Today’s Top Stories
1. Accompanied by a high-level delegation of IDF staff, PM Netanyahu is in Moscow today to discuss with President Putin, Russia’s increasing military engagement in the Syrian civil war. The Times of Israel reports:
According to early assessments, the two leaders will likely discuss three key topics: keeping advanced weapons out of the hands of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, preventing attacks on the Israeli Golan Heights, and coordinating Israeli operations in Syrian airspace.
“It could come down to Israel and Russia agreeing to limit themselves to defined areas of operation in Syria, or even that they fly at daytime and we fly at night,” a former adviser to Netanyahu told Reuters.
More commentary below.
2. Iranian nuclear experts have taken environmental samples from the military base at Parchin without UN inspectors being present. This following a ‘ceremonial’ visit by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency to the site.
3. A senior EU official says that labeling of products manufactured in Israeli settlements in the West Bank will begin effective October 1.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinian rock throwing attacks continue. If you still can’t imagine how potentially dangerous these are, read this account of one family’s miraculous escape from a hail of stones on their car.
At least 23 rock-throwing and Molotov cocktail attacks against Israelis had been perpetrated by Palestinians in different parts of the country as of 2 p.m. Sunday, the Israeli news site 0404 reported.
• A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip early Monday landed in open terrain in southern Israel causing no casualties or damage to property.
• Palestinians face uncertainty over the succession of President Mahmoud Abbas, expected to begin scaling back his workload.
• Abbas said in conversation with a number of European diplomats last week that he does not intend to announce the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority or the cancellation of the Oslo Accords during his upcoming speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Haaretz reports:
However, people around Abbas continue to convey the opposite message. The senior Israeli official said that a close associate of Abbas, Saeb Erekat, said recently in conversations with European diplomats that Abbas was going to announce the dismantling of the PA and was going to “return the keys to Israel.”
Erekat leads the extreme line in the Palestinian leadership on the diplomatic conflict with Israel. His remarks were interpreted by many of those with whom he met as an attempt to pressure the international community.
Mideast Matters
• Iran’s Supreme Leader has announced a new publication, the Line of Hezbollah, which it said would “allow the revolutionary community to benefit directly from the ideas and declarations of the supreme leader on…current political, social, and economic events.” Included in one edition:
A column headlined “Israel will disappear” refutes [UK Defense Minister] Philip Hammond’s remark that Iran’s position on Israel had “changed a little”. It quotes extensively from Khamenei’s speeches since 1990: “They have brought evil people from all around the world and fabricated a nation called Israel…the Zionist regime is an imposed regime, brought about by force…the struggle against Zionism and its supporters is one of the bases of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political strategy.”
Around the World
• The foxes have once again taken over the UN hen house as the organization has appointed a Saudi Arabian representative as head of a key human rights panel that is tasked with naming experts that determine global human rights standards. UN Watch director Hillel Neuer is among those protesting:
“Petro-dollars and politics have trumped human rights,” he said. “Saudi Arabia has arguably the worst record in the world when it comes to religious freedom and women’s rights, and continues to imprison the innocent blogger Raif Badawi.
“This UN appointment is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief, and underscores the credibility deficit of a human rights council that already counts Russia, Cuba, China, Qatar and Venezuela among its elected members.”
Commentary/Analysis
• Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy asks where is Putin leading the Middle East?
Putin is keeping his cards, beyond the goal of saving Assad the person, close to his chest. He will definitely want to understand Israel’s expectations, which he cannot ignore.
Washington will also be following the meeting and its results, in order to understand where the prime minister is headed. Will he only engage in the immediate – the upgrade of the Russian weapons given to the Syrians, Iranians and Hezbollah and maintaining Israel’s qualitative advantage in every situation? Will he position Israel as an active and strong player whose strategic needs must be taken into account, especially in regards to Iran?
In any event, the expanding dialogue between the US and Russia requires Israel not to be portrayed as a neutral player between the battling world powers in the Middle East. The Israeli-American alliance goes two ways, and when the upgrade of the qualitative advantage Israel requires in terms of weapons and strategic needs is discussed in the White House during the Obama-Netanyahu meeting in November, there must be no doubt regarding Israel’s commitment to its ally. When it comes to Syria, it will be important that the US takes care of Israel, just like Russia is taking care of Iran.
• Ron Ben-Yishai also analyzes the issues surrounding the Netanyahu-Putin meeting including the potential risks for Israel:
– Leakage of high-quality surface-to-air missiles from Syria to Hezbollah. In the past Iran tried to transport SA22 batteries from Syria to Hezbollah.
– A Russian base would make it difficult for Israel to hit the P-800 Oniks cruise missiles the Russians sold to the Syrians. These missiles, with a range of up to 300 kilometers, pose a threat to Israeli Navy ships in the event of war.
– The Iranian-Russian cooperation and the Russian base in the Alawite enclave give the Iranians an important foothold in the region.
However, if there is coordination and even limited cooperation between Israel and Russia, the Russian presence in “Little Syria” may stabilize the situation or even prevent war. In addition, Israel has a clear interest in preventing any of the warring parties from gaining the upper hand. The increased Russian presence will certainly perpetuate the situation where none of the parties can prevail. A successful meeting at the Kremlin between Putin and Netanyahu is thus in Israel’s best interests.
• Avi Issacharoff contends that Iran has already increased its funding to Hezbollah and Hamas:
As regards the Palestinians, in the past two months, Iran has sent suitcases of cash – literally – to Hamas’s military wing in Gaza. Not everyone is happy about this, including some Hamas officials. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who was always the man who controlled the money, has found himself outside the circle of Iranian funding over the summer. Tehran, which was none too pleased by his visit to Saudi Arabia and meeting with King Salman, decided to take revenge on him in an original way. It bypassed Mashaal and has handed over the suitcases, by way of couriers, directly to the leaders of the group’s military wing in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas military leaders, for their part, are happy about two things: First, the money they are receiving during a difficult economic period in Gaza; second, the opportunity to weaken Mashaal and his cronies, who have been living in luxury in Qatar and dictating to Hamas in Gaza what to do and what not to do, who to get closer to (Saudi Arabia) and who to stay away from (Iran).
[sc:graybox ]The IDNS will be on hiatus until Thursday. HonestReporting wishes all of our Jewish readers well over Yom Kippur.
Featured image: CC BY Hendrik Wieduwilt via flickr with additions by HonestReporting
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