Israel Update

Israel and the Middle East News Update

Tuesday, June 2

Headlines:

 Obama: There is no Military Option to Stop Iran  Israel Says UN Grants Hamas-linked Group NGO Status  France and Britain Refuse to Present at IL Defense Exhibition  Egyptian Historian Calls for Normalization with Israel  Senior PA Official Reveals New Framework for Negotiations  Anti-Semitic Activity on US Campuses Increasing  Polish Legislature Launches Pro-Israel Caucus  In First, Indian PM Modi to Visit Israel

Commentary:

 New York Times: “Israel’s Charade of Democracy”  By Hagai El-Ad  Ha’aretz: “How BDS Helps Bibi and his Useless Ministers”

 By Anshel Pfeffer

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 June 2, 2015 Times of Israel Obama: There is No Military Option to Stop Iran US President Barack Obama told Israeli television that the emerging deal between Iran and world powers is the only way to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and that “a military solution will not fix it.” In a preview aired Monday on Channel 2 of an interview with veteran journalist Ilana Dayan, Obama said that military action against Iran would not deter its nuclear ambitions and that he could prove that a “verifiable” agreement with Iran was the best way forward. “I can, I think, demonstrate, not based on any hope but on facts and evidence and analysis, that the best way to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon is a verifiable, tough agreement,” he said. See also, “ Obama: Only a deal will stop Iran having nukes, attack won't help” (Ha’aretz)

Ynet News Israel Says UN Grants Hamas-linked Group NGO Status Israel on Monday accused the United Nations of granting "UN non-governmental organization status" to an association linked to militant Palestinian group Hamas that it said promotes "anti-Israel propaganda in Europe." Israel on Monday accused the United Nations of granting "UN non- governmental organization status" to an association linked to militant Palestinian group Hamas that it said promotes "anti-Israel propaganda in Europe." "Until today, the UN has given Hamas discounts and let it strengthen its activities," Israel's UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, was quoted. "Now, the UN went one step further, and gave Hamas a welcoming celebration at its main entrance."

Ma’ariv France and Britain Refuse to Present at IL Defense Exhibition This morning the International Defense and HLS Expo (ISDEF) will open in the Exhibition Grounds in Tel Aviv. However, a large cloud hovers over the event, which is taking place for the seventh year consecutively: Several Western European states have chosen not to present at the exhibition, led by France and Britain. A company that wishes to present at the event first has to receive authorization from the country in which it is registered. It has become apparent that in advance of this year’s exhibition, several companies did not receive authorization from their countries. This refers to leading countries such as France and Britain, but also to additional countries in Western Europe.

Jerusalem Post Egyptian Historian Calls for Normalization with Israel Egyptian historian Maged Farag called for normalizing relations with Israel in order to benefit economically and technologically, while saying the Palestinian struggle has caused “nothing but harm” for Egypt. Farag said in an interview aired last week on the Egyptian Mehwar TV station that Egypt could gain culturally, in trade, tourism, and from Israel’s advanced agricultural and industrial technology. “For over 70 years, the Palestinian cause has brought upon Egypt and the Egyptians nothing but harm, destruction, and expense,” said Farag, who recently visited Israel. “We should think with a scientific and open mind, with our eyes set on the future.”

Channel 2 News Senior PA Official Reveals New Framework for Negotiations During a recent interview provided to the Washington Post, senior level Palestinian Authority official Rami Abdallah affirms that the US intends to resume the peace talks right after a deal with Iran is reached. According to him, the new framework will involve the UN. Unlike other PA officials who attacked Netanyahu’s government, senior level Palestinian Authority official Rami Hamdallah said, “We are willing to work with any government that is elected in Israel.” He claims there are no preconditions for resuming the talks. Nonetheless, Hamdallah stated that the negotiations could be resumed once a UN resolution is adopted, echoing the internal Palestinian resolution that states the deadline is 2017 for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the establishment of a Palestinian state. See also, “ A new two-state strategy for peace Interview with Palestinian PM Rami Hamdallah” (Washinton Post)

Ynet News Anti-Semitic Activity on US Campuses Increasing As the 2014-2015 US academic year winds down, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is reporting a marked increase in the number and intensity of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents on American college campuses. During this academic year, ADL counted a total of 520 anti-Israel events on campus, representing a 38% increase compared to the previous academic year. Moreover, boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns were initiated on a total of 29 US college campuses, nearly double the campaigns seen during the previous academic year. "These incidents are troubling and are generating heightened concern in the Jewish community about the atmosphere on campus for Jewish students," said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman. i24 News Polish Legislature Launches Pro-Israel Caucus The first-ever pro-Israel caucus in the parliament of Poland will be launched Monday in Warsaw.The new Polish Parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus hopes to garner support for the State of Israel through their shared Judeo-Christian values. “As anti-Semitism continues to rise in Europe and around the world, it is moving to witness this historic initiative by members of the Polish parliament to publicly support the Jewish state just 70 years after the Holocaust,” said former MK Shai Hermesh, a member of the Israeli delegation to the event. The delegation is meeting in Warsaw with high ranking Polish politicians, including MP Jan Dziedziczak, who will chair the new caucus.

Jerusalem Post In First, Indian PM Modi to Visit Israel India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Israel, though no firm date has been set, his Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said at a press conference on Sunday, the Indian media reported. “As far as the prime minister’s visit is concerned, he will travel to Israel. No dates have been finalized. It will take place as per mutually convenient dates,” the Hindustan Times reported. Swaraj said that she too would visit “Israel, Palestine and Jordan” this year, but also gave no exact dates. According to the paper, the Indian and Israeli foreign ministries will hold a consultation in July to discuss the Swaraj visit. The paper speculated that a Modi visit could come in November. The visit of Modi would be the first ever visit to Israel by an Indian prime minister.

New York Times– June 2, 2015 Israel’s Charade of Democracy By Hagai El-Ad  Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is nearing the half-century mark, and Israel’s new right-wing government offers little hope of ending it. Nevertheless, the new government promises something else of value: clarity. And with that clarity, the opportunity to challenge the prolonged lie of the occupation’s “temporary” status. For if the occupation has become permanent in all but its name, what about the voting rights of Palestinians?  Two months ago, on election day in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel’s Arab citizens were flocking to the polls “in droves”— a clear effort to cast the voting of one-fifth of Israel’s citizens as a danger to be counteracted. That undermined basic democratic principles, but it paled in contrast to the status of the Palestinian population living next door in territories under direct or indirect Israeli rule. They have no say at all in choosing the government of the occupying power that is in ultimate command of their fate.  If you look at all the land Israel controls between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, that area contains some 8.3 million Israelis and Palestinians of voting age. Roughly 30 percent — about 2.5 million — are Palestinians living outside Israel under varying degrees of Israeli control — in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They have some ability to elect Palestinian bodies with limited functions. But they are powerless to choose Israeli officials, who make the weightiest decisions affecting them.  International humanitarian law does not grant a people living under temporary military occupation the right to vote for the institutions of the occupying power. But “temporary” is the operative word. Military occupations are meant to have an end. And common sense says half a century is not “temporary.”  Nevertheless, that is the basis for denying Palestinians their political rights: Their status is temporary, we are told, until a political agreement with Israel allows them to vote for sovereign Palestinian institutions. Now the chances of that happening are more clear. On the eve of elections, Mr. Netanyahu promised that there would be no Palestinian state while he is in office.  Does that mean nobody in the occupied territories has a meaningful vote? No. In fact, some people do: Israeli settlers.in August 1970, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, discussed amending the Knesset Election Law, which stipulated that Israelis — with few exceptions like diplomats on duty abroad — had to be inside Israel to vote. The amendment sought to expand the exception to include Israelis “residing in the territories held by the Israel Defense Force.” In other words, Israeli settlers could vote for the Knesset from outside Israel; their Palestinian neighbors could not participate from anywhere.  In a Knesset session discussing the amendment before it passed, one legislator and peace activist, Uri Avnery, expressed a widely held belief that peace initiatives would soon make the amendment obsolete. He expressed the hope that “it won’t be long — a year, a year and a half, two at most — before the thing called ‘the held territories’ is no more, and the I.D.F. pulls back into Israel’s borders.” 4

 More than four decades later, what has become obsolete is not the amendment, but rather the accuracy of a description of Knesset elections often heard here: general, national, direct, equal, confidential and proportional.  How can elections be “general” when millions of people under Israel’s control for almost 50 years cannot take part in electing the institutions that hold sway over them? Let’s face it. Only the first six of Israel’s parliamentary elections — those held before 1967 — were truly “general.” Even though the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel proper were under military rule inside its borders at the time, they could vote.  Settlers now have voted in their communities in 14 Knesset elections. Over time, their numbers rose from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands. Yet one thing remained constant: Millions of Palestinians could not cast a meaningful vote, even as the voting of their settler neighbors — citizens of an occupying power — helped decide the fate of the disenfranchised.  To be sure, after the Oslo accords were signed in 1993, Palestinians in the occupied territories got to cast ballots for some institutions of their own. But Palestinian independence never came to pass, and the interim partial autonomy established in its stead underscored how “temporariness” is abused while ultimate control remains with Israel.  The Oslo Accords themselves were meant to be an interim arrangement, in effect for five years. The most recent Palestinian vote under them, in 2006, proved of little value to the Palestinians; the results were set aside after Hamas emerged as the winner in the new Palestinian parliament — whose autonomous powers in effect merely relieved Israel of responsibilities for infrastructure, health care and education.  In reality, the Palestinian Authority remains subject to the whims of the occupying power — as was demonstrated most recently when Israel froze (and then unfroze) the transfer of Palestinian tax revenues to it.  All this is shameful. And one of the occupation’s most shameful aspects is the democratic facade that obscures an undemocratic and oppressive reality. Israel’s use of military force against Palestinians is one variety of violence. Its patronizing disregard for millions of subjects, while boasting of its own “celebration of democracy,” is violence of another kind — violence to history, reality and the truth.  A day will come when this occupation ends. It may end with one state, two states, or something else. That specific political choice is beyond the deeper question of human rights, as long as the option eventually chosen respects the human rights of all. For now, the one choice we cannot make is to continue calling the current reality democratic and the occupation temporary.  Clarity may be of value after all, if it helps bring the occupation’s end sooner. Hagai El-Ad is the executive director of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

Ha’aretz– June 1, 2015 How BDS Helps Bibi and his Useless Ministers If hasbara was a real thing, it would have a real ministry with a budget and wouldn’t be the last portfolio handed out to a disgruntled minister looking for a fancy title.

By Anshel Pfeffer  It must be very depressing to be an anti-Israel activist. No matter what you do, the number of people you bring to a demonstration, the thousands of Likes you gain on Facebook, the votes of solidarity taken by workers’ unions and boycott resolutions passed on university campuses, every time you turn around another Israeli high-tech startup is being sold for a cool billion and exports to Europe have just gone up by 10 percent.  No end of petitions against Israeli war criminals and not one has yet to be arrested, let alone put on trial, and for every impassioned letter by Roger Waters, the hottest stars continue to appear in Tel Aviv. No matter how many football matches are disrupted by swastika-wavers, an Israeli coach can still waltz in and reach the NBA finals.  This week they hoped the bid to expel Israel from FIFA would dominate the headlines, only for the world media to focus instead on trivial matters such as the revelations of mega-corruption in world football. It just isn’t fair, the Zionist conspiracy is too devious and powerful. There’s a limit to how much satisfaction can be derived from harassing Jewish students on campuses and picketing kosher sections in supermarkets. Thank God, though, for the Israeli government; at least they understand how dangerous a bunch of misfits sitting in basements really are.  This week Gilad Erdan, that dashing Likud politician who came first in the party’s primaries, deigned to join Benjamin Netanyahu’s government 10 days after it was sworn in because, as he wrote on his Facebook page, “Israel deserves not to be libeled in the world, and that many more good people defend her.” That’s apparently why he agreed to be appointed minister for internal security (which is basically the police minister; another long- forgotten politician insisted on a more impressive title), for strategic affairs and for hasbara. And while everyone knows what the police do, or at least should be doing when they’re not conducting strategic affairs, he had to explain the other part of the title.  “As a cabinet member,” he wrote. “I am fully aware of the danger lurking in anti-Israel activities which include attempts to boycott and delegitimize Israel (BDS). I have agreed with the prime minister on allocating the necessary resources, both personnel and budgets. As part of my job I will face anti-Israel actions in the international arena, such as the attempts to attack us in the International Court in The Hague, the Palestinians’ attempt to distance us from FIFA and more. I plan to devote myself to this issue with great determination and use all the necessary tools to correct the injustice. These things are urgent and it’s hard to exaggerate their importance. I am accepting this responsibility with holy fear.” No less.  The ex-Israeli stooges who do the translation must have been in raptures and rushed to pass on the good news. Finally, proof that their efforts have been recognized and by the highest

authority in the apartheid state. Battle has been joined and the Zionists are now taking them seriously. What useful fools. What convenient foils for Netanyahu’s determination to stick to the status quo. He knows full well how negligible their damage is but their colorful antics are great fodder for the local media to stoke the national paranoia.  Every time a lecture by an Israeli personality is heckled or a music performance disrupted, or, even better, kicked off the program by fearful organizers, it will serve the Likud’s needs. See how they hate us? They don’t want us to live and you expect us to negotiate with them? Of course the agitators at the London School of Economics and Berkeley represent the Palestinians as much as I do, but how convenient to have them waving Palestinian flags and convincing Israelis that they have no one to talk to.  So what will Erdan actually do? Focus on his real job of trying to reform the corrupt and violent police force. I don’t believe he really thinks there’s anything he can achieve with his other brief, besides loyally serving his boss’ propaganda. If he actually tries to put some substance into his hasbara portfolio, he will find out pretty quickly there is none.  How to translate the Hebrew term hasbara is an issue that has vexed editors in Israel’s English-language press for decades. It’s literal meaning – the act of explaining – of course does not convey any of the mythical belief some Israelis and naive Diaspora Jews have that somewhere out there, there’s a better way to explain Israel’s policies to the world that will convince the media we are the good guys and the Arabs are all a bunch of lying anti-Semites.  There are many logical flaws in this concept, but the most basic one is that Israel has been fielding a massive PR corps for decades. There are literally thousands working on it in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry, IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and other government agencies. And contrary to the prejudices of some American and European Jews, not all of them are ignorant sabras. Many of them are media professionals from those very countries who either moved to Israel or were hired specifically for the task.  Those pros will tell you in moments of candor that Israel does not have a hasbara problem, and therefore there isn’t a hasbara solution and the entire idea of hasbara is bogus. The great majority of people in the West are not particularly worked up about Israel. And the minority who are tend to be intelligent enough to form their opinions based on a combination of the ample information from different perspectives and their own personal beliefs.  That’s why there is no way to translate hasbara – it simply doesn’t exist outside the minds of those who believe in it. They won’t call it propaganda because they believe it is the truth. Public relations is a profession and has too many corporate connotations. Officially the government translates hasbara as “public diplomacy,” which is one of those highfalutin terms that can mean just about anything.  The Foreign Ministry has an issue with this as well. After all, diplomacy is their job (some of the larger embassies already have “consuls for public diplomacy”) and they resent the fact that so many of their traditional and professional roles have been parceled out to other departments. On the ministry’s English website, Erdan is now billed as “information minister.”  Of course we’ve been here before. Erdan is not the first minister to get all fired up by a nonsensical brief handed him by the prime minister – just as his predecessor Yuval Steinitz

was. He drew up a plan for a global campaign costing 100 million shekels, or $25 million, with special representatives based in every embassy. The Foreign Ministry said no way, and Netanyahu, as he usually does when confronted with these disputes, said he needed time to consider the issue and adjourned the meeting.  If hasbara was a real thing, it would have a real ministry with a budget and wouldn’t be the last portfolio handed out to a disgruntled minister looking for a fancy title. Erdan will do what does so well – go on television, make impassioned speeches, and he’s probably coming soon to a Jewish Community Center near you to fire up the true believers and maintain the illusion that it’s us against all the haters. He will do about as much good for Israel and it’s image as the BDSers will cause damage – which is very little in either case.