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Israel Update Israel and the Middle East News Update Friday, November 4 Headlines: Ex-Shin Bet Chief: Iran Has 25,000 Fighters in Syria EU Declares Israel Boycott Protected as Free Speech Pro-Israel Alliance Prepares for 2017 Anti-Israel Campaign Lieberman Appoints new IDF deputy, Air Force Commander IDF Prevented US Diplomats from Visiting Jordan V. Pal. Israeli Exit Poll: Trump 49%, Clinton 44% David Duke: Jews Dominate Media, International Banking Report: Israel's UN Ambassador Made Secret Visit to Dubai Commentary: Yedioth Ahronoth: “Rabin, The Leader Who Taught Me Everything” By Moshe (Bogie) Yaalon, former IDF chief of staff and Minister of Defense Al Monitor: “Can battle over public broadcasting bring down Netanyahu?” By Ben Caspit, Senior Columnist at Al-Monitor’s Israel Pulse. 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 November 4, 2016 Ynet News Ex-Shin Bet Chief: Iran Has 25,000 Fighters in Syria Iran now commands a force of around 25,000 Shi'ite Muslim militants in Syria, mostly made up of recruits from Afghanistan and Pakistan, the former head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency has told a visiting Swiss delegation. Avi Dichter, chair of Israel's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told members of the Swiss parliament the Iranian-backed force was focused on fighting Sunni rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, not ISIS. "This is a foreign legion of some 25,000 militants, most of whom have come from Afghanistan and Pakistan," Dichter told the delegation, according to details provided by his office. "They are fighting in Syria only against the rebels and not against ISIS." See also, “Israeli official: Iran commands 25,000 fighters in Syria” (Times of Israel) Times of Israel EU Declares Israel Boycott Protected as Free Speech The EU’s foreign policy chief recently affirmed the right of EU citizens to boycott Israel, citing freedom of expression and rebuffing claims by Jerusalem that such measures amount to banned anti-Semitic activity. While upholding the right of the anti-Israel BDS movement to blacklist the Jewish state, Federica Mogherini also noted that the EU itself opposes efforts to boycott Israel. “The EU stands firm in protecting freedom of expression and freedom of association, including with regard to BDS actions carried out on this territory,” Mogherini said in a written reply to a query by an Irish member of the European Parliament last month. “Freedom of expression is also applicable to information or ideas ‘that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population.’” Jerusalem Post Pro-Israel Alliance Prepares for 2017 Anti-Israel Campaign A European organization dedicated to rallying support for Israel announced Thursday it would confront a massive anti-Israel campaign anticipated in 2017 with an initiative of its own. Speaking at an event at the Carlton Hotel in Tel Aviv, Swiss MP Corina Eichenberger-Walther said she had “reliable information that a network has been building itself since the middle of the past year already, a network planning a campaign throughout Europe and having started the necessary funding for that.” The goal, she said, was to malign Israel during the year of the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, in which the IDF captured E. Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. Ynet News Lieberman Appoints new IDF deputy, Air Force Commander Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday approved a series of appointments of high-ranking IDF commanders to new positions, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement. The highlights are the appointment of Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi as the new deputy chief of staff of the Israeli military, and the appointment of Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin as Israel’s new Air Force commander. The appointments, all recommended by Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, will take effect during 2017. After interviewing all the candidates, Lieberman accepted Eisenkot’s recommendation that Kochavi be named the army’s second-in-command. 2 Reuters IDF Prevented US Diplomats from Visiting Jordan V. Pal. The Israeli army on Thursday prevented American consular diplomats from entering an area in the northern Jordan Valley where a Palestinian shepherds' encampment was recently demolished and a new and illegal settler outpost is being built. The diplomats were scheduled to visit the area of Tel al Hema with activists from the all-female Machsom Watch group, which monitors army checkpoints. On arrival at the Al-Auja region, just north of Jericho, the two diplomats and a large security detail were informed by the Israel Defense Forces that Tel al Hema was a closed firing zone, currently hosting army training exercises. Residents from Tel al Hema who spoke with Haaretz said they did not see or hear any army training in the area. See also, “Settlers Build New Illegal Outpost on Private Palestinian Land - With Israeli Authorities' Knowledge” (Ha’aretz) Ha’aretz Israeli Exit Poll: Trump 49%, Clinton 44% Though early voting in Israel has reportedly gone in Donald Trump's favor, support for the Republican Party has taken a serious, almost unprecedented hit, early exit poll data presented on Thursday suggested. According to so-called exit polls conducted by iVote Israel – a right-leaning group that helps American expats vote in Israel – Trump won 49 percent of the Israeli-American vote, while Democratic nominee Clinton claimed 44 percent, ahead of Election Day on November 8. In the 2012 presidential matchup between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the GOP carried 85 percent of expats in Israel, while Obama got only 14 percent – indicating a drop of over 35 percent in support for Republicans in the Jewish state. In 2008, Obama won 24 percent and Republican John McCain got 76 percent. See also, “Absentee-voter exit poll: Trump wins Israel by 65 points less than Romney did” (Jerusalem Post) Times of Israel David Duke: Jews Dominate Media, International Banking White supremacist David Duke, a US Senate hopeful in Louisiana, suggested that Jews control the American media and international banks. “There is a problem in America with a very strong, powerful tribal group that dominates our media and dominates our international banking,” Duke said Wednesday at a debate at the historically black Dillard University in New Orleans, according to CNN. “I’m not opposed to all Jews. I think there’s a lot of great Jews.” The Republican candidate, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, was responding to a question by the moderator about why he had referred to journalists reporting on a tape on which Donald Trump admitted to sexual assault as “CNN Jews.” Duke has endorsed Trump and urged white nationalists to vote for him. Jerusalem Post Report: Israel's UN Ambassador Made Secret Visit to Dubai Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon earlier this week made a clandestine visit to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to attend a conference under the auspices of the UN, Channel 2 revealed for the first time Thursday. Danon sojourned to the oil-rich nation to attend a development conference in his capacity as chairman of the UN Legal Committee, an appointment he received in June. The trip was conducted secretly and under tight security measures so as not arouse criticism of the government by local citizens. 3 Yedioth Ahronoth– November 4, 2016 The Leader Who Taught Me Everything By Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon Yitzhak Rabin, the man, the warrior, the commander and the statesman, is remembered first and foremost as a leader. Whoever met him was impressed with his special personality, and whoever followed his military and political career, immediately noticed his leadership. He had the ability to make decisions that at times were difficult and could put lives at risk, employing profound thought and vast experience with a long view. A leadership free of invective, the power and force of which came not through empty talk, but rather through quiet and diligent work, a personal and national record that was second to none, and the knowledge that he served something greater and more important than himself—than all of us. I served under prime minister and defense minister Yitzhak Rabin at a number of junctures in my capacities as a combat soldier and IDF commander, and in all of them Rabin was for me and my generation reliable, a leader that you could sleep soundly when his hands were on the helm of national security, and from whom you could definitely learn everything. We got to know his sensitivity to human life. As someone who lost many friends in Israel’s wars, the awareness that war is the last option, every time, was imprinted in him. As a soldier and a commander, Yitzhak knew how to use force, but he also knew its limits; he pursued peace, but he was also sober-minded; he knew the complex strategic reality facing Israel very well, and he did not follow illusions. Yitzhak enlisted for the sake of the country his entire life, and his concern for [the country’s] future and the future of generations to come with him was evident in every step he took. The IDF was the apple of his eye. “I’m proud and happy to have been given the right to serve in the IDF, which is the most wonderful framework ever established by the State of Israel,” he wrote in a farewell letter upon finishing his job as chief of staff. I met with Yitzhak for several hours of security meetings and special ops authorizations. When leaving for the enemy front for another mission that he approved, he would pore over maps and aerial photographs with us for hours and even get into the tiniest details.
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