Today’s Top Stories
1. According to a poll, a majority of Palestinians (51%) is now opposed to a two-state solution while 65% want President Mahmoud Abbas to resign.
The Times of London comments:
Hamas is a terrorist group. Fatah, which theoretically runs both territories, is corrupt and chaotic. To put it mildly, neither is an ideal partner for peace. Yet even with such a partner, it is far from clear that Israel would be behaving terribly differently. It is both immoral and deluded for Palestinians to believe they can bus-bomb their way to a better future. Israeli voters should be alarmed that their neighbours could come to believe that faith in a diplomatic solution is deluded, too.
2. Controversy surrounds the IDF shooting death of a Palestinian woman in Hebron. The IDF published a photo of the knife that soldiers say was used to threaten them before they shot the woman. The Palestinians dispute what happened, claiming that she was unarmed at the time.
3. Several hundred Muslim worshipers have died in a Hajj stampede in Mecca. Over 800 have been injured according to Saudi media reports.
Israel and the Palestinians
• As Israel and the Jewish world wrap up Yom Kippur for another year, The Independent chooses to focus on this IDF feelgood photo with the headline “Israeli soldier calls on people to forgive each other and put anger behind them on Yom Kippur.”
Somewhat embarrassingly the journalist attributes the above shareable graphic from the IDF’s twitter feed as “a statement published by the IDF hours before Yom Kippur began on Tuesday evening.” ‘Nuff said.
• But that pales into insignificance compared to this Yom Kippur greeting broadcast on Chicago TV station WGN. The station released a statement of apology saying that it had “failed to recognize that the image was an offensive Nazi symbol… We are extremely embarrassed and we deeply apologize to our viewers and to the Jewish community for this mistake… Ignorance is not an excuse.”
• NPR features Israeli efforts to improve relationships with African-American Evangelicals.
• Israeli sparkling beverage company SodaStream has offered to take in Syrian refugees and employ them in its new factory in the Negev Desert.
Mideast Matters
• Time magazine features the dwindling Jewish community of Cairo.
• A Syrian refugee who was tripped by a Hungarian journalist while carrying his young son this month, prompting an outpouring of sympathy and an offer of employment in Spain, dismissed claims by supporters of President Bashar al-Assad that he has ties to Islamic extremists.
Around the World
• It’s good news and bad news for Al-Jazeera. The station’s journalists imprisoned in Egypt for two years have been pardoned. But what awaits them as Al-Jazeera is reportedly expected to cut hundreds of jobs as its state backer Qatar comes under pressure from falling oil prices?
• An anti-Semitic 9/11 truther resigns from the Greek government.
• The UK’s Imperial War Museum has apologized after labeling members of the British-led Jewish Brigade that fought against the Nazis, “terrorists” on its website.
• India has accelerated plans to buy drones from Israel that can be armed, defense sources said, allowing the military to carry out strikes overseas with less risk to personnel.
Commentary/Analysis
• In a highly interesting examination of the Iranian ideological and religious antagonism towards Israel, Ofra Bengio asks whether Iranian clerics dream of eliminating the Jewish state:
In August 2015, shortly after the signing of the nuclear deal with Iran, the supreme Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published a book of 416 pages under the titlePalestine. The book carries one central message: the urge to annihilate the state of Israel and establish the state of Palestine in its stead. According to Amir Taheri, who got hold of the book early, the three key words are: “nabudi,” which means “annihilation,” “imha,” which means “wiping,” and “zaval,” meaning “effacement.”
Khamenei claims that his strategy for the destruction of Israel is based on “well-established Islamic principles” one of which is that a land that falls under Muslim rule can never again be ceded to non-Muslims. He provides various reasons why Israel, which he terms “adou” and “doshman” (enemy), should be destroyed. First because it is the loyal ally of “the American Great Satan,” second because it has waged wars against Muslims on various occasions, and finally because it occupies the third holiest city to Islam: Jerusalem.
In what has become standard language in the anti-Semitic jargon, Khamenei describes Israel as “a cancerous tumor” whose elimination would mean that “the West’s hegemony and threats will be discredited” in the Middle East. In its place, he boasts, “the hegemony of Iran will be promoted.” The message is hardly a subtle one.
• Edy Cohen draws attention to the cynical Palestinian use of the Al-Aqsa plot:
The Palestinian problem does not interest the Arab world anymore, not to mention Europe which is burdened with the wave of refugees coming from Syria.
How therefore could Abbas regain the world’s attention? First he tried to convey his intentions to resign, then his associates leaked his supposed intention to annul the Oslo Accords. This failed to register in Israel and elsewhere, yet ultimately Abbas was able to use the winning formula. The formula that succeeded a hundred years ago is also valid and successful today. The Jews seek to take over and destroy the al-Aqsa mosque, holy place of Muslims. The originator of this cheap propaganda is Haj Amin al-Husseini, the spiritual father of the Palestinian Authority who headed the movement for national liberation and is noted for collaborating with Adolf Hitler.
• Typically, the New York Times, in an editorial, manages to turn reality on its head by placing the onus on Israel and others rather than the U.S. and Iran to maintain regional stability following the nuclear deal:
The focus on America’s obligations often ignores the responsibility Israel and the gulf states have for regional security. Saudi Arabia shares much blame for the rise of extremist groups, while Israel undermines stability by failing to negotiate peace with the Palestinians.
• Jonathon Tobin asks, can Israel find new allies? Taking issue with Shmuel Rosner’s NY Times op-ed, Tobin notes that Russia and China are not reliable partners and are aligned more deeply with Israel’s enemies. And Europe is too weak and can’t even stand up to those “who are fueling an anti-Zionist campaign that provides a thin veil for resurgent anti-Semitism.”
“Only the U.S. has what Israel needs as an ally.”
[sc:graybox ]The IDNS will be on Sukkot break until October 6. HonestReporting wishes all of our Jewish readers a happy and peaceful holiday.
Featured image: CC BY-SA Tom Woodward via flickr with additions by HonestReporting
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