Today’s Top Stories
1. The White House clinched its magic number of 34 senators supporting the Iran deal when Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland gave it her approval. Thirty four is the number needed to prevent opponents from scuttling the deal.
Politico reports that the White House is now setting its sights on securing 41 votes, “which would stop the resolution of disapproval from ever reaching the White House” and spare the president the need to wield a veto.
Where does this leave Israel? For one, officials in Jerusalem don’t view this as a failure. At least that’s what they told the Times of Israel and YNet. The latter writes:
An associate of the prime minister said the strategy in the campaign against the agreement was to undermine its legitimacy, in which Israel succeeded with flying colors.
“When the agreement was unveiled, half of Americans supported it and half opposed it,” said the source. “Therefore, it’s wrong to present this as an Israeli failure. To the contrary, it’s a success. Obama is making an illegitimate international agreement thanks to a veto and not thanks to a majority.
But an AIPAC official told the Israel media that the Prime Minister’s speech to Congress damaged lobbying efforts by making Israel a partisan issue on Capitol Hill.
2. AFP: A trio of French judges formally closed the chapter on allegations that former PLO chief Yasser Arafat was poisoned, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant further investigation.
3. A new video from the Sinai affiliate of Islamic State indicates that the jihadis likely have advanced Russian weapons, which they say they hope to use against Israel. But an analyst told the Jerusalem Post:
Though the video can be seen as a threat to Israel, Horowitz believes that despite Israeli concerns of threats from the militant group, the video’s anti-Israel rhetoric is mostly aimed at delegitimizing the Egyptian military. By depicting the Egyptian military as Israel’s watchdogs, “its rhetoric is actually meant to justify the opposite, and legitimize the fact that the group is fighting the Egyptian army rather than Israel.”
4. PLO Intimidates Media Over Temple Mount Tours: The PLO issues a veiled threat to journalists to only go on Temple Mount tours organized by Palestinian propagandists.
5. The Price of Boycotting Israel: A European grocery chain teaches that a strong demand for Israeli products can effectively counter-balance the BDS movement.
6. Reuters Headline Fail: Netanyahu “Threatens to Shoot” Stone Throwers: Frontier justice or a wire service’s sensationalism — which is worse?
Israel and the Palestinians
• AP reporter Tia Goldenberg visited SodaStream’s new Negev factory. The fizzy beverage company made famous by Scarlett Johansson is in the process of transferring its operations from the Mishor Adumim industrial zone in the West Bank. That facility will be closed in two weeks.
SodaStream employed up to 600 Palestinians at the West Bank factory and sought to transfer their jobs to the Israeli plant. But Birnbaum said Israel has granted only 130 work permits so far due to security issues. Many likely will lose their jobs.
“All the people who wanted to close (SodaStream’s West Bank factory) are mistaken. … They didn’t take into consideration the families,” said Ali Jafar, a shift manager from a West Bank village who has worked for SodaStream for two years.
BDS chief Omar Barghouti today doesn’t have a credible answer for Palestinians left unemployed by the boycott’s “success” any more than the movement did a year ago when BBC’s Jeremy Paxman and SodaStream CEO David Birnbaum demolished an Oxfam official’s arguments last year in a Newsnight debate worth revisiting.
• IDF strikes Gaza after sniper fire hits Israeli homes
• Navy commandos simulated an unusual attack on offshore gas rig. No guns were allowed:
The exercise involved hostile gunmen taking civilians hostage after commandeering one of the offshore rigs. The naval commandos were instructed to reach the rig and retake it from the gunmen without use of firearms, out of concern that gunfire could set the gas alight and cause the rig to explode.
See YNet for other recent Navy drills.
• A Chinese conglomerate became the majority shareholder in Ahava, the Israeli company that makes beauty products from Dead Sea minerals. Ahava officials denied the development had anything to do with BDS pressure. More on the story at Globes.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Straight from the horse’s mouth: Iran will continue to enhance its military until it can overthrow Israel and defend all the oppressed people of the world, says a high level Revolutionary Guards commander.
• Your low-brow tweet of the day comes from Gwen Ifill, who co-anchors PBS NewsHour. She added her own take on a White House infographic which itself took a dig at Bibi. This isn’t reporting, it’s cheerleading.
• John Kerry plugged the Iran deal in a speech (video or transcript) delivered in Philadelphia yesterday.
Around the World
• Foreign Policy takes a closer look at what Egypt’s offshore gas find means for Israel.
And the Zohr discovery won’t slam the door shut on Egyptian imports right away, leaving a few years of juicy prospects for other suppliers. Though Eni and Egyptian officials pledged to fast-track development of the field, it will take years to finance and build the infrastructure needed to fully tap it. Even that timeline could grow longer if Egypt’s security situation worsens, which could put a damper on foreign investment.
• Former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told Reuters the ICC should investigate Islamic State war crimes and genocide against Iraq’s Yazidis. The caveat?
The ICC lacks jurisdiction over Iraq because its government is not a signatory of the treaty that established the tribunal, but it would have the right to investigate crimes committed by nationals of one of its 123 member countries.
The court, based in The Hague, has never brought a case on such grounds before and it would mean only nationals of those countries could be tried.
• Say it ain’t so!
Hezbollah official’s son reportedly arrested for selling arms to Islamic State
• Belgian police are investigating an EU official accused of physically and verbally attacking a co-worker during an anti-Semitic diatribe.
• Belgium’s Prime Minister confirmed a commitment to provide Antwerp‘s Jewish institutions with $4.4 million to boost security.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Jonathan D. Halevi: International courtship of Hamas shows that terror pays
– Alex Fishman: Abbas’ political stunts
– Gershon Baskin: After Abbas
– Amiram Barkat: Leviathan gas can be directed to domestic use
– Emmanuel Navon: Egypt’s natural gas is destabilizing Bibi’s government
– Yaakov Amidror: Israel’s Policy Dilemmas on Syria
– Elliott Abrams: Putin in Syria
– Orly Azoulay: A new wind blowing out of Washington
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA flickr/Christoph Schrief with additions by HonestReporting; Moreno-Ocampo CC BY flickr/Estonian Foreign Ministry;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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