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Admin Sun 13 Jul 2014, 11:29 pm

Gaza Conflict Day 6: Did Hamas Deliberately Attack Ramallah?
Israel Daily News Stream7 hours ago
IDNS-flags-deck-770x400
Today’s Top Stories
1. After a rocket a landed in Ramallah last night, the Globe & Mail‘s Patrick Martin suggests that Hamas deliberately fired at the PA.

The notion that Palestinian militants in Gaza might fire on Palestinian authorities in Ramallah is certainly a new twist to the six-day rocket war being waged between Israel and militant Palestinian groups in Gaza led by Hamas.

But it’s not out of the question. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has blasted the Hamas leadership on two occasions this week for what he considers to be its irresponsible rocket attacks on Israel.
2. The Palestinian representative to the UN Human Rights Council says there’s no chance of the PLO successfully pressing war crimes charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court. That’s because Hamas rocket fire is much worse. Laurie Blank made the same point in The Hill, but its much more powerful coming from Ibrahim Khreisheh. This is a terrific heads up by MEMRI.

3. According to a UN report (pdf format) on the Gaza conflict, 77 percent of the Palestinian casualties are civilians. But what AFP, BBC and The Independent‘s coverage don’t tell you is that the document specifically stated that most of the Gaza casualties received advance warning:

In most cases, prior to the attacks, residents have been warned to leave, either via phone calls by the Israel military or by the firing of warning missiles.

4. Carpet Bombing Gaza: If a France 24 correspondent is to be believed, Palestinian casualties should be a lot higher.

5. Israel Not to Blame: False Photo Caption Corrected: HonestReporting corrects the record.

Blankfeld Award

Israel and the Palestinians
• For details on the weekend news, see today’s liveblogging at the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Times of Israel, and i24 News. See also Friday’s live-blog posts at the same papers. Among the more notable developments:

• Raising concerns of a second front, Katyusha rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon this morning and on on Friday making the Western Galilee a target for the first time since Operation Protective Edge began.

• Palestinians in Gaza scored their deepest rocket strike with a hit near Nahariya, which is on the Lebanese border. That’s a distance of 170 km. More at the Jerusalem Post.

• At a Friday news conference, Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed the Gaza conflict. Although the media event had two things going against Bibi — Friday’s a lousy day in the news cycle, and the prime minister only spoke in Hebrew — David Horovitz says Bibi’s remarks on the collapse of te peace talks and US mediation deserved more attention from the press corps.

• The IDF Spokesperson’s unit said it’s looking into why the air force launched an air strike on a center for disabled Palestinians. One Gazan shed some light for The Independent:

The centre for the disabled had been in Gaza for 24 years, and survived the many episodes of strife in those years between the Israelis and the Palestinians. But the organisation moved to the present location three years ago and one neighbour stated that a member of the Islamic Jihad group and his family had also once lived in the building, although he was not sure about their current whereabouts.
• By land, sea and air, Iran arms the fighters in Gaza

• Memo to Ben Wedeman and CNN: Gaza’s lack of bomb shelters is unfortunate, but instead of spinning the Palestinians as being passive victims to Israeli airstrikes (“This is Gaza. And there is no escape.”), how about asking why are there no bomb shelters? Where did all the concrete go?

• Reuters had a decent video on Israel’s “knock on the roof” strategy.

Reuters

• Since Hamas already has bunkers underneath Al-Shifa Hospital, what makes international human shields at another Gaza medical facility (who talked to Haaretz, CNN, and the Times of London) so sure the Islamists aren’t capable of hiding assets under the Al-Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital too?

• Is it any wonder that Palestinian women and children die in airstrikes when Hamas stores rocket launchers next to schools? In this IDF video, a rocket on the ground was discharged after the Israeli air strike.

• YNet: Israeli ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, made Security Council deliberations a little more memorable by playing a recording of an air raid siren, reminding diplomats that Hamas

is “intentionally and indiscriminately” threatening 3.5 million Israelis and “no nation, no people and no government could tolerate this.”
• In a dispatch from Gaza, the Washington Post‘s William Booth notes the difficulty of labeling casualties as “civilian” or “Hamas.”

Are the Nawasrah family members terrorists? I honestly don’t know. We always ask, “Are you resistance? Are you Hamas?” They usually say no. But sometimes a neighbor, or someone in the crowd, will tell us that the fellow who lived in the house was maybe a Hamas operative.
• Egypt (which hopes Israel destroys Hamas) closed its border with Gaza after thwarting an attempt to smuggle 20 Grad rockets from the strip into the Sinai.

The projectiles were apparently meant to be used in attacks against Israel from the peninsula.
• Here’s the latest outrageous false photo shenanigans on Facebook. Palestine photos posted a still shot from the 2009 horror movie, Final Destination 4, saying the IDF’s killing children in Gaza. IDC Student Union poked fun at Palestine photo’s idiocy with this video that includes the original movie scene. Reminds me of the time Iran’s Press TV illustrated an article about Hurricane Sandy with an image from the New York tsunami scene in The Day After Tomorrow.

• Israeli commandos raided a Hamas rocket facility. The brief incursion marked the first use of Israeli ground forces.

• Not that this is Israel’s biggest priority right now, but Erdogan’s being Erdogan again:

Erdogan: Israel-Turkey ties will not normalize unless “oppression” of Gaza stops.

• Hamas is taking a beating in the Arab media. YNet rounds up who said what.

• If you haven’t seen it yet, CNN‘s Jake Tapper made a fool out of former PLO official Diane Buttu.

Best commentary of the day goes to Tom Doran. Writing at The Independent (yes), Doran explains why — as a liberal — he’s supporting Israel in the current crisis:

A part of me is tempted to voice my very real concerns about where Israeli society is headed, but after a week or two of arguing with people who will do anything but recognize terrorist aggression has dissuaded me.

I still have those concerns, but somehow, I just can’t bring myself to talk about them. Not while my Israeli comrades are rushing to their bomb shelters and being blamed for it at the same time.

I stand with Israel.
• In a Daily Telegraph podcast, Tim Stanley discusses the Gaza crisis with the paper’s chief correspondent David Blair, BICOM’s Alan Johnson, and Chris Doyle of the Council for Arab-British Understanding.

• For more commentary/analysis, see Jeffrey Goldberg (Is Hamas trying to get Gazans killed?), Aaron David Miller (5 myths of the Gaza crisis), Mark Kersten (Intervention by The Hague no Palestinian panacea), Josh Rogin (US should avoid mediating this), Thane Rosenbaum (Numbers don’t tell the story), Gary Rosenblatt (smacking down the NY Times), Jeremy Havardi (Is Israel being disproportionate?), and Ari Shavit (War clouds over my sons’ future). The broken quills and spilled ink continue with Elliott Abrams, Mordechai Kedar, Alan Dershowitz, Daniel Pipes, the Daily Telegraph, National Post, and a staff-ed in The Australian.

• Israeli diplomats are appearing in various newspapers, including Ambassador Ron Dermer (Q&A with Voice of America, and a conference call with Washington Post participation), Mark Regev (on CNN and BBC), and Consul General Meir Shlomo (Houston Chronicle op-ed).

Admin Thu 10 Jul 2014, 7:37 pm

Gaza Conflict Day 3: Israel Calls on Palestinians to Evacuate Border
about 1 hour ago
Today’s Top Stories
1. Times of Israel: The Palestinian Authority took the first steps to formal membership in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Abbas did this while denouncing Israel’s military operations as “genocide.” Former ambassador Michael Oren explains why he’s worried:
Abbas’s actions, including his threats to seek ICC membership so that he could prosecute Israel though the international legal body, were part of a strategy that Oren warned was not designed “to get a better two-state solution.”
2. The UN Security Council will discuss the crisis today. According to Haaretz, Israeli and US diplomats are trying to head off a condemnation of IDF airstrikes.
3. A prelude to a ground operation, or psychological ploy? IDF calls on Palestinians living along Gaza border to evacuate their homes.
4. A Palestinian Sob Story in the New York Times: Rula Salemeh’s fears project a false reality where Palestinians are simply helpless actors in a wider narrative.
5. Daily Mail Omits Hamas Man’s Terror Affiliation: Mustafa Malaka is not only a “Palestinian father,” he’s a Hamas security officer.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Operation Protective Edge moved to day three. The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Haaretz, and i24 News continued their live-blogging. Among the more notable developments:
• Hamas targeted Dimona‘s nuclear reactor. All the rockets were either shot down by Iron Dome or landed in open areas without causing damage.
• A terror attack was foiled when police at a checkpoint intercepted a car carrying a bomb. Details at YNet.
• In the last Gaza conflict, the issue of Israeli attacks on the press became contentious when “journalists” working for Hamas and Islamic Jihad media were killed in airstrikes. The controversy arose again with an airstrike on a car marked TV, which killed Hamdid Shihab, a driver employed by Media 24, a South African media production company. Other journalists in the car were injured in the attack. The IDF is looking into what happened.
• Egypt’s silence over Gaza has Hamas nervous, according to the New York Times and Jerusalem Post.
• Fatah joins Hamas and Islamic Jihad in missile launches
• The US embassy in Tel Aviv is closed due to the rocket fire.
• Hamas leaders are believed to be hunkering down somewhere underneath Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. Aaron Klein explains:
The officials said they believe the Hamas members are using the Al-Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza not only as a hiding place but also as a sanctuary command center for some of the Islamist group’s operations targeting Israel.
This was widely known in the previous Gaza conflict — my daughter debunked Hamas two years ago. Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reports that a number of Gazans are being treated at Haifa’s Rambam Hospital, and “more Gazans are scheduled to arrive later this week.”
• A look at the legality of striking homes that are also military targets.
• Nice Christian Science Monitor look at what’s known about the Hamas rocket arsenal (along with a related piece about Iran’s fingerprints). A similarTimes of London dispatch used the word “terror” in a headline. (And for anyone interested, here’s a link to the IDF interactive feature that puts Palestinian rocket range in perspective.)
• Despite the rockets and red alerts, big media finds life carrying on normally in Tel Aviv and what passes for normal in Sderot.
• Today’s best commentary? That would be William Saletan, writing at Slate about Israel’s exemplary efforts to spare Gaza civilians.
Every death is tragic, and the longer the assault goes on, the higher the toll will go. Still, given that Israel has launched more than 500 airstrikes, you’d have to conclude that either Israel is failing miserably to kill people or, more plausibly, it’s largely trying not to kill them.
• Columnist Roger Cohen doesn’t understand that “cutting the grass” refers to terrorists and their rocket stockpiles, not the collateral damage of civilian casualties. Roger must have misunderstood the Gray Lady’s recent video, or older articles that explain the concept. There are valid reasons not to support this method of conflict management, but let’s get the facts straight.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Spengler (Sunny, with light missile cover in Tel Aviv), Amos Yadlin (12 points about Operation Protective Edge), Aaron David Miller (Why Kerry should stay out of this conflict), Avi Issacharoff (Hamas and Jihad competing) Frida Ghitis (Israeli cries of pain met with Arab cheers), David Suissa (The honesty of war), Roger Boyles (Why Islamists are happy to be victims again), Colin Freeman (Treading a fine line with Hamas), and the CBC (What’s Hamas thinking?).
Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Rafael Barak, got op-ed space in the National Post, while deputy Knesset speaker Hilik Bar weighed in at the Daily Telegraph. For what the Palestinians are saying, see Mustafa Barghouti and Amin Saikal.
Last but not least, Bret Stephens and Dore Gold discussed the conflict in videos at the Wall St. Journal and France 24 respectively
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Shurat HaDin’s threw in the towel on its lawsuit against Australian professor Jake Lynch over his support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. Details at The Australian and The Guardian.
• The Israeli cop who was caught on film beating the 15-year-old Tariq Khdeir was suspended, and may face criminal charges, reports CNN.
• Food for thought: Zalman Shoval points out that the rise of ISIS (the Al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) buries the argument that “The road to Baghdad runs through Jerusalem.”
This radical group has shown its true colors in the most brutal of ways, declaring all-out war on the religious and power structures in the region. This may send the Middle East into a chaotic spiral in the next few years, and not only does Israel have nothing to do with it, the Palestinians too are irrelevant to the issue.

Admin Wed 09 Jul 2014, 5:17 pm

Gaza Conflict Day 2: Hamas Escalates Rocket Fire
Israel Daily News Stream24 mins ago
Today’s Top Stories
1. Escalation marked the second day of Operation Protective Edge. Hamas fired a Syrian-made M302 rocket at Hadera. Later in the day, rockets reached Zichron Yaakov, a coastal town about 120 km away from Gaza and just south of Haifa, representing the longest Palestinian rocket strike on Israel yet.
According to Israeli media reports, Hamas extended the range of the Zichron Yaakov rockets by removing their explosives. Israeli officials say Hamas has dozens more long-range missiles.
2. Iron Dome intercepted rockets heading towards Ben Gurion Airport. As a precaution, incoming and outgoing flights are being diverted to runways on B-G’s northern and eastern sides. More at the Jerusalem Post. Despite the red alert and related hassles, no flights were cancelled.
United Hatzolah
3. Fatah goons fire rockets at Israel? Say it ain’t so!
Fatah has several hundred militiamen in the Gaza Strip who belong to various armed groups. Some, according to sources in the Gaza Strip, are former members of the Palestinian Authority security forces, who continue to receive their salaries from the Western-funded Palestinian government in Ramallah . . .

That is why Abbas finds it difficult to condemn the rocket attacks on Israel. Such a move would put him on a collision course not only with Hamas, but also with Fatah, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Movement and at least 10 other jihadi cells operating in the Gaza Strip.

Moreover, Abbas seems to be concerned that if the world hears about the role of Fatah in the rocket attacks, the news will affect Western financial aid to his Palestinian Authority, dominated by Fatah.

Palestinian Media Watch rounds up the Fatah trash talk Abbas has to explain.

4. New York Times Drops the Ball on Human Shields: Why does The Gray Lady disparage IDF measures to minimize civilian casualties?
5. BBC Bias in Gaza: Missing context depicts malevolent Israelis and sanitizes terror.
6. Hundreds of Hamas Rockets Go Missing for Australian Broadcaster: ABC News omits the most important statistic of all.
7. Comments and the Roar of the Crowd: Lost in Translation? The perils of multi-lingual media monitoring as the name “Operation Protective Edge” doesn’t literally translate to the mission’s Hebrew name.
8. Times of London Corrects Lieberman Error: HonestReporting gets the record corrected.

Israel and the Palestinians
• The army killed four terrorists trying to infiltrate Israel from the sea. The group came ashore at Zikim, where a kibbutz and army base are located between Gaza and Ashkelon.
• Since Saturday, rocket fire has so far caused Israel NIS 10 million in damage to property and shuttered businesses.
• Palestinian press losing media war in current crisis
So far, quick reporting and live interviews on the ground have prevailed over published materials. Amid a lack of deep analyses of the events, a scarcity of information and an absence of expectations, many news agencies and newspapers are relying on Israeli sources, and are thus failing to articulate an alternative narrative of the events.

The absence of the human story, the reliance on statistics of deaths and injuries, the dissemination of photos of bodies and the limited number of officials who can be reached for comment, either in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, affect the issuance of a complete Palestinian side of the story . . .

Palestinian coverage has also been hampered by the politicized tit for tat between Hamas and Fatah-affiliated media outlets. For example, on July 4, the victims of the clashes between Egyptian security forces and the Muslim Brotherhood was front-page news, despite the current volatile situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
• Mahmoud Abbas spots an opportunity: At a PA leadership meeting which was due to begin at 3:30, Abbas is “expected to sign the necessary documents for joining international organizations. Inter alia, he has requested to join the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a senior official told Haaretz.”
• The New York Times explains the Israeli counter-terror philosophy known as “cutting the grass,” and what it means for the IDF’s current activity. From the viewpoint of “cutting the grass,” (which I’ve sometimes heard referred to “mowing the lawn”), Operation Protective Edge is about managing the conflict, not wiping out Hamas.

• A Wall St. Journal staff-ed (click via Google News) blasts Iran’s hidden hand fueling the Gaza conflict.
In March, Israeli naval commandos interdicted a Panamanian-flagged ship, the Klos C, off the Sudanese coast in the Red Sea. The ship’s cargo contained 40 M-302 surface-to-surface rockets, 181 mortar shells and some 400,000 rounds of 7.62 caliber ammunition—all concealed under bags of Iranian cement. The weapons were almost certainly intended for Iran’s terrorist clients in Gaza.

Tehran denies any role in the shipment. But a recent classified report from the U.N. Security Council’s Sanctions Committee effectively confirms it, and we’ve seen the pertinent portions.
• After reading Linda Todd’s first-hand account of being an unwitting and unwilling human shield for Hamas at IsraellyCool, I confess I didn’t really appreciate the extent the terror group deliberately embeds its arms caches, command centers, and other infrastructure among civilians. Todd describes terror sites across from her apartment

Admin Wed 09 Jul 2014, 8:30 am

Israel Under Fire: IDF Launches Operation Protective Edge
Today’s Top Stories
1. The IDF’s Operation Protective Edge began as the IDF hit Gaza rocket launchers, Hamas command and control facilities and other terror infrastructure. See all the details at the Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel and i24 live-blogs.
Among the more notable developments, the IDF wants to call up another 40,000 reservists, and two Arabs were arrested for allegedly trying to kidnap a 15-year-old Jewish girl near Abu Ghosh. As this roundup went to press, 130 rockets were fired at Israel since midnight, and the Israeli Air Force struck 150 targets.
2. A number of Palestinians were killed in a contentious airstrike described by YNet:
At least six Palestinians were killed and about 25 wounded in an IAF attack on Tuesday on a house in the Gaza Strip, Gaza media and the Palestinian Interior Ministry said.

Local residents said the home in Khan Yunis in the northern strip belonged to the Kawara family, at least one of which was a Hamas member, and that the casualties occurred when it came under attack for the second time on Tuesday.

After the first strike, people had gathered on its roof as “human shields”, hoping their presence would deter a second strike, the residents said.

3. I’m impressed: Whoda thought the BBC would denounce lots of #GazaUnderAttack images on Twitter as bogus? I’d like to think that HonestReporting’s watchdogging with the Beeb’s Jon Donnison and his poor photo tweeting taught them a lesson.
Gaza twitter lies exposed by BBC 2.48 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCdEj-cewOc
ndeed, Sunday Times reporter Hala Jaber already apologized after being called out for photo flubbery.
4. Operation Protective Edge: A Primer: Everything you need to know about Israel’s military operation to end Gaza rocket fire.
5. War in Gaza: 5 Tips For Sorting Through the News and Sharing Responsibly on Social Media: How do we sort through the info overload? And what’s our responsibility for what we choose to share?
6. Video: Israel on the Verge of Major Conflict: There is no cycle of violence or moral equivalence.
See Video 3.35 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gepkYOcQG5k
Israel and the Palestinians
• Jerusalem Post: A mob of 150-200 Bedouin youths threw firebombs and stones at Israeli cars in the Negev town of Omer.
• If you’re wondering about the latest Home Front Command guidelines and the precautions Israelis in rocket range are taking, see YNet and the Home Front Command.
• I wonder if an opportunistic PLO expects to ride back into Gaza on the back of an Israeli tank. Khaled Abu Toameh reports that Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new Fatah-affiliated governor of Gaza.
• Memo to Sky News: Israel’s not attacking Gaza to “avenge” rocket fire, we’re attacking to end it. What a dumb headline.
Sky News2
• Jewish, Arab and Bedouin mayors called for restraint in the face of rising anger, exposing a political rift.
• Haaretz is going all out with a conference on peace, dovetailing with VIP op-eds written by US President Barack Obama, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, and PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Given the fighting in Gaza, the timing of these op-eds couldn’t be more unfortunate.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Mitch Ginsburg (How war with Hamas may play out), Ruth Wisse (The Abyss Between Two Heinous Episodes — Wall St. Journal via Google News), Avi Issacharoff (New causes for Israeli concern), Max Schindler (Can Israelis and Palestinians coexist?), Ari Shavit (Israeli-Hamas escalation), Con Coughlin (Gaza escalation could play into Syrian jihadi hands), Alan Dershowitz (prosecuting Mohammed Khdeir’s killers), Wes Pruden (When atrocity invites atrocity), Clifford May (One city, four murders), Benny Avni (Palestinians play to the referees) and Elliott Abrams (Israel: BDS in the West, integration in the East),
Staff-eds abound too. Best of the bunch was Christian Science Monitor. See also The Scotsman, Times of London, Baltimore Sun, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New York Post, New York Daily News, and New York Times.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Cash-strapped Hezbollah accused of trafficking organs from Syrian refugees to finance its fight for the Assad regime.
• Israel: The ultimate guarantor of Jordan’s security.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

Admin Wed 02 Jul 2014, 5:20 pm

Arabs Riot in Eastern Jerusalem
Israel Daily News Stream2 hours ago
IDNS-tagCloud-770x400CC
Today’s Top Stories
1. Arabs rioted in eastern Jerusalem after the burnt body of a Palestinian teenager was found in the Jerusalem Forest. Palestinian media reports are identifying the boy as Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped last night, but police haven’t yet confirmed the identity of the body or if it’s connected to the abduction.
Coming a day after the funerals of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach, speculation falls on a revenge attack. But police aren’t ruling out other possibilities, including a clan conflict or matter of “family honor” (though Haaretz reports that the missing boy’s father denies that). More at the Jerusalem Post, YNet, and Times of Israel live-blogging.
Fueling the revenge angle, a right-wing protest in Jerusalem after yesterday’s funerals turned unfortunately ugly, as you’ll see from first-hand Jerusalem Post and YNet reports.
2. Hamas: We will continue to kidnap Israelis
3. Tsk. A Pew Research Center poll found that Mideast support for Hezbollah and Hamas is falling.
Hezbollah, the militant organization headquartered in Lebanon with strong ties to the Shia-led Iranian government, is seen unfavorably in every Middle Eastern country surveyed . . .
Overall, most people surveyed have an unfavorable impression of Hamas, a militant Palestinian organization that is in control of the Gaza Strip and designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. This includes people who live under its rule.
More than half in the Palestinian territories (53%) have an unfavorable view of Hamas, with only about a third (35%) expressing positive views. Negative views are higher in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip (63%), up from 54% in 2013.

4. Three Murdered Teens: Daily Mail Gets it Wrong: Following the funerals of the three murdered teenagers, the Daily Mail utterly botches the aftermath.
5. Three Murdered Teens: Irish Times’ “Cycle of Violence: The Irish Times falsely depicts a “cycle of violence” despite Israel responding to the murder of three teens by Hamas terrorists.
6. Aryeh Green, director of MediaCentral, discussed media issues and the kidnapped teens with Las Vegas radio personality Alan Stock. MediaCentral is an initiative of HonestReporting providing support and services for foreign journalists in Israel. Give the interview a listen on YouTube.
7. Christian Science Monitor: Israel in a “Cycle of Revenge Killings”: Staff editorial misunderstands when it portrays Israel as participating in a “cycle of revenge killings” in response to three teens’ murder.

Israel and the Palestinians
• Eli Lake: While Israel bombs Gaza, the kidnapping’s real mastermind, Saleh al-Arouri, is living large in Turkey:
Now that the man who Israel believes has significant responsibility for the murder of the three teenagers is in Turkey, it could further complicate relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, two former allies that have tried recently to repair a broken relationship.

Turkey has cooperated at times with Israel and the west on contingency planning for Syria during its civil war. But the Turks also maintain close ties to the political wing of Hamas, a group Israel and the United States still designate as a terrorist organization. Indeed, Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmed Davutaglu, on Monday talked to Khalled Meshall, the head of the Hamas political bureau, in a telephone call.

Senior Israeli officials confirmed for The Daily Beast that al-Arouri is the Hamas leader who has encouraged, funded and coordinated a campaign to ramp up kidnappings in the West Bank and that al-Arouri now resides in Turkey.
• The IDF destroyed the home of Ziad Awad, who murdered an off-duty senior Israeli police officer on Passover eve. Awad was one of the Palestinian prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit swap, but you wouldn’t know that from Reuters dispatches one or two. YNet coverage includes video.
• Hamas is burning mad over the reinstatement of PA civil servants in Gaza. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah refuses to pay the salaries of Hamas’ 50,000 public employees.
• Clifford May: US taxpayers are chipping in to pay handsome salaries to Palestinian jailbirds.
• Why does this Christian Science Monitor staff-ed simply assume that Israel’s actions are motivated by revenge?
• Today’s best commentary was easily at the Daily Telegraph, where Alan’s Johnson nails why Palestinians must choose between Hamas and Abbas. See also Giora Eiland (Israel’s opportunity for a strategic blow to Hamas), Thane Rosenbaum (no moral equivalent to the murder of three teenagers), Rafael Ahren (Gaza invasion or home demolitions, Israel will likely still come under fire), and more takes by Amotz Asa-El, Anshel Pfeffer, Ben-Dror Yemini, Reuven Berko, Richard Behar, Michael Goodwin, Patrick Martin, and Alan Elsner.
Staff-eds in the The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor also weighed in.
Last but not least, The Wall St. Journal‘s Bret Stephens doesn’t pull any punches on what the kidnapping means for the Palestinians and peace efforts.

Rest O’ the Roundup
• Just what is behind Israeli support for Kurdish statehood? McClatchy News looks into the history of Israeli-Kurdish relations.
• A grieving father pulls a thread that unravels BNP’s illegal deals.

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

Admin Tue 01 Jul 2014, 2:15 pm

Israel Grieves for Three Murdered Teens, Media Makes a Mess
Naftali, Gil-ad, Eyal
Post 2 hours ago

As Israel grieves over the loss of three teens murdered by Hamas terrorists, we expose some of the media's worst reporting....
Israel mourns the loss of Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach and Gil-ad Shaar, murdered by Hamas terrorists. The three teens’ bodies were discovered Monday evening in Halhul, north of Hebron. Based in Israel and with many of our staff having children of their own, the loss is acutely felt here at HonestReporting as it is throughout Israel and the Jewish world.
Unfortunately, some of the media coverage has been flawed. Here we expose some of the worst offenders.
Israel Seeks “Revenge”
The Christian Science Monitor published its report under the following headline:
"After three Israeli teens found dead will the revenge cycle be ratcheted up?"
As for the report itself, it is filled with prejudicial statements:
"Since the boys’ disappearance, the West Bank has witnessed the revival of collective punishment by Israel.
So, according to the CSM, Israel’s operation to retrieve its boys is simply concerned with punishing the Palestinians.
The impression of Israeli malevolence and vengeful behavior continues:
"Meanwhile, the Israeli public has demanded harsh action. Palestinians, subjected to even greater controls on their
movements and more deaths, have seethed.
And, in an example of unprofessional journalism, the CSM reports unsubstantiated rumors of an event that did not happen:
There are rumors of mobs of West Bank settlers gathering to carry out vigilante attacks against Palestinians and Palestinian property.
The CSM then starts quoting casualty statistics, particularly focused on children and teens to prove that there is a “cycle of violence” and revenge. According to the CSM, “the killing on both sides continues.” Not considered relevant by the CSM, however, is that only one side in this conflict is bent on killing for killing’s sake. So the deliberate murder of Israelis by Palestinian terrorists becomes morally equivalent to the deaths of Palestinians in IDF counter-terror operations.
You can send your considered comments to the Christian Science Monitor – letters@csmonitor.com

No Mention of Rockets
skewed-skynews
According to the IDF, following over 18 rockets which were fired at Israel since Sunday evening, IAF aircraft carried out a precision strike against 34 targets in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday.
But Gazan rockets didn’t even register for Sky News where there was no mention of rocket attacks on Israel at all. It’s only about the three murdered teens:
Since the discovery there have been a number of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, including on the southern city of Khan Younis.

An “Alleged” Kidnapping
According to The Times of London:
Israel was preparing a massive retaliatory attack on Gaza and the West Bank last night after the bodies of three teenage boys
allegedly kidnapped by Palestinian militants were found murdered after a three-week search.
“Allegedly kidnapped?” Aside from the bodies of the three teens, what more proof does The Times need before it states the obvious?

Idiotic Comparisons
While civil war and death on a grand scale are taking place in the Middle East, the LA Times’ Paul Whitefield gets all apocalyptic:
Worried about Iraq, Syria and the threat from ISIS? Well, better add this to your list then: a new Israeli-Palestinian confrontation.
But it looks like such a confrontation could only initiated by one side – Israel:
So, add it all up and what have you got? Yep, a recipe for more fighting: another Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, probably,
and perhaps the West Bank as well. Not to mention another setback for any hopes for a settlement of the long-running
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Whitefield describes himself on his Twitter profile as “presenting a slightly skewed view of the news.”
Straight from the horse’s mouth.
Misguided Focus
Mx News, the afternoon edition of Australia’s The Age appears to have very skewed priorities. What’s more important – three murdered kids or bricks and mortar?
Mx News
Israeli army bombs homes of West Bank kidnap suspects

(H/T: Shmuel Karnowsky
“Bombing” Homes
It’s a real stretch to turn the demolition of a terrorist’s home into a bombing campaign but Ireland’s RTE manages to conjure images of F16s rather than bulldozers:

Palestinian Politician Blames Israel for the Murders
Proving that Palestinians are incapable of taking responsibility for any act of terror, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti blamed Israel for the deaths of the three teens on BBC Newsnight:
First of all I think the main person who’s responsible for the tragic death that happened is Mr Netanyahu himself. He sent these boys as illegal settlers to an illegal settlement and he’s also responsible for the tragic death of more than ten Palestinians so far who were killed by his army, including three children.
1.31 min VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWx5f2qQG3g
Have you seen an example of biased or skewed reporting on the murder of three Israeli teens? If so, let HonestReporting know about it through our Red Alert contact page.
http://honestreporting.com/redalert/

Admin Mon 30 Jun 2014, 9:11 pm

Netanyahu Publicly Backs Kurdish Independence
Israel Daily News Stream 5hours ago

1. In a policy speech at Tel Aviv U., Prime Minister Netanyahu called for Kurdish independence from Iraq. According to AP, Netanyahu is “the first significant world figure to call for Kurdish independence.” The Jerusalem Post points out Bibi’s backing puts him at odds with the US, which prefers to see Iraq remain intact.
Netanyahu also insisted that Israel wouldn’t place its trust in the Palestinians or the Jordanians to protect the Jewish state’s eastern border from the rising ISIS threat.

2. Gaza rocket fire escalated. This morning, at least 16 rockets were fired at Israel. According to Haaretz, “two buildings were damaged by shrapnel and several people suffered from shock.”
The rockets were overtly fired by Hamas from refugee camps under the terror group’s sole command. Now that Hamas is part of a national unity government with Mahmoud Abbas, this makes for prickly Palestinian politics indeed. More at the Times of Israel.

3. Marking the first public show of support, ISIS flags are flying in Gaza.

4. The Times Follows Up on Its Own Correction: The Times of London amends an article identifying Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital city.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Bank reported to nix transfer of Hamas salaries:
A money transfer from Qatar intended to cover the salaries of Gazan civil servants from the Hamas movement hit a snag Saturday after the Arab Bank refused the handover, a senior Hamas official said . . .

Although the Arab Bank’s reasons for rejecting the transfer are not currently known, Abu Marzouk’s statement said that some Palestinians prefer “receiving orders from outside,” implying that the decision was politically motivated.

Presbyterian Church USA• Lots of criticism of the Presbyterian church’s divestment decision in local papers. start with staff-eds in the Boston Herald and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Then see op-eds in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sacramento Bee, Fort Myers News Press, Albany Times-Union, Alexandria Times, and the Christian Post. A Raleign News-Observer commentary defended the church.

• For more commentary/analysis, see Avi Issacharoff (Ramadan’s arrival presages no halt to hostilities), Shaul Bartal (Don’t succumb to Hamas), Gabriel Sassoon (Israel mustn’t negotiate with terrorists — even for the kidnapped boys), and Tom Friedman (Mideast arsonists and firefighters).
Arab ~~Spring~~ Winter

• ISIS declared independence, simply calling its captured Iraqi and Syrian territory “the Islamic State.” See AP and Wall St. Journal coverage.
• Has Syria’s Chemical Weapons Arsenal Truly Been Dismantled?

• In interviews with Sky News and France 24, Bibi warned that the Iranian nuclear program is a bigger threat than ISIS. The prime minister’s media blitz also included interviews with CNN, German, Russian and Chinese stations.

• Quote of the Day:
“But I say to Egyptian viewers: if you have no option but to watch the Israeli channels, then to hell with the whole World Cup.”
Egyptian sports columnist Khaled Bayoumi on Egyptian soccer fans watching World Cup action for free, as opposed to paying steep fees to watch on other Arab satellite broadcasters.

• For more commentary/analysis, see Abdulrahman Al-Rashed (ISIS has reached Saudi Arabia’s borders) and Yakub Halabi (Syria, Iraq should split into smaller, homogeneous states).
Image: CC BY-SA flickr/theilr
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

Admin Mon 30 Jun 2014, 2:29 pm

Israel to Intervene If ISIS Threatens Jordan Stability?
Israel Daily News Stream23 hours ago
IDNS-manReadsPaperByWall-770x400
Today’s Top Stories
1. The Daily Beast: Israel is prepared to intervene if ISIS threatens Jordan’s stability. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph looks into ISIS popularity in Jordan.
In Jordan, the actions of Isis in Iraq are inspiring radical factions of the country’s largely Sunni society, who sympathise with the group’s ambition to depose Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, and the Shia-dominated government.

“Isis is now being seen as a protector of Sunni identity,” said Hassan Abu Hanieh, an analyst of jihadist groups and childhood friend of the Salafist preacher Abu Qatada.
2. Egypt arrested 15 ISIS operatives “which had used tunnels to cross from Gaza into the Sinai Peninsula.” According to Israeli media reports:
Further interrogation of the cell by Egyptian forces revealed that the group’s intent was to relay messages and set up terrorist cells for the ISIS in Egypt, to fight the Egyptian government.
3. Over at Foreign Policy, Elliott Abrams and Uri Sadot note that West Bank’s latest facts on the ground indicate a real settlement slowdown:
A geographic analysis of the data, moreover, suggests that the seIsttlers have an additional reason to worry: under Netanyahu’s current government, construction outside the so-called major settlement blocs — the areas most likely to remain part of Israel in a final peace settlement — has steadily decreased.
4. More Hate From Eamonn McCann: Columnist continues his anti-Israel hate in the Belfast Telegraph, accusing the Jewish state of treating Palestinians abominably.

Israel and the Palestinians
• Three Israelis were injured when a Gaza rocket hit a Sderot factory. Three workers were injured; the building went up in flames. Jerusalem Post coverage. Israel responded with airstrikes on terror targets in Gaza.
• No surprises — it was just a matter of time till it became official that US envoy Martin Indyk resigned. He’ll return to his old position at the Brookings Institute. So is the next man up?
Indyk’s position will be filled on an interim basis by Deputy Special Envoy Frank Lowenstein, who will now serve as the Acting Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations. The temporary appointment has caused some in Washington to suspect that the permanent position may not be filled.
In 2011, Lowenstein left his job as John Kerry’s foreign policy adviser to join the Podesta Group, a lobby group, consulting and representing US corporations doing business around the world. He returned to Kerry, now the Secretary of State, in 2013.
• For Israeli kids, summer camp is a time for hiking, swimming, sports, crafts, etc. Contrast that with Gaza’s Hamas-run summer camps, featuring military training, obstacle courses, Nazi salutes, and indoctrination. MEMRI rounded up photos the camps proudly posted on Facebook.
• A group of California academics signed a letter protesting that $7,000 of public money financed a “Palestine solidarity trip.” Professor Rabab Abdulhadi of San Francisco State University met with Leila Khalid (a convicted PFLP hijacker) and Sheikh Raed Salah (leader of the Islamic Movement, the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood).
• Ex-Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Why We Must Support Israel:
We need to unequivocally condemn these kidnappers. Hamas, which continues to propagate the destruction of Israel and seeks no peaceful co-existence with the Jewish state, needs to be recognized for what it is: a terrorist organization that cannot play a legitimate political role as long as it continues to adhere to its violent campaign against Israel and commitment to its demise.

We need to support peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, but there can be no peace while young boys are kidnapped, and terrorists seek violence and destruction. This is not just Israel’s problem; it is in our national interest.
• A who’s who of Washington officials feted Shimon Peres with a farewell dinner. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius was on hand for what turned out to be a moving evening.
• Lengthy historical revisionism combined with a paywall is the death knell of most content. That’s why MacBeth’s soliloquy comes to mind while looking over Raja Shehadeh’s latest screed against Israel at the London Review of Books.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
• For more commentary/analysis, see, Bernard Avishai (kidnapping puts moderates in a terror trap) and Hilik Bar (Abbas didn’t kidnap the teenagers, he is offering us his hand).

Arab ~~Spring~~ Winter
• The Daily Telegraph looks into ISIS popularity in Jordan.
In Jordan, the actions of Isis in Iraq are inspiring radical factions of the country’s largely Sunni society, who sympathise with the group’s ambition to depose Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, and the Shia-dominated government.

“Isis is now being seen as a protector of Sunni identity,” said Hassan Abu Hanieh, an analyst of jihadist groups and childhood friend of the Salafist preacher Abu Qatada.
• Israel’s ex-national security advisor, Yaakov Amidror, called on Israel to bolster Jordan against the ISIS threat.
• See also Shimon Peres’ take on the Islamic threat in a Huffington Post interview.
Israel, he said, is no longer the most significant threat to the majority of Arabs in the Middle East.

“Until now, maybe Israel was the first problem in the eyes of many Arabs,” he said. “Today, they have to say it openly, the real problem for the Arabs and for us are not the mutual mistrust but really the problem of terror, which is a common danger to them and to us.”
• For more commentary/analysis of the ISIS situation, see Zvi Mazel (without allies, US finds itself in the same camp as Iran), Boaz Bismuth (Fear Iran, not ISIS), Trevor Royle (ISIS vs. Israel), and Amos Harel (could Israel be drawn into the ISIS crisis?).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Meet the Israelis behind Google doodles.
IsraDoodle
HONEST REPORTING Defending Israel from Media Bias plz read REGULAR UPDATES - Page 30 IsraDoodle

HONEST REPORTING Defending Israel from Media Bias plz read REGULAR UPDATES - Page 30 IsraDoodle

• Catherine Collins notes the death of David Stoliar, the only survivor of the 1942 Struma disaster.
The Struma was carrying nearly 800 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi-controlled Romania to Mandate-era Palestine. When the Struma’s engine failed, Turkey refused to repair it, leaving the refugees adrift in the Black Sea, where it was sunk by a Soviet submarine.

Images: Featured image CC BY-SA flickr/Garry Knight, Hamas camp via Facebook/Gazacamps2014
For more, see the previous Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

Admin Thu 26 Jun 2014, 8:37 pm

Israel Opposes US Intervention in Iraq
Israel Daily News Stream7 hours ago
IDNS newspaper stack
Today’s Top Stories
1. The Times of Israel picked up on a new poll (pdf format) which found Palestinian support for a two-state solution plummeting.
Marking a notable shift in Palestinian public opinion, 60 percent of the population surveyed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (55% and 68%, respectively) said that the five-year goal “should be to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea,” according to the poll, a position meaning the elimination of Israel.
2. Is the so-called “Israel lobby” leading the US into another war in Iraq against American interests? The latest neo-conservative war drums are giving Stephen Walt a headache. But Jonathan Chait points out that Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu already said for the record that Israel opposes US intervention in Iraq.
How can this be? The answer is that Israel’s primary rival is Iran, and its client Hezbollah, both of which are Shiite. Iran is backing the Iraqi government, which is fighting the Sunni ISIS rebels. Israel may not like ISIS, but it does not want to increase Iran’s power, and aiding the Iranian-backed government in Baghdad would do that. And so the neoconservatives currently demanding American intervention in Iraq are acting not in the service of Israel’s interests but against them. Indeed, Israel was always far more ambivalent about war with Iraq in 2003 than Walt’s crude argument ever allowed.

3. Reuters: Hamas-hired workers went on strike in a dispute over wages. Memo to Hamas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah: In the rest of the world, when two employees are doing the same job, you eliminate the redundancy. The NY Times elaborates on how Palestinian bureaucracy is killing national unity:
Yet underlying that fierce ideological battle is a more basic, bureaucratic one than also endangers the fragile agreement. The Palestinian prime minister insists he does not have enough money to pay both sets of workers and, perhaps more important, cannot risk the wrath of other countries by even funneling donated funds to anyone affiliated with Hamas.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Avigdor Lieberman to John Kerry: Peace with the Palestinians is currently unreachable. Better is to pursue a regional agreement between Israel, moderate Arab states, the Palestinians, and Israeli Arabs. Take your pick of Haaretz or Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Food for thought:
Too many attempts at positive publicity mar Israel’s image
• For more commentary/analysis, see Mudar Zahran (kidnapped Israeli teens — a Palestinian view), and Khaled Abu Toameh (Hamas prepares for war as Abbas talks peace),
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Will ISIS Find Fertile Ground in Egypt’s Sinai?
• Today’s NY Times features a commentary by Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara calling Tony Blair “Israel’s puppy.” It has to do with the Iraqi war and the Palestinians, but methinks Bishara’s barking up the wrong tree. The Washington Post once wondered if Ehud Olmert was auditioning to replace Blair as George W. Bush’s poodle. Woof!
After meeting with Shimon Peres, President Barack Obama promised to have US attorney general Eric Holder look into the possibility of commuting Jonathan Pollard’s sentence. More at the Jerusalem Post.
• Mehdi Nemmouche, who is accused of killing four people in a Brussels Jewish museum, will be extradited to Belgium. BBC coverage.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Ari Shavit (Israel’s new eastern front) and Emily Landau (coming soon: the US-Iran blame game).
Images: CC BY-SA HonestReporting, flickr/Shironeko Euro, flickr/PhotKing
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Wed 25 Jun 2014, 10:36 pm

“Three Young Jewish Settlers”
Featured Media Critiques9 hours ago
eyalgiladnaftali
To most Israelis (not withstanding certain Israeli-Arab MKs) and Jews, Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach are our own children. It matters not where they studied, their level of religiosity, their political views or where they lived.

But for some in the media, the defining element is the three teens’ connection to “settlements” that appears to be more important than the human element of the story.

For a media obsessed with the perceived centrality of settlements to the entire conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, portraying Fraenkel, Shaar and Yifrach as “settlers” comfortably fits their framework. If the three teens are settlers then, ergo, they shouldn’t have been anywhere near the area from which they were taken.

Australian Jews as Jihadists
Featured Media Critiques1 day ago
Australian flag and Israeli flag
The prospect of young Muslims travelling to Iraq and Syria to fight with jihadist groups such as ISIS, before returning home to their countries of citizenship is something that is of mounting concern to many Western governments.

Writing in Brisbane’s Courier Mail, Paul Syvret argues, however, that “Islam does not have a monopoly on hard-line malcontents and all religions and societies tend to breed their own brands of extremist ratbaggery.” On this he may have a point. But lumping Australian Jews serving in the IDF with Al-Qaeda acolytes is utterly misguided:

Or what, for that matter, of the young Jewish Australians who “make Aliyah” with a return to Israel and service in that (foreign) country’s military – an armed force well schooled in bloody regional and religious conflict?

To press home the point, the article includes two news video reports on current IDF operations to bring home three kidnapped Israeli teens despite bearing no relevance whatsoever to the subject matter at hand. An accompanying photo also includes the following caption:

Jewish Australians who serve in Israel’s military, and who may take on duties such as patrolling West Bank streets, like the soldiers above, are spared the criticism levelled against Muslim zealots.
Speaking to HonestReporting, Australian immigrant to Israel and former IDF officer Benji Rutland expressed his disgust:
The comparison between service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and ISIS is based on exactly the sort of bigotry that the author claims to abhor. While one can take issue with Israeli government policy (as many very vocally do) – as in any democracy, the army fulfills that policy while adhering to international norms. On the other hand ISIS is a cruel, bloody organization looking to enforce its extremist religious and ethnic views on all who come under its control.

Service in the IDF is mandatory for all Israeli citizens who also understand the need for Israel to defend themselves. One only need ask how many ex-IDF soldiers have returned to the West and engaged in terror attacks? None. We only need to look at the deadly attack on a synagogue in Belgium a few months ago to see what ex-ISIS personnel are looking to achieve.
You can send your considered comments to the Courier Mail through its Letters to the Editor page.

Starved of Attention, Palestinians End Hunger Strike
Israel Daily News Stream6 hours ago
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. Starved of attention, Palestinian detainees ended their 63-day hunger strike. Palestinian sources told the Times of Israel that the hunger strikers were “primarily primarily motivated by a realization that the issue had faded from the public agenda — presumably because of the kidnapping of three Israeli teens and ensuing IDF crackdown.”
2. As Iraq spirals out of control, YNet reports Jordan’s boosting security cooperation with Israel.
3. France warned its citizens not to invest in Israeli settlements or the Golan Heights. According to Haaretz, “Italy and Spain are expected to publish similar warnings over the next several days” as well.
4. The Committee to Protect Journalists From What? Five days after Palestinian police attacked a CNN crew, why is the Committee to Protect Journalists still silent?
5. “Three young Jewish settlers.” Kidnapped Israeli teenagers are inaccurately portrayed as “settlers” by international media with an agenda.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Khaled Mashaal: Kidnapped boys were soldiers.
Throughout the interview, Mashaal was careful in his attempt to both justify armed resistance and at the same time avoid directly confronting PA President Mahmoud Abbas, his partner in a Palestinian unity government declared June 2.

But the Al-Jazeera interview will make it impossible for Abbas to continue cooperating with Mashaal if Hamas’s involvement in the kidnapping is proved.
• The Times of Israel reports that a misfired Qassam rocket killed a three-year-old Palestinian girl.
• Matthew Levitt shines a spotlight on Hamas’s international finances.
• In a Washington Post Q&A, Shimon Peres discussed the search for the kidnapped teenagers, the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and more. Peres arrives in Washington this week for his last meeting with US officials in a government capacity.
• Over at the Sydney Morning Herald, Ori Avi-Guy, Mark Leibler, and Peter Hartcher all weigh in on the terminology of “occupation.”
• Staff-eds in the NY Post and National Review slam the Presbyterian divestment issue.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Khaled Abu Toameh (new Palestinian intifada — against Abbas), Rabia Chaudry (What a Muslim American Learned From Zionists), Boaz Bismuth (Israeli mothers try to shake an indifferent world), Michael Curtis (British academic bigots and segregation in Gaza), Karni Eldad (confessions of a rightist who hates the wall), and Bernie Farber (Israel is a beacon of LGBTQ hope in a hostile Mideast).
Arab ~~Spring~~ Winter
• Jewish religious sites in Iraq, and various Christian churches, are imperiled by ISIS gains. That’s because ISIS pledged to destroy shrines. Here’s one photo of the group trashing the tomb of Jonah the Prophet, located in Nineveh. ISIS reportedly torched 11 Mosul churches and monasteries in one day.

• The last of Syria’s known chemical weapons components were shipped out of the country for destruction. The next step for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is verification, and the NY Times reports that won’t be easy:
It said that verification work was not complete and reminded the Syrian authorities that they have not yet destroyed — as required — a dozen facilities used for making and mixing the munitions. A separate inquiry by the organization into suspected use of chlorine gas bombs in the conflict is also pending.

Rest O’ the Roundup
• Israeli, US terror victims now “own” Iran’s Internet.
A United States court on Tuesday awarded a group of American and Israeli victims of Iranian terror the rights to the .ir domain, the suffix used to identify Iranian websites, along with all of Iran’s IP addresses.
Internet
• A Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff-ed sees straight through the latest UN idiocy:
Coddle Iran, diss Israel: Another UN crock
• Cool stuff: Futuristic hover cars are coming to Tel Aviv.
• Sydney Morning Herald correspondent Jason Koutsoukis comments on life under Hezbollah scrutiny.
“They don’t think you’re a Mossad agent, but they’ll still be listening to your phone calls for a while.”
(image of internet via WikimediaCommons/Junior Melo)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Wed 25 Jun 2014, 9:33 pm

Mother of Kidnapped Teen to UN: More Can Be Done
Israel Daily News Stream1 day ago
Today’s Top Stories
1. Mother of kidnapped teen to UN: more can be done
Rachel Frenkel, the mother of Naftali Frenkel, one of the three Israeli teens kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, appeared before the UN Human Rights Council to plead for more help finding the three boys. See the video below for her testimony:

UNHRC: Statements by IAJLJ and Rachel Frankel, mother of Naftali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1IV_oEqsS0

2. UN Security Council fails to agree on language to condemn Israel for West Bank operations.
A bid by Arab representatives to the UN Security Council for a statement condemning Israel’s efforts to save its boys from Palestinian kidnappers failed over questions about language.
Diplomats said Jordan insisted that “deploring” wasn’t strong enough and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said the stronger language Jordan proposed went beyond the U.S. “strict red lines.” The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the consultations were closed.

3. Cabinet votes to scale back West Bank operations.
The Times of Israel reports that the greater media scrutiny of the operation was a factor in the move:
The decision came amid raised concerns that the continued IDF crackdown during the Ramadan holiday would spark riots, and in light of increased international scrutiny and criticism of Operation Brother’s Keeper.

4. Australian Jews as Jihadists

5. HR Hosts Inaugural Rooftop Speaker Event

Rest O’ the Roundup

• Last of the known Syrian chemical weapons shipped out of the country to be destroyed. International body overseeing the process, however, warned that the chemical threat from Syria was not over entirely:
The organization, which is helping oversee Syria’s compliance with its chemical disarmament promises, stopped short of pronouncing Syria free of all chemical weapons. It said that verification work was not complete and reminded the Syrian authorities that they have not yet destroyed — as required — a dozen facilities used for making and mixing the munitions. A separate inquiry by the organization into suspected use of chlorine gas bombs in the conflict is also pending.

• Ever since the Australian government announced it would stop using the term “occupied” to describe eastern Jerusalem, it has been on the defensive against Arab officials threatening trade sanctions. But terminology matters when it comes to matters of peace, and an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald explains why:

Avoiding pejorative language acknowledges that competing narratives of the past exist and avoids taking sides so that those different descriptions can be resolved the only way they possibly can be – by direct negotiations between the two sides.

• Israeli Justice Ministry seeking to impose stiffer penalties for stone throwing.
stone-throwing IS AN ACT OF VIOLENCE Don't Let The Media Tell you Otherwise.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Mon 23 Jun 2014, 5:47 pm

Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel strikes Syrian military targets.
The Israeli Air Force launched retaliatory air strikes on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights overnight Sunday, confirming direct hits on nine army positions belonging to the Assad regime — including a regional command center – after a 15-year-old boy was killed earlier Sunday in an attack on the Israeli side.
“The Assad regime now sees that it is responsible for the area under its control,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said. “We will respond aggressively and harshly against any provocation and violation of our sovereignty.”
A Syrian human rights group has claimed that at least ten Syrian soldiers were killed in the airstrikes.
IDFattacksonthreefronts
2. Operation Brother’s Keeper continues.
Thirty-seven Palestinians were arrested by the IDF overnight Sunday, as the West Bank offensive to locate kidnapped teenagers Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frankel, 16, and Gil-ad Shaar, 16, entered its eleventh day. The latest round of arrests brings the total number of detainees since the beginning of the operation to some 361, the army said.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Alan Johnson says that the kidnapping has brought the Palestinian national movement to a crossroads:
Two very different roads now lie before the Palestinian people. One is favoured by President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces are working with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) to find the boys. This road leads to the eventual resumption of the negotiations led by US Secretary of State John Kerry, a historic compromise, painful mutual recognition, Palestinian statehood and peace. In other words two states for two peoples.
The other road, signposted “resistance”, is that being taken by the kidnappers, the unreconstructed radical Islamists of Hamas. And it goes nowhere.
As so-called human rights organizations accuse Israel of violating international law by carrying out collective punishment on the Palestinian population, legal experts disagree:
According to [Robbie] Sabel, the former Foreign Ministry legal adviser, Israel’s actions in the West Bank cannot be considered collective punishment as, he said, they were aimed exclusively at finding the kidnapped teenagers and weakening the terrorist organizations behind their abduction.
“It’s true that not everyone who was arrested is directly responsibly for the kidnapping. But the only people who were arrested are involved in Hamas, or were released in the Gilad Shalit deal and have since violated the terms of the release,” he said. In searching for kidnapped civilians, apprehending members affiliated with the organization responsible for the kidnapping is legitimate, he argued.
And lest we forget the primary reason for Israel’s operation, the Washington Post interviews Racheli Fraenkel, mother of one of the kidnapped teens, which also includes the following video:

3. Netanyahu urges U.S. not to work with Iran to stabilize Iraq.
PM Netanyahu believes that the U.S. should try to weaken both Iran and the Sunni Muslim insurgents currently threatening Baghdad:
“What you’re seeing in the Middle East today in Iraq and in Syria is the stark hatreds between radical Shi’ites, in this case led by Iran, and radical Sunnis led by al Qaeda and ISIS and others,” Netanyahu told the NBC program “Meet the Press,” referring to the group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
“Now, both of these camps are enemies of the United States. And when your enemies are fighting each other, don’t strengthen either one of them. Weaken both,” Netanyahu added.
4. Join HonestReporting’s Facebook page dedicated to Fighting BDS and take a stand against the delegitimization of Israel.
Blankfeld Award
Rest O’ the Roundup
• The killer of Baruch Mizrahi, the senior Israeli police officer killed Passover eve near Hebron, was a Palestinian released in the prisoner exchange deal which saw Gilad Shalit freed in 2011 in return for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, it was cleared for publication Monday.
• The divestment vote by the Presbyterian Church is straining ties with the Jewish community. Kudos though to two CNN anchors who ripped a Presbyterian official over the BDS vote:
• Arguments over the Australian government’s decision not to refer to the Palestinian territories and eastern Jerusalem as “occupied” rumbles on. The Australian newspaper’s editorial criticizes the Green Party for its role in the dispute:
In the volatile atmospherics of Middle East politics, semantics do matter. But in this instance it is clear the hysteria is misplaced. Australia has not changed its stance on East Jerusalem and the Islamic world should not be misled into believing it has. The Greens’ attempt to stir the pot is as transparent as it is mischievous and should be seen as such.
Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Mark Liebler argues that Australia should stay out of the Middle East’s “semantic games”:
The Palestinians and their Arab allies want everyone to endorse their proffered language of “occupation” because it implies that all the land is already rightfully theirs, and they should not have to compromise on make or break issues like the claimed right of return, or meet Israel’s security needs, or agree to a final peace with Israel in order to get it back. They have used their overwhelming numbers at the UN General Assembly, which the Arab and Islamic states dominate via the Non-Aligned movement, to repeatedly endorse their preferred language.
These decisions are politicised and anyway, not legally binding. However, they have been distinctly destructive of peace hopes – with Palestinian leaders often promoting paper endorsements of their position at the UN rather than engaging in the difficult decisions and compromises required in negotiations.
As Ambassador Sharma noted, it is simple common sense for Australia to avoid becoming involved in such semantic games.
• The Israel Police have told the Israeli Attorney-General that there is sufficient evidence to begin investigating MK Haneen Zoabi for incitement after she said the kidnapping of three Israeli teens was not terrorism.
• An Egyptian court has convicted three journalists from Al-Jazeera English and sentenced them to seven years in prison each on terrorism-related charges, bringing widespread criticism that the verdict was a blow to freedom of expression.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Sun 22 Jun 2014, 5:52 pm

Teen Killed in Attack from Syria
Israel Daily News Stream3 hours ago
Today’s Top Stories
1. Israeli teen killed in attack from Syria.
An Israeli teen from the Galilee was killed and two others, including the boy’s father, were injured in an explosion on Israel’s side of the border with Syria. It was the first fatality inside Israeli territory emanating from the civil war in Syria. The boy was reportedly accompanying his father, a defense contractor, to work.
Israeli tanks fired back immediately.
2. Netanyahu begins sharing evidence of Hamas involvement in kidnapping of teens.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has hard evidence that Hamas is behind the kidnapping of three Israeli teens, and has begun sharing it with several countries before preparing to release it to the public.
Additional coverage of the kidnapping included an article by Richard Behar in Forbes about his contact with the father of one of the kidnapped teens, and a sympathetic story by the New York Times’ Jodi Rudoren profiling Sherri Mandell, whose son Koby was killed by Palestinian terrorists when he was 13 years old. But Rudoren can’t let go of “the settlements” as a vital reference point:
There were so many connections. Like Koby, one of the three missing now is a citizen of both Israel and the United States. Ms. Mandell’s second son graduated from the prestigious Mekor Haim yeshiva, where two of the three were students; her future son-in-law teaches there. If only these three boys had not hitchhiked in occupied Palestinian territory — if only Koby and his friend, Yosef Ishran, had not ditched school to go hiking in the canyon behind their West Bank homes.
Meanwhile, a senior Fatah leader said a strong majority of Palestinians support the kidnapping if the goal is to exchange the teens for Palestinian prisoners. Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Alan Johnson said the time has come to stop treating the Palestinians as children who are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves:
Yet, despite all this whooping and cheering about the trauma and possible death of Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, the Palestinians will likely pay a very small price in the international community or global public opinion. Why?
3. Presbyterian Church narrowly passes divestment vote.
In a vote of 310-303, the Presbyterian Church decided to divest holdings of $21 million from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions due to their affiliation with Israel. According to CNN, the church made it clear that the decision was not a sign of support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Sources familiar with the decision, however, issued statements that appeared to support the aims of the movement:
The top Presbyterian legislative body has been considering divestment for a decade. Representatives of the Presbyterian socially responsible investment arm told the national meeting in Detroit that their efforts to lobby the three companies for change had failed. Carol Hylkema of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, a Presbyterian group that advocates for Palestinians and spearheaded the drive for divestment, said their action was modeled on the divestment movement to end apartheid in South Africa. The 2012 assembly had endorsed a boycott of Israeli products made in the Palestinian territories.
4. Join HonestReporting’s Facebook page dedicated to Fighting BDS and take a stand against the delegitimization of Israel.

Rest O’ the Roundup
• Twisted headline of the Day from the AFP:
The headline not only gives the impression Israel is trying to intimidate a UN representative but also leaves out the fact that he is allegedly trying to funnel money to Hamas:
Avigdor Lieberman said Robert Serry, the world body’s special envoy on the Middle East peace process, had first tried to convince the Palestinian Authority (PA) to transfer $20 million (14.7 million euros) from Qatar to resolve a pay crisis for Hamas employees in Gaza.
But after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas refused to do so, the rightwing ultra-nationalist Lieberman charged, Serry proposed UN help in making the transfer, the broadcaster reported.
Serry’s spokesman Murad Bakri told AFP it was the PA that approached the UN envoy over the issue, and insisted that no decision would be taken without Israeli agreement.

For more, see Thursday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Fri 20 Jun 2014, 9:52 am

Operation Brother’s Keeper Continues; Gaza Rockets Hit Southern Israel
Today’s Top Stories
1. Operation Brother’s Keeper continues efforts to find kidnapped teens.
30 more Hamas men arrested by IDF early Thursday; approximately 100 locations searched; confrontations between IDF forces and Palestinian stone throwers in Jenin and Nablus.
The latest developments on Day 7 of the operation here.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-arrests-dozens-of-hamas-men-across-west-bank/
The IDF has produced a video on the Horrific History of Hamas Kidnappings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOho37Riits

2.14min video

More here on how Hamas leaders glorify kidnapping of Israelis.
http://www.idfblog.com/2014/06/18/hamas-leaders-glorify-kidnapping-israelis/

2. Gaza rocket hits home in southern Israel. A rocket struck a home in a kibbutz in the Sha’ar HaNegev region outside Gaza on Wednesday. The projectile caused some damage, but no injuries were reported. A second projectile also launched out of Gaza landed in an open area in the same region. In response, an “IAF aircraft targeted a terror activity site, a terror infrastructure site and a concealed rocket launcher in the northern Gaza Strip and two terror activity sites in the central Gaza Strip,”the IDF said in a statement.

3. Israel to vice-chair UN committee on Palestinian refugees. Israel overcame a coordinated effort by Arab states on Wednesday to thwart its appointment as vice chair of a UN committee dealing with issues such as Palestinian refugees and human rights, and will serve in that capacity at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly.

Rest O’ the Roundup •
Abysmal headline of the day goes to The Times of London for implying that Israel’s operations to rescue its three kidnapped teens are actually retaliatory acts: Uri Lupolianski •
Former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment Thursday and fined half a million shekels ($145,000) for accepting bribes in the Holyland affair. • David Rosenberg explains why the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a colossal flop in Haaretz: It
"It looks like good times again for the boycott, sanctions, divestment movement. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is again voting on whether to impose sanctions, Sinead O’Connor may or may not be cancelling a performance in Israel and Bill Gates sold his shares in G4S, a European security company that provides equipment to Israeli prisons.
Even a loss for BDS like the vote of the Modern Language Association, an important U.S. academic group, can be seen as a victory of sorts. A resolution asking the State Department to pressure Israel to freely allow overseas Palestinian academics into the West Bank failed to muster the minimum percentage of votes needed to pass, but the movement did succeed in getting the issue on the agenda and a majority of votes were cast in favor.
As usual, however, with BDS appearances are deceiving. As The Financial Times wrote in a June 14 article “Orchestrated boycott of Israeli companies falter, ” the last wave of supposed BDS achievements last winter turned out to be a lot about nothing. Here is why this one will end up being the same.

• Met Opera cancels simulcast of Death of Klinghoffer following concern over potential anti-Semitism.
For more, see Yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
http://honestreporting.com/israel-daily-news-stream-06182014/

Admin Thu 19 Jun 2014, 7:49 pm

Israel Re-Arrests 50 Palestinians Freed in Shalit Deal
Today’s Top Stories
1. Israeli forces arrested more Palestinians affiliated with Hamas, including 50 previously released in the exchange for Gilad Shalit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the arrests were meant as a statement to Hamas.
Israel wants to make clear to Hamas it will pay a high price for the abduction. Netanyahu was swift to praise the latest arrests, which brought the total number of those detained to 240.
“The operation tonight in which Hamas terrorists were arrested, including some who had been freed in exchange for the return of Gilad Shalit, is a component with an important message in a series of many actions,” he said in a statement.
The message seems to have reached PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who is calling for the release of the Israeli teens.
But by expanding the IDF’s mission beyond purely working to find the kidnapped teens, the door opens for cynical headlines like the one below from the LA Times, suggesting Israel is exploiting the kidnapping for ulterior motives.
headlineLATimes
2. Arab MK Hanin Zoabi continues to deny kidnappers are terrorists.

Radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, who made waves this week for saying the kidnappers were not terrorists, is digging in her heels, refusing to apologize, and blaming Israel for creating a “context of occupation.”
Not surprisingly, Hamas issued a statement of support for Zoabi:
“We in Hamas bless Hanin Zoabi for standing her ground,” a spokesman for the terror organization said, “and we hope that the leadership of the Palestinian Authority will follow her example in supporting the homeland, citizens, and the Palestinian problem rather than the disappearance of soldiers, or boasting about security coordination” with Israel.
Labor leader Yitzchak Herzog sent Zoabi an open letter chiding her for complicating relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel:
“Yesterday, at the height of the operation to bring back the boys, you decided to say obscene words encouraging kidnapping,” Herzog wrote. “These statements harm peace and coexistence no less than any ‘Price Tag’ act.”
3. A new low? Palestinians feature children in photos giving the “three finger salute” celebrating the kidnapping.
The three fingers represent “three Shalits,” in reference to Gilad Shalit, the Israeli kidnap victim who was ultimately bartered for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
3-Fingered-Salutes
4.Kidnapping of Israeli Teens: Accurate Media Coverage?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3imADbVc34
Rest O’ the Roundup
• UN Watch director Hillel Neuer wonders why Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth refuses to issue an unequivocal condemnation of the kidnapping.
• Another problematic headline from the Daily Mail:
HeadlineMirror
The word kidnapped is in quotes to denote suspicion, but the emphasis is clearly on the “injustice” of home searches in the quest to find the teens. Of course, if they were set free, there would be no more searches and no more “trashed” homes.
• Court rules against Mordechai Vanunu in bid to lift travel ban.
For more, see Yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Wed 18 Jun 2014, 9:24 am

Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel applying heavy pressure on Hamas over kidnapped teens.
IDF forces have seized weapons hidden in Hamas strongholds as house-to-house searches for three kidnapped teens continue.
Weapons seized by the IDF in Judea and Samaria.
Israeli officials also announced plans to toughen conditions on Hamas prisoners serving time in Israeli jails. They also said Israel is putting diplomatic pressure on Hamas:
The official said that in addition to the main operational goal, which is to bring the three kidnapped teens back to their families, Israel is also currently engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts to delegitimize the unity pact between Hamas and Fatah.
As part of this campaign, government officials are emphasizing the constant drumbeat of incitement in the Palestinian Authority’s official media and educational system against Israel, including calls for and encouragement of the kidnapping of Israelis.
eyalgiladnaftali
2. Arab MK: Kidnappers are not terrorists.
Hanin Zoabi
MK Hanin Zoabi, a radical member of the Arab Balad party came out in support of terrorists who kidnapped three Israeli teens. Her exchange with Yesh Atid MK Aliza Lavie reveals much of the substance of her position:
Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women chairwoman Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) asked Zoabi in a committee meeting: “How are [the kidnappers] not terrorists?”
“Shut up, you don’t deserve to be a committee chairwoman. Are you policewoman? You are a racist,” Zoabi shouted in response.
Zoabi also made news for her comments against a 17-year-old relative who recorded a video blasting the Palestinians for the kidnapping and demanding the release of teens. The video has been seen by more than 25,000 people.
“I am happy to see that Israeli hasbara [public diplomacy] is in such a dire state that it needs a stupid boy with a twisted identity who feels a continuous need to apologize to his strong masters,” Zoabi told Ynet.
3. Australia moves to diffuse crisis with Arabs over terminology.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she will not use the term “occupied” or “disputed” to describe eastern Jerusalem. She’ll simply call the area “East Jerusalem”:
Bishop repeatedly refused to use the term “occupied” during the interview, saying: “I am not getting into that debate. I call it East Jerusalem, you can’t force me to call it something … if that is a geographic name that is its name.”

4. For the New York Times, it’s the Palestinians who are Suffering
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Five days after kidnapping, EU finally issues statement of condemnation.

• Sinead O’Connor says she’d like to boycott Israel but can’t afford the price.
Controversial singer says she was not aware of boycott call before scheduling show, but legal costs of pulling out may be prohibitive.
For more, see Yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Tue 17 Jun 2014, 12:16 pm

Sky News: It All Started When Israel Went Looking for its Boys
Skewed News

According to Sky News, it isn't the kidnapping that sparked the crisis but Israel's response.

Possibly some of the most cynical and downright ugly reporting on the kidnapping of three Israeli teens has come from Sky News. First the headline:
skynews160614
So according to this logic, it isn’t the kidnapping of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel that has sparked this crisis but Israel’s response. It all started when Israel went looking for its boys.
But this is only the beginning. The rest of Tom Rayner’s article cynically accuses the government of Benjamin Netanyahu of using the kidnapping to further its own political ends vis-a-vis Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Of course the kidnapping cannot be separated from the wider political situation. Rayner, however, appears to whitewash the nature of Hamas.
"By taking out the Hamas leadership, through arrests in the West Bank, and through airstrikes in Gaza, they [the IDF] are pursuing two goals.
The first, to strike a blow at the organisation’s ability to operate and emphasise its ‘terrorist’ character by the de-facto criminalisation of its detained members.
Airstrikes in Gaza over recent days have occurred as a direct response to Palestinian rockets fired at civilian targets. And rather than “taking out the Hamas leadership,” these airstrikes have targeted terrorist infrastructure sites rather than terrorist individuals from Hamas or any other terror organization.
As for “de-facto criminalisation” of detained Hamas members, what more does Rayner want to prove Hamas criminality or its “‘terrorist’ character?” Are suicide bombings, rocket and shooting attacks, not to mention kidnappings, not enough?
Furthermore, according to Rayner:

Making Hamas pay for a crime they’ve been accused of may make sense in the Israeli mind-set, but unleashing military force on a political organisation inevitably impacts the lives of civilians living in and around them.

Unleashing military force on a political organization?! From this description, Rayner would have you believe that Israel has been targeting peaceful members of a human rights group rather than a terror organization. Perhaps some of those arrested may not wield the guns or build the bombs but this does not mean that Hamas apparatchiks are wholly innocent bystanders.
From interviews with Palestinians protesting their innocence, to the description of the “illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba” with no qualifying statement, the accompanying video (the second video box on the right-hand column of the Sky News page) makes it clear where Rayner’s sympathies lie.
Indeed, throughout his report, Rayner has forgotten the most important part of this crisis – three Israeli boys have been kidnapped and the IDF is doing everything in its power to bring them home.
You can send your considered comments to Sky News – news@sky.com

Admin Sun 15 Jun 2014, 7:36 pm

Israeli Teens Kidnapped by Hamas
3 hours ago
Today’s Top Stories
1. Israeli Teens Kidnapped by Hamas.
As the search continues for Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frenkel, and Gilad Shaar, missing since Thursday night, PM Netanyahu has stated that Hamas is responsible despite the terror organization’s denials:
Hamas denials do not change this fact. And this attack should surprise no one because Hamas makes no secret of its agenda. Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and to carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians – including children.
Israel has significantly increased its security presence in Hebron on Sunday afternoon as a closure was imposed on the city, where the IDF has concentrated its efforts to hunt down the terrorists. Over 80 Palestinians, including a number of senior Hamas officials, were taken into Israeli custody overnight Saturday. More coverage in The Times of Israel.
eyalgiladnaftali
Some media were more concerned about the issue of settlements and even hitchhiking. See HonestReporting’s latest communique – Kidnapped Israeli Teens: The Worst Coverage.
Meanwhile, the New York Times chose to focus on the crisis within the context of Israel’s relations with the Palestinian Authority and the PA’s own strains with Hamas, it’s new government partner.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has vowed no more prisoner swaps.
So far unreported in the foreign press: Palestinian Media Watch reports on PA and Fatah websites celebrating the abduction of the three Israeli teens while the Israellycool blog documents photos of Palestinians distributing candies in celebration.
2. Australian trade minister: Arab anger over change in language is over-reaction.
Last week Australian officials announced they would stop using the term “occupied” to describe eastern Jerusalem. Trade Minister Andrew Robb said the change in language did not reflect a change in policy regarding Israel.
“I think there was a misunderstanding or an overreaction in lots of ways about what was being said. Our position on Israel has not changed one iota,” he said on Sky News.
“There are lots of different settlements but the ones particularly in East Jerusalem, they have been a matter of clear dispute for a long, long time. That is the description that seems most fitting for those.”
3. Palestinian professor stands by visit to Auschwitz with students.
4.What CNN Thinks is Hurting “Peace Efforts”

Rest O’ the Roundup
• Nuclear whistle-blower Vanunu petitions state to lift travel ban.
• Presbytarians close to key divestment vote.
The Presbyterian General Assembly, gathering in Detroit through next week, will consider withdrawing its investments from some companies whose products are used by the Israeli government in the Palestinian territories. Divestment advocates were narrowly outmaneuvered at the last Presbyterian convention in 2012, losing a crucial ballot by just two votes. They enter this year’s fight with signs of increasing momentum, within and outside the church.
• With all the news about the kidnapping, did people realize there was a missile strike near Ashkelon?
For more, see Thursday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Sun 15 Jun 2014, 5:16 pm

Kidnapped Israeli Teens: The Worst Coverage
Featured Media Critiques & Resources2 hours ago
BringBackOurBoys
The terrorist kidnapping of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, a dual Israeli-American citizen has led to some problematic reporting. Here, we roundup some of the worst cases so far.
Dehumanizing Israeli Teens
The Guardian’s initial coverage succeeded in dehumanizing the three Israeli teens:
guardian130614
guardian2006According to The Guardian:
Israeli security forces have launched a mass search of the Hebron hills after three teenage settlers, one believed to be a US citizen, were reported missing amid fears they may gave been kidnapped by a Palestinian group.
In The Guardian’s worldview, far better to portray Yifrach, Shaar and Frenkel as “settlers” and political actors rather than Israeli kids trying to get home from class. This emphasis excuses the actions of Palestinian terrorists and attempts to ‘understand’ why they should wish to carry out a kidnapping, which now becomes the fault of the victims rather than the terrorists.
A later report included the following, which HonestReporting, after contacting The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Peter Beaumont, was able to get amended:
guardian150614
As pointed out to Beaumont, the three teenagers did not live in “settlements in the southern West Bank.” Both Yifrach who hails from Elad near Petah Tikva, and Frenkel who lives in Nof Ayalon near Modi’in, do not live in settlements. Shaar lives in the settlement of Talmon, which is not, however, located in the southern area of the West Bank.
The inaccurate line has now been removed.
It’s All About the Settlements
cnn-logoCNN, meanwhile, felt it necessary to add the following closing paragraphs in order to (unnecessarily) stress the centrality of settlements in the story:
The deployment of military assets to search for the teens, and the swift presumption of kidnapping, are a reflection of the tensions that exist between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank.
The expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank has been a lasting point of contention in the region.
It has altered the map of the Palestinian territories, making it more difficult to draw a contiguous Palestinian state as part of any peace agreement, according to critics.
The highly contentious issue of Israeli construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians seek for a future state, has hurt peace efforts.

skynews_footer_logoSky News made sure to stress the “illegality” of the entire area of Gush Etzion:
"The trio, one of whom is understood to be a US citizen, are students at a Yeshiva, or religious school, in Gush Etzion, a Jewish settlement bloc in the West Bank, deemed illegal under international law.

A correct assessment of the status of Gush Etzion would have stated that this is but one interpretation of international law and certainly not one accepted by Israel.
Why Were They Hitchhiking?
Christian-Science-MonitorThe Christian Science Monitor takes an altogether different angle on the story and asks “Why were kidnapped Israeli teens hitchhiking in the West Bank?”
No one is questioning why they were hitchhiking late at night on a highway frequented by many Palestinians.
Shouldn’t the CSM be questioning the morality of kidnapping rather than focusing on hitchhiking? Not if you read this paragraph from the article:
With Israel’s track record of releasing Palestinian prisoners for kidnapped soldiers, such as the swap of 1,027 prisoners for Sgt. Gilad Shalit in 2011, many Palestinians advocate the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers or civilians as bargaining chips for justice.

“Bargaining chips for justice”?! There is no justice in swapping Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli jails for kidnapped Israelis coming home from school.
Keep your eyes open for slanted coverage in your local media of this developing story and let HonestReporting know through our Red Alert contact page.

Admin Thu 12 Jun 2014, 8:50 pm

Israel Daily News Stream 06/12/2014
IDNS readers, welcome to HonestReporting’s redesigned web site. We overhauled everything to give you a cleaner look, superior mobile-optimization, streamlined commenting, and sharing options, more efficient searching, smoother navigation, and more. Find out more here.
So give our site a look-see and send your feedback to action@honestreporting.com or HonestReporting on Facebook.
Of course, the Israel Daily News Stream will continue to be everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast. And if you haven’t already done so, join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Today’s Top Stories
1. At odds with Israel, the US doesn’t accept that Mahmoud Abbas should be held responsible for yesterday’s rocket fire from Gaza. Isn’t this the same logic that empowers Hezbollah? The Jerusalem Post writes:
“We feel President Abbas needs to do everything possible to prevent them, we understand that his ability to do that is severely limited at this point in time,” Psaki said.
An Israeli retaliatory airstrike killed Mahmed Awwar, a Salafist member of the Hamas security forces involved in a number of rocket attacks.
2. Australian Ambassador Dave Sharma to Tablet: We don’t really consider the West Bank “occupied” either:
In other words, Australia’s policy is not intended to endorse one side over the other, but rather to maintain neutrality and avoid prejudging the outcome of negotiations. As Israel considers Jerusalem to be sovereign Israeli territory annexed in 1967, while the Palestinians consider East Jerusalem to be occupied Palestinian territory, Australia is opting to employ language that endorses neither party’s claim. Similarly, by avoiding adjectives when it comes to the West Bank, Australia sidesteps the question of whether the area is “disputed” or “occupied” territory. In fact, the country maintains a similar policy in other territorial conflicts like those over Western Sahara and East Timor.
3. Iraq collapsing as Islamist insurgents moving towards Baghdad face little resistance. According to the Washington Post:
The stunning speed with which the rout has unfolded in northern Iraq has raised deep doubts about the capacity of U.S. -trained Iraqi security forces, and it has also kindled fears about the government’s grip on the capital itself.
Could trouble from ISIS be getting closer to Israel? Khaled Abu Toameh reports on an ISIS threat to invade Jordan and “slaughter” King Abdullah.
If you’re not familiar with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), or its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, see the Sydney Morning Herald‘s backgrounder.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israel’s bowing to European pressure and quietly freezing previously announced settlement expansion plans. Details at Haaretz.
• Maan News: A joint Israeli-Palestinian autopsy concludes that Nadim Nurawa was killed by a live bullet during a Nakba Day clash in Beitunia.
• Forget the World Cup kicking off in Brazil today. Soccer’s a political football:
FIFA calls on Israel to ease travel restrictions for Palestinian soccer players
Arrested Palestinian player was Hamas courier
• Saeb Erekat says leaked tapes of him criticizing Mahmoud Abbas were taken out of context. What context would put the Palestinian negotiator in a better light vis a vis his boss?
In the tapes, Erekat allegedly accuses Abbas of having “soft” policies and blames him for not standing up for Palestinians against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
He also said that Abbas is weak for not further pursuing the joining of more UN organizations. He claims that if Abbas were to pursue the action, Netanyahu would be recognized in court as a “war criminal.”
• See Dry Bones‘ cute take on media coverage of Ruby Rivlin, who was elected to succeed Shimon Peres as Israel’s president.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• For years, Big Media’s been morally ambiguous about describing terror as terror. For years, Palestinian suicide attacks, shootings, car bombs etc., have been carried out by people the press describes as militants, extremists, and activists. The Washington Post notes that the news industry’s not referring to Sunday’s Las Vegas rampage as terror, though it seems to fit the bill. American Islamic organizations are — perhaps justifiably — upset.
“There’s absolutely a double standard, and it needs to be called out,” said Arsalan Iftikhar, a senior editor of the Islamic Monthly. “Whenever a white person engages in violence they’re considered crazy lunatics, but when a brown Muslim does it, it’s an act of terrorism. Since 9/11, the media is quick to jump on anything an Arab or Muslim does, but it takes a much more deliberative approach when it’s a white person.”
News organizations, including The Post, say they are reluctant to call anyone a terrorist unless officials do so first.
Hmmmm. Israeli officials have been using the T-word for years, but I can’t say the Post has consistently used it.
• Israeli drone helps Brazil catch fugitive drug lord

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Thu 12 Jun 2014, 7:48 am

Abbas Seeks UN Intervention For Hunger-Striking Prisoners
JUNE 11, 2014 14:51
BY PESACH BENSON
Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel holds Mahmoud Abbas responsible for a Gaza rocket that landed in southern Israel this morning. Abbas, for his part, offered a condemnation.
2. The family of Nadim Nuwara told Haaretz it’s willing to exhume his body in cooperation with Israeli officials to prove the teenager was killed by live fire during Nakba Day clashes in Beitunia.
The family has received a religious ruling from the Palestinian mufti allowing the exhumation.
The body will then be transferred to the Palestinian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Dis. The autopsy will be overseen by Dr. Saber Al-Aloul, the head of the institute, as well as a representative from the Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir, and American, Danish and Portuguese pathologists.

3. As a Palestinian detainees enter the second month of a hunger strike, Haaretz reports that Mahmoud Abbas has formally appealed for UN intervention.
4. Watchdog of the Week: The Flavor of Biased Journalism: An HonestReporting reader prompts the NY Times to change a headline.
5. Hamas, the “Political Organization”: A Daily Mail photo essay depicts Hamas as a terror organization. So why the morally ambiguous captions?
Israel and the Palestinians
• Gaza banks are gradually reopening. Hamas security forces forcibly shut down Gaza’s banks in a dispute with Fatah over salaries for civil service employees. See Maan News‘ update. Meanwhile, the Fatah official in charge of reconciliation talks with Hamas, Azzam Al-Ahmad, told reporters that the PA doesn’t control Gaza — yet. No kidding . . .
• Here’s a selection of articles to help you get a better handle on Israel’s next president, Rubi Rivlin:
8 things you should know about Israel’s next president
A president who opposes a Palestinian state — bad for Israel?
US officials signal readiness to work with Rivlin
President Rivlin, less foreign stardust, more domestic glue
Nir Barkat
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat
• While visiting Canada, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat sat down with the National Post and shared his thoughts on efforts to divide the city.
“On the practical side, you cannot show me one example of a city that was split that ever functioned,” he said.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Alan Dershowitz (why BDS is a long-term strategic threat) and Jeff Jacoby (Palestinians must accept Jews as neighbors), and Elliott Abrams (it’s not a Hamas government — yet).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Meet Li Fangwei, Tehran’s Chinese missile man.
• What’s to keeps Iran from running amok on the day after a nuke deal?

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Tue 10 Jun 2014, 9:44 pm

Rubi Rivlin Elected Israel’s Next President
JUNE 10, 2014 16:00
BY PESACH BENSON
Today’s Top Stories
1. The Knesset elected Reuven “Rubi” Rivlin as Israel’s next president. He’ll succeed Shimon Peres, whose term ends in July. See Jerusalem Post coverage of the vote, and YNet‘s backgrounder on Rivlin’s political history. Meanwhile, the NY Times looks at what’s next for the 90-year-old Peres.
Rubi Rivlin at today’s Knesset vote.
2. Hamas calls on West Bank members to kill soldiers and settlers.
Badran’s comments came a week after the swearing in of a Palestinian unity government in Ramallah, endorsed by the US and the EU.
3. Reconciliation, Palestinian style: PA forces broke up a Hamas rally in West Bank, beating up protesters in the process. AP coverage. Reuters looks at other disunity issues.

4. “Militant” Jews Dance and Pray: If “militant” Jews dance and pray, what do Palestinian “militants” have to do to be called terrorists by the AFP?
5. Media Double Whammy for BDS: Critical commentaries in New York and London blast BDS.

Israel and the Palestinians
• According to Israeli security officials, Hamas plans to exploit West Bank’s charities.
• Shimon Peres discussed the peace process in a Wall St. Journal Q+A.
• Haaretz: As Israel cuts defense budget, US senators question aid.
• Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is due to leave Israel for a 10-day visit to Africa. According to AFP, the main goal of the trip is to procure observer membership in the African Union. Lieberman will be accompanied by a delegation of businessmen as he stops in Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia.
• BDS? Some Australian academics get it:
Mr McCulloch is understood to have told the closed-door meeting that launching a debate about the BDS campaign would prove divisive at a time when the union needed unity to fight immediate issues like federal budget cuts.
He suggested supporters of BDS were really pushing a radical “one state” outcome in the Middle East.
Roger Cohen
• BDS? NY Times columnist Roger Cohen gets it:
The stated aim of the B.D.S. movement is in fact to end the occupation, recognize the rights of Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, and fight for the right of return of all Palestinian refugees. The first objective is essential to Israel’s future. The second is laudable. The third, combined with the second, equals the end of Israel as a Jewish state. This is the hidden agenda of B.D.S., its unacceptable subterfuge, and the reason I do not trust it.
B.D.S. can too easily be commandeered by anti-Semites posing as anti-Zionists who channel the quest for peace in a direction that ultimately dooms Israel as a national home for Jews.
• BDS? Jake Wallis Simons and the PA get it:
But it appears that the Palestinian leadership views BDS activists as little more than embarrassing troublemakers, and wishes to suppress them.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Khaled Abu Toameh (will the West fund Hamas?) and Philip Mendes (The Jews and the Left: The Death of a Political Alliance).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Nice CNN look at what’s behind the success of Israeli hi-tech start ups.
• Can you imagine the headlines if this happened in Israel?
Six-year-old boy hit in eye by tear gas canister while ‘looking out of window’
• Israel won’t be playing on the pitch, but there’s plenty of blue and white behind the scenes at Brazil’s World Cup — especially with security and upgrading wireless infrastructure. Jerusalem Post coverage.
(Image of Rivlin via YouTube/AFP)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Sun 08 Jun 2014, 10:55 pm

Bibi Eyeing Unilateral Withdrawal?
JUNE 8, 2014 14:58
BY PESACH BENSON
Today’s Top Stories
1. Is Bibi eyeing some kind of unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank? Comments reported in the Israeli media are stirring considerable buzz:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu left Knesset members in shock this past Monday by suggesting that Israel would have to “separate” from the Palestinians, according to a report which appears in Friday editions of the nationalist-religious newspaper Makor Rishon.
According to the report, which was written by the newspaper’s political commentator, Ze’ev Kam, Netanyahu told lawmakers serving on the prestigious Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that for Israel to maintain its Jewish character, it would have to reach “a separation from the Palestinians.”
Kam quotes unnamed members of Knesset who were present at the meeting as saying that Netanyahu left some of them “stunned,” since they could not recall the premier ever using the word “separation.”
Palestinian unity2. Palestinian unity — some assembly required:
Gaza banks still closed as unity gov’t financial dispute deepens
Justice for Hamas, Fatah victims costly, elusive
Hamas-Fatah honeymoon’s over
See also the Wall St. Journal (via Google News).

3. Professor Mohammed Dajani — the Al-Quds University professor who angered a lot of Palestinians by bringing a group of students — resigned under escalating pressure. Haaretz got fresh quotes:
Professor Dajani told Haaretz he felt he had no choice after the university authorities refused to back up their private assurances with a display of public support after what he described as a campaign of “incitement” against him from some members of the university faculty . . .
“I put my job on the line to expose the double-talk we live,” Dajani told Haaretz. “We say something and do the opposite. We say we are for democracy and we practice autocracy, we say we are for freedom of speech and academic freedom, yet we deny people to practice it.”
4. The Economist Sugarcoats Hamas Terror: Isn’t it time for Big Media to deal with reality instead of sugarcoating terrorism?
See Thursday’s Israel Daily News Stream for important news and commentary you might have missed over the Shavuot holiday.
Israel and the Palestinians
• As this roundup went to press, Shimon Peres arrived in Rome for today’s prayer meeting with Pope Francis, Mahmoud Abbas, and other religious leaders. See Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel coverage.
• The PA seeks wider Arab reprisals against Australia after Canberra refused to refer to eastern Jerusalem as “occupied.”
“Palestine will request that the Arab League and the Islamic Conference [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] review the relations of the Arab and Islamic world with Australia . . .
UCU• The world’s largest academic union, the UK’s University and College Union (UCU), is sending a delegation to Gaza to “view the effects of the Israeli blockade” in liason with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. And according to the Times Higher Education journal, the moving is sparking criticism within the union:
“We are ignoring clear safety advice issued by the FCO, and we will struggle to get travel insurance,” Ms Phillips said. “I also don’t know how we can justify spending thousands of pounds of members’ funds on this trip when we have so many major disputes and battles to fight [nearer to home],” she added.
• Keeping with The Guardian’s activist journalism mind-set, correspondent Peter Beaumont printed extracts from Breaking the Silence’s 10th anniversary celebration: a 10-hour recitation of “soldiers’ stories.”
This was published in paper’s Sunday edition, The Observer. Breaking the Silence is a political organization opposed to the “occupation,” whose soldiers’ “testimonies” get plenty of media play. The accounts have been debunked as based on rumors and hearsay, so fact-checking Breaking the Silence is certainly warranted. But that would spoil the mood The Guardian’s trying to create . . .
• I wonder if AFP‘s style guide officially refers to Harlem as “Black north Manhattan” too:
Israel’s army seized the West Bank, including Arab east Jerusalem, in the Six-Day War of 1967.
• The International Business Times appears to have taken down an article over a headline went a step too far on torture. But the IBT left footprints on Yahoo News (cached) and Twitter (the tweet links to News Locker). Go figure:
International Business Times
• Today’s feelgood story is courtesy the Montreal Gazette: Israel’s achievements in science deserve some attention.
• For commentary/analysis, see a the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (the UN’s Israel-bashing “rights” charade), NY Times staff-ed (Israeli-Palestinian collision course), Zvi Barel (the US embrace of the Palestinian unity government), Avi Issacharoff (nobody to talk to), Boaz Bismuth (was Bibi right all along?) Dror Eydar (it’s time to stop apologizing), and Ben-Dror Yemini (Abbas’ diplomatic victory).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Openness on Israeli Issues Seen in Survey of Iranians
Yet perhaps the most surprising detail about the poll was that it was conducted by Israelis.
• Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was sworn in as Egypt’s president.
• Was Mehdi Nemmouche really a lone wolf terrorist? The EU believes the Brussels gunman had help.
For more, see Thursday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

Admin Fri 06 Jun 2014, 12:10 pm

A US Back Channel to Hamas?
JUNE 5, 2014 15:41
BY PESACH BENSON
Today’s Top Stories
1. According to Buzzfeed, the US has been talking to Hamas through back channels — oh, for the last six months. Sheera Frenkel’s source is anonymous, and the State Dept. denies the story, so judge for yourself:
During the talks, Hamas gave assurances that allowed the U.S. to support the unity government, despite heavy pressure by the Israeli government for them to condemn it, the diplomatic officials — one American and one Palestinian — said. They said those assurances including a commitment to maintaining a ceasefire with Israel.
2. If you’re following the fallout from US-Taliban prisoner swap, you’ve undoubtedly seen comparisons between Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and Sgt. Gilad Shalit. CNN interviewed Gershon Baskin (who midwifed the Shalit deal), but Elliott Abrams and Boaz Bismuth aren’t buying the comparisons. See also Time for more Israeli takes.
Bergdahl and Shalit
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and Sgt. Gilad Shalit
3. The Australian government is raising hackles by refusing to refer to eastern Jerusalem as “occupied.”
“The description of East Jerusalem as ‘Occupied East Jerusalem’ is a term freighted with perjorative implications, which is neither appropriate nor useful.”
4. Promoting Hate Speech: Haaretz Plumbs New Depths: Opinion piece promotes apartheid state libel.
5. Hamas in 10 Words or Less: Sum up Hamas in 10 words or less and compare your answer with what other journos write.
6. Sympathy for the BDS Devil: The Rolling Stones played Tel Aviv, but what’s troubling about BDS is the nature of its game.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The US, EU, UN, and China all say they’ll work with the new PA government. The US bought into the Palestinian argument that the cabinet ministers are independent of Hamas and not beholden to it. Israel denounced the American acceptance.
• Mahmoud Abbas has instructed the PA’s central elections committee to prepare for Dec. 4 elections. You can already start blaming Israel for obstructing Palestinian democracy:
PA Prime Minister Wants Israel Pressed Over East Jerusalem Vote
• Here’s one Israeli response to the unity government: 3,000 new housing units were approved for construction on the politically incorrect side of the Green Line. According to the Jerusalem Post, the units “were originally to be approved with release of a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners at the end of March that was never carried out.” AFP reports the Palestinians will appeal to the UN.
• Fasten your seatbelts. The PA’s technocratic government had a bad start.
Reuters
Employees who have been on separate payrolls of rival Palestinian governments traded blows at Gaza banks on Thursday when those hired by Hamas did not receive their wages under a new unity administration.
Fistfights between PA and Hamas employees broke out and club-wielding Palestinian riot police pushed them away from the cash machines, which were then closed, along with Gaza bank branches, to prevent more violence, according to an Interior Ministry spokesman.
• Hamas arms program speeding ahead.
• It’s official: The Modern Language Association’s latest effort to bash Israel collapsed, exposing BDS as a fringe group within the academic organization. Inside Higher Ed had the clearest coverage:
While a majority of members who voted cast their ballots in favor of the resolution, not enough of them did so for the vote to set official policy.
On the next page:
Al-Qaida uses Israeli company for secure email.
Hezbollah preparing ground invasion of Israel?
Pundits react to unity government and fallout.
Continued on page 2

Admin Mon 02 Jun 2014, 6:20 pm

Abbas Swears in Unity Government
JUNE 2, 2014 15:41
BY PESACH BENSON
Today’s Top Stories
1. Despite some last-minute dickering, Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new Palestinian national unity government with the full approval of Hamas. Times of Israel coverage suffices:
Abbas has already pledged that the new administration will abide by the principles laid down by the Middle East peace Quartet that call for recognizing Israel, rejecting violence and abiding by all existing agreements. However, Hamas has yet to ratify those conditions.
2. Turks defy tourism taboo on visiting Jerusalem in rising numbers. Maan News highlights the Arab conundrum of rejection vs. relevance:
Despite the fatwa and the fact that Turks, like other residents of predominantly Arab or Muslim countries that maintain relations with Israel, have not historically visited in large numbers, the number of Turkish citizens arriving every year has increased in recent years.
Hijazi explained that the numbers of Turks visiting Al-Aqsa increased after imams inside and outside of Jerusalem encouraged them to visit in order to counteract attempts at “Judaizing” the compound and the Old City more broadly . . .
Dome of the Rock
3. According to Lebanese media reports, Hamas and Hezbollah are making nice after falling out over Syria.
4. Financial Times Whitewashes Brussels Anti-Semitism: Anti-Semitism was clearly a prime motivator for Mehdi Nemmouche, yet the Financial Times erased this from the story.
5. BDS and the Myth of Economic Pressure: Despite a string of failures, the only real effect of BDS is in the area of public relations. Here’s why.

Israel and the Palestinians
• The Shin Bet has thwarted 11 kidnapping plots targeting Israeli soldiers and citizens. All were masterminded by Palestinian terrorists already behind bars.
The prisoners, from Fatah, Hamas and other Islamic organizations, instructed other terrorists to try to kidnap Israeli soldiers and citizens to secure their own release in a prisoner exchange deal.
• Haaretz: Israel fired into Syria and launched an air strike on Gaza after being fired upon.
• Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal invited to visit Russia in July.
• For more commentary/analysis, see CBS News’ Bob Schieffer (the hardest Mideast questions), Zvi Barel (for Hamas, it’s unity for the sake of survival), Jodi Rudoren (with new Palestinian government come many questions), Dan Margalit (condemn Abbas, and wait), and Ali Jarbawi (Sisi and the Palestinians).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Egypt’s putting further pressure on Hamas with legislation banning Gaza tunnel digging. You’d think something like that would be illegal anyway. Chalk it up as another example of Calvinball in Cairo, I guess.
• Haaretz: Mehdi Nemmouche’s background confirms West’s worst fears:
Terrorism investigators in the West say that Western Muslims who join jihadi terror groups generally go through four stages: Growing religiosity; a personal or economic crisis that the young man attributes to discrimination against Muslims; ideological radicalization under the influence of a local preacher; and, finally, enlistment in a terror organization in either central Asia or the Middle East. That’s what happened in the past in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that’s what is happening now in Syria, the current principal theater of jihadi operations.
This process runs like a scarlet threat among the terrorists who perpetrated huge attacks in Madrid and London during the previous decade. When these young men return to the West, they seek out new targets to attack: Crowded public places, sites affiliated with the United States and Israel, or Jewish centers. For them, solidarity with the Palestinian struggle is integrated into the larger war against the West.
See also Boaz Bismuth‘s take.
• Members of the Syrian opposition told the Times of Israel that Bashar Assad’s hiding chemical weapons in remote, mountainous areas of Syria’s Alawite region. Sleep better . . .
• A literal twist on Lebanon’s power vacuum. Hezbollah probably has its own independent electrical grid too.
Beirut may face 10-hour power cuts this summer
(Image of Dome of the Rock via Flickr/Stefano Mazzone)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.

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