Today’s Top Stories
1. The UN says it brokered a deal between Israel and the PA to rebuild Gaza. The New York Times was the only paper I saw stressing the agreement is temporary. If the agreement unravels down the road, what would you think if all you knew was what you saw in today’s BBC or Reuters?
2. After international peace monitors fled Syria, the Al Nusra Front seized UN weapons, vehicles and uniforms left behind. I’m linking to AFP coverage at YNet, because it included a photo of jihadis flying an Al-Qaida flag atop a UN-marked jeep.
3. Al-Qaida appealed to Islamic State to release captive British aid volunteer Alan Henning. One of The Independent‘s key sources is Bilal Abdul Kareem, a US filmmaker who has reported extensively from Syria. Here’s Kareem’s blog post detailing Henning’s abdution and the subsequent jihadi discord.
It’s all remarkable, but I don’t know the players, so draw your own conclusions.
4. Slideshare: Top Five Media Fails, Gaza Conflict Edition: If you haven’t seen it yet, here are the biggest media fails of Operation Protective Edge, and what they mean going forward.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Hamas arrested some Palestinians who fired a mortar at Israel last night. The Jerusalem Post explains how Israel threw its weight around to get the results.
Israel made clear to Hamas that if it did not take swift action against those responsible for firing the mortar, the IDF would need to enter the picture, according to Israel Radio.
Hamas told mediators that it was interested in preserving the cease-fire and that it apprehended those responsible for the mortar.
But the Jerusalem Post also reports that Hamas is “cooperating with global jihadi groups who rocketed Israel from the Sinai.”
• A Gaza widow gave AP an inside look at life of Palestinian collaborators — how they were drawn in, what exactly they did, and the fallout.
• Haaretz and YNet report a growing trend of Gazans fleeing to Europe. Smugglers take them through a tunnel to Egypt, then they hop a boat across the Mediterranean to Italy. The human trafficking’s in the news because hundreds of Palestinians drowned in recent incidents off the coasts of Malta and Egypt.
• A poll by the Nablus-based An-Najah U. finds most West Bank Palestinians don’t support a new armed intifada against Israel, but expect it will happen anyway.
• Oops! Palestinian typo promotes violent protest
• Gaza housing was always a hot commodity, and with lots of buildings destroyed, rents have doubled and Palestinian construction businesses are rubbing their hands in anticipation of profits. Terrence McCoy did his homework in this dispatch for The Independent.
• ‘Aramean’ officially recognized as nationality in Israel
• The National Lawyers Guild wants President Obama charged with war crimes and genocide for helping Israel build Iron Dome. Alan Dershowitz and I are on the same wavelength here:
Yes, you read that correctly. According to these irresponsible bigots, it is genocide to help the nation-state of the Jewish people protect its Jewish and Arab citizens against thousands of rockets being fired at its cities, towns and airport. Imagine the implication for the rule of law if defending one’s citizens becomes a war crime.
Media Angles
• Former AP correspondent Matti Friedman responds to the reactions he got from his expose of systematic bias against Israel in the mainstream media. He also mentions he’s working on a followup piece.
There has been no serious public response to the piece, however, from inside the system I’m criticizing—no denials of the examples I gave, no explanations for the numbers I cite, no alternative reasons for the problems I describe. This uncomfortable silence is an admission.
• Steven Sotloffs fixer recounted to CNN their abduction by jihadists in Syria and the torment he feels over the Israeli-American journalist’s death.
• Over at the Columbia Journalism Review, journalists disagree how much Islam — rather than politics and power — drives jihadis. Should reporters simply describe ISIS as a “faith-based terrorist group?”
Commentary/Analysis
• David Horovitz nails how a pop queen “showed more clear-headed morality than any international statesman could manage this terrible summer:
Lady Gaga, we f*cking love you too
• What does the flight of UN peacekeepers from Syria say about similar blue-helmet proposals for the West Bank? Not much, says Elliott Abrams:
• Britain’s recent consul-general in Jerusalem, Sir Vincent Fean, argues in the Daily Telegraph, that it’s time for the UK to recognize Palestinian statehood.
• I think James Bamford‘s attempt to portray Unit 8200 as some sort of Ed Snowden moment is over-dramatic. ‘Nuff said.
• For more commentary, see Alan Baker (Is Abbas serious about the International Criminal Court?), Yaakov Lappin (What does Hamas want?), and Raphael Ahren (Will an independent Scotland boost Palestinian nationalism?).
Image: CC BY-NC flickr/Russell Davies
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
