hz, Author at Netzach Yisrael

State Dept.: Trump adviser Jason Greenblatt is on ‘listening’ tour of Israel, West Bank

hzMarch 14, 2017March 14, 2017News

JTA

Jason Greenblatt, left, meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Jerusalem, March 13, 2017.

Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s adviser on international relations, is touring Israel and the Palestinian areas to gauge attitudes to peacemaking and there will likely not be any developments from the trip, a Trump administration spokesman said.

“He’s really there to listen to both sides and how they perceive getting to a peace process,” Mark Toner, the State Department spokesman, said Monday in the daily briefing for reporters. “I don’t expect any big developments out of this trip.”

Trump has expressed an eagerness to bring about a peace deal while retreating from 15 years of U.S. policy backing a two-state outcome to the peace process.

On Friday, Trump spoke on the phone with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, and the White House readout of the call sounded bullish on the prospects for peace.

“The President emphasized his personal belief that peace is possible and that the time has come to make a deal,” the readout said. “The President noted that such a deal would not only give Israelis and Palestinians the peace and security they deserve, but that it would reverberate positively throughout the region and the world.”

hzMarch 13, 2017March 14, 2017News

Times of Israel

The scene of a stabbing attack

Two Border Police officers were moderately wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem in the early hours of Monday morning, police said.

The assailant was shot and critically wounded during the attack. He later died of his injuries.

The stabbing occurred shortly after 4:00 a.m. near the Lions’ Gate in the Old City.

According to police, the assailant entered a guard booth where the two officers were stationed, holding a large butcher’s knife. Inside the cramped post, he began stabbing and hitting them.

Trump’s Middle East diplomacy is complicated by Palestinian terror incitement

hzMarch 12, 2017March 12, 2017Articles, News

Washington Post

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)

By Josh Rogin: The Trump administration’s budding efforts to establish a new Middle East diplomatic process are about to run into some stiff headwinds at home. Many in Congress want to cancel all U.S. aid to the Palestinians because of payments made to militants who attack Israelis. President Trump will soon have to decide if confronting the Palestinians on that terrorist incitement is more urgent than pursuing a pathway to peace.

Trump conducted his first phone call with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, and White House Israel affairs adviser Jason Greenblatt is headed to the region this week. On Greenblatt’s agenda will be whether the U.S. and Israeli governments should raise the pressure on the Palestinian Authority to stop paying the families of Palestinians imprisoned or killed after attacking Israeli or American civilians, a practice both governments believe incentivizes violence.

hzMarch 12, 2017March 12, 2017News

Algemeiner

Photo: StandWithUs.

For the third time in two years, students at Ohio State University (OSU) rejected a motion to divest from companies that engage in business with Israel.

The result of the vote on the resolution, placed on the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) ballot last week and announced Thursday evening, was 4,084: 3,841.”

hzMarch 12, 2017March 12, 2017News

Agemeiner

A monument in a Ramallah square dedicated to the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi

As part of an ongoing investigation, a British daily revealed on Sunday that 24 Palestinian Authority schools are openly ignoring Western demands to cease encouraging violence against Israelis — or else forfeit foreign aid.

According to the Daily Mail, despite public outrage over the UK government’s payments to the PA as part of a commitment to spend £12 billion on foreign aid – following an expose by the paper last year about how taxpayers’ money was going toward paying salaries to convicted terrorists and families of suicide bombers — the schools in question have been continuing to incite students to terrorism through text books and classroom indoctrination.

hzMarch 12, 2017March 12, 2017News

Aljazeera

Daqamseh seen in a file photo

A Jordanian soldier who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997 was released after serving 20 years in prison.

Ahmed Daqamseh was given a rousing welcome in his home village in northern Jordan after being freed on Sunday. He expressed no remorse for the killings.

Daqamseh was greeted by chanting supporters who kissed him on the cheek and raised a photo of him with the caption, “Welcome to the hero Daqamseh.”

hzMarch 12, 2017March 12, 2017News

JTA

PA President Mahmoud Abbas

President Donald Trump invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House.

Abbas and Trump spoke on Friday and a Palestinian Authority spokesman soon after reported the invitation, saying the meeting would be aimed at reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been dormant since 2014.

Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, confirmed the invitation later Friday but did not add details.

hzMarch 12, 2017News

Times of Israel

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meets with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in London,

Britain will reportedly seek to bolster economic ties with Israel following the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union last year.
Israel and Britain will set up a working group to negotiate trade deals between the two countries, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday.
According to the report, a team of two to four officials from each country will meet by the end of March, and the group is expected to continue meeting two or three times a year to hammer out economic agreements.

hzMarch 10, 2017March 10, 2017News

Naharnet

Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres denounced in a periodic report on the implementation of resolution 1701, the recent statements made by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah against Israel, rejecting “deterrence” justifications which “increases the risk of tension and could lead to renewed war,” An Nahar daily reported on Friday.

The report encouraged President Michel Aoun to resume national dialogue among political parties until a defense strategy is agreed to remove weaponry from Hizbullah and other armed groups, according to the daily.

The report, which consists of 91 paragraphs and prepared by the Special Coordinator for the United Nations in Lebanon Sigrid Kaag citing a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, is the first for Guterres since he took office on the first of January.

In the report, Guterres welcomed the “institutional and political progress” made in recent months in Lebanon, saying it “represents an opportunity to further strengthen the Lebanese state’s authority and expand it.” Nevertheless it added that “Retention of arms by Hizbullah and other groups undermines the state’s authority and contradicts with the duties of the country under resolutions 1559 and 1701.”

hzMarch 10, 2017News

Washington Post

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Moscow on Thursday seeking reassurance from Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country’s presence in Syria would help Israel block arch-nemesis Iran from taking advantage of the chaos to position itself permanently on Israel’s northern border.

Until now, the Israeli government has stayed relatively quiet about developments in the six-year-old conflict raging in neighboring Syria, acting militarily only when it feels its security threatened. But now, as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad receives a boost from the strategic alliance between Russia and Iran, Tehran’s expanding influence across the region is causing alarm in Israel.

At the start of his meeting with Putin, Netanyahu noted the significant progress made by Russia and other players in the region in fighting Islamist militant groups, including the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. He added, however, that “the victory over the terrorism of ISIS cannot lead to an upsurge in terrorism by Iran and its proxies. We will not exchange terrorism for terrorism.” ISIS is an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.

State Dept.: Trump adviser Jason Greenblatt is on ‘listening’ tour of Israel, West Bank

2 police officers hurt in Jerusalem stabbing attack; assailant killed

Trump’s Middle East diplomacy is complicated by Palestinian terror incitement

For Third Time in Two Years, Ohio State Students Reject Anti-Israel Divestment Motion

Report: 24 Palestinian Authority Schools Funded by UK, EU Ignore Aid Conditions, Continue to Indoctrinate Students to Commit Violence Against Israelis

Ahmad Daqamseh freed after killing Israeli schoolgirls

Trump invites Abbas to the White House

Britain looks to strengthen trade ties with Israel post-Brexit

UN Report Says Escalated Hizbullah Rhetoric Increases War Risk with Israel

Netanyahu urges Putin to block Iranian power corridor on Israel’s border