Israel and the Middle East News Update Tuesday, May 21 Headlines: • PM Dismisses General’s Claims that Annexation Would Endanger Israel • Palestinian Authority to Boycott US-Bahrain Event • U.S.: History Will Judge PA Harshly for Passing Up Opportunity • Israel, Hamas Said to Agree to Six-Month Ceasefire in Gaza • Top Attorneys Launch Campaign to ‘Save the High Court’ • Netanyahu’s Lawyers Ask AG to Put Off Hearing for at Least One Year • Israel’s Economy Booms at Fastest Pace Since 2016 Commentary: • Times of Israel: “How Settler Leaders Worked to Reelect Netanyahu and What They Want in Return” − By Jacob Magid • Ha’aretz: “Trump’s Planning a Wedding in Bahrain. But He Forgot to Invite the Groom” − By Noa Landau 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 ● Yehuda Greenfield-Gilat, Associate Editor News Excerpts May 21, 2019 Times of Israel PM Dismisses Claims that Annexation Would Endanger Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to former security senior security officials who reportedly warned yesterday against annexing parts of the West Bank. Dismissing the claims that such a move — pledged by the premier days before last month’s elections — would “endanger the citizens of Israel,” Netanyahu says that “regions in Judea and Samaria are not just a guarantee of Israel’s security — they are also our patrimony.” “The same ‘experts’ supported the Iran nuclear deal and warned that ‘Bibi is taking a wrong turn and ruining the alliance with America,'” he adds in a tweet. Earlier today, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan of Netanyahu’s Likud party said annexation was a “natural and moral” step, and Likud MK Sharren Haskel reportedly filed a bill proposing an annexation of the Jordan Valley. BICOM Palestinian Authority to Boycott US-Bahrain Event The Palestinian Authority (PA) will not attend the US-led economic conference in Bahrain next month. The PA Social Development Minister, Ahmed Majdalani, who is also a member of the PLO’s executive committee, said: “There will be no Palestinian participation in the Manama workshop. Any Palestinian who would take part would be nothing but a collaborator for the Americans and Israel.” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayeh yesterday criticised the workshop, saying: “The cabinet wasn’t consulted about the reported workshop, neither over the content, nor the outcome nor timing. Any solution to the conflict in Palestine must be political … and based on ending the occupation.” Palestinian businessman Bashar Masri also said he is rejecting the invitation. Saeb Erekat also criticised the US for its planned conference, saying that “attempts at promoting an economic normalisation of the Israeli occupation will be rejected.” See also, “Drop the cynicism. The Bahrain economic confab is a big step forward” (Times of Israel) Jerusalem Post U.S.: History Will Judge PA Harshly for Passing Up Opportunity Jason Greenblatt, the US Special Representative for International Negotiations, expressed his frustration Monday from the Palestinian reaction to the economic workshop in Bahrain next month, in which the administration is set to reveal the financial part of its peace plan. “It’s difficult to understand why the Palestinian Authority would reject a workshop designed to discuss a vision with the potential to radically transform lives and put people on a path toward a brighter future,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “Palestinians deserve dignity, opportunity and a better way of life,” Greenblatt added. “Also, by encouraging Palestinians to reject the workshop, the PA is shamefully trying to block their path toward a better future. History will judge the Palestinian Authority harshly for passing up any opportunity that could give the Palestinians something so very different, and something so very positive, compared to what they have today.” See also, “US invites Israel to Bahrain confab on Palestinians” (Times of Israel) 2 Times of Israel Israel, Hamas Said to Agree to Six-Month Ceasefire in Gaza Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement for a six-month ceasefire along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel, Channel 12 news reported Monday. According to the report, the agreement includes a Hamas obligation to halt violent incidents along the border fence, maintaining a buffer zone 300 meters from the border; an end to the launching of incendiary balloons at Israeli communities and nighttime clashes between Gazans and security forces; and a stop to flotillas trying to break In return, Israel will once again allow fishing at up to 15 nautical miles off Gaza’s coast, enable United Nations cash-for-work programs, allow medicine and other civil aid to enter the Strip and and open negotiations on matters relating to electricity, crossings, healthcare and funds. through the maritime border between Gaza and Israel. See also, “HAMAS AND ISRAEL DENY REPORT OF SIX MONTH TRUCE” (Jerusalem Post) Ma’ariv Top Attorneys Launch Campaign to ‘Save the High Court’ Dozens of top lawyers met last night in the offices of the Goldfarb-Seligman firm in Tel Aviv to express their protest and to coordinate their positions against the right wing parties’ intention to curtail judicial overview, to change the immunity law to exempt the prime minister from being prosecuted and to undermine the authority of the Supreme Court and its justices. Zvika Bar Natan, a partner at Goldfarb-Seligman and the person who called the meeting, said to his colleagues: “Today we are all here because we are united in the concrete sense of a danger to the rule of law and to Israel’s existence as a democratic and liberal country. We are all here because we feel a sense of urgency, and we feel that the rule of law is at the edge of an abyss. We realize that, as jurists, we have a greater duty to the rule of law.” Bar Natan thus sent a clear message to the politicians: “You will have to get past us, and you won’t get past us.” The lawyers said that they were planning to form an action committee against the proposed legislation. See also, “NETANYAHU-INSPIRED MK IMMUNITY BILL SUBMITTED TO KNESSET” (Jerusalem Post) Ha’aretz PM’s Lawyers Ask AG to Put Off Hearing for at Least One Year Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyers have asked Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit to put off the hearing in the three corruption cases against the prime minister for at least a year because of the huge amount of material to be read to prepare Netanyahu properly. Mendelblit, who returned Sunday from a trip to Japan, had asked the lawyers to hold the hearing by July 10, but is expected to agree to a hearing held by the end of September. Monday was the deadline Mendelblit had set for coordinating a date, but an attorney for Netanyahu, Amit Hadad, only collected the evidentiary material last week. Bloomberg Israel’s Economy Booms at Fastest Pace Since 2016 Israel’s economy expanded at its fastest pace in three years, blowing by analyst forecasts and far exceeding the central bank view of the country’s potential growth. Gross domestic product rose 5.2% in the first quarter from the previous three months on an annualized basis, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. 3 Times of Israel – May 21, 2019 How Settler Leaders Worked to Reelect Netanyahu and What They Want in Return While they’ve sparred with him in the past, prominent West Bank mayors put aside differences to campaign door-to-door for PM’s Likud party days after his on-air annexation pledge By JACOB MAGID • The last time two of the most prominent settler leaders were invited to a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, they chose not to come. • It was late December, with election fever slowly kicking into gear; but not even a month had passed since a pair of West Bank terror shootings in which two soldiers and a pregnant woman’s baby were killed and nine others were injured. • Arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was using the sit-down for a photo op with Israeli mayors beyond the Green Line, rather than addressing their demands for increased settlement construction and security reinforcements in response to Palestinian violence, Binyamin Regional Council chairman Yisrael Gantz and Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan peeled away from their colleagues and stayed away. • Roughly three months later — and just two days before the April 9 vote — Gantz and Dagan were again invited to meet Netanyahu. But this time, not only would they heed the call, but the pair also showed up in Jerusalem bearing gifts. • During the meeting, the two settler leaders detailed their get out the vote strategy for the Likud party on election day. As part of a broader campaign called “Zazim Yemina” (Moving Right), each of them was assigned a city or region of the country where the percentage of potential right-wing voters was high, but the voter turnout in recent elections had been low. They, along with hundreds of activists from their municipalities, would go door-to-door on election day encouraging Israelis to vote. For part of the time, Gantz and Dagan would be joined by Likud ministers Ze’ev Elkin and Yariv Levin, providing those who opened the door a not-so-subtle hint at who they should vote for, without explicitly calling on them to support Netanyahu’s party. • “The combination of a minister at your door and someone from Judea and Samaria telling you it’s very important for his future that you vote is very powerful,” said Gantz. • Explaining the decision to go door-to-door on behalf of someone they felt wasn’t taking the security of their residents seriously less than four months earlier, both Gantz and Dagan told The Times of Israel that the ramifications of a Netanyahu defeat were too serious for petty politics.