News and Analysis (1/16/19)

PA serves as Israel’s dirty work torturing a former resident of New Jersey for charitable work on behalf families of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, Amnesty International demands humane treatment and a fair trial …

• Palestine: Social Justice Activist Tortured and Punished for Going on Hunger Strike (Amnesty International)

… while Israel itself fines West Bank Palestinians for offenses, most of which “don’t involve the harming of people or property”:

• In Three Years, Israeli Military Courts Have Fined Palestinians $16 Million (Haaretz)

… and demonstrators against a 9% social security tax “who called the Palestinian Authority a ‘gang of thieves,’ seemed to represent a prevailing mood of total distrust in the government”:

• Thousands of Palestinians Strike in West Bank over PA Social Security Law (Haaretz)

The FBI declines to comment on the Iranian report that a journalist who has reported on “discrimination against women, Muslims and African-Americans in the” U.S. has been arrested without charge and mistreated:

• U.S. Police Arrest Journalist Working for Iran’s State TV, Broadcaster Says (Huffington Post)

Bolton’s use of the NSC “to bend US foreign policy to his will — and especially toward a much harder stance against Iran — all under President Trump’s nose … [would have him fired] in any other administration”:

• John Bolton’s Obsession with Fighting Iran Is Making Trump Policy More Dangerous (Vox)

“Building Blocks of Islam … extended its hospitality at the airport by donating 400 sambusas Tuesday. The pans of the savory pastry arrived with a note from the ‘Muslim Community of MN’”:

• Airlines, Muslim Community Donate Food to Federal Airport Workers (MPR News)

“Grand Mufti M. T. Azabagić, who argued in the 1880s that a Muslim can in fact live happily under a tolerant non-Islamic state ‘where he is neither abused nor insulted for his acts of devotion’”:

• Want to Cultivate a Liberal European Islam? Look to Bosnia (The Atlantic)

Netanyahu has pushed “Western countries to impose tough economic sanctions on Iran and to cut business ties with Iranian companies. Apparently, though, this does not apply to doing business in Israel”:

• Israel Okays Signing Deals with Companies Working in Iran, Gov’t Reveals (Jerusalem Post)

“[T]he British-Iranian woman held by Tehran, started a hunger strike after her interrogators tried to persuade her to become a spy, her husband has claimed”:

• Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Was Told to Spy for Iran, Says Husband (Guardian)

By conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, “the far right in Austria and Germany … try to absolve themselves and their predecessors of wrongdoing”:

• Blaming European Anti-Semitism on Palestinians and Muslims (Al-Jazeera)