Israel and the Middle East News Update

Friday, January 15

Headlines:  Netanyahu Calls Swedish Foreign Minister’s Remarks Immoral  Bennett: ‘There May Be a Problem with Foreign Ministry’s DNA’  Soldier Stabbed in West Bank, Terrorist Killed  EU May Ask Compensation for Demolition of Donated Palestinian Buildings  Israel’s Arabs Face Backlash After Tel Aviv Shooting  Ministry Mulls Revoking Citizenship of Returning ISIS Fighters  Israel Evacuates Gaza Crossing in Sinai at Egypt Battles ISIS Affiliates  Israel Quietly Courts Sunni States

Commentary:  Foreign Affairs: “Real Talk on Israeli Settlements”  By Daniel Kurtzer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel  Jerusalem Post: “Might Turkish-Israeli Rapprochement Be Premature?”  By Moran Stern, Ph.D. Candidate, Government and Politics, University of Maryland

S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● David Abreu, Associate Editor

News Excerpts January 15, 2015

Ma’ariv Netanyahu Calls Swedish Foreign Minister’s Remarks Immoral The diplomatic crisis between Israel and Sweden is worsening. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sharply attacked Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom last night following her statements against Israel. In the annual meeting with the foreign press in Jerusalem, Netanyahu commented on Wallstrom’s statements and said that it should be investigated whether Israel carried out extrajudicial killings of Palestinians in the current wave of terrorism. “I think what the Swedish Foreign Minister said is outrageous, I think it’s immoral, it’s unjust, and it’s just wrong,” Netanyahu said last night, and added: “It’s outrageous, it’s immoral, and it’s stupid.” See also, “Sweden's Relations with Israel Were Already Bad. They Just Got Much Worse.” (Washington Post)

Ha’aretz Bennett: ‘There May Be a Problem with Foreign Ministry’s DNA’ Education Minister Naftali Bennett attacked the country's Foreign Ministry employees on Friday, questioning whether they had "problematic DNA" hinting they were unpatriotic. Bennett's broadside, which came during a radio interview on Friday morning, was apparently sparked by the activities of former Foreign Ministry Director General Alon Liel. According to media reports, Liel is active in promoting an international boycott of Israel, as a means of bringing an end to the occupation. "I'm beginning to think that maybe there's a problem with the DNA of the Foreign Ministry," Bennett said.

Arutz Sheva Soldier Stabbed in West Bank, Terrorist Killed Reports indicate that a terrorist tried to stab an IDF officer at the entrance to Har Eival, near Shechem. The terrorist first threw an object at the soldiers' vehicle. When they exited the vehicle in order to find the source of the threat, he pulled out a knife and stabbed the officer in his hand. The other soldiers at the scene shot and killed the terrorist. The stabbed officer was declared lightly wounded and has been evacuated. According to Mako, the victim was the deputy commander of the company. A Molotov cocktail was found near the scene of the attack. It may be what the terrorist threw before drawing his knife. See also, “Officer Injured in Stabbing Attack Near Nablus” (Times of Israel)

Ha’aretz EU May Ask Compensation for Demolition of Palestinian Homes The European Union is considering demanding reimbursement from Israel for the demolition of unauthorized buildings donated by the EU to Bedouin and Palestinians in the West Bank as part of its humanitarian aid. “We know that the EU is considering demanding compensation from Israel for the destruction of projects with European funding, and everything related to accusing Israel of violating humanitarian law on the matter,” the head of the Foreign Ministry’s European Organizations department, Avivit Bar Ilan, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

ABC News Israel’s Arabs Face Backlash After Tel Aviv Shooting Israel's brittle relationship with its Arab minority is under strain after a deadly Tel Aviv shooting rampage this month by an Arab man from the north of the country. The New Year's Day attack deepened Jewish suspicion of the Arab community, which is suspected of divided loyalties, and has drawn attention to the inequalities that help fuel Arab-Jewish tensions. "All Arabs are being blamed for the attack," said Said Milhem, 60, a distant relative of the shooter. "If you are an Arab today, you are a target." See also, “After Terror Attack, Israel Funding for Arab Towns May Come with Strings” (Forward)

Jerusalem Post Ministry Mulls Revoking Citizenship of Returning ISIS Fighters The Interior Ministry has proposed an amendment to the citizenship law that would allow the revocation of the citizenship of Israelis who have “violated their loyalty to the country,” even if they are not located within Israel. The new amendment would allow Israel to annul the citizenship of Israeli Arabs who have left the country to join ISIS, and whose whereabouts are unknown. There are currently more than 10 Israeli citizens who are fighting with the group.

BICOM Israel Evacuates Gaza Crossing as Egypt Battles ISIS Affiliate Israel yesterday temporarily evacuated the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip, due to heavy fighting taking place nearby in the neighboring Sinai Peninsula between Egyptian forces and ISIS-affiliated terrorists. Egyptian armed forces, including air support were active in the nearby areas of Rafah, Sheikh Zuweid, and el-Arish, reportedly killing 13 Islamist terrorists. Since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2013, the Islamist group Sinai Province, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS, has waged arms against the regime of President al-Sisi, persistently attacking Egyptian military forces in Sinai and inflicting serious casualties. Due to yesterday’s violence, the IDF said that it had temporarily closed the Kerem Shalom crossing and removed staff there, due to “operational considerations.” See also, “Amid Fighting in Sinai, Israel Evacuates Gaza Crossing” (Times of Israel)

Wall Street Journal Israel Quietly Courts Sunni States Growing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have raised hopes in Israel that officials can build closer ties with the Gulf monarchies based on their shared animosity toward Tehran. Led by Dore Gold, Director-General of the Foreign Ministry, Israel has stepped up efforts to mend and improve ties in the region—all in a bid to counter Iranian influence and the threat of Islamic extremism. A long-standing hawkish ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Gold said Israel and Sunni Arab states face a shared threat in Iran. See also, “Israel Foreign Ministry Head: ‘Convergence of Interests’ Between Israel, Sunni States” (BICOM)

Foreign Affairs – January 13, 2016 Real Talk On Israeli Settlements

The U.S. Must Match Words With Deeds.

By Daniel Kurtzer  For the last four decades, every U.S. administration has opposed the construction of settlements in the territories that Israel has occupied since 1967. The Jimmy Carter administration termed the settlements “illegal.” President Ronald Reagan called for “the immediate adoption of a settlement freeze,” noting that “further settlement activity is in no way necessary for the security of Israel and only diminishes the confidence of the Arabs that a final outcome can be freely and fairly negotiated.”  President George H.W. Bush withheld loan guarantees that Israel needed to absorb Soviet Jewish immigrants until Israel agreed not to settle the immigrants in the occupied territories. And during the Clinton administration, the U.S. Congress passed legislation to deduct the amount of money Israel spent on settlement-related activity from U.S. assistance to Israel (apart from security aid). Most recently, the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including “natural growth.”  Yet Israel has continued to expand its settlements. Except for a ten-month period in 2009-10 when the country imposed a moratorium on new housing starts, it has largely ignored U.S. views. In response, the United States has offered periodic condemnation, but no actions to back up its words.  This has made for bad policy. Rhetoric unsupported by action is meaningless, and in this case it has debased the value of words as a tool of foreign policy. It has also led to hypocrisy; in 2011, for example, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that quoted almost verbatim the words the United States had itself used to express opposition to the settlements.  Not only has the United States taken few serious measures to dissuade Israeli settlement activity, but it effectively continues to subsidize it. U.S. law and regulations prohibit official U.S. aid to Israel from being spent in the occupied territories. But money is fungible. U.S. aid flows into Israel’s entire budget, and thus frees up money that can fund settlement activity.  There is a solution to this problem—one that was made law for a period in the 1990s: to deduct, dollar for dollar, the amount of money budgeted by Israel for settlements from official U.S. (non-security) assistance. Israel could still make its own decisions regarding how much to spend on settlements, but U.S. aid would not subsidize such spending.  That would take care of part of the problem, but it’s not just the U.S. government whose money supports the expansion of Israeli settlements. After a detailed investigation, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported that American tax-exempt charities have sent more than $200 million to Israel over the past few years for activities that directly strengthen settlements, such as schools, parks, and infrastructure.

 Some of those funds have also supported organizations such as Honenu that provide assistance to individuals convicted of murder by Israeli courts, such as Ami Popper, who murdered seven Arab workers in 1990; Menachem Livni, one of the leaders of the Jewish Underground, the terrorist organization that maimed two Palestinian mayors and killed three Palestinian students in the 1980s; and Yigal Amir, the assassin of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.  These tax-exempt contributions raise several challenging policy questions. If the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) starts passing political judgment on the purposes for which contributions will be used, it could lead down a slippery slope and risk severe unintended consequences. For example, administrations could then start choosing which charities to support or oppose, based on political ideology or personal preference. But it seems strange that tax-exempt charities should be engaged in overseas activities that are in direct contravention of longstanding, bipartisan U.S. foreign policy. At the very least, the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the IRS should conduct a full investigation into the activities of these tax-exempt organizations, and should end the tax-exempt status of organizations that provide assistance to convicted murderers, in Israel or elsewhere.  These moves would have a significant political impact in Israel, as opponents of the settlements would use the change in U.S. policy to galvanize support for their views. In the short term, it might not lead to a peace breakthrough, but it would send a critically important message of U.S. seriousness on a core issue in the peace process.  For almost five decades now, Israel has defied international pressure and U.S. advice and continued to expand its settlements in the occupied territories. Without a halt to the settlements, as well as an end to Palestinian terrorism and incitement, a peace deal remains as far away as ever. The settlements represent a policy of choice, not of necessity, and will do little to guarantee Israel’s long-term security. It is long past time for the United States to match its words with deeds. Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel, is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Jerusalem Post – January 13, 2016 Might Turkish-Israeli Rapprochement Be Premature? Recent developments in Turkey and Israel have led analysts to speculate that there is a possibility of a Turkish-Israeli rapprochement. By Moran Stern  Following the deadly raid on the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara in May 2010, Turkish-Israeli relations reached an unprecedented nadir.  The diplomatic crisis that followed the flotilla incident ended more than two decades of prosperous strategic ties between the two regional powerhouses.  Led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey conditioned reconciliation on an Israeli apology, monetary compensation to the families of the dead activists, and lifting of the Israeli blockade over the Gaza Strip. Despite Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s personal apology to then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israel’s consent to pay compensation, the countries have so far failed to normalize their relations.  Recent developments in Turkey and Israel have led analysts to speculate that there is a possibility of a Turkish-Israeli rapprochement. Secret meetings between Israeli and Turkish senior officials as well as an encouraging statement by President Erdogan have furthered the impression that the moment is ripe for reconciliation.  Nevertheless, it seems that the most complicated hurdles to reconciliation: Turkey’s close relations with Hamas, its demand that Israel officially lift the blockade over Gaza, and energy security, have yet to be removed, suggesting that rapprochement might be premature.  To position itself as a central actor in the Muslim world, Turkey sought to take the leading role in the Palestinian issue away from other regional powers, such as Iran and Egypt.  As a party with deep Islamist roots, the AKP has courted the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas. Turkey officially hosted a Hamas delegation following the movement’s victory in the 2006 Palestinian Authority general elections. After Hamas leadership denounced Syrian President Assad’s war of against the rebels, the Syrian government closed Hamas’s Damascus headquarters and expelled its leaders. Iran, Syria’s ally, withdrew its financial and logistic support to Hamas. Turkey stepped in to become the movement’s patron, offering a safe haven for Hamas members, who operate from its soil.  The Turkish demand that Israel lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip stems from the Turkey’s effort to position itself as the patron of the Palestinian cause, but for Israel, the demand is a major hurdle to reconciliation.  In open conflict with Hamas, which controls Gaza, Israel feels that the next bloody round against Hamas is only a question of time. With the blockade lifted, Hamas and other Jihadist groups in Gaza will flood Gaza with sophisticated arms – in particular, long-range missiles that endanger Israel’s civilian population and military. As the 2014 war showed, consequences to Gaza’s civilian population can be disastrous.

 One must wonder how Turkey, which invested heavily in positioning itself as the patron of Gaza, will react in the event of renewed outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas. After getting what it desires, Turkey might see itself free to resume its attacks on Israel in order to garner the support of Muslims across the region.  From an Israeli perspective, it is better to deal with the enemy it knows than with the enemy it does not know. Israel understands that uprooting Hamas is virtually impossible, and Gaza under a foe with which it fought several rounds and has ample intelligence about is preferable to an Islamic State-style group that could oust Hamas if conditions in Gaza deteriorate.  Paradoxically, over the years Israel has significantly eased the blockade of Gaza with the intention of keeping Hamas in power. If, as a result of an agreement with Turkey, Israel officially lifts the blockade, President Erdogan will leverage the achievement for personal gain at home and, based on his previous rhetoric, might further bully Israel whenever it serves his political goals. As the region undergoes a radical transformation, Israel does not want to look weak or reward a leader whose motives are suspicious.  Domestically, lifting the blockade will be highly unpopular. Israelis suffered greatly from Hamas suicide bombers and rockets. Facing a fragile coalition, Netanyahu risks stormy attacks from hawkish political rivals both in his own government and the opposition, who will accuse Netanyahu of capitulating to Erdogan and Hamas.  Turkey is also interested in diversifying its energy resources by importing gas from Israel’s large Leviathan Mediterranean gas field. Turkey’s interest in Israeli gas might grow in light of Turkey’s recent crisis with Russia, which provides Turkey with about half of its total gas needs. But correlating Turkish-Russian tensions with Turkish-Israeli rapprochement may not be sound. Dramatic statements from both capitals aside, Ankara cannot afford to cut off its relations with Moscow, a major global power with increasing involvement in Syria.  Troubled by low energy prices and economic slowdown at home, Russia will not hurry to turn its back on Turkey, which buys a significant share of Russia’s gas and oil. Thus, Turkey will attempt to rectify its relations with Russia regardless of its interest in Israeli gas.  Nor will Israel rush to guarantee its lucrative gas to Turkey. Since the crisis with Turkey deepened, Israel has invested heavily in fostering closer ties with Greece and Cyprus, two historical rivals of Turkey in the region. Israel considers both friendly countries as strong candidates through which gas could be exported to continental Europe. Israel will be careful not to endanger its relations with the two countries to sign a deal with a Turkish government with a record of anti-Israel demagogy and diplomacy.  Despite the current rift between the two countries, both Turkey and Israel regard the Middle East as an inherently volatile region. Their objectives in regard to the region remain similar: they both desire stability. Renewed Turkish-Israeli relations will yield benefits for both countries, but it complicated obstacles to reconciliation have yet to be removed. Moran Stern is a Ph.D. candidate in Government and Politics at the University of Maryland.