News Update - December 17

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http://www.centerpeace.org ** Israel and the Middle East News Update ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Thursday, December 17 ------------------------------------------------------------ Click here for a printer-friendly version. (http://centerpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/December-17.pdf) Headlines: * Bibi, Herzog Spar Over Breaking the Silence and anti-Rivlin Comments * Ex-Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin Defends Breaking the Silence * Ex-ICC Prosecutor Hails Israeli Report on Settlements’ Legality * Loving to Hate: Social Media Incitement on the Rise * Indictment: Terrorist Tried to Stab Elementary School Students * Jordanian Pilot Loses His Wings After Refusing to Visit Israel * Israeli Customs in Ashdod House ‘Intifada Warehouse’ * Home Front Command Prepares for Syria’s Rising Rocket Threat Commentary: * Times of Israel: “My Ha’aretz “Q”: Can We Talk? Seriously, Can We?” - By Andrew Silow-Caroll, Editor-in-Chief and CEO, New Jersey Jewish News * Al-Monitor: “The Neo-Palestinians” - By Ben Caspit, Israel Pulse Columnist, Al-Monitor ** Times of Israel ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Bibi, Herzog Spar on Breaking the Silence (http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-opposition-chief-spar-over-breaking-the-silence-anti-rivlin-comments/) , anti-Rivlin Comments ------------------------------------------------------------ Knesset session on Israel’s staggering poverty levels went wildly off-topic on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog challenged each other to condemn the dovish Breaking the Silence NGO, and right-wing criticism of President Reuven Rivlin, respectively. The raucous Knesset session, which drew cheering and applause from lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, prompted Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to take the unusual step of calling a time-out, with Herzog’s microphone cutting off mid-speech. See also, “Netanyahu, Herzog Clash in Knesset Over Incitement” (BICOM) (http://www.bicom.org.uk/news-article/27932/) ** Ha'aretz ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Ex-Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin Defends Breaking the Silence (http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.692283) ------------------------------------------------------------ The attack on Breaking the Silence (Bts) and other human rights groups in Israel is “tempestuous, populist and completely unnecessary,” according to former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin. In a Facebook post, Diskin wrote that while he opposes the activities of NGOs and journalists “who don’t love their country,” after reading nearly every article and report by BtS, B’Tselem or the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, “even if they are aggravating, even if they are often inaccurate and don’t always do their work properly from a professional perspective, their contribution is very important and helps us to maintain the required vigilance about the most sensitive human issues.” See also, “Former Shin Bet Chief Defends Breaking the Silence” (Arutz Sheva) (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/205051#.VnLI9xorLfY) ** Times of Israel ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Ex-ICC Prosecutor Hails Israeli Report on Settlements’ Legality (http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-icc-prosecutor-hails-israeli-report-on-settlements-legality/) ------------------------------------------------------------ The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court this week praised Israel’s Foreign Ministry for the recent publication of a report arguing that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are legal under international law. While not endorsing the report’s content, Luis Moreno Ocampo, who was visiting Israel this week, said a thorough discussion about the settlements’ legality was sorely needed and could be beneficial to all sides involved. ** Ynet News ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Loving to Hate: Social Media Incitement on the Rise (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4740313,00.html) ------------------------------------------------------------ A sense that this year has been one of extreme rhetoric and violent, politically- and racially-motivated attacks on social media is now backed up by statistics. A new report published by the Berl Katznelson Foundation that studied the phenomenon of incitement and violence shows a 20 percent increase over the past year in the number of inciting and racist statements on social media in Israel. An even bigger increase of 40 percent has been recorded in the number of calls for physical violence on social media. ** Arutz Sheva ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Indictment: Terrorist Tried to Stab Elementary School Students (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/205066#.VnK9kBorLfY) ------------------------------------------------------------ The Jerusalem District Prosecutor on Thursday served an indictment against one of two Arab terrorists who committed a stabbing attack in Beit Shemesh (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/202268) , which left a yeshiva student hospitalized with multiple stab wounds. Muqdad Alkhikh, a 20-year-old, is charged with attempted murder and possession of a knife. Alkhikh traveled to the Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood on the morning of October 22 along with an accomplice with the intent to murder as many Jews as possible. When a school bus filled with elementary school-age children stopped to pick up students, the two would-be murderers attempted to board with the intent of slaughtering the children on board, but were prevented by the driver, who shut the doors and told them it was not a public bus. ** Al Bawaba ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Jordanian Pilot Loses His Wings After Refusing to Visit Israel (http://www.albawaba.com/editorchoice/jordanian-air-force-pilot-loses-his-wings-after-refusing-visit-israel-782422) ------------------------------------------------------------ A Jordanian pilot (http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Jordanian-air-force-dismisses-pilot-who-refused-to-visit-Israel-437535?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter) has been discharged from the Hashemite kingdom’s air force after refusing to visit Israel as part of a joint military venture between the two neighboring countries. Social media users on the east bank of the Jordan River were outraged after hearing the news that Majdi al-Samdi, a pilot in the Royal Jordanian Air Force, was dismissed from active duty by his commanders after notifying them that he would not be participating in a military delegation to Israel. “I was trained as a pilot not to cooperate with Israel, but to fight it,” al-Samdi is reported to have told his superiors. See also, “Report: Jordanian Air Force Pilots Came to Israel on ‘Cooperation Visit’” (Ha'aretz) (http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.692251) ** Arutz Sheva ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Israeli Customs in Ashdod House the ‘Intifada Warehouse’ (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/205034#.VnLGKRorLfY) ------------------------------------------------------------ Weapons, incitement materials, and smuggling rings occasionally make headlines in Israel, with the most recent find being thousands of dolls dressed as terrorists. But these stories are just a few of the finds customs make every day, a top customs official revealed Wednesday - as hundreds of thousands of ammunition, weapons, and military equipment have been sitting in a secured customs warehouse for months. The Customs Building in the port city of Ashdod houses a heavily-secured room known as the "Intifada warehouse," director Rafi Gabai revealed to Walla! News. Within it: 50,000 knives, tens of thousands of tasers, and thousands of keffiyehs and balaclavas, camouflage uniforms, air guns, swords, clubs, knives, pocket knives, slingshots and brass knuckles, night vision systems and tools for encryption and disrupting communications. ** Jerusalem Post ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Home Front Command Prepares for Syria’s Rising Rocket Threat (http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Home-Front-Command-prepares-for-increased-rocket-threat-from-Syria-437564) ------------------------------------------------------------ The IDF Home Command Front is in the process of setting up a subdistrict on the Golan Heights, in response to the proliferation of terrorist organizations and projectile threats from neighboring Syria, a senior military source told The Jerusalem Post. The high-ranking officer, from the command’s northern district, said the subdistrict on the Golan Heights will operate alongside an older subdistrict that operates in the Galilee serving border communities. “The Golan is a very important component of our preparations,” he said. “The subdistrict has its own commander and headquarters. It is already fully operational, but will hold its first full headquarters at the end of 2016,” he added. See also, “Israel Hosts Quartet Delegation for ‘Substantive’ Discussion on Diplomatic Process” (BICOM) (http://www.bicom.org.uk/news-article/27933/) ** Times of Israel – December 16, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------ ** My Ha'aretz "Q": Can We Talk? Seriously, Can We? (http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/my-haaretz-q-can-we-talk-seriously-can-we/#.VnG_m-hcmAo.facebook) ------------------------------------------------------------ By Andrew Silow-Caroll The liberal pundit Peter Beinart has an idea for building support for the two-state solution among hawkish American Jews who visit Israel. “If it became the norm to spend a day with Palestinians, living generations under military occupation, and seeing what it’s like to live under military law, the political [polarization] would crumble,” said Beinart, speaking at Sunday’s all-day conference for pro-Israel liberals sponsored by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz and the U.S.-based New Israel Fund. “It’s a shattering experience.” Great idea, I thought, as I sat in the crowded ballroom at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel. Setting up visits between Jews and Palestinians might be a nice easy warm-up for the hard part: creating dialogue between the Jewish Left and Jewish Right. After attending the conference, and following the reaction to it in the Jewish press and on social media, I found myself despairing for the state of the Israel “debate,” which is less a debate than two distinct monologues taking place in parallel universes. The “Ha’aretz Q” conference (the “Q” stands for “questions) featured speakers and panels making the case for a two-state solution, based on the idea that Israel cannot remain a Jewish democracy so long as it controls the lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank. Keynoters, although not necessarily ideological compadres, included Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin; Tzipi Livni, of Israel’s opposition Zionist Union party; U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power; and a who’s who of representatives of various left-leaning organizations, including J Street, T’ruah, B’Tselem, and the Foundation for Middle East Peace. It felt like a nominating convention for an as-yet-to-be named political party, and you could almost sense the relief of those in the room at being able to speak in ways that would get them shouted down or shunned at many American synagogues. And if you think I am being hard on the Right, just read the reactions of those on the outside. Right-wing newspapers here and in Israel focused on the fact (http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/roger-waters-aggressive-bds-advocate-at-haaretz-ny-conference/2015/12/14/) that Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd front man who supports the cultural boycott of Israel, was in the audience; that Rivlin dared to speak at a convention (http://www.jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain/item/did_president_rivlin_just_choose_obama_and_roger_waters_over_fellow_israeli) of American Jews that included representatives of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli group that likes to lecture overseas audiences on the “immorality” of the Israeli army; and that Saeb Erekat, the PLO secretary general, asked that the Israeli flag be removed (http://jpupdates.com/2015/12/14/haaretz-forum-removes-israeli-flag-during-palestinian-officials-address/) from the podium before his speech. That last concocted “controversy” represented to me the hopelessness of the current moment, in which small symbolic gestures are allowed to undermine the serious business of making peace. Erekat gave an extremely well-received speech in which he endorsed the two-state solution, rejected the boycott of Israel, and blasted the notion of a “binational” state. Yet headlines about the conference (http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Politicians-slam-Haaretz-for-removing-Israeli-flag-at-conference-437298) focused on Erekat’s request that he not speak in front of an Israeli flag that had been specifically placed on stage at the request of Rivlin. Clearly, Rivlin understood the flag as a symbol of his office and the state he was representing. This was New York, not Tel Aviv. So why do we pretend to be “shocked, shocked” that Erekat would not want to deliver his remarks in front of a flag of a country he does not represent? As for Breaking the Silence, both Rivlin and Livni criticized the group in their remarks, earning scattered hisses. Later, in a panel discussion, an NIF staffer defended their funding for the group. To me, that is exactly how dialogue and conversation are supposed to work. One side defends the inclusion of a group that even many left-wing Israelis feel crosses the line, and other speakers criticize them — and it’s all happening in the same room. Instead, we’ve grown accustomed to exclusion and censorship, blocking groups from speaking in our various Jewish institutions, blackballing organizations and speakers because they have the “wrong” friends (http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/195443/closing-american-jewish-mind) . Not that Ha’aretz or NIF offered the ideal model of inclusion and dialogue. My friend J.J. Goldberg pointed out in the Forward (http://forward.com/opinion/israel/327162/how-liberal-zionists-ignored-samantha-power/) , the day’s speakers were more likely to frame the conflict in terms of “Palestinian rights and interests” than in terms of the “security challenges and threats facing Israel internally and externally.” That’s the kind of imbalance, Israeli author Ari Shavit suggested in his remarks, that has led the Israeli Left to be “perceived as detached from reality.” But don’t get the impression that Ha’aretz Q was a gathering of the arrogant, naïve, or lunatic fringe. Most of the people I recognized in the audience and breakouts were from mainstream synagogues and uncontroversial left-of-center groups. They are the sort of people who give to federation, travel to Israel frequently, and care deeply about its future. Their biggest worry, however, is that the future is cloudy unless Israel finds a way to separate itself from the Palestinians. They also worry about the state of Jewish dialogue. Many of them were inspired by Rivlin, who even as he acknowledged that he rarely agrees with the left-wing Ha’aretz, admitted that he’s read it for 70 years and saluted the democratic culture of free speech that it represents. “The free market of ideas is a holy principle,” declared Israel’s president. And the headline that day in Israel Hayom, Israel’s free right-wing newspaper? “Rivlin says he never agrees with Ha’aretz.” Andrew Silow-Carroll is the editor in chief and CEO of the New Jersey Jewish News, an award-winning weekly newspaper published in four editions and on the web. He was previously the managing editor of the Forward newspaper, and host of “With the Editors,” a public affairs roundtable broadcast on The Jewish Channel. ** Al-Monitor – December 16, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------ ** The ‘Neo-Palestinians’ (http://972mag.com/watch-incitement-against-israeli-left-just-got-a-whole-lot-scarier/114787/) ------------------------------------------------------------ By Ben Caspit The “new Palestinian,” or “neo-Palestinian,” is the name the Israeli security establishment has coined to refer to the generation of young Palestinians (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/young-generation-palestinians-despair-terrorists-fatah-hamas.html) leading the current terror wave that Israel continues to find difficult to define, characterize and restrain some two and a half months after it began. Israeli security officials have compared the struggle against this brand of violence to jousting with windmills. There is no infrastructure, no planning, no hierarchy, no leaders, no organizations and no intelligence. “This is something else entirely, something we have not completely identified,” admitted a higher-up in Israeli security speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is a social phenomenon, maybe even a mental one. It is the outcome of circumstances and deep processes that have come to fruition. At this stage, we don’t have a clue where this is going and how long it will last,” he said. Israeli security has described the so-called new Palestinian as young, slightly older than 20 years of age. That said, there have also been much younger assailants — for example, one 13-year-old (http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/My-cousin-made-me-do-it-13-year-old-Palestinian-stabber-tells-police-427398) , girls aged 15 and even an 11-year-old. The new Palestinian wears fashionable jeans, a patterned tricot shirt, and carries a smartphone in his back pocket and wears earphones connected to it by Bluetooth. He wraps a patriotic, Palestinian kaffiyeh around his neck, and in his hand he holds a large rock. The new Palestinian rages and fumes, defies authority, does not owe anything to anyone and is not subject to any kind of higher hierarchy. He doesn’t listen to his parents, teachers, police, mukhtars (village leaders), family members or extended clan. He cleaves to the global “independence rights” discourse. He was around 3 or 5 years old during the second intifada (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/fr/originals/2013/09/intifada-israel-palestine-abbas-netanyahu-negotiations.html) (2000-2005) and doesn't really remember the horror of those years. In the early 2000s, more than 1,000 Israelis and more than 3,000 Palestinians were slaughtered. The new Palestinian goes to college but nothing will become of his education. It is estimated that at least 30,000 young Palestinians earn undergraduate degrees (http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_Rainbow/Documents/Education-1994-2014-08E.htm) every year in the West Bank, and another 20,000 or so do the same in the Gaza Strip. They are discharged from university campuses into a total wasteland. There is nothing they can do with their degrees. There are no decent positions, no high-tech jobs and no serious economic infrastructure (http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/westbankandgaza/overview) . At best, a young Palestinian graduate or academic can hope to secure a work permit in Israel and wash dishes in the bowels of a Tel Aviv restaurant. The new Palestinian has no tangible hope of building a modern life for himself, accomplishing the things that he sees others achieving on social networks. The new Palestinian is convinced that he is in the right, blind to the positions of others, and follows the international community's stance on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and draws encouragement from it. He is held captive to the narrative of the Israeli occupation, completely open to the various conspiracy theories about Israel that spread like wildfire through the Arab street. He nurtures authentic inner rage that simmers while looking for an outlet. There are approximately 800,000 (http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/site/lang__en/881/default.aspx#Population) Palestinian youths between the ages of 15 and 29 in Judea and Samaria. They are the engine of the current terror wave. They go out to demonstrate almost every day, defiantly and stubbornly. A significant percentage of these young demonstrators are female. If one removed the stones or Molotov cocktails from their hands, they would look like girls their age in calmer regions of the world. They are up-to-date, angry, frustrated and want change. According to Israeli security experts, Israel is now “paying” for things that it is not even guilty of, such as Arab society restricting women and depriving them of equal rights. Also, the economies of the Arab states in general have long been weak, and the Palestinian economy in particular cannot give its youths any real hope of improvement to their standard of living. The new Palestinian is unaware that compared to the other Arabs in the Middle East today, his situation is relatively better than theirs. The only Arab region in which electricity is available 24/7 is in Judea and Samaria. The distress of the new Palestinian also extends to the sense of the “end of the Abbas era (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/fr/contents/articles/originals/2015/08/marwan-barghouti-president-mahmoud-abbas-elections-idf.html) .” Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the PLO and president of the PA, announced many months ago that he is considering resigning, thus igniting a fierce war of succession among the various elements and dragging everyone toward extremism. These developments have generated aggravation, which in turn has produced the events of the last 10 weeks. To this, one must add the Islamic State (IS) phenomenon, which engages the hearts and minds of Arabs in the Middle East and elsewhere. IS is transforming violence, including beheadings, into romanticized, legitimate behavior. International recognition of Palestinian rights is also fueling the fury and frustration. But that’s not all. A Dec. 16 Ha’aretz article statistically characterizes Palestinian attackers to date and has served to increase confusion among those attempting to analyze the phenomenon. It turns out a segment of these Palestinians has never been exposed or connected to “incitement on the social networks.” In most cases, the decision to perpetrate an attack, grab a knife or axe and strike out at Jews has been impulsive, a flare-up triggered by any number of factors: an earlier terror attack that “inspires” the would-be assailant; an injury suffered by a relative, neighbor or friend at Israel’s hands; a malicious rumor that reaches the potential terrorist's ears. In short, a Palestinian youth might not have planned on carrying out an attack, but several factors stewed in his mind and heart until the startling outburst. “Under such circumstances it is impossible to fight, to thwart, to avert or to halt [an attack],” said a senior Israeli security source requesting anonymity. “All our intelligence and special resources become irrelevant.” So what’s the solution? Al-Monitor asked a senior Israeli security source, who responded on condition of anonymity, “There is no solution at the moment. We have 800,000 youths who are going somewhere, but we have no idea where. Even they don’t completely know. We’re talking about atmosphere, mood, and until it changes, we are stuck.” The Israel Defense Forces assess that the terror wave will continue for the foreseeable future, at the least the coming year. At the moment, they are trying more to contain it and prevent the situation from further deteriorating, rather than attempting to stop it. “It will disappear suddenly, just the way it arrived,” a senior Israeli diplomat said hopefully and confidentially, “but we don’t really know if, and when, that will happen.” Ben Caspit is a columnist for Al-Monitor's and senior columnist for other Israeli newspapers. ============================================================ S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 For comments, please contact us at ** [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) . ** www.centerpeace.org (http://www.centerpeace.org) 2015 S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, All rights reserved. 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