Israel and the Middle East News Update Monday, February 17 Headlines: • U.S. Ambassador to Israel to Lead Joint Committee on Annexation • Palestinian PM: Trump's Mideast Plan 'Will be Buried' • Security Ties with Israel Won't Last Forever, Abbas Spokesperson Says • Hospitals and Cheap Houses: Netanyahu, Barkat Unveil Financial Plan • Right-Wing Religious Parties Renew Pledge to Back Netanyahu as PM • Mandelblit, Ashkenazi Recordings from Harpaz Affair Aired for First Time • Lapid: If Democrat wins, Netanyahu-Led Israel in ‘Deep Trouble’ • J Street Calls for Democratic Group to Take Down Sanders Aattack Ad Commentary: • Ha’aretz: “Whether Gantz Wins or Loses, It Will Be on Netanyahu’s Terms” - By Anshel Pfeffer, commentator at Ha’aretz • Ma’ariv: “Netanyahu’s Economic Plan: Who Will Believe the Spin?” - By Yehuda Sharoni, commentator at Ma’ariv S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor News Excerpts February 17, 2020 Ha’aretz U.S. Ambassador to Israel to Lead Joint Committee on Annexation The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday that its ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, will lead the joint Israeli-U.S. committee that will discuss the Israeli annexation of West Bank settlements. The committee was announced by Trump last month during the unveiling of his Middle East peace plan, which would see Israel applying sovereignty to swathes of the West Bank in exchange for parts of Israel's south and a cluster of Arab-majority towns in the north. The participants' goal, as Trump said, is to "convert the conceptual map" shown in the plan into a "more detailed and calibrated rendering so that recognition can be immediately achieved.” See also, “US-Israeli mapping committee for Trump peace plan said finalized” (TOI) Ynet News Palestinian PM: Trump's Mideast Plan 'Will be Buried' The Palestinian prime minister lashed out Sunday at U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to end the Mideast conflict, saying it would be "buried very soon." Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Mohammad Shtayyeh said the U.S. plan was "no more than a memo of understanding between Netanyahu and Trump." Shtayyeh criticized the fact that the proposal would leave a future Palestinian state fragmented and with "no sovereignty, "allowing Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank. He urged other countries to reject the Trump proposal while maintaining that Palestinians "are open to serious negotiations." Israel and the Palestinians have not held peace talks in almost than a decade. See also, “Palestinian Authority PM: Trump’s peace plan ‘will be buried very soon’” (TOI) Ha’aretz Security Ties With Israel Won't Last Forever, Abbas Spokesperson Says The existing security ties between Israel and the PA won't last forever, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday, stressing that the PA is investing great effort to battle terror in the West Bank. Speaking to Israeli journalists in Ramallah, Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that the PA doesn't intend to interfere in Israel's general election on March 2, but merely seeks a real partner for peace. "The PA merely seeks a partner who is interested to reach a sustainable honest peace treaty, like Peres or Rabin," he said, referring to slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and late President Shimon Peres. See also, “PA Spokesman: Israelis have to live with us, not the Sudanese” (JPost) Ynet News Hospitals and Cheap Houses: Netanyahu, Barkat Unveil Financial Plan Netanyahu and his candidate for finance minister, Likud MK Nir Barkat, on Sunday presented a financial that contains several wide-ranging and ambitious reforms. The plan is set to be implemented by Netanyahu's next government if his Likud party emerges victorious at next month's elections. Netanyahu said if he is to be re-elected after the March 2 vote, he would lead six major financial reforms, including: lowering house and food prices; massive investments in health care; investment in Israel's socio-geographic periphery in the Negev, Galilee and the West Bank, and investment in small businesses, start-ups and technology. See also “Nir Barkat to i24NEWS: Gantz will never fulfill Trump peace plan” (i24 News) 2 Times of Israel Right-Wing Religious Parties Renew Pledge to Back Netanyahu as PM Right-wing religious parties allied with Likud on Sunday again declared their loyalty to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, putting their signatures to a document pledging to back him for premier after next month’s national election. The letter was signed by Yamina, United Torah Judaism, and Shas. It was initiated by Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri, the head of Shas. “We’ll only support Netanyahu. We are convinced that the right-wing bloc will succeed in getting 61 seats in the elections and assembling a strong nationalist government for the people of Israel,” the letter said. Netanyahu cheered the move, saying it was the “nail in the coffin of [Benny] Gantz’s bluff,” in reference to the prospects of his rival, the leader of the Blue and White party, of forming a governing coalition. Jerusalem Post Mandelblit, Ashkenazi Recordings from Harpaz Affair Aired for First Time Recordings of Avichai Mandelblit and Gabi Ashkenazi discussing strategy in the midst of the 2010 Harpaz Affair were aired for the first time on Sunday night by Channel 13. The cases against both of them were both eventually closed. Mandelblit is now the attorney-general, but was the IDF's chief lawyer at the time, while Ashkenazi is now a top Blue and White MK, but was the IDF chief-of-staff at the time. The recordings portray two powerful men whose voices are filled with concern by a complex quandary which they have not yet figured there way out of. Ashkenazi had been given a problematic forged document, but failed to report the document to the authorities because of the complex issues it implicated. Jerusalem Post Lapid: If Democrat wins, Netanyahu-Led Israel in ‘Deep Trouble’ Israel will be in “deep trouble” this November if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in office and a Democratic candidate wins the US presidential election, Blue and White coleader MK Yair Lapid said Sunday. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Lapid said Netanyahu has damaged the cause of bipartisanship in general, and Israel’s relationship with the Democratic Party in particular. In a wide- ranging interview that will be published in full this weekend, Lapid also addressed how Blue and White intends to deal with the ongoing problem of Hamas terrorism from Gaza, the party’s stance on the Trump peace plan and what advice late senator John McCain gave him for sleeping well at night. Talking about Israel’s relations with the Democrats, Lapid asserted that Netanyahu has taken steps during his tenure that have deeply angered the leadership of the party. Ha’aretz J Street Calls for Democratic Group to Take Down Sanders Aattack Ad The liberal Zionist organization J Street called on Saturday for a pro-Israel Democratic group to take down an ad attacking presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Ahead of the February 22 Nevada caucuses, the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) was unleashing TV ads in the Silver State blasting the Vermont senator on the idea that he’s not electable, Mediaite reported. “DMFI in reality represents a minority of pro-Israel Democrats who seem more concerned with targeting progressives over Israel policy than with confronting the destructive agenda of Donald Trump,” said J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami. “Like their partner organization AIPAC –DMFI’s right-leaning positions on Israel and US foreign policy are completely out of touch with the vast majority of Democrats and American Jews, who are both supportive of Israel and strongly critical of the policies of the government” he added. 3 Ha’aretz – February 17, 2020 Whether Gantz Wins or Loses, It Will Be on Netanyahu’s Terms By Anshel Pfeffer, commentator at Ha’aretz • An aspiring Israeli politician in the age of Netanyahu has two alternative courses of action. He (it’s usually a he) can choose to emulate the prime minister and be a WannaBibi, putting the emphasis on bombastic public performances, on the stage and in interviews, and pretend to have the mega-star-statesman capabilities that have built the Netanyahu myth. Or they can choose to be an anti-Bibi, dial down the histrionics, focus on presenting actual policies and differentiate themselves from Netanyahu’s entire style of leadership. • Benny Gantz cannot afford to choose one or the other. He is running for the prime minister’s job as a centrist who needs right-wing votes to win. His base wants him to be an anti-Bibi, but to beat Bibi, he has no choice but to try and prove that he can be Bibi as well. He has no choice but to try and be both. His problem is that unlike the original, who is a devastatingly effective populist in public, but can be a policy wonk in private, when needed, Gantz is simply not disposed to bombast and populism. Over the last year, his first in politics, he has gotten better at the technical sides of retail politics. But he still cannot convince anyone that it comes to him naturally. • In an interview broadcast on Saturday on Channel 13, presenter Hila Korach said that “you look much less hungry than Netanyahu,” to which Gantz countered – “I’m very hungry, very happy with what I’m doing,” with all the enthusiasm a man his age normally has for undergoing a colonoscopy. It was the least honest bit in any of the five nearly-identical interviews Gantz gave this weekend.