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/
Wednesday, Dec. 28 '16, כ"ח בכסלו תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. YESHA COUNCIL ENVOY: KERRY IS A LIAR, HE'S NOT SAYING THE TRUTH
2. EGYPTIAN REPORT: US LED THE CHARGE TO PASS THE UN RESOLUTION
3. PAKISTAN'S DEFENSE MINISTER CRITICIZED OVER THREAT TO ISRAEL
4. KERRY TO OFFER COMPREHENSIVE VISION ON ISRAEL-PA PEACE
5. DUTCH POLICE: BERLIN SUSPECT MAY HAVE VISITED NETHERLANDS
6. JERUSALEM BUILDING COMMITTEE DELAYS APPROVAL OF NEW UNITS
7. PA PLANNING MORE STEPS AGAINST ISRAEL AT ICC
8. HEZBOLLAH INCREASES MISSILE ARSENAL
1. YESHA COUNCIL ENVOY: KERRY IS A LIAR, HE'S NOT SAYING THE TRUTH
by Eliran Aharon
[youtube:1129182]
Prior to US Secretary of State John Kerry's speech, which is expected to be one attacking Israel, YESHA Council Chief Foreign Envoy and Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi said Kerry was not a person who could be relied on.
"When I met with Kerry a few weeks ago, I understood that we're talking about a person who is disconnected from reality and looking to make headlines. He's a person who takes sides in an argument and confuses facts with wishes. During his years in office, Kerry has seen over and over again Israel's willingness to compromise, as well as the Palestinian Authority's stubbornness and insistence on ignoring golden opportunities for lasting peace."
Revivi also said Kerry "has to stop dreaming and fantasizing about what Israel considers to be a nightmare. He also needs to connect to reality, and stop believing his fantasies are facts."
"John Kerry is a stain on American foreign policy that is ignorant of the issues. He has chosen to eternalize his legacy as the worst secretary of state in history that chose to stab his closest ally in the back while rivers of blood flowed like water across the Middle-East," continued Revivi. "I can personally attest to the fact that he knows very little about the realities in Judea and Samaria and instead chooses to defame us from afar by repeating fictitious mantras against us.
"I'd like to remind the outgoing American administration that Israel's building policy is made in Jerusalem by our democratically elected government. It is the Israeli government that was elected by an overwhelming majority of the Israeli people that supports building in our ancestral homeland.
"Our rights to this land are fully legal and cannot be refuted; this is the reason that proclamations are being made instead providing solid legal arguments against us. Nearly half a million Israelis currently reside on the strategic highlands of Judea and Samaria overlooking seventy percent of Israel's population and industrial base, no amount of speeches or resolutions can reverse this reality," he concluded.
2. EGYPTIAN REPORT: US LED THE CHARGE TO PASS THE UN RESOLUTION
by Shimon Cohen
A new report from an Egyptian news site lends credence to the Israeli contention that the US was behind the recently passed anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution.
According to the report, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with senior PA official Saeb Erekat before the vote to coordinate official positions on the resolution.
The revelations of the meeting, at which US National Security Advisor Susan Rice was also present, were broadcast this morning on Israel's Channel 2.
During the meeting, those present blamed PM Netanyahu for preventing a "two-state solution," and set out to achieve amongst themselves a so-called balanced proposal.
The Egyptian report also said that, aside from coordination of positions and an effective American promise that the US would spearhead the resolution and ensure that it got passed, the American representatives requested from the PA representatives that they ensure no terror attacks were carried out until the vote - to increase chances of the resolution's passage.
This week, Minister Ze'ev Elkin told Arutz Sheva that the Ukrainian vote in favor of the resolution was influenced by American pressure. This claim fits well with the Egyptian report that the US had promised the PA to ensure that countries voted against Israel.
On Wednesday evening, Kerry is expected to make a speech outlining his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its solution.
3. PAKISTAN'S DEFENSE MINISTER CRITICIZED OVER THREAT TO ISRAEL
by Ben Ariel
Officials in Pakistan's government are criticizing the country's defense minister for tweeting a nuclear threat against Israel over what was a fake news story.
The Defense Minister, Khawaja Asif, who has several times threatened to use nuclear weapons on neighboring India, threatened Israel after a fake news report claimed Israel had threatened to nuke Pakistan.
The fake report, published on the AWD website, claimed Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman had said Israel would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons on Pakistan if Pakistan sent troops into Syria. The article also claimed former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon had threatened Pakistan following a reported deal between Pakistan and Syria.
Pakistan's Defense then Ministry noted that Israel had "forgotten" about Pakistan's nuclear capabilities.
"Israeli def min threatens nuclear retaliation presuming pak role in Syria against Daesh. Israel forgets Pakistan is a Nuclear state too," Asif tweeted on Friday.
The Israeli defense ministry responded the following day and said the story was "entirely false".
A senior Pakistani foreign ministry official told the Financial Times on Tuesday that the episode highlighted a "double risk".
The official referred to "the use of social media, which allows people to react without thinking through their response; and the fact that the defense minister does not appear to have consulted anyone".
Ali Sarwar Naqvi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also criticized Asif and told the Financial Times, "This was a very ill-thought statement without verification of the source of this news. The foreign ministry should have been consulted."
One western official accused Asif of "being prone to thinking later and talking first", adding that the defense minister had behaved "a bit like Donald Trump".
Asif's comments have drawn particular criticism because the original AWD story was relatively easy to check, noted the Financial Times.
One western diplomat said the possibility of Pakistan sending troops to Syria has never been discussed.
"The minister should have asked himself first if sending troops to Syria has ever been discussed anywhere. Why should an Israeli politician raise this matter to begin with?"
4. KERRY TO OFFER COMPREHENSIVE VISION ON ISRAEL-PA PEACE
by Elad Benari
Secretary of State John Kerry will on Wednesday make a speech regarding the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and discuss next steps needed to resolve the conflict, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
Kerry will offer a "comprehensive vision" of how he believes the process should be revived, Toner said.
The Secretary of State believes "it is his duty in his remaining weeks and days as Secretary of State to lay out what he believes is a way towards a two-state solution," he continued.
"It's always important to keep the process moving forward," Toner told reporters. "We haven't given up on this and we don't think the Israelis and Palestinians should do either."
Kerry last led a failed Israel-PA peace effort in 2014. Those talks ended when the PA breached their conditions and unilaterally applied to join international institutions.
His speech on the peace process comes less than a week after the UN Security Council passed an anti-Israel resolution condemning Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria. The resolution passed when the U.S. abstained in the vote, allowing it to go through.
Toner on Tuesday rejected claims that the Obama administration had pushed for the Security Council resolution.
"There was nothing pre-cooked, this was not some move orchestrated by the United States," Toner stressed, according to Reuters.
He defended the administration's decision to abstain during the vote, saying the United States wanted to "send a clear message about our concerns about settlement activity."
"We don't want this to create a diplomatic firestorm," he added.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer told CNN on Monday that Israel has proof that the Obama administration was behind Friday's UN Security Council resolution.
"We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels. If they want to share it with the American people they are welcome to do it," said Dermer.
According to Dermer, not only did the U.S. not stand by Israel's side during the vote, it "was behind this ganging up on Israel at the UN."
Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, later fired back and told Israel's Channel 2 News that "Israeli intransigence" led to the vote in the Security Council.
5. DUTCH POLICE: BERLIN SUSPECT MAY HAVE VISITED NETHERLANDS
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Dutch police announced on Wednesday they were investigating whether 24-year-old Anis Amri had passed through the Netherlands
On December 19, a man plowed into a crowd of civilians at Berlin's Christmas market, killing 12 people. That man is believed to be Amri, who was killed in a shooting match in Italy on December 23.
National Prosecutor's Office Spokesman Wim de Bruin said there were signs Amri had passed through the Netherlands on his way to France. However, he also said full details are not available since investigations are not yet complete.
6. JERUSALEM BUILDING COMMITTEE DELAYS APPROVAL OF NEW UNITS
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee has announced the cancellation of Wednesday's meeting.
During the meeting, the Committee was scheduled to approve the construction of 490 new housing units in Jerusalem's Ramot and Ramat Shlomo neighborhoods.
In addition, a discussion regarding Arab building permits in Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Beit Safafa was also canceled.
The cancellation of Wednesday's meetings comes just ahead of US Secretary of State John Kerry's scheduled speech on Wednesday night, and Committee Chairman Meir Turgeman said the cancellations came at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
"The Jerusalem municipality and committees are not involved in or planning a building freeze," a Jerusalem spokesperson said. "Sometimes there are delays of several weeks, and sometimes permits are delayed for technical reasons. We have received no new instructions from the Prime Minister on the subject."
7. PA PLANNING MORE STEPS AGAINST ISRAEL AT ICC
by Dalit Halevi
Saeb Erekat, formerly the chief negotiator on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and a member of the Fatah Central Committee, threatened on Tuesday that the PA would take a number of steps in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against what he termed the "crimes of the Israeli occupation, led by the settlements."
"The whole world, including the five permanent members of the Security Council and the United States in particular, unanimously agreed and clearly said that Israel's occupation of Palestinian land and all that it entails is illegal and a war crime," said Erekat.
"On this basis," he added, "the Palestinian leadership will take steps in response to Israel's arrogance and the war crimes that it continues to commit."
Another member of the Fatah Central Committee, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said last week's resolution passed by the UN Security Council opens new avenues for diplomatic activities against the "settlements".
He said that the PA will try to submit another draft resolution to the Security Council which calls for sanctions against Israel over the "settlements".
The PA officially joined the ICC on April 1, 2015, and immediately filed a series of legal complaints with the court. In addition to claiming that Israel committed war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war, it also claimed that Israeli "settlements" are "an ongoing war crime".
Earlier this week, a close associate of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas threatened to sue Israeli officers at the ICC following the vote at the Security Council.
"In 2017 we will go to The Hague," the associate told Israel's Channel 2 News, adding, "We have hundreds of pages with names of IDF officers. Every pilot and every officer and every soldier, we have his picture, his name, and we are waiting for him at The Hague. If we succeed in just one case, it's a different world."
8. HEZBOLLAH INCREASES MISSILE ARSENAL
by ILTV
[brightcove:2022550]
------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
