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Israel and the Middle East News Update

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Israel and the Middle East News Update Israel and the Middle East News Update Wednesday, February 18 Headlines: CNN Poll: Majority of Americans Oppose Netanyahu Invite Ross: Netanyahu Should Admit Decision to Address Congress was a Mistake Haredi Parties Indicate Endorsement for Netanyahu Netanyahu's Electability Suffers Blow After Damning Report Rivals Bash Netanyahu Over Spending Israeli Defense Minister at India Airshow to Boost Arms Sales Khamenei Threatens World Gas Supply, Vows Firm Nuclear Stand Sisi Calls for U.N.-Backed Coalition to Intervene in Libya Commentary: Ha’aretz: “Netanyahu Forgot He’s Supposed to Serve His Voters, Not Abuse Their Trust” Editorial Ma’ariv: “Bibi’s Speech to Congress Could Tip the Electoral Scale” By Ben Caspit S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● Nathaniel Sobel, Associate Editor News Excerpts February 18, 2015 CNN CNN Poll: Majority of Americans Oppose Netanyahu Invite A large majority of Americans believe that Republican congressional leaders should not have invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the White House, according to a new CNN/ORC survey. The nationwide poll, released Tuesday, shows 63% of Americans say it was a bad move for congressional leadership to extend the invitation without giving President Barack Obama a heads up that it was coming. Only 33% say it was the right thing to do. Ha’aretz Ross: PM Should Admit Decision to address Congress a mistake “We will all rue that day,” if Israel becomes a partisan issue in the United States, former U.S. diplomat and Middle East expert Dennis Ross said on Tuesday at the Haaretz Israel Conference on Democracy. “You don’t do business that way,” Ross said, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress next month, which has led to a deep rift with the Obama administration. “And when you make a mistake, admit it.” Bipartisanism has allowed support for Israel to flourish in the U.S., Ross stressed, and “the last thing you want to do is have Israel become a partisan issue – especially at a time of demographic change in America.” See also, “Writer Oz slams PM for worsening ties with US” (Times of Israel) Israel Radio News Haredi Parties Indicate Endorsement for Netanyahu The Haredi parties are expected to announce in the coming days that they will recommend to President Rivlin that Binyamin Netanyahu be tasked with forming the next coalition after the elections on March 17. Last night, Shas decided to support Netanyahu after the latter announced he would nullify criminal charges against yeshiva students who do not serve in the IDF. UTJ is expected to make a similar announcement in the coming days. See also, “Netanyahu pledges no jail time for Haredi draft-dodgers” (Times of Israel) Ynet News Netanyahu's Electability Suffers Blow After Damning Report A damning report by the state comptroller into the prime minister and his family's expenditures has dealt Benjamin Netanyahu a serious electoral blow, a new survey published by Israel's Army Radio revealed Wednesday morning. The report released by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira found a dramatic increase in the prime minister residence's spending on food, cleaning and clothing after Benjamin Netanyahu took office. According to the survey, 41 percent of the respondents said that the chance they would support the Likud in the March 17th election had dropped. Out of those who said they were voting for the ruling party, 22 percent said they were now reconsidering, or were less supportive of the party, in wake of the report's publication. Some 49 percent of general voters and 54 percent of the Likud voters said the report would not influence their vote. See also, “Former Netanyahu employee: I feel like a girl who's been raped and told to shut up” (Jerusalem Post) See also, “Netanyahu is cheap, petty, paranoid - but coated in Teflon” (by Gidi Weitz, Ha’aretz) 2 Times of Israel Rivals Bash Netanyahu Over Spending Political opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on an official report detailing excessive spending and possible criminal misdeeds released Tuesday, portraying the premier as out of touch with average Israelis. Zionist Union party leader Isaac Herzog said, “the hedonism, the ill treatment of workers, and the spending of public funds makes one’s blood boil, but the public wants to replace Netanyahu not because of his conduct at home, but rather because he ruined our [national] home.” The Yesh Atid party also responded to the report, saying: “The State Comptroller’s report paints a picture that the citizens of Israel understood long ago. On Balfour Street in Jerusalem sits a man who is totally disconnected and for whom the real problems of the people of Israel are the last thing on his mind,” the party said. See also, “Despite hefty spending, PM may be in biggest stew over electrician” (Times of Israel) Reuters Israeli Defense Minister at India Airshow to Boost Arms Sales Israel's defense minister arrived in India on Wednesday to help sell his country's arms industry to the world's largest defense importer and promote deepening military ties between the two nations. India and Israel, which only established full diplomatic ties in 1992, are developing an increasingly close commercial and political relationship, particularly since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected last May. New Delhi is now the largest buyer of Israeli military equipment, while Israel is India's largest customer after Russia. In the first public visit to India by an Israeli defense minister, Moshe Ya'alon landed at the biennial Aero India airshow in Bengaluru. He told journalists India was vital to his country's defense industry. See also, “Defense Minister Ya’alon: No solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict” (Institute for National Security Studies) Reuters Khamenei Threatens World Gas Supply, Vows firm nuclear stand Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Wednesday that his country would resist global sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear program, saying that Iran might respond to international pressure by cutting back gas exports. "The enemy is using the lever of sanctions to the hilt and their goal is to stop our people's progress," Khamenei said in a public speech in Tehran. "If sanctions are to be the way, the Iranian nation can also do it. A big collection of the world's oil and gas is in Iran so Iran if necessary can hold back on the gas that Europe and the world is so dependent on." See also, “Dennis Ross Suggests 'Anytime, Anywhere' Inspections in Iran” (Israel National News) Wall Street Journal Sisi Calls for U.N.-Backed Coalition to Intervene in Libya Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi called on Tuesday for a U.N. resolution endorsing an international military campaign against Islamic State in Libya, one day after he ordered cross-border airstrikes in retaliation for the mass execution of 21 Egyptian Christians by the extremist group. Mr. Sisi said the international community had “no other choice” but to heed the wishes of Libyans and their Western-backed government, and to join in the fight against Islamic State in Libya. 3 Ha’aretz – February 18, 2015 Netanyahu Forgot He's Supposed to Serve his Voters, Not Abuse Their Trust Police must quickly launch a probe into the situation described in the State Comptroller's report - and finish it before the elections. Haaretz Editorial Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to delay publication of a state comptroller’s report on the management of his residences until after next months’ election, so as to blunt its sting and reduce its public impact. Netanyahu and his representatives, who knew how severe the report’s contents were, almost succeeded in this goal, thanks to State Comptroller Joseph Shapira’s willingness to cooperate with them. Only public pressure, accompanied by media reports about issues that the comptroller preferred not to deal with in this report, brought him to change his plans and release the report yesterday. The situation described in the report is embarrassing. The person who has headed the government for the last six years appears to have no shame in his behavior. Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, forgot that an elected official is supposed to serve his voters, not abuse the trust they gave him. The things described in the report are outrageous. The list is long and includes, inter alia, an instruction to cancel tax payments, circumventing the regulations to employ an electrician who was a family friend, sending employees out to do the Netanyahus’ personal shopping without reimbursing them, wastefulness and hedonism at the state’s expense. This is shameful behavior, but that conclusion by itself is insufficient, because there are also prima facie indications of criminal behavior. Until now, Netanyahu has not only enjoyed the help of the comptroller, but also, and especially, that of the men who occupy the two most senior positions in the law enforcement system, both of whom are his appointees – Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan. Both have gone out of their way to thwart criminal proceedings against Netanyahu, or even proceedings that could lead in that direction and end up tagging him as one of the chief suspects. This intolerable situation must end. Any other person who was the subject of findings like those in the comptroller’s report would have been put under criminal investigation, in addition to the torrent of public criticism that would have rained down on him. The box of excuses in Weinstein and Nitzan’s offices has run out. The comptroller’s report and the material that substantiates it; the civil suit filed by the former housekeeper at the prime minister’s residence, Meni Naftali; the admission by the Netanyahus that they pocketed 4,000 shekels (about $1,000) in bottle deposits – all these constitute clear grounds for an immediate criminal investigation.
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