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Media Summary

Togo postpones Israel-Africa Summit

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City A.M. reports that senior Israeli entrepreneurs are meeting in London with UK business leaders for a UK-Israel Business technology summit. Among the CEOs attending are OurCrowd founder Jon Medved and Tomer Tzach of CropX. The summit will focuse on disruptive tech across cyber security, AI, transport, drones and connected devices.

The Daily Mail reports the decision by Togo to postpone the Israel-Africa summit that was due to be held in it’s capital city. In a statement on Monday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the decision had been rached by Togo’s president Faure Gnassingbe. The statement gave no reason for the postponement but Togo has been experiencing unrest in recent days, with thousands of protesters demanding presidential term limits after 50 years of rule by the Gnassingbe family. The paper suggests that this may be the reason behind the decision to postpone the conference.

The Daily Mail reports on the events taking place in Israel to mark one year since the death of Shimon Peres. The paper also notes that Peres’s autobiography No Room for Small Dreams: Courage, Imagination and the Making of Modern Israel will be published posthumously this week.

BBC News Online also covers an attack on a convoy in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula claimed by ISIS. The attack killed at least 18 policemen.

BBC News Online reports on the 1,300 family members of suspected ISIS militants are being held by the Iraqi government at a displaced persons camp south of Mosul. The majority of the women and children, from at least 13 countries, fled from Tal Afar after it’s capture by Iraqi government troops last month.

Maariv reports on the Prime Minister’s visit to Argentina but states that Israeli officials were disappointed with the decision of the Togo president to postpone the Israel-Africa summit, which was due to be held next month.

Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director Yossi Cohen warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in their recent meeting about Iran’s plan to build a port in Tartus and a missile factory in Lebanon. The two reportedly told Putin, “The Iranians’ long-term plans do not include Russia. The Iranians will try to also get rid of you”. Yedioth Ahronoth also report that Russian military intelligence advised Syria and Hezbullah “not to respond and to focus on the big picture” after the airstrike last week on a chemical weapons installation that blamed on Israel.

Haaretz reports that high ranking Hamas figures have said that the organisation is ready to form a unity government with Fatah. The Hamas leadership is currently meeting in Cairo. According to a report in Asharq al-Awsat, the Hamas members discussed three main issues: relations with Egypt, possible reconciliation with the Palestinian Authority, and the future of relations with other Arab countries and Iran.

Maariv reports the speeches by senior Israeli politicians at the 17th annual conference of the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked expressed public support for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state, arguing that “Israel and the Western world have a great interest in the establishment of the state of Kurdistan, at least in the Iraqi part. I think that the time has come for the US to support this.”

Kan Radio News reports that a high-ranking officer said that the strike in Syria that was attributed to Israel had not affected the large-scale IDF exercise simulating war with Hezbollah in northern Israel or the number of the troops taking part.

Israel Hayom reports that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon intends to implement the so-called “boycott law” and to revoke the tax accreditation granted to Amnesty International Israel because it campaigns for a boycott of products from settlements goods and an arms embargo on Israel. Amnesty International Israel responded that it does not comment on rumours or leaks.

Maariv reports that the US State Department intends to demand that Israel return tens of millions of dollars of US aid money for the 2017 fiscal year, which it asserts that Israel received improperly. Decision-makers in the State Department said that Israel received this aid package after signing a memorandum of understanding on military aid with the Obama administration, in which Israel committed to return any amount that Congress should add to an aid package.