Today’s Top Stories
1. Islamic State in the Sinai seized an Iranian weapons shipment bound for Hamas, according to Mideast reports. Islamic State’s new toys which Hamas will have to do without include Russian-made Kornet anti-tank weapons and other GPS-guided arms. Relations between Hamas and IS have deteriorated over the past two years. Check out our explainer video on Hamas for more background.
At the risk of making your brain explode, try calculating all the “Enemy of my enemy is my friend” permutations in Jerusalem, Gaza, Tehran, Cairo and the Sinai.
2. The president of Chad, Idriss Deby, was due to arrive in Israel today in a surprise official visit. The African nation — which is majority Muslim — severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 1972, but in recent years, senior Israeli diplomats have visited Deby to pave the way for renewed relations.
3. Qatar is reconsidering its cash transfers to Gaza. It seems the Qataris realized that delivering suitcases stuffed with cash to terror thugs made for terrible optics, per Israeli media reports.
According to a report on the Walla news site, a document circulated internally among Qatari officials argues that the transfer of money to Hamas was a “problematic” move that led to criticism from both Israel and the Palestinians. The document says the cash transfer “only reinforces the negative view of Qatar as a financier of terror acting against the Sunni states.” . . .
“In Qatar they fear that the transfer of funds will ultimately work against them,” the Israeli source said. “Instead of being perceived as rehabilitating Gaza, Qatar is perceived as financing Hamas and its military wing.”
4. HR Prompts West Bank Rocket Correction: HR corrects the record after The Independent reported rockets were fired from the West Bank.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Judges at the International Court in the Hague ordered chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to reopen her investigation into the Mavi Marmara affair. For the third time. Ten Turkish citizens were killed in violent fights against Israeli naval commandos which intercepted the ship in 2010 trying to break the Gaza blockade. See Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Czech President Milos Zeman was due to arrive in Israel today to inaugurate Jerusalem’s “Czech House.” A cultural center that will also host some office space, the Czech House will not have any diplomatic status, but is seen as a precursor for an embassy move to Jerusalem.
Zeman is also scheduled to address the Knesset. More on the president’s warm feelings for Israel at Ynet. Read more about the status of Jerusalem here, and check out this piece to understand why the issue is so sensitive.
• The Shin Bet foiled a Hamas-planned bombing in Israel. A Gaza cancer patient and her sister who had humanitarian passes to enter Israel were used to pass messages to the West Bank terrorists. More at Ynet.
• Jerusalem Post: The UN is expected to publish its blacklist of companies doing business in the West Bank, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem in March.
• While Israeli ties with the Gulf states have remarkably warmed, PA relations with them have more than soured. Why are the PA and Gulf states at odds?
• Clashes broke out in Hebron after the IDF raided a Palestinian wedding in search of illegal weapons. According to Israeli media reports, “the soldiers found a rifle and ammunition, which had been intended to be used in a terror attack.”
• According to Palestinian media reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post, the White House has postponed the launch of President Donald Trump’s peace plan to February.
• i24 News: France gave ‘sensitive’ intelligence to the Palestinians during the Second Intifada, including unspecified materials in diplomatic bags.
Mideast Matters
• Worth reading: Journalist Ronen Bergman reveals new details about the Iranian nuclear documents the Mossad spirited out of Tehran, and about the mission itself.
So what is the purpose of the AMAD Project? The answer to this question too can be found in the archive. According to the material obtained in the Mossad operation, the Iranian plan is to produce five warheads with a yield of 10 kilotons each, and develop the ability to assemble these warheads on the Iranian-made Shahab 3 missile.
Incidentally, nuclear experts who examined the documents say that the Iranian leaders’ plan lays out far more extensive infrastructure than what is needed to produce “only” five bombs.
• Iran’s “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani called Israel a “cancerous tumor” and a “fake regime” established to advance US and Western interests. I liked David Harris‘s response:
In 2015, #Iran nuke deal fans said it would boost Iran’s “moderates,” led by Pres. Rouhani.
US & EU leaders couldn’t say enough good things about him. I heard it myself.
Rouhani just called #Israel a “cancerous tumor” & “fake regime.”
With such moderates who needs extremists?
— David Harris (@DavidHarrisAJC) November 24, 2018
Window Into Israel
• The Media Line takes a closer look at the battle within the IDF over its state of combat readiness.
Military preparedness is a sensitive issue in Israel, given the Jewish state has for its entire history been surrounded by enemies and thus perpetually on the brink of conflict. Also, every Israeli is drafted into the army at eighteen years of age and may thus be called to battle at a moment’s notice.
• Evergreen headline: Haredi parties threaten to bolt coalition as PM declares IDF draft law stands.
• I’m a little surprised it took this long, but Israel appointed its first male Ethiopian judge.
• Israel, Cyprus, Greece and Italy reached an agreement to build a $7 billion EastMed Pipeline Project to supply natural gas to Europe. According to Israeli media reports, “As part of the agreement, Israel and Cyprus will be granted preference over other countries in exporting gas to the European market.”
Exclusive: Israel has signed an agreement between four countries to supply Europe with natural gas. The agreement signed by Israel, Greece, Italy and Cyprus, will create an underwater pipeline that runs 2,000km & will be the deepest and longest underwater pipeline in the world pic.twitter.com/wDbcOcgpYJ
— Dana Weiss (@danawt) November 24, 2018
Around the World
• “A man was the victim of an antisemitic assault on a bus in Wales on Monday after his mother reportedly told another passengers of she was born in Israel.” A soccer match in Argentina turned violent amid fans’ chants of ‘killing the Jews to make soap.’ A Wisconsin school board ruled that high school students who posed for a photo giving a Nazi salute is protected free speech, and no disciplinary action would be taken.
• Sanity prevailed at Cardiff U., where the student union voted against a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli institutions which also claimed to “protect” Jewish students.
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Yossi Yehoshua: Hamas and Israel move to psychological warfare
– Gideon Sa’ar: A case for preemptive action
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: Are IDF soldiers more afraid of their lawyers than they are of Hamas?
– Amos Harel: Now Defense Minister, Netanyahu suddenly warms to security establishment’s demands
– Yossi Beilin: A dangerous game
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: We cannot accept anything from Trump
Tweet of the day goes to Kay Wilson . . .
https://twitter.com/kishkushkay/status/1065922590793969664
– Brendan O’Neill: Airbnb’s ban on Israeli settlements is shameful
– Fiamma Nirenstein: Airbnb and antisemitism
– Melanie Phillips: The brain-frying insanity of the demonisation of Israel
– Eran Lerman: Israel’s strategy toward China doesn’t conflict with American interests
– Lahav Harkov: What can a coalition living on borrowed time accomplish?
– Lyn Julius: Why is the story of the Jewish refugees so little known?
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Armando G Alonso; Deby via YouTube/Afrique Media : La Televison Panafricaine; Czech flag via Wikimedia Commons; atom CC0 Pixabay; soldier CC BY-NC Israel Defense Forces;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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