Today’s Top Stories
1. An Arab bus driver was found hanged in Jerusalem. Police believe Yusuf Hassan al-Ramouni, 32, killed himself. Family members say he was murdered by Jewish extremists. An autopsy is being carried out, but cooler heads didn’t prevail this morning. YNet had clearest coverage.
Clashes broke out in At-Tor and Abu Dis following the reports of the driver’s death and security forces were prepared for the possibility of additional rioting in East Jerusalem on Monday morning.
UPDATE: The autopsy ruled out foul play.
2. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states agreed to return their ambassadors to Qatar. YNet focuses on the implications for a boycott of Qatar-hosted sporting events, but I’m more curious about the implications for Hamas — which is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
A source told the German news agency that the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, agreed during the Sunday summit to halt the media campaign against the Gulf nations and to prevent al-Jazeera from smearing them. Furthermore, the Emir was ordered to devote efforts to increase cooperation with Gulf nations. Diplomats in Doha said that Qatar also promised the UAE that the Muslim Brotherhood would no longer be allowed to operate within its border.
3. After this weekend’s unprecedented Druze-Muslim melee (more than 40 people were injured in the northern village of Abu Sinan), Dan Margalit explains that the Arabs are trying to drive a wedge between the Druze and the state, and Reuven Berko specifically points an accusatory finger at Sheikh Raed Salah.
The inciters of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who see Druze service in the IDF as an affront, are seeking to exact a price in casualties from them for their alliance with Israel. This is not about Facebook posts by some Abu Snan residents, nor is it about a woman’s honor. When the Islamic Movement and the leadership of the Follow-Up Committee sent those impressionable students to the school in Abu Snan with their “Palestinian” keffiyehs (to protest the killing of the terrorist in Kafr Kanna), another Islamist stone was brazenly thrown into the well of coexistence.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Police are looking for a man who stabbed a Jewish man in downtown Jerusalem today. Not many details are available, reports the Jerusalem Post:
Rosenfeld said Monday that the search for the attacker, allegedly an Arab man who was believed to have nationalistic motives, was based on evidence provided by the victim.
• Who knew? Since 2009, a quarter-million Arab/Muslim tourists have visited Israel — mostly from countries that don’t have diplomatic ties.
Almost all of the tourists arrived in the country for religious reasons, the report said, visiting and praying at the holy places in Jerusalem. However, many also visit Palestinian relatives, seek medical treatment or do business and shopping.
In almost all cases, major increases in the number of visiting tourists can be seen over the reported time period.
Contrast that with a headline you just can’t make up:
Tourism minister: Lebanon has lowest food poisoning rates
• The Financial Times (click via Google News) observes how entangling the Mideast conflict is and how interconnected Israel and its neighbors are becoming.
A dispute over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque led Jordan to last week withdraw its ambassador to Israel, raising doubts over whether a proposed $15bn deal tied to Leviathan that would see Israel provide gas to its Arab neighbour would go ahead. The Jordanian contract is essential collateral needed by Leviathan’s operators to finance the field, alongside a proposed $30bn deal to supply a liquefied natural gas facility in Egypt operated by BG Group of the UK.
• Maan News: Unable to enter Gaza, the UN Human Rights Council’s inquiry into Operation Protective Edge is hearing testimony in Jordan using videoconference technology.
• EU foreign ministers are gathering in Brussels to discuss ways to boost their role in the Israel-Palestinian peace process. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Kosovo, which is trying to secede from Serbia, is desperately seeking Israeli recognition. But despite being recognized by the International Olympic Committee and Facebook, Jerusalem’s playing it cool for several reasons. In a nutshell, according to i24 News, Israel doesn’t want to set a diplomatic precedent for the Palestinians to declare unilateral statehood or “unintentionally support the secessionist aspirations of Arab citizens of Israel.”
In 1999, during the Kosovo war, Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon expressed another concern: Kosovo becoming a center for Islamic terror and anti-Semitism.
Mideast Matters
• A UN report states that ISIS commanders are liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity on a massive scale, and should be brought to trial by the International Criminal Court. Reuters adds some deja vu:
Since U.S.-led air strikes began targeting Islamic State in Syria in late September, its fighters have begun taking up positions in civilian houses and farms, leading to civilian casualties, the report said.
• The Daily Beast: Judging from the differences in teh Peter Kessig execution video, ISIS apparently has only one remaining American hostage.
• Worth reading : Islamic State: Diary of Life in Mosul
• Iran pact faces an array of opposing forces
Commentary/Analysis
• Appearing on CBS News’s Face the Nation, Bibi discussed the threats of Iran and ISIS with Bob Schieffer. You can click for the full interview and skipping ahead to 18:00.
• Following reports that Hezbollah’s now recruiting Christianns, Druze and Sunnis to fight in Syria, Tariq Alhomayed makes an observation worth pondering:
Clearly, the militia now realizes that the lie of “resistance” has been exposed, and that Iran’s efforts to reach a nuclear deal with the US require it to soften its denunciations of Israel. If Iran reaches a deal of any kind with the Americans, this means that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will turn into a guardian of the Israeli border with Lebanon, just as Bashar Al-Assad is, and his father Hafez was before him. This predicament, which has pushed Hezbollah to recruit mercenaries, is not due to Iran alone; rather, it is also an indication of the heavy losses in lives the militia has suffered in Syria.
Moreover, it suggests that Hezbollah now requires a sectarian cover to justify its presence there. By doing this, Hezbollah wants to say that it is not the only side defending Assad, nor is it implementing Iran’s sectarian agenda, claiming instead that its presence there is part of an array of forces defending the whole of Syria.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Yossi Beilin (A guide to Obama’s thinking on Iran), Sweden’s “State of Palestine Offense (Wall St. Journal via Google News),
Image: CC BY-SA flickr/Aleksander Markin; Salah CC BY-SA Wikimedia Commons/Stayashuman; rig via YouTube/TheFaceintheclouds
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