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Why Record Israel-US Military Aid Deal Has Skeptics Concerned
CBN News 09-14-2016
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JERUSALEM, Israel -- The U.S. and Israel concluded a 10-year military aid package due to be signed on Wednesday. The $38 billion package is "the single largest pledge of bilateral military assistance in U.S. history," the Obama administration said.
But it also includes major concessions from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- and that has some analysts worried.
"I think the aid package is designed first and foremost to help the Obama administration and Obama personally and the Democratic Party establish that they are friends of Israel after seven of the worst years in American-Israeli relations," author and historian Dr. Michael Widlanski told CBN News.
"And I think it's also part of the Obama philosophy to try and constrict Congress's ability to help Israel against White House," Widlanski he added.
Jerusalem Post analyst Herb Keinon took a different tack.
"Now that the deal is locked in, there will be much hand-wringing and speculation over what could have been, and what Netanyahu should have done differently," he wrote on Wednesday.
But Keinon says there's no way to know if there could have been a better deal. Still, he believes that the aid package is generous and goes "a long way toward ensuring Israel's military superiority in the region," and that it sends a message to the Israel's enemies that "America still very much has Israel's back."
Widlanski and others have noted, however, that the new deal will force Israel to spend the entire sum of money in the U.S. more than previous agreements, which could damage Israel's own military industry.
Two months ago, Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick saw problems coming.
"There is the issue of the deal's impact on Israel's military industries, which are the backbone of Israel's strategic independence," Glick wrote.
"The implications for our military industries are dire," she warned. "Not only will thousands of Israelis lose their jobs. Israel's capacity to develop its own weapons systems will be dangerously diminished."
Under the current defense package, Israel spends around 25 percent of the aid in Israel itself. By the end of the 10-year new package all the money will have to be spent in the U.S.
The late North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms used to call Israel "America's aircraft carrier in the Middle East," saying that the foothold Israel provided America justified the U.S. military aid to the Jewish state.
Widlanski said for America's sake it's better that Israel has an independent military industry.
"Under the usual aid package, Israel was able to use some of the monies for locally buying and that's very important. You don't want to destroy your own industry when you're getting help from a great friend like the United States," Widlanski said.
"I think that that's a mistake ultimately for American interests because Israeli independence of thought, technology is something that's very good for the U.S," he said.
'Jews Have Been in Jerusalem for Thousands of Years'
CBN News 08-30-2016
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JERUSALEM, Israel -- Telling Jews they can't build homes in Jerusalem is like telling Americans they can't build in Washington, D.C., or the French that they can't build in Paris, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
The comment came in response to condemnation of Israel for Israeli construction in communities in Judea and Samaria, a.k.a. the West Bank.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov asked the UN Security Council, "How will advancing the construction of over 1,700 housing units bring the parties closer to negotiated peace, uphold the two-state solution, create hope for the Palestinian people or bring security to Israelis?"
The UN Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting on the subject of Israeli settlement building on October 14.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in Jewish communities in biblical Judea and Samaria, an area that Palestinians want to take over for a future state. That area also includes eastern Jerusalem, where all important biblical sites are.
"The UN envoy to the Middle East's remarks to the Security Council distort history and international law and push peace farther away," said the statement from Netanyahu's office.
"Jews have been in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria for thousands of years and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace. The obstacle to peace is the unending attempt to deny the Jewish People's connection to parts of their historic land and the obdurate refusal to recognize that they are not foreigners there," the statement continued.
"The claim that Jewish construction in Jerusalem is illegal is as absurd as the claim that American construction in Washington or French construction in Paris is illegal. The Palestinian demand that a future Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews is outrageous and the UN must condemn it instead of adopting it," it concluded.
Meanwhile, Israel won a small victory against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Brussels Airlines said it would continue to serve Achva halva (a sweet made from sesame seeds) on its flights despite the fact that it's made in the Barkan Industrial Zone, in Samaria.
The airline said it was removing the product last week from the menu after a passenger complained because it wanted to serve food that was "amicable to all."
In Israel, US Jewish Leaders Study 'Timely, Realistic, Frightening' Middle East
Photo: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses visiting leaders from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at the Inbal hotel in Jerusalem on Feb. 14, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
"Timely, realistic and frightening" were the words that William Daroff, senior vice president for public policy and director of the Washington Office of the Jewish Federations of North America, used to describe reports about the Middle East security situation.
Speaking on the second day of the leadership mission of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Daroff's remarks came after an hour-long session focused on Iran after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and just before another hour-long panel discussion on "the Middle East volcano."
The 42nd annual Israel mission for the Conference of Presidents, an umbrella body representing 50 U.S. Jewish organizations, kicked off Feb. 14 as the group of more than 100 delegates was welcomed with a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The meeting minutes and panel discussions reflected the current gloom-and-doom picture of the region.
"Syria will leave us with two bad options: We will have either Daesh (Islamic State) or Iran on our border," said Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Feb. 15.
"I don't think Israel has lost. I think the world has lost," Member of Knesset Yair Lapid, the Yesh Atid party's leader, said regarding Iran.
The Middle East has always been a region wrought with contradictions, but the conference highlighted how in the realm of security, Middle East experts are now unsure what is truth and what is façade, if what will happen tomorrow will be indicative of what will happen in 10 years, and if those we assume are our enemies might just be our friends (or vice versa).
Take the Iran deal. Dr. Emily B. Landau, senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), quoted IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot as saying at the INSS conference last month that the Iran deal entails both opportunities and dangers. Landau said both are true.
"We are working on different timelines; there is a five-year timeline and there is a 15-year timeline," she explained. "On the five-year timelines, yes, this is a strategic turning point because [Eizenkot] believes the threat has been delayed. ... Iran will be focused on upholding the deal to get the economic and diplomatic benefits of the deal."
But nothing has changed in terms of Iran's strategic goals, and in 15 years Iran will likely have nuclear weapons, which translates into a nuclear Middle East, according to Landau.
"Delaying a threat is not taking care of a threat," she said.
Here's the next dichotomy: Conference experts said that while they feel the JCPOA has stunted the immediate growth of Iran's nuclear program, the deal has empowered Iran in other ways. The reintegration of Iran into the world economic system has led to a real change in Iranian behavior, said Michael Segall, senior analyst for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs think tank. He said Iran has moved from covert operations in the Middle East to overt operations.
"No one is trying to hide behind secrecy anymore," said Segall. "We see Iran going from being perceived as part of the problem in the Middle East to part of the solution."
But Segall said that is only a perception and that Iran remains a very dangerous threat for Israel. While Iran partners with Russia to keep in power Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who the Americans were confident would be out of office a few years ago, the Islamic Republic is simultaneously training and bolstering the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. Even if Hezbollah is beaten down and banged up by its participation in the Syrian civil war, Segall said that ultimately, "Hezbollah will come out strong and experienced in fighting. Hezbollah will be even more threatening in the future."
How could the United States let this happen? Delusion? Ignorance? Innocence? It is likely a combination of all of the above, according to what Dr. Michael Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, told the Conference of the Presidents. There lies the next contradiction: a world superpower entrapped by what Doran called "fantasy."
"The president (Barack Obama) doesn't understand Iran the way we do," said Doran. "The president represents a trend in the U.S. national security elite, which sees Iran as a natural ally of the U.S. This is a strongly held secret opinion. They don't like to advertise it because it is unpopular politically."
Doran said this false belief is widely held—not only by Democrats but by Republicans too. He said President Obama has convinced himself that in the end, Iran and the U.S. have the same interest of defeating Islamic State and that Iran doesn't really want to destroy Israel.
"That is what Iran tells the U.S. behind closed doors. ... I don't believe it for a second," said Doran.
In the meantime, according to Segall, the U.S. has lost its place in the game—and it lost it in August 2013 when Obama's "chemical redlines were crossed" by failing to push through military action against Syria following Assad's use of chemical weapons. Russia has moved in to fill the American void.
"We all know the end result," Segall said.
In Israel, the U.S. seems to be losing its foothold too. In January, one Israeli poll named Russian President Vladimir Putin as its "person of the year" for 2015. Putin, whose country in 2015 was considered by international analysts to have surpassed North Korea as the United States's greatest adversary, was the clear winner of the Jerusalem Post poll, with almost 30 percent of the vote.
Netanyahu told the Conference of Presidents, "We live in an era where there are two parallel but contradictory trends regarding the State of Israel." On the one hand, Israel faces ongoing diplomatic hostility from longtime friends, including from the European Union and its member countries. On the other hand, nontraditional partners like India, China, Japan, Russia, and African and Latin American nations are warming up to Israel.
"The first reason is the concern with the spread of militant Islam, which has become a global plague and the terrorism that it produces," said Netanyahu. "And countries want to have, to benefit from Israel's experience, our intelligence. I mean military intelligence, special service intelligence, operational experience. They want to partake of that experience to help defend themselves."
The old Middle East is gone, said Segall, and we don't really know what the end result of the shifting dynamics will be.
Avi Issacharoff, the Middle East correspondent for the Times of Israel, added, "The new Middle East is not about black and white. It's about 50 shades of gray."
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Most Israelis want genuine and productive peace talks, but skepticism over the diplomatic process with the current Palestinian leadership has resulted in growing support for simply annexing Judea and Samaria, the so-called “West Bank.”
That according to the results of Israel’s monthly “Peace Index” survey published last Tuesday.
Asked if they are in favor of a renewal of peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, nearly 62 percent of all Israelis answered in the affirmative.
At the same time, nearly 68 percent believed such talks would fail to reach a solution in the short term, and only 29 percent felt peace process in its current incarnation would ever be successful.
The poll further revealed that a 45.3 percent plurality of Israelis now support annexing Judea and Samaria, thus ending the “dream” of a Palestinian state, while 44.8 percent oppose such a move.
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Attack on Israel Electric Grid Coincides with CyberTech Conference in Tel Aviv
Jan. 27, 2016 CBN News
JERUSALEM, Israel – As temperatures dropped this week in Jerusalem, Israel's electrical grid experienced a major cyberattack.
Israeli energy officials say they've identified the virus, but are still working on the source of the attack.
The announcement came during Israel's Third Annual CyberTech Conference, an event that drew nearly 8,000 participants this year, many of them world leaders in cybertechnology.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz called the attack on the electrical authority "a fresh example" of cyber vulnerability.
"This is a fresh example of the sensitivity of infrastructure to cyberattacks and the importance of preparing ourselves to defend ourselves against such attacks."
In his concluding remarks at the conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said part of the task is defeating those who "seek to take the world back to a dark age."
"We have to make sure that the forces of the future defeat the forces that seek to take the world back to a dark age," Netanyahu said. "I think this is also part of our challenge. I think that we have to pool resources to make sure that tomorrow wins over yesterday. And that too is part of our task in cybersecurity, in the assurance of cybersecurity."
JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, left for a two-day state visit to England Wednesday, where British Prime Minister David Cameron awaits them, along with pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Demonstrations are less than what 107,000 signatories of a petition to arrest Netanyahu for alleged war crimes wanted, referring to theIDF's military incursion in the Gaza Strip last summer in response to Palestinian rocket fire and terror tunnels dug under Israel's border.
Earlier Wednesday, terrorists opened fire on an Israeli woman near the Tapuach Junction, not far from Nablus (biblical Shechem).
Miraculously, she was unhurt, though shaken up by the attack and the bullets that penetrated her car. The IDF dispatched soldiers to search for the shooter.
A few days ago, the European Union announced it was putting the finishing touches on its Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) package, the same week the SodaStream factory in Samaria gets ready to close and move to its new location in the Negev.
SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum says BDS supporters just don't get it.
"It's propaganda. It's politics. It's hate. It's anti-Semitism," Birnbaum said. "It's all the bad stuff we don't want to be part of."
Meanwhile, skies remained hazy Wednesday, following Tuesday's massive sandstorm that blanketed Israel from north to south, as well as Syria, in a thick yellow, sand-filled haze. Israeli media reported it was the most massive sandstorm in 15 years.
Environmental Protection Ministry warned people with heart or lung problems to stay indoors. Domestic flights were cancelled and many people held scarves to their faces as they walked the streets.
Sweltering temperatures that accompanied the sandstorm are expected to last through the start of Rosh Hashanah, literally "head of the year," which begins Sunday at sunset.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem, light-rail construction to outlying neighborhoods, along with school and holiday traffic, snarled city streets.
But despite boycotts, sandstorms, terror attacks, traffic jams and anti-Israel protests, there's a pervasive and undeniable optimism as Israelis prepare to celebrate the New Year. Everywhere people wish one another Shana tova u'metuka, a good and sweet New Year.
What America will offer Israel after the nuclear deal
Extending aid by a decade, R&D collaboration, F-35 strike fighters among measures eyed for heightened US-Israel security cooperation; ‘Band-Aids on a hemorrhage,’ says one critic
BY RON KAMPEASSeptember 2, 2015 THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Illustrative: A US Navy F-35 fighter jet during a test flight. (US Navy/Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The moment the Iran nuclear deal becomes law, as seems increasingly likely given growing congressional support for the agreement, the focus of the US-Israel conversation will shift to the question of what’s next.
What more will Washington do to mitigate the Iranian threat and reassure Israel and other regional allies?
For starters, President Barack Obama seems ready to offer an array of security enhancements. Among them are accelerating and increasing defense assistance to Israel over the next decade; increasing the US military presence in the Middle East; stepping up the enforcement of non-nuclear related Iran sanctions; enhancing US interdiction against disruptive Iranian activity in the region; and increasing cooperation on missile defense.
There also will be an emphasis on keeping any of the tens of billions of dollars to which Iran will gain unfettered access through the sanctions relief from reaching Iran’s proxies.
Adam Szubin, the US Treasury undersecretary charged with enforcing sanctions, made targeting Hezbollah a focus of his meetings with Israeli officials last week, JTA has learned.
Once some nuclear-related sanctions on Iran are lifted – should Iran meet the requirements in the deal on nuclear restrictions – Washington will allocate greater resources to focusing on other sanctions unaffected by the agreement, including those related to backing terrorism, a senior US official told JTA.
“We have a lot of that same personnel and resources we can devote to US-specific sanctions on Iran – and not only Iran,” the official said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not wanting to be seen as endorsing the deal while there’s still a chance Congress could scuttle it, has directed Israeli officials not to engage with US officials on what could be done after the deal is in place. The Israeli envoy to Washington, Ron Dermer, has said that Israel would be ready for discussions only after options to kill the agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action are exhausted.
“We appreciate the support that we have gotten from this administration, from this president, to enhance our security,” Dermer told USA Today in a July 27 interview. “And the discussion that we’ll have about the day after, we’ll have to leave to the day after.”
Congress has until Sept. 17 to decide whether to allow the deal to proceed.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is leading the opposition to the deal, argued in a memo distributed Monday that US pledges of post-deal security enhancements are inadequate.
“The administration has tried to reassure those concerned by the dangerous consequences of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in two ways: by pledging increased support for Israel and our Gulf allies and by vowing that it will strictly enforce the deal,” said the memo, which is headlined “Promises Cannot Fix a Bad Deal.” “Neither approach will repair the deal’s fatal flaw: it legitimizes Iran as a nuclear-threshold state in 15 years.”
Obama in an interview Monday with the Forward attached urgency to confronting Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies.
Speaking of Israel, he said, “We can do even more to enhance the unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation that we have with them, and to see, are there additional capabilities that Israel may be able to use to prevent Hezbollah, for example, from getting missiles.”
The emphasis on Hezbollah was appropriate, said Uzi Arad, Netanyahu’s national security adviser from 2009 to 2011.
“The president on sensing a degree of urgency with Hezbollah sooner rather than later is absolutely right,” Arad said, noting the group’s role as an Iranian proxy in helping prop up the Assad regime in Syria. “It relates to the need to uproot and to neutralize the violent and anti-American and anti-Israel radical group. It is a matter of urgent joint concern.”
Arad outlined a number of areas that would enhance Israel’s sense of security in a post-deal environment, including:
* Maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region, even as the United States enhances the military capabilities of Arab Persian Gulf allies that, similar to Israel, will be seeking reassurances in the wake of the Iran deal;
* Enhancing joint missile defense programs;
* Extending the defense assistance memorandum of understanding, which since 2008 has provided Israel with an average of $3 billion in defense assistance per year, for another 10 years (it’s set to expire in 2018), and delivering promised F-35 advanced fighter aircraft to Israel;
* Enhancing joint civilian scientific research and development;
* Delivering advanced bunker-buster bombs to maintain Israel’s deterrent edge should Iran cheat on or abandon the deal. “Israel should be given this special kind of ordnance so it could have a more effective military option in case of Iranian violations of the agreement,” Arad said, arguing that this would strengthen the agreement by creating a disincentive for Iran to cheat.
* A “declaratory” component emphasizing US longstanding commitments to Israel.
* Making clear that the US effort to stop the expansion of Islamist terrorism and extremism targets Iranian activities as well as those associated with the Islamic State terrorist group.
Obama touched on many of these issues in a letter he sent to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, on Aug. 19.
“It is imperative that, even as we effectively cut off Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon through the implementation of the JCPOA, we take steps to ensure that we and our allies and our partners are more capable than ever to deal with Iran’s destabilizing activities and support for terrorism,” Obama said in the letter, which was first obtained by The New York Times.
The president specified four areas where cooperation would be enhanced: extending defense assistance for a decade, joint missile defense research, joint efforts to improve tunnel detection (following the advances made by Hamas in its 2014 war with Israel), and “strengthening our efforts to confront conventional and asymmetric threats.”
The letter persuaded Nadler to back the deal and should be a salve to Israeli security officials, said Dan Arbell, a former deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
“If I were an Israeli bureaucrat right now in any of the related areas working around this, what the president provides in his letter is a pretty thorough list, which I think the Israeli defense establishment would be happy with,” said Arbell, who now lectures at American University.
Persian Gulf allies would want the reassurances that Israel is receiving as well as specific assurances of assistance in keeping Iran from meddling in Arab affairs, said Michael Eisenstadt, a longtime officer in the US Army Reserve who served in the Middle East.
Even with such assurances, Eisenstadt said, Gulf allies would remain concerned that the deal enhances Iran’s stature.
“Weapons are Band-Aids on a hemorrhage,” said Eisenstadt, now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “From the point of view of our allies in the region, we’ve contributed to a lot of the problem” by advancing the Iran deal.
Has the agreement with Iran placed military options back on the table?
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 | Israel Today Staff
The world has placed the fate of the Middle East in the hands of the regime in Tehran, which is not trustworthy. Most Israeli commentators are of this opinion and appalled by the agreement, which has been concluded with Tehran by the P5 + 1 world powers. The agreement does not keep Iran from attaining nuclear capability, neither does it reign in its nuclear infrastructure. While US President Barack Obama celebrates the biggest foreign policy success of his tenure, once again there is talk in Israel of a possible military strike against Iran.
"Israel should take the necessary precautions, if Iran violates the agreement," writes columnist Ron Ben-Yishai in the news portal Ynetnews. From Israel's perspective, the agreement has brought the military option back to the table. "The Israeli government will have to decide whether it wants to attack Iran or not, if the ayatollahs decide to build a nuclear bomb." According to experts, Iran currently needs about a year to build a nuclear weapon and use it. If Iran violates the agreement and secretly continues to enrich uranium, the regime could build a nuclear device much faster. We are talking about a matter of a few weeks.
In Tehran, people cheered and celebrated the imminent end of the sanctions with processions and motorcades. In Jerusalem Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized again that the world's future is now more uncertain because of the Agreement, the international community has committed a mistake of historic proportions. Germany's Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier rejected Israel's criticism and stated that any Iranian bid for an atom bomb will be excluded reliable and verifiable for the foreseeable future. "I can say with full conviction, that this is an agreement that brings security to the world, the region and even the neighbors of Iran," said Steinmeier.
In the mainstream media the agreement is being hailed as an historic breakthrough and are accusing Netanyahu of fomenting fear of Iran for domestic political reasons, having ensured Netanyahu three electoral victories. Emphasis has been placed on the substantive achievements of the agreement with Tehran: The number of centrifuges being reduced by two thirds, the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors being granted access to all sites and the UN arms embargo remaining in force for another five years. In return, the sanctions will be gradually lifted, but can again take effect in the case of infringements of the agreement at any time.
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JERUSALEM, Israel -- The Israeli navy is preparing to intercept a Swedish vessel planning to set sail for the Gaza Strip in the next few days. At least two Israeli Arab parliamentarians would like to join protesters on board the latest flotilla.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called support for flotillas a "rape of the truth" at Monday's Jewish Agency Assembly in Tel Aviv.
"If we learned anything from our history, anything, it's that when you recognize a clear and present danger, don't sit on your hands, and for God's sake, don't keep your mouth shut," Netanyahu told participants.
Five years ago, Balad MK Haneen Zoabi joined pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Turkish flagship Mavi Marmara. The activists were seeking to break an Israeli blockade of the Gaza port that prevents weaponry for attacking Israel to be brought by sea.
When the ship's captain refused to sail to Ashdod instead of Gaza, Israeli naval commandos attempting to board were attacked with knives, stun grenades, chains and metal pipes as they touched down on deck. When it became obvious their lives were in danger, they were given permission to use live ammunition against their attackers, killing nine of them.
The confrontation aboard the Mavi Marmara became an international incident, with Israel portrayed as the aggressor, even after the IDF released video footage of the sequence of events and revealed details of its planning.
The Knesset Ethics Committee later suspended Zoabi of some parliamentary rights. Today she's threatening to join the Swedish flotilla planning to set sail for Gaza by midweek.
While Zoabi has yet to decide if she'll join the latest attempt to delegitimize Israel, fellow MK Basel Ghattas says he'll be on board Sweden's Marianne av Goteborg, which left its home port at the end of May with stops in Sicily and Athens en route to Gaza.
In a letter to Netanyahu, Ghattas said the ship is a "flotilla of peace" meant to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians living in an "open air prison under horrendous conditions," for which he blames Israel.
Ghattas warned the prime minister that any action Israel takes to thwart the flotilla "will further embroil Israel in controversy."
Left, Right and Center Speak Out
Israeli parliamentarians across the political spectrum rejected his premise.
The Zionist Union, which heads the oppositon, released a statement accusing participants of a political rather than a humanitarian agenda aimed at legitimizing Hamas and increasing terror against Israel.
MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid) said Ghattas "would be better off fighting for equal rights for Arabs."
Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said "the whole purpose of the Joint Arab List is to hurt the State of Israel, while using Israeli democracy in an attempt to destroy it."
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said "Flotillas like the one making its way to Israel are the handiwork of provocateurs who only want to make Israel look bad."
The Israeli navy has intercepted numbers of Iranian arms shipments en route to Gaza over the years.
In March 2014, naval commandos intercepted a ship carrying 40 long-range missiles, nearly 200 mortars and 400,000 rounds of ammunition. It wasn't the first and will likely not be the last attempt to smuggle weapons to Hamas by sea.
"The weapons on this ship were destined for terrorists in Gaza who are committed to Israel's destruction," Netanyahu said at the time.
Gaza Is Not Destitute
The truth is Israel transfers all types of consumer goods to Gaza, from food to medicines, fuel, construction material and other types of humanitarian aid. Its open-air markets and grocery stores are well stocked. It has shopping malls, children's playgrounds, and nice restaurants.
The real problem in the Gaza Strip is Hamas, the Palestinian faction running the government there. Hamas, an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, took control of the Strip in a bloody military coup in June 2007. The Hamas charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
Like other Islamic groups, Hamas requires submission to Sharia law. The government sponsors terror training camps for Gaza youth and its children's television programs paint Israel as an occupier of what is rightfully their land.
From rockets, missiles, and mortars fired on Israeli population centers to roadside bombs, sniper fire and terror tunnels dug under Israel's border, Hamas is open about its intent to wipe Israel off the map.
Under international law, Israel's blockade of the Gaza port is legal. It would be foolhardy indeed to provide Hamas with an open port to further its stated goal to destroy the Jewish nation-state.
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington Sunday evening ahead of his speeches at the American Israel Policy Action Committee (AIPAC) and what has become a highly controversial address to Congress on Iran's nuclear program.
Before boarding the plane with his wife, Sara, Netanyahu said he's embarking on an historic mission just days before Jews observe the Fast of Esther, commemorating the three-day fast in ancient Persia, modern-day Iran, when the Jewish queen risked her life to save her people from annihilation (see Esther 4:16).
"A few days before the Fast of Esther, I am leaving for Washington on a fateful, even historic, mission," Netanyahu said. "I feel that I am the emissary of all Israelis, even those who disagree with me, of the entire Jewish people. I am deeply and genuinely concerned for the security of all Israelis, for the fate of the nation, and for the fate of our people and I will do my utmost to ensure our future."
After praying at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City Saturday evening, Netanyahu told the press he believes in the strength of U.S.-Israeli relations and the ability to overcome "differences of opinion," as it has been in the past and the future as well.
"On the eve my trip to the U.S., I came here to the Western Wall. I would like to take this opportunity to say that I respect U.S. President Barack Obama. I believe in the strength of the relationship between Israel and the US and in their strength to overcome differences of opinion, those that have been and those that will yet be."
Netanyahu said he's obligated to speak out on behalf of the Jewish state.
"As prime minister of Israel, it is my obligation to see to the security of Israel," he said. "Therefore, we strongly oppose the agreement being formulated with Iran and the major powers, which could endanger our [Israel's] very existence. In the face of this danger we must unite and also explain the dangers stemming from this agreement, to Israel, to the region and to the world."
Netanyahu is scheduled to address participants at the annual AIPAC policy conference mid-morning Monday and a joint session of Congress Tuesday. CBN News will live stream both addresses on its website.
Some experts speculate Netanyahu may share details about Iran that will force the U.S. president to justify the deal he's working on with the Iranians.
