Israel and the Middle East News Update

Wednesday, May 30

Headlines: ● Israel Believes Gaza Fighting Is Over for Now ● Galant: Israel Must Consider Risks of Retaking Gaza ● US Calls UNSC Meeting to Condemn Gaza Rockets ● Kuwait: UN Must Set up Protection Mission for Palestinians ● Israel Intercepts Protest Boat Trying to Break Gaza Blockade ● Israel Destroys Attack Tunnel From Gaza ● Southern Kibbutz Residents Deal With Latest Violence ● Rights Group: Israeli Banks Help with Settlement Building

Commentary: ● Jerusalem Post: “Peace Starts in Jerusalem’s Holy Basin” − By Ofer Zalzberg, International Crisis Group; and Yonathan Mizrach, Emek Shaveh.

● Ha’aretz: “The Reasons Islamic Jihad Is Violating Hamas' Rules” − By Zvi Bar’el, Analyst, Ha’aretz

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 May 30, 2018

Ha’aretz Israel Believes Gaza Fighting Is Over for Now The Israeli army said Wednesday it believes fighting in Gaza has come to an end and said it will respect the calm if Hamas ends the rocket fire towards Israel. Hamas agreed to accept a unilateral ceasefire after talks with Egypt, despite the fact the Israel was not party to the talks. The Israeli military struck dozens of militant sites in Gaza overnight as rocket fire continued toward southern Israeli communities into early Wednesday morning. The attacks continued throughout Tuesday, triggering dozens of rocket sirens in southern Israel and wounding five Israelis, one of them suffering moderate injuries.

Ynet Galant: Israel Must Consider Risks of Retaking Gaza Housing Minister and Security Cabinet member Yoav Galant responded Wednesday to recent statements by Cabinet members on the possibility of retaking the Gaza Strip, saying "When you want to overthrow Hamas, you should ask yourself who would replace it." Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday blamed Iran for the escalation, saying, “Israel is in a focused, consistent campaign against the head of the Iranian octopus, which operates its tentacles in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza to harm Israel.”

Jerusalem Post US Calls UNSC Meeting to Condemn Gaza Rockets The US called on the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting Wednesday in New York to condemn the Gaza rocket attacks. “The Security Council should be outraged and respond to this latest bout of violence directed at innocent Israeli civilians, and the Palestinian leadership needs to be held accountable for what they’re allowing to happen in Gaza,” Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said. On Tuesday, a number of UNSC members and western states condemned Hamas for its violence against Israel.

AFP Kuwait: UN Must Set up Protection Mission for Palestinians Kuwait on Tuesday circulated a watered-down draft UNSC resolution on setting up an international protection mission for the Palestinians in a bid to win European support in a vote expected this week, diplomats said. The council could hold a vote, possibly on Thursday, on the draft resolution, which is expected to face a US veto. Kuwait is hoping to highlight Washington’s isolation on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Times of Israel Israel Intercepts Protest Boat Trying to Break Gaza Blockade The Israeli navy stopped and seized control of a boat carrying demonstrators as it tried to leave the Gaza fishing zone on Tuesday in defiance of Israel’s blockade of the coastal enclave. The navy said after it had been searched, the boat would be towed to port in the Israeli city of Ashdod. Organizers had said the vessel was carrying wounded Gazans seeking treatment, and the IDF said medics were waiting to treat the sick or injured on board if necessary.

Ha’aretz Israel Destroys Attack Tunnel From Gaza The Israeli military attacked and destroyed an attack tunnel that penetrated half a mile into Israeli territory on Tuesday. The tunnel, which was used for smuggling weapons, was dug from inside the Gaza Strip into Egypt and then continued into Israel. The IDF had intended to destroy the tunnel next week, but took advantage of escalating tensions in southern Israel to attack it on Tuesday. It was the tenth attack tunnel from Gaza the IDF has destroyed in the past six months.

Ha’aretz Southern Kibbutz Residents Deal With Latest Violence Though Israelis near the Gaza border are trying to maintain their daily routine, they were hard pressed to hide the degree to which their lives have been disrupted on Tuesday. Kibbutz spokeswoman Meirav Cohen said most children had arrived as usual to the fortified preschool, but the situation was anything but normal as evidenced by the masses of policemen and soldiers mulling about. A municipal official from one Gaza-area community said that the incident had shaken residents of the region. Even in communities where no alarm sounded, people had been calling the local Hosen Center, which provides psychological, emotional and social work support to residents who have been hurt in attacks or need preventive treatment.

Associated Press Rights Group: Israeli Banks Help with Settlement Building Israeli banks are helping build West Bank settlements in violation of international law by providing financial services to home buyers and local councils, Human Rights Watch said in a new report published Tuesday. The report said that bank activities in or with settlements have helped encourage settlement growth and “contribute to rights abuses” against Palestinians. It added that Israeli banks, and international banks doing business with them, may be engaging in pillage, by acquiring ownership interests in housing projects on seized land. Because of an Israeli law limiting the amount of money developers can collect from buyers in advance, banks often become direct partners in settlement projects, Human Rights Watch says.

Jerusalem Post – May 30, 2018 Peace Starts in Jerusalem’s Holy Basin By Ofer Zalzberg, International Crisis Group; and Yonathan Mizrach, Emek Shaveh

● The US embassy’s move to Jerusalem on May 14 following US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize the disputed city as Israel’s capital might have triggered a new round of uproar, but it also provides an opportunity to implement measures we believe can reduce tension over the holy places.

● In recent years, the Holy Basin – which for our purposes comprises the Old City and the surrounding areas such as Silwan, Mount Zion and Mount of Olives, most of which lie in east Jerusalem territory that Palestinians claim as their future capital – has seen excavations of unprecedented scope, followed by massive investment to turn antiquity sites into tourist attractions and develop new sites of Jewish worship. These excavations are recreating the historic city, blotting out non-Jewish parts of its history and highlighting Jewish ones, especially the First and Second Temple periods. These include the Western Wall tunnels and the tunnels running underneath the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, and plans for new means of transportation, such as the recently announced cable car from West Jerusalem to the Old City.

● The evident emphasis of these archaeological-tourism ventures is compounded by an absence of investment in developing sites embodying the city’s Christian or Muslim histories or resolving transportation challenges faced by Christian and Muslim pilgrims and local residents. The deprecatory approach to the religious, cultural or national Other is not practiced by Israel alone. For example, some Palestinian tour guides at the Holy Esplanade (Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif) deny that the Second Temple ever existed, despite an academic consensus on this matter. In Jerusalem lie the holiest sites to Jews, Christians and Muslims, and the ancient remains are central to the identity of both national movements. Past diplomatic efforts sought to postpone the status of Jerusalem and freeze the existing situation in the historic basin during negotiations. But one cannot really freeze development in such a charged area. It is possible however to initiate a dialogue between the parties in a bid to achieve consent over strategies and practices aimed at protecting the needs of the different major stakeholders in this historic zone.

● Several steps can be taken. One would be to secure an agreement on several key principles if and when negotiations resume, to preserve Jerusalem as a city that respects the religious rituals of the three monotheistic faiths. The parties could commit to present archaeological remains from the various historic periods embodied at the site, accompanied by explanations about the importance of each period to the city’s history. This is a seemingly self-evident demand, but the approach is practically absent in Jerusalem’s present-day historic city. The idea of presenting a multi-layered, culturally and religiously diverse story today frightens both sides. Perhaps the concern is that recognizing the other side’s story constitutes a first step toward recognizing their political rights. But formulating a relationship based on mutual respect

and the ability to handle the multiplicity of views, realities and needs which characterizes Jerusalem is vital for any successful Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. If both sides recognize the need for a two-state solution, then such an approach would be consistent.

● To this end, any outside mediation – most likely to be led by the US – should ensure that the actions of each party do not contravene the red lines of the other and that all parties can present the new approach as a victory to their respective publics. We propose setting up a team of Israeli, Palestinian and international (Jordanian, Egyptian, Vatican, etc.) professionals, who would together work toward fostering a multicultural and tolerant historic core to the city. US mediation will have to help the sides identify a middle path toward resolving a tension potentially inherent in this approach between purely professional interests and each stakeholder’s political agenda. Ideally team members would not only be professionals but also either have influence with their respective governments or operate with their explicit, public blessing. This would add formal recognition to each of the major stakeholders’ narratives.

● A new approach to development in the historic basin could lead to an instantaneous reduction in Jewish-Muslim tensions. It will also bolster the status of the Christian churches and provide a better response to the needs of the Christians in the city and the thousands of Christian pilgrims who visit it. Trump’s Jerusalem proclamation has sent the triangular Israeli-Palestinian-American relationship into severe crisis mode. Extremists on both sides try to leverage the crisis for their own agenda, but it also offers an opportunity for a reboot. It may not be simple but articulating consentient mechanisms that promote mutual tolerance regarding Jerusalem’s historic core is a necessary move that will open the door to successful peacemaking. As Frank Sinatra once said, “if you can make it there, you can make it everywhere.”

Ha’aretz – May 30, 2018 The Reasons Islamic Jihad Is Violating Hamas' Rules By Zvi Bar’el, Analyst, Ha’aretz

● It’s not a war yet in Gaza. Despite the higher-than-usual number of mortar rounds fired by Islamic Jihad and the backing it has received from Hamas, Islamic Jihad prefers to define the mortar firing as revenge for the killing of three of its operatives by the Israeli military. In other words, as a localized event, rather than the opening of a new front and the disruption of the hard-won 2014 agreement between Hamas, Egypt and Israel at the end of Operation Protective Edge.

● Israel is the party directly harmed by this act of revenge but Hamas cannot disregard the challenge posed by its sister organization. For if Islamic Jihad cannot control itself and cannot refrain from avenging the killing of three of its members, what does this say about Hamas, which has shown restraint in the face of the deaths of 50 of its people in the demonstrations and marches held over the last six weeks? The thing is that Islamic Jihad members also took part in these demonstrations and its leaders decided to embrace the Hamas strategy of not responding to the killings. Has Islamic Jihad decided on settling scores with Israel, thereby compelling Hamas to do the same? Not just yet. Until now Hamas has made due with offering supportive declarations on behalf of Islamic Jihad, but it has not yet pulled the trigger.

● Hamas views Islamic Jihad’s actions as violating the rules which have governed the conduct of the two groups since the start of the internal Palestinian reconciliation process, in particular, the rules - dictated by Egypt since it has assumed control of the talks - concerning conduct towards Israel. When an Islamic Jihad delegation visited Egypt in March and met the heads of Egypt’s intelligence services, it clarified that the organization opposes any attack against Egypt and that it would back Hamas’ commitment to defend the Egyptian–Gaza border from infiltration by terrorists and the smuggling of war materiel. Islamic Jihad sees eye to eye with Hamas regarding reconciliation with Fatah and the need to maintain good relations with Egypt, which requires, among other things, strictly abiding by the cease-fire with Israel.

● However, the waters are not placid within the ranks of the Islamic Jihad. Its leader Ramadan Shalah is non-functional following repeated cardiac surgery in Beirut (supervised by Iranian doctors). He lost consciousness in April, which gave rise to rumors that he’d been poisoned. His deputy, Ziyad al-Nakhalah has been the stand-in leader since then. He is considered to be loyal to Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, which is giving some financial support to Islamic Jihad. Iran wants al-Nakhalah to replace Shalah and has let the organization know this. However, there are senior members of the organization such as Mohammed al-Hindi, another Shalah deputy, who prefer ties with Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood over ties with Iran.

● Last April the organization made preparations for elections for its leadership and for formulating a new constitution. The elections were postponed, apparently due to Iranian pressure, out of concern that al-Hindi would be elected rather not Tehran’s ally, the 67-year-old al-Nakhalah. There is no new date for elections and internal rivalries continue to dictate the strategy to be pursued in conflicts such as the current one with Israel. Although Israel views the organization as an Iranian proxy in Gaza, some members of Islamic Jihad view Iran with deep distrust, particularly after the establishment of the Sabirun (“the patient ones”) faction, which broke away from Jihad in 2014 at the urging of Iran, which then funded the new group to the tune of (an estimated) $12 million a year. Senior Islamic Jihad members saw this as a serious blow to the group’s unity, especially when a year later Iran froze its annual financial support of the organization. Some of the funding has since been restored but this has not allayed suspicions regarding Iran.

● Iran’s involvement also angers Salafist groups in Gaza who worry about Shi’ite influence there. Even if these groups occasionally challenge Hamas, sometimes firing into Israel, they support Hamas’ disengagement from Iran and back the anti-Iranian elements in Islamic Jihad. Thus, it’s possible that the military action undertaken by Islamic Jihad against Israel is related to internal divisions within the group and not just to turf wars with Hamas.

● As in earlier rounds, Egypt invited itself this week to serve as a mediator between Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in order to bring calm to the area. Egypt is trying to promote inter-Palestinian reconciliation and is maintaining tight ties with both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Its main leverage is its control over the Rafah border crossing, which it opened in honor of the month of Ramadan. For Egypt the reconciliation is not an objective in itself but a means of controlling who succeeds Mahmoud Abbas, in order to have influence over all the internal processes which will follow the succession. Without the cooperation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Egypt will find it difficult to dictate political moves and to have any sway on the future leadership of Palestine. Egyptian leverage stems from its close military collaboration with Israel, which determines the scope of hostilities along the border. It is now in Israel’s interest to help Egypt attain calm, thereby reinforcing Cairo’s influence not only in Gaza but in the West Bank as well. The problem is that Israel views the confrontation with Islamic Jihad and Hamas not just as a means to punish and deter but also as a means to enhance its own prestige. This may override any rational considerations.