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Israel and the Middle East News Update Monday, April 4 Headlines: Rivlin: If Abbas Is Serious, I Am Ready to Meet with Him Air Force Top Brass Says Israel’s Military Edge Under Threat Hamas and Fatah Take Tentative Steps Towards Unity Hamas: ‘We Have Four Israeli Prisoners of War in Our Custody’ Israeli Envoy Outraged After UN Censors Parts of Pro-Israel Exhibit Israel Reduces Power Supply to West Bank Over Palestinian Debt Orders to Seal Three Terrorists’ Homes Struck Down by High Court Germany Said to Spy on Israeli Prime Minister’s Office Commentary: Yedioth Ahronoth: “Dagan’s Commentary” By Ronen Bergman, Senior Political and Military Analyst, Yedioth Ahronoth Al-Monitor: “Dahlan: Is This the Man Who Will Replace Abbas?” By Adnan Abu Amer, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Al Ummah University S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● David Abreu, Associate Editor News Excerpts April 4, 2016 Arutz Sheva Rivlin: If Abbas Is Serious, I Am Ready to Meet with Him President Reuven Rivlin on Monday met at his residence with Foreign Minister of Czech Republic, Lubomír Zaorálek where Rivlin spoke of the need for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and that he hoped the Palestinians engage in direct talks rather than turning to international organizations: "Without confidence between the two sides, there cannot be negotiations, and we will not find a solution." He said that he believes there is a need to end all forms of terror, and find a way to return to the negotiations. The President stressed that if Abbas truly means to take action to stop terrorism and that if he honestly wants to return to direct negotiations, there must be a way to do it. "We must find a way to build confidence between us. I will meet him with the understanding of the Israeli Government of course." See also, “Rivlin Calls for Talks with Palestinians, Says He Would Meet Abbas” (Jerusalem Post) BICOM Air Force Top Brass Says Israel's Military Edge Under Threat One of the most senior officers in Israel’s Air Force (IAF) has warned of a growing threat to Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region, due to a burgeoning arms race in the increasingly unstable Middle East. Brig. Gen. Tal Kalman, Chief of Staff of the IAF said, “There are countries here which have plans that are being actualized for arms deals in the hundreds of billions of dollars, for the most advanced Western weaponry and the most advanced Eastern weaponry.” Kalman explained that, “There is a potential here for the erosion of the IDF’s qualitative edge and the IAF’s qualitative edge.” See also, “Deputy Israel Air Force Chief: Mideast Arms Race Imperils Israel’s Military Superiority” (Ha'aretz) Times of Israel Hamas and Fatah Take Tentative Steps Towards Unity Once again, there are reports of rivals Hamas and Fatah drawing together ahead of an agreement on Palestinian unity. Sources in Gaza and Ramallah said that in the coming two days, meetings will be held in the Qatari capital of Doha between representatives from the two movements. The expectation is that if the meetings in Qatar go well, then Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Doha in the near future to meet with Hamas political bureau head Khaled Mashaal. Jerusalem Post Hamas: ‘We Have Four Israeli Prisoners of War in Our Custody’ Hamas publicly acknowledged on Friday that it is holding the remains of two Israeli soldiers and also has in its custody two Israeli nationals who went missing in the Gaza Strip. The group's military wing, Izzadin Kassam Brigades, released a televised statement through official Hamas media in Gaza on Friday saying Israel will have to make concessions if it wants the Islamist organization to provide information about the conditions of the "four prisoners of war." The Hamas spokesperson assailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and denied considering the release of the four Israelis. See also, “Egypt Said to Probe Hamas Over Israeli Hostages in Gaza” (Times of Israel) 2 i24 News Israeli Envoy Outraged After UN Censors Pro-Israel Exhibit Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, expressed his outrage Sunday over the intergovernmental organization's decision to disqualify major sections of a special exhibition about Israel which presented information about topics such as Zionism, Jerusalem, and Arab Israelis. The exhibition was created together with the pro-Israel NGO StandWithUs and was scheduled to be opened at the UN on Monday. Danon stated his disappointment about the censorship of the exhibition and demanded that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon reverse the move. "By disqualifying an exhibition about Zionism, the UN is undermining the very existence of the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” said Danon. "We will not allow the UN to censor the fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital." See also, “UN Censors Exhibit on Zionism Calling Displays 'Inappropriate'” (Algemeiner) Ha’aretz Israel Reduces Power Supply to WB Over Palestinian Debt The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) is cutting power supplies beginning Monday to the West Bank city of Bethlehem and its environs in response to the failure by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Jerusalem District Electricity Company to pay their electricity bills. The PA now owes an accumulated debt of 1.7 billion shekels ($449 million) to the Israeli electricity giant, according to company officials. They say they do not see a solution arising in which the authority will fully or even partly pay back its debts despite recent meetings on the issue. IEC staff drew up a plan on Monday morning according to which it will reduce and disrupt the power supply in various parts of the West Bank over the next two weeks. See also, “Israel Electric Corporation to Reduce Power to Bethlehem” (Times of Israel) Ynet News Orders to Seal 3 Terrorists' Homes Struck Down by High Court The High Court of Justice (HCJ) gave a ruling on Sunday, striking down the orders for sealing the homes of three of the five terrorists involved in the attack which killed Alexander Levlovich on Rosh Hashanah eve. Only the home of the central culprit in the attack, Mahmoud Abed Rabbo Dawiyat, will be demolished. Justice Esther Hayut stated, "Even if you can see the three as associated with the inner circle of the killing offense, and I am not giving an opinion on that matter, the administrative evidence which have been detailed, as well as the indictment, show that their part in the incident was much smaller than Dawiyat's." See also, “Israel Razes the Homes of the Three Terrorists Who Killed Border Policewoman” (Ha'aretz) Times of Israel Germany Said to Spy On Israeli Prime Minister's Office Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has been spying on Israel in recent years, specifically the Prime Minister’s Office, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported Saturday. The report noted that other targets of the BND included the U.S. State Department, the British Defense Ministry, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the interior ministries of Austria and Belgium. There were no further details on the alleged information collected from Israel, or when the reported espionage took place. See also, “Germany Spied on Both US and Israel: Report” (Forward) 3 Yedioth Ahronoth – April 4, 2016 Dagan’s Commentary By Ronen Bergman “I came to a decision with myself that I had to get this over with, I wanted to do other things. Also, the truth is that I was fed up with him (Netanyahu—R.B.). I knew a lot of prime ministers. None of them were saintly types. But they had one shared trait: when they reached the point in which their personal interest intersected with the national interest—the national interest always prevailed. There are only two I can’t say that about—Bibi and Barak.” That was the way Meir Dagan explained to me, in a private conversation, his decision to resign as Mossad director. After the liver transplant that Meir Dagan underwent, we began to meet for lengthy conversations. I wanted to get from Dagan his version of security incidents and the decision- making process at the central and secret junctures at which he’d stood. Dagan spoke with me openly and incisively, and was unsparing in his harsh criticism. The contents of those conversations were never published—until this week. The withheld interview with Meir Dagan, who died last month after a lengthy battle with cancer, will be published in full on Friday in Yedioth Ahronoth’s Seven Days weekend magazine. Dagan spoke at length in our conversations about his differences of opinion with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He spoke, for example, about several Mossad operations that Netanyahu initially green-lighted, but which Dagan knew he would soon wish to abort or, as Dagan put it, he would “lose his balls.” Q: What would you do then? “I like falafel. Because I knew he was going to summon me back soon, I’d go out to Mahane Yehuda market (a few minutes’ distance from the Prime Minister’s Office—R.B.) to buy a falafel, and I’d wait for the call, and I wouldn’t begin the drive back to Tel Aviv. When I was less sure, I’d get all the way to the Kurdish restaurant in Mevasseret Zion or a humus place in Abu Ghosh (10-15 minutes from the Prime Minister’s Office—R.B.). The important thing was not to be too far from Jerusalem.
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