Thursday, December 24, 2020

Collapse of the Palestinian Movement


 

The Collapse of Palestinian Grand Strategy - Dr. Eran Lerman


The Palestinian quest to isolate Israel and boycott it in the international community, and thus force it into surrender, has failed. Foundational aspects of the regional order have changed, with a breakthrough towards peace and normalization with Arab countries. Moreover, the Arab League (under Egypt's guidance) refused to consider the Palestinian complaint against "normalizers."
    
The Palestinians hope that a Biden administration will usher in an era where they can pursue again a strategy of isolating Israel. Latching on to such hopes is an indication of the Palestinians' lack of realism. American political dynamics do not sustain such Palestinian expectations. While pressures from academia and the progressive left are matters of some concern, the firm foundations of support for Israel are still strong on both sides of the aisle. It is also still possible to rely on the deeply ingrained support for Israel among at least 2/3 of all Americans.
The writer, vice president of JISS, held senior posts in IDF Military Intelligence for over 20 years. 
(Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security)
*

VideoBites: Musical Celebration of Abraham Accords

 

The news report about the song celebrating The Abraham Accords


The song!

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Chanukah Miracle: Morocco & Israel Make Peace

 


Morocco, Israel normalize ties 

Israel and Morocco have agreed to establish diplomatic relations, US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday.

Morocco became the fourth Arab country to normalize ties with Israel in four months, following the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.

Israel and Morocco plan to reopen economic liaison offices, which were closed in 2002, and work quickly to exchange ambassadors and begin direct flights, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner said normalization “comes on the heels of four years of very, very hard work and very intense diplomacy.”


"The team, led by Jared Kushner, has worked on this deal for over a year," Avi Berkowitz, Special Representative for International Negotiations, who took part in negotiating the normalization agreement, told The Jerusalem Post. He added that he hopes that the deal will lead to a warm peace between the two countries.

The move is the culmination of a successful year of upgrading Israel’s relations with Arab and Muslim countries, beginning with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting Chad and meeting Sudan’s leader in Uganda, the Abraham Accords, as well as the warming relations and cooperation with Saudi Arabia, in addition to a number of other Arab states.

Long before that, Morocco had a relationship with Israeli intelligence agencies. Moroccan King Hassan II gave Israel recordings of an Arab League meeting that helped Israel prepare for the Six Day War in 1967, according to former IDF intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit and the former intelligence officer and cabinet minister Rafi Eitan. That same year, the Mossad helped Morocco abduct a dissident from France.
[Jerusalem Post] 
*

UPDATES


Israelis of Moroccan descent celebrated Thursday's decision by Morocco to normalize relations with Israel. "We who were born in Morocco, we and the people of Morocco all over the world, have been waiting so long for this day," said Moroccan-born Aryeh Deri, Israel's interior minister.

    
Transportation Minister Miri Regev said: "Generations of Moroccan Jews have dreamed of peace with the country where they were born and where our culture is so deeply rooted. May the blessing of Allah come upon us and upon them."  
(Times of Israel)


Behind the announcement Thursday that Israel and Morocco will establish formal diplomatic ties lies almost six decades of close, secret cooperation on intelligence and military matters. Israel has helped Morocco obtain weapons and intelligence-gathering gear and learn how to use them. One million Israelis are from Morocco or descended from those who were.
    
In 1965, when Arab leaders and military commanders met in Casablanca, Morocco allowed Israel's Mossad to bug their meeting rooms and private suites. The eavesdropping gave Israel unprecedented insight into Arab thinking, capabilities and plans, which was vital to Israel in preparing for the 1967 war. A decade later, Morocco became the site of secret meetings between Israel and Egypt ahead of the 1978 Camp David accords. 
(New York Times)
*