Israel Analysis: Netanyahu in New Orleans on Iran, De-Legitimisation, and a "Secure Peace"

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans. His issues were simple: the greatest threat of Iran and the attempt to "de-legitimise" Israel.

Netanyahu first set out the menace of Tehran:

The greatest danger facing Israel and the world is the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. Iran threatens to annihilate Israel. It denies the Holocaust. It sponsors terror.  It confronts America in Afghanistan and Iraq.  It dominates Lebanon and Gaza. It establishes beachheads in Arabia and in Africa. It even spreads its influence into this hemisphere, into South America.  

Now, this is what Iran is doing without nuclear weapons. Imagine what it would do with them. Imagine the devastation that its terror proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas and others, would wreak under an Iranian nuclear umbrella.

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Israel Analysis: What is on Netanyahu's Mind as He Visits US?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in New Orleans for the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, asked US Vice President Joe Biden to create a credible threat in the form of a military campaign to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

So, the four rounds of economic sanctions in the last four years against Tehran is insufficient for West Jerusalem, which wants the prospect of US military power days after the Republicans gained the majority in the lower house of Congress. Netanyahu is reportedly prepared to support his argument with intelligence reports saying that Tehran only halted its uranium-enrichment process in 2003 when Washington was still threatening to bomb.

Netanyahu's second subject will be the deadlocked negotiations with the Palestinians.

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Post-Election Israel-US Analysis: Why Obama Should Seek More than "Empathy" with Netanyahu

Given that the Republicans are still a minority in the Senate, Obama's defeat on Tuesday was far from comprehensive. Even if it was, it does not follow that adopting a pro-Israeli position turns setback into success: the invocation that Obama needs "political empathy", making the analogy with President Clinton in 1994, when he "quickly adjusted his polices and moved toward the center" is shallow, both in its assumption of the same situation in 2010 and 16 years earlier and its dismissal of considerations beyond the domestic.

Beyond the Republicans, the US faces other powers --- from Ankara to Damascus to Tehran --- who wish to assert their influence in the region. So where is Washington's front line: in an artificial "empathy" at home or in a decisive move abroad to get a real gain, one which be useful at the ballot boxes in 2012 but have much greater benefits before that?

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Israel-Palestine: Is There Hope in West Jerusalem's "Interim Solution"?

To save the direct Israel-Palestine talks, or possibly just to save face, secret negotiations are reportedly going on between Washington and West Jerusalem. One proposal involves  "leasing lands in East Jerusalem from future Palestinian state for 40-99 years", according to the London-based Arabic language daily Asharq al-Awsat. 

Is there more? On Saturday, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to convince the US administration to accept a plan for an "interim solution" based on a 10-year transition which the Palestinian state will be established on temporary borders. According to this plan, the Jerusalem and the right of return issues will be bypassed and the temporary borders will be the current Israeli security fence/Separation Wall. Israel will lease the Jordan Valley for 40 years and Israel Defense Forces bases will remain at entrances to West Bank cities. 

The bottom line is that Israel would remain control over 40 percent of the West Bank during the planned interim period.

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Israel the Perpetual Victim? (Levy)

We've always loved victimization, not only when we were real victims, as often was the case in our history, but also when we were the aggressors, occupiers and abusers. And we don't only cast ourselves as victims, but as the only victims. But observe our perception of our wrongdoing. It started with denial, then changed to suppression, then to shamelessness, then to dehumanization and demonization, until we arrived at the current stage: A pride parade.

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Turkey Analysis: What Does Ankara's New "Red Book" of Threats Mean?

On Wednesday, Turkey's National Security Council (MGK) agreed to make radical changes to a document. referred to as the “Red Book” or the "Secret Constitution", in which the main threats over the next five years to Turkey's security are outlined.  

Is the Erdogan government a new "De Gaulle" which is just pursuing its political calculations or is it the Trojan Horse aligning with "radicals" such as Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah?

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Israel: On the Verge of Discussing "US War Crimes"

On Wednesday, the secretariat of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, changed the title of a motion considering US military documents soon to be released by the website WikiLeaks. The initial proposal, n "U.S. War Crimes", was put forward by a right-wing MK Michael Ben-Ari.

Any guess about who stood up against this proposal? Full marks if you said Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon:

I don't know if you did this to be defiant or teasing or maybe even just out of black humor. I just have no other way of looking at this.

In Jerusalem, in the Israeli house of legislation, this is how we present something like this?. This is terrible, and not just from a utilitarian perspective. The fact that the U.S. is our best and strongest friend cannot be appealed.

MK Ben-Ari, I completely appreciate your parliamentary abilities, but you are almost wasting a motion for the agenda.

Had you said "Al-Qaida war criminals", I would have understood. Had you said "the report that emerged, that was leaked", I would understand. But "U.S. war crimes"?

Israel Counterpoint: To Weaken Hamas, Open Gaza's Gates (Haas)

Do you really want to weaken Hamas? Surprise it. Go back and open Gaza's gates - to ordinary human movement, not just to cherries, shavers and a handful of pious Muslims who manage to wend their way past the Egyptian bureaucracy. Open the Erez checkpoint. Then you'll see how Gazans yearn for life. 

Let young people study outside the Gaza Strip. Despite the exasperating presence of Israel's foreign rule, in the Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank those young people will encounter a form of diversity that is becoming extinct in Gaza. They will discover that such diversity is better than the monolithic reality imposed by Israel's siege and messianic politics. Allow female pupils and female teachers to tour their land and see that the world is more complicated than brainwashing television programs and competitions to obtain relief packages. Consider this: Diplomats report that most Hamas summer camps in Gaza have been closed; most children preferred camps operated by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

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Israel: Settlements Flat Out, Netanyahu's Jewish State, and the "Partnership to Peace"

The building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in the last three weeks, since the 10-month moratorium on construction ended, has been more than four times faster than in the last two years. Still, the building of 544 homes "has [had] no real effect on the map of a possible (peace) agreement", according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said on the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin:

You were skeptical and careful, respectful and thoughtful, and you were determined to continue down a road leading to peace. I am a partner to your approach that we must always continue pushing for peace.

In the 15 years that passed, fundamental Islam has strengthened. It won the elections in Gaza, took over southern Lebanon, and has threatened the United States.

So, while persisting for peace, one has to recognise who is behind the threat of this "fundamental Islam". Netanyahu continued:

We do not want to take away from the Palestinian the right to self definition. We want the Jewish state to be recognized and protected. Our insistence on security is not an excuse.

We left Lebanon and now Iran is touching the fence. We left Gaza and now Iran is touching that fence. We cannot let this happen a third time… There is no doubt that Rabin, as a man of security, would have agreed to this insistence. 

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Middle East Inside Line: Fatah-Hamas Talks; Israel's "Gesture" in the West Ban

Fatah and Hamas Reunification Talks: On Sunday, Hamas announced that it reached an agreement with its rival Fatah party to hold a meeting next week. The two groups were supposed to mee last week in Damascus, but tension between Syria's President Bashar Assad and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas led to a cancellation, followed by a series of arrests by the rival parties in the Gaza and West Bank.

Though next week's venue is yet be declared, Salah Bardaweel, a Hamas legislator and spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said he did not rule out the possibility that the meeting would still be held in the Syrian capital:

Fatah leaders should not waste their time searching for similarities in the political platforms of Hamas and Fatah. The only thing we could have in common is not recognizing Israel’s existence.

In response, Osama Qawasmeh, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, said that Hamas was ready to recognize Israel’s existence if a Palestinian state were to be established in the entire West Bank, Gaza Strip, and eastern Jerusalem.

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