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https://honestreporting.com/ilhan-omar-arab-muslim-antisemitism/
Ilhan Omar Defender Denies Arab and Muslim Antisemitism
BY SIMON PLOSKER  FEBRUARY 14, 2019
Plenty has already been written about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s antisemitic tweets. But what was the reaction in her home state of Minnesota?

One standout piece in the local media appears courtesy of the Minnesota Star Tribune where Ahmed Tharwat, described as the host/producer of the Arab American TV show, BelAhdan, writes some very disturbing things in defense of Omar.


Ahmed Tharwat (Screenshot: YouTube)
According to Tharwat:

In the end, Omar caved in, surrendering to the intimidation of a system that demonizes any critic of Israel, a system full of hypes, hypocrisies and dishonesties.

There is nothing dishonest or hypocritical about calling out antisemitism wherever it occurs and the real dishonesty is that of Tharwat for making this incident about Israel and turning Ilhan Omar into the victim.

Omar’s tweet ‘not automatically an antisemitic trope’
But then it becomes patently obvious what is guiding Tharwat’s thought processes. Referring to Omar’s “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby” tweet, he writes:

This simply is not automatically an anti-Semitic trope. A reference to $100 bills bearing Benjamin Franklin’s face simply reflects the undisputed role of money in our politics. To suggest that the Israeli advocacy group AIPAC influences some members of Congress to support Israel over the Palestinians doesn’t seem so radical or inherently anti-Semitic; it is actually bragged about by AIPAC on its own website.

Whether deliberately or not, Tharwat has entirely missed the point. Omar’s reference wasn’t about the “undisputed role of money in our politics.” It was specifically aimed at ‘Jewish money’ – a clear antisemitic trope. Omar wasn’t tweeting about AIPAC influencing politicians, which is the right of any political lobbying organization, of which AIPAC is just one of many. Omar was incorrectly claiming that AIPAC was paying US politicians to support Israel.

AIPAC ‘has the Democrats by the throat’
While Tharwat does mention other lobby groups, including”right-wing evangelical Christian Zionist fanatics,” he says:

Omar needs to understand that if AIPAC has the Democrats by the throat, the NRA has the GOP.

This appalling claim that the Democratic Party is somehow under the control of AIPAC in what he says is the same way that the gun lobby has a hold over the Republicans simply doesn’t hold up. While the NRA clearly has more influence over the GOP as a traditionally right-wing cause, AIPAC is bipartisan and lobbies for a cause that has arguably been one that the majority of Americans sympathize with irrespective of their voting intentions.

Antisemitism is only ‘a Western thing’
Then comes the attempts to disassociate any antisemitism from the Muslim or developing world:

But Omar wasn’t talking about “Jewish Money,” reflecting a deep, wicked feeling about “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” This is absurd and it is a Western thing.

Is Tharwat seriously suggesting that this antisemitic trope or antisemitism is limited to the West? While The Protocols of the Elders of Zion may have not have been written there, it has been imported, translated and spread to the Arab and Muslim world where its antisemitism has become accepted by millions.

Antisemitism an ‘alien concept’ and Arabs as ‘indirect Holocaust victims’
He continues:

What lots of Americans don’t understand is that anti-Semitism — the charge thrown causally at anyone who offers the slightest criticism of Israel — is an alien concept for most Muslims, since Arab/Muslims think of themselves not just as Semitic people, but also as indirect victims of the Holocaust atrocity, which led to establishing the Jewish state in the heart of the Middle East, beheading the nation of Palestine.

So much offensive nonsense in one paragraph.

The term antisemitism does not refer to a hatred of people from a linguistic branch (Semites) but was coined specifically to refer to Jews and only Jews. To attempt to redefine it is to attempt to diminish it and excuse hatred of Jews by Arabs.
There’s plenty of antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim world – it certainly isn’t an “alien concept.”
Claiming that Arabs and Muslims are “indirect victims of the Holocaust” is an appalling form of revisionism and diminishes the very real victims of that crime against humanity.
Claiming that the Holocaust was responsible for the establishment of the Jewish state “beheading the nation of Palestine” is a blatant attempt to deny Jewish historical rights in the Middle East, and to falsely present Israel as the product of European “colonization” at the expense of indigenous natives.
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‘Jewish ISIS’
Now that we have established where Tharwat is coming from, his complaints about being dragged into the Ilhan Omar issue by Fox News and the Daily Caller on account of an interview he conducted with her appear to be laughable:

The Daily Caller then published an article with a frantic headline, “Ilhan Omar Gave Interviews To Host Who Called Israel ‘Jewish ISIS’ And Compared Hamas To Holocaust Victims.”

I have no idea how the Daily Caller arrived at this conclusion, I have used “Jewish ISIS,” and “Jewish Taliban,” and “Jewish Jihadists” before, just to respond to the media narrative in which any misbehaving Muslim is labeled “Islamic” — Islamic terrorist, Islamic state, Islamic jihadists, Islamic Taliban.

We took a look at the Daily Caller piece. The screenshots of Tharwat’s tweets in the story speak for themselves as outlined here:

Tharwat has repeatedly described the Israeli government as a terrorist organization, including referring to it as “Jewish ISIS.”

“Zionism is terrorism,” Tharwat wrote in one tweet that described Israeli soldiers as the “Jewish Taliban.”

In another tweet, he wrote: “An antisemitic person these days, is not someone who hates the jew, it is someone hated by the jews.”

“Blaming Hamas for Israeli atrocities, is like blaming the Jew for the Holocaust,” Tharwat wrote in a July 2014 tweet.

After the U.S. began bombing ISIS targets in August 2014, Tharwat wrote on Twitter: “Obama should start bombing the Jewish state of Israel.”

‘It’s not antisemitism, it’s anti-Zionism’
But for Tharwat there is no antisemitism in the Muslim world, it’s simply anti-Zionism:

Anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism. Equating the two is hurtful not just for Muslims/Arabs and Americans but also for lots of fair-minded, peace-loving Jews around the world. As Omar stated in her apology, anti-Semitism is real. But it mostly thrives in Europe and America, not in the Muslim world.

If there was ever an example of using a hatred of Israel to conceal or excuse blatant antisemitism, Ahmed Tharwat is the poster boy. For him, antisemitism doesn’t exist in the Arab and Muslim world, it doesn’t exist in Ilhan Omar’s tweets and it doesn’t exist in his own head.

On all accounts he is utterly wrong and the Minnesota Star Tribune needs to ask how it could give a platform to someone whose lack of credibility is quite stunning.

If this is who Ilhan Omar is relying on to defend her own improprieties, she’s certainly got some very real problems.

Send your letters to the Minnesota Star Tribune either through its dedicated online form – http://www.startribune.com/submit-a-letter-or-commentary/115289839/ – or via direct email – opinion@startribune.com

https://honestreporting.com/ilhan-omar-mission-invite/
Massive spike in anti-Semitic violence in Germany in 2018
10% increase in number of anti-Semitic crimes reported in Germany last year - and 67% increase in violent anti-Semitic attacks.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/258999
AFP and Arutz Sheva Staff, 13/02/19 13:33
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Crime scene Germany (Stock)
Crime scene Germany (Stock)iStock

Anti-Semitic crimes rose almost 10 percent in Germany last year, and violent attacks were up more than 60 percent, crime statistics showed Wednesday.

Police recorded 1,646 offences motivated by hatred against Jews, said a government answer to a request by far-left Die Linke party lawmaker Petra Pau.

Among these were 62 violent offences that left 43 people injured, up from 37 physical attacks the previous year.

Germany, like other western countries, has watched with alarm as anti-Semitic and other racist hate speech and violence have increased in recent years as the political climate has coarsened and grown more polarized.

A mass influx of mostly Muslim refugees and migrants to Germany from 2015 fueled the growth of far-right movements and nationalist parties, including the AfD.

Leading AfD members, aside from railing against Islam and multiculturalism, have also made comments that play down the Holocaust.

Party co-leader Alexander Gauland described Nazi Germany's industrial-scale murder of Jews and other minorities as a mere "speck of bird poo in over 1,000 years of successful German history".

Another leading AfD politician, Bjoern Hoecke, has criticized the sprawling Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a "monument of shame".

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, and other Jewish community leaders have accused the AfD of fomenting hate against refugees, Muslims and Jews.

At the same time, Germany has also witnessed a rise in anti-Semitic attacks committed by migrants from Arab states.

In one prominent case last year a 19-year-old Syrian man was convicted for assault after lashing out with his belt at an Israeli man wearing a Jewish kippa skullcap while shouting "yahudi", Jew in Arabic.

A video of the street assault, filmed by the victim on his smartphone, had sparked widespread public revulsion as it spread on social media, and triggered street rallies in solidarity with Jews.

News of the belt attack coincided with another public outcry, over a rap duo who made light of Nazi death camp prisoners but went on to win the music industry's sales-based Echo award, which was subsequently axed.

Days after the belt assault, some 2,000 people rallied at a "Berlin Wears Kippa" solidarity demonstration, matched by smaller events in several other German cities.

Most anti-Semitic crimes were however committed by far-right perpetrators, reported the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel in an article on the new crime statistics.

Pau in her statement charged that "we are seeing that militant right-wing extremists can openly call for the desecration of Jewish institutions and attacks against Jewish people".

A rising number of people and groups in the "grey zone between conservatism and right-wing extremism are denying the Holocaust and engaging in anti-Semitic agitation," she said.

The Independent: Enabling UK Antisemitism in the Comments Section
BY SIMON PLOSKER  FEBRUARY 7, 2019
https://honestreporting.com/the-independent-enabling-uk-antisemitism/
Many British media outlets are covering the release of a new report by the Community Security Trust (CST) showing that antisemitic incidents in the UK have reached a new record high.

The Independent chose to focus its attention on the correlation between the one in ten incidents that were “examples of, or related to arguments over, alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party.”

The Independent’s article includes the following:

The CST warned that prevalence of antisemitism in public debate can cause belief that “that the taboo against expressing hostility towards Jews is weakening” adding: “The more people hear and read antisemitic comments and views, the more likely they are to have the confidence to express such views if they hold similar attitudes themselves.”

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was previously slammed for comments that a group of Zionists had “no sense of irony” despite “having lived in this country for a very long time.”

British Jews (and others) will nonetheless note the irony of The Independent’s choice of quotes from the CST report when they take a look at The Independent’s own comments section. There are clear examples of how that media outlet has allowed antisemitic comments and views to proliferate.

Even The Independent’s very story of the CST report includes comments that raise serious questions.

The utter gall displayed by The Independent in allowing the conversation to become so poisonous while at the same time reporting that the normalization of this discourse has directly led to record levels of antisemitism in the UK is truly sickening.

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Down the sewer: Examples of hateful comments
One example draws on the antisemitic trope of dual loyalty, accusing British MPs of being in the pay of their Israeli masters:

This is just part of a longer and vicious post that essentially blames antisemitism on Jews and Israel. It’s signed by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo. Baroud happens to be a journalist and the editor of the Palestine Chronicle while Rubeo is that media outlet’s news editor.

A response to the post above shows exactly how the taboo against expressing hostility towards Jews has weakened, as the writer blames Jews for antisemitism, claiming that they are “Fifth Columnists.”

A plethora of examples can be found in an earlier Independent story focused on a meeting of Labour MPs that called the party leadership to account for not adequately tackling antisemitism within its ranks.

Simon Plosker
@SimonPlosker
 If you want to see the sort of filth that @UKLabour has unleashed, just take a look at the comments section of @Independent's report on last night's PLP meeting. @GnasherJew https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-party-antisemitism-mps-jeremy-corbyn-jewish-abuse-a8763171.html …

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Labour MPs criticise party leaders over their response to antisemiti…
The row over antisemitism in the Labour Party has reignited after furious MPs condemned party leaders for their "unacceptable" response to anti-Jewish abuse. During a heated showdown between MPs and

independent.co.uk
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The same “Deanna12” poster also featured in this comments section with a similar charge of dual loyalty:

There are many posters who believe that antisemitism in the Labour Party is simply a “smear campaign.” This one doesn’t even hide his belief that it is the “Jewish lobby” (not the Israel lobby) behind it all:

Of course, it could only be Jews, Israelis or political opponents creating “false flag” operations online:

Or could it be “Netanyahu lovers… trying to interfere with UK politics?”

Let’s be clear – denying there is an antisemitism problem makes one willfully blind and potentially very stupid. It doesn’t necessarily make someone an antisemite.

But indulging in accusations of Jews and Jewish politicians being disloyal to their country or owing their allegiance to Israel is a clear breach of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism:

Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

The IHRA working definition’s examples are illustrative and it could be argued that the level of hostility generated by some of the online comments does indeed amount to antisemitic discourse.

It’s not about freedom of speech
Even trolls have a right to free speech as, of course, do legitimate critics of Israel and its policies. All too often, Israel’s supporters are accused of acting in bad faith and attempting to shut down the discourse, a charge that usually says a lot more about the agenda of the person making it. Turning those accused of hate speech against Jews into the victims of imaginary Jewish efforts to silence them is simply unacceptable.

No doubt, this critique will be judged by those standards by the same commenters who spend their time denying antisemitism and attacking Jews and Israel.

Not all offensive speech is antisemitic. But hate speech isn’t free speech. Those comments that have clearly breached the IHRA definition should not be left online. As for the rest, The Independent should ask itself whether the sewer is the level of discourse it wishes to see on its comments platforms.

* * *

Does The Independent deliberately cater for an audience of readers who are predisposed to hate or did the newspaper create those conditions? That’s another question. Either way, The Independent, while it certainly isn’t the only culprit, needs to take some responsibility for this distressing situation.

https://honestreporting.com/idns-01-06-2019-government-shutdown/
US Gov’t Shutdown Imperiling Security Aid to PA
BY PESACH BENSON  JANUARY 6, 2019
Today’s Top Stories
1. Haaretz: The ongoing US government shutdown is imperiling aid to the Palestinian security services.

2. Israel will reportedly seek $250 billion in compensation from eight Arab states that forced Jews to leave property and assets behind during the founding of the Jewish state. According to Israeli media reports, we’re specifically talking Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Iran.

For the past 18 months, utilizing the services of an international accountancy firm, the Israeli government has quietly been researching the value of property and assets that these Jews were forced to leave behind, the TV report said.

It is now moving toward finalizing claims as the Trump Administration prepares for the possible unveiling of its much-anticipated Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal. A 2010 Israeli law provides that any peace deal must provide for compensation for assets of Jewish communities and individual Jews forced out of Arab countries and Iran . . .

The Palestinian Authority has sought over $100 billion in compensation from Israel for assets left behind by Arab residents of what is today Israel . . . .
 
3. Egypt is pushing CBS News to pull the plug on an interview with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. Cairo hasn’t expressed why, but it’s believed the Egyptians are trying to walk back Sisi’s confirmation that Israel is cooperating with the Egyptian military in the battle against Sinai’s Islamic insurgents.

The full interview is due to air tonight over Egypt’s objections.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
In the News
• According to Mideast media reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post, “Kuwait rejected the opportunity to co-host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar because the country did not want to comply with FIFA regulations, where it would have to allow all nationalities to enter the country . . .”

• Egypt’s military announced that it destroyed 37 tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Sinai peninsula in 2018. During the same period of time, the IDF destroyed 15 Gaza tunnels crossing into Israel. Jerusalem Post coverage.

HR Mission to Israel

• The Media Line takes a closer look at the Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs selling property to Jews.

• Hamas arrested five men accused of ransacking the Gaza offices of the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation, the official station of the Palestinian Authority.

• Dozens of incendiary balloons landed in Israel near the Gaza border on Sunday morning.
View image on Twitter

Anna Ahronheim

@AAhronheim
 Toy drone with countless balloons launched from the #GazaStrip was found by a resident of a southern #Israel community less than an hour ago.

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10:29 AM - Jan 6, 2019
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• Following Muslim protests, a London mosque cancelled a planned Holocaust exhibition linked with Yad Vashem.

• Drip drip drip: The JTA reports on the surfacing of video footage of Jeremy Corbyn applauding a Neturei Karta rabbi’s speech calling for the “dismantling” of Israel in 2011.

The Neturei Karta is a fringe Orthodox sect which, per the Jewish Chronicle, has 5,000 followers internationally, meaning it “makes up just 0.03% of the entire Jewish population.” Rabbi Yisrael Dovid Weiss was most recently in the news for presenting a symbolic gift to Hezbollah‘s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem in Beirut in March, and is particularly reviled for addressing a Holocaust denial conference in Tehran in 2006 attended by then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and American white supremacist David Duke.
The Golem
@TheGolem_
 · Jan 3, 2019
Replying to @TheGolem_
Attending the event were a number of prominent individuals with a less than admirable record on antisemitism. One of those individuals was 'Rabbi' Yisrael Dovid Weiss, an extremist belonging to the ultra-orthodox Neturei Karta sect.

View image on Twitter

The Golem
@TheGolem_
In footage captured by the blogger Richard Millet, during the event Rabbi Weiss went on an extreme anti-Israel rant in which he calls for the “dismantlement” of the state of Israel. Corbyn (head just in view) lends his support for this statement by applauding his outburst: pic.twitter.com/EDNgu9qsSl

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• New Orleans cancelled its Women’s March, citing the anti-Semitism controversy involving the movement’s national leadership.

• Swastika graffiti was found defacing synagogues in Dublin and Ventura County, a Melbourne elder-care home for Holocaust survivors and a Connecticut condo complex.

• Belgium‘s ban on kosher slaughter has Jews worried about what comes next.

Commentary
• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:

– David Makovsky, Dennis Ross: We need to talk about Iran and Russia in this Israeli election
– Alan Dershowitz: The New York Times incentivizes Hamas violence
– Detroit News (staff-ed): Good riddance to UNESCO
– Michael Kranz: Why Trump’s withdrawal from Syria is bad news for Israel — and good news for Iran
– Stephen Daisley: The real racism against the Palestinians
– Jonathan Weisman: American Jews and Israeli Jews are headed for a messy breakup
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinians’ New Year’s resolutions

Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Jason Kuffer; Sisi via YouTube/60 Minutes;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-26-2018-russia-strike/
Russia Denounces Israeli Air Strike on Damascus
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 26, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. The skies of Damascus lit up as the Israeli Air Force allegedly struck arms depots belonging to Hezbollah and Iran. A US defense official told Newsweek that several senior Hezbollah leaders were targeted while boarding a plane bound for Iran, though some reports suggested the plane took off just before the strike. The Jerusalem Post examines why Hezbollah personalities were traveling to Iran from Damascus instead of directly from Beirut.

Russian officials denounced the attack, accusing Israel of endangering passengers on two civilian air craft without offering any specifics. One Syrian rocket was intercepted over the Israeli town of Hadera.

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Observer IL -

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-26-2018-russia-strike/
Russia Denounces Israeli Air Strike on Damascus
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 26, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. The skies of Damascus lit up as the Israeli Air Force allegedly struck arms depots belonging to Hezbollah and Iran. A US defense official told Newsweek that several senior Hezbollah leaders were targeted while boarding a plane bound for Iran, though some reports suggested the plane took off just before the strike. The Jerusalem Post examines why Hezbollah personalities were traveling to Iran from Damascus instead of directly from Beirut.

Russian officials denounced the attack, accusing Israel of endangering passengers on two civilian air craft without offering any specifics. One Syrian rocket was intercepted over the Israeli town of Hadera.

 Embedded video

Observer IL -

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-24-2018-early-elections/
Israel to Hold Snap Elections in April
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 24, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. After weeks of politics, leaders of Israel’s coalition parties agreed to dissolve the Knesset and hold early elections in April. Disagreements over Haredi army conscription and a court-mandated deadline to resolve the issue was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition was left with a barely-there one-seat Knesset majority when former defense minister Avigdor Liberman’s Israel Beitenu party quit in protest of an unofficial Israel-Hamas ceasefire in November.

The decision to go to the polls was apparently made after it became clear that the 61-seat coalition, with its one-seat majority, would not be able to pass legislation on the draft of ultra-Orthodox into the army, which had a January 15 deadline. Earlier in the day, opposition parties Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beiteinu made it clear that, unlike previous stated, they did not intend to support the law.

More on the story at the Times of Israel. And as Lahav Harkov points out, despite the agreement for early elections, it’s not official until the Knesset votes to formally dissolves itself. Though it’s unlikely, there’s precedent for MKs to reverse the decision.

Knesset
The Israeli Knesset building in Jerusalem. Photo by Orel Cohen/FLASH90
2. A Gaza terror group called Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades warned the Strip’s 1,300 Christians not to celebrate Christmas.

A verse from the Quran, quoted on the left side of the flyer, warns Muslims “not to go the way of the Jews and the Christians, indeed God is not for the evil people.” The brigades added it is “absolutely forbidden” to celebrate the holidays in any capacity.

3. Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory says white Jews ‘uphold white supremacy.’ The movement’s issues with antisemitism attracted the attention of the New York Times. Mallory is the Women’s March national co-chair.

4. Columbia Professor Dishonestly Smears Israel: We call out Professor Katherine Franke’s calumnies in the New York Review of Books.

In the News
• “The Russian forces currently in Syria will take action to restrain Hezbollah and Iranian activity there, according to understandings reached by Israel, the United States, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Jordanian official confirmed to Israel Hayom.”

• Per Israeli media reports, Honduras is considering moving its embassy to Jerusalem, and sent a delegation of senior officials to explore the possibilities.

HR Mission to Israel

• A recent meeting between PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah raises a lot of questions. Why did the king keep Abbas waiting for three days in Amman? Why did he tell the PA not to take further steps against Hamas? Might US policies force Jordan to absorb some 1.4 Palestinian refugees? Are the Saudis seeking to gain an official presence on the Temple Mount at the expense of the Palestinians and Jordanians?

• “IDF soldiers opened fire at a group of gunmen who crossed the 1974 ceasefire line in the Golan Heights and were approaching Israel’s border fence from Syria, the army said Sunday night.” Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post picked up on Damascus claims that Syrian forces found Israeli-made weapons and medical equipment hidden by rebels in the Quneitra province.

• Qatar is preparing to welcome Jewish and Israeli fans for the 2022 World Cup with kosher food and places for prayer.

• Basketball star LeBron James apologized for an antisemitic Instagram post (subsequently removed).

LeBron James
LeBron James
Commentary
• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:

– Seth Frantzman: Turks operating in Syria judged differently than Israel
– Jonathan Tobin: Trump just gave the finger to his Jewish voters
– Daniel Pipes: Will Trump divide Jerusalem in three?
– Nadav Shragai: Hamas too close for comfort
– Raphael Ahren: Has Israel made a huge mistake letting a Chinese firm run part of Haifa port?
– Jonathan Tobin: Some things are more important than international good-will
– Alexandra DeSanctis: Women’s March, sponsors silent on anti-Semitism allegations
– Christine Rosen: Antisemites on the (Women’s) March
– James Kirchik: What the EU survey reveals about European antisemitism

 
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Alex Moreno Fuster; James via YouTube/FreeDawkins;

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-23-2018-syria-withdrawal/
What Does US Withdrawal From Syria Mean for Israel?
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 23, 2018
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Today’s Top Stories
1. The fallout from the White House’s decision to pull American troops out of Syria continues. The New York Times cited unidentified Israeli intelligence officials saying they felt “betrayed by the US,” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF may expand its activities in Syria if necessary. The withdrawal puts pro-Israel groups in a bind.

Analysts told AFP the pullout is a strategic victory for Iran, allowing Tehran consolidate its “land-bridge” to the Mediterranean. See commentary below assessing what it all means for Israel.
2. The US Agency for International Development (USAID), which administers civilian foreign aid and developmental assistance, notified Palestinian grant recipients that funding may come to an end on January 31. It’s “due to a new U.S. anti-terrorism law that could compel the Palestinian Authority to compensate American victims of terror attacks in exchange for U.S. assistance.” National Public Radio explains:

A U.S. official said the USAID funding cut was not final, and aid money could continue if Congress passes an amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act after the government shutdown. A Senate aide said there was bipartisan interest in Congress to find a fix to allow funding to continue. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to brief the media on the matter.
The anti-terrorism law could also put an end to U.S. funding to Palestinian Authority security forces, which coordinate with Israel to maintain security in the West Bank. An official in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ office told NPR he believed the U.S. would find a way not to cut security funds.
3. British taxpayers are still funding ‘lessons in hate’ at Palestinian schools where children are made to stage mock executions and read poetry glorifying terror.

The school books, which were introduced in September 2017, teach ten-year-olds that ‘drinking the cup of bitterness with glory is much sweeter than a pleasant long life accompanied by humiliation’.

Terrorists – including Dalal Mughrabi, who led the 1978 ‘Coastal Road Massacre’ in which 38 Israelis including 13 children were murdered on a bus – are described as ‘heroes’.
The books also contain violent poems which extol the virtues of ‘sacrificing blood’.
In the News
• According to Albanian media reports picked up by the Times of Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cancellation of a November visit may have been because of an Iranian plot targeting him and/or Israel’s national soccer team, and and/or Tirana’s refusal to expel Iranian diplomats despite US pressure. On Thursday, Albania expelled Iran’s ambassador and another diplomat for “violating their diplomatic status.”

iranian atom• Iran’s nuclear archive stolen by Israel confirms how a uranium mine and yellowcake production plant in the southern Iranian district of Gchine were originally part of a clandestine nuclear weapons fuel cycle. Yet, the mill never stopped operating and the files directly contradict Tehran’s declarations to the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to a report. The authors explain why it all matters:

A sobering fact is that the issue of Iran’s past and possibly on-going nuclear weapons work is still unresolved. Some try to discount this issue by adopting the stance that everything is known anyway, or that the worst should be assumed and move forward, but the Nuclear Archive makes readily apparent that much remains unknown. In particular, this information matters with regard to any past nuclear weapons effort continuing today.

In the end, the reason to insist on Iran fully declaring its nuclear programs concerns the health of, and compliance of Iran with provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, its comprehensive safeguards agreement, the Additional Protocol, and the JCPOA. This issue festers and raises fundamental questions about the value of these agreements to stop nuclear proliferation and the ability of the IAEA to conduct credible verification.

In addition, the JCPOA is not a permanent agreement. Its provisions will end, leaving Iran well-placed to resume building up its nuclear breakout capability, with an apparently ready military nuclear effort to draw on from the archive it maintains. It could also trade this information to other states or groups, as it has done with missile technology.
Aziz Dweik
• AFP sums up the real reason Mahmoud Abbas is keen to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council, even though it hasn’t met in more than a decade:

Though the parliament has not met since 2007, when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian law allows for its speaker to act as interim president should 83-year-old Abbas die in office.
Thus, Aziz Dweik, a Hamas member from Hebron, is technically first in line to succeed Abbas.
• Donorbox, a US firm which makes fundraising management software, confirmed that it blocked the account of the Ramallah-based Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. More at AP.
• Nice scoop for CNN, being the first news service to get an exclusive first-hand look at one of the Hezbollah terror tunnels uncovered by the IDF.

• Drip drip drip: UK Labour MP Ivan Lewis quit the party over antisemitism, saying “I could no longer reconcile my Jewish identity and current Labour politics.” Lewis will continue to represent his Manchester-area constituency as an independent MP.

• Antisemitism allegations are splitting the Women’s March.

• When BDS comes to campus, antisemitism follows.
• Israeli anti-drone technology brought an end to three days of chaos at London’s Gatwick Airport. Everybody picked up on the Daily Mail‘s scoop. British authorities said two people arrested on Friday night are no longer suspects and were released without charge.

• Around the world: Belgian soccer fans sing chant about burning Jews. French imam indicted over antisemitic sermon. Australian school principal poses with children in blackface, Hitler costume. Paris duty free shop apologizes for invoice calling Tel Aviv airport “occupied Palestine.”
HR Mission to Israel
Commentary
• Plenty more spilled ink and burnt pixels weighing in on the US pull-out.
– Raphael Ahren: Trump pullout from Syria leaves Israel alone to battle Iran’s likely resurgence
– Shimon Shiffer: US leaves Israel to fight its battles alone
– Tony Badran: Trump reversal on Syria policy means big gains for Iran
– Amos Harel: Israel left with false Russian promises and volatile US president
– Zvi Bar’el: US exit from Syria could redraw the map of the Middle East’s blocs

Last but not least, Amos Yadlin‘s Twitter thread urges everyone to take a deep a breath and count to 10.
Amos Yadlin
@YadlinAmos
 Trump’s declaration on US forces withdrawal from Syria is a significant step, but there’s no reason to panic.
2000 US troops came to Syria to fight against ISIS and had no authorities to act against Iran.
1/8
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• Here’s other commentary I’m reading this weekend:

– Jerusalem Post (staff-ed): Why didn’t the IDF’s media blitz lead to UN condemnation of Hezbollah?
– Herb Keinon: Why did Israel got to the UN over Hezbollah tunnels?
– Peter Lerner: The need for a civilian maestro to command the media and diplomatic efforts
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian children: Victims of Arab apartheid
– Avi Bell: Is “East Jerusalem” Palestinian territory?
– Stuart Eizenstat: US companies need relief from BDS pressure
– David Bernstein: Everyone is misreporting the Texas BDS lawsuit

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-16-2018-australia-jerusalem/
Australia Recognizes ‘West Jerusalem’ as Israel’s Capital
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 16, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia’s recognition of “West Jerusalem” as Israel’s capital, adding that its embassy would not be moved until a peace agreement resolves the city’s final status. Disappointed Israeli officials diplomatically called the move “a step in the right direction,” while Palestinians blasted Canberra.
Robert Satloff
@robsatloff
 Just to be clear, #Australia’s new policy on #Jerusalem is closer to #Russia’s (West v East, etc) than #America’s, which leaves final disposition of the city’s borders to negotiations and does not commit to an inevitable #Palestine capital there. #Israel https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-46576716 …
9:01 PM - Dec 15, 2018
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General view of Jerusalem
Australia: West Jerusalem is Israeli capital
PM Scott Morrison says Australia will not immediately move its embassy from Tel Aviv.
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2. Thousands of Israelis gathered for the funerals of two soldiers killed in a Palestinian shooting attack outside a West Bank settlement outpost last week. Sgt. Yosef Cohen and Staff Sgt. Yovel Mor Yosef were in the in Netzah Yehuda infantry battalion; the funerals drew attention to the haredi soldiers who serve in Netzach Yehuda.
Sgt. Yosef Cohen and Staff Sgt. Yovel Mor Yosef
3. A Pulitzer-nominated Palestinian photographer who works for the New York Times and Time magazine glorified Palestinian terrorism on his Instagram account. 24 News explains:
Wissam Nassar posted pictures of the suspected terrorists behind the Barkan Industrial Estate and Ofra shooting attacks on Instagram, adding the text: “A sad morning that carries with it pride with the martyrs, and honor in resistance. ‘If you lost the way, follow the martyrs’.”
The Palestinian Gaza-based photographer uploaded it as a “story”, meaning it was deleted after 24 hours.
In the News
• The IDF uncovered a fourth Hezbollah tunnel entering into Israeli territory.

• “Moscow is allowing fighters from Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian Shiite groups operating in Syria to carry Russian flags in order to protect them from Israeli airstrikes,” according to Russian media reports picked up by Ynet.
According to the report, Israel complained to Russia that its flags were spotted atop compounds and military convoys belonging to Iran and its allies in Syria. The complaint came ahead of a senior Israeli military delegation visit to Moscow on Tuesday.

According to Syrian opposition leader Colonel Petach Hasson, the Iranians promised to coordinate with the Russian military’s Syrian headquarters in Latakia in exchange for protection for the Shiite militias allied to Iran operating in the war-torn country.

• Is the latest round of terror attacks a sign of Hamas trying to raise its profile in the West Bank? The New York Times discussed the question with analysts.

• Worth reading: The anatomy of a Palestinan riot and Israel’s response

It appears, from watching this and other past protests, that Israel has learned many of the lessons of the previous Intifadas. It has learned to reduce the use of live fire and also to reduce the point of contact between rioters and riot control to a bare minimum of seconds or minutes, so that the number of possible injuries are reduced. This also changes the media war. . . . Israel’s war fighting has become more precise over time, as revealed in reports about the lengths Israel goes to when it warns residents of Gaza about airstrikes, for instance. This precision also appears in the West Bank . . .
HR Mission to Israel

• After the IDF demolished the home of a Palestinian who killed an Israeli soldier, Mahmoud Abbas ordered the home rebuilt. The four-story building in Ramallah’s al-Am’ari refugee camp belonged to Islam Yousef Abu Hmaid, who dropped a heavy marble slab onto the head of St.-Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky during an arrest raid in May.

• A European Union court rejected a Hamas appeal over its terror listing.

• Israel’s security cabinet is reviewing arrangements for a Chinese firm to take over Haifa port operations in 2021 — after the US Navy confirmed it might no longer dock there. The Jerusalem Post explains:

Haifa, the nation’s largest port city, regularly hosts joint US-Israeli naval drills and visits from American vessels. But a 2015 agreement between Israel’s Transportation Ministry and Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) – a company in which the Chinese government has a majority stake – has raised intelligence and security concerns that are only now prompting an interagency review.

That agreement granted SIPG control over the port for 25 years. The Chinese company has committed $2 billion to the project and, according to state-run media, plans to transform the port’s bay terminal into the largest harbor in the country . . .

But it is unclear whether Israel has any recourse to allay US concerns with the China project, which is already sealed and in motion.
Michael Wilner

@mawilner
 Israel’s inner security cabinet is reviewing its #Haifa deal with the Chinese. “You don’t want a decision that was made ostensibly for business reasons to have an impact on Israel’s relationship with the American navy,” one source said. https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/US-Navy-may-stop-docking-in-Haifa-after-Chinese-take-over-port-574414 …

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US Navy may stop docking in Haifa after Chinese take over port
Concerns prompt ‘review’ of Shanghai agreement within Israel’s inner security cabinet, sources say.

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• The Knesset is going to host Egyptian, Lebanese, Algerian and Moroccan journalists working for European media outlets, per Israel HaYom.

• The US slapped sanctions on a former Israeli military officer and two other people for accused of illicit arms sales to the South Sudanese government. According to the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter), retired Maj.-Gen. Israel Ziv is said to have sold South Sudan “about $150 million worth of weapons.”

• All 10 University of California chancellors condemned the boycott of Israel as a “direct, serious threat to academic freedom.”

• Eugene Kontorovich on the cluck of the Irish . . .
Eugene Kontorovich
@EVKontorovich
 As Ireland moving forward to pass bill making business with "occupied territories" a crime, @IrishTimes promoting vacations in occupied Northern Cyprus. Because under the Irish bill, "occupation" defined to only cover Jews. Sen @frances_black, any comment? https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/take-5/what-can-you-buy-for-150-000-in-kerry-france-cyprus-greece-and-italy-1.3449332 …
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What can you buy for €150,000 in Kerry, France, Cyprus, Greece and Italy
Take Five: A bungalow in Kilflynn or a house with sea views on a Greek island
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• It turns out the European Union gave £140,000 in public money to the group that organizes London’s annual Al Quds rally. Thanks to the Sunday Telegraph‘s disclosure, the European Commission (the EU’s executive branch) is ending its relationship with the Islamic Human Rights Commission. More at the Jewish Chronicle.
Al Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) was launched by Iran as a day of support for the Palestinians; international rallies on the last Friday of Ramadan feature calls for Israel’s destruction, Hezbollah flags, antisemitic banners and more. This HonestReporting video unpacks in more detail the truth behind Quds Day.
• Drip drip drip: UK Labour suspended senior activist Mohammed Yasin, who shared antisemitic posts and conspiracy theories on social media for more than two years. According to the Times of London:
Labour has been riven by allegations of anti-semitism among members and activists, but Yasin is believed to be the first paid member of staff to be implicated.
• Around the world: Britain’s Chelsea football club questioned its own fans’ ‘brainpower’ over antisemitic chants. (Several fans at Chelsea’s match in Budapest were also photographed hoisting a flag with Nazi symbols.) Swastikas and antisemitic graffiti defaced the Washington DC headquarters of the American Federations of Teachers, a Holocaust memorial in Thessaloniki, and tombstones in a French-Jewish cemetery.
Commentary
• Israeli soldier Netanel Felber is fighting for his life after Thursday’s Palestinian terror attack. This attack hits me a little more because he’s an ex-pat from Maryland and because my teenage son is getting closer to 18. As Netanel began his army service, his mother, Judi, wrote “My Son, the Soldier.” It still resonates:

It’s scary to let my little fledgling fly away to the great unknown, with dangers I can’t understand. But, I am also so proud that my son will grow into a man with a purpose bigger than himself, with values of altruism and sacrifice for one’s people. Although I will be so proud when he comes home wearing his new uniform, the mom in me will always have a knot in the pit of my gut until I see him.
Elana Heideman
@elanayael18
 Judi Abramson Felber wrote this about Natanel who is fighting for his life. Our heart is full of hope and our souls filled with prayer.  

Netanel Ilan son of Sheyna Tzipora  נתנאל אילן בן שיינע ציפורה http://israelforever.org/interact/blog/my_son_the_soldier/ …
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My Son, The Soldier
Parenting can be challenging, but sometimes the hardest part is letting go and watching our children fly off to their next challenge, whether it’s college or IDF.

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• Lebanese writers Khairallah Khairallah and Ali Al-Amin worry Hezbollah will drag their country into war and make the Lebanese public pay the price for Iran’s ambitions.

• Shana Becker, an organizer of Women’s March on Raleigh weighs in on Tablet‘s deep-dive look at antisemitism and bigotry at the core of the Women’s March movement — by calling on the national leadership to resign.
We cannot equivocate in the face of anti-Semitism and violence. We cannot be silent. We cannot give a pass to an elder for inciting anti-Semitism because he has done other great things. Each member of the board of the National Women’s March has done one or more of these things and in so doing has contributed to allowing anti-Semitism to fester within the women’s movement . . .

The board of the National Women’s March reflects on all of the women and allies of the movement. Part of embracing intersectionality is conscientiously listening, talking, and helping address the wrongs we even commit against each other. In this spirit, I am calling in the board of the National Women’s March. Their struggles with anti-Semitism are wounding; stepping down to work together with their Jewish sisters and allies to continue the important dialogue essential in an intersectional movement would be healing. Handing over leadership to other extraordinary women who are free from the specter of anti-Semitism would be uniting.

Women's March

• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:

– Raphael Ahren: How Israel’s calls for countries to move their embassies boomeranged
– Yaakov Ahimeir: Half-recognition means redividing the capital
– Herb Keinon: Australia’s Jerusalem decision is more like Moscow’s than Washington’s
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Hezbollah, Lebanon and the limitations of diplomacy
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Stopping the wave of terror attacks before the tsunami hits
– Yoav Limor: Hamas is pursuing its endgame
– Yoni Ben Menachem: Israel security agency’s long reach in the West Bank
– New York Post (staff-ed): Palestinian leaders have a disturbing idea of ‘heroism’
View image on Twitter
LTC (R) Peter Lerner

@LTCPeterLerner
 #Hamas is celebrating 31 years. All of their failures in one image. Generation after generation of child abuse, terrorism, and poor choices for the Palestinian people. Sad.
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– Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror: Hezbollah tunnels: How far will the IDF go?
– Pinhas Inbari: Iran is also infiltrating Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon
– Evelyn Gordon: UNIFIL deters EU from banning Hezbollah
– Amos Harel: From Lebanon to Iraq: Iran’s new, hybrid threat to Israel
– Samuel Tadros: Mideast Christians are under threat. How do they feel about Jews and Israel?
– David Harris: Why anti-Zionism is malign
– Falyn Stempler: Progressive circles need to listen to Jewish people
– Ashley Perry: What the Ocasio-Cortez coming can teach us
– Douglas Murray: Why are Jewish people ‘wandering’ again?
– Jonathan Tobin: Why are French “yellow vests” protestors attacking the Jews?
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND lukexmartin;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-13-2018-palestinian-shooting/
2 Israelis Killed in Palestinian Shooting Attack
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 13, 2018

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Today’s Top Stories
*** Breaking news *** Just before this roundup was published, reports broke of a Palestinian car-ramming attack north of Jerusalem.

1. Two Israelis were killed in a West Bank drive-by shooting attack near the entrance to Givat Asaf this morning. Another two were injured — one severely with a gunshot wound to the head. According to Israeli media reports, the suspected Palestinian gunman was wearing an IDF uniform when apprehended.

No names were released when this roundup was published, but the IDF confirmed that both fatalities and one of the injured were soldiers while the fourth person hurt was a civilian woman. The attack was just two km from Ofra, where Palestinians carried out a similar deadly attack (more developments on that below).

In related commentary, Amos Harel and Khaled Abu Toameh argue that Hamas is behind the uptick in violence to fan flames and undermine Israeli-PA security cooperation.

2. Hundreds of Israelis laid to rest the baby born prematurely after its mother was critically injured in Sunday’s Ofra shooting attack. “Shortly before the burial, the baby underwent a symbolic circumcision and was named Amiad Yisrael.”

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces arrested four Palestinians suspected of carrying out the shooting. The Shin Bet said a fifth suspect “tried to harm our forces as he attempted to flee” and was shot and killed. An IDF official later warned that other terrorists may still be at large.

See HonestReporting’s related critique: Murdered Israeli Baby Also Victim of The Independent’s False Moral Equivalence.
 

3. France’s “yellow-vest” protests are taking a disturbing antisemitic turn. Per Ynet, “In recent days, the Jewish community has reported numerous anti-Semitic videos, graffiti and actual threats appearing in central locations and on social media.”

Examples of what worries French Jews include a video whipping up protesters to “understand that the real enemy is the Jews,” and a massive banner on a major highway calling President Emmanuel Macron “a whore of the Jews.”

4. Missing Context in AP Piece Masks IDF’s Humanity: The Associated Press implies Israeli soldiers deliberately targeting Palestinians’ legs for no good reason.

Israel and the Palestinians
• Count on The Guardian for a headline providing your daily dose of moral equivalence on today’s terror attack.

The Guardian

• “An official of “the State of Palestine” was elected to an 8-person advisory committee for selecting judges who would serve on the International Criminal Court on Thursday,” reports the Jerusalem Post.

Bin Hamad’s election could be a direct opportunity for the Palestinians to have influence over future judges who might deal with alleged war crimes cases against Israelis, if Israel fails to stave off prosecutions.

• A two-month manhunt for the Palestinian terrorist responsible for murdering two Israelis in a West Bank industrial park ended. Ashraf Na’alowa was shot and killed by IDF forces after opening fire on soldiers. The Shin Bet said Na’alowa was believed to be planning another attack. The Jerusalem Post reports the IDF also arrested several relatives and alleged accomplices.

In October, Na’alowa gunned down coworkers Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi and wounded another Israeli in the Barkan Industrial Park.

• A Palestinian was shot and killed while trying to stab two border guards in Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday morning. Two of the officers were lightly injured.

• In rare testimony before a Knesset committee, a Palestinian recounted PA torture for helping to thwart terror attacks.

HR Mission to Israel

• MEMRI flagged Lebanese criticism of Hezbollah’s tunnels.

• “A Jewish student center at New York University was temporarily closed on Wednesday after an anti-Zionist student issued threatening messages, before reopening during the afternoon.”

Commentary
• Human Rights Watch director Ken Roth is taking flak from the Left for having the nerve to tweet his denunciation of the Ofra shooting attack. One of the uglier replies to Roth’s tweet insisted “Surely there is at the very least some legal ambiguity here” to justify the attack. Bradley Burston slammed the appalling discourse:

It’s called racism, in one of its ugliest forms.

It is exactly that form of racism which perpetuates and fuels lethal, wrongful, unending slaughter.

When leftists here and abroad support terrorist attacks on civilians as a form of legitimate resistance, they are dehumanizing all Israelis in exactly the same racist context.

On a related note, Annika Rothstein gets tweet of the day.


Annika H Rothstein

@truthandfiction
 Imagine a world where Jewish murder victims won't be described as "settlers", twice removed from any human decency or compassion, but mourned as human beings, given respect and compassion as were we equal to anyone else.

Sari Bashi

@saribashi
My heart hurts for the baby, mother and others shot yesterday in attack near Ofra. Transfering Israeli settlers to occupied West Bank is a war crime by the perpetrating officials precisely because settlers are civilians. And so they should NOT be targeted. https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-praises-heroic-west-bank-shooting-attack/ …

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• A Pink Floyd tribute band recently cancelled three Israeli shows in the face of pressure from Roger Waters and BDS. But David Power, frontman of “Pink Floyd Experience” wasn’t comfortably numb with Waters’ insinuation that the tribute band was on board with BDS. Adam Shay unpacks the significance of Power’s reply, which I screengrabbed below.

So it is neither ideological conviction nor support for the Palestinian cause that prompted this cancelation. It was fear, brought on by a frontal assault of abuse and threats, an assault ordered by Roger Waters. Power makes a direct connection between this assault and the cancelation, leaving no room for doubt or a hijacking of the agenda: The cancelation was due to the threat of violence – brought on by Waters.

David Power

• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:

– Bret Stephens: When anti-Zionism tunnels under your house
– Ben-Dror Yemini: Jihad forces cannot be tamed or appeased
– Harold Brackman: The false argument on antisemitism and anti-Zionism
– Seth Frantzman: Is the Khashoggi affair spotlighting Israel?
– Ido Levy: Three of the many problems with BDS

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-12-2018-arkansas-bds/
Newspaper Challenges Arkansas Anti-BDS Law
BY PESACH BENSON DECEMBER 12, 2018
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Today’s Top Stories
1. The Arkansas Times is challenging in federal court an anti-BDS law that requires state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel. At stake: advertising accounts with state institutions:

The Times initiated the suit after the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College, which has advertised regularly in the Times and its sister publications, informed the Times that it had to sign a certification that it would not engage in a boycott of Israel if it wanted to continue to receive advertising contracts from the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees on behalf of UAPTC. The university imposed this condition because Act 710 requires all state institutions to do so. Times publisher Alan Leveritt declined, and UAPTC has refused to advertise further with the Times. The Times has never participated in a boycott of Israel or editorialized in support of one.

Arkansas State Capitol
2. The IDF uncovered a third Hezbollah tunnel dug from Lebanon into Israel.

3. The FBI arrested an Ohio man plotting attacks on Toledo synagogues. Damon Joseph told officials he was a supporter of Islamic State and was inspired by the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. He was arrested while acquiring two AR-15-style rifles from an undercover agent.

The same day, the FBI also announced the unrelated arrest of a Toledo woman who sought to carry out a mass casualty attack at a bar.

4. The Guardian: Hyperlinking to Hate: An article in The Guardian unacceptably links to the website of MEMO, a propaganda site affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Interpal, two terror-supporting organizations.
In the News
• According to The Australian and SBS News, the Australian cabinet is expected to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but delay an embassy move due to costs. Reports said a consular office would be opened in the meantime.

What is unclear is if it will recog­nise West Jerusalem as the capital, or a broader definition which recognised Jerusalem but without prejudice to future ­borders set in any peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. This is regarded as an important distinction, as any future border is likely to involve land swaps.

• Haifa’s Arab deputy mayor stepped down over comments in support of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Haifa
• Palestinian car-rammings were foiled by responding forces in Hebron and the northern Jordan Valley yesterday. No Israelis were hurt in either incident.

• Israeli security forces continue to search for the Palestinians who shot at a group of Israelis at the entrance to the Ofra settlement earlier this week. The Media Line examines the complexities of manhunts in the West Bank.

• At a gathering of Israeli diplomats, several ambassadors criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for budget cuts, poor salaries, and the shuttering of diplomatic missions, per Israeli media reports. Netanyahu also serves as acting foreign minister. Employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have gone on strike in the past, hobbling consular services.

• The Knesset passed a law allowing victims of sexual abuse to speak out without court permission. “Until now, the penal code has prohibited publication of details that could identify the victim unless a judge approved a victim’s letter of consent to publicity or ruled that publicity was permissible because of special circumstances.”

• I can’t imagine clerks at any other city hall in the world dealing with the likes of this:
Jerusalem Municipality Rejects Plea to ‘Practice Animal Sacrifice’ for Future Jewish Temple

HR Mission to Israel
• Factions within Australia’s Labour Party are trying to work out a compromise on granting recognition to a state of Palestine ahead of next week’s national conference. The Australian explains in a nutshell:

Under the deal, conference would pass a motion which “urges” Labor to recognise Palestine, but does not commit a future [Bill] Shorten government to immediately recognize a future Palestinian state if elected.

• Several Birthright trip providers said they’re seeing a sharp drop in US participation. They told Haaretz the reasons could be a change in eligibility for the free trips, or “that young American Jews are growing increasingly disengaged from Israel, and have less and less interest in visiting.”

Birthright
• Around the world: Canberra‘s Jewish community ‘living in fear’ due to anti-Semitic attacks. A Jewish teacher sued a New Jersey Catholic school after pupils “threw coins at him” and decorated desks with swastikas and antisemitic comments. Antisemitic, racist and homophobic graffiti was found at a Boston-area high school

Commentary
• Cheers to rocker Nick Cave for going out on a limb responding to musician Brian Eno’s support for boycotting Israel.

I think the cultural boycott of Israel is cowardly and shameful. In fact, this is partly the reason I am playing Israel – not as support for any particular political entity but as a principled stand against those who wish to bully, shame and silence musicians . . .

How far must we have strayed from the transformative nature of music to feel justified in weaponising music and using it to punish ordinary Israeli citizens for the actions of their government. Furthermore, what has brought us to the point where certain musicians feel it is ethically sound to use forms of coercion and intimidation, in the form of ‘open’ letters, on fellow musicians who don’t agree with their point of view?
Nick Cave
• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:

– Alex Fishman: Failing to deal with West Bank violence is a boon for Hamas
– Benny Avni: Israel’s blitz of Hezbollah’s terror tunnels will help win the PR war
– Amos Harel: Israeli operation against Hezbollah tunnels enters its explosive stage
– Jerusalem Post (staff-ed): UNIFIL’s moral mandate
– Avigdor Liberman: Nations of the free world must speak in unison on Iran
– Bassam Tawil: UN vote approves terror, torpedoes peace
– Gadi Shamni: It’s time to divorce the Palestinians
– Abe Greenwald: Finding the good in antisemites
– Daniel Schwammenthal: ‘Anti-Zionism’ threatens Europe’s Jews (click via Twitter)
– Michael Keshmiri: Don’t overlook antisemitism cloaked in progressive values
– Ron Kampeas: Here’s why the arrest of a Chinese tech mogul matters for Iran — and Israel

Featured image: CC BY-NC Jurg Stuker; Arkansas CC BY Stuart Seeger; Haifa CC BY-NC-ND Dr. Thomas Liptak; Cave via YouTube/Charles Slane;

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-10-2018-shooting-attack/
Pregnant Woman and Six Others Injured in Shooting Attack
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 10, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. Seven people were injured in a drive-by shooting attack at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Ofra. The most seriously hurt was 21-year-old woman in the 30th week of her pregnancy; doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Hospital delivered the baby by Cesarean section. Both are fighting for their lives.

Israeli security forces launched a manhunt; last night, Palestinians clashed with soldiers searching the nearby town of Silwad.

2. The IDF warned residents of two Lebanese border villages to temporarily leave their homes.

“Hezbollah built terror tunnels under Kfar Kila and Ramiyeh that infiltrate into Israeli territory, making the area a barrel of explosives,” read a Twitter post by the IDF’s spokesperson for Arabic media, Maj. Avichay Adraee. “We are determined to neutralize these tunnels, and we do not know the outcome of these actions on the relevant buildings on the Lebanese side.

3. The JCPA released a study on PA terror stipends in 2018. You can skim through the numbers yourself, but I consider this the, uh, money quote.

Dedicating around $340 million to arrested Palestinian terrorists and “martyrs,” which forms 7 percent of the overall annual budget for 2018, reflects the prominence the Palestinian Authority and its leadership give to incentivizing terror. Palestinian law considers terrorists as the “fighting sector of Palestinian society.” As U.S. and Israeli pressure increases on the Palestinian Authority to cease paying these incentives and revoke the law upon which they are paid, Mahmoud Abbas has insisted repeatedly that he will not do so. “Even if we are left with one penny, we are going to use it for paying the salaries to the Martyrs and prisoners of war,” he declared.

These details also refute once more the occasional Palestinian claims that the payments of salaries to the terrorists are a sort of welfare. It is evident that welfare payments are paid separately and are far smaller than the salaries and other benefits paid to the arrested terrorists.

HR Mission to Israel

In the News
• Here’s why UNIFIL is destined to remain toothless: If UNIFIL’s mandate were expanded from “monitoring” the Israeli-Lebanese border to actively stopping Hezbollah tunneling, few countries would volunteer personnel for that mission, the Jerusalem Post reports.

• Mahmoud Abbas said he intends to dissolve the Palestinian parliament, which anyway hasn’t met in 10 years.

Pesach Benson
@PesachBenson
 To put the PA's pace of change in perspective, the Columbia glacier has retreated approx 6 km (3.7 miles) since last time the Palestinian Legislative Council last met a decade ago. https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-says-hell-soon-dissolve-pa-parliament-which-hasnt-met-in-a-decade/ …

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8:05 AM - Dec 10, 2018
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• Netanyahu: El Al has permission to fly in Oman’s air space. It’s a welcome development, but until the Israeli airline gets permission to cross Saudi skies, don’t hold your breath waiting for shorter El Al flights to India.

• The Defense Ministry declared de-mining complete in three church compounds in Qasr al-Yahud. Sappers working for the the UK-based HALO Trust have been clearing out mines, booby traps and other unexploded ordinance. The holy site along the Jordan River is where Christians believe Jesus was baptized. It’s also thought by some as the location where the Jews entered the Holy Land after leaving Egypt and where the prophet Elijah ascended to heaven in fiery chariot.

Four other compounds still require de-mining, a job that expected to take months. Here’s a by the numbers look at the holy site based on visits by the Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and The Guardian.

– 6,500: estimated number of landmines and booby traps laid by Israeli and Jordanian forces over the years
– 100,000: square meters of land being de-mined
– 1,500: landmines cleared so far
– 22: sappers cleaning out the site
– 50: years the churches have been abandoned
– $10: cost of laying a mine
– $2,000: cost of removing a mine
– $2.6 million: donations to the HALO Trust for de-mining the site
– $2 million: Israeli government funding for de-mining the site
– 800,000: current annual visitors to Qasr-al-Yahud
– 2.4 million: expected annual visitors to Qasr-al-Yahud after de-mining

• The Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel picked up on a European Union report which found “nearly 90 percent of European Jews feel that anti-Semitism has increased in their home countries over the past five years.”

Thirty-eight percent said they had considered emigrating because they did not feel safe as Jews.

• Pittsburgh police are investigating antisemitic pamphlets in found in Squirrel Hill and other neighborhoods.

Commentary
• Marking the anniversary of President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, Michael Goodwin notes that the world hasn’t fallen apart over the recognition of the city’s capital status:

Ho-hum. It’s a year later and the sky still refuses to fall. Nor is the Mideast burning.

In fact, little or nothing has changed between the parties as a result of the announcement and the subsequent embassy move from Tel Aviv. There was no peace process at the time because the Palestinians had refused even to negotiate, and that remains the case.

• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:

– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Stop playing into Hezbollah’s hands
– Ruthie Blum: Tunnel vision and UNIFIL
– Jonathan Tobin: Hezbollah’s war on Israel takes precedence over Bibi
– Pinhas Inbari: Will Hamas challenge Fatah in the West Bank?
– Shimrit Meir: The optics of Qatar’s cash infusion to Gaza

Featured image: CC BY-NC Thomas Hawk;

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-09-2018-more-tunnels/
IDF Uncovers More Hezbollah Attack Tunnels
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 9, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. After uncovering Hezbollah terror tunnels two and three, Israel called on the UN and Lebanon to destroy them. According to the IDF, one of the tunnels “originated in the Lebanese village of Ramyeh underneath a number of homes and crossed into Israeli territory near the village of Zarit.”

See below for more developments with Operation Northern Shield.

2. A US-sponsored UN General Assembly resolution condemning Hamas failed despite unprecedented support carrying a majority of votes (Hamas supporters hijacked the resolution on procedures, requiring a two-thirds majority). In the end, 87 countries voted for the resolution, 57 opposed, 33 abstained and 23 were not present.

3. With Israeli approval, another $15 million was transferred to Gaza. The infusion of funds is part of an unofficial Israel-Hamas truce meant to end months of clashes along the Gaza border. How does Qatar oversee the distribution of the aid money?

4. Award-Winning Irish Journalist Tweets Antisemitic Conspiracy: Award-winning Irish journalist Gemma O’Doherty tweets a dog whistle promoting an antisemitic conspiracy theory on a white nationalist website.

In the News
• Is Hezbollah mobilizing missiles from Syria to south Lebanon?

• “Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday accused Israel of hacking into the country’s telephone network to warn southern Lebanese citizens of imminent Israeli military activity on the border, in what was described by Beirut as ‘extremely serious acts.'”

Israel frequently forewarns civilians to avoid certain areas ahead of military strikes in an effort to avoid non-military casualties. But the Israel Defense Forces warnings were condemned by Lebanon as tantamount to issuing a “direct threat against their lives.

• Is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lining up his ducks for a possible escalation with Lebanon? The PM is trying to set up a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Operation Northern Shield.

HR Mission to Israel

• The man appearing in the IDF’s tunnel video (and a Haaretz cartoon I rather enjoyed) was identified by i24 News. Surprise, surprise, he was educated in Iran, is a big fan of Ayatollah Ali Khameini and now has gone, uh, underground.

Dr. Imad “Azaladin” Fahs, a commander of the Hezbollah observation unit on the border with Israel, as well as a commander in the tunnel unit.

“Azaladin” who is in his 30’s, has a PhD in mechanical engineering from Tehran’s University of Technology and is married with two children.

According to the security official, “Azaladin” trained with Mexican drug cartels near the United States border.



• The Media Line takes a closer look at the complicated “under the table” relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

• “The Palestinian Authority (PA) has planted millions of olive trees in the West Bank in a ploy to lay claim to land and set facts on the ground, according to an internal report by the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA),” per Ynet.

• It turns out a Palestinian killed in a drive-by shooting in central Israel was wanted by the PA for allegedly selling West Bank land to Israelis. In PA law, selling land to Israelis carries the death penalty. Ahmed Salama, who denied being involved in land sales, had also been suspected of illegal arms dealing.

• AP irritates me.

Pesach Benson
@PesachBenson
 All year, #Hamas sent kids to ##Gaza border fence as cannon fodder. @AP humanizes victims w/o explaining Hamas responsibility, playing into terror group's hands https://apnews.com/6035b1d3293c4a298145afbff50ab844 …

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7:58 AM - Dec 9, 2018
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• Per Israeli media reports, Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to make formal and public relations with Saudi Arabia in time for Israel’s general elections next year. In recent weeks, Netanyahu visited Oman, hosted the president of Chad, and is reportedly eyeing relations with Bahrain, Sudan, Mali and Niger.

If the Netanyahu’s governing coalition completes its four-year term, elections would be held in November, but an early vote is widely expected.

• It’s now illegal for the muncipalities of Chile to boycott Israel.

• NYU student government passed a BDS resolution led by an Israeli Jewish student. Ohio State University student leaders overwhelmingly rejected an anti-Israel boycott — for the fifth time. Caving to pressure from Roger Waters himself, a Pink Floyd tribute band cancelled three Israeli gigs.

• Drip drip drip: “A new play about rising antisemitism that opens in a London theatre this week has become the target of antisemitic abuse.”

Commentary
• Believe it or not, China operating the new port of Haifa made one columnist’s most strategic moment of the year. Guven Sak raises some important points about the port and its regional ripple effects.

.Haifa port
View of the Haifa Bay in north Israel, on April 24, 2018. Photo by Yossi Zamir/Flash90
• Following the UN vote on condemning-not-condemning Hamas, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon argues that the UN missed a historic opportunity, while a New York Post staff-ed decried the body’s business as usual. And Khaled Abu Toameh unpacks why Mahmoud Abbas couldn’t support a condemnation of Fatah’s biggest political rival.

• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels weighing in on Operation Northern Shield . . .

– Ahmed Al-Jarallah: Who will save Lebanon from “Hezbollah”?
– Anna Ahronheim: How the next war with Hezbollah might have looked
– Amos Harel: ‘Nasrallah knows Israel’s DNA – and planned to shock us with Hezbollah attack tunnels’
– Yoav Limor: The unknown at the end of the tunnel
– Zvi Bar’el: What has really been on Nasrallah’s mind as Israel’s front with Hezbollah heats up
– Yaakov Katz: Netanyahu’s “wag the dog”
– Giora Eiland: Weakening Iran by targeting Hezbollah
– Elliott Abrams: UNIFIL and the Hezbollah tunnels
– Dr. Yaron Friedman: Hezbollah has tunnels in Syria and Yemen too
– Yoav Limor: Fog of war can’t conceal Hezbollah’s plotting

• Tweet of the day goes to Emmanuel Navon.
Emmanuel Navon עמנואל נבון

@emmanuelnavon
 The French government is about to award its "human rights prize" to @btselem, yet this how it treats high school students for taking part in anti-government demonstrations.@EmmanuelMacron and @EPhilippePM, we really appreciate your concern for human rights in Israel.

FRANCE 24

@FRANCE24
Dozens of students on their knees with their hands behind their heads. The images of this student protest in #MantesLaJolie have shocked people in #France

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-06-2018-un-hamas/
UN to Vote Today on Resolution Condemning Hamas
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 6, 2018

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Today’s Top Stories
1. The UN General Assembly is due to vote today on a resolution condemning Hamas terror. Haaretz explains that “if it passes, it will be the first time that Hamas is condemned by name in a UN resolution.” The vote is also viewed as the last stand of US Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is stepping down from the post at the end of 2018.

Apparently unable to block, delay or water down the US-sponsored resolution, the Palestinian Authority managed to push for a vote on a second resolution condemning Israeli policies in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. According to Haaretz, both resolutions are expected to pass. UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but often carry symbolic weight.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon is confident enough that he penned an op-ed declaring the UN no more the Palestinians’ home turf.

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Our strength is you.

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2. The IDF believes that Hezbollah intended to start a war by pouring forces through a tunnel to cut off the Israeli border town of Metulla. With enough men, Hezbollah could have isolated the town of approximately 1,400 people by simply blocking Route 90. Other Hezbollah forces would have been used to attack civilians and ambush responding military convoys.

The IDF also revealed for the first time that the tunnel was dug underneath a civilian building in the Lebanese town of Kafr Kela, which Hezbollah used to make bricks.



3. As the Mideast’s attention shifts to the Israel-Lebanon border, where does that leave the Gaza powder keg?

In fact, news about the diplomatic push to achieve a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas has conspicuously disappeared from the headlines. It seems that the Egyptian-, Qatari- and United Nations-mediated negotiating process has reached a standstill and, instead, the parties have resigned themselves to the return of the longstanding status quo of “quiet-for-quiet.”

HR Mission to Israel

In the News
• The UN Security Council will meet in the coming days to discuss the northern terror tunnels. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said that issues to be raised include the failure of UNIFIL peacekeepers to monitor southern Lebanon and the Lebanese Army’s failure to assert control over the border. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also briefed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

While Danon acknowledged that there was no chance of the Security Council passing a resolution against Hezbollah, the very existence of the meeting is significant because it will shine a light on Hezbollah’s activities.

• With the growing threat of Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal, Globes looks at Israel’s development of a new laser missile defense system “on the verge of being ready.” Each Iron Dome intercept costs around $80,000, and the system could be overwhelmed by Hezbollah’s heavier barrages.

A senior defense source told “Globes” that even Iron Dome would not be enough in the future. “The coming rounds of fighting in the Gaza Strip, not to mention a state of war in the north, will feature far heavier barrages against the home front. We need something that is also effective in interception costs and will make the war economy more feasible . . .” It is believed that Hezbollah is capable of bombarding Israel with 1,500 rockets and missiles a day, some of them precise.

lasers
lasers
• Bahrain’s foreign minister denied Mideast reports of plans for Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the Gulf state.

• An Irish bill that would criminalize the import of products from Israeli West Bank settlements passed another legislative hurdle and now heads to parliament’s lower house for further rounds of debate and votes.

• Amid controversy and questions about his conduct during the vetting process, Moshe Edri withdrew his candidacy to become Israel’s police chief.

• A Brexit campaign group called Leave EU is in hot water over an antisemitic tweet.

Commentary
• Blue and white spyware in the hands of dictators: Haviv Rettig Gur responds to Max Boot.


Haviv Rettig Gur

@havivrettiggur
 When any Israeli company, or even any Israeli individual, is "Israel" writ large.

If NSO Group is doing this, it's awful. But how can an American possibly have the moral standing to place "Israel," as a whole, on the dock when US defense industries do more and worse?

Max Boot

@MaxBoot
It’s understandable that Israel would employ brutal tactics such as targeted killings to ensure its own survival. But there is no excuse for enabling foreign oppression for profit. My latest in @PostOpinions: https://wapo.st/2RCDjl8 

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11:21 AM - Dec 6, 2018
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• Here’s other commentary/analysis I’m reading today:

– Dr. Mordechai Kedar: The mole inside the Hezbollah tunnel
– Smadar Perry: What is Nasrallah up to?
– Charles Bybelezer: Does Hezbollah really pose a greater danger to Israel than Hamas?
– Amos Harel: A Hezbollah blitzkrieg: Tunnels on border reveal attack plan
– Yaakov Lappin: Is Israel weighing strike options in Lebanon?
– Yoav Limor: Israel faces complex decisions on Lebanon
– Yoni Ben Menachem: The exposure of Israel’s intelligence collection in Gaza actually undermines Hamas

 

Featured image: CC BY birdy; lasers CC BY-NC-ND Meins Photography;

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

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-05-2018-northern-shield/
Operation Northern Shield Continues
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 5, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. Operation Northern Shield is expected to last several weeks because the land in the north is rockier, making efforts to locate and destroy the tunnels more complex. A limited number of engineering and air defense reservists were called up. On the diplomatic front, Israel called UN Security Council meeting.

Meanwhile, analysts told the Times of Israel that neutralizing the tunnel threat would be a necessary step before any action to go after Hezbollah’s missiles. And the Jerusalem Post the pulse of northern Israeli residents.

Last, but not least, the IDF released footage of Hezbollah goons having an unpleasant encounter with an army robot inside one of the tunnels — filmed before the army announced Op Northern Shield. I assume this took place on the Israeli side of the border. More on that at the Times of Israel.

2. Ynet examines what’s known about Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit. In a future war, that’s the unit expected to take the fight to Israeli soil — specifically to capture the Galilee.

The plan entails fighters from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit infiltrating Israel from Lebanon, entrenching themselves in Israeli communities near the border while taking hostages and using Israeli citizens as human shields.

According to the plan, Tehran is expected to aid Hezbollah’s operation by sending money and weapons sent to the Shiite terror organization, as well as militias to fight alongside Hezbollah.
 
3. Sydney University confirmed it served a termination notice to a professor who used an image of a Nazi swastika imposed over the flag of Israel in teaching material and on social media. The Australian and Sydney Morning Herald reports that Dr. Tim Anderson — currently suspended and banned from the campus — has been given one week to explain why he shouldn’t be fired.

Dr Anderson attracted criticism from federal education ministers for his numerous trips to Syria and North Korea, where he expressed solidarity with their dictatorial regimes and condemned Western imperialism and the United States.

He regularly posted on social media about the crimes of the “apartheid” Israeli state, and complained the mainstream media was complicit in distorting the narrative about Israel and Palestine.

The Australian

@australian
 Sydney University will move to fire a controversial lecturer Tim Anderson over images he used in his teaching https://trib.al/B6uMuIi 

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4:05 AM - Dec 5, 2018
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Uni to sack lecturer over swastika
Sydney University will move to fire a controversial lecturer after he was accused of using images of a cropped swastika in his teaching materials and on social media.

theaustralian.com.au
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Israel and the Palestinians
• The UN General Assembly is expected to vote on Thursday on a US-sponsored resolution condemning Hamas for indiscriminate rocket fire and terror balloons. The Jerusalem Post looks at Israel’s diplomatic push.

UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but can carry symbolic weight, which would explain why Hamas and Fatah are bedfellows trying to thwart the resolution. In a nutshell, Fatah considers the resolution harmful to the Palestinian cause and doesn’t want to look like it’s collaborating with the Trump administration.

United Nations
• Israeli communities near the Gaza border appealed to the High Court of Justice to block Qatar’s expected transfer of $150 million to Hamas.

The petitions stated that funds must not be allowed to go through as long as Gaza is run by the terror group Hamas, since there is no way to guarantee that they will not be used for terror and rocket attacks against Israel.

• PA officials denounced White House envoy Jason Greenblatt as “arrogant colonist” over his recent op-ed
arguing that Palestinians deserved more from their leadership. It was published in Palestinian media (in English at Maan News.)

• The United Arab Emirates’ Jewish community is tentatively emerging from the shadows. A below-the-radar synagogue in a residential neighborhood of Dubai serves ex-pat businessmen and university students as the UAE’s only Jewish institution. Both the Times of Israel and Bloomberg News visited.

Dubai
• A state comptroller committee rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to fund his legal defense through donations.

The committee concluded it “inappropriate” for tycoons to fund legal fees resulting from an investigation into alleged crimes concerning relations with other tycoons. Such funding, according to the committee, might harm the public’s trust in government.

HR Mission to Israel

Around the World
• A Hamas delegation visiting South Africa signed a memorandum of understanding with the ruling African National Congress party. Per The Algemeiner,

According to one pro-ANC news outlet, the memorandum “seeks to introduce practical steps in mobilizing the international community to pressure Israel to end its occupation of Palestine, including working towards the full boycott of all Israeli products.”

 Embedded video

MEMRI

@MEMRIReports
 Hamas Official Mahmoud Al-Zahar Visits Mandela's Prison Cell and Says to Palestinians Prisoners: You Will Drive out the Occupation and Rule Your Country like Mandela Did

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• It turns out the South African academic conference that disinvited Israeli academics over BDS also snubbed a Palestinian academic “because he has shown a more moderate position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” That’s according to a South African Zionist Federation statement picked up by South Africa’s Daily News.

The SAZF statement didn’t identify him, but the Palestinian academic is Prof. Mohammed Dajani of Ramallah’s Birzeit University. BDS says Dajani is not an “authentic” representative of the Palestinians. You can see Dajani’s statement in English towards the bottom of this page.) Dajani was hounded out of Al-Quds U. after taking Palestinian students to Auschwitz in 2014.

The conference on — of all topics — “Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation: The Light and Shadow of Historical Trauma” begins today at Cape Town’s Stellenbosch University.

SBS• Down Under, the publicly-funded SBS broadcasting network is threatening legal action against BDS Australia. SBS, which airs the Eurovision song competition, is refusing to back down from calls to boycott next year’s contest being held in Tel Aviv.

SBS says the BDS movement is illegally using its name and logo on its web site, social media and other promotional material.
• A BBC satire show called “The Mash Report” is under fire for hosting a “left-wing journalist” with a history of tweeting antisemitic conspiracy theories. One especially notable Steve Topple tweet called on Jews to “recognize and destroy their growing Zionist cancer.” I guess I’m too Zionist to understand the English irony of that line. See Jewish Chronicle coverage.

Summit
@SherpaGinseng
 Intriguing to see the Mash Report's @FinTaylorcomedy describe Steve "I'm not antisemitic I just said antisemitic things" Topple as a "devout left wing journalist" rather than a "delusional conspiracy theorist".
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1:33 PM - Dec 1, 2018
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Commentary
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels weighing in on Operation Northern Shield and its implications . . .

– Ron Prosor: What about the diplomatic angle?
– Avi Issacharoff: Of course Hezbollah was tunneling under the border. Why wouldn’t it?
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Tunnels are only a precursor to the real threat
– Zvi Bar’el: Locked in a political fight in Lebanon, Hezbollah is in no hurry to battle Israel
– Lilach Shoval: Hezbollah dealt a painful blow
– David Horovitz: The Netanyahu paradox: Guarding Israel from enemies without, causing harm within
– Ben Dror Yemini: Northern Shield not meant to shield Netanyahu
– Anshel Pfeffer: Has the IDF become the latest prop in Netanyahu’s battle for survival?
– Marissa Newman: Anti-tunnel operation in north kicks up coalition’s political dirt

• Over on Twitter, Elizabeth Tsurkov makes me go hmmmmmm

Elizabeth Tsurkov

@Elizrael
 A Syrian friend who lives in rebel-held Aleppo asked on Facebook his friends whom they would support in case of a war between Israel & Hezbollah. Thus far he got 44 comments, out of them 41 said Israel, 3 wished both sides would lose.

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• Worth reading: Larry Cohler-Esses weighs in on a flawed PBS video about Tehran’s Jewish community. (HonestReporting recently critiqued the PBS dispatch). Key snippet:

If someday an Iranian leadership less cautious than the present were to launch an actual full-blown attack on Israel with the assets it has in hand, the number of dead Israeli Jews could number in the tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. The assertion that it was an anti-Zionist attack rather than an anti-Semitic one, as demonstrated by the existence of a small community of Jews in Iran, wouldn’t make much difference to anyone.

• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today . . .

– David Pollock: For a state, Palestinians would cede “right of return” — and more
– Jonathan Tobin: Campaign against US-Israel police programs is the BDS Version of blood libel
– Ron Kampeas: Benjamin Netanyahu hated George H.W. Bush’s peace plan. Now it’s his policy.

Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Maria Biblik; UN CC BY-NC-ND United Nations Photo; Dubai CC BY-NC-ND mattharvey1;

https://honestreporting.com/idns-12-02-2018-netanyahu-police/
Police Recommend Charging Netanyahu — Now What?
BY PESACH BENSON  DECEMBER 2, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
1. Israeli police are recommending charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in the Bezeq corruption investigation. Netanyahu is suspected of having an understanding with Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq’s majority shareholder, in which the PM gave the telecom regulatory benefits in exchange for favorable coverage on the Elovitch-owned Walla! News. (The full cast of characters and claims of Case 4000 is complex, so Ynet‘s bullet points may be helpful.) Police are also investigating other allegations of corruption by the PM (more on that below).

The police recommendation has limited significance; the state prosecutors ultimately decide whether the evidence warrants an indictment. The Times of Israel explains where we go from here:

The recommendations now go to the Attorney General’s Office, where they will first be reviewed by the state prosecutor before going to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

Mandelblit, who will make the final decision whether to indict the prime minister, intends to examine all three cases at the same time, which will be possible only after he receives the state attorney’s recommendations based on the final police reports.

That process puts the likely date of any final word on whether a trial may be in Netanyahu’s future in late 2019, possibly after the next Knesset elections, currently slated for November 2019, but may very well be held earlier.

You’ll need a scorecard to keep up with the other investigations. The Netanyahus insist they are innocent of all the allegations.

– Case 1000 (the Gifts Affair): Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu are suspected of receiving thousands of shekels worth of illicit gifts from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and other wealthy benefactors.
– Case 2000: Netanyahu and Yediot Ahronot publisher Arnon Mozes struck an alleged quid pro quo in which the PM would advance legislation handicapping the rival Israel HaYom in exchange for more favorable coverage.
– Case 3000 (the Submarine Affair) regards suspected fraud by people close to the PM during the purchase of several naval vessels (Netanyahu is not a suspect in that).
– The Prepared Meals Affair: Mrs. Netanyahu is already on trial for misusing $100,000 in state money.

Our strength is grass roots.
Our strength is you.

2. CNN sacked Prof. Marc Lamont Hill over his speech at the UN calling for Israel’s destruction. Hill, who often appeared on the network as an analyst, called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” urged countries to boycott Israel and even approved of terror against Israel.

A statement by Temple University, where Hill teaches media studies, said the comments don’t reflect the university’s views, but said the professor “has a constitutionally protected right to express his opinion as a private citizen.” The Daily Wire rounded up Hill’s history of antisemitic remarks.

Hill took to Twitter to stand by his comments, then subsequently wrote more conciliatory letters published in then went on to write a more conciliatory letters an Temple News and Philadelphia Inquirer which you can judge for yourself.

CNN offered no explanation on the record for why it ditched Hill. But a CNN insider told The Daily Beast that executives had been on alert about Hill since October, when The Algemeiner published “Yes, Marc Lamont Hill is an antisemite,” which got the attention of the network brass.

See related commentary by David French and Yaakov Ahimeir, plus staff-eds by the Jerusalem Post and New York Daily News.

Also see which media outlets failed to note the real meaning of the phrase, confusing a call for Israel’s elimination with mere criticism of Israel in HonestReporting’s latest communique – Headline Fails: CNN Removes Marc Lamont Hill

3. In a special report, Reuters uncovered how Iran spreads disinformation throughout the world.

And how serious is Tehran’s campaign? One example Reuters cited was from 2016 when Another Western Dawn (AWD News), a fake news site associated with Iran, published a bogus report claiming Israel’s then defense minister Moshe Yaalon threatened Pakistan with a nuclear attack if it sent ground forces to Syria. Pakistan’s defense minister made waves by taking to Twitter to threaten Israel with a nuclear attack.

4. Protecting Children in Armed Conflicts: Using children in armed conflicts is, sadly, a worldwide reality. It’s not only child abuse, but also a war crime. What is the UN doing about it? And what can you do to help?

Israel and the Palestinians
• “The UN General Assembly in New York on Friday approved six anti-Israel resolutions including two that ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.”

• The European Union agreed to back a UN resolution sponsored by the US condemning Hamas as a terror organization and denouncing its rocket fire on Israel. The General Assembly is expected to vote on it on Monday. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but carry symbolic weight. The Times of Israel explains why it matters:

If adopted, the resolution would be the first General Assembly vote to condemn the Palestinian terrorist group. The EU’s support dramatically increases its chances of passing, though it is unclear whether it will guarantee the needed simple majority among the UN’s 193 member states.

More on the draft resolution at AP. Hamas, for its part, wrote a letter to UN officials arguing its rocket fire is legal.

HR Mission to Israel

• The Trump administration is now scrambling to preserve US aid to the Palestinians, AP reports.

The striking turnabout is the result of the belated realization that an obscure new law will likely force the U.S. to terminate all aid to the Palestinian Authority, including security assistance supported by Israel, by the end of January. Eliminating such aid, which totaled $61 million this year even as other assistance was being cut, would deal a blow to Palestinian-Israeli security cooperation that both sides value.

• With Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s recent visit to Moscow, The Media Line examines Russia’s involvement in Palestinian unity efforts.

• Wow. Deutsche Welle‘s Tim Sebastian really grilled Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat with tough questions about the PA’s handling of the peace process and relations with the US, Palestinian unity as well as democracy and nation building. At one point, an exasperated Sebastian tells Erekat he’s being saying the same thing for 20 years.

• Singapore Airlines is moving toward Tel Aviv flights.

Mideast Matters
• An air strike largely attributed to Israel hit an area of the Syria where Reuters says has Hezbollah has a “communications and logistics hub for southern Syria near the Israeli border.”

Among the targets struck were two Syrian army brigades where Lebanon’s Hezbollah group is embedded alongside a rocket depot close to its bases near the border with Lebanon, another Syrian army defector in touch with military personnel said.

• A suspicious Tehran-Beirut cargo flight heightened concerns that Iran is arming Hezbollah without even bothering to stop in more easily. What exactly was Fars Air Qeshm flight number QFZ-9964 carrying?

• For Israel, a rearmed Hezbollah in Lebanon is top concern.

Window Into Israel
• Moshe Edri’s bid to become Israel’s police chief reached a standoff when a government vetting panel rejected his nomination over questions of unspecified past conduct. The government approved Moti Cohen as acting police chief.

• With a new pipeline and additional desalination plants, Israel’s National Water Carrier will soon bring fresh water to the Kinneret Lake (a.k.a. Sea of Galilee) to stabilize the lake’s ecosystem and help provide water for both northern Israel and Jordan. More at Haaretz.

Kinneret Lake
Around the World
• Discussing the possible criminalization of importing goods from West Bank settlements, Simon Coveney — who serves as both as Ireland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and deputy head of government — said recently advancing legislation is not “legally sound or capable of being implemented”.

• Drip drip drip: If you complain to Labour about antisemitism in the UK party, you’re the one who gets in trouble.

• Tension broke out in the Johannesburg city council over a motion to re-name a street after Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled. You wouldn’t know from Jo’burg’s Saturday Star coverage that Khaled was convicted of hijacking a TWA flight in 1969 and trying to hijack an El Al plane as part of the Dawson field hijackings of 1970. The Star calls her “a member of the resistance movement the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”

If Jo’burg is really eager to change street names, I nominate Uri Bar-Lev, the El Al pilot who foiled Khaled’s plans.

• The Jerusalem Post takes a closer look at what Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s return as Speaker of the House of Representatives means for Israel’s relationship with Congress.

• Thanks to BDS pressure, police officers from Massachusetts and Vermont will not be traveling to Israel for a week-long seminar on dealing with counter-terror threats with their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, Haaretz reports.

• Miami suspended a cop caught on video trashing Jewish holy items. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating two separate attacks in one day on Jewish boys in Brooklyn.

• Antisemitic crimes rose by 60% in Canada.

Commentary
• The Dean of Ben Gurion University, Prof. Chaim Hames, denounces a South African university for “shamefully” caving in to BDS by disinviting Israeli academics from an upcoming conference by articulating exactly why South Africa loses more from this than Israel. Shimrit Meir worries about Donald Trump using Israel as an excuse for explaining unpopular moves.

While we’re on the addressing academia, Dr. Steve Gerzof writes an open letter to Tufts University about his alma mater’s disturbing course on “settler-colonialism.”

• A Canadian expert in international law, Dr. Jacques Gauthier, spent 20 years researching the claims on Jerusalem. He “concluded that Israel has unquestionable sovereignty not only over the whole city, but over Judea and Samaria as well.” Israel HaYom condenses Gauthier’s findings

“The ‘international consensus’ that keeps most of the countries that have diplomatic ties with Israel from moving their embassies back to Jerusalem . . . is a blatant violation of the international law on which it is supposedly based.”

• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today:

– Amos Harel: Battle between Israel and Iran shifting From Syria to Lebanon
– Ben-Dror Yemini: International Criminal Court judges biased against Israel
– Bari Weiss: Europe’s Jew hatred, and America’s
– Melanie Phillips: The lethal error in appeasing Iran
– Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror: Maintain the Africa momentum
– Sam Sokol: I’m a reporter. I left my synagogue because of attacks on the media.
– Archbishop Justin Welby: In the Middle East, Christians are under grave threat – let us show them they are not forgotten

 

Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND RStonejr; Netanyahu via YouTube/IsraeliPM; Kinneret CC BY Larry Koester; Pelosi via YouTube/PBS NewsHour; Jerusalem CC BY-NC-ND Etienne Valois;

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-29-2018-khan-al-ahmar/
Dutch Foreign Ministry Urges Jews to Protest ‘Occupation’
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 29, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. JTA: “The Dutch Foreign Ministry officially is urging Jews no matter where they are to speak out against Israel’s presence in the West Bank.”

An official ministry document listing as an objective actions that “encourage diaspora Jewish communities to voice their opposition to the occupation” appeared in a report published earlier this year on Dutch funding for the Breaking the Silence group.

It’s an unusual statement for European governments offering funding for organizations that they say are promoting peace or coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians. Breaking the Silence is a group of Israeli combat veterans who oppose the occupation.

Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands’ minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, once worked for UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides assistance to Palestinians, and is the wife of a former Palestinian Authority diplomat. Her ministry pledged $218,000 to Breaking the Silence in its 2018 budget.

Holland

2. “Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who met late Monday night, resolved to encourage Arab nations to establish economic relations with Israel,” according to an Arab report picked up by the Jerusalem Post.

Oireachtas logo3. The Irish senate advanced a bill criminalizing the import and sales of goods from West Bank settlements. The ban still faces a number of legislative hurdles before being signed into law; further debate is scheduled on Tuesday. According to the Jerusalem Post, “The bill calls for a fine of up to 250,000 euros or five years in jail for those found guilty of such activity.”

The Times of Israel reports officials in Jerusalem are keeping their cool:

Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday evening declined to comment. But in private conversations, Israeli officials appeared unperturbed, estimating that the government in Dublin will ultimately prevent the legislation from coming into force, even, if need be, blocking it technically from advancing.

Irish critics of the legislation say the legislation breaches international trade agreements and that only the European Union can enact such a ban. More at the Irish Times.

4. Whitewash: PBS on Iranian Jews: Whitewashing the Iranian regime may not have been the intention, but a dispatch’s lack of context does exactly that.

5. I’m pleased to see that HonestReporting’s legal action against Airbnb caught the attention of the Jerusalem Post and The Federalist.

Our strength is grass roots.
In the News
• Chad conditioned its restoration of ties with Israel on ‘extensive’ weapons sales and security cooperation, per Israeli media reports. Chad and other West African nations are fighting Boko Haram’s jihadist insurgency.

• The son of Brazil’s president-elect confirmed to Jared Kushner that the country’s embassy will move to Jerusalem.

“The question should not be whether we will do it, but when we will do it,” Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro told Jared Kushner during a meeting in Washington on Tuesday.

• For once, the grass is finally greener on our side. Thanks to winter rains, drone footage picked up by the Times of Israel shows foliage returning to Israel’s scorched Gaza-border areas.
• Palestinians claim more than 60 babies have been born from sperm smuggled by Palestinian prisoners out of Israeli jails.
• Globes takes a closer look at the challenges Israel faces in building the EastMed gas pipeline with Greece, Cyprus, and Italy.
• The IDF Home Front Command’s Search And Rescue Brigade was accepted as a member of the UN International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG). The Jerusalem Post explains what this means:
With accreditation, the Home front Command’s rescue unit can now join aid missions under the auspices of the UN to disaster-stricken countries around the world- including those countries who have no formal relations with Israel or even countries considered adversaries.
HR Mission to Israel
• Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, a talking head who periodically appears on CNN, stirred up controversy by calling for “a free Palestine from the river to the sea.” At a UN event, no less. The Jerusalem Post explains:

Hill accused Israel of denying “citizenship rights and due process to Palestinians just because they are not Jewish,” and expressed his support for the BDS movement. Hill stressed that, although peace is an ideal, “we must not romanticize or fetishize it. We must promote non-violence at every opportunity, but cannot endorse narrow politics that shames Palestinians for resisting, for refusing to do nothing in ethnic cleansing.”
Embedded video
Ryan Saavedra

@RealSaavedra
CNN's Marc Lamont Hill appears to call for violence against Israel and for the elimination of Israel, says, "Justice requires a free Palestine from the river to the sea."
The phrase "from the river to the sea" is a phrase used by those who believe Israel should be eliminated.
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• Around the world: A Holocaust scholar at Columbia University found swastikas and antisemitic slurs spray-painted on her office wall. Racist and antisemitic abuse in English football rose for the sixth year in a row. The Scottish National Party expelled a blogger accused of writing an antisemitic post. Houston authorities are investigating a synagogue fire as possible arson.
Commentary
• Here are the commentaries I’m reading today:

– Peter Lerner: It’s not so simple for Israel to just ‘end the occupation’
– Avi Bell: Is Airbnb violating the Fair Housing Act?
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Trump’s statements on Israel will boomerang
– Wall St. Journal (staff-ed): Education and antisemitism (click via Twitter)
– Yoni Ben Menachem: Iran prepares for escalation along Israel’s northern border
Featured image: CC BY-ND Willy Verhulst; Irish symbol via Wikimedia Commons; Dutch flag CC0 pxhere;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-28-2017-syrian-citizenship/
Syria Granting Citizenship to Iranian and Hezbollah Operatives?
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 28, 2018

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Today’s Top Stories
*** Breaking news *** After this roundup was published, a Palestinian associated with Islamic State was arrested in Italy, accused of plotting to poison public drinking water. Developing . . .

1. Is Bashar Assad granting Syrian citizenship to thousands of Iranian and Hezbollah operatives? The Jerusalem Post picked up on an alarming MEMRI report.

The report explained that “systematic action by the regime to settle [them] throughout Syria” served two purposes: concealing the fighter’s presence and changing the country’s demography.

Concealing the presence of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters in southern Syria could be seen as contravening understandings reached between Israel and Russia to keep such groups away from the Jewish state’s northern border.

Our strength is grass roots.

2. According to Israeli media reports, a senior Israeli diplomat secretly met with Sudanese officials last year in a bid to renew ties. Sudan cut ties with Iran in 2016 and is thought to be seeking Israeli help in having US sanctions against the African state lifted. Veteran Sudanese journalist Wasil Ali noted the lack of denials from Khartoum.
Wasil Ali
@wasilalitaha
 It's now safe to say that #Sudan no longer views normalization with #Israel as a taboo. @BarakRavid explosive report on secret meetings in #Turkey between the 2 sides generated no denial so far in Khartoum.

11:36 AM - Nov 28, 2018
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3. In a show of support for BDS, the faculty of California’s Pitzer College voted to end its study abroad program with Haifa University. Inside Higher Ed reports that the issue now goes to the College Council for a vote. The JTA adds that the move may divide the private liberal arts school’s 1,000 students:

The Pitzer student senate will vote on a resolution this week that condemns the faculty vote for being taken without student input and singling out Israel among all of the school’s study abroad programs. It also criticizes the faculty for seeking the “advancement of a political agenda at the expense of students . . .”

Pitzer College

In the News
• As this roundup was published, the Irish senate was due to debate and vote on legislation banning the import of goods and services from West Bank settlements.
• One Palestinian was killed in an unexplained explosion in the al-Bureij refugee camp. The building in the UNRWA-run camp is said to belong to Hamas. Last I saw, five people were injured and several others were missing.

• Survey finds 43 percent of Dutch Jews hide their identity, citing rising antisemitism.

• Spanish sports minister apologizes for canceling of water polo match against Israel due to BDS.

• Around the world: Israeli academics were disinvited from a conference in South Africa due to BDS pressure. An ‘antisemitism cover-up’ rocks Sweden‘s most prestigious medical institute. The former president of Georgia called a candidate’s Israeli aide a ‘dirty Jew.’ Several Jewish homes in Seattle were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.

HR Mission to Israel

Commentary
• Jonathan Marks weighs in on Pitzer College’s ivory tower anti-Israel insanity.

While it has become the norm to apply a double standard to Israel, an obsessive and exclusive focus on the deficiencies of the Jewish state can be anti-Semitic. Because the double standard is the norm, there is no reason to accuse anyone on Pitzer’s faculty of anti-Semitism. But there is good reason to accuse those who voted against study abroad in Israel of permitting themselves to be swept up in an anti-Semitic current. That’s plenty to be ashamed of.

• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today . . .

– Ben-Dror Yemini: The anti-Semitic propaganda worked on Airbnb
– Nahum Barnea: Netanyahu’s challenges as defense minister
– Gil Troy: Wanted: Responsible adultism at the UN against Hamas’s ‘kitetifada.’
– Jonathan Tobin: BDS is a bust in the Middle East, but it’s alive in America
– Barbara Kay: Will anyone stand up to Airbnb’s anti-Semitic boycott?

Featured image: CC BY David McDermott;

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

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-28-2017-syrian-citizenship/
Syria Granting Citizenship to Iranian and Hezbollah Operatives?
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 28, 2018

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Today’s Top Stories
*** Breaking news *** After this roundup was published, a Palestinian associated with Islamic State was arrested in Italy, accused of plotting to poison public drinking water. Developing . . .

1. Is Bashar Assad granting Syrian citizenship to thousands of Iranian and Hezbollah operatives? The Jerusalem Post picked up on an alarming MEMRI report.

The report explained that “systematic action by the regime to settle [them] throughout Syria” served two purposes: concealing the fighter’s presence and changing the country’s demography.

Concealing the presence of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters in southern Syria could be seen as contravening understandings reached between Israel and Russia to keep such groups away from the Jewish state’s northern border.

Our strength is grass roots.

2. According to Israeli media reports, a senior Israeli diplomat secretly met with Sudanese officials last year in a bid to renew ties. Sudan cut ties with Iran in 2016 and is thought to be seeking Israeli help in having US sanctions against the African state lifted. Veteran Sudanese journalist Wasil Ali noted the lack of denials from Khartoum.
Wasil Ali
@wasilalitaha
 It's now safe to say that #Sudan no longer views normalization with #Israel as a taboo. @BarakRavid explosive report on secret meetings in #Turkey between the 2 sides generated no denial so far in Khartoum.

11:36 AM - Nov 28, 2018
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3. In a show of support for BDS, the faculty of California’s Pitzer College voted to end its study abroad program with Haifa University. Inside Higher Ed reports that the issue now goes to the College Council for a vote. The JTA adds that the move may divide the private liberal arts school’s 1,000 students:

The Pitzer student senate will vote on a resolution this week that condemns the faculty vote for being taken without student input and singling out Israel among all of the school’s study abroad programs. It also criticizes the faculty for seeking the “advancement of a political agenda at the expense of students . . .”

Pitzer College

In the News
• As this roundup was published, the Irish senate was due to debate and vote on legislation banning the import of goods and services from West Bank settlements.
• One Palestinian was killed in an unexplained explosion in the al-Bureij refugee camp. The building in the UNRWA-run camp is said to belong to Hamas. Last I saw, five people were injured and several others were missing.

• Survey finds 43 percent of Dutch Jews hide their identity, citing rising antisemitism.

• Spanish sports minister apologizes for canceling of water polo match against Israel due to BDS.

• Around the world: Israeli academics were disinvited from a conference in South Africa due to BDS pressure. An ‘antisemitism cover-up’ rocks Sweden‘s most prestigious medical institute. The former president of Georgia called a candidate’s Israeli aide a ‘dirty Jew.’ Several Jewish homes in Seattle were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.

HR Mission to Israel

Commentary
• Jonathan Marks weighs in on Pitzer College’s ivory tower anti-Israel insanity.

While it has become the norm to apply a double standard to Israel, an obsessive and exclusive focus on the deficiencies of the Jewish state can be anti-Semitic. Because the double standard is the norm, there is no reason to accuse anyone on Pitzer’s faculty of anti-Semitism. But there is good reason to accuse those who voted against study abroad in Israel of permitting themselves to be swept up in an anti-Semitic current. That’s plenty to be ashamed of.

• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today . . .

– Ben-Dror Yemini: The anti-Semitic propaganda worked on Airbnb
– Nahum Barnea: Netanyahu’s challenges as defense minister
– Gil Troy: Wanted: Responsible adultism at the UN against Hamas’s ‘kitetifada.’
– Jonathan Tobin: BDS is a bust in the Middle East, but it’s alive in America
– Barbara Kay: Will anyone stand up to Airbnb’s anti-Semitic boycott?

Featured image: CC BY David McDermott;

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

https://honestreporting.com/idns-27-11-2018-israel-chad/
Israel to Re-Normalize Relations With Chad
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 27, 2018

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Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel and Chad are going to normalize relations, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will “soon” pay a visit to the African nation formalize the matter. Chadian President Idriss Deby departed Israel today, finishing a a three-day of a surprise visit where he and senior Israelis discussed cooperation on security, business, energy and other issues. issues. Jerusalem Post coverage.

Chad severed relations with Israel in 1972.

Chad

2. Sign of the times: Israeli ties with the Gulf states are indeed a thing. Israel’s Economy Minister Eli Cohen said he was invited to attend a conference in Bahrain in April. Also, Qatar confirmed that Israelis are welcome to attend the World Cup in 2022. And yesterday, Netanyahu told reporters that Israel is setting its sights on normalizing relations with Bahrain as well as the Muslim-majority African countries of Sudan, Mali and Niger (which the Times of Israel and Ynet elaborate on.)

The Palestinians are pushing back — by demanding an urgent Arab League meeting.

The Washington Post and The Media Line took closer looks at the Israel-Gulf shift; also worth a look is Norman Bailey‘s observations on press coverage of the thaw.

3. An Israeli reporter in Berlin was attacked by several men, one of whom threw a firecracker. Antonia Yamin, who works for Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, said she believes the men attacked her because she was speaking in Hebrew. A German report cited by the Times of Israel said the attackers were immigrants.

Yamin tweeted the video, explaining, “As you can see on the video you can’t report in Hebrew in Neukölln Berlin without being disturbed and without people throwing firecrackers at you.”

 Embedded video

Antonia Yamin
@antonia_yamin
 האמת שבסך הכל עבר עלי יום נחמד בעבודה. היו לי כמה מרואיינים מדהימים שאני כבר ממש משתוקקת שתראו בסדרת כתבות שתעלה בקרוב. בין מרואיין אחד לשני הייתי צריכה לעצור לרגע כדי לדווח על הסכם הברקזיט המתגבש. אבל מתברר שבשכונת נויקלן בברלין אי אפשר לדווח בעברית מבלי שיפריעו ויזרקו עליך נפץ

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4. Airbnb Breaks the Law, HR Takes Action: Airbnb’s boycott against Israel isn’t only immoral, it’s also illegal. And HonestReporting is taking action.

5. Today is Giving Tuesday. If you value these daily news roundups, and believe Israel should be treated fairly in the media, please support our work.

Giving Tuesday

Israel and the Palestinians
• According to an Arab report picked up by the Jerusalem Post and Israel HaYom, Hamas has agreed to implement a reconciliation deal with the PA, which would pave the way for the Mahmoud Abbas to take back control over the Gaza Strip.

But there’s no reason to hyperventilate — Hamas reportedly made this contingent on A) the creation of a Hamas-Fatah national unity government within 45 days, and B) general elections being held in the West Bank and Gaza within six months. How many times have we seen this dance before?

• Israel arrested 32 Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem accused of illegally working for the Palestinian Authority security services in Jerusalem. The PA is banned from operating in Jerusalem under Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements. And for the second time in recent weeks, Israel also arrested the PA Governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Geith. The Jerusalem Post explains what’s behind it all:

In recent weeks, the PA and its security forces have been waging a campaign against east Jerusalem residents suspected of involvement in the sale of houses to Israeli Jews. The PA government has formed a commission of inquiry into the recent sale of a house belonging to the Joudeh family in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter to an Israeli Jewish organization. The Palestinian religious authorities in the city have also renewed a fatwa (Islamic religious decree) prohibiting the sale of Arab-owned properties to Israeli Jews.

Our strength is grass roots.
Our strength is you.

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• USAID, (United States Agency for International Development) announced plans to shut down its operations in the West Bank and Gaza by early 2019. USAID officials told Haaretz that the Trump administration is seeking to pressure the Palestinian Authority to return to peace talks with Israel. Per the Times of Israel, the US agency has “spent roughly $5.5 billion $5.5 billion in the Palestinian territories on various construction projects” since the signing of the Oslo accords.

• Three Israeli soldiers were injured in a Palestinian car-ramming attack near the Gush Etzyon junction south of Jerusalem on Monday afternoon. The Palestinian driver was shot and killed by responding soldiers.

Around the World
• A CNN poll revealed disturbing antisemitic trends in Europe. Ignorance is rising as the memory and lessons of the Holocaust fade. How that ties in with Israel is complex. See related sidebar analysis, reactions and Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack‘s take.

Nearly one in five said anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people.


CNN

@CNN
 An exclusive CNN poll into anti-Semitism in Europe has found that one third of 7,000 people surveyed knew "little or nothing" about the Holocaust.

The survey also found that many people believe anti-Semitic stereotypes, and blame Jews for anti-Semitism. https://cnn.it/2RiRHyD 

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7:29 AM - Nov 27, 2018
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EXCLUSIVE: CNN poll reveals depth of anti-Semitism in Europe
CNN exclusive poll into anti-Semitism in Europe finds nearly one in five people believe anti-Semitism in their countries is a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people.

edition.cnn.com
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• Australian antisemitism have risen an unprecedented 60 percent in the past year, according to a report picked up by ABC News.

While the number of attacks increased only marginally, the threats increased by 147 per cent, particularly due to concerted campaigns of placing stickers and posters around synagogues and schools . . .

It also noted a correlation between a rise in antisemitic incidents and any spike in violence in Middle East conflicts — whether or not the conflict involved Israel.

• Los Angeles police arrested a man suspected trying to run over two Jews near a synagogue in an attack authorities are treating as a hate crime. Children overturned headstones in a Jewish cemetery in Poland. A London housing management company apologized to its Jewish tenants for threatening to remove their mezuzot.

Commentary
• Weighing in on the hypocrisy of Airbnb’s West Bank ban are Eugene Kontorovich (click via Twitter) and Eli Reiter. The latter describes what we lose to the blacklist:

Increased international scrutiny on the Israeli government is not new, but here, where its citizens are being punished, it feels more personal. The decision also goes against the company’s own ethos. Its goal, found in its site, is “creating a door to an open world—where everyone’s at home and can belong.”

Airbnb brought together visiting Israelis into Arab homes and vice versa, which has the potential to build bridges and foster mutual goals. There’s real value in the kind of cultural exchange that comes from sharing a home; of learning to be a guest and acting as a host, which is something I experienced myself, as a couch-surfing wanderer.

Airbnb

• Bre Payton unpacks how antisemitism is threatening to unravel the Women’s March while a New York Post staff-ed calls out Linda Sarsour’s failure to condemn Louis Farrakhan.

• Down Under, Chris Mitchell is unhappy with Australian coverage of the country’s Jerusalem embassy debate.

• Here are other commentaries I’m reading today . . .

– Shmuel Rosner: In Israel, war is for the weak
– Shlomo Pyuterkovsky: Netanyahu teaches his detractors a lesson in diplomacy
– Alex Fishman: Israel bolsters Hamas at PA’s expense
– Ron Ben-Yishai: The challenges the new IDF chief and his deputy will have to face
– Bassam Tawil: Media never talks about Palestinians killed in Syria
– Zvi Bar’el: How Mohammed bin Sultan put Saudi Arabia in debt to Trump and Netanyahu
Featured image: CC0 unsplash;

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

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-25-2018-islamic-state-sinai/
Islamic State in the Sinai Seizes Iranian Arms for Hamas
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 25, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. Islamic State in the Sinai seized an Iranian weapons shipment bound for Hamas, according to Mideast reports. Islamic State’s new toys which Hamas will have to do without include Russian-made Kornet anti-tank weapons and other GPS-guided arms. Relations between Hamas and IS have deteriorated over the past two years. Check out our explainer video on Hamas for more background.
At the risk of making your brain explode, try calculating all the “Enemy of my enemy is my friend” permutations in Jerusalem, Gaza, Tehran, Cairo and the Sinai.
2. The president of Chad, Idriss Deby, was due to arrive in Israel today in a surprise official visit. The African nation — which is majority Muslim — severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 1972, but in recent years, senior Israeli diplomats have visited Deby to pave the way for renewed relations.
Idriss Deby
Chadian President Idriss Deby
3. Qatar is reconsidering its cash transfers to Gaza. It seems the Qataris realized that delivering suitcases stuffed with cash to terror thugs made for terrible optics, per Israeli media reports.
According to a report on the Walla news site, a document circulated internally among Qatari officials argues that the transfer of money to Hamas was a “problematic” move that led to criticism from both Israel and the Palestinians. The document says the cash transfer “only reinforces the negative view of Qatar as a financier of terror acting against the Sunni states.” . . .

“In Qatar they fear that the transfer of funds will ultimately work against them,” the Israeli source said. “Instead of being perceived as rehabilitating Gaza, Qatar is perceived as financing Hamas and its military wing.”

4. HR Prompts West Bank Rocket Correction: HR corrects the record after The Independent reported rockets were fired from the West Bank.

Israel and the Palestinians
• Judges at the International Court in the Hague ordered chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to reopen her investigation into the Mavi Marmara affair. For the third time. Ten Turkish citizens were killed in violent fights against Israeli naval commandos which intercepted the ship in 2010 trying to break the Gaza blockade. See Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post coverage.

Czech flag• Czech President Milos Zeman was due to arrive in Israel today to inaugurate Jerusalem’s “Czech House.” A cultural center that will also host some office space, the Czech House will not have any diplomatic status, but is seen as a precursor for an embassy move to Jerusalem.

Zeman is also scheduled to address the Knesset. More on the president’s warm feelings for Israel at Ynet. Read more about the status of Jerusalem here, and check out this piece to understand why the issue is so sensitive.

• The Shin Bet foiled a Hamas-planned bombing in Israel. A Gaza cancer patient and her sister who had humanitarian passes to enter Israel were used to pass messages to the West Bank terrorists. More at Ynet.

• Jerusalem Post: The UN is expected to publish its blacklist of companies doing business in the West Bank, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem in March.

• While Israeli ties with the Gulf states have remarkably warmed, PA relations with them have more than soured. Why are the PA and Gulf states at odds?

• Clashes broke out in Hebron after the IDF raided a Palestinian wedding in search of illegal weapons. According to Israeli media reports, “the soldiers found a rifle and ammunition, which had been intended to be used in a terror attack.”

• According to Palestinian media reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post, the White House has postponed the launch of President Donald Trump’s peace plan to February.

• i24 News: France gave ‘sensitive’ intelligence to the Palestinians during the Second Intifada, including unspecified materials in diplomatic bags.
Mideast Matters
iranian atom• Worth reading: Journalist Ronen Bergman reveals new details about the Iranian nuclear documents the Mossad spirited out of Tehran, and about the mission itself.
So what is the purpose of the AMAD Project? The answer to this question too can be found in the archive. According to the material obtained in the Mossad operation, the Iranian plan is to produce five warheads with a yield of 10 kilotons each, and develop the ability to assemble these warheads on the Iranian-made Shahab 3 missile.
Incidentally, nuclear experts who examined the documents say that the Iranian leaders’ plan lays out far more extensive infrastructure than what is needed to produce “only” five bombs.
• Iran’s “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani called Israel a “cancerous tumor” and a “fake regime” established to advance US and Western interests. I liked David Harris‘s response:
David Harris
@DavidHarrisAJC
 In 2015, #Iran nuke deal fans said it would boost Iran’s “moderates,” led by Pres. Rouhani. 
US & EU leaders couldn’t say enough good things about him. I heard it myself.
Rouhani just called #Israel a “cancerous tumor” & “fake regime.”

With such moderates who needs extremists?
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Window Into Israel
• The Media Line takes a closer look at the battle within the IDF over its state of combat readiness.
Military preparedness is a sensitive issue in Israel, given the Jewish state has for its entire history been surrounded by enemies and thus perpetually on the brink of conflict. Also, every Israeli is drafted into the army at eighteen years of age and may thus be called to battle at a moment’s notice.
IDF soldier
• Evergreen headline: Haredi parties threaten to bolt coalition as PM declares IDF draft law stands.
• I’m a little surprised it took this long, but Israel appointed its first male Ethiopian judge.
• Israel, Cyprus, Greece and Italy reached an agreement to build a $7 billion EastMed Pipeline Project to supply natural gas to Europe. According to Israeli media reports, “As part of the agreement, Israel and Cyprus will be granted preference over other countries in exporting gas to the European market.”
 Embedded video
Dana Weiss

@danawt
 Exclusive: Israel has signed an agreement between four countries to supply Europe with natural gas. The agreement signed by Israel, Greece, Italy and Cyprus, will create an underwater pipeline that runs 2,000km & will be the deepest and longest underwater pipeline in the world

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Around the World
• “A man was the victim of an antisemitic assault on a bus in Wales on Monday after his mother reportedly told another passengers of she was born in Israel.” A soccer match in Argentina turned violent amid fans’ chants of ‘killing the Jews to make soap.’ A Wisconsin school board ruled that high school students who posed for a photo giving a Nazi salute is protected free speech, and no disciplinary action would be taken.
• Sanity prevailed at Cardiff U., where the student union voted against a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli institutions which also claimed to “protect” Jewish students.
HR Mission to Israel
Commentary
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:

– Yossi Yehoshua: Hamas and Israel move to psychological warfare
– Gideon Sa’ar: A case for preemptive action
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: Are IDF soldiers more afraid of their lawyers than they are of Hamas?
– Amos Harel: Now Defense Minister, Netanyahu suddenly warms to security establishment’s demands
– Yossi Beilin: A dangerous game
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: We cannot accept anything from Trump

Tweet of the day goes to Kay Wilson . . .

View image on Twitter
(((Kay Wilson)))
@kishkushkay
 Take note #Airbnb ,

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-22-2018-putin-iran/
Putin Offered to Remove Iran From Syria – For a Price
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 22, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to remove Iranian personnel from Syria if the US dropped sanctions placed on Russia following the 2014 takeover of Crimea. Is the idea likely to bear fruit?
Meanwhile, the US Treasury connected the dots of Iranian funding for Hezbollah, Hamas Mideast terror groups by funneling the money through Russia and Syria — with a UK connection. Thumbs up to Reuters and the Times of London for picking up on the story, noting:

It is the first time that Russia has been identified to be playing a role in financing the organisations, and shows how Moscow and Tehran have been drawn into a close relationship against the US through their mutual support for President Assad of Syria.
View image on Twitter
Tobias Schneider

@tobiaschneider
 Very interesting designation: Treasury lifts veil on Russia-Iran network facilitating oil shipments and payments for Assad regime, Hezbollah and Hamas. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm553 …
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5:03 PM - Nov 20, 2018
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2. Israel HaYom reports of a devastating and unprecedented rift within Hamas, between the followers of supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh and Gaza strongman Yahyeh Sinwar. This division is said to have undermined Egypt’s efforts to mediate a ceasefire and even led to Hamas goons firing at each other.
Several Hamas officials in both camps said that the Egyptian mediators have also realized that engaging with Sinwar was more effective than negotiating with Haniyeh.

“It’s not for nothing that all the recent talks involved Sinwar. The Egyptians don’t really see the point of talking with Haniyeh,” one official said.
See also Daniel Siryoti‘s take.

3. Fatah official confirms Abbas ordered a crackdown on Palestinians suspected of selling eastern Jerusalem property to Jews. Indeed, a PA court sentenced two Palestinians to 15 years of hard labor yesterday.

Israel and the Palestinians
• Airbnb is A) testing US law on boycotts after dropping West Bank settlement listings and B) next looking into dropping listings from the disputed Western Sahara.

Meanwhile, Airbnb hosts in the West Bank told Haaretz they were offended by the blacklist as a matter of principle but said it wouldn’t make a significant impact.

• The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate called on the European Broadcasting Union to boycott next year’s Eurovision competition which Israel will be hosting in May. According to the Jerusalem Post, “It was not clear why the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate chose to call for boycotting the song contest despite the decision to hold it in Tel Aviv.”

HR Mission to Israel

• Does the 55-year-old Dimona nuclear reactor need to be overhauled or replaced, and what does this mean for Israel’s alleged nuclear weapons program?

• Jordanian officials reportedly asked Israel to boost the amount of water supplied to the Hashemite kingdom. Israel currently sends Jordan 50 million cubic meters of water as part of peace agreements.

Mideast Matters
Iran fingerprint• If you listen carefully, you can hear the mullahs laughing in Tehran. The Independent reports that Europe is refraining from a harsh response against Iran over a series of busted terror plots on European soil — for fear of emboldening US President Donald Trump.

Officials don’t want to hand hardline Tehran rivals of president Hassan Rouhani ammunition that could jeopardise his efforts to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the landmark nuclear deal . . .

Nor do officials want to give Trump, whom they consider a threat to the world order, any satisfaction or encouragement . . .

In effect, they are shielding Iran from the consequences of its reckless actions just as the Trump administration has protected Saudi Arabia’s leadership following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Window Into Israel
• The Israeli-American responsible for making thousands of hoax bomb threats to Jewish institutions, hospitals, malls and airlines in North America and around the world was sentenced to 10 years in jail by a Tel Aviv court.

Because of a gag order, the Israeli media refers to him as M. or, sometimes, the Ashkelon hacker. M. suffers from autism and a brain tumor, and the US may still seek his extradition. More at the Times of Israel, Haaretz and Jerusalem Post.

• Police are recommending an indictment against Interior Minister and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri, who is suspected of tax evasion to the tune of NIS 2 million ($540,000), per Israeli media reports.

• I thought I made aliyah to get away from this . . .

Black Friday

• Closing the chapter on an Israeli #MeToo moment, “David Keyes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s international media spokesman, will reportedly resign after the Civil Service Commission recently closed its informal probe of the accusations against him.”

• A months-long battle between the IDF ombudsman and the military brass over the adequacy of the army’s combat-readiness continues . . .

Around the World
• Campus calumnies: The Canadian Federation of Students, which represents 500,000 students, threw its support behind BDS. To the ire of Jewish students, City, University of London cancelled a speaking engagement by Amb. Mark Regev claiming security fears. And the Cardiff University Students’ Union was due today to debate a motion “calling for a boycott of Israeli institutions while claiming to ‘protect. . . Jewish Students.’”

City, University of London

• The US rejected a Netanyahu request to allow Jonathan Pollard to move to Israel. Pollard, now 64-years-old, spent 30 years in prison for providing Israel with top secret classified info. He was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995, but the terms of his parole currently do not allow him to leave the US.

• Two Jewish police officers in Philadelphia sue department alleging antisemitic harassment by colleagues. Three swastika incidents in nine days at Cornell U. Man arrested for alleged antisemitic rant on flight to Atlanta. And last but not least (drip, drip, drip) UK Labour councillor apologized for sharing antisemitic material online “without reading it properly.”

Commentary
Operation Magic Carpet
Yemenite Jews en route from Aden to Israel, during the Operation Magic Carpet (1949–1950).
• Be sure to mark November 30 on your calendar. It’s Israel’s little-known official day for commemorating Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Ashley Perry explains:

It is an uphill battle and one that our opponents do not want to become widely known, because it flips on its head all standard notions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including conquest, oppression, and indigeneity. I know of an academic who tried to hold a purely historical conference on the history of the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, and was turned away by dozens of American universities, even Jewish-studies departments, because the subject matter was considered “too controversial.”

Digest that for a moment: the 2,000- to 3,000-year history of Jewish communities — their achievements, their successes, their suffering — was deemed too controversial.

We should not allow the suffocation and extinction of these historic communities to be erased from the pages of history. We should share their stories and keep their memories alive, especially their destruction, which was largely ignored around the world.

• Iran’s nuclear archive shows it planned to build five nuclear weapons by mid-2003.

• Here’s what else I’m reading today

– Omer Benjakob: Why Airbnb will have a hard time enforcing its settlement ban
– Amb. Alan Baker: Saeb Erekat, Airbnb and BDS
– Ben Cohen: Northern Cyprus, Western Sahara, Tibet — the ‘occupied territories’ still available on Airbnb
– Jonathan Tobin: Boycott Airbnb, unless you’re good with antisemitism
(((Emanuel Miller)))
@emanumiller
 Dear @Airbnb,
My Jewish grandfather, along with many thousands others, fled from Iraq, losing property there, as a result of the Farhud (murderous pogrom in 1941).
Please delist all stolen Jewish lands in Iraq.
And Syria. And Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Libya, Morroco, Jordan, etc.
738
3:37 PM - Nov 21, 2018
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– Alex Fishman: Hamas has run out of credit
– Reuven Berko: Israel’s patience in Gaza will pay off
– Moshe Arens: Iron Dome is not a full solution
– Greg Sheridan: Australia should recognize West Jerusalem but defer embassy move
– Carly Pildis: The Women’s March must listen to Jewish women NOW
– Benjamin Kerstein: Linda Sarsour’s ‘apology’ fails to mention her own antisemitic statements or Farrakhan
– Prof. Efraim Karsh: The depths to which the Oslo process drove Israel
– Joe Mulhall: Holocaust denial is changing — the fight against it must change too
Featured image: CC BY-NC smilla4;; Iran CC0 Pixabay; university CC BY-SA Stephen McKay; Operation Magic Carpet via Wikimedia Commons;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-18-2018-coalition-fate/
Israeli Government’s Fate to Be Decided Tonight
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 18, 2018
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Today’s Top Stories
1. As this roundup was published, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to meet this evening with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon in a last-ditch bid to save his tottering governing coalition. Following last week’s resignation of defense minister Avigdor Liberman, who opposed the PM’s ceasefire with Hamas, Netanyahu’s coalition shrank to a barely-there 61-59 Knesset majority. Kahlon leads the centrist Kulanu party, which has 10 seats, and Kahlon said last week he favors early elections.

Meanwhile, Naftali Bennett threatened to take his eight-seat Bayit Yehudi party out of the coalition if he is not appointed Defense Minister. Bennett is currently Minister of Education. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who leads the seven-seat Shas party, added further pressure on the PM by coming out for early elections.

If Netanyahu succeeds in holding together a coalition for the remainder of his four-year term, the next elections would be held in November, 20019. We’ll know more tonight . . .

Bennett, Netanyahu, Kahlon
Left to right, Naftali Bennett, Benjamin Netanyahu and Moshe Kahlon
2. Defying Israel and the US, Mahmoud Abbas signed paperwork to join a 11 nternational organizations and conventions, including the International Postal Union, with the forms to be formally submitted this week. The US does not recognize Palestinian statehood, and federal law requires Washington to stop funding organizations where the Palestinians have full membership.

Washington is mulling consequences.

3. Linda Sarsour: Jews who oppose antisemitic Muslim congresswoman have dual loyalties.

In the News
• The US raised eyebrows by voting for the first time against a UN committee’s draft resolution denouncing the “illegal occupation” of the Golan Heights after years of US abstentions on the issue. AP adds that the UN General Assembly will vote on it in December. Ambassador Nikki Haley explained the shift in this statement. Could this augur US recognition of Israeli control over the Golan?
The resolution is plainly biased against Israel. Further, the atrocities the Syrian regime continues to commit prove its lack of fitness to govern anyone. The destructive influence of the Iranian regime inside Syria presents major threats to international security. ISIS and other terrorist groups remain in Syria. And this resolution does nothing to bring any parties closer to a peace agreement.
It was one of nine resolutions slamming Israel by the “Special Political and Decolonization Committee” on Friday. More at UN Watch.
• Jerusalem Post: “In an unprecedented move, Egyptian intelligence officials on Friday attended a Hamas rally for the Palestinians who were killed in last week’s clash with an elite IDF unit in the southern Gaza Strip.”
• Angela Merkel lobbied Romania not to relocate it embassy to Jerusalem. And Australia and Malaysia are at loggerheads over the possibility of Australia moving its embassy to Jerusalem (Aussie Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad’s opposition was simply because he’s an antisemite.) As if the Romanian and Australian embassies are any of Merkel and Mahathir’s concern . . .
• Stunning tweet from the Daily Telegraph’s Raf Sanchez.
Raf Sanchez

@rafsanchez
 · Nov 15, 2018
Replying to @rafsanchez
Hamas are super paranoid after the Israeli commando raid and are looking for collaborators. We went through lots of new checkpoints. There was much more scrutiny of foreign journalists and they searched our bags on the way out.
Raf Sanchez

@rafsanchez
We got a sense of how careful Israel was to avoid civilian casualties during the airstrikes in #Gaza. The Israeli army called one guy we met and spent 45 mins on the phone with him, getting him to evacuate his neighbours, before they blew up a Hamas media building next to his.
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• An elite IDF commando injured in last week’s Gaza-op gone-awry was released from the hospital. Doctors at Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center said the soldier, whose name hasn’t been released, is in “good condition for rehabilitation.”
• Palestinian shunned for selling land to Jews to be buried in Jewish cemetery.

• Was an Israeli agent killed in an Iranian air strike on Iraq’s Kurdish region?

HR Mission to Israel

• The Jerusalem Post picked up on the latest revelations from the Paris trial of 15 Hezbollah operatives accused of laundering massive amounts of drug money in Europe and South America. It seems they took advantage of weak German anti-terror finance policies to launder “as much as one million euros per week during the high point of its operation.” More on the trial at The National.

Window Into Israel
• The New York Times takes a closer look at how Netanyahu would fare if Israel goes to early elections.

• Per Israeli media reports, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife will reportedly be questioned as a suspect in a case involving suspicions she lied to the State Comptroller regarding the employment of a former aide-turned-state witness.”

Mrs. Netanyahu and an employee of the Prime Minister’s Office are already accused of fraudulently spending $100,000 in state funds to pay for catered meals. The trial, which began in October, moved to criminal arbitration on Thursday. The Prime Minister’s wife maintains her innocence.

• Meet Israel’s first Druze news anchorwoman, Gadeer Mreeh.

Gadeer Mreeh
Gadeer Mreeh, Israel’s first Druze anchorwoman
Around the World
• Drip drip drip: Since 2016, thousands of British Jews have applied for foreign passports, either because they want to retain EU citizenship after Brexit, or because they fear rising antisemitism and the likelihood of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister. According to the Times of London, most inquiries have focused on Germany, Spain and Portugal, as well as Israel.

• Drip drip drip: British parliament hosted an Israel-hating Jordanian lawmaker who once praised a gunman who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls as a “hero,” the Daily Mail reports.

• Kentucky governor’s executive order bans state contracts to businesses supporting BDS.

• A drunk man sparked panic at a Baltimore performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” when he yelled “Heil Hitler, heil Trump” during an intermission. A number of people in the audience ran out fearing 58-year-old Anthony Derlunas was going to open fire. Before being ushered out of the theater, Derlunas told police a scene in the play reminded him of his hatred for the US president.

The police explanation for why Derlunas wasn’t charged with any crime puts a new twist on yelling fire in a crowded theater.

“As reprehensible as those words are, they are considered protected free speech because nobody was directly threatened,” police spokesman Matt Jablow said in an email.

Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
• Police are investigating incidents of antisemitic graffiti on the campus of Cal. State Fullerton and at a Miami Beach synagogue.

Commentary
• Knesset member and former chief IDF spokesman Nachman Shai called for reforms in the IDF Spokesman’s Unit and the Military Censor in light of criticisms following last week’s Gaza violence.

During the difficult days this week, a flood of information from the field reached the public long before the authorized officials could respond. After this round of fighting, and with the clear expectation of additional rounds in the future, these two media organizations, which both deal with information – one disseminating it and the other in keeping it under wraps – must reexamine themselves. They will very soon be put to a new test, and they should be ready for it.

• A diverse group of British-Jewish thinkers were invited to share their thoughts on the evolving relationship between UK Jewry and Israel, whether there’s a ‘potentially seismic change’ in the way the community relates to and talks about Israel. They all weighed in at the Fathom Journal.

flags

• Here’s what else I’m reading today:

– Amos Harel: Early elections will limit Netanyahu’s room for maneuver in Gaza
– Anshel Pfeffer: Why the timing of the Israeli election matters so much to Netanyahu and his rivals
– Lahav Harkov: How Netanyahu can save this coalition
– Avi Issacharoff: We should all hope the victories of Gaza’s Yahya Sinwar haven’t gone to his head
– Zev Chafets: Netanyahu made the right call on Gaza
– Dan Feferman: What is Hamas’s end-game? Escalation control
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Why renewed US sanctions on Iran are good news for Palestinians
– Amos Harel: Putin’s interests in Syria and Lebanon limit Israel’s options
– Elliott Abrams: Are American Jews disenchanted with Israel?
– Ben Shapiro: Intersectionality leads to ignoring antisemitism. Here’s why
– Soeren Kern: First Muslim women in US Congress misled voters about views on Israel

Featured image: CC BY woodleywonderworks;; Bennett via YouTube/CBS New York; Netanyahu via YouTube/VOA News; Kahlon via YouTube/Moshe Kahlon; Mreeh via YouTube/themedialine; Fiddler on the Roof via YouTube/guru006; Israeli flag via YouTube/Jewish National Fund of Canada British flag via YouTube/easyaccessenglish;

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

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-15-2018-liberman-fallout/
Fallout From Liberman Resignation Continues
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 15, 2018
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Today’s Top Stories
1. The political turmoil from Avigdor Liberman’s resignation continues: The Bayit HaYehudi party threatened to quit the coalition if its leader, Naftali Bennett, was not offered the defense portfolio. Cabinet ministers Moshe Kahlon and Aryeh Deri urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call early elections. And leaders of the Orthodox parties were tight-lipped but skeptical about what the turmoil would mean for the issue of army conscription for yeshiva students.

With the likelihood of early elections, the White House can’t roll out its peace plan. (UPDATE: Shortly after this roundup was published, Haaretz quoted White House officials that the peace plan will still be released within 2-4 months). And last, but not least, Hamas celebrated Liberman’s resignation as ‘victory for Gaza.’
2. Not-so-great moments in coexistence: The Associated Press reports the PA suspended a Palestinian police chief and referred him to an “investigative committee” after photos surfaced on social media showing him helping Israeli soldiers change a flat tire in the Hebron area.

3. Minnesota’s newly-elected Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar says she backs BDS after having told a Jewish audience during her campaign that it “stops the dialogue” and is “counteractive.”
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinians laid Mahmoud Abu Asabeh to rest in Hebron yesterday. He was the only person killed during Hamas’ rocket barrage earlier this week. The Times of Israel notes that no senior Fatah or PA officials attended the funeral. Asabeh, a 48-year-old contractor, was killed when a rocket struck the Ashkelon apartment building where he worked.

• Three policemen were lightly injured when they were stabbed by a Palestinian who snuck into a Jerusalem police station by scaling a fence on Wednesday night. A fourth officer was lightly hurt during the scuffle to subdue the attacker.

HR Mission to Israel

• While foreign dignitaries visiting the Western Wall have become more common in the last two years, the Czech Republic’s foreign minister managed to raise eyebrows in Israel and ire in the PA. That’s because Tomas Petricek visit “marked the first time a European foreign minister was joined at the wall by an Israeli diplomat.”
The EU, like much of the international community, does not recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, and so officials of member states usually refrain from going there in the company of Israeli officials. European dignitaries who want to visit the site usually do so in a private capacity.
Petricek later told Palestinian media that a planned Czech cultural center in Jerusalem won’t have any diplomatic status, and that Prague does not intend to move its embassy out of Tel Aviv.
Around the World
• Stealing a page from former American football star Colin Kaepernick, two students at a Cape Town Jewish school were disciplined after they “‘took a knee’ in solidarity with Palestinians while Hatikva was sung during an award ceremony.” Kaepernick polarized the National Football League in 2016 by kneeling during the pre-game national anthem in protest against police brutality.
kneeling
Eric Reid (left) and Colin Kaepernick (right) take a knee during the national anthem in 2016
• Over at the University of Tennessee, antisemitic hate messages, swastikas and other Nazi symbols were painted on an iconic campus boulder known as The Rock. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that this is the second time in two weeks The Rock was defaced like this.

• A French Jewish mayor’s home was covered with antisemitic graffiti. Police in Brumath, near Strasbourg, “have no suspects in the incident, which occurred on the 80th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogroms,” per the JTA.
• A drunk Irish lawyer had a horrible meltdown when neither her alleged status as an international human rights lawyer for the Palestinians nor her threats of a boycott against Air India impressed the flight crew to serve her extra wine, poor thing. According to the Daily Mail, Simone O’Broin was arrested by British police upon landing at Heathrow Airport. Indian journalist Tarun Shukla‘s video of part of the foul-mouthed rant went viral, reinforcing Israeli suspicions that a lot of pro-Palestinian activists are just bigoted bullies.
They said she allegedly stole a second bottle from the service area in direct defiance of airline staff, and shouted at the cabin crew for up to five hours.

 Embedded video
Tarun Shukla

@shukla_tarun
 Irish lady behaves in such an abusive, racist way with @airindiain crew for being refused extra drinks. Very decent AI crew behaviour. Arrested on landing. Wonder if she should have been controlled onboard with handcuffs. @JitiBhargava @Mohan_Rngnathan
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• Shutterstock, one of the largest companies selling photos and illustrations online, deleted antisemitic images from its site.

Commentary
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels on Israel’s political tumult and the Gaza situation.

– Jonathan Tobin: Hamas rockets and the idea of two states
– Pinhas Inbari: A “joint operations room” in Gaza – the new factor in Gaza’s balance of power
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Israel-Hamas ceasefire pushes Abbas towards irrelevancy
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Netanyahu’s strategic gamble in Gaza
– Nahum Barnea: Netanyahu let Hamas win
– Yoav Limor: Slogans don’t win wars
– Weekly Standard (staff-ed) A ceasefire in Gaza
– Washington Post (staff-ed): After an explosion of violence, Netanyahu chooses peace in Gaza
– Lahav Harkov: Can Netanyahu’s teetering government survive?
– David Horovitz: Israelis aren’t happy with Netanyahu, but still look mainly to him to solve Gaza
– Raoul Wootliff: Liberman’s exit puts election ball in Netanyahu’s court, but not on his terms
– Amos Harel: Avigdor Lieberman: The Israeli Defense Minister who never was

• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Ira Rifkin: Beat the journalism clock: Track rising anti-Semitism via Jewish and Israeli news media
– Ariel Sobel: The Women’s March is victim blaming. Again.
– Jonathan Kaplan: How anti-Semitic stereotypes from a century ago still echo today
Featured image: CC BY Matthew G; Netanyahu via YouTube/Elizabeth Rimini; Kaepernick via YouTube/ABC News;

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-14-2018-liberman-resigns/
Defense Minister Resigns, Raising Odds of Early Elections
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 14, 2018
Today’s Top Stories
1. Raising the prospect of early elections, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman resigned in protest against the unofficial ceasefire reached between Israel and Hamas. The departure of Yisrael Beiteinu and the party’s five Knesset seats leaves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition with a barely-there 61-59 majority. So what happens next?

Political jostling for the Defense Ministry has already begun, with Education Minister Naftali Bennett and several Likud ministers claiming they are Liberman’s rightful heir.

However, there is also a chance that Netanyahu will choose to hold an election immediately, rather than try to keep the coalition together with a one-seat majority.

A senior Likud source said that there is no reason to call for elections, and that Netanyahu will retain the defense portfolio for himself.

We had a little photoshop fun in the office today . . .
HonestReporting

@HonestReporting
 Breaking News:

More in today's IDNS...
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12:31 PM - Nov 14, 2018
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2. An “unofficial” ceasefire went into effect, bringing a respite from rocket barrages, sirens and air strikes. Southern Israel returned to “normal,” Gazans celebrated “victory,” and the UN Security took no action after discussing the crisis. More at the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter). See also Ynet coverage of yesterday’s cabinet deliberations.

3. Moshe Lion was elected mayor of Jerusalem, defeating fellow city council member Ofer Berkovitch in yesterday’s runoff election.

Lion — Jerusalem’s first mayor of Sephardi descent — is a former accountant who in 1996 was appointed managing director of the Prime Minister’s Office (during Benjamin Netanyahu’s first term). He became a member of the Jerusalem city council in 2013 after failing to unseat incumbent mayor Nir Barkat. Don’t expect the new mayor to enjoy much of a honeymoon period. Globes explains why:

Lion’s party did not win a single council seat, thus making the work of forming a council coalition very difficult.

See Ynet for the outcomes of other municipal runoffs. And don’t bother parsing the results for national trends. As Reuters notes, “many candidates run as independents or on non-traditional party lists, making it difficult to gauge any broader political impact from the results.”

4. How are news audiences digesting the Israel-Hamas media war? Our very own Daniel Pomerantz discussed the issue on i24 News along with Peace Now’s Yariv Oppenheimer.

Israel and the Palestinians
• Israeli media reports put the number of Israelis injured during the two days of rocket attacks at 108. Most were lightly wounded or suffering from shock.

• Worth reading: The mind-boggling damage caused to a Netivot home by a single piece of shrapnel highlights the destructive power of Palestinian rockets. Nobody was hurt because the family living there got away in time — which is exactly why you haven’t heard about this.

• The IDF arrested a Palestinian man who was throwing grenades near the Gaza border fence yesterday.

HR Mission to Israel

• The IDF censor couldn’t prevent the spread of identifying info about Lt. Col. M. on social media after the elite soldier was killed in this week’s Gaza intelligence mission gone awry. As this roundup went to press, a gag order on his name remained in place. Ynet took a deep dive look at the issues of security, sensitivity, rumors and misinformation.

The IDF Censor has not yet surrendered to the forces of time and technology. This unacceptable phenomenon raises its head time after time, and as of right now, there is no one who can stop it. Nevertheless, the Censor does not intend to change the instructions. The incident in Gaza on Sunday was not the first time it happened. Bereaved families say they were informed of their sons deaths in military operations after reading anonymous WhatsApp messages on many occasions. Other parents said they had a breakdown after seeing their child’s name accidentally appear on a list of casualties spread through social networks.

• The Daily Beast discussed Iron Dome and civil defense with Brig. Gen. Tzvika Haimovitz, the outgoing commander of Israel’s Aerial Defense and one of the architects of Israel’s anti-missile defense strategy.

Iron Dome
• The US is now offering a $5 million reward for the capture of Hamas leader Salah Arouri. He is currently the deputy chairman of the Hamas politburo best known for masterminding the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers in 2014, which triggered the last war in Gaza. Per the Jerusalem Post:

Arouri, who is believed to be living in Dahiyeha — a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital of Beirut after being kicked out of Qatar in 2017 — is reportedly working with Qassem Soleimani the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force.

The US also blacklisted Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s son, Jawad. More on the terror designations at Reuters.

Window Into Israel
• The Knesset Ethics Committee suspended Oren Hazan for six weeks after the Likud MK insulted a Defense Ministry official. If Hazan’s name rings a bell, it’s because the BBC used the attention-seeking lawmaker to smear Israel earlier this year.

• The Bank of Israel’s Deputy Governor, Nadine Baudot-Trajtenberg, was promoted to acting Governor after Karnit Flug’s five-year term came to end. Globes reports that Amir Yaron, who was tapped to replace Flug, is still working his way through the bureaucratic approvals process.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg News looked back on Flug’s term.

Around the World
• Questioning the need for increased security at Cardiff’s biggest synagogue, Labour Welsh politician Jenny Rathbone blamed antisemitism on the Israeli government. The Jewish Chronicle obtained a recording of the Corbynista’s comments.

[Rathbone] also said that rising antisemitism in Britain was the result of “the failure to come to a peace settlement around Palestine and Israel”.

Ms Rathbone suggested the behaviour of Israel “drives peoples to be hostile to the Jewish community in this country”.

Cardiff Castle
• According to FBI stats, hate crimes in the US rose 17 percent last year, which the Washington Post says was “fueled in part by more police departments reporting hate crime data to the FBI.”

More than half of hate crimes, about 3 out of every 5, targeted a person’s race or ethnicity, while about 1 out of 5 targeted their religion.

Of the more than 7,000 incidents reported last year, 2,013 targeted black Americans, while 938 targeted Jewish Americans . . .

Anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 37 percent in 2017.

• Do divisions over antisemitism threaten the future of the Women’s March?

Commentary
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels weighing in on the Gaza situation . . .

– Ron Ben-Yishai: This is not how you create deterrence
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas prefers to preserve ‘achievements’ over all-out war
– Amos Harel: Netanyahu is willing to take a big risk for quiet on the Gaza border
– Lahav Harkov: Ceasefire shows politics don’t always come first
– Yaakov Katz: Netanyahu as defense minister is too much. There are options

https://honestreporting.com/idns-11-13-2018-gaza-rockets/
Palestinians Fire Over 400 Rockets at Israel
BY PESACH BENSON  NOVEMBER 13, 2018

A man stands inside a house in Ashkelon that was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on November 13, 2018. Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90
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Today’s Top Stories
1. Residents of southern Israel spent the night shelters as Palestinians fired more than 400 rockets and mortars since Monday evening. One Palestinian was killed when a rocket struck an Ashkelon apartment building where he worked. Most of the rockets landed in open areas or were intercepted by Iron Dome, but several homes and buildings were hit. The IDF responded with air strikes on Gaza, destroying 150 targets. The Times of Israel explained that the Palestinian barrage

appeared to be the largest-ever attack in a 24-hour period from the Gaza Strip, with more than twice the number of projectiles fired than on any single day of the bloody 2014 war.

The attacks began yesterday in the late afternoon with Palestinians fired an anti-tank rocket at an Israeli bus near the Gaza. One soldier on board was injured; tragedy was averted because other soldiers disembarked minutes beforehand.

2. The man killed in Ashkelon was a 48-year-old Palestinian laborer from Halhul, near Hebron. Mahmoud Abu Asbah, who worked in the building where he was killed, is survived by a wife and six children. I’ll call him a martyr.
@Marianhouk
 Identification of the man killed by rocket fire on Ashkelon overnight -->
"Mahmoud Bashir Abu Asbah (48), who worked in the building in Ashkelon,
who is from the town of Halhul, immediately north of Hebron"

Yasser Okbi
@okbi7b
ההרוג באשקלון מנפילת הטיל הוא אזרח פלסטיני מהעיר חלחול מצפון לחברון - מחמוד בשיר אבו עסבה (48), שעבד בבניין.@MaarivOnline

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9:15 AM - Nov 13, 2018
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3. As this roundup was published, incoming rocket sirens continued in various Israeli locations and Gaza factions denied reports of a ceasefire.

Israel suspended its participation in truce talks and rejected international mediation, though trucks continued making humanitarian deliveries to Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel’s security cabinet ended a marathon meeting without announcing any decision.

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Israel and the Palestinians
• Regarding the intensity of the barrage, the Daily Telegraph noted:

Israel estimates that Hamas and its allies have around 20,000 mortars and rockets, meaning that they could continue firing at the current rate for weeks. “Unfortunately, they are not anywhere near the end of their capabilities,” said Lt Col Conricus.

The rapid rate of rocket fire is believed to be an effort to overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, which has been largely successful intercepting rockets in recent years.

Here‘s what the barrage looked like at one point yesterday.

 Embedded video

Israel Defense Forces

@IDFSpokesperson
 RAW FOOTAGE: The skies of southern Israel RIGHT NOW. Dozens of rockets are being fired from #Gaza at Israeli civilians.

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• The IDF completely destroyed the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV headquarters. But Hamas was clearly prepared. The station was quickly back on the air from an undisclosed location.

The IDF said that Al-Aqsa TV was “used by [Hamas] for military activities, including sending messages to terrorist operatives in the West Bank, calls for terror attacks and instructions on how to commit them.”

The outlet was recognized as a terror group by the United States in 2010.

• Avital Leibovich made me go hmmmmm . . .

View image on Twitter
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Avital Leibovich

@AvitalLeibovich
 This is a picture of the seconds after #IDF hit the AL Aqsa TV building. Makes me wonder whether there was more in the building then just cameras...

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7:51 PM - Nov 12, 2018
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Window Into Israel
• The Times of Israel examines how security cabinet confusion during the early hours of the Gaza op-gone-awry highlights the risk Benjamin Netanyahu takes by not designating a deputy PM.

• Runoff elections are being held in 55 Israeli municipalities today, most notably Jerusalem, where candidates Moshe Leon and Ofer Berkovitch campaigned to the wire. Ashkelon’s run-off election was postponed due to the escalating violence. The new date has yet to be determined.

Around the World
• “A Wisconsin school district has launched an investigation after a photo of what appears to be a group of mostly white male students holding up a Nazi salute went viral.”

• A statement from the leadership of the Women’s March condemned antisemitism while standing by Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory. See JTA coverage and judge for yourself if it goes far enough in distancing the feminist leaders from the antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. (Once you think your head is wrapped around that, move on to why journalist Carly Pildis says the apology “erases Jewish women.”)

feminism

• How a rabbi saved four Torah scrolls from being destroyed in the California wildfires.

• Police launch hate crime investigation after Jewish teens attacked in north Toronto.

Commentary
• UCLA Chancellor Gene Block took to the Los Angeles Times to defend the public university’s decision to host the national conference of Students for Justice in Palestine. It’s all about free speech.

Ultimately, we must combat speech that is distasteful with more and better speech. If universities can find ways to rise above the current rancor and if our students in particular can model our values, then that may well provide the very best hope for our future.

SJP people who equated victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre to Gazans killed in Hamas-led border clashes aren’t going to provide Block and his campus with shining examples of “more and better speech.”


Ryan's Ruminations
@Ryan__Hyman
 Question for @UCLAchancellor Gene D. Block: when (and we know its merely a matter of time) the SJP conference spirals into an anti-Semitic hate fest, will @UCLA demand they cease? Will UCLA stand up not for #Israel but for Jews under attack more & more?https://lat.ms/2PPdK2H 

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8:04 PM - Nov 12, 2018
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The controversial Students for Justice in Palestine conference will go on at UCLA. Here's why
Universities, and their leaders, must preserve the rights of all sides to speak and be heard.

latimes.com
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• Here’s what else I’m reading today:

– Avi Issacharoff: Israel and Hamas are plunging into an all-out war that neither side wants
– Yaakov Lappin: Hamas’s emboldened risk-taking is fueling this escalation
– Amos Harel: Hamas tries to dictate new rules of game in Gaza, but it may be misjudging Israel
– David Horovitz: Hamas will never change. Sooner or later, it must be faced down
– Yoav Zitun: Hamas trying to challenge Iron Dome
– Ariel Kahana: An avoidable war becomes inevitable
– Amos Harel: Botched special op in Gaza brings Israel and Hamas to brink of war
– Yoaz Hendel: Let the IDF win
– Brig. Gen. Aharon Levran (res.): Restore Israeli deterrence in Gaza
– Bassam Tawil: Massive missile attack on Israel after Qatar funds Hamas
– Prof. Efraim Inbar: In the Middle East, you win with fear