Today’s Top Stories
1. Visiting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was confronted with fake Palestinian news. The UN and Palestinian media offered differing accounts on what transpired when Guterres was confronted in Ramallah by the mothers of several Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Spoiler alert: Wafa, the official PA news agency dunnit:
The statement came after the official Wafa Palestinian news agency reported on the meeting. While the UN said Guterres met with the mothers of detained minors, Wafa identified one of the women present as Latifa Abu Hamid, whose four adult sons are serving life sentences in Israeli prisons on various terror charges.
One of the Abu Hamid brothers was actively involved in the October 2000 lynching of two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah and another provided weapons during the Second Intifada for deadly terror attacks against Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, according to the MEMRI watchdog. All were active members of terror organizations upon their arrest.
The Palestinian report also quoted Guterres as expressing sympathy for the prisoners’ plight, in comments the UN said were “fabricated.”
“Any quotes attributed to the secretary-general in this regard are fabricated,” it said.
While in Israel, Guterres took a helicopter tour of the Israel-Gaza border and also met with residents of Israeli communities near the Strip. Today, Guterres visited Gaza.
2. Israel’s Government Press Office decided it will not revoke Elias Karram’s press credentials.
Karram, Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau chief, came under GPO scrutiny when a video surfaced in which he told the Muslim Brotherhood’s Dar al-Iman TV last year “journalistic work is an integral part of the resistance.” For more background on Karram, Al Jazeera and the GPO, see ‘Resistance Journalism’ Doesn’t Deserve Press Credentials.
The backtrack came after Karram provided a statement saying he does not support terrorism, while the press office said security officials had recommended against a revocation.
The press office said it would be following Karram’s reports over the next six months and may revisit its decision. Karram, an Israeli who lives in Nazareth, has held a press card since 2011.
How many chances should the Qatar-based network get? Sign HonestReporting’s petition calling on the GPO to sanction Al Jazeera.
As expected, Israel GPO decided not to revoke press card of @AJENews journalist Elias Karram #emptythreats
— Asaf Ronel (@AsafRonel) August 30, 2017
3. Israeli Ambassador to Egypt David Govrin and his staff returned to Cairo after being away for eight months.
The ambassador and his staff are expected to resume work from the envoy’s suburban Cairo home.
The Israeli embassy in Cairo has been closed since protesters stormed it in 2011.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Arab youths in a summer camp marched through a refugee camp near Bethlehem to honor Palestinian “martyrs.” What made this solidarity march especially unusual is that the children were Israeli Arabs and the march was organized by the Israeli Arab Balad Party. Ynet describes the appalling scene:
The march’s repertoire included calls saying “with spirit and blood we will redeem you, martyr” and “with spirit and blood we will redeem you, Palestine.”
At the parade’s conclusion, they visited families of terrorists who were killed or wounded during terror attacks. “We pay our respects to the families of the martyrs,” said one of the march’s leaders.
As part of the summer camp’s activities, children were divided into groups. One such group was named after former Palestinian Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat and another after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the eponym for the military arm of Hamas. Another group is named after Gamal Abdel Nasser, former President of Egypt who repeatedly spoke of Israel’s annihilation.
• Israelis again debate the price of a kidnapped soldier’s body as media reports indicate that a prisoner deal with Hamas is frozen.
Around the World
• Israeli aid groups sent assistance to Houston. And Israeli Houstonian Yaniv Jerupi described to Ynet helping out with rescue efforts.
Jerupi also said that in the hour of crisis, his instinct as a former IDF soldier came to the fore.”Our character, and the Israeli ex-soldier instinct, led us to search for Israeli families who have been cut off due to the floods,” he said, “and we made sure to take them to safety.”
He further recounted his daring improvised rescue effort using a Kayak. “I took a kayak out to the heart of the neighborhood with three friends and we managed to save a couple of seniors whose house was flooded with water reaching a height of a meter-and-a-half.”
After veering away from Houston, Tropical Storm Harvey is making landfall again, this time along the Texas-Louisiana border.
• Anti-Semitic UK politician Baroness Jenny Tonge is facing new scrutiny after sharing and then deleting an anti-Semitic graphic featuring a photo of rock star Roger Waters and a caricature of a hook-nosed Jew.
Saeed Sawar, a Glasgow-based Palestinian activist has since re-posted the Waters graphic without the hook-nosed Jew — but not before the Jerusalem Post got a screen grab of Sawar’s original post.
• Munich is due to open a memorial for the 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics:
Werner Karg, an official in the Bavarian ministry of culture, said it was unfortunate that haunting images of masked terrorists were more prominent in the public consciousness today than the memories, and the faces, of the victims. The memorial, he said, could help change that.
“We can show that these were individuals, ordinary people, not just names,” Karg said.
• Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, heeding objections, says anti-Semitism envoy post to be filled
• Hungarian monument to Jewish Holocaust victims smashed.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Dahleen Glanton: Neo-Nazis, anti-Semitism and the cycle of hatred in America
– David Schraub: There is no position on Israel that absolves or excuses your anti-Semitism
– Shimon Shiffer: Russia to continue backing Iran despite PM’s exhortations
– Jennifer Rubin: Netanyahu tries to rouse US from slumber on Iran
– Richard Spencer: Will the West confront the power of Hezbollah?
– Benny Avni: UN failure is leading to another Lebanon war
– Jonathan Tobin: The Hezbollah problem
– Charles Bybelezer: Why the North Korea standoff affects the Middle East
– A. Z. Mohamed: FIFA and International Olympic Committee furthering racism, terror?
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Armando G Alonso;
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