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Media Summary

UK media focuses on Balfour centenary

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BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme included a series of interviews to examine the centenary of the Balfour Declaration. The programme interviewed Lord Rothschild, Prince Hassan of Jordan, Michael Oren, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and the PA representative to London.

The Guardian editorial says that the paper endorsed the Balfour declaration 100 years ago but that “where the Palestinians and Israelis have ended up is not a place we would have wanted them to be”.

The Times editorial strikes a more supportive tone describing Israel as the only Democracy in the Middle East and criticises Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for declining an official invitation to a dinner commemorating the Balfour Declaration.

The Telegraph includes a letter from 100 conservative MPs supporting the Balfour Declaration and two-state solution.

BBC News Online reports on the dinner to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UK PM Theresa May will attend together.

The Mail Online reports that Israel marked the 22nd anniversary of the assassination of Prime Miniter Yitzhak Rabin yesterday, with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin calling his murder one of the Jewiwsh people’s lowest points.

The Express and the Mail Online both report an airstrike carried out by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) on a factory in the south of the Syrian city of Homs. Syrian forces responded to the attack by firing a surface-to-air missile at the aircraft. The IDF have declined to comment on the attack but have repeated a threat to hit arms shipments bound for Hezbollah.

The Guardian reports that UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is to travel to the US in a bid to save the Iran nuclear deal.

The Times reports that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has restricted the extension of the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles to 2,000km.

The Telegraph reports that a newly released trove of documents recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound have revealed “secret dealings” between Iran and al-Qaeda.

Maariv and Haaretz report that the Syrian Army fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli aircraft last night.

Maariv and Haaretz also report a speech from Yuval Rabin at the memorial ceremony for his father Yitzchak where he called for an end to incitement. Israel Hayom also focuses on the memorials with the headline “Remembering Rabin: A Call for Reconciliation”

Yediot Ahronoth reports on IDF technology that is detecting tunnels and that most likely caused the destruction of the Islamic Jihad tunnel earlier this week. Yossi Yehoshua writes that the IDF remains on a heightened state of alert, and several Iron Dome batteries remain deployed nearby and that it made the unprecedented decision to suspend work on the construction of an underground barrier against the tunnels so as to avoid any possible attacks by the Islamic Jihad on the workers involved in the project.

Kan Radio News reports on  Netanyahu’s visit to the UK. Netanyahu will meet with Theresa May, Boris Johnson to discuss diplomatic and economic matters. Prior to his departure Netanyahu said he would present practical proposals on how to deal with the failures of the nuclear agreement with Iran.

The editorial in Haaretz discusses the Balfour Declaration, arguing that “instead of arguing about a 100-year-old document and using it as an excuse to dismiss each other’s demands, Netanyahu and Abbas should work on implementing the two-state vision – Israel and Palestine – in which both sides “national aspirations would be realised.”

Haaretz reports that a delegation of the Indian Air Force landed in Israel on Wednesday to participate in the biennial Blue Flag exercise, which will take place from November 2 to 16 at the Ovda Airbase in southern Israel.

Kan Radio News reports on comments by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri who claimed that the security fence that Israel was building along the border was eroding Lebanese territory.

Nana and Mako online websites discuss the significance of public opinion polls commissioned by Channel Ten News and The News (formerly known as the Channel Two News Company) which found that the Likud has lost popularity at the expense of some of the smaller parties, while the center-left bloc has made significant gains.

Army Radio reports that 15 people were arrested by Israeli security forces in the West Bank, with 11 of them suspected of being involved in terrorism and violence.