Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel and Hamas were back on the brink of war last night after undercover IDF commandos were exposed during what military officials called an intelligence gathering operation. One officer, identified as “Lt. Col. M.” was killed and another officer was moderately wounded. Trapped several kilometers inside Gaza, the commandos needed aerial support to exit the Strip.
Seven Hamas terrorists were killed, including a senior commander of the group’s tunneling forces. The Palestinians fired 17 projectiles at Israel, all of which either landed harmlessly in open areas or were intercepted by Iron Dome.
The IDF said all the soldiers returned to Israel, contradicting rumors that Hamas captured a soldier. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a visit to Paris to deal with the crisis. As a precaution, schools and train stations in communities near the Gaza border were closed and flight paths in and out of Ben Gurion Airport were altered, and the IDF sent reinforcements to the area.
As this roundup was published, M.’s funeral was underway. The military censor banned the publication of his name for now, so the funeral was closed to the press and family members remembering the fallen soldier in Israeli media reports could not be identified by name either.
More on the flare up at the Times of Israel, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post and New York Times. The latter added:
A former Israeli military commander in charge of long-range missions, Tal Russo, made the rounds of television studios assuring viewers this had been an intelligence operation, not an assassination or abduction mission. It was of the sort, he said, that “are carried out all the time, every night and in all fronts.”
The violence comes on the heels of a $15 million cash transfer to Gaza arranged by Israel and Qatar which was used to pay salaries to Hamas civil servants.
"Seven Palestinians" were killed in #Gaza last night, but who were these people? #Hamas knows, and you should know too: These were certainly not civilian casualties. pic.twitter.com/kQ6LMPu8D7
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 12, 2018
2. The New York Times cancelled its controversial $7,900 tours of Iran. The New York Post explains:
“We’re suspending the Iran tours because of difficulties related to the issuance of visas for our experts,” said a NYT spokeswoman.
She declined to comment on whether it was also in reaction to the Trump administration’s tightening of sanctions as it pulls the US out of the Iran nuclear deal.
The paper offers pricey organized Journeys to offset declining print revenue. Following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Times cancelled its $11,995 Saudi Arabia tours.
3. A former financial official with the Temporary International Presence in Hebron admits the civilian observer group is tainted with anti-Israeli bias and corruption. Israel HaYom reports that Bennet Nygaard Solum, who served as TIPH’s chief procurement and financial officer, has revealed details of fraud, perjury, embezzlement and covering up incidents of observers accosting Israelis.
The TIPH’s observers come from Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Hebron’s Jewish community and a growing number of Israeli officials are calling for Israel not to continue TIPH’s mandate when it comes up for renewal in January.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
In the News
• Not-so-great-moments in jihad enlistment: “State prosecutors on Sunday filed an indictment against an Arab Israeli man who had planned to join jihadist anti-regime terror groups in Syria but was prevented from doing so by his mother who took away his passport, the Justice Ministry said in a statement Monday.”
• Before leaving Paris early, Netanyahu had a short but “very important” chat with Russian President Vladmir Putin. “Netanyahu’s office had been working to arrange such a meeting, his first with Putin since Syrian air defenses downed a Russian military plane during an Israeli airstrike in Syria in mid-September.”
• Israel’s Channel 20 took a lot of heat for an inappropriately amicable interview with a Jewish arsonist who torched an Arab-Jewish school promoting co-existence.
Channel 20 later issued an apology for its “Open Studio” show, which hosted Yitzhak Gabai who was sentenced to over three years in prison for torching the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School in Jerusalem in 2014.
• Transportation minister Israel Katz ordered an expansion of Route 90 following fatal crashes near the Dead Sea. In the past three weeks, 17 people have been killed in three separate accidents. Parts of the route passing through the Negev are prone to flash floods.
Route 90, which is Israel’s longest, runs along Israel’s eastern border from Metula in the north to Eilat in the south. Most of the road is decades old and currently features only one lane in each direction, with no divider. Its length and characteristics have made it one of the country’s deadliest routes.
Around the World
• “The fires racing through southern California have led to the evacuation of more than 260,000 people, burned over 83,000 acres and destroyed more than 170 homes, as well as damaged several Jewish institutions.”
• A person of interest was identified after the image of a swastika was sent to the phones of a Chicago-area high school.
• Roger Waters’ anti-Israeli message has ignited a campaign against the ex-Pink Floyd frontman in Latin America.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Lahav Harkov: IDF spokesman lost the narrative on botched Gaza mission
– Avi Issacharoff: Dollars trump death: Hamas seems committed to truce despite deadly Gaza flareup
– Amos Harel: Gaza incident was a botched Israeli military op, but not an assassination attempt
– Zvi Bar’el: For Netanyahu, any concession to Hamas that keeps Palestinians divided is worth it
– Yossi Yehoshua: Cash for quiet in Gaza
– Khaled Abu Toameh: The “separate” Palestinian state
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Israel and the Gulf states: The dam has burst
– Moshe Arens: Is Brazil’s new government good for Israel?
– Giora Eiland: The real concern behind the “submarine affair”
– David Harsanyi: Here’s the anti-Semitism the media doesn’t want to mention
Featured image: CC BY Shironeko Euro; mosque CC BY-NC-ND Andrea Moroni; Armistice Day via YouTube/Wotchit News;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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