Israel and the Middle East News Update

Tuesday, September 8

Headlines:

 Dagan: The Problem is Iran, not President Obama  Israel to EU Team: Labeling Settlement Products is Unfair  Knesset Approves Gas Deal  Mayor Ron Huldai intends to run for Leadership of Labor Party  Italian Jewish Leaders Urge Rivlin to Block New Israeli Amb.  MK Omer Bar Lev Headed to DC to Present Support for Iran Deal  Israel Develops Palm-Sized Flying Nuclear Detectors

Commentary:  Ha’aretz: “Israel Must Deal With Its Own Refugees First: The Palestinians”  By Ron Ben Tovim  Washington Post: “Congress should authorize war against the Islamic State”  Editorial

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 September 8, 2015 Jerusalem Post Dagan: The Problem is Iran, not President Obama Former Mossad director Meir Dagan criticized the government’s handling of the Iranian nuclear threat on Monday, suggesting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is alienating Israel from the United States and President Barack Obama. Speaking at the Terrorism’s Global Impact summit in Herzliya, which was organized by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Dagan said that “it was a strategic decision by Israel to adopt a policy against the United States,” but “the problem is Iran, not President Obama.” He stated that he is “truly sorry to see this conflict reaching places that I think are against the interest of Israel and against the interests of the United States.” See also, “Dagan: Israel Must End Criticism - Problem Is Iran, Not Obama” (Ha’aretz)

Jerusalem Post Israel to EU Team: Labeling Settlement Products is Unfair Israel voiced strong opposition on Monday during a high-level diplomatic dialogue with the EU over its plans to label goods produced beyond the Green Line, diplomatic officials said. The Israeli team to the annual informal strategic dialogue with the EU was led by the Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general for political affairs, Alon Ushpiz, and the EU team was headed by Helga Schmid, the deputy director-general of the European External Action Service. The meeting took place a day before European Council President Donald Tusk is scheduled to arrive for a two-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday.

Ynet News Knesset Approves Gas Deal An agreement over the financial future of Israel's gas fields passed a vote in the Knesset Monday by a vote of 59-51, inspiring Prime Minister Netanyahu to stand up in applause as the results were announced. "This is a great day for the State of Israel," said Netanyahu after the vote. "I am committed to bringing the gas to the Israeli economy, the hundreds of billions for the education, social welfare and health of Israel's citizens, and tens of billions for investment and jobs." The deal constitutes an agreement between the government and two major companies, Delek and Noble, to allow for the production and sale of natural gas found off of Israel's coast several years ago.

Israel Radio News Mayor Ron Huldai intends to run for Leadership of Labor Party Labor Party figures increasingly believe that Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai intends to run for leadership of the party. In a letter to party members, Huldai called for elections to be held for all of the party’s institutions including for the chairmanship. He said that the party should prepare for general elections as if they were to be held tomorrow and the party therefore required leadership that has the trust of its members.

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Ha’aretz Italian Jewish Leaders Urge Rivlin to Block New Israeli Amb. Leading figures in Italy’s Jewish community asked President Reuven Rivlin during his visit last week to intervene to block the appointment of former Italian parliamentarian Fiamma Nirenstein as Israel’s ambassador in Rome. Last month Haaretz reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention to appoint Nirenstein to the post; the prime minister’s decision is unusual in that the current ambassador, Naor Gilon, still has a year until his term is up, and Nirenstein’s appointment has already begun the vetting process by the Civil Service Commission. However, the appointment has still not been approved by the cabinet and therefore senior member of the Jewish community still believe that it is not too late to reconsider. Rivlin told Dureghello and Di Segni that he understood their concerns but that he had to decline their request because he had neither authority nor responsibility for the appointment of ambassadors. Rivlin proposed that the two leaders present their arguments to Netanyahu, who is also the foreign minister.

Jerusalem Post MK Omer Bar Lev Headed to DC to Present Support for Iran Deal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have said that the fight against the world powers’ agreement with Iran is not over yet, but MK Omer Bar-Lev (Zionist Union) thinks it’s a done deal and Israel must work on protecting itself from new threats. Bar-Lev headed to Washington on Monday night to present his ambivalent, but nuanced view on the Iran deal to Rob Malley, head of the Middle East desk at the US National Security Council, 15 members of Congress, and at a press briefing. He does so right after Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan returned from a US campus tour to make the case against the agreement. J Street, which organized Bar- Lev’s trip, said a previous delegation it brought to the US in the summer “shared their sense of how and why upholding the deal will make Israel safer,” but Bar-Lev, a former commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal commandos, only partly falls in line with that stance. “The last thing I’m saying is that the agreement is good and that I agree with it. I’m saying that it is a fact,” Bar-Lev stated.

Times of Israel Israel Develops Palm-Sized Flying Nuclear Detectors Israeli nuclear researchers have developed a micro-copter capable of tracking nuclear radiation in difficult terrain. The palm-sized drones, developed with funding from the US Department of Energy, were invented in Israel’s Negev Nuclear Research Center, better known as the Dimona nuclear facility, where foreign governments believe Israel developed and may house a nuclear arsenal, Ha’aretz reported Tuesday. The micro-copters are essentially undetectable and can collect data on radioactivity emanating from underground sites, even in rugged terrain that can be difficult to reach on the ground or view from space. While the miniature drones were developed to track radiation levels at radioactive sites without risking the lives of human technicians, and Israeli officials say they were developed purely for defensive purposes, the applications for Western enforcement of Iran’s nuclear program are clear.

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Ha’aretz – September 8, 2015 Israel Must Deal With Its Own Refugees First: The Palestinians Instead of bickering over whether it is the Jewish State's morally duty to receive Syrian refugees, we should consider this: What has Europe learned from the Holocaust, and what has Israel yet to learn? By Ron Ben Tovim

 Israel’s opposition leader and all-around invisible man, MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union), weighed in on the escalating migrant crisis in Europe on Saturday, saying it was Israel’s moral duty to accept Syrian refugees. The wellspring for this no-doubt noble sentiment, as is customary in the multifaceted world of post-trauma Israel, was a very thinly veiled reference to the Holocaust: “Our nation knows the lessons of history well. We cannot remain indifferent to this great suffering.”  Herzog’s comment came just days after the world was moved by the announcement that some European nations, led by Germany, would accept thousands of refugees into their territory. This followed weeks of unbearable scenes, with desperate families storming the borders of Southern and Eastern Europe.  While the Holocaust always seems to pop up everywhere in the Israeli public discourse, its appearance this time is especially poignant. What is it, the world is asking, that Europe has learned from the Holocaust? And what has Israel yet to learn?  Despite the fact that the Holocaust ended 70 years ago, the argument over the lessons of the most cataclysmic event of the 20th century continues to rage. “The Holocaust taught us to be sensitive to the plight of other people,” some say, while others claim the only lesson is that “the Jews must have their own country, their own army, so as to prevent another Holocaust.”  With his comments, however, Herzog is demonstrating his own lesson from the Holocaust: To continue a proud and, to say the least, imperfect European tradition of empty gestures geared at washing over continuing, continent-sized, injustices, as opposed to facing the reality he is actually responsible for – the flimsy future of Jews and Palestinians. Taking on refugees from a global crisis feels and looks right, but Israel is in far too deep in the debris of its own making to perform empty gestures.  The reality is that Israel can’t accept Syrian refugees, not morally. Not because taking them in wouldn’t seem moral – it certainly would, and the pictures would no doubt be heartwarming. But because Israel, as long as its dispute with the Palestinians isn’t resolved, owes a debt first and foremost to the refugees it actually is responsible for creating: the millions of Palestinian refugees waiting on the sidelines of a nonexistent peace process.  To assume moral responsibility and take responsibility for the lives of other human beings requires that one be not only committed to their well-being, but that one’s own well-being, at least to a degree, also depends on it. Israel’s life depends on resolving the Palestinian issue, and not a PR stunt aimed at none other than the shining moral beacon that is Europe. Or, in other words, aimed at buying time and aiding everything that is preventing an actual peace process – a photo op, and then some occupation.

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 After all, Germany and Austria – who are receiving boatloads of moral points for accepting refugees – have their own agenda in doing so: to attempt, yet again, to erase the gaping moral vacuum they are responsible for, one that seems to serve as a constant chilling backdrop to the current crisis. And whether they live up to this promise, whether they intend to actually take care of thousands of incoming refugees – as opposed to deserting them moments after the photo op – remains to be seen.  To a degree, another important player in this crisis, Hungary, could also be said to be studying the lessons of the Holocaust. Hungary’s insistent reluctance to accept refugees is not only a sign of that nation’s obsession with xenophobia, but also its crystal-clear memory. You see, the last time Hungary – then the Austro-Hungarian Empire – took in a mass of refugees, it was thousands of Jews fleeing persecution in the 19th century. The same Jews it took just six or so months to nearly annihilate a century later. Perhaps it's an important lesson: Maybe both Hungary and the Syrian refugees are better off without each other.  Ultimately, this is perhaps the greatest lesson from the Holocaust that Herzog needs to be mindful of. Take care of what you’re responsible for first, and only think of what makes you feel good much, much later.

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Washington Post– September 8, 2015 Congress Should Authorize War Against the Islamic State Editorial

 More than a year after the United States began airstrikes against the Islamic State, the results are mixed: The terrorists have been pushed back in some parts of Iraq and Syria but have expanded their territory in others, and they continue to attract recruits and inspire the creation of affiliates in countries from Afghanistan to Libya. The Obama administration has slowly ramped up its commitment of troops, its cooperation with allies and its range of operations. To all appearances, a solid majority in Congress supports this creeping escalation; many, like us, believe that President Obama should have embraced more robust measures. Extraordinarily, however, Congress has yet to vote on authorizing the conflict, leaving Mr. Obama to act on the dubious legal authority provided by the 2001 congressional vote to support action against al- Qaeda.  The consequences of this abdication are not merely technical. Congress is eroding its standing to check presidential war-making and sending the message to troops that they lack the country’s unambiguous backing. As the war expands, the legal justification for it grows steadily more fragile. When asked at a Senate hearing in July whether the administration had the authority to defend Syrian rebels from government attacks, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter responded that he wasn’t sure. Yet the Pentagon subsequently pledged to provide that protection.  One big reason for Congress’s failure to act has been disputes among Democrats, Republicans and the White House over what an authorization should say. Democrats would like to include limits on the scope of the war, including a ban on ground troops and an expiration date for the authority. Republicans generally reject such provisions, seeing them as improper micromanagement of military operations or as an attempt to bind the next president.  Lost in this debate is what should be the overriding imperative of a vote to authorize the war. Those who insist on conditionality ensure only that the president will continue to act on authority that is as expansive as it is thin.  Encouragingly, a bipartisan war authorization draft has emerged in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Crafted by Sens. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), it attempts to bridge the gap between the two parties’ positions with language that discourages the use of “significant” ground troops against the Islamic State while stopping short of an explicit ban. Importantly, it does not limit the war geographically, making action against Islamic State affiliates in places such as Libya possible; and it authorizes action against any entity that “presents a direct threat” to “forces trained by the coalition,” which would cover potential action to defend Syrian rebels against the Assad regime.  Neither Republicans nor Democrats will be entirely happy with the Kaine-Flake language, but it ought to be the basis for a compromise. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R- Tenn.) has said that he would like to see a war authorization passed. Once his committee completes its debate of the Iran nuclear agreement this month, a vote on the war should be a priority.

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