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White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Thursday met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, kicking off a full day of meetings with officials in Israel’s newly minted government.
Sullivan is the first senior Biden Administration representative to visit Jerusalem since Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties was sworn into power last month. In a statement put out by the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu and Sullivan both “praised the importance of the strategic relationship between Israel and the US.”
An anonymous US official told local media that the national security advisor traveled to the Jewish state to gain a better understanding of Netanyahu’s current policies toward the Palestinians. Sullivan is also expected to lay out some of President Biden’s red lines, which include the annexation of the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today with US National Security Advisor @JakeSullivan46.
PM Netanyahu: "We see you as a trusted partner in matters of our shared security and of course, advancing peace."
Further information >>https://t.co/h3YKg1lNke pic.twitter.com/3vs133uMSq
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) January 19, 2023
On Wednesday, Sullivan already sat down with President Isaac Herzog. “President Biden sends his personal regards to you,” Sullivan reportedly told Israel’s head of state, adding: “He remembers fondly your visit to the Oval [Office] and looks forward to welcoming you back soon, and also to coming back to Israel after his very successful trip last year.”
Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu met with a bipartisan group of US senators visiting the region as part of a trip to countries that signed the 2020 Abraham Accords. The delegation included Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, Michael Bennet from Colorado, and Mark Kelly from Arizona, as well as Republicans Dan Sullivan from Arkansas and Ted Budd from North Carolina.
The members of the Abraham Accords Caucus discussed with Netanyahu the strong relations that have developed among the countries that formalized ties with Israel three years ago and the potential for further cooperation.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen this week slammed the more than 100 countries that signed a missive demanding the “immediate reversal” of Jerusalem’s punitive measures against the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA).
In a brief letter initially released on Monday, some 100 governments expressed their “deep concern regarding the Israeli government’s decision to impose punitive measures against the Palestinian people, leadership and civil society.”
The statement was supported by the UN representatives of Arab and Islamic countries, including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, along with Western and other nations such as Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Cyprus, Japan, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
“Meaningless statements and signatures will not stop us from making the right decisions that will protect our citizens and secure our future,” Cohen responded in a Twitter post. “The interest of all the countries in the world should be to stop the incitement of the Palestinian Authority, which encourages terrorism and pays terrorists who kill Jews.”
Cohen added: “The State of Israel is first and foremost committed to Israel’s security.”
Meaningless statements and signatures will not stop us from making the right decisions that will protect our citizens and secure our future.
The interest of all the countries in the world should be to stop the incitement of the Palestinian Authority, >>— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) January 17, 2023
Following a request by the PA, the United Nations General Assembly late last month backed a resolution asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a legal opinion on the status of Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.”
In response to Ramallah’s incessant “political and legal war” against Israel, the security cabinet decided, among other steps, to withhold tax fees it collects on behalf of the Palestinians. Last week, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich transferred 138.8 million shekels ($39.5 million) of revenue collected for the PA to Israeli victims of terrorism and their families.
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An overwhelming majority of EU lawmakers on Wednesday called on the European Union to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
In a 598-9 vote, the European Parliament denounced “the brutal crackdown by Iran, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on the demonstrations after the death of Mahsa Amini, following her violent arrest, abuse and ill-treatment by Iran’s ‘morality police.'”
The text of the amendment, which was proposed by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, furthermore called for the EU to include the IRGC on Brussel’s terrorist list “in the light of its terrorist activity, the repression of protesters and its supplying of drones to Russia.”
The @Europarl_EN has voted to recognize the IRGC and its subsidiaries as terrorist organizations. The vote passed 598-9 with 31 abstentions. It's time for the European Union to call the IRGC what it is: a terrorist organization. #IRGCterrorists pic.twitter.com/BvCq3kSTPD
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) January 18, 2023
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen welcomed the Parliament’s decision. “Iran is a terrorist state that exports terrorism to the Middle East, Europe, and the entire world,” Cohen said. “The introduction of the Revolutionary Guards, the largest terrorist organization in the world, to the list of terrorist organizations of the European Union, will be an important step in the fight against the Iranian regime.”
The European Parliament cannot compel the EU to blacklist the IRGC. However, prior to the vote, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had already stated she backed the terror listing, which she described as an answer to the “trampling” of “fundamental human rights” by the Islamic Republic.
Designating the IRGC would mean that it would become a crime to belong to the group, attend its meetings, and carry its logo in public in all 27 EU member states.
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Israel’s Foreign Ministry has requested assistance from Pope Francis, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Secretary-General in its fight to rescue four citizens held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s office announced Wednesday it had sent letters of appeal after Gaza’s ruling terror organization released a video of captive Avera Mengistu earlier this week. Mengistu, a young Ethiopian-born Jew struggling with schizophrenia, was captured in 2014 after climbing the border fence. His family had not heard from him until Monday.
In his missives, Cohen called Mengistu’s plight “a gross violation of international humanitarian law, with no information on his health condition nor means of communication with family nor Red Cross visits,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
Mengistu Avera is a a mentally ill 36-year-old Israeli. On Sept. 7, 2014, he walked 10 miles along the beach into Gaza. Hamas took him captive. He hasn't been seen since — until today. The terrorists released a prisoner video. @antonioguterres, will you condemn their inhumanity? https://t.co/N3s5fIEXtd pic.twitter.com/cdGaFAeE4B
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 16, 2023
Hisham Al-Sayed, a mentally ill Bedouin Israeli from the Negev village of Hura, has similarly been held by Gaza’s rulers after voluntarily crossing into the coastal enclave seven years ago.
Meanwhile, Hamas cynically uses the bodies of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, killed by the terror group during the 2014 Gaza war, as bargaining chips to secure the release of Palestinian security prisoners jailed in Israel.
Recommended Reading
- We Exposed a CNN Journalist’s Antisemitic Tweets. His Apology Was Rife With Deflection (Gil Hoffman, The Forward)
- Iran, Iran and Iran: Only One Topic Should Dominate the Talks With Sullivan and Blinken (Jacob Nagel, Israel Hayom)
- Typically Al-Aqsa’s Top Defender, Jordan Signals It Won’t Dwell On Spat at Holy Site (Lazar Berman, Times of Israel)
- ‘Don’t Wait for Our Children To Be Harmed’: Outrage After Palestinians Open Fire on Home in Shaked (Jewish News Syndicate)
- ChatGPT Writes Knesset a ‘Happy Anniversary’ Message Using AI (Jerusalem Post)
Featured Image: Israeli Press Office/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
