Israel and the Middle East News Update

Wednesday, February 20

Headlines: ● Sniping Between Netanyahu and Gantz Intensifies ● PM Pushing for Bayit Yehudi Merger with Extremist Otzma ● US Mission to PA Merging with Israel Embassy in March ● US Charity Opens Gaza’s First Cancer Ward for Children ● Despite Likud Attacks on Gantz, PM Supported Kerry Plan ● US Rabbinical Students Plant with Palestinians ● New Right Brings Experts in Hasbara and Aliyah to List ● Yisrael Beiteinu List Leaves Out Veteran Lawmakers

Commentary: ● Ha’aretz: “Tampering with PA Funds, Israel Could Get Hamas Rockets” − By Amos Harel, Senior Columnist ● LA Times: “Boycotting Israel Won’t End the Palestinian Tragedy” − By Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute

S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● Aaron Zucker, Associate Editor

News Excerpts February 20, 2019

Jerusalem Post Sniping Between Netanyahu and Gantz Intensifies Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Resilience Party leader Benny Gantz traded personal barbs on Tuesday night as Gantz accused the prime minister of ruling through incitement, intimidation and fear. “When I lay in muddy foxholes with my soldiers on frozen winter nights, you, Benjamin Netanyahu, left Israel to improve your English and practice it at luxurious cocktail parties,” Gantz said. Netanyahu responded, "Benny Gantz, you should be ashamed...as an officer in Sayeret Matkal, I risked my life time after time for [Israel].

Jerusalem Post PM Pushing for Bayit Yehudi Merger with Extremist Otzma Top candidates for Bayit Yehudi have threatened to quit if the extremist Otzma Yehudit runs on a merged list with their party, as negotiations broke down Tuesday, despite Netanyahu’s personal intervention. Otzma Yehudit is led by students of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was banned from running for the Knesset on grounds of racist incitement. Netanyahu continued his efforts to convince the parties to run together in order to add seats to the right-wing bloc, offering former Shas leader Eli Yishai a cabinet post if he runs with Bayit Yehudi.

Reuters US Mission to PA Merging with Israel Embassy in March The US Consulate General in Jerusalem, which serves Palestinians, will be absorbed into the new Embassy to Israel in March, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, giving a date for a merger announced in October which has been condemned by Palestinians. PA Official Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, “contacts at the political level with the American administration have been cut off and will remain so unless the American administration changes its positions on Jerusalem and the refugees,” said Abu Rudeineh.

Times of Israel US Charity Opens Gaza’s First Cancer Ward for Children A US charity has inaugurated the first children’s cancer department in the Gaza Strip. The $3 million department, sponsored by Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, will provide chemotherapy, though bone marrow transplants and nuclear medicine won’t be available. The fund says it has an agreement with the World Health Organization to secure free movement of samples to labs in Israel or Jordan.

Ha’aretz Despite Likud Attacks on Gantz, PM Supported Kerry Plan On Monday, the Likud party accused Gantz of secretly conspiring with the Obama administration to promote a plan for a Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders until Netanyahu blocked it. During Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2013-2014 peace initiative, General John Allen worked with the IDF to develop a plan for Israeli security through a two-state solution. The Americans felt that senior IDF officers, including Gantz, supported the initiative, while Netanyahu was skeptical but accepted it with reservations. However, the Americans blamed then-Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon for categorically rejecting it. Contrary to the Likud ad, the security plan included land swaps and annexation of the large settlement blocs.

Associated Press US Rabbinical Students Plant with Palestinians In a stark departure from past programs focused on strengthening ties with Israel and Judaism, a new crop of US rabbinical students is reaching out to the Palestinians. On a recent winter morning, two dozen Jewish students planted olive trees in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani in the southern West Bank. The program is run by “T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights,” a US-based network of rabbis and cantors. Most of T’ruah’s membership, and all students in the Israel program, are affiliated with the Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements. The T’ruah program, now in its seventh year, is meant to supplement students’ standard curricular fare.

Jerusalem Post New Right Brings Experts in Hasbara and Aliyah to List The New Right Party introduced more candidates on Wednesday, including Yomtov Kalfon activist for French and Belgian aliyah, and founder of “Aleinu,” meant to help get French-speaking immigrants involved in Israeli politics. Together with New Right leaders Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, Kalfon presented a plan on Tuesday for how Israel can absorb 50,000 French-speaking immigrants. Ran Bario Bar-Yoshafat, deputy director of the right-leaning Kohelet Policy Forum, also joined the New Right’s list.

Times of Israel Yisrael Beiteinu List Leaves Out Veteran Lawmakers Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman on Tuesday unveiled his party’s slate for the upcoming elections, leaving out a pair of veteran lawmakers who have served under him for over a decade. Noticeably absent was the party’s current number two, Sofa Landver, who served as immigration minister until November when Liberman resigned as defense minister and pulled the party out of the government. Also left out was Robert Ilatov, who announced Monday he would not run in the April 9 elections.

Ha’aretz – February 19, 2019 Tampering with PA Funds, Israel Could Get Hamas Rockets By Amos Harel, Senior Columnist

● The decision by the security cabinet on Sunday to freeze the transfer of 500 million shekels ($138 million) of Palestinian Authority taxes as a sanction for its support of security prisoners was the result of political constraints. The law allowing the funds to be frozen was passed in July, but no politician seemed in any hurry to implement it. The murder of Ori Ansbacher in Jerusalem earlier this month led to renewed discussion of the assistance the PA gives to terrorists and their families; the overcrowding on the right side of the political spectrum did the rest. When Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman are circumventing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the right on the question of relations with the Palestinians, and the prime minister is busy branding himself as the strong right against Benny Gantz’s weak left, Netanyahu saw no choice but to start implementing the law.

● Between July and February nothing was done about deducting any taxes, and even during Sunday’s security cabinet meeting Shin Bet security service head Nadav Argaman delayed presenting the full data on the PA’s support of security prisoners – and got an earful directly from Bennett (which somehow leaked at the speed of light to Channel 12).

● But even now, the funds freeze relates only to the imprisoned terrorists, not to the annual assistance, slightly greater in scope, that the PA gives to the families of Palestinians who were killed in confrontations with Israel. This second clause includes help given to relatives of suicide terrorists. And even after the security cabinet decision and the festive announcement that followed, it still isn’t clear when the tax refunds to the PA will actually be withheld. There is some logic to the Israeli argument, which is supported by the U.S. administration, that the PA’s continued financial assistance to prisoners and families of terrorists indirectly encourages terrorism and contradicts its public statements regarding the need for peace. But in Israel they are also well aware of the ethos of the Palestinian struggle and the fact that any move PA President Mahmoud Abbas makes to reduce the prisoners’ payments will cause a huge domestic crisis for him. That’s why defense establishment heads objected to the tax freeze and sought to delay it as long as they could.

● Meanwhile, one cannot ignore a certain contradiction in the claims being made by Netanyahu and the ministers. On the one hand, they pride themselves on curbing aid to terror by stopping money transfers to the PA, which is still thwarting terror in the West Bank in coordination with Israel. On the other hand, Israel is approving the transfer of money from Qatar and other sources to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, which openly continues to confront Israel and use violence against it. The Israeli decision to stop the tax transfers puts more pressure on the PA leaders than the steps the American administration has taken to reduce the financial aid to the territories. The PA is threatening to completely halt the cooperation between it and Israel. Abbas has already been quoted as saying he will transfer the PA’s last penny to the prisoners if necessary, making this his highest priority. Security coordination with Israel will not be halted

because it is also a Palestinian interest, but the PA could take other measures, such as stopping all meetings in non-security channels.

● The primary danger here is the slippery slope. Abbas’ highest priority is the transfer of aid to Fatah prisoners from the West Bank imprisoned in Israel. To be able to continue this he might decide, as he has already hinted, to further reduce the funds transferred to the Gaza Strip. So by freezing the tax transfers, Israel might indirectly assist in exacerbating the situation in Gaza and hastening further escalation there, contrary to its objective. Hamas isn’t prepared to make do with what it has achieved in recent months – a boost in electricity supply and money deliveries from Qatar, along with an Egyptian decision to lengthen the hours the Rafah crossing stays open. It seems that the organization’s leaders believe that Netanyahu is more vulnerable to blackmail now, given his desire to avoid violent confrontations in the Strip before the election. This is a volatile situation and the sanctions Israel is imposing now, against the PA and indirectly against Hamas, could help spark a conflagration.

● Foreign diplomats involved in contacts with the Palestinians hope that the prime minister will find a way to delay implementation of the cuts, despite the security cabinet’s decision. Meanwhile, the situation along the Gaza border fence does not bode well. Last Friday’s demonstrations passed with no deaths, but Hamas continues to play with fire. The nighttime demonstrations in the Gaza Strip have resumed and are now taking place almost daily. These demonstrations are more violent than the Friday ones and, under the cover of the darkness, many explosives and Molotov cocktails are thrown at soldiers. The explosions along the fence are heard clearly in the Gaza border communities and are restoring the tense atmosphere, as the incendiary balloons and kites did during the summer months. Gaza, as the General Staff Intelligence Branch warned only last week, could quickly devolve into a broader escalation.

Los Angeles Times – February 19, 2019 Boycotting Israel Won’t End the Palestinian Tragedy By Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute

● Airbnb recently announced that it is boycotting tiny Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The ostensible reason for the boycott is that these are contested territories. The Abkhazians and the South Ossetians, with Russian backing, have seceded from Georgia and declared their independence, moves rejected by the international community. But Airbnb’s real motive for stigmatizing a forlorn corner of the world, with a population of under a quarter-million, is to prove that the house-sharing company has no special animus toward Israel.

● In November, Airbnb decided that residents in West Bank settlements could no longer list their homes on its website. It was only after the company faced strong criticism for stigmatizing the Jewish state — or at the least fellow-traveling with the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement against Israel — that Airbnb added two obscure slivers of Georgia to its list of taboo territories. In fact, Airbnb began its absurd action against Abkhazians and South Ossetians just as Florida was moving toward sanctions against the company for its selective boycott of Israel.

● Like many Israelis, I hope for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. I oppose West Bank settlement building and am prepared, as part of a peace agreement that would ensure Israel’s ability to remain a Jewish and democratic state, to cede territory that is the historic heart of the Jewish homeland. Ruling over another people is, morally and politically, a disaster for my country. The Palestinian tragedy has gone on too long, with one generation after another growing up under occupation.

● But boycotting Israel, even selectively, won’t bring an end to the conflict or the tragedy. It will have the opposite effect. Israelis have developed an extraordinary resilience under pressure: Our nation was born in a war of attempted destruction and hasn’t known a day of genuine peace ever since. Terrorist enclaves allied with Iran are ensconced along our borders. And we are no stranger to boycotts: For 70 years, we have been boycotted by most of the Arab and Muslim world, along with their allies. The movement to boycott, divest and sanction fundamentally misreads the Israeli temperament. When Israelis feel unfairly judged, they don’t recoil but push back. And most Israelis are convinced that the call for boycotts is profoundly unfair.

● Partly that’s because Israelis don’t believe their country deserves unique opprobrium. The U.N. denounces Israel for its human rights violations, real and imagined, more often than it denounces violations in all other countries combined. Yet rather than eliciting contrition, the resolutions convince Israelis that the international community isn’t motivated by genuine concern for the Palestinians’ plight but by hatred for the world’s only Jewish state. Israelis shrug: The Jews have been here before, and we’ll survive this too. They respond in a similar way to calls to boycott, divest and sanction. Is our flawed democracy more morally offensive than the world’s many dictatorships?

● If Airbnb were truly committed to placing principle over business, Israelis argue, it could bar listings by property owners in Tibet, brutally occupied by China; or northern Cyprus, seized by Turkey; or the Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco. But Airbnb won’t jeopardize its business interests in China, Turkey or Morocco by targeting those countries. Only Israel — and those bits of Georgia — get that treatment. Israelis vehemently reject the notion that their country is primarily responsible for the impasse with the Palestinians. To understand that position, consider how Israelis interpret two crucial dates. The first is December 2000, when President Clinton proposed a two-state solution. According to the mainstream Israeli narrative, the Israeli government said yes and Palestinian leaders rejected the offer, opting for four years of suicide bombings known as the second intifada.

● The second watershed is July 2005, when Israel unilaterally uprooted its settlements and army bases in the Gaza Strip and withdrew to the international border. That withdrawal was met by years of rocket attacks launched from Gaza on Israeli communities. Israelis believe that their country tried to end the occupation and the Palestinian leadership responded with terrorism. For that reason, the argument that Israel holds all the power gets nowhere here. Israelis believe the conflict isn’t ultimately about occupation but the right of a Jewish-majority state to exist in any borders.

● Even a selective boycott reinforces the perception that Israel alone is responsible for the impasse. And such a one-sided condemnation empowers the xenophobic right in Israel, which insists that the world remains implacably hostile to the Jewish people and the only response is resistance. Rather than incite Jewish fears, the international community should hold Israeli and Palestinian leaders accountable for moves that undermine peace. Do not condemn Israel for settlement expansion without also condemning the Palestinian campaign, in media and schools, that denies Israel’s legitimacy and even the historical rootedness of Jews in the land we share with the Palestinians. Airbnb is embarrassing itself with its transparent boycott of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It should not engage in efforts that drive Israelis and Palestinians further apart and alienate even Israeli liberals.