Today’s Top Stories
1. Did Israel attack Syrian chemical weapons facility overnight? The Syrians accused the Israeli Air Force of striking regime positions, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described the target as a “scientific research center where chemical weapons are manufactured” (and possibly due to be transferred to Hezbollah?) According to the Jerusalem Post:
Reports say the attack came from Lebanese air space. Israel has not commented. It would be the first Israeli airstrike in Syria since the US and Russia agreed on a partial ceasefire in July — a ceasefire Israel was not party to. The attack also took place one day after a UN report accused the Assad regime forces of using chemical weapons more than two dozen times.
In their 14th report since 2011, U.N. investigators said they had in all documented 33 chemical weapons attacks to date.
Twenty-seven were by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, including seven between March 1 to July 7. Perpetrators had not been identified yet in six attacks, they said.
8 .3. The presence of Russian air defense does not prevent airstrikes attributed to Israel.
— Amos Yadlin (@YadlinAmos) September 7, 2017
2. Israel’s war with Al Jazeera escalated again:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has personally intervened to bar an Al-Jazeera journalist from a government conference on press freedoms that uses the pan-Arab broadcaster as a case study.
Bureau chief Walid Omary’s exclusion from attending a seminar titled “Limits of free expression: the dilemma between national security and freedom of the press — Al Jazeera as a case study,” comes a month after Netanyahu threatened to shut the Qatar-based outlet’s Israel offices.
3. BDS suffers blow as London gears up for Tel Aviv festival.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. Christianity in Israel is Under Threat! Or is It? Newsweek confuses a complex real estate dispute with ethnic extermination.
5. Weaponizing Myanmar to Bash Israel: As Myanmar’s military comes in for international criticism, The Independent singles out Israeli arms exports to the country based on an agenda-driven source.
6. HR Prompts Gaza Strip Crossing Correction: The UN Secretary General did not call on Israel to open the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, which is administered solely by Egypt. HR gets the correction.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Prime Minister Netanyahu will embark on the first-ever trip by an Israeli PM to Latin America with four days in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico later this month. From there, the PM will head to New York where he will address the opening of session of the UN General Assembly.
• Hamas’ Gaza strongman Yahye Sinwar rejected a demand from the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Israelis detained by Hamas.
• Senior Palestinian security officer charged with incitement over Facebook posts.
The posts also included words of praise, admiration and support for acts of terrorism, the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, said in a statement issued Tuesday. They also featured photos of Adolf Hitler and Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann alongside expressions of longing for men like them.
Muhammad al-Sawiti, a West Bank resident, was arrested last month and indicted Monday in a West Bank military court.
Around the World
• Berlin mayor takes aim at BDS:
The mayor of Germany’s capital, Michael Müller, will personally stop all city support and space for groups that advocate the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign targeting the Jewish state, according to a Wednesday statement from the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
• As University of Cape Town debates Israel boycott, South African pro-BDS leader faces legal action over ‘Jewish soap’ Holocaust tweet.
https://twitter.com/Mngxitama/status/900558350131367937
• A new Stanford study asked students if there’s anti-Semitism on campus. Here’s what they found.
• Hurricane Irma has Florida Jews bracing for a very stormy – and possibly dangerous – Shabbat. It’s bull rush through the Caribbean has so far killed nine and devastated a series of islands; four Israeli nationals on St. Martin have not been heard from and communication is down, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
The Caribbean islands aren’t out of danger yet: Hurricane Jose is gathering strength behind Irma. And Hurricane Katia is churning away in the Gulf of Mexico, and is forecast to make landfall in Mexico over the weekend.
• Bubbe lives in the path of Hurricane Irma. Now what?
• American Jewish students are rolling up their sleeves to help Houston with post hurricane clean-up efforts. So are Zaka volunteers from Israel’s search and rescue organization.
• Is the UAE Guggenheim museum unbuilt because of ‘Jewish name’?
Commentary/Analysis
But the head of the Mossad at the time, Isser Harel, ordered the matter dropped: On the same day, the agency had learned that Egypt was recruiting German scientists to build missiles; disposing of them was Harel’s top priority.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Zvi Bar’el: Russia’s moves on Hezbollah expose how Trump’s Mideast policy endangers Israel
– Matthias Inbar: Israel’s message to Moscow, Tehran and Damascus
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Vanquishing Hezbollah
– Israel Harel: Israel dare not allow Hezbollah to strike first
– Elliott Abrams: Now the boot is on the other foot and Israel is financing American Jews in distress
– Khaled Abu Toameh: The forgotten Palestinians
– Pinhas Inbari: Why did Abbas avoid the UN Secretary-General when he toured the region?
Featured image: CC BY-SA Michele Ursino; Mengele via Wikimedia Commons;
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