Today’s Top Stories
1. The IDF demolished a cross-border terror tunnel that stretched 200 meters into Israeli territory. It’s the 15th such tunnel neutralized by Israel in the past year.
“This specific tunnel, in the way it was built, indicates that Hamas is trying to challenge our counter-tunnel efforts. They are changing the way they excavate in order to make it more difficult for us to detect them,” Conricus said.
The move against the tunnel wasn’t related to an accidental Iron Dome launch earlier in the day, which triggered alarms and had Israelis living in the vicinity on edge. No Palestinian rockets were fired.
Speaking of Gaza, Egypt’s efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are breaking down and could lead to war. The reasons might surprise you.
2. Judges in Tel Aviv today heard an appeal from Lara Alqasem, who has been barred from entering Israel. It’s not clear when the judges will announce their ruling. Alqasem, an American student of Palestinian descent, was prevented from entering the country because her name was on a list of people who support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. The 22-year-old obtained a student visa from the Israeli consulate in Miami and was accepted into a graduate studies program at Hebrew University. She is free to leave Israel, but is staying in a holding facility at Ben Gurion Airport while she wages a legal battle. More on the hearing at the Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, 300 academics signed a letter published in The Guardian calling on Israel to lift its ban on Alqasem. Among the signatories were some heavyweight figures in the academic boycott circles. See HonestReporting’s response: Academics’ Letter Exposes BDS Hypocrisy.
Was Israel right to bar a student from entering the country over her previous support for BDS? HR’s Daniel Pomerantz discussed the issue on i24 News with former Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer.
3. “The University of Michigan apologized to two students who were refused letters of recommendations for study in Israel by lecturers citing their support for boycotting the Jewish state.” President Mark Schlossel and provost Martin Philbert’s letter “also addressed a university lecture that featured a speaker who compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.”
In the News
• Two people were hurt in a stabbing attack outside an army base in the northern West Bank. Israeli security was still searching for the terrorist when this roundup was published.
• Incendiary balloons were found in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam today.
• Two New Zealand BDS activists were ordered to pay damages over Lorde’s Israel boycott.
• For some Americans, Jerusalem’s newest pilgrimage site is the US embassy(!?)
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
• Awfully nice of Associated Press to lump Israel together with human rights luminaries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Rodrigo Duterte.
In the United States, the Trump administration avoids strenuous criticism of human rights abuses by allies, like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the Philippines, or leaders it seeks to cultivate ties with, like Russia, China and North Korea.
• A French consulate employee confessed to making $12,000 by smuggling Weapons to Palestinians in the West Bank in official diplomatic vehicles.
• Ynet reports the Israeli government is due to vote on Sunday to strip Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his authority over the Bezeq telecom giant as police continue to investigate “the Bezeq affair.”
Netanyahu is suspected of having an understanding with Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq’s majority shareholder, in which the PM gave the telecom regulatory benefits in exchange for favorable coverage on the Elovitch-owned Walla! News.
At the time of the alleged arrangement, Netanyahu also served as Communications Minister (he resigned from that position in February, 2017). Ayoub Kara currently serves as Communications Minister, but Ynet reports that Netanyahu “holds a monopoly in the field of communications.”
• Drip drip drip: Mohammed Pappu, one of UK Labour’s rising stars, shared antisemitic posts on Facebook.
• Swedish Jewish politician’s house burnt in suspected hate crime.
• JTA: 10 American Jewish baseball players to become dual Israeli citizens to boost nation’s Olympics bid.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: Do China’s actions leave Interpol open to abuse by Palestinians?
– Michal Aharoni: On BDS, we are our own worst enemy
– Marc Schulman: Israel is damaging its image more than the entire BDS movement
– Yoni Ben Menachem: Tensions grows between the Palestinian Authority and Egypt
– Ariel Bolstein: With Russia, there’s no such thing as a free lunch
– Bassam Tawil: How Palestinians lie to Europeans
– Howard Jacobson: Corbyn’s complaint
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND sinkdd; baseball CC BY Marco Verch;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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