Category: Uncategorized

The premier accused Opposition leaders of not taking talks on a compromise seriously.

By JNS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that parts of his coalition’s judicial reform initiative will move ahead this week.

“We will meet this week and begin practical steps in the legal reform,” Netanyahu told Cabinet members gathered at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem for their regular weekly meeting.

The premier accused Opposition leaders Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Benny Gantz (National Unity) of not taking talks on a compromise seriously.

Netanyahu paused the reform program in late March to allow for time to reach an agreement. That announcement was followed by a series of meetings hosted by President Isaac Herzog involving various Knesset factions with the aim of forging a compromise.

“What has been proven is that Gantz and Lapid were playing a game. It was a misrepresentation of so-called negotiations. We gave three months; their representatives did not agree to the most minimal understanding. They tried to kill every amendment. We will take the steps in a measured manner according to the mandate we received [from the voters],” Netanyahu said.

Lapid responded that “if Netanyahu advances with his coup plan unilaterally, as he stated, he will find out that he is prime minister of less than half of the people of Israel, with less than half of the economy, less than half of the security [establishment] and less than half of the Knesset.”

The leaders of the anti-government protest movement also responded to Netanyahu’s remarks, saying that the prime minister’s “threats to the judicial system will be met with an appropriate Zionist response—demonstrations and disruptions that will result in the failure of any attempt to harm the legal system and Israeli democracy.”

The post Netanyahu government to advance part of judicial reform appeared first on World Israel News.

In parallel, the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council is approving 4,500 new units at its meeting Sunday.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The government is set to approve a move that will drastically shorten the approval time necessary to build new housing in Judea and Samaria, Kan News reported Sunday.

The decision at Sunday’s cabinet meeting will reduce the number of stages in the planning process by two-thirds, from six stages to only two, which is expected to take years off the process. This is because the steps that will be eliminated are the requirements to pass building plans separately through both the defense minister’s and prime minister’s offices at two points in time – the deposit stage and validation stage.

The political echelon has stymied construction often over the years, in response to pressure by outside actors such as the United States and European Union.

In future, the only necessary approval will be that of Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and special minister in the Defense Ministry who, at his insistence during coalition negotiations, was put in charge of the Civil Administration, which regulates building in the disputed region, among other functions.

Smotrich, who is the head of the Religious Zionist party, has pushed for massive building in Judea and Samaria throughout his political career.

Beit El council head Shai Alon was delighted with the news.

Calling it “a historic and Zionist decision,” he said that it would “create a significant construction boom in the area… and finally bring about a proper solution for young couples and housing seekers in the area after many years.”

“I welcome the decision that will lead to additional construction and a great supply, thereby also lowering housing prices and balancing the market as required,” he added. “Settlement in Judea and Samaria is not the state’s backyard, but rather our Zionist and national spearhead, and this is proven by this significant decision.”

In another sign that housing policy for Judea and Samaria has changed, the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council will be approve on Sunday 4,570 new units throughout the region at its quarterly meeting, according to its published agenda. Some 1,300 units will receive final approval, and the rest will advance to the next stage in the bureaucratic process.

“The construction boom in Judea and Samaria and in all parts of our country continues,” Smotrich said in applauding the meeting. “As we promised, today we are advancing the construction of thousands more new units in Judea and Samaria.

“Judea and Samaria residents are ceasing to be second-class citizens, and the natural development in settlements is being reflected in construction and expansion.”

The approvals come after over 7,000 units were approved in February. In a tweet, reporter Carmel Dangor of Kan noted that “since Smotrich entered the Ministry of Defense, more housing units have been approved than in a whole year until now.”

The announcement of the upcoming housing approvals had been made last week, after Jerusalem notified the White House so that the U.S. administration would not feel blindsided by the move. President Joe Biden has never made a secret of the fact that he haa been against settlement expansion in Judea and Samaria since the beginning of this political career decades ago.

When asked about the report last Monday, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby repeated that sentiment, saying, “We have long made clear our concerns about additional settlements in the West Bank, that we don’t want to see actions taken that are going to make a two-state solution that much more difficult to achieve.”

In what could be seen as a move to somewhat mollify the Americans, Israel told the White House last week that it would postpone yet again a hearing on building in the E1 zone between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem. This is an area to the east of the capital considered crucial by right-wingers to prevent the contiguity of the Palestinian Authority, which is why the global community has pressured Israel for decades not to build there.

The post ‘Zionist decision’: Approval time for Judea and Samaria housing drastically shortened appeared first on World Israel News.

‘My kids, my right.’ Muslim parents in Calgary, Canada joined wave of protests last Friday against teaching of gender ideology in public schools.

Progressive activists holding a counter protest accused parent demonstrators of bigotry at Friday’s event which drew heavy participation from the local Muslim community.

At the protest, parent demonstrators slammed the inclusion of transgenderism and gender ideology in school curriculums, and demanded  greater parental control over education.

The post WATCH: Canadian Muslims lead protest in Calgary against gender ideology in schools appeared first on World Israel News.

A stewardess repeatedly announced the final destination of a flight to Ben-Gurion Airport was “occupied Palestine.”

By JNS

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is feeling the heat after a flight attendant on a plane from Bologna, Italy, to Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel caused an uproar by announcing the aircraft was readying for “landing in Palestine.”

During last week’s flight, a stewardess repeatedly announced over the P.A. system that the final destination of the route was “occupied Palestine.”

Passengers were incensed by the attendant’s unwillingness to correct herself and were threatened with arrest after attempting to photograph her.

Ryanair subsequently apologized for the ordeal, describing it as an “innocent mistake.”

“A junior crew member on this flight from Bologna to Tel Aviv (10 June) made a routine descent [announcement] mistakenly saying ‘Palestine’ instead of ‘Tel Aviv.’ This was an innocent mistake with no intent and was immediately corrected and apologized for by the senior crew member on board,” the airline said in a statement to the London-based Jewish Chronicle.

In a subsequent letter to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Ryanair’s CEO said he was “100% satisfied that this was an innocent mistake with no political overtones or intent.”

The post Ryanair apologizes after flight attendant calls Tel Aviv ‘occupied Palestine’ appeared first on World Israel News.

“If [the] Iranians miscalculate, the potential for a strong Israeli response is something that we want to avoid,” the official said.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A major reason for the urgency of a potential interim deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear development program was preventing a clash between Tehran and Jerusalem, a senior American official told Reuters.

The Biden administration is extremely concerned that should Iran continue enriching uranium and taking other steps to advance its nuclear capabilities, Israel would carry out an airstrike on Iranian soil, targeting nuclear sites in the country.

Fearing that such a move could spark a widespread conflict between Israel and Iran, the Biden administration is seeking a “cooling-down understanding” to lower tensions.

The American official emphasized to Reuters that the U.S. does not view the deal as a permanent agreement, but rather a stopgap measure to prevent an Israeli attack and subsequent escalation.

“If [the] Iranians miscalculate, the potential for a strong Israeli response is something that we want to avoid,” the official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Senior members of the Israeli government told Hebrew-language media that Israel would not oppose the deal due to its temporary nature.

“It’s not a wide-scale agreement, it’s more like a small agreement, a memorandum of understanding…and I think Israel can live with this if there is real supervision,” Yuli Edelstein, former Health Minister and the head of the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told Channel 12 News on Saturday evening.

Hebrew-language media reported last week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told the committee headed by Edelstein in a closed-door meeting that a mini-deal between Washington and Tehran was inevitable.

“What’s on the agenda at the moment between Washington and Tehran is not a nuclear deal, it’s a mini-deal,” Netanyahu reportedly said. “We will be able to handle it.”

However, in an address to the Knesset, Netanyahu stressed that Israel would not be beholden to abide by a U.S.-Iran deal.

“Our stance is clear: No agreement with Iran will oblige Israel,” Netanyahu said. “Israel will continue to do everything to defend itself.”

The post Avoiding Israeli attack is key reason for Iran mini-deal – US official appeared first on World Israel News.

Twitter users alluded to the Israeli left’s tolerance for Islamic views that are in stark contrast with liberal values, while the same progressives vehemently criticize religiously observant Jews.

By World Israel News Staff

A right-wing organization published a list of guidelines for a scheduled tour of Huwara organized by progressive Israeli activists, highlighting the requirement that visitors adhere to modest dress standards.

Torat Lehima, a Zionist NGO, posted a screenshot of the Forum for Regional Thought’s “solidarity visit” to the PA-controlled city, which included instructions that women wear long pants and cover their shoulders, with no tank tops permitted.

The organization captioned the photo “The Handmaid’s Tale?”, in reference to demonstrators against the current government who have dressed up as characters from the dystopian novel and TV series, which depicts a society in which women have no rights.

Left-wing activists have repeatedly claimed that Israel is hurtling towards a reality mirroring that of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” due to the presence of ultra-Orthodox parties in the current ruling coalition.

“If it had been an invitation to a tour by some ultra-Orthodox organization [and there was a requirement for modest dress] we would have already heard members of the Knesset speaking out against it and shouting ‘We’re turning into Iran’,” wrote a Twitter user named Omer.

“We see performances of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ [during left-wing protests on] Kaplan [Street in Tel Aviv]… Some people will wear ‘modest clothes’ to respect Muslims but not to respect religious Jews. Oh, the hypocrisy!”

Left-wing activist Eran Tzedkiyahu, who is one of the organizers of the visit, claimed that the request was due to the possibility that the visitors would encounter observant Jews living near Huwara.

“This is my tour,” he replied to the Twitter thread. “Since there is a chance that we will meet, among other things, Jewish settlers and Muslim residents who are religious and traditional, we try to consider their feelings and adapt ourselves culturally.”

However, Tzedkiyahu did not acknowledge the inherent contradiction between left-wing activism, which is highly critical of the Jewish religious establishment in Israel, and asking visitors to adapt their behavior to be respectful to a Muslim Arab cultural environment.

A Twitter user named Daniela noted the use of the euphemistic phrase “socially appropriate clothing,” rather than the organization acknowledging that they were asking visitors to adhere to Islamic standards of modest dress.

“The left’s determination to avoid the truth and their hypocrisy breaks new records,” she wrote.

Several other Twitter users alluded to the Israeli left’s tolerance for Islamic views that are in stark contrast with liberal values, while the same progressives vehemently criticize religiously observant Jews.

“Religion is religion,” wrote Matanel, a Twitter user. “Islam is very problematic towards gays and women… even more so than Judaism.”

The post Left-wing demand for modest dress during visit to Muslim village sparks backlash, accusations of hypocrisy appeared first on World Israel News.

The federal civil lawsuit claims the company spyware installed on her phone helped Saudi agents find and kill her husband in 2018.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The widow of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has sued the Israeli spyware company NSO Group in a U.S. federal court for allegedly having a hand in the murder of her husband in 2018.

In the lawsuit Hanan Elatr Khashoggi filed last week in Virginia against NSO and its parent company Q Cyber Technologies, Ltd., she charged the defendants with violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Virginia Computer Crimes Act, as well as other violations.

Specifically, it alleges that NSO had “intentionally targeted” her phones and “caused her immense harm, both through the tragic loss of her husband and through her own loss of safety, privacy, and autonomy.”

This was allegedly accomplished through the secret installation of its Pegasus spyware on one of her cellphones in April 2018, which allowed Saudi Arabian agents to track her then-fiancé and future husband, a journalist who frequently criticized the Saudi regime.

That December, Khashoggi was lured to Riyadh’s embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, where he was murdered and his body dismembered.

Much of the lawsuit relies on reports by The Washington Post and other news media, which in 2021 revealed alleged proof of the phone invasion by research groups that work to discover cyberespionage. Elatr had been taken in by UAE intelligence that April for hours of questioning about her Khashoggi, and they found that someone had downloaded the spyware to her phone while she was in custody.

As she was a stewardess based in Dubai and he was in Washington, they frequently discussed how to meet via various phone apps, enabling Pegasus to easily monitor and record their communications.

According to a statement by Elatr’s attorney, Michael Pendell, the “evidence shows that NSO Group played a much more integral part in contributing to Jamal’s death and in causing harm to Hanan than they have ever publicly admitted.”

“We also believe that in seeking to hold NSO Group responsible for their alleged actions, we can help prevent further human rights abuses from being perpetuated,” he added.

NSO has repeatedly denied that its application, which it says it markets to counter-terror agencies, was in any way connected to Elatr or Khashoggi’s death.

American intelligence claimed in 2021 that the hit was ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, known as MBS, with some of the squad being members of the prince’s own protective detail.

This was a major factor in souring relations between White House and its major Gulf ally when President Biden took office. MBS denied direct culpability, saying the crime was committed by rogue agents, but did say in a 2019 interview that he was in general responsible “as a leader in Saudi Arabia.”

A civil lawsuit against MBS for the murder was filed in Washington in October 2020 by a democracy organization Khashoggi founded, called DAWN, and a Turkish fiancé of his, Hatice Cengiz.

According to Islam, men are allowed to have more than one wife.

The post Khashoggi widow sues Israeli spyware company over husband’s murder appeared first on World Israel News.

Senior American officials say that the chances of an agreement are less than 50%.

By JNS

Despite its best efforts, Washington believes that the chances of an Israel-Saudi normalization agreement are less than 50%, according to senior U.S. administration officials cited by The New York Times.

Last week, White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk led an unpublicized delegation to Saudi Arabia. The trip came days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the kingdom, and then briefed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Saudi demands during a 40-minute phone call.

These demands reportedly include U.S. assistance with Riyadh’s civilian nuclear program, and security guarantees.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited Saudi Arabia on May 7.

Saudi Arabia moves closer to Iran

The report comes amid warming relations between Riyadh and Tehran following the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in March in an agreement mediated by Beijing.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Iran on Saturday in the first visit to the country by a Saudi official in more than seven years. Riyadh severed relations with Tehran in 2016 after its diplomatic missions there and in Mashhad were attacked following Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite religious leader.

Prince Fasail met with his Iranian counterpart and other top officials in Tehran, including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who just returned from Venezuela. The Iranian president criticized Israel during his talks with the Saudi foreign minister.

“Only the enemies of Islam, led by the Zionist regime, are upset with the progress in bilateral and regional cooperation between Iran and Saudi Arabia,” said Raisi, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Raisi also voiced his opposition to normalization efforts between Arab countries and Israel.

“The Zionist regime is not only an enemy of the Palestinians, it is a threat to all Muslims. The normalization of relations with Israel not only fails to promote security but also goes against the opinions of the Islamic Ummah [community].”

The post US pessimistic on Israel-Saudi normalization appeared first on World Israel News.

“We are pouring more substance into the peace agreement,” says Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, after meeting with his Moroccan counterpart.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel and Morocco signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday that will streamline foreign worker visas for Moroccans who want to work as nurses and construction laborers in the Jewish State, an Israeli government official announced.

Interior and Health Minister Moshe Arbel met with Moroccan Interior minister Abdelouafi Laftit in Rabat, discussing mutually easing travel and work visas.

After joining the Abraham Accords in December 2020 and officially normalizing relations with Israel, Morocco has hosted a number of senior Israeli government officials on diplomatic visits and signed numerous agreements strengthening relations between the two countries.

“We are deepening our ties with Morocco and pouring more substance into the peace agreement,” read a statement from Arbel’s office released to Hebrew-language media on Saturday evening.

“Israel and Morocco share challenges on health issues, and cooperation in the field will contribute greatly to improving healthcare capabilities and to citizens’ health.”

Arbel and Laftit agreed to form a committee that would create an outline to make it easier for Moroccan construction workers and nurses to receive visas enabling them to work in Israel.

Additionally, the ministers pledged to work together on various healthcare efforts, including sharing strategies on managing healthcare systems and medical technology.

With roughly one-million Israeli Jews having full or partial Moroccan heritage and the North African country being home to several significant Jewish sites, Moroccan officials are expecting some 200,000 Israeli tourists to visit the country this year.

Earlier in June, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who is of Moroccan descent, traveled to Rabat and gifted his Moroccan counterpart with the world’s smallest Koran, which was made with Israeli nanotechnology.

In late May, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, whose parents immigrated to Israel from Morocco, signed a series of deals with the country, including mutual recognition of drivers licenses.

The post ‘Deepening our ties’ – Israel and Morocco agree to ease visas for workers, tourists appeared first on World Israel News.

It’s all about the Palestinians and the Mullahs.

By Joseph Puder, Front Page Magazine

Both the Obama and Biden administrations have had two obsessions that have proven to be erroneous but continue to persist.

One is the belief that the Palestinians are the key to Arab Israeli peace.

Former President Barack Obama had spent eight years pursuing efforts to push Israel to make unilateral concessions to the Palestinians, including freezing settlement expansion for almost a full year.

At the same time, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas climbed on a high tree and refused to come down and negotiate. President Joe Biden has been less preoccupied with the Palestinians since other priorities emerged that made the two-state solution less relevant.

The second obsession both Obama and Biden have been committed to is their unwillingness to clearly present a credible military option in dealing with Iran. Although President Biden has declared repeatedly that he will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear bomb, and opined in July 2022, that, “The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons.” The State Department, however, had this to say… “We continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to verifiably, effectively, and sustainably prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”

Palestinian statehood and Iran’s nuclear ambitions

In the meantime, the Ayatollahs have advanced their uranium enrichment to 84%. Israeli daily Haaretz reported (February 19, 2023) that, “International atomic monitors detected last week that Iran has enriched uranium to levels just below that needed for a nuclear weapon. Bloomberg News reported that according to two senior diplomats, inspectors need to determine whether Iran intentionally produced the material – uranium enriched to 84% purity – or whether it was the result of an unintended accumulation within the centrifuges.”

Unlike the Obama policy of focusing exclusively on Israeli concessions, Biden’s policy is far more realistic vis-a-vis the Palestinians. During his confirmation hearing in January 2021, Antony Blinken, while expressing US support for a two-state solution, pointed out that realistically, it is hard to envision a near-term prospect for moving forward on a two-state solution.

Mahmoud Abbas has proven time and again that he is incapable of settling for peace deal with Israel. Making a deal that might require compromises in which he might not get all he wants, including the unacceptable idea (for Israel) of the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel. He was tested in 2008, when then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Abbas the most extensive concessions on territory, Jerusalem, and even a small number of Palestinian refugees to be allowed into Israel. He declined to end the conflict, most likely because he feared assassination or harm to his family. Years later, Abbas conceded that he regretted not accepting Olmert’s offer, and that it was the most serious one presented. His excuse was that Olmert didn’t “show him the map.”

Perhaps one of the few things that Israelis and Palestinians could agree on is that in the eight years of Obama’s presidency, he let them down. In the US, both Democrats and Republicans criticized Obama for leaning too hard on Israel, and “leading from behind.” James Jay Carafano pointed out in a Heritage Foundation piece (February 6, 2015) that, “(The Obama) ) White House has nothing to show for years of shuttle diplomacy trying to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace. In fact, the two sides seem farther apart than ever.” It should be added that “nothing to show” came after unrelenting pressure Obama placed on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to make concessions to the Palestinians.

No military option against Iran

The second obsession the Obama-Biden administrations have is the unwillingness to use the military option, or to make it clear to the theocratic, and fanatical Iranian regime, that there will be a red line to their quest for a nuclear bomb.

The Obama administration was particularly protective of the Iranian regime and kept cautioning the Netanyahu government against preemptive action to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat. In his recently published book, “Bibi, My Story,” Netanyahu revealed to what extent Washington sought to prevent Israel from acting against Iran.

He wrote (page 484): “On August 20, 2012, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went further, saying, ‘The US will not be complicit in any Israeli action.’” Netanyahu added, “His (Dempsey’s) choice of words outraged me. It imputed an illegitimate, even criminal nature to a potential Israeli action and signaled to Iran that the US did not support Israel. This was putting blinding daylight between the US and Israel. What better way to reassure Iran that it was not in any danger if it continued to pursue its nuclear program?”

On September 11, 2012, Netanyahu said in a Bloomberg TV interview, (Bibi, My Story, page 485) “Iran will not stop (its drive to an atomic bomb, JP) unless it sees a clear determination by the democratic countries and a clear red line. They don’t see a clear red line and I think the sooner we establish one, the greater the chances that there won’t be a need for other types of action.”

The only way the Ayatollahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be deterred from reaching their target of acquiring a nuclear bomb is to face a serious American military threat. Libya’s dictator Gaddafi abandoned his nuclear ambitions in 2003, after President George W. Bush threatened to destroy his weapons of mass destruction. The impact of the US lightening victory against Saddam Hussein’s forces in the Gulf War convinced Gaddafi to give up his nuclear ambitions, not diplomacy.

In November 2011, Michael Eisenstadt, a Kahn Fellow and Director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote: “For nuclear diplomacy to succeed, Tehran must believe that the US will take military action against any effort (by Iran, JP) to build a bomb.” History abounds with examples of diplomacy without the threat of a military action being a failure. Perhaps the best example is the Munich conference of 1938, when Britain’s Neville Chamberlain brought his empty “diplomatic peace of our time” only to have Hitler trample over Czechoslovakia, and then Poland. The old Latin dictum says, “If you want peace, prepare for war.”

The Abraham Accords

President Donald J. Trump proved the erroneous assumptions of Obama and Biden about the centrality of the Palestinian issue. His administration engineered the peace between Israel and the Arab states of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan. It took away the veto powers the Palestinians held over Arab states. Peace between Israel and the Arab and Muslim world no longer depends on Palestinian approval. The longer the Palestinians reject compromise with Israel and are unwilling to recognize the permanency of the Jewish state, Arab states vital interest will prevail over Palestinian rejectionism. Iran and its proxies alone will continue to encourage Palestinian hopes to replace Israel.

It is time for Washington to overcome its obsessions and realize with clarity that the Middle East has changed. Iran threatens not only Israel’s existence but that of the Arab Gulf states, and ultimately the US. The Palestinians will soon be led by Hamas, and the Ayatollahs will likely get a bomb, unless the US replaces words with credible military threat of action.

Joseph Puder, a freelance journalist, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Taskforce for America and Israel (ITAI). He is a regular contributor to Frontpage.

The post The two American obsessions in the Middle East – analysis appeared first on World Israel News.