Today’s Top Stories
1. Egypt declared state of emergency after 31 soldiers were killed in twin Sinai suicide attacks. Cairo declared a state of emergency, announced it will set up a buffer zone with Gaza, and postponed ceasefire talks it was brokering between the Palestinian factions and Israel. The Times of Israel adds:
According to a report in the Egyptian al-Ahram cited by Israel Radio, which quotes an anonymous intelligence official, the perpetrators of the attack Friday infiltrated the peninsula via a tunnel leading from the Gaza Strip.
2. Ordinary Gazans are unable to rebuild their homes despite the approaching winter, thanks to factional feuding over reconstruction money and monitoring mechanisms. But isn’t it heartwarming that — somehow — Hamas has the wherewithal rebuild its radio station? The New York Times reports:
But the landscape is not completely stagnant: Outside the approved system, a dozen men were at work this week rebuilding the headquarters of Al Aqsa satellite channel, one of the Hamas-affiliated media network’s four sites struck by Israel this summer.
One worker was busy coating silver support beams to ward off rust. Others passed recycled rebar up several stories. They had already erected two cinder block walls and wood-framed a sloped roof in a project that began Oct. 8 and was expected to take three months . . .
Mr. Thuraya said United Nations agencies refused to include his buildings on the list for reconstruction because “they consider us a terrorist channel.” He would not specify beyond “private donors” who was financing the reconstruction of the four-story, 5,400-square-foot studio and offices that were hit by Israeli bombs on July 29.
The project engineer said he paid $5,500 for 10 tons of cement, quintuple the regular price, because of scarcity caused by Israeli import restrictions and the closing of smuggling tunnels from Egypt.
3. Clashes erupted in eastern Jerusalem after police delayed the funeral of Abdelrahman Shaludi, the Palestinian who deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people at a light rail station last week.
Mayor Nir Barkat insisted to AP he’ll do what it takes to calm the city. Meanwhile, the IDF killed a 14-year-old Palestinian-American boy who threw a Molotov cocktail during a West Bank clash. Although Orwah Hammad mostly grew up in the West Bank, I’m linking to the New Orleans Times-Picayune because he also spent some time in The Big Easy.
4. CNN: Making Moral Equivalence Out of Childrens’ Deaths: Network equates deaths of helpless three-month-old Israeli baby with a Palestinian teen throwing a Molotov cocktail.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Memo from US consulate refers to Jerusalem terror attack as “traffic incident.”
• Professor Eugene Kontorovich updates the latest on the latest follies from the American Studies Association conference. Now the organization’s trying to screen out reporters interested in the Israel issue from covering their event.
• In South Africa, student supporters of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel put a severed pig’s head in the kosher meat section of a Cape Town supermarket. More on the sorry story at The Indepedent of South Africa and Algemeiner. Is BDS anti-Zionist anti-Semitic?
• Dutch mayor compares Muslims joining ISIS to Post WWII Jews Fighting for Israel.
Commentary/Analysis
• Khaled Abu Toameh: PA incitement squarely to blame for last week’s deadly light rail terror attack.
Whatever his motives, it is clear that al-Shalodi, the driver who carried out the most recent attack, was influenced, in one way or another, by the messages that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership have been sending their people. Unless the harsh and incendiary rhetoric stops, more terrorist attacks are likely to take place.
• Ex-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has a bone to pick with premature European recognition of Palestine. In a nutshell, his Times of London op-ed argues that recognition will encourage the Palestinians to avoid talks, unfairly pressure Israel, and legitimize the radical Islamic agenda of Hamas, all without changing any facts on the ground.
If we want to have a democratic, free, peaceful and prosperous Palestinian state alongside Israel, recognising now an entity that is far from democratic, free, peaceful and prosperous will only thwart any possibility that any such state will exist in the future.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Avi Issacharoff (The irresponsible rush to blame Abbas), Tom Friedman (Last train on peace leaving the station?),
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Looking to modernize its army, India chose to sign a $525 million missile deal with Israel. The Spike anti-tank produced by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems beat out a bid by the US producers of the Javelin. Reuters coverage.
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Ed Stevenson; Aznar CC BY-SA flickr/Contando Estrelas
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