Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: foreign policy

Showing posts with label foreign policy. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Saudis offer Palestinians symbolism while really wanting to use Israel and the US to strengthen their own leadership in the Middle East

Yesterday, Saudi diplomat Nayef al-Sudairi arrived in Ramallah as the Saudi envoy to the Palestinian Authority.He did all the things skittish Palestinians want to see as they get increasingly nervous about a Saudi-Israel normalization deal that leaves them behind.The position is called "ambassador" implying that Palestine is a real country.Al-Sudairi visited Yasir Arafat's...

Why doesn't the US tell Libya (and other Arab nations) to stop acting like children when Israel is discussed?

The story about the meeting between Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush, and the angry reactions from Libya, have dominated the news cycle.Looking at Libyan newspapers, people are falling over themselves to distance themselves from any possibility that they support talking to Israelis. Besides the opposition political parties...

What does Israel gain from a Saudi normalization deal?

The US negotiations with Saudi Arabia over recognizing Israel looks more and more like using Israel as a pawn for a US-Saudi deal than anything that will have huge benefits for Israel.The Saudis want from Washington a NATO-style defense pact and a civilian nuclear program. The Saudis want from Israel access to intelligence (which they probably already have indirectly), access...

Final BRICS statement shows how little the Palestinian issue matters even to their allies

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency reports:The President of the Palestinian National Council, Ruhi Fattouh, welcomed today, Thursday, the final statement of the fifteenth BRICS summit, which was held in the Republic of South Africa.Fattouh said that this position is a victory for the justice of the Palestinian cause, and an expression of standing with the Palestinian...

Yes, there was a Saudi consulate in Jerusalem before 1948

Haaretz reports:Saudi Arabia’s appointment of its first ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, who will also serve as consul general to Jerusalem, was not coordinated with Israel, and Israeli diplomatic figures are struggling to gauge its implications for the efforts to normalize relations with the kingdom.Senior Israeli officials said Sunday that Riyadh’s weekend announcement...

What are Israel's options on Hezbollah's clear aggression on Israeli territory?

From The Cradle:Washington is urging the Lebanese government to pressure Hezbollah into removing an outpost erected in the occupied Shebaa Farms, Israeli media reported on 29 June.Walla news outlet cited anonymous Israeli and US officials as saying that the outpost represents a “miscalculation on Hezbollah’s part, which does not take into account the potential Israeli response....

To China, Israel must be marginalized

There has been a great deal of analysis about the Chinese-brokered improvement of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. As AP notes,The agreement was seen as a major diplomatic triumph for China, coming as Gulf Arab states perceive the United States as winding down its involvement in the Middle East.“I think it is a sign that China is increasingly confident in taking...

US signs agreement to send billions to Jordan - no strings attached

This story from September sure flew under the radar.From Jordan News:US Ambassador to Jordan Henry Wooster has said that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) Jordan and the US signed in Washington on September 16 is a platform that will enable the two governments to start a dialogue over common issues. Speaking to journalists at his residence on Tuesday, Wooster said...

01/02 Links Pt1: UN's advisory board on Israeli 'occupation' is hypocrisy; 'Even animals get better treatment': Tortured by Hamas, man finds refuge in Israel

From Ian: JPost Editorial: UN's advisory board on Israeli 'occupation' is hypocrisy It asked the ICJ to define how Israel’s practices affected the legal status of Israel’s “occupation” of territory over the pre-1967 lines, which would include the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), Gaza (from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005) and east Jerusalem. The UNGA resolution...

12/14 Links Pt2: No, Zionism isn’t out of date: Why the US arrests some terrorists but ignores others; Professor reveals pervasive antisemitism at University of Toronto Medical School

From Ian: No, Zionism isn’t out of date Ha’aretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer does not believe in Zionism. He doesn’t oppose it, he just thinks talking about it is a category mistake: You cannot be either a Zionist or an anti-Zionist, he says, just as you cannot be a veteran of Iwo Jima unless you were born at least 90 years ago and fought in that battle. Zionism isn’t an ideology....

11/22 Links Pt1: Hold Abbas accountable; NYTs demonstrates why Israelis have turned right; Mossad was behind intelligence tip to UK’s MI5 over Iranian terror threats

From Ian: Hold Abbas accountable We should recall here that last March, then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced the launch of an investigation into suspected crimes committed in the territories of Judea and Samaria, in east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip since June 13th, 2014. Her announcement followed a preliminary investigation in the wake of a Palestinian complaint...

Israel giving up its maritime rights under pressure from Biden

Haaretz reports:On August 31, Yair Lapid and Joe Biden held a phone call. Afterward, the offices of both men issued a press release, as is customary, but used different language. Hiding in the White House version was a story that was missing from the announcement of the Prime Minister’s Office: “The President also emphasized the importance of concluding the maritime boundary...

Is the US State Department taking Jerusalem out of Israel again?

Under the Obama administration, virtually all mentions of "Jerusalem, Israel" were scrubbed from the State Department websites, and the city became merely "Jerusalem" - without a country attached.This was fixed during the Trump administration when the US Embassy was moved to Jerusalem, but last year I found some indications that the policy was regressing back towards the Obama-era...

Here are the world leaders Abbas has met so far in New York (update)

Ramallah News reports:Member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Osama al-Qawasmi, announced the agenda of President Mahmoud Abbas, while he was in New York, to participate in the meetings of the United Nations General Assembly.The goal of President Abbas's meetings before his expected speech is to expose Israel's crimes, to inform the international community in the latest...