Israel and the Middle East News Update

Tuesday, February 20

Headlines:

• PM Confidant Offered Judge Top Job to Kill Case Against Sara Netanyahu • Ex-chair, CEO Among Detainees in Inquiry into Bezeq Probe • Police Chief Alsheikh Comes Under Fire at Knesset Discussion • US Ambassador: Settlement Evacuation Could Spark Civil War • Abbas to Urge International Involvement in Peace Process at UN • Senior Iranian Official: We will Level Tel Aviv to The Ground • UN Demands End to Targeting Civilians in Syria After 100 Die • Israeli Gas Company Announces $15 Billion Export Deal with Egypt

Commentary: • Ha’aretz: “Unholy Trinity Brings Fire to Netanyahu's Door” - By Yossi Verter, political columnist at Ha’aretz • New York Times: “The U.N.’s Uncomfortable Truths About Iran” - By Nikki Haley, US permanent representative to the United Nations.

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 February 20, 2018 i24 News PM Confidant Offered Judge Top Job to Kill Case Against Wife A close confidant of Prime Minister is suspected of offering the position of attorney general to an Israeli judge in return for her killing the case into alleged improprieties in Sara Netanyahu's household spending. The details were revealed Tuesday morning by Israeli journalist Ben Caspit and partially confirmed by the police. According to the report, Nir Hefetz, a personal spokesperson for the Netanyahus, offered Hila Gerstel, a retired judge, the position of attorney general on the condition that she would use her new post to close the case against the prime minister's wife. See also, “Netanyahu Confidant Suspected of Offering Judge Top Post to Nix Case Against Sara Netanyahu” (Ha’aretz)

Reuters Ex-chair, CEO Among Detainees in Inquiry into Bezeq Probe Israeli police on Tuesday named the CEO and former chairman of Bezeq among the suspects arrested this week after the markets watchdog uncovered new evidence in an investigation into the country’s largest telecom group. The Securities Authority (ISA) has been investigating Bezeq over possible fraud and financial reporting offences. Israeli media reported investigators were now looking into allegations that Bezeq received benefits in return for enabling favorable media coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While the arrests were announced on Sunday, the suspects’ identities were covered by a gag order until now. Police said Bezeq’s controlling shareholder and former chairman Shaul Elovitch, his wife and son are being held as is Bezeq CEO Stella Handler. See also, “Netanyahu's troubles deepen as Israeli police arrest confidants” (CNN)

Ynet News Police Chief Alsheikh Comes Under Fire at Knesset Discussion Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh came under bipartisan fire on Tuesday morning during a meeting of the Knesset's Internal Affairs Committee on his claims that "powerful" elements hired private investigators against police officers investigating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich was the first to slam Alsheikh, telling him: "The interview you gave (the investigative TV show) Uvda was completely unacceptable. This interview is like a car accident. Your job is not to hand out grades to the prime minister. You should've apologized." Likud MK Miki Zohar said he, along with Smotrich, asked for the hearing because he felt "the police's conduct with regards to the investigations of the prime minister is unprofessional, not objective, and improper."

Jerusalem Post US Ambassador: Settlement Evacuation could Spark Civil War A forced evacuation of settlements could spark a civil war in Israel, US Ambassador David Friedman told Jewish American leaders in , according to a report on Channel 10 news. The ambassador spoke on Tuesday at a private off the record briefing to a mission to Israel by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations. Friedman’s comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were reported in Hebrew by journalist Barak Ravid, both on air and on his twitter feed. Friedman told the Jewish mission that this was his personal belief as well, particularly given the increasing number of national-religious officers who hold command positions in the IDF. 2

Ynet News Abbas to Urge International Involvement in at the UN Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will urge world powers at the UN Security Council on Tuesday to stand up to the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and establish a revamped peace process. President Donald Trump's decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem infuriated the Palestinians who declared that the United States could no longer play a role as lead mediator in the Middle East peace process. The stage will be set for a tense face-off with US Ambassador Nikki Haley, just weeks after she launched a scathing attack on Abbas and accused him of lacking the courage needed for peace. Abbas "will say that after the 6th of December with regard to Jerusalem, that now is the time for a collective approach," Mansour told AFP. See also, “ Abbas to urge alternative to US as peace mediator in UN speech” (Times of Israel)

Times of Israel Senior Iranian Official: We will Level Tel Aviv to The Ground Any attacks carried out against Iran will result in the destruction of Tel Aviv, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Expediency Council, warned Israel on Monday, according to the Fars News Agency. Quoted by Iran's semi-official government news site, Rezaei, in response to Netanyahu's comments at the Munich Security Conference, asserted that "If they [Israel] carry out the slightest unwise move against Iran, we will level Tel Aviv to the ground and will not give any opportunity to Netanyahu to flee." "The US and Israeli leaders don't know Iran and don't understand the power of resistance and therefore, they continuously face defeat," he was quoted as saying in an interview with Lebanese Hezbollah- affiliated Al Manar News. "Today, the situation of the US and Israel indicate their fear of the Zionist regime's collapse and the US decline," he added in the interview. i24 News UN Demands End to Targeting Civilians in Syria After 100 Die The UN has demanded an end to the targeting of civilians in Syria after a heavy bombardment killed at least 100 civilians in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, as regime forces appeared to be preparing for an imminent ground assault.The escalation came as pro-government forces were also expected to enter the northern Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin, to take a stand against a month-old Turkish assault.Held by rebels since 2012, Eastern Ghouta is the last opposition pocket around Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad has deployed reinforcements in an apparent concerted effort to retake it.As a barrage of air strikes, rocket fire and artillery slammed into several towns across Eastern Ghouta on Monday, the United Nations warned that the targeting of civilians in Eastern Ghouta "must stop now. See also, “Syria war: Scores of civilians killed in Eastern Ghouta strikes” (BBC)

Chron Israeli Gas Company Announces $15 Billion Deal with Egypt An Israeli energy company on Monday announced a $15 billion deal to supply natural gas to Egypt, in the largest export agreement to date for Israel's nascent natural gas industry. Delek Drilling and its U.S. partner, Noble Energy, signed a deal to sell a total of 64 billion cubic meters of gas over a 10-year period to Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings. Yossi Abu, chief executive of Delek Drilling, called the deal "great news" for both countries. See also, “Delek, Noble sign $15b gas deal with Egyptian co” (Globes)

3

Ha’aretz– February 20, 2018 Unholy Trinity Brings Fire to Netanyahu's Door By Yossi Verter, political columnist at Ha’aretz

• Bezeq's controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch, Communications Ministry Director General Shlomo Filber, and media consultant Nir Hefetz have spent the past two freezing February nights in the damp, stinking and unheated cells of a police lock-up. Detectives from the Lahav 433 investigation unit are convinced that this unholy trinity was involved in bribery worth millions that dwarf what was allegedly going on in Case 1000, the lavish gifts affairs, and Case 2000, the Yedioth Ahronoth quid-pro-quo affair. The police have lots of evidence including various kinds of correspondence and perhaps even secret recordings that are bringing the fire closer to the door of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. • Still, they will try to persuade one or two of the three suspects to cross the line and turn state’s evidence. The traumatic experience of detention is aimed at speeding up the process. The police know how to be cruel: They’ve also arrested Elovitch’s wife and son. Elovitch himself is suspected of receiving hundreds of millions of shekels in benefits from then-Communications Minister Netanyahu in exchange for turning the Walla news website into the online version of Israel Hayom – a proven Netanyahu organ. • Elovitch, Netanyahu’s close friend; Filber, a political ally for 20 years and an executor of Netanyahu’s decisions; and Hefetz, whose hands were all over everything as an adviser, a “fixer,” the de facto editor of Walla and Netanyahu’s candidate to be the link between himself and Yedioth owner Arnon Mozes, as revealed in the tapes from Case 2000 – each of these people separately and all of them together hold pieces of the puzzle. • Netanyahu’s sick obsession with “the media” – his uncontrollable urge to subordinate it to his agenda, to educate it and shape it in his image and the image of his wife in her ongoing search for respect – drove him crazy. The feeling of “There’s no one like me” intensified after the 2015 elections. He ignored the rules of caution, fired this one, appointed that one, did well for this one and ran over the other, as if he were running amok. This complacency, recklessness and misplaced self-confidence clung to the other suspects as well. • All the exploits involving the Walla site, which was suppressed at the owner’s orders, were conducted in an above-board fashion, via WhatsApp messages and in emails. “They acted very stupidly,” someone involved in what’s going on said Monday. The detectives’ work was thus pretty easy; they just collected material that was readily available. • For weeks the political establishment was waiting for the police recommendations in Cases 1000 and 2000. They were a long time coming, and when the allegations finally landed, it couldn’t have been worse: bribery times two, fraud and breach of trust. The politicians heard it, they mumbled something to themselves and agreed to wait until the attorney general decided whether to prosecute the prime minister. Just when we thought that it would now be smooth sailing until the end of 2018, a new case has emerged that seems even worse. The elements of bribery are all there, the gift, the quid pro quo, the interests. All the players have been arrested except for the prime minister who, if he were a civilian, would also be making the acquaintance of the wooden benches of the detention hall.

4

• Ostensibly nothing has changed on the political map, but the basic conditions are not the same. Netanyahu understands that his situation has deteriorated considerably. He will internalize it further as the Case 4000 investigation progresses, and if one or two of the main suspects agrees to sign an agreement and “sing.” There’s no way to know how he will act; any speculation is valid. As an act of despair he could call new elections as a way to advance the filing of charges. His opportunity to offer the attorney general a deal – to close the cases and hand down a mild punishment in return for his resignation and abandoning political life – has been squandered. He also missed his chance to advance elections before the cloud hovering above him darkened and turned into a cloudburst. • Anything Bibi does now will look like a transparent effort to escape the wrath of the law. In any event, his chances of winning an election decreased this week. And even if he should win, who would rush to join a prime minister on borrowed time, other than the ultra-Orthodox politicians and Avigdor Lieberman, whose ethical threshold is somewhere near the level of groundwater? • Let’s take, for example, Moshe Kahlon, finance minister and chairman of Kulanu. If he discovers, through in-depth polling and focus groups, that most of his voters oppose his continued partnership with Netanyahu and want him to leave the government – he might just fulfill their wishes. That would be a move that would bring him Likud voters who are fed up with their corrupt leader, as well as voters who are now leaning toward Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid. The drop in housing prices in the last quarter of 2017 could make it easier for Kahlon to take this step, although it’s not without risk. • The defensive party wall around Netanyahu has also cracked during the past two days. His party's MKs haven’t been storming the broadcast studios. The exception has been MK Miki Zohar. In an interview to a local radio station, Zohar compared the police investigations and media coverage of Netanyahu’s cases to those surrounding the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Suddenly we missed David Amsalem’s “snitch” and “tattler.” • Instead of Zohar burying himself in shame, retracting and apologizing, he conducted a round of follow-up interviews in which he elaborated on his insight with inscrutability, insensitivity and ignorance. Zohar is one of those MKs – most of whom belong to Likud, though there are some in Habayit Hayehudi – who give stupidity a bad name. One cannot deny the possibility that this ridiculous comparison was planted in his mind by someone in the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street. The panic there must be reaching new heights. • For some reason there were repeated calls Monday for Netanyahu to declare himself temporarily incapacitated. It must be made clear that legally, a state of incapacity is not relevant to this situation. According to the Basic Law on the Government (Section 20), incapacity can last for only 100 days. After that, the government must appoint a new prime minister from his party. What will happen during the 100 days that Netanyahu sits at home? Will the investigations be completed? Will his trial begin and end? Will the appeals be heard? Such a call reeks of shallowness and charlatanism. It’s no surprise that Yair Lapid issued that demand with total seriousness from the Knesset podium.

5

SUMMARY: nothing has changed on the political map, but the basic conditions are not the same. Netanyahu understands that his situation has deteriorated considerably. He will internalize it further as the Case 4000 investigation progresses, and if one or two of the main suspects agrees to sign an agreement and “sing.” There’s no way to know how he will act; any speculation is valid. As an act of despair he could call new elections as a way to advance the filing of charges. His opportunity to offer the attorney general a deal – to close the cases and hand down a mild punishment in return for his resignation and abandoning political life – has been squandered. He also missed his chance to advance elections before the cloud hovering above him darkened and turned into a cloudburst. Anything Bibi does now will look like a transparent effort to escape the wrath of the law. In any event, his chances of winning an election decreased this week. And even if he should win, who would rush to join a prime minister on borrowed time, other than the ultra-Orthodox politicians and Avigdor Lieberman, whose ethical threshold is somewhere near the level of groundwater?

6

New York Times – February 17 2018 Nikki Haley: The U.N.’s Uncomfortable Truths About Iran

By Nikki Haley, US permanent representative to the United Nations.

• Last week, the United Nations published a report with news a lot of people don’t want to hear. A panel of experts found that Iran is violating a United Nations weapons embargo — specifically, that missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels into Saudi Arabia last year were made in Iran. • The mullahs in Iran don’t want to hear this news, because it proves Iran is violating its international agreement. Die-hard defenders of the Iran nuclear deal don’t want to hear it because it proves, once again, that the Iranian regime can’t be trusted. And some members of the United Nations don’t want to hear it because it is further proof that Iran is defying Security Council resolutions, and the pressure will be on the U.N. to do something about it. • Yemen is the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today. After three years of brutal civil war, 75 percent of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance. The government has virtually ceased to exist. Terrorist groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are exploiting that lawlessness to pursue their barbaric agendas. • The U.N. report reveals much more than just the Iranian sanctions violation. It charges the anti- government Houthi rebels with not only launching ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia but also using the people of Yemen as human shields and kidnapping Yemeni children to fight in the war. • At the same time, the report notes that Saudi restrictions on imports of civilian goods into Yemen worsened the suffering there. Saudi Arabia is now working to address this through a new Yemen humanitarian aid plan. We welcome its engagement with the United Nations to try to address the humanitarian crisis, and urge it to do more. • But the report, for all its bad news, should be welcomed by those who wish to prevent the conflict in Yemen from becoming a direct, major confrontation in the Middle East. By confirming that Iran is the source of the missiles and other weaponry fired into Saudi Arabia, the U.N. panel has given the world a chance to act before a missile hits a school or a hospital and leads to a dangerous military escalation that provokes a Saudi military response. • It is imperative that we seize this opportunity. Iranian missiles have already come close to hitting civilian targets in Saudi Arabia. Last November, Houthi militants fired a missile at a major civilian airport outside Riyadh. Fortunately, the missile fell short of its target. But, as this newspaper reported, it detonated so close to the terminal that it caused people inside to jump out of their seats. And the debris it left scattered around the airport had Iranian fingerprints all over it. • In December, the United States and our partners took the extraordinary step of declassifying evidence from this missile attack, as well as from other attacks by missiles, conventional arms and explosive boats of Iranian origin — all used by the rebels in Yemen and all violations of U.N. resolutions. • In a warehouse in Washington, we put on display recovered pieces of the missile fired at the Riyadh airport, with its telltale nine valves running the length of it and lack of large stabilizing fins, proof of its Iranian manufacture. Some of the missile remnants on display were stamped with the logo of Shahid Bagheri Industries, an Iranian manufacturer. Based on the strength of

7

this and other evidence, our intelligence community concluded unequivocally that the weapons had been supplied by the Tehran regime. As I said at the time, they might as well have had “Made in Iran” all over them. • The U.N. report agrees with our intelligence, and it makes an additional, critical finding. When we first unveiled our evidence last year, some skeptical observers questioned whether the Iranian weapons had been transferred to Yemen before the imposition of the U.N. arms embargo in April 2015. The new U.N. report makes it clear that the weapons were introduced into Yemen after the arms embargo was imposed, putting Iran in undisputed violation of the United Nations resolution. • No one, in truth, should be surprised by these findings. Since the signing of the nuclear agreement, the Iranian regime’s support of dangerous militias and terror groups has markedly increased. Its missiles and advanced weapons are turning up in war zones all across the Middle East. And Houthi militants continue to fire them into Saudi Arabia, including in December, January and this month. • The world can no longer claim ignorance or skepticism of Iran’s role in fomenting instability in the Middle East. To acknowledge the Iranian origin of missiles falling on Saudi Arabia is not, as some charge, to lay the groundwork for war. Far from it. It is a necessary prerequisite for preventing war. • Today, armed with this evidence, we have the chance to rein in Iran’s behavior and demand that it live up to its international agreements that discourage conflict. But if action is not taken, then someday soon, when innocent Saudi civilians are killed by Iranian weapons, the chance for peace will be lost.

SUMMARY: The world can no longer claim ignorance or skepticism of Iran’s role in fomenting instability in the Middle East. To acknowledge the Iranian origin of missiles falling on Saudi Arabia is not, as some charge, to lay the groundwork for war. Far from it. It is a necessary prerequisite for preventing war. Today, armed with this evidence, we have the chance to rein in Iran’s behavior and demand that it live up to its international agreements that discourage conflict. But if action is not taken, then someday soon, when innocent Saudi civilians are killed by Iranian weapons, the chance for peace will be lost.

8