Today’s Top Stories
1. Shots were fired at the Israeli embassy in Athens during the weekend. According to Greek media reports, the anarchist Popular Fighters Group is believed to be responsible. A total of 56 shots were fired at the embassy building on Friday. Nobody was hurt. Israel blamed PA incitement for the attack.
2. Life in Gaza continues to spiral. Armin Rosen’s Gaza dispatch at Business Insider is must read, and Khaled Abu Toameh reports that Palestinian youths would rather be in an Israeli prison than “free” under Gaza’s Hamas rulers. See also NPR reports one and two. Of course, there’s nothing like today’s Hamas military parade to distract the masses from their woes.
3. Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid’s one-man war against the UNRWA continues. In an open letter to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafazai, Eid begged her not to follow through with plans to donate her $50,000 prize money through the UN agency:
Yet, I must advise you that if you want to make such a donation, please come here to do so in person and not through UNRWA — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency . . .
Despite all this being an open secret — all of UNRWA’s donors are in the know, including the United States and Israel — the organization is still considered a welfare and relief agency that could provide an “alternative to Hamas.” But if you ask Gazans what UNRWA has done for them, they would say “nothing,” (that is, except perpetuate their refugee status).Hamas knows the reason. It has a vested interest in ensuring that conditions of poverty remain unchanged and that the millions of greenbacks keep flowing in. This keeps the “right of return” relevant.
To state it simply: Donors hand over funds to UNRWA officials who are affiliated with Hamas who then act according to principles of Radical Islam, not of the UN principles. Rockets and tunnels were the most pressing concern from Gaza this past summer. Over the long haul, it is the Hamas brainwashing of Gaza’s school children that should have us worried.
Eid recently penned an acerbic takedown of UNRWA in the Jerusalem Post, prompting agency director Chris Gunness, to call for a boycott of the paper. Following up, Melanie Phillips interviewed Gunness and Eid on her Voice of Israel radio show. (Related reading: Stories I’d Like to See: Scratching the Surface of the UNRWA).
Israel and the Palestinians
• A Palestinian sprayed acid at several Israelis — including three children — at a hitchhiking stop near Jerusalem. The attacker then tried to stab nearby people with a screwdriver before being shot by a passerby. More at the Washington Post and CNN.
• PA officials admitted to Haaretz they can’t stop security coordination.
“A few of the people who spoke in the media in favor of suspending security coordination speak completely differently in closed meetings and are asking to act with restraint and caution,” the official said . . .
“These are threats that have stopped being threatening. The Palestinian Authority cannot end the security coordination because of the many economic and personal interests – not only security ones – that rely on it,” he added.
• It’s that time of the year: As Reuters reminds us, who isn’t taking journalists on pre-Christmas media missions?
• Haaretz: A West Bank mosque blaze blamed on settlers was actually an electrical fire caused by a space heater.
• Hamas aired leaked IDF footage of the Zikim infiltration during Operation Protective Edge. The footage contradicts the army’s account of the July incident. Two soldiers were killed.
• Palestinian official bashes ‘dictatorial’ Abbas
• A French cultural center in Gaza was rocked by an explosion. France24/AFP writes:
“It is very symbolic,” Fenwick added, because it was “the last foreign consulate left in Gaza where Palestinians could get visas for abroad.”
• India’s foreign minister to visit Israel in January. The Times of India reports:
With both countries now more open about bilateral relations, including their defence and security cooperation, Israel is hoping that the visit by Swaraj will pave the way for a visit by PM Narendra Modi next year.
Mideast Matters
• An ISIS pamphlet disclosed by CNN and translated by MEMRI gives you an idea of the kind of threat ISIS poses. The pamphlet — distributed in Mosul — is simply addressed “Questions and Answers on Female Slaves and Their Freedom.”
• Indonesian editor accused of blasphemy over ISIS cartoon could face up to five years in prison. AP explains:
The cartoon published on July 3 depicted a flag emblazoned with the Arabic phrases “La ilaha Illallah,” meaning “there is none worthy of worship except Allah,” and “Allah, Mohamed and Apostle” on a pirate skull.
Commentary/Analysis
• Zvi Barel, Elior Levy, and Smadar Perry weigh in on why the PA isn’t likely to end security coordination with Israel.
• Joyce Fishman, an alumnus of HonestReporting’s 2010 Mission to Israel got op-ed space in the Greenville News to comment on Palestinian hatred and incitement.
How can there ever be peace in Israel when many Arabs indoctrinate their children at very early ages to hate Jews and kill them, while leaders of countries such as Iran advocate the obliteration of the State of Israel?
• For more commentary/analysis, see Nadav Shragai (The Turkey-Hamas terror axis),
Featured image: CC BY-NC flickr/Diego Sevilla Ruiz; UN CC BY-SA HonestReporting, flickr/Andrew Magill; Bethlehem YouTube/Reuters
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
