podesta_email_00046.txt

podesta-emails 2,932 words email

P19 V11 D4 V16 D3

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Israel and the Middle East News Update ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Tuesday, August 5 ------------------------------------------------------------ Headlines: * Israel Withdraws Troops, 72-Hour Gaza Truce Begins * Netanyahu Applauds Destruction of Gaza Tunnels, But Still Wary of Threat * U.S. Diplomacy on Gaza Has Little Sway on Israel * Palestinian FM Seeks War Crimes Case Against Israel at ICC * Hamas: We Destroyed Israel's Deterrence * Gaza Minister: War Caused $5 Billion Worth of Damage * Lieberman Slams Plan to Involve Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza * Obama Signs Funding Package for Israel's Iron Dome Commentary: * Washington Post: “Time for Netanyahu to Make Peace in Gaza" - By David Ignatius * Financial Times: “Arab Turmoil Makes Israel Reckless and Complacent” - By Gideon Rachman ** Reuters ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Israel Withdraws Troops, 72-Hour Gaza Truce Begins (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/05/us-mideast-gaza-idUSKBN0G008720140805) ------------------------------------------------------------ Israel pulled its ground forces out of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and started a 72-hour ceasefire with Hamas mediated by Egypt as a first step towards negotiations on a more enduring end to the month-old war. Minutes before the truce began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT), Hamas launched a salvo of rockets, calling them revenge for Israel's "massacres". Israel's anti-missile system shot down one rocket over Jerusalem, police said. Another hit a house in a town near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. There were no casualties. Israeli armour and infantry withdrew from the Gaza Strip ahead of the truce, with a military spokesman saying their main goal of destroying cross-border infiltration tunnels had been completed. "Mission accomplished," the military tweeted. See also, “IDF troops leaving Gaza: 'We'll be back again'” (Ynet News) (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4554564,00.html) ** Jerusalem Post ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Netanyahu Applauds Destruction of Gaza Tunnels (http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Netanyahu-applauds-destruction-of-Gaza-tunnels-but-says-no-guarantee-of-100-percent-success-370106) , But Still Wary of Threat ------------------------------------------------------------ Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement Tuesday praising the IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) for neutralizing the terror tunnels from Gaza, but reiterated that there is no guarantee of 100 percent success. “This was a complicated action taken by heroic soldiers under difficult combat conditions,” Netanyahu said. He said the tunnels' destruction harmed a strategic Hamas weapon in which they invested tremendously over the years. The tunnels would have allowed Hamas to kidnap and murder numerous civilians and IDF soldiers in simultaneous attacks from a number of different tunnels that penetrated into Israel. ** New York Times ------------------------------------------------------------ ** U.S. Diplomacy on Gaza Has Little Sway on Israel (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/world/middleeast/gaza-is-straining-us-ties-to-israel.html?_r=0) ------------------------------------------------------------ When the State Department condemned Israel’s strike on a United Nations school in Gaza on Sunday, saying it was “appalled” by this “disgraceful” act, it gave full vent to what has been weeks of mounting American anger toward the Israeli government. The blunt, unsparing language — among the toughest diplomats recall ever being aimed at Israel — lays bare a frustrating reality for the Obama administration: the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has largely dismissed diplomatic efforts by the United States to end the violence in Gaza, leaving American officials to seethe on the sidelines about what they regard as disrespectful treatment. ** Reuters ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Hard-Liner Rivlin to Become Israel's Next President ------------------------------------------------------------ Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said there was "clear evidence" of war crimes by Israel during its offensive in Gaza as he met International Criminal Court prosecutors on Tuesday to push for an investigation. Malki visited The Hague shortly after Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement that rules Gaza entered a 72-hour truce mediated by Egypt in an effort to pave the way for an extended ceasefire. ** Ynet News ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Hamas: We Destroyed Israel's Deterrence (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4555136,00.html) ------------------------------------------------------------ Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Tuesday that one of the main results of the operation was "the destruction of Israeli deterrence." "The Palestinian people now have confidence in their ability to stand firm and fight," he added. Meanwhile, Hamas officials told Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar on Tuesday that "despite the fact the al-Qassam Brigades are bound by the ceasefire, they won't be afraid to respond to any infiltration or ground operation, even if it requires operating beyond the border." Hamas official Ismail Radwan said the Islamist movement agreed to a ceasefire "on the condition the other side fills all of its terms and stops all forms of aggression in the Gaza Strip." ** Times of Israel ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Gaza Minister: War Caused $5 Billion Worth of Damage (http://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-minister-war-caused-5-billion-worth-of-damage/) ------------------------------------------------------------ Gaza minister accused Israel of causing over $5 billion worth of damage in the Gaza Strip since its military launched a large offensive there on July 8, Palestinian media reported. Mufeed al-Hasayneh, the minister of public works, said tens of thousands of homes had been completely or partially destroyed, and that infrastructure in the Strip had sustained severe damage as well, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported Monday. “The three areas that have undergone the most intense destruction are Shejaiya, Beit Hanoun, and Abasan,” Hasayneh said. ** Ha'aretz ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Lieberman Slams Plan to Involve Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza (http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.608970) ------------------------------------------------------------ Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is opposed to integrating Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas into any arrangement in the Gaza Strip following the cease-fire. Lieberman presented this stance at a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on Monday, a senior Israeli official said. "To think of Abu Mazen [Abbas] as an ally in the Gaza Strip is a serious mistake," Lieberman said during the meeting. "Abu Mazen may act against Hamas in Gaza, but he also acts against us in the international forums. It is he who pushed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to establish a commission of inquiry and he who is pushing for processes against us in the UN Security Council in New York." ** Ynet News ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Obama Signs Funding Package for Israel's Iron Dome (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4555008,00.html) ------------------------------------------------------------ President Barack Obama signed a bill Monday granting an additional $225 million in US taxpayer dollars for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. The defense system has been highly effective in the current round of violence between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. It allows Israel's military to shoot down incoming rockets or mortars headed toward major population centers in Israel. Israeli officials say it has a success rate as high as 90 percent. The US has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for Iron Dome in the past. The new package is intended to replenish Israel's capabilities. ** Washington Post – August 4, 2014 ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Time for Netanyahu to Make Peace in Gaza ------------------------------------------------------------ By David Ignatius Now it’s Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s turn to show that he has the vision and leadership to build a durable cease-fire that could empower Palestinian moderates and begin building a pathway from the hell on earth that is Gaza. Many people, including me, sharply criticized U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry a week ago for seeking a quick Gaza cease-fire that would have strengthened Hamas and its allies, Qatar and Turkey. Hamas didn’t deliver, the fighting resumed and the process had the effect of undermining moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Kerry was widely attacked, especially in Israel. Kerry isn’t the problem today, however. Over the past week, he has been crafting a cease-fire plan that seeks to stabilize Gaza under the leadership of Abbas and the moderate Palestinian Authority. After an initial truce, negotiators would gather in Egypt for talks about Gaza’s future. Abbas would select the members of the Palestinian delegation, and the authority (with the support of the international community) would have overall responsibility for the rehabilitation of Gaza. The Palestinian delegation is already in Cairo, waiting for the talks to begin. It’s headed by Azzam al-Ahmad, a leader of Abbas’s Fatah movement and the person who brokered the reconciliation agreement in April between Fatah and Hamas. Israel wants quiet in Gaza, but it seems undecided now whether it wants to negotiate a broader peace agreement. The Israelis agreed to a cease-fire Monday, and there were news reports that the country had agreed to an additional 72-hour truce. But the cabinet had reportedly decided over the weekend against joining the Cairo talks. Hopefully, Netanyahu will seek a broader deal that might reduce the likelihood of future conflict. The thrust of Kerry’s new plan is to leverage Hamas’s unity pact with Fatah and its pledge to transfer authority in Gaza to the authority. As a first step, the Palestinian Authority and its U.S.-trained security service would assume responsibility for policing the Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt, as well as the passages into Israel. That’s a big deal, as it would give Abbas’s security chief, Majid Faraj, control over the most strategic ground in Gaza. The authority would begin paying the salaries of Palestinian civil servants in Gaza, assuming that the details could be worked out. The agreement might also move toward disarmament of all terrorist groups in Gaza by building on a promise Hamas made in a 2011 unity plan that the Palestinian Authority’s security service would be the only armed force in Gaza. This would also uphold Abbas’s insistence on “one government, one law, one gun.” In all these ways, Kerry is now headed in the right direction — away from strengthening Hamas and toward empowering the moderates on whom hopes for a more stable and secure Gaza depend. The question is whether Netanyahu has the courage and political clout to move in the same direction, toward a new framework for Gaza, rather than return to the battered status quo ante — with continued Hamas rule and the recurring wars that some Israelis have described as “mowing the lawn.” It will be hard for the Israeli leader to embrace this new vision for Gaza because he would have to reverse his earlier opposition to the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement, which he denounced as an embrace by Abbas of Hamas’s terrorist ideology. Netanyahu would also have to be prepared to truly open Gaza to the free flow of people and goods in return for disarming the terrorist groups. Netanyahu faces a real leadership dilemma. He has prevailed over Hamas and its tunnels in Gaza, albeit at a terrible cost to Palestinian civilians. But his popularity at home is dropping, with his approval ratings down 20 points from their peak of 82 percent when he ordered the ground invasion. Though Netanyahu may not realize it, he needs Kerry’s diplomatic help to consolidate the gains of the war. The question is whether the Israeli leader has the boldness to leverage his military success in a way that brings greater lasting security for Israelis, and reduces the Palestinian suffering in Gaza. Israel’s continued refusal to attend the peace talks in Cairo would mean returning to the status quo ante and waiting for the next round of fighting. It would be a mistake. Netanyahu could open new opportunities by treating Abbas as a real partner — starting by helping him to gain control of Gaza. Netanyahu can go down in history as the statesman who achieved greater security for Israelis as well as a measure of dignity for Arabs. History shows us that in the aftermath of Arab-Israeli wars, there are rare opportunities for diplomacy. Kerry, stung by the criticism that his peacemaking was helping Hamas a week ago, appears ready for such a creative moment now. Is Netanyahu? ** Financial Times – August 4, 2014 ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Arab Turmoil Makes Israel Reckless and Complacent ------------------------------------------------------------ By Gideon Rachman When last week I saw a White House spokesman say that Israel’s bombing of a UN school was “totally indefensible”, I briefly thought that I had witnessed something new. Surely the Americans had never before been that strong in condemning Israel? But a colleague with a longer memory reminded me that Israel’s siege of west Beirut in 1982 had provoked President Ronald Reagan (yes, Reagan) to telephone Menachem Begin, the Israeli prime minister, and accuse him of perpetrating a “holocaust”. There is nothing new about Israeli military action killing hundreds of civilians. There is also nothing new about the international outcry it provokes. In the 32 years since Reagan called Begin, the Berlin Wall has fallen, the Soviet Union has collapsed, China has been transformed, apartheid has ended and the internet has revolutionised communication. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has rolled ever onwards – with two intifadas, three invasions of Gaza, further wars in Lebanon and innumerable failed peace initiatives. While the Israelis and the Palestinians remain locked in bloody conflict, however, the region around them is changing fast. For the moment, those changes are actually making Israel less vulnerable to international condemnation. In the longer term, shifts in global power suggest that Israel’s future will be bleak, particularly if it does not make peace with the Palestinians. For now, Israel is benefiting from the fact that the Arab world, which has acted as the chief advocate for the Palestinians in previous conflicts, is ripping itself apart. Syria and Iraq are engulfed by conflict, and Libya is in turmoil. The Egyptian government itself has killed hundreds of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo and regards Hamas as an offshoot of the Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia, the other big power in the Arab world, is also deeply hostile to Hamas. Outside the region, geopolitical shifts are taking the edge off the anti-Israel backlash. The governments of Russia, India and China are deeply concerned about the threat of radical Islam at home. Last week more than 100 people were killed in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, after fighting provoked by Muslim separatists. Russia also has 20m Muslim citizens and, after waging two brutal wars in Chechnya, is paranoid about Islamist militancy. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is a Hindu nationalist, who himself is accused of connivance in anti-Muslim violence. These political shifts are not reflected in official diplomacy. China, Russia and India voted in favour of an investigation of possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza, at the recent session of the UN Human Rights council. (EU countries abstained and the US voted against.) But there is something formulaic about the condemnation. An Israeli official says that in high-level meetings between Israeli and Chinese leaders, the Chinese spent “roughly 20 seconds” on Palestine. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia get on famously. Yet while Israel’s traditional enemies are becoming less hostile, its allies are becoming less friendly. The relationship between Mr Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama is chilly – and some Israeli officials are openly contemptuous of John Kerry, the US secretary of state. Opinion polls in the US also suggest that young people are much less sympathetic to Israel than older groups are. However, such shifts may take decades to filter through into US policy. Israel’s position in Washington is deeply entrenched. The US Senate voted unanimously to support the Gaza assault and the Obama administration has combined its condemnation of Israeli actions with continued aid and arms sales. Many European leaders are openly appalled by Israel’s actions in Gaza and Europe’s large Muslim population has been at the forefront of anti-Israel demonstrations. But Europe’s Muslims are an often marginalised and unpopular group. Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, has condemned anti-Semitic demonstrations which he says have fused the “Palestinian cause, jihadism, the detestation of Israel and the hatred of France”. Any such fusion helps Israel because it reduces sympathy for the Palestinians. Israel has long been concerned about the possibility of EU sanctions. But the measures under discussion, for example banning imports from illegal Israeli settlements, would be largely symbolic in their impact. Surveying this global picture, Israel seems to have decided that it can afford to ignore international condemnation of the Gaza war. That calculation may prove correct, as far as the current conflict is concerned. But the political shifts that are now helping Israel look much more ominous in the long run. Turmoil in the Arab world may briefly have produced a constellation of forces that is helpful to Israel. But that situation could easily change. And some of the rising forces in the region – most obviously Isis in Iraq – make Hamas look moderate. More broadly, a relative decline in US power is bad news for a country that is, in cultural terms, an outpost of the west. America’s willingness to entangle itself in Middle Eastern conflicts is declining. That means that, long term, Israel’s security can only be guaranteed by achieving peace with its neighbours. Reducing Gaza to rubble and killing hundreds of civilians every few years makes that prospect ever more distant. But a security-obsessed Israeli government, backed by an ever more rightwing public, seems to have given up thinking about the long term. ============================================================ S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 ** www.centerpeace.org (http://www.centerpeace.org) 2014 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=c4d27aca85) ** update subscription preferences (http://centerpeace.us7.list-manage.com/profile?u=232a4a45176fccacab865e520&id=929d521884&e=a7f9100a75)