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Israel and Middle East News Update Israel and Middle East News Update Friday, August 13 Headlines: ● As Gov’t Struggles with COVID Cases, IDF Rejoins Fight ● Israel and Morocco Agree to Full Diplomatic Normalization ● UN Panel Calls for Sale Freeze amid Pegasus Scandal ● Israel Reduced Settler Housing Plans by 39% To Appease US ● HRW: Hamas Rockets at Israel a Clear War Crime ● PA Receives Another 150,000 Coronavirus Vaccine Doses ● IDF Downs Hezbollah Drone That Crossed Israeli Border ● Iran Fires Warning Shot at US Drone near Strait of Hormuz Commentary: ● Yedioth Ahronoth: “Shaked Told the Truth’’ - By Sima Kadmon ● Yedioth Ahronoth: “The Lockdown, the Poll, and the Lie’’ - By Nahum Barnea S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 1725 I St NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President News Excerpts August 13, 2021 Times of Israel As Gov’t Struggles with COVID Cases, IDF Rejoins Fight The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will deploy hundreds of reservists to hospitals and clinics in order to boost Israel’s medical system amid a growing outbreak of coronavirus cases, a senior officer in the Home Front Command said. The military had scaled back its involvement in the government’s COVID-19 response as case numbers dropped this spring and summer, but it was called back in with the ongoing spread of the Delta variant, which has been found to be more infectious than other versions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Israel saw nearly 6,000 people test positive for the coronavirus, alongside a steadily growing number of serious COVID-19 cases. This outbreak has principally hit the unvaccinated population, raising concerns about the reopening of Israeli schools. Dig Deeper ‘‘Israel Cancels Hundreds of Entry Permits for Foreign Nationals’’ (Jerusalem Post) Axios Israel and Morocco Agree to Full Diplomatic Normalization Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said that Israel and Morocco will move toward full diplomatic normalization by upgrading their diplomatic liaison offices in Tel Aviv and Rabat to full embassies within two months. Morocco and Israel reestablished diplomatic relations last December as part of a three-way deal with the US, in which the Trump administration reversed decades of US policy by recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara. The Moroccans stopped short of fully normalizing, preferring to open diplomatic liaison offices in lieu of embassies and potentially retain bargaining chips should the next administration consider rolling back the Western Sahara decision. Secretary of State Tony Blinken said in April that the US was not rolling back Trump's move. That gave a sense of stability to the deal and convinced Morocco to conclude the normalization process. Dig Deeper ‘‘Not Just NSO: Israel and Morocco Cybersecurity Ties Grow Closer’’ (Ha’aretz) Al-Monitor UN Panel Calls for Sale Freeze amid Pegasus Scandal A group of United Nations experts called for a moratorium on the sale and transfer of surveillance technology worldwide until robust regulations are put in place to ensure human rights are respected. An investigation that indicated Israeli firm NSO Group’s malware has been used by foreign governments to hack the phones of journalists, politicians and human rights activists. Using a leaked list of more than 50,000 cell phone numbers, journalists at 17 media outlets identified over 1,000 people across more than 50 countries who were selected as potential targets by NSO Group’s clients. A forensic analysis of some of the phones on the list showed attempted or successful hacks with Pegasus, a surveillance tool developed by NSO Group that gives customers access to a phone’s contents and the ability to remotely access the camera and microphone. The UN experts also called on Israel to disclose the measures it has taken to review export transactions with NSO Group. 2 Jerusalem Post Israel Reduced Settler Housing Plans by 39% To Appease US Israel reduced by 39% the number of West Bank settler homes the Civil Administration plans to advance for authorization with an eye toward appeasing President Joe Biden’s administration, which opposes such activity. The initial intention was to advance plans for 3,623 homes, but for diplomatic reasons 1,400 units were dropped from the agenda of the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria (West Bank). With an eye to Washington, the plan to advance 2,223 new settler homes was deliberately linked to an unusual Civil Administration hearing next week on the authorization of 863 Palestinian homes in Area C of the West Bank. Israel notified the US of the settler housing plans in advance and Defense Minister Benny Gantz has spoken with the Palestinians. A senior Israeli source said that in conversations with the US had not involved details about the number of units that would be advanced. Dig Deeper ‘‘PA Slams Plan to Approve New Settlement Construction’’ (Times of Israel) Associated Press HRW: Hamas Rockets at Israel a Clear War Crime Human Rights Watch said it had concluded that a misfired rocket launched by Hamas killed seven Palestinians when it fell short in the Gaza Strip. The New York-based rights group has repeatedly come under fire by Israel over reports accusing Israel of war crimes against the Palestinians as well as apartheid and persecution. But in its report it agreed with most legal experts and Israel itself that indiscriminate rocket fire from Palestinian population centers directed at Israeli civilian areas is a violation of international law. It based its conclusions on an investigation into Hamas rocket attacks that killed 12 civilians in Israel. Last month the group issued a report that accused the IDF of carrying out attacks during the conflict that “apparently amount to war crimes” after investigating three Israeli airstrikes that it said killed 62 Palestinian civilians. The group said there were no clear military targets in the airstrikes and said Israel had not taken sufficient precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Dig Deeper ‘‘With Rise in Palestinian Deaths, IDF Head Says No Room for Troops’ ‘Negligence’’ (Times of Israel) Times of Israel PA Receives Another 150,000 Coronavirus Vaccine Doses The Palestinian Authority (PA) has received another 150,000 doses of vaccine from Pfizer, PA Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said in a statement, as most Palestinians remain unvaccinated. Around 100,000 of the doses have been allocated to the Gaza Strip, Hamas health official Majdi Daher confirmed. The vaccines were part of a contract with Pfizer to bring four million doses to Ramallah. So far, around 1 million have arrived, al-Kaila said. Well over a year into the pandemic, the majority of Palestinians remain unvaccinated. According to official figures, around 6 percent of Gazans and 18% of West Bank Palestinians have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Recorded coronavirus infections remain low in the West Bank and Gaza, with only 2,723 active cases as of Thursday evening. At the virus’s peak in mid-April, the Palestinian areas saw over 30,000 active infections at a single time. But health officials warn that with schools and universities expected to open next week, the virus could again surge to the fore. 3 I24 News IDF Downs Hezbollah Drone That Crossed Israeli Border The IDF shot down a Hezbollah drone that crossed the border from Lebanon into Israel. "A Hezbollah drone crossed from Lebanon into Israeli airspace in the eastern part of the Blue Line yesterday," a military spokesperson said in a statement. The statement gave no technical details about the drone, but Israeli media reports said it was unarmed and likely on a reconnaissance mission. The incident came nearly a week after the Shi'ite terrorist movement fired a volley of rockets at Israeli positions, prompting retaliatory fire in the most significant escalation on Israel's northern border in years. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah later vowed a "suitable and proportionate" response to any Israeli air strikes on Lebanon. The flareup coincided with wider regional tensions with Iran, which has denied US, Israeli and British allegations it was behind the attack on an Israeli-managed oil tanker in the Gulf in which two crew members, a Briton and a Romanian, were killed. Dig Deeper ‘‘Israel Seeks to Coordinate “Plan B” with US On Iran If Nuclear Talks Fail’’ (Axios) Jerusalem Post Iran Fires Warning Shot at US Drone near Strait of Hormuz Iranian air defenses fired a warning shot at a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper belonging to the US military near the Strait of Hormuz near the Iranian border, according to the Iranian semi-official Nour News. The news outlet published what it said was footage of the control room as the warning shot was fired. Independent news source Aurora Intel discovered that the clip shared by Nour News had aired on Iranian television on Wednesday, raising questions when the incident actually took place. In 2019, Iran downed a US drone over the Strait of Hormuz and in a separate incident attempted to down a MQ-9 Reaper during an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The report comes as tensions remain high in the region after two Iranian attacks on commercial vessels near the Arabian peninsula and just a day after an explosion was reported on a tanker used to carry Iranian oil to Syria. Iran has denied being responsible for the attack and claimed Israel and there US are attempting to destabilize the region, but the US Central Command (CENTCOM) released evidence that the drones used in the attack were Iranian-made. Dig Deeper ‘‘How Can Mossad Slow Down Iran’s Nuke Program?’’ (Jerusalem Post) 4 Yedioth Ahronoth – August 13, 2021 Shaked Told the Truth By Sima Kadmon ● It should have been a good sign that the prime minister found the time for a family vacation over the weekend.
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