Today’s Top Stories
1. EU envoy warns of more steps against Israeli settlements.
2. The Palestinian National Congress, which represents Palestinians both in the PA and the diaspora, is scheduled to meet for the first time in 20 years. The development further fuels speculation that Mahmoud Abbas is grooming Saeb Erekat as a successor.
3. The IDF struck a Hamas munitions factory in Gaza after a rocket landed in Israel. The rocket landed in an open area causing no casualties or damage. Jerusalem Post coverage.
4. Newsweek’s Housing Crisis: Mahmoud Abbas builds a multi-million dollar palace while the Palestinian economy crumbles.
Israel and the Palestinians
• A Palestinian stabbed Border Police officer in Jerusalem’s Old City yesterday evening. The officer was lightly wounded and the terrorist was detained. Haaretz adds:
Israel Police said the alleged assailant, a 56-year-old Hebron resident, has served a prison sentence in Israel for the murder of an Israeli in Jerusalem. He was released in 2013 as part of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
• Israeli Foreign Ministry labor dispute trips up new ambassadors.
The union announced the labor dispute 10 days ago and instructed employees not to print documents for the diplomats’ families, including passports; not to sign their children up for schools in the target countries; and not to transfer their paperwork to officials in their intended countries, who cannot then approve the appointments.
In addition, the union also instructed workers not to provide the new envoys with training courses and background reviews, and not to have any work meetings with them, the Hebrew-language news site Ynet reported.
• Egypt strips three of citizenship for becoming Israeli.
Commentary/Analysis
• The Jewish Chronicle‘s in a war of words with The Guardian.
• On a lighter note, check out The Concerned Reader’s Guide to Middle East Reporting Clichés. What would you add to the list?
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Brendan O’Neill: Anti-Zionists are not as different from anti-Semities as they’d like to think
– Cnaan Liphshiz: The Matisyahu affair: In Europe, conflating Jew and Israel
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Egypt and the Hamas “cockroaches”
– Jonathan Tobin: Why isn’t Gaza being rebuilt?
– Clifford May: The Parchin precedent
Featured image: CC BY flickr/Official GDC with modifications by HonestReporting
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