Netanyahu regime under US pressure to contain far-right tactics in West Bank

Netanyahu regime under US pressure to contain far-right tactics in West Bank
Washington has sent warning messages to Netanyahu through its ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, in the wake of the success of right-wing Israeli parties in elections in early November. (AP)
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Updated 23 December 2022
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Netanyahu regime under US pressure to contain far-right tactics in West Bank

Netanyahu regime under US pressure to contain far-right tactics in West Bank
  • New government must abide by Biden requests as it needs US arms to face Iran threat, analyst tells Arab News
  • Palestinian soccer player killed in Nablus amid growing concern over settler aggression at Joseph’s Tomb site

RAMALLAH: Washington has informed Tel Aviv that it will not grant entry visas to the US for Israeli security personnel or settlers who engage in violence in the West Bank, according to Israeli sources.

The US also indicated it may reduce its military aid to Israel, or may not grant annual guarantees for $33 billion in assistance for the next 10 years, if used against Palestinians in the West Bank.

This development coincided with incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing success in forming a new government.

Washington has sent warning messages to Netanyahu through its ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, in the wake of the success of right-wing Israeli parties in elections in early November.

The US identified red lines that President Joe Biden will not allow to be crossed, including Israel taking unilateral steps to undermine the two-state solution, and changing the status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Israeli political analyst Yoni Ben Menachem told Arab News that the Netanyahu government is obliged to abide by the US requests because it needs weapons from Washington for military operations in Iran.

Netanyahu “will not enter into a confrontation with Biden because he needs to obtain this American weapon, and he informed both (coalition partners Itamar) Ben-Gvir and (Bezalel) Smotrich of this,” Ben Menachem told Arab News.

The analyst indicated that Biden does not want a confrontation with Netanyahu as it would strengthen extremists in the incoming government, undermine the Palestinian Authority and the two-state solution

Palestinian political analyst Ghassan Al-Khatib told Arab News that the composition of the new Israeli government constituted a challenge and embarrassment to the Biden administration. 

He said the president would pressure Netanyahu to curb those far-right elements in his coalition, which, Al-Khatib said, would also be in the interests of the new prime minister, so as to lessen their influence over him.

Netanyahu has for some time pursued a strategy of exaggerating the Iranian threat to the region in order to entice more Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel and to obtain advanced American weapons, as well as using that threat domestically to imply an existential threat against Israel.

But he is struggling to promote the idea whilst simultaneously claiming the Palestinian Authority poses an equally existential threat.

The PA, meanwhile, may benefit from US pressure on Israel and the presence of extreme right-wing elements in government to revitalize its own efforts to improve relations with international organizations and European countries.

In another development, Palestinians sources say the Jewish shrine of Joseph’s Tomb, located in the center of Nablus beside the Balata refugee camp, has become a hotbed of tension and violence.

The frequent storming of the site by dozens of religious settlers, protected by the Israel Defense Force, often leads to stone-thowing or armed confrontations between Palestinians, settlers and the IDF.

The number of Palestinians killed at the site since the beginning of the year is estimated at 20, the latest of whom was soccer player Ahmed Daraghmeh, who died on Wednesday night in an incident that saw 22 others injured when Palestinian militants exchanged fire with Israeli troops escorting Jewish worshippers to the tomb in the Palestinian city.

Palestinian sources say incursions increased after Netanyahu and his allies performed well in the polls in November, and that settlers stoke tensions by posting photos and videos upon their arrival at the shrine on social media.

A high-ranking Palestinian security officer in Nablus, who preferred not to be named, told Arab News that the IDF and settlers’ repeated incursions into the area often occurred without prior official coordination with the Palestinian security services, instead making announcements in advance through Israeli social media and official settler webpages.

Loud music, dancing, screaming and partying are common when they arrive, said the Palestinian  officer, adding that settlers often set up tables laden with food at the shrine. “This is a provocative act, not a prayer,” he added.

The official said that before, visits were limited to once a month during daylight hours, when Palestinians in the area tended to be at work or school, but that they now take place more often and usually at night, with increasingly provocative, far-right overtones.

The visits cause an increase in the security burden and widespread embarrassment for the Palestinian security services, as every visit to the shrine ends with violence and, increasingly, the killing and wounding of Palestinians.

“Palestinian citizens are wondering where the Palestinian security is to protect us from the oppression of the army and the storming settlers. But, according to the agreements with the Israeli side, we cannot engage in armed clashes with the Israeli army, which harms the image and prestige of the Palestinian security forces in the eyes of its people,” the source told Arab News.

He described the shrine as having become one of the most bloody and tense points between the Palestinians, the IDF and the Israeli settlers in the West Bank, second only to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinian police guard the tomb around the clock, but withdraw when the IDF and settlers arrive to visit the site.

An Israeli source told Arab News that the clashes at Joseph’s Tomb were due to the weakness of the Palestinian security services in Nablus, which no longer control the city.
 


Israel says it foiled Iranian plot to target, spy on senior Israeli politicians

Israel says it foiled Iranian plot to target, spy on senior Israeli politicians
Updated 27 September 2023
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Israel says it foiled Iranian plot to target, spy on senior Israeli politicians

Israel says it foiled Iranian plot to target, spy on senior Israeli politicians
  • The Shin Bet security service alleged that an Iranian security official living in neighboring Jordan had recruited three Palestinian men in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
  • The targets included National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Yehuda Glick, an American-born far-right Israeli activist

JERUSALEM: Israel arrested five Palestinians in a plot allegedly hatched in Iran to target and spy on senior Israeli politicians, including Israel’s far-right national security minister, the country’s internal security agency said Wednesday.
The Shin Bet security service alleged that an Iranian security official living in neighboring Jordan had recruited three Palestinian men in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and another two Palestinian citizens of Israel to gather intelligence about several high-profile Israeli politicians.
The targets included National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — a firebrand Israeli settler leader who oversees the country’s police force in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government — as well as Yehuda Glick, an American-born far-right Israeli activist and former member of parliament.
The plan was foiled by Israeli intelligence officials, the Shin Bet said, without offering evidence.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.
Ben-Gvir, who draws inspiration from a racist rabbi, has provoked outrage across the wider Middle East for his particularly hard-line policies against the Palestinians, anti-Arab rhetoric and stunts and frequent public visits to the holiest and most contested site in the Holy Land. The hilltop compound in Jerusalem, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is at the emotional center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Glick is a leader in a campaign that pushes for increased Jewish access and prayer rights at the sacred Jerusalem compound, the holiest site in Judaism home to ancient biblical Temples. Today, the compound houses the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Since Israel captured the site in 1967, Jews have been allowed to visit but not pray there. Glick survived a 2014 Palestinian assassination attempt.
The Shin Bet did not elaborate on the identity of the Iranian official in Jordan who allegedly orchestrated the plot. He is not in custody and apparently remains at large.
But the Shin Bet accused three Palestinian men in the West Bank — identified as 47-year old Murad Kamamaja, 34-year-old Hassan Mujarimah and 45-year-old Ziad Shanti — of gathering intelligence and smuggling weapons into Israel. The security service also said that it charged two Palestinian citizens of Israel over their involvement in the plot. It did not specify how the men planned to target Ben-Gvir and the other politicians.
Ben-Gvir claimed that the Palestinian suspects had conspired to “assassinate a minister in Israel,” without clarifying whether he meant himself or another minister. He thanked Israeli security forces for uncovering and capturing what he called the “terrorist squad.”
Ben-Gvir, who has pushed for harsher treatment for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, also vowed to double down on his hard-line policies in response to the revelations. “I will continue to act fearlessly and even more vigorously for a fundamental change in the conditions of the terrorists’ imprisonment,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Israel has considered Iran to be its greatest enemy since it became a Shiite theocracy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran is a main patron of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which Israel considers the most potent military threat on its borders, and also backs Palestinian Islamist militant groups in the Gaza Strip.


US targets Iran drone procurement network, accuses it of aiding Russia

 The US has accused Tehran of supplying Russia with drones to support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. (File/AFP)
The US has accused Tehran of supplying Russia with drones to support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. (File/AFP)
Updated 27 September 2023
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US targets Iran drone procurement network, accuses it of aiding Russia

 The US has accused Tehran of supplying Russia with drones to support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. (File/AFP)
  • “Iranian-made UAVs continue to be a key tool for Russia in its attacks in Ukraine, including those that terrorize Ukrainian citizens,” Treasury said

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a network it said was helping procure sensitive parts for Iran’s drone program, and accused Tehran of supplying Russia with drones to support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The network has facilitated shipments and financial transactions in support of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) procurement of a critical component used in Iran’s Shahed-136 drones, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
The move is the latest in a series of recent sanctions on Iran. Wednesday’s action targets entities and individuals in Iran, China, and other countries.
“Iranian-made UAVs continue to be a key tool for Russia in its attacks in Ukraine, including those that terrorize Ukrainian citizens and attack its critical infrastructure,” Treasury official Brian Nelson said in a statement.


More than 100 dead, scores more injured in Iraq wedding inferno

More than 100 dead, scores more injured in Iraq wedding inferno
Updated 53 min 45 sec ago
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More than 100 dead, scores more injured in Iraq wedding inferno

More than 100 dead, scores more injured in Iraq wedding inferno
  • The fire ripped through a large event hall after fireworks were lit during the celebration
  • civil defense authorities say prefabricated panels inside hall were 'highly flammable'

QARAQOSH: At least 100 people were killed and more than 150 injured when a fire broke out during a wedding at an event hall in the northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, officials said early Wednesday.

At the main hospital in the predominantly Christian town east of Mosul, an AFP photographer saw ambulances arriving with sirens blaring and dozens of people gathering in the courtyard to donate blood.

Others could be seen gathering in front of the open doors of a refrigerated truck loaded with black body bags.

Citing a “preliminary tally,” Iraq’s official INA news agency reported that health authorities in Nineveh province had “counted 100 dead and more than 150 injured in the fire at a marriage hall in Hamdaniyah,” as the town is also known.

The casualty toll was confirmed to AFP by health ministry spokesman Saif Al-Badr.

Badr said most of the injured were being treated for burns or oxygen deprivation, adding that there had also been crowd crushes at the scene.

In a statement, civil defense authorities reported the presence of prefabricated panels inside the event hall that were “highly flammable and contravened safety standards.”

The danger was compounded by the “release of toxic gases linked to the combustion of the panels,” which contained plastic.

“The fire caused some parts of the ceiling to fall due to the use of highly flammable, low-cost construction materials,” the statement said, with “preliminary information” suggesting fireworks were to blame for the blaze.

Wedding guest Rania Waad, who sustained a burn to her hand, said that as the bride and groom “were slow dancing, the fireworks started to climb to the ceiling (and) the whole hall went up in flames.”

“We couldn’t see anything,” the 17-year-old said, choking back sobs. “We were suffocating, we didn’t know how to get out.”

Emergency crews were seen sifting through the charred remains of the event hall early Wednesday, inspecting the scene by flashlight.

In a brief statement, Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani called on the health and interior ministers to “mobilize all rescue efforts” to help the victims of the fire.

The health ministry said “medical aid trucks” had been dispatched to the area from Baghdad and other provinces, adding that its teams in Nineveh had been mobilized to care for the injured.

Safety standards in Iraq’s construction sector are often disregarded, and the country, whose infrastructure is in disrepair after decades of conflict, is often the scene of fatal fires and accidents.

In July 2021, a fire in the Covid unit of a hospital in southern Iraq killed more than 60 people.

And in April of the same year, exploding oxygen tanks triggered a fire at a hospital in Baghdad — also dedicated to Covid patients — that killed more than 80 people.

Like many Christian towns in the Nineveh Plains, northeast of Mosul, Qaraqosh was ransacked by jihadists of the Daesh group after they entered the town in 2014.

Qaraqosh and its churches were slowly rebuilt after the group’s ouster in 2017, and Pope Francis visited the town in March 2021.


US condemns attack by Yemen’s Houthis that killed Bahraini troops near Saudi border

US condemns attack by Yemen’s Houthis that killed Bahraini troops near Saudi border
Updated 27 September 2023
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US condemns attack by Yemen’s Houthis that killed Bahraini troops near Saudi border

US condemns attack by Yemen’s Houthis that killed Bahraini troops near Saudi border
  • Pentagon said the attack threatens the ‘longest period of calm’ since the Yemeni war began
  • Three Bahraini soldiers were killed in the attack and a number were wounded

LONDON: The US Department of Defense has strongly condemned an attack on Monday — reportedly carried out by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on the Saudi-Yemen border — that killed Bahraini service members and injured others.

The Pentagon said in a statement on Wednesday: “Such unacceptable attacks threaten the longest period of calm since the war in Yemen began.

“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the people of Bahrain, to our partners in the Bahrain Defense Force, and to the government of Bahrain.”

Bahrain’s military command said that a drone attack by Yemen’s Houthis killed two Bahraini soldiers, one of whom was an officer, at Saudi Arabia’s southern border early on Monday.

The military’s statement, which was carried by the state-run Bahrain News Agency, said “a number” of Bahraini soldiers, who had been patrolling the area as part of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, were also wounded in the strike.

A third Bahraini service member died on Wednesday, BNA reported.

The drone attack represents a major escalation in offensive actions after more than a year of relative calm in Yemen, during which peace efforts gained momentum.

Houthi officials last week completed five days of talks in Riyadh on a potential agreement toward ending the conflict, the first public visit by a Houthi delegation to Saudi Arabia since hostilities commenced.


US to admit Israel into visa waiver program

US to admit Israel into visa waiver program
Updated 27 September 2023
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US to admit Israel into visa waiver program

US to admit Israel into visa waiver program

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration is set to announce on Wednesday that it will admit Israel into the United States Visa Waiver Program (VWP), allowing visa-free entry by Israeli citizens from Nov. 30, officials said.
The decision, which Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday was expected, is a win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist government, whose relations with Washington have been strained over its judiciary overhaul plan and its policies toward the Palestinians.
For admission to the program that allows visitors to stay for up to 90 days without a visa, Washington requires countries to meet requirements on issues such as counterterrorism, law enforcement, immigration enforcement, document security, and border management.
Countries must also treat all US travelers equally, regardless of other passports they hold.
In Israel’s case, that means free passage for Palestinian Americans at its airports and on journeys with the occupied Palestinian territories.
Some Palestinians have protested against Israel’s entry into the VWP, citing what they say are decades of discriminatory treatment of Arab Americans and harassment at Israel’s borders.
In a pilot period since July 20, Israel has eased access for Palestinian Americans through its borders and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Between 45,000 and 60,000 Palestinian Americans live in the West Bank, a US official estimated. An Israeli official put the figure lower, saying that of 70,000 to 90,000 Palestinian Americans worldwide, 15,000 to 20,000 are West Bank residents.
There are 40 countries in the VWP, with nations added infrequently, Croatia being the most recent in 2021.
A group of 15 US senators wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sept. 8, voicing serious concerns that Israel was not in compliance with requirements for reciprocal treatment of all US citizens.
On Tuesday, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee on Tuesday filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security, seeking to block Israel's entry to the programme.
A US judge in Detroit denied an emergency motion on procedural grounds, saying the department had not been provided proper notice of the lawsuit.
In Aug. 2021, the White House had said it was working with Israel towards its inclusion in the Visa Waiver Program.