Lost Horizon: Jilted Herzog laments Netanyahu's missed opportunity to make peace with Palestinians, mend ties with U.S.

"It's no coincidence that #Sissi spoke as he did. He wanted me in, and not only him."

"I was the down payment that the world demanded Netanyahu pay, as proof of his seriousness ahead of initiating diplomatic negotiations and the convening of a conference."

"I agreed with Bibi [Netanyahu] that once the new administration in the U.S. begins, we'll also get the Defense Ministry so that we could work with the Americans on two fronts – foreign policy and defense."

Isaac Herzog

The Zionist Union chairman tells Haaretz the prime minister promised him the Defense Ministry, as well as a commitment to initiate a push for a peace process, before moving on to propose top position to Lieberman.
 
A day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  offered Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman the defense portfolio in an about-turn on a deal with opposition leader Isaac Herzog, the Zionist Union chairman laments what he views as a missed opportunity on the diplomatic front.

Herzog also disclosed that the prime minister promised him the defense portfolio once a new U.S. president was elected.

Speaking of the planned shift in power in the government, Herzog noted, "We were meant to appoint four of our members to the security-diplomatic cabinet. That would have completely diluted [Habayit Hayehudi chairman and Education Minister Naftali] Bennett. What power would he have had to threaten?"

"Do you know how many times Netanyahu asked to pass mitigating measures in cabinet regarding the #Palestinians, ones that he had committed to, and didn’t do it for his fear of masters Bennett and Elkin?" he asked, referring to Immigrant Absorption Minister Zeev Elkin. "With us on the inside it wouldn’t have happened."

The talks between #Netanyahu and #Herzog centered on four main issues – a diplomatic strategy that included convening a regional conference; an economic-societal agreement including added budgets for weaker segments of society; a commitment to pull back bills emanating an exclusionary and racist odor; and portfolios: the foreign affairs, agriculture, Negev and Galilee development ministries, as well as the cherry on top – the Defense Ministry at the beginning of 2017.  

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Putin Plays Energy Chess with Netanyahu

On April 21 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow for closed door talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The media reported that the talks were over the situation in Syria, a theme where Moscow has made certain a regular hotline dialogue exists to avoid potential military clashes. It seems, however, that the two discussed quite another issue–potential Russian involvement in developing Israel’s giant offshore Leviathan gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean. Were the two to strike a deal, the geopolitical implications could be enormous for Putin and Russia’s strategic role in the Middle East as well as for the future of the US influence in the region.

Israeli press reported the Netanyahu-Putin talks as being about “coordination between forces in skies above war-torn country, status of Golan Heights…”

According to Russian state media reports, however, in addition, Netanyahu and Putin discussed the potential role of Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas producer and marketer, as a possible stakeholder in Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field. Russian involvement in the stalled Israeli gas development would reduce financial risk for Israeli offshore gas operations and increase the gas fields’ security, as Russian allies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or Iran would not dare target Russian joint ventures.

If the Russian reports are accurate, it could portend a major new step in Putin energy geopolitics in the Middle East, one which could give Washington a major defeat in her increasingly inept moves to control the world’s center of oil and gas.

Russian interest

Many outside observers might be surprised that Putin would be in such a dialogue with Netanyahu, a longstanding US ally. There are many factors behind it. One is the leverage Russia’s President has through the presence of more than one million ethnic Russians in Israel, including a cabinet member in Netanyahu’s government. More importantly, since the Obama Administration went ahead, over vehement Netanyahu protests, to sign the nuclear deal with Iran in 2015, relations between Washington and Tel Aviv have chilled to put it mildly.

The situation is being skillfully mined by Putin and Russia.

Washington wants to force a political reconciliation between Netanyahu and Turkey’s Erdogan, including a deal in which Turkey would become a major buyer of Israeli offshore gas, making major purchase agreements from Leviathan. For Washington that would reduce Turkish dependency, today more than 60%, on imports of Russian gas. In return Israel would agree to sell Turkey advanced Israeli military equipment with Washington approval.

However bilateral talks between Turkey and Israel are reportedly stalled over numerous differences. This opens a door for Russia to enter.

Putin invited Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, to Moscow on March 16 for talks following Russia’s surprise decision to pull some of its forces back from Syria. Significantly, the visit was sanctioned by Netanyahu, who often is at personal odds with his President. One purpose was clearly to lay ground for the latest Netanyahu Moscow visit.

Golan, Leviathan, Turkey

What is emerging is a complex realpolitik negotiation between Putin and Netanyahu of the highest geopolitical stakes for the entire Middle East and beyond.

The elements as they now appear include possible Gazprom partnership and investment in the development and marketing of natural gas from Israel’s giant offshore Leviathan gas find. It includes some kind of arrangement between Russia and Israel to guarantee Israeli security from attacks by the Teheran-backed Hezbollah from forces in the Syrian Golan Heights. And it includes a deal in which Israel would walk away from Washington’s desired gas and arms sales to Erdogan’s Turkey, a deal which would weaken Gazprom and any Russian leverage over Turkey.

Israel’s Leviathan

First Leviathan. In late 2010 Israel announced discovery of a massive “super-giant” gas field offshore in what it declares is its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). It’s located in what geologists call the Levant or Levantine Basin. The find is some 84 miles west of the Haifa port and three miles deep. They named it Leviathan after the Biblical sea monster. Three Israeli energy companies, led by Delek Energy, in cooperation with the Houston Texas Noble Energy announced initial estimates that the field contained 16 trillion cubic feet of gas—making it the world’s biggest deep-water gas find in adecade. For the first time since creation of the Israeli state in 1948, the country would be self-sufficient in energy and even in a position to become a major gas exporter.

If we flash forward some five or more years to the present, the world and Israel’s entree as a major energy geopolitical player appear far different. The world prices for oil and natural gas have collapsed dramatically since late 2014 with little sign of serious recovery.

Internal Israeli politics have furthermore blocked the regulatory approval for development of Leviathan. On March 28, Israel’s High Court blocked the Netanyahu government’s proposal to freeze regulation changes in the natural gas industry, threatening to delay the development of offshore fields. The court objected to a proposed “stability” clause, which would have prevented major regulatory changes for 10 years. Lack of an approved government framework has delayed development of Leviathan. Noble and their Israeli partners, Delek Group Ltd. are the two major stakeholders inLeviathan.

What has changed as well since Russia’s earlier foray into Leviathan 2012 is the fact that Netanyahu and the Obama Administration are barely on speaking terms over Iran and numerous other issues. As well, the world oil and gas market is in a depression and Israel could urgently need significant outside investors to develop Leviathan.

As well today the Houston, Texas company, Noble Energy, is feeling the negative impact of the energy price collapse of the past two years in the midst of the worst oil industry depression in years and is discussing sales of its stake in various international projects to weather the storm.

In October 2015, Israeli sources reported that Vladimir Putin had reformulated a proposal for Gazprom participation in Israel’s nascent offshore gas development. According to comments of senior Israeli journalist, Ehud Yaari, Putin had expressed renewed Russian interest in Gazprom’s entering into the Israeli natural gas sector by taking a joint venture share of the huge and costly Leviathan project. Yaari, considered very well-informed in Israeli Middle East politics, also stated that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposed a previous deal 2012 with Gazprom, is now reconsidering his 2012 position.

In 2012 Gazprom had submitted the highest bid to buy a 30% stake in Leviathan. Noble Energy’s Israeli partners in Leviathan, led by Delek Energy, then had decided to bring in a strategic partner because they lack the financial wherewithal, know-how, and connections to fully exploit the reservoir’s potential as quickly as possible.

Cost of developing the gas discovery alone, including building a natural gas liquefaction #LNG plant, was estimated at $10-15 billion. At that time there was a split among the owners of the Leviathan bloc. Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva’s Delek Group were enthusiastic about doing a deal with Gazprom, given their geopolitical power and marketing ability globally. The US-based Noble Energy was opposed, most likely at the urging of Washington. Gazprom lost that one.

In October 2015, a month after initiation of Russia’s military intervention in Syria, Yaari told the Sydney-based newspaper, The Australian, that Putin had recently told Netanyahu, in return for a Leviathan deal, “We will make sure there will be no provocation against the [Israeli] gas fields by Hezbollah or Hamas.” Given Russia’s recent military role in Syria, that was clearly no empty promise.

Turkey and Israel

Another component of a possible Grand Bargain on energy and security guarantees between Russia and Israel would involve an agreement for Israel to end US-backed negotiations with Turkey’s Erdogan in favor of Gazprom investment into Leviathan and Russian security guarantees to Israeli offshore energy projects.

In early March this year, US Vice President Joe Biden, who has an uncanny knack to show up in areas where Washington’s neo-conservatives want special concessions or agreements, showed up in Tel Aviv for a meeting with Netanyahu. In closed door talks between the two, according to Israel’s leading daily, Haaretz, #Biden pressured Netanyahu to strike a deal with Erdogan that would see Israel’s Leviathan gas going to Turkey to replace Gazprom gas. Biden also pressed for Israeli advanced weapons sales to NATO-member Turkey.

Since then, secret talks have been ongoing between Israel and Turkey with no tangible success. Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Ya’alon, speaking on behalf of the Israeli military establishment told Israeli media several times in recent weeks that the #IDF demands, as precondition for any detente between Israel and #Turkey that #Erdogan shut the #Hamas command post in Turkey from which #Israel claims terror activities against Israel were ordered. Turkey has not agreed. The Israeli military establishment reportedly prefers maintaining military cooperation with Russia over that of any deal with the unpredictable Erdogan.

Clearly not by coincidence, only days after the Biden talks with Netanyahu, #Putin extended his invitation, not to Netanyahu directly, but more diplomatically, with Israeli President #Rivlin.

Rivlin was invited to Moscow on the ceremonial pretext of the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries. He acted clearly as a discreet back-channel to prepare the most recent Moscow Putin-Netanyahu talks involving among other items, #Gazprom stakes in #Leviathan and the future of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights where a suspiciously well-connected #US energy company, Genie Energy, whose advisory board includes names such as Dick #Cheney and Lord #Rothschild, claims to have discovered, via their Israeli subsidiary, a huge new #oil find.

Recent efforts by #Netanyahu to get US President #Obama to back a permanent Israeli occupation of the #Golan Heights reportedly fell on deaf ears. 

Netanyahu gets a lesson in the limits of power - Israel News

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.721149

#Netanyahu

#netanyahu   #netanyahurejectsparispeacebid   #parispeacebid   #abbas  

Netanyahu vows that Israel will never give up Golan Heights

“The Golan Heights will always stay in Israeli hands. Israel will never leave the Golan Heights,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his weekly cabinet meeting, held for the first time in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. (Sebastian Scheiner/AP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to the occupied Golan Heights on Sunday to declare that Israel will retain full control of the mountainous plateau forever and will never return the strategic highlands to neighboring Syria.

As talks on the future of Syria are underway in Geneva, Netanyahu convened a symbolic meeting of his cabinet on a mountaintop in the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War.

In a lead-up to the #Geneva talks, representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signaled that they wanted the discussions to include a possible return of the region.

Netanyahu was having none of it.

“The time has come after 40 years for the international community to finally recognize that the Golan Heights will remain forever under Israeli sovereignty,” he said.

Whatever the outcome of the peace talks, he added, “the border will not change.”

Israel fears Russia’s pullout from Syria will leave dangerous void

Israel essentially annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 when it extended Israeli civil law — versus military rule — to the territory.

The international community, including the United States, has never recognized Israel’s annexation of the heights and views the plateau as Syrian territory occupied by Israel.

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said his country would retake the Golan Heights — by force if necessary.

“All options are on the table for getting back the occupied territory from Israel,” Mekdad told the Beirut-based al-Mayadeen news channel, according to a report in the Times of Israel. “We are prepared to do anything in order to return the Golan to the Syrian motherland, including using military force.”

The Associated Press reported that Syria’s Foreign Ministry complained to the #UN Security Council about Netanyahu’s cabinet meeting, calling it “reckless” and “provocative.”

Netanyahu said he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Saturday and asserted that the Golan Heights, as far as Israel is concerned, was not a bargaining chip in the Syria talks.

Netanyahu said he told #Kerry that Israel did not oppose the Syrian peace effort, “on the condition that it does not come at the cost of Israeli security.”

The prime minister said he wanted to see Iran-backed #Hezbollah fighters, who are allied with the #Assad regime, and Islamic State militants, who are fighting government forces, out of Syria.

“I decided to hold this meeting on the Golan Heights to send a clear message,” Netanyahu said as he convened his cabinet meeting, the first held in the region. “The Golan Heights will always stay in Israeli hands. Israel will never leave the Golan Heights.”

The Golan Heights is a bucolic, sparsely populated region known for fine wines, goat cheese and Israeli cowboys. The area contains Israel’s lone ski resort, on the slopes of Mount Hermon. The area is filled with abandoned land mines left behind by the Syrian army.

Many of the #Druze people who lived in the area fled to Syria behind the retreating Syrian army, but a significant number stayed and continue to live in their villages in the highlands.

The civil war in Syria is visible to the naked eye from the Israeli side. Occasionally,,mortar rounds and artillery shells land near Israeli farm towns.

An international force of peacekeepers, overseen by the United Nations, is deployed in a demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel.

Over the years, #Israel has discussed returning the Golan Heights to #Syria, but Israeli leaders say there is no way they will return the land — given the chaos in Syria and the proliferation of Islamist militant groups in the country.

“For the 19 years that the #Golan was under Syrian occupation, it served as a place for bunkers, barbed wires, mines and aggression — it was used for war,” #Netanyahu said. “In the 49 years that the Golan is under Israeli control, it was used for agriculture, tourism, economic initiatives, building — it was used for peace.”

The Netanyahu Doctrine: Road to Peace With Palestinians Through Arab Countries

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaking at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Yerushalayim on Monday. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

YERUSHALAYIM - Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel will make peace with its Arab neighbors and that will lead to peace with the Palestinians, The #Jerusalem Post reported.

“If someone thought earlier that a breakthrough with the Palestinians would lead to improved relations with the #Arab world for us, the opposite is happening and will continue to happen,” Netanyahu said.

“The Arab world softening its views toward us will help us when the time comes to reach a real and lasting agreement with our Palestinian neighbors.”

Netanyahu explained the turnabout as a consequence of the threats from #Iran and Islamic State.

“More and more Arab countries are realizing that Israel is not the enemy of the Arab world but rather their partner in a joint struggle against Islamic extremists,” Netanyahu said. “We are both fighting the #Shiite Islamic extremists led by Iran and the #Sunni extremists led by #ISIS.”

#Netanyahu said he hoped the shift in regional alignments would lead to the Palestinians adopting views that are more realistic and responsible regarding a future agreement with #Israel.

It would appear to be a long road, however. #Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki declared last month that his government would “never” re-engage in direct talks with #Israel.

Netanyahu spoke at a meeting in the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in #Yerushalayim in honor of the 24th anniversary of #Begin’s death

Netanyahu to Visit Africa, First Israeli PM To Do So in 50 Years
+Raphael Ahren, +The Times of Israel 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced his intention to travel to Africa this summer, in what would mark the first visit by an Israeli leader to the continent in 50 years.

“I received an invitation from the president of Kenya to visit Africa and I intend to do so around the 40th anniversary of the raid on Entebbe. It was a dramatic national event with great personal consequence for me,” he said at the launch of a new Knesset caucus to promote Israel-Africa ties.

Operation Entebbe was a daring operation to liberate Israeli hostages in Uganda on July 4, 1976. Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, who led the Israeli commandos, was killed in action.

Netanyahu met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Jerusalem last Tuesday. The two leaders signed a joint statement focusing on water and agricultural issues, promoting cooperation and establishing a joint bilateral committee.

http://bit.ly/1L0RKe6

Below: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at his Jerusalem office on Monday, February 23, 2016 (Haim Zach/GPO) 

#israel  
#kenya  
#netanyahu  
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Groovy Ruvi: ISRAELI PRESIDENT SLAMS NETANYAHU'S PARTY FOR BUILDING TIES WITH EUROPEAN EXTREMISTS

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin lays a wreath during a ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem, May 5, 2016. Rivlin slammed Netanyahu's Likud party for inviting an Austrian extremist to Israel.REUTERS/DAN BALILTY/POOL


Israeli President Reuven #Rivlin used a Holocaust Remembrance Day speech on Thursday to lambast the country’s ruling Likud party, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for inviting a far-right Austrian extremist to the country.

In April, the right-wing party invited the leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, Heinz Christian Strache, or ‘HC’ as he prefers to call himself. He has previously campaigned with the slogans:Wien darf nicht Istanbul werden (Vienna must not become Istanbul) and Daham statt Islam (At home, not Islam).

Speaking at Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot, Rivlin said: “Sometimes I am shocked by what looks like the erosion of our national respect, by the peculiar linking up with the voices of falsehood among the extreme right in parts of #Europe.”

The president, a largely ceremonial position, proceeded to link his criticismof Israeli political relations with #far-right #European parties to #Likud’s decision to invite Strache. Rivlin is himself a member of the Likud party.

“A number of weeks ago, Christian Strache, an Austrian party leader, which shamelessly calls itself the Freedom Party, visited #Israel,” he said, newspaper #Haaretz reported. “He did not come here for a courtesy visit or tourism but rather by official invitation of leaders in the Israeli political world, and regretfully he is not the only one.”

He continued to criticize Israeli politicians for meeting with people who he called “xenophobes” and :anti-Semites, urging them to remember the #Holocaust.

“Different people are trying to create an alliance and ties with parties and groups of xenophobes and anti-Semites who apparently support the State of Israel. It is upon us, the generation that is close to the Holocaust, to be clear,” he said.

“No interest in the world will justify the disgraceful alliance with groups and people who will not recognize their responsibility for the crimes of the Holocaust, whose work is dedicated to its silencing, and whose vision seeks to commit them again against every foreigner, refugee or migrant that dares ‘to defile,’ in their opinion, their living space. This is true just as no interest will justify being silent or vacillating in the face of anti-Semites or anti-Israel forces.”

In an address at Yad Vashem, the famous Holocaust museum in #Jerusalem, #Netanyahu focused on incitement against the :Jewish people, in remarks potentially aimed at sections of #Palestinian society that he has accused of incitement to violence against Israelis previously.

“What paved the way for the Holocaust, what greased the wheels of the Nazi murder machine?” he asked. “The answer is the lie. Nazi propaganda described the Jews as the source of all evil in the world: the poisoners of wells, parasites, enemies of humanity. Incitement preceded annihilation.”

And Bibi makes Three: Sheldon Adelson Investing in Trump Presidency with Netanyahu ‘Incident’ in Mind

Anyone who has followed the Trump campaign so far knows that the candidate does forgive slights, ever, and that being rejected publicly by “his friend” Netanyahu, as he had defined their relationship had to sting, and that there would be hell to pay.

Last December, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying, “Prime Minister Netanyahu rejects Donald Trump’s recent remarks about Muslims. The State of Israel respects all religions and strictly guarantees the rights of all its citizens.”

It was a proper statement, expressing all the best sentiments regarding respectful interfaith relations, but its timing made it a potential disaster for the Israeli leader’s future relationship with the White House, should Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump win in November.

Back in 2013, Donald Trump announced his endorsement of Netanyahu for prime minister of Israel. It’s not clear why Bibi needed that show of support, but there it was. “I think he would have been a great president of the United States,” Trump said at the time. Now, the Netanyahu circle expected, Trump would expect to be rewarded in kind, with an endorsement from Netanyahu before the start of the primaries, which would have gone a long way to attract the pro-Israel vote.

It’s not even certain that Netanyahu was entirely against endorsing Trump, or at least giving the candidate a useful, very friendly photo-op. The meeting had been arranged two weeks earlier, according to the PM’s office, and Trump disclosed his plans to visit Israel in a #Twitter post: “Prior to the end of the year, I will be traveling to Israel. I am very much looking forward to it.”

But then the Jerusalem Post reported that Trump wanted to visit the Temple Mount, and that “the campaign was looking into the logistics of visiting the site.” Talk about starting WW3. One can only imagine the #Arab reaction had the US presidential candidate who promised to oust #Muslims who tried to set foot in his country come to spread his message in the eternal city.

This is why Netanyahu felt compelled to reject Trump’s views openly, and to continue to state, in the same release, that the PM had decided this time around “on a uniform policy to agree to meet with all presidential candidates from either party” who visit Israel, but “this policy does not represent an endorsement of any candidate or his or her views, rather, it is an expression of the importance that Prime Minister Netanyahu attributes to the strong alliance between Israel and the United States.”

In the context of the clandestine yet at the same time hyper-publicized relationship between Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Benjamin Netanyahu, that unavoidable error of December 9, 2015, where the modern-day ruler of Judea snubbed the modern-day Roman Emperor-to-be, had to be mended. Anyone who has followed the Trump campaign so far knows that the candidate does forgive slights, ever, and that being rejected publicly by “his friend” Netanyahu, as he had defined their relationship had to sting, and that there would be hell to pay.

And so Netanyahu’s patron Adelson has taken on himself the mission of mending the rift between the PM and the candidate. Adelson had initially passed on Trump in favor of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and former Texas Governor Rick Perry. It’s doubtful that Trump’s flashy public style appealed to Adelson, whose demeanor is reserved and secretive. But one week after the Netanyahu rejection note, Adelson asked for a meeting with Trump. At that stage of the race Adelson did not endorse Trump, but came out of the meeting telling reporters he found Trump to be “very charming.”

A few hours later, Trump issued the statement Adelson had been waiting to hear: “Sheldon knows that nobody will be more loyal to Israel than Donald Trump.”

Since then, Trump has stuck by his very positive views about #Israel, and even endorsed continued settlement construction. Granted, he would have done it regardless of his meeting with Adelson. It is paramount for Trump to position himself as a greater friend of the Jewish State than his presumptive opponent, #Democrat Hillary #Clinton. But general sentiment and access to the White House for the Israeli PM are two very different things, as Netanyahu has learned so painfully during the Obama Administration.

Now, with the primary campaign all but over, Adelson told Trump in a private meeting last week that he was willing to contribute more than $100 million to his campaign. Adelson has also appointed himself Trump’s envoy to wealthy and influential Republican #Jews, and this week sent fifty of them an email soliciting their support for the candidate. The #Republican Jewish Coalition is not in Trump’s pocket. It is much more concerned with shielding Republican candidates in blue states from the Trump toxins than it is with endorsing the winning candidate. So Sheldon has his work cut out for him.

Meanwhile, as Trump has announced that he abandoned his plan to fund his campaign with his own money in favor of soliciting $1 billion from donors, Adelson would be a pivotal gain for him, on his way to reaching #Jewish billionaires like hedge fund head Paul Singer. Singer is easily as #pro-Israel as Adelson.

Of course, #Adelson’s choice would have naturally been #Trump, but it is doubtful their relationship would have been forged as it has done without Adelson’s concerns for #Netanyahu’s political future.

Israel: PM Netanyahu shuns Labour for coalition talks with hardliner

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched talks with rightwing hardliner Avigdor Lieberman to join his coalition Wednesday, shattering the prospects of a unity government working for a Palestinian peace deal.

The surprise development comes after opposition head and Labour chief Isaac #Herzog had indicated his willingness to join #Netanyahu's rightwing-led coalition.

But Netanyahu's #Likud party said he and former foreign minister #Lieberman had decided to form negotiating teams for the latter's six-seat opposition Israel Beitenu to join the 61-member coalition.

Since forming his government a year ago, Netanyahu has not concealed his ambition to expand his razor-thin majority in #Israel's 120-member parliament.

Months of secret talks between Netanyahu and Herzog, whose party forms the Zionist Union along with the centrist Hatnuah, gained headlines in recent days.

The Labour leader insisted that a national unity government could help advance peace with the #Palestinians, amid fierce opposition from members of his party to joining the coalition.

But in a press conference Wednesday, Lieberman -- who since its inception in May 2015 has branded the coalition as "defeatist" -- said he would be open to joining Netanyahu's team if key demands were met.

Netanyahu summoned him to a meeting a short while later.

For his part, Herzog said Netanyahu was faced with "a historic choice" to "either embark on a journey of war and funerals" with #Lieberman or choose a path of "hope for all (Israeli) citizens".

"We won't negotiate in parallel to Lieberman," he stressed.

Labour members criticised Herzog for what they termed his failed attempt to "crawl into the coalition," as reports emerged that Netanyahu offered Lieberman the coveted defence portfolio.

History of controversy

Lieberman's entry into the government would be closely watched by the international community and the Palestinians.

He has called for #Gaza to be dealt with "like Chechnya" and urged Israel to treat its #Hamas rulers "like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II."

The former foreign minister also has a history of controversial statements about Arab Israelis, calling lawmakers from the #Arab Joint List "terror supporters".

The current defence minister is Moshe Yaalon, a level-headed former army chief of staff who has been at loggerheads with Netanyahu after insisting senior military officers should "speak their mind".

His remarks were perceived as a public show of support for Major General Yair Golan, deputy head of the armed forces, who made comments comparing contemporary Israeli society to Nazi Germany.

#Yaalon stood up for Golan, stressing that military commanders should not only "lead soldiers into battle" but also teach them "values, with a compass and conscience".

Netanyahu had criticised the deputy chief of staff's "outrageous" remarks, adding however a few days later that "the affair is behind us".

The outspoken Lieberman has publicly supported a soldier accused of manslaughter for shooting dead a wounded and prone Palestinian assailant, in contrast to both Netanyahu and Yaalon who both condemned the killing.

Sitting in the courtroom with the soldier's family during initial hearings, Lieberman said he sought to "balance the crude intervention of the prime minister and defence minister" in the case.

The stocky 57-year-old Moldova native had stepped down as foreign minister in 2012 for nearly a year to fight corruption charges, and in 2015 joined the opposition ranks.

Netanyahu tells France's Ayrault he still opposes peace conference

Netanyahu still opposes French proposed peace talks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told France's foreign minister on Sunday that Israel remained opposed to a French initiative for an international conference to try to revive peace talks.

Palestinians welcomed the proposal but Israel is concerned that the conference that France seeks to hold in the autumn would try to dictate terms for a peace deal.

In public remarks to his cabinet after meeting France's Jean-Marc Ayrault, Netanyahu said: "I told him the only way to advance genuine peace between us and the Palestinians is through direct negotiations between us and them, without preconditions."

Israel made the same argument in the formal response it gave last month. France hopes an international conference would set out a framework for peace negotiations, after U.S. efforts to broker a two-state deal collapsed in April 2014.

"I know that Netanyahu does not agree (to the French proposal)," Ayrault told reporters after his talks with the Israeli leader in Jerusalem and a meeting with #Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank.

#Ayrault said #France would continue to pursue the initiative and that its ultimate goal was for both sides to return to direct talks, with international intervention laying the groundwork.

"It is very clear to us, and I said this today to both the prime minister and to President #Abbas, that we cannot take the place of the two parties," he said at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport at the end of a one-day visit to promote the plan.

"Only they can conduct direct negotiations to achieve a solution," Ayrault said. "But because things are currently stuck ... external intervention is necessary to provide renewed momentum."

An international gathering of ministers, tentatively planned for May 30 in #Paris, is set to include the Middle East Quartet (the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations), the Arab League, the U.N. Security Council and about 20 countries, without Israeli or #Palestinian participation.

Diplomats say that meeting will package all economic incentives and other guarantees that various countries have offered in previous years to create an agenda for an autumn #peace conference.

While objecting to the French initiative, Netanyahu, a right-winger, has stopped short of saying #Israel would boycott it.

Keeping his options open could help #Netanyahu in preliminary contacts with the main opposition #Zionist Union party - a centre-left group likely to favour participating - on expanding his ruling coalition that has a mere one-seat parliamentary majority.

#Netanyahu +Netanyahu Benjamin


@UN Rejects #Netanyahu Offer of History Lesson - Breaking #Israel News http://po.st/pcLfcq - UN Antisemitism is higher than own safety

Israel Passes Deal To Speed Up Leviathan Development

Leviathan is the largest of Israel's offshore gas fields, with enough gas to turn the country into a significant exporter and significantly expand geopolitical balance in the region. The negotiations with #Turkey could move Israeli gas into the #European market, over the objections of #Putin. Russia is currently a main supplier and the relationship between the two countries has been strained since the downing of a Russian fighter that crossed into Turkey's air space.

The Israeli government hopes to jump start development of a massive natural gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean, ending an extended period of delays.

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved of a new deal for the Leviathan gas field over the weekend, a field that Noble Energy and Delek Group are poised to develop. At issue was a prior pledge from the Netanyahu government, which gave the energy companies a guarantee that they would not be hit with any regulatory or pricing changes for ten years. Israel’s Supreme Court invalidated that clause in March, calling it unconstitutional. Noble Energy warned that the court ruling could delay development.


To comply with the court’s decision, the latest deal removes that controversial provision. But the #Netanyahu government also included language in the deal that could lead to compensation to the companies if regulation changes in the future. “This is an important milestone in creating a stable investment environment," Noble Energy said in a statement.

“The new version gives future government space to judge whether to change policies in the field of natural gas, should this be required," Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a statement.

Noble Energy and #Delek Group intend to produce natural gas from the Leviathan field, with the hopes of bringing production online by 2019. Development has suffered several years of delays due to regulatory uncertainty. The #Leviathan promises to provide gas to #Israel, but also gas for export to #Jordan and #Egypt. The Israeli public has pushed back on the deal, arguing that the government is doing too much to protect the gas companies, at the expense of consumer prices.

Meanwhile, Italian #oil giant Eni is moving quickly to develop a competing gas field off the coast of #Egypt. The massive #Zohr field is one of the largest discoveries ever recorded in the Mediterranean. #Eni is fast-tracking the project, which could allow it to beat Noble Energy to the punch, bringing a major source of #gas to the region.

"This is a very important – even historic – step for the Israeli economy ... and we will use this gift that nature has granted us for the benefit of the state and its citizens."

After protracted political and bureaucratic challenges to the deal, including objections from anti-trust officials, the supreme court in March struck it down.

The case had been closely watched, with Netanyahu himself appearing before the justices on behalf of the government.

Delek on Sunday welcomed the cabinet decision and said it intended to have gas flowing from the Mediterranean field known as Leviathan "to the local market by the end of 2019".

Leviathan is the largest of Israel's offshore gas fields, with enough gas to turn the country into a significant exporter.

It is estimated to hold 18.9 trillion cubic feet (535 billion cubic metres, or bcm) of natural gas, along with 34.1 million barrels of condensate.

What's the current Netanyahu-Obama 'snub' about? Obama considering peace push, including UN Security Council resolution.

The 'Wall Street Journal' reports that the US president is considering a renewed push to revive negotiations before the end of his term.

The White House is working on a plan to revive the #Israeli-Palestinian #peace process which has been frozen for almost two years, the Wall Street Journal reported prior to US Vice President Joe #Biden's anticipated arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday afternoon for a two-day visit.

Last week, White House officials told reporters not to expect a break-through in the peace process during Biden’s visit. Similarly in November, the White House said that US President Barack Obama did not expect to arrive at a two-state solution before leaving office in January 2017.

In the absence of any US led initiative, #France has since made a push for a multi-lateral regional summit and has spoken of a resolution before the United Nations Security Council to set the contours of a new peace process.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House is considering changing its long standing opposition to using the #UNSC as a vehicle to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, preferring instead for the two parties to resolve their issues through direct talks.

Israel has similarly insisted that negotiations are the only way to arrive at a #two-state solution. It has argued that the #Palestinians will never sit down and negotiate as long as they believe they can achieve their goals through the United Nations.

The Wall Street Journal speculated that Obama could launch an initiative through a presidential speech, possibly in the fall at the annual opening of the UN General Assembly in New York.

A US proposal, according to the Wall Street Journal, would be based on the pre-1967 lines with land swaps to allow Israel to retain a small portion of territory over the Green Line in exchange for giving Palestinians land within the Green Line.

The paper also theorized that the US could renew its push for Israel to freeze West Bank settlement activity and #Jewish building in east #Jerusalem.

#Netanyahu has rejected all such demands in the past.

Similarly, according to the The Wall Street Journal, the US would ask the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and “end claims on a right of return for Palestinian refugees." The Palestinians have similarly in the past refused to accept any such proposals.

The report of a renewed White House push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict comes as the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Netanyahu was not traveling to Washington at the end of the month and would therefore, not be able to meet with Obama.

The White House is claiming that they agreed to a meeting at Netanyahu’s request and learned of its cancellation through the media.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that through its ambassador in Washington, Ron #Dermer, it had already informed the White House on Friday that Netanyahu might decide not to go. Dermer explained that a final decision on the matter would likely be taken on Monday.

White House officials said Obama had already penciled in a meeting with Netanyahu on March 18. They expressed disappointment in his decision to cancel the meeting, and referred The Jerusalem Post to the government of #Israel for an explanation of the schedule change.

"Last Friday, during a meeting at the White House, Ambassador Dermer expressed the prime minister's appreciation for the president's willingness to meet the PM if he came to #Washington to attend :AIPAC's Policy Conference," the prime minister's office said on Monday night. "However, the ambassador also informed the White House that there is a good chance that the prime minister would not be coming to Washington and that a final decision would be taken on Monday after he had met with the prime minister."

Dermer also informed a senior AIPAC official last week that Netanyahu's trip was unlikely, the statement reads.

"On Monday, news reports suggested that [Netanyahu] would not be traveling to Washington and erroneously stated that the President was unwilling to meet with [him]," it continued. "The [prime minister's office] immediately corrected the erroneous news reports and officially informed the administration that the PM would not be coming to Washington."

Netanyahu looks forward to meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden, who is currently traveling the region, the statement added.

Officials in the PMO blamed the cancellation on the pending US elections.

Netanyahu’s itinerary had included a public address to AIPAC, where a number of the candidates were likely to also be speaking, the officials said. They added that Netanyahu feared that any contact with them, could be seen as interference in the elections.


jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-Obama-considering-peace-push-including-UN-Security-Council-resolution-447211#article=6017NDhGRTg2NDJFMDNGRDU4QjNCNjRFREI5MTM3MjUxNjc=

Biden tells Netanyahu: Turkey's Erdogan eager to reconcile with Israel as soon as possible

According to senior officials, the U.S. vice president offered to assist in any way possible to overcome the crisis between the two countries. Netanyahu replied that he wants to reach an agreement, but added that Israel has red lines.

File: Biden and Netanyahu delivering a joint statement in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. Reuters

At their meeting in Jerusalem Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Turkish President Recep Tayyip #Erdogan is interested in concluding a reconciliation agreement with Israel as soon as possible and to put an end to the crisis between :Jerusalem and #Ankara.

Senior Israeli officials who were briefed on the substance of the meeting between Biden and Netanyahu, and who asked not to be identified due to the diplomatic sensitivity of the matter, said Biden told Netanyahu that he was prepared to assist in any way possible in transmitting messages between the prime minister and Erdogan or any other step that would make it possible to overcome the disagreement between the two countries.

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Turkey official: Conditions ripe for Israel reconciliation


#Russia tells Israel: Reservations about rapprochement with Turkey

Netanyahu told Biden that negotiating teams from Israel and #Turkey have maintained continuous contact, the Israeli officials said, but have still not been able to come to an agreement. Netanyahu is said to have told his American guest that Israel is "negotiating with the intention of proceeding to an agreement," but added that "we too have red lines."

Ties between the two countries deteriorated sharply after a confrontation in the Mediterranean in May 2010 between #Israel Navy commandos and passengers on the #MaviMarmara, a ship that was part of a flotilla seeking to break Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Ten of the ship's passengers were killed in the confrontation and a number of the commandos were injured in the confrontation.

The main red line about which Netanyahu spoke to #Biden related to Israel's demand that Hamas' military headquarters in #Istanbul, which has been planning, financing and pressing for the commission of #terrorist attacks in the West Bank, be shut down. #Netanyahu made no mention of the Turkish demand that Israel substantially ease the blockade of #Gaza as an issue that was standing in the way of an agreement.

Netanyahu appoints U.S. activist critical of China, Egypt as foreign media czar

David Keyes will replace Mark #Regev, who will take post of Israel's ambassador to #London.

PM taps U.S. activist critical of China, Egypt as media czar

In recent years Keyes has harshly attacked the regime in China, which Netanyahu is trying to develop ties with, as well as those of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir #Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, with whom Israel has a strategic alliance.

Netanyahu’s intention to appoint Keyes was first reported in January by Herb Keinon in The Jerusalem Post. The Prime Minister’s Office refused to confirm or deny the appointment.

In recent years Keyes has been living in New York and has been executive director of Advancing Human Rights, a group that acts discreetly to help human rights activists all over the world, and is also active on social networks on the #Internet.

A senior Israeli official said that Keyes is very close to some of Netanyahu’s associates, foremost among them Israel’s envoy to Washington, Ron #Dermer, who recommended that the premier appoint Keyes.

Keyes formerly worked at the conservative Shalem Institute in Jerusalem, which is funded by Sheldon #Adelson, the American casino mogul and owner of the Israel Hayom daily newspaper. Keyes also worked at the #Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which was headed until a few months ago by the current director general of the Foreign Ministry and another close #Netanyahu associate, Dr. Dore #Gold.

At Advancing Human Rights, Keyes supported and encouraged opposition activists in China, Egypt, #Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and other countries. He also established the website CyberDissidents.org, with the aim of helping to empower opposition movements and regime opponents in the Middle East.

Keyes also helped launch Movements.org, a crowd-sourcing human rights platform, according to The New York Times, which is designed to connect oppositionists in dictatorial countries with Westerners interested in helping them.

Keyes’ human rights activity and the articles he has written on the subject are liable to clash with certain diplomatic, security and economic interests of the State of #Israel as defined by Netanyahu in recent years – particularly in regard to relations with #Egypt, China and #Russia.

For example, Keyes is a harsh opponent of Sissi’s regime in #Egypt, and even called to end U.S. military assistance to the country, as long as it continues to imprison human rights activists and journalists. Netanyahu has described promotion of economic ties with China as one of his top priorities, and the government even passed two decisions to that end. For his part, Keyes has been working actively in recent years against the regime in Beijing and its human rights violations.

Raised ire of Beijing

Among other things, for example, Keyes, along with chess champion Gary #Kasparov, led a campaign to change the name of the street where the Chinese embassy in Washington is located to Liu #Xiaobo Square, after the human rights activist, author and #Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is in a Chinese prison. The campaign, which Congress backed, aroused Beijing’s anger.

In an interview with the Radio Free Asia blog Free for All in June 2014, Keyes harshly attacked the Chinese regime.

“I think it’s provocative to impose dictatorships on over a billion people,” he said in response to claims from the Chinese foreign ministry that he is a provocateur. “This a struggle for the future of China…  Will #China become a democracy or continue to impose dictatorship on so many people?

haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.708808?v=BE2E20BFB5861BD22E684C693E3334DF

#DavidKeyes is the Executive Director of Advancing Human Rights and co-founder of CyberDissidents.org. The New York Times calls him "a pioneer in #onlineactivism. He is a frequent contributor toThe Daily Beast Keyes has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, "Reuters", The New Republic, Foreign Policy and appeared on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, Bloomberg TV, Al Jazeera and many other media outlets.
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advancinghumanrights.org/

Israel launched Syria strikes to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining weapons – Netanyahu

Israel has launched dozens of strikes in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced. It marks the first time that the leader has acknowledged such attacks against arms transfers to Lebanon's Hezbollah.

FILE PHOTO. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) talks with Israeli soldiers at a military outpost on February 4, 2015 during a visit at Mount Hermon which sits in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights on the border between Lebanon, Syria and Israel. © Baz Ratner / AFP

“We act when we need to act, including here across the border, with dozens of strikes meant to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining game-changing weaponry,” Netanyahu said while on a visit to the occupied #Golan Heights on Monday, as quoted by Reuters.

The prime minister failed to specify what kind of strikes Israel had conducted in Syria.

Although Israel welcomed a cessation of hostilities in Syria in February, it has indicated that it could still launch attacks there if it sees a threat from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, whose fighters have been allied with Syrian President Bashar #Assad.

Israel is officially neutral on #Syria's civil war, but has frequently pledged to prevent shipments of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon. It has, however, stopped short of confirming specific air operations.

Tel Aviv last fought a war with Hezbollah in 2006. That conflict included rocket strikes inside Israel and an Israeli air and ground offensive in #Lebanon.

Israeli leaders have stated that since then, Hezbollah has built up and improved the range of #rocket arsenal that can now strike deep inside Israel.

Tension has been mounting between Tel Aviv and Hezbollah in recent months, with Hezbollah leader Hassan #Nasrallah threatening to hit Israeli #chemical and #nuclear sites.

Netanyahu's Monday comments come less than one week after intelligence firm Stratfor revealed satellite images of an area on the northern Lebanese-Syrian border which indicate that Hezbollah has been consolidating positions it gained from Syrian rebels in June 2013.

However, #Netanyahu noted that #Hezbollah isn't the only worry facing Israel, citing threats from Islamic State ( #IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), #Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, as well as jihadists in #Sinai.

He went on to state that “going into battle” is a “possibility that lies ahead,”adding that no one else will defend #Israel.