Labels: Camp David II, Danny Ayalon, intifadeh, Middle East peace process, Palestinian suicide bombers, Palestinian terrorism, Palestinian terrorists
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:44 PM
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Since writing an article in the Observer urging the New York Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the UJA-Federation to refuse the New Israel Fund (NIF) participation to the annual “Celebrate Israel Parade,” I have been inundated with calls and e-mails from people supporting – and attacking – my position.
So much panic has been caused that Israel’s Former Ambassador Danny Ayalon – who was aware of and supported my position before I wrote of it – received calls in the last 48 hours from Michael Miller, the head of the JCRC; Eric Goldstein, President of UJA; and Jerry Levin, UJA’s past President pressuring him to silence the voices condemning the NIF. They have a Monday meeting set to discuss this issue.
Clearly, mass concern remains over the parade’s decision on allowing the the participation of the extremist New Israel Fund (NIF), a group that hurts the Jewish State, funds legal efforts that seek to place the rights of the terrorists over victims who were killed while praying in Jerusalem, and has called Israel “racist” and “murderous.”
In response to my op-ed, the JCRC crafted a statement, which reads “JCRC-NY has for years required that all Parade groups must identify with Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. This year, JCRC-NY, for clarification purposes, added a new rule that ‘all groups must oppose, not fund, nor advocate for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel, which seeks to delegitimize the State of Israel by not recognizing it as a Jewish state.”
However the JCRC will not address the fact that on NIF’s own website the group clearly supports BDS. Even though the NIF states that it ” will not fund global BDS activities against Israel” a paragraph later it apologizes for exactly those activities, stating “NIF will thus not exclude support for organizations that discourage the purchase of goods or use of services from settlements.”
...
Instead of owning up to their mistake, the JCRC is digging its heels in and calling in favors to quiet pressure. Wealthy donors and Jewish leaders have called on former Israeli Ambassador Danny Ayalon to try and stop those of us nay-sayers. Ayalon is active against NIF, yet they have summoned him for a Monday meeting to appeal to his sense of the “importance of the parade.”
This is not an issue of the right versus the left; it is an issue of the right versus the wrong.
In private appeals, the most senior executives from these Jewish organizations, whom I know and like personally, talk about their families in Israel, their love for Israel, and of course, how long and hard they have worked for the Jewish people. They had a prominent JCRC board member and professional colleague ask me to stop writing. While many of these people tell me privately they abhor NIF, they will not speak out publicly.The Talmud says that every generation gets the leadership that it deserves - for better or for worse. Clearly, we have some soul-searching to do about why we have merited such gutless 'Jewish leaders.'
Labels: American Jewish leadership, BDS, Danny Ayalon, JCC Watch, Manhattan JCC, New York City, Salute to Israel Day Parade
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:51 PM
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Labels: Danny Ayalon, Israel, United Nations
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:13 PM
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Labels: Danny Ayalon, Israel is a Jewish state, Judea and Samaria, Palestine, Palestinians, settlements are legal
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:28 PM
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Labels: Christmas, Danny Ayalon, Jesus, Palestinian propaganda
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:04 PM
1 comments
A great deal was at stake for Liberman and the Israeli political establishment in the outcome of the legal saga.
Had he been convicted with a finding of moral turpitude, his resignation as foreign minister would have been made permanent, he would have been forced to resign from the Knesset, and he would have been banned from political life for seven years.
The prosecution’s main allegations were as follows: First, in October 2008, Ambassador to Belarus Ze’ev Ben-Aryeh gave Liberman a note with information about a state investigation into money-laundering allegations against him, discussing the case with him for three to five minutes.'
Next, the prosecution said, Liberman destroyed the note, failed to report Ben-Aryeh and then helped him procure promotions in the Foreign Ministry.
After that, Ben-Aryeh joined Liberman’s bureau in April 2009.
The prosecution said that Liberman both failed to report Ben-Aryeh to the Foreign Ministry’s appointments committee and actively campaigned in fall 2009 for Ben-Aryeh to be appointed as Latvian ambassador.
According to the prosecution, the campaign included Liberman giving instructions to then-deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon saying that Ben-Aryeh was his preferred candidate (all of this based on what Ayalon told police).
In a 115 page opinion, Judges Hagit Mack-Kalmanovitz, Yitzhak Shimoni and Eitan Kornhauser ruled Wednesday that Ben-Aryeh had been solely responsible for initiating and surprising Liberman during the incident, who had no part in initiating the exchange between them.
The court also held that Liberman did not know, regardless of whether he and Ben-Aryeh spoke about the note for a few minutes, that the source of the note was an Israeli Justice Ministry investigation against him.
...
The court did find that Liberman "acted inappropriately" but added that "the gravity of the conflict of interest" did not merit a conviction.
The judges strongly rejected the testimony of Ayalon, stating that it was contradicted by other top Foreign Ministry officials.
They also wrote that Ayalon had not sufficiently explained how he swiftly went from defending Liberman's innocence in an interview with Channel 1 while still working for Liberman, to suddenly proclaiming his guilt shortly after Liberman booted him out of Yisrael Beytenu.Two things not mentioned here. First, the possibility of this verdict leading to the breakup of Likud Beiteinu. Liberman may not need Netanyahu politically, is opposed to the 'peace process' and is unlikely to want to be in a coalition with Tzipi Livni. He's certainly not going to go along with the idea of Livni being in charge of 'negotiations' with the 'Palestinians' while he is foreign minister in title only.
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Binyamin Netanyahu, Danny Ayalon, government corruption, Likud party, Tzipi Livni, Yisrael Beiteinu
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:21 PM
2 comments
A short time after the programs were aired, Ayalon denied in a written statement that he was even questioned by police, and Liberman maintained his innocence on all charges.
What gives these reports a soap-opera feel is that earlier this month Liberman, in a complete surprise, left Ayalon off his party’s list of candidates for the next Knesset as part of the merged Likud- Beytenu list. According to the Channel 2 report, the Yisrael Beytenu party leader is expected to try to defend himself by saying Ayalon was taking revenge.
Liberman is also expected, according to Channel 2, to point to an earlier interview by Ayalon in which he supposedly said he did not remember the events surrounding the allegations against Liberman.
The prosecution and the police both refused to confirm or deny whether Ayalon was recently questioned.
According to the broadcasts, the deputy foreign minister was questioned only recently about the affair, which until then had only involved allegations that former ambassador Ze’ev Ben- Aryeh leaked investigative material to Liberman, after which Liberman passively withheld information on this from a Foreign Ministry committee that was considering Ben-Aryeh for a new posting in Latvia.
The new allegations against Liberman, which started to surface last week, are that he did not just passively withhold information, but actively interfered in the appointment process on Ben-Aryeh’s behalf.
The reports also said that 10 candidates originally had sought the Latvia position, but most dropped out when promised other promotions – possibly by Liberman through other Foreign Ministry officials speaking on his behalf.
Other media reports have alleged that Liberman concealed negative reports about Ben-Aryeh from the appointments committee. Yediot Aharonot quoted sources who said that “the influence of Liberman” was pervasive throughout the process.
Liberman maintains that Ben-Aryeh was an able diplomat who was well-suited for the job.But the State Prosecutor's office (surprise) doesn't exactly have clean hands either.
Also on Monday, the State Comptroller’s Office formally confirmed that it had received requests to investigate Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein’s handling of the Liberman case.
Liberman and many other politicians have questioned Weinstein’s decision to delay an indictment so he could investigate the new charges after the attorney-general announced he would file the indictment last week, and after Liberman had already resigned as foreign minister.
A spokeswoman for the YAHBAL serious and international crimes unit, which investigated the Liberman case, on Monday refused to explain why the case was reopened – when just last week she had said the unit considered the matter closed.
She added that the case was, from the unit’s point of view, complete, and as it had been handed over to the prosecutor, it was his office that was responsible for providing answers about the recent developments.
Media reports indicated that there may have been disagreements between the prosecution and the police about reopening the case for more questioning, but it is Weinstein who ultimately will make the final decision.
On Sunday, the state explained its decision to reopen the case for further questioning based on a Channel 10 news report from last week indicating that the fraud allegations against Liberman could be amended to include active fraud instead of mere passive fraud.
One ministry source said that while it was not unusual for foreign ministers to indicate their preferences for ministerial posts, what made this case different was the allegation that Liberman received something from Ben-Aryeh beforehand. Furthermore, the source said, Ben-Aryeh did not distinguish himself as a diplomat worthy of such a posting after having just recently returned from Belarus.The level of corruption in this country is worthy of a third world banana republic despite the fact that we supposedly have so many safeguards in place. It's blatant, open and shameless (see "Olmert, Ehud"). And it's all an outgrowth of the days when the state was the party and the party was the state and all the animals were equal except for the ones who were more equal. Will we ever root out this country's socialist past? Don't bet on it.
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, corruption, Danny Ayalon, government corruption, Yehuda Weinstein, Yisrael Beiteinu
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:54 AM
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Both Channel 2 and Channel 10 confirmed Monday night media reports from previous days that Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is a main source of new and more serious accusations against Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman in the indictment against him in the Belarus Ambassador Affair, which could lead to new charges of active fraud.
Ayalon's reported statements would also contradict Liberman's story that he took no active role in the affair, though Ayalon has denied that he was even questioned, and Liberman has maintained his innocence on all charges.
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The new allegations against Liberman, which started to surface last week, are that Liberman actively interfered in the appointment process on Ben-Aryeh's behalf.
The new allegations, which the reports said stem primarily from Ayalon, who was head of the appointments committee and involved in the proceedings, would move the charges from the realm of passive fraud to active fraud, with potentially more serious applicable punishments and political consequences.
The Channel 10 report added that several other witnesses from the appointments committee confirm and strengthen Ayalon's statements regarding Liberman's alleged conduct.
Channel 2 reported that Liberman will be re-questioned this coming weekend regarding Ayalon's new allegations.
Liberman is expected to try to defend against Ayalon's statements by saying that it is just Ayalon taking revenge against him for recently being left off Yisrael Beytenu's list for the next Knesset, Channel 2 said.Holy....
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Danny Ayalon, Yisrael Beiteinu
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:13 AM
1 comments
The deputy foreign minister was seen as having played a substantive role in Jerusalem’s deteriorating ties with Ankara, after he attempted to publicly shame Turkey’s ambassador to Israel by making him sit on a low chair, without displaying a Turkish flag in the room, during a meeting in which he rebuked the ambassador for an anti-Israel television series screened in Turkey.The problem with this theory is that Lieberman is not a huge fan of Turkey, and has said that apologizing to Turkey would be an admission of guilt.
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According to the report in the Russian news outlet Vestnik Kavkaza, which cited an unnamed senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Liberman is looking for a way to normalize ties, and Ayalon’s sacking is seen as a message to Ankara that Israel is serious about taking steps to that end.
The report, confirmed by senior Foreign Ministry officials, claimed Lieberman was infuriated with Ayalon over the meeting, in part because Lieberman himself does not have a good working relationship with Clinton.
Ayalon reportedly met several times with Clinton in an attempt to maintain proper foreign policy conduct between the countries. Ayalon was responsible for Israel's strategic relations with the U.S. and was in constant contact with Clinton's deputy throughout his term of office.
His regular meetings with Clinton were kept secret from Lieberman, in accordance with an agreement between Ayalon and Clinton. According to the report, when Lieberman found out about the meetings, he fired Ayalon.
My own view is that Lieberman never liked Ayalon and felt that as long as Ayalon was there, there was no chance that Lieberman would get credit for anything at the Foreign Ministry. Now, Lieberman (thinks he) doesn't need Ayalon to be his understudy anymore.
Lieberman and Clinton met several times during their terms in office but the frequency of their meetings was much lower than those of past foreign ministers of both countries....Close advisers of Ayalon confirmed the report, but an official statement by the Foreign Ministry said, "The allegations are childish and groundless, but we shouldn't judge someone in their hour of despair."
Meanwhile, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein is expected to announce on Monday or Tuesday the closure of the main criminal case against Lieberman involving fraud allegations.
Well, yeah, once there are no criminal charges, Lieberman doesn't need Ayalon to take his place if he's forced to resign (even temporarily) from the Foreign Ministry. But the issue that was lurking four years ago remains: Is Lieberman capable of being foreign minister? Clinton and Obama weren't even willing to give him a chance.Lieberman has been under investigation for 14 years on suspicion that he received millions of dollars from private businesspeople abroad, among them Austrian entrepreneur Martin Schlaff, Uzbek-Israeli businessman Michael Cherney, and diamond tycoons Dan Gertler and Daniel Gittenstein, who allegedly funneled funds through what may have been front companies and corporations owned by Lieberman.
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Danny Ayalon, Hillary Clinton, Turkey, Yisrael Beiteinu
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:38 PM
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Ayalon responded to his having been left off the Yisrael Beytenu list, saying he would continue to work to advance Israel's interests.
"Today I received from the chairman of Yisrael Beytenu, Avigdor Liberman, the announcement that I would not be on the Yisrael Beytenu list for the next Knesset," Ayalon wrote on his Facebook page.
"In the past four years I was able to serve as Israel's deputy foreign minster during a complicated and challenging time...I will continue to work for the prosperity and strengthening of Israel in the diplomatic, security and economic arenas," Ayalon stated.
He added that he would continue to work hard in his current role until the end of his term.But why? Why would the number 2 person in Yisrael Beiteinu be unceremoniously dumped? (The party has no primary so this was clearly a decision of Avigdor Lieberman). Here's some speculation.
Israeli political consultant Jonny Daniels told The Algemeiner that the move was political. “Basically Ayalon doesn’t bring any seats to LBet (Lieberman’s party Likud Beiteinu). He was a token Israeli that added to them. Now Lieberman with Bibi has enough people that have good English and can appeal to that crowd,” he said.
But there may have been a personal aspect as well says Daniels, “It’s also a known fact that Lieberman and Ayalon didn’t get on that well.”I'd bet on the second explanation. Ayalon was put into the foreign ministry as Lieberman's deputy (usually deputies don't come from the same party) for three reasons. First, Lieberman's English was not regarded as top notch while Ayalon as a former Ambassador to the US speaks English fluently. Lieberman's English has improved.
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Binyamin Netanyahu, Danny Ayalon, Likud party, Yisrael Beiteinu
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:35 PM
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Senior Israeli political officials are bracing for the results of the US presidential elections as many estimate that the elected president will affect the 2013 Knesset elections.
In light of Benjamin Netanyahu's support for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, the prime minister's associates fear that US President Barack Obama may take revenge against him if re-elected and support his political rivals.
Obama's aides accuse Netanyahu of blatantly intervening in the US election campaign. In the third and final debate between Obama and Romney, the president teased the Republican candidate for visiting Israel in order to raise funds.
Romney, on his part, has promised to make Israel his first destination as president if elected.
State officials in Jerusalem estimate that Obama's anger at Netanyahu is so intense that the president, if re-elected, will try to indirectly – and perhaps even directly – sabotage the prime minister's election campaign.What could go wrong?
The prime minister's aides fear that Obama will publicly criticize Netanyahu's policy and embarrass him during the election campaign. In addition, the US president may stop automatically backing Israel in international forums over its policy in the territories.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said in a closed forum that she believes that the Israeli elections will create an opportunity to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Clinton also said that the Obama administration would become more involved in the Middle East conflict if re-elected for a second term.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Danny Ayalon
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:17 PM
1 comments
Israel is indifferent to the outcome of the US presidential election as the Jewish state will continue to enjoy bipartisan American support irrespective of who wins, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told Israel Radio Tuesday morning.
Responding to whether the government believed that a potentially re-empowered US President Barack Obama would apply pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians, Ayalon stressed that "Israel does not need any pressure in order to make peace or to reach diplomatic agreements."Someone please tell me that the foreign ministry isn't dumb enough to believe this crap.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Danny Ayalon, Mitt Romney, US-Israel relationship
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:22 PM
1 comments
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with the Ministry of Pensioners Affairs and the World Jewish Congress, will hold the first international conference to highlight the issue of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries Monday at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem.You may recall that last year, Ayalon made a video entitled The Truth about Refugees.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon will speak about a plan of action to make the issue prominent in the international arena, including placing it on the United Nations' agenda and passing resolutions in parliaments around the world.
Parliamentarians and experts from around the world will participate, providing insight into the issue and discussing how to put the plan into action. The participants will also meet some of the Jews expelled or forced out from Arab countries, who will tell their stories.
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The campaign's Facebook page features personal stories of Israelis from Arab countries who were expelled from their homes and their countries, usually after their property was confiscated and their rights were taken from them by the rulers.
Labels: Danny Ayalon, Jewish refugees
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:19 PM
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A mosque was vandalized overnight and the media and the politicians are rushing to blame the revenants, with one government minister going so far as to call it 'terrorism.' "Price tag" assailants burned a mosque in Jab'a village, near Ramallah sometime overnight Monday, police said Tuesday.Except, of course, that there is no proof that the 'settlers' did it, nor has there been proof in the past that most of these attacks were carried out by 'settlers.' In fact, at least one such attack was proven to have been carried out by Muslims. But now that JPost has morphed into Haaretz lite, anything is possible.
The attackers also sprayed graffiti on the mosque, including the words "Ulpana war," indicating that this was a price tag attack- an act of violence by right-wing activists against Arabs aimed at deterring Israeli leadership from acting against the settlement enterprise.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, calling the assailants "intolerant and irresponsible lawbreakers" and said they would be brought to justice.Terrorism? Really? How many people were killed? None. How many were wounded? None. So where is the terrorism? If this were an act of terrorism, they would have come to the mosque while it was full of people and opened fire with machine guns. That would be an act of terrorism.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak strongly also spoke out against the attack, calling it a "criminal act" and promising a swift response by the IDF.
"This is a grave and criminal act meant to destroy the social fabric in the region and distract the IDF from its missions, which include protecting Israeli citizens in the region," Barak said. "I have instructed the IDF and security forces to act with all available means in order to capture the perpetrators and to bring them to justice."
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called the graffiti an act of "terror," adding that such activities harm not only Israel but also the settlement enterprise.
"Just yesterday I said at a Hasbara conference that price tag attacks are illegal, immoral, and gravely undermine the image of Israel and the settlement enterprise under the gaze of the international community," Ayalon wrote on his Facebook page. "And here, this morning, we hear about another price tag attack."
"We must not allow such acts of terrorism to continue," he said.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Danny Ayalon, Ehud Barak, mosque, vandalism
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:13 AM
4 comments
Give a lot of credit to the families of the eleven Israelis who were murdered at the Munich Olympics 40 years ago: They still have not given up on getting the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have a moment of silence in London this summer in memory of their loved ones. Unfortunately, they have now encountered a new obstacle: Alex Giladi, Israel's own representative to the IOC (link in Hebrew).Labels: Danny Ayalon, London Olympics, Munich Olympic massacre
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:13 PM
2 comments
40 years ago, at the Games of the 20th Olympiad in Munich, an Olympics that was supposed to 'make up' for Hitler's 1936 Olympics, 11 Israeli athletes were murdered. I grew up with this stuff, but I'm sure that many of you did not.Today (Thursday , May 17, 2012), Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon responded to the letter he received from International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge rejecting his request to hold a minute silence in memory of the members of the Israeli Olympic team murdered at the MunichMaybe one of the reasons they don't want to hold a moment of silence is that the 'Palestinian' Olympic team is being sponsored by the same man who sponsored the Munich Olympic Massacre, Abu Mazen. They also may not want to remind anyone that the same Abu Mazen eulogized the massacre's mastermind.
Olympics in 1972 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/munich.html
during the upcoming London Olympic Games.
“Unfortunately, this response is unacceptable as it rejects the central principles of global fraternity on which the Olympic ideal is supposed to rest,” Ayalon said. “The terrorist murders of the Israeli athletes were not just an attack on people because of their nationality and religion; it was an attack on the Olympic Games and the international community. Thus it is necessary for the Olympic Games as a whole to commemorate this event in the open rather than only in a side event.”
IOC President Rogge’s reply was in response to Ayalon’s letter, sent a few weeks ago, requesting the minute silence on behalf of representatives of the families, Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano, the widows of two of the murdered athletes.
“This rejection told us as Israelis that this tragedy is yours alone and not a tragedy within the family of nations. This is a very disappointing approach and we hope that this decision will be overturned so the international community as one can remember, reflect and learn the appropriate lesson from this dark stain on Olympic history.”
Ayalon passed Rogge's response to the athletes families, including Spitzer and Romano who advocated for the minute silence. Ayalon told them that the Ministry will in the coming weeks launch a campaign that it is hoped will reverse the decision.
Labels: Abu Mazen, Danny Ayalon, financiing terror, Munich Olympic massacre
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:49 PM
1 comments
I have pointed out many times that much of the Foreign Ministry bureaucracy is left over from the days when the Ministry was under Leftist control. Unfortunately, Foreign Minister Lieberman seems more interested in trying to destroy yeshivoth by drafting every last yeshiva student than he is in cleaning house in his own ministry, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is tone deaf to what's going on out in the field (see below). Or perhaps, the Foreign Minister shares at least one goal with J Street, as we will see below.J Street’s Philadelphia-based affiliate announced today that Daniel Kutner, the Consul General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States, would participate in a “Future of Pro Israel” rally in Philadelphia intended to foster support for J Street’s political agenda.Now, you might be wondering why an Israeli diplomat is attending an American political rally that clearly supports one party's agenda. The response from Israel's Foreign Ministry is the usual: Yihye b'seder (it'll be okay).
“This election year, we’re not going to sit on the sidelines while those who claim to be pro-Israel advocate for policies that harm it. We’re not going to watch as the window for a two-state solution closes,” states the email announcing Kutner’s participation. “As one J Street leader in Chicago put it, we’re going to go from ‘house to house, from synagogue to synagogue, from congressional district to congressional district and we’re going to make our voices heard.’”
The event is scheduled to take place this evening at Philadelphia’s Jewish Community Services Building, though J Street noted that the city’s organized Jewish community did not explicitly endorse, sponsor, or support the event.
J Street chastises conservative pro-Israel advocates, including Irving Moskowitz and William Kristol, in promotions for the event. The group accuses such individuals of “turning Israel into a partisan wedge issue with no regard for the actual impact on the future peace and security of the country and its neighbors.”
“We should all be deeply concerned that a handful of far-right funders and groups like Bill Kristol’s Emergency Campaign for Israel [sic] are turning Israel into a partisan wedge issue with no regard for the actual impact on the future peace and security of the country and its neighbors,” states another J Street email blast touting similar events to the one scheduled to take place in Philadelphia.
J Street’s Philadelphia affiliate bills itself as an explicitly political organization, raising questions about Kutner’s stance on the American elections. The event is billed under the guise of J Street’s “Future of Pro-Israel” movement, which is operated by the organization’s lobbying arm, which is registered as a 501(c)(4).I wonder why all those Jewish organizations who objected to Sarah Palin speaking a rally against Iranian nuclear weapons four years ago aren't shouting about this. Is it not political enough? Oh wait - it was J Street that decided that Palin couldn't speak, wasn't it?
A spokesperson for the Embassy of Israel did not immediately return a request seeking clarification on Kutner’s participation.
However, an email obtained by the Free Beacon indicates that Kutner’s office sees nothing wrong with the event.
“After looking into this issue, the Consul General was invited to an advocacy event and not a political one,” a spokesperson for Israeli Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon wrote to Lori Lowenthal Marcus, a pro-Israel advocate, when asked about the event. “There for [sic] he has received all the relevant approvals.”
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Danny Ayalon, Israel's Foreign Ministry, J Street
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:49 PM
4 comments
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has told Reuters that a compromise that allows Iran to enrich uranium would be worse than no deal. "The fact we hear some rumours about compromise, about meeting them halfway here and there, I think is very, very dangerous," Ayalon told Reuters in a small conference room in Israel's parliament that, to double as a wartime shelter, had been fitted with an industrial air filter and blast-proof walls.Netanyahu did not need a 94-seat government to attack Iran - he could have done it with his existing government. On the other hand, before the 1967 War, there was a national unity government, and in 1973, Menachem Begin agreed not to criticize Golda Meir's handling of the Yom Kippur War while it was going on.
Allowing Iran to keep enriching and stockpiling uranium could enable Tehran to opt for a bomb "in very short order", he said, adding that those projects were already "accelerating".
Israel's Iran timelines have often been more urgent than those of its Western allies. But with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now saying the Iranians are just months away from fortifying their nuclear sites against air strikes, fears of an imminent new Middle East conflict have surged abroad.
Netanyahu's alliance with centrist opposition leader Shaul Mofaz on Tuesday appeared to buttress Israel further for war. Yet Iran strategy did not feature in the two leaders' coalition negotiations, a senior official told Reuters, adding that Israel potentially had until 2013 to decide how to tackle its arch-foe.
In Israel a day after Netanyahu dropped his political bombshell, Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign affairs chief and senior liaison for the six world powers in talks with Tehran, briefed the prime minister about the nuclear negotiations.
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Ayalon, a former ambassador to Washington who belongs to Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party in Netanyahu's government, declined to be drawn on whether Israel might defy the misgivings of the United States and other powers by attacking Iran unilaterally.
"I don't want to lock ourselves to anything," he said, adding: "Certainly we are not a part to any of these agreements (between world powers and Iran) and I think we have all the rights to be concerned based on the threats coming from Tehran."
Iran "can be stopped" if subjected to more aggressive diplomacy, including sanctions on its oil and banks, Ayalon said.
"Of course there is a bad taste in that they dictate(d) the venue," he said, referring to discussion over Baghdad hosting this month's talks after the first, April 14 round in Istanbul. "That's not something we should all be proud of. We don't think Iran is in a position to negotiate at all."
He cited U.S. findings that the Iranians lost $60 billion since July due to tightening sanctions, and noted their decision to back down after a bout of naval brinkmanship with the U.S. Navy in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in December and January.
"If its oil exports are reduced by only 40 percent ... then their economy is ground to a halt and things will evolve very radically from there," Ayalon said.
"There is a lot of spin and a lot of psychological warfare, but Iran is a very vulnerable country ... We do know that the ayatollahs, as fanatic and dangerous as they are, are not irrational when it comes to their own political survival."
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Danny Ayalon, Iranian nuclear threat
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:08 PM
0 comments
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Wednesday, February 22. 1) The flying elephant in the room
Thomas Friedman writes in Egypt's step backward:Amazing. What Abul Naga is saying to all those young Egyptians who marched, protested and died in Tahrir Square in order to gain a voice in their own future is: “You were just the instruments of the C.I.A., the U.S. Congress, Israel and the Jewish lobby. They are the real forces behind the Egyptian revolution — not brave Egyptians with a will of their own.”There's something missing in all this. One group has come to the defense of the old regime, threatening to reconsider the Camp David Accords, if the United States (justifiably) cuts its aid to Egypt. That is the Muslim Brotherhood, as David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times reported last week:
Not surprisingly, some members of the U.S. Congress are talking about cutting off the $1.3 billion in aid the U.S. gives Egypt’s army if these Americans are actually thrown in prison. Hold off on that. We have to be patient and see this for what, one hopes, it really is: Fayza’s last dance. It is elements of the old regime playing the last cards they have to both undermine the true democratic forces in Egypt and to save themselves by posing as protectors of Egypt’s honor.
Egyptians deserve better than this crowd, which is squandering Egypt’s dwindling resources at a critical time and diverting attention from the real challenge facing the country: giving Egypt’s young people what they so clearly hunger for — a real voice in their own future and the educational tools they need to succeed in the modern world. That’s where lasting dignity comes from.The Islamist party that leads the new Egyptian Parliament is threatening to review the 1979 peace treaty with Israel if the United States cuts off aid to the country over a crackdown on American-backed nonprofit groups here.Why wouldn't Friedman mention that the Muslim Brotherhood is in cahoots with Mubarak's old cronies?
The pact is considered a linchpin of regional stability, and the statements, from at least two senior leaders of the party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, represent the first time that Egyptians have explicitly raised it during an escalating standoff over the crackdown.
Nearly two months ago, Friedman wrote Watching elephants fly:To not be worried about the theocratic, antipluralistic, anti-women’s-rights, xenophobic strands in these Islamist parties is to be recklessly naïve. But to assume that the Islamists will not be impacted, or moderated, by the responsibilities of power, by the contending new power centers here and by the priority of the public for jobs and clean government is to miss the dynamism of Egyptian politics today.The blind optimism of the column was readily apparent at the time. Now, the Muslim Brotherhood shows its true colors and Friedman doesn't acknowledge his mistake; he just ignores it and assumes that no one will remember what he wrote just a few weeks ago.
2) Naqba denier
The Atlantic once was a highly thought of publication. Now seemingly anyone can write for it with no requirement of being truthful. Leila Hilal wrote Israeli Leader Wrongly Blames UN and Arab States for Palestinian Refugees and claims:Ayalon is a former Israeli ambassador to the United States and currently a Knesset member representing Yisrael Beitenieu, an ultra-nationalist party that advocates the transfer of Palestinian citizens of Israel as part of a political settlement. An avid user of social media -- recognized by Foreign Policy in their who's who of 100 Tweeters in 2011 -- he maintains a personal website in Hebrew and English, including links to his widely viewed and frequently reposted Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts. The refugee video alone garnered 37,000 hits within the first two weeks of its release, and currently has over 140,000 views. Ayalon reportedly plans to promote the clips, available in eight languages, globally for use in regular school curricula. The deputy foreign minister has particularly strong appeal among some Christian evangelicals and conservative members of U.S. Congress, with whom he and his party have long cultivated ties and to whom much of his communications appears geared. In short, his effort to influence the narrative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can have consequences.To call Yisrael Beiteinu an ultra-nationalist party "that advocates transfer of Palestinian citizens of Israel," is deceptive. In its own website, the party describes its policy like this:The responsibility for primarily Arab areas such as Umm Al-Fahm and the “triangle” will be transferred to the Palestinian Authority. In parallel, Israel will officially annex Jewish areas in Judea and Samaria. Israel is our home; Palestine is theirs.That is unclear, however the Jewish Virtual Library explains further:Yisrael Beiteinu is in favor of a peace settlement with the Palestinians but advocates replacing the land-for-peace approach with a mutual exchange of territories and populations under the principle of peace for peace, land for land. The party's manifesto states that "The end result [of a peace settlement with the Palestinians] must not be a state and a half for Palestinians and half a state for the Jews… It would be unjustifiable to create a Palestinian state that would exclude Jews while Israel became a bi-national state with an Arab minority of more than 20 percent of its citizens." The party states that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel.In other words, both Jews and Arabs who find themselves on the wrong side of the border will be transferred. Only half of that equation is objectionable to Hilal. Of course as we saw at Yamit and Gaza, Israel has transferred Jews in the name of peace.
I suppose there's a little truth in this argument:In criticizing UNRWA, Ayalon ignores the fact that the agency is not mandated to find solutions for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's authority, given to it by the UN General Assembly, is limited to providing humanitarian and development assistance. It is true that UNRWA has delivered this assistance for multiple decades, but it is precisely because of UNRWA's role that the refugees have been able to achieve varied degrees of normalization pending a political resolution of their rights. It is for this reason that the Israeli government annually supports the renewal of the agency's mandate at the UN and has opposed the cutting of aid to its general fund.No UNRWA is not mandated to find solutions for Palestinian refugees, it is, however, designed to perpetuate them. As Asaf Romirowsky and Jonathan Spyer observed in 2007:
In the video, Ayalon implicitly portrays UNRWA as a resource drain compared to UNHCR -- again ignoring their differences. As a direct service provider for millions of beneficiaries, UNRWA needs staff and money to fulfill its internationally mandated role. UNHCR, on the other hand, typically contracts out service provision for refugees or negotiates socio-economic access with hosting governments. (Frequently unsuccessful in this endeavor, many refugees under UNHCR's authority face extremely dire circumstances, exacerbating protracted conflicts.)Instead, UNRWA finds a hundred and one ways to perpetuate Palestinian dependency. The interests of the refugees and UNRWA are fatally intertwined; UNRWA is staffed mainly by local Palestinians — more than 23,000 of them — with only about 100 international United Nations professionals. Tellingly, while the U.N. High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) avoid employing locals who are also recipients of agency services, UNRWA does not make this distinction. Terrorism does not exclude one from being a part of UNRWA. In fact, quite the opposite is true: UNRWA-overseen hospitals and clinics routinely employ members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Employing Palestinians for decade after decade and providing them with subsistence-level food aid and rudimentary education are a far cry from giving them usable skills and a positive attitude about creating their own independent economy and viable civic institutions.More recently, Daniel Pipes added:These changes had dramatic results. In contrast to all other refugee populations, which diminish in number as people settle down or die, the Palestine refugee population has grown over time. UNRWA acknowledges this bizarre phenomenon: "When the Agency started working in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, 5 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services." Further, according to James G. Lindsay, a former UNRWA general counsel, under UNRWA's definition, that 5 million figure represents only half of those potentially eligible for Palestine refugee status.Hilal also writes:
In other words, rather than diminish 5-fold over six decades, UNRWA has the population of refugees increase almost 7-fold. That number could grow faster yet due to the growing sentiment that female refugees should also pass on their refugee status. Even when, in about 40 years, the last actual refugee from mandatory Palestine dies, pseudo-refugees will continue to proliferate. Thus is the "Palestine refugee" status set to swell indefinitely. Put differently, as Steven J. Rosen of the Middle East Forum notes, "given UNRWA's standards, eventually all humans will be Palestine refugees."Ayalon's claim that Arab states deny refugees basic rights as demographic warfare against the Jewish state is also out of context. All Arab refugee-hosting countries endorsed the Arab Peace Initiative (API) in 2002 and again in 2007. The API contains an implicit compromise proposal to implement the right of return in a manner sensitive to Israel's demographic interests following Israeli recognition of international principles. As political landscapes shift in the Middle East, so may Arab foreign policies. Ayalon, however, relies on archaic public statements from former pan-Arabist Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser and long-passed UNRWA commissioners. Rather than quoting Arab leaders in 1969 or UN officials from the 1950s, Israeli officials should be honest about where the political conflict on the refugee question lies today.Hilal apparently realizes the weakness of her argument when she writes that the Arab Peace Initiative contains "an implicit compromise" with Israel. There is nothing explicit about the API except for Israel's obligations. In short it is a recipe for the Arab League to keep changing its demands of Israel in return for ill defined promises. Furthermore, anyone who reads MEMRI knows that the official anti-Israel vitriol of the Arab world is not a thing of the past.
Finally we get to the most offensive part of Hilal's argument:
This leads to the other major assertion advanced in the clip equating Jewish and Palestinian refugees. In 2008, American historian Michael Fischbach published a ground-breaking study on Jewish Property Claims against Arab Governments. Fischbach mined American, Israeli, and British archives to understand the circumstances surrounding the movement of 800,000 Jews from Arab countries across the Middle East and North Africa over a 20-year period following Israel's establishment. His research revealed that Jews left Arab countries for a variety of reasons, with many leaving behind valuable assets that in some cases were seized by Arab governments. Ayalon reminds us of these claims but wrongly suggests that they fit within the rubric of Palestinian-Israeli relations. Jewish property claims should be resolved as a matter of priority, but bi-laterally with responsible Arab governments and according to the same universal norms applicable to Palestinians.
Funny, earlier, when it suited her, Hilal acknowledged the "archaic public statements" of Arab leaders, but she ignores it in this case: On May 16, 1948, a New York Times Headline read “Jews in Grave Danger in all Muslim Lands: Nine Hundred Thousand in Africa and Asia face wrath of their foes.“ The story reported of a law drafted by the Arab League Political Committee “which was intended to govern the legal status of Jewish residents of Arab League countries. Their bank accounts would be frozen and used to finance resistance to 'Zionist ambitions in Palestine.' Jews believed to be active Zionists would be interned and their assets confiscated.“ Pogroms and persecutions, and grave fears for their future, regularly preceded the mass expulsions and exoduses of the Jews, whose ancestors had inhabited these regions from time immemorial. Beginning in 1948, more than 650,000 Jews left their homes in the Arab world to become refugees, and were eventually integrated into Israel, even as the country was being threatened with annihilation by neighboring Arab League states. Since their belongings were confiscated as the price of leaving from their repressive homelands, they arrived in Israel penniless, but they were welcomed and quickly absorbed into Israeli society. Approximately 300,000 more Jews found refuge, and a new homeland, in Europe and the Americas.
In a sense, then, Hilal ignores the Nakba. The Jewish one. If her misstatements and misdirections were not enough, she leaves us with one last one:Ayalon argues in his video that the Palestinian refugees were encouraged to flee by Arab countries, who refused to accept the Jewish state. Though this view is still advanced by Israeli officials, it conflicts with mainstream Israeli understandings. According to a new study from Hebrew University profiled by Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar, "virtually all newspaper articles and research studies from the end of the 1980s to 2004", as well as all history textbooks authorized by the Israel's Ministry of Education since 2000, acknowledge that Palestinian refugees were subject to forcible expulsion. As Eldar noted, "It's a rejection of the [...] narrative that 'there was no expulsion in 1948.'"This is not a mainstream view. It is the fashionable view of the anti-Israel left.
In order to set the record straight, Efraim Karsh wrote Palestine Betrayed, reviewed here:Karsh sets the record straight by drawing on Western, United Nations, Israeli, and Soviet documents declassified over the last decade, providing the correct context often missing in the selective focus of the "new historians" and altogether absent in the Palestinian narrative. His detailed examination of the historical records reveals that Israel's establishment was not the main cause of the Palestinian refugee problem and the hardships that the population has faced thereafter. Instead, it was the result of actions taken by the Palestinian Arabs and their leaders.Given the sloppiness of Hilal's article, one wonders what the standards of the Atlantic are now. Or if it has any.
Anger instigated by Arab leaders is the foremost recurring theme in Palestine Betrayed, and Karsh holds the mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin Husseini, responsible for the deterioration of neighborly relations between the Arabs and Jews during the Mandate period, and for the eventual "collapse and dispersion of Palestinian Arab society."
Hajj Amin, known for his pan-Arab ambitions, "viewed the Palestinians not as a distinct people deserving statehood but as an integral part of a single Arab nation"—with himself as leader, and clean of Jews. To this end, Hajj Amin, an admirer and supporter of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, launched a campaign to demolish the Jewish national revival by enraging his constituents with all the anti-Jewish rhetoric he could find, from verses in the Quran to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Labels: Danny Ayalon, Egyptian Revolution, Jewish refugees, Middle East Media Sampler, Muslim Brotherhood, naqba, Palestinian refugees, Palestinian state, Soccer Dad, Tom Friedman, UNRWA
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:12 PM
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Question: I just wanted to ask a question about comments that were made by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Daniel Ayalon, before the Human Rights High Commissioner for Refugees’ ministerial event in Geneva last week. He basically said that the cause of the Palestinian refugee issue was not so much the dispossession of the majority of Palestinians from their homeland by Jewish militias during the 1948 war and refusal of Israel to enable their right to return under resolution 194. He said rather that it was the establishment of UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] which has perpetuated the refugee status by applying unique criteria to it. And I just wonder whether either the Secretary-General or UNRWA has made any response to this statement.I would take that as confirmation of Ayalon's claims. Agreed?
Associate Spokesperson: No. We don’t go into the lengthy history of how the refugee crisis started. As you know, the historians may have differing interpretations of what brought on the refugee crisis. UNRWA, it should be stressed, was established in response to the refugee crisis. And, as you know, the presence of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency throughout the region is designed to deal with the number, the very large number of Palestinian refugees throughout the region. If the situation can be resolved and the situation of the Palestinian refugees can be addressed fairly, then UNRWA’s work will have been done, but at this stage, we are not there. It has a lot of work in a lot of countries with, as you know, tens of thousands of people.
Question: Excuse me, is there no response to the statement by [Deputy] Foreign Minister Ayalon that UNRWA is perpetuating the status of the refugees?
Associate Spokesperson: I wouldn’t react to specific comments. Over the years people have disagreed and have had their own interpretations of…
Question: This is not just a personal comment, this is on the Israeli Government official website, his statement is made. And he is a minister in the Israeli Government.
Associate Spokesperson: Like I said to you just a second ago, the creation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was in response to the refugee crisis. It is there to handle the situation, the very large situation of refugees across the region that had erupted. And its existence over the decades is testament to the fact that, throughout this time, the situation of the Palestinian refugees remains to be resolved. Yes?
Labels: Danny Ayalon, Palestinian refugees, United Nations
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:11 AM
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I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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