Middle East Roundup: May 25, 2016

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Netanyahu and Lieberman sign deal to expand Israeli governing coalition
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A deal to bring Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition was signed Wednesday. Lieberman and fellow Yisrael Beiteinu Member of Knesset Sofa Landver are set to be sworn in as government ministers May 30—Lieberman as defense minister and Landver as immigrant absorption minister.

The deal expands the Likud party-led coalition in the Israeli Knesset from 61 to 66 MKs out of the legislative body’s 120 members. Netanyahu and Lieberman held a joint press conference Wednesday morning after signing the coalition deal. Netanyahu said he and Lieberman were joining forces to “move Israel forward,” vowing that he and Lieberman would “protect Israel’s security with determination and responsibility.”

“Israel needs governmental stability to deal with the challenges we face and take advantage of the opportunities we are being presented with,” Netanyahu said.

Regarding his relationship with Lieberman—Israel’s former foreign minister—Netanyahu said, “I appreciate his skills and experience. We’ve worked together in the past for the good of Israel’s citizens. It’s no secret that we’ve had some disagreements. This is part of political life, and at stormy moments things were said that should not have been said.”

Lieberman said, “Ultimately, the most important issue is the security of the citizens of Israel. This is why we left everything else aside and made the effort to come together….I’m committed to level-headed policies that will ensure stability for our country. The coalition will now be stronger and more stable.”

The talks to bring Yisrael Beiteinu into the coalition had stalled in recent days due to a disagreement between Lieberman and Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon over Lieberman’s proposed pension reform.
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Israel freezes returning terrorists’ bodies to families after funeral incitement
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Some 1,000 people attended the eastern Jerusalem funeral of Palestinian terrorist Ala Abu Jamal on Monday, where anti-Israel slogans were chanted, in violation of the terms under which Israel agreed to return his body to his family. The incident prompted Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to freeze the return of terrorists’ bodies to the Palestinian Authority.

Abu Jamal killed 60-year-old Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky and wounded eight others last October when he rammed his vehicle into a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem, and then got out of the vehicle and attacked his victims with a cleaver. He was shot dead by a security guard who rushed to the scene.

Police agreed to return Abu Jamal’s body provided that only his immediate family attend his funeral. Instead, the funeral was attended by a huge crowd that called out inciting slogans, including “slaughter the Jews.”

The crowd participated in the funeral procession, but Israeli Border Police officers allowed only several dozen family members to enter the cemetery.

“I was just shown the infuriating photos from the funeral,” Erdan wrote in a Facebook post. “The funeral, which was attended by many and included calls of incitement and support for terrorism, violated the terms set by the police as well as the family’s pledge. The families of the terrorists lied to the High Court of Justice when they promised to adhere to the police’s demands, and it is a shame that the court believed them and pressured the police to hand over the bodies before Ramadan….There is no doubt that the crowd that attended the funeral was invited or knew about it from the family and the funeral’s organizers. This is a violation.”

One of Abu Jamal’s relatives told Israel Hayom that “only family members were permitted to enter the cemetery. Everyone else waited outside. We couldn’t stop them from attending the funeral procession and we certainly could not shut their mouths. The Jews call this incitement, but we see it as a great honor that Abu Jamal is a martyr.”
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Israel digs against the clock to save Judean Desert scrolls from looters
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli authorities are stepping up the fight to save the country’s unrecovered ancient scrolls from the hands of antiquities robbers.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the Heritage Project of the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry, and Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev are promoting a national program of archaeological excavations in the caves of the Judean Desert to save the ancient scrolls cached there, the earliest extant manuscripts written in Hebrew.

“For years, our most important cultural and heritage assets have been dug up and robbed in the Judean Desert in the name of greed,” said IAA Director Israel Hasson. “The goal of the national program we’re promoting is to excavate and discover all the scrolls that remain in the caves once and for all, so they can be saved and preserved by the state.”

Regev said, “The antiquities looters are looting the history of the Land of Israel. We can’t allow that. The scrolls are the most exciting, important testimony to the existence of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel 2,000 years ago, and they were discovered close to the time of the [Jews’] return to Zion and the establishment of the state….We have an obligation to protect these unique treasures, which belong to the Jewish people and the world as a whole. I’ll work to increase punishments for antiquities looters.”
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Obama administration skeptical about Netanyahu’s call for direct peace talks
(JNS.org) The Obama administration has expressed skepticism over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

“We of course support meaningful negotiations and we continue to believe that this conflict can only be resolved through direct negotiations between the parties….We do not believe in negotiations just for the sake of negotiations,” a senior U.S. State Department official told the Jerusalem Post.

“As we’ve said many times, it is up to the parties to decide if they are ready to make the tough decisions necessary for successful negotiations,” the official added. “For our part, we continue to call on both sides to demonstrate with policies and actions a genuine commitment to a two-state solution.”

The Obama administration’s statement comes as France is organizing a meeting of world leaders in early June to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu has opposed the French approach, telling French Prime Minister Manuel Valls that he prefers direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

France plans to use the meeting to help plan a larger summit next fall on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to introduce a United Nations Security Council resolution on the issue.
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Egypt reportedly moving forward with plans for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
(JNS.org) Egypt is reportedly moving forward with plans to hold a trilateral summit in an effort to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

An Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo on Sunday on behalf of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to arrange a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.

The delegation is reportedly led by Aviva Raz Shechter, the director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Division, as well as other high-ranking officials.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the last few days have seen “significant diplomatic efforts” that have been led by Egypt to organize a summit between Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Last week, El-Sisi said he saw a “real opportunity” for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and that such a deal would “give safety and stability to both sides. If this is achieved, we will enter a new phase that perhaps no one can imagine now.”

As opposed to a separate French initiative that seeks to involve the international community and exclude Israeli or Palestinian representatives, Netanyahu has said that he welcomes El-Sisi’s plan for direct talks and his “willingness to invest every effort to advance a future of peace and security between us and the Palestinians.”
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Israeli Foreign Ministry falls short of goals in BDS fight, government report says
(JNS.org) A new report issued by the Israeli state comptroller says that the country’s Foreign Ministry is failing to achieve its “designated goals” in the fight against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

“Foreign Ministry projects meant to improve Israel’s image in target communities around the world are lacking in their planning, management, and implementation, and are failing to achieve their designated goals,” said the report, issued by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira.

While there have been some efforts to combat the BDS movement, overall the Foreign Ministry “has a hard time presenting achievements relating to efforts to delegitimize Israel around the world: in academic circles, culture, trade unions, and the general public in the target countries,” the report said.

The report specified a number of failed strategies, including those of Israel’s relatively new Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Relations, which was tasked in 2013 with countering the BDS movement and has had problems cooperating with the Foreign Ministry.

“As of 2015, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Relations has still not put into place its own operational work plans and still lacks the operational advantages that are built into the Foreign Ministry, including the professional knowledge and experience…required to manage a campaign effectively against BDS,” the report said, adding, “Reports from missions abroad have made it clear that the problems in this area have steadily exacerbated.”

The report also said that only about 8 percent of the Foreign Ministry’s annual budget is used for diplomatic activity, including development aid, conference, and hasbara (public diplomacy).
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Israel and South Korea to conduct free trade talks
(JNS.org) Israel and South Korea on Tuesday announced that they will hold free trade negotiations in Seoul two months from now.

“A free trade agreement between Israel and South Korea will be a significant milestone in trade relations between the two countries and carry significant economic potential for them, as well as economic relations between Israel and Asian countries in general,” Israeli Economy Ministry Director-General Ami Lang said.

The decision resulted from a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday between Lang and South Korean Deputy Trade Minister Tae Hee Woo, in which they discussed expanding bilateral trade and investment as well as cooperating in the technological, agricultural, and industrial sectors.

In the last few months, Israel has also announced free trade talks with China and Vietnam. Israel’s Economy Ministry expects the Jewish state’s exports to Asia to grow from 21 percent in 2013 to 24.5 percent by 2018. Israeli-South Korean trade reached $1.7 billion in 2015.
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Israel’s U.N. envoy hosting summit providing practical tools to fight BDS
(JNS.org) Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon on May 31 will host a summit on fighting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, drawing an expected crowd of more than 1,500 students, diplomats, academics, legal professionals, and activists to the U.N.

“BDS is the modern incarnation of anti-Semitism,” Danon said. “Holding this anti-BDS summit in the U.N. General Assembly will bring together an international coalition against the boycott movement, and will send a clear message to all of our adversaries—Israel will not relent and will continue to reveal the lies propagated by the BDS movement.”

Participants will learn about various aspects of the campaign against BDS from panelists such as Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress; Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, vice president of the Israeli Supreme Court; and Jay Sekulow, chief legal counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice. Attendees will also receive an “ambassadors against BDS” toolkit that will provide suggestions and contact information to help them fight BDS on the practical level.

“They will return to their campuses fully equipped and ready to take on the lies of the BDS movement,” Danon said.

The Israeli envoy’s “Building Bridges, Not Boycotts” conference will include a performance in the U.N. General Assembly by Jewish reggae star Matisyahu, who experienced BDS firsthand in 2015 when a Spanish music festival initially decided to disinvite him in response to BDS pressure. The festival ultimately reinstated his performance.

The U.N. conference is a partnership between Israel’s Mission to the U.N. and organizations including the World Jewish Congress, Keren HaYesod, the American Center for Law and Justice, the Anti-Defamation League, the Zionist Organization of America, Israel Bonds, StandWithUs, B’nai B’rith International, Hillel, CAMERA, and others.
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Sanders taps Israel critics, including BDS supporter, for party platform committee

(JNS.org) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) on Monday picked two critics of Israel to be members of the Democratic Party Platform Drafting Committee, amid reports that Sanders wants the platform to focus on Palestinian rights.

Cornel West, a philosopher and social activist, supports the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. West has called the Gaza Strip “the hood on steroids” and wrote that the crimes of the Palestinian terror group Hamas “pale in the face of the U.S.-supported Israeli slaughter of innocent civilians.”

Sanders’s other appointment, James Zogby, is president of the Arab American Institute non-profit, an organization known to be critical of Israel and mainstream pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In March, Zogby wrote for the Huffington Post that AIPAC-supported anti-BDS bills on the federal and state levels “have the effect of making the U.S. a collaborator in Israel’s violations of international law by protecting Israeli settlements that have been illegally placed in occupied Palestinian lands.”

Sanders also chose U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, for the platform drafting committee. His Democratic primary opponent, Hillary Clinton, named six committee members and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, named four.

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