Today’s Top Stories
1. Uncle Mahmoud wants you!
PA president begins recruiting Gaza security forces
2. Palestinian festival in Ramallah drops film over French-Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri’s trips to Israel:
Doueiri could not be reached for comment, but Kamel Elbasha, a Palestinian actor who stars in the film, criticized the decision.
“Ziad was punished for that movie which was banned in all Arab countries,” he said, adding that the activists were “mixing things up, lying and distorting facts,” and questioning their motives. Elbasha won the best actor award for his role in the film at the Venice Film Festival in September.
3. Gaza activists are battling a Hamas plan to turn a rare Bronze Age city into — of all things — a military base.
Palestinian archaeologist Moain Sadeq said the mound at Tell es-Sakan near Gaza City is a “unique” site that could offer an invaluable glimpse into the region’s ancient heritage.
It is “maybe the only fortified Canaanite city in southern Palestine” occupied continuously from 3200 to 2000 BCE, he says.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. HonestReporting Wins the Battle of Beersheba: Historic Australian bugle isn’t heading back to ‘Palestine.’
5. Success! Fairfax Corrects Story With Fabricated Anti-Israel Quote: HR and IsraellyCool working together holds New Zealand paper accountable.
6. HR on Israel Now News: HR’s managing editor, Simon Plosker, appeared on Ask the Source, aired on the Christian network, Israel Now News. Plosker discussed media bias in general, fake news and more.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel reportedly struck Islamic State targets in Syria overnight. No comment from the IDF.
• Israel thwarts smuggling attempt at Gaza border crossing.
• UNESCO-affiliated scholars slam agency’s anti-Israel bias, plead for rethink.
• While Jordan’s King Abdullah endorsed the Palestinian unity deal, Qatar is sending an envoy to Gaza to clarify its views on the reconciliation.
• Reuters: Netanyahu lobbies world powers to stem Iraqi Kurd setbacks
• Former Israeli Mossad chief Efraim Halevy and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Turki al-Faisal, appeared together in a New York panel discussion touching on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran, and the Syrian civil war. The Times of Israel and Ynet were on hand.
• Glad to see the Associated Press picked up on the memorial to Saddam Hussein that Palestinians put up in Qalqiliya.
• Israel’s water worries return after four years of drought.
Around the World
Despite that teenage meeting with the taxi driver, the Balfour Declaration played little part in young Roderick Balfour’s life. “It was never mentioned by anybody at school, or very much as I grew up,” he says. “At school, everyone said: ‘Are you related to that loser Balfour?’, because he lost the 1906 election. They didn’t know about the Declaration.
“But you go to Canada, Argentina, France or anywhere in the [Jewish] diaspora, and they all know about it. This country has less knowledge than anywhere else.”
• Maryland governor’s executive order denies contracts to firms that boycott Israel
• Anti-Semitic flyers featuring swastikas were found posted on several buildings at New York’s Cornell University.
Commentary/Analysis
• When it comes to criterion for self-determination, how do Kurds, Catalans and Palestinians stack up? Zalman Shoval weighs in (responding to Richard Haass)
https://twitter.com/davidharsanyi/status/916048962867679233
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Intentional Syrian fire aimed at deterring Israel without waging war
– Amos Harel: Buoyed by Iran and Russia, Assad gains confidence to test Israel
– Khaled Abu Toameh: The Iran-Hamas plan to destroy Israel
– Yoni Ben Menachem: Hamas sees reconciliation as step towards destroying Israel
– Ben Lynfield: Hamas visit to Tehran defines limits of Palestinian reconciliation
– James Sorene: A century after Balfour declaration, legacy of bungled implementation remains
– Ron Kampeas: State anti-BDS laws are hitting unintended targets and nobody’s happy
Featured image: CC BY-SA Piotr Jankowski; Doueiri via YouTube/UNILEB UA; Balfour via Wikimedia Commons;
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