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August 17 2018

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Israel and the Middle East News Update Friday, August 17 Headlines: • Egypt Finalizing Details of Long-Term Hamas Truce: Source • Shin Bet Head Said to Warn Cabinet on Gaza Truce Without PA • U.S. Ambassador: ‘No Reason to Evacuate Settlements’: Report • W.H: Trump and Putin Agree That Iran Needs to Pull Out of Syria • Netanyahu to Face Police Grilling Friday in Corruption Probe • Peter Beinart Says Netanyahu 'Very Similar to Erdogan' • Israeli NGO: ICC Should Open War Crimes Probe against Abbas • Israeli Woman Killed in Suspected Hit-and-Run in West Bank Commentary: • Ha’aretz: “There's a Reason the Opposition Didn't Attend the Nation-state Protest” - By MK Tzipi Livni, head of the Opposition • Al Monitor: “Who is Afraid of Arab Israelis? - By Akiva Eldar, contributor to Al Monitor S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● Aaron Zucker, Associate Editor News Excerpts August 17, 2018 Reuters Egypt Finalizing Details of Long-Term Hamas Truce: Source Egypt is finalizing details of a long-term truce deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security source said on Thursday, amid easing tensions on the border of the enclave where some two million Palestinians live. Cairo has brokered an interim truce that has allowed commercial goods into Gaza ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast which starts next week. “We are putting the final touches to the terms of the truce that will be signed by all sides, and we expect to announce the terms next week if Fatah helps us to do so,” the source said, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s mainstream party See also, ”Israel-Hamas truce includes Qatari financing for Gaza, Cyprus sea line: report” (i24 News) Times of Israel Shin Bet Head Said to Warn Cabinet on Gaza Truce Without PA The head of the Shin Bet security agency has warned cabinet ministers that excluding the Palestinian Authority from a long-term ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip will send a message that terrorism is rewarded, Israeli television reported Thursday. According to the Hadashot TV news report, Nadav Argaman also told members of the security cabinet that a truce that ignores PA President Mahmoud Abbas would strengthen Hamas in the West Bank, where the internationally recognized PA is based. “Pushing aside [Abbas] from the process [of reaching an] agreement will strengthen Hamas in the West Bank and prove terror pays,” Argaman was quoted as saying. See also, “Abbas: Egypt is making an effort, but Hamas won't settle” (Ynet News) Jerusalem Post U.S. Ambassador: ‘No Reason to Evacuate Settlements’ West Bank settlements do not need to be uprooted, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told visitors to his Jerusalem office – on the same day the Trump administration warned that its peace deal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would leave both sides dissatisfied. “There is no reason to evacuate settlements,” Friedman told the group, according to MK Yehudah Glick (Likud) who was at the meeting, along with South Hebron Hills Regional Council head Yochai Damri. Glick clarified that he was not Friedman’s spokesman, but he was left with the impression that Friedman was “fed up with programs of separation.’ The US Embassy said it had “no comment” on the report. See also, “Friedman says 'no reason to evacuate settlements' in peace deal: report” (i24 News) Ha’aretz W.H: Trump and Putin Agree That Iran Needs to Pull Out of Syria Russia and the United States both agree in principle that Iran should take its forces out of Syria, but the Russian government believes it will be a "difficult task" to get the Iranians out of the country, a senior U.S. official told local news outlets on Thursday. The comments were made ahead of an upcoming trip by Trump's National Security Adviser, John Bolton, to Geneva, where he will meet with senior Russian officials. His discussions there will focus on the Iran and Syria issues. See also, “ White House says Trump, Putin agree in principle on getting Iran out of Syria” (TOI) 2 Times of Israel Netanyahu to Face Police Grilling Friday in Corruption Probe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be grilled by police for the last time on Friday on charges of bribery in the Bezeq corruption probe, known as Case 4000. Investigators will question the premier in his official residence in Jerusalem amid media reports that they are reportedly leaning towards recommending a bribery indictment against Netanyahu in the case. According to Hebrew-language media reports throughout this week, officials suspect Netanyahu advanced regulatory decisions as communications minister and prime minister that benefited Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in Bezeq, the country’s largest telecommunications firm, despite opposition from the Communication Ministry’s career officials and in exchange for positive coverage from Elovitch’s Walla news site. See also, “Netanyahu to be grilled in 'Bezeq affair' on Friday for the last time” (Jerusalem Post) i24 News Peter Beinart Says Netanyahu 'Very Similar to Erdogan' Peter Beinart, the American Jewish journalist who was detained at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, told i24NEWS about his experience and how fear of terrorism in the Jewish state is being exploited by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to crack down on opposition. “I think that the Netanyahu government has exploited those fears to try and crack down on opposition and dissent in a whole range of ways. In this way, he is very similar to a whole range of leaders we are seeing around the world from Donald Trump to Erdogan in Turkey… a kind of authoritarian hyper-nationalism view that plays on and exacerbates people’s fears in ways that undermine liberal democratic ideals,” he said. Jerusalem Post Israeli NGO: ICC Should Open War Crimes Probe against Abbas An Israeli NGO is pushing the International Criminal Court to investigate Palestinian leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. On September 13, the Jerusalem Institute of Justice plans to file its second request this year to the ICC prosecutor’s office asking that it open a war crimes probe against Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for the militarization of children under the age of 15. In March 2017, it also asked the ICC prosecutor to investigate Haniyeh for war crimes based on Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields and its indiscriminate rocket fire against Israel. Later this year, the NGO intends to file requests for investigations against Haniyeh and Abbas for crimes against humanity. The NGO argued that the Palestinian Authority’s 2015 accession to the Rome Statute, which governs the ICC and the ICC’s decision in that year to open a “preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine,” opened the door to such suits. Ynet News Israeli Woman Killed in Suspected Hit-and-Run in West Bank An Israeli woman was killed after being hit by what is reported to be a Palestinian taxi at a junction on Highway 60 near the Havat Gilad outpost on Thursday night in a suspected hit-and-run. The woman, in her 40s, was seriously hurt, and paramedics at the scene had to declare her dead after resuscitation efforts failed. The driver, in his 60s, fled the scene, but later turned himself in to the Palestinian police in Nablus. He said he fled because he was afraid. Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, asserted the incident was a terror attack. "The junction is lighted... there are no signs of an attempt to stop—not before the spot and not after” Dagan said. 3 Ha’aretz – August 17, 2018 There's a Reason the Opposition Didn't Attend the Nation- state Protest By MK Tzipi Livni, head of the Opposition • “Cowards!” scream the articles published since the demonstration organized by the Arab community’s Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square last Saturday. “Rhinoceroses,” charge the cartoonists. The question asked over and over by those writers is this: How is it possible that the leaders of the Zionist Union party didn’t attend the demonstration? • So here’s the answer: We didn’t come because we believe Israel must be both a Jewish and a democratic state. That’s not an easy combination, and some say it’s impossible. But I believe it’s essential, and so did the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who represented all the different groups in the pre-state Jewish community’s leadership. They wrote in that declaration that Israel is the state of the Jewish people and that it will ensure equality for all its citizens. • I am loyal to their path, even if there are some people who don’t accept the idea of equality for all Israelis, like the current government, which refused to add that into the nation-state law. On the other side, there are people – and regrettably, the leaders of the Arab parties’ Joint List are among them – who have trouble accepting Israel’s definition as the Jewish nation-state, even if it were to ensure equality. • We believe in both halves of this equation, and we consider both vital. We won’t acquiesce in Israel conceding either half of the equation, regardless of whether it’s the Jewish-state half or the half that promises equality to all citizens under a democratic system of government. I cannot support any formulation that gives priority to either of these values at the expense of the other. • The claim that we weren’t at the demonstration because we were afraid is very reminiscent of the government’s charge that we didn’t support the nation-state law because we opposed enshrining Israel’s definition as the state of the Jewish people in legislation.
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