• NY Truck Attacker Said "He Felt Good" about Rampage
  Sayfullo Saipov, who was responsible for the deadly truck rampage that killed eight people in New York City, was inspired by Islamic State videos and plotted his attack for two months, renting a truck ahead of time to practice, federal authorities said. He asked to display the Islamic State flag in his hospital room, saying "he felt good about what he had done." The FBI said his cellphone was loaded with Islamic State propaganda. (AP-New York Times)
      See also Argentine Jewish Businessman among Dead in NYC Terror Attack
  Ariel Erlij, 48, a Jewish businessman from Rosario, Argentina, was one of the fatalities in the terrorist truck-ramming attack in New York City on Tuesday. (JTA)
• New UN Report Highlights Iran's Continued Human Rights Abuses - Tzvi Kahn
  A new report by Asma Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran, cites at least 247 executions in the first six months of 2017. It also notes the use of flogging, binding, amputation, and stoning as punishments; a "high number" of arrests of journalists, political activists, and human rights defenders; and wide-ranging discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities, particularly the Baha'i. (Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
• Bin Laden Documents Reveal Iran's Secret Dealings with Al-Qaeda - Josie Ensor
  Newly released documents recovered from Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound have revealed secret dealings between Iran and al-Qaeda. A document written by a senior member of al-Qaeda details an arrangement with Iran to strike American interests in "Saudi Arabia and the Gulf." In exchange, Iran offered the Sunni militants "money, arms" and "training in Hizbullah camps in Lebanon."  (Telegraph-UK)

• Netanyahu in London to Celebrate Balfour and Talk Iran - Herb Keinon
  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to London on Wednesday to take part in centennial celebrations of the Balfour Declaration and to hold talks with Prime Minister Theresa May on the Iranian nuclear deal. Referring to Palestinian demands for an apology for the Balfour Declaration, Netanyahu said, "The Palestinians say that the Balfour Declaration was a tragedy. It wasn't a tragedy. What's been tragic is their refusal to accept this 100 years later. I hope they change their mind, because if they do, they can move forward finally to making peace between our two peoples."  (Jerusalem Post)
• Report: Israel Strikes Syrian Munitions Factory - Roi Kais
  Hizbullah-affiliated Al Mayadeen TV reported that "Israel had attacked a facility in an industrial area in the suburbs of Homs," and that the Syrian army responded by firing a surface-to-air missile at the aircraft but missed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strike targeted a rocket depot. (Ynet News)
• Palestinian Unity Agreement Will Not Lead to Less Terrorism from Gaza - Michael Friedson and Charles Bybelezer
  The terrorists killed in the Israeli attack on a Palestinian cross-border tunnel on Monday included two high-ranking members of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Arafat Abu Murshad, its central Gaza commander, and his deputy, Hassan Abu Hassanein. Two ranking Hamas members also perished. According to Israeli military correspondent Yaakov Lappin, "Islamic Jihad has had its own tunnel program since 2014 and this particular one appears to have been part of the network....The Iranians would very much like to turn Gaza into one of the bases that is used to target Israel."
      Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yosef Kuperwasser, head of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, explained, "The effort dates back to the Second Intifada [between 2000 and 2005]. Tehran has attempted to do this through Islamic Jihad, which it created and completely controls, and also by financing Hamas....The lesson for Israel is that it should not be tempted to believe in the illusion that the [Fatah-Hamas] agreement will lead to less terrorism from Gaza."  (Media Line-Jerusalem Post)

• Who Doesn't Believe in Self-Determination? - Clifford D. May
  In theory, who doesn't believe in self-determination, the idea that all nations have a right to sovereignty? On Nov. 2 it will be exactly one hundred years since the Balfour Declaration, the British Empire's statement in support of the establishment of "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. "In Palestine shall be laid the foundation of a Jewish Commonwealth," President Woodrow Wilson announced.
      The primary reason that one peace plan after another has not succeeded is that Palestinian leaders are still fighting wars of the past. They refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Israel under international law, the necessity for Israel given the durability of Jew-hatred, and the reality of Israel established and defended by blood.
      Who doesn't want self-determination for the Palestinians? Who doesn't want to see Palestinians living in freedom and prosperity? That could have begun 70 years ago. It could begin tomorrow.
      In theory, it would require only willingness on the part of Palestinians to accept and peacefully coexist alongside the "national home for the Jewish people" envisaged by the Balfour Declaration.  In practice, such a change of heart might be another hundred years away. The writer is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (Washington Times)
• Myth: The British Failed to Consult the Palestinian Arabs on the Balfour Declaration - Martin Kramer
  True, they didn't consult, but why was that a failure? This was war, the British hadn't yet taken Jerusalem. Who in history has consulted the population of enemy territory in wartime?
      And they were the enemy. Palestinian Arabs didn't revolt against the Turks or help the Allies. Lloyd George later recalled: "We could not get in touch with the Palestinian Arabs as they were fighting against us." The British ruled an empire of 400 million people. They didn't consult Indians or Egyptians about their future, so why expect them to consult Palestinian Arabs? The writer was the founding president of Shalem College in Jerusalem, where he teaches the modern history of the Middle East. (Facebook)
• Britain Went Back on Its Word - Ruth R. Wisse
  The Balfour Declaration of 1917 represented a diplomatic high point in the history of the Zionist movement. Yet Britain went back on its word. Attempting to appease Arab rulers, it rewarded Arab violence in Palestine in the 1930s by preventing Jews from entering land promised to them by the Bible and the British. The British betrayal signaled a readiness to abandon the Jews to their fate. It certainly spurred the Arab war against Israel, which began where Germany's war against the Jews left off.
      The Jews would have returned to Zion with or without the consent of Europe. This is the people that, despite the murder of millions of potential Jewish citizens, recovered and defended its national sovereignty in the Land of Israel. But most of the Arab world rejected the very principle of coexistence. For Arab nations, acceptance of an autonomous Jewish presence, if and when it occurs, will be the gauge of their political maturity. The writer is a former professor of Yiddish and comparative literature at Harvard. (Wall Street Journal)

President of Israel on Balfour Anniversary: Jews and Arabs Are Destined - Not Doomed - to Live Together - Reuven Rivlin (Newsweek)

• At the time Lord Balfour made his famous declaration, my family - the Rivlin family - had already been living in the Land of Israel for over 100 years. Jerusalem had already had a Jewish majority for over half a century. Today, my grandchildren are ninth generation Jerusalemites.
• The Balfour Declaration marked the first official recognition by an international power of the right of the Jewish people to independence and self-determination in our ancestral homeland. The establishment of a national home for the Jewish people is a dream that has truly been realized, with more than half the world's Jewish population now living in Israel.
• Lord Balfour also stressed that the rights and civil liberties of the non-Jewish communities must not be prejudiced. Indeed, non-Jewish communities who took Israeli citizenship share the same democratic rights and responsibilities as their Jewish neighbors. Today they include senior figures in Israel's judiciary, military, legislature, civil service, industry and academia.
• Is the job done? No. But I am deeply proud of Israel's efforts to address the challenges, and work to ensure equality for all the Arab citizens of Israel.
• Israel will continue to seek and strive to find a lasting and peaceful solution to the conflict between us and the Palestinians - a solution that is rooted in mutual acceptance. Because ultimately the Balfour Declaration called upon everyone to understand that the Jewish people had returned home.
• When it is truly understood that the Arabs and Jews of the Holy Land are not doomed to live together but indeed destined to live together, then the legacy of Balfour will be truly realized.
  
  The writer is the president of Israel.