Israel and the Middle East News Update

Tuesday, December 22

Headlines:  Using Sara Netanyahu, PM’s Wife, to Uncover Potential Affair  Hezbollah Leader Threatens Israel with Revenge After Kuntar’s Death  Abbas to Issue ‘State of Palestine’ Passports  Key Suspect in Duma Case Confessed and Reenacted Crime Under Duress  Smoke Bomb Thrown at Palestinian Home in ‘Price Tag’ Attack  Israel to Establish First Arab College  Iran Warns Turkey: Don’t Renew Ties with Israel  Islamic State Lost 14% of Its Territory in 2015

Commentary:  Washington Post: “Why Is the US Subsidizing Israeli Settlements?”  By Uri Blau, Israeli Investigative Reporter  Al-Monitor: “Is Erdogan Closing Hamas’ Istanbul Office?”  By Shlomi Eldar, Israel Pulse Columnist, Al-Monitor

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 December 22, 2015

Ma’ariv Using Sara Netanyahu, PM’s Wife, to Uncover Potential Affair Jacob Weinroth, the Netanyahu family’s attorney, requested to meet with Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein in order to prevent Sara Netanyahu from being questioned. Weinroth argued that even if a strict approach were adopted with regard to Sara Netanyahu’s actions in the affair involving the expenditures of the prime minister’s residences, this did not justify a criminal investigation. In response, Weinroth was asked to present his arguments in writing. Justice Ministry officials clarified that this did not refer to a hearing in writing, but rather to an ordinary Justice Ministry procedure. See also, “Attorney General Mulls Summoning Sara Netanyahu for Questioning Over Household Expenses” (Ha'aretz)

BICOM Hezbollah Leader Threatens Israel with Revenge After Kuntar In a rare public address yesterday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah eulogized notorious terrorist Samir Kuntar and threatened Israel with revenge for his death. Kuntar was buried yesterday in Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold in a funeral attended by thousands, including Lebanese politicians. Crowds chanted “Death to Israel” and many wore military fatigues. Kuntar was killed in a Sunday air strike on a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus. He was imprisoned in Israel for 30 years after he murdered a family in Nahariya, during a high-profile terror attack in 1979, in which he is thought to have battered a four-year-old to death. However, Kuntar was released in 2008, as part of an exchange to return the bodies of two IDF soldiers. See also, “Hezbollah Leader: Israel Killed Kuntar, We Will Avenge His Death” (Times of Israel)

Ynet News Abbas to Issue ‘State of Palestine’ Passports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says his national authority proposes to change its name on passports it issues to State of Palestine. Abbas says this will happen in about a year at the most, replacing the name Palestinian Authority. He spoke after talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Abbas arrived in Greece on Sunday, and is due to address the country's Parliament on Tuesday. See also, “Greek Parliament Calls for Recognition of 'Palestine'” (Jerusalem Post)

Ha’aretz Key Duma Suspect Confessed, Reenacted Crime Under Duress The key suspect in the Duma arson and murder trial confessed and reenacted the crime under duress, his attorney, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Tuesday morning, describing acts he said amounted to torture. “My client was subjected to sexual harassment, to violation of what is most sacred to him in his world of observing the Torah and its commandments, as well as being deprived of sleep for a very long period. After interrogators pass through these stages and my client sticks to his truth they get a license to kill” Ben-Gvir said at a press conference he called outside the Magistrate Court. See also, “Bennett Accuses Jewish Extremists of Using Murder to Destroy the State” (Times of Israel)

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Jerusalem Post Smoke Bomb Thrown at Palestinian Home in ‘Price Tag’ Attack A smoke bomb was thrown at a house in the village of Beitillu near Ramallah in a suspected price tag attack on Tuesday morning, according to reports by Israel Radio. A man, woman and a nine-month- old baby were rescued uninjured from the house. The words "Revenge" and "Hello from the detainees of Zion" were spray-painted on the wall of the home, an apparent reference to the suspects in the Duma arson investigation. Kasel, the father who was rescued with his family from the house, told Israel Radio, "They came to our home at 1:30 a.m., spray-painted our exterior walls, broke the glass, and then threw smoke bombs into the house. "The house filled up with gas smoke - it was impossible to re-enter up until now. The neighbors came to help us escape," he said. See also, “Smoke Grenades Hurled at Palestinian Family Home in Suspected Hate Crime Attack” (Ha'aretz)

Algemeiner Israel to Establish First Arab College Israel will establish the first Arab college in the north of the country, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Monday. “For the first time in the annals of the state of Israel we are establishing a general academic college in an Arab town…This is history for the Arab sector and this is history for the State of Israel.” Bennett has been working to integrate Arabs into Israel’s hi-tech industry through education and also in employment for Arab women during his last position as Economics Minister. Establishing an Arab college, Bennett explained, has various benefits to Israeli society. He said “there is no reason and it isn’t right to send young Arabs to study in Hebron or in Arab states. Sometimes this creates radicalism and the right thing is for Israelis to learn in Israel. This is good for them as individuals and good for the entire Israeli society.”

Arutz Sheva Iran Warns Turkey: Don’t Renew Ties with Israel Iran on Monday chimed in on reports of Israel and Turkey normalizing ties, asking the Turkish government to rethink the idea. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari warned Turkey about attempts to resume relations with Israel, claiming it would be against the rights of Palestinian Arabs. "The Muslim governments should adopt policies which meet their and the Islamic Ummah's interests as well as the rights of the Palestinian nation…The Turkish government shouldn’t pursue a different path (in relations) with the Quds occupying regime under such conditions that its relations with the neighboring governments have gone under certain developments," Jaber Ansari added.

Times of Israel Islamic State Lost 14% of Its Territory in 2015 The Islamic State lost around 14% of its territory in 2015, while Syria’s Kurds almost tripled the land they control, think-tank IHS Jane’s said on Monday. The development is a blow to the group given that its aim is to capture and hold territory to expand its so-called “caliphate,” where it imposes a severe and bloody form of what it calls Islamic law. The jihadist group’s losses include the strategically important town of Tal Abyad on Syria’s border with Turkey, the Iraqi city of Tikrit, and Iraq’s Baiji refinery. Other big losses for the group include a stretch of highway between its Syrian stronghold Raqqa and Mosul in northern Iraq, complicating supply lines.

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Washington Post – December 21, 2015 Why Is the US Subsidizing Israeli Settlements? By Uri Blau  An office chair is positioned on the top of Dagan Hill, on the outskirts of Efrat, a thriving West Bank settlement. Someone must like to sit here and take in the changing landscape. Once-bare mountains are losing their shape, carved up by new roads and villas for a growing population of Jewish settlers.  Nadia Matar, one pillar of this community, should be happy. Twenty years ago, as she struggled to make a life on this hill, the success of her mission seemed improbable, if not impossible. Now, from the top of the windy peak, the fruits of her victory are apparent. Yet Matar, founder and leader of the pro-settlement nonprofit Women in Green, doesn’t sound cheerful when I call to ask about the funding of her organization. “Choose which side are you on,” she tells me in Hebrew, “ours, or the enemies who try to destroy us.”  Many from Israel’s far right and the settlers’ community condemn the Obama administration as that “other” side. They should know better: While one American hand opposes development of settlements, the other keeps feeding it.  A few miles away from Efrat sits the pleasant campground of Oz Vegaon, a West Bank outpost built without the required land allocation and planning permits from the Israeli Civil Administration. Campers, tourists and right-wing groups gather here to enjoy the newly constructed facilities. Women in Green helped to build Oz Vegaon last year, naming it after three Jewish teens murdered by Palestinians not too far from there. Some of the money it used on the site traveled some 5,700 miles from the center of Manhattan. Matar’s group is one of many settler organizations fueled with tax-exempt American dollars, of which increasing amounts arrive each year.  This year I conducted a thorough investigation into the complex network of tax-exempt donations helping to finance West Bank settlements. The investigation, published this month in Haaretz, looked at almost 50 nonprofit organizations that raise money in the United States for the settlements.  The findings are striking: Within five years, from 2009 to 2013, more than $220 million was sent across the ocean and into schools, synagogues and playgrounds dotting the hills of Judea and Samaria. Millions of tax-subsidized dollars have gone to Jewish settlements in Hebron, helping to sustain a grim reality in the segregated part of the city, where Palestinian movement is sharply restricted and their economic life has been suffocated.  Donations from the United States also were used to support families of Jews convicted in ideologically motivated violence against Palestinians. The spouse of Ami Popper, convicted of murdering seven Palestinians in 1990, received financial help from Honenu, an Israeli nonprofit that drew 20 percent of its income last year from U.S. donations.  The American donors to these groups are entitled to tax breaks on the money they give, and so this flow of funds means U.S. taxpayers are indirectly supporting a policy of settlement expansion opposed by the current administration and every other administration — Democratic and Republican — since Richard Nixon. In 2013, the organizations raised $73 million and doled out $54 million in grants. Initial data from 2014 suggest totals even higher. 4

 In his 2009 speech to the United Nations, President Obama stated a clear view on Israeli presence in the West Bank. “America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” he said.  When I recently asked a senior White House official about this apparent contradiction, he told me: “This administration never defended or supported any activity associated with the settlements. It doesn’t support or advance any activity that will legitimize them.”  Plaques honoring American donors on buildings or promenades they helped to erect in the settlements suggest otherwise. If Obama means it when he warns Israel about the consequences of its settlement policy, he should explain why his country keeps subsidizing it. Uri Blau is an Israeli investigative journalist based in Washington. Reporting for this commentary was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

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Al-Monitor – December 21, 2015 Is Erdogan Closing Hamas’ Istanbul Office? By Shlomi Eldar  Two days after it was reported that Israel and Turkey had reached a series of understandings ultimately leading to their reconciliation, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.  According to Turkish media reports, on Dec. 19, the two men discussed “developments in the Middle East.” As far as Hamas was concerned, this meant Turkey’s decision to reconcile with Israel and the eventual price Hamas will have to pay for it. For example, one of the Israeli conditions was that Turkey expel senior Hamas official Salah al-Arouri. In December 2014, Al- Monitor reported that Arouri had established his own “bureau” in Istanbul and that it operated quite independently from the rest of the movement. This had been a source of trouble for Hamas’ multi-headed leadership on more than one occasion.  Arouri had been expelled from Israel in April 2010, at the height of negotiations for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. He asked to be sent to the Gaza Strip, but Israel preferred to banish him from all Palestinian territory under the assumption that his presence in Gaza would pose a threat to Israel. By the time the Hamas prisoners were finally released in 2011 in the deal, Arouri was already in Istanbul, busy establishing a bureau there. It was Arouri who took in the most serious prisoners released by Israel in the Shalit deal, the ones that no other country would take.  These Hamas activists, who arrived in Istanbul with Erdogan’s consent, significantly strengthened Arouri in the internal struggles that have plagued Hamas since Israel assassinated Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004. The Arouri bureau became yet another power base jockeying for position within the movement. It has been a major headache for the movement’s leadership in Qatar (Meshaal) and Gaza (Ismail Haniyeh).  Without exception, Hamas' leadership will continue to speak of the importance of waging jihad against Israel, but there are also other circumstances at play — namely, three bloody wars in Gaza that left thousands dead and wounded and basic infrastructure destroyed. This has taught Hamas leaders that an ideal situation might exist, but they must also contend with reality. In other words, they can talk all they want about the importance of armed struggle against Israel, but there is a long way from talking to putting statements into practice. Arouri, on the other hand, has yet to learn what Meshaal, Haniyeh and even the heads of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza, Mohammed Deif and his predecessor Ahmed Jabari, learned long ago.  To bolster his status in the organization, Arouri began a process the Palestinians call “strengthening the groundwork.” What it means is establishing an active organizational infrastructure capable of launching attacks against Israel. While the rest of the Hamas leadership was still licking its wounds after Egypt closed its border crossings and flooded the smuggling tunnels, Arouri focused on one thing only: improving his status and strength outside the occupied territories, but still within the Hamas framework.  Thus in summer 2014, Arouri encouraged the Qawasmeh clan in Hebron to conduct a kidnapping operation in the West Bank. 6

 Arouri did this without Meshaal or Haniyeh knowing about it and while they were trying to form a unity government with President Mahmoud Abbas to save Gaza. The rest is history. Hamas may have hoped to rehabilitate and rebuild Gaza through a unity government, but instead was forced into the harshest, bloodiest and most violent armed conflict the movement has faced.  Since Protective Edge, the Hamas leadership has sustained the cease-fire agreement with Israel, including the movement’s military branch, normally the most recalcitrant link in the organization. At this point, no one in Hamas is even considering another round of violence with Israel. All its leaders, except Arouri, realize that another confrontation would be suicide for them. The movement’s leadership is currently isolated, and Gaza's survival depends on Israel’s willingness to provide it with food and raw materials.  One tangible example of how reluctant Hamas’ senior leadership and activists are to engage in a confrontation at this stage is their response to the ongoing “intifada of knives.” Hamas is not participating in the uprising apart from providing moral support to the young people involved. Even that is nothing more than lip service. Not one Hamas leader has even considered offering his patronage, and it goes without saying that none will play a leadership role.  Arouri is also credited with blowing up the reconciliation talks between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. During Operation Protective Edge, Shin Bet Director Yoram Cohen met with Abbas to present him with evidence that Arouri had established infrastructure in the West Bank that was plotting a coup against the PA. Abbas then presented this evidence to Meshaal at an August 2014 meeting with him and the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It was obvious that Meshaal knew nothing of the plan, just as he knew nothing about the plan to kidnap the three Israeli youths.  Arouri’s expulsion from Istanbul and the dismantling of the branch office operated by him and for him is good news for Meshaal, especially since Erdogan is insisting that Israel lift the blockade on Gaza as a precondition for normalizing relations. Erdogan is dangling two carrots in front of Meshaal: a significant easing of the blockade (which Israel is interested in implementing as long as there are Turkish assurances that weapons and ammunition will not be smuggled into Gaza) and the dismantling of a rogue branch office in Istanbul that has been going over the heads of the movement leadership.  Alon Liel, former Israeli ambassador to Turkey, is an authority on the relationship between the two countries. He told Al-Monitor, “Erdogan’s interests in reconciling with Israel are obvious. Nevertheless, Erdogan and Turkey will continue to regard Hamas as a ‘little sister.’ I am sure that Erdogan will continue to be a friend of Gaza and Hamas. Arouri is the weak link, so he can be dropped.”  Where will Arouri go from Istanbul? It's hard to tell. It won’t be easy for him to find another country willing to take him in right now and allow him to build a new base on its territory. Yemen or Sudan might be options of last resort, but Arouri will have a hard time recreating his previous successes from either of those countries. “There is so much the region could gain from such a normalization process,” Erdogan told reporters Dec. 14. As it turns out, Hamas has a lot to gain as well, namely the lifting of the blockade on Gaza on the condition of ending the armed struggle against Israel. Actually, the movement has no other option. Shlomi Eldar is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Israel Pulse covering the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. 7