News FROM ISRAEL 27-Sep-18
At UN, Netanyahu reveals Iranian nuclear warehouse
By Michael Bachner, Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this (Thursday) evening irevealed what he said was a previously unknown Iranian nuclear site, accusing the International Atomic Energy Agency of failing to investigate findings that he presented earlier this year about Iran’s nuclear program.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu also revealed what he said were Hezbollah precision missile sites hidden in Beirut, warned that Israel would act against Iran “wherever and whenever,” praised US President Donald Trump for defunding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and attacked the Palestinian Authority for paying monthly salaries to convicted terrorists.
The prime minister said the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear agency, had failed to take any action after he revealed in April a nuclear archive that Israeli spies managed to spirit out of Iran, and so he was now revealing what he said was a “secret atomic warehouse” in the Turquzabad district of Tehran. Netanyahu claimed it was used for “storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran’s secret weapons program,” which was quickly being moved to other parts of the city.
Both the archive and warehouse, he said, were proof that Iran had not given up its nuclear program. “Iran has not abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons…. Rest assured that will not happen. What Iran hides, Israel will find,” he added.
He urged IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano, who he called “a good man,” to “do the right thing” and “go and inspect this atomic warehouse immediately—before the Iranians finish cleaning it out. Inspect “right here, right now,” he urged, “and inspect the other sites we told you about ... Tell the world the truth about Iran.”
There was no immediate reaction from Iran, which denies building nuclear weapons. There was also no reaction from the IAEA, which Netanyahu said had ignored Israeli information on the nuclear sites and more than 100,000 documents on Iran’s nuclear program he revealed earlier this year.
Missile sites in Beirut
Pulling out more placards, Netanyahu showed the plenum what he said were sites hidden near Beirut’s international airport housing precision missiles for the Hezbollah terror group, an Iranian proxy.
Sending a message to “the tyrants of Iran,” he said: “Israel knows what you’re doing, and Israel knows where you’re doing it.” Israel, he vowed, would “never let a regime that calls for our destruction develop nuclear weapons.”
Reasserting long-standing Israeli policy, he promised: “Israel will do whatever it must do to defend itself against Iran’s aggression.” To that end, he said, “We will continue to act against you in Syria, we will act against you in Lebanon, we will act against you in Iraq, we will act against you wherever and whenever we must act to defend our state and to defend our people.”
Minutes after the speech, the Israel Defense Forces released a video with more information about the Hezbollah missile sites, indicating a coordinated campaign. Israel’s operations in Syria have been called into doubt in recent days after Moscow blamed the IDF for Syrian air defenses shooting down a Russian spy plane during an Israeli attack on a weapons facility near Latakia.
With the EU continuing to back the Iranian nuclear deal he vociferously opposed, Netanyahu charged that European countries had been “coddling” Iran’s leaders by fulfilling obligations they made under the nuclear accord, and called on them to join in on the reimposed US sanctions after Trump pulled out—a move Netanyahu praised.
“The same week Iran was caught red-handed for trying to murder European citizens, European leaders were laying out the red carpet for President Rouhani, pledging to give them more money,” Netanyahu mocked. “Have these European leaders learned nothing from history? Will they ever wake up?”
Mahmoud Abbas
Netanyahu praised Trump and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley for the “support they provide to Israel at the United Nations,” receiving a lengthy round of applause in response.
He responded to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s earlier speech (below) in which Abbas branded Israel’s nation-state law a recipe for “apartheid,” calling that “preposterous.”
“Israel’s Arab citizens have exactly the same rights as all other Israeli citizens. But here Israel is shamefully accused of apartheid,” Netanyahu charged. “It’s the same old anti-Semitism with a brand new face. That’s all it is. Once it was the Jewish people who were slandered and held to a different standard. Today it is the Jewish state which is slandered and held to a different standard.”
“Israel is called racist for making Hebrew its national language? This is downright preposterous,” he said, citing more than 50 countries that have crosses or crescents on their flags and “dozens of countries that define themselves as nation-state of their peoples. None of these countries are libeled for celebrating their national identity.”
He also slammed Abbas for paying terror convicts and their families. The US and Israel have both cut funding to the Palestinians over the controversial monthly stipends.
“They more they slay, the more you pay,” Netanyahu addressed the Palestinian leader, “and you condemn Israel’s morality? You call Israel racist? This is not the way to peace. This body should not be applauding the head of a regime that pays terrorists. The UN should condemn such a despicable policy.”
Earlier Thursday, Abbas hailed terror convicts in Israeli prisons as “heroes,” paying tribute to “our hero martyrs and prisoners of war.”
Netanyahu did not make substantial mention of any peace talks with the Palestinians, a day after Trump for the first time declared his support for a two-state solution to the conflict following his meeting with the Israeli premier on the sidelines of the General Assembly.
Arab states
He did speak more generally of regional and Palestinian peace, however. He said that the Iran deal “has had one positive consequence. By empowering Iran, it brought Israel and many Arab states closer together than ever before, in an intimacy and friendship that I have not seen in my lifetime, and that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.” Israel, he said, “deeply values these new friendships, and I hope the day will soon arrive when Israel will extend a formal peace, beyond Egypt and Jordan, to other Arab nations, including the Palestinians.”
Trump told reporters Wednesday that he believes that two states—Israel and one for the Palestinians—“works best.” He has previously been vague on the topic, suggesting that he would support whatever the parties might agree to, including possibly a one-state resolution, which might see the Palestinian territories become part of Israel.
Later, Trump told a news conference that reaching a two-state solution is “more difficult because it’s a real estate deal” but that ultimately it “works better because you have people governing themselves.”
But, backtracking somewhat, Trump added that he would still support Israel and the Palestinians should they opt for a one-state solution, though he believed that was less likely. “Bottom line: If the Israelis and Palestinians want one-state, that’s OK with me. If they want two states, that’s OK with me. I’m happy if they’re happy.”
Abbas: Trump and US too biased to mediate peace talks
By Michael Bachner, Times of Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today (Thursday) slammed US President Donald Trump for his policies toward the Palestinians, calling them an “assault on international law,” and rejected Washington as a mediator of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Abbas also hailed terror convicts in Israeli prisons as “heroes,” and signaled he could cut PA budgets to Gaza if Hamas does not relinquish power.
The US is “too biased towards Israel” in order to act alone as a fair mediator between the Palestinians and Israel, Abbas said, but indicated he could be open to others stepping in to broker talks.
“This administration has reneged on all previous US commitments, and has undermined the two-state solution, and has revealed its false claims of concern about the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people,” Abbas accused.
“We welcomed Trump when he was elected and praised his announcement of [a] peace plan, but were shocked by his actions concerning the process,” Abbas said. But, he continued, “He decided to close the Palestinian mission in Washington, then recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, and even boasts that he took the issues of Jerusalem and refugees off the table.”
“He even intensified his assault on international law by cutting humanitarian aid to refugees and funds to the Palestinian Authority,” Abbas charged.
Abbas’s speech came amid a deepening rift between Ramallah and Washington due to the PA’s refusal to engage with American officials after the US recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December. Relations plummeted further in recent weeks after Washington cut off all funding to the UN agency assisting Palestinians, triggering a budget panic, and shuttered the Palestinian mission in Washington.
Abbas called on Trump to rescind his decisions “to salvage the prospects of peace and prosperity for future generations.”
Jerusalem not forsale
Abbas halted ties with Trump’s administration in December after the US recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and Palestinians have said a pending US peace plan will be dead on arrival because of that and other recent US moves that Palestinians see as favoring Israel.
“Jerusalem is not for sale,” Abbas said to applause as he began his speech. “The Palestinian people’s rights are not up for bargaining.” He added that he rejected anything short of all of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, and not just a neighborhood, as the Americans reportedly plan on proposing.
He said Palestinians would never reject negotiations, but that “it’s really ironic that the American administration still talks about what they talk call the ‘deal of the century.'”
“What is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people?” he asked. “What is left as a political solution?”
Added Abbas: “We are not redundant. Why are we treated as redundant people who should be gotten rid of?”
Claiming the Palestinians “never use violence,” he added that “we are resisting the Israeli occupation by legitimate means decided by international resolutions. Only peaceful means. We never use violence.”
“By contrast, settlers use arms against our people. We will continue to reject violence and use of weapons,” he said.
But he also ended his speech by paying tribute to “our hero martyrs and prisoners of war,” while accusing Israelis of supporting terrorists.
The US and Israel have both cut funding to the Palestinians over controversial stipends paid to terror convicts and their families.
Abbas also suggested the Palestinians would cut all PA budgets allocated to Gaza if Hamas does not hand over control of the the coastal territory.
“There is an agreement between Hamas and us. We abided by it and our Egyptian brothers know that, but they have not abided by it. Therefore, from now on, we will not bear any responsibility [for Gaza]. I ask you to understand that. We will not bear any responsibility if they insist on rejecting agreements,” he said, referring to an Egyptian-brokered agreement Hamas and Fatah signed late last year.
Referring to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Abbas claimed that Israel’s Supreme Court “plans to pass a decision dividing Al Aqsa by time and space.”
“Every day that court passes decisions as if we don’t exist,” he said.
It was not immediately clear what decision he was referring to. Palestinians have long claimed that Jews entering the contested holy site are supported by the government in an effort to take over the compound.
Sources close to Abbas told Israel’s Channel 10 news said the Palestinian leader softened his message and used the least aggressive speech of the various versions which were prepared for him.
On Wednesday, foreign ministers and diplomats from some 40 countries and representatives of international organizations evening attended a conference organized by the Palestinian mission to the United Nations in a bid to promote alternatives to the US administration’s expected peace plan.
Participating dignitaries endorsed the two-state solution and “reiterated the parameters [of the peace process] as we know them, and as agreed upon by everyone, and expressed willingness to allow this collective process to continue,” Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said.
Abbas arrived in New York on Monday and met European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, who reiterated the bloc’s support for a two-state solution.
Jordan to protect Jerusalem’s Muslim, Christian character
by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post
Jordan will thwart any attempts to change Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian character, King Abdullah II told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
He made an impassioned plea for a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the 2002 Arab League initiative and warned against a one-state solution to the conflict.
“We need to safeguard the heritage and peace of Jerusalem, a holy city to billions of people around the world. The Hashemite custodianship of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem is a duty that Jordan is proud to carry.
“We will counter any attempts to change the holy city’s historic Arab, Christian and Muslim identity. But Jerusalem’s future is not Jordan’s concern alone. It is yours. There are global implications when religious worship is threatened and international law is undermined,” Abdullah said.
He spoke hours after US President Donald Trump at the UN touted his decision to relocate his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. His 12-minute address in English was delivered in advance of an anticipated roll out later this year of an American-led peace plan to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Abdullah said that the best way forward was a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and a secure Israel.
“Arab and Muslim countries are committed to a comprehensive peace,” Abdullah said. He noted that the 2002 Arab peace initiative that offered Israel normalized ties with the Arab world in exchange for a withdrawal to the 1967 lines had been on the table for more than 16 years.
“The US administration has long been committed to peace and has a leading role in our progress going forward. Yes, we have a long way to go. But we cannot give up because the task is hard—because what is the alternative?” Abdullah asked.
“Can we afford to let one of the world’s most strategic regions be tied to an endless cycle of violence in its mist?”
He warned against unilateral actions and the “ugly undemocratic” one-state resolution, which he said was an abandonment of peace and a way to abandon the work of reconciliation.
Palestine to head bloc of developing countries at UN
by Raphael Ahren, Times of Israel
UNITED NATIONS—The State of Palestine was today (Thursday) formally handed the presidency of the Group of 77, the largest bloc of developing nations at the UN.
The event took place minutes before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was to take the podium at the UN General Assembly, in which as expected heharshly attacked Israel.
In July, Palestine—which is not a member state of the UN but has observer state status—was chosen to head the so-called G77 plus China, a consortium now consisting of 134 nations that often speaks in one voice at the UN General Assembly, starting January 1, 2019.
Abbas, speaking from his seat in the back of the room, promised that his government “will bear its responsibility and perform its duties in all honesty and integrity and in a manner that deserves the trust of the members of G77.”
He said Palestine was committed to work with all members and secretariat of the group.He did not mention Israel or other regional issues in his brief speech.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who as outgoing president presided over the Thursday’s ministerial meeting, congratulated “my brother” Abbas on the nod.
In lieu of a formal vote, which will be held later, Sissi asked the forum if it supported handing the gavel to Abbas, which was met by a loud round of applause from delegates.
“I assure you that Egypt, along with all members of the group, will fully support the chairmanship of Palestine, We’re convinced that Palestine will advance the interests of all member states,” he said at the meeting, held at the conference hall of the UN Economic and Social Council.