Israel Gives More Palestinians Jobs - | Israel Today Staff

Israel Gives More Palestinians Jobs

Tuesday, February 09, 2016 |  Israel Today Staff

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Israel Security Cabinet this week approved the issuing of 30,000 additional work permits for Palestinian Arabs who are seeking or have found employment inside Israel-proper.

Many of these Palestinians are employed in construction, agriculture, infrastructure and other public services. Securing such jobs in Israel is a highly coveted achievement, as the wages far outstrip what these workers would be paid by Palestinian employers.

A number of high-ranking government and defense officials, including Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF chief Gen. Gadi Eisenkot have been pushing for such a move

Some high-ranking officials from the government and the defense establishment, including Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, have pushed for such a policy, arguing that it will provide a significant economic boost to the Palestinian economy.

It is Israel’s hope that by bettering the lives of average Palestinians, terrorism against Israel’s citizens will decline.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing Jewish Home party, suggested increasing the number of work permits to 100,000, according to a report in the Israeli business newspaper The Marker.

This development again demonstrated two truths often ignored or “lost in translation” in mainstream media reports:

1. Despite enormous per capital financial aid, a Palestinian state established today would be unable to stand on its own two feet economically, and would remain inextricably tied to Israel economy, making it a sovereign state in name only;
2. Often painted as enemies of peace, Israel’s right-wing, and in particular the settlement movement, is actually doing more than anyone else to help the Palestinians in practical ways that affect their day-to-day lives, like providing employment.

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Trump: ‘Obama Hates Israel, Jewish State Safe With Me’ - II&ET Nov. 1, 2015

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate attacks deal with Iran, which he says leaves Israel in ‘so much trouble’ “So many friends in Israel, they don’t know what happened,” “They actually think Obama hates Israel. I think he does.”

R

epublican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday that he believes US President Barack Obama hates Israel, citing the recent nuclear deal with Iran which he said was “so bad” for the Jewish state.

“So many friends in Israel, they don’t know what happened,” he said of the agreement between Tehran and the US, along with other world powers. “They actually think Obama hates Israel. I think he does.”

Speaking during a campaign speech in Reno, Nevada on, the business magnate added: “Honestly, I think Israel is in such a massive amount of trouble because of the agreement.”

Trump vowed to defend Israel if elected president. “Israel is safe with this one,” he said, pointing to himself. “Nothing bad is going to happen to Israel.”

Trump, a brash billionaire businessman, dominated the Republican field for months. Recently he has been losing ground to neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Neither Trump nor Carson are career politicians but both have capitalized on anti-Washington, anti-establishment feeling among many conservatives.

Israeli leadership has sharply criticized the Iran deal, and the issue had served to further fracture relations between Jerusalem and Washington. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have enraged Obama by trying to turn Congress against the deal behind the president’s back. Meanwhile the US’s handling of the nuclear negotiations, the Palestinian conflict and other regional challenges have greatly diminished Israelis’ trust in the American leader, with many seeing him as weak, naive, or both.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon this week declared the dispute over the accord over. “The Iran deal is a given,” he said in Washington while meeting with his US counterpart Ashton Carter. “Our disputes are over. And now we have to look to the future.”

Netanyahu is to be hosted by Obama at the White House on November 9 — their first face-to-face talks in over a year.

Though generally unpopular in Israel, some security experts — including former heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad — have said it has its good aspects. Former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz has said he sees the benefits of the accord, which he has acknowledged will probably put off a nuclear-armed Iran for at least 10-15 years. The diplomatic effort, he said, probably prevented war from breaking out.

The Republican nominee will most likely face Hillary Rodham Clinton, former first lady and secretary of state in the 2016 presidential race. The overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination, her campaign received a boost from a strong debate performance two weeks ago.

When Obama hosts Netanyahu, it won’t be pleasant, but it might be productive - THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

When Obama hosts Netanyahu, it won’t be pleasant, but it might be productive

Op-ed: The Iran deal is done. The peace process is a nonstarter. Which means there might be less than usual to argue about when the two leaders hold their first meeting after a year of bitter disconnect

BY DAVID HOROVITZ October 29, 2015,THE TIMES OF ISRAEL


David Horovitz 

David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. 

He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The …[More]

On November 9, US President Barack Obama will host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for the first time in more than a year. They’ll probably — though not certainly — put on a professional, perhaps even a friendly show. Leaders of two closely allied states. Shared interests and values. Unshakable partnership. You know the script.

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And the stuff about an enduring, vital relationship between the two countries is absolutely true.

But the Obama-Netanyahu personal relationship has long since fractured beyond the point of no return. The events of the past year plunged it to new lows. Netanyahu is convinced that Obama sealed a dreadful deal with Iran — entrenching an evil regime, giving it the hard cash to wreak havoc and leaving Israel horribly exposed — and has made no secret of his dismay. Obama was left absolutely seething by Netanyahu’s failed public effort to turn members of his own party against him on his key foreign policy objective, notably in that March speech to Congress. 

Netanyahu thinks Obama gives Mahmoud Abbas a free pass, even when the Palestinian leader is inciting terrorism. Obama is convinced that Netanyahu’s backing for settlement expansion is central to the failure of peace efforts. Netanyahu thinks Obama doesn’t “get” the ruthless Middle East. Obama made his displeasure with Netanyahu known when he took the prime minister to task for his election day assertion that Arab voters were streaming to the polls.

We could go on. Hopefully, for the interests of both of their countries, the two leaders themselves won’t want to.

November 9 will likely mark the day when Netanyahu implicitly acknowledges defeat by finally engaging with the administration on the practical implications of the Iran deal

The visit to Washington this week of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (himself hardly a figure beloved to the Obama administration) seems to symbolize a return to closer cooperation. The new chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, was in Israel last week — less than a month after taking office. Obama and Netanyahu will never put the past behind them, but the White House meeting will likely mark a renewed effort to see out the final year-plus of the Obama presidency in less discordant tones.

Helping that cause is the fact that, in the two key areas where they have so frequently clashed, matters have reached a stage where their scope for sniping at each other would appear to have been much reduced: The Iran deal is done. And any realistic notion of a Palestinian deal is done too for the foreseeable future.

On Iran, therefore, they could choose to batter away some more at each other on whether there was a better alternative, and on what constitutes acceptable conduct when an embattled nation lobbies against a core policy of a superpower ally. But, more likely, November 9 will mark the day when Netanyahu implicitly acknowledges defeat by finally engaging with the administration on the practical implications of the deal. 

If so, the two leaders and their teams can then get down to work coordinating their positions on countering the threats posed by an emboldened and soon-to-be wealthier Iran, and on the appropriate responses to possible Iranian violations of the deal. The latter is an issue on which Israel could have played more of a role in recent months, had it not been opposing the deal so insistently and thus staying out of the loop.

In similar cooperative vein, it’s likely that the two leaders will announce that they’re now hard at work on a new long-term agreement for US defense assistance to Israel. The current 10-year framework, which provided for over $30 billion in US military aid, expires in 2018. Behind the scenes, the respective teams will be assessing potential threats to Israel over the next decade, and Israel will be finalizing a “shopping list” that ensures its qualitative military edge is maintained — something to which this and previous US administrations have long been committed. 

Israel has already contracted for more than 30 F-35 multirole fighter planes; it may ultimately want 50, or even 75. Missile defense systems are funded from a separate budget, and the US is well aware of the imperative to maintain and improve the Iron Dome and the Arrow systems, and to deploy David’s Sling, to ensure Israel can counter threats from neighboring Gaza, south Lebanon and Syria, as well as from an Iran that is relentlessly developing its ballistic missile systems. The increasing involvement of Iran and Russia across Israel’s northern border raises new challenges on which Israel and the US largely see eye-to-eye.

A new Obama-led bid to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in the limited time he has left in office, is a non-starter

As for the Palestinians — while nobody should underestimate Secretary of State John Kerry’s readiness to invest considerable effort in dragging the parties back to the table, in even the least propitious circumstances — the president has likely had more than his fill. There is little chance of the two sides agreeing on terms for a resumption of talks and even less chance of any such talks making headway, and the president is well aware of this.

At a press conference on October 16, Obama reiterated his long-held conviction that the only way Israel would be secure, and the Palestinians would meet their aspirations, was via a two-state solution. But “it’s going to be up to the parties” to achieve that, “and we stand ready to assist,” he said — which was tantamount to spelling out that he is not about to launch a new peace effort.

Netanyahu will presumably rejoice at not being pressured for concessions to enable new negotiations. Obama would doubtless want to tell him that such rejoicing is short-sighted, but the fact is that a new Obama-led bid to solve the conflict, in the limited time he has left in office, is a nonstarter. The president has no shortage of other challenges, domestic and foreign. He can more effectively devote his attentions elsewhere.

They’ll disagree. It was ever thus.

Nonetheless, the two leaders will need to discuss how to prevent a further deterioration on the ground — how to thwart further terrorism; how to tackle incitement more effectively; how to deal with the fracturing PA and its weakening leader; how to safeguard Israeli-Jordanian relations; and how to retain some credibility for a two-state solution that Netanyahu and Abbas both continue to insist that they seek.

Obama would want Netanyahu to halt settlement building, to give the PA more authority in Area C of the West Bank, and to try to utilize the Arab Peace Initiative to warm ties with other Arab governments and possibly defang anti-Israel efforts by the PA at the UN. The prime minister will be reluctant; the president will warn against deepening the sense of hopelessness on both sides and highlight the dangers exposed by the terrorism and the violence of recent weeks. The prime minister will blame Abbas; the president will ask him to be constructive.

They’ll disagree. It was ever thus.

But they’ll have met. A year’s personal disconnect will be over. They’ll have recommitted to tolerating each other for the good of their countries for another 15 months.

Still, for Netanyahu, the end of Obama’s second term can’t come soon enough. And for Obama, not having to host Netanyahu will be a post-presidential pleasure.

Israel Focuses on ISIS, US Vows to Destroy Jihadist Horde

Thursday, September 04, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY

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Israel’s focus on the threat of the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) has increased significantly in recent days in the wake of the revelation that the latest American journalist beheaded by the jihadists was Jewish and an Israeli citizen.

“ISIS’ growing power and its proximity to Israel could pose a strategic threat to Israel,” opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Labor) told reporters a day after the Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff.

Herzog and many other Israeli officials are concerned not only by the fact that the Islamic State is inching closer to its borders both in Syria and by threatening Jordan, but also by burgeoning homegrown support for the Islamists in neighboring states and among the Palestinians.

Islamic State flags have been spotted in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and even Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon signed an order officially outlawing the Islamic State, a move that would make it a crime to raise money or otherwise express support for the jihadist movement.

The grizzly murder of Sotloff just weeks after the Islamic State beheaded captured American reporter James Foley also finally spurred the Obama Administration to action.

“We will not be intimidated,” US President Barack Obama stated after experts confirmed the Sotloff beheading video as authentic. “Those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget and that our reach is long and that justice will be served.”

Obama was reportedly working with British Prime Minister David Cameron to establish an international coalition with the intent to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State.

US Vice President Joe Biden warned the hordes of Islamic State fighters that “the American people are so much stronger, so much more resolved than any enemy can fully understand. We don’t forget. …They should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice, because hell is where they will reside.”

While Israelis are happy to see Western powers finally taking the threat of the Islamic State seriously, there is frustration that Palestinian groups like Hamas receive alternative treatment.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to drive home the point that Hamas and the Islamic State are kindred movements. In fact, Hamas has also been behind the recent executions of American-Israeli citizens, like 16-year-old Naftali Frenkel.

But, because Hamas is tolerated by the US-backed Palestinian Authority, and because the Palestinian public voted the terror group into power, Washington has seen fit to place it on somewhat different footing than fellow jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

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Israel Hints at Renewed Settlement Activity

Thursday, May 29, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY

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With the full breakdown of US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the Jewish state is hinting at a full renewal of “settlement activity” in Judea and Samaria.

In a visit with settlement leaders in the Benjamin Regional Council on Tuesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon insisted that the presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria was crucial to Israel’s security and future in the region.

“There is no security without the settlement enterprise. Where there is no settlement enterprise, there is no security,” said Ya’alon.

Later that same day, Housing Minister Uri Ariel told a Jerusalem Day celebration that not only would Jerusalem never again be divided, but that the government would also stop freezing the building of Jewish homes in other parts of the disputed territories. “There will be no more freezes — we won’t allow it,” Ariel stated.

According to Ariel, the end goal is that “there will be just one state between the Jordan River and the sea, and that is the State of Israel.”

The statements by these two ministers come just days after reports that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had decided to adopt certain clauses from the findings of the Levy Committee established in 2012 to determine the legality of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria.

Ha’aretz reported that in accordance with the Levy Committee findings, the government would significantly ease restrictions on Jewish construction in these areas.

Netanyahu himself commissioned the Levy Committee, a panel of jurists that included an international legal expert originally involved in formulating the so-called “Oslo Accords.”

Drawing on “international, Jordanian, Israeli and even Ottoman laws,” the Levy Committee concluded that “from the point of view of international law, the classical laws of ‘occupation’ as set out in the relevant international conventions cannot be considered applicable to the unique and sui generis historic and legal circumstances of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, over the course of decades.”

The Geneva Conventions define “military occupation” as the seizing of another nation’s land, and the fact is that no nation legally controlled Judea and Samaria following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, which itself had ruled the area for over five centuries.

Additionally, the Jews cannot be considered an outside force in Judea and Samaria, but rather the historic founders of the territory as a unified nation-state. Jewish archeological finds dating back millennia abound in the “West Bank.”

Despite these legal and historical validations of a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, the Palestinian leadership is adamant that Jewish settlement activity is the sole obstacle to peace.

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