Israel and the Middle East News Update

Thursday, June 11

Headlines: ● PM to German FM: Evacuating Settlements is a Delusion ● Some Nations Said Gearing up to Recognize Palestine ● PM to Initially Annex 3 Settlement Blocs, Not Jordan Valley ● Islamic Jihad Puts on Show of Force in West Bank ● to Bypass PA, Directly Engage with Palestinians ● Bennett Says He’s ‘Convinced’ Netanyahu Will Not Annex ● Erekat: Annexation Will Lead to Disaster ● AIPAC Won’t Push Back If Lawmakers Criticize Annexation

Commentary: ● Yedioth Ahronoth: “Netanyahu has Lost Interest in the Coronavirus” − By Einav Schiff

● Yedioth Ahronoth: “Annexation and Privation” − By Daniel Friedmann

S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 1725 I St NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President News Excerpts June 11, 2020 Jerusalem Post PM to German FM: Evacuating Settlements is a Delusion Member states of the European Union are putting pressure to impose sanctions on Israel if it goes ahead with its plan to annex parts of the West Bank next month, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Netanyahu. The first high-level dignitary to visit Jerusalem since establishment of the new government, Maas tried to convince Netanyahu to back down from his plan to begin the process of unilaterally annexing up to 30 percent of the West Bank on July 1. Netanyahu told Maas that any peace plan must take Israeli settlements into account. “Any realistic plan must recognize the reality of Israeli settlement in the territory and not nurture the delusion of uprooting people from their homes,” he said. Israel must have full security control west of the Jordan River, Netanyahu said. Gantz and Ashkenazi both called the plan an “opportunity” and emphasized that it should be implemented “responsibly” in dialogue with the US. See also ‘‘Timetable for Historic Sovereignty Bid Revealed as German FM Heads to Israel’’ (Israel Hayom)

Times of Israel Some Nations Said Gearing up to Recognize Palestine Palestinian and European officials have indicated some countries could retaliate for unilateral Israeli annexation of sections of the West Bank by recognizing a Palestinian state and sanctioning Israel, Hebrew media outlets reported. Quoting unnamed Palestinian officials, Kan TV news reported that several European countries, among them Ireland, have said they will recognize a Palestinian state if Israel extends sovereignty over areas designated for it under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan. The report said the PA was also querying the positions of France, Spain, Luxembourg, Portugal and Belgium. A committee in the latter’s lower house of parliament passed a resolution Wednesday calling on the government to recognize a Palestinian state. That resolution is slated to be debated in the full chamber in the next 15 days. See also ‘‘Turkey: Israeli West Bank Annexation 'Will Have Consequences'’ (I24 News)

Times of Israel PM to Initially Annex 3 Settlement Blocs, Not Jordan Valley Prime Minister Netanyahu will initially announce the annexation of three West Bank blocs, but not the Jordan Valley or other settlement areas, according to top Israeli officials speaking on condition of anonymity. According to the Israeli officials, who spoke to Zman Yisrael, the Hebrew sister site of The Times of Israel, in a story published early Wednesday, Netanyahu will delay most annexation and only focus on the blocs of Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel and Gush Etzion, home to large settler populations. There is thought to be relative consensus, domestically and in Washington, around Jerusalem holding onto the three areas, even in the case of a peace deal with the Palestinians based on the 1967 lines and land swaps, they noted.

2 Ynet News Islamic Jihad Puts on Show of Force in West Bank The Islamic Jihad terror organization is increasing its visibility in the West Bank, so far unimpeded by the Palestinian Authority. The PA has long been in conflict with both the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad despite reconciliation efforts including a 2017 agreement to end hostilities, signed with the mediation of Egypt. The change in the group's behavior coincides with the PA's financial woes compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and its suspension of security cooperation in Israel due to Jerusalem's announced intention to annex parts of the West Bank. The recent death of a former Islamic Jihad leader, Ramadan Shalah last week, was the opportunity for members of the organization to make public statements and demonstrate a presence in their strongholds in Bethlehem and Jenin. See also ‘‘Palestinian Forces Said Ordered to Hide Files Ahead of Possible Violence’’ (Times of Israel)

Al-Monitor Israel to Bypass PA, Directly Engage with Palestinians Israel has been seeking to open direct communication channels with the Palestinians, in an attempt to weaken the decision of the Palestinian leadership, which President Mahmoud Abbas announced May 19, to disengage from all agreements with Israel, including the security and civil ties. In this context, Israeli officials have created social media pages in Arabic, namely the Facebook page of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and that of the spokesman for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee. Israel is also attempting to communicate with Palestinian citizens through Israeli civil administration offices. A Palestinian government source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the Israeli authorities have started to communicate directly with some municipal councils to offer direct electricity and water services to Palestinians. The Israeli authorities are threatening whoever refuses to cooperate with blockade and deprivation of services, he added.

Times of Israel Bennett Says He’s ‘Convinced’ Netanyahu Will Not Annex Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett said that he does not believe Prime Minister will go forward with annexing parts of the West Bank as he has vowed repeatedly to do in recent months. The right-wing leader, now in the opposition, accused Netanyahu of needlessly dragging out the process and voiced his strong opposition to any establishment of a Palestinian state. “I’m in favor of sovereignty. I’m strongly opposed to establishing a Palestinian terror state in the heart of Israel. If this is Netanyahu’s legacy, with Gantz at his side — we’ll fight against a Palestinian state with all our strength,” Bennett told Channel 12 in an interview, his first since joining the opposition. opposition leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, has dismissed Netanyahu’s annexation vow as “spin” meant to distract the public’s attention from his ongoing corruption trial and the pandemic-induced economic crisis.

3 Ynet News Erekat: Annexation Will Lead to Disaster Senior Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat warned Wednesday that Israeli annexation of the West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley would lead to "disaster" and compared Israel to an empire whose actions would lead to its own collapse. "What Benjamin Netanyahu is doing with annexation... derailing the train of the two-state solution, is putting Palestinians and Israelis in the path of conflict," Erekat told Ynet. The former negotiator and PLO chief dismissed reports that the PA was planning to declare Palestinian statehood should Israel go through with its plan to apply sovereignty to its West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley. Erekat rejected the claim that the Palestinians were refusing to negotiate with Israel or through the United States, and accused the Israeli leadership of stonewalling direct talks and blaming the PA. See also ‘‘Only a Third of Israelis Support Annexing Parts of the West Bank in July’’ (Jerusalem Post)

Jewish Telegraphic Agency AIPAC Won’t Push Back If Lawmakers Criticize Annexation The pro-Israel lobby in the United States is telling lawmakers that they are free to criticize Israel’s looming annexation plans — just as long as the criticism stops there. Two sources — a congressional aide and a donor — say the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, is delivering that guidance in Zoom meetings and phone calls with lawmakers. The message is unusual because the group assiduously discourages public criticism of Israel. But these are unusual times: Prime Minister Netanyahu has set a July 1 deadline to annex parts of the West Bank, over the criticism of people at home and abroad who say the move would set back any efforts to bring peace to the region. The congressional staffer, a Democrat who is the target of AIPAC’s lobbying, described the message from AIPAC as tacit encouragement. The donor, who is deeply involved in lobbying Congress, said AIPAC was making it clear that it would not object should lawmakers choose to criticize annexation. “We are telling the senators ‘feel free to criticize annexation, but don’t cut off aid to Israel,’” said the donor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

4 Yedioth Ahronoth – June 11, 2020 Netanyahu has Lost Interest in the Coronavirus By Einav Schiff ● There’s no comparing the prime minister we had early on in the coronavirus and the prime minister we’ve had more recently, even though the coronavirus has proved itself to be impervious to a range of threats, from the summer heat to nonsense that has been spewed out by people such as Professor Yoram Lass (with the generous help of irresponsible television shows). There wasn’t as much as a shadow of a doubt immediately after the elections as to who was running the show: Netanyahu and that fellow, you know, the guy who used to be anonymous even in his own neighborhood and who is now routinely addressed as “Barsi” by every Israeli he encounters. ● But all sorts of things have happened in the interim—for example, there was the glorious capitulation by the alternative’s leader (under immense pressure to form an “emergency” government), and there was also a trial that you might have heard about that was begun in court. Furthermore, in the middle of the efforts to cope with the pandemic that Netanyahu described as “the greatest crisis for humanity since the Middle Ages,” a crisis that also produced an unprecedented economic crisis, something else suddenly become dramatically urgent and pressing: the need to apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria. ● That’s interesting because the man who has worked to instill the notion that he and the state are one and the same has invested a fair share of energy in that issue [sovereignty], which is at the bottom of the public’s set of priorities—at least according to a poll that was reported this week by Hahadashot. At the same time, an enormous leadership vacuum has been formed in overseeing the complex yet delicate problem that has continued to trouble the entire world. The further delay in renewing train service that, with all its flaws, is critical for countless of Israelis, is an ideal metaphor for the huge fiasco surrounding Israel’s broader “exit strategy.” ● From one country to the next, it has become clearly visible that there is no substitute for public confidence in the establishment in order to deal with, recover from, and live with the 200 ton hammer that has landed on us and which isn’t going to disappear even if we shut our eyes tight and scream. From the dizzying success that was achieved in New Zealand to the German resoluteness and the horrifying failures in the United States, Brazil and the UK. In Israel, the public has seen its publicly-elected officials violate the guidelines even as businesses were being fined by the state for petty infractions; it has heard reports about embarrassing failures that have beset the testing and tracing processes; and most importantly, it has not seen any public figures continue to apply themselves vigorously to dealing with this issue. ● It is easy and perhaps even fully justified to take to task the party that entered (or rather was buried) beneath the stretcher to avert a fourth election and which has since shown almost zero interest in dealing with the coronavirus crisis. But wasn’t there at the grim-faced nocturnal performances or at the very odd victory party that was

5 followed by yet another public address in which no questions were allowed (contrary to promises to the journalists). Who knows, maybe Netanyahu has also heard the rumor that the political establishment is readying itself for elections in 2021, a development that is sure to stun the alternate prime minister. Perhaps, though by no means certain, Netanyahu has also caught a glimpse of recent public opinion polls that show that the curve of Likud seats to be so steep that its top is in the clouds. ● Yes, we still have a “coronavirus cabinet” and posts are still being written about it on Facebook. But let’s admit the truth: the Israelis are fed up with the arbitrary restrictions, and the media in any event has been eager to move on to other issues, and Netanyahu too has elegantly begun to remove himself from the picture frame. I guess that that is his way of maintaining social distancing.

6 Yedioth Ahronoth – June 11, 2020 Annexation and Privation By Daniel Friedmann ● We waited for an entire year. We went through three elections, and finally, a government was born. Its size is in direct correlation to the lengthy pregnancy that preceded its birth. The first blow that we took was the government’s bloated composition, with two prime ministers and 36 ministers, plus deputy ministers, directors general and ministries that were dismantled and whose fragments were reassembled into ministries that nobody knows what they will do. The second blow, the coronavirus bill, marching us toward a police state, is on our doorstep. But I wish to talk about the third blow, that of annexation, which is next in line. We must hope for a miracle and that this initiative ends up being blocked. Maybe Trump will have a change of heart, maybe someone in the government will come to their senses. But if that doesn’t happen, our march toward becoming a bi-national state, which is happening in any case, is liable to turn into a headlong dash. ● If there must be annexation, then at least let us uphold elementary rules of fairness. First, all the Palestinians in the annexed territories must be granted residency status with the right to citizenship within a reasonable amount of time. The State of Israel has no interest in integrating the population in the territories, and this is only one reason to oppose annexation. But if the choice is between an annexation coupled with privation and with denying rights, and an annexation with somewhat less privation—the second option is preferable. The integration of the Palestinian population is only one part of the price of this dangerous initiative. The second problem has to do with land. We must remember what happened after the War of Independence, in the course of which hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled and others were expelled in numbers that are still in dispute. In any case, after the war, all the property (mainly land) of the Arabs who had left Israel (and who were defined as “absentees”) was confiscated. ● Their property was put under the authority of the custodian for absentee property and was allocated as it was allocated. In my opinion, there is no question that this was justified at that time. The responsibility for the war had been that of the Arabs who had opposed the UN partition plan and who decided to drown the plan in blood. We also know very well what would have happened had we lost the war, and what happened in those areas, such as the Old City and the Etzion bloc, that were conquered by the Arabs in the War of Independence. These areas were purged of Jews (Judenrein, as the Germans say), and their property was confiscated. And we can also mention the confiscation of the property of those Jews who were expelled from the Arab states and who arrived in Israel as refugees. ● We can hope that in the framework of a comprehensive agreement, if one is ever reached, order will be instated regarding the property that each side lost. In any case, what was, was, and there is no justification in repeating what happened. But something of the sort happened after the Six-Day War, after East Jerusalem was annexed. Jews who had owned property in the Old City that had been confiscated by the Jordanians, were 7 allowed to legally sue for its return. But Arabs who became residents [of Jerusalem] as a result of the annexation, were not permitted to sue for the property that they had owned in the past in West Jerusalem and which had been confiscated after being declared absentee property. Instead, they were offered compensation. ● And that’s not all. Another absurdity was recorded with the property of East Jerusalem Arabs. After annexation, some property owners who lived in East Jerusalem or in Judea and Samaria, were considered “absentees” by Israeli law so that the custodian of absentee property could seize their property in East Jerusalem. The ensuing legal thicket is too complex for this article to address. I will only point out that solutions were found for some instances by means of legislation and others by means of High Court of Justice rulings. But a good many of the cases remained without a satisfactory solution and the result, the unjust harm to Arab property owners, remains unchanged. Now, as we face another annexation, we can only ask that Blue and White and the MKs who ascribe importance to being fair toward the Arabs in the territories, at least promise that the disaster of annexation will be accompanied by legislation that will ensure that annexation is not accompanied by harm to Arab ownership and the property rights of the Arab residents.

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