Today’s Top Stories
1. Gaza construction funding was ‘incorrectly’ handled by non-staff UN personnel, according to an audit of the UN Development Program. It’s not pleasant to read about the lack of oversight.
Taken together, the findings in the carefully manicured audit report — which was vetted by UNDP management at the affected office — point to a possible black hole in the supervision of civil construction, and perhaps other programs in Gaza and the other Palestinian territories for at least a year before the current explosion of terrorism.
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2. News reports picked up on new video footage featuring Hezbollah using drones to drop what appears to be cluster bombs on targets in Syria in three separate attacks. NOW Lebanon explains:
The bombs appear to be Chinese-made MZD-2 submunitions, also known as Type-90s. According to Human Rights Watch, Hezbollah previously used these same submunitions against Israel during the July 2006 war, when they were placed in large quantities inside Chinese-made Type-81 122mm rockets to form cluster munitions. They consist of an armor-piercing shaped charge explosive encased in a cylinder filled with 3.5mm steel ball bearings.
According to the Times of Israel, the video was posted by “a Hezbollah-affiliated media outlet.” I remember headlines raking Israel over the coals over cluster bombs in Lebanon, but why is this the first time I’m hearing that Hezbollah used similar weapons too?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLnRt9CZz58
3. According to Mideast media reports, Turkey’s parliament will ratify the reconciliation agreement with Israel before its summer recess begins at the end of next week. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu acknowledged that the delay was because of the recent coup.
“Israel has lived up to our conditions. We said ‘if the conditions are fulfilled we’ll normalize ties.’ So we must implement it as soon as possible,” he added.
Israel and the Palestinians
• An Arab stabbed and and moderately wounded an unidentified Jewish man this afternoon who was apparently leaving the Mount of Olives cemetery. Police are searching for the assailant.
• Haaretz reports that the IDF is investigating 20 possible cases of wrongful shootings of Palestinians since a wave of Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings, and shootings began last October.
• In a rare development, the Israeli government admitted “it mistakenly expropriated more than 11 acres of private Palestinian land in Ofra, a Jewish community built on land Israel acquired in 1967.” The Media Line reports:
About halfway between Ramallah and Nablus, it is in the heart of the West Bank. The piece of land under contention now was originally confiscated by Jordan for use as an army camp in 1966. When Israel captured the area, it declared it “state land”, in order to legalize the building of Ofra. But Israel went beyond the boundaries of the original Jordanian confiscation, causing the mistake the state has now admitted . . .
Residents say that as it was the government’s mistake, it’s up to the government to fix it. In any case, the disputed land is right in the center of the community, which would make it impossible to leave.
• According to Palestinian and Israeli media reports, Mahmoud Abbas rejected Secretary of State John Kerry’s request that he meet with Benjamin Netanyahu to help kick-start peace talks. Abbas reportedly told “he would only acquiesce after Netanyahu froze all settlement construction and released the last group of prisoners that were slated to be freed as a goodwill gesture in the 2014 peace talks.”
• Worth reading: Although Israel is increasing the number of entry permits for Palestinian laborers, many Palestinians still opt to smuggle themselves into the country for work. The Wall St. Journal (click via Google News) takes a closer look. For laborers, the better pay in Israel is worth the risk. For Israel, terror is the risk.
In June, two Palestinians opened fire on a crowded food court in Tel Aviv, killing four people, one of the bloodiest attacks in a monthslong spate of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings that have left 40 Israelis dead. They, too, had traveled into the country from Yatta, according to the Israeli government and smugglers.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the Tel Aviv attack with a security clampdown, announcing that work would begin to fill gaps in the 440-mile barrier that separates parts of the West Bank from his country. The military and police have stepped up patrols along the separation barrier, looking for smugglers.
As it moves to tighten security along the barrier, meanwhile, the government has been letting more Palestinian workers into the country. It plans to offer another 30,000 legal permits over the coming months, according to one official. It also is planning to invest some $80 million in improving the infrastructure at border crossings to speed up the flow of workers, the official said.
• HR readers scored a nice success. Yesterday, HonestReporting called out McClatchy News over its assertion that “The state of Israel was created in 1948 on land that had previously been controlled by the British Mandate and was considered the nation of Palestine.” Our Facebook community responded and McClatchy News revised the article. Join the conversation and follow HonestReporting on Facebook.
• Israeli Arab MK Basel Ghattas will participate in the upcoming World Socialist Forum. This year’s gathering is being held in Montreal and the Canadian government is already distancing itself from the confab over anti-Semitic programming and a vile cartoon that posted and then pulled from the WSF web site.
• Gotta like the Financial Times‘ take (click via Google News) on the Hamas election video spinning Gaza “like it could be a Gulf shopping hub or a Red Sea resort town.” Reporter John Reed notes opposing spoof videos like this ripping Hamas.
Around the World
• A Belgian high school is ‘proud’ of its teacher who won an award at Iran’s Holocaust cartoon show. Luc Descheemaeker took second prize and a $1,000 award for this cartoon.
• On the eve of its conference, the UK Labour Party dropped the G4S security firm over its association with Israel. Now the party has a new problem, reports the JTA.
With no security firm to handle the Sept. 25 conference, the Home Office and police could shut down the event. Three companies declined the offer of a contract and one withdrew its bid after carrying out a risk assessment, according to the Telegraph report.
G4S, a UK-based multi-national firm, has contracts for work at some Israeli checkpoints and prisons.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Elliott Abrams: Foreign aid for Hamas
– Isi Liebler: Bravo to Israel for finally taking action against BDS
– Michael Totten: Iran payment wasn’t ransom, but it was ransom
Featured image: CC BY-NC John Ragai with additions by HonestReporting;
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