DOCSLIB.ORG

Events… Commentary…

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Events… Commentary… בס״ד ordering the עש"ק פרשת אמור ISRAEL NEWS destruction of ancient )בהר בא"י( 12 Iyar 5779 May 17, 2019 synagogues, burial Issue number 1244 A collection of the week’s news from Israel places and other historical sites and by From thethe Bet El Twinning / Israel Action Committee of "ethnically cleansing" this historically Jerusalem 6:45 Jewish area of all Jews. Yet there Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation Toronto: 8:13 were no United Nations Resolutions, campus protests or other organized shows of opposition by the Events… international community. Only after Israel liberated these historically Jewish areas, did the world, and Obama, decide -- in violation of Wednesday, May 22, 8pm international law -- that they were illegally occupied. Dr. Mordechai Kedar speaks on “Debunking the Myth of the Declaring the Western Wall to be illegally occupied territory is akin to Expulsion and Occupation,” at Shaarei Tefillah. declaring the Vatican, Mecca or other religious, holy sites to be occupied by those who pray at them. The Western Wall is lawfully part of the nation state of the Jewish people. It will remain so as long as Israel exists. If there is to be any hope of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the world must recognize that historic, moral and legal reality. Commentary… (Gatestone Institute May 14) War Crime!: Placing a Note in the Western Wall By Alan M. Dershowitz Beyond the Radar on the Temple Mount Last week, in Israel, I committed a flagrant violation of international By Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein law. This "war crime" consisted of placing a note asking for "peace, salaam, It was the driest of headlines, betraying nothing of the dramatic and shalom" in the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. The reason the note even historic significance of the events it heralded. "Police Forces requesting peace constituted "a flagrant violation of international law" and a Operating on the Temple Mount," read the ticker late Saturday night. The "war crime" is that the United Nations Security Council, in a Resolution news brief below it gave just a tiny bit more detail, adding that the police adopted in December 2016, declared that all areas captured by Israel during were moving Muslim worshipers out of the Temple Mount area. the 1967 War are illegally occupied territories. That includes the Western What was really going on? Wall, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and the access roads A representative of the Temple Mount Movements Joint Task Force on Mount Scopus to the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital. was able to provide us with the full story. Former US President Barack Obama demanded that his permanent Generally, Muslim worshipers on the Temple Mount – the site of our representative to the United Nations not veto this one-sided, wrong-headed, holiest site, the Holy of Holies of the two ancient Temples – pack up ahistorical, bigoted, and anti-peace Resolution. Obama changed American around sunset or later and go home for the night. But that's not what policy by allowing such a resolution to be enacted by the Security Council happened this time. Hundreds of Muslims, led by a band of stocking- as revenge on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, quite masked Arabs, decided to remain and hole up in the holy compound. correctly, opposed the very bad deal Obama made with Iran enabling it to Planning to riot and throw firebombs the next morning, they would thus develop nuclear weapons. prevent the normal opening of the Mount and deter tourists and Jewish Although Obama himself had once stood in front of the Western Wall visitors from visiting. and placed a note in it, he now apparently regards Judaism's holiest place as This, of course, is the end-all goal of these terrorists: to detach the territory illegally occupied by Israel. He is dead wrong, but that does not Jewish People from the source of their national strength and history. change the Security Council Resolution. Funded and led by radical Islamist elements, they have attacked tourists on So now I, and doubtless many others, have not only willfully and various occasions, as well as the police, with rocks, fireworks, iron rods deliberately committed a violation of international law, we are also guilty of and even Molotov cocktails. a war crime, because building or using civilian structures on illegally Not that this past Saturday night was the only time they ever planned occupied territory is a war crime; and Israel built, and I used, the this trick. Several years ago it was a fairly commonplace event – but once promenade in front of the Western Wall after Israel recaptured it during a Gilad Erdan became Public Security Minister, in 2015, the police learned defensive war. to put a quick end to these schemes. Let me be clear: I intend to commit this crime during every visit to In this case, too (and the next night, Sunday night, as well), the police Israel. Call it an act of civil disobedience, or call it an act which simply responded quickly and firmly. Within minutes, the entire Temple Mount recognizes the absurdity and illegality of the Security Council Resolution, was emptied out, with no incidents. despite its passage and lack of veto by the United States, which abstained. This was quite a success for the police, the spokesman told us, as they The United States abstention was designed to give the Obama acted smartly and without fanfare or headlines. But they must continue to administration political cover at home. It could claim that it did not vote for be on the alert to ensure that things do not get out of hand. Specifically, the Resolution. But it did much more than vote for the Resolution. Obama, what most concerns the Temple Mount groups is that the upcoming himself, engineered the Resolution. He pushed it through the Security Jerusalem Day celebrations not be marred. Council despite some reservations by other members, including Egypt, The number of Jews visiting the Temple Mount for religious reasons which believed that the Resolution itself could become a barrier to a has been increasing, or at least remaining steady, for a number of years – negotiated two-state solution. After all, if Israel's control over Judaism's and the day on which the most Jews come is Jerusalem Day, the 28th of holiest site is deemed illegal, then Israel would have to negotiate its legality Iyar (June 2, this year). The day commemorates the liberation of the Old with the Palestinians. This would give the Palestinians an incomparable City and the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six Day War of 1967. bargaining chip. As a former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority The Temple Mount groups are currently in the midst of organizing once rhetorically asked me, "How much would Israel be willing to give up "Project Myriads," in the framework of which tens of thousands of Jews to get back its most important religious shrine?" will, hopefully, ascend to show their solidarity with the holy site. The Israel will never accept the Security Council Resolution. Nor should natural day for such a display, of course, is Jerusalem Day - the day that any decent person. I certainly do not, and will continue to violate it during most symbolizes the deep, intrinsic bonds between the Jewish People and every visit to Israel, by putting notes in the Western Wall, eating kosher their holy city. falafel in the Jewish Quarter and driving on the access road to Hebrew The hope is that the terrorists will not succeed, during this month of University, and if I need to, Hadassah Hospital. I urge all visitors to join me Ramadan with its religious/nationalist Muslim fervor, in having the police in a conspiracy to violate the Security Council Resolution. close the Mount to Jewish visitors on this day. This is a concern These Jewish areas were illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 specifically this year, when Ramadan coincides with the Jewish month of and 1967 and lawfully recaptured by Israel in a defensive war, started by Iyar. Though both Judaism and Islam both follow a lunar cycle, the Jordan when it fired mortars at civilian targets inside pre-1967 Israel. months of the two calendars do not jibe. This is because Islam does not During the Jordanian occupation, King Hussein engaged in war crimes by Readers are requested to please mail contributions to: BAYT - re: Israel News, 613 Clark Avenue West, Thornhill, Ontario. L4J 5V3 Annual Rates: Friend - $36, Supporter - $50, Benefactor - $180. Dedications are welcome at $120/week. Call (905) 886-3810 for further info. See Israel News on the internet at www.bayt.ca and www.frumtoronto.com or email [email protected] to request to be added to the weekly email. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of BAYT. add a periodic leap month so as to keep up with the solar year. Thus, while Which brings us to another reason the embassy move was so Ramadan corresponds to Iyar this year, next year it will parallel Nissan, extraordinary. Adar the year after, and so on. Despite assertions on the part of detractors in Israel and abroad that Another threat the Israel Police have had to face on the holy Mount is Trump was making a big mistake in “provoking the poor Palestinians, something called Itikaf – several days, generally in Ramadan, when striving for a state of their own with Jerusalem as its capital,” nothing out worshipers do not leave the mosque and engage only in matters of the spirit. of the ordinary happened.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ian S. Lustick
    MIDDLE EAST POLICY, VOL. XV, NO. 3, FALL 2008 ABANDONING THE IRON WALL: ISRAEL AND “THE MIDDLE EASTERN MUCK” Ian S. Lustick Dr. Lustick is the Bess W. Heyman Chair of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Trapped in the War on Terror. ionists arrived in Palestine in the the question of whether Israel and Israelis 1880s, and within several de- can remain in the Middle East without cades the movement’s leadership becoming part of it. Zrealized it faced a terrible pre- At first, Zionist settlers, land buyers, dicament. To create a permanent Jewish propagandists and emissaries negotiating political presence in the Middle East, with the Great Powers sought to avoid the Zionism needed peace. But day-to-day intractable and demoralizing subject of experience and their own nationalist Arab opposition to Zionism. Publicly, ideology gave Zionist leaders no reason to movement representatives promulgated expect Muslim Middle Easterners, and false images of Arab acceptance of especially the inhabitants of Palestine, to Zionism or of Palestinian Arab opportuni- greet the building of the Jewish National ties to secure a better life thanks to the Home with anything but intransigent and creation of the Jewish National Home. violent opposition. The solution to this Privately, they recognized the unbridgeable predicament was the Iron Wall — the gulf between their image of the country’s systematic but calibrated use of force to future and the images and interests of the teach Arabs that Israel, the Jewish “state- overwhelming majority of its inhabitants.1 on-the-way,” was ineradicable, regardless With no solution of their own to the “Arab of whether it was perceived by them to be problem,” they demanded that Britain and just.
    [Show full text]
  • The Changing Geopolitical Dynamics of the Middle East and Their Impact on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts
    Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Honors Theses Lee Honors College 4-25-2018 The Changing Geopolitical Dynamics of the Middle East and their Impact on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts Daniel Bucksbaum Western Michigan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses Part of the Comparative Politics Commons, International Relations Commons, and the Other Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Bucksbaum, Daniel, "The Changing Geopolitical Dynamics of the Middle East and their Impact on Israeli- Palestinian Peace Efforts" (2018). Honors Theses. 3009. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/3009 This Honors Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Lee Honors College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Changing Geopolitical Dynamics of the Middle East and their Impact on Israeli- Palestinian Peace Efforts By Daniel Bucksbaum A thesis submitted to the Lee Honors College Western Michigan University April 2018 Thesis Committee: Jim Butterfield, Ph.D., Chair Yuan-Kang Wang, Ph.D. Mustafa Mughazy, Ph.D. Bucksbaum 1 Table of Contents I. Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3 II. Source Material……………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 III. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 IV. Historical Context for the Two-State Solution………………………………………………………...6 a. Deeply Rooted and Ideological Claims to the Land……………………………………………….…..7 b. Legacy of the Oslo Accords……………………………………………………………………………………….9 c. Israeli Narrative: Why the Two-State Solution is Unfeasible……………………………………19 d. Palestinian Narrative: Why the Two-State Solution has become unattainable………..22 e. Drop in Support for the Two-State Solution; Negotiations entirely…………………………27 f.
    [Show full text]
  • The DAT Minyan! Lighting Pm Shabbat Pesach II April 7, 2018 - 22 Nisan, 5778 Havdalah 8:11 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi | David Fishman, President Pm
    Candle 7:10 Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Lighting pm Shabbat Pesach II April 7, 2018 - 22 Nisan, 5778 Havdalah 8:11 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi | David Fishman, President pm Shabbat and Yom Tov Schedule D’var Torah with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the The Jewish festival of freedom is the oldest continuously observed religious service. ritual in the world. Across the centuries, Passover has never lost its power THURSDAY, April 5—Erev Yom Tov 7:10 pm: Candle Lighting to inspire the imagination of successive generations of Jews with its (don’t forget to make an Eruv Tavshilin!) annually re-enacted drama of slavery and liberation. 7:10 pm: Mincha/Maariv It is vivid, replete with direct experiences like eating matza, the unleavened FRIDAY, April 6—Pesach Day 7 bread of affliction, and tasting maror, the bitter herbs of oppression. It is a 7:30 am: Hashkama Minyan ritual performed not in the synagogue but at home, in the midst of the 8:10 am: Daf Yomi family, reminding us that, in Alexis de Tocqueville’s words, “As long as 9:00 am: Shacharit Parasha: Page 340 / Maftir: Page 892 family feeling is kept alive, the opponent of oppression is never alone.” Haftarah: Page 1225 Perhaps its single most striking innovation is that from beginning to end, it 6:20 pm: SHIUR: Rachel Rabinovitch - “What’s the Big Deal About Yitziat Mitzrayim?” is designed to engage and enthral the mind of a child. 7:10 pm: Mincha/Maariv The rabbis who developed the ritual were guided by the Bible itself and the (Shema should be recited after 8:10 pm) highly counterintuitive narrative it tells in the 12th and 13th chapters of SHABBAT, April 7—Pesach Day 8 7:30 am: Hashkama Minyan Exodus.
    [Show full text]
  • There Is No “Status Quo” Drivers of Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
    THERE IS NO “STATUS QUO” DRIVERS OF VIOLENCE IN THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT NATHAN STOCK AUGUST 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher. Copyright © 2019 The Middle East Institute The Middle East Institute 1763 N Street NW Washington, D.C. 20036 Follow MEI: @MiddleEastInst /MiddleEastInstitute There is No “Status Quo” Drivers of Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Nathan Stock iv | About the author nathan stock Nathan Stock is a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. Prior to joining MEI he spent nine years working for former President Carter’s organization, The Carter Center. He served in the Center’s Conflict Resolution Program, out of Atlanta, GA, before moving to Jerusalem to run the Center’s Israel-Palestine Field Office. Stock led Carter Center efforts to facilitate the reunification of the Palestinian political system and to assert Palestinian sovereignty via international fora. He designed and managed projects targeting the Fatah-Hamas conflict, and implemented programming to monitor and advance political solutions to the Syrian civil war. Prior to joining the Center, Stock worked in Afghanistan on a USAID-funded grant to strengthen local civil society organizations. During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, he lived in the Gaza Strip, working with a Palestinian NGO to design and fundraise for conflict resolution programs targeting the Palestinian community.
    [Show full text]
  • Gaza: Two State, Three State, Eight State (Emirate) Solutions?
    Yom Hamishi 7 Tevet 5773 Volume XI, No. 2,966 Thursday December 20, 2012 P.O. Box 175 • Station H Montreal • Quebec • H3G 2K7 [email protected] 514‐486‐5544 www.isranet.org WHITHER THE “WEST BANK”/GAZA: TWO STATE, THREE STATE, EIGHT STATE (EMIRATE) SOLUTIONS? Contents: (Please Note: articles may have been shortened in the interest of space. Please click link for the complete article – Ed.) Thoughts on Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Part II: Barry Shaw, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 13, 2012— Palestine was a desolate, barely inhabited, backwater of the Ottoman Empire until the Mandate, the British and the Zionist movement that led to the creation of the State of Israel, brought it back to life. What’s Really Going on in Gaza?: Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Jewish Press, March 16th, 2012—A week of missiles was supposed to change the focus of interest in the Middle East from Homs to Gaza, from Syria to Israel, from Assad to Netanyahu. This was the plan of Iran and its few followers in Gaza. But it didn’t succeed, and for the usual reason – the sociological factors of the Middle East. Who Wants a Palestinian State?: Moshe Dann, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 26, 2012—The Palestinian Authority’s moves at the United Nations for recognition of a Palestinian state have raised objections. Since many support the idea, however, including some Israeli politicians, and with little hope for successful negotiations, the PA’s move seems logical. On Topic Links Original Thinking: Palestinian Emirates (Part 1): Barry Shaw, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 6, 2012 Moderate Proposals To Stop A Palestinian State: Daniel Tauber, Jerusalem Post, Dec.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Do the Arabs Hate the Palestinians?
    Why Do the Arabs Hate the Palestinians? by Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,758, September 24, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: For many reasons, the Arab world is not at all interested in giving the Palestinian Arabs a state. The Palestinian Arabs don't really want one either, because why kill the "refugee" goose that lays the golden eggs? In Israel and in much of the Western world, we tend to think the Arab world is united in its support for the Palestinians—that it wants nothing more than to solve the Palestinian problem by giving them a state, and that all Arabs and Muslims love the Palestinians and hate Israel. This is a simplistic and incomplete view. While it is true that many, perhaps even the majority, of Arabs and Muslims hate Israel, there are a good many who hate the Palestinians just as much. Their hatred of Israel stems from its success at surviving despite wars, terror, boycotts, and constant enmity. It stems from the fact that a Jewish state exists even though Judaism, in the Muslim view, was superseded by Islam, the “true religion.” This hatred is exacerbated by other stark disparities: Israel is a democracy while many Arabs and Muslims live under dictatorships; Israel is rich while many Arabs and Muslims are poor; Israel is a paradise compared to some Arab countries, many of which resemble nothing so much as the last train stop before hell (see Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan; the list goes on). In short, they despise Israel because it has succeeded in areas where they have failed.
    [Show full text]
  • A Cultural Policy for Arab-Israeli Partnership
    RECLAMATION A CULTURAL POLICY FOR ARAB-ISRAELI PARTNERSHIP JOSEPH BRAUDE RECLAMATION A CULTURAL POLICY FOR ARAB-ISRAELI PARTNERSHIP JOSEPH BRAUDE THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY www.washingtoninstitute.org The opinions expressed in this Policy Focus are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Washington Institute, its Board of Trustees, or its Board of Advisors. Policy Focus 158, January 2019 All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ©2019 by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy The Washington Institute for Near East Policy 1111 19th Street NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20036 Cover design: John C. Koch Text design: 1000colors.org contents Acknowledgments v Introduction: A Call for Reclamation vii PART I A FRAUGHT LEGACY 1. The Story of a Cultural Tragedy 3 2. The Moroccan Anomaly 32 PART II A NEW HOPE 3. Arab Origins of the Present Opportunity 45 4. Communication from the Outside In: Israel & the United States 70 PART III AN UNFAIR FIGHT 5. Obstacles to a Cultural Campaign 109 PART IV CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS 6. A Plan for Reclamation 137 About the Author Back cover ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE AUTHOR WISHES TO THANK the leadership, team, and community of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy for their friendship, encouragement, and patience—over twenty-five years and counting. — Joseph Braude January 2019 v INTRODUCTION A Call for Reclamation A RANGE OF ARAB LEADERS and institutions have recently signaled greater openness toward the state of Israel and Jews generally.
    [Show full text]
  • I&CT February 2021
    INTERNATIONAL February 2021 ISRAEL Sh’vat - Adar 5781 & Christians Today Understanding Israel and world events from a Biblical perspective www.c4israel.org | [email protected] Medical worker prepares a Covid-19 vaccine injection, at a vaccination center in Jerusalem. | Photo: Flash90 Israel World-Leader in Covid-19 Vaccinations Israel began vaccinations on 19 December 2020 and is citizens, by law, must register with one of the country’s Aviel Schneider at Israel Today, in Jerusalem, rejects these delivering jabs to about 150,000 people a day, with four Health Maintenance Organisations — and its criticisms. “Everything is a risk, including the accelerated priority given to the over-60s, health workers and people centralised government have proved adept at Israeli vaccination effort”, he said. “But isn’t Israel’s very who are clinically vulnerable. orchestrating a national inoculation campaign, according existence in the Middle East at risk daily? The people of By mid-January, about 20% of the population had been to Israeli health experts.” Israel are a conditioned people who have survived one vaccinated. The BBC reported that Israel has given “With a population of nine million, Israel’s relatively small risk after another for generations. From a biblical and vaccinations against Coronavirus to more than one million size has played a role as well”, said Professor Balicer, who spiritual standpoint, with God’s help, Israel has people, the world’s highest rate, as global immunisation is also the chief innovation officer for Clalit, the largest of repeatedly overcome all risks. This may not have been efforts step up. At the end of 2020, Israel had a rate of 11.5 the country’s four Health Maintenance Organisations.
    [Show full text]
  • Jerusalem Syndrome, Which Can Be Triggered by a Visit to the City
    Jerusalem, showing municipal borders and neighbourhoods Metropolitan Disorders—10 yonatan mendel NEW JERUSALEM ncyclopædias of psychology cite a type of religious psychosis known as the Jerusalem Syndrome, which can be triggered by a visit to the city. Symptoms can include bellow- ing liturgical songs, delivering moralistic sermons and an Eintensified concern with cleanliness and ritual purity. Though similar reactions have been recorded at other holy cities, notably Rome and Mecca, Jerusalem holds the record for this psychopathology.1 From the point of view of any normal urban logic, however, the city itself appears crazier still. Its boundaries extend far beyond its core population centres, encompassing dozens of villages, barren hilltops, orchards and tracts of desert, as well as new-build suburbs with scant relation to the historical city; in the north, they stretch up, like a long middle finger, nearly to Ramallah, to take in the old Qalandia airport, some 10 kilometres from the Old City walls, and bulge down almost to Bethlehem in the south. Jerusalem’s former Deputy Mayor, Meron Benvenisti, has said of these monstrously extended city limits: I’ve reached the point that when someone says ‘Jerusalem’ I am very cynical about it. This is a term that has been totally emptied of its content. Today there is no geographic concept called ‘Jerusalem’, and instead I suggest using a new term, ‘Jermudin’, which is the territory stretched from Jericho to Modi’in. Someone decided to rub the hills that have no connection to Jerusalem with holy oil, and today we need to deal with a ‘Jerusalem’ region, which is unmanageable and which is held by force.2 But if the cityscape of Jerusalem has no decipherable urban logic, what rationality has shaped its growth? In Benvenisti’s view, ‘it all started from the post-1967 municipal borders and the famous principle of maximum new left review 81 may june 2013 35 36 nlr 81 square kilometres of land and minimum number of Arabs.’3 There is much to be said for this hypothesis; but we will have to begin a little earlier than that.
    [Show full text]
  • THE NEED to BLOCK a NUCLEAR IRAN by Efraim Inbar*
    THE NEED TO BLOCK A NUCLEAR IRAN By Efraim Inbar* Abstract: A nuclear Iran constitutes a serious threat, not only to the Middle East, but to the entire world. Diplomatic efforts have failed to halt Iran’s nuclear program. As the Iranian acquisition of a nuclear bomb nears, the threat of using force--and even actual use of force--seems the only viable preventive measures. Middle Eastern states can hardly establish a nuclear “balance of terror” with Iran, and there is no foolproof defense against nuclear tipped missiles. Military action against Iranian nuclear installations involves many risks and complications, but the difficulty is exaggerated, and inaction is bound to bring about far worse consequences. With each day, Iran grows closer to acquiring warned that Iran's strategic decision to nuclear weapons. Tehran has evaded the acquire the technological basis to become a International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear power would be realized within a few safeguards and has built a militarily months.3 The Chief of Staff of the Israel significant nuclear program. Iran has resisted Defense Force (IDF), Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, all diplomatic pressure to discontinue this offered a similar evaluation on December 4, program and seems intent on producing 2005, while a few days earlier the Chief of highly enriched uranium (HEU), which the IDF Intelligence Department, Maj. Gen. constitutes the final and critical stage in the Aharon Zeevi (Farkash) had warned that construction of a nuclear bomb. In mid- March 2006 constitutes the "point of no January 2006, Iranians decided to break the return," indicating that after such a date, any IAEA seals on some of their nuclear diplomatic efforts to curtail the Iranian facilities, signaling Tehran's determination to nuclear program would be pointless.
    [Show full text]
  • Israel's Relations with Arab Countries: the Unfulfilled Potential
    Israel’s Relations with Arab Countries: The Unfulfilled Potential Editors: Dr. Roee Kibrik, Dr. Nimrod Goren, Merav Kahana-Dagan January 2021 Israel’s Relations with Arab Countries: The Unfulfilled Potential Edited by Dr. Roee Kibrik, Dr. Nimrod Goren, Merav Kahana-Dagan ________________________________________ Copyright © 2021 by Mitvim - The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Mitvim Institute. Commercial use of this publication is not permitted without written consent by the publishers. All rights reserved. Translation from Hebrew: Ruth Sinai Graphic design: Hila Mayzels ISBN: 978-965-7617-07-6 Table of Contents Introduction 4 Dr. Roee Kibrik, Dr. Nimrod Goren, Merav Kahana-Dagan Foreword 6 Israel in the Middle East: From Covert to Overt Relations Prof. Elie Podeh Netanyahu’s Attempt to Delink Israel-Arab Relations from the Palestinian Issue 14 Dr. Yuval Benziman Israel-Jordan Cooperation: A Potential That Can Still Be Fulfilled 26 Yitzhak Gal Israel and Egypt: Strategic Partnership, Civil Remoteness? 45 Amb. (ret.) Dr. Haim Koren Israel and Saudi Arabia: On the Way to Normalization? 57 Dr. Michal Yaari Israel and the United Arab Emirates: The Axis of Precedents 72 Dr. Moran Zaga Israel and Qatar: Relations Nurtured by the Palestinian Issue 89 Dr. Michal Yaari Israel and Morocco: Cooperation Rooted in Heritage 103 Einat Levi Israel and Iraq: Taking the Civilian Path to Improve Relations 127 Dr. Ronen Zeidel Afterword: Israel’s Relations with the Arab World - 141 The Palestinian Issue Is the Gateway to the Middle East Dr. Moran Zaga and Dr. Roee Kibrik About the Authors 155 4 | Israel’s Relations with Arab Countries: The Unfulfilled Potential Introduction “We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land.
    [Show full text]
  • The Double Whammy of the New US Envoy for Iranian Affairs
    The Double Whammy of the New US Envoy for Iranian Affairs by Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,917, February 4, 2021 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The new US administration’s emerging policy on the Iranian and Palestinian issues flouts the very principles of human rights and civil liberties it seeks to promote. The new Biden administration has appointed Robert Malley as special envoy for Iranian affairs. This appointment puts Malley in a key position with great influence on the Middle East as a whole, as the Iranian issue is also connected to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and, indirectly, the Palestinian issue. The administration’s move is also part of the effort to nullify everything the former president, Donald Trump, did in the Middle East, even in cases where his actions resulted in positive developments. On the Iranian issue, Malley is likely to urge the US to return to the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA), lift the sanctions as soon as possible, and free the Tehran regime from any other obligation, including with regard to long-range ballistic missiles and its destructive involvement in other countries’ affairs. Malley will seek to restore to Tehran the military and political power it wielded in the days of President Obama, despite the calamities that that power has wreaked on the citizens of Iran and on the region. On the Palestinian issue, Malley is likely to steer—even from the back seat—a process culminating in a Palestinian state led by the PLO. At the same time, the administration will press Israel to give up the ancient part of its historic capital, withdraw from parts of the Jewish homeland, and remove communities and residents in return for dead letters, documents, promises, and commitments whose fulfillment cannot be ensured.
    [Show full text]