Today’s Top Stories
1. As the dust settles on the US midterm elections, the JTA rounded up the results of the races that mattered the most to Jews.
Meanwhile, Eytan Gilboa and Ben Sales weigh in on whether the outcome is “good news for the Jews.”
2. Israel and Russia cancelled a meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin in Paris next week. According to Israeli media reports, the November 11 summit was scrapped due to Moscow’s ire over Israeli airstrikes in Syria. But the Prime Minister’s Office said the cancellation was due to a French request that no meetings be held on the sidelines of Armistice Day commemorations marking the anniversary of the end of World War I.
Whatever the case, Netanyahu may cancel the trip now.
3. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner is preparing to become the public face of the soon-to-be-released White House peace plan. The Jerusalem Post explains:
State Department sources tell The Jerusalem Post that Kushner recently visited Foggy Bottom to begin preparing for a more public role centered on the plan. Moving into the spotlight would be a relatively new format for the prodigal son-in-law, who has rarely spoken in public since entering the White House. While Trump is likely to announce the plan in a formal speech, Kushner is expected, from that point on, to serve as the public face of the peace effort.
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In the News
• “Clashes broke out in the northern West Bank city of Nablus overnight Tuesday after Israeli security forces entered the city to escort Jewish worshipers to the Joseph’s Tomb holy site, the army said,” the Times of Israel reports.
• Here’s a by-the-numbers look at Palestinian voter participation in last week’s Jerusalem municipal elections. Ramadan Dabash ran for a seat on the city council as leader of the “Jerusalem, My Town” party. Don’t expect any improvement when residents go back to the polls for the November 13 runoff election. Based on the Times of Israel.
– 250,675: overall ballots cast for lists in Jerusalem
– 3,001: ballots cast for Jerusalem, My Town (1.2 percent of overall vote)
– 8,086: votes Jerusalem My Town would have needed for one seat on the city council
Palestinians aren’t eligible to vote in Israeli national elections, but those with Jerusalem residency are eligible to vote in municipal elections and run for city council. But Palestinians have boycotted municipal elections, saying they legitimize Israeli control over the city.
• A United Arabs Emirates minister scolded Hamas on Twitter over the terror group’s support Iran. The Times of Israel explains
“Hamas’s solidarity with the Iranian government does not take into consideration the Gulf and Arab anxiety over Tehran’s regional interference,” Anwar Gargash, UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, tweeted Tuesday evening. “It is unnecessary. It pushes the Palestinian issue into a maze and confirms the opinion that the movement, in its orientation, is nothing more than an Iranian regional tool.”
Gargash was responding to Hamas’s statement of sympathy for Iran after the US reinstituted sanctions.
• Saudi Arabia will bar more than one million Israeli Muslims from making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Till now, Israeli Muslims would have to travel to Jordan and receive a temporary Jordanian passport allowing them to enter and leave the Saudi kingdom. Haaretz reports that Saudis will no longer recognize those temporary passports, but speculates that this might be a sign of better ties to come:
Members of the Israeli hajj committee and Jordanian officials alike did not publicly criticize the Saudis over the issue, but in private conversation some said the Saudis were using the decision to examine the possibility that Muslim citizens of Israel could travel directly to Saudi Arabia, as part of the growing detente between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Members of the hajj committee confirmed that the topic was raised in talks but said they had no official information that could explain the Saudi move.
• Ramallah is going through a building boom, but city planners are letting developers demolish an awful lot of heritage buildings. While reading this dispatch in The Independent, it occurred to me that if it was Israel destroying those buildings, there’d be a heckuva hue and a cry.
• For the first time, Tunisia appointed a Jew to a cabinet post. Businessman Rene Trabelsi was tapped as tourism minister.
• The Media Line discussed with analysts the latest Saudi efforts to develop their own atomic infrastructure. In a nutshell, the reactors the kingdom plans to build won’t be operational for years. A greater concern would be if the Saudis opt to purchase nuclear weapons from, say, Russia or China.
Window Into Israel
• After 56 years of searching, Israel found the body of an Air Force pilot whose plane crashed in the Sea of Galilee. Lt. Yakir Naveh’s crashed into the lake in 1962 while taking a cadet out on a training flight.
Though the Sea of Galilee is a relatively small body of water, search efforts in the lake have been described as “hellish” for divers, as the soft, silty bottom reduces visibility to a minimum . . .
The military said the remains were discovered with help from an external company, which provided “modern and advanced technologies” that helped sift through the ground around the crash site.
• Speaking of the Sea of Galilee, Reuters examines the lake’s diminishing water level and Israel’s desalination efforts to save it.
Around the World
• The University of Leeds denies BDS claims that it divested from companies over Israel ties.
• Sussex University investigates professor who claims Israel was behind 9/11 Twin Towers attacks ‘with help from Zionists in US government.’
• It turns out Britain’s Royal Mint rejected a commemorative Roald Dahl coin over the author’s antisemitic views several years ago. Some of his books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and BFG remain popular with children and also became successful movies, but Dahl’s antisemitic comments cast a shadow over his centenary in 2014. See The Guardian‘s scoop.
• Vandalism to Jewish food truck in Austin, Texas, was an antisemitic hate crime, owner says
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian threats to Arab normalization with Israel
– Alex Fishman: Hamas’s ‘wait and see’ strategy in Gaza ceasefire talks
– Amb. Alan Baker: After the Pittsburgh massacre, it’s time to adopt an international convention on the crime of antisemitism
– Roger Boyles: Iran sanctions should have our full support
– Andrew Silow-Carroll: Yes, anti-Semitism is a problem again. No, it is not 1939.
– New York Daily News (staff-ed): Louis Farrakhan, the worst: Jew-hating minister must be shunned by all
– Benny Avni: Despite Farrakhan’s urging, Iranians not giving in to hate
– Rosie DiManno: Pittsburgh massacre brings back traumatic memories of Toronto rabbinical student’s murder
Featured image: CC0 Pexels; Netanyahu CC BY-NC-SA World Economic Forum; Putin via Wikimedia Commons; Gargash via YouTube/Asia Society; Mecca CC BY-SA Al Jazeera English; World Trade Center via YouTube/Inside Edition;
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