By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu, JewsNews

The Egyptian military has demolished hundreds of smuggling tunnels from Hamas-controlled Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula and is preparing for an all-out onslaught against Hamas, Al Qaeda and other terrorists in the Sinai, Egyptian media reported Sunday.
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By Elad Benari, INN

Judea and Samaria were among the subjects discussed in the annual report released on Wednesday by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira. The Comptroller determined that the law was not being properly enforced in this region.

Shapira wrote in his report that the lack of adequate law enforcement in Judea and Samaria is in part because of a disagreement between the IDF, the Israel Police, and the Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria over who is responsible for law enforcement in the region.

“The meaning of the findings in this report is a very serious and ongoing reality [of poor law enforcement in Judea and Samaria],” he wrote. “This is a multi-systemic failure and the relevant ministers must acknowledge it as soon as possible.”
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EU Directive to Humiliate Israel on East Jerusalem and Settlements

By Yori Yanover, The Jewish Press

This is a proper 9 B’Av story, not so much because it bears
destruction of some vital financial and cultural concerns for the
Jewish State, but because it will surely deepen the divide inside
Israel’s population, between left and right, or, more accurately,
between those inside the green line and those on the other side.

Some antisemitic expressions are visceral and spontaneous, and so make
it easier to regard them as part of the antisemite’s disturbed
personality and move on. But some, very much including the subject of
this story, are obviously the brainchildren of a committee, in this
case a collaboration between Israeli leftists and the most repugnant
elements inside the European Union.
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Be firm and consistent – they will fold.
By: Stephen Leavitt, JP

Yesterday’s announcement by the European Union, to block funding to any organization that has direct or indirect ties over the Green Line (Jerusalem, Golan, Judea and Samaria), unless they are a leftwing organization, has shocked Israel.

The overt anti-Semitism, the transparent politicization, and the blatant chutzpa took Israel by surprise. Worse, at first it felt as if Israel were trapped in a corner with no options to respond.

But reality is different.
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By Yair Rosenberg, TABLET, |July 16, 2013

The European Union has issued new guidelines for its cooperation with Israel which explicitly curtail its involvement in the Occupied Territories. Naturally, this has sparked a diplomatic firestorm. Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately condemned the regulations, which are set to be included in the 2014-2020 EU financial framework, saying “we will not accept any external dictates regarding our borders. That issue will be decided only in direct negotiations between the sides.”

So, just how earth-shattering are these guidelines? Tablet has acquired the official document containing the regulations, published today by the European Union, and we’ve spoken to an EU diplomat with close knowledge of its contents and drafting. As it turns out, there’s a lot less in these guidelines than most press coverage would have you believe. Here’s why:
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By STUART WINER, TOI, July 17, 2013,

A senior European Union representative in Israel on Wednesday sought to downplay the significance of new measures that target Israeli institutions in the West Bank.

“If people knew what it was really about, they would be much less upset,” Sandra De Waele, EU first counsellor, told The Times of Israel, stressing that the regulations did not apply to trade agreements or the marketing of products from the West Bank.

De Waele clarified that the directive offers guidelines that apply to grants, awards, and prizes funded by the European Union itself, and not to funding from individual member states. In addition, she pointed out, the guidelines merely reiterate what has been EU policy for years.
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By Melanie Phillips

Consternation in Israel over the EU’s malicious decision to boycott individuals or institutions situated over the ‘Green Line’ between Israel and the disputed territories. This would presumably include boycotting, for example, the Hebrew University which is just over that line or, even more grotesquely, Jewish residents in Jerusalem’s Old City – where ancient Jewish settlement far predated the arrival of a single Arab, dating as it does since King David who built it as the capital of the kingdom of the Jewish people.

The EU says Israeli settlements beyond the Green Line are illegal under international law. Nothing new there – so do the UN and associated bodies say so. But they are simply wrong.
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By Toba Lazaroff, JPOST

The government should ban European Union-funded projects in Area C of the West Bank until the EU rescinds its new policies against areas across the pre- 1967 lines, the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip said on Tuesday.

“All European projects [for Palestinians] in Judea and Samaria should be stopped until this unilateral decision is rescinded,” the council stated.

It was one of a number of calls by settler and rightwing organizations that urged the government to take a no-holds-barred approach to combating the EU’s anti-settlement stance.

Gush Etzion Regional Council head David Perl called on Israel to annex Area C.
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By Ted Belman

Haaretz just published, Getting in a terrible state, by Nehemia Shtrasler where he argues against annexation because we would end up with a bi-national state with a 60% majority leaving out Gaza. He acknowledges that the proponents of annexation intend to give citizenship because as MK Reuven Rivlin put it: “Better that the Palestinians be citizens of the state than divide the land.”

He limits his argument to one small fact as he puts it, and the economic consequences,

“The annexation of 2.5 million Palestinians to the State of Israel means a bi-national state with a small, temporary Jewish majority – 60 percent Jews (6.3 million )and 40 percent Arabs (4.2 million ), and that is without Gaza. Thus, the end of the Zionist dream.”

The only problem is , it is not a fact but a lie. There are only 1.5 million Arabs in J&S and we would have a 67% majority with momentum favouring the Jews.
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By Steven Plaut, FPM

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the holiest place on earthaccording to Judaism.  It is where both Biblical Temples stood, whose destruction is commemorated this week with fasting and mourning on the Ninth day of the month of Av according to the religious calendar.  The Western Wall is considered holy only because of its proximity to the Temple Mount.  Jews everywhere in the world pray while facing the Temple Mount, and if they were to pray on the Mount itself they would face the Holy of Holies, the singularity point in between the cherubs that were positioned on top of the Temple Ark inside the Temple.  While God’s presence is everywhere, according to Judaism, its most intense concentration is at that point.  The Western Wall is simply the guard wall around the perimeter of the Temple Mount, and is of Herodian (Roman) origin standing upon earlier Hasmonean foundations.
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The EU is thus negating the provisions of Oslo and negating negotiations. The occupation is legal, the settlements are legal and Oslo and R242 permits both. The EU is our enemy. Ted Belman

By Gil Ronen, INN

Israeli officials on Tuesday slammed an EU directive that will bar all 28 member states from dealings with Jewish communities located beyond the 1949 Armistice lines, including eastern Jerusalem.

A high-ranking official, who requested anonymity, described the European Union’s move as a disproportionate “attack” on Israel.

“When it comes to disputed territories, the Europeans prefer to attack a small country like Israel instead of taking on more powerful states, because they’re afraid of retaliation.”

Israel was “only informed of the directive at the last moment,” he added.
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JPOST

Shurat Hadin head Nitsana Dershan-Leitner could be compelled by a US court to testify that the government broke its promise regarding a terror financing case against the Bank of China.

The Israeli-based civil rights organization combats terrorism through courtroom litigation, aiming to bankrupt terrorist groups by targeting funders.

Darshan-Leitner spoke to The Jerusalem Post about the various scenarios which could occur in the aftermath of recent reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has prevented a key Israeli official from testifying in the Bank of China case.
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Main anti-Morsi group calls to suspend Camp David accords;

Yoav Zitun, YNET

Israel authorized the Egyptian army on Monday to deploy two infantry battalions in the Sinai Peninsula, despite the fact that an appendix to the peace treaty between the two countries forbids Egyptian military presence in the area.

The battalions are expected to deploy in the El-Arish and Rafah sectors as part of the effort to quell the increased Islamist terrorist activity, which included an attempt on the life of a senior military official.

The infantry battalions will enter Sinai to support the armored, engineering and special forces that are already operating there, with Israel’s authorization. Cairo fears the situation in Sinai will deteriorate further following the Muslim Brotherhood’s fall from power.
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DEBKAfile

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, the first senior US official to visit Cairo since the military coup of July 3, exchanged tough talk with the coup leader, Defense minister Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Monday, after he met interim President Adly Mansour and Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi.

The general frankly advised Washington to be more realistic about the situation in Egypt. Accordingly to DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources, El-Sisi asked Burns bluntly why the Obama administration backed the Muslim Brotherhood and appeared to accept an Egypt plunged in chaos and economic meltdown during Mohamed Morsi’s one-year presidency.
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Dershowitz to Newsmax: ‘Prosecutorial Tyrant’ Violated Zimmerman’s Rights

By Barry Rubin

We don’t know what shape Egypt’s political direction will take. One bargaining process that’s going on is negotiations between the United States and Egypt in which Washington is the patron of the Muslim Brotherhood, Put roughly the U.S. proposal is that American aid and recognition will be given the military takeover in exchange for the release of Muslim Brotherhood and other prisoners of the army, a chance for the  Brotherhood to participate in fair elections and in a coalition government.

Is this good for Egypt? Of course not. Such a government would be inoperable and would daily increase the tensions.
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INN

The option of an Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has essentially off the agenda, according to a senior diplomatic source cited Monday by the Ma’ariv daily. According to the source, Israel’s military and political leadership is not determined enough to lead such a bold move. He added that the defense establishment has not proposed plans that would enable military containment of Iran’s nuclear development program.

The report comes less than a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel might have to act against Iran before the United States does, noting that the Islamic Republic could “jump” the red line of having a nuclear weapon in a matter of weeks.