Transportation Minister tells Arutz Sheva relations with Trump Administration greatly improved, Israel coordinating building policy with WH.

By Yoni Kempinsky, INN

Transportation and Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said in an interview with Arutz Sheva that Israel has already discussions with the Trump Administration regarding construction in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and the announcements of new construction.

“The construction in the settlements is the most urgent issue at the moment,” Minister Katz said. The discussion with the administration is about building within the settlements and construction within the municipal jurisdictions of the settlements. Our position is to allow construction within the jurisdictions of the settlements in the coming years. This will allow us to reach a hundred thousand units, and this will be the ten percent is the scope of the built-up area, which today is [only] two to three percent.”

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The U.S. president could give Netanyahu backing, or whip up a storm. In either case,Netanyahu will from now on be judged by his good behavior and flattery vis-à-vis Trump.

By Aluf Benn, HAARETZ

Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu boarding a plane to Washington D.C. ahead of the prime minister’s meeting with Trump, February 13, 2017. Avi Ohayon, GPO

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flies on Monday to Washington for a summit at the White House with the new United States president, Donald Trump, from a doubly weakened position: He has lost his main source of leverage in Washington, and his coalition in Jerusalem is cracking.

More than ever before during his term in power, Netanyahu is dependent on the goodwill of his host. Trump could give him his backing and assure him of quiet on the political front – or whip up a squall that shatters the calm and truncates his time on the throne.
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by Jonathan Spyer, JPOST February 4, 2017

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman (left) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, April 8, 2016.

In recent years, it has become customary in much analysis of the Middle East emerging from Israel to divide Middle Eastern countries into a series of alliances or “camps.”

These camps are identified in a variety of ways. But the most usual depiction notes a tight, hierarchical bloc of states and movements dominated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. An alliance of “moderate” states opposed to Iran and including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Israel is seen as the principal adversary and barrier to the hegemonic ambitions of the Iran-led bloc.
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T. Belman. Trump will not let the UN attack or undermine Israel as it has been doing. He will exact a heavy price from it.  Also, he will not let the PA continue with its incitement and violence and intransigence. If the PA continues to say no, Trump will twist its arm until it says yes. That’s why he believes his efforts will lead to an agreement.

By Adam Kredo, NEW BEACON

The White House is sending a strong signal that it will no longer tolerate Palestinian intransigence at the United Nations or the international body’s long record of anti-Israel action, according to White House officials and sources in Congress who told the Washington Free Beacon that the Trump administration will “unabashedly support Israel” in the months and years ahead.

The Trump administration sent shockwaves through the U.N. late last week when it took a stance against the appointment of a senior Palestinian official to serve in a top post overseeing Libya.
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T. Belman. Nothing new here. Other reports have been saying the Netanyahu supported a Palestinian state. Netanyahu’s focus after Iran will be to get Trump’s approval for building in eastern Jerusalem and all settlement blocks without restriction. Extending sovereignty will come later.

Public Security Minister speaks about Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu’s upcoming meeting with Trump, building in Judea and Samaria.

INN

In an interview with Army Radio on Monday morning, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) spoke about Sunday’s Cabinet meeting.

“Netanyahu sat very patiently and heard everyone out,” Erdan noted. “Every Cabinet member is opposed to a Palestinian state, including Netanyahu. Some oppose the idea for ideological or Biblical reasons, and some for security reasons. The question is how we need to present our interests to US President Donald Trump. We need to remember that Trump was not chosen for the sake of Israel – he was chosen for the sake of US citizens.
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By Ted Belman

“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its strength; may my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not raise up Jerusalem at the very height of my rejoicing.’.

I met, for the first time MK Yehuda Glick, at the Sovereignty Conference. Glick, as you may know, is the leader of HaLiba, a coalition of groups dedicated to “reaching complete and comprehensive freedom and civil rights for Jews on the Temple Mount.”

He writes:

“In wake of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem and due to great potential times in history we are in, I took upon myself to try to bring about a wave from all over the world of millions supporting Jerusalem as the Godly Biblical city of peace.”

Accordingly he asks that you sign the Jerusalem Covenant .  Go here to sign it.

This conference went on for over 4 hours and most people in attendance, myself included, stayed.

If you want to pick and choose what to watch, go here, you will be able to see the program and decide what you want to watch.

By Paul Sperry, NY POST

When former President Barack Obama said he was “heartened” by anti-Trump protests, he was sending a message of approval to his troops. Troops? Yes, Obama has an army of agitators — numbering more than 30,000 — who will fight his Republican successor at every turn of his historic presidency. And Obama will command them from a bunker less than two miles from the White House.

In what’s shaping up to be a highly unusual post-presidency, Obama isn’t just staying behind in Washington. He’s working behind the scenes to set up what will effectively be a shadow government to not only protect his threatened legacy, but to sabotage the incoming administration and its popular “America First” agenda.
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Netanyahu tells ministers Trump pressed him on his intentions regarding the peace process two days after his inauguration. ‘Trump believes in a deal,’ the PM says, ‘We have to make every effort to avoid a confrontation with him.’
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By Barak Ravid. HAARETZ

U.S. President Donald Trump told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call two days after his inauguration that he is determined to pursue a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, the Israeli premier told his security cabinet on Sunday.

“We have to make every effort to avoid a confrontation with him,” Netanyahu told his ministers, according to a senior official with knowledge of the meeting’s proceedings.
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By Joel Fishman

For some time, the slogan of the so-called “Two-State Solution,” has constantly been presented in the media as a desirable goal, one that Israel and the Palestinians should implement in the interest of peace. Whenever one raises this idea, it is implied that Israel should make major sacrifices in exchange for an unclear benefit. During the Obama administration, Secretary of State, John Kerry, bitterly accused the Government of Israel of not being committed to the “Two State Solution,” and even last week in London, Prime Minister Theresa May declared that she favored the “Two-State Solution.” She asked Prime Minster Netanyahu if he were also committed to this formula. For his part, the Prime Minister did not respond directly but stated that Israel is committed to peace.
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Minister Naftali Bennett wants America’s president to ditch the the two-state solution. But like his predecessors, Trump has placed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process high on his agenda.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

The interview with U.S. President Donald Trump in the daily Israel Hayom newspaper published on Friday was astonishing. Only three weeks after he was sworn in, Trump made an elegant and near complete retreat from the positions he took during his campaign on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and has continued in the same safe direction of the traditional policies of every American president since 1967.

Trump expressed a desire for a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, explained in a logical and reasoned fashion why construction in the settlements would not aid in achieving such an agreement and called on Israel to act reasonably concerning the peace process.
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DEBKA

The NBC report that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be considering making President Donald Trump the “gift” of turning over former NSA analyst Edward Snowden is part of a much broader scheme that is already sending tremors through the Middle East. Snowden won asylum in Moscow after leaking secrets to journalists four years ago. The Trump administration appears to have leaked the rumor about the US leaker, seen by some Americans as a whistleblower, as a trial balloon in the secret give-and-take maneuvers afoot between the two presidents and a third, Turkey’s Reccep Tayyip Erdogan, over a trilateral pact for leading the war to eradicate ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
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YNET reports today:

Netanyahu will seek to lower American expectations on the Palestinian issue. The Israeli government is not enthusiastic about talks on a regional intiative by the moderate Arab nations or the new US president’s desire to lead to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. [previous articles have suggested otherwise.]

Netanyahu will present a policy that supports the establishment of a Palestinian state with an emphasis on its demilitarization and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. The two will discuss the resumption of peace talks and the US blocking unilateral Palestinian initiatives at the UN.

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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel initiative”

YouTube 6-minute-video on-line seminar on US-Israel and the Mideast

Video#34 http://bit.ly/2kWV8OS; Entire mini-seminar: http://bit.ly/1ze66dS

1. Israel is urged to concede the historically and militarily most critical mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, in return for a US, or a multinational, peacekeeping force, as well as US security guarantees or defense pact.

2. In order to be effective, defense pacts, and security guarantees – including peacekeeping monitoring or combat forces – must be reliable, durable, specific and politically/militarily sustainable. It must serve the interests of the foreign entity, which dispatches the force, lest it be ignored or summarily withdrawn.
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Israel is keeping a watchful eye as Hamas and Egypt make a last-ditch attempt to improve relations.

By Zvi Mazel, JPOST

In late January, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Cairo at the head of an impressive delegation to see what could be done to mend the organization’s rift with Egypt.

He met with the head of the General Intelligence Directorate, Khaled Fawzi, and this was followed shortly by a session with a second delegation, composed of security experts.

Hamas is desperate for the Egyptian blockade of its Gaza border to be lifted. Egypt wants that border to be secure and demands an end to the cooperation between Hamas and terrorists from Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an organization that pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2015 and now calls itself “the Sinai Province of Islamic State.” This is the main stumbling block to a rapprochement between Cairo and Hamas.
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US lawyer opposed to the law but says International Criminal Court set up to deal with genocide, not ‘property disputes’

TOI

American law professor and prominent pro-Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz said that he is opposed to the newly passed outpost bill, but would happily defend Israel in an international court over the law.

“I’m opposed to the statute, I think it is a very bad idea,” Dershowitz said in an interview broadcast Saturday on Israel Radio.

The Knesset late Monday passed the so-called Regulation Law, which enables the appropriation of private Palestinian land for Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank, in a move the Palestinians condemned as a means to “legalize theft.”
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Russia pushes hard to include Syria’s Kurds in Geneva talks
Turkish Officials Demand Gulen, End of Support to Syrian Kurds During Pompeo Visit
Iran’s Kurds ask Trump administration to list Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group
Politics VIDEO: Kurds to receive more support from US, says Trump Adviser

While campaigning, Trump said he would attempt to bring Turkey and the Kurds together after years of hostilities in order to fight ISIS. Facts on the ground may force the U.S. president down a different path.

By Amir Tibonb, HAARETZ

Last July, in the midst of the presidential election campaign, Donald Trump declared in an interview that he was “a big fan of the Kurds.” Speaking about the fight against ISIS on the ground in Syria, Trump said he hoped there was a way to get the Kurdish forces, which have been supported by the U.S. for the last two years, to join forces with their bitter enemy, the Turkish government.
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By Prof. Hillel Frisch, BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 410, February 10, 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Many American detractors of Israel begin by citing that Israel receives the lion’s share of US military aid. The very suggestion conjures the demon of an all-powerful Israel lobby that has turned the US Congress into its pawn. But these figures, while reflecting official direct US military aid, are almost meaningless in comparison to the real costs and benefits of US military aid – above all, American boots on the ground. In reality, Israel receives only a small fraction of American military aid, and most of that was spent in the US to the benefit of the American economy.

Countless articles discrediting Israel (as well as many other better-intentioned articles) ask how it is that a country as small as Israel receives the bulk of US military aid. Israel receives 55%, or $US3.1 billion per year, followed by Egypt, which receives 23%. This largesse comes at the expense, so it is claimed, of other equal or more important allies, such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea. The complaint conjures the specter of an all-powerful Israel lobby that has turned the US Congress into its pawn.
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T. Belman. Bibi has long favoured seeking peace through the Arab states i.e., the outside-in approach. Since they want the maximum Israel withdrawal, it is safe to conclude that Bibi is indeed willing to trade land for peace. He is focused on ending the diplomatic war against Israel and is willing to give up a lot of land to achieve it. Too bad.

New administration is considering an ‘outside-in’ approach favored by Netanyahu, according to NY Times

BY ERIC CORTELLESSA, TOI

WASHINGTON — Determined to make the elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, US President Donald Trump is deliberating bringing in Arab states and embracing the “outside-in” approach to peacemaking that has been endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to The New York Times. (See Below)

An article Thursday said that both Trump and his Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner — who has been designated the point man for the Mideast peace process — have found the idea appealing after meeting with a number of Arab leaders since the president assumed office in January.
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T. Belman. Because of Trump’s remarks this week as to whether settlements are helpful or not to achieving peace. everyone has something to say about it. At the outset let me clarify “peace” is not the same as “a peace agreement.” The peace agreement that Obama sought so ardently, if achieved, would not have achieved peace. It was a prescription for war. Maintaining the status quo is more conducive to peace, primarily because Israel is in full control of Area C which includes the Jordan Valley. Accordingly, if Trump supports Israel’s retention of area C, it would certainly be conducive to peace and the settlements would not be an obstacle. In fact they would help solidify the peace. So the object of the exercise should be to achieve peace and not a peace agreement.

Furthermore Trump should not be so quick to seek the approval of the Arab world because they would demand too much. What ever he agrees to with Israel will alienate them but it won’t matter because they need the US and Israel, notwithstanding. The Palestinians are way down on their list of priorities.

Trump also said “there’s limited land left”, implying that that is the reason Israel should’t build new settlements. True, but sure that should lead Trump to broaden the discussion to include Jordan which has four times the land mass of Israel and a smaller population. A peace agreement and peace will only come about if Jordan is factored in.

In closing, I am very happy that he is getting a lot of advice and is considering his options.

President Trump praises Netanyahu but says ‘settlements won’t advance peace’.

By David Rosenberg, INN

On Friday, Israel Hayom published an interview with President Donald Trump, the first he has granted to an Israeli media outlet since taking office in January.

The interview was released just hours after President Trump dined with Israel Hayom owner and GOP donor Sheldon Adelson at the White House Thursday evening.
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