Elor Azaria is no hero, and he knows it

The Elor Azaria affair marks a cultural decline, an astronomic event at one soldier’s expense. It ended Sunday, no matter how many more spins attorney Yoram Sheftel and the rest of the associates are planning. The result has been determined, the damage has been done, the garment has been torn into 12 pieces.

On March 24, 2016, B’Tselem released a video of an anonymous soldier from the Kfir Brigade shooting a terrorist who deserved to die in Hebron. Azaria fired his weapon 11 minutes after the terrorist had been neutralized. He approached the terrorist, removed his helmet and fired at close range without warning anyone to stay away from the person he claimed had been carrying an explosive device.

Anyone watching the video with the slightest bit of combat experience knew exactly what had happened there. Others perhaps didn’t have the proper training, but most people understood. From this point on, each person chose his own political way. It wasn’t Azaria they saw before their eyes, but the political objectives.

Azaria arrives in court with his mother. The important question is whether a strong, organized army could turn into phalanges in which every person does what he feels like (Photo: EPA)

That same day, I wrote about the attempts made by Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem to portray the entire IDF as an army of brutes. “Where mistakes are made, they are checked and investigated,” I wrote. Little did I know. A year and a half later, the conclusion from the video is the same conclusion reached by the court, but it was a winding and dangerous road. The cultural decline spread through Israeli society. Rightists joined the Leftists in claiming the occupation corrupts, that it’s not the soldier’s fault. Activists of the right-wing Lehava organization, who haven’t served a single day in the army, were explaining that Azaria was a hero. Even the last sacred cow in Israeli society—the IDF—was slaughtered in public. The final touch was provided by small politicians who identified an opportunity and stripped away every last ounce of stateliness they had. The tail wagged the dog. The initial response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and then-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon was in line with the acceptable norm in the State of Israel when it comes to unusual events. The big change occurred in the days that followed. In the name of public opinion polls, an alternative truth was born, alternative values and twisted explanations, at the end of which everything got mixed up. There is no right and wrong.

Likud MK Oren Hazan, bottom right corner, speaking to the Azaria family at court (Photo: Tomer Applebaum)

The moral question about shooting a terrorist is the wrong question. In certain situations, like a targeted killing for example, there is permission and authority to assassinate the enemy even when he lacks any weapon or intention. That’s what an army does, and I’m proud to have been part of such efforts. The important question is whether a strong, organized army could turn into phalanges, into gangs in which every person does whatever he feels like, whenever he feels like doing it and however he feels like doing it. That’s, unfortunately, what Elor Azaria looked like in the video: Firing without a helmet when he shouldn’t have, making up a threat about an explosive device when it's clear in the video it didn’t even cross his mind. So he turned into a tool in the hands of small politicians against Israeli stateliness. I've felt sorry for Azaria from the very first moment. He made a mistake at the scene when he fired without justification, and he kept making mistakes when he let politicians exploit him. Sharon Gal, Avigdor Lieberman and Oren Hazan have never faced such a situation, never experienced such comradeship or made decisions at the drop of a dime. He made a mistake when he let them turn him into a hero. After all, he had learned enough about battle heritage and he knew  there was no heroism in shooting a dying terrorist. Brigadier-General (res.) Avigdor Kahalani is a hero, fallen soldier Roi Klein is a hero. He is no hero, and he knew that very well. The army made mistakes on the way too, but that doesn’t change what happened there, what’s right and what isn’t. The Azaria affair has come to an end. I hope in a few months he’ll return home after being pardoned and forget about all the imaginary friends who adopted him so they could be on television for a minute. Now, on the eve of Tisha B’Av, Israeli stateliness is just beginning to patch things up.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Elor Azaria is no hero, and he knows it : http://ift.tt/2udih03

It’s time to bid farewell to the Elor Azaria affair

Elor Azaria made his choice when he approached a wounded terrorist, 11 minutes after he was neutralized, and shot him to death, and when he lied about it later on; his parents made their choice when they put their son’s defense in the hands of a spiteful, lawless gang, which tried to promote itself at their expense.

Elor isn’t a child and his parents aren’t children. They must understand people pay a price for the choices they make in life.

The external noises that accompanied Azaria’s trial exposed dangerous trends in Israeli society. It turns out that among many Israelis, hatred towards others exceeds everything—facts, laws, norms and military ethics, common sense and national responsibility. Anyone browsing through social media gets the impression we have turned into a nation of vigilantes, volunteer hangmen, executioners, who have waged a war of life and death led by the chief of staff, attorney Yoram Sheftel.

Elor Azaria and his parents in court, Sunday. They must understand that people pay a price for the choices they make in life (Photo: AP)

In other words, forget the stories about the hi-tech nation. The ambition of our life right now is to integrate into the region.

When social networks talk, politicians obey—at least some of them. Even before the judges finished reading their ruling, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett spoke up in favor of amnesty. So many rules of the game have been broken here recently, that their intervention in a judicial proceeding before it has ended doesn’t make much of a difference.

 

Make no mistake about it: Elor Azaria’s fate has never been on their mind. Their calls and their colleagues’ calls for an immediate pardon for the soldier only disrupt the legal process and make it difficult for IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot to make a decision, if and when he is required to do so. They are doing what they’re doing because they think it’s what the people expect them to do. To be more exact, it’s what the voters they’re competing for expect them to do.

It’s not a good thing when so many Israelis embrace a soldier who has failed; but when a prime minister, a defense minister and an education minister follow in their footsteps, it becomes dangerous. This isn’t education, this isn’t security and this isn’t leadership either.

During the trial, I thought admitting responsibility and a mitigation of the sentence would be the right way to end this painful saga. Azaria did what he did in the middle of a wave of terror attacks that left its mark on every home in Israel. Ministers and Knesset members had called for the killing of terrorists, even terrorists who had been neutralized and were helpless. The battle waged around the trial turned Azaria into a symbol, a banner. Each side in the argument used the shooting soldier for its own purposes. His shoulders, I thought, are too narrow to carry all this baggage.

The facts in this affair are simple; the evidence is clear. It’s a waste of time.

Yoram Sheftel, Azaria's lawyer (Photo: Tomer Applebaum)

But Azaria refused to take the blame. His defense in the district military court was unfounded, sometimes even ludicrous; his defense at the appeal court was even worse. He and his family chose to seek shelter under the wings of former Knesset Member Sharon Gal and attorney Sheftel. With these two, the only place where Azaria could have been acquitted is the La Familia court. On Sunday, after the verdict was handed down, Sheftel said he was willing to negotiate with the IDF for a pardon. The IDF would present its conditions, and he and his client would consider them solemnly. This statement properly illustrated why the family was wrong to hire Sheftel. The IDF and Azaria are not negotiating as equals. Azaria was convicted of manslaughter. His chances of reaching the Supreme Court are slim, and he has zero chances of winning there. His choice is clear: He can either go to jail for a year (if one-third of his sentence is reduced) or take responsibility for his actions and ask the chief of staff to mitigate his sentence. There will be no amnesty. I’m not sure what the right decision is, as far as Azaria is concerned. The difference is basically between half a year to a year. If he doesn’t apply for amnesty, he will spend a year in jail but will remain a hero in the eyes of a certain part of the Right; if he does apply, he will spend half a year in jail but lose his fame. It’s a dilemma. As far as the chief of staff is concerned, the important thing is that Azaria goes to jail. The statement he released Sunday evening encompasses his view: First prison, then taking responsibility, and then a mitigation of the sentence. The chief of staff has promised to draw conclusions from the way the IDF handled the affair, including the way he handled it. The truth is the lessons cannot end in the IDF: The entire political system—the entire Israeli society, in fact—must draw conclusions. If we fail to maintain the norms of a law-abiding state, if we fail to get over gut feelings and social media tweets, we will undermine the foundations this country is built on. It’s time to bid farewell to the Azaria affair.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

It’s time to bid farewell to the Elor Azaria affair : http://ift.tt/2hfUKKz

Behind the scenes of a resounding Israeli failure

The Waqf’s decision on Thursday to resume prayers at the Temple Mount has not solved the crisis of the past two weeks just yet. Hamas and Fatah have declared “days of rage,” and it’s still unclear where the Palestinians' feeling of victory will lead to. It may take days for the region to calm down. Meanwhile, the diplomatic failure cannot be ignored: The Israeli Embassy in Jordan has been evacuated, the Egyptians have cancelled the Egyptian Independence Day celebrations in Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has violated the reconciliation agreement and Israel is afraid to claim the price lest he decides to come to the Temple Mount himself, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been pushed into a corner and has become oppositional regarding everything that has to do with the current crisis. If that isn’t a failure, what is?

Metal detectors dismantled outside the Temple Mount. The solution is in the leaders’ hands (Photo: AP)

In the last cabinet meeting on Monday night, when it was decided to remove the famous metal detectors, all those present were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. There was no chance it would work. Less than half an hour after the end of the meeting, everything had already been leaked, and not by chance. The cabinet members are sensing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon start looking for scapegoats. The Temple Mount crisis is not the security official’s failure. It’s the failure of a weak and hesitant political echelon, which should have directed the police, the army and the Shin Bet and provided the political envelope for the aggressive moves on the ground. In that meeting, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh presented the police’s planned security perception, and Military Intelligence Directorate chief Herzl Halevy presented the IDF’s evaluations of the situation. There is no unanimity between the army and the police, and that’s a good thing. Nevertheless, as the national police headquarters and the General Staff see it, leaking the security plans and revealing the disagreements between the police on the one hand and the army and Shin Bet on the other hand add fuel to the fire at the Temple Mount. They make the Waqf and its supporters—from Qatar through Turkey to the Palestinian Authority—fight and raise the price.

The professional, legitimate arguments within the defense establishment focused, first of all, on a fundamental question: Is there room, after the murder of the two policemen at the Temple Mount, to make a change that could move the region, even by an inch, towards a religious conflict with the Muslim world. In the Israeli security outlook, the Temple Mount was and remains the most explosive place in the region, which could lead not only to an outburst of religious fanaticism, but also to an overall regional conflict and to the loss of strategic assets. The leaked arguments over the metal detectors were a smoke screen. Everyone—the army, the Shin Bet, the police and definitely the cabinet—had an interest in downplaying the decision and presenting it solely as a tactical matter.

Only last Tuesday, four whole days after the terrible attack at the Temple Mount, the army was asked—for the first time officially—for its opinion on changing the security arrangements at the Temple Mount. The IDF presented a fundamental stance: The status-quo at the site must not be changed. This mantra, which is supported by the Shin Bet as well, has been repeating itself in every discussion since then: No metal detectors, no cameras and no scaffoldings with different inspection sensors on them over the nine crossings into the Temple Mount. Everything that has been installed should be removed.

Police chief Alsheikh can definitely see himself as an expert on Palestinian issues and on the Temple Mount. He is as big an expert, if not more, as any of his colleagues at the Shin Bet and IDF. As a former Jerusalem district commander at the Shin Bet, he knows every corner there and all those involved, and unlike some of his colleagues who run the other organizations, he knows Palestinians not just through the rifle sight. Thousands of Palestinians sat in front of him in the interrogation room, he has perfect knowledge of the culture and the language.

But when he decided to recommend the erection of metal detectors at the Temple Mount, in the weekend following the murder of Staff Sgt. Maj. Ha'il Satawi and Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan, Alsheikh likely wasn’t acting like a policeman. He came from to the police from the organizational culture of the Shin Bet, and so did his associations on traumas and the way to deal with crises. As far as he’s concerned, the moment two policemen were murdered by Arabs who smuggled weapons into the Temple Mount and acted from within the site, a red line had been crossed in terms of security and there is no way back.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh. From the Shin Bet's organizational culture (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

When Shin Bet officials talk about a red line being crossed in security, they are mainly referring to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s murder by a Jew. The main assessments in light of the threats on Rabin pointed to the Arab side. The emergence of a Jewish murderer was considered, but it wasn’t perceived as a realistic option, until it happened. That’s probably what crossed Alsheikh’s mind when Israeli Arab terrorists arrived at the Temple Mount with firearms. While the police had focused on the possibility of Jews committing terror attacks and provocations on the Temple Mount, Arab terrorism from the mountain wasn’t seen perceived as a real threat, even if it did appear in the scenarios. Like in the Rabin murder, but the other way around. As soon as this red line was crossed, Police Commissioner Alsheikh saw before his eyes an ISIS loyalist entering the Temple Mount and shooting Jews, tourists and police officers. As far as he’s concerned, that’s a scenario Israel must now prepare for. The original intention in the ministers’ consultations with the heads of the defense establishment, immediately after the two policemen were killed, was to lock the mountain for a week. The metal detectors option was raised, but they weren’t perceived as a key issue, as there was a feeling that there was a week to sit, discuss, calm the situation down on the ground and hold diplomatic talks. Eventually, in light of the protests around the world over the precedent of closing the Temple Mount for a long period of time, it was decided to open it as early as Sunday, and the metal detectors became a hit as the only means available to try to deal with the scenario the police chief and his people were preparing for: The entry of armed Muslims to the Temple Mount. And so on Saturday evening, two weeks ago, the prime minister held the famous conference call in which he gave the green light for placing the metal detectors and opening the Temple Mount, a moment before boarding a plane for an official visit abroad. The Shin Bet and the IDF were not required to voice their opinion at this moment, which seemed like a technical stage. In retrospect, military officials were even surprised by the police’s efficiency in organizing 11 metal detectors overnight to greet Sunday’s worshippers. The Jerusalem District Police saw the metal detector as a temporary, partial response to begin with, which wouldn’t be able to provide a good solution for the passage of tens of thousands of people in the rain and under other restrictions. The metal detectors were perceived as an initial response until the police would fulfill their wild dream: To install an advanced security system around the Temple Mount, which would make it possible to locate suspects even before their arrival at the entrances around the mountain. These secret measures are the cutting edge of global security technology: Underground metal detectors, far away from the Temple Mount, cameras which would send data to computers that would quickly locate suspects and unusual activity, etc. From all this Temple Mount mess, the police got one good thing at least: They received a budgetary approval in principle for tens of millions of shekels to develop the systems. A few smart cameras were installed as part of a police pilot about a year ago. Had these cameras been activated now, it might have been possible to locate one or two of the terrorists, radical Islamist activists from Umm al-Fahm, whose names were in the Israel Police and Shin Bet’s database and who carried out the attack at the mountain two weeks ago. By the way, 29-year-old terrorist Muhammad Jabarin, the muezzin at the al-Farouq mosque in Umm al-Fahm, was stopped by a policeman before entering the Temple Mount on the morning of the attack and was asked to present documents. He didn’t raise any suspicions, however, because the weapons had been smuggled by an accomplice of the cell who intentionally looked sickly. The problem is that even if those cameras had been installed around the Temple Mount the next day—and they weren’t, in light of the Jordanians’ strong refusal—this isn’t a system that can provide a response within days, or even within weeks. The metal detectors are a stupid and effective tool, while smart systems need a learning and adjustment period. The computer behind the camera learns all the time.

At the time of the decision to place the metal detectors, there was no sense of urgency in the political echelon. The ministers didn’t identify the explosive potential. The prime minister went abroad as planned, Jordan’s King Abdullah was on vacation in the United States, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in China. The White House wasn’t involved. Netanyahu hadn’t tied any loose ends yet. The discussions with the Jordanians focused on the Israeli demand that Amman would use its influence on the Waqf people who receive their paychecks from Jordan. The Jordanians, in response, demanded that Israel remove the metal detectors.

Until last Sunday, the White House addressed the Temple Mount events as something which should be handled by its embassies in the region. The problem is that both the US ambassador to Jordan and the US ambassador to Israel are new. Moreover, the White House office dealing with Middle Eastern affairs, as most offices in the State Department, is still unmanned. The State Department and the White House—two systems which were well-oiled until recently and knew how to deal with crises around the world—are simply not functioning under Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Donald Trump. Netanyahu, on his part, didn’t feel the need and didn’t want to get the Americans involved, so as not to turn the event into an international saga. As a result, the Americans came into the picture at a much later stage, with the Amman embassy shooting affair. Shabbat also played a considerable part here. Not only is the White House not functioning very well and lacking any proper work systems, but three senior officials—American Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, the president’s son-in-law and close advisor, Jared Kushner, and the special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt—are religious Jews who observe Shabbat. They were all on their weekend break until Monday, and the White House’s operations room didn’t bother getting them involved.

Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman. It was in everyone’s interest to downplay the decision and present it as a tactical matter (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

It was only on Sunday that Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer found his personal friend Kushner and asked him to talk to the Jordanian king, who was vacationing in Hawaii. Kushner took care of the request himself, but it’s hard to say that Israel had his full attention: During that weekend, the president’s son-in-law was busy preparing for his dramatic testimony to the Senate on Monday, following heavy suspicions that he had made contact with Russia before the presidential elections. Greenblatt left for the region that same day, with no plan in his pocket apart from a basic agreement between Netanyahu and the king: The security guard would be returned to Israel in exchange for an Israeli concession that would ease the tensions at the Temple Mount. When Greenblatt boarded the plane, he thought he would arrive in Jordan, get the security guard out and move him to the American embassy—where he would be questioned by Jordanian security officials—and then return with him and with the embassy staff to Israel, and the US would receive Netanyahu’s gratitude. Moreover, he had already began contemplating an organized procedure for the future handling of crises with American involvement, which Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians would all be part of. Nothing of the kind happened. King Abdullah disrupted all the plans. The inexperienced Americans failed to coordinate their plans with him, and he had no intention of ruining his vacation. The king already had a recommendation from the head of his security services on the table. The latter had met on Monday with Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman, who travelled to Amman to personally handle the security guard’s release from the embassy building. Argaman and his Jordanian counterpart tailored the required arrangements to end the crisis, including an agreement that the Jordanian authorities would question the security guard at the embassy before his departure. The praise Netanyahu showered Trump with gives the American president a bit more credit than he deserves. Israel’s main lesson from this affair is that it mustn’t rely on the current US administration in the next big crisis either. While it wants to help, it’s still unable to.

The Temple Mount attack caught the Israel Police at a time when it seemed as if they would be able—together with the other security forces—to restore normalization at the Temple Mount and uproot the potential for incitement from the site after 18 difficult months. This process included arrests of Islamic Movement members, outlawing the Islamic Movement and the "Mourabitoun,” and expelling radical Waqf members from the mountain, with Jordan’s help.

While the Palestinian Authority prevented an Israeli-Jordanian agreement to install cameras on the Temple Mount two years ago, the parties found a way to use measures that would make it possible to reasonably monitor the situation at the site. The Waqf people knew about it and ignored it. The police believed they were back on track. Paradoxically, the three terrorists from the Temple Mount are, according to the police and Shin Bet’s perception, a product of the successful reduction in violence around the Temple Mount. According to the working premise, as soon as the Islamic Movement’s open activity is stopped, some of the steam is let off through terrorism, which is why a terrorist cell around a dominant figure in an Israeli mosque shouldn’t have been a big surprise.

Netanyahu and Abdullah. The inexperienced Americans failed to coordinate their plans with the Jordanian king (Photos: AP, AFP)

In cabinet discussions and in evaluations of the situation within the security bodies, on the eve of the metal detectors’ erection, the police chief estimated that there would be riots and resistance on the Arab side to the change in the security measures. The issue wasn’t brought to the Palestinians' attention, and the swift decision wasn’t shared with the Jordanians either. At the time, the police had rejected all the scenarios provided by the other security bodies, which talked about worshippers storming the metal detectors or forcibly breaking into the Temple Mount. Nevertheless, in order to deal with such a possibility, the police raised their alertness to the highest level and recruited several thousand police officers in the Jerusalem area, to create a mass in every point of protest for deterrence and dispersal purposes. They didn’t put out the fire, but they didn’t let it spread inside the city either. The army recruited five regiments and prepared for “reinforced security” to deal with acts of terror. Friday, July 21st, was the first test. The army and the police succeeded in putting out small fires, on the tactical level. After three Palestinians were killed, the police removed themselves from the points of friction to reduce the number of casualties, and allowed the Palestinians run wild—as long as they stayed away of the Temple Mount and central Jerusalem. At this point, it was clear to everyone that the battle wasn’t over metal detectors but over sovereignty. As far as the Palestinians are concerned, this was a calculated Israeli move aimed at dividing the Temple Mount between Jews and Arabs like the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Until this very day, the Waqf won’t forgive itself for agreeing to divide the site’s management with Israel. Throughout the entire day, there was a feeling in the joint operations room of the army, the Shin Bet and the police in Jerusalem that there had been a drop in the motivation for violence. The Palestinian public, officials estimated, saw the Arab world intervening and pushing for an end to the crisis. The army removed two regiments. And then the Halamish massacre took place, and the army returned three regiments. At the moment, the volume of the IDF’s forces in the West Bank is similar to its volume on October 2015, when the knife intifada broke out. Paradoxically, the state of affairs on the Palestinian street after the murder of the three Salomon family members points to a satisfied feeling of revenge, to a bloody account that has been settled. Israel believes, therefore, that the situation can be calmed down from this point. It shouldn’t be indifferent, however, and disregard the potential of a renewed flare-up, for example in the event of acts of revenge by extreme rightists. IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, on his part, has instructed the army to prepare for a long deployment in Judea and Samaria, as well as for a possibility of calling up reserve forces to reinforce the regular forces when they resume training. In a visit to an IDF induction base, Eisenkot revealed that the current battle, according to the IDF’s definition, is different from the wave of stabbing attacks in 2015. It’s a struggle with a deep religious background, which has rules of its own and little restraining ability. The key for solving the crisis is in Abdullah’s pocket: He pays the Waqf’s salaries, he has people of his own at the Temple Mount, he can guide them and he can fire each and every one of them. Abdullah, on his part, was ready to let the security guard go, but he has no interest in getting into too much trouble with the Jordanian street and parliament. The relations between the security services are one thing, and fixing Israel’s mistakes at the Temple Mount are another thing. The third angle, which Israel has chosen to erase from people’s consciousness and refuse to see as a partner for any agreement or purpose, is missing here: Palestinian President Abbas. Israel is expressively ignoring him, as well as disregarding his threats to cut security ties with the Israelis. The solution is now in the leaders’ hands. Trump couldn’t care less about all of this. He has no intention of presenting any demands to Israel. On the contrary. The White House congratulated Netanyahu on the wise decisions he made. The other leaders—in Israel, in Jordan and in the PA—are in a catch-22 situation. Three unadventurous leaders are forced to dig their heels in against their own will, because they are afraid of the radicals in their society. And this is where things stand.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Behind the scenes of a resounding Israeli failure : http://ift.tt/2uPZSIA

Jordanians waiting for Netanyahu to apologize

I suddenly realized, when seeing the pictures from the mourners’ tent, that I had met Dr. Bashar Hamarneh, the victim of the shooting at the security guard’s apartment in the Israeli Embassy compound in Amman.

It was three or four years ago, in a Jerusalem restaurant, when the Jordanian gentleman, an orthopedist, told me enthusiastically he had visited Israel many times in the past. How do you manage to get an entry permit, I asked curiously, knowing it’s an exhausting process. I live with the Israelis “in the same neighborhood,” he replied with a smile, and I have been renting them apartments since the day the embassy opened.

“We’re quite friendly,” Dr. Bashar leaned over to whisper in my ear, offering to give me a guided tour of his hometown Madaba, south of Amman, where he was buried three days ago. The name of a mutual friend, Dr. Mustafa Hamarneh, an intellectual and Jordanian parliament member, was raised during the meeting. His American wife, Jenny, was the legendary editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times until her death two years ago. A respected, well-established family. I sent a letter of condolence on Saturday. It was hard to find words which would be both warm and convincing.

Jordan’s King Abdullah with the father of the killed youth. The Israeli guard’s immunity issue is troubling both government ministers and the angry protestors

Now it seems both sides have decided to take a break. The attorney general’s office in Amman sent Jerusalem the findings of the Jordanian investigation, and Israel promised to speed up its own examination of the incident with security guard Ziv. Meanwhile, the Israeli diplomats are stuck in Jerusalem. Following heavy hints dropped by the Israeli media, the Hamarneh family was asked not to accept any financial compensation from Israel. It’s more important for them, I understood Saturday, to receive an apology from Prime Minister Netanyahu. All he has to do is say two words: “I’m sorry.” The testimony provided by the driver of the furniture truck, who disappeared last Sunday night, was revealed for the first time Saturday. If what his wife says matches the version the security guard gave the Jordanian interior ministry investigators, the affair is a lot more complicated than the little we were able to read and hear. This is the testimony that was published in Jordan on Saturday and distributed across the Arab world: The driver, Maher al-Juneidi, insists—according to his wife, Buteina Abu Rish—that there was a box of nails involved, not a screwdriver. According to his version, the youth, Mohammad Omar Jawawdeh, brought furniture to the bedroom in the security guard’s apartment, which was paid for by the landlord, Dr. Hamarneh. The furniture assembly began at 4 pm, and after two hours it turned out that there were some nails missing. The teen left the apartment, and when he returned from the truck with the toolbox, something raised the security guard’s suspicion. An argument erupted, the youth stabbed him, the security guard was injured, pulled out a gun and fired. Dr. Hamarneh fell down together with the teen. The driver fled to another room, locked the door and called for help. The security guard called for help too. When the Jordanian rescue forces arrived, they couldn’t find the Israeli, who had escaped in the meantime to the embassy building. I’m not sure that’s a reliable testimony. After all, the driver works for the furniture factory owner, the father of the killed teen. Our investigators are also taking into account the fact that the teen’s family originally comes from a village near Hebron, and the timing of the incident, at the height of the Temple Mount crisis. The funeral procession came out of the large Palestinian refugee camp Wihdat, in the Amman suburbs. The driver, al-Juneidi, was detained for thorough questioning until the weekend, and then chose to hide in the home of relatives, far from the scene of the event. Jordan’s attorney general charged the security guard with two counts of murder and with carrying an unlicensed weapon. The first charge ignores the chain of events, and the second charge is strange. Israeli security guards make sure to register the type and number of weapon, as well as their personal details, with the authorities of the state they serve in. With this whole mess in Amman, let’s hope the gun license was valid. From the Israeli side, it’s clear that the security guard—who holds a diplomatic passport—has diplomatic immunity. Amman, on the other hand, is insisting on making a distinction: Either his job is to defend Israel’s emissaries, or he is an unarmed diplomat who is entitled to restricted immunity only. The immunity issue is troubling both the government ministers in Jordan and the angry protestors: How was the security guard allowed to return to Israel after the interior minister had promised the youth’s parents that justice would be served and that the guard would be prosecuted in the kingdom? The foreign minister has already clarified: We’re acting according to the international code and we expect the Israeli side to do the same. The shooting incident at the embassy compound could also have a negative effect on the return of Israeli diplomats to Cairo. In Ankara, the Israeli representative’s rules of conduct have been toughened. When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t stop people from attacking synagogues in his country, diplomats are preparing to curb any bad surprises.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Jordanians waiting for Netanyahu to apologize : http://ift.tt/2tUUarq

Netanyahu’s bold ‘fold’ on Temple Mount

It’s too easy to say that Prime Minister Netanyahu folded, or caved under the pressure of Palestinian threats to continue their struggle to the death until security measures recently installed by Israel were fully removed from the Temple Mount. It’s easy to say Netanyahu attempted to appease the Palestinians against the specter of a third intifada. When the next terror attack does happen, wherever it is—and it surely will happen—it will be far too easy to once again point the finger at Netanyahu’s so-called capitulation. Just as it is easy to blame every Israeli casualty during Operation Protective Edge on what people have been too quick to describe as his apparent gross mishandling of the incursion. But while the reputation he has carved out for himself, rightly or wrongly, may be that of an appeaser who tends to collapse under pressure in other cases, in this case, it was a bold fold. While taking a domestic loss, he scored a key diplomatic victory.

Photo: Reuters

To be sure, those metal detectors should have remained in place, at least for the foreseeable future. The old proverb of “give an inch, they take a mile” most certainly applies here when it comes to the Arab hyperbole emanating from Israel’s retreat. Removing them was undoubtedly interpreted by the Muslim world as a victory against “the Zionists.”

But do we really believe a veteran politician like Netanyahu had no idea that they would react the way they did?

Netanyahu is fully aware that metal detectors are required outside the compound, but there are short term goals and long term goals. It is his role to turn this abominable situation to Israel’s long-term advantage. The Americans were in close contact with him in a bid to quell the rising tide of violence and may very well have nudged him into climbing down from the tree which—once again it is easy to forget—he did not voluntarily ascend. While the Arab street may celebrate the removal of the metal detectors and ridicule Israel for its seemingly ignominious capitulation in the face of a few rock-throwers, to pay too much attention to this is to lose sight of the bigger picture. Every war with Gaza or with other enemies these days inevitably ends with Hamas or some other opponent declaring victory as its subjects pour onto the streets to parade in a giant display of defiance against the Zionist invaders. Real strategists however, are unconcerned with such facades. Real strategists are concerned with positioning the pieces to the best of their ability, even if it requires minor sacrifices, in order to checkmate the opponent. In this case, Netanyahu understands that the key piece is President Donald Trump. Understanding Trump’s simply articulated worldview and open disgust for Islamic violence, Netanyahu eventually acquiesced in all demands made, much to the dismay of many of his supporters and justifiably concerned Israelis. This may have been irrelevant under Obama, but as Trump’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley once said, “There’s a new sheriff in town.” Possibly at the quiet insistence of the Americans, the metal detectors were removed, along with security camera equipment despite the fact that two Israeli policemen were shot dead precisely because no such measures had previously been implemented. Regardless of whether or not the Americans did pressure Netanyahu or not, Trump and his Middle East advisors witnessed an Israel prepared to “fold,” or compromise, on an issue in respect of which they absolutely should not have had to “fold”, against an insatiable, enraged, rock-throwing, blood-thirsty, suicidal mob screaming “Allahu akbar”, expressing their willingness, even eagerness, to die on their quest to see the dismantlement of metal detectors rather than on their quest for peace.

Photo: Israel Police

They see an abhorrent obsession with, and glorification of, death, a determination to become a martyr for reasons no reasonable, or sane person can begin to fathom.

They see a propensity to jump to religious violence the moment something occurs which is inconsistent, not with their religious beliefs, but with their desires. They see an Israel releasing bodies of three terrorists who earlier this month pulled the trigger on two Druze police officers, killing them both, and essentially setting the entire area ablaze.

Then they see thousands of supposedly peaceful Palestinians parading those same terrorists through the street, screaming and lionizing them as martyrs in the most undignified and abject funeral procession one can possibly imagine. And who is the man openly encouraging this barbaric and backward behavior at worst, remaining silent about it at best? It’s none other than Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu knows that unlike Trump’s predecessor, his sight is crystal clear when it comes to such issues, and his ear is more finely tuned to notes of war being blasted out by the Arab street. The metal detectors are but a small piece to sacrifice in Netanyahu’s overall strategy, as he constructs before Trump a board clearly pointing to one convincing outcome for any prospective peace talks: they are doomed to fail, and when they do, you have already seen with whom we are expected to do business. Neither the Palestinians, nor their leaders, are partners for peace in any future negotiations. It doesn’t take construction of a home in Judea and Samaria to demonstrate it. It simply takes the installation of a few flimsy, temporary metal detectors in a location where three of their men carried out a murder. Abbas may be hard-pressed to convince an individual like Trump that he seeks peace. With his rhetoric twice calling for a “day of rage” over the metal detectors and severing security ties with Israel, convincing Trump that he is truly a dove will be no small challenge.

On the other hand, Netanyahu will already have demonstrated flexibility on what can be considered a non-issue in the grand scheme of things. He will have shown that despite the sheer madness involved in removing the metal detectors, the Palestinians yet again demonstrated no flexibility, and that only he and he alone was ultimately willing to budge. The Palestinians may rejoice at their self-proclaimed victory and Israelis and Jews may vent their anger at the “fold” but there is a time to flow with public opinion or anger, and a time to act against it. One can surmise that this is all a ploy to deliberately derail the possibility of peace talks based on a two-state solution, but whether it is or isn’t, whether his approach is right or wrong, the process will not have been wrecked because Israel’s people were willing to die over a few metal detectors. It won’t be because Israel’s people were ready to die and murder over the slightest change with the encouragement of their leaders. Once again, installing the metal detectors was the correct decision. As a political move however, removing them had nothing at all to do with attempting to pacify the Arab masses. Netanyahu knows that is impossible. The rationale behind the final decision had nothing to do with folding, but rather with showing the Americans who really sits on the other side of the table as Trump prepares to launch his peace initiative.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Netanyahu’s bold ‘fold’ on Temple Mount : http://ift.tt/2eYQq1y

Temple Mount crisis: Moderates have the upper hand, for now

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Op-ed: The interfaith dialogue has proved itself. That doesn’t mean it will last. Turkey's Erdogan, Hamas and Sheikh Raed Salah will search for any way to sabotage the agreements and renew the riots. It just means that, sometimes, it’s better to think about less political channels of dialogue. Temple Mount crisis: Moderates have the upper hand, for now : http://ift.tt/2uaf3KE

Why would anyone vacation in a country that spits in their face?

In one of his delusional speeches, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this week called on the entire Muslim world, and the Turks as well, to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque, because “that was Prophet Muhammad’s commandment.” He didn’t let the fact that the mosque was built 70 years after Mohammad’s death confuse him. Just like he denies the Armenian genocide, the arrest of thousands of citizens, who have been jailed for many years and subject to forced labor or executed one way or another.

Erdogan. Do you really plan on funding his vacation resorts? (Photo: EPA)

The truth is I couldn’t care less about Erdoğan. What I do care about is the rise, or should I say leap, in the number of Israelis who have travelled in recent weeks and months to Turkey’s vacation resorts, the all-inclusive clubs in Antalya, as well as the occasional media reports presenting the people of Israel with all the nice, beautiful and luxurious things Turkey has to offer. Yes, I used to vacation in Turkey too, before the Marmara incident, and I used to write that these vacations offer the best value for money. I travelled there again after the Marmara incident, when it seemed the Turkish president was beginning to reconcile with the State of Israel, and I went back to writing about what the Turks have to offer. But like many people in Israel, I was wrong too. the Turkish president hasn’t changed, and there is no reconciliation between him and the people of Israel. He gladly seizes every opportunity he gets to attack Israel or try to meddle in its internal affairs, presenting himself as the most important Muslim leader in the world. In a television report aired two weeks ago, Israeli families explained that they had travelled to Antalya because they had no other choice. “There was no room in the other destinations we wanted to go to, so we went to Antalya,” they said in a sort of fake apology. That’s a pretty lame excuse and delusional answer to the question why do people even go to Turkey.

Personally, I have no intention of going there as long as the tyrant is on his throne, and I won’t go either if his successor follows in his footsteps. The truth is I’m afraid to go there. Every time I receive an offer to go on a business trip to Turkey, I refuse politely. Images from the film “Midnight Express” pop up in my head, and I really don’t want to take any risks.

If something happens, don’t call on the Israeli government to rescue you (Photo: Danny Sadeh)

But beyond the fear, I find no reason to travel to a country whose leader spits in your face and in my face, day after day and hour after hour. I have no reason to invest my money in the Turkish economy. I’m not a public opinion leader and I won’t call on anyone to boycott Turkey and not to go there, if that’s what they want to do. Neither will I call for a boycott of the travel agencies that sell vacation packages to Turkey. Money, as you know, has no smell. I do hope, however, that if something happens in Turkey, God forbid, all those who go there and ignore Erdoğan's incitement will remember that there is an advisory against travelling to the tyrant’s country. If something happens, God forbid, and I hope nothing happens, they shouldn’t call on the Israeli government to come and rescue them. When there is no lifeguard in the sea, one shouldn’t go into the water.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Why would anyone vacation in a country that spits in their face? : http://ift.tt/2eWn8AG

Temple Mount crisis proves violence pays

Religious violence has, once again, paid off. That is the main take-away from the latest Temple Mount crisis.

The need to conduct security checks, and prevent the smuggling of weapons or explosives into such a sensitive site, should be self-evident. It is ludicrous to view metal detectors as a threat to freedom of Islamic worship, or a change to the status quo at the holy site.

Nevertheless, the defense establishment of Israel recommended removing the metal detectors, which were installed at the Temple Mount following the deadly shooting of two Israeli police officers by a terrorist cell there.

Photo: Reuters

This recommendation carries some real risks.

Another attack could occur at the Temple Mount, and it could be much worse than the previous one. An ISIS suicide bomber, could, for example, decide to blow himself up at the Al Aqsa Mosque, in a bid to spread chaos throughout the Middle East.

So why did the Israeli defense establishment still recommend getting rid of the metal detectors? The answer lies in the wider strategic view that guides the defense chiefs.

Right now, Israel's enemies across the Middle East are busy fighting one another. Israel remains outside of the combat arenas.

A provocation at the Temple Mount can fuel radical elements here though, who will try to exploit the issue to generate Islamic unity around the goal of fighting Israel.

In the wider perspective, Israel's interest is not to enter into a new conflict. Israel has no interest in uniting the Islamic world against it.

Additionally, such incidents place King Abdullah of Jordan in a difficult situation. It is safe to assume that his message to Israel is that he has sufficient domestic problems to deal with, and that Israel is undermining his control of the Kingdom.

The threat of the Hashemite Royal Court losing control of Jordan is real. A confrontation with religious overtones can create intense emotions among the Jordanian citizenry, and jeopardize the rule of Jordanian authorities.

Photo: AP

Jordan remains a significant ally of Israel, and secures the only quiet border Israel has today. This creates an obligation on Jerusalem to do what it can to calm the situation.

These considerations mean that for the Israeli defense establishment and government, the Temple Mount issue is a battle over sovereignty, which fits into a much larger picture.

It is an important matter, but it is not the only way to look at the situation. A second approach to the crisis—one that does not fit into the security-based narrative—is based on the importance of Jewish-Israeli sovereignty, and Israel's right to introduce reasonable security measures. Only time will tell which narrative should have prevailed, and what price Israel will pay for not upholding sovereignty.

Away from this debate, the Temple Mount crisis also carries with it a warning to the wider Western world. A larger trend is emerging here—one that transcends the local Israeli—Palestinian conflict. Regrettably, it can be summed up under the following headline: Violence pays!

These types of incidents are being judged increasingly not by their own moral merit, but rather, according to the levels of rage Muslim communities generate.

The moment Muslim communities respond to a controversy with rage and violence, the receiving side begins to wonder if it did something wrong.

Photo: AFP

This is a highly worrisome trend, and it is one that will, with time, become increasingly relevant for European countries today that are home to significant Muslim minorities.

While today in Europe such issues do not appear with the intensity that they do in Jerusalem and the Middle East, as Muslim communities grow, the intensity of controversies in which they take collective offense will grow as well; regardless of what percentage of the broader Muslim community the militant factions constitute.

Sooner or later, the West will need to ask itself if it is willing to live according to the 'rage' standard, and whether it is prepared to retreat from all red lines in such a relationship.

The West will have no choice but to formulate a clear strategy in the future to regulate such confrontations. The Temple Mount dynamic is an early warning, alerting the world to such a trend.

 

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Ynetnews or any of its affiliate publications.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Temple Mount crisis proves violence pays : http://ift.tt/2uIvL5I

Trump’s Mideast peace deal is fading away

WASHINGTON—Words have meaning, and so does the lack thereof. When an American president stands on the steps of the White House alongside the prime minister of Lebanon and can’t find the words, ignorantly stuttering when he receives a simple question about Hezbollah, it’s not just a disgrace—it’s an occasion that calls for scorn and pity.

Because Donald Trump, it turns out, has no clue about Hezbollah. The man who announced with great fanfare that he is the only person who can bring a peace agreement to the Middle East has no idea who’s fighting whom in the neighborhood.

On Tuesday, Trump told the nation that Lebanon was on the frontlines in the fight against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. Yes, Hezbollah. As usual, he didn’t do his homework, and didn’t know that Hezbollah is part of Lebanon and its politics. It’s therefore no wonder that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who was standing next to him, wiggled with discomfort.

Trump with Lebanese PM Saad Hariri. ‘Lebanon is on the frontlines in the fight against Hezbollah’ (Photo: AP)

 

Trump added that within 24 hours, after consulting his military experts, he would make his position on sanctions against Hezbollah clear. And this is the man who promised Israel and the Palestinians the moon upon taking office. He would show everyone that he can bring, with his real estate skills, what former president Barack Obama wanted so much and failed to deliver: An end to the conflict.

When the White House was filled with chaos on the first days of his term, it seemed there was only one issue the president and his advisors were and focusing and working on in full force: Making peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And not only that, but as part of a regional agreement that would include Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states in the region. The drafts for the American initiative exchanged hands, and the aspiration was to advance the two-state solution, with clear borders and land swaps—a variation of the Saudi initiative that turned into the Arab initiative, and the only solution on the ground, if the parties really want it.

And Trump really wanted it. His associates began fantasizing about hosting a conference, which would eventually lead to a Nobel Prize. The grandiose plan even managed to instill hope in the Palestinian side, which rushed to praise the new president. But high expectations lead to disappointment: The Trump-led White House started to considerably withdraw, and the passion for the issue was replaced with indifference.

Now, the US is just strengthening its relations with the parties, serving as a fire extinguishing force—for example, by curbing the escalation around the Temple Mount—rather than serving as an initiating force advancing an agreement. The special envoys, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, are mediating between Amman and Jerusalem to prevent an intifada. No one there expects more than that. Perhaps for the first time, or at least in a very long time, the White House issued no condemnation of a serious terror attack, like the one which took place in Halamish. It wasn’t even on their agenda.

Trump and his heroes are tired, and they no longer see the Middle East as a promise but rather as a milestone. The president declared that there was only one person who could carry out such a deal: His son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner. The son-in-law, however, is busy proving that he wasn’t involved in a plot with Russia during the election campaign. Trump himself is busy insulting his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, trying to make him quit, and getting rid of special counsellor Robert Mueller, who is looking into his ties and his people’s ties with Russia. He isn’t firing Sessions because his electoral base wants to see him in that position.

Trump is mostly concerned these days with the black Russian cloud hanging over Washington. As far as he’s concerned, our region can wait. But in these troubled times, from the pools of blood and bursting rage on the mountain, the president could have actually created a different drama and launched a resonating American call to stop the violence and return to the negotiating table. Something like shock therapy, an American statement with a timetable and real teeth, like a world power should do at a time of crisis. It seems, however, that the Middle East has never been so far from the White House. Or maybe Trump thinks that things are not bad enough there to allow him to bring something good.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Trump’s Mideast peace deal is fading away : http://ift.tt/2u2F7Y6

The ‘Al-Aqsa libel’ lives on

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Op-ed: Terrorism doesn’t seek peace, it doesn’t seek two states for two people or an end to the occupation. Terrorism appears because of incitement, hatred and blood libels. It seeks destruction and ruin, and it will find any excuse to reappear, both when the Palestinians are suffering because of the occupation and when they are thriving despite the occupation. The ‘Al-Aqsa libel’ lives on : http://ift.tt/2uBNr4C

Erdogan, Haniyeh and Abbas are praying for an intifada

The Islamists who incited and ignited the metal detector crisis at the Temple Mount wanted an intifada. They haven’t given up their wish just yet. That’s the main reason the Waqf was preventing Muslim worshipers from returning to the Temple Mount until Thursday afternoon, although the Israeli government had already removed the metal detectors. One of these famous Islamists is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who—like in the Marmara crisis—is leading the anti-Israeli religious incitement. He’s doing it in his speeches, but also behind the scenes.

Muslim worshippers outside the Temple Mount (Photo: MCT)

Erdogan wants to be the leader of political Islam in the Middle East—in other words, the leader of all the Muslim Brotherhood movements, which both Hamas and Sheikh Raed Salah’s Islamic Movement in Israel are affiliated with. Preserving the conflict at the Temple Mount serves the Islamist-radical camp in the intra-Arab conflict between the moderate Sunni Arab states and Qatar, Turkey and the different Muslim Brotherhood movements. Hamas is one of these movements, and its supporters—together with Raed Salah’s people—are trying to maintain and leverage the violent energy that has accumulated on the Jerusalem-Palestinian street and in the Muslim world in general. Their goal is to turn this energy into a long intifada, which will encompass not only Jerusalem but also the territories and Israel’s Arabs, and will echo and be imitated in the Muslim world in general. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was also trying to leverage the negative energies and the rage that accumulated during the metal detector crisis. While the prevailing opinion is that Abbas is influenced by the masses in this crisis, there are many signs indicating that he is using the crisis for his own needs. He is trying to take advantage of the Islamist wave to advance what he refers to as “a diplomatic intifada” in the international arena. The goal of this intifada is to delegitimize the State of Israel, isolate it in the international arena and impose an agreement agreement which the Israeli government finds unacceptable through international pressure and sanctions. Abbas isn’t hiding it. He’s saying it openly and even shooting himself in the foot by reducing the security cooperation with Israel. He isn’t cancelling it altogether because he knows that Hamas will bring him down if he doesn’t have Israel to protect him, but he believes he can have it both ways. These are the people who are interested in a continuation of the Temple Mount riots. They’re hoping for more deaths and injuries in the clashes with the Israel Police and the IDF in the coming days, and for a local event which will inflame the Palestinian and Islamist street again.

Photo: AFP

They’re also relying on the traditional tendency in the Arab and Muslim world to believe in mystic conspiracy theories. The facts at the Temple Mount at the moment are that the situation has returned to its original state before the murder of the Israeli police officers on July 14. The metal detectors have been removed, the cameras have been dismantled and the new smart cameras haven’t been installed and it will take a long time before they are installed. Al-Jazeera, for example, which is inspired by the radical Islamist camp that Qatar is a member of, is promoting myths among the incited crowds in Jerusalem about hidden Israeli cameras allowing the Israeli security forces to see the naked body of the Muslim worshipper who innocently arrives to pray at the Temple Mount. The masses in Jerusalem and outside Jerusalem are enthusiastically buying into these theories, sticking to them and, most importantly, acting as if they were true. All this—the violent energy that has accumulated on the Palestinian street, Hamas and Erdogan’s aspiration to ignite an intifada and Abbas’ attempt to leverage the metal detectors crisis for diplomatic achievements—require the Israeli government to use force, many police officers, but to exercise maximum restraint. Erdogan, Salah and Ismail Haniyeh want deaths to inflame the intifada. We must not give them that. So we must ensure that there is a massive presence of police forces in any place where riots break out in the coming days, but there must be clear orders to avoid opening fire. The forces on Jerusalem’s streets, and the roadblocks preventing the arrival of incited crowds from outside Jerusalem, should be reinforced as early as Thursday rather than on Friday morning. A massive reinforcement of the forces in Jerusalem is like throwing a blanket on a fire that has just started burning. Another measure the Israeli government should take is to enlist the American administration and the European Union countries to pressure Erdogan, Abbas and Haniyeh. Erdogan is a NATO member, and NATO member states can’t stand idly by while one of the alliance’s members incites against a democratic Western state in the Middle East.

Both Abbas and Haniyeh are receiving help and life thanks to the aid they get from the Americans and the Europeans. This aid is an influential leverage which could definitely restrain the Palestinian leaderships both in Ramallah and in Gaza. While Abbas is relaunching his diplomatic intifada because he is disappointed with the Trump administration, as he sees no progress in the efforts to advance peace negotiations according to his conditions, the Trump administration can still definitely make it clear to him that he must not bite the hand that feeds him.

Prime Minister Netanyahu with the Israeli security guard who returned from Jordan (Photo: Haim Zach, GPO)

As for the crisis with Jordan, the incident should be thoroughly investigated. Did the security guard have to shoot the Palestinian teen who attacked him with a screwdriver, or could the former Givati company commander have kicked and neutralized the youth? Not every incident requires shooting in order to kill. And in light of the international sensitivity, it would be advisable to look into the possibility of having Foreign Ministry’s security guards undergo intensive Krav Maga courses that will prevent the need to shoot. The way the prime minister solved the crisis with Jordan proves that insufficient efforts had been made beforehand to enlist Jordan and Egypt to calm the situation down in the metal detectors affair.

Had US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, telephoned Jordan’s King Abdullah last Thursday, we may have been in a different situation right now. Religious crises have a tendency of escalating quickly, and as time goes by without any significant change, they become chronic and are very difficult to settle, as we are witnessing now.

Most importantly, we must not be afraid. Israel must protect its right and its duty to keep Jerusalem safe and to use force for that purpose. It must, however, avoid killing Palestinians. Experience shows it’s the one thing that leads to lone-wolf terror attacks and inflames the situation more than anything else.

 

Dialogue needed with religious leadership (Photo: AFP)

Equally important, the Israeli government and its security organizations must do everything in their power to neutralized the religious rage and the violent energies on the Muslim street:

First of all, they must avoid public statements, like the one Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made, about “individual security checks.” While the statement was meant for the Israeli Right’s ears, it echoes in the Muslim world and affirms the claim that the status quo has not been restored at the Temple Mount.

Second, they must avoid activities that could provoke the Muslim street and social media. They can, for example, wait a week or two before demolishing the home of the terrorist from the June 2016 shooting at Tel Aviv’s Sarona compound.

The Islamists should be allowed to blow off steam, but in a controlled manner which will be made clear to them in advance. A large force at the entrances to the east Jerusalem neighborhoods that are prone to violence will convey the messages to the incited Jerusalem residents as well.

Finally, there is a need for a continuous dialogue with the Waqf, and maybe even with Jerusalem’s mufti. Even it doesn’t help, it won’t hurt to try. The coordinator of the government’s activities in the territories, Major-General Yoav Mordechai, can be tasked with that mission.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Erdogan, Haniyeh and Abbas are praying for an intifada : http://ift.tt/2eQkD2D

Amman embassy affair is no cause for celebration

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Op-ed: Netanyahu is trying to present Israeli security guard’s return as diplomatic achievement, talking about it as if it were a second Operation Entebbe. Reality, thoughm was quite different, as guard was returned to Israel following agreement that included Israeli concessions to Jordan. Amman embassy affair is no cause for celebration : http://ift.tt/2h317AT

In Netanyahu’s government, it’s okay to incite against Shin Bet

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Op-ed: Politicians like David Bitan and Miri Regev don’t care about the need to hold a practical and rational debate on security issues. They just want to make a quick profit among the radical right, while trying to terrorize the professional security echelon. In Netanyahu’s government, it’s okay to incite against Shin Bet : http://ift.tt/2tJqPQK

A crisis in the Middle East? Trump would rather play golf

The announcement was made a little after midnight: American envoy Jason Greenblatt is one his way to Israel. Very good. The only problem is that the announcement came a week too late, after the violence in the region had already soared, after at least eight people had been killed—including three members of the Salomon family, who were murdered in Halamish—and while the Israeli diplomatic staff in Jordan was still on lockdown in the embassy compound.

 

Greenblatt has good intentions, the problem is the gap between his intentions and his abilities: Had he arrived a week ago, when it might have still been possible to contain the Temple Mount metal detector crisis and find a way for everyone to get off their high horses, he might have succeeded. Now, he is arriving with a diplomatic fire extinguisher after the diplomatic fire has already gotten out of control.

Netanyahu may have tried to call Trump as the crisis in Amman began unfolding, but did he have anyone to talk to? (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

The White House rushed to clarify that US President Donald Trump was “closely following unfolding events in the region.” Really? Trump’s official schedule on Sunday was empty (after all, it’s his day off). Apart from visiting his golf course in Virginia as the crisis in Amman began unfolding, no unusual activity was reported. And that’s okay. As we all remember, former President Barack Obama liked playing golf too. But when an Egyptian mob stormed the Israeli Embassy building in Cairo six years ago, he preferred to be at the White House and personally handle the crisis. After receiving an urgent phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was crying out for help, Obama didn’t go to sleep. Instead, he telephoned General Tantawi in Cairo and stayed up all night to supervise the Israeli diplomats’ rescue. Netanyahu had a good reason to praise him for that.

The fact that the president’s Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, supervised the mediation efforts from afar was not very encouraging either: On Monday, he was forced to meet with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee to explain why he had met with Russian representatives during the election campaign. So with all his goodwill, Kushner was much busier trying to escape an indictment that could send him to a federal prison than trying to help rescue Israelis from Jordan.

Israeli officials used to call Obama naïve and Secretary of State Kerry messianic. I wonder what they would say about Kerry’s successor, Rex Tillerson, who is pleading the Fifth when it comes to Israel. If anyone can remember the last time Tillerson said anything about Israel or showed an interest, they had better update the guys at the Foreign Ministry, because as far as they’re concerned, he has gone AWOL.

It’s true that Obama and Kerry pressured us, sometimes too much. But at least they showed an interest. Every single spark at the Temple Mount could set the entire Middle East on fire. Obama and Kerry knew that and went out of their way to prevent it. Trump’s deafening silence indicates not only that he doesn’t know that, but he doesn’t really care either.

Netanyahu was so happy when Obama left the White House, but at least he had someone to call during moments of crisis like this. It’s possible he did pick up the phone and call Trump on Sunday, but I’m not sure he had anyone to talk to this time. Judging from the president’s hectic activity on Twitter, it seems he had better things to do.  

Dr. Yoav Fromer teaches politics and American history at Tel Aviv University.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

A crisis in the Middle East? Trump would rather play golf : http://ift.tt/2tIcQLb

A leftist’s open letter to Roger Waters

Mr. Waters, you have become the most prominent spokesperson for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. BDS has been gaining traction over the last decade, especially on the Left, indicating people feel concerned, with good reason, about the plight of the Palestinian people. However, the goals of the movement you support are both immoral and illegal. They are immoral because BDS espouses a moral Manichaeism. They are illegal because it calls for the destruction of Israel.

 

BDS is Manichaean because it places all the blame on Israel for the absence of peace in the region. Nevertheless, it is undeniable both sides are responsible for the current stalemate. Of course, settlement activities in the West Bank are unacceptable. However, the Palestinians have missed three opportunities that would have allowed them to recover nearly all of the West Bank (in 2001, 2008 and 2014).

Furthermore, Hamas—which calls for the destruction of Israel—and other Palestinian extremist factions have decimated Israel’s peace camp by sowing fear among the Israeli population. As a result, Israelis are convinced that if they pull out of the West Bank, this territory will be turned into a launching pad to fire rockets on Israel. This fear is totally legitimate, and BDS doesn’t address it at all.

Roger Waters. Should heed the words ‘Antigone is right, but Creon is not wrong’ (Photo: Getty Images)

It's worth nothing that BDS pretends not to target Israeli individuals, unless the Israeli government funds them. However, most Israeli artists and academics are not rich enough to work without public funding.

As for the destruction of Israel, it is true BDS doesn’t call openly for it. However, its objectives are such that if Israel were to accept them, this country would cease to exist. BDS has three stated objectives: (1) to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories; (2) to end all discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel; (3) to implement an unlimited right of return for all Palestinian refugees (including their descendants) who fled or who were expelled during the first Arab-Israeli War of 1947-49, in which 10 percent of Israeli Jews were driven out of their homes as well by Arab forces.

The two first claims are legitimate, but the third is not. If all refugees were to go back to Israel (as Israeli citizens), Palestinians would become the majority in Israel proper. Omar Barghouti himself, the founder of BDS, has said: ‘‘If the refugees were to return, you would not have a two-state solution, you’d have a Palestine next to a Palestine.’’ This is illegal under international law. Even if the right of return exists (under UN General Assembly resolution 194), it’s not an unrestricted right, for Israel also has the right to exist as a Jewish state (under UNGA resolution 181).

Thus, a fair balance between the right of return and Israel’s right to exist is required. This is why UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which take precedence over General Assembly resolutions, as well as the advisory opinion given by the International Court of Justice on July 9, 2004, do not talk about an unlimited right of return. They refer explicitly to a “just solution’’ to the refugee issue that takes into account the right of all states in the region to exist in peace and security, including Israel. This is also why in 2000, former US President Bill Clinton proposed the return of only part of the refugees in exchange for compensations reaching $30 billion—the highest amount of money ever offered to descendants of refugees.

Interestingly enough, BDS rejects even the creative compromise proposed by The Two States, One Homeland movement—that is, an Israeli-Palestinian confederation (two associated states with an open border) that would allow both Palestinians and Israelis to live on both sides of the border while retaining their original citizenship. BDS is so extreme that it went as far as disrupting the activities of Two States, One Homeland, forcing it to cancel its inaugural event in the West Bank.

In fact, BDS refuses any compromise that would not spell the end of Israel. To quote Omar Barghouti once again: “Colonizers are not entitled to self-determination, by any definition of self-determination." This claim is totally absurd. Who would dare say the United States, Canada or Australia have no right to exist because of their colonial origins?

Even still, though it would not change anything with regards to Israel’s right to exist, the idea that this country is a European colony is really a matter of perspective. What the Palestinians understand as a colonial invasion is, for Israelis, a return to their ancient homeland. This is not surprising. If one looks at the situation with an open mind, it is obvious it is not a struggle between good and evil but rather a Greek tragedy (a clash of rights).

In the first half of the 20th century, the Jews were persecuted. Hence, they needed a state of their own to protect themselves against anti-Semitism. Furthermore, according to the theory of the redistribution of wealth, it is just to share out the land so homeless peoples, as were the Jews, can exercise their universal right to self-determination in their land of origin. However, the Palestinians’ refusal to share their land with the Jews is understandable as well, because they are the only ones who were made to pay for the creation of Israel. The rest of the world should have at least compensated them to share the burden.

“Antigone is right, but Creon is not wrong,’’ said Albert Camus to express the essence of tragedy that characterizes so well this conflict. Mr. Waters, you should heed these words!  

Bernard Bohbot is a member of Canadian Friends of Peace Now. His views are his own.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

A leftist’s open letter to Roger Waters : http://ift.tt/2uX7dYI

Amman embassy shooting was just what Netanyahu needed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should send a bouquet of flowers to security officer Ziv from the Israeli embassy in Amman and thank him, and his good fortune, for the incident that took place at the embassy compound on Sunday evening. While the heated argument cost two Jordanian citizens their lives, it provided Netanyahu with a way out of the metal detector fiasco at the Temple Mount.

This is one gift which isn’t considered an offense under the Gift Law. Hallelujah. Jordan’s King Abdullah is vacationing in the United States these days. According to one report, he’s in Hawaii. According to another report, he’s on the West Coast. On Sunday evening, shortly after the incident, Netanyahu tried to reach the king on the phone. Abdullah was unavailable. Israeli officials were under the impression that the time difference was just an excuse. The king let Netanyahu sweat.

And he did sweat. The safety of the diplomats at the Israeli Embassy in Amman was not the only thing at stake; so was the future of Israel’s relations with Jordan and other Sunni states in the region, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and the chance of quelling the violence in Israel and in the West Bank.

Jordan's King Abdullah made Netanyahu sweat (archive photo)

Like in the past, everyone was asked to help. American envoy Jason Greenblatt was called to mediate and raise Israeli ideas disguised as American ideas; Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman—whose organization was called “delusional” by Miri Regev—was urgently sent to Amman. The government ministers don’t believe him; the palace does.

Former Mossad Director Danny Yatom, who rescued Netanyahu from the failed assassination attempt of Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in 1997, said Monday that in the event of a crisis, you must first of all think about the other side’s problem. As soon as it’s solved, your problem is solved too. And you must act fast. Twenty years ago, Netanyahu was forced to release Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, from Israeli custody and provide Mashal’s doctors with the antidote for the poison he was given. This time, the price will be paid in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind. The metal detector idea was born in the arrogant mind of police officers. Netanyahu, who had his reservations at first, adopted the idea as soon as Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett adopted it. Then, when the IDF and Shin Bet warnings were revealed, when the ministers, including Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, brushed off their share in the responsibility for the affair and placed it all on Netanyahu, he was afraid to withdraw. In his previous terms, Netanyahu had more room to maneuver. Now, there is an ambitious son at the prime minister’s residence, an heir to the throne, who—together with his mother—is pushing his father to the edge.

What’s the problem with the metal detectors, ministers are asking. Why there are metal detectors in Mecca too. They don’t understand that the dispute is not over metal detectors, but over sovereignty. The rules of the game were set 50 years ago by then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan: The Israeli flag won’t be raised over the Temple Mount mosques. Israel will be the de fact sovereign, through the Israel Police, but the Waqf, whose leaders receive their salary from Jordan, will be responsible for the daily activity. Every move will be coordinated. Dayan was afraid, rightfully, of a religious war that would sweep the entire Muslim world.

There have been changes since then: Thanks to the peace agreement, Jordan officially entered the picture; the Palestinian Authority got a foothold after the Oslo Agreements; Sheik Raed Salah launched a poisonous propaganda war, which turned the compound into one big mosque that must not be touched; and, on the other side, national-religious Jews chose to violate the religious prohibition on visiting the Temple Mount. Their presence turned into a powderkeg. And the police stopped coordinating their moves with the Waqf.

Metal detectors removed from Temple Mount. The dispute is not over metal detectors, it’s over sovereignty (Photo: AFP)

From a security perspective, the metal detectors are unnecessary. They won’t prevent the smuggling of weapons into the Temple Mount. The decision to place them was political. Netanyahu felt he had to prove to his voters that he was imposing a collective punishment on the Palestinians following the murder of the two police officers, and the metal detectors were the available solution, a solution provided to him by the police.

The plan was to show that he is strengthening Israeli sovereignty at the Temple Mount. The result was the exact opposite: Placing the metal detectors and then removing them demonstrated to the entire world that Israel is not the landlord. Netanyahu, and the ministers who pushed him, weakened the Israeli foothold in the Temple Mount compound.

On Monday evening, Netanyahu convened the cabinet to decide to remove the metal detectors and replace them with smart cameras. In a previous round, in April 2016, Netanyahu reached an agreement with King Abdullah for the installation of 55 cameras under Jordanian and Israeli supervision. Right-wing politicians opposed the Jordanian presence, and Netanyahu reconsidered and embarrassed the king. For the cameras to be installed now, someone will have to give up on something they see as their own—either the right-wing ministers, who won’t entrust this symbolic power to foreigners, or Jordan’s king, who was promised involvement in the camera project.

The cameras are smart, the cabinet ministers were told. They will be able to distinguish from afar between an innocent worshipper and an armed terrorist, between a prayer bead and an explosive belt. The cameras are smart, there’s no doubt about it. Perhaps, instead of installing them at the Temple Mount gates, we’ll seat them around the cabinet table. There is a great shortage of wisdom there, a necessary commodity these days.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Amman embassy shooting was just what Netanyahu needed : http://ift.tt/2uSUOp0