Air India's Tel Aviv Service Delayed by Denial of Overflight Rights - Ashwini Phadnis (The Hindu-India) Air India has delayed the launch of its direct flights between New Delhi and Tel Aviv as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan have denied it overflight permission.
Dublin City Council Votes to Fly Palestinian Flag, Rejects Israeli Flag - Laura Lyne (Dublin Live-Ireland)
Gaza Is a State - Samuel Nurding interviews IDF Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland (Fathom-BICOM)
Hamas Official Denies Softened Stance toward Israel (Reuters-VOA News) "When people say that Hamas has accepted the 1967 borders, like others, it is an offense to us," he said.
Gaza Power Cuts Affect Sewage Treatment - Nasouh Nazzal (Gulf News-Dubai) In April, the Palestinian Authority stopped paying Gaza's electricity bill. This means sewage treatment plants are receiving 3-4 hours of electricity a day, not enough to process Gaza's sewage. Gaza municipalities are now dumping 70,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean daily and the pollution has started reaching Egypt and Israel.
Video: Abbas, UNESCO, and the Test of Diplomacy - Dore Gold (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) In its latest resolution on Israel, UNESCO speaks about the Bilal Bin Rabah mosque in Bethlehem. Where did they get this? From the Palestinian Authority, which has taken Rachel's Tomb, a famous Jewish holy site, and converted it into an exclusively Islamic site. The irony is that in the documents of the Ottoman Empire, an imperial firman (decree) by the Ottoman Sultan describes Rachel's Tomb as a Jewish site. Moreover, Bilal Bin Rabah, the first muazzin of Islam, was buried in Damascus, not in Bethlehem, according to Islamic tradition. UNESCO is supposed to be responsible for maintaining educational truth, but it doesn't do so.
Despite Heavy Losses, ISIS Structures Remain Resilient - Hassan Hassan (The National-Abu Dhabi)
Tabqah, Syria liberated from the Islamic State - Thomas Joscelyn (Long War Journal)
U.S. Should Help Egypt in Its War on Terror - David Schenker (Foreign Affairs) Notwithstanding its 440,000-strong standing army and $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military assistance, over the past five years Egypt has been unable to contain - much less roll back - some 600-1,000 insurgents. During the same time, ISIS has killed 2,000 Egyptian soldiers and policemen in Sinai.
