Palestinian Territories | Council on Foreign Relations

Israel

Palestine in the Sinai?

Several days ago news reports "revealed" a proposal by Egyptian President Sisi to extend the territory of Gaza south into the Sinai. According to the story as Israel Army radio carried it, the area to be added to Gaza is five times the size of the current Gaza. The idea is that this area would accommodate all the Palestinian "refugees," thus satisfying the demand for a "right of return." Palestine would consist of this new area and the current Gaza, giving the Palestinians more territory than if the 1967 "borders" were restored. The idea of expanding Gaza is not crazy, given how overcrowded the place is. In 2004 Israeli Major General Giora Eiland, then serving as national Security Advisor under Prime Minister Sharon, proposed that Gaza be enlarged. This would require taking land from Egypt, and Israel (under the Eiland plan) would have compensated Egypt with lands further east that would have permitted an automobile tunnel linking Egypt and Jordan. The Eiland plan never went anywhere in part because the Egyptians would not consider parting with one square inch of sovereign territory. Why would they now consider it? I can’t see why, and therefore believe the news stories carrying Sisi’s denial of the whole thing. The logic of enlarging Gaza is obvious, but the rest of the proposal is bizarre: Millions of Palestinian refugees coming to live in the Sinai desert? The PLO abandoning its claims to the 1967 lines in order to get land in Sinai? Eiland’s more modest proposal was a way to deal with overcrowding in Gaza and nothing more, for which reason it was more sensible. If this new idea was genuinely floated by the government of Egypt, that must be seen as a nasty shot at the Palestinians and another reflection of how little they and their ambitions count in Cairo these days.

Blog Post by Elliott Abrams September 9, 2014 Pressure Points
Middle East and North Africa

Which Side Is UNRWA On?

The war in Gaza has brought UNRWA, the UN agency dealing with Palestinian "refugees," back into the news-- mostly because UNRWA schools were used to shoot rockets at Israel. The failings of UNRWA were examined here ("Ending UNRWA and Advancing Peace") in December, 2011, although today they seem even worse. The UNRWA employees union is under Hamas control, and it’s clear that the staff is riddled with Hamas "activists." The Israeli commentator and former Knesset member Einat Wilf wrote yesterday that now, with the fighting over, it is time for Israel to do what it should have done decades ago -- remove the layer of protection and legitimacy it grants to UNRWA. Israel should recognize UNRWA for what it is -- a hostile Palestinian organization that perpetuates the dream of the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel -- and treat it accordingly. So now there are two compelling reasons to end UNRWA. Its cooperation with Hamas, and the way in which it has been permeated by Hamas, constitute one reason. The second is that UNRWA is engaged in the perpetuation and expansion of the "Palestinian refugee problem" rather than its solution. Here is the explanation I gave in 2011: Since the end of the Second World War, millions of refugees have left refugee camps, and refugee status, and moved to countries that accepted them–quickly or slowly–as citizens. Post-World War II Europe was an archipelago of displaced persons and refugee camps, housing 850,000 people in 1947–Czechs, Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Latvians, Greeks, and many more nationalities. By 1952, all but one of the camps had closed. Hundred of thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe went to Israel after 1948, and then hundreds of thousands more arrived from Arab lands when they were forced to flee after 1956 and 1967. The children and grandchildren of these refugees, born after their arrival, were never refugees themselves; they were from birth citizens of the new land, as their parents had become immediately upon their own arrival. In this process many nations and agencies have played wonderful roles, not least the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The exception to this refugee story is the Palestinians. In most of the Arab lands to which they fled or travelled after 1948 they were often treated badly, and refused citizenship (with Jordan the major exception) or even the right to work legally. And instead of coming under the protection of UNHCR, they had a special agency of their own, UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency. In the decades of its existence, it has not solved or even diminished the Palesinian refugee problem; instead it has presided over a massive increase in its size, for all the descendants of Palestinian refugees are considered to be refugees as well. Once there were 750,000; now there are five million people considered by UNRWA to be “Palestinian refugees.” And UNRWA is now the largest UN agency, with a staff of 30,000. UNHCR cares for the rest of the world with about 7,500 personnel. Which side is UNRWA on? Its supporters would say "on the side of Palestinian refugees," but instead the agency appears to be on two other sides: its own, always expanding its own empire and responsibilities, and on the side of Hamas. Any transition to UNHCR would need to be slow and careful, but it should begin. One good way to start is to demand independent studies and planning for such a step (independent because you obviously can’t leave this work to UNRWA itself, nor should all of it be conducted within the UN system). For example, a plan might start in one country (such as Jordan or Lebanon) rather than in Gaza. Or it might start by redefining "refugee" the normal way. The United States should begin, after a set future date, to move funding from UNRWA to UNHCR. If UNRWA or the UN refuse, so be it: let those who insist on retaining UNRWA, its pernicious definition of "refugee," and its ties with Hamas pay the freight. Such a transition will be extremely difficult and take years. That’s clear--but it’s time to begin. The Gaza war has illuminated once again the ways in which Hamas has been acting as a parasite feeding on this UN agency--to which the United States is the largest donor. Time for a change.

Blog Post by Elliott Abrams September 1, 2014 Pressure Points
Middle East and North Africa

The Cease Fire That Broke Itself, Part II

In a recent post, found here, I noted the widespread failure of news media sites to say straightforwardly that Hamas has broken several cease fires. This just happened again, so herewith a couple of the most remarkable examples. Foreign Policy wrote this: Efforts to end six weeks of fighting in Gaza collapsed as rocket fire from the strip broke a cease-fire and Israel carried out renewed strikes in the area. Interesting formulation: Israel carried out strikes, but on the other side was "rocket fire." It would seem that in Gaza rocket fire makes its own decisions about shooting: no terrorists, no Hamas, no Islamic Jihad. Then there is this rather fantastic example from the Daily Telegraph in London: Israel has confirmed that it tried to assassinate the most senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip. Mohammad Deif, head of Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, was targeted in a strike on a house which killed his wife and seven-month-old son in the early hours of Wednesday morning. A third dead body was identified, but it is not clear whether it was Mr Deif. The strike followed the resumption of violence between Israel and Gaza since rocket fire from the Strip on Tuesday afternoon violated the six-day ceasefire between the two parties. Subsequently Israel launched air strikes at Gaza and abandoned the ceasefire negotiations in Cairo, mediated by the Egyptians. Now, it’s an obvious fact that Hamas broke the cease fire, and Israel then responded with air strikes--including the one aimed at Deif. But in the Telegraph, there was a "resumption of violence." Like cease fires that break themselves, violence "resumes:" no human agency. But Israel is responsible because it launched air strikes and then abandoned negotiations in Egypt. That the Israeli negotiators withdrew after Hamas broke the cease fire is not mentioned, of course, because the predicate is never mentioned: that Hamas broke the cease fire. Sadly, each day provides more and more examples of this unwillingness to state clearly that Hamas breaks cease fires. I will not offer a theory as to why, but it is certainly bad journalism.

Blog Post by Elliott Abrams August 20, 2014 Pressure Points

United States

Guest Post: Implications of Declining Israeli Sympathy

Elena Vann is an interdepartmental intern at the Council on Foreign Relations. Once a small, noble state heralded for its democratic values and established after the horrors of the Holocaust, Israel’s popularity is declining as global public opinion trends further away from the David and Goliath narrative once commonly attached to the Jewish state. After a fierce, month-long offensive against Hamas that is estimated to have taken the lives of over one thousand civilians in Gaza and decimated the country’s infrastructure, Israel’s public image joins the list of damages. As the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire tenuously holds between Israeli and Palestinian officials representing Hamas, the Gaza Strip is smoldering in ruins and Israel looks more bully than victim. Should these negative sentiments toward Israel continue to fester, U.S.-Israel relations could be substantially weakened. The fraying public opinion of Israel has the potential to arouse a number of damaging responses through civil and state action. The Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)—a global movement with numerous Israeli members—attempts to increase economic and political pressure on the Israeli government to meet their three goals: end the Israeli occupation of Palestine, grant full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and fulfill the right of return Palestinian refugees displaced persons, as stipulated in the 1948 UN Resolution 194. Since its founding in 2005, and particularly since the launch of Operation Protective Edge, the BDS movement has expanded in reach and popularity, even inciting increased Jewish support. The fact that Jews are protesting the actions of their own state should be an indicator that something is terribly wrong with Israeli policy—a sentiment noted in a recent Globescan/Pipa report (Figure 1). With the state of public outcry, Israel has the potential to be perceived as an Pariah state, which could force it to submit to international calls for drastic policy changes in Palestine. While the BDS movement will not end the Palestinian occupation in Israel, public opinion could—sooner or later—influence shifts in state policy toward Israel. The United States, among other countries and international bodies, could distance themselves from Israel or even implement sanctions against it. For decades, the United States has shown unwavering support and ignored or obscured the dark side of Israel’s policy toward Palestine. The time to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses and to international law has come. Five years ago it would have been unthinkable to refer to Israel in such negative terms. However, the surge in social media as an alternative to major news outlets has blown the long-established portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to bits. Since the start of the conflict on June 6, social media has been dominated by footage of dead and injured Palestinians, including women, children and the elderly. These horrific images have ignited global outrage toward Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) that has manifested itself in the hashtags #GazaUnderAttack and #FreePalestine, as well as massive protests across Europe and the United States, Israel’s biggest ally. As it stands, the Palestinian death toll has reached 1,938, which Gaza hospital officials have said is comprised of mainly civilians. This has shocked many in comparison to the sixty-seven Israeli casualties—sixty-four soldiers, two civilians, and one foreign national. As the world becomes increasingly receptive to the Palestinian plight, it is likely that mounting tensions could grow large enough to delegitimize Israeli policy in Gaza and the West Bank. While Europe, outside of Germany, is historically less aligned with Israel, the typically strong U.S.-Israeli relations are becoming more complicated as the Obama administration’s ties to the Netanyahu government sour. The frustrations between the two heads of states are old news, however, since Netanyahu’s 2010 defiance of U.S. demands to freeze new settlements in the West Bank, and Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran. Operation Protective Edge, however, has intensified the strain after anonymous Israeli attacks against U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the July 30 IDF strike of a UN school in Gaza were met with fierce backlash from the State Department, referring to the events as “offensive” and “disgraceful.” In response, the White House and State Department have tightened the reins on weapons transfers and are blocking certain missile shipments to Israel. As the conversation about injustices of the Palestinian occupation has become more mainstream and American youth increasingly support Palestine, it is clear that Israel—outside of Congress—is no longer the consensus issue it once was. Today, protests against Israel’s discriminatory laws and policies, and the intrinsic humanitarian issues tied to Zionism, are a regular occurrence. After stating their desire to become a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Palestinian political leaders from Hamas and the Fatah party, now have an unprecedented chance to demand an investigation into possible war crimes perpetrated by the IDF in Gaza since 2012. “Israel,” stated Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, “has left us with no other option.” Since their recognition in 2012 by the UN as a sovereign state with nonmember observer status, Palestine now has a greater chance of being accepted to the ICC provided it signs and ratifies the Rome Statute. The Palestinian Authority has asked Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to sign the document as well, and both organizations are expected to do so. Should this happen and public opinion continues to wane, Israel may find itself feeling the added pressure of the global shift in sympathies to make real changes to its policies and actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Responding to the same pressure, the United States may eventually concede to distancing itself politically and economically from its old ally.

Blog Post by Guest Blogger for Micah Zenko August 15, 2014 Politics, Power, and Preventive Action
Israel

UN Quiz: Who’s the Prime Minister of Israel?

Despite the criticism of the UN’s Goldstone Report, including by Goldstone himself, the UN seems determined to do it again. Goldstone investigated "Operation Cast Lead," the war between Israel and Hamas in December 2008 and January 2009, or more precisely he ignored Hamas and investigated Israel. Now the UN Human Rights Council has appointed a commission to investigate the current conflict, and once again Israel alone is to be the target. There will be no investigation of the rocket and mortars fired at Israel by Hamas, nothing about the purpose of the terror tunnels dug by Hamas into Israel, nothing about human shields, nothing even about Hamas’s use of UN facilities as storage sites and launching pads. This kind of investigation requires the right leader, and the UN appears to have found him: a Canadian law professor named William Schabas. No nonsense about objectivity here: Schabas is on record denouncing Israel repeatedly, as UN Watch has documented. But it gets worse: he is also on record as saying that Prime Minister Netanyahu should be "in the dock" for the crimes Israel committed during Operation Cast Lead. Minor problem: Netanyahu was not in government at the time; Ehud Olmert was prime minister then. Such small details do not apparently trouble Schabas: what’s the difference, prosecute one Israeli or another. His own intense hostility to Netanyahu, also documented by UN Watch, may have led to this little mistake--which shows not only hostility to Israel and Netanyahu but a cavalier attitude toward the facts. All in all, he’s exactly what the UN Human Rights Council is looking for. Canada’s foreign minister John Baird had it right when he tweeted "UN Human Rights Council continues to be a sham for advancing human rights; today’s ann’t for members of its Gaza inquiry reveals its agenda."

Blog Post by Elliott Abrams August 13, 2014 Pressure Points
Middle East and North Africa

Yasser Arafat International Airport

To those unfamiliar with the term, "Yasser Arafat International Airport" must seem like the punch line to some joke about international terrorism. Yet it existed in Gaza, briefly, and President Clinton and Hillary Clinton visited there in 1998 to stand next to Arafat and cut the ribbon opening the facility. These were the years when Clinton viewed Arafat as the key to peace, and invited him to the White House 13 times - more than any other foreign visitor. The airport was destroyed by Israel in 2001 as part of the reaction to the intifada that Arafat launched after he refused Israel’s offer and rebuffed Clinton’s efforts at Camp David. One of the most dangerous, and most absurd, Hamas demands right now is that this airport be reopened. I well recall the Palestinian Authority’s requests to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 that this airport be put back in service. Forget it, she told the Palestinian leadership: countries such as the United States, Switzerland, and the UK have great problems maintaining airport security. No one is going to trust you to maintain security at an international airport. Now that was a conversation with the PA leadership, who were pledged to stop and to fight terrorism. Today the demand for an airfield comes from an international terrorist group, Hamas. If this ludicrous demand were met, Hamas would have the honor of being the first terrorist group with its own airport. Not only Israel but every country should reject this demand out of hand. It should not be on the table for serious discussion. But let’s give credit where it is due. If there were going to be an airport in Gaza, under the control of terrorists, what better name could there possibly be than Yasser Arafat International?

Blog Post by Elliott Abrams August 8, 2014 Pressure Points

Israel

The Gaza Numbers Game: 18% and 14%

Here are a few numbers about Gaza that are not widely known. 18% of the rockets fired by Hamas (by IDF calculations), which is to say about 600 rockets, were fired from schools, hospitals, mosques, and cemeteries. 14% of the rockets fired by Hamas actually fell inside Gaza. That’s more than 450 rockets, and before Israel is blamed for every bit of damage done inside Gaza by rocket fire a calculation must be made of the damage inflicted by Hamas itself. A final number to add: 10. Ten is the number of electricity generators Israel has sent into Gaza as of today. It is also repairing the electricity lines into Gaza, for most of the power to Gaza comes from Israel rather than Egypt. As the attacks on Israel for the humanitarian situation inside Gaza pick up speed, all these numbers should be kept in mind.

Blog Post by Elliott Abrams August 6, 2014 Pressure Points
Israel

Hamas’s War for Cash

Nowadays most of the press takes for granted the demands for a "Marshall Plan" for Gaza, rehabilitation of Gaza, and payment of salaries for civil servants. The humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza are very great, but take another look: it seems this war was started by Hamas because it was short of cash. It’s well known that Iran’s payments to Hamas were diminished or eliminated when Hamas -which is Sunni- sided with the Sunni rebels in Syria against Iran’s ally, the Assad regime, It is also clear that the Egyptian army has taken serious actions to close down the vast network of smuggling tunnels from Gaza into Sinai, which Hamas taxed to produce much of its income. The result was a fiscal disaster for Hamas, visible in the fact that it has been unable to pay salaries to its people. There are a remarkable 43,000 people on the Hamas payroll in Gaza, of whom about 13,000 are men under arms. So what did Hamas do to change this situation? First it tried to get the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to pay the salaries, by entering into a sort of non-party or "technocratic" government with the Fatah party in the PA. This failed: the PA, which is paying its own civil servants in Gaza, refused to take on the additional burden. So Hamas turned to war. That such a war would be a disaster for the people of Gaza, would surely result in hundreds of dead and thousands of wounded, would destroy many homes and public facilities, must have been clear to the Hamas leadership. They had spent years planting their rockets and tunnels in and under hospitals, schools, and homes, which predictably would be hit during the war. No matter. That was a price the people of Gaza would have to pay. And then would come the payments to Hamas. The goal of the war was to shake things up, to get Hamas out of its fiscal crisis, by getting the world, the "international community," to get money moving. Perhaps Qatar would agree to pay those salaries. Perhaps the United States would pressure Egypt and Israel to open more passages more hours, and without undue inspections of what was going through. Perhaps the Americans and the EU and the wealthy Arab oil producers would go for as "Marshall Plan" for Gaza, sending hundreds of millions of dollars. And all the while, Hamas would remain in charge. As Guy Bechor pointed out in Gplanet, it’s as if all the Marshall Plan funding directed at Germany had been sent with the Nazi Party still in charge in Berlin rather than after the destruction of the Nazi regime and while American troops were stationed in Germany. It remains to be seen, of course, how well Hamas’s bet will pay off for Hamas. The price paid by the people of Gaza is enormous, but that was part of Hamas’s goal: no destruction, no reconstruction money to skim. The basic situation remains: every citizen of Gaza is a Hamas hostage. That is not an argument against reconstruction, but it is a reminder that the rules we and other donors set will determine whether most of the money assists people in need, or assists Hamas. One has to doubt, if experience is a guide, that there will be much stomach among donors to set up stiffer procedures so that UNRWA schools do not again become rocket depots; so that the Hamas command center under the Shifa Hospital is destroyed; so that the dual use items that may enter Gaza are tracked from entry to use and diversion of goods like cement is prevented. But given the Egyptian, Saudi, and Emirati attitude toward Hamas, maybe this time it could be different; maybe tough American leadership could with Arab support demand that Hamas lose its bet. Maybe, that is, it is possible to help the people of Gaza without enriching the terrorists who use them as cannon fodder. That should certainly be a key goal of the United States when the "reconstruction of Gaza" hits the international agenda.

Blog Post by Elliott Abrams August 5, 2014 Pressure Points
Israel

The Israel-Gaza Crisis: Three Things to Know

The violence in Gaza is likely to continue until a third party brokers a deal that allows both Israel and Hamas to claim successes as a result of the bloodshed, says CFR’s Robert Danin.

Explainer Video with Robert Danin August 4, 2014
United States

This Week: Israel-Hamas Fighting Intensifies and Islamists capture Benghazi

Significant Developments Israel-Hamas. The Israeli government ordered the call up of 16,000 additional reserve soldiers today in the fourth week of Hamas-Israeli fighting in Gaza. A joint Fatah-Hamas delegation reportedly arrived in Cairo this morning to discuss possible cease-fire agreements with Egyptian officials. A small Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo yesterday for similar discussions. So far, some 1,360 Palestinians and 59 Israelis have died as a result of Hamas-Israel fighting which shows no sign of abating. For more on the Obama administration and the Gaza crisis, see the U.S. Foreign Policy section below. Libya. Ansar al-Sharia, Libya’s Islamist militia group, announced that it had captured Benghazi last night and declared an “Islamic Emirate” there. Khalifa Hiftar, the former army general who earlier this year launched a campaign to clear the city of Islamist militants, denied the claims. A coalition of Islamist fighters and rebel militiamen seized the Libyan army’s main base in Benghazi on Tuesday, following a fight that killed at least 30 and led Libyan special forces to flee the camp. Militias fighting for control of Tripoli’s airport yesterday agreed to a two-hour ceasefire to allow firefighters to quell the growing blaze at a nearby fuel depot. Two fuel tankers at the depot had been hit over the weekend. French, British, German, and American nationals were evacuated from Libya this week while thousands of Libyans fled to neighboring Tunisia amid the intensified fighting. U.S. Foreign Policy Israel. The White House today condemned the recent shelling of a UN school in Gaza, calling it "totally unacceptable and totally indefensible." White House officials said that there was little doubt that Israeli artillery had hit the United Nations school in Gaza that killed 16 Palestinians and injured many more. The United States also condemned those responsible for hiding weapons in UN facilities in Gaza. President Barack Obama called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and, according to the White House readout of the call, “made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement.” The call also followed strong U.S.-Israeli recriminations over Secretary of State Kerry’s draft peace proposal last week. Meanwhile, the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. Defense Department resupplied Israel’s stock of ammunition from its War Reserve Stockpile in Israel. On Sunday, the United States backed a UN Security Council presidential statement calling for an “immediate and unconditional cease-fire.” Syria. Moner Mohammad Abusalha, the American who carried out a suicide bombing in Syria in May, returned to the United States after training with the al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Nusra Front, the New York Times reported today. A video released on Monday by al-Nusra shows Abusalha declaring “You think that you killed Osama bin Laden. You did nothing. You sent him to [heaven].” U.S. and European officials expressed concern about the training and possible return home of thousands of their radicalized citizens from Syria. Human Rights Watch accused the Syrian regime yesterday of continuing to indiscriminately target civilians with high explosive barrel bombs. In February, the UN Security Council passed a resolution in February ordering all parties to halt the use of such explosives. Meanwhile, the Islamic Front claimed responsibility for bombings in Aleppo tunnels on Tuesday night that killed at least 13 government soldiers. While We Were Looking Elsewhere Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced plans yesterday to allocate $858 million to aid Iraqi citizens internally displaced by the offensive waged by the Islamic State. Pentagon officials yesterday confirmed approval of a $700 million deal to send an additional 5,000 Hellfire missiles to Iraq to help the government fight the insurgency. Meanwhile, Maliki’s own party, Dawa, began discussions on possible alternative ministers on Sunday, after issuing a statement on Saturday urging politicians not to cling to their offices. Yemen. Protests broke out in Yemen yesterday following the government’s announcement of a decision to raise fuel prices. The move to ease energy related government subsidies came in response to IMF pressure in loan discussions. Yemen reportedly spent about $3 billion on energy subsidies last year, nearly a third of state revenue. Tunisia. Defense Ministry officials confirmed yesterday the resignation of General Mohammed Salah al-Hamedi, commander of the army’s land forces. Hamedi submitted his resignation on July 23, less than a week after two attacks by militants on army checkpoints, which killed 15 soldiers. The Tunisian military has been fighting al-Qaeda linked militants in the country for months.

Blog Post by Robert Danin July 31, 2014 Middle East Matters
Israel

Salvaging Abbas

This article was originally published here on TimesOfIsrael.com on Tuesday, July 29, 2014. Almost from the start of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, the commentariat has been seized with the idea of “empowering [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas” as the only way out of the recurrent violence between Israel and Hamas. The discovery of this idea in Washington (and Jerusalem for that matter) is rather odd, not because it does not make sense, but rather because the idea is so reasonable and obvious that one wonders why — ten years after he became the Palestinian leader — it took so long to recognize it. Almost from the moment of Yasser Arafat’s death, Egypt sent high-level emissaries to the United States, warning that the new Palestinian president needed help lest he gradually cede the political arena to Hamas. He did not get it then and now it is likely too late to salvage Abbas. The only ways the Palestinian president has been able to keep his opponents at bay are through a corrupt patronage network, which ties West Bankers to the Palestinian Authority, and an American and Canadian trained security force that keeps Hamas down. He desperately needs both because Abbas has largely lost what is arguably the most important battle with his adversaries — the one over narratives. The Palestinian leader, who emerged after the death and destruction of the second intifada, surveyed the wreckage and asked how Palestinians had advanced their cause through violence. He counseled that suicide bombings and other kinds of attacks on Israelis did quite the opposite from their intended goal, compelling the Israelis to counter violence with violence and dig in deeper on Palestinian land. Continue reading here...

Blog Post by Steven A. Cook July 29, 2014 From the Potomac to the Euphrates
Israel

Weekend Reading: Gaza

Eitan Chitayat on being under fire in Tel Aviv. Rami Almeghari on being under fire in Gaza. Gaza and the Israeli coast from outer space.

Blog Post by Steven A. Cook July 25, 2014 From the Potomac to the Euphrates
United States

This Week: Hamas-Israel Fighting Escalates and Iraq’s New President

Significant Developments Gaza-Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry has drafted a new cease-fire proposal which has been presented to Israel and Hamas. Kerry, due to leave Cairo on Friday for Washington, is reportedly waiting to hear Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal’s response to the proposal from the Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers. While Kerry and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon have been shuttling around the Middle East in search of a cease-fire, the prospects for an immediate halt to the fighting in Gaza do not appear imminent. Kerry returned to Cairo yesterday evening after meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Following Kerry’s departure, the Israeli security cabinet met to discuss the possibility of expanding the ground operation in Gaza. Ban Ki-moon, while in Israel, called for an immediate end to the hostilities on both sides. Meanwhile, Meshaal said today that Hamas would only agree to a cease-fire if Israel were to end its siege on Gaza. Abbas gave a speech on Tuesday supporting Hamas’s cease-fire demands, an apparent move from his earlier support for an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that was rejected by Hamas. Ban also condemned an Israeli attack on an UNRWA school and shelter in Gaza today which killed 15 and wounded 200 others, including UN staff. The IDF said that its soldiers were fired at from the school prior to their attack on it. During a special session of the UN Human Rights Council yesterday, Chief Navi Pillay criticized the conduct of Hamas and Israel in the recent fighting. The council voted to establish a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza. The death toll has exceeded 770 on the Palestinian side, with 32 Israeli military fatalities. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration last night announced the end of to a 48-hour ban on flights to Tel Aviv that was strongly opposed by Israeli officials. Iraq. The parliament in Baghdad elected Fouad Massoum, co-founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, president of Iraq today after the five main Kurdish blocs settled on a presidential candidate late last night. According to the constitution, Iraqi lawmakers now have fifteen days to select a new prime minister. Violence continued today as 17 Iraqis were killed in two suicide bombings in Baghdad and a separate attack on a prison bus en route to the capital killed 61—nine policemen and 52 prisoners. Meanwhile, thousands of Christians fled Mosul this week as jihadists confiscated homes and took over churches. The exodus comes after ISIS called for the execution of Mosul’s Christians if they refused to convert to Islam or pay a religious tax. Many Christians have found refuge in Kurdish-controlled Irbil. UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, speaking at a news conference in Baghdad today, expressed concern over Iraq’s “existential threat” and urged politicians to form an inclusive government. Ban then met with Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in Najaf. The visit to Iraq is the latest in the secretary general’s regional tour: earlier this week, Ban traveled to Egypt and Israel, and is slated to continue on to Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. U.S. Foreign Policy Iraq. In a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing yesterday, Brett McGurk, deputy assistant secretary of state, said that the Islamic State is a “full-blown army,” not just a terrorist organization, and that it is worse than al-Qaeda.Pentagon officials said that the number of U.S. military personnel on the ground in Iraq has increased to 825, including 90 advisors who are assessing the capabilities of Iraqi forces. Iran. The P5+1 countries and Iran announced early Saturday that negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program will be extended for four additional months. The extension was announced one day before the original July 20 negotiating deadline. With the extension, Iran is expected to gain access to $2.8 billion in assets previously frozen in the United States. However, Secretary of State John Kerry said that sanctions against oil sales and other major sources of income will not be lifted. The new deadline for completion of a comprehensive agreement is November 24. While We Were Looking Elsewhere Syria. Fighting intensified in Damascus this week. On Tuesday, eastern Damascus witnessed the worst clashes in months between rebels and pro-regime forces, one day after rebels began to push ISIS militants out of southern Damascus in an effort to expel them from their strongholds. Seven hundred Syrians were killed over a 48-hour period last week in clashes between ISIS militants and pro-government forces in what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called the deadliest fighting in Syria since the civil war began in 2011. Libya. The Higher National Elections Commission announced Monday the results of Libya’s June parliamentary elections, indicating a dip in support for the country’s Islamist forces. Meanwhile, nine people were killed in Benghazi yesterday evening in clashes between Islamist militants and government forces, capping a week of some of the fiercest fighting in Benghazi and Tripoli since 2011. The fighting around the Tripoli airport damaged a fuel tanker yesterday in a development expected to exacerbate fuel shortages in the city. Kuwait. In its latest move to quell dissent, Kuwait’s cabinet announced Monday its decision to strip five opposition figures of their citizenship. The figures include the owner of a pro-opposition newspaper and satellite channel, and a former lawmaker and member of the opposition along with three members of his family. The move comes weeks after thousands of people took to the street to protest a court decision to hold prominent opposition leader and former parliament member Musallam al-Barrak for questioning for insulting the judiciary. Tunisia. Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa’s office announced Sunday its decision to shut down all mosques in the country not under control of the government authorities. The move came after alleged mosque celebrations following the killing of fourteen soldiers last week. Saudi Arabia. Regulatory officials announced Tuesday that Saudi Arabia will open its $530 billion stock market toforeign investors in 2015. The move is designed to attract investment for a large scale infrastructure and employment initiative designed to benefit Saudi citizens.

Blog Post by Robert Danin July 24, 2014 Middle East Matters
Middle East and North Africa

Gaza: the EU’s Split Personality and America’s Failed UN Human Rights Council Experiment

In the course of the Gaza war, several key European leaders have made tough, sensible statements supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and demanding a cease fire that does not give in to Hamas demands. Chancellor Merkel said Germany “stand[s] by the side of Israel" and noted that the weapons used by Hamas were of “a completely new quality.” French President Hollande said Israel had the right to use "all the necessary measures" to protect itself from rockets and missiles. Britain’s new Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said “Everybody in the UK and the west is appalled by the scenes coming out of Gaza but every country has the right to defend itself against attack.” But that is only half the story. Not one of those three countries could bring itself to vote against a foul and vicious resolution in the UN Human Rights Council this week. Every single European country that is a Council member abstained: Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom. The resolution included this language: Noting the systematic failure by Israel to carry out genuine investigations in an impartial, independent, prompt and effective way, as required by international law, on violence and offences carried out against Palestinians by the occupying forces and settlers and to establish judicial accountability over its military actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Deploring the massive Israeli military operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, since 13 June 2014, which have involved disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks and resulted in grave violations of the human rights of the Palestinian civilian population, including through the most recent Israeli military assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, the latest in a series of military aggressions by Israel, Condemns in the strongest terms the widespread, systematic and gross violations of international human rights and fundamental freedoms arising from the Israeli military operations carried out in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 13 June 2014, particularly the latest Israeli military assault in the occupied Gaza Strip, by air, land and sea, which has involved disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks, Calls for an immediate cessation of Israeli military assaults throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and an end to attacks against all civilians, including Israeli civilians; Decides to urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry, to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council, to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014.... Well, you get the idea: this is a biased, one-sided, mendacious resolution. The word "Hamas" is not mentioned. The firing of thousands of rockets into Israel is not mentioned. The massive system of attack tunnels through which Hamas terrorists have entered Israel is not mentioned. The fact that Hamas hides weapons in U.N. schools is not mentioned. So Western democracies should not have abstained; they should have called this resolution the offensive and useless piece of work that it is. They apparently tried to "improve" the text so that they could vote for it, but when that failed they chickened out. Having worked in those UN precincts for many years, it seems obvious to me that one reason the EU can so rarely persuade the Arab group to amend its drafts enough to be acceptable is that the Arabs know the EU will never oppose them. It should be obvious that only a series of "No" votes will move the Arabs, but the EU does not dare. Instead it takes a position where moral clarity is absent and the UN Human Rights Council becomes as biased and as worthless as its predecessor, the UN Human Rights Commission, which was finally shut down in 2006. It should be clear that the Council is no better. In 2008, the Bush administration abandoned observer status at the Council, with the State Department spokesman accurately calling it "pathetic" and "almost solely focused on bashing Israel." Unfortunately the Obama administration quickly joined up again in 2009, with the excuse that American participation would so obviously change things. Call it an experiment. Has it worked? In this vote on the Gaza resolution, the United States was again completely isolated in voting "No." The Council has since its creation in 2007 passed 50 resolutions against Israel, almost exactly the same number it has passed about every other human rights issue in every other country in the entire world, so it is no improvement on its predecessor. The United States erred in joining up in 2009, and the returns are in. The experiment failed. Until the Council stops its biased and one-sided actions, and stops throwing fuel on the flames in the Middle East, we should disengage. Council members such as China, Cuba, and Russia (yes, all three are amazingly enough members of the Human Rights Council!) will not recognize moral clarity, but very many Americans will.

Blog Post by Elliott Abrams July 24, 2014 Pressure Points
Israel

The Last Great Myth About Egypt

This article was originally published here on ForeignPolicy.com on Monday, July 21, 2014. In the 1970s, Henry Kissinger fell in love with Anwar Sadat. To Kissinger, the Egyptian president "had the wisdom and courage of the statesman and occasionally the insight of the prophet." It was from this romance that a set of ideas about Egypt became inculcated in American Middle East policy: Egypt would be a bulwark against the Soviet Union, a base from which U.S. forces would launch in the event of a crisis in the Persian Gulf, and a mediator between Arabs -- especially the Palestinians -- and Israelis. Of these, only the last remains relevant to contemporary U.S. policy. It is, however, nothing more than a myth that American officials and analysts tell each other. Kissinger’s hagiography of Sadat notwithstanding, the Egyptians have never been the effective, impartial negotiators that Americans expect them to be. As Israel’s "Operation Protective Edge" nears its second week, with hundreds of lives lost, what are the Egyptians up to? They’re doing pretty much what they always do -- looking out for themselves. For all the dramatic changes in Egypt since Hosni Mubarak’s fall, the Egyptian military and intelligence services view Gaza in much the same way they have for the better part of the previous decade or more. They want to keep the Palestinians, especially Hamas, in a box, prevent the conflict from destabilizing the Sinai Peninsula, ensure that the Gaza Strip remains principally an Israeli responsibility, and exclude other regional players from a role in Gaza. Continue reading here...

Blog Post by Steven A. Cook July 22, 2014 From the Potomac to the Euphrates