Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to travel to the Gulf in mid-February for the first official visit by an Israeli leader to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, local media reported over the weekend.
The purpose of the trip is to both celebrate Israeli’s normalization with the two Arab nations, as well as enlist regional leaders in a joint campaign against a possible US return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Netanyahu had originally been scheduled to make the trip in November, but the COVID-19 pandemic and internal political crises led the premier to postpone time and again.
In other diplomatic news, Kosovo’s Foreign Minister on Friday said a formal ceremony will be held this week to establish ties with Israel. Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla said that she and her Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi would hold a virtual ceremony on February 1.
“Recognition by Israel is one of the greatest achievements for Kosovo, coming at a key moment for us, thanks to the United States of America, our common and eternal ally,” she said.
The decision on mutual recognition was reached last September at a summit of Kosovo-Serbia leaders at the White House, in the presence of then-President Donald Trump. At the meeting, Belgrade also agreed to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
The head of the Mossad intelligence service’s upcoming tour of Washington will reportedly be focused on Iran and the possibility of the US rejoining the nuclear deal. According to local media, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen is set to meet US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA head William Burns next month.
Cohen will reportedly outline Israel’s conditions for any new deal with Tehran, including the halt of Iranian support for regional terrorist groups and the Islamic Republic’s military withdrawal from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
Last week, IDF chief Aviv Kohavi issued a rare public criticism of Washington’s supposed plans. The military leader said that he had ordered the military to ramp up preparations for striking Iran’s nuclear program.
Former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear deal in 2018. Under the agreement, Tehran had consented to limiting its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
In related news, Iran on Saturday warned France to avoid “hasty and ill-considered positions,” after French President Emmanuel Macron was reported to have said that any new nuclear negotiations with Tehran would be “very strict,” and that only a very short time remains to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Macron told Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya TV in an interview that any talks should include the Saudis, a major regional foe of Iran. The French leader reportedly said it was important not to repeat the “mistake” of leaving other countries in the region out of the nuclear accord.
President Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to reopen the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington is facing significant legal hurdles. Palestinian officials warned this weekend that the move might expose them to lawsuits worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
If the PLO opened an office in the United States, the organization would become liable for $655.5 million in financial penalties over its support for terrorism against American citizens in Israel.
According to reports, the Biden Administration and US Congress are engaged in talks to find a way around the law, claiming that the Palestinians do not have the financial means to pay the fine.
Similarly, the new president’s promise to restore financial assistance to the Palestinians might be problematic under US law. The Taylor Force Act, passed three years ago, restricts American foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority so long as it continues to pay stipends to jailed terrorists.
Jewish groups this weekend fiercely condemned antisemitic remarks made by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). In a recently surfaced Facebook post, the lawmaker blamed a “space laser” triggered by “Rothschild Inc.” for a deadly 2018 California wildfire, playing into classic antisemitic tropes about the Rothschild dynasty.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, representing 50 national Jewish organizations, called for “a swift and commensurate response from Congressional leadership.” The umbrella organization noted that Green “routinely” traffics antisemitic canards.
Suggesting that the Rothschilds are secretly plotting to cause damage for profit is a longstanding antisemitic conspiracy theory, that has gained popularity among supporters of the far-right QAnon movement. Congresswoman Green has voiced support for QAnon in the past.
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