Friday, February 28, 2014

3/4RS OF ISRAELI JEWS WOULD ACCEPT PEACE DEAL

Transfer of part of Western Wall to right-wing group to be blocked

Cabinet secretary says plan to give City of David Foundation control over Robinson’s Arch won’t go through after Reform, Conservative cry foul

February 28, 2014, 3:07 am 0-The Times of Israel
Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit intends to block a draft agreement that would transfer control of parts of the Western Wall to a right-wing Israeli nonprofit.Mandelblit’s decision to oppose the tentative deal comes shortly after a group of Reform and Conservative rabbis sent him a letter strongly protesting the transfer of control.Under the deal, the government would have transferred control of the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and Davidson Center to the City of David Foundation, according to Haaretz.The foundation currently runs the City of David tourist site outside Jerusalem’s Old City and works to settle Jews in the surrounding Arab neighborhood.The Israeli Reform and Conservative movements have been negotiating with the government for months to expand a non-Orthodox prayer space at Robinson’s Arch, a section of the Western Wall that the deal would have included.On Wednesday, the CEO of Israel’s Masorti Movement, Yizhar Hess, told JTA that the Reform and Conservative leaderships were not notified of the deal with the City of David Foundation before it was drafted.Hess said that if implemented, the draft agreement would depart from a compromise on the Western Wall outlined  last year by the Jewish Agency for Israel’s chairman, Natan Sharansky. Sharansky’s outline proposed creating a pluralist council to manage the site.“One of the primary issues of our negotiation, from the earliest stages of the Sharansky plan, was that religious governance and authority over the site would be granted to duly appointed religious leaders of the Reform and Masorti/ Conservative movements, to serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister or his designates,” the rabbis’ letter stated. “Surely you will understand that we would like to know why the Government of the State of Israel does not accept our legitimacy to form a governance body, but find the [City of David Foundation] suitable to do this and much more.”Women of the Wall, a women’s prayer group that meets monthly at the Western Wall and that is also negotiating the Robinson’s Arch expansion, also protested the draft agreement.

Police to restrict Friday prayers on Temple Mount

Announcement comes after protesters burn Israeli flag, throw rocks near entrance to al-Aqsa compound

February 27, 2014, 11:14 pm 0-The times of Israel
Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount Friday will be restricted Friday for fear of riots, police said. Only women, children and men over the age of 50 bearing Israeli ID cards will be allowed access to the holy site.
The announcement followed a protest in Jerusalem’s Old City that turned violent Thursday, when dozens of Palestinians hurled firecrackers and stones at police forces, while others attempted to set fire to the Lions’ Gate near the entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque compound.According to Ynet, several demonstrators also burned an Israeli flag in protest of a recent government debate over Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount, as well as the death of an Arab inmate in the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba several days ago. The protesters were heard chanting “a million martyrs [will] march to Al-Aqsa.”The protests began after a large number of youths requested to carry the body of Jihad al-Tawil, a traffic violator who died after being diagnosed with cancer and suffering a heart attack, up to the Temple Mount.After police did not grant them access to the holy site, the youths attempted to ignite an abandoned police post near the Lions’ Gate. At that point, police broke up the gathering and the protesters fled towards East Jerusalem.
No one was reported to have been injured during the clashes.
Israeli riot police seen during clashes on  the Temple Mount in September. (photo credit: Sliman Khader/Flash 90)
Israeli riot police seen during clashes on the Temple Mount in September. (photo credit: Sliman Khader/Flash 90)
On Tuesday, the Knesset held a first of its kind debate to examine the right of non-Muslims to enter and pray at the holy compound in Jerusalem, with over 30 MKs from both right-wing and left-wing parties seeking to voice their opinion on the divisive topic.The discussion ended late Tuesday with no vote being taken.Almost all of the parliament’s Arab members chose not to attend the session in protest over the decision to hold it.
The debate, headlined “the loss of Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount” and rescheduled from last week, was initiated by right-wing lawmaker MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), whose visits to the Temple Mount have drawn media and police attention. Feiglin was arrested for praying there in October 2012 and January 2013, before he became an MK, and visited the Mount earlier this week ahead of the debate.Police restrictions bar Jews from praying or engaging in other religious activities while on visits to the Mount for fear that they will provoke a violent reaction from Muslims, a policy Feiglin said was absurd.The Temple Mount is jointly administered by the Jordanian government and the Jerusalem-based Islamic Waqf, an arrangement that has been in place since Israel captured the Old City and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed them. Regarded as a holy site by both Judaism and Islam, proposed changes to the status quo at the Mount are often a source of unrest.Hamas and Palestinian Authority officials, together with leaders of the Islamic Movement in the Galilee, have long accused Israel of planning to take control of the Muslim sites on the Mount.Lazar Berman, Gavriel Fiske, The Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report.

Poll: Three quarters of Israeli Jews would accept peace deal

More than 50% define themselves as right wing and don’t trust the Palestinians, yet would vote for a new Netanyahu-led centrist party

February 27, 2014, 9:59 pm 11-The Times of Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas promotes the Arab Peace Initiative during a speech at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in Jordan, May 26, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Jim Young)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas promotes the Arab Peace Initiative during a speech at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in Jordan, May 26, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Jim Young)
Three quarters of Hebrew-speaking Israelis would support a peace agreement with the Palestinians based on the Arab Peace Initiative, and more than half would vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he were to leave the Likud and create a new party, according to a new poll published Thursday.The survey, commissioned by the non-profit Israeli Peace Initiative, was conducted earlier this month among a representative sample of 500 Hebrew-speaking Israelis. The poll’s sponsors said it indicated that a large majority of the country’s Jews hold hawkish views regarding the peace process but would be willing to accept a deal if they understood what Israel stands to gain from an accord normalizing diplomatic and trade relations with the entire Arab world.According to the survey, 76 percent of respondents said they are “sure” or “think” that they would be willing to support an agreement after they were told about nine different elements of the deal, all based on the Arab Peace Initiative, presented to them in a way that made them seem beneficial to Israel. More than 60 percent of respondents said they would likely support a regional peace treaty even before any components of it were discussed.“This represents a statistically significant increase over the findings in other surveys conducted over the past few months,” according to the authors of the survey.“The significance of this poll shows that a) Israelis indeed hold right-wing views, b) they don’t believe the Palestinians, c) they will accept a far-reaching deal based on the Arab Peace Initiative if presented properly to them and d), that they will support Bibi Netanyahu if he does make such a heroic decision,” said IPI’s Koby Huberman, during a conference call with reporters Thursday.“If [Israelis] understand the underlying logic of involving the Arab states in the equation and moving toward the end of the Israeli-Arab conflict, then they would be willing to accept a package deal that is far-more reaching than if it was a just a bilateral agreement.”More than half of the poll’s respondents said they consider themselves either “extreme right wing” (28 percent) or “soft right” (24 percent). About 30 percent define their political position as centrist and 16 percent as either “soft left” or “extreme left.”First adopted by the Arab League in 2002, the Arab Peace Initiative promises Israel “full diplomatic and normal relations” with 57 Arab and Muslim states, in exchange for a “comprehensive peace agreement” with the Palestinians. Israelis leaders have so far reacted mostly coldly to the initiative, unhappy about some of its terms.This week’s poll presented respondents with what Huberman called a “legitimate interpretation” of the Arab Peace Initiative, though not with its exact wording. Some of the terms presented to the respondents included the creation of a demilitarized Palestine, settlements remaining under Israeli sovereignty with only “minor territorial exchanges,” East Jerusalem as capital, no right of return for Palestinian refugees (with the with the exception of “a symbolic number”), security arrangements to protect against Iran and terror, and the promise that economic access to “300 million consumers and a billion residents [in the Arab and Muslim world] will improve the situation of Israeli citizens.”Some 70 percent of respondents indicated a willingness to support these parameters. Only two of the nine components — the future of the holy sites, which would not be under any specific sovereignty but managed separately by each religious group, and the division of Jerusalem — received the support of slightly less than 50 percent.Seventy-two percent of respondents believed that Israelis are interested in signing a peace treaty to end the conflict. However, 77 percent are convinced that the Palestinians are not interested in reaching such an agreement.Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that any possible peace agreement would have to be submitted to a referendum. “It is important that every citizen have a direct vote on fateful decisions such as these that will determine the future of the state,” he said in July, when the ongoing US-brokered peace negotiations resumed last summer.According to the poll, conducted by Israeli research institute New Wave Research, 73 percent of the Israeli public would support the prime minister if he were to present a peace treaty based on the nine components. Fifty-six percent said they would vote for him if he broke away from the Likud — most of whose senior members are opposed to a two-state deal with the Palestinians — and were to create a new centrist party.“In summarizing the demographic variables, it is important to note that previous surveys reveal that younger respondents and women tended towards weak support for the principle of a regional agreement to end the conflict,” the poll’s authors noted. “This time, it is clear that support for peace agreements and willingness to support the components of the agreement among these two population groups is now similar to that what they are among the rest of the population.”

Massive ultra-Orthodox demonstration set for Sunday

Protest against draft law expected to disrupt routine in Jerusalem; Route 1 and bus station to close; schools near city entrance to shut early

February 27, 2014, 11:56 pm 14-The Times of Israel
A large demonstration called by ultra-Orthodox leaders on Sunday in Jerusalem is expected to snarl traffic, close roads and shut down public transportation around the entrance to the city and the Knesset, police said on Thursday.The protest against the draft law is expected to disrupt normal routine in Jerusalem and authorities are to deploy a large security contingent in an effort to keep the peace. In the past, ultra-Orthodox protesters have clashed with police — earlier this month in Ashdod, a protest which drew several hundred led to over a dozen arrests for rioting.The authorities said that Route 1, the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, would be closed after 2 p.m. Sunday from the Latrun area to the capital, and the Jerusalem Central Bus Station would also be shut down in the afternoon.Police warned of heavy traffic and blocked roads in the area around the entrance to Jerusalem and the Knesset. Buses and light rail service near the entrance to the city will cease Sunday afternoon, and public schools near the entrance to Jerusalem will close at 1 p.m.Most public transportation and schools in the city are to function normally, police noted.
Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor Yisrael Kellerman, one of the organizers of the event, said he hoped hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox would come. “We wanted to bring the Haredi community from the entire country,” he told Haredi news site Kikar Shabbat. “There were some difficulties because within a few short days we had to bring everyone — we have to bring thousands of buses; we hope that hundreds of thousands will arrive.”Kellerman also said that Mayor Nir Barkat was cooperating in coordinating the event, as were security and rescue services.Last week, ultra-Orthodox leaders debated the wisdom of holding large-scale public protests against the proposed draft law, which would require yeshiva students to do military or national service and punish individuals who do not report for service or institutions which facilitate resisting the law.The latest version of the draft bill has faced scathing criticism from ultra-Orthodox leaders over its inclusion of individual criminal sanctions against draft-dodgers that would kick in if the community as a whole failed to meet rising quotas for the draft. But it has also faced criticism from proponents of an equal draft for delaying such criminal sanctions until mid-2017, after the next election.Haviv Rettig Gur contributed to this report.