The Times, The BBC, the Guardian and the Independent lead on criticism from Jewish community groups over Labour’s decision to include “caveats” when it adopted in full the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism. The Labour Party’s National Executive Committee on Tuesday agreed a statement aimed at protecting free speech, stating: “We recommend that we adopt the IHRA in full, with all examples. This does not in any way undermine the freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.” Jeremy Corbyn’s proposal for a more lengthy statement which said that “it should not be considered antisemitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist because of their discriminatory impact, or to support another settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict” was rejected by the NEC. The Jewish Leadership Council said the addition would “drive a coach and horses” through the IHRA definition. Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who has been highly critical of  Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to tackling antisemitism, said the party had taken “two steps forward and one step back”.

The BBC, The Times, The Telegraph the FT and the Guardian report that Russian planes bombed rebel-held targets in the Syrian province of Idlib. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Russian jets carried out about 30 strikes on 16 rebel-held areas in western Idlib, the mountains of Latakia province, and the Sahl al-Ghab plain. If confirmed, they would be the first such air strikes there in three weeks. The Syrian regime is preparing to launch a ground offensive in the last remaining stronghold of Syrian rebels, in what Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov describes as an operation to clear the “cradle of terrorism” there.

The Times, the Independent, The Telegraph and the Guardian report new revelations from veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s book in which he says US President Donald Trump urged his defence secretary to assassinate President Assad and “kill the f***ing lot of them” in the Syrian regime after a chemical attack on civilians last year. The Guardian lead on comments in the book by White House chief of staff, John Kelly, who was so incensed by the behavior of Trump that he privately described the president to other aides as an “idiot” and complained that they were in “crazytown”.

The Times report on the decision by Spain to cancel the delivery of 400 laser-guided bombs bought by Saudi Arabia amid fears that the weapons could be used against civilians and children in the conflict in Yemen. The €141.7m arms deal was signed in 2015 by Spain’s former conservative government but the current socialist administration decided to halt part of the sale. The article says the decision puts pressure on Britain, the US and France, Saudi Arabia’s main arms suppliers, to follow suit.

The Guardian via Reuters report on President Trump’s decision to chair a UN Security Council meeting on Iran at this month’s UN General Assembly meeting to spotlight its “violations of international law”. Diplomats said Iran could request to speak at the 26 September meeting, the high-level week of the UN General Assembly. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani is expected to address the assembly on 25 September.

In the Israeli media, Yediot Ahronot leads with an exclusive report by Ronen Bergman revealing more details of the Mossad operation to capture material from the Iranian nuclear archive. Inside the vault was an “intelligence treasure trove” revealing the way in which the Iranians deceived the world when they denied that they were developing nuclear weapons. “The Iranians documented everything: the equipment, the construction of the installations and the secret sites; they even documented themselves while they were carrying out the experiments, taking amusing selfies.” The report goes on to describe the operation as “Ocean’s Eleven-styled,” after the famous movie. “In most operations of this kind, Mossad operatives tend to infiltrate a building, photograph the material, without leaving a trace. This time Mossad Director Yossi Cohen decided that the material should be stolen. He had two reasons: to shorten the amount of time that the agents would have to be inside the building and to avert a situation in which the Iranians might claim that the material was forged. Having the original documents allowed Israel to submit them to the international community’s scrutiny. Hundreds of people from every branch of the Mossad took part in the operation over the course of two years. No more than a few dozen people were inside the Iranian facility at the time of the actual break-in.”

Haaretz prominently reports a document outlining the Foreign Ministry’s objectives for 2019. It states that now that the US has withdrawn from the Iranian nuclear deal, the ministry should develop a “system of pressure that will assure the attainment of an improved agreement that will address the flaws of the old agreement.” The principal aim specified in last year’s list was to “establish red lines” and “stop Iran from effective progress in its nuclear programme, first and foremost with regard to the nuclear agreement.” The objectives document also states that there must be a dialogue with the international community on “totally removing Iran and its proxies in Syria from any future arrangements and from anything connected with the rehabilitation of Syria.” This year, another clause has been added to the list of regional objectives, which calls for “diversifying those we rely on, including establishing and deepening ties with Russia”.

Channel 2 News exclusively reveals that President Trump has offered to meet Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Abbas on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly. They also report Abbas raised pre-conditions such as replacing all of the current peace team members including Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner as well as substantial confidence building measures. Accordingly the US has passed on the message to the PA that the unveiling of the peace plan will be postponed until after midterm elections in US and possibly into 2019 after possible early elections in Israel.

Haaretz report on the meeting yesterday between the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini and a delegation of Arab Israeli MKs led by chairman of the Joint List party, MK Ayman Odeh. Following the meeting Mogherini issued a statement saying, “The nation-state law is first and foremost a matter of how Israel chooses to define itself, and we fully respect the internal Israeli debate on this … the EU values Israel’s commitment to the shared values of democracy and human rights,” the statement continued, the organisation would not want to “see these values being put in question or even threatened….The respect for human rights and fundamental principles are and will remain a central part of the EU-Israel partnership. We will continue to monitor the implications of this law in practice,” According to Kan radio news the Joint List MKs were disappointed by the meeting.

Kan radio news reports more details on the attack yesterday inside Syria that was attributed to Israel. According to Syrian army sources, Israel attacked Syrian naval missile bases and warehouses in the area of the Syrian shore. The sources told a Russian news outlet that the planes also attacked anti-aircraft launchers, some of them S-200 missiles. They said that there was no Iranian presence in the area that had been attacked.  Official Syrian media outlets reported that at least one person was killed in the air strike and that another 12 were injured. They reported that the targets that were attacked were located in Wadi Uyun in the Hama region and in the city of Baniyas in the Tartous district. According to Israel Hayom’s military affairs commentator, Yoav Limor, the reported Israeli military operations in Syria primarily attest “to one thing: Iran’s dogged determination to persevere with the regime’s plan that is being implemented by the Quds Force under the command of Qasem Soleimani, who today, without any doubt and with no rivals, bears the title of the most dangerous man in the world … these actions attest to growing Israeli concern, as well as to some frustration, that Iran is continuing to follow an orderly plan to entrench itself in the region. While it’s true that there is a debate over the Quds Force’s activity because of the grave economic crisis in Iran and increasing domestic criticism, including by the conservative wing of the government, as of today, no change has been made to this policy, in which billions of dollars are invested every year.”

Maariv reports comments by Deputy Attorney-General Raz Nizri over the length of time the investigations into allegations of misconduct by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have taken. Replying to a question as to when a decision would be made whether to press charges against the prime minister, Nizri said that one would be made in the first half of 2019, by June. Also at the conference, Tel Aviv District Attorney Liat Ben Ari, who is responsible for the investigation into Netanyahu, rebuffed the criticism over the amount of time that the investigations have taken. “A heavy responsibility has been placed on our shoulders when we need to state our position on the Netanyahu cases,” she said. “Case 4,000 (the Bezeq-Walla affair) has great significance. We made a decision along with the attorney general to merge all three cases. We are busy with that every day and every hour. Even if it takes longer than the person in a living room might want, trust us. Time can’t come at the expense of the truth. I’m not willing to recommend something that I’m not certain of because of pressure about time.”

Anshel Pfeffer writes in Haaretz about the UK Labour party and says: “The wave of anti-Semitism in a party that was once regarded as the natural political home for British Jews is only one symptom of how Labour has changed, perhaps irrevocably. Even after adopting the IHRA definitions on Tuesday, Corbyn’s Labour will remain inhospitable to Jews. It is no longer the party of moderate leftists and social democrats, who are now struggling to come to terms with their political homelessness.”

Army Radio reports that the British Government intends to increase its contribution to UNRWA, the UN agency that provides services to Palestinian refugees, days after the US announced it was cutting all funding to the organisation. The UK will give an additional £7m bringing its total contribution for the current year to £45.5m.