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Media Summary

20/11/2015

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The Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Independent i, Metro and the online edition of the Financial Times all report two deadly terror attacks yesterday in Tel Aviv and the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank, which killed five people. A Palestinian man stabbed two people to death outside an office block in Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon and just two hours later, a Palestinian man killed three people after opening fire on cars approaching a West Bank junction before ramming his car into another vehicle. It was one of the bloodiest days since the current wave of violence began at the start of October and brings the number of Israeli casualties to 19.

The Times reports that convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who has been imprisoned since 1985, will be released on parole today. Pollard was a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy when he was recruited by Israeli agents in the 1980s. Although the conditions of Pollard’s parole will mean that he must remain in the United States for five years following his release, he has reportedly suggested that he renounce his American citizenship in order to move to Israel.

The Times also notes that an Israeli court yesterday ruled that a transgender woman who committed suicide should be cremated in accordance with her wishes, despite the objections of her ultra-Orthodox family who oppose the practice on religious grounds.

The Guardian includes a lengthy piece on the impact of the Syrian conflict on the world, comprising of multiple sections devoted to the perspective of different individual countries effected by the fighting. The section on Israel is authored by BICOM Senior Visiting Fellow Mike Herzog, who says that the Syrian conflict is largely viewed in Israel through the danger of an increasingly powerful Iran-led regional axis.

The Telegraph online says that the United Nations Security Council is expected today to approve a French proposal to authorise “combat by all means” against ISIS. The Guardian online reports that Saudi Arabia has announced that it will host talks in December for “all shades” of the Syrian opposition in order to create “one unified voice.” The Independent says that Turkey and the United States are to carry out operations to drive ISIS from the Turkish border area and create a clear zone between Turkey and Aleppo. Also in the Independent, Patrick Cockburn writes that the West will need to work closely with local military partners such as the Kurds and even the Syrian army and Iranian forces if it wants to defeat ISIS.

In the Israeli media, all dailies lead with yesterday’s terror attacks, referred to by Haaretz as the “most lethal day” of the current violence and described by Maariv as a “killing spree.” Much attention is focused on the Tel Aviv attacker, who had a valid work permit in Israel. Writing in Israel Hayom, Yoav Limor comments, “Up until now, Israel refrained from imposing a closure on the [West Bank] territories … on the grounds that people who worked were outside the cycle of violence, because they had something to lose.” More generally, Maariv’s Ben Caspit reflects “This Intifada is taking shape on the fly, while we try to keep up with it and find an answer. The bitter truth is that, at the moment, there is no answer.”

Meanwhile, Yediot Ahronot notes that one of the victims of yesterday’s attack in Gush Etzion was a Palestinian man and that Palestinian officials had the “chutzpah” to claim that he had been killed by Israeli forces.

The other major story today is the impending release of Jonathan Pollard. It is a prominent item in Israel Hayom, Maariv, Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot. However, it is noted that Israeli leaders have been relatively quiet over Pollard’s imminent freedom as it is assumed that Prime Minister Netanyahu in particular wishes to avoid any sense of public triumphalism which might embarrass Washington.