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Media Summary

EU demands Israel reconsider settlement construction plans

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The Mail Online reports that a top aide to US President Donald Trump has stated that any Palestinian unity government must recognise Israel and disarm Hamas.

The Times reports that the EU has demanded that Israel reconsider its plan to build 1,292 “settler homes” in the West Bank, stating that the units are illegal under international law and “undermine prospects for peace”.

The Guardian has printed a letter by Noam Schimmel, visiting fellow at Kellogg College Oxford, in response to Ian Black’s article about the Balfour declaration published earlier in the week. Schimmel points out that Black omitted to mention in his piece that in 1922 Winston Churchill forbade Jewish immigration to Trans-Jordan and therefore “four-fifths of Mandatory Palestine was thus dedicated to the creation of an Arab state”.

The Mail Online reports that despite the warm relations between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, many in Israel are worried that Netanyahu’s closeness to the US president could harm Israeli relations with other states.

BBC News Online reports that a United Nations official in Damascus has said that the UN is ready to go into Raqqa in order to provide humanitarian relief to 300,000 people who have fled the city and have “enormous” needs in nearby camps.

The Guardian has an op-ed by Emma Sky who argues that Iraq’s Kurds overplayed their hand by attempting to incorporate Kirkuk into the Kurdish region and now both sides must talk.

BBC News Online covers the withdrawal by Iraqi-Kurdish forces to the “2014 lines” of the Kurdish Autonomous Region in northern Iraq. Iraqi government forces have begun operations to re-take disputed areas and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has called for dialogue between the two sides.

The Times reports that the last ISIS fighters in Raqqa chose to surrender rather than fight to the death.

BBC News Online reports that Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei has denounced Trump as a liar and defended the 2015 nuclear deal. The Ayatollah said that “I don’t want to waste time on answering the rants and whoppers of the brute US president”.

The Times has published an analysis piece by Richard Spencer who argues that the effectiveness of Kurdish Peshmerga has been exaggerated and their success against Jihadist organisations has been largely due to coalition air support.

Maariv highlights the significance of the Chief of Staff of the Iranian army arriving in Syria for the first time in six years to meet with his Syrian counterpart.  The paper’s assessment is that now the war in Syria is being won by President Assad, it appears that the “axis of evil” — Iran, Syria and Hezbollah — is planning its next steps.

All the Israeli papers report Meretz leader Zehava Galon’s resignation from the Knesset. She will continue to lead the party for the next few months and try to change the party’s internal election system, opening it up for new people to join. She will be replaced in the Knesset by the party’s Secretary-General, Mossi Raz. Even the right-leaning Israel Hayom includes prominent commentary that states “the Knesset has lost an outstanding parliamentarian”.

Haaretz and Maariv report on the Civil Administration Planning Authority’s decision yesterday to approve a round of construction permits. They approved 658 housing units, which include 102 units in the new settlement of Amihai, which is designated for the residents who were evicted from Amona.

Maariv reports the decision of the Knesset legal adviser that concluded the “Knesset has no right to investigate left-wing NGO funding”.  This follows Sunday’s meeting of the coalition party leaders who agreed to establish a parliamentary commission of inquiry into “foreign governments involvement in funding political organisations that take action to undermine IDF soldiers”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had argued it was similar to the US Congress’s investigative committees, which are examining Russian interference in the latest presidential election.

Haaretz reveals what they call an “unprecedented” decision of eight European counties to demand compensation of around £31,000 from Israel for solar panels they provided to Bedouin communities without planning permission. The panels were in Area C of the West Bank which according to the Oslo accords is under full Israeli control.

Yediot Ahronot reports an incident at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank where an IDF soldier confronted a knife-wielding Palestinian, incapacitating him by shooting him in the stomach.  The suspect was taken to the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem in moderate condition.

Kan Radio News continues to highlight ultra-Orthodox protests against the arrests of draft dodgers, this time in Jerusalem and Maale Adumim.  Nine rioters were arrested after they blocked roads and tried to prevent a prisoner transfer vehicle from moving.