Hamas to Publicly Execute 13 Palestinians

Pesach Benson

Today’s Top Stories

1. Hamas announced that it’s planning a series of public executions. According to AFP, the 13 Palestinians on death row were convicted of criminal offenses, “mostly murder connected to robberies.”

“Of the more than 170 Palestinians sentenced to death since the creation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, around 30 have been executed, mostly in Gaza, according to the [Palestinian Center for Human Rights].

2. The Lebanese Army has built a number of observation towers along its border with Israel, “from which they can observe Israeli military bases, the border fence, the patrol road next to the border fence, civilian roads in Israel, and various towns and kibbutzim along the border.” YNet explains Israeli concerns and why the towers don’t violate any agreements:

“People who live in these border communities are saying that, while these observation towers are currently manned by Lebanese Army soldiers, they are concerned that Hezbollah will take them over during the next war . . .

According to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War, the area where the observation towers were built is supposed to be a demilitarized zone. Therefore, according to the resolution, the towers are not allowed to have any weapons in them.

3. It turns out that J Street, which describes itself as a liberal pro-Israel advocacy organization, received more than half a million dollars to advocate the Iranian nuclear deal. The Associated Press reports the money came from the Ploughshares Fund, a foundation opposed to nuclear proliferation and the main non-governmental organization the White House used to push the accord.

This comes on the heels of deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes telling the New York Times Magazine the White House managed to create an “echo chamber” in the public discourse, in part with the help of “outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever else.”

Among the other organizations receiving funding from Ploughshares were the National Iranian American Council, National Public Radio, Princeton University and the Brookings Institute. (Where did Ploughshares get its money to sell the Iran deal?)

J Street — Ploughshares’ largest beneficiary — defended itself by saying the accord improves Israel’s security. Draw your own conclusions from the responses by Ploughshares’ President Joe Cirincione and J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami.