Chronicle.
• Music festival in Spain cancels Matisyahu gig over refusal to endorse Palestinian state
• Fake bomb discovered at Swedish Chabad House.
Commentary/Analysis
• Max Boot takes on Fareed Zakaria’s unconvincing case in favor of the Iran deal.
• As the Mideast melts down in sectarian violence and civil war, MEMRI flagged an interesting commentary from Kuwait’s state-run paper, Al-Watan. Columnist Abdallah Al-Hadlaq called on Arab states to sever ties with “fascist” Iran and, dare I say, strengthen political, commercial and even military ties with the Jewish state.
• While the US prepares to release frozen funds to Iran, a Wall St. Journal staff-ed (click via Google News) wonders why victims of Iranian terror who obtained legal judgments are left holding the bag:
By ignoring the $45 billion owed to Iran’s terror victims, the U.S. government mocks its own judiciary and erodes a deterrent to foreign state sponsorship of terrorism. This is one more reason for Congress to reject a deal that blesses Iran as a nuclear-threshold state.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– David Horovitz: Obama’s Iran deal: A fight to the bitter end
– James Fallows: What if Barack and Bibi are both right?
– Alan Dershowitz: Bibi not “interfering” in US foreign policy
– Amir Taheri: When Obama adopts the mullahs’ style
– Judith Bergman: Israeli-Chinese strategic ties
– Wall St. Journal: Islamic State gets mustard gas (via Google News)
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/David Jones with additions by HonestReporting; money CC BY Flickr/Vyacheslav Argenberg; Regev via YouTube/AP Archive;
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