The Guardian reports that US President Donald Trump warned Syria that slaughtering of civilians in the Idlib province would make the US “very angry”. “I think it’s a very sad situation in Idlib, the province, what’s going on there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval office on Wednesday as he met the emir of Kuwait. “If it’s a slaughter, the world is going to get very, very angry. And the United States is going to get very angry, too.” The BBC reported that Trump denied allegations from Bob Woodward book that he wanted to assassinate Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Telegraph and the Independent lead on Turkey describing its three-way summit meeting with Iran and Russia as a “last chance to avoid a massacre” in north-western Syria, where up to three million people live.

The BBC and the Independent report the decision by Paraguay’s new government to move its embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, just three months after shifting it to Jerusalem. Paraguay’s previous leader, Horacio Cartes, decided to move the embassy in Israel in May, shortly after US President Donald Trump did the same, a decision that was rejected by Abdo Benitez, who was president-elect at the time. In response, Israel said it would close its embassy in Paraguay and the Palestinian Authority said it will open an embassy in the South American county. The BBC and the FT note the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to approve the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank.

A Guardian editorial says Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn must provide a space for both toughness on antisemitism and standing up for Palestinian rights. The article says Corbyn must stop supporters turning denial of antisemitism into a kind of left-wing principle but note that Corbyn “has grounds” not to implement the full IHRA definition of antisemitism, citing concerns raised by its author of the definition curtailing free speech in the US. However, the article concludes that in appearing reluctant to accept the full IHRA text, Corbyn confirmed to some British Jews that he did not have their welfare at heart.

The Times and the Daily Mail report that Parliament’s ethics watchdog has launched an inquiry into controversial overseas visits made by Jeremy Corbyn before he became Labour leader. Corbyn has been accused of not properly registering his trips abroad, which were paid for by other organisations, including when he visited a memorial services in Tunisia in 2014 for the group behind the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The inquiry was launched as posters calling Israel racist appeared in London last night. London Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the posters, writing on their Facebook page: “Israel, as a Jewish majority state, could not have been established without the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians.”

Allister Heath writes in the Telegraph that many on the extreme Left and at the top of the Labour Party are routinely describing themselves as anti-Zionist, with the goal not of demanding a two-state solution, nor better treatment for Palestinians or even lobbying for a left-wing party to win the Israeli elections – all of which are compatible with Zionism – but rather they want to dismantle the only truly democratic nation state in the region and, one way or the other, force the Jewish people, once again, into minority status, subsuming them into some greater, antagonistic regional autocracy.

The Times report that 138 members of the Irish Defence Forces are preparing for their deployment to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Syria. Members of the 7th Infantry Battalion, Dublin, and the 58th Infantry Group have been put through three months of intensive preparation to become a quick reaction force — a small, highly mobile and flexible unit that can respond to requests for assistance within 15 minutes.

In the Israeli media all the newspapers report the High Court decision to reject the petition by residents of Khan al-Ahmar and to permit its demolition.  Yediot Ahronot says “the justices wanted to help the residents of Khan al-Ahmar…but the lawyers representing them weren’t interested in protecting their clients’ interests; they were bent on waging legal warfare against the State of Israel….This was a political petition under a humanitarian guise.”    Maariv publishes competing op-ed’s, one by B’Tselem Director Hagai El-Ad, who writes, “When they authorised the state to demolish the ramshackle homes of the Khan al-Ahmar community, the Supreme Court justices tried to lend the semblance of legality to the war crime that they were permitting. But a crime remains a crime, and the forced relocation of protected residents inside occupied territory is a grave violation of international law… This disgraceful ruling by the Supreme Court demonstrates to anyone who still had any doubt that the occupied cannot seek justice in the occupier’s court… the justices on the bench of the Supreme Court will share responsibility for the war crime of destroying the Khan al-Ahmar community, if it is committed.”  The second one by the legal adviser of Regavim who argues, “a significant proportion of the residents would prefer the arrangement that was proposed by the state. That arrangement will vastly improve their living conditions, providing them with connections to sewage, water and electricity lines, and will move them away from the bustling Route 1 highway. Why has their voice not been heard? Because the Palestinian Authority doesn’t want you to hear that voice and has blatantly and violently threatened the Bedouins in order to keep that voice silent. Meanwhile, the sanctimonious left wing organisations and their lawyers shut their eyes and ears, and instead serve as a mouthpiece for the Palestinian Authority, and for it alone.”

All the newspapers report the decision of the newly-elected Paraguayan government to relocate its embassy back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem.  Prime Minister Netanyahu recalled the Israeli ambassador to Paraguay and closing the Israeli embassy, prompting criticism from left wing politicians. Israel Hayom, acknowledges that this is a significant blow to Netanyahu, as is Colombia’s decision to recognise the State of Palestine, since Netanyahu threw his personal weight behind winning support of Latin American countries.  They also quote Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, who condemned the decision declaring,“We do not have nor will we ever have another capital city except for the united city of Jerusalem,” Conversely, MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin of the Zionist Union criticised Netanyahu’s decision: “Diplomatic relations are not subject to fits of rage and although Paraguay’s decision is unfortunate, it is not a reason for severing diplomatic ties.”

Kan radio news reported that according to the Persian Gulf Al-Khaleej newspaper, armed militias in Iraq are preparing for the possibility that Israel may attack and have begun moving weapons and equipment to underground bunkers. The report said further that these bunkers had been built in southern Iraq under Iranian supervision. Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s statements earlier this week were quoted extensively in the Arab media, who said that Israel would continue thwarting Iranian efforts in the region and that Israel’s activities would not be limited to Syrian territory alone.

Yediot Ahronot publishes an interview with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked from the Jewish Home party.  She expresses satisfaction with the many judges she appointed, “I promoted people who in their worldview are more conservative”, she is also pleased by her personal success, “for the first time there is an effective justice minister who implements the right-wing policy.”  She is also quoted saying, “the High Court of Justice is no longer a branch of Meretz. In the past, there were sectors that felt that the High Court of Justice did not represent them, and today it represents all of them, more diverse, more conservative, and the only thing missing is an ultra-Orthodox Supreme Court justice.”  She also declares, “Democracy has not weakened, it has only strengthened”

Maariv reports a poll of attitudes towards religion in the public sphere.  According to the headline, 67% of Jewish Israelis believe there is a state-sponsored process of religious indoctrination.  According to the poll, 57% of the public regards the trend of increased religious presence in the public space in a negative light, whereas 10% supports that trend.   The poll also found that 76% of the Jewish population in Israel is displeased with the government’s activity on issues that relate to religion and state. For secular Jewish Israelis 91% are unhappy.  Among the ultra-orthodox 62% are not pleased either – though apparently for opposite reasons. The national-religious sector is dissatisfied as well, though in smaller numbers 54%.  A huge majority of 79% support either cancelling or drastically slashing the NIS 1.25 billion that the state allocates to yeshivas (religious seminaries).   The poll also asked about public confidence in some of the state institutions, 35% have confidence in the Supreme Court, 9% have confidence in the rabbinic courts, 7% have confidence in the government, 5% have confidence in the Knesset, 5% have confidence in in the Chief Rabbinate, whereas 39% have no confidence in any of the above.