Israel and the Middle East News Update

Monday, May 12

Headlines:  Lapid Says Won't Leave Government over Peace Process Failure  IDF Reservists Warn PM: Disaster Looming Due to Lack of Training  Peres Blasts Netanyahu Bid to Curb President's Powers  Minister: 'Someone is Trying to Sabotage US-Israel Cooperation'  PM Netanyahu Arrives on Working Visit to Japan  Amos Oz Does Not Retract His Statements on Hebrew Neo Nazis  Israel-Turkey Deal to be Finalized When PM Returns from Japan  Nigeria Accepts Israeli Offer to Help Find Abducted Schoolgirls

Commentary:

 Times of Israel: “Abolishing the Presidency? Think Again, Netanyahu”  By David Horovitz  Yedioth Ahronoth: “Neither the Dream Come True nor the Vision of Peace”  By Sever Plocker

S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● Nathaniel Sobel, Associate Editor

News Excerpts May 12, 2014 Ha’aretz Lapid Says Won't Leave Government over Peace Process Failure Finance Minister Yair Lapid made it clear on Sunday night that he and his Yesh Atid Party would not leave the government over the failure of the peace talks with the Palestinians initiated by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. "It's not serious to say that we should get hysterical, dismantle the government and slam the door on the prospects of separating from the Palestinians due to a three- week hiatus in a dispute that has gone on for 150 years," Lapid told a Yesh Atid conference. "We need to get the peace process back on track, and in that regard we will neither cease our efforts nor raise our arms in surrender," Lapid said. "In a few weeks, we will know what government [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] is putting together and then we'll decide how best to restart the peace process." See also, “Lapid indicates peace process could resume” (Ynet News)

Ynet News IDF Reservists Warn PM: Disaster Looming Due to Lack of Training Twenty IDF reservist commanders sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday, in which they stressed that over 100 soldiers under their command hadn't undergone any training exercises for three-and-a-half years, and therefore were unprepared for any military conflict the country may face. The combat soldiers also let the government officials know that they aren't impressed by reports of a budget crisis in the IDF, and said that the political debate on how to settle financial issues didn't interest them; they were just informing the government of the dire situation.

Jerusalem Post Peres Blasts Netanyahu Bid to Curb President's Powers President Shimon Peres has told confidantes in closed-door conversations that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to trim the powers of the president is “an attempt to establish a dictatorship here” and that the premier “won’t be satisfied until there is an absolute ruler [in the Prime Minister’s Office].” Peres’ anger and criticism of Netanyahu is a response to the premier’s lobbying his coalition partners to back his initiative which would enshrine into law reduced powers which the president could exercise. See also, “Presidential race pits Netanyahu against Israeli democracy” (Ha’aretz)

Israel Hayom Minister: 'Someone is Trying to Sabotage US-Israel Cooperation' Newsweek vs. the Israeli intelligence apparatus, round two: Over the weekend, the news magazine published another article claiming that even during the best of times, the intelligence relationship between Israel and the U.S. and Israel has been a hostile friendship, or, as Newsweek put it, a relationship between "frenemies." Israeli officials were quick to reject the allegations raised by the article, with Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz saying Saturday that "it appears that someone is trying to sabotage the excellent intelligence cooperation between the U.S. and Israel.

Times of Israel PM Netanyahu Arrives on Working Visit to Japan Prime Minister Netanyahu flew to Japan overnight Saturday for a week-long state visit. During his visit Netanyahu is set to meet with the country’s Emperor Akihito, as well as Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, senior ministers and business-people. The discussions will focus on forging business partnerships and promoting the Israeli tech industry, with an emphasis on “cyber technology, water preservation technology, alternative energy, biotechnology and more,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. Netanyahu is accompanied by his wife, Sara, and his sons.

Ma’ariv Amos Oz Does Not Retract His Statements on Hebrew Neo Nazis Writer Amos Oz, who sparked a furor over the weekend by comparing the hilltop youth and the perpetrators of price tag attacks to neo-Nazis, said yesterday that he did not retract his statements. Regarding the complaint filed against him yesterday by right wing activists for his harsh statement, the famous writer responded: “I hope there will be a trial over this.” Oz, winner of an Israel Prize in literature, said: “Over the years I have advocated two states, and criticized the occupation and the settlements with moral arguments. Now I will do it with an egotistical argument: If there is one state here, there will be an Arab state here, and I don’t envy the Jews who will live in it—this will be one of the most difficult Diasporas. I think that most of the people, both on our side and among the Palestinians, know that there is no choice but to perform surgery as was done in Czechoslovakia. The problem is that the patient is ready for the surgery, but the doctors are cowards.” See also, “Settlers file police complaint against author Amos Oz for incitement to racial hatred” (Jerusalem Post)

Jerusalem Post Israel-Turkey Deal to be Finalized When PM Returns from Japan Israel and Turkey are likely to normalize relations soon after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu returns from Japan on Friday, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said Sunday. “We are waiting for the prime minister to return and finalize the deal,” the official said, confirming – finally – a steady drumbeat of stories from Turkey over the last few months saying that a deal was imminent that would put an end to the Mavi Marmara saga. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said last week that talks between the two countries had reached “a certain level” and that “problems have been substantially overcome.”

Reuters Nigeria Accepts Israeli Offer to Help Find Abducted Schoolgirls Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted an Israeli offer to assist in the efforts to find hundreds of schoolgirls who were kidnapped by the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram, AFP reported. The offer was made on Sunday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke with Jonathan by phone. "Israel expresses deep shock at the crime against the girls," Netanyahu told the Nigerian president, according to the prime minister's bureau. "We are ready to help in finding the girls and fighting the cruel terrorism inflicted on you." Netanyahu's offer did not elaborate on how Israel might assist in the search, which also includes British and U.S. experts.

Times of Israel – May 12, 2014 Abolishing the Presidency? Think Again, Netanyahu This is so patently a dreadful idea that you have to wonder what on earth is going on in the prime minister’s head, and in his office By David Horovitz  As of this writing, there has been no formal confirmation from the Prime Minister’s Office that Benjamin Netanyahu is bent on abolishing the office of the presidency.  For months, though, there have been rumors that Netanyahu is pursuing this goal, and these culminated on Monday morning with an Army Radio report quoting “sources in the Prime Minister’s Office” enthusing about the plan — a “historic change that would finally enable the proper management of the world’s most challenged country.”  In its coverage of the issue on Monday, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that even though not a single minister from Netanyahu’s Likud supports the idea, and there seems zero likelihood of the necessary change to the relevant Basic Law being approved in the less than seven weeks before the Knesset must choose President Shimon Peres’s successor, the prime minister is pushing for abolition “with all his strength” and held a “blitz” of discussions on the matter with key figures in recent days. (Peres’s seven-year term ends on July 27; the Knesset must elect a new president at least a month before that date.)  News reports have ascribed Netanyahu’s enthusiasm for the notion to a variety of factors. Some say he wants to save the millions that the presidency costs the state — an absurd argument which might equally be invoked to cancel the prime minister’s job or, for that matter, to abolish our entire costly Israeli democracy. Dictatorship is so much cheaper.  Others claim it stems from his determination to thwart presidential frontrunner Reuven Rivlin — a former Knesset speaker from his own Likud party whom Netanyahu stripped of the speaker’s post in this parliament. Rivlin, an outspoken independent thinker, has had the temerity to challenge Netanyahu over the years on issues ranging from the democratic functioning of the Knesset to, more recently, the release of Palestinian prisoners. Sara Netanyahu, heaven help us, has also been factored in as a Rivlin critic. It beggars belief, however, that Netanyahu would press to abolish so central, historically anchored and symbolic an office merely because the prospective new president is someone he doesn’t much like.  The Times of Israel’s political correspondent, Haviv Rettig Gur, advances another ostensible rationale: One of the president’s key roles is, in the aftermath of elections, charging the politician deemed best able to form a majority coalition with the task of heading a government; Netanyahu may fear that a future election might leave him vulnerable in this regard.  Whatever Netanyahu’s game plan, however, his widely reported enthusiasm for a radical, even bizarre, reform that has no support among those who would have to enact it (his fellow Knesset members), and next-to-no support among those who would be affected by it (the public), can only give rise to profound concern about the prime minister’s current state of mind.

 Under his watch, albeit with plenty of blame attaching to both sides, the peace process with the Palestinians has collapsed — and Israel now faces a likely Palestinian-led campaign of demonization, a rising tide of international criticism, unilateral Palestinian efforts to secure aspects of independent statehood, the potential growth of boycott and sanctions efforts, and a more than possible escalation of violence on the ground.  Relations with Israel’s key ally have deteriorated to the point where the US president gives interviews all but accusing Netanyahu of leading this country to rack and ruin, the secretary of state issues public warnings about a possible lurch into apartheid, and the senior US Middle East peace envoypredicts that the “rampant settlement activity” over which Netanyahu presides could “mortally wound the idea of Israel as a Jewish state.”  Meanwhile, a wave of hate crimes against Christians and Muslims perpetrated by settler extremists, despicably targeting places of worship, sweeps the country — on the eve of a papal visit, no less. Lawless settler radicals also physically attack the soldiers who risk their lives to protect them across the West Bank, and have now begun discussing killing these soldiers. But arrests are few and far between, and convictions almost unheard of — even though former security chiefs insist the phenomenon could be tackled effectively if only there were a will to do so.  And at this juncture the prime minister is expending energies on the abolition of the presidency?  Creative thinking for the benefit of Israel is a quality to be appreciated in the holders of high public office. But when prime ministers come up with lousy ideas — and canceling the presidency is one of them — there ought to be people in trusted positions with the credibility and seniority to quickly shoot those ideas down.  Israel patently needs a president as a unifying symbol of the state, a figurehead representing all of a society some of whose sectors are marginalized by the political system. It needs a president to approach national interests from a different perspective to partisan politicians with their coalition concerns. It needs a president to represent the state and its people at home and overseas with a broadness and absence of partisan interest that, by definition, no prime minister can muster. It needs a president to host popes. It needs a president to visit the families of the bereaved. It needs a president, as Peres himself put it rather charmingly in our interview two weeks ago, “because I think you need to have more than just one person at the top. One represents the administration, the government. The other represents the people and the mood. One represents the present situation. The other should act for the desired situation.”  This is not rocket science. This is stating the obvious. That it is apparently not obvious to Netanyahu gives rise to a whole host of concerns about what is going on in the Prime Minister’s Office, who he has surrounded himself with, and whether he lacks senior advisers with the influence to tell him, “No, Mr. Prime Minister, this is not a good idea. Drop it.”  Abolishing the presidency? Really? Forget it. You want to institute radical reform? Maybe we should talk about imposing a term limit on the prime ministership.

Yedioth Ahronoth – May 11, 2014 Neither the Dream Come True nor the Vision of Peace By Sever Plocker  With the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian-American talks, US Secretary of State John Kerry cited two frightening alternatives for Israel’s future in the absence of an arrangement: either a single bi-national state will be formed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River or Israel will become an apartheid state. Those two options, however, are not the only ones that exist. There is, for example, the possibility that a bi-national state with apartheid policies that will be established, but the Jews—weary, diminishing in number and frustrated by the end of the Zionist dream—will exist in it on the other end of the apartheid regime. They will be the victims, not the masters.  Another alternative is that the current situation will continue: martial law under Hamas in Gaza, self-government without sovereignty that is based on international funding and aid under Fatah in part of the West Bank, the rapid settlement of Judea and Samaria with Jewish residents, the silent emigration of Christians from the West Bank, terror attacks at different levels of intensity, condemnations of the Israeli occupation and recurring attempts to rekindle the flame of negotiations.  There is also the alternative that one mustn’t ever mention despite its historic logic: Jordan’s return as the sovereign power over the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem, and the evolution of the Jordanian kingdom into a Jordanian-Palestinian democratic state. Negotiations will be held with it over the return of territories, land swaps and recognition of it as the Palestinians’ homeland. Their national home. Palestinians already constitute a majority in Jordan.  Other options, unilateral in nature, are also on the table, such as a renewed Palestinian request for admission into the United Nations or an Israeli annexation of some areas and disengagement from others.  The alternative that the parties to this conflict find least attractive is, ironically, the one that the international diplomatic community has championed, the one known as “two states for two peoples” (or “two nation-states” in its Israeli interpretation). It was described in great detail in the parameters that were drawn up by the former American president, Bill Clinton, in the last month of his term in office. For the Palestinians it means the establishment of a divided and torn micro-state with limited sovereignty that is surrounded by enemies and which is going to be dependent for generations to come on external economic aid. That is hardly their dream come true.  For the Israelis, the two-state solution will mean the forcible eviction of between 80,000 and 100,000 settlers (and a further surge in housing prices in Israel), a rift in the people, a renewed partition of Jerusalem, a meandering eastern border and a national threat that will be created with the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees from Arab countries in the new State of Palestine, which will be densely populated and lacking in resources. Hardly the vision of peace.

 The existence of numerous other alternatives has allowed Israeli, Palestinian and other politicians to avoid having to make what is routinely referred to in diplomatic parlance as “difficult decisions.” Those kinds of decisions are generally made only once push truly has come to shove, when all other options and escape routes have been blocked off. As of 2014, numerous escape routes still remain. At least that is the impression everyone has. That is the real reason that Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations time and time again have reached an impasse.  The Jewish majority and the majority among the Palestinians are confident that they will be able to choose from among the array of solutions something other than the “two states for two peoples” solution. Just like in a restaurant: who is the idiot who is going to select an item he doesn’t like off the menu when there are other tastier dishes being offered on the menu? Only once the menu has been restricted to one dish that is hard to digest, and the choice is between that dish and starvation, will it become reasonable to expect the patron to order that dish. It seems to me that that situation is still far off. Very far off.  As such, hasn’t the time arrived—and if it hasn’t then when will it?—for the Israeli political Left to wake up from its slumber and illusions and begin to think seriously about options other than the “two states for two peoples” option that it has clung to? Because while they were asleep (namely, while they were busy obsessing over the price of cottage cheese), the Jewish settlement movement became more radical and managed to fill tens of thousands of new apartments in the territories with residents. The Palestinian population has also grown more radical and has successfully put forward a new generation of young and educated and resolute Palestinians who are vehemently opposed to the Clinton parameters.  The theoretical option of “two states for two peoples” has been pushed a critical extra distance away from the realm of the realistic. It is of zero value at present: no one is looking to buy it and it is not projected to bear fruit.