Today’s Top Stories
1. PA cabinet minister without portfolio Ziyad Abu Ein died after an altercation with IDF soldiers. Breaking reports say he collapsed after being struck in the chest and/or suffered from tear gas inhalation and/or had a heart attack. According to YNet, “Abu Ein was ill and it is possible his illness played a role in his eventual death.” More details at the Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel.
He headed the PA’s Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, but his background won’t get much sympathy in Israel: Abu Ein was convicted of planting a bomb in Tiberias in 1979, killing two and injuring another 30. He was later released in a 1985 prisoner swap known as the “Jibril Deal.” Last word for now goes to German journalist Richard Schneider.
2. A Hamas delegation is visiting Iran, mending fences with the mullahs. AFP coverage.
3. Palestinian Authority upgraded to observer status at the International Criminal Court.
4. HR Audio: Right Wing Hawks Only Fly in Israel: Foreign correspondents covering elections in Israel have no problem labeling Israeli politicians as ‘hawks’ or ‘extremists.’ Yet despite his incitement-laced tirades, PA head Mahmoud Abbas is always referred to as a “moderate.” Click below to hear HonestReporting’s Yarden Frankl interview with the Voice of Israel.
Israel and the Palestinians
• A new poll shows strong Palestinian majority supports violence and rocket fire against Israel. Associated Press notably picked up on the poll.
• An Israeli court indicted a US citizen who sought to blow up Muslim holy sites. Details at YNet.
• Maan News: PA officials accused the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry officials of stealing large amounts of medicine and medical equipment sent as humanitarian aid during the Gaza war.
• I expected some kind of sequel to Blaming Israel for Abu Ghraib, but the CIA torture report only tangentially drags Israel into the mess.
• Ireland set to recognize state of Palestine.
• Lots of news services picked up on an Amnesty International report saying the destruction of Gaza high-rises during Operation Protective Edge “amounted to war crimes.” Israel rejected the report, saying it lacked context and transparency. Victor Davis Hanson best articulated the Israeli logic — the IDF justifiably borrowed a page from Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.
• Palestinian incitement continues. Memri (video/transcript) flagged an impromptu sermon in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. More background at the Times of Israel.
We await the day – nay, the very moment – of your slaughter. We are ready. By Allah, we are . . . Please do not leave in our hearts a single grain of mercy towards you, oh Jews, because when the day of your slaughter arrives, we shall slaughter you without mercy.
• Israel plans on building a new airport near Eilat as a “wartime alternative.” It’s due to open in 2016. The new airport’s one runway won’t give it the same capacity for traffic as Ben Gurion Airport, which was briefly closed due to Palestinian rocket fire during Operation Protective Edge. Haaretz coverage.
• The Jerusalem Post‘s Seth Frantzman fisks an atrocious Newsweek dispatch from Jerusalem.
• Headline of the Day, courtesy of the Times of London:
Commentary/Analysis
• Speculation concerning Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities emerges as U.S. privately accuses Tehran of “cheating.”
• “Hate crimes” in Israel – a reality distorted by media.
• Professor Avraham Ben-Zvi accuses the US of already trying to influence the Israeli elections. See his response to Ambassador Daniel Shapiro’s address (video/transcript) at Bar Ilan University yesterday. Ben-Zvi calls it “non-intervention with a wink.”
• Over at the Wall St. Journal (click via Google News), Brendan O’Neill slams Europe’s efforts to make itself “Zionistfrei.”
• For more commentary/analysis, see Samantha Badgen (Is Israel an apartheid state?) and Eliyahu Federman (Odd reluctance to call Brooklyn synagogue stabbing a hate crime)
Image: CC BY-NC-SA flickr/Nick
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
