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1. Clinton and Mitchell Bring Talks to Jerusalem Wednesday
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The American-mediated talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt got off to a rocky start Tuesday morning but concluded in the early afternoon without any disruptions. More talks are scheduled in Jerusalem and Ramallah Wednesday.
U.S. envoy George Mitchell kept up an optimistic tone after the three-way discussions between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and American officials U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mitchell.
He said that both Israel and the PA are making efforts to advance the "diplomatic process." Regarding the building freeze that Abbas wants extended, Mitchell said it would be helpful if Israel accepts the demand but that both sides will have to decide on how to work out the disagreement.
Al Jazeera said the dispute before the meeting concerned differences between Israeli and PA negotiators. It did not specify the issue of contention, but Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu have been at odds over the PA demand for an extension of the 10-month moratorium on building new homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria.
Israeli officials denied that the delay was due to a disagreement, but it was reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu was incensed over PA officials' threats to walk out of the discussions if their demands were not met.
The day began with Prime Minister Netanyahu talking with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before sitting down with Clinton, prior to the three-way meeting with Abbas. Clinton placed Israel at a disadvantage before she arrived, telling reporters on her plane en route to Egypt that Israel should extend the freeze.
Israel caved in to American pressure last November when it instituted the freeze, the condition that Abbas imposed before he would agree to sit down with Israel for talks on establishing the PA as a country. However, he continued to avoid direct discussions, saying that the freeze was not total.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said last week that Abbas’ time "has run out” and there is no reason to give him another chance.
Abbas also has refused to accept Israel’s insistence that he recognize Israel as a Jewish State. Prime Minister Netanyahu told the Cabinet Sunday morning that he hears the expression” two states but not ”two peoples.”
2. US Poll: Abbas Not Committed to Peace
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A new poll by the non-partisan Israel Project shows most Americans believe Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is committed to peace and that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is not.
The Israel Project (TIP) describes itself as “an international non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace.”
The survey was released one day before Israel and PA leaders convened at Sharm el-Sheikh, where American-mediated discussions began Tuesday morning, with no expectations other than official statements describing optimism. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Middle East envoy George Mitchell are attending the one-day talks, which are scheduled to move to Jerusalem and Ramallah on Wednesday.
By a six-to-one margin of 61-11, Americans think that Israel is more committed than PA Arabs to a peace agreement. The poll did not explain why support for Israel has grown from only 51 percent backing for Israel in a poll last July. However, mass media have increasingly reported Abbas’ refusal to offer any compromises to Israel while refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish country.
Fifty-five percent of the respondents said they generally support Israel, and only 9 percent stated they back the Palestinian Authority.
A breakdown of the respondents' political opinions revealed that a small majority describe themselves as “moderate/liberal.” Their preferences in the 2008 presidential elections were evenly split between Barack Obama and John McCain.
The respondents also overwhelmingly said that crossings to Hamas-controlled Gaza should not be opened without Israeli inspection.
3. US Zionist Leader Challenges TIME to Debate
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) president Morton Klein challenges TIME magazine’s managing editor to a debate over its cover story, “Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace.”
The TIME essay by Karl Vick depicted a Star of David and totally ignored the Palestinian Authority, which by all accounts outside of the Arab world has been steadfast in refusing any compromise on demands that include Israel's sovereignty over the Western Wall (Kotel), all of the Old City and opening the gates to several million foreign Arabs claiming Israel as home by ancestry.
After angry protests called TIME anti-Semitic and demanded an apology, a CNN blog stated, “Arutz Sheva… published an opinion piece [by Prof. Phyllis Chesler] on the TIME story calling it a ‘blood libel’ against Israel and evidence that the magazine and "countless other media in the Western world, can no longer be trusted to tell the truth." Vick's article drew sharp criticism from a wide spectrum of sources, including The Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens.
Klein called the article “wretched” and accused Vick of “falsely claiming Israel doesn’t care about peace, while ignoring the reality of Palestinians having repeatedly rejected every extraordinary peace deal Israel has offered. Not only do they reject peace offers, they also responded with terror and more incitement against Israel and Jews.”
He challenged Vick or TIME managing editor Richard Stengel to a “public debate on the subject of whether the Israelis or the Palestinians have shown little interest in a peace deal.” TIME has not responded, but the author stated on the CNN blog, the story was "meant to be provocative and intrigue. There is always debate and criticism of anything that challenges conventional wisdom. It was apparent to me that life here is really good and when security is good there is no urgency."
Klein charged, “The cover and the article are a malicious depiction of Israelis as a people more interested in making money and enjoying material pleasures than in concluding a peace agreement with the Palestinians. To prove its bogus thesis, TIME Magazine primarily relied on the words of two Israeli real estate agents, a left-wing columnist, a left-wing academic and a few others, while totally ignoring Palestinian Authority (PA) lack of interest in peace.”
Klein (pictured), in his challenge to a debate, said the journalist “unsubtly” introduced “traditionally anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews being preoccupied with money at the cost of human virtues – ‘they’re otherwise engaged; they’re making money, they’re enjoying the rays of the late summer’ and preaches to the Israelis – ‘don’t Israelis know that finding peace with the Palestinians is the only way to guarantee their happiness and prosperity?’ The article shows picture after picture of Israelis enjoying themselves in cafes and lying on sunny beaches.
“This anti-Semitic and misleading cover and article plumbs new depths in TIME Magazine’s long-running, historic bigotry towards Israel. The ZOA demands an apology and retraction of this story which ignores all the concessions Israel has made to the Palestinians, including giving away half of Judea and Samaria, all of Gaza and agreeing to the recent 10-month construction freeze.
“During this period, there have been no Palestinian concessions, no fulfillment of its signed agreements to arrest terrorists, outlaw terrorist groups and end incitement to hatred and murder against Israelis and, until last week, a refusal to even negotiate. Meanwhile, the PA honors and lauds terrorists. But Karl Vick dishonestly withheld all this from his readers.
“On the very day negotiations between Israel and the PA commenced in Washington, D.C., the PA ambassador to Iran said that the PA will continue its war on Israel until ‘the complete eradication of the fabricated regime in due course’; another PA minister threatened war if Israel does not return to its ‘owners’ Jerusalem, which he described as ‘Palestinian … throughout history’ while another PA minister honored the families of dead terrorists and accused Israel of harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians.’
“Instead, Mr. Vick praises the PA for ‘taking a serious stab at governance, starting by professionalizing the security forces.’ ... He also didn’t tell his readers that in January, when Fatah terrorists murdered an Israeli in a similar roadside assault, the PA praised the terrorists as martyrs and heroes while condemning their killing by Israeli forces and that Salam Fayyad personally paid condolence calls on the terrorists’ families."
4. Ahmadinejad Welcome at UN Nuclear Talks
by Elad Benari
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to attend next week’s UN meeting next week aimed at reviving stalled global disarmament talks.
"The schedule has not been firmly set, but I understand [Ahmadinejad] is going to participate in the high-level meeting on disarmament," said Ban during a monthly news conference, and added that he had received a request from the Iranian President for a bilateral meeting while the Iranian president is in town. He did not discuss Iran's nuclear facilities and UN sanctions.
That meeting is scheduled for September 24, during the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders in New York.
The UN Conference on Disarmament was created in 1978 and negotiated biological and chemical weapons conventions. However, the Conference has not been active for the last 12 years since its members could not agree on priorities. The September 24 summit will be the first time since 1998 that the Conference has met.
However, an historical meeting between Ahmadinejad and US President Barack Obama is unlikely to occur during the summit, as a US official told Reuters that Obama is unlikely to take part in the disarmament talks, since he will be participating in a UN summit meeting on Sudan and other meetings on that day. It is unclear as of yet who will be representing the US in the summit.
The US recently tightened its sanctions on Iran in an attempt to discourage its nuclear program. The sanctions penalize companies that sell gasoline to Iran or that do business with it.
The UN Security Council also recently imposed a fourth round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. These sanctions include a ban on Iran's purchasing heavy weapons such as attack helicopters and missiles, as well as tougher rules on financial transactions with Iran's banks.
Last week’s report by the IAEA said that Iran continues to snub the UN and has produced 2.8 tons of enriched uranium. The report added that Iran refuses to allow UN inspectors into the country and noted that it recently took away the rights of two experienced inspectors to monitor Iran’s nuclear projects after they reported that Iran conducted undeclared nuclear experiments.
The report said that the "repeated objection by Iran to the designation of inspectors with experience in Iran's nuclear fuel cycle and facilities hampers the inspection process.”
Iran has rejected the allegations regarding its nuclear program, having repeatedly accused the US, Britain and France of double standards, since they allow Israel to have nuclear weapons and at the same time try to stop other countries from owning such weapons.
5. Saudi Sheikh Tries to Buy Israeli Land Using Straw Men
by Elad Benari
A common concern within Israel is that Arab tycoons from the Gulf as well as Arabs from other countries around the world will try to purchase lands in Israel from farmers who are undergoing financial difficulties. According to Roni Cohen, head of the Yavne’el Local Council in Northern Israel, this concern might be more real than originally thought.
During an interview with Arutz 7 on Monday, Cohen described a visit he received from a Jew who presented himself as a real estate agent seeking to buy some lands from the Galilee town of Yavne’el. Only after long inquiries by Cohen was the agent’s true purpose revealed: he was seeking to purchase lands in the name of a Saudi sheikh who wishes to “reclaim lands” [from the infidels, ed.] as the agent put it.
“Approximately four years ago, I was visited by a Jewish gentleman,” said Cohen. “He sat down in my office and presented himself as a wealthy real estate agent who is seeking to purchase lands. He said he would like to purchase hundreds of acres of land, no matter what they have been designated for. He wanted to purchase whatever was available.”
Cohen said that during the course of the conversation, the so-called “real estate agent” proceeded to offer a bribe. “All of a sudden he told me, ‘I can make you a rich man.’ I asked him, ‘What do you mean? I have enough money.’ He told me that he could make me a rich man and that he had more than enough money to do so. ‘Listen’, he said, ‘we’re talking about big money. You will be a rich man.’ I continued to question him and then he told me that he is a representative of Sheikh from Saudi Arabia who redeems land.”
Cohen removed the agent from his office. He added, however, that he knows of attempts by the same individual as well as others to buy lands in places such as Kfar Tavor, Yesud HaMa’ala, and other northern towns. “I heard that he was successful in Rosh Pinna and in Merhavia, but I’m not certain [if this is true],” said Cohen, and added that the offers that were received were in sums that were “twice or even three times higher than the price [of the lands]. It is a huge temptation for those who are undergoing financial difficulties.”
Cohen explained that since the lands of Yavne’el and other communities in the region are private lands, it becomes difficult to determine the identity of the financial investor behind each acquisition. He added that the heads of the local councils in the region have gotten together, and when one of them becomes aware of a similar attempt to acquire lands by a foreign factor, they share the information in order to warn one another.
According to Cohen, these Arab buyers have so far managed to purchase lands in several places, and that these lands are now registered “in the name of an Islamic organization that most likely belongs to a northern branch of the Islamic Movement.”
He emphasized that as it stands today, there is no way of preventing the purchaser from doing whatever he wishes with the land he acquires. “This is a national issue that must be dealt with by the Knesset,” said Cohen. “We must find a solution to it before we lose this country. These ‘straw men’ earn hundreds of thousands of dollars on each transaction but are selling the state along the way.” He added that he believes that the greatest constitutional problem to this issue will be the legal principle of equality, under which any Israeli citizen has an equal right to make any type of purchase.
6. Video: Airport Strike Does not Ruin Good Memories of Israel
by Yoni Kempinski and Hillel Fendel
Many passengers stuck in Ben Gurion International Airport during the short strike that ended Monday afternoon told Israel National News TV that their good memories of Israel overcome any bad feelings about the travel delays. One traveler said the strike will make him miss business meetings overseas.
The 7.5-hour strike ended following a successful conclusion to the talks between the Finance Ministry and the Airport Authority workers.
One man said his short stay in Israel during the strike was "fantastic," and a woman said that Israel is a "very secure country" and that during the delay, "we had wonderful memories to think about."
The strike began at 9 a.m. Monday when workers at Ben Gurion announced that the negotiations they had been holding with the Finance Ministry had reached an impasse, and declared that they were on strike. This week is the busiest of the year at Ben Gurion, with many thousands leaving and arriving for the holidays.
Flights that were in-air when the strike was announced were permitted to land, but their luggage was not unloaded, nor were passengers permitted to undergo passport checks. Outgoing flights that were on the runway at 9:00 were permitted to take off; the passengers on other flights were turned back and waited in one of the terminals for the end of the work stoppage.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov immediately asked Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz to instruct the clerks of the Finance Ministry to enter into “intensive, fair and transparent negotiations with the Airports Authority workers regarding their pension rights, as anchored in government obligations in past years.”
“The tourism industry is currently at the height of Israel’s best tourism year ever,” Misezhnikov wrote to Steinitz. “The ramifications of a strike precisely now on incoming tourism to Israel will be very significant in the short range, causing suffering to tourists and passengers who will have to wait for hours before entering or leaving Israel – and in the long range as well, staining Israel’s image as a welcoming, high-quality tourism country.”
Some 12,000 passengers were expected to arrive Monday, and another 16,500 were expected to leave.
Dozens of Breslover Hassidim who returned this morning from their annual Rosh HaShanah visit to Rabbe Nachman’s gravesite in Uman, Ukraine were not very happy at having their luggage withheld. Some of them sang and chanted, "We want our suitcases!' and jumped on the luggage conveyor strips; police were called in to restore order. They were later informed, though not before some of them had left for home, that their luggage would be unloaded, so that the planes could return to the Ukraine to bring home more Breslovers.
7. Air Force Rehearsal for Aerial Attack a Message to Hizbullah
by Gil Ronen
The Israel Air Force Base at Tel Nof near Tel Aviv is holding a four-day drill to prepare for a possible attack by Iranian proxies Hizbullah and Hamas. In the event of war, Israel expects the terror militias to target IAF bases in a bid to prevent jets from taking off. Israel's legendary air force is seen by experts as its prime asset in a war against Iran and its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza.
The drill was covered by IAF Magazine – a sign that the IAF wants its enemies to know it is preparing for an attack on its bases.
Since Sunday, sirens have been going off intermittently throughout the base, which is located, south of Tel Aviv and near Rehovot on Israel's coast. While Gaza is geographically much closer to Tel Nof than Lebanon, the drill is billed as a preparation for an attack from the north, where Hizbullah is believed to have tens of thousands of missiles ready for an attack, with ranges that cover the entire length of the Jewish state.
"A missile has struck the underground hangar,” a loudspeaker blares, and then adds the calming words – “a drill, a drill.”
Major T., a pilot from the Hod HeChanit (Tip of the Spear) Squadron, told IAF Magazine that his squadron is not necessarily rehearsing for the current threats but preparing for “future threats and abilities that are expected to enter the theatre of war in the next few years.
"We managed to maintain a high level and achieve good results, “even in the attack missions and the air-to-air scenarios, despite the difficulty inherent in working under missile fire.”
While the base's squadrons perform aerial exercises, the Aerial Combat Rescue and Evacuation Unit – known as Unit 669 – used a Yas'ur CH-53 helicopter to simulate a rescue mission involving six pilots who had bailed from their jets. A munitions unit set up a makeshift weapons plant, and a construction unit rehearsed the filling of craters caused by enemy missiles."
Such craters on runways could presumably prevent jets from taking off.
"One can never know precisely what will happen,” Major T. said. “The main element in absorbing [a missile strike] is psychological. We tried to simulate the difficulty in the best possible way, but one cannot predict how a soldier will function if his best friend is killed.”
Earlier this year, the IDF estimated that in case of war, each IAF base could be directly hit by several dozen missiles.
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