Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel and Chad are going to normalize relations, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will “soon” pay a visit to the African nation formalize the matter. Chadian President Idriss Deby departed Israel today, finishing a a three-day of a surprise visit where he and senior Israelis discussed cooperation on security, business, energy and other issues. issues. Jerusalem Post coverage.
Chad severed relations with Israel in 1972.
2. Sign of the times: Israeli ties with the Gulf states are indeed a thing. Israel’s Economy Minister Eli Cohen said he was invited to attend a conference in Bahrain in April. Also, Qatar confirmed that Israelis are welcome to attend the World Cup in 2022. And yesterday, Netanyahu told reporters that Israel is setting its sights on normalizing relations with Bahrain as well as the Muslim-majority African countries of Sudan, Mali and Niger (which the Times of Israel and Ynet elaborate on.)
The Palestinians are pushing back — by demanding an urgent Arab League meeting.
The Washington Post and The Media Line took closer looks at the Israel-Gulf shift; also worth a look is Norman Bailey‘s observations on press coverage of the thaw.
3. An Israeli reporter in Berlin was attacked by several men, one of whom threw a firecracker. Antonia Yamin, who works for Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, said she believes the men attacked her because she was speaking in Hebrew. A German report cited by the Times of Israel said the attackers were immigrants.
Yamin tweeted the video, explaining, “As you can see on the video you can’t report in Hebrew in Neukölln Berlin without being disturbed and without people throwing firecrackers at you.”
האמת שבסך הכל עבר עלי יום נחמד בעבודה. היו לי כמה מרואיינים מדהימים שאני כבר ממש משתוקקת שתראו בסדרת כתבות שתעלה בקרוב. בין מרואיין אחד לשני הייתי צריכה לעצור לרגע כדי לדווח על הסכם הברקזיט המתגבש. אבל מתברר שבשכונת נויקלן בברלין אי אפשר לדווח בעברית מבלי שיפריעו ויזרקו עליך נפץ pic.twitter.com/1TKJqora5b
— Antonia Yamin אנטוניה ימין (@antonia_yamin) November 25, 2018
4. Airbnb Breaks the Law, HR Takes Action: Airbnb’s boycott against Israel isn’t only immoral, it’s also illegal. And HonestReporting is taking action.
5. Today is Giving Tuesday. If you value these daily news roundups, and believe Israel should be treated fairly in the media, please support our work.
Israel and the Palestinians
• According to an Arab report picked up by the Jerusalem Post and Israel HaYom, Hamas has agreed to implement a reconciliation deal with the PA, which would pave the way for the Mahmoud Abbas to take back control over the Gaza Strip.
But there’s no reason to hyperventilate — Hamas reportedly made this contingent on A) the creation of a Hamas-Fatah national unity government within 45 days, and B) general elections being held in the West Bank and Gaza within six months. How many times have we seen this dance before?
• Israel arrested 32 Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem accused of illegally working for the Palestinian Authority security services in Jerusalem. The PA is banned from operating in Jerusalem under Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements. And for the second time in recent weeks, Israel also arrested the PA Governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Geith. The Jerusalem Post explains what’s behind it all:
In recent weeks, the PA and its security forces have been waging a campaign against east Jerusalem residents suspected of involvement in the sale of houses to Israeli Jews. The PA government has formed a commission of inquiry into the recent sale of a house belonging to the Joudeh family in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter to an Israeli Jewish organization. The Palestinian religious authorities in the city have also renewed a fatwa (Islamic religious decree) prohibiting the sale of Arab-owned properties to Israeli Jews.
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• USAID, (United States Agency for International Development) announced plans to shut down its operations in the West Bank and Gaza by early 2019. USAID officials told Haaretz that the Trump administration is seeking to pressure the Palestinian Authority to return to peace talks with Israel. Per the Times of Israel, the US agency has “spent roughly $5.5 billion $5.5 billion in the Palestinian territories on various construction projects” since the signing of the Oslo accords.
• Three Israeli soldiers were injured in a Palestinian car-ramming attack near the Gush Etzyon junction south of Jerusalem on Monday afternoon. The Palestinian driver was shot and killed by responding soldiers.
Around the World
• A CNN poll revealed disturbing antisemitic trends in Europe. Ignorance is rising as the memory and lessons of the Holocaust fade. How that ties in with Israel is complex. See related sidebar analysis, reactions and Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack‘s take.
Nearly one in five said anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people.
An exclusive CNN poll into anti-Semitism in Europe has found that one third of 7,000 people surveyed knew "little or nothing" about the Holocaust.
The survey also found that many people believe anti-Semitic stereotypes, and blame Jews for anti-Semitism. https://t.co/dMKK9Bc0FP
— CNN (@CNN) November 27, 2018
• Australian antisemitism have risen an unprecedented 60 percent in the past year, according to a report picked up by ABC News.
While the number of attacks increased only marginally, the threats increased by 147 per cent, particularly due to concerted campaigns of placing stickers and posters around synagogues and schools . . .
It also noted a correlation between a rise in antisemitic incidents and any spike in violence in Middle East conflicts — whether or not the conflict involved Israel.
• Los Angeles police arrested a man suspected trying to run over two Jews near a synagogue in an attack authorities are treating as a hate crime. Children overturned headstones in a Jewish cemetery in Poland. A London housing management company apologized to its Jewish tenants for threatening to remove their mezuzot.
Commentary
• Weighing in on the hypocrisy of Airbnb’s West Bank ban are Eugene Kontorovich (click via Twitter) and Eli Reiter. The latter describes what we lose to the blacklist:
Increased international scrutiny on the Israeli government is not new, but here, where its citizens are being punished, it feels more personal. The decision also goes against the company’s own ethos. Its goal, found in its site, is “creating a door to an open world—where everyone’s at home and can belong.”
Airbnb brought together visiting Israelis into Arab homes and vice versa, which has the potential to build bridges and foster mutual goals. There’s real value in the kind of cultural exchange that comes from sharing a home; of learning to be a guest and acting as a host, which is something I experienced myself, as a couch-surfing wanderer.
• Bre Payton unpacks how antisemitism is threatening to unravel the Women’s March while a New York Post staff-ed calls out Linda Sarsour’s failure to condemn Louis Farrakhan.
• Down Under, Chris Mitchell is unhappy with Australian coverage of the country’s Jerusalem embassy debate.
• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today . . .
– Shmuel Rosner: In Israel, war is for the weak
– Shlomo Pyuterkovsky: Netanyahu teaches his detractors a lesson in diplomacy
– Alex Fishman: Israel bolsters Hamas at PA’s expense
– Ron Ben-Yishai: The challenges the new IDF chief and his deputy will have to face
– Bassam Tawil: Media never talks about Palestinians killed in Syria
– Zvi Bar’el: How Mohammed bin Sultan put Saudi Arabia in debt to Trump and Netanyahu
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