Today’s Top Stories
1. The IDF says it has the bodies of five terrorists buried in last week’s terror tunnel demolition, adding that all were found on the Israeli side of the border. Officials in Jerusalem said they won’t release the bodies until three Israeli civilians (Avera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed and Juma Abu Anima) and the bodies of two soldiers (Lt. Hadar Goldin and Sgt. Oron Shaul) all held by Hamas are returned.
More at the Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel.
2. Associated Press: A new Argentine probe concludes that Alberto Nisman was indeed murdered. The prosecutor was found dead days after he accused then-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of covering up Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA building, the Buenos Aires headquarters of the Jewish community.
The new report, which was obtained by The Associated Press, bases its conclusions on controversial new evidence and sharply contradicts earlier official findings that Alberto Nisman likely killed himself . . .
The investigation listed key evidence that wasn’t mentioned in previous reports: Nisman’s nasal septum was broken. He had suffered blows to his hip and other areas. Ketamine, a substance with strong anesthetic power, was in his body.
The new report concludes the attackers tried to stage a suicide, but it notes that other experts throughout the series of probes never found any traces of gunpowder on Nisman’s hands.
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3. After hosting the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and cracking down on the royal family, the Saudi rulership summoned Mahmoud Abbas to Riyadh for an unscheduled meeting with King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman. Hmmmmm.
Around the World
• Three of Britain’s top writers, accused Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party of straying into anti-Semitism. The letter to the editor, published in the Times of London, was signed by award-winning author Howard Jacobson and historians Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore.
We are alarmed that during the past few years, constructive criticism of Israeli governments has morphed into something closer to antisemitism under the cloak of so-called anti-Zionism. We do not object to fair criticism of Israel governments, but this has grown to be indistinguishable from a demonisation of Zionism itself — the right of the Jewish people to a homeland, and the very existence of a Jewish state. Although anti-Zionists claim innocence of any antisemitic intent, anti-Zionism frequently borrows the libels of classical Jew-hating. Accusations of international Jewish conspiracy and control of the media have resurfaced to support false equations of Zionism with colonialism and imperialism, and the promotion of vicious, fictitious parallels with genocide and Nazism. How, in such instances, is anti-Zionism distinguishable from antisemitism?
Such themes and language have become widespread in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. So far the Labour leadership’s reaction has been derisory. It is not enough to denounce all racisms in general when this specific strain rages unchecked.
Background on the letter here.
• There must be another Anne Frank who coincidentally kept a diary too, right?
• According to Israeli media reports, “Israel has been making covert efforts to bring the remains of the venerated late Rabbi Nachman from Uman, Ukraine, to Israel,” but officials in Kiev turned down the request.
Rebbe Nachman, spiritual leader of the Breslov Hasidim, was born in the city of Medzhybizh in 1772 and died in Uman in 1810. Since then, Uman has become a mecca for Bratslavers, the name by which his followers are known. About 150,000 people visit Rabbi Nachman’s grave every year, making it an important site of tourism for Ukraine.
• Anti-Semitic posters left at Sacramento synagogue.
• Dog saves Paris-area Jewish family from ‘anti-Semitic’ suspected arson in their home.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Yaakov Amidror: Don’t return bodies for nothing
– Alex Fishman: In protection of Druze, Israel gave up security interests in Golan
– Yaakov Lappin: Latest terror tunnel discovery spotlights the ‘real proxy of Iran’ in Gaza
– Evelyn Gordon: Will Palestinian reconciliation reduce Hamas’ cash flow?
– Smadar Perry: Hariri ‘assassination plot’ is just an excuse
– Norman Bailey: The Kurdish tragedy
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Antonio Trogu; Nisman via YouTube/Carlos Kalman; Corbyn CC BY Chatham House;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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