Today’s Top Stories
1. The Likud party agreed to dissolve the government and move to early elections. Things could still change, but the likelihood too high to ignore. The Times of Israel explains in a nutshell:
The preliminary vote on the dissolution bills will take place Wednesday, with the third and final vote formally setting a date for the dissolution of the 19th Knesset expected as early as Monday next week.
Elections are expected in March or April. The final date will be set in the dissolution bill.
2. Egypt foiled an ISIS plot to attack Israeli targets at sea.
3. According to Lebanese media reports, Hezbollah plans to use advanced Russian-made sea-to-sea missiles to impose a maritime siege of Israel, should the two go to war. Israel HaYom writes:
According to the reports, Hezbollah apparently has an arsenal of sophisticated Russian-made Yakhont sea-to-sea missiles, which were recently transferred from Russia to Syria as part of an arms deal between the two countries. Moscow has also allegedly transferred more advanced S-300 anti-aircraft batteries to Syria. It is possible that some of these have been transferred to Hezbollah.
In the case of a war with Israel, the report said, Hezbollah intends to target Israeli and foreign vessels inside Israel’s territorial waters.
4. HR Audio: Attacking Israel With Images From the Holocaust: On Voice of Israel Radio, HR’s Yarden Frankl blasts the photo of Auschwitz victims holding superimposed BDS signs. Israel’s enemies have no problem abusing images from the Holocaust to demonize the country.
5. HonestReporting’s winter 2014 mission kicked off. Among today’s highlights: Former MK Einat Wilf talked about the campaign to delegitimize Israel; Dr. Mordechai Kedar discussed the Mideast conflict’s Islamic facets, and Palestinian Media Watch’s Itamar Marcus addressed Palestinian incitement.
Israel and the Palestinians
• I’m not buying the Associated Press response to Matti Friedman’s detailed charges of systematic media bias in Tablet and this week’s newest expose in The Atlantic. Spoiler alert:
It is misleading and disingenuous to selectively pick examples of our work to promote narrow viewpoints. The AP is proud of its staff on both sides of the border for producing a broad, independent and comprehensive report in such adverse conditions.
• Jordan busted a terror network that got military training in Gaza and planned to smuggle weapons into the West Bank for attacks on Israelis.
• Worth reading: The Media Line‘s Linda Gradstein looks at the efforts of Jewish refugees from Arab countries to get recognition. See also related commentary by Lyn Julius.
No understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict is complete without taking into account the fact that half of all Israeli Jews are descended from, or are themselves, Jewish refugees from Arab or Muslim lands.
• Israel, Cyprus, and Greece “have launched a new push for EU funds to build a pipeline that could bring about 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of their natural gas to Europe annually.” The Guardian reports the Palestinians are trying to play the role of spoiler:
But the Palestinian Authority cautioned the EU against signing any contract until territorial gas disputes with neighbouring countries such as Lebanon were resolved.
“The objective of energy security starts with a clear cut boundary of all the gas fields,” said the PA’s energy minister, Omar Kettaneh. “Otherwise instead of being a source of security the pipeline will be a source of conflict.”
Mideast Matters
• The Wall St. Journal (via Google News) looks at one Muslim’s unusual quest to save Syria’s revered Eliyahu HaNavi synagogue in Jobar:
Merely contacting the Israelis was an act that could have put his life in danger . . .
Mr. Suleiman hoped the Jewish community would intervene with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not only to save the site, but to halt the bombardment of his hometown. Safeguarding a part of Syria’s multicultural religious heritage, he hoped, might help the country rebuild whenever the war was over.
• The Jerusalem Post picked up on a study of US strategy against ISIS. The findings? Washington’s goals are unrealistic, will require Iranian cooperation, and would have to come at Israel’s expense.
• Lebanese security arrested one of the wives and sons of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. More at the Daily Star:
An Army source said that Intelligence officers arrested Baghdadi’s wife and their son more than a week ago as they tried to enter Lebanon from Syria using fake IDs after receiving a tip from Western intelligence agencies.
The source identified the wife as Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi . . .
• Hezbollah kids magazine targets kid for resistance.
Commentary/Analysis
• Ghanem Nuseibeh weighs in on Jerusalem tensions. An interesting viewpoint at the Financial Times (via Google News).
• Christiane Amanpour discussed the Jewish-state bill with MK Ahmad Tibi and former Netanyahu spokesman Yoaz Hendel.
• Arab columnist Diana Moukalled can’t help but notice the Lebanese media struggling over language after a Hezbollah-Al Nusra Front prisoner swap, tsk.
These media outlets, however, were a little confused, even nervous, when it came to referring to the people who had abducted one of Hezbollah’s members: are they “armed fighters,” “a free army,” or simply “Al-Nusra”? This uneasiness was especially clear when the group was speaking of the negotiations it had carried out to free him. It is one no doubt related to the group’s role in the Syrian conflict, and which makes clear a number of previously fuzzy issues.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Bassem Eid (Palestinians must lead fight to reform UNRWA), Matthew Levitt (Hezbollah’s Syria problem).
Featured image: CC BY-SA flickr/Dave Crosby; Jerusalem CC BY-NC-ND flickr/Etienne Valois
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