MIDEAST PEACE PROCESS: 5.23.16 - Israel ready to work with Arab states on peace process -

Israel ready to work with Arab states on peace process - By Raoul Wootliff -http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-israel-ready-to-work-with-arab-states-on-peace-process/

 

Netanyahu 'welcomes' Egyptian president's appeal to Israelis, Palestinians to advance accord, praises his 'leadership'

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel is ready to engage with Arab states to advance a peace deal with the Palestinians.

 

Netanyahu "welcomed" remarks by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who said in a live televised statement earlier in the day that he saw a "real opportunity" for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement that would also lead to warmer ties between Egypt and the Jewish state.

 

"Israel is ready to participate with Egypt and other Arab states in advancing both the diplomatic process and stability in the region," Netanyahu said in a statement. "I appreciate President el-Sissi's work and am encouraged by the leadership he has shown on this important issue."

 

In a rare direct appeal to Palestinians and Israelis, Sissi had urged the two peoples to draw hope from the "real and stable peace" between Israel and Egypt.

 

"There is an Arab initiative, there is currently a French initiative, and there are American efforts" to broker an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, he said.

 

His speech came hours after Paris announced that a Middle East peace conference initially slated to take place in the coming weeks would be postponed to ensure the US would be able to attend.

 

France has made clear that despite the postponement, it plans to push ahead with the initiative to revive the moribund peace process.

 

Expressing support for the French proposal, Sissi added that Egypt is prepared to "make every effort" to contribute to an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

 

The Egyptian leader urged Israeli parties and leaders to "please, reach an agreement so a solution can be found" and called for "a real reconciliation, and quickly" between Palestinian factions, offering Cairo's full support.

 

"If we are able to - all of us together - with effort and a real will and devotion, find a solution for this issue, and find hope for the Palestinians and security for the Israelis, I am telling you a new page will be written," he said.

 

Sissi said that Israelis and Palestinians need look no further than the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty to see the positive outcome of peacemaking. He said the level of animosity between Egypt and Israel that had existed prior to the conclusion of the landmark accord was no different from how the Palestinians and Israelis feel now.

 

In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel.

 

"Maybe some people can say this peace is not warm," Sissi said. "I tell them a warmer peace will be achieved if we were able to resolve the issues of our Palestinian brothers."

 

The French summit, which is set to include representatives from 20 countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, was due to take place on May 30 but was postponed by France so that US Secretary of State John Kerry would be able to attend.

 

"Kerry cannot come on May 30 so it has been delayed. It will take place in the summer," French President Francois Hollande told French radio Tuesday.

 

The State Department said Monday that Kerry would be unavailable on the day of the conference, which falls on Memorial Day, but that the United States and France are looking into a possible alternative date for the ministerial discussions.

 

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a new date at the beginning of June "will be set soon."

 

While the Palestinian Authority welcomed the summit in a press release on its official website, Hamas has said the announcement of its postponement was further proof of the failure of the peace process, which the group officially rejects.

 

Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog, who has been in talks with Netanyahu to bring his Labor Party into the coalition, lauded Sissi's speech, saying it showed peace is possible.

 

"I welcome the announcement," he said, "This is a dramatic announcement that shows the possibility of a historic process. It is our duty to examine it seriously; otherwise we will find ourselves doing so after the next funeral. It is vital to listen to the Egyptian president and take a serious and responsible look at this opportunity.

 

'Without peace, Mideast extremism will hit Israel,' Abbas warns - http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Without-peace-Mideast-extremism-will-hit-Israel-Abbas-warns-454195

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of a peace conference in Paris, insisting that any talks between the two sides should be direct.

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the French initiative for an international peace conference aimed at resolving the Middle East conflict.

 

"Let's leave everything in the past and let's meet," the Palestinian leader said from his headquarters in Ramallah.

 

Netanyahu has rejected the idea of a peace conference in Paris, insisting that any talks between the two sides should be direct.

 

"When two sides are invited to a meeting, one cannot present preconditions," the Palestinian leader said. "It's the international community that should determine what is right and what isn't."

 

When asked by The Jerusalem Post's Hebrew-language sister publication Ma'ariv why he refuses the Israeli demand to explicitly recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Abbas refused to comment.

 

Abbas, who met with a delegation of Israelis from the left-wing social democratic Meretz party, was asked if he lost faith in Netanyahu and his sincerity in negotiating peace.

 

"Ever since we started negotiating with the Israelis, we've been talking to every prime minister," the Palestinian leader said. "I can't say whether I believe him or not or whether I've lost faith in him."

 

Abbas criticized Netanyahu and his government for continued expansion of Israeli settlements.

 

"The Israeli government is building settlements on Palestinian land," the PA chief said. "We will not agree to a situation whereby a new settlement and a new checkpoint are cropping up all the time."

 

"The entire world is against settlements," he said. "This is the position taken by the Americans and the Europeans. There have been 12 Security Council resolutions against settlements. Stop them."

 

The Palestinian rais made a direct appeal to Netanyahu.

 

"When the whip is over my head, you can't tell me to stop," Abbas said. "You have to stop. You say that there is no partner for negotiations and that your hand is outstretched for talks. You want to pick someone else [with whom to negotiate]? The Israelis picked you and the Palestinians picked me. I'm a 'diplomatic terrorist,' as [former foreign minister Avigdor] Liberman put it. Besides that, there's nothing you can say about me."

 

"Put it all to the side and let's negotiate," Abbas said. "We aren't far apart [physically] and we cooperate on a daily basis. Don't push us to the wall. We will all lose."

 

The Palestinian leader invited Meretz officials to the Muqata for a discussion. Meretz is the only Zionist party that has publicly backed the French initiative.

 

The Meretz delegation was led by MK Esawi Frej and the party's secretary-general, Mussi Raz.

 

"The French plan is a good one since we want the international community to take responsibility for this endless conflict," the rais said. "We want the whole word by our side. We are one of the last remaining nations that suffer under military occupation. How much longer will this go on? How much longer will the world permit one people to control another?"

 

Abbas claimed that if Netanyahu refuses to go along with the French initiative, the Islamic State will gain a foothold in the region. A similar sentiment was echoed by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault during his trip to the area.

 

"If there won't be peace here, the extremists will take over everywhere," Abbas said. "We are against terrorism and violence and we don't want them here or in Europe, but if we don't hurry up [and make peace], all of the extremism in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq will also arrive in Israel."

 

When asked about incitement in official Palestinian media and government-issued textbooks, Abbas said: "Yes, there is incitement in our textbooks and on television. Let's solve the problem and revive the incitement commission that was agreed upon [between Israel and the Palestinian Authority] 16 years ago]."

 

"The commission [which is chaired by the United States] will determine what needs to be corrected," Abbas said.

 

 

 

Is something afoot between Israel & her Sunni Arab neighbors? (If not, why are Egyptian & even Saudi leaders suddenly talking so nicely to the Jewish State?) - Joel C. Rosenberg - https://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/is-something-afoot-between-israel-her-sunni-arab-neighbors-if-not-why-are-egyptian-even-saudi-leaders-suddenly-talking-so-nicely-to-the-jewish-state/

 

Is something afoot between Israel and her Sunni Arab neighbors? Consider a curious chain of events in the region over the past month or so:

 

1.On the one hand, in recent weeks, the Israelis have flatly turned down an offer by the French to attend a summit in Paris later this summer aimed at kick-starting the moribund peace talks with the Palestinians. Israeli leaders say they keep calling for direct talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but Abbas keeps refusing to come to the table. Abbas says he wants an international conference because he doesn't trust Netanyahu to operate in good faith. Abbas supports the French approach.

 

2.In recent days, however, the opposition leader of the Israeli parliament - Zionist Union chief Isaac Herzog - told reporters he is actively considering joining the Netanyahu government (likely as Foreign Minister) in order to pursue a "rare" opportunity for peace with Israel's neighbors. "I have identified a rare regional diplomatic opportunity that may lapse and not return," Herzog told dozens of party activists at a gathering that was secretly recorded and leaked to an Israeli TV station and newspaper. "I don't say this based on nothing, but based on knowledge. don't know if it will happen. But it could be that it will happen only due to a change in the government's composition."

 

3.Some Zionist Union leaders have blasted such talk in recent days. They've said there is no rare moment for peace and have sharply criticized Herzog for being willing to sell out to Netanyahu. They say Herzog is simply angling for a senior government post because he's slipping in the polls and could soon be voted out of leadership in his own political party. "In a scathing broadside, Yachimovich said the prime minister's overtures were like 'a bone Netanyahu has thrown, and called Herzog to come crawling back with the bone in his mouth,'" the Times of Israel reported.

 

4.However, there are curious signs of a possible rapprochement between Israel and Sunni Arab neighbors. Over the last several years, Israeli and Saudi officials, for example, have been jointly developing strategies to thwart Iran's nuclear program. Mostly this has been done under the radar, with occasional leaks to Israel, Western and Arab media. In June of 2015, however, a curious event happened. The Council on Foreign Relations hosted an event titled, "Regional Challenges and Opportunities: The View from Saudi Arabia and Israel." In a rare - almost unprecedented - public event of its kind, the speakers were Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Anwar Eshki of Saudi Arabia and the Hon. Dore Gold, Israel's former Ambassador to the U.N., the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and a confidante of Netanyahu (who was about become Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry soon thereafter). Then, in April 2016, the Egyptians successfully negotiated a transfer of some islands in the Red Sea back to the Saudis, an agreement that required explicit Israeli consent since the islands were covered by the Camp David Accords. This curiously put Israeli, Egyptian and Saudi diplomats in the rare position of privately holding extensive meetings, and then publicly agreeing on a diplomatic accord. Then, earlier this month, something even more curious happened: a senior Saudi official (a member of the Saudi Royal Family, no less) - His Royal Highness Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi intelligence chief and former Saudi ambassador to the U.S. - spoke side-by-side at a "pathbreaking" event in Washington, D.C. with Yaakov Amidror, the former Israeli National Security Advisor and close confidante of Netanyahu. They certainly didn't agree on everything. But they were friendly. They were candid. They talked about various pathways to peace, including the long-discussed Saudi Peace Initiative which was first released in 2002. It's unthinkable that these two men agreed to do the event without approval from their respective governments at the highest levels, even though they are both "formers." It was thus fascinating to watch two former officials (more senior that those speaking at the CFR event the previous June) from two nations so long at war talking respectfully, even as friends. Something does appear to be afoot.

 

5.Last week, Netanyahu gave a speech to a gathering of foreign ambassadors that seemed to hint he might be open to some version of the Saudi peace plan."I want to state unequivocally and in front of diplomats from around the world: I continue to support two states for two peoples: a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state - it's about time," Netanyahu told the diplomats. Then he added, "In recent years, I've seen formerly hostile states in the region and beyond, but especially in the region, form new and deep partnerships with us. I think this is a matter of great importance because I think this creates new hope. We can advance peace with the Palestinians directly and through the support of other nations, including in the region. It was once thought that the only way that we could advance peace with the Arab states was to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That would certainly help enormously. But it's also true that we might solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem by enjoying the support of Arab states who now see Israel more and more not as an enemy, but as an ally against the forces that threaten their own countries as well."

 

6.Then today, out of the blue, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi offered to mediate an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. "El-Sisi promised Israel on Tuesday warmer ties if it accepts efforts to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, urging its leaders not to waste an opportunity to bring security and hope to a troubled region," Reuters reported. "In an impromptu speech at an infrastructure conference in the southern city of Assiut, Sisi said his country was willing to mediate a reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions to pave the way toward a lasting peace accord with the Israelis." Curiously, Reuters also reported that "Sisi, who rarely speaks publicly about foreign policy, offered the 2002 Arab peace initiative as a potential way ahead. The initiative offered full recognition of Israel but only if it gave up all land seized in the 1967 Middle East war and agreed to a 'just solution' for Palestinian refugees."

 

7.UPDATE: "This is a genuine opportunity," said President el-Sisi on national television. "We are willing to make all efforts to help find a solution to this problem....I say to our Palestinian brothers, you must unite the different factions in order to achieve reconciliation and quickly. We as Egypt are prepared to take on this role. It is a real opportunity to find a long-awaited solution."

 

8.Immediately, Netanyahu spoke to reporters to offer praise for el-Sisi's offer. "I welcome Egyptian President El-Sisi's remarks and his willingness to make every effort to advance a future of peace and security between us and the Palestinians and the peoples of the region," Netanyahu told reporters. "Israel is ready to participate with Egypt and other Arab states in advancing both the diplomatic process and stability in the region. I appreciate President El-Sisi's work and also draw encouragement from his leadership on this important issue."

 

9.Then, very shortly thereafter, opposition leader Herzog put out a statement also praising el-Sisi's statement. This was particularly significant given that Herzog is currently negotiating with Netanyahu to create a "unity government" and become the nation's Foreign Minister.

 

10.UPDATE: The French have announced they are postponing their summer peace summit.

 

11.UPDATE: "Channel 10 reported that Netanyahu and Herzog were planning a joint trip to Cairo if the latter joined the coalition, presumably as foreign minister."

 

So what exactly is going on? It's a bit early to say. With apologies to Shakespeare, it could be much ado about nothing.

 

Still, it would appear something is afoot. Netanyahu and Herzog are taking big risks with their political bases to consider a possible unity government which polls show most Israelis do not favor. Why would either leader go down this road unless they sense an opportunity both want to pursue?

 

No one knows the actual contours of what is being discussed, and there are many twists and turns ahead. I'm not saying peace is at hand. History is littered with failed talks. Still, Christ said "blessed are the peacemakers." The Psalmist commands us to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." It's always important to seek peace with one's neighbors and enemies - to try, anyway - is it not, so long as you don't make things worse and not better?

 

Curiously quiet in the back and forth were Palestinian leaders. Maybe they will say more in coming days. Netanyahu has made the case in recent years that rather than Arab states like Saudi Arabia waiting to make peace with Israel until after a deal with the Palestinians is complete, why don't Arab states make peace with Israel now, like Egypt and Jordan have? This, he argues, just might create a framework of security and trust that could improve the chances of the Israelis and Palestinians finding a deal everyone could accept. I'm not saying he's right or wrong. I'm just laying out the argument.

 

Until now, it would have been unimaginable that the Saudis would ever warm up to real peace with Israel. But as I've been reporting for several years, there are definitely signs of thaw between Israel and the Sunni Arab states. Never more so than this past month. Many Arab states increasingly see the apocalyptic regimes of Iran and ISIS as the real threats to regional peace and security, and increasingly see Israel as a potential ally in dealing with both threats. That's not to say the Sunni Arabs are happy with Israel. There are deep-seated cultural, ethnic and religious disagreements for many, and hatreds for some.

 

But that's an update on where we are today.

 

[Final note: Are there prophetic implications to such trends, when viewed from the lens of Bible prophecy? Absolutely, and we'll examine them if the process moves forward.]