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Israel and the Middle East News Update Israel and the Middle East News Update Friday, January 9 Headlines: Likud Gaining, Receives 25 Seats Versus 24 for Herzog/Livni Kahlon's New Party Recruits Former General Yoav Galant Netanyahu to French Amb.: First Rule in Fighting Terror Is Not to be Afraid Gunmen Kill 2, Take Others Hostage at Paris Kosher Supermarket PA: No Reconstruction Until We Get Control of Gaza Poll: Most Palestinians Believe Israel Wants to Destroy Al-Aqsa Egypt Moves to Eradicate Town Near Gaza Strip ‘Al Qaeda in Syria Planning Mass Attacks on West’ Commentary: Ha’aretz: “Former PM Ehud Barak: “Netanyahu Leading Israel to Disaster” By Gidi Weitz Al-Monitor: “Palestinian Officials Give Contradictory Media Statements” By Daoud Kuttab S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● Nathaniel Sobel, Associate Editor News Excerpts January 9, 2015 Ma’ariv Likud Gaining, Receives 25 Seats Versus 24 for Zionist Camp The Likud is enjoying the effect of its primary. A poll conducted last Wednesday for Ma’ariv and Walla News indicates that the Likud headed by Binyamin Netanyahu is now the leading list with 25 seats versus 24 seats for the Zionist Camp (Labor and Hatnua) headed by Yitzhak (Buji) Herzog and Tzipi Livni. Q: If elections were held today, for which party would you vote? Likud: 25; Zionist Camp: 24; Jewish Home: 15; United Arab party: 11; Kulanu: 10; Yesh Atid: 9; UTJ: 8; Shas: 6; Meretz: 6; Yisrael Beiteinu: 6 See also, “Voter dissatisfaction leaves Netanyahu under threat from left,” (Financial Times) Ha’aretz Kahlon's New Party Recruits Former General Yoav Galant Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yoav Galant, a former candidate to lead the Israel Defense Forces, will be number-two on the ticket of the new Kulanu party, its chief Moshe Kahlon announced Thursday. At the press conference at Kfar Maccabiah near Tel Aviv, Kahlon said that if people were wondering what Galant, whom he called “a hero of Israel,” was doing in a party that focuses on socioeconomic issues, “the answer is simple: We both believe with all our years that without internal strength there can be no national strength.” Galant said that as a person who had grown up under simple conditions and who had commanded soldiers from all walks of life, it was “our obligation to act to reduce gaps and create a fair system of rewards that allows every citizen to live in dignity.” Pollsters had said Kulanu could bolster its popularity if it added a security figure to its roster. Jerusalem Post PM to French Amb: First Rule in fighting terror is not to be afraid The first law in fighting terrorism is to not be afraid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday, at the start of a meeting with French Ambassador Patrick Maisonnave. “I know that there are many in France who are asking themselves, how can we fight this dreadful fear-imposing barbarism. Should we continue to publish our views? Should we express our opinions? Should we now cut back? My message – in Paris, in Jerusalem, anywhere – is that the first rule in fighting terrorism is to refuse to be afraid,” he said. Another important point, he said, “is that we have to unite to roll back this tide of fear.” Netanyahu told the ambassador that Israel is mourning “with our French brothers and sisters” and is committed to joint action “to defeat the enemies of the democratic values we all cherish.” Ynet News Gunmen Kill 2, Take Others hostage at Paris kosher supermarket At least two people were killed and several others were taken hostage Friday when a gunman opened fire at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris, French security sources said. The events near Paris' Porte de Vincennes took place as two suspects in France's deadliest terror attack in decades were cornered near Charles de Gaulle airport. Police said that the gunman was a member of the same jihadist group as the two suspects in the attack at weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo. 2 Times of Israel PA: No Reconstruction Until We Get Control of Gaza The Palestinian unity government will not be able to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction drive without full administrative and security control over the Strip, a demand currently blocked by Hamas, the government declared in a statement this week. The government indicated that it would not be able to push forward Gaza’s reconstruction without full presence in the Strip’s border crossings, hinting that international funding had stalled due to Hamas’s insistence on remaining there. See also, “Hamas accuses PA of neglecting the Gaza Strip” (Jerusalem Post) Times of Israel Poll: Most Palestinians Believe Israel Wants to Destroy Al-Aqsa Fearful of Israel and distrustful of their own leadership, 43% of Gazans and 23% of West Bankers seek emigration, poll finds; 77% back rocket attacks on Israel; Hamas popularity soaring. Despite the bleak responses, Khalil Shikaki, director of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, said that Palestinian views were largely influenced by their perception of the Israeli ones. A quarter of the respondents who rejected the components of the Clinton parameters said they would change their mind if Israel agreed to them. “Despite the hardening of views on the surface, the change may have to do with the public’s perception of the Israeli intentions,” Shikaki said. See also, “Israeli general says not worried by Palestinian move to join ICC” (Reuters) New York Times Egypt Moves to Eradicate Town Near Gaza Strip Egypt began evacuating hundreds of families from a town bordering the Gaza Strip on Thursday after a senior official acknowledged that the military was eradicating the town in order to complete a security zone abutting the Palestinian territory. The military began bulldozing the border town, Rafah, several months ago as part of a sweeping response to repeated militant attacks on Egyptian security personnel in the Sinai Peninsula. After evacuating hundreds of families and clearing an area stretching 500 yards from the border, the authorities announced in November that they were doubling the size of the security zone. The government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has justified its drastic counterterrorism measures in the Sinai Peninsula, including the razing of Rafah, as necessary to deter the smuggling of weapons and militants across the border. Reuters ‘Al Qaeda in Syria Planning Mass Attacks on West’ Al Qaeda militants in Syria are plotting attacks to inflict mass casualties in the West, possibly against transport systems or "iconic targets", the head of Britain's MI5 Security Service said on Thursday. Speaking after gunmen killed 12 people in an assault on a French satirical newspaper, MI5 boss Andrew Parker warned a strike on the United Kingdom was highly likely. "A group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West," Director General Parker said in a rare public speech at MI5 headquarters in London. His last public speech was in October 2013. Parker said around 600 British extremists had traveled to Syria, many joining the militant group which calls itself "Islamic State." See also, “Al-Qaeda challenges Islamic State with Paris attack” (Al-Monitor) 3 Ha’aretz – January 8, 2015 Former PM Barak: Netanyahu Leading Israel to Disaster Two years after leaving politics, Ehud Barak recalls the wasted time and lost opportunities of the Netanyahu government he served in from 2009 to 2013. He also does not rule out his return. By Gidi Weitz Once every few months during the term of the previous government, the defense minister, Ehud Barak, would arrive at the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at 1 Balfour Street, in Jerusalem, usually at 6 A.M. Already waiting in the sitting area where Netanyahu receives guests was the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman. “Sometimes we sat for hours on the patio of the Prime Minister’s Residence,” Barak recalls now, publicly, for the first time. “I did most of the talking, explaining to them why we needed to enter into intensive negotiations with the Palestinians. That would be a critical act in its own right, in my view, and it could also reduce external and domestic opposition at a time when we [Israel] would want to take independent action in Iran. “Bibi talks. Lieberman’s silent most of the time. And at the end of the conversation, Lieberman turns to Bibi and says, ‘I don’t know how to live with these suggestions of Barak’s.’ There were a few conversations like that, some in the presence of [then-National Security Adviser] Yaakov Amidror and [then-political consultant] Ron Dermer – people from Bibi’s closest circle – and some among just the three of us. “And in the end,” Barak continues, “you see how the conversation continues, and you can go on smoking your cigar and eating green ice cream – but the conversation itself had actually become hollow. It went on because it wasn’t pleasant to admit that it had really ended.” This was the period in which Barak enjoyed the status of being Netanyahu’s ultimate confidant. “When Bibi and I look up, we see only the sky above us,” Barak was quoted as saying back in 2012 – referring, no doubt, primarily to the fateful subject that united the two against almost the whole world: the shared desire to attack Iran’s emerging nuclear facilities. Barak was the premier’s envoy to the Americans, something of a counterbalance to Lieberman in the eyes of the international community. There were some, including perhaps the defense minister, who dreamed that the alliance with Netanyahu would generate a political big bang and a joint run for power.
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