Today’s Top Stories
1. Turkish tanks cross Syrian border, apparently as part of a military operation backed by jets and US-led coalition warplanes to clear ISIS from the Syrian border town of Jarablus.
2. Israel uncovers an illegal Palestinian weapons making network: including 29 weapons factories, 49 weapons-making machines and more than 300 firearms.
3. As Israel and the US finalize the foreign aid package, Israeli MK Yair Lapid writes in Foreign Policy magazine that the most valuable aspect of the deal is not just the funds, but the important security cooperation. Lapid points out that Israel’s stability allows the US to pursue a robust foreign policy in the Middle East without putting “boots on the ground,” thus saving both American money and lives.
4. While criticizing Israel for detaining a Palestinian journalist, the Guardian vastly downplays that he also has ties to significant terrorism. The Guardian, it seems, would have its readers believe that Israel is improperly detaining journalists, rather than properly detaining terrorists.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel’s stronger than usual response to rocket-fire out of Gaza this week is apparently part of a new policy designed by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eisnekot and approved by both PM Netanyahu and former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon. The idea is to prevent Hamas from using the time between wars as merely an opportunity to re-arm and repeat.
• A Bengal tiger was rescued from a Gaza zoo, described by the UK’s Mail Online as a “hellhole” and the “worst zoo in the world.” The tiger was apparently living among mummified remains of dead animals. Not surprisingly, before the end of the article The Mail managed to at least partly blame the suffering of Gaza’s zoo animals on Israel.
• Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman is working to open a dialogue with Palestinian academics and businesspeople, bypassing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has traditionally solidified his position vis-à-vis the Western world by making the case that he is irreplaceable, because he is the only practical alternative to a takeover by Hamas. Apparently, Abbas sees Liberman’s plan as a threat to his continued rule, because it creates a situation in which Abbas would be potentially replaceable.
Around the World
• Israeli PM Natenyahu phones Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Mideast peace. Few details were released, but it seems that through Russia and Egypt Israel is developing an alternative to the French initiative, which seems to be preferred by Palestinian leadership.
• According to recently declassified files from the British Foreign Office, Israel sold weapons to Argentina at the height of the Falklands War in, 1982. This has been more or less known since it was revealed in a book in 2011. Israel’s position: deals with Argentina were essential to sustain its domestic arms industry – and Britain was also supplying munitions to Israel’s enemies in the Arab world.
• The United Nations has acquired goods and services from Israel totaling $91.8 million in 2015, double the amount it spent on Israeli products two years ago. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said, “Even the UN understands that Israel is the ‘Start-Up Nation’ and that Israeli goods and services of [the country] are of the highest quality in the world.”
Commentary/Analysis
• Prince Hassan of Jordan and Dr Ed Kessler, director of the Woolf Institute, teamed up on an op/ed, writing that Jews and Muslims must work together to stop the terrible slaughter of Middle East Christians at the hands of Islamic State. The authors point out that contrary to some current mythology, Christians are actually not interlopers in the Middle East, but rather have a long and meaningful history in the region.
• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has denounced the BDS movement as being not “consistent with progressive values.” He added,
“There are plenty of people who support BDS who have advanced degrees and who call themselves progressives. I look forward to challenging them, because it’s ahistorical.”
The statement is significant, because de Blasio carries a great deal of credibility in progressive circles. Last June, the State of New York issued a decision that supporters of BDS may not have access to New York government contracts. The state’s Governor Andrew Cuomo explained, “If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you.”
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– The Algemeiner: Russian TV Documentary Blames Jews for Titanic Sinking, Chernobyl Disaster, 9/11
– The Jewish Chronicle: Israeli scientists take step towards cure for advanced skin cancer
– The Council on Foreign Relations: The Problem With Vows to “Defeat” the Islamic State
Featured image: CC BY John Ragai via flickr with additions by HonestReporting
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.
