Today’s Top Stories
1. A Palestinian rocket hit Sderot this morning. Nobody was injured, but two Israelis were treated for shock. The IDF fired tank shells at Hamas positions in response. Shortly before this roundup was published, Palestinian media reported Israeli air strikes. Times of Israel coverage.
The Islamic State-affiliated Ahfad al-Sahaba-Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis terrorist group took responsibility for the rocket launch in statements released in both Arabic and Hebrew.
Watch the moment today when a rocket launched from #Gaza hit the city of Sderot. (source: social media) pic.twitter.com/t48ixtzpEc
— LTC (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) October 5, 2016
2. The IDF is preparing to intercept and escort to Ashdod the “Zaytouna-Oliva,” a women’s boat seeking to bust the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel coverage.
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3. The Bank of Ireland shut down all the bank accounts belonging to the Ireland Palestine Palestine Solidarity Campaign. According to RTE, the country’s national public broadcaster, which broke the story, the accounts were closed because the PSC “does not fit the bank’s appetite for risk as Palestine is deemed to be a high-risk country.” More on the story at the Jerusalem Post.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinian municipal elections originally due to be held later this month in the West Bank and Gaza were suspended indefinitely.
• Six Palestinians from eastern Jerusalem were indicted on charges of trying to join Islamic State and carry out terror attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
• Israelis have long been wary of efforts to put settlement activity and IDF conduct during several Gaza wars under the purview of the International Criminal Court. That’s why it’s striking that, for the first time, a delegation from the International Criminal Court is arriving in Israel today to hold meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
According to a statement put out by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor and picked up by the Jerusalem Post, the group is visiting “with a view to raising awareness about the ICC and in particular, about the work of the Office; to address any misconceptions about the ICC.”
In accordance with its usual practice at this stage of its work, the delegation will not engage in evidence collection in relation to any alleged crimes; neither will the delegation undertake site visits, or assess the adequacy of the respective legal systems to deal with crimes that fall within ICC jurisdiction.
Eugene Kontorovich gives you permission to exhale.
Not a seachange as ICC officials visiting arent investigators. Outreach folks lobbying for Israeli membership as they often do w:non-members https://t.co/1vQMQTYdNl
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) October 5, 2016
• Jordanians continue protesting a recent $10 billion deal to purchase natural gas from Israel; judging from this Washington Post snippet, choosing Palestinian principles would be costly for the kingdom.
With Mubarak gone, Jordan has faced skyrocketing costs but has refused to raise electricity prices, fearing Arab Spring inspired protests. As a result, the state-run NEPCO utility has racked up $7 billion in debt since 2012.
• Insanity prevailed when the official White House transcript of President Obama’s eulogy of Shimon Peres accidentally put Jerusalem in Israel. Staffers removed the word Israel. Never mind that the Mt. Herzl cemetery is located in western Jerusalem, just like the King David Hotel, where A-List world leaders spent the night. See reactions from Elliott Abrams and Adam Kredo.
• Holocaust film gets secret screening in Gaza, leaving director fearing for his life.
• In an interview with the Times of Israel, an IDF operations officer says that while violence from Hebron gets all the attention, two other Palestinian towns — Jenin and Tulkarem — are bigger troubles waiting to happen.
• Israel transferred $20 million to Turkey for families of Mavi Marmara victims as part of the agreement to re-normalize relations.
• Schools in Qatar, Bahrain withdraw textbook that calls Palestinian hijackers ‘terrorists’
• YNet goes in search of Joseph’s well — believed to be near Jenin — and takes a journey into the Book of Genesis.
Around the World
• A man apparently seeking to set fire to Moscow‘s Choral Synagogue shot a guard as he tried to enter the building before being overpowered. Around 150 worshipers were inside the building for Saturday afternoon prayers at the time.
Lebedev’s motives for carrying out the attack remain unclear. However, as he was arrested by the police, he told reporters he did it “for Russia.”
It’s the same synagogue where, in 1948, thousands of brave Russian Jews showed up on Rosh HaShanah to greet Israel’s new ambassador, Golda Meir, despite warnings from the Communist regime to stay away from her.
• The UK Labour Party suspended another senior activist over anti-Semitic remarks. In a leaked video, Jackie Walker said Holocaust Remembrance Day should be “opened to all people who experienced a holocaust.” Walker was removed from her position as vice chair of Momentum, a powerful pro-Jeremy Corbyn grassroots organization. However, her membership was not suspended and she remains on Momentum’s steering committee.
• Students at the University of Waterloo in Ontario voted to defund anti-Israel ‘public interest’ group.
• Syracuse U. pro-BDS faculty issue call to ‘resist’ events co-hosted with Israeli institutions
• Azerbaijan reportedly bought a number of Iron Dome batteries from Israel.
• As Venezuela unravels, more and more of the country’s Jewish community are opting for aliya.
Kidnappings, bulletproof cars and the black market are now common in the Venezuelan Jewish community.
While they are generally far better off than most of the population, who are suffering from lack of food and medicine, many Jewish Venezuelans have reached their limits given the ever-declining state of the country and are choosing to move away from the chaos unfolding before them.
Commentary/Analysis
• Only the New York Times would publish a Hanan Ashrawi screed against Shimon Peres on Rosh HaShanah. On Planet Ashrawi, the Palestinians are blameless for agreeing to a flawed Oslo process, and terror is only acknowledged with a ho-hum line. (“While Palestinians certainly made mistakes, Israel, as the stronger and occupying power, held most of the cards during the Oslo process.”). Ashrawi’s observations about leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon are predictable enough but this one takes the cake:
The promise of the Oslo peace process was never fulfilled, in large part because of the failures of Mr. Peres and the “peace camp” in Israel, but also thanks to the flaws in the Declaration of Principles itself. Because the declaration enabled Israel to act with impunity over destructive unilateral measures like settlement expansion— given the lack of will on the part of the United States to hold Israel to account — it was inevitable that a culture of hate and racism against the Palestinians would ensue.
• More tributes, remembrances, and commentaries about Shimon Peres over the last few days.
– Father Raymond de Souza: The two sides of Shimon Peres
– Tom Friedman: Peres: 93 years young
– Daniel Gordis: Shimon Peres: The last Israeli Jeffersonian
– Dan Senor and Saul Singer: Shimon Peres wasn’t just a politician — he was one of Israel’s best entrepreneurs
– Jonathan Tobin: Abbas gestures to Obama, not Israel
• Worth reading: Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin calls on Jewish students to stand up on campus.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Norman Bailey: US fiscal mess may thwart Israel’s military aid
– Moshe Arens: Obama’s confusion about the ‘Occupation’ of Palestinian land
– Gil Troy: Remember this year’s martyrs on Yom Kippur
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Europe’s “good terrorists”: Because they might destroy Israel?
– Guy Milliere: Palestinian murderers and their Western enablers
– Rowan Dean: Israel holds the key to peace, if only the leftists would listen
– Benjamin Gladstone: Anti-Semitism at my university, hidden in plain sight
– Giulio Meotti: Europe’s new media darlings: terrorists
– Moshe Yaalon: Why Iran is more dangerous than Islamic State
Images: synagogue CC BY-SA A. Savin; Venezuelan flag CC BY-SA Jorge Andres Paparoni Bruzual; chimpanzee CC BY-NC patriziasoliani;
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