News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Russia Sends Missile System to Tartus Base
Russia has sent an S-300 air defense missile system to its naval base in Syria's port of Tartus, to guarantee the security of the base from the air, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. It joins another sophisticated anti-aircraft system, the S-400, already in place at the Russian air base near Latakia.
On Monday, the U.S. halted talks with Russia on trying to co-ordinate air strikes against jihadists in Syria. A ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow collapsed last month. (BBC News)
- Turkey Sealing Syrian Border with Giant Wall - Sefer Levent
Turkey has completed a 200-km. section of a "security wall" along its border with Syria and has undertaken the construction of another 700 km. of the wall.
(Hurriyet-Turkey)
- Jordan Defends Gas Deal with Israel
Jordan on Monday defended its deal to buy Israeli natural gas that has stirred public opposition. Information Minister Mohamed Momani told Jordanian television that the deal would cut $600 million a year from the state's energy bill. (AFP-Al Arabiya)
- Morocco Arrests 10 Female ISIS Militants
Morocco has dismantled an ISIS militant cell and arrested 10 women believed to be planning attacks, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. The cell was operating in several regions and was inspired by the brother of one of them who was involved in bombings in Iraq earlier this year. Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation seized chemicals and bomb-making materials. (Reuters-Al-Arabiya)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- IDF Acts to Curb West Bank Terrorist Attacks - Yoav Limor
While there has been a renewed spate of terrorist attacks in recent weeks, the lack of mass Palestinian participation in or support for the violence, and especially its lack of organization or direction, means this is no "popular uprising." The IDF mapped out six "prime" locations for Palestinian attacks: Gush Etzion Junction; the Jewish community in Hebron; the Shaar Binyamin area outside Ramallah; the Dor Alon gas station on Route 443; the area from Tapuach to the entrance to Nablus; and the plaza at the entrance to the city of Ariel.
The IDF focused concentrated efforts on each of these areas, including increased security forces, additional security measures and fences, restrictions on movement by Palestinians, and carefully separating them from Israelis. The result was a sharp drop in the number of terrorist attacks because the terrorists realized their chances of succeeding were slim.
Moreover, there was a change in support for the attacks among the Palestinian public.
According to surveys conducted by Khalil Shikaki's Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, in December 2015, 57% of the Palestinian public supported stabbing attacks, but in March 2016 that number stood at 44%, and in June it had dropped to 36%.
Over this past year, 334 terrorist attacks and attempted attacks were carried out. There were 192 stabbings, 100 shootings, 33 car ramming attacks and nine explosive devices detonated. 39 Israeli civilians and members of the security forces were killed as were 199 Palestinians, 159 of whom were terrorists. 1,200 Palestinians were arrested this past year who were directly involved in terrorist activity. 340 attacks were thwarted, including 12 suicide bombings, 10 abductions, and 120 shootings.
(Israel Hayom)
- Israel Upgrades West Bank Security Barrier - Seth J. Frantzman
West of Hebron, illegal Palestinian workers cut holes in the security fence with Israel every day. Although tens of thousands of Palestinians have legal permits to cross into Israel for work, there are also tens of thousands who seek to enter illegally. After the Sarona Market attack in Tel Aviv on June 8, whose perpetrators reached Israel through this area, the government decided to build a concrete barrier stretching 44 km. from the Tarqumiya crossing to Meitar. The army has begun construction at four points along the route, laying down twenty large concrete slabs a day. It will take a year to complete. (Jerusalem Post)
- IDF Soldier Stabbed by Palestinian on Friday - Yoav Zitun
A Palestinian man stabbed an IDF soldier at the Kalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Friday night. The attacker was shot and killed by security forces.
(Ynet News)
- ISIS Terror Cell in Jerusalem Planned Attacks Against Israelis
A terrorist cell run by Islamic State in east Jerusalem planned to carry out attacks across Israel, the Israel Security Agency announced Sunday. Six residents from Shuafat and Anata planned several mass attacks including a shooting attack on Tel Aviv beaches. The group also planned to make explosives, targeting the Teddy Stadium in west Jerusalem or Israel's Knesset. When one of the group members was detained, two others made plans to kidnap an Israeli soldier to use in exchange for his release. (i24 News)
- Prince Charles Secretly Visited Grandmother's Grave while in Jerusalem
Britain's heir to the throne, Prince Charles of Wales, quietly visited his grandmother's grave at a Jerusalem convent on Friday following his attendance at the funeral of former president Shimon Peres. His paternal grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, is buried at the Mount of Olives' Church of Mary Magdalene.
Alice was recognized by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial as a "Righteous Among the Nations" and by the British government as a "Hero of the Holocaust."
In September 1943, members of the Cohen family, a Jewish woman and two of her children from the Greek town of Trikala, had appealed to Princess Alice for refuge. An acquaintance of theirs, she took them in and hid them in her Athens palace for 13 months until the Nazis withdrew in October 1944. (Times of Israel)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
- In What Country Is Shimon Peres Buried? - Elliott Abrams
Last week President Obama spoke at Shimon Peres' funeral, but the White House actually issued a correction of its press release of Obama's remarks to strike the world "Israel." The ceremony was at Mount Herzl, the Jerusalem cemetery where many of Israel's greatest figures are buried: Herzl himself, Jabotinsky, Begin, Golda Meir, Rabin, and innumerable military heroes.
It lies in western Jerusalem, near Yad Vashem - a place Palestinians do not even claim when they claim a share of Jerusalem, only those who seek to destroy Israel. There is no dispute about west Jerusalem, where the Knesset, Prime Minister's office, Supreme Court, National Library, and Mount Herzl all lie.
One wonders if President Obama actually thought as he spoke at the grave site that he was not standing in Israel, and that Shimon Peres was not being buried in Israel. I doubt it. The writer, a senior fellow at CFR, handled Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council from 2001 to 2009.
(Council on Foreign Relations)
- Confusion about the "Occupation" of Palestinian Land - Moshe Arens
"Israel cannot permanently occupy Palestinian land," Barack Obama told the UN last month. By Palestinian land he presumably meant Judea and Samaria, the territory between the Jordan River and the lines delineated by Israel and Jordan in April 1949, in an armistice that followed Jordan's participation in the combined Arab attack on Israel in 1948. Maybe he was also referring to Gaza, which is now under the rule of Hamas and there is no Israeli presence there.
Was it Palestinian land that Jordan annexed after the conclusion of the armistice with Israel? Nobody made that claim at the time, nor during the following 18 years when Jordan held that area.
Did it suddenly become Palestinian land only after Jordan joined Egypt and Syria in their war against Israel in 1967 and was forced to withdraw from the area?
There is clearly some ambiguity about the Palestinian title to this area. Many Palestinians say Israeli "occupation" is not limited to Judea and Samaria, but also includes the State of Israel itself. The Palestinian claim is obviously not consistent with the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine of 1922, which recognized the historical connection between the Jewish people and Palestine and called for close settlement of Jews on the land.
The writer served as Israel's Minister of Defense three times and once as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
(Ha'aretz)
- Anti-Semitism at My University, Hidden in Plain Sight - Benjamin Gladstone
Last semester, a group came to Providence, R.I., to speak against admitting Syrian refugees to the U.S. As president of the Brown Coalition for Syria, I jumped into action with my peers to stage a counterdemonstration. But I quickly found myself cut out of the planning for this event: Other student groups were not willing to work with me because of my leadership roles in campus Jewish organizations.
Also last semester, anti-Zionists at Brown circulated a petition against a lecture by the transgender rights advocate Janet Mock because one of the sponsors was the Jewish campus group Hillel. Anti-Zionist students would not allow a Jewish group to participate in that conversation.
My fellow activists tend to dismiss the anti-Semitism that students like me experience regularly on campus. They don't hear students accusing me of killing Jesus. They don't notice professors glorifying anti-Semitic figures such as Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt or the leadership of Hizbullah, as mine have. They wrongfully dismiss attacks on Jews, who are the most frequent targets of religiously motivated hate crimes in the U.S. They don't take issue with calls for the destruction of the world's only Jewish state. (New York Times)
Observations:
False Charges Against U.S.-Israel Police Cooperation - Sarah Leibovitz-Dar (Jerusalem Post)
- Students for Justice in Palestine claimed on its Facebook page that Israel "is aiding the NYPD and other U.S. police departments in the oppression and killing of black people." When I asked Orlando Police Chief John Mina, who was part of a delegation of U.S. police officers who visited Israel in August: "Have you heard the claim...that U.S. police officers are using knowledge they gained in Israel to kill black people?" he burst out laughing.
- "We're not here to learn how to kill black people. We're learning how to fight against terrorism. How to evacuate people at the scene of an attack. It only takes Israelis a couple of hours to clear an attack scene, whereas we need a few days."
- MK Mickey Levy, who served as the Israel Police representative in the U.S., noted, "The Americans are much better at dealing with crime than we are - and they've also been doing it for a much longer time. In this field, we have a lot to learn from them, not them from us."
- Yitzhak Dadon, director of the Israel Prison Rehabilitation Authority, added, "Our mode of operation is extremely different too. Israeli policemen never shoot citizens. In the U.S., on the other hand, there is a history of civilians shooting at officers, and so the police had to institute methods of protection. But this has nothing to do with us. The Israel-U.S. cooperation is focused entirely on terrorism. We haven't taught them any new methods of action, but they've introduced us to Taser guns."
- Former MK David Tzur, a former Tel Aviv SWAT commander, said, "When it comes to traditional policing issues, we are the ones who learn from them. We both benefit from technological developments, and teach each other ideas. The people who are calling for our police cooperation to be severed will also soon be asking for our military cooperation to cease, too."
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