Today’s Top Stories
1. Two Israeli Arabs were charged with planning a shooting attack on the Temple Mount. The indictment also charges them with supporting Islamic State. The Times of Israel reports that the terrorists, from Umm al-Fahm, were arrested earlier in September but a gag order on the case was lifted with this morning’s indictment.
A third suspect was also indicted “for allegedly supporting the terrorist group and illegally possessing guns.”
2. According to Haaretz, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein sent letters to some 150 companies around the world “warning them that they are about to be added to a database of companies doing business in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.”
However, the report is based entirely on anonymous sources and the blacklist battle is far from over.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Interpol fallout: After the the Palestinians got full membership in the international police organization, US Senator Ben Cardin said American justice officials won’t honor PA warrants and arrest warrants sent through Interpol. And what were PA officials saying?
A senior Palestinian official said there were no plans to sue any Israelis through Interpol. He said the purpose is “to pursue criminals who commit crimes here and escape.”
He said one target would be Mohammed Dahlan, a rival of Abbas.
Israel and the Palestinians
While Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed each other for the shocking shooting, the real story appears to be far more pedestrian: Jamal was despondent over his broken marriage and apparently on a suicide mission . . .
Turning a personal grievance into a nationalist attack carries several advantages. While suicide is frowned upon in Palestinian society, attacks on Israelis, especially West Bank settlers or security forces, enjoy widespread support, and anyone killed in a clash with Israelis is seen as a “martyr.” On a practical level, their families are eligible for help from the “martyrs’ fund,” which provides stipends to relatives of people killed or imprisoned by Israel. The Israelis have long claimed this provides an incentive for Palestinian violence.
Something’s seriously wrong with Palestinian society if killing Jews is the way out of one’s troubled personal life.
• Israel protested to Russia after Moscow hosted a delegation of Hamas figures which included Salah Arouri. He was one of the organizers of the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, which sparked the 2014 Gaza war. Haaretz reports:
Pictures from the meeting revealed that Arouri participated as a member of the delegation, as first reported by Kan journalist Gal Berger.
Arouri, who was imprisoned in Israel until 2007, has been responsible in recent years for coordinating terrorist activities of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank. For several years he was based in Turkey and communicated instructions on how to carry out attacks, but was expelled following the country’s reconciliation agreement with Israel. He then moved to Doha, Qatar, and now lives in Lebanon.
• Israel pointedly gave UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) a replica of a frieze from the Arch of Titus to be displayed in the UN organization’s Paris headquarters. What’s the big deal?
Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO explained that the gift is to remind the organization of Judaism’s ties to the Jerusalem and the Temple Mount ignored by a bevy of UNESCO resolutions over the past year.
In unsubtle critique, Israel gifts UNESCO Arch of Titus replica https://t.co/qiPDONhIbb via @timesofisrael pic.twitter.com/x74gAslFEA
— ??IsraelinWHC (@israelinwhc) September 27, 2017
• How’s Yahya Sinwar doing in the seven months since he took over as Gaza’s strongman? The Jerusalem Post takes a closer look.
• The prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand will visit Israel at the end of October to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheva. Soldiers from both countries were involved in the fight for the city; over 1,000 commonwealth soldiers are buried in a Beersheva military cemetery. Details at the Times of Israel.
• In an interview with Ynet, Norwegian Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said that because of Islamic terror attacks in Europe, “We now get what Israel goes through.”
“We are experiencing now the fear that you have experienced for decades,” said Sylvi Listhaug in an exclusive interview with Ynet in Oslo. “Many people now understand the situation you live in. We see what is happening in Sweden, in Britain and in France.”
Around the World
• San Jose State U. library hosts “a raging anti-Semite” who blames Zionist Jews for 9/11.
• Columnist under fire for demonizing German Jews.
• Nashville synagogues are boosting security for their Yom Kippur services following Sunday’s church shooting attack.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Norman Bailey: Media overlooks Sunni Arabs’ Israel overtures
– Bret Stephens: I believe some of your best friends are Jewish
– Raphael Ahren: Interpol handcuffs PM’s hope of ending automatic anti-Israel majority
– Tova Tzimuki: Supreme Court is Israel’s international fortress
– Gilead Sher, Kobi Michael, Liran Ofek: Hamas: Toward Palestinian reconciliation, or abdication of governmental responsibility?
– Michael Herzog: Southern Syria: How to stop the Iranian plan for regional dominance
– Josh Rogin: Trump’s plan to stop Iran in Syria is MIA
– Uzi Rubin: What parades in Pyongyang ends up in Tehran
– Melanie Phillips: The Labour Party – a safe space for hate
– Jonathan Freedland: Labour’s denial of anti-Semitism in its ranks leaves the party in a dark place
– Danny Stone: Taking action against anti-Semitism will ultimately be for the many, not the few
Featured image: CC BY Institute for the Study of the Ancient World; Hussein CC BY-NC-ND UN Geneva;
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