Today’s Top Stories
1. Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived in London, for what’s already shaping up to be a stormy two-day visit. Around 300 Palestinian supporters demonstrated outside 10 Downing Street, and a petition calling for Netanyahu’s arrest for so-called “war crimes” has garnered 107,000 signatures. More at Reuters and the Financial Times (click via Google News).
2. Israel re-opened its embassy in Cairo four years after it was trashed by an Egyptian mob. Haim Koren will serve as ambassador.
3. In a potentially precedent-setting case, Israel to sue Palestinian rock throwers for damages caused to Jerusalem light rail. It’s an expensive proposition for the stone-throwers. Replacing just one smashed window costs 40,000 NIS. According to YNet, claims will only filed against rock-throwers over the age of 18.
4. Perpetuating Palestinian Refugees: The Guardian’s “Best Bit of the UN”: Despite UNRWA’s record of perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem, The Guardian considers it one of the “best bits of the UN.”
5. Tripping Over the Distinction Between Journalists and Activists: Videographer tripped up over the distinction between journalism and activism.
6. BDS: Lost Palestinian Jobs at SodaStream are Worth It: Boycott movement unmoved by unemployed Palestinians.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Samir Kuntar, the terrorist released in a 2008 prisoner swap with Hezbollah swap, was placed on a US terror blacklist.
“He has also played an operational role, with the assistance of Iran and Syria, in building up Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in the Golan Heights,” the State Department said.
As a designated “global terrorist,” Kantar is subject to the seizure of any assets he holds in areas of US jurisdiction and Americans are forbidden from doing business with him.
The US also blacklisted three senior Hamas terror commanders, including Mohammed Deif.
• Drive-by shooting in the West Bank: Two nurses escaped injury after coming under fire near Nablus. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Visiting the Temple Mount, the Jerusalem Post‘s Lahav Harkov describes the humiliation and harassment of Jewish tourists.
I wanted to see what all the fuss was about at the holy site and was subjected to humiliations from start to finish, included being told I’m forbidden from crying.
• Arab taxi driver gets life sentence for 2011 murder of an Afula teenager Shelly Dadon.
Around the World
• A Pew Research Center poll found American public support for the Iran deal down to 21 percent.
• Israel approves gas pipeline to Jordan. According to Globes, it should begin transferring natural gas in a year.
• Russian military planes land in Syria as buildup continues. For the first time, Moscow confirmed personnel (“military experts”) on the ground.
• Israel won’t exist in 25 years: Just the latest Twitter musings from of the “rational” leader of a legitimate nuclear threshold state. Backstory at Haaretz.
• Israel slams German bank for hosting talk on destroying Jewish state
• A jury handed down a death sentence to F. Glenn Miller Jr. for murdering three people outside Kansas City Jewish institutions. Jurors weren’t impressed with his antics:
Earlier Tuesday morning, during closing arguments, Miller gave a lengthy screed about his anti-Jewish beliefs, repeating the same theme of his courtroom testimony during trial.
He dared jurors to sentence him to death, calling them “whores of the Jews.” He said he wanted no mercy.
He finished his presentation with a Nazi salute and a “heil Hitler.”
Commentary/Analysis
• Why does the left care more about Islamophobia than anti-Semitism? Here’s part of Brendan O’Neill‘s answer
It’s why every bovine attack on a mosque is held up as hard evidence that Europe is descending into a cesspool of anti-Muslim hatred, whereas you have to scour the media to find mentions of attacks on synagogues. In recent days, a Manchester teen was beaten up in a suspected anti-Semitic assault; a Jewish Spanish teenager was physically attacked; and two Holocaust survivors in Amsterdam were assaulted and called ‘dirty Jews’.
Yet these incidents aren’t front page news; certainly they aren’t cited as evidence that a new plague of prejudice is stalking Europe, as is done when Muslims are assaulted. The message of this double standard, however implicit it might be, is pretty clear: attacks on Jews are less important than attacks on Muslims.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Jeff Jacoby: A hero acts, and Hebron gets a lesson in humanity
– Clifford May: Iran deal is not a done deal
– Michael Totten: Beirut chokes on its own filth
Featured image: CC BY flickr/woodleywonderworks; graffiti CC BY-SA flickr/Quinn Dombrowski;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
