Today’s Top Stories
1. At least two military personnel were killed and 11 wounded in overnight explosions on a military airport on the edge of the Syrian capital. Israel rarely confirms or denies its operations in Syria. This attack was, apparently, especially destructive and rumoured to have a connection to Israel. A Syria-based Iranian military claimed the explosion was caused by an electrical short circuit.
2. In an ongoing chess game of threats and counter-threats, Israel has threatened to attack any Iranian military assets in Iraq as it has done in Syria, following reports Tehran has moved ballistic missiles closer to the Jewish state.
3. A report from Western intelligence officials reveals that Iran is using civilian flights to smuggle arms to Hezbollah.
4. HR’s Senior Editor Daniel Pomerantz writes in The Federalist that a myopic focus on Trump is merely a distraction from one of the primary reasons behind America’s funding cuts to Palestinians: the Palestinian Martyrs Fund and the murder of Americans abroad.
5. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is a controversial figure. Yet it is still important that journalism regarding his visit to Israel be based on facts. HonestReporting succeeds in getting an important correction from The Independent.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Controversy continues over state visit by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to Israel.
• Will Roseanne Barr move to Israel? After her personal scandal involving a Tweet accused of being racist (which resulted in the cancellation of her television program) what will be the public effect?
• Minister of Education Naftali Bennett called for the censure of the Arab-Israeli Joint List MKs in response to their open support of UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, The call was echoed by Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren .
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Around the World
• Canada’s Quebec solidaire party is becoming increasingly active in local politics. Billing itself as “the most environmentalist, left-leaning and socially conscious of the four major political parties,” Quebec solidaire’s 2017 convention was interrupted by a mini scandal after it was revealed the food table contained … Israeli hummus. The offending food was promptly removed when the organizers realized that it came from a country that “persecutes Palestinians,.
• The Ukrainian city of Lviv, once a major center of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, commemorated on Sunday the 75th anniversary of the annihilation of the city’s Jewish population by Nazi Germany and honored those working today to preserve what they can of that vanished world.
• The European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, said today that the world is going through a period of chaos, and the EU should work more closely with international partners as the multilateral system is under threat. Mogherini has frequently taken anti-Israel positions in the past. Will she really become more active in world affairs, and if so, what will be the impact on Israel?
Commentary/Analysis
• Former government heads Stephen Harper (Canada) and David Trimble (First Minister, Ireland) write in The Telegraph, “Corbyn’s Anti-semitism is a threat to all of us.” Though this is behind a paywall, we felt it too important to not include. Here is one relevant paragraph:
The rise in anti-Semitism across Europe should be alarming to all of us, and not just for moral reasons. History shows that the mindset which embraces anti-Semitism rarely restricts its hatred to the Jewish minority.
• The Wall Street Journal weighed in on Corbyn with a full page spread.
• Former UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks warned of an existential threat to British Jews..
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
–Israel Welcomes U.S. Defunding of UNRWA as Step for Peace – Tovah Lazaroff and Michael Wilner (Jerusalem Post)
–Moving Iranian Ballistic Missiles into Iraq Is Extremely Destabilizing – J.E. Dyer
–The Welcome Disruption in Palestinian Aid – Jonathan Greenberg
Featured image: CC0 bykst;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
