Today’s Top Stories
1. Interesting YNet scoop: An unidentified senior Israeli official has been secretly meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah “to tighten cooperation and coordination” on getting Gaza back on its feet.
2. In its fight against ISIS, the White House lifted rules on airstrikes meant to protect civilians.
A White House statement to Yahoo News confirming the looser policy came in response to questions about reports that as many as a dozen civilians, including women and young children, were killed when a Tomahawk missile struck the village of Kafr Daryan in Syria’s Idlib province on the morning of Sept. 23 . . .
The “near certainty” standard was intended to apply “only when we take direct action ‘outside areas of active hostilities,’ as we noted at the time,” Hayden said in an email. “That description — outside areas of active hostilities — simply does not fit what we are seeing on the ground in Iraq and Syria right now.”
The Jerusalem Post also got some fresh quotes. Just what is the White House is seeing on the ground, prompting these rules of engagement? Perhaps ISIS using human shields. The irony didn’t escape Michael Totten.
3. As today’s roundup went to press, Prime Minister Netanyahu was due to meet with President Obama in the White House. Reuters previews what’s on the agenda.
4. Amira Hass: When Only Journalists We Like are Welcome: An incident at Bir Zeit University draws attention to the blurred distinctions between Amira Hass’s journalism and activism.
5. Blankfeld Award 2014: The Winner Is . . . HonestReporting is proud to announce that Elijah Granet, 19, from San Diego, and currently studying in New York City, is the winner of the third Blankfeld Award for Media Critique.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Mahmoud Abbas: If the Palestinian statehood bid in the UN Security Council fails, we’ll unilaterally join the International Criminal Court and end security cooperation with Israel. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Haaretz: Israel refuses to discuss releasing re-arrested Hamas terrorists who were freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal. Jerusalem officials denied Hamas claims that a deal for the release of the bodies of two fallen IDF soldiers was close at hand.
• Israelis are rethinking life along the Gaza border, according to the Wall St. Journal. (Click via Google News.)
• UN Watch: William Schabas’ own colleague, human rights icon Aryeh Neier, calls for him to quit UN Gaza probe due to prior statements.
• Anti-Semitism in the UK continues unabated after the Gaza conflict. Mark Gardiner of the UK’s anti-Semitism watchdog, Community Security Trust, summed it up to the Jerusalem Post:
“The overwhelming feedback was that they had never felt so singled out, nor so fearful about what this might mean for the future. Now, as time passes, many of those fears will outwardly calm and the community will return to its normal vibrant life, but a negative impact still remains,” he said.
• Israel’s top oil supplier endures Gaza as ties with Azerbaijan grow. Bloomberg News looks at what makes Jerusalem and Baku so chummy.
Commentary/Analysis
• Bret Stephens discussed Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN speech and the Iranian nuclear threat in this Wall St. Journal video.
• A Wall Street Journal staff-ed (click via Google News) calls on the European parliament to remove Alaa Abdel Fattah from a list of nominees for the prestigious Andrei Sakharov
Mr. Abdel Fattah’s nomination is part of a pattern of subverting the Sakharov Prize to embarrass certain unpopular supporters of global freedom, such as the U.S. and Israel. The Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, or GUE/NGL, the parliamentary bloc that put forth Mr. Abdel Fattah’s name, nominated Edward Snowden for last year’s prize.
Such stunts sully the legacy of Andrei Sakharov who, according to his wife, the dissident Yelena Bonner, once said that ” all wars that Israel has waged have been just, forced upon it by the irresponsibility of Arab leaders.” The European Parliament should uphold this distinction and remove Mr. Abdel Fattah’s name from the list.
Image: CC BY-SA flickr/Sascha Kohlmann
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