How two pro-Israel analysts responded to YouGov’s poll of Palestinians for Arab News

Short Url
Updated 22 May 2023
Follow

How two pro-Israel analysts responded to YouGov’s poll of Palestinians for Arab News

How two pro-Israel analysts responded to YouGov’s poll of Palestinians for Arab News
  • Abraham Accords not designed to resolve the conflict and Palestinians have been let down by their leaders, says Jason Greenblatt
  • Yossi Mekelberg says Palestinians have no reason to trust Benjamin Netanyahu, who is “held hostage” by a far-right government

CHICAGO: Two pro-Israel thought leaders, on the political left and right, have offered their takes on the results of a recent YouGov poll for Arab News, which explored Palestinian attitudes on a range of subjects, from the Abraham Accords to who could be an “honest broker,” referring to the US, Russia or China.

Speaking to “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” on May 17, Jason Greenblatt, the architect of the Abraham Accords and former Middle East envoy for President Donald Trump, and Yossi Mekelberg, associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, expressed their views on the poll, which surveyed 953 Palestinians between April 28 and May 11.

The poll found a large proportion of respondents (25 percent) would prefer Russia to act as mediator in the decades-old conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, while some 18 percent would welcome a Chinese-led initiative to help broker peace, indicating a distinct loss of faith in US-led efforts.

Although Greenblatt said the US is committed to what is in its own best interests, he raised questions about Russia as a potential peace broker and asserted that China’s potential as a mediator has yet to be determined.

“I think the Palestinians are very smart,” said Greenblatt. “They realize their leadership has failed them. The leadership in Gaza, who I view as terrorists, just subjugates the Palestinians — the nearly 2 million Palestinians who live there who suffer because of that leadership.

“I think they recognized they have been failed. They have a terrible economy. Their lives just continue to get worse and worse. There is no road to peace. There is no road to a better future.”

On the role of alternative external mediators to help drive forward the peace process, however, Greenblatt said he believes there is no such thing as an “honest broker.”

FASTFACTS

2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the mass displacement of Palestinians known as the Nakba.

At the same time, the State of Israel marks the 75th anniversary of its creation.

He added: “The US is biased for US interests. Whether those US interests mean that they are biased towards Israel, yes, I would argue that. Although we’ve given, as a country, billions and billions of dollars to Palestinians.

“And depending on the president, and in this case I will speak about the (President Joe) Biden administration, there are many policies that President Biden has effectuated and President Barack Obama before President Trump have effectuated toward the Palestinians where I would say we were biased toward the Palestinians.

“But there are very few countries in the world, at least these countries that play on the big stage, who are not biased toward one side or the other.

“But again, looking through the lens of that country’s side, I noticed in this YouGov poll that there was an interesting finding — that many Palestinians feel that Russia can play an outsized role in this, a good role.

“Let’s think about that. Russia, with the war in Ukraine — and most people are against what Russia is doing in Ukraine, the attacks, the invasion, the death and the destruction — if that is the country that they are relying on for peace, I don’t think we have a prayer or a shot at all of achieving peace.”

Mekelberg, associate fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, and visiting professor at the University of Roehampton, argued that the conflict is in desperate need of an “honest broker,” although he is unsure about Russia’s or China’s role.

“There is a need for an honest broker because this is a non-symmetric conflict. You are talking about a state with military might, with economic might, with support around the world. And a semi-state, Palestine, which itself is divided between Gaza and the West Bank, and Fatah and Hamas.

China does not come with the baggage of some other countries in the EU or the US. What seems a success is bringing a push for Iran and Saudi Arabia. Maybe it’s a new dawn

Yossi Mekelberg, Associate fellow at UK’s Royal Institute of International Affairs

“It is obvious that the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority in this sense will look for support from the outside. But I think also in this case, I am always surprised that the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organization are not more proactive.

“They need to come with a plan. How do you want us to help you in the international community? It is not enough to throw the ball in the court of the international community. It is your responsibility.”

Mekelberg says he is “fascinated” by the Palestinian faith in Russia.

“The frustration I think with the US is, on the one hand, that this YouGov survey demonstrates, is that everyone believes the US has the ability to influence Israel but it doesn’t want to do that for its own political reasons,” he said.

“What are the chances either Republicans or Democrats, especially a year and a half before presidential elections, are going to make any move to try to influence Israel?”

He added: “It is interesting that more and more see China as a potential. I don’t think it (China) comes with the baggage of some other countries in the EU or the US … what seems a success is bringing a push for Iran and Saudi Arabia … maybe it’s a new dawn.”
 

 

With regard to the credibility of the YouGov-Arab News online survey, Tarek Ali Ahmad, head of the Research and Studies Unit at Arab News, which oversaw the poll, told “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” that the UK-based polling agency drew upon a broad sample of respondents, 55 percent of them male and 45 percent of them female.

“Within the sample we have a broad range of people — Palestinians from both the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “We have a broad range from people who are 18 years old to above 45. We have people who are employed, unemployed. Even within it we have the bracket of how much they earn as well as where their education level is.

“So it’s more about the quality of the sample of people that are involved in the surveying to get a real, justified voice of the people and of the Palestinian street. I believe 953 is a good sample.”

Asked about Palestinians blaming Israel’s government for avoiding a final peace agreement, Greenblatt defended Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration, but stressed he disagreed sharply with the views of some Israeli ministers.

If the Palestinians can sit down at the table in a meaningful, good faith manner, a right-wing Israeli government is actually the kind of government that can achieve peace.

Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s Middle East envoy

“I don’t agree that the poll suggested that a right-wing government in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would not be capable of achieving peace,” he said.

“Netanyahu and I think alike in terms of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But I would tell you that under the right circumstances with all of the right positions being discussed and negotiated, he is a man who could achieve peace. But it is not going to be the peace that the Palestinian leadership and so many others around the world have promised the Palestinians for over 70 years.

“If the Palestinians can understand that and sit down at the table in a meaningful, good faith manner, I think a right-wing government is actually the kind of government that can achieve peace.

“I do think the government is more right wing. There are certainly some ministers in the government who say things that shouldn’t be countenanced. I think that they say hateful things and I don’t agree with them.

“I think as a whole, the government is trying very hard under challenging circumstances even having nothing to do with the Palestinians. You have the judicial reform protests. You have all sorts of things going on in Israel. It is a challenging time.

“I think the view is that this right-wing government is very bad for the Palestinians. I think a certain portion of this right-wing government is (bad), two ministers in particular, and I am against those statements that some of those ministers have made.

“And I don’t think that people should be focusing on it because I don’t think that is what the Netanyahu government as a whole thinks.”

Mekelberg, by contrast, does not believe Netanyahu’s government can be trusted.

“We are at the point actually where Israelis don’t trust Netanyahu and they are protesting out there in the streets,” he said. “Why should the Palestinians have any trust in the Netanyahu government? He formed the most far-right government in the country’s history.

“Some he put in a position of power, whether they are National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, or the finance minister for some strange reasons; also a minister in the Defense Ministry, Bezalel Smotrich.

“They believe in the annexation of the West Bank. They will never agree for a two-state solution. And Netanyahu is basically held hostage, not that he is exonerated by that, but by the far right because of this corruption trial.”

Netanyahu has been indicted on three charges of corruption by Israel’s judiciary.

On the issue of the Abraham Accords, Greenblatt defended the diplomatic effort, arguing that people often expect too much from the agreement. “The Abraham Accords wasn’t designed to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said.

“It wasn’t designed to resolve what is the terrible tragic civil war in Syria. It wasn’t designed to resolve the terrible situation in Lebanon. Lebanon is essentially occupied by the Iranian regime and the beautiful country of Lebanon is left with almost nothing. It wasn’t designed to resolve Yemen. I think people put more weight and responsibility on the Abraham Accords than is appropriate.

“It did bring down some tension. It can bring (down) more tension. But at the end of the day, there are lots of conflicts in the Middle East having nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that remain challenging and will be very difficult to resolve.”

Referring to the Arab Peace Initiative, Mekelberg said that the best peace proposal was unveiled in 2002 by the government of Saudi Arabia. But he added that the Palestinian leadership is challenged by its failure to be “proactive.”

He said: “The other option, which is sadly what happened, is they all became complacent and arrogant about it.”

“Why do we (Israelis) need to actually make any progress on the Palestinian issue? There is no rush. That is what we see today ... I think the Palestinians need to be proactive. They can’t wait for the world to solve it because the world is moving in the other direction.”

Indeed, in Mekelberg’s view, the “constitutional crisis” in Israel has pushed the Palestinian issue “to the sidelines.”

Broadcast live in Detroit and Washington D.C. on the US Arab Radio Network, “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” is sponsored by Arab News. Listen to the podcast at ArabNews.com/rayradioshow.

 


Israel leader vows no tolerance for attacks on believers

Israel leader vows no tolerance for attacks on believers
Updated 18 sec ago
Follow

Israel leader vows no tolerance for attacks on believers

Israel leader vows no tolerance for attacks on believers

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday vowed “zero tolerance” for attacks on believers, after a video showed Jewish worshippers spitting toward Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem’s Old City.
“I strongly condemn any attempt to inflict harm on worshippers, and we will take urgent steps against such actions,” said Netanyahu, whose coalition government including ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties is one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history.
“Offensive behavior toward worshippers is a desecration and is unacceptable. We will show zero tolerance toward any harm to worshippers,” he said without referring to any specific attack.
His remarks came a day after a video on social media showed ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on the ground as pilgrims carried crosses along Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa — the route Christians believe Jesus walked before being crucified.
AFP was unable to immediately verify the video, which followed the publication of similar footage of Jews insulting or acting aggressively toward Christians in the Old City.
After capturing it in 1967, Israel annexed east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in a move never recognized by the international community.
The Old City remains at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as tensions between the world’s three major monotheistic faiths.
Last month the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that while attacks on Christians in the Old City were “not a new phenomenon,” they had been more frequent “in the recent period.”
Pizzaballa, who Pope Francis anointed as a cardinal on Saturday, said there were many reasons for the increase, including education.
“There are some movements, some rabbis also, who are inciting on this, or at least approving of this,” he said.
“We have not to forget the past relations between Jews and Christians were not simple, to be diplomatic, and all this creates this context,” he added.
The archbishop also said the frequency of “this phenomenon... is connected, temporarily at least, with this (Israeli) government.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, condemned in “the strongest terms the violence against believers in the Old City and all forms of violence.”
“We must do everything in our power to preserve the delicate fabric of the Old City,” he said, addressing “the leaders of all religions.”


Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president

Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president
Updated 04 October 2023
Follow

Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president

Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president

TUNIS: Tunisia’s public prosecutor detained Abir Moussi, a prominent opponent of President Kais Saied, after she was arrested at the entrance to the presidential palace on Tuesday, lawyers said, the latest arrest targeting Saied’s political rivals.

“Moussi was detained for 48 hours in charges of processing personal data, obstructing the right to work, and assault intended to cause chaos,” lawyer Aroussi Zgir said.

Authorities were not immediately available to comment.

Police this year have detained more than 20 leading political figures, accusing some of plotting against state security. Saied has described those detained as “terrorists, traitors and criminals.”

An assistant of Moussi said in a video on Facebook that Moussi was “kidnapped” in front of the Carthage Palace.

Moussi leads the Free Constitutional Party and is a supporter of late president Zine El Abidine ben Ali who was toppled by mass protests in 2011.

In recent months, the party has organized protests against Saied. Moussi accuses Saied of ruling outside the law, and said that she is ready to make personal sacrifices to save Tunisia.

In front of the La Goulette police station, dozens of angry Moussi supporters protested, shouting slogans against Saied amid a heavy police contingent who cordoned off the building.

Earlier on Tuesday, Moussi said in a video that she went to the presidential reception office to file an appeal in local elections expected at the end of the year. She said that this step was necessary so that she could later file an appeal in the Administrative Court.

Saied, a retired law professor who was elected president in 2019, shut down the elected parliament in 2021 and moved to rule by decree, actions his opponents described as a coup. Saied has said he needed to save Tunisia from years of chaos, denying his actions were a coup.

On Friday, jailed opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, another critic of Saied, began a three-day hunger strike. Later five other prominent opposition figures also went on hunger strike in prison.


Paramilitary shells kill 10 civilians in Khartoum: activists

Paramilitary shells kill 10 civilians in Khartoum: activists
Updated 04 October 2023
Follow

Paramilitary shells kill 10 civilians in Khartoum: activists

Paramilitary shells kill 10 civilians in Khartoum: activists

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Paramilitary artillery that struck a mosque and other civilian buildings in the Sudanese capital killed 10 people on Tuesday, local activists said.
It is the latest incident in which multiple civilians have been killed in Khartoum during nearly six months of war between Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
A local resistance committee said “10 civilians were killed and 11 wounded in artillery shelling by the Rapid Support Forces in Al-Samrab neighborhood,” across the Blue Nile river to the north of central Khartoum.
The committee is one of many groups that used to organize pro-democracy protests and now provide assistance during the war.
“Some shells fell on a mosque, a health center, and citizens’ homes,” the committee said by telephone to AFP in the eastern city of Port Sudan.
On September 12 a medical source told AFP that “17 civilians were killed” by paramilitaries in northern Khartoum, where witnesses reported RSF shelling.
Those deaths came two days after at least 51 people were killed and dozens wounded in air strikes on a southern Khartoum market, according to United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk.
The worst of the violence has been concentrated in Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, but North Kordofan — a crossroads between the capital and Darfur — has also seen fighting.
Nearly 7,500 people have been killed in Sudan since the conflict broke out on April 15, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.
Battles have displaced almost 4.3 million people within Sudan, in addition to around 1.2 million more who have fled across borders, UN figures show.


Leap into future: Qatar begins construction on mega gas field expansion

Leap into future: Qatar begins construction on mega gas field expansion
Updated 03 October 2023
Follow

Leap into future: Qatar begins construction on mega gas field expansion

Leap into future: Qatar begins construction on mega gas field expansion
  • Qatar is set to raise its output of LNG by 60 percent or more to 126 million tons a year by 2027

RAS LAFFAN, Qatar: Qatar’s state-owned energy giant began construction Tuesday on a project to expand production from the world’s biggest natural gas field through an export terminal on the country’s northeast coast.

There has been mounting demand for Qatari gas as European consumer nations have scrambled to replace lost Russian deliveries since President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale war on Ukraine early last year.

The emir presided over a glitzy ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the North Field expansion at Ras Laffan, QatarEnergy’s onshore gas processing base 80 km north of Doha.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the project “falls within our strategy toward strengthening Qatar’s position as a global producer of liquefied natural gas.”

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi called the project a “leap toward our country’s leadership in the field of energy.”

By increasing production at the field, which extends under the Gulf into Iranian territory, Qatar is set to raise its output of LNG by 60 percent or more to 126 million tons a year by 2027.

LNG from the expansion is expected to start coming on line in 2026.

Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but it has also been increasingly sought by European countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early last year.

Chairman of France’s TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne told reporters the North Field Expansion was a “huge project,” coming as demand for LNG from Europe increases.

“We need more supply. That’s clear. Still the market is fragile,” Pouyanne said. “This project is a major one and will give some relief to this market,” he added.

Total signed a $1.5 billion deal with QatarEnergy in September last year giving it a 9.3 percent stake in Qatar’s North Field South project, the second phase of the field’s expansion.

In June 2022, the French energy giant became the first partner in the first phase of the expansion, North Field East, investing more than $2 billion for a 25 percent share.

In June, Doha announced a 27-year deal to supply 4 million tons of gas a year to the China National Petroleum Corporation. The agreement matches the terms of a 2022 deal with China’s Sinopec that was the longest ever seen in the industry.

Britain’s Shell, Italy’s ENI and US giants ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil have also signed deals to partner in the expansion.

Qatar is one of the world’s top LNG producers, alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.

Qatar Energy estimates the North Field holds about 10 percent of the world’s known natural gas reserves.


Teen girl in coma after Iran metro assault: rights group

Teen girl in coma after Iran metro assault: rights group
Updated 03 October 2023
Follow

Teen girl in coma after Iran metro assault: rights group

Teen girl in coma after Iran metro assault: rights group
  • The teenager, named as Armita Garawand, had been badly injured in a run-in on the Tehran metro with female morality police officers
  • This has already been denied by the Iranian authorities who say that the girl “fainted” due to low blood pressure

PARIS: An Iranian girl aged 16 has been left in a coma and is being treated in hospital under heavy security after an assault on the Tehran subway, a rights group said on Tuesday.
The Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw said the teenager, named as Armita Garawand, had been badly injured in a run-in on the Tehran metro with female morality police officers.
This has already been denied by the Iranian authorities who say that the girl “fainted” due to low blood pressure and that there was no involvement of the security forces.
Iranian authorities remain on high alert for any upsurge of social tension just over a year after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rules for women.
Her death sparked several months of protests that rattled Iran’s clerical leadership and only dwindled in the face of a crackdown that according to activists has seen thousands arrested and hundreds killed.
Hengaw said that Garawand was left with severe injuries after being apprehended by agents of the so-called morality police at the Shohada metro station in Tehran on Sunday.
It said she was being treated under tight security at Tehran’s Fajr hospital and “there are currently no visits allowed for the victim, not even from her family.”
Though a resident of Tehran, Garawand hails from the city of Kermanshah in Kurdish-populated western Iran, Hengaw said.
Maryam Lotfi, a journalist from the Shargh daily newspaper, sought in the aftermath of the incident to visit the hospital but was immediately detained. She was subsequently released, it added.
The case has become the subject of intense discussion on social media, with a purported video of the incident said by some to show the teen, with friends and apparently unveiled, being pushed into the metro by female police agents.
Masood Dorosti, managing director of the Tehran subway system, denied there was “any verbal or physical conflict” between the student and “passengers or metro executives.”
“Some rumors about a confrontation with metro agents... are not true and CCTV footage refutes this claim,” Dorosti told state news agency IRNA.
The IranWire news site, based outside Iran, cited a source as saying she had sustained a “head injury” after being pushed by the officers.
A year after Amini’s death, Iranian authorities have launched a renewed push to crack down on women defying the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules for women, including the mandatory hijab.
The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said women and girls “face increased violence, arbitrary arrests and heightened discrimination after the Islamic Republic re-activated its forced-veiling police patrols.”