The Times, Daily Mail and the Sun report on an event Jeremy Corbyn hosted which likened Israel to Nazis. The Times reports on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2010, Corbyn spoke at and opened a talk entitled Never Again — for Anyone. The event was part of a UK tour called Never Again for Anyone — Auschwitz to Gaza. The main talk, entitled The Misuse of the Holocaust for Political Purposes, was delivered by Hajo Meyer, an Auschwitz survivor who became a passionate anti-Zionist and repeatedly made the comparison between the Nazi regime and Israeli policy. The Daily Mail reports that Mr Meyer’s talk was entitled “The Misuse of the Holocaust for Political Purposes”. The ability to make that comparison has become one of the most heated elements of the row over Labour’s decision to rewrite an internationally accepted definition of antisemitism. The Sun reports that Corbyn has now said sorry, making his first comments on Labour’s antisemitism crisis in weeks. Labour MP John Mann, chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on antisemitism, criticised Corbyn for hosting the event in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. BBC2’s Newsnight yesterday featured the Times Story and interviewed  Louise Ellman MP and journalist Michael Segalov.

The BBC and Reuters report that an Israeli Arab poet was jailed for online incitement. The BBC reports that Israeli Arab Dareen Tatour has been jailed for inciting violence and supporting a group banned as a terrorist organisation based on her online posts. The BBC‘s Yolande Knell says the poet’s case has become a cause celebre for free speech advocates. Reuters reports that Tatour posted a video of herself on Facebook and YouTube reading out her poem “Resist, My People, Resist”, as a soundtrack to footage of masked Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs at Israeli soldiers. Tatour was also charged with supporting the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad’s call for an uprising.” Tatour told reporters at the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court in northern Israel that “I wasn’t expecting justice to be done.”

The FT, Reuters and the Daily Express report on Iranian politician’s reaction to US President Donald Trump’s offer of talks with the regime’s leaders. The FT reports that Iranian leaders believe that Trump was attempting to deepen the divide between the people and the state. Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, a former reformist Vice President said: “Mr Trump’s offer seems to be aimed at increasing public pressure on the Islamic republic so that Iranians blame their rules for the consequences of sanctions.” Reuters reports that yesterday senior Iranian officials and military commanders rejected Trump’s offer of talks without preconditions as worthless and “a dream”, saying his words contradicted his action of reimposing sanctions on Tehran.Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet that the “U.S. can only blame itself for pulling out and leaving the table…Threats, sanctions and PR stunts won’t work,” The Daily Express reports that Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, chairman of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said: “As long as the Americans bring up negotiations with a forceful attitude, there will be no negotiations.”

Reuters and the Daily Mail report on the Syrian Army regaining the Yarmouk Basin from ISIS. Reuters reports that Hezbollah al-Manar TV said that the Syrian army has taken full control of the Yarmouk Basin in southwestern Syria after routing Islamic State. The basin borders Israel and Jordan and had been the last rebel stronghold contesting Assad forces. The Daily Mail reports that in Quneitra, Assad forces now control all areas adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. But in the southwest of Daraa, nearly 100 jihadists from the IS-allied Army of Khaled Ben al-Walid are surrounded in their last redoubt, with the regime and its Russia targeting it with air raids. Moreover, the Observatory said that IS was using the release of about 30 Druze women and children it kidnapped last week as a bargaining chip, demanding its fighters be allowed to evacuate to their stronghold in the Badiya.

All the Israeli media continue to focus on the controversy surrounding the Nation-State Law, in particular, the response of the Druze community.   Haaretz lead on how the Druze protest is drawing the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) into the storm.  Yediot Ahronot leads on IDF Chief of Staff Eisenkot asserting that politics need to be kept out of the army.

Yediot Ahronot prominently runs a commentary by Yoav Keren titled, “I apologise.”  He writes@

“When I hear the cry of the Druze community and see the pain of the officials and combatants who feel that the country has betrayed them, I primarily feel a need to apologise.”   He lists a number of Druze soldiers that he fought alongside including,  “Lt. Col. A, who served formerly in the elite Paratroopers reconnaissance unit and has been a career officer for 25 years, who was in my grade at the Reali High School in Haifa.   I feel a need to apologise to the family of the late Tamir Nabuani, a graduate of the military boarding school in Haifa, which I also attended. Tamir was killed in a training accident a short time before completing his training in Sayeret Matkal. He was the first Druze soldier in the unit.   I feel a need to apologize to the families of the late Col. Nabia Merii, the deputy commander of the Gaza Division who was killed in the Western Wall tunnel riots, and the late Lt. Col. Hussein Amar, the commander of the Golani Brigade’s 12^th Battalion, who was killed by a roadside bomb while in pursuit of terrorists in the security zone in southern Lebanon.” He concludes, “The Netanyahu government has made decisions that have annoyed me. There were bills that astonished me with their idiocy. There were statements made by ministers that offended me. But never has the regime taken an action that has caused me as much pain as this. Not anger, simply pain and sadness.”

Maariv and Yediot Ahronot look ahead to mass rally that is scheduled to be held this Saturday night in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv and which is going to be attended by many former senior security officials.   The rally is going to be attended by the Druze community’s spiritual leadership, prominent Druze women and the Druze local leadership, but most of the attention is likely to be commanded by retired senior security officials expected to include the former chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi; the former Mossad director, Tamir Pardo; the former GSS directors, Ami Ayalon and Yuval Diskin; the former police commissioner, Moshe Karadi; retired IDF major generals, Matan Vilnai, Avi Mizrahi and Amiram Levine.  In addition, several prominent academics are also expected to attend, including Professor Asa Kasher, Professor Uriel Reichman and Professor Yedidia Stern.  Yediot Ahronot quotes Brig. Gen. (res.) Giora Inbar who said: “I can’t see my comrades who are Druze, Circassian, Bedouin or any other religion, officers and soldiers whom I commanded and with whom I fought shoulder-to-shoulder in the fiercest and most dangerous battles, be hurt by this law. I am unwilling to accept under any circumstances that my status here should be different from theirs only because I was born a Jew. Everyone who cares must come to the square on Saturday night and show solidarity with us in the fight over the country’s image and values.”

According to Kan radio news, four petitions have already been submitted to the High Court of Justice against the Nation-State Law. Two petitions were submitted yesterday—one by the mayor of Baka el-Gharbiya and the other by Meretz.  Three Druze MKs also petitioned the High Court of Justice—Salah Saad, Akram Hasson and Hamad Amar.   A fourth petition, which was signed by ten people, seeks to have the law amended so that it notes that all the privileges it grants to Jews be applied to all citizens of Israel.

Maariv reports that a senior political official in Jerusalem said that Washington had not changed its original policy on Iran. The Israeli official made his remarks in the wake of statement made by Trump that he was prepared to meet with the Iranian leaders at any time of their choosing, without preconditions.

Israel Hayom speculates what will happen next on the Syrian Golan, and notes two major concerns.  The first being the Russian presence,“both a blessing and a curse.”  The question will be “if Moscow agrees to receive information from Israel, and act on it, to thwart anti-Israel activities. But if the Russians will be an updated version of UNIFIL in Lebanon—who, like the monkeys in a temple in Japan, don’t see, don’t hear and don’t speak – Israel will have a problem; because their presence in the field will make it difficult for it to take action itself, for fear of them being hit.”  However, “the greater problem is Hezbollah…  Hassan Nasrallah  has made the strategic decision to turn the Golan Heights into another war front with Israel. The method is well known: in the first stage, join the local army, in the second stage, providing tactical capabilities– bombs, snipers and anti-tank missiles – and in the third stage, providing masses of firepower, with an emphasis on missiles. That’s how Hezbollah acted in Lebanon, and that’s how it will act in the Golan Heights. The first stage is now behind us, the second stage is in full swing, and if it is not stopped – within a few years we will reach the third stage.”

Yediot Ahronot continues to also focus on the flying firebombs emanating from Gaza that are causing extensive ecological damage to field and woodlands in southern Israel.  This morning they focus on volunteers on Kibbutz Beeri who act as first responders in an effort to extinguish the fires.  According to the fire department there has been an increase in fires, over fifty since the beginning of this week.