Today’s Top Stories
*** Breaking news *** Just before this roundup was published, reports broke of a Palestinian car-ramming attack north of Jerusalem.
1. Two Israelis were killed in a West Bank drive-by shooting attack near the entrance to Givat Asaf this morning. Another two were injured — one severely with a gunshot wound to the head. According to Israeli media reports, the suspected Palestinian gunman was wearing an IDF uniform when apprehended.
No names were released when this roundup was published, but the IDF confirmed that both fatalities and one of the injured were soldiers while the fourth person hurt was a civilian woman. The attack was just two km from Ofra, where Palestinians carried out a similar deadly attack (more developments on that below).
In related commentary, Amos Harel and Khaled Abu Toameh argue that Hamas is behind the uptick in violence to fan flames and undermine Israeli-PA security cooperation.
2. Hundreds of Israelis laid to rest the baby born prematurely after its mother was critically injured in Sunday’s Ofra shooting attack. “Shortly before the burial, the baby underwent a symbolic circumcision and was named Amiad Yisrael.”
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces arrested four Palestinians suspected of carrying out the shooting. The Shin Bet said a fifth suspect “tried to harm our forces as he attempted to flee” and was shot and killed. An IDF official later warned that other terrorists may still be at large.
See HonestReporting’s related critique: Murdered Israeli Baby Also Victim of The Independent’s False Moral Equivalence.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. France’s “yellow-vest” protests are taking a disturbing antisemitic turn. Per Ynet, “In recent days, the Jewish community has reported numerous anti-Semitic videos, graffiti and actual threats appearing in central locations and on social media.”
Examples of what worries French Jews include a video whipping up protesters to “understand that the real enemy is the Jews,” and a massive banner on a major highway calling President Emmanuel Macron “a whore of the Jews.”
4. Missing Context in AP Piece Masks IDF’s Humanity: The Associated Press implies Israeli soldiers deliberately targeting Palestinians’ legs for no good reason.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Count on The Guardian for a headline providing your daily dose of moral equivalence on today’s terror attack.
• “An official of “the State of Palestine” was elected to an 8-person advisory committee for selecting judges who would serve on the International Criminal Court on Thursday,” reports the Jerusalem Post.
Bin Hamad’s election could be a direct opportunity for the Palestinians to have influence over future judges who might deal with alleged war crimes cases against Israelis, if Israel fails to stave off prosecutions.
• A two-month manhunt for the Palestinian terrorist responsible for murdering two Israelis in a West Bank industrial park ended. Ashraf Na’alowa was shot and killed by IDF forces after opening fire on soldiers. The Shin Bet said Na’alowa was believed to be planning another attack. The Jerusalem Post reports the IDF also arrested several relatives and alleged accomplices.
In October, Na’alowa gunned down coworkers Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi and wounded another Israeli in the Barkan Industrial Park.
• A Palestinian was shot and killed while trying to stab two border guards in Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday morning. Two of the officers were lightly injured.
• In rare testimony before a Knesset committee, a Palestinian recounted PA torture for helping to thwart terror attacks.
• MEMRI flagged Lebanese criticism of Hezbollah’s tunnels.
• “A Jewish student center at New York University was temporarily closed on Wednesday after an anti-Zionist student issued threatening messages, before reopening during the afternoon.”
Commentary
• Human Rights Watch director Ken Roth is taking flak from the Left for having the nerve to tweet his denunciation of the Ofra shooting attack. One of the uglier replies to Roth’s tweet insisted “Surely there is at the very least some legal ambiguity here” to justify the attack. Bradley Burston slammed the appalling discourse:
It’s called racism, in one of its ugliest forms.
It is exactly that form of racism which perpetuates and fuels lethal, wrongful, unending slaughter.
When leftists here and abroad support terrorist attacks on civilians as a form of legitimate resistance, they are dehumanizing all Israelis in exactly the same racist context.
On a related note, Annika Rothstein gets tweet of the day.
Imagine a world where Jewish murder victims won't be described as "settlers", twice removed from any human decency or compassion, but mourned as human beings, given respect and compassion as were we equal to anyone else. https://t.co/ZCCm2r1nfd
— Annika H Rothstein (@truthandfiction) December 13, 2018
• A Pink Floyd tribute band recently cancelled three Israeli shows in the face of pressure from Roger Waters and BDS. But David Power, frontman of “Pink Floyd Experience” wasn’t comfortably numb with Waters’ insinuation that the tribute band was on board with BDS. Adam Shay unpacks the significance of Power’s reply, which I screengrabbed below.
So it is neither ideological conviction nor support for the Palestinian cause that prompted this cancelation. It was fear, brought on by a frontal assault of abuse and threats, an assault ordered by Roger Waters. Power makes a direct connection between this assault and the cancelation, leaving no room for doubt or a hijacking of the agenda: The cancelation was due to the threat of violence – brought on by Waters.
• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:
– Bret Stephens: When anti-Zionism tunnels under your house
– Ben-Dror Yemini: Jihad forces cannot be tamed or appeased
– Harold Brackman: The false argument on antisemitism and anti-Zionism
– Seth Frantzman: Is the Khashoggi affair spotlighting Israel?
– Ido Levy: Three of the many problems with BDS
Featured image: CC0 Pixabay;
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