Israel and the Middle East News Update Monday, February 20 Headlines: Israel, Jordan and Egypt Secretly Met for Peace Last Year At Secret Summit, Netanyahu Offered Settlement Freeze Herzog: Netanyahu Ran Away From Historic Opportunity Saudi Arabia and Israel Issue Twin Warnings on Iran Saudi FM urges Progress Toward Israeli-Arab Peace Jewish leader Urges Trump to Act Against Anti-Semitism Lebanon: Israeli Threats to Our Sovereignty will Meet Appropriate Response Commentary: Yedioth Ahronoth: “After his Magical Meeting with Trump, Real life Awaits Netanyahu” By Sima Kadmon Columnist at Yediot Ahronoth New York Times: “A Settler’s View of Israel’s Future” By Yishai Fleisher, international spokesman of the Jewish community of Hebron 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 February 20, 2017 Reuters Israel, Jordan and Egypt Secretly Met for Peace Last Year German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to cancel a joint summit with Israel's government, scheduled for May 10 in Jerusalem. German and Israeli sources say her dissatisfaction at the Israel's new law to expropriate private Palestinian lands, enacted in Knesset last week. An Israeli source who reported hearing massive anger over the law and said he had heard from German officials that in response to the law's enactment, the German government had launched a number of initiatives, both publically and in diplomatic channels, to express its dismay at the legislation. See also, “REPORT: NETANYAHU REJECTED PEACE PLAN PROPOSED BY KERRY AT SECRET 2016 MEETING” (Jerusalem Post) Ha’aretz At Secret Summit, Netanyahu Offered Settlement Freeze As part of the five-point plan that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented at the secret summit in Aqaba a year ago, as reported in Haaretz Sunday, the prime minister proposed to freeze construction outside the large settlement blocs in the West Bank. According to a former U.S. official and an Israeli source familiar with the details of the summit, attended by Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Netanyahu requested in return to get American recognition of construction within the settlement blocs. See also, “At secret summit, Netanyahu said to have offered freeze outside settlement blocs” (Times of Israel) Ha’aretz Herzog: Netanyahu Ran Away From Historic Opportunity Opposition leader Isaac Herzog accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of running away from an "historic" opportunity in 2016 that could have changed the Middle East, when that latter refused to accept a secret peace plan presented by former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Herzog learned of the summit already at the beginning of March 2016, a few days after it took place. The summit served as the basis for talks he conducted at the time with Netanyahu over the forming of a unity government. These did not prosper, after Netanyahu preferred to bring Yisrael Beiteinu into the government and appoint Avigdor Lieberman as defense minister. "The paper would have changed the Middle East, and in the end, the one who ran away was Netanyahu," Herzog told Channel 10.See also, “Herzog: Netanyahu 'ran away' from peace initiative” (Arutz 7) Jerusalem Post Saudi Arabia and Israel Issue Twin Warnings on Iran Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir each highlighted Iran as the main threat to regional stability on Sunday at the Munich Security Conference but fell short of saying they would cooperate to thwart Tehran. Highlighting the extent to which the two countries’ views of Iran concur, each speaker cast Iran as a threat to the existence of his country; said the 2015 nuclear agreement had not moderated its behavior; and called for a tough international role – including economic pressure – to confront the Islamic Republic’s ambitions. See also, “Saudi Arabia, Israel present de facto united front against Iran” (Reuters) 2 Times of Israel Saudi FM urges Progress Toward Israeli-Arab Peace Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said he is optimistic that Arabs and Israelis can reach a peace deal in 2017. Speaking four days after US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a White House press conference about the possibilities of a regional peace agreement, Adel al-Jubeir told delegates at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday that the contours of an Israeli-Palestinian accord were clear, and that Saudi Arabia and other Arab states would work to bring it to fruition. “I believe progress can be made in the Arab Israel conflict, if there is a will to do so,” he said. “We know what the settlement looks like, if there is just the political will to do so. And my country stands ready with other Arab countries to work to see how we can promote that.” See also, “ Al-Jubeir: Iran is the main sponsor of global terror” (Al Arabiya) Ynet News Jewish leader Urges Trump to Act Against Anti-Semitism A top American Jewish leader urged US President Donald Trump to speak out against anti-Semitism amid a surge in harassment of Jews in the US. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, spoke in Jerusalem on Sunday, saying that "I think that the president helps set the tone for a country." Despite Trump's flippant remarks recently made to a Haredi reporter's question on rising anti-Semitism in the United States, Hoenlein said: "I'm hopeful that what he said about ... addressing hate and racism of all kinds in American society will be translated into clear action." American Jews have experienced a sharp rise in anti-Semitism over the course of the presidential campaign and this year. Among the incidents, Jewish centers in 27 states and Canada received telephone bomb threats last month. See also, “REGIONAL COOPERATION WITH ISRAEL IS GROWING, SAYS HOENLEIN” (Jerusalem Post) Reuters Lebanon: Threats to Our Sovereignty will Meet Response Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that any Israeli attempt to violate Lebanon's sovereignty would be met with the "appropriate response", in a statement released by his office. "Any attempt to hurt Lebanese sovereignty or expose the Lebanese to danger will find the appropriate response," the statement said. It said Aoun was reacting to recent remarks in a letter at the United Nations by Israel's U.N. ambassador, which amounted to a "masked attempt to threaten security and stability" in southern Lebanon, but did not say what the remarks were. Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said on Thursday that all of Lebanon would be a target if Hezbollah fired on Israel. Aoun's comments also followed warnings this week by the leader of the armed Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, a political ally of the president, against any Israeli aggression. See also, “Lebanese president: Israeli threats to sovereignty will meet 'appropriate response'” (Ynet News) 3 Yedioth Ahronoth– February 19, 2017 After his Magical Meeting with Trump, Real Life Awaits Netanyahu The joy in the Right over Wednesday’s White House meeting may be premature, as there is no guarantee that what the US president said last week will still be valid tomorrow. The prime minister has no cause for celebration either—the free hand he received puts him in a Catch-22. By Sima Kadmon Columnist at Yediot Ahronoth If there was a way to monitor Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mental state during his press conference with US President Donald Trump, we would see a declining gradient on a graph, from high tension to a great relief. The fact that Netanyahu got exactly what he wanted from the American president is indisputable. One state, two states (Coffee? Tea? It doesn’t matter, whatever is easiest for you)—that is the exact attitude Netanyahu would like to hear from an American president.Someone who hasn’t got a clue what it’s all about, who is likely unfamiliar with the map of Israel before 1967 and doesn’t know where the disputed lands are, and whose understanding of the issues on the agenda is about as deep as the length of his short temper. I apologize to all of those who were so excited by Trump last Wednesday. To me, he still seems as ignorant and shallow as he was throughout his entire campaign. An egocentric, slipshod and inarticulate person, who has no idea what his opinions are on each of the issues on the agenda, and worse—what his opinions will be tomorrow. He is someone who is engaged in how his views make him look, rather than in the really important stuff. Only a person like that can decide to hold his first press conference with the Israeli prime minister before sitting down to talk to him, because everything has all been agreed before anything has been discussed, and anyway, he could always change, deny, talk about false truth or about alternative facts and blame, always blame, the media. In other words, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is probably right: The world’s nations, including Israel and the Palestinians, will only benefit from having an idiot in the White House, as Nasrallah referred to him. But beneath the mutual flattery, the Trump décor and the common goal the two leaders saw before their eyes—to prove former President Barack Obama’s insignificance—the two sides conveyed pretty clear messages. Netanyahu, who tried to avoid in any way saying what Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett wanted to hear—in other words, abandoning the Bar-Ilan speech and the two-states-for-two-people idea—spoke about recognizing a Jewish state and Israeli security control of the entire area.