Today’s Top Stories
1. Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas kicked off for a few hours in Cairo, then adjourned until “late October” for a crowded month of Jewish and Muslim holidays. The Jewish New Year, followed by the Day Atonement and the week-long festival of Sukkot, coincides with the Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca culminating in the Islamic new year. The Times of Israel assesses what happened during the few hours of talks.
After reading Avi Issacharoff‘s take on the situation in Gaza, I hope Hamas and Fatah get their act together and not delay reconstruction.
2. Mahmoud Abbas addressed the opening of the UN General Assembly (video or transcript), accusing Israel of genocide, apartheid, and not negotiating in good faith. As expected, he also called on the UN to impose a specific date by which Israel must withdraw from the West Bank. Israeli and US officials condemned the speech. The New York Times adds:
His speech, however, was short on details. He did not offer his own deadline for an Israeli withdrawal, as some had expected, nor did he say anything about joining the International Criminal Court, which his aides have repeatedly said he is prepared to do.
President Obama also addressed the UN — ad-libbing his comments on Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses the UN on Monday.
3. A few papers picked up on a Sunday Mirror report claiming British intelligence is in secret talks with Bashar Assad.
It is thought that Assad’s military intelligence network may have invaluable information on the whereabouts and treatment of British hostages held by IS.
Another crucial negotiating point will be to require the Syrian regime not to use its sophisticated ground-to-air missile defence system against the US-led coalition pounding IS fighters from the air.
4. Washington Post New Year Op-Ed Calls For End to Jewish State: A disingenuous op-ed promotes the one-state solution.
5. The Guardian Blames Israel For Starting a War: Operation Protective Edge was not about defending Israelis from Hamas rockets but simply a cynical political maneuver.
Israel and the Palestinians
• An armed Palestinian infiltrator was caught near Moshav Shokeda. Details at YNet.
• Fatah and Hamas reached an agreement to allow the Palestinian Authority to work in the Gaza Strip. The Jerusalem Post published the text of the agreement.
• Disturbing news from Israel HaYom:
An Israeli Arab youth from northern Israel who spoke out against the kidnapping and later murder of three Israeli teens in June has been forced to leave the country due to threats on his life.
• One of the Turkish “humanitarian activists” from the Mavi Marmara incident was killed in a US assisted-martyrdom operation airstrike on ISIS positions in Syria, tsk. YNet explains that Ya’akov Bolinet Alniak got what he asked for:
According to the Turkish reports, Alniak, father of two, joined the ranks of ISIS recently and was directly involved in combat in Syria. One of his last Facebook posts before being killed in US strikes on an ISIS camp in Syria read, “My life and death are for Allah“.
• Priest tells UNHRC to ‘end witch hunt’ of Israel
• Over 600 scholars sign letter against BDS
• Around the world: BDS protesters succeeded in blocking an Israeli ship from being unloaded at the Port of Oakland. In Baltimore, a man yelling “Jews. Jews. Jews.” fired what may have been BBs at pedestrians outside a Jewish school. The Liverpool Football Club deleted a Jewish new year tweet after it sparked a ton of anti-Semitic messages. Here’s a screengrab of the cached version. The replies are vile, so click at your own risk.
Media Angles
• New York Times columnist David Brooks made some buzz when he disclosed that he has a son serving in the IDF.
• Great moments in “normalizing” Israeli-Palestinian ties: Haaretz columnist Amira Hass was kicked out of Bir Zeit University conference she was covering. Spoiler alert:
I understand the emotional need of Palestinians to create a safe space that is off limits to citizens of the state that denies them their rights and has been robbing them of their land. As a leftist, however, I question the anti-colonialist logic of boycotting left-wing Israeli Jewish activists. In any case, such leftists do not seek kosher certificates while opposing the occupation and striving to put an end to the Jewish regime of privileges. •
Commentary/Analysis
• The New York Times picked a great day — Rosh HaShanah — to publish an op-ed by a radical Israeli left-wing activist, Mairav Zonszein. I’m perfectly proud of Israeli democracy, and if not for years of Palestinian rejectionism and terror, a Palestinian state would’ve already been established. Shana tova from the Gray Lady:
Israeli society has been unable and unwilling to overcome an exclusivist ethno-religious nationalism that privileges Jewish citizens and is represented politically by the religious settler movement and the increasingly conservative secular right. Israel’s liberal, progressive forces remain weak in the face of a robust economy that profits from occupation while international inaction reinforces the status quo. In their attempt to juggle being both Jewish and democratic, most Israelis are choosing the former at the expense of the latter.
• David Horovitz on the Abbas speech: Since Abbas is no partner for peace, Israel should help try to produce one.
• Khaled Abu Toameh: The Gaza “Death Boats Scandal” indicates that “hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians would rather risk their lives at sea than live under Palestinian governments and leaders whose only goal is to enrich their bank accounts.”
• US Attack in Syria Parallels Israel’s in Gaza
When Israel attacked Hamas military targets, including some that had mixed uses, it was condemned by the same Arab nations that participated in the joint United States-Arab attack in Syria. The difference of course is that the threat posed by ISIS is not nearly as imminent as the threats posed by Hamas. This is certainly true in relation to the United States and may also be true in relation to its Arab partners.
• Douglas Murray: Syrian air strikes are probably illegal, but so what? (It’s still the right thing to do.)
• The former Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Olli Heinonen, lays out why Iran’s ballistic missile program must be on the agenda in international nuclear talks:
Ignoring the strategic linkage between Iran’s nuclear program and its missile program weakens any monitoring and verification system, undermines regional stability and security, and disregards both UN Security Council Resolution 1929 and the sanctions termination criteria as stipulated in U.S. law. It furthermore risks putting all the eggs to one basket – nuclear safeguards and monitoring – while effectively decoupling verification work from a more complex nuclear picture in Iran.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Pierre Rehov (the perils of Christians in the Holy Land), Ron Ben-Yishai (Gaza failure opens door to unprecedented opportunity), Dan Margalit (Abbas has ended the peace process), The Economist (Diplomatic defeat after victory), and a New York Post staff-ed (Life and death with Hamas).
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
