Israel and the Middle East News Update

Tuesday, July 16

Headlines:

• U.S. Removing Turkey from F-35 Program ‘Will Harm Strategic Ties’ • PM To Decide if Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib Can Enter Israel • Ilhan Omar Submits Pro-BDS Resolution to Congress • Wildfires Break out Across Israel as Temperatures Soar • Barak: Netanyahu Behind Daily Mail ‘Blood Libel’ Ties to Epstein • Israeli Minister Accuses UK's Corbyn of Jew-Hatred • Education Minister Retracts Support for Conversion Therapy

Commentary:

• Al Monitor: “Netanyahu to Pass Ben-Gurion in Time Served, but Not in Stature” - By Ben Caspit • Yedioth Ahronoth: “The Yellow Quagmire that we’re Being Forced into is Dangerous. We Need to Get Out as Quickly as Possible” - By Ben-Dror Yemini

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 July 17, 2019 Post U.S. Removing Turkey from F-35 Program ‘Will Harm Strategic Ties’ The Turkish Foreign Ministry responded to the United States' decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program, saying it is 'not fair,' and will harm strategic ties between two NATO allies. The decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program was announced by the US on Wednesday, a move that had been long threatened and expected after Ankara began accepting delivery of an advanced Russian missile defense system last week. The Pentagon’s decision will also allow Israel to keep it’s aerial superiority in the Middle East and according to foreign reports, Israel has already quietly tested ways to defeat the advanced Russian air defense system, participating in several joint drills with the Greek Air Force over the island of Crete where one system is stationed. See also, “The U.S. Just Revoked Turkey's Access to F-35 Fighters After It Took Delivery of a Russian Missile System” (TIME) Ha’aretz PM To Decide if Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib Can Enter Israel Democratic U.S. Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are planning a visit to Israel and the West Bank in the coming weeks, but Israeli Prime Minister will have to decide whether they would be let in to the country, over the support they have voiced for the BDS movement. The Jewish Insider first reported the lawmakers' planned trip on Wednesday, noting that Omar said that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories will be the focal point of the trip: "Everything that I hear points to both sides feeling like there is still an occupation." Israeli law allows authorities to deny entry into the country by individuals who support boycotting the country. See also, “Trump doubles down on racial attack, tells Dem congresswomen to 'apologize to Israel'”(Ynet News) I24 News Ilhan Omar Submits Pro-BDS Resolution to Congress Democratic lawmaker Ilhan Omar introduced Tuesday a new resolution in Congress that will pave the way for Americans to participate in the BDS movement against Israel, reported on Wednesday. The resolution, co-sponsored by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), who’s family is Palestinian, and Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), affirms that “all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.” In an interview published in Al-Monitor news on Tuesday, Omar said that the American values supports “our ability to exercise our first amendment rights in regard to boycotting.” “And it is an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support a nonviolent movement, which is the BDS movement,” she added. See also, “Omar to introduce pro-BDS resolution in House” (JNS) Ynet News Wildfires Break out Across Israel as Temperatures Soar Wildfires broke out Wednesday afternoon at several locations around Israel as an unexpected extreme heatwave hit the country, sending with temperatures skyrocketing to above 40 Celsius in some areas. A large fire broke out near Moshav Aderet, close to the city of Beit Shemesh, while a further massive forest fire was raging in the Arab town of Barta'a in Wadi Ara. Large numbers of firefighters were deployed to the area, accompanied by firefighting planes. Some 200 homes were evacuated in the Wadi Ara communities of Barta'a, Ar'ara and Katzir, and residents of Aderet and Roglit were also evacuated. 2

Times of Israel Barak: Netanyahu Behind Daily Mail ‘Blood Libel’ Ties to Epstein Former prime minister Ehud Barak went on the offensive Wednesday evening, dismissing as a “blood libel” a British tabloid insinuating that he met women at alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s residence. Speaking in front of hundreds of supporters at a campaign launch event in Tel Aviv for his new Israel Democratic Party, Barak asserted that the report in the Daily Mail was a result of the “poisoned atmosphere” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fostered over the past two decades. “Over the last 24 hours something has happened in Israel, something despicable. A terrible blood libel, a baseless lie,” charged Barak, who is attempting to make a comeback after nearly a decade out of politics. See also, “'Despicable' Epstein Article May Be Netanyahu's Doing, Barak Hints at Campaign Event” (Ha’aretz)

Reuters Israeli Minister Accuses UK's Corbyn of Jew-Hatred An Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn of Jew-hatred on Tuesday, remarks likely to fuel acrimony in and around the opposition party as it struggles with anti-Semitism probes. A BBC Panorama expose aired last week said Corbyn’s office had interfered in independent party discipline processes aimed at rooting out anti-Semitic conduct. Labour, the main opposition party in Conservative-led Britain, denied this. Netanyahu’s rightist government has largely reserved comment on the furor over Corbyn - a veteran and vocal pro- Palestinian campaigner - with aides citing reluctance to be perceived as meddling in Britain’s internal affairs. But two Israeli officials parted from that reticence on Tuesday when asked about the BBC Panorama findings. “We don’t decide for the British who to vote for, of course, but we have to state our position. I think Corbyn has proven himself, more than once or twice, to be a figure who quite hates the State of Israel and hates the Jewish people,” Zeev Elkin, a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet and party, told Israel’s Army Radio in an interview. See also, “Anti-Semitism: May and Corbyn clash over anti-racism records” (BBC)

Ynet News Education Minister Retracts Support for Conversion Therapy Education Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz retracted his statements about supporting conversion therapy for homosexuals on Tuesday in an open letter. In a televised interview over the weekend, Peretz said he supports conversation therapy and has performed it, prompting condemnations from politicians, social activists, teachers and even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Health officials have said the technique is scientifically dubious and possibly even dangerous and slammed the minister's statements in an open letter and social media posts. Peretz replied with an open letter to Tel Aviv school principals, after teachers and principals from the LGBT community slammed his statements in the televised interview, and said that he is firmly against such treatments. "I've always listened to any expression of distress (by students) and sometimes made suggestions to meet professionals (to discuss the issues)," Peretz wrote. See also, “'Despicable' Epstein Article May Be Netanyahu's Doing, Barak Hints at Campaign Event” (Ha’aretz)

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Al Monitor– July 17, 2019

Netanyahu to Pass Ben-Gurion in Time Served, but Not in Stature By Ben Caspit • After Benjamin Netanyahu’s role as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations came to an end in 1988, he returned to Israel. Practically an unknown at the time, he convened a press conference to announce his decision to join the Likud and enter politics. The “Likud princes” — a group of young front-runners marked to lead Likud the “day after” Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir — belittled the political neophyte. Ehud Olmert, Dan Meridor, Roni Milo and their friends didn’t really accept the strange bird with fluent English and an American accent who having come from the United States acted like he'd discovered the place. Most did not realize that they were about to confront the most elaborate, state-of-the art and lethal political machine in the history of modern Israeli politics. • The only one who identified the threat was , a relatively minor Knesset member at the time but a long-term, experienced Beitar movement member. He warned the princes: Don’t underestimate this guy, Rivlin said. He’s here to stay, and he has come to eliminate you before you know what has hit you. The princes shook their heads in pity for Rivlin. Today, Rivlin can shake his head at them. Netanyahu has succeeded in removing everyone else from the Israeli political scene, President Reuven Rivlin being the exception. • If someone had told the the princes 31 years ago that Netanyahu would break David Ben- Gurion's record as Israel's longest-serving prime minister at 2,793 consecutive days, they would have responded with barely contained contempt. This month, the unthinkable came to pass. • All attempts to compare the two leaders lead to the same conclusion: Netanyahu and Ben- Gurion are total opposite: positive and negative, oil and water, black and white, different personalities, clashing worldviews, different political camps, vastly dissimilar modes of action. Ben-Gurion was the man who founded the state of Israel almost single-handedly, against all odds, through a rare combination of leadership, responsibility, courage and almost superhuman resolve. His actions were historic on a biblical level, putting an end to 2,000 years of Jewish exile with the determination and desperation of 600,000 Jews who returned to their homeland. • With regard to Netanyahu, one can’t predict how history will judge him. There is no constitutive event to ascribe to him. He hasn’t waged wars, brought peace, broken down boundaries or made historic decisions. What he did do was strengthen Israel’s security, guard the status quo with his life, sign agreements for the implementation of the Oslo Accords (the Hebron protocol) and kill them almost simultaneously, scratch negotiations with the Palestinians from the agenda and attempt to kill the two-state solution. He emphasized and alerted the world to the Iranian threat (but was not the first or only one to do so). • Ironically, the jury is still out on the Iran issue. Netanyahu may ultimately find that his actions served to promote Iranian nuclearization, rather than restrain it. On the other hand, for now, Netanyahu has managed to recruit President to his view of Iran. Trump brings with him the unique power of the United States, but the problem is that the Iranian ayatollahs are refusing to cooperate. Instead, Iran has reengaged in nuclearization by leaps and bounds • At the end of the day, Netanyahu could find himself extolled as a hero or denigrated as a fool. He could have employed Israel’s military power against Iranian nuclearization, as Menachem 4

Begin did in 1981 against Iraq and Ehud Olmert did in Syria in 2007, when they launched attacks to destroying nuclear reactors in those countries. In the critical years between 2010 and 2012, however, Netanyahu dilly-dallied and eventually gave up. Did he do the right thing? We’ll know in a few years. • Netanyahu is a pessimist. His right-wing ideology stems from what historians call the “eternal Jewish history of catastrophes,” not from a fiery love for the lumps of earth on the West Bank. He got that from his father, who got it from his father as well. He is suspicious of everyone. He’s the first to identify dangers, but will always blind himself to opportunities. Former Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres was Netanyahu's exact opposite. David Ben-Gurion is also counted among the list of incorrigible optimists, which includes most prominent Labor leaders, who did not hesitate to make difficult decisions, to stand down when necessary but also to fight when possible, to create facts on the ground and to even take risks. • If it had been up to the Netanyahu family, the State of Israel would never have happened. That is a fact. When Ben-Gurion deliberated over the UN partition plan, which would have granted the future Israeli state much less territory than it ultimately got, Professor Ben Zion Netanyahu organized the large group of revisionists that published advertisements in the New York Times in September 1947 calling on Ben-Gurion to say “No.” They wanted all or nothing. Some people say that this reminds them of the Palestinian's later behavior. • Luckily, Ben-Gurion ignored the right-wingers. He grasped that he faced a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and decided to take the plunge, with 600,000 Jews, few weapons or firearms and numerous troubles. He realized that on the morning after the declaration of the state in May 1948, five Arab armies, would invade the nascent Israel, which would also have to confront attacks from local Palestinian fighters. Ben-Gurion knew that the odds were against him, but he also realized that this was the only chance he would get. • In 1952, Ben-Gurion decided to receive reparations from Germany. Again, the revisionists strongly opposed him. The national honor is at stake, they asserted. Accepting reparations would be akin to forgiving the Germans for the Holocaust. Ben-Gurion ignored them this time as well. He knew that German money would help him in building the state and fortifying it. This was more important than anything else and also constituted a kind of poetic justice: You destroyed us, now you will help build our state. Ben-Gurion went on to develop the nuclear reactor at Dimona and embarked on the Sinai campaign in 1956, conquering the peninsula, but was forced to withdraw shortly thereafter. • Ben-Gurion is the Israeli George Washington, but who is Netanyahu? His opponents call him the Israeli version of Donald Trump, but this is an exaggeration. Netanyahu is equipped with a toolbox that is shinier and more sophisticated than all his predecessors. He is smart, well educated, sharp witted and clever. Netanyahu is a mega-politician with charisma. He is also paranoid (though some of those he mistrusts do in fact persecute him). Under his watch, Israel’s economy improved greatly, its security has been maintained, and its diplomatic position has improved in the Middle East and around the world in general. The opportunities he passed up can be left for another time, along with the damage he has inflicted on Israel’s domestic fabric and society, his hedonistic lifestyle and his corruption and bills of indictment. • The bottom line is that Netanyahu succeeded in transforming himself into the modern version of the Jewish Messiah, the real “Mr. Security,” one of Israel’s most popular but also one of its most hated leaders in modern times. If one were to ask Netanyahu, he would say that Israel 5 would be lost without him. He truly believes this. In his eyes, the country would fail without him at its helm. All that remains is to wait and see if he is right.

Summary: Ben-Gurion is the Israeli George Washington, but who is Netanyahu? His opponents call him the Israeli version of Donald Trump, but this is an exaggeration.

Netanyahu is equipped with a toolbox that is shinier and more sophisticated than all his predecessors. He is smart, well educated, sharp witted and clever. Netanyahu is a mega- politician with charisma. He is also paranoid (though some of those he mistrusts do in fact persecute him). Under his watch, Israel’s economy improved greatly, its security has been maintained, and its diplomatic position has improved in the Middle East and around the world in general. The opportunities he passed up can be left for another time, along with the damage he has inflicted on Israel’s domestic fabric and society, his hedonistic lifestyle and his corruption and bills of indictment. The bottom line is that Netanyahu succeeded in transforming himself into the modern version of the Jewish Messiah, the real “Mr. Security,” one of Israel’s most popular but also one of its most hated leaders in modern times. If one were to ask Netanyahu, he would say that Israel would be lost without him. He truly believes this. In his eyes, the country would fail without him at its helm. All that remains is to wait and see if he is right.

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Yedioth Ahronoth – July 18, 2019 The Yellow Quagmire that we’re Being Forced into is Dangerous. We Need to Get Out as Quickly as Possible By Ben-Dror Yemini • This cock fight has presented all of us, from north to south and from right to left, with a difficult dilemma. The blows that have been exchanged by the campaign directors and the candidates themselves have become the best show in town, and perhaps the ugliest show in town as well. Yair Netanyahu is a superstar. He lashes out at anyone and everyone who dares to stray from his father’s choir. And he gets pummeled in return. The expression—“people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”—was tailored perfectly to fit him. He’s talking? The boy who visited strip clubs? Ehud Barak yesterday called him a “whoremonger” who “enjoys public protection, a parasitic life and close GSS protection.” Barak’s people went even lower in a series of posts on that were aimed against Yair Netanyahu. He’s talking? • That hasn’t turned Barak into the winning side. He’s entered this clash with a pot of boiling oil on his head. It isn’t clear whether there is even a shred of criminality to either the 2.3 million dollars that Barak received from the Wexner Foundation or his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. But just as in the case with the Netanyahu, public discourse doesn’t comply with the laws of evidence. Corruption isn’t only criminal, it is also public, and there are no winners in this cock fight, only losers. And the first among them aren’t Barak, Netanyahu and his son. We’re the losers. Because that cock fight has pushed us, all of us, away from holding any serious discussion about the truly urgent issues on the agenda. Not about sex scandals in which Netanyahu and his son are implicated and, who knows, perhaps Barak as well. • This cock fight escalated in the past two days and has become more lethal and venomous. It hasn’t remained within the confines of Israel. The global media have also become involved. The pictures that were published by the British Daily Mail prove nothing about Barak, except that he paid a courtesy call at Epstein’s home. But who needs proof when there are pictures? And they are definitely embarrassing. And that is precisely the story, since the Daily Mail is a yellow tabloid with expertise in scandals and gossip. So now it has another story. The problem is that it’s our story, because our election has become increasingly yellow. • If this proves to be a short-lived uproar, fine. After all, exchanges of blows of this kind are unavoidable. The more serious problem is that this is liable to daze the voters. If that happens then Barak, who entered the race by storm in order to pummel the Likud’s leader without any gloves on, is liable to become Netanyahu’s greatest asset. Because scandals surrounding sex and money—be they spun by the Netanyahu family or Barak—are the best formula for stifling the public discussion that we all need. What exactly is Barak proposing vis-à-vis Gaza? We haven’t heard. What about an arrangement or an agreement with the Palestinians? We haven’t a clue about that either. It isn’t that Barak doesn’t have anything to say. He does. But when he is focused on scandals—his own and Netanyahu’s—we aren’t going to hear him, Blue and White or any of the others challenging the current government. • Politicians’ personal conduct always has been and always will be part of the story. But the yellow quagmire that we’re being forced into is dangerous. We need to get out as quickly as possible.

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