In-Depth Issues:
U.S. to Delay Reopening of Jerusalem Consulate to Palestinians at Israel's Request ( i24News) The U.S. will delay reopening the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem as a de facto mission to the Palestinians following requests from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry, Walla reported. A high-ranking Israeli source said the reopening of the consulate contradicts the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem in 2017 as the capital of Israel. See also below Observations: The U.S. Should Not Reopen Its "Embassy" to the Palestinians in Jerusalem - Justice Elyakim Rubinstein ( Yediot Ahronot-Hebrew, 21July2021)
Israeli Airstrikes Destroy Iranian Warehouses in Syria ( Syrian Observatory for Human Rights) Israeli airstrikes have targeted the area of Jabal al-Waha, near the scientific research center and the Syrian regime's defense factories in al-Sferah in the Aleppo countryside. The targeted site hosts headquarters and weapons warehouses belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian-backed militias.
Israel Denies Report It Pushed U.S. to Strike Iran - Anna Ahronheim ( Jerusalem Post) Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Saturday night denied a report in the New Yorker that former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed former U.S. president Donald Trump to carry out a military strike on Iran after the 2020 presidential election. On Wednesday, Gantz called for Israel to step up preparations should Iran get close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Water Shortages Compound Iran's Problems - Farnaz Fassihi ( New York Times) As Iran struggles with a fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, it is also contending with a severe water shortage. A prolonged drought and rising temperatures, combined with decades of government mismanagement, have turned the water crisis into a volatile incubator of violent protests. Large crowds in Khuzestan Province in the southwest, home to an ethnic Arab population that has historically faced discrimination, were captured in amateur videos on social media shouting, "I am thirsty!" and demanding immediate relief. Security forces and anti-riot police beat the crowds with batons, scattered them with tear gas, tracked them with drones and fired gunshots, according to witnesses. Three young men were shot and killed by security forces, according to rights organizations.
Ben and Jerry's Boycott Could Harm Palestinian Employees ( Jerusalem Post) Ben & Jerry's decision to halt sales of their ice cream in the West Bank will harm Palestinian workers. Hen Israeli, vice president of the Sagi Group, which distributes two tons of ice cream to Jerusalem and the West Bank every week, employs 10 Palestinians who receive working conditions and salaries they could not earn under the Palestinian Authority.
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90 Israeli Athletes to Participate in Tokyo Olympics - Jordan Pike ( Jerusalem Post) 90 athletes from Israel will be present at the Tokyo Olympic Games, almost double the 47 who competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, according to the Israel Olympic Committee. The increase is primarily due to Israel's first-ever baseball team competing. Israeli is also making its debut in surfing, archery and equestrian. The delegation includes gymnas t Alexander Shatilov for his fourth Olympic games. Judoka Or Sasson won a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympics. No. 1 ranked rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram is seen as Israel's best bet for a medal in Tokyo.
Turkish President Erdogan's Burning Hatred for Israel - Jacob Dayan ( Ha'aretz) As chief of staff for former Israeli foreign ministers Silvan Shalom and Tzipi Livni, I participated in a number of meetings with Turkish President Erdogan, during the days in which he still met with Israeli leaders. In all of these meetings I felt his conspicuous lack of affection for Israel, and even hatred. Erdogan had a clear vision of the new Middle East, and it did not include Israel. We have a tendency to b lame ourselves for everything that doesn't work, but in this case, the relationship with Erdogan was hopeless from the beginning. Only those who were present in a meeting with Erdogan and felt his burning hatred for Israel, and only those who heard what he said, can understand how deeply these things are imprinted in his worldview.
Gaza Event Celebrates Irish Republican "Martyrs" - Neil Doyle ( Jewish Chronicle-UK) Belfast-based Palestine Aid last week sponsored a "funday" for children in Gaza which celebrated the lives of infamous Irish Republican "martyrs." Pictures posted on Twitter showed children on a beach carrying framed portraits of IRA bomber Bobby Sands and Marxist revolutionary James Connolly. The images were posted by Palestine Aid director Fra Hughes, whose Facebook page features him meeting and shaking hands with mass-murdering Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
American Jewish Committee Condemns United Church of Christ Resolution on Israel, Palestinians - Yonat Shimron ( Religion News Service-Washington Post) The American Jewish Committee condemned a resolution adopted 462-78 with 18 abstentions at a meeting of the United Church of Christ on Sunday. The resolution refers to Israel's "apartheid system of laws and legal procedures" and demands an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. The AJC said the measure "demonizes Israel, fails to offer a credible path to Israeli-Palestinian peace, and undermines advances in Christian-Jewish relations." "It pretends there aren't two parties to the conflict," said Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC's director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations. "That is not the way to get to peace."
3 Existing Drugs Fight Coronavirus Successfully in Jerusalem Lab - Nathan Jeffay ( Times of Israel) Israeli scientists have identified three existing drugs that have illustrated high ability to fight the coronavirus in lab tests. The results "showed that the drugs can protect cells from onslaught by the virus with close to 100% effectiveness," said Hebre w University biochemist Prof. Isaiah Arkin. Darapladib, which currently treats atherosclerosis, the cancer drug Flumatinib, and an HIV medicine target proteins that hardly change between variants and are likely to remain effective in spite of mutations.
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| News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia: - U.S. Weighs New Sanctions on Iran's Oil Sales to China If Nuclear Talks Fail - Benoit Faucon
The U.S. is considering tighter sanctions on Iranian oil sales to China as a way to encourage Tehran to conclude a nuclear deal and raise the costs of abandoning stalled negotiations. As the nuclear talks falter, the U. S. is running through options intended to induce Iran to keep negotiating or punish it if it doesn't, according to U.S. officials. One plan being drafted would choke off Iran's swelling crude-oil sales to China through fresh sanctions targeting shipping networks. (Wall Street Journal) - Jewish Leaders Call for Reversal of Ben and Jerry's Boycott Decision
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said Tuesday: We are deeply disappointed in Ben & Jerry's decision to cease operations with its Israeli licensee. We commend Ben & Jerry's Israel, which operated the company's first factory outside the U.S. as a lessee beginning over 30 years ago. We encourage Unilever, the multinatio nal corporation that owns Ben & Jerry's, to recognize that boycotts of Israel are discriminatory and further inflame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We call upon Unilever to override the decision of its subsidiary Ben & Jerry's. (Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations) See also Ben and Jerry's Board Wanted to Boycott All of Israel - Tovah Lazaroff Ben & Jerry's independent board of directors wanted to boycott Israel in its entirety and not just the West Bank, but was stopped from doing so by the company's CEO and the British-based parent company Unilever. (Jerusalem Post) - U.S. Rejects BDS Movement which Unfairly Singles Out Israel
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday: "We firmly reject the BDS movement, which unfairly singles out Israel....The United States will be a strong partner in fighting efforts around the world that potentially seek to delegitimize Israel and will work tirelessly to support Israel's further integration into the international community." (U.S. State Department) - Israel Proves that Vaccines Work - Aaron Blake
Israel shot to the head of the pack with an aggressive Covid-19 vaccination campaign, dropping from 10,000 new daily cases in January to an average as low as 10 last month. It began log ging some days with zero deaths in April, and has recorded about 100 confirmed deaths in the last three months. But now the country is suddenly seeing an uptick in cases due to the delta variant, including among the 85% of Israeli adults who are vaccinated. Yet the number of serious cases remains extremely low. Israel is averaging about 120 weekly hospital admissions, which is down from a peak of nearly 2,000 in January. So while cases are less than 1/10 of what they were then, hospitalizations are about 1/16 and admissions to the intensive care unit are about 1/20, according to data collected by the University of Oxford. Israeli government data show the Pfizer vaccine is less effective at preventing coronavirus cases of the delta variant, but it is still 93% effective at preventing serious cases and hospitalization. (Washington Post) See also Pfizer Vaccine Is 88 Percent Effective Against Delta Covid Variant, UK Study Finds (Reuters)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast: - Israel Condemns Ben and Jerry's Boycott Decision
Ben & Jerry's current Israeli distributor condemned the ice cream company's decision to drop its licensing agreement. "Ben & Jerry's International decided not to renew their agreement with us in a year and a half, after we refused their demand to s top distribution throughout Israel. We urge the Israeli government and consumers - don't let them boycott Israel. Keep ice cream out of politics." Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, "Ben & Jerry's decided to brand itself as anti-Israel ice cream. This is a moral mistake and I believe it will turn out to be a business mistake as well. The boycott against Israel... reflects that they have totally lost their way." Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called the decision "a disgraceful capitulation to anti-Semitism, to BDS, to all that is evil in the anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish discourse." Lapid said he would ask the over 30 U.S. states with anti-BDS laws to implement them against Ben & Jerry's in retaliation. The laws require states to divest from companies that boycott Israel. (Times of Israel) See also Israel's President: Boycotts Against Israel Are a New Form of Terrorism - Greer Fay Cashman (Jerusalem Post) - Israeli Envoy Urges U.S. States to Activate Anti-BDS Laws Against Ben and Jerry's - Amy Spiro
Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the U.S. and the UN, sent letters to the governors of the 35 U.S. states that have enacted legislation against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, requesting that they sanction Ben & Jerry's over its recent decision to halt sales in the West Bank. States that have passed anti-BDS legislation include Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland and Texas. Erdan called Ben & Jerry's decision "the de-facto adoption of anti-Semitic practices and advancement of the de-legitimization of the Jewish state and the de-humanization of the Jewish people." He added that such boycotts "significantly harm Palestinians as well," many of whom shop in Israeli-owned stores in the West Bank. (Times of Israel) - Congressman Calls for State Response to BDS Moves by Ben and Jerry's and Unilever - Omri Nahmias
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said Tuesday: "The decision by Unilever and Ben & Jerry's to target hundreds of thousands of Jewish customers abroad with this discriminatory boycott is a disgrace and a direct embrace of the anti-Israel BDS movement. New York State must now follow the 2016 Executiv e Order that prohibits state agencies from conducting business with institutions or companies that promote BDS, and requires the OGS [New York State Office of General Services] Commissioner to maintain and update a list of entities participating in BDS." "Both Ben & Jerry's and Unilever need to be immediately added to the OGS list, and the state needs to end any current business and suspend any future business with either company. Our state needs to follow its self-imposed standards, lead by example, and stand up to this anti-Israel and anti-Jewish discrimination." (Jerusalem Post) - Israel Responds to Rocket Attack from Lebanon
Two rockets were launched from Lebanon into western Galilee early Tuesday. One rocket was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system. The IDF respon ded with artillery fire and said it believes "Palestinian elements" in Lebanon are responsible. (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis: Observations:
- It has been reported that the Americans want to reopen their consulate in Jerusalem that was closed after the U.S. moved its embassy to the city. It is proper to oppose such a move. There is no place for turning back the wheel of history.
- An independent consulate in Jerusalem, Israel's capital, would be a total anomaly.
- Until President Trump decided to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, the American consulate served as a foreign implant in the heart of Jerusalem and acted in recent decades as an "emba ssy" to the Palestinian Authority.
- Its renewal today would be a double anomaly. I am sure that there is not another country in the world that has both an embassy and an independent consulate in its capital that serves as an "embassy" to another entity.
- Israel does not have to agree to the return of the continuing insult contained in such a move.
- The diplomatic lexicon is rich enough to enable the establishment of a liaison office to the Paletinian Authority in Ramallah without harming Israel's relations with the U.S.
The writer is a former Vice President of the Supreme Court of the State of Israel. He also served as Attorney General.
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