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Israel and Middle East News Update Israel and Middle East News Update Thursday, June 24 Headlines: ● Mansour Abbas Offered Deputy Construction Minister Post ● Bennett-Lapid Gov't Carries Out Its First Outpost Evacuation ● Israel Approves Demolition of Palestinian Home After Attack ● Biden Admin Pushing PA to Reform Terror Payment Policy ● Abbas Welcomes Bennett's Win, Urges Solutions ● Lapid to Meet Secretary of State Blinken in Rome Next Week ● Tehran: US Agrees to Remove 1,000 Trump Era Sanctions ● Sudan's Civilian Leaders Ask US for Help Talking to Israel Commentary: ● The Foreign Policy Project: “Israel-Palestine: Renaissance of a Two- State Solution’’ - By Jon Greenwald ● Yedioth Ahronoth: “Creating a Regional Air Defense Alliance’’ - By Ephraim Sneh S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 1725 I St NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President News Excerpts June 24, 2021 Jerusalem Post Mansour Abbas Offered Deputy Construction Minister Post Construction and Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin offered Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas to be his deputy in the ministry, in an effort to resolve the first crisis in the new coalition. The post would enable Abbas to authorize the construction of tens of thousands of housing units for Israeli Arabs. Israel has never built a new city for Arabs, and Abbas could have the opportunity to change that. The coalition crisis is over a controversial ordinance preventing family reunification of Palestinians and Arab-Israelis that must come to a vote in the Knesset next week. In a new effort to resolve the dispute, Elkin offered Abbas the chairmanship of a committee on humanitarian exceptions to the law, in which he could review specific cases monthly. Abbas holds the key to passing the ordinance, after Meretz announced that it would vote for it, despite its opposition, in order to keep the coalition together. Dig Deeper ‘‘Housing Minister to Offer Deputy Ministership to Ra’am'' (Times of Israel) Arutz Sheva Bennett-Lapid Gov't Carries Out Its First Outpost Evacuation Israeli Border Police officers from the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration were deployed to the Oz Tzion settlement in the Binyamin district of Samaria (West Bank) to demolish several unauthorized structures. The operation is the first settlement evacuation to be carried out since the new government was sworn in. Residents of Oz Tzion received orders instructing them to leave during the operation. Otzma Yehudit party chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, a member of the Religious Zionist Party faction, blasted the Bennett government over the demolition, saying “the person who was once the director of the Yesha Council is now leading the demolition and destruction of the settlements,” referencing Bennett’s tenure at the helm of the settlement umbrella group. Dig Deeper ‘‘In 1st for New Gov't, Building Projects in West Bank Settlements Approved’’ (Times of Israel) Associated Press Israel Approves Demolition of Palestinian Home After Attack Israel’s Supreme Court oupheld the decision to destroy the family home of a detained Palestinian accused of a deadly shooting. It rejected a petition by his estranged wife, who lives in the house with their children and says she knew nothing about the attack. The case drew attention to Israel’s policy of demolishing the family homes of attackers after they have been killed or arrested. Israeli officials say the demolitions deter future attacks, while rights groups view it as a form of collective punishment. The US State Department has urged a halt to punitive home demolitions. An internal review by the Israeli military in 2004 reportedly questioned its effectiveness as a deterrent, leading the military to largely halt such demolitions for nearly a decade. It resumed the practice in 2014 after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed in the West Bank. Dig Deeper ‘‘Israel Greenlights Controversial Project in Hebron’s Mosque’’ (Al-Monitor) 2 Times of Israel Biden Admin Pushing PA to Reform Terror Payment Policy The Biden administration is committed to pushing the Palestinian Authority (PA) to reform its welfare policy that includes payments to security prisoners and families of Palestinians killed while carrying out terror attacks, a senior State Department official told Times of Israel. “There should be no question about this. This has been a longstanding priority of prior administrations and remains a top US priority,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity and insisting that the reforms the administration is encouraging will be consistent with existing US laws. The Taylor Force Act passed by Congress in 2018 suspended US aid to the PA as long as it continued to implement the existing welfare policy, which awards stipends to prisoners based on the length of their sentence. Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised his qualms about the payments during his meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah last month. Abbas assured Blinken that Ramallah was working to reform the policy, according to a Palestinian official. Dig Deeper ‘‘US Denies Asking PA to Assemble Negotiating Team for Peace Talks’’ (Times of Israel) Ynet News Abbas Welcomes Bennett's Win, Urges Solutions President Abbas broke his silence on the formation of new government in Israel, welcoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and urging him to try and reach solutions on long-lasting issues between Palestinians and Israelis. "In the last election, the coalition for change won by one vote, and we will work with those who have been elected by the Israeli people,” said Abbas during a speech in Ramallah. “However, it all depends on Israel stopping aggression against the Palestinians, resolving our underlying issues and starting negotiations to reach a permanent solution to the conflict" he added. Abbas also addressed the demands of Hamas, who asked for the Qatari aid money to be transferred to the Gaza Strip in cash directly to them. According to Abbas, the PA is the only legal body who can be trusted with the money and is the only legitimate organization that can oversee the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip following the May conflict that left large swaths of the enclave in ruins. Dig Deeper ‘‘Poll: Many Democrats Want More Us Support for Palestinians’’ (Ynet News) Times of Israel Lapid to Meet Secretary of State Blinken in Rome Next Week Secretary of State Blinken will hold his first meeting with new Foreign Minister Yair Lapid next week, both of their offices announced. Lapid will fly to Rome on Sunday to meet Blinken, who will be in Italy as part of a trip to Europe, a US official said. The meeting follows two phone calls the top diplomats held last week as Washington intensified its contacts with the new government in Israel. In the first call, Blinken congratulated Lapid on forming a coalition headed by Prime Minister Bennett. The second call last Thursday was more substantive, with the two discussing “the opportunities and ongoing challenges for Israel and the region,” according to the State Department. Lapid met Blinken for the first time last month when Blinken was in Jerusalem as part of the US effort to strengthen the recently brokered ceasefire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Dig Deeper ‘‘Lapid, Blinken to Meet in Rome Next Week as Iran Talks Progress’’ (Jerusalem Post) 3 I24 News Tehran: US Agrees to Remove 1,000 Trump Era Sanctions Outgoing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's chief of staff said that as part of the ongoing nuclear deal talks taking place in Vienna, Washington has agreed to lift sanctions on Iran’s oil and shipping sectors, as well as to remove several senior officials from its blacklists. “All issues of insurance, oil and shipping have been agreed, and about 1,040 sanctions from the Trump era will be lifted according to this agreement,” Mahmoud Vaezi told reporters. Several figures within Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's inner ring would be included in the removal of sanctions against individuals. The US has yet to make an announcement on the matter. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who met with Secretary of State Blinken in Berlin revealed that the deliberations in Vienna were not easy, although he seemed confident that with the Iranian presidential ballot concluded - despite the election of ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi - there was a "good chance to conclude the talks in the foreseeable future." Raisi - one of Khamenei's close allies - declared that from the Iranian point of view he would not permit the talks to "drag on." For his part, President Joe Biden has made clear his intention to return to the deal. Dig Deeper ‘‘US Set to Delay Next Round of Iran Talks to Hear New Israeli Position’’ (Jerusalem Post) Axios Sudan's Civilian Leaders Ask US for Help Talking to Israel The Biden administration is urging the Israeli government to start engaging with Sudan's civilian leaders, rather than just the military, as part of the normalization process between the countries, according to Israeli officials. Sudan is governed by a transitional civilian-military council, but the Israeli government has communicated almost exclusively with the military, starting with a summit 18 months ago between then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Burhan, the chairman of Sudan's governing council. While Burhan pushed the normalization process forward, there were strong reservations on the civilian side, many of which remain. In a meeting with the US chargé d’affaires in Khartoum, senior Sudanese civilian officials said that Israel was engaging only with the military and asked the US administration to intervene. There was also a new source of tension after an Israeli private jet affiliated with the Mossad landed in Khartoum. According to sources familiar with the flight Mossad officials met with Gen.
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