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Iran Deal’’ - by Ephraim Sneh, Chairman of the S

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Iran Deal’’ - by Ephraim Sneh, Chairman of the S Israel and Middle East News Update Thursday, February 4 Headlines: ● Yesh Atid, Yamina, Blue & White File Their Election Slates ● PM Appoints Czar to Counter Violence in Arab Sector ● IDF Razes Khirbet Humsa Twice in One Week ● IDF: Drone Comes Under Fire Over Lebanese Skies ● Egypt Conditioning PM's Visit on 2-State Solution Gesture ● Netanyahu Again Cancels Scheduled Trips to UAE, Bahrain ● UN Chief Hopes Mideast Quartet Can Meet Within Few Weeks ● Biden Administration Makes First Call to Turkey Commentary: ● Newsweek: “Why Israel Should Accept a New – Better – Iran Deal’’ - By Ephraim Sneh, chairman of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue, Netanya Academic College ● Ma’ariv: “A Different Middle East’’ - By Itzhak Levanon, former Israeli diplomat who served as Ambassador to Egypt S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 1725 I St NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President Editor: Yousef Bashir News Excerpts February 4, 2021 Times of Israel Yesh Atid, Yamina, Blue & White File Their Election Slates Registration opened for parties to submit their lists of candidates in the upcoming Knesset elections, with several major parties unveiling their slates and several small parties quitting the race. The slates can be handed to the Central Elections Committee until Thursday at midnight, meaning that parties have just one day left to finalize potential mergers, or to announce they aren’t running. The first party to submit its slate was the center-left Yesh Atid, which is shaping up in opinion polls to be the main challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership as the second-largest party after Likud. The filing of the candidate list means the party has ruled out any mergers. Dig Deeper ‘‘Netanyahu Names Ex-Breitbart Journalist as His Campaign Chief’’ (Times of Israel) Ynet News PM Appoints Czar to Counter Violence in Arab Sector Netanyahu appointed the former head of the Israel Prison Service as a czar to counter violence in the Arab sector. Violence has been ravaging the Arab communities in recent month, with local residents and some lawmakers accusing the government of not doing enough to prevent it. The appointment of Aharon Franco, however, caused a stir among some Arab officials due to remarks he made in 2009 while serving as Commander of the Jerusalem District Police, when he called the Arab community "ungrateful". MK Ahmad Tibi, from the predominantly-Arab Joint list, said Franco should undergo a course "in democracy and equality values." Head of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee Muhammad Zidan said it's "incomprehensible that a police chief would say such a thing," referring to the 2009 comments. Dig Deeper ‘‘Netanyahu: 'A Plan That Will Bring About Real Revolution in Arab Society'’ (Jerusalem Post) Jerusalem Post IDF Razes Khirbet Humsa Twice in One Week The Civil Administration attempted to raze tents in the illegal Palestinian herding village of Khirbat Humsa twice in one week. The Civil Administration initially destroyed a small village of 18 tents and modular structures located in the Jordan Valley in November, according to the left- wing group B’Tselem. It returned again to remove 13 tents which the families had rebuilt, as well as shacks and tents for livestock, B’Tselem reported. The families returned to the area, as did the Civil Administration which removed 7 tents that housed 9 families. The Civil Administration said that the village had been illegally built in an IDF firing zone. It explained that it had met with residents of Khirbat Humsa prior to the evacuation, described how dangerous it was to live in a firing zone and offered to relocate the families to another area. Dig Deeper ‘‘High Court Approves Demolition of Confessed Terrorist's Home’’ (Ynet News) 2 Associated Press IDF: Drone Comes Under Fire Over Lebanese Skies An Israeli drone came under fire during a routine operation over the skies of Lebanon, the IDF said. It was the latest sign of rising tensions between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah. Israeli warplanes and drones violate Lebanon’s airspace almost daily, sometimes to carry out airstrikes against Hezbollah-allied Iranian targets in Syria. Residents of southern Beirut reported low-flying Israeli reconnaissance aircraft buzzing overhead. The area is a stronghold of Hezbollah. Israel accuses Hezbollah of violating the terms of a UN cease-fire and says its overflights are needed to keep an eye on the group. Lebanon has routinely complained to the UN about Israel’s daily violations of its airspace and mock raids. Israeli officials say Hezbollah has amassed a stockpile of 150,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel. Dig Deeper ‘‘Prominent Hezbollah Critic Shot Dead, Lebanese Security Official Says’’ (Times of Israel) Times of Israel Egypt Conditioning PM's Visit on 2-State Solution Gesture Netanyahu reportedly wants to fit an official visit to Egypt ahead of the approaching elections. A visit was scheduled to go ahead a month ago, but after the Knesset dissolved at the end of December, triggering elections, the Egyptians put the idea on hold. When contacts were resumed, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi made his demand that Netanyahu issue a declaration about Palestinian statehood before the visit or during the visit or make some practical gesture on the ground to aid the Palestinians. However, Netanyahu has reportedly balked at taking any such action in the run-up to the elections, in which he will aim to win support from right-wing voters who are generally opposed to the idea of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu’s last public visit to Egypt was a decade ago when Hosni Mubarak was still in power. Since then, he has made several covert visits, according to Walla. Dig Deeper ‘‘Sisi Conditions Netanyahu Visit to Egypt on Support for 2-State Solution’’ (Axios) I24 News Netanyahu Again Cancels Scheduled Trips to UAE, Bahrain Netanyahu was forced once again to cancel an official trip to the UAE and Bahrain due to the shuttering of Ben Gurion Airport stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The development marks the third time Netanyahu has canceled planned visits to the Gulf Arab nations due to coronavirus- related restrictions or political considerations. Netanyahu had originally planned a three-day trip where he was expected to visit Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, as well as Manama, Bahrain next week, but decided to shorten it to three hours over COVID-19 variant concerns. On January 24, Israel moved to shutter Ben Gurion Airport and restrict all incoming and outgoing flights. Originally scheduled to last only a week, the Israeli cabinet voted to extend the decision and is currently in talks to keep the transportation hub closed until the spread of the virus declines. Dig Deeper ‘‘Netanyahu Scraps UAE, Bahrain Trip Over COVID-19 Restrictions’’ (Jerusalem Post) 3 Ynet News UN Chief Hopes Mideast Quartet Can Meet Within Few Weeks UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on he hopes to see the Middle East Quartet of mediators meet again in the next "few weeks" now that there is a new US president in the White House. The Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - does not appear to have had a meeting since September 2018. "The truth is that we were completely blocked-in relation to any form of peace negotiation. We had the Israelis and the Palestinians that wouldn't talk to each other," Guterres said during an interview broadcast by The Washington Post. The new administration of President Joe Biden supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians and will overturn several decisions made under his predecessor, Donald Trump, the acting US envoy to the United Nations told the Security Council last week. "There is a strong will of the new US administration to play a positive role in creating these conditions for a true peace process to restart," Guterres said. "I believe that now it will be possible to have a meeting of the Quartet," he said. "I would like to see it in the next few weeks." Al-Monitor Biden Administration Makes First Call to Turkey Top adviser to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Ibrahim Kalin spoke to Jake Sullivan for nearly an hour on in the first official communication between the NATO allies since former President Trump left office. Sullivan and Kalin discussed building US-Turkey ties and “managing disagreements effectively,” according to a White House press release. Relations between the two allies have remained thorny since Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 air defense system in 2017, a matter Sullivan discussed with his counterpart. The US national security advisor also voiced his government’s support for exploratory talks between Turkey and Greece to resolve disputes in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and said Washington supports a planned resumption of United Nations- led talks on the status of Cyprus. The Turkish state-run media reported the pair also discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and the COVID-19 pandemic. On Syria, the two discussed the potential negative humanitarian impact of a renewed Syrian government offensive in Idlib. Kalin also stressed the need to “find a solution” to the allies’ disagreement over US support for the Kurdish-led factions in northeast Syria, which Washington armed and trained in the fight against the Islamic State but officials in Ankara consider terrorists. 4 Newsweek – February 4, 2021 Why Israel Should Accept a new –Better– Iran Deal By Ephraim Sneh ● The many people anxiously waiting to hear whether -- or really, how --- the Biden Administration plans to reenter the Iran Deal, scrapped by President Trump, got a hint last Wednesday from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken: The Biden administration would seek to build a "longer and stronger agreement" with Iran that would deal with other "deeply problematic issues" if Iran "comes back into full compliance," Blinken told reporters.
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