Today’s Top Stories
1. After angering Israeli government ministers, organizers of the Giro d’Italia cycling race issued a clarification after their web site and promotional material said the first leg of the race would take place in West Jerusalem. They also removed at least one tweet featuring this map of the route.
Sports Minister Miri Regev and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said they threatened to back away from their partnership in the race, if the wording did not change.
“In Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, there is no east or west. There is one unified Jerusalem,” a joint statement read, calling the use of the term “a breach of the agreements with the Israeli government.”
The upcoming race will be the first time a stage of the Giro will take place outside of Europe. Palestinian groups denounced race organizers for bringing the Giro to Israel. Racing begins on May 4.
2. Mired in a dispute over civil servants and looming Friday deadline for the transfer of government ministries to the PA, Hamas and Fatah opted to delay the handover 10 days. It’s a perfect storm of conflicting patronage, payroll and politics:
After the 2007 power shift, the Palestinian Authority continued to pay around 60,000 staff in Gaza, despite the vast majority not working.
Hamas has hired around 50,000 civil servants to replace them in the past decade, and the future of those staff is a key sticking point.
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3. The White House dismissed as “premature” Israeli media reports that the US will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital next week and instruct staffers at the embassy in Tel Aviv to begin preparing for a relocation. This doesn’t sound like an all-out denial, so draw your own conclusions.
“This is a premature report. We have nothing to announce,” said press secretary Sarah Sanders.
At an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the UN Partition Plan paving the way for Israel’s statehood on Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence said President Donald Trump is actively considering “when and how” relocate the embassy.
4. Success: CNN Fixes Sexual Harassment Map: Editors got their bearings, acknowledging that Israel is not an Arab state.
5: Corrected: The Palestinian ‘Ambassador’ to the US: The Independent corrects the record with a little help from HR.
6. On the i24 News program The Spin Room, HonestReporting’s Daniel Pomerantz — along with The Israel Project’s managing director Omri Ceren and journalist Marc Schulman — discussed the rift between American Jews and Israel, the possible US embassy move, and whether Linda Sarsour is anti-Semitic.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Israeli tanks and aircraft fired on four Hamas positions in retaliation for a number of mortars fired from the Gaza Strip. Train service between Ashkelon and Sderot was briefly halted as a precaution. More at Ynet and the Times of Israel.
• The Interior Ministry is recommending a plan to unite four settlements in the northern West Bank into a single municipality with a combined population of 20,000. The area includes the settlements of Elkana, Oranit, Shaarei Tikva and Etz Ephraim. The settlement city would be the fifth, joining Ariel, Ma’aleh Adumim, Betar Illit and Modi’in Illit as having municipal status. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Leila Khalid, the poster child of Palestinian terrorism, was blocked from entering Italy at Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci Airport. She was due to give talks in Rome and Naples marking the 50th anniversary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Italy’s Department of Public Security issued a statement insisting that the stopping of Khaled was a purely administrative act, not a political decision. “The Jordanian citizen arrived to Rome from Amman without a valid Schengen visa [allowing passage through European borders], and was sent back in compliance with national and international Schengen regulations,” the statement read.
One of the PFLP hijackings she participated was TWA 840 in 1969, from Rome to Tel Aviv.
• AP: Israel eases restrictions on US-bound Gazan travelers.
• To all the grammar Nazis out there, is Ynet‘s use of the word “attacked” in the active or passive voice, and what difference does it make?
Around the World
• Russian military working on deal to use Egyptian air bases.
• Jews are minority most targeted by hate crimes in Canada according to data picked up by the JTA.
• As Jewish activists protested outside, Linda Sarsour participated in a panel discussion on anti-Semitism at the New School. The JTA was on hand.
Tuesday’s panelists offered plenty of attacks on Israel while insisting that such views are being labeled anti-Semitic in order to silence criticism of the country and its policies.
Pro-tip: If you want to reject accusations you are antisemitic by speaking about the “Jewish” media, and minimizing the antisemitism of vile Jew haters like Louis Farrakhan (of whom you are clearly a fan), then you are doing it all wrong. https://t.co/9sTNtG1tMq
— Ozraeli Dave (@Israellycool) November 30, 2017
• Holocaust survivors are demanding to know how artists received permission to film a group of naked people playing tag in a gas chamber — of all places — in the former Nazi death camp of Stutthof, in Poland. Artistic expression, you know . . .
Commentary
• Israel’s controversial columnist, Haaretz’s Gideon Levy, was interviewed on Australia’s Lateline. As Levy tries to avoid and evade any mention of Palestinian terrorism or responsibility, host Emma Alberici admirably dogged “Israel’s most hated man” on the hard questions.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Smadar Perry: The new peace partners in the next war
– Elliott Abrams: Mr. Kerry should apologize
– Seth Frantzman: Israel zigzags on Iranian bases in Syria to give Russia room
– Avraham Neguise: An open letter to Mandla Mandela
– Elie Podeh: Palestinians’ biggest missed opportunity
– Evelyn Gordon: Gaza’s latest lesson in self-inflicted misery
– Dr. Reuven Berko: Extremism, from Sinai to Al-Aqsa
– Yoram Schweitzer, Ofir Winter: The war on terrorism in Sinai: A watershed?
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA ERIO; embassy CC BY Wikimedia Commons/Krokodyl;
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Original article can be viewed at Giro d’Italia Backs Down on Jerusalem After Angering Israel on HonestReporting.
This post first appeared on Honestreporting.com - EN. Read the original article.
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