International Arab-Israeli Conflict, v3: Israel approves new permanent US embassy site in West Jerusalem

[Arkain2K]

Can Palestinians bear halt of US aid?
Ahmad Melhem | January 22, 2018

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The US Department of State announced Jan. 16 that Washington has decided to withhold $65 million out of its $125 million contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to pay the salaries of its employees and the expenses of refugees in schools and health facilities under its management in Jordan, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria. The decision comes after US President Donald Trump threatened in a tweet Jan. 2 to cut aid and funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) because it refused to negotiate on a peace agreement with Israel.

UNRWA’s total budget (regular, emergency and project budgets) is equivalent to $300 million, according to an UNRWA press statement Jan. 16.

The US aid provided to Palestinians is divided into two parts: The first part offered by Washington to UNRWA covers its services to Palestinian refugees and pays employees’ salaries. The second part is provided through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which implements projects in several fields in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The United States does not give any direct funding to the PA and its government.

An official source at the US Consulate in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity the unpublished figures of Washington’s 2017 donations. The source said, “Washington offered $355 million to UNRWA in 2017, $95 million of which was allocated to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

In addition to the $355 million to UNRWA, the United States also offered in 2017 $254 million through USAID, and they were distributed as follows: $70 million to reduce the PA’s debt, such as electricity debts; $29.7 million in humanitarian aid and for the water sector in Gaza; $70 million for water supply and sewage projects in the West Bank; $8.7 million for economic growth, power and private sector development in the West Bank; $32 million for infrastructure, roads and social projects in the West Bank; $24.5 million for youth and education in the West Bank; $14.5 million for democracy and governance; and $4.8 million for the health sector in the West Bank.

Cutting part of the US funding for UNRWA and the constant threats in this regard poses questions about the negative repercussions and their impact on the future of the PA, its financial situation and ability to continue its work under these circumstances, as Palestinian refugees in the camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip fall under the PA’s authority.

The director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction in Ramallah, Mohammad Shtayyeh, told Al-Monitor, “Washington’s threats to cut aid are a clear form of political extortion that we refuse to succumb to.”

He noted that US support is dedicated for UNRWA and some USAID infrastructure projects rather than the government’s budget and treasury. He said, “Washington’s aid halt will not affect the government’s budget unless the United States uses its influence to impact some donor countries to halt their aid too. Only then will the decision affect us negatively.”

The PA mostly fears the freezing of UNRWA aid by the United States would have negative consequences on the refugees. Besides, Israel might impose economic sanctions on the PA such as freezing money transfers, which are the main contributor to the Palestinian budget.

Shtayyeh said, “The PA can bear the US aid halt for some projects because it refuses extortion of its political stances and Washington’s bias to Israel. Messing with UNRWA’s work will affect the refugees and will have security repercussions on the Arab region — not just the Palestinian territories.”

He added, “If Israel freezes the transfer of Palestinian tax funds to extort us — like in the past — our reaction will be different and we will resort to the international courts.” On Jan. 4, 2015, Israel froze Palestinian tax funds after Palestine joined the International Criminal Court.

Nasser Qatami, the adviser to the Palestinian prime minister for Arab and Islamic fund affairs, told Al-Monitor, “Halting US aid will have a negative impact on sectors that benefited from it like the health and infrastructure sectors.”

He said that the Palestinian government might resort to three plans to fight the US aid freeze: It will take austerity measures in public spending, ask for support from Arab and Islamic countries, and activate the $100 million Arab financial safety network, which the Arab foreign ministers adopted on Nov. 13, 2012, to fund the PA monthly in case Israel freezes the funds owed to the PA.

Palestinians fear that halting UNRWA’s aid might be the beginning of a US-Israeli plan to settle the refugees affair. Samir Abdullah, the research director at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute-MAS and former Palestinian minister of planning, told Al-Monitor, “Cutting UNRWA’s aid will negatively impact the refugees and will disrupt the work of the agency, which employs thousands of teachers and educates thousands of students, in addition to offering humanitarian and food aid in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.”

Abdullah noted, “I am worried that this freeze might be part of a US-Israeli plot to dissolve UNRWA and close the Palestinian refugee file, after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

Economics professor at Birzeit University Nasser Abdul Karim told Al-Monitor, “The Palestinian economy has a lot to lose with the freeze of US aid, but not to an extent that is unbearable to the PA.”

UNRWA employs Palestinian labor and has contracts with Palestinian companies and facilities.

Karim said it is possible to make up for the aid through internal alternatives such as adopting austerity measures, controlling public spending, improving tax collection and fighting tax evasion, or seeking additional aid from the European Union and the Arab countries as well as activating the Arab safety network. He added, “I believe the EU is ready to offer more financial aid to keep the PA alive and kicking and to preserve hopes of a political settlement with Israel based on the two-state solution.”

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/or...d-palestinian-authority-economy-refugees.html

 

[Seaside]

How is this shitty? We are talking of an oppressed people who have been ethnically cleansed, brutally occupied and murdered for decades.

Trump taking their money does not do anything to stop terrorism. If anything it will increase because what is commonly known as 'backlash.' This is by design to offer the zionists a further excuse to steal more land. And the cycle continues.

Beyond that, this hurts the children. The ones who already need the most basic human essentials like medicine, food, and clean water. This situation is tragic and the lack of understanding from the general public is sickening.

lol at oppress

 

[jeffk]

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/orde...6/how-much-does-bds-threaten-israels-economy/

A quick analysis of BDS is that it is not really doing anything but make those who support feel like they are doing something when they aren't. And the right in Israel spin it to gain support and overreact to it.

The sad irony is that campaigns by both well-meaning and not-well-meaning individuals around the world may make it harder, not easier to achieve a very worthy goal: Palestinian independence. Let us be clear: For the sake of both Israelis and Palestinians, Israeli rule over Palestinian lives in the West Bank should indeed end. BDS, whatever the motivations of its various activists, is not the way to promote that goal.

 

[Arkain2K]

US: No aid until Palestinians return to talks
Respect has to be shown to US or we’re just not going any further, Trump says
January 26, 2018

DAVOS, Switzerland: US President Donald Trump threatened to withhold aid money from the Palestinians until they return to peace talks with Israel as he sat down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Trump’s decision last year to recognise occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital roiled Arab nations and led Palestinians to withdraw from negotiations on the grounds the US can no longer be trusted as an honest broker in the quest for peace.

Trump said that decision has consequences. The US, he said, gives “hundreds of millions of dollars” to the Palestinians, and “that money is on the table and that money’s not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace”.

It wasn’t immediately clear what money Trump was referring to in his threat. Washington has contributed over $5 billion (Dh18.35 billion) in economic and security aid to the Palestinians since the mid-1990s. Annual economic aid since 2008 has averaged around $400 million, much of it devoted to development projects.

Last week, the Trump administration moved to withhold some — but not all — of a scheduled aid payment to the United Nations agency that assists Palestinian refugees. The Trump administration said it would provide $60 million, while keeping $65 million until the UN body undertakes a “fundamental re-examination.”

The Israeli regime has been overjoyed by Trump’s pivot on occupied Jerusalem, which Netanyahu hailed on Thursday as an “historic decision that will be forever etched in the hearts of our people.”

On a visit to Israel this week, Vice-President Mike Pence told regime lawmakers that the US was fast-tracking the embassy plans, aiming to move it from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem by the end of 2019. Trump said he anticipates having “a small version” of the embassy open sometime next year.

During his remarks, Trump referenced Pence’s trip to the Middle East, which did not include a meeting with Palestinian leaders. Trump said, “they disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great vice-president to see them,” adding: “Respect has to be shown to the US or we’re just not going any further.”

http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/palestine/us-no-aid-until-palestinians-return-to-talks-1.2163351

 

[Arkain2K]

US designates new Hamas leader as terrorist​

The United States has designated the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas as a terrorist and imposed sanctions on him.

The state department said Ismail Haniya had "close links with Hamas' military wing" and been a "proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians".

Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, is already designated a terrorist group by the US, Israel, the EU and UK.

It denounced as "worthless" the blacklisting of Mr Haniya.

A statement from the group said the decision would "not dissuade us from continuing to hold fast to the option of resisting and expelling the [Israeli] occupation".

Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2008 and is held responsible by the US for the killing of 17 Americans in attacks.

The state department also designated three militant groups as terrorist entities:

• Harakat al-Sabireen, an Iranian-backed group that operates primarily in the Gaza and the West Bank and is led by Hisham Salem, the former leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It is accused of planning and executing attacks, including firing rockets from Gaza into Israel
• Liwa al-Thawra, a group active in Egypt's Qalyubia and Menoufia provinces that has said it was behind the assassination of an Egyptian army commander in Cairo in 2016 and the bombing of a police training centre in Tanta in 2017
• HASM, another Egyptian group that has claimed it assassinated an officer from Egypt's National Security Agency and carried out an attack on Myanmar's embassy in Cairo

"These designations target key terrorist groups and leaders - including two sponsored and directed by Iran - who are threatening the stability of the Middle East, undermining the peace process, and attacking our allies Egypt and Israel," said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

"Today's actions are an important step in denying them the resources they need to plan and carry out their terrorist activities," he added.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42886222

 

[Arkain2K]

Slovenia poised to be first state since 2014 to recognize ‘Palestine’
On Friday, Slovenian President Borut Pahor said he opposed such a move
By Herb Keinon | January 30, 2018

The Foreign Affairs Committee in Slovenia’s parliament is scheduled to vote on a draft resolution on the issue on Wednesday, and if it is approved it is expected to go to a vote in the full parliament in March or April. Jerusalem is concerned that if it passes, it could pave the way to recognition by other EU states.

Unlike countries like Spain, Portugal, France and Ireland, where similar motions passed the parliament but the move was nonbinding on the government, the situation in Slovenia is different and if it passes the parliament, it would be tantamount to recognition by Slovenia, a Foreign Ministry official said.

There is disagreement in Slovenia’s senior political echelon over the move. Even though Slovenian President Borut Pahor – whose position is largely ceremonial – told AFP on Friday that he opposed the move, Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec supports it.

Erjavec said earlier this month that Slovenian recognition of a Palestinian state would “strengthen Palestine’s negotiation in the Middle East peace process.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas went to Brussels last week and – as a counterbalance to the US recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – urged the EU’s 28 foreign ministers meeting there to recognize Palestine as a state.

After that meeting, Erjavec was quoted as saying that the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem was “a move away from the two-state solution,” and that “I think now is the right time for additional support for Palestine.”

Sweden recognized “Palestine” as a state in 2014, in a move that badly strained ties with Israel. Israel’s relationship with Slovenia is considered the weakest among the 11 former Iron Curtain countries that joined the EU following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Six of these other countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania – recognized Palestine as a state before they joined the EU, as did Malta and Cyprus, which are also now EU countries.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-C...er-to-recognition-of-Palestinian-state-540218

 

[Arkain2K]

UNRWA starts international fundraising campaign
January 18, 2018

The head of the UN Refugees and Works Agency (UNRWA) has called on the international community to donate to the organisation in the aftermath of the US freezing $65 million worth of aid to the Palestinians, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“At stake is the dignity and human security of millions of Palestine refugees in need of emergency food assistance and other support,” UNRWA commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl said in a statement yesterday. “At stake is the access of refugees to primary healthcare, including prenatal care and other lifesaving services.”

UNRWA which provides education, health and social welfare services to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, is reportedly facing its worst funding crisis ever.

Last week UNRWA warned that US cuts will hurt half a million children; the UN agency runs 700 schools, where 525,000 boys and girls study, and operates 143 health clinics. Nearly 20,000 teaching jobs are said to be at risk, with UNRWA already having to layoff extra workers.

Earlier this week, the EU and Norway announced that they will also be convening an emergency meeting at the end of this month for donor groups providing aid to Palestinians, in attempt to control the situation.

The White House initially threatened the cuts in a bid to persuade senior Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah to return to the negotiating table. Following Trump’s announcement to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel the PA withdrew from any US led negotiation saying that Washington had disqualified itself as an honest broker.

However, on Tuesday State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert did not mention Palestinians returning to negotiations as a condition for releasing the frozen funds.

Instead she said that the Trump Administration would like to see the agency enact reforms. Israel and the US accuse UNRWA of perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem instead of resolving it.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180118-unrwa-starts-international-fundraising-campaign/

 

[Arkain2K]

Palestinians fear cost of Trump's refugee agency cut
By Yolande Knell BBC News, Gaza | 30 January 2018

Thousands of Unrwa supporters and staff have held protests in Gaza​

"Dignity is priceless," read the signs as thousands of employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees march through central Gaza City.

They fear Washington's recent decision to withhold $65m (52.5m euros; £46m) - possibly rising to $290m - in funds could affect their positions as well as basic services which most of them, as refugees, rely on.

"Unrwa was there every moment for me," says Najwa Sheikh Ahmed, an information officer with the UN Relief and Works Agency.

"It gave not only food, clothes, education and healthcare but also a job and the opportunity that offers your family."

Najwa was born in Khan Younis refugee camp and brought up in tough conditions.

She moved to Nuseirat camp when she married her husband, who is also Unrwa staff. They have five children.

When I visit, we pass along narrow streets to the local clinic, painted in the blue and white colours of the UN, so Najwa can get a medical check.

I watch her eldest daughter, Salma, as she excels in an English lesson. She is one of 270,000 Unrwa students in Gaza.

"As a mother I feel very worried," Najwa confides.

"If the funding gap isn't bridged, then Unrwa might find itself in a situation where [it has] to close the schools and health services. My children will be at risk."

Ties cut

The US is the largest single donor to Unrwa. Last year, it gave the agency around $360m - about half of the total amount it gave in support to the Palestinians.

President Donald Trump first indicated a change in approach on 2 January when he Tweeted that his country got "no appreciation or respect" for the large sums of aid it gave.

The State Department insists that freezing Unrwa funds is linked to needed "reforms", but suspicions remain that it is meant to punish Palestinian leaders.

They cut ties with the White House weeks earlier after it recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Last week in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Trump said that aid to the Palestinians would be suspended "unless they sit down and negotiate peace".

Special status

In the impoverished Gaza Strip, which has eight refugee camps, ordinary people complain that they find themselves helplessly caught up in geopolitics.

Unrwa was originally set up to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Nearly 70 years on, some of those refugees and many of their descendants continue to live in camps, which are now chronically overcrowded breeze block neighbourhoods.

Unrwa supports some five million people not only in the Palestinian Territories but also in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria - where Palestinian refugees have limited rights.

The fate of the refugees is a core issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict and they have often been at the heart of Palestinian political and militant activity.

Palestinians call for their "right to return" to parts of historic Palestine - land which is now in Israel.

Israel rejects that claim and has often criticised the set-up of Unrwa for the way it allows refugee status to be inherited, which it points out is uniquely applied to Palestinians among all the world's refugees.

"How long are we going to have Unrwa? Another 70 years?" the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said to me at a recent press event.

"We already have great-great-grandchildren who are refugees - who are not refugees but they're on the list of Unwra."

Mr Netanyahu suggests donations should be shifted to other humanitarian agencies, including the UN High Commission for Refugees.

"It will have positive effects because the perpetuation of the dream of bringing the descendants back to Jaffa is what sustains this conflict," he told me.

"Unrwa is part of the problem not part of the solution."

Alternatives 'worse'

Unrwa officials stress that the UN General Assembly sets their mandate and dismiss the idea it obstructs any Israel-Palestinian peace deal.

"It is the failure of the political parties to resolve the refugee issue that perpetuates it," says Unrwa spokesman Chris Gunness.

"As soon as there's a resolution of that based on international law, based on United Nations resolutions, Unrwa will go out of business and hand over its service."

The agency has now launched a global appeal to fill the gap in its budget and is receiving many messages of support - including from celebrities and 21 international humanitarian groups.

Some in Israel also raise concerns that weakening Unrwa could cause regional instability and create more extremism.

"While Unrwa is far from perfect, the Israeli defence establishment and the Israeli government as a whole, have over the years come to the understanding that all the alternatives are worse for Israel," a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman, Peter Lerner, wrote in Haaretz newspaper.

At the rally in Gaza City, participants focus on the impact of any Unrwa cutbacks on the most needy but also on existential issues.

"Without Unrwa nobody will identify us as refugees," says Najwa Sheikh-Ahmed - whose father fled from his home in al-Majdal - now in Ashkelon in southern Israel - as a boy in 1948.

"My refugee number, my ration card is witness to the fact that once upon a time I had a homeland," she says. "Without this we will lose the right to fight for our rights."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42857434

 

[Arkain2K]

Palestinians court Russia as new broker in peace process
Abbas to meet Putin on February 12 as Ramallah seeks replacement for US role
By Khaled Abu Toameh and Stuart Winer | February 2, 2018

After declaring that the US was no longer qualified to act as an “honest broker” in any peace process with Israel, the Palestinian Authority is trying to persuade Russia to play a role in efforts to solve the conflict.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea summer beach resort of Sochi on February 12.

Abbas will tell Putin that the Palestinians do not believe the Trump administration is capable of playing any “constructive” or “positive” role in efforts to achieve peace with Israel, said a PA official in Ramallah. The PA president has also been seeking greater European involvement in the peace process.

Relations between the PA and the US administration have rapidly deteriorated since Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December. US threats to cut funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees have further exacerbated tensions between the Trump administration and the PA.

“We are hoping that Russia and the EU will step in to fill the void,” the PA official said. “We believe that these countries should and can play a larger role in any peace process in the wake of the Trump administration’s hostile policies toward the Palestinians and bias in favor of Israel.”

On Thursday, Abbas met in his Ramallahoffice with two senior Russian officials, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the security council, and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov,

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat and PA General Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj attended the meeting with the Russian emissaries.

Abbas told them that the PA was interested in developing and strengthening its relations with Russia. He also expressed appreciation for Russia’s support for the Palestinians in various areas, according to the Palestinian official news agency Wafa.

Abbas emphasized the importance of Russia’s political stance, due to its “great weight in the international arena and as part of the Quartet, which should continue to play a fair and just role,” Wafa reported.

In addition to Russia, the Quartet on the Middle East, which was established in Madrid in 2002, comprises the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.

Wafa quoted the Russian officials as saying that Putin was looking forward to his meeting with the PA president. The envoys also affirmed Russia’s continued support for the Palestinians and efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East, it said.

Amid his efforts to rally the international community against the US, Abbas will also deliver a rare address to the UN Security Council on February 20, the council’s president said Thursday.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Dannon, said that Abbas’s address to the council would further damage prospects for direct peace talks with Israel.

Lebanon ‘a base for missiles against Israel’

Before heading the Ramallah, the Russian officials met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem for talks that focused on security cooperation and Iran’s efforts to entrench itself in Lebanon. Netanyahu had met with Putin in Moscow on Monday.

The Russian delegation’s visit to Israel was part of “the framework of the dialogue between the Israeli and Russian national security teams following the first round of talks held in Moscow approximately three months ago,” a spokesperson for Netanyahu said.

Talks have focused on Israel’s concerns over Iranian efforts to establish a presence in Syria and “its attempt to turn Lebanon into a base for missiles against Israel,” as well as security cooperation with Moscow, the spokesperson said.

Israel has been coordinating its activities in Syria — including, reportedly, dozens of airstrikes against weapons shipments bound for the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah — with Russia, whose military has been shoring up the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Members of the Russian delegation visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum Thursday, and were set to visit the City of David and Western Wall Tunnels in Jerusalem, Netanyahu’s spokesperson said.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-court-russia-as-new-broker-in-peace-process/

 

[Viva]

Jesus Christ. What a shitty move

Yes, we should all be so grateful to bend the knee for Israel.

 

[Arkain2K]

PLO to Demand UN Security Council to Recognize Palestine Within 1967 Borders
The Palestine Liberation Organization will also formulate a plan for disengaging from Israel in terms of security and economics
Jack Khoury Feb 04, 2018

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee decided Saturday night to demand that the UN Security Council recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

The Palestinian leadership committee also decided to formulate a plan for disengaging from Israel, in terms of security and economics, including the agreements reached as part of the "Paris Protocol."

Under the 1994 protocol, which established a customs union between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel is supposed to collect value-added tax, import duties and other taxes on the PA's behalf and hand them over on a monthly basis.

The committee also decided on Saturday that the Palestinian leadership would ask the International Criminal Court in The Hague to establish a commission to withdraw recognition of Israel as long as Israel does not recognize Palestine.

Last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the European Union to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders during a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels.

The Palestinian president said that recognizing Palestine will not be a barrier to peace and that “the only way to achieve peace with Israel is through internationally led negotiations.”

Abbas added that the EU is among the main partners in building the institutions of a Palestinian state, and that the Palestinians will seek full implementation of UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions.

At the press conference, Mogherini reiterated the EU’s commitment to investing in the Palestinian state-building process, aiming to “reassure Palestinians and President Abbas of [the EU’s] continued support, including financial,” through UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east...rity-council-to-recognize-palestine-1.5787277

 

[Arkain2K]

Secret Alliance: Israel Carries Out Airstrikes in Egypt, With Cairo’s O.K.
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK FEB. 3, 2018

A turning point: In 2015, Islamist militants brought down a Russian passenger jet in Sinai. Soon after, Israel began a wave of airstrikes there.​

The jihadists in Egypt’s Northern Sinai had killed hundreds of soldiers and police officers, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, briefly seized a major town and begun setting up armed checkpoints to claim territory. In late 2015, they brought down a Russian passenger jet.

Egypt appeared unable to stop them, so Israel, alarmed at the threat just over the border, took action.

For more than two years, unmarked Israeli drones, helicopters and jets have carried out a covert air campaign, conducting more than 100 airstrikes inside Egypt, frequently more than once a week — and all with the approval of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The remarkable cooperation marks a new stage in the evolution of their singularly fraught relationship. Once enemies in three wars, then antagonists in an uneasy peace, Egypt and Israel are now secret allies in a covert war against a common foe.

For Cairo, the Israeli intervention has helped the Egyptian military regain its footing in its nearly five-year battle against the militants. For Israel, the strikes have bolstered the security of its borders and the stability of its neighbor.

Their collaboration in the North Sinai is the most dramatic evidence yet of a quiet reconfiguration of the politics of the region. Shared enemies like ISIS, Iran and political Islam have quietly brought the leaders of several Arab states into growing alignment with Israel — even as their officials and news media continue to vilify the Jewish state in public.

American officials say Israel’s air campaign has played a decisive role in enabling the Egyptian armed forces to gain an upper hand against the militants. But the Israeli role is having some unexpected consequences for the region, including on Middle East peace negotiations, in part by convincing senior Israeli officials that Egypt is now dependent on them even to control its own territory.

Seven current or former British and American officials involved in Middle East policy described the Israeli attacks inside Egypt, all speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified information.

Spokesmen for the Israeli and Egyptian militaries declined to comment, and so did a spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry.

Both neighbors have sought to conceal Israel’s role in the airstrikes for fear of a backlash inside Egypt, where government officials and the state-controlled media continue to discuss Israel as a nemesis and pledge fidelity to the Palestinian cause.

The Israeli drones are unmarked, and the Israeli jets and helicopters cover up their markings. Some fly circuitous routes to create the impression that they are based in the Egyptian mainland, according to American officials briefed on their operations.

In Israel, military censors restrict public reports of the airstrikes. It is unclear if any Israeli troops or special forces have set foot inside Egyptian borders, which would increase the risk of exposure.

Mr. Sisi has taken even more care, American officials say, to hide the origin of the strikes from all but a limited circle of military and intelligence officers. The Egyptian government has declared the North Sinai a closed military zone, barring journalists from gathering information there.

Behind the scenes, Egypt’s top generals have grown steadily closer to their Israeli counterparts since the signing of the Camp David accords 40 years ago, in 1978. Egyptian security forces have helped Israel enforce restrictions on the flow of goods in and out of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory bordering Egypt controlled by the militant group Hamas. And Egyptian and Israeli intelligence agencies have long shared information about militants on both sides of the border.

Israeli officials were concerned in 2012 when Egypt, after its Arab Spring revolt, elected a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood to the presidency. The new president, Mohamed Morsi, pledged to respect the Camp David agreements. But the Israelis worried about the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological kinship with Hamas and its historic hostility to the Jewish state itself.

A year later, Mr. Sisi, then the defense minister, ousted Mr. Morsi in a military takeover. Israel welcomed the change in government and urged Washington to accept it. That solidified the partnership between the generals on both sides of the border.

The North Sinai, a loosely governed region of mountainous desert between the Suez Canal and the Israeli border, became a refuge for Islamist militants in the decade before Mr. Sisi took power. The main jihadist organization, Ansar Beit al Maqdis — the Partisans of Jerusalem — had concentrated on attacking Israel, but after Mr. Sisi’s takeover it began leading a wave of deadly assaults against Egyptian security forces.

A few weeks after Mr. Sisi took power, in August 2013, two mysterious explosions killed five suspected militants in a district of the North Sinai not far from the Israeli border. The Associated Press reported that unnamed Egyptian officials had said Israeli drones fired missiles that killed the militants, possibly because of Egyptian warnings of a planned cross-border attack on an Israeli airport. (Israel had closed the airport the previous day.)

Mr. Sisi’s spokesman, Col. Ahmed Ali, denied it. “There is no truth in form or in substance to the existence of any Israeli attacks inside Egyptian territory,” he said in a statement at the time, promising an investigation. “The claims of coordination between the Egyptian and Israeli sides in this matter are totally lacking in truth and go against sense and logic.”

Israel declined to comment, and the episode was all but forgotten.

Two years later, however, Mr. Sisi was still struggling to defeat the militants, who by then had killed at least several hundred Egyptians soldiers and policemen.

In November 2014, Ansar Beit al Maqdis formally declared itself the Sinai Province branch of the Islamic State. On July 1, 2015, the militants briefly captured control of a North Sinai town, Sheikh Zuwaid, and retreated only after Egyptian jets and helicopters struck the town, state news agencies said. Then, at the end of October, the militants brought down the Russian charter jet, killing all 224 people aboard.

It was around the time of those ominous milestones, in late 2015, that Israel began its wave of airstrikes, the American officials said, which they credit with killing a long roster of militant leaders.

Though equally brutal successors often stepped in to replace them, the militants appeared to adopt less ambitious goals. They no longer dared trying to close roads, set up checkpoints or claim territory. They moved into hitting softer targets like Christians in Sinai, churches in the Nile Valley or other Muslims they view as heretics. In November 2017, the militants killed 311 worshipers at a Sufi mosque in the North Sinai.

By then, American officials say, the Israelis were complaining to Washington that the Egyptians were not holding up their end of the arrangement. Cairo, they said, had failed to follow the airstrikes with coordinated movements of its ground troops.

Although Israeli military censors have prevented the news media there from reporting on the strikes, some news outlets have circumvented the censorship by citing a 2016 Bloomberg News report, in which an unnamed former Israeli official said there had been Israeli drone strikes inside of Egypt.

Zack Gold, a researcher specializing in the North Sinai who has worked in Israel, compared the airstrikes to Israel’s nuclear weapons program — also an open secret.

“The Israeli strikes inside of Egypt are almost at the same level,” he said. “Every time anyone says anything about the nuclear program, they have to jokingly add ‘according to the foreign press.’ Israel’s main strategic interest in Egypt is stability, and they believe that open disclosure would threaten that stability.”

Inside the American government, the strikes are widely known enough that diplomats and intelligence officials have discussed them in closed briefings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers in open committee hearings have alluded approvingly to the surprisingly close Egyptian and Israeli cooperation in the North Sinai.

In a telephone interview, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to discuss specifics of Israel’s military actions in Egypt, but said Israel was not acting “out of goodness to a neighbor.”

“Israel does not want the bad stuff that is happening in the Egyptian Sinai to get into Israel,” he said, adding that the Egyptian effort to hide Israel’s role from its citizens “is not a new phenomenon.”

Some American supporters of Israel complain that, given Egypt’s reliance on the Israeli military, Egyptian officials, diplomats and state-controlled news media should stop publicly denouncing the Jewish state, especially in international forums like the United Nations.

“You speak with Sisi and he talks about security cooperation with Israel, and you speak with Israelis and they talk about security cooperation with Egypt, but then this duplicitous game continues,” said Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee. “It is confusing to me.”

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has also pointedly reminded American diplomats of the Israeli military role in Sinai. In February 2016, for example, Secretary of State John Kerry convened a secret summit in Aqaba, Jordan, with Mr. Sisi, King Abdullah of Jordan and Mr. Netanyahu, according to three American officials involved in the talks or briefed about them.

Mr. Kerry proposed a regional agreement in which Egypt and Jordan would guarantee Israel’s security as part of a deal for a Palestinian state.

Mr. Netanyahu scoffed at the idea.

Israeli’s military was already propping up Egypt’s military, he said, according to the Americans. If Egypt was unable to control the ground within its own borders, Mr. Netanyahu argued, it was hardly in a position to guarantee security for Israel.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/world/middleeast/israel-airstrikes-sinai-egypt.html

 

[Arkain2K]

Calls for Arab journalists who visit Israel to be punished
February 8, 2018

The Palestinian Information Ministry demanded the Union of Arab Journalists punish nine Arab journalists and the institutions they work after they partook in a visit to Israel.

In a press statement, the ministry called for putting the nine journalists and the organisations they work for on “a blacklist and stop dealing with them”.

Five Moroccans, one Lebanese, one Iraqi, one Yemeni and a Syrian journalist visited Israel last week.

The ministry said: “This visit supports the position of the occupation and supports it with audacity, and contrary to the official and popular trends in friendly nations which reject normalisation in all its forms and contexts.”

Most Arab countries declare that they do not have relations with Israel while there have been numerous reports that secret relations Arab states and Israel are ongoing.

Arab states offered full normalization with Israel through the Arab peace initiative announced in 2002, but demanded that it be in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, which Israel rejected.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/2...-journalists-who-visit-israel-to-be-punished/

 

[Black Helicopters]

Secret Alliance: Israel Carries Out Airstrikes in Egypt, With Cairo’s O.K.
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK FEB. 3, 2018

A turning point: In 2015, Islamist militants brought down a Russian passenger jet in Sinai. Soon after, Israel began a wave of airstrikes there.​

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/world/middleeast/israel-airstrikes-sinai-egypt.html

Cairo Carl says: Reports of Israeli air strikes in Sinai are foreign lies aimed to destabilize Egypt. Carry on.

 

[Arkain2K]

Abbas to Condemn U.S. Embassy Move at the U.N, and Haley Will Be Watching
By Kambiz Foroohar | February 16, 2018​

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will denounce President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem before a gathering at the United Nations next week.

But Abbas can expect a swift and forceful response from U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley -- a staunch proponent of the move who has already defended it before the world body.

The United Nations Security Council address by Abbas on Feb. 20 will be the first time the Palestinian leader will come face-to-face with an American official since Trump’s Dec. 6 announcement that the U.S. would formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Abbas has already made known his displeasure over moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by canceling a planned meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, saying that the U.S. had disqualified itself as a mediator for peace in the Middle East. It’s a sentiment widely shared at the UN, where the General Assembly voted 128 to 9 on Dec. 21 to condemn Trump’s actions on Jerusalem.

Haley made her views known before that vote, vowing to “take names” of all who sided against the U.S. Afterward, she held a defiant thank-you reception for the 65 countries that voted with the U.S., abstained or managed to be no-shows for the vote.

“This is an uncomfortable situation for Haley, but in a sense both Haley and Abbas have a shared interest in a highly publicized smackdown that plays well with their respective political bases,” said Richard Gowan, a UN expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Kuwaiti Invitation

Haley didn’t object when Kuwait, acting as the Security Council’s president for February, proposed inviting Abbas to speak, presumably because she would have been outvoted if she had. Still, she’s unlikely to pass up the chance to respond directly when Abbas participates in what otherwise would the Security Council’s routine monthly discussion on the Middle East.

During the monthly debate in January, Haley said Abbas “indulges in outrageous and discredited conspiracy theories” that don’t reflect “a person with the courage and the will to seek peace,” Haley said. “To get historic results, we need courageous leaders.”

Haley also pushed for a cutoff in American aid to the UN agency that aids Palestinians, and got the State Department to slash $65 million from a scheduled $125 million in payments.

Abbas, 82, is fighting to raise millions for the agency to make up for the U.S. cuts. He’s pressing anew for nations to recognize a Palestinian state, and he’s vowing to preemptively reject a promised peace proposal from the Trump administration amid concern it would dash hopes for a two-state solution.

The aim is to isolate the Trump administration, said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN.

“He will come with a message of urgency to the Security Council not to continue being paralyzed but to play the role that it should play in the quest for the maintenance of international peace and security,” Mansour said. “He will ask the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility.”

Abbas “wants to internationalize the peace process,” said Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former State Department official. “But without the U.S. there is no viable peace process.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...n-u-s-embassy-move-but-haley-will-be-watching

 

[Arkain2K]

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[Arkain2K]

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[Arkain2K]

Abbas, Haley Trade Barbs at the United Nations
By Kambiz Foroohar | February 20, 2018

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem a “dangerous” development in a speech before the United Nations, then walked out before U.S. envoy Nikki Haley retorted that “we will not chase after you.”

The encounter Tuesday before the Security Council reflected the tensions in U.S.-Palestinian relations since Trump’s declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and his administration’s cuts in UN refugee funds for the Palestinians. Haley was accompanied at the UN by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and chief adviser on Israel-Palestinian peace efforts, and by Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt.

Abbas, who renewed his call for an international conference this year to seek a Mideast accord, has vowed not to meet with U.S. officials until the Jerusalem embassy decision is reversed.

“To solve the Palestine question, it is essential to establish a multilateral international mechanism emanating from an international conference,” Abbas said, adding he hoped “to find a way out of the stalemate and crisis we are in.”

However, he finished his address with a warning -- which others may read as a threat -- of violence unless the U.S. restores funds that were cut to the UN Relief and Works Agency, which administers to millions of Palestinian refugees.

‘Terrorists or Refugees’

“If you end your assistance they become terrorists or refugees in Europe,” Abbas said. “It’s either that or you continue to support UNRWA until the crisis ends. We are ready to begin negotiations. We beg you to help us so that we may not commit an act that goes against our beliefs and your beliefs.”

The Palestinian leader immediately left the Security Council after concluding his speech without waiting to hear Haley’s response.

His departure was denounced by Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon, who said, “Every time there’s an inch of progress, Mr. Abbas runs away.” In comments issued by his office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Abbas offered nothing new" while “he continues to pay terrorists and their families $347 million.”

Haley, who also noted Abbas’s absence but addressed her remarks to him anyway, said the Palestinians don’t have to like Trump’s decision on Jerusalem but “that decision will not change.”

She said the U.S. offers an “outstretched hand” to the Palestinian people but “we will not chase after you” and “the choice is yours.”

In a statement, Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman, dismissed Abbas’s plans for an international conference and full UN membership for a Palestinian state as “old talking points and undeveloped concepts” and instead pledged to “continue working on our plan, which is designed to benefit both the Israeli and Palestinian people. We will present it when it is done and the time is right.”

At the UN, which Haley said Tuesday is “grossly biased” against Israel, the U.S. remains at odds with most members.

In December, 14 of the 15 Security Council members voted to condemn the U.S. decision to move its embassy, forcing Haley to use the first veto of the Trump administration to block the resolution. A few days later the 193-member General Assembly voted 128-9 to condemn the U.S. move, with 35 abstentions and 21 no-shows.

The UN granted Palestine the status of a non-member observer state in 1992. An upgrade to full membership would require unanimous backing from the Security Council, and the U.S. would veto such a move.

Abbas, 82, is fighting to raise millions for the UNRWA to make up for the U.S. cuts. The Trump administration agreed last month to pay $60 million to the aid organization for salaries and other administrative costs, while cutting $65 million. It also reneged on a pledge to contribute $45 million in food aid, health services and other relief. The agency has initiated an $800 million fundraising effort.

“Abbas doesn’t think he has much to lose by trying to get the international community involved,” said Khaled Elgindy, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “We are headed for a showdown as this is probably the last gasp of the peace process.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...barbs-over-trump-s-israel-stand-at-un-meeting

 

[Arkain2K]

Hamas preparing for a post-Abbas era
February 21, 2018

Hamas is preparing for the period after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is no longer in power, Osama Hamdan said today.

In a statement, the official said: “Hamas is preparing for the post-President Abbas era, and Dahlan was not and will not be one of our options.”

“We have three cards of strength which we should not lose sight of: the resistance, the nature of the issue which is not easily ended, and the changing political climate.”

“The Fatah movement is not suffering the way we are suffering in Gaza, but Fatah is in a quandary …. And I think that President Abbas’ political career has ended.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180221-hamas-preparing-for-a-most-abbas-era/