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1. Biden Condemns Construction Project in Israel's Capital
by Hana Levi Julian
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden flatly condemned a years-old city construction project in Israel's capital late Tuesday, saying it is “undermining the trust” needed to jump-start final status talks with the Palestinian Authority.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem,”
Biden said in a prepared statement. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here in Israel.”
The term “proximity talks” is the new phrase that refers to final status negotiations between Israel and the PA, so called because the Obama administration will now be serving as an intermediary. PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and his aides have refused to meet for direct talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other top government officials and have gone back to the pre Oslo Agreements way of "speaking" to Israel.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also slammed the government's approval of the project, issuing a statement Wednesday that said “the settlement activity is contrary to Israel's obligations under the Roadmap, and undermines any movement towards a viable peace process.”
The Speaker of the Knesset, MK Ruby Rivlin, reacted by supporting Israel's right to build in Jerusalem, as did other right wing MK's.
According to the Interior Ministry, which also issued a statement Tuesday night, the authorization for the project, a plan by the Jerusalem District Planning Committee to build 1,600 housing units in eastern Jerusalem, was routine. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the announcement had been an ordinary "procedural matter," and not a deliberate attempt to insult Biden or anyone else. He added that although Jerusalem is not part of the building freeze announced by Netanyahu in November, so that the building will take place in the nation's capital, the timing was regrettable and he would have delayed the announcement had he been aware it was coming up. The opposition Kadima party condemned the decision.
The project, slated for the hareidi-religious neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, had been on the table for more than three years, did not require approval of the prime minister, and has been submitted for public comment – a 60-day process. It is still subject to final approval, and still must be reviewed by the committee. If after that process it passes muster, the project will extend the existing neighborhood by adding an access road from the west, upgrading the current entrance road, and adding apartments on the southeastern side. Many of the apartments are meant for public housing. Each apartment will be approximately 120 square meters (1,290 square feet). The total project will comprise some 580 dunams (143 acres).
The Interior Ministry said in its statement that Netanyahu had been unaware of the plan and its timing.
Biden's statement was issued at the close of his second day in the region on a visit that was promoted primarily as confidence-building mission meant to emphasize America's support for Israel. “There is no space between us,” Biden told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during their meeting in Jerusalem on Monday.
The prime minister responded by telling journalists following their two-hour meeting that the American vice president was “a real friend to me, and a real friend to Israel and to the Jewish people.” Biden is the latest in a parade of American officials to arrive in Israel in recent weeks on a mission to keep the Netanyahu administration in line with American policy on Iran and talks with the PA.
Last November, Netanyahu responded to pressure from the White House by authorizing a freeze on construction in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. However, he was unwilling to extend that freeze to the neighborhoods of Jerusalem that were restored to the capital following the 1967 Six Day War -- a point of contention with the PA which has refused to resume talks with Israel unless the freeze is declared permanent and includes Jerusalem.
2. UN Sappers Enter Gaza
by Hana Levi Julian
United Nations sappers entered Gaza Wednesday morning to find and explode the duds remaining from last year's counter-terrorist IDF Operation Cast Lead.
The team entered under the authorization of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Terroritories (CoGAT), Maj.-Gen. Eitan Danot.
The Erez Crossing is the portal through which Palestinian Authority Arab residents of Gaza pass in order to travel to hospitals and other medical facilities in pre-1967 Israel and in PA areas of Judea and Samaria.
The UN bomb disposal team will be operating in Gaza for the next few months, “during which explosions may be heard in the area of Gaza,” according to the IDF Spokesperson's Office. “The activity's main goal is to prevent harm to Gaza's residents."
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi gave his approval yesterday for the UN team to enter Gaza via the Erez Crossing.
The chief of staff is currently in the United States, where he met Tuesday for an hour and a half with the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen. On Monday Ashkenazi met with U.S. Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman for talks on the nuclear threat from Iran, issues regarding Syria and Hizbullah, and strategic relations between Israel and the United States.
3. Call to Demote Arab MK as Knesset Speaker
by Hillel Fendel
MK Michael Ben-Ari demands that Arab MK Ahmed Tibi be suspended from his position as Deputy Knesset Speaker after he called pre-State Jewish heroes “terrorists.”
Ben-Ari, of the National Union party, has sent an urgent request to MK Yariv Levin ( Likud), chairman of the Knesset House Committee, to hold a session on the matter and vote on Tibi’s suspension.
The incident occurred during the special Knesset session on Tuesday honoring the memories of the 13 Olei HaGardom – lit., those who ascended the Gallows – who were executed by the pre-State British Mandatory regime during the struggle for Israel's independence. The 13 were killed between 1938 and 1947, though two of them, Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani, blew themselves up just moments before they were to be hanged. Present at the ceremony were families of the heroes and many other guest, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch.
In the middle of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech, Tibi yelled out, “Why are they being honored? These are heroes – or terrorists?"
Tibi: I Achieved My Goal
Interviewed Wednesday morning on Army Radio, Tibi said he arrived at the special Knesset session for only one purpose - to make the above point. When asked by interviewer Razi Barkai why he has not protested the Palestinian Authority's plans to name a central Ramallah square after a terrorist, Tibi became slightly flustered and said, "I didn't know I was coming here to discuss the Palestinian Authority," and did not answer the question.
Ben-Ari noted that Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin reminded Tibi that the accepted rule is that heckling and interruptions are not acceptable during ceremonious sessions, yet Tibi continued screaming just the same, “calling our national heroes ‘terrorists,’ until Rivlin was forced to expel him from the session."
“Given the above,” Ben-Ari wrote, “one who violates the Knesset rules while insulting our national heroes has lost his legitimacy to serve as Deputy Speaker – a position in which he demands of others to abide by the rules that he himself violates! … In addition, the Speaker serves as substitute for the President of Israel, and the Deputy Speaker serves as substitute for the Speaker. Is it conceivable that in some type of hypothetical circumstances, one who so disgraces our national heroes should serve as President and/or Speaker?!”
4. Israel Partnering in Africa Against Terror
by Malkah Fleisher
Israel is increasing its partnership in Africa, united with factions which are battling fundamentalist Islam.
Following February talks between Israel and the Kenyan government in which the African country requested Israeli assistance in fighting terror, Israel and Kenya may form a joint force to guard against the entry of terrorists through the northern Kenyan border with Somalia.
In addition, Israel has reportedly expressed an interest in being the first country to recognize the autonomous province of Somaliland as a country, according to a report in Somaliland's Golis News. Somaliland broke away from Somalia – Kenya's eastern neighbor – in 1991, rebelling against Somalian military dictator Siad Barre.
A positive relationship with Somaliland could have important geo-military significance for Israel, due to the province's position at the northeastern tip of Africa, on the southern bank of the Gulf of Aden. Somaliland's northern coast is located just south of the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.
A deputy leader of al-Qaeda recently announced the terror group's aim to re-enforce Somali militants in order to turn Somaliland into a bastion of Islamic fundamentalism and hamper the ability of Israeli vessels to sail south out of the Red Sea. He said al-Qaeda wants to put Bab al-Mandab "under the protection of Islam," according to a report by the al-Malahim Establishment for Media Production.
The Somali press has also reported that Israel may establish an outpost at the port of Berbera in Somaliland, to guard the entrance to the Red Sea.
Up until now, Somaliland – which is overwhelmingly populated by Sunni Muslims – has been unable to receive any kind of foreign aid, development assistance, or military equipment because of a lack of international recognition.
5. Judea & Samaria: Emergency Refuge for the Central Region
by Hana Levi Julian
The IDF has taken a second look at the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria, with an eye towards their use in wartime, specifically as a refuge site. During a recent military exercise conducted by the IDF Central Command, top brass looked at the option of moving Israel's population in an emergency from the central region to communities in Judea and Samaria. So says Avi Roeh, head of the Binyamin Regional Council.
Roeh told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news magazine this week the IDF had discussed the possibility with the Binyamin Council, which explored the option with the communities themselves. “We found that within the settlements there are warm and good people who are ready and willing to take in fellow citizens," he said.
“The state, Home Front Command and the National Emergency Authority understand that such an absorption process would be part of the preparation for evacuation of large communities,” Roeh added. “The communities themselves would also need assistance, and officials examined housing options for operations and support. It is important that everything come from the establishment, and not be volunteer-based.”
Roeh noted that thousands of families could be involved in such a move, though he did not give specific numbers.
The Binyamin Regional Council has been busy in recent months, demanding to be involved in the planning for the new Palestinian Authority city that is to be built in the region in the near future. The city, Rawabi, which is to be located in Area A (under total PA control), is considered by many Jewish residents in the area to be a looming security threat.
“There is not much we can do about this,” admitted Ro'eh, “but we at least have insisted on being involved in the plans." He added that there are concerns of terror attacks against Jews on roads in the area, and damage to the delicate ecology in the region. “We have asked the Civil Administration, which is entrusted with accompanying the construction of this city, to involve us in the plans, but we have received no response. They apparently have their reasons...”
"The authorities are worried about the fabric of life in the Palestinian Authority," Roeh said, "but meanwhile the quality of Jewish life in the area continually deteriorates, whether it be on the roads [due to fears of attacks] or because of the construction freeze."
Roeh agrees with those who fear that the freeze may last far longer than the 10-month span originally set forth by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In order to prevent such a scenario, he added, he and other officials are appealing to Knesset Members and government ministers to ensure “there will be a push for construction as soon as this period ends.”
6. Talks with Syria? Turkey Says Israel Agreed but Israel Denies
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reported by Turkish television as saying Israel accepted a resumption of mediated talks between the Jewish state and Syria. The office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a diplomatic denial of the report but added that Israel is “considering” the offer, which has been made several times.
Erdogan's reportedly emphatic statement that Israel accepted his proposal may have been timed with the visit of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who arrived in Israel Monday evening. Erdogan was said to have made his remarks to reporters in Saudi Arabia.
Turkey mediated secret talks between Syrian and the government of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but the talks were suspended following the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign against Hamas terrorists.
Relations gone sour
Turkey had long been considered a rare and long-time friendly nation in the region, but relations have soured dramatically over the past year. At the same time, Erdogan has warmed up to Iran and Syria while repeatedly condemning Israel to the point of rejecting the deep Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem and Hevron. They "will forever be Islamic and will never be part of the Jewish heritage," Erdogan said in a recent interview with a Saudi newspaper. He also referred to his “brothers in Hamas, wherever they are.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu said in September that he would resume talks, either direct or indirect, with Syria if Damascus dropped pre-conditions. However, he added that if a mediator is involved, he must be "impartial and unbiased,” and specifically mentioned that France would be an acceptable country to host discussions.
Turkey slighted Israel again this week by refusing to accept an offer of aid for victims of an earthquake in the eastern part of the country. A decade ago, when relations were friendlier, Israel sent and aid and rescue team of 250 personnel and a field hospital to help after a savage earthquake that killed 18,000 people.
7. World Learning Counter-Terrorism from Israel
by Yoni Kempinski
The Israeli International Institute for Counter-Terrorism hosted a group of 90 senior officers from around the world for a special seminar.
The officers, who are students at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, heard lectures from a range of experts including former Israeli army commanders, intelligence officers and members of government. Their visit is part of a field studies tour in the Marshall Center's Program on Terrorism and Security Studies.
Arutz Sheva TV spoke with Dr. John J. Le Beau, the trip leader and an instructor at the Marshall Center, and Artem Kroupenev, a researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
