NOTES
FROM JERUSALEM AND FROM OTHERS JULY 20, 2018…
Haniyeh accepts Egypt's proposal for
Fatah talks
By Khaled Abu Toameh
The Jerusalem Post, Page 2
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told the
head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Force, Abbas Kamel, on Thursday that his
organization has accepted Cairo’s latest proposal for ending its dispute with
the rival Fatah faction.
However, it remained unclear whether
Fatah had also accepted the Egyptian initiative.
In their phone call, Haniyeh and Kamel
discussed developments affecting the Palestinian cause, Hamas-Fatah
reconciliation and various humanitarian projects for the residents of the Gaza
Strip, according to a statement released by the Hamas leader’s office.
“Haniyeh affirmed to the Egyptian
official Hamas’s agreement to the Egyptian proposal, which was presented to the
Hamas delegation that visited Cairo last week,” the statement said. “This
proposal was the fruit of a thorough dialogue, and Hamas’s endorsement of it
came out of consideration for the exceptional circumstances in the Palestinian
arena and the dangerous targeting of our cause, especially with regards to the
issues of refugees and Jerusalem.”
Palestinians slam Nation-State Law as
'racism, apartheid'
By Khaled Abu Toameh
The Jerusalem Post, Page 4
The Palestinians strongly condemned the
Jewish Nation- State Law that was approved by the Knesset on Thursday, dubbing
it a “racist and apartheid law.”
The Palestinians also called on the UN
General Assembly to reinstate the “Zionism is racism” resolution that was
adopted in 1975 but repealed in 1991.
The Palestinian Authority said in a
statement that the new law “paved the way for ethnic cleansing and was a
declaration of war on all Palestinians.”
A statement released by the PA
Information Ministry in Ramallah said the Nation-State Law was also a
declaration of war on the Palestinians’ land, rights, identity, and language.”
The new law, the ministry charged,
“unleashes the arm of terrorism and racism” and provides justification for
harming the status of the Arab citizens of Israel.
Palestinians say newly passed Jewish
state law ‘legalizes apartheid’
By Adam Rasgon
The Times of Israel
Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
panned a new Israeli Basic Law on Thursday that enshrines Israel as the
national home of the Jewish people, contending that it “legalizes apartheid.”
Early Thursday morning, the Knesset
passed the law, which has been dubbed “the nation-state Law,” with 62 lawmakers
voting in favor, 55 opposed and two abstaining, after hours of heated debate in
the Knesset chamber.
“The ‘Jewish Nation-State’ [law]
officially legalizes apartheid and legally defines Israel as an apartheid
system,” Erekat tweeted from the PLO Negotiation Affairs Department account.
“[It is] a dangerous and racist law par excellence. It denies the Arab citizens
their right to self-determination to instead be determined by the Jewish
population.”
Similar to a constitution, the Basic
Laws underpin Israel’s legal system and are more difficult to repeal than
regular laws.
The nation-state law declares that
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, sets the Hebrew calendar as the official
calendar of the state, and recognizes Independence Day, days of remembrance and
Jewish holidays. One clause of the law downgrades the Arabic language from
official to “special” standing, but also cryptically stipulates that “this
clause does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before this law
came into effect.”
Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the Hamas
terror group, also blasted the law, contending that it officially legalizes
“Israeli racism” and constitutes “a dangerous attack on the Palestinian
[people] and its historic right to its land.”
Barhoum also asserted that the Knesset
would not have passed the law, as well as others that he identified as
“extremist,” without what he called “regional and international silence on the
occupation’s crimes.”
Liberman, IDF assess situation in the
South
By Anna Ahronheim
The Jerusalem Post, Page 4
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and
top security officials met late Thursday to assess the situation in the South
after a Hamas projectile struck southern Israel.
Attending were the IDF chief of staff,
the head of military intelligence, the commanders of the Southern Command and
Central Command, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories
(COGAT) and members of the Shin Bet.
Four Code Red incoming rocket sirens
wailed in the Eshkol Regional Council Thursday, sending thousands of Israelis
to bomb shelters. One mortar shell fell next to a cowshed. No injuries or
damage were reported. The sirens were activated shortly after two mortar shells
were fired at IDF troops near the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip. No
casualties were reported in either incident.
Hamas fired the projectiles after an
Israeli air strike killed Abdul-Karim Radwan, 38, near Rafah as he was
launching incendiary aerial devices. Three other Hamas operatives were wounded
in the IAF strike. An IDF tank responded by shelling a Hamas observation post
east of Rafah.
Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din
al-Qassam Brigades, said that the IDF strike was “a shameful and stupid crime,
the enemy bears all responsibility. He will pay the price for his blood. Eye
for an eye. A tooth under a tooth.”
Russia concerned about Israel-Iran
confrontation
By Anna Ahronheim
The Jerusalem Post, Page 3
Moscow seeks to prevent a military
escalation between Iran and Israel, the Kremlin’s ambassador to Iran Levan
Dzhagaryan said in an interview with the Russian daily Kommersant on Wednesday.
“Sometimes conflicts do arise, and we
are naturally concerned about the possibility of military confrontation between
the Iranian and Israeli forces in Syria. We do everything possible to prevent
it. To prevent the escalation of the conflict,” he said.
Iran is a “friendly country” and “one of
our key partners” which cooperates with Russia in “various spheres” including
ending the seven-year-old civil war in Syria, Dzhagaryan said. Iran’s presence
in the war-torn country is legitimate because it was invited by the regime of
Syrian President Bashar Assad, he added.
“Iran is not a country that you can put
pressure on. This is a big state, pursuing an independent foreign policy. Work
with Iranians can only be a method of persuasion,” Dzhagaryan noted.
Tensions between the two foes has risen
in recent months and Jerusalem has repeatedly said it would not allow Iran to
set up a permanent presence in Syria.
US to attempt rescue of trapped Syrian
White Helmets at Golan border
By AP
The Times of Israel website
WASHINGTON – US officials say the United
States is finalizing plans to evacuate several hundred Syrian civil defense
workers and their families from southwest Syria as Russian-backed government forces
close in on the area.
Two officials familiar with the plans
said Thursday that the US, Britain and Canada are spearheading the evacuation
that would transport members of the White Helmets group to transit camps in
neighboring countries.
From there, they will be sent to third
countries, including Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and possibly Canada,
according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
It was not immediately clear if Israel
had any role in the operation. The IDF maintains its side of the Quneitra
crossing, and has used it to transfer supplies to refugees as well as to
evacuate wounded Syrians for medical care.
The officials, and a member of the White
Helmets who is due to be evacuated from Quneitra province, said the operation
appears to be imminent as the Syrian army continues to gain ground in its
latest offensive.
The White Helmets, who have enjoyed
backing from the US and other Western nations for years, are likely to be
targeted by Syrian forces as they retake control of the southwest, according to
the officials.
The officials said planning for the
evacuation has been taking place for some time but accelerated after last
week’s NATO summit in Brussels.
“These are hard hours and minutes,” the
White Helmets volunteer in Quneitra said, speaking on condition of anonymity
for fear for his life. “This is the worst day of my life. I hope they rescue us
before it is too late.”
The evacuation is expected to take place
from Quneitra, which straddles the frontier with the Golan Heights and where
the civil defense team is trapped. It is the last sliver of land still outside
government control in the region.
Since the government offensive began in
June, the area along the frontier with the Golan Heights has been the safest in
the southwestern region, attracting hundreds of displaced people because is
along the disengagement line with Israel demarcated in 1974 after the Yom
Kippur War. The Syrian government is unlikely to fire there or carry out
airstrikes.
On Tuesday, approximately 200 Syrians
who were displaced by the recent onslaught approached the Israeli border, some
of them waving white flags, in an apparent effort to get assistance from the
Jewish state. Israel has refused to accept any refugees, including those
seeking transfer to a third country.Soldiers used bullhorns to tell them to
back away from the fence.
Rivlin thanks Orban for his stand
against anti-Semitism in Hungary
By Greer Fay Cashman
The Jerusalem Post, Page 7
As a Jewish and democratic state, Israel
is responsible not only for her own citizens but for all the Jews in the world,
President Reuven Rivlin told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday.
In an effusive greeting to Orban and his
entourage during which he twice welcomed them to Israel’s capital Jerusalem,
Rivlin said that because Israel is far away from many Jewish communities it
appreciates the positive attitudes of foreign governments. In this context he
was particularly appreciative of the attitude of the Hungarian government and
Orban as its leader.
He congratulated Orban on his recent
reelection, hailing him as a great leader of his people both in the government
and the opposition.
Quoting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
Rivlin said that politics is like a wheel: sometimes you are up and sometimes
you are down, but the important thing is to stay on the wheel.
Rivlin expressed concern over rising
anti-Semitism, saying neo-fascism is a danger not only to the Jewish people but
to the whole world.
Rivlin noted the expansion of bilateral
relations in the fields of security, cyber technology and innovation coupled
with government to government meetings on different levels.
