Israel and the Middle East News Update

Wednesday, February 12

Headlines:

• Abbas, Olmert Denounce Trump's Peace Plan in Rare Joint Address • Gantz: Joint List Won’t Be Part of my Coalition, will implement Trump Plan • Arab Israeli Leader: Party Won't Back Gantz if He Supports Annexation • Israeli UN Envoy: No Progress Toward Peace as Long as Abbas in Office • Report: Hamas Halts Balloon Bomb Attacks as Part of Gaza Agreement • Netanyahu Meetings with Saudis, Won’t Happen Before Election • Ex-Qatari PM: & Gulf States to Sign Non-Aggression Pact Soon • TAU's Vered Noam First Woman to Win Israel Prize for Talmud Scholarship

Commentary:

• Ha’aretz: “Today, Palestine Launches a Real Peace Process. Not Trump’s Ignorant, Arrogant Sham” - By Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the PLO • Ma’ariv: “The Israeli Division into Blocs Remains Static, Frozen in Ice” - By Camil Fuchs, a prominent Israeli pollster

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 February 12, 2020 Yent News Abbas, Olmert Denounce Trump's Peace Plan in Rare Joint Address Palestinian President and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held a joint press conference in New York on Tuesday where they denounced U.S. President 's Middle East peace plan, viewed by as largely favoring the Israeli side. The televised address came just hours after Abbas said the U.S. initiative strengthens "the apartheid regime" during a fiery speech at the United Nations Security Council. Olmert and Abbas held negotiations during the former's term as prime minister. Olmert was forced to resign a decade ago ahead of a corruption indictment that later sent him to prison for 16 months. "The only partner in the Palestinian community that represents the Palestinian people and has manifested that he's prepared to negotiate," Olmert said. See also, “ Palestinian Chief and Ex-Israeli PM Show 2 Sides Can Talk” (NYT)

Times of Israel Gantz: Joint List Won’t Be Part of my Coalition, will implement Trump Plan Blue and White Party chief Benny Gantz on Tuesday ruled out including the predominantly Arab Joint List in any future coalition and declared that he would implement the Trump administration’s peace plan if elected in the upcoming national vote. But Gantz, a former army chief of staff, came out against provisions of the White House deal that suggested Arab Israeli towns could become part of a future Palestinian state. Touring Arab Israeli communities in the country’s north, Gantz rejected the prospect of partnering with the alliance of four majority-Arab parties in any future government. See also, “Gantz: I Will Not Form a Government With Arab Party” (Ha’aretz)

Ha’aretz Arab Israeli Leader: Party Won't Back Gantz if He Supports Annexation The Joint List will not recommend that Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz form the next government unless he makes a clear statement against the annexation of settlements, said Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Arab-majority slate. “If we don’t hear a very clear statement from him against the transfer and annexation, there’s no way we will recommend him,” Odeh said in an interview on Army Radio on Tuesday.“I want to hear from Gantz in the most explicit way that he opposes a transfer” of Arab citizens of Israel to a Palestinian state, said Odeh. “They are silent about the attack on the Arab population, Netanyahu’s attack. Let Gantz say something. Does he think that we’re in his pocket?” See also, “Arab party head: No support for Gantz unless he objects to parts of Trump plan” (TOI)

TOI Israeli UN Envoy: No Progress Toward Peace as Long as Abbas in Office Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday said peace will remain impossible as long as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stays in office. “Let’s not beat around the bush. Progress toward peace will not be made so long as President Abbas remains in his position,” Danny Danon told the UN Security Council during a debate of the US administration’s peace proposal. “Only when he steps down can Israel and the Palestinians move forward. A leader who chooses rejectionism, incitement and glorification of terror can never be a real partner for peace,” the Israeli envoy said. See also “ US envoy to Abbas: If you choose peace, America will be there” (JPost)

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Ynet News Report: Hamas Halts Balloon Bomb Attacks as Part of Gaza Agreement The Hamas terror group, which runs the Gaza Strip, has decided to halt the use of explosive laden balloons to attack Israel in return for relief for the residents of the besieged coastal enclave, a Palestinian newspaper reported Tuesday. According to Al-Quds newspaper, which is affiliated with the movement, a message was sent Tuesday morning to all cells carrying out balloon attacks, following a meeting in Gaza between the Hamas leadership and Egyptian mediators trying to negotiate a long-term arrangement between the terror group and Israel. Despite the report, a balloon carrying a small explosive landed Tuesday morning outside a kindergarten at Kibbutz Sa'ad in the Negev. A police sapper neutralized the small explosive charge and there were no injuries or damage.

Jerusalem Post Netanyahu Meetings with Saudis, Won’t Happen Before Election Meetings between Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman or leaders of other Gulf states will not take place before the March 2 election, Rabbi Marc Schneier told The Post on Tuesday. These leaders are considering a summit with Netanyahu, but “want to wait until the elections are over,” said the American rabbi who has extensive ties in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Schneier, president of the interfaith dialogue organization Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, commented on reports of a US-backed summit in Cairo between Netanyahu and the leaders of Sunni states in the coming weeks, following his visit to Saudi Arabia as a guest of its Foreign Ministry for a series of high-level meetings, including with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and State Minister Adel al-Jubeir. i24 News Ex-Qatari PM: Israel & Gulf States to Sign Non-Aggression Pact Soon Qatar's former prime minister claimed on Monday that a non-aggression pact between Gulf states and Israel will soon be signed and may include the North-African country of Morocco. In a statement posted to , Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim declared that "On December 14 last year, I posted a tweet in which I spoke about the deal of the century and said that it would announce the beginning of this year. "Now it will be followed by a non-aggression agreement between Israel and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council in addition to Egypt, Jordan and possibly Morocco." The former Qatari politician noted that he was "not against" such an agreement with Israel, and believed the unanimous decision taken by the Arab League to reject the deal last week was not in the best interest of the region.

Jerusalem Post TAU's Vered Noam First Woman to Win Israel Prize for Talmud Scholarship Vered Noam of Tel Aviv University has been awarded the Israel Prize in Talmudic Studies — the first time that a woman has received the award. Noam, current chair of the university’s Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies and Archaeology and a full professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud, is recognized internationally for her research. Education Minister Rafi Peretz, making the announcement on Monday evening, called Noam “a source of inspiration for a whole generation of women studying Torah.”“Her work, her research, and her efforts to make Talmud studies accessible to many populations have been a breakthrough,” he said. In an interview Tuesday with the Kan public broadcaster, Noam said that women still have a way to go before they have equality in the study of Torah and Talmud. See also, “Prof. Vered Noam to get Israel Prize for Talmud studies, in first for a woman” (TOI) 3

Ha’aretz – February 12, 2020 Today, Palestine Launches a Real Peace Process. Not Trump’s Ignorant, Arrogant Sham

By Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the PLO

• A vision of peace can never mean legitimizing violations of international law. Donald Trump’s so-called "Peace to Prosperity" Mideast plan, unveiled at the White House, has done just that. It is an annexationist plan that well defines the current U.S. administration’s political blindness, arrogance, and ignorance. While both Israel and the Trump Administration try to mislead the world with promises of a "better future," the fact remains that the ideological synergy between the two populist right-wing leaderships shares only one vision: apartheid. • This annexation plan is a collection of Israeli positions, many of which were presented verbatim by Israeli counterparts in previous negotiations. It’s a negotiated plan between Israeli settlers and U.S. representatives who are infamous supporters of Israel’s illegal colonial-settlement enterprise. It provides a pathway to apartheid as embodied in the map they presented, and not "two states." Aaron David Miller, one of the most experienced former U.S. officials involved in the peace process, said he told not to act as "Israel’s lawyer" if he wanted to succeed. Evidently, Kushner went beyond that - becoming the lawyer of Israel’s annexation and colonization policies. • Arguing that annexation and colonization, manifestly illegal under international law, should be normalized as the outcome of their plan, sets a dangerous precedent for any powerful country to impose any reality it deems necessary, even in violation of international law. Whoever signs on to President Trump’s plan, or those few who suggest that this document could be taken as a basis for any engagement in negotiations, are plainly telling the Palestinian people to accept a war crime as the basis for any talks. Clearly, this is not about rejecting a peace proposal. This is about saying no to an attempt of legitimizing theft, to say the least, as a tool in international relations. • The distorted logic of Trump's team suggests that achieving peace means accommodating all the desires of Israeli extremists. The plan downright endorses the perpetuation of Israel's colonial occupation of Palestine and the fragmentation of its land. It grants Israel full control over Jerusalem and "legalizes" its settlements, the transfer of its population into occupied Palestinian territory, and negates Palestinian refugee rights. On top of that, Trump's team expects the people of Palestine to appreciate this as an unprecedented gift. On more than one occasion, Mr. Kushner has declared he was certain that the Palestinians were actually "surprised" by how "good" the plan is for them. What does this show? A combination of ignorance, complicity and disrespect. • On Tuesday, President Mahmoud Abbas will be addressing the United Nations Security Council, the body entrusted with preserving world peace and security, with an urgent message: Give peace, not apartheid, a chance. Our vision of peace is based on ending Israel’s occupation, towards the achievement of an independent and sovereign State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is the historic concession for peace we made in 1988, accepting Israel’s control over 78 percent of historic Palestine.

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• We call for a free Palestine that coexists in peace, security and prosperity with the rest of the region. All permanent status issues should be resolved in a just manner that honors international law and relevant UN resolutions. The will be the entry point for further diplomatic and trade relations between the various parties. • Ensuring that the international community is aware of what both Israel and the Trump administration are doing is not enough. Saving the prospects for peace requires engagement, ending Israel’s impunity, preventing the possibility of annexation and providing the conditions for meaningful talks based on the internationally agreed-upon terms of reference for the Middle East Peace Process. • Our proposal includes the establishment of an umbrella group of anumber of peace-loving countries to facilitate a meaningful peace process. A group that works to implement international law, rather than to facilitate an annexation process made to violate it. While endorsing direct negotiations based on international law and UN resolutions, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have already said no to a plan that neither endorses a sovereign State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, nor respects the historic status quo agreement preserving our Holy Sites in the city. The African Union and the European Union have already stated that the Trump plan contradicts international law. • Today, Palestine is offering the world a serious proposal to achieve a just and lasting peace. We are calling upon the international community to make sure that a rules-based world order, and third party responsibility, is the only way forward for everyone. When the world implements fundamental principles of law and justice, Palestine should not be the only exception.

Summary: Ensuring that the international community is aware of what both Israel and the Trump administration are doing is not enough. Saving the prospects for peace requires engagement, ending Israel’s impunity, preventing the possibility of annexation and providing the conditions for meaningful talks based on the internationally agreed-upon

terms of reference for the Middle East Peace Process. Our proposal includes the establishment of an umbrella group of a number of peace-loving countries to facilitate a meaningful peace process. A group that works to implement international law, rather than to facilitate an annexation process made to violate it. While endorsing direct negotiations based on international law and UN resolutions, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have already said no to a plan that neither endorses a sovereign State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, nor respects the historic status quo

agreement preserving our Holy Sites in the city. The African Union and the European Union have already stated that the Trump plan contradicts international law.

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Ma’ariv – February 12 2020 The Israeli Division into Blocs Remains Static, Frozen in Ice

By Camil Fuchs, a prominent Israeli pollster

• Once upon a time, when there were less than three weeks until the election, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would always try to do some surprising and out of the ordinary. But for the time being, everything that he has done in the current campaign has failed to induce any change in the projected division of seats in the next Knesset. • When we consider the unveiling of the so-called “deal of the century,” Naama Issachar’s return to Israel on board the prime minister’s plane and Netanyahu’s trip to Uganda to meet with the Sudanese leader, it is plainly clear that each one of those developments on its own should have had the capacity to shake up voting patterns. But that hasn’t happened. Not yet, at least. The division into blocs has remained static, frozen in ice. • It is hard to cite any particular strategic error that has been made. The direction that the Likud chose for its current election campaign appeared to be correct and logical. The developments that have unfolded truly are major events that presumably had the capacity to produce some change in voting patterns. It is important to bear in mind, however, that just because no such changes have happened thus far doesn’t mean that those changes won’t happen by Election Day. • Perhaps the explanation for the static distribution of seats lies in the unusual situation we are facing—a third election [within a single year]. Universities are inclined to grant students a third chance to take an exam only in very special cases, such as if the student was performing reserve duty while his classmates were taking the first and second exam. • As opposed to the situation in academia, in politics the laws that apply to a third chance appear to be quite different. This time it is going to be very hard to change public opinion and the political choices that have been made by most Israelis. The absolute majority of Israeli citizens already expressed their views in the preceding two rounds of election. Thus far no development, no matter how major it has been, has prompted large swaths of society to reconsider their vote. • The Likud in particular and the political arena in general have come to recognize just how severe the situation is, and have begun to draw conclusions. In the past few weeks we have witnessed efforts to court very small groups that could have the capacity—or at least that is what the various campaign directors think—to change the outcome of the election in terms of the division of power between the blocs. • That strategy has been visible in a broad variety of decisions and public statements. The decision to bring a small group of Falash Mura as well as the efforts to include a new Ethiopian Israeli candidate in the Likud’s list are just one example among many of attempts to court small groups of prospective voters. • That was also Blue and White’s intention when it inserted another Russian-speaking candidate onto its list. Blue and White hopes to appeal to the Russian-Israeli community, and to win over voters from the Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu. Will those efforts be successful? We will only know late at night on March 2.

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