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Israel and the Middle East News Update

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Israel and the Middle East News Update Israel and the Middle East News Update Thursday, November 15 Headlines: ​ ● Jewish Home Votes to Back Coalition Ultimatum ● Poll: Likud Would Lose Seats if Election Held Today ● Shaky Truce in Gaza Appears to Hold ● Palestinian Fisherman Said Killed by Israeli Military ● Four Police Hurt in Jerusalem Stabbing Attack ● Hebron Mourns Palestinian Killed by Gaza Rocket ● Fake News Campaign Targets Liberman ● Trump Pick for Saudi Ambassador is Iran, Hezbollah Expert Commentary: ● Al Monitor: “Israel’s Defense Minister Quits Amid Gaza Escalation” − By Ben Caspit, Senior Columnist ● Ynet: “Netanyahu Let Hamas Win” − By Nahum Barnea, Senior Columnist 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 ​ November 15, 2018 Times of Israel Jewish Home Votes to Back Coalition Ultimatum Jewish Home MKs on Wednesday night voted unanimously in favor of leaving the coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not make their party leader Naftali Bennett the defense ministry, after Avigdor Liberman announced his resignation from the post earlier in the day. The lawmakers from the religious-Zionist party also voted to give Bennett full authority to carry out negotiations directly with the prime minister based on that ultimatum. A party spokesman declined to say how long the party would give Netanyahu to make the decision before they would pull out of the coalition and bring the government down. Jerusalem Post Poll: Likud Would Lose Seats if Election Held Today Netanyahu's Likud party would hold 29 seats in Knesset if elections were held today, a poll released by Channel 2 found on Wednesday. The poll also found a 74% disapproval rating of Netanyahu's handling of the security situation in the south. Additionally, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid would gain 18 seats, while Avi Gabbay's Zionist Union and Bennett's Bayit Yehudi both would garner 11 seats. If former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz formed his own party, Likud would hold 24 seats, Gantz 15 and Yesh Atid 13. Times of Israel Shaky Truce in Gaza Appears to Hold IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot ordered reinforcements to remain in place near the Gaza Strip and for troops there to remain on high alert Wednesday, following a security assessment with senior officers from the Gaza Division, as a shaky ceasefire appeared to hold after intense fighting earlier in the week. According to the military, over 460 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israel over on Monday and Tuesday — more than twice the rate at which they were launched during the 2014 war. Ha’aretz Palestinian Fisherman Said Killed by Israeli Military The Israeli navy killed a 23-year-old fisherman from Gaza Wednesday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported. According to the report, Nuaf Ahmad al-Attar was hit with live fire in his stomach on a beach in the northern Gaza Strip.Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli army said it opened fire on a Palestinian man who threw grenades near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip. The man, who was in the possession of a box cutter and a knife, was taken in for interrogation. 2 Times of Israel Four Police Hurt in Jerusalem Stabbing Attack Four police were injured in a stabbing attack Wednesday at a police station in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. Police said the attacker arrived at the entrance to the police station and attacked three officers, lightly injuring them. He was shot and seriously injured. The neighborhood, some of which is in former no-man’s land between East and West Jerusalem, has been the scene of several attacks in past years. Times of Israel Hebron Mourns Palestinian Killed by Gaza Rocket At a small medical clinic northwest of Hebron, dozens of members of the Abu Asabeh family on Wednesday received the remains of their loved one, Mahmoud Abu Asabeh, who was killed by a rocket fired from Gaza earlier this week. Abu Asabeh was a contractor with a work permit who spent much of his time in Israel, and would return to his family in the West Bank on weekends.The funeral was almost entirely devoid of chants and factional flags, compared to a month ago, when many high-level Fatah and PA officials took part in a funeral for a Palestinian who was allegedly killed by settlers in the northern West Bank. Ha’aretz Fake News Campaign Targets Liberman A website posing as the prestigious Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs posted Wednesday a fake article alleging a former Mossad chief had said Liberman is a Russian spy, implying he was therefore actually fired by the prime minister. It was first shared by a fake Twitter handle who also distributed it to several journalists. The claims of the article were quickly debunked, but the source of the campaign is still not clear. Associated Press Trump Pick for Saudi Ambassador is Iran, Hezbollah Expert President Trump nominated retired general John Abizaid as ambassador to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Retiring from the US military in 2007, he was the longest serving commander of CENTCOM at a time when the US was embroiled in a variety of wars in the region. Abizaid has opposed the Iranian nuclear program, but also urged Israeli restraint in confronting it. As an observer for the UN in 1985, Abizaid saw some of Hezbollah’s first terror attacks and has spoken about the threat of terrorism in the region. His nomination comes at a crucial juncture for US-Saudi relations and also Riyadh’s role in the region. 3 Al Monitor – November 14, 2018 Israel’s Defense Minister Quits Amid Gaza Escalation By Ben Caspit, Senior Columnist ● Before Avigdor Liberman even stepped into the defense minister’s shoes in May 2016, he announced that if he were to receive the Defense Ministry, the first thing he’d do would be to inform Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that he has 48 hours to return the bodies of the slain Israelis as well as the live Israeli citizens held in Gaza. If not, then he — Liberman — would issue an order for Haniyeh’s elimination. But on Nov. 14, it was Haniyeh who had the last laugh. It’s been two and a half years since Liberman received the Defense Ministry, and Haniyeh is alive and kicking while Liberman has just quit his job. He made the official announcement at a press conference that day. This was on the background of the military confrontation this week between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas, which Liberman himself qualified as “weakness.” ● Hamas hurried to publish a merry victory announcement after Liberman’s resignation, despite the fact that they absorbed quite a few strikes from Israel’s air force in recent days. That’s how it goes in the Middle East: Everything’s topsy-turvy and nothing ever really ends. An alert Hamas man in Khan Yunis detected a small, covert IDF unit doing its thing deep in the Gaza Strip, and this caused a chain reaction that led to the resignation of Israel’s defense minister. One minute Israel and Hamas were a handsbreadth away from an arrangement and a graduated end to the violence, and the next minute a military confrontation erupts between them. Immediately afterward, Liberman returned his keys and resigned — all of this in four days. Liberman’s resignation violated Israel’s most famous political rule, as formulated in the past by Ariel Sharon: “Always remain on top of the ship’s helm. Sometimes the helm will be up and sometimes down, but never leave it completely because there’s no way back.” Sharon meant that better to stay part of the government, on good days and on bad ones, rather than leave it for the opposition benches. ● Liberman had been on top. The head of the Defense Ministry holds one of the most powerful positions in the country, with the exception of the prime minister. The minister is the official sovereign over the West Bank and is in charge of the most powerful defense system in the Middle East. Nevertheless, Liberman decided to give it up. He hopes that his resignation won’t take him away from the ship’s helm, on the contrary. In his resignation announcement, Liberman also called for elections as quickly as possible. Thus, Liberman beat his hated rival, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, as the one to leave a weak government that allegedly lacks the power to inflict a real military strike on Hamas. And now, Bennett is held captive in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. His party, HaBayit HaYehudi, rushed off to demand the defense portfolio for Bennett immediately after Liberman resigned. Netanyahu’s circle just as quickly announced that Netanyahu will adopt the portfolio himself. HaBayit HaYehudi threatens to dismantle the coalition if Bennett doesn’t get the defense portfolio, but 4 this may also be a historic mistake: When the right in Israel brings down a right-wing government, the country may end up with a left-wing administration instead. ● Liberman’s famous endurance failed him between Nov. 9 and Nov. 13. It all began when a Qatari gift of three large suitcases filled with dollars — $5 million per suitcase— reached the Gaza Strip. Liberman called this “capitulating to terror,” and he actually may be correct. “It’s like ‘protection’ money,” Liberman said in a meeting this week, according to a political source speaking on condition of anonymity. “We pay cash to the terrorists in exchange for some peace and quiet. The money is funneled directly to the families of those who tried to harm IDF soldiers.
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