Today’s Top Stories
1. In the last 24 hours, there were four Palestinian stabbing attacks. See below for details. In case you missed yesterday’s roundup, I have decided to call the widening violence an “intifada.” Here’s Why I’m calling it an intifada.
2. Who knew? Palestinians influenced by Islamic State burned down the St. Charbel monastery in Bethlehem on Sept. 26. Bar Ilan University’s Edy Cohen asks, “Where’s the coverage?”
The burning of the church in Bethlehem was a despicable and racist act against a marginalized community who lived peacefully in this country before the arrival of the Muslims. The blackout from the Palestinian side is understandable. That’s what Arab countries who live under dictatorship do. But the question must be asked today why there was a media blackout in Israel when Palestinian terrorists burned a church in Bethlehem while we heard condemnations from all sides when the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish in Tiberias was burned down a few months ago. One of the reporters said the matter was not interesting, another senior reporter told me that if it was a Jew was that did it I would have reported on it straight away and they would be preparing a panel on CNN about it.
3. In defiance of a UN ban, Iran tested a new precision-guided ballistic missile that could reach Israel. More at Reuters.
4. We got results as The Independent and Los Angeles Times amended problematic headlines. See this update on yesterday’s media fails.
5. The Ripple Effect of Media Bias: A botched New York Times report creates an unfortunate domino effect.
6. The Disappearing Ongoing Terror Wave: After a week of Palestinian terror, it’s nearly impossible to learn from Big Media what’s happening in Israel.
Israel and the Intifada
• This afternoon, there was a stabbing attack in Pisgat Zeev, north of Jerusalem involving two Palestinian attackers. Two Israelis were injured, at least one with life-threatening injuries. Both Palestinians were killed by responding police.
• Earlier in the afternoon, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed two people at Jerusalem’s Ammunition Hill before being shot and killed by police.
• A Palestinian who tried to stab a police officer was shot and killed by the Lions Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City this morning. The security footage is pretty dramatic.
• A Palestinian in Hadera stabbed four Israelis last night. One victim, a female soldier, is fighting for her life in Tel Aviv’s Tel HaShomer Hospital. Police arrested the terrorist at the scene.
• Shortly before this roundup went to press, there were initial reports of another stabbing attack in Kiryat Gat. That attack turned out to be criminally-motivated, not terror.
• MEMRI reports that the Palestinian Bar Association gave an honorary law degree to the terrorist who killed Rabbi Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Banita in Jerusalem’s Old City on October 4. Muhannad Al-Halabi, a law student at Al-Quds University, was killed by responding police.
• The intifada has Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party split. According to the Jerusalem Post:
These leaders are reportedly unhappy with the PA’s failure to play any role in or support the current wave of attacks on Israelis, the sources told Rai Al-Youm . . .
Sources in Ramallah explained that Abbas and some senior Fatah officials were reluctant to publicly support the anti-Israel attacks because they did not want to anger the Americans and Europeans. The sources pointed out that Abbas has come under heavy pressure from US Secretary of State John Kerry and some Arab countries like Jordan and Egypt to avoid an all-out confrontation with Israel.
Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reports that Abbas is telling leaders of Fatah’s Tanzim militia to stop urging violence.
• Nazareth’s mayor denounced Arab MKs for escalating tensions, screaming at Joint List Ayman Odeh on live TV, saying violence is driving away tourists and Jewish customers and “destroying the city.” In a separate interview, Mayor Ali Salam told Globes:
“Restaurants were closed, businesses were closed. They came to me in the municipality and wept. We have to work several months in order to bring back commerce back to the city . . .”
“Most of the MKs want to come for the publicity, to be seen and photographed. I’m sick and tired of them. Let them do something for the benefit of the people who voted for them. I asked the MKs to get out of town – to leave us in peace. I told Ayman Udeh, ‘Get out of here. I don’t want you to come to Nazareth. You’ve destroyed my city.’
• How would a collapse of the Palestinian Authority impact the Israeli and Palestinian economies? YNet takes a closer look.
Economic circumstances are among the reasons stopping Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from acting on the threat to renounce the Oslo Agreements and establish a “Palestinian state under occupation,” which means disbanding the PA. The reason is well-known: The Palestinian economy is completely dependent on the Israeli economy. Without Israel, the West Bank will soon turn into a second Gaza, with an African-style distress and one of the world’s highest unemployment rates.
• The intifada’s also hitting Jerusalem businesses. Merchants already report declining revenues to Israel HaYom.
• Metal detectors planned at Temple Mount entrance
• Here’s a brilliant headline from a sidebar on CNN‘s home page. At least the article it links to has a more sensible header.
• “Anoint your knives with poison”: What incitement looks like on social media
• For more on the day’s unrest, see live-blogs at Haaretz, and the Times of Israel.
• Latest blood libel: Shot through the heart, and guess who’s to blame . . .
Around the World
• According to Iranian state TV, a Tehran court convicted Jason Rezaian, but didn’t specify which charges the Washington Post reporters was convicted of, or what the sentence would be.
• President Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, said that Jesus was a Palestinian, and that the Palestinians are living under Israeli “racism, militarism and capitalism.” The Hill writes:
“The same issue is being fought today and has been fought since 1948, and historians are carried back to the 19th century… when the original people, the Palestinians — and please remember, Jesus was a Palestinian — the Palestinian people had the Europeans come and take their country,” Wright said.
He said African-Americans in the United States have much in common with Palestinians in Israel. The
• The International Criminal Court’s credibility took a bit of a hit as South Africa’s ruling party decided to withdraw its membership. It has to with a fiasco earlier this year when South Africa failed to arrest Sudan’s President, Omar Bashir. The ICC has a warrant for Bashir’s arrest over alleged war crimes in Darfur. Could this have implications for Palestinian efforts to drag Israelis to the ICC for war crimes trials?
Commentary/Analysis
• Marwan Barghouti go op-ed space in The Guardian to argue that “Israel will get no peace until the occupation ends.” Barghouti’s the former leader of Fatah’s Tanzim militia and was convicted in 2004 for his role in the deaths of five people during the Second Intifada.
But you wouldn’t know any of that from the op-ed or Barghouti’s bio-page; I’ll forgive you for getting the impression he’s a political prisoner:
Marwan Barghouti is an imprisoned Palestinian leader, and member of the Fatah central committee and the Palestine National Council
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– David Harris: Attacks against Israelis: World’s silence is deafening
– Avi Issacharoff: Armed with rocks and knives, the children of Oslo come of age
– Yaakov Amidror: Wave of terror: Myths, facts, and wishful thinking
– Tal Shalev: The world could be Netanyahu and Abbas’ lifesaver
– Judith Bergman: Why now?
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/John Ragai with additions by HonestReporting; Nazareth CC BY flickr/Israeltourism;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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