Today’s Top Stories
1. Ahead of the opening session of the UN, the PA began a diplomatic offensive, aimed at getting key members of the UN Security Council to support a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders and set a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. See Haaretz coverage. The Jerusalem Post elaborates on the PLO working over France.
2. Gaza landlords are refusing to rent property to Hamas members. The Jerusalem Post reports that tenants of one high-rise even demanded the group leave its offices. (General William Tecumseh Sherman would like this development.)
3. Is ISIS already operating sleeper cells along Syria’s borders with Israeli and Jordan? That’s what Free Syrian Army rebels told the Times of Israel.
Israel and the Palestinians
• IDF concerned about possible Hezbollah invasion of Northern Israel
• The ignorance of Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja was on full display in Haaretz when he compared Israel in the West Bank to Russia in Ukraine.
• Einat Schlein — the new ambassador to Jordan — is Israel’s first female envoy to an Arab state.
• As the Syrian civil war rages a few fields away, Israeli vintners in the Golan Heights continue producing their wine — despite the occasional warning sirens. CNN visited one winery.
• According to Arab reports picked up by YNet, Qatar paid a $20 million ransom to the Al Nusra Front to release 45 Fijian peacekeepers abducted along the Israel-Syria border.
• Qatar kicked out seven prominent Muslim Brotherhood leaders amid pressure from neighboring Gulf states. More on the story at Reuters.
• Ronen Bergman discussed intelligence issues with Gen. Michael Hayden, a former head of both the CIA and NSA. Divided into Part One and Part Two, Hayden and Bergman discussed the fallout of the Edward Snowden leaks, intelligence cooperation with Israel, the strategy of targeted killings,
Commentary/Analysis
• When it comes to media freedom, the UN plays by its own rules. On one hand, you have member states with little regard for freedom of information. On the other hand, self-interested players often make UN proceedings leakier than a sieve. What leverage do journalists have?
• An independent Scotland: Good news for Israel and the Jews?
• Yakub Halabi raises moral and strategic reasons worth pondering:
The case for an Israeli blitzkrieg against ISIS
• Will the presence of the US military fighting ISIS in Iran’s neighborhood have a side-effect of forcing Tehran to slow down or suspend its nuclear program? Boaz Bismuth has me wondering . . .
• For more commentary/analysis, see Ron Kampeas (Why does Qatar support Hamas?) and Colin Rubinstein (Rejecting Hamas is the only way to peace).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Daniel Shanoff wonders how journalism will adapt content to wearable computers with tiny screens like the new Apple watch. If sound bites are replaced by “atoms of news,” how worthwhile will wearables be for consuming news?
Glance journalism makes tweets look like longform . . .
The pending challenge for writers, editors, producers, and product teams is how to deliver compelling news in the “glance” format, because — as we know from the past decade — the audience wants to go faster. This can’t be solved with responsive design; it demands an original approach, certainly at the start.
• The Daily Telegraph reports that the British government intends to curtail Muslim Brotherhood activity in the UK.
Image: CC BY-NC flickr/Thom Sanders
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
