PA to Begin Taking Over Gaza Next Week?

Today’s Top Stories

1. PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah will visit Gaza next week to begin taking control of the Strip’s governmental responsibilities.

However, the PA hasn’t cancelled any of its punitive financial measures against Gaza. And an eye-opening Saudi Gazette staff editorial points out that true reconciliation will be a pipe dream as long as basic security issues remain unresolved.

Over the past few years, whenever security was broached, Hamas demanded the simultaneous exchange of security arrangements. While the two movements understand the importance of security for any system to be effective, a security partnership seems almost impossible within the near term. Due to the complexities and sensitivities involved, Hamas elements cannot work in the West Bank security services while Fatah members cannot work in Hamas-run security services in Gaza. For reconciliation to work, either the PA will give up its security collaboration or Hamas its armed resistance. Neither seems to be likely at the moment.

2. Argentine investigators submitted a report concluding that top prosecutor Alberto Nisman was indeed murdered in 2015, reversing controversial assessments that he had killed himself. The Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) explains:

Mr. Nisman died shortly before he was set to present his case in Congress alleging that Mrs. Kirchner had conspired with Iran to sabotage his investigation into the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994. His body was found in his apartment bathroom on Jan. 18, 2015 after a bullet was fired into his head. . .

 

According to people familiar with the Gendarmerie report, investigators assert that Mr. Nisman was sedated with the anesthetic Ketamine and then killed by two assailants in his Buenos Aires apartment.

 

Mr. Nisman had sustained blows to his head, kidney, nose and leg, indicating that he had been struck before dying, investigators said, according to a forensic expert familiar with the findings. Such bruises are inconsistent with a self-inflicted suicide wound, the expert said.

See also the JTA which delves into who the main suspect would be if the investigation continues as a murder.

3. German voters re-elected Angela Merkel to her fourth term as Chancellor. But the success of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has raised concerns in the country’s Jewish community, which has labeled the party as anti-Semitic. See the European Jewish Press for more.

Meanwhile, the Times of Israel notes that AfD party members show a surprisingly high degree of support for Israel in response to questions about the peace process, BDS, Israel’s security and settlements, among other things.

With 13 percent of the vote, AfD becomes the Bundestag’s third largest faction.

4. Pedaling a BDS Narrative: The Giro d’Italia cycling tournament is coming to Israel, but critics say it distracts attention from alleged Israeli crimes. Sport-washing?

Israel and the Palestinians

• Ynet: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the cabinet he is postponing by a week or two a meeting of the West Bank Civil Administration’s planning committee at the request of US President Donald Trump.

Justifying his decision to hold off on the meeting by a week or two, which is likely to startle the pro-settlement elements in his coalition, the prime minister told the ministers present he had no intention of humiliating the pro-Israel Trump administration by making decisions relating to settlements, particularly in light of the upcoming visit to the Middle East by Trump’s special advisor Jason Greenblatt.

• The Media Line takes a closer look at how Israel enforces its red lines in Syria.

• Iraqi Kurds went to the polls today for a referendum on breaking away from Iraq and declaring independence. According to Reuters, “final results should be announced within 72 hours.”

The referendum is non-binding, but is intended to give Kurdish leaders a clear mandate to negotiate secession.

Israel is the only country that has publicly voiced support for Kurdish independence. Iran launched war games near the border while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also threatened military action.

Around the World

• Worth reading: Obama tried to give Zuckerberg a wake-up call over fake news on Facebook.

• The FBI is investigating threats against Jewish students and a Latino student group at California State University, Long Beach, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports. Flyers were found on doors and windows in the campus multi-cultural center featuring swastikas and picture of Adolf Hitler, along with the words, “Finish what he started.”

A death threat was also posted on the Facebook group of the Latino student group. More on the story at the student paper, the Daily 49er.

• Ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson resigned from a prominent fund after sharing an article blaming Jews for US wars.

• Vermont elementary school teacher fired for teaching kids Nazi salute.

• Vandals damaged gravestones in the Jewish cemetery of Sofia, Bulgaria.

Commentary/Analysis

• Sweden’s neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement is planning a march near Gothenburg’s main synagogue on Yom Kippur: Is scant advance coverage a good thing?

The journalist part of me believes unequivocally that threatening episodes such as this march cannot be ignored; that they’re legitimate news that demand coverage. My non-journalist side, however, keeps whispering that we all might be better served by denying neo-Nazis the public platform they seek.

 

It’s an increasingly intriguing choice. Though we know that given journalism’s inbred competitiveness, coverage – even excessive coverage – will just about always win out.

 

Which is why I expected that by now the march would have received more coverage.

• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .

– Saudi Gazette (staff-ed): Fatah, Hamas and a grain of salt
– Alex Fishman: Iran missile test: Nuclear deal’s rotten fruit
– Amb. Ron Prosor: Trump should bet on Kurdish independence
– Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall: Iran and Hamas reconnect
– Alan Dershowitz: Plame knew what she was tweeting
– New York Post (staff-ed): Valerie Plame’s new, anti-Semitic game
– Giora Eiland: Despite Israeli airstrikes, Hezbollah will keep building its arsenal
– Dennis Ross: How Trump can get Mideast peace talks back on track

Featured image: CC BY-SA Johnny Silvercloud; Nisman via YouTube/Carlos Kalman; Kurdish map via FreeVectorMaps; Nordic Resistance Movement via YouTube/Haraldr Hárfagri

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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