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Israel and the Middle East News Update Israel and the Middle East News Update Monday, March 9 Headlines: More than 50,000 People Attend “Israel Wants Change” Rally on Sat. Night Netanyahu Attacked by Right Wing and Left Wing for Concessions Document Netanyahu: Bar-Ilan Two-State Speech No Longer Relevant Zionist Union Platform Aims to Set Israel's Final Borders In Case of Election Tie, President to Push Unity Government Defense Minister Ya’alon: English Speakers Trying to Topple Netanyahu Iran Deal Won’t Expire After a Decade, Senior US Official Says Commentary: Ha’aretz: “In Special Interview to Ari Shavit, Herzog Declares: I Am Going to Form Next Government” By Ari Shavit Los Angeles Times: “For Its Survival, Israel Must Abandon the One State Option” By Amos Oz 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 March 9, 2015 Ma’ariv More than 50,000 People Came to Demand Change More than 50,000 Israelis, a great many of them young people, showed up last night at Rabin Square, waved their hands, flags and signs and called for “change,” in other words —to replace the government. The “weapon” of the demonstrators was an impassioned and fierce speech by former Mossad director Meir Dagan who said: “Israel is a country surrounded by enemies, but the enemies do not scare me—I am scared of our leadership, by the absence of vision and the loss of a path. By the hesitance and the impasse. And above all, I am scared by the crisis of leadership, which is the worst there has ever been until today.” He fiercely attacked Netanyahu and said: “We have a leader who is fighting only one battle: the battle for his own political survival. In the name of this war, he is causing us to decline to a bi-national state and to the end of the Zionist dream.” See also, “Ex-Mossad chief at anti-Netanyahu rally: Our leadership scares me more than our enemies” (JPost) See also, “Tens of thousands fill Rabin Square for anti-Netanyahu rally” (Times of Israel) Yedioth Ahronoth Netanyahu Attacked by Right & Left for Concessions Document The document revealed by Nahum Barnea on Friday, showing for the first time what the prime minister was willing to give the Palestinians in a peace agreement, caused a great uproar in the political establishment. Binyamin Netanyahu was attacked by both the right wing and the left wing for the surprising concessions detailed in the document, and for the gap between his public statements and what happened behind the scenes. Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett fiercely attacked the prime minister: “The document is real, the facts are correct,” he said. “The masked ball is over. The next disengagement is already here and it is again being led by the Likud and by Tzipi Livni. The 2015 elections have become a referendum on the establishment of Palestine in the 1967 borders.” See also, “Netanyahu says Israel won't cede land to Palestinians, despite reports, docs claiming otherwise” (Ynet) Ha’aretz Netanyahu: Bar-Ilan Two-State Speech No Longer Relevant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that the "Bar Ilan speech," from June 2009, in which he expressed support for creating a "demilitarized Palestinian state that would recognize the Jewish state," is no longer relevant, in light of the current reality in the Middle East. Netanyahu made the statement at a Likud party press briefing. The questions were submitted to the Likud campaign in the wake of a statement that appeared this weekend in a weekly Shabbat pamphlet that contained the stances of each political party on creating a Palestinian state. "The Prime Minister announced that the Bar-Ilan speech is null and void," read the message in the pamphlet, continuing, "Netanyahu's entire political biography is a fight against the creation of a Palestinian state." See also, “Netanyahu: Creation of Palestinian state ‘irrelevant’” (Times of Israel) See also, “Netanyahu denies Likud claim he’s backed away from two-state solution” (Times of Israel) 2 Jerusalem Post Zionist Union Platform Aims to Set Israel's Final Borders The Zionist Union will begin a major diplomatic initiative aimed at setting the permanent borders of Israel if its leader Isaac Herzog forms the next government after the March 17 election, according to the party’s diplomatic platform, which he launched Sunday in Tel Aviv. The platform says a diplomatic settlement is in Israel’s primary interests and a condition for ensuring its future as a Jewish and democratic state that enjoys wide international support. “The Zionist Union will act to formulate a diplomatic settlement and to determine secure and permanent borders for the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state by launching a diplomatic and security initiative,” the platform says. Times of Israel In Case of Election Tie, President to Push Unity Government With nine days left before the elections, and the two major parties neck and neck in the polls, President Reuven Rivlin told Channel 2 Sunday that he will call on Likud and the Zionist Union to form a national unity government in the event of a tie. The dual-party government will then push for legislation on electoral reform, Rivlin said, to amend the instability inherent in the current system, where larger parties have to court smaller parties in order to cobble together a rickety ruling coalition. Ha’aretz Ya'alon: English Speakers Trying to Topple Netanyahu Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Sunday accused "English-speakers" of orchestrating a massive effort to get out the vote among left-wing and Arab Israelis. Speaking at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Ya'alon said, "There is an unprecedented campaign here to encourage left-wing and Arab voters, and English-speakers are the ones doing it. There are non-profit organizations here that are funded by foreign money – European money and other groups that don't want to see Netanyahu [anymore]." Ya'alon's remarks echo similar comments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just days ago, in which he accused a "coalition" of forces of trying to increase voter turnout among Arabs and Israeli leftists on March 17. Times of Israel Iran Deal Won’t Expire After a Decade, Senior US Official Says The prospective nuclear agreement with Iran will not be limited to a decade, a senior US official said Sunday, rebuffing claims made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Briefing Israeli correspondents, the senior US official emphasized that the deal the six world powers are trying to sign with Iran will not be limited to a decade but will included several phases that will continue for “way more than a decade.” “We will not allow Iran to go nuclear,” the senior official said. Washington is keenly aware of the catastrophic consequences of Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons and will therefore do everything to prevent such a scenario, the official said. “We can reach a long-term agreement that will distance Iran from a nuclear weapon, an agreement that will last more than a decade, an agreement that will be better than a military strike,” the official said. See also, “Senators warn Iran nuke deal may expire when Obama leaves” (Times of Israel) 3 Ha’aretz – March 9, 2015 In special interview to Ari Shavit, Herzog declares: I am going to form next government Zionist Union’s co-chair says he has spent his life surprising people who have written him off. Can he pull off the biggest shock of all and become Israel’s next premier? By Ari Shavit Is the man sitting next to me going to be the next prime minister of Israel? Does he have a chance of replacing Benjamin Netanyahu, forming a different government and setting Israel on a new path? Isaac Herzog has no doubts. I have always been surprising, he says. It was always said of me that I did not have the ability, yet I proved that I had it. When I was appointed social welfare minister [in 2007], they said, “What does this kid from Tzahala [an upscale Tel Aviv suburb] know about social welfare?” But two weeks later they went very quiet, and a year later they saw the results – a revolution in the social-welfare services. Then, when I ran for leadership of the Labor Party, they said, “He has no charisma, no chance against Shelly Yacimovich.” But I worked with people and connected people, and the outcome spoke for itself. And when I said a year ago that I would be the alternative to Netanyahu’s government, they laughed at me, pooh-poohed me and said, “What is Bougie talking about?” But the moment the campaign started, and the moment the connection with Tzipi [Livni] was created, everything changed. You will see it for yourself shortly – the smell of profound political change is in the air. There is extraordinary momentum throughout the country. More and more people realize Zionist Union is going to win this election, and that I am going to form the next government. Just as I surprised everyone in the past, I am going to surprise everyone this time, too. This moment is my moment. The muddied, tightly-packed jeep of opposition leader Isaac Herzog leaves the home where he grew up and where he now lives with his wife Michal and their three children: Noam, 26; Matan, 22; and Roey, 15. The view through the window changes constantly: the villas of Tzahala, the Ramat Hasharon Tennis Center, Kafr Qasem. From this close up, Herzog, 54, seems a bit more grown up than he looks on the television screen, and a bit less heroic than he looked in the legendary photograph produced by media adviser Reuven Adler.
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