Israel and the Middle East News Update Tuesday, December 22 Headlines: Using Sara Netanyahu, PM’s Wife, to Uncover Potential Affair Hezbollah Leader Threatens Israel with Revenge After Kuntar’s Death Abbas to Issue ‘State of Palestine’ Passports Key Suspect in Duma Case Confessed and Reenacted Crime Under Duress Smoke Bomb Thrown at Palestinian Home in ‘Price Tag’ Attack Israel to Establish First Arab College Iran Warns Turkey: Don’t Renew Ties with Israel Islamic State Lost 14% of Its Territory in 2015 Commentary: Washington Post: “Why Is the US Subsidizing Israeli Settlements?” By Uri Blau, Israeli Investigative Reporter Al-Monitor: “Is Erdogan Closing Hamas’ Istanbul Office?” By Shlomi Eldar, Israel Pulse Columnist, Al-Monitor 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 December 22, 2015 Ma’ariv Using Sara Netanyahu, PM’s Wife, to Uncover Potential Affair Jacob Weinroth, the Netanyahu family’s attorney, requested to meet with Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein in order to prevent Sara Netanyahu from being questioned. Weinroth argued that even if a strict approach were adopted with regard to Sara Netanyahu’s actions in the affair involving the expenditures of the prime minister’s residences, this did not justify a criminal investigation. In response, Weinroth was asked to present his arguments in writing. Justice Ministry officials clarified that this did not refer to a hearing in writing, but rather to an ordinary Justice Ministry procedure. See also, “Attorney General Mulls Summoning Sara Netanyahu for Questioning Over Household Expenses” (Ha'aretz) BICOM Hezbollah Leader Threatens Israel with Revenge After Kuntar In a rare public address yesterday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah eulogized notorious terrorist Samir Kuntar and threatened Israel with revenge for his death. Kuntar was buried yesterday in Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold in a funeral attended by thousands, including Lebanese politicians. Crowds chanted “Death to Israel” and many wore military fatigues. Kuntar was killed in a Sunday air strike on a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus. He was imprisoned in Israel for 30 years after he murdered a family in Nahariya, during a high-profile terror attack in 1979, in which he is thought to have battered a four-year-old to death. However, Kuntar was released in 2008, as part of an exchange to return the bodies of two IDF soldiers. See also, “Hezbollah Leader: Israel Killed Kuntar, We Will Avenge His Death” (Times of Israel) Ynet News Abbas to Issue ‘State of Palestine’ Passports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says his national authority proposes to change its name on passports it issues to State of Palestine. Abbas says this will happen in about a year at the most, replacing the name Palestinian Authority. He spoke after talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Abbas arrived in Greece on Sunday, and is due to address the country's Parliament on Tuesday. See also, “Greek Parliament Calls for Recognition of 'Palestine'” (Jerusalem Post) Ha’aretz Key Duma Suspect Confessed, Reenacted Crime Under Duress The key suspect in the Duma arson and murder trial confessed and reenacted the crime under duress, his attorney, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Tuesday morning, describing acts he said amounted to torture. “My client was subjected to sexual harassment, to violation of what is most sacred to him in his world of observing the Torah and its commandments, as well as being deprived of sleep for a very long period. After interrogators pass through these stages and my client sticks to his truth they get a license to kill” Ben-Gvir said at a press conference he called outside the Magistrate Court. See also, “Bennett Accuses Jewish Extremists of Using Murder to Destroy the State” (Times of Israel) 2 Jerusalem Post Smoke Bomb Thrown at Palestinian Home in ‘Price Tag’ Attack A smoke bomb was thrown at a house in the village of Beitillu near Ramallah in a suspected price tag attack on Tuesday morning, according to reports by Israel Radio. A man, woman and a nine-month- old baby were rescued uninjured from the house. The words "Revenge" and "Hello from the detainees of Zion" were spray-painted on the wall of the home, an apparent reference to the suspects in the Duma arson investigation. Kasel, the father who was rescued with his family from the house, told Israel Radio, "They came to our home at 1:30 a.m., spray-painted our exterior walls, broke the glass, and then threw smoke bombs into the house. "The house filled up with gas smoke - it was impossible to re-enter up until now. The neighbors came to help us escape," he said. See also, “Smoke Grenades Hurled at Palestinian Family Home in Suspected Hate Crime Attack” (Ha'aretz) Algemeiner Israel to Establish First Arab College Israel will establish the first Arab college in the north of the country, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Monday. “For the first time in the annals of the state of Israel we are establishing a general academic college in an Arab town…This is history for the Arab sector and this is history for the State of Israel.” Bennett has been working to integrate Arabs into Israel’s hi-tech industry through education and also in employment for Arab women during his last position as Economics Minister. Establishing an Arab college, Bennett explained, has various benefits to Israeli society. He said “there is no reason and it isn’t right to send young Arabs to study in Hebron or in Arab states. Sometimes this creates radicalism and the right thing is for Israelis to learn in Israel. This is good for them as individuals and good for the entire Israeli society.” Arutz Sheva Iran Warns Turkey: Don’t Renew Ties with Israel Iran on Monday chimed in on reports of Israel and Turkey normalizing ties, asking the Turkish government to rethink the idea. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari warned Turkey about attempts to resume relations with Israel, claiming it would be against the rights of Palestinian Arabs. "The Muslim governments should adopt policies which meet their and the Islamic Ummah's interests as well as the rights of the Palestinian nation…The Turkish government shouldn’t pursue a different path (in relations) with the Quds occupying regime under such conditions that its relations with the neighboring governments have gone under certain developments," Jaber Ansari added. Times of Israel Islamic State Lost 14% of Its Territory in 2015 The Islamic State lost around 14% of its territory in 2015, while Syria’s Kurds almost tripled the land they control, think-tank IHS Jane’s said on Monday. The development is a blow to the group given that its aim is to capture and hold territory to expand its so-called “caliphate,” where it imposes a severe and bloody form of what it calls Islamic law. The jihadist group’s losses include the strategically important town of Tal Abyad on Syria’s border with Turkey, the Iraqi city of Tikrit, and Iraq’s Baiji refinery. Other big losses for the group include a stretch of highway between its Syrian stronghold Raqqa and Mosul in northern Iraq, complicating supply lines. 3 Washington Post – December 21, 2015 Why Is the US Subsidizing Israeli Settlements? By Uri Blau An office chair is positioned on the top of Dagan Hill, on the outskirts of Efrat, a thriving West Bank settlement. Someone must like to sit here and take in the changing landscape. Once-bare mountains are losing their shape, carved up by new roads and villas for a growing population of Jewish settlers. Nadia Matar, one pillar of this community, should be happy. Twenty years ago, as she struggled to make a life on this hill, the success of her mission seemed improbable, if not impossible. Now, from the top of the windy peak, the fruits of her victory are apparent. Yet Matar, founder and leader of the pro-settlement nonprofit Women in Green, doesn’t sound cheerful when I call to ask about the funding of her organization. “Choose which side are you on,” she tells me in Hebrew, “ours, or the enemies who try to destroy us.” Many from Israel’s far right and the settlers’ community condemn the Obama administration as that “other” side. They should know better: While one American hand opposes development of settlements, the other keeps feeding it. A few miles away from Efrat sits the pleasant campground of Oz Vegaon, a West Bank outpost built without the required land allocation and planning permits from the Israeli Civil Administration. Campers, tourists and right-wing groups gather here to enjoy the newly constructed facilities. Women in Green helped to build Oz Vegaon last year, naming it after three Jewish teens murdered by Palestinians not too far from there. Some of the money it used on the site traveled some 5,700 miles from the center of Manhattan. Matar’s group is one of many settler organizations fueled with tax-exempt American dollars, of which increasing amounts arrive each year. This year I conducted a thorough investigation into the complex network of tax-exempt donations helping to finance West Bank settlements. The investigation, published this month in Haaretz, looked at almost 50 nonprofit organizations that raise money in the United States for the settlements. The findings are striking: Within five years, from 2009 to 2013, more than $220 million was sent across the ocean and into schools, synagogues and playgrounds dotting the hills of Judea and Samaria. Millions of tax-subsidized dollars have gone to Jewish settlements in Hebron, helping to sustain a grim reality in the segregated part of the city, where Palestinian movement is sharply restricted and their economic life has been suffocated.