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Israel and the Middle East
News Update

Monday, April 6

Headlines:
• Cabinet Decides Lockdown in 8 Cities, Jerusalem Areas Amid Passover • Israel Seals Off Ultra-Orthodox Town Hit Hard by Coronavirus • Israel's Number of COVID-19 Cases Rises to 8,430 • Bennett Demands Defense Ministry Take Over Virus Battle from Health • Gantz Asks Rivlin for More Coalition-Forming Time • Eyeing Positions in Likud Govt, Labor Asks to End Left-Wing Alliance • PA Bans Israeli Goods to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus • Ex-IDF Generals: West Bank Annexation Could Cause Collapse of PA

Commentary:
• Ma’ariv: “‘An Appeal to Netanyahu: Health Ministry Versus the Scientists”

- By Ben Caspit, commentator at Ma’ariv

• Ha’aretz: “Who Needs Doctors When You Have an Army?”

- By Raviv Drucker, commentator at Channel 13 News

S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace
633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org

News Excerpts

April 6, 2020

Times of Israel

Cabinet Decides Lockdown in 8 Cities, Jerusalem Areas Amid Passover

The cabinet early Monday adopted decisions to allow the government to close off several cities and neighborhoods across Israel and the West Bank to combat the spread of the coronavirus and also step up economic assistance to the battered economy. The cabinet, which met via telephone, authorized a ministerial committee to declare various areas in Israel with high infection rates as “restricted areas,” and gave the same powers to the Israel Defense Force commander in the West Bank. The cabinet statement, issued after midnight Sunday, did not say who the members of the committee would be. See

also “Gov't to extend lockdown to more cities facing severe outbreak” (JPost)

Reuters

Israel Seals Off Ultra-Orthodox Town Hit Hard by Coronavirus

Israel put up roadblocks on Friday to seal off an ultra-Orthodox Jewish town badly affected by the coronavirus, but ordered in soldiers to support the residents. Emergency regulations approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet late on Thursday declared Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, a “restricted zone” due to its high rate of infections. The new designation allows authorities to tighten curbs on public movement. Police units, wearing surgical masks and gloves, moved swiftly early on Friday to cordon off major intersections around the town and enforce the new rules.“Bnei Brak is on lockdown, as of this morning, and police will prevent any movements in or out of the city,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “People are only allowed in or out for medical reasons or medical

support.” See also “Preparing for Passover Amid the Chaos and Bewilderment That Is Life in Bnei Brak” (Ha’aretz)

Ynet News

Israel's Number of COVID-19 Cases Rises to 8,430

Health Ministry confirmed Sunday that the total number of COVID-19 cases in Israel currently stands at 8,430. A 98-year-old woman, with multiple complex background ailments, passed away on Sunday at Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem from coronavirus related complications, raising the national death toll from COVID-19 to 49. Of the patient toll, 139 people are in serious condition, including 106 patients on ventilators, while 182 people remain in moderate condition. Another 7,515 people have mild symptoms and 546 have made a full recovery. Hospitals are treating 763 patients, while 5,234 people are fighting the virus at home. Another 744 people are currently in specially designated hotels and 1,094 are awaiting a decision on whether they will be treated.

Times of Israel

Bennett Demands Defense Ministry Take Over Virus Battle from Health

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Saturday that management of the coronavirus pandemic should be transferred immediately to his office and the Israel Defense Forces below it. “If we want to cope with this [pandemic], if we want to reopen the Israeli economy, then all responsibility for managing the coronavirus crisis — from A to Z — must be transferred to the IDF and the Defense Ministry as quickly as possible,” Bennett said. “We’re in a war. We’re in a tough biological war, against nature,” he told Channel 12. “But it’s a war with colossal logistics. With a million elderly peopleThe Health Ministry should help determine policies. But it’s not designed as an operational hierarchy, he said.

2

Jerusalem Post

Gantz Asks Rivlin for More Coalition-Forming Time

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz called President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday and asked for an additional two weeks to form a government. Gantz’s mandate from Rivlin is set to end on April 13 at 11:59 p.m. But by law, Rivlin can extend it to April 27, and no president has ever rejected a request for an extension. Rivlin responded that he would consider Gantz’s request closer to the deadline, based on the circumstances and the progress in the negotiations at the time. Gantz’s request ended hopes that a deal could be brought to the Knesset for a vote on Monday. Instead, the Knesset will only approve the agreement and the accompanying controversial legislation after it returns from Passover recess. The Likud and Blue and White exchanged three or four drafts of the agreement on Sunday and were

set to negotiate again late at night. See also “Gantz to Ask Rivlin for Extension in Forming Government” (Ha’aretz)

Ha’aretz

Eyeing Positions in Likud Govt, Labor Asks to End Left-Wing Alliance

Israel's Labor Party submitted on Saturday a formal request to dissolve its short-lived alliance with left-wing Meretz, effectively clearing Labor's way to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alongside Benny Gantz's Kahol Lavan. The anticipated move drew harsh criticism from Meretz Chairman Nitzan Horowitz, who said Labor's Amir Peretz has "abused the trust of hundreds of thousands of voters, crawling into the arms of the defendant from [the Prime Minister’s Residence on] Balfour Street for a job in a right-wing government." Horowitz also called Labor members to join forces with his party "to form a clear, decisive alternative to right-wing rule." See also, “Labor head ends merger

with Meretz, in move toward joining government” (TOI)

Jerusalem Post

PA Bans Israeli Goods to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus

The Palestinian Authority decided on Sunday to ban the entry of all types of Israeli goods and used items into Palestinian markets in the context its effort to curb the spread of coronavirus. In the past, the PA banned the entry of settlement products into Palestinian markets. The decision, issued by PA Minister of National Economy, Khaled al-Osaily, forbids the distribution and sale of Israeli goods and used materials of any kind in Palestinian markets.Osaily warned that anyone who violates the decision, which goes into effect on Sunday, would be held legally accountable. He also emphasized that his ministry, together with the PA security forces, has already been making an effort to implement a law that combats settlement products, which was approved by PA President Mahmoud Abbas in 2010. See

also, “Palestinian Authority Minister Arrested for Alleged Illegal Activities” (Hamodia)

Jerusalem Post

Ex-IDF Generals: West Bank Annexation Could Cause Collapse of PA

Partial West Bank annexation would ignite the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories and cause the PA to collapse, the nongovernmental group Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) warned over the weekend. “Unilateral annexation has the potential to ignite a serious conflagration,” the group said, adding that “any partial annexation is likely to set in motion a chain reaction over which Israel will have no control, leading to the collapse of the Palestinian security agencies and of the Palestinian Authority.” It issued its statement in an open letter to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and his party

colleague Gabi Ashkenazi. See also, “Are Netanyahu, Bennett preparing Jordan Valley annexation? (Al Monitor)

3

Ma’ariv – April 5, 2020

An Appeal to Netanyahu: Health Ministry Versus the Scientists

By Ben Caspit, political commentator at Ma’ariv

• Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I’m writing to you after another slew of conversations that I’ve held with many of the people who are fighting in the front-line trenches of the war against the coronavirus. People who are deployed in the hospitals, the clinics, the laboratories, our excellent research centers in the corridors of government. A single question has been asked by all of my interlocutors, like a recurring motif: Where is Bibi? How is it conceivable that the prime minister has failed to understand what is happening here? How is it conceivable that he hasn’t taken the necessary step, a step that should have been taken weeks ago, and hasn’t placed management of the coronavirus crisis in the right hands?

• How is it conceivable that he has continued to allow a handful of civil servants, devoted though they may be—people who have never overseen an operation on this scale and who have continued to hunker down behind regulations, bureaucracy, protocols, ridiculous standards and requirements that are applicable when drafting tenders—to continue to oversee the management of this crisis? How is it conceivable that he has failed to understand that those civil servants are focused on trivialities while the Israeli economy is being devoured by a raging fire? How is it conceivable that he hasn’t realized that the only people in the entire world who fail to recognize the importance of mass coronavirus testing are those same civil servants?

• I know that this is very hard for you to hear, Mr. Netanyahu, but Naftali Bennett is right. And he isn’t alone. Zeev Rotstein is right as well. And so is Gabi Barabash. And so is Shuki Shemer and Weizmann Institute of Science President Prof. Alon Chen and the incredible scientists who work there, as well as all of the other professors who understand that the only game-changer that has any chance of extricating us from this nightmare is a massive increase in the number of daily tests. Talk to people, Netanyahu. Hear them. Without Barsi [Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov] and [Prof. Siegal] Sadetzki in the room. Strip them of their power to veto Israeli innovation, the advantage that we have over others, the right to improvise and to strive to find a solution and to think outside the box. Breathe life back into the initiative by MyHeritage to conduct a large number of tests. Give the Weizmann Institute approval to move forward at full strength. Several incredible experiments that were conducted at the institute were completed over the weekend, but the moment everything was ready to get moving, Ms. Sadetzki picked up the phone and shut everything down. For the umpteenth time.

• Mr. Prime Minister, pay attention to the following quotes from scientists at the Weizmann
Institute, quotes that are representative of the prevailing experience: “Everything is ready. The pilot was a success and we’d like to get moving, but every day the Health Ministry makes up another excuse and stops us with another story. It’s frustrating. They’re ideologically motivated to prevent us from testing at any cost. It’s simply unfathomable. Every time they invent some committee, postpone for a few days, disappear and then reconvene. There’s no one we can talk to. We can’t work. It’s not just that they aren’t letting us do any testing, they’re barring us from logging onto the computer network, and are forcing us to enter data manually.” That is just an example.

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• The Health Ministry’s interaction with the Weizmann Institute on its own is grounds for a commission of inquiry. The bureaucratic red tape that the Health Ministry has been putting the institute’s scientists through is simply unbelievable. There hasn’t been a single obstacle that they haven’t put before them. There hasn’t been a single excuse that they haven’t used to try to stop them. Why? Mr. Prime Minister, this is nothing like Operation Protective Edge. You had reservations in 2014, and perhaps justly so. After all, the decisions then were about sending IDF troops into enemy territory. Things certainly could have gone sideways, and that could have cost lives. But the current case is completely different. Even if the entire world is wrong and Sadetzki is right, no harm can be caused by over-testing. You’d be in a win-win situation, just the way you like to be. What, in God’s name, are you waiting for?

• The civil servants that I’m talking about are never going to realize that the current situation requires thinking outside the box, shelving the protocols and the standardized methods, instructions, restrictions and accreditation, and instead mandates that we shoot in every possible direction. They aren’t built for that. But you, Bibi, you’re supposed to be built for that. You recognized the enormity of this threat early on. You’re the all-time world champion of spotting threats early on. You made an excellent decision when you stopped flights and closed Israel’s skies before everyone else. You secured us an entire month that could have been used to prepare for everything that we knew was going to arrive. But we did absolutely nothing in the course of that month. Now we’re short on swabs and reagents, but all that can be overcome. That’s why we’re known as the start-up nation. That what we’re known for here in the State of Israel.

• You just need to give the order. You need to appoint “Bardetzki” (the Bar Siman Tov and
Sadetzki duo) to provide the professional guidelines in this war, but to place command in the hands of someone who knows how to command in times of war. Because this is a war. It isn’t a war for our soldiers’ lives, but for everyone’s lives. The Israeli economy is going up in flames, burning a billion shekels every day. The number of people who will pay for that economic devastation with their lives is going to be far higher than the number of people who die as a result of the coronavirus. Not to mention the economic damage. Is this really the time to be arguing about the quality of the tests? Is now the right time to strip labs of their accreditation? Tel Aviv University’s excellent lab still hasn’t been given Health Ministry approval to process tests. At a time in which everyone in the world agrees that testing is the best way to stop the spread of the virus, the Bardetzkis are still trying to stymie, curb, delay and slow down the testing operation.

• Mr. Netanyahu, ask Professor Rotstein for copies of all the letters that he has sent to the Health
Ministry since the eruption of this crisis. You’ll come across clear warnings in them about the nursing homes that were written three weeks ago. You’ll find explicit warnings about the Haredi concentrations, which Rotstein deduced on the basis of his initiative to test and sample as many Jerusalemites as possible. All of those letters were writing on the wall, but no one wanted to read it. It’s now late in the proverbial day, but better late than never.

• Mr. Prime Minister, you announced that you instructed the Health Ministry to carry out 5,000 tests every day, then 10,000 tests every day and then 30,000 tests every day. You should note that 9,000 tests were carried out on Friday. Yesterday the number dropped (!!) back down to around 5,000. We’re moving out of the margin of error into the realm of negligence, and soon we’re going to be in the realm of criminal negligence. Contrary to what Health Ministry officials

5

have told you, the tests will allow us to identify the asymptomatic coronavirus patients as well. Those people are found by means of the coronavirus patients who have symptoms. That’s the entire story. That is how this problem is being tackled around the world. Professor Rotstein tested all 1,200 employees at the Israel Aerospace Industries’ Malam factory. One person tested positive, was removed and hospitalized. That factory, which has a huge list of work orders, is currently shut down. [If tested] It can be reopened and marked green. The same could be done at all of the vital workplaces, if only we had the capacity to do the testing. If only the order were given. If only we were to stop being held captive by a Health Ministry that is stuck in the 17th century, and which is oriented towards imposing regulations and not toward prosecuting wars.

• I’ve asked myself what your motive might be. After all, you know just how important our economic strength is. Could it be that same old petty fight over who gets the credit? Could it be that you can’t stand seeing Bennett on TV? So appoint someone else. People have cited Gadi Eisenkot as one possibility. There are others as well. Let the security establishment work. Just look at what Maj. Gen. (res.) Roni Numa and Brig. Gen. (res.) Ronen Manelis are doing in Bnei Brak. Just imagine if we had acted that way from the first moment.

• Yes, I know that you love posing in this Churchillean pose of yours. You love your addresses to the nation about the looming catastrophe, and you love being the national warner. But you’ve exhausted that pose. Now we need to end the crisis. You may have used panic to pressure Benny Gantz into crawling into your government. But it seems to me that he has already crossed the Rubicon on that issue. You need to rise above your personal, political, populist needs, Mr. Prime Minister. Appoint a commander to prosecute this war. Let the IDF and the security establishment get the job done. Issue real instructions to include any institution capable of performing reasonably reliable testing in the effort immediately and begin working on the exit strategy. If we prepare for the exit as poorly as we prepared for the entry into this crisis, we’re going to have repeat the methods you had to use in 2003 to revive the Israeli economy. Wouldn’t that be a shame?

Summary: Yes, I know that you love posing in this Churchillean pose of yours. You love your addresses to the nation about the looming catastrophe, and you love being the national warner. But you’ve exhausted that pose. Now we need to end the crisis. You may have used panic to pressure Benny Gantz into crawling into your government. But it seems to me that he has already crossed the Rubicon on that issue. You need to rise above your personal, political, populist needs, Mr. Prime Minister. Appoint a commander to prosecute this war. Let the IDF and the security establishment get the job done. Issue real instructions to include any institution capable of performing reasonably reliable testing in the effort immediately and begin working on the exit strategy. If we prepare for the exit as poorly as we prepared for the entry into this crisis, we’re going to have repeat the methods you had to use in 2003 to revive the Israeli economy. Wouldn’t that be a shame?

6

Ha’aretz– April 6, 2020

Who Needs Doctors When You Have an Army?

By Raviv Drucker, commentator at Channel 13 News

• For a moment, one might have thought that the heroes of the national health crisis would be the doctors and nurses who are fighting for people’s lives in the operating rooms, juggling multiple patients. But that’s already behind us.

• Allow me to present the real heroes of the war – starting with the head of the Mossad, who, by marvelous coincidence, encounters a television camera every time he leaves his office. Through a daring operation, he has managed to buy 500,000 coronavirus testing kits, respirators and 10 million surgical masks (where are they?). Fear not, Israel, Yossi Cohen is guarding you. And he isn’t alone. Soldiers from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit “bring stratagems, operational capabilities and resourcefulness to these missions,” to quote an article on the Ynet news site. The missions in question aren’t assassinating senior Hezbollah operatives, but merely obtaining reagents for coronavirus tests and locating patients whose tests have gotten lost.

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  • The Israeli Campaign Regarding the Iranian Nuclear Program

    The Israeli Campaign Regarding the Iranian Nuclear Program

    Consciousness as Leverage: The Israeli Campaign regarding the Iranian Nuclear Program Ronen Dangoor1 Background Iran’s nuclear program has constituted a central security issue for Israel over the past two decades. Against this backdrop, Israel has conducted a multifaceted drive to block it, in part through a complex cognitive campaign that extended from the summer of 2002 – when the Iranian nuclear program was revealed – to July 2015, when the agreement between Iran and the world powers on restricting the nuclear program was signed. This article discusses the central characteristics of the cognitive campaign, which included four main components and motifs: the first and most basic, which was a constant for the entire period, was exposing and raising awareness of the dangers of the Iranian nuclear project; the second emphasized the other threats that the Iranian regime poses, chief among them its aggressive policy, which includes involvement in terrorism and extensive activity to develop long range missiles; the third component was the threat of a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which was prominent as a central narrative mainly during the years 2010-2012; and the fourth component, which dominated from 2013, dealt with the negotiations between the world powers and Iran and with the nuclear deal that was reached between them. The struggle against the agreement has intensified in recent months against the backdrop of the United States’ withdrawal from it, but that development is not addressed here due to the lack of sufficient perspective. 1 Ronen Dangoor is a former Deputy Director of the Research Department at the Prime Minister’s Office.
  • The Second Intifada: Background and Causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

    The Second Intifada: Background and Causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

    Fall 2003 The Second Intifada: Background and Causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Jeremy Pressman INTRODUCTION What caused the outbreak of the second intifada? The conventional wis- dom places the blame on one of two central figures, Ariel Sharon or Yasser Arafat. In one version, Sharon, then the leader of the Israeli opposition, started the intifada by going on an intentionally provocative visit to the Temple Mount on 28 September 2000. Alternatively, Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), decided that the new State of Palestine should be launched in blood and fire; he unleashed Palestinian militants rather than accept a negotiated resolution of the conflict. Both of these claims overplay the role of individual leaders and overlook a wider array of elite decisions and deeper political and social conditions. Decisions by Sharon and Arafat did matter, but not in the way that is conven- tionally portrayed. Instead, a chain of events starting in 1993 set the stage for renewed conflict. First, popular Palestinian discontent grew during the Oslo peace process because the reality on the ground did not match the expectations created by the peace agreements. From 1993-2000, many aspects of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip deepened rather than abated. Palestinians expect- ed their lives to improve in terms of freedom of movement and socioeconomic standing; when both worsened, significant resentment built up in Palestinian society. This discontent, further fed by the failure of the Camp David summit in July 2000, laid the groundwork for popular support for a more confrontational approach with Israel.
  • Israel and the Middle East News Update

    Israel and the Middle East News Update

    Israel and the Middle East News Update Tuesday, February 2 Headlines: Poll: Most Israelis Want Peace Talks, But Are Skeptical IDF to Reopen Ramallah as Palestinians Besieged in Their Own City IDF Searching for Hamas Tunnels Along Gaza Border Israel Prepares to Demolish Home of Palestinian Officer Who Shot Soldiers DEA: Hezbollah Drug Money Scheme Disrupted Russia Assured Israel It Isn’t Transferring Arms to Hezbollah in Syria Almost All West Bank Land Deals for Illegal Settlements Forged Commentary: Yedioth Ahronoth: “While You Were Sleeping” By Sever Plocker, Chief Economic Editor, Yedioth Ahronoth Al-Monitor: “How Bibi Was Blindsided by the French Ultimatum” By Mazal Mualem, Israel Pulse Columnist, Al-Monitor S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● David Abreu, Associate Editor News Excerpts February 2, 2016 Jerusalem Post Poll: Most Israelis Want Peace Talks, But Are Skeptical Most Israelis support negotiations between Israel and the PA, including a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but are skeptical that talks will yield results, according to the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University’s monthly Peace Index poll, released Tuesday. When asked for their stance about peace negotiations between Israel and the PA, 61.8% are in favor to some degree, while 32.8% oppose to some degree. Israeli Arabs are far more likely to support talks, with 59.6% very in favor and 27.1% somewhat, than Israeli Jews, who are 26.3% very supportive and 30.6% somewhat.