podesta_email_01460.txt

podesta-emails 3,048 words email

P17 P22 V14 V11 V15

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http://www.centerpeace.org ** Israel and the Middle East News Update ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Wednesday, August 5 ------------------------------------------------------------ Click here for a printer-friendly version. (http://www.centerpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/August-5.pdf) Headlines: * Obama: If Congress Kills Iran Deal, Rockets will Fall on Tel Aviv * U.S. to Join Israel in Fight against Iranian Terror Funding * Qatar: Gulf Arabs Confident Region Safer with Iran Deal * US Official: “Obama and Netanyahu Will Meet to Discuss Deal” * Rajoub: Israelis' Condemnation of Arson didn't Fall on Deaf Ears * UN Chief seeks Urgent Funding for Palestinian Refugees * Ya'alon Orders Administrative Detention for Jewish Extremist Commentary: * Yedioth Ahronoth: “Hatred is Killing the Foundation of Israel's Existence" - By Nahum Barnea * New York Times: “Do we, Israelis, Still Care about Justice?” - By Etgar Keret ** Times of Israel ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Obama: if Deal Killed, Rockets will Fall on Tel Aviv (http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-if-congress-kills-iran-deal-rockets-will-rain-on-tel-aviv/) ------------------------------------------------------------ If the US Congress shoots down the Iranian nuclear deal, America will eventually be pressured into a military strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities, which will in turn increase terror against Israel, US President Obama told Jewish leaders Tuesday, a source who was present at the meeting said. During the two-hour meeting, Obama said it was legitimate for opponents of the deal to lobby lawmakers to reject it, but added that a discussion focused on personal attacks, rather than the merits of the deal, could jeopardize the coherence of the American Jewish community and ultimately the resilience of US-Israel relations. See also, “Obama to Tell Congress: Rejecting Deal Would Be a 'historic Mistake'” (Ha’aretz) (http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.669636) ** Ha’aretz ------------------------------------------------------------ ** U.S. to Join Israel in Fight against Iran Terror Funding (http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.669564) ------------------------------------------------------------ In the wake of the nuclear deal with Iran, a high-level U.S. delegation plans to come to Israel early next month to discuss increasing cooperation in stopping Iran's funding of terror groups in Gaza and Lebanon, a senior administration official said Tuesday. Heading the delegation will be Adam Szubin, undersecretary of state for terrorism and financial crimes. The Americans are due to meet with officials from the Foreign Ministry, Mossad, National Security Council and Military Intelligence. The administration official said some of the money generated from sanctions lift is likely to go to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and from there to find its way to Hezbollah and Palestinian terror groups, the official said, adding that the US will invest more effort than before in keeping an eye on these funds. ** Reuters ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Qatar: Gulf Arabs Confident Region Safer with Deal (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/03/us-iran-nuclear-gcc-qatar-idUSKCN0Q81Q320150803) ------------------------------------------------------------ Qatari foreign minister Khalid al-Attiyah said on Monday Gulf Arab states were confident that a historic nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers made the Gulf region safer. Speaking at a news conference after hosting talks between Gulf Arab foreign ministers and visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Attiyah said: "We are confident that what they undertook makes this region safer and more stable." Qatar currently holds the rotating chair of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. ** Ma’ariv ------------------------------------------------------------ ** US Official: “Obama and Netanyahu Will Meet” ------------------------------------------------------------ According to a senior US official, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu will end the rift between them and will meet sometime in the next two months to discuss the nuclear agreement with Iran. “We have profound disagreements on the issue, but we must make sure that it does not affect our relations,” the senior official told Ma’ariv. “I do not know what Netanyahu’s motives were when he spoke to Congress,” the senior official added cautiously. “He talked about the threats to Israel and about exporting terror, but he knew that we only intended to negotiate on the issue of the nuclear program. Israel can deal with an Iranian military threat, but nuclear weapons are a game changer so we focused on that issue.” ** Ynet News ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Rajoub: we Heard Israelis' Condemnation of Arson (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4687235,00.html) ------------------------------------------------------------ "I very much appreciate all the condemnations that were expressed by Israeli society," senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub told Ynet in an interview following the hate crime that killed Palestinian infant Ali Dawabshe in Duma last week. "It makes me hopeful that the Israeli people have rejected this heinous crime that was committed in Duma." With that said, Rajoub clarified that he was not convinced by the condemnations that were uttered by the government in after the attack, specifically the condemnation aired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Netanyahu and his right wing government are responsible, and stand behind every act of terror in the West Bank," said Rajoub. "They incite and provide funding, security, and support to the 'price tag' bullies. The murder of a child is a dark stain. I hope that after the shock and the upheaval, Israeli society will wake up and understand that the true existential threat to Israel's future is the occupation, and the settlements." ** Times of Israel ------------------------------------------------------------ ** UN Chief seeks Urgent Funding for Pal. Refugees (http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-chief-seeks-urgent-funding-for-palestinian-refugees/) ------------------------------------------------------------ UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday raised alarm over a $100 million shortfall in funding for the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees and called for urgent donations. Ban said in a statement that the UNRWA relief agency was “a pillar of stability” for five million Palestinian refugees at a time when the Middle East is in the throes of crises and suffering. He called “on all donors to urgently ensure that the $100 million required be contributed to UNRWA at the earliest possible date so that the children of Palestine can begin their 2015-2016 school year without delay.” ** Ynet News ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Ya'alon Orders Detention for Jewish Extremist (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4687640,00.html) ------------------------------------------------------------ Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon signed an order Tuesday night to allow the administrative detention of right-wing activist Mordechai Meir (18) to last as long as six months without trial. Meir, a resident of Ma'ale Adumim, just east of Jerusalem, was arrested Tuesday evening on suspicion of organizing an arson attack on the Church of Loaves and Fishes on the Sea of Galilee several weeks ago. The suspect had been under house arrest and forbidden from going to certain places after spending some time in jail. A second suspect, Avitar Salonim, was also arrested Tuesday for helping organize the activities of Jewish extremists and forbidden from going to the West Bank or Jerusalem. An official statement from the Defense Ministry said that Meir had been involved in violent incidents and terror attacks as part of a "Jewish terrorist group." ** Yedioth Ahronoth – August 4, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Hatred is Killing the Foundation of Israel's Existence (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4687200,00.html) ------------------------------------------------------------ Freedom of expression is a noble value, the air democracy breathes; but the court has failed to equip democracy with tools to defend itself against those who are using freedom of expression to recruit hate criminals. By Nahum Barnea Since Friday morning I have been asking myself why I am so angry: After all, hate crimes are a global epidemic. They are directed at foreigners, at immigrants and at ethnic, racial, religious and gender minorities. We often cover anti-Semitic outbursts, but attacks on Jews are just one link in the chain. The United States has been dealing in recent years with white hate criminals who murder black people and with Muslim hate criminals who murder soldiers. Europe is dealing with Muslims who murder Jews and Christians and with Christians who murder Muslims. The law authorities are doing the best they can to prevent such acts or at least to jail the culprits. Nonetheless, they are failing time and again. So why get angry? It's the way of the world. Our forefathers believed that only when we have a Jewish prostitute and a Jewish thief here, we will become a normal state. Miraculously, we outdid their expectations: We have Jewish prostitutes and thieves, murderers and rapists of all kinds, and we have hate criminals. Two people were murdered in hate crimes over the weekend: Two-year-old Ali Dawabsheh of the village of Duma and 16-year-old Shira Banki of Jerusalem. The prime minister offered his condolences. I am angry because Israel is not a state like all other states. It's an idea, a project, an initiative. There is a hotel chain in the country which advertises itself on the radio as "a hotel with an idea." I never understood what that means when it comes to hotels, but I can understand why the ideological plan which led to the Jewish state's establishment is still part of it, 67 years after it was established. That's how we are judged by others; that's how we should judge ourselves. The villains who burn babies or stab teenage girls because of their hatred towards the other are sabotaging the foundation of our existence. Looking back, Israel's governments should have treated the settler public differently. They shouldn't have gave in to the lawbreakers in Sebastia, they shouldn't have pardoned the Jewish Underground terrorists prematurely, they shouldn't have – acting on an order from above – skipped the rabbis who inflamed Yigal Amir, funded their whims, winked at them and flattered them. Governments are not the only ones who sinned deeply here. The Supreme Court, under the leadership of Chief Justice Meir Shamgar and mainly under the leadership of Chief Justice Aharon Barak, gave full, remarkably liberal protection to the freedom of expression on the one hand, while on the other hand legitimizing the settlement enterprise in the territories in different ways. In the issue we are discussing, it was a lethal combination. It opened the door to weeds like Kahane Chai, the Lehava organization and the price tag gang. It conveyed a message to the judges in the lower courts, to the State Prosecutor's Office, to the police, that political delinquency can be forgiven as part of the freedom of expression. There is no wonder that slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's widow, Leah, refused to shake Justice Barak's hand over her husband's grave. She knew exactly why. Freedom of expression is a noble value, the air democracy breathes. But the court has failed to equip democracy with the tools it needs to defend itself against those who are turning freedom of expression into a basis for recruiting hate criminals. This applies both to extreme right-wing organizations and to the haredim. Hate crimes are usually not committed in an empty space: There is an atmosphere, there are instigators, there is a supportive community. The recurring waves of terror and the failure of the peace process, and perhaps the demographic changes as well, have made the Israeli street more rightist. That's natural and understandable. The voters wanted a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Little did they know they would be getting a government which depends on the finger of one Bezalel Smotrich, a Knesset member on behalf of the Bayit Yehudi faction, who combines both haredi for Arabs and hatred for the LGBT community. He is the supreme authority. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the head of Smotrich's party, asked if he could speak at the LGBT protest on Saturday evening. He was offended when his request was turned down. "I wanted to tell them I love them," Bennett said. "I disagree with them and I love them." Bennett is a legitimate representative of his voters, a worthy politician from several aspects. But his expressions of love are unrestrained. "I love you," he told the stone and bottle throwers in Beit El. A sea of love. If you want, love will cover every crime. The members of the LGBT community don’t need his patronizing love. They need security. The education system Bennett is in charge of is afflicted with racism and homophobia. He should start with the state-religious education and the ultra-Orthodox streams. P.S. The LGBT community asked every speaker to sign a document summarizing its demands. Bennett and MK Yinon Magal, both from the Bayit Yehudi party, refused to sign. No one forbade them to come and express their solidarity with the victims, just like thousands of people did in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv. Magal, who used to be a journalist, arrived at the protest, but the moment he realized he won't be allowed to speak, he broke off contact. Either he speaks, or he goes home. ** New York Times – August 3, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Do we, Israelis, Still Care About Justice? (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/opinion/do-israelis-still-care-about-justice.html?src=me&_r=0) ------------------------------------------------------------ By Etgar Keret “This isn’t everyone,” my son said Saturday as we stood on the steps of the Tel Aviv City Hall, in Rabin Square. “There are more people coming, right?” It was already 9 p.m., an hour and a half past the official opening of the anti-violence, anti-incitement demonstration. He’s not even 10 yet, but he’s already seen that square full of people demonstrating for less important causes and he’s sure that, as in every good Western, the cavalry is on the way, that tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of citizens horrified by the terrible events that occurred in Israel this week will be thronging the square. How is it possible that fewer people would come to demonstrate against the murder of children and innocent people than to demonstrate against the high cost of housing or the halt to building in the settlements? The next day, Sunday, the newspapers reported that there were “thousands of demonstrators,” the word “thousands” designed only to conceal the empty spaces in the square. Skilled photo editors produced pictures for the front pages that made the relatively small crowd appear huge. That sad effort to enlarge the size of the demonstration was not a result of hidden political motives, but of a collective sense of shame. Because the embarrassing truth is that a demonstration against two hate crimes — the firebombing on Friday of a home in a Palestinian village, which killed an 18-month-old boy, and the stabbing of six marchers on Saturday in Jerusalem’s Gay Pride Parade, including a 16-year-old girl who later died of her injuries — did not get many people out of their homes, definitely not in this especially hot, humid August. And that truth is not a pleasant one for anybody. I’m old enough to remember Rabin Square, when it was still called the Kings of Israel Square, full of demonstrators on many occasions. I remember, as a teenager, hundreds of thousands of people railing against the Lebanon War after the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982 and a crowd so full of hope at the demonstration for the peace agreement, after which Yitzhak Rabin was murdered in 1995. I remember it full of men in their knitted skullcaps demonstrating against the disengagement, and the eager young people singing at the demonstration for social justice. But today it’s half-empty. Where are all the people who filled it then? Have the young men and women who failed miserably in their struggle for social justice given up hope and lost their faith in the ability of this democratic tool to have an impact? Have the people on the left who come to sweat in this square every time a new injustice is perpetrated in our country — not an infrequent occurrence — begun to tire? And where are those settlers in their skull caps who instantly filled this square when demonstrations were held against the demolition of illegal settlements — but who are now choosing not to demonstrate against the murder of babies? Do they think that, when it comes to Palestinians and the L.G.B.T. community, the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” has been erased from their set of stone tablets? That we have some sort of division of labor here: The right demonstrates for the sanctity of the land, and anything related to murder of innocents who are not Jewish or straight falls completely outside their jurisdiction? And what about all those who don’t really take an interest in politics, but simply live here and try to survive — do they also think that this demonstration has nothing at all to do with their lives? It seems that we’ve all given up on the belief that we can change something here — the fact is that even the few who have come to the demonstration look tired. Many of them are sitting on the rim of the fountain and the steps of City Hall. Only a few have come to the demonstration on Saturday night, and even they don’t have the strength to stand. The speakers finished their speeches and the crowd began to disperse, but my son refused to leave. To his mind, every person who believes that the murder of children and the stabbing of innocent people are wrong should come out to demonstrate against those acts. As he sees it, there should be millions of such people in our country, millions. If people haven’t arrived yet, he insists, it’s only because something’s holding them up. Maybe their kid can’t find his shoes or the babysitter is late. It’s only a matter of time until they come, that’s clear. “Let’s wait a little longer,” he said, placing his small hand in mine. “Another tiny little bit, just until they come.” The only answer I managed to mumble: It’s late already and it might take a long time, a really long time, for all the people who should be in the square to make their way here. ============================================================ S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 ** www.centerpeace.org (http://www.centerpeace.org) 2015 S. 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