Benjamin Netanyahu - Tag Search

Important story by Mark Perry this morning on Foreign Policy's Middle East Channel: Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, reportedly warned the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the White House that the Israeli-Arab conflict is endangering U.S. interests in the region.

Gregg and I have been wondering for a couple of days how the United States would respond to being publicly embarrassed by an Israeli government that seems bent on continuing with the expansion of illegal settlements even as the West tries to organize highly sensitive negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

We didn't have to wait that long: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a 43-minute phone conversation on Friday morning to rebuke the Israeli leader about the "deeply negative signal" his government sent by approving more settler homes in East Jerusalem. Could this be the first sign of a tougher Obama administration approach toward Israel?

In the wake of Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel, a Knesset committee on Thursday endorsed a change to the country's planning procedures aimed at preventing a similarly embarrassing episode of bad timing from occurring again, the AP reports.

Within 24 hours of Biden's arrival, shortly after the Palestinians had agreed to so-called "proximity talks," Israel approved the construction of some 1,600 illegal homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem.

But the proposed change in the Knesset isn't meant to give greater scrutiny to settlement decisions; it's supposed to ensure that the timing of such announcements isn't as embarrassing in the future.

Israel's interior minister, Eli Yishai, has apologized for the announcement of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem's Ramot Shlomo neighborhood while U.S. vice president Joe Biden is in Israel -- though not for the decision itself.

Bernard Avishai is right that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should take meaningful steps to advance his "economic peace" agenda. There's little downside -- as Avishai writes, Bibi can do these things "without endangering Israelis or even removing settlers" -- and a growing economy will help to reinforce stronger Palestinian institutions.

Economic peace is not a replacement for meaningful peace talks, of course; an occupied territory with a vibrant economy is still an occupied territory. But bolstering the Palestinian economy would be good policy for Netanyahu, and it would buy him a bit of needed international goodwill.

The Israeli government continues to roll out the red carpet for U.S. vice president Joe Biden: Israel's interior ministry just announced the approval of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem's largely-haredi Ramot Shlomo neighborhood. (The neighborhood is actually north of Jerusalem proper, but it's on the Palestinian side of the Green Line.)

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office hasn't said anything yet about the new construction, nor has Biden.

But the decision will clearly be a big story in Arabic-language media, and it will figure prominently in any coverage of Biden's visit. Al-Jazeera is treating it as a breaking news item, and it's already catching on (عربي) in Palestinian sources. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, called it a "disaster" that will undermine proximity talks.

Evan added some details overnight to my post on Israel's latest West Bank settlement construction, including a statement from State Department spokesman PJ Crowley. State belatedly sent reporters a full transcript of Crowley's remarks -- and, as Evan said, it's pretty lukewarm stuff.

President Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, arrived in Ramallah last night to begin "pre-talks" to the "proximity talks" the United States hopes will occur between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the National reports. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone who has much faith in their ultimate success.

The Arab League -- meeting today in Cairo -- voted to endorse "proximity talks" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. American mediators, presumably led by George Mitchell, will shuttle between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, last seen trying to dodge a lawful court order to tear down an illegal apartment complex in East Jerusalem, made what was expected to be a controversial announcement this morning regarding the future of Silwan, a mostly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Barkat planned to announce a redevelopment plan for the neighborhood: 22 homes would be demolished to make room for a park and a "business district" with hotels and shops.

Evan mentioned on Wednesday that there's slowly-mounting opposition in Washington to President Obama's decision to name Robert Stephen Ford as the new U.S. ambassador to Syria.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports this morning (عربي) that the Israeli government is also lobbying against Ford's nomination (or against Obama naming any ambassador to Syria; this isn't about Ford personally). Defense minister Ehud Barak made that request during a visit to Washington this week; so did an unnamed envoy from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Several Palestinians were injured in Hebron this morning (عربي) in fighting between protesters and Israeli security forces.

Dozens of marchers allegedly threw rocks at Israeli soldiers near the Tomb of the Patriarchs; the IDF fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the crowd. Four Palestinians were detained, according to an AFP report. None of the injuries sound serious (عربي).

I've only been to Hebron once. It was one of the stranger experiences in my travels in the Middle East -- the overwhelming military presence to protect a few hundred settlers, the settler-only road, the grave of Israeli terrorist Baruch Goldstein. The tension is palpable.

The city is a flashpoint again this week, after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to add two West Bank religious sites -- the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem -- to a national heritage plan. The list includes other religious sites and "historic sites in Zionist history"; the Israeli government has earmarked NIS400 million (US$106 million) to refurbish the sites.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thinks the world should immediately slap oil sanctions on Iran -- even if the United Nations doesn't approve.

Netanyahu told foreign Jewish leaders that if the world "is serious about stopping Iran, then what it needs to do is not watered-down sanctions, moderate sanctions ... but effective, biting sanctions that curtail the import and export of oil into Iran."

"This is what is required now. It may not do the job, but nothing else will, and at least we will have known that it was tried. And if this cannot pass in the Security Council, then it should be done outside the Security Council, but immediately.

Netanyahu didn't really elaborate, but for unilateral sanctions to really be effective, they would require a naval blockade -- an act of war. The U.S. has already gone about as far as it can with unilateral sanctions: Washington bans American individuals and companies from doing business with Iran, but it's unlikely that foreign firms -- Royal Dutch Shell, Russia's Lukoil, Chinese companies -- will sacrifice their Iranian contracts because President Obama asks them to.

Dubai police chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim says he has proof -- credit card receipts and phone records -- that Mossad was involved in killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

"Among the new evidence available to Dubai police which incriminates the Israeli secret service, the Mossad, and confirms its involvement in the murder ... are telephone communications between the culprits who have been detected," Tamim said in the newspaper Al-Bayan.

"Dubai police also have reliable information that some perpetrators bought their tickets in other countries using credit cards bearing the same identity revealed" previously by the emirate, he added.

Tamim doesn't really elaborate, though, on how either of these link Mossad to the assassination. A credit card receipt by itself is not incriminating -- unless the billing address on the card is "Mossad HQ, Jerusalem, Israel."

My favorite surface-to-air missile system is back in the news: Alexander Fomin, a Russian arms export official, says the S-300 sale to Iran has been delayed for technical reasons. But it's still going forward! Really!

Quick recap of the story so far: Three years ago, Russia and Iran signed an $800 million deal for the air defense missiles; Russia has yet to deliver them; Iran has yet to pay for them; Israel is trying to block the sale. (Our full coverage is here.)

Israel is about three months into Benjamin Netanyahu's 10-month partial settlement freeze in the West Bank -- and so far the emphasis is very much on "partial."

The defense ministry released a report today documenting violations of the freeze in 29 settlements -- one-fourth of all Israeli settlements. Violations happened in some of Israel's largest West Bank settlement blocs, like Ma'ale Adumim and Beitar Illit. The Israeli group Peace Now documented separate violations in five other settlements. In some cases, settlers did construction work on Shabbat or under cover of darkness to avoid inspectors.

Joel Rubin, back from Israel after attending the Herzliya Conference, has a thoughtful essay about contemporary Israeli politics posted on Democracy Arsenal.

Rubin argues that most Israelis hate the policies enacted by their right-wing leaders -- but they also continue to overwhelmingly support those same leaders, because they're fearful for their security. It's a trade-off between short-term and long-term interests, in other words.

The Israeli government will not conduct an independent investigation of the Goldstone Report's findings, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

It's a single-source report, and it still hasn't been confirmed by the Israeli government. But an unnamed senior official in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Bibi is satisfied with the IDF's internal probe, the preliminary results of which were submitted to the United Nations earlier this month.

As a postscript to last week's, uh, post about Salam Fayyad's Herzliya speech, Abdel Bari Atwan has an absolutely savage column (عربي) in today's Al-Quds Al-Arabi. For Arabic speakers, the whole thing is worth a read -- it does a good job capturing the disconnect between the Palestinian Authority's official position on peace talks and the Palestinian public's opinion.