Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff: August 28, 2019

Efraim Sneh, former Israeli deputy defense minister, says there is ‘danger’ US will endorse settlement annexation in exchange for Trump’s turn toward Iran

US President Donald Trump meets with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (out of shot) in Biarritz, southwest France on August 26, 2019, on the third day of the annual G7 Summit. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP)
US President Donald Trump meets with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (out of shot) in Biarritz, southwest France on August 26, 2019, on the third day of the annual G7 Summit. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP)

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JI INTERVIEW — In an interview with JI’s Jacob Kornbluh on Tuesday, Efraim Sneh, former deputy defense minister under Ehud Olmert, expressed concern that President Donald Trump could endorse Israeli annexation in exchange for muted criticism of a new potential Iran deal.

“There is a danger” that the Trump administration may announce its support for Israel annexing parts of the West Bank “to compensate” for a possible “rapprochement with Iran,” Sneh said in a phone interview. Sneh noted that he had advocated for flexibility on the Israeli-Palestinian front to help the Obama administration put together a coalition to counter Iran. Today, he said, a “boding rapprochement with Iran — which was now only delicately hinted — can be an incentive to that kind of measure,” he said. “Very dangerous steps by the Israeli government could be endorsed just for this purpose.”

Sneh is one of 25 Israeli former defense officials who sent a letter to members of Congress on Tuesday expressing their appreciation for the passage of H. Res. 246, which affirmed “strong support for a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states.” [JewishInsider]

On the U.S.-Israel relationship: “This administration will do everything needed to help Netanyahu win. There’s a very strong alliance between the close circle of Trump and the close circle of Netanyahu. It’s a political alliance, not a strategic alliance between the two countries. Unfortunately, there is no more bipartisanship support for Israel. It was destroyed. It will be restored only when a different government is formed in Israel.”

On the possibility of war between Israel and Hezbollah: “I think we are in a very combustible situation. But no responsible Israeli government can accept the Iranian entrenchment in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.” Sneh also observed that while it is “critically necessary” for Israel to prevent Iran and Hezbollah from developing targeted missiles, it’s a mistake for Netanyahu to break with Israel’s ambiguity over its strikes against Iranian targets.

Sneh predicts that a war between Israel and Iranian proxies is just a matter of time. “If this entrancement will continue, war is unavoidable.”

HEARD YESTERDAY — National Security Advisor John Bolton said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Trump’s willingness to meet with his Iranian counterpart doesn’t suggest he’s softened his stance on Iran. “He’ll meet with anybody to talk. He is a negotiator. He is a dealmaker,” Bolton said. “But talking with them does not imply… changing your position. I think if you look at what President Trump has said about the Iran nuclear deal, which he called the worst deal in U.S. diplomatic history — a view I think is amply justified by the facts — he is not going to make the same mistakes that President Obama made.”

Iranian-American journalist Jason Rezaian writes: “Like it or not, talks with Iran are coming soon: No matter how hard Trump’s Iran advisers try to demonize the Islamic republic, the regime is still being taken seriously by all the other major world powers… Tehran’s ability to exploit the divide between the United States and the rest of the world should be of grave concern. That growing rift serves to normalize the Iranian regime’s worst behaviors.” [WashPost]

ON THE GROUND — Tensions between Israel and its neighboring enemies remained high on Wednesday, after Hezbollah vowed a “surprise” and “calculated” retribution against Israel. The purported strike “is being arranged in a way which wouldn’t lead to a war,” a Hezbollah source told Reuters. “The direction now is for a calculated strike, but how matters develop, that’s another thing.”

An Associated Press headline on Tuesday declared that “Israel’s shadow war with Iran bursts into the open.” AP’s Aron Heller wrote that the events of the past few days “have raised tensions at a particularly fraught time. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking to project strength three weeks before national elections, while Iran has taken a series of provocative actions in recent months aimed at pressuring European nations to provide relief from crippling U.S. sanctions.”

Meanwhile, three Hamas police officers were killed in explosions in Gaza late Tuesday. Israel said it was not involved in the suspected suicide bombings, which are believed to have been carried out by Salafi militants challenging Hamas’s rule.

Robert Malley and Naysan Rafati of the International Crisis Group write… “Israel-Iran tensions could threaten prospects for Trump-Rouhani meeting: In the midst of French efforts to de-escalate tensions between Tehran and Washington… the conflict between Israel and Iran may have entered a dangerous new stage… Previous escalations between Iran and Israel in Syria have been contained… The current escalation is drawing in a far wider range of actors and is hitting closer to Iran’s core interests, making it that much more difficult to prevent, contain or control.” [Axios]

Seth Frantzman writes… “Israel’s strategy against Tehran: Revealing the Iranian threat: Air strikes on Iran’s network of proxies force the network out of the shadows. It can’t hide in villas in southern Syria, or launch drones at night, or stockpile ballistic missiles in Iraq if it is looking over its shoulder and increasingly making mistakes through its aggressive and open threats. Iran is used to playing a double game of moderates and hard-liners, sending its smiling foreign minister to the recent G7 while boasting of its allies’ drone technology striking Saudi Arabia.” [NationalReview]

Jonathan Spyer writes: “The Iran-Israel war is here: This war is a very 21st-century affair. For now it involves only small circles among the Israeli and Iranian populations… But it won’t necessarily stay that way. A single kinetic and successful Iranian response to Israel’s airstrikes could rapidly precipitate an escalation to a much broader contest. State-to-state conflict has returned to the Middle East.” [WSJ]

TALK OF THE CITY — A 64-year-old hassidic Jewish man was brutally attacked with a rock at a park in Crown Heights yesterday. Rabbi Avraham Gopin was walking through Brooklyn’s Lincoln Terrace Park when a man threw a rock at him. Gopin approached the man, who punched him in the face and then hit him with another rock, knocking out several of his front teeth. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the attack, and released videofootage of the alleged attacker.

New York City Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D-Brooklyn) told JI’s Jacob Kornbluh on Tuesday that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is spending too much time on the campaign trail and not devoting enough attention and resources to the surge of violent antisemitic attacks in Brooklyn.

“Whether he is here or not, de Blasio should make sure that his administration is on top of things, especially when he had made that commitment to open [a mayoral hate crimes] office in June,” Deutsch said. “We are in a moment where we need to tackle these issues head on. We can’t just ignore them thinking it’s going to go away. The mayor needs to realize that if he makes a commitment, he needs to make good on it.”  

In June, de Blasio declared the immediate opening of a mayoral office to combat the rise in antisemitism, which “will work to root out hate and make our streets safer.” But little action appears to have been taken since then.

“We are already in August, and I still haven’t heard anything about it being active or anyone being hired,” Deutsch said. “The commitment was made by the mayor that he’s going to have this open by June. We are waiting for this [to be] implemented.” [JewishInsider]

On Tuesday, de Blasio tweeted that “the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating this despicable act of violence, and we will find the attacker. This city will stop at nothing to protect our communities from hate and violence.” 

TALK OF THE NATION — Incoming Harvard freshman deported after visa revoked — by Shera S. Avi-Yonah and Delano R. Franklin:“U.S. officials deported [Ismail B.] Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian resident of Tyre, Lebanon, Friday night shortly after he arrived at Boston Logan International Airport. Before canceling Ajjawi’s visa, immigration officers subjected him to hours of questioning — at one point leaving to search his phone and computer — according to a written statement by Ajjawi. University officials are currently working to resolve the matter before classes begin on Sept. 3, University spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain wrote in an email.” [TheCrimsonWashPost]

TOP TALKER — New York Times columnist Bret Stephens deactivated his Twitter account on Tuesday after inviting David Karpf, an associate professor of media and public affairs at The George Washington University — who called him a ‘bedbug’ — to his home to meet his wife and kids and insult him to his face. “Time to do what I long ago promised to do,” he wrote. “Twitter is a sewer. It brings out the worst in humanity. I sincerely apologize for any part I’ve played in making it worse, and to anyone I’ve ever hurt.”

Stephens defended his action in an interview on MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle: “Analogizing people to insects is always wrong. We can be better… There’s a bad history of being analogized to insects that goes back to a lot of totalitarian regimes in the past.”

Karpf responded to Stephens in Esquire“No one has freer speech than a public intellectual with a regular column in the paper of record. Stephens is free to say whatever he wants. With that freedom comes the discomfort that people will disagree with you. If Stephens is going to have this social power, he is going to have to learn to wield it more responsibly.” [Esquire]

George Washington University’s provost, Forrest Maltzmaninvitedthe Times columnist for a campus discussion on civil discourse. Stephens toldThe Washington Post that he accepted the invitation “and we will find a date in the fall.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) mocked Stephens in a tweet“Imagine being on Twitter and having the worst thing you’re called in a given day is ‘bedbug.’ My own friends roast me harder than that "</p

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