Cincunri Sakia

Minggu, 07 April 2019

Will Netanyahu annex illegal settlements in West Bank? - Aljazeera.com

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he would annex illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office, in an attempt to win over right-wing voters.

He made the statement in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 News on Saturday, three days before the elections on April 9.

Reuters news agency reported that he was asked why he had not extended sovereignty to West Bank settlements since Israel had annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights without international recognition during the 1967 war.

"Who says that we won't do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it," Netanyahu said, according to Reuters.

"You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend [Israeli] sovereignty and I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements."

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Mitchell Barak, an Israeli political pollster and analyst, told Al Jazeera he classifies Netanyahu's comments as nothing more than election talk.

"Whatever happens in the election, stays in the election. I don't think he has any real intention of [annexing settlements]. We don't know. It's highly unlikely that this will turn into policy," Barak said.

"If [voters] see him embracing this policy, they may move to vote for him, but it's nothing more than an election gimmick at this point."

However, many Palestinians have been taking his words seriously, including Aida Touma-Suleiman, a member of the Knesset (MK) running for the joint Arab Haddash-Ta'al party.

On the eve of the last election in 2015, Netanyahu similarly made waves by stating that if he returned to office he would never establish a Palestinian state, reversing his previous endorsement of a two state solution.

Since then, he has done precisely what he said, Touma-Suleiman told Al Jazeera.

"Everyone thought it was election talk. But for four years he has step by step almost accomplished the mission he stated … In my opinion he is going to annex the settlements," Touma-Suleiman said.

"I hope we'll be able to see a government that's more rational at least. I don't believe that [frontrunner Benny] Gantz is an alternative. I don't believe that generals will bring hope to this country but I can see the damage that Netanyahu is doing, which is long-term damage and I would like to see it stopped immediately."

'Creeping annexation'

Over the years reports have highlighted the "creeping annexation" that has been enfolding, with the government also initiating legislative measures that sought to apply Israeli law to the West Bank and the 2017 settlement regularisation law, which retroactively legalises settlements.

Currently, there are some 600,000-750,000 illegal settlers living in about 150 settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, built on land the Palestinians had envisioned for a future state.

Netanyahu has made significant achievements in the past two years.

Most recently during Netanyahu's visit to Washington, DC, on March 25, US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation recognising Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reversing 52 years of official US policy.

Israel has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967 when it seized the Syrian territory along with East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Many saw the move as paving the way for the subsequent annexation of the West Bank.

Israel election 2019: Palestinian-Israelis to boycott vote

During Netanyahu's term, Trump also recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017, a catastrophic declaration for Palestinians who had envisioned East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

MK Ahmad Tibi, running as the second candidate on the Haddash-Ta'al list told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu's latest statement is a "direct continuation" of his declaration made in 2015 that he would never agree to a Palestinian state.

"An annexation of Palestinian land, he considers it an issue in the elections [because] it brings him more votes [among the right]. This is the real Netanyahu," Tibi said.

"If he will lead the next government, it will be more right, more extreme and more ready to annex the land with Donald trump in the White house."

There has been a surge of tenders for settlement construction in the past two years since US President Donald Trump took office, according to Israeli organisation Peace Now.

In 2017 and 2018 there were tenders for 3,154 and 3,808 settlement housing units, respectively, compared with just 42 in 2016.

However Akiva Eldar, senior columnist for Al-Monitor told Al Jazeera that annexing the illegal settlements outright would be difficult to do; Netanyahu's statement may be just a last-minute spin like in the previous election.

"It [would be] breaking the status quo ... it's going to rock the boat. I don't think Netanyahu is interested," Eldar said.

"He's very satisfied with the political status quo in diplomatic negotiations and the creeping annexation. He's been making statements but doing it one by one, one centimetre at a time, changing facts on the ground without having to pay a price in the diplomatic arena."

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2019-04-07 11:48:00Z
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Pro-Trump Republicans plan 8-figure play for the Jewish vote in 2020 - POLITICO

A Jewish supporter of Donald Trump — A Jewish supporter of President Donald Trump listens as the president addresses the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on April 6, 2019. | Erik Kabik Photography/Media Punch/IPX

2020 Elections

The Republican Jewish Coalition outlined the plans at its spring meeting at one of Sheldon Adelson's casinos.

LAS VEGAS — Republicans are planning a multimillion-dollar offensive aimed at fracturing the Democratic Party’s decades-long stranglehold on the Jewish vote.

Spearheading the push is the Republican Jewish Coalition, which receives substantial funding from casino mogul and GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. On Friday morning, the group’s board members — many of them prominent Republican Party donors — gathered in a conference room at Adelson’s Venetian resort, where they were briefed on plans for a $10 million-plus blitz geared toward attracting Jewish support for President Donald Trump. The investment, people familiar with the early discussions say, will far surpass what the group has spent in past presidential elections.

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With Democrats embroiled in a wrenching internal debate over anti-Semitism and support for Israel, Republicans are moving to capitalize with an aggressive campaign painting Trump — who himself has at times faced accusations of stoking anti-Semitism — as a fierce and unapologetic defender of the Jewish state.

“We’re at the intersection of a very unique moment in time where we have the most pro-Israel president ever in history in Donald Trump, and we also at the same time have the Democratic Party— because of the pressure of the progressive left— moving away from the traditional support for Israel that has existed going back to 1948,” said Matt Brooks, who has served as RJC executive director for nearly three decades.

“This strain within the Democratic Party is making those centrist and center-left Jews who care about these issues feel more and more uncomfortable, and with the strength of Donald Trump and the Republican Party on these issues we believe that we’ll be able to bring those folks over to the Republican side,” Brooks added.

At a time when Trump’s approval rating remains mired in the low-to-mid 40s, the offensive shows how Republicans are taking steps to contest any votes they can. Jews only account for about 2 percent of the U.S. population and have overwhelmingly supported Democrats in past elections. But GOP officials believe that siphoning off even a small portion the Jewish vote in a few battleground states could be critical in 2020.

“The Jewish vote will remain and largely loyal Democratic vote because of domestic issues largely, but if there was ever a cycle where Republicans could make inroads it is this cycle,” said Ari Fleischer, a former George W. Bush White House press secretary who now serves as an RJC board member. “If you accept that there are sizeable Jewish populations in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, [and] Michigan, the Jewish vote – if we can make additional inroads – can be very helpful in putting you over the top. The White House knows that.”

The administration is going all-in on the strategy. On Saturday, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and three White House officials — Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt, and Avi Berkowitz — all made pilgrimages to the Venetian, where RJC members were gathered for the third day of their annual spring conference. Before a sea of supporters waving “We are Jews for Trump” signs, the president accused Democrats of opposing Israel and “advancing by far the most extreme, anti-Semitic agenda in history.”

Prior to taking the stage, Trump met privately with Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who together gave over $120 million to Republican causes during the 2018 midterms. The 85-year-old Adelson, who’s been undergoing cancer treatment, hadn’t been expected to be in attendance. But those close to the billionaire said he was intent on making the Trump rally, and when he entered the auditorium on a motorized scooter and wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, he was greeted with a standing ovation.

Democrats are deeply skeptical that the GOP will succeed in making inroads with Jews. Since 1992, according to exit polling data, the Jewish vote has remained remarkably stable, with Democrats winning between 69 percent and 79 percent in each presidential election.

Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said that recent polling her group had conducted showed that Jews remained confident in the Democratic Party’s posture on Israel and that they overwhelmingly disagreed with Trump on an array of domestic issues. And, she pointed out, Republicans had long vowed to make gains with Jewish voters only to fall short.

“This is not new. We’ve seen different iterations of this in previous elections either in midterm or presidential elections, and each time it’s kind of repackaged with a different narrative in an attempt by Republicans to chip away at the Jewish vote — and every time it fails,” Soifer said. “And while the repackaging might make it look like there are different reasons behind it — and certainly we are in a slightly different political context today than we have been in the past — the result is the same.”

But the Las Vegas foray was the latest in an ongoing White House effort to reach out to the Jewish community. In some instances, the administration has even made overtures to those who have long aligned themselves with the Democratic Party.

Kushner, the administration’s point person on the Middle East, has been in touch with Haim Saban, a pro-Israel mega-donor who in 2016 gave over $6 million to a super PAC backing Hillary Clinton for president.

In an interview, Saban said that Kushner had never pressed him who he planned to support in 2020 and that their conversations largely surrounded Israel. While the billionaire media executive said he remained a Democrat, he offered a note of caution at a time when some high-profile figures in his party are questioning the long-standing policy of unflinching support for the Jewish State.

“I sincerely hope the [presidential] nominee continues the traditional Democratic Party [policy] as it relates to the U.S.-Israel alliance,” Saban said.

To some Republicans, highlighting issues surrounding Israel and anti-Semitism goes beyond simply appealing to the Jewish vote. Among those making the rounds at the Venetian this week was Dan Conston, who, as the president of American Action Network and Congressional Leadership Fund, the main pro-House GOP outside groups, has been arguing to major donors that portraying Democrats as unwilling to confront anti-Semitic forces in their party will help to boost Republicans with the suburban voters who abandoned them in 2018.

Ahead of this week’s conference, the group released digital advertisements tying swing-district House Democrats to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who has come under fire for using tropes widely viewed as anti-Semitic. While some senior Democrats have rebuked Omar, she has retained her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“It's appalling that Democrats have stood by and tolerated openly anti-Semitic commentary from their own members,” Conston said. “If Democrats continue to stand by and do nothing, we think suburban voters across America will find it similarly appalling next election.”

That Jewish Republicans have emerged as outspoken champions of Trump’s reelection bid represents something of a turnabout. The RJC was torn over the president during the tumultuous opening days of his tenure, and broke with Trump over his handling of the violence in Charlottesville, when he equated white supremacists with counter-protesters.

Yet many key Jewish Republicans are now firmly in the president’s corner. That includes Fred Zeidman, a longtime GOP giver who chairs a New York City-based investment banking firm. Zeidman, who backed Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP primary, initially harbored concerns about Trump’s position on Israel and was rankled by the White House’s failure to mention Jews in its January 2017 statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

But Zeidman, who met with Trump early in his White House tenure to discuss Israel, said he no longer had any doubts about Trump. The president, he said, had been “incomparable” in terms of “how good he’s been to Israel.”

Zeidman, who helped to oversee Jewish outreach on the George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns, recalled a recent conversation with Houston oilman Harold Hamm. During the Bush years, Zeidman told Hamm, he had a T-shirt quoting the late Israeli leader Shimon Peres as saying that “George W. Bush is the greatest president Israel has ever had.”

“I had,” Zeidman told the billionaire oilman, “to tear up my T-shirt.”

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/07/donald-trump-jewish-vote-2020-1260172

2019-04-07 10:56:00Z
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Iran will retaliate in kind if U.S. designates Guards as terrorists: MPs - Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), in Tehran September 22, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran will take reciprocal action against the United States if Washington designates the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as terrorists, a majority of Iranian parliamentarians said on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA.

The United States is expected to designate the Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another country’s military a terrorist group.

“We will answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action,” a statement issued by 255 out of the 290 Iranian lawmakers said, according to IRNA.

“So the leaders of America, who themselves are the creators and supporters of terrorists in the (Middle East) region, will regret this inappropriate and idiotic action.”

The U.S. decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the State Department perhaps as early as Monday, the U.S. officials said last week. The move has been rumored for years.

IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned in 2017 that if Trump went ahead with the move, “then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world”.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident Iran hawk, has advocated the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administration’s tough posture toward Tehran.

Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi’ite clerical ruling system, the IRGC is Iran’s most powerful security organization. It controls large sectors of the Iranian economy and has huge influence in its political system.

Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Mark Heinrich

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-guards/iran-will-retaliate-in-kind-if-us-designates-guards-as-terrorists-mps-idUSKCN1RJ07U

2019-04-07 09:53:00Z
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Israel elections 2019 at a glance: Gantz vs Netanyahu - Aljazeera.com

About 5.88 million of eligible voters are set to vote in the Israeli elections on April 9 to elect a party that will lead the next Israeli government.

Fourteen main parties are competing for 120 seats in the 21st Knesset.

A party has to secure a majority of 61 seats out of 120 in order to form a government and choose a leader to become prime minister.

Israel in the past has seen particularly high turn-out rates, with 71.8 percent of eligible voters casting their ballots in the 2015 election.

Israel's incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party is seeking a fifth term in office.

According to polls it's a tight race against his main rival Benny Gantz, a former army chief who leads the centrist Blue and White party, a party merged in alliance with former finance minister and TV personality Yair Lapid.

Here's what you need to know about Israel's elections:

Main contenders

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, 69

If re-elected on April 9, Netanyahu could become Israel's longest serving prime minister and the first sitting prime minister to be indicted on corruption charges.

A corruption investigation involving one case of bribery and two cases of fraud and breach of trust culminated in February 2019 when Israel's attorney general announced that he intends to indict Netanyahu.

But Netanyahu dismissed the allegations, calling it a "witch-hunt" concoted by his opponents.

Despite the charges, mostly younger Israelis prefer Netanyahu for prime minister over rival Benny Gantz, according to a pre-election poll by Israel Democracy Institute.

Netanyahu currently leads the most right-wing government in Israeli history and also serves as defence minister.

Over the past decade he's become known as Mr. Security as he portrays himself as the one who can best keep Israel safe in the "tough neighbourhood" of the Middle East.

During his tenure, US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and recognised the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, which may boost his popularity at the polls.

Benjamin "Benny" Gantz, 59

As security always takes centre stage in Israeli politics, Benny Gantz former chief of staff of the Israeli army is Netanyahu's biggest challenger.

Along with two other former Israeli army chiefs of staff, he quickly formed the Centrist Blue and White party in February 2019 in alliance with former finance minister and TV personality Yair Lapid in a bid to unseat Netanyahu.

Gantz boasts the military credentials that appeal to much of the Israeli public. He served as chief of staff during two military assaults on the besieged Gaza Strip in in 2012 and 2014.

Once praised by Netanyahu as an "excellent officer" to whom Israelis owed gratitude, the prime minister has now branded his competition as a "weak leftist".

In a bid to win right-wing voters, Gantz's controversial campaign videos boast of killing Palestinians and sending Gaza "back to Stone Age" referencing to the air attacks the army launched in 2014.

Many have criticised him for lacking a clear political stance including the future of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

However, as part of his platform he has vowed to "fix" the controversial Jewish nation-state law which defined Israel as the exclusive homeland of the Jewish people.

How the elections work

Voters will be casting their ballots for a party, not a prime minister. The more votes a party gets, it obtains more seats in the Knesset (parliament) as the government is based on a nationwide proportional representation system.

There are 120 seats in Knesset. A party must secure a majority of at least 61 seats in order to form a government.

During elections, parties must pass an electoral threshold of 3.25 percent to gain a Knesset seat. That's why many parties form coalitions so they can have a better chance of passing this threshold.

Once the results are in, all parties that pass the threshold then submit their choice of candidate for prime minister to President Reuven Rivlin.

Rivlin then assigns the job of forming a coalition to the party leader who he thinks has the best chance of doing so.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/israel-elections-2019-glance-gantz-netanyahu-190407051123149.html

2019-04-07 05:36:00Z
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Sabtu, 06 April 2019

Brexit: I had no choice but to approach Labour - May - BBC News

Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted she had to reach out to Labour in a bid to deliver Brexit or risk letting it "slip through our fingers".

In a statement on Saturday night, Mrs May said there was a "stark choice" of either leaving the European Union with a deal or not leaving at all.

Some Conservatives have criticised her for seeking Labour's help after MPs rejected her Brexit plan three times.

Three days of talks between the parties ended without agreement on Friday.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was "waiting to see the red lines move" and had not "noticed any great change in the government's position".

He is coming under pressure from his MPs to demand a referendum on any deal he reaches with the government, with 80 signing a letter saying a public vote should be the "bottom line" in the negotiations.

In the statement, Mrs May said that after doing "everything in my power" to persuade her own party - and their backers in Northern Ireland's DUP - to approve the deal she agreed with the EU last year, she "had to take a new approach".

"We have no choice but to reach out across the House of Commons," the prime minister said.

"The referendum was not fought along party lines and people I speak to on the doorstep tell me they expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it."

Getting a majority of MPs to back a Brexit deal was the only way for the UK to leave the EU, Mrs May said.

"The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all."

The UK is due to leave the EU on 12 April and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by the House of Commons.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Labour had engaged in talks "in good faith" and wanted them to continue.

However, she said there was concern the government has made "no movement" on her party's demand for changes to the political declaration - the section of Mrs May's Brexit deal which outlines the basis for future UK-EU relations.

The document declares mutual ambitions in areas such as trade, regulations, security and fishing rights - but does not legally commit either party.

Downing Street has indicated it was "prepared to pursue changes" in order to secure a deal, and Chancellor Philip Hammond said on Saturday that he was "optimistic" the talks could reach "some form of agreement".

'Open revolt'

However, Tory Brexiteers have reacted angrily to the prospect of Mrs May accepting Labour's demands, particularly for a customs union with the EU which would allow tariff-free trade between members but bar them striking their own trade deals.

Leaving the EU's customs union was a Conservative manifesto commitment, and former party whip Michael Fabricant predicted "open revolt" among Tories and Leave voters if MPs agreed to it.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker hit out at efforts to recruit MPs to sign a "toxic" letter endorsing the PM's cross-party efforts, which he said had party members "recoiling in horror".

And the Sunday Telegraph reported some activists were refusing to campaign for the party, while donations had "dried up".

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Your guide to Brexit jargon

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Mrs May has written to European Council President Donald Tusk to request an extension to the Brexit process until 30 June but says if MPs agree a deal, the UK should be able to leave before European parliamentary elections are held on 23 May.

She says the UK would prepare to field candidates in May's European Parliament elections if MPs failed to back a deal.

But Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi told the Today programme it would be "a suicide note of the Conservative Party if we had to fight the European elections".

Labour is also split over its Brexit approach.

The letter organised by the Love Socialism Hate Brexit campaign contains the signatures of four shadow ministers and argues that any compromise deal agreed by Parliament will have "no legitimacy if it is not confirmed by the public".

As the political declaration is not legally binding, and with Mrs May having promised to stand down once a Brexit deal is passed, the letter points out that "any future Tory prime minister could simply rip up" assurances given to Labour over future relations with the EU.

However, a letter signed by 25 Labour MPs on Thursday argued against another public vote.

They warned it would "divide the country further and add uncertainty for business" and could be "exploited by the far-right, damage the trust of many core Labour voters and reduce our chances of winning a general election".

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47842572

2019-04-07 02:42:11Z
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