Israel Week Ending February 4
Herzog to UAE, Gantz to Bahrain, Laser Defense,Amnesty Report and More
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The week began with a state visit by President Herzog to the UAE. Herzog becomes one of many official visitors, as part of the peace that seems ever warmer between Israel and the UAE. During Herzog's visit, the Iranian-supported Houthi fired a rocket at Dubai. The missile was intercepted without causing damage. Israel publicly offered to help the UAE, and later in the week, a defense mission was sent to work with the Emirates to define their needs.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Defense Minister Gantz visited Bahrain. Gantz met with the King, as well as the Minister of Defense. Israel and Bahrain signed a defense cooperation agreement, which provides the basis for Israeli military aid to Bahrain. Gantz was accompanied by the Commander of the Israeli Navy, Vice Admiral David Saar Salama.
Together the pair met with the Commander of the US Navy 5th fleet for a tour of the USS Cole, docked at the US Naval base in Bahrain. Israel is participating in an extensive multilateral naval exercise, along with Saudi Arabia. It is hard to overstate the strategic importance of Israel’s military agreements with the Gulf States. Both UAE and Bahrain are interested in advanced Israeli radar warning systems. Consequently, Israel will be able to create a regional warning system to warn and track any Iranian attack, by having detection systems so close to Iran.
MILITARY
This week, Prime Minister Bennett created a stir by announcing that Israel will deploy its first operational laser defense system within a year. Some experts question whether the laser system will actually be ready in a year. However, it seems Bennett has allocated additional funding to rush final development of the system. Once deployed, the laser system will be a total game-changer.
Today, Israel is forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars each time it discharges Iron Dome to intercept each incoming missile. A laser system will cost just a few dollars every time it is fired. Israeli companies are developing both land-based and airborne laser systems. Once fully deployed, they should provide superb defense against Hamas missiles, as well as, the enormous armada of rockets stockpiled by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Ten years ago, the first article I published after we returned to Israel, was titled: “It’s time for Israel to Step Up its Defensive Game”. I am happy to say that in the decade that followed, the IDF has undoubtedly done just that!
To say that the recent attacks by extremist West Bank settlers against Palestinians (and sometimes Israel soldiers) have not been handled well is a gross understatement. Part of the reason this situation has been handled so poorly is that governments of Israel have never developed a clear policy on the subject. How poorly the government has been dealing with these confrontations became clear at a Security Cabinet Minister’s meeting earlier in the week. When the matter was raised, a conflict developed between Lieutenant General Aviv Kohavi, IDF Chief of Staff, and MK Omar Bar-Lev, Israel’s Minister of Public Safety. Bar-Lev requested that while stationed in the West Bank, soldiers who witness Jewish settlers breaking the law detain those perpetrators until the very understaffed police force can arrive on the scene and take the lawbreaker into custody.
Kohavi claimed that the army did not have the legal authority to do so. During the meeting, Kohavi partially quoted an opinion by the States Attorney General from 2008, which implied soldiers should not detain Israeli citizens. Bar-Lev disagreed and said that soldiers were obligated to stop an Israeli from breaking the law in the West Bank.
Bar-Lev was correct regarding the state of the law. On Wednesday, Bar-Lev sent a formal letter of complaint against the Chief of Staff to the Defense Minister, with a copy to the rest of the cabinet. In the complaint, Bar-Lev quoted the 1998 decision on the subject by the then-Attorney General, which clearly stated it was the responsibility of the IDF to detain any Israeli who broke the law, until the arrival of the police. Bar-Lev demanded that that policy be implemented immediately. Yair Golan, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce from Meretz, and former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff, stated this morning: “There is a tendency in the IDF to want to run away from areas of political disagreement. We don't deal with violence by settlers. But the police in the area are weak, and it is the IDF soldiers who are in the field. Therefore, running away from the problem is tactically wrong.”
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT
When I first heard of the Amnesty International Report calling Israel “an Apartheid state”, I was appalled, but also felt that the response of the Israeli government and Jewish organizations may have been over the top. Not every criticism of Israel is antisemitic. That was my view until I read the actual report — which was a declaration written by people who hate Israel. I don’t want to spend too much time debunking the report. Nevertheless, I do want to point out one large and two small items that are indicative of the rest of the report. The first, and probably most damning, is the report’s failure to distinguish between Arab Israeli citizens living in pre-67 Israel — who have full civil rights and are well represented in the parliament — from Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. On that level alone, it's hard to take the report seriously.
Yet, it’s the small misleading points that thoroughly undermine the report: When writing about the history, the report states: “In 1948, Jewish individuals and institutions owned around 6.5% of mandate Palestine, while Palestinians owned about 90% of the privately-owned land there. Within just over 70 years, the situation has been reversed.” That statement is probably true, however, in 1948 very little of the land in Palestine was privately owned. So, to say the Arabs owned 90% of a minimal number is definitively misleading.
When talking about Gaza, the report refers to all the harm done to the Gazan economy by the Israeli blockade, without any mention of the fact the embargo only came about because Hamas started firing missiles at Israel, after Israel had fully withdrawn from Gaza.
That is not to say that everything in the report is false. The occupation is bad, and an occupation for 54 years is horrible. However, that still does not make Israel an Apartheid state.
LAW & POLITICS
The court accepted Arye Deri’s plea agreement for criminal tax evasion this week. Deri resigned from the Knesset, as required under the terms of the deal. One day after pleading guilty, Deri made a mockery of the deal by holding a press conference, during which he declared he did nothing wrong, and that had his name had not been Deri (implying if his last name was Goldman, or Schwartz), he would never have been investigated. As to his continued role in the Knesset, Deri will remain head of the Shas Party, and become a parliamentary advisor, thus, maintaining his access.
COVID–19
The number of Covid cases has begun to drop off, with reported instances dropping yesterday by half the amount recorded one week ago. However, the positive rate still stands at 25%. Israel has ended up with the highest per capita case numbers globally. The question is, why? The answer, I’m afraid, is simply that at this point no one is making any adjustments in their lives for Covid, unless they get sick — and unfortunately, I know many who have been ill in the last few weeks. Israelis still wear masks in stores and other indoor venues, but almost no one wears an N95 mask. The number of severe cases in the hospital seems have risen to 1,132. More Israeli have already died from Omicron than those who succumbed to the Delta variant. 502 Israelis have died from Covid-19 during this past week.
Interestingly, of those over 60, 464 of the deceased had not taken the vaccine, while only 47 had been fully vaccinated.
BACK CLOSE TO MY OLD HOME
An uproar has developed over the firing of Jessie Sanders by Westchester Reform Synagogue (which was just a few miles from my old home in Mamaroneck). Sanders was hired to serve as youth director at the synagogue and was fired after it came to light that she defined herself as anti-Zionist. Sanders is suing. I believe her suit is groundless. The Reform Movement is officially a Zionist movement. Therefore, by definition, part of the role of a youth leader is to instill in her charges a love of Israel and support for Zionism. How could she do that if she is a self-identified anti-Zionist? If she had a clerical job in the office, then her firing would be unconscionable, however, she was tasked with a job to educate students in a belief she publicly opposes.
ECONOMY
Consumers and the government celebrated a rare victory this week. After a row of local food producers and importers announced proposed price increases, a virtual protest movement developed, with plans to boycott specific firms who threatened to raise prices. At the same time, Finance Minister Lieberman warned he would investigate firms that raised prices, while the Treasury leaked information on the profitability of some of the firms. Almost all the companies that had announced price hikes have either delayed them or decided they would not raise prices at this time.
Sensi.ai, an AI-powered virtual care management platform, successfully closed a $14 million Series-A financing round, led by Entrée Capital. The two-year-old company has developed an AI-driven platform to allow more elderly people to receive high-quality home care, instead of being in a care facility.
Agritask has raised $26 million to help expand its platform, which connects food producers with food growers. This two-way platform keeps producers aware of the status of their crops, while directing growers to the needs of the producers.
The cyber company Island has exited from stealth mode and announced it has raised $100 million. The company has developed a custom browser that provides unparalleled security while using the internet.
“… the report’s failure to distinguish between Arab Israeli citizens living in pre-67 Israel — who have full civil rights and are well represented in the parliament — from Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.” and… as a corollary, Israel fails to distinguish between it citizens who live in the OPT versus its citizens who live inside the old Green Line.
This, in and of itself, is what makes the distinction between some Arab Palestinians and others irrelevant.