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| DAILY ALERT |
Monday, September 14, 2020 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
President Donald Trump said Friday, "Just a few moments ago, I hosted a historic call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and King Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain....In the spirit of peace and cooperation, both leaders also agreed that Bahrain will fully normalize its diplomatic relations with Israel. They will exchange embassies and ambassadors, begin direct flights between their countries, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors, including health, business, technology, education, security, and agriculture....This is now the second peace agreement that we have announced in the last month, and I am very hopeful that there will be more to follow." (White House) Bahrain's declaration of a peace deal with Israel will enhance regional security and stability and stems from a firm belief in coexistence and tolerance between nations, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani told Al Arabiya. (Al Arabiya) See also Egypt Welcomes Bahrain-Israel Agreement Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi on Friday welcomed an agreement by Bahrain and Israel to normalize relations and establish diplomatic ties, calling it a "historic step" toward regional stability and peace. (Al-Ahram-Egypt) See also Oman Praises Bahrain-Israel Move to Normalize Relations - Mina Aldroubi (The National-UAE) See also EU Welcomes Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between Bahrain, Israel (Council of the European Union) Jewish and pro-Israel groups instantly applauded Israel and Bahrain for agreeing on Friday to normalize relations. At last, "the walls of isolation around Israel are crumbling," Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations told JNS. Jewish groups from both sides of the political aisle applauded the development. American Sephardi Federation executive director Jason Guberman said the Emirati and Bahraini normalization deals with Israel exemplify "a new era, but one rooted in history. Muslims and Jews, as in centuries past, will once again be able to channel their considerable talents and resources into projects that will benefit all of humanity." "For the Greater Sephardic community, these developments are at once historic and personal in ways that may be difficult for others to understand. With shared roots in the region and [those] who have in recent memory experienced the trauma of exile, it is deeply moving to see one Arab country after another welcome them, in freedom and friendship, to be fully Jewish." (JNS) The U.S. will pull thousands of troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan by November, Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said Wednesday. U.S. forces in Iraq will be reduced from 5,200 to 3,000 and troop levels in Afghanistan will drop from 8,600 in June to 4,500. U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001 and returned to Iraq in 2014 after the Islamic State overran large parts of the country. (AP-Military Times) A commander of Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades said the force has retrieved hundreds of mortar shells from a sunken UK warship off the Gaza coast. The Royal Navy's HMS M15 was sunk off Gaza in 1917 during World War I. A documentary aired this week by Al-Jazeera shows the retrieval of these arms. (Mehr News-Iran) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The Israeli government on Sunday approved a three-week nearly total lockdown on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The closure will go into effect at 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, and last through Simhat Torah on Oct. 9. The decision came after hospital heads said that the situation in their coronavirus units and among their staff was becoming unsustainable. The number of serious patients in the hospitals increased by 51 in the last two weeks. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said, "Under the circumstances, we had no choice." (Jerusalem Post) See also Coronavirus in Israel The Israel Health Ministry said Monday that 3,182 new cases of the coronavirus were reported on Sunday. The number of serious coronavirus cases rose to 529, including 135 people on ventilators. The death toll from the pandemic reached 1,126. (Jerusalem Post) Gaza on Sunday recorded 100 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the number detected outside quarantine centers to 1,588, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The number of people infected in Gaza has thus increased 15-fold in nearly three weeks. (i24News) See also 486 New Coronavirus Cases in West Bank, 408 in Arab Jerusalem Neighborhoods (Xinhua-China) White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said Friday that the two normalization deals between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain affirms Israel's commitment to allow all Muslims to visit and pray at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque. He said Israel's control of the holy site has been "distorted by the extremists" who claim "that the mosque is 'at risk' or 'under attack' by the Israelis as a way to drive hatred." "Through these agreements, all Muslims throughout the world can travel to Israel, whether it's through the UAE or through Bahrain....Those people will be able to visit the al-Aqsa Mosque and show their friends on Facebook and on Instagram that it's open, and that Israel is respectful of their religion." Kushner added that the normalization deal brokered last month between Israel and the UAE had "been more popular than we expected, which is why this next agreement came so quickly....It's an inevitability that all countries in the Middle East will normalize with Israel." (Times of Israel) 90 soldiers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have contracted the coronavirus, a spokesperson said Sunday. (Jerusalem Post) Photos released by ImageSat International on Sunday reveal evidence of an attack on Sep. 11 at the Al-Safirah missile factory near Aleppo in Syria. (Jerusalem Post) Qatar operated a funding network for arms shipments from Europe to Hizbullah using gold shipments traded through Africa, the Austrian think tank Mena-Watch reported on Tuesday. High-ranking Qatari officials coordinated the payments and offered protection for Doha-based Hizbullah financiers. "General Dhalan Al Hamad, a member of the royal family in Qatar, used gold from Uganda to fund this arms trade," the report states. Weaponry was purchased in Serbia. The arms, labeled as building materials, were moved through North Macedonia to the Greek port of Thessaloniki and on to Beirut. In addition, "the Qatari charities Sheikh Eid and the Education Foundation passed on $500 million to Hizbullah in 2020 alone." (The National-UAE) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Since its founding, Israel has seen itself as a tiny nation-state in a hostile desert, surrounded by Arab and Muslim enemies who denounced the Jewish state as an outpost of foreign intruders who were bound to be evicted like all their predecessors back to the Crusaders. But with agreements to normalize ties with the UAE and Bahrain, to be signed at the White House on Tuesday, could Israel at last be gaining acceptance in the region as a legitimate member of the neighborhood? Israelis who have studied the Arab world, including former intelligence and national-security officials, are deeply cautious about how much this shift has progressed, saying that Israel is far from being able to let its guard down toward its newfound friends. Former Israeli lawmaker Einat Wilf says, "They're retelling the entire story of the Jews in the region and they're changing the whole narrative: They're not saying, 'We still hate Israel, Jews are bad, we wish they're gone but we need them against Iran.' They're saying the Jews belong here, that we're not foreigners, and that the Palestinians need to accept us." (New York Times) With Bahrain's announcement that it will join the UAE in establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, dominoes are falling in the Middle East in the right direction for a change. Bahrain's action wouldn't have happened without the blessing of Saudi Arabia, which has historically exercised a veto over Bahraini policy. In this case, the Saudis silently endorsed their neighbor's decision. For a region that sometimes seems to be in slow-motion collapse, the decision by two wealthy Gulf countries to recognize Israel is a building block for a better future. (Washington Post) Last year I secured an internship at the UAE embassy in Washington. The individuals I encountered at the embassy, from Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba on down, were not merely neutral toward Israel and Jews, but were all exceedingly hospitable and excited to work with someone who cared so much about their Jewish heritage. Many showed true curiosity in learning more about the Jewish people. At the embassy, there was a profound cultural respect for Israeli and Jewish society. I was constantly approached with questions about Israeli politics and Jewish customs and laws. I encountered dozens of Emiratis from all sorts of backgrounds, but not a single one had anything negative to say to me about Israel or the Jewish people. For years, the media has portrayed Muslim-Jewish relations as strained and tenuous. This historic normalization agreement between Israel and the UAE proves that both sides are eager to move forward - to cement the reunion of estranged cousins, once and for all, and the UAE has taken bold steps to do so. (Algemeiner) See also UAE: We Seek a Warm Peace with Israel - Hend Al Otaiba The writer is director of strategic communications at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Ha'aretz) The "Iranian Occupation" is the best term to describe Iran's sprawling influence across the region, from its exertion of political influence in Iraq (via ties to Shia political actors and militias that are part of the official state security apparatus) to its support for Hamas in Gaza, to its long-standing backing of Hizbullah, to its involvement in the Syrian war to prop up Bashar al-Assad via its proxies. Complaints about so-called "occupation" have been misdirected for years against Israel. In reality, Arab populations are now recognizing the brutal and devastating "Iranian Occupation" in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and Syria. The writer served as U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations (2017-2019). (CNN) Observations: Turkish Hyper-Activity Reverberates throughout the Middle East - Yossi Kuperwasser and Lenny Ben-David (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of the research division of IDF Military Intelligence, is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center. Lenny Ben-David, former deputy chief of mission at Israel's Embassy in Washington, is Director of Publications at the Jerusalem Center. |
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