Today’s Top Stories
1. After days of wrangling, AFP/Times of Israel reports that Palestinian and European diplomats agreed to merge the texts of their draft resolutions on statehood, which will be presented to the UN Security Council today. The US had earlier signaled that would veto a PA crafted resolution sponsored by Jordan, but played coy about a separate European-crafted resolution that included a reference to Israel as a Jewish state..
The European-backed draft had set a two-year deadline for conclusive peace talks, without touching on the issue of Israeli control of the West Bank.
Maliki said France had scrapped mention of the thorny issue of Palestinians recognizing Israel as a Jewish state from the draft, but gave no further details of its content.
2. Europe is governed by an internal logic where rocket fire, kidnappings, and terror tunnels can be the work of a political organization. Don’t worry: the court allowed the EU to maintain — for now — the effects of the anti-terror measures, such as a funding freeze. Deutsche Welle explains the ruling. The EU described the ruling as a technical legal issue, but Israeli officials aren’t buying that line.
3. For the first time, a Palestinian diplomat addressed the International Criminal Court. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the court the PA intends to join the court and accuse Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Last week, the PA received “observer status” in the ICC. Jerusalem Post coverage.
4. Financial Times Adopts Palestinian Jerusalem Narrative: Magazine adopts the Palestinian narrative and erases the Jewish status of the Temple Mount.
5. Heavy Metal Rocker Not “Disturbed” about Israel: While many celebrities toe the BDS line and stand with those who hate Israel, David Draiman of the mega-rock group “Disturbed” takes an opposite approach.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Some notably critical coverage of Abbas from the Associated Press. It picked up on a Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research report which found two-thirds of Palestinians said they are afraid to criticize Mahmoud Abbas.
Critics say that after a decade in power, Abbas is overseeing a largely authoritarian system with shrinking room for dissent — a claim denied by Abbas supporters who say Palestinians enjoy more political freedoms than most in the Arab world.
• What elections? Europe presses ahead on Palestine question as Israel prepares for poll
• Hamas confirmed that it received weapons and approval for terror by Yasser Arafat. Mahmoud Zahar’s revelations join Suha Arafat’s disclosure that the Second Intifada was planned by her Nobel peace laureate husband.
• The Palestinian boycott of Israeli goods is faltering, reports The Media Line.
Commentary/Analysis
• One “angry black woman,” Chloe Valdary, has harsh, harsh words for Students for Justice in Palestine and its campus activity. This snippet’s just a warm-up for her grievances.
It masquerades as though it were a civil rights group when it is not. Indeed, as an African-American, I am highly insulted that my people’s legacy is being pilfered for such a repugnant agenda. It is thus high time to expose its agenda and lay bare some of the fallacies they peddle.
• Legal impact of Geneva panel on settlements, ICC likely only symbolic
• For more commentary, see Norman Bailey (An overlooked armory in Israel’s PR war), Yoav Limor (Not ISIS — ISISism), Ariel Ben Solomon (Erdogan’s regime is becoming more dictatorship than democracy), and Ali Ibrahim (The terrorist in the cafe).
Image: CC BY flickr/Christine Rondeau
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
