podesta_email_00736.txt

podesta-emails 3,773 words email

P17 P22 D6 V16 V11

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http://www.centerpeace.org ** Israel and the Middle East News Update ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Wednesday, July 29 ------------------------------------------------------------ Click here for a printer-friendly version. (http://www.centerpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/July-29.pdf) Headlines: * Destruction of Beit El Buildings Begins amid Continued Riots * Under Pressure, PM Approves New Settlement Construction * Rightist MK: High Court, not Settler Homes, must be Bulldozed to Ground * Livni: Events in Beit El ans Sanur Damage the Israeli Interest * PM, Abbas may address the EU to reinvigorate peace process * Sen. Feinstein Urges PM Not to Demolish Palestinian Village * Several Killed in Reported Israeli Strike in Syria * Israeli Spy Jonathan Pollard to be Released in November Commentary: * Foreign Policy: “Israel Could Lose America’s Democrats for a Generation" - By James Traub * Al Monitor: “No Financial, Judicial Control over Israeli Settlement Enterprise” - By Akiva Eldar ** Ynet News ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Destruction of Beit El Buildings Begins amid Riots (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4684756,00.html) ------------------------------------------------------------ Destruction began Wednesday after the High Court upheld a decision to tear down two controversial housing structures known as the Draynoff buildings in the West Bank settlement of Beit El after nearly two days of violence between settlers and police at the scene. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked pointed out that despite the court's decision, the Draynoff buildings will most likely be reconstructed shortly after being torn down. Land permits from the structures were only acquired after their construction, making them illegal according to the court's ruling. Subsequently acquired land permits makes reconstruction likely. ** Ha'aretz ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Under Pressure, PM Approves Settlement Const. (http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.668448) ------------------------------------------------------------ Following pressure from Likud and Habayit Hayehudi lawmakers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced once more the approval of immediate construction of 300 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Beit El. Following Netanyahu's announcement, Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, signed a permit to immediately sell land for the construction of 296 new housing units in Beit El. The municipality will be able to issue construction permits within 15 days. The units' construction was already approved following the evacuation of the Beit El neighborhood known as Ulpana Hill, but was never carried out. In addition, Netanyahu approved moving forward with the planning of 500 new housing units in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. See also, “300 new homes okayed, clashes erupt as settlement torn down” (Times of Israel) (http://www.timesofisrael.com/july-29-2015-liveblog/) ** Jerusalem Post ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Rightist MK: High Court must be Bulldozed (http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Shaked-says-settlers-must-accept-High-Court-order-to-demolish-Beit-El-homes-410468) ------------------------------------------------------------ The High Court decision to order the state to demolish two illegally built structures in the West Bank settlement of Beit El elicited harsh reactions from the Right on Wednesday. MK Moti Yogev of the pro-settler Bayit Yehudi party said in response that "we should ride up in D-9 bulldozers and raze the High Court of Justice to the ground." Yogev made the remarks before entering a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Yogev's Bayit Yehudi colleague, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, preached moderation, saying the state must respect the rule of law "and accept the High Court ruling and the harsh decree" ordering the demolition of homes in Beit El. ** Galey Tzahal ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Livni: Events in Beit El ans Sanur Damage the Israeli Interest ------------------------------------------------------------ Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni attacked the settlers who returned to Sa-Nur: “If some Palestinian thought that we disengaged from Gaza to build more in Judea and Samaria, that was not the intent. In an absurd manner, the phenomena that we are seeing in Sa-Nur and in other places, these are phenomena that damage Israel’s ability to protect the settlement blocs.” ** Jerusalem Post ------------------------------------------------------------ ** PM, Abbas may Address the EU to Reinvigorate Peace Process (http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Netanyahu-Abbas-may-address-the-EU-in-bid-to-reinvigorate-peace-process-410448) ------------------------------------------------------------ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas could address European heads of state in the near future as part of a push by the international community to jump-start the peace process. To date, no Israeli prime minister has addressed the EU since its inception in 1993. In 1995, Shimon Peres, who was then the foreign minister and acting prime minister, visited Brussels, but did not formally speak to the body as a whole.The possibility of an EU address was first raised by Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades during his visit to Jerusalem last month, and he raised it again during Netanyahu’s visit to his island country on Tuesday. “I would welcome the opportunity to present Israel’s position to the EU,” Netanyahu said. “I think this is a very worthwhile initiative that you, Nicos, have brought up. ** Ha’aretz ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Sen. Feinstein Urges PM Not to Demolish S (http://www.haaretz.com/beta/1.668347) ussia ------------------------------------------------------------ Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to stop Israel's efforts to raze the Palestinian village of Sussia in the West Bank, saying that uprooting the village's residents would further isolate Israel, increase tensions with the Palestinians and provoke unnecessary violence. "Demolishing Palestinian homes, displacing residents, and seizing additional Palestinian territory in the West Bank is a step away from peace. To preserve land for a future Palestinian state, your government must not destroy Susiya [sic]," the senator wrote in a letter. Feinstein gave a detailed account of Sussia's history and legal battle facing the Civil Administration, noting that the village has existed at least since the 1830s. ** Times of Israel ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Several Killed in Reported Israeli Strike in Syria (http://www.timesofisrael.com/several-killed-in-reported-israeli-strike-in-syria/) ------------------------------------------------------------ Several people were killed in a reported Israeli airstrike on a car in the Syrian Golan Heights near the border with Israel Wednesday. The three men killed were identified as members of militias affiliated with Iran, according to Lebanese media. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that five people were killed in the strike. “An Israeli plane hit a car inside the town of Hader, killing two men from Hezbollah, and three men from the pro-regime popular committees in the town,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the watchdog. Hader is a Druze village that lies along the ceasefire line, with the Israeli portion of the Golan Heights plateau to the west, and the border with Damascus province to the northeast. ** Ynet News ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Israeli Spy Pollard to be Released in November ------------------------------------------------------------ A federal parole board has ruled that Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy intelligence officer convicted of spying for Israel, will be released in November after serving a 30-year prison sentence, his attorneys said on Tuesday. Pollard, who has remained jailed for decades despite efforts by successive Israeli governments to secure his early release, will be required to remain in the United States for five years under the terms of his parole, the attorneys said in a statement. They said he had the assurance of having a job and a home in the New York area, but they nevertheless ask US President Obama to waive that parole requirement and allow him to go to Israel after his release. ** Foreign Policy - July 29, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Israel Could Lose America’s Democrats for a Generation (http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/28/israel-could-lose-americas-democrats-for-a-generation-iran-nuclear-deal-john-kerry/) ------------------------------------------------------------ If the nuclear deal collapses, U.S. liberals will never forgive Israel for its starring role in a catastrophic turn of events. By James Traub Last week, I went to hear Secretary of State John Kerry defend the Iran nuclear deal at the Council on Foreign Relations. Richard Haass, president of the organization, began by asking Kerry to explain what “we have gained by this agreement.” The first thing the secretary said was that he was “very proud” of his “100 percent voting record for Israel” as a senator. The second thing he said was that nobody had worked harder than he had to bring peace to the Middle East. The third thing was, “I consider Bibi” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — “a friend.” What we have gained, Kerry summed up, is “safety and security … for Israel and the region.” I found it astonishing that Kerry had answered a question about the most consequential diplomatic agreement the United States has signed over the last four decades as if he were the foreign minister of another country. Wasn’t the “we” in question “the American people”? Of course, Kerry’s political instincts were perfectly accurate. He knows that he and President Barack Obama don’t need to persuade the Democratic left of the deal’s merits and needn’t bother trying to convert Republican conservatives. He needs to reach the people who view American national security as not just inextricable but indistinguishable from Israeli security. On the way out, I saw once such personage and asked, jokingly, whether he had come around on the deal. He hadn’t, of course, but he conceded that he would have to live with it. On the other hand, he added darkly, he knew very well what would happen if Congress voted against the agreement and then overrode Obama’s veto: “They’ll blame the Jews.” No, they won’t. Most Americans who hate the Jews also hate Obama and Iran, and so will be happy to see the deal go up in smoke. Maybe they’ll thank the Jews. What will happen, though, if Congress overrides Obama’s veto — thus destroying the signal foreign-policy achievement of his tenure, humiliating the president before the world, and triggering a race for nuclear weapons capacity in Iran and across the Middle East — is that Democrats will blame Netanyahu and Israel. And it won’t just be the American left, which already regards Israel as an occupying power. The fraying relationship between Israel and the Democratic Party will come apart altogether. Pro-Israel Democrats like Hillary Clinton will have to begin calculating how high a price they’re prepared to pay for their continued support. Am I exaggerating? Consider the geopolitical math. Until recently, critics of the proposed nuclear deal could claim that “our allies in the region” believed that it threatened their security. But last week, the Saudi foreign minister blessed the deal, if rather halfheartedly. The president of the United Arab Emirates and the emir of Kuwait sent congratulatory notes to Iran, though that still falls short of an endorsement. “Our allies” will not continue to lobby against the deal; only Israel will. Now consider the congressional math. To override a presidential veto in the Senate, opponents of the deal will need to find 67 votes. All 54 Republicans seem prepared to vote against the president — many of them gleefully. But 13 Democrats must be prepared to defy their president on a question that will help define his place in history. How many of them would take such a stand if, say, the Saudis and the Emiratis opposed the deal and Israel favored it? How would Chuck Schumer, the New York senator and third-ranking Democrat, vote? Do we even have to ask? (So far, the senator has said only that he plans to “carefully study” the language of the deal.) Such is Schumer’s influence among liberal Democrats that he could single-handedly scuttle the deal by voting against the measure. I have no reason to doubt that Schumer sincerely believes that Kerry might be wrong, and Netanyahu right, about the dire effects that the nuclear deal would have on Israel’s security. And I know that many Israelis, and not just die-hard Likudniks, appear to believe that a military strike on Iran, with all its calamitous consequences, would be better for their security than the agreement Obama has struck. (See, for example, this column in the leftist Haaretz by Ari Shavit, a journalist and the author of the acclaimed My Promised Land.) Maybe Schumer thinks so too. I think that calculus is crazy. But Israelis know their neighborhood a lot better than I do. In any case, because Israel is far more directly threatened by Iran than the United States is, the merits of the case are different for Tel Aviv than for Washington. Each side insists that the other is wrong about its own national security interests, but the truth is that those interests do not exactly coincide. Why should they? Of course Kerry can’t say, “This is a great deal for the United States, even if it’s a slightly less great deal for Israel.” Political reality compels him to sustain the myth that those interests cannot diverge. Nevertheless, I find it offensive that Kerry had to indulge in such contortions in order to demonstrate his bona fides toward Israel. Meanwhile, his “friend” Netanyahu has received the administration’s endless stream of entreaties with contempt — a fact that Kerry not very obliquely acknowledged by referring in his speech to unnamed “people” who “rant and rave” about the agreement, including “the prime minister with a cartoon of a bomb at the U.N.” Yet Kerry and Obama must continue trying to reach Americans who defer to Netanyahu as the arbiter of American national security. Those who say, “I will never choose between Israel and the United States” are being disingenuous. They are choosing. Netanyahu threw down the gauntlet with the Obama administration a long time ago; perhaps he thinks he has nothing left to lose. But that’s almost certainly not true. If 13 Democrats heed the Israeli siren song and the nuclear deal collapses, only a fantasist can believe that Iran will come back for a new and harsher deal or that the United Nations and the European Union will hang tough on sanctions. Instead, Iranian centrifuges will start spinning once again, while Pakistani scientists carrying nuclear blueprints will make clandestine visits to Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu will then take the game one step further by calling for airstrikes against Iranian facilities. If he succeeds — which I doubt — Americans will never forgive Israel for its role in a catastrophic decision. Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that he is perfectly prepared to pay that price. Can Chuck Schumer say the same? I would suggest that his higher obligation would be to protect Israel from its own worst instincts. ** Al Monitor – July 29, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------ ** No Financial, Judicial Control over Israeli Settlement Enterprise (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/israel-netanyahu-settlement-entreprise-financing-inspection.html) ------------------------------------------------------------ By Akiva Eldar Even before world powers signed the nuclear deal with Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already determined that its inspection mechanisms were full of holes. At an air force flight school graduation ceremony on June 25, Netanyahu warned that the “many tens of billions of dollars” that will flow into Iran’s coffers once sanctions are lifted will serve, among other things, to expand its conquests in the Middle East. The issue of the supervision over Iran’s nuclear facilities keeps taking center stage in the campaign Netanyahu is waging against the agreement among members of Congress and the American media. “You don’t have inspections within 24 hours — you have 24 days before you can inspect any site that you find suspicious in Iran,” Netanyahu said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. “Can you imagine giving a drug dealer 24 days’ notice before you check the premises? That’s a lot of time to flush a lot of meth down the toilet.” There’s no doubt that with a country such as Iran, which has gained a deserved reputation for hiding facilities and material that can be used to build nuclear weapons, signing a piece of paper is not enough. Internal operating procedures and external inspection mechanisms are an integral component of any agreement resolving or managing a conflict. Without exception. But it is only fitting that anyone demanding tighter inspections of his neighbor’s backyard take care of his own first. As the Babylonian Talmud says, "Remove the beam from between your eyes" (Arachin 16b), meaning, "Practice what you preach." Every house built in the occupied territories sits on a sufficient amount of dynamite to blow up any chance of ending the conflict with the Palestinians or forging regional peace. The dynamite of the settlement enterprise, established in 1967, is produced without supervision, in violation of international law and often in contravention of Israeli law. Some quarter of a million settlers have joined the 110,000 Jews who lived in the West Bank at the time the Oslo Accord was signed in September 1993. Not only is the government not supervising the implementation of its commitment under the 2003 Road Map to freeze construction in the settlements and dismantle outposts, last week elected Israeli officials promoted a bill legalizing the lawlessness in its backyard. The government’s Legislative Affairs Committee approved on July 19 a proposed bill anchoring the status of the Settlement Division — a department in the World Zionist Organization that serves as one of the state’s central settlement construction arms. Three days later, the Knesset gave the bill preliminary approval by a vote of 65 to 41. The ministers and Knesset members who supported the legislation — including the representatives of the farming communities in the Zionist Camp, Knesset members Eitan Broshi and Danny Atar — ignored the objections of the Ministry of Justice professional cadre to the bill and the pre-election commitment of their party leader, Isaac Herzog, to shut down the Settlement Division if elected prime minister. A legal opinion compiled by Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber, seconded by her boss, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, says that it is counter-procedural to have a nongovernmental operative channel that acts as a state branch and implements government decisions without this channel being fully subjected to proper administrative regulations and framework. The senior legal official said, “There is an inherent concern that this situation could create a kind of backyard for the government to carry out activities not in the framework of the law and could create fertile ground for the development of inherent pathologies." A document issued last November by the Knesset’s Research and Information Center provides a glimpse into one of the most obvious symptoms of this pathology. It reveals that in recent years, the Settlement Division’s annual budget has run to 500-600 million Israeli shekels ($132-158 million) — more than the budget of some government ministries. In 2013, the division’s original budget — approved as part of the annual state budget — was 82.3 million shekels ($22 million). But the budget it was effectively allocated that year amounted to some 653 million shekels ($172 million). In other words, during the year, various Knesset committees approved additional funding to the tune of 570 million shekels ($150 million), or a 670% increase. If one examines the spending increase according to geographic areas, the largest chunk was allotted to the central region, which includes the settlements of the Jordan Valley, the Binyamin Regional Council, the Etzion bloc and Samaria. The budget for this region ballooned by more than 2,000% in 2013 compared to the original sum approved in the state budget. “Such an extensive budget illustrates the power and magnitude, the extent of the authority, and the tremendous scope for promoting and setting policy that has been entrusted to the [Settlement] Division,” Zilber wrote. She recommended that the state take back the authority handed to the division following the 1967 Six-Day War. A similar recommendation is gathering dust in a report on settlement outposts, submitted by state attorney Talia Sasson to the government at then-Prime Minister Sharon’s request in March 2005. Sasson found that the Settlement Division had funded, among other things, illegal outposts, including some erected on private Palestinian land. Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Camp headed at the time a ministerial committee charged with implementing the Sasson report. This week she voted against the new law, calling it “a bill that bypasses the authority of the government’s legal adviser,” and claiming that it was designed to funnel money under the table to the settlements. Minister Ayelet Shaked, who now occupies Livni’s chair at the Ministry of Justice, objected that the government legal adviser and his deputies issue written opinions that contradict the government stance. She reprimanded Zilber for issuing and sending her criticizing opinion to Knesset member Merav Michaeli of the Zionist Camp. This, despite the fact that Zilber's written opinion was in line with statements by the government’s legal adviser eight years ago, by which the Settlement Division should adopt rules similar to the Freedom of Information Law. But, although most of its budget is provided by the public, to this day the Settlement Division is exempt from providing the public with an account of how its funds are spent. And as if this were not enough, the makeup of the Supreme Court, which to a large extent supervises the rule of law and justice in the territories, is about to change. In the newly named judicial appointments panel, the right wing enjoys a majority, including Knesset member Robert Ilatov, who pledges to supervise the lips of Arab candidates to make sure they mumble the words of the national anthem describing the “yearning of the Jewish soul." Ilatov told Israeli Army radio, "A judge who cannot sing Hatikvah cannot rule on cases in Israel." Left-wing organizations and human rights activists remain the main source of information about the settlement enterprise. The government wishes to silence that information channel too. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely is demanding that European states that donate funds to those organizations establish a supervision mechanism for the funding of Israeli nongovernmental organizations. She threatens that if they refuse, the government will advance proposed legislation that has been prepared. Really. Who gave nongovernmental organization Peace Now permission to reveal to the world two weeks ago that the civil administration secretly allocated 300 dunams (74 acres) for the expansion of the settlement of Efrat in the heart of the West Bank? How dare B’tselem document settler harassment of Palestinian farmers. How come Yesh Din activists report on the lack of government enforcement against Israelis living on land that Israel rules by force? Israelis do not submit to supervision. ============================================================ 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. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, All rights reserved. YOU ARE RECEIVING THIS EMAIL BECAUSE YOU SIGNED UP FOR OUR NEWS UPDATES. ** unsubscribe from this list (http://centerpeace.us7.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=232a4a45176fccacab865e520&id=929d521884&e=a7f9100a75&c=5306cc69ec) ** update subscription preferences (http://centerpeace.us7.list-manage.com/profile?u=232a4a45176fccacab865e520&id=929d521884&e=a7f9100a75)