Today’s Top Stories
1. Israeli police are recommending charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in the Bezeq corruption investigation. Netanyahu is suspected of having an understanding with Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq’s majority shareholder, in which the PM gave the telecom regulatory benefits in exchange for favorable coverage on the Elovitch-owned Walla! News. (The full cast of characters and claims of Case 4000 is complex, so Ynet‘s bullet points may be helpful.) Police are also investigating other allegations of corruption by the PM (more on that below).
The police recommendation has limited significance; the state prosecutors ultimately decide whether the evidence warrants an indictment. The Times of Israel explains where we go from here:
The recommendations now go to the Attorney General’s Office, where they will first be reviewed by the state prosecutor before going to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
Mandelblit, who will make the final decision whether to indict the prime minister, intends to examine all three cases at the same time, which will be possible only after he receives the state attorney’s recommendations based on the final police reports.
That process puts the likely date of any final word on whether a trial may be in Netanyahu’s future in late 2019, possibly after the next Knesset elections, currently slated for November 2019, but may very well be held earlier.
You’ll need a scorecard to keep up with the other investigations. The Netanyahus insist they are innocent of all the allegations.
– Case 1000 (the Gifts Affair): Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu are suspected of receiving thousands of shekels worth of illicit gifts from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and other wealthy benefactors.
– Case 2000: Netanyahu and Yediot Ahronot publisher Arnon Mozes struck an alleged quid pro quo in which the PM would advance legislation handicapping the rival Israel HaYom in exchange for more favorable coverage.
– Case 3000 (the Submarine Affair) regards suspected fraud by people close to the PM during the purchase of several naval vessels (Netanyahu is not a suspect in that).
– The Prepared Meals Affair: Mrs. Netanyahu is already on trial for misusing $100,000 in state money.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
2. CNN sacked Prof. Marc Lamont Hill over his speech at the UN calling for Israel’s destruction. Hill, who often appeared on the network as an analyst, called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” urged countries to boycott Israel and even approved of terror against Israel.
A statement by Temple University, where Hill teaches media studies, said the comments don’t reflect the university’s views, but said the professor “has a constitutionally protected right to express his opinion as a private citizen.” The Daily Wire rounded up Hill’s history of antisemitic remarks.
Hill took to Twitter to stand by his comments, then subsequently wrote more conciliatory letters published in then went on to write a more conciliatory letters an Temple News and Philadelphia Inquirer which you can judge for yourself.
CNN offered no explanation on the record for why it ditched Hill. But a CNN insider told The Daily Beast that executives had been on alert about Hill since October, when The Algemeiner published “Yes, Marc Lamont Hill is an antisemite,” which got the attention of the network brass.
See related commentary by David French and Yaakov Ahimeir, plus staff-eds by the Jerusalem Post and New York Daily News.
Also see which media outlets failed to note the real meaning of the phrase, confusing a call for Israel’s elimination with mere criticism of Israel in HonestReporting’s latest communique – Headline Fails: CNN Removes Marc Lamont Hill
3. In a special report, Reuters uncovered how Iran spreads disinformation throughout the world.
And how serious is Tehran’s campaign? One example Reuters cited was from 2016 when Another Western Dawn (AWD News), a fake news site associated with Iran, published a bogus report claiming Israel’s then defense minister Moshe Yaalon threatened Pakistan with a nuclear attack if it sent ground forces to Syria. Pakistan’s defense minister made waves by taking to Twitter to threaten Israel with a nuclear attack.
4. Protecting Children in Armed Conflicts: Using children in armed conflicts is, sadly, a worldwide reality. It’s not only child abuse, but also a war crime. What is the UN doing about it? And what can you do to help?
Israel and the Palestinians
• “The UN General Assembly in New York on Friday approved six anti-Israel resolutions including two that ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.”
• The European Union agreed to back a UN resolution sponsored by the US condemning Hamas as a terror organization and denouncing its rocket fire on Israel. The General Assembly is expected to vote on it on Monday. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but carry symbolic weight. The Times of Israel explains why it matters:
If adopted, the resolution would be the first General Assembly vote to condemn the Palestinian terrorist group. The EU’s support dramatically increases its chances of passing, though it is unclear whether it will guarantee the needed simple majority among the UN’s 193 member states.
More on the draft resolution at AP. Hamas, for its part, wrote a letter to UN officials arguing its rocket fire is legal.
• The Trump administration is now scrambling to preserve US aid to the Palestinians, AP reports.
The striking turnabout is the result of the belated realization that an obscure new law will likely force the U.S. to terminate all aid to the Palestinian Authority, including security assistance supported by Israel, by the end of January. Eliminating such aid, which totaled $61 million this year even as other assistance was being cut, would deal a blow to Palestinian-Israeli security cooperation that both sides value.
• With Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s recent visit to Moscow, The Media Line examines Russia’s involvement in Palestinian unity efforts.
• Wow. Deutsche Welle‘s Tim Sebastian really grilled Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat with tough questions about the PA’s handling of the peace process and relations with the US, Palestinian unity as well as democracy and nation building. At one point, an exasperated Sebastian tells Erekat he’s being saying the same thing for 20 years.
• Singapore Airlines is moving toward Tel Aviv flights.
Mideast Matters
• An air strike largely attributed to Israel hit an area of the Syria where Reuters says has Hezbollah has a “communications and logistics hub for southern Syria near the Israeli border.”
Among the targets struck were two Syrian army brigades where Lebanon’s Hezbollah group is embedded alongside a rocket depot close to its bases near the border with Lebanon, another Syrian army defector in touch with military personnel said.
• A suspicious Tehran-Beirut cargo flight heightened concerns that Iran is arming Hezbollah without even bothering to stop in more easily. What exactly was Fars Air Qeshm flight number QFZ-9964 carrying?
• For Israel, a rearmed Hezbollah in Lebanon is top concern.
Window Into Israel
• Moshe Edri’s bid to become Israel’s police chief reached a standoff when a government vetting panel rejected his nomination over questions of unspecified past conduct. The government approved Moti Cohen as acting police chief.
• With a new pipeline and additional desalination plants, Israel’s National Water Carrier will soon bring fresh water to the Kinneret Lake (a.k.a. Sea of Galilee) to stabilize the lake’s ecosystem and help provide water for both northern Israel and Jordan. More at Haaretz.
Around the World
• Discussing the possible criminalization of importing goods from West Bank settlements, Simon Coveney — who serves as both as Ireland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and deputy head of government — said recently advancing legislation is not “legally sound or capable of being implemented”.
• Drip drip drip: If you complain to Labour about antisemitism in the UK party, you’re the one who gets in trouble.
• Tension broke out in the Johannesburg city council over a motion to re-name a street after Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled. You wouldn’t know from Jo’burg’s Saturday Star coverage that Khaled was convicted of hijacking a TWA flight in 1969 and trying to hijack an El Al plane as part of the Dawson field hijackings of 1970. The Star calls her “a member of the resistance movement the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”
If Jo’burg is really eager to change street names, I nominate Uri Bar-Lev, the El Al pilot who foiled Khaled’s plans.
• The Jerusalem Post takes a closer look at what Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s return as Speaker of the House of Representatives means for Israel’s relationship with Congress.
• Thanks to BDS pressure, police officers from Massachusetts and Vermont will not be traveling to Israel for a week-long seminar on dealing with counter-terror threats with their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, Haaretz reports.
• Miami suspended a cop caught on video trashing Jewish holy items. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating two separate attacks in one day on Jewish boys in Brooklyn.
• Antisemitic crimes rose by 60% in Canada.
Commentary
• The Dean of Ben Gurion University, Prof. Chaim Hames, denounces a South African university for “shamefully” caving in to BDS by disinviting Israeli academics from an upcoming conference by articulating exactly why South Africa loses more from this than Israel. Shimrit Meir worries about Donald Trump using Israel as an excuse for explaining unpopular moves.
While we’re on the addressing academia, Dr. Steve Gerzof writes an open letter to Tufts University about his alma mater’s disturbing course on “settler-colonialism.”
• A Canadian expert in international law, Dr. Jacques Gauthier, spent 20 years researching the claims on Jerusalem. He “concluded that Israel has unquestionable sovereignty not only over the whole city, but over Judea and Samaria as well.” Israel HaYom condenses Gauthier’s findings
“The ‘international consensus’ that keeps most of the countries that have diplomatic ties with Israel from moving their embassies back to Jerusalem . . . is a blatant violation of the international law on which it is supposedly based.”
• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:
– Amos Harel: Battle between Israel and Iran shifting From Syria to Lebanon
– Ben-Dror Yemini: International Criminal Court judges biased against Israel
– Bari Weiss: Europe’s Jew hatred, and America’s
– Melanie Phillips: The lethal error in appeasing Iran
– Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror: Maintain the Africa momentum
– Sam Sokol: I’m a reporter. I left my synagogue because of attacks on the media.
– Archbishop Justin Welby: In the Middle East, Christians are under grave threat – let us show them they are not forgotten
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND RStonejr; Netanyahu via YouTube/IsraeliPM; Kinneret CC BY Larry Koester; Pelosi via YouTube/PBS NewsHour; Jerusalem CC BY-NC-ND Etienne Valois;
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