Liberman: Zionists don't give in to Arab threats
By Lahav Harkov
The Jerusalem Post, Page 3
The Zionist Union is surrendering to Arab terrorism, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday, after the list decided not to support a petition to ban Balad MK Haneen Zoabi from running on the joint list of Arab parties.
"It's not enough to call yourself the Zionist Union. A real Zionist doesn't give in to threats from Arabs," Liberman wrote on Facebook.
According to Liberman, "the surrender to threats from Arabs… is a continuation of institution give in to Arab terrorism."
Any such surrender, he added, leads to another one and endangers Israel as Jewish state.
Palestinians to open embassy in Sweden as Abbas visits
By AFP and Times of Israel staff
The Times of Israel website
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Stockholm as the Nordic state readied to open the first Palestinian embassy in Western Europe Tuesday evening.
Abbas, who is visiting Sweden for the first time since it became the first European country to recognize Palestine in October, called on other countries to follow Stockholm’s lead, and said unilateral statehood efforts for serve peace talks, not replace them.
Abbas said the Palestinian leadership was “looking forward” to resuming peace negotiations with Israel, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.
“We are extending our hands to a just peace based on the international legitimacy resolutions,” he said during a press conference together with Sweden’s Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven.
Lovfen said with statehood, the Palestinians would now be held to different standards.
“According to our view, Palestine is from now on a state. Therefore our expectations from Palestine and its leaders are going to grow,” Löfven said.
Löfven announced Krona 1.5 billion ($180 million) in increased aid to the Palestinians, to be given in installments until 2019 and which will be dedicated to fighting corruption, advancing human rights and gender equality.
Löfven asked Israel and the Palestinians to be “constructive,” saying there should be no contradiction between having good relations with Israel and with the Palestinians..
Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem – who last month postponed a trip to Israel – has said she will use the Abbas visit to “prepare for a revived peace process.”
Sweden is the only major western European country to have recognized Palestine, a move that Abbas commended during his visit.
He emphasized that Sweden’s recognition or future UN membership would only enhance peace efforts with Israel, not replace them.
Abbas said that Israeli settlement building in the West Bank was “collective punishment” against Palestinians, and would never facilitate reaching a peace agreement, the agency reported.
Abbas’ visit comes a month after a senior Israeli official said Wallstroem was not welcome for official visits to the country.
“It does not make us happy to see (Abbas) here on a visit with a new government that very quickly decided to recognize Palestine,” Israel’s ambassador to Stockholm Isaac Bachman told news agency TT.
According to the Palestinian Authority, around 135 countries have recognized the state of Palestine including several that are now EU members.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April last year, and a bloody war in Gaza erupted just a few months later.
EU states said to be planning fresh sanctions against Israel
By Judah Ari Gross
The Times of Israel website
European Union member states are planning new sanctions against Israel that will be implemented if peace negotiations with Palestinians do not resume following the March elections, it was reported Tuesday.
The proposed plan would include “sanctions against companies that conduct business over the Green Line, support in the legal proceedings of Palestinians in the issue of settlements and also renewing the proposal to create a Palestinian state through the Security Council,” according to an Israeli official who met recently with European leaders in Brussels, the Hebrew-language Walla website reported.
Israeli officials in several European capitals said the proposals have buy-in from all countries in the EU, according to the report.
The EU has threatened sanctions against Israel for several years in an effort to prod forward the peace process with the Palestinians and discourage settlement expansion.
According to one of the Israeli officials briefed by European leaders, the process of imposing sanctions was delayed by elections, but will likely be picked up should peace efforts not restart after Israelis go to the polls on March 17.
“For some of the countries there is the hope that after the elections there is a chance to renew the negotiations with the Palestinians. But now it does not seem like that will happen, and therefore they are planning to shift into a higher gear,” the official said.
“To single out Israel, to twist our arms economically, in the hopes that we’ll commit suicide because financially we’ll get hit if we don’t – it’s immoral from my perspective,” Bennett told the diplomats, according to a tape of the meeting leaked to Army Radio and published Tuesday. “Instead of understanding… we’re the big dam in this big river of terror.”
Bennett’s office declined to comment on his message to the representatives, which included envoys from 26 out of the 28 EU countries, and noted only that “things that were said behind closed doors should remain there.”
Swedish PM tells Abbas: Recognition comes with responsibility
By Jonathan Bank
The Times of Israel website
Senior Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said Tuesday he would boycott Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress next month, hours after Netanyahu tweeted his intention to go ahead with the speech.
The US confirmed that aid worker Kayla Mueller, who was held hostage by Islamic State, was killed in a Jordanian airstrike against the terror group.
A new Knesset Channel poll found Moshe Kahlon to be Israelis’ favored candidate for the Finance portfolio, winning the trust of 23% of Israelis vs. 20% for the Zionist Union’s man, Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg.
The Times of Israel followed events as they occurred.
Rouhani: World must ‘seize opportunity’ of nuclear deal
By AFP
The Times of Israel website
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that world powers must “seize the opportunity” of a landmark nuclear deal, insisting Tehran had taken the “necessary steps” for an accord.
Rouhani’s remarks appeared to be a response to US President Barack Obama, who on Monday said: “The issues now are – does Iran have the political will and the desire to get a deal done?”
Speaking in Tehran, Rouhani said that although gaps remain between Iran and the P5+1 powers – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany – it was up to them to close a deal.
“Right now good progress has been made although we are some distance away from the final agreement,” he said during a meeting with India’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval.
“Iran has taken necessary steps and now it’s the other side’s turn to seize the opportunity,” he added.
Two deadlines for a permanent agreement on Iran’s controversial nuclear program have already been missed, requiring the talks to be extended.
Negotiators are now working toward the political outline of a deal by March 31, with the cut-off point for the technical details of a comprehensive accord by June 30.
Disagreements center on the extent of nuclear activities Iran will be allowed to continue and the timetable for the lifting of sanctions.
At a speech later Tuesday to mark the 36th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, Rouhani told foreign diplomats Iran still believed in a “win-win solution” in the talks.
“In recent months we have shown the flexibility necessary to resolve this political issue,” he said. “We hope that the other negotiating party can show more than before. If so… in a short time the disputes can be resolved.”
Hezbollah at head of battle for Syrian Golan, monitor says
By AFP and Justin Jalil
The Times of Israel website
Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah has taken the lead role on a key frontline in southern Syria near the border with the Israeli Golan Heights, a monitoring group said Tuesday.
A Syrian military source confirmed Hezbollah was engaged in fighting in Quneitra and Daraa provinces as part of efforts to stop rebels advancing in the area.
Hezbollah and President Bashar Assad’s troops launched a new operation on Sunday to reclaim swaths of territory captured recently by rebels and jihadists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Hezbollah has taken the initiative to lead army and Iranian forces in the triangle of territory linking Daraa, Quneitra and the southwest of Damascus provinces,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the British-based monitoring group.
“The frontline is on the border with the occupied Golan Heights,” he added. “They have since taken back a string of villages and hills.”
Iran has acknowledged sending military advisers and high-ranking officers from the elite Revolutionary Guard to help its ally Assad.
Unlike the Observatory, the military source said the Syrian army was leading the offensive.
“The Syrian army and its allies, including Hezbollah, are fighting battles against armed groups in Quneitra and Daraa provinces,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He added that the goal of the campaign was to “put a stop to the armed men’s attacks, [as they inch] towards the capital.”
Assad: We get messages from US-led coalition battling IS
By AP
The Times of Israel website
BEIRUT – Syria’s President Bashar Assad said in comments published Tuesday that his government has been receiving general messages from the American military about airstrikes targeting the Islamic State group inside Syria but that there is no direct cooperation.
In an interview with the BBC, Assad said the messages are conveyed through third parties, such as Iraq.
“Sometimes they convey message, general message, but there’s nothing tactical,” he said.
A US-led coalition that includes four Arab countries is conducting airstrikes in Syria as part of an international campaign against Islamic State extremists. They share the skies with Assad’s air force, which also targets the militants.
Syrian officials have maintained that they have not been consulted about the airstrikes since they started in September – only informed through third parties in the beginning.
In the interview, Assad also denied his forces have used barrel bombs. The government’s use of the crude explosive devices, usually dropped by helicopters, has been widely documented by international human rights organizations and residents of opposition-held areas in Syria. The barrel bombs, which cannot be precisely targeted, have killed thousands of civilians, according to Syrian activists.
“I know about the army, they use bullets, missiles, and bombs. I haven’t heard of the army using barrels, or maybe, cooking pots,” Assad said, apparently making light of the allegations.
Pressed again about their use, he replied: “They’re called bombs…. There is no barrel bombs, we don’t have barrels.”
Hezbollah at head of battle for Syrian Golan, monitor says
By AFP and Justin Jalil
The Times of Israel website
Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah has taken the lead role on a key frontline in southern Syria near the border with the Israeli Golan Heights, a monitoring group said Tuesday.
A Syrian military source confirmed Hezbollah was engaged in fighting in Quneitra and Daraa provinces as part of efforts to stop rebels advancing in the area.
Hezbollah and President Bashar Assad’s troops launched a new operation on Sunday to reclaim swaths of territory captured recently by rebels and jihadists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Hezbollah has taken the initiative to lead army and Iranian forces in the triangle of territory linking Daraa, Quneitra and the southwest of Damascus provinces,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the British-based monitoring group.
“The frontline is on the border with the occupied Golan Heights,” he added. “They have since taken back a string of villages and hills.”
Iran has acknowledged sending military advisers and high-ranking officers from the elite Revolutionary Guard to help its ally Assad.
Unlike the Observatory, the military source said the Syrian army was leading the offensive.
“The Syrian army and its allies, including Hezbollah, are fighting battles against armed groups in Quneitra and Daraa provinces,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He added that the goal of the campaign was to “put a stop to the armed men’s attacks, [as they inch] towards the capital.”
Egypt Islamic State affiliate posts beheading video
By AFP
The Times of Israel website
CAIRO – The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Egypt has released video purporting to show the beheading of eight Bedouin men it accused of working for the Egyptian and Israeli armies.
The video, posted on the group’s Twitter account late on Monday, also showed what it said were victims of Egyptian military operations in the restive Sinai Peninsula where an insurgency has killed scores of policemen and soldiers.
The jihadist group, known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis before pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group last November, has released footage in the past showing the execution of alleged informants.
In the latest video, masked militants in camouflage behead eight men, some of them in broad daylight at a major thoroughfare in north Sinai.
The men were first made to confess they worked for the armies of Egypt and Israel, which borders the Sinai and has been attacked by fighters from the peninsula several times over the past three years.
The Egyptian military has poured troops and armor into the peninsula to quell the insurgency which picked up after the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Despite the unprecedented deployment and repeated airstrikes, the jihadists have continued to stage large-scale attacks every few months.
Simultaneous attacks last month on military and police headquarters in north Sinai killed at least 30 people.
Most of them were soldiers killed when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the army barracks in the provincial capital, El-Arish.
Bennett to EU envoys: Stop pushing us to commit suicide
By Lahav Harkov
The Jerusalem Post, Page 2
Europe is immorally using economic pressure to push Israel to endanger itself, Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett told EU ambassador, in a recording played on Army Radio on Tuesday.
"To single out Israel, to twist our arms economically in the hopes that we'll commit suicide because, financially, we'll get hit if we don't is immoral from my perspective," Bennett said.
Bennett told the envoys that they didn't seem to understand that Israel was "the big dam in the big river of terror" and called on them to "help us, back us."
The EU Embassy in Israel declined to comment.
Pm ambivalent on future status of Yisrael Beytenu
By Gil Hoffman
The Jerusalem Post, Page 3
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mixed feelings about the possibility of Yisrael Beytenu not crossing the electoral threshold, sources close to him said on Tuesday.
Haaretz has reported that Likud did not want Yisrael Beytenu in the next Knesset and that the Likud had decided to show Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman's party no mercy due to the shaky relationship between him and Netanyahu. Makor Rishon reported the opposite, that the Likud was being careful not to attack Yisrael Beytenu out of fear that too harsh a blow would kill and ally.