Author: lahavharkov

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Lessons for today from the AWACS controversy

Reagan was a very pro-Israel president, but he was still willing to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, even when Israel saw it as a serious threat. Trump could do the same.

It seems that the normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel did not involve the sale of F-35 jets to the Emirates.

Before those denials, the scuttlebutt revolved around how such a sale could impact Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME). And the option of the US selling the planes anyway, without it being a part of the deal Israel and the UAE sign, still remains.

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What does suspending annexation mean for Israel’s eastern border?

Mixed messages came from Jerusalem, Abu Dhabi and Washington on Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria after the White House announced the “Abraham Accords” on Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he “did not and will not remove sovereignty from the agenda.”

Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed said “an agreement was reached to stop further Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories.”

US President Donald Trump said “Israel has agreed not to do it… I think it was a smart concession,” but then said that he “can’t talk about some time in the future.”

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said “suspended” means “not off the table permanently.”

What’s clear from the subtly different statements is that Israel will not be implementing its part of the Trump peace plan – applying its laws to up to 30% of the West Bank – in the near future.

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Normalization with the UAE is a win for the Netanyahu Doctrine

If a Netanyahu Doctrine could be summarized in two words, it would be: Security first. Or as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once said, protecting “life itself” comes before other matters.

But if you were to zoom in a bit more on where Netanyahu’s priorities lie in protecting “life itself,” the answer would be: Iran, Iran and more Iran.

And that doctrine proved itself yet again on Thursday, in the historic announcement of Israel’s third-ever peace agreement with an Arab country, the United Arab Emirates.

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Friedman to ‘Post’: To annex, Netanyahu must tell Abbas he’ll negotiate state

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must offer Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate, based on the establishment of a Palestinian State in 70% of the West Bank, for the US to support Israel moving forward with annexing the other 30%, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told The Jerusalem Post.

An interview with Friedman in honor of the second anniversary of the US moving its embassy to Jerusalem will be featured in Friday’s Jerusalem Post.

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A ruling not just on Netanyahu, but on the court’s role in democracy

There’s something ironic about a law passed to defend democracy now being attacked by people who argue they’re the ones defending democracy.

Can someone charged with crimes form a government? That is the question the High Court of Justice has determined to answer, as it began hearings on the matter on Sunday. But the decision it makes will mean more than whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can remain in office. It will tell us about the role of the judiciary in our government.
Basic Law: Government is pretty clear on what happens to a prime minister when he’s indicted – nothing, unlike other cabinet ministers.
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How has coronavirus changed the Iranian threat to Israel?

Will the fact that Iran has been hit so hard in the coronavirus crisis, and the economic aftershocks that go with it, change the nature of its threat to Israel?

Despite the coronavirus crisis nearly monopolizing the world’s attention, Iran managed to draw some focus last week, successfully launching a satellite into orbit using ballistic missile technology.

This step towards developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons took place as Iran crossed the threshold of 5,000 deaths from coronavirus.

As of Sunday, over 90,000 citizens of the Islamic Republic had contracted COVID-19 and 5,710 died, according to official reports, which Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen and others have said are much lower than the true numbers.

Iran has been the epicenter of the pandemic in the Middle East and its government has faced accusations that, like its patron China, it has covered up the extent of the disease’s spread.

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Hauser and Hendel: The matchmakers behind the Netanyahu-Gantz unity deal

How two neophyte MKs punched far above their weight and played a key role in bringing the unity government together.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz – who, if things go as planned, will be premier in a year and a half – and their negotiating teams spent weeks hammering out a deal to establish a unity government.
Again and again, talks broke down, but they always restarted because there were only two choices available to Gantz and Netanyahu: Either figure out a way to work together, or there will be a fourth election.
Neither side had a majority without the other: Netanyahu had only 59 supporters out of 120 Knesset seats, and Gantz had 59, as well, before Blue and White split apart.
Who were the two holdouts who kept the candidates from going it alone? MKs Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser, now known as the Derech Eretz faction. These two political neophytes held far more sway than the numbers would have one think.
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Foreign Ministry projects, risks, opportunities in post-coronavirus days

When it comes to countries turning inward in light of the pandemic, Oren Anolik and Uri Resnick pointed out that Israel has mostly benefited from globalization.

With borders closed, flights canceled and countries keeping foreigners out, along with lockdowns, quarantines and other social distancing measures in place to curb the spread of coronavirus, the world looks like a different place than it did just a few months ago, and though much of the changes are expected to eventually be reversed, they could still have a long-lasting impact.
That is why the Foreign Ministry is working on its own projections for what a post-coronavirus pandemic world could look like, mapping out its dangers and opportunities for Israel’s foreign relations
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Coronavirus: This is China’s Chernobyl moment, says Irwin Cotler

‘China’s leadership must be held to account for its criminality and corruption,’ renowned jurist and human rights activist Irwin Cotler says

The world must hold the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party accountable for covering up information about the coronavirus, former Canadian justice minister and current chairman of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights Irwin Cotler said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

Cotler spoke out against the CCP’s “long standing culture of criminality, corruption and impunity.”

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Can the Rock of Gibraltar Tame the Lions of Jerusalem?

Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum tries to model Israel’s future shared society

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum’s work as Jerusalem’s “Foreign Minister”—her real title is Deputy Mayor in charge of foreign relations, international economic development and tourism—normally keeps her on the go all day. But now, like everyone else, she is stuck at home. She decided to stay in almost a week before the government’s order to try to quell the spread of COVID-19.

 

“I was meeting people face-to-face, trying to meet outdoors on the benches of Safra Square”—the site of the Jerusalem municipality—“because I thought it was safer. But then I started to panic. What am I doing? I have four children,” she recounted. Like so many others, Hassan-Nahoum has now moved her busy workday to video conferencing on Zoom.

 

On the morning she spoke on the phone with Tablet, Hassan-Nahoum also spoke with a Palestinian-American orthopedist who owns orthopedic parts factories around the world.

 

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