Today’s Top Stories
1. Did Israel carry out an airstrike on Hezbollah positions in Syria yesterday? Syrian opposition sources say 13 Hezbollah fighters and Syrian soldiers were killed and dozens injured in the Qalamoun area. Israel has never confirmed or denied carrying out air strikes in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war. Israeli officials say they will not allow Syria to transfer “game-changer” weapons to Hezbollah. Jerusalem Post coverage.
As YNet notes, with the air forces of 14 different nations now operating in crowded Syrian skies, Israel’s (alleged) air activities will become more complex. Coming on the heels of Turkey shooting down a Russian jet, Aharon Lapidot points out that a downed IAF aircraft would be a nightmare, and preventing incidents like this is exactly why Israel coordinating with Moscow.
2. Russian war crimes in Syria?
3. As the PA cracks down on Palestinian press freedom, Bassam Tawil laments the lack of attention from the foreign press and human rights community:
The Palestinian Authority clearly wants a media that reports only against Israel. The only incitement permitted is the one directed there. Palestinian journalists who incite against Israel are safe; they do not face any form of harassment by the Palestinian Authority security forces. But once a journalist or a media outlet dares to publish anything that is considered “offensive” against the Palestinian Authority, they quickly find themselves behind bars in Ramallah.
It is forbidden to criticize President Mahmoud Abbas or any of his top officials. It is also forbidden to report about human rights violations and torture in Palestinian Authority prisons.
During the past few years, several Palestinians have been arrested or summoned for interrogation for posting critical remarks about Abbas and other Palestinian officials on Facebook.
But this is not a story that most Western journalists or supposed human rights groups are interested in covering. A story that reflects negatively on the Palestinian Authority or Hamas is not “news that is fit to print.” The Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on the media is not going to attract the attention of the mainstream media in the West because, as noted by the left-wing Associated Press reporter, Matti Friedman, the award-winning journalist Khaled Abu Toameh and a few others, such stories lack an anti-Israel angle. Had Al-Araby Al-Jadeed been shut by Israeli authorities, the story would probably have made it to the front pages of most newspapers in the U.S. and Europe.
4. CNN Erases Israel From the Map: SUCCESS: When CNN published a Middle East map that replaced Israel with “Palestina,” HonestReporting got the map removed.
5. Palestinian Scissor Stabbers Turned Into Victims of Israel: Two Palestinian teenage girls shot while carrying out a terror attack portrayed as victims of Israel.
Israel and the Intifada
• A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier at a junction south of Hebron. The victim is listed in serious condition. Earlier in the morning, a suspected Palestinian sniper fired on an Israeli car near Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs. No injuries were reported. And last night, a driver tried to run over Israeli security personnel at the Hizme checkpoint north of Jerusalem. Nobody was injured and the driver got away heading in the direction of the Palestinian village of Anata.
• Israel to establish first new Druze town in country’s history. The town, which will be located in the Lower Galilee and addresses a Druze housing shortage, is expected to house 10,000 people.
• Reuters: Egypt and Israel successfully blocked a proposal to scale back the number of international peace monitors stationed in the Sinai.
• Israeli intelligence reportedly thwarted terror attack in Germany
Around the World
• Has it been four years since people optimistically thought a “media revolution” would be a game-changer at the outset of the Syrian uprising? The Columbia Journalism Review looks at what happened instead:
Yet four years later, the much-vaunted media revolution hasn’t delivered the freedom or the plurality it promised. As unarmed demonstrations gave way to conventional warfare, the media, too, entered the fray. The number of citizen sources grew, but their audiences fragmented. Opposition, regime, jihadist, and ethnic media today rarely resemble one another; the stories they tell speak less to a shared reality than to the fissures between different versions of the prevailing narrative.
These days, every militia and brigade has its own YouTube channel, theme song, and social media network. And as armed groups have grown to resemble media organizations, the media has started looking like militias too: partisan, sectarian, and driven by hate speech. On social media particularly, but in the established media as well, broadcasts don’t just report the violence. With inflammatory language and provocative storylines, they actively incite it.
• Threats to a North Carolina Jewish day school prompted a two-day closure as the FBI investigates.
• Panama and Israel sign free-trade agreement.
Commentary/Analysis
• Worth reading: Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby calls out the State Department’s extreme reluctance to use the word terror when US citizens like Ezra Schwartz, Richard Lakin, and Eitam Henkin are killed in Palestinian terror attacks.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Haviv Rettig Gur: How Palestinians’ vision of Israel serves Palestinian needs
– Eran Lerman: How Palestinian propaganda warps the truth and undermines peace efforts
– Eldad Beck: If Europe is sinking, let’s make sure Israel drowns first
free speech CC BY-ND flickr/Jennifer Moo
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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