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. Israeli diplomats are already conceding failure in trying to stop a US-Iran interim nuclear deal. According to YNet:
The nuclear talks are expected to resume in Geneva on Wednesday, and Israeli officials estimate that unless an unexpected crisis takes place, an interim agreement will be signed in this round or shortly afterwards.
Meanwhile, sources in Jerusalem have also criticized the recent conflict with the United State. “It’s causing damage. (US Secretary of State) John Kerry is not Israel’s enemy,” one of the officials said.
According to Israeli media reports, the terms of the Geneva talks were already agreed upon in a secret US-Iranian backchannel. The Obama administration denies the Israeli reports, but American Jewish leaders feel misled by the White House.
According to Channel 10, the secret channel marginalized Kerry, and was overseen by the president. The idea had been for Kerry merely to fly to Geneva, as he did last Friday, to sign a deal in which he had been a bit player. In the event, factors such as the French stance, and Israel’s very public objections, derailed this plan, and the talks broke up last Saturday without an agreement.
2. Ismail Haniyeh’s one-year-old granddaughter was briefly treated in an Israeli hospital, then sent back to Gaza. According to the Times of Israel, however, doctors at the Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petah Tikva said Aamal Haniyeh’s condition — severe inflammation of the gastrointestinal system affecting her nervous system — was incurable.
The story of Aamal Haniyeh’s hospitalization in Israel first broke in the Arab media after her father, Abdul Salam, wrote on his Facebook page Monday morning that “Aamal was transferred into the Green Line (Israel) now. I pray that God cures her.” The post has since been removed from Haniyeh’s page. However, another entry on Monday afternoon by the baby’s father reported that Aamal had returned to Gaza in a state of clinical death.
A mother’s response from Sarah Tuttle-Singer struck the right chord.
3. Beirut was rocked by two suicide bombers outside the Iranian embassy. According to the Daily Star‘s early coverage, 25 people were killed, including an Iranian attache. Another 150 people were wounded. An Al-Qaida affiliate is claiming responsibility, but as usual, it’s Israel’s fault. Avi Issacharoff says Iran’s getting a taste of its own medicine.
4. Fisk Revives Uranium Charge? Robert Fisk’s stringing along an old, discredited blood libel against Israel.
Israel and the Palestinians
• AFP: Benjamin Netanyahu invited Mahmoud Abbas to address the Knesset. Speaking in the Israeli parliament plenum would be an implicit act of normalization which I don’t think Abbas has the guts to do, much less reciprocate by inviting Bibi to Ramallah.
• For the first time, a Palestinian delegate cast a vote in the UN General Assembly. More at Reuters.
• Real boycotters will boycott these BDS web sites:
Boycott Israel Websites Built Using Israeli Software Wix
• It’s not all gloom and doom on the normalization front. The Media Line reports the opening of the Jerusalem Arbitration Center, which will resolve commercial disputes between Israeli and Palestinian businesses.
. . . some are surprised to learn that the volume of trade between Israel and the Palestinian territories is $4 billion annually.
• Brandeis University cut ties with Al Quds University. Last week, students at the Palestinian university staged a Nazi-style demonstration complete with salutes, posters of student “martyrs,” toy guns (real ones aren’t allowed on campus). Tom Gross posted photos of the event.
Brandeis demanded that Al-Quds condemn the rally in both Arabic and English, but a disgraceful letter by Al Quds president Sari Nusseibeh wasn’t even in the ballpark.
• Australia’s former foreign minister, Bob Carr, slammed settlement activity in a Sydney Morning Herald op-ed.
• The PA may accept an interim deal after all, according to Israel HaYom:
According to the official, negotiators have agreed to delay talks on a number of core issues. He said that if progress was achieved on issues such as the borders of a future Palestinian state and security arrangements, talks on other issues might be pushed off past the nine months allotted for the negotiations.
- Al Jazeera America ratings are so low, Nielsen won’t bother reporting them.
- Not one country has volunteered to host destruction of Syrian chemical weapons.
- Saudis: We’re not cooperating with Israel on Iran.
