Everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast. Join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Today’s Top Stories
1. Prime Minister Netanyahu will push legislation defining Israel as a Jewish state. Take your pick of Jerusalem Post, YNet, and Times of Israel coverage. A Haaretz staff-ed opposes the move.
2. India thwarted a Pakistani terror attack against Israeli and US consulates in India. According to the Times of India, the plot has the fingerprints of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), making for an especially ugly fracas:
Official sources claimed on Sunday that Sakir Hussain, a Sri Lankan national, told his interrogators that he had been hired allegedly by an official in Pakistani high commission in Colombo as part of the ISI’s alleged plans to conduct reconnaissance of US consulate in Chennai and Israeli consulate in Bengaluru.
3. A Wall St. Journal staff-ed (click via Google News) weighed in on the Saudi ballistic missiles displayed in a military parade.
The missile display is one more sign of the Middle East arms race that is already well underway. As the U.S. retreats from the region, and Iran advances to the edge of acquiring a nuclear weapon, the Saudis no longer trust U.S. security guarantees. They are looking to arm themselves lest Iran use what everyone will understand is a nuclear-breakout capacity to demand concessions from its neighbors.
4.The Guardian Promotes Anti-Zionist NGO: Ahead of Israeli Independence Day, The Guardian focuses on the Naqba with the help of a radically anti-Zionist non-governmental organization.
5. Roger Waters Keeps Stoking BDS Flames: Roger Waters’ open-letter to the Rolling Stones apes the BDS narrative.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel to remember its fallen soldiers tonight. According to government numbers, 23,169 people have been killed in war and terror attacks since 1860 (when Jews began moving outside the walls of Jerusalem).
The Defense Ministry said 57 newly fallen had been added to the casualty count since the last Day of Remembrance in 2013, and that an additional 50 disabled IDF veterans died due to their disability.
• Veteran Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea made some buzz waves with a column quoting American officials “close to the negotiations” blaming Israeli settlements for the collapse of the peace talks. Mudslinging is oh so much dirtier when done anonymously:
They had one condition, in line with instructions they had received – that I didn’t name them.
• Turns out Mahmoud Abbas rebuffed a bid to find a “mutually acceptable” wording on recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. According to the Times of Israel, the Palestinians wouldn’t even consider working towards “a formula that would have described the Jewish people’s and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination in precisely equivalent terms.”
• At an Islamic conference in Italy, the imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque called for Israel’s destruction and the liberation of Haifa and Jaffa. More at MEMRI (video/transcript). Is Raed Al-Daan on the Palestinian Authority payroll — subsidized by the West? And do his views reflect those of Jordan — which is custodian of the Temple Mount? Just wondering . . .
• The UN confirmed that the Palestinians formally joined five global treaties; more memberships are in the pipeline reports Maan News.
- Islamic Jihad influence is on the rise in Gaza.
- Lebanese cleric’s plan to visit Pope in Israel sparks outrage.
- Reporter explains how he got the Kerry-apartheid scoop.
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