Today’s Top Stories
1. Just before this roundup was published, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman, David Keyes, announced that he is taking “time off” to clear his name after more women accused him of sexual misconduct.
Keyes’ status worsened after the Times of Israel reported that 10 more women accused him of inappropriate behavior and Knesset lawmakers called for his suspension. See yesterday’s roundup for more background on the allegations leveled by New York state Senate candidate Julia Salazar and Wall St. Journal reporter Shayndi Raice — the only two accusers so far who agreed to identify themselves.
2. A book accusing the IDF of deliberately sparing the lives of Palestinians in order to debilitate them was awarded the 2018 Alison Piepmeier Book Prize by the National Women’s Studies Association. The Algemeiner explains:
Jasbir Puar, an associate professor of women’s and gender studies, co-won the NWSA’s 2018 Alison Piepmeier Book Prize for her work The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability.
Published by in November 2017 by Duke University Press — which has come under scrutiny for its editorial advisors’ ties to the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel — the book posits that the “Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have shown a demonstrable pattern over decades of sparing life, of shooting to maim rather than to kill.”
Yet it contends that this “purportedly humanitarian practice of sparing death by shooting to maim” is not rooted in a desire to minimize fatalities, but rather seeks to maintain “Palestinian populations as perpetually debilitated, and yet alive, in order to control them.”
3. It’s official: Tel Aviv, will be the host city for next year’s Eurovision competition, so mark your calendar. “The European Broadcasting Union announced on Thursday that next year’s competition will be hosted in the coastal city, at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds complex, with the grand finale event to be held on May 18. The two semifinals will be held on May 14 and May 16.”
Heads up to all the foreign correspondents, copy editors and talking heads: Tel Aviv is not Israel’s capital.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel dismantled five protest shacks outside the illegally built West Bank Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar this morning. Palestinians had set up the trailers after the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled last week that the 180 Bedouins living in Khan al-Ahmar failed to prove ownership of the land. Israeli authorities so far have not made any moves against other structures, but may evacuate the Bedouins at any time. More at the Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament stated that the razing and transfer of the Bedouins “would constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” and declared that Israel must compensate Europe an estimated 315,000 euros for the cost of the humanitarian projects it has sponsored. That’s a rich accusation, considering European Union funding for illegal buildings in the West Bank violates international law.
This morning, enforcement was carried out against 5 movable structures that were illegally transported & installed in the vicinity of Kfar Adumim. The erection of these structures was advanced by representatives of the PA in opposition to the enforcement of Israeli law in Area C. pic.twitter.com/fSCbOoAjJA
— COGAT (@cogatonline) September 13, 2018
• The IDF destroyed a large bomb found placed along the Gaza border fence during Monday’s clashes.
• Palestinian youths disrupted a joint Israeli-Palestinian conference in eastern Jerusalem marking the 25th anniversary of the Oslo accords.
• Noting the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo accords, the New York Times and Washington Post take deep dive looks at the unfulfilled hopes.
• National Public Radio takes a closer look at the Palestinian “right” of return and redefining refugees.
• Israel denied an Arab report picked up by the Israeli media that it sold an Iron Dome system to Saudi Arabia. The deal was said to have been mediated by the US and laid the groundwork for further military cooperation. The Saudis face missile attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
• Col. Richard Kemp, a retired British army officer who formerly commanded UK forces in Afghanistan, discussed the recent Gaza border clashes and an upcoming UN report with the Hamilton Jewish News.
When the effort is part of a publicity campaign Kemp describes as “the greatest slur campaign the world has ever seen,” the narrative it creates becomes one the world’s media swallows whole.
“It almost doesn’t matter what Israel does in PR terms,” he added. “What media wants on the whole is a bad news story, they don’t want to hear that Israel does its best to avoid civilian casualties, what they want to see is death, destruction, horror and outrage.”
• Palestinian arson terror, by the numbers, based on a Nature and Parks Authority figures picked up by Israel HaYom:
– 78: Percentage of plant life decimated in reserves near Gaza border.
– 7,900: overall acres of land lost to fire.
– 2,987: acres of national parks and reserves land lost to fire.
– 2,440: acres of JNF-owned land lost to fire.
– 1,047: acres of agricultural fields lost to fire.
– 1,504: acres of open land lost to fire.
– 14: Percentage of all nature reserves adjacent to Gaza lost to fire.
– 78: Percentage of Be’eri Crater Nature Reserve lost to fire.
– 77: Percentage of Kurkar Niram Nature Reserve lost to fire.
– 50: Percentage of Karmiya Nature Reserve lost to fire.
– 15 million: Damage in shekels to the nature reserves alone ($4 million)
Related viewing: The Environmental Impact of War.
Window Into Israel
• Two members of an advisory committee tasked with appointing officials for senior government positions resigned amid concerns that their close relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu posed a conflict of interest. The High Court of Justice had froze the proceedings of the “Goldberg committee,” which is currently examining candidates for the next Bank of Israel governor, IDF chief of staff and police commissioner.
Petitions against [Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Yaakov] Nagel and [Iris] Stark were filed due to their possible conflicts of interests and closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which was feared could influence the nominations, especially the next police chief who would be responsible for leading criminal investigations against the PM.
• How adequate is the IDF’s readiness for war? Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot recently reported a high level of preparedness, but the IDF ombudsman, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Brick, wrote his own harshly critical report and went public with his dissent in June. Now, Haaretz reports of a new dossier of information and an unheard of call for an external inquiry.
The call to establish an external investigative commission is unprecedented. Brick is scheduled to complete his 10-year tenure as ombudsman at the beginning of January. His demand for an inquiry reflects two main problems: deep concern over the state of the ground forces and a growing lack of trust in the IDF’s ability to investigate itself and correct what needs to be rectified. In addition, from the moment that the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee was brought into the picture, it was clear that Brick’s claims would have political implications.
• For commentary on the domestic scene, David Pannick QC weighs in on the Israeli Supreme Court’s oversight of the nation-state law.
Around the World
• In the San Francisco/Oakland area, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is allowing advertisements from a group that promotes Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Unfortunately, The Independent‘s featured image suggests a bugaboo in their caption system and/or a copyeditor asleep at the wheel. Either that or Ken Livingstone’s guest writing the Indy’s photo captions. (The caption was revised after HonestReporting contacted the editors.)
• The BBC takes examines the growing tech trade ties between Israel and the UK.
• Ewa Jasiewicz reportedly withdrew from from a panel event run by the Jeremy Corbyn-supporting organization, Momentum. The British-Polish pro-Palestinian activist was due to speak at a festival in Liverpool in parallel with the Labour party’s annual conference.
Jasiewicz’s participation in the festival sparked controversy amid revelations that she A) suggested in 2002 that terror groups target Israeli parliamentarians instead of civilians, and B) vandalized one of the Warsaw ghetto’s remaining walls with the words “Free Gaza and Palestine” and “liberate all ghettos.”
Even without Jasiewicz, sparks will fly. Concerned for attacks by Corbynistas, the conference’s Jewish delegates will have bodyguards. The party powwow begins September 23.
• If this Beatles classic hasn’t stuck the right chord with you, let it be.
Paul McCartney: ‘Hey Jude’ isn’t about the Jews
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Zev Chafets: How Trump’s Mideast moves are a game changer
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: Did John Bolton shield Israel from the ICC?
– Noah Klieger: Shutting Palestinian offices in Washington long overdue
– Alex Brummer: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee problem
– Charles Bybelezer: Beyond Oslo: Charting a new course to Israeli-Palestinian peace
– Curtis Ryan: The Trump administration’s new idea for Israeli-Palestinian peace is actually an old, failed idea
– David Rosenberg: The Oslo accords didn’t achieve peace. But they did birth Startup Nation
– Ziva Dahl: 25 years after Oslo, the US pressures Palestinians to give up a lost war
To those conveniently telling a story of how Rabin assassination (1995) and Netanyahu election (1996) were causes of failure of Oslo Accords (1993), a friendly reminder that LATER, in 2000 and 2008, Palestinians WALKED AWAY from clear, concrete opportunities to have their state.
— Dr. Einat Wilf (@EinatWilf) September 13, 2018
– Jonathan Tobin: US takes a stand against antisemitism that Obama didn’t
– Akiva Bigman: Zionism is still the answer to anti-Semitism
– Noah Rothman: Do Zionists have civil rights?
– Point of No Return: Why Rachel Shabi’s ‘alliance of colour’ will go nowhere
– Abigail Shrier: The new Jewish-Christian amity (click via Twitter)
– Robert Hamilton: God said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ (click via Twitter)
Featured image: CC BY dulnan;; soldiers CC BY-NC Israel Defense Forces;
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