How Trump and Netanyahu Became Each Other’s Most Effective Political Weapon, Haaretz
Allison Kaplan Sommer writes, “As the Israeli election draws near and Netanyahu is engaged in an intense fight for political survival, and as the 2020 drumbeat grows louder, the Jewish state is on Trump’s mind — and his Twitter feed.”
Abbas says Palestinians will stop implementing agreements with Israel, Times of Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Thursday that the PA would stop implementing its agreements with Israel and announced the formation of a committee to study how to implement the decision. In a fiery speech during a meeting of top Palestinian officials at the PA presidential headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas said the move came “in the face of the occupation authority’s insistence on negating all of the signed agreements.”
Iran Test Fires Medium-Range Ballistic Missile, CNN Reports, Bloomberg
Iran test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile earlier this week that traveled 1,000 kilometers, CNN reported citing an unnamed U.S. official, the latest move escalating tensions around one of the world’s most important shipping and air-traffic corridors.
New Israeli Alliance Democratic Union to Get 10-12 Knesset Seats, Election Polls Show, Haaretz
New election polls published by Israeli news Channels 12 and 13 after Ehud Barak’s Democratic Israel, Meretz and Labor lawmaker Stav Shaffir announced a joint run on Thursday projected that the new alliance would get 10 and 12 Knesset seats, respectively.
Meretz MK Raz: ‘The Occupation Will Eventually End’, The Jerusalem Post
“If securing the barrier is a problem, then we shouldn’t have built it there,” Raz said speaking into a megaphone. The IDF knew that the structures were built on land in Areas A and B of the West Bank said Raz. “We signed agreements,” said Raz, alluding to the 1993 Oslo Accord, which placed Areas A and B under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority.
Switzerland threatened to arrest Ehud Olmert for war crimes, so he canceled his trip, JTA
Olmert had been scheduled to travel to Switzerland on Monday, but was warned over the weekend by Israeli defense and justice officials that he would be detained for questioning upon landing, Israel’s Channel 12 first reported Wednesday evening.
Rouhani says Iran ready for ‘respectful’ negotiations, Al-Monitor
President Hassan Rouhani reiterated that his country was ready for negotiations over the country’s nuclear program but warned Iran would not surrender. “Surrender is not permissible and our nation and constitution will not allow it but we have always been ready for just and respectful negotiations,” Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting July 24.
With deadline nearing, PM said to sweeten deal for merger with extremist party, Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly promised the leaders of the Jewish Home and National Union factions two ministerial posts in his next government in exchange for joining forces with an extremist party in the September 17 elections.
Dem leaders pull Israel resolution amid internal clash, Politico
The resolution to endorse a two-state solution, drafted by Democratic Reps. Alan Lowenthal and Karen Bass of California and Gerry Connolly of Virginia, was expected to receive a vote this week with overwhelming support from the Democratic Caucus. But some of the caucus’ staunchest pro-Israel supporters, led by Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel have declined to support the resolution without a key change, pushing Democratic leaders to leave open the possibility of another resolution to the conflict.
Trump appears to attack ‘The Squad’ on behalf of the Jewish people. Here’s what that sounds like to Jews, Washington Post
Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Pulliam Bailey write, “Trump’s initial call for the four to ‘go back’ to the ‘totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,’ struck many Jews as transparently prejudiced in a way that is all too familiar to them as members of a tiny minority group who themselves have been told throughout history that they didn’t belong in the lands of their birth.”
New Israeli Center-left Alliance Should Take a Page Out of the American Politics Playbook, Haaretz
Noa Landau writes, “The left is learning that it needs to unite to beat the right, but if it wants to succeed in the long term, the Democratic Union can’t be democratic in name only.”
Israel accelerates demolition of Palestinian homes, Al-Monitor
Akiva Eldar writes, “By ignoring Israel’s demolitions of Palestinian homes and its building of new settlement outposts, and by publicly airing Greenblatt’s convictions, the United States is burying what little is left of the so-called Israeli-Palestinian ‘peace process.’”
The Big Winners of the Israeli Left’s Surprise Merger, Haaretz
Yossi Verter writes, “Schadenfreude has never had it so good. Ehud Barak, who lives for political (formerly military) October surprises, was inexpressibly pleased Thursday at the failure of the pundits and the politicos. ‘You called on me to drop out, to close up shop; you wrote that there was no wind in my sails,’ he jibed at me. ‘That’s the problem with the media. It’s biased and conformist. Netanyahu is sitting there not thanks to his virtues, but by our graces, including of the media.’”