Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
Thursday, Feb. 16 '17, כ' בשבט תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. HONOR, AFFECTION, AND GLORY
2. WATCH: TRUMP SAYS PARTIES MUST DECIDE ABOUT TWO-STATE SOLUTION
3. WATCH: SUICIDE BOMBER MISCALCULATES DETONATION
4. 'TRUMP: GOOD FOR THE JEWS' - BOAZ BISMUTH
5. 'THE TIME HAS COME FOR A DISCUSSION OF NEW OPTIONS'
6. ISRAIR FLIGHT GROUNDED DURING TAKEOFF
7. 'A NEW DAY FOR US-ISRAEL RELATIONS'
8. HANNITY: 'THE ALL RADICAL LEFT PROPAGANDA MEDIA'
1. HONOR, AFFECTION, AND GLORY
by Rabbi Dr. Chaim Shein
As an Israeli second-generation son of Holocaust survivors, I was thrilled at the spectacle of the honor, affection, and glory that the Jewish State received from the President of the United States.
Israel, a small country on the edge of the Middle East, is considered a world power in the areas of security, science, technological innovation, and the fight against terrorism. The shared values, identification of vital interests, and friendship between Trump and Netanyahu inspire hope that the two country's ties will see better days.
That hope was dashed under President Obama who in his Cairo speech, at the beginning of his tenure, wistfully recalled the muezzin sounds he heard as a child in Indonesia, and whose last executive decision was to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority that funds families of murderers.
Everyone has been talking for years about peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, brought to us by headlines about the two-state solution and the settlements being an obstacle to peace. Intoxicating platitudes that never had a chance, for the reason that the Palestinians will never be willing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and forego the right of return to Jaffa, Shefayim, Kibbutz Baram, Ramat Hasharon, and Ra'anana. A Palestinian state, most Israelis today realize, is only the first stage in the vision of a Jewish return to Europe.
President Trump, being a businessman, brings a new spirit to his office. He is not a prisoner of his predecessor's antiquated conception of the Middle East, which only led to unnecessary bloodshed. Businessmen know that only a deal containing equal consideration for both parties can be realized. Good deals are not forced. The hostile takeover is viewed in the business world as a rather poor alternative.
The openness of the Trump Era will require all parties to think creatively so that at the conclusion of negotiations, the Israelis and Palestinians will be able to live in reasonable neighborly relations and coexistence. A rigid mindset leads to a dead-end, while initiative and openness create hope. A solution to the conflict in our region also requires abundant patience.
President Obama badly wanted his legacy to include Muslim-Indian peace. His approach was marked with hurried desperation and his failure was therefore resounding. He was convinced that whatever he wanted to do, he could do. Trump's legacy is not anchored in the Middle East, but in restoring the United State's lost and trampled dignity; the prosperity and the welfare of its citizens.
As usual, the Israeli leftist media will portray depression and negativity, as if Trump demanded the settlement construction moratorium, and not they. For the most part, Israeli citizens have a good sense of "Exult and rejoice, daughter of Zion, for great days await you; Judah will exist forever and Jerusalem from generation to generation."
Courtesy Israel Hayom
2. WATCH: TRUMP SAYS PARTIES MUST DECIDE ABOUT TWO-STATE SOLUTION
by Gary Willig
[youtube:2024673]
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House at approximately 12:00 p.m. Eastern standard time.
The Prime Minister and US President Donald Trump held a joint press conference shortly before their first official meeting since President Trump took office last month.
President Trump began the press conference by speaking about the Iranian threat. "One of the worst deals I've ever seen is the Iran deal. My administration has already imposed new sanctions on Iran, and I will do more to prevent Iran from ever developing, I mean ever, a nuclear weapon."
He praised the US military assistance to Israel as necessary.
Speaking about the peace process, Trump said: "It is the parties themselves who must directly negotiate such an agreement," and that both sides would have make compromises to achieve peace.
Trump did not commit to the two state solution, saying that he would be happy with any agreement Israel and the PA reach. "I'm looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I'm very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one."
Addressing construction in Judea and Samaria, he told Netanyahu, "I'd like to see you hold back on settlements a little bit."
Prime Minister Netanyahu attacked the PA for its incitement, the salaries it pays to the murderers of Israelis and even Americans, and its denial of Jewish history and Jewish rights. "If anyone believes that I, as the Prime Minister of Israel, [who is] responsible for the security of my country, would blindly walk into a Palestinian terrorist state, which seeks the destruction of my country, they are gravely mistaken."
Netanyahu said that the Jews are native to the land of Israel. "Why are Jews called Jews? The Chinese are called Chinese because they come from China. The Japanese are called Japanese because they come from Japan. Well, Jews are called Jews because they come from Judea. This is our ancestral homeland."
Netanyahu brought up the idea of a larger regional agreement between Israel and the Arab nations. Trump called the idea "a terrific thing."
Trump agreed with Netanyahu about the incitement in the PA, and called on the PA to recognize Israel.
[twittervideo:2024669]
3. WATCH: SUICIDE BOMBER MISCALCULATES DETONATION
[twittervideo:2024642]
4. 'TRUMP: GOOD FOR THE JEWS' - BOAZ BISMUTH
by Mordechai Sones
The Foreign Affairs Editor of the Israel Hayom newspaper Boaz Bismuth in an editorial today (Thursday) summarized the implications of the Netanyahu-Trump summit, expressing the unambiguous conclusion that strategically and ideologically, "Trump is good for the Jews".
"If anyone persisted to doubt that President Donald Trump is good for Israel, yesterday's pre-summit White House press conference with Netanyahu proved that Trump is good for the Jews, despite the 'anti-Semitism in America' sirens heard since he won the elections. It marks the advent of a new, much more invigorating era in Washington.
"The joint press conference between the President and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was like a U-turn from everything we have heard, known, internalized, and ruminated on (without really digesting, however) for several decades.
"The two-state solution as the sole peace option, the Roadmap, multilateral negotiations, international initiatives, sanction threats against Israel, accusing fingers pointed at the settlements - essentially, these have all been rendered irrelevant; ancillary at best.
"Not only have eight years of Obama been relegated to history, even the Clinton era strikes one as archaic, antiquated, and in reality incompatible with the present. Trump has transferred Oslo and the peace initiatives to the treatment of archaeologists.
The Trump administration is working on a new formula, which certainly will not appeal to the Israeli left, but we also must wait and see how closely it matches the aspirations of the right. Overall, Israel has a good friend in the White House, and yesterday it was evident. While no one can really guarantee that peace with the Palestinians is waiting for us around the corner, we can expect peace with the White House. After eight years of Obama, it's also something. They told us we lost America? Not really.
"It may be deduced from the press conference that the President enjoys Gulf state support for a regional peace initiative. Trump focuses on the long term and also hopes for regional peace (as he said in an interview with Israel Hayom last week). He does not have a clear formula, but the President obviously did his homework, even if he did utter a sentence that will probably become a classic: 'I am looking at two states or one state, and I like the one that both parties like'.
"There is no doubt that the Saudis will have much to say. Trump's new formula will induce the Saudis to resuscitate their own initiative, but it will be Jerusalem's responsibility to convey its problematic points. The idea is good, its application, less so. The Iranian threat will spur the sides to compromise. At whose expense? Not necessarily Israel's, and this is the enormous transformation that characterizes the Trump Era.
"Donald Trump acknowledged that 'I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two. But honestly, if Bibi and if the Palestinians -- if Israel and the Palestinians are happy, I'm happy with the one they like the best.' In other words, the idea of a Palestinian state has encountered a serious obstacle. The Palestinians have been determined not to agree or recognize Israel ever since the partition proposal. It is quite possible that they've missed the train.
"Perhaps another solution exists - increasing the territory, establishing autonomy, not evacuating settlements. Suddenly an abundance of new possibilities has emerged. The deck of cards has been re-dealt. Overall it can be concluded that the two-state idea is in advanced stages of demise, with no doctor to be found in the Washington operating theater to come and save it.
"Donald Trump is much more attentive to Israel's security needs. Iran and Jihadist terror are for him enemies to be fought against - and defeated. He also considers Palestinian Authority education to terrorism to be problematic and very dangerous, and he is willing to call Islamic terror, 'Islamic terror'.
"Trump believes that both sides should make concessions. Also us, also the Palestinians. This, too, is undoubtedly a novelty. We are accustomed to only Israel needing to make concessions. Now it also applies to the Palestinians.
"Of course, the issue of settlements came up in the meeting. While Trump believes that the settlements are not an obstacle to peace, yesterday he again asked Israel to coordinate with him: 'As far as settlements, I'd like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit ... I would like to see a deal made'.
"There are those who will accentuate the word 'hold', but after eight years of Obama it is permitted to actually put the emphasis on the word 'little'. Everyone left the White House with what he wanted to hear.
"There were those who left yesterday's press conference and said that Donald Trump does not understand, that he is unlearned in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But Donald Trump wants to close a deal. How exactly to do it, he still does not know. And maybe it is just as well: We saw where we were led by all those experts who are learned in Peace.
"We can breathe easy. The President is a friend. A true one."
5. 'THE TIME HAS COME FOR A DISCUSSION OF NEW OPTIONS'
by Tal Polon
"The two-state solution is dead, and the time has come for a discussion of new options by which Israel would hold onto the West Bank and eventually assert Israel sovereignty there."
Thus writes International Spokesman for the Hevron Jewish Community Yishai Fleisher in an op-ed piece published this week in the New York Times entitled "A Settler's View of Israel's Future."
Fleisher notes that, for the past several decades, Israel has suffered from an inability to justify to itself the building of communities in Judea and Samaria.
"Whenever the claim that Israel stole Palestinian lands is heard, Israel's answers inevitably are: 'We invented the cellphone,' 'We have gay rights,' 'We fly to help Haiti after an earthquake.' Obvious obfuscation. And when pushed to explain why the much-promised two-state solution is perennially stuck, the response is always to blame Arab obstructionism."
In turn, he notes that "this inability to give a straight answer is a result of 30 years of bad policy that has pressed Israel to create a Palestinian state in the historic Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria, which the world calls the West Bank."
However, Fleisher goes on to note encouragingly that Israeli policy-makers and thinkers are finally starting to think outside of the box about new solutions to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, listing "five credible plans [that] are on the table already."
The first option he notes is that of former MKs Aryeh Eldad and Benny Elon, whereby "Jordan is Palestine."
"Under their plan, Israel would assert Israeli law in Judea and Samaria while Arabs living there would have Israeli residency and Jordanian citizenship. Those Arabs would exercise their democratic rights in Jordan, but live as expats with civil rights in Israel," he explained.
A second option is that of Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett, whereby Israel would annex "Area C," containing most of the Jews in Judea and Samaria, while allowing Arab self-rule in Areas A and B.
A third option is that of Prof. Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University, which is based on the idea that the Palestinians are comprised of a collection of clans. "The Palestinian Arabs are not a cohesive nation, he argues, but are comprised of separate city-based clans. So he proposes Palestinian autonomy for seven non-contiguous emirates in major Arab cities, as well as Gaza, which he considers already an emirate. Israel would annex the rest of the West Bank and offer Israeli citizenship to Arab villagers outside those cities."
A fourth option is that of Jerusalem Post journalist Caroline Glick, who proposes that Israel should simply "assert Israeli law in the West Bank and offer Israeli citizenship to its entire Arab population without fear of being outvoted," and rely on demographic indicators that Jews will maintain a demographic majority over the Palestinians.
A fifth option is that of Zehut party Chairman Moshe Feiglin and Martin Sherman of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. Seeing no way to resolve the "conflicting national aspirations [of the Israelis and Palestinians] in one land," they propose "an exchange of populations with Arab countries, which effectively expelled about 800,000 Jews around the time of Israeli independence," with Arabs leaving voluntarily receiving generous compensation - in contrast to their expelled Jewish counterparts.
Fleisher concludes that while each one of these solutions has drawbacks, the fact that "Israeli policy is at last on the move" is encouraging.
"None of these options is a panacea. Every formula has some potentially repugnant element or tricky trade-off. But Israeli policy is at last on the move, as the passing of the [Regulation Law] indicates."
6. ISRAIR FLIGHT GROUNDED DURING TAKEOFF
by Yoni Kempinski
An Israir flight that was supposed to have flown to Bulgaria this morning was stopped on the runway after a problem was noticed in its engines, and its passengers were removed.
"A", one of the passengers, related, "complete chaos this morning on flight 711 of Israir. The plane got on the runway, started to take off, and suddenly braked, and immediately afterward emergency teams came onto the runway."
"A" related that a heavy smell of smoke filled the air. "The pilot announced that there was a problem with one of the engines, and the passengers had to get off again and wait without knowing when, if at all, there would be a replacement flight."
"In days when trust in El Al is lacking, it is expected that competing companies give outstanding service," A asserted.
Israir said in response, "During takeoff a warning light turned on. The flight was stopped, the plane returned to terminal and the passengers got off the plane. The passengers received coupons for breakfast. At this stage, additional checks are being undertaken to verify that the problem is dealt with and, in parallel, the company is preparing a substitute plane."
"Safety and security of passengers is our utmost concern and, in cases like this, even if there is a delay in the flight, the company won't let a flight depart when there is not complete confidence that everything is working properly," the company said.
7. 'A NEW DAY FOR US-ISRAEL RELATIONS'
by Nitzan Keidar
The White House has summarized yesterday's meeting between US President Donald Trump and PM Netanyahu.
In an official statement, the White House said that the two "agreed to strengthen special connection between Israel and the US."
A senior White House official noted that, during the meeting between the two, Trump emphasized the US' unwavering commitment to the security of Israel. He said that the two talked at length about the need to address Iranian threats, in addition to joint efforts against ISIS and other radical Islamic terror groups.
The official added that "the two leaders said that the Iran deal was a mistake for the US, Israel, and the whole world. The President promised the PM that he would prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."
"The two leaders committed to strengthening cooperation to bring peace and stability to the Middle East in order to protect the US, Israel, and other countries from the threat of global terror."
It was also noted that Trump's desire to advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians came up in the meeting. Sources close to Trump emphasized the need for direct negotiations between the parties, with the US acting as mediator.
The senior official said "the two leaders talked about settlement building in Israel," and agreed to continue with those talks in order to consolidate an approach in line with the goal of advancing peace and security.
Of mention is the fact that, just as Netanyahu's briefing following the meeting made no mention of "two states," so Trump's representatives made no such mention following the meeting.
In the meeting, it was agreed upon that the two sides would form joint groups whose goal is to bring about "dramatic improvement" in the relations of the countries in the fields of security, trade, and technology.
"This is a new day for US-Israel relations, that have been defined anew by joint cooperation in challenges and opportunities that the two countries will address together," the White House summarized.
8. HANNITY: 'THE ALL RADICAL LEFT PROPAGANDA MEDIA'
[youtube:2024715]
------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
